“It was a cop. Never seen him before,” she says, tone breathy as I skim my lips over the area. Tasting her. “He was a little older and heavy set.”
“Did they touch you anywhere else?” I lick the small head wound, cleaning her up. The cut closes a second later. She’ll have a tiny scar, but it won’t hurt.
“No. I’m okay.” There’s also no missing the way she leans into me. Subconsciously, she misses my touch even though there’s a hint of fear lingering in her scent, that vanilla with cherries that drives me wild. “But I would like that minute alone.”
“I won’t stop you, pretty girl.” My lips skim down to her cheek and then her ear, nuzzling her a bit. “But please know that there’s nothing more pleasurable to a vampire than the chase.” Her nod is barely perceptible, the salt of her tears sweet on my lips. “You have five minutes. Use them wisely.”
Then I leave, walk out while she stands in the middle of the room, confused and without direction.
Is it fair of me to prey on her weakness? No.
Do I care? Not in the least, when the end game will always be her. In my arms. Back where she’s always belonged.
And if this makes me a deplorable son of a bitch, I’ll proudly wear the badge because this life came with a heavy price I’ll be lifting tonight. They bound my beauty—her powers hidden and suffocated by the greed of the Veltross family for over a century. Her soul survived in limbo, unable to inhabit a body until the day of the sacred moon twenty-one years ago tonight. Her real birthday.
Something Elise knew and tried to prevent, but failed. At every turn. At every lie.
And while the sacrifice made to bring her back bound my hands, I never stopped watching from a distance. Protecting her without being seen. Gabriella never knew the danger her life has been since birth, and I made sure it stayed that way.
Until tonight.
No more lying. No more pretending to be what we’re not.
She is mine, and I will always be hers.
At the two-minute mark she exits the room, her cautious step still loud inside the room, but more so are the gasps and choked sobs that escape her small frame when she comes face to face with the carnage I left behind.
The employees at this facility were vampires, all of them, and tonight, they had two rooms occupied. One with Gabriella. The second is a woman with similar looks to Elise and has been dead for hours; her neck is snapped and body drained of every last bit of blood by those who worked here.
The four men and two women are members of the Veltross family: one bastard son who continued the bloodline years ago with his offspring. They blame my girl for the end of their patriarch, hate me for tearing him limb from limb, while I could give two fucks.
Their low screams—a crying whistle infiltrates every square inch of this floor while they burn. One body part at a time, I left them in a pile and lit a match for Elise to see. Because she’s here—hidden—and I’m going to enjoy the day she’s caught.
Not today, though. Today is for my bride.
“My King, we have Consuelos and Diana at the warehouse. Should I proceed?” Captain Bron asks from beside me. He’s a retired general I placed here to protect Gabriella after she was born. “Everyone is waiting on your orders.”
“Not yet.” Taking in a deep breath, I let her enthralling scent dominate my senses. It prickles, excitement flooding through my system. She’s running. “First, I need to pick up my bride.”
He nods in understanding, a smile on his face. “We’ve all missed her.”
“I know.”
35
Gabriella
I’m running.
Scared out of my mind and running toward God knows where with no destination in sight. I can’t stop, either. Not when nightmares are real and the man I’d fallen in love with is the devil incarnate.
He’d never hurt me.
My subconscious knows this, but I can’t control this fear. Can’t stop questioning every interaction and every touch and the soft look in his eyes whenever I laughed. The anger when I cried.
I saw all those emotions. They weren’t pretend or fake; Theo cares but he’s also—
The dead bodies. The snake. The dream.
“Why did you do this to me?” I ask out loud, a small minuscule part of me hoping for an answer, but there isn’t one. To be honest, I’m surprised he hasn’t found me yet with all the noise I’m making, but I also don’t hesitate to toss a chair behind me when it’s in my way after making it to the lobby. There’s fire and smoke and this pungent scent that’s a bit sickly sweet. “Need to get out.”
Where is the exit? The smoke is dense, but after taking a right turn, I find the main entrance door. It’s open and pulling some of the smoke out which I follow, nearly dropping to my knees when I can breathe in clean air again.
The entrance has cars blocking the area, some pointing toward the door with others staggered about, their doors half opened. And I find one still turned on, it’s lights blazing through the night sky.
I run toward it.
Run because the devil himself is behind me, but as I grow near, my attention is pulled to the side.
“How can this be real?” Two heads snap up and look over. One black and one white. A cobra and a python. They’re choking the life out of the guard who nearly cracked my skull during my arrest; his face is nearly blue, and blood dribbles from his mouth.
His expression is one of horror, of helplessness, and I don’t feel an ounce of sympathy for him.
Not after what they did to me.
The python tightens his grip around the officer’s neck and something breaks, the light in the man’s eyes vanishing. They don’t stop, though. If anything, they’re even madder, hissing and biting, and when I finally meet the eyes of the cobra, my world stops.
“Marcia, your brother is going to kill you. Get down from that tree.”
“But, Gabriella,” she whines, using a tone that makes me cringe from her perch on a low branch. She’s one of the few people I’ve forbidden from using my title.
I see her family as my own.
“Don’t ‘Gabriella’ me.” My brow arches and Marcia looks down, a bit contrite. “You have a date tonight with those lessons, and there’s no getting out of it.”
“But shape-shifting is hard.”
“Life is hard, kid.”
At that she scoffs, her jet-black hair rustled by the wind. “Tero doesn’t struggle like I do, Gabby. And by the way, you’re only three years older than me.”
My response is a roll of my eyes and a tap to my watch. “That’s because he studies and takes his lessons seriously.”
“You’re not letting me off the hook…are you?”
“Not on your life, my friend. Not on your life.”
Reality slams back into me when the man is tossed aside and hits another car, the alarm going off. What I saw, what I felt looking at that girl, was friendship. Affection, and my hands clench as the need to reach out and touch the cobra becomes nearly unbearable.
What the fuck?
I take a step forward. My feet carry me without my permission.
“Pretty girl, this isn’t considered running away.” My head whips back, and I find Theodore standing against a pillar near the entrance watching me. “Or are you done fighting something your heart is secretly yearning for? We are your home, Gabriella. We are your family.”
“Please let me go,” I beg, his words hitting harder than the memory.
“I’ve waited a century for you.” His sad expression hits me in the chest, and I get a pang—this pain that comes every once in a while—that nearly doubles me over. “You have sixty seconds left, Gabriella. Make them count, because once I have my hands on you…I’ll never let you go.”
“I’m not who you think I am.” You are. A voice whispers in my head. My eyes snap to the cobra, and I know it’s her. She’s speaking to me. I’ve missed you so much, Gabby. We’ve all needed you. “Make it stop. Make it all stop.”
“
Be specific, sweetheart.”
My eyes flick to his, the tears in my eyes making him a bit blurry. I try to wipe them away, but more fall. “The voices. These thoughts.”
“I can’t control your subconscious, Gabriella. This is all you.”
Remember me. Remember your family.
“I’m nothing but an orphan who paints and—”
“You are and will always be a queen. My Queen.”
We were walking through the castle’s corridor; Tero was to my left and Marcia to my right, much like they’ve done since I came to live here, my ever-present shadows, and I know Theodore cares for them too. He wouldn’t trust them to be around me otherwise. He wouldn’t have brought them to live here under his protection when their parents died when they were mere kids.
They’ve been arguing all day, complaining about some guard who asked his sister out on a walk around the garden, when various voices begin to shout.
I can’t make out what they’re saying, but a second later it doesn’t matter as the ground shakes and a wall to my left crumbles. The sound is loud, hurts my ears, but I’m being pushed aside before a large boulder can crush my left side.
“What the hell?” Tero yells, his voice frantic as I sit up and try to gather my bearings. I’m trying to take inventory of the situation, my hands shaking and chest feeling so heavy for some reason. It feels as though— “No. No. No!”
The gut-wrenching pain in his voice makes me look over, and the sight that greets me breaks my heart. My beautiful, sweet friend is on the ground with a large portion of her body buried beneath the rubble.
She’s not breathing, a large gash on her forehead.
“Marcia! Sister.” Tero’s body shakes, his voice cracking. “Please open your eyes. Please.”
“Tero, move.” He doesn’t hear me, trying to push the wall off himself. “Tero, move!” Those sharp light-blue eyes snap to mine at my pleas, so much like his animal, and in them I find so much sorrow. So much need. “I can’t help her if you don’t get out of my way.” His head tilts. He’s not the one here with me anymore, but rather his snake, and I’m thankful that the beast took the forefront. I’ll need its strength. “Help me move the rubble and then go and get Theo. Please. Can you do this for me, my friend?”
His head bobs while his human body begins to remove the heavy rocks one by one, only stopping once to glare at those responsible. Three men and they all look worried, scared. I’ll question them later. Right now, I need access to her full body.
For a few minutes, no one speaks. No one moves.
But I feel the energy all around me, the shift in temperature, and it begins to drop as I center myself. I can’t call upon her spirit if I’m not in control or I will lose myself, something that I’ll never allow to happen. Theo needs me.
“Done. My Queen.” Tero hisses and steps back, his muscles coiled and ready to attack if anyone comes near me.
Nodding at him, I get down on my knees and place my hands above her chest. Her energy is missing, but there’s a tether still lingering in the earth, fighting to stay, and I focus on it. My hands begin to shake as I give some of my life’s force to it, feeding it my essence.
There’s another commotion near us and the skies above rumble, lightning striking a few feet from me. I know the voice but choose to ignore it and continue to nurture the energy—make her a part of me. And as I do, it grows stronger. It becomes stable. “Resurgemus, Marcia,” I breathe into her mouth, and her chest expands but her limbs do not move. She’s hurt, her scream of pain filling the now silent space. If she doesn’t shift, she’ll die. “Shift.”
I’m feeling faint, my nose bleeding, and Theodore rushes to my side. He tries to pull me back, to stop me, but I’m not done.
“Pretty girl, I need you to stop. She’s back.”
But I’m shaking my head before he’s done talking. “If Marcia doesn’t shift, she’ll die for good and I’m too weak to help her. I can’t finish until I recoup. I gave her too much.”
“Tero, coach her to shift. Get her—”
Her body convulses, blood pouring from her mouth and I drop to my knees, pushing my husband’s hands away. Crawling until I’m hovering over her, I press my forehead to hers and exhale, a breath she inhales and clings to. “Shift now, Marcia. Now!”
Oh God.
Oh God.
I’m shaking as I move back, and tears continue to pour from my eyes while they watch on with sadness. What I saw can’t be real. This must be a figment of my fucked-up imagination, and I take off running before anyone utters a single word.
I don’t know what I’m doing or where I’ll go, but I jump into the still-running car and slam the door closed. “Come on, focus. Put the car in drive and—” I’m cut off by the ripping of the car’s door off its hinges. The screech of metal is loud, and I cover my ears, trembling as it’s tossed aside, and a hand grips the steering wheel. The plastic crumbles as if it were a cookie and I scramble to the other side, fighting with the lock until it gives way and I fall out.
My palms sting under the asphalt, and my knees shake when I get up, taking off into the night without looking back. I’m afraid of what I’ll find. Of what he’ll do if I do.
He won’t hurt us.
“He has.”
Only to bring us back.
“And now I’m talking to myself.” Not knowing where I am doesn’t help, but I just keep running in a straight direction, heading toward a bunch of buildings up ahead. I pray that one of them is residential and I can run inside, calling the cops— “Can’t call them. Consuelos is after me too.”
My chest burns from exertion, and I feel the prickles of eyes watching me. The sensation mocks me—it also warms me, and the contradicting emotions are wrecking my mental state.
Do I stop and listen to him? Do I hide for the rest of my life?
The sound of an aluminum can being kicked causes me to stumble, my body lurching forward, but before I hit the ground two strong arms catch me. His chest rumbles against my back, the noise soothing, and I lose all the fight I have left.
“No more getting hurt, pretty girl. I don’t like it.”
36
Theodore Astor
Vampire King
I carry her bridal style into the warehouse where our people wait. They’re quiet, standing straight and with smiles on their faces when they see her, our beloved queen. And my girl looks at them too, taking in the familiar faces and the few that have never had the pleasure of being in her presence before.
They drop to one knee as we pass.
Their right hand pounds where their cold hearts once beat.
“Rise.” My voice rings loud and clear inside the large, enclosed space. The two bodies chained and on their knees tense at the sound: the man is a bit bloodied, while the woman remains untouched.
Meera and Marcia will deal with her.
Every member of our kingdom in attendance stands side by side, creating a large circle surrounding the center of the room. And at the helm, I place Gabriella in a chair she recognizes from her dream.
“How the hell…?” she whispers, but to the room it’s as if the words are being shouted.
“This has always been your chair.”
Someone scoffs at that, and I snap my eyes to the woman in question: Diana Veltross.
She’s the daughter of Elise Veltross with a human.
She’s the sister of Tim Roy, who she shares a father with, and who also had a sick obsession with Gabriella.
And lastly, she’s married to Detective Consuelos who she’s dragged down into a predator’s trap.
“Something on your mind, Diana?”
“There is.” Her tone is a bit snooty, and her body language is of someone of importance. Who thinks they’re untouchable. So much like her grandfather. When I don’t question her, she lifts her head and glares at Gabriella. “How could you choose this whore over my mother? She’s your wife. Your…fuck!”
Marcia’s tail smacks Diana across the face, cu
tting her off and knocking out a few front teeth in the process.
“Does that answer your question?” Bending a bit at the waist, I drop a kiss to my pretty girl’s head and pull back, walking to where Elise’s daughter kneels. Dropping to my haunches, I stare down at the girl and wait for her to look up. She’s young compared to me and the rest of the men and women in the room, and even though a bit of vampiric blood runs through her veins, she’s not worthy. A human with the privilege of having a bit of our lineage and nothing more because she’ll never be changed.
She’s a useless toy her mother used, corrupted, and will now be responsible for her death. “Because I wouldn’t touch your mother with someone else’s cock.”
“How could you!”
“Please don’t hit her,” Diana and her husband say in unison. His lip is split open, a large bruise adorns his upper chest, and the bindings are cutting deep into his wrist. The man is a mess, too easy of a kill for me, and I find myself having a bit of pity for him. He loves her, while she takes advantage of that.
“You beg me, and yet I wonder if she’d do the same for you.”
“My loyalty is to my mother.” Diana answers my question, and I could see his heart break. He does love her.
“Why did you do it?” I ask the man, his eyes bloodshot while his skin has grown a bit pallid. He’s scared, and should be. There is no getting out of this alive. “Why did you harm an innocent woman? Why did you pay off the cops who died tonight—tell them to bring Gabriella to a mental asylum with the promise to also use her at their free will?”
“I didn’t.”
“Number one.” That one costs him his hand as I rip it clear off and toss it at his wife’s feet. “For every lie you tell, I’ll take something from you. Now, tell the truth.”
“Elise asked me to.” His voice is shaky, blood pouring out of the wound, and my mouth waters. I’ve been careful with my feeding since Gabriella was born into this human form. I’d never touch someone who’s innocent, but tonight I’ll give in and she’ll see me as I’ve always been.
Little Lies Page 23
