“Can you read… I mean…” I nodded in Arthur’s direction when he turned away to answer a question. “He looked at me weird.”
Morgaine stared at him, then shook her head and smiled.
“What is it?” I asked, leaning closer. “Why was he looking at me like that?”
Arthur looked right at me then, and I sat up, pretending not to be talking about him. But I felt my cheeks flush, the heat rising up from my chest. I could only imagine what scent he was catching from me then, because he scratched his brow with one finger, laughing a little. Even Morgaine laughed.
“Morg?” I whispered, not so quietly. “What are you two laughing at?”
“You don’t have anything to worry about.” She smiled at Arthur, who didn’t even bother to look away this time. “From what I gather, he thinks you look pretty tonight.”
With another flush in my cheeks, I looked up at Arthur’s vibrant blue eyes and smiled.
“Stop that!” Mike kicked my foot.
“Ouch,” I whined. “Stop what?”
“Flirting.” He leaned closer. “I can feel the heat coming off your body.”
“I was not.” I scowled at him and went back to eating my dinner.
From my periphery, I saw Mike point at Morgaine. “You shouldn’t encourage her.”
Morgaine just giggled and looked up at me from under her lashes, but her gaze slipped quickly past me to look over at Nate, talking with another vampire about David.
“What about David?” I shot my voice across the table.
All hushed.
Nate shifted in his chair.
“He just found out he’s dead,” Eric said.
I twisted my wedding band around with my thumb. “You didn’t know?”
“I—I keep to myself. I’ve pretty much just hidden in my room at the castle since I was changed. I didn’t even know there was a war going on.”
“Nate’s new,” Arthur explained. “He was recently brought in by a Scout.”
“Scout?” I frowned.
“Like Orion,” Morgaine said. “Same guys who would’ve eventually come for Emily.”
“Oh.” I looked over at our newcomer. “So, you knew David?”
“Yeah. I went to school with him.”
“When?”
“Just last year.”
My core imploded. “Nate—is that… is that short for Nathan?”
“Yeah, sure is.”
“Holy cow! You’re Nathan Rossi? I went to your funeral!”
He laughed. “Really?”
“Yes! Oh, my God. You’re not dead!”
“Ur—” He looked down at his own body. “Not as far as I can tell.”
“Oh, my God!” I said a few times. “Does Emily know?”
“Emily?” Nathan looked at Eric. “Who’s Emily?”
“Emily’s a vampire, Nathan.” I tried to contain my excitement, but heard my own voice travel across the table louder than it should be. “Emily from school.”
“Emily…” His eyes widened. “Emily Pierce? David’s Emily?”
Everyone went quiet.
“David’s Emily?” I gulped. “What exactly do you mean by David’s Emily?”
“She… she was… I mean, she was the only girl he ever hung out with.” He shrugged. “They were close.”
My heart dropped into my stomach. “Close?”
“Yeah. None of us guys were allowed to touch her. So what happened to him—David? Why’d he die?”
Eric clapped Nathan on the shoulder. “I’ll fill you in after dinner, man.”
I scratched my head, leaning back.
“So is Em here?” Nate asked.
“No.” I looked at Mike. He was as stiff as I was. “She will be tomorrow, though.”
“Cool.” Nathan grinned. “That’s really cool. I always liked Em.”
“Well, she’s engaged now.” I jerked my head in Mike’s direction.
“Yeah? No kidding. That’s awesome.”
Mike nodded and looked down at his lap, a blue light making his face glow from under the table. I felt the double vibration of a message come through, and wanted to kick him and tell him not to use his phone at the dinner table, like he’d do to me.
“So, how did you know David, Princess Amara?” Nathan asked.
Eric leaned in to Nathan and whispered, “She was his wife.”
Nathan sat taller, his eyes wide. “Oh. But—I thought he… I mean, last I spoke to him, he was hooked on some other girl. Ara, or something weird like that.”
I laughed through my nose. “Yeah. That’s me. I get called Ara, Ara-Rose, all different names.”
His lip quirked as he took a closer look at my face than he had before. “So, you married him?”
I nodded, unable to stop from smiling at his obvious joy.
“Sheeze, I’m really glad to hear that, Ara.” The table huffed at such an informal address, but Nathan didn’t even notice. “I know he was pretty in love with you.”
I nodded. “Yeah. He was.”
“I’m sorry he’s dead. He was a good friend of mine.” He looked down at his plate.
“So who turned you?” Morgaine asked, looking around Falcon and down the long line of vampires on her side of the table.
“Yeah,” I added.
Nathan looked at Arthur, then at Eric. “I uh… I don’t know.”
“Oh.” I looked down. “You didn’t see the guy?”
He shrugged. “Could’ve been a girl, for all I know.”
A few others shot questions at Nathan, while I looked at Mike. Him, with all his rules, was the last person I ever expected to see texting under the table. “Mike?”
He looked at me.
“Who are you, um…?” I nodded to the phone.
“Em,” he said quietly.
“Oh. Did you tell her about Nathan?”
He nodded and held up his phone.
All I saw was exclamation marks. “Guess she’s happy then?”
“Uh, yeah, just a tad.” He leaned forward and stuffed his phone in his back pocket.
“You okay?” I asked, patting his hand.
“Yeah. You?” he breathed, forcing a smile.
I swallowed. “David’s Emily.”
“Look, I kind of knew it was like that,” he said, wearing the same expression I was. “And I think you did too. Doesn’t mean anything, baby.”
I nodded, trying to play the bigger person, but I think we both just wanted to sink down and feel sorry for ourselves. “I know. It was just a shock to hear it put that way.”
“I know. I just feel sorry for… you know who. I bet they”—by they, he meant David— “are gonna cop an earful when you see them next.”
I laughed. “Probably not. I can never stay mad at hi—er, her when we’re in the same room.”
Mike laughed. “I’ve always loved that about you.”
* * *
The training hall seemed cold without the heat of fifty bodies filling it. Mike fitted a metal cuff to his forearm and winked at me as he grabbed a sword.
“Why do we need protection?” I rubbed the cuff where it made my arm sweaty. “We’re vampires. We won’t die from a cut.”
“No, but do you have any idea how much energy it uses to heal a slash every ten seconds? That energy—that blood—is better spent cutting up bad guys on the battlefield, Ar.”
“Oh.” I shoved a finger under it to scratch my skin. “Makes sense. But I was kind of wondering, and… I know this is probably a really stupid question, so don’t get mad, okay?”
“Sure, baby, what is it?” He jammed a sword into his scabbard.
“If we’re strong enough to cut vampires open with a butter knife, why do we need Lilithian-steel blades? I thought that was just so humans could cut them.”
“Because,” he said, handing me a sword from the table. “To cut them with plain iron would, again, take more effort—minuscule, but effort all the same—and the chances of cutting deep enough to bleed them out and let the venom-tip do its
trick are one in five. Lilithian steel guarantees the best possible result.”
“Is their skin really that tough?”
Mike smirked, sighing heavily. “You just have no idea about anything, do you?”
I swallowed with a little gulp. He was right. I hadn’t really thought about any of this. I guess I just took it for granted that I was a vampire and so were they—that we’d all just do some biting and waving of swords until someone wore out and went home.
“Come on then.” Mike lowered into his stance, his eager grin drawing me into battle. “Let’s do this.”
I twisted my sword over and held it in a dagger grip, then extended my arm so my fist aimed at Mike, the blade of my sword following the length of my forearm.
“Ara, you’re holding that wrong. Point your blade upward, like this.” He showed me how one is supposed to hold a sword.
I shook my head. “I have my own style. It’s non-conventional, Mike, but this works for me.”
He scoffed, shaking his head.
“It does. Just watch.”
“Fine,” he said, and his deep, godly tone made me not so sure of myself. “We’ll see.”
I angled my wrist and dipped my arm, waving my blade through the air in a figure eight, then as Mike stepped in, I dropped my shoulder, flipping onto my back. The ground caught me with a jolt, but it wasn’t enough to wind me. I grabbed his ankle in the split second he was still looking for me in his line of direct sight and slashed his shin, bringing him down to the ground beside me. He hit hard, dropping his blade with a loud clunk, and I was on him, legs either side of his chest, my sword to his throat. “Yield?”
He coughed out a laugh, his face red with obvious pain, and held my hips with both hands. “Girl: one. Guy: nothing.”
I laid my sword on the floor beside us. “Still think I need to hold my sword ‘properly’?”
He knocked my hands down from their sarcastic air quotes and dragged me into his chest for a bear-tight hug. “You’re fine, baby. You hold that sword however you want—long as you fight like that.”
I smiled into his sweaty neck, feeling the short, gristly stubble along his hairline behind his ear. It felt good to be this close to him again, like we’d not hugged in so long. He let me free, and I sat up, looking down at the caramel gaze of my bestest friend in the whole world. “I’ve missed you, Mike.”
He took a very long breath, wrapping his big hands around my hips again. “I missed you too, Ar.”
“And, Mike?” I grinned mischievously.
“Yeah,” he said, his eyes small with the relaxation his body stupidly felt while under me.
“Never let your guard down,” I said.
He had time only to widen his eyes as I rose up on my knees, making enough room for his body to twist under mine as I flipped him over and pressed my blade to the ball of his throat, holding his head in place by the scruff of his hair.
“Hey, guys,” Falcon said as he came in. “Mike, you going easy on that girl again?”
Mike’s arms came up, twisting at the elbows to knock my wrists away. My blade tore a shallow graze across his throat with the force, while the roll of his hips sent me to my back on the floor, my legs open around him. “Maybe just a little.”
I pushed my cuff to his chin, holding him off me. “You were not,” I said, struggling. “You’re just embarrassed to be pinned by a girl.”
“You’re right,” he said sarcastically, and eased off me. “Guess you’re just too quick for me, Ara.”
When he offered his hand to help me up, I ignored it and rolled over, clambering clumsily to my feet. “I had you. You were pinned.”
Mike smirked, wiping blood off his neck. “Yeah, but you let your guard down, baby, and the battle flipped in my favor.”
“Well”—I dusted myself off and looked at Falcon, who was covering his grin—“it won’t happen again.”
The boys laughed behind me as I stormed from the training hall into the cool sprinkle of summer rain outside.
* * *
The single torch in the corner under the stone steps gave little light to the room. I sat on a chair in the border of its warmth, tapping my fingers on the round table then checking my watch every few seconds. Mike had a good excuse for being late to the council meeting, because Emily apparently arrived about ten minutes ago, but where were the rest of them?
Somewhere up in the Throne Room a door slammed, and a quick gust of air followed the sound down the tunnel of stairs, sweeping the roundness of the room and snuffing out the torchlight, thrusting me into the pitch black of the underground.
“Looks like even the flames gave up waiting,” I said to the torch, standing up. In the darkness, it almost felt like I could hit my head on something, though I knew the roof was much too high for that. I felt my way around the cold stone curve of the table and wandered to the wall under the stairs with my hands out, finding the matchbox right where we usually left it.
The birth of the flame brought an instant bubble of safety with its warm glow. I rested it to the wick of the torch where it sizzled and flourished into a bold, bright light again, touching the shadows in the corner under the stairs. After a quick check for Bogey Men at my back, I sighed, relaxing.
“Who? Amara?” Morgaine said in a high-pitched voice, coming down the stairs. “Blade, what are you saying?”
“You know what I’m saying, Morg.”
It suddenly felt like being back in high school again. I wasn’t sure whether to announce myself and embarrass them when they realized I’d have heard them talking about me, or to just hide.
“Yes, I think I do, and I can’t say I’m terribly impressed.”
I went for option two, pressing my back against the wall and masking myself in the shadows.
As they walked in and sat down with their backs to me, I drew my toes in too, hoping the rapid beating of Blade’s heart would hide my own. But they seemed too distracted by their conversation to even notice my scent, otherwise they’d have looked at me by now.
Blade dropped his head into his hands. “I just don’t get it. Why am I so hung up on her?”
Morgaine laughed softly. “It’s the curse of her blood—Lilith’s blood.”
“Queen Lilith?”
“No, the original Lilith. History reports that she was cursed with beauty beyond imagination and the burden of desire. This was believed to have been a punishment for deceiving Eve and convincing her to eat the Fruit of Wisdom.”
“So Ara’s cursed with beauty—”
“There’s more to it than that.”
“Like what? She makes people want her?”
“Yes, but—”
“How is that a curse?”
“Trust me, it is. You may have learned that Lilith was known in history as the Goddess of Seduction?”
“I guess I’ve heard that, but what does that have to do with Ara?”
“Lilith’s ability to seduce a man wasn’t just because of her beauty. It was her curse that—”
“I don’t get it. Are you saying this feeling is a curse?” He pressed his hand to his chest. “It’s not real?”
“Yes.”
“Then why doesn’t Quaid feel this way, or Falcon?”
“Because she’s never noticed them. Not like she has you.”
“So… it’s just that she, what, Amara fancies me? That’s why I feel like I’ll die if I don’t hold her?”
“Something like that.”
“But I don’t have any feelings for him, Morg!” I shot forward, aiming a finger in Blade’s direction. They both spun around, shock paling their faces. “You can’t say this curse started because I like him, when I don’t feel anything for him?”
She shook her head, sitting back a little. “Did you ever feel a flutter in your heart for him, maybe for a certain action? Perhaps he was kind, perhaps a certain smile or something?”
I swallowed hard as I thought about his cheeky grin and sexy accent, my mouth open like I could say something to defe
nd myself.
“That’s all it takes, Princess,” Morgaine added.
“But, I mean… we just…”
“Exactly,” she said with a smug grin.
“When were you planning to tell me this?” I yelled, digging my finger into my chest.
“I wasn’t allowed to.” She held up defensive or maybe calming hands.
“Who said?”
“Mike.”
I took a few deep, labored breaths, my shoulders rising and falling until it all came down on top of me. I sunk into the chair beside Blade, my head in my hands. “Oh, God. Blade. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be, Amara.” He touched my shoulder.
“Blade!” Morgaine gasped. “I understand you have feelings for our princess, but there are boundaries. You have no right to touch her.”
“I know.” He dropped his hand and then slipped off his chair to squat beside me. “I’m sorry. It’s just… can’t you see, Morg? She blames herself.”
Morgaine sat in Blade’s chair and took my hand. “This is not in your control, Amara. It’s a curse: one you inherited with your blood.”
“So I’m cursed to make men fall for me—for a simple thing as liking their smile?”
“Yes.” Morgaine looked down.
“But I don’t love Blade. I mean, I like him as a friend, but—”
“It doesn’t matter. You care about him. That’s all it takes.”
“Oh, God!” I buried my face in my hands. “I’m so stupid.”
“No. Mike’s stupid.” Morgaine reached between Blade and me, and placed her hand on his shoulder, bringing us all into a huddle. “He should’ve let David tell you.”
“David knows?”
“Yes.”
“Wait!” I pushed them both back and sat straight, eyes wide. “The curse—does that mean David’s love for me isn’t real?”
“No, it’s real.” Morg laughed. “David fell for you before you were changed, as did Mike. But you, my friend”—she turned to Blade—“you are just a part of an eternal curse Amara has to suffer for the sins of her ancestors.”
“Morg, are you sure? I mean, about the curse taking hold after David and I fell in love?”
She smiled softly. “Yes, I’m certain. David loves you, okay. And it is real love. I can sense it.”
Dark Secrets Box Set Page 162
