by Tessa Bailey
Ginny tried to open her eyes and find the source of the noise, but her head was muddled in a way she’d only ever experienced after an abundance of cold medicine. Rousing herself was repugnant when she could just float and sleep…
Suddenly, her feet touched down on something hard, jolting her, and the lethargy cleared like it had never been there to begin with.
When she opened her eyes, she was standing in the center lane of a highway with a semi-truck bearing down on her.
CHAPTER SIX
It was the kind of fear that couldn’t be described.
There was no build to it, just a precise slice straight through Ginny’s body—a very horrifying certainty that her life ended there. Now. In the middle of a three-lane highway.
I’m going to be road kill.
Would it be painful?
Please don’t let it be painful.
The worst part was she’d never know how this happened. How she’d gotten there. Oh, something similar to this had happened once before. She’d been lucky to escape. But she wouldn’t escape this. The semi-truck’s brakes were squealing and the driver was shouting behind the windshield, but he was going too fast, right?
Right.
Ginny closed her eyes and followed her body’s instinct to drop into a crouch.
The burn of hot metal screeched to a halt so close to her face, she could taste exhaust and motor oil in her mouth. She opened her eyes to find her pale, petrified face staring back in the truck’s front bumper and a shocked sob broke from her mouth, shivers turning to violent shakes as all hell broke loose around her.
“What the fuck are you doing?” shouted the truck driver, coming around the side of the vehicle. He pounded a fist on the grill. “You could have caused a pileup…”
The man continued to rail at her, but her harsh breathing and racing heartbeat drowned him out. I have to get out of here. She didn’t know where the intuition came from and she didn’t question it. Ginny pushed to her feet, stumbling backwards thanks to her trembling knees, and frantically searched for a way out.
Cars were stopped on the shoulders, people getting out to gape at her. Other motorists stuck their heads out of windows, some of them asking if she was okay, others cursing her for holding up traffic. Oh Lord, the smell of burnt rubber and the kaleidoscope of colors was making her nauseous.
Move.
Get home.
“I’m calling the police,” said the truck driver, fully breaking her out of her stupor. Grateful she’d put on her work shoes before falling asleep on the couch, Ginny wove through the stopped vehicles and got to the shoulder, sprinting for the exit up ahead. It was her exit, Ocean Parkway. She was close to home.
Honking and shouting ensued behind her, but she didn’t turn around and prayed no one would give chase and hold her until the cops arrived. What would she say? She’d woken up in the middle of the Belt Parkway? They’d either think she was crazy or suicidal. They would lock her up in a padded cell somewhere…and apart from her stepmother, there was no one to vouch for her sanity.
In other words, no one. Larissa had too much to gain from her being gone. She’d never considered her stepmother a malevolent person. They’d even formed an awkward yet comfortable bond since her father passed. But in her stark moment of crisis, suspicion reared its head.
For a brief moment while turning at the end of the off ramp and running down the avenue, she considered the possibility she did need mental help. Maybe she required medication? Therapy? Perhaps being around death so frequently and for so long had affected her, the way people assumed it had.
The sound of sirens plowed into her thoughts and she detoured hard to the right, cutting between two high-rise apartment buildings, dodging startled passersby in the barren courtyard.
“Where am I? Where am I?” She’d been born and raised in this neighborhood, but she stuck to her routines and followed the same routes. “Go toward the water…”
She hooked a right and landed on another, less congested avenue, smelling the salt air up ahead. Darkness had fallen and headlights trundled past, televisions flickered in the living rooms of houses. She was out of her skin, existing in some disturbing nightmare, ruled by adrenaline. But she kept going and finally, finally, she recognized the bagel shop a few blocks from P. Lynn. Sirens continued to blare back toward the Belt, urging her legs to pump faster, even though her heart was definitely about to beat out of her chest.
Lord, she’d never been more grateful to see the funeral home. Beautiful, beautiful place. She almost collapsed at the sight of it beneath the El. Knowing she’d never be able to explain herself to Larissa, she snuck in through the backdoor and jogged toward the stairs—
Shouts coming from Ginny’s room halted her progress.
Jonas.
Roksana.
They were arguing loud enough to wake the dead…and now that she knowingly lived in a world where the undead had their own government, she really needed to come up with a better phrase to describe something unlikely.
Ginny had only stepped foot on the first, creaky stair when her bedroom door flew open to reveal Jonas in extensive distress. She was only afforded the briefest of glances at his wayward hair and fraught expression before he moved in a whirlwind of color down the stairs, collected her and shut them back inside her bedroom a second later.
“Where…” he rasped, trapping her against the door, “were you?”
She couldn’t answer. For one, her equilibrium had been compromised by their atom-splitting ascent of the stairs. Two, she had no idea if Jonas would believe her story. And three, if she told him the truth about what took place tonight, she’d have to confess what happened before and their acquaintance would be that much closer to being over. Wouldn’t it? Once he found out wherein the danger lay, it would be sayonara, Ginny.
“I…I…” Casting about for a lifeline, Ginny spotted Roksana over Jonas’s shoulder and noticed for the first time that the wise-cracking slayer had a towel pressed to her temple, trying to stem the flow of blood gushing from an apparent wound. “What happened to Roksana?” Ginny gasped.
“Don’t worry about her right now. Look at me,” Jonas ordered, and Ginny’s chin jerked a precise two inches to the left to obey him.
A fire lit in her belly. “Don’t command me like that. And keep your voice down. Larissa will hear you.”
“She’s sleeping. Soundly.” While Ginny processed the fact that her stepmother had either been conked again or compelled to sleep by Jonas, he visibly reined himself in. When he spoke again, however, his tone remained brittle, ready to snap. “When I arrived, Roks was unconscious on the floor and you were gone. What happened, Ginny? Are you hurt?”
“No.”
Jonas tilted her face up, scrutinizing every feature. “You’re only half lying.”
“How can you tell?”
“Your pulse. It changes when you’re not truthful or if you get excited. That’s how I knew your favorite line in The Quiet Man.” His chest rose and fell rapidly. “An explanation. Now. Or I’ll have no choice but to make the command.”
“Don’t you dare. Last night, you talked about about the importance of choices. Well you can’t talk out of both sides of your mouth, Jonas. Preaching about choices while stealing my free will.”
He flinched. “This is different. Your silence prevents me from protecting you.”
“Promise to never compel me again and I’ll talk.”
A short standoff ensued. “Done.”
Heat rushed to the backs of her eyelids, panic springing up in her middle like a geyser. This was it. Once she gave up the information she’d been hiding from Jonas, she gave up the only bargaining chip she had to maintain her memories. But if tonight had proven one thing, it was that she couldn’t protect herself against an unseen force that could pick her up in one location and drop her in another. She couldn’t defend against something she couldn’t see, but Jonas might. Her options had run out.
In short order, so would her time
with him.
“Two weeks ago, I woke up in the ocean,” she whispered, recalling the chill of the black, bottomless water, the taste of salt on her tongue. “It was pitch dark, but I could see lights in the distance and I swam toward them. It took me…hours, it seemed like. And I have no idea how I got there. Only that I slept so deeply before it happened, almost like I was in a trance. Something or someone lifted me up and took me there.”
Jonas had gone still as a marble statue, his hands going from cool to icy where they held her face.
“A-and tonight, the same thing happened, except…”
“Tell me.”
“When I woke up, I was in the middle lane of the Belt Parkway.”
A choked sound left him.
His hands dropped away from her face.
“This time, I remember…floating. I was floating. I can’t remember that happening the night I ended up in the ocean.”
“Vampire,” he growled.
“A powerful one,” Roksana added, sounding fearful for the first time since Ginny had met her. “What the hell, Jonas?”
Ginny came off the door. “A vampire is the one doing this to me?”
“It doesn’t make sense,” Jonas muttered, fingers plowing through his inky hair. “I could understand if I’d made her a target, but I’ve only known her two days. The first incident was weeks ago.”
Ginny waved her hands. “Can we please start from the beginning? Vampires can make people fly?”
Roksana lowered the towel from her head and Ginny got a look at the gigantic red lump. “You’ve obviously noticed Jonas can compel your actions. He probably wouldn’t be able to levitate you, though.” Gingerly, she prodded the knot on her head and winced. “That’s a skill reserved by older, more seasoned bloodsuckers.”
“But…” Ginny made a grab for the missing pieces. “I thought it was against the rules for a vampire to kill a human.”
“They didn’t kill you,” Jonas said, tone ominous. “They put you in a situation where you’re likely to…” He dragged a hand down his face. “It’s not a direct violation of the rule, but someone is definitely playing fast and loose. Why, though?” He paced for a moment. “I’m the first vampire you’ve had contact with,” Jonas asked Ginny, even though he didn’t exactly phrase it as a question.
“Yes. That I’m aware of.”
He nodded, satisfied with her answer.
“I’m not in love with the fact that you’re a human lie detector.”
“Don’t lie to me and you’ve got nothing to worry about.”
“I rarely lie at all.”
“I know. Only by omission—and you’re loath to do even that. Your honesty is one of the reasons I…”
“What?”
He seemed to be judging the wisdom of continuing. “One of the reasons I can’t stand to be away from you,” Jonas said, just above a whisper, before stepping closer, face tortured. “You’re sure you’re not hurt?”
He can’t stay away from me. The omission made her want to be truthful. “I think I might have strained my Achilles running from the police.”
Jonas’s right eye ticked. Twice. “Christ.”
The next thing Ginny knew, she was being settled onto the edge of the bed with Jonas kneeling in front of her. He started to roll up her pant leg, but paused, his gaze ticking to hers. “No blood anywhere?”
“No.” She rolled her lips inward. “Wouldn’t you…smell it?”
Briefly, his grip tightened on her calf. “I smell your blood at all times, but seeing it…”
Ginny’s mouth went dry at the way Jonas stared up at her, as if it took all his inner strength to keep from pressing her backward onto the bed. Oh my.
“Farewell, lovebirds. I hereby resign my post,” Roksana announced dramatically from her position at the window. “I apologize for failing you tonight, Ginny. You could have been a pancake and all because some parasite got the drop on me.”
“Roksana, no.” Ginny reached a hand in her friend’s direction. “If this vampire is as powerful as you say, what could you have done to—”
“Let her go,” Jonas cut in, never taking his attention off of Ginny. “Roksana is right. She didn’t do her job.”
“I will take some time to train and once again become unstoppable.” Roksana turned and gave them a final, anguished look. “Dasvidaniya.”
With that, the slayer’s blonde head ducked out of view, leaving Ginny and Jonas alone in the bedroom. Shaken at the sudden loss of her friend after everything she’d already been through that night, Ginny smacked Jonas’s hand off her leg. “Why didn’t you make her stay?”
“Tonight you could have…” He broke off, nostrils flaring. “Hell, two weeks ago, you could have been gone and I never would have met you.”
“That wouldn’t have been her fault, either.”
His hand landed back on her knee and smoothed down, around to the swell of her calf, massaging there. “I’m quite aware I’m not being rational about anything concerning you, Ginny.”
Lord, it was hard to argue when he was touching her. She never had this manner of skin to skin contact with a man and could only liken it to being hugged in a towel fresh from the dryer. Or sinking into a hot bath. The cool temperature of his skin did nothing to stop the goosebumps from rising on her arms or the tiny wrench to twist beneath her belly button.
Fight the distraction. She had to. Jonas knew there was a vampire purposefully putting her in dangerous situations and she had no information left to withhold. This could be the last time she looked into his eyes and knew him.
But then, his thumb found her Achilles, pressing and sweeping along the sore tendon—and Ginny moaned.
Jonas’s open mouth dragged up her bare thigh, searing her skin, stopping just short of her dress’s hem. “This is madness. How do you pull me under like this?”
“You do the same to me,” she managed, breathily, sliding her fingers into his hair. “Don’t make this go away. Please.”
His hand tightened on her leg. “The longer I let you keep your memories of me, Ginny, the harder it will be once they’re gone.” He pressed his face to her stomach, using his grip on her calf to tug her closer. Until she could feel the outline of his features against her belly. “You’ll lose days, weeks, as opposed to hours.”
“And once I’ve forgotten you exist, you’ll stay away, just like that?”
Jonas’s shoulders tensed, his fingers on her skin. “We’ll have to wait a little longer to find out,” he said hoarsely. “Knowing it’s a vampire trying to bring you harm, and not some easily overcome human, changes everything. I need you alert and I need you to trust me implicitly. Without Roksana to watch you during the day, I have to bring you somewhere without sunlight. To protect you until this is over.”
Oxygen trapped itself in her lungs. “Meaning?”
Jonas leaned away, the green sparks shooting off in his eyes telling Ginny how much their closeness was affecting him.
“Pack,” he said, doom lacing his tone. “You’re coming with me.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
“I’m sorry, what did you say?”
“You’re coming with me.” Jonas gave Ginny’s legs one last, longing look and stood. “I can’t and won’t leave you here alone while your safety is in jeopardy—and I can’t stay.”
“There are no windows in the basement. You could stay there.”
“With the other corpses, you mean?” he drawled. “I suppose I could stay down there during the day, but you’ll have to remain there with me where I can protect you.”
“The daytime is Larissa’s shift.”
“Can you swap?”
“No, she’ll refuse. She thinks the morgue is scarier at night, which doesn’t really track, because there are no windows. It could be noon or midnight and you’d never be able to tell.”
“Then we have our answer.” He strode to the window, clenching and unclenching his hands while scanning the street below. “Please get packing.”
> Ginny shot to her feet and whirled around, wincing inwardly when her Achilles protested. “Who exactly do you think is going to run this place?”
He turned with a regal eyebrow raised. “Are there any bodies downstairs waiting for you?”
“It’s been a slow week,” she responded, feeling kind of defensive. “Fall is upon us. People tend to try and stick it out through the holidays.”
Jonas’s sigh was weary and amused, all at once. “So help me God, Ginny…” His throat worked. “It will forever be one of the universe’s greatest mysteries that you’ve remained here for twenty-four years without turning every male you meet into a lovesick fool who worships at your feet.”
“That sounds horrible,” she whispered, shaken. “I hate clutter.”
His laugh was somehow adoring and sad at the same time.
Ginny looked down at her hands. What was she supposed to be doing again?
Packing. Leaving. To go live with the vampires. Right.
“Um. I can leave a note for Larissa about spending the night with a friend. She won’t believe it. It’s only slightly more plausible than being targeted for death by a formidable vampire. But it will have to do.” She turned in a circle, trying to remember where she kept her overnight bag. Did she even own one? “I will need to come back tomorrow night and work, though. I can’t neglect this place.”
“I know your father’s legacy is important to you, Ginny.”
Knowing he’d listened and committed her worries to memory made wings flap beneath her breastbone. “Yes. It is.” She unearthed a small, dusty suitcase from the back of her closet and piled essentials inside, including a dress for tomorrow, her hairbrush and a bottle of perfume. Before she opened her underwear drawer, she gave Jonas a pointed look and he turned his back like a gentleman.