B00AO57VOY EBOK

by Myers, AJ

  Hesitantly, I pulled my phone out of the pocket of my hoodie. Rather than hand it over to her, though, I just sat there and stared down at it. I mean, it was bad enough that I had taken the picture in the first place. Showing it to someone else…just seemed wrong, somehow. Still, it wasn’t like I was posting it on Facebook or something. This was Grams. And if it could somehow help lead us to Jack, wasn’t it worth it?

  It was that thought, the thought of stopping Jack before he could hurt someone else, that made me pull up the picture I had taken and pass the phone across the counter to Grams. She looked at the picture for a long moment, her eyebrows drawing down in a frown.

  “What does it mean?”

  “I have no idea,” she said, shaking her head. “Nate, have you ever seen anything like this?”

  I knew the second Grams turned the phone around that something was wrong. Every muscle in Nathan’s body seemed to tense at once, and I looked over my shoulder to see that his pale face was suddenly bone white. His eyes were glued to the screen in front of him and there was something about the way he was staring at the design carved in Casey’s skin that made my skin start to crawl like an army of ants had moved in and decided to make it home.

  “Nate? Have you seen it before?” Grams asked, giving him a concerned look.

  “Yeah, I’ve seen it before,” he said, his voice almost a whisper.

  “Well, what is it?” I asked, frowning when he didn’t bother to elaborate.

  “A reminder,” he said, turning to look at me. The strange, almost dead look in his eyes was enough to chill me to my very core. “And the answer I’ve spent four centuries trying to find.”

  “What answer would that be?” I asked, even though I was pretty damn sure I didn’t really want to know.

  “I know who our demon is,” he said, never taking his cold dead eyes from mine. “Now I just have to find out how to get rid of him.”

  “Really?” Yeah, I am such a glutton for punishment. “Who is it?”

  “Bastian St. Jean,” he said, watching as my eyes widened.

  “Wait! Wasn’t that your best friend’s name when you were human? Why the hell would he want to kill me if he was your best friend?”

  “Because I killed the woman he loved four hundred years ago.”

  I felt like he’d punched me. Seriously, I wouldn’t have been more surprised if he had. I’d lived under the same roof with Nathan for more than a month. I’d been bitten by him not once, but twice and lived to tell the tale. And somewhere along the way, I’d given myself the idea that just because he was a vampire didn’t mean he was a killer.

  And he’d just shattered that illusion like stained glass in the path of a wrecking ball.

  “Her name was Gabriella Bénichou,” Nathan continued, looking away from the horror on my face. When I pulled away from him and slid off my stool, he didn’t try to stop me. “Like Bastian, she came from a wealthy merchant family. We played together as children, the three of us. That’s the meaning of the three arrows. The center arrow was Gabby and the two crossed arrows were for Bastian and I. We sealed our correspondence to each other with that symbol embossed in the wax even into adulthood.”

  “Over the years, it became apparent to everyone that Bastian’s feelings for Gabby were more than friendly,” Nathan continued, his gaze far away. “Without her knowledge, he began to meet with her father to gain her hand in marriage. And he succeeded.”

  I found myself getting angry on Gabriella’s behalf. Not only had she been betrayed by her father, but by her friend, someone she’d trusted. Seriously, did all guys just suck?

  “On the pretense of celebrating her birthday, Gabby’s father planned a huge ball in her honor. The wealthy came from miles around to attend. Even a few of the local nobles accepted an invitation. Only Bastian and old man Bénichou knew the true purpose of the party. It was a betrothal ball. Unfortunately, they didn’t tell the intended bride.”

  Oh, wow. Even I could see this story was a tragedy in the making. Shakespeare himself couldn’t have done better. A lovesick idiot, a reluctant bride, and a handsome best friend. Yeah, all the players needed for the kind of scenario that never seemed to end well.

  “I shouldn’t have been there,” Nathan said, his silky voice cracking with the pain of his memories. “I was only a month turned, my family had just been slaughtered, and I wasn’t the most stable of creatures. But she sent for me, begged me to come, if only for a little while. And because I loved her like a sister, because she and Bastian were the only family I had left, I agreed. I arrived just in time to watch Bastian make the mistake that would doom us all.”

  “Gabby saw me in the crowd when her father made the announcement.” He shook his head back and forth, like he could get rid of the memory of what happened next that way. “After the toasts were made and she was finally released from the swarm of well-wishers, she headed directly for me. I could see the tears in her eyes from across the room. Not wanting her to lose her composure in front of the crowd, I took her outside, to the gardens, to get some air.”

  “Gabby was inconsolable. She loved Bastian, but as a friend not a lover. I held her as she cried, knowing she had no choice. Gabby wasn’t like Bastian or me. She never would have defied her father. Never. She just needed time to come to terms with the fate they’d decided for her without ever asking her opinion on the matter.”

  He fell silent and Grams and I exchanged a worried look when we saw a tear slide down his cheek. For a long time he just sat there, lost in the memories playing out in his own mind. When he finally looked at me again, the sorrow I saw on his face made my heart ache. Even when he resumed his tragic tale, his voice soft and low, he didn’t look away from me.

  “She was going to go through with it,” he whispered. “It wasn’t so bad, marrying one of your dearest friends, she said. But before she could go back into that party and smile and pretend she was the happiest woman in the world, she just wanted one more minute, just one, to compose herself. She asked me to stay with her, and I promised I would. And that was when Bastian found us, with her still in my arms and her tear-stained cheek against my shoulder.”

  “I had never seen him as out of control as he was that night. He screamed that I’d betrayed him, that we’d betrayed him. He said he’d always known I wanted her, but that I couldn’t have her, that he had won fair and square like she was some kind of bet we’d made. I tried to talk to him, to tell him that he wasn’t making any sense. My love for Gabby wasn’t in any way romantic and never had been. But he was crazed with jealousy and wine and his unfounded sense of betrayal.”

  “He pulled a pistol from his belt and fired a single shot. I’ve spent four centuries with that memory haunting me. I still see the shock on her face as that bullet hit her in the stomach, the way she looked up at me and held her blood-covered fingers out as if begging me to tell her it hadn’t happened. I was still so young and the smell of her blood...I lost control. The next thing I knew she was in my arms again. I still remember the taste of her blood on my tongue when I took her life. It’s something I will never forget…and never forgive myself for.”

  I stood there for a full minute, not sure what I should say—or if I should say anything at all. My heart broke for him. I couldn’t imagine what that was like, having to spend eternity knowing you’d killed your best friend, someone who loved you and trusted you. To carry that kind of guilt around with no chance of forgiveness must be a Hell in and of itself.

  But Bastian had been as much to blame as Nathan. Nathan might have fed on her, but Bastian had shot her. Was this jerk so full of hate that he couldn’t see that? So…what? He’d gotten it into his head that Nathan had killed his girlfriend so it was perfectly acceptable for him to kill his?

  Oh, this asshole had the kind of issues even therapy and a strict regimen of medication couldn’t cure!

  “The fault was not Nathaniel’s,” a soft, lyrical voice said behind me just as a wave of warm, lilac-scented air washed over me. I turned
my head, tearing my eyes from Nathan’s at long last, to find the ghost from the morgue standing just behind my left shoulder, her expression sad and her gaze focused on Nathan’s tormented face.

  “It wasn’t?” I asked before I could stop myself. I darted a glance in Grams’ direction, unsurprised to find her watching me through narrowed eyes.

  “No, it was not,” the ghost said, shaking her head sadly. “To be injured in such a way in that time was fatal. He saved his friend from a terrible death by ending her pain quickly. You must go to him, comfort him. That is your duty as his l'âme sœur, his soul mate. Do not be so foolish as to let history alter your future, Ember.”

  Before I could say a word, she was gone, taking the weird warmth of her energy with her. For a second, I just stared at the place where she had been, a bitter-tasting flood of guilt turning my stomach. She was right. I loved Nathan and he was in pain. And what had I done? I had looked at him with horror because I’d gotten a dose of reality, had backed away from him and left him with no one to comfort him as he told that awful tale. Nathan never would have done that to me.

  I closed the distance I had put between us and cupped his face in my hands, lifting his face back to mine. The pain in his eyes was enough to suck the breath out of me. Very slowly, giving him time to pull away if he wanted to, I pressed a light kiss to his lips. His sigh of relief as his arms closed around me made me feel that much worse.

  “It wasn’t your fault,” I whispered, pulling away from him. When he opened his mouth to protest, I placed my fingertips over his lips. “No, Nathan. It wasn’t.”

  I saw a whole range of emotions cross his features. Pain, confusion, anger, relief—they were all clearly portrayed on his perfect face. And love. Love so deep and powerful that I felt it as his eyes searched my face. When I tried to move my fingers, he caught my hand and kissed my fingertips before placing my hand on his chest, directly over his heart.

  My heart. Because I realized in that moment that I really did hold it in my hands.

  “Ember, why don’t you go get dressed?” Grams suggested softly, breaking the moment between us. I turned to look at her and she smiled gently. “I’d like to talk to Nate alone for a few minutes.”

  “Yeah, good idea,” I murmured, giving Nathan a quick kiss and starting to back away from him slowly. “I have to meet Kim anyway.”

  “Ember—” Grams began.

  “We, I mean,” I cut her off, winking at Nathan who smiled at me like I’d just given him a gift. It was beautiful, that smile. “We have to go meet Kim. Don’t worry, Grams. Nathan will take care of me.”

  I didn’t give her another chance to protest. Turning on my heel, I practically ran out of the kitchen. A thousand and one questions went through my mind as I dug through the closet for something to wear. What had turned Bastian from a hotheaded jerk into a demon? How was I supposed to get rid of him for good? What was up with my curiously-warm new pulse-impaired friend from the beyond? Questions I didn’t have a chance of answering without a stack of research material and a tutor.

  While I waited for the water to get hot in the shower, I examined myself in the mirror. My hair was a tangled mess and I was as pale as death, but somehow I looked prettier than I had the day before. I decided it was my eyes. I looked older, more mature. I felt older, more confident, stronger even. I felt like I could face anything.

  When the shower was full of steam, I stripped out of my wrinkled pajamas and stepped beneath the hot spray, adjusting it until it was the perfect temperature. When it felt like the water was getting hotter rather than cooler, I frowned and adjusted the knobs again. It didn’t seem to be working, though. Instead, the shower just kept getting hotter until it was uncomfortable.

  “Well, that’s what you get for liking your showers hot, Em,” I grumbled to myself.

  I guess I should be more careful what I wish for.

  It was about then that my back got hit with a blast of scalding hot water. Gasping in pain, I reached for the shower door while grabbing the towel I had draped over it. I pushed once and then again, but the door was jammed and the spray was only getting hotter. I tried to turn the shower off, but the taps were no longer working. Thinking fast, I reached up to adjust the showerhead to spray against the wall rather than me, but the metal was too hot to touch. I hurriedly wrapped the towel around me, hoping to deflect some of the water from my skin, but it just seemed to make it worse.

  Then, as I started to cry from the pain of the hot liquid melting my skin off, I saw a form begin to materialize in the steam. It was nothing but a blob, at first, but it quickly took on the shape of a muscular male form. Then, just as my pain-fogged mind began to make sense of the phenomenon, Jack’s face appeared in the steam. He moved right up next to the glass, the smile on his face so chillingly evil that I quickly backed away—right into the hot spray from the shower.

  “Nathan!” I screamed as the scalding water began to sear the skin from my neck and shoulders and trace burning paths down my arms and chest, knowing if I didn’t get some help I wasn’t getting out of that shower with all of my skin. “Grams! Help me!”

  Bastian turned toward the sound as Nathan called my name from the other side of the bathroom door and then turned back to me, his face such a mask of hatred that I felt a chill regardless of the heat melting my skin off.

  “You’re mine,” he hissed, his sneering face almost pressed to the glass of the shower door. “This was a warning, Ember. Next time, I won’t be just playing around.”

  He disappeared just as Nathan crashed through the door followed by Grams. Nathan grabbed the handle of the shower door and then cursed aloud when he felt how hot it was. He pulled with all his might, but nothing happened. Grams shoved him out of the way and wrapped a towel around it. With a muttered word I didn’t catch due to the pain I was in, she jerked the door open.

  The second the door opened, the water shut off. I collapsed into Grams outstretched arms and then screamed when they closed around my back. She immediately adjusted her grip, but the damage had already been done.

  Quickly, and as gently as he could, Nathan swept me into his arms and rushed into his room, laying me on the bed and helping me to roll onto my stomach as I sobbed and writhed in pain. Grams perched on the side of the bed next to me and held her hands over my screaming back. Nathan took up position on my other side, taking my hand in a futile effort to comfort me, his expression one of confusion and fear.

  Gradually, degree by excruciating degree, Grams began to draw the heat from my boiled skin as I lay shuddering beneath her hands, my teeth clenched to trap the screams that were fighting to get loose. Finally, though, the pain lessened and I was able to think coherently again.

  “How b-bad is it?” I stammered out when Grams removed her hands and pulled the soft cotton sheet over me. Even that slight touch was painful, and I feared the worst.

  “I have healed most of the damage,” Grams said, softly. When I turned to give her a pleading look, wondering why she couldn’t heal it the way she had healed my leg the last time Bastian had gotten the drop on me, she stroked my hair and smiled apologetically. “There is no permanent damage, sweetheart. You’re very lucky we were here. You will feel like you have a bad sunburn for the next couple of days, but I will make you a salve to help with the…discomfort.”

  Discomfort? That had to be some kind of joke. I could think of a much better description. Agony.

  “Can you tell us what happened, baby?” Nathan asked, caressing my cheek. His cool hand felt refreshingly cold against my burning skin. My front hadn’t taken the abuse my back had, but every inch of my skin from head to toe felt extremely tender.

  I looked away from him as anger like I had never known slammed into me like a tidal wave. Oh, yeah. I could tell them what had happened. Bastian. It was always him. It was always going to be him.

  I was going to get that psychotic bastard if it was the last thing I did.

  I can’t be sure what Grams put in that salve of hers, but it wo
rked like a charm—no pun intended. From the second she began to apply it to my skin, the awful burning began to ease and I was finally able to unclench my teeth. The cooling sensation seeped into my pores and brought me my first real glimmer of relief. She then dressed me in a paper thin nightgown and pulled the covers back over me.

  I didn’t sleep worth a damn that night. First, I was afraid to close my eyes for fear Bastian would find another way to get to me. Grams had been horrified when I told her what happened in the shower. Her protection charm had failed, and I had seen the frightened look she exchanged with Nathan before she could hide it from me. She immediately went to work on stronger spell, but I didn’t hold out much hope that it was going to be any better at keeping the demonic little shit away from me than the first one had been.

  The fact that Grams’ charm had failed bothered me. But, more importantly, it seemed to really bother Grams. That charm had been keeping me safe for more than a month. Why would it conveniently fail just in time for Bastian to catch me in the shower and boil me like a lobster?

  But it was the hushed conversation I’d happened to overhear between Nathan and Grams when they thought I was asleep that really had my nerves on edge.

  “Someone’s helping him, Shea,” Nathan had whispered as soon as he’d thought I was sleeping soundly. “You know it and so do I. There aren’t many witches around here who are powerful enough to break through the kind of spells you keep putting on her. That kind of narrows down the choices, don’t you think?”

  “What are you implying, Nate?” Grams asked sharply, her voice suddenly little more than a hiss.

  “I’m not implying anything,” he told her. I could almost hear the shrug in his tone. “However, I do find it strange that your protection charm failed this morning. And Ember’s necklace disappeared while she was at school, Shea. Surely even you can see a pattern forming here.”

  Translation: We had a traitor in our midst. And Nathan believed it was Dragon Lady Cantrell.