by J. L. Myers
“You know what.”
“Hey.” Ty shrugged. “Just showing him where I stand.”
I began to walk, all the while expecting Ty to chase after me. “And where might that be?”
Ty took an exasperated breath as he caught up. “With you and by your side. Always.”
My anger fizzled and my stalking steps stalled. This was harder on Ty than his cocky attitude let on. He knew I had almost died, that Kendrick was the one who’d saved me. Doing so had bound our souls, making us soul mates in a non-romantic but everlasting way. And Ty still wanted me, only me. All of this was hurting him too. “I’m sorry. This is new to us all.” I took his hand and squeezed. “It’s going to take some getting used to. But we’ll get through it, right?”
Ty curled a hand around my neck and dropped his forehead against mine. “Together we can get through anything.”
~
I left the warmth of the main building, meeting the freezing cold of a winter’s day. I scanned left to right, back through the glass doors, then over at the gazebo. Ty wasn’t here yet. Without any real time together, we’d agreed to have lunch alone.
I sighed, tearing open my chocolate bar and taking a bite.
Light rain fell from a deep gray canopy of growing clouds. In my wannabe biker jacket I could hear each drop patter as it landed on my shoulders. I sidestepped a puddle, one that in the past would have surprised me by soaking my Vans and jeans. Evidently my vamp senses and awareness were developing.
As I reached the gazebo centering the grassed space between the main building and art center, I looked around again.
Then I froze.
A blade of cold slid down my back and my vamp senses shot into overdrive. The amethyst pendant around my wrist blazed like a hot coal, a warning of approaching threat. Someone was watching me.
Fear hammered through my body as the hairs rose across the back of my neck. It can’t be him. Not Caius. Not already.
That two-faced creep hadn’t accomplished his goal to steal my immortality, but Marcus had insisted Caius was lying low for now, far away in Alaska.
So if it wasn’t him, who was it?
The color drained from my face. The thought that Caius had sent someone to finish what he’d begun was paralyzing. Still, I wouldn’t give in easily.
Heart pounding, I spun on my heels to meet the threat. If someone were here to take me, I’d fight like my life depended on it.
Behind me there was no one, not a soul, just the art center and a lush thicket of trees beyond that.
I squinted, trying to make out anything through the thick greenery as the sky darkened to purple-black. Sharpening every one of my senses I spun around. There, a dark figure edged the corner of my vision.
I whirled, eyes wide. But the space between the trees was empty. Nothing but moving shadows created by dancing treetops in the escalating bluster of wind.
A footstep from behind had me turning around, only to find Ty heading over from the main building. Paranoid much?
I forced a smile and waved, about to walk over to him, when a bright flash of light boomed like an explosion behind me.
My supernatural reflexes kicked into action. In a millisecond I spun.
Lightning had struck the solid oak a few yards from where I stood. A large branch split from its trunk and hurtled my way.
There was no time to move. I braced for the punishing impact. Something rock solid slammed into my side. The hot and powerful mass wrapped around me as we crashed to the ground. We connected with the pavement as the branch flew over us, grazing my cheek as it passed.
I tried to move but was locked in an iron grip. “Are you hurt?” The grip around my body loosened. Rough hands scoured my flesh, inspecting me.
Ty’s face was panicked, the look easing as the stinging gash on my cheek healed. I moved to sit up. “I think I’m good.”
Puddle-splashing footsteps raced up behind us. Kendrick knelt in the mud, clutching my wrist. “Amelia, are you okay?”
The concern in his expression, voice, and mind overwhelmed me. I nodded and glanced at my hero. “I’m fine. Thanks to Ty.” I frowned at Kendrick. “What are you doing here?”
“I was walking across the oval and felt your fear.” Kendrick cast his eyes down. “I-I got here as soon as I could.”
“Not to break this bond moment,” Ty said, getting to his feet. He held out his hand and pulled me up, putting his arm around me. “But what the hell just happened? I’ve never seen lightning like that in my life. And we get some pretty wicked electrical shows when training in the forest.”
“The lightning isn’t the issue.” Kendrick got up, ignoring his muddied jeans while dislike for Ty struck through the bond at how close Ty held me.
“Are you delusional?” Ty’s irises flashed gold and he released me, stepping closer to Kendrick. “That lightning almost decapitated Amelia.”
I darted between them. “No, Kendrick’s right. I mean that lightning was freaky, but there was something else. Someone was watching me…I think.”
“Caius?” Ty’s body became instantly taut with power, ready to fight. His eyes darted.
“No,” I said, resting a slow-moving hand on Ty’s forearm and feeling cords of muscle bunch underneath. “He’s still in Alaska.”
“That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have eyes watching.” Keeping his gaze locked on Ty, Kendrick swiped at the mud on his jeans.
“I don’t want you to be alone,” Ty said suddenly, voice sharp and demanding. His eyes became lasers on mine. “You should always have someone with you.”
“What?” It took a second for his alpha-like command to register. My expression became incredulous. “You want me to be chaperoned?”
As much as I’d rather not agree with his Neanderthal demands, Kendrick began through the bond before continuing out loud. “He has a point. This is for your own safety.”
“It’s to keep you alive.” Ty clutched my shoulders. “I can’t lose you. Not again.” His eyelids squeezed shut for a brief moment then opened. “I’m not trying to control you. I just couldn’t live with myself if I let someone get to you. If I let someone…kill you.”
My heart ached at the true fear in Ty’s eyes and the matching feelings from Kendrick through the bond. For my safety and happiness they were willing to set aside their differences and endure each other.
I took Ty and Kendrick’s hands and sighed. “Then we’re in this together.”
CHAPTER TWO
“Ready?” Dorian smiled at Kendrick and me.
There was a light of excitement in his silver irises and I wondered what was behind it. I headed for the other side of the parking lot and the entrance to Mt. Major. “Let’s go.”
Dorian took off toward the thicket of trees and we sped after him, darting around trunks, boulders, and ditches with ease. It was freeing to be able to run like this as the world flashed past in a blur. And with the shelter of countless trees, it was the perfect place for Dorian and Kendrick to evade direct sunlight. All royals felt uncomfortable when exposed, which included Dorian after what Caius had done to us. Though for some reason, I was still immune.
I tried to shut off the internal dialogue plaguing my mind about everything Caius could be up to, and concentrated on maneuvering past the lush green and snow-speckled scenery.
“Who’s faster now?” Kendrick shot past me and jumped off Dorian’s back. He launched himself into the air and landed on a thick tree trunk, then leapt down twenty feet ahead of us.
Letting the exertion distract me, I sped up with Dorian, closing in hot on Kendrick’s tail. I bounded over a crackling river and passed my brother as I caught up to Kendrick. I pushed myself forward, the feel of the cold wind across my face exhilarating as I took the lead.
When we entered a clearing by a stream that had begun to freeze in from the edges with the onset of winter, I pulled to an abrupt stop. The icy water reflected the sky, showing every ripple and dark swirl from the clouds above. I’d been here before,
at this exact location. Through my bond with Kendrick I received brooding confirmation. He had been here too, the day Ty had transformed in front of me and Kendrick had caught us. That event had changed my life forever.
“So this is our spot?” Dorian asked from beside me, pulling me out the beginning of a bucket load of painful memories.
Kendrick nodded, his rising guilt covered by his words. “As good as any. Let’s get started.”
Our trip deep into the forest hadn’t just been for fun or to help me get away from Mom. With the last school day before winter break now over, my excuses to avoid her were running low. No, we’d come here because Dorian had something he wanted to show us. And from the look on his face it was epic.
I elbowed Dorian in the ribs. “So we’re here now. Let’s have it.”
“Yeah,” Kendrick said. “What’s the big secret?”
Dorian blew out a breath, rolled his shoulders back, and cracked his neck side to side. He said nothing as he crouched before Kendrick where a single tiger lily stood firm through a break of snow. Slight wilting showed at the tips of its orange petals. Dorian’s hand rose over the flower, not quite touching it, just hovering, fingers splayed and tense. “Check this out…”
I stared as his fingers began to tremble, the veins across the back of his hand bulging. But nothing could have prepared me for what came next. There was no sound apart from the whistling wind through the forest, rustling leaves and creaking tree branches. But there was movement. At first it was slight, and if I hadn’t been staring so avidly, I would have missed it. A tiny drop of water emerged from one of the six petals, turning plump and glossy before rolling down the petal and dripping onto the snow.
“You can manipulate water,” Kendrick breathed. “You have a Pure Blood ability.”
My reserved-only-for-Pure-Bloods spirit ability, compliments of Caius’s experiments on me as an infant, had given me The Sight and all the visions that entailed. It had also created the blood bond between Kendrick and me, joining our souls and minds. Connecting with the dead was another trait of the spirit ability, one which I seemed to have escaped. Thank God. Dorian developing his own ability was just more evidence of how he too was affected by Caius’s experiments.
“That’s…” I wanted to say scary, terrifying, and proof that Caius used Dorian to experiment on too, but the accomplishment on Dorian’s face made me reconsider. I crouched to get a closer look, seeing the water line left along the petal’s length. “Amazing.”
Dorian’s smile grew wider. His hand still holding its place above the tiger lily trembled more violently than the second before. Frustration creased his face. “Come on,” he said through gritted teeth. His eyes strained, their whites beginning to tint red from the outside in.
Just like when I had visions.
I went to grab his arm, to tell him to stop, but stalled. Another drop of water emerged from the same petal, then another in a consecutive clockwise motion from each of the other petals. Each drop grew larger than the last, each falling faster as more and more drops emerged and fell. The flower’s vibrant orange shade began to dull, turning moss-colored then brown. There was an audible crackling as the tiger lily wilted, drying in on itself until it became as dry as parchment paper.
I reached out to touch the scrunched tip of one of the petals. As I did the entire flower came apart, turning to dust in the breeze.
~
“Amelia Athobry-Lamont, it’s time for that chat.” Mom’s stern voice called through her open office door as I entered the house with Kendrick and Dorian.
I stalled and winced, feeling as though someone’s hands were wrapped around my throat. Usually Mon would have already left for The Council. Had she waited back for me? Through the opening I couldn’t see her, but I could practically feel the invisible tension thickening between us.
“Good luck,” Dorian shrugged before turning to walk into the kitchen.
Kendrick bit his lip, wavering. Want me to stay?
I sucked in a deep, rattling breath and shook my head. No, it’s okay. I need to do this alone.
I’ll be here if you need. He squeezed my hand then followed after Dorian.
I gulped, trying to loosen the grip around my throat as I stepped into her office. Time to meet the thing I’d been dreading since our return from the Armaya. “Look, Mom…”
“Close the door behind you.” Dressed in sleek black pants and a lacy top, her desk an organized mess of post-it covered piles of stapled papers, her eyes tracked me. “I’m already late for work, but this must be dealt with.”
Irritation made my forearms tense and my hands curl into fists. Forcing them open, I closed the door and took one of the two seats across the glass-topped desk. Foreboding ran up my spine. Being closed in in this office, with busy book shelves and light-shielding drapes, reminded me of being back at the Armaya and sitting opposite Caius. The thought of him, more than knowing what was to come, twisted my stomach. But I wouldn’t let him or anyone dictate my life, not now, not ever.
“I know what you’re going to say and it’s not going to change a thing,” I said before she could talk. “I still want to be with Ty and I won’t stay away from him, for you, Caius, or anyone. I’ll be seventeen soon and I am old enough to start making my own decisions.”
“That is Uncle Caius to you.” Mom crossed her arms over her chest, scowling.
Huh, what a crock! My fingernails dug into my thighs. “He’s not our freaking uncle.”
Mom gasped, hand going to her throat.
Of course the statement was true, but she didn’t know what fueled my hate-drenched words. She had no idea why I would respond this way, had no idea that Caius had tried to kill me to become immortal. Even before my attempted murder, he’d rendered me into a comatose state nightly through compulsion, so that his fangs could pierce my neck to test my blood. Instead of the pleasure a human feels when bitten, pain I couldn’t consciously respond to had followed, searing through me as he drank my blood. That same pain had flooded my body when Caius had drained me to the point of death, or so he thought.
“How can you say that, Amelia? After everything he’s done for our family, we owe him our lives.”
The belief in her face at her own words and clear trusting devotion to Caius shot daggers through my heart. I don’t owe that creep anything! I held my tongue and pinned my lips shut. The urge to storm out of my mom’s office was overwhelming, to scream the house down over everything that monster had done to me.
Amelia, chill, Kendrick voiced through our bond. She doesn’t know, remember?
I know, I hissed internally.
I wanted to tell her so bad. Only, doing so would put her life in danger. Caius had made that vividly clear.
I took a few deep breaths, forcing myself to calm down. “Mom, I know. I didn’t mean anything by it, and I am sorry. But my feelings for Ty stand. I won’t stay away from him. I can’t. And besides, you’re the one who wanted us to live normal lives. Well, I’m sorry to say but this is as normal as it’s going to get. At least you don’t have to worry about me killing him. He’s stronger than me. And he knows what I am. And Mom,” I said, reaching out to take her hand across the desk, “he accepts me, regardless.”
Mom shook her head, a blond lock falling from her tight bun before she drew her hand free to push it back. “You’ve always been so headstrong, Amelia. So much like your father…”
The mention of the father I never knew spiked unusual sensations within me: sadness, regret, and most of all, anger. Caius had admitted to murdering my father in cold blood, solely so he could infect us like lab rats for his malicious plans.
Mom shook away the reminiscent expression from her face and lifted her glassy eyes to me. “So, I guess there is nothing I can say to change your mind about Ty?”
I shook my head.
She stacked her hands on the desk. “Well, I still believe you will grow out of this, out of him. It is only a matter of time before his life begins to fade while yours surg
es on. I am sure I don’t need to tell you that you’ll out live him ten times over.”
I dropped my gaze, frowning at the indents my fingernails had left in my thighs. “Yeah, I know, but I don’t care.”
“The Council would not tolerate this,” Mom continued. “As long as you’re involved with him they must never know.”
I already knew what The Council’s punishment was for forbidden love. Even if I wasn’t a Pure Blood, my association to Caius put not only me, but also Ty at risk. “I want nothing to do with The Council or vampire politics.” I was about to tell Mom she was right for trying to keep us human and away from everything vampire for as long as she could, when her words hit me. “You’re going to let us be together?”
Mom heaved a sigh and began sorting a stack of papers. “Love is never perfect, Amelia. After losing your father I know that better than anyone. So for now I will allow it.” Her gaze returned to me. “Under strict guidelines, of course.”
Waiting for the I can’t believe you bought that moment, I clutched the desk’s glass edge. “And they are?”
Mom leaned back in her white-padded office chair. “If The Council in any way becomes suspicious, your contact is to end. Immediately. I will not let you risk your life for this. I will take you away if necessary.”
“That won’t happen, Mom,” I said. “I want nothing to do with their racist laws.”
“Furthermore.” Her hand came down on the desktop. “I trust you have not slept with this boy?”
My jaw fell to the carpet in complete horror. Embarrassment burned my cheeks. “I—uh…”
“And don’t lie to me, Amelia. You’re terrible at it.”
I dragged my jaw off the floor and forced myself to speak. “No, of course not. And I would rather not talk—”
“What you would or would not like to talk about,” Mom said cutting me off, “is irrelevant. I am the parent here. If you cannot agree to my terms I will force you two apart. Don’t think I don’t have the means to do so.”
I swallowed hard at the deadly seriousness on my mom’s face. Would she try to force me back to the Armaya and Caius? There was no way in hell I would go, but then what would she do? Force the whole family to move, again?
