by Mia Archer
I suddenly had this strange feeling that if I could keep Diana busy for just a little longer then maybe the other girls would lose their nerve and chicken out. Maybe they’d crack and go get Ivy. Maybe Ivy would come down here on her own and take care of business.
I needed to delay. Was that the magic talking to me and telling me to do that? Maybe I would die while delaying, but maybe I could at least save Amber.
Maybe that was all wishful thinking. My brain making up stories because I knew I was about to die and a part of me refused to accept it. That was the more likely scenario considering the magic hadn’t wanted anything to do with me so far.
“I’m going to pay for it?” I said. “What? You’re going to kill me either way. Might as well let you know what a bitch you are on my way out. Does it make you feel like a big woman picking on poor defenseless humans?”
Her eyes flashed. Not with the literal glowing red creepy thing, but I did see my death in that stare. Her fangs came out and she leaned in closer.
It was strange. I’d always heard that when you were about to die, when you really knew your number was up, a sense of peace and acceptance washed over you. The brain flooded the body with all sorts of happy fun time chemicals that were the equivalent of raiding a drug store for all the good stuff and taking them all at the same time so the brain and body didn’t have to deal with its impending expiration.
I didn’t feel anything like that. No, I didn’t feel acceptance. I was angry. I didn’t feel at peace. I was pissed off. The only chemical that pumped through my body was pure adrenaline as I felt a surge of strength that I couldn’t quite explain as a dizzying righteous feeling that I wasn’t going to die here, and I definitely wasn’t going to die at the hands of this bitch, came over me.
And as that feeling hit me I felt something calming come over me. For the briefest of moments I was looking at those roiling clouds in my mind and they were set over the real world and I could see the real world for what it truly was.
A construct of the magic. Held together by the forces that bound the universe together. Forces witches could command.
Witches like me.
With a surge of power it filled me. I felt joy. I felt fury. I felt terror. I felt power.
The magic had come to me. Those clouds in the distance were always the magic there. Waiting just in the distance. Waiting for me to surrender to it, only I’d been so pigheaded that it took a literal life and death situation with a vampire trying to kill me for that surrender to come.
In my moment of need it was there. It surged through me and begged to be let loose. I realized it had always been there, had been trying to break through whenever I was threatened by one of these vampires, but I hadn’t recognized it for what it was.
I sure as shit recognized it now though, and it was at my command. Spells I could use on Diana flooded my mind, but now that the magic was there I realized I wanted to do something far more practical to teach her a lesson.
And so I did the only thing I could think of for a girl who was being assaulted by some bitch on a college campus. I pulled my leg back, gathered up all of my strength, and kneed Diana the wannabe vampire lord right in between the legs with a little extra oomph thanks to the forces that made the universe turn.
28
Ivy
I paced the front entrance and looked down at my watch.
“Where the hell are they? I know they’re useless, but the pledges should be up here for door duty,” I snapped.
“No one’s seen them for a few hours,” Tori said. “It’s like they completely disappeared.”
I had to pause to catch my breath. I reminded myself that Tori wasn’t the one who’d disappeared. She wasn’t a useless pledge who’d failed to justify her existence. She’d been my friend for years.
“Are you looking for the pledges?”
I wheeled around and Brooke actually took a step back under my gaze.
“You know where they are?” I asked.
“I was asking around after you seemed so upset earlier,” she said.
There was something about the way she looked at me that said I wasn’t going to like what she’d discovered. I sighed and rubbed at my temples. If I’d been mortal I would’ve had a hell of a headache threatening.
“What did you discover?” I asked.
“Diana said she was going to pull a job that would earn your respect or something,” she said with a shrug.
I closed my eyes and squeezed my hand into a fist.
“The party crowd will be here soon. Brooke, you’re running things for now,” I said.
“What are you doing?” Brooke asked.
“I have a feeling I know exactly where our pledges are, and I’m going to make them pay for shirking their duties.”
“But if you know where they are then why don’t you just have them come up and work the door?” Tori asked.
“Because there’s a good chance some of them might not be around long enough to do door duty. I’ll be down in the subbasement if anyone needs me.”
I didn’t mention to any of them that I was under orders to make sure the pledges lived. Then again there was a big difference between personally killing them and having them tragically die under mysterious circumstances.
I could only hope no one would look into it too much if tragic circumstances did take them.
I tore through the house and down to the basement level. It looked like the sort of basement you’d see in any frat house. Paddles lined the wall on one side with the letters of past pledge classes. There were pictures of pledge classes for the past five years on another side of the wall, though unlike other sorority houses we didn’t go back farther than the last five years.
Otherwise people might start looking a little closer at some of those pictures and realize the ladies of past classes looked very similar to women in current classes aside from the changing fashion. More similar than could be accounted for by legacy pledges.
I walked to the other side of the basement, weaving around beer pong tables that were set up in anticipation of the night’s fun.
I pulled on a torch sconce set into the wall and pulled down. No worry about a non-vampire finding this particular secret entrance since it took superhuman strength to work this lever.
There was a rumbling as the floor started to rotate beneath me. That was one ostentation I took from those fancy new black and white talkies.
I stepped off the rotating platform and it continued right on rotating behind me until it’d done a complete circle and the wall came to a halt behind me looking as though nothing had changed. A dank staircase with moisture sweating off the bricks led down in a spiral pattern that ended in the subbasement below.
I heard voices. The pledges were down there, their voices as clear as day to my hearing, but there were other voices down there as well. Voices that sounded strangled and choked.
I lost track of the next few moments. When I finally came to my senses I stood in the middle of the pledge group with several young college girls cowering in fear in front of them. One of them looked to be dead, and another was bleeding out rather quickly.
My eyes narrowed when I saw the other two girls. Lisa’s roommate, and right next to her was Lisa.
Diana was doubled over in front of her for some reason groaning in pain. I blinked. Not what I was expecting. I looked to Lisa, wondering if there was some explanation for this even as I knew the only possible explanation.
She locked eyes with me. Deep green eyes that stunned me. I took a step forward and opened my mouth at that imploring look before I could stop myself. It was as though she’d somehow compelled me, though of course that was impossible.
I shook my head to clear away that strange feeling. It was like the desire I sometimes felt for a night with a human, but stronger.
“What is going on down here?”
The room was silent.
“This human…” Diana started, but she didn’t get to finish.
“She kne
ed her!” Elle said.
I turned and glared at Elle and her smile disappeared. Still, I felt the corner of my mouth turning up ever so slightly. These pledges might fear me, but I wasn’t above a little humor. Hearing that Diana got nailed amused me.
Knowing it was Lisa who did it made it all the more amusing. She had spirit. I felt myself more drawn to her than ever, even as I knew that being drawn to her could be potentially fatal.
“Why did you do this Diana?” I asked.
She sneered. “Don’t act all big and bad Ivy. We both know you can’t…”
The fury took me. I blacked out as Diana flew across the room. The blackout and Diana flying might be related. The wall crunched as she hit the other side and slid to the ground, leaving a bloody trail behind her on the wall. The screams started a moment later as she looked down in horror and saw and felt what had happened to her body.
Good. Let her think about what she’d done. Let her realize there were consequences for her actions. She should have known that already.
I wheeled on the other pledges, consciously forcing myself to ignore Lisa. I didn’t want to look at her. Couldn’t look at her.
Staring into those eyes was too much. It would start me thinking things. Impossible things. Things that couldn’t happen because of what she was. What I was.
“What’s going on down here?”
I addressed Jessica. I figured she was the most likely to tell me what I wanted. She was the more easily intimidated of their group. Which was one reason why she was always willing to go along with whatever stupid plans Diana had come up with.
“W-w-we… We were… Trying to make up for our failure in the last hunt? Yeah, that’s it. We brought offerings for the sisters in the sorority!”
I shook my head. Diana might’ve told them that’s why they were bringing these girls to the house, but I knew the real reason. She’d wanted Lisa since the moment she first laid eyes on her. She knew taking her would infuriate me.
This was about Lisa. About me. My fist clenched and my fingers formed into claws. I was ready to tear Diana to pieces.
I looked around at the mess they’d left. At the corpse of the girl they’d killed. At Amber cowering, terrified, against the wall as though that would provide some protection.
I forced myself to look at Lisa, and I was surprised to see that she stood tall and met my gaze.
My skin crawled. If she was that bold after watching what I’d just done to Diana that meant she knew she didn’t fear me.
A disquieting thought.
I forced my attention back to the pledges.
“It looks less like you were looking for offerings for your sisters and more like you were down here having some fun of your own,” I said, biting off every word as my fangs extended. “If I were to hazard a guess I’d say Diana and Elle decided to go out and have some fun off the books as revenge for getting dressed down earlier. Am I right?”
I left out anything about Diana targeting Lisa in particular. I didn’t want anyone to know I was more interested in this girl than was appropriate given who I was and what she was. That would draw attention, and I could see the results of what happened when Lisa drew attention right in front of me.
Elle flinched away, and that was all the answer I needed.
I looked down at the girl bleeding out and the dead girl beside her. “Who killed that girl?”
Leaving one just alive enough that she could potentially turn was by far the worse crime of the two, but my anger was all for the girl who was killed. Another unnecessary death laid at the pledge’s feet today.
Elle raised a hand. This time the fury didn’t take me. I was well aware of every move I made as I ran to her and rammed my hand through her heart and ripped the still slowly beating organ out through her back.
Mother might’ve forbidden this, but there were circumstances even she would understand.
Elle had a moment to look down in surprise before her body started undergoing months of decomposition in the space of seconds. In moments the only thing left of her was greasy dust that I wiped off my hand. I was aware of Amber screaming at the sight, but ignored it. Her terror wasn’t my problem.
I turned to the other pledges. “That’s what happens when you defy me.”
“You killed her you bastard!” Diana spat.
I regarded her with an arched eyebrow, but she was already up. Apparently her rage had given her strength.
She launched herself across the room, but for a wonder she wasn’t coming for me. Though maybe that was calculated considering she knew coming directly for me would result in her immediate death no matter what unspoken order might have protected her before.
No, she was running for Lisa with her hands forming into claws. The bloodlust was on her, and she was going to reach Lisa before I could stop her.
The thought of Lisa being ripped from this world hit me like a mortal blow. I moved to stop her even though I knew it was already too late. Even though I felt something odd that I hadn’t in so very long.
Sorrow. Fear. Impotent rage.
Lisa regarded Diana, but there was no terror there. Then something happened that surprised even me. A spark of blinding purple light ignited between them, and once more Diana flew across the room and slammed into the wall.
I blinked. Nothing else could convey the raw shock I felt in that moment. I’d just seen something that made this far more dangerous than I could’ve possibly imagined.
The witch who was hunting us had finally revealed herself for what she truly was, and I fully expected to die before the night was through.
But what a way to go!
29
Lisa
My hands tingled. A vampire was running at me with fangs bared and claws out. she wanted to kill me.
I wasn’t going to give her that chance.
The magic pulsed inside me. Filled me. Begged to be let loose. So I did. A flash and Diana flew across the room like she was attached to a wire in some cheesy Hollywood movie about ninjas or superheroes fighting each other.
I glanced down at Amber. She cowered on the floor and looked up at me as though she was as afraid of me as she was of the vampires.
I could understand that given what I’d just done.
“What the fuck?”
I didn’t know who said that, but it drew my attention across the room. To Diana who’d been doing her best to terrify us. She’d slammed against the wall, again, and she was out cold but not dead. A pity, that.
Energy. Pulsing. Threatening to overwhelm and burn me to a crisp. The magic begging to be let free. To do my bidding if I would only let it.
I still felt a little woozy. Like I’d had too much to drink, but all the alcohol I’d had at the party should’ve been out of my system by now. Electric sparks danced over me, and I wasn’t sure if that was because of what I’d just done or because of the vampire.
One thing was for certain. The magic had found me in my moment of need. It was said that it came to everyone differently.
I wondered what form the magic would take with me? What would come of my need being a rescue from a vampire? I didn’t know, but I pulsed with the power of it. Felt the need to release it. To do something with it.
I looked at my captors. I needed to do something with that energy, and there were plenty of targets.
Ivy stood there. The one who killed Selene. I had to remember that.
“What is she? How did she do that?”
I looked around for the source of the voice. I expected to see Amber screaming. Maybe she’d come out of the catatonic state she went into when she realized we were dealing with real fucking vampires, but she was still shivering at my feet looking terrified.
I blinked. It wasn’t Amber screaming at the top of her lungs. It was one of the vampires.
They’d been so cocky, so confident, before. Only now this one looked terrified.
Ivy was eying me warily, and I laughed. I’d spent an entire summer terrified of this moment, an enti
re evening constantly on the edge of peeing myself from fear, and now they were the ones afraid of me?
And still that energy pulsed inside me. Begged to be let free. I wanted to let it free. I wanted to make them pay for what they did to Sadie. What they did to that poor girl crumpled on the floor.
Most of all I wanted to make Ivy pay for Selene, though as her gaze turned on me something stopped me. I hesitated.
She said she didn’t do it.
Could I believe a vampire? I wanted to believe her, and that was enough to save her. For now.
“What’s so funny?” Ivy asked.
“Sorry,” I said. “It’s just a little ridiculous that all of you would be terrified of me.”
My rescuer looked across the room to Diana. A vision of her flying across the room filled my mind and I smiled.
“Wish I did that earlier,” I muttered.
I didn’t think I was talking loud enough for the others to hear, but Ivy chuckled.
“You’re not the only one,” she replied.
Shit. she was a vampire. That meant heightened senses. I needed to remember these things.
“What are you going to do with me?” I asked.
She looked me up and down with interest. The sort of interest that would have interested me if we were at a party giving each other eyes over a keg, but of course we weren’t and of course I shouldn’t be shivering and getting goose bumps because she looked at me like that.
This was dangerous. This was not the time to get all moon-eyed over some girl. I needed to remember what she was. What she’d done. Maybe.
“I’m afraid you put me in a… difficult situation,” she said.
“What are you doing?” Diana shouted. “Take her out!”
Something moved across the room. Like the feeling I got when Diana used that voice on Sadie. It rolled over me, didn’t affect me at all, but the pledge who’d been hanging back blinked and went glassy eyed.
My hair stood on end. My scalp tingled as the glassy eyed vamp looked at me and her fangs descended.
Crap. Not good. Not fucking good at all. She came for me and it was like the whole room slowed down even though she was moving faster than I would’ve ever thought someone could move.
