Betrayal Bites (Tales of Sydney Sedrick Book 2)

by Mandi Casey

  Damas lowered his head. A symbol branded the flesh covering the crown of his skull. A cold dread started to lazily cloud my head. That same symbol was one of the ones I saw in my first vision. Recognition must have shown in the expression on my face, because Kasdeya’s eyes narrowed to little red slits when she saw my reaction to it.

  “What are you keeping from us, mangy animal?” she demanded and stomped her foot as she placed her nose a mere centimeter from Blake’s. “If I find out you are withholding information from us, potentially withholding data that could help us in keeping the king safe, I will kill you myself, prophecy or no prophecy.”

  “I’m not betraying you, demon. We both want to make sure nothing happens tomorrow. If I hear anything, you’ll be one of the first to know.”

  She turned her head, nodded at me, and then continued to speak to Blake.

  “You should take better care of your charge. It is foolish to have her here, like this, with so many humans around. Humans attract vampires, wolf. In case you didn’t know. Rogues hunt places like this, waiting for stupid, drunk humans to stumble out onto the parking lot alone. It’s a prime opportunity for them to get their dinner handed to them.”

  Blake’s chest puffed out, his eyes narrowing into angry slits. He groaned in pain and grabbed his head in both hands. I looked at Damas. His gray eyes were blank, there were no iris’, and they were pointed directly at Blake.

  “Make him stop! He’s hurting him!” I flung my hands in the air and tried to get their attention.

  Neither demon paid me any mind.

  Blake yelled out in pain. He lifted his head, his eyes once again that golden-bronzed, amber color.

  “Sydney, you would do better with a more competent bodyguard. I will have to discuss this with Kieran, the Kenosha coven leader. He will no doubt be more sensible where your welfare is concerned. This wolf clearly is not competent in taking care of you. What could he have been thinking, bringing you here, to such an open and populated place such as this?”

  “Mind your place, demon. Don’t tell me what to do with the Selected. And if you continue to make threats, then I will just have to make sure you don’t fulfill your contract. What would happen if you broke the contract, demon? Would you be forced to go back to the hell you came from?”

  Kasdeya didn’t seem bothered in the least by Blake’s hostility. I could tell by the roll of her eyes. The shrill of her voice cut the air when she laughed. No, he didn’t scare her at all.

  “Wolf, do you want to know what I did to the last person to threaten such things to me?” The silver eyebrow over her right eye lifted in question. When Blake remained silent, she continued with, “That’s right. You don’t want to know. It wasn’t for the faint of heart. So I suggest you never mention the contract that binds me again, or I may treat your words as a direct threat against the vampire king. You know what that would mean. All Judges would hunt you down, and they wouldn’t be able to stop until they fulfilled their mission. All they would be able to think about would be your death.” She pointedly focused her gaze at me with that last bit.

  Blowing out a deep breath, Blake lowered his hands from his head and stopped groaning, but his chest still heaved. I glanced at Damas. His eyes were now focused on me. He had released Blake’s brain from whatever vise he had him in.

  “Don’t be displeased with us, Selected. We are not here to make you trouble. You are special to us, to me. You are also important to the vampires we are bound in serving, to protect for a very long time. You will rest easy that our presence can only add to your safety.”

  I really didn’t like the way he was assessing my body from head to toe. I couldn’t explain it, but I was pretty sure the demon was lusting at me. It was that, or he wanted to dissect my mind with his abilities and explore what made me, well, me? Either way, he gave me the creeps.

  It was even more creepy when Damas duplicated Blake’s posture, trying to imitate his mannerisms. I was quite sure he was trying to appear attractive to me.

  Yuck.

  “I’m just fine with Blake taking care of me. There doesn’t need to be any discussion with Kieran about my well-being. Trust me, Blake is more than competent in making sure I’m all right. He’s by my side all of the time.” I’m not sure if it was clear from my tone, but I really meant all of the time. He was a hard guy to shake.

  Neither Blake nor I said anything as they stood assessing the crowd in the club. I really didn’t want to piss either of them off. Making them mad didn’t seem like a smart thing to do, or a safe one. I hoped they didn’t know my only sister was out there in the crowd, dancing with Blake’s werewolf cousin. They could definitely use her against me.

  Kasdeya faced us. “I would take the Selected away from here and never bring her to such populated areas, full of humans ripe for the picking. Now that we have spoken, we will take our leave.”

  Blake stared at her, eyes still burning with anger and annoyance at their audacity to publicly reprimand him in front of me for his lack of good judgment in bringing me where rogues could show up and attack at any second. I have never seen him so mad.

  Damas bowed his head in salute. He didn’t acknowledge Blake as he said, “Goodbye, Selected. If you should need of anything, we are here for you.”

  “Bye.” I couldn’t help myself. It was just rude not to say anything to them before they left. I mean, they did take care of the rogue vampire. Although, their egos were big enough to fill the entire club with hot air, and then some.

  Kasdeya nodded toward me.

  “Selected, until tomorrow.”

  The demons exited as they had entered. The sea of dancers parted a path while none looked their way. Not one of them. Watching the demons control all the people’s actions, making sure no one paid attention to Kasdeya’s alien-like skin, or Damas’ hooded body, was incredulous. Their power must be wickedly strong to be able to do that. Kieran said it was draining when a vampire tried to control a human’s mind, let alone an entire club packed full of them. The demons didn’t seem any worse for wear after controlling an entire group of people for a good twenty minutes or so.

  Blake finally spoke again when they were gone from sight.

  “Sydney, regardless how much I dislike that demon, I think she made a good point. No matter how much I’d like for her to be wrong, I think she’s right. It would be safer if you weren’t in such a vulnerable place. Especially since something’s obviously changing with your Selected powers. There’s no real way to protect you here if something serious happened.”

  “Blake, do you think it might have something to do with her? I’ve never met a Judge before. Now, all of a sudden I’m having flashes of what the rogues are up to. The timing of both events is quite close. It could be more than just a coincidence.”

  “Sydney, I’m not sure what to think about it right now. I’ve never heard of any connection between the Judges and the Selected’s powers, but stranger things have been known to happen.”

  “With all the threats she made to you, what would happen to you and your father if she finds out you’re keeping information from her? I’m worried, Blake. I don’t want anything to happen to you or your family. I don’t get it, why didn’t you just tell her about my visions?”

  “Sydney, we don’t know what the vampires will do when they find out about your visions. That demon is contracted to the vampire king. If I told her about you seeing things, and we’re not really sure what you see and what it means anyways, she would run and tell him. For now, it would be best to only tell Kieran. And I’m not so sure we should even do that. He is still a parasite, no matter how much he says he cares about you and your safety. I don’t trust him one bit, but we need someone with influence on our side. I think he’s our best bet.”

  “I agree. We should tell Kieran. It would be wrong not letting him know something big and bad is comi
ng, or at least that I had a vision telling me so. Kieran needs to know, especially since the Blood Rites Ball is so important to him. And to me.”

  “I’m going to tell Michael we need to go.” Without giving her a chance to speak, he strode in the direction she’d last seen his cousin.

  Blake returned in minutes. “Mission accomplished. Michael said they’ll take a cab home later.”

  When I looked at him, concern for my sister’s safety put a frown on my face.

  He gently squeezed my arm. “Don’t worry, she’ll be fine with Michael watching over her. He loves her, you know. Besides, you’re way more of a target than she is. It seems the danger here is over, for now.”

  We made our way down the winding cement staircase to the first floor of the club. Amazingly, no one seemed bothered by the fact ancient demons had just walked amongst them and had full control of their minds, making them completely unaware of what was really going on. I couldn’t imagine the mayhem they would have caused by not controlling the human’s thoughts. I was relieved they bothered to have the consideration in doing so. Geez, my life was really changing. I’d never have considered being grateful to demons for controlling people’s thoughts, keeping them completely unaware. But now?

  Now the world was different. Knowing the city was full of vampires, werewolves, and demons was really exhausting. My mind was in chaos. I wanted to go rest under my covers at home and blank out my thoughts, if that were possible.

  “Blake, I want to go home.”

  He smiled mischievously. Never had he let an opportunity pass to remind me of our kiss on my bed a few months ago. The thought of his weight covering my body made my cheeks flush. His body was heavy, warming and moistening my woman’s core while his tongue delved into my mouth, simulating the in-and-out motion of how it would be to have sex with him.

  My body quickened with need.

  Damn him.

  Even through all the foreign scents in the club of smoke, perfume, sweat, and scented candles, he could smell my arousal.

  Groaning in appreciation, he closed his eyes.

  “Woman, you drive me absolutely crazy. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to stand you making me wait like this.” He whirled me around and pressed his warm chest against mine. The hardness of his muscles against my softness only made my desire intensify.

  “We should leave, now,” he barked at me. I could tell his sexual frustration was rising as he stalked to the front door of the club, yanking on my arm in the process.

  Back at Aunt Judith’s, Blake helped me up the stairs into my room and waited until I was covered with my favorite black and purple quilt, propped up by the four oversized pillows against the headboard of my bed. What I didn’t expect was him to crawl over me and lay on the other side. It felt good to have him close. His presence made me feel safe. The problem was, I didn’t know if I could trust him. Blake’s libido seemed trigged at the merest thought of intimacy. Lying in bed with him wasn’t going to help the situation, for either of us.

  I told him everything I saw in the vision. The issue was that I didn’t know what any of it meant. For all I knew, it could be my mind playing tricks on me. I’ve read about people experiencing inexplicable events because they’ve been exposed to extremely stressful situations. Maybe the visions, or whatever they were, were my mind’s bizarre way of dealing with everything that has happened since I moved here to Kenosha. Whatever I saw could just be the stress of my life manifesting into vivid flashes, like nightmares. I doubted it, though. Deep down, my Selected gut instincts led me to believe that what I saw in the visions had really happened. I just didn’t know when.

  Closing my eyes, I tried to calm my mind, relishing in the warmth coming from Blake’s body. The night air was chilled and the old house wasn’t well insulated. I appreciated the artistry of the ice-crystals in the corners of the windowpanes, but the cold made me shiver and dig deeper under the covers.

  “Who do you think they were trying to set free? Obviously, whatever they are doing isn’t going to be good for us, for the werewolves or the vampires.”

  Blake inhaled deeply. He put his arm around me. I was sure it was just as much for him needing to feel close as it was for me, and I silently appreciated it.

  “I’m not sure, Sydney. I’m concerned about the robed figure’s identity. It could be anyone, from either side. Whoever it was, they wanted to keep their identity a secret. You mentioned symbols being carved on the stone. What did they look like?”

  Replaying the vision in my head, I tried to remember the symbols carved in the segments of the stone circle.

  I shrugged my shoulder. “They reminded me of Egyptian symbols I’ve seen on history shows, and what was really weird was the symbol on Damas’ head. I think that was the same as one of the symbols carved into the cement, but I can’t be sure. If it wasn’t the same, it was pretty similar. The symbol could just have something to do with him being a demon, or a Judge. None of it meant anything to me, though. I’ll have to talk to Kieran, see if he can figure any of this out.”

  A low growl rumbled from deep in Blake’s chest.

  His ridiculous jealousy made me laugh sometimes. On occasion, I found it an endearing quality about him, and at other times it complicated matters. I gently tapped his chest to redirect his thoughts.

  “You are so funny. There’s nothing to be done about me having to deal with the vampires. It’s just a fact. I can’t get away from them because I’m the Selected. You know they won’t let me just walk away, so stop being macho and hold me closer.”

  Wrapping me in his arms, Blake pressed the length of his body against the back of mine. The move wasn’t meant to be sexual, but any contact with his body bloomed lustful thoughts in my mind. Would I win the battle of resistance in the end?

  I wasn’t so sure I wanted to anymore.

  But I had to. For the safety of the lives that would be affected. People in my family could get hurt. Now that I’ve met many of the vampires and werewolves, I wouldn’t intentionally put them in danger, either. There was a lot at stake, and it seemed to all boil down directly to my actions. I never wanted my life to have so much influence on others. I’d rather have life like it was, being in charge of the store, and that was it. But I knew, deep in my heart, my simple life was over. I could never turn my back on Blake or Kieran. I had to try to use my powers and newfound position for good. If it were possible to unite vampires and werewolves, enable them to coexist in the same city, then I would find the way.

  I refused to let my thoughts slip into despair. Whatever was coming at us, whoever the rogues were trying to release from whatever prison that held them, I would have Blake at my side. I just hoped nothing happened to him because of my being the Selected. Grandma said people tended to die around her; people she loved and cared about. She also said the slightest insult to the Selected from the vampires tended to piss the coven leader off to the point where Kieran would exact punishment upon the offender. He didn’t like it when someone was rude to Grandma. The degree of insult had determined the degree of punishment.

  Hopefully, things would be different while I’m the Selected. I didn’t want people to die because of me, whether they were vampires or werewolves. I refused to be the cause for re-igniting the war between them. There was already enough animosity flowing through the air of this town; I wasn’t going to add to it.

  Aunt Judith had it right. Werewolves did have feelings. They loved, they cried, and they felt pain. I wasn’t sure if Grandma believed the same about the vampires, but I did. They just hid it better. In the vampire world it was expected that they keep their feelings to themselves. They were punished if they couldn’t control their facial expressions so no one knew what they were thinking. They were not to let their feelings impact the decisions they made. For them, feelings were a weakness. Kieran had said if the Elders even got a whiff th
at one of their coven leaders was making their decisions based on emotions or personal relationships, then that coven leader would be reassigned. Some were killed, depending on their position and the importance of the area they ruled over.

  The Elders couldn’t have an unhinged vampire running around, particularly if they were privy to information the Elders only gave to coven leaders. Apparently there were secrets the Elders only shared with the coven leaders, to help them rule their vampires.

  What was with all the secrecy? It was starting to really get on my nerves.

  That still didn’t mean vampires didn’t have emotions or feelings.

  Blake interrupted my thoughts when he said, “Do you want me to stay over tonight? I’d be more than happy to hold you like this while you sleep.”

  I giggled. He was always trying to stay overnight, using any excuse thinkable.

  “No, I’ll be okay. But thank you. You being here for me right now means a lot. Besides, you should go and talk to your father about what I saw. Maybe he’ll have some insight into what it all means. I want you to call me if you do. I need to know what they are about, and what’s coming our way. I’ll have to tell Aunt Judith about them in the morning.”

  Blake’s arm squeezed me a little tighter, and then he slowly unraveled his body from mine to get up. The entire mattress shifted back into place without his weight on it. I instantly felt the loss of his warm embrace. Stop it, Sydney, you really need to get a grip, I kept telling myself. The world as we knew it could be over if I gave in.

  I had to be strong. I think saying no to the temptation of Blake, standing over my bed, was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. Dealing with the infected rogue vampire bites was easier than it was having to say no to Blake over and over again.