by Raven Steele
“Yes?” I asked Boaz, desperately trying to sound curt.
“Will you give me the pleasure of dancing with you?” He extended his hand.
“I don’t feel well.”
“One dance, love.”
Before I could refuse, he took hold of my arm and guided me back downstairs onto the dance floor. When we reached the center of the room, he spun me to him and wrapped his arm around my waist, pressing me to his chest.
“Try to have fun,” he said. “This is a party, after all.”
I avoided his eyes, instead staring beyond to envious faces. The song ended and another began, a bitter harmony of plucked violins and sobbing French horns. It was a torturous melody, one that should be played for the dead, not the living. Boaz’s lip twitched into a subtle smile, as if he knew what I was thinking.
I did my best to act indifferent, but if I came across as cold, Boaz gave no indication. He held me close as if we were lovers, and even began to run his fingers over my bare back in small, circular strokes. It ignited a fire inside me I’d never felt before, and it spread to my lower abdomen and between my thighs.
But this feeling? It was laced with something else, something powerful and magical. I sucked in a breath, my breasts heaving against him. Every touch, every sway of his body, overwhelmed me, whether from revulsion or pleasure, I couldn’t be sure yet.
He pulled away and asked, “Why are you afraid?”
I swallowed around the thickness in my throat. “I’m not.”
“You’re a horrible liar. Look at me.”
I met his gaze. My body weakened, and he tightened his grip.
“Why are you frightened?” he asked again.
I bit the inside of my cheek. “There’s something about you. I don’t know—”
“What do you feel?”
“I feel as if I’m spinning and can’t keep my balance.”
“The power. Intoxicating, isn’t it?” Boaz danced flawlessly, every step obeying his silent command like the tides obey the moon. Other dancing couples retreated from his path as if he were royalty. I didn’t know his real age, but by the way he spoke and carried himself, I’d guess centuries. Maybe he had been royalty at one point in time.
Whatever was happening right now, it was intoxicating and filled my mind with confusion. I had to think of something else, something other than his middle finger which was slowly swirling lower and lower along my bare skin.
I cleared my throat. “Do you always get this much attention?”
He didn’t bother looking around. “They know to respect power when they see it.”
“Arrogant much?”
His dark eyes widened. “It’s not me, love. It’s us.”
“There is no us.”
Boaz paused, smiling knowingly. “Your parents are watching.”
I glanced behind him. Sure enough, Erik and Sable stared in our direction. Sable looked especially excited, her nose scrunched up, hands rubbing together as if anticipating a winning lottery number.
“Why do you think they look so eager?” Boaz asked. He spun me out and brought me back into his arms.
“Probably because you are their type, and they’d like nothing more than to see me with someone like you.”
“And what would you like, Eve?”
His question surprised me. No one had ever asked me what I wanted. “I want to be free to do as I please.”
The smile on his face spread.
“Is something funny?” I asked.
“How would you like to play a little joke on your parents? Teach them a lesson for spying?”
“Like what?”
“Slap me,” he ordered.
“What?”
“Slap me as hard as you can and walk away. Your parents will be furious, and you may pay for it later, but I promise their expressions will be well worth it. Plus you might actually enjoy it.”
I didn’t have to think twice. I stepped away and let my hand fly. It struck his face hard, stinging my palm.
I glanced over at my parents who looked as though I’d struck them rather than Boaz. Their eyebrows pulled tightly together, and their mouths turned down. Lines I never knew existed appeared in sync with bulging veins on their necks. It was a comical scene, for they were still trying to keep up the appearance of having a wonderful time. Their poor faces looked as if they were having twin seizures.
I grinned and walked away. That felt much better than I’d expected. I headed straight to the veranda and stepped into the night, strangely elated. It felt good to defy Erik and Sable again.
“Very good,” Boaz said.
I jumped. He was resting in a chair as if he’d been there all night. There was no trace of a handprint on his face. Next to him, a massive black wolf stared with one blue eye and one white.
“How did you—” I looked back toward the ballroom, my pulse racing. There was no way he could’ve beaten me here.
“Don’t be naïve, love. You know what I am.”
I did and yet, seeing his vampire powers in action, made me shiver with fear. It was easy to forget the monsters around me when they all wore human faces.
My gaze lowered to the strangely still wolf. Without a sound, he bared his sharp canine teeth. “And who’s this friendly beast?”
The wolf growled.
Boaz ran his fingers through its thick, bristly fur. “This is Hunwald.”
“Interesting name. How did you choose it?”
“I didn’t choose it. He did.”
“All right,” I said, not understanding. “How long have you had him?”
“He’s had me since I was a child,” he corrected again.
“What do you mean?”
Boaz leaned forward. The movement was too quick, too smooth, reminding me again how inhuman he really was. Instinctively, I stepped back.
“My mother was a vicious woman. The kind of woman who should never have had a child, but apparently Fate thought it amusing, and she bore me. Though in the end, I’m not sure who the joke was really on.” He smiled to himself. “My mother used to carry a big stick everywhere she went. She called it Thorne, and every time she said its name, she would laugh atrociously, as though it was the funniest thing she’d ever heard. Her saying Thorne only meant one thing. I was to receive a severe beating for failing to fulfill one of her absurd expectations. It was in the middle of one of these beatings that Hunwald found us in the woods. He tore my mother to shreds right in front of me.” He turned to Hunwald and ruffled the fur on his face between his hands. “Didn’t you? You good boy!”
“That’s terrible,” I said.
Boaz’s head snapped up. “Don’t tell me you haven’t ever wished your parents dead.”
I closed my mouth at this. I had wished them dead. Every day for the last several weeks. “I should go back—”
Boaz appeared in front of me, blocking the door. Air caught in my chest. He took hold of my wrist and, with his thumb, rubbed the flesh beneath my palm, exactly where my pulse beat.
“Stay for just a moment longer,” he said, his tone commanding.
My head spun. The circular motion of his thumb on the sensitive part of my wrist made me lightheaded as if I’d had too much to drink.
There it was again. My magic entwining into his.
“I want to wish you a happy birthday,” he purred.
It took me a moment to process his words. “How did you know?”
“How could I forget?”
I tried to communicate that I didn’t understand, but I couldn’t clear the growing fog from my mind. Not even when his hand lifted to my shoulder, and his fingers hooked the strap of my gown. He collapsed the space between us and breathed into my ear, “Your dress is extraordinary.”
His warm breath on my neck, and his fingers against my skin, lit every nerve ending on fire. The feeling only amplified when he drew my earlobe into his mouth and ran his tongue along the sensitive flesh. I found myself lifting my hands for the sole purpose of pulling him furthe
r into me but stopped at the last second. What the hell was I doing?
I broke free of his spell and stepped away, my arms falling limp at my sides. I looked down at my dress, realizing in that moment why Sable had chosen it. “This dress was meant for you.”
He laughed. “I hope not. I don’t think it would fit.”
“Sable,” I stuttered, hating that he flustered me. “She chose it because she knew you would like it.”
“Mmm. She does have impeccable taste.”
“You can have it if you like.”
“Right now?” He grinned. “I accept. Hand it over.”
Magic stirred within me again, responding to something inside him. It swelled, pushed and shoved its way to the surface. My anger towards him didn’t help.
“Let me make this perfectly clear.” I pointed my finger at his chest. “You will never have any part of me.”
“But, my love, I already have,” he said, licking his lips.
My gaze tracked the motion of his tongue, watching it slide back into his mouth. A chill erupted up my spine, and I shook my head. I had to get away from him and whatever he was doing to me.
“I have to go.”
I darted around him and returned to the ballroom, leaving him and the wolf to the darkness where they belonged.
Chapter 4
My heart racing, I pushed my way through the crowd of people, keeping my head down. My whole body hummed with dark energy. It wasn’t something I was used to, and it made my chest tighten and muscles contract. I sucked in air through my teeth, grimacing and rubbing at my sternum with my knuckles.
I glanced back to make sure Boaz wasn’t following me, when I slammed into something solid. Hands gripped my arms. At the contact, a warm sensation flooded my system from head to foot completely erasing whatever Boaz had done to me. But it didn’t just make all that dark energy go away. It replaced it with white light, and I immediately felt calm.
I gasped and looked up into blue and intense eyes of a handsome man. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to run into you.”
Still gripping me, he glanced behind me as if to see if I was being chased. Satisfied, his concerned gaze returned to mine. “Are you okay?”
I nodded numbly and searched his face. Nothing about him was familiar. “Who are you?”
“No one important.” He let me go and stepped back, taking his white light with him. He wasn’t dressed like the other guests and looked oddly out of place, and yet, still breathtaking. Black button up shirt. Dark pants. Long dark jacket.
“Everyone here is someone important,” I said. “At least, they think they are.”
His gaze swept the room as if he was looking for someone. “Everyone here are liars.”
His response startled me. Who was this guy? He clearly wasn’t human, but I couldn’t tell exactly what he was either. “I really must know. What is your name?”
His eyes returned to mine, then flickered away as if he didn’t like to look at me. “They are all monsters. You’ll become one too if you don’t leave this place and never return.”
His gaze stopped moving, and his eyes widened ever so slightly on something behind me. The sides of his jaw bulged.
I turned to see what had captured his attention, but when I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, I looked back at him but the man was gone. All in under a second. I’d only seen vampires move that quickly, but surely I would’ve sensed if he was one. But if not a vampire, then what?
I searched the crowd, even moving in and out of it, but he had disappeared for good. Why had he come? Erik and Sable couldn’t have invited him. He was far too different, too… I struggled to think of the word, good.
I thought of him as I returned to my bedroom for the remainder of the party. For some reason, thinking of him made me think of Madelyn, and my heart ached for my old friend and nanny.
My limbs felt heavy as I removed the red dress and hung it up on my bedpost to be taken away in the morning. I never wanted to see it again or see Boaz. The way he’d brought my powers to the surface so easily had been unsettling.
I had to be better at protecting it. Ever since my confession, Erik and Sable had tried many things to get me to show what I could do with my magic even though I told them I had lied.
I desperately needed them to believe I was merely an Adept witch, mildly competent with the ability to memorize spells and perform them with a good deal of accuracy. But they were convinced, unnaturally so, that I would be a Legend witch, capable of manipulating the world around me with a single thought. I wasn’t that nor did I want to be, but I did have enough power inside me that I knew my parents would want access to it to fulfill their evil designs.
Ever since I refused to use magic again, they’d upped their game in trying to force the issue. They’d threatened, bullied, bribed and even locked me in a dark box for a full day to get me to concede, but I wouldn’t. My love and loyalty toward Madelyn was far stronger than any desire to please my parents.
Several hours later, the party died down, until all I heard were the servants cleaning up after the guests. I didn’t get ready for bed. I had a feeling my night was not over yet.
It wasn’t long before Erik and Sable’s heavy footsteps slapped against the marbled floor, reminding me of a hammer and a pickax. I slowly stood from my bed, swaying slightly, and prepared for what was to come.
Erik pushed open my door. He was still dressed in a black tux that looked too tight for his solid frame. Behind a row of perfectly shaped teeth, his tongue clicked repeatedly.
Next to him, Sable sighed at his impatience, and said to me, “You didn’t leave Boaz with a good impression.”
“Didn’t I?”
“You were rude and ugly. Slapping him in public like that.” She scowled. “You’re an embarrassment to our kind.”
Erik nodded his head in agreement. “There are consequences for your actions, Eve.”
“What will it be tonight?” I asked. “Spiders? Solitary confinement?”
“Don’t mock us!” Sable glanced at my father. “Tell her what we have in store for her.”
“I’d rather it be a surprise, but I’m fairly certain we’ll be able to kill two birds with one stone.”
I drew my brows together. “What do you mean?”
“To stop your punishment, you’ll have to use powerful magic. It’s as simple as that.”
“That won’t happen.” I pulled on my slippers, knowing I would have to follow them soon.
A slow and deliberate smile split his face. “We’ll see.”
“Whatever you say, Erik.”
Sable moved to my red dress and inspected it. “Did you get anything on it?”
“No.”
She glanced back at me. “Are you sure? You’re not very graceful when you eat.”
“I didn’t eat.”
“Good.” Sable removed the dress and draped it over her arm.
“Let’s get this over with,” Erik snapped.
Sable’s long fingers caressed the satin material. “You go ahead. I’ll be there in a minute.”
Erik scowled but didn’t argue. “Don’t take long.”
He walked out of the room with me following in his shadow. I knew exactly where we were going as I’d been to this same place since I’d turned seven. I could’ve made the trip with my eyes closed.
Our footsteps echoed as we made our way down a narrow, circular stairway to the very bottom level, hidden far below the mansion. The only way to get there was through a secret door in Erik’s office. The smell of alcohol drifted behind him, turning my stomach inside out. I quickly covered my mouth to stop from gagging. The smell was always a precursor to pain.
Erik removed a key from within his pocket and pushed it into the keyhole of a thick metal door. The creaking and groaning of the hinges furthered my nausea. I remained where I was, my heart thundering. Normally, I was more mentally prepared for these sessions, but the night’s events with Boaz and the other strange man had left me unf
ocused and distracted.
“Get in here,” Erik barked from within the room. I heard him open a drawer.
Knees weak and shaking, I stepped into my father’s “training” room. The smell of jasmine accosted all my senses, forcing me to stumble back into a wall. The plants hung everywhere; some draped from the ceiling while others had been arranged in specific patterns in the corners of the room. I had a sudden urge to smash them all, but my body wouldn’t move.
Long white counters lined the walls. Inside their drawers held all kinds of magical devices and tools. On the surface of the counters, cages contained different animals, from spiders to rats. Erik kept them as pets and treated them all with great care, unless their dead bodies or blood were needed for spells. Magic always came first.
In the center of the room rested a single, immoveable metal chair with black straps bolted to its underside.
After Erik had carefully inspected each cage for proper food and water, he said, “In the chair.”
My nails dug into the wall behind me. “Please, Father—”
“Do it.”
By the time I reached the cold chair, my legs were shaking so badly that I had no choice but to collapse into it, sweat breaking on my brow. Stay calm.
Erik ran his fingers across the different animal cages on top of the counter. The sound grated on my already agitated nerves. “I don’t understand why you make this so difficult. This would all end if you’d only accept your birthright.”
I closed my eyes and focused on the lie I’d already professed a thousand times. “I’m sorry I’m such a disappointment, but I’m not like you. Magic barely exists inside of me.”
“I’ve heard that before,” he muttered to himself as he lifted a basket-like cage and peered in between the tight weave to something inside. “It is utterly impossible for a child born to the Segurs and Whitmores not to become a Legend. You are deliberately holding back.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Because you’re a shitty, ungrateful daughter.”
I flinched at his words. He was being especially cruel tonight, which meant he was stressed. “Why is it so important I be a Legend witch?”
He looked up at me beneath dark, thick eyebrows, his expression serious. “Creating you was our only job. We can’t fail or we die.”
