Wrath and Magic (Spells and Sins Book 5)

by Melody Raven

  His voice surrounded her again. “And tonight? What did you intend to see?”

  “I have questions. Questions for a vampire.” Right after the word left her mouth, she wished she could take it back. That they could pretend he was just an eccentric human.

  “Well, you have a vampire. What questions would you like to ask?”

  At that, Anna straightened and hope flared in her eyes. “Really? You’ll answer my questions?”

  He smirked at her sudden brightness in the face of the still very mortal danger she was in. He leaned closer to her. “Yes, but quickly. We don’t have all night.”

  Anna assumed that was a joke, because she couldn’t imagine he had plans, and she might be dead by morning. She started to reach for the sketch in her back pocket, but his arms tightened around her again and he physically lifted her feet about six inches off the ground.

  “There is a picture in my pocket. It’s a drawing of a man I’m looking for. I was hoping you could tell me where he is.” Anna tried to move her hand again, but his grip still prevented her.

  “You’re searching for a man? I assure you anything you need him for, I could provide just as easily.” He pulled her lower body toward his to emphasize his point.

  She took a deep breath and realized that feelings other than fear were beginning to swim in the pit of her stomach. “I highly doubt you could provide the same things.” Her eyes narrowed. “Besides, it’s nothing like—” She couldn’t think of a good word to finish that sentence with that wouldn’t mortify her. Instead, she looked down to where their bodies were pressed together and back at his face. “Like that,” she concluded.

  He actually had the nerve to chuckle. His chest vibrated with the small noise, and the lovely sound reverberated in the air around her. She quickly forgot about that when one of his large hands firmly cupped her bottom.

  Anna squeaked and jerked in surprise. His hand slid into her pocket and pulled out the folded letter-sized piece of paper. His face held amusement at her reaction. He unfolded the paper and stared at the face drawn on it. Amusement quickly faded from his face.

  Anna exclaimed, “You do recognize him?”

  His eyes looked back to her face. “I recognize him.”

  “Is his name Aleksander?”

  “You had a drawing and name?” he asked without answering her question.

  “That’s his name then?” Anna’s head spun. After all these years, she finally confirmed her suspicions about who the monster was. “Is he a vampire?”

  Abruptly, Nicolas let go of her. She crumpled to the ground in an ungraceful heap. “You tracked me down just so you could talk to Aleksander?”

  She started to push herself up when he grabbed her upper arm and pulled her to her feet. “Yes.” She looked back to the ground where she’d dropped her sweatshirt.

  Without the heat of the club or his body, the cold was getting to her. She found it in a rather disgusting-looking puddle. She made a face and bent down to pick it up. His hand on her upper arm stopped her, and he pulled her toward the street. Anna was surprised she’d forgotten his grip on her.

  He glanced over to the now ruined shirt. “I think you can leave that there.”

  Anna opened her mouth to argue but decided against it. As the vampire pulled her farther away from people, the ruined shirt didn’t seem so important.

  Instead, she said, “Do you know where I can find him? Aleksander?”

  He didn’t look at her as he continued walking her to the street. “I have a good idea of where he might be.”

  He still seemed angry. Anna feared there was no way to talk herself out of this mess. Talking was never one of her strong points anyway.

  She followed him silently. He walked in the direction of his apartment. She didn’t want to be trapped in there with him. She wouldn’t let herself be trapped.

  Her left arm was still free. She discreetly reached into her bag. He didn’t seem to pay any attention to her. If not for the death grip he had on her arm, she would have thought he’d forgotten she was there.

  Her hand touched the metal of the gun. Her left hand wasn’t her gun hand, but it would have to do.

  Before she pulled it out, she wanted to try to reason with the creature. She didn’t know whether bullets would have any effect on him, but she was certain he was planning to kill her. She was also certain that if he took her up to his apartment, her death would be much slower.

  If the gun didn’t affect him, he would probably kill her immediately. That would be better than slow, but dead is dead. So reason it was.

  “Listen, I’m sorry for following you.” He didn’t respond. She continued, “I never intended to hurt you.” Silence. “I couldn’t just walk up to you and ask if you were a vampire.”

  He still chose to ignore her. “Please let me go. I had no ill intentions toward you. I can’t hurt you.”

  He stopped walking then. He gave her a smile full of menace. “I’m not nearly done with you yet.”

  He abruptly started to walk again. The sudden movement caught Anna by surprise, and she stumbled under his tight grip on her.

  He held her upright so she didn’t fall, but he didn’t slow his long stride.

  Anna now knew the gun was her last hope. She took a deep breath as she flicked the safety into the off position.

  She studied him. She should aim for the head. A stomach shot definitely wouldn’t kill a vampire. According to the legends, a head shot wouldn’t kill one either, but it might give her a chance of running to safety.

  Before she could change her mind, she lifted the weapon and aimed at his head. He must have seen the motion, because he moved his head just as she pulled the trigger.

  Her finger never got a chance to squeeze the trigger a second time. He wrenched the gun from her hand and pushed her away from him with superhuman force.

  Her body flew into a nearby building, and she crumpled to the ground. Pain echoed through every bone in her body. Her head spun, but she forced herself up and on her feet and took off running without even checking to see whether she’d hit him.

  Her legs hit the pavement as hard as they could. All she could hear was the sound of her feet pounding and her breaths panting out of her lungs. She didn’t hear anyone following and didn’t dare look behind her.

  She rounded the corner and screamed at the sight of Nicolas waiting for her. Her forward momentum carried her right into him.

  One of his arms wrapped around her back and pressed her front to his. His other hand grabbed her hair and pulled her face so she looked right at his.

  Her breaths wouldn’t calm down. His eyes were furious. “You never intended on hurting me?” He sounded calm, but the punishing band of flesh around her wrist proved otherwise.

  She tried to speak over her raging breaths. Don’t cry. Do. Not. Let. Him. See. You. Cry. “I-I-I asked you to-to let me go.” She tried to look away, but the hand in her hair wouldn’t let her. She never imagined she would die begging for her life.

  “I—” She had to stop for some more gasping breaths. “I’m not-not going anywhere with you.” Wetness spread down her cheeks. Damn it. “If you’re going to ki-ki-kill me, do it here.”

  He looked at her with an expression she couldn’t identify. “Is that an order?”

  “Mo-mo-more like a final request.” His hand finally loosened in her hair, and her head angled away from his. She looked at the dark sidewalk at her feet, while her body trembled in fear and exhaustion.

  She waited for the killing blow. He bent his head until his nose touched the top of her hair. She could hear him take a deep sniff and felt his chest push against hers.

  “You smell better than any other human I’ve ever met,” he whispered above her.

  She didn’t know what to make of the words. He abruptly resumed his grip on her upper arm and pulled her in the direction of his apartment.

  “But I—” she sputtered. Then she realized her foolishness. Just because she begged for a quick death didn’t mean
she would actually get one. Now that she’d lost her gun, her chances of getting out of this alive had drastically decreased.

  “You said if I was going to kill you, then I should do it here.” He kept walking. He looked over at her face, which she was sure by now looked rather pathetic with all of the drying tears. “I’m not intending to kill you.”

  “You’re not? Really?” She felt the faintest glimmer of hope.

  “As of right now, I have no plans to kill you.” He gave her what she assumed was supposed to be a reassuring smile. It didn’t reassure.

  “What if you change your mind?”

  “What if you decide you need to shoot me again?”

  Anna shook her head at that. “I only tried to shoot you because I feared for my life. It was self-defense.”

  “Well then, I guess we will have to trust each other.”

  Anna raised a skeptical eyebrow at that. “Trust?”

  He smiled that infuriating smile of his. “Yes. Trust.”

  Her arm was beginning to ache from his continuous tugging. “You can let me go. Now that we have this new trust-filled relationship, I have no reason to run.”

  His smile widened at her obvious lie, but he did let her go.

  They walked side by side for a few seconds. Anna wasn’t sure how to feel or act. She was still filled with fear, but she was also excited beyond belief.

  After all of these years of searching, she’d finally found a vampire. A vampire who knew Aleksander. Finding out what happened to Evie was no longer a distant dream, but a distinct possibility.

  So here she was, walking side by side with a monster. A thought suddenly occurred to her. “My gun,” she said out loud.

  “What about it?” he asked.

  “I dropped it. We can’t leave it on the street. Who knows what type of criminal might find it?”

  Nicolas opened up his coat and showed her the butt of her gun sticking out of the top of his jeans. She frowned. Not only had he easily caught up with her running at full speed, but he’d managed to retrieve the gun as well.

  She looked up to stare at his features. Not beautiful, but still handsome. It wasn’t just his face, but the way he carried his tall frame. He walked as if he were royalty who owned the ground he walked on. If you added that to the superpowers, it added up to a very intimidating package.

  “You are very scary,” she said out loud, in a voice that held a bit more awe than she wanted.

  Apparently he picked up on that. “Are you jealous?”

  Anna shrugged at the question, trying to act nonchalant. What she would give to have people move out of her way at the very sight of her. Instead, she had to push her way through crowds and live in fear of a supposedly dead man and evil black eyes.

  Instead of revealing all that, she said, “Who wouldn’t want a little intimidation factor?”

  “You don’t think you’re intimidating?”

  Anna almost laughed at the idea of her appearing daunting to anyone. “No. Intimidating is not a word that could be used to describe me.”

  He didn’t reply to that. They walked in silence for a couple of minutes. Soon they turned onto his street.

  She felt a bit of apprehension as they got closer and closer to his building. Even though they had managed to go a whole ten minutes without her believing he was about to kill her, she was a long ways from that trust they’d recently joked about.

  They stepped up to the door and he reached into his coat pocket for the keys. “I don’t think this is such a good idea,” she said.

  He laid a gentle hand on her back and led her into the entryway after he’d gotten the door open. “We have a lot to talk about. I would like to get this over with.”

  Anna gave a lingering glance to the exit. She sighed and headed up the stairs.

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