by Leia Stone
A pang of sadness twisted my gut and I trudged up the steps to where Maz and Finn were waiting. If Sterling and I were broken up, then why did it feel like we had unfinished business? Some random passersby looked at Maz’s modest priestess robe with raised eyebrows. It was very similar to a nun’s habit and only worn by God’s most beloved and chosen in our society.
“Come, Aspen, I think we should check in and then read the scriptures before dinner.”
I nodded, jogging to her side. “Yes, Maz.”
Just before we stepped inside, my eyes flicked down the street in the direction of the Duniway Hotel. Knowing Luka was so close unnerved me. I’d skip his feeding tonight and then slip my security detail tomorrow morning and feed him before anyone was even awake.
Chapter Seven
When I awoke the next morning, I felt like I was walking on a cloud. Even though I was having some of the feeding withdrawal symptoms through Luka, nothing could spoil this day for me, because last night at the Hunters’ Welcome Dinner, Ruby freaking Thorn sat next to me.
Ruby was a legend from the House of Thorns. The Thorns were known for being … more liberal in their beliefs. They still thought vampires were evil but they didn’t follow the extreme rules we did and they didn’t read the Hunter Scriptures. Ruby was the lead hunter of the society in Spokane for the Thorns, and had the highest kill record on file, even beating Maz.
Me: And she touched my arm when she was grabbing her dinner roll!
I texted to Liv.
Liv: Blah blah stop bragging!
I grinned, sitting up and rubbing my face. It was 6 a.m., but I wanted to get over to Luka’s before anyone noticed I was gone. Brushing my teeth quickly, I threw my hair up in a topknot and grabbed my Hunter Scriptures. In the off chance I saw anyone on my way out, I would tell them I was going for a prayer walk. Walking around the city and praying that it be rid of demons so that God could bless it was common in our beliefs. No one would question it.
Slipping into my boots, I opened the door to my hotel room and stepped outside, coming face to face with Maz.
I nearly screamed, only able to swallow the sound at the last minute.
“Maz!” I clutched my chest.
She looked startled as well, Hunter Scriptures in hand and fully dressed in cream priestess robes.
“Aspen, where are you off to so early?”
Was that accusation in her tone? My heartbeat picked up as I raised my scriptures. “Prayer walk.”
Her face softened. “Oh, child, you are one of the most devout hunters we have. Bless you. I’ll join you.”
Frick.
“Great,” I said, trying not to let my voice show my disappointment.
She linked arms with me and started to walk. I had no choice but to go along. I guess feeding Luka would have to wait until later.
There was a sudden movement to my back and I flinched, tearing my arm from Maz and spinning. Fist raised.
Sterling stood there, fully dressed with a katana at his hip as he trailed Maz and I.
“Announce yourself next time. I nearly broke your nose,” I growled at him.
“I would have blocked it,” he said flatly.
Bastard.
Maz grinned, clearly enjoying our little display. “Prayer walk, children. The Lord depends on it.”
Now Sterling was coming! I was sick of seeing my beautiful ex’s face all the time, but I’d told Maz it wouldn’t be a problem, so I needed to suck it up and deal.
“Yes, Maz,” I said as I trailed behind her, keeping one eye on my super sexy ex-boyfriend who needed to book the first flight back to New York City ASAP.
When we reached the lobby I was surprised to see so many hunters already awake and bustling about. They had coffee cups in hand, some from the House of Rose in other countries and states were reading scriptures, and some were dressed in full battle gear. I recognized the House of Ashes logo on one hunter’s jacket. House of Rose were the founding fathers of the society and most loyal to God’s mission. Next was the House of Skulls; they were pretty devout in the hunter faith but didn’t have priests and priestesses like Maz. House of Thorns and House of Ashes were more relaxed groups. They wanted to fight evil and avenge the families who were wronged by the bloodsuckers, but didn’t care much for the scriptures.
Maz got pulled into a conversation and I waited patiently for her. There was an entire day of classes and meetings today before the big gala tonight. I had a few classes ticked off on my schedule that I wanted to attend. I glanced down at the list.
Knife Throwing with Ruby Thorn
Water Combat with Master Rain
“Aspen?” I was pulled from my thoughts by a familiar voice.
Turning on my heel, I faced Ruby. She wore her full black hunter gear complete with Kevlar body armor and House of Thorn logo at her breast.
Holy shifter, she knew my name!
Would it be too weird to ask for an autograph? Yes … it totally would. Instead I was just going to geek out that she knew my name.
“Ruby Thorn.” I said her full name like an idiot. “I mean hi, yes, I’m Aspen.” If you were an orphan adopted by the society as most of us were, you took your house as a last name.
“My senior hunter was injured in practice and I was wondering if you were available to help me demo knife throwing skills later for a workshop I’m leading? Maz speaks so highly of your skills.” She beamed at me, tossing her inky black hair over one shoulder.
My mouth went dry with shock as my gaze flicked to Sterling, who was grinning. He knew how much I looked up to Ruby. My knife throwing was decent, but nothing near her level. I wasn’t going to turn down this opportunity though. I’d rather lose a finger.
“Absolutely. I’d be honored.”
She grinned. “Great, I’ll see you at eight? We can practice the basics before the workshop starts at nine.”
Two hours.
I just nodded, unable to contain myself. With a wave goodbye, she left and I jumped up and down, silently hand flapping before pretending to faint, throwing myself at Sterling. He caught me, amused, and I burst into giggles.
“Ruby Thorn wants me to co-workshop with her! What planet is this?” I asked him.
He was holding my elbows, looking down at me with a tender expression, and I suddenly realized I’d just slipped back into old times. I’d forgotten we weren’t dating or that he had a girlfriend and had stomped all over my heart.
“Sorry.” I yanked myself back, wiping the smile from my face. “Got excited.”
Sterling watched me with a solemn face, his “I’m too hot to show emotion” face. One I loved and equally hated.
“You should be excited. It’s a great honor.” Sterling’s voice was deep and low and I tried not to pay attention to the way it made my stomach do flip flops. “Aspen … I left because—”
“Oh look, Maz is ready,” I interrupted, and beelined it over to the priestess.
I had enough on my plate. Listening to Sterling talk about why he’d left me after I confessed my love was not something I could handle right now.
Shit. Shit. Shitty shit.
The gala was in an hour and it lasted until midnight. If I didn’t go and feed Luka right now, I wasn’t going to be able to at all and he would probably die. Besides, I felt like absolute crap. My head throbbed, my mouth was as dry as the Sahara Desert, and I was about to rip someone’s head off with anger.
My phone buzzed.
Random Dude from Bar: I feel like I’m dying FYI
Crap. It was his fifth text of the day.
Me: Me too. The day got crazy … I’m coming now. I just need to sneak out.
Random Dude from Bar: Cool, my two friends are here. Werewolves but very cool. You’ll like them.
I nearly choked at reading those words. Cool werewolves? I’d like them! Werewolves might not be evil by my standards, but they were … unnatural in God’s design … and I was glad I wasn’t tasked with disciplining them like some of the other orders aroun
d the world were when they got out of hand.
I walked over to my hunter bag and pulled out two silver stakes. Reaching up under my black dress, I slipped them into my thigh holster and pulled on my stiletto boots. As a woman who was five feet four inches, I needed all the height I could get, and the tips bonused as a killing weapon. If Luka or his friends got out of hand, I’d end them and feel zero guilt.
My long red hair was curled into ringlets, and the upper half was braided over my shoulder. The dress I’d chosen wasn’t exactly hunter modesty code, but Maz didn’t seem to mind if the younger girls showed their body a little. Controlled rebellion she called it, and a good way to find an interested husband she would say.
The black silk material hugged my frame before slightly poofing out at the waist like a princess gown. The top part was a corset bodice that laced up the front and squeezed my tiny boobs together to make some semblance of cleavage.
Liv and I laughed sometimes at how opposite we were. Where my hair was straight, hers was curly, where my skin was fair, hers was bronzed, and where I was flat, she was curvy. Yet none of that made her less of my sister.
“I got this,” I told the mirror by the wall, and slipped a decorative silver cuff over my right wrist that would hide the marks I was about to put there.
My hand stilled on the knob as I prepared what I would say if Maz or Sterling were right outside this door, but when I pulled it back, I was alone.
Thank God.
Slipping out into the hallway, I took the stairwell down to the ground floor, and then burst out the exit door that led to the side alley of the hotel. There was a waiter wearing a dirty white apron, smoking a cigarette, but other than that I was alone.
Giving him a smile and a wave, I booked it for the Duniway Hotel, all the while trying to convince myself that I was doing the right thing by keeping Luka alive.
God, if you want me to stop, give me a sign, I prayed.
As I turned the corner, a redheaded chick a few years older than me popped off the wall she’d been leaning on and waved me down. “Aspen?”
What the…?
I just nodded and she smiled, pulling out a card key. “I’m Sage, Luka’s friend. He told me to wait for the other smokin’ hot redhead and bring you up to the room.”
Smokin’ hot redhead? I doubt he said that.
I relaxed a little, and then eyed her with scrutiny. “Werewolf?” I raised an eyebrow, inhaling. Something smelled different about her, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
She nodded, winking.
I waved her off, looking at the key. “I can make my own way up.”
“He said you’d try to ditch me.” She grinned as we started to walk and I threw a glance over my shoulder to make sure I wasn’t followed.
She stepped closer to me and lowered her voice. “There are a few hunters staying at the hotel, overflow from the booked conference. Luka arranged for you to take the freight elevator near the kitchens so you wouldn’t be seen.”
Oh. That could be a problem, especially since I’d just taught a class and now everyone at the conference knew who I was. That was actually very thoughtful of Luka…
I simply nodded and she led the way, walking two paces in front of me.
I was following a werewolf into a vampire’s hotel room to let him feed from me—what the heck had become of my life?
We slipped down the alleyway and then Sage, my new werewolf escort, pulled open a door that had been propped ajar with a stone. Stepping inside, I heard the bustling sounds of a busy kitchen. Paying them no attention, Sage slipped to the right, down a hallway where a young man no more than seventeen was waiting by a freight elevator. Sage traced a finger across his chest. “Thanks, doll.”
The teenager looked like he was going to faint at the attention of such a beautiful woman and merely nodded, holding the doors open while we stepped inside. As soon as they shut, Sage hit the button for the penthouse floor.
With a slight jerk, the elevator whirred upward and I swallowed hard.
“So you hunt vampires?” Sage said as if we were making casual conversation.
I gulped, trying to decide what to say.
“Me too,” she added. “We just got out of a yearlong war with them. Nasty little bastards.”
I frowned. “But … Luka is your friend?”
She nodded. “Well, he’s not like the others. Obviously. He helped us win the war, freed our people.”
Right … okay … the werewolves had been at war with the vampires. I had no idea.
“How did he help you? I heard he was in prison?” I couldn’t help but pepper her with questions while she was willing.
Sage inclined her head. “Yeah he was. But me and my bestie broke him out and then he helped us kill his aunt, the queen. Now we’re all on the run from the Magical Creature Council in Magic City.”
My eyebrows hit my hairline.
Say what?
The queen of the vampires was dead!
Holy hell, that was huge news. No wonder his family was trying to kill him. Drucilla Drake was the most God-awful vampire alive, if reports could be believed, and if Luka helped her reach her demise, then maybe … in some weird way … God wanted me to help him and that’s why he’d brought us together.
I relaxed a little, feeling better than I had in days about my decision to keep Luka alive. For now.
Following Sage out of the elevator, I traversed the hallway to an opulent open doorway. Two male voices could be heard as we rounded the corner.
“No way! You remember that brawl differently than I do. I totally had Sawyer!” Luka’s voice carried into the hall and I stepped inside of a richly decorated hotel room to see the male vampire casually leaning across a bar top, talking with a handsome but gruff looking male, werewolf I assumed.
The werewolf laughed. “Bro, you were all but crying for release—” The male stopped when he saw me, and Luka’s head slowly turned in my direction. When his eyes landed on mine, they hooded as he raked his gaze over my corseted dress.
I swallowed hard. “Food delivery.” I raised my wrist and then laughed nervously.
Sage chuckled beside me and walked over to the male werewolf, pulling him in for a light peck on the lips.
“I’m Walsh, Luka’s bodyguard,” the male said, and Luka rolled his eyes.
“I hate you,” Luka growled, but there was a playfulness to his tone. These guys had history.
Luka pushed off the bar and zoomed toward me in a blur, using his vampire speed. My breath hitched in my throat as he was suddenly before me, nostrils inhaling my scent. “Shall we go into the bedroom?” he asked in the most tempting voice I’d ever heard.
Bedroom. Vampire. No.
God help me. Seeing him joke around with his friends made him seem so … normal, and I had to remind myself that he was a vampire, a Drake, no matter how different he seemed.
He was the enemy. Right? Right?
“Okay,” I squeaked.
He stepped across the room and then opened the bedroom door, gesturing that I go first. I walked over to the bed and then thought better of it, pivoting to the window which had a small, padded bench in front of it. Sitting down, I smoothed my dress and stared up at him.
He looked different, pale, eyes darkened. He was hungry, I realized.
“I’m … sorry if the one feeding every two days is … uncomfortable for you.” I felt bad now knowing that he was suffering because I didn’t do daily feedings.
He slowly stalked over to me and sat next to me. “I’ve had worse.”
That surprised me. “A Drake has gone hungry? I doubt that.” I laughed. The Drakes were the richest vampire family alive. They could afford a billion feeders around the clock.
His eyes grew even darker and narrowed to slits. “You don’t know anything about me, so stop pretending that you do.”
I reeled back as if he’d slapped me; anger pushed up inside of me so fast I felt like it was going to boil over at any moment. How dare he? I was t
he one keeping him alive.
“I know enough to know that I should have killed you when I had the chance,” I said, thinking of the story Maz told me the night she’d given me the assignment to kill Luka. He killed a woman ten years ago.
Was that hurt crossing his face? It was there for a moment and then gone, replaced by bitter anger. He turned to face me, eyes blazing yellow. “You hate it when anything makes me less of a demon in your eyes, don’t you?” He leaned closer to me so that our faces were mere inches from each other. “Well, I’ve got news for you, Aspen Rose. If God made you, he made me too.”
My jaw hung open at the blasphemous sentence he’d just said. If God made you, he made me too.
How dare he compare himself to me, an innocent human. How dare he sit so freaking close that I could smell his musky cologne and yummy vanilla chapstick.
“Vanilla,” I panted, losing track of my thoughts.
He frowned. “What?”
I shook myself, leaning forward to smell his lips. When I got a few centimeters from his mouth, he froze.
“You’re wearing vanilla chapstick. Interesting choice for a guy,” I teased, trying to shake some of this stupid tension with a joke. Why were we always fighting? Always hot and cold. Hadn’t I just decided in the elevator that God sent me to him? Why did I still want to kill him every time I saw him?
He looked at me with hungry eyes, his fangs distending past his bottom lip. “It’s Sage’s. My lips get chapped when I’m not fed properly,” he snapped.
Not fed properly, as if that was my fault. Ungrateful bastard!
“Everything about you repels me!” I growled, suddenly annoyed we’d even talked at all.
“Well, everything about you lures me in!” he shouted back, anger running across his face.
“Then take your meal and be done!” I hurled at him, the words barely leaving my lips when he reached up and grabbed the back of my neck, pulling me onto his lap. One second I was sitting on the bench and the next I was in his arms, legs dangling over the side of his as he tipped my jaw up and sank his teeth into my neck. There was no time for me to direct him to drink from my wrist, because this was already happening and holy hell it felt so good I didn’t want him to stop.