by Sophie Stern
“Helena,” I said crisply, nodding.
Raven curtseyed, and I gave her a sideways glance. A curtsey? Really? Was that something Helena had especially requested? Somehow, I got the impression that she had, because she actually smiled at Raven’s little show.
“Nice to see you, Liam,” Helena said to me. Then she went to Raven, grabbed her by the throat, and kissed her deeply. “Nice to see you, pet,” Helena purred to Raven.
Raven only blushed. She looked over toward me, but Helena grabbed her chin and turned Raven’s face back toward her.
“No,” she said. “Your eyes are only for me, Raven.”
“Yes, Mistress.”
“Go to my room,” Helena whispered.
“Yes, Mistress.”
Raven was smart enough not to look back at me. Instead, she left the office quickly, and we both heard her footsteps grow fainter and fainter as she made her way down the hall and toward Helena’s chambers. Helena went to the office door, closed it, and locked it.
She turned back to me, walked over, and placed her hands on my desk.
“What the hell, Liam?”
“Excuse me?”
“I really hope that my sources are wrong and that you aren’t planning on abducting a human.”
“Well, it’s not like that,” I floundered for just a second. I was usually so in-control, but being called out on my bullshit had a way of making me uncomfortable.
“Really?”
“She’s my mate, Helena.”
“Does she know that?” Helena asked. “Did she agree to that? Because the last time I checked, we don’t just kidnap people who are trying to hunt us, Liam. We kill them first.”
“You turned Raven.”
“Raven was drunk in a bar,” Helena said. Her look darkened. “You were there. Besides, she agreed to it.”
“You can’t consent when you’re drunk,” I pointed out. “This is the 21st century, Helena. Get with the program.”
“Nobody from this century says bullshit like get with the program.”
“I don’t give a shit.”
“I do,” she said. “You can’t just go after people.”
“I’m going after her,” I said.
“Why her?” Helena demanded. “Why this girl? You say she’s your mate. How do you know that? Tell me.”
There was more than anger behind Helena’s words. There was desperation. That was when I realized what she was really asking.
“This isn’t about Kimberly,” I said slowly. “This is about Raven.”
“No shit it’s about Raven,” she whispered. “Tell me how you know.”
“It’s been five years since I touched her,” I said. “And she almost killed me that night, Helena.”
“Almost, but not quite.”
“Almost, but not quite,” I repeated slowly. “No human has ever gotten that close to me.”
“How could she? What was so different?”
“I can’t read her mind.”
“Bullshit,” Helena whispered. “You can read any human you want to. With enough patience and enough focus, you can read anyone.”
It wasn’t exactly a secret that not all vampires could use their powers on humans. Some vampires were too fresh to use powers, and some were too old and jaded, but some of us could. I was especially good at reading humans. I couldn’t just smell them coming from a mile away. I could also hear their desires.
When someone is loudly thinking, “I’d like to kill that vampire dickhead,” I’ve always been smart enough to listen to that and kill the poor sucker first.
With Kimberly, I had no read at all.
I wanted to know so many things, but most of all, I wanted to know why I couldn’t get inside of her mind. It was going to bother me, I knew, if I couldn’t figure that out.
“It has to be because she’s my mate,” I told Helena.
“There could be a different explanation.”
“Really? Like what?”
“Like maybe you’re losing your marbles, old man,” she crossed her arms over her chest. Despite being an older vampire, Helena looked every bit as young as she did when we’d been turned. She was lovely, but her eyes held so many different things: pain, sadness, determination. We’d been friends for long enough that I knew she fought her own battles and rarely asked for help.
She’d never taken someone to love the way she had with Raven, though. Their relationship was something I stayed out of. Helena wasn’t exactly the jealous type - most vampires weren’t - but I didn’t give her any reason to think that I was going to share my opinions about her relationship. She could do what she wanted. She could love who she wanted.
But I could, too.
Apparently, my heart had chosen Kimberly.
“I’m not losing my marbles.”
“You could be, you geezer.”
“What’s with the old man jokes?” I said. “I’m 35.”
“And how long have you been 35?” She raised an eyebrow. “Fifty years? A hundred? It’s been a long time, Liam.”
“I stopped counting long ago.”
“We both did,” she said. “But this thing...” She gestured vaguely. “You’ll have to turn her, you know.”
“I know.”
“She’ll hate that.”
“She won’t have a choice.”
“Liam, I don’t know if you’re listening to what I’m saying,” she came over to me and placed her hands on my shoulders. “She might hate you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“This woman has wrapped her entire identity in being a hunter. That’s what she loves to do. Her entire life, she’s been fighting. She’s been focusing on getting her body to be as fast as possible and as strong as possible. She’s perfected her fighting skills. She’s great with weapons. There isn’t anything she can’t do.”
“Except find me,” I pointed out.
“But she’s trying,” Helena reminded me. “And if she does, she’s going to want to kill you, Liam. You had her friends slaughtered.”
“Her friends were harvesting the hearts of vampires to make illegal drugs,” I pointed out something that we both knew.
“Does she know that?”
“I didn’t tell her,” I shrugged.
“Fuck, Liam,” Helena shook her head. “For a Vampire Lord, you’re kind of dumb.”
I bristled, irritated at being called dumb.
“I think you’re forgetting who you’re talking to.”
“Don’t you pull rank with me,” she said. “You want to turn her, fine. Make sure you’re on the same page before you let your guard down around her, though. She’s got fire in her eyes, and it’s not from burning passion. It’s from burning hatred. That girl will slaughter you in your sleep if you give her the chance.”
“I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
“Better vampires than you have died from arrogance,” she lowered her voice. “And I don’t want to lose you.”
“You aren’t going to lose me.”
“I better not,” Helena said. Then she turned toward the door. “Raven is waiting for me. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She left, and I stared at the door before moving back to my desk. I knew Helena was right about Kimberly, but I didn’t want her to be. I wanted her to fall madly in love with me. I wanted to save her from the monotony of her life. Mostly, I wanted to show her that she could be so much more.
She wanted to be strong?
I could help her.
She wanted to be brave?
I could make her fearless.
She wanted to get revenge for the deaths of her friends?
She take her anguish out on my cock.
I wanted her, and I was going to have her, but maybe it could wait. Maybe it didn’t need to be tonight. I sighed, shaking my head. I was getting anxious, and I was going to be caught if I made hasty choices. I couldn’t think with my cock this time. I had to think with my brain. I wanted the human girl more than an
ything else in the world, but the timing had to be right.
Raven was correct. Tonight wasn’t a good night for it, but I’d keep watching because soon...
Soon I was going to take my mate.
3.
Kimberly
It was three days before I saw Raven again. I spent my days sleeping and my nights prowling around town, trying to save people from the creatures who liked to creep around. I had never considered myself much of a vigilante before my friends died. Still, I didn’t really think of myself as any sort of savior. It was just that hunting was the thing I was best at, and I was able to make a living doing it.
I had a little office where I met clients a few times a week. People would come in and ask me to take care of a monster that had been terrorizing their trailer park or their suburban street. Always, the story was the same.
“We don’t know where the vampires are coming from.”
“We’re tired of our dogs being eaten in the night.”
“One of them broke into the house. It was a bloodbath.”
There weren’t just vampires. There were werewolves, too, but those were more rare. It wasn’t often that a werewolf just wandered around and killed someone. Werewolves needed to have some sort of external motivation to risk exposing themselves. For vamps, blending in was easier. They looked human, and they had been, once upon a time.
I always charged my clients half up front and half after the clean-up had taken place. I was one of the freelance hunters who killed on my own time. I was picky about the jobs I took. I liked saving people. I didn’t want to be a murderer.
My friends, back in the day, had all been contract hunters, too. We’d worked as a team to clean up our city and to make it a safer place. Megan and Jacob had been thinking about having a kid, after all. They didn’t want to bring a baby into a world where everything kind of sucked. That had been good motivation to keep going.
When I walked into the bar on the third night, Raven was waiting. Now that I knew she was a vampire, I wondered how I couldn’t tell before. She was wearing the same clothes she used to wear before, but she looked...prettier, somehow.
She wasn’t as dirty as she’d been when she was a hunter.
“Has anyone told you that you clean up nice?” I asked, sliding onto the barstool beside her.
“As a matter of fact,” she said. “Someone has.”
“What?” I asked, looking at her sharply.
“Someone thinks I clean up nice.”
So, she had someone. She’d found someone. Who? Where? I had so many questions, but Raven was a private sort of person. She wasn’t going to tell me a damn thing until she was good and ready. Me asking her now was going to do nothing but make her clam up.
“I’m glad you found someone who can appreciate you,” I said carefully.
She raised an eyebrow. She had makeup on tonight, and her eyebrows looked like they’d been waxed or plucked. Her cheeks had a soft pink tint to them. Blush? Was Raven wearing blush? I couldn’t remember the last time I’d worn makeup or perfume. I didn’t wear anything that could attract a vampire to me. I didn’t want anyone to look twice at me, much less spend any time thinking about me.
“You didn’t ask me who it is,” she pointed out. “You’re being on your best behavior, aren’t you?”
“Possibly,” I said. The bartender appeared and I ordered a drink. As the man glided away, moving smoothly, I turned back to her. “I would like to hear what happened. You know, when you’re ready.”
“I’m afraid that’s not a story I’m going to want to tell,” she said.
“They caught you,” I whispered. “Aren’t you upset?”
She didn’t look upset. I thought that if a vampire caught me, I would be horrified. I would feel like I’d failed. If a vampire caught me, a hunter, then it would mean that I was prey, and I never, ever wanted to feel weak. I’d hated being the fattest kid in school as a child. I’d hated running slowly and having people laugh at me. When I was older, I worked my ass off to lose the weight and to get strong so that nobody would ever laugh at me again. Raven knew all of that. She knew exactly why being strong was so important to me.
Why wasn’t she more sad?
“You’ve known me a long time, Kim,” she said.
“Forever.”
“And you know that hunting was my life forever.”
“I thought it still was.”
She shook her head. She reached for her drink and held it tightly.
“When I turned, I wasn’t as sad as I thought I should have been. Isn’t that strange? It was actually kind of a relief,” she said. “I’ve been running and fighting for so long. The thing that was chasing me finally caught up with me. It’s stupid,” she said, “but I actually feel more at peace now than I ever have before.”
She raised her drink to her lips.
“I thought vampires couldn’t drink,” I whispered.
“That’s a myth,” she said.
“You believed it.”
“I believed a lot of things.”
“Can you get drunk?”
She looked at me.
“You have a lot of questions,” she said. “And there are vampires who would be more than happy to answer them for you.”
“For a price,” I pointed out.
She nodded.
“Aren’t you worried I’m going to bite you, Kimmy?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“You know I can kick your ass,” I said. “You being a vampire doesn’t change that.”
“Doesn’t it?” She laughed, shaking her head. Then she turned, faster than I could have possibly imagined, and she pressed her hand on my throat. I closed my eyes as she squeezed harder and harder. Soon I couldn’t breathe, and I opened my eyes again. Raven was watching me curiously. I wasn’t going to fight her, though.
Not Raven.
“Fight,” she whispered.
She was holding my throat too tightly. I couldn’t say anything. I couldn’t open my mouth. I couldn’t whisper anything.
Raven loosened the grip on my throat and brought her lips to mine, kissing me deeply, and then she pulled away.
“I can’t see you again,” she said.
Then she walked out of the bar and didn’t look back. I stared at the door as it slammed shut, wondering what the hell she meant. She couldn’t see me again? That comment hurt worse than the realization that she’d lied to me.
“Hey,” the bartender said, gesturing to Raven’s empty seat. “Are you going to pay for your friend?”
“Yeah,” I whispered, pulling out a wad of cash. I dropped it on the bar. “Keep the change.”
I got up and left, too. I didn’t care that my drink was only half-finished. I cared about her. I cared about the fact that Raven was one of them and there was nothing I could do about it. They’d stolen my best friend.
With every intention to walk to my home, I instead made my way to the front gates of the Grove. I stood there, looking at the wrought-iron gates, wondering why I didn’t just march in there. That was where Raven was. She was my last friend: my last link to humanity.
After the others had died, I’d thrown myself into hunting and I hadn’t exactly worried about anything else. Then, when I’d met Raven, we’d teamed up a few times for different jobs. Together, we’d killed vampires. We’d put down two different werewolves. Once, we killed a monster that looked like Big Foot, and neither one of us had any idea what it actually was.
Still, we’d made each other a promise: forever.
We’d promised that we would be friends forever, no matter what happened. To me, it kind of seemed like Raven was bailing on that promise. She’d gotten bit. So what? I didn’t care about that, but I did care about the fact that she’d blown me off.
Well, I was going to find her.
She’d left the bar only a few minutes before me. It wasn’t enough time for her to really get far. Oh, I was certain that she thought she’d be sneaky and run away fro
m me. She probably thought I’d go back to my home, vent and cry, punch something, and then move on.
Well, I’d already lost one person I cared about.
I wasn’t about to lose someone else.
Comparing my relationship with Hank to my friendship with Raven felt strange, but she was the closest thing to a lover that I had now. She knew my secrets – most of them – and I knew hers. Well, I thought I did. Maybe I’d been wrong.
Although Raven might make a wonderful vampire, she’d made the classic mistake of underestimating the human in her midst. She’d forgotten something very important: I was a hunter.
I was a damn good one, too.
My entire life had been spent hunting vampires, and I wasn’t about to let a little thing like friendship get in the way of that. Oh, I had no interest in killing my best friend, but I did want to find her. I wasn’t about to give up on being friends just because she had turned.
Was she?
Once I was certain nobody was looking, I slipped between the iron gates that guarded the entrance to the Grove, and I started walking. This part of the Grove was filled with trees and walking trails. It was really more of a beautiful little park. In the daytime, it was lovely. At night, the monsters came out to play.
We’d planned to hang out at the bar for awhile, so I was wearing a short black dress. It was cold outside, though, so I had a hooded zip-up sweatshirt on over it. No, it wasn’t very sexy or ladylike to wear a hoodie, but it meant that I wasn’t completely freezing. It also meant I wasn’t going to stand out too wildly as I slinked around the Grove.
I walked for a few minutes before veering off of the path. In real life, you were never supposed to wander from whatever path you were on. The rules of the real world didn’t apply in the Grove, though. Here, anything went. You could do anything, be anyone, and fight however you liked.
There was a reason that humans stayed out of the Grove.
The first vamps I came across were making out against a tree. I veered left, hurrying away. I didn’t do very much when it came to my appearance because I didn’t like calling attention to myself. The same was true of my scent. Vampires loved smells. They really loved the way humans smelled when they were sweaty and scared, or sweaty and aroused, or just sweaty in general.