by Mason Sabre
When she moved to descend the steps, Raven grabbed her arm, stopping her. "Do not go to him." His jaw clenched in anger. "There is evil in him. I can smell it. You're fucking lucky to be alive."
"He won't hurt me ..."
"Troy will whip your arse for what you did before, and I'll help him do it," he ground out before turning back to Henry. “Did you do that to the girl?” Raven repeated, his voice deceptively calm.
“They woke me,” Henry replied flatly.
She felt Raven tense next to her. Shit. How the hell had she managed to get between them? If one of them shot to the other, she’d be screwed. “There has to be another way,” she pleaded with Henry. “You can’t just kill her. Turn her.”
“Turn a Human?” Raven said, looking at her as if she'd lost her marbles.
She knew what he was thinking. It was punishable, but it was nowhere near as bad as killing one just because some stupid words on a coffin said so. To the Humans, though, they would see both as death. They would say that he killed the girl because he took her Human life from her, or that he killed her by making her a vampire. It was a no win situation. At least the girl had a chance to live—even if it was as a vampire. It was better than death.
“He could. The girl is bitten. She is going to cross over anyway.” She looked back to Henry. “Finish it that way. Then she dies, kind of, but she can be alive after.”
“No. I do not wish to claim any one as mine. It has to be this way.”
“Yvette.” Raven backed up and had the door open. He was offering her the chance to get inside. He would deal with Henry, but at what cost to her and to him. She clasped her fingers together, twisting them. It wasn’t Henry’s fault they had woken him, either. But he just couldn’t kill the girl.
“Promise you won’t hurt him,” she begged Raven, earning her an incredulous look from him. Henry stared at her, making her feel guilty, as if she were betraying him. If she went inside with Raven and denied him the girl, she was denying him the chance to fully come back. Would he wither away again? All she would do is age again, right? “You can’t kill the girl,” she repeated, more for herself than him, justifying leaving him to go back and rot.
The door opened wider, pulling itself from Raven’s grasp, and the girl suddenly peered out. Yvette’s breath caught in her throat, and Raven swore under his breath as Henry went dangerously still.
“He’s here ... oh god ... he’s here,” the girl wailed.
“Get back inside,” Yvette yelled at her. “Right now. Move.”
“Please don’t let him …”
“You opened the tomb.”
“We didn’t know,” the girl cried. “We didn’t. It was an accident. We didn’t mean it Please. I don’t want to die.”
In a move so fast Yvette's head reeled from it, Henry flew across the distance that separated them, and was immediately slammed backwards by Raven, who had leapt in front of the girl as a barricade. He shoved the speechless girl back into the house before Henry had even landed on the ground.
“You can’t have the girl,” Raven said. “Now get the fuck out of here.”
Henry smirked, the blue in his eyes turning to ice. A shiver ran down Yvette's spine. With each moment that passed, he seemed to be getting stronger. “There is little you can do to stop me. I have no business with you. The girl is mine.”
Raven’s eyes shifted, flickering gold as his animal came forward. “I will kill you if I have to.” His voice had deepened. He turned back to Yvette. “Go inside with the girl. Now.”
Henry’s sights fixed on her. “Yvette,” he said, his deep voice velvet against her senses. She felt herself slipping under his influence again and she blinked hard, shaking herself out of the trance. She darted indoors, fearing that one more look or word from Henry, and she'd be at his mercy once again.
Raven walked in backwards, his gaze fixed on Henry. “You can sit out here all night if you need to,” he said, then glanced up at the sky. “It will be dawn soon. Watch you don't get too sunburnt," he said glibly.
“I forbid you to do this, Yvette,” Henry roared, and a sob caught in her throat. The pull inside her was so strong that it was difficult to withstand it. She clutched the door handle just to keep herself where she was. She wanted to go and throw herself down at his feet and ask for his forgiveness.
“I’m sorry,” she said as Raven pushed inside and shut the door behind him, sliding the bolt into place. "What the hell's the matter with you, Vet," he growled, before turning to crouch down where the trembling girl was huddled in a corner. “He can’t come in,” he reassured her gently. “You’re safe here.”
“He’ll wait,” Yvette whispered, her heart aching inexplicably for Henry standing outside, alone. She would have moved, but she didn’t dare allow herself. The pull inside her was too strong that she might open the door. “He won’t let this go. He can’t.”
“It will be light soon. He will have to.” Raven came to stand by her. Henry was standing on the other side of the door; Yvette could feel him there. A comforting spot that called her home. “She's been bitten,” Raven said to Yvette.
“I know,” Yvette said. “She is going to turn—into one of those things.”
The girl was staring at the door, oblivious to them discussing her as she rubbed her hands up and down her shaking arm. She rose, muttering unintelligibilities to herself as she stood there sobbing. Yvette grabbed her arm and led her back into the bar. She wished Troy was here—then again, he’d be so pissed at her if he were.
Shit.
How did she always manage to get into these messes? She sat the girl on one of the seats in the main bar again. Raven had obviously cleaned her up—the cut across her forehead had been cleaned, and the blood down her face was gone. Just the bite remained. Henry’s saliva would be raging through her system now—a tiny army combating its way through her veins, converting every single living cell into one of the undead. Growing its warriors. “She’ll be a ghoul if I don’t do something,” she said desperately.
“That would be worse than death,” Raven agreed.
Yvette left the girl sitting and rocking and crying, and whatever the hell she wanted to do right then. Bloody Humans. Why did they have to do this shit and then land their asses on the doorsteps of Others when they needed help. She went to the kitchen and pulled out a bag of Type-O from the freezer. It would have to do for the girl for now. But the moment the sun made its appearance in the sky, she'd be going ghoul right away. Yvette jammed it into the microwave and switched it on. Raven followed Yvette into the kitchen and switched on the monitor so that they could see the girl.
“He’s going to wait, you know.”
“He can wait. He isn’t getting in.” Raven followed her with his eyes. “What happened to you? It looks like you’ve gone back in time.”
She lifted her gaze to meet his, shrugging, a bemused look on her face. “I haven’t a bloody clue. I think it might have to do with Henry rising. I also think that if he had died, me, Troy and all of his bloodline would not exist at the moment.”
Raven frowned as he took in this information, pulling out one of the glasses from the counter and placing it next to the microwave as Yvette waited for the blood to warm. “This for you or the girl?”
“The girl. Maybe it can help her or something. I don’t know.”
“What if you turned her?”
“Me?” Yvette gawked at him. She didn’t want to make a child that way. If she turned anyone, it was going to be her own children. Not someone else’s. This girl, she was young, maybe eighteen, if that. She had a mother somewhere. She had a father. She had an entire family who thought their daughter was out having the time of her life, and while she wasn’t dead yet, the life she had known was gone. She could become a vampire if Yvette turned her, but she would meet her death if Henry took her. The other option? She could walk the earth, swallowing up foolish souls as one of the ghoulish maggots of humanity, who came, cleared and devoured.
“Shit.” R
aven stared at the screen then bolted for the door. The girl was up and heading right to the main door.
“Crap. “Yvette was hot on Raven's heels, flying up the small steps from the kitchen to the bar. The girl had already reached the main door and unbolted it. Raven went to grab for her and was thrown back as if he had run into some kind of magnetic field.
“Tina,” Henry called, his voice deep and gentle, coaxing. The girl wasn’t shaking anymore, unafraid.
“Stop,” Yvette yelled as she opened the door. Electricity shot through her as she reached for the girl, but she grit her teeth and grabbed her. Henry was standing outside, in the dark, waiting. “You can’t have her,” Yvette gasped. “I won’t let you.”
“Come with me child.” His ice-blue eyes were trained on the girl.
Tina placed her hand in Henry’s.
“Henry. Don’t do this,” Yvette shouted.
Chapter Seven
Yvette wrapped her arms around the girl, holding her back, one arm around the girl’s slender waist and another around her neck. The girl reached for Henry, arms outstretched, her hand in his. She pulled against Yvette’s grasp, fighting so that she could go to him. Yvette closed her eyes, closed off her mind so that he could not break through.
“Don’t do this,” Yvette huffed at him. “Please. It doesn’t have to be this way.”
“It has to be finished.” Henry gave the girl’s hand a tug, yanking her away from Yvette and out of the safety of Raven’s bar. Yvette lunged, refusing to let go. It wasn’t going to happen. She wasn’t going to let this happen. She would never live with herself. She grabbed the girl’s hand, tugging her back. “Do not be a fool,” Henry said. He grabbed the hand that had hold of the girl’s and brought Yvette to him, pressing her against his long, lean body and making it so that she had to look up at him.
She screwed her eyes shut tight. This girl’s life depended on her. “I can’t. I can’t give her up just because you say.”
“I am your elder.”
She pushed with everything she had, grabbing the girl again. Hand against Henry’s chest, she shoved at him hard. “You are meant to be dead.” Against Henry, Yvette’s powers were Human-like. They were no match for him; even now, even when he was weaker than he should be.
The roar of thunder made the ground shake. It thudded. Only it wasn’t thunder, it was Raven. A large, black panther sprang from the darkness and landed on Henry, crashing him to the ground. Still he held the girl, determined not to let her get away. Yvette pulled, trying to free them both. He kicked at the panther, cracking his ribs. The panther yelped, rolled back, and then sprung back onto its paws. It moved one slow step at a time, head down, eyes raised. Non-submissive. Bright eyes shone out from dark fur ...
“Raven …” Yvette cried.
He roared, an echo in the darkness. Yvette took that moment to yank hard on the girl, almost tearing her arm from her socket. But she came free from Henry’s grasp and they both fell onto the ground from the momentum.
They snarled at each other, Henry crouched, teeth bared, his eyes no longer the mesmerising blue that would entice any fool—a blue as dark as the frozen depths of the sea.
The girl pushed against Yvette’s grasp, still trying to get to Henry. Yvette held her down as the girl struggled weakly. Henry and Raven circled each other, each waiting for the right moment to strike.
Raven leapt at the same time as Henry, pushing up from his hind legs. A flash of dark fur rose into the air, the flash of teeth and claws. The pair of them clashed in the air and dropped in the centre, rolling with one another. The scent of blood hit Yvette and she blocked it out, letting it roll across her senses. Shifter blood—so strong, so thick. Yvette gasped. Henry had his fangs in Raven’s shoulder as the two flew back together and slammed Raven into the back of Yvette’s car.
“Henry. Stop,” Yvette yelled. “Please stop. It doesn’t have to be this way.”
Raven pushed against Henry, using the car behind him and lifting his back paws to jump up and kick at him, turning the tables so that Raven could jump and land on Henry. Henry was on his back, long fingers digging into the fur of Raven’s neck.
Raven swiped a paw across Henry’s face, skimming his flesh and leaving marks in its wake. Henry grunted, using the pain to try push himself up and push Raven off, but Raven’s full weight was made it impossible.
“Don’t kill him, Raven,” Yvette begged as she held onto the girl. “If you kill him, you kill me.”
She should have realised that Henry wasn’t dead in his tomb all of this time. One of them should have seen through the lies they had been told. They were alive, which meant he was alive. Yvette held the girl to her tightly, her arm across her chest. The girl’s heartbeat thundered under her ribs, pumping blood at such a delicious speed. The girl’s arms dropped, and her head lolled back onto Yvette’s shoulder. “Shit. No. Come on.” Yvette laid the girl back, as she watched the life ebbing from her. “Please don't die.”
Henry and Raven rolled together, both slashing and growling.
Henry leapt away and turned his gaze to Yvette. “Give her to me,” he rasped.
Yvette shook her head. “I can’t.”
The thunderous sound of an engine roaring closer and the emergence of two bright white lights knocked Henry off. He didn’t know what it was. He had seen Yvette’s car, but still the world was strange for him. He hissed as he shielded his face. Raven used the interruption to sink his jaws into Henry’s arm, making the vampire roar. Snarling, Raven launched Henry in the opposite direction of the car and Yvette with a flick of his head.
The car pulled to a halt, gravel crunching under its tyres.
“Get in,” Troy yelled, leaping out of the car and rushing to Yvette.
For a moment, Yvette sat gaping at him. Troy had grown as young as she had. He was once again her twenty-three-year-old husband. “She’s dying,” Yvette cried. “I need to turn her.”
She watched as Troy’s expression turned to one of shock as he took in Yvette’s youthfulness. She wondered if he had even realised that he had changed in the same way. “Vet, you’re …” He gave a sharp shake of his head, as if realising this was not the time to be questioning why his wife looked like she did. “In the car,” he commanded, pulling the girl from her grasp.
Henry slammed against Raven, pushing him off and launching him to the side. Fury twisted his face. “She is mine,” he bellowed as he headed right to them with long, determined strides. “I forbid you to take her.” His glare was fixed on Yvette as Raven rolled and tried to find his balance.
Raven roared, grasping to get his paws under him, and then he charged, heading right for Henry. He jumped as Henry got into the light beams of the car, and Yvette and Troy scrambled back with the girl, putting himself in front of his wife and creating a barrier between her and Henry.
“Get in the car,” he yelled at Yvette.
Raven leapt, landing on Henry’s side and knocking him down. Henry punched the huge cat in the side of the head, slamming his hands down to get him off. The panther roared at Yvette. She got it.
Leave.
Now.
She grabbed the girl by the arms. The girl might be a damn twig, but shit she was an awkward dead weight. Yvette dragged her with her, and Troy rushed to the car to throw open the back doors. “Quickly.”
Their eyes were on the struggle. Raven had Henry pinned, dodging as many blows as he could. How long could he hold Henry down?
They shoved the girl into the back seat, and Yvette climbed in with her. Troy raced to the driver’s side, flinging the car around and tearing out of the car park. Yvette leaned up on the seat to watch as Henry gained an advantage on Raven and shoved him off, but Raven was no longer his target, the car was. Henry raced behind the car, face set, mouth in a stiff line. Her eyes widened in fear. Shit, she'd never seen such speed in any vampire.
“Go faster,” Yvette called to Troy. He turned onto the main lane, and pulled away at top speed, leaving a growing distance
between them. Henry got so far and then stopped in the centre of the lane. Yvette watched as his silhouette faded into the distance. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. Not just to Henry for betraying him, but to Raven, too. For leaving him there.
“Raven will be okay,” Troy said. “How is the girl?”
“Not good.” The girl was out of it now, her breathing slow and raspy. She was struggling. Her face had turned grey and Yvette was pretty sure she wasn’t going to make it. Dawn was approaching fast—they had about an hour. “I need to turn her.”
Troy pulled the car into a lay-by after a few minutes, and down along a small side road. It was hidden from the view of the street—a good place to hide. “He won’t know where we are,” he said.
She guessed not. The advantage of Henry being locked up for long was that he really wouldn’t know where they were. More than Troy realised. New roads had been built since Henry’s capture, but he would find them ... eventually.
"Shit, Yvette," Troy swore. "I realised something was wrong when I saw about a dozen missed calls from Raven. What the hell happened?"
Yvette winced. “I'll explain everything later. There's not much time. This girl is dying. I need to turn her, or …” She didn’t want to say it, but the truth was, it was turn the girl or kill her. She couldn’t let her just fester and become one of the ghouls to roam the earth.
Troy stared at the girl and then at Yvette. “Do it,” he said.
Yvette swallowed. “I …” It was a big commitment. To take this girl’s life that way. She smoothed the girl’s hair back—she really was so damn young. “If she doesn’t want it, we can always end her, right? You would end her for me?”
Troy reached over, grabbing her hand in his. “You know I would.”
A shaky breath left Yvette's lungs. She was so blessed to have two such strong and wonderful men in her life. She gulped down tears, thinking how she had just left Raven in that car park with a monster that would most likely kill him. “I hope Raven is okay,” she whispered.
"He'll be fine. He's tough."