His steel blue eyes were grayer now, as if the color had drained out of them, along with his blood, as he looked up at her. “You don’t know . . .”
“I do.” Her voice was stronger as she reached for the unused first-aid kit. She cut an appropriate-sized piece of gauze. “I mean I think I know what you need. Abuelita told me stories about people like you. You need blood to heal, and I can’t find my abuelita without you.”
She ripped off four pieces of tape and dangled them over the edge of the kitchen counter. Then she rolled up the sleeve of her jacket and held out her arm. “I trust her, and the only thing she said to me tonight that made any sense was that you wouldn’t be able to see me if you really wanted to hurt me.”
His cool fingers reached out and slid around the inside of her wrist, just holding it gently. Goose bumps shot up her arm, and she gulped.
“I made a promise to myself that I . . .” He was so exhausted, he couldn’t finish the sentence.
“I’ve never had to make promises to myself. I’ve never had anything this horrible ever happen before.”
He looked down at her pale wrist as he stroked it with his finger. “You think I’m horrible.”
She took in a deep breath, trying to calm the stammering of her heart. Her words might be brave, but her body was still catching on to the idea. “No. But as far as first dates go, I’m sure this is up there with the worst ever.”
“It was selfish of me. I just wanted to have a pleasant evening with a pretty girl.”
His words caused a flutter in her stomach. She tried to convince herself he would say anything right now to get blood, but she couldn’t believe it. Especially after he looked up at her, his skin paper white in the dim light. The heavy look in his eyes made her forget about the press of sharp white on his lower lip.
“Esme, I . . .”
She cut him off. “I did nothing, Valiance.” The name those men had called him fit better as she said it out loud. It was more him than the abbreviation. Even more regal than the name on his credit card.
Esme went on. “He was three feet away from me, and I froze. I couldn’t even move until after he’d already taken her. I need to do this. I failed in my first attempt at bravery. I will not fail in my second. I will not fail her.”
His hand tightened on her wrist, and he pulled her down the edge of the counter until she stood before him. Her pulse raced in her ears as he leaned forward, his forehead almost resting against her breasts as he pulled something off the counter behind her. He pressed that something into her right hand as he pulled away.
She looked down at the silver knife. “Will this really do any damage?”
“It’s sharp enough to ensure I stop.”
Esme curled her fingers around the handle though she wasn’t sure she could use it on him.
His eyes trailed down to her tender wrist, still in his hand, as he sat back down on the chair before her. “I promise this will not hurt much.”
When his lips touched her arm, heat flew up her wrist and burned into her core. She barely felt the slice of his teeth against her skin. She was more focused on the other hand he slid around her waist, pulling her closer to him, keeping her still.
His tongue began to coax out the blood, undulating slowly against her skin. Not that he needed to work much, her stammering heart was rushing blood to all her extremities and warming every part of her.
She leaned back against the cabinets, and her eyes fluttered shut. Immediately, her thoughts traveled to what else he could do with that tongue, where else it might have the same flushing effect.
He gripped her waist tighter, and the pressure on her arm increased. She gasped as she felt a stronger pull of blood out of her veins.
“Val,” she said softly.
When his fingers began to dig into her arm, she gasped, and cool fear fought the intense heat that had spread throughout her.
“Val,” she repeated. She tried to pull her arm back, but his grip was too strong.
“Valiance,” she cried out.
He was standing above her in less than a blink. His eyes were livid blue with blown pupils, and his mouth was stained red. His body pressed her against the counter, and she was awash in the smell of blood and sweat. The monster was here, and still hungry.
But just as fast as he had risen, Esme had the knife to his throat. The flash of the silver blade dug into the pale skin, and her eyes steadily gazed into his dark pools. Her heartbeat steadied, and she let out a long breath. That other part, that braver part, saved her and settled in for the evening.
“Sit,” she ordered.
Valiance did as he was told, and the moment he was in the chair, he looked away.
Esme looked down at her wrist to see nothing more than an inch-long slice on her lower forearm. It wasn’t like the movies at all, probably wouldn’t even scar, but then again, she didn’t need anything to remind her of what happened tonight. She grabbed the bandage and taped up the small wound, keeping her fist to her chest to stop any bleeding.
He was looking down, away, his neck exposed.
She watched the fair flesh come back together at his cheek, mend itself until it was a bruised reminder of what had happened earlier. Esme couldn’t believe the magic before her eyes. That a little bit of her blood could do all that wonder. Maybe she really was something special.
“Valiance?” She kept her voice soft as she reached out to his shoulder.
“Are you okay?” he asked, still looking away from her.
“You were the one pulverized.”
“Please, Esme.” When he looked up at her, she’d never felt so seen. His blue eyes glowed with power, and everything about him was perfect. The bruises on his cheeks were gone. He looked rested, flushed even. His cheekbones could cut leather, and his lips were the most perfect shade of rose.
He still wasn’t as beautiful as when he had smiled at her in the coffee shop the first time.
“I’m fine,” she finally managed.
“Please don’t look at me like that.” He stood and strode across the kitchen to a darker corner.
“What?”
“It’s part of the blood, part of the glamour. It attracts, and I feed. Do you understand?”
“The power makes you pretty?”
“It makes me attractive, so I can feed.” He licked his lips of any red still left there. “And you’re fey, right? I wasn’t really sure.”
Esme grew colder as she thought about the why of his perfection and that he was tasting the magic in her blood. She shivered. “But you’re faster, stronger, too. I mean, I saw you fight that other vampire, and you were—”
“Some days, the other perks aren’t worth it.”
She tried to lighten the mood, get the conversation going again because the guilt that shaded his eyes struck a pain through her heart, and the last thing she needed right now was a sullen vampire on her hands. “Did you know that to her family and friends, Emily Dickinson was more known for her gardening than her writing, and she would send bouquets to her friends with poems attached?”
Valiance frowned, but his expression slowly turned into a smile. “You really do like that poetry class you’re taking.”
She smiled, relieved, and started packing up the first-aid kit. “I just relate to them. All the great ones looked in from the outside. We loners have to stick together.” She thought she heard him chuckle from the other side of the kitchen. “What do we do now?”
Valiance looked down at his hands, his long fingers, and turned them over to inspect them. He rubbed his chin and tested it. “I should be able to track him down now. He’s not a strategist, so he’ll go where he feels safe.”
“What will he do with my abuelita?”
“Nothing. He’s still trying to get me to go with him.”
“What about kidnapping my abuelita will convince you to
go with him?”
“I have no idea. Just managed to piss me off really. You don’t touch grandmothers. They are universally off-limits in the rules of engagement.”
“Rules of engagement? You sound like one of those old generals in a Civil War movie.”
“I was one of those generals in the Civil War.”
“Oh.” That meant he was old. Like really old. She let the fear wash over her again before she took a deep breath and just integrated it with what she knew about him. He opened doors, he drank blood, he fought to protect her, and he was older than her grandmother.
It was more interesting than her list of traits: inviso-girl.
Esme put away the first-aid kit and rolled down her sleeve. “So what do we need to do?”
“We?”
“She’s my grandmother. I’m going after her. Don’t exactly know what I can do as the invisible girl, but I’m going with you.”
Valiance stepped out of the darkness and into the light from the stove. Gold fell across his perfect features, and her breath caught in her throat as he continued toward her.
Even his voice was smoother now, deeper, softer. “I want you to be sure about this, Esme. Once you’ve seen violence, seen evil, it changes you, and I don’t want to be the reason you see the world a little darker.”
Esme’s skin flushed with his words and with his scent as it beat around them both. “What’s your real name?”
“What?”
“That thing called you Valiance, but it’s not the name on your credit card. What’s your real name?”
Valiance licked his lower lip.
“Why?”
She was honest. “Valiance sounds made up.”
“It was.”
Esme looked up and tried to fight a smile. “What?”
“My Clade Source Emilio, the one who made me, renamed us into our new life. One word to describe us.”
“And yours was Valiance?”
“Warrior prince, he used to call me.”
Esme knew that no other name could suit him. “Like the fairy tale?”
“I’m not a fairy tale.”
“I’m not saying you are,” she said quickly. “I’m simply saying that it’s like a fairy tale. Like everything else that’s come true tonight. And if vampires and fairies can be real, then I think we have a good chance of getting my abuelita back.”
Valiance watched her for a long moment, then went to get his jacket from the kitchen chair. His movements were fluid, smooth, not the jerky pain from before. “There are three places he might go. The apartment, the shop, or this warehouse off Industrial.”
“Great. Let’s go find him.”
“We need more of a plan than just knocking on the door.”
“What if I knock?” she asked. Her stomach tightened. Where would an insane plan like that come from?
“What?”
Esme licked her lips. “What if I knock, he doesn’t see me, and I sneak in? Distract him somehow?”
Valiance thought. It took him a long time, and Esme was suddenly nervous. What did she know about covert ops and rescue missions? It was probably a ridiculous idea that might lead straight to her death. Or worse, her grandmother’s.
Slowly, a smile spread across his lips. “I don’t think you’re the same girl I asked out for coffee.”
“I’ve been through a lot this evening. I’m not the same girl I was five minutes ago. I woke up this morning a normal human girl with low self-esteem, and now I’m some fairy who’s invisible to bad guys. Who knows what I might be by dawn?”
He laughed. That one deep laugh as he looked at her. “We need to get going. Can you drive?”
“Is that why you walk everywhere? You can’t drive a car.”
“Over a hundred and fifty years old, and I still can’t get the hang of it.”
“But you have a cell phone?”
“I like texting.”
Chapter Five
VALIANCE WAS HAVING a hard time sitting still in the front seat of her car. The power, the energy that flowed through him, was like nothing he’d ever had before. The little bit of blood that he had taken had given him more power than he’d had in a decade. Everything smelled sweeter, everything felt softer. His muscles tingled anxiously, waiting for action again. Not only was she a fairy, but she was powerful one.
When his cell phone rang, he jumped in the passenger seat, and Esme swerved.
“You all right?”
“Fine.” Valiance looked at the caller ID and put it on speakerphone. “Talk quick. Phone’s almost dead.”
“You guys okay?”
“He took Esme’s grandmother. We’re hunting him down.”
“I’d volunteer to send Chaz, but there’s a swarm of ghouls tearing up some butcher shop in Oak Cliff.”
“So your night is going well?”
“Never a dull moment. How’s your girl holding up?”
Valiance looked over at the driver’s seat. He wanted to say Esme was the most luminous thing he had ever seen. But it was only a first date. Maybe all first dates were like this, minus the kidnapping and bloodletting.
Esme beat him to it. “We are going to get my grandmother back, then you and I are going to discuss getting me a job at the coffee shop.”
The phone line was quiet for a moment. “Well, Bastian is really the manager there.”
“I’m tired of folding towels, and I’m sure the owner could put in a good word for me.”
“Val, take me off speaker.”
Valiance did as he was told, prepared to get an earful.
Instead, Violet only said. “Keep her, please. You don’t meet a girl every day who can just fall into violence and still be confident enough to backtalk the Prima of a city.”
“She doesn’t know—”
“Keep her. Sounds like you’ve got some pretty good backup. But if you really need help, send up a flare, and I’ll be there.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Valiance hung up but looked down at the phone in his hand.
“What didn’t I know?” Esme asked.
Valiance licked his lips as he prepared his words. “Violet’s not just a coffee-shop owner. She’s the most powerful Wanderer in the region. Possibly in the country.”
“And?”
“You just told her she needed to get you a job.”
“And?”
Valiance smiled. “You’re just nothing that I’ve seen before.”
“I’m nothing anyone has ever seen before apparently.” Esme flashed him a smile as she continued down the highway.
ESME PARKED ALONG the curb. It was an older neighborhood she had never been to before. Just another example of her universe expanding this evening.
“Welcome to my second home,” Valiance said as he pointed to the shop across the street. Emilio’s Antiques was a restored home in a long line of restored homes turned into shopfronts. If this looked like a normal shop, she wondered how many other places her grandmother had dragged her to were also run by things that went bump in the night.
Suddenly, Valiance turned to stone in the passenger seat next to her.
“He’s here, isn’t he?” she whispered, as if Mondrian could hear them.
“Yes,” Valiance said. “I wasn’t able to feel him like this before. Forgot how much of an effect we have on each other.”
“Which means he knows we’re here, too. So much for the element of surprise.” She sighed. “What about me? Can you feel me in your head since I’m supposed to be magical or something?”
He looked over at her. “I don’t know,” he whispered. “My head’s a little funny around you anyway.”
Esme bit her lower lip and suddenly found the edge of her jacket very interesting. This was now officially the worst best date ever.
Valiance tu
rned to her in the car. It was a bit comical, his long legs twisted up in the front of her VW, as he reached down by his boot to unlace a bowie knife from his calf. “When we get in there, your only goal needs to be getting your abuelita out of there.”
The skin tightened along her shoulders as his perfect accent caressed the familiar word.
“Do you understand?”
“Yes, but how?”
“You’re going to knock on the door.”
Esme laughed. “You can’t be serious.”
“Completely. You knock on the front door, and I’ll go in through the back door.”
“And if he’s got both covered somehow?”
“You hide. I’ll fight. Now take this.” He shoved the leather-sheathed knife at her. “He will get violent. Ultimately, he wants me to come back with him—”
“Which means he doesn’t care about me and abuelita.”
“Exactly.” Valiance sighed.
“So we protect ourselves and leave you to the wolf?”
Valiance looked into her eyes. “I’ll survive.”
“I don’t want you to survive. I want you to live with all your parts in place. I’m not leaving you in there like a coward. If I’ve discovered anything about myself in the past four hours, it’s that I am not a coward.”
Valiance blurred before her, and his lips were upon hers before she could finish her thought. His lips were warm but hesitant. He slid his hand up to hold her jaw but didn’t deepen the embrace.
Her body hummed like a fluorescent bulb. Energy danced along her skin with the novelty of being kissed in the front seat of her car like a high schooler, something she hadn’t actually had done as a high schooler.
She kissed him back, taking in more of his soft lips, tasting the slight copper of him. She burned the taste of him into her brain, the warmth that pulsed against her. Their warmth, she thought again. Her bravery had brought him back to life.
He was the one who pulled away, and when he did, she knew he was different, changed from the moment before to the moment after. Everything she’d ever read about warriors flashed through her mind, and she had half a notion to give him a token as he went off to war.
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