by J. L. Myers
I began eating and glanced around. Surrounding us, other happy couples dined with easygoing chitchat about everyday, mundane things. “Don’t you want that?” I nodded at an old couple sitting at a booth hand in hand, content and talking about their normal lives.
“What?” Ty questioned. “That seriously old woman over there? Hmmm, not my type.”
Despite everything, that made me smile. “No, I mean what they have. A normal life with someone you can build a family and grow old with.” As the words tumbled from my mouth, fear of his response surged through me. If the answer was yes, that would be the end. I’d have no choice but to walk away.
Ty reached across the table to rest his hand on mine. “Amelia, I want you. Only you. Forever.”
I pulled my hand from his and hurt flashed across Ty’s beautiful face. “But I can’t grow old with you. I can’t give you a family,” I said, knowing that only royal vampires could procreate. “I can’t give you a normal life.”
Ty mock laughed. “Ha, like my life is normal with or without you. My whole life I’ve been trained, conditioned so that I could one day protect the world from…” His words hung on his tongue.
“From vampires. From me.” It wasn’t a question, but Ty’s head dipped anyway, glancing down. “So that’s what you want to do with your life?”
Ty’s head snapped up faster than lightning, vehemence radiating from his contact-shielded eyes. “It’s what I was born to do.”
“But your father’s a senator,” I replied. “Don’t you want to be something, too?”
Ty folded his arms over his chest and leaned back. “I wanted to swim, to compete in the Olympics.” His eyes lit up, then dropped to the plate in front of him. “Not that that’s possible. With all their drug testing they’d find something odd with my blood. Besides it’s unfair, given that all the competitors are human.” Ty shook his head. “I’ve accepted my future long ago. I know what I am and who I’m meant to be.”
“A protector,” I whispered. “A warrior.”
“And I could be an even better one.” His hand found mine across the table again and squeezed. Hope shone even through the concealing contacts. “Turn me, Amelia. Level the playing field and make me stronger. Give me a life span that can compete. One that will make what I do significant, not a blip in time. One that will give us—”
“We’re onto this again?” I snatched my hand free and began worrying the end of my braid with my fingers. Turning Ty wasn’t an option. We’d already gone over this. I wouldn’t risk his life. Not for me. Not for anyone. Capping my anger, I tried to keep my voice reasoning. “Ty, I’m sorry. I can’t do it. I can’t risk losing you. Please understand.”
The waiter arrived then and took our unfinished but done with mains. A minute later he had delivered a slice of mud cake.
“I do understand,” Ty said once he’d left. “Thought I’d give it one last go, but I already knew you’d say no.”
“Oh,” I said, confused. “Then why’d—”
“Because I want to barter.” Ty forked a chunk of cake and held it out for me to take.
I closed my mouth over the delicious chunk and let the fork slid from between my lips. When my mouth was clear I asked, “Barter?”
Ty fed himself a piece of cake, looking thoughtful as he chewed. “How about this? I’ll stop asking you to turn me, if you take me as your consort.”
I coughed, choking on nothing bur air. If I’d had another mouthful of cake it would’ve been all over Ty’s face. Was he offering to be a prostitute? “Consort?”
Ty laughed, seeing the shock on my face. “I’m not offering to be your sex slave.”
A few close dining guests gaped at his words. Their heads turned away a second later.
Ty lowered his voice. “Just your blood donor. If you’re sick of baggies and bottled AB- and want to drink someone, I want it to be me. Only me.”
Ty wanted to be my blood donor? Given how heated our drinking encounters had gotten, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. Thinking about it now warmed my body and made my toes tingle. There were probably a million reasons why I should say no. But right now I couldn’t think of a single one. All I saw were the positives. I didn’t want to hurt Ty by taking another living person’s vein. Though I still didn’t see it as cheating, it was clear that he did. And I would rather drink from Ty any day of the week, than attack and use some unsuspecting human.
No matter what way I looked at it, I couldn’t think of any reason to say no. So I didn’t. “Deal.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The cruise concluded the next morning, and after a string of exhausting flights we finally touched down in Boston. Although it was over twenty-four hours later, the date was the same as when we’d left due to regaining time from overseas travel. When Ty drove his WRX up to my house, I still hadn’t told him my plans.
We exited the car, pre-midnight darkness lit only by porch lights. Ty moved to kiss me goodbye, long and slow. With my heart fluttering erratically, I pulled back and tugged on his arm. “We’re having a meeting about the attacks, and I want you to be there, too. I’m gonna need your help with something.”
Ty raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Sharing space with Kendrick and experiencing our bond was the last thing he wanted to witness. Still, there was an air of determination about him as he slung his arm around my shoulder. “Let’s get this party started.”
My mind was closed to Kendrick as we walked through the front doors, but his was wide open. He was waiting upstairs in the rec room. Dorian was propped on the high-arched windowsill texting—probably a girl—and to my total relief, appearing healed of any injuries. Kendrick was perched on the arm of the leather couch, the desk lamp highlighting the contemplation across his face.
As I entered with Ty in hand, Kendrick sprung up. The instant smile on his face at seeing me dropped the second he spotted Ty. His eyes slid from Ty to me. “Good blocking.”
“Hey, sis,” Dorian said, sliding his phone back into his jeans and taking a spot on the couch.
Kendrick strode around the glass coffee table, face blank and stiff at the same time. I braced for the get out, this doesn’t concern you to fly from his tight lips. But it never came. Instead he paused, rolled back his shoulders with a crack, and then held out his right hand. “Thanks for saving Amelia. I’m glad you were there.”
My jaw dropped and I stared, shocked out of words.
After a long silent moment, Ty released my hand and clasped my best friend’s. “I’ll always protect her, no matter who or what comes hunting. Wolves always guard what they love with their lives.” There was an underlying edge to his words and gold-pulsing gaze. A claim that I was his to love and keep safe.
Kendrick’s lips thinned into a straight line, but he kept his thoughts to himself as he pulled his hand free. “Don’t think this makes us buddies.”
Ty smiled coldly. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
Kendrick went back to his perch as I sent a silent thank you through the bond. “Take a seat.” He nodded to the two leather armchairs and waited for us to sit.
“Now that that’s over,” Dorian piped up, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. “Can we get to the damned attacks?”
There was a unified “yes” in response.
Dorian glanced at Kendrick, kicking his feet up onto the coffee table. “Have you told her what they are?”
Taking his drifting eyes from Ty, we shared a look. I blinked back the memory of our attacks and tried to focus on the facts. “Damned vampires. Red-eyed, faster than wolves and living vamps, with crazy strength and psycho thirst.” My throat tightened at the rising block coming from Kendrick. “There’s more, isn’t there?”
“Yes,” Kendrick said, clasping his hands in his lap. “They were once vampires. Alive like us. Now turned into pulseless beings with fractured souls. In vamp history we learned that a curse was created, making them slaves to the darkness with sunlight incinerating them on contact. It also plagues t
hem with insanity that grows stronger with each consumption kill.”
“Like we learned about Erzsebet.”
“Who’s Erzsebet?” Ty questioned.
I bit my lip as he lifted his brows expectantly. In our week away I hadn’t brought up what Kendrick and I had found out. I’d wanted everything doom and gloom to be temporarily forgotten.
“She’s Caius’s mother,” Dorian spoke to my surprise.
So Kendrick hadn’t had the same reservations. In his time away he’d filled my brother in on everything. I quickly explained what we knew then looked to Kendrick. Ty didn’t seem annoyed that I hadn’t told him, but I still wanted to get back to the main subject. Plus a growing inkling from Kendrick had spiked my curiosity. “There’s more about the damned?” I assumed.
Reluctance stormed across Kendrick’s pale face. “They can live forever, unless killed.”
Ice undulated my veins, making my blood run cold. “Immortal?” According to Caius and the experiments he’d subjected me to, my blood was immortal. Was there a link?
“And the other thing,” Dorian said, knocking Kendrick’s knee with his hand.
“There’s more?” I sunk into the armchair, hitting the roadblock in my best friend’s mind. “What are you keeping from me?”
Kendrick fidgeted on the couch, cracking his knuckles. “Look, don’t get mad, okay?”
I glared at him. “Patience is not one of my strong points.”
“Okay, okay.” He stared down at his tight hands. “I thought something was up before we left. Especially with your mom letting you go away knowing Ty would be there. So I kept checking in on her.”
“What did you find?” Ty asked, his eager but calm exterior in stark contrast to how livid I felt.
“Nothing,” Dorian answered for him.
“But you didn’t stop there.” I edged forward in my seat, fingers pressed through denim into my thighs.
“No.” Kendrick glanced up. “I pulled a few strings and got some inside information. Marcus reported some unusual deaths in Alaska. A few humans, but mostly vampires drained of blood.”
The image of dead bodies, gray and bloodless, quelled my anger. That part Marcus had volunteered over the phone. “That’s terrible. But wait. Why would that influence our mom’s actions?”
“Because there was another death,” Dorian supplied. “In Manchester.”
My jaw dropped. The morbid information had just hit too close to home. Manchester was about an hour’s drive from here. A growing concern for my mom burned within me. “Why would she keep—” A flashback to Christmas morning stopped me short. That day we’d revealed the vacations with the fallback of compelling her to agree. But interference hadn’t been necessary. A phone call had interrupted her flat-out refusal. Mom had talked to someone about a council issue, as she explained afterward. I remembered the words “Another one…” Then Mom had gasped and said something about it being in our own backyard. When she’d returned to the living room her face had been paler and her expression distracted.
“She let us go away because of the deaths,” I said, certain I was right.
“Do you think Caius is behind this?” Ty asked.
“He sent our attackers,” I said. “That’s proof that he’s linked to the damned. He’s at least involved.”
“We can’t tell your mom then,” Kendrick said. “It’ll only endanger her, too.”
“I know. And it’s only a matter of time before Caius comes for us again.”
Dorian got up, seriousness edging his normally carefree face. “So what do we do now?”
This was the moment I’d needed Ty for. I just hadn’t expected it to come out this way. “It’s time to prepare,” I said, straightening from the armchair. Caius had made two attempts on my life now. Except this time he’d threatened my life and the lives of the people I loved most. We would not wait around like sitting ducks anymore. We would not be his prey.
“Abilities are not enough,” I went on. “And our strength and speed can’t compare to the damned. We all learned that the hard way.” I turned from Dorian and Kendrick to face Ty, grasping his hand and pulling him up beside me. “You said you’d teach me. But I need more. We all do. I need you to train us all to fight like our lives depend on it. Like we’re a pack of wolves that would die for each other. And you need to teach us to kill.”
Ty’s eyes flashed gold above smiling lips. “That’s the hottest thing you’ve ever said to me.” He glanced past me to Kendrick and Dorian. “Training starts tomorrow. 0700 at Rye on the rocks. Don’t be late.”
~
I moved from the front door after watching Ty drive out the property gates in his WRX. Training tomorrow would be interesting, and I didn’t know what to expect. I yawned. I was in desperate need of a jet-lag catnap. I closed the door and started up the arching marble steps.
Then the glittering chandelier lights blinked out and everything faded to black.
Feeling out of body, my eyelids fluttered and my surroundings cleaved into focus. A rustic room of logs and stone with frosted windows surrounded me. Light and heat radiated from a crackling, open fire. A fluffy rug separated me from the flames. Atop the plush surface lay a heavily pregnant woman propped against pillows. She was breathing fast, the man kneeling at her side patting her forehead with a wet towel.
My eyes bugged, realizing the woman was my mom. Caius was the man. Mom’s knees were propped up, sweat pouring down her red face. “Caius, please. We’ve discussed this.” She cried out, clutching at her swollen belly. Her gray, human eyes became frantic and she snatched Caius’s hand. “We’re running out of time, and you promised. You said this would work.”
“It will work,” Caius grated. His expression was fierce and somehow resigned at the same time. “And if this is truly what you want—”
“It is,” Mom snapped, cutting him off. She winced, leaning up to lift her loose-fitting dress to expose her swollen belly. A second later something long and slender glinted in her hand. A scalpel. She snatched the towel from Caius’s hand and shoved it in her mouth, biting down. Stubbornness set her delicate features with harsh lines. Then she nodded.
Nausea roiled my stomach. What the hell was she doing? I wanted to scream, to blast into the room and somehow stop this terrible scene and what I knew was about to come. But this was the past. Not the present. Although I could see what was happening, I wasn’t physically there.
Caius took the scalpel, meeting my mom’s eyes and almost pleading with his own. Then he ran the sharp edge along the lower part of Mom’s belly. She shrieked through the towel, instant tears spilling from her eyes as blood poured from the long cut. Caius moved fast and shoved his hands inside her. A blood-cloaked baby girl was yanked free. He dragged the scalpel along my tiny infant belly, and I winced, feeling the cutting pain. A glittering red vial appeared in his hand, and he poured the contents into the gash. Without waiting, he plunged his hands back inside my mom, tearing the second baby free. The cutting process was repeated. Except this vial was filled with a dark, silvery substance. The cut along my infant body was gone, and I watched as my baby brother’s shrunk to nothing. I heard the second their tiny lungs inflated, instantaneous cries wailing from their throats.
We’d already been torn from our mom’s womb before Caius poured the contents of the vials into us. So why was I labeled IBB? Did IBB mean infected before my first breath of life? And if Dorian was IAB, did that mean he’d already started breathing when Caius ripped him from the womb?
“Are t-they al-right?” Mom gurgled, eyelids drooping and head lolling back.
Caius wrapped the babies with white mink blankets and went to her side. “They’re fine. It worked.” Fear transformed his face as he bit into his wrist, before pressing it against her mouth. “Hold on,” he said. “Please hold on.” He lifted her upper body, causing more blood to gush from her carved belly. Then he sank his fangs into her neck. Long moments passed, the patter of my mom’s heart fading to almost nothing. Caius tore his
fangs free from her neck and bit into his bottom lip. He removed his no-longer bleeding wrist from her mouth. “Do not die on me!” he shouted, then pressed his lips to hers.
Crimson drops escaped from between their mouths, and then I heard it. Mom’s dwindling heartbeat increased in strength then began racing.
Her eyes flung open, startlingly silver. No longer the eyes of a human, but the eyes of a vampire.
The first thing I felt as the vision faded was a cool hand against my cheek. “Are you okay?”
I was cradled in Kendrick’s arms, my head against his firm chest. We were in the foyer at the bottom of the stairs. He frowned at me, stroking my hair back and looking worried. His pulse was elevated…and damn, he smelled good. I kicked free of his hold and stumbled back against the wall.
Dorian flew from the kitchen and steadied me before shoving a full bottle of blood into my hands. “What’d you see?”
After emptying the bottle I sunk onto the lower steps, my knees still wobbling.
Kendrick took the glass bottle. “Did you see the damned?”
“Or Caius?” Dorian interjected.
With my brain beginning to throb, I rubbed my thumbs over my temples. “Mom forced Caius to infect us. It was her idea to have us all turned…”
The moment I’d finished recounting what I’d seen, the wooden front door swung open and Mom strolled in. She caught sight of us as she dropped her keys into a glass dish on the foyer table. “Oh, you’re all home. I’m so happy you’re—”
Dorian shot forward. His hands wrapped around her shoulders and his eyes captured her startled ones. “Why did you make him turn us?”
Kendrick and I crept closer, but kept quiet. Dorian’s compulsion always worked better without interference.
The shock left Mom’s face, replaced by muted confusion. “Turned who? Where?”
Dorian’s steel gaze narrowed. “You made Caius turn Amelia and me into vampires.”
Watching the turmoil as our mom’s eyes became distant, darting with memories, I held my breath. It felt like an ant nest had been obliterated in my gut, and a million ants were trying to crawl up my throat to freedom.
