Finding Fire: Paranormal Romance (Bad Boys Of The Underworld Book 1)

by Crowe, Mallory

  She just needed to keep the guards outside and not go in with them if she could help it.

  With that thought in mind, she lifted her hand and knocked on the door.

  Before she could panic, the massive door swung open and two muscular men stared at her. For a moment, she was speechless. Two vampires stood in front of her, and chances were they weren’t friendly.

  One of the guards was light with a pale complexion and gold blonde hair. The other had darker skin and curly black hair.

  She shook off her fear and let her act play along with her nerves. “Oh my gosh! I’m so happy you’re home,” she gushed out, trying to sound loud and unappetizing.

  “I was driving on this road, with nothing and no one for miles and miles, and my car just stops for no reason in the middle of the night and my cell phone isn’t working, and I am, like, freaking out that I’m going to die or something.” She took a second to breathe. “You know?”

  The two men glanced at each other and back at her. She asked, “Do you think you two could come out to my car and take a look at it? It’s probably nothing, but I know, like, zilch about cars.” She brought up two fingers and held them close together to emphasize how little she knew about cars.

  The dark one spoke first. “I’m sorry to hear that. Why don’t you come in and we can call someone for you.”

  Anna shook her head. She couldn’t go inside with them. “I don’t think I should. Really, if you could just come look at it, I’m sure it’s nothing major.”

  The lighter one made eye contact with her. “I think it would be best if you came inside with us.”

  For a moment, everything floated away. She took two steps toward the inside of the massive building. Yes, going into the house was a great idea.

  Just as one of her feet was over the threshold, she shook out of it. No. He was controlling her. She couldn’t make eye contact with them.

  She looked at a point over the lighter one’s shoulder and tried to back away. “I really don’t want to intrude.”

  A large hand wrapped around her forearm and pulled her the rest of the way into the house. She struggled, but it became apparent that the light one holding her had inhuman strength.

  She gave one last effort to keep her act going. “Really, I don’t need to come inside.”

  The light one’s other hand came up to her chin and turned her face toward his. She struggled, but his strength snapped her head to the side until she looked right at him.

  Her eyes met his light blue ones and lost focus for a moment. They were so beautiful. He started to speak and she slammed her eyes shut. She tried to move her face and struck out blindly with her free arm.

  Her fist got a decent slam at his face when two steel-like arms wrapped around her from behind and held her still. She kicked with her feet and shot her head forward blindly. She was too afraid to open her eyes, convinced she’d be mesmerized. She just had to keep them occupied until Nicolas got to her.

  Where was he, anyway?

  The vampire behind her held both her arms and had her lifted so her feet didn’t touch the ground. The other vampire touched her face. “Open your eyes, woman. I’ll make sure this won’t hurt.”

  She kicked out again and felt something fleshy under her foot. She had no idea what she hit.

  The vampire grunted. “Bitch.”

  His hands wrapped around her and spun her around. The one behind her must have let go, because the next thing she knew, she was slammed against a wall.

  The slamming of the wood against her back stunned her for a moment. Her eyes opened, and the world around her spun. She looked at the man pinning her, and her heart leaped out of her chest.

  Black eyes stared at her hungrily, and she could see his fangs poke out from under his lip. She tried to reach for her dagger, but she didn’t have room to get to it. One hand came up and bent her head at a painful angle, and she felt an intense pain at her neck as his fangs sunk into her.

  She let out an angry scream as he started to drink her blood. She could feel warm liquid slide down her neck.

  He must have liked her taste, because he dragged her to the floor, where he crouched over her and continued to feast. She heard something bang in the background. Did something fall over?

  From this position, she could finally grab her weapon. She maneuvered the sheath off with one hand. She gripped tight and prepared to strike. She couldn’t get a shot at his heart from her angle, but she figured that, considering where he was biting her, the neck was fair game.

  With all her might, she plunged the dagger completely into his fleshy neck. She grimaced as his blood shot at her. She moved her head to the left, but she’d already gotten a lot of the red liquid on her lower face and shirt.

  He opened his mouth to roar in pain, but no sound came out. She must have gotten his air pipe. She didn’t waste time looking at him. She jumped up and ran into the closest door she saw and slammed it shut behind her.

  As she braced herself against the door, she cursed her luck. It was a bathroom with no windows she could crawl out of.

  She waited for a blow to crash against the door but nothing came. She heard some commotion and more things break in the other room. Nicolas must be out there, she thought with relief.

  She looked to her left and froze. Her own reflection stared back at her. The bottom of her face was covered in vampire blood, and the front of her shirt was covered with her own.

  She brought her shaking hands to her face, trying to wipe the vile stuff off. It did her no good. All she was accomplishing was smearing blood around.

  She ran to the sink and splashed the icy-cold water that came out of the faucet on her face. She had the coppery taste on her tongue. She pushed water in her mouth and tried to spit every last drop out.

  Could this make her a vampire? A few drops of blood?

  She looked back up at her reflection. A few splotches of red remained. She barely looked human.

  The door to the bathroom broke open and Nicolas met her eyes in the mirror.

  ~~~~~

  Nicolas’s heart almost stopped as he saw Annabelle standing alone, shaking and covered in blood.

  He should have gotten to her sooner. He’d run into a guard in the woods and couldn’t get past him. He’d heard her struggles from the darkness of the trees, and couldn’t get to her fast enough!

  By now the two men in the foyer of the compound were taken care of, but there would soon be more. She needed to get out of here.

  He walked up behind her and turned her to face him. He gently grasped her face between his hands and tilted her head to the side to bare her neck.

  “That looks painful,” he remarked on her fresh bite wound. “This is too dangerous. You need to leave.”

  She opened her mouth to speak, but he had no time for her arguments. She would die if she stayed. He would have to make her leave. “No.” He cut her off before she could start. “You need to look at me.”

  She looked at him and he stared into those blue eyes. He focused his attention and felt the exact moment he made a connection with her. He spoke quickly. “You will leave this place. Go to the woods and run as fast as you can to the car. You will not look back or wait for me. You will go back to the city.”

  “Aleksander...” she muttered. He should have known her mind would be extremely strong.

  Nicolas didn’t want to deceive her, but he needed to keep her safe. So far, he was doing a piss-poor job of it. “Aleksander killed your friend and your father. He’s a sadistic man and he told you this right before you escaped.”

  “I need to leave,” she said in a distant voice.

  Nicolas broke the contact with her. She blinked a couple of times as her mind was released from his grip. “Go,” he directed. “I will meet up with you. I will lead the hunters away from you.”

  She nodded and ran out of the room and out of the house. He was behind her and watched her run to the road. He quickly reopened a wound in his wrist and let his blood drip to the dir
t at his feet.

  After a few drops were absorbed into the earth, he took off in the opposite direction of Annabelle, knowing that it was his scent that would interest any of Aleksander’s men.

  ~~~~~

  Anna ran as hard as she could. Her feet couldn’t take her as fast as she wanted to go. She felt wetness drip down her face but didn’t pause to wipe the tears away.

  She ducked behind a tree and tried to catch her breath. She could feel the world spinning. She’d lost too much blood to be walking fast, let alone running at breakneck speeds.

  She leaned against the cold bark and looked around her for any sign of Nicolas. How could he do this?

  He’d invaded her mind. Tried to give her memories.

  She pushed off the tree and turned back toward the mansion. She saw a dark blur in front of the door. It was gone in the blink of an eye. It must be what vampires look like when they run.

  It seemed as though they were going away from the road and deeper into the woods. They were following Nicolas.

  Was he really trying to protect her? She took a swallow between panting breaths and tasted the hint of blood in her mouth. Blood that wasn’t her own.

  That was why his control didn’t taken hold. The blonde vampire had almost managed to enchant her with just the slightest glance. A full-on stare with Nicolas hadn’t worked.

  Drinking vampire blood would make her immune to their control. She didn’t know how long that would last. For that matter, she didn’t know what other side effects the blood might have.

  The worst part was that she’d agreed with Nicolas that they should leave. It was obviously more dangerous than she anticipated, and she didn’t want him to get hurt because she was desperate for answers.

  She’d even opened her mouth to say so when he stopped her. She kept on forgetting the most important fact about him: He wasn’t human. He ate humans. Humans like her.

  He used her body and her blood. Had he ever taken her mind before this? Had he ordered her to forget? Rage filled her at the thought of him violating her like that.

  She had done things with him that she’d never imagined doing with anyone. And what did he do to her in return? Tie her to beds, chase her down, and sneak into her mind.

  Screw him, she thought. She’d been on her own most of her life and had lived alone with one of the most evil men in the world for thirteen hellish years. If he thought that could stop her from getting her answers, he was wrong.

  As it so happened, most of Aleksander’s guards were chasing a vampire in the middle of the woods, and she wasn’t susceptible to compulsion at the moment. She walked back toward the large structure.

  There were no dead bodies in the entryway. Nicolas had been here in a rage. What had happened to the two men who had met her at the door?

  Anna looked to the spot of the room where she’d been bitten. Blood smeared the rather expensive-looking marble floor. As she looked around her, she noticed everything looked expensive.

  The room had a Grecian feel to it, and the whites and marble of the room were in stark contrast to the red blood that now marred the beauty of it.

  At the door to the bathroom she’d hid herself in—or rather, where the door hung off its hinges—her dagger lay useless on the floor. She didn’t even remember dropping it.

  She walked to it and picked it up. The silver shine was dampened by the blood drying on it. She wanted to tuck it back in her pants, but she didn’t know where the sheath had gone to. It would probably be better if she just held onto it for the time being.

  Anna turned around and looked at the different doorways and the staircase that led upstairs. A trail of red led to the stairs. She gripped the blade tighter and followed the drying liquid.

  As she slowly ascended the stairs, she listened intently but didn’t hear anyone. It was eerie. She knew monsters lurked in the shadows. She just needed to find them.

  The blood trail was long but got fainter as she followed. When she came upon a slightly ajar door that the trail disappeared under, she could hear murmured voices coming from inside the room.

  With her foot, she gently pushed the door open.

  The room was as decadent as the rest of the mansion. The colors were rich reds and golds. A huge four-poster bed sat in the middle of the room.

  The blonde vampire was lying on the bed with another man bending over him, with his back to her. It appeared this man was tending to the blonde’s wounds.

  He straightened his back. With their hearing, they probably knew she’d been walking down the hallway. As he turned around, she held her breath.

  As his face was revealed, her heart ramped up to a frantic beat. The same man who had haunted her now stared right at her. Again.

  It was a bit different this time. His eyes weren’t black. They were a shining gold. The same shiny light brown color as his hair. He was entrancing. But even without the black eyes and blood covering half his face, she would recognize him anywhere.

  “Do you know who I am?” she asked in a voice that sounded much calmer than she’d ever thought possible.

  “Annabelle,” he said in a deep voice.

  He definitely sounded kingly, thought Anna. She wasn’t sure she expected him to remember her. How did he know her name?

  She took a step toward him and held her blade out in front of her, point aimed right at his heart. Her hand shook, but she had no doubt that she had the will to push the point in if she needed to. Not that she thought she’d get a chance. She wasn’t sure why he was letting her get this close, though.

  When the point was just an inch from his chest, she looked back to his sparkling eyes. “I need you to answer some questions.” Her voice managed to be in the same calm tone.

  He opened his mouth to respond, but his eyes flashed up and over her shoulder. “No!”

  Something slammed into her from behind, and she flew into the far wall with a force she hadn’t imagined possible. Her shoulder took the brunt of the blow on the wall, but when she fell to the ground, her head hit the hardwood floor with a loud thud.

  The pain shot all through her body. Darkness threatened to take her under, and her previous blood loss only made matters worse. Anna struggled to lift her head to see through the hair that covered her face and stars that danced in front of her eyes.

  A beautiful woman stood over her. She heard a gasp of words come out of her mouth, but couldn’t comprehend what they were.

  She must have been delirious, because the second before she sunk into unconsciousness, she could’ve sworn Evie stood over her.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Anna’s eyes didn’t want to open. They felt as if they weighed a hundred pounds. Her head actually hurt so bad she imagined a little person was living inside her and beating her skull for all he was worth.

  Her arm came up as she brought her hands to her face to rub her eyes. That caused another ache in her shoulder to make itself known. Anna groaned in pain and frustration as she tried to clear her mind enough to remember what had happened.

  Nicolas had snuck into her mind and then run off to lead the vampires away from her. She’d found Aleksander, but he hadn’t killed her. Something had knocked her into a wall. And...had Evie been there?

  At the memory of Evie, Anna’s eyes shot open. As bright lights shone into her eyes, more pain racked her head. Both of her hands shot up again to hide her eyes. “Son of a bitch,” she cursed under her breath.

  “Bellie,” said a soft voice. “Are you okay?” A female voice. One that sounded a lot like someone who had gone missing fifteen years ago.

  Much slower than before, Anna creaked open her eyes. Evie had a chair pulled up next to the bed Anna was on. “Evie?” The room seemed to spin around Anna. Was she imagining this? “I don’t understand.”

  Evie leaned closer to Anna. “You were knocked up pretty bad last night.”

  Anna didn’t even hear what she said. She was too busy staring at this woman in front of her who used to be her best friend.

&
nbsp; She was just as beautiful as ever. Her hair was loose around her shoulders, and her delicate features were perfectly framed, even though Anna had a feeling her hair naturally fell that way.

  Her brows furrowed over bright green eyes framed by thick lashes that even the most expensive mascaras couldn’t imitate. “Bellie?”

  “What?” Was she supposed to be saying something? “I’m sorry, what did you say?”

  The worried look intensified on her face. “I asked if you were okay.”

  “Okay? Um, yeah, I’m— No. No. I’m not doing too good right now. What the hell are you doing here?”

  “I should ask you the same question. Do you have a death wish? You could’ve died last night!”

  “I could’ve died?” Anna asked as loud as she could without aggravating her headache any more than it already was. “Fifteen years! I thought you were dead! No word in all that time just to let me know you were alive?

  “And by the way, those fifteen years seem to have been pretty good to you. In fact, I don’t think you’ve aged a day,” Anna said accusingly.

  Apparently she hit her mark, because Evie looked away, guiltily.

  Anna looked around the room she was in. It wasn’t quite as lavish as the rest of this building was. It had nice but modest furniture. The colors were calming blues and purples. She wondered whether it was a coincidence she was in this room or whether Evie had known she wouldn’t feel as comfortable in one of the more lavish rooms she’d seen previously.

  However, that didn’t mean anything in the room was cheap. She was fairly certain the sheets she was on probably cost more than one month’s rent on her small apartment.

  “So you really did it? You really ran off with Aleksander?”

  Evie nodded. “It wasn’t a simple thing to do. You have to understand that a lot of things happened that night.”