by Shania Tyler
His finger trailed away from her face, and he tightened his hold on her hand before leading her on.
“So, are elves allergic to silver, too?”
Allergic? If only sneezing and coughing were the only symptoms of coming into contact with the metal. “Yes, they are allergic.”
“I’m allergic to it as well,” she whispered. It was almost hard to hear her over the growing music.
He turned to look at her. “You are?”
She nodded and said, “I was told it was very rare.” Then her gaze shifted as she smiled. “Hey, we made it!”
Mason turned and saw that they had reached the city center of Morwen.
Her fingers squeezed his as she stared in awe. “Amazing.”
Kelly felt as though she’d been transported to into Mesopotamian times. There was obviously a celebration taking place with the wind and string instruments from ahead playing a tune that would make anyone want to dance. The streets were lit by tall torches, and the stone road was lined with small shops with people selling everything from jewelry to clothes, but she noticed that there were no food stands.
Some children ran past them, and Kelly froze when she noticed their ears. They were all pointed. “Elves,” she whispered. Then she asked, “Why aren’t there any food carts?”
Mason had been stopped by a man who seemed to want to thank him for something, but he quickly rejoined her, “Food is free in all of Asea.”
Her blinked. “No world hunger?”
Mason shook his head and waved at someone else who’d managed to catch his eye. “The government buys the world’s crops and gives it to everyone.”
“Wow,” she whispered. “That’s impressive.”
Mason shrugged, but didn’t seem to care that much about it.
“You don’t think so?”
“Nothing is free,” he said, finally turning back to her. “The government gives the food away, but there is a cost.”
“And that is?” she asked.
“I’ve yet to figure it out, but when I do, I will let you know.”
She shook her head and asked, “Are you sure you’re not simply looking a gift horse in the mouth?”
“I simply do not trust the government.”
“Conspiracy theories . . .” Her words trailed off as her eyes were caught by a woman sitting in the square. She was beautiful with her black hair pulled up into a high ponytail. Her eyes were shining as she stared down at the child she was talking to, but Kelly noticed her hideous scar. It looked as though someone had burned a ring around her neck. As she reached out to the child before her, Kelly also noticed the same burn around her wrist. “What happened to her?” she wondered aloud.
Mason stood behind Kelly and whispered in her ear, “Look around.”
She did, and it was only then that she noticed anyone who wasn’t wearing a scarf or high-necked shirt or dress was burned around the neck. There were few who had no burns, and the children seemed to be unharmed, but more than half of everyone she looked at had been burned. Her hands went to her throat as tears stung her eyes. “What happened?”
“The government happened,” Mason whispered, hoping that now that she’d begin to understand his distrust in the government’s apparent charity.
Kelly turned around to look at him. “How? Why?” Her eyes looked like glass from her unshed tears; her concern for a group of people she didn’t know . . . touched him.
“The elves in Asea are all slaves to the government.”
She leaned back and her hands went to her chest. “What? These people are slaves?”
“No, these are the ones we have managed to free from bondage, but the marks that they wear are from years of silver chains. Silver weakens power abilities in both vampires and elves.”
Kelly’s eyes moved from his to look around her once again. “How awful. Why would they do this? Who makes up your government?”
“The Evaness, our government, are vampires. We drink the blood of elves. Vampire blood does nothing for us.”
She looked at him again. “But you’re a vampire and you freed these people.”
“Not alone, and there are many others who still need to be freed.”
“And all these people trust you.” It wasn’t a question, she saw how everyone here regarded him with respect and gratitude.
“With their lives,” he confessed.
She turned away from him and then back and said, “You’re a good man.”
Mason was impressed with himself for feeling nothing at her words. He was far from a good man. His mission was to avenge his wife and finish the work she’d died for. Sure, he’d made some connections with the elves he’d grown to know, but that didn’t make him good. “I’m just a man.” Then he looked up and said, “Well, and a vampire.”
“You don’t seem used to compliments yourself,” she accused, reminding him of the words he’d said to her when they’d first met and he’d told her just how beautiful she was.
But the truth was, he didn’t receive many compliments, because those who knew him knew they were undeserved. “This is why we need your help, Kelly. You are more powerful than you know.”
She smiled up at him. “You really think so?”
He touched her cheek and said, “I do.”
Kelly closed her eyes at his touch and when she opened them, she found herself locked in the death grip of his sexy, hooded green eyes. “Are my powers the only reason you want me?”
He growled and moved closer to her.
Kelly shivered and braced her hands on his shoulders. Then their bodies pressed together, the desire they’d been holding back seemed to unleash itself over them, flowing through them and molding them into one.
Mason’s head bent. Kelly leaned in and they both moaned as their mouths met. Kelly quivered with the need to feel his flesh against her and slid her hand to the back of his neck as Mason deepened the kiss. Kelly lifted onto her toes and curled into his body and gasped when she felt him grow against her belly.
He groaned and sucked on her parted lips before slipping his tongue into her mouth. One hand held the back of her neck while the other slid down until he’d was palming her ass.
This was a kiss. This was a man who actually wanted her. And she wanted him. She wanted him deep inside her.
Kelly actually tried to lift her legs around him to fit his growing member against her mound, but she was wearing too many layers and the frustration made her almost frantic.
Mason broke the kiss and grabbed her wrist, forcing her to calm down. “You’re inexperienced,” he told her through breaths.
Cold rain couldn’t have shocked her more and instead of trying to climb him like a monkey, she tried to pull away from him, but he wouldn’t let go.
Still struggling from her embarrassment, he yanked her forcibly against him and whispered in her ear. “It’s all right. I’m a good teacher.”
She stilled and leaned back to look into his eyes. “Are you going to teach me?”
If possible, the desire in his eyes grew more intense. “Is that what you want?”
“Yes,” she said boldly.
A muscle jumped in his cheek, and his nostrils flared, but he didn’t reply.
The same group of kids they’d seen upon their arrival bumped into them. Hard.
Mason swung Kelly away to keep her from falling and would have been able to catch himself, except for the fact that another kid bumped him and then someone purposefully pushed him. Mason felt something leave his neck as he hit the house.
He immediately touched the place where he’d been keeping his blood key and froze. The kids had stolen it.
“Mason, are you all right—”
“Go back to the mansion!” He jumped to his feet and ran after the kids.
* * *
7
CHAPTER
SEVEN
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* * *
I’m not leaving …
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Kelly didn’t listen . . . at first.
At first, she tried to run alongside Mason and to help where she could, but then he’d picked up speed and became a blur before completely leaving her sight. She wondered why Mason was chasing the kids, but learned quickly that she’d just have to ask him when he returned.
So, she turned around and started for the mansion.
She’d caught a few glances from the villagers and some were even friendly enough to wave at her, but a few people were steering clear of her. A mother and child took pains to avoid making contact with her skin as they walked past her on the cart-lined narrow path.
She frowned at this and the urge to go home grew.
But then she remembered what Mason had said about her supposedly saving the world. She didn’t take him seriously, though the knowledge that she was allergic to silver had her leaning toward the idea that maybe there was something different about her. And how had she learned the language here so quickly?
And then there was the even larger nagging point in the back of her mind. The one she didn’t want to deal with.
Her parents weren’t her parents.
When he’d first said the words to her in her room, Kelly had pushed them away to deal with later, not wanting to face the truth in his presence.
But now that she was alone . . .
She had admitted that she’d always thought her parents were not hers, though she thought it funny that she looked a lot like them. They were both blond haired and blue eyed like her, and her nose and mouth were similar to her mother’s. Her nose had a full slope and soft lift at the end and her mouth was small, but full. But where her parents had the palest skin she’d ever seen, Kelly had a year-round tan. She was gold, like the dry beach sand on the coast, and in the summer, she could get a little darker than that, to the point that she’d been asked if she were mixed with something, especially since her blonde hair had its chaotic days.
She’d always laughed whenever someone had asked her that, but her color would quickly change back to that crème color come winter while her parents’ skin tones would either get red under the sun or turn pallid white in winter.
Her parents had never been cruel, and she would be the first one to say that they’d given her everything she’d ever wanted or needed while growing up. They were paying for her education and had stressed success.
But the one thing Kelly never felt from her parents was love.
Her father, Dr. Jacob Green, was the head of surgery at the Morwen University Hospital and her mother was a nurse there. Kelly had been left with sitters more often than not while growing up, though she’d never complained. The sitters had been friendly and more than one had shown Kelly the love that her parents hadn’t given her.
They wished her success. They believed in her. They were genuinely nice people, but she’d always felt a distance from them that she could never quite close.
They aren’t kid people, adults had told Kelly early in life and she knew that to be right. She had no siblings, though she remembered begging them for one.
She shook her head as she started up the stairs to the mansion.
“Kelly.”
Her heart leaped at the sound of a familiar voice, and she turned. “Ethan?”
Ethan stood in the crowd of people. His blue eyes were wild with wonder and his blond hair was pushed back from his face. He was wearing dark jeans, a black turtleneck, and looked more handsome than she ever remembered seeing him.
He scowled. “Kelly, what are you wearing?” He ran to her and grabbed her arm.
Kelly briefly thought about how her body did not react to the guy she’d dated for years. Not the way it did with Mason. With Ethan, his fingers were just that—fingers. “Uh, a dress?”
“Did someone touch you?” he asked her, his grip tightening.
Kelly scoffed. “Like you have the right to ask me that. What are you even doing here? How did you get here?”
He sucked his teeth and yanked her back down the stairs and said, “We’ve got to go.”
Kelly dug her heels in the stone and dirt underneath her feet. “Wait.”
Ethan didn’t listen and continued to drag her. “We’ve got to get back before that vampire realizes you’re gone.”
“Oh, my god!” She hit his hand until he let her go. “You knew he was a vampire, didn’t you? That’s why you told him to stay away from me at the event.”
Ethan flexed his injured hand and said, “Yeah, I mean, couldn’t you tell something was off about the guy? Those eyes.”
Kelly shook her head and continued to stare at Ethan. He looked so different in the torch lights. It was like his gorgeousness had been heightened somehow. She chalked that up to the fact that they hadn’t seen each other in days. This had actually been the first time she’d gone so long without seeing him since . . . middle school?
Even as a little girl, he’d visited her whenever she was sick at home from school, bringing her homework so she wouldn’t fall behind. The only trips she’d ever gone on away from Connecticut had been with the class, and Ethan had always been in her class. She’d never gone more than a day without seeing him and now they’d been apart for three days.
Crazy how close they’d been.
He looked at her, a scowl still on his face. “We’ve got to go back.”
Kelly touched his cheek and sighed. He was an hour and a deep kiss too late for that. “I can’t go. I’m needed here.”
Ethan’s appeared dumbstruck. “What?” He shook his head. “Kelly, you cannot stay here with that vampire. Do you know what vampires do?”
Kelly frowned. “Mason would never hurt me.” And she firmly believed that. She’d seen all the people who trusted him. Since meeting Mason, he’d saved her from a shadow and touched her in ways that made her feel precious and wanted.
Ethan grabbed both of Kelly’s arms and stared into her eyes. “Kelly, he’s probably hypnotized you. You need to come back to school where it is safe and so I can protect you.”
Kelly’s considered. Had Mason hypnotized her? Were those shamrock eyes the reason she wanted him so bad? She laughed. He could have her. God, just one night . . .
Ethan shook her. “Kelly! I can’t leave you here.”
“Why not?” she asked him, snapping out of her daze. “Why can’t you leave me, Ethan?” She waited for his answer.
Ethan held her eyes and when he moved in to kiss her, Kelly didn’t stop him. She needed it. She’d dedicated eight years of her life to this man. He’d was supposed to be the one. She needed to know if Ethan could go through with it, if he could kiss her the way a man did when he truly wanted a woman. She was tired of feeling like his sister, or dear friend. She wanted him to show her . . .
Their lips had barely touched before he pulled away. “Kelly, there are more important things.”
She huffed in frustration. “I’m not leaving. I’m not going back to parents who aren’t mine and a boyfriend who doesn’t want me.”
“But what about Piper and Meg?” he asked her. “Don’t you at least want to go back for your friends?”
She blinked past the pain of him not telling her he wanted her and said, “Why are you not reacting to the news that my parents are not my parents?”
He closed his eyes. “Kelly, listen, I—”
Her body was jerked back, and she noticed all around her that people were clearing the road. The sounds of metal sliding against metal filled the air, and she looked around to notice she was surrounded.
* * *
8
CHAPTER
EIGHT
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* * *
Do not kill him …
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A dozen or more men dressed in dark clothes had all pulled out swords that were diamond-encrusted around the handles and their eyes were all trained on Ethan. She recognized two of the men as Theo and Maurice, who had a very evil gleam in his eyes as he
separated himself from the group. Maurice was the only one who hadn’t pulled a weapon. Instead, he pulled what looked like a lighter and cigarette from his pants’ pocket, cupped it to his face, and then proceeded to blow smoke in the air.
She looked up and found that Theo was holding her to him, but even his eyes were on Ethan and a blade rested in his free hand. Kelly’s throat tightened as fear gripped her. “No, please, don’t hurt him.”
“Quiet,” Theo told her.
“No, please, he’s just my boyfriend. He’s only—”
“Ready to die?” Maurice asked, speaking around the cigarette in his mouth. Kelly wanted to kick him in the face for being so annoying, but was glad he hadn’t pulled a weapon yet. There was hope.
Kelly was already shaking her head, but then stilled as she watched Ethan pull a blade of his own from his side. His face was a blank mask as he wielded his weapon forward; he held it with the firm grip of a man who knew what he was doing with it. He held it with a confidence of a man who’d fought before or at least had practiced.
“I am not leaving without Kelly,” Ethan said in a calm voice as he slightly bent his knee and bounced on it twice. His back foot pivoted, and it was then that Kelly knew that Ethan had fought before.
But he was surrounded, and there was no way for him to defeat everyone. Kelly didn’t want to lose Ethan.
