by A. Vers
She stiffened, and out of the corner of my eye, Ames did too.
Ha. Got him.
“I see.” Her tone hardened, and she turned away, arms crossed.
“Nothing personal, Morgan.” That got her to look at me again. “But you were probably the next person in the room after the killer. Maybe you passed them in the hall or something.”
She shifted. “There was no one there, though. Or no one I noticed.” Another flush of pink stained her cheeks and she looked away. “But I was kind of preoccupied.”
“Then we go back over what you can remember.” I shrugged. “Just tell me everything you can think of, and I will let Giroux believe we’re working together. That way he’s happy, and Ames will stop glaring daggers at me.”
Her lips curved.
She was pretty when she smiled. Even for a vampire.
“Okay. When?”
I thought about it. “Buses leave in fifteen. Can you meet me on the edge of Easthaven this evening?” I wanted at least four hours of sleep, and briefing dad on everything was going to eat up a lot of daylight.
She bit her lip with straight, human teeth. “I can try.”
“That’s all I can ask.” I gazed past her to find Ames watching us exactly as I had said. “Bring your guardian with you. That way he doesn’t try to hunt me down while I sleep.”
She chuckled. “Would you rather him hunt you while you’re awake?”
I smiled in answer and knew it was feral. “Of course.” She stared at me, lips parted. “I like to see what’s coming. Then at least the other guy has a sporting chance.”
Chapter 9
Morgan
Ames led me back to the dorms after Headmistress Harrington ushered everyone off. Ryder and the humans left to catch the bus back to Easthaven. And Officer Douglas was still raising hell down in the courtyard. He wanted someone to wear his shiny bracelets sooner rather than later it seemed.
Though Riki and Roman trailed us closely, Riki had taken one look at my face and realized that—for right now—distance was the better part of valor.
I did not know what to say to either of them. Their lack of faith had rocked mine. And I could not stand to be around either of them.
Ames, at least, had known I was innocent. There had been no tears. Just the surety that if the sun hit me, I would survive.
After five years, I had hoped my past was behind me. That was not the case.
“Will you meet him?” Ames asked as we walked down the hall. I could still feel the sturdiness of his body holding mine. He hid a lot of muscle under his lean frame.
I peered at him. “So you were listening.”
He grunted, but gave no other answer.
“Yes, I will,” I murmured.
His nod was stiff. “Then I will go.”
“Ames—”
“No arguments, Mor,” he chided. “I’m going. And if you try to leave without me, I’ll hunt you both.” His eyes glittered, making me roll mine. But I knew better than to fight him on this. Ames was nearly as stubborn as I.
At my door, he opened the panel without asking and steered me inside and over to my bed. I dropped onto it hard, making the old metal frame creak.
He smirked. “Shoes and all, huh?”
I lifted my head long enough to give him a weak glower. “Bite me.” It was only as the words left my mouth that my mind fully processed them.
His irises flared like sunny beacons in the dark of my room. “Don’t say things you don’t mean.”
Truly puzzled by the ferocity of his reaction, I leaned up on my elbows. “Why, Ames? It’s just a saying.”
He rolled his gaze from my head, down, and back up before locking his eyes in mine. “Because you tempt me more than you should.”
My pulse raced and I knew he could hear it. But I forced myself to sit up all the way. “And if I said yes?” I began to swing my legs from the bed.
If I went to him, would he close the distance? Would he hold me and erase the human girl from my mind?
He went rigid across the room. “Don’t, little Mor.”
It had been years since he called me that. “I’m not as small as I once was,” I reminded him.
“You will always be little to me.”
“That’s because you’re a giant in comparison,” I teased, wishing to lighten the mood once more. It was true, both Ames and Ryder towered over me. And at five-eight, that was no easy feat.
“Are you thirsty, Mor?” Ames’ voice was like velvet, rasping and deep in the dimness. But the question made me pause and really think about it.
I fed in the nurse’s office, and yet …
Maybe it was the fear, or the adrenaline, but my throat felt drier than normal. “A little,” I admitted.
He came unfrozen and stalked across the room. I drew my legs up and stared at him as he approached. He did not climb onto the mattress, did not tower over me.
Ames dropped to his knees beside my bed, wrinkling his slacks and not seeming to care in the slightest. He ran a hand through his dark, loose locks, pulling them to one side before tilting his head. His neck was long, muscular, and a soft crème in the nearly complete darkness. “I offer, Mor. Freely. But I ask only one thing in return.” His eyes verily burned, like he could see into the depths of my soul.
“What?” I asked in a small voice, not sure if I wanted the answer.
“That you only ever drink from me.”
I rocked back. “Ames—”
“You need never thirst, Mor. I can provide for you as no one else can during your transition.”
I knew he could. And that, maybe more than anything else, was why I never asked him for this.
My lips parted to answer with something very similar.
He shook his head. “Don’t decide now, Mor. Just drink. No strings, no commitments. Let me feed you.” His pulse was wild under the frail skin beneath his jaw, and I wondered what this was costing him. “Please.”
I scoured his face and the almost demure quality of his position before me.
Ames was more striking than handsome. Almost androgynous. But no less lovely. That was a quality many of the supernatural folk seemed to possess. An unearthly beauty. And Ames was no different.
But more than that was the fact he had known. He knew I would survive the sun’s light when no one else had. Even Riki had cried like she was losing her best friend. And Ryder had covered me with his own body. Though, I was still not sure why the human had attempted to save me. To shield me.
It had been chivalrous, if a bit foolish.
My hand raised of its own volition. I stroked the strong line of Ames’ jaw before letting my fingers glide over his throat. He shivered and his eyes glowed brighter. Mine responded in kind, finding the purple highlights in his raven-black hair and catching them on fire.
I slid from my mattress to rest before him. His breathing was coming faster, the chiseled line of his chest rising and falling rapidly as I watched.
My fingers fell to his shoulder and I leaned up, pressing along his front to reach the smooth curve of his neck. His scent was complex to my almost human nose. Like mandarins or orange blossoms and something unfairly masculine.
Sandalwood, maybe?
He held himself still against me, one hand wound in the fall of his hair, and the other in a fist at his side.
“Hold me, Ames,” I breathed against his skin. “Like you did before.” I needed the comfort in a world now upside down from this time yesterday. Everything changed the moment the humans arrived. Ames was the one constant. The thorn I never quite seemed to get out of my skin.
His free arm slipped along my spine and he hoisted me with ease. I crashed into him, my lips grazing his almost silken flesh. He made a sound that was part moan, part growl. My fangs ripped from my gums with force at the husky cadence.
My hunger was always a burning pain. This was a different need. One I had no experience with.
It filled me until everything ached. My gums. My throat. The v
ery center of my being.
Swimming through the strange fog, I pushed his hand out of the way and grabbed him by a handful of those long, soft locks of his.
“Yes, Mor.” His voice cracked on my name.
I stretched my jaw wide and struck through the haze of heat. His skin gave with a slight pop.
His body went taut against mine, arm tightening and his hand digging into my spine. My fangs retreated into my palate, leaving the dainty holes wide open for me. I locked my lips around the wound and sucked hard.
Ames was full-blood. Fully transitioned. He was a vampire in every sense of the word. Strong, youthful, virile, and deadly. His blood was like fire over my tongue and down my throat. The intoxicating blend of his scent filled my head in a cloud as his blood coated my stomach with power. With him. The lethargy in my body dispelled like it was struck by a battering ram. I could run a marathon. Or scale a mountain. Hells, I could do both.
I held onto him, climbing into his lap and pulling at the fire in his veins. His hands were long as they slid over my spine to knead at my hips. There was none of his usual teasing. But if I did not stop, things would go farther than I had the experience to handle.
My lips came undone from his neck with a slight squelch. It was far from attractive. But I wanted to fall back upon the wound, to drink and drink and let whatever he was offering come to pass. Ripping free, like a band-aid, was the fastest way to put distance between us.
Ames’ head fell to my collarbone. He panted against me, every exhale a wash of hot air into my blouse.
I stared down at his dark head. “Ames?”
He shivered. “Just ... Give me a minute.”
I waited, licking his blood from my lips and trying to see if he was healing at the same time. After several beats of my heart, he gripped me in his arms and stood. I squeaked.
He set me gently on the bed and captured my jaw between his long fingers. His eyes blazed hotter than I had ever seen them, but he was so tense. Like a statue. “Better?” Even his voice was raw, like he had been screaming though he never made a sound.
I gulped. “Yes.”
“I told you I could feed you, Mor.” I could only try to nod in thanks past his grip on my chin. His eyes roamed over my upturned face. “Sleep now. I’ll be back when it’s time to meet your human.”
My brows knit. “He’s not—”
Ames bent and nipped me on the neck. I shivered and leaned into him. It was over fast, and he never broke the skin. But it was the first time anyone had ever bitten me. At all. I couldn’t deny the heat it caused, or the slight glaze to my vision as he pulled back.
“Later, Mor.”
I sat there—swaying on the bed—as the door closed, leaving me alone with another new strangeness.
My vision and hearing were even stronger than before. I knew Ames remained outside my door for several long seconds, his heartbeat as rapid as mine. But soon his footfalls faded, taking that now familiar beat with them.
I flung myself back on the mattress, confused and twitchy.
His blood was amazing. So hot. So powerful.
A part of me wished I had asked him to lie with me. To hold me until sleep took over. But he had already given more than he should have. More than I ever expected to accept so soon.
Rolling over, I turned the handle on the old battery powered radio. The only sound that poured forth was a kind of white noise. But it helped to drown out everything Ames’ blood had now made so clear.
I closed my eyes and shifted until I was comfortable. There was nothing to do before meeting Ryder but sleep. It would be nice to go into a new day well rested and not needing to lean on Ames more than I already had.
But for the first time, thinking about Ames did not make me frown. He had shown a side of him I had never seen.
And if I was being perfectly honest, at least with myself, I liked what I saw.
Chapter 10
Ryder
The bus dropped us back off at Saint Philips Academy, and a crowd of worried parents were already waiting out front. And Dad was at the head of the pack.
Clad in simple jeans and a T-shirt under a threadbare flannel, he looked like a modern father should. Dark hair, dark eyes. More muscular than some. There was no hint of the scars that riddled his frame. And no sign of a weapon.
But I wasn’t stupid enough to think he was unarmed.
He could pass for normal easy enough when he wanted. Hell, we all could.
His eyes locked with mine as soon as I hit the pavement, and I knew he had heard the great news through the proverbial grapevine. I cursed silently for forgetting to call.
“Hey, Dad,” I tried, inflecting a kind of jovial lilt at his unwelcome presence.
His lined and weathered face twisted. “Don’t you ‘hey’ me,” he snapped. Then his dark brown eyes looked behind him at the audience we could have. He grimaced, grabbed me, and hauled me over the blacktop toward the side of the still empty school. “What the hell happened, Ryder? You said you could handle this. If you can’t—”
I wrenched away as soon as we were out of eyesight of the other humans. “I couldn’t prepare for a vampire killer,” I said angrily. “But I already have a lead and an informant. One that I’m meeting this afternoon.”
My words fell into the terse silence, and I waited.
Some of the frustration in his frame disappeared. He appraised me for another long moment before clapping me on the arm with a cold grin. “I knew you would keep it well in hand.”
It was such utter crap, but I knew better than to call him on it. I knew what would happen if I even tried.
My fists balled at my side, but I kept my face carefully blank. “Yeah.”
He patted me one last time and urged me to the waiting Jeep in the side lot. “Tell me everything. And remember—”
“No detail is too small,” I finished, already dreading the next few hours.
***
By the time we got back to the safe house, every member of the squad was already there. I groaned inwardly at how many times I was going to have to recite what I had already said.
But I grabbed my backpack and followed dad inside.
Stucky, who was manning the door like a giant wall of pale flesh, gave me a tight salute from his chair. “Ryder.”
I wasn’t sure if he realized he stuck out like a sore thumb with his too tight black tee, or the deadly hunting knife in one hand and a bit of wood in the other.
But it wasn’t Stuck’s job to blend. It was his job to warn.
“Stuck-man,” I replied as we passed.
The house was hushed. All the dusty drapes had been pulled closed, covering the windows and adding to the overall depressing nature of the house. I dropped my bag on the couch and went to the kitchen.
The dingy linoleum was cracked in places, and the small four-seater table was in little better shape. Perched in one of the chairs, coffee mug in hand, was Aunt Joe.
Her dark hair was streaked through with gray now, but plaited in one long rope down her back. Kept from impeding her mobility that way.
She lifted her head and gave me the once over with her one good eye. The scars over the left side of her face were white and almost hidden behind the dark patch covering the other. “Your daddy told me what happened,” she said simply.
It took everything I had not to wince. Seeing the disappointment on her face ... It was like looking at mom all over again.
“It was one of the Marks’ girls, wasn’t it?” she asked.
I turned away and dug in the fridge for a bottle of tepid water. “Eliza.”
She made a sound behind me, followed by a soft slurping of fluid. “We got any leads, boy?”
“Vampire,” I said, leaning back against the counter to meet her gaze. “They thought they had the killer. But it was the wrong one.”
Another noncommittal noise.
I weighed my options. Of all the people under this roof, Aunt Joe had been doing this the longest. But getting a straig
htforward answer from her wasn’t always easy.
“Have you ever heard of the sun toasting one?” I asked casually. “Like in the movies, I mean.”
She took another sip. “Not for many years.”
Ice filled my veins, and my hand convulsed around my unopened bottle of water.
Did Morgan know that? I mean Ames said—
“But it’s possible? The sun can really kill a vampire?” I asked fast.
“Long ago, when they were less picky and we didn’t have blood banks, vampires had to live from the vein of a willing donor. They revere that sharing even now. Call it a gift.” Her lips pursed in disgust. “But sometimes you have one that will squander their donor’s willingness to participate in a little blood game. Their thirst takes over and they kill the donor.”
Another sip. “Most mythologies say that the sun is a purifier. A balance. And since vampires were created to save humanity from demons—for them to take a life … Well, I figure it’s a form of cosmic karma.” Her smile was pure insanity and violence rolled into one. “They drain the victim, and they never see a sunrise again.”
I tossed my bottle a little bit and worked my way along the counter. On the outside, I was the picture of perfect ease. On the inside, my heart was beating through my chest. And I was never more grateful that humans did not have advanced senses.
“Why do you ask, boy?” Aunt Joe said as I hit the doorway.
Frozen, I forced myself to shrug as I peered back at her. “The vamp they accused today walked into the sun like her life was on trial.” Some of the best lies are bred from honesty. “It made me curious.”
“And she survived?”
“Yeah.”
“Then she is one of the only vamps around that doesn’t deserve to die. Yet.” Aunt Joe dissolved into a series of unintelligible mutters and dribbling sips from her now empty cup.
I took it as the cue it was and slipped out of the room.
The hallway was dark and cramped with musty boxes stacked rows high. Inside, there would be weapons and spare clothes. Things any safe house needed. I balanced my water bottle on top of one that was scrawled with my writing and lugged it to my room down the hall.
