by E E Everly
“It’s excluding you, so you can go in and out of my dorm.”
“You’ll be safer from me if I can’t get in.”
“We’re not going to debate this. My ward. My way. Now drip away.”
He drops his voice an octave. “I love it when you become all bossy.” He squeezes the meat of his palm over the water. Three drops hit the liquid and fan out to a faint red tinge. Killian is about to bring his hand to his lips, to seal the wound his venomous bite has kept open, but thinking otherwise, he extends his hand. “Want a taste?”
Blood has dribbled down the side of his hand. Killian holds his other hand underneath to catch the drips.
“Oh my gosh!” I shove him away.
He laughs. “What? I thought I’d offer.” After he seals the punctures with his saliva, he licks the blood from his hands in a leisurely calculated fashion, mostly to repulse me, I’m sure. He’s thorough; he doesn’t waste a drop.
I can’t look away. “We don’t even know what your blood would do to me.”
“I was joking.” He seems a tad disappointed as he licks his lips. “I didn’t really think you’d drink from me.”
But he wanted me to. “Oh.” An awful thought occurs. “They drink from you, don’t they?”
A slight hitch in his movement signals his discomfort. “Who?”
“Your freshies.” I don’t hide the irritation in my voice. “It’s like some sexual fetish they have. You drink from them. They drink from you…” My stomach turns. “Is it like sex for them? Is it like that for you?”
Killian turns scarlet and drops his hands to his sides. “I am not answering that.”
“You were disappointed I don’t even want the slightest taste.” That’s partly a lie. I am curious. “So you want me to be like… You want me to… Do you wish I was like your…?” I can’t finish my thoughts.
I’ve seen vamps stand as still as statues for hours. Killian has frozen over, except one twitch in the blood pulsing at his temple. “It’s not like that. I drink to stay alive.”
“Yeah right.”
“End of story.”
“But—”
“You should drop it, Sasha. Finish your wards and go to class.”
I curl my bottom lip against my teeth, slowly, as if I’m contemplating changing my mind about drinking his blood. I moisten my mouth and press my lips together as I do when I’m blotting lipstick. Killian’s captivated by my moves. I drop to the level of the diffuser and turn it on. It’s a bit creepy, his blood diffusing into the air. What would happen if I inhaled it?
As I call a mini whirlwind to whisk the crushed herbs upward, I move my mouth with precision, hoping to tease Killian. The herbs swirl together as I speak the warding spell. At the last moment, I coax the mist from the diffuser into the whirlwind and blow it into the atmosphere with rounded lips. I send the ward through the ventilation system so I don’t have to open the windows and scar my vampire.
“There, it’s done,” I whisper.
Killian leans in all smuglike and sexy and speaks into my ear. “Now make your pendant, little sprite, and include me.”
Not likely. I glance at the clock. “Yikes, I’m out of time. The pendant will have to wait.” Especially if he hopes it will keep him from sneaking into my bed and divert him from temptation.
I whip around the room and scoop up books and my laptop, shoving them into a backpack. Killian meets me at the door, pressing his hand against the wood, preventing me from opening it.
As he stares deeply into my eyes, I tap my foot. “Let me go. I’ll be fine.”
He doesn’t say anything, and his flat expression unnerves me.
“Killian. How long have I survived in this world with vamps and demons roaming about? Give me some credit. They won’t strike in broad daylight on campus.”
My argument is weak. I haven’t actually survived for very long. Only a year, with Killian keeping a close eye on me. And daylight won’t prevent a fully covered vampire from venturing out if he smells storm sprite blood. It’s a miracle the demons haven’t bothered me before either.
Something of pain crosses Killian’s features. It’s a miniscule change, but I see it. I rub his forearm with my thumb. His skin is soft, but his muscles are rock solid underneath.
He makes a show of pulling his hand off the door as he steps away, sliding his arm from my touch. “If you’re not back before sundown, there’ll be hell to pay.”
I pat his cheek twice in a mocking fashion. “Don’t I know it.” I rush down the hallway, resisting the urge to look back at my vampire.
I never asked him about waking up in my bed. Caught in the act, he won’t be able to deny that there’s something going on between us. I’ll ask him tonight.
TWELVE
I’m distracted through most of my classes, thinking about my mom and how she asked me to find the amulet. She wants me to clean up her mess! How do I even start to track down an amulet?
To top my concerns off, my life is in danger because of her lame actions.
Surely the seed demons have been aware of my presence ever since I came to Earth. They look like regular humans, and I have no way to detect them. I could be sitting through half of my classes with half a dozen of them and not know it.
I could also be dancing impatiently behind a seed demon as I wait in line to order my hot cocoa. I glance at my watch. Eight twenty-three. The sun goes down in seven minutes. I am so dead; Killian will have my head.
Finally the guy gets his latte, and I place my order. I lean against the counter, taking in the small campus café. Everyone either has their noses in their phones or happily sips steaming beverages while laughing with friends. I’d think a seed demon would act more suspicious if one were tailing me.
The barista with a quirky brow piercing passes me my piping-hot ambrosia. I inhale and nearly cry out in ecstasy. Mandy warned me about drinking beverages like this in public after she witnessed me in a particularly embarrassing slurp session with my plastic foam cup once before.
Before taking a sip, I hightail it out of the café, with the tinkling of the door’s bell signaling my step into the active danger zone—it will take me ten minutes to trek across campus. I will be an exposed target.
I never had a problem with my late evening winter class when I headed home well after dark. I never worried about being a target either.
I am so naïve.
I count steps in my head, scanning the shadows made from the sun setting behind me, all while the chocolate aroma starts to bliss me out. In a few more seconds I won’t even care if someone’s stalking me.
You had to get your cocoa. I chance a sip, hoping I don’t scald my tongue. In contentment, I close my eyes for one breath. A breeze whispers across my cheek. The night is cool. The spring nights usually are, at least for a few more weeks, but I don’t feel the cold because of my ambrosia.
As I take another step, an arm slides through mine, and a low voice mutters. “Don’t stop. Keep moving, nice and steady.”
I nearly squeak in terror but recognize the silhouette beside me. Head-to-toe black covers Killian. A hoodie low over his eyes protects him from whatever remaining sunlight might touch his skin. He’s still wearing the ridiculous shades from Lauren.
As Killian guides me across the center lawn toward the dorms, I concentrate on not crushing my cup. The bliss from the cocoa is so far gone I might as well be carrying coffee sludge. I’m dying for another sip to alleviate my anxiety when Killian’s steps quicken to where he’s pulling me along, crunching us through the grass.
“You and your cocoa,” he grumbles.
I flutter my lashes, wondering why he’s making such a quip when he’s clearly about to vamp out. His tone leaves no room for a witty comeback. “What’s going on?”
He stares straight ahead. “Two demons on my right. Four in the rear and two more on the left, that’s what.”
“Aw, slimy sea serpents.”
A gruff rumbles from Killian’s throat. “When I t
ell you to, run.” Killian looks at me. “Understood?”
“Where?”
“Straight ahead to the dorm.”
I nod, stoically.
Too many students are inside, except the ones closing in on us. I don’t see them until they’re close enough to enter my peripheral vision. I’d kill for vamp senses to detect my enemies.
The sky descends into darkness as the final sun’s rays disappear. Killian chucks his sunglasses, spits out a sharp, “Run,” and pushes me forward. His actions aren’t lost on me as I simultaneously throw my cocoa into another demon’s face and Killian sends a demon flying with a roundhouse kick.
Howls scatter through the atmosphere. I have half a lawn to cross. I drop my backpack and pump my arms with ferocity. I ache to spread my wings and soar into the sky, but no one, besides Killian, knows about my wings. I can’t leak my one advantage if I don’t really need to.
A stitch in my side makes me grunt. A demon crashes to the ground on my left, and I jump. Killian’s putting them down one at a time. I’m about to leap over the curb to the street and cross into the safety of my dorm wards when a black van screeches to a halt in front of me.
“No!” I backpedal, expecting a van full of demons to pour forth like second-rate circus freaks.
The reality is much worse. The first gleaming fangs and black leather trench coats are enough for me to whirl on my heel. Killian’s five steps behind me. I struggle to focus in the dim light, but a few more than eight demons are still after us.
They must have sprouted from the weeds!
Demons and vampires. I am so dead.
Where can I run? I dodge sideways but angle back when a demon bounds closer.
He’s going to grab me.
Several cracks break the panicked silence my brain has switched to while flooded with adrenaline.
The vampires have opened fire. I don’t have enough sense to hit the ground, but to my astonishment, demons fall around me, convulsing violently.
What the sinister sirens? What did the vamps use?
Killian shouts, but I can’t hear him. Alarm bells swallow up my hearing. My brain is in freak-out alarm mode.
Arms wrap my midsection. I flail, bugged out, gaping around for Killian. My captor turns and tosses me into the van. I grope myself upright, hoping to find Killian in the fray before they shut the van on me and I’m lost forever.
“Killian!” I can’t hear myself scream.
To my horror, Seth emerges from the passenger seat. A flash of silver lashes from his hands.
“Oh my star fishers!” I press into the vampire blocking the van door, trying to see around him. “Killian!”
Seth’s holding a whip. A deadly silver whip. My throat constricts with fear. Once, after returning from a shopping trip with my roommates, I excitedly and stupidly dumped a handful of trinkets, including a silver ring, into Killian’s palm. He dropped them immediately. “Silver poisons vampires,” he simply said. I felt awful. How was I to know my giddiness over my found treasures could be harmful?
Lesson learned.
Killian doesn’t have time to react to my hoarse screams because he’s punching a vampire. Seth’s reflexes are fast. The whip coils around Killian, binding his arms. He stumbles before dropping and thrashing against his bindings. Seth strides up to Killian, grabs him by the collar, and shoves him into the van. I shimmy over to Killian and huddle beside him. Two other vampires slide inside. Doors slam around us, but I’m squeezing my eyes shut, trying to deal with our predicament.
The demons didn’t grab me.
The vampires did.
I am so dumb.
I just had to get that hot cocoa.
THIRTEEN
Drenched in sweat, Killian mumbles incoherently. The silver in the chains doesn’t contact his skin, but its close proximity affects him nonetheless.
How can I help him?
The two vamps sit on a low bench, with their shotguns pointed lazily at us. The guns must shoot something that triggers an electrical current. That would explain the convulsing demons. Hitting the demons with electrical current is a good way to make them jump from their human hosts, thus ending their part in the conflict without killing them.
Killian and I rock on a bare metal floor as the driver rolls down winding roads. I shift so my forehead kisses Killian’s. He doesn’t acknowledge my action; he’s incapacitated.
Seth knew where to find me, out of the entire city. He probably followed us from the mansion.
I stomp down my panic. No use becoming angry. Somehow we’ll escape this.
I hope.
“We’ll be fine,” I whisper. I say this for my benefit. I nestle against Killian, wishing I could open a vein and give him some of my magical sustenance.
He mumbles my name.
“I’m here. Right here.” I stroke his cheek.
He twitches briefly but then becomes motionless under my touch.
I can’t do anything but call my storm.
I relax onto the floor of the van, allowing the metal’s chill to shift into my skin, creating the mood for my storm.
Bring the hail. Bring the sleet. Make the road an icy sheet.
Plinkings hit the roof. Within seconds, they fall in rapid fire. A deluge coats the van. The windshield wipers work in a fury.
Seth barks from the passenger seat. “Knock her out!”
I bolt upright, prepared to fight. “No!”
A gunstock comes toward my head. The pain is sharp. Blackness takes me immediately.
FOURTEEN
I come around slowly. I don’t know how long I’ve been out, but my head throbs. Aches and pains cover my body, which is bruised from our ghastly drive and my bouncing around. When the van stops for a gate, I don’t groan, but silently admit to our fate. We’re at the vamps’ mansion.
“Natalia and Dumitru will help us,” I whisper to Killian.
We drive until we reach the front entrance. One of the vampires opens the door, and he drags Killian and me to our feet. Two additional vampires meet us at the van and hold up a drooping Killian. Why doesn’t the silver affect them?
Seth pushes me forward. I roll my shoulders, fighting against him as he steers me into the mansion. I drag my heels, but he’s too strong. He shakes me as he says, “Settle down, little pixie.”
“I’m not a pixie,” I hiss.
He smiles and bears his moistened fangs as he cackles.
The vampires in the parlor come to their feet as I’m shoved past them. Their eyes are already black and their fangs drip with blood—most of them have been drinking from freshies. I’m more repulsed than I am terrified.
Disgust is good. Keep the fear at bay.
I have to stay in control for Killian’s sake. I can’t let them knock me out again if I try to call a storm either.
I don’t completely push the idea away. I’ll just have to be quicker.
Two vampires open a set of double doors beyond the parlor. I could say the stately room I enter is reminiscent of a king’s court, but this room drips in darkened décor and clouds of smoke from candles and a hearth fire. Private seating is clustered in pairs along the walls, but in the center, the hardwood is occupied by an exotic, sultry-looking thing who sits on a velvet puff with her ankles crossed demurely at its base.
She’s anciently Gothic. Thin. Her hair’s pulled sharply into a bun, and a tight crimson dress with a fitted bodice is pasted to her.
The vamps deposit Killian and me at her feet. She practically floats up as she rises from her makeshift throne.
She rolls her pale wrist. “Darius, unbind Killian. Honestly, I’d think you were dragging a wretched lycan in here like that instead of my poor, dear brother.”
I choke on my saliva. Brother? Whoa. The coughing fit sends shooting pains to my head, but no one pays me any attention.
Darius works to unbind Killian. It’s no easy process. I see why the silver affects Killian so drastically; it’s covered in fine barbs that puncture his skin through hi
s clothes. The vamp works at the whip with thick gloves, which don’t make the process move any faster. Killian grimaces only once, to his credit.
The woman claiming to be his sister crouches beside Killian, who’s on his hands and knees pushing to his feet. Her voice is soft, but commanding. “You need to drink. The barbs leached silver into your blood. The poison will continue to drain you unless you take nourishment.”
Killian lifts his head and glares at his sister. “Why’d you bring us here, Anya?”
Ah, Anya, the dear sister. I take it Killian and Anya aren’t on the best of terms.
Why didn’t he ever tell me about her?
Off to the side, Seth smirks. I shut him up with a venomous scowl. I loathe that undead creep. Perhaps he doesn’t rule out that I could strike him with lightning.
That would take out only one vamp. Another would fly right in and snap my neck.
“I always keep tabs on you, big brother,” Anya says. “The seed demons have been particularly active and bold as of late. I have standing orders for our coven to intervene on your behalf should it seem prudent.”
“Funny way of showing you care.” Killian gropes to standing, but he wobbles, and Anya catches him.
“The silver was Seth’s idea.” Anya’s hand smooths across Killian’s shoulders in an odd sisterly gesture. “Paybacks. Trust me, his actions won’t go unpunished.”
Seth leans toward them. “It was worth it.”
Anya’s silver-polished nails filed to tacky points touch my vampire. If I could, I’d tear them from her fingers.
“Sasha.” Killian takes a step toward me, and his knee goes out. Another vamp ducks under Killian’s arm and takes the load from Anya.
To my relief, the vamp is Natalia.
“Anya, vhat are you doing?” Natalia shifts Killian.
A blur whizzes by. Dumitru appears beside me and takes my hand. “Sasha, are you all right?”
“She’s fine,” Anya says, appraising me.
I want to tell her to shut up. My head won’t stop pounding until I have ambrosia in my system.
