by Sara Thorn
“You miss her,” I said sadly as I stared out at the city. “Don’t you?”
Quinn was silent, and I looked over to see his face. His chin trembled, and the city lights outside the window reflected on the wet glassiness of his emerald eyes. He nodded because opening his mouth to answer with words would have just resulted in cries. I knew that he and Sen were close. I knew that at some point, grief would come creeping in on him like a stalking predator.
I didn’t know how to react in a way that would help him. It was mostly my fault that his sister had been killed. They had come to rescue me, and in doing so, Sen was struck down. I wasn’t worth it. I wasn’t worth losing her beautiful and magical life over, and I knew it. I didn’t know how to comfort Quinn or make amends for something so horribly wrong. I reached over and held his hand at the side of his thigh, and the two of us stood together hand in hand, staring out at the dark city, which looked a bit like a fairyland punctuated by all of its twinkling, colored lights.
It might have been the wrong thing for me to do; I seemed to be full of wrong decisions and actions lately. But I had meant the gesture as one of comfort only, completely platonic. Maybe it was the grief that made Quinn take it to mean something else. He suddenly pulled my hand toward him and spun me around to face him with my back pressed up against the glass window in front of him. A strand of golden-blond hair fell across his eyes as seemed to spark with an ignited desire. He was going to kiss me, and a part of me wanted to kiss him back.
“What are you doing?” Cassius said. His voice sounded more protective than inquisitive.
Quinn didn’t move away from standing in front of me, and he didn’t let go of my hand. He also didn’t seem as though he cared to answer Cassius, so I answered for him.
“I couldn’t sleep,” I said. “So, I came out here to look at the city, and Quinn was trying to show me something.”
Quinn watched as I lied. He knew that I could feel what was about to happen between the two of us, and the fire that still burned in his eyes told me that he knew I wasn’t going to resist it, either.
“There are windows in your bedroom,” Cassius said as he walked closer toward us.
“I know. I just felt like I wanted to come out here instead of being alone in my room.”
Cassius reached for my wrist and gave it a gentle pull away from Quinn’s hand. I could tell that Quinn wasn’t going to let go, so I went ahead and slid my fingers out from his and moved away from the window to go with Cassius. There was a temptation there when Quinn held me at the window, but as much as I almost gave in to it, the pull I felt toward Cassius surpassed everything else. It wasn’t even something I could control; it just happened every time he was near or any time I thought of him. I hoped that it wasn’t some sort of vampire power that Cassius had been using on me, but it felt much too real to be a trick.
“You don’t need to be alone if you don’t want to,” Cassius said as he led me away from Quinn. “I thought you might need some time by yourself after all that you’ve been through, but I can see I may have been mistaken.”
We walked into his bedroom, and he closed the door behind him, leaving Quinn alone in the common area of the apartment. It was quiet in his bedroom, and I could hear Quinn opening another bottle of wine out at the bar. I felt bad about leaving him alone in his sorrow, but I also was glad to be here in this dark and still room with Cassius. He sat on the edge of the bed and looked at me as I walked toward him and sat down beside him.
“You never answered my question earlier,” I said when the thought occurred to me again.
“Which one?”
“The one about drinking blood. How does it work for a dhampir?”
It was the middle of the night, and it was a random and possibly invasive question for me to ask. But I didn’t want to think about Sen’s death, and I didn’t want to think about Quinn’s broken heart, so it seemed a good enough time as any to appease my curiosity about Cassius’s bloodlust.
“Do you really want to know?” he asked.
“Yes, tell me.”
Cassius looked uncomfortable, the kind of look that you would give someone right before you’re about to tell them something that you know they won’t like. “I have bloodlust as do all vampires,” he said as he looked down at his lap. “But a dhampir can manage it much better and for much longer increments of time than the common vampire can. I can go a long time without it before it gets too bad.”
“Will it kill you if you go too long without blood?”
“No. There are not many things that can kill me. Thankfully, most of those weaknesses are left to common vampires and not me. It can make things very uncomfortable, though.”
“Uncomfortable, how?” I asked.
“Because I am part man, I also fall prey to some of the lusts of humans. When I have gone a long time without blood, the dhampir part of me feels the bloodlust, and if it continues, it will carry over into physical lust as well.”
I tried to understand what that meant, but I was coming up blank. “I don’t think I get what you mean,” I said.
Cassius turned his lowered head toward me and looked at me with an upward glance that seemed to make his black eyes glean in the moonlight. “It means that my physical desires also become more difficult to restrain.”
“Your physical desires, as in—”
Cassius reached for my hand and set it onto his lap. No more explanation was necessary as I felt the solid engorgement between his thighs. I felt both my eyes and my mouth pop open at the same time in astonishment.
“It’s from touching you,” he said softly. “I can’t seem to help it.” He lifted his face to mine. “No matter what I try to do, I can’t seem to stop wanting you, Mara.”
I kept my hand in his lap and pressed my fingers down around him until I heard a carnal moan escape his mouth. “Why are you trying to stop wanting me?” I asked as I pressed my lips against his.
I felt his breath exhale against my mouth, and the tip of his tongue trace below my upper lip.
“You don’t know all that I am yet,” he said. “All the things that I can be, even when I don’t want to be them. I’m trying to keep you safe, even from me.”
I felt his body tremble against mine as his swelling cock grew fuller in my hand. There was more than physical desire pulling us back to each other time and time again—much, much more.
“Cassius,” I said slowly enough that he would linger on my words. “I would rather be in constant danger with you, than be in danger of not having you.”
With a fluid motion, Cassius swept his arm behind me and placed me onto the bed beneath his crouching body. He slid the shirt from my chest and the panties from my thighs. Our hands worked together to pull his pants from his waist, and he held my hands beside my body with our fingers interlocked as he pushed steadily into me until it felt as though he had filled every bit of space.
I knew as we made love that night, that the moans caught on our breaths would be loud enough to be heard throughout the penthouse floor.
There was nothing that either of us could do to quiet the passionate love-making that escalated to the point of utopia. Even if I had known what Quinn would do, there was nothing in that moment that I would have stopped for. It was too perfectly crafted to be everything that I wanted.
Chapter Five
“Where is he?” Cassius bellowed throughout the penthouse when we woke up and saw that Quinn was nowhere to be found.
There were several empty wine bottles scattered around the living room, and it was not difficult to piece together what had happened. Quinn had become jealous and intoxicated and gone out into the city on his own.
“If he slips-up and does something foolish, he’ll lead Athan’s prowling henchmen right to us,” Cassius said as he paced the room, trying to decide whether to go search for Quinn or not.
“Maybe he didn’t do anything foolish,” I said as I tried to help tame the situation. “Maybe he just went for a walk to get some fresh air
or something.”
The anger in Cassius’s face was beginning to flush his pale complexion. I knew, despite my attempt at trying to be calm and positive, that Quinn likely did do something foolish. He was heavy with sorrow over the death of his sister and blinded with jealousy over the very audible night of intimacy between Cassius and me. The chances of his going for a stealthy walk and returning to the penthouse without having stirred up trouble were slim, especially from the looks of how much wine he had consumed.
“We have to go find him,” Cassius said. “If we’re lucky, he’ll just be sitting hungover somewhere.”
“And if we’re not lucky?”
“Then, Athan already has him.”
I hurried to put on my clothes as Cassius reattached his sword to the sheath at the side of his waist.
“I’m not sure how well that sword is going to blend in on the city streets,” I said. “I mean, there are several cosplay conventions here, but it’s not really the time of year right now for the con circuit.”
“Blending in is no longer the priority, finding Quinn is. If Athan gets to him, it won’t be long until he gets to us.”
“I don’t think Quinn would ever tell Athan where we were,” I said, not that I wasn’t also worried about Quinn’s safety and ready to go scour the city for him until we found him.
“He won’t have to tell Athan. Athan will get it out of him regardless.”
I got the strong feeling that there was something Cassius wasn’t telling me about Quinn or maybe the fae in general. But there wasn’t time to debate with him, so I just followed Cassius quickly into the elevator.
“How could he have been so stupid,” Cassius mumbled under his breath.
“He’s going through a lot right now. Sen was not only his sister but his best friend.”
The deep circles of Cassius’s eyes bore into me. “Would you have kissed him?” he asked.
“What?”
“Last night, if I hadn’t have come, would you have let Quinn kiss you?”
I was dreading what sort of answer would come out of my mouth, but luckily the elevator doors opened just in time, and I hurried out as the focus shifted back to the task at hand—finding Quinn.
The streets were crowded, and the morning was overcast, which made it the perfect day to try to slip around unnoticed. We started walking down the sidewalk, keeping to the sides of buildings in case we needed to make a quick dart into an alleyway. Quinn didn’t know this city, so he would have nowhere in particular that he would have headed. If he were drunk and upset, he probably just would have wandered off. How would we ever find him?
“Maybe we should just go back to the penthouse and wait,” I said after we had been walking for nearly twenty minutes in a random direction. “Eventually he’ll come back there, won’t he?
“Not if he’s been caught,” Cassius answered.
“Do you really think that Athan would have known to send vampires here to search for us? I mean, we could be anywhere in either of the worlds for all he knows. Coming here was like hiding in plain sight; it usually works in the movies.” Just as I finished my sentence, I noticed Cassius tilt his head toward the side and saw his eyes dart around us.
“We’re too late,” he said. His words shot a twinge of terror through me.
Cassius grabbed my hand and pulled me against the side of his body. His other hand reached for his sword as we ducked around the corner of the closest side-street. I didn’t see anyone, aside from a couple of commuters who were cutting through the alley behind an old Chinese restaurant. I started to open my mouth to ask Cassius what he had seen.
“Just keep walking,” he said with a low voice.
We had almost reached the end of the cross-street and come out onto the opposing intersection when I saw them. All of them. Dozens of Athan’s men, both in front of and behind us. Alleyways never worked in the movies. They were always a dead end or a cut-off point. I should have told Cassius that. There were too many of them to fight. Cassius reached toward a back door on the street, but it was locked; they were all locked. There was no place to run.
I didn’t recognize any of the sinister faces that grinned at us. Some held a look of disdain, others a look of enjoyment. None of them looked willing to negotiate. I held closely to Cassius and looked at him to see if I could tell what his plan was. My heart immediately sank when his face revealed that there was no plan. We were hopelessly outnumbered, and he knew it.
“Where is Quinn?” he asked the vampire nearest to us.
“With Athan,” the guy answered. “Same place you’re going.”
“I’ll come back with you,” Cassius said. “But Mara stays here.”
“No!” I shouted.
Cassius pinched my hand, but I didn’t care.
“I’m not going anywhere without you,” I said to him stubbornly.
Cassius grimaced, and I could see that he was trying to stay calm.
The other vampires laughed.
“Don’t worry your pretty face about it,” the one vampire said as he tried to reach forward to touch my chin. The sound of Cassius’s blade moving in its sheath cause the man to pause. We may have been outflanked, but Cassius would at least make sure this guy lost a hand if he tried to touch me. The man slowly put his hand back down at his side and scowled. “You’ll both be going back to Mystreuce together.”
None of them laid a finger on us as we walked along with them. None of them had to because we knew there was no choice but to go with them. I wondered if Quinn was okay.
When we reached the virtual gaming den, I saw the “closed” sign on the door. Guess Dregon had given up on his earthly job in exchange for bolder pursuits on Mystreuce. The den was still fully functional, though, and it was only a matter of moments before we found ourselves back inside the supernatural world.
“I’m curious,” Cassius said to one of the vampires walking next to us, “don’t you wonder what it would be like to serve under a different ruler, one other than my half-brother, who would make you an equal instead of just the hired help.”
The man laughed. “If you’re trying to swing me to your campaign, it won’t work. Much has already changed since you left this world.”
Chapter Six
It didn’t take us long to see what he had meant. Even the landscape of the world had started to change. Above-ground tunnels now covered the rolling hills that looked like a rat-maze I made once for a science experiment in high school. They were a way for the vampires to travel across the surface during the day, and the fae who Athan was using as slave labor had built them closer and closer to the location of Cassius’s golden castle.
When we got underground into the corridors, there were signs of more apparent change. Athan had already begun turning Mystreuce into a war nation. His men and women were laden with new armor and walking around the tunnels fully equipped with weaponry at their sides. The few fae faces I saw peering out from between the cracks of barely open doors and the shadows in the corners of hallways looked terrified and exhausted. All I could think about was Sen being of those faces with her clever cat eyes looking back at me. This was abhorrent. The fae may have been servants before, but now they were nothing short of disposable manpower to fuel Athan’s vision of complete power.
“I don’t understand,” I whispered to Cassius as we followed Athan’s guards down the corridor toward Athan’s great room. “The fae have all kinds of magic at their disposal. Why don’t they just unite and get the hell out of here.”
“It’s not that simple,” Cassius said quietly. “Fae magic under vampire rule is a very volatile thing, as I’m afraid you are about to see for yourself.”
I didn’t have to wonder long about what he was talking about because as soon as we stepped into Athan’s great room, I saw Quinn. I gasped as I saw the thick iron cuff around his neck that was searing into his skin and the chains around his wrists and ankles that were making his burnt flesh peel away from his bones. I wanted to scream and cry and punch ever
y one of these vampires right through their chests until my fist emerged out the other side. But I was too paralyzed with fear for Quinn to do anything but start to cry. Cassius pulled me to his chest and put his hand over the back of my head to keep me from looking anymore. The sound of Athan’s cruel laughter rang through the room and bounced back and forth against the inside of my skull until I had burned it into my memory as the battle cry that I would hear when I killed him.
“Welcome home, dear brother,” Athan hissed arrogantly.
“I am not your brother,” Cassius said in defiance.
“True.” Athan’s voice was followed by slow footsteps that came closer toward us as I turned my head around to look at him.
“But, you are now my prisoner.” He waved his hand, and immediately, several of his guards came and grabbed hold of Cassius.
He tried to fight them off and keep his hold on me, but again there were too many. If Athan weren’t such a coward, he would match Cassius in a fair fight. But he knew that he could never win against his half-brother. Cassius was a much better warrior than Athan would ever be. I screamed as they pulled Cassius away from my arms and a hand grabbed me by the hair—Dregon.
I turned around and spat in his face, and Dregon raised a hand to strike me across the cheekbone. I heard Cassius growl and struggle against the vampires who held him. When I looked up, I caught sight of Quinn’s remorseful eyes staring at me. Dregon was ready to strike me again, but Athan intervened by grabbing hold of Dregon’s wrist.
“You know,” Athan said to me as he pulled my chin up to look at his face. “I am now obsessed with keeping you, Mara. Not because I particularly like you by any means, but because of your value to my brother. He has made you my most-coveted possession now.”
Athan looked over at Cassius with a taunting smile, and the rage in Cassius’s eyes was so intense that the blackness of his stare looked as if it could swallow Athan whole.
“Take him,” Athan waved to his guards as they dragged Cassius from the room. He craned his neck around to look at me as he was pulled away. “Don’t worry. You’re going to get to see your pathetic lover very soon.”
