by Eve Newton
She hesitates for some reason.
What the hell is she thinking? Why isn’t she scared? The Ambassadors are seconds away from reaching us now. She better fucking run or she’s going down with me.
But then I answer my own question as I finally pick up on her scent. If I wasn’t in such a state, I would’ve sensed it immediately.
“Vampire,” I growl.
Her eyes flash at my tone; the disgust in my voice. Light gray eyes, just like mine. That’s weird.
“This vampire is about to save your ass, wolf,” she hisses at me.
Before I can get another word out, her arms are around me.
Our surroundings blur as she evacuates us in an incredible burst of vampire speed.
Who the hell is this supermodel with the bossy bitch attitude?
Chapter 7
~Ember~
I glance over at the beat up wolf to my right and press my foot to the gas.
Shit. What good is she to me like this?
“Aria,” I say to her, but get no response. I know she is still alive as I can hear her heart beating in her chest and the blood is still oozing out of her forehead. My nostrils flare and I hastily turn my attention back to the road.
“Who are you?” I mutter to myself. The Ambassadors don’t send a contingent of eight men to take out one wolf. What in the blazes is going on here? “And why didn’t you shift, you stupid wolf?”
I expect an answer to that question. Her refusal has made my job a lot harder than I signed up for. For starters, I had to touch her. I am not even going to tell you how much that pissed me off, seeing as how I neither want to fuck her, nor kill her.
“Hmm?” I press her.
Nothing.
“Jesus,” I say with a sigh and shut my mouth.
As soon as I had the vision of where to find this wolf-woman, I knew I couldn’t bring her back to Simon’s. It would raise too many questions. On my mad dash out to her oddly-deserted compound, I had booked a villa in a hotel in the next town over. Which was a fucking good idea. There is no way I can drag her sorry ass through the lobby of a five-star establishment and I have had my fill of cheap and nasty for this lifetime. The Garden Villa at the Hastings Hotel is nice and secluded around the back with its own parking facilities, but it is still in a public area. The Ambassadors wouldn’t dare send an army to attack in such a public place, no matter who this fucking wolf is.
I pull up into the parking lot of the hotel and with only a slight hesitation, I get out.
“Don’t go anywhere,” I say to her as I grab my purse from in between her legs in the foot well. “Charming,” I add when she gives me the finger. At least she is responding now even if it is with crude gestures. I lock up the Lambo—not that it would make a difference to her getting out, or an Ambassador getting in—and hastily make my way to Reception. I check in as quickly as this human woman can possibly go and head back to the car, clutching the keycard to the villa.
To my relief, the car and the wolf are intact when I slide back in and maneuver around to the back lot.
“Can you stand?” I ask her, biting my lip as I stare down at her.
She mumbles something that sounds a lot like, “Does it look like I fucking can, vamp?” but I can’t be too sure even with my acute hearing.
Fantastic. Now I am going to have to pick her up again and risk getting blood all over my dress.
I haul her out of the car and fling her over my shoulder, fireman style. She lets out a loud groan which tells me she has broken ribs, and I make my way over to the door.
Once inside, I fling her gently onto the bed and keep the lighting level low.
“Hey?” I say to her and snap my fingers in her face. “Wake up.”
When nothing happens, I give up. She has passed out. Maybe that’s for the best in her condition. For a while at least. It will become a problem if she doesn’t rouse herself in the next few hours or so.
I head back out to the car to collect my duffel and my briefcase. We are going to need this. In it contains all of my necessities for a life on the run. Fake ID’s, fake passports, fake credit cards, burner phones, my tools for lock-picking and car-stealing and enough cash to stay off the grid for a good long while.
I rake my gaze over Aria with a frown. We can’t risk going back to her place for her belongings. Not yet at least. I am going to have to sort her out with some new clothes, unless she has a wallet tucked away somewhere in that slutty outfit.
Doubtful.
***
I root through the hotel drawers trying to find a first aid kit. I have no need to carry one around with me as I heal instantly. I was under the assumption shifters did as well once they shifted but…here I am needing to bring out the Florence Nightingale in me.
I find the paltry kit and dump the fruit out of the bowl on the table. Next I head to the small kitchenette for salt and to run warm water into the bowl. Salt is a basic antiseptic, but I am not wasting good vodka on those cuts.
I peel off Aria’s jacket and set about tending to her wounds as best I can, while holding my breath. Here would be a good time to be just a plain old, garden-variety turned vampire with no need to breathe. The smell of her blood is intoxicating and I am starving, as always. If I had thought about it, I would have stopped to feed on my way over, but fortunately for the wolf, I didn’t. She would likely be dead by now if I hadn’t reached her when I did. At some point, I am going to have to go out and feed, but right now I will have to use alcohol to numb the pain of deprivation.
I finish up playing nurse and step away. I finally draw a deep breath and grab two small bottles of vodka out of the mini-bar. I rip the cap off one and pour it into a glass and take a big sip. The burn of the alcohol focuses me and I regain my self-control. The exact opposite of the effect it has on humans, who lose their ability to function.
I drain the glass and pour in the second one. The first was for clarity, this one is for enjoyment.
***
I pace anxiously as the time ticks away. The longer we stay here, the more likely we are to be found. Just as that thought goes through my head, there is a loud rap on the door. I will deny all knowledge that it fucking made me jump.
I let out a huff as I know exactly who is standing on the other side of the door as I approach.
“Si,” I hiss at him as I open it a crack. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“Let me in,” he says and pushes at the door.
My superior strength holds the door steady and it turns into a battle over the door. “Go away,” I say to him as he keeps shoving.
“You just left,” he says, annoyed. “No goodbye or anything.”
“I had business to take care of,” I say shortly.
He peers through the crack in the door, craning his neck to get a look into the room. “Business, eh?” he sneers. “You’ve brought that warlock bastard here, haven’t you?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but no. I have no intention of seeing him again. This is something else,” I say, getting pissed off that I have to explain myself. In fact, I don’t have to explain myself. “Goodbye,” I say and slam the door in his face.
“Ember,” he says, rapping on the door again. “Let me help.”
“Go away,” I snarl at him. God, the longer he stands there, the more attention he is going to bring to this building.
“Have you fed?” he asks slyly and my stomach growls in response.
I purse my lips and decide, maybe, he can be useful after all. I open the door a crack again. “Go and get me something,” I order him and close the door again.
I hear him scamper off and feel relieved. At least I don’t have to go out and leave Aria while she is sleeping off her Ambassador attack hang-over. I need this bitch alive and well and in my company, or we are all doomed.
The stark reminder of the prophecy only causes the dull ache in the back of my head to make itself known again with a few thumps.
“Aria, girl, you need to wake up
,” I say to her as I rub my head.
“Fuck off,” she mumbles.
“Humph,” I reply. Talk about gratitude. “I saved your ass,” I protest, but I am just talking to myself.
***
Before long, Simon arrives back, tapping lightly on the door. I crack it open and glare at him. “Well?” I ask.
“Sorry, not exactly the best place to abduct a human for you to drink from,” he says, indicating the classy hotel behind him. “But I brought this, just in case,” he adds with a shrug, holding up a deep blue cooler.
It’ll do. I push open the door wider and he steps inside, his wandering eyes going straight to the sleeping woman in the bedroom. Naturally.
“Who is she?” he asks, curiously.
“No one,” I answer, snatching the cooler off him and delving inside for a blood bag. I don’t even stop to empty the contents into a mug to warm up. I just drop my fangs and tear a hole through the plastic. I pour it down my throat and grab another.
“Decorum, woman,” Simon mutters with a little laugh. “I have never seen you this way.”
“What way?” I gurgle as I drink.
“So unrefined,” he says with a snort. “Welcome to the lower classes, babe.”
I shoot him a death stare. Even when I run out of my vast fortune and I am down to my last penny, I will never be lower class. “Don’t let my father hear you say that. He has made it his life’s work to culture me and it is the only thing I am grateful to him for.”
“Ah, yes, dear old Edric,” Simon sneers. He has as much hatred for my father as I do. Unsurprisingly, as he was taken and tortured to find out my whereabouts a few decades ago. He stayed silent for two weeks and for his loyalty, I eventually sent someone to rescue him and bring him home. Sadly, that someone was not so loyal and didn’t live to tell about his betrayal. I sent him back to my father in small pieces with a note to say that I would continue to hack up his followers if he ever laid hands on Simon again. Not that I expected it to work, but between that and Simon’s relationship with several Covens scattered across the world, he is reasonably safe.
For now.
The longer he spends around me, the worse his situation will get.
“Hey,” he says, giving me an elbow bump. “Where’d you go?”
“You need to leave, Si. It’s not safe, you know that,” I say quietly.
He stares at me for a really long time before he nods his head. “Okay,” he says. “I’ll go, but, Ems, if you need anything…”
“I’ll call,” I say.
He bends down to kiss me and then thinks better of it, hovering in front of me with his lips inches from mine.
Feeling generous, I lean forward and press my lips to his for a quick peck and then I step back. He gives me a tight smile and in a flash of vampire speed he is gone, into the night. The night that is quickly fading. I am going to have to crash soon, but with Aria still out I feel it is a very bad idea. Who knows what is lurking in the shadows waiting for us to be vulnerable?
I smooth down my dress and then look down at myself. I look back up at Aria lying sprawled on the bed and sigh. I am going to have to change. Cruising with this woman is trouble, I can just tell. I dig through my bag and pull out my freshly laundered Armani jeans—courtesy of Simon—and a tidy, black blouse that accentuates my ample breasts. Reluctantly, I shed my dress and roll it up carefully, promising myself that I will get it dry cleaned just as soon as I can, and shimmy into the jeans and blouse. I keep the heels as I can’t bring myself to compromise that much right now and then I dig further into the bag right to the bottom. I usually don’t need additional weapons. I already have what I need with my speed, fangs and claws, but something tells me that big trouble is brewing and better safe than beaten and bloodied. I find what I am looking for and pull out the throwing knives.
I lift my left leg and place my foot on the edge of the bed and pull my jeans up a fraction. I strap on the ankle holster that contains three small, pure silver knives. Pushing my jeans back down I glance in the floor length mirror to make sure they are undetected and then I wait.
What for, I don’t know, but something is coming.
I can just feel it.
Chapter 8
~Ember~
I pace as I wait, stalking from one end of the sitting room to the other, like a caged animal. The need to hunt is strong, because I am on edge. I keep trying to figure out why the Ambassadors are trying so hard to kill Aria and why her pack deserted her when she needed them? It makes no sense.
I pause as I hear a noise coming from the window on the far side of the room. I tilt my head and I hear it again. A snap of a twig. I race quickly to the window, fangs and claws at the ready, when all of a sudden, the door behind me bursts open and in race three of the largest male vampires I have ever seen.
Dammit! Edric’s men. How did they find me so quickly?
I turn to face them, unleashing the beast within and I snarl at them, flexing my shoulders.
“Such a pretty little bitch,” one of them drawls in his south London accent.
“And yet, such a massive pain in the bollocks,” another one says with a howl of laughter. “I am going to enjoy bringing you down.” His sinister smile turns downright menacing and I take a deep breath.
“We can’t hurt her,” the last one says, definitely the least brazen of the lot.
“No, we can’t kill her,” 'bollocks' vamp says. “The master didn’t say anything about giving her a little punishment.”
“Are you going to fight, or just stand here and talk me into insanity?” I ask archly, giving them the impression of my full attention, but meanwhile scouring the area with my heightened senses for the best place to maneuver.
“I am going to smack that mouth of yours,” 'bollocks' vamp says and clenches his enormous fists, then releasing them with his claws drawn.
Well, size isn’t everything. I am stronger, quicker and more agile and far better trained than these lumbering oafs and they have clearly underestimated me. Which is precisely what I had hoped for. They aim for a three-pronged attack, but that just gives me the opportunity to pick them off one by one. Idiots.
I scoot around the edge of the room, hoping that none of them decide to check out the bedroom while they are here and catch Aria passed out.
'Bollocks' vamp lunges at me, but I am ready for him. Before he reaches me, I slam my foot into his groin with a smirk.
“Now, I’d say I was a pain in your bollocks,” I say to him as he drops to his knees with a choked groan and I rake my claws across his throat. He gurgles unintelligibly, the surprise registering that I have gouged him so deeply, before his head lolls to the side, hanging onto his neck by a thread. He clutches at his throat and I lean forward to grab a hold of his ears. The 'pretty little bitch' vamp attacks me from behind, but I slam my foot into him, sending him careening back into the wall. The foundations shake at the force of which he hits it and I cringe when I think of the damages I am going to pay for this little encounter.
The quiet one is watching me carefully and with a flash of my fangs at him, I tighten my grip on the vamp’s ears and twist his head so forcefully it snaps off his neck with ease and he disintegrates to ash at my feet. I brush off my hands as I turn back to the vamp about to attack me. He swipes at me, full of anger that I am beating them, but I duck out of the way. Rage will only get you so far.
I tuck myself into a forward roll and end up on the other side of the room. I jump up onto the dining table as the quiet one rushes me. I look up and then jump to grab hold of the dangling light fixture. I kick both of my feet out at the vamp and he roars with pain as one of my six-inch heels connects with his eye.
“Eww!” I cry out as I push off with my left foot to get my right heel out of his eye socket in a disgusting slurping action. “My shoe! You fucker!” I land on top of him as he slaps his hand to his eyehole and I punch him in the temple. He drops like a rock and then I go sprawling as his friend kicks out my legs from behind me
. I go crashing into an end table, sending a vase flying and smashing all over the hardwood floor.
“Jesus fuck!” a voice cries and I look up to see Aria standing in the doorway to the bedroom. “What the hell is going down out here?”
“Get out!” I shout at her as the two vamps take an interest in the newcomer.
Aria’s eyes go wide as she takes in the two angry vamps, but to her credit she goes on the defensive. She puts her fists up as the vamp who had taken me down advances on her.
“No!” I yell and break off a leg of the end table. I aim and send the makeshift stake straight at his back. It plunges into him and stabs him directly in the heart. Aria steps back as he bursts into a cloud of ash in front of her.
“Two down,” I say, getting steadily to my feet. I grab the quiet vamp by his neck and haul him to his feet. I throw him across the room as if he is a rag doll and he slumps down the wall, still bleeding from his eye socket. I break off another table leg with my foot and spin it in my hand.
“Wait,” he says, putting his hand up in fear, knowing his end is coming. “We can make a deal.”
“No deal,” I say coldly.
“I can take the heat off you, say that you went across the world. They will spend ages looking for you in the wrong place,” he stammers.
I hesitate. It’s enticing and about the best deal I will hear for a long time. I will never truly be free from Edric unless he decides to die, which is damn near an impossibility, but a few months of stability isn’t to be scorned at lightly.
“Come on,” Aria scoffs. “You believe this asshole and the lies he’s spinning here?”
“Stay out of it,” I hiss at her. “You have no idea what you are talking about.”
“Like hell, I don’t. And I can smell his lies,” she says with her arms crossed. “Take him the hell out before he takes you out. Kill or be killed.”
I come to the same conclusion after another moment of dreaming of a near future without being on the run. I don’t trust anyone for a reason and just because he is offering me this to save his life, doesn’t mean he will come through for me. More likely, he will go back to Edric on his hands and knees, telling him exactly where I am, who I am with and where to find his missing eyeball, which incidentally, is still skewered on my spiked heel.