by Amy Sumida
He smiles and moves me to the couch. “If you’re comfortable, Guine, I can use my venom to heal your wrists. I didn’t want to do it without your permission.”
I appreciate him waiting for me to decide. “You don’t have to, Genji.” He grins at the use of his name. “They only ever sealed me when they got out of hand. These are nothing.” I wave my hands in the air. “They’ll heal soon enough.”
He frowns and mutters something about ‘damn savages’, but I don’t think he meant for me to hear him. “It’s no trouble, Guine, and I’ll feel better knowing you aren’t bleeding out when I could’ve done something.”
It obviously means a lot to him, so I tear the bloody wrappings from my wrists and hold them up to his face. He turns a little green and quickly steps away, reaching for a black bag while making quiet gagging sounds. He takes a deep breath through his nose, and with shaking hands pulls out a glass vial filled with silver liquid and medicine dropper. He places two drops of the fluid on each bite mark and it amazes me as they heal almost instantly.
Genji retreats to a chair on the other side of the room and drops his head into his hands. Ash plops down beside me and he and Phoenix laugh at their healer.
“That was priceless! Did you see Doc’s face! I thought he was going to blow chunks all over her!” I glance at Phoenix, confused, and try to figure out exactly what’s going on.
Genji moans and they laugh harder.
I glare at the two of them, oddly possessive of the hybrid, and growl, “It’s not nice to make fun of people! He was helping me!” I may not know any of them, but mockery isn’t something I ever expected from the legendary Hunters. My tone softens, and I call out, “Are you okay, Genji?”
I shift to get up and go to him, but Kent steps behind me and places a hand on my shoulder, keeping me in my seat. “Give him a minute, Violet. He needs some space.”
“Violet?” I question, momentarily distracted by the new name.
Kent smiles and locks gazes with me. “It fits you, beautiful. Those lovely, violet eyes need to be acknowledged, after all.” He winks, and I blush all the way to the roots of my too long, white-blonde hair. I’ve gone from having no name to having two in a matter of minutes.
Phoenix punches Kent in the arm. “Why do you have to be so damn smooth all the time, man? How the hell do any of us have a shot with her when you pull this shit out of thin air?” The two of them start bickering and Ashton joins in with a smile.
“Back off, children,” Genji growls from his chair as I begin to get overwhelmed. “Don’t scare her with your antics before she gets to know us better.”
He still seems green, and I ask, “Can I do anything to help?”
I’m grateful for his healing, and I rapidly rearrange my blanket opinions of vampires.
The guys laugh, and I glare at them murderously. How can they take their friend’s suffering so lightly? You don’t treat friends like this, do you?
Genji groans again. “Just tell her. If she sticks around, she’ll find out eventually.” He sucks in a deep breath and shakes his head. “It’s stupid anyway.”
Ash laughs and leans forward, catching my eye. “Doc here doesn’t bite, Sugar Plum. Like, at all. It grosses him out. A vamp afraid to bite! It’s freaking hilarious!” He dissolves into hysterics and the rest of the guys join him.
I push them out of my way and rush over to kneel beside Genji. “It’s okay, it grosses me out, too,” I whisper, placing a hand on his shoulder in solidarity.
He sighs and sits straighter. “It doesn’t gross me out, per se. It’s just that it’s incredibly unhygienic. I know I’m immune to disease, but I prefer to use my sterilized methods.” He appears a lot better now, and the corner of his mouth lifts in a timid smile. “But they’re right. I don’t bite. Ever.”
Kent clears his throat, gaining my attention and silencing the remaining snickers. “Guine, can you tell us about how you came to be falling out of a tree and onto my team?”
I blush, too embarrassed to answer.
Phoenix nudges me, causing me to fall back, and sits down, squishing me between him and Genji’s chair. “How about we trade information? Get to know a little about one another? A little tit for tat.”
I consider it for a minute and decide I like his idea. I can learn more about the Hunters, while sharing the information I know I’m going to disclose eventually.
“Okay, short stuff, I get to go first,” Declan rumbles with a hint of an accent. He points to my tattoo and asks, “What does it mean?”
“Sanguine?” I clarify. He and Phoenix nod, while Kent’s frown deepens. “It’s my designation.” At his confused expression, I break it down. “When you’re a blood slave”—he gasps at the term—“they test you to classify the ‘product’.”
Ashton interrupts by kneeling before me, but carefully avoiding pushing Phoenix out of the way. “Guine, how long were you fleeing?” Without waiting for an answer, his head turns to Kent and he frowns. “I thought we cleared all the rogues out of the area. How is a blood slave found in our woods if we routed them all out?”
Kent shakes his head. “I don’t know, Ash. I thought we had, but Guine’s proof we missed something.” His stormy eyes swirl with conviction and something else. Sadness haunts the green depths. “I’m sorry we didn’t find you, Violet.”
Overwhelmed by the information, I sink into myself. There’s definitely some relief, knowing they were out there… That they might have found me eventually. Phoenix wraps me in a sideways hug, and Kent’s eyebrows lift almost to his hairline. He uses his foot to nudge Ashton, and the two of them grin wildly at our positioning. I ignore them and secretly inhale the sweet musk surrounding me as Nyx leans his head against mine.
“So, Guine, why don’t you finish answering Dec’s question?” Phoenix glares at the others. “We’ll get into the rest of that later.”
Ashton shifts and reclines on the floor in front of me. I nod at Phoenix and clear my throat. “Sanguine is one of the four classifications, and it means you have ‘happy blood’. I guess it’s the equivalent of incredibly fine wine versus moonshine. It’s especially rare, and it seems like only the Old Ones even get the chance at someone like me.” I scoff at the memory of how I was treated. For a rarity, they couldn’t even spare me a bed. Mostly, I slept on the floor in the empty kitchen pantry. I’ve never had a dog, but I imagine they’re better cared for than I was. “There’s also Satureé, which means you produce a lot of blood quickly, Sauvage, which means your blood is wild, making their vamp senses go into crazy overdrive, and Sacré”—I snort—“which is a nice way of saying they prize it as a sexual stimulant.”
Declan frowns, but nods for me to take my turn.
“Tell me something about yourself?” I ask immediately.
He smiles. “I’m Irish, Mo Aingeal.”
“Tugann, ar ndóigh! Yes, of course!” I shake my head. “But Angel? I don’t know...” His eyes nearly bug out of his face when he realizes I speak Gaelic.
“But...how...where...when...” His mouth keeps moving like a fish searching for food. He takes a deep breath and tries again. “How do you know it, Mo Chroí?”
“Nope,” Phoenix admonishes, pointing at his large friend. “You’ve had your questions, Declan. You can flirt with ‘your heart’ later.” He turns to me. “I’ll answer your question, since he didn’t. Declan loves the most god-awful music on the planet, Guine.” He cringes. “I’m sure you’ll become well acquainted with his Euro-trance and Acid techno as it blasts through the halls in the morning.” Declan winks at me as Phoenix declares, “Ash, you’re up!”
“Okaaaay,” he drawls. “How’d you learn Gaelic, Guine?”
I laugh as he flips off Phoenix, and I can’t help but relax around them. It’s how I always imagined friends would behave. “I used to live way up north, kept for as long as I can remember in a compound with other children. We were given what they called a ‘classical’ education, so we would be of better use to the Old Ones. We were
taught languages from an early age and were expected to be able to take orders in any one of them at any time.”
“I’m next, Guine,” Genji says, finally back to his normal, light beige coloring. “What else did they include in your education?” He leans towards me, fascinated, and I notice he doesn’t have even the slightest hint of a blemish.
“French, Spanish, Russian, Gaelic, and Italian for languages, so we would understand our Masters,” I spit the word out. “We were taught mathematics and the use of basic technology, to be of further service if needed for accounting and the like. We were given decorum and ballroom dance lessons, and I was forced to learn an instrument.” I shudder at the memories of those classes. I imagine human tutelage is a lot less cruel than vampire etiquette. “We were taught to be obedient. They tried to strip us of our independence and mold us into their playthings.” I tighten my resolve and my voice strengthens as I smirk. “I wasn’t a very good student.”
Chapter Two
I learn Hawk and Ashton are actually twins, though not identical, and Phoenix, who sometimes goes by Nix, is their cousin. Genji asks me how old I am, and I struggle to tell him that I don’t exactly know. “I think I’m somewhere between eighteen and nineteen. We were kept in loose age groups, so I figure I must fall somewhere inside that range.” I can tell I made him uncomfortable with my lack of knowledge and flip the question back at him. “What about you? I know hybrids age differently than humans. You look like you’re close to my age, but you could be forty!”
He chuckles. “I’m twenty. So are Kent and Dec, though Declan’s almost twenty-one. The twins and Phoenix are nineteen.” He pauses and smirks at the red-head. “Phoenix is the youngest by a month.”
Nix grumbles with a ridiculous pout, “I’m always being treated like the baby of the family.”
I surprise myself, jumping in with, “Well, I’m probably younger than you, so they can’t do that anymore.”
His ocher eyes light up with my response, and my heart flutters at his expression. They tell me more about the Hunters and fish for details of my past, but I hesitate at every turn.
It’s hard to fully confide in them. I’ve only known them for a short time, and although my heart wants to open up, protecting myself has been my priority for too long. I’m not entirely certain I know how to trust. I don’t answer their questions with anything more than the barest of details, and I give very little personal information in return, deflecting their questions back to them.
Kent takes notice and raises an inquisitive eyebrow, but says nothing and lets it slide.
I sit between Genji, whose name means ‘of two beginnings’, and Phoenix, when Ash’s twin brother, Hawk, thunders back into the room.
“What the hell is this?” he hollers. He glares at me, and I shrink deeply into Genji’s side. “Better watch out, Doc. Move away before the junkie bitch tries to get you to bite her!”
Something about this guy makes my blood boil, and when I recall his earlier attitude, I leap to my feet and stomp toward him. Along the way, I scoop up one of Declan’s discarded cudgels.
“What”—I whack him on the thigh with the stick—“is”—I whack the other leg—“your”—I slam it into his stomach, causing him to double over, gasping—“problem?” I elbow him in the face and he falls to the ground, clutching his head in between his hands.
I stare at him lying there and can’t believe I did that. Did he put up a fight? I can’t remember! My chest heaves from residual anger, and heat radiates from my skin.
“Well, isn’t she just a bloody ray of sunshine?” Declan mumbles.
Phoenix laughs gleefully at him. “She is Sunshine, and she’s a badass!”
Kent cautiously takes the weapon out of my hand and guides me back to my seat. My breath still comes in short gasps; I think I might be in shock. Hawk curls up, moaning, but no one moves an inch to check on him.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. I’ve never done something like that before. It terrifies me, because it felt good. I glance over to Hawk, pride and fear warring within me.
How did I do that?
“Guine,” Kent interrupts my contemplation. “He’s had that coming to him. No one deserves to be treated the way he acted toward you. We all considered smacking him around for his behavior, trust me; you merely beat us to the punch.” The corner of his mouth twitches at his play on words, and Ashton barks out in laughter. “He’ll recover, and then he will apologize.” Kent says the last part as a command directed at the groaning heap on the floor.
“Where’d you learn singlestick?” Genji asks, giving me the side eye as he examines the weapon.
“Um, is that what it’s called?” I point to his hands and he nods. “I don’t know. I was just so mad, and it felt natural, I guess.”
It really did. The moment I picked it up, it felt right in my hands. I knew I could do a lot more damage if I continued.
Kent pulls something out of a sheath on his arm and hands it to me. He smirks as I roll my eyes, realizing he hadn’t fully unarmed along with the others. I guess I couldn’t really have expected them to do that with a complete stranger in their living room. I carefully take the beautiful, short knife. Black leather wraps around the handle and I trace the delicate carvings on the blade with a fingertip.
“Guine, would you try something for me?” Suspicion flickers in Kent’s sea-green eyes, but for what, I’m uncertain. When I don’t answer him, he continues. “I want you to try and throw this dagger at the cabinet. See if you can get it to stick where Nix did earlier.”
Everyone shifts to watch. I focus, knowing this is another test I don’t want to fail. I’m drawn to this team of Hunters, and for more than the safety offered in their company. They awakened something within me, and if I’m honest with myself, I’m already attracted to several of them.
I stand and face the proposed target. My eyes narrow on the gash in the wood left by the other knife. Like before, this weapon feels exceptionally good in my hand. Bouncing it, I test its weight and grab it by the tip. I exhale and fling the blade.
My jaw drops; the room falls silent. All eyes stare at the dagger, embedded to the hilt in the center of Phoenix’s gouge.
Ashton strides over to it and tries to pull it out, but it doesn’t budge. He comes back and hands me a blade of his own. I roll my eyes and wonder just how many weapons these Hunters still carry. “Again.”
Gone is his playful manner.
Ashton’s knife measures a little longer and heavier than Kent’s, but I like the weight of it in my hand. I flip it in my grip with startling ease and throw it, aiming for directly above the other one.
“Holy shit!” Phoenix gasps. He worries at his lip ring while staring at the dual blades.
Holy shit, indeed! How am I doing this?
“Guine, have you ever handled these types of weapons before?” I turn to Kent, and numbly shake my head back and forth. A fog fills my mind, and I struggle to believe I did that. Twice.
“I-I’ve never used any weapons before,” I stutter.
“Like hell you haven’t!” the lump on the floor grumbles.
Oh, yay, Hawk’s better.
A spark of anger ignites at his disbelief, despite my own surprise, and I grind my teeth together to keep from yelling at him.
“Never trust a junkie,” he wheezes while rolling onto his back. “Especially about weapons. You can’t believe anything they say.”
I grind my jaw so hard I fear I’ll crack a tooth. Doesn’t this guy know when to quit? Blood pressure skyrocketing, I clench and unclench my fists.
“What on Earth did I ever do to you?” I shout as he rises from the ground. “I don’t even know you, but you act just like the ones I escaped! How can you be a part of this family”—I wave my hand around at everyone—“and be such a beast? All I ever wanted was to get away from them, to live, and you sit there judging me?” My vision goes red and my body shakes. “I’m not a whore or a junkie or a damn vampire groupie!” I slug him in the stomach,
right where I hit him earlier, and my knuckles tingle from the impact. He wheezes as he pulls slightly away from me, and intense satisfaction oozes through my psyche when I see him wince as he rubs at the spot where I struck him.
When did I get so close?
Tears stream down my cheeks, and once again, I bring the room to silence. Mortified, I hide my face behind my hands in shame.
“Shit.” Large, calloused fingers wrap around my wrists and gently pull them away from my face. I open my eyes and Hawk’s dark-brown gaze softens. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you cry.” He pulls me into a surprisingly tender hug, and I collapse into him, sobbing. “Shh, Guine. You’re alright. I deserved it. I’m such an ass.”
He’s sorry? Really? This guy runs hot and cold.
I peek up at him and scowl through misty eyes. “Yes, you are.” He belly laughs and it rumbles through my entire body.
I don’t understand my responses to him, to any of them, really. I can’t remember ever crying in front of someone else before, and I know I’ve never let anyone hold me like this. At the compound, if someone wrapped their arms around me, they were trying to kill, not comfort.
“Come on.” Declan pats me on the back, pulling me away from Hawk. “Let me make you dinner. That bread couldn’t have been enough.”
I sit and silently observe their interactions with one another while Declan puts dinner together. I’d moved to sit on the couch facing the dining area, and Declan had shut himself up in the adjoining kitchen, forbidding anyone, especially Genji, from entering until he was finished.
Hawk pulls my focus away from the others as he sits beside me. “Guine, who were you running from?”
I stiffen, unsure how much to tell them. I don’t want their pity.
“I was held in a compound with a group of blood slaves,” I answer harshly. When he doesn’t recoil like I hoped, I reluctantly continue. “We were kept mostly separate from one another, and only females were at my location.” I take a deep breath. I struggle to talk about this, but I refuse to ignore it anymore. “It wasn’t a good place, and the other girls were as vicious as the vamps. I don’t blame them, really. It was a necessary survival trait.” I finger a raised scar on my elbow and remember how cutthroat some of those girls could be. “About three years ago, I was given to a family of French Old Ones, and they’re exactly how you would imagine vampires if you only ever read the horror stories from before The Debut.” My insides quiver, and I need to finish before I fall apart. “Last year they moved here from the midwest. Their estate backs up to the woodlands, and on occasion, I was allowed to go for short walks in the sun. The vamps they sent out to guard me were morons, and sometimes, I could pretend I was alone.”
