by A. Vers
So I dropped on the bed and waited as both towering males filed in behind me.
Ames came last and closed the door. He remained that way, with his back to me for a long beat of time.
“Do I need to tell you how stupid that was?” he finally said into the quiet. “How insane?”
Ryder huffed. “You weren’t exactly jumping to be an alibi.”
Ames whirled, his gold eyes like small suns. “This conversation does not involve you, human. But never fear because you will be involved soon enough.” He turned to me. “You are transitioning, Morgan. And you are already in danger of facing Harrington’s wrath. Adding consorting with a human … What were you thinking?” His expression grew pinched.
“I went to the attic to be alone, Ames,” I said, sitting forward. “Ryder was there. We talked. That was it.”
Ryder folded his arms and leaned against the opposite wall. “And schemed. Don’t forget that part.”
I glowered. “You’re not helping.”
“Wasn’t meant to be helpful,” he said callously. “It’s the truth though. We were already plotting on how to make everyone believe we were closer. This just sped up the process.”
Ames rocked back. “What?”
I peered at him. “Ryder thinks we can flush out the real killer, Ames. By making me look like a friend of the humans, I would have no reason to hurt them. And it keeps Ryder as a continuous alibi. With his kind being harmed, why would he lie for me?”
I watched as what I said sunk in.
He glanced between us. “I reiterate my previous statement. You both are insane.” One long hand came up to halt my protests. “But I’ve always said the line between genius and insanity was a fine one.”
Ryder grinned. “Thank you.”
Ames glared. “It wasn’t a compliment, human, so don’t take it as one.” He pivoted a bit, giving Ryder the full force of that golden gaze. “You are putting Morgan in danger by keeping her in this.”
“I can protect her if I need to.”
Ames laughed, but the sound held no humor. “You can’t fight a supernatural. Our kind would kill you.”
“How sure are you of that?” Ryder quipped. He had gone still, his expression blanking like you wiped it clean. It was disconcerting how fast the change had occurred.
The tension in the room spiraled and I watched as they sized each other up.
I climbed to my feet. “Stop. Both of you.” They continued to glare daggers at each other. I stepped between them, arms out, and looked at Ames. “This is my decision, Ames. I want to help stop whoever is doing this. Please. I need to.”
His gaze dipped to me, a world of emotion I could not name brimming in those luminous irises. “I don’t want you to get hurt, Mor.”
It took two steps, and I was right in front of him. I reached hesitantly, unsure of if I should close that distance. His fingers wound around my wrist and he hauled me to him.
My eyes went wide as he hugged me hard.
Curved against his front, his heart was thunderous in my ears. Rapid and thick. I dug my fingers into his shirt. “Ames.”
“Look …” Ryder’s voice was softer than before. “I’m not trying to cause problems by doing this.”
Ames loosened his arms enough that I could peer at Ryder too.
“But, I heard that before this second murder, they were already talking about closing Lokworth. What do you think will happen now that there has been another?”
My heart slammed. “What?”
“From whom?” Ames demanded.
“I have friends with parents in high places. That’s why there are so few humans today. They’re already working on closing Lokworth.”
I turned in horror to stare at Ames.
I came to Lokworth for a reason. It was like rehabilitation. If I didn’t complete that sentence …
He shook his head. “Don’t, Mor. We will figure it out.”
My breathing hitched. “Ames ... You know what they will do. I can’t—” Every breath sawed through my lungs, coming faster and faster until the room swam.
The world tilted.
“Shit.”
Someone lifted me fast and moved just as quick to the bed. “Get the water off the nightstand.” Something cool laid across my forehead. “Morgan?”
My vision swirled with little white dots but I tried to focus on everything around me.
It was Ryder at my side as Ames hovered less than a foot away.
“Morgan, I need you to slow your breathing, okay?” Ryder said with calm surety.
Was I still breathing fast? Why didn’t I feel it?
Something hot closed over my hand, awakening my frozen appendage.
Ryder pressed my hand over his chest, and the play of muscle there did not aid my breathing. “Feel the beat. Feel every inhale. Come on. Breathe with me.”
I tried to focus on the rise and fall of his body, on how sure his heartbeat was beneath my palm. Slowly, so slowly, mine calmed to match.
The world came back into focus. Ames was biting his lip so hard, his blood had pooled in the corner of his mouth. “Mor?” he asked.
“I’m okay.” The words were weak.
“Do you have a history of anxiety attacks?” Ryder asked calmly.
“I’m a vampire,” I said with as much anger as I could muster. “We don’t have anxiety attacks.”
His lips curved. “Pretty thought. But I’m positive any doctor in the world would give you the same diagnosis.”
My eyes went between both males. “I don’t—” I stopped myself.
Could that be what that was? An anxiety attack?
Ames crouched and Ryder scooted back a bit to give him room. “I don’t know enough about medicine to say, but the human may be right.”
Just like with the sun, I didn’t want to believe it. It was like a test I wasn’t sure I would pass. If I was having anxiety attacks, that made me even less of a vampire than before. One more thing for my kind to hold against me.
For my parents to push me away with.
I tried to sit up and strong hands closed over my shoulders. “Not happening,” Ryder said sharply. “Between the other day and whatever else you got going on, your system is not happy with you. Take a minute, okay?” There was no arguing with him. He would tie me to the bed if he had to. I could see it in his darkening hazel eyes.
I sagged back into the mattress. “A minute then.”
He nodded and released me. Standing, he moved a decorous amount of space away, but his irises remained fixed on my prone form. “Now, let’s talk.”
Chapter 21
Ryder
It was hard to keep looking at Morgan. Watching her in her bed seemed like an invasion of personal space. Not only that, but there was something oddly vulnerable about her. I wanted to protect her. To keep her from the bad the world had to offer.
Which was stupid because she was a vampire. Hell, she ate bad guys for breakfast, right? What did I really expect to do?
But whatever else was going on with her, it was messing with her system bad. And seeing a vamp so—so human was more than I could process.
Ames took my previous spot beside her, one hand calmly stroking up and down her arm. That too was a bit too private for my liking.
Knowing they were betrothed sat wrong with me. Somewhere around my gut. People didn’t do that nowadays. Though neither seemed upset about the notion, how much of that was a sense of requirement? Of brainwashing?
And Ames was older, right? How much older?
I could’ve slapped myself for trying to fit my human views into their culture. Most vampires lived for hundreds of years. Just because Ames looked like a twenty-year-old model, didn’t mean he was anything older than that. Fangs or not.
Or he could have been kissing a hundred plus.
I shoved that thought away.
Nope. Not going there.
It wasn’t my problem, anyway. Whatever this twisted fascination was with Morgan, that was on me. And I w
ould get over it. Fast.
“We now have two dead humans.” They both grimaced. “I know the other one was male. A member of Saint Philips’ debate team. I don’t know him personally, but I will need to see the body.”
Morgan made a sound. “Why?”
“So I can examine him.”
Ames peered down at her before looking back at me. “And you will know immediately what killed him?”
A surge of humor filled me. He was smarter than I gave him credit for. But that also meant I would have to be very careful around him.
“Not necessarily,” I admitted. “But I imagine you both know what a vamp bite looks like. Even if the wound is torn, you could say yes or no, right?” I could too, but I wasn’t telling him that.
Ames shifted a bit. “Yes. I suppose.”
I clapped my hands. “Excellent. Now we just need to get past Giroux.”
***
Our way out was through the dorm rec room and past the attic once more. The sense of déjà vu it caused left me twitchy.
“If they have moved the body, he will be in the nurse’s office,” Morgan whispered, her shoes now firmly back on her feet.
I nodded. “Fewer eyes and more than enough room.” My guess was that even if they called the paramedics minutes before Ames found us, between response time and all field required attempts at revival, the body should still be at Lokworth.
I hoped.
Because once it was out of the school, my window narrowed drastically. Then it would be in the squad’s hands, and I would already have to explain how another kid had died while I was trying to understand how a vampire could be a vegan.
Pescatarian, I corrected as we eased around the corner across from the office.
A group of county officials huddled just outside the room, their backs pressed together like they were expecting some sort of attack at any moment. Considering it was humans that were being killed ... I wasn’t surprised.
“Maybe we should kill off a supe,” I hedged to the two vamps beside me. “Then it would level the playing field.” I enjoyed their simultaneous jaw dropping for a moment. “Kidding.” Even though I kind of wasn’t.
Morgan glared, and her purple eyes glinted like flint. “Not funny, Ryder.”
I shrugged and went back to peering around the stone corner. “It was a little funny,” I muttered. No one really got my sense of humor.
Two officers shuffled off to the side, leaving the doorway clear. I could just make out the paramedics and the lowered gurney through the opaque glass.
“They haven’t loaded the body,” I whispered.
“How are we going to get past them?” Ames asked.
“We need something that will draw them off.” Morgan’s voice was thoughtful. “A commotion.”
Or a distraction.
I peered over my shoulder at her and Ames. And the little lightbulb in my head began to glow. “I have an idea,” I began. “But you two are going to have to make it look real for it to work.”
Chapter 22
Ryder
“I am not your property.” Morgan’s voice was ear-splitting from down the hall, and I winced a bit.
“Easy there, girl,” I muttered as I watched the cops lift their heads in confusion at the new noise. “Don’t sell it too much.”
“You are to be my wife,” Ames growled back. “And you’re consorting with a human?”
The officers took a small step, hands on their belts.
“We are not married yet, Amesilo Treymore.”
I blinked.
Well, that was a mouthful. No wonder he went by Ames.
“If I wish to consort with a human, then that is my right,” she continued.
“You will not sully your name this way, Morgan. I won’t abide by it.” Something heavy crashed into the stone wall and dust flew.
And there goes the bench.
But it got the cops moving. There was a crackle from their mics and they sprinted off. I waited and another bit of static echoed out of the nurse’s office requesting backup not long after they hit the corner. The paramedics followed at a fast clip.
No doubt they weren’t expecting a full-blood vampire Ames’ size.
Surprise, surprise.
I dove toward the now empty room and slid slightly on the wood. Inside the opaque office, the kid’s body was visible.
I was right. He was on the debate team, though I didn’t know his name.
Mike? Mick?
His neck was in ruin, and the pallor and lack of blood told me someone had drained the body. But there was so much jagged flesh that I couldn’t make out a single set of punctures.
My eyes scanned the room, and I took up a pair of gloves out of the medic’s bag nearby. Slipping them on, I prodded and tried to get the flesh to close back up.
“What are you doing?” Morgan hissed from the doorway.
I glared over my shoulder at her. “Where the hell is Ames?”
“He took off to buy us some time.”
My head bobbed as my fingers slipped on a bit of meat. Human meat. “Get over here and help me close the wound back. I can’t see a damn thing in this mess.”
Swearing, she slipped beside me and grabbed another set of gloves. I had to give it to her. She was a quick study.
We worked as fast as we dared to smooth and hold each flap back in alignment.
Dead center of the wound was a set of perfectly round holes.
“Vampire,” Morgan said, her voice shaking. “Probably male.”
I looked at her. “What makes you say that?”
She pulled one hand back carefully and gestured between the punctures and then at the lower half of her face. “A male’s jaw is wider. Wider means more space between each fang.” My surprise must have shown because her face colored. “Shut up.”
Shrugging, I went back to examining the wound. “Never said a word.”
I couldn’t get a picture and I doubted a cell would have worked in the equivalent to a school of magick, but Morgan grabbed a piece of gauze and a marker. We laid it over the wounds and marked the white square with two black dots the exact width apart as the bloody bite.
We had just shoved our gloves into the hazardous materials box and were moving to the door when steps sounded down the hall.
My eyes darted for a way out, but the door was the only escape. Twin shadows bloomed in the windows of the office. We were out of time.
Spotting a closet of supplies in the corner, I drug Morgan into the dark space and closed the door behind us.
The little room was barely more than a cubby and her lean body was left squashed against mine. I tried to ignore her soft fragrance, or the rapid rise and fall of her chest where it rubbed mine.
Dammit.
Her eyes pulsed in the dimness as footsteps sounded over the wood. My fingers gripped the lithe expanse of her hip to keep her silent. That flash of lilac light flared brighter in response. My heart skipped.
“Damn fangers,” a voice said from right outside. “Those bastards are too fast for a human to chase.”
“That’s why the board is calling in a specialist,” another said.
Morgan went still against me. Her too bright eyes were wide, confused. My heart beat faster and I wondered if she could hear it. Hell, as close as we were, she probably felt it.
“They should be here by dawn. If there is another death, the supernatural government will have to get in line now to take them out.”
“Do you really think they care about a few humans?” the first voice asked.
“I think they care about their new image enough to care about them.”
There were a few chuckles, a masculine grunt, and the whir of squeaking wheels. Slowly the sound faded from the room, leaving Morgan and I alone in the dark.
She sagged a bit, making all that porcelain warmth slide down my front. I quickly cracked the door and stumbled out.
The room was empty of medics, cops, and bodies. Though Morgan’s face was more flushed th
an normal, it was now or never. Pulling her behind me, I steered us out the office, down the hall, and out into the courtyard without a word.
She pulled away as soon as we hit the tree line. Her hands went to her knees, and I considered grabbing her just in case she gave out like before.
“Morgan?”
Her hand raised. “I’m okay.”
But she wasn’t.
Her odd eyes rose, and she met my gaze with a kind of wary readiness. “What kind of specialist would they call in to chase a killer in the supernatural community?” she asked.
Something in me turned cool. Icy. “Not anyone good.” It was the only warning I could give her. I knew who they would call. Hell, maybe they already had.
“Care to elaborate?” she asked.
No.
“A hunter,” I ground out.
She exhaled and rose. “That’s what I was worried about.” She looked at me. “In our world, we have certain forces that police our kind. You step out of line, endanger the treaties with the humans, or draw unnecessary attention, and depending on the severity of the crime, that dictates who they send.”
“Most times, it’s a colony member. A lot of cities now have contracts with our kind to help police those that go rogue,” she added.
“Okay. A supernatural police force,” I muttered. “I can dig it.”
“That’s for stuff inside city limits,” she said, eyes beguiling me to understand. “We aren’t part of the city. We live on the outskirts and remain out of the human population’s eye. They won’t just send a colony enforcer.”
“Like your kind, they will send a special hunter.” Ames stepped out of the trees behind her, his gaze like fire and his expression hard. “They will send a Hallow.”
***
A Hallow was a supernatural being raised from birth with only one purpose: to hunt the supernatural races. They were literally hired assassins that spent years learning all the kick-ass stealthy ninja moves imaginable. And judging from how Ames and Morgan both reacted to that statement, a Hallow was their equivalent of the boogeyman.
