“Why were you were talking to Richard McGregor?” Unease curled my stomach in to a knot at the mention of Micah’s father, the leader of the Shadow Agency. I knew exactly what they were talking about. Me. Micah.
Roy clenched his jaw. When he blew out a gust of breath, the pungent odor of liquor invaded the small space between us. “Our lives just got very complicated.”
“Because of Richard?” I asked.
“There are things you don’t know, things your father never wanted you to discover.” Another couple of candles snuffed out.
Without any effort, my eyes adjusted to the dip in light. The darker it got, the better I could see. I’d always had terrific night vision, but this… In the left corner of the basement, just past the worn, black punching bag was a spiderweb the size of a dime. I saw each complex, interwoven strand. Small flecks of dust adhered to the sticky lines and shook the strings as if a bug had just landed.
When a hairy, beady-eyed arachnid dropped down from the ceiling on a quest for its dinner, I looked back at Roy.
“Spit it out.”
He stood and began pacing in front of me. “Richard has always had a perverse fascination with you.” Roy swallowed and I could tell the words he was about to say were painful. “Even when you were a little girl.”
With the last ounce of good sense I possessed, I kept my mouth shut. I crossed my arms over my chest and ran my hands over my goose-pebbled flesh. I didn’t want to hear this.
“The day after your father died, Richard petitioned me, as your legal guardian, for your hand in marriage.”
“What? That’s crazy.” The bile in my throat tasted bitter. “I was only fifteen! Richard has a good thirty years on me.”
The moment I said the words, I thought of Julian. At over four hundred years old, the vampire defined the word old. The age gap, as vast as it was, was too preposterous to dwell on. At least when I was sixteen and all aflutter with hormones it had been. After one hundred years, who cared? The real question was, why did a thirty-year gap bother me? The answer was a vain one. Julian looked, and would always look, like he was in his mid-twenties. Richard suffered from male pattern baldness and had a spare tire under his shirt.
Roy brought me back to the conversation. “Which was why I told him no. Richard was quite persistent, as was I in my refusal. I’m afraid Richard has never seen clearly where you’re concerned. His affections have turned into something cruel, you know that. He is using what happened between you and Micah as a means to exact his revenge. Richard won’t say as much, but I know the truth. You should have heard the pleasure in his voice when he told me of his plans to bring up charges to get you expelled permanently. If his plan works we’ll lose everything. The house. The weapons. Worse, he’ll try to move for an execution.”
“They can’t take our home, Granddad built this place…” I whispered as Roy’s words spun in my head.
“This land belongs to the Agency, Ella. Everything in this room belongs to them.”
God, how had I not known what a sleaze Richard was? Had I been so wrapped up in the guilt and horrible grief of losing my father that I’d missed what was really going on? I tried to look back on my father’s funeral. I tried to remember the way Richard looked at me, the way he touched me. The only thing I could recall from that night was Julian’s piercing, blue eyes staring at me from across the room, and my curiosity as to why a member of the Vampire Court would be at the memorial.
“That’s fucked up,” I blurted.
The lines around Roy’s eyes deepened with his displeasure. “Really, Ella, must you use such foul language?” He shook his head. “Richard is using the fact that you bit Micah as means to terminate your contract and prove you’re a threat to society. He has documentation that could be damning.”
Apparently, Micah had tattled on me.
I had a wrenching vision of Micah’s lean body behind mine, his strong hands cupping my breasts as he brought my back against his chest so he could thrust deeper inside me.
I’d slept with Micah, the man who had the power to destroy me. And I guess he had.
Oblivious to the way his words were tearing me apart, Roy kept on talking. “With your knowledge and kinship to the vampires, he fears you’ll lead an all-out assault on the agency.”
Breathe.
“Did Micah know,” my voice cracked, “about his father’s interest in me?” I held up a hand when Roy opened his mouth. “No, don’t tell me. Richard knows I sank my fangs into Micah. What did Micah do, run off and tell him what happened the second I passed out?”
“I know what you’re thinking. Micah didn’t betray you. His admittance into the emergency room was telling enough. Blood loss and dehydration. Micah brought you to me in a panic, said your eyes caught fire at the first glimpse of sunlight. Just before he fell face first at my feet, mind you, he told me about the demon you encountered and what he remembered of what happened after. The fall split his head open and I had no choice but to call the ambulance.”
“Oh my god.” I pressed my trembling fingers against my mouth. “Is he okay?”
For the first time since I’d woken up, Roy met and held my gaze. “He will be. Micah’s health isn’t my main concern.”
As I swallowed, I dropped my hands into my lap. “It isn’t?”
“Ella, drinking blood has changed you.”
Punch right to the gut. “I, we weren’t in control…”
Roy shook his head and I closed my mouth before I could explain about the succubus attack he apparently already knew about. Did he know about the tattoos and the bite marks as well? Just how much had Micah told him? How much did Micah even remember?
“I don’t care about what you and Micah did. What’s done is done. Go look in the mirror,” he commanded.
What I wanted to do was crawl back under the covers with Hannah and pretend the last few days had never happened. Roy gave me the look that said he wasn’t my uncle but my mentor. When your hunting advisor told you to jump, you asked how high. When he told you to run, you asked how fast. Training made me get out of bed. A ripple of magic pressed against my skin. Looking down, I realized Roy had drawn a protective chalk circle around the cot.
Why had Roy put me in a circle of protection?
My bare foot smudged the runes on the ground. Julian. The press of my sire’s fury slammed into my head and I understood Roy’s precautions. He was shielding me. The hand I held against my clammy forehead did nothing to ease the pressure. Vicious, stinging words began forming in my brain. I shook my head from side to side in an attempt to get rid of them.
“Focus, Ella,” Roy ordered.
I stopped shaking my head and closed my eyes. With an indrawn breath I concentrated on the wall inside me. My shields were riddled with holes I imagined had been chipped out with an ice pick. Very carefully, I filled each one until Julian vanished. I couldn’t deal with my sire right now.
“I feared Julian might take advantage of your weakness. I should have warned you,” Roy said.
Weakness? How badly was I injured? Too many questions and not enough answers.
“He’s gone now,” I said as I made my way to the closest mirror.
My legs were stiff, my head throbbed, but at least the lingering pain behind my eyes had vanished. The cold floor radiated from my feet up to my calves and a shiver ran along my spine. I realized I was dressed in the long-sleeved shirt I’d watched Micah pull over his head at the hotel room. I fought the urge to hug the shirt around me.
Pathetic.
I stopped in front of the silver mirror that had been in my family for generations. All thoughts, all sensations, dropped away. My eyes were no longer brown. They were vibrant, unnatural and undeniably vampire blue.
I stared into the mirror. Blinked. One blink turned into three. Four. Five. Yet still the image didn’t change. I didn’t want to see, but I couldn’t look away. My eyes were not the blue of the summer sky but the blue of a bolt of lightning. The shade was electric. The shade was dam
ning. More telling than fangs to a vampire was the unnaturally vibrant blue of their eyes. I was exaggerating. Not all vampires had electric-blue eyes. The ones in the thrall of the bloodlust had red, glowing irises. Maybe I should be thankful for the new color.
Not likely.
Moving closer to the mirror, I pressed my forehead to the cold, slick surface. With each pant, my reflection blurred a little more, until it disappeared under the fog. Through the haze, I could still see that I’d been fully changed.
Drinking blood had been the catalyst. Even though my heart was hammering inside my chest, I wasn’t human anymore. Not even close. I took a slow, shaky step back. If only moving away from the mirror would change the image. Distance made it worse. The mist faded and the only thing I recognized about the full-body reflection was the chipped polish on my toes. The woman, the thing in the mirror was not me.
My bouncy auburn curls and the healthy flush of sunshine on my cheeks were nothing but a memory. Now the matted strands of my hair were limp and resembled old motor oil. That, I suppose, had more to do with not showering. Contrasted against the pale skin, the shadowed circles under my eyes were startling. Around the glowing blue irises were branches of red lines.
Was I crying watered-down blood? Was this a permanent change or an aftereffect from sun exposure? As I watched, a rose-tinged tear appeared from the corner of my eye and fell to the floor.
I understood what Micah had been trying to tell me in the hotel room. Your eyes. He’d seen the change and known what it meant. I also now knew why Roy couldn’t meet my gaze.
Hannah’s gasp shattered the terse silence. “Oh my god.”
I turned to face my sister with a silent vow to never look into another mirror. I swiped the moisture from my cheeks with the back of my hand. On the verge of a hysterical breakdown, my voice warbled when I spoke. “How pissed will you be if I break all the mirrors in the house?”
Tears filled Hannah’s large, pale-green eyes. The tip of her nose reddened. She bounded off the cot. With her long legs, she managed to reach me in only a few strides. As if she were twelve, not almost twenty, she wrapped her thin arms around my waist, bent and buried her face into my neck. She dissolved into tears.
“I’ll never forget what you looked like when Micah carried you inside the house. There was so much blood and I…I thought you were going to die just like Mom and Dad.”
Hannah never would forget. Guilt surged at adding yet another memory she wouldn’t get rid of. While I’d been gifted with speed and agility, my sister had been born with a photographic memory. Anything she read, heard or saw was stored in her head. The good and the bad.
I hugged her tighter and ran my hand up and down her back in a way I knew calmed her. “I’m so sorry, Hannah. You shouldn’t have had to see that.”
Her hot tears ran down my neck and soaked my shirt. When her hiccupping sobs quieted, she pulled back and looked into my eyes. Hannah pushed my hair behind my ears and sniffled. “You’re like a real vampire now, aren’t you?”
I gave her a watery smile. “I’m pretty sure I was a real vampire before. At least my heart is still beating, though.”
She brushed away the last of her tears and wrinkled her nose at me. “Just so you know, you smell really bad.”
I half laughed, half sobbed. “I love you too, Hannah.” I looked at Roy and willed my voice steady.
“I’m going to take a shower and get dressed. Can you take me to the hospital? I need to see Micah. I don’t know what happened to us but…I just have to make sure he’s okay.”
Roy sighed and I wasn’t sure if the sound was a yes, or a no. “Hannah, go on upstairs and make sure all the blinds are closed for Ella. The sun won’t fully set for about another thirty minutes.”
My sister looked between us and narrowed her eyes. She crossed her arms over her chest. Her bare foot tapped the ground. “You know I’m not a little girl, right? Whatever you have to say to Ella, you can say in front of me.”
“No one thinks you’re a little girl,” Roy said in a gentle voice reserved solely for my sister.
Hannah was five foot eight and blessed with the bone structure of a model—no one in their right mind would mistake her for a child. She was innocent, though. We all went to great lengths to keep her away from the violence of what we did at the Shadow Agency.
“Whatever. Don’t include me in the conversation. But if you think for one minute I’m not going with you guys to go see Micah, you’re sorely mistaken.”
I pulled my lower lip between my teeth. “Ah, I don’t think the hospital is the best place for you considering you pass out at the sight of blood.”
She huffed. “Then you better be ready to catch me. I’m going and that’s final.” Hannah turned in a flourish of long blonde hair and stormed up the basement stairs before slamming the door behind her.
Roy turned to me and I braced for whatever he had to tell me in private. Three long seconds passed. “Micah indicated that you two had intercourse. He doesn’t remember checking into the hotel or gaining your consent to—”
My chest ached at what Micah must think. “It wasn’t rape.”
“Okay. Good. Good.” He coughed. “I’m assuming you didn’t use protection.”
Protection? Oh. That. My cheeks heated. Were we really talking about this? “No, but I’m on the pill.”
“The same pills you haven’t taken since before you and Micah were attacked?”
Holy motherfucking shit. I’d missed a pill. The breath swooshed from my lungs as if someone had just punched me in the stomach. I wasn’t ready for babies. Hell, I wasn’t even sure if I could have children considering I was mostly vampire. My hammering heart pounded just a little faster—a reminder that I wasn’t a normal undead creature of the night.
As if he was oblivious to my inner freak-the-fuck-out, Roy kept speaking. “It’s too late for a morning-after pill. However, considering your recent changes I feel it’s unlikely that you’d become pregnant. I’d like to draw some blood. I’ve got a private lab in mind we can send the sample to.”
“Wait, what do you mean too late? How long were we gone?”
“Four days.”
My knees gave way and I collapsed on the floor in an ungraceful heap. I looked up at my uncle. “I’ve been gone for four days?” My voice was barely above a whisper.
“Yes. Now, are you positive it was a succubus that attacked you two? Succubi are not known to target a couple and they don’t leave their victims alive.”
“Micah is in the hospital!”
“Because of you, Ella, not the demon. Eli tracked Micah to the Lazy Eight Hotel when he and Hannah hacked into his credit card records. You two checked in and never came back out. A hotel that rents by the hour does not stock food. Neither of you ate or drank any water for days. It is a miracle he survived. I’ve seen the tattoos and the…bites. On both of you.” Roy clarified when I started to open my mouth.
Four freaking days? How is that even possible?
“Magic moves between you two, but I’ve never seen anything like it before. You should have seen Micah when he and Eli brought you to me. He was beside himself when Eli tried to touch you. He shoved him, actually threw him across the room and bared his teeth like he was a rabid beast.
“In the last three days we’ve suffered earthquakes and tornados, neither of which is native to our state. Eli and I have closed six different demon portals, which as you know is rare. We’ve also had an unprecedented number of demon attacks, so many the cleaners can’t keep up. The Agency has spun some bogus story about a gas leak to explain some of the sightings.”
He withdrew a folded piece of paper from his back pocket and handed it to me. As he spoke, I opened what appeared to be a map of the state decorated in a cyclone of color-coded X’s.
“I’ve been charting the reported attacks. As you can see, they are closing in around us. The ones in black happened four days ago and were outside our city limits. Blue was three days ago and red represents the
violence last night.”
The pattern cleared. We were at the epicenter. I looked up at my uncle with something akin to guilt tightening my chest. Vampire Queen. Demon Son. Destruction and mayhem. Were Micah and I somehow the catalyst for all of this chaos? “The succubus said we’d bring about destruction and mayhem. Are Micah and I responsible for this?”
“I’m not sure, not until I gather more facts.”
“Is it safe for Hannah to even leave the house? To be near me?” I asked.
“Until we know what’s causing this disturbance, I feel she’s safer with us than without. I know you don’t want to hear this, but we can’t shield her forever.”
My mother’s lifeless body flashed before my eyes and I recalled the porch swing she’d been propped in for my father to find. While I could still hear the creaking chain and see the nearly black pool beneath her, the other details were hazy. Hannah, who’d been four at the time, could still tell you what the weather had been like. What kind of ice cream we’d been out getting and how many red lights we’d stopped at to get home. Worse, she could still smell the blood. She could recall the exact angle of broken bones and list each cut and bruise that had flayed open our mother’s pale skin. Six years later, the nightmare would repeat itself when my father was murdered.
I shook off the memories. “She has enough horrible things locked inside her brain. I won’t add any more, not on purpose.”
“You’re right.” Roy ran a hand through his crazy hair. “There is some news about Julian I think you should hear.”
My chest grew tight at the mention of his name. Over the years, he’d morphed into some private demon who existed solely in my head. No one around me dared mention him. Not when he’d so cruelly changed my life and then broken my heart in a way it had never fully healed. “What about him?”
Roy stuck his hands into the pockets of his wrinkled corduroy pants. I watched emotion fill his eyes. He swallowed and I traced the bob of his Adam’s apple.
“It’s come to my attention that he’s spent the last seven years imprisoned at the vampire queen’s mercy. He allegedly broke free the same night you and Micah vanished.”
Dark Cravings Page 5