I wasn’t sure where my grandmother had passed. No one should have died in this room, and hopefully no one ever would
I took off my shoes and stepped out of my jeans, then crawled under the blankets.
But the room felt so big, with the arched ceiling overhead and the house’s faint squeaks and groans as if it were settling into sleep itself. No matter that my eyes were bleary and exhausted, I couldn’t get my mind to quiet.
After a while, I took a pillow and a blanket off the bed, then made it up again so that it looked as if no one had ever been in the bed. I carried them into the closet and settled down on the floor, then using my fingers to push the sliding door slowly closed from the inside.
“You’re pathetic,” I told myself, and it was supposed to be a joke, but my voice didn’t sound like anything was funny.
Neither had he, when he said those words.
I squeezed my eyes shut, willing my brain to just stop, to just turn off, for once.
Sleep sleep sleep.
Finally the world faded.
In the morning, I woke up to the phone ringing.
I jolted awake instantly, my heart pounding, before I placed the noise. Right. It was just the phone. Not the cell phone; I had that in the closet with me, just in case. The thought of calling anyone for help was strange and foreign. If I called 9-1-1, would anyone ever help me escape him? I doubted it.
I lurched to my feet and stumbled down the groaning steps. The phone stopped ringing and the answering machine clicked on. Really, my grandmother had an answering machine? I didn’t know anyone still used those.
My sister’s voice came over the phone, and my heart stopped. “Allie, if you’re there, please pick up…” Her voice was a whisper.
I rushed the last few steps as she said, “I told him where to find you, Allie. I’m so sorry.” There were tears in her voice. “He threatened the kids. I was so scared. You have to get out of there.”
I picked up the phone and whispered, “Did he leave someone there with you?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“I’ll get you help,” I promised. “Same address?”
“I’m scared for you,” she warned me.
“I’ll be fine,” I said, and it was a lie. I didn’t even know when she’d had her kids. We hadn’t been in touch. I hoped that I got the chance to meet them. “Just do what they say and forget me, I’ll be fine. Love you.”
“I love you too.” She still sounded teary.
When I hung up the phone, my hands were shaking, and panic blurred my vision. I had to move fast. He could be so close behind me; I was surprised he wasn’t already here. I erased the message, because I didn’t want his fury to turn on her.
Then I realized I’d left the cell phone behind in the closet. I ran up the stairs to get it, and when I was standing in the bedroom, I heard the sound of tires across gravel, the sound of an engine. I was suddenly sick to my stomach.
I wasn’t getting out of here alive.
But I could make sure my sister and her kids survived.
I hid myself in the closet again, because there was probably no way out of the house. I called Henry’s number.
The phone rang and rang, and panic seized my chest. What if I didn’t have time?
He finally answered, his voice husky with sleep. “Yeah?”
“It’s Allie,” I said. “I need you to help my sister. He went to find me at her house, and he left some men there, and I’m afraid he’ll kill her and her kids. Please help me.”
I rattled off her address, hoping he’d listen.
“Yeah, got it,” he said, surprising me as he rattled the number back to me. He sounded wide awake now. “But what do you need?”
“Just take care of them, please,” I said. “I know I’ve got no right to ask. But please.”
They didn’t even know me. But I had the feeling that they could protect my sister and her kids.
I heard the front door open.
“Allie, wait,” he began, but I was already hanging up.
I felt suffocated in that closet. I had to at least try to run. I shoved the cell phone into the bosom of my dress and stepped out, looking at the window. It was big enough to go out of, and there was a wide, sloping roof that led toward that expanse of overgrown yard. Not far behind was the woods.
Maybe I could even grab a weapon from the shed on the way.
I was almost certainly going to die today. At least that meant my nonstop hell would end. Even if I couldn’t escape him any other way.
But maybe I could take him with me.
Six
I grabbed a pair of shears from the garden shed and ran into the woods. When I looked back, once I was in the trees, I saw him and several of his men fanning out, already sweeping through the yard. The curtains billowed out of the open window I’d left behind me, and I cursed myself for not taking the time to try to close it with my fingertips as I stood on the sleep slope of the roof; that must have given me away.
I turned and fled deep into the woods. Branches seemed to tug at my hair and wrap around my ankles. It felt as if the whole world was working in concert to try to make me his.
“Allie!” he called, his voice so near that I jumped.
I frantically scrambled into a deer hollow, my bare feet slipping across dew-soaked leaves, and crouched behind a tree, partially concealed by the hollow around me.
No more running.
I would try to kill him before he killed me.
He reached me, walked past me, and I had my chance.
I sprang out at him, driving the shears toward his shoulder.
His eyes widened as he twisted, seeing me coming, but he was too late.
I sank the shears into his stomach, and he let out a soft huff as they punched through his shirt, through his skin. They didn’t go as deep as I’d hoped before he shoved me away, and I stumbled back, landing hard in the leaves.
I didn’t hesitate. I was already rolling over, scrambling to my knees. I launched myself up just as he grabbed for me.
Then I was running, but he was right behind me. He tackled me to the ground. I tried to fight him off, but I couldn’t get away from him. My lashing out feet caught him in the chest, and that knocked him back for a second, but not long enough.
Then he was on top of me, and his fist looked huge, and then it slammed across my face. The world exploded red.
He’d hit me so many times, but except in fits of rage like when he slammed my face into the coffee table, he’d pulled his punches or used his belt so he wouldn’t kill me. He’d said that, but now as his big fist slammed into my face again and again, as my nose and my cheekbones caved in, I knew he’d meant it.
Because now he was trying to beat me to death.
“You whore,” he said, the blood from his abdomen pumping across both of us, not that it mattered right now because he was so high on adrenaline and murderous rage that nothing would stop him unless he bled out.
“I gave you everything!” he spat. “You thought you could just walk away from me?”
The woods were deathly silent. His men had paused a respectful distance away. He stood and began to kick me, and I felt my ribs fracture. I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing came out but blood. No one would have come anyway.
There had been some small, crazy part of me that hoped Liam and Henry and Micah would rescue me.
“Boss, we’ve got to get you to the doc,” one of his men said, the words distant. He’d kicked me in the side of the face and I couldn’t hear anymore out of that ear.
The pain was excruciating. I just wanted to die.
That was probably why he stood to leave me there, in the woods, so bloodied and bruised that I couldn’t stand, no matter how hard I tried.
Pink foam kept slipping out from between my lips. It felt as if I was suffocating there, with the golden sun shining down through the leaves above.
He grabbed my fractured jaw with tight fingers, mindless of how my blood was all over hi
s shirt, even splattered across his face. He looked like a monster. His eyes were mad with rage.
“I’m going to kill your bitch of a sister and her two little brats,” he warned me, “and nobody is going to stop me. Nobody is ever going to ask what happened to any of you. Trash, that’s all you are, no one cares what I do to you.”
He slammed my head down into the ground and rose to his feet. He walked away and left me to die.
“Should we bury her?” one of the men asked.
“No,” he said. “let the animals eat her.”
He looked down, studying me with an evil glint in his eyes, as if he was committing my broken face to his memory. He crouched down and picked up the cell phone, which had been knocked out of my dress during our struggle.
He lifted it into the air. “I’m going to call your friends. I’m going to deal with them too.”
Then they were gone.
I was alone.
Sleep sleep sleep, I begged myself. The pain was so bad, and yet my brain was still clinging to survival.
Or maybe that was my wayward heart. No matter how bad life was, I was reluctant to surrender to the gentle darkness.
But it took me anyway.
Seven
Something dragged me out of the darkness. I let out a scream as I felt teeth in my throat, as pain and life burned through my veins. I struggled frantically, pushing myself away from the pain. My nails found skin, flesh, a face. Someone grunted and panted, but when I opened my eyes, it was Liam’s face that floated in front of me. His face was tight with pain, but his eyes were full of worry. Those beautiful eyes—I could lose myself in them.
I almost did. I almost didn’t see his teeth, the long wicked costume teeth. He’d flashed me a smile with them in the elevator, but now my mind was concocting something else. My mind made the teeth and the bite seem real.
Even his mouth looked bright with my blood.
“Don’t be scared, I’d never hurt you,” he said, his voice soothing.
The pain was fading, the burn that had swept through my veins dissipating into languid warmth. As that pain faded, so did all the pain from my bruises and wounds and broken bones.
“What’s… happening? Am I… dead?”
Liam gave a small smile. “Not exactly.”
I was pretty sure I was either dying or dead, but either way, none of this could be real. Either way Liam was just a figment of my imagination. The only man I ever met that made me feel safe, if only for a moment.
Leaning up, I kissed him, and my own blood seemed to taste sweet on his lips.
His eyes were wide for a second, and then he relaxed against me, and leaned down further, making it easier for our lips to press together tightly.
My eyes drifted closed, and I kissed him like it was the last thing I’d ever do. Which it might have been before the afterlife swallowed my conscious mind. The kiss deepened, his tongue sweeping into my mouth, but still it was gentle. Perfect. His hands grazed my face as if memorizing the lines, before he pulled back, breathing hard.
“You should...take it easy.”
“I just wanted the last thing I experienced to be kissing you.”
“You did?” He was studying me, a look of wonder on his face.
I nodded. “I’m ready to die now.”
His lips curled into a smile, his fake fangs more noticeable with the movement of his mouth. “You know you’re not dying now. Right?”
I released a slow breath. “Yes, I am. You’re not even really here right now.”
“I am,” he said, his smile widening.
I shook my head and closed my eyes. “I’m bleeding to death on a forest floor alone, and my mind wanted to give me a handsome man and a perfect kiss before I died. That’s all this is.” My muscles relaxed, and I waited for death to take me.
But nothing happened.
My eyes opened again. Liam was still beside me, smiling down at me.
“What’s supposed to happen now?” I asked, completely confused. My pain was gone. I felt warmer and safer. Of course I was dead, so why was I still lying here? Was this just what happened when you died?
“I bit you,” Liam said slowly. “Now, you won’t get old, and your body will heal quickly from injuries.”
“You bit me?” I lifted a hand coated in blood and touched my throat.
I remember a bite before the pain vanished, before the warmth washed through me. “Why would you bite me?”
I shivered. Was some animal in the woods tearing into my dying body? Was that what this was about? If it was, I was glad for this illusion, glad to not know the truth.
“I’m a vampire,” Liam said, watching me again. “And I bit you.”
“You made me into a vampire?” I asked in shock, but it made sense suddenly. These men seemed to feel no fear. The little jokes about a hundred years of Halloween parties, fifty years of annoying each other, the way Liam had flashed me that toothy smile and said he was a vampire… it all made sense now. But only if I accepted they were vampires.
“The alternative was not great.” His tone was light, but he studied me as if he were worried. “You accepted that easily. Most humans, there’s a lot more crying and wailing and terror…”
“I’ve spent my whole life terrified,” I said dismissively. If I wasn’t actually dead…. I blushed at the memory of how I’d kissed him, of how I’d acted when I thought he was just a beautiful trick of my dying brain. Did he think I was ridiculous?
“So, I’m alive right now?” I asked, because it was still hard to accept. I closed my eyes, shuddering at the memory of Joseph standing over me, breathing hard, my blood on his fists.
“Yes,” Liam said softly, his voice so caring that I opened my eyes again to study his face.
“I’m alive in the woods after being bitten by a vampire. I’m alive because I’m a vampire.”
He nodded. “I’m sorry.”
I didn’t know why he was apologizing. “I want to believe that. I don’t want to be dead.”
“Even if it means that you’re a vampire? That you have to accept that there’s a supernatural world you never knew existed?”
“Yes,” I admitted, tears stinging my eyes. “But I don’t know how I’ll ever believe this is anything but a fantasy.”
Liam studied me for another minute, then slid his hand slowly down my arm. I shivered, my body awakening. He continued to brush his fingertips over my body, even softly caressing the tops of my breasts, until I felt my nipples hardening.
“Now I know I’m dreaming,” I said, both to Liam and myself.
“Why’s that?” he asked.
“Because that feels so good. It’s like everything inside of me just wants to be touched by you.”
“Hell,” he muttered, then his fingers closed around one of my nipples, and I gasped.
“Good?”
“Y-yes,” I panted.
“I bet a lot of things can be good between us.” He leaned closer.
“Can I touch your… fangs?”
“Fuck,” he muttered, then nodded.
I reached up and started to stroke his fangs. They felt real under my fingertips. Real just like his hand on my body.
“Touch me,” I whispered.
I felt the shudder that rolled through his body, and his hand left my breast and dipped down. He reached into the front of my pants and parted me gently. His fingers stroked my wet folds, and I gasped and wrapped my hands around his arm, lying back.
My eyes closed, and I pressed myself against him as he worked me harder and harder. When my orgasm hit, I cried out his name and went tumbling over the edge. His hand didn’t stop though, it kept stroking me, kept touching me, even as my nerves danced in pleasure.
I stared up at him. My mouth dropped open. That wasn’t my imagination. “I--I’m alive.”
He looked aroused as hell. “You are. And you’re ours now.”
I don’t know what that means, but everything hits me at once. Liam wasn’t a dream. Him being a vam
pire and turning me into one too wasn’t just a fantasy. I really was still alive.
“My sister…” I said with a gasp, pulling his hand away from me, my heart racing.
“Micah is there now,” he promised.
“Can he really protect her?”
I didn’t know anything about vampires, but I did know about Joseph. I did know exactly what he was capable of, and I found it hard to believe that even supernatural creatures could stand against a man like him.
He licked the blood off his lips before he smiled, a genuine, disbelieving smile. “Oh yes. He can. You’ll get to know Micah.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ll need to come live with us.”
For the first time, I really realized where we were. I was in his lap, his strong arms still holding me tight to his chest. He’d held me as I struggled, and now for the first time I really noticed the savage gouges in his face, which were already beginning to heal before my eyes.
“Live with you?” I demanded, but we could come back to that. I had to know my sister was okay. “Can you take me to see my sister?”
“Yes,” he said without hesitation. “But we’ll need to get you cleaned up first.”
I looked down, realizing she’d be terrified of me.
I’d glimpsed the afterlife, and it already felt like a dream that was fading. I knew I’d forget it all soon, and the thought made me ache.
Then I realized something else: Micah’s protégé had said mortal.
“Liam, will I ever die?”
“Yes,” he said. “Everyone dies. We just don’t die easily.”
He pressed a kiss to my forehead, which felt strangely nice too. Then he stood easily, still holding me against his chest.
“How did you find me?” I asked as he carried me through the woods.
The blood-splattered woods.
My husband’s men were nothing but bits of goo and bone, plastered to the trees.
“I tracked your car.”
Wicked Souls: A Limited Edition Reverse Harem Romance Collection Page 18
