by Lainy Lane
“You’re not going anywhere!” Ember said.
“Oh, but I am.” I grinned, no longer willing to play games.
“Phoenix?” Ethereal began. “Is there a way you can tell if she’s somehow become a vampire?” Her voice cracked more than once before the question fully escaped her.
Ember stared blankly at Ethereal. “How in the moons would that have happened?”
Ethereal shrugged. “Sage did say there would be repercussions for bringing him down with us?” She was talking in a higher pitch than usual, and the tone sent a sharp pain through my temples.
No one said anything. Ember, Ethereal, and Phoenix all stood still. I continued my pacing, vaguely aware of what they were discussing, but unable to concentrate on anything other than the need to move and find my parents.
A loud, evil cackle sounded in the house. Sage's voice boomed through our underground home, sending a vibration through the walls. “You are correct, to an extent,” she said.
We all began looking around. She wasn’t in the house, but she apparently had a message for us.
“This isn’t a result of bringing a vampire before Nyx. It is a result of mixing with the wrong crowd.” Sage seemed pleased. Her voice hadn’t been so high-pitched when we were in our original meeting with her. “You increased the warfare, and you committed treason. You must now learn to live as a creature of both sides, Acqua. I tried to warn you girls that you were meddling in things you didn’t understand.”
Just like that, the voice dissipated. Silence. None of us moved. My body still wanted to run, but I refused to allow it to as the knowledge of what Sage had just announced set in, bringing more guilt and dread along with it. I was a witch and a vampire. I’d been cursed with vampirism because of falling in love with a vampire. I had caused myself to land on both sides of the war that raged, so I now had to be a creature of both sides.
This was quite the predicament.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“Can we figure this out further after I go kill my parents?” I whined. My entire body was bouncing against my will. It felt as if I had ants crawling under my skin attempting to work their way out.
“Acqua, we have more important things to figure out, don’t you think?” Ethereal chimed, her chipper voice very unwelcomed in my flurry of rabid thoughts.
“Not really, I mean I’ve already been interrupted once from dealing with my parents. I don’t need magic. I can handle it quickly!” My voice unsteadied, just like my emotions seemed to be doing.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever talked so freely and easily about murder. I’d certainly never considered intentionally taking anyone’s life. I wasn't initially planning on taking my parent's lives, just giving Karma a head start to dealing with them appropriately. I wasn’t exactly good, but I wasn’t a killer. At least, I hadn't been when I was just a witch. It seemed that being both a witch and vampire was going to change that quickly. My head felt heavy between the emotions and the new information that was overloading it.
“What exactly were you planning on doing to her parents anyway?” Phoenix asked. “I mean if Vulcan hadn’t ruined the plan that night. What would you guys have done?”
Ember and Ethereal looked at each other, to the floor, and then to me. I wasn't sure if they were ashamed of what we were doing or if they wanted to give me space to be the one to reveal my plan.
“We were planning on wiping their memories and planting a new life in their heads.” I shrugged. I wasn’t ashamed of it, and Ember and Ethereal certainly hadn’t seemed to be either when we were working on developing the spells to use on them. “Instead of them just living out their lives without me and without any guilt for everything they’ve done to me. We were going to write our own story of how they should their lives should play out. It's our way of ensuring that Karma doesn't skip over them, to be sure they get what they deserve.” I could hear my voice as I spoke and it sounded colder than it ever had before. I wondered if this was just who I was now, a small part of me hoped not.
Phoenix nodded slowly, absorbing the information.
“Listen, girls—”
He turned to Ember and Ethereal while I began walking up the stairs to leave. I wasn’t going to stand around the house any longer. No one was going to make me.
“—she needs to get out. She needs to move, run, do something. She won’t take to being cooped in the house for a few weeks, not until it settles in her system. I guess because of the way she received her Vampirism; it doesn't seem she will have to go through the pain of the change, which is good for her.” He sounded envious, and I had to wonder how excruciating the pain of the change must have been for him.
“Bye!” I called out and lifted the coffin above the stairway so I could make my exit.
“I’ve got her,” I heard Phoenix assuring Ember and Ethereal before following after me.
Before he was able to reach me, I was backing back down the stairs with Vulcan smiling wickedly as he invaded our house, again. The moment I’d lifted the coffin, I had been met by his face. I was too shocked to speak when he motioned for me to go back down. Instead, I obeyed without any question.
“Well, well, well,” Vulcan chuckled as he spoke.
Phoenix took a tight hold of my arm and forced me behind him, which frustrated me more than it should have, seeing as he was trying to protect me. I didn’t want his protection. I was capable of defending myself. Even more so now than ever before, and he hadn't exactly been much help last time anyway.
“How sweet, are you actually going to keep her safe this time?” Vulcan still looked just as evil as a human as he had as a vampire. His eyes seemed unchanged, still cold as ice, and his voice was a perfect match.
Phoenix growled.
“What do you want?” I moved to Phoenix’s side. I didn’t need his shelter. I would take care of myself if it came to that. Even though we were in this together, I could handle myself.
“Well, you know I was initially thinking of coming over to make a truce,” he gleamed. His face didn't show any signs of compromise being on the table.
“Bull!” Phoenix shouted.
Vulcan shrugged. “However, now I have some questions.” He winked as he walked over to me and stood a few inches away.
I had to look up to him. He was about a half a foot taller than I was and at least twice as wide as me, though I was relatively petite. Phoenix tensed up next to me, but I stood my ground. I wasn’t going to let Vulcan intimidate me. He didn’t know that I had the upper hand now.
“How is it, pray tell, that you are now a vampire?” he asked.
Or maybe he did. “I can see it in your eyes. The crimson ring around your iris also indicates you’re hungry.” Vulcan flashed a vile smile. “Maybe you need some real vampires to show you our ways. You likely won’t survive with this one as your leader.” He shot a glance toward Phoenix who seemed to be literally biting his tongue to ensure he didn’t say anything.
“Have you forgotten you’re just a human now?” I asked.
He scowled at me. “Of course, I haven’t. Do you have any idea how much of a disgrace you’ve made me?”
I stared blankly at him. Even if I knew how to respond to that, I wouldn't have given him the pleasure of doing so.
“Do you even care?” he asked.
I shrugged, working hard to find my voice again. “You were trying to kill us. I look after my own.”
“He wasn’t your own at the time,” he countered as he nudged his head in Phoenix's direction.
“Can we get on with this already,” I growled. “I have better things to do.” The bloodlust was still boiling through my veins, and I began to wonder if I might explode if I didn't find relief soon.
“Friskier now that you’re a vamp, huh? It looks like your girls are still unsure of all of this. Think they’ll still keep you now that you’re so much trouble? As much as they hate Phoenix and me, what’s going to make your fate any different now that you’re the same as us?” There was a wicked look in Vu
lcan’s eyes, now much dimmer than they had been when I first met him.
"Same as him," I corrected him.
I waited for Ember or Ethereal to speak up and respond as well, but neither volunteered anything. There was just an awkward silence, and I was unsure of what to do or say to make it end. My head was throbbing. I needed something to give, to enable me to get out. I needed air, blood, something other than the tension that seemed to be cutting my oxygen supply, not that I required it anymore. I started to talk back to him, to remind him that even if I was a vampire now, I was also still a witch. I wasn’t the same as he was before I stole it from him. I wasn't the same as Phoenix, although I wouldn't point that out that in front of him. To be fair, that was the whole point, that was the reason I was cursed. I wasn’t supposed to fit in anymore.
“Well, I have a deal to make with you now that I see what you are." His eyes glimmered in a way that sent a jolt of terror through me, momentarily pausing the bloodlust. "You see, your blood, well it’s something quite special now don’t you think?” He winked again, and bile rose in my throat.
“What do you want?” Phoenix finally prodded as I found myself still unable to speak. I breathed a slight air of relief that he was able to pick up where I had suddenly become mute.
“I want you to use your blood and your powers and whatever else you need to give me back my vampirism. The way I had it before, I will not be forced to take a spot underneath the clan that I created.” The edge in his voice raised with the last sentence.
“And why would I give you what you want?” I didn't understand what leverage he had, and my patience was wearing thinner by the moment.
“Other than keeping my clan from hunting you down?”
I nodded for him to continue.
“I spare your boyfriend’s life.”
“You’d have to go through us to get to him anyway,” I explained.
He shrugged as if that was insignificant. Ember and Ethereal had yet to move, and that had my nerves rising more than Vulcan.
“Well, then, how about this…” He walked back up the stairs, and we all stood, staring at each other, unsure of what was happening. Vulcan walked back down with a smug smile. “I have some new clan members that I think might pique your interest.”
My parents walked down the stairs. They appeared to be in a half-conscious trance. My bloodlust picked up, I wanted them dead, and here they were. Yet, it didn’t matter now. I couldn’t kill them because he had made them immortal. Revenge was no longer an option. Vulcan had stolen that from me. Anger boiled inside of me. My entire body was on fire. I could feel it. Of course, he’d had this all figured out before he came. Phoenix had tried to tell us Vulcan didn’t act until he had all of his ducks in a row. I wasn’t sure how he knew how important my revenge on my parents was to me. Something had clued him into knowing that this would have me eating out of the palms of his hands. I didn’t want to surrender to him. He had just taken everything I’d been working toward away from me as if my life hadn’t been flipped end over end enough in the last several weeks.
“Here’s the thing, sweetie.” Vulcan was only inches from me, but I refused to look anywhere other than at my parents. I felt nauseous being so close to them. “One of mine changed them, which means he can control them. You want their lives rewritten? You want to know how I know all of this? I can make sure you get answers to all of your questions. But not for free.” He smiled.
“Fine,” I surrendered.
It pained me to do so, but what choice did I have? I’d spent the last few years of my life working out a revenge plan, and now the only way I could make it happen was to give Vulcan exactly what he wanted. I didn't know what this would do for the war, and it didn’t matter. I was going to at least have to agree for now and try to figure out a way around it later. I had taken Vulcan’s Vampirism from him once; maybe I could find a way to do it again.
Perhaps in the process of making a Vampirism potion for him, I could also make an antidote I could slip him after I had received what I wanted from him. Two could play this game. And play I would.
“Give me a week,” I said. “It will be ready then. We’ll make the exchange on your turf, you’ve invaded ours enough.”
“Deal.” With that, Vulcan left, followed by my parents.
I stood in the aftermath of our agreement, not sure where to go from there. Ember and Ethereal were displeased, I could see it on their faces. I wasn't sure I cared after they had refused to pitch into my defense at all. Phoenix was stunned. I couldn't begin to figure out how to deal with him either. There was a samba beating in my head that I desperately needed to silence.
“I’m going out,” I stated simply. “I need to feed. I don’t want to hear it, we’ll discuss it later.” I left before even Phoenix could follow me.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Things had become pretty uncomfortable in the house. No one knew how to handle me anymore. I was accustomed to being hard to control. What I wasn’t used to was Ember and Ethereal not being able to handle me at all. They were the ones that knew me, sometimes even better than I knew myself. Yet, even they had become standoffish in dealing with me. The upside to the situation was that Ember and Phoenix had begun to put up with each other better. Apparently, especially for new vampires, emotions were intensified. The problem with that was the fact that I already had a ton of anger and resentment built up inside of me. Becoming a vampire increased it and turned me into a beast, even to the few people that I loved.
I hated myself for the way I’d been acting, yet I couldn’t control it. Phoenix was dealing with it better than Ember and Ethereal because he understood what this disease did to your emotions. Ember wanted me to just deal and get over it. Ethereal tried to avoid it, or me more specifically, altogether. Phoenix was the one in the trenches dealing with me and my moods. If I’d had any patience at all, I probably would’ve felt sympathy for him. I lay in bed with my head pounding a heavy metal concert that felt as if it was abolishing me from the inside with every beat. I wanted to feed. I didn’t need to feed, I was just restless. Phoenix hadn’t been trusting me to feed alone. Outside of the night that Vulcan had pissed me off, and I’d run off without giving anyone a chance at following me, I hadn’t had a single unsupervised moment.
Phoenix was apparently afraid I was going to get out of control, and the fact that he didn’t trust me pissed me off, even if deep down I knew I didn’t deserve the trust I so desired. Especially seeing as I didn't need to feed to survive. Being a witch and a vampire took away the necessity for that. Even so, the exhilaration of the hunt and the ability to take out my aggressions led me to still be full of the desire to feed constantly.
Another shooting pain trailed from my temple down my spine. Migraines were becoming a constant, which meant I had become very grateful for the fact that we lived underground, completely hidden from the sunlight and surrounded by a cold environment. Something told me that was the only way I'd survived the last several days.
“Acqua.” Phoenix rubbed his hand down my back, a sensation that was welcome and unwelcome at the same time. “We need to get back to work.”
I scoffed. He was referring to the potion for Vulcan, we were only about halfway done with it, and we only had two days left to figure it out. It was the last thing I felt like doing. We had to do it, I knew that, and that was the part that irritated me the most. I had no choice in the matter, in any matters of my life as of late. I felt like my free will had gone and every fiber of my being resented the world for taking it from me. I needed to be in some sort of control over what happened in my life.
“Or,” I tried to lace my voice with sugar, it was something I was out of practice of after the last several days. “We could go out?”
“Make you a deal.” He smiled, which made me want to smile back, but I didn’t give in. “Let’s finish up, and I’ll reward you with a night out.”
I felt like a baby. I just wanted to whine until I got what I wanted. I’m sure that would have bee
n just what Phoenix wanted, nothing like a whiny girlfriend to turn you on, right?
My emotions were steaming over, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to control them much longer. I needed a distraction. I leaned into Phoenix and pulled him into me. I rolled over on top of him and kissed him passionately. It was partly a need for a distraction from myself and slightly to make him forget about what we were supposed to be doing because I didn’t want to do it. I still hadn’t figured out how to make the potion work the way we needed. I didn’t even have any hunches. We were close to figuring out how to give him his Vampirism back; we were nowhere near figuring out how to undo it. We needed to provide him with a potion to give him what he wanted, at least for long enough for him to give me what I wanted. After I dealt with my parents, I needed a way to retract what we were giving him back. There had to be a way, but we hadn’t come even close to figuring it out yet.
Phoenix took the bait. He moaned lightly and gave into my requests. He took control and rolled me underneath him and pressed his body to me. The good thing about intensified emotions was that the passionate moments heightened as well. Which was why I’d been craving them, and using them as a way to drown out the more disturbing emotions that I had been experiencing. His hand went down my side and caressed along my hips. It sent chills through me, and I didn’t want to stop- ever. I ran my hands up and down his back, both sides, searching for any part of him to touch. I craved him, my blood desired him, and suddenly I knew what he had felt the first night we’d kissed when I’d allowed him to drink from me. The night our bond had begun.
Bloodlust was one thing when it was just the blood of hunger your body craved. It took on an entirely new meaning when the craving was blood for emotional desires. I could smell him every time I breathed in, he smelled of citrus mixed with leather, and it set me on fire. I breathed him in and could feel his pulse against my skin as he kissed down the side of my neck. I retook control and flipped him back under me. I knew what I wanted and didn’t feel any resistance from him. I kissed him harder, deeper, longer. Then moved to his neck. I lingered there, taking in the moment. When I couldn’t stand it any longer, I leaned in and bit into his skin, taking him inside of me. I could hear and feel his heartbeat as I drank him in and my needs began to subside. The satisfaction settled in my gut, and I pulled away and relaxed next to him, my breathing heavy. Both of our breathing was heavy. I could sense the pleasure from him as well, which further heightened my own.
