by Elena Lawson
Finally noticing me standing there, they scowled back at me. I met each of their eyes in turn and told them without blinking, “Eyes to yourself, ladies. Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s rude to stare?”
Without another word, they all blinked, my compulsion settling over them like a veil, and continued down the street.
“Did she just…?” I heard Ethan ask behind me, his words trailing off.
“Yeah. She did,” Frost replied, and I didn’t have to turn around to know he was grinning. I could hear it in the bastard’s voice.
Get it together, Rose, I told myself, trying to settle the hot tremors of jealous rage from resurfacing. I was a bit embarrassed and maybe a little surprised at my knee-jerk reaction…but fuck it. I wasn’t about to let anyone step foot into my territory. I just got them back, fuck if I would let anyone else try to get their grubby hands on them.
I shook it off and pursed my lips, turning my attention squarely back to the driver with my hands on my hips. Completely ignoring the guys jeering behind me. “Like I was saying,” I almost shouted, trying to get the guys to shut up.
They did.
I huffed. “I need to get ahold of Azrael. Do you have any way to contact him?”
He didn’t move.
“It’s important,” I added, hoping to find a snag in the compulsion Azrael had laid on him. Surely, he was thorough. Surely there were stipulations, like if… “It’s a matter of my safety.”
Immediately, the driver lifted a hand to his inside breast pocket and drew out a phone. It was an old flip-phone. Black and nondescript.
I took it and the driver resumed his straight-backed stance.
Opening the phone, the screen powered on and I saw that the thing was even older than I thought. The screen was small and slightly pixelated.
Christ, someone was going to have to introduce Azrael to the 21st century.
Not it.
I pressed the arrow keys until I managed to get to the little green phone icon and eventually, to recent calls. There was a long list of only incoming call, all from the same unsaved number. It had to be him.
It was probably useless to ask the driver anything, so I put the highlighted bar over the number and hit call.
The guys drew in close around me, though none stepped into the shadow of the hearse. They were purposely keeping themselves in direct sunlight.
It was…cute.
The phone rang for so long I wasn’t sure I was going to get an answer, but a second before I was about to hang up, the receiver picked up with a hollow click and a hard voice growled into the receiver. “What is it?”
It was Azrael alright.
“It’s me.”
“Rose?” His voice lost a bit of its ire.
“Yeah, listen, I need—”
“Has something happened?” He demanded. “Why are you calling, and how did you get access to this phone?”
“I would tell you why I’m calling if you would shut up for a second.”
Silence, and then, “Rose,” he growled.
I rolled my eyes. “I’m fine. Everything is fine. Better than fine, actually…” I trailed off, drawing out the suspense.
I could practically hear him frothing at the mouth on the other end. I might pay for this later, but for now I was reveling in it.
“I’m out here with the guys. We’re catching some afternoon rays.”
There was no response for a moment, and then I heard Azrael’s intake of breath on the other end. “Show me,” he bit out.
“He wants proof,” I said, pulling the ancient cell from my ear. I fidgeted with the buttons until I found a really shitty camera and held it up to the three vampires standing next to the hearse. “Smile for the camera,” I said cheerfully.
The picture was shit quality, but it would do the trick. Hoping Azrael wouldn’t take Frost’s brooding face, Ethan’s scowl, or Blake’s middle finger to heart, I clicked send and put the phone back to my ear.
Waited.
“Let me speak to Ethan,” Azrael’s hard voice came over the speaker.
My blood chilled at his tone and I glanced at Ethan, considering.
“Now,” Azrael hissed.
I hesitated. “No,” I replied, my tone sharp enough to cut stone.
“What did you just say to me?”
The guys were looking at me with expressions that told me I should stop fucking around with the thousand-year-old vampire and give him what he wants.
I turned my back to them, my heart beginning to thud loudly in my ears. “We’ll cooperate, but on our terms. I want your word that they will not be harmed. Ever. And I want you to remove your compulsion from them.”
“Anything else?” He barked.
I thought about it.
“I want that new truck you promised me…and I want to come and go as I fucking please from now on. I don’t want to spend even a second more than I have to in that infernal pit you call home.”
I held my breath.
“Is that all?” He drawled.
Was he…was he laughing at me? The nerve…
I was sure he could hear the grinding of my teeth on the other end, but I didn’t care. I wouldn’t rise to the bait.
“I’ll agree to your first three terms,” he said, sounding almost bored. “The other is out of the question.”
“I want—”
“Rose,” he warned again. “I will not argue with you. I don’t need to. I could find you anywhere now. I have enough of your blood for my witch to do a thousand locator spells. And when I find you, I don’t even need to drag you back. I don’t need to fight you…”
I shivered as his words slithered into my ear canal and down into my chest, where a growing chill blossomed over my still-pounding heart.
“I could just compel you. Compel them. I could erase you from their minds in seconds,” he paused. “So, dear Rose, I hope you understand that what I’ve just offered you is a gift and not a bribe. I don’t do bribes. I don’t do negotiating.”
“I—” I stammered, furious and disgusted and full of dread.
“Don’t forget who you’re playing with, pet.”
“Don’t call me that,” I spat, unable to help myself.
A low laugh rumbled through the phone from the other end, and then Azrael’s deadpan voice spoke again. “Now gather your things and get in the car—all of you. Judging by that photograph, you disregarded my request to remain within the building.”
I tensed. Crap. It’d completely slipped my mind with all the excitement. Surely no one would be able to track me so quickly? Besides, it was broad daylight. We couldn’t be attacked until after dark at least.
“You are no longer safe there…now would you mind passing the phone to Ethan?”
A tap on my shoulder had me jumping and spinning to find Ethan with his hand outstretched, a softness in his eyes that reassured me everything would be okay. It’s alright he mouthed and nodded to the phone.
Wordlessly, I stuffed the phone into his hand and stomped back inside.
Fucking high-handed, cocky, power-crazed dickhead prick…
I’d show him. It might take some time, but one of these days, I was going to bring Azrael to his knees. And I was going to fucking enjoy it.
22
There was no way any of the guys were going to climb into the coffin, and I sure as hell wasn’t about to volunteer. Instead, after grabbing my few things, a change of clothing each, and a vial of Ethan’s ink and his tattooing equipment, we all piled into the hearse where we could.
Ethan and I sat up front with the driver, and Frost and Blake sat on either side of the coffin in the back, both of them watching the sun set from the windows along the way.
I wondered if Azrael’s compulsion would make them forget where the cave was as soon as they tried to store the information. I could only imagine the migraine that would cause them. They weren’t happy at all to learn they’d all been compelled to not be able to find me.
Frost was a bit re
lieved, though. He thought he was going to go mad trying to figure it out, and now he knew why his mind wasn’t able to connect any of the dots he tried to snag out of the dark. Soon, that compulsion would be removed, and they’d know where Azrael was keeping me. I had no doubt they’d want to stay as long as I did, but I had no way of knowing whether Azrael would allow that.
At least he’d agreed not to harm them…
I wasn’t an idiot, though. Just because he agreed not to harm them himself, didn’t mean he wouldn’t compel someone else to do it. I knew how minds like his worked.
The last thing he told me echoed in my skull as the sun dipped below the horizon. ‘You are no longer safe there…’
Did that mean the guys wouldn’t be safe there anymore, either? If someone was able to trace me to that location, what would happen to them if they returned without me to protect them?
I gulped hard, and noticing my tight expression, Ethan covered my fisted hand in my lap with his. “What is it?” he asked in a hushed tone.
What is it?
I could’ve laughed at the ridiculousness of the question, but I reined in the urge.
Let’s see; we’re at the whim and mercy of a thousand-year-old vampire while another, equally ancient and powerful hunts us down.
I couldn’t believe I was thinking it, but without Azrael, would I already be dead?
Would we already be dead? I sighed. “The sun will set soon,” I said, deciding to voice a separate worry from the one that was eating at me. “Without the witch’s ward shielding me—”
“You’re worried Raphael will be able to track you?”
I shrugged. “If Azrael has a witch in his employ, who’s to say Raphael doesn’t too?”
Ethan pursed his lips. “Fair point,” he said. “But I think a witch would need something of yours. Like hair, or blood. or a personal belonging to find you. I doubt he would have any of that.”
“How did you know who he was, anyway?” I asked. “You all seemed to know who Azrael and Raphael were before I did. You knew Raphael was the one who killed my mom. How long did you know?”
“That’s a lot of questions.”
I turned my attention back to the highway ahead of us. “I’ve got time,” I joked. It was still another four hours to get back to the cave. We had nothing but time.
He chuckled and removed his hand from mine, following my gaze to the road. “Honestly?” he asked. “Everyone knows who they are. Well, every vampire does, anyway. We found out about them maybe a week or so after we changed. They’re legends in the vampire world. In the whole of immortal society, really. The oldest and strongest of us.”
I thought it strange that I’d never heard of them, but then again, I didn’t really stop to chat with my victims. Even though at times I thought it may have been helpful to ask if they knew of a vamp with one eye brown and the other blue, it never seemed worth the risk of drawing out the kill. Besides, I didn’t know the culprit was one of the most renowned vampires in the world. I thought he was just another undead bloke with a mean streak.
“Azrael was a big unknown,” Ethan continued. “No one had heard from him in nearly a century until he came out of retirement about ten years ago.”
When Raphael was compelled by my mother, my mind connected the dots for me.
“He caught wind that there was a mortal woman who’d compelled his brother.”
“A pure-blood Vocari,” I supplied. “Mom.”
“Yes,” Ethan replied, his eyes filling with sadness. “We don’t know the whole story, but from what we were able to piece together, it sounds like Azrael tried to get Raphael on his side—explained to him what a pure-blooded Vocari could mean for their race. But Rafe didn’t listen. If anything, it sounds like after he learned what Azrael told him—how the blood of a Vocari could have the potential to reverse the effects of the curse—he wanted your mother dead even more.”
My brows drew together as my brain tried to chew all the new information. “But, why? Why wouldn’t he want that, too?”
Another piece of the puzzle clicked into place as I remembered something else Azrael had said to the guys; ‘this may come as a shock to you, especially if you’re familiar with my dear brother’s beliefs, but I do not relish what we have become.’
And after that, when asked what he wanted with my blood; ‘you might as well know,’ Azrael had said. ‘For it’s the same reason my brother wants to spill it.’
“Two sides of the same coin,” I whispered to myself before Ethan could respond. “One brother who hates what he’s become, and another who relishes it.”
Ethan nodded. “Rafe believes the curse of the sun and moon is a gift. As soon as he learned what Azrael wanted to do, he found your mother and killed her. Thought he killed you, too, successfully ending the line of the last Vocari.”
“But he didn’t.”
“No,” he said, bumping my shoulder with his. “And I’m damned glad of that…” he trailed off, his small smile fading and light brown eyes growing shadowed as he bowed his head. “But Rafael will stop at nothing to make sure Azrael doesn’t succeed. He reveres the dark. They say he bathes in mortal blood and feasts on entire families in a single night.”
My stomach turned.
“They say he keeps a harem of vampire concubines chained in his palace against their will, too—calls them his wives,” Ethan grimaced, the disgust plain in the set of his sharp jaw. “He’s named himself the unofficial king of darkness.”
I huffed, my stomach roiling at his description of the monster as I spun the snowflake obsidian ring on my middle finger. “Sounds like he could use a good staking.”
“I’d castrate him first,” Ethan chimed in, surprising me with his vulgarity. I grinned up at him.
“Why hasn’t anybody? Killed him, I mean?”
Ethan cocked his head at me, a crease between his brows.
“I mean, I get that the fucker is super strong and shit,” I amended. “But if enough vamps banded together against him—”
“That’s the thing,” Ethan interrupted. “The vamps do band together. But they do it with him. Not against him.”
“You think he compels them to join him?”
“Honestly,” he replied with another heavy sigh. “I don’t know. I would hope they weren’t joining him of their own free will, but…”
He didn’t have to say it. I’d come to realize that Frost was right all those nights ago; not all vampires were total monsters. But there was more dark than light in the world of blood and fangs.
I may have killed a few who didn’t wholly deserve it, but I had to believe deep down that I’d done more good than harm. Many of my victims had the reek of fresh blood on their breath before they met the business end of my metal stakes. And others had attacked first.
Licking my suddenly dry lips, I shook off the thoughts. I didn’t want to think about it. “They might be,” I finished for Ethan. “But what’s his end game?”
That was the one thing I didn’t understand. Why rally a compelled army to your cause if all you wanted to do was find and kill a single girl?
Frost turned to face me from behind the seat. His green eyes shone with flecks of gold that looked like sparks of fire in what remained of the dying light. “He wants to take over,” he said. “We killed one of his lackey’s not too long ago. The fucker was raving mad. Talking about how Rafe would lead us all into a new golden era of vampire.”
…the fuck?
“He wants us all to bend the knee,” Frost growled.
“And not just us,” Blake added, not bothering to turn around. He ran a pale hand through his dark tousled locks. “Everyone.”
I barked out a laugh. “You can’t be serious. Everyone? Like all immortal kind? Shifters and witches and shit?”
Frost’s hard glare didn’t falter as he replied. “No, Rosie. Not just immortal kind.”
I felt like I was going to be sick.
A sickening dread shocked my system and slithered over my skin.
My lip curled back as I shoved the emotion aside in favor of one I could use. Fury. It’d been my companion for as long as I could remember.
When guilt weighed on me.
When heartache threatened to crush me.
When sorrow filled my bones with lead and scraped my throat raw.
Fury was there to pick me back up. It was there to lift my chin and breathe life back into my soul.
“I won’t let that happen.”
I didn’t realize I’d said the words aloud until Ethan took my hand again, twining his fingers through mine. “We,” he corrected. “We won’t let that happen.”
23
For the next thirty minutes or so, we were all quiet as night finally fell in earnest. All of us growing more tense with each passing minute.
“If they had the ability to track you,” Ethan said, breaking the tepid silence while rubbing a circle in the back of my hand, “They’d have found you a long time ago.”
I smirked. It wasn’t me I was worried about, but I wasn’t about to say that. I readjusted the stakes between my legs, making the holsters sit more forward so I could sit more comfortably.
“Why don’t you just take them off?” Frost grunted. “There’s still a lot of road to cover.”
I bit the inside of my cheek, but only considered it for half a second. I was caught without my stakes once before and almost got a broken skull because of it—I wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice. “No. I’m good.”
Frost snickered, rolling his eyes.
A loud electric purring sound had both Ethan and I flinching. I was about to ask what it was when Blake pulled a phone out of his jeans and Ethan relaxed as he put it to his ear.
“Yeah,” he barked into the device.
There was a pause before the atmosphere in the vehicle shifted. I couldn’t quite make out what was being said on the other end of the receiver from where I was sitting, but Ethan and Frost sure could. A crease formed in Ethan’s brow, and Frost looked like he was about to rip someone’s head off.
“Speaker,” Frost bellowed.
Blake pulled the phone from his ear and hit the button to put it on speakerphone.