by Bella Klaus
Even the people in black who visited the crystal shop made sense now. When I eventually went missing, Istabelle would assume that enforcers dragged me back to Logris for a swift execution or that I had died resisting arrest.
I slapped at his arms, tried to push him off but he was too big, too heavy, too determined to drain me of my blood.
A sob caught in the back of my throat. I’d been a bloody fool.
Valentine sucked harder at my neck and groaned. Tears stung the back of my eyes. Maybe draining the lifeblood of a Neutral was a secret vampire rite of passage they didn’t teach us in the academy. What if he’d needed me all along to boost his own power?
The little voice in the back of my head screamed at me not to give in to speculations or despair. Even if everything Valentine told me about developing firepower might have been a ploy to take my blood, I couldn’t just lie on the rug and become a vampire’s meal.
“Valentine?” I said, this time trying to keep my voice clear of rising panic.
“Hmmm?” He held me tighter.
I clenched my teeth. Charming him wouldn’t work. Words wouldn’t distract the ultimate apex predator from his prey. Bitterness coated the back of my tongue. That’s all I was to him. Prey. Prey to stalk, prey to trick, prey to beguile. Prey to humiliate in front of a crowd of other predators and win back, only to take me to the edge of ecstasy before draining my blood.
Every ounce of my fear transmuted to a fury that burned hotter than molten lead. It swirled through my chest, burned through my veins, and surged along the edges of my taut nerves. Sparks as long as my fingers flew from my hands, filling my nostrils with the scent of burned flesh.
Valentine stiffened, and with a startled gasp, his fangs withdrew from my neck. “Mera.” He pulled back, his crimson eyes wide. “What just happened?”
“You tell me.” I held out a sparking hand, pointing my fingers out like daggers, and scrambled to my feet.
Valentine remained sitting on the rug, staring at me with confused eyes and parted bloodstained lips. “I didn’t mean to bite you.”
“Liar.” A foot-long flame flared from my fingernails.
He flinched. “Morata, please—”
“Call me by that nickname once more, and I’ll burn off your lying tongue.”
His chest rose and fell with rapid breaths. I stepped back, heading out toward the hallway with my arm outstretched as though it was the only thing keeping him from pouncing.
“You’re changing,” he said from his seated position on the rug.
“What?” I snapped.
“You’re expressing your magic.”
The moment I stared down at my hand, the flames vanished. My stomach plummeted to the wooden floor.
“I’m so sorry,” he said.
A heartbeat later, Valentine stood in front of me with his hand around my wrist.
Fresh panic pierced my chest, and I yanked my arm out of his grip. “Don’t touch me.”
He jumped back several feet, the rapid movement making me flinch. “I don’t know what happened. One minute, all I wanted to do was kiss you and the next…”
Every instinct called at me to cover up, but I didn’t dare scramble about for my clothes in case Valentine decided he wanted more blood. “Have you drained a girl before?” I asked. “Is this a vampire thing you guys keep a secret?”
He shook his head. “Something seized control—”
“What?” I stepped back.
Valentine pointed at my leg. “You have a cursed mark.”
Baring my teeth, I held out my palm. “If this is a ploy to make me—”
“Mera, please.”
There was absolutely no way I would break eye contact with Valentine. This was just like a game Macavity and I always played. I’d lie low and hide around a corner, poking my head out, trying to catch his eye from across the room. When I disappeared, he would take a few steps and then freeze the moment I emerged to make eye contact. Each time I hid, he would take more steps toward me until we were nose to nose.
Closing my eyes also made Macavity come closer. It was a fun enough game with a house cat. But with a vampire who had just consumed mouthfuls of my blood and only stopped after getting burned, it was downright dangerous.
“Just tell me what you see,” I said through clenched teeth.
“A black band around your ankle.” His voice strained with desperation. Desperation to do what, I didn’t want to know. “Your blood is irresistible and it tastes incredible.”
“You want more, don’t you?” I asked, my voice flat.
“It must be the cursed mark,” he replied.
His lack of response to my question was answer enough. If I didn’t get away from this vampire, I might never leave this house except as an exsanguinated corpse.
“Put your clothes on,” I said in a tone I might use to calm down a feral beast. “Slowly.”
As he backed away, I forced my gaze to remain on his eyes and not on the taut muscles that rippled as he moved, and not on the way the sun streamed through the window, warming his bronzed skin.
Everything about a vampire was a lure to distract, seduce, beguile, including the long, thick erection I could see on the edge of my vision, protruding from a thatch of black hair.
Valentine edged around the sofa and bent behind the broad piece of furniture. Flinching, I readied myself for a covert attack but he emerged holding a pair of black boxer briefs.
“I have to call back Healer Dianne,” he said as he slipped them on. “She’ll remove the curse—”
“Just get dressed and get out,” I snapped.
Nodding, he placed his legs into a pair of dark pants and pulled them over his hips. “If you hadn’t triggered your magic when you did…”
“You would have drained me dry.” My chest tightened as I said the words, as I realized that I’d come so close to death.
Valentine closed his eyes, his nostrils flaring. “Mera, I am capable of many things, but hurting you is not one of them.” A muscle in his jaw flexed as though making that declaration was at odds with what he wanted to do to my neck. “Please stay in the house while I go out and fetch help. And trust no one.”
My lips pressed into a firm line. The trusting no one part would be easy. While I could feel cold, foreign magic writhing around my ankle, I still wasn’t sure about Valentine’s motives.
Maybe shadow mages really were hunting me and this wasn’t part of an elaborate plan to trap me here as some kind of blood slave. But I couldn’t trust him not to reattack, knowing he would never have stopped consuming my blood without the threat of being burned by my flames.
Flames. My throat spasmed. I was a fire mage or something worse. Right now, I couldn’t complain. That power was the only thing keeping me alive.
Valentine shouldered on his black shirt, slipped on his shoes, and walked around the perimeter of the room toward the door. I stepped several paces to the side, nearly tripping over my coat as I put as much distance as possible between us.
As he passed, his eyes bored into mine, and their pupils were dilated, surrounded by a tiny ring of crimson. Valentine’s steps faltered for a beat, making my outstretched fingers spasm, but he passed into the hallway and continued down the stairs.
I crept after him to make sure he didn’t double back and stood at the top of the stairs.
Halfway down, he paused again, making my heart clench. “I placed the solid flame dagger in the pocket of your coat. Use it to protect yourself, even from me.”
I nodded.
He raised his head, meeting my gaze with eyes that still glowed the color of blood. Something in the way he breathed and in the white knuckles of his fists clenching around the handrail told me that it was taking Valentine every ounce of willpower not to rush at me again with his fangs.
“Go to your room, lock the door, and stay there until Healer Dianne or another female healer knocks.”
“Alright,” I croaked.
Valentine continued down the curl
ing staircase until he disappeared from sight. His footsteps were deliberately loud as though trying to communicate that he really was leaving. I knelt toward the coat at my feet and slipped my fingers into the pocket. He was telling the truth about the dagger.
As soon as the downstairs door closed, I clutched the coat, dashed across the marble hallway, and bounded up the next flight of stairs. I opened the door, looking for signs of a Bengal cat, but Macavity was either downstairs or must have gone out for the day.
I shut the door and turned the lock, even though metal and wood meant nothing against the might of a vampire. After throwing the coat on the bed, I pulled open the drawers, and slipped on a pair of panties, jeans, a tank top, and a pair of sneakers.
“Oh, shit,” I whispered to myself. “Bloody, bloody shit!”
This had to be one of the most perilous situations in my life. It was even worse than the time Macavity turned into a giant leopard. What if Valentine decided he didn’t like the smell of fresh air and wanted to finish the job he’d started? What if he wasn’t even outside but was standing right on the other side of that door, debating whether to break into the room and take what was his?
I fumbled through the coat’s pocket and pulled out my smartphone. The only person who would tell me what was happening was Aunt Arianna. I tapped her icon and pressed the phone to my ear, waiting for her to answer.
Three rings later, a voice said, “Mera?”
“What’s happening with Valentine?” I blurted.
“Did he find you?” she asked.
The entire story spilled from my lips, starting with the bizarre encounter with the unseen vampire and ending with nearly being drunk. When I finished, Aunt Arianna went silent.
“Are you still there?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Well? How much of what he said is actually true?”
Aunt Arianna’s sigh fanned across the smartphone’s speaker. “We did discuss a plausible way to get you out of Logris without arousing the suspicions of the council, and I did put nullweed in your chocolates. I thought you already knew all this.”
“Do you know who might have tampered with my memories?”
She paused for several moments. “Another vampire?”
I rubbed at my temples. A vampire might have overheard what Valentine and I were planning. So far, all indications pointed toward the man who had driven me home from the palace. But that solution seemed too simple, especially considering the driver was still working for Valentine while most would have disappeared, fearing they would be caught and punished.
“You said there’s shadow magic around your ankle?” Aunt Arianna asked. “Why didn’t the wards catch it?”
“The shadow stayed behind on the street, but it still managed to curse me for the second or so it took hold of my leg,” I replied.
My aunt fell silent for several moments before saying, “I’m so sorry.”
“What for?”
“We thought the firestone would contain your magic. Those beads were supposed to hold the power of four mages.”
Cold spread through my insides. “I’m powerful?”
“It would appear so.” Her voice broke. “No matter what King Valentine says, the Supernatural Council will never stop hunting one with so much magic.”
“Because of Kresnik?” I asked.
“For such a diverse group of people, they can be horrifically narrow minded when it comes to a minority with a specific power.”
My heart sank, and I lowered myself into the ivory armchair by the window. The way Valentine talked about things, he thought the Supernatural Council might leave me alone if I proved to be peaceful. It sounded like Aunt Arianna thought they wouldn’t stop until I was dead.
“Is there anything I can do to protect myself?” I whispered.
“Perhaps,” she replied with another sigh. “It’s risky, but then so would be leaving the wards of the safe house.”
“And staying within them when there’s a hungry vampire on the prowl,” I muttered.
“Give me a few days,” she said. “I’ve been experimenting with a new way to absorb your magic. If I can tweak things, it might even absorb your curse.”
“What will you do?” I asked.
Aunt Arianna paused the way she did when trying to describe something she thought I might find unpleasant. She’d also acted this way years ago when trying to warn me away from Valentine, saying that vampire males couldn’t be trusted, and that associating with a king would bring an unwanted spotlight. I guess she was right about the spotlight part, but I still hadn’t fully decided about Valentine.
“It’s best that you don’t ask,” she said. “If I can make it work, you’ll be completely rid of that power and nobody will ever need to investigate you again.”
Before I could press for details, the line went dead. My fingers fumbled for her shortcut, but I couldn’t get through.
I slipped the palm-sized dagger into the back pocket of my jeans, strode into the bathroom, and turned on the cold water. The liquid streamed out of the tap, and I splashed handfuls over my face, trying to cool the hot red blotches.
What a day. After seeing those flames erupt from my hand and smelling how I had burned Valentine’s skin, there was no doubt that I had been responsible for boiling Beatrice this morning.
My gaze darted to the bathroom’s white ceiling, and I looked for signs of a clock. The hospital’s visiting hours would start soon, but I couldn’t leave the house in this state. Even if Valentine was right and the Supernatural Council wouldn’t kill me for wielding fire, they might execute me for being spotted around the human world throwing accidental fireballs.
I raised my right leg to the edge of the clawfoot tub and pulled up the leg of my jeans. A black mark snaked around my ankle in a curved line that pointed up toward my knee. While the skin around it felt warm, my cursed flesh was devoid of heat—just like the magic of a shadow mage.
My chin dropped to my chest, and a sigh heaved from my lungs. Valentine was probably right about me being cursed. It was the only way to explain why he both pounced on me to drink my blood and why he became so apologetic afterward and left for a healer.
What I didn’t understand was why a shadow mage would go so far as to curse me with delicious blood? Was it an underhanded way of making Valentine my executioner?
I folded down the jeans leg and lowered my foot to the ground. There were some things about the Supernatural World I would probably never understand, and one of them was the politics.
After turning off the cold water, I headed into the bedroom, only to find Valentine standing in the open doorway.
My heart somersaulted into my throat. What the hell was he doing back so soon?
“Mera.” His brow furrowed into a deep frown. “I’ve walked around the house, tried all the exits, and cannot leave. You and I are trapped.”
Chapter Seventeen
I reared back, hitting my shoulder against the doorway and forgetting all thoughts of how Valentine managed to slip into my room after I’d locked the door. Being in close proximity to a vampire who craved my blood was bad enough, but what on earth was this new development?
He stood a few steps into the room, an imposing figure in black. With his eyes still burning with crimson fire, and his muscular chest rising and falling with deep breaths, he was more dangerous than ever. Right now, there was little difference between Valentine and the mythical kind of vampire humans depicted in horror movies.
The pulse in my throat fluttered, and my chest tightened to the size of two clenched fists. My head spun, but I clung onto the door frame. This was not the time to feel dizzy or unsettled. One moment of inattention and he would slip those fangs back in my throat.
Forcing deep, even breaths in and out of my lungs, I said, “In the back of the taxi, you told me you controlled the wards for the entire estate. Can’t you lower them for a moment to slip outside?”
Annoyance flickered across his handsome features. “Clearly, s
omeone has tampered with them.”
“Who?” I asked.
“Whoever wants me trapped in a house with a vulnerable wielder of fire and who has turned her blood into vampire catnip.” Dry humor laced his voice, but there wasn’t a hint of a smile on his lips.
I gulped. That had to be a good sign, right? If he didn’t find it funny then part of him was resisting or at least resenting this situation. “Can you call someone?”
“I just tried,” he said.
“And?”
“No signal.”
“That’s not true,” I snapped. “I managed to get through to Aunt Arianna on the phone.”
Valentine stepped further into the room. “Let me see.”
“Stay back.” My voice became as shrill as a ringing bell, making him freeze in place. “Do I still smell—”
“Delicious?” He took another step forward. “Delectable? Irresistible?”
Well, there was my answer. I scrambled back through the threshold of the bathroom, slammed the door shut, and slid the lock. Not that it would keep out a hungry vampire intent on draining my blood.
“Mera.” His deep voice vibrated against the wooden surface, sounding like he had pressed himself against the door.
“We need to stay in different parts of the house until this curse wears off,” I said.
Silence stretched out for several moments. I couldn’t tell if he’d already left, was working through an existential struggle, or was debating tearing the door off its hinges.
“Valentine?” My voice shook.
“May I check your phone?” he asked.
“It’s on the bed,” I said.
No response.
“We need to stay on different sides of the house,” I said again. “At least until we can work out a way for you to leave.”
“Open the bathroom door.” His words came out as a command.
I leaned harder against said door. “Why?”
Valentine didn’t answer, which was an answer in itself. Staying close to me was tampering with his brain.
