Her focus turns to me and she lifts her hand, waving manicured fingers my way.
“Oh, definitely not.” I turn around and grab Mirko on my way out. “What the—“
“I didn’t know she was coming,” he replies before I can finish. “I asked Ace to bring everyone and anyone who was willing, and she was one of them. I even asked him to offer money, but she came and isn’t accepting any of it.”
“Yeah, because her reward is to steal Jaren and mess with me.”
Mirko cocks his jaw.
Saying she is here to steal Jaren is a reminder that I still think of him as mine. “I hate her and want her gone.”
He nods. “I get that, but we need all the manpower we can get when the time comes—your father—Head of all the Pijawikas in the world, or did you forget?”
“Of course I didn’t forget. But it’s not like she’d step in front of a bullet for me, either. There’s no point in keeping her here.”
“She already has,” he replies dryly.
I furrow my brows at him. “What do you mean?”
“The fact that she’s here is an act of treason, a death sentence, Slatki. Do you really think she’d risk that simply for Jaren, or to mess with you?”
“Oh.” That’s all I can say. Whatever her reasons for being here, they have to be legitimate to risk this. It doesn’t make me like her, though. “Keep her away from me.” I turn to go back to the den, but stop. I step back to Mirko and point my finger at him. “And you’d better make sure she doesn’t use Sanjam on anyone while she’s here, or I’ll kill her myself.”
I can do it too. Mirko’s blood courses through my veins and gives me unprecedented power. I revel in it.
He tilts his head and frowns.
Yeah, the look on his face indicates he’ll talk to her. Good. It might save her life.
I go back into the den and settle next to Kaitlynn on the couch while we wait for Garwin to start.
Did I really threaten to kill Holly Anne? Maybe that’s why Mirko frowned. I am a monster. I bit him. And sure, I don’t like Holly Anne—if she did use Sanjam on Jaren, it was wrong and she should pay for it, but is death really the punishment that fits the crime?
What is wrong with me? How can I have so little regard for someone’s life, even someone I don’t like? Killing Jelena in self-defense is one thing, but this? I don’t like it.
Am I already losing my humanity? Is it because I drank blood, or simply because of who I am?
Guilt lurches in my stomach and molds into fear, which then spins into anger. I shouldn’t have to deal with these emotions, but at the same time, how can I be so selfish and cold? What will Kaitlynn think of me if she finds out what I said to Mirko in the hall? What does Mirko think of me?
My careening thoughts silence when Garwin calls the room to attention. Only my most trusted confidants remain—Garwin, Mom, Ace, Mirko, Jaren, and Kaitlynn.
“Mirko and I have come up with a strategy that we think will be our best bet in keeping you alive.”
“Wow,” I say, excited we have a plan, but nervous because whatever it is, it can’t be easy. “How long was I out for?”
Garwin answers. “Six days.”
“Six days?” Wow. That’s a long time to be out of the loop. “That must mean we don’t have much time then. My father has to be coming soon?”
“We’re afraid so. We’ve had a few unknown callers, but they were ignored as the plan isn’t set yet. We don’t have much time to implement it.”
Kaitlynn grabs my hand. She’s tense, but so am I. “Okay,” I say. “What do I have to do?”
“As long as you’re a threat, an unknown to the Pijawikas, they’ll fear what you are, what you might become, and that you simply exist. The Društvos have a serious problem. We’re short on our supply of providers—feeders, if you will—and this problem carries over to the Pijawikas. So if we could group you in with the Društvos, a subservient class of citizens to the Pijawikas, and show them you only want to live as a human, and that you can fulfill a place in their world they are desperately in need of, I think our chances of convincing Zladislov that you deserve to live and should be given a chance to serve them is pretty good.”
My jaw drops. Are they really telling me that I have to go into servitude to survive? I look over at my mom.
She nods reassuringly and pleads with her eyes, asking me to go along with what Garwin suggests. She fed the Pijawikas until she got pregnant with me, so if she is telling me to do it, it must not be so bad.
I look back at Garwin. He’s a Društvo as well, which must mean he has to feed the Pijawikas too. “But . . . what does this mean for me exactly? What about my powers? And do I need to . . . feed now?”
Mirko answers. “The point of this plan is to put you into a box the Pijawikas can easily identify with. We need them to see you’re not an ‘unknown’ to them. People fear what they don’t understand, so you shouldn’t use your powers. And as long as you’re not using that side of yourself, you won’t need to feed often, if at all.” Although his features remain stoic, his eyes reflect pain. I’ve seen it there before, so he can’t it hide it from me like he can everyone else.
I study him. Is he sad because he’s asking me to bottle up something he’s been trying to pull out of me since we met, or is it because he knows I’ll never truly be happy in servitude as a Društvo?
It has to be both.
“Well,” my mom says, “what do you think?”
I open my mouth to respond, but too many words want to come out at once. I don’t want to do this. I’m strong and powerful now. Especially after having fed off Mirko. I feel incredible and I’m not sure I can give this up. I’d have to learn how to drink so I don’t harm anyone else, but I want that now. And after having embraced some of this Pijawikan side of me, I exude confidence in a way I never have before.
Would all that go away if I try to lock it up again? It isn’t like simply locking it up will give me my life back. I won’t ever be a normal human girl. I’ll have to let someone bite me and drink from me.
Oh, no way!
I fed from Mirko and I know what that is like. Intimate. Ecstasy. I’m not sure I can handle someone else feeling that way as they bite me.
“Well?” Garwin asks, bringing me back to the conversation.
“I don’t like it. I’m not fond of the idea of letting someone bite me. Who would it be? And would it be more than one, or what are we talking about here?”
“You would be assigned to one Pijawika, and as long as things work out between you two, that’s the only person you’ll ever have to feed.”
Well, that’s better than allowing multiple people to feed from me, but even the one, some Pijawika I don’t know, a stranger to me in every way . . . Am I simply supposed to offer up my neck to them? “And this is the only way? No other plan? Nothing?” Running away with Mirko is starting to seem like a good idea.
“It’s really the only option we have at this point.”
I peer around the room, taking stock of the emotions on display. Everyone wants me to do it.
Everyone except Mirko. He can say he wants me to do it, but I know he doesn’t. His eyes betray him, but he wouldn’t ask me to do it unless he really thought it was a good plan.
I trust him, but this sucks.
“It can’t be that bad,” Jaren says. “You’ll get to come back to school. You can pretty much go back to the way things were except for when you have to feed your Pijawika. It can be a good thing, right?” He nods, imploring me to agree.
Of course he wants me to go along with it. Going back to the way things were, or as close as possible in my circumstance, is ideal for him. It’ll almost put us back on the same level. As a Pijawika, I’ll always be stronger, immersed in a world he doesn’t fit into. If I agree to serve with the Društvos, I’m mostly back to normal.
Do I want that, though? A few weeks ago, I would’ve jumped at the chance for what they’re offering me. I wanted to go to school dances, football games, gradu
ation—to have the teenage, high school experience. I wanted it so badly.
But now? It feels wrong, like a regression, a front to be someone I’m really not anymore.
Do I have a choice? I convinced Mirko to bring me home. I begged him for it, and Garwin is now offering me a way to stay home. A way to survive, to graduate, to live near Kaitlynn and move on with my life. Yes, these things will come at the cost of having someone bite me, but the sacrifice should be worth it.
“Okay,” I say, hesitantly. I’m about to commit to this and I have to be sure I can actually do it. “I’m scared, but I’m willing to go along with it.”
The room relaxes on a proverbial exhale, and Kaitlynn hugs me.
I don’t want to do this, but it makes me happy that she’s happy.
“All right,” Garwin says with a full smile. “I’ll make the calls and get it set up.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Brooke
I chase after the vehicles as they tear down the street. Jaren’s bound and gagged in the first one, and Mirko’s bound and gagged inside the one directly in front of me.
I pick up my speed and dig deep to reach all of my Pijawikan strength, but I can’t tap into it right. No matter how hard I try, I can’t flex my Nestati right to jump space and arrive inside one of the cars, let alone go fast enough to touch the bumper. But when the cars accelerate, I’m able to speed up in tandem with them. What the . . . ?
Fear clutches at my heart. Both Jaren and Mirko captured at the same time. How did this happen?
I don’t know—I can’t remember.
I’m confused, frustrated I can’t gain any ground and do something to help them.
I chase and chase after the cars for what feels like hours, never gaining or losing ground, always the same distance between me and the cars.
The next thing I know, I’m in a big, open space.
A warehouse maybe?
Jaren’s tied to a pole holding up a ceiling beam; Mirko’s tied to another one across the room. Both are still gagged. Both look at me with horror in their eyes.
“Which one will it be?” a gravelly voice behind me asks.
I turn to see a man dressed in a sharp, expensive suit, but I can’t make out his features. They’re blurry, or dull, and when I try to focus on his nose or his chin, it swirls and changes and goes blurry again.
“You have to choose. You can only save one,” the faceless man says.
I turn back to Jaren and Mirko, but now men stand about three feet in front of each of them—holding rifles.
My heart stops.
“You have until my count of three to choose which one you will take the bullet for. “One,” he counts. Confusion drowns me.
Can he really do this?
Are the guns loaded?
Will those men really pull the triggers?
I can’t think.
I don’t know what to do.
I glance back and forth between Mirko and Jaren, both of them screaming at me with terrified eyes to save them.
I step toward Jaren to save him.
“Two.”
I hesitate and turn to Mirko, stepping toward him.
“Three.”
The guns go off and bullets tear into Mirko and Jaren at the same time.
I scream until my voice dies.
I can’t move.
Burnt gunpowder lingers in the air.
The gunfire rings in my ears as their bodies hang from the poles, bloody and broken.
I hesitated too long.
I didn’t save either of them.
I open my eyes to darkness.
My heart pounds, and I verge on hyperventilating.
I try to focus, breathing heavily in and out, and soon the moonlight allows the room to take shape. My desk, the closet door, the corner lamp.
Oh, thank God.
It’s only a dream. But that doesn’t calm me in the slightest.
I jump out of bed, run across the room, and throw open the door.
CHAPTER SIX
Mirko
I jerk awake when the door slams open and Brooke barrels toward me. My eyes adjust to the darkness as she jumps onto the bed, landing on top of me.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” I pull her up by her shoulders to look at her. She’s in hysterics. “Hey,” I brush her wild hair out of her face, “what’s going on?”
“You died,” she says between ragged breaths.
“Slow down.”
Did she say I died?
A bad dream, maybe?
“Both of you.” She takes a deep breath and sits back on her heels. I hold onto her shoulders and she wraps her hands around my arms. “You and Jaren. Someone took you. They took you somewhere and told me I had to choose only one of you to save. I hesitated and they shot you both.”
“A bad dream?”
She shakes her head, so much more to her than a dream. “It felt so real. You and Jaren hung there from the poles. Both of you bloody and lifeless. Just hanging there.” Her forehead creases, the image obviously distressing.
I tuck her close and wrap my arms around her. “Okay, calm down. It was only a nightmare.”
She pulls away from me, head shaking. “No.” She swallows. “I was willing to die for both of you, but I took too long and the guns went off.”
“A dream, Slatki—”
“No, listen, please. Both of you were tied to a pole. Both of you shot, bleeding, and then dead. Jaren’s death broke my heart . . .”
Of course Jaren dying will hurt her, but it still pains me to hear her say it.
“But seeing you there, hanging corpses . . . it broke me completely. It broke my soul, Mirko. I choose you. From here on out, I choose you.”
I stare at her as the meaning hangs in the air.
When her words sink in, I long to pull her down onto the bed with me, but I have to be certain. Her dream rocked her, so I have to make sure she means what she’s saying. I can’t handle it if she wakes up in the morning, calms down, and then wants to take it back.
“You choose me?”
“Yes, yes! I choose you.”
“It was a dream, Slatki. Are you sure you’re not going to change your mind?”
She kisses me and leans me down onto the bed as her lips try to communicate what I’m not hearing in her words.
I wrap my arms around her and kiss her back.
She withdraws enough to meet my eyes. “I choose you.” Then her mouth is again on mine, nipping at the soft flesh of my bottom lip.
It sets my body on fire.
I almost lose myself before I roll over on top of her, staring down at her flushed cheeks. “And you’re not going to change your mind?” I’ve wanted her to choose me for so long; I’ve ached for it so deeply, I’m now having a hard time accepting that she’s actually giving it to me.
She places her hands delicately on the sides of my face. “I’m serious, Mirko. I’ve never been surer of anything in my life.”
I crush my lips to hers and give in to the call of my body. She smells so good—lemon drops and rain titillate my senses.
I need more of her, so I open my mouth and move my tongue over hers.
She responds by latching onto my tongue. She gives it a delicate suck, and I about lose control.
I push her back gently, breaking the contact of our mouths.
She smiles, clearly amused by the effect she has on me.
“Give me a minute.” I want nothing more than to take her, here and now, but it doesn’t seem right after the dream she’s had. When the time comes, it will be because she’s ready and not because of a dream amplifying what could amount to false feelings.
I kiss her forehead. “You should go back to your room.” I can’t resist her much longer, no matter what caused her to come crashing into my room in the middle of the night.
“Nooo.” She frowns. “Can’t I lie here with you? We don’t have to do anything. I want you to hold me. Please.”
Dammit. I can’t tell her no when she l
ooks at me like this. We’ll be in deep shit if her mom or Garwin walk in on us. She’s still a young girl in their eyes.
However, I really don’t want her to leave, either, but I’m dressed only in my boxer briefs. Only those and the blanket separate her from me.
Oh, and her thin sleep shorts.
Talk about heaven and hell.
“All right,” I give in, “but you have to stay on top of the covers. Grab that quilt from over there.”
She hops off the bed.
Her top rides up and I’m disappointed when she pulls it back over her exposed skin.
She grabs the blanket and skips back, a huge grin on her face.
Damn me to hell, but I’m a sucker for this girl.
I give her one of my pillows and put my arm out for her to lie down on.
She throws the blanket over herself and snuggles close, her head resting against my chest. She’s quiet as her breathing evens out and she eventually falls asleep.
I’m more than comfortable with her in my arms.
I’m home.
This is definitely more heaven than it is hell.
Well, at least until I wake up some time later as she rubs her leg across me. I reach down and caress her delicate, bare outer thigh. Her leg’s draped over my hip—under the blankets.
Shit.
I freeze my hand in place and then remove it like it’s hot coals.
Heaven’s turned back into hell, but I still can’t bear for her to leave, so I lie still, torn between bliss and agony until the sun rises.
“Slatki,” I say. I nudge her shoulder, followed by a kiss on her cheek. “You have to get up for school.” It’s a little early still, but she has to be out of my bed before Garwin or her mom start looking for her.
Jaren can look for her all he wants. I don’t care if he’s the one who happens upon us. If he did, I’d lie here grinning up at him.
Brooke rouses a little and looks up at me with a big grin. “Hi.”
I chuckle. I love it when she’s pissed at me, but this sure as hell tops that. “Good morning.” I kiss her smile. “What happened to you staying on top of the covers?” I give her thigh a light smack.
She giggles and offers only a devious smirk in reply.
Enemy Within (Vampire Born Trilogy, #2) Page 4