No way was I stripping for the brother of the horniest werewolf in town. I’d never hear the end of it from Garrett.
I closed my eyes and willed the shirt to change. Calliope said the clothes would change for the person. Time to test that theory. The soft t-shirt fabric tightened around my waist and I felt the neck widen in the back and open up. In the front, it rose to my throat and I watched in the mirrors as the fabric in the back dropped into a loose cowl, baring all the skin above my bra. My skin was so … smooth? How?
“Well, that works, too.” Travis chuckled and leaned forward.
“Wait!” I jumped from the chair and grabbed the hem of my shirt, pulling it up baring most of my stomach and the bottom of my bra.
They were gone.
How had I not noticed?
I’d been dressed when I woke up, but still … I should’ve felt different. Tracing my fingers across my skin, I felt for where the scars had been. But nothing remained. No discoloration. No raised scaring. Nothing. It was as if it’d never happened.
But it had. I remembered where every single jagged white and red stripe had been. They would forever be imprinted in my mind.
“Bailey. Your transformation healed your human body. All imperfections are erased when you become a vampire.”
I stared at Erick in the mirror. My once brown eyes were the same ocean blue as his.
So strange.
It was me, but it wasn’t. Bailey Ross or D’Roth the human had ceased to exist. Kevin had killed her. Now I had the chance to have a different life. Maybe a better one.
I sat back down and Travis’ hands brushed against my back. I sucked in a deep breath of air. His fingertips felt like fire against my cold skin.
Erick moved to stand in front of me as Travis continued.
“Did I feel like this when I touched you … before?”
“Not to the same degree. Wolves run about ten degrees hotter than humans. It will pass as you get used to it.”
“Sorry,” Travis murmured.
“It’s okay.” My gaze flitted to one of the mirrors across from me and I watched him draw an outline. The design was a beautiful one. Almost a play on a sunburst, but with a lot of extra filigree and markings in a language I couldn’t read. I’d studied Erick’s, but never asked specifics about it.
“Will mine look just like yours?”
Erick nodded. “All our tattoos are the same, except yours will have the number five in it.”
“What number are you?”
“Two.” He folded his arms across his hard chest and I licked my lips. His nostrils flared and he narrowed his gaze, flashing me a wicked grin. No doubt even though I was a vampire, he could still smell my arousal.
“Who was first?”
“Sita. The Sisters found her in Greece before they fled to the north.”
“Then you?”
“Yes.”
“What about you, Travis? When did you join Sanctuary?”
“My pack was killed shortly after the Riots. My brother and I were deployed in the U.S. Army. When we got back … there was nothing left. I may not be a Protector, but I owe Rose everything. She made me feel like I belonged somewhere again.”
“I’m sorry. I know how hard it is to lose family.”
He grunted something unintelligible.
A squeak of his chair and the absence of his hands on my back snapped me out of my thoughts.
“All right, sweetheart. Whatever you do, don’t move.” He reached for the needle on the counter and flipped a switch. A small motor whirred to life and I steeled myself.
The needle touched and pain radiated out from my neck in white-hot streaks. I screamed and cursed his name, but I did not move a millimeter. It hurt, but so had Kevin’s whip, and his crop, and his cane, and his baseball bat. I’d been through so much. The fire of the needle felt cleansing in a way. My scars were gone. This was a new beginning.
I could start this new life with a group of people that needed me. Relied on me. Fought for me.
The tattoo wouldn’t hurt forever. I wouldn’t have a constant ache from it reminding me of my mistakes. It was a symbol of my rebirth. My new life. A life I would fight hard to protect.
The whirring sound was constant and time moved ever so slowly until the whole of my back felt like it was ablaze. I couldn’t feel the needle so much as just the heat of where the silver had been.
The tattoo would spread across the entire base of my neck. The long spires from the sun-shaped design would reach out along my shoulder blades and midway down my back and right up to my hairline. The circumference would be about the size of Erick’s splayed-out hand when finished.
I closed my eyes and tried to focus outside the pain. He kept the needle moving, so at least the burn was constant instead of touch and go. I still wanted to scream, but it wasn’t worse than Kevin’s belt.
***
Erick’s hand on my cheek made me open my eyes. Not sure how much time passed. Probably hours. I hissed out a breath as Travis stopped and the room fell into silence. I glanced straight ahead and focused on the reflection of my back in the mirror behind me. My skin was smudged with blood, but I could see the outline of the intricate black tattoo beneath it.
Travis pulled a white washcloth from a lower cabinet next to him and dabbed at my back, removing the smeared blood.
“Good thing about vampires healing really fast, you won’t have any redness or swelling. As soon as I wash you up, you’re good to go.” He turned the cloth several times, swabbing until my back was clean. “You were a trooper, sweetheart. The last vampire I tattooed destroyed my chair and I had to replace both of those windows.”
I sighed, simply glad the pain had subsided. “What happened?”
“He threw the chair through the wall.”
Erick chuckled, taking my hand. I stood and backed away from the contraption Travis called a chair. Stepping closer to the wall of mirrors, I turned and looked over my shoulder, taking a closer look at the design that now covered the back of my neck and shoulders. At the center was a circle filled with markings I didn’t understand. Parallel wavy lines extending outward from the edge of the ring, in between the eight points out from the sun. Between the wavy lines were more small inscriptions in the same foreign markings. It looked exactly the same as the one on Erick’s neck and back. It was beautiful and it further cemented my place in this town.
Now I just had to get it activated so I could be out in the sun.
“How do you feel?” Erick cupped my face in his palm.
“I’m good. The pain stopped as soon as it was done.” I leaned into his caress and breathed in his candied scent. “What’s next?”
“Rose casts the spell that binds your tattoo with the rest of the Protectors and protects you from the sun.” He dropped his hand and gestured to the doorway. “I’ll call Rose and let her know we’re on our way to the Castle.”
“Why there?”
“Arlea has the spell book.”
Of course she does. “Oh.” I moved through the door and into the front of the shop, leaving Erick to walk with Travis. The last thing I wanted was to go into the Castle again. I’d agreed to work through my fears, but that wasn’t really on my agenda for tonight.
“I’ll be here if you need me,” Travis called out as we exited the shop.
The Texas night air was warm, but pleasant without the sun beating down on our heads. I glanced up at the starry sky, surprised that I could see everything so clearly in the pitch-blackness of the night. The street we were on only had a single lamp on each cross street corner. Only Main Street Circle had lamps every few yards.
I could hear everything, from the bats flying high above my head, to the crickets scrambling along the sidewalks a dozen yards away. As we got closer to the Castle I could hear voices, conversations even, and the heartbeats of the beings inside. The smells were so tantalizing. Each body had a specific scent and my mouth watered at the thought of tasting them.
Ewww! I’d just
thought about drinking other people’s blood. People I knew and strangers!
“Kjaere, calm yourself. It’s natural to be hungry when you smell food, is it not?”
“Yes, but they’re people, not hamburgers.” I turned and glanced over at him. “How did you know?”
“I could smell them, too. As soon as we turned the corner. It’s natural. Don’t be so hard on yourself.” He grinned and slid a hand around my waist. “As long as you don’t tell them you are thinking it, they’ll never know.”
I laughed. Full on from-the-belly cracked up. I’m sure the whole block could hear me, but I just didn’t care. It felt so good to just let loose. The idea of walking around and imagining people as tasty treats was absolutely hilarious. Maybe I’d just lost my mind.
After I’d laughed enough to make the muscles of my abdomen hurt, I started to relax. The stress of everything that had happened over the last twenty-four hours had my body in knots and my mind overwhelmed.
I didn’t have to run anymore.
I had a home.
I had people who wanted me to stick around no matter what.
Erick’s phone buzzed on his hip and he paused to answer it. His hand left my waist and I saw Calliope’s name on the screen before something or someone else grabbed me around the waist and wrenched me away from him. Erick’s growl was cut off and the world twisted in front of me and disappeared. My stomach flew to my throat and I felt worse than when I’d had food poisoning for a week.
In a flash of a millisecond I was somewhere else entirely. The smells in the air were different, the humidity, the altitude, everything. It wasn’t Texas anymore and the man holding me wasn’t Erick.
It was Darius.
I screamed and raked my fingers across his face. Blood flowed from the scratches and then everything went red. I could smell the sweetness coating my fingers, feel the energy in it as it ran down his cheeks. My vision changed and every sense I possessed focused on his body and the distinct beating of his heart.
“You bitch!” he yelled, releasing me and taking a step back. He touched his palm to his bloody cheek. “He turned you, damn vampire. He took my Nadia from me and I’ll take you from him just like I took that bitch of his, Elinor.”
He shook his head, flipping his long dark hair out of his face. Bright lavender eyes glared at me. I could smell his hate, his anger. It seeped from his skin like cheap cologne.
His fancy suit was crooked from our struggle. He pulled his tie from his neck and took a step forward this time. The snarl on his face changed to militant determination. Something shiny on his hand caught my eye and I remembered what needed to be done.
He didn’t get to make me the victim again. I would never be in that position again. I’d die first.
Something akin to a growl or snarl came from my mouth and I lunged, knocking him backward. His head hit the glass window directly behind him, shattering the glass and slicing up his scalp in the process.
More blood.
It was everywhere. My desire to feed roared through my veins. His blood smelled so good. I licked my lips and brought my bloodstained fingers to my mouth—dark and rich. I wanted more.
His foot caught me in the stomach and hurled me backward. I landed on the coffee table in the middle of the room. Pain shot through my stomach, drawing a scream from my throat.
He leapt on top of me, laughing. “Vampires. Just a little blood and you can’t even see straight.” His hand went to my torso and more pain fired through my body in merciless waves.
I looked down and saw part of the coffee table’s leg protruding from my right side. Oh, God! Really? Life seemed determined to continue stabbing me in the gut.
Would I die from this? It missed my heart. Lessons in school said only wood through the heart would kill a vampire. Or beheading.
Darius’ hand on my breasts snapped me back to the present and I snarled. “Get off of me!”
“Oh, I have plans for you my sweet. Kevin just thought I was going to let him have you all to himself. Then the little fuck double-crossed me. If your Viking hadn’t killed him, I would have … but much slower and with a great deal more pain.”
He pushed on the chunk of wood lodged in my side again and tears burned down my cheeks, but I held in the scream, not willing to give him the satisfaction.
“Tough girl, huh? That’s not how Kevin described you. He said you’d whimper and cry for me.” He pulled a blade from a sheath on his ankle and ran it across my face. The burn was like fire eating at my flesh.
That scream I couldn’t stop and it rose from my throat like the pained sound of a dying animal. “There, there.” He pulled the knife away and the pain faded. “That’s more like it.”
“Fuck you,” I hissed between clenched teeth.
He shoved against the wood in my side again and I groaned as blinding pain traveled through every cell of my body at the speed of light.
“You think they care about you, little girl. They don’t. Even your Viking only finds you attractive because you remind him of his dead wife. The wife I killed.” His face parted into a sinister grin and fear clawed its way into my heart.
I refused to believe him.
“Now I get to take two women from him. Your blood looks just as good painting my floor as Elinor’s did centuries ago.”
“Why?”
“Thanks to Erick, your bitch of a Sentinel has my Nadia locked up in her vault. So I took the only thing he cared about in the world. Now I’m going to do it again.”
There it was. That little slip gave me hope. I was only his target because Erick cared. Whether or not I reminded Erick of his lost wife, the adoration in his eyes and in his voice every time he’d called me kjaere didn’t lie.
“You. Can’t. Have. Me.” My fangs descended and I grabbed his shoulders, pulling his neck to my mouth. I sank my fangs into his neck and drank deeply. His blood tasted like sweet revenge … and power.
A lot of power.
He punched the side of my head, knocking himself free for a moment. But he was no match for me now. His blood strengthened me and my anger pushed me harder. I had vowed never to be a victim again. This asshole was not going to make me break that promise.
I pushed him to the ground, yanked the hunk of wood from my side and fell on him again, drinking deeply and quickly.
So much blood.
So much anger.
His struggles slowed and soon he was a limp heap beneath me.
I pulled away, the shock of what I’d done registering in my blood-crazed brain. Had I killed him? No, please don’t be dead. Even as nasty as he was, I didn’t want to kill anyone. Kevin was the only person I’d ever wished death on. Even then, I wasn’t sure I could’ve done it.
I pushed down the ferocious hunger flaming inside me. My vision went back to normal and I was able to detect a faint pulse within his limp form. Wiping the blood from my chin I glanced around the room.
It looked like a hotel suite. Nice carpets, plush bed, modern art on the walls. A tray of covered, silver food dishes.
Standing, I rushed to the table beside the door. A pamphlet lay next to a small bowl of mints. I picked up the paper, hoping for a clue. The Levante Hotel, the secret gem of Austria. Austria? Where the hell was that? Where had he taken me?
I ran back to his side and slapped his face. “Take me back! You bastard! Take me back.”
He groaned and his eyes fluttered open for a second. “C-can’t,” he said, his voice gargling in his chest.
Damn it! His pulse was growing slower by the second.
I grabbed his right hand and slid the large gold signet ring from his finger and slipped it over my thumb. Then I bit my wrist and held it to his lips.
“Drink,” I growled. “And take me back to Sanctuary.”
He turned his head away from my dripping wrist and scoffed. “I w-won’t help y-you, b-bitch.”
“You will!” I grabbed the lapels of his suit jacket and pulled his face closer to mine. “Take. Me. Home.”
We were back.
The starry sky of Texas was spread above me. The smell of cut grass and oak trees swirled around me. The hint of wildflowers on the soft breeze and the soft glow of the Main Street Circle lamps cast an eerie shadow on Darius’ bloody body. My clothes were unstained, but blood covered my hands, arms, neck, and face. I could feel it. Smell it. It was everywhere.
“Bailey!” Calliope’s voice called from the dark.
“Here,” I shouted into the night. We had teleported into the empty, grassy area in the middle of the circle. A few yards away from where the large, stone, stage thing glistened in the moonlight.
A second later, Erick was dragging me away from Darius and feeling me up and down. “Are you hurt?”
“I…” Feeling my stomach, I was shocked to find the wound was already healed. Most of the blood that covered me now was the Djinn’s. “It’s his blood.” I looked down at Darius again. He had a faint pulse, but it was fading rapidly. “He’s going to die. I don’t want to have killed him, Erick … please.”
“He deserves to die. He’s a miserable being who has done nothing but bring suffering to this world.”
“Please.” I grabbed Erick’s face in my hands and met his angry blue gaze. “Get Rose to lock him away instead.”
I could smell and feel his emotions warring inside him. It was several minutes before he relaxed in my grasp and nodded.
“It shall be as you wish, min kjaereste.”
“Thank you.” I dropped my bloodstained hands to my sides, suddenly very heavy with the weight of what had just happened. He’d agreed. For me. To let the man who’d murdered his wife centuries ago … live.
Rose appeared alongside Calliope. They stepped around Darius’ body and hugged me, telling me how thankful they were I was safe. Several others weren’t far behind them. Soon I was being passed from one person’s arms to the next. Even the dragons, Miles and Eli, weren’t shy about giving me a quick squeeze and a kind word in my ear. By the end of the group hug, tears were running down my cheeks.
My Viking Vampire Page 20