Cursed

by Rebecca Trynes

  Damn. He’d liked that shirt.

  “Stand still,” Katarina said, eyes on the blood running down his arm. Thinking she was going to wipe him down, his mouth dropped open in surprise as she bent her head to his shoulder and started to lick the blood from his arm.

  Would he ever get used to this whole vampire blood-drinker thing?

  To his amazement, the wounds started to heal with each bite that she licked. Healing saliva. He’d completely forgotten. Awesome. When she was done, she smiled up at him.

  “You don’t taste too bad, nephew,” she said with a wink, focusing her attention on the fight happening in front of them.

  Oh, holy shit. He was her nephew, wasn’t he? And she was his aunt. Good thing he hadn’t found her licking a turn on…

  Turning his eyes to the fight, he allowed it to distract him from the unreality he had found himself in all of a sudden.

  Knox was a pretty decent fighter it turned out, but not good enough. He waited for his openings and didn’t fall for the obvious, but he never once made contact with his teeth, never once managed to sink his fangs into Greyvian—which was the whole aim of the exercise, after all.

  After a while, Jacob stopped analysing, stopped looking for ways to defeat Greyvian and just watched in appreciation of the fluid grace with which his father moved. There was never any hesitation, never any badly thrown punches or kicks, and when he bit, it was a blink and you’d miss it kind of deal. The strikes Jacob managed to see in action seemed an impossibility, so fast, so last minute they almost seemed an afterthought. Pretty soon Knox joined him in looking like piranha bait.

  It was a long while before he managed to drag his gaze from the two of them to glance at Lucas and Katarina to see if they were just as hypnotised by the fight. Lucas was suitably entranced, but Katarina was watching Knox, not Greyvian, her eyes following the half-breed like she wanted to jump the guy’s bones the first chance she got.

  Smiling, he focused his attention back to the fight. He had the feeling Knox was going to have his hands full with that one.

  Ten minutes might not seem that long, but when you were going all out physically and mentally fighting somebody, it was an age, especially when blood loss was involved. Knox didn’t last much longer than he or Katarina before his chest was heaving and the effort took its toll. Finally he surrendered and joined them on the sidelines, palms resting on his knees while he drew in air like he couldn’t get enough of the stuff.

  “Damn, he’s fast,” Knox commented to no-one in particular as Lucas stepped forward.

  Jacob wondered for a second if Katarina was going to offer her tongue to Knox, but the blonde was already licking his own wounds. Glancing at Katarina, Jacob noted that it seemed to be to her utter disappointment. Smiling, he lifted his eyes to watch how Lucas faired against Greyvian.

  To Jacob’s complete surprise, Lucas—quiet, laconic, ultra-relaxed Lucas—could actually move pretty fast when he wanted to. And the guy was into Capoeira. When the male started moving, all fluid fight-dancing with his arms and legs, Jacob felt for sure that Greyvian wouldn’t know what hit him. Surprisingly, or perhaps absurdly, Greyvian was no stranger to the style and came back at Lucas in kind, the perfect dance partner—completely in-sync. The two of them kicked and spun back and forth for a minute or two, each of them trying to land a kick that would plant the other on his ass, but neither of them connecting.

  It was fascinating to watch.

  Of course, Greyvian had to go and ruin it all by changing tack when he grabbed hold of Lucas’s ankle, halting the male mid-kick as if Lucas had suddenly collided with a wall. Lucas countered by falling to the ground and twisting, pulling his ankle from Greyvian’s grip, but not before his father managed to sink his teeth into Lucas’s calf.

  Not to be outdone, Lucas also changed tack and chose a different style of martial arts for the next round. Still, the half-breed was no match for Greyvian and, in the end, came away with a dozen more bites and nothing to show for it. When he finally pleaded exhaustion and stepped to the side, Greyvian was finally breathing heavily—after forty or so minutes of hard exercise, it was only now that the guy showed signs of exertion. Unbelievable—and utterly enviable.

  Turning towards them, Greyvian raised both hands and waved them all forward. At first, Jacob thought he only wanted to talk to them, but with the way the male stared through them, not at them, he pretty soon came to realise that Greyvian meant for them all to attack. It was adding insult to injury, really. Even four on one they didn’t stand a chance.

  By the end of the hour, they were all covered in smears of blood while Greyvian was merely breathing hard. It was unfair, really.

  “Good effort,” Greyvian told them, once again standing straight with his hands clasped behind his back. “Tomorrow you’ll fight each other, and then we’ll begin instruction. By the time I’m finished with you, you might even be able to mark me.”

  If Jacob hadn’t known better, he might have thought that Greyvian’s eyes were twinkling with amusement.

  “Where the hell did you learn to fight like that?” Knox asked wearily, sitting on the floor with his forearms resting on his knees.

  Lucas sank down beside him, the fresh blood on his arms seeping slowly and catching Jacob’s eye. When he realised he was staring at it and wondering what it tasted like, he diverted his gaze to Greyvian and tried not to think about it.

  “Many places,” his father replied. “Wherever I could find a master.”

  “Human?” Katarina asked suspiciously.

  Greyvian nodded. “Mostly.”

  “And just how many humans did you kill in order to train with them?” Katarina asked, her tone accusing.

  Jacob didn’t get it at first, but then he remembered that Greyvian would have had to have made the human Aware of him the entire time they trained together. That would have taken effort and require daily feeding if what Knox had told him was to be believed.

  Greyvian stared at his sister a moment and then asked, “Do you really want to know?”

  Katarina closed her eyes and looked a little pale but didn’t reply; her silence was answer enough. Jacob decided not to linger over it but hoped they’d all been evil.

  For the next three days, they trained at least three times a day for an hour at a time. Fighting each other was more of an ego boost than constantly failing to mark Greyvian, each of them giving as good as they got and learning pretty quickly that the less clothing they wore to training, the more clothing they had to wear later. Teeth turned out to be pretty vicious weapons when they were as sharp as a vampire’s and used to effect.

  Surprisingly, Greyvian was actually a very good instructor, able to break down the moves and guide their limbs to their most lethal destination over and over until each of them knew what to do without having to think about it. He wouldn’t have expected it from a male as standoffish as his father.

  The more they trained, the more Jacob could barely believe how much he had to learn about fighting, but then, he’d never been trained to deal with fangs before. It was quite humbling to find that you weren’t as good as you thought you were.

  After each training session, they would all retreat to their rooms to shower and rest before getting together again for some fun and games which usually involved a game of snooker, a movie, some other activity, or just ribbing each other over a meal about a particular move that had been made during training. Greyvian, of course, said very little and was often extremely hard to find, joining them only on the odd occasion. It seemed his father liked his solitude.

  It didn’t surprise him. Grey wasn’t exactly the social type.

  When the male did manage to hang around for a while, getting information out of him was like herding cats—sometimes you thought it was all coming together, but in the blink of an eye, your hold on the situation scattered to the winds. The most he could get out of Greyvian was a few one-word answers—yes, no, the occasional non-descriptive replies—that kind of thing. But he did manage
to glean the fact that his father was born in the Netherlands a long, long time ago, and that if he was to be believed, Jacob had a very extensive family—who would probably all try to kill him on sight should they learn of his existence. It was kind of depressing, really—to go from an orphan, to finally finding out that he had more family than any living human, to then realising they all wanted to kill you for the crime of genetics.

  It sucked to be him sometimes. But he couldn’t complain about the fact that he was now immortal (so long as nobody stopped his heart or cut his head off). The blood drinking would take some getting used to, but it was pleasurable—which was most of the getting used to part, especially where males were involved—so he had a feeling getting used to it wouldn’t be a chore. Even if life was a big unknown now, it was kind of exciting.

  A sudden vibration against his ass cheek was a reminder to call Sienna. He’d promised to call her regularly with updates, but each day it kept slipping his mind so this morning he had set himself a physical reminder. Good thing, too, because conversations with Knox and Lucas could easily suck hours out of the day without him even realising just how much time was passing. He’d learnt more about his father and what he could expect from being a vampire talking to them than he ever would from the male himself. Which was why he hadn’t called Sienna before now. By the time he realised he should call her, it was already 1am or later.

  Dragging himself away from the conversation the two in question were having about the merits of vampire invisibility in a movie theatre, he went out onto the terrace and pulled his phone from his pocket, navigating to Sienna’s number. She picked up on the second ring.

  “So you are still alive,” she greeted, her tone dry.

  He winced, feeling instantly guilty. “Yeah, sorry. I meant to call back sooner, but time kept getting away from me.”

  She sighed loudly, but he knew it was just for effect from her tone of voice when she said, “That’s fine. You’re knee deep in your new life and can’t remember that you left your best friend all alone with no one to talk to of an evening.”

  “Is it bad? Too quiet?”

  “Only when I get into bed and can’t hear you swearing at the TV.”

  He smiled in amusement. “I still maintain the computer cheats.”

  The next few minutes of conversation were idle chit chat until she finally asked, “So have you gotten to know him any better?”

  No prizes for who she meant by him. “Not from him. Knox and Lucas have plenty of stories where he’s concerned, but I think they’re more legend than anything based in fact. Although, he does seem to be more Hollywood vampire than average human-like bloodsucker like the rest of us are supposed to be, so maybe there is some truth to their tales.”

  He might then have gushed about Greyvian’s fighting ability like a schoolgirl would about a crush but he’d prefer to remember it as an in-depth critique by someone with a professional eye. Sienna even let him get away with it, which told him she was missing him more than she was going to let on. Normally she’d never let that kind of thing go without comment.

  “We should get together for coffee or something,” he said, feeling a bit guilty for not thinking about her more often. “We need to take a break tomorrow—training has been pretty brutal and we’re all completely stuffed—so that’d be a good time. Grey’s bites have been getting harder and deeper, so he probably needs to feed.”

  “What about you? Feeling peckish yet?”

  “Not that I can tell. It’s not like a gnawing ache in my gut like I get when I haven’t eaten anything for a while.”

  “Meet you at Joe’s?” she asked after a slight pause.

  “Sure. I’ll message you when I can get away.”

  “Cool.”

  The silence following their agreement wasn’t uncomfortable; each of them lost in a world of thought and just enjoying the ability to talk to the other if the urge struck them. Jacob took the opportunity to look out across the large expanse of grass that was Greyvian’s backyard: a clear perimeter that was more than large enough to see anybody trying to sneak up on the mansion that would give anyone in the building enough time to possibly grab a weapon and start shooting before the perpetrator was within range. Given his father’s past, it was probably necessary. Conversely, beyond that, there was an entire forest full of pines and oaks that would provide decent cover for said perpetrator, but also for anyone in the house should they wish to flee.

  It was kind of sad that the whole thing was necessary.

  He almost forgot that he was still holding his phone to his ear with Sienna on the other end of the line when Knox came out onto the terrace and stole the phone from his ear before he could react.

  “Hey Sienna, how’s things? Missing us already?”

  The male laughed at whatever she said and then proceeded to chat for the next ten minutes, asking her about work and her other friends and how she’d been keeping busy the past few nights without them. If Sienna was going to fall for a vampire, Knox would definitely be the less complicated choice.

  Lucas joined them soon enough, but he didn’t take the phone from Knox, instead getting up close beside him so he could listen in. Twenty minutes later, Knox finally said goodbye and handed the phone back with a cheeky smile that had Jacob rolling his eyes.

  “Tomorrow, then,” he said, voice dry.

  Sienna laughed and agreed, bidding him goodnight.

  14

  Sitting in an outdoor booth at Joe’s café, twiddling her thumbs, Sienna could think of little else but whether or not she would ever see Greyvian again. The male was on her mind constantly. She even thought she could feel his presence at times, which was silly, really. He had better things to do than haunt her apartment, or the café, or the streets on the way to work. Wishful thinking was a cruel mistress.

  Scenes from their time together played through her head with annoying regularity. Annoying because she knew it was an impossible relationship that was never going to happen, bittersweet because the memory of him was all that she had. But you couldn’t help what thoughts popped into your head. You could try to stop them once they’d begun, but sometimes that couldn’t be helped either. Like thoughts about when she’d first walked into the apartment and gotten her first glimpse of him. It took only a second for that memory to replay and it had the unsettling effect of starting a whole stream of memories pertaining to the male.

  The heat of his body under her hands, the smell of the leather he wore, the feel of him pressed against her, the tingling heat that one look at him could arouse. Every tactile memory she had of him came to mind in an instant, to be followed by the less tactile ones that seemed to create a stronger ache of sadness and regret that included his quiet intensity, the confidence with which he carried himself, the way that he looked at her—burning stares or distant appraisal—it didn’t matter which, just so long as he was looking.

  As if her longing to have that again wanted to become reality, she suddenly felt eyes on her. Looking up with unrealistic hope, she immediately spotted Jacob and his entourage walking down the street toward her, people melting from their path like they were being pushed away by an invisible force. Greyvian, however, was not amongst them. His absence hit deep.

  Forcing him from her mind with difficulty, she smiled up at her best friend and tried very hard not to focus on the fact that he looked so much like his father. “Hey, stranger.”

  “Hey, babe,” Jacob replied with a grin, sliding onto the bench seat beside her.

  She wasn’t prepared for him to keep on coming, for his chest to turn towards her, his arms to lift like he was coming in for a hug. For a moment, she thought that was what he was doing—until she saw that his nostrils were flared and his black eyes were on her neck. Time seemed to slow. She pulled back at a snail’s pace, her eyes dropping down to his mouth where a pair of fangs had dropped lower and seemed sharper than was possible for comfort in the mouth. She tried to scrunch her shoulders up to her ears to deny him her neck, but it
proved unnecessary.

  In the blink of an eye, Jacob was out of the booth and standing beside Knox and Lucas, the two of them having pulled him back away from her. And just like that, everything went back to normal.

  “Sorry,” Jacob apologised sheepishly, sliding into the booth across from her. “I can now understand what they all meant about you smelling so damn good.”

  Knox slid in beside her and took a deep breath. “Oh, yeah,” he sighed, grinning. “It’s back. You know—I actually missed it. But I can say that now because I’ve fed today, unlike some people.”

  Sienna eyed her best friend who just shrugged and said, “I was hoping I wouldn’t need to.”

  “So, do you two feed on each other?” she asked, looking from Knox to Lucas and back again. “Does that even work?”

  Knox smiled. “It works if we’re in a pinch and there’s no-one else to feed on. It sounds like a paradox—me feeding on Lucas and then him feeding on me—but it’s not really the amount that matters—as long as we’re not starving—it’s the foreign cells that are needed to start the process of duplication that’s key.

  “But no, we don’t generally use each other for that. It’s much nicer if shared with a member of the opposite sex if you catch my drift.”

  Remembering the orgasm she’d had right before Greyvian had been knocked off of her via a frypan to the head, she could well imagine why that would be.

  “That’s why we took so long getting here,” Jacob explained, shooting Lucas a leering grin. “Lucas here had to make a pit stop.”

  Lucas just shrugged one shoulder when she raised an eyebrow at him, unperturbed by the insinuation. She smiled. She really liked Lucas’s devil-may-care attitude.

  “What about you?” she asked, turning to Knox. “Who did you feed on?”

  Knox smiled slightly and tilted his head a little while shrugging in an I’m-not-telling kind of way.