by L. Danvers
The stranger steadied himself and smiled broadly. “Bellamy Mortimer,” he said with an easy confidence about him. “One of the owners. It’s time for you to leave.”
The man glared at him, then looked at me with disgust. Deciding it wasn’t worth the fight, he allowed Bellamy to drag him toward the security guard posted out front. I found myself releasing a huge breath, glad to be rid of that guy.
I cocked my head, watching with curiosity as Bellamy whispered something in the guard’s ear. The guard nodded and took out his phone. I realized Bellamy had asked him to call the guy a cab.
Moments later, Bellamy strode back toward me, brushing his fingers through his curly brown hair as he approached. “I’m sorry about that,” he said sincerely when he finally reached me. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I nodded—a little too eagerly. I felt like some silly schoolgirl making googly eyes at the crazy-popular jock. Don’t make it weird, Grace. I breathed in, trying to compose myself. “I’m fine.”
Just then, Madison came up to join us. She pursed her lips, her eyes sparkling with mischief.
Upon seeing her, Bellamy placed his hand on Madison’s head and teasingly mussed up her hair. “Hey, kiddo.”
She swatted him away. “You’re three years older than me, loser,” she said before pulling out her compact mirror and assessing the damage.
“Wait,” I asked, “is this your brother?”
Madison cringed, letting out a laugh of relief. “Ew. No.” She glanced around the room, a line forming in her brow as she realized she had no idea where her brother was.
“Nathaniel’s in the back helping out.” Bellamy gestured toward the double doors to the side of the bar with his thumb. “We’ve been slammed since we opened. Which is great, but a couple of our kitchen staff members are out sick with the flu.”
“That sucks,” Madison said plainly. “So,” she said, swiveling in her chair as she turned her attention toward me, “I see the two of you met already...”
I tucked my hair behind my ear. “Yeah. He just saved me from some jerk.”
The corners of Bellamy’s hazel eyes crinkled. “It was nothing.”
“Well, that’s good,” Madison said. “We wouldn’t want anything to ruin Grace’s big night.”
“Big night, huh?” Bellamy’s left eyebrow lifted. “What’s the occasion?”
“We’re celebrating Grace’s twenty-first birthday. And I bet she’d just love it if you bought her a drink.”
He smiled one of those full-face smiles, boyish and innocent for his age. Then he glanced at me for approval. I could tell that he didn’t want to come across as being too forward, seeing as that he had just saved me from another guy chatting me up.
Cheeks flushing, I nodded to signal that I was okay with it. Quite frankly, I could use a drink about now.
“Well, then, birthday girl. What’ll it be?”
Xander
My head pounded like a jackhammer. Brows furrowed, I opened my eyes. Even that took an extraordinary amount of energy. My breaths were shallow and heavy. I was weak. Which didn’t make any sense, seeing as that I was a vampire.
Unnerved, I tried to sit up. But I quickly discovered that my bare chest was constrained by musty leather straps. I tried to break through them. I should have been able to break through them easily. But I couldn’t.
This wasn’t good.
Letting out a grunt, I fell back against the bed. The stark white room was fairly small—and really cold. I noticed that my right hand was trembling, and I realized then that my arm was covered in tubes that hooked up to a machine behind me.
How had I ended up here? Think, Xander. Think.
But my memories were a fog.
With my brain not functioning on all cylinders, I decided to go over what I did know. I was strapped into a hospital bed hooked up to more tubes than I could count. The reason for my current state became apparent when I spotted the blood bag, which was nearly full of my blood. Which meant someone had captured me.
But what did they want with me? And who were they?
A chill flooded through my veins. When the supernaturals were first outed to the world, my older brother Julian had feared the humans might one day experiment on us. After all, our blood could heal wounds. Was that what was happening?
I heard a beep, and the metal door opened. A woman entered the room. She was devastatingly beautiful—olive skin, emerald eyes and a killer body. And by killer body, I meant that she looked strong enough to strangle a man with her bare hands.
She glared at me with contempt before calling for someone named Evangeline. A redhead rushed into the room behind her, eyes widening upon seeing me.
“He’s awake,” the body, as I decided to refer to her, announced.
Evangeline pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think he’d be strong enough to—”
The body held up a hand to silence her. “Stay here while I have a little chat with him, won’t you?”
“Of course, Sofia.”
Sofia. The name triggered a rush of memories to return.
Grace and I had been in upstate New York looking for faerie dust when Sofia and her lackies attacked us...
My stomach dropped.
Grace! Where was Grace?
Beads of sweat formed on my brow, and I clutched the mattress, attempting to use it as leverage to push against as I tried forcing myself free. I had hoped I could use the sudden adrenaline rush to my advantage. But my body betrayed me. I fell back against the bed, trembling in a cold sweat. Moaning, I muttered, “Where is she? What did you do with her?”
Sofia shook her head mockingly. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. So many questions, Xander Dumont. But you’re asking the wrong ones.”
My lip curled. “What questions should I be asking?”
“Why you’re here would be a good one to start with,” Sofia said casually. She folded her arms across her chest, kicking her hip out while she waited for me to take the bait. I wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction, though. So, I waited her out.
After a few moments, she grew bored. Examining her deep purple fingernail polish in disinterest, she said, “You have a very important role to play in the plan. Consider yourself lucky. Because if it had been up to me, I would have driven a stake through your heart.”
Good. She didn’t know I couldn’t be killed by traditional means. At least that was something. “So,” I said, voice cracking, “you’re not the decision-maker? Who are you taking orders from?” Her mouth twisted into a devious smile. Now I knew why it infuriated people so much when I gave them that same look. “Who are you, anyway?”
She straightened at that. “You really don’t know, do you?” She seemed mildly offended.
“Should I?”
Sofia drew nearer, shaking her head. “My name is Sofia Albright.”
Oh. That wasn’t good.
My siblings and I had a long history with the Albright witches. Their ancestor, Claudia Albright, was the one who had inflicted the supernatural curses upon us. While humans could be turned into vampires by dying with vampire blood in their systems, we had been made.
You see, my mother had been desperate for true blood heirs to the throne. My older brother Julian was adopted, and she couldn’t stomach the thought of the kingdom being turned over to him. So, she’d summoned Claudia to the castle and cut a deal with her. Claudia agreed to ensure that my mother carried four blood heirs—Aiden, Charlotte, Natalie and myself. But on our twentieth birthdays, Claudia’s curse took hold. The four of us were turned into vampires. The Blood Heirs, as we were now known. And that same night, Julian shifted into a werewolf.
The werewolf curse had been Claudia’s failsafe. For centuries, we’d believed that Julian’s bite would kill us. And it did, in a way.
Now, Natalie was dead. Thanks to Julian, Aiden’s vampirism curse had lifted. He was now settled down with Victoria, living a perfectly ordinary life as a human many miles away from here. And Julian
and Charlotte were trapped in the portal that Grace and I were trying to unseal. Grace’s best friend Danielle was there, too, along with Keo and some other allies.
But Claudia’s curse wasn’t the only reason for the rift between us and the Albrights. In fact, for many years, Albright witches had held up the boundary between Crescent Cape and the human world. The boundary prevented humans from accidentally stumbling into our kingdom—but it allowed us to go out and hunt as needed. And to bring in blood slaves when we needed to restock our supply.
But two of their witches had died on our watch in recent years: Freya and Evanna. We suspected Freya had been killed by the rival Carlisle coven. As for Evanna—that was my fault. Kind of.
Look, in my defense, Reed Carlisle had cursed me to do his bidding. So, technically, the Carlisle coven was behind that one, too.
I still couldn’t believe that Grace was that mad-man’s daughter. She was lucky to have grown up without him in her life. And as far as I was concerned, it was a good thing he was dead.
Thinking about Reed, Evanna and Freya made me think about the boundary spells that had been dropped when supernaturals were outed. It was a known fact that in order to perform a counterspell, a witch needed a Silverleaf sapling. Phoebe Mather, a witch from the Kingdom of the Silver Seas, had helped with that. The catch, though, was that only a witch from the same bloodline as the witch who cast the original spell could perform the counterspell. Grace and I had wondered how Reed had managed to drop the boundary to Crescent Cape, given that he was a Carlisle. I had a feeling now that the answer was right in front of me.
Sofia was towering over me, brushing my dark hair away from my eyes. Examining me. I was sweating bullets. She flicked the residue off her fingers with contempt.
“What are you doing to me?” I asked.
“Draining you of your blood. Isn’t that obvious?”
She was harsh. “But why?”
“Your kind has brought enough harm to this world. With your help, we’re going to put a stop to that.”
“I don’t understand.”
She smirked at that. “Oh, you have no idea.”
Swallowing hard, succumbing to the pain and fatigue that were taking over, I managed to ask, “Where is Grace?”
“Don’t pretend for one second that you care about that little witch. How many witches, how many humans, have died because of you? You’re a monster. Selfish. Incapable of caring about anyone other than yourself.”
I ignored the thick feeling in my throat. Using every ounce of energy I could muster, I forced my fangs to emerge from my gums, trying to look as threatening as I could despite my current state. I had to find a way out of here. If they had so much laid a finger on Grace, I was going to rip every one of their throats out.
Muscles cording in my neck, I lifted my head. “Where is she?!”
Xander
It didn’t matter whether my eyes were open or closed. All I saw was a dizzying explosion of stars. I groaned as a harsh light flicked on overhead. I wondered why they hadn’t just killed me already. How much of my blood could they possibly need?
A lot, apparently.
Sofia and her witchy minions still hadn’t explained what they were using it for. I highly doubted they were donating it to local hospitals. Were they planning a larger attack and storing my blood so that they could heal themselves if they were injured? Were they trying to figure out exactly vampirism worked? I honestly had no idea. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good.
I didn’t care anymore.
I’d lost track of how many days I’d been here. I kept a mental tally at first, but I gave up after a while. The witches were providing me with enough blood to stay alive, but nothing more. I was painfully weak—even my breaths felt heavy.
The only thing keeping me going was knowing that Grace was depending on me. The Albright and Carlisle covens were rivals. And being that Grace was the daughter of one of the most infamous Carlisle witches to ever roam the earth, I shuddered at the thought of the various ways the Albright witches might be tormenting her right now.
I twisted my head to the side, staring at the wall in despair. I felt like I was failing her. She could be right there, and yet, I couldn’t protect her.
It was strange how far Grace and I had come. When I’d first met her, she was a blood slave in Crescent Cape—the kingdom once ruled over by my brother Aiden before Grace’s dad dropped the boundary. According to Grace, I’d fed on her. But I didn’t remember that. At the time, she had merely been food. Harsh, but true.
When she and the others had first been summoned to the castle as part of Julian’s “master plan” to arrange a marriage for Aiden, I had to admit she’d caught my eye. All dolled up thanks to the maidservants, she looked like a bombshell. And it turned out she had the personality of a firecracker. She hated my siblings and everything we stood for. I couldn’t blame her, but I also didn’t particularly care. It wasn’t until Aiden had gone off the artificial blood and left a trail of bodies from the hidden kingdom of Crescent Cape to the neighboring town of Quarter Square that we really got to know each other. And it took longer still for us to tolerate each other. The corner of my lip tugged into a faint grin as I thought about our history.
Up until we were attacked, we’d spent nearly every day over the last four years together. Honestly, I was starting to think Uncle Ben (technically, my very human descendent) liked her more than he liked me. Which I guess wasn’t saying much. But still. He was always inviting her over for family dinners—when we weren’t on the hunt for faerie dust, that is.
I wondered if Uncle Ben had realized something had gone wrong. I was starting to regret my last words to him being, “Don’t wait up for us.” I’d been being sarcastic. I hoped he realized that... Not that there was anything he could do.
As much as I wanted to give up, I had to find it in me to hold on. Because if Grace freaking Addington hadn’t figured out a way to get us out of this, she was in serious trouble. And I wasn’t about to let these witches win.
The security system beeped, and Evangeline walked into the room. I let out a sigh of relief. Sofia was a walking nightmare, but Evangeline at least had a sliver of a heart. “Time for your daily allowance,” she said coldly. She untwisted the cap of a bottle, dipped a syringe dispenser into the red liquid and squeezed some into my mouth. Artificial blood. It was thick like syrup and had a tangy aftertaste. My brother Aiden used to drink this stuff back when he was a vampire, before, you know, slaughtering a whole village. But before that, to keep himself in check, he had witches spell up artificial blood for him. I’d only had it a handful of times myself—personally, I found it revolting. And I had far more control than he did when it came to feeding, so I didn’t need it. But now, the daily allotment of artificial blood Evangeline provided me was all that was keeping me alive.
“Evangeline,” I said in the most charming tone I could muster, “be honest with me, will you? Why am I here?” Maybe if I could figure out what they wanted I could make some sort of deal with them. Or come up with a plan. It was a long shot, but it didn’t hurt to try.
“You know why,” she said, her voice void of inflection—and empathy. “Now, open up.”
I opened my mouth and gulped down my second and final dose for the day. “I know you need my blood. But you haven’t told me why.”
Her jaw twitched, and she pressed her lips into a hard line.
“Come on. What does it hurt to tell me? It’s not like I can do anything to stop you anyway.”
The corners of her eyes crinkled, and for a second, I thought I had her. But then she abruptly shook her head. “I’m sorry. I can’t.”
Her hand happened to be within reaching distance of mine, so I grabbed hold of it—not to scare her, but to get her attention. Her hand was soft and delicate—typical of witches. They didn’t like to get their hands dirty. In the literal sense, at least. “Please. I can tell you’re not like the others,” I said, hoping to charm her. I’d tried compelling her days ag
o. But it didn’t work. She wasn’t stupid enough to hold my gaze, and my arms were strapped to my side, so I couldn’t force her. “You don’t think this is right, do you?”
She snatched her hand out of my hold. “You have no idea what I think. You don’t know anything about me.”
Relaxing my head against the makeshift hospital bed, I sighed. “You’re right. Enlighten me, won’t you?”
Evangeline scowled. “Evanna was my best friend.”
Oh. That was all the explanation I needed. She had no idea I was the one who had killed Evanna, but it had happened while Evanna was at the castle helping us keep up the boundary that surrounded Crescent Cape. She’d died while under our care. And that was enough of a reason for Evangeline to hate me. “I’m sorry about what happened to your friend,” I said sincerely.
She shook her head. “Don’t lie to me. You and your siblings made it abundantly clear over the years that the only lives that matter to you are your own. Everyone else is expendable.”
“That’s not true.”
“It is,” she hissed, clearly wondering why she was even wasting time having this conversation with me.
“Evanna believed she was doing the right thing by helping us. And she was. Look what happened to the world after the boundary fell. War. You want to talk about treating lives as being expendable? Tell it to Reed Carlisle’s ashes. He’s the reason that happened, not me.” She shook her head, indicating that she was done with the conversation. But I wasn’t. “You may not trust me, but you say Evanna was your best friend. She trusted us. Maybe you should trust her judgment.”
“Her lack of judgment got her killed.”
“Get me more blood,” I pleaded.
“You’ve had your allotment for the day.” She started to get up and walk away.
“No—give me enough to get my strength back,” I begged. I didn’t care how it looked—me, a Blood Heir, begging from a witch. I was desperate to get out of here. Desperate to save Grace. “I’ll break out of here. You can come with me. I’ll protect you. All you have to do is slip me more blood. They’ll never know you betrayed them. I swear. I’ll break free, make it look like I kidnapped you, get Grace out of here and you can start over somewhere far away from here.”