by Raven Steele
Lynx snatched it back from her. “Leave me alone. I know I got a little carried away, but I was super bored today. And this was a lot of fun.”
I parked the car.
“You’re turn to get dressed,” Lynx said. “We’ll wait for you outside.”
I grabbed the shirt off the seat next to me. “I’m just going to wear this. My pants are already black.”
Lynx pouted, but didn’t argue.
A few minutes later, we were standing behind the warehouse, my senses tuned in to what was going on inside. I could hear movement, but not much. The air smelled of chemicals, which probably meant Hydes were nearby.
Briar pointed up. “There’s a window up there. I’m going to take a peek.”
Before we could stop her, she leapt into the air and caught her hands on the lip of a window. She hauled herself up, balancing precariously on the edge until she had lifted the window. She disappeared.
I groaned. Leave it to her to take unnecessary risks.
“Should we follow after her?” Lynx asked, as she pulled her ponytail tight. There was an anxiousness to her movements that made me nervous. Something about all of this felt wrong.
“We wait.”
It wasn’t long before Briar returned. “Only half a dozen Hydes. I didn’t see any vampires.”
I looked around the corner. “Are you sure?”
“I walked all over upstairs. It’s pretty dead. There’s lots of crates in there.”
“Next part of the plan,” Lynx began glancing down at her paper. “Disarm all the guards. If they try to hurt us, we can kill them.”
“We’ll do the killing,” Briar said before I could.
Even though I could sense darkness inside of Lynx, there was also an innocence I wanted to protect. She represented the best part of me, the part I wanted to become, and I suspected Briar felt the same way.
Briar led the way. I took up the rear, keeping a look out. The last time we were here I had a strange feeling we were being watched. I didn’t feel that now, but that didn’t stop me from being careful.
As soon as we stepped inside the warehouse, Lynx surprised Briar and I by announcing our arrival.
“Hello? Could everyone please come join us in the … great room with all the boxes?” She looked at us and shrugged.
“What are you doing?” Briar hissed. “Wasn’t the point of the outfits to be all sneaky and shit?”
She snorted. “I just wanted us to look good.”
The Hydes began to gather, appearing like simple humans but that would soon change. Four moved into the room and five more crowded above us and stared over the railing. Even though their expressions were emotionless, their eyes bled fire and rage. Briar had counted wrong, of course. What else could she have missed? I should be in charge of counting from here on out.
“Quiet,” I snapped at Briar and Lynx who were still arguing. “We have company.”
Lynx cleared her throat and stepped forward. “Hi. We haven’t met. My name—”
“You’ve entered an unauthorized space,” the largest of them said. His human features began to sharpen and the joints in his body popped and snapped into something greater, stronger and faster. He tightened his fists, sending a ripple across his massive chest.
“Yes, well—”
“We must kill you now,” he interrupted again.
Lynx grunted in frustration. “I wanted to say that first.”
Briar reached down and removed the blade from her boot. “I’d say that constitutes a threat on our lives, right Lynx?”
One of the Hydes nearest me lunged fast and hard. One second I was reaching for the blade on my back, the next Lynx was standing in front of me, the Hyde frozen mid-lunge. She had stopped time. “You have forty-five seconds.”
Behind her was the Hyde, his face twisted into a deathly scowl, and his eyes full of animalistic rage. Both of his hands were curled into claws aimed for my throat. I stepped past Lynx and sliced his head off. Briar had already leapt to the balcony and was making quick work of the Hydes upstairs.
“You guys are doing great!” Lynx called up.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed her hands were shaking. Her arms were twitching and sweat poured down her flushed face. She looked like she was about to faint. Another head fell victim to my sword. “Are you okay, Lynx?”
“Twenty seconds!” she called.
I raised my blade and was about to swing it against another Hyde, but just before it made contact, a hand shot up and snatched it. Caught unaware, I didn’t move back fast enough before the Hyde’s fist crashed into my face. He wasn’t frozen any more. By the sound of Briar’s grunt above me, she had also been taken off guard.
“What the hell, Lynx?” Briar yelled.
Lynx stumbled back, her legs weak. “Sorry. Too many of them. Besides, it’s not rocket science! I can’t tell you the exact time I’ll be able to hold it.”
Three Hydes attacked me at once. I ducked as a dagger swung across my head, but I failed to miss the end of a broomstick crash against my back. Pain shattered into my spine, dropping me to my knees. Giving up that precious second had all three of them kicking and punching at my body.
“Samira!” Lynx cried, but I heard the exhaustion in her voice.
I grabbed a foot just before it hit my face and twisted hard. The crack of bone echoed off the concrete walls. Something hard rammed into my head, making my vision blur. I rolled out of the way when I felt something rushing at my face.
This wasn’t working. I needed more power.
I scrambled away and concentrated hard on the ancient power that mostly lay dormant inside me. It surged forward at my request and darkness filled my mind and body with new power. The Kiss of Eternal Night. The dark gift I had nearly lost my life to obtain.
With its presence overwhelming me, all other feelings were shoved aside. I felt nothing. No pain. No sadness. No joy. It simply took over and did what it did best: kill.
One by one, I dispatched the remaining Hydes, oblivious to the blood spraying my face, the sounds of flesh tearing, bone crunching. I grabbed the hair of a Hyde who had Briar pinned to the ground, while another held her arms. I jerked him so hard, he flew over the railing and all the way to the concrete floor.
“Briar! Quit playing around.”
“Yeah. That’s what I’m doing.” She jerked her arms out from under the Hyde pinning her down.
I leapt over the rail to go after the one I’d just tossed; she could finish this one off.
The Hyde on the floor, his eyes empty as if he held no soul, attempted to stand, but both his legs were broken. I stalked toward him, sliding the tip of my blade across the floor. The high-pitched screeching might’ve bothered me before, but the Kiss inside me smiled at the melody. It was the song of death.
The Hyde kicked his leg out; the motion snapped his bones back into place. Before he could do the same with his other leg, I drove my sword into his heart over and over, puncturing that sensitive organ. Blood and tissue polluted the air.
“Samira!”
I spun around, my blade raised.
Lynx cowered, and Briar jumped between us as if to shield Lynx from me. I breathed heavily, taking in the scene. Lynx’s frightened green eyes, as timid and fragile as a newborn doe. Briar’s dark gaze, ready to defend Lynx from my blade.
I blinked and stumbled back. I sheathed my blade and began to count silently.
Briar was saying something to me, her expression a mess of anger and worry.
Each number forced the Kiss back into the shadows of my mind where it belonged. When I reached twenty-one, I finally looked up. “I am better.”
“What the hell was that?” Briar asked, her weapon still trained in my direction.
“You are not the only one to hold something dark and ancient inside you.”
“Let’s hurry,” Lynx said, unable to look at me. She held a gas can in her shaky hands and hurried over to the nearest crates. She dumped the fuming liquids on top.
I had lost control. I don’t know what would’ve happened had Briar not intervened. I’d like to think I would’ve stopped myself, but I wasn’t so sure. I had been using the Kiss too much. In the past few months, I’d used it more than I had in decades. But the evil in Rouen was growing, causing me to rely on it more and more.
Briar and Lynx returned to me. Briar slapped my shoulder. “You good?”
I nodded.
Lynx stood back, resting her hands on her hips, as she scanned the warehouse. “I think we doused it good enough. Who wants the honors?”
I held out my hand, wanting to make up for earlier. “I’ll do it.”
Lynx placed the lighter in my hand. I flicked it on and tossed it into the nearest crates. Flames ignited and quickly spread in waves of yellows and reds. All three of us stepped back as heat warmed our skin.
Lynx brushed her hands together with a satisfied smile. “Mission accomplished.”
“Should we go get a drink to celebrate?” Briar asked. “Maybe come up with a team name? I was thinking Briar’s Bitches or Briar’s Bad-asses.”
While Briar and Lynx discussed names, I watched the flames licking at the floor and the walls. Something still didn’t feel right. Like the thin strand of spider’s silk tickling my skin. I couldn’t see it, but I could feel it.
“Let’s go, Samira,” Lynx said as the flames grew unbearably hot.
We were about to turn away when something inexplicable happened. The flames, once wild and free, began to recede.
“Stop,” I ordered to the other two.
The flames continued to die down as if an invisible heavy blanket was smothering the fire.
Both Briar and Lynx froze, their faces a mask of surprise. I had seen this once before, centuries ago.
My body stiffened, and my blood chilled.
The missing piece of the puzzle snapped into place.
My insides shook and fear gripped my heart, dumping adrenaline through my veins. I scrambled to consider my options. Fight and die. Run and live another day, even if my friends were trapped behind me. Warn them, and stay to protect them by playing the game, and possibly lose it, and thus, my life. There were no good options.
In a split second decision, I turned to them, growling, “Get out. Now.”
“What’s going on?” Lynx asked, the confidence gone from her voice.
“Run. Now! Before it’s too late,” I commanded them, rage searing through my heart. I had to make them understand. I should run, too. Run far and fast, but I couldn’t be sure that Briar and Lynx would get away in time.
I pulled on Lynx’s arm, grabbing for Briar’s but she slipped out of my grip. “You have to go. Now! I don’t have time to explain.”
“Samira,” a voice hissed, the sound curling around me in a cold embrace.
“Who is that?” Briar asked, her head swiveling and blades drawn.
I froze. They couldn’t run now. It was too late. We were all caught in the web, and I doubted we would untangle ourselves alive.
Doors at the back of the room flew open, stirring up the last of the smoke in the room. A figure emerged. Tall and broad. Commanding and bold.
I spun and grabbed Briar by the shirt, pleading with them one more time. They might make it, if they ran as fast as possible. “Take Lynx and go! Now!”
She stared over her shoulder, her mouth open. Then she looked back at me, resolve in her eyes. “We’re not leaving you.”
“Fool,” I grumbled and turned back around, gathering strength and determination inside me. I would need all I could muster to face the monster who had just entered the warehouse.
My maker.
Chapter 5
He looked the same as when I last saw him. Long, ink-black hair that was as shiny as an ocean eel. His high cheekbones and long straight nose had always reminded me of Egyptian royalty seen in history books and old paintings. He’d admitted to me once that he used to be royalty thousands of years ago. The way he carried himself, graceful and lithe, yet with a viper’s glare, backed up his claim.
He came toward me, stopping ten feet away, but his presence expanded much further. I could feel the power of it pressing against me, as strong and unbreakable as gravity. It threatened to swallow me under, pulling memories from my mind that had long been forgotten. Memories of the old me, who used to believe that vampires were better than humans and who used to kill on command for the very master before me. I had been brutal, ruthless, and unforgiving. A vampire I now abhorred.
My old master stood before me, a stark reminder of that life I left behind. He was time himself: there when Spartacus and his warriors finally fell against Crassus’ line, who manipulated the collapse of the Han Dynasty, and also played his part in Prince Ivan’s brutal reign of terror in Russia. Wherever there was death and destruction, my maker Korin Khalid had been there to play a part in it.
“Samira.” The word fell from his thin lips, a foul, dirty thing I wanted no part of. Not from him. Not ever. “It’s so good to see you again. And even better seeing you covered in blood, just the way I remember you.”
I blinked, wondering if this was some horrible nightmare. Korin couldn’t be here. He was supposed to be fighting shifter wolves in Europe, a war that had been quietly raging for nearly five decades.
Briar stepped forward, ever the aggressor, but I snapped my hand out to stop her from getting closer. She huffed. “I don’t know who you are, nor do I care, but you look like an asshat, so listen up, asshat. Rouen is our city, and we don’t like what you’re doing in it. So pack up your shit and get the hell out!”
His eyes, a faded light blue like that of a human’s who had been dead for several days, shifted to Briar.
“Don’t look at him,” I warned her, already knowing it was too late.
“Close your mouth,” he said to Briar.
Her jaw snapped close. Her eyes widened in alarm, and she clawed at her face.
“Hold still,” he compelled again.
The muscles in her body became rigid and by her grimace, the tension was painful. Lynx moved as if to help, but I quickly shook my head. She remained back.
Korin calmly turned to me. “I’ve missed you, Samira. I’ve always known you were here, and I respected your desire to stay away from the coven.” He said this last word with a possessive hiss. “But you insisted on getting involved, even though Mateo requested you stay away.”
The realization that Mateo’s words were not a threat but a warning, washed over me like a tidal wave. I’d grown too careless over the years, mistakenly content that Korin would leave me alone. Why didn’t Mateo just tell me our sire was here?
Korin continued. “And so, I’ve changed my mind about leaving you to your business. I’ve decided that I’ve put up with your little rebellion long enough. It’s time for you to return to your family.”
I stared him in the eyes. Unlike everyone else, I was immune to his compulsion. His ability to compel was unparalleled among vampires and made him highly feared. That used to be me too until I fought, nearly dying, to obtain the Kiss of Eternal Night. He held no power over me any longer.
“What are you doing here?” I kept my voice even, fighting the familiar urge to cower. I wasn’t that same woman anymore.
“I received word that you and some filthy trash were trying to destroy what I’ve built here. When I heard it was you, I had to see it for myself.”
“You are working with Bodian?”
“Not with. I am Bodian. The special divisions department, anyway. I have great things planned for Rouen. And if they work, which they will, we will expand to other cities across the country. Wonderful things are in store, and I’m not going to let anything stop it.” He paused to lift his lip in a sneer. “Least of all you.”
My stomach revolted, twisting and turnin
g. This was so much worse than I could imagine. Maybe he was here to finish the prophecy.
He moved closer, practically gliding across the floor. “Things are going to change, whether you like it or not. Starting with my returning to town, along with your old coven, Buio Sangre. Do you remember them, your old friends?” He paused. “I’m not the only one who misses you.”
I was too stunned to answer. The Buio Sangre coven. My old vampire family whom I had abandoned over three hundred years ago. Back in Rouen.
“We don’t have to be enemies, Samira,” he cooed and sucked up even closer to me, staring at me with his penetrating eyes. I could feel him attempt his compulsion against my mind, but the barrier I’d put in place was too strong. “We can start over, you and I, forget the past. If I’m willing to forget your ruthless betrayal, surely you can forget my wrongdoings.”
I still couldn’t speak, too shocked at what was happening. Maybe this was all a dream, a terrible nightmare. But Briar’s frustrated grunting told me it wasn’t.
“Maybe I have something that will help change your mind.” Korin glanced over his shoulder. “Faithe, come here.”
Blood drained from my face, and my legs weakened. Crushing weight pressed on my chest, and I struggled to breathe. “No…”
And then I saw her. The person I loved most in the world. The one I’d give anything for, including my life.
And my only child.
The only human I’d ever turned.
Memories flooded my mind and I drowned in them, pulled under by their indomitable current. The first time I saw Faithe.
She moved waist-deep in a lake surrounded by a wall of great pines in an area untouched by man’s hands. Silence was complete, broken up by the occasional howl of a distant wolf. Moonlight cascaded down from the dark sky in silver ribbons, and one of them captured the woman in its grasp, electrifying her already stark-white hair. Her white dress floated around her, moving up higher with every step she made toward the center of the inky water.
I watched her from across the lake, fascinated by her pink, nearly red eyes. Not because of their odd color but because of the utter despair they reflected. Life hadn’t just beaten this woman; it had decimated her. She did not intend to return to the shore alive.
