by Wendi Wilson
“So, is he the only person you’ve ever killed?” I asked, clutching my trembling hands behind my back.
“Don’t try to rationalize my actions, Piper. I’m a monster.” He growled, suddenly fierce. It was as if he still wanted me to be afraid, but it wasn’t working. “Which is why I wanted you to leave. You can’t trust vampires.”
“Is he the only human you’ve ever killed?” I repeated, my voice firm.
“Yes,” he said, his gaze dark and stormy.
“So, you watched your sister die on your birthday, got attacked, basically died and came back to life, had no idea where you were—or what you were—lashed out in a haze of bloodlust and accidentally killed someone. Is that the gist of it?”
“Pretty much,” he admitted.
“I can handle that,” I said.
“Piper—”
“Do you feel an urge to bite me and drink my blood?” I asked, cutting off whatever self-loathing warning he was about to give me.
I knew I should have been shivering in my sneakers or running for the nearest exit, but I wasn’t afraid. Something about Levi screamed safety to me, even as he told the gruesome story of his death and subsequent murder of an innocent man. He could have killed me so many times over, but instead he’d only ever helped me.
“I do feel an urge when I’m around you,” he said, “but I would never—”
“Why did you freak out and run to tell the dean you wanted to leave that day?” I asked, cutting him off again.
Badass Piper had no fear.
“After I ‘rescued’ you from the water,” he said, making air quotes with his fingers, “and I held you in my arms, I knew I wouldn’t be able to resist you. You’re so beautiful and tempting… and you smell…” He inhaled, his nostrils flaring. His eyes fluttered closed for a split second as if he were reveling in something he found irresistible. Then, his penetrating gaze locked into mine. “Delicious.”
I swallowed against the lump that lodged in my throat at his compliments. “You think I’m beautiful?”
Levi smirked. His smile alone could be my undoing. “I just told you I find your scent delicious, and that’s what you ask me?” The smile dropped off his face. “I’m dangerous, Piper.”
I bit my lip coyly. “I’m not worried about that.”
“You should be.”
I stepped closer, so close our chests nearly touched, and locked eyes with him. Where I’d found this bravery I wasn’t sure, but I chose to believe Badass Piper knew what she was doing.
“I trust you,” I whispered.
As the words left my mouth, I knew they were true. He had proven himself over and over. I did trust Levi. I trusted him with my life, just as he trusted me with his secrets.
He closed his eyes and took a long, deep breath as if he were deciding something important. My bravado waned a little, and I started to take a step back, but his arms snaked around me like a steel cage, pulling me close as his head dipped.
My breathing accelerated as his mouth went straight to my neck. My heart thumped like a hummingbird’s wings in my chest as his lips brushed the sensitive skin below my ear, and heat pooled inside me.
“Are you scared?”
Levi’s words barely penetrated my haze of lust as I moaned and shook my head. His teeth grazed my neck, and I shivered. My hands tangled in his hair, using it to pull him closer. He resisted, easily pulling back a few inches.
The loss of his hot mouth on my neck was more than disappointing, and I groaned. Opening my eyes, I found him staring at me intently. Heat rushed to my cheeks as I replayed the last few moments over in my head.
“You’re really not scared?” he asked.
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m not scared of you.”
Something flickered in his eyes, and his head dipped again. This time his mouth landed on mine, and the world stopped spinning. My lungs refused to work, and my heart jumped up into my throat.
Maybe Levi was right. Maybe I should have been scared.
Because when he kissed me, I died. And if this was death, I’d go willingly into its cold embrace.
Chapter Eighteen
An explosion of tingles tripped down my back as Levi ran his hands from my shoulders to my waist. But more than his hands, my attention was focused on his mouth as he pressed his lips to mine. The sweetness and longing were almost too much for me to handle as his tongue traced my top lip and slid into my mouth. Kissing him had to feel like the first bite of chocolate to someone who’d never tasted it. Kissing him felt like falling and flying, my heart dipping and soaring like birds on the wing.
The bed creaked, drawing me out of my fantasy. Danica, the camper above me, fidgeted in her sleep, and I knew the feeling. Sleep, so far, had eluded me, but that was because I’d spent every minute since leaving him dreaming of the moment I would see Levi again.
The way he kissed me…
I shivered, tucking my hands between my knees. This was madness. Had I really fallen head over heels for a vampire? It sounded made up, the plot of one of those novels Coco loved to read. My mind ran over everything again and again, what Levi had said, what he had done.
But if I thought too hard about everything, darkness lingered at the edges. A vampire had killed my father. Levi had confirmed as much, but when pressed for details, he said he didn’t know. A disappointing answer, to say the least.
Did Dean Purty have any information? I made a mental note to find a way to ask him the next time I was able to get a private audience. Out of everyone at the camp, Charles Purty had to have some knowledge of what happened.
Did that mean he’d known about me before I showed up at this camp? The implications swirled in my brain.
Another thought wiggled like a worm just under the loamy surface of my spinning mind, a thought I didn’t really want to look at too closely. The vision... or dream? Hallucination? Whatever it was, the images I saw indicated I would be bitten by a vampire at some point. Not just bitten— killed. And I couldn’t even prepare since I had no details, just blurred shadows.
A looming sense of dread wriggled up my spine, taking with it all good feelings I had left. It felt good to have Levi on my side, but what about the other vamps? Could one of them be the figure I’d seen?
If a vamp wanted to attack me, I had to stick up for myself. The question was how? On the walk back, I’d peppered Levi with questions about his kind. Holding my hand, he’d seemed happy enough to answer them. Garlic was a myth, so was sunlight, though it did make them uncomfortable. It hurt their eyes and skin much like someone with Albinism. They stayed out of direct sunlight as much as possible, causing humans to create those myths. They didn’t turn into bats. They didn’t fly, though they were incredibly fast and incredibly strong. Nearly indestructible.
So how could I defend myself?
I rolled onto my back and blew out a breath. This was going to be a long summer.
Strangely, all this mortal danger I was in didn’t make me want to run or cause my system to shut down. Somehow being here was making me stronger. Mom and Dr. Whitely would be so proud. Too bad I couldn’t tell them exactly where my inner strength was coming from.
Speaking of Mom, I needed to call her soon. I’d been here nearly a week and hadn’t once checked in. She was probably worried sick. Quietly, I leaned over the bunk and slid my arm into my bag, fishing around until I found my cell phone. I listened to make sure everyone was asleep before palming the device, tiptoeing to the back door, and slipping outside.
The back porch of Saka’am was old and creaked like crazy, but I’d learned which boards to avoid. I’d been doing an awful lot of sneaking around in the dark, but wasn’t that what summer camp was for? My campers were too young to do much nighttime necking, but the older kids would definitely take advantage.
My eyes darted up, scanning the distance between the cluster of girls’ cabins and the boys’. Levi stayed in Chu Chua, the middle cabin.
I could make it there in two minutes. Knock on his window.
<
br /> I shook my head. I was supposed to be texting Mom.
Dropping my eyes, I pressed the power button on my phone and waited for it to turn on.
A twig cracked behind me. Senses alert, I whirled in time to see a dark figure barreling up the path toward me.
It all happened so fast. One moment, I was standing on the bottom step. The next, I was being carried at an alarming rate across the campus. Hands like vice grips held my ankles while someone else pinned my arms and chest to their substantial body.
I was so shocked it took me a few moments to struggle. “Hel—
Something was shoved into my mouth, cutting off my scream. Thick cotton gagged me as someone hissed in my direction. “Shut up, meat sack, or we’ll really make you pay.”
The voice was gruff. Male. Even in my panic, I thought I recognized the deep timber belonging to Lars.
Oh no. Oh no, no, no! Was this it? Was this my vision?
Struggling against the hands on my ankles caused the owner to dig fingernails into my skin. “We can do whatever we want as long as we don’t leave any big marks,” a second voice said.
This one was female and also recognizable. Sarah.
She’d come for me. I should’ve known.
Heart hammering, my mind raced through escape options and came up with nothing. They were bigger and stronger. I was pinned and helpless. My only hope was that they’d said they couldn’t leave a mark on me, which meant I might survive this. The camp had rules. If these counselors hurt me, Dean Purty would know, and they’d be in trouble.
But there were lots of things you could do to a person that wouldn’t leave a mark.
My gut twisted with terror.
The stars blurred as they sped me away from my cabin. My head was pinned tight to Lars’s chest, leaving only the sky and his profile visible. I tried to discern where they were taking me by watching the sky, but I wasn’t good at astrology. My only clue came as we approached the sound of the peeping frogs.
We were near the lake.
Alarm bells went off in my head as they shuffled to a stop. Were they going to—
“Get her in the boat,” Sarah said, letting go of my ankles as another set of hands came to take her place.
No, not the boat. Panic flaring, I renewed my thrashing, but this set of hands was even rougher than Sarah’s. Between the two of them, they easily carried me into the boat, setting me in the middle on the hard metal of the camp’s only motorized vehicle—the small fishing boat. I tried lurching up, but a strong hand shoved me back down hard and pinned me there.
“Careful,” Sarah hissed. “No marks.”
“Sorry,” Lars replied. His heavy weight rocked the boat as he settled onto the seat behind me. Sarah slid onto the seat in front, facing me. Her expression was menacing as we finally locked eyes.
I sat up, pulling the sock from my mouth. My head swung to the dock where Micah and Naveen stood. Micah sneered at me. Naveen watched as if indifferent, but he followed Sarah’s orders. If I tried to escape that way, they’d have me in a second. My gaze went to the water.
“If you jump in, we’ll just fish you out,” Sarah said, her tone mocking. “If you try to run, we can knock you down before you get two feet. You know what we are and what we can do.”
Slowly, I turned my head toward her and gave a single nod.
“Good. Then, you know there’s no point in trying to escape.”
“What do you want?” I managed.
Sarah tilted her head, letting a sly smile spread over her perfect face. “We’re just going to have a little chat out on the lake. Nice night for a boat ride, don’t you think?”
Instead of answering, I swiveled around, looking to the shore. If I screamed now, True couldn’t hear me but maybe—
Sarah’s words cut me off. “Levi and Dean Purty are on an errand. If you think he’s going to come and rescue you, you’ve got another thing coming.”
“You really thought of everything,” I said, my anger overtaking my fear.
“I did.” She preened a bit, running a hand through her long blonde hair before nodding to Lars. “Now, if you’re good, you’ll suffer less. If you’re bad…” Her eyes trailed toward the dark lake. “How long can you hold your breath?”
I swallowed hard. Drowning was one of my worst fears.
The sound of a motor churning to life and the lurch of the boat let me know it was too late. Like it or not, I was a prisoner. My fate was in Sarah’s hands. I’d known this might happen, and yet I was totally unprepared. I made a mental note, then and there, to figure out a way to defend myself if this ever happened again.
But first, I had to survive tonight.
The good news was that this didn’t seem to be my vision. There had been no water and no boat in the premonition of my death. The bad news was I was in a boat with two vampires, and I had no idea what they intended to do with me.
The fishing boat cut across the smooth, dark lake, carving it up like a knife. My body bounced with each wave, but my eyes never left Sarah. The wind tugged at her hair, and the moonlight made her skin look as white as porcelain. But her beauty was the cruel kind. I wondered how old she was.
I wondered how many humans she’d killed.
The engine cut hard, dropping us into a putter as we cruised into the middle of the lake. Far from shore now, a swim back would take me a long time. Too long.
“Now,” Sarah said, leaning closer to me, “we need to talk.”
“I have nothing to say to you, Sarah,” I shot back.
Her hand lashed out, gripping my chin with such force I winced and tried to pull away. But escape was impossible.
“You are nothing,” she spat. “A bag of bones and blood and muscle. I could kill you in an instant.” Her hand shot from my face to my neck and began squeezing. My air dried up as I gagged and tried to pry her fingers away with my own useless hands.
“You. Are. Nothing. Do you understand?” Her teeth flashed as her canines elongated into fangs, and her eyes began to glow.
“Sarah,” Lars said. “No marks.”
Suddenly, the pressure on my neck was gone. I collapsed, sucking in several ragged breaths.
Sarah leaned back in her seat, watching me. “Pathetic. And to think Levi fancies you. Ridiculous. Who would want to make out with a cow? A pig? Disgusting.”
Lars chuckled darkly.
The boat rocked as Sarah leaned toward me. Pain radiated from my scalp as she took a handful of hair and yanked my head up. “Look at me.”
I dragged my eyes to her face, willing the fear and revulsion from my expression. I wanted her to see only hatred in my eyes.
“You think you can waltz in here and do what you want, take one of our own and have some sort of relationship with him? Wrong. We are the apex predators here. Your father learned that the hard way, didn’t he?”
The blood in my veins turned to ice at her words. “What did you say?”
Sarah smiled cruelly. “He was poking his nose around, too, so he was taken care of. Sloppy, but necessary.” She pulled my hair harder. “Like father, like daughter I guess.”
I ignored the pain. “Who killed my father?” I demanded, my voice gritty with emotion.
Sarah’s lips curved up. “Wouldn’t you like to know? Unfortunately, you never will. Once I wipe your memory, you’ll barely remember your own name. And after your ‘near drowning accident’, they’ll definitely send you home.” She glanced behind me. “Lars, hold her still.”
This was it. They were going to compel me to forget just as they had done to Johnny. They’d make me forget everything I knew, including the information I’d just learned about my father. They’d make me forget Levi. They’d continue to prey on the poor, unsuspecting children of the campground and there’d be no one to stop them.
I could not let that happen.
The boat rocked as Lars reached for me. Once I was in his grasp I was done for, so I had to act fast.
Without thinking, I leapt up and launc
hed myself into the water.
Cold wetness enveloped me as the waves sucked me under. Shocked at what I’d done, I began to swim blindly away, kicking and digging with all my might.
I heard a muffled splash and felt the water churn. Lars would be after me in an instant. I swam even harder.
Suddenly, a dark shape loomed ahead of me. I lurched back, blinking against the watery gloom. It wasn’t Lars, but someone or something else.
Heart pounding, I switched course, but it was too late. Icy fingers tangled around my arms and yanked me into the murky depths.
Chapter Nineteen
Panic tried to coerce me into opening my mouth and breathing deep, but I managed to resist the urge as I fought against the arm that felt like an iron band around my waist. I couldn’t see anything as I was dragged through the dark water, but I’d at least determined it was a person, not some mythical underwater creature taking me to its nest for dinner—with me as the main course.
Or is it? I thought as whoever it was swam with impossible speed, especially considering they were dragging a kicking, fighting teenager.
My body went limp as the realization hit—this was no sea creature, nor was it a human. It had to be a vampire.
Suddenly, we switched direction, heading straight up. As my head broke the surface, I sucked in a deep breath of glorious air, then another and another until the burning in my lungs eased.
“Try to keep it quiet,” a voice said behind me as the grip on my waist relaxed.
I jerked away and spun, treading water as my eyes widened on Sasha Ali, the water safety and CPR instructor.
“Sasha?” I sputtered, spitting out some lake water that splashed into my mouth.
“It’s okay,” she said, keeping her voice low. “I got you away from Sarah and Lars, and they won’t search for us now that they know someone is helping you. They obviously wanted this little kidnapping to remain a secret.”
“They were going to wipe my memory,” I sputtered between labored breaths, “and toss me in the water.”
“I know. I heard them,” she said as she seemed to float upright with absolute stillness. “I was swimming out to save you when you jumped in. Sorry for scaring you.”
