by Wendi Wilson
“It doesn’t matter,” I said, trying to rein the conversation back to the problem at hand. “Can you modify the spell, or not?”
“I don’t know how to do that, yet. We would have to break the spell and try a different one, but that’s too dangerous.”
“She’d kill us before we could utter a single word,” I agreed.
“You could try to compel her. Maybe your power of compulsion could somehow override the spell. You spoke it, too. Your power feeds it just as much as mine. Maybe your intention could… I don’t know… reshape it.”
“Maybe we should wait for the others to get back. They can use their vampire strength to hold her in case the spell slips or something.”
“Piper!”
My head jerked toward the entrance. Levi rushed in to stand before me, his shirt and jacket soaked in blood.
“Are you okay? What happened to you?” I asked, my eyes searching for an open wound.
“I’m fine,” he said. “Are you okay?”
His eyes darted between me, True, and Astrid as he tried to assess the situation.
“We’re all right,” I said. “True and I managed to work a spell to freeze her and got all of the innocent people out of here. Where are Desmond and Coco?”
“Desmond is still healing, and I left Coco with him.”
“What happened?” True asked, a panicked waver in her voice.
“She slit our throats,” he answered, jerking his head toward Astrid.
I shuddered inwardly at the thought. His throat slit?! Shit. But he was here. He was okay.
Still, he looked both pissed and worried at the same time. “We didn’t hear or see anything. We were just talking one second, and the next, we were on the ground bleeding out. It takes a while to heal from that kind of wound, or we would’ve been in here sooner. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault—”
My words cut off as several things happened at once. Levi took my free hand in his, grasping it tightly as Desmond appeared in a blur of motion. He jerked True into his arms to hug her, wrenching her hand away from mine.
I opened my mouth to shout, but no sound emerged as excruciating pain bloomed in my throat. My eyes widened, and I tried to scream, but all that came out were strange gurgling noises as something warm and wet coated my chest.
Blackness edged my vision as muffled shouts and screams sounded around me. I could barely hear the cacophony over my own heartbeat thumping in my ears. I floated onto my back, listening to the rhythm of my heart growing slower and slower as I hit the floor with a thud.
I tried to breathe but couldn’t seem to fill my lungs. I knew I should’ve been panicking at the lack of oxygen, but in that moment, it didn’t seem to matter.
Why is it so cold in here?
Everything became silent as Levi’s face appeared over mine. His mouth was moving rapidly as tears poured down his cheeks, but I couldn’t hear his voice. All I knew was peace, even when his fangs popped out, glistening with moisture.
He is so beautiful. I love him so much.
I must have closed my eyes, because everything went black.
Chapter Twenty
My world was on fire, and I was burning alive.
But not just burning, the sensation of flames eating up my limbs and lapping at my brain was mixed with an icy, cold paralysis. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t scream. Couldn’t beg for morphine or the sweet release of death.
I couldn’t do anything except feel every atom of my body sizzle away, reform, freeze, and shatter.
Again and again.
Everything was pain, but then, there was something else, too. My mind kept trying to break out of the cycle of agony by reminding me of something important skimming right under the surface. It moved like a fish swimming under a sheet of ice. I tried to spot it through the shimmering expanse, but it darted away, disappearing until all that was left was the pain.
Burning. Freezing. Dying. Being reborn.
Time passed. How long I was stuck in this hell, I did not know, but slowly, I began to be more aware of myself. I still had limbs, though I couldn’t move them. I still had a head, though what condition it was in, I didn’t know. Just the fact that I was having these thoughts gave me hope. If I was dead, it would be a dark blissful sleep, right? Or was this hell? It felt like hell. Maybe Levi had been right. Maybe our souls were doomed.
Levi.
I finally remembered him. I remembered his arms around me, holding me tight. I remembered the tears spilling down his face like soft, cool kisses as I… died.
I died.
But, if I was dead, why was there so much pain?
Burning. Freezing. Dying. Being reborn. Again and again.
Someone had hurt me. The vampire child. She’d slit my throat. I’d gurgled in Levi’s arms. His fangs were the last image before everything succumbed to the darkness and pain.
Had he…?
Was I…?
“Piper, it’s going to be okay. Just stay with me.”
For the first time, my ears picked up on sound. Levi’s voice wove through the agony and madness to reach me, but it felt like he was miles away. I wanted to respond, to throw my arms around his neck and beg him to stop the pain, but my body wouldn’t comply. Still, I clung to his voice like a lifeline.
“Piper, I’m sorry. We’re going to help you. Just hold on.”
My body jostled, sending more shockwaves of electric fire down my limbs. Was I moving? Was he carrying me? Where were we going and why? I wanted to ask those questions and more, but the wave of torment washed over me again, taking me under. Washing me out to sea.
I came to the surface gasping.
“Piper!” My mother rushed to me, her hands fumbling across a white sheet to grip my hand. “Oh, my God. You’re awake.”
“Give her some space. This is a lot. You remember how it was for you.” My father’s voice drifted our way from a dark corner of the room.
Both my parents were here? Where was I? I tried to speak, but my throat was a desert, and nothing but a raw, scratchy cry scraped out.
“She’s thirsty,” Mom said. “The drink.” Her hand waved behind her frantically. Someone passed her a pouch to her, something similar to a child’s applesauce packet, but this was larger and red.
Blood red.
Mom put it to my lips, and I suddenly realized I was thirsty. So very thirsty. I took a sip.
Tangy liquid coated my tongue, and the taste of pennies filled my mouth.
Blood. I was drinking blood.
My body both recoiled and desperately begged for more.
“No,” I groaned, pushing against the pouch. The urge to retch bubbled up as I gripped the bed and leaned over. I tried to suck in a breath to clear my head and ask more questions, but my lungs didn’t expand. I began screaming for a totally different reason.
Arms circled me as Mom pulled my body to hers. “Piper, listen to me. This is all very normal. Your body is going through a transition, but it’s all going to be okay. Just listen to the sound of my voice and try to calm down.”
Calm down?! She wanted me to calm down? My lungs didn’t work. And what was at all normal about this?!
“Scott, she’s out of control,” Mom said, looking at Dad who had stepped into the light. They both watched me gasping and struggling to breathe, my body lurching against Mom’s tight grasp.
But how could I calm down when I couldn’t breathe? I’d die. I’d…
Levi stepped into the cone of light.
My eyes locked onto him as he came forward, and my parents retreated. His arms replaced my mother’s as his voice took her place.
“Piper, listen to me. You don’t need to breathe. You’re a vampire now. It’s what you wanted, remember?”
In my gasping and lurching, a memory floated to the surface. I had wanted to be a vampire, and now I was one?
Levi. His fangs. I’d died, but he’d saved me.
He’d made me one of them.
My roving ey
es floated up to his. The green-gold of dappled sunlight dancing over forest leaves greeted me. His voice soothed my panic, and I realized he was right. I didn’t need to breathe. I wasn’t dying. I was safe, anchored in his arms.
“What happened?” I croaked.
“That… vampire moved so damn fast.” He shook his head as anger overtook his features for a split second before he banished the look from his face. “I couldn’t stop her. She wanted you dead. The second your spell broke, she slit your throat.”
I remembered again the agony of dying, and Levi being there.
“You saved me,” I whispered.
One corner of his mouth tilted up sadly. “If I would’ve saved you, you would still be human right now.”
“But I’m alive,” I said, though the taste of blood in my mouth told a different story. I wasn’t alive, not technically. I wasn’t breathing. My heart didn’t pound in my chest. But Levi was here, and so was I.
“I’m a vampire.”
He nodded, tilting down until his lips brushed against my forehead. For once, they didn’t feel cool against my hot skin because my skin was the same temperature as his. I shivered at the thought.
“What happens now?”
He shifted a little, still holding me in his arms as he gazed down at my face. “Now you rest and recuperate. Your body will need time. You’ll also need to drink blood. Lots of it.”
The urge to retch bubbled up again, but instead, I focused on his words. “I can’t rest. Warren.”
Levi shook his head. “You don’t need to worry about that right now.”
“Where’s True?” I tried to sit up as panic lanced through me. “Coco!”
“They’re fine,” he said, keeping me pinned in his strong embrace. “We stopped Astrid right after she attacked you. She’s dead.”
“Oh.” The thought of Desmond and Levi tearing apart a child was upsetting, but then I remembered her nearly cutting my head off. She was no child. She was a ruthless and ancient vampire who’d tried to kill me. Succeeded, really.
“What about all those humans at the club?” I asked.
Levi nodded, looking pained. “The one she bit died. There was nothing we could do. The rest are fine and still believe the club had a plumbing issue. You did a great job with the compulsion.”
His soft words didn’t ease the sting of realizing a human died on my watch. What could I have done differently?
“Please don’t blame yourself. There was nothing you could have done.”
It was like he was reading my mind. He must’ve realized I still needed soothing because one hand began caressing my hair in gentle, loving strokes.
“I know your body feels foreign, painful, and sensitive. That will pass.”
A grumble sounded in my throat. I found I could concentrate on staying calm or talking, not both.
Levi seemed to understand. “Your repulsion against drinking blood will wane, but you need to drink it. It’s the only way you will heal. You’ll get used to it.”
I pinched my lips together. Just the thought of blood sent my stomach lurching. But that other, undeniable sensation followed right after. My body wanted that blood. It needed it almost as much as my lungs had needed air.
Shit. Everything was upside down. Nothing made sense anymore.
Except Levi. He made sense. His hand on my hair stroking gently was the only good sensation my twisted body could feel. I latched onto it, reveling in the soft brush of his fingers, and in the even timbre of his voice.
“It’s okay to be upset or angry. Anything you are feeling right now is normal. I’ll be here the whole time to help you through it.”
“Levi,” I croaked.
“What is it, Piper?”
“I’m feeling like I’m the luckiest person… vampire in the world.”
He smiled, revealing perfect white teeth. “Well, at least now you got what you wanted.”
“I did, because what I wanted was you.”
THINGS IMPROVED BY DEGREES.
It took a few days before I got used to the not-breathing thing. It took a few more to drain a bag of blood without gagging. The good news was all my wounds and broken bones had healed, but the bad news was my body felt foreign and strange. Throughout it all, Levi was there by my side. He never left, never tired. My parents flitted in and out, but gave us space. Coco came a few times, but no True.
It broke my heart that my other best friend couldn’t visit me, but I remembered how Coco had acted in Warren’s office, smelling my blood and needing it. Would I feel that way about True?
God, I hoped not.
Days went by, and I was feeling better, yet they still insisted I stay locked up in the room they’d set up in the camp infirmary. I told them I was better, begged, pleaded, but they still told me no.
And I hated being told no.
It got to the point where I couldn’t take being locked up in that room anymore, and I devised a plan. I would slip out, see True, prove I was fine, and come back. Simple. Easy. Sure, I was being sneaky, but I needed to see True, dammit. I felt bad for deceiving Levi, but he would understand once I proved there was nothing to be afraid of. I was sure I could control my urges. After all, it had been nearly a week, and I was so full of blood I felt like a tick about to pop. There was no way I’d attack True.
Finally, I saw my chance. My parents were out at some meeting, leaving Levi alone with me. So, when he stepped out of the room to get me yet another bag of blood, I scurried out of the bed toward the door and listened.
With my new vampire hearing, I could detect everything that was going on in the camp infirmary where they’d been keeping me to convalesce. Thankfully, I was ready. I’d already put on clothes and planned my escape route. When Levi got to the fridge where they kept the blood, I slipped through the door and went the other way. Then, I pushed open the exit as quietly as I could.
When the mid afternoon sun hit me, I nearly staggered back in. The beams of light were so intense, I suddenly knew what ants felt like under a magnifying glass. Squinting and burning, I threw my hands up to protect my face and ran as fast as I could toward Saka’am.
It turned out I could run pretty damn fast.
In moments, I was at the cabin door. I didn’t feel winded since I didn’t need to breathe, but I did feel as though my head might catch on fire at any second. Hurrying, I threw open the cabin door and propelled myself inside.
“True? Are you—”
Her smell hit me like a baseball bat to the face.
Her human smell was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. It was both tantalizing and paralyzing, so good my knees felt weak. My mouth flooded with liquid like I was salivating for the best food I’d ever tasted as my fangs dropped down in preparation.
Suddenly, I didn’t care about anything else. I had to have True’s blood.
“Piper?”
She came around a bunk. My friend’s midsection was wrapped in a towel and she was using another to dry her curls. Her eyes widened when she saw me. “Piper, what are you—”
I pounced.
In one quick movement, I jumped and took True down. Before she could even cry out, I had my hands on her wrists, pinning her to the floor.
“True, you smell... so... good.”
“Piper, no.” Fear flashed in her eyes as they spotted my fangs. “You don’t want to do this.”
“Oh, I do.” I didn’t recognize my own voice as I leaned down and opened my mouth.
“Frossen, rhewi, rigor mortis, congelé!”
The spell hit me before I could comprehend what was happening. My body froze in place, and no command I gave it would make it move again.
“Damn, Piper,” she grunted, pushing my stiff, powerless body off of her and standing up “If I hadn’t been prepared with that spell… But I was. I kinda knew you’d think you’d be fine around humans before you were ready. But it’s okay, girl. Your stubborn nature helped keep us alive.” She looked down at me, lying on my back with my hands curle
d into frozen claws, and adjusted her towel like having her best friend attack her was no big deal.
I would have laughed, but I was frozen in place. And it wasn’t freaking funny. Not at all.
“All right, let me get dressed, and then we’ll get you back to Levi. Stay right there.”
She barked out a laugh at her own joke, and I knew True and I would be okay. I just needed to figure out how to control my urge to drain her dry.
One baby vampire step at a time.
Chapter Twenty-One
Levi wasn’t angry with me. Even though I’d refused to listen to him, waited until his back was turned, and snuck out to see True despite the fact that he’d warned me not to. What did he know? He’d only been a vampire for twenty-some-odd years and had seen countless humans go through the transition.
God, I was an idiot.
And as it turned out, everyone had known just how big of an idiot I was. As the only living human at Camp Shadow Lake, True had put her head together with Levi, my parents, and Coco—the one who knew me best—and they’d come up with a contingency plan for when I tried to sneak out and prove my vampiric control and overall badassery.
When. Not if.
And nothing about that little excursion two days ago had been controlled. Or badass.
“Piper, it’s okay,” Levi said, and my eyes snapped up to see him leaning against the door jamb of my room. “There’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
“How can you say that?” I asked, staring at him in disbelief. “I could’ve killed True!”
“But you didn’t.”
“But I would have. I wanted nothing more than to sink my fangs into her and drink her blood. Nothing else mattered. Not my love for her. Not my morality. Not even the possibility that I could kill her. All that mattered was the blood.” I dropped my gaze to my lap. “I’m a monster.”
“You’re not a monster, Piper,” Levi argued, rushing forward to sit in the chair beside my bed.
“You said I would be,” I murmured, refusing to meet his eyes. “You were right.”
“No, Piper,” he said softly, taking my hand in both of his and rubbing his thumbs over my knuckles. “I was wrong.”