by KB Anne
“Treadwell, now get your ass moving.”
Jove scratched her elbow. “Uh, Jude?”
“Yes?”
“I’m…, well… not sure what I should do.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know how any of the equipment works. Sami doesn’t either.”
Sami’s lip pursed. She never liked to appear weak especially in front of me.
“Come on, I’ll show you how to use the machinery, and we can max out this morning. Jessalyn, they won’t be bothering you for the rest of your workout.”
Sami and Jovie followed him to the other side of the gym. My heartbeat began to slow down. Sami knew how to piss me off.
I climbed onto the lat pull down. I wanted to build back my shoulder strength, and the machine always gave me a good back stretch at the same time. I went through my first rep, then hung with the bar in the air while the machine pulled at my back. My back twitched where the iron cross was. I had to find a way to remove it. I glanced around the gym.
Jude was still giving the girls a dissertation on every piece of equipment. Thomas set the bar down as he finished up another rep of whatever muscle-bound exercise he was doing.
A noise drew my attention away from them and back to the wall with the door. I closed my eyes and sent out an energy vibration toward the wall. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was doing. I was acting on pure instinct. My energy returned to me altered but familiar. My body warmed at the possibility of who might be nearby.
My eyes shot to the wall.
Could it be?
Chapter Twenty-Five
Starr
* * *
I wasn’t sure if it was Christian on the other side of the wall, but I was determined to find out. I got up from the machine and stretched my arms doing my best to act casual. In fact, I kept chanting in my head, “Act casual, act casual.”
I leaned against the wall close to the access door to the rest of the basement.
“How you doing over there?” Jude called out.
The energy around me immediately tensed, but it wasn’t mine.
“Just stretching.”
The energy softened.
Jude appeared satisfied and returned to guiding Sami and Jovie through the rest of the equipment.
I bent into a camel pose and closed my eyes to listen. I definitely heard a heartbeat, a rapid one. I scanned the rest of the gym checking on the whereabouts of Team Asshole. They were all engrossed in what they were doing. I quickly leapt up and gripped the door knob. I pushed my magic into it in case it was locked. Without looking back, I slipped through the door, quietly closing it behind me.
This part of the basement was unfinished. Rafters comprised the ceiling, and the floor was uneven. A heavy layer of dust and construction debris covered everything. Willingsbee would have a heart attack if he knew I had ventured into this section, but I was dressed appropriately (at least for running, anyway). I took off at a fast clip. Before long, Team Asshole would realize I wasn’t in the gym. In the distance, I heard a noise again. It was definitely a heartbeat. My own heart beat faster with mixed emotions swirling around it.
I wasn’t about to confront those emotions though. Not now. I needed to focus on one thing—getting out of here. I leapt across missing floor boards. I twisted around obstacles blocking my path. I was driven in a singular purpose.
A long stretch of boards were missing, but I couldn’t slow down and pick my way through. I needed to get away. I needed to get to that rock wall and find a way out. I lunged across the length clinging to the hope that my legs would carry me. I landed gracefully on the other side, took another step.
Smash.
Snap.
My foot plunged through a rotten board taking my leg with it. My thigh dragged across a jagged piece of wood as I fought to resist gravity. Fae or no, the rules of gravity still applied.
“Jessalyn!” Jude shouted.
A surge of energy rushed over me from the other side of the rock wall. Claws scraped against rock. Wood splintered and heaved. I couldn’t concentrate on who or what was making that noise. I had to get away.
“Ugh,” I growled, gritting my teeth as I tried to withdraw my leg. Warm liquid, blood, poured down my bare leg, soaking my socks. I struggled with the board trying to break free, but the damn thing refused to budge.
Starr, are you alright?
I stilled. Was that Christian’s voice in my head? Was I delirious?
You aren’t delirious. It’s really me.
I cried out. From joy. From pain. I couldn’t tell.
It’s going to be okay.
Is it?
“Here,” Jude said in a low voice, suddenly appearing by my side. He touched my iron cross. My body went still. “Let me help you.”
Claws attacked rock, but the wall held firm. Jude either didn’t hear or was so focused on me he didn’t notice the claws of a wolf scraping against rock.
Starr, I’m coming. I’m coming. Just hold on.
Tears poured down my cheeks. I was helpless to fight the tears, just as I was helpless to fight Jude. Whatever he did to me, made me defenseless against him. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled.
I winced as the jagged board ripped my leg on the way out just for the hell of it. Blood poured down my leg. I might have sliced my femoral artery based on the amount of blood loss.
“Starr, what were you doing down here?”
His use of my name did nothing to soothe me. The scrap of claws against rock disappeared as Jude carried me back toward the door to the gym.
“Exploring,” I grunted.
“Exploring?” He said his tone laced with skepticism.
I tried to calm myself. Christian’s voice was in my head.
His. Voice. Was. In. My. Head.
After going so long without hearing it and the hurt he caused, I still didn’t know how I felt about it, but I had to protect him nonetheless and that meant keeping Jude distracted.
“Be careful. The boards might break.”
Jude pulled me closer. “Don’t worry. I won’t fall through.”
“Put me down,” I whispered. I might not know how I felt about Christian, but I definitely didn’t want him to get caught. After his display of power yesterday, when Jude thought it was an earthquake, Christian was capable of causing damage. I knew that better than anyone.
Jude took my quietness as a suggestion that I wanted to be alone with him. That I didn’t have a problem with him carrying me around like an invalid. That I might have even liked it. He couldn’t be more wrong.
“I’ve got you.”
“Put me down,” I said again, louder, firmer, more determined to be listened too.
The narrow beam of a flashlight swept past us before returning and blinding us. “Jude? Jessalyn?”
Jude silently cursed. “Thomas, point that at the floor. I can’t see.“
Is she okay?” Thomas asked. The flash light beam skimmed over me before stopping on my blood-soaked legs. “Did she break it?”
I huffed in annoyance. Stupid testosterone driven alpha males. “I can talk. No, I didn’t break it. It’s just a little cut up.”
”What were you doing by yourself?”
“Exploring,” Jude answered for me.
“Exploring?” Thomas replied with the same level of skepticism Jude had.
He backed off so Jude could pass through the doorway. Once we were inside the gym, he closed the door shut and locked it.
I needed to cover my trail and Christian’s. “I like old buildings. That’s no secret to people that know me. Jovie, Sami, right?”
Jovie nodded.
Sami fixed me with a glare.
“Where could I possibly go?”
They had no idea what types of secrets this estate contained.
Sami’s nostrils flared in and out. Her head whipped to the blood pouring down my leg. It still hadn’t completely clotted. Two fangs extended from the top of her mouth. Her eyes turned red. She hisse
d, and she leapt at me.
Oh shit.
Thomas caught her. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“The blood. I need it,” she yelled. “Let me go.” She spun out of his grasp at an inhuman speed and lunged.
“I don’t think so,” he said, grabbing her neck and throwing her in the opposite direction. Her back snapped backward as her body landed on the handle of a treadmill.
“Sami!” Jovie shouted. “Control yourself.”
“How can you stand it?” she whined. “How can you stand smelling her?”
Jovie breathed in and out of her nose. “I fight it because she’s my friend.”
“Your friend?” Sami snarled. “After what you did to her, you think she’s your friend?”
“Yes, and I’m yours too. Now, control yourself.”
I twisted out of Jude’s grasp and landed on my feet. I blinked a few times to catch my bearings. Jude tried to reach out to help me. I swatted him away.
“Can someone explain to me what in the hells Sami is? And is Jovie one too?”
“Vampire,” Jovie whispered.
“Excuse me?”
“We were turned into vampires during our training.”
I gulped. “But that means…”
“That means we drink blood. Yes, I’m aware of that.”
I covered my leg wound with my other leg.
She shook her head. “I’m not going to bite you. Sami and I are both supplied blood bags. That’s what I keep in the minifridge in our changing room.”
“But why did she try to attack me? Why do her eyes turn red and yours don’t?”
“Our emotions are heightened as vampires. Sami has always acted on impulse.”
Jude stomped over to them. “Does Treadwell know about this?”
Jovie laughed as she rolled her eyes. “Know about it? He approved it.”
“And you agreed to it?” I whispered.
Jovie used to pass out even the mention of blood.
Jovie dropped her gaze to Sami. “I didn’t have a choice.”
“And you’re better for it,” Sami hissed.
“It didn’t help your personality,” I said under my breath.
Jude waved his hands in the air. “This doesn’t make any sense. Thomas, did you know about this?”
Thomas lifted Sami from the ground. “I suspected. Only a supernatural is capable of guarding a Silver Fae. Did you think General Treadwell would actually give us two weak human girls?”
Jude looked back and forth between Sami and Jovie, my former best friends, who I thought were dead, who were now vampires. “But they’re weak. They aren’t fast. They aren’t strong.”
Sami suddenly appeared in front of Jude. “Actually, we are fast. We are strong. We just aren’t as strong or as fast as the three of you freaks.”
Everything became clear. The night Sami shot Frank, she was fast, she was strong, and she managed to block Jude’s attack.
“Vampire?” I whispered.
“Vampire,” she grinned.
A shiver ran down my back. I refused to give into the fear scraping at my brain.
Jude scratched his head as if the greatest mystery the world had ever know was presented to him. “But why would Treadwell want vampires to guard her?”
Sami’s red eyes pinned me in place. “A healthy dose of fear keeps prisoners on their toes.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. How could I possibly sleep at night knowing that my two former best friends wanted to drain me?
Her lips lifted into a maniacal grin. “Sleep well tonight Jessalyn, and by the way,” she leaned in, lifting her hand to the side of her mouth like she was about to tell me an incredible secret, “garlic doesn’t work.”
I flared out my chest. Fake it 'til you make it right? “What about wood stakes? What do they do?”
Her mouth rounded into an O.
I prowled past her, doing my best to hide the pain shooting down my leg. “Sleep well tonight, Sami.”
My stride wavered, but I kept walking. Jude rushed after me. “We need to get your leg checked.”
I spun around. “No.”
His gaze dropped to my leg. “It’s still bleeding.”
I cursed. Why hadn’t it clotted yet? The iron cross probably affected my healing.
“I’ll clean it and bandage it in my room.”
“But…,” he tried.
“No, if Treadwell finds out, do you think we will be permitted to exercise?”
Jude side-eyed Thomas.
“Exactly. We keep this to ourselves.”
“Maybe. Maybe not,” Sami said.
I glared at her. “A chair leg, a railing spindle, a lamp, a pencil. I’ve got hundreds of wood stakes at my fingertips, so I’d keep my mouth shut if I were you. Allow me to haunt your dreams.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Try me.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Starr
* * *
I watched the blood circle around the drain before disappearing down the pipes. Sami and Jovie were vampires. I suspected as much, but I still had a hard enough time wrapping my head around the notion that I was a Silver Fae princess, let alone that other supernaturals existed.
Another supernatural prowled in the tunnels. I was still learning how to use my Fae abilities, but the energy signature tasted lupine and familiar. The claws scraping against the rock wall was another hint. After hearing his voice in my head, I knew without a doubt it was Christian. I didn’t know how I should feel about him, so I focused on my former best friends being vampires instead.
Sami was right. I wouldn’t sleep well tonight or any night so long as she was guarding me. She knew as well as I did that a wood stake to the heart was nothing more than an empty threat. Treadwell wanted me as an assassin but that didn’t mean I would turn into one.
More blood washed down the drain. I tilted my legs to better assess the damage. When Jude yanked me out I swore my femoral artery was sliced, but my wounds clotted the moment Jude took his hands off me.
I yanked the towel off the hook. Jovie wasn’t on standby to hand it to me. She probably sensed I needed time to process the fact that she was a vampire.
And she was right.
It was a lot to take in. A shit ton, actually.
I pulled on my robe and plopped down on the silver settee. A tidal wave of realization hit me. Tears welled up in my eyes.
Jovie hurried over to me. “Honey, what’s wrong?”
“I can’t take it anymore. I can’t live like this. I’m tired of pretending.”
The confession poured out of me. Jovie was my enemy, but I didn’t care.
“It’s not that bad. Look at what you have,” she said indicating the luxurious bathroom with the expensive fixtures and accessories. “You’ve got everything a person could want.”
“You don’t get it. I don’t have a choice. I don’t have freedom. I don’t want this life.”
She pursed her lips as if contemplating my situation. “You need to give it some time. It’s only been a few days. You already have more freedoms than you did when you first arrived.”
“But I’m not free. I can’t come and go as I please. I don’t get to be alone ever.”
“In time I’m sure you will. You’ve been upholding your end of the contract. You’ve done everything your grandparents requested of you.”
“I don’t have Christian,” I whispered.
She sucked in a breath before regaining herself. “There are other guys. Jerry Jr is hot. Jude? Guys drool all over you—even with your baldness.” She rubbed the top of my head before putting the wig on. She was trying to make light of the situation, but she still didn’t get it. I stared up at her reflection in the mirror my eyes meeting hers.
“Jovie, I loved him.”
I don’t know what came over me. Instead of slicing my femoral artery, it was like my wrist veins were cut open and truth poured out of me. There was nothing I could do to staunch the bleeding.
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Her face paled. She swallowed hard, before wetting her lips to speak. “Honey, you’re young. You were only together for a few weeks. You never even paid attention to each other back in Webster. It’s too soon for love.”
She spoke from the practical side. She didn’t know about all the stolen moments we shared throughout the school year. The times I caught him staring at me, the times he caught me watching him, the moment we collided together in the cafeteria and sparks flew.
“No, it wasn’t. We shared something special, or at least I thought we did.”
She dropped her eyes as she chewed her lip. She breathed in and out. She glanced at the door, before bending down to whisper, “He didn’t betray you. He was given a date rape drug. It was Treadwell’s idea, but Sami or Jude did it. I don’t know which.”
The bathroom door swung open. She quickly stood up.
Sami stalked in. “What’s taking so long?”
Jovie adjusted the wig on my head. “Just trying to decide what hairstyle I want to go with.”
I stared at Jovie’s reflection wide-eyed unable to say or do anything. She dropped a fucking a-bomb on me. I didn’t know how to feel. How to react. How to breathe.
Back in Health class, we learned about the horrors of the date rape drug. Mr. O warned us never to accept drinks from anyone. Never put your drink down. Always pour your own. We never talked about the effect on guys, but I assumed it was the same.
The awareness that Christian was roofied changed everything. I needed time to figure out how I felt about it and how it affected me. The truth only added to my inner turmoil.
“Finished,” Jovie said smoothing out a few errant hair strands. I blinked a few times before I processed my reflection and Jovie looking back at me. She wasn’t smiling but something changed between us. “You need to get dressed,” she said, grazing my shoulders before stepping back.
I stood up and zombie walked into my changing room. I stared vacantly at my closet.
“Would you like me to pick something out for you?”
I think I nodded, but I was numb. She handed me clothes. I took them but stood rooted in place. She put her hands on her hips. “You need to get dressed or you will be late for breakfast. Your first lesson is immediately after.”