by Rye Brewer
I followed his gaze. It was open.
“I have to get out of the path of the sun—and so do you, now. It’ll kill us. We need to get out of here and back to someplace safe before the sun rises.”
“I still don’t know what you want me to do!”
“I want you to break this lock, Cari. You can do it. In these first minutes, when you just changed, you have the strength. You can do this. Find something around here to hit it with. I promise, it’ll work if you try hard enough.”
It sounded so stupid. Me, breaking a lock on a cage. That didn’t stop me from searching for something to use.
I picked up one of the poles used to hang bags of saline. “What about this?”
“It’s worth a try. Come on. We have to hurry.” He glanced up at the skylight.
“This is ridiculous.” Still, I lifted the pole… and realized it wasn’t heavy. It hardly weighed a thing. I looked at him.
He nodded.
“Hit it for all you’re worth,” he said, taking a step back to the opposite side of the cage.
What did I have to lose? I swung the pole back then brought it forward with all the strength I could call up. When the lock shattered into pieces and fell to the floor, I dropped the pole in surprise.
He was right. He was right about everything.
I had super strength.
That had to mean he was right about me being a vampire, too.
7
Gage
I did it. I turned her. There was no going back. The league might kill us both if they found out, but there was no choice. I could only hope she would forgive me one day for how I had just changed her life.
I opened the door to the cage and pulled her into my arms.
Her heart raced a mile a minute. She was so confused, terrified, unable to process what she had been through.
I wished I could tell her it would all get easier right away, but that would be a lie. She had a lot to get through before life became anything near normal again—even then, it would never resemble her past life. But that could wait until later. Like after we were out of here.
“What am I going to do?” she wept against my shoulder.
“The first thing you’re gonna do is get the hell out of here with me.” I looked up at the open skylight again and judged the distance before tightening my grip around her slim body, crouching a little, and leaping from the floor straight up through the opening in the ceiling.
She was still in my arms when we landed on the roof.
“How did you do that?” she breathed, her eyes wide.
“I can tell you all about it when we’re safe.” I glanced around, trying to get a handle on where we were in relation to anything I was familiar with. I hadn’t been paying much attention when I coursed after the car that took her to the warehouse. I only knew we were in an industrial area.
“I don’t understand why this is happening. Why me?” She was still in my arms.
I was afraid to let go, afraid she might lose control and jump off the roof or worse. I couldn’t afford to let her go off on her own.
“We’ll talk about it later, I swear. I can’t take the time right now—we’re racing the sun here. We have to get inside before dawn. And those shifters will be coming for us any minute now.”
“Shifters…” she whispered.
As though she almost didn’t remember what happened before she died. It was hazy, a half-forgotten dream.
That wouldn’t be the case forever. I had to get her to a safe place before she remembered everything.
“I have a safe house not far from here. An apartment, actually. We need to hurry.”
“Okay.” She buried her face in my shirt, totally trusting me.
I held her close for a minute and couldn’t escape the gratitude I felt that she was still alive.
“Hold on to me,” I ordered.
She nodded.
I started to course—and noticed the horizon lightening as dawn approached.
We had almost no time.
8
Cari
I told myself not to look. To keep my face pressed against him and not look around. I felt air rushing past me and knew we were moving fast. Very fast. Faster than people were supposed to be able to move on their own.
Then again, hadn’t I just broken a lock with a metal pole? And I didn’t only break it. The damn thing had almost exploded.
I couldn’t help myself. I had to glance away from his shirt to see how fast we moved. Things melted past—buildings, cars, buses. A blur. Faster than anything I had ever known.
Faster than the Harley I used to ride on the back of when I dated Derrick, Mr. Motorcycle. And I had thought that was too fast back in the day.
I trusted Gage, though I had no idea how we were doing what we were doing. Was it normal? Would I be able to do it?
I leaned against his chest again—I still felt sick, and watching the world fly past wasn’t helping.
His heart raced against my ear. And I loved the sound more than I should have. It freaked me out, the way the rhythm called to me. It meant the blood was pounding in his veins.
Rich, hot blood.
I peeked up at his neck. I could see his pulse racing against his skin in time with his heartbeat. There was blood in there, right there, so close. It hypnotized me. I couldn’t take my eyes off it.
All that blood…
I reached up without thinking about it and traced that pulsing, throbbing vein with the tip of my finger.
I didn’t count on a sharp, dangerous claw forming at the end of my finger, longer and sharper than my nails had ever been.
I bit back a gasp of surprise at the sight of the claw.
It left a thin, red line on his skin, and, at the end of the line, a drop of blood formed. A single drop, but enough to catch my attention and make my own blood pound in my veins.
I want it. I need it.
I watched myself as though I was somewhere outside my body. Like I had no control over my finger as it caught the drop of blood on the tip.
A single, perfect, beautiful, rich drop of blood that set my nerves on fire and consumed my mind. My tongue yearned to taste it.
I raised my finger to my lips and extended my tongue, ready to lick.
I closed my eyes in anticipation.
Gage grabbed my hand just before I could take what I needed.
9
Gage
“What are you doing?” I held her wrist tight.
It wasn’t easy, keeping her from drinking my blood and coursing at the same time.
Her eyes seemed to glow with lust. “I only wanted to taste…” She tried to yank her wrist free from my grip—I was barely able to hold on. She was so strong.
“You can’t do that. Not yet.” I rubbed her fingertip on my shirt and heard her disappointed whimper.
“Why not?” She sounded like a little girl who’d been denied a toy. I was surprised she didn’t pout.
“Just because. Because I said so for now. When we get someplace safe, we can talk about it.” I turned my focus back to coursing without getting us killed.
We had enough problems without running into the side of a building because I wasn’t watching where I was going.
“I don’t understand.”
“I know. You need to trust me. It’s important you go through the entire change before you drink any blood. Just leave it at that.”
“But why?”
She was driving me crazy. I forgot what it was like to deal with a brand-new vampire.
She looked like an adult and, in many ways, was still the girl I first met on the street that night, in front of the club.
But inside, she wasn’t much more than a child. A very strong, petulant child. And a child had a temper, and a child wanted what she wanted when she wanted it. And a child didn’t understand why she had to wait and listen to somebody who knew better. And she didn’t want to understand, either.
I only shook my head in answer to her questi
on and kept moving. There was no explaining to her how dangerous it would be if she drank before it was time.
I kept an eye on the horizon—which grew lighter with every second—and put all my energy into getting us someplace safe, away from the sun, as fast as possible.
10
Cari
I held the scraps of my dress together and watched as Gage put a code into a keypad next to a closed door.
We were on the top floor of an apartment building. It was beautiful, all shiny wood and marble floors.
This was where his safe-house was? When I’d thought “safe-house,” I thought some rundown, abandoned place where people hid out. Not a ritzy apartment house way nicer than the best I could have afforded.
I wondered who lived there and what I would find on the other side of the door. A shower, I hoped.
And more blood. The urge made my stomach turn even as my mouth watered.
“Come on in.” He opened the door and ushered me into a gorgeous place.
I could almost forget my bloodlust when I looked around.
The main room was wide open, with high ceilings and hardwood floors that shone like glass. Kitchen, dining room, living room, all open and spacious and beautiful.
My pulse slowed a little. I felt more comfortable.
He took my arm and led me to a big, overstuffed couch.
“Sit down.” He sounded like a parent talking to a little kid.
That was who I was to him. Not that it bothered me—I needed someone to take charge, to tell me what to do.
It was comforting when I didn’t know which end was up and the need for blood overwhelmed me. It was just slightly stronger than the hatred and disgust I felt for myself.
Who did he turn me into?
I rested against the couch cushions and watched as Gage went to the kitchen and opened the tall, stainless-steel refrigerator.
Out came a clear plastic bag filled with a deep-red liquid.
I gasped as my mouth filled with saliva. It was blood.
I leapt to my feet, reaching for it before I could stop myself. “I’m so hungry,” I whispered.
He shook his head. “You need to wait until your change is complete, like I said on the way here. It’s not time yet.”
“When will it be time?”
“I’m not sure. It’s different for everybody. You’ll know when it’s complete.”
“But what am I changing into?” I wailed. I wanted to tear the beautiful room apart—shred the cushions and gouge the wood, shatter the windows. “I’ve seen so much tonight, and I don’t understand what’s happening! I remember what happened before… before…”
I couldn’t put it into words, but I was fairly sure I died. I thought I did. It felt like I did, but then I came back, and there was the fire throughout my body, and I was alive again and wishing I wasn’t because the agony was unbearable.
“What do you remember?” he asked.
“I saw men turning into animals! Oh, my God!” I forgot about holding my dress together and held my head in my hands. “Nothing makes sense! It’s impossible! This is all impossible, damn it! Moving as fast as we did and wanting to drink blood and all of it, nothing makes sense! And now I’m… I don’t know what I am, and it scares me so much.” I dropped my hands to my sides.
“You know who you are.”
“I don’t!”
“You do. Stop lying to yourself. The longer you spend in denial, the worse it will be.” He came to me, taking slow, measured steps.
I shook my head.
He nodded and kept walking… then passed me. To the window. I could see him in the reflection as he stared out at the skyline.
Then, he changed.
He opened his mouth, and his canines elongated. His irises darkened pure black. His fingers became claws.
I took a step back, shaking my head. “No. No! I’m not that! I’m not like you!”
When he turned, he was normal again. The Gage I thought I knew.
He nodded then came to me with his arms out.
I was too afraid to move away from him. I let him hold me—it felt good.
“You have to accept it. This is who you are now.”
“No…” I shook my head.
“Yes. This is really happening. Everything that happened to you before you turned really happened. It’s all real.”
I shook my head again, closing my eyes.
No.
I wasn’t raped.
I didn’t see men turn into animals.
And I’m not a vampire.
I sure as hell wasn’t that. These things didn’t happen in real life. It was all a dream or a hallucination. It wasn’t real.
“How else could we have traveled the way we did?” he asked in a soft whisper. “How else can you explain the way you want blood? And I know you want it. You reached for it when I pulled it out. You tried to drink mine on the way here. It’s all right. You can accept it. Once you do, it’ll be easier to move on.”
I shook my head, but weaker than I did before, and I was just about to tell him how hard it all was to understand, when my entire body went stiff. My head rocked back on my shoulders, and I started shaking uncontrollably.
“What’s… happening?” I choked out before I started gagging.
Oh, no. Not again.
I tried to hold it back while Gage picked me up and carried me to the bathroom—when I was there, positioned over the toilet, I opened my mouth and unleashed the contents of my stomach.
Blood, bile, and who knew what else.
11
Anissa
Nothing like cooling my heels at the penthouse.
Alone.
“There’s been a security breach at one of our properties,” Jonah explained when the message came through on his phone. “I need to go over and see what’s happening.”
“Do you, really?” I’d asked. When he’d raised an eyebrow, I’d scrambled to explain myself. “No, no, it’s not that I don’t care about what happens, but you already have so much on your plate. Isn’t there anybody else who can look into this for you?”
“You’re telling me I need to learn to delegate, in other words.” He’d grinned as he put his shoes on. He had just asked me to marry him. We had talked about spending a future together. And then, something got in the way. What a surprise.
“Yes. I am. Listen, if we’re ever going to be happy long-term—”
He’d held up a hand to stop me. “I understand. I hear you. And when things calm down a little, and I have a minute to think, I’ll put together a plan for delegating. All right?”
“When things calm down,” I’d repeated, rolling my eyes. “Because we have such a strong history of calm, easy, peaceful lives.”
“Point taken.” He’d chuckled good-naturedly before planting a sweet, lingering kiss on my forehead and hurrying out.
I wasn’t allowed to go with him, which only irked me. That and the way he kissed me on the forehead as if I was a child.
You’re overreacting. Looking for a reason to be annoyed.
Maybe, but who would’ve blamed me? Whenever we managed to get a minute to ourselves, something more pressing managed to come up. And I always faded into the background. He said he wanted to marry me, but he didn’t understand how that made me feel.
I couldn’t hang around here anymore—especially since there was someone hanging around the background of my mind. I zipped up a sweatshirt and pulled the hood over my telltale hair before sneaking out of the penthouse. I hated feeling as though I had to sneak around.
I coursed. The route to headquarters was almost as familiar to me as the back of my hand by now, only I wasn’t going there to pay a visit to Lucian’s remains.
Instead, once I reached the wide, open clearing which surrounded the old cathedral, I veered off to the right. In the direction of the entrance to Avellane. I had to check on my brother, Allonic.
The old, gnarled tree was my landmark, and I touched its weathered bark before taking
a few cautious steps closer to what I knew was the portal.
It almost shimmered, and I wondered if human eyes could see it as clearly as I could. Or even vampire eyes. Probably not, since if Lucian had ever noticed an entrance to the land my father ruled, there was no telling what he would’ve done. Good riddance.
Stepping through was similar to walking from black-and-white into color, when the human world was already in full color. The trees were greener, and the air was fresher and seemed to sparkle like the portal did.
I took a deep breath, as deep as my lungs would allow, filling myself up with the sweetness surrounding me. My fae half responded strongly to being there, where it belonged.
“Anissa?” A semi-familiar voice—female, high-pitched.
I tensed at the sound anyway, purely out of instinct, before turning in its direction. When I saw Marigold approaching from between two tall, thick trees, I relaxed and smiled.
“What are you doing here?” she asked with a smile matching mine. She was so free and natural looking in her long, flowing dress. The pale-yellow color matched the flowers woven through her hair. “Your father will be so happy to see you.”
I held a finger to my lips. “Not yet. I want to see Felicity first. Can you tell me where she is?”
Her smile faltered.
Why would I want to visit Gregor’s advisor—if that’s who Felicity was, I wasn’t quite clear on how deep their relationship ran—before I visited him? I mentally crossed my fingers and hoped Marigold didn’t ask questions.
She didn’t. “Felicity is in reflections.”
“Oh. Okay.” Like I knew what that was. “Where’s reflections?”
Her giggle was almost musical. “Reflections isn’t a where. It’s a what.”
“Sure.” I let out a half-hearted chuckle, like I was in on the joke. “Okay. So, what is reflections?”
“It’s when one of us goes off to be alone, so we can reflect and meditate. We replenish our health and strength this way.”