“Ah, a human talking to me about humanity. This is the problem.” The king went back to imploring his sons. “They have too much free will! They will choose to eradicate us if we become public knowledge—”
“Don’t speak to me about human free will,” Athan said, holding a knife to his father’s throat. “Tendra had free will, and she used it to save me, knowing it would turn her. Did you know that? She has a day, maybe hours, before she becomes one of us. She knew that, and she chose to save me anyway. So that’s your human free will. And you can go to hell.” With a grunt, he swiped the knife across his father’s throat, severing his head and sending one last arc of blood through the air.
Idris stepped to his brother’s side as the headless body of their father fell onto the stones. He placed a hand on Athan’s shoulder and bowed his head, his shoulders slumping. “Glad you’re back, brother.”
Athan hugged him, and the council began to murmur. One by one, the other vampires came and knelt before the brothers. Idris tried to step back, but Athan didn’t let him, tugging him forward so they stood side by side.
The council swore allegiance in some weird ritual that seemed second nature to them. Their words blended together in my head, and my vision went blurry a couple of times. I lost my footing as the last vampire rose, and I fell to one knee.
I lost my sight for a moment and blinked rapidly as strong arms wrapped around me. “Tendra.” Athan’s voice sounded like it was in a tunnel.
“Can’t…see,” I muttered, but my tongue was thick in my mouth. “What…”
“She’s turning.” That sounded like Idris.
Oh, right, the vampire thing. I wondered when that would hit. “Hot,” I managed to say, which was an understatement. I felt like I was burning up from the inside.
“It’ll be okay,” Athan said as I was lifted off the ground.
I lost consciousness for a bit and came to as I was laid down on a bed. Every single muscle was stiff, like rigor mortis. Holy shit, was I dying? Wait, I kinda was dying, right? Wasn’t that how I became a vampire? I should’ve asked more questions. My hair was smoothed off my face. “It’ll pass. I’ll be right here.”
“Dying,” I said.
“Yeah,” Athan whispered. “That’s kind of what happens.”
Something brushed my hand. Was that fur? And the last thing I heard as I slipped away was the sound of Brex’s purr.
Chapter 19
Tendra
Time passed in a haze of red-hot agony.
Sometimes there were moments of bliss, when I dreamed of my grandmother’s home—the farmhouse in Pennsylvania where we grew corn and had a small vegetable garden. I heard the squawks of her stupid guineas that were always running away and getting hit by cars.
I smelled the chicken corn soup she made as she stirred it on the stove. I tasted it on my tongue, the rich, salty broth slipping down my throat. My mom hugged me, the smell of her cucumber-scented shampoo surrounding me. The wet smack of her lips as she kissed my temple.
Then I’d descend into pain again, where I screamed my throat raw. That was when I’d hear Athan. Something cool and wet would be placed on my face, and his deep voice was the only sound that could penetrate the searing heat racing all over my body.
“I’m sorry,” he’d whisper. “I love you. You’ll get through this. You’re so strong.”
I’d try to respond, try to tell him not to leave me, that I didn’t want to be alone, but then I’d pass out again before the whole cycle would start all over.
—
I woke. And for the first time since I’d collapsed on the roof, my body wasn’t on fire. In fact, I didn’t feel a thing, not even soreness. Just an overall lightness. I blinked at the ceiling. The room was mostly in darkness, the only light from a lamp beside my bed. I turned my head the other way.
Athan sat on a rocking chair in the corner. In his lap was a sleeping Brex, and Athan scratched his head as he stared out the window at the moonlit night. He rocked himself and Brex with bare feet braced on the wooden floor.
The moonlight cast a shadow on Athan’s face, his prominent brow throwing his eyes into shadow. Just the way he sat, his shoulders back, jaw set, was kingly. And there was that pull, that attraction, that need for physical proximity tugging deep within me.
I sat up, and Athan’s head jerked toward me. He stood up, dumping a protesting Brex on the floor, and made it to my side in a second. “Tendra,” he said, cupping my face, his dark eyes searching mine.
I placed my hand over his and smiled. “Hey.”
His face crumbled, his shoulders sagging as he drew me to him in a tight embrace. I laid my head on his shoulder as his body shook. I let the emotions of the last week take me, too, and when I squeezed my eyes shut, tears leaked out the corners.
“Your turn wasn’t out of the ordinary,” he said after a while. “But I was still scared out of my fucking mind you wouldn’t come out the other side.”
“I wasn’t so sure, either.” I wiped away my tears. “You weren’t kidding. That sucked.”
Athan pulled back and placed a gentle kiss on my lips. He brushed my hair behind my ears.
“So I’m…” I swallowed. “Like you now?”
He nodded. “You are. Are you okay with that?”
I’d chosen this. And while I knew this was going to take getting used to, I was confident that this was what I’d been born to do. I’d been born to be…unborn. “I am.” I stared at my hands and ran my fingers over my skin. “I’ll miss the sun, though. At least I had a great last moment feeling the heat on my skin. I flew in the sun. So that’s a memory I’ll have to take with me into eternity, I guess.”
Athan raised my hand to his lips. “We’ve been working on UVA-blockers, creams and clothes that would allow us to be in the sun. I’ll put more money in the research—”
“Athan.” I stopped him. “You have enough to worry about. You just”—I swallowed—“inherited a kingship. You are on the eve of a war. Don’t worry about my missing the sun. I’ll survive without it.”
Athan’s eyes twitched, his suffering over what he’d done in every line of his face. He’d taken his father’s life. “We’re not supposed to kill who turned us. And I…did.” He shook his head. “But I saw no way around it. He would have changed everything, and I couldn’t let that happen. He was going to ignore the prophecy.”
“Do you know what happened? Did a Valarian get to him?”
Athan sighed heavily. “We’re not sure. He would have been planning with the Valarians long before this. Idris and I thought he wanted you to make us stronger, but really he only wanted to use you as a way to declare the prophecy false. And convince our entire clan to side with the Valarians. It was immoral treason.”
“I’m sorry, Athan. I’m so sorry.”
“For a moment, a brief moment, I thought our lives would be easier. You could be mine, and we could be together. But now I see everything is only more complicated. The Valarians infiltrating our clan and turning our king is a declaration of war. I feel like we are balancing on the precipice of something…” He shook his head. “I don’t want to talk about that now. It can wait for a day.” He squeezed my hand. “Do you feel all right?”
“Yeah, I do. I have this…weird feeling in my stomach.”
Athan inhaled deeply. “Yes, you need to feed.”
“I need to…” My eyes widened. “Oh, damn. Like, feed feed?”
He nodded. “Yes, but I’ll have you know that every single human in this household has been asking if they can provide you blood.”
“Really?”
He nodded.
Brex jumped up on the bed and trotted over toward me. I scooped him into my arms and buried my face into his fur. “Oh, my baby. I thought I’d never see you again.” I placed him down and let him settle in my lap. “Okay, before I feed, please tell me what happened.”
Athan explained that they’d thrown him outside the compound to burn up in the sun. They hadn’t known he would
do no such thing, and he’d woken up to Brex licking his face.
“I was about to barge back in, when Brex led me to where Idris’s soldiers were being held in the underground cells. I freed them, and we took out the Valarian guards. The soldiers explained what was happening, and we worked on a plan of attack. We’d planned to wait until nightfall, but a human scout came and told us you were on the roof. So while I took flight, we broke out the soldiers and they made their way up to the roof from underground.”
I gave Brex the best chin scratches I could, then ran my hand down his spine. He arched into my hand, then flopped onto his side for some belly scratches. “When I first got Brex, I thought he seemed a little different. I mean, I hadn’t been around that many cats but he just seemed so…knowing.” I laughed. “Before I dismissed it, because he’s just a cat, right? But now I know vampires exist, and I’m a freaking vampire now, so…” I peered into Brex’s eyes and he gazed back at me steadily. “I’m thinking Brex was meant for me. Somehow.”
Athan reached out a finger and Brex licked it. “I think so, too. I don’t know what he is exactly, but he’s not a normal cat.”
There was a knock at the door.
“Come in,” Athan said, rising from the bed.
The door opened and Idris walked in. His gaze went to me immediately, and when he saw I was awake, his handsome face split into a grin. “Tendra!”
I stood up on the bed and leaped into his arms. “Idris!”
He hugged me, his hand smoothing down my hair, before setting me gently on my feet. I swayed a bit, and he gripped my arm to steady me. “You all right?”
“Yeah, I guess I’m just a bit light-headed.” I glanced back at Athan, who was watching us with a composed expression.
“Don’t be jealous just because Idris and I were chained to a bed together and then I saved him from being burned alive,” I said.
Idris’s lips quirked. “Thank you,” he said, looking me in the eyes. “You didn’t have to do what you did, but you saved me, and possibly prevented an alliance that would have ended the human species as we know it.”
“My death—”
“The council wouldn’t have agreed to the alliance. Not if they knew our father had lied and schemed. He would have been deposed, and you would have been a martyr. But I’m so glad you didn’t have to be.”
“Me, too,” I said.
He led me back to the bed before striding over toward his brother. He clapped him on the back. “Good to see she gives you a hard time, too.”
“Kind of her M.O.,” Athan muttered.
There was a knock at the open door, and I turned to see Kellan standing in the doorway, twisting his hands in front of him, eyes on me. “Kellan!” I held out my arms. I’d never had a family other than my mother, and it was amazing how today felt like a family reunion. My new family.
Kellan smiled gratefully and returned my hug. “I thought you’d be angry with me,” he said quietly.
“Why?”
“Because I wouldn’t let you go.”
“Ah, honey, I understand. And you were right. I wouldn’t have gotten far at all. You were just doing your job.” I looked into his blue eyes. “Thanks for coming to check on me.”
His gaze darted over my shoulder, then back to me. “Oh, um…well, I did want to check on you, but also, I, uh…”
“He’s here for you to feed,” Idris said from behind me.
I turned around. “What?”
Idris gestured toward the boy at my side. “He’s going to feed you.”
My mouth dropped open, and I narrowed my eyes at Athan. “I thought you said you’d send someone who wanted to, that—”
“I do want to!” Kellan shouted loudly, then clapped his hands over his mouth, eyes wide.
I stared at him. “You do?”
He nodded, then dropped his hand. “I’m sorry for yelling, I…I’m covering three extra shifts to get this honor to feed the Sanguivita.”
I turned back to Athan. All this was making me dizzy. “He is not picking up extra shifts just to feed me.” I twirled a finger. “So…make that announcement or something.”
Athan raised his eyebrows. “Already making queenly demands?”
“Shut up,” I muttered.
I sat down on the bed next to Kellan. My stomach was beginning to ache, and I knew that I needed to feed. I looked at him helplessly. “I’m not sure how to do this.”
The boy smiled kindly. “I know. It’s okay. I’ll help you.”
Athan placed a mirror in my hand, and then sat down on my other side. “Open your mouth.”
I did, and once I peeled back my lips, my incisors, now pointed, descended into elongated fangs. “I…these don’t look like those fake teeth you get at Halloween.”
Athan blinked at her, Idris looked puzzled, and Kellan giggled.
I hissed at myself in the mirror, and Athan didn’t make fun of me as I pricked my finger on my sharp fangs and practiced retracting them.
Finally, I was ready to feed, because my stomach was pretty much eating itself. Athan held on to my wrist, and bent it back, kind of like Spider-man shooting his web. Sure enough, a fine mist escaped from a small slit in my skin.
“You hold this up to Kellan’s nose, just like this.” Athan directed my wrist toward the boy’s face. “And bend it back.”
I yanked my hand away from Kellan’s nose. “What if I give him too much and he passes out?”
“You won’t. I’m right here. Just a quick flick.”
I did as he asked, and Kellan inhaled deeply. Immediately his pupils dilated and he grinned at me. “Ready.”
Shit, this was it: this was when I actually…bit a human. And drank his blood. Because I was a vampire now. Vampire. I leaned down to Kellan’s offered wrist.
“Just bite,” Athan said. “It’s not complicated.”
I shot him a look, then bit down. Blood filled my mouth quickly, an initial spurt that splashed the roof of my mouth. I sputtered a bit, then closed my lips around the wound and began to drink.
Back when I was still human, I’d bitten my cheek or my tongue plenty of times. I’d tasted blood, that warm, thick, iron tang. I could remember that taste, but this was not the same taste. It was a unique taste, nothing that I could recall from anything I’d eaten. But I knew it was good. Delicious. It was refreshing like water, energizing like a protein drink, and delicious like hot chocolate.
At one point I glanced at Athan.
“Keep going,” he said. “All the humans here are trained to let you know if you’re drinking too much.”
Fantastic.
Kellan’s eyes were closed, his lips slightly parted. He didn’t move, didn’t speak, just sat there and offered his blood like it was his honor. When I felt full and pulled off his wrist, Athan directed me to lick the wound closed. I did, and that was when Kellan opened his eyes. He seemed a little unfocused, but his grin was broad. “Thank you so much, Sanguivita, for allowing me to feed you. I’m available anytime as long as it’s not when the soldiers need me.”
I patted him on the back, a little blood drunk myself. “Thank you so much. For a pleasant first time.”
I licked my lips as Idris led Kellan from the room. The door closed behind them and when I turned to Athan, I didn’t get a chance to speak.
His lips were on mine, licking into my mouth. The combination of the blood and him was intoxicating. I hadn’t been turned on while drinking from Kellan, but one touch from Athan’s mouth, and my body was an inferno. I fell back onto the bed with Athan on top of me. He slotted his hips between my spread thighs, grinding into me.
He nipped at my ears, my neck, those teeth pricking my skin as he made his way down my body. He yanked my dress off my shoulder and latched on to a nipple. I cried out as he sucked and nipped. The cuts healed as soon as he made them, but I could still feel them, like they remained under the top layer of my skin.
He reached between us, fumbled at the opening of his jeans as he glanced up at me, eyes
wide, fangs lowered. “Need you, Tendra.”
“Need you, too.”
He rucked up my dress and inhaled sharply as he gazed down between my legs. His hand smoothed down my stomach, then into my dense curls until landing on my clit. His gaze returned to me as he rubbed his fingers through my slick folds. “What did I tell you?”
I squirmed as I tried to reach for him. “You told me a lot of things.”
He remained just out of my grasp. “No, what did I tell you that I’d do if you were mine?”
I stilled, recalling that time in the abandoned tunnel when I’d fucked his fingers. I licked my teeth, catching my tongue on a sharp fang. “You told me…you told me you’d be on your knees between my legs and you’d eat me out so good I’d pass out.”
His grin was wicked. “So you remember.”
“Not every day a girl hears a promise like that.”
“Well then, I guess I better make good.” He dropped to his knees with a thud, placed my calves on his shoulders with a kiss to each one, then buried his face between my legs.
Oh, Oh, I’d been missing out not having a vampire go down on me. His tongue was broad and skilled. He’d lap at my opening, then swirl my clit. His fangs pricked the skin, and every time he did, pleasure would shoot up my spine.
I gripped his hair and held on, grinding into his mouth shamelessly because after all I’d been through, I was going to enjoy the hell out of this. It didn’t take long before the orgasm barreled down my spine like a train and I came in his mouth on a shout. My veins were fire, my fangs tingled, and for a moment, the vision went pitch-black.
When I opened my eyes, Athan was above me, his hard cock pressing at my entrance. His hand smoothed back my hair as he entered me, and the feeling of him filling me was like home. “Athan,” I whispered, my throat dry. “I love you.”
“I love you,” he said back, his hips thrusting against me. He buried his head in my neck, and I barely felt his fangs slice into my skin. I only felt the dragging pull on my veins, the roar of pleasure that was like a waterfall in my ears. With his cock plunging into me and his fangs in my neck and his hand gripping my hair, I came again, my body shuddering. With one last thrust, Athan groaned into my neck and pulsed inside me.
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