by Emily Reed
Slowly, I climbed to my feet.
Megan's father stared, his influence bearing down on me so that I felt him under my skin. "You don't want the gift we have offered?"
"I want to stay human."
"Then you'll go to the camps. We have no use for a human here." He waved a hand in a take her away gesture.
"Just let me go," I said, looking at the floor trying to seem small and harmless.
"Please, Dad," Megan said. "Let us both go."
His gaze left me, and I peeked up from beneath my eyelashes. He stared at the door where Megan stood, her hands pressed together like a prayer. "Please," she said again. "I'll take care of her."
He curled his lip, disgust clear in his features. "You can't survive off one human. Especially not one of your own blood."
"I'll find others," she said.
Pearl spoke up then. "I forbid it. I just got my daughter back. I'm not going to let you go again."
Megan turned to look at her. "Got me back?" She laughed, a hollow, joyless sound. "You abandoned me long before you were turned."
"You would have died if we hadn't come for you," Pearl said.
"Maybe I'd be better off," Megan spat at her mother.
"How dare you," Brad roared, his anger raising him off the ground—he floated on a swirling black cloud of power shot through with sparks of gold. His face contorted with rage.
One of the vampires who'd been standing around the table, a small woman with delicate features and long chestnut hair, spoke softly. "Brad, calm down."
Megan's father's head whipped to her. "Angelia, this is none of your concern."
"And yet here I am hearing all of it." Angelia flapped a hand at me. "Just kill the human and let's get on with it." She turned back to the table, and the tall vampire, a man with blond shoulder-length hair, looked at me, his fangs distending. Megan blurred between us.
"No!" she yelled. "She is of my blood."
Angelia smiled at Megan. "I don't care.”
One of the shelves of books seemed to explode, the paper raining down around like confetti. The white shreds appeared to move in slow motion compared to the whirl of bodies that whipped through the space. The desk cracked in half under a weight I could not see.
Megan's body slammed into the wall next to Dimitri, and she fell to the ground, motionless. Brad stood over her limp form. He straightened his shirt and then turned back to me.
"I will drain you myself.” He started toward me, his walk slow and predatory.
I backed away, fear clawing at me.
I tried to muster up my power, the ability to stop things in motion, to freeze him. No, no, no! I screamed in my head. But he continued his approach. My eyes unfocused, and I looked at the energy in the room, at the influences, the overlapping shapes. Those lines of light that pulled at Dimitri, that seemed to control him, led straight to Brad’s heart. His still, dead heart.
I put my hand out, palm facing that organ, and I let the center of me move up, let that little red ball I'd been hiding in my gut flow through my palm and aim at that long-still heart. Beat. I told it. Beat for me.
Brad reached me, and I placed my hand against his chest. He grinned down at my hand. So small and weak.
The vampire's pectoral muscle was hard, his chest cavity still. I closed my eyes and felt the electric connection, the heat building between my palm and his skin through the thin material of the dress shirt.
I opened my eyes and met his gaze—Brad’s eyes flashed brown. I reached my lips up to his and he stayed still, shocked and confused as I gently breathed him in.
Closing my eyes, I saw his sphere of control, the way it covered every vampire in the room. Beat, I told his heart, pushing that red ball of my own through his skin, through the hard muscle. His heart contracted, and his sphere of influence blinked out, then on again.
"What is she doing?" Angelia asked in a low whisper.
I reached out with my mind, running it along the connection between Brad and Dimitri. It wasn’t all smooth—there were joints, spots of intensity that held it together. I stopped on one and tugged. Dimitri gasped. Break.
And it did—the line cracked at that point and drifted apart, each side disappearing into ash before it touched the floor.
Brad shuddered, his arms coming up and taking hold of mine, trying to break our kiss. His heart beat again, blinking out the light of his influence.
But while his will wanted me gone, his body, his heart, every organ in his body, wanted me close.
I snapped the next cord leading to Dimitri, and he cried out again.
"Stop her!" Angelia yelled. With my eyes closed, I could see them all—not their bodies but their energy, their abilities—and there wasn't a single one of them that could stop me.
Dimitri, with only one cord left, warned them, "Don't touch her."
"Dimitri!" Pearl's voice went high with panic, her energy vibrating with fear. "Do something!"
I snapped that last cord, using a thump of Brad's heart to do it.
"I am free," Dimitri said, his voice awed. "She has freed me."
"Freed you?" Pearl asked. "What are you talking about?"
I broke the kiss with Brad, and he stumbled away from me and then came back at me, lust clear in his eyes as they flashed brown, human, alive again for the first time in decades.
Chapter Nineteen
Brad grabbed my arms, hauling me up so that we were eye to eye, my feet dangling in the air. Anger and confusion rolled off of him.
His lip snarled, and he threw me. I smashed into a bookshelf. The wood shattered and splinters sliced into me. I slumped on the ground, books raining down on me.
My ears rang and vision swirled. Across the room, Megan still slumped against the opposite wall. Here we were again, I thought, sharing another horrible experience.
Megan lay still, but the three vampires who'd watched the family drama unfold were now in action. Angelia stood in front of Brad, her hand on his neck, feeling for a pulse I knew was no longer there. His eyes were ice blue and burning into me.
The tall male vampire who'd wanted to drain me was gone, the window open, curtains stirring in the breeze. Smart guy. The other female vampire, small and elegant with dark hair cut in a pixie style, stood next to Pearl. Both women watched me.
Dimitri blurred to my side and growled at the rest of the room, like a dog protecting his bone. I tried to push myself up, but dizziness overtook me, and I waited, closing my eyes, trying to regain my strength, knowing there was only one way to really recover.
Dimitri scooped me up into his arms, and his influence settled over me, taking away the pain from my bruises and cuts. "I will take her," he said. "I will keep her safe."
"You will do no such thing." Brad stepped forward, his eyes cold again, his heart still but his dick throbbing for me. I could feel the war inside of him. One part wanted me desperately, and the other part knew I was dangerous. Maybe that’s why he wanted me so much. Maybe we all seek danger. “We need to figure out what she is." He pointed at me. "That is no normal girl."
"She is mine," Dimitri said.
Brad smiled. "She is Megan's. You cannot claim her."
"Who will stop me?"
I wanted to be a part of the conversation. Explain that I belonged to myself, but there was a gash on the back of my head seeping blood. I needed to heal before I lost consciousness. But I wasn't leaving this place without Megan. She was the reason I came back. She was my best friend, and I wasn't about to give her up a second time.
"I want Megan," I said, my voice weak, spots clouding my vision. “She has to come with us, Dimitri."
He didn't look down at me, just kept staring straight ahead at Brad. The other vampires fanned out behind their leader, his influence lining them up, settling into a triangle behind him, blocking our escape.
I looked back up at Dimitri, black edging into the corners of my vision. "Kiss me," I whispered.
He didn't respond—couldn't take his eyes off the vamps in front
of us. He was going to have to fight them all. "Megan," I whispered, looking over at her, willing her to wake up. She stayed still, eyes closed, face smooth and emotionless…like a doll.
Brad glanced back at her and then made eye contact with me. "I control her, Darling. I don't know what you are, but it is impossible for you to take my daughter from me."
I held his gaze and smiled. "Kiss me.” Brad took a step forward. Pearl grabbed his arm. "Keep coming.” My eyes held his. I was going to black out soon. I needed a kiss. I needed more than one.
"Don't look at her." Pearl grabbed her husband's chin and turned it toward her, breaking our connection. "No one meet her gaze," Pearl warned.
I closed my eyes, the blood loss becoming too much. I'd hit my head too hard. I was in many respects still a weak human. Megan, I begged in my mind. Wake up, Megan. Wake up! I pushed my thoughts out of my body with what I had left, blowing them across the room, settling them over her. Wake up.
She stirred, her energy reacting to mine. Behind my closed lids I saw her brain light up, coming awake, wrestling from under her father's influence. The cords connecting them were far too strong for me to break, as weak as I was, but she fluttered her eyes. And then they opened with mine.
I stared across the room at her, and she smiled at me, her moss green eye glowing with her love for me. Megan climbed to her feet like a puppet whose strings were being pulled taut. "Stay where you are, Megan," Brad said. "You're not going anywhere. Neither are you, Dimitri."
All the vampires in the room turned to the open window. "My God," Dimitri whispered.
They were transfixed, staring out the large window behind the now-broken desk. All I could see was darkness.
Dimitri and I were blown back, my body flying through the air. I was aloft so long I had time to think about how much it was going to hurt when I landed. A lot.
But then Dimitri caught me again. I hung over his shoulder, blood dripping off my fingers as we moved at an insane speed—everything around me a blur. Another blow, and I fell onto the marble steps, my forearm cracking as it broke under my body's weight. The pain sliced through me and I cried out.
Two bodies, maybe more, fought in the yard—moving too fast for me to see. An arm came around my neck and pulled me up, cutting off my air supply, making me forget about the scorching pain in my arm.
“What are you?” Pearl whispered harshly into my ear.
"Put her down," a voice boomed—it not only filled the yard but also echoed inside my head. The weight against my throat slacked and my toes touched the ground again.
Pearl pushed me away, and I fell to my knees, my good arm still clasping my broken one. I looked back at Pearl. Her gaze was riveted to the woods. Next to her, the other two female vampires stared in the same direction, Megan pinned between them, her gaze also focused on the trees.
In the yard, Dimitri held Brad around the neck—they looked as if they’d been frozen in time and space.
The brush rustled, and I strained my eyes trying to see into the darkness. From between two of the old oak trees, a man appeared. He wore mud-encrusted clothing, his hair stiff with the same hardened dirt. As he stepped out of the deep shadows, I stopped breathing. "Emmanuel," I whispered.
All the vampires dropped to their knees and bowed their heads. Dimitri and Brad next to each other, no longer fighting, both supplicating to my bassist. What in the what?
He walked slowly up to me. "I told you to wait for me," he said. "You are hurt," Emmanuel frowned, laying his hand onto my broken arm. I flinched at his touch.
He dipped his head and brushed his lips against mine. I reached for him, hungry for the connection. He smiled, just out of my reach, and then slowly pressed his lips to mine, his tongue darting out. I moaned against him as I felt the bones moving inside my body, reconnecting with a sickening crunch. I whimpered more because of how strange it felt than anything else.
He pulled back, and I stumbled forward, off balance from the kiss. He caught me, tucking me into his side, and I looked up at him. There were no wounds at his neck.
Emmanuel looked fine, great in fact—even with the dirt covering his body and the leaves sticking out of his hair. He squeezed me and then looked down at Pearl. "You were lucky I did not find her more injured." His gaze traveled over the rest of the vampires.
Dimitri stood, his head still bowed. "Will you allow me to serve you?" he asked. Serve him? What was going on?
Emmanuel laced his fingers through mine and energy passed between us, growing stronger with each exchange. How was this happening?
He brought me to where Dimitri stood.
"Did you feed from her?" Emmanuel asked.
I felt my face flush at the memories. "Yes," Dimitri answered, keeping his gaze on the ground. A gash on his shoulder dyed his T-shirt red. My fingers itched to comfort him.
"He saved me," I said. "I'd be dead if it weren't for Dimitri."
Emmanuel looked down at me. "You may serve her," he said to Dimitri but still looking at me. "Can you do that?"
"If it pleases you, my Lord."
"Are you a vampire?" I whispered to Emmanuel—he laughed low in his throat.
Dimitri's eyes flicked to my face. "He is the son of our Lord. He died for our sins."
"What?" A laugh bubbled out of me, remembering Tyronios's words. Wait. Emmanuel was the being he spoke of, the creature who might be spreading zombism for his own benefit? The man they were hunting.
Tyronios also thought that my ancestor started the zombie plague to begin with, so how could I trust him? But my father did… Emmanuel brushed a kiss across my forehead. Warmth and goodness exuded from him. Could I trust my instincts? What else did I have?
"If I had known—“ Brad started to say.
"Shut up," Emmanuel snapped. "You tried to kill her, despite being of the same blood." He shook his head. "Should I take your life?"
Brad didn't answer, just bowed his head further, exposing the back of his neck—as if offering it.
Emmanuel slid his hand over my hip and rested it on the hilt of my knife. "What do you say, Darling? Should I let him live or send him on to the final death?" Just your run of the mill first date question. I suppressed an insane laugh.
"Let him live," I said. "But make him release Megan." Maybe on our next date we’ll have a human sacrifice.
Emmanuel smiled at me. "Magic has chosen well for me." What did he just say? Emmanuel returned his attention to Brad. "Release your daughter."
"Yes, of course," Brad kept his gaze toward the ground. "Megan," he said, his voice strong, "I release you of all obligation and ties. You are your own."
I saw the lines between them snap and drift toward the ground, disappearing before they touched the earth. Megan let out a sharp breath of surprise.
Emmanuel turned to Dimitri. "I give you in service to Darling Price." Dimitri dropped to his knees at my side. "Do you accept him?" he asked.
I looked around at the vampires with their heads bowed. "What does it mean?" I whispered.
"They can hear you," Emmanuel whispered back, leaning close to me. He smelled like fresh-turned soil.
I cleared my throat, raising my voice. “Well, then, what does it mean?" I tilted my head toward Dimitri, "what does 'in service' mean?"
"He will do anything to keep you safe."
"He already does that.”
"Why?"
I didn't answer. Emmanuel's face darkened, and he turned to Dimitri. "Why do you protect her?"
"I love her," he answered, his voice calm and ringing with truth. Emmanuel’s hand tightened on my hip, jealousy sparking in his eyes. Dimitri looked toward the road. "Lord," he said.
"Yes, I hear them," Emmanuel said. "It is the warlocks. We must go, Darling." He took my hand and began to lead me to the woods. I guess Tyronios's found his man.
“Hold on,” I said, trying to stop, but Emmanuel held me fast. "Hey!" I stumbled after him. Dimitri followed, and Megan ran down the steps to join us. At the forest’s edge, Emmanuel
turned back to Brad, who remained on his knees. "Hold them off," Emmanuel said. "If they reach us, I will make you pay."
I tried to pull away again. "What are you doing?" I asked. “Just hold on a second. I need to understand what is going on here.”
"Trust me?" Emmanuel looked down into my eyes, his hair falling over his face so I had that sensation again, that it was just the two of us in this whole world. "Trust me that I will never hurt you," he said. "That I will always cherish you. That I have come to this world for you, and I'm not leaving without you."
I stared up at him, speechless. This seems more like ninth date kind of stuff.
Brad yelled commands. I looked back—cars speed into the driveway, rocking on their shocks as they stopped. Men in robes, wands in their hands, sparkles of light and clouds of yellow smoke coming with them piled out of the cars.
Emmanuel pulled me into the woods. Dimitri and Megan followed. They would keep me safe. I stumbled over a root, and Emmanuel picked me up as he hurried down the hill toward a stream.
I heard a scream behind us and looked over Emmanuel's shoulder. Bursts of light flashed through the trees. He waded into the water with me still in his arms, Dimitri and Megan close.
A robed figure ran between the trees. He raised a wand at us. A freaking wand! Light shot out of it, headed straight for us.
My vision swirled, changing the forest around us into just a whirl of colors. I felt a sucking sensation, my body stretching and pulling. Time slowed down, particles floated across my vision: tree bark, leaves, the filtered light of dawn, all reflected off of diamonds suspended in space.
Then nothing. No beginning, no ending. No me.
I reformed, my body coming back together, and we stood in the stream again but the robed figure was gone, the house was gone, the road gone.
I looked around. Megan and Dimitri flanked us. Emmanuel smiled, his arms warm around me. "Welcome to my world. Welcome home,” he said.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Darling’s story will continue in Dark Secret, The Kiss Chronicles book 2, December 2019. Preorder your copy now:
