by Leia Stone
A moan slipped from my lips as I reached out and grasped his bicep, letting my nails dig into the hard meat of his arm. He yanked my hair a little as he fisted it at the nape of my neck, and heat blossomed between my legs.
This wasn’t a feeding to keep someone alive. This was … sexual and wrong, right? He was … bad. So why did it feel so good? Why did he have to say that God made him and why had Sage told me he’d helped save the wolves and kill the evil vampire queen? This was too much. I couldn’t handle feeling this way about Luka. I pulled back from him, jumping up to stand, panting as I stared at his wild eyes and bloodstained lips.
“I think you got enough,” I squeaked. “And from now on, we need to hide the bite marks.”
Luka hadn’t moved, he just sat there like a statue, staring at me with glowing eyes. His tongue slowly trailed along his lips. “Oh, I can think of a dozen other places to bite you.”
My stomach dropped and a pulse pounded between my legs.
No.
This was wrong, this was against everything I believed in.
“I’ll see you back in Spokane in two days,” I retorted, and then spun on my heels, booking it out of his hotel room like a bat out of hell.
Something fundamental was happening inside of me, a fissure to my very own soul. The beliefs, the bedrock that I’d built my entire life upon, were shaking, and I didn’t know how to stop it before they cracked right in half.
Either Luka was evil or he wasn’t, and if he wasn’t, then my whole life was a lie.
I made up my mind then. Luka was sent from the devil to tempt me, and when we got back to Spokane, I’d ask Maz for time off. Liv and I would go on vacation for a week and I’d let Luka starve to death. I didn’t have it in me to kill him firsthand, but I couldn’t do this anymore. It compromised every belief I had.
But one thought looped on repeat while I ran back to the Hunters’ Gala: If God made you, he made me too.
That couldn’t be true … right?
Chapter Eight
The second I got back to the hotel, I slipped through the busy entryway and ran upstairs to make sure my neck bite was covered. Two puckered scabs stared back at me as shame burned in my cheeks. That was … like a kiss … like how I imagined kissing Luka would feel like. Not that I imagined that. Ever.
I put makeup over my marks, then a small piece of Band-Aid tape I’d cut off. Then I wore a black velvet choker and finally I laid my red curls over that. Overkill? Maybe, but in a room with over two hundred hunters, I wasn’t taking any chances.
There was a knock at the door and I pulled in a deep breath. Walking over to the door, I opened it, preparing to see Maz.
The sight of Sterling standing there handsomely, wearing a charcoal-gray suit, with his light blond hair slicked back, made my heart leap into my throat. His eyes roamed over my dress and a sudden idea possessed me.
“Aspen.” His voice was husky as he tipped his head to me. “Maz is already downstairs. I thought I would accompany you.”
Without giving it much thought, I stepped forward and crashed into him, wrapping my hands around the back of his neck and pulling his lips to mine. His body went rigid with shock beneath me for the slightest second until he sprang into action. He reached out and wrapped his hands around my back as he pressed me harder to him and I opened my mouth to deepen the kiss. When our tongues collided, he let out a moan.
My thoughts were so frantic, I was so hellbent on trying to prove to myself that I had zero sexual feelings for Luka, that I couldn’t even focus on this kiss with Sterling. It was mechanical, fake, not real in a sense. I’d kissed Sterling hundreds of times, but this felt different, this was … a mistake.
I pulled back, my fingers going to my lips in shock. I couldn’t believe I just did that, that I’d pulled Sterling into this just to deal with my own issues.
“I’m so sorry … your girlfriend…” I felt so stupid.
Sterling stepped closer. “Ex-girlfriend. I’m leaving New York, Aspen. I’m moving home. I want you.” He reached up to cup my chin and his fingers brushed under my choker and against my bite marks and the Band-Aid there.
He frowned. “What happened?”
Frick!
“Curling iron.” I stepped back. “We should head down to the gala.”
“Aspen, I just told you I was moving home and I want you back.” He looked vulnerable for the first time in forever and I felt so guilty I wanted to cry.
What was I supposed to say, I actually just kissed you to prove to myself I wasn’t developing sexual feelings for a vampire?
“I … need to process that. We should head down to the gala,” I told him again.
He nodded, seeming to get the social cue that I wasn’t interested in talking or touching anymore.
“Can we talk about this when we get home?” His voice held such vulnerability that it pinched at my heart. I’d known he had commitment issues when I started dating him, I just thought I would be the one to fix him. Every woman probably thought that about their man’s issues. Maybe I would have enjoyed that kiss more if my head wasn’t such a jumble.
“Sure. When we get home.” I gave him a slight smile.
He seemed to relax at that and then stepped up to my side, extending his arm. “Shall we?”
I slipped my hand into his, all the while feeling like an imposter in my own skin, and put on a fake smile.
Maz introduced me to everyone. I met hunters from Canada and Mexico. Not to mention the food was amazing. This entire conference was the highlight of my year. My gaze flicked to the wall where Sterling and a few other hunters chatted as I licked the remnants of chocolate cake off my spoon.
I felt off emotionally and wondered if I was having a mental breakdown or something. My entire life I’d seen all vampires as evil demons from hell and spending time with Luka was making me question that. I didn’t want to question my reality, I wanted things to just stay the same as they had always been. Safe and easy.
Without warning, Luka’s voice boomed in my head. ‘I’m sorry about before. That was … inappropriate of me.’
I froze, eyes widening as I looked around the room, as if a bunch of human hunters could tell I was mentally talking to a vampire.
‘Where are you?’ I hissed.
‘In my hotel room.’
‘And you can talk to me?’ This was bad, so bad; we were two blocks apart. Shouldn’t that … I dunno, break up the signal?
‘I think every time I feed, our bond gets … stronger. I feel some emotions from you as well, to be completely honest.’
Oh, Lord, kill me. Embarrassment flooded my system. ‘Well, don’t be so honest, then. I’m just having a weird time. My ex-boyfriend, Sterling, is here and it’s awkward.’
I felt sharp jealously spike through my chest for a split second and then it was gone. ‘Well. Have fun. I just wanted to apologize if I made you uncomfortable.’
The mental link went dead and I felt an emptiness in my chest for a second, followed by guilt. Why had I told him I was with Sterling? Just to see if it would affect him? What was wrong with me? It had affected him though. That’s what that feeling in my chest was … that jealousy was his.
“Seat taken?” Ruby’s voice said from beside me.
I snapped my head to look up at her and grinned. “No.”
She was wearing an elegant and revealing red gown, with her black hair braided over one shoulder.
Ruby looked across the hall at Maz, who was speaking to another House of Rose member, and then focused back on me.
“Do you like being at House of Rose?” she asked suddenly.
I frowned. “Yeah. I just made senior hunter.” I beamed.
She nodded, giving me a small smile. “Congratulations. Well, if you ever decide you want to go somewhere … more freeing…” She eyed my black velvet choker and I paled. “I’d love to welcome you to the House of Thorns. We may not be as devout, but we do feel strongly about justice and righting the wrongs the supernaturals have c
aused.”
What was she saying? House jump? That was so rare and super frowned upon. Hunters had a shelf life anyway. Most didn’t make it past their thirtieth birthday, and we were as die-hard about sticking with the house we were born into, as someone would be about a football team.
Ruby looked across the room and fidgeted nervously. “Well, I gotta run. You know where to find me.”
She stood, walking to the back wall where the refreshments were.
I followed her gaze and saw Maz walking toward us, a scowl on her face.
Did Ruby Thorn just try to poach me?
I … I didn’t even know what to think about that, but my first thought was that I would never leave Liv. Ever.
I chewed on a fingernail, replaying the part where she’d eyed my neck choker, when someone screamed, “Bloodsuckers!”
For a trained hunter, it took me way too long to process what was happening. I spun slowly, mouth agape, as dozens of vampires zoomed into the giant ballroom, crashing into tipsy hunters dressed in their best attire.
I felt frozen, staring at the attack and wondering how … why? Was this what Maz warned me about?
“Aspen!” Sterling’s shout broke the spell over me and I snapped into action. Reaching under my dress, I pulled out the two stakes I’d stashed there earlier in case Luka or his friends tried to kill me. I popped up onto the tabletop, my boot knocking over two glasses of champagne just as one of the vampires reached Maz.
The sixty-five-year-old priestess opened her mouth and hissed at the demon as she yanked a razor wire from inside her robes. My gaze darted in every direction, trying to see who needed my help the most. This wasn’t like a vampire attack on a bar, which happened often and the main objective was to protect the weak humans. The people these bloodsuckers were attacking here were trained hunters. Albeit most of them were drunk…
My gaze darted back to where Ruby had gone to get a drink. A vampire charged at her, and she took the stem of a champagne glass, snapped it off, and shoved it into the vampire’s eye.
Holy crap. It was mayhem.
I glanced at Sterling, who had his katana out, full on beheading the bastards left and right, but there were so many I could barely track what was happening. They just kept coming, which meant that Maz was right: one of the hunters was in bed with a vampire and gave up our location. This was a planned bloodbath, all in an effort to take out our top ranks.
Not on my watch.
A figure zoomed bedside my table, going right for a human waiter, when I leapt off the top and jumped onto his back. My arms hooked around his neck and he leaned forward as if to bite my wrist, but I’d already rammed my stake into his heart, right through his back between the fourth and fifth ribs. I jumped off of him as his body started to decompose—these stakes weren’t laced with the preserving serum.
I yanked my weapon out and spun, ready for the next.
Oh, God, help us.
They just kept coming. Their sheer numbers dwarfed us, and I felt defeat settle into my bones.
‘What’s happening? You feel … terrified?’ Luka’s voice boomed in my head.
‘We’re under attack. Your good ol’ buddies are about to exterminate my people,’ I growled at him, unsure why I was placing blame on someone who had nothing to do with this in the first place.
“Aspen!” Maz shouted, and I turned just as a female vampire slammed into my chest. I was launched backward, sailing through the air, and landed hard on a chair. A scream ripped from my throat as one of my ribs cracked. I sucked in a breath, only to regret it once my broken rib expanded.
Get up! I told myself. Hunters die on the ground. I didn’t plan on going out like that. The female who’d chucked me was gunning for me, blasting through the place with her curly brown hair trailing behind her.
Ignoring the pain in my ribs, I popped to my feet, stakes in each hand.
“Let’s dance, demon!” I snarled as she skidded to a stop with a feral grin. She inhaled, and then something in her face changed—confusion set in, then disbelief.
“You smell of a Drake.” She barely got the words out when I charged.
Running full speed, which was about half of what a vampire could do, but way faster than a human, I held my left stake hand low and my right stake arm high. This way I could stab her if she dropped to the ground or tried to jump over me.
She hissed, jumping up to go high, and tried to kick me in the face, but I was ready. With my right stake I stabbed her in the abdomen, and my left stake sank into the meat of her thigh. Using all my modified DNA strength, I yanked her down and she slammed into the ground, hard. I was about to remove one of my stakes and pierce her through the heart, when Sterling’s katana came down on her neck, removing her head.
I looked up to find him covered in blood that didn’t seem to be his.
“Thanks,” I panted, and Sterling growled, looking over my shoulder.
There were more. Way more.
My gaze flicked to the two exits signs. Five vampires were posted in front of each. They were blocking us in. Those bastards. This was a bloodbath.
“New mission. Take out the demons at the exits, give others a chance to escape,” I told him.
A hardened look came over Sterling and he nodded once. We weren’t all making it out of this alive. That cold, hard, fact had settled in.
“Retreat!” I called out in the loudest voice I could muster over the sound of my fellow hunters getting slaughtered. It’s like I’d woken them from a dream. One by one, the hunters must have realized there were too many. We were bred for war, born to fight, but sometimes you had to live to fight another day. The injured and alive started to work their way to the exit doors just as Sterling and I reached them. Maz and Ruby were fighting back to back, and if I weren’t in total survival mode, I would have been in awe because it was a sight to behold.
Sterling shoved his sword at me. “Take my katana.”
“No!” I pushed it back, holding up my stakes. “I’m fine.”
He snarled, but he knew better than to tell me what to do. Reaching down I pulled the caps off the ends of my stiletto boots to reveal the small, spiked stakes there. I had to keep the weight on my toes so they didn’t get stuck in the carpet, but I was ready to party now. The heel stakes rarely got use, and if I was going to die tonight, I was going to go out in style, after sticking one of these in the neck of one of the bloodsucking bastards.
With a battle cry, Sterling and I ran forward, attacking the five guards at the left exit door with precision and unyielding fury.
I slammed the stake of my left hand in one of their chests just as the other wrapped his fingers around my throat. Reaching up with my left leg, I threw a high kick into his ribs and grinned when the heel stake entered his flesh. He stumbled backward with a shout and we pressed on, moving them away from the exit doors.
“Aspen!” Maz shouted and I used one second of my free attention to glance at her. She was in the open exit doorway, helping others escape.
“Go!” I shouted, looking back at the advancing vampires and then back at my mentor.
She stared at me with sorrow and pride in equal measure as the realization that I wouldn’t survive tonight settled into her.
“God bless you and keep you!” Maz shouted, her voice cracking with emotion.
My throat tightened, but I didn’t allow myself to get overwhelmed. Tears meant blurry vision and blurry vision meant death, so I pushed everything back down and pressed on, pushing the vampires back with Sterling and a few others. We wouldn’t win, but we would keep the majority away from the exit doors to allow our hunters a chance to escape.
The problem with pushing the vampires away from the exits meant we had backed them into a corner and now our backs were exposed to the open room. I felt the warmth of a body approach me just as the vampire in front of me lashed out and raked his long fingernails across my face. A second later, something sharp ripped through my back and a bloodcurdling scream tore from my lips.
I looked down, shocked to see a wooden stake had been driven into my abdomen from behind.
“No!” Sterling yelled, but as he tried to reach me, two vampires took him down, one of them wrestling his katana away from him.
This was it. This was the moment they prepared you for in the society. The moment you would meet your maker and hope that you had done all you could in life to make him proud. I just hoped I had served him well, doing my best to fight evil at every turn.
I spun, wanting to face my attacker and not die in fear with my back turned to the one who would grant me death. When I did, I came face to face with an old-ass vampire who looked like he wanted to swallow me whole.
I raised my arms, hands shaking as the shock of my wound set in and I realized I wasn’t even strong enough to drive this stake through him.
The old man grinned, peeling his lips back to expose his teeth, and I readied myself for death.
Lord, have mercy on my soul. Make it quick, I prayed.
I was about to close my eyes and give in to the dizziness washing over me when a blur of movement, faster than anything I’d ever seen, slammed into the old man and he went flying. I started to fall, my legs growing too weak to keep me upright. Luka zoomed into view and reached for me. I landed in his arms as he drew me to his chest, face looking as pained as I felt. Sage and Walsh, the two werewolves from his hotel room, were in their wolf form, tearing into vampires left and right.
I looked up into Luka’s stormy eyes. “You came for me?” My voice was breathy, weak.
Luka frowned, staring down at me with tenderness. “If you could stop trying to get yourself killed, I wouldn’t have to.”
I smiled weakly at his joke, but my eyes crossed as I tried to focus on his beautiful face.
“You need a healer.” His voice held a sudden urgency.
He moved to leave but I cried out, “My friends!” I looked over his shoulder to see Sterling fighting for his life as he snuck shocked glances at me. He was probably wondering why I was draped half dead in some vampire’s arms. One of the wolves trotted up to me, and by the smaller form and rust colored fur I imagined it must be Sage.