Broken Elites (The Vampire Legacy Book 3)

by Rita Stradling

  She nodded. “Yeah, sure.”

  “Sebastian is dead, and I don’t want him to be part of our night together. Right now, I need to hop in the shower and get home before I get any grief from my parents.” I glanced down, noticing that I was only in boxers and she was only in her sports bra and underwear. “You want to come with me? You look like you could use some help with your hair.”

  She lifted a hand and touched the tangled mess on her head. “Oh crap,” she whispered, “It’s moments like these that I hate having mass quantities of thin hair. Are you sure you want company?”

  “Are you kidding?” I shook my head. “Hell yeah, I want your company in the shower, always.”

  That made her laugh. “You always want my company in the shower? How romantic.”

  I rolled my eyes to the ceiling and headed for the bathroom. “You know what I mean, January.”

  We stood under the hot spray. She hugged me from the front while the steaming water sprayed down my back, but, somehow, the chill from the dream still lingered in me.

  I was carefully picking the pins out of January’s hair when a loud banging boomed through the dorm apartment. We broke apart, our gazes meeting in a shared moment of shock.

  “Oh shit,” she whispered.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Mitch Holter

  My fist pounded against the door as I clutched Bailey’s gigantic fuzzy body to my chest. I had fucking super-strength, but this dog’s awkward weight was making my shoulder twinge. She kept licking the side of my face, and I considered putting her down, but I didn’t want to chance her getting hurt. My whole body shook with tension, and I hefted the dog up more, holding it like a hundred-pound baby.

  “Open the door, Justin!” I shouted as I banged on dorm room five-hundred and seven again.

  Down the hall, the elevator doors slid open, and my heart leaped up into my throat, but only a couple Elites spilled out into the hallway.

  “Get in your rooms. I’m about to press the fucking panic button,” I yelled, not even bothering to figure out who it was—it wasn’t my brother Sebastian, so I didn’t care.

  I went to pound the door again, when the door ripped open, and January stood framed in the doorway.

  “Mitch?” she asked before she’d fully opened the door. Her hair fell in wet blonde clumps around her face, dripping onto a towel that she had wrapped around her.

  I drew up short with my fist inches from her chin. “Sebastian is here.”

  “What…?” Her gaze fell down to Bailey and up to my face, and then she backed out of my way.

  As soon as I stepped in and set Bailey on the floor, I lunged to the side, opened the plastic case to the panic button, and shoved my finger down on the small red button.

  “What the hell is going on, Mitch?” Justin called from behind me.

  I spun to find my cousin, dripping water onto the floor and clutching a towel around his waist. I could hear the shower still going from the far side of January’s apartment. Damn. I’d interrupted the two in the shower together. Justin was never going to let me hear the end of this one. He already thought that I was falling for his girlfriend.

  The guy had serious jealousy issues around this chick, and I was probably triggering all of them.

  “Sebastian is here. He showed up downstairs.”

  “How come you have Bailey?” January said as she crouched down next to her dog. She looked like she was in shock. Her eyes were wide and skin paling under the glare of the overhead light.

  “One of the professors dropped her off with me,” I said as I grabbed the sides of my head and tried to regulate my breathing. ”They knew we were together.”

  “They knew you were together?” Justin asked.

  “Together a lot.” I pointed into his face. “Shit, man. I just saw my brother downstairs, and I carried this mutt like a damn baby. I don't need the third-degree from you about the dog. Bailey didn't bark at my brother, by the way. She just sat there wagging her tail.”

  “Thank you, Mitch,” January said as she managed to get to her feet. She adjusted her towel and turned back toward her room. She still looked like she was moments from passing out. “I think I need to get dressed.” Before she was finished speaking, January was heading into her room with Justin and Bailey trailing along after her.

  As the door closed behind the group, I muttered, “You're welcome.”

  A loud metallic scraping sounded from the door to the outside hall, signifying that now we were trapped together until the Hawthorn Group let us out.

  “Shit,” I whispered, rubbing my forehead. Well, hell. It was the night of the Hunter's Ball dance. I probably just locked half of the school in their date's room. Well, my reputation was already shit, might as well shoot the last few nails in my coffin and blow it up for good measure. Maybe it was the wine, but I couldn't help the chuckle that escaped me.

  I walked slowly to the window and peered down at the path below.

  Immediately, I saw him.

  My brother stood there, illuminated by the yellow glow of the streetlight. Even though I was five stories up and looking through a thick, tinted window, I could swear he was looking straight at me. Sebastian hated me from birth. I was barely six the first time he tried to drown me. Before that, he'd stuck to beatings that I could heal from within a few days, and therefore, our parents could excuse it to their friends as boys will be boys, and loved to roughhouse – never mind that I was the only one who ever showed up with a face full of bruises.

  Even at ten years old, my sister Marisa had taken on the role as my protector. She fought back, when I was too young to manage it, and she made me a bed out of cushions in the studio apartment she shared with her mother, and my parents didn't notice that I moved out of my room until Sebastian revealed it, and even then, they didn't care enough to force me back into my room. I slept on cushions beside Marisa's bed for the better part of three years. It was probably one of the many reasons Sebastian killed my sister—for protecting me during that time.

  Looking down at him now, I still felt like that six-year-old boy, staring up at my brother's demonic eyes as he held my head under the water in the bathtub.

  There would be no Marisa to burst in and punch my older brother in the nose until he released me. Now I was the one who was supposed to protect others against Sebastian.

  A hand came down on my shoulder, and I jumped a little to find Justin and January beside me. My cousin held January to his other side as they watched out the window. “What do you think he's doing?” he asked as he stared down. “I feel like he can see in here... but that's impossible?”

  He said the last part as more of a question.

  January gripped the windowsill, and her arms started to shake. I had this instant, irrational urge to go wrap her in my arms. Obviously, the bottle of wine I gulped down in the bushes behind the dorm was still making me think weird-ass shit.

  “I have to kill him,” she whispered, and when she spoke, she didn't sound scared, she sounded cold. January sounded like she'd made up her mind to leap down there and fight my brother in single combat--in which she'd probably last fifteen seconds.

  “And, how the fuck are you going to do that?” I asked, shaking my head. “I could barely land a blow on the guy while he was a fucking human. There's no way you could so much as tap me if I didn't want you to. He'd fucking snap your neck and walk away. Good fucking thing I pressed the panic button, Dirtbag. I probably saved you from dying of being a dumbass.”

  “Watch it,” Justin growled, his fingers flexing on my shoulder.

  “Down, guard dog.” I grabbed his wrist and pulled his hand from my shoulder. “January knows I'm fucking right. If I can't fight my brother, she sure as fuck can't do it. Do either of you even know how to kill a dhampir?”

  January glanced over, and her eyes narrowed. “Beheading would probably be a safe bet.” She bunched up her shoulders, and a small shudder passed through her body. “You're probably right about me not being able to take h
im on though, Mitch. I just…”

  From all around campus, soldiers charged in, wearing black armor and aiming rifles at Sebastian.

  My older brother raised his hands out as the soldiers closed in, clearly motioning that he was surrendering, but his gaze never wavered from January's window.

  The nearest soldiers lowered their weapons and approached slowly.

  “What the fuck are they doing?” I muttered. My forehead hit the cold glass, and I realized that I'd leaned in so far that I bumped my head against the window. “He's going to kill all of them.”

  I tensed, waiting for my brother to strike. I knew his moves all too well. My brother was a cobra. He just stayed close, so close that you were almost mesmerized by his power and danger. You knew that he could kill you at any given moment, but every second he hesitated to do it, you doubted that he'd actually do it. Then, he'd strike so hard and so fast, there was no possible way that you could fight back let alone defend yourself from his deadly outburst. And then he'd just keep striking. The only reason he'd stop is if he had some sort of purpose for you.

  I banged a hand against the glass. “He's going to fucking kill all of you.” They continued to advance, and I spun away. I rubbed my hands up and down my face. “Fuck.”

  “Mitch,” January said, after a few seconds of silence. “He’s going with them.” A second later, I could feel her warmth just beside me. She smelled like vanilla soap and minty toothpaste. “Hey Mitch,” she said again, just beside me. She set a hand on my forearm, and it felt like a zing of electricity passed through my skin.

  I lifted my head, looking over at her.

  The expression in her green eyes held weight. “Sebastian went with the HG soldiers. I don’t know what he’s playing at, but he didn’t attack them.”

  I should be relieved, but a new wave of terror spread through me. Our gazes connected, and for just a few seconds, I could feel the weight of what we’d gone through together at Sebastian’s hands hovering between us.

  An image blossomed in my mind, half-hallucination, half-memory. I saw my sister Marisa with blood stained down her front. I had seen it from the bleacher seats, some thirty feet above, but it had felt like I was inches away from her. Blood had seeped down her neck, and her familiar warm brown eyes looked up to the sky, cold and lifeless. Even though my sister Marisa and January didn’t look alike whatsoever, I could see the two images interposed here in this fucking apartment. January had blood splashing down her academy t-shirt, staining over her shorts and dripping down her legs. Her green eyes glazed over, dull and vacant, and then she blinked, and the image was gone.

  My heart fell into my stomach, to burn there. Sebastian was here to kill her. January was the only other dhampir in the world. He couldn’t let her live to be powerful enough to face him. That was how he thought—if someone was a potential threat, use them until the end, and eliminate them.

  “Listen to me, Dirtbag,” I said, my words coming out a growl, “You need to keep the fuck away from Sebastian. If he comes after one of us, you need to let him. Got it?”

  Her nostrils flared and mouth puckered like she was struggling to contain her annoyance, and failing miserably.

  I leaned in. She was so short that I had to bend my back to be completely eye-to-eye with her. Fear pulsed through me, and I had a sudden urge to grab January and shake her, but I curled my hands into fists at my side. “Do I look like I'm fucking kidding, January? You need to stay away from him.”

  She lifted her hands up between us. “Mitch, I'm still processing the fact that he's alive at all, okay? Stop hulking over me.”

  I glanced over at Justin who leaned against the wall, his arms crossed. He lifted his dark brows. “I'm with you here, Mitch.”

  That was surprising, but I'd take it. There was movement outside the dorms again, and when I approached the window, the lines of soldiers surrounding my brother were marching past the side of Gregory Hall and out of sight. “If he was taken in by the Hawthorn Group, that's exactly where he wants to be. He has a plan, and the only thing that I'm fucking sure of is that plan will somehow involve killing you, January. I know my brother.”

  “Seriously?” January looked between us. “I didn't even say anything, and you two are going to gang up on me. Typical alpha bullshit.” She muttered the last part as she turned and headed into her room, closing the door behind her.

  I looked up at my cousin, who was dressed in his rumpled tux from the Hunter's Ball. He finger-combed his hair back behind his ears. “Thanks for warning her away. Maybe she’ll listen to you.”

  Not fucking likely, but I didn’t comment.

  “Sorry I spoiled you guys’ night,” I muttered as my gut twisted.

  “It's alright. I was just about to head home when you got here, anyway.” Justin kicked away from the wall and came to stand beside me. His hands went to the windowsill as he peered outside. “You really think Sebastian is going to go after January?”

  “Fuck yeah. January went against him even when he had her tightly in his fist, just like...” my sister's name caught in my throat, but Justin gave a sharp nod of understanding, and I knew that I didn't have to say it. “She's also the only person who has the potential to be more powerful than him—she's a real dhampir, he's just a turned one.”

  “You’re right,” Justin said as he stared out at the academy grounds. “It's a good thing you're in all of her classes. I can guard her during the in-between times. I'll sneak up here at night, out in the morning, and you can walk her to school. You good with taking evenings until I can get up here?”

  “You're not even going to ask me if I'm willing to keep guarding your girl?” It almost annoyed me that he just assumed I'd be on board. A week before the term started, Justin asked me to watch out for January when he couldn't. He knew that my brother had plans for her, and that I was supposed to help those plots along. Justin asked me to play double agent for him, and clearly, he thought that I didn't have anything better to do than to keep sticking my neck out for her.

  He lifted his chin and narrowed his eyes. “You like two people at this school—if she dies, that gets cut in half.”

  “You’re delusional. January is a pain in the ass.” I crossed my arms. “You're a pain in the ass, too. I'm finally fucking free to do whatever I want, and you think I want to spend that time trailing after your girlfriend? The answer is fuck no.”

  There was a jolt in my stomach, and I had a sudden urge to take back all of my words. I didn't even know why I was fighting Justin. January was in all of my classes. Who else would I hang out with on breaks? We'd got in the habit of spending all of our free time together so much that in the last week after the trials, when I had no one directing me to do anything, I still sat with January in classes and ate with her and Justin during the breaks.

  “Alright,” Justin said, “I'll figure it out.”

  “No—man.” I sighed. “I'll do it. It's fine. January gets on my nerves, but she's alright sometimes. I just don't want this to come between us, and the more I help you out by watching her, the more you treat me like a threat. You’re the only family I have left, and I’ll always have your back. But you keep asking me to stick my neck out for you and then punishing me for it. It’s a shitty fucking way to repay me.”

  Something melted in Justin's hard expression, and his yellow-brown eyes darted around the room quickly like he was thinking about something. His gaze met mine, and I could see shame burning brightly there. “You're right. Damn it. I'm sorry, Mitch.” He reached up and clapped me on the shoulder again. “It's not your fault—or her fault.” His gaze flicked to January's closed door, and he lowered his voice. “My mom had one of her prophecies—or at least she says she did. In her prophecy, you and January were together. Gina had the prophecy weeks ago, and then again last week.”

  “Sounds like complete bullshit to me,” I said.

  “Well, that’s not all she said…” Justin glanced over at me and then shook his head. “It’s nothing. Probably just a
big load of bullshit. I guess it just got into my head.”

  Fuck. Now it was in my head, too. I seriously wished he hadn't unburdened himself.

  “I'll be honest with you.” He worked his jaw back and forth. “I know we're young, but January is the person I picture getting married to one day, after college. It sounds fucking stupid when I say it aloud. I trust both of you, and I know it's all in my head, thanks to my fucking mother—who would probably sell a kidney to break January and me up now that she knows what January is.”

  “She knows?”

  “All of the Elites know after what happened. They're voting sometime next month on who's taking over and having all of these meetings where they discuss all of us.” Some expression I couldn’t completely place flickered across Justin’s expression—fear, maybe. But, as soon as I saw it, it was gone. He shook his head. “I'm not going to be the asshole that gets in the way of your friendship with each other based on some bullshit my mother said. Just...” he paused to squeeze his eyes closed, “Just tell me first, okay? If you realize that you have serious feelings for her, come tell me first, and we'll work it out between us.”

  “It's never going to be a problem,” I told him. Another queasy feeling churned in my gut, but I refused to consider that it was anything other than the alcohol. Justin was like a brother to me—more than a brother, he was pretty much all of the family I had left in the world. I was never going to get in the way of his relationship with any girl, let alone one he pictured marrying. Even if Justin wasn't with January, I wouldn't want to date her. I wasn't kidding when I called her a pain in the ass. They could just go play house forever together for all I cared. Obviously, drinking a bottle of expensive ass wine before zipping was a bad fucking idea, and it was making my stomach do weird-ass shit. I broke away from his gaze. “Good talk. Now, I think I need to go throw up in the sink.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  January