by Linsey Hall
As we walked, the pain in my leg grew.
“You’re hurt.” Concern shadowed Ares’s voice.
“It’s nothing.” I reached my door and shoved the key in. The lock snicked, and I pushed it open, stepping inside.
Ares followed, but I spun and held out a hand. “You wait here.”
A brow arched. “You let me in before.”
“That was before you dropped the interview and trials bombshell on me. Now, I’m wary.”
He nodded. “Then at least let me look at your leg.”
“No.”
But he’d already dropped to his knees. I gasped, stepping back. He reached out, catching the back of my uninjured thigh with his big hand and holding me steady. The heat of his palm burned through my cold jeans, racing up my body and filling my lower belly with warmth. Goosebumps prickled on my impossibly sensitive skin.
Despite the throbbing pain in the wound on my right thigh, my breath caught in my throat. At this distance, I could smell his fresh winter scent and feel the magic that rolled off him like a caress.
All kinds of dirty things flashed in my mind—like what he could do down there.
No. Stupid.
“I’m fine.” I tugged, but he held me firm.
He tilted his head, inspecting the wound. “It’s deep.”
His raspy voice made me shiver, then shock followed. “Are you turned on by my blood?”
He cleared his throat, then glanced up at me, darkness in his gaze. Disappointment, too. But that was weird.
“It’s complicated.” He drew in a ragged breath. “It’s my nature to be attracted to your blood. But when it comes from a wound…” Disgust laced his voice. “I can’t help the desire, but I hate that it comes from something that caused you pain.”
Oh. Huh.
I curled my fingers into a fist, resisting the desire to sink my hand into his dark hair.
This was all kinds of fucked up.
“Let me heal it,” he said.
I sucked in a shuddery breath, remembering the last time he’d healed me with his blood. It’d been…intimate. In a position like this? After he’d just confessed to being turned on by my blood?
I could almost feel the conflicting emotions coming off of him. Desire, disgust. He hated this about himself, but couldn’t help it. And pain. Pain for my wound—for the hurt that I suffered from it. There was darkness all around him.
Whoa.
I stepped back, pulling myself from his grip. This was too much. Too close.
“I’ll be back,” I said. “You stay here.”
He surged to his feet, but something in my expression must have stayed him. He curled his big hands into fists, nodding sharply.
I turned and ran up the stairs, limping with every step.
“Don’t hurt yourself.” The command in his voice made me shiver.
I slipped into my apartment and leaned back against the door.
Holy crap, what had that been?
I’d never been so attracted to another person. But that had also been weird. And the way I’d felt his emotions?
Damn.
I thought I’d felt something similar last week—his sadness over losing his friend Marin. But this had been even more intense.
I wasn’t an empath though. That was a specific type of magical being, and it certainly wasn’t me. If anything, I was pretty damned dense about other people.
Was it because he’d healed me with his blood before?
It made sense, but who even knew? Certainly not me.
I shook my head, trying to banish the memory of him kneeling in front of me, his warm hand on my thigh, burning me from the inside.
I stumbled toward my bathroom. It was tiny and old, having just enough room for a small vanity, shower, and toilet. I knelt in front of the vanity, my thigh screaming in pain, and dug through my supplies for a healing tonic. A while ago, I’d made some using the magical plants in my trove. If I was lucky, I’d have some left.
Jackpot.
My fingers closed around a slender glass vase. I pulled it free, uncorking it with shaking hands, then twisted around to pour the liquid over the wound.
It sizzled and singed, making tears sting my eyes, but it did the job. Slowly, the flesh knit back together. I didn’t like to use this unless I had to—it took years to make—but I’d categorize this as being absolutely necessary.
I certainly wasn’t going to let him heal me again, and Cass’s boyfriend, Aidan, was in Europe on work, so he couldn’t heal me.
Once the potion stopped bubbling, I recorked the vial and pulled off my clothes. A quick look in the mirror showed that my skin was pale but my cheeks bright red. My eyes were giant saucers, the pupils blown out to encapsulate my eyes.
I sucked in a ragged breath, leaning over the vanity and trying to get my shit together.
I could do this.
Two goals: pass the Vampire Court’s trials and avoid Ares Warhaven.
Because whatever we had between us—it was too intense for me.
I shoved away from the counter and cranked on the shower, setting it to boiling. My wet clothes were a nightmare to remove, but finally I was able to hop into the water.
Closing my eyes, I let it wash away the blood and the dirt and hopefully the memory of Ares on his knees.
The first two disappeared; the third didn’t. I hopped out and dried off quickly, then ransacked my closet for clean T-shirt and jeans. When I found my Maru shirt, I grinned. I loved that Japanese box cat.
I tugged on my clothes, finishing with the shirt and a leather jacket from the back of my closet. For good measure, I shoved the bottle of healing potion in my pocket.
A glance at my clock showed that getting cleaned up had only taken ten minutes.
That left me enough time to visit my trove. The thought of it made me tremble. Just a few minutes. That was all I wanted. I was like an addict jonesing for a fix—my desire to hang out with my preciouses overwhelming my FireSoul side.
I hurried to the other side of the room, my leg no longer paining me, and pressed my hands to the wall. I fed it my magic, igniting the spell that made the wall disappear. A doorway formed, and I stepped through, then climbed the spiral staircase to the roof.
When I stepped out into the jungle of my trove, a sigh escaped me. Tension seeped from my muscles as I ran my fingertips over the leaves of an elephant fern. Greens in every shade exploded around me, dotted with brilliant color from the blooms of every flower I’d ever seen.
In the middle of the space sat my three babies—the cars that I loved so much. But it was the plants that drew me today. I couldn’t get enough of touching the petals and leaves, the bark and roots.
Normally, I wasn’t so drawn to the plants. I loved them, but I didn’t feel like I had to roll around in them. Now, they comforted me. Calming my racing heart and pushing away the memories of Ares. Even my limbs felt stronger.
After a few minutes, I felt well enough to go.
“Thanks, guys,” I murmured, petting the petal of an orange orchid.
As I climbed down from the roof, my mind raced. What was coming for me? Ares said he’d be on my side, but did he mean it?
By the time I made it out of my apartment and down the stairs, Ares was leaning against the doorjamb.
His gaze darted immediately to my thigh. “You’re not limping.”
“I took care of it.”
“How? You have no healing.”
“I had a potion.” I wouldn’t share which one. He didn’t need to know about my trove either. Even though he knew I was a FireSoul—and perhaps knew what that entailed—I wasn’t letting him in on my secrets just yet. “Will you transport us?”
He nodded, then held out a hand.
My breath stuck in my throat as I reached for it. When his warm grip encapsulated mine, I realized just how big he really was. Particularly when he tugged me toward him. He towered over me like this.
Since he wasn’t the type of guy to throw his weight
around—puffing out his chest and all that crap—it was sometimes easy to forget that he was a massive freaking warrior and the strongest vampire alive.
In my experience, it was always the deadliest guys who didn’t need to brag about their strength. Ares fit that bill perfectly.
“Ready?” His voice was soft above my head, as if he, too, were affected by our closeness.
But I was no longer bleeding, so that was weird.
“Yeah,” I croaked.
A moment later, the ether sucked us in. Dizziness assaulted me. Too much transporting in too short a time.
When I opened my eyes, we were in the dark. It took a moment for my gaze to adjust. A heavy moon sat high in the sky, shedding light over the trees around us. They were massive. Like great redwoods, but their bark was black. The leaves that were far overhead glittered silver in the moonlight.
“Wow.” I spun in a circle, taking in my surroundings. We stood on a circular white marble floor that was about sixty feet across. Trees surrounded us on all sides but left room for the light of the moon to shine off the marble. Light gray stone was inlaid to form a nine-pointed star. It gleamed, but not as brightly as the massive gate ahead of me.
The thing was thirty feet tall if it was an inch, a giant archway leading to a path that wound through the forest. It was built of shining white marble. Roses climbed up the sides, their leaves a deep green and their blooms dark red.
They looked like blood.
Weirdly, the whole scene was rather beautiful. Though my eyes adjusted to the light, shadows pressed in on me from all sides. “It’s dark here.”
“We’re called the Court of Night for a reason.” Ares gestured to the gate. “Are you ready?”
“This is the entrance to your realm?”
“Sort of. It starts here, on this platform. We cannot transport inside because it is a security risk. So we’ll walk.” He headed toward the archway, then stepped beneath and passed onto the path beyond.
I followed, my skin prickling as I crossed under. Magic and power snapped against my skin, almost like a protection charm was trying to repel me. But it was more than that. Magic. Might. Good and bad. Light and dark.
I had no idea what to make of it.
Ares stood on the path, watching me. Interest glinted in his dark eyes.
“This is another test, isn’t it? Like when you watched me enter the Shadowlands.” It was the part of Magic’s Bend that was owned by the vampires. The same interest had gleamed in his eyes—curiosity to know how I could pass into that area when I was neither vampire nor had I been given permission by the Vampire Court as one of their allies.
“It is.” A reluctant smile tugged at his mouth. It was so tiny that I thought I imagined it. But the grim expression that slashed over his features wasn’t hard to miss. “You’re powerful, Phoenix Knight. Too powerful for an unknown.”
A chill raced down my spine. “I’m not.”
“Anomalies are usually powerful.”
“Weirdos, you mean.” I pointed a finger at him. “Like you. Half vampire, half mage.”
“Like me.” He turned and started down the path.
I followed, hurrying to keep up with his long stride. Being six and a half feet tall gave the guy an advantage there.
The massive trees were as wide as houses and lined the path that we walked. They were even bigger than redwoods, I realized. Dinosaurs of their smaller earth cousins.
In front of them stood white marble statues. Animals of all varieties.
Beasts, really.
Mythical beasts—and only the strongest, most deadly ones. There were hydras and minotaurs and giant scorpions and two-headed wolves—but no mystical hamsters or bunny rabbits.
Even more noticeable was the magic that drifted off of the statues, like an air freshener meant to say Beware—We’re Fucking Scary.
And they were. It was the kind of magic that put the thought of lost souls and battle and blood into my mind. Like these guys would jump to life if I put one toe out of line.
After the sheer beauty of the entryway, the statues were freaking scary.
It was a dichotomy that was so similar to Ares. Beautiful, but terrifying.
“You guys are really obsessed with power, aren’t you?” I asked.
He nodded sharply. “Strength is important to vampires. We’re predators. The apex predator.”
“And you’re the strongest one of them all.”
He didn’t respond, but I knew I was right. In the moonlight, his hair gleamed with a dark sheen. His skin, usually pale, glowed with light. For the first time since entering his realm, I inspected him more closely. He looked even better in this light. Stronger, more dangerous.
The fact that I liked the dangerous side more was bad news. I was one sick cookie.
But I couldn’t look away. His cheekbones were sharper and his eyes harder. The muscles that moved fluidly beneath his shirt were more pronounced. Cut from iron.
I swallowed hard.
This place changed Ares. Making him harder, stronger, colder. Maybe it was just my imagination, but if so, my imagination was damned good. Because he definitely seemed scarier here.
And I wasn’t used to being afraid.
Afraid for my deirfiúr, sure. But for myself? Not normally. Not until this guy had come into my life.
And yet my body still hummed for him.
Which I was going to ignore. One look at his hard eyes, the ruthless set of his shoulders, and it was easy.
Chapter Three
Unease prickled along my skin as we walked down the moonlit path. The power emitted by the statues was being replaced with something else.
“We’re close, aren’t we?”
“Yes.”
The path ended at another white stone archway. It was twenty feet tall and covered in a climbing vine of lilies.
I glanced at Ares. “You going to watch me walk through this one, too?”
He shook his head. “There’s no special magic here. You’re fully inside our realm.”
“Good.” I stepped through, expecting to see a large stone building or other administrative center. But there was only a garden.
A fabulous, night-blooming garden with all sorts of plants that I’d never seen before. Moonlight glowed brightly on the blooms, as if the petals sucked up the light and reflected it back.
“This place is amazing.” I touched the petal of an ornate yellow flower.
An electric current zipped up my finger. I yanked it back and laughed.
“That didn’t hurt?” Ares asked.
“No. Felt funny.”
“Hmm.” A thoughtful look entered his eyes.
“Was it supposed to hurt?”
“Normally. Most plants here are dangerous. Poison or otherwise.”
“Not that little guy.” I gave it one more stroke, then turned to Ares. He stood in front of an enormous silver fern. The color was almost like his eyes when he was in full vampire mode. “Where’s the building?”
“No building. Not here. When the night moon is full, we prefer to be out under it.”
I’d been expecting some kind of ornate castle. “Well, I guess if that’s the only light you’re ever going to get…” Except for Ares and his unique ability to walk under the sun—I bet all the vampires wished they were halfbreeds. I gestured for him to continue. “Let’s get this over with.”
“Excited?”
“Hardly.”
A small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth and he turned, leading me down one of the narrower paths. The magic that floated on the air was uncomfortable, like prickles against my skin.
When we reached a clearing, it was obvious where the magic was coming from.
To the left, three massive white thrones sat amongst a profusion of white rose bushes. They were ornately carved, with swirling designs of ivory. True masterpieces of delicate carving. They faced a large lake that was covered in silver-tipped waves. It was more of a sea, really.
Within the
thrones sat Doyen and Magisteria. The third was empty—presumably for Ares. The beautiful vampires were reading, though I’d bet money they weren’t the mystery novels I preferred.
Though they were sitting casually, sipping a blood-red liquid, their magic rolled off them like waves.
The message was clear: Beware, ye who approach.
No problem.
Their coldness, their clear willingness to cut down any who defied them, was apparent from their magic. I hadn’t felt it as strongly before, but here, in their own world, it was as cold as a steel blade against my throat.
“What magic do they have?” I whispered.
“Doyen, mind reading and some mind control. Manipulating emotions. Magisteria can control the bodies of others. Like puppets. It works best in this realm, as she is made stronger by the magic here.”
I gasped, then shuddered. No. What a terrible power.
Ares stepped forward. “Magisteria. Doyen.”
They glanced up, their gazes cold. Their features were sharper, icier, than they had been when I’d seen them on earth. The same change Ares had gone through. I saw something else of Ares in them as well—that icy ability to do a job and do it right. To be a ruler.
But he wasn’t like them. He was different.
Right?
I glanced at him. He fit in well here.
“She came willingly?” Doyen’s red hair reflected in the moonlight. She was still eerily beautiful, but with her creepy magic rolling off of her, it was unsettling.
“Of course,” I said. “Those were the terms.”
Doyen shrugged. “Most don’t want to attempt our trials.”
“They’re smart,” Magisteria said. “You…”
The implication was obvious.
“I’m brave.” I stepped forward. “And I’m not worried about whatever you’re going to throw at me.”
Teeny tiny lie.
“You should be,” Ares said.
“We’ll just see about that.” I approached the thrones, my gaze traveling between Doyen and Magisteria. Up close, I realized that their intricately carved white thrones were made of bone.
Freaking yikes.
I swallowed hard. “So, what do you want from me?”
