Lailah (The Styclar Saga)

by Nikki Kelly

  Placing my feet on top of his boots to gain a little height, he lowered me back down. “I like you just the way you are … hair up, hair down,” he murmured, twisting my sweeping bangs, which cascaded across my eyes, so that I could see him clearly.

  His left hand remained softly stroking my cheek. “Lipstick on, lipstick off…” he continued, suggestively pressing his thumb gently into the center of my lower lip. “Eyes … black holes … red warning lights…” His words growing quieter, he kissed my eyelids gently and I closed them, drawing a breath.

  “He only glimpses part of who you are,” he said, lingering.

  His lips caressing my earlobe seductively, he whispered, “I see you, all of you. I can still taste you even now.”

  I let his words drift over me, comforted by his palm placed protectively at my back. He brushed the tip of his nose to mine. When I didn’t protest, he married his lips with my own and I squeezed gently in reply, a silent confused tear falling against my cheek. I inhaled his warm and inviting aroma, which reminded me of the woods in summer.

  As he crushed his lips a little harder, the sweet flavor of his kiss seemed to subside, instantly changing to a warm metallic taste. My eyes flew open and, pulling away, I gagged as her blood spread across my tongue.

  “Cessie?”

  Pulsing with disappointment, I pushed him away.

  “You drank from her?”

  He answered me with a stare that gave nothing away.

  “Did you kill her?”

  He looked irritated that I would make such an accusation.

  “No,” he said.

  “Was she worth it? Did she taste that good?”

  “Not as good as you, beautiful.” The corner of his lip turned upward.

  I was such an idiot! He didn’t give a damn about what promises he made me or whether he kept them. He was beholden to no human, no creature, and certainly not to me.

  Watching his eyes watch mine, I delivered a final blow—one that I was certain would bring this conflict to an end. “He’s everything you’re not and could never and will never be!”

  I broke away from him. I wedged on my heels and ripped the mask from my forehead, chucking it on the bar. I felt a draft whip my neck; I didn’t have to look over my shoulder to know Jonah had left.

  I followed an EXIT sign to a back door and stumbled into the black of night. I had to get back to the main entrance of the club and find Brooke. I began tottering forward, but I didn’t get far before a hand grabbed my shoulder, pulling me backward.

  “Jonah, I don’t have anything else to say to you!” I hissed.

  “Lucky for me, I’m not your friend Jonah,” Bradley sputtered.

  “I thought you were someone else. You’ll have to excuse me, I need to go.”

  “Now, now, what’s the hurry?” He wasn’t about to let me leave.

  Taking me by the length of my curls, he dragged me farther down the building’s side until we came to an isolated area, cut off entirely from the rest of the club. Ancient cobwebbed beer barrels stacked on top of the concrete cut off the track into the trees.

  “You’re hurting me; let go!”

  He hurled me up against the cold brick wall and pressed against me. “You still owe me a dance.…” He trailed off as he inhaled my hair.

  I froze. I wasn’t expecting to run into trouble with a human this evening.

  “I figured when I saw you leaving that perhaps you’d prefer a private one.” He grinned menacingly as he placed the palm of his sticky hand through the soft fiber of my top, resting it on my chest.

  “Take. Your. Hand. Off. Me,” I said firmly.

  Puckering his lips, he stared defiantly back.

  He smeared his clamminess around to my back, tugging my hair down, smelling my neck. My body shuddered with disgust. He grazed my scar as he moved down my back and the slightest look of surprise bounced between his beady eyes. “What’s this? Seems you’re prone to danger. My kind of girl.”

  He slapped his other hand on the inside of my thigh, running it higher. The fury that filled me was immediate—how dare he touch me!

  “I’ll let you in on a secret,” I whispered. “It was a Vampire that gave me that scar, and I’ll tell you something else. I killed him.” The words fell out of my mouth.

  “A what?” He seemed to halt for a moment, but then shrugged off what I had said. “Calm down; trust me, we’re going to have some fun.”

  As a disobedient, angry tear stained my cheek, his expression changed to astonishment. My tears were blood.

  Suddenly unsure of himself, he pulled a sharp knife from his pocket. Using just the one hand to flick it out, he rested the blade against my throat. “Ohhh, you’re something else entirely. I thought I’d had every kind of girl there was to have, but you, you’re different.”

  The cold blade dug into my skin, splitting the top layer.

  “I said, get your hands off me!” I squeezed out the words through gritted teeth.

  He swung the blade to my cheek and bolstered his body against mine, murmuring, “Now, why would I want to do that?”

  As he started tugging at my skirt, I answered him. “That Vampire might be dead, but the one standing behind you isn’t.”

  He stopped momentarily—that was all the time Jonah gave him.

  He was flat on the ground before he had the chance to see who had put him there, his knife clattering as it bounced off the cobbles.

  Jonah turned his face back to me, his eyes ablaze.

  He kicked Bradley hard in the stomach. I felt no pity for him. Scraping him off the ground, Jonah plunged his fists repeatedly into his face until Bradley’s blood stained his knuckles.

  The sight of the red caused something to stir in me, despite the blackness of the night; I could have sworn I saw a shadow move across my vision.

  Everything stopped, creating yet another hole in my memory.

  I was slumped, palms placed firmly against the brick—steadying myself—when I came back. I twisted around to see Jonah crouched over Bradley’s lifeless body; metallic red splatter incarnadined the cobbles. The gory scene was visible only by the faintest flicker of an old bulb flanking the exit door a few feet away.

  “What did you do?” The flaming anger that had swept over me had fizzled out.

  I ran over to Bradley’s side. It was a gruesome sight; his face was unrecognizable, swollen and coated entirely in blood.

  I stumbled backward and Jonah was immediately at my side.

  “Get off me!” As I shoved him, a strange, sweet cinnamon smell met me and I snapped my head to his neck. I grabbed his shirt away from the vein throbbing just above his collarbone, and a lump rose in my throat. A multitude of lacerations scarred his skin. Bite marks. Someone had drunk from Jonah.

  “Cessie.” His voice was monotone and calm, as if that might make me the same in return.

  Before I had a chance to think, my attention was drawn away from him as I heard something crunching through the trees behind us.

  “Jeez! What the freakin’ hell happened here?” Brooke cried. “So that’s why you told me to bring the car around. Why won’t you ever let me have a go?” she snapped at Jonah, taking in the scene.

  Dried blood circled her lips as though she’d been snacking messily on some summer berries. Looking from her to Jonah and back again, the obvious dawned on me.

  “You drank from him … from Jonah?”

  Brooke’s jaw dropped.

  “It’s more complicated than you would think,” Jonah said.

  “What do we do? She can’t know!” Brooke’s voice filled with alarm. “They’ll come for us! Do something!”

  I turned away from the pair; the sound of her fangs cracking into place unnerved me. That was all the warning I needed, and, flinging my stilettos off, I ran.

  Before I knew what was happening, my body was elevated off the ground and I was trapped in Jonah’s strong arms. We ripped through the trees, evidently traveling some distance, and finally ended up in a c
learing behind a vineyard.

  As he came to an abrupt halt, I was sure he smelled my hair as I kicked and threw my arms about.

  Eventually placing me down on the ground gently and steadying me on the grass, he said, “I created Brooke.”

  His hazel eyes were uncertain.

  I was shaking. Removing his leather jacket, he wrapped it around me in response. I shrugged it off, chucking it back to him.

  “I made her how she is,” Jonah continued.

  “How is that possible? You’re a Second Generation, you can’t create Vampires!”

  “I’d drunk from my fair share of female Vampires, so I was strong, fueled by their powers and strength. She was human, and I changed her. I’m no Pureblood. Seems as much as I would never be as powerful as my maker, she would never be as strong as a Second Generation.”

  The crosses that he wore around his neck caught the glint of the full moon. Sidestepping the glare, I dug my bare feet into the mud.

  “Why would you let her drink from you? Surely she’ll end you?”

  “She’s not strong enough. She may be a Vampire, but she’s got nothing on me. I had to break my promise to you tonight to not feed, and for that I’m sorry. But you need to understand, Brooke would have killed that boy if I hadn’t.” He ran his hand through his thick hair, sweeping his eyes from side to side as if he was trapped.

  “What are you talking about? Don’t blame her for your greed! You drank from that girl in the club because you wanted to, regardless of how I felt about it!”

  I paced away from him, but there was nowhere to go. We were on the fringes of a field backing onto the tall vines, somewhere between nowhere and … well, nowhere.

  Reaching for my hand, he pulled me in to him. “Brooke can’t control herself, and she’s hungry. I drank from that girl so Brooke could drink from me. She can’t exist off human blood alone, not in her form. She drinks my blood, she feeds off my strength. If I drink from a human first, she gets what she needs the same way I do. I had to. She’d have tried to drink from that innocent French boy otherwise and he would have died. Do you understand?” His tone was becoming more urgent, like he needed me to grasp it.

  “I get it, Jonah, but what I don’t understand is why you would condemn a human being to your existence? What right did you have? Was it to feel important, or did you do it just because you could? They’re right about you; you are black all the way through.”

  Batting his hand away from mine, I turned my back to him, crossing my arms.

  “You really think I’m evil, don’t you?” he said softly. “That my word means nothing? That I relish the fact that I made Brooke what she is? I’m really not like your Angel at all, am I.…”

  I felt myself hesitate. I had always thought Jonah was trying his best to find his humanity again, that he was dealt an unfair hand for which he was trying desperately to redeem himself. But I couldn’t get past this. Brooke was more like me than I had first thought—forced into an existence that she didn’t ask for.

  “She loves you, Jonah. Every time she drinks from you, she becomes more and more connected to you.”

  At the end of my sentence, as if by magic, she appeared, standing ahead of me.

  “And he will never feel the way I do, because he can never drink from me. He’s too strong and he’d end me. But he looks after me, he sacrifices his own hunger for mine, and he protects me. And you do love me, in your own way, don’t you?”

  Jonah must have nodded behind me, as she smiled in return.

  “You gotta forget that you know this. If the Purebloods ever discover what Jonah has done, they would hunt us down and end us both. They don’t know about me and that’s the way it has to stay.”

  I wondered if they even knew it could be done. But she was right, she was born into this life through Jonah; none of the Pureblood Masters would know of her existence. If they did, they would end her. And if they thought that their Second Generation Vampires could create a new breed, they would certainly exploit that fact to add to their armies.

  “How can you even tolerate him, knowing what he did to you?” I asked. “How can you love someone who would take your life?”

  “He saved me,” she said, shrugging.

  From what? I wondered.

  Standing quietly for what felt like an eternity, they waited for me, and finally I broke my silence.

  “Fine. I won’t speak of this again, but, Jonah.” I turned around to face him. “What you did, there is no excuse. I don’t care what you were or how you try to make amends for it now. She might tolerate you because she has no choice, but I do. You need to stay away from me.”

  I could no longer believe in him.

  My sides twinged as I watched his face, cold and frozen, glower back at me, his eyes wide with regret.

  “Cessie, you don’t understand—”

  I butted in, “Don’t! Just leave me alone!”

  By the time he’d thrown his jacket back on, his sorrowful expression had molded back to one that was hard and uncaring.

  “Did you bring the car like I said?” He directed himself at Brooke only.

  “Yes.”

  “Take her back to the house,” he ordered. “I need to go and clean up the mess left behind.”

  With that, he was gone, the vines shaking as he sped through them.

  The mess he was referring to was the torn-up pieces of the body that once belonged to Bradley.

  How could I have been so wrong about Jonah?

  TWENTY-FOUR

  A TERRIBLE SINKING FEELING stewed in the bottom of my stomach as I sat perched on the end of my bed. Two days had come and gone since the night of the club.

  Ruadhan had greeted us at the door when we returned that night, very disappointed with my behavior; he had made sure that I knew it too. We spoke nothing of what had happened and I wondered if Ruadhan and Gabriel knew about Jonah and Brooke. I hadn’t even seen him since I’d left with her from the clearing; he was obviously granting my wish.

  I hadn’t managed to get Gabriel on the phone. I hoped he was deeply embroiled in Angel-business and not Hanora-business.

  As that thought crossed my mind my phone rang and I felt a nervous flutter as Gabriel’s name appeared on the screen.

  “Gabriel…”

  “Lai. I’m coming back.”

  “Did you find out—well, did you get anything useful?”

  He paused. “Yes, I think so. He wasn’t in Boston. I’ve been three steps behind him, but I finally caught up with him today in Montreal. He’s traveling back with me. He seems to know what you might be, but he won’t say until he sees you for himself. We’ll be with you no later than tomorrow night.” His voice was hurried.

  “Does he know about the company you keep?”

  I wasn’t sure how comfortable an Angel would be in a house of Vampires.

  “Yes. He’s not altogether happy about the situation, but he is, well, accepting. Listen, I have to go. Is everything okay? Are you all right?”

  His words were smooth and caring and I felt safer just hearing his voice.

  “We’re all still in one piece, but I … I feel terribly alone. I miss you,” I said, letting my hurt feelings take a backseat to my overwhelming need to connect with him again.

  “I miss you too, Lai; we’ll be together again very soon, I promise. And once we have all this sorted, well, we have forever to figure out the rest.”

  I heard a female’s voice in the background.

  “Is that Hanora?”

  “Yes. I should go.”

  I felt betrayed all over again.

  “Right, you should go. To her.”

  I hung up.

  * * *

  I COULDN’T STAY IN MY ROOM FOREVER. Showered and dressed in jeans and a plain T-shirt, I climbed the stairs up to the living area.

  I found Brooke throwing her phone and her lipstick into a bag before pulling her arms through a denim jacket.

  “She emerges at last!” Brooke smiled hesitantly at me
, tidying the stray bangs around her forehead and eyeing my modest attire. “Really?” she scoffed. “I know you don’t care about your appearance, but for my benefit could you at least try to look less like a homeless person!”

  Ignoring her, I asked, “Where is everybody?”

  I headed for the fridge and helped myself to some orange juice.

  “Ruadhan’s in the study, where he always is. Jonah hasn’t been back since we left him.” She was careful with her words in case Ruadhan was listening.

  Grabbing her car keys from off the table, she eyed me curiously. “Jonah’s texted. I think you hurt his feelings, if that’s possible. He wanted to make things easier on you and give you some space. I’m heading out for a drive now, to see if I can find him.”

  Good, I was glad I had hurt his feelings. I hoped he stayed away and that I never had to see him again. I had been so foolish thinking that he had anything good inside of him.

  “See you later, Cessie.” She put on her massive sunglasses and began to walk out of the sliding doors.

  “You know it’s winter. I don’t think you need those ridiculous glasses.” I couldn’t resist getting my own back and poking some fun.

  She turned and faced me, lifting the glasses from her eyes.

  “I don’t wear them for fashion.”

  Her expression was serious.

  “Then why do you wear them?” I shot back, washing my glass in the sink.

  “Old habits die hard. When I was human, well, I always wore a pair. I couldn’t see. Later!”

  I stood, paralyzed, and watched her leave. The glass slid out of my hand and shattered in the sink. Brooke had been blind. She was the girl in the house, the night Ruadhan and Gabriel found Jonah. Ruadhan said she had died and she had, but Jonah brought her back; he turned her into a Vampire.

  The terrible things I had said to him flew through my mind. Ruadhan said she reminded Jonah of his sister. A sister he hadn’t been able to save. So he’d saved Brooke instead. It all made sense, the way he treated her so delicately, catering to her requests and protecting her from a life of hardship.

  I darted to the doors, but she was already gone.

  I sped back to my room and threw on some sneakers and grabbed my phone. I needed to find Jonah. I had to apologize.