“Indeed.”
I got up off the floor and rubbed my hands against my jeans in a nervous gesture. It seemed strange to just return to the couch. I eyed the blood splatter on the door and wondered if I should clean it up. Eh… he had humans for that… right? I mean, weren't they around to be his personal slaves?
I turned to peruse his books. I didn't want to look at him. His calm acceptance of what we were, and his lack of commiseration over my present situation, irked me to no end. I wondered if he even had a heart. Nikolai seemed the type to not care for anyone but himself. I heard him move to his desk and fiddle with a drawer. The silence made my skin crawl, especially as it gave me time to consider how much I didn't like him and how much I was presently in the wrong—which I didn't like either.
“Hey, Nikolai, is it safe for me to be around your—er—food source?” I asked turning back toward him. Belatedly I realized I hadn't retained even one of the titles I'd read.
Nikolai smirked. “You'll have to learn to control yourself sometime, better to do it with me here to help. And you can call me Nik.”
I nodded. “What would have happened if I had bitten her?”
“You'd have drunk her blood until I stopped you. Had it been a complete stranger you would have killed them, or I would have had to—to maintain our secret.”
My head snapped up. “What?”
“No one can know about us. If the human world knew about the mystical world, they would rise up against us.”
“Would that be such a bad thing?” I suddenly felt very depressed.
“Consider the Salem witch trials. A lot of innocent people died while very few witches did. Humans knowing only ever hurts other humans. We’re too good at hiding.”
Whether I liked it or not, it made sense. Again, his casual acceptance of our horrid existence made me want to vomit—all over him. I tried to pull my mind back to my present issues. “Do you think I could apologize to Shirley… and the others?”
Nik smiled at me in a way I had never seen before. It made me kind of uncomfortable. He nodded and stepped closer to me.
“When we go down there, and you feel the desire taking over, take a few deep breaths—through your mouth. I'll be right beside you, and with one look I'll have you out of there before you can hurt anyone.”
I nodded. The older vampire took my hand and led me out of the library. He ignored the shattered glass, so I did too. We found them in the kitchen—which was simply one part of the enormous, L-shaped room that held the kitchen, dining room, and living room. The living room—or long part of the L—held a grand piano, a mini library, a few different sitting areas and still enough space to waltz in. And I mean that literally. Definitely large enough for a royal ball.
Just like the living room, the kitchen was equally impressive. The cabinets were a light, beautiful cherry, with speckled granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. In the center of the enormous kitchen was a large island, around which the majority of the humans stood. Dan sat on the farthest counter, his head a foot above the others. I felt very self-conscious as we interrupted their discussion—about me.
“Everyone, this is Ashley Hawn. You already know Shirley and Dan.” Dan waved. “That's Liam, Nathan, Charlotte, Olivia, Parker, Ian, Logan, and Mark. Ashley will be staying with us for a while, until she gets her sea legs.”
They all looked at me as if they didn't know what to say. Some nodded. One or two scowled. Shirley smiled—typical Miss America contestant. “Hey guys… ” I began sheepishly. Gosh I sounded like an idiot. “Sorry for the whole… pointy teeth grr thing.” I held up two fingers to mimic my “big, sharp, pointy teeth.”
Most of them nodded again, almost in unison. Dan, on the other hand, laughed. I felt Nik pat me on the shoulder. Dan's laughter seemed to be the cue for everyone to relax. I spent the next couple of hours chatting with them, Nikolai at my side. It wasn't easy being around so many humans, their heart beats pounding in my head like an off-tempo bass line, but each time I felt the pressure in my gums start to form, I took a deep breath through my mouth and Nik squeezed my arm to the point of pain. It was exhausting.
I found myself wishing Dan and I had met under different circumstances. Though he was a few years younger than me, I quickly began to like him. He was an average, hardworking sort of student. Nothing spectacular about him in the least. I didn't picture him as a Calvin Klein model or anything like that, and after the day I'd had, normal seemed like a very good thing.
Just when the humans were suggesting they all go to bed, something strange happened. We heard a loud crash from the living room. Nikolai led the way around the corner, into the other room. My instinct was to expect a cat and a broken vase. Instead, we found one of the living room windows shattered, and five humans and two wolves—yes wolves—taking turns climbing through the hole.
Chapter Eight
Though I’ve never been in a room full of wolves, these seemed slightly larger than the normal kind. I wasn’t sure what to make of them, especially considering the intelligent way they eyed each of us.
I heard Shirley shriek in fright while many of the men, including Nik, stepped forward, as if to defend the women. Gallant, yet stupid.
“What are you doing in my home?” Nikolai growled. The rage in his voice made me shiver, though the words he used seemed far from adequate considering the situation.
“Give us the girl and we'll leave your humans alive,” said the centermost man. He was beefy, in a body builder sort of way. The others, though well-muscled, didn’t look like they used steroids. Nikolai glanced at me before shaking his head. I breathed an instinctual sigh of relief. I'd worried he would give in, knowing what he thought about my continued existence. Perhaps I imagined it, but it looked as though his shoulders slumped in defeat.
Did he know what was about to happen? I sure didn't.
The bulky spokesperson shrugged as if he hadn't expected any other response. With a motion of his hand, his followers attacked. Shirley shrieked again. Without thinking, I pushed her back and placed myself between her and the attackers. Unsurprisingly, Nikolai was trying to do the same thing to me—push me back to protect me. His male humans, on the other hand, were charging forward to defend him.
“Get back, Ash!” he ordered. Why was he protecting me while his humans were left defenseless? Though Josh had made it clear that vamps could be killed, we had to be more durable than humans. “Use silver,” he added a second too late.
One of his humans, Nathan I believe, went down first, his neck snapped by one of the attackers. Ian was grappling with one of the enormous wolves. Liam was doing a far sight better. He had pulled a switch blade from his pocket and had already punctured his opponent's stomach. Mark joined Ian in that battle.
The sudden smell of blood had me gasping for breath, hoping to maintain control. Suddenly the women standing behind me seemed more like targets than victims. I breathed through my mouth, hoping to eliminate the smell. A gust of wind that smelled of rotting foliage and salt water blew in from the broken window, giving me a chance to clear my head.
The other men had rushed forward to defend their home and vampire. Parker and Ian were fighting with one of the wolves. Parker's left arm hung uselessly from his body while blood dripped off his fingertips. I turned my attention away, determined not to think of it as food. This meant all the men were in the battle, leaving the leader, one wolf and two human attackers unchallenged. Nik moved forward, forced to go on the offensive. He grabbed Logan's attacker and rammed his hand into the man's chest, tearing out his heart. Nik dropped it on the floor and moved his attention to the leader, who had tried to sneak past him.
Despite Liam and Mark's early advantage, their attacker quickly had Mark lying on the floor and Liam limping toward the grand piano nestled in the corner. This left Charlotte unprotected. A wolf jumped forward, launching over a chair and charging at her. For a split second, Charlotte looked as though she were going to fight. At the last moment, though, she bolted f
or the sliding glass doors on the other side of the enormous formal dining room table.
I lunged into the path of the wolf, figuring I had a better chance of killing it than any of the humans. I grabbed it by the cuff of the neck. It yelped in surprise and tried to turn on me, but I was just strong enough to keep my grip. I tried to use Nikolai's technique and punched the wolf in the rib, expecting my fist to slide through its torso, but evidently I was too weak to pull it off. The wolf yelped again, I heard the faint sound of cracking ribs, but my fist stopped short of his heart by a long shot. I hit it again and again with my free hand until it collapsed, blood gurgling out of its mouth.
The sounds of the continuing battle kept me from getting too distracted by the wolf's blood and just how much I wanted to suck him dry. It smelled different from the humans. I was intrigued.
By this time, Liam had been killed and his attacker had slipped by me. Shirley lay by my feet, her body broken and bleeding. One of the strange men had Charlotte cornered on the other side of the dinner table. I jumped onto the mahogany table and pounced on him just as he snapped Charlotte's neck. I dropped him to the ground, my knee digging into his back. I didn't know what else to do, so I took hold of one of his arms and pulled with all my might. It dislocated with my first effort and the man screamed. Instead of repeating the effort with his other arm, I grabbed his head and twisted it as I had seen people do in movies. It complied with my efforts and the man went limp.
When I stood back up, the battle was fairly well over. One of the attackers, long cuts marring his back, was escaping out the window. The rest of our opponents lay dead on the floor, intermixed with the bodies of Nikolai's humans. None of them had made it through the unexpected battle. Before I could feel pity or any form of sadness, the desire I had been able to ignore until now came surging back. I gasped. My gums exploded in pain again, my canines extending from somewhere in my head. I grabbed someone that lay at my feet and sank my teeth into it.
The flow of warm blood seeped down my throat. Rather than soothing me, my inhuman desire built until I thought I would explode. It was agony and ecstasy all intermingled. I wanted it to stop, and yet I didn’t. I ripped into the flesh, reveling in the way my sharp teeth shredded it. When I had drunk the body dry, I looked up long enough to see Nikolai watching me. I couldn't define the look in his eyes. It was a strange mix of disgust, anger, sadness, and hatred. It cut through the haze of longing still burning through my veins. I looked down to see Charlotte's black hair draping over the shoulder I had bitten into, some of the hair stuck to the blood on my face. What had I done?
Without thinking further, I released her limp body and escaped through the sliding glass door stationed behind me. Now, when I say through, I don't mean I opened it and ran away. Oh no, that was not dramatic enough of an exit. I went straight through the glass, receiving numerous cuts along my face and arms, and charged forward.
The salty breeze told me the house was stationed near the Puget Sound. I ran toward the lapping water and dove in, ignoring the sting of salt water in my cuts. With trembling hands, I scrubbed at the blood—a mixture of mine and Charlotte’s most likely—as salty tears streamed down to mix with the ocean water. My crying grew until I was shaking with each sob. I couldn't scrub any more.
Before I could even consider Nikolai or what he might be doing, I felt a pair of hands grab my shoulders and pull me to my feet. The water continued to lap against us as a cold breeze added a shiver to my trembling. Strange. I thought vampires had skin like stone—the type that couldn't be cut by anything or frozen by sea breezes. I guess I really don't know anything about vampires.
“I'm sorry,” I said, pulling away from his touch.
“Ashley, look at me. In there, with all that blood, even I had trouble controlling myself… and after three hundred years, my control is nearly perfect. You were turned yesterday. I never would have expected you to maintain your cool. The fact you managed to fight at all is very impressive.” He sounded condescending to my ears, and the irritation I felt toward him allowed me to forget the massacre inside his house. He continued in a more businesslike tone. “We need to get out of here.”
“I can't go back in there!”
“We need to get ourselves cleaned up. Mikhail will send someone else to deal with that, but we can't go around town covered in blood and wolf bits.”
“Please don't make me go back in there,” I begged, completely out of pride. Tears streamed down my face again and I began to shake. Nik slapped me again, though not nearly as hard as when he had slapped me in the library.
“Pull it together,” he demanded. “Go round to the garage, I'll meet you there.” Before I could respond, he was gone. How did he move so quickly? If I had more energy, I would have tried to copy it. But I didn't.
Chapter Nine
I trudged around the house, desperately wishing it was considerably smaller. The tears continued to dribble from my eyes. I tried not to think about all the people who had lost their lives because of me. They had died to protect me, and I could barely remember their names.
I should have been the one to die. Had Nik given me over to them, none of this would have happened. I now had two reasons not to like him: first that he wanted to kill me, and second that he wouldn't do it when it was needed. I realize those two emotions don't jive, but I couldn't help but feel both. I hated the idea of him killing me for the convenience of his seethe. On the other hand, I wanted him to sacrifice me rather than innocent, weak humans. I was very confused inside.
By the time I got there, Nikolai was waiting for me, dressed in a more casual, less bloodstained outfit—designer jeans and a snugly fitting knit sweater. He led me to a large SUV that read “Land Rover” across the back. I literally had to climb into the passenger seat.
“Are you in the phone book?” Nikolai asked as he backed the Land Rover out of the enormous garage and turned the vehicle around. I shook my head. “What about the Internet? Have you advertised your address there?”
“Like on Facebook?”
“Anywhere.”
“I don't even have Internet, thus no Facebook account. Internet costs money. Does this mean we're going to my place?” I asked.
“I guess. It's that or a hotel. I'm just not sure if it's safe at your place. The werewolves already knew where I live, so it's no surprise they found us there. Though how they knew you were with me…?” He trailed off with a shrug.
Shock cut through my haze of exhaustion. “Werewolves?”
Nikolai nodded. “Just assume that pretty much any myth you've heard is true to some extent.”
I shivered. By this time, we were out on the main road leading back to Olympia. Nikolai pulled his cell phone out again and pushed the speed dial. “Nik?” Mikhail asked in an exasperated tone. It was weird to hear both sides of the conversation. Evidently being a vampire had its perks.
“The wolves attacked.”
“Attacked what?”
“Us,” snapped my guide. I had a feeling he was the only one in the seethe who could snap at Mikhail and live through it. I wondered who was older. “My house. Ashley and I are the only two who survived. One of them escaped.”
“The wolves?”
“Yes,” sighed Nikolai.
“Do you know what they wanted?”
“What do you think?” Nik glanced at me.
“The girl?”
“Exactly.”
I shivered again.
“This is getting complicated,” Mikhail said. There was silence on the other end. “Take her somewhere safe before the sun comes up. Tomorrow night, bring her to the club. Hopefully by then I will have some information for you.”
Nikolai didn't respond, but hung up and tossed the phone into my lap.
“So where are we going?”
“Your place I guess. I don't like hotels. Too many people with master keys. Not that your place is exactly the Tower of London.”
“Lot smaller.”
Nikolai ignored me. I was n
early asleep when he parked the Land Rover two blocks from my apartment. I didn’t ask how he knew where I lived; maybe Josh had told him. I was too tired to care. I stumbled out and followed him. We ascended the stairs as quietly as possible and entered my dark apartment. I felt weak when I noticed the faint hint of yellow lining the horizon through my window. I moved to the one window and pulled the heavy drapery across it. Luckily I liked to sleep in and had splurged on the one black-out curtain. My new friend and guardian shut the door, noted the broken lock, and pushed my four-drawer dresser in front of it. He turned to stare at my tiny apartment.
“I didn't have much in the way of expectations… but… this is pathetic.”
“Bite me,” I snapped.
Nik cocked an eyebrow at me. It took me a second to realize my mistake. That was an invitation to a vampire.
“Do you expect another attack?” I asked, eyeing my small home and trying not to imagine it littered with bodies.
“The only people who know where you live are Isaac and his seethe, and they won't be attacking during the day. Why don't you clean up and get some sleep.”
I obediently went into my bathroom. It was hard to tell what color my clothing had originally been. My shirt and pants just looked brownish-red. I reached up and touched my hair. It was matted and crusty with dried blood. My fingers stopped on something that felt like a finger. I tore it out and dropped it in the toilet. It wasn’t a finger, but it was a body part of some sort. I flushed the toilet.
I took a long shower that included a lot of scrubbing. When my skin had turned pink, I let the hot water pound against my back. My small water heater eventually ran out and I climbed out. I dressed in my warm, concealing pajamas—a psychological protection from the jerk waiting for me in my apartment.
In the main room of my apartment, I found Nik sitting on the foot of my bed, staring at his hands. The wrinkles in his fingers were still stained with blood. He rubbed absently at one of his knuckles while watching my cat head-butt him in the shins. The look on his face made my heart twist.
The Series that Just Plain Sucks: The Complete Trilogy Page 5
