Burn the Dark

by Nicola Rose

  I wanted to hate him. I should hate him.

  Bringing the knife swiftly down, I aimed straight for his heart with every ounce of strength in me.

  He reached out, dizzyingly fast, and clutched my wrist – freezing it in the space between us, continuing to squeeze slowly until I cried out in pain and dropped the blade. It had nicked his wrist when I plunged for him. Something about that made me smile.

  I took his hands and playfully pinned them to the ground over his head. “Looks like you weren’t as quick as you’d like?” The blood from his wrist had made contact with my forearm, smeared along its length. “Just admit defeat. I’m a badass vampire killer. It might take a while, but I’m sure I could bleed you out from that wound, in, say… a few days? I just have to keep you distracted long enough—”

  The smile on his lips faded fast. He flipped us round in one fluid movement so that he was on top, my hands now pinned to the floor. Something changed in his eyes. Something haunted, and hungry, came forth.

  He transferred both my hands to one of his and traced a finger along the line of blood on my arm until the tip was coated. With a certain amount of horror and arousal, I realised that he was moving it towards my mouth.

  He made to press that finger against my lips.

  I turned my head to the side, grunting and shrugging away.

  “No? How about this way?” his southern drawl deepened, along with the need that vibrated through his body.

  He drew the finger over his bottom lip, swiping it seductively across from left to right, inching closer.

  He was going to kiss me. With his blood on his lips.

  One bit of his blood in Anna’s body had been enough to start the vampire conversion. Did he intend to make me one? Now? My pulse hammered in my ears.

  A sudden, guilty memory hit me like a wrecking ball – chained up in the aftermath of William’s carnage. What the hell was that excitement that had rippled through my body when he’d kissed me with my dead best friend’s blood still warm on his tongue, and my dying boyfriend at my feet? Fucked up didn’t even cover it.

  “You made me taste her blood,” I croaked.

  He shrugged dismissively. “I had to see if a darker part of you would like it.”

  “And did it?” My breath caught in my throat, the words coming out weak and scratchy.

  He smiled knowingly, still poised, ready to attack me with more blood-stained lips. What would his blood taste like?

  “You liked my lips on yours,” he said.

  “I didn’t like feeling like a disgusting whore afterwards. I compartmentalised it, locked away to pull out and examine another day… when hopefully I could file it under the ‘in shock and too pumped full of adrenalin and his cheating vampire spell to mean anything’ category—”

  His lips crashed against mine and halted the babbling.

  I didn’t resist. I kissed him like a deprived animal – one who was starved and desperate. It was furious, and achingly erotic. My hands were still pinned and it didn’t matter that the pain of his grip was blinding. All that mattered was the intoxicating metallic taste on his tongue and the eruption of pleasure throughout my body.

  I was soaring, flying on a euphoric wave. There was only him, and his lips, and our tongues meeting. I would kiss him like this forever and never stop.

  His free hand roamed down my side, running smoothly over my ribs. My back arched. He pressed between my legs and I thought I might combust if I didn’t get him inside me. I bit his lip and tasted more blood. He growled, kissing me harder.

  He tasted like darkness, like sin. Dirty and dangerous… and my body never craved something so badly.

  You’re mine. Zac’s voice rang deafeningly loud through my mind.

  I choked and struggled to sit up.

  “What are you so afraid of?” Alex urged, his lips barely a whisper from my own. The blue in his eyes shimmered like crystal Caribbean waters. I wanted to drown in them and never come up for air.

  “I’m afraid of what this will do to Zac.”

  “I don’t want to hear what you think you should say. What are you really afraid of?” He moved his head and his words whispered into my ear on a cool breath, making the hairs on the back of my neck rise. He pressed a gentle kiss to my neck.

  “I’m afraid that I might enjoy something that’s so wrong,” I blurted, the agony of wanting him and hating him making my head spin.

  He relinquished his grip and sat back. My wrists sung in pain, pins and needles sweeping to my fingers.

  “And that, darlin’, is why my dark heart beats for you.” He studied my face with an expression of awe. “Your aura is blinding when you’re pumped up… but you’ve been burning for the wrong guy.”

  Right here is where I belong. I’ll take the pain… the burning in my veins… the aching need. I’ll take that, every minute of the day, and I’ll fucking slay it so that I can stay here.

  Those were Zac’s words. They were real. He’d come back to me. He had to.

  “I can’t do this,” I cried, pushing away and finding my feet. I swallowed hard and could still taste his blood.

  “I have feelings, Jess!” Alex yelled, making me jump. “Actual motherfucking feelings that I’ve never had before and I don’t know what to do with them. My chest is too tight every time I think of you. I feel scared all the time in case I lose you, and I don’t even have you! How fucked up is that?”

  “Yeah, well… I don’t know what the fuck I’m supposed to do with that information. So just fucking leave me alone!”

  “You don’t get it. Something has changed in me, I don’t understand it. I get into people’s heads and screw them. That’s what I do, that’s what I’m good at. What have you done? How the fuck did you get into mine?”

  “You started this game, asshole, so deal with it. You put yourself in my head, under my skin. If you don’t like me returning the favour then maybe you picked the wrong girl to mess with.”

  I marched for the exit.

  “There’s only so long you can bury your head in the sand before your ass gets bitten. You can’t hide from this forever.” His voice followed me out the door and stuck there, haunting my thoughts in the hours that followed.

  I could feel my cell phone vibrating incessantly in my pocket for the whole ride home. I continued to ignore it as I stormed up to my penthouse. I even carried on ignoring it when I glanced at the screen and saw that it was Zac calling.

  I’d spent so much time desperate for him to contact me, but now? Now he was the last person I wanted to talk to. I was certain he knew, that he’d have sensed what was happening between me and Alex. Was it my imagination, or did he speak those words directly into my mind, reminding me of the promise he’d once made?

  He didn’t stop calling. Half an hour passed and it was becoming torturous to ignore it. He’d be fuming. The truth was, I was too scared to answer. Too scared of what I might say, what I might admit.

  I sat at the desk near the floor-to-ceiling corner window. Had I left my laptop screen up like that? I was normally careful about closing it back down because the casing was cracked. I closed it softly and shivered, scanning the room. Things were out of place. It didn’t feel right.

  “You seriously think he’s coming back for you?” Alex’s voice came from nowhere, speaking straight into my head.

  “You seriously think he’s not?”

  “If he does, then he’ll destroy you. He’ll claim you as his sanguine mate. And honestly, right now, he’d do it just to spite me. He’s lost it, Jess, he’s not the same.”

  “Tell me something I don’t know, or else get the fuck out of my head.”

  He stopped talking.

  The phone stopped buzzing.

  An eerie silence filled the suite. I made coffee, but the warmth from the mug did nothing to melt the chill that had settled in my bones.

  23

  Jess

  The next day I returned to the abandoned warehouse where Constance and I trained. There was
no indication that we’d ever been there. The painted symbols were gone, not even any trace of flaking paint.

  It had been too long since I heard from her.

  What was I supposed to do? How would I find her? I was dismayed to realise that my detective skills were appallingly lacking. I had no clue where to start looking. Shouldn’t witches be able to perform locator spells? Why hadn’t she taught me that? Miserable old woman.

  A door banged somewhere in the building and sent a group of startled pigeons flapping up into the rafters. Most of the windows were boarded up, but some were cracked and broken. Bird crap covered the surfaces near the window space.

  I touched my fingers to a scorched patch on the wall – there was still some evidence of our training, then.

  The sound of laboured breathing from behind made my hand freeze. It sounded like an animal — a wolf, a bear? Something big. Panting. A growling hum coming from its throat.

  I barely dared to turn. Every hair on my body stood on end. I glanced left and right, already knowing the nearest escape route was too far away.

  Footsteps padded closer. Light, but predatory – stealthy.

  I balled my fists and prepared for the attack. I could duck, and roll… I might be able to summon a blast to stun it. Or maybe the dagger? My hand crept slowly to my waistband.

  The breathing intensified as it stalked closer. Ragged and feral. I imagined the snarling, gnashing teeth that were about to sink into me.

  Hold your ground. Don’t weave too soon.

  And then it was almost upon me. So close that its breath whooshed over my neck in a heaved exhale.

  Wait… one… two… thr—

  Something touched my hip and I dropped to my knees, rolling away and springing back up, knife in my outstretched hand.

  Zac stood before me in a shaft of light from a hole in the roof, dust motes swimming around his frame. Head lowered, jaw clenched tight. His eyes, no longer illuminated with tones of honey and amber, were black as death…

  The knife fell from my grip and clattered against the bare stone, causing another angry pigeon to flee the building.

  “Why are you ignoring me?” His voice was gravel against a shovel, rough and raw. Not remotely human.

  I took a step back.

  He advanced, teeth grinding like a threatened wolf.

  “Are you so absorbed by my brother that I’m no longer worth your time? Never mind that I sacrificed everything for you. Never mind that I’m now Emory’s pet Beast because of you. Are you so willing to forget that?”

  “Zac… of course not. I…” My hands went out in an effort to placate him. Darkness itself seemed to emanate from his eyes.

  “Is it not enough that I gave you everything? I torture myself daily with my desire to consume you, holding back so that I might love you instead… do I not deserve your faithfulness?” He paused, inches from me. I couldn’t help but shy away as he reached for my cheek. The blazing anger in those ghastly eyes was enough to stop my heart.

  He snorted in disgust as my cheek turned away.

  “Do you think me the weak brother, Jess? Because I was always the one in control?”

  I shook my head.

  “Perhaps you’ve underestimated me, as indeed, I have done to myself. Come with me and I’ll be yours once again.” He took my hand. Too rough, too cold.

  “Where will we go?”

  “Wherever the Bael send me for work. We’ll go together. But first, back to the de Monsos estate where we’ll wed.”

  My pulse rocketed.

  This could work. We’ll be together. Stop shying away and embrace him.

  I could be a vampire.

  But fear overtook excitement and my hands trembled.

  His eyes narrowed.

  “You wanted a monster, Jess, and now you have one. I’m right here, ready to offer you your desires. I’m done fighting against you. I’m free now and so shall you be.” He spoke of my desires, of freedom, but his body language told a different story. He was balancing on a fine line, ready to unleash something that I didn’t want to see.

  “This doesn’t feel right,” I stammered, pulling away. “Maybe if we—”

  “Do not make me ask again.”

  My blood ran cold. I continued an attempt at retreat, but he yanked me close, running his tongue along my jaw. Once, his tongue had taken me to heaven, but right then, it made me want to cry.

  “Step away from her,” Alex’s voice echoed through the room.

  Zac grinned, deadly and dark. He looked nothing like the Zac I knew. “Alexander! I’m glad you made it here to witness this. I was going to wait until we were with Emory before beginning the sanguine ritual, but maybe I’ll have a little taste now.”

  Alex snarled.

  Zac tightened his grip.

  I let the anger and fear swarm to my core, somewhere that I could use it.

  Alex moved in, breathing down my neck from behind. Zac was so close in front that I couldn’t breathe. I was pincered by two feral creatures. Poised. Waiting. Wanting. Ready to kill me? Ready to kill for me.

  Why was I even fighting Zac? I loved him. I trusted him. Whatever he did, he’d make it work — for us both. He would never hurt me. He loved me.

  I trusted him.

  I trusted him.

  I blinked, realising that his gaze into my eyes had made my head fuzzy. I danced in those dark pupils, in the irises that swam with shadows.

  I loved him. I trusted him.

  I blinked again, but the pressure wouldn’t fade, he wouldn’t release me from the spell. I was caught, sinking into him.

  Alex’s voice came so deafening into my skull that I nearly choked. His words spoke directly into my mind and through my being. “Not like this, Jess. You’ll belong to the Bael, not him. We can defeat them, together. Stay with me.”

  Time seemed to stand still. Alex’s words bounced around my skull. Then Zac roared in rage and threw me aside. I landed hard onto the dirty floor, ten feet from where the brothers were still standing, facing off against each other.

  They fought like animals – lightning speed and bone-shattering blows. I couldn’t keep focus on who was winning or what damage had been done, whirling around the room in a violent frenzy. I caught glimpses of red on their skin… and on the floor where it dripped. The sounds of their fury echoed through the empty space – snarling, slashing, crashing.

  Then, abruptly, it all stopped. Zac fell to his knees, gathering his breath back. Alex… where was Alex?

  His groan drew my attention across the room, where he too was on his knees, hands on the ground. He threw his head back, face twisted in agony. A syringe dangled from his bicep, which he yanked out before dropping back down.

  Zac laughed.

  “What did you do to him?” I rushed to Alex’s side.

  Zac’s face immediately went back to full-blown rage. “Get the fuck away from his side.”

  When I didn’t move, he let out a furious howl. “I gave him a little dose of dead-man’s blood to slow him down. It won’t kill him, but he’ll be dead in a moment when I remove his head from his shoulders. So, I ask again – step away, or you’re going to get covered in his blood.”

  “You can’t kill him.”

  “I should have done it long ago. I won’t miss another opportunity.”

  He advanced upon us. I couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t kill him. Please don’t kill him.

  It was too late. Zac loomed over us, ready to end his brother. There was no doubt this time that he’d do it.

  “If you kill me it breaks the bond. Your deal with Emory will be off and Jess will no longer be protected. He’ll claim her,” Alex panted.

  “She was mine,” Zac’s voice slowed. Eerily calm.

  Was? Was his… past tense?

  “So, what? Because you don’t own her anymore, no one can have her? You’d rather she die, or worse, at the hands of the Bael, than see her free of you?”

  “That’s exactly right,” Zac snapped. “You die, the
n she dies when I empty her. I’ll be free of the Bael, free from you, and free of the fucking siren-bitch. Win, win, win for me. You lose, brother.”

  One more move. His next move. He’s going to kill him.

  “Run, Jess.” Alex was right inside my head again, his voice blaring into my skull. “Go, while he’s distracted by me.”

  Paralysing fear rooted me to the floor. I couldn’t lose him.

  Who? Which one can’t you lose?

  Zac reached down to grab Alex and in that instant an electrifying wave erupted from me. It sent Zac stumbling backwards, clutching at his head. I could hear the buzz, but it was faint, lost somewhere beneath my racing heart.

  It wasn’t lost on them. Both vampires clawed at their heads as if their skulls were filled with molten lava.

  While Zac was weakened I twisted my hand and his knees buckled. A sickening crunch followed as I turned my hand again and his forearm snapped back at an obscene angle. I had no idea where the magic was coming from, but it was strangely and inappropriately exhilarating.

  I would break his other arm, too. All I could think about was hurting him. Making him pay.

  With a snap, his other arm broke.

  His eyes popped wide with confusion.

  I will take each bone and crush them all to dust.

  Suddenly an empty void materialised in my centre and the magic vanished. I felt blood trickling from my nose. The pounding in my head was agonising.

  Zac shifted, testing out his arms. They slowly crunched back into position like some hideous creature that had crawled from a grave.

  He barrelled into me, sweeping me away from Alex and pinning me against a wall.

  “An animal backed into a corner is the most dangerous, Jess. You’ve pushed me here. I can’t leave you with Alexander,” he hurled the words into my face, spit flying. Venom and fury, and demon eyes.