by Alicia Rades
Maliya dropped her hand from my face, but she leaned in so close that I could smell the copper on her breath. I noticed the locket hanging from her neck. The candlelight near the door cast dancing shadows across her face. I pressed my head against the back of the chair, trying to get as far away from her as possible.
“Ivan Valerik,” she whispered, accenting each syllable.
Huh? Was that some sort of incantation?
“Say his name,” she instructed.
I kept my mouth shut.
Her palm cracked across the side of my face. My cheek stung, but after the pain I’d endured with her vampire venom, I barely felt it.
“Say. His. Name!” she shouted. “Ivan. Valerik!”
“Go to hell.” The words slipped out before I could stop myself. But damn, they felt good.
Maliya plunged her hand into my hair and yanked back until my face tilted upward to look into her eyes. Her hold was so tight that I thought she might pull my hair out.
“It’s not that hard!” she roared. “Say his name. Ivan Valerik.”
It wasn’t hard, but it sure gave me pleasure watching her lips continue to tighten. I told myself I should just comply, but my mouth wouldn’t move. My stubbornness could be a curse sometimes.
“You killed him!” she growled, pulling even harder on my hair.
“I don’t remember an Ivan,” I said in a completely calm and collected tone. Boy, did Maliya squirm. She didn’t like it one bit that I wasn’t crying out and begging for mercy. I sure loved toying with vampires. Might as well get one final game in.
“You’re lying,” Maliya accused.
She dropped my hair, though a dull ache continued to pulse where she’d been tugging at the strands. She stepped back a foot and held her hand out to Cowen. The bastard pulled a dagger from a sheath on his boot and handed it to her.
Maliya held the blade to my neck. It took everything I had not to blink, though my breathing was ragged. Instinct told me to fight back, to survive, but I didn’t see a scenario where I made it out of here alive.
“I know you remember Ivan,” Maliya insisted.
“I’ve killed a lot of vampires.”
“Yes,” Maliya agreed, “but you’d remember Ivan.”
“Why’s that?” I asked.
“Because,” Maliya said, tightening her grip on the blade. “He was your first kill.”
18
A sharp breath passed by my lips as the images of that night came flooding back. It was just over a year ago, a few months after I filed for emancipation, left my foster family, and moved to the city. I’d been plagued by insomnia and nightmares ever since my parents were killed. I’d stepped out onto my fire escape that night to get some fresh air since I couldn’t sleep.
My chest tightened when I thought back to what I’d seen.
A woman’s scream cut through the silence on the deserted street below me. My fingers tightened around the railing as I looked over the edge of the fire escape three stories down. Below, a man had cornered a woman in an alleyway across the street.
He’s going to rape her, I thought immediately. I’d already lived through my parents’ deaths and my sister’s abduction. I couldn’t take witnessing another act of violence.
“Please!” the woman begged, but the man continued to advance on her like a predator stalking his prey.
I couldn’t let this happen. I shifted into raven form. It wasn’t the first time I’d shifted, but I hadn’t had many opportunities to fly—since I didn’t want anyone knowing what I was. As I spread my wings and jumped off the fire escape, I found that flight came naturally to me.
I dove into the alleyway and tore a chunk of skin from the man’s hand just moments before he touched the girl. He pulled away from her, holding on to his hand and cursing. I didn’t see his silver eyes until I soared in a loop, preparing for my second attack.
My body should’ve been pulsing in terror, but my fear was pushed down by something else, by another internal instinct that told me to protect, to save. There wasn’t time for fear.
Somehow, the silver eyes didn’t intimidate me. He—Ivan—must’ve thought they should, because when I landed and shifted back into human form, he only laughed. Here I was, a seventeen-year-old girl who was half his size and butt naked, thinking I could take him on. He drastically underestimated me.
“Leave her alone,” I demanded.
Ivan smirked, ignoring the girl he’d been stalking. Instead, he advanced on me. “A shifter?” he said suggestively. “You’ll be worth quite a bit.”
He lunged forward. I saw it coming and ducked out of the way, but he was too fast for me. He wrapped his arms around my chest. One hand assaulted my exposed breast while the other squeezed so tight I thought my ribs might crack. I cried out in pain, then dipped my head and bit down as hard as I could on his arm.
He growled and whipped my body around, flinging me across the alley. I skidded across the pavement. Tiny little pebbles and bits of dirt ripped through skin. Adrenaline shot through my body, and hot breath passed by my upper lip as he advanced. Bitch, I was only getting started.
I sprang to my feet. “Touch me again, and you’ll regret it.”
Ivan only smiled, as if he was amused by our little game. “Is that an invitation, shifter?”
“Hell no!” I jumped forward to attack, but he was already moving.
His fist connected with my gut, sending me reeling backward. My spine slammed into the nearby dumpster. I reached for the edge of it to catch myself, but my hand slipped inside. A jagged piece of metal at the top of the trash pile sliced across my palm. I inhaled a sharp breath and held my wounded hand in my good hand. Ivan’s eyes darted to the blood dripping onto the pavement.
He licked his lips. “I always did like playing with my food.”
“Too bad your mother never taught you manners.”
Ivan leapt forward, his fangs bared for my bleeding hand. I didn’t think; I only acted. I snatched up the scrap metal and aimed for his heart.
It cut into his chest like a knife through butter. A moment of shock crossed his face before his body disintegrated into a pile of ash. His clothes crumbled into a heap where he’d stood only a moment before.
For the first time in a year, I actually felt something more than misery. For a second, I wasn’t suffering, because no matter how much anguish had come into my life recently, I could still do good in the world. I could still make a difference. I could save people from evil, keep them from suffering the way I had since the vampires stole something from me.
The woman I’d been protecting was already long gone, but I felt like she would’ve thanked me if she could.
I returned to my apartment that night never knowing I’d left a raven feather behind, not until the news reports came out the next day. As time went on, I got smarter about my attacks, but I always left a raven feather. That way, the vampires would know there was someone out there protecting Nocton.
That way, they knew to be afraid.
They named me the Raven of the Night, but a misprint from an online new source led to the shortened version—Ravenite. They’d called me that ever since. They hadn’t really gotten my personality down, though, always calling me a vigilante and saying I was greater than I really was. One blog claimed I was as strong as ten male vampires put together, and one theorized that I must’ve been a vampire-shifter hybrid.
I’d managed to get away with it due to not being registered as a shifter and killing every vampire who saw me shift. I’d worried for months that the girl from that first night would turn me in, but she never did.
I didn’t intend to become a vigilante. I just wanted to protect people…
Because I couldn’t protect Jenna.
“Say. His. Name,” Maliya repeated, pulling me back to the present.
I wouldn’t. He didn’t deserve to be acknowledged, not after what he would’ve done to that girl in the alley. I realized now he wasn’t trying to rape her, but kidnapping her for the
blood slave trade wasn’t any better.
“All I want is for you to acknowledge that you killed him,” Maliya said. “So, let’s try this again.”
Maliya slowly brought the blade between her lips and ran the dagger gently across her teeth. In a flash, she swung the dagger downward. The blade cut across my left forearm, sending vampire venom into my bloodstream. Fire ignited across my arm, burning down to my fingers and up my shoulder. Blood flowed out of the wound and crept down my arm. I shrieked like banshee, my scream echoing off the stone walls. The guard, Vincent, covered his hears with the heels of his hands and cursed.
“Say it!” Maliya demanded.
She sliced at my skin again, just above the last cut. It felt as if the blood in my arm had been replaced with hot lava. It compounded with the ache of venom that had saturated my body down to the bones last night. It was like Maliya’s blade was skinning me alive, like the skin was ripping from the muscle and everything. It was unbearable. Effing bitch.
I just wanted the pain to stop.
“Ivan!” I cried before I consciously decided to give in. The name came out so high-pitched that it hardly sounded like a name at all.
“Again!” Maliya commanded as she slashed the blade across my skin a third time.
“Ivan!” I repeated. The words fell from my lips against my command as my self-preservation instinct kicked in. “Ivan Valerik.”
Maliya paused with the blade at my skin, ready to make a fourth cut above the other three. I held my breath, forcing back the sobs bubbling up in my throat.
“There we go,” she said happily. “Now, why couldn’t you do that in the first place?”
My head hung in defeat, but I didn’t respond. Beneath my waterfall of dark hair, my jaw clenched, and my nostrils flared.
Maliya held her head high. “I want you to admit what you did. You remember killing him, don’t you?”
My hands shook, and though the shackles dug into my skin, I clenched my hands into fists. Every muscle in my body tightened, the tension most intense in my lips and eyebrows. Blood dripped from my arm and onto the floor.
Slowly, I lifted my head. “Yeah,” I answered in a clipped tone. “I remember killing him. I remember everything.”
My tone shifted, becoming light as air… almost dream-like. I knew it would piss Maliya off, and I loved to watch her squirm. “I remember the way the metal fragment cut through his chest. I’ll never forget the look in his eyes when he realized me, a tiny little raven shifter, defeated him. I mean, he was Ivan Valerik, and mine was the last face he saw before he died. Before he was reduced to nothing more than a pile of ash at my feet—”
Maliya’s hand shot out and clamped around my throat. She squeezed so tight I couldn’t breathe. My eyes rolled back, and I gasped for breath that didn’t come. I was pretty sure she was two seconds away from collapsing my trachea.
A thud sounded beside me, and then a grunt. Maliya’s grip on my throat loosened momentarily. My eyes shot open just in time to see Dave’s body crumble into a pile of ash beside Maliya. A knife clinkered to the ground atop his clothes.
As soon as that knife entered Dave’s chest, hope entered mine. Teagan had made it, and she’d come with a message.
Today wasn’t the day I’d die.
19
A low growl echoed down the hall and into the dungeon. Venn.
He’d come to save me. I could hardly believe it. And yet… I couldn’t believe I ever doubted him.
“Get them!” Maliya shouted.
My back was to the door, and the chair I sat in was too big for me to peek around it, so I couldn’t see what was going on. Three of Maliya’s men disappeared from view to pursue my rescuers.
The growl behind me turned into a full-on howl. A breeze passed through my hair as a massive shadow leapt over my chair. In wolf form, Venn slammed into Maliya and knocked her flat on her back. I could hear the shuffling of bodies and the shouts that came from Maliya’s men. Fiona’s yip and Ryland’s roar met my ears.
They were all here. For me. I was so happy I could cry.
Maliya held her hands over Venn’s throat. His jaws snapped at her face, but she held him far enough away that he couldn’t cause any damage. Maliya’s fist swung upward and connected with the underside of his jaw. He let out a pained bark.
“Venn!” I cried in a shaky voice. I struggled against my restraints, but even my shifter strength wasn’t enough to release me from the shackles.
Maliya lifted her knee and got her foot under him. She used all her leverage to hurl him off of her. He flew through the air faster than I could blink. His body crashed against one of the cage doors so violently that it made me wince. The door clanged loudly, masking his whimper of pain. My whole body ached for him.
“No!” I shrieked. It was horrifying to watch it happen without being able to help.
Venn slumped to the ground. He blinked rapidly, disoriented.
Maliya stood with a smirk on her face. “Venn,” she said in mock disappointment. “I should’ve known it was you. Who else could’ve guessed the code to my vault?”
Venn finally got to his feet, but his chest heaved shallow breaths. He looked weak, like the blow to the bars had broken a rib or two. I wanted to rush over to him and heal him, but I couldn’t move.
Maliya stalked forward. I expected her to kick Venn, but before she could, a small figure with red fur darted between her legs. Maliya tripped over Fiona in the most un-graceful way I’d ever seen. It was so satisfying to watch that I almost burst out laughing.
While Fiona had Maliya temporarily distracted, Venn shifted and rushed over to me.
“Are you okay?” he asked with worry in his eyes. He pushed my hair out of my face, and then his gaze fell to the gashes across my arm. I didn’t have time to explain or to tell him how it felt like I’d reached my arm into the fires of hell.
“There!” I cocked my head toward the pile of clothes next to me.
Venn rifled through it and quickly found Dave’s keys in the pants pocket. It took him a moment of shuffling through them to find one that resembled the right shape for the shackles. He shoved the key in the lock at my feet and twisted. I barely noticed the pressure on my ankles disappear; I couldn’t feel much of anything outside of the sting shooting up and down my arm.
As soon as my hands were free, I jumped out of the chair and flung my arms around Venn’s neck. I didn’t even stop to think about what I was doing. I pressed my entire body to his and lifted my lips to meet his.
It was only meant to be a peck, a thank-you for rescuing me from Maliya’s torture, but the moment our lips connected, time altogether seemed to stop. The grunts and screams around me faded, and it felt as if the floor fell away beneath our feet. Even the pain in my arm seemed to numb to nothing.
Venn wrapped his arms around me and squeezed me tight, like he wasn’t at all surprised by the kiss, like he welcomed it, craved it even. My heart flipped in my chest. But it wasn’t just a little flutter, like the tummy tickle you get when you drive over a hill too fast. This was wild and filled with adrenaline, like jumping out of a plane without a parachute. It was scary and exhilarating all at the same time. And I didn’t want it to end.
But it did. One moment, we were in our own little world, our bodies colliding, and the next, the sounds of battle and the pain pulsing across my skin returned. I suddenly remembered where I was and what I was doing there.
A woman’s high-pitched scream tore through the dungeon. My fingers tightened around Venn’s arms. Both our heads snapped in the direction of the scream. It echoed in my ears over and over as sheer agony tore through my body.
Fiona was back in human form, and Maliya held her by the hair. Her dagger pressed into the skin on Fiona’s neck.
“Stop!” Maliya shouted.
The entire room quieted. Everything was so still that all I could hear was the sound of Fiona’s breathing. I glanced around me to see that two of Maliya’s men remained. Cowen paused between Ryland and Tea
gan in the hall, his fangs bared. The other—the new vamp—was on top of Ryland, his massive biceps curled around Ryland’s thick neck. Slowly, he loosened his hold on him and climbed off the bear. Ryland shifted back to human form but stood completely still. He stared at his sister with apology in his eyes.
“If you touch any more of my men, the girl dies,” Maliya threatened.
A beat passed. If we moved, Fiona was dead.
If we don’t do anything, we’re all dead, I told myself.
“Cowen, Evan,” Maliya instructed, “bring the other two in.”
The new vamp, Evan, pushed Ryland down the hall. Cowen smirked as he grabbed ahold of Teagan’s arm and shoved her through the door.
“Don’t touch her!” Ryland roared.
“Shut up, or I’ll hurt the girl,” Maliya warned.
Ryland quieted and followed Evan into the room. His lips tightened, but there was a fire in his eyes that told me there was still a lot of fight left in him.
“Call Dreyfus,” Maliya told Evan. “He needs to get his ass down here with all his men, and then he’s fired.”
Evan nodded and pulled a phone from his pocket.
“The rest of you…” Maliya snarled. She cocked her head toward the open cell I’d spent the night in. “Get inside.”
Venn shot me a glance I couldn’t read. We were out of time, and we all knew it. Our only options were to enter the cell or watch Fiona bleed out in front of us. I didn’t care what they did to me after they locked me back up; I wouldn’t be the reason she died.
Venn stepped forward before any of us had a chance to move. “Maliya…”
“Venn,” Maliya said with a click of her tongue. “I was really hoping I didn’t have to kill you.”
Venn inched forward another step, testing her. Maliya’s lips curled back over her teeth to reveal her fangs. Her dagger left Fiona’s neck, and she pointed it at Venn.
“Take one more step,” she dared him.