Devil's Cut: Immortal Keeper Vampire Paranormal Romance Series

by L. A. McGinnis

  “When was this made?”

  “When do you think?” he asked, the overhead light glinting in eyes that seemed to be laughing at me. For a second, I got caught on how his dark hair complemented his pale skin, then I shook myself.

  “It can’t be what I think it is.” When he did nothing but watch me over the rim of his glass, I guessed the impossible: “This is Ambrose’s whisky.”

  “The woman knows her whisky,” he said, his face frustratingly unreadable as he lifted his glass to me. “Unfortunately, I only have this bottle left. I decided it was time I open it. Sláinte.”

  This time, when we clinked our glasses together, we both smiled.

  “There is one more thing to take care of before we leave for Scotland,” Forge said, setting down his glass and leaning forward, elbows on his knees. “Your face is like an open book. Other vampires won’t have to read your mind, not when they can read your face so easily. We have to work on your poker face. If you can master that, then you’ll accompany me. Otherwise…”

  My heart sank.

  When, exactly, I’d decided that I really, really wanted to go to Scotland, I didn’t know, but I wanted it desperately. I wanted to be part of this Assembly, whatever it was. I wanted to stretch my wings, see what I could do. “All right. But what does it matter what anyone else thinks about me?” From everything I knew about vampires—which, granted, was mostly from reading steamy romances—vampires hardly even cared about humans. In fact, I was banking on the fact they’d just ignore me completely.

  “They’ll be curious about you, at the very least. While it’s not unusual for clan members to bring a companion to Assembly, they will be suspicious of you. I would tell them you’re my lawyer…” A corner of his mouth twitched back up. “But we don’t use lawyers.” His humor faded away, leaving that serious, inscrutable look on his face. “Assembly lasts for one hour. During that time, your face must be as impenetrable as your mind.” He sighed. “Right now, you’re worried you won’t be going to Scotland at all. If I can read you that easily, then my brethren can as well.”

  “Okay, well… I’ve never played poker, and I’m used to speaking my mind. What do you suggest?” I’d never had to control my emotions, for God’s sake, and given my admittedly bad temper sometimes got away from me, this newest task might prove more difficult than building my shield.

  Forge pointed to a mirror hanging between two bookcases. “Face the mirror and watch how your face changes. Then figure out how to create a mask that no one else can read.”

  I faced the mirror, and the only thing I noticed was how tangled my hair was. I wished I’d taken a few minutes to spruce myself up before I arrived. But no matter; Forge didn’t care about anything except that I could see into other vampires’ minds. “Okay, I’m ready.”

  “If you don’t go to Scotland, I expect the money to be paid back.”

  My mouth fell open before I had the sense to snap it shut. “But you said—”

  “Look at your face, Selena,” he said gently. “You can’t show them every last thing you’re thinking. Let’s try that again.”

  This time when he said it, I forced my face to remain smooth, settled into an expression of disinterest. It felt like my cheeks had rigor mortis, and my eye was beginning to twitch, but from the approval on Forge’s face, I knew I was on the right track.

  “That’s much better. You have five days to get that expression down perfectly, and we can leave. If you can’t convince me you’re ready, then you stay behind.”

  During the pause, I sensed he wanted to add something else to that, but instead, he said, “Practice as often as you can. Be here on Friday at seven o’clock. Not a minute before.” He seemed to put extra emphasis on that last word, but I was thinking about the money, and not keeping up my part of the deal.

  “And the loan?” I took the last drink of my whisky, still amazed that it was Ambrose’s.

  “We made a deal, Selena.” A smile quirked his mouth. “I know you won’t let me down.”

  10

  Friday, otherwise known as the day of my final test that I hoped I passed, came faster than I’d expected. True, I’d been practicing the face thing in the mirror, but nothing, it seemed, ever fully prepared me for Forge. Which was why I locked my shield into place before I even passed through the gates.

  I arrived an hour early, planning—for once—to ambush Forge before he ambushed me, and I was feeling pretty damn smug, positive I’d get the jump on him as I parked the car and crept silently up the front steps.

  “Now we’ll see who wins this round.”

  The house was darker than usual, only a few lights on, and I pushed the door open after my faint knock went unanswered. True, I wanted to sneak up on Forge, but it still didn’t seem like a good idea to just let myself inside a vampire’s house. Much like the first time I was here, the rooms were dark, but after a quick pass through the first floor, I didn’t find Forge anywhere.

  “He’s probably waiting until I get close, then he’ll jump out of the shadows and make me pee my pants,” I muttered, starting to get annoyed. I knew he was here somewhere, because the hair on my nape prickled occasionally, as if someone was watching me.

  If Forge thought he could just pop out from some dark corner and I’d be able to keep a straight face, he was wrong, because the longer I wandered through the empty house, the more freaked out I became. Seriously, who did this sort of thing? It was almost cruel.

  By the time I’d made my second pass with no sign of him, I figured Forge could just find me. I headed to the library, or to where I remembered the library being. Because my sense of direction is shit, I ended up back at the greenhouse that wasn’t really a greenhouse at all, more of an empty snow globe. Tonight, the moon was rising just over the top of the tree line.

  The slight prickling at the base of my neck returned, and was the only thing that prepared me for what came next. About the time I realized I wasn’t alone, a vampire forced their way inside my head. For what it was worth, my shield stayed in place as the squirmy feeling wiggled through my brain. I slapped a hand to my forehead to stave off the no-holds-barred aggression behind the incursion.

  “Jeez, Forge. Enough already. That hurts.”

  Thankfully, I remembered to school my face into something other than a grimace of pain before I turned around. If Forge saw anything on my face except a blank mask, I’d never make it to Scotland.

  The vampire filling up the doorway was indistinct, a misty form that was more a collection of shadows than an actual physical being. A low, malevolent chuckle issued from the center of the dark shadow, which was most definitely not Forge.

  As the trespasser wormed his way further inside my head, I fought back, bracing my defenses like they were my only hope of survival. In response, the pain intensified, knives raking over my skull until I was sure that my brain was being eaten away by little white squiggly things. While my face remained perfectly blank, I was very much afraid, and fear instilled me with enough strength to keep this intruder out.

  “Who the hell are you?” I managed, trying to mask the tremor in my words.

  “Look at the little human. You’re able to keep me out of your head. Has Bastian been giving you lessons?” Just the tone of his voice told me I was in terrible trouble. It was clinically curious, but at the same time, completely devoid of humanity. “Do you belong to him, girl?”

  I don’t belong to anyone, you creeper, I wanted to say, but the words got jumbled up in my throat by terror.

  I blinked, and he’d cut the distance between us in half. While I didn’t want him this close to me, I got a better look at him. His coloring was light, and not just his smooth, pallid skin. Where Forge’s darkness contrasted with his skin, this vampire was completely devoid of color; his hair was almost white, while his nearly colorless eyes seemed to swallow the moonlight.

  “Where is Forge?” I demanded, realizing too late that if this creature was inside the house, with no Forge in sight, I was in some
serious shit. “Again, who the hell are you and why are you in this house?”

  “Disrespectful little human,” the vampire growled, gliding further into the greenhouse, as if he didn’t have actual feet. Totally unnerving effect, and one I hoped to never experience again. Between scrambling to shield my precious brain from his painful incursion, and my entire body freezing in fear, I was pretty sure these would be my final breaths.

  He’d almost reached me when Forge’s deep voice cut through the silence. “Do not take another step, Dobson.”

  “Forge. Thank God,” I muttered, half pissed at him. Of course this was a setup—I should have expected him to pull something like this. What I hated even more was the impulse to throw my arms around him in gratitude. “For your information, this was a really stupid test.”

  “This isn’t part of the test, Selena. Do not move a muscle.”

  Indeed, neither me nor the strange vampire had moved since Forge appeared. Me, because I’d been pretty certain I was about to become dinner. Watching the stranger’s face, it was apparent that was what he was thinking about, since he eyed me like a side of beef, licking his grey-tinted lips.

  “If you take one more step, Dobson, I’ll rip your head off and leave you outside for the sun to turn to dust.” Forge’s voice was thrumming with violence as he took a step closer to the two of us.

  Not a test. Forge’s warning finally registered. This vampire was not part of the test, and given how he was looking at me… A ripple of fear shivered through me, and Dobson refocused with preternatural intent.

  “You have two seconds to dematerialize. If you aren’t gone, we’ll do this the hard way,” Forge said, his voice booming in the enclosed space. Dobson hissed like he was an actual snake, which sounded so wrong coming out of his mouth.

  Right before my eyes, the person—vampire—disappeared into thin air, leaving me alone with Forge, my mouth hanging open once again. I snapped it shut, pissed that I’d probably blown my chance at Scotland.

  I was so busy looking at the empty spot where Dobson had disappeared that I barely felt Forge touch my shoulder. “Selena, are you all right?” he asked, and for once, I could read his face—it was taut with anger, but lurking in his eyes was something that looked like concern. When his hand closed around my arm, I realized how badly I was shaking.

  “I… Yeah, I think so. I’m not…” Shit, now that the threat was gone, my body was going through some kind of adrenaline-fueled reaction, as my stomach cramped up and the shaking grew steadily worse.

  “Did he get into my head?” I demanded angrily as Forge led me from the greenhouse. “Can you tell?” I was in a full-on panic, just thinking how that…thing…had access to my thoughts. “Why was there someone else here tonight? Is he a friend of yours?”

  It occurred to me that I had no right to question Forge’s friend circle, but damn, it was beginning to dawn on me just how close a call this had been. What would have happened if Dobson had reached me? I had no doubt I’d be lying on that cold floor, my throat ripped out.

  “No, not a friend. Not even close.” Forge paused, looking into my eyes intently, and I felt him run invisible fingers over my barrier, still locked firmly into place. “No, your shield appears to be intact.”

  Forge’s voice held the same relief that I felt down to my bones. Thank God. The thought of someone like that inside my head—and the damage they could do—turned my stomach.

  “If he’s not a friend, then why was he here?”

  “Summoning me to Assembly.” Forge didn’t sound at all happy about it—not the meeting, nor the person who was just here. “You’re early. I gave you a specific time to arrive, and I expected you to honor that.” From his sharp, clipped tone, I realized he was angry, really angry, and that threw me, since emotion was such a departure from his usual unflappable demeanor.

  “I am early. I just thought…”

  “You didn’t think. You were so focused on beating me at my own game that you disregarded the rules.” His dark eyes turned glacially cold, his voice like a knife as he continued, “None of this is a game, Selena, no matter how much you pretend otherwise.”

  “I’ve never pretended this is a game. It’s you who changed the rules, by setting moving targets for me to hit. Not that I haven’t hit every single one,” I added, just so he didn’t forget I’d successfully kept him out of my head.

  “Have you really?” he drawled, as if he sensed—or heard—my self-satisfied jab. In an instant I was stripped bare as he tore my shield away in one fell swoop. The pain from being suddenly exposed felt like a bright light stabbing straight into my eye.

  “That’s what Dobson could have done to you. Left you exposed and vulnerable. He could have made you slit your own throat, or walk off a roof. He could have killed you before you even knew he’d moved, or drunk you until there wasn’t a drop of blood left in your body. That’s how much danger you were in, just because you couldn’t follow the rules.”

  “You asshole,” I hissed, my hands balling into fists. He’d started this, he was the one dictating the rules, setting my next hurdle to jump. He was the judge I had to please in order to even make it to Assembly. Whatever in the hell that was.

  As his face tightened up, I knew I’d gone too far.

  “No, I’m not an asshole, Selena. I’m much, much worse than that. And it’s about time you found out just how much more.”

  His eyes grew so dark that even the overhead lights didn’t penetrate his rage. The planes of his usually handsome face turned hard and unforgiving under the bulb’s faint glow. Shadows crawled beneath his skin, like bruises looking for a place to land, and my heart lurched as he glided toward me.

  I realized that over the past week, I’d lost whatever sense of caution I had first exercised around Forge. Somehow, I’d not only become comfortable with the notion of being around a vampire—I’d actually grown to look forward to our time together. Just like complacency was a bad idea in the distillery business, complacency around a two-hundred-year-old vampire could have deadly consequences.

  But there were two things Forge didn’t count on. I was a Langston, and Langstons didn’t back down. I was also a woman, and stubbornness ran in my blood. Add the two together and I turned into a brick wall that was every bit as impenetrable as he was.

  “I’m not afraid of you, Forge,” I said, with false courage. “You knew I was coming here tonight. An hour shouldn’t mean the difference between life and death.”

  He closed his eyes for a second, as if praying for patience—do vampires even pray?—and when he opened them, some of the ice had disappeared.

  “Rules are put into place for a reason. But obeying them seems to be an issue with you. If I hadn’t sensed your distress when I did, he could have really hurt you, Selena.”

  “And here I thought you didn’t care, Forge.”

  “Oh, I care. Especially now that I’ve been officially summoned by the clan. Now I don’t have a choice. Dobson saw you, so you’re going. Whether you’re ready. Or not.”

  “I’m ready. He didn’t get through, even though he tried.” A terrible thought occurred to me. “But you got right through. Have you always been able to bypass my shield? Have you been playing with me this whole time?”

  He seemed to debate it for a minute. “Just because I can doesn’t mean anyone else can. Your shield will keep all but the strongest vampires out. You face, however…”

  “Yeah, I know I need to work on that.”

  “Keep working on it. We leave tomorrow morning. I’ll have a car pick you up.”

  “A…car? Like a car with a driver?”

  “Ah, I’m impressed,” he said wryly. “Yes, Selena, my car with a driver will pick you up at nine o’clock sharp. Please be ready when he arrives—the flight leaves at ten.”

  “And you were going to tell me this…when?”

  “After you passed the final test, which, as we know, you failed miserably. However, we will have time to practice on the plane.”

>   “It’s going to look weird, us making faces at each other on a plane. What do you think the passengers will think?”

  “The only passengers on the plane will be you and I, Selena,” Forge said, ushering me toward the door, his tone completely sarcastic. “Do you really think I’d fly commercial?”

  11

  As it turned out, there were things I really liked about Forge’s life. Being ferried around in a big, fancy car was the bomb, but when we reached his plane, my mouth dropped open. I’d seen private jets like this on TV, but never in real life. I climbed the steps to the sleek plane, hoping we’d have really good snacks for the flight.

  Normally I hated flying, but excitement pooled in my stomach at the prospect of traveling on such a luxurious aircraft and landing in Scotland. I didn’t know where in Scotland we were going, but I was sure there would be a distillery within a mile of us, and I planned to visit one. Or more, if we had time.

  Forge was in one of the soft-looking leather seats, staring out the window. I didn’t think he’d even noticed I’d arrived, his dark coloring in stark contrast to the plane’s creamy interior.

  It hadn’t really hit me until then that I was flying to a strange country with a strange man to do something I’d never done before. I hadn’t exactly taken the time to plan any of this out. A tinge of hesitation rippled through me, and that was the moment Forge turned his head, and we locked eyes.

  There was a hint of concern in his, as well as pleasure when he saw me, his lips curving upward.

  That was it. I knew I was on the right track. Bastian Forge had been part of my family—and therefore, my world—for my entire life. Something in me relaxed as he smiled, and I felt no undercurrent of regret or doubt, only anticipation of what was to come. I might not know a lot about my ability, but I had Forge, and we were going to Scotland. For now, that was enough.