by Marian Tee
“Even if you do, I’m still taking you away,” Luka said pleasantly.
I tried not to shudder at his tone, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of knowing he was beginning to scare me. Luka didn’t anger easily. I had only seen him angry once and it was not—pleasant. The gentler his tone was, the icier Luka’s rage tended to be.
When Luka took my hand and pulled me with him, I didn’t resist at all, hoping my acquiescing response would calm him somewhat.
Someone called my name as Luka slowly but firmly pushed his way past the crowd to the front door.“Caylie, hey, Caylie!”
I cringed at the sound. No, not now, oh God of Caros, this was just going to get uglier. But his voice was getting louder, drawing more attention to us and I couldn’t afford anyone to realize who I was with.
Twisting away from Luka’s hold, trying not to wince at his hiss of disapproval, I turned around with a smile. But the smile died on my lips when I saw how wasted Jeff was.
One sniff and I knew he had been totally drowning himself in high-cholesterol blood. It would have given humans hypertension, but for weaker Caros—it was the equivalent of the most intoxicating liquor, as potent as poisoned blood but its impact would be more gradual than instant.
Jeff literally swayed in front of us as he scowled up at Luka, booze giving him the confidence he lacked. “Is this jerk bothering you?”
I quickly stepped between the two.
Just as swiftly, Luka pulled me behind him, his violet eyes cold as he stared at Jeff. When I tried to get close to Jeff, Luka’s fingers wrapped around my wrist like an unbreakable manacle.
Jeff’s face, already flushed red with liquor, turned a darker shade of crimson when he saw Luka standing between us like an impenetrable wall.
“Who the fuck do you—”
Tension snapped into Luka’s body, and I could feel his icy rage building at Jeff’s words.
I danced around Luka, desperate to prevent him from giving his identity away. I tried to get close as I could to Jeff or at least as much as I could with Luka still holding my wrist from behind. “Jeff, come on, be nice.” I spoke with cajoling sweetness, knowing that a fight was imminent if Jeff didn’t change his tone soon. Luka was not the type to get involved in public brawls but he wasn’t the type to take this kind of insult lying down either.
“Are you sure?” Jeff’s words were getting more slurred, and Luka’s tension simmered even more.
“Yes, I’m sure.” I spoke slowly so that Jeff’s mind could absorb my words with greater ease. Conscious of the increasing number of fleeting glances that came our way, I strove for a calming tone as I murmured, “I called him to pick me up. I got tired so now I’m leaving with him. Thanks for inviting me. Please tell David thanks, too. I’ll see you in school.”
Jeff frowned, obviously having difficulties following my rambling explanation. “B-but?”
Realizing I had to use my last resort, I pressed a kiss to Jeff’s cheek, close enough to his lips that we’d be kissing each other if he turned the slightest bit to look at me, but quickly enough so that he wouldn’t be able to catch my lips with a kiss I had no plans yielding.
Jeff mumbled something incoherent, his eyes wide in shock.
“Uhh, yes, have a good night, too.” I turned around, looking up at Luka. “Let’s go?”
Luka answered by hauling me close and taking my lips with a rough and possessive kiss, biting my lip so that my mouth would open. My lips parted, and his tongue pushed in, doing things inside my mouth that had me gasping, my eyelids falling closed.
Here was yet another lesson about Caros: we were never the type to get mad, but we did like getting even and this—even though it had both Luka’s body and mine shamelessly straining against each other in the middle of a very interested crowd of on-lookers—was Luka’s way of getting even with Jeff.
I knew Luka would hate how rude Jeff was. I knew he’d find a way to needle the younger man, but I never thought he’d do this.
Luka’s hold on my neck tightened, and I responded to its command, my tongue hesitantly seeking his. The kiss became even more intense between us as our tongues touched, gaining a kind of toxicity that not even a dying human’s blood could match.
His lower body touched mine.
I gasped at feeling his hardened response.
Luka pulled away at the sound. Above me, I could hear how his breathing was just a bit more ragged than usual, the only clue that showed how similarly affected he was by our kiss.
I used the next few moments to catch my breath, conscious of how hard my heart was still beating in the aftermath of that impossibly hot kiss. I looked up, intent on teasing him for being carried away, but the fake bright smile I had died on my lips when I saw the fury glittering in Luka’s eyes.
“Let me explain—”
“Shut. Up.”
I shut up, shocked that Luka had actually said that kind of S-word. I mean, could you ever imagine the Pope saying ‘shut up’? Well, that was how it felt—having Luka tell me those words.
But the shock soon receded, with anger taking over. “You dare get mad at me,” I hissed.
Luka hissed back, “Yes, I dare and I’ll dare a lot more if you fucking do this stunt again.”
Luka’s body was shaking in suppressed rage by the time we got past the front door of David’s house. I wasn’t so calm myself, my fingers clenched into fists on my sides.
“Aww, baby,” I taunted the moment we went past the front door and reached the sidewalks, which were empty but for a long line of expensive cars. “Doesn’t it feel good, having the tables turned on you?”
He answered in a chilling tone. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Another bitter laugh escaped me. “Like that’s possible, for someone as smart as the great—”
“Quiet.”
I opened my mouth, ready to let fly all the cuss words I knew.
And that was when I heard it—something scuffling in the shadows, just a little far from us, the sound reaching our ears without trouble. Both Luka and I turned towards it. I expected something sinister to pounce on us as we did, but all I could see was an older man walking towards us.
He grinned, and something in it made me glance down.
I gasped, horrified to find a wooden stake in his hand. A nanosecond later, the wooden stake was hurtling in the air in perfect aim—towards me.
Luka pushed me to the ground as I screamed, my hands flailing helplessly in the air, and I ended up knocking away his cap.
“Fuck!” I heard our attacker mutter just before he sprinted off as if the devil was after him.
Shock held me numb. My vision blurred, and I could feel the stirrings of the most awful headache starting. Somebody had tried to kill me. The words drummed inside my brain like a repeating loop.
“Are you okay?” Luka demanded over me, his body still shielding mine, his violet eyes turbulent.
I could feel his body shaking, and even his hands were trembling as he held my face and pushed my hair away. Swallowing, I said the two words to release him from his worry. “Get him.”
Luka didn’t waste time answering, the speed with which he went after our attacker leaving a gust of wind behind him, making my hair flutter in the air. By the time I pushed myself up, Luka already had my attacker in his grip. No matter how fast the human was, his speed would be paltry at best when pitted against a Caro’s.
As I made my way towards them, my head still spinning, I heard the sound of bones cracking, followed by a tortured scream.
The man was lying on the ground in a twisted position, his back bent at an odd angle. Horror hit me when I realized that Luka might have broken the other man’s spine.
But…this was Luka. The man’s current condition couldn’t have been an accident. Every little thing Luka did was always precise and premeditated. If he weren’t so freaking noble, he would have made the perfect assassin, maybe even suitable for making it to the Morteia.
The real
ization caused my feet to falter, and Luka turned to me, his face inscrutable.
“You will pay for this,” the man on the ground growled, but his words of retribution were ruined by the howl of pain he let out when he tried to move.
Luka didn’t even glance at him, not even once. His attention was focused entirely on me. If I didn’t know him so well, I’d have thought he was unaffected by all that happened. But he was, and the wariness in his eyes told me that he cared…about what I felt, about what I thought, of him.
When he offered his hand, I took it without hesitation. Later, I could think of revenge. Later, we could talk about why he lied. But not now—not when Luka was desperate to know if I accepted the man he had become for our race. He would kill for us without hesitation, just as he would have no problems dying for us if it was ever called for.
Luka spoke dispassionately. “He is paralyzed, not dying.” But still I heard the wariness in his voice.
My fingers curled around his chest, clutching a fistful of his shirt. It was as if by doing so, I could keep Luka chained to my side. Even now, my heart was beating madly, my mind still frozen in a stasis of terrified shock. Someone had tried to kill me. It made all the horror stories we thought of urban legends when we were kids come to life. Humans might be weak, but there would always be more of them in number, more of them who did not feel bound by any code of honor.
To be human is not to be humane.
It was the first lesson we were taught in our history classes.
Luka crouched down on the ground, the movement tearing me away from the fears that crowded my mind. “Who are you?”
The man spit in his face.
Any Caro would have gone berserk after that. Spitting on a Caro’s face was like telling someone you had sex with his mother. The backdoor kind. Despicable and gross didn’t even cover it.
But Luka only took out a handkerchief, and for some reason the sight of that customary square piece of silk, with its monogrammed corners, helped me breathe a little more easily. Perhaps the only day I would seriously worry about the fate of our race would be the day when Luka forgot his manners.
After wiping the man’s saliva from his face, Luka said softly, “I will ask you just one last time…”
“You can’t save this bitch’s life. Even if I die, someone else will come for her, force her to spread her legs for one man after another to fuck her—”
Luka moved so fast even he was a blur to me, and the next thing I knew, the man’s head was rolling down the road.
Utter disbelief suspended my body from its ability to move, and even my mind was in chaos. Luka. Had. Killed. Someone. He had fucking torn someone’s head off.
Warm hands were suddenly cupping my face, and I recovered with a gasp. “Luka!”
“Ssssh.” He pulled me in his arms as I started to shake. He started to stroke my back, kissing my hair as he murmured against my hair, telling me to relax.
“Luka, the Brethren,” I choked out. Killing a human—oh God, the repercussions. There were rules for this. We were allowed to kill out of self-defense but this man had already been paralyzed.
My brain tried to process everything even as I continued to shake in his embrace.
The human knew about us. The human was intent on killing me. The human said someone else—
“There’s nothing for you to worry about, Caylie. I promise.”
“But you—”
“Have I ever lied to you, Caylie?”
“Yes,” I practically screamed at him. “You lied about where you were going tonight! You told me you were going to work but instead you were getting engaged!”
The silence between us pulsed with tension, Luka’s face turning stoic.
“You’re not even going to answer me?” I beat his chest as hard as I could and was rewarded by his grunt of pain. “And now? What’s going to happen now? Luka, you killed a human!” I punctuated each word with a beat of my fist. “You killed him when you didn’t have to. You’re going to—”
“Caylie, stop.”
I gasped, the sound torn out of my chest. When I realized my fangs were already fully extended, I leapt away in shame, unable to believe how many times I had lost control. Oh, God of Caros, more of this and I would voluntarily exile myself into the dungeons of the Brethren.
“Relax, Caylie.” Luka’s voice, soft, familiar, and reassuring, sought to comfort me and I let it soothe me as I did my best to regain control of myself. Finally, I could feel my fangs retracting.
“Luka,” I whimpered. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” I had never lost control like this before, but in the past few days I had almost turned Caro twice without meaning to. Luka’s arms tightened around my body. Weakened by my outburst, I leaned against him, drawing from his strength.
“Nothing’s wrong with you,” he said fiercely. “You’re in shock. That’s all.”
Shock. Was all of this because of shock? It may be so, but something inside me didn’t believe it. I glanced away from Luka, only to find myself staring at the headless corpse next to us. Bile rose in my throat. “Luka, you killed him,” I whispered, trying to keep my voice from getting shrill. “I know since he wasn’t innocent it won’t make you turn into a vampire, but what about the Brethren?”
“Caylie—”
“No!” I wanted to scream in frustration at the pacifying tone he was using. “Luka, execution is what happens if the Brethren finds out you killed a human! Or less worse, life imprisonment—”
Luka cupped my face. “Sssh. Stop worrying. Everything is fine, I promise. There is nothing about the Brethren you have to worry about.”
I shook my head. “Luka, I’m serious.”
“And I am, too.” He wiped my tears away. “But first, tell me. Are you really all right?”
I nodded.
“Good. Now listen—I’m going to make a call to show you that it’s all going to be fine.” Keeping one arm around me, Luka used his other hand to fish out his phone from one of his jacket pockets. I heard him tapping on the keys, followed by the ring of a phone at the other end of the line.
“The Brethren,” a voice answered from the other end.
I stiffened.
Luka stroked my back again, as if reassuring me silently that there was nothing to worry about. He gave his identification then murmured, “I need a crew for cleanup.” He rapped out our coordinates. “Check for ID then get rid of the evidence.”
I was in another—was I on my third or fourth?—bout of shock by the time he ended his call. “Luka, did you just—”
He cupped my face again, making me meet his eyes, which were so intensely bright it made me blink. “Tomorrow, I’ll explain everything. But right now, you just need to know we’re both okay and I will never let anything—anyone—harm even a single strand of hair on your head.”
“But—”
Luka placed a finger on my lips. “Tomorrow.”
Knowing that Luka wasn’t to be swayed when he was in this mood, I nodded against his lips. When his fingers lifted, I muttered, “You better mean that.”
“I do.” We started walking again and a little while, we reached his car—a flashy red Lamborghini I had never seen him drive before. Seeing my questioning glance, he said wryly, “I was in a hurry so I drove the first car I saw—it’s my grandfather’s.”
A nervous laugh escaped me, and then I laughed some more because I felt like I needed something to laugh about, after everything that transpired. Luka’s grandfather had been a notorious ladies’ man in his younger days. Even though he was happily married for decades now, he was still one of the most charmingly flirtatious men I had ever met.
Patting the hood of the sports car, I said with a forced smile, “I might have guessed. You’re not the type to drive this car. This one, I’ll have an easier time picturing Jeff—”
Oh, shit.
Everything that happened—the attack, the man’s death, Luka’s call to the Brethren—all of it faded away at the sight of Luk
a’s cold fury.
I cringed when Luka slammed my door shut the moment I was safely ensconced inside the car, and I couldn’t help cringing again when he slammed his door shut as well.
Before I could say something, Luka exploded. “Did you want to date that boy so badly you’d do anything—even if it meant lying to your parents? Was he the reason why you’ve been acting so wild the past three years?”
Luka was shouting.
I could only stare at him in horrified silence, my hands cupped over my mouth.
“Did you never even pause to think—” Luka stopped speaking, visibly struggling to hold on to his control. “Did you ever pause to think what would your parents feel if they found out you attended this kind of party? Attending this event would constitute as a violation, Caylie! They—” He jerked his head towards where we came from. “—may be forgiven for their first violation, but you won’t be. You’re already under rehabilitation. One whiff of this and you’d be in the dungeons. For fifty fucking years!”
