by Sarra Cannon
“Dammit, Franki, he wanted you to follow him. He was playing with you,” he said. “And you just walked right into it. He could have killed you. What if he had taken you out of here? I might not have been able to find you.”
“I didn’t say it was the smartest thing I ever did, but he really got to me.”
“You should have come to find me before you went after him,” he said.
“Look, I know you said you want to protect me, but you can’t possibly keep an eye on me at all times,” I said. “And just because I agreed to work here does not mean you own me. I am still free to make my own decisions, even if they’re stupid ones. Even if I end up dead, it’s my life to lose.”
I was yelling at him. Here he was sticking his neck out for me and I was yelling at him. The guy got under my skin in more ways than one.
Anger flashed in his eyes and he moved so close, my back pushed against the wall. He placed his palm flat against the wall beside my head, leaning in.
“Why are you so determined to drive me insane?”
“Why do you care what happens to me?” I asked, breathless.
“I don’t know,” he said, his eyes locked on mine. “I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind since the moment I first saw you standing there at the bar.”
My heart pounded in my throat and I couldn’t help myself. I looked down at his lips again, just inches from my own. There was no denying how much I wanted him.
“I don’t let women get to me like this,” he said, his voice low and rough. “You’ve got me all mixed up.”
His hand traveled slowly down the wall, grazing the edge of my shoulder and arm. I could feel the heat of him even through the jacket.
I never wanted a piece of clothing gone so badly in my life.
“I want to protect you, Franki,” he said, softening. His hand moved to my hip. “You’re making that incredibly difficult.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
His eyes were as black as night, the silver running through them like stars, flashing in the near-darkness.
“I’m in a very dangerous position here,” he said. “I run this place with a strict code. When a woman comes to work for me, I vow to protect her from the dangers she may encounter here. In order to do that for the entire staff, I have to keep my head on straight. I have to watch out for them at all times, the best I can. I can’t get involved on a more... intimate level.”
I shivered at his words.
“Then why are you standing so close to me?” I said.
The air in the space between us was electric. I wanted so badly to touch him. I wanted to wrap my arms around him and close that small space that kept us apart.
“Because I can’t seem to help myself around you,” he said, his eyes darting across my face, studying every inch of my expression.
My body ached for him. How could such little space feel like a cavern between us?
My mouth went dry while other parts of me grew wet with need.
Just touch me, I begged with my eyes. I thought I might die of anticipation.
“Tell me I’m wrong to feel this way,” he said. “Tell me you’re only here because I forced you to be here and that if you could, you would walk right out that door and go back to your normal life before you ever found this place.”
“I can’t,” I said. Whatever I thought I wanted before now, I knew I couldn’t walk away. Not just because of the danger or because I wanted the truth about my mother. I was here because of him.
“You have no idea how much I wish you would,” he said.
His words burned me. How could someone want me to stay and want me to go at the same time? How could he stand here teasing me like this? Telling me he wanted me, too, but that I could never have him?
“Then tell me to go,” I said. “Or tell me you’ll never let anything happen between us and that I’m stupid for wanting you. But don’t stand here like this and tell me you won’t kiss me because of your own pride or some arbitrary rule you set for yourself long before I walked through your door.”
I don’t know where I’d found the courage to tell him what I was feeling, but the words poured out of me.
“I don’t like to play games,” I said. “So, if you’re going to kiss me, you’d better do it before I go insane from being this close to something I can never have.”
He didn’t move at first. His breaths were fast and shallow, and his eyes darkened.
Then, with a swiftness that made me gasp, he moved the edge of the jacket aside and grabbed my hip with his hand, pulling my body toward his.
His other hand moved up behind my neck, both gentle and strong at the same time. A low moan rumbled in his chest as he dipped his head toward me, his kiss finally landing on my lips with a fire that ignited an even deeper need inside me.
My hands circled his neck and I lifted onto my toes, wanting to be closer, always closer. My fingers slid up the back of his neck, gripping his hair as his fingers dug into my hip.
Our lips and tongues met and parted, joining then drawing back, opening and closing in rhythm as we explored our first taste of each other.
His thumb moved back and forth against the bare skin at my waist as his hips pushed against mine.
Passion erupted beneath the surface of my skin, his every touch, every kiss, setting off a wave of fireworks deep inside me. God, I never knew a man could make me feel this way. I never wanted it to end.
All I wanted was more.
A deep moan escaped Rend’s lips and he pulled himself away from my kiss, pressing his forehead against mine, his hands still holding me with passionate force.
“I shouldn’t be doing this,” he said between breaths. “I’m supposed to be protecting you, not putting you in greater danger.”
“How does kissing me put me in danger?” I asked, moving one hand slowly down his neck and around to his face.
I wanted to touch every part of him until he was mine by memory.
“You have no idea what kind of man I really am,” he said. “If you knew, you wouldn’t open yourself up to me like this.”
I thought about what the other girls in the dressing room had said. How he was known for tearing men in two with his bare hands. Maybe I should have been afraid of him, but fear was the last thing on my mind.
He moved his hands from my body, and I nearly whimpered at the loss of his touch. He shook his head, then slipped out of my grasp, turning from me.
That’s when we both noticed the orb of light. It’s dim amber glow had been amplified to a bright sunlight.
“How did you do that?” he asked.
I laughed. “Me? I didn’t do anything.”
“I could never create a light this bright,” he said. He moved his hand under the orb and moved it toward us.
I giggled, watching the light. Had I made it brighter?
But then my eyes opened to the space around us. My heart nearly stopped as I looked down the long hallway, now lit up from the bright glow. I fell back against the wall in shock, covering my mouth with my hand.
“What is it?” he asked.
I shook my head in disbelief. This wasn’t possible.
“Franki? What’s wrong?”
“I dreamed of this place,” I said. “A hall of doorways.”
I walked forward, studying the door closest to us. It was made of a sturdy wood, just like in my dream. On the surface of the wood, there was a carving of a serpent, its fangs outstretched as if it were about to strike. I ran my hand across the carving to make sure I wasn’t imagining this place.
Rend touched my hand, but I pulled away. I needed to see if it was here.
I started down the hallway, my eyes searching each image for the one that had haunted me.
Rend followed as I practically tore down the hallway.
“Franki wait, there’s a reason this place is off-limits to staff,” he said. “Don’t open any of these doors.”
“I just need to see,” I said, not slowing down.
A black crow, its wings stretched wide.
I reached forward and ran my hand along the carving, feeling each groove in the wood. It was really here.
Rend grabbed my hand and cupped my chin with his other, turning my head toward him. He looked almost pale in the bright light. “Franki, I need to know why you were searching for this particular door,” he said. “This is important.”
I shook my head, feeling like I was still stuck inside that dream. “I don’t know,” I said. “In my dream, I was running down this hallway, chasing the sound of wings fluttering in the distance. When I reached this door, the one with the crow on it, I tried to go inside. That’s when I woke up.”
He swallowed and gripped my hand tighter.
“What’s your name?” he asked, for the first time a hint of fear in his voice. It scared me to hear it there. “Your full name?”
I studied his face, not understanding his question. Why did my name matter? Frankie was a nickname my mother had given me when I was very young. I hated for anyone to call me by my full name, so I never gave it out unless I had to.
I was scared to know why he suddenly felt that it was important.
“Mary Francis,” I said, finally.
Rend paled and dropped my hand. He looked from me to the door, then brought a fist to his mouth and closed his eyes.
“How did I not see this before?”
He seemed to be talking to himself more than he was to me.
“See what?”
“Your power. Your blue eyes and black hair,” he said. “No wonder Fallon said I was risking everything by protecting you.”
The tension in his face and jaw frightened me. Was he mad at me? “I still don’t understand,” I said. “What does my real name have to do with this?”
He turned to look at me, anger and frustration shining in his eyes. “Your first name is Mary, like all the women in your family.”
I took a step back, suddenly cold with fear.
“How do you know that?”
I knew my mother’s name was Mary Beth, but she had never told me about the other women in her family.
“Because I know your family,” he said. “Everyone knows about your family.”
I shook my head, my breath shallow. What was he saying?
“You’re a crow witch,” he said. He’d been avoiding my eyes, but now he looked up and stared right through to my very soul. “Fallon was right. I can’t protect you.”
No Logical Way
My knees weakened and I nearly fell.
Rend caught me, his arms encircling my waist as he pulled me against his body. The orb of light hovering near us dimmed to its original amber glow, and I realized he’d been right.
It was me who had been making the light brighter. I had no idea how, but as soon as the joy of kissing him dimmed, so did the light.
“I need to get you out of here,” he said.
“I need to know what’s behind that door,” I said, trying to push against him. All my strength was gone, though, siphoned out of me with his words.
I hadn’t taken the dark man’s threats seriously because I believed Rend would protect me. Everyone had said so. I’d seen the fear in the eyes of those young vampires when he’d told them I belonged to him.
But the dark man—Fallon—had not been scared of him.
“You can’t go through there,” he said. “It would be the worst, most dangerous thing you could do right now. I need to get you to a place where no one can touch you or find you for a while.”
I gathered what little strength I could find inside and pushed against him. I leaned against the door for support. “I’m not going anywhere with you until you tell me what you know about my family.”
His eyes widened and he looked both ways down the hall. “There’s way too much to try to explain it here.”
“Give me the short version,” I said, my jaw tensed. My breath came fast. He had to know he couldn’t just drop a bomb like that and expect me to let it go until another time.
He let out a frustrated sigh. “Many witches have spirit animals or spirit objects, often tied to their family line. Some witches are so strongly tied to their spirit animals that they can actually shape-shift into them,” he explained. “You come from a very long line of witches who are able to shift into crows.”
I swallowed, my throat thick with anticipation. How long had I wanted to know about my family?
“You are the descendant of a particularly powerful witch called the Mother Crow,” he said. “She is well over one hundred years old and she is one of the most truly evil creatures I have ever had the misfortune to come across, which is really saying something after what I’ve been through.”
“Evil?” I shook my head. Not exactly what every girl wants to hear about her grandmother. Or great-grandmother. At over a hundred years old, what was she to me, exactly?
“Truly wicked, like the man Fallon works for,” he said.
My hands began to tremble. I gathered them into fists and pressed them against my legs, willing them to stop. “And who is that?”
“We call him the Devil,” Rend said. “And he lives up to that name. Getting his hands on one of Mother Crow’s girls would mean...”
His voice trailed off and he looked away, his eyebrows pinched together with worry.
“What could he possibly want with me?” I asked.
“Your blood is valuable, Franki,” he said. “Demons who come to this world cannot cast magic without being detected. When a demon casts, their magic pulls energy from every living thing around them. Trees, grass, even humans. It makes demons vulnerable and very easy to track. That’s why vampires exist. I know it’s difficult to understand, but when a demon consumes the blood of a powerful witch, that power lives inside them. The demon can draw from that power like a battery, allowing them to cast without damaging the world around them.”
I shook my head. This was too much. My brain couldn’t make sense of it all. The hallway spun and I closed my eyes and pressed my back against the door.
“I promise I’ll tell you everything after you’re safe, but for now, you have to trust me,” he said. “There is a war going on around us all the time and the most valuable weapon is the power that lives inside of you.”
“My blood,” I said with a whisper.
“Your blood. Your heritage. Your abilities. All of it,” he said. “Different factions desire it for different reasons, but all you need to understand right now is that you’re in danger. Until I figure this out, I need to make sure you’re safe.”
I wanted to protest and run away. I wanted to go home and try to forget any of this existed. But I knew I was in too deep now to walk away.
I opened my eyes and found Rend staring at me, concern written in every line on his gorgeous face. “Let me help you,” he said.
“I thought you said you couldn’t protect me,” I said.
“I can’t promise you anything right now,” he said, lifting his hand to my face and tracing a path down my cheek. “But I swear to you I’ll do everything I can. At least let me try.”
I took a step forward, but my knees buckled.
Rend caught me and lifted me off the ground, cradling me in his arms as he walked with hurried steps back toward the door to at the other end of the hall. The door that would take us back into the club.
Instead, though, he stopped in front of the one with the carving of the serpent.
He turned the handle and pushed the door open wide, then carried me inside.
Lights flickered on as he nudged the door shut with his foot.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked.
“This is my house,” he said. “It’s the only place I can think of that will be totally safe right now.”
“I don’t understand,” I said. “Is your house in the basement of the club?”
“Not exactly,” he said. He carried me
through a dark room and down a narrow set of stairs.
I don’t know what I expected to see down there. A basement apartment of some kind maybe. Some kind of man cave with a big screen TV and a twin bed where he slept on nights when he worked too late to go all the way home.
I definitely didn’t expect to see a real, full-size house down there. A mansion, really, with pristine dark wooden floors and paintings hanging in golden frames.
He carried me down another hallway and into a large bedroom with a gorgeous canopied bed carved from mahogany.
Very gently, he laid me down on top of a billowy white comforter. I sank into it as if he’d set me on top of a cloud.
I couldn’t make sense of it. There was no logical way the club was so big it could hold a hundred rooms like this behind all those doors. And how had he built a huge mansion like this underneath the streets of Chicago?
My mind was spinning with questions, but Rend didn’t give me a chance to ask them.
He sat on the edge of the bed, his eyes dark with worry.
“I can’t stay here with you right now,” he said. “I have some very important people in the club who will start asking questions if I’m gone too long. Besides, I need to make sure Fallon is gone and none of the Devil’s other minions are hanging around the club.”
“I can’t stay here by myself,” I said, sitting up.
He placed his hand on my leg. “Frankie, this isn’t a request,” he said sternly. “You’ll be safe here for now, I swear my life on it. Stay here. Rest if you can. I’ll be back as soon as I can get away.”
“You can’t leave me with all these unanswered questions,” I said, the panic growing inside my chest. “I’ll go mad.”
He ran his hand across my cheek. “I can’t even imagine how difficult this is right now for you, to be thrust into this world you never even knew existed,” he said. “But I cannot stay right now, and I can’t bring you back to the club with me. Until we know what their intentions are for you, it’s just too dangerous.”
“If you can’t protect me from the Devil,” I said, “then why are you still trying?”
He avoided my eyes. “I have to get back to the club before someone comes looking for me.”
He took my hand in his and brushed his lips against it like a whisper.
