by J. L. Myers
Marcus bared his fangs at Ty. “Stop struggling and I’ll let you walk out of here. Although after trespassing and interfering in Council business, I’m within my rights to do the complete opposite. For her sake, however…” He eyed me with plain irritation. For some reason the expression reminded of the time Caius had regarded me like an unruly child. “I won’t.”
“Don’t do me any favors,” Ty said, but the trembling in his body recessed.
Marcus ignored him, nostrils flaring as he sighed. “Amelia, how many were there?”
“T-two,” I said, caught by the sudden warmth in his velvet voice. Marcus was nothing like Caius. He’d saved me after Caius had tried to kill me. “Ty killed them both. We couldn’t save the woman, another Pure Blood. The second damned said they’re turning vamps, as many as they can find. Except for Pure Bloods. They’re killing them. Thinning the bloodlines.”
Surprise flashed across Marcus’s face. Then it was gone, replaced by softness as he drew me into his arms. “You’re so stubborn. Why didn’t you listen to me.” He released me and held me at arm’s length. The teal flecks of his irises shone. “You could have gotten yourself killed.”
Ty’s breathing became hoarse. “Let go of her.”
I stepped out of Marcus’s hold. “I’m sorry I scared you. But I’m not the same girl I was at the Armaya. I don’t need every guy in my life protecting me. Now tell your goons to let my boyfriend go.”
Marcus smiled at the command. “No. You certainly are not.” He waved his hand and the bodyguards released Ty.
In a flash he was at my side. A gentle rumble still vibrated his throat.
Marcus laughed. “A wolf protecting a vampire. Sure, it was the way centuries ago, but I never thought I’d see the day.” He moved aside, leaving the doorway unblocked. “Now get out of here before backup shows. I can promise you they won’t be as understanding as I’ve been.”
Ty’s arm claimed my waist, forcing us out the door to the stairs. “What about the woman’s family?” I called over my shoulder. “You’ll contact them, won’t you?”
“Sure.” Marcus motioned the guards down the hall. “Retrieve the body. Oh, and Amelia. Do try to keep out of Council business. Next time I might not be there to keep your pet from The Council’s grasp.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Two days later we were back home and back to training. Being the second week of January we were also back at school, which meant training after hours as the sun set and night approached.
On the beach and covered in gritty sand and sweat, Ty had already handed me my ass more than once. He took the whip from my hip and kissed me, hot, hard, and quick. “Practice your aim.” He smiled, jogging toward my brother and best friend.
I was so relieved. One on one with Ty was a challenge and still somehow sexy and hot. Seeing the drive on his face and the power of his body as his muscles bulged while flattening me on my back was a serious turn on. The hours of hand-to-hand combat had bulldozed my bond-blocking walls. I needed a cool down.
“Alright, time to put down the bows. You two are up,” Ty called out to Kendrick and Dorian. He met them before the rising cliff where they’d been stringing out arrows at pieces of driftwood. “Though, instead of swapping offense and defense, I want you both to be attacking each other at the same time. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
Kendrick looked relieved. I didn’t know if the look was because he wasn’t taking on Ty, or because he got a break from target practice. Dorian was a total natural, but Kendrick was better in unarmed combat.
They both nodded and took their stance in the clearing on the beach. Facing each other they stood only feet apart. After my long grapple with Ty, the sand had been left uneven and filled with divots. I rolled out my whip, weaving fast cracks out at a jagged cluster of rocks. My focus flicked back and forth, wanting to witness this head to head.
“Don’t hold back,” Dorian said.
Kendrick cracked his neck to either side. “Not planning to.”
Ty was crouched to the side, watching as he always did when not in the melee himself.
Dorian crouched facing Kendrick, every lean muscle along his arms and legs visible. Kendrick’s fists curled, ready and waiting. Without any warning Dorian sprang. Kendrick ducked out of his way. The two faced off, Kendrick throwing the first punch. It hit, but Dorian wasn’t surprised. Instead he was ready. His own fist connected with Kendrick’s stomach. Then his other slammed into his cheek.
My iPhone buzzed, drawing my attention. I pulled it from my jeans to find a new text from Marcus. ‘Will be OTG with council and family stuff UFN. Can’t play lookout. Be on guard.’
Taking the warning seriously, I returned my attention to my whip, lashing out, flicking, and sending figure eights at my target. Every second of practice could mean the difference between life and death. With each strike my aim improved. My ability to control the whip was turning it into an extension of my arm.
After taking a few hefty chunks out of the rocks, I paused to watch my brother and best friend. They were closer to the shore now. Swinging punches and roundhouse kicks tossed wet sand up into the air. Bruises marked their pale arms and legs, fading as new ones appeared with each connecting hit. Drying blood marked lines from Dorian’s lip and Kendrick’s temple.
Dorian connected with a pummeling hit at Kendrick’s shoulder that spun him to his knees in the waves. Now facing the star-speckled ocean, he began to rise. But Dorian was already in the air, and landed hard against Kendrick’s back.
In blurred movement Kendrick’s arms shot up, gripping Dorian’s wrists. With a quick twist of his body, he spun on the spot. Dorian was thrown over his head to splatter into inches of seawater. Kendrick leapt forward, delivering a solid blow to Dorian’s face. The force reopened his lip on impact and scarlet sprayed like a projectile from his mouth.
With a strike of blue blazing in his irises, Dorian thrust his hands up. At first nothing happened. He hadn’t even made contact. Which he clearly could given how close they were.
Kendrick looked smug and Dorian smiled. Then a basketball-sized frozen orb lifted from the sea. It shot forward, slamming into Kendrick’s face.
I gasped and dropped my whip. At the same time Ty twitched while Kendrick fell backwards. None of us had expected Dorian’s water ability to come out. And although I had mentioned it to Ty, he had never seen it in action before.
I replaced my weapon at my hip and jogged over. “That orb was massive.”
“Cheap trick!” Kendrick used his elbows to prop himself up.
Dorian got up and wiped the blood from his lip with his arm. Using his free hand he hauled Kendrick out of the shallow waves. “All’s fair in love and war.”
“He’s right,” Ty called, rising to full six-foot-plus height as they began trekking away from the lapping shore’s edge. “Winning in battle means fighting dirty. Not fair.”
I met his side as smugness crept over Dorian’s face. “Well if that’s the case…”
His words broke off with a flick of his wrist. Simultaneously a foot-deep wave climbed up the shore, surrounding Kendrick’s feet. He went to move as the water rose, snaking up his legs, body, and up to his neck. But he couldn’t. The water instantly snapped to ice.
Kendrick struggled, every part of him trapped expect for his head. Cracks appeared in the ice. But escape was impossible. New layers of water kept rising with Dorian’s coaxing hands, keeping their captor from breaking free.
Kendrick’s face blazed red with fight, his eyes clouding. A surge of icy wind whipped, striking through my hair and batting my loose T-shirt against my body.
Then a human-sized tornado emerged from the sand.
It coalesced around Kendrick, the wind moving so fast that it sucked sand up until Kendrick was lost inside.
I went to rush forward and Ty followed. “We have to do something!”
Dorian appeared around the tornado’s edge, but he didn’t look shocked. No, he was smiling. “I think he’s do
ing this.”
There was a pop as the twister sucked in on itself, imploding. Ice shards shot out like bomb shrapnel and I screamed. Ty’s hand found my neck and forced me down as Dorian hit the sand beside us. The tornado died, violent swarming wind turning to quiet calm. We all peered up. Kendrick stood right where he had been, unharmed and free of Dorian’s ice trap.
“That was mad,” Dorian said, clapping.
Ty helped me to my feet. There was almost a look of awe on his face as he watched Kendrick. “You did that?”
The bond left no questions over what had happened. I stared at Kendrick. “You’re affinity is Air.”
Dorian laughed. “I knew it. And you’re welcome. Forcing it out of you was fun.”
Kendrick stared down at his body, then hands, like he couldn’t believe it himself. “That was…awesome!”
~
Ty jumped up from his perch on a fallen tree, clapping his hands. “Great work. You’re all getting better at using your abilities in combat. Your reflexes have become more sharp and precise, too.”
He extended an arm to pull me up from where he’d last taken me down. My butt was numb from snow and my jeans were wet and heavy.
“But most attacks will not be foreseen or obvious. Your kind,” his tone held no resentment as he glanced back to Kendrick and Dorian, who both slumped down into the snow, “can be very calculating. And I am sure the damned will be much, much worse.”
Dorian snatched his phone from the base of a tree and leaned back against the trunk. Kendrick stretched out his legs over his boarding jacket, looking just as exhausted.
It was the following afternoon and we were in the depths of Mt Major. With Mom concerned about the escalating murders, Dorian had told her we were going to hang out at Vanessa’s house. She would have just worried otherwise. Or tried to stop us.
We’d been training at Mt Major for hours in one-on-one combat while practicing our vampire abilities. Well except for me, seeing as having a vision wasn’t going to fend off any attackers. In my opinion, we’d had enough for today. Each of us was wet with sweat, rain, and snow. We were all exhausted. And with only a first quarter moon lighting the growing fog, it was getting eerie out here too. I’d had enough. But I wasn’t calling the shots.
Ty spun back to me with anticipation brightening his beautiful face. His tan skin glistened with sweat, and I had to force my wandering gaze away from his muscle shirt. Not that I hadn’t been checking him out the last few hours. “So, what’s next?”
Kendrick made a small, irritated noise and tugged off his own damp T-shirt. Ignoring the jealous move, despite noticing how his muscles had filled out since we began training, I faced Ty.
He reached for my hand and led me from the sidelines and into the center of the now torn up and muddy clearing. The minimal moonlight and twinkling stars penetrated the space. Snow-draped skeleton branches danced in a gentle breeze. “I want to do a demonstration with you,” he whispered in my ear. “Stand here. Close your eyes.”
I shivered, my lids sliding shut. Then I heard the squish of mud as he turned from me to face the others.
“The damned, from what we know, will attack at night.” Ty’s voice was gravelly as he spoke. His words flooded my memory with the night we were attacked on the boat, dark and deadly. “Light and vision won’t always be available. We must learn to use all our senses in case any are lost in combat.” The squish of Ty’s hunting boots came closer and he placed a rough hand on my shoulder. “I am going to come at you without you seeing,” he said, voice now softer, almost gentle. “I want you to deflect me without sight.” His breath cascaded over my neck as a kiss met my flesh with the brush of his lips. “Give me everything you’ve got. Don’t you dare hold back.”
Feeling irritation from Kendrick, I opened my eyes. Ty’s heated hand grazed my cheek. Then he retreated for the trees, splashing through puddles before disappearing from sight. With a shrug, I closed my eyes again and tuned my ears, taking in every noise surrounding me. The gentle breeze had ceased, replaced by the pattering of soft-falling rain. Each drop against my skin was ice cold, feeling like tiny piercing needles. Time seemed to stand still, getting slower, becoming infinite. Each raindrop became audible against every surface it touched. They pattered against individual leaves. Tapped against larger exposed rocks. And almost sizzled as they hit the snow and turned to ice. The wind around me picked up. Surrounding trees began wailing in dance, harmonizing whooshes with the persistent rain.
An almost inaudible movement rose in the far distance. A whoosh of air followed by snow-crunching boots. Ty was moving faster and quieter than humanly possible. I held my ground and listened as each step covered an unspeakable distance. My shoulders hunched and I bent my knees to brace. He was close now, his heart’s drumming breaking through an almost soundless descent. My lids remained shut tight as the air around me swirled. It was as though I could see everything surrounding me even in my blind state. I could hear, feel, and smell every movement, every change.
Ty exploded from the tree line behind me. In that moment I swore I could hear his muscles tensing as his arms reached for me. Instantly I launched off the ground. My body propelled up into the air and backwards, landing on the thick branch of an oak tree.
I peered down at Ty as he smiled up at me. “That was pretty impressive.”
I returned his smile and dropped from the branch. In one fluid movement, I landed on the ground twenty feet before him. The rain around us started to pelt down harder. The clouds above coiled and grew more black and angry. For some reason I felt cocky. “That was nothing.”
Ty took my words as the challenge they were intended to be, and took after me at a dead run. Each powerful running step created divots in the snow under the force of his hammering boots. He launched into the air again, arms outstretched, ready to take hold.
At the last millisecond I dropped to the ground, crumbling under his muscular form as he flew over. He landed as I leapt back to my feet, not hesitating to come at me again.
Just as Ty reached me I ducked. My arm shot up in the same instant and my fist connected hard with his jaw. Ty stumbled and actually looked startled. Instant guilt radiated like lava through my veins. “Oh shit. I’m sorry.”
Without warning Ty sprang. His iron grip curled over my shoulders, flattening me to the ground. My back slammed into a rocky patch, radiating pain through my bones. The rainfall grew harder, drops turning into hail. I struggled to move against his brute strength, but it was useless. I was pinned.
Ty flashed me his cockiest of smiles. His hair blew back off his face with the wind’s growing intensity. “Never underestimate,” he said, loud enough for Kendrick and Dorian to hear as he glanced up at them. “The slightest hesitation could mean your life.” He gazed back at me, loosening his grip. “And we can’t have that, now can we?”
A sudden flash of blinding white light lit up the entire forest surrounding us, like an insane camera flash going off. At that exact moment a crack like splintering wood erupted through the trees. My hands shot up to cover my ears as another crack of light erupted. This one vibrated the ground beneath us while Ty still straddled my body. We leapt up as another went off. This one was so close we could see the strike.
“Get behind me,” Ty yelled over the exploding boom.
Kendrick and Dorian ran straight for us. But the lightning was faster. It struck again, splintering light breaking out in forks that penetrated the ground. The force sent dirt flying up. My best friend and brother jumped back to keep from being hit.
Thoughts and memories rushed through my mind. Worsening weather had dampened each training session. Most accompanied by lightning that seemed drawn to our presence. Ty and I edged away from the continuing strikes.
“Why does this keep happening?” My scream barely registered through the shattering noise.
Even before our training, there’d been close run-ins with lightning. My first day back at school had almost seen me decapitated by a tree that had b
een split by a plummeting fork. On the cruise, a single strike had broken up the bar fight between Ty and the damned. And there was the lightning storm when I’d tried to bring on a vision.
Over the aftermath of another rumbling strike that kept Kendrick away, he yelled, “This is a sacred site—a beacon of power. Whatever is going on with this weather, the site is amplifying it.”
“It’s where Satan used his blood to create the first vampires,” Ty added, keeping my body protectively behind his.
“Where the Dawn of Reckoning took place,” Kendrick called out. “And where the damned were cursed to darkness and insanity.”
As another strike hit the ground only two yards from the hunting boots on Ty’s feet, something dawned on me. The first lightning encounter and all the others since had one thing in common. Me. I was the catalyst. The lightning was coming for me.
Knowing that in seconds Ty and I would both be fried, I shoved my hands into his back. Having not expected the attack, Ty flew across the clearing. Now the lightning had a clear path to take what it kept coming back for.
“No!” The screams came from all three guys. Ty was already racing my way, but smaller forks kept Kendrick and Dorian back.
What happened next was so fast it was a blur. The energy in the air intensified, crackling with power. Then a new lightning bolt split from the clouds. It forked through the sky. Its thick center headed straight for me.
I braced for the impact, but it never hit.
Instead, crackling energy whipped around me and the tree I was backed up against. Ice raced up the trunk, freezing the wood while a twister appeared out of thin air. It surrounded the tree without touching me. Then a crunch of wood erupted. Ty’s body collided with mine as another crack rang out. The tree came crashing down, absorbing the lightning and exploding in a shower of splinters. It landed like a demolished building, missing me only because Ty had cleared me from its path.
The lightning receded and Ty hauled me into his arms. His face was ghost-white. “What the hell were you doing? You could have died.” The anger left his face and he gulped. “Oh, God, I couldn’t lose you.”
