Girl, Bitten

by Graceley Knox

  "As you just about demonstrated on Nikolai back there," I joke, reaching for him again. He lets me this time, and I stroke his cheek, relieved to see him back more or less to normal. His skin still feels too warm, but the madness is gone from his eyes.

  "Wouldn't have been a huge loss," he says, smiling and putting his hand over mine. "What matters is that I won. We won."

  I purse my lips, wishing I was more certain about this victory.

  "I'd still feel better if I'd chosen it myself," I whisper. He squeezes my hand, then pulls me close into a warm embrace.

  "You did choose it," he says. "You chose me. You're choosing right now. I know you. If you really didn't want this you would never let it happen. But you're here, with me. It's normal to have doubts. But that's all they are. This is right. Just let it happen."

  I hug him, wishing it was that easy to let go of my fears. I want to believe this is the right decision, but something still feels wrong... Speaking of which.

  I frown as I feel something in the pocket of Arsen's leather pants. I would dismiss it, but we just came from the arena. What would he keep in his pocket during all that, especially considering weapons weren't allowed?

  I pull it out without really thinking. My eyes widen as I recognize the glass vial, its inside still smeared with blood. It's exactly the same kind Claudette offered me.

  "Witch blood?" I say, shocked. Arsen stiffens, pulling away from me to see the vial in my hand. He turns pale. "Is that why you went crazy? You were cheating?!"

  "Sasha," Arsen says quickly, hushing me. "I had to, I couldn't risk losing. This was too important."

  "Too important?" I say, outraged. "You could have been disqualified! The whole challenge could have been voided and I would have ended up with Niko by default! In what universe is that worth risking?”

  “I did what needed to be done, Sasha,” Arsen says, jaw set, making it clear he won’t back down on this. “I always do what needs to be done.”

  “I-” I start to say more, not sure how I feel but knowing this isn’t right, but I’m interrupted by someone coming through the trees behind us.

  “There you are!” says a vampire I don’t recognize. He’s wearing a medical badge however so his intentions are clear. “Jesus, what are you guys doing back here? You couldn’t wait till the party to make out? “He laughs, then ushers us both towards the medical tent. “Let’s get you both bandaged up. Everyone’s waiting for you to start the party!”

  Chapter 18

  Precisely no one waited for us.

  The party was already in full swing by the time we wandered in. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that vampires wait for nothing when they sense an opportunity to throw a big garish celebration. The food is amazing, the outfits beautiful, the music- eh, the music is fine I guess. Not really my style.

  There’s much congratulations and people eagerly asking when Arsen and I will make it official now that he’s ‘won’ me. I’m struggling to get into the party mood. This still doesn’t feel like a victory. And knowing how Arsen won…

  Niko doesn’t arrive until the party has been under way for several hours. He storms in, his arm in a sling, and judging by the medical vamps hurrying after him he just woke up and came straight here.

  The crowd parts for him as he heads directly towards where Arsen and I are standing near the front of the room. He marches directly up to Arsen and throws a wild punch which Arsen ducks easily.

  “Cheater!” he declares. “Liar! I don’t know how you did it but I swear to God-”

  “How I did what?” Arsen asks, face hardening into a mask of anger. “Kicked your scrawny little ass? Cause I can give you a demonstration any time, buddy.”

  “Prince Niko!” One of the Baetal Elders who accompanied Nikolai thrusts himself between the two men.

  “May I remind you,” he says. “That you are no longer protected by the terms of the duel. If you attack this man now it will be considered an act of war!”

  “I will let it be war before I allow this to stand!” Niko shouts. “He has defamed one of our oldest traditions and stolen what is rightfully mine!”

  “I haven’t stolen shit,” Arsen yells. “Except maybe your balls, if you’re going to come at me with this sore loser bullshit!”

  “Prince Niko,” the Elder points out. “That is an extremely serious accusation. Do you have any proof?”

  “Only that there’s no way in hell that was a fair fight,” Niko says, face turning red. “You all saw how crazy he went! He was clearly on something!”

  “Without proof, my prince- “

  “To hell with proof! Sasha! You were there next to me! He would have killed you too! Tell them!”

  I freeze as Niko turns his burning stare on me, demanding I tell the truth. Arsen is stiff beside me, carefully not looking in my direction. My heart races. Should I…?

  “I- I don’t know,” I finally stammer, not looking Niko in the eye. “I mean, I’ve never really seen him fighting before, so…”

  Niko shouts in wordless frustration and flips a refreshment table. There are shrieks from several vampires as they dodge the flying food and hurry to stamp out the flames from the candles.

  “This isn’t over!” he declares, and glares at me. “I will see you again.”

  He storms out, accompanied by the rest of the Baetal envoy. Oddly enough, I feel a tinge of betrayal, not towards me, but from me. I may want to be with Arsen, but the Baetal are my blood—at least now they are. The party watches them go in stunned silence. When the door slams behind him, the murmurs start, and the sideways glances at Arsen.

  “You alright?” Arsen asks, turning to put his hands on my shoulders.

  “I’m fine,” I say quickly, shaking my head.

  He pulls me into a tight hug in order to whisper in my ear.

  “Thanks for being on my side.”

  I smile at him, but my stomach is still tying itself in knots.

  I know Arsen’s reasons. Why he would sacrifice so much. It’s personal and I get it. He’s a leader and in desperate times, people have to make hard choices. But. . . this all still feels wrong. And I wish he hadn’t cheated. I wish he could still be this perfect good guy in my eyes, but he isn’t perfect. He made a mistake, the question is, is this the last one?

  I excuse myself from the party early and retreat to the lab. I still feel more comfortable there than anywhere else in the compound. Maybe I can sort out how I’m feeling with some peace and quiet.

  I end up spending most of the evening there, running more tests on the protein I isolated. Nothing useful yet, but that’s how these kind things go. Unless I have a miracle breakthrough, it could be months at least before I have something worth testing on people. Still, it’s nice to distract myself from my other problems for a while and focus on the plague killing half of my new species.

  It’s late when I finally give up and decide to get some rest. My bruises from the fight are aching and I could use a long hot soak in the bath. But first I need food. I remember a snack machine in the same building as the banquet hall and it isn’t far away, so I shuffle in that direction, yawning.

  The party clearly ended not too long ago. A few couples are still lurking around, making out in the grey, pre-dawn light. The banquet hall is a mess that someone will have to clean up tomorrow. I hope I’m not on that chore list.

  I can see the glow of the snack machine around the corner when I hear the whir of its motor. Someone’s beaten me to it.

  “-can’t let him get away with disrespecting you like that!” someone is saying.

  “I kicked his ass once, I can do it any time.”

  Recognizing Arsen’s voice, I pause. I’m not sure I’m ready to confront him just yet. My feelings are still a pretty tangled mess. As I hesitate, Arsen continues talking.

  “And once we get Sasha’s blood, the whole Baetal clan will be begging at our feet.”

  My breath catches, hoping he didn’t mean that the way it sounded.

  “We�
�ll be the only ones with the cure,” he goes on, confirming my fears. “If they want to survive, they’ll have to answer to us.”

  My legs weak, I lean against the wall near me, trying to convince myself I’m hearing this wrong.

  “And it’s not just that,” says someone else. “Tell them what you told me about the powers!”

  “We don’t know for sure if it’ll work yet,” Arsen says, eagerness in his voice. “But we think her blood will do more than just cure us. We think because she was bit by a Baetal it’ll convey their blood powers to us also. We won’t just be the only clan free of the virus, we’ll also be the only clan with two abilities.”

  “Does she know?” The first guys asks. “I mean, is she on board with all this?”

  “No, she doesn’t know anything yet,” Arsen replies. “You’ve seen how she is. She’d make a big fuss about it. Once she’s my mate and part of the clan I’ll tell her. I can’t risk her running off, you know?”

  “Man, I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes when she finds out. You won’t be hitting that for a while.”

  “We’ll see. We’re dynamite together. She can’t resist me, man.”

  I don’t stay to hear the rest. I can hear them moving and I know they’ll come around the corner soon and see me. I leave as quickly and quietly as I can and head straight to my room.

  My heart aches and my head is pounding. Claudette was right. He was just using me the whole time. He would have forced me to be with him, and then made me give the cure only to him and his clan. Exactly the same as Niko. Except Niko at least had the decency to be up front about it. He never lied to me or played with my emotions. God, I’ve been such an idiot. I knew something felt wrong, I knew it…

  I stop, pushing the heels of my palms into my eyes to try and suppress the tears trying to overtake me. I don’t have time for crying right now. The sun will be up in an hour or two and I have somewhere to be. I can’t stay here. I can’t stay with him after this. Cheating in the contest was bad enough to make me question things, but this, knowing I was just a tool for him to grab power, it’s too much.

  I shove my handful of belongings into a bag and leave, silently and without running into anyone. I make only a brief pit stop at the lab to collect my samples and experiment results. And then I’m gone, heading back to the Baetal compoun. To Niko.

  He opens the door looking like I stopped him just as he was heading to bed, and not happy about it, but his grumpy expression dissipates as he sees the bag I’m carrying.

  “You were right,” I say before he can ask. “Arsen cheated. The contest is void. And I choose you.”

  Continue Reading Sasha’s story in Girl, Forsaken

  Coming June 19, 2018!

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you so much for taking the time to read Girl, Bitten. We hope you enjoyed reading about Sasha!

  Currently we have two other books, Girl, Forsaken and Girl, Immortal planned for the Girl, Vampire series!

  If you enjoyed Girl, Bitten, please consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads. We love any and all feedback and every review counts!

  If you’d like to be notified of upcoming releases, giveaways, and more, sign up for our newsletter, here!

  Stay Wicked,

  Graceley & Dee

  Acknowledgments

  Girl, Bitten was probably the hardest book for us to write to date. We went back and forth on plot, we couldn’t decide what we wanted to do for the series arc (even though we had extensive notes and outlines) and most of all, we just felt the pressure to make sure that we keep delivering the best stories we can for all our readers. We bickered, we laughed our asses off, we swore at each other, we lost sleep, but all in all, Sasha beat us into submission and we wrote her story as she wanted it told. And we’re ready for whatever’s next.

  First off, thank you to our families for dealing with all of our crazy as we wrote Girl, Bitten. Without your support we wouldn’t be where we are now or headed in the direction we are. We love you all so much. And we promise we’ll make it up to you.

  We’d like to give a monster shout out to our editor Lorraine Fico-White at Magnifico Manuscripts. Not only do you turn our rambling words into comprehensible sentences, you cheer us on, you aren’t afraid to tell us when we’re being ridiculous, and you accept us for our sassy bickering selves even when we blow up your phone with text messages. Without you, we wouldn’t be where we are today. Here’s to many many more books to come. (Ignore our grammar in this part of the book, we wanted to surprise you so you couldn’t edit it LOL.)

  To all our readers. Holy crap! You guys are amazing! Every day we get more and more messages about our books. Demanding more, telling us how much you love our characters, and just to let us know that something we wrote impacted you. Please don’t ever stop talking to us. We love you all, and love to hear from you. No seriously, we’ll talk your ear off if you let us!

  Also By Graceley Knox & D.D. Miers

  The Kresova Vampire Harems: Aurora

  1.Thirst

  2.Tempt

  3.Turn

  All in One: Aurora

  The Kresova Vampire Harems: Lyra

  1. Favor (Coming June 26, 2018)

  The Girl, Vampire Series

  1. Girl, Bitten

  2. Girl, Forsaken (Coming June 19, 2018)

  3. Girl, Immortal (Coming July 24, 2018)

  Alana Creed: Timejumper

  1. Fae Kissed

  By Graceley Knox

  The Wicked Kingdoms Series:

  1. Mark of Truth

  2. Crown of Betrayal

  3. Throne of Secrets

  4. Castle of Illusions (coming Summer 2018)

  The Dragon Stone Saga:

  1.Kiss of Frost

  2.Up in Smoke (Coming Soon)

  3.Shake the Ground (Coming Soon)

  By D.D. Miers

  The Relic Keeper Series

  1.Dark Summoner

  2.Dark Illusions (Coming Soon!)

  3.Dark Secrets (Coming Soon!)

  4.Dark Destiny (Coming Soon!)

  Standalones:

  City of Shadows: The Dark Fae Hollows

  Wicked: The Isa Fae

  About the Authors

  USA Today bestselling authors, Graceley Knox and D.D. Miers may be long-lost sisters, but their moms continue to deny it. They are most definitely the co-writers of the Kresova Vampire Harem series, as well as a multitude of other upcoming projects they can't wait to share with readers.

  Together they tend to share the same brain, finish each other's thoughts, laugh way too hard at inappropriate comments, drink enough coffee to qualify for an intervention, and talk about their fur babies. When they're not chatting, which is always, they can be found all over social media hanging out with their author friends and readers!

  Visit them at www.knoxandmiers.com

  Sign up for their Newsletter here!