by Mary Martel
Before I came to the open door I sent a telepathic message to my brother. Something we had also not done since we fled our home because it too was extremely dangerous to use.
Not all Supernaturals were telepathic. But some were. And some had the capabilities to pick up on others private thoughts and conversations if you did not keep your mind guarded. To be safe, it was best not to use at all. My brother and I had spent years erecting walls in our minds for safety’s sake.
I had already thrown caution to the wind so it didn’t matter at this point, and worst case scenario, it might save my brother from being found and possibly killed right alongside me.
Thankfully, Vampires are not telepathic.
Riley, do not come home. Vampire. Run. I will find you. Do not return.
What I saw when I burst through the upstairs apartment door had me stopping in my tracks for a split second.
Then, like the force of a MAC truck, it hit me.
Rage.
Unadulterated rage.
Boiling, red hot rage. It seared through my body like nothing I’ve felt before, almost crippling me with the force of it.
This Vampire, this fucking Vampire was bent over my mate.
His mouth to her delicate neck.
His fangs sunk into her fucking flesh like she was a piece of meat.
Draining her life’s essence. All the beauty that was her he was sucking clean out.
I don’t allow myself a moment to think of the consequences of my actions. I’ve come too far to turn back now. And, if she were to die my life would be worth little more than nothing.
I run and take a flying leap.
In midair my body starts to transform, shifting into something different. Something magical. Something glorious. Something non-human.
And I relish in every fucking part of it. Every glorious second.
There is no pain. This is as natural to me as breathing.
Something I have not allowed myself, or my brother for that matter, to do for ten long years. Not since, at the young age of fifteen, I watched my Uncle murder my father in cold blood.
My greedy Uncle who cared about nothing but money and power. My jealous Uncle who hated my father because he had both of those things in abundance when he himself had limited power and limited money. And my father had those things because He. Was. King. Not just King of the Shifters. Oh no, he was King to all Supernaturals. Now my Uncle sits on that throne. When, rightfully, it should be mine and mine alone. Were I to die, it would then belong to my first born, be that male or female. If I had no child it would go to my closest blood relative, which would be my brother, Riley. But never my Uncle. He had rightfully lost his shot when my father had been crowned King. That hadn’t stopped the spineless piece of shit from taking what he thought should have been his.
In order to keep my brother safe, I took him and ran as fast and as far from home as we could get. We’ve been hiding out ever since.
So, you see, it has been ten very long years since I have let my beast out. Being as I have a lot of magic and power that courses through me (more than the average shifter), not a day went by where I did not yearn to set him free. To let him out and take control, to let him roam. Instead, I gagged him and as a result it crippled me. I mourned him like the dead part of me I now considered him to be. Now resurrected and dead no more.
It had been far too long and I know that I am going to enjoy every single second of this.
I hit the ground with a soft thud and land a foot behind the Vampire.
I did it on four paws.
I watch with satisfaction as he sniffs the air and his back immediately stiffens. His mouth moves away from my mate’s neck, and, ever so slowly, he turns to face me.
I take in his shocked expression and allow myself to feel a moment of smugness. Yeah buddy, you’re royally fucked now.
My smugness quickly returns to rage as I watch the blood dripping off of his chin. Blood that belongs on the mouth of no one other than me.
I let out a roar so loud, so filled with my magic, my rage, that it shakes the walls, cracking the sheetrock. I hear the glass in windows throughout the apartment rattle before shattering.
I care not for this.
In this moment, I am single minded. Driven. Focused solely on my prey.
My only objective is ripping that Vampire apart piece by bloody fucking piece.
Hesitantly, he starts to take a step back, smart enough to try and run from me. As soon as his heel lifts from the ground that was it.
The chase was on.
My moment to strike.
Lunging forward, I attack.
Chapter 4
Shayne
It was unfortunate for me that I did not surrender to the blissfulness of unconsciousness for very long. I’m dragged out of the darkness when I hear the most terrifyingly beautiful sound I have ever heard in my entire boring life.
It sounds like the roar of a tiger or some other large feline, but it was so much more. It was full of anger and pain. So much so it vibrated with it, caressed my skin, and raised the hair on my arms in alarm. How I knew it was caulked full of anger and pain I had no clue, but I did.
Perhaps that thing had taken too much of my blood.
That thing…
On this utterly terrifying thought, I blink open my eyes.
The pain in my neck is excruciating. I reach up with my hand to feel along my neck at where the pain is coming from. What I feel shocks the shit right out of me. There are two small puncture wounds at my neck, not very far apart from one another.
Teeth marks.
Bite marks.
Fucking. Fang. Marks.
Could that thing possibly be a… vampire? My mind expelled this repugnant thought almost as soon as it came into it.
Vampires do not exist.
It was not possible. They were nothing more than myth.
I had to have hit my head harder than I thought I had on the wall to be thinking about vampires and fang marks.
This man is just some freak, high on drugs, acting like a fucking crazy person. Like that man on the news years ago who had been high on bath salts, attacked some dude or chick, and ate their face off or whatever. Then the police had to shoot him. People went crazy and called him a zombie. He was no zombie. Just a normal man high on drugs and off his fucking rocker.
Zombies don’t exist and neither do vampires. This was fact.
Drugs. That’s what this had to be.
Sunglasses was just a whacked out junkie.
With one hand wrapped around the wound at my neck, I put my other hand to the cold floor and push myself up into a sitting position. When I’m up I scoot myself backwards, until my back hits the wall.
My entire body hurts everywhere.
With my hand still at my neck I look down to take stock of my body, see if I have any other noticeably visible injuries.
I don’t make it very far on my appraisal because all of a sudden, shockingly, a man appears at my side and crouches down beside me.
I scream.
Or, at least I try to.
To my absolute horror no sound comes out.
That was because, quick as a flash, he covers my mouth with his hand.
“Shh. Shayne, I’m not going to hurt you,” he whispers in my ear.
For some insane reason I believe him.
Call me stupid.
Call me crazy.
But I do, I believe him.
He radiated a certain warmth I could not ignore.
I nod, nonverbally letting him know I’m not planning to scream again, that I believed him.
Nodding back he cautiously removes his hand. As soon as his hand is lifted from my face I breathe in deeply through my nose.
I could no longer smell rancid garbage. So strong one minute then gone the next. Instead, I smell the most intoxicating scent to have ever reached my nostrils.
Earthly.
Manly.
Pure… Where this thought comes from I�
��ve no idea, but somehow it finds its way into my mind.
It is a definite improvement from Sunglasses.
And, if I’m being honest it causes my pulse to accelerate and my body shivers in the most delicious of ways.
Whoa? What in the hell was happening to me? Was I getting turned on by a freaking smell? That was the most absurd reaction I could have ever had in this situation.
My brain must have really gotten scrambled when my head smacked against the wall.
“Who are you?” I croak hoarsely out at him, my voice not sounding like my own.
He shakes his head at me. Not like he doesn’t want to answer me, it’s more of in an exasperated kind of way. Like he doesn’t know how to answer me. Which confuses me. Why won’t he answer my simple question?
“Riley, what the fuck?” a very deep male voice growls from somewhere in my dark apartment.
This time I do scream.
Sound comes out and everything.
The man beside me clamps a hand down on my shoulder, whispering to me, “Shh.. It’s fine. That’s my brother and you’re safe. Please, don’t scream anymore. We need to get you out of here without drawing any more attention.”
The man attached to the oh-so-deep voice steps out of the darkness in front of us and holy shit, he is buck naked.
Seriously, naked as the day he was born.
Suddenly I feel faint.
What in the world was going on? Am I dreaming?
“Holy fuck,” I breathe out. This man takes my breath away. He has to be at least six foot four, maybe a little taller. His features, what I can see of them, are chiseled and undeniably masculine. Well defined muscles, packed tight. Washboard abs. V at his hips. A light sprinkling of blonde hair at his chest. Long dirty blonde hair that I could not see how long it was because it was behind his shoulders and falling down his back.
I find myself ogling him.
Then it hits me. His blonde hair goes down to about the middle of his back. And suddenly I know…
“You’re my downstairs neighbors,” I accuse, my voice still coming out sounding scratchy. “And why are you naked? And where is Sunglasses? He’s dangerous.” I frantically try to warn them. “I think he was on bath salts because he tried to eat me like that freak on TV did to that guy. Or chick. Or whatever, gender really wasn’t the important part.”
I realize I’m rambling and shut my mouth.
Too late, though, it would seem, because they are both looking at me like I am the fucking crazy one.
I take my hand away from my neck and gesture at my wound there, shouting, “Seriously, that dude tried to eat me!”
“That’s because he was a Vampire, and a bad one at that.” The man, the one still crouched at my side, quietly tells me.
“Vampires don’t exist. That’s bullshit,” I haughtily inform him.
The naked man in front of us sighs, his beautifully sculpted chest expanding when he lets out his breath. I try really hard not to look any lower than his impressive pecs. Sweet Jesus. Why is he still standing around my apartment buck naked?
“We must be going before others show up.” He states. “I fucked up and used my magic. If there are more Supernaturals around they will be coming for us. Only someone as strong as one of our blood line could use that much magic at once.”
“Ian--” the man at my side starts to say before he is rudely cut off by the naked man, Ian I suppose.
“Riley, I thought I told you to run. I thought I told you I would find you and not to come home? What the fuck were you thinking?” He growls at the man beside me.
“Ian-“
“Wait a minute… Ian? Is that your name?” I ask. At his hesitant nod I continue to inform him, “That’s who Sunglasses was looking for. You. That’s why he attacked me. Because I didn’t know who you were and he called me a bitch and a liar because he said that he could smell you… and he could tell you were here recently. He must have got the wrong apartment or something. Seriously, you guys, he’s dangerous. He must have gotten scared off and ran away or something when you guys showed up. Still, I think that we should call the police.” I, once again, found myself rambling away, unable to stop myself.
“That won’t be necessary,” Ian, the naked man, says, “I already took care of him.”
“You detained a rancid smelling man who was high on bath salts while you were naked?” I snottily ask. “And why in the hell are you naked?”
“I did not detain anyone. I took care of the Vampire.” Ian calmly replies, “That is all that you need to know. Now, we must be going from here before others come.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you. I’m calling the police.”
“You do not have a choice.”
“Excuse me? I don’t know who you think you are but you can’t just tell me what to do. I need to call the police and I think I may need to go to the hospital before I bleed to death.” Seriously, why was he not getting this? How could he be so calm about all of this? A man had attacked me in my own apartment for Christ’s sakes.
“I will see to your injuries once we are away from this place,” is his scary reply.
He’d see to my injuries?
Is he a doctor or something? Standing there with his long hair flowing out around him in all his naked glory he certainly doesn’t look like a doctor to me.
And, once we were away from this place?
I had no intention of going anywhere with him.
I open my mouth to respond, probably with something nasty, but Riley, the one beside me, gets there before I can say anything.
“Do you feel that?” Riley quietly asks.
Ian tilts his head slightly to the side before quickly righting it and saying, “Someone’s coming.”
“Roommate,” Riley confidently states.
“Wipe her, all of her, Riley. Leave absolutely no traces behind. No traces of us and certainly none of my mate,” Ian orders and I feel my eyebrows shoot up. What is this mate business and who is his mate? Are they talking about Anna May? I find, for some reason, that I cannot explain, I do not like that. Them talking about her, them thinking about her at all. Especially not him.
That’s because he’s supposed to be yours just as you are meant to be his. That thought whispers through my mind and I immediately reject it.
Where the hell had that thought come from? What in the hell was going on around here? Had I stepped into an alternate universe, one where naked men appeared in my living room as if summoned here by magic?
“That’s dangerous,” Riley whispers, sounding shocked and somewhat appalled.
“Only for her and I care naught for her. It will be more dangerous for us if we do not wipe her mind.” Ian does not whisper, his voice is not hushed, he speaks in a normal volume, like he could care less if he’s overheard. A scowl transforms his handsome face and he looks downright pissed when he speaks next. “I care for your safety, brother. I care for the safety of my mate. That is all that matters to me and I will do everything I have to in order to see the two of you safe. Now, do it.”
“Whoa,” I butt in, “What the hell are you guys talking about? Is Anna May here? And how the hell do you know someone is here? I don’t hear anyone. And seriously, why are you naked?”
“She is not alone,” Riley says, completely ignoring me. “There is a man with her. He is human as well.”
Of course they’re human. I mean, really, what else would they be? Geez, these guys.
“Right,” Ian lets out a frustrated breath and runs his hands through the front of his hair, pulling it back from his face. “Wipe her, then wipe his memories of ever coming here, then send them both away. Do it before they get up here.” He looks at me thoughtfully and gentles his voice, “I will take care of this.”
Smirking, Riley replies, “Yes, your Highness.”
“That shit’s not funny,” Ian snarls back at him.
As Riley heads down the stairs I swear I hear him whisper “finally.”
“Umm…” I sta
rt to say something, what I have no clue, but hey, I’m good at winging it, but I don’t get very far before he starts speaking right over me, as if he hadn’t heard me.
“I had no intention of ever doing half of the things that I’ve already done tonight, or, for that matter, all of the things that I have not yet done,” he says quietly, almost like he is not speaking to me but to himself.
I have no idea what he’s talking about.
“I don’t understand any of this,” I tell him my thoughts.
“I know, and there’s going to be a whole lot more that you will most certainly not understand. I promise I will explain everything to you as best as I can when we get out of here and are in a safe place. For right now all you need to know is that it’s not safe here for you anymore. That thing was indeed a Vampire, and there will be more of them coming. And much, much worse things will be right behind him. Originally they were just looking for my brother and I but it’s all changed now and they will be looking for you as well, of this I am certain. They will not stop until they have you, and once they have you they will kill you. But first, they will torture you for information that you do not have. I promise to explain any questions you have about this, but right now I need you to be a good girl for me and I need you to go pack a bag with some clothes in it and then we have to be going.”
I stand there staring at him for a minute wondering, do I trust him as easily as I did his brother? What he says makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever.
But then you belong with him, he is yours floats through my head. I again have no idea where it came from, I just know that it came from somewhere. All my life I’d had a head full of thoughts that were not my own. This wasn’t someone else’s thought. It felt like it came from somewhere deep inside me, a place I had yet to explore, a place that frightened me.
I make a snap decision, which is really the only decision to make because my life is going nowhere. I have nothing going for me. I have no family. I barely have any friends other than Anna May and the ones I do have are superficial. I have one year left of college and yet I have no idea what I am going to do afterwards, no career picked out because there’s nothing I am passionate about, nothing I want to do for the rest of my life. My job, even though it’s only a summer job, is complete shit. I’m just kind of floating along through life but I’m not really living it.