Kole stepped in between Shufah and Taos, a hand raised to each of them. “You forget your place again, Taos. Forget it once more and you will find yourself in flames before the sun rises.” Taos opened his mouth to speak, his eyes questioning, but he remained silent. Something was amiss. Silvanus could tell from the look on the giant’s face that this was not how he and Kole had planned things to go. Kole’s face urged Taos to remain silent, and he turned his attention to Shufah. “And you would do well to mind your tongue, or you may suffer the same fate. The Stewards’ eyes and ears are ever-present and they do not take threats lightly.”
Suhail stepped forward and drew his sister back. “It was merely an idle threat, I can assure you. My sister has never quite lost the impetuousness of her mortal years, I’m afraid.” His face was calm and serene, however, Silvanus was sure that he saw a deep anger flicker in his eyes for the briefest of moments.
“It is forgiven … this time.” Kole clasped his hands before him. “I will allow Foster to be turned, but heed my warning, Shufah. Should you go astray and bring about the savage change, Taos and I shall set this house ablaze and you and your lover will enter the beyond robed in flames.”
“I understand.” Shufah looked as though she wanted to say more, that something about this situation wasn’t right, but in the end, she remained silent. She took Foster’s hands into hers. She kissed him lightly on the mouth. “We have come so far to ensure your immortality. Are you ready to take this one last leap that we may be together forever?”
“Yes.”
Shufah kissed both of Foster’s closed eyes. “This shall be the last night you will gaze upon me with mortal eyes. I only hope your heart will remain unchanged.”
Foster opened his eyes. “I love you.”
“And I you.”
Shufah reached up under the hem of her dress and pulled out a sharp dagger that was sheathed to her thigh. She pulled Foster in close. The couple dropped to their knees, making them more of an equal height. Shufah brushed her lips lightly along Foster’s cheek, pausing a moment to take in the scent of his body, then she exposed her fangs and bit into his neck.
Foster cried out, but whether from pain or pleasure, Silvanus couldn’t tell. Foster reeled as though he might fall backward, but Shufah caught him and held him close. Silvanus listened as Foster’s heart rampaged within his chest, as Shufah’s heart tripled in speed.
Shufah reached up with the dagger and forced an inch of the sharp tip into her neck. She held the blade in place, twisting for a moment. Her blood welled up around the blade, but did not spurt. She pulled the dagger from her neck, tossed it to the floor, and quickly pulled Foster’s face down to the wound.
Foster blundered about her neck, his eyes clenched shut, until his lips fell upon the blood. His tongue slithered out timidly, tasting the thick red fluid that painted his face. His eyes sprang open, full of an animalistic hunger. He latched on to Shufah’s neck, his mouth encapsulating the wound, and began to drink in heavy gulps.
Silvanus listened as their hearts fell into a slow and synchronized pulse. As Shufah drained Foster and Foster drained Shufah in return, Silvanus could smell the weak human blood and the dominant vampire blood comingling with each circuit until there was only the scent of the stronger.
Shufah and Foster fell to their sides, still fused together, and writhed upon the floor. Both were grunting and heaving. The wind and rain outside howled against the house. The lightning and thunder raged in the sky.
A change had come upon Foster’s body. His flesh, at first, paled and withered by the feeding, was now full and radiant, perfected by Shufah’s vampiric blood. His hair shone with an unearthly luster and seemed to thicken upon his scalp. He rolled on top of Shufah, his muscled arms embracing her, or perhaps squeezing her. Shufah released her bite on Foster’s neck with a groan, her dangerous teeth glistening red. She allowed Foster to feed for a few seconds more, then, with great effort, shoved him backward.
Foster landed on his back and instantly arched in pain. His glowing bronze eyes stared wildly about as though the world were melting around him. He opened his mouth and groaned. His bicuspids dissolved and were almost instantly replaced by small, sharp fangs. The wound from Shufah’s bite closed, leaving only a trace of dried blood on the surrounding skin. Foster rolled to his knees, curled into a fetal position, and with a great spasm, emptied his bowels. It was a disgusting finale to a miraculous display, but Silvanus understood that it marked the end of Foster Reynolds’s human life.
Shufah rested upon her side, her eyes closed, her chest heaving. Suhail knelt beside her and laid a gentle hand upon her cheek.
“Are you well, my sister?”
Shufah smiled. “Of course I am.” Her words were slow and labored. “He took no more from me than I from him. It is Foster I am concerned for.”
“Be not troubled,” Suhail said. “Foster has passed through death’s veil into immortality.”
Perhaps it was the bellow of the raging storm, or perhaps it was that all in the house were too fascinated by the coupling of Shufah and Foster, but whatever the case, none, Silvanus included, realized there was anyone outside the house until the front door opened.
CHAPTER NINE
Rain rattled off of the windshield in an unending assault, rendering the wipers nearly obsolete and obscuring the inky black road spilling out before the headlights. Every few seconds, lightning streaked across the sky like great cracks in the dome of night, revealing the storm-tossed world for one brief moment before painting it over in darkness once more. Rolls of thunder exploded overhead as if the foundations of the world were coming undone.
The ferocity of the storm seemed gentle next to the vehemence of the argument that had earlier waged between Jerusa and her mother.
Jerusa looked over at Thad, who was leaned forward over the steering wheel of his Jeep as though this would somehow help him see through the torrent of rain.
“Look, thanks for coming to get me,” Jerusa said. She clutched at the bag haphazardly stuffed full of clothes that was resting on her lap. “I just can’t believe my mom would open my mail. She’s so controlling. Prison inmates have more freedom!” The anger and frustration came quivering up from her belly and she knew that if she didn’t calm down she would start to cry again.
“Anyway,” she said, taking a deep breath, “I just had to get away from her for a while. Let things cool off. I’m sorry to drag you out in this storm. I just didn’t know who else to call.”
Thad risked a short glance at her, his smile briefly visible in the flash of lightning. “It’s all right, really. I’m glad you called.”
Thad’s right hand rested on the gearshift. Jerusa wanted so badly to reach down and weave her fingers into his, to lean over and rest her head on his shoulder. But what if he didn’t accept her affection? Jerusa had had enough pain for one day, so she let the moment pass in awkward silence.
“So, this friend of yours just gave you his house?” Thad asked.
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“With no strings attached? I’m mean, you two weren’t … you know?”
It took longer than it should have for Jerusa to catch Thad’s meaning. “No. No! Oh god no.” She waved her hands and shook her head to elaborate her point. “Foster is just my friend. My best friend, really. He’s eccentric and smart and I love him dearly, but there was never anything like that between us.”
“Yeah, but a house?” Thad asked. “I guess I hang out with the wrong friends. I can’t even get them to chip in for gas money.”
“Foster has been looking out for me ever since I met him. He knows how overbearing my mother is and that with my illness it would be hard to break away from her. The house is Foster’s way of jumpstarting my life.”
The driveway was hard to see on a sunny day, but with the eerie darkness of the storm, he missed it twice. On the third try, he crept along at a snail’s pace until Jerusa pointed out the opening in the trees. Thad pulled the Jeep up the gravel drivew
ay and parked to the side of Foster’s — now Jerusa’s — house.
Jerusa stared at the house, barely visible through the rain. She should have felt sadness. Foster was gone and she’d probably never see him again. The house didn’t seem empty, though. The windows were darkened, but she thought she caught a little flicker of light seeping through the curtains. The eyes see what the heart wants.
“I’ll probably only stay a night or two,” Jerusa said, rolling the keys to the house in her hands. “I’ll let her cool down and then maybe we can discuss things without screaming at each other.”
“I hope so,” Thad said.
Another awkward moment passed between them. Jerusa wanted to lean over and kiss him, but she had forgotten to pack any courage in her little travel bag. Was it too much to ask for him to make the first move? Jerusa watched Thad, trying her best to will his lips to hers, but he just sat there looking out the windshield as the raindrops danced across the glass.
Thad looked over at the house. “Are you sure it’s all right to go in there? What if your friend hasn’t left?”
“It’ll be fine,” she assured him. “Foster was going to meet his girlfriend at sundown.”
A tiny alarm sounded in the back of her mind. Both Foster and the strange man she had named Silvanus had warned her to stay indoors tonight. She looked about, catching brief views of the trees as the lightning momentarily chased away the night. She didn’t know why, but she felt suddenly vulnerable, exposed, as though she were adrift in dark waters alive with sea monsters.
Jerusa feigned a casual glance into the backseat, hoping that Alicia would be there, but the ghost girl was nowhere to be found. Where was she? Alicia had been sitting back there, grinning like the Cheshire Cat when Jerusa had climbed into Thad’s Jeep. Maybe the storm was zapping the energy she needed to appear. Jerusa doubted it, though.
“Would you like to come inside and have a look around?” Jerusa asked, hoping that she had masked enough of the fear that laced her voice.
“Uh, yeah. Sure.”
They darted from the Jeep and ran for the front porch. The heavy rain soaked them to the skin in seconds. As Jerusa put the key to the door, a thought occurred to her. She was about to be in a house on a stormy night, alone with Thad Campbell. How many Harlequin romances had she read with just this scenario? Enough to make her stomach squirm into a knot.
Her hand trembled as she lifted it to the door. A thunderclap erupted above the house as she fitted the key into the lock. Jerusa opened the door, took a step inside, then screamed.
Alicia rushed out of the shadows from within the house, her eyes bulged, her face twisted with fright, startling Jerusa. The ghost ran with arms outstretched and hit Jerusa in the chest as if attempting to shove her out the door. But Alicia’s incorporeal body passed through Jerusa’s, causing her no more than a shudder.
Jerusa opened her mouth, a half-formed thought to explain her scream to Thad perched upon her brain, when her eyes fell upon the bodies lying on the floor and the shadowy figure kneeling over them.
Even in the murky darkness of the candlelit room, Jerusa recognized Foster. She started to call out his name, but a powerful hand appeared through the doorway, snatched her by the throat, and pulled her off of her feet as though she were no more than a puff of air.
Jerusa hit the floor hard and slid several feet before crashing into the wall. Moments later, Thad slid along the same path. His larger frame gave him more momentum and he collided with Jerusa, pinning her against the wall. The lights in the living room came on, blinding her. Jerusa climbed out from behind Thad, who was fighting a swoon to gain his feet. The room tilted under her feet, tiny white starbursts bedazzled her line of sight. There were voices, loud, menacing voices, but she couldn’t understand them for the ringing in her ears.
The twisting world settled and Jerusa found herself on hands and knees. The room stank of urine and excrement. She looked up, realizing, in horror, that Foster had dirtied himself. He lay supine, his body overtaken in spasms of pain. A tiny smear of blood painted the side of his throat, but Jerusa could see no wound. One hand clenched his naked stomach, while the other reached out for Jerusa.
A beautiful dark-skinned woman lay next to Foster. She also had a small smear of blood on her neck, and she seemed more in an exhausted stupor than in pain. The man kneeling over them had the same dark beauty as the woman. He stared, in shock, at Jerusa, his magnificent eyes the color of new pennies.
“Jerusa,” Foster said, his voice choked with pain. “Go. Run.”
Jerusa pushed to her feet, pulling Thad to his, as well. A rush of adrenaline quickened her limbs and she started for the open door. But before she made it to the threshold, a dark-haired man with menacing eyes appeared in the doorway. He smiled at her as he pushed the door shut. Jerusa turned to run toward the back door, but a tall and muscular blond man rushed around her at blinding speed, cutting off her exit.
Jerusa pressed against Thad. He stepped in front of her, preparing to protect her, but suddenly, the blond darted toward them, his movement near impossible to track, and grabbed Thad by the throat. Jerusa started to scream, but the dark-haired man appeared next to her, snatching her up in a suffocating embrace.
“Kole. Taos.” Foster struggled to sit up. “Let them go. Please.”
The dark-haired man laughed. “This is not your concern, fledgling. It is not I that caused this blunder. The law is clear. They cannot live.”
Without a word, the blond man pulled Thad close and bit him on the neck. Thad cried out as he thrashed against the man. The blond man’s demonic blue eyes widened in rapture before he clenched them shut.
The dark-haired man smiled at Jerusa, allowing her ample time to see the fangs glistening in his mouth before he plunged them into the flesh of her neck.
Jerusa groaned as her blood filled the dark-haired man’s mouth. He swallowed greedily as his tongue lapped at the fresh falling blood. A tingling sensation, both painful and enticing, like needle pricks of lighting, erupted throughout her body. Her fingers and toes felt as though she were dipping them in icy waters. Her vision blurred.
Alicia stood in the center of the room, her hand pressed to her mouth in horror, her eyes laden with guilt and grief.
Suddenly, the dark-haired man’s mouth released her neck with a gasp and his arms sprang open, freeing her from his strangling embrace. Jerusa fell to her knees, swooning from the lack of oxygen and loss of blood. There was a commotion in the house, but it had fused with the raging storm outside to form an indistinguishable war clatter. Hot droplets of blood spattered her face. Jerusa forced open her eyes to see the dark-haired man, his head back, his arms flailing wildly, with a bloody fist extending from his chest. The fist retracted through the chest wound with a sickening slurp, and the dark-haired man crumpled at the feet of Silvanus.
“You,” is all that Jerusa was able to say before tumbling over on her side. She lay exhausted, unable to move, confined in a body that no longer obeyed her commands. She wondered if she was dead.
“Kole,” the blond man screamed, his voice overriding the thunder. He tossed Thad to the side like a piece of trash and rushed Silvanus.
The blond’s speed was impossible, turning him into a blur, but as he lunged for the attack, Silvanus vanished and reappeared five feet to the left. The blond hit the floor, but recovered in a flash, spinning back onto his feet and coming at Silvanus again.
Silvanus did not vanish this time, but instead, rushed with even greater speed to meet his attacker. Silvanus and the blond collided in the middle of the room with all the force of the storm. The blond lashed out, swinging wildly with his fists. Silvanus dodged each blow and delivered a powerful kick to the blond’s chest that sent him soaring into the wall at the far end of the room. His back crumpled the wainscoting and he sat dazed and heaving.
The dark-skinned woman near Foster was coming out of her stupor. The man that seemed forged in her likeness crouched before her, watching Silvanus with fearful eyes.
A low growl permeated the night in between thunderclaps. Jerusa swayed from side to side, while the sense of disconnection evaporated. At first, she thought the growl was coming from an engine, that perhaps Thad had made it outside to his Jeep. But Thad was still face down and still.
A sob escaped Jerusa’s throat. Please be alive, she prayed to herself.
The growl came again, this time louder, more organic, like the growl of a wolf somehow intertwined with the grunt of a gorilla. Jerusa scanned the room and her heart went cold when she saw the look on the dark-skinned man’s face. He was no longer watching Silvanus, but instead had his eyes fastened to the body of the man that bit her — was his name Kole? — who was lying not even five feet from her.
The growl poured from the hole in Kole’s chest like an echo from a deep cavern. His pale and perfect flesh was now the greenish-gray of rot, and the blood inside his chest wound seemed to have congealed into a thick black scab. The veins in his neck and face turned black before Jerusa’s eyes.
Thunder shook the house and the lights flickered.
A deeper, more menacing growl poured from Kole, this time from his mouth, which twitched as the noise escaped. Silvanus spun on the balls of his bare feet to look at Kole, an almost childish look of confusion upon his face. The blond — Jerusa thought his name was Taos — no longer under Silvanus’s watchful eye, stood crouched as if he meant to leap into another attack, but stopped short when he noticed the spasm in Kole’s hands.
All at once, Kole opened his eyes, the orbs no longer vibrant but dry and milky, and sat up with his lips pulled back into a snarl.
A scream poured from Jerusa that was so much more than fear. It was guttural, primal, all of her natural survival instinct rushing out in a siren’s song. Lightning filled the windows, thunder shook the very earth, and the lights in the house extinguished, leaving nothing but the flickering candles by which to see.
The monstrous form of Kole shot at Jerusa like a massive spider, coming at her on all fours. Her mind ordered her to flee, but Kole’s speed seemed amplified and he grabbed her around the waist before she could react and scurried across the floor.
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