by J. L. Myers
You don’t have that card thingy to get in. Kendrick sounded hopeful. Do you?
I curled my fingers into a fist. Don’t need it. Then I smashed the card reader’s metal plate. The light flashed then went out. The door creaked ajar.
Shit, Amelia. Be careful. It could be a trap.
I panned left to right down the hallway. The coast was clear. No witnesses. My free hand found the cold silver of Ty’s stake while my other pushed the door wide open. Inside, the room was dark, backlit only by the glow from the corridor. No sounds filled the small space, no breathing, and no heartbeat. Which would have made me feel safer if not for Kendrick’s next words.
They’re damned, remember? They don’t have hearts that beat. They don’t even breathe.
Voices echoed from further along the corridor and I yanked the door shut behind me. Now I was surrounded by complete darkness. Heart pounding and sweat budding across my entire body, I flicked the switch. The lights blinked on, and I expelled a long held breath. The room was empty.
For good measure, I kicked in the bathroom door. It was empty too. Then I saw something that made me pause. This explained how a sun-allergic damned vampire had gotten on board during broad daylight. The wall on both sides of the cabin could be pulled down to create bunk beds, but these ones weren’t pulled down. In their vacant spaces were two trunks. The same two I’d almost collided with when Ty and I had been rushing to get aboard before my attempt at compulsion could backfire. They were both bolted shut.
Fear spiked my adrenaline. One attacker, two crates. Fill in the blanks.
Don’t open them, Kendrick said.
I swallowed my fear. You know I’m not backing down.
Wiping my sweaty palms on my jeans, I raised the silver stake. Then I kicked the bolt free on the first trunk and flung open the lid. The inside was padded. Like a coffin. And it wasn’t empty. Filling part of the vast space was a generous supply of blood baggies. Every single one was drained.
What’s that? Kendrick asked, his panic replaced by curiosity.
On the side of the first trunk were airline stickers. One struck me like a knife through my windpipe. “ANC?” It was the acronym for Anchorage International Airport. Our attacker had been from Alaska? “Oh shit!”
I dropped to my knees, weeding through the baggies. Hidden beneath them I found a stack of papers. No, not papers, photos, not only of me, but of Ty too. They had been taken back home. There was one with me outside the art center at school, expression worried. It was the day I had sensed someone watching me. The same day a tree trunk that had been split by lightning had almost decapitated me. Another was of me sitting on my windowsill at home. And another showed Ty entering the front door of my house…and greeting my mom. The day he’d come over for dinner. I gulped, flicking through the stack. There were so many of Ty and me either at school, or at my house, or on the beach. There were even a few with us on the road to the cabin when we’d had to stop the car because of the dropped trees. When I got to the bottom of the pile, my heart started beating so fast I could hear it. The last piece wasn’t a photo. It was much worse. A flat card with an Alaskan postage stamp and printed instructions:
‘The girl, Amelia, must not be harmed in any way. You are only to subdue her. The werewolf is backup. Turn him if you can, otherwise kill him.’
I stared long and hard at the note, feeling the same realization from Kendrick snaking through my very core. The card was identical to the one Marcus had sent with the vacation bookings.
Marcus set us all up, Kendrick stated. Rather than gloating at having been right in his continued suspicions, all he felt was dread.
I wanted to argue. I didn’t want to believe that Marcus—the guy I was so strangely connected to and who’d helped save my life—could have had anything to do with this. There was no motive. Was there?
A noise cut off Kendrick’s need to convince me that Marcus must be in league with Caius somehow, or be up to something equally as devious. It was an almost squeak, a muffled cry. And it had come from the other trunk. I wasn’t alone.
With Kendrick yelling at me to get out! I kicked the lock off the second trunk and flung the lid open. A figure sprang at me and I knocked them to the ground, more easily than I expected. I understood why as my hand clamped over her mouth to cut off her screams. Beneath me was a young woman. A human. And not just any human. She was a passenger. A cruise card hung from a lanyard around her neck, and she had on a summery dress that had been torn across the bust. Dried blood patterned the front of it and blotched her chest. The blood was her own, I noticed in horror, seeing angry bites covering her neck and chest.
She’s their food. Kendrick’s words sent roiling nausea through my gut.
From her pale, freckled complexion, and the dimness to her eyes, she was clearly blood deprived. She wouldn’t have lasted another night of feeding. But Lukas had kept her locked up here, so he must have intended on killing her.
That’s what the damned do, Kendrick said. They drink to kill. I’m surprised she’s even alive at all.
The young woman continued struggling beneath me, but it was like a mouse trying to escape the paws of a lion. She was too weak. “If I let her go, will she be okay?”
You can’t let her go, Kendrick said, a note of regret painting his words. She’s seen you. She knows a fanged monster attacked her. She’s a liability. We have to—
“Dispose of her?” The woman’s eyes grew wider at my words and I shook my head. “I won’t do it. I won’t take someone’s life. She’s innocent.”
If The Council gets wind of this—
“No,” I said with absolution. “This is no different from covering our tracks when I attacked that senior from school. You compelled him to forget what I’d done, and I can do the same now. I did it with the check-in clerk the other day. She won’t remember me or that monster.”
Except that you’ll be the one compelling her, not me, Kendrick said. And you didn’t believe you could compel the clerk permanently. How can you go from that to believing you can convince this woman that horrific things didn’t happen to her?
“’Cause I have to.” I stared into the woman’s terrified eyes, focusing on taking control of her mind. “I’m not going to hurt you. When I take my hand off your mouth you’re not going to scream or lash out. Understand?”
The woman semi-nodded and her terrified expression relaxed a little. My hand came away slowly. Tears spilled from her eyes, leaving tracks through the patchy crimson that marred her face. “That thing…” She broke off sniveling.
“I know,” I said in my most calming tone, releasing her wrists. “But he’s gone now. He’ll never hurt you again. And I’m going to let you go, but I need to ask you some questions first.”
The woman nodded, swiping away her tears. “Anything, I’ll tell you anything. Just please don’t kill me.”
“Are there any more of them?” The woman shook her head. “Did you hear the man who trapped you talking to or about anyone? Did he say anyone’s name?”
The girl’s eyelids squeezed shut and she nodded. “The monster talked on the phone heaps, reporting about a girl and guy. He always addressed the person on the line as Lord Bathory.”
~
After double checking the entire ship and picking up no other lingering putrid scents, I headed for our cabin. We were safe from further danger, and that girl, now in my blood-free clothes, was back in her room sleeping off what she thought was a massive hangover.
I stood in front of the stairs to level 12. My plan was to slip out of the girl’s torn, bloodied dress and into a clean tank and jeans. But the strong smell of fresh blood stopped me. Ty’s.
I shot up the stairs and almost collided with him. He’d somehow gotten board shorts and a shirt on and was clutching the railing for dear life. His skin was flushed, and sweat speckled his face and dotted his shirt. The damp patches mixed with red stains on the white material.
“Where have you been?” he grated out. His face twisted
with pain as he tried to stand on his own. There was a sickening wet sound of skin tearing and a fresh red line bloomed across the front of his shirt.
Tingles pierced my gums as my fangs shot forth. My arms came around him and I pushed him back up the corridor. Being this close had the animal inside me fighting to break free. Just like the song Animal I have become by Three Days Grace. I cursed and swallowed, holding back my violent urges. “Ty, you shouldn’t be out here.” Thank God it was after 2AM. The corridor was clear. But any surprise visitors catching Ty bleeding out, or worse…seeing the animal in me taking him like prey, was bound to create a total shit storm.
“You…” I punctured my own lip, letting the blood swell and fill my mouth. “You need to lie down.” I snatched his room card and kicked open the door to our cabin, hauling him in.
“Tell me where you were.” Ty pushed back out of my hold and I heard another tear. Fresh blood swelled across his shirt like he’d just been shot. “Shit…that hurts.”
He swayed and fresh streams of sweat poured down his pale face. I caught him, stringing my arms around his body. Holding his entire weight, I edged him back onto the bed. I tore open his shirt and snatched a stray piece of shredded towel, dabbing at the oozing wounds. They weren’t streaming scarlet like earlier, but they were still ugly and raw.
“The bleeding’s not too bad.” I tried to sound convincing.
Ty’s chest rumbled as if to laugh. Then he grimaced, hands coming over mine to press against the wounds. He blinked up at me then closed his eyes. “Where. Were. You?”
Ignoring the instant demand in his voice, I pushed his hands away to inspect the openings. The blood loss had slowed. My blood was helping him heal. Still, a shiver crawled up my spine. The open wounds reminded me of the terrified woman I’d cleaned up. Her neck and chest had been a field of gruesome raw patches. Though a little of my blood at Kendrick’s instruction had closed them up, leaving nothing but small scars marking her once shredded flesh. A desperate attempt at compulsion had wiped the horror from her memory. “I was making sure we’re alone,” I said, answering his question.
Ty’s eyes shone with hardened gold. “You should have told me.” He stiffened, teeth grating. Every movement, no matter how small, was torture. His next words were throaty. “I would have come with you.”
“Like I would’ve let you. You shouldn’t have even left this room. You need to rest.” I sighed as despair crept in. Caius had ordered our attacks, which was more expected than a shock. But Marcus? What had his part in this been? Masking my inner turmoil with a smile, I ran a finger up Ty’s forearm, dodging the sores that marked him there. “Besides, everything is fine. There aren’t any more of them.”
Ty raised an arm to caress my face, clearly trying to hide the agony of the movement. “So why do you look so worried?”
Ty’s ability to read me had improved. I hadn’t particularly wanted to reveal everything until Ty felt better. Right now he needed to rest, not worry about being hunted or turned. Not that I could understand a reason why they’d want to turn him. What could they gain from it? But Ty was watching me with those eyes, the ones that would always accept me and trust that I would never lie to him.
I stared at our spattered bed sheets, not wanting to meet his eyes. With the blood drying, turning from vibrant red to ruddy brown, the scent wasn’t too overwhelming. “Okay, this is what I know.”
Over the next thirty minutes I covered everything: Kendrick’s and Dorian’s attack, the damned vampire’s cabin, the trunks from Alaska, the photos and the blood baggies. Then the human blood donor who’d named Lord Bathory as the instigator. Lastly I revealed the card with instructions to capture me and turn or kill Ty.
When I’d finished rambling and answering Ty’s rapid-fire questions, I felt shell-shocked and drained. Saying it all out loud forced me to accept things I didn’t want to believe.
Looking like rage was about to make him burst, Ty nodded at my iPhone on the bedside, next to the wastebasket and remaining shredded towel pieces. “Call him.”
I nodded and grabbed my phone. “Please stay here.” I had no right to demand anything of Ty. My trust in Marcus had almost gotten him killed. Not to mention my brother and best friend. Even so Ty remained still, watching me as I slipped out onto the balcony and dialed Marcus’s number.
On the side of the boat in the pre-dawn’s darkness it was even windier than the Oasis deck. I gulped, remembering those blood-red eyes. Dread-poisoned anger coursed through my veins as the phone rang in my ear. The guy I hardly knew but had inexplicably trusted was about to learn he’d failed. That we were all alive, and that I knew the truth.
The ringing stopped as the line picked up. “Amelia, hey. How’s it going?”
Tears blurred my vision and I caught at my flailing hair and twisted, tugging it down over my shoulder. “Alive, no thanks to you!”
“Whoa, what’d you say?” Panic tightened his deep voice. “What’s going on?”
“Your goon failed. We killed him!” I began pacing, fighting the boats sway against rough waves. “He’s nothing but dust, incinerated. Kendrick and Dorian killed theirs too.”
My rant would have gone on, but Marcus cut in. “What goon? Amelia, what’s happened? Did they come to your home?”
“Don’t play innocent with me, you prick. You know they didn’t!” I laughed mirthlessly. “But what a great plan. Send Dorian and Kendrick to the snow and me half way around the world on a tropical cruise, just to have us attacked by the freaking dead!”
“Send who where? The dead?” The surprise in Marcus’s voice seemed so real. “Amelia, what are you rambling about?”
I wavered. The part deep down inside me that wanted to trust Marcus reared its stupid head. “The vacation itineraries you sent. The ones with the printed card claiming Caius was planning something. You sent us away so we’d be safe.”
Marcus’s next words stunned me, stripping any words from my mouth until he’d stopped talking.
I took a deep, shuddering breath. “I gotta go.” I hung up, opening the door and stepping back inside.
Reclining back against the pillows, Ty’s gaze locked on me. As mine lifted he lurched upright, grunting at the effort. “What’s wrong? What’d the bastard say?”
I slid the door shut behind me. “Marcus isn’t working with Caius. He wasn’t behind any of this.”
“Amelia, come on.” Ty tried to swing his legs over the side of the bed and froze as another wound cracked open. His teeth grated. “He’s lying.”
“No, he’s not.” I crossed the short distance to drop onto the bed beside him. Thinking back now I should have been more suspicious. Because if I had, none of this would have happened. Dorian and Kendrick would never have been attacked, and Ty wouldn’t have almost died. “Marcus didn’t send the vacation bookings. He didn’t even know we’d left. He’s been too busy investigating other deaths. Vampire deaths.”
“Vampire deaths?” Ty sounded skeptical.
“Full consumption, and the numbers are rising. He even suspected the damned too, but The Council doesn’t want to believe it. There have even been a few royals taken out.” I touched Ty’s knee, minding the gash up his thigh. “We’re not the only ones being hunted.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
I breathed through my mouth as I scarfed down the food I’d brought back to our cabin from the lunch buffet. Ty sat up on the bed against stacked pillows, finishing off a croissant. He reached for a blueberry muffin, his face twisting as he bit back the need to grunt. “Damn, I’m hungry.”
Me too. That thick vein along his neck throbbed, demanding attention. It had been over twenty-four hours since I last fed from Ty. Normally that wouldn’t have been so bad, but after feeding him my blood to heal, I was deprived and starving. I forced my eyes away and chugged down some orange juice. It tasted like poison. “Well, you do need your energy. A full tank should help you recover.”
Ty laughed, then coughed, trying to hide his discomfort. “I never imag
ined the day where a vampire would be tending to me.”
Feeling hangry—a collective mix of hungry and angry as a result—I crossed my arms over my chest. “This isn’t funny, you almost…” My face pinched, unable to say the word let alone allow myself imagine Ty dead.
“But I didn’t.” Heat settled across my thigh, coming from Ty’s hand. His scent swelled at the movement. “Hey, are you alright?”
I slid off the bed, putting space between us. Telling Ty I needed blood wouldn’t do either of us any good. He was still healing and badly injured. Taking his vein wasn’t an option. Plus with the dried blood all over the sheets, thinking beyond the smell was impossible. “I—uh. I need some air. It’s been a really long night.”
“I’ll come.” Ty reached for a clean shirt and a gash across his ribs split.
I shot forward and shoved him back against the pillows. “The hell you will,” I tried not to hiss while covering my fangs. “You’re in no shape.”
With Ty’s lids closed at the pain, he missed my dangerous expression and sighed. “Fine. I’ll stay. But today is our last port, isn’t it? Villa? I hear it’s great for cheap shopping. You should make the most of it.”
I wanted to stay and clean his newly open wounds. I cringed. With my tongue… I backed up and hit the door. “Sure, shopping. Just stay here.”
I shot out the door and doubled over, sucking air. Then I headed for the stairs. Shopping wasn’t a bad idea, but I wasn’t leaving the boat. No, instead I was going to steal some new linen—right after I commandeered a stack of first-aid supplies. Covering Ty’s wounds and removing the sweet aroma of his blood was the only way I’d be able to re-enter our cabin…without turning into ‘Psycho killer monster.’ Plus I hoped to find maybe a pack or two of stored cold blood. It was my only hope.
My stomach gurgled as I made my way to level six, heading for the medical center. Absently I noticed blue veins spider-webbing across my hands and up my arms. Every time a person passed me my stomach clenched. The smell of their blood enticed and allured, making my dark internal voice grow louder. I shook it away, struggling to hold back the dark desire to feed as I entered the glass door to the medical center. Thank God the place was empty.