She smiled. “Oh, how I’ve missed you, love. I’m pretty sure I can shoot you from this distance without a problem,” she threatened.
“This doesn’t have to end ugly. Give me Skylar and you and your brother get to leave with your lives. I will sweeten the deal by directing you to the guy who makes these handy little arrows … ”
“ … we’ve already met,” he interjected, “if you take a closer look at the arrow you’ll find that it’s not the original ones you agreed to. I had him make a few little changes before I strongly encouraged him to seek another career path. He felt the need to leave the city.”
She seemed relaxed as she took in the information but the clench of her jaw betrayed her true emotions. She shrugged. “Oh well, then I guess I will leave you to grieve the life of your brother,” she stated gripping the gun tighter. She made a slight adjustment in her aim from Josh’s chest to his head. Ethan stood, freeing Nathan from his position. With Nathan unrestrained and Josh in imminent danger, I took a few steps sideways, placing myself directly between Josh and the gun. I was sure she wasn’t willing to kill me. Okay, I wasn’t a hundred percent sure, but my certainty was somewhere in the high ninetieth percentile. But I was a hundred and ten percent sure that Nathan would kill me. In our current position, both Josh and Ethan could get to Nathan if he decided to attack me again.
“Oh how cute. She values your brother’s life. Isn’t she the most adorable brave wolf,” she stated with condescension dripping off her words. “Honey, I just need you alive. It doesn’t matter what condition I bring you in. I have no problem injuring you. Maybe if you were injured, you would be a little more compliant,” she said in a cloying threat, her voice promising a world of pain that she would be only too happy to deliver.
“Kill her! You have to kill her!” Nathan demanded. “Demetrius cannot have her,” he ordered, his voice quivering with rage. Once Nathan realized that she didn’t have any intentions of doing that, his steps quickened toward me.
With one swift move, Chris turned the arrow toward Nathan, shot him in the mouth as he opened it to speak. His head snapped back from the impact as blood splattered, covering Josh, Ethan and the back of my shirt. I wasn’t sure what the arrow was originally supposed to do, but once it made contact with the skull, it imploded, causing fragments of his skull to detach. Soft tissue disintegrated melting from the remaining bone. Chris glared at Ethan. “You liar! That was supposed to be my gift to you.”
He shrugged. “You can be a bitch at times, but you were never thorough. You always check just one. The one to your far left. So I left you one, to humor you. I never felt you were a threat to me and mine. Contrary to what you believe, you’ve never been a good shot with them. I am simply amazed that you were somewhat efficient this time,” he stated smoothly.
What did amaze this guy? The shot was flawless and done with such ease and precision; she had proven herself to be as deadly as any were-animal. Would he be impressed if she had made the shot blindfolded? She matched the were-animal terror for terror and he continued to antagonize her while the gun remained pointed at his brother’s head.
His insults rolled off her. In fact, she seemed to enjoy it. Everything about these people was odd. “It was that bitchiness that made you fall in love with me,” she retorted in a seductive purr.
Ethan didn’t respond, instead he crossed his arms and smiled. They stared at each other seeming stuck somewhere between loathing and simmering attraction. I wasn’t sure if they wanted to attack each other in a blaze of violence or give into their carnal lust and take each other right there in front of us. You have to be kidding me with this!
Josh let out an irritated sound. He was fuming as he walked toward her. I didn’t know if I should follow him for cover. She had no reservations about murder and I feared for his life, although he didn’t seem to possess the same level of concern. He looked at Nathan’s mutilated body; enraged, he turned toward Chris.
“Oh, Chris, just give it a break. You’re a hot woman, despite the fact you’ve just threatened to kill me and my brother. You’re a bitch, which probably means you are a great lay. I suspect that’s the only reason you and my brother lasted as long as you did,” he admitted coldly. “I don’t give a crap about you and my brother’s relationship, including the ridiculous unresolved feelings you two seem to have. What I want to know is how does a hunter become a lackey for Demetrius?” he asked, standing only inches from her gun. “It’s rather beneath you; don’t you think?” His face displayed his disgust if by any chance she missed it in his insult.
“Lackey,” she scoffed. Moving inhumanely fast, she dropped the crossbow and grabbed me from behind. Her fingers pressed firmly into the side of my neck, obstructing my carotid artery and keeping the gun aimed at Josh. Streaks of soft lights flashed across my eyes, clouds of fogginess formed in my head. Standing became a chore. She held me firmly as I staggered. She was fast, too fast to be only human—but she smelled human, and her presence seemed human. I thought I pulled at her hand but I must have imagined it because her hand was still wrapped firmly around my neck.
“She’ll be out soon. Just let me leave with her and I promise your brother will live,” she informed Ethan. Ethan took several steps toward her and she prepared to take the shot.
“Come on Ethan, it’s your brother,” it was a hollow plea because I didn’t think she cared whether or not she killed Josh. “You want me to believe that your commitment to the pack is greater than that to your only brother.”
Her hands were snatched from me and the gun knocked out of her hand. She was thrown to the floor. “Stay down,” Steven commanded her as he caught me before I hit the floor. She had obstructed the blood flow for so long that I was on the verge of passing out. Blinking erratically, I tried to force myself to stay upright.
Chris jumped up and ran toward the door, breezing past Steven. He tried to grab her, but she blocked his arm, twisted it and pushed him away. He stumbled back but managed to keep from falling to the floor bringing me down with him. Ethan ran out the door after her.
By the time we got to the car, Ethan was angrily pacing in front of it. He continued to rub his irritated inflamed nostrils. She must have used something to throw off her scent.
“Skylar, what the hell was that?” Josh snapped turning from the driver’s seat to look at me.
“What?”
“That dumb ass stunt you pulled,” Ethan interjected from the passenger seat. “It’s bad enough we have to protect you from the vampires, a hunter, but now from your stupidity as well,” he continued. “Must I give you lessons in safety and self-preservation?” he reprimanded. “I thought you would have the good sense to know better, but guess I was wrong. Let me help you with common sense: don’t step in front of sharp objects, bullets or anything in the firearm family because they can actually kill you! Or do you think of yourself as invincible?” he yelled, berating me as he shot me dirty looks from the front seat.
“Demetrius wants me alive. She wasn’t going to kill me, but I wasn’t so sure about Josh. While you were busy having verbal foreplay and making goo-goo eyes with your ex, I thought it would be a good idea not to let him get shot in the process. And since you feel so inclined to give me lessons in self-preservation, maybe I should give you some in appropriate choices. For instance, when your ex is threatening to kill your brother, it’s not a good idea to provoke her. Just a little suggestion,” I snapped back.
Ethan glared at me and I was glad we were separated by the seat.
Josh sighed, “The situation would have been handled.”
“Before or after she used your face for target practice. I didn’t realize you fancied being shot. I will remember that,” I snapped at him as well. I hated this world I was snatched into. It was a house of mirrors, where acts that others would have considered kind or maybe even brave were distorted into sources of irritation and reprimand.
Josh rolled his eyes, Ethan grumbled. Steven’s lips meshed tightly together; his dimples deepe
ned, suppressing a laugh. “Just don’t do anything like that again,” Ethan ordered. The tone of his voice made it apparent he wasn’t in the mood for my rebuttals. I let out an exasperated sigh.
We drove back in silence while I spent the ride evading Ethan’s reproaching glares. I was just about to tell him I got the message and he could stop with the looks when Josh said, “Chris has switched teams.”
Ethan nodded his head slowly, “I guess. She’s trading now; I smelled Demetrius all over her,” he stated disgusted. “She was always too fast to be just human, but now she’s … ” his voice trailed off as though the thought was too sickening to say out loud.
“She’s a vampire?” I asked. She didn’t look like a vampire and walking in daylight definitely wasn’t vampirey. She didn’t even smell like a vampire. No, she definitely smelled human—human with expensive perfume.
Ethan’s growl resonated through the car.
“She’s performing blood exchanges with him. Through the exchange, she gains some of his abilities, like the supernatural speed exhibited today., Steven explained in a low whisper. I am sure Ethan knew what it was, but hearing the specifics was going to take him over the edge.
“She found a loophole I guess. She always wanted the speed, strength and advanced healing abilities of were-animals without the sun-vulnerability that the vamps have,” Josh said, glancing over at Ethan, who had retreated to his angry place where it seemed like he was planning to stay for a while.
“Josh, don’t,” Ethan stated through clenched teeth.
“Chris was going to get what she wanted by any means. You should’ve just changed—”
“—I said don’t,” Ethan snapped, giving him the same reproaching and threatening look I thought was just reserved for me. Just when I started to think I was special, I find out he’s handing those looks out like lollipops.
Josh clamped his mouth shut as he struggled to keep his words to himself.
I stood in the sunroom, trying to block out the events of today. “She shouldn’t be here” reverberated in my head as Nathan’s attack tugged at me.
“Here. You look like you need this,” Josh stated as he handed me a mixed drink of something fruity with a significant amount of vodka. He had one in his hand too.
I didn’t drink often, just an occasional glass of wine during the holidays. But I wasn’t opposed to a drink or anything that would dull the pangs of my anxiety. I took a big sip from the glass and immediately started coughing. The strong liquor burned as it slid down, setting my chest on fire. No, I definitely wasn’t a drinker. “Josh, what’s wrong with my sergence and why shouldn’t I be here?” I asked once I had the coughing under control.
He was silent for a long time.
“Josh,” I urged.
“Nathan is—was very talented. Most necromancers can read your sergence—your aura. Nathan was one of the most gifted. Many of them can’t detect witches and mages, but he could.”
“My sergence is wrong, so wrong that he want to kill me?”
He took a long draw from his glass as his troubled eyes stifled me for a moment. “No—let’s just say it’s murky. No one has a sense of what you really are—it’s troubling. You’re a were-animal but you have a terait. In the corner of your right pupil, there’s an orange quarter ring. Ethan noticed it the first day you arrived. I saw it yesterday. It’s only seen in vampires and half-breeds when their bloodlust hadn’t been fulfilled,” he admitted with a heavy voice.
“Bloodlust? Should I have a bloodlust?”
“I’m sure you do. But I doubt it would overtake you as it would a vampire or even a dhampir because your survival isn’t based on its consumption. I’m sure a rare steak would satisfy your lust for an indefinite period of time.” That explained why Ethan was always gawking at my eyes. He was just looking for the terait. I guess he wasn’t an eye man.
I considered the way I liked my food prepared, rare to the point I was surprised it didn’t move off my plate while I was eating it. I always thought it was a wolf thing—but now—no, that thought was too sickening to continue.
“So what does this mean?”
He bit down on the side of his lip as he considered my question. “By all accounts, you shouldn’t exist … ”
“ … I’m not a vampire. I couldn’t be cursed to be both—I just couldn’t.” My chest felt so tight that breathing was a task. I leaned against the post and took several big swallows from the vodka. It wasn’t helping.
“Were-animals have natural immunity and can’t be changed into vampires.”
“Then can you explain this terait that seems to warrant me dying for?” I asked in a forced voice.
“I don’t know,” he admitted, shaking his head, his frustration apparent.
“Could I be like this if one of my birth parents was a vampire?”
Staring into his almost empty glass, he deliberated over my question. I doubted anything good could come from such extended consideration. “The probability is highly unlikely. Vampires maintain their ability to procreate about a week after being changed. Unless your mother was pregnant with you when she was changed, you couldn’t be the offspring of a vampire. Becoming a vampire requires death of the human body and rebirth into the vampirism. It’s a process that takes several days, and I doubt the most resilient child could survive it. To my knowledge, there aren’t any known cases of a child surviving as a result of a vampire mother. All known dhampirs are the result of a new male vampires and a human mother. But if you were a dhampir, you would not be a were-animal.”
He was still rubbing his forehead as though he were trying to work out a complicated equation in his head. “Were-animals and vampires/dhampirs have mated in the past, but there has never been anything documented nor even a plausible rumor that supports that an actual birth occurred. The conflicting processes kill the child.”
“So I am an anomaly that shouldn’t exist,” I finally admitted.
He gave me a small sympathetic smile. “You’re an anomaly that does exist. Just like in the human world, anomalies exist all the time. Maybe not to this extent, but they do.”
“Perhaps that is the reason Demetrius wants me: to either be part of his seethe or to get rid of me because I am an anomaly?”
Josh chuckled. “I can assure you that they don’t want you in their seethe. They don’t regard dhampirs. You are tainted with the blood of the were-animal. Centuries ago, they punished their own for fraternizing with were-animals, and a tryst of a sexual nature was penalized with death. That is not the case now, but they have extreme superiority complexes. They would never accept you as one of theirs. Demetrius prohibits association with dhampirs because he considers them “deplorable half-breeds” and just as revolting as were-animals. It’s rumored that Demetrius killed the child, the mothers and the vampires for producing such half-breeds. It’s rumored that he even killed his own and its mother. I assume the stories are true because new vampires are quite impulsive and reckless, yet exhibit extraordinary control when it comes to reproduction. Like were-animals, control usually comes with age and experience. I can only speculate what and who is responsible for compelling such control in young and inexperienced vampires,” he stated concisely.
He began to pace the area, anxiously biting on his nails. He didn’t strike me as the type of person who could sit idle for long. “They tried to abduct you, not kill you, when they attacked. Under any other circumstance, you would have been under their radar and barely worth acknowledging. In my dreams, there is a distinct feeling of desire. They want you for something that will benefit them—that’s the only reason they care that you exist. I need to figure out the link between you, Demetrius and the Gem of Levage.”
“And Chris? How worried should I be about her?”
“No worries; as long as you stay here, you’re fine. She wouldn’t attack you here.”
“I shouldn’t worry about Ethan’s ex-lover? Then maybe I should worry about Ethan?”
He scowled, eyes flaring. “
Don’t ever underestimate my brother. He wouldn’t let anything like an ex-lover keep him from doing his job well.”
“Sorry. I wasn’t trying … I didn’t mean to imply anything bad,” I mumbled
“It’s cool. Be assured that the turbulent thing they once called a relationship won’t keep either one of them from doing what they set out to do.”
“What were they like together?” I asked. There wasn’t any denying that there were some very intense emotions between them—somewhere between sheer longing and avid disdain.
Chortling, he found amusement in something he decided not to share. “The two of them together were like watching a forest fire and a tornado consume the same space. We watched their relationship crash and burn with morbid fascination. Their fights were so intense that you wondered who was going to snap first and kill the other person. And their make-ups were so passionate they could melt the paint off the wall.” He looked away, his attention once again focused on his empty glass. When he looked, he seemed pensive. “They shouldn’t have been together. I think for that very reason, they tried so hard to make it work. Neither one of them was willing to admit defeat as they should. But eventually, Chris saw it for what it really was and ended it.”
He shrugged off the memories. “The love or whatever you would call what they had won’t prevent them from doing what needs to be done. They were always odd that way,” he admitted. There was something in his voice, perhaps bewilderment over how they functioned as they did.
The next morning, I knocked softly on Sebastian’s door, partly hoping that he wouldn’t answer. “Yes, Skylar,” his cold edgy voice answered through the closed door. I stepped into the office; when he looked up briefly from his computer, he cast a look so cold and remote it felt like I hugged a glacier.
“How are things going?” I asked politely, shutting the door behind me.
He sighed a ragged breath, “I don’t like small talk. Get to the point.”
Moon Tortured (Sky Brooks Series Book 1) Page 13
