by Kirah Nyx
Had the Shifter betrayed them?
Ivy hesitated as Addie called back to her from deep within the tunnel.
She gave a final glance at the nearing Shifters, wondering if Domenic was among them.
A part of her, an overwhelming part that had her rooted to the spot, wanted to see him once more.
She wanted to plead with him and beg him to explain everything. What was the truth? And what was a lie?
If he was a Shifter, then was everything they shared together fake?
Ivy couldn’t believe that. Everything he’d shown her was something more genuine than anything she had witnessed in her entire life.
Her vision went dark as she belted into the tunnel.
Only a dim, flickering light overhead guided her way.
Ivy managed to catch up to the others. But the Shifters were only a few pounding footfalls behind.
Ivy’s kept the speedy pace. She could run for hours. Days, even. But it wasn’t her own speed she was worried about.
Addie wasn’t the fastest Vamp around.
Just as she thought it, a Shifter lunged into view.
It flew right past Ivy, and she threw herself to the side.
Penny shoved Addie into the concrete wall opposite Ivy, right beside a solid metal door.
The crack of Addie’s head on the wall echoed down the tunnel and into the night. Her knees buckled and she dropped, hitting the ground.
Ivy’s breath caught. She stared, startled, at Addie as she slipped away from consciousness.
Penny panicked.
With a wide look at Ivy—a look that didn't say sorry, but said I don’t have a choice, it’s you or her—Penny tore open the door and dragged Addie through it.
“Penny!” Ivy screamed and lunged forward.
But she was tackled right out of the air by another Shifter, and crashed onto the damp, hard floor.
Penny spared her a final glance before she followed the barely-conscious Addie through the door.
Then she slammed it shut behind her.
Penny left here there in the tunnel, alone.
13
Ivy scrambled to her feet, eyes wild, chest heaving with fright.
She looked down to the mouth of the tunnel, where more Shifters blocked her way, then to her left, where two burly ones loomed higher and stood thicker than trees.
But, she was fast and slim—and she could slip between them with ease.
Ivy darted toward the gap between the two Shifters.
Halfway, her legs lifted out from underneath.
She hit the ground, her head cracking on the concrete.
Dazed, she felt a boot kick her onto her back, and she squinted up at the faintly lit figure.
Ivy’s eyes widened. More shadows swarmed into view.
A Shifter held onto both of her legs. Another gripped at her arms, pinning her down.
Ivy screamed as the rest of the pack surrounded her.
She fought against their firm grips until her hard skin began to tear, but it was no use. They were stronger.
Even for a Vampire, Ivy wasn’t skilled in strength or combat.
She was a damn good runner, and that was about it.
She guessed now, Penny would take the title of best runner, since she left her behind to be captured—worse, even.
No crying or whimpering would save her now. And she felt like a fool.
“Nowhere to go,” came a cold, smooth voice that tickled her belly and fisted her heart with ice. “No trees to save you down here, Sky.”
Ivy stiffened.
She would recognise that icy, smooth voice anywhere, like that caramel blood that she was fond of.
Ivy felt shivers down her spine.
This was the moment she had been foolishly waiting for. But now faced with Domenic himself, she was at a loss for words.
Slowly, she turned her gaze up at the man standing over her, his dark face shrouded in shadows from the tunnel. His eyes, like onyx pools, shimmered darker than black ink.
“Make it easy for yourself,” Domenic said. “Don’t struggle.”
Not an ounce of pity or familiarity softened his voice. She’d never felt more like a stranger to him.
On the ground, she gave another squirm, and rasped, “Why? It’s all going to end the same way, no matter what I do. Why not take you down with me?”
He ignored her threat and looked away, as if she hadn’t spoken at all.
Sick began creep up inside of her.
Will he really watch me die?
Ivy couldn’t accept that the man she loved would throw her away so easily.
From behind Domenic, a short Shifter boy pushed ahead.
He snarled as he loomed over her.
Ivy narrowed her eyes. Silas, the little brat.
The young Shifter seemed to want his revenge on her. He lunged forward, but Domenic caught his arm.
“No, Silas,” the older brother said. “Wait.”
Ivy sucked in a breath and took the uneasy moment as her advantage.
The Shifters were distracted, only for a second, but to Vampires, that second could be turned into a minute.
Using every piece of strength left in her body, Ivy launched out of the grips pinning her down.
She went for Silas’s throat.
The boy yelped as she latched onto him, and he tried to push her off.
As soon as the bitter, toxic taste flooded her mouth, Ivy placed it in her memories. A taste she’d had before. A blood like no other. Videer blood.
Only, it couldn’t have been Videer blood, because the first person before Silas she’d tasted this burnt blood on was Archer—a Shifter in disguise.
Ivy’s veins froze over.
Already, she’d drank from a Shifter.
Already, she should have died—or at least slipped into a coma.
It wasn’t a small amount she’d taken from Archer. The girl had been unconscious after Ivy’s feast.
Well…Ivy would just have to make sure she drank enough this time.
She only stopped when Shifters dove in at her from all angles.
Ivy flipped back from the boy before the Shifters could hurt her, the flesh of his neck hanging from her teeth.
Then Ivy grinned, bloody and fleshy.
14
Silas slumped to the ground.
The Shifters gasped, a ripple of panic taking them.
Domenic’s eyes bulged. Ivy let Silas’s blood drip down her throat. Taking control of her own life included taking control of her own death.
Knowing what it would do to her, knowing it could kill her if she survived the coma it would definitely plunge her into, Ivy made a point of swallowing the blood, loud and clear.
Domenic’s eyes were hooked onto hers, pure horror on his beautiful face.
Ivy laughed, wicked. “Good luck getting much out of me when I’m dead.”
His face showed horror.
Then, the Shifters charged into an uproar.
The one that had lost his grip her feet rushed to Silas and held onto his bleeding neck.
And the one who had failed to hold her arms sprang to Domenic’s side, mid-transformation.
Once the Shifter blood touched her stomach, it would begin its work—corroding her organs from the inside-out.
She truly had nothing left to lose. And better to go dead than alive.
Ivy ran.
She heard the pounding of footfalls behind her.
She glanced behind and saw Domenic in his skinless, bloody form, leading a pack of Shifters. He’d turned. Most of them had.
In a tunnel, she had zero chance of outrunning them. At least at the Academy, she’d had trees and the nooks of the forest to help evade them.
She heard him gain on her before she felt his hot, sticky body crash into hers.
Domenic tackled her.
Ivy’s jaw slammed against the concrete, but she was too numb to feel anything.
She blinked against a fog settling over her.
&
nbsp; Her consciousness was drifting in and out.
Through the daze, she saw a row of bloody teeth in front of her.
Ivy blinked.
This is it.
I bit the Shifter—now, his blood is killing me.
Again, she blinked.
Teeth were replaced by an olive-skinned face. Domenic.
His jaw was strong, clenched against the urgency in his obsidian eyes, and his pink lips flattened into a grim line, like he didn’t want her to die.
I’m going to die anyway.
Ivy felt her arms being pulled behind her back.
Domenic’s face hardened as she was jolted up, her head sagging back.
She stared at him, at his black hair brushing over his brow.
She didn’t fight the rope wrapping around her.
There was no sense when she’d be dead soon anyway, and she had no energy. It slipped out of her pores like stolen Fae magic.
Her mind was going blank and the light was fading from her vision.
Just before everything went black, Domenic’s hand reached for her face.
Then, it was over.
15
A wooden door slammed.
Ivy’s eyes fluttered open.
Her head pounded like daggers stabbed into her brain. It took her minutes before she came to her senses.
Rope still bound her hands behind her back, but beneath her was something layered and plush.
Ivy frowned against the dusty, orange light and rattled her body lazily. She bounced.
A mattress—she was on a bed?
Forcing herself onto her side, Ivy focused on the room.
It was old and cheap, like one of the many motel rooms she’d stayed at in the Foundling World since she’d gone on the run.
There was the bed she was dumped on, an empty desk that stood beside a coat rack, and a lone chair.
Hands bound behind her back, Ivy tugged and twisted her wrists.
A hiss of pain came from her clenched teeth.
Wolfsbane.
The ropes were saturated in it.
Ivy grunted back the pain and shimmied down the bed, getting to her feet.
How long had she been unconscious, she wondered?
Swallowing that Shifter’s blood should have killed her.
It should have destroyed her entire, icy body from within.
But it seemed she was only plunged into a coma. For how long, she had no clue.
Did I not drink enough?
In that moment in the tunnel, she was ready to die.
Better dead than tortured. It would have been quick and through her own will.
Now, she would have to endure whatever torture the Shifters had planned for her.
Though the room was empty, she knew it was the Shifters that held her hostage.
It was Domenic’s face she saw before she drifted away. But she wondered what became of Addie and Penny.
That last moment she saw them was when Penny had shut the door on her face to save herself and Addie.
Penny had left her behind, something that should have wrecked Ivy and brought tears to her eyes.
But she only hoped they survived, that they escaped.
Would they go home?
Addie would be furious with Penny when she recovered from her head wound.
Still, they wouldn’t find Ivy if they went looking, and that meant one thing— that they took this opportunity to rush back home.
They probably assumed she was long dead.
Ivy shook her head to herself, to her too-high expectations of her friends. No matter what, they were Vampires.
There was a reason Vampires were the most hated, the most feared, the least trusted of the Arcane.
Vampires were survivalists. Killers. Selfish and cruel and brutal, even to those they loved.
There was no use blaming the two girls.
If there was a choice between risking one’s life or running to live another day, she knew most of her kind would choose the latter.
Back at the Academy, Ivy vowed to protect the people she cared about. And she upheld that promise, risking her own life to save both Penny and Addie.
When their school was turned upside down, she was there for her friends, pulling them out of danger. It angered her knowing that they didn’t do the same for her.
Ivy booted the desk.
It ruptured from the impact, and not a moment later—
The main door swung open, carrying a gust of stale hot wind in with it.
16
Her eyes darted to the door, where Domenic stood.
Her throat throbbed when she saw him, a sick rush to drain him dry overwhelming her.
But she backed into the remains of the desk instead and watched as Domenic strolled into the room and slammed the door behind him.
His eyes avoided hers.
Ivy had a million questions she wanted to throw at him. But she failed to open her lips to speak one.
All she could do was watch his every movement.
He looked like the same Domenic she always knew: those deep onyx eyes with a stone-cold gaze, warmth brought by the caramel hues of his skin, and his muscular human-like body sheathed in a black Videer cloak.
When he reached the coat rack, he threw his cloak against the hanger.
Ivy took one look at his cloak and sneered.
Bold. Still wearing a Videer Knight uniform at a time like this.
It had all been a lie. Everything he told her had been a fabrication that he wove to trick her. It sickened her to see him in that cloak. He may have been able to hide his true form from humans, but Ivy could see right through his act.
Still, seeing him dressed like this, it brought back memories. Her days in blissful ignorance had been wonderful. Now, she could only feel resentment.
What was the point of happiness when it could be stripped away in an instant?
Ivy barred her fangs. Rage was overwhelming her.
She stood face to face with him. If he refused to look at her, she would force herself into his sight.
She wanted him to own up to what he did. She wanted to see if he could live with his own lies.
And she wanted to know if he had any remorse.
Domenic lifted his eyes and looked down at Ivy.
His expression was blank. She wanted him to say something. Anything. But his lips remained pursed tight.
Then, he grabbed onto her arm and shoved her back down onto the bed. She didn’t fight.
She wondered if he would kill her. But instead, he only watched her with that same cold gaze.
“Are you feeling sick?” he asked, uncaringly, distantly.
For drinking Shifter blood, she felt no weakness and she was no longer tired.
It must not have been enough to cause harm, but still, the thought worried her.
Would she fall over and die at any moment? How could she know she was in the clear?
There was a knock on the door.
The two of them looked at the door.
A Shifter cracked open the door and nodded to Domenic.
When his eyes locked onto Ivy, he snarled.
She recognised him as the hobo from the station, only now he was wearing fresh, clean human clothes and had his silvery hair combed back into a bun.
“The first bus leaves in an hour.” He paused and looked at Ivy, the sneer wrinkling his whole face. “Ready to secure the Vampire?”
Ivy rolled her eyes.
She didn’t know what he meant by ‘secure’, but she was ready to rip more throats if she had to.
Her body couldn’t take much more of the wolfsbane-ropes coiled around her.
Besides, one taste of Shifter blood didn’t seem to be enough.
She was ready to see how much more she could handle before her body gave out on her.
“Leave us,” Domenic said darkly.
The hobo-Shifter stiffened, then he gave a sharp bow and left.
Domenic shoved his hands into his pockets and lo
oked down at Ivy as she tugged her bound arms behind her back.
They were starting to loosen.
She angled her hands back and used her razor-sharp nails to slice away at the rope, sores and blood swelling on her marble-like skin with every touch of the poison.
As she tugged at the rope, she felt it untying.
If I can distract him, I can break free.
“I’m hungry,” she said, sawing away at her bindings.
“You leeches are always hungry.”
Ivy smiled darkly. The rope was sliding off her wrist.
“The last time I fed was your little brother,” she hissed.
A vein bulged in Domenic’s neck.
The rope travelled past her finger tips.
“And he didn’t taste all that great,” she added. “I might not die from it, but the taste of mutt-blood will haunt me forever. It was almost as bad as your sister’s blood—though I was so starving back then that I didn’t know trashy blood when I tasted it.”
“Shut up.” Domenic stared down at her with thunder on his face. “For your own sake, shut your mouth.”
Ivy bared her fangs in a grin. “I beat both of them at the Academy, I beat your brother in the tunnel. Maybe next time I see him, I’ll finish what he started, and I’ll drain that mutt dry. Or will it be Archer? Decisions are hard when there are so many appealing choices—”
Just what she wanted—
Domenic lunged at her.
17
Ivy rolled off the bed in a whirl. Her arms broke free.
Domenic leapt across the bed with his hands reached forward.
He was as fast as her, a better fighter, stronger. But Ivy was a zig-zagger, a dodger. So, Ivy ducked to the floor.
She scrambled away as he hit the floor where she’d been a moment ago, and she raced for the bathroom door.
Domenic was quick.
He dashed ahead of her and grabbed onto the door, ripping it off of the hinges.
Ivy snarled up at him.
“I won’t let you get away again,” he growled, throwing the door across the room.
It hit the wall and shattered into splinters.
“Why?” she asked with a shaking voice.
Domenic snatched a loop of rope from his belt, then with a menacing look at her, unwound it in his hands.
