“I’m glad you had a nice time,” I said.
“I sense a but,” Ashley replied.
“No but,” I said. “I’m really happy for you.” I was glad that she’d found something to cheer her up. The chances that a vampire would choose to turn Scott, or any of those people, seemed low. Scarlet Harbor was a big city, with a lot of better options. If I could recruit for team shifter, I wouldn’t have picked him. Ashley, absolutely. But not Scott.
“But…” She looked at me expectantly.
“You really should make time for classes,” I said.
“There it is.”
“Promise me you’ll go tomorrow,” I said.
“Sure,” Ashley said. “I’m back, aren’t I? We’re going to make it a regular weekend thing. Classes during the week, promise.” Swapping stories on the weekends, without her obsession destroying her grades, was definitely for the best. If she failed any more classes, her parents were cutting her off. I didn’t want to lose my roommate.
“Good.”
“And I see that look you’re giving me,” she said, wagging her finger back and forth in front of my nose. “You’re worried about me. Don’t be. I’m fine. I know I’m not a vampire, and I will totally look after myself.”
“I know you will,” I replied. And it was true. Ashley could take care of herself. If Scott stepped out of line, there was no question in my mind that she could kick his ass. And if they were busy inside telling tall tales, she wasn’t out looking for real vampires.
“And Scott's still working out the details of making vampires. So you don't have to worry about me getting turned by him any time soon,” Ashley said.
“That's good,” I said.
“Those guys turn out weird,” she said. Ashley held open the heavy metal door to our building. “Your turn,” she said. “Give me all the juicy details as to why you keep looking off into the night.”
“What?” I asked, and started up the stairs. “I was paying attention to you the whole time.”
“I know,” she replied, and kept pace. “But you’re distracted, not spacing.”
“You’re right,” I admitted. “It’s the moon.”
Ashley looked out the tall windows to the dark, clouded sky.
“I can feel it,” I said. “And the need to shift has been gnawing at me for days.” It was true in part. I had felt the moon and the desire to be free as a wolf. But ever since I had met Bennet, it was desire for him that consumed me. I just couldn’t tell her that yet.
“Oh,” Ashley said. “You should totally go. There’s this dark section of the park by the edge of the city. It’s like two miles that way. You could do your wolf thing there and no one would know. Want me to take you?”
“Thanks,” I said. “No. I’m good on my own. But I’m definitely going to check it out. I’m long overdue. Why didn’t you tell me about the park sooner?”
Ashley shrugged. “You never asked.”
I dropped my books in her hand and turned to go. “I’m glad you’re home,” I said.
“Yeah,” Ashley replied, voice soft as she looked down at the pile, “me too.” Her shoulders hung, and she frowned. I hated to disappoint her.
But Ashley and I would have more time to talk soon, after I figured all of this out. And she had classwork to catch up on. I needed this. It felt like it had been an eternity since I had really run, since I had felt wind against my muzzle and soil beneath my paws. I heard the heavy metal door click shut behind me, as I raced into the dark, toward freedom. And toward Bennet.
Chapter Twelve
Hannah
Decaying garbage, body odor, stale exhaust fumes—it was all still there. But above the stink of city life was the crisp, earthy scent of pine needles. There was the soft hint of dew on freshly cut grass. When I closed my eyes, it felt like home.
A fit woman with her hair pulled high upon her head jogged along the paved path that circled a well-lit clearing. The golden retriever by her side kept pace. A small man with a thick, grey beard and puffy coat laid down on a metal bench beneath a tall oak tree. I’d found the park, though not the solitude I was searching for.
Three pathways led from the park along sidewalks, one toward the harbor, one toward the heart of the city. But it was the other trail that caught my interest, the one that led away from traffic, office buildings, and artificial light.
The blacktop ended, but the walkway continued. Instead of manicured grass, there were weeds. Vines encased the trunks of tall pines. Saplings and brush bordered the winding dirt path on both sides. Soon after, the passage widened into a meadow.
The overgrown grass was undisturbed, waist-high at its tallest. I slipped off my shoes and relished the cool, soft dirt beneath my feet. The tops of the tall grass shoots felt like feathers on my open palms. Squirrels and birds rustled in the treetops, but I was otherwise alone.
I knew I should have taken the opportunity to do exactly as I had said I would. I should have shifted and experienced the freedom of this private place in my most natural form. The yellow-eyed monsters were still wandering the night. Walter was still out there. I didn’t know how long I could be alone in the dark meadow before the next attack. But I found myself feeling the same pull I had every night, the same desire I had nearly indulged before Ashley had found me.
And before I could talk myself out of it, his name was on my lips. “Bennet.”
When I opened my eyes, he was there, nearly within reach.
Clouds drifted away from the moon, lighting the world and revealing his face. Short, dark hair covered his head, and traveled down his square jaw, highlighting the strength of his bone structure. His mouth was hard, masculine, just like everything about him was. The familiar intensity was present in those dark, umber irises.
Butterflies flipped in my stomach. Excitement mingled with nervousness, making me feel like a giddy teenager. But for once, I didn’t care.
My memory of him was dull compared to reality, though it had hardly been any time at all since I had seen him last. A matter of days that had felt like an eternity. Taller than he had been in my dreams, his size was intimidating. Shifter men were big, but Bennet’s frame was leaner, more athletic than stocky. And he carried a sense of danger that drew me. The thin fabric of his button-down shirt hugged his chest and abs as he moved, revealing his flat, chiseled shape. Desire tingled through me as I remembered the feel of those muscles beneath my fingertips. But that was only a dream. Reality had to be even better.
“Can your hearing really be that sharp, or are you stalking me?” I asked, breaking the silence between us.
“Shadowing,” he replied, without any sign of emotion. His long, black jacket blew in the breeze, just like the tall grass, while his body remained as still as stone.
“I think that’s just a vampire word for stalking,” I said.
“It’s my duty,” he replied. “If you wish for more distance-”
“I was just teasing,” I blurted, regretting my choice in conversation.
“What can I do for you?” Bennet asked. “Hannah.” My name rolled off of his tongue as if he savored it, and I felt a blush creep over my cheeks.
“I haven’t been attacked, or seen anything undead lurking around,” I said. “Have you?”
“You mean the thrall?” he asked.
“I guess,” I replied. “Or that top hat guy, Walter. There’s been nothing since that night in my apartment. Have you been keeping them away, or have they lost interest in me?”
“Neither,” Bennet said. “It’s likely my presence that has deterred the thrall from returning. And Walter, well, he got what he wanted.”
“He’s just the dine-and-dash type?” I asked, raising my brow as I waited for Bennet’s response. Every word spoken was a spark, a nervousness of something new, unexplored, something thrilling, yet fragile.
His lips turned up just a hint on the left, making him all the more sexy.
“And what if you get called on some other mission?” I asked. “How
am I supposed to defend myself against a threat I can’t hear or smell coming?”
“It’s a sense for me,” Bennet replied, stepping closer. The tall grass gave way to his movement, as moonlight sparkled on his deep, dark eyes. “I can feel them.”
“I can’t,” I said. “Shifters rely on scent. Yellow-eyes stunk. Vampires don't.”
Only a foot away, I fought the urge to reach out and touch the rough stubble on his jaw. His eyes were locked on mine; and I couldn’t look away. I didn’t want to. Then he stepped to my side, and I released a deep breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. His voice came from behind me, and I turned my head toward the sound. Yet he was already gone.
“But somehow you saw me that night in the alley,” Bennet said.
I spun around and found him back where he had started, yet so much closer. His lips brushed my ear, and a shot of electricity moved through me. “How did you do that?” he whispered.
I took a step back, and again he was gone.
“How do you do that?” I asked.
“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,” Bennet whispered, into my other ear. I spun on my heel looking for him, but he was halfway across the field. In this game, Bennet held the advantage. He was too fast for me, but it didn’t matter. Every moment together was filled with excitement, both fleeting and precious. I smiled.
“You’re on.”
I forced my eyes to remain open—a single blink and I’d lose him. In a blur of black, he moved. A gentle rustle of tall grass and I had him. I ran toward the sound, and nearly grabbed him. But the hand I reached with came back empty. He’d moved again. I dropped my shoes and listened. But there was nothing.
It was too quiet. I tuned out the sounds of the distant world and searched for the slightest sign that he was close by. There was nothing. Until I got this feeling, though I couldn’t explain why. I spun and moved forward, purely out of instinct.
My palms hit first. But the full impact was across my entire body, smack into Bennet. The fabric of his charcoal, button-down shirt was silky-soft, though the hard chest beneath didn’t give an inch. So close, I could feel what was missing. There was no gentle rise and fall of his chest. And I’d been mistaken when I thought he carried no scent—there was the gentle hint of soap to his clothes, and the same on his skin. Though faint, it was pleasant, and suited him. How had I not noticed before?
His palm slid to the small of my back, holding me in place. I breathed slowly, taking in every detail. His pecs were firm against my breasts, his cock hard against my hip. He was cool to my touch, pleasantly so. Not cold like I'd thought before, when he'd grabbed me outside of my dorm. My gaze slid up to his face, my fingers tracing his neck, his chin, the rough hair of his beard. The dark brown of his irises was ignited in fiery red.
“How did you-” I felt the muscles in his jaw move as my hands brushed over his cheeks. He held me close and touched my hair, never breaking eye contact.
“I don’t know,” I said, and dropped my hands, realizing how close I’d let myself get to him. My body screamed for him, to tear into his shirt and feel his skin, to rip open his pants and free his cock. I’d dreamed of this every night, of being this close and taking more, taking him. Or him taking me.
But I had to know, what would that mean? I knew nothing of his nature, of how exactly a vampire was turned. I didn’t know if I would become like him, and lose the life that I knew.
I pulled back, leaving my skin cold and desperate without his touch. I wanted to ask about it, about what would happen if I did exactly what I wanted to him. But instead, I asked, “How do you move like that?”
“I run,” he replied. A simple answer that told me practically nothing. Though I couldn’t say I’d given him much more. I couldn’t explain how I had known where he was. I just did.
Images from my dreams filled my head, of Bennet without clothes, pinning me to that fence. I imagined the feel of him between my thighs, pressing hard inside of me. I needed more distance between us, and took another step back.
“You said it was more than a bite,” I said. “Tell me how vampires exist. Are some born or only made?”
The fire in his eyes began to melt away, the deep brown returning to the surface. Then his lips parted and it was like I could feel him, though he was six feet away. My lips tingled in anticipation. “Very well, Hannah,” Bennet said, his voice a deep caress. “If that’s what you wish.”
There were a lot of things I wished, none of which included talking. I nearly let all self-control go when it came to Bennet, which was nothing like me. And I needed to hold tight to the little sanity I had left. “Tell me your story,” I said. “Tell me what it means to be a vampire.”
Chapter Thirteen
Bennet
August 24, 1883
Abingtonia Pennsylvania
Time was impossible to gauge in the bowels of the sweltering mine shaft. There was only before the lunch whistle and after. The days rolled from one to the next like an endless night of lifting the pickaxe and watching it fall. If not for the good company, I’d have likened my existence to that of the damned. But I hadn’t been the first to connect coal mining to hell, nor the foreman to the devil.
“Not long left,” Harry said, stopping the cart by my post. A thick layer of black grime stained his cheeks and the top of his nose, just like it did to the rest of us. But somehow, Harry always managed a smile.
“Getting dark out there?” I asked, gesturing up the pathway to freedom.
“Sure is,” the blond boy replied. He couldn’t have been any older than twelve or thirteen, but he worked as hard as any grown man. I admired that, and hoped the years to come wouldn’t rob Harry of his optimism.
“Good,” I replied, and scooped a pile of coal into the cart with my shovel.
“Dad says we’re finally gonna get caught up on the back rent,” Harry said.
“That’s great, Harry,” I replied. “Keeps like this, I might even-”
As if the cavern hungered to be fed, a deep growl echoed through the shaft. The earth trembled beneath my boots. Dirt tumbled down from the tunnel ceiling, dusting the tops of our shoulders and hardhats.
Harry’s eyes grew wide, then flicked toward the depths of the cave. “My dad-”
I clasped the boy’s shoulder and squeezed. He turned his attention back to me. “Run,” I said, pointing up the way the others ran, to safety, to life, to another day that he could smile.
“But”-
“I’ll go,” I said. “You run.”
Tears streamed down his cheeks, washing the grime away as they fell. But he did as he was told. And I did as I had promised.
The ground quaked beneath my feet as I raced down through the depths of the mine that would soon entomb us all. A cloud of chalky dirt filled both my lungs and the air around me, slowly suffocating me. Tightness mingled with pain in my chest, as my heart threatened to beat its way out. The hacking and coughing of ten men was replaced by shuffling and screams. Then silence.
I had expected to find the end of the tunnel collapsed, its workers crushed and beyond saving. The truth was far worse.
Bodies lain across the dirt floor. Glimmers of lantern light reflected off of crimson puddles. Rocks and dirt had fallen, but that wasn’t the cause of their anguish. It was the work of a single man, dressed in dated finery, a man with no business in a mine. With fiery red eyes, the demon crouched over Harry’s father. It was too late. I was too late.
My mind raced nearly as fast as my heart, though my body remained paralyzed, in shock by the carnage. How did that creature get in here? Had he caused the collapse? What had he done? What was I supposed to do now?
My eyes were drawn down by the pain in my palm. When I looked, I found my fist clenched around the tiny gold cross my mother had given me. In instinct I’d held to the necklace, though faith had left me long ago.
“I banish you, demon,” I said. My voice was alien in my ears, authoritative, though I felt no calm or strength within. “
Go back to hell and leave this place.”
“Plucky,” the creature said, in a voice disguised as human. His blood-stained lips turned up in a wicked grin, revealing fangs as his face contorted. “You know, Tyr, I kind of like this one.”
Crack. Like the snapping of a bone, the support beam splintered. The earth above crashed to the floor. Heat overcame me, as if I was engulfed in flames. Crushing pressure. I gasped for breath, for life. Black.
Chapter Fourteen
Hannah
“And then what happened? Did you make it out? Did you catch vampire hepatitis, or whatever causes it, and crawl to the surface? Who was it down there with-”
His finger gently sealed my lips.
“Hannah,” Bennet said, “I have to go.”
“You can’t just leave me hanging like that. I have to know what happened next.” I felt like a child begging to hear the next page of the story when my father tucked me in for bed.
“I have to go,” Bennet said. “The sun’s coming up.”
I looked up to the sky, and noticed the gentle glow of early morning. Had we really spent all night out here? “So that means you can’t be out in sunlight,” I said. It was only kind of a question. He had suggested before that I was safe during the day.
“That’s right.” He turned, and I grabbed his arm, not wanting the night to end. The sleeve of his leather jacket was soft and cold in my palm.
“Come back tonight,” I said.
Bennet looked over his shoulder, and his warm brown eyes said yes before his lips moved to answer.
“I’ll be here at sundown,” I said.
“Me too,” Bennet replied. I released his arm; then he was gone.
How did he do that? Shifters were fast, but Bennet was supersonic. For the first time I understood Ashley’s obsession—the changing eyes, the mystique, the strength, the dark and dangerous vibe. There was something alluring about power beyond imagination. And with every encounter, I was left craving more.
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