by T. S. Joyce
And before she could utter a scream, she landed hard on a pile of leaves.
“Ooof!” The wind was knocked out of her, and she gasped for breath on her hands and knees. She squinted hard as she dragged air into her lungs. She was alone in the woods. No… Rows of gravestones broke the uneven ground, and the iron fence behind her was familiar.
But she was alone in the cemetery. Horrified, she scrambled backward, but her back hit the fence. Above her, on a low-hanging, gnarled branch of a monstrous birch tree, crouched the man.
“Don’t be scared.”
“I know what you are!” Her voice echoed through the emptiness of the cemetery, and chills rippled across her skin.
“I’m a vampire. My name is Evan Dawe, and I’m the Third in the Winterset Coven. I’m not the monster who attacked you. I’m not like him at all.”
“Then…then…what do you want from me?”
A frown marred his face as if her question had confused him. “I thought I knew what I wanted with you, but now I’m not so sure.”
“To feed on me?”
He jumped down from the branch and landed in front of her with barely any impact and nary a sound. He stayed crouched there, studying her face. “You’re worried about the scar he left.”
Breath trembling, she touched the painful cut and nodded.
“You shouldn’t worry about it for the reason you are.”
“I don’t understand.”
“It’s quite beautiful on you.”
Ahh, the compliments of a monster.
He cracked a crooked smile. It was a very handsome, surprisingly white, shockingly charming smile. “Dudes dig scars.”
She froze.
“That was a joke,” he murmured.
She shouldn’t have laughed. She shouldn’t have. He was here for bad intentions; all vampires were killers. But perhaps shock was playing with her emotions because a soft giggle left her lips.
He sighed a relieved sound and scooted closer, reached for her. Terrified, she closed her eyes and remembered how the monster had reached out for her just like this and cut her face. This vampire, however, only tucked the hair behind her ear and exposed her scarred cheek.
“I look like Frankenstein’s monster,” she whispered, opening her eyes.
He seemed to take in every facet of her face before he said, “You do not. And even if you did, Frankenstein’s monster was a badass.” Another crooked smile.
She nodded for a while like a psychopath because well…she was pretty sure her adrenaline was crashing and she was on the verge of a panic attack.
“You’re still scared of me?” he asked.
More nodding.
“I suppose that’s understandable. You’ve been through a trauma.”
“I didn’t like you bloodsuckers before he tried to kill me and my neighbor. So you can understand when I say I like your kind even less now.”
“Fair enough. I shall let you in on a little secret. Ready?”
“Okay.”
He lowered his voice to a whisper. “I don’t like humans.”
“And yet you need us to survive.”
“Oh, I like the taste of you just fine. It’s the entitled, better-than-everyone-else-on-the-planet, killing-off-everything-you-see-as-different, simple-minded, opinionated, claws-out mentality you creatures covet that I don’t like.”
She snorted. “Tell me how you really feel.”
“Look, if that monster came into these woods right now, I would keep you safe. That’s a promise.”
“The promise of a vampire.”
“It’s more trustworthy than the promise of a human.”
“Hmmm.” Interesting.
“Pinky promise not to hurt me?” When she shoved her pinky at him, he flinched back and glared at it suspiciously.
“I don’t play your thumb-war games. That’s for simpletons.”
“It’s a swear.” She stretched her pinky closer. “Lock your pinky with mine, kiss your thumb, and swear not to hurt me. And if you ever break a pinky promise, you will definitely go to hell.”
“Too late, humey.”
“To late for what?”
He smiled brightly, flashing sharp canines. “I’m already in hell.”
But before that sentence could scare her, he locked his pinky with hers. She nearly laughed at how big it was. The giant man had hands twice the size of hers.
“Your hand is cold,” she observed as they stayed there with their fingers locked.
“That’s because I’m dead, my dear. You’re holding hands with a corpse.”
Her blood ran cold, but before she could flinch away, he leaned in and kissed his thumb. “I swear not to hurt you.”
It grossed her out at least forty-seven percent that he put it like that—holding hands with a corpse. Ew. But she did it because pinky promises were everything here in the dark cemetery where she definitely didn’t want to get drained by a vamp. A very handsome vamp, who probably had a really enticing six-pack if the curves of his muscles and the trimness of his waist were anything to go by, but a vamp nonetheless.
“Did you bring me to the cemetery to be cliché and creepy?” she asked.
He looked around and shrugged, released the grip of her pinky from his. “Honestly, I didn’t know where we would land. I have no idea why I brought us here.”
“Well, Halloween is next week, and I definitely feel like I’m living in a scary movie. And now I’m spending a terrifying evening in a cemetery with a vampire.”
“You could look at it like that,” he murmured, coming to sit next to her against the fence, “or you could look at it like you are being protected on hallowed ground somewhere that monster would never look to find you. And not just with a vamp. I have a name.”
“Evan the Vamp.”
He snorted.
“Why would that monster still be looking for me?” she asked softly.
Evan rolled his head toward her and gestured to her cheek. “He marked you. He won’t hunt another until he’s finished hunting you.”
“Do you know him?”
“No clue who he is. None of my coven know him either. Your description to the police doesn’t ring familiar to any of us, but we’re still catching a heap of shit for his actions. People think we’re murdering those women, but we aren’t. We’re just trying to get through a rough year.”
“Umm…your king works for the fire department. He’s in the newspaper sometimes for saving people.”
“Yeah, he’s a good one. There is a lot of weight on his shoulders since he took on our coven. He’s given us a moral compass, I suppose.” Evan had a faraway look in his eyes.
“Do you like your king?” she asked, curious.
“Yes. I didn’t at first, but now I see his value. I see his vision for our coven. It’s a good future if we can stay out of trouble.”
“Is that why you want to find the monster?”
Evan nodded.
“How do you plan on finding him?”
“With the right bait.”
Her blood went cold. “Aaaand what is the right bait?”
His charming smile leveled her. “You.”
For three full seconds, she stared at him before she responded. “Hard pass. I’ve had a rough enough week. I think it’s time it improves.”
“Play bait, and then I kill the man who’s after you. Then you can go back to your life. No fear. I’ll even let you watch me kill him if you need the closure.”
“You would kill something that easily?”
“Something evil? Yes. Guess how much sleep I would lose?”
“Uh, do vampires even sleep?”
“Kind of. Guess.”
She sighed. “Zero sleep?”
“Bingo, bango, you clever human.”
“Have you killed before?”
The smile faded from his eyes first, and then from his lips. “You’ll be safest with my coven. Not hiding in an apartment that any vampire can get into.”
“I don�
��t understand that part. Tanya had to invite the monster in, but he just came into my home uninvited. So did you.”
“Because it’s not your home. You rent it. I’m guessing Tanya owns her apartment.”
“Well, yes. She owns the whole building. She’s my landlady.”
“The power belongs to her then. All she had to do was invite him into the building and then again into her apartment. The rest of the apartments, though? They were wide open.”
“Wait…how did you get in tonight? Tanya is still in the hospital.”
Evan cleared his throat and looked away, but not before she saw a flash of something in his eyes.
“What?” she pushed.
“Tanya has fed me before. In her apartment. I was invited in last year.”
“Holy shit.” That blew her mind. Tanya? Sweet, responsible, businesswoman Tanya? Feeding Vampires? “But…she’s normal.”
Evan laughed. “I don’t know what you have in your head about feedings, but I think it would be entertaining to hear about it.”
“Don’t you have sex when you drink a woman’s blood?”
His laughter echoed through the creepy cemetery. “If I like a woman and she likes me back, maybe. Shane would fuck a fencepost if it gave him a compliment, but I don’t feed like that. I just eat and then pay.”
“Pay?”
He nodded. “Tanya was having trouble making bills on the complex last year. It was a symbiotic relationship.”
“Oh, my gosh, that’s why she had the stake! She knew how to use a stake! She had one in her hand when she dragged me into her apartment.”
“Yes, and thankfully she never felt like using that little skill on me. I’m guessing she learned how to shank in the beginning when she didn’t trust me yet.”
“Huh.” She blinked hard and shook her head. “I guess you never really know people.”
“More people feed us in this town than you would guess,” he said quietly. “Most people are scared of us, or hate us. But there are some who see feeding for what it is.”
“And what is it?”
“A meal. Survival. Just like you eat a hamburger, we have a diet, too.”
This man was very open about his life and, and it shattered the misconception she’d been trained to think from the media.
Nicole wrapped her arms tighter around herself to ward off the cold. “Did you choose this?”
Evan watched her movement and then leaned forward off the fence, peeled his brown sweater off, and handed it to her. “Here.”
“But you’ll be cold,” she said, staring at his perfectly defined pecs.
“Do you see gooseflesh on me?” he asked.
She saw broad shoulders and smooth alabaster skin, a muscular throat, a line between his pecs, abs flexing with every breath, but no…no gooseflesh. She shook her head.
“It’s because I don’t get cold. Or hot. I don’t feel much anymore.”
And there was tragedy in that. “You can’t feel the first warm spring day after winter?”
Sadness washed through his eyes. “No. This wasn’t my choice.”
She pulled on his sweater, but it wasn’t warm like it would’ve been had a human man given it to her. It felt like it had been sitting outside in the cold, but it did smell good. Smelled like cologne. Like yummy-boy cologne. She sniffed it twice and ignored his chuckle.
“I think I’m traumatized,” she admitted. “I should not be okay right now.”
“You’re a tough woman. I can tell.”
“I don’t know about that. I keep thinking about the other night. Randomly. The memories just pop into my head.”
“That’ll fade with some time. And if it doesn’t? My king can get rid of those pesky memories for you.”
“What do you mean?”
His dark eyebrows lowered, and then he stood. “I don’t know why I just said that. Come on.” He offered his hand. “It’s late.”
“Your king can get rid of memories?” she asked, slipping her warm hand into his strong, cold one.
“Forget I said that.”
“Um, where are we going?”
“Here are your options, humey. You can go back home and deal with the police freaking out and then trust them to keep a vampire out of your apartment, which they can’t,” he assured her. “Or you can come meet the Winterset coven and tell them everything that happened that night. Maybe we will notice something that wouldn’t mean anything to the police. Some detail they would miss.”
“So…you want me, a recent vampire attack victim, to go to a house filled with an entire coven of powerful vampires.”
“But we are nicer vampires.”
“I like how you said nicer, and not just nice.”
“There’s no such thing as nice vampires. There’s no kumbaya and hand-holding and peace rallies in our world, Humey.”
“Nicole. My name is Nicole.”
“Mmmm. Danger, girl, giving your name to a vampire. Some say if you give your name, you’re giving up your power.”
Something about that gave her chills. “The monster called me by my first, middle, and last name.”
“Hmmm.” He lifted his chin and looked down his nose at her. “Good. Anything like that is good for us to know.”
“I’m scared of the Winterset Coven.”
“Lie. I can hear it. You are numb right now. You aren’t scared of anything.”
Nicole bit her lip and considered it. “You pinky promised.”
“I won’t let anyone hurt you so long as you are with me. Besides, there are two girls in the house that wouldn’t let you be harmed anyway. They’re all woman-power and moral compasses pointing due north. They’re annoying. They’ll probably befriend you and do your nails or some shit by the end of the night. I can just hear them shrieking about a slumber party now.”
“They sound fun.”
“You mispronounced ‘annoying.’”
She giggled and nodded. “Okay. I’ll talk to your coven. If it gets the monster found faster and justice for the women he killed, I’ll do it.” Nicole scrunched up her face. “Do we have to do that flying thing again? With the bats?”
“You don’t like heights?”
“I don’t like catapulting through the air.”
Evan frowned in the direction of the main road. “It’s a two hour walk through dark woods the week of Halloween with a serial-killing monster hunting you.” He nodded thoughtfully and rested his hands on his hips. “Should be fine.”
Nicole gulped. “Never mind. Catapulting sounds good to me.”
He grinned a feral, sharp-toothed smile. “You mean batapulting.”
And then she was whisked up in purple smoke to the soundtrack of shrieking bats.
Chapter Three
Nicole was stunning.
Evan glanced over at her again, but she caught him and smiled.
There she sat at the dinner table with the two snow leopard shifter mates of Aric and Garret, chatting like they were old friends. Sadey and Dawn were feeding her, of course. They latched onto any excuse to do a dinner with normal human food. The girls balanced living in a coven of day-sleeping, blood-drinking vampires pretty well.
Nicole could fit here, too.
Stop it.
“Dibs,” Shane said as he flipped through channels on the giant television in the den.
Her hair was pretty. It was a darker brown that she’d highlighted to a lighter blond on the ends and curled until it hung down her shoulders in waves. She had high cheekbones and soft curves and the prettiest laugh he’d ever heard.
“Dibs,” Shane said again.
She could fit here.
The scar down her cheek was angry and red and swollen, but it didn’t take away from the pretty hazel of her eyes or the slight slant to them that made her look feline. Her lips were full, and she had smile lines on either side as though she smiled often. He liked that.
She’d been attacked two days ago and had to be exhausted because it was the middle of the night, bu
t there she was, eating chicken and mashed potatoes with the girls.
She was a curious little kitty of a human, direct with her questions. He liked that about her. She smelled good. Her blood smelled delicious, sure, but her natural scent drew him to her.
“Did you hear me, man?” Shane asked, pausing in his channel flipping. “I said I call dibs.”
“On what?” Evan asked.
“The new feeder.”
The fury was instant. Evan slammed Shane against the wall clear across the room as he summoned the knife from Sadey’s hand that she’d been using to cut her chicken. It hurled toward him, end over end, but he caught it by the handle and smoothly slid it into Shane’s shoulder.
The Fourth of the Winterset Coven grunted, and his eyes turned black with fury as he glared at Evan. “I knew it, you fucking human lover.”
“Enough,” Aric said from behind Evan. There was an undeniable order in his tone.
Evan shook his head hard and released Shane fast.
When Shane yanked the knife from his shoulder, it clattered to the ground, covered in blood. “Everyone here is soft.” His jaw was clenched as he looked at Evan, Aric, and then Garret, who stood in the open doorway with his arms crossed over his chest. “This is not the coven I joined when I fought beside Arabella for all those years.”
“Don’t mention her name in this house,” Aric growled.
“Or what, King? You’ll punish me? I’m one of the last ones left. Your poor leadership has chased away the others, and now look. We are down to four because you keep allowing weakness into this house.”
“Shane!” Dawn exclaimed. “What’s wrong with you? Are you saying Sadey and I are weak?”
“Why do you think we keep getting targeted? Huh?” Shane yelled. “Because you aren’t replenishing our numbers with vampires. You’re filling powerful spots with shifters and humans.”
“I’m not a part of this coven,” Nicole murmured, looking at the table, her cheeks tinged pink.
Evan wanted to kill Shane for making her smile go away.
“I’ve been watching Evan stare at you all night, and it’s exactly how it was when we got Sadey and Dawn, and I’m fucking sick of it. We are considered weak, Aric. Have you not heard the whispers among our people? Have you not heard what they call us?” Shane looked around, red creeping up his pallid neck. “The tainted ones. This coven used to be feared. And now look at you, Aric. You have burn scars from the Bloodrunner Crew. You lost to a shifter crew, and as if that shame isn’t big enough, you bonded to a shifter. Sadey, I like you, but you don’t know what you’ve done. Dawn—”
