by C. M. Owens
“What else does it say?” Chaz asks when Leah’s breath toys with my neck, her lips dangerously close to kissing my skin.
I swallow around the knot in my throat as she jerks her gaze back to where it needs to be.
Clearing her throat, she starts reading again. “The Aquarius is best known for the trials… They discovered all the weaknesses of the beasts they hunted, and divulged their secrets to the other bloodlines. It was the darkest, most inhumane trials ever known to man, and it stained the pure title they’d once had.”
She frowns as she reads more silently, then she turns pale before flipping the page.
“What?” I prompt.
“They go into detail. Torture details.” She flips the page again. And again. And again. “A lot of details. No wonder Slade wants to kill me. But there’s no way I’d ever do any of that.”
“There’s always one bad son to ruin it for everyone,” Chaz says dismissively. “We’re not tied to everyone who was like us. If we were, Zee wouldn’t just sit beside you. He’d be feeding.”
I shift uncomfortably, and Leah’s lips twitch.
“In less than erotic circumstances,” Chaz goes on, rolling his eyes. “Keep reading. We need to know as much about you as possible. I’ve researched anointed bloodlines, but I’ve never heard this much description. Most of the books treat them like they didn’t exist.”
“Why?”
“Fey pride,” Chaz and I both say at once.
“Okay…” She lets the word trail off as she continues reading silently, then finally reads aloud again. “The Aquarius was most feared because of their immunity to most all magic. Only certain forms of magic could penetrate them, such as a hexer’s power. Hubris became their downfall when a powerful hexer by the name Adonia hexed the entire line for their vicious, brutal, and merciless crimes against innocent fey.”
She frowns as she looks up. “Slade can’t use magic against me, but he’s a master of all creature powers. This is his book. So he knows I can be hexed?”
“Hexes aren’t easy. Even some hexers can’t hex. If he could have done something to you, he would have by now. Besides, hexes are born and powered by genuine emotion and heart. Pretty sure he doesn’t have either,” Chaz explains.
“What was the hex placed on your line?” I prompt, feeling like she left me on a cliffhanger ending.
I hate those.
“Apparently fey had evolved by this time, since the book refers to them as innocent.”
“What was the hex?” Chaz asks, sounding as impatient as I am.
She flips the page, and starts reading again. “Love and hate draw a thin line. Crosses are bared, hearts now entwined. Blood will cease unless it’s given away. No longer will the Aquarius forget who they slay.” She frowns again, and all I can think about is seeing what that frown tastes like.
“What?” Chaz prompts, reminding me we’re actually supposed to be learning something.
“The rest is in some foreign language I can’t read.” She hands the book to me, but it looks like gibberish, so I pass it along to Chaz.
His brow furrows as he studies it, and then he coughs like he’s strangling. That’s not good.
Ella suddenly appears, and Leah squeals while hopping into my lap the rest of the way, grabbing her heart like hell just snuck up on her.
“Sheesh. Don’t you people just use doors sometimes?”
“I used the door when I left,” Ella states, trying not to smile. “I came back to give you a phone. Your friend Marilyn has been posting pictures of you all over town. She thinks you two were drugged, since you never came back and we wiped her memories. You should probably call her.”
Leah’s mouth falls open, and she scrambles off my lap. “Shit. I can’t believe I forgot about her. I thought you were going to put warm and fuzzy things in her brain.”
“The process got interrupted, considering all hell broke loose. Roslyn didn’t get to go back and finish, and well, we forgot, too.”
Leah takes the phone and heads into the bedroom, and my eyes meet Chaz’s.
“What does it say?”
He clears his throat before glancing at the bedroom door then back at me. “Essentially, it says the bloodline stops unless the Aquarius finds a fey mate.” He shrugs. “I guess locking the anointed calling into purgatory halted that from happening.” He looks back down. “On the bright side, the reason you want to sire her is because she apparently chose you, even if it was on some subconscious level. This is the dead language of the hexers, so it’s hard to quote the exact words.”
“Great. So you’re not even sure what it says?”
“I somewhat know. Different dialects are used, so the words had different meanings based on regions back when this was an active language. I’ll know better if we research the hexer and her origins. Let me hold onto this and see what I can find out.”
I nod before leaning back. “Give me your best guess about the rest of what it says.”
“Paraphrasing, it says it’s something that shouldn’t be taken lightly, because once it’s consummated, the two are bound. It even mentions something about psychic links to each other happening before and after the consummation. You two fucked, didn’t you?”
I groan before dropping my head back. “Yes. What does ‘bound’ mean exactly?”
“Don’t know. Doesn’t say. But it does say if the bind takes, she’ll feel a flood of heat when… you know.”
“When what?” Ella asks, confused.
“When he gets off inside her.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
“She didn’t say anything about feeling heat. Maybe nothing happened. It’s an outdated hex.”
“You linked to her psychically. We heard you talking to Kya,” Chaz says.
Of course they did. Nosy bastards.
“Did you at least do a birth control spell first?” Ella groans.
“I might kill her by accident. Spells and I don’t get along too well. I do good to use the magic when I want to. Spells are a whole other level of new.”
“She’s not pregnant. I would have sensed it.” Chaz acts like that’s a common thing, and we both look at him, confused. “Don’t ask. Just go do the spell on her.”
Ella rolls her eyes before walking into the bedroom.
“I’m not fucking her again, so it won’t matter.”
“Better safe than sorry.”
“Not happening,” I repeat.
“Yeah. Keep telling yourself that. You two can’t be in the same room without touching.”
“I’m not fucking her again,” I say louder, reminding myself of that more than him.
When he gives me a mocking grin, I turn and head toward the stairs. I’ll find an empty room to stay in. No way in hell am I taking her back to Kane’s house where we’d be alone.
Chapter 12
LEAH
“I told you to never trust anyone,” Aunt Masie says as she cleans up the mess I’ve made.
I look away, cursing the day my tear ducts became defective. I hate them. I hate them all.
“Broken hearts happen, sweetie. It’s life. It’s the way of the world. Let yourself close to someone, and they will hurt you.”
It’s a warning and a reminder; she’s lived a life already.
“I hate them,” I whisper, sniffling even though no tears will fall. It almost makes my pain feel fake.
It’s not the first time a “friend” has broken my heart, making me think they cared about me, only to use me. Betray me. Turn me into the joke once more.
This time… This time it was two people. Two people I cared about.
“He’s a dipshit and she’s a nasty bitch. Don’t let them bring you down. We all love people, Leah. Just start loving the right ones. Love me. Love Victor. Love the group. We look out for each other.”
I hate her group of friends and all their kids. They’re constantly whispering and talking in code, making me feel as though I’m out of the loop and out of the “group” too. They eat
all our food, show up at random, and take over our house like it’s there’s to do with as they please. And Aunt Masie just lets it happen like she’s happy to oblige.
“I don’t love them or trust them,” I whisper, looking up at her sad eyes.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t if I was you either. But trust me, sweetie. Always trust me.”
One whole week, and all I can think about is how Zee hasn’t touched me since the first night I climbed him like a tree and he saved my life from the scarred crazy man.
One week.
Seven days.
It’s not that long to go without sex.
“What’s wrong?” Ella asks, sitting down beside me.
“I’d be oversharing if I told you,” I grumble, glancing out the window where Chaz and Zee are talking to some guy that showed up today.
“That’s my dad,” Ella says, pointing.
“Him? He looks my age. I’m only twenty-four.”
She laughs lightly. “He has quite a few more years to him than it looks like. We don’t age.”
I knew that, but… I guess knowing it and seeing it are two different things.
“And that’s my grandfather.”
She points to another guy that is walking up, and I shake my head in disbelief. He looks just as young. He also looks sexy. Grandfathers are not sexy. But he has the dangerous bad boy vibe that Zee puts off.
“I hope he looks scarier than he is.”
“Nah. He’s crazy as hell. Don’t piss him off.”
She turns around, and flips through another one of those old books. They’re constantly reading them.
“Where have they been?”
She tenses, then shrugs it off like it’s nothing. “We’ve divided into teams to take care of different things. Our focus is on finding these people.”
“Should I be training or something? I’m mortal. The book said I can die any mortal way.”
“We’re trying to set up a meeting with Slade. Zee wants you out of this. You have a chance for a normal life. He wants that for you.”
A pang of disappointment hits me. Normal would be easy, and it’s what I wanted. But…
“Don’t look at me like that,” she says, not moving her eyes off the book. “It’s Zee’s call. You’re his. Not mine.”
I hate the way they act like people belong to people.
“I’m not his. I belong to myself. I want to help you.”
“You want to stay close to Zee,” she corrects, arching an eyebrow when she turns to look at me. “And I’d be all for that, if he wasn’t so worried about siring you. Talk to him about it.”
Frowning, I look back out the window. “He’s barely spoken to me unless we have a room full of people around us.”
“Talk to him,” she repeats, shutting the book as she stands up. “I’ll help get you alone with him. Head upstairs. He’s probably starving by now. I haven’t seen him eat all week. If you want him, you’re going to have to bleed for him.”
That has me swallowing for a multitude of reasons. “Just bleed. Don’t let him drink from you. That won’t result in talking.”
She laughs as she walks away, and I try to figure out what that means. Then it hits me, and I feel stupid. Grabbing a glass, I head upstairs. I might be mortal, but the book did say I could lose a lot more blood than the average human and still live just fine.
I slice my wrist, wincing the entire time, and watch as the blood pours into the glass. Oh, that’s so gross.
I have to look away, and I hear footsteps as the door opens.
“Ella, what did you—”
Zee’s words end, and his eyes flash blue when he sees me and the glass of blood I’m working on for him.
“What the actual fuck?” he snarls.
“If you weren’t hungry, you wouldn’t lose control of your eyes. I’ve been reading up on night stalkers.”
I can tell he’s trying to get his blues to die down, but they stay glowing. A growl escapes his chest as more blood flows into the glass.
“If you want it, you need to talk to me. I want to stay.”
He narrows his eyes at me, and I start wondering how stupid I am when he stalks toward me like he might kill me. He grabs my wrist, and his hand clamps down hard enough on the wound to stop the blood flow.
In a breath, he spins me around and pins me to the wall, glaring into my eyes like I’ve really crossed a line.
“Dangerous game, Leah. You have no idea how hard I’m trying not to fucking own you right now. I’m close. Damn close. Every day you’re here, I’m even closer. Understand?”
“To siring me? I don’t want to be a vampire, but I do want to be here. With you. Why? The hell if I know. But it feels like I’m supposed to be here, and I want to be. So let me stay.”
Rambling. I’m rambling.
Great.
I had a perfectly planned speech to use when we were finally alone, and I can’t remember a word of it.
“Really?” he asks through a harsh, humorless laugh. “You think I can control it? You have no idea at the pain I’m in from denying it this long. Every day you’re here is another day I barely survive the urge. Do you understand that? My kind don’t fight this. Hell, my sire didn’t even hear the fucking calling. She just wanted me, so she took me. I’m doing so much better by you than anyone ever did by me. Do you understand that? Stop pushing me, Leah. Thank me instead of torturing me.”
He starts to pull away, but I grab his neck with my free hand and force him to look at me.
“Your sire? Did you… Are you…” I can’t even get the words out. All the night stalker books I’ve read go into great detail that they sire for sex toys and amusement. Very few sire for actual love.
He looks away, as though he can’t meet my eyes. “Someone else killed her before I could break the bonds. I would have done it myself eventually. I didn’t just hate being owned, I hated her, Leah. I fucking hated her for taking away my family, my life, my world… She stole it all. I had no choice in the matter. I wanted to be human.”
He jerks away, but instead of leaving, he just shuts the door. He takes several breaths, and I start feeling like an asshole for leaving my blood lying around. I even try to stop the bleeding on my arm so that it doesn’t torture him more.
Finally he goes to sit down on the bed, and I awkwardly stand in place, unsure of how close he wants me right now.
“I’m sorry,” I finally say, even though it sounds so lame and nowhere nearly as genuine as I feel. “I really am.”
He blows out a breath before lying back, and I slowly walk toward him.
“She liked the way I looked. That’s all that mattered. All the beautiful people that live in this world, and she chose to take me away from mine because she liked the way I looked. I’ve never understood that.”
He pauses as he draws in a tired breath, and that guilt gnaws on me some more.
“We change after we’re turned. Night stalkers don’t get a lot of muscle. We’re more lean and sculpted, designed for true seduction instead of intimidation. She wanted the prettiest prize of them all. Her words. She was in a contest or something. There weren’t laws on siring back then.”
“And there are now?” I ask weakly. My heart is breaking for him.
He nods. “Alyssa put a law in place a long time ago—not that all fey follow it. They serve a century in prison for disobeying the law.” He snorts derisively as he adds, “Thad would have broken the law.”
I start to question that, when he continues to speak.
“Only willing humans can be sired. It was designed to keep people like me from being forced into a world they didn’t want. I’m not as bitter as Amy—you don’t want to meet her. It took me a long time to accept who… what I am. Then Gavin fucks me up twice as much. I’m a walking freak show on a good day, Leah. Now… Now you’re here, and once again, I have no fucking control over anything going on with me. I need you gone. Or I will sire you. Do you understand?”
I don’t understand. At all.
But it’s because I’m not like him. It’s an impasse, and neither of us will be happy no matter what happens.
He slowly stands and comes closer, and I hold my breath as everything around us seems to fade into the background. His hand comes up to cup my cheek, and I lean into the touch, feeling the currents of this confounding connection between us.
“I’m one of you,” I whisper, now feeling a little desperate and hating it.
His eyes glow brighter as the predator inside him slowly tries to take control.
“You’re not,” he says harshly, shoving me against the wall before caging me in. “You can walk away. You’re still mortal and close enough to human. You’re just a mortal who can defend yourself. Go. Get out. Don’t keep tempting me, Leah. Because I will fucking take you if you do. And you’ll hate me for it.”
He pushes away, grabs the glass of blood from the dresser, and disappears from sight.
That didn’t go the way I wanted it to.
It takes a few minutes to breathe properly and make my legs work without turning to rubber. Sometimes I’m not sure if I’m terrified or turned on when he’s pissed.
On unsteady legs, I make my way toward the bed and sit down, trying to wrap my mind around all that he said. I don’t even know why I want to be around him.
I’m too close to the situation to be rational. I need to be logical and look at this from an outside perspective. Like the good little research analyst I am, I silently start making a list of all the facts to draw the best conclusion I can.
I don’t know him.
He doesn’t want to know me.
Sure we had sex, but that’s not exactly a foundation for a blooming relationship.
He’s a freaking vampire.
I don’t have to be a part of this.
I can go back to my life.
This world will most likely turn me into a monster or leave me dead.
He’s a freaking vampire.
Zee wants me to be his vampire bitch. Well, Zee’s inner demon wants that. He wants me safe.
I don’t even like the sight of blood.
He’s a freaking vampire!
I don’t want to be a killer.