Resisting Darkness

by Kate Wendley

  She scowled, wondering if he was testing her again. “For real?”

  He did that thing where he looked down his nose at her and more dryly said, “For real.”

  Sitting out here with her, towering over her, she got the impression he’d grown up in a well to do family as a human, or else lived the life for a long time as a vampire. He certainly didn’t live that life now, not if he worked as a door guard.

  She decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and got comfortable as he filled her in on the vampire culture here in Atlanta, as well as how the shifters got along with them, which was mostly just barely. Her gut instinct about shifters had been partially right, but both Ethan and Anthony also had a loyal group of shifter friends.

  “And watch yourself if you’re ever around Anthony and Ethan at the same time. Ethan despises Anthony.”

  “Really? Why?”

  “No one knows. You seem to tickle Ethan’s fancy, though.”

  “Why do you say that?” She’d already gotten that impression, but hearing Benicio say it out loud made her worry about what it meant for her. Being on a Master’s radar was always dangerous business, no matter how innocent things started out as.

  “Because he didn’t so much as bat an eye at you snapping at him earlier. In fact he smiled and called you his beautiful butterfly. If he didn’t like you, you wouldn’t have made it out of the lobby without a bloody introduction to just how powerful he is. Showing him disrespect is generally a dangerous thing to do whether you’re a man or a woman.”

  She swallowed hard at that.

  “I’d advise you to stay on Zach and Sebastian’s good sides, too. The Alpha Jaguar and Alpha Wolf. They won’t harm you if you’ve done nothing wrong, but be wary of other shifters. Many of them fear or outright despise us. You can only really trust the ones Zach assigns as your feeding partners, and even then, use your judgment before getting too close.”

  “So is it not safe to sleep here? Master Anthony offered me a room. He said he sleeps down there, too.”

  Benicio inclined his head. “He does. We all do, and if he’s extended you the offer, then he’ll make certain you’re guarded as well as the rest of us are during the day. Just keep your eyes and ears open, that’s all I’m saying. There have been minor incidents and Anthony will always protect his vampires, but sometimes that protection means punishing us in order to keep the peace with the shifters. Not fair, but wise.”

  She frowned and caustically said, “How often does that happen?”

  “Not often. Recently though. It’s still settling down from that incident, or perhaps still brewing is the better word. But make no mistake, if you screw up, your life is in his hands. In the last year or so he’s killed three of our kind, though none were family. All loners, and all stupidly flaunting their disregard for his rules.”

  Her gut strangely settled hearing that. So Anthony wasn’t pretending to be a decent guy so that he’d seem all the more sadistic later. He was just hardline no nonsense when it came to his rules. If she could keep her nose clean, then hopefully he’d leave her alone.

  “And Ethan?”

  He shrugged. “Who knows? His vampires aren’t as social as this family’s, not that we are either, but more so. His family is small, though. Very small. His shifters are frequently here, but rarely his vampires. Ethan himself shows up every few months, but more often lately. Either way, you’d be wise to not take him for granted, either.”

  She nodded.

  “Anything else?”

  “No. Thanks for your time.”

  Benicio stood and formally bowed before a quick smirk came to his face and he was gone. She’d be irritated at him for showing off, but she couldn’t help a chuckle.

  Chapter 6

  Ethan gasped in terror, his gaze darting around himself and his too empty bed before he lunged for the door. He flung it open to Cory sitting alive and well on the sofa.

  He frantically raced around the apartment with Cory on his heels, his own heart beating so loud it was deafening.

  “What is it Ethan? What are you looking for?”

  Ethan’s chest was tight with fear, but he managed to gasp, “I don’t know. I don’t know…” His hands shook uncontrollably and he felt paranoid to the point of madness. He slowly looked around as his fuzzy, sleep addled thoughts began to clear.

  Cory sniffed the air as he continued to look blindly around the room. “What can I do?”

  Ethan had no idea why he was in such a panic tonight. The constant feeling of Sonya’s killer loomed at the edge of his consciousness, but it was background noise to a new, bigger fear that he couldn’t quite put a name to.

  “Get me someone else to feed from tonight. I want you to have more of my blood. You’re getting stronger, but you should have more.”

  No matter what his problem was, he didn’t want the rest of his family to suffer for his past mistake with the vampire hunter. He hadn’t outright told Cory he was beckoning Anthony’s father home, but he was in the room often enough when Ethan and George talked about it. After living with him these last several years, he considered Cory one of his closest confidantes.

  But that also put Cory in a precarious position. Since he was wolf, he ultimately answered to his alpha, Sebastian, who was Anthony’s good friend and frequent feeding partner. If worse came to worse after this confrontation with Isaiah and Anthony, Cory might be in a bad spot, so Ethan would make sure he was as strong as possible before then.

  **

  Harmony opened her eyes in the dark room and frantically tried to figure out where she was. She could tell the sun had gone down for the night, and it felt like she was heavily shielded from the outside. The only other place she’d ever woken up to that kind of feeling of absolute safety from the sun’s rays was back at Samson’s, and this definitely wasn’t his place.

  It wasn’t her place, either. The bed she lay on didn’t feel like her own, the smells in the room were completely foreign. And she didn’t hear the familiar sounds of traffic and people talking as they walked by on the sidewalk outside.

  She flung her power out, looking for any source of light it could find, then shielded her eyes when she was immediately blinded by a light fixture above her head. She more gently reached out with her power this time and found a bedside lamp. Its glow was much softer, making her wonder who thought it’d be a good idea to install such a sadistically bright overhead light in the first place.

  Her heart calmed as she looked around the small, foreign room. Her things were strewn here and there, on a chair and on the dresser. Her backpack sat on the floor. She was at Anthony’s, in a small apartment below the club, and she was still alive. She rolled her eyes at her jumpiness, willing herself to calm down. If a shifter or a more powerful vampire than her was going to kill her, they surely would’ve already done it. Wouldn’t they?

  She could’ve stayed in the hotel room she’d paid for, but an offer of safety in the Master of the territory’s own personal lair was too tempting. A vampire’s life was paranoid enough, she’d decided to take her chances with her own kind rather than risk a human stumbling across her in the middle of the day. Persistent housekeeping and all that. Besides, what better way to meet other vampires than to be where a majority of them were?

  She ran her hand through her hair and jerked her attention to her front door, the only door that led into her room from the hallway beyond. She reached out with her senses and felt a shifter out there.

  There was a light knock followed by a man’s quiet voice. “Miss Sellers?”

  She frowned. Maybe she should’ve stayed at the hotel after all. “Yes?”

  When there was no response, but the man was obviously still standing there, she quietly got off the bed and held tight to the dagger she’d slept with. She crept to the door, but before she even considered opening it, she heard someone else in the hallway.

  “Hey Lucas. Janice let you be a volunteer again?”

  The man who’d said her name replied, “Ye
ah, at least this one time, anyway. Zach convinced her he needed me.” He lowered his voice. “He said there was a skittish newbie.”

  The other man quietly chuckled. “The vampire whisperer is back. Good luck.”

  Harmony rolled her eyes and opened the door in a huff. A twenty something year old shifter stood before her looking about as scary as a teddy bear. As hard as she wanted to be irritated that they’d been talking smack about her, she couldn’t find it in herself to yell at him. The other guy curiously looked her way as he kept walking further down the hall, then quickly rounded a corner and was out of sight.

  She turned back to teddy bear when he put his hand out. “Hi. My name’s Lucas. I’m a blood volunteer.” He eyed the dagger she held but didn’t seem troubled by it.

  She curled her lip. “You’re not afraid I’ll stab you while I’m feeding?”

  He held her gaze and said in an irritatingly soothing voice, “If that’s what you want to do, then I guess you’ll have to live with that on your conscience. I’m just here to let you feed, ma’am.”

  Maybe it was her nerves that ramped up her hunger and made her want to quit pussyfooting around, or maybe it was the ‘ma’am’ that calmed her down, but either way, she gave up trying to intimidate him and invited him in.

  He stepped politely past her into her room, and she immediately regretted having him here as she stood by the door, not wanting to close the two of them in here alone.

  His gentle voice grated on her nerves. “We can wait until later if you’d like. Or if you’d feel more comfortable up−”

  “Stop talking to me like that. I’m not a child.” She slammed the door shut, pissed at herself for being so skittish around this animal. But as soon as the door was closed, her muscles tensed. His heavy, earthy scent and pulsing energy filled the room. She willed herself to think of him as food, but it was hard since humans never felt like this to her senses. Humans felt fragile and weak, but Lucas emanated solidness and power. Not a lot of power, nowhere near what she’d felt from Zach or Ethan last night, and definitely not the same feel as Anthony’s power, but Lucas was more solid than her normal meals, that was for sure.

  His voice wasn’t quite as soothing when he said, “How would you like to feed from me?”

  She stared at him as she squeezed the handle of her dagger until she was sure her knuckles were white. Feeling angry and cocky for no good reason, she said in an I dare you voice, “Lie down on the bed.”

  His lip twitched at her taunt, and she wasn’t sure if it was just short of a smile or a sneer. Either way, he turned toward the bed she’d slept on top of, then obediently got comfortable on it. He still looked infuriatingly calm as could be, even as she stepped up to him with her dagger in hand.

  “Still want to do this?”

  He lightly sighed. “I’m here to let you feed. If you’d like to feed, then feed. If you just want to play head games, I can get plenty of that back at my own place, thank you very much.”

  She frowned in petty irritation, then grumbled as she put her dagger back in her boot and climbed on top of him.

  **

  Harmony left Lucas on her bed to rest while she showered, but as she stood naked under the spray of water in her tiny bathroom, she wondered if she was out of her mind to let herself be so vulnerable with a shifter in the other room. Her nerves got to her more and more until she finally toweled off, threw on fresh clothes, grabbed one of her daggers, and flung the door open.

  Lucas jerked like she’d surprised him. “Everything ok?”

  She grumbled, “Everything’s fine. Thanks.” She self-consciously gave him her back and set her dagger down on the edge of the porcelain sink. She watched him in the small bathroom mirror as she combed her wet hair, her eyes wandering more than once to her knife. It’d be so easy to pick it up, turn on her heel, and fling it into the wolf’s tender neck.

  Except it’d been made perfectly clear that it’d be suicide to use her weapons while she was in Anthony’s home. It felt like they were taunting her by allowing her to bring her collection down to her room. Still, having them in sight and on her person was comforting, and she tried to convince herself that if someone attacked her, Anthony would understand her using anything she could to protect herself.

  Lucas sat up and yawned. “I’m taking off.” He looked at her as if he was waiting for something, and she finally realized what.

  She faced him and awkwardly said, “Um, thank you. For letting me feed.” She felt incredibly weird thanking her meal for his blood, but he nodded, looking like that was exactly what he’d been waiting for.

  **

  Ethan drove to the club as if he was on a life or death mission. His hands trembled and the nightmare of waking up to Sonya being murdered replayed chaotically in his mind. A man with dark hair cleaving her beautiful head from her bloodied body…

  His heart clenched in renewed torment, and it was all the more horrific this time because he could physically feel her murderer within him. He screamed in frustration into the empty interior of his car. This madness had to stop.

  And it would. Soon.

  He reached through his link to Isaiah again, yanking as hard as he could on it. A foreign feeling of dread filled him, and he couldn’t help an evil smile.

  Isaiah was worried. Good.

  The rest of his drive to the club was more pleasant, his thoughts of Sonya suddenly all about the happy times they spent together.

  He made it to the club in a daze, his head full of memories and vivid details he’d long ago buried under mountains of grief. He effortlessly envisioned wonderful times spent talking for hours, visiting the sites, and enjoying the company of their best friends, Seth and Nala. He was so shocked that these happy thoughts were resurfacing after all these years, that he let himself get carried away while he sat alone at the back of the room, rehashing these unexpected treasures.

  He wasn’t sure how long he’d been reminiscing when he looked up and became transfixed with Harmony. She’d just emerged from the vampire hall next to the bar, looking sassy and sexy just like last night. His memories of Sonya evaporated as he watched Harmony look around, then catch his gaze.

  She paused and locked eyes with him, then surprisingly made her way over. She had on a similar outfit as last night, curve hugging everything, and that same expression of curious exploration on her face. She looked ready for anything and not at all afraid of a little mischief.

  “Hi Ethan. How are you tonight?”

  “Good evening Harmony. A pleasure to see you again.” He tried not to smirk when he said, “Should I worry about any knives hidden in those sleeves?”

  She narrowed her eyes and teased, “I guess you’ll have to wait and see.”

  He smiled more openly and gestured for her to sit with him. While she got comfortable, he said, “Did you tour our fine city last night?”

  “I’m working on it. Next on my list is the High Museum of Art.”

  He paused at that. He and Sonya used to go to museums together, and he’d never spent time with another woman that enjoyed them. Not that he spent a lot of quality time with women. A romp in bed was about it.

  Unable to stop himself now that this tempting woman was so close, he let his gaze travel down her beautiful body. He quickly looked away, knowing he was being rude, then abruptly turned back to her. “I’ll go with you. Let me show you my favorite pieces.”

  “Um…”

  He smiled. “Come now. I give my word on my honor that there’ll be no funny business.” He put his hand out for her to shake and she looked suspiciously at it for a moment, but he could see in her eyes that she wouldn’t let the challenge go unanswered.

  She gave his hand a firm shake and boldly said, “All right, I’m game.”

  The woman had spunk. He liked that. And touching her let him feel so much more about her, too. He almost said something suggestive, his usual contact with women only about fulfilling his needs, but he stopped himself. She was vampire and that made her worthy
of a little more respect while he got to know the kind of person she really was. Shifters came and went as the years went by and their bodies aged and passed on. Vampires were immortal and didn’t suffer the same inevitable fate, making it quite possible he’d see her around for a long, long time.

  He quickly let go of her. “How about right now? The museum allows the last visitor in at eight and ushers the last person out by nine, but the director is a friend of mine and allows me to stay until ten thirty. With my guest, of course. Either way we shouldn’t infringe on his generosity.”

  She looked momentarily surprised, then gave him an honest smile. “Sure, let’s go.”

  **

  Ethan led Harmony out of the club and over to the parking garage, and the whole way he wondered why he was leaving, even though it was exactly what he wanted to be doing right now. By the time they got to his car, he decided he’d been under enough stress lately and that one night off from waiting to kill a man wouldn’t hurt. Tonight he’d quit thinking about everything else and just have fun with this intoxicating stranger.

  He helped her into his car, then slid in his side and took them to the museum. They made small talk on the way over, and he grew more and more surprised that she knew all his old cultural references that his typical dates never got. He chuckled as he parked in his usual spot, having come here so many times over the years he was mostly on autopilot.

  “It’s been way too long since I’ve spent time with a woman who actually caught onto my jokes. I know this is a taboo question, but how old are you?”

  Her eyes went wide and she mock gasped at him. “Oh no! You are not asking me my age.” She put her hand to her heart and laughed, then looked frankly at him. “Would you be upset if I was older than you?”

  He smiled into her eyes and said, “Frankly, I think I’d be turned on.”

  Her eyes went wide, but she rolled with it as if they were just joking around with each other, even though he was telling her the absolute truth.