“You were looking for me?” he said.
The candle chandelier behind him in the entryway threw shadows over his face, making it impossible to see what he might be thinking. He sounded tired, like he’d been dead earlier today.
“Earth to Fin.” He ducked down to snag my gaze with his silhouetted face. “Is something wrong?”
Yes, there was. But there was also something right.
“I was looking for you before you died because I wanted to tell you…” I think you’re great. Let’s get married. Why was it so hard to express everything I felt toward him? He’d told me exactly how he felt about me earlier, and it had been perfect, so much better than those historical fiction books back at the church.
“Tell me what?” he asked.
“I just…” I shook my head as if to clear away my jumbled thoughts and unearth the purity of what I felt for him with something that made sense. “I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone as caring as you. You’ll do anything for anyone, like literally die, even at the risk of laughing like a kookaburra, and my nose thinks you have a pleasing smell, and when you smile—”
He stepped inside the closet and flicked the light on, a devious curl on his lips. “When I smile?”
“It lights my soul up,” I whispered. He lit my soul up. I supposed I could’ve gone with that summarized version, saved both of us some time, and not given my nose a brain.
His nearness sucked the air from the closet. He touched his fingertips to my cheek, thrumming an electric zing through my blood as he searched my face. His gaze was tender, the golden hue in his hazel eyes bright and filled with something like hope.
“Are you trying to tell me something?” he asked.
I leaned into the warmth of his touch, the rough pads of his fingers charging my heartbeat. “Yes.” Craving more of his skin on mine, I reached up for his hand and twined my fingers with his. “I’m falling for you, Hendry Williams.”
In one fluid motion, he slid his hand to the back of my head and shoved his body into mine until I hit the wall next to the cleaning supplies shelf. “Well, it’s about time, Fin Vee.”
Chapter 12
22 Hours Left
Our lips almost touched. Hendry’s gaze dropped to my mouth, and he tilted his head toward them as if he might capture them with his. When he didn’t, I darted my tongue out and traced beneath his lower lip, just for a taste that only made me want him more. I swallowed at the hunger flaring hot in his eyes, fueling something just as powerful inside me. My erratic pulse throbbed, melting need between my legs.
His lips crashed against mine, his hands cradling my face while his body rubbed against mine. I moaned into his soft lips as he slid his hands slowly down my shirt. My nipples tightened against the pressure of his palms and the drag of my bra’s fabric over them. He licked my mouth open, and I tasted him deeper, feeling the magic of his kiss gather between my thighs with a wild ache. His hands settled at my waist and braced me against the shelves while his hips gently rocked into mine. His hard length rubbed against my lower belly, fevering my entire body until I was breathless. Senseless.
I moaned when his rigid cock radiated heat against my inner thigh. He worked one hand underneath my shirt toward my bra, lifting goose bumps behind his rough fingers. When he cupped the thin fabric over my breast, a shiver buzzed behind my ribs, and my whole body arced into his hand.
The cords on his neck stood out as his hips flexed against mine. His cock nudged closer toward my aching center, and I knew he had to feel how wet I was for him even through my clothes. Somehow, he knew exactly which notes to play all over my body to bend it to his will.
“You’re wearing too much.” I fumbled at the button on his pants, but buttons were the enemy.
He leaned his forehead against mine, his heavy breaths feathering my lips. “Are you sure about this?”
“I’ve never been more sure, about this or you.” I gazed up at him. “I love you, Hendry. Now, take your pants off, cowboy.”
He crushed his lips to mine again, completely missing my point, but his kisses more than made up for it. Then he pulled away, his voice a growl at my ear. “You first.”
My center throbbed, growing more and more urgent as he undid my pants and slid them and my underwear down my thighs. Then he took the bottom hem of my shirt and pulled it over my head, his gaze sweeping down the length of me before trailing back up again. His eyes were shuttered, so full of need that my entire body ached for him.
I reached behind me and unfastened my bra, letting the fabric slide slowly down my breasts and to the floor. The way he looked at me made me forget about my collar, my weird sunburn lines, and my bad face days. Maybe he didn’t see those things. Or maybe he didn’t care.
With a sudden heart-stopping grin, he dropped his pants, unbuttoned his shirt, and pressed both his mouth and his body to mine. His kisses were wild, passionate, as his hands kneaded my breasts and held to my hips while grinding his hot length against me. I thrust back, my center desperate to be filled by him. He skated his fingertips across my lower belly and then down, down—oh. Yes, that would do nicely.
I threw my head back at the sensation of his finger inside me, driving it in deeper. Then he added another, and my hips bucked into the palm of his hand.
“Hendry…” I didn’t know what I was going to say after that. Probably nothing intelligent because his thumb brushed a sensitive spot that started to unravel me from the inside out.
But he gently pulled his fingers away and whispered, “Not yet.”
I sagged against the wall, my breaths ridiculously loud. “You don’t play fair.”
“I’ll make it up to you.” He turned to the blankets in the corner, and I gazed at the delicious flex of his perfect ass.
The man had been cut from granite and dipped in honeyed skin from head to toe. He was beautiful. I tried not to stare as he turned and faced me in holy naked glory.
“Come here,” he said.
I went, kicking my pants and underwear off the rest of the way, my body vibrating. He touched my chest reverently right over my heart and skimmed his fingertips down over my perked nipple. His hand shook a little, matching the anticipatory tremble racing over my skin. We lowered to the blankets with me lying below him, and it felt perfect. We felt perfect.
Our lips molded together as he nudged his way closer to my wet center. I held on to him as I poured my trust for him into our kiss, feeling the smooth, muscled grooves of his shoulders. He entered me slowly, stretching me open inch by delicious inch. I fisted my hands into his soft curls at the back of his head, and a moan tore from my throat. His arms were braced on the floor next to my shoulders, his eyes closed in sweet ecstasy, and he released a shaky groan when he sank into me to the hilt. I drank him in as our bodies moved together as one.
Over his shoulder, his perfect ass flexed as it pumped, shooting a ripple effect up his back every time. He gazed down at me under his lashes, catching me staring at him, and I grinned into our next kiss. His fingers raked through my hair, disheveling my mini-buns as he tilted my head back to delve deeper into my mouth. His heart slammed into my chest, tattooing itself into my being, and I arched up into him so he could feel mine, too.
With a groan, he sped his pace, fueling my need into an inferno. I rocked my hips against his to match his rhythm and reached down to his ass to press him deeper inside me. That same unraveling sensation I’d felt up against the wall was building at every point we touched. My nipples dragged along his smooth skin, bundling them into sensitive peaks. He trailed one hand down, squeezing one of them as he cupped my breast, and I cried out into his mouth. Every part of my body worshipped his just as he worshipped mine.
He sank his hand lower where our bodies met, and his thumb rubbed between my legs. My breath caught as every single nerve there unraveled, faster and faster, until his touch summoned a release. I moaned as it shocked through me, simultaneously liquefying me and winding me into a pretzel around him.
I held to
him as he thrust harder and then groaned loudly into my neck, his eyes squeezed shut as he plunged into bliss with me. We lay there clutched to each other, after-tremors still shaking our bodies, neither of us moving much except for more kisses and caresses.
“I love you, Hendry,” I whispered.
“I love you, Fin. Always.”
Always. Even through death. If we were to have any kind of future, I would have to die by his hand. Tomorrow. It would have to be done tomorrow, ready or not.
I blinked awake into the dark, spreading my arms wide for Hendry’s smooth skin. He must’ve gone. Was that what had woken me up? The spot he’d filled next to me was cool underneath my palm, so he’d likely been gone a while. Had I heard something? I swatted my hands through the air for the string attached to the light and eventually found it. My clothes had been flung to various shelves or draped over broom handles, and it warmed my cheeks remembering how they’d gotten there. Last night had been honest and perfect and beautiful, and I wanted to share another one with Hendry, and a million more after that. But first, we needed to get this collar off me.
Hushed voices sounded from just outside the door. Firm and tense, they cut through the morning quiet, yet I couldn’t make out what they were saying. Something was wrong, though. I felt it in the prickle of unease crawling up my scalp.
I rushed to put my clothes on and then pushed the closet door open a crack. The light from the closet mingled with the rays of sun slicing between the boards on the door, brightening the empty entryway in soft yellows and oranges. I tiptoed across the entryway, the cold shivering up to my ankles. A shadow passed outside, as well as the low timbre of a voice I knew well. I crossed to the door and peered between the boards, but all I saw was a Hendry-shaped figure. Was he out there alone, talking to himself? With the sun shining, he wasn’t talking to any Berkano, and I doubted any humans or witches had worked up enough courage to venture outside anywhere other than the rooftop travel system.
My palm slickened as I moved it to the doorknob because something didn’t feel right. With my heart beating a warning into my ribs, I opened the door. Sunlight blinded me. Footsteps crunched over gravel, slow and steady, and Hendry’s voice sounded to the right as a murmur. He was praying.
I blinked the yellow splotches out of my eyes, my mouth suddenly dry. A light breeze kicked up a pile of black ash around my legs, circling lazily around a pond of black goo and a large wet spot on my left. Blood. Red fingers stretched to the middle of the street where two lumps lay. One bearded, familiar, the other tall and thin with a chain of vampire fangs around his neck, both with their throats, and the rest of them, in gory tatters. The Silence Collectors. What the hell had happened out here?
I flickered my gaze toward Hendry, but he faced away from me, still praying. In front of him was a yellow, lumpy tarp.
Something buzzed inside me like an alarm as if to wake me from a nightmare. I expected to jolt awake at any second, but I wasn’t sure why. Not immediately. My mind felt as though it was shutting down without telling me what was wrong, as if it had already processed something that was…wrong.
I stared hard at the tarp, at the corners floating on the breeze, struggling to piece together whatever had happened here. Blood stained the edges like a violent sunset, had puddled underneath the flapping corners. And floating out from one end was a blonde curl.
My whole body jerked. The world blurred in front of my tears, and then my bloody reality streaked back into focus when they fell. I shook my head, forcing the images running through my brain to explain what had happened, trying to unsee that lone curl. But I couldn’t, not with my heart cracking wide.
“Lu—” I didn’t have enough air to say her name, and I clawed at my collar to draw in more.
Hendry whirled, and if I hadn’t seen the truth behind him already, I would’ve read it in his bloodshot eyes. I stumbled toward him, and he grabbed my shoulders and dipped his head to look at me straight on.
“Fin, go back inside.” His voice, out loud in the sunlight, was gentle but rough at the same time, firm yet desolate.
“Let me see h—” My throat pulled tight, knotting up everything else I could say.
He squeezed his eyes shut. “Please, Fin, you don’t need to see.”
But I did. I had to know what had happened, what her last moments had been. She should’ve had many more moments before her last. She was so young!
I shoved him away and dived toward her, my knees giving out in front of her floating curl. My stomach rolled at the coppery smell of blood, and I heaved into the ground, my body trembling.
“Fin…” Footsteps came up behind me and then a strong hand at my elbow.
With a sob building in my chest, I shook him off and lifted one corner of the tarp. Thread zigzagged across her throat. No, not just her throat, but her entire neck. They’d removed her head to kill her, taken her vocal cords, and then sewed her head back on, no collar required. Her eyes, once a dazzling blue, had been plucked free, and black Xs had been drawn over them.
A shudder rolled over my shoulders, rattling all the pieces that had once been my heart. I opened my mouth and pierced the silence with a broken scream.
Chapter 13
3 hours Left
From the confines of my dark closet, I sang. I sang until my lips were cracked, until I’d scraped my throat raw and tasted blood, until my tears had dried up. Even then, I didn’t stop.
I pictured Lucy in her dress and shiny curls singing right along with me, our voices in perfect harmony, the kind of music that touched others’ souls and made them listen. In the back of my mind, I memorized her even more than I already had, processed the jagged hole she’d left behind, and pieced together how this had happened so it wouldn’t ever again.
I had a collar. Me. I’d had nothing to lose, and I should have tried to talk to the Silence Collectors. I should’ve told them about the rules at the very least, how they’d been planted in all our heads, not by the Berkano but by another witch. Hendry had said the Silence Collectors focused their efforts on vampires. Usually. They likely feared vampires as much as anyone else when we didn’t need to. We were all puppets, and likely the vocal-cord spell they’d created was a result of the marionette strings attached to their hands to off the vampires even faster.
Our fears had been orchestrated to make us turn on each other. And we had. I lumped myself right in the middle of the blame because part of this was my fault. Lucy’s death was on me. The rest of the blame fell on Allison, and I intended to put a stop to her and this needless hatred born from fear.
I ended the last note of the last song and breathed in the quiet. My stomach rumbled. Something shifted right outside the door, and I knew it was Hendry. For however long I’d locked myself in here, he’d been right outside with his back against the door, silent except for his demands for everyone to leave me alone. His presence had been a constant comfort, a flicker of light in my darkness.
With a slow exhale, I hauled myself into a sitting position, hunger, thirst, and exhaustion pounding at my body for attention. I’d needed time to grieve and to formulate some kind of plan to decimate these stupid rules that governed our lives, though I’d done more grieving than planning. I needed to get this collar off me, but I couldn’t deal with any more death at the moment. It could wait until after tonight.
When I finally dragged myself to my feet, I opened the door, slowly so Hendry wouldn’t fall back. He looked up at me, his eyes rimmed in red, and stood, and I crushed myself into his arms. He dropped kisses on my head and cradled me to him, and I might have cried all over again if I wasn’t already dried up.
“Do you remember the two vampires who sat outside to listen to you sing?” he whispered into my disheveled hair.
I nodded.
“They killed the Silence Collectors. Lucy sleepwalked last night, and the Silence Collectors found her in the apartment hallway. The two vampires saw them dump…” His throat bobbed on a hard swallow. “Saw them dump Lucy’s body
outside our building, and the vampires risked the sun and died just to kill them first.”
“The Silence Collectors brought her here as a warning,” I murmured into his neck.
“Yes. It seems like they didn’t want us to make friends with vampires, but I think that’s exactly what we did, Fin,” he said, rubbing my back. “They’re broken up about this, just as much as all of us are. Look.”
I pulled away, my hands still clasped behind his neck, and blinked around the entryway. Candles burned on all the tables and along the edges of the walls. Hand-drawn pictures of Lucy or her name, beaded jewelry, flowers, and coins covered the floor, all in remembrance of the little girl vampire everyone had fallen in love with.
“Come.” Hendry slid from my arms, took my hand, and led me through the boarded-up door.
Outside, faint traces of pink and blue ribboned the evening sky. A sense of déjà vu dug my heels into the ground, horror curdling in my gut at what I’d witnessed the last time I’d come out here. But Hendry caught my gaze, threading trust between us, and gently tugged on my arm.
Propped against the brothel’s walls and scattered out into the street, were more hand-drawn pictures anchored by stones, flowers, and flickering candles, with many of them centered around the spot where the two vampires had sacrificed their lives to kill the Silence Collectors. And where Lucy had lain, a large sign surrounded by bright red waratah flowers read P.S. No Biting.
“The Berkano,” I breathed.
Hendry nodded as he gazed out into the street. “They’ve been leaving things since the sun went down.”
Our shared grief looked the same because on a basic level, we were the same. Some were just thirsty for blood.
“Philip left word that he’ll do anything to help so this doesn’t happen again,” Hendry said.
“I’m not sure how we’re going to do that.”
Blood Song: Division 7: The Berkano Vampire Collection Page 15