by B. N. Toler
The next evening Daniel takes me to Charlotte to go jumping. Jumping involves leaping off building tops and plummeting to the earth multiple stories down.
My body tenses as I stare down to the street from the rooftop of the Tyron Plaza building. It’s at least a sixteen-story drop. Daniel pulls a drag from his cigarette before flicking it off the side of the building, and I watch the light from the red and orange ember fade as it descends to the ground.
“Relax,” he sighs.
“I know you say I can do this, but my mind is strongly disagreeing with you.”
“We’ll go together the first time.” He steps up on the ledge beside me and takes my hand. Current swirls under my skin, the way it always does whenever I touch him—or any hybrid.
“You act like we’re jumping off of a pier into a lake or something. We’re jumping off a roof,” I remind him, my nervousness completely obvious in my tone.
He squeezes my hand. “Do you think I’d jump off with you if I didn’t know we’d survive it, kitten?”
My jaw clenches. I hate when he calls me kitten. I turn toward him to set him in his place, to tell him how completely insulting it is, when he grabs me and jerks my body into his. My breath hitches as his hard body presses against mine. His scent consumes me; tobacco, cologne, and fresh linens. Before I can push him off of me, he laughs.
“Try to relax, kitten,” Daniel tightens his grip on me and hops off the side of the building, taking me with him.
They say when you’re about to die, your life flashes before your eyes. It’s true. A blur of images from my life appear in quick snaps. My stomach is in my throat and I’m momentarily worried I may pee my pants. My nails dig into the leather of Daniel’s jacket as I cling to him for dear life. The fall feels excruciatingly slow and I squeeze my eyes closed.
“Relax your knees, let your ankles act as a spring,” he says calmly.
My eyes pop open just before we hit the ground. We land hard, but neither of us tumble to the street like I thought we would. Moments pass and my body remains tightly entwined with Daniel’s.
“Was that so bad?” He chuckles when he feels me tremble.
All of the blood in my body has rushed to my head, leaving me wrecked. I push away from him with the intention of punching him in the chest, but my legs buckle under me. Daniel catches me just before I hit the ground.
“The first time is always the hardest.”
“That was a dick move.” I let him hold me up as I try to regain my bodily functions.
“You were overthinking it.”
“Forgive me for being apprehensive. I only discovered I’m a hybrid three days ago, and it’s taking a minute for the idea that I can pretty much do anything and not die to sink in.”
“You can die, just not easily, and we teach fast here.”
“Is that so?” I ask sarcastically.
“I thought you knew this is an accelerated program with hands on instructors.” he jests. He seems different tonight, more relaxed and I’m wondering…why.
“No, I must’ve missed that in the brochure,” I reply dryly pushing away from him.
After a few minutes, I feel better and head to the back of the building to climb the fire escape to the top.
“We’re scaling the building this time,” Daniel calls after me.
“What?”
He nods his head toward the wall of the Tyron building before him. “We’re climbing.”
“Why?”
“Because I say so.”
“How the hell am I supposed to do that?” My gaze follows the brick wall of the building all the way to the rooftop. He’s crazy!
“Start climbing.”
Four hours later, I’ve successfully scaled and jumped off of the building three more times. Scaling involves a lot of speed; running at the wall and using my momentum to climb. Afterwards, Daniel takes me to a condo inside of an old warehouse that’s been refurbished on the west side.
“Where are we?”
“This is my place here in Charlotte. No one’s ever been here before.”
“Why do you have a place here?”
“I have work here from time to time.” He opens his fridge and pulls out a bottled beer.
“What work?”
“Why don’t you clean up? I’ll lay out a pair of boxers and shirt for you. I have some things to take care of, but I’ll be back in the morning for you, and we’ll head home.”
“You’re going to leave me here by myself?” The thought frightens me for some reason.
“No one knows about this place. You’ll be safe, trust me.” He chugs down the beer and tosses it in the garbage bin.
“Where are you going?”
“Work.”
“Are you hunting for vampires?” My body tenses with excitement.
He ignores my question. “Get some sleep. DO. NOT. LEAVE. I’ll be back in the morning.”
“Fine!” I stomp toward the bathroom but stop short. Daniel is just opening the door to leave when I say, “Hey.”
He turns back to me, his gray eyes meeting mine. “Yeah?”
“Be careful,” I say sincerely. A rush of anxiety hits me when I realize…I’m concerned about Daniel and his safety.
His eyes narrow on me a moment. “I will,” he smirks and closes the door behind him.
As I shower, I realize I’m still pretty juiced from the adrenaline surge I got jumping tonight. A smile spreads across my face as I remember how it felt the last time, when I actually did it without Daniel’s coaxing. Daniel can be a dick sometimes, like when he has two guys drag me to the bottom of the ocean or when he yanks me off a sixteen-story rooftop, but he’s also…exciting. He pushes me to go beyond my limits. My body is so worked up, riddled with anxiety and excitement; I realize I’m actually turned on. My newfound power makes me feel so…sexy. I stand under the shower letting the warm water run down my body as I rub my nipples gently. In spite of my doubts when it comes to Rhett, I imagine his beautiful mouth sucking and licking them, his green eyes brimming with desire for me. I slowly run my hand down my stomach, the vision of Rhett kissing my belly, torturing me on his way down to my sex. My breathing is labored as I touch myself, the warm water mixed with the slickness of my own arousal. In my fantasy, I look down to find Rhett’s eyes, but it’s not him I find.
Daniel’s gray eyes meet mine.
I tense momentarily, but he dips and his warm tongue brushes my clit and my body gives way to him. I fist his hair as he works his wicked tongue on me, moaning a deep hum as he goes, the vibrations bringing me closer to my climax. Grasping my hips, he thrusts his tongue inside me and I explode, my orgasm bursting through my body like an avalanche.
When I open my eyes, I’m plastered against the shower wall, my hand between my legs, slick with my own orgasm. Holy shit! I just masturbated as I fantasized about Daniel. Guilt consumes me. I’m such a traitor. I basically just cheated on Rhett. I shake my head at that reasoning. First and foremost, I’m not sure where Rhett and I stand. I left him so he may never want to see me again and even if he does there’s still the issue of him hiding the fact I’m a hybrid from me, him trying to protect me by hiding me from the world, and him digging through my subconscious. Still—all of that aside— what’s up with me fantasizing about Daniel?
I climb out of the shower and wrap myself in a towel. Daniel forgot to pull out the boxers and shirt for me so I grab his blue bath robe off the back of the bathroom door and slip it on. There’s a king-size bed in the corner of the loft apartment and he didn’t say I had to sleep on the couch. Plus he said he wouldn’t be back until the morning so I climb into the bed and collapse. The pillows smell like Daniel and I inhale with a groan.
On some level, I know I’m going crazy, but I feel ecstatic. I feel like I’m exactly where I belong. I’m on my way to getting exactly what I want.
Revenge.
Once I’m asleep, my dreams move fast tonight. As soon as my eyes close my subconscious takes over and I’m in a lush
, green forest, surrounded by giant trees so big I couldn’t wrap my arms around their trunks if I tried. Sun gleams through the ceiling of long branches feathered with blankets of leaves and the sounds of birds chirping fills the air. The scene is majestic; like an enchanted forest.
There is a beaten path that I begin to follow unsure of what information my subconscious is sorting out and why it’s made this scene. My eyes catch a glimpse of something in the distance, something lying in the way of the path a few hundred feet away. As I get closer I realize it’s a woman wrapped in a bloodied, dirty sheet. Her long, brown hair is matted to her face with dried blood. Her eyes are swollen shut and she whimpers as she hears my footsteps approach. I try to reach for her, but I’m blocked by an invisible shield. It won’t allow me to touch her. That’s when I see Daniel.
He’s wearing clothes from another era, like something a peasant would wear in the medieval ages, and his hair and beard are long.
Suddenly, I’m overwhelmed with shock and concern and I realize I’m experiencing his emotions, feeling what he felt when this event actually happened.
He kneels beside the woman and speaks to her.
“Who did this to you?” he asks in a thick Irish, maybe Scottish accent.
The woman moans as he lifts her and lays her across his lap, pushing hair from her face to view her wounds better. Blood covers his hands and he eyes it. Hunger burns in my belly as I feel what he felt staring at that blood on his hands. He was human at this point, unsure of why he craved the blood and he hated himself for such thoughts.
“Who did this to you?” he asks the woman again, still staring at his blood saturated hands.
Her whimper is faint and I can hear her energy. She’s one foot in; good as dead. Daniel’s head shifts slightly as if he’s listening and I know he understood she couldn’t be saved.
“I won’t let you die.” He gently lies her body back on the ground and remains on his knees beside her. Closing his eyes, he extends his arms out, palms up and raises his face to the sky.
My mind lurches as vibrations and pitches pound it with variations of energy I have never heard before in my life. The sensation forces me to my knees and I watch as he lowers one hand to touch the woman. The life of the forest melts around us, turning brown and brittle. The massive trees seem to wither and shrink in size becoming hollowed husks of their former beings. Bird carcasses plunk the earth around us, wings extended, dead and still as stone.
The woman’s energy increases and when Daniel finally releases his hold on her, she is healed.
My jaw feels as if it is in my lap as my brain trips over itself trying to accept what I just witnessed. Holy fucking shit! Daniel can absorb energy from any life form and transfer it to a human. My breathing is labored as exhaustion washes over me, I’m feeling what Daniel felt after healing the woman. To pull energy this way is exhausting. This is why he leads the hybrids. This is why he is feared. His strength goes beyond anything I could imagine.
The woman lies still as the dead, her eyes closed as Daniel stares down at her. His gaze returns to his hands covered in her blood and that burn returns to my belly. He wants to taste it and is battling with himself. My throat grows tight as I suffer with him, reason and rationality feuding with a desire to drink blood that is so strong it makes me tremble.
In a flash, he sticks his fingers in his mouth and sucks the blood, from his skin. His eyes roll back in his head as he savors it. This is when his transition began. His eyes dart to mine and I’m frozen. The scene immediately shifts and I’m sitting at a bar made of granite, surrounded by people drinking martinis, dressed in business attire. I look around, a little thrown off by the drastic change in scenery my subconscious has made. Minutes pass while I wait for the big reveal; what am I going to discover? I’m about to slide off of my stool when the hairs on my neck rise. My eyes turn to the entrance just as Daniel enters wearing faded jeans and a black T-shirt, a lit cigarette hanging from his lips. He looks out of place here among the finer dressed people, but that’s Daniel. He’s not like anyone I know and he doesn’t try to be. A waiter passing by says something to him and Daniel pulls the half-smoked stick from his mouth and drops it on the floor, pressing the sole of his boot over it to put it out.
Okay, so my subconscious is telling me more about the mysterious Daniel. Remaining perched on my very uncomfortable, yet modern black bar stool, I watch Daniel as he saunters up to a table and begins speaking to a man wearing a hat. The man is seated, but I can tell he’s broad even with his back facing me.
Daniel takes the seat across the table in front of him and with a wolfish smile orders a drink from the young waitress who looks like she’s about to orgasm staring at him. When she leaves, he leans back in his chair and speaks, but I can’t make out what he’s saying. Quickly sliding off my stool, I approach them.
As I near the table, Daniel is speaking. “You know for a fact you have a hybrid?” He winks at the waitress who slides his highball onto the table in front of him.
I can’t say why, but I want to smack him. I hate watching him flirt. I have no reason to care what he does. I’m lost in scolding myself for my unwarranted jealousy towards Daniel and the waitress when the other man speaks and my stomach flips.
“Yes.” The voice is one I know as well as my own. In a split second I make my way around the table and feel my heart swan dive to the lowest part of my stomach.
Rhett.
Rhett is here meeting with Daniel about a hybrid? I’m not naïve, or so love struck by Rhett that I would dare try to delude myself with ridiculous thoughts like maybe—it’s not me he’s talking about—it’s another hybrid.
“You must bring them to me. Let me train them.”
“I want to know if there is a way to stop the transition.”
“Don’t let them drink blood, but if they do, the transition will begin and there will be no way to stop it. If they don’t drink, they will always be at risk. You need to bring them to me.”
“No, that’s not an option.” Rhett sips his beer. “Maybe you could tell me how to train them.”
“That’s not how it works, my friend. You’re a blood healer. You could never train her to deal with what she is.” Daniel remains seated, leaned back in his casual position with the small black stirrer straw from his highball between his teeth.
“I never said it was a she,” Rhett answers.
A knowing smile plays on Daniel’s lips. “You didn’t have to. I know what a man would do to possess a female hybrid. Of course you wouldn’t want to hand her over to me. Tell me, does she know what she is, or have you managed to hide that from her, too?”
The muscles in Rhett’s jaw twitch, but he forces a smile. “I would pay you handsomely for your assistance in this matter.”
Daniel actually laughs, but it’s not authentic. It’s laced with insult. Leaning forward and placing his forearms on the table, Daniel says, “If you care for her, you will bring her to me. The female hybrid is like no other. They are easy to fall in love with and impossible to predict. I understand your reluctance to hand her over to another man—”
Interrupting him, Rhett growls, “You are no threat to me. I would rather train her and keep her away from your group of murderers.”
Daniel’s eyes light with fury as the muscles in his neck contract. “Murderers?”
“You play God. Deciding who lives or dies for the cause.”
Daniel stands and pulls his pack of cigarettes from his shirt pocket. “And you would hide a powerful woman from the world because you know deep down, she’s bigger and better than you’ll ever be. You’re simply a stepping-stone on her path to greatness. Some men can’t handle a woman being more powerful than them. You’ve wasted my time. If you truly care for her, you’ll send her to me. She belongs with her kind.” Daniel taps his pack of cigarettes, forcing one out before grabbing it with his lips.
“She belongs with me,” Rhett growls through clenched teeth.
“No smoking in here, sir,”
a blonde waitress calls to Daniel as she passes by.
“I was just leaving.” He pulls the smoke from his mouth and looks down at Rhett. Shaking his head, he strides towards the exit, but stops a few feet away from the table. Turning back, his gaze meets mine and he tilts his head. “You belong with me, kitten.”
I snap awake, covered in sweat and trying to catch my breath. Rhett really knew! Tears rush down my cheeks as I plop back on the bed and hug Daniel’s pillow. He’d met with Daniel before I left him. I had suspected this so why does it hurt so badly now? He’d met with Daniel trying to figure out a way to keep me from transitioning, but when Daniel refused to help him, he just decided to keep me in the dark. Rhett said he’d never betray me.
Hours pass and I continue to cry, replaying everything I learned in my subconscious tonight. As if learning Daniel is some kind of Mecca of power wasn’t enough, I learned without a shadow of a doubt, the man I love was willing to hide me from what I am and would go to great lengths to do it. When my eyes are dried and unable to produce another tear, I begin to nod off. Just before I slip into a deep sleep, Daniel’s intense stare appears and I hear his words. “You belong with me, kitten.” I have no idea where I belong now.
The ride home the next morning is quiet. Daniel seems to be in a mood. I thought maybe it was because he found me sleeping in his bed, curled up in his robe, but I’m not really sure. Then I thought maybe it was me feeling awkward because I discovered a big secret of his last night and I’m having a hard time trying not to ask him about his super unique amazing gift. Of course, another reason things might be feeling a little off could have to do with the fact I gave myself a mind blowing orgasm while I envisioned him going down on me. I squeeze my eyes shut and try to will away the image of his face between my legs as an ache begins to blossom there.
Daniel stares straight ahead, one hand holding the steering wheel, lost in thought. His beard is a little longer than usual since he hasn’t trimmed it in a couple of days and his hair is disheveled in a rugged, handsome way.
