Blood Promise

by Danielle Rose

  I angled my hips and slowly slid onto his length, biting my lip as his eyes fluttered shut and his nails dug deeper into my flesh. I leaned forward, resting my palms against his chest, as I worked my body up and down, faster and faster. Closing my eyes, I focused on the feeling of him inside me. I sank to his root, forcing him to fill me completely. I opened my eyes when he moaned my name, and the raw, carnal need staring back at me made me quiver.

  I offered my wrist, but he pushed it away. Instead, he sat forward, grabbed my hips, and pushed me up and down at an unforgiving speed. I cried out, fangs lengthening, and pulled his head against my neck, needing the sweet release only he could provide. His fangs sank into me, and I moaned as he drank feverishly. Sucking long and hard, he drained me as if his life depended on it. I groaned as he pulled away, and unsuccessfully tried to bring him back to me. Instead, he angled his neck, offering himself to my need. I licked my lips, my teeth grazing against the swollen skin of my lips, and dove in.

  Drinking long and deep, I swallowed his offering in greedy gulps. I ran my tongue over the two puncture marks, teasing the holes, and he moaned in response. I pushed him down to lay against the bed as my hips moved methodically against him. Up and down, slow and steady, I took him fully, from crown to root, as I suckled his neck. Frustrated with my slow, teasing speed, he groaned as he grasped my hips and stood. My fangs left his neck, the skin already healing, and he carried me to the empty desk.

  Sitting on the edge, I lay back, running my hands up the length of his forearms. I grazed my tongue against the two points of my fangs and grinned. He stood before me, with my legs wrapped around his waist, and pulled away. With his name on my lips, he withdrew completely and then sunk back into me. He repeated the motion over and over, pushing me closer and closer to the edge. With the desk slamming against the wall, he pushed me over, and a wave of orgasmic bliss flooded my entire being.

  I FOUND SEBASTIAN sitting on the porch after I’d left Jasik sleeping on the bed. He’d crashed almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

  “Ready?” I asked as I twisted my wet locks into a tight bun.

  “Yep. Where to, boss?” Sebastian said, giving me a wink.

  “I thought we could train outside today.” I smiled. There weren’t many times, during my vampire schedule, when I could train outside, so I had to take advantage of the moment. “Plus, it’s such a nice day out.” I scanned the grounds.

  “Good a day as any, eh.” He inhaled sharply and exhaled dramatically. His breath escaped in a puff of steam. It was January in northern Washington State, near the Canadian border. Winters were cold, but it didn’t bother me, so I ignored Sebastian’s pointed comment.

  “Well, there’s really no place to train on the grounds,” I said as I walked off the porch and into the coven’s cemetery. Beyond the mausoleums was the gate. It had been spelled to offer additional protection against unwelcome guests—mainly, Rogues. Anyone who meant the vampires harm couldn’t cross the barrier. I’d spelled Amicia’s coven with an identical spell a few times now.

  “Let’s find a clearing in the woods, yeah?” Sebastian said.

  I nodded and sprinted.

  “Over here!” Sebastian called. I craned my neck to find him before he disappeared past a line of trees.

  I found him walking to the center of a small clearing and crossed my arms. “Damn! I was hoping we’d have to go farther!”

  He arched an eyebrow. “Want to go for a jog, pumpkin?”

  I shook my head. “We really should train.”

  “We’ve already covered your abilities, pet. You just need time. They will come to you as naturally as breathing.” He plopped down onto the ground and sprawled out. Lifting his arms above his head, he cradled his neck and stared at the sky.

  “I know, I know,” I said as I sat beside him. “I just thought we could practice a little more.” I played with the frozen grass in front of me, pretending I didn’t feel his dagger-like gaze trying to pierce my brain. Controlling my shield came almost as easy as my healing ability—once I discovered it really wasn’t any different than an aura. As a spirit user, I could see auras, the glowing ray of light that surrounded all living beings. I’d realized my shield was nothing more than an extension of my aura, and wham! It was like there was never a time I couldn’t control it. Since it was pretty much involuntary, I maintained my shield around my mind at all times. I didn’t want prying readers to get a taste of what I didn’t want them to know. And now, I could feel Sebastian trying to find his way in like an annoying hacker.

  “Penny for your thoughts, babe?” he asked.

  “Just thinking about my inevitable death.”

  He shot forward and turned toward me. “Excuse me?”

  I shrugged. “I’ve been having these visions. Part spirit user, part seer, it makes sense that I’d have them. I just wish I knew what they meant.”

  Sebastian reached forward and cupped my hands with his own. “Nothing is going to happen to you. I won’t let it.”

  I smiled, meeting his eyes. Sebastian made me feel things I hadn’t felt in a long time. There was a familial bond there—one that was so strong I wondered how he hadn’t been in my life since birth. I wasn’t sure if it was our hybrid nature or the fact that we’d both saved each other’s lives countless times in the last couple weeks, but whatever it was, I couldn’t deny that it was there. And it was strong, unyielding.

  “Lover boy isn’t going to let you die, either, you know,” he said, and I shook my head at his pet name for Jasik.

  “I’m scared, Sebastian,” I whispered. As a mortal witch, one who was forced into this war, I never showed my fear. I never confided in anyone. I was to fight, to live, and to die for the cause. I was okay with that. But now, death terrified me. I’d finally found my place in life, my people in life, and I didn’t want to lose any of them.

  “What are you afraid of, pet?” he asked as he tucked a loose strand of hair behind my hair.

  “I won’t be able to protect them,” I said, tears threatening to spill.

  “Avah, love, they don’t need your protection. You’re talking about experienced Hunters, old Hunters. They’re stronger than you give them credit for. They can protect themselves.”

  “Then why have I had these visions? I’m supposed to stop this! I’m supposed to stop these deaths.”

  He shook his head, his eyes flickering to our clasped hands. He squeezed them gently as he said, “No, love. You’re not. Visions are meant to simply prepare you for what’s to come.” His eyes met mine again. “It’s written nowhere that you’re meant to stop them.”

  “So I do nothing? I just let everyone die?”

  He exhaled slowly. “It’s not in your nature.”

  I swallowed the knot that formed in my throat. “So what do I do?”

  “You fight. That’s all you can do. You fight, and you pray. You hope that that’s enough to change it. But it’s not your fault. It’s never your fault.”

  I pulled away from him and jumped to my feet, kicking at the ground in frustration.

  “Avah, it takes a strong person to handle this gift. No one understands what it means to be a seer.” He stood and crossed his arms over his chest. “This gift, it’s not as simple as healing or shielding or even reading. The other Hunters, they’re lucky. Their gifts, they come naturally, involuntarily. But a seer, a seer must always work for the gift, because, honestly, we never want it. To see one’s death, to feel the torment of those who mean the most to us, it’s hell. No one will ever know how hard this is, how quickly we’d reject the package if only the return address wasn’t scratched off. As a seer, you’re going to experience the best and the worst moments of life—over and over again. In time, your visions will become… clearer, more radiant. It’ll be like a movie that’s playing before you. Only you don’t know your lines, but everyone else will, so you’ll just sit there and watch and hope the ending won’t kill you. Literally.”

  The tears that threatened to spill streamed
down my cheeks. “So what do I do?”

  “You don’t fall victim to them.”

  “What does that—”

  “You live your life, you see your friends, you shag lover boy, and you live happily ever after. Occasionally, you’ll be given a glimpse of what’s to come, and usually, you’ll see things that’ll make you fight, make you quiver, and you’ll tell yourself that nothing will ever be okay again. This gift, it’ll do things to you. It’ll scream inside you to work its will. And it’ll destroy you, piece by piece. Unless you learn to accept that, sometimes, these visions, they’re only meant to prepare. They’re not always meant to stop.”

  I shook my head. My eyes burned, so I closed them and wiped away the tears. “I can’t accept that! I can’t accept that I can’t save the ones I love.”

  “Then you’ll die,” he whispered, lowering his gaze. “Don’t get me wrong, pet. I love what we are. I’d much rather be a hybrid than a mortal or a vampire. But we’re not gods. We may have the best of both worlds when it comes to some things. But we’re still vulnerable. We can still succumb. Only the best, the strongest, will survive. You need to make a stand. Right now. You need to make yourself believe that you have what it takes to make it to the end. Can you do that?”

  “Not if it means I’ll have to sacrifice my family.”

  “I knew you’d say that,” he said. “Guess that means we should train some more, eh?”

  I nodded. “It does.”

  “What do you want to work on?”

  “The vision.”

  His jaw dropped, and he scratched his head. “Hmm. Okay…”

  “Look, Sebastian, thank you. For everything. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, but I can’t believe that I’m not meant to prevent this vision from happening. I mean, if you remember, I saw your death, too.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I try to not think about that.”

  “What do you see?” I asked.

  “Hmm?”

  “When you look into your future, what do you see?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. Haven’t looked. Did you miss the whole being-a-seer-can-suck speech?”

  I crossed my arms over my chest and scowled. “Sebastian, tell me what you see.”

  “I can’t. Haven’t looked.”

  “You’re so lying! I told you I had a vision where everyone I know and care about dies, and you weren’t even a teensy bit curious about your future?”

  “Nope.”

  “I find that hard to believe.”

  “Not all things believable come easily.”

  “Why are you being so stubborn?”

  He exhaled sharply. “Nothing. Okay? I see nothing.”

  “Me too,” I said. “I see nothing. You see nothing. Malik sees nothing!”

  “You’re only proving my point, sugar.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “Sometimes, you’re not meant to stop the visions. You’re only meant to accept them.”

  “But you said you weren’t going to let anything happen to me, and now you’re saying I need to accept my death.”

  He chuckled. “You really don’t get it. I’m not telling you to accept your death. I’m telling you to accept all of ours.”

  Baffled, I shook my head. “How? What? Why?”

  “Because that’s the only reason we’d all die, pet. For you. Well, in the very least, that’s why Jasik, Malik, and I would die. Malik would sacrifice himself because that’s who he is. Jasik couldn’t bear it if anything happened to you, and the only way I’d die is if I went out willingly. And the only way that’d happen is if it was for you.”

  “Cocky much?”

  “All my life, I’ve never faced anything like this.”

  “Well, I’m thinking a massive Rogue army isn’t normal.”

  He shook his head. “Not them. You. This place. These people. They don’t even know me, yet they put their trust in me. They truly believe I won’t hurt them. And I have no idea why.”

  “Because they believe in you.”

  “But why? I’ve given them no reason to believe in me. At first, you know, I thought it was because of you. Because you trusted me. But I don’t think that’s the case anymore. I mean, at first, they didn’t like me, but they didn’t do anything extra to keep me from killing them. I mean, they even slept beside me. Do you know how easy it would have been for me to kill them? To wipe out the entire coven?” He snapped his fingers. “It’d be done that quick. They wouldn’t even have known. They’d just be dead.”

  “Why… Why are you saying this?”

  “Because never in my life has someone given me that much trust without anything in return. They just… handed it to me. No strings attached.”

  “What about your old coven?” I asked quietly. Sebastian had never spoken about his mortal years. In fact, I knew absolutely nothing about him. I assumed his Australian accent meant he was a born-and-raised Aussie, but other than that, he was a stranger. Yet he felt so familiar.

  “Pfft.” He waved his hand dismissively. “The only thing they ever gave me was The Power, and with it, they had expectations. To get this gift, I had to give them my life in exchange, and I did.”

  “Will you tell me about them?” I asked cautiously.

  “Not much to say.”

  “Sebastian,” I said, reaching for his arm. “What they did to you still hurts. You should talk about it.”

  He stepped closer and pulled me to him. His arms enveloped me in a tight embrace, and he rested his head against the top of mine. We rocked back and forth but never spoke. Hours could have passed as I waited for him to open up, to let me in. I wasn’t sure if he’d bite. I could only hope he would.

  “Spirit users were hard to come by,” he said, and I held my breath, afraid to move—as if moving would prevent him from opening up further. “So my coven knew I’d be the chosen one of my generation. They had prepared me since birth. The day I turned fifteen, they performed the ritual. No one that young had ever been chosen before. They told me I should be honored by that fact, but really, they were just impatient. Luckily, my youth made their spells unsuccessful. But still, I experienced the pain as The Power entered me, destroyed everything in its path, and then left. Each time they performed the ritual, it took weeks for me to recover.”

  “How many times did they do that to you?” I asked, still holding him.

  “Ten times. Every year, on my birthday, they did the ritual. And every year, until my twenty-fifth birthday, it failed. When it was finally successful, I was grateful. But not because I was chosen. I was happy that I wouldn’t have to go through that ritual again.”

  “I’m so sorry, Sebastian,” I said as I squeezed him tighter.

  “I traveled, hunted, searched for vampires, and I did my job. I slayed them, and I went home. One day, my coven was attacked, and the vampires outnumbered us. Funny thing, they weren’t after my coven. They were after me. So they bypassed the witches and attacked me at once. My coven, my family, they thought it would be better to leave. They sacrificed me so they could get away.”

  I gasped and pulled back. His face was hard, his eyes narrowed as he stared into the distance.

  “I called for them, begged for their help. After all, I’d done so much for them as the chosen one. I’d done my job, and I did it well. I’d saved hundreds of witches, killed hundreds of vampires. And now, I needed them. They turned back when I called for them, and I’ll never forget the look on their faces as they walked away. They escaped, and I died. I woke the next day, alone, a vampire. I suppose my attackers found it humorous to turn me into the one thing I’d fought to kill. Witches, they don’t care about anyone but themselves and this fucked up war.”

  I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him down to me, placing a sloppy kiss on his forehead. “I’m so sorry, Sebastian. I’m so, so sorry.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” he said with a shrug as he pulled himself free of my grasp.

  “It does matter. I mean, I know they�
�re long dead now, but it still affects you.”

  “They’re not,” he said as he turned toward away from me.

  “They’re not what?”

  “Gone. I mean, some are dead, but most are still alive. Somewhere. I’m not sure if they ever returned or if they left Australia after that day. But it hasn’t been that long. They haven’t all died yet.”

  I processed what he’d said, doing mental math in my head. “Sebastian, how old are you?”

  He faced me. “I was born in 1965. I was turned in 1991.”

  Jaw agape, I couldn’t hide my shock. “But… But you’re supposed to be old!”

  He chuckled. “Says who?”

  “You’re only… You’d only be fifty-one this year!”

  He nodded.

  “But you’re so strong. You’re stronger than Jasik and Malik, and they’re strong. And I mean strong. They’re almost 700! You’re supposed to be—”

  “Be what?”

  “I don’t know. Older than 700!”

  He nodded again. “They are strong. They are old. And they’re also vampires. I’m not. How many times have I told you? We aren’t like them. We don’t need as much health, sleep, blood… We’re stronger by birth, by biology.”

  I exhaled slowly as I processed this newfound information. “Just think about how strong you’ll be once you’ve hit 700!”

  “Yeah, if I make it to 700.”

  I shook my head. “Sebastian, you’re not going to die! None of us will die.”

  “Saying it doesn’t mean it’ll come true, babes.”

  “You have to stop being so negative,” I said.

  “It’s not in my nature,” he said with a wink.

  I smiled and shook my head. “So what are you saying? That these vampires gave you something your coven should have?”