I shoved out of my seat and headed for the door, then remembered I didn’t pay for my meal. Damn it! Turning to do so, I saw Maciah pulling money from his own wallet. Served him right for ruining my morning.
When I got outside, I glanced left and right, looking for Zeke, but he was nowhere to be seen. I went to my car and got in only to sense someone behind me.
“You’re not welcome in my car anymore, Zeke,” I said as I started the car.
“Good thing I’m not Zeke, then,” a woman’s voice crooned.
Mother-effing shit.
12
Sharp nails dug into my neck as I reached down for a stake.
“Ah, ah, ah, hunter. Move another inch and I’ll rip your throat out,” she said, squeezing tighter and cutting my skin.
Well, that didn’t work for me, because she was either here to kill me or take me to someone who wanted to kill me. Considering all the crap that had been flung my way the last couple of days, I was banking on the latter.
I moved to reach around and grab her wrist. Before I could, the back door flung open and Maciah practically flew into my car, slamming the woman to the other side of my car.
I really wanted to ask him to kill her outside, but I thought he might not find that as appropriate in the moment as I did.
“What nest are you with?” Maciah hissed in her ear as someone outside—likely Zeke—closed the door so humans wouldn’t see something they couldn’t understand.
She tried to cackle in his face, but the sound was more like a painful gargle as he gripped her throat. “You already know the answer to that question.”
If Maciah did, I was surprised, because I didn’t think he knew about Viktor being in town. Maybe he was more in the loop than I realized. Lousy protector if so. If I was him, I’d have handcuffed my ward to my side, but I wouldn’t be giving him any ideas.
“I’d ask you to pass along a message, but you’re not going to live long enough for that.” Maciah reached his other hand to me, and I stared at it. “Unless you’d like blood in your car, I could use a stake,” he snapped.
Oh, I’d thoroughly pissed him off this time. Yippee.
I handed him the stake without saying anything. Ash, I could vacuum out. Blood would have been rather inconvenient for me.
“We’re just going to keep coming. He always gets what he wants. If you let me help, I can—”
Maciah didn’t let the vampire finish. As soon as the stake pierced her heart, her body began to shrivel like fruit being dried out.
I turned my head just in time to avoid getting ash in my eyes. I also didn’t want to know how bad of a mess I was going to have to clean up later.
Maciah’s touch was soft on my shoulder. “Let me see where she hurt you.”
I waved him off. “I’m fine.”
“You’re bleeding.” There was tension in his voice that made my own rise.
I was alone in a car with a vampire, and I was bleeding. How stupid could I be?
Maciah’s hand tightened around my shoulder as I began to pull away from him. “I won’t ever hurt you, Amersyn. No matter how many reckless decisions you make, I will always come to protect you.”
He said the words softly like they were meaningful and sweet, but they filled me with nothing good. I saw red the moment he said “reckless.”
I swirled around to him, shoving him into the back seat with more force than I’d intended. “You might not agree with my choices, but that doesn’t make them reckless. I don’t need your protection, so you’re released. Just leave me alone.”
“That’s not how this works. Rachel said you read the book. Did you not understand—”
I cut him off with a snarl. “If you’re about to say something else that implies I’m stupid, I will stake you without thinking twice about it.”
My door opened, and Rachel’s face appeared inches from mine. “Hello, friend. How about we go for a drive?”
She was grinning widely, and Maciah took the opportunity to exit my car before I did indeed kill him. Argh, he was so frustrating.
Rachel closed the door before I could respond and was sitting in the passenger’s seat within two seconds. “Alright, let’s go. Anywhere you’d like. I’m yours for the day. We can talk about what an asshole Maciah is the whole time, too.”
I grunted and put the car in reverse. This particular vampire was growing on me like mold on cheese. Technically, it wasn’t bad, but…
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there this morning. Maciah didn’t even tell me he was sending Zeke. By the time I found out, it was too late. I told Maciah you wouldn’t be happy, but he didn’t listen to me. Freaking men. Never listening because their heads are shoved too far up their asses.”
Rachel’s little rant made me feel the tiniest bit better. If I was going to be stuck working with these vampires, I was glad one of them recognized the idiocies.
“Maciah is supposed to know you best as your protector, but I knew after staying with you last night that he would get it all wrong. I tried to warn him. Well, you see how well that worked. At least he stopped that bitch from ripping your throat out. I was heading toward your car already, but Maciah sped past me, and you know the rest. So, where are we headed?”
I chuckled. “You really love to talk, don’t you?”
She covered her mouth and said something that sounded like an apology.
“It’s fine. For now. Just not always,” I said.
Rachel nodded, glancing out the window as I got onto 84 East. “Where are we headed?”
“The opposite direction of your mansion,” I replied.
She clapped her hands. “Sounds good to me.”
Just as we got to the final exit of the city, three black SUVs came racing up behind us, blocking in my car. I let out a groan as soon as I saw them, and Rachel was typing on her phone.
“Take the next exit,” she demanded, and I listened. We weren’t going to lose these assholes on the open road.
She was switching between her messages and maps app while she told me when to turn. One of the SUVs missed the exit, but two of them were still chasing us.
“At least they’re not shoo—”
I covered her mouth. “Don’t you dare finish that sentence and make it become real.”
“Girl, you are so smart. Left, now!”
We turned down an alley, only one SUV behind us now. I sped up, finally recognizing where I was. I spent most of my time on the opposite side of town and was grateful for Rachel’s help getting us this far.
I ran a red light like an asshole, thankful there were no other cars going through the opposite green one. We made three more rights and two more lefts before I started to loosen my grip on the steering wheel.
“Do you think we lost them?” Rachel asked, scanning outside the windows.
“I don’t know, but we’re not going to stop driving until we’re sure.” Just as I finished my sentence, one of the SUVs slammed into the side of my car and sent my car rolling into the other lane and landing upside down.
“Amersyn!” Rachel yelled.
“I’m fine. We need to get out,” I hissed through my teeth, trying to figure out the best way to get out of my seatbelt without further hurting myself and landing roughly on the ground. At least I wasn’t an idiot who didn’t wear their seatbelt.
I wasn’t actually fine, but she didn’t need to know that. My vision blurred. I had a gash on my forehead, likely from cracking the window with my head on impact, and my ribs were definitely broken this time.
“No, stay in the car. Help is already here,” she said.
Of course, she’d been texting Maciah. I didn’t blame her, though. If we’d have gotten away, I might have been more pissed she contacted him, but I was in no condition to fight.
Rachel was already out of her seatbelt and reaching over to help me, so I wasn’t left dangling precariously in the air. She wrapped one arm under my shoulders and unbuckled me with the other before gently setting me on the headliner of my pre
cious car that was now a tangled mess.
“Thanks,” I said before bending down painfully to stare out the shattered window.
I couldn’t see unless I moved in a way that had me wanting to cry out in agony. Apparently, getting in a fight with a group of vampires two days prior and not resting before getting into a car accident meant I’d be spending an extra few days in bed.
Shoes crunched over glass, and I reached for my boots to get a weapon, but Rachel stopped me. “It’s just Maciah and Zeke.”
I relaxed, but only a bit. I wasn’t in the mood to have Maciah talk down to me again. I understood that he felt he had to do certain things and be a particular way, but I’d been on my own for a long time, doing things the way I wanted. I was trying to come to terms with everything being thrown at me, but I wasn’t perfect, and I needed more time. If we were going to work together, he needed to understand that and respect it.
Maciah ripped my car door off its hinges, and I pouted. My poor, poor car. He leaned in, eyes red with rage, and reached for me without saying a word.
I considered telling him I could walk, but something told me I was better off keeping my mouth shut. I knew how to cooperate when absolutely necessary.
Rachel and Zeke were right behind us. She gave me a thumbs up as Maciah led us toward a silver Mercedes. He got into the back, with me still in his arms, while Rachel and Zeke got up front.
Nobody said anything as Zeke drove us toward their mansion. At least, that was where I assumed we were headed.
Maciah’s hold on me never loosened, and he didn’t once look at me. Instead, he glowered out the window as I stared at his sculpted face, waiting for him to say anything. Even if he was going to be a jerk.
As the car pulled into the private property, I sighed. Okay, maybe I’d overreacted a little and deserved a little of Maciah’s wrath, but I was doing my best. Accepting that not everything was as I believed wasn’t something that could be done overnight and that was what they seemed to expect from me.
Maybe not Rachel. I actually did like her. She could be my friend, but Maciah needed to cool his balls off for a minute.
Maciah carried me into the house, and I expected us to all head to his office to talk, but at the top of the stairs, he turned toward his vampires. “I want a crew watching the fence line every minute of every day. If someone gets onto our property who doesn’t belong, I will kill every vampire that wasn’t where they were supposed to be.”
Geez, that was a little excessive. I opened my mouth to say so, but Maciah snarled at me, and I shut my lips. I could have that argument with him later. It wasn’t like I was going to be there forever, so they probably didn’t have to worry about psychos trying to break in for long.
“I’m taking Amersyn to my room to talk. Do not disturb us unless it is absolutely necessary,” he finished and turned around before either Rachel or Zeke responded.
I tried to speak up. “Do I get—”
“No,” he snapped before I could finish.
“But what if I—”
He snarled again, lowering his voice. “I said no, Amersyn.”
Okay, I must have bumped my head harder than I realized, because that was hot as hell. Instead of continuing to piss him off, I twirled my thumbs as we travelled down a hallway I hadn’t seen during my last visit.
The house was probably over ten thousand square feet. I thought about asking for a tour but figured Rachel would be better for that. Yeah, I’d ask her.
Just as soon as the beast released me.
13
Maciah marched us into a master suite fit for a king. Two oversized white doors were shoved open to reveal a bed bigger than any I’d ever seen. It was covered in black silk sheets and minimal pillows.
There was a balcony to the right and only one other window. A small desk was pushed against one of the walls with papers and books stacked on top. A few paintings graced the cream walls. Dark images of forests and castles and stormy nights. Exactly what I expected from the alpha vampire.
He pulled one of the sheets back and lay me on his bed. I sucked in a breath as my ribs yelled at me. Mother eff, I was in pain.
Maciah brushed my hair back. “What can I do?”
“Nothing. I just need to go home and rest for a few days. Something I should have done after the fight the other night, but I had vampires showing up at my condo that put me on edge.” Blaming him wasn’t fair, but I couldn’t help the snark in my words when he had me feeling things I didn’t want to.
“You can’t go home, Amersyn,” he said.
I tried to laugh, but it was more of a groan. “Yes, I can.”
“Do you not understand who is hunting you? This isn’t a game. This isn’t someone you can fight on your own.”
I tried sitting up. I didn’t like him leaning over me, making me feel small, but damn, my body was well and truly pissed off at me.
“I know exactly who is after me. Viktor doesn’t scare me,” I said confidently.
Maciah’s lips thinned, and his eyes narrowed. “Viktor who?”
“I don’t know his last name, but you said you know of the crew who attacked my family. I don’t think I killed that Viktor like I hoped.”
Maciah was on his feet and pacing before I could blink. He went to his desk, shoveling papers around.
“Why does that seem to stress you out? I thought you said only Rigo and Dmitri were an issue?” I knew why I was pissed off that Viktor was alive, but I didn’t think Maciah would care. He’d told me the other three vampires were throwaways, easy targets, basically making me feel like I hadn’t done anything grand when I’d killed them, or assumed I did.
He looked up at me with dark eyes. “So did I.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, moving agonizingly slow out of the bed.
“It means that you are not allowed out of my sight. You have two vampires after you—two very powerful ones—and one of them has been setting you up since the moment you thought you killed him.” Maciah was flipping through another old book as he spoke. I was barely halfway to him when he smacked one of the pages and muttered unkind words.
He strode toward me, holding up the book and pointing to a portrait. “Is this the Viktor you killed, or thought you did?”
The image was greyscale and on yellowing paper, but I’d never forget that face. With a significant widow’s peak and beady eyes, Viktor was the easiest of them to recognize. The one I watched kill my mother.
“That’s him,” I said.
“That’s not good, Amersyn. I was told wrong information. This wasn’t the Viktor that took credit for killing your family and the one I know is dead. You must have gotten lucky stumbling upon this one when you did. When you fought him, did he know who you were?”
I thought back to that night, trying to ignore his “lucky” comment. I’d been hunting. Luck had nothing to do with my kills.
“He should have known. I might have mentioned my family as I drove a stake through his chest,” I said, realizing that was a mistake I shouldn’t have made, but I was a new hunter then.
Maciah was standing before me within a blink of an eye. He grabbed my shoulders gently, lowering himself until our eyes were level. “Amersyn, I need you to take this seriously, and I need you to forgive me.”
“For what?” I asked hesitantly. If he thought he was going to lock me up, he had another thing coming to him.
He guided me back to the bed, and I was silently thankful, even though I was wary about whatever he had to say. I could feel my healing kicking in, but it wasn’t quick enough.
Maciah sat next to me, keeping a distance between us. “I asked you to help me kill Silas, not only because I want him dead and I can’t kill him myself, but because as soon as I knew who you were, I also knew it was only time before others did. Your vampire traits are growing stronger, and there is one thing Silas has always wanted: an original’s blood. I thought if we could kill him before he found out you existed that everything would be fine, b
ut that didn’t happen. Somehow, he knows who you are. That’s why I sent Zeke to watch over you this morning. He’s going to come for your blood.”
“I’m sorry, what did you just say? Another vampire is hunting me, and you thought I didn’t need to know before anyone else? Instead, you sent a babysitter after me?” I was seething. I wanted to strangle him. He was supposed to be my protector, but keeping me uninformed wasn’t the best way to keep me safe.
He began to speak, and I held my hands up, moving off the bed and making my way toward the door. I ignored the searing pain in my sides and the lightheaded feeling rolling through me as I struggled to walk. A part of me knew I should stay, but how was I supposed to trust this nest if they didn’t tell me the whole truth?
“I can’t do this, Maciah.” I reached for the door, barely cracking it open before he was standing in my way.
“You’re not leaving this house, Amersyn,” he nearly growled.
“Fang you, dude. Get out of my way.” As the words left my mouth, I wanted to bury myself six feet under. My brain had officially turned on me. Apparently, I was still my mother’s daughter. She’d never liked bad language. I tried to honor her by sticking with the least foul. Usually that worked just fine. Until my emotions were all over the place and I wanted to cry from the broken bones inside me. Then, I spat out stupid crap like fang you.
Maciah could barely keep a straight face as I glared at him, trying not to show my embarrassment. “Make me move, Amersyn. If you can do that, I’ll let you leave.”
I badly wanted to punch him or stake him or anything that would cause physical harm, but I didn’t have it in me. My conscience was creeping in as he stared at me with his not-quite-vampire eyes.
A heavy sigh left me as I turned back toward his bed. I wanted to be stubborn and fight him. I wanted to show him that I didn’t need their help, but I couldn’t. The more twisted this situation became, the more I realized I was going to have to make some major concessions. Plus, I needed sleep more than I needed to escape.
Vampire Heir (Scorned by Blood Book 1) Page 9
