To Crave Darkly: Trials Of A Morta: Book One

by Bailey Grayson

  “Woah, slow down there, big guy. Why me? Why do they want me? Wait, vampires exist?” My breath turned shallow. My heart danced in my chest. Dread tingled across my skin with the pain of a thousand needles. God, what had I gotten myself into now? It was because I pissed this guy off in the club, wasn’t it? He had drugged me or something and made me hallucinate. That must be it; vampires weren’t real. I closed my eyes tightly and hoped to god the effects of whatever drugs were in my system would disappear.

  It’s just a dream. Just a dream. It’s not real. Not real.

  I kept repeating the mantra over and over again but I couldn’t seem to get control of my breathing. My throat closed up and I tried to gulp down precious oxygen.

  What was happening to me?

  Two large hands gripped the side of my face, forcing me to open my eyes. Jasper was a mere inch from me and for a moment I forgot everything. Deep pools of infinitesimal blue swirled before me and I was lost again to the calm sea I saw in them.

  “Lori, calm down.” His deep voice broke me out of the spell, and I was back in full blown panic mode again.

  “Calm down?!” I screamed, pushing his hands away from me, “I will not calm down pal. Who do you think you are? You come into my home, roam about like you own the place, telling me that vampires exist, that I’m somehow important and you want me to calm down?” I couldn’t process this, couldn't think. I needed to get out. I needed air. I needed to breathe. I leapt to my feet and headed to my door but somehow Jasper was there before me. I didn’t even see him move.

  “How did you...?” I asked but I already knew the answer to my question. I stepped away from him. “You’re one of them, aren’t you?” I kept walking backwards until my back hit the wall. Jasper advanced towards me, stopping with his face right in front of me. I felt his breath on my cheek. I thought vampires were dead - how could he be breathing? I was distracted from thinking by a strange pull from Jasper’s eyes. I couldn’t explain it but it felt like my whole world was centred on those blue eyes and everything else ceased to exist.

  “Lori, you will pack your things and come with me.” His voice sounded hypnotic and I felt like I really wanted to agree. It took all my willpower not to. I pushed against his chest and noticed his look of surprise.

  “I don’t think so. I think you should leave. I don’t need any crazy in my life, thank you very much.”

  Jasper looked at me confused, “You will pack your things,” he said again, his voice all weird and husky. If I wasn’t so pissed off, I would probably find it quite sexy.

  “Go to hell, jackass,” I said pushing at him again, but he didn’t budge an inch. He looked deep in thought, almost puzzled.

  “I’m sorry for this,” he said, putting his hand round my neck.

  “No, don’t kill me, Jasper, please,” I begged, but I felt a firm pressure below my left ear and everything went black.

  Chapter 4

  LORI

  Again, I woke up feeling groggy What the hell? I opened my eyes and found myself looking out a car window. Shit. He didn’t. He couldn’t have. I sat up with a jolt and pain lanced through my wrists. He’d cuffed me to the fucking door?

  “Jasper, what have you done?” I said through gritted teeth.

  “I’m protecting you,” he replied without taking his eyes off the road.

  “Stop the car,” I demanded, but he just carried on driving. He was completely ignoring me; what a jackass. First, he stalks me, then he saves me, now he’s kidnapped me. What the fuck was going on here?

  “Stop the car, Jasper!” I shouted at him. I reached out with my leg and started to kick him. Ignore that, dickwad.

  “Damn it, Lori!” The car swerved as I managed to make contact with his arm. I continued to kick at him wildly, hoping that he would stop the car, but he grabbed my ankle. “Stop it,” he said gripping me harder, his hand a vice around my limb and I winced at the pain travelling up my leg. His hand completely wrapped around my ankle and I tried to ignore the heat from his touch. No way was I enjoying the touch of his skin on mine.

  “Have you finished?” His voice broke my reverie and my eyes looked back to his face and the permanent scowl that seemed to be fixed there. He looked straight back at me, refusing to give up his hold on my leg until I surrendered to him. He growled and squeezed my ankle again, grinding the bones together to get my attention.

  “Yes!” I screamed in pain laced with anger. It killed me to submit. To give up went against my fighter’s instinct but I just hoped I would get another chance to escape. I wasn’t going anywhere quietly with this brute until he explained a few things–like firstly, what the hell was going on.

  “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “Somewhere safe,” he snarled. Well, that could be anywhere.

  “Why am I cuffed to the car door?” I snarled back. Two could play at that game.

  “To keep you safe.”

  “Why do you need to keep me safe?”

  “Because you’re important.”

  “Why, Jasper? Why am I important? Why was I attacked?”

  “Look. I don’t have all the answers to your questions, but I am taking you to someone who does.”

  “Does it have to be in fucking handcuffs?”

  He exhaled deeply and his shoulders slumped. “I don’t trust you to stay put.”

  Sensible man. I still wasn’t convinced he wasn’t just kidnapping me. If I got the chance I was going to make a run for it. “Fine. But don’t expect me to make it easy for you.”

  He growled at me in response.

  A few minutes ticked by and I had no idea where we were. Nothing outside the car looked familiar and I could tell he was keeping off the main roads. I didn’t want to think about everything. Not yet. I turned to the vampire on my right. Ha, vampire. He was ridiculously good looking, and it pained me to think such attractiveness was wasted on so much crazy.

  “So, Jasper, since it looks like we’re going to be stuck together for a while, why don’t you tell me about yourself?”

  He took a side glance at me, anger twisting his features. I figured that look was meant to intimidate me, but I had seen worse in my days at Poison. I had come across my fair share of obnoxious guys who thought they could get what they want merely by snapping their fingers. But I knew how to deal with people like that, I’m sure Jasper would be no different. I smiled to myself. I was going to have some fun with this one.

  “I guess that’s a no then?”

  “I swear to God, if you keep talking, I will pull this car over and gag you,” he snapped whilst jamming his finger in front of my face. I leant away from him. A normal person would cower, a normal person would shut up and sit quietly but not me. Nope. I was going to find his breaking point.

  I smirked at him and he looked back at the road. I relaxed back in the chair as much as I could and put my feet on the dashboard. I looked back at Jasper and saw his cheek twitch with annoyance. I started to hum a tune and I could see Jasper get more and more wound up as I continued. This was too much fun. I started to wonder how long it would take before he finally snapped? I stopped humming and started whistling. His knuckles whitened on the wheel. I was definitely starting to get to him, but he still didn’t say anything. A wicked idea jumped to the forefront of my mind. I started belting out a song. It was loud, brash and completely out of tune.

  He made it about ten seconds before he cracked.

  “Alright, alright! Enough with the singing,” he cried out, his exclamation followed by something muttered under his breath. Words that sounded a lot like expletives if you asked me. I chuckled at him; he was such a stick in the mud.

  “Finally. I was having a hard time deciding what to do next.”

  Jasper rolled his eyes at me and groaned. “What do you want to know?”

  Best to start with something simple. “Is your favourite colour black?”

  Jasper briefly turned to look at me and, judging by the way his brow arched, he was curious but also relieved. What
did he think I was going to ask? Do you enjoy killing people?

  “Why do you ask that?”

  “Well, your clothes are black, your car is black, your watch is black, and I bet if I looked in the boot your bag would be black too.”

  “Black makes my life easier. It’s inconspicuous and hides stains really well,” he replied bluntly.

  Ookay. My eyebrows made an acquaintance with my hairline. That was a whole lot of information I did not need to know.

  “But it is not my favourite colour.”

  Well that got my attention. “So, you do have a favourite colour. Interesting. At least you’ve narrowed it down for me,” I said sarcastically. The faint hint of a smirk tugged at the corner of his lips, but it lasted all of a second. I was curious as to what it was, but I didn’t want to push him. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy I really wanted to piss off. And at the end of the day, did I really want to get to know the guy? He had kidnapped me and cuffed me to a car. I could hand-on-heart say this man terrified me. He just oozed menace. His movements were methodical and precise. Even something as simple as changing gear was done with predatory grace.

  The silence in the car was deafening. It left my mind open to start trailing back over the events of the last few hours. I was attacked, kidnapped and stuffed into a car going who knows where with a vampire.

  Fuck. Vampires were real. And I was sat next to one.

  What else was real? Angels? Demons? Witches?

  If witches were real, it would certainly explain old Mrs Crankshaw from next door. I always thought she was an old crone. Always muttering to herself and telling me I was what was wrong with the world of today. I wondered if she’d notice I was missing, or perhaps she just wouldn’t care.

  It was too much to even comprehend. I needed a distraction because I wasn’t ready to face any of this crazy just yet.

  “Can you put the radio on? I’d do it but...” I trailed off, jangling my handcuffs.

  Jasper switched the radio on and music filled the void that lingered between us. I listened to the song on the radio and tried to focus on it, letting the haunting melody sweep over me and calm my tumultuous thoughts. But instead of distracting me it just made my mind relive everything.

  Visions of the men who attacked me swam before my eyes in rapid succession. The greasy hair, the evil eyes. The dead look in that man’s head at my feet. I remembered the coppery smell of all the blood. God, there was so much blood.

  And how did I explain the jolts of electricity? What the hell was that about? I still had no idea how to explain that. Perhaps it was something to do with being kidnapped?

  As my mind sorted through what was real and what it refused to believe it hit me all at once. My body went into shock, my mind snapped, and I panicked.

  I full blown panicked.

  I didn’t want to be stuck here. I wanted to go home. Would anyone notice I was missing? There was only really Rae who would care; I didn’t really have anyone else in my life. I pulled at the handcuffs. I knew they weren’t going to budge but I just kept pulling and pulling. My heart raced painfully in my chest. Haziness crept into the edge of my vision. The cuffs bit sharply into my wrists, and they were turning raw as I kept trying to break free, but I didn’t care. I was going to break the door handle. I was determined to do it. Tears of impotence burnt my eyes and I started screaming.

  “Lori!” I heard Jasper shout, but I wasn’t paying attention. My world was collapsing around me, and my mind was falling with it. Everything I’d been through in the last twenty-four hours was finally catching up to me. I didn’t even register the fact the car had stopped until Jasper’s hands framed my face and he commanded me to look at him. My breathing stopped as I gazed straight into his eyes. Locked in his stare, I felt a calmness invade my mind and instantly I started to relax.

  “Lori, I’ll remove the handcuffs, but you have to promise me that you won’t run away.” Jasper wiped my tears away with the pads of his thumbs. His tone was soft and its rich melodious sound was a soothing balm to my frazzled nerves. The gentle brush of his fingers calmed my rapid heartbeat and my breathing slowed to match the rhythm of his thumbs across my skin. His face was so close to mine. His thick lashes framed his magnificent eyes, casting shadows across his sharp cheekbones. He sucked a breath through his teeth, his pupils dilating as his gaze dropped to my lips. I wet them in anticipation. He leaned towards me and I closed my eyes.

  Click.

  What was that?

  I heard another one. I opened my eyes and saw Jasper leaning back in his seat with the handcuffs. Embarrassment unfurled in my chest and my face flushed under Jasper’s gaze. Wow, I felt like an idiot.

  I flexed my wrists and winced at my self-inflicted wounds. They were raw and I scolded myself for letting my emotions get the better of me.

  “Thank you,” I said to Jasper. I rubbed my wrists absent mindedly, glad to be able to feel comfortable again. “Where are we going?” I asked as he started the car again.

  Jasper sighed, clearly exasperated with me, "Somewhere safe. Please, just trust me."

  “Sure, because that's really easy to do,” I replied sarcastically. Did he really expect me to just sit back and let him do what he wanted with me? If he thinks that, he's got another thing coming. There was no way I was going to make this easy for him.

  Chapter 5

  JASPER

  I sighed, resigning myself to the fact that Lori wasn’t going to make this a piece of fucking cake. I was going to have some serious fucking words with de Santis when I got back. This was not the simple collection job he promised. She was supposed to come willingly. Not fight me at every goddamn turn. What woman didn’t want saving when she had just been told she was in danger? Someone with a skewed sense of self-preservation. This woman had done nothing but put herself in dangerous situations, from last night at the bar with the drunk to spitting in the face of her attacker in the alleyway. And now she was trying to deliberately put herself in harm’s way by trying to escape me. If I wasn’t so pissed off at her, I’d find that trait admirable. It certainly took courage to stand up to someone who was about to threaten you.

  I glanced over at her and it hit me again how striking she was to look at. She had a mass of glorious brown hair, the colour of rich chocolate which contrasted remarkably against her pale skin. I bet if I curled it round my fingers it would feel as soft and silky as it looked. She was quite small, maybe only about five foot three, but what she lacked in height she certainly made up for with feistiness. Just thinking about how she tried to take on those idiots who attacked her made me chuckle. She certainly had gumption and I liked that about her, even if it was pretty stupid to have taken on those guys on her own.

  I thought back to what de Santis said about her when he gave me the mission. He said that she would be the key to saving our world, but I didn’t see a saviour before me. All I saw was a little girl who looked powerless to do anything. De Santis had charged our Elite to bring this woman in. He believed that she was part of an age-old prophecy that would bring about the end of the world as we know it. She certainly had some sort of power judging by what I saw last night but I wasn’t close enough to see what it was. It could have been magic or an energy pulse. Whatever it was, I didn’t think she had any idea she had powers. It was clear she thought she was human, and I had no idea how to tell her she wasn’t. Then again, I wasn’t made aware of all the details of this woman; it was a need to know thing and clearly, I didn’t need-to-know everything. So perhaps I would leave it up to someone else to tell her. It’s not like I fucking cared; I only had to deliver her to the Conclave. One thing I did know was that, if we were hunting her down because of the links she may have to the prophecy, it was entirely possible that we weren’t the only faction to do so. Those three fools I got rid of earlier were proof of that. I would need to keep an eye out for anyone else following her.

  I have never believed in the prophecy, not like de Santis and the older vampires, but I suppose they actual
ly met that old witch. If any of the stories were true Mistress Blackwood would certainly be a fearsome creature to behold, but she was before my time and I never had the misfortune to meet her.

  But it wasn’t going to matter. Lori, the prophecy, any of it. Well, not to me anyway. I had been granted the True Death and it was to be my reward for getting Lori to the Conclave. The True Death had been something I had yearned for a long time, but I had always been denied. I was the best mercenary in the Elite. I was in command and vicious to the core. Maybe I was too good at taking lives to be granted the wish to take my own. That thought made me scoff. Fucking Circle, thinking they ruled the world. They pissed me off. I couldn’t stand the jumped-up egotistical wankers, parading their might over everyone. The Alpha lines were worse than the Elders; they thought they were better than everyone just because they were born vampire and not turned.

  There were only three Alpha lines left: House De Santis, House Durand and House Everleigh but I despised the lot of them. There used to be 10 lines who made the original Circle to govern our kind but as the lines died out they replaced them with Elders who were vampires over 200 years old. About 300 years ago, war broke out between the three dark clans (vampires, demons and mages) and the Elite were created to bring peace. We now have a treaty in place but there are still people from all three clans who seek to rule the Dark World. Perhaps that was where Lori and this prophecy came in? Would this woman I had rescued really make the world burn?

  It seemed impossible to me. She looked fragile and something in me wanted to protect her, despite her annoying habit of pushing my buttons. If she carried on like this she was going to end up in the boot where I wouldn’t be able to hear her complain or look into those eyes.

  Those eyes of hers were goddamn lethal. Especially when they were full of tears. Just thinking about the fear and panic I saw there made my heart lurch in my chest.