by Ava Benton
I didn’t know why I was running. I only knew that I needed to get away from him, by any means necessary. It wasn’t easy, moving that way in the clunky boots I wore, but panic went a long way toward helping.
I heard his heavy footfalls inside my head as I turned the corner and ducked between two buildings. Fell between them was more like it, really, since I had intended to lean against the wall but fell through empty space, instead.
I caught myself before falling on the dirty, littered concrete, which was a relief—I didn’t love the thought of landing on broken glass, even if it sparkled like diamonds in the light from the bulb mounted on one of the brick walls.
I pressed myself against that wall, cursing the light but, hoping he’d run past without noticing me. It was a narrow alley, easy to miss.
He never passed by.
I held my breath as I waited and prayed as I had never prayed before. What if he was waiting for me? What if he never stopped waiting until I came out? How did he know who I was?
My heart stopped when I heard footsteps—but from the other direction, further into the alley. I almost melted into the bricks, I plastered myself so tight to them.
It was a matter of either waiting to see who or what came out, or running back to the sidewalk and finding out what waited for me there.
Terror kept me frozen instead, panting like a trapped animal.
“Well, well, well. You thought you could just run out on me like that, huh?” A female voice.
It didn’t make me feel any less threatened, especially since it sounded so menacing. Light, but with an undercurrent of nastiness.
She came closer, and I recognized her eyes right off. The girl from the dance floor. Who could forget ice-blue eyes, ringed in red?
I had seen so many eyes like those over the weeks I had spent at the vampire clubs and wondered where the contacts came from. They seemed popular.
I kept my mace hand tucked down by my side and put the other hand on my chest. “You scared me.”
“You look scared. Why? What are you doing here in this alleyway?” She came a little too close for comfort, and I took a step to the side.
She followed.
Like we were dancing.
She didn’t look so tall in the club—her partner must’ve been built like a skyscraper if he made her look short. Purple hair shone in the light from that lone bulb, and pale skin. Didn’t she ever go outside in the day?
“A guy was following me,” I whispered. “But I think he’s gone now.”
“A creep?” She shook her head. “This city is a cesspool. Absolutely disgusting what men think they can get away with, isn’t it?”
“It is.” I couldn’t help but think of that office, and the hand up my skirt.
“Wouldn’t it be great if we could punish all those men? Those predators?” She leaned in a little, and there was a scent hanging around her that I couldn’t put my finger on. Not perfume, not sweat. Maybe a little bit of both mixed with a lot of something else.
I couldn’t focus on figuring it out when her eyes seemed to glow the way they did.
“Yeah. That would be great. They need…”
“To know they can’t get away with being the way they are,” she finished, nodding slowly. “And you know what?”
“What?” I breathed.
It was so easy to listen to her. Her voice was like music.
She smiled, and her teeth almost glowed, too. “I know how to do it. To punish them, I mean. To be strong enough.”
“How?” I could barely hear my voice, it was so small.
She was so close. And that was all right. She was smart. She knew what she was talking about. She wanted to help me… with something. I didn’t know what, but she’d make it all clear…
Only she never got the chance.
A tall, dark blur burst in from my right, knocking me back against the bricks and tackling her to the ground.
I shook my head, dazed, and looked over in time to see her fly through the air like a rag doll and hit a dumpster with a sickening crash.
A scream fought its way to my mouth, but I couldn’t draw in enough breath to let it out. Nobody could survive something like that.
She did.
But she didn’t just survive.
In the blink of an eye, she was on her feet and throwing herself against the stranger.
They tussled, gripping each other’s throats, snarling like a couple of animals.
No, I had to be imagining that. My brain was completely fried by then. I wasn’t processing anything. I was wrong when both of them looked like they grew fangs and snapped at each other with them. I covered my mouth with both hands and almost forgot to breathe when she slammed her attacker into the wall and sent bricks showering down on both of them.
“Enough!” he roared before taking the top of the girl’s head in one hand and jerking it roughly to the side.
I watched in horror as he bit her—no, as he sank his teeth into her throat and pulled back, tearing half of it away all at once.
She let out a breathless shriek before going stiff all over.
The attacker flung her body to the ground, where she landed in a heap.
When he turned to face me, I saw her head dangling from his clenched fist, hanging by the hair.
My mouth fell open in a scream, but nothing came out. I was going to die.
It was all over.
My mind would break, and he would kill me, and that would be it.
I looked up and recognized him from earlier, the one I had run away from.
He tossed the head aside, and I struggled against a rush of bile in my throat. Why couldn’t I move? Why couldn’t I scream? Shock froze me solid.
“We have to get back to your apartment, and fast.” He was peeling off his bloody shirt and rolling it into a ball, stuffing it into a backpack before putting on a clean shirt.
“Hurry. Come on.” He grabbed my arm with one bloody hand.
“No!” I gasped, slapping at him with both hands, jumping to my feet.
All it took was his touch to snap me out of it. I tried to pull away, tried to get away, but he was too strong.
“Listen to me!” he snarled, pulling me close enough to feel his hot breath on my face. “I have to take you someplace safe, and fast. They’re going to come looking for her, and you can’t be here when they do.”
“Who? The police?” I looked down at the body and couldn’t believe what I saw.
It had turned to something that looked like stone—pale gray, with white eyes.
“No.” He pulled me behind him.
His hand was so tight and strong, I thought it might break my wrist. I wanted to fight him, to kick and scream, but it was all happening so fast.
He hailed a cab and threw me inside before I knew what was happening. He barked my address at the driver as I pressed myself against the door, fumbling around for the handle.
“How do you know my address?” I asked.
He stared coldly. “I know everything about you, Janna. And now you’re in more danger than ever.”
5
Vale
The music in the car was so loud, there was no chance of the driver understanding us if we spoke low enough.
I leaned closer, and she all but climbed through the window to get away from me. “I was sent to protect you. You don’t have anything to fear while you’re with me.”
“Protect me? From what? You’re the one who… who…” She shook her head and looked away. “How could you do that? No. It can’t be real. You can’t have done that. I was imagining things.”
“You weren’t.”
“You tore her head off.”
“I did. And I would do it again.”
“No, no.” She shook her head like a willful child. “You didn’t. That didn’t happen. Somebody slipped me something in the club, and I dreamed the whole thing. That doesn’t happen in real life.”
“It does, and it did.”
“And you know
me? You know who I am? How is this possible?”
“What happened tonight was bound to happen. I’m surprised it didn’t happen before now, honestly, the way you’ve been taking chances by visiting those nightclubs. My job is to make sure that doesn’t happen again—and to do what I did back there if you’re ever in danger again.”
“I wasn’t in danger. She was trying to pick me up, for fuck’s sake! So what? I could’ve said no, thank you, and that would’ve been the end of it.”
“You think she was trying to…?” I frowned. Pick her up?
“She was coming onto me. Trying to, you know, hook up with me. She didn’t deserve that!”
“You have no idea what she was trying to do.” I didn’t know if I hated her naïveté or if it made me want to protect her even more. She was like a babe in the woods, absolutely without an understanding of the forces surrounding her. “That thing was trying to possess you. She was going to attack you, turn you into something like her. Or drain you and leave you for dead.”
She blinked as her mouth fell open. “You honestly believe that? This isn’t part of some little game you people play. That whole lifestyle isn’t real.” She kept looking down at my hands, then back at my face. “You killed her because you think it’s all real? Oh, help me, please. God, help me.” She started weeping.
“Stop crying,” I spat.
The car flew over a bridge and, I guessed, into Brooklyn.
I didn’t want her attracting attention from a passerby, especially when we reached her apartment.
“Stop asking for God to help you, while you’re at it. If some invisible entity was going to help you, don’t you think they would have when you were seconds away from being attacked by that bitch? I’m the one you should be praying to for help. I’m the one who saved your life.”
“You’re insane. You’re sick. Please, just get out of the car the next time we stop. Please, I’ll give you anything.” She fumbled in her purse. “My debit card. I’ll give you the PIN so you can use it. Just take everything.”
In the blink of an eye, she thrust her hand up at me.
There was a small, black item clutched in it.
My reflexes were much too fast to allow her to do more than drop the item on the seat between us as I twisted her wrist—not enough to break or even strain, but enough to make her wince in pain and surprise.
“I am not the enemy.”
“Who are you, then?” she asked as she rubbed her wrist. “Some avenging angel? A bodyguard? A superhero?”
“I’m someone sent to you to protect you, as I said. Who or what I am doesn’t matter. And I think we can agree that my presence in your life this evening is quite opportune.”
“Who hired you for this?” she whispered. “My mother? Of course, it was her. Only she would think I needed protection, and she would hire somebody like you. Crazy enough to take her literally when she tells you to do anything it takes.”
“You don’t know how close you are to the truth,” I muttered, looking out the window to check our progress while always keeping her in the periphery. She wouldn’t come to heel, at least not right away. “If you hadn’t run back there, none of this would’ve happened. I could’ve explained everything, and we might be someplace safe at this very moment. But no. You had to run away and get yourself into trouble.”
“You stalked me! You’re still stalking me!” she hissed.
“As I’ve told you, this is my job. I’m not stalking if I’ve been assigned to your safety. It’s my job to know where you live and to follow you when you walk into obviously dangerous situations, as you did tonight.” I sneered at her. “How could you do something so stupid? To think you call me crazy.”
“You know nothing about my personal life—oh,” she said, eyes suddenly opening wide. “I get it. She told you what she thinks is the truth, not the actual truth. But how would she know the truth? She had you follow me around because she thinks I’m taking unnecessary risks for my art. Is that it?” She let out a bitter laugh while shaking her head. “That b—”
“You’re mistaken. I can clear everything up for you once we’re somewhere more private. You clearly need help understanding what’s going on around you.”
“I don’t need your help, and I didn’t ask for your help. Thanks very much, but you can get the hell out of this cab once we stop at the next light. And don’t worry, I won’t tell the cops it was you. Nobody needs to know what happened tonight.”
“How very generous of you. But I cannot accept your offer. I’m not worried about your police.”
She frowned. “My police?”
The car pulled to a stop in front of her building. “Come. I’ll tell you everything you need to know, but I can’t do it here. I’ve sworn to protect you and would never do anything to hurt you. I know you don’t have to believe me, but it’s the truth. Give me a chance.”
She searched my face with those fascinating eyes of hers. “I don’t know…”
“I swear, I won’t hurt you. You’ve seen what I can do, and I did it to protect you. Pay the driver, and let’s go.”
He was starting to pay attention to us. I didn’t want him hearing too much.
She reached into her bag again, and this time pulled out a wad of crumpled bills which she tucked into a slot in the divider between us at the driver.
“Come on. Hurry.” I followed her out to the sidewalk and thought she might be disappointed when I followed closely.
As if I would let her get too far from me, knowing she might run again. I was faster than her even on my worst day, but I couldn’t put on the speed I was capable of in the middle of a busy street.
“Don’t even think about trying to run away or trick me,” I warned as we walked up the stairs to the porch.
“I wasn’t. You think I would try to piss you off when I’ve seen what you’re capable of?” What amazed me was her disgusted tone.
I hardly expected her to fall to her knees and thank me, but a little appreciation would’ve gone a long way. I took a tremendous risk, killing that vampire. All because Janna ran away.
We reached the top floor, and she unlocked the door, but hesitated before opening it. “Tell me this isn’t a huge mistake,” she whispered, touching her forehead to the scarred wood.
“It isn’t. It’s not even a small mistake.”
She snorted. “Because you would admit otherwise.”
Still, she opened the door and stepped into a small, cluttered room which I immediately surmised was all the apartment offered. A sink and two-burner stove, an iron bed frame against the faded, flowered wallpaper. A large pad of paper resting on an easel, and a table covered in pencils, paints, charcoal.
“This is it?” I asked, sizing the place up.
“Sorry. I’m having the penthouse on Central Park redecorated right now.” She tossed her bag onto the floor, then turned to me with arms crossed over her thin waist. She didn’t eat enough. I
wondered if that was by choice or by necessity—how much could she afford? What would Isobel think if she knew her daughter was literally a starving artist?
A small washroom sat on the other side of a door beside the stove, and I stepped in to wash away the blood on my hands. I could still taste it on my lips and ran my tongue around to catch any lingering drops. It had been so long since I had a fight, a good fight, and I was still exhilarated. Even though it pained me to know the vampire’s clan would be looking for her murderer, I couldn’t deny how much fun it had been to kill her.
Janna was still standing where and how I had left her.
“What do you want to know?” I asked. “I’ll tell you everything. No exceptions. It will be easier if we get off on the right foot, with a clean slate. Don’t you agree?”
“Oh, I completely agree,” she said, nodding hard. Sarcastic.
I never did have much patience for sarcasm.
“So? What do you want to know? You already guessed your mother sent me, and you were correct. What else can I tell you?”<
br />
She threw her hands in the air, exasperated. “Why? Why would she be that insane? I mean, did she tell you? Did my father piss somebody off? Are there hitmen after me?”
“Did the girl in the alley strike you as such?”
“No, but she didn’t strike me as a threat, either.”
“Be honest with yourself. Really think about it. Remember how you felt. The things she was saying to you. Did it seem like she was putting you in a trance? Saying things that sounded true, even if they weren’t necessarily true? Things which make no sense now that you’re looking back at them?”
She gasped softly, and her eyes drifted to the wall over my shoulder. “Yeah. She did, now that you mention it.”
“Did you know her?”
She shook her head. “If I had, don’t you think I would’ve reacted differently when you tore her throat out?”
“There is no predicting what a person will do when they’re in shock.”
She nodded. “Yes, I can understand that. But I didn’t. I only noticed her tonight at the club. First time I’ve ever seen her.”
“And she noticed you.”
Her cheeks went pink. “Yes. She did.”
I could just imagine. She had set her sights on Janna and would’ve stopped at nothing to have her. A new conquest. Fresh blood. Maybe a new playmate, someone to help on the hunt or serve as a minion to repeatedly feed on.
“She was going to enslave you, or worse. She must have sensed what was special about you and took a chance in following you outside. You were worth it to her. Don’t you see? It was my job to keep her from doing what she planned.”
She hesitated like she was thinking it over—then, shook her head. It wasn’t going to be easy to get through to her. Stubborn little half-blood.
“No. I don’t believe you. There’s nothing special about me. I’m just me. You need to leave now.”
“That’s not possible. At least not until you know the truth of who you are. And who your mother is.”
“I know who she is.”
“You don’t. Your mother is a witch.” I paused to let it sink in before added, “That means you have witch’s blood in your veins. You don’t have powers, obviously, but the blood is still there. And it makes you a very unique creature in our world.”
