by Amie Gibbons
And the sounds shut off.
One vamp clawed at his throat, glaring daggers at me.
I could hear him thinking what he’d like to do to me.
“Try it,” I said. “I will eviscerate you and strangle you with your own entrails.”
He looked away.
Was this me? This didn’t feel like me.
It felt nasty and a little evil.
And pissed off.
And kinda proud.
I was so confused.
Blanche, Grant and I walked out without anyone saying anything and we followed Blanche down the hall.
She paused by a closed door and tapped on it.
Nothing answered.
She nodded and opened the door, closing it behind us.
The world was dark and somehow it didn’t bother me.
I could see in it.
“Alright,” she said. “I know you’re there. Come out.”
The shadows of the fuzzy nearly black room didn’t answer.
“Come on, you asshole,” Blanche said, grabbing my arm and shaking me. “I know you. You can’t fool me.”
“Hey!” I said, something, some emotion, slipping through.
The cold poured outta me with a chuckle and I hit the ground as my energy was sapped outta me.
Sorrow hit me like the cold was actin’ as a shield and tears broke out, loud and sloppy as pain took my heart.
“I knew you cared,” someone said.
I froze.
No way.
I looked up and couldn’t see through the darkness beyond a few shadows that made up the others.
But I knew that voice.
“Carvi?” I asked as I slumped over, my energy… my life? slippin’ outta me.
###
I sat up, suddenly awake.
I wasn’t anywhere. The world was a swirl around me.
The colors changed, different shades of light pastels and off-whites making the world peaceful and pretty, like Easter colors, and I couldn’t do much more than lean back against them and watch them dance.
“I knew you wanted me inside you,” Carvi’s voice said.
“Carvi?” I asked.
Hands I couldn’t see rested on my arms and the swirls didn’t change.
Lips met mine without warning and I jerked back, head goin’ swimmy.
“No, no, lea,” Carvi said, the invisible hands rubbing my arms. “You don’t have the energy for that.”
“I don’t understand,” I whispered, laying down on the swirls.
“I know. I know you don’t, lea. You need to rest. Stop trying to understand.”
I smiled. “Can’t help it. Don’t let the blond fool you. I’m made for thinkin’.”
He chuckled. “You’re made for a lot more than that. I wouldn’t have been able to do this if you weren’t. You have so much potential.”
“Are you a ghost?” I asked. “Possessing me?”
I could almost see him shrug as he said, “Sure, think of it that way.”
“I’m sorry I let you die.”
“You didn’t, lea,” he said. “You so didn’t.”
“I want to say, I forgive you. And I would’ve saved you if I could have. I didn’t freeze and let her shoot you just because of what you did. I want you alive.”
“Shush, shush, lea. You couldn’t have done anything. The shadow came with a freezing spell. I couldn’t move there either. Don’t worry. It’ll make sense when you wake. Sleep, my lea. Sleep.”
I closed my eyes in the non-world.
###
“Come on, take the picture!” a young woman giggled, striking the sorority squat even though she was alone on the beach.
She pouted at the camera as the wave crashed down behind her. She was around my age, maybe a bit younger, and beautiful with her long black curls and big brown eyes. Her skin was a beautiful cinnamon and so flawless you knew she never had to use coverup.
“Stop moving!” a woman I couldn’t see laughed.
The younger one froze, holding the pose as the camera clicked a few times.
“There,” the older one said, “one of those shouldn’t be blurry. My god, how much have you had to drink?”
“I’ve had two, big sis, calm down. I’m just hyper!” she ran up the beach, tackling someone right behind me.
I couldn’t turn to see but could hear the girls laughing.
“I’m done, can we go back to the hotel?” the older one said.
“Party pooper!” her little sister said. “Let’s hit a dance club. I need to shake it.” She said something in Spanish and the other girl laughed again.
They felt so light. So giggly.
But you took that lightness away, and I knew the older one’s voice.
“We’re in Miami on spring break!” the younger one crowed. “Let’s get wild!”
“How about you go get wild and I go to bed? I’m not twenty-one anymore.”
“Bah! Fine, leave me,” her little sister said in a dramatic voice. “I’ll be fine on my own.”
###
“Well, we recognize her, don’t we?” Carvi said.
I blinked and I was sitting on the beach, the sun high above and the waves sloshing up on the sand with a lazy whoosh-whoosh that said they’d be safe and fun to play in.
The beach was covered with sunbathing chairs, towels and umbrellas, people packed in just this side of too close, and a group down the sand playing volleyball.
I sighed.
He was okay.
I looked over and jerked.
Or not.
The skeleton turned to look back and me and smiled.
Red tissue hung off the yellow-ish bones and thin ropes of what I was assuming were muscles were struggling up his legs.
My jaw fell open and he tossed his head back, chuckling.
“You are so cute, lea,” Carvi said. “But you need to get out of here and rest. Stop trying to figure things out. They’ll still be there in the morning.”
“But I have to find out who killed you,” I said.
“And you will,” he said. “But for now, we need rest. I don’t think you realize how much this took out of you.”
“What do you mean we?” I asked.
He smiled, muscles slapping onto his face outta thin air as his cheeks lifted and the muscles pulled back.
“You didn’t think you’d get rid of me that easily, did you, lea?” He leaned back on his chair, lifting his skull to the sun. “Though, I will admit I didn’t think it’d work. You… dear god, you are powerful.”
“I’m dreaming, huh?” I asked. “You’re not really here.”
He smiled. “Please, please go back to sleep. I need you up and ready to roll.”
“Carvi, that vision, the girls on the beach…?”
“Piece of the puzzle. A pawn being moved into place. We just figured out part of the chess game, lea.”
“I have to find her.”
“We will. Don’t make me tuck you in like a child. Get your strength back up.”
I rolled my eyes but closed them, listening to the waves and the hundreds around us holding their own little parties on the sand.
###
I opened my eyes to a big bed and inched up against the pillows, looking around.
Carvi’s room.
My phone sat on the nightstand next to me and I grabbed it. Just past ten in the morning. Meant I’d gotten a good night’s sleep at least.
And I was starving.
Starving.
I could’ve eaten an entire cow wrapped in bread and bacon.
Well, that was a weird thought.
I looked down and realized I was out of the beautiful dress and in a giant, super soft white robe with an elaborate gold C sewn on the chest.
My heart rang with the loss and I shoved it down.
I could grieve later.
But the robe smelled like him, that musk of man.
A man who was just wiped off the planet after what? Thirty-five hundre
d years of life?
I was sad when Milo died, but it was the sadness of losing a new friend, someone who’d touched you. Not someone who had…
Not someone who’d been inside you.
“I told him sex changed things,” I whispered, pushing myself to the edge of the bed and hopping down.
What would happen to his kingdom? What would happen to the movement? It’d lost its two main leaders in the past two months.
Maybe Blanche would step up to deal with it. Maybe someone a little older.
Blanche had become a vamp queen only about twenty years ago, when the demon attacked Carvi’s bar. A friend of theirs had been killed.
I didn’t know who else was in the group Carvi mentioned, but it sounded like Blanche was the only one left.
Maybe a few others, but if it was the killed vamp, Milo and Blanche playin’ cavalry, then I was betting they were the oldest and most powerful.
It took them over twenty years, but the Fae finally got Carvi.
“Oh, they’ve been trying for a lot longer than twenty years, lea.”
I screamed and jumped, looking around the bedroom.
No one.
“Oh my God, you really are haunting me, aren’t you?” I gasped.
He laughed and I could almost see him tossing his head back.
“Oh my lea.” He said something in that old language. His first, I think he’d thought of it as. “How do you feel?”
“No, nah uh,” I said, looking around the room again. “You did this before. When we first met and I was in the shower. You were talkin’ to me then, just like you are now. It sounded like you were right next to me but you were in my head.”
“Yes,” he said. “And?”
“So… I don’t… are you real? Are you… inside me?”
He laughed again.
“Oh my God, you are. You’re possessin’ me,” I said. “I think I’m gonna pass back out.”
I sat on the edge of the bed, taking deep breaths as my head swam.
This so was not happening.
A knock at the bedroom door made me hop and I sucked in a huge breath.
“Who is it?’ I called.
“Room service,” a male voice said. “I have breakfast for Ms. Ariana.”
Breakfast? Yeah, that sounded pretty good.
“Okay,” I said, tucking my phone into the robe’s pocket.
The doors slid open and the young man rolled the trolley in.
“Who ordered this?” I asked as he took the tray off the cart and put it on the bed next to me.
He shook his head. “I just fill the morning orders. I know the room ordered it, but I couldn’t say who.”
“Oh, okay,” I said. “Do I need to sign?”
He shook his head. “No. It’s on the boss.”
Did he not know?
I nodded as he walked out and shut the suite’s door behind him.
The tray had two plates covered with lids, a bowl of berries and a glass of orange juice with plastic wrap over them, and a pot of coffee with a mug and a few packets of sugar and a cup of cream.
I poured myself some coffee and mixed my sugar in, taking a sip.
Yum.
I pulled the tray lid off the main platter as my stomach lurched.
French toast and bacon.
“Oh yeah,” I said, unwinding the napkin and silverware as I pulled the lid off the other tray.
Eggs benedict smothered in hollandaise sauce on a small plate and a basket with pastries that made my mouth water next to it.
I dug in.
I’d never been so hungry in my whole life.
Nope, not even when I’d been held prisoner by a psycho and hadn’t eaten or had water for a good twenty-four-hours.
I downed everything so fast I was afraid I’d be sick.
This was enough breakfast for two, along with the extras that’d be snacks on a normal day.
What the hell was wrong with me?
What took that much energy outta me?
But I kept eating.
“There we go,” Carvi’s voice said as I got back up after my feast.
I jumped with a squeak.
“That about does it. Thank you, lea,” he said.
“You got energy from me eating,” I said. “That explains a lot. This is so weird.”
“You haven’t seen anything yet.”
I rolled my eyes and poured another mug of coffee.
Honestly, I could eat another full breakfast.
The doors rolled open behind me, making me jump and slosh coffee onto the soft robe.
It took a moment for my eyes to process what I was seeing and the cup dropped from my nerveless hands to the floor, sending a coffee wave over the beautiful carpet.
He walked in, bare naked and grinning wide as he spread his arms.
“Miss me, lea?”
Chapter sixteen
I launched across the room before I knew what I was doing and jumped into Carvi’s arms, pulling him in a tight hug.
Carvi grunted as I jumped up and wrapped my legs around his waist and he leaned against the wall, slowly sinking down.
I leaned back to look in his eyes.
“Still pretty tired, lea,” he said, running his hands through my hair. “It’s going to take a lot more to get my strength back.”
“It’s a trick,” I whispered.
He smiled, eyes practically glowing. “It’s not. I’m here.”
I kissed him hard and he pulled me tight onto him, kissing me back.
I rode on top of him, kissing, tasting.
Making sure it was him.
He rose and hardened under me and pulled back, gasping for air he didn’t need.
“I’m not fully up to it, lea,” he said. “Pun intended. But if you want to be on top.”
I rocked back, staring hard at him.
And slapped him as hard as I could.
“Ow!” he yelled, pushing me back with one hand as the other went to his cheek. “Lea!”
“You made me think you were dead, you asshole!” I yelled, pushin’ on his shoulders to get up.
I backed away, crossing my arms.
He held up his hands. “I can explain, but I don’t think you realize how weak I am right now.”
“What happened!”
“Stop shrieking, lea. You’re hurting my ears.”
“I’m gonna hurt a good bit more than that if you don’t start talkin’,” I said, staring him down. “You tricked me. You… I thought you were dead. Do you know how… upset doesn’t cover it. I thought you died!”
He stayed down against the wall and dizzies struck me again, making me sink to my knees.
He patted the ground next to him and I crawled up, flopping next to him and laying my head on his thigh.
“I don’t understand,” I said.
“I’m sucking energy from you,” he said. “That’s where all your food went. I’ll get you more. And me some more. Just have to give me a minute to get enough energy to grab a phone.”
“Phone,” I said, pulling mine outta my pocket and handing it over.
“Thank you.”
He sounded so weak.
He dialed with slow, deliberate movements and put the phone to his ear.
“It’s me,” he said. After a moment, “Yes, you are a mind reader.” He paused then looked at me. “I, yes, and him too. Thank you. And yes, another plate for her.” He nodded and said, “That’s okay, send up as ready.”
And he hung up.
“Room service will be here soon, lea,” he said.
“For, um, both of us?” I asked.
If he was this weak, he was gonna need blood.
“Yes.” He petted my thigh through the robe. “I’d love to have you, but you’re already drained from this.” He gestured to himself.
“Yeah, about that,” I said. “Explain?”
“After what happened to Milo, I put a spell on myself so if silver hit my heart, my spirit would be cast out into the stronge
st person I was connected to nearby, entrusted a few with the spells to put me back, and had another spell to suck extra energy out of my people where possible to rebuild my body once all the silver was out of the remains.”
I don’t know when my jaw dropped but when I realized it, I closed it pretty skippy.
“So you did possess me?” I asked.
“Yes, and I took you over, and Blanche gathered my remains and did the spell to put me back, then I started sucking energy out of you, and others around who were connected to me and powerful enough.”
“So the dream on the beach was…?”
“A vision mixed with a dream, but yes, that’s basically what I looked like while I was rebuilding. I told you, I have healers who use the body’s natural healing and just accelerate the process. They went to work on me all night, and your food was the final boost to get me walking. I was in the living room, didn’t want to risk scaring you by you waking up next to a half-grown corpse.”
“I don’t think I can process this,” I said. “I think my mind has officially broken.”
“Nah.” Carvi waved a hand with no oomph. “You’ll be fine. Your mind can take quite a bit.”
A knock sounded on the door out in the living room and Carvi called, “Who!”
“Grant!”
“Come on in!” Carvi yelled, then turned his head to me. “One more for the party.”
“Huh?” I asked as the door closed, and Grant walked in a moment later.
If he was surprised to see Carvi, he didn’t let it show.
“Up and about, I see,” Grant said.
“You knew?” I asked.
He shot me his little ghost smile. “I helped Blanche with gathering the remains after you were out.” He shook his head. “Can’t believe it.”
“Believe it. Can’t get rid of me that easily,” Carvi said. “Grant, I am formally asking you for the blood you owe me for this round of our little arrangement. I will, with your permission, also be taking energy on top of the usual amount vampires take with the blood we drink. In exchange for the extra, I will cut one feeding off the deal, leaving you with three after this.”
Grant set his jaw, looking at me. “A deal is a deal, and I will hold up my end, but not with her watching.”
“I need her to watch,” Carvi said. “I feed on lust as much as blood, and I will be able to get a bit more out with that, and I’ll be able to do it naturally, instead of the extra energy wasted in the conversion process. I am asking for this, Grant, so you can say no, but part of the deal to make this a two for one is Ariana’s involvement.”