If she saw me, it would all be over. Despite my disguise and the glamour I was using, my body language was the same. And if Peony was good at something, it was seeing beyond the surface and spotting things others wanted to hide.
I turned away, studying the remainder of the room. The floor-to-ceiling windows were tinted, making it impossible to see through from the outside and protecting the vamps during the daytime. Chatter and clinking of blood goblets surrounded me. A fae server in a black dress walked up to two young vamps, but instead of grabbing a glass, one of the guys seized her and bit into her neck. The fae took it like a pro, biting in a scream while keeping her expression neutral and holding on to her tray.
I groaned as I realized that the two guys were none other than the twins Kayden and Kassius. First, Peony, now them. Was all of my Nocturnal Academy class here? More importantly, had Olwen sent me in such a high-risk situation on purpose to test how I’d handle it? Yes, he definitely had.
Icy rage built inside me as I watched Kayden suck on the fae’s neck. Before I could react, I turned away. I needed to stay undercover.
“The kitchen is that way.” I found myself face to face with an older female vamp, who tapped her foot, not pleased with a late fae servant. Was this Marilyn Claire? She had silver hair pulled into a tight bun and angular features.
“Thank you.” I bowed my head meekly as I followed her hand gesture to the back. The kitchen was open and huge, and also looked out on the city. Other fae were inside, most wearing servant uniforms. I didn’t spot anyone I knew. Nor did I spot Vulthus or Lady Cardinal among the partygoers tonight. Good. Peony and the twins being here would complicate things enough.
Now, I had to find a vamp to knock out. Or two. I grabbed a fancy plate of cocktail shrimp and returned to the main room. As I served the vamps, I scanned the room for a target. My gaze landed on Atticus, who had arrived in a simple blue shirt and black pants. He, too, was posing as a servant. Of course, Olwen would want someone to watch me and report back. But I was glad he was here.
I gazed past Atticus to find a wraparound deck that went out of sight. No one was on it. Perhaps I could follow or lure a vamp out there and knock him out, then hide him under a table. The faster I impressed Olwen, the faster I could get out of here and take revenge on Vulthus.
Across the room, a few vampires dancing with fae parted, and the twins finally released the poor server, who staggered away and dropped her tray from weakness. Goblets bounced off the tray. Blood splattered the carpet.
Peony stopped playing. The vamp with his arm around her waist stood. Partygoers turned to the server and scowled, some baring their fangs, and the server, still dripping blood from her bite mark, fell to her knees and pulled a towel off her belt to clean up the mess. But it was too late.
“Unacceptable!” Marilyn shouted, advancing on her. “This new carpet cost me a fortune!”
Kayden and Kassius leaned close to each other and snickered. Shouts rose, but I detected laughter too. A large group of vamps gathered around the poor fae as ice gathered under my heart, waiting for use. They were distracted. Now was the time to find a victim.
As much as I wanted to unleash my fury on Marilyn, I needed to find a loner.
Peony’s uninvited partner rose, eying the room, nervously. Clearly, he was not Peony’s master and hadn’t received her master’s approval to approach her. He stepped away from the chaos and through the sliding glass door onto the wraparound deck.
Even as I felt satisfaction that my nemesis wasn’t protected from the nastiness of the vampires, despite her being more than a servant, I knew I couldn’t let my pettiness get the best of me. Thus, I followed her vamp outside.
Behind me, the shouts got louder and the fae begged for mercy. If she was lucky, they’d whip her. If she was unlucky, they’d sacrifice her. I couldn’t help her. If I tried, we’d both end up dead.
Trailing my target was easy. The deck was huge, complete with round tables, candles, and umbrellas, and the vamp had his back to me, looking over the nighttime city.
He muttered to himself. “Stupid. If Nilsson finds out I tried to poach her, he’ll sue me.”
This was my chance. I eyed the windows, which appeared black and impossible to see through. Besides, the vamp stood at the very end of the deck, where no windows looked out.
I gathered ice into a small rock and let it fly as soon as I had stepped out of the apartment’s view. It sailed through the cool night air and clunked the vamp on the head. He flinched, swayed in place, and fell to the surface of the deck, barely missing a chair.
Running forward, I seized the piece of ice and threw it down to the alley far below, leaving no evidence of my presence. The vamp remained still and a bit of blood leaked out of his head. I’d cracked his skull. A smile spread across my lips. Olwen would be pleased for sure.
I turned and grabbed the vamp’s shoulders to slide him under one of the tables, which had umbrellas draped over it. Success. I looked up to see Atticus walking toward me and let a smile come over my face.
Only when the male stepped into the light, I realized it wasn’t Atticus, but a tall, blond vamp with arctic blue eyes and a muscular build.
My heart about stopped. Thorsten. What was he doing here?
“Onyx.” My name rolled off his tongue, and tingles danced through me. Heat darted into my lower stomach, and my hand itched to reach out to him. The same hand that had knocked out the bleeding vamp on the ground with ice. Thorsten had seen me, and he had recognized me. His unexpected appearance must’ve led to me dropping my glamour, and clearly, my disguise didn’t fool him.
“What do you want? How did you find me?” I needed to buy time. How did I not notice him before? Where had he hidden? I thought I had checked the area, but obviously not thoroughly enough. Olwen would be very furious with me.
“You have a distinct scent. And I sent you the letter. I had to know if you were okay.” Thorsten stepped closer, and I balled my fists.
“I’m more than okay. I don’t need you.” I stared him down, glad we were hidden by the brick wall and the tinted windows.
Candlelight flickered on Thorsten’s face from one of the patio tables. The sounds of screaming floated out from the apartment, following by deafening silence. Thorsten grimaced at the sound, pretending he wasn’t into violence when his mental torture was just as bad. What if you misunderstood? What if he didn’t mean to—
I trampled the sliver of doubt rising in my mind.
“Onyx, I need to know that you’re all right.” Thorsten’s forehead wrinkled. “You don’t seem like yourself. You’ve changed and—”
I let out a snort. Damn right I changed. I was finally thinking with my brain, not my heart. “It’s none of your business. Get out of my way.” I was no longer at Nocturnal Academy. I didn’t require his protection that confused the hell out of me. I could knock him out and return to Olwen’s.
Thorsten shook his head and refused to move. “Don’t leave. Please. I know what it’s like to be forced to become dark.”
His words pierced my core. I narrowed my eyes, but I could find no signs of lying on his face. Thorsten drew closer, and I let him. His hot breath caressed my neck. Instead of his usual suit, here wore an open leather jacket. A tight shirt revealed the outlines of his abs and pecs.
No. I would not fall for this again. I tore my gaze away from him and pushed past him, but he grabbed my hand and whirled me around, his blue eyes pleading.
“You might think this is the only way, but everything has consequences, especially the path that seems the easiest at first.” His words were low, but smooth. It wasn’t a threat, but rather a confession.
A mirthless chuckle escaped my throat. “Don’t act like you understand. I highly doubt you had to make the choice between being used for sex and blood, or becoming the hunter.”
He opened, then closed his mouth. “You’re right. My situation was different, but I also felt like I had no choice. Leonie...she needed me. I was the only one wh
o could help her.”
I knew I should walk away, but I couldn’t help myself. “Who is Leonie?” A past lover?
Thorsten’s eyes darkened. “My sister. I grew up taking care of her. My mother wasn’t up for it, and father...let’s just say we were better off without him.”
Tension settled between my shoulder blades at what Thorsten was implying. “He was abusive?”
He stared off into the city for a moment. “He liked to drink, and he had a temper.”
“And your mother didn’t do anything?”
Anger flashed in Thorsten’s eyes. “It’s hard to do something when you’re constantly high out of your mind.”
Pressure settled on my chest. Thorsten was opening up to me. I nodded. “I still don’t understand how your family had anything to do with you becoming a vampire.”
He sighed. “I was the only protection Leonie ever had. I tried to distract Father from her.” A muscle ticked in his jaw, and his body hummed with tension. “I thought that all I had to protect her from were his fists and belt. I was so naive.”
Thorsten’s words acted like grenades, knocking out bricks of my wall and making my shield collapse. I didn’t want to feel empathy for him, yet I did. “What happened to your sister?”
“She started dating somebody I didn’t approve of.”
I raised an eyebrow, having the feeling that Thorsten wouldn’t have approved of anyone for his baby sister and preferred she stayed single until thirty.
“He was a drug dealer. They had a lot of fights, but always made up. After their latest one, he got a new car and convinced her to come for a spin.” Thorsten wiped a hand over his face. “He wasn’t sober. They crashed, and he died on impact. Her airbag malfunctioned. Otherwise, she should’ve been fine. She was rushed to the emergency room.”
I inhaled sharply.
“Griffin Steinberg showed up at the hospital. I recognized his face from the newspaper and became furious. He was the owner of the car brand and I was certain he was there to shut me up.” Thorsten shook his head. “I told him that my silence could not be bought with money and that every newspaper would find out about this.” He paused.
“But that’s not what he offered you.” I was hooked. I needed to hear the end.
“No, he pulled me aside and said that the crash wasn’t his fault and that I knew that. He said his blood could heal my sister, but I had to give him something in return, in addition to my silence.”
My throat was drier than the Sahara. “You had to become his heir.”
Thorsten’s eyes turned glassy as he lost himself to his memories. “Yes,” he said quietly.
“Did Steinberg heal her?”
His blue eyes shone as he locked his gaze with mine. “He did. Leonie awoke minutes later. It only took a bit of his powerful blood to do the trick. But I couldn’t see her after that. I wasn’t allowed. I had to vanish forever, and I haven’t seen my sister since. Maybe that’s for the best. If she sees the monster I’ve become—”
I wrapped my hands around me, feeling cold, even though the temperatures were in the low seventies. My body ached to touch him, my lips begged me to kiss his, but my mind told me to hold back. It didn’t matter that he hadn’t become a vampire for the money or the power. He had still played cruel games with me. “Why are you telling me this now?”
“I—” The sliding doors to the deck opened around the corner, spilling out excited chatter and laughter. Thorsten backed away. “I came to warn you. Olwen is as dangerous as my sire.” With that, he disappeared inside, leaving me no choice but to abandon the balcony as well and hurry to collect Atticus as the vamp on the ground groaned, coming to his senses.
12
Onyx
Miraculously, Atticus hadn’t noticed Thorsten with me on the balcony. I could thank the fae servant’s punishment for that. At least, that’s what I assumed since my guard didn’t bring it up. He only praised my performance with a nod and seemed satisfied that I had concluded the job so quickly and without drawing any attention.
The party continued, but we were able to slip out thanks to most of the vamps and the fae servants checking on the injured vamp on the balcony. We walked past the poor fae server passed out on the floor, forgotten like a piece of trash, but I didn’t dare to stop to see if she was still breathing. Peony had gone back to playing on the piano, and the vamp twins were nowhere to be seen.
Atticus and I descended the steps instead of taking the elevator just to be safe. No one came after us as we reached the car and drove off. Upon our return to the mansion, Atticus gave Olwen a summary of the events, and Olwen nodded his approval. He offered me a cold, businesslike smile from his position at the end of the ice table. “I will think of our next steps. Onyx, you may go.”
I nodded and backed out of the Solstice Room, leaving Atticus and Olwen behind. “Thank you.” I had passed the stealth test.
The next few days passed in a blur. I continued my training in the mornings and late afternoons while working on my glamour in between. In the evenings, I attended more vamp parties with Atticus. The vamps threw them often and had servants in every corner, which made it easy to blend in. The second party took place in a mansion, and the third, in a decked-out warehouse. On my third outing, I insisted on not using any disguise but just glamour, proud when I was able to maintain it the whole night even when I caught sight of my lecherous ex PE teacher at Nocturnal Academy.
Despite seeing a plethora of rich and influential vamps, I didn’t see Vulthus at any of the parties. As for my victims, I stuck to low-level guards who took off to take breaks and made for easy pickings.
Each time my heart raced, but not because of my task—no, knocking out stray vampires came almost too easy to me—but because I kept scanning the business vamps and the rowdy college crowd for the tall Viking. Thorsten wasn’t anywhere. He hadn’t returned. And even though I wanted to be furious with him and relieved that he was staying away from me, I instead felt sad for his situation and even sadder that I hadn’t seen him again. He had also once again managed to pique my curiosity.
Why open up to me and fight through magic to leave me that note? I wanted to write it off as more mind games, but I couldn’t. He had seemed so genuine. Or maybe I was being a fool, again.
By the fifth night, I was getting impatient both with Olwen for making me do this over and over, and with Thorsten for not coming back. As it was my night off, I had dinner at the mansion, then went to my bedroom and pretended to get ready for bed. But when the clock struck eleven, I slipped downstairs. By now I knew the guards’ routines and was able to avoid them successfully in the hallways. Atticus stayed up all night on Fridays, but he patrolled the outside of the mansion when he wasn’t going to parties with me. I descended into the cellar where I found the person I was looking for polishing silver at a long wooden table.
“Onyx?” Lily said my name as a question, as if she wasn’t sure that I had meant to come here. She had bags under her eyes. She’d been working hard to impress Olwen.
“Lily.” I stepped closer, realizing I hadn’t thought this through. After ignoring her for weeks, I couldn’t just expect to come down here and for things to be back to normal.
Clearly, Lily was much better at this and also a much more forgiving person. She pointed at the chair opposite hers. “Join me.”
I sat down, staring at my hands.
“What’s on your mind?”
I exhaled. “I saw Thorsten.” Why was I telling her this?
She nodded and gave a tiny smile. “I knew he’d find you.”
I blinked. “You did? Why?” How, when I had no idea?
“Because when you’re in love you do reckless things.” A dreamy expression entered her face.
I snorted. “Nobody is in love here. Thorsten is…unstable. He plays games.”
She tilted her head. “Does he, or is he simply terrified of his feelings and vice versa?”
“No.” Unable to sit still, I paced the room. “This is bullshi
t. Thorsten and I barely know each other. We might be attracted to one another, but that’s it. It’s unhealthy.”
Lily gave me a half smile. “Is that why you can’t sleep?”
“I wasn’t tired.”
She moved to a silver bowl. “Yes, I’m sure your daily trainings and outings leave you with a lot of energy.”
I crossed my arms. Lily was still the same observant girl I’d known from school. “Thorsten isn’t good for me.”
Lily put down her silver. “I didn’t say that it was easy. I only said you two have very strong feelings for each other.”
Since I couldn’t exactly argue, I scowled. “It doesn’t matter. He’s a vamp. I’m a fae.”
“Yes, and yet, your paths keep crossing.” She went back to scrubbing.
I shook my head. I couldn’t think like that. I was not free to put love above all else. “I’m going to take a walk and clear my head of this nonsense.”
Wisely, Lily didn’t respond as I hurried back up the stairs and nearly ran into a guard patrolling down the hall. I stepped back and waited for the female fae to pass before slipping out through the back door and into the garden. Olwen had told me he didn’t want me outside after sunset, but his fortress and the surrounding area was protected by strong vamp repelling magic, so I was safe. And yet, Thorsten had managed to watch me and leave a note. Who else could make it up here and how? Was there a trick around the fae protection?
A shudder ran down my spine at the sight of the dark woods, but I didn’t retreat. I had scurried from place to place at Nocturnal Academy, but I was done being a mouse. I wasn’t helpless anymore. I was a fae princess of the Winter Court, a warrior, and I better start acting like one if I wanted to bring down Vulthus.
Being afraid of walking in my own garden would do me no good. I strolled past the first plaza and its ice statues and into the training area. Then I progressed to the pond, letting the moonlight guide me. Sitting down next to the pond, I tapped my foot on the smooth ice, studying the stars it reflected. It was so peaceful out here.
The Nocturnal and Fae Prison Academy Boxset [A Complete Paranormal and Fantasy Series Boxset] Page 49
