by Mandi Casey
The vampire princess stood with her arms crossed over her chest, obviously put out because of all she had gone through and all the rules and regulations forced upon her. Sounded like she had a ton of people telling her what to do, too. We had a lot in common.
“Wow, you’ve got some story,” I said. “You seem so normal! I’m sorry, did I just say that?” I felt heat creep up my cheeks. That meant I thought the other vampires were not normal.
Kat laughed, warm amusement in her red eyes. “Don’t worry, Sydney. I’m pretty much as normal as they come. You’re so funny!” She slapped my arm playfully, like we were the best of friends and I had just told a really funny joke.
“I didn’t mean to, I mean, I wasn’t trying to be insulting to you, or to vampires in general.” I could feel heat spread to my toes. My mouth seemed to be getting me into trouble lately.
“Sydney, I know what you mean. I wasn’t raised knowing vampires existed. I heard you were brought up not knowing you were the Selected?”
I nodded.
“Must have been hard for you when you figured it out. But it’s not so bad. There are some really good people who are vampires, but then again, there are some really not so good people that are vampires. Just like humans I guess. There’s good ones and bad ones.” The princess took out a compact mirror and put her fingers to the corners of her eyes, de-smudging the eyeliner that had started to clump at the ends.
I appreciated her candor. “Princess ...”
“Ugh, don’t ever call me that, please! I’m so sick of that title. When I think of princesses, I think of snobs I wouldn’t want to be friends with. Call me Kat.”
I smiled. I really liked this woman. “Thanks, I will.”
“Well, it was nice meetin’ you, Sydney. I’ve got to get back. My husband will wonder where I’ve been. He’s the worrier type. We should hook up. Do something sometime. I don’t get to have much girl fun lately. My uncle sees to that. Call me,” Kat said over her shoulder as she swept down the hallway, past the corner, and out of sight.
I had just met a vampire princess, and she may just be the coolest person at the party. I’d definitely have to get her phone number. A girl could use a real friend living in a world where I didn’t know who to trust and who not to. I bet the princess didn’t get involved with all the vampire politics. She seemed to revere the vampire community as her family, not a status symbol to be used for power over others like some vampires I’ve met.
I searched down yet another hallway and opened several doors along the way. Bingo. The shiny, gray tiled floor of a bathroom gleamed at me at the third door. The pressure in my bladder had built up so much I felt like it may burst any minute.
I set my purse on the crushed tan velvet lounge chair, and then headed inside the most gorgeous bathroom I’d ever been in. Pressure relieved, I lathered up lavender soap from the dispenser, turned on the hot water faucet, and then rinsed my hands. The warm water felt good against my chilled skin. Being surrounded by a mansion full of vampires wasn’t a warm experience, not like being at the den of the werewolves. I wondered if Blake’s father, Morris, ever had to deal with heating bills? Werewolves emanated a great deal of warmth. They didn’t even have to wear winter clothing like humans did. Blake tended to walk around in T-shirts in sub-zero temperatures with ice storms blowing full bore.
Message! Check, check, check your messages!
My ringtone sounded, telling me somebody had sent me a text. I dug the cell phone out of the bag Blake had insisted I take to the ball. The screen blinked neon blue. I had a message, but the number attached to it wasn’t one from my contact list. I pressed the miniature envelope on the touch-screen. A cold chill ran down my spine.
GET OUT NOW!
Chapter 14
I took a deep breath. My heart beat faster the longer I stood in the bathroom in front of the mirror. The chill running up my body wouldn’t go away even though I could hear the heater vents whooshing with hot air. Who would text me GET OUT NOW!? The message hadn’t come from Blake or Kieran’s cell phones. If it had, then their name would have popped up on the screen. I had to find Kieran. I had a feeling something terrible was about to happen, and we could all be in serious danger.
Grabbing my dress, I sprinted down the maze of hallways back to the grand ballroom. Kieran. I needed to find him right away, but I didn’t want to let on to anyone that there was something amiss. Vampires were everywhere. They would be able to hear my heart beating in a rapid tempo that could queue them in, or make them thirsty. I didn’t want either.
The dance floor was full of vampire men and women who were having absolutely no cares in the world while they performed a dance all of them apparently knew but didn’t look like anything I’d ever seen before. If I hadn’t thought that we were all going to parish in painful deaths, I would have loved to stand against the wall and watch their graceful movements as they swayed together with their partners to the music coming from the twenty-piece orchestra playing from the corner of the room.
Panic was setting in, threatening to make me pass out as my breathing became labored and uneven. Something was wrong. I could feel it down to my soul. I had to warn the coven leader. Despite being the Selected surrounded by cool vampires, I broke out into a sweat.
We were all in danger.
Liam was nowhere to be seen. Neither was Kasdeya. A flash of bright red from Princess Kat’s dress went by somewhere across the ballroom, and then she was gone out of sight. I didn’t recognize a single vampire among the lot of them in front of me.
Moving along the wall, I hurried toward the main entrance of the ballroom where Liam and I were introduced to everyone. I needed to see if the vampire that took Aaron’s place was still at the door, or if whatever they were planning behind Kieran’s back had already been set into motion. Turning to the main entrance inside of the ballroom, my stomach clenched, feeling like a thousand needles crawling and poking their way along my gut and up into my chest. I pressed my hand over my stomach, trying to ease the pain.
When the pain subsided and I could stand straight again, I scanned the immediate area. Aaron’s replacement at the door was gone. I definitely had to find Kieran. Turning around to see if anyone familiar came into view, I spied what I thought was the back of Kieran’s head. I had taken a few steps toward him when someone blocked my path.
“Excuse me.” I put my arm up to push past the man in my way. He didn’t move. I looked up to see who the rude person was. The man wore a tuxedo and a mask just like everyone else at the ball. I stared into his eyes. He smiled at me, an evil smile that told me something was very, very wrong.
“Help me!” I screamed as loud as I could before the man put one hand over my mouth and the other around my waist. I struggled to scream against his hand but his fingers were clamped hard against my lips. He used my jaw to keep a tight hold. He dragged me through the side door.
Taking deep breaths through my nostrils, it was hard to get enough air while panic set in. Shutting the door behind us, my captor roughly threw me against the far wall. My body slammed against the arm of a chair, and a shooting pain stabbed me in the side, causing the wind to be knocked out of my lungs. I gasped for breath. Was I going to die right here, in what looked like a storeroom closet?
The man wasted no time. He followed me to the wall and was there when my body crumpled to the floor. He grabbed a fistful of hair from the top of my head and yanked backward, forcing me to peer up at his face.
Lightning bolts streaked across his eyes.
In that moment, a vision of my death erupted in my mind.
“Who are you? What do you want from me?” I didn’t expect a response.
“Just be quiet, you stupid cow.” The man ripped off his mask to look at me once more. “You should know exactly who I am, considering it was your fault I was imprisoned in Hell.” The man stood str
aight and hissed at me. Spit flew through the air with his angry tantrum. Saliva landed on the carpeted floor and singed the fibers next to my hand, so I used my dress to extinguish the spark before it started a fire.
The man paced back and forth across the closet in stiff movements, like he wasn’t used to the body he was in and had only recently learned how to walk.
“I don’t understand,” I said, my voice low and shaky. “You’re a lightning demon. That’s obvious. But I don’t know who you are.” Thoughts whirled around in my head. The only lightning demons I knew were Lisa, her brother, Trevor, and Lisa’s betrothed, Andras. This guy was not one of them.
He knelt down in a flash-like movement. “You know exactly who I am. It’s your fault I have a new body now.” He reached up to the opening of his white dress shirt and ripped it downward. Static electricity sparked from his fingertips. Yanking wide the top of his shirt, the man pointed at his chest. Thick scars ran across the exposed skin in an angry pattern. “You did this to me. You made me suffer in that hell. Did you know every day on your planet is a century’s time in Hell? I’ve spent over thirty thousand days burning in agony while you’ve been cozying up to these disgusting parasites you call your friends.”
My breath caught in my throat. It couldn’t be. He was dead. I saw his body dissolve into nothing with my own eyes.
Trevor.
Lisa’s brother had been brought forth from Hell. That’s when it dawned on me. My visions. Trevor was the one the rogues were trying to bring out of the stone slab with all the symbols on it. That’s what my visions were about. My Selected senses were warning me of what was to come.
“Ah, I see you have finally realized who you are in this grotesque little room with. Nice to see you’re not too dim-witted to keep up with current events, Selected. Now, I have things to do. You see, I’ve come to realize something vital while I was away, about time here on this planet. Time is of the essence. When you want something, you have to take it. And take it fast.” Trevor struck out a hand and clenched his fist, pumping it in the air.
Luckily, lightning demons didn’t affect me like rogue werewolves and vampires did. Even though I could feel his malice, he didn’t make me sick and incapacitated like the others. Whoever the rogue was that I felt before the lightning demon kidnapped me was long gone, or at least somewhere far away from the closet. Trevor basically did me a favor, of sorts.
“Trevor? What are you talking about? I still don’t understand.”
Trevor glanced around the room, his eyes not quite focused on anything specific. When he laughed, he sounded like a crazy person. Let me rephrase that, he was a crazy lightning demon. Eyes wide and moving rapidly with his skull twitching against his shoulders, it seemed Trevor hadn’t gained full control over his new body. Where did the person go that had supplied him with this vessel, allowing him to move around on Earth?
“Selected, don’t be naïve. I want you to die. But first, you’re going to help me take out this coven of vampires.” Trevor jumped up and twirled around, then moved his hips in a circle. This was not the Trevor that had kidnapped me a while back and tried to use me as bait to get Kieran to give him his blood so he could turn his sister into an immortal before her husband found out he had been sold a mortal wife.
When he brought me to the compound of rogues, Trevor had been the serious sort. Nothing could make his stone-cold face crack into a smile, let alone a laugh. It was obvious the new Trevor in the room with me had suffered greatly from his time in Hell. He was now living in a different reality than the rest of us.
I tucked my knees against my chest and leaned against the wall, trying not to draw more attention to myself. My hand caught on something. Looking down, I saw the strap of my purse looped around my wrist. I slowly pulled it closer to the hem of my dress, but I wasn’t fast enough. Trevor saw the purple and gold material on my purse move along the floor. He flashed over to me. He ripped the bag away from me, breaking the strap Aunt Judith had so carefully fashioned. I fell against the same side that had hit the chair and yelled out in pain. I was going to have some serious bruises when this night was over, if I lived through it.
Rudely sticking his hand into my purse, he rifled around in it. Obviously lightning demons needed to be taught some manners. It was so not okay for him to be going into my purse. He was downright ticking me off, and with anger came a renewed bit of energy and a clearer head to plan what I could do to get myself out of the mess he put me in.
Looking like he found a treasure trove, he extracted the vials of white powder Aunt Judith had given me. “Look at what I found. Ah, my spunky little Selected. You weren’t planning on killing me all over again, were you?” Trevor brought up his hand and slammed the back of it against my face.
The thought never occurred to me to block his assault. I guess I wasn’t thinking clearly enough.
My head swung back and crashed against the wall. Pain shot through my skull. The skin on top of my head felt wet. I knew blood dripped through my hair without even looking. Trevor was making mistakes. We were in a house filled with hundreds of vampires who could smell my spilt blood a mile away.
I opened my eyes to look at him through blurred vision. Definitely a concussion from the impact. A person’s head was not meant to be bashed against anything, let alone a wall. I didn’t know whether I was going to cry from the pain in my head or pass out. A warm, wet liquid slid down my forehead, just like the stuff seeping down the back of my head and neck.
Just what a human girl needed, spilled blood in a mansion filled with vampires. I hoped when, and if, the vampires found me that they would be able to control their bloodlust, because I was losing quite a bit of it. I tipped my head forward and a drop of blood ran down the bridge of my nose and slid off, landing on the beautiful material of my ball gown.
Trevor danced around the little room, clapping his hands together with glee. He slipped the vials into his coat pocket and grabbed my arm with his hand. “Come, we have to be on our way now. We have vampires to kill. You, my dear, have a date with death.” He continued to cackle, making the hair stand straight along my entire body.
My arm screamed and felt like he pulled it out of its socket when he yanked me to my feet. Every muscle along my back, neck, and shoulders were sore from being thrown against the wall and hitting the chair. “You know, your plan will never work. Doesn’t it bother you that you’re totally outnumbered?”
“You are not very smart, Selected. You are the buffer to the number’s issue. Stupid Selected. Plus,” he said, and swirled his finger in the air like a mad-scientist about to reveal a fantastical idea only he understood, “we have an insider helping us with the details.”
Blood drained from my face. I knew it. Aaron was betraying Kieran, the vampire who took him in and trusted him with his life. Kieran had put Aaron in charge of the lives of all the vampires in his coven. There was always something about Aaron that rubbed me wrong. I didn’t know how he did it, but he held his betrayal from my Selected senses every time I was around. I should have been able tell he was planning something evil.
“Aaron. I figured as much.”
Trevor’s body broke into giggles as he opened the door of the closet. He kept his hand around my arm and dragged me out. The hallway was surprisingly empty. Heavy steps sounded down the corridor. “Ah, here he is now, right on time.”
Andras, the lightning demon in charge of thirty legions in Hell, rounded the corner and came into view. The lightning flashing across the newcomer’s eyes was darker than Trevor’s. For all Trevor was worth, he wasn’t as bad a demon as Andras. Trevor wanted to cause chaos; Andras wanted to murder and torture everyone on the planet. They were both bad, just that Andras was way worse.
“Let’s go, we have vampires to kill.” Andras stormed forward, his stride sounding like thunder with every step. Where were all the vampires from Kieran’s coven? They
had to have heard Andras coming.
Trevor followed Andras toward the main section of the ballroom. Screams of pain filled the air as we entered. Andras lifted his arms to the ceiling. As he spoke, sparks sizzled on his fingertips.
“Kieran, where are you, coven leader? You owe me for your betrayal. Bring forth your precious Elders and we shall see who is worthy of leading this world.” When the lightning demon didn’t get a response, he glanced around the ballroom and aimed his arm toward a female vampire. Andras’ white hair began to billow in the air, despite an obvious lack of a breeze in the room.
A bolt of lightning shot out of his arm straight at her. The female vampire burst into flames as she tried to run away, her body crumpling to the floor as it turned to ash. Chaos ensued. Vampires loomed onto the dance floor and crowded the overhead balconies. They were everywhere.
Kieran’s Knights entered the ballroom from the second-floor terrace. Some stayed above. Some jumped down with graceful landings, ready to strike. Aaron was one of them. Kasdeya was shuttling the princess out another door off the side of the ballroom, and she wasn’t being polite about it. The princess tried to pull her elbow from Kasdeya’s grip but got a jab in the ribs from the demon’s pointy, silvered fingernail.
Kieran and Uphir stepped into view through the mass of vampires now heading toward the exit doors of the ballroom.
Shouts came from every direction. I tugged on my arm. Trevor’s hand didn’t let go. The lightning flashing across his eyes began to grow more chaotic.
The demons were going to kill me.
I had to get away.
“Kieran, I could really use some help right now.”
