Tori’s eyes rolled back and her body slumped. Camille lifted her face and locked her feral gaze on me. Blood dripped down her lips, staining her chin. She smiled as she released Tori to the floor. She was dead.
Panic set in and my knees began to shake uncontrollably. “You…you killed her. Are you going to do that to me? Am I next?”
Camille wiped her mouth with a silk handkerchief. “No, my dear. I’m not going to kill you. I’m going to make you like me… Like Ozi.”
The pieces were starting to come together in my head—the blood bags, the warnings of danger, all the secrets and the lies. Even though I already knew the answer, I needed to hear her say it out loud. “What are you? What is Ozi?”
Camille’s grin grew wider. “Vampire,” she whispered.
We wandered through the warehouse’s first floor and found it empty. But I could smell the blood. If I strained my ears, I could hear tiny, muffled voices coming from the upper level.
At the top of the stairwell, my suspicions were confirmed. Two of Camille’s men stood guard. I motioned for Cassius to follow behind me and we crept up the stairs. Before the guards knew what hit them, we grabbed them from behind. I put one hand over his mouth and twisted his head, breaking his neck. Cassius mirrored my movements with the second guard.
“Look at the marks on his neck,” I said, pointing to two fang marks just below the guard’s jawline.
“Human blood bags. Clever.” Cassius stepped over the contorted bodies.
Some vampires kept humans around to feed on. It was extremely risky as you’d have to make sure to know when to stop before killing them. The idea of Camille having any restraint was ludicrous but there they were. It was even more astounding that she had double downed and used them as guards as well. Unfortunately for her, this only made them easier to kill.
“Well at least this will be easier than I thought. Camille isn’t that clever. Surrounding herself with humans when a vampire and a werewolf are about to crash her party.”
Cassius chuckled. “That bitch always was overconfident.”
I found the door to the second floor and yanked it open. I almost dropped to my knees when I saw her. Raven was passed out on a velvet couch, one of my waitresses was dead on the floor, and Camille’s face was covered in blood.
“Ozi, I was wondering how long it would take you and your pet wolf to find us. Welcome to Raven’s rebirth party.”
“What have you done, Camille?” I scanned the room and counted six human guards.
“Nothing yet, my darling. But soon your precious Raven will be just like us. Sad, tortured, immortal…famished for blood. And it will be all your fault because you couldn’t protect her. Payback is a bitch, isn’t it?” She stalked around Raven like a cat circling a mouse.
Cassius was breaking off from me while I had Camille distracted. He inched closer to the two guards at the other exit. But it wasn’t the guards I was worried about. It was how dangerously close Camille was to Raven. Would I be able to get to her in time?
“Don’t do this, Camille. Don’t punish Raven just because you’re angry with me. She doesn’t deserve to have the choice taken away from her.” As my hatred for her was growing, it was getting harder to believe I loved her once.
She bent down and ran her finger over Tori’s neck wound, still oozing, coming away with a smear of blood. She licked it off, closing her eyes as she relished it. “Oh, Ozi, payback is really just the icing on the cake. As much as I love that this is killing you, it’s more than that. Raven is my blood. My family. I have every right to turn her. There are rules in our world. You should know, you break all of them.”
“I won’t let you do it. If she wants to turn, it will be her choice. Family or not.” I slid forward and charged at Camille.
Taking my cue, Cassius growled and whipped around the room like a bullet, dispatching the guards one by one with his bare hands, ripping into their throats with his claws.
Camille darted out of my reach faster than I anticipated. She laughed wickedly as we were now in opposite stances around the couch. “Can’t even catch me in stiletto heels,” she taunted.
Raven stirred, letting out a soft whimper as she came to. Her face was pale and clammy. Her gaze traveled from Camille to me, her eyes widening as she clearly realized the nightmare was far from over.
“Oh god. This isn’t happening. Ozi, tell me she’s a liar. Tell me she’s crazy. Tell me…that you aren’t a vampire.”
I wanted to lie to her. To pretend this was just a sick joke. But I couldn’t. Lying to her was how we got here in the first place. And she knew deep down inside it was all true. “I’m sorry, Raven. I was going to tell you. It was just never the right time. How do you tell someone you care about that you’re a monster?”
A gurgle caught in her throat and she started dry heaving. I wanted to go to her and comfort her but I couldn’t let my guard down. I had to keep my eyes on Camille.
“This is insane,” Raven cried. “This can’t be real…” Her voice trailed off into a whisper and she was going into shock.
Camille watched with a smirk, satisfied that she had just broken the one thing I loved the most. “Maybe she’ll forgive you in time. Maybe not. I mean, look at me. It’s been over a hundred years and I still want to ruin you for what you did to me.”
“I’m sorry, Camille. I truly am. But we can’t keep playing this game. It’s time to end this once and for all.” I nodded at Cassius, whom she had forgotten about in her frenzied obsession with me and Raven. He pulled up behind her and wrapped the silver chain around her neck. A chain that he always had on him. She gasped as it singed her flesh, paralyzing her in place. Raven screamed as I leapt forward, positioning myself face to face with Camille.
“I should have done this a long time ago. I am truly sorry for that. Goodbye, Camille.”
She cried out, “Ozi, wait. Don’t—”
I plunged my hand into her chest and ripped out her beating heart. I squeezed it between my palms until the beating stopped. Her eyes widened then went limp as the light left them, and a tiny tear rolled down her cheek.
I turned around slowly to check on Raven. She shivered, hugging her knees to her chest as she rocked back and forth on the couch. “Raven, it’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you. Let me take you home.” I crept toward her with my hands out in a submissive display. I didn’t want to frighten her any more than she already was. But she still flinched as I got closer.
“Ozi, you need to get her out of here. I’ll clean up this mess.” Cassius was already starting to drag the bodies together in one pile.
I nodded and inched a little closer to her. “Raven, look at me. I’m going to take you home. Give me your hand.”
She trembled as she began to move her hand toward mine. And like an idiot I forgot mine was covered in Camille’s blood. Raven took one look at it and blacked out. I caught her in my arms before her head hit the floor.
I cursed under my breath. “It’s probably for the best that you sleep anyway.” I scooped her up in my arms and carried her to the car, leaving behind my past once and for all, but more uncertain than ever about my future.
Through the darkness, I could make out Ozi’s shadow. I was in my room, in my apartment, and he was quietly sitting in a chair watching me. I ran my fingers across my neck in a panic. A sense of relief washed over me once I realized I hadn’t been bitten. I pulled the cord on the lamp next to my bed and muted light poured through the room.
Ozi sat stoic, wearing his usual three piece suit, but the top buttons were undone. His hair was ruffled, matted slightly with a light sheen of sweat. His shirt was stained with blood but his hands were washed clean. He gripped the arms of the chair and stared directly at me.
“How are you feeling?” he asked casually, as if I’d gotten food poisoning and had not just been kidnapped by a vampire. As if I hadn’t just learned that vampires existed.
My throat was raw. I reached for the glass of water by my bed and took a long sip. I
wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, never taking my eyes off him. “How do you think I’m feeling? How would you feel if you saw two people murdered in front of you? One was drained of all her blood and the other had her heart ripped out. How should I feel?”
He sighed and leaned his head back against the chair. “It wasn’t supposed to happen like that. I was going to explain everything to you. I swear.”
I sat up straighter, crossing my arms. “Tell me everything. Right now.”
There was an entire world that existed that I had no idea about. And apparently my life was tied to it even before I met Ozi.
“Let me pour us a drink first. You are going to need it.” He went to the kitchen and returned with two bucket glasses full to the brim with whiskey.
As he handed me one, I couldn’t help but flinch. It was a reflex. I knew I had nothing to be scared of. If he had wanted to hurt me, he could have done it weeks ago. And he did save me from Camille. But he was still a predator. And that terrified me.
He smiled and set the glass down on the bedside table. “I’ve been a vampire for two hundred years. I have no idea who made me. The last thing I remember was being attacked. Then I woke up on a fishing dock with an insatiable thirst for blood. It took me years to understand what I was. It took even longer to find people like me.”
“And Cassius?” I asked.
Ozi stiffened. “No. He’s not a vampire.”
“But I saw how fast he moved…” I was confused more than ever now.
“He’s a werewolf.” Ozi stated it as calmly as one would talk about the weather.
This night was just getting crazier and stranger than I ever thought possible. “How many…things are out there?”
Ozi winced at my phrasing. “Many. There are witches, and incubi, fairies, and demons. Those are just the ones we know about.”
Demons? “How could all of you exist and we not know about it?”
Ozi smiled. “Because we have a lot of money and we are good at pretending. And truthfully, adult humans only see what they want to see. It’s much harder to hide who we are around children.”
“You didn’t make billions off of food and wine, did you? What else do you do? How are you all so rich?”
“We trade and sell things on the black market. We hunt magical artifacts. Well, Lux does most of the hunting, but the three of us—Lux, Cassius, and myself—own the business together.”
I took a long swig of my whiskey. My head felt light and dizzy. “How many humans know about you?”
Ozi shrugged. “Not many. Enzo, a couple people on Cassius’s payroll…your roommate Piper. She’s with Lux now looking for something very important.”
My stomach dropped. How in the hell did everyone around me know what was going on but me? “Piper? I must look like the biggest idiot. Here I am whining to everyone about my ex-boyfriend while you all are living in a real life urban fantasy novel.”
“Don’t ever think that about yourself, Raven. How could you possibly know? I didn’t keep you in the dark to hurt you, I did it because I was afraid. Afraid that you’d look at me like you are right now…I also thought I was protecting you. Before I’d found out about your link to Camille. But I never should have waited this long. I should have been the one to tell you, not her. I’m sorry for that.”
My curiosity was getting the best of me. “I have to ask… Have you ever thought about drinking my blood? How are you able to control yourself around it?”
He shifted his gaze to the floor. “Of course I have. It’s in my nature. I can smell your blood from across a crowded room. I can hear your heartbeat over a thousand drums. From the first night I saw you at my party, all I wanted was to taste you… As far as controlling myself, well that’s something that comes with time and practice. A new vampire would not have such control.”
He was being so patient with me. So open. I had to know more. “Why did Camille hate you so much? She said you betrayed her. If you didn’t cheat on her, then how? How did you piss her off so bad that she carried a grudge for a hundred years?”
“I’m the one who made her. I turned her into a vampire…against her will. Times were different then. I was different then. After I showed her who I truly was, she detested me. Threatened to turn me over to witch hunters. Lux wanted me to kill her, but I couldn’t. I loved her. But I couldn’t risk having her expose all of us either. So I had to make her one of us to keep her quiet.” The pain and sadness in his eyes was heartbreaking. But the realization that I was now in the same position as Camille was a hundred years ago, chilled me to the bone.
I pulled the sheets in close, drawing up my knees to my chest. I couldn’t stop the shivering. “Is that what you’re going to do to me?”
My heart thumped in my chest. “Tell me the truth, Ozi.”
“No. I’m not going to do that to you. I didn’t think I had a choice back then. I believed we were in love, but when I revealed to her what I really was… Well, let’s just say I didn’t get the reaction I was hoping for. I had to protect my kind. I couldn’t just let her run around screaming vampire to anyone who’d listen. Times were different back then. Witch trials were still rampant. I had to either turn her or kill her. Despite how she felt about me, I loved her too much to end her life. I realize now that I should have just walked away. I created a monster.”
This was a lot to process. Supernatural creatures were real, I was adopted because my parents were trying to hide me from vampires, and now I was dating one. “What about my real parents? Are they alive? I need to know everything, Ozi.”
He pinched the skin between his brows like he had a headache. Did vampires even get headaches? “I’m not sure if your parents are still alive. But if they died…they died as vampires. Enzo said you were the last human descendant of the Deveraux line.”
I gasped. “Enzo? How is he involved in any of this?”
“Enzo is the one who paid for your ticket to Italy. He’s kept tabs on you since you were a baby. He was so determined to keep you safe from Camille, that even I didn’t know you existed.” Ozi looked down at his blood stained sleeves, his face full of regret.
The weight of his words felt like a ton of bricks, crushing me into oblivion. “What happens now?”
He looked up and held my gaze. “That’s up to you, Raven. I’m not going to force you to be like me. It’s your choice. No harm will come to you if you choose otherwise.”
Despite everything I’d learned about him, he still made my stomach flip and my knees weak. “I need time to think. To process all of this. It still seems…unreal.”
He nodded. “Of course. There’s no rush. I will give you some space to figure everything out. Again, I’m sorry for hiding this from you. I had no idea when we met that I was going to feel this way about you.”
“What’s it like?” I asked hesitantly.
“Being a vampire?”
“All of it. Drinking blood, being immortal?”
“It’s strange at first. There’s a thirst that consumes us. We learn to control it over time. Our senses are heightened. I can hear and smell things from a great distance away. We don’t sleep. We can still enjoy regular food and drink but we don’t need it. All we need to survive is blood. We must have it or else we’ll die.”
“How does one become a vampire?”
“You’d have to drink my blood after I drink yours. It would kill you like a poison but then you’d awaken reborn.”
“Does it hurt?”
“Only for a moment. But it’s forever, Raven. Once you become like me, there’s no going back. There’s no cure. Not one that I know of.”
“Do you ever wish you were still human?”
“I used to. I wish I had been given a choice. But that kind of thinking gets me nowhere now. What’s done is done.”
While his tone suggested he was over it, his eyes hinted at regret. “How will you explain what happened to Tori? Enzo, her family…they will wonder where she is.”
Ozi bit his lip and looke
d away. “I take full responsibility and I’m sorry you had to see her like that. I’m sorry for her. I will take care of it. Enzo knows the truth. Her family will be contacted and we’ll make it look like an accident.”
I was going to be sick. Images of her lifeless body, blood oozing out of her neck, came rushing forward. Was I still in shock? Even though my stomach was churning, I felt calmer than I thought I would be.
“I need to rest, Ozi. I need to be alone for a while.” Truthfully, I didn’t know what I needed.
He sprang to his feet. “Of course. I’ll leave you to it. I’m sorry for all the pain I’ve caused you. That was the last thing I wanted to do to you. Regardless of everything, Raven…my feelings for you have not changed. Even if yours have. I regret not telling you sooner, but I will live with that mistake. You shouldn’t have to. I will not blame you for wanting nothing to do with me.”
I forced a smile but a part of me was still terrified. Judging by the look on his face, he saw the fear in my eyes. He looked sad, hurt, and disappointed. But I couldn’t will myself to go near him, even though my body wanted to. My heart wanted to. But my mind was screaming at me to stay away.
“One more thing. I didn’t lay a hand on any of those women at my penthouse last night. That was Charlie’s mess. I know what it looked like but know that I never cheated on you. Since we met, you are the only woman I’ve been with. For what it’s worth, I wanted you to know that too… Goodbye, Raven.” He slipped down the hallway and out the front door before I could respond.
After a long hot shower, I bundled up in my robe and poured a huge glass of red wine. I needed to talk to someone but there was no one I could trust with this information. No one I could tell…except Piper. Ozi mentioned that she worked with one of his associates. That she knew about them. There was still this tiny part of me that was questioning everything. Second guessing what I saw and half-expecting Piper to think I was crazy.
After I Fall (Immortal Billionaires Book 1) Page 15