She might still need some time; she might not yet accept me, but I was wholly committed. Onyx was my girl, now and forever, no matter what I had to do to convince her of it.
A severe looking woman with a tight ponytail and dark glasses entered our room. From her white lab coat, I guessed she was a doctor but couldn’t tell if she was human or not. I didn’t know if I would ever get the knack for being able to tell the supernatural apart from regular old humans.
Without saying a word, she picked up clip boards that had been placed in a shelf on our beds and looked them over, scribbling notes onto them.
“Hello,” I spoke cautiously, figuring if she was another vampire, she might have the same ‘humans suck’ mentality that Onyx did.
She cut a glare at me over the rim of her glasses, and I thought she definitely had to be a vampire.
“You’re stable and can leave in a few hours. Your friend we’ll be keeping for a while, though,” she told me curtly then headed towards the door.
“Is the woman who brought us here, here by any chance?” I asked just before her foot hit the door.
“Onyx will be back for you,” the woman said with a nod. “In the meantime, she has business to attend to.”
I wasn’t really sure what that meant, but I sure as hell didn’t think the good doctor would be cluing me in at any point. Strange that she knew Onyx on a first name basis, though. In the end, I figured the fewest amount of questions I asked would probably be the best and laid my head down to try and get some rest again. Onyx would come back for me. I remembered what the doctor had said and fell asleep with a goofy smile on my face.
Hours later, Onyx woke me as she entered the room. She wasn’t a very loud person, but after my time in the military, I was normally a very light sleeper.
“How are you guys?” she asked, looking over at T with what seemed to be worry.
“The doctor says I’m fine and can leave whenever, but they’re going to have to keep him for a while.” I looked over at Terrance’s heavily sedated form. At least he looked relaxed despite everything.
“I figured as much,” she replied. “He’s been through a lot and will need to be treated for his mind just as much as for his wounds.”
I didn’t really know what she meant by that – if they had some sort of super natural psychologists on staff – but I figured she was right. No one knew how long T had been with them and what they had really done to him. My friend was going to be fucked up for a good long time, but at least we had him back.
“Is there anything they can do for his scars?” I asked, knowing that they would be a constant reminder of the trauma he had been through. If he ever made it back home to the south, he would never be able to take his shirt off, never go swimming… hell, I didn’t even think he would want to be with a woman again if it meant trying to explain these wicked scars to her.
“They’re trying to come up with something,” she reassured me, and I was surprised that she had cared enough to seek out answers for this before she came to see me. “They think they have something that will at least remove them to human eyes, which I guess is the most important part. But any supernatural being he comes across will still see him as a marked man.”
“What does that mean?” I asked, not at all liking the sound of that and, again, looking over at my friend’s poor helpless body.
“The witches marked you both as a sacrifice, yes. Their spell is connected to the markings as well, but they also marked you as their property… the way a farmer marks their cattle,” she answered me, not taking any pleasure in her reply. I appreciated the fact that she wasn’t giving me smartass remarks, but my stomach still turned at the answers I was being given.
My scars would heal; they hadn’t been very deep to begin with. But Terrance… he would be forever marked as the property of a demon worshipping witch cult.
“At least, the scars won’t be visible to humans,” I said, finally letting out a long, low sigh. If they weren’t visible to humans, then maybe he wouldn’t be able to see them himself. And though the scars were there, they wouldn’t affect him.
“They will try for something deeper, but as I said, no promises on that.” She sat down heavily on the couch beside my bed, and now that she was closer to me, I could see the dark shadow of a bruise that was rapidly healing.
“Where have you been?” I asked, knowing that that bruise wasn’t from the witches; she would have healed that long before I woke up.
“This place normally doesn’t take human patients, so I took a job to pay for your stay,” she said as she shrugged, and the bruise disappeared before my eyes.
Fucking vampires.
“Where are we? And what’s the job?” I suddenly felt guilty that she’d had to get hurt to pay for my stay. I should have been with her. I should have helped her and pulled my own weight.
“I really wouldn’t ask too many questions.” She waved me off. “It was an easy job, and you and your friend are safe now. That’s what matters most.”
“Is that what matters to you?” I eyed her sternly, trying to see if her features would change as she dodged my question.
“Why do you want to complicate things?” She glared back at me.
“Because you want to dodge my love like the plague. I know you’re gonna feed me some shit about me being a human and not good enough for you, but that’s an excuse, and you know it. I held my own even against satanic witches, even against the demons from the other night, and if it was really that big of a deal, we both know you could just turn me,” I snapped, not really sure why I was suddenly so angry with her. But I knew for damn sure I wasn’t in the mood to be put down again.
I had been through hell in the past couple of weeks, and her constantly telling me I wasn’t good enough for her love wasn’t exactly helping.
For a long time, she just stared at me, and I knew she was debating whether to punch me or answer me. Thankfully for me, she began to speak instead of throttling me.
“You know how I was raised… you know what I was made to be.” She didn’t look at me when she spoke. “Love isn’t something I’ve ever been interested in. It’s not something I’ve ever needed or looked for. I know you’re my mate. I get it, but that doesn’t change the fact that until last week, I’ve been on my own every day. You can’t expect me to just jump ship overnight.”
“And I don’t expect that.” I sat up and studied her, my voice soft and calming. “I just never know where your head is at. If I should keep trying or give up, if I should push harder or if that will only push you away. I know it can’t be easy for you, and even though I’m the one who’s been pushing for it, it hasn’t exactly been easy on me either. I’ve never had a long term relationship, never met a woman who wanted to deal with my bullshit for longer than a few nights, and now that I’ve found you, you’ve become basically the equivalent of my future wife.”
“Don’t say that word. I’ll barf.” Her face wrinkled in disgust at me.
“If you barf, I’m giving you shit all night for being a weak bitch.” I laughed, and to my relief, she did, too.
“You don’t seriously want to get married, do you?” she asked, analyzing my features.
“I really do. Again, it doesn’t have to be today, but I was raised in the church, and while I’ve spent most of my life living in sin, if there’s one thing I want to do right, that’s it,” I confessed, putting my cards on the table. It didn’t have to be today. It didn’t have to be tomorrow. But before I died, I wanted to see Onyx in a wedding dress at my family’s church.
“It’s gonna have to be in a church, isn’t it?” The wrinkles on her face deepened.
“You bet your sweet ass.” I smirked. “Everybody in my whole little town is gonna be there. Every little old biddy in fifty miles is gonna show up with gifts you don’t want and will never need and fill you full of homemade mac n cheese and baked ham-”
“And blood?” she asked, cutting me off. “Because you know that’s what I eat, right? You
want me to murder all the little biddies and feed off their corpses?”
“By the end of the preacher’s long ass sermon, I’m sure we’ll both be ready for that,” I assured her. “In fact, there’s some assholes from my high school my mother will absolutely insist on inviting, so if you’re looking for a snack, I’ll gladly point them out to you.”
“That could work.” She nodded her head, and I saw an evil little smile approaching. “There is a certain sweetness that comes with murdering an asshole. It’s why I haven’t killed you yet. Gotta save the biggest asshole for last.”
“Ah, you wound me.” I clutched at my heart.
Laughing, she clambered into my hospital bed, and nothing in the world could have made me happier.
“My mother will die of happiness if I tell her to start planning a wedding,” I whispered into her hair. “She never thought she’d see the day I talked a woman into putting up with me.”
“I still have time to change my mind,” she said, poking me in the chest, and then relaxed into my arms.
“I’m surprised you’re even cuddling with me to be honest.” I held her close, honestly shocked that she would want to do this with me.
“So am I.” She sighed. “You’re wearing me down though; I’ll give you that.”
“That’s the only way I’ve ever gotten women to go out with me.” I just had to throw out some self-deprecating humor.
“I think that’s a true story,” she replied with a nod, not laughing.
“So what is our next move?” I asked her, not having a clue how to have a fiancé.
“I have a deal for you.” She pulled back and looked me in the eyes.
“Anything,” I replied, not caring what it was. I was on cloud nine over just the idea of her agreeing to be my wife. She could have asked me to go to war for her, and I would have asked her to give me a little time to go pack up an arsenal and I would meet her there.
“You remember the whole ‘raised to be an assassin’ thing?” she asked.
“How could I forget?” I replied. It was basically the most important thing she had told me about her life so far. I would have to have been a much bigger asshole than I thought I was to forget.
“Okay, so how about you help me kill the man who took me from my family as a baby? And once he’s dead, we go to the south, and I slap on a big dress, say ‘I do,’ and promise not to drink anyone dry at the reception?” She raised a brow at me.
“You’re serious?” I asked, dumbfounded.
“Yeah, fuck it, why not?” She laughed a little as she answered. “It’ll take me a few more years before I’m ready to turn you and do that big ceremony, but we can go through with the wedding.”
“You just want to wait to turn me until I’m a silver fox.” I patted my military short hair.
“You know me well.” She winked.
“So how can I help you kill this guy?” I asked, ready to be of service.
“Well, he’s left the assassins guild, so he no longer carries their protection, but he does have an enormous staff of guards. The thing is, though, they’ve been protecting him against the supernatural all this time. Everything he’s ever done in his life, every person he’s ever pissed off has been a non-human. I don’t think he’s ever even paid attention to what’s happening to humans. They’re completely insignificant to him.” There was a sparkle in her eye I had never seen before. My little killer was the most excited I had ever seen her. “So, if anyone can easily slip past his security, you can. Pose as a servant or his new chef. We’ve got time to research it. Someone who’s newly hired, who will have security access, who can get in. And once you’re in, you let me in, secure the perimeter, and I kill him.”
“It’ll take a lot of intel, but that sounds easily doable.” I nodded my head. It wasn’t exactly the badass job I had envisioned for myself, walking in, busting through doors and cracking skulls, but I was more than happy to follow my little killer’s lead, especially if it got her to follow me down that aisle.
“It shouldn’t take me more than a week to get what I need,” she continued, looking absolutely pumped as she spoke. “I’ve been watching him for over a year now. I know his routine like the back of my hand. I just need a way through that door.”
“We’ll attach ropes to you, and you can walk up the sky scraper windows like Spider-Man,” I suggested to get her to smile.
“Don’t laugh,” she warned. “We might end up literally having to do that.”
Next to us, Terrance moaned and rustled in his sleep.
On reflex, I climbed off my bed and was at his side in an instant. Over and over, I reassured him that he was safe and healing. That we had taken him away from those witches, and his nightmare was over. I knew he was on heavy medication and probably couldn’t really hear me, but even if my calm tone of voice reached him, then it was a win in my book.
After a few moments, he calmed down again, and I felt like I had reached through to him somehow.
I looked over at Onyx, and I knew my face read every fear that I had over my friend.
“He’s in the safest place he can be, under the best medical care anyone could hope for,” she replied firmly, keeping me from losing my mind.
Wherever we were, we weren’t with human doctors. These people had money and powers that humans couldn’t even dream of. They would heal the scars that magic had caused him by using magic of their own. She was absolutely right; he was in the best place he could possibly be, and hearing the calm sternness of her voice helped to keep me together.
I nodded my head, and after a few minutes, Terrance’s breathing went back to that deep, steady, medicated rhythm, and I went back to my bed and back to plotting with Onyx.
We stayed up for hours, cuddling and talking about murder. We planned a few different ways she could go through with the murder of the vampire who had stolen her life from her, and then we went on to harder subjects. We talked about the murders we had committed.
Most of the conversation seemed routine to Onyx. After a while, killing people became the same to her as going to run errands throughout the day. She had a check list and tasks that she needed to complete.
For me, taking people’s lives had been a lot different.
I wasn’t raised to be a murderer, and before I entered the military, I had never been trained to, either. I was taught that the people whose lives I was taking were people who needed to die for the betterment of my country and my brothers at war with me. I knew that I was in a kill or be killed situation, and while that made it easier for me to pull the trigger in the moment, it hadn’t stopped nightmares from coming to me afterwards.
The dead weighed heavy on my spirit, even so many years after they had gone. I didn’t question whether or not I did the right thing, but that didn’t stop me from having nightmares filled with glassy eyes and bloodied bodies.
These were things I didn’t talk about. Never. Not to anyone.
People back home had asked me after I came back, but I’d always told them I never had to kill anyone. “I got lucky,” I said. “The most action I ever saw was drills on our base,” I would lie. The old guys knew I was lying. They’d been through their own war, and they knew exactly what that look in my eyes was.
They never corrected me though, never pressed the questions farther. They nodded their heads and sat back in their old chairs, sweet tea in hand and a faraway look on their faces now as well.
I appreciated that more than I could ever tell them, but I knew, somehow, they knew.
Onyx held me through our talk in a show of tenderness that I honestly didn’t know she had in her. I expected her to laugh me off or call me a bitch. It wouldn’t have offended me in the slightest if she had gone for our sarcasm self-defense.
Instead though, she was kind to me, her words soft and soothing. It made me fall in love with her all the more, and by the time the sun was coming up and her eye lids were getting heavy, I was pretty sure she loved me now in a much deeper way as well.
~
Exactly as I predicted, one week to the day, I had the information that we would need for Ryker to break into my old master’s home.
Genesis is what I was raised to call him. The word stuck in my throat as I thought about the man who had taken me from my family. The man who had decided my destiny for me and forced me to obey it.
He was rich, disgustingly so, and had bought an entire New York City sky scraper for himself. Now, it appeared that he wanted to renovate much of his precious home.
Cue Ryker.
We had already made him a very extensive false background as a lead contractor for a prominent construction company, and within a few days of his resume being looked over, he was hired on to do the job. One week to the day I had promised him, he was on his way to begin looking over the expansive property and begin the planning stages of the renovation.
I had to admit my man did look pretty cute in an orange vest and a hard hat.
He probably didn’t need it for just the planning portion of the renovation, but we had already bought it, so why not take it with you and use it?
This was the biggest amount of trust I had ever given someone, and as I watched Ryker leave for the day to walk into the arms of my enemy, I was extremely aware of it.
If he fucked this up, I would never get another chance at Genesis. He would pack up shop and move to a deep dark corner of the world and hire his own pack of assassins to hunt me down. I would be so busy running from him I wouldn’t ever get a chance to be on the offensive again.
My one and only saving grace in this situation is that he had no idea I was coming for him and, therefore, wasn’t expecting me.
He might have had another long list of people coming after him, but I knew that they had gone through Ryker’s background extensively, and I also knew that he had absolutely no affiliation with any of them. Ryker had an all but clear record as far as supernatural beings were concerned. All we had to do was add in a construction history after he had left the military, and bingo, we were in.
Well, he was in. I was to sit here and wait on him to get back and pray to all of the gods I could think of that he didn’t fuck this up.
Forever Onyx (Vampire Brides) Page 7