“How was school today?” Peter asked, tossing the paper into the trash.
“Fine,” I said.
“You feeling any more like yourself?” Zoe asked.
I kept my eyes on the floor, blinking a few times so that I wouldn’t cry. It meant a lot that they cared. Cameron wasn’t around as much. Not since Abby died and I’d left school without telling him and then been out for a few weeks. I got it. I did. But I missed him.
As if on cue, he appeared on the stairs from the second floor.
“Hey, Cam,” I hollered.
He turned and smiled. Today he wore his curly black hair cropped super short, like he’d just gotten it cut. His brown eyes were sad against his handsome face, but his clothes were as fashion forward as ever. He wore pink jeans with a black button down shirt and black and pink suede shoes. “Hey, Jack.” The diamond studs he wore on his ears sparkled in the light from the window as he turned back around and kept walking. But his smile gave me hope.
“Can I catch up with you two at Pops’ house later?”
“Okay. We’re leaving at seven,” Zoe said, her lips pursed tightly.
“I’ll be there,” I responded and then ran after Cam. I needed to talk to him. No time like the present to make things right. “Cam,” I hollered when he reached the bottom step and kept walking. “Wait a sec.”
He didn’t stop and my heart sank. Cam hadn’t forgiven me. In fact, it seemed like he didn’t care at all. But I couldn’t stop trying.
“Cam,” I shouted again.
He seemed to walk faster. Two could play at that game. When he went out the front doors, I started running. I pushed open the door and paused, looking in both directions to see which way he went.
He was at the curb and getting into a suped-up red and black Camaro. Just before he slammed the door, his eyes met mine. They were angry but mostly sad.
“Ugh,” I shouted, as he drove away, pounding my fists against my thighs and stomping one booted foot.
“Damn, freak. What’d those jeans ever do to you?” Drake snickered as he and his friend walked over.
I tried to push past them down the steps, but Drake grabbed the edge of my American Eagle tee shirt and held on. My history book fell, spilling papers everywhere.
“Don’t walk away from me, freak. Didn’t your freak parents ever teach you that’s rude?”
I gulped down my fear. There was no one around, no one to help, and I no longer had my vampire strength. “What do you want?” I asked through clenched teeth, trying not to let the fact that I was scared show.
He sneered. “What do we want from the freak, Sam?”
The guy with him that I guessed was Sam ran his hands down the front of my shirt, grabbing the loops of my jeans. “I think the freak should keep us company. She may be weird but she’s got a kick ass body.”
Drake huffed. “Yeah, no. Why don’t you go get your car and pull it around to the front while I stay here with her?”
“Sure thing, man.” Sam went down the steps and took a left toward the student parking lot. When he was out of sight, Drake gave me a once over.
“I know what you are. You’re disgusting and shouldn’t be in this realm.” Spit from his mouth hit my cheek while he spoke.
I wiped it away. “What do you mean?” I asked, even though I somehow knew he knew what I was. Even though it was impossible.
He wrapped my tee shirt around his fist, pulling me closer. “I know you’re a vampire. I can smell it on you.”
That surprised me. “Like right now you can?”
“Yes, you reek.”
I don’t know why but knowing that he knew made me happy. “Really? So what are you, then?”
His face got close to mine and I could smell his breath. It was a gross mixture of Mountain Dew and something else. I wasn’t sure what. “I’m a chayot, Jack. Ever heard of us?”
I gasped. “Whoa. My uncle Gabe used to be the leader of the chayot.”
“You know Gabe?” He leaned back a little shocked.
I shrugged. “We aren’t close. He lives in a different realm now, but yeah, like I said, he’s my uncle.”
Drake snorted. “Your uncle is an idiot. Anyone who would give up leadership of the chayot and turn away from his calling deserves eternal…”
He was interrupted by the appearance of an elfin woman. I felt my heart lurch at seeing her. In the human realm.
Midnight blue smoke swirled around her momentarily and then dissipated. She had blue-gray skin, ebony eyes, and long straight navy blue hair. Her clothes were steel leather. Black leather straps crisscrossed between her breasts, supporting what I guessed was a double sword harness from the look of the two sword handles that poked out behind either side of her head.
“Where did you come from?” Drake yelped. Even I heard the fear in his voice.
“The elven realm,” she said, stepping forward so that she and Drake were toe to toe. She was as tall as he was, nearly six feet. Drake moved back, but she took hold of the front of his shirt, giving him a vicious glare. “You are chayot though not a good one. Evil flows through your veins.” She inhaled deeply through her nose, her eyes narrowed into two slits. “I can see it.”
Drake’s mouth gaped open like a broken breadbox. “I don’t—” His face began to turn red. It looked like she was suffocating him. Yeah, I wasn’t a fan of Drake, but I didn’t want him to die.
“Hey. Stop. You’re hurting him.” I grabbed her hand. But as soon as I touched it, a vision filled my mind. One where the world was covered in darkness and the only light came from one woman. She was a vampire. Beautiful. Cruel. Not at all like my mom, Snow White, the Vampire Queen. And worst of all, she had my wings. I screamed.
The elf turned momentarily my direction. “You. What a waste.” She gave me a once over and clicked her tongue in her mouth. “You’ll be taken care of soon enough.” She twisted my hand off hers and flung me away. I landed on the ground at the bottom of the stairs and the concrete dug into my already tender back.
Facing Drake she said, “The Mistress will enjoy feeding from your essence and turning you into one of her underlings.” Drake’s body went slack and crumpled like a puppet without strings.
“What have you done?” I stood on wobbly legs. My back felt wet, like it was bleeding. It was a sensation I wasn’t used to. Physical pain was still new to me.
She turned back and smiled. “Don’t worry, Jasmine. The Mistress has plans for you as well.”
Drake’s body seemed to disintegrate right before my eyes.
“He’s gone to the Mistress. You’ll see him again. Without question. And he’ll be better than ever.” She vanished the same way she’d come, with a whoosh.
I stumbled back, hitting the stair rail. Pain blasted through my body again but I barely felt it. Shock over watching Drake die and turn to nothingness overwhelmed all my senses. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to gather my strength. Ever since Maleficent took my wings I’d been so weak.
“Hey, Jasmine. You alright?”
Without seeing him I knew it was Laeddin. A slight wind blew his scent toward me. I didn’t crave his blood anymore, but he had a particular aroma—exotic spices and oranges—that was mouth-watering. I took another deep breath. “Yeah, I’m fine.” I opened my eyes, drinking him in.
Laeddin was gorgeousness personified. His dark, slightly too long hair and aquamarine eyes against tan skin and a muscled body were like a digital painting.
Each of his wrists was tattooed in black tribal cuffs. To the general population the tattoos didn’t say much, except maybe he’d gone through a rebellious phase. But to those who understood the supernatural world, the marks declared Laeddin was a genie.
Laeddin didn’t wear the normal attire for a genie. He had on a faded pair of jeans and red tee shirt, the kind that cost six hundred bucks a piece. Behind him was his white Mercedes convertible. The top was still down due to the unseasonably warm weather we were having.
It was nearly
December, but no one was wearing coats. The temperature had been hovering in the seventies for weeks, like an unexplained phenomenon. No one knew why. It was warm everywhere.
As he’d said many times, I was his master. I’d saved him from the same fate as his brothers, becoming a demura and then disappearing into the ether. But I hadn’t freed him, and every time I saw his tattoos I was reminded of my failure. I’d meant to free him, but Maleficent had played me. Laeddin and I couldn’t be together while I was his master and he was my servant. At least that was what he’d said.
“You sure?” He came forward and picked up my book and scattered papers.
“Yeah.” I tried to stand, but fell back.
Laeddin dropped my books and ran over. “You are not fine, Princess.” He put an arm around my waist and I flinched. “What the hell?” He glanced at my back. “Your shirt is soaked with blood.” He helped me stand.
“Thanks,” I whispered.
“Come on. Let’s get you home.” His breath brushed against my cheek. It was like a sultry night cruising through the sky on his magic carpet.
I leaned into him. “Sounds good.”
He picked up my book and papers and then helped me into his car. When I was buckled he started the engine and drove away.
I tried to get comfortable, but when my shirt caught against my back I cried out. Laeddin sped up, pushing the car to get home faster. I closed my eyes and imagined I was flying with Sabrina. We chased a flock of blackbirds, diving through clouds and spinning through trees. Leaves whipped against my cheek. I felt the sting and my eyes watered. As we cruised along the babbling stream I stuck my hand in, allowing the cool water to tickle my fingers.
“We’re here,” Laeddin said softly. He turned off the engine. I opened my eyes and sighed. In reality there was no Sabrina. No wings. No flying.
Ever.
Again.
A sob ripped from my throat.
Laeddin came around and helped me out of the car.
“Can’t I wish the pain away? Or wish my wings back?” I pleaded with my eyes and my heart.
His arm brushed against my back. “Not without serious consequences.”
I stamped my foot. “Well maybe I don’t care about the consequences.”
Laeddin let out a ragged breath. “I told you not to do it.” He shut the car door and walked up to the house.
I froze. It had occurred to be what I’d said. When I traded my wings away, it’d been to protect Laeddin. I hadn’t wanted him to disappear like his brothers had. Sure, they were no longer demura, but they no longer existed either. Maleficent agreed to keep Laeddin just as he was if I agreed to give her my wings. “Crap,” I hissed, following him inside.
I found him at a cupboard in the kitchen. “I’m sorry, Laeddin. I didn’t mean it,” I said, falling onto a kitchen stool, letting my head smack against the counter.
“Yes, you did. And that’s okay. I’ve been alive a long time. Lived my life. You shouldn’t have agreed to Maleficent’s deal.” I heard him set something on the counter and looked up. It was a plastic tote full of bandages, ointment, creams, sprays, and other items I didn’t know how to use.
“What are you going to do?” I asked, eyeing the tote nervously. While I’d never seen him use any of that stuff, my body responded to it. Pain was in my future.
Laeddin set a can of something labeled antiseptic on the counter and went to the sink where he washed his hands with hand soap. Then he took a washcloth from a drawer next to the sink and turned the water all the way to hot. “We need to take care of your back before infection sets in.” After a few moments, steam rose upward into his face, making his dark hair curl at the ends. I watched, fascinated. Once he was happy with the temperature, he got the washcloth wet, turned off the water, and wrung out the cloth. “This is going to hurt, but I need to clean out your injury and take a look at it.”
I nodded, too scared to say anything.
“Take off your shirt,” he said when he stood behind me.
It was crazy, but my face got hot. To cover up my embarrassment, I quickly pulled off the shirt.
“Unhook your bra. I would, but my hands are clean and I want to keep them that way.”
My face burned and I reached back and unhooked it, letting it fall to the sides. I heard his breath suck in and had a thought. “Can’t you just, you know, make it better with your genie magic?”
“I could,” he began, “but if I healed your back with my magic without cleaning everything out first, I might seal in some kind of infection, or worse.”
“Sure, but if that happened couldn’t you just use your magic to fix that too.” I thought about my magic. Since I was created by magic, surely my mom could have healed me. I could have too, if I had my wings. Using my wish to make my wings disappear had taken my magic. Maleficent ripping my wings out of me had taken all my vampire abilities. So now I was just a regular human, wasn’t I?
“My magic isn’t like yours. It doesn’t come from the source. It came from Maleficent. So, while it’s powerful, it’s also deceptive, which was Maleficent’s intention, I’m sure. The power I possess takes a wish literally.”
That made sense. “Okay.” My body trembled, my nerve endings responding to the anticipation of the hurt I would feel. “I’m just not used to pain.”
“I know, Princess, and I’m sorry.” He pressed the washcloth gently against my back.
I let out a scream, my body intuitively trying to shrink away from the pain.
“Hang on,” he said, his voice soothing.
I gritted my teeth. My instincts raged, demanding I turn around and end the genie because doing so would end the pain. But I held still. After a moment he started to pat at the open wounds and a whole new set of pain seeped through my body. I started to pant. “Please. Stop,” I begged.
“Almost finished. Be strong,” Laeddin murmured.
I slammed my hands into fists, watching them turn white as the blood left the area. I focused on them until Laeddin removed the cloth.
“There, I think I got it all.” He tossed the bloody cloth into the sink’s stainless steel basin. Then he picked up the antiseptic.
I couldn’t take any more pain. I felt weak like I’d just run ten miles and hadn’t eaten or drank in years. “Please,” I said, my voice hoarse. “No more.”
He touched my shoulder and I flinched. “I’m going to spray this on your back and then I’ll feel comfortable using my magic to heal the rest. Okay?”
I clamped my teeth together more tightly as well as my fists. Nodded.
The spray was icy cold against my skin but it didn’t hurt. I felt muscles I hadn’t realized were flexed begin to relax. When he finished he set the can on the counter next to me.
“This next part shouldn’t hurt at all, Princess.”
“Good,” I responded, allowing my jaw to loosen, ignoring his obnoxious need to call me Princess. It was my birthright, but it wasn’t me.
I waited a few seconds, anticipating more pain. Instead warmth crept over my skin and my body responded like a flower opening for the morning sun. Relief swept over me. “That’s better,” I said, leaning my forehead against my fists.
“Good,” Laeddin replied. “Almost done.”
I relaxed further, feeling like I could fall asleep where I sat. Images of my childhood fluttered across my mind. Of the day my dad and I went fishing in Peony Lake. Then I remembered the time I saw the evil Hunter on a path I’d been walking in the forest. My mind drifted again… to nothing.
“What the hell is going on?”
I sat up with a snap, knocking my head into something behind me.
There was a noise.
I turned toward the voice. It was Peter. He looked angry, like furious.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
Zoe’s eyes went to my shirt where it sat on the counter next to me and I remembered. Laeddin had been healing my back. I’d pulled my shirt off and my navy and hot pink polka-dot bra was dangling loosely in
front of me, barely covering my breasts.
I quickly grabbed my shirt and tried to cover up. “Oh, it’s nothing. I can explain.” My face got so hot it felt like a furnace.
Chapter 2
“Really?” Peter said, putting his hands on his hips. “There’s a good reason you’re half naked in the kitchen with a man who’s way, way, way too old for you.”
Tears pricked my eyes at the cut in his words. I hopped off the stool, ran up the stairs and tossed myself across my bed. Yeah, not my finest moment.
I lay there with my arms tucked under my body, still clutching my bloody shirt, and forced myself not to cry. My tears would be red and they would stain the comforter…
Or maybe not.
Since Maleficent stole my wings, I’d become so close to human it was scary. Perhaps I was actually human. I knew I was no longer me—a vampire created from the seven magics and the blood of my parents—that was for sure. I was a shadow. A shell. A husk.
The worst part about those feelings was that I was now exactly what I’d believed I wanted. A normal teenaged girl. Yet, I hated it. I wanted to rip off my skin. Shake myself from the body that no longer felt like it belonged to me.
Tears pressed against my eyes and I let them come.
Screw it, I thought.
When the wetness fell against my comforter I was saddened to see they weren’t red. And that made me cry harder.
“Jasmine, we need to talk.” The voice belonged to the cat, Gatsby. He’d been my mom’s cat although she’d never mentioned he could talk. I don’t think he’d ever talked to her, but when he was around me he was quite chatty. Since I’d lost my wings though Gatsby hadn’t come around again. Until that moment I believed he’d found himself a new home, especially since I never fed him.
“About what?” I asked, sniffling.
“The impending darkness. The Akuma. The woman who robbed you of your wings. Shall I go on?” The gray short-haired cat jumped on the bed and sat on my pillow.
“You know about all of that?”
The cat snorted. “Of course I do. I told you I’ve been around a long time.” Gatsby started licking one of his paws.
Vampire Secrets: Book 2 (Blood and Snow Season Two) Page 2
