Barbie- The Vampire Hunter Boxset

by Lucinda Dark

  I ate without really tasting anything. Jon was the first to finish and then Maverick. They both got up and returned their plates to the kitchen before heading off in their respective directions. Thankful to be alone with the woman I wanted to talk to, I set my fork down and turned in my seat.

  I cleared my throat. “Um … so, Beth?”

  “Yes?” She looked up from her plate and reached for a napkin to dab at the corner of her mouth where a drop of sauce had fallen.

  “I was wondering if it’d be okay if I went out this Friday too,” I said.

  “Did you want to go to the party with Maverick?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” I lied, “but I probably won’t be hanging out with him. I met some people in school today and I just thought…” I let the insinuation trail off. It wasn’t a complete lie. I had met new people in school today.

  “That’s wonderful.” She beamed at me. “I’m glad to hear you’re settling in. Of course you can go. Oh, that reminds me—” Beth paused and set her utensils down, getting up from the table and disappearing into the living room before she came back carrying her purse. “I went and picked this up at the store today.” She pulled out a cell phone complete with a pink and black case and set it down in front of me. “It’s on our family plan so you have unlimited calls and text messages. Just be careful using the data, we don’t usually run out, but between you and me,” she looked over her shoulder as she lowered her voice, “I know I use a lot of it. I don’t know if it’s a girl thing or just me.” She shrugged.

  I looked down at the phone, shocked. My finger crept onto the table and brushed against the edge of it. “I’ve never had a cellphone before,” I admitted.

  Her eyes widened. “Delvina and Peter never…”

  I shook my head. “No, they didn’t see the point since we were homeschooled.”

  “Oh.” Beth sucked in a breath and blew it out. “Well, this is just if you want it then,” she said. “I think it’ll be safer, though, for you to take it if you’ll be going out. I’ve already programmed Maverick and Jon’s numbers in there, as well as mine.”

  “Thanks, Beth.” I meant it. I picked up the phone and turned it over in my grasp. “I appreciate it.”

  Another mega-watt Beth smile flashed my way. “It’s nothing,” she replied, returning her attention to the last of her food.

  I bit the edge of my tongue. “There’s something else I wanted to ask too.” Chewing, Beth lifted her head once again. “I know you said you were thinking about getting me a car, but I don’t really need one of my own. I was just wondering, however, if you wouldn’t mind letting me borrow—”

  “Oh, your car, yes!” Beth said. “I’ve already got one picked out. I had my assistant go and check it out today. I think she sent me pictures.”

  My mouth dropped as she grabbed her phone and began flicking through photos, turning it around to show me. I shook my head. “I don’t want you to buy me any—”

  “It should be here by next week, so you’ll have to continue riding with Mav until then, but isn’t it just darling?” She sighed as she looked at the photo she had pulled up. “It almost makes me want a little bug of my own. I was really hoping to get it in yellow—the sunshine color, you know? But all they had was a bubblegum pink and I didn’t think you’d want to wait another two weeks for them to drive down a—”

  She was talking a mile a minute, giddy excitement filling up her tone. This was too much. In less than a year I’d be out of her hair. I wouldn’t be a concern anymore. Why was she going through so much trouble for someone she had just met days ago. “Beth,” I said her name with more force than I intended, but it did what it needed to. She stopped talking and looked at me with a frown tugging her lips down.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “You don’t need to buy me a car,” I said.

  “It’s no problem, really,” she tried to assure me.

  “You just met me,” I replied. “I might legally be your goddaughter, but you haven’t seen me in years. You’re not adopting me. You don’t have to go through all of this trouble. You don’t have to do so much.”

  Beth’s frown softened, and she reached towards me. I drew my hand back at the last second, turning my eyes down at the hurt look on her face. “Barbie, look at me,” she said. I didn’t want to. I didn’t know what I would see in her expression. “Barbie.” She said my name in a harder tone, one that brooked no argument. I sighed and angled my head back around. “Yes, it’s true,” she confessed. “I haven’t seen you since you were a baby. I hadn’t spoken to your parents in well over a decade. Closer to fifteen years, I think. To be honest, I’m not just doing this for you. I’m doing it for them too.”

  My head jerked back. “What do you mean?”

  “Some people grow apart when they move and don’t see each other anymore. But that wasn’t the case with Delvina and I. We were best friends all throughout college and when she moved away and went on to get her Master’s and Doctorate, we still kept in contact. Even when she spent a year in Italy, we were closer oceans apart than I was with the girls I saw at work every day,” Beth said. “She was in my wedding. She congratulated me when Maverick was born, just as I did for Brandon and then you. I thought we would have one of those friendships that lasted until we were old and gray. Hell,” she laughed good-naturedly, “at one point, we contemplated setting you up with Mav so that we could bring our families even closer together.”

  I grimaced. Fat chance that would’ve happened, I thought. My fingers tightened on the phone as something occurred to me. I looked up at Beth with a frown on my lips. “If you were so close,” I said, “what happened to cause you to stop talking?”

  Beth grimaced, but she didn’t shy away from the uncomfortable question. In fact, she appeared as though she’d expected the question and with a resigned sigh, she answered. “Well, first I suppose you have to understand that Vina was really close with her parents. They had no other children, so they doted on her. When they died, things started to change. She was wrecked—it was to be expected—but there was more. Vina became withdrawn. We had a horrible row,” Beth admitted. “I was hurt that she was ignoring me so willfully. It was months later, and she still didn’t seem okay. She seemed more obsessed than ever with something, but she wouldn’t tell me what. I felt like it had something to do with her parents’ deaths, but—”

  “How did they die?” I asked. My free hand latched onto the edge of the table and I found myself leaning forward, listening intently. This was far more information than my parents had ever deemed to give me or Brandon. They had never told us how they knew of the existence of vampires.

  “That’s just the thing,” Beth replied, “I don’t know. She never did say.”

  I bit my lip. I was almost sure that whatever had happened to my mom’s parents—my grandparents—had been the very thing that had driven my parents to find out about vampires. Perhaps, my grandparents had been killed by vampires. Considering how greatly my parents seemed to hate them and how harshly they had trained Brandon and me, it wasn’t unlikely.

  “But I digress, Barbie.” Beth reached out and took my hands in hers, causing me to drop my new phone back next to my nearly empty plate and release the ledge of the table. “I should have tried harder to understand where your mother was coming from. She was my best friend and I allowed her to pull away out of grief. Even though I’m sure she and Peter likely meant to change their will and entrust your care to someone closer to them before they passed, I like to think that fate has brought us together.” Beth spoke with such sincerity that it made me uncomfortable. Her eyes beseeched me with willful hope and I had a hard time looking at them. “For me, you’re my second chance to make things up to her. I really want you to think of this home as your own. Jon and I haven’t adopted you yet, but that’s not because we don’t want to. The choice has to be yours. If you want to stay after you’re eighteen, we’d love to have you.”

  In the glaringly loud silence that followed, I was left,
for the first time in a long time, utterly speechless. Thankfully, Beth recognized that tidbit, and with a kind, gentle smile she released me. “Of course, that’s for the future. For now, why don’t you go upstairs and get ready for bed? I hope you have another wonderful day at school tomorrow. I look forward to hearing all about your new friends.”

  My lips pinched tight to ward off an oncoming grimace as I nodded my acquiescence and stood from the table, grabbing my phone and plate and hurrying to the kitchen. The reminder of just how well my new school life was going was unwelcome, to say the least. It did, however, serve as a hint of what I should prepare for.

  Even so, Beth’s story about the death of my grandparents followed me into my bedroom and later into my dreams as, once again, I was dropped into a nightmare surrounded by nameless, faceless vampires and this time, I was not watching my parents and brother die, but a wrinkled and gray-haired couple that I supposed was an imitation of the grandparents I had never met.

  I hated watching people die. Even in my dreams.

  Chapter 9

  Torin

  “How many of your friends did you invite to our little soiree this weekend?” I scowled at the question a split second before the speaker’s arms slithered over my shoulders. The scent of rust tickled my nose. I flung the book I’d been reading onto the coffee table and stood up, effectively removing Eloise’s grip from me.

  “Why do I smell fresh blood on you?” I snapped, rounding on her.

  Big blue eyes blinked up at me. “Probably because I just came back from having dinner.”

  “You know the rules about feeding in town. If you—”

  “If I what?” she interrupted. “Killed someone? Please, darling, I’ve been a good girl lately.”

  “Drinking from the vein is not being a ‘good girl,’” I quoted. “I still have another year to finish. For fuck’s sake, can’t you keep your fangs in your mouth?”

  “Why would I do that?” she replied with a smirk, slinking over the top of the couch and landing in a stretched out position before me. “I haven’t killed anyone or taken any unwilling donors. I should be rewarded.” Her claw like grip found the edge of my shirt and tugged sharply. I slapped a hand out against the back of the couch to keep from falling on top of her. Eloise’s pink tongue peeked out.

  “If you don’t keep your fangs to yourself, I’m sure Arrius will have something to say about it,” I growled, jerking away from her grip.

  The tinkling sound of her laughter grated in my ears.

  “El, why are you torturing my brother?”

  I lifted my eyes as Katalin descended the staircase and strode across the tiled floor until her booted feet met the edge of the couch. Eloise grinned up at her. “Katalin, dear!” She popped up into a sitting position. “You’re home.”

  “I am. What are you doing here?”

  “She was asking about the party this weekend,” I answered for her, slanting a look Katalin’s way.

  “What about it?” Katalin arched a brow, but not at her friend. No, she leveled that knowing look right at me.

  I folded my arms across my chest. “You tell me, Katalin. Why are we having a party? What’s changed?”

  “Are you still upset about that boy?” Eloise groaned even as her eyes rolled into the back of her head. “You seriously have to get over it. Besides, it’s not like you don’t still see him at that little school you go to.” Eloise folded her fingers together and stretched her long slender arms up before she dropped them and rose from the settee. “But I suppose I could be convinced to see the appeal. I bet he tastes delicious.”

  I scowled. “Regardless, he hates my guts,” I reminded her. “Therefore, he won’t be coming back.”

  She hummed low in her throat. “He might for the party.”

  When neither Katalin nor I said anything more, Eloise shrugged and turned, drifting from the room and leaving my sister and me alone. After a beat, Katalin spoke. “I didn’t request this party,” she said quietly.

  I cut a glance her way out of the corner of my eyes. “Then who did?”

  “Who do you think?” she countered.

  “If you didn’t want the party, then he did.” I hissed in outrage. “Why?” I demanded. “He’s not even here.”

  She shrugged as if it didn’t matter to her. It probably didn’t. “How am I supposed to know?” she replied, taking a seat where Eloise had vacated. Honeyed tresses sifted over her shoulders as she arched her back and settled in comfortably. For a moment, I was arrested. Not because of her, but because her hair reminded me of another blonde. One with much lighter hair—so light it appeared to have been bleached by the sun.

  Thirst wrapped bloody fists around my neck and squeezed as I imagined a completely different neck under my hands. Suckling at my sister’s vein would do very little for me, but the new girl that had arrived this week … my whole body tightened in unnecessary anticipation. I swallowed against my fangs as they prodded at my gums. I was not an animal. I did not cave to the desires of my vampire side. No matter how much it desired Barbie Steele’s blood.

  Clearing my suddenly parched throat, I distracted myself by focusing on my sister. “Why do you allow her here?”

  Katalin closed her eyes and rested her head against the couch cushions. “Eloise is one of Arrius’ most trusted advisors—”

  “You and I both know she’s not an advisor,” I interrupted.

  Katalin’s eyes open once more. “Regardless,” she said, “that’s her title and she’s here under his orders. You’ll just have to deal with her. She’s not as bad as his other girls.”

  I scowled. “She’s a leech.”

  White teeth flashed as Katalin’s full lips parted. “Aren’t we all, darling?”

  True as it was, I wasn’t like them. I was apart. Separate. While their hearts had long ago shriveled up and died as they were frozen in time at the age each of them were turned, I grew. I aged.

  She flicked a hand my way. “Why don’t you go grab me a drink, I could use one right about now.”

  The front door opened before I could reply, and one of Eloise’s favorite children sailed inside with arms full of shopping bags. “I’m back,” Delia said in a bored tone, flinging the bags at the bottom of the couch and striding forward. I grimaced, stiffening, as she hugged her arms around me. The cloying scent of her perfume burned my nostrils. How she could bear the overly floral smell with her own senses was a mystery to me. I carefully extracted myself from her octopus-like hold.

  “Wonderful, perhaps you can keep my sister company,” I said. “Or better yet, get her a drink.”

  In response, Katalin chuckled.

  Delia, however, acted as though she hadn’t heard. She advanced on me, fingers curling into the fabric of my shirt. As I backed up, she pressed herself against my chest, her breasts plumped up and rubbing with intent. She practically purred as she flicked a lock of dark hair over her shoulder and puckered her full lips at me. “I’d much rather keep you company, Torin,” she rasped. “What do you say we go upstairs and have a nice…” She slid one hand down my abdomen. “Long…” When she reached the edge of my jeans, I snatched her hand and squeezed until I was sure—had she been human—she would have felt the fracturing of her bones. “Rest?”

  “No offense,” I said blandly, “but getting into bed with you would be like sleeping with a snake.”

  I was sure to any average man, she would have been irresistible, but to me, she was nothing more than yet another viper, slithering her way into the bed of anyone who had power. I knew for a fact that she, like Eloise, had slept with my father and that alone would have warned me away. The only women my father slept with were as cold and dead inside as they were on the outside. And both Delia and Eloise had been dead for many centuries.

  Delia laughed and tugged her hand away from my grip. “Even snakes need mates,” she said flippantly, gliding to the couch and reclining next to Katalin who lifted her brows at me. “I’m sure your father will choose someone for you
soon enough. You really should have fun while you still can.”

  I scowled. “It doesn’t matter who he chooses,” I snapped, “I’m not some pet to be ordered about or a pawn to be paired off and sacrificed.”

  Delia laughed as though my words were the most amusing joke she’d heard in years. “You’re so adorable,” she chuckled. “But so naive. Everyone in Arrius’ world is a pawn. Everyone is expendable.”

  I looked to Katalin, but she avoided my gaze as she too, responded. “Just make sure that you have enough people for the party to be a success,” was all she said. “Father has invited a few friends.”

  My frown deepened. I didn’t like that. Any friend of Arrius Priest was bound to be as soulless as he was. And if Barbie came … my fangs practically throbbed. The thought of her in a roomful of hungry vampires sent spikes of volcanic anger and fear through me. The thought of her alone in a room with me, however … I sucked in a breath and shoved away the image that formed in my mind—all that blonde hair, that pale skin under me.

  As if she could sense my internal battle of wills, Katalin scoffed in amusement. “Careful there, brother darling,” she said with mock concern. “If you don’t take care of that thirst of yours, you’re bound to take it out on one of your classmates this weekend.”

  “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” I growled as I headed for the kitchen.

  “I never said anything of the kind,” Katalin called after me.

  “I might,” Delia piped up. “I’m feeling rather parched. I do hope you invited some of those football players. Athletes always have such a thick taste.” She clapped her hands together. “Oh, I have an idea. Let’s make a game of it. Whoever tastes the best will be shared between the three of us. Katalin, what do you say? You, me, and El?”

  I stopped at the doorway and looked back over my shoulder. “If you kill any of my classmates, how the fuck am I supposed to graduate?” I growled. “Even if he did order the party, keep your fangs to yourself or I’ll remove them for you.”