by Alicia Rades
I suddenly realized what that look he’d shot me meant. He was buying us one more moment. It was now or never.
I didn’t give it a second thought. I jumped forward and shifted mid-air. Before Maliya had a chance to react, my sharp beak clamped around her outstretched hand. She let out a scream, and the dagger fell to the ground with a clink.
The room exploded again. Venn shifted, and his powerful jaws sank into Maliya’s ankle. My talons dug into her other hand. I squeezed harder and harder until she dropped Fiona’s hair. And still I ripped at the flesh on her hand.
I didn’t pay attention to what everyone else was doing. I could only guess Ryland and Teagan were dealing with the other two vamps. All that mattered to me in that moment was causing Maliya pain.
My talons clawed at Maliya’s skin as she shrieked. I found pleasure in the feeling of my claws tearing through her flesh. I ripped at her hands, her face, and her chest—anything I could get. My talons caught on one of her necklaces. I tugged harder until the tension in the chain tore away. The necklace snapped off her neck and flew through the air away from us.
The sound of Venn’s wolf whimper reached my ears.
No.
I turned to see what was going on, but all I saw was a fist flying at my face. Pain shot out across my entire head as I flew backward across the room, unable to control my trajectory. I slammed against the stone between two cells. I gasped for air that didn’t come. I shifted back to human form, hoping that might help me catch my breath. When my head cleared, I looked up to see that Teagan was on Ryland’s back. They were still taking on Evan with Fiona’s help. Venn struggled to his feet. It looked like someone had targeted his ribs again to knock him down.
Cowen was at Maliya’s side, supporting her as they raced past cells toward the open one on the end. Dave’s keys dangled from Cowen’s hand.
Beside me, Maliya’s dagger caught my eye. I snatched it up from the ground with my good hand. Fury ignited throughout my body. My teeth gritted, and my eyebrows tightened. A scream ripped out of my lungs as I drew my arm back and hurled the dagger at Maliya’s back.
It flipped over and over in the air. Maliya and Cowen reached the open cell, and Cowen swung the door shut. The dagger connected with the bars with a loud clank that echoed throughout the dungeon.
I scurried forward, my sights on the dagger. Before I could reach it, a pair of arms wrapped around my middle. I struggled against them, but it wasn’t much use when I could hardly use my left arm.
“We have to go,” Venn’s voice came in my ear.
I instantly stopped struggling.
“They’re coming,” Venn cried. “We have to leave. Now.”
He tugged at me again. I told my legs to move, but I couldn’t tear my gaze away from Cowen. He stood in the middle of the cell with a wide, taunting smile on his face. He knew he’d won this battle. I wasn’t getting past those bars before the rest of the vamps showed up and killed us.
“Come on!” Teagan’s urgent voice filled the dungeon.
I tore my gaze from Cowen’s, and my feet finally complied to my demands. I hurried to my feet beside Venn, and we raced behind Ryland, Teagan, and Fiona. My gaze flickered across the floor as we ran. A fresh pile of ash told me they’d killed Evan. And then my eyes caught a glimpse of a small object reflecting the candlelight.
The locket.
“Wait!” I cried, pulling against Venn.
He was still headed toward the door but didn’t let go of my hand. I swore he almost pulled my shoulder out of the socket. He paused just long enough for me to scoop up the locket. I glanced back to the cell at the other end of the room just in time to see confusion cross Maliya’s injured face. Her hands shot to her chest, and her face contorted in fury when she realized she no longer had the locket. Cowen realized the same thing a split second later and immediately began fumbling with the keys.
Looks like you didn’t win this battle after all.
Venn and I sprinted down the hall, and Cowen and Maliya disappeared from view. We followed Ryland in his bear form up a flight of steps and then down another long hall. It was like a freaking maze in this mansion.
Finally, we broke out of the dark hallways leading to the dungeon. My heart nearly stopped in my chest. When we reached one of the main halls, a swarm of vampires was headed our way, blocking our escape from the mansion.
Ryland didn’t even hesitate. He bowed his head and barreled his way through the crowd. We sprinted closely behind him. Hands flung out toward me, but I dodged out of their way. Vampires screamed as we entered the main foyer. A marble floor stretched out in front of us, and the ceiling reached up three levels. The only piece of furniture was a small table at the center with a potted plant on top of it. The front doors looked miles away.
Suddenly, my legs seized, and I fell face-first into the ground as a vampire tackled me. As soon as I hit the floor, I regained control of my legs. I swung my foot out, and it connected with the vampire’s nose.
Just as I managed to free myself from him, another set of hands grabbed me, a woman this time. She bared her fangs at me. I held the locket tight in my right fist and swung it up at her jaw. She stumbled back just enough that I managed to wiggle free. I rushed to my feet.
In front of me, Venn struggled against another vampire’s hold. I sprinted forward and sank my teeth into the vampire’s hand, clamping down as hard as I could. I didn’t have sharp fangs, but it got the job done. The vampire leapt backward, freeing Venn. Pretty good for a girl whose left arm was out of commission.
Ahead of us, another vampire lunged forward and caught Fiona by the tail. She let out a yelp as the vampire dragged her backward across the floor. As we raced by the table at the center of the room, Venn grabbed the plant. He held it high over his head, then dropped it straight on the vamp’s head.
Fiona scurried from his grasp. I scooped up Fiona’s small body. We sprinted the remaining distance to the front doors and broke out into cool air behind Ryland and Teagan.
There was just a sliver of sunlight on the horizon, casting a dull glow over the landscape. I had no way of telling if it was dawn or twilight, because I didn’t know how long I’d been writhing in pain on the floor of that cell.
My legs burned as we continued sprinting down the long driveway. I glanced behind me to see vampires flooding out of the front doors. Some quickly sank back into the safety of the house, while others sprinted into the sun rays, risking severe burns to pursue us. They advanced quickly.
Teagan aimed a knife at the closest one. It flipped through the air and sank into his chest. His body disintegrated into a pile of ash when he was only three feet from me.
“Good shot!” I called.
Teagan smiled in satisfaction then hurled another knife at an oncoming vamp. He too crumbled into a pile of ash behind us. Teagan reached for her hip, but despite the many sheaths that hung off her belt, her hands found nothing.
“I’m out!” she cried to Ryland just as we reached the perimeter wall. In one swift motion, she brought her knees up, pressed her heels into Ryland’s back, and leapt off from him, scurrying over the wall.
Ryland turned and sprinted in the opposite direction, heading straight for the vampires behind us. His teeth bared, and his frightening roar sounded across the vast lawn. Venn jumped and caught the top of the wall and pulled himself up. He paused at the top and reached out his hand. I tossed Fiona up to him. Biting on to the locket chain, I shifted and flew over the wall. I stole one glance behind me to see Ryland swinging his massive head into three vampires at once, knocking them all off their feet.
Once he saw we were all over the wall, he turned and raced toward it. He reached up with his bear paws but pulled himself over in human form, landing with a thud in the grass on the other side.
“Come on!” Venn shouted.
Everyone sprinted behind Venn through the trees while I flew above them, dodging tree branches as I went. The adrenaline helped me push past the pain in my left wing. I didn’t look behind me
this time to see if we had any followers. A break in the trees loomed ahead, where I saw Venn’s car parked along the edge of the road.
We all scurried inside. Venn, Fiona, and I were in the back, and Ryland was in the passenger seat. Teagan twisted the key in the ignition. Tires squealed as we made our escape.
I shifted back into human form and glanced behind us. Two vampires had made it through the scorching sun and were pursuing us, but they couldn’t keep up with Teagan’s increasing speed.
Finally, I had a chance to catch my breath, though my heart hammered. It only served to push the pain of the venom faster through my body.
“Everyone okay?” Ryland asked through heavy breaths.
“We’re alive,” Venn said, like that was all that mattered. He clutched on to his side.
I wanted nothing more than to help. I reached for him, but he just shook his head.
“Rae’s bleeding,” Fiona said with worry. I barely remembered the blood but saw that it was still oozing out of the wounds on my arm.
Ryland flung open the glove compartment and tossed us a stack of napkins. Fiona took half the stack and pressed it to my arm to slow the bleeding.
“What now?” Teagan asked. “What’s our next move?”
I held out the locket in my hand. “Can we use this to decide what to do next?”
“You got it!” Fiona squeaked.
“Please tell me it’s the locket you were looking for,” I begged. I didn’t want all that to be for nothing. I offered her the locket while I took over wound duty.
Fiona gently took it. “Yes, this is it.”
“Sondra taught you how to use it, didn’t she?” Teagan asked.
Fiona nodded in excitement.
“Then use it,” Ryland instructed. “Figure out if we can go home.”
Fiona went to put the locket around her neck but quickly realized the clasp was broken. Instead, she held the locket tight in her hand and closed her eyes.
“It works for anyone?” I asked Venn while Fiona concentrated. “Not just witches?”
Venn nodded, though the movement appeared strained. “That’s why it’s valuable to vampires, since they can’t conduct magic of their own.”
“They’re coming after us,” Fiona stated. “But it’ll take them a while to find us. They have to go through some contacts to track us down. We have until dawn.”
“Okay, here’s what we’ll do,” Ryland said with a tone of authority. “We’ll head home and pack up what we can. We’ll leave before daylight and head straight for Matias’s. We’ll figure out our next move once we have Sondra. Sound good?”
Everyone nodded in unison.
“Okay, let’s—” Ryland didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence.
Beside me, Venn’s face went pale, and his eyes rolled back in his head.
He was out cold.
20
“How are you feeling?” My voice was hoarse. An hour had passed since Venn had blacked out. I was just glad he was alive and healing.
He pushed himself up to a sitting position on his bed and glanced around. Venn’s room was clean, but otherwise totally not what I expected. The navy-blue color scheme made sense, but then there was a bookcase along one wall filled with fiction books. An acoustic guitar was situated on a stand in the corner. I wouldn’t have pegged him for a reader or a musician. Learning he was both… well, it was kind of hot.
I’d walked around the room while he was sleeping, after I’d performed the healing spell on his ribs. We weren’t entirely sure why he passed out, but my guess was because it’d gotten hard to breathe.
While I explored his room, I found a picture of him in a frame on the dresser. He looked around twelve. He stood with his arm around another boy who looked several years younger than him but had the same dark skin tone and full lips.
Above the dresser, three hand drawings were taped to the wall. They looked a lot like the ones in the hall, so I guessed Sondra had drawn them. The pictures showed different poses of a couple hugging. The guy was tall, with dark skin, and the girl pale with long dark hair. I couldn’t see their faces in any of the pictures, but I thought for sure the guy was Venn.
I didn’t want to ask who the girl was. She could’ve been an old girlfriend or something.
It was interesting, to say the least, to be in Venn’s bedroom. It was like I knew him better now.
Eventually, Venn’s eyes fell on me seated in the big comfy chair by his closet. A hint of a smile touched his lips. “I’m feeling better, actually. I guess I have you to thank for that.”
My cheeks flushed, and I nodded. What the heck? I wasn’t the blushing kind of girl.
I stood on shaky feet, ignoring the fire raging through my sore muscles. I crossed the room to the duffel bag in front of his dresser. “I was hoping you’d wake up soon so you could tell me what to pack for you.”
Venn glanced to the empty duffel bag. “You don’t have to do that.”
“I do,” I insisted. “You’re still healing.”
Venn pulled the covers aside, revealing his toned torso. Bruises splayed across his skin, but with the healing spell, they were already starting to look better. It would take a couple of days until he was back to normal, though. He stood, as if to prove a point.
I rushed over to him and pushed on his shoulders. “Venn, you—”
He grabbed my wrists gently. His touch was like an electric shock, and not just because my arm was still prickling with searing pain from the vampire venom.
“I’m fine, Rae,” he whispered.
He stared down at me, his eyes flickering to my lips. Oh, how I would love to kiss him again, but I couldn’t. I shouldn’t have kissed him in the first place. It was a huge mistake, because now I felt… I felt things I shouldn’t be feeling. I couldn’t get attached. I mean, Venn didn’t even know my real name.
“Rachel,” I said breathlessly. The name slipped out before I could stop myself. I cleared my throat and repeated my name. At least if he knew it, we might be able to find each other again… someday. “Rachel Collins,” I said. “That’s my name.”
A smile crept across his face, widening slowly. “I like it. It’s a pretty name.”
Heart. Officially. Melted. And not because he gave me a compliment. That smile was to die for.
Our eyes locked, and my gaze traveled down to his lips. Now that he knew my name, it couldn’t hurt to—
No, I scolded myself. I barely knew him. For starters, there was clear history between Venn and Maliya. And it’d be insanely rude to ask about.
“What’s the story with you and Maliya?”
Holy crap! Where had that come from? My mouth wasn’t supposed to work without my consent!
Venn tensed for a moment, then dropped my hands. He stepped around me to his duffel bag and opened the top dresser drawer. He riffled through it and pulled out clothes to shove into his bag, all without looking me in the eye.
“I thought you would’ve figured it out by now,” he said tensely.
I bit my lower lip and sank onto the bed. “I have a good guess. If it’s what I think it is, I’m really sorry, Venn.”
He tossed a pile of clothes into his bag. “Don’t be. It’s not your fault.”
I wasn’t going to push it. It wasn’t fair of me to dig into his past like this. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring it up.”
He paused and then shrugged. “It’s not a secret. It’s pretty obvious. I was her blood slave.”
Holy crap! I’d assumed he was a blood slave in her house, but the way he said it… her blood slave. He’d been her personal pet. The thought made me want to vomit. I forced down the lump in my throat.
“I know what you’re thinking,” he said solemnly.
“What am I thinking?” I asked curiously.
Venn took a deep breath. “You must think the worst of me. You must be wondering why I stayed.”
“Of course I don’t think any less of you,” I assured him. “You were forced to stay.”
/>
“Yeah, but I wanted to,” he admitted without meeting my eyes.
He wanted to?
Venn ran his fingers through his hair and returned to packing. “Most people are very judgmental. They don’t get what it’s like to be fed on.”
“It’s like a drug, isn’t it? For both of you.” I remembered what it felt like the moment Dracula sank his teeth into my neck. It was blissful. Addicting.
Venn nodded, slowly folding clothes into his bag. “It’s… a hard habit to break.”
“How’d you end up with her?”
I shouldn’t have been asking these personal things. My mouth apparently had no filter.
Venn hesitated.
“Never mind,” I said. “You don’t have to tell me.”
“I know.” He finally turned to me, a look of sadness in his eyes. “But the crazy thing is that I want to tell you. I want you to know. It’s just… hard to talk about.”
“Then don’t worry about it,” I told him. “Really, Venn. I don’t want—"
“My parents fell into a bad deal with a group of shifters when I was fourteen,” he interrupted. “They died.”
My heart sank. Of course. Because everyone here had lost their parents. It didn’t seem right.
“My brother and I went to live with my grandfather,” Venn continued. “It was… not the best situation. My grandfather was just as emotionally abusive to us as he was to my dad. But I had to stay… for my brother.”
Venn zipped his bag and sighed. He crossed the room and sat on his bed beside me. “We lived there for about a year before my brother was attacked by a vampire and changed.”
My hand shot over my mouth. I couldn’t believe all these terrible things had happened to him. Why was he telling me all this?
“I left. Maliya found me not long after that. Believe it or not, she treated me well… at first. It was only after she had my trust that she started to show her true side. But it was still a warm bed to sleep in.”
Tears welled in my eyes. I thought my past was horrible, but it was nothing compared to the story he just told me. I couldn’t imagine.
“Luckily, Sondra came along as things started to get worse,” Venn said.
