by Jaime Reed
“I’m on mine,” I reply. “I have to play this right. Samara is more spiteful than Nadine could ever be. Do you really want to be shut out for another three years? She’s my vessel and I will protect her, even from herself. She loves Caleb and I won’t have her deteriorate like Nadine did.”
He chuckles. “She’s a fiery one, isn’t she? It drives me crazy. It’s all I can do to show restraint.” He licks his lips and his eyes grow heavy at the thought of her.
“I know. She’s perfect.” I smile with genuine pride. From the first time Nadine saw her, I knew Samara had spirit. She lifted some of the sadness from Nadine and leaked little cracks of light through the dark. She’s so alive; sometimes it’s too much to take at once.
Tobias sneaks a glimpse at me. “You love her, don’t you?”
I look to the window. “Succubae don’t love, Tobias. We consume, and on those rare occasions, become consumed,” I reply. “Which is why you can’t kill Caleb. I underestimated her feelings for him; she nearly went insane when he was in a coma.”
“All the more reason Samara and I should mate,” he argues. “I could give her anything she wanted. Money isn’t a factor. We could be immortal, be together again, and you wouldn’t want for anything.”
“Except a daughter,” I say.
“Except a daughter,” he repeats in a flat, exhausted tone. He rubs his eyes wearily, knowing this argument all too well. Time hadn’t changed my feelings on the matter and nothing ever will.
“You always had a zeal for children.” He chuckles again, but this time the humor is gone.
“And you don’t? You don’t want to replenish our race, ensure the lineage carries on? Your kind is an endangered species—maybe fifty left in the world. We need to rebuild, but we can only reproduce through a human body. I told you before; I won’t convert until I have at least one offspring. For that to happen I need Samara’s consent and the only male she desires is Caleb. He is useful to us.” I reach over and run my fingers through his hair.
He quivers at my touch. His frustration flows in ripples around the small space in the truck.
None of this is fair. I was attached to two beings and I can have neither, not yet. Not completely. What is a marriage without a honeymoon? What is a meal without dessert? What is a succubus without her freedom, her feminine power?
“You’re right; we need to cover all of our bases. A child would ensure that we carried on, an exit strategy,” he agrees just as something large slams behind us.
Tobias’s arm braces across my chest before my head hits the dashboard. The impact whips me back against my seat.
“You okay?” Tobias asks, his focus divided between me and the road ahead.
I nod and rub my throbbing forehead. That collision must’ve shaken something loose, because Samara is gaining consciousness. I can feel her rousing and swimming to the surface again. How much of our conversation did she hear?
I don’t have long to consider it as the other vehicle rams into us again. Over and over, it hits the truck then veers into the opposite lane. Tobias steps on the gas, but we can’t lose them. We ride side by side on the lane, past the speed limit and at the risk of killing ourselves. I recognize the black Jeep. Oh no! How did he find us so fast?
The Jeep swerves and barrels into Tobias’s door in an attempt to push us off the road. Tobias clutches the steering wheel as the tires slip against the wet pavement. When he gains control again, he strikes back by charging the Jeep. The truck crosses the unmarked line to get to the other lane. Before Tobias has time to stop, the Jeep jerks to a halt. The tires screech, fighting for traction against the slick pavement. It soon comes to a complete stop behind us.
Meanwhile, we drift farther and farther into the left lane, coasting its shoulder, then fall into a shallow ditch.
Tobias presses on the gas, but the wheels spin and slip against the mud. No gear can get us out of this mess. “Dammit! We’re stuck. We have to go on foot.” He glances at the rear view then to his window. “We can hide in the woods.”
“I can’t. Samara’s coming back. I don’t have much time.”
He holds my face in his hands, his eyes wide and frantic as he says, “I’m not leaving you, you hear me? I’m not losing you again.” A door slams, and our attention moves to the rear window. The Jeep is parked a few yards behind us and two men leap out with Caleb. It has to be Haden and Michael.
Tobias takes my hand. “Come on, they’re coming.”
“I can’t.” I pull away and try to concentrate on Capone. I need to center on his emotions and know his motives. What little I discover makes me jump. “I have to go with them!”
Tobias’s body shakes at my words. “No!”
“We knew this was a longshot. Just go,” I plead. “Caleb’s brothers are with him and they’re armed. They won’t hurt me, but they’re here to kill you.”
“They’ll have to catch me first,” Tobias says as his body begins to dissolve before my eyes. I reach out and touch the translucent shape of his face, which passes through my fingers like smoke. I can’t lose him, not like this. He’s right; if this is how it will end, they would have to catch him first. Maybe I can distract them.
“Samara!” I hear Caleb’s voice and approaching footsteps.
I open my door and dash in the direction of the woods.
“Samara!” Caleb yells. “Stop!”
I race deeper into the forest. Rain and wet leaves slap my face, but I have no time to enjoy its texture. Trees and branches cross my vision until an overcast of foliage hides the sunlight. I can’t find Tobias, but I can still feel him nearby.
“Samara! Where are you?” someone yells, but I can’t tell who it is.
A moving swatch of black appears to my left, then another appears to my right. Twigs snap. Leaves rustle. Tiny specks of color blink in the forest. They’re gaining on me fast, cutting through the brush, trying to cage me in. They move as I do, and they bound over bushes and fallen logs.
I run faster, harder, pushing this human body to its limits. It can’t fly like I want it to and it can’t dissolve into specks of matter and mingle with the ether. Tobias told me what it was like to ascend, and maybe one day I will know the experience for myself, but for now, I have to keep moving. I can’t let them find me, no matter how futile it might be. Caleb will always know where I am and he would comb the earth to find his mate. He’s as much a part of me as Samara, and in this moment, I hate him.
The trees begin to thin out and I can see the sun again. Further on, the forest gives way to a small field swept clean of trees, leaving a graveyard of stumps and stacked logs as ruined tombs.
A sharp pain hits my spine and I stumble and lose my speed. Samara’s will digs into me, pulling herself out of her shallow grave. She’s fighting hard to weigh me down, to stall me, but I have to keep moving. Just a little bit farther, just a little bit longer. I need more time, but she isn’t in a generous mood.
“Lilith!” Caleb’s voice echoes in the forest.
I search the trees, but my vision begins to swell again. Dizziness overtakes me and the world pulls away as it always does.
“Oh no. Not yet, Samara, not yet.”
I’m not strong enough, but I’ll fight for one more second, needing more than anything to stay here. I have to keep going, even if I have to crawl. Just a little farther. Just one . . . more . . .
“Lilith, stop, or I swear I’ll shoot you in the leg!” he threatens.
I obey, but I keep my back to him. I don’t want to look into his eyes. I know what I’ll see if I do. “Why do you always ruin everything?” I ask.
“It’s a gift.” He moves closer. Leaves and grass shuffle under his feet. “Where is Tobias?”
“He’s gone.”
“You’re lying,” he says from somewhere to my left. “I’m too close to you and he can’t stand it. He would never leave you alone any more than I would.” He drifts around me slowly, carefully and I sense a change in his demeanor, something raw and primal t
hat I didn’t recognize until now. The darkness inside him did not originate from Caleb, but something living in Caleb’s nature that should never be exposed to light. Capone.
I look in his direction as he emerges from behind a tree. His damp hair sticks to his face; his wild gaze shoots through the wet strands. The hostile vibe in the air suddenly thickens. But what concerns me more is the weapon in his hand, a sharp, treacherous tool I’ve seen many times before, specifically on Halloween night. I have no doubt that he knows how to use it. Capone knows what Caleb knows, they’ve been together since birth.
I stare at Capone, noting the difference between him and his master. There isn’t any, only the bright glow to his eyes that hurts to look directly into.
“You expect me to stand by while you hurt my mate? Haven’t you and your family taken enough from me?” I ask.
He stops. “You blame me for Nadine’s death. You want revenge, I get it. Is that why you poisoned me?”
I flinch at his words. “How do you know about that?”
“The energy Samara fed me in the hospital had a lot of interesting memories with it. Like the one with anointing oil and a cup of hot chocolate. I thought it was Samara’s doing at first, but when she mentioned her blackouts and Tobias, well, things added up. I took the memory from Caleb. He can never know you betrayed us.”
He circles around me, slow and methodical in his attempt to lure me in. His glare pins me in place. The anger lights his eyes in a radiant swirl of lilac, the brightest I’ve ever seen them. And yet his eyes give the false impression of heat, because the emotion rolling off his body is ice cold. I deserve this hostility, but he needs to see my side of things. I’ve been robbed of something I can never get back again.
“You don’t understand. Tobias is . . . he was my mate. I want that feeling again, to belong to someone. It’s different with you and me; we don’t have that connection.”
“And where does this leave Caleb? Where does this leave me?”
I’ve never cried before, not in a human way. It prickles the eyes a little and contracts the lungs a bit, but it doesn’t quite express pain as we know it. Worst of all, Capone can feel all of it right now. Not even this can I keep from him.
“How do you think Samara will handle knowing what you made her do? You forget who your master is and you underestimate me. Both are very stupid moves, Lilith. Now where is Tobias!” he demands.
Before I can respond, the wind picks up, drawing our attention to the sky. With Capone distracted, I turn and rush toward the field. The wind grows stronger, pushing back the tree limbs and flattening the grass in the forest bed. It moves closer in a dark miasma cloaking around me.
“Lilith!” Capone calls behind me, but I ignore him.
The storm condenses and solidifies as it settles to the ground. Tobias steps forward, his body still taking shape, the black mist swirling in a moving galaxy in human form.
I race into his arms, seeking refuge, an escape. This is my last chance, but our window is brief. Instantly, we’re surrounded on all sides in the field. Purple lights float in the air, watching us.
Haden speaks first, closing in at our right. He points a pistol at Tobias’s head. “Give us a reason to shoot you. Please do.”
“You messed with the wrong family, demon!” Michael moves to our left, tossing a long, jagged blade from hand to hand.
Tobias steps In front of me. “You can’t have her, and you can’t kill me. What can you do?”
“Improvise.” Capone answers and lifts the longbow.
Tobias spins around and faces Capone. “An arrow? It’s gonna take more than that to get rid of me. I’m immortal.”
“Not . . . quite.” Capone pulls back the string of the bow. One eye levels with the arrow head, which points directly to my heart.
Tobias jumps. “Are you crazy? Stop!”
“Caleb, what are you doing?” Michael yells.
I looked to the man on the left. He called him Caleb. He doesn’t know what’s happening.
Tobias chuckles nervously. “You’re bluffing. You wouldn’t kill your mate.”
“Unlike you, I’m not afraid of dying. And I’d rather have her die than to be with you.”
A scream cradles in my throat as I watch Capone’s posture straighten. His bent arm lines perfectly with his shoulder. He isn’t bluffing.
“I’ll make it quick. Don’t move. Don’t even breathe,” Capone warns.
His words, this entire situation is all too familiar. The events on Halloween night return to me: the smell of wet grass, the oil in the hot cocoa, glittery fairy wings catching on the breeze, and the candy apple resting on Samara’s head. And the arrow. Samara trusted Caleb’s aim, trusted him to never hurt her. But this wasn’t Caleb.
With a pluck of his finger, he lets the arrow fly and I close my eyes and await my fate.
“No!” A voice yells just as a hand shoves me to the right. I stumble and something whizzes past my ear. Then the woods are quiet. My eyes fly open and the first thing I see is Capone lowering his bow. He smirks wickedly as the target in front of him stumbles.
Tobias kneels a foot away from me, gaping at the arrow lodged in his chest. For a millisecond, I see the proud look on his face. Human weapons can’t kill him, and he finds Capone’s feeble attempt insulting. But that look vanishes the second the burning begins. It rushes in like a ball of fire, dropping all three of us to our knees simultaneously.
I’ve felt this torture before, and in this instant, everything comes to light with startling clarity. The arrow. It was laced, a poison dart covered in olive oil. Not even Capone had anticipated the crippling pain that came with that one strike.
I keep my focus on Tobias. He’s curled on his side, clutching his throat. His free hand pounds into the ground, his fingers pull clumps of soil out of the earth. He uses what strength he has left to drag himself toward me, but that soon gives way and he collapses. Wide, glassy eyes stare out into somewhere none of us can see, a place we will soon follow. His face contorts and twists as blood trickles from his mouth.
Fire eats through my bones and pokes holes in my lungs. There is air all around me, it passes through my hair, it dances across my cheeks, it carries the smell of rain and burning flesh to my nostrils, but I can’t inhale a single draft. My chest caves in and my heart feels as though it is about to explode.
“Caleb, get Sam out of here now!” A rough voice calls in the distance. The English accent tells me that it’s Haden, but it’s thicker than usual, the words running into each other in frenzy.
“He’s weak, but still alive. We have to finish this now!” Capone yells. He’s close, somewhere next to me. I try to reach out to him, but I can’t move my hands.
“Not until we find a way to kill him for good. He’s disabled right now and we’ll make sure he stays that way. The oil will buy us more time. Get Sam home. Call her mum and tell her she’s safe,” Michael says. More footsteps crunch the grass.
“I’m not leaving—”
“You can’t know where we take his body, Caleb! You and Sam are still connected to him. We’ll take care of this. Now go!” Haden’s voice thunders through the trees, carrying his command deeper into the forest.
A hand tucks under me and lifts me off the ground and solid arms cradle me like a child, a dying bride. I open my eyes and behold the gentle face of my groom, my murderer. He smells so sweet and the lilac shade has cooled to a deep royal purple.
“Lilith,” he rasps. “You have to feed from me now, or Tobias will drag you down with him. You need my energy. I have enough for the both of us.”
I turn my head away from his mouth. “You knew, didn’t you? You knew he would jump in the path of the arrow.”
“It’s what I would’ve done if the tables were turned, so yeah. It was a risk, but it was worth it.”
“What do you want, Capone?” I ask.
“What I’ve always wanted. Even after all the shit you put us through, I still want you. You’re my mate and Caleb loves
Samara, which only compounds what I feel. That hold you say Tobias has on you, you have on me.” He turns my head to look him in the eyes. “But I won’t have you compromise my vessel again. I’ve been miserable for too long and Samara’s the only thing that brings him joy. Whether you want to admit it or not, Sam’s love for him overrides anything you might feel. Nadine is gone and her hold on you is gone with it, including Tobias’s. Sam is safe with Caleb. No other male will claim her but him, and I will kill anyone who tries, you understand?”
I know he means every word, and that truth hurts worse than the poison eating through my bones. I’m being torn in two and I have to choose quickly. Life with Capone or death with Tobias. To thrive or to burn.
“If I agree, I want something in return.” I look over to Tobias who lay still on the grass. Haden and Michael tower over him in triumph, weapons at the ready. “Never tell Samara what happened here today or what happened on Halloween. She won’t remember anything when she revives and she can never know.”
He closes his eyes and nods. “You protect Samara, I protect Caleb. Once they are bonded, she might not be so quick to put herself in danger.”
He doesn’t wait for me to nod; he knows my answer, knows I have nowhere else to go. He’s all I have now and I’m at his mercy.
“You’re not so different from me. Our lives depend on Samara. Yours more than mine. Remember that.” His fingers brush the hair away from my face and his lips press against mine.
Electricity passes into my mouth and the familiar flavor of life crackles on my wet tongue, a sweetness I almost forgot. It slides down smooth and coats over my body like a salve, and the sensation of falling overtakes me. I can still see the violet glow of his eyes as I close mine.
So bright, so peaceful . . .
15
How did I let this happen?
I asked that question twenty times while this horror show played to its conclusion, and got no decent answer. The credits rolled, the theater was empty, the ushers swept up the fallen popcorn, and I was still seated in a state of petrification.