by Laken Cane
I attacked him with everything I had, just as I always did. My mind was on only one thing—getting that stake into his heart. Killing him. Destroying him. Hurting him.
Avenging my family.
But Amias was ready for me, and he wanted to talk. It didn’t matter if I needed to kill him—his strength was enormous, and I was, no matter what grew inside me, human. A puny human.
He grabbed me, held me against him with one arm, then ripped the stake out of my grip. He flung it at the wall with such force the sharpened point lodged in the plaster.
“No more.” His voice was quiet, but the power inside it blasted my eardrums and exploded into my brain. “You will never make me kill you, Trinity Sinclair.”
As though that was what I was after. My death.
And he was done playing.
He couldn’t mesmerize me—he’d tried before—but he could subdue me with his vampire strength. It wrapped around my body, my mind, my soul, and held me fast.
I stiffened against him, my mind screaming at me to attack, to relax, to fight, surrender, to hate, to love. I warred with myself with such violence that in the end, all I could do was sink to the floor, caught in his arms, and wail.
“You are mine,” he whispered, the vampire I hated above all things, and that whisper seemed to reverberate throughout the room. “You belong to me now.”
And I knew it was the truth. He could have proven it years earlier, but he hadn’t. He’d stalked me, watched me, waiting for the time to be right to force me to understand one indisputable fact of my life.
I was a master vampire’s servant.
His servant.
Amias Sato was my master.
Chapter Seven
He shuddered against me, as though the words he’d spoken were a release, and tightened his arms around me as I struggled.
“Accept it,” he said. “Accept me. You have work to do.”
“I will kill you,” I swore. “That’s what I accept. You are physically stronger than I am, but one day, I will find a way to end your life.”
“You could,” he said, his voice smooth and dark, “were you not mine. Death lay dormant inside you and I activated it when I bit you.”
“When you murdered my family and nearly killed me,” I said. I wanted to rip out his heart with my teeth. The desire to hurt him was stronger than the pain I felt when I tried.
I slammed my head back and heard his nose crunch, but he never made a sound. Pain shot through me, stealing my breath, and as nausea rose into my throat, I had to pause for a moment to concentrate on something even more intense than the hatred I felt for the vampire.
Pain.
It was like I was covered with raw, bloody wounds and someone shoved a hot, sharp piece of metal into each one. Slowly and deeply.
“Stop fighting,” he murmured, his lips moving against my ear. “Don’t fight it.”
But I couldn’t help it. When he was near, rage exploded inside me. Pure, black rage.
“I need to tell you the truth about that night,” he continued, when I remained silent. “But first, I will tell you this. Servants cannot kill their masters. The harder you try, the more agonizing the pain. That pain can destroy you, Trinity.”
“I will never allow you to be my master.” I was still a little breathless, but better. “You’re a fucking bloodsucking piece of dead garbage. You are the master of nothing.”
“If you consider yourself nothing.” There was a thread of anger in his voice.
I was pissing him off.
Good.
Before I could blink, he shoved my head to the side, exposing the side of my neck, and pressed his fangs against my skin. He didn’t break through, but I felt his need to do so. He was only a heartbeat away from biting me.
I screamed and tried to jerk away, but it was like pushing against an iron vise. I could barely move. I imagined him laughing at my weakness, my helplessness, and his derision infuriated me further.
“Stop,” he ordered, sternly, and it took everything I possessed not to obey him.
I wanted to obey him.
“I enjoy your spirit,” he told me. “I appreciate your courage. The spark inside you is hot enough to burn a man.”
“How would you know?” I stopped struggling, exhausted. “You’re no man.”
His sigh was soft against my skin. “I assure you I am a man. I am not human, but I am a man.”
He rubbed my skin with his lips, a hint of a kiss, and chills raced over my body. I shuddered as my nipples stiffened and heat grew between my thighs. He’d sexually excited me with one barely there kiss.
“Let me go.” My voice was a raw murmur, and I was almost unable to get the words out. I was…horrified.
Beyond horrified. I was allowing the vampire I hated, the vampire who’d killed my family, to excite me.
He tightened his grip. “I have something for you, but first I will explain what has happened to you, and why.”
“Let me go,” I repeated. “I’ll listen.” I had to get away from him before the lust overcame the hate.
He hesitated but must have believed me, because he opened his arms.
I scooted away from him, then sprang to my feet and went to stand against the wall, clenching my fists hard enough to bloody my palms. My legs trembled as I stood there, and finally, I pushed away from the wall and went to sit on the couch.
“Talk.” And I felt somewhat more in control when he actually did as I demanded.
He stood, then sat in the chair across from me. He crossed his legs, watching me with a sharp stare, probably waiting for me to bolt.
But I didn’t. He would have caught me and I did not want to be crushed against that body again.
Then I frowned. My rage was…less.
He was there, not five feet from me, and I was not bursting with rage. Why not?
Oh, I still hated him. I hated him with every fiber of my being. But the rage…it was softer.
Who would I be without my rage?
No one.
Nothing.
Because my rage was all I had.
“What did you do to me?” I whispered, devastated.
He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, wiped away the blood from his busted nose, then folded the cloth carefully and pushed it back into his pocket. “I made you part of something that should never have touched you. I am sorry.”
There it was again, sorrow, truth, pain. It was in his eyes. He truly was sorry. And maybe my rage dimmed a little more.
But it didn’t disappear. It could never. I still wanted to see him dead, and I wanted to be the one to kill him. And I was comforted by that thought.
He tilted his head, frowning a little. “Why are you smiling?”
“Because I still need to kill you,” I said.
“Part of you will always hate me.”
“The biggest part.”
“Perhaps,” he murmured
My cell began to ring and I felt for it, pulling it from my pocket without taking my stare off the vampire. Then I glanced at the screen. “Angus,” I muttered.
“If he comes here, I will kill him,” Amias said. “I have resisted because he means something to you, and I would not hurt you further. But tonight, I will kill him.”
I believed him. I send the call to voicemail. Angus would not be surprised that I was avoiding him.
I wasn’t afraid. I felt Amias’s danger. It surrounded him like a swirling black mist filled with glittering, sharp debris. I felt it. But that danger…
It wasn’t for me.
Amias didn’t want to kill me.
But my terror didn’t stem from my potential death. My terror came from a place that remembered what it was like to be helpless beneath so much power. It came from a place that believed he would toss me into whatever putrid magic soup that created turned humans, and I would become something worse than dead.
I would become a vampire.
That was my terror. My nightmare. My rage.
Because he could, and I knew it.
He sighed. “Your emotions change as fast as a child’s.”
“Just tell me what you need to tell me, Sato, then get out of my house.” If my voice trembled, he was too polite to point it out.
He settled back into his chair and crossed his legs. “There is an infection that affects my kind. In my youth, this disease was seen only rarely. But now it is appearing more often and is affecting more vampires. Those who fall ill pass this disease to other vampires when they bite them.”
“Vampires don’t bite other vampires,” I interrupted.
“Normal vampires,” he said, ignoring my scoff, “do not. These vampires are not normal vampires. They are sick. The disease creates creatures who become mindless and starving and…” He stopped for a second, remembering. He shuddered, then put his dark stare back on me. “Full of bloodlust. The vampire you killed behind the bar was recently infected. This is what I needed to tell you. Like the human flu, the vampire virus is active again and it is spreading quickly. Those are the vampires you need to hunt. The infected vampires have an uncontrollable desire to kill and an indescribable hunger. And it grows steadily worse the longer they’re sick. They grow worse.”
I swallowed, my heart beating fast. “So you contracted this virus and that’s why you attacked and killed my family.”
“Yes. I was newly infected when I…” He closed his mouth, opened it, then closed it again. Finally, he continued. “When I hurt you. I am a master, therefore I was able to stay slightly sane while it coursed through me. That virus still exists inside you. It is that virus that rages inside you when you see me. You would like me dead because of what I did to you and your people, but that black infection…it is the rage. It is what controls you. Do you understand?”
“You’re saying the virus is something almost like another being, and it lives inside me. It was meant to kill you, it hates you, and it is that virus that takes control of my brain and makes me go apeshit when I see you.”
He hesitated, surprised. “Yes,” he said, finally. “That is exactly right.”
I smiled, but it was more of a stretching of my lips than a real smile. “You’re wrong. I want to kill you, Amias. I do. It’s all me.” And my rage began to stir at the thought.
“No. Not only you, my love.”
I met his stare and could not look away. “I don’t believe you. I don’t believe anything you say. There was no infection. You’re just evil.”
“You should have died,” he continued, not acknowledging my words. “But you lived, and you became mutated. The virus, my bite, and something inside you—something you were born with—combined to change what you were into what you are.”
“I’m human,” I said, my voice hard. “That’s all I am.”
“Certainly not all you are,” he chided. “And you know that. As I said, you were activated. I activated you. And that means one thing. Whether you will accept it or not, you are mine, Trinity. And I…I am yours.”
Chapter Eight
That last sentence came out harsh and raw and reluctant, as though he hadn’t wanted to add it but couldn’t help himself.
I laughed, the sound rusty and fake. “I’m not yours, vampire. If I were yours, I probably wouldn’t want so badly to rip out your heart.”
“You’re angry,” he said.
“Angry.” I widened my eyes. “Angry doesn’t begin to describe it.”
He shrugged. “You fought off the toxin in my bite, but even now, some of it remains. I imagine it always will.” He leaned forward slightly, then gave a tiny smile of satisfaction when I recoiled. “Humans are not meant to live through that damage.”
“How did you fight it off? If you were bitten by some toxic vampire, why are you walking the earth like a normal monster? Why aren’t you out there killing humans?”
He studied me, something secretive and dark in his eyes. Finally, he spoke. “I fought off the virus because I bit you. It took me a very long time, but I triumphed. I am no longer mad, Trinity, because of you.” His voice softened and became velvety and caressing and tender. “Essentially, you saved me.”
Suddenly chilled, I shivered. “Believe me when I tell you I did not save you on purpose,” I snarled.
He nodded. “I realize that, of course.” He hesitated. “I told you I need your help. This world needs your help. You can give the true death. You can stake vampires. You can kill us. I watched you with the vampire behind the bar. You killed him. The humans like to call your kind hunters. Exterminators. Butchers. But my people have a different name for you.”
“Yes?” I asked, curious despite myself. “What do you call my kind?”
“Death,” he said. “We call you Death.”
My cell rang again, and though I fully expected I was getting another call from an irate Angus, Miriam’s name was the one on the display.
I looked up when Amias spoke. “They will protect you,” he said. “Those in Bay Town. Let them surround you. With all of us at your back, you will be safe as we can make you.”
The cell stopped ringing as I held it, undecided. “Safe from what?”
“They will come. You killed one of us, and the news will spread rapidly. You will be hunted. In danger.” He walked to me, and even as I held up my hands and flinched, he knelt before me. “There is no happy afterlife for us, Trinity. Only a great, empty despair. This life is all we have and we cling to it with a greediness you will never understand. You can take this life from us, so we will try to kill you. For the rest of your life, we will try to kill you. You think you hate us? It is nothing compared to what we feel for you. For your kind.”
I was frozen in place. My heart slammed against my ribs and my breath whooshed from my lungs. I could not look away from the sincerity in his eyes. “We?” I squeaked.
He shook his head, impatient. “Vampires. I will not hurt you.” His jaw knotted as he clenched his teeth. “Can you possibly not know that yet?”
“What do you want from me?” I whispered.
He grabbed my hands. “For centuries, those of us who remain healthy immediately wrap the sick in silver and bury them deeply in the ground.” He paused, and when he continued, I heard the grief in his voice. Something even deeper and darker than grief. Something that I, in all my sorrow, had never felt. “But they are aware, even in their sickness. They lie there struggling, starving, alone. For centuries, in traps they cannot escape. But they do not die. I want you to kill the carriers. The diseased. It will be a mercy.”
Maybe he shouldn’t have added that last bit, because I had no desire at all to show mercy to vampires. But in killing them, I would also be saving human lives. It was a no-brainer. Of course I’d kill them.
“I will kill them,” I said. I yanked my hands from his grip, and then rubbed them on my jeans, as though that might somehow rid me of the lingering feel of him. “I will kill the carriers, and I will kill the regulars.” I leaned forward and got in his face. “I will kill you all.”
“Trinity,” he said, mournfully, then with a fluid speed I could barely follow, he stood. “I left a gift on your bed. I walked through hell to steal it for you. If it accepts you, it will be the only weapon you will ever need. Its name is Silverlight. Guard her well. She will kill the world for you.”
Before I could process his words, he rushed to the window—without appearing to rush—shoved up the window, and was gone.
I was on the fourth floor.
By the time I got to the window, there was no sign of him. I realized he couldn’t have come in through the main entrance because I wasn’t the only one who lived in the building. He might not have needed my permission to enter my apartment, but he would have needed permission to enter the building.
I slammed the window shut against Old Man Winter, who was being quite the bastard, then cranked up the thermostat.
Somehow I doubted that would chase away the cold inside me.
I strode for the bedroom, intent upon seeing what Amias had left on th
e bed. A weapon, he’d said. A blade.
Silverlight.
My cell rang, and I dug it from my pocket, impatient. I put it on speaker, then tossed it to the bed beside the rather small, leather-wrapped bundle that lay there.
Amias’s gift.
“Miriam,” I snapped. “I’m fine. You don’t need to call every—”
“I’m not checking on you,” she said, her voice as impatient as mine.
I took a deep breath, not taking my stare from the package. “What can I do for you?”
“I’ve been in contact with someone who can help you. He’s a hunter, too, and one with a lot more experience. He’s coming to town and I want you to meet him.”
I groaned. “I don’t want—”
“He’s a sweetheart,” she interrupted. “But he has some…um…issues. It’s time he became a little more social. He’s also my ex-husband’s brother. You’ll hate each other, but that isn’t important. I’ll send Clayton.”
“Miriam—”
She hung up.
I needed nothing less in the world than another person added to the growing gang of people who wanted, it seemed, to control me. I didn’t need to be saved, I didn’t need to be taught, and I didn’t need to be handled. I just needed them to leave me alone so I could figure out my life…and kill vampires.
I had no idea what was coming or how I’d handle it when it did, but I was not about to let my supernatural friends turn me into a needy little bitch.
They had doubts about my ability to deal with life, and if I wasn’t careful, I’d let their lack of confidence affect me.
I already had, though, hadn’t I?
“No more,” I whispered, and untied the leather cord wrapped around the package.
I held my breath, then pulled back the edges of the leather.
Silverlight was a sword.
It lay gleaming on its leather bed, beautiful and deadly and somehow dark, despite its clean, sparkling brightness. The blade was double-edged and looked sharp enough to cut my eyes if I looked too long at it. I held a finger over the blade, tempted to touch it, but something made me hesitate.
The black hilt was surprisingly plain, laced with silver filament, which appeared slightly worn and soft, and though I didn’t touch it, I knew it would feel like butter.