by Kim Loraine
“Brandt,” I whisper, afraid to break the spell between us.
“Claire.”
“I understand now.”
He presses a soft kiss to my shoulder. “I know you do, my darling girl.” Then he pulls out of my body, the emptiness leaving a slight ache inside me. We lie on the bed together, my head resting on his shoulder, his fingers trailing through my hair.
“I think I’m ready to learn how to be a vampire now.”
That perfect rumbling chuckle rolls through his chest. “Are you?”
“Yes. I don’t want to be a burden. I want us to live together without you being worried I’m going to massacre an entire town.”
“Fair enough. Get dressed, and we’ll go hunting.”
The scent of pine and crisp, clean mountain air wraps around me, clearing my head of the overwhelming pheromones Brandt exudes. I need him with me, but damn if I can’t get past my desire for him. His palm slides along the small of my back, sending shivers along my spine. But I shake my head, taking a moment to pull myself together.
“Are you ready?” His voice heats the air around us. Making it crackle with electric tension.
“I’m nervous.” My belly twists with apprehension. “I don’t want to kill anything.”
The hand that was on my back wraps around my waist. “I can’t promise you’ll be able to control yourself, but I will do my best to help you.”
The hair on my arms stands on end as I catch a scent on the wind. It’s warm and spicy, tempting and tantalizing. My mouth waters and my fangs descend without warning. “What is that?”
He chuckles. “That’s dinner.”
Excitement builds in my chest as my hunger takes over. “What if I’m bad at it?”
“You won’t be. It’s instinct.”
Then he’s off, a blur in the distance. A smile spreads across my face, and I spring forward, chasing after him, ready to learn what it is to be a vampire. It doesn’t take me long to catch him, but I think it’s because he slowed down to wait for me. When he glances back at me over his shoulder and grins, I melt. I’m going to spend forever with this man, and I’m not even the slightest bit scared. The truth is, even without our mate bond, I’d want him. I feel it in my bones.
He stops us on the crest of a hill, his hand raised in a warning to stay quiet. I stand next to him, watching through the darkness, my eyes trained on the large elk meandering in the valley below.
“Jump down, take it by the antlers, then focus on its heartbeat as you feed. When it slows, the trick is to stop as the animal drifts into unconsciousness.”
I nod, taking a breath I really don’t need before leaping. But I don’t land on the elk. I don’t land at all. I’m suspended in the air, immobilized, until everything begins spinning, sending nausea curling in my stomach. My feet hit the ground hard, jolting me from my heels all the way up my spine. Brandt is on his knees in the dirt before me, arms thrown back, shoulders rigid, a sickly green glow surrounding him. My heart lurches at the sight of a woman standing before us both. Her hair is a mass of dark curls, whipping around her face in the wind she seems to be creating.
“Who are you? What do you want?” I shout over the howling in the air.
“They call me Thea, but the only thing you need to know is that I am your judge, your jury, and your executioner.”
The venom in her voice terrifies me. It’s like ice through my veins. “Let him go. He didn’t do anything.”
“He made you. I can sense your connection.”
“I have no idea who you are. What is this about?”
“Did you really forget him that quickly? You vampires are all alike. Selfish, wicked creatures. You drained him dry and left him in the woods like a piece of garbage.”
My stomach twists. I can’t move. My body is being held hostage by this woman, and it’s all because of what I am. What I did. “The man I fed from.”
“The man you killed. My son.”
11
Brandt
I can’t move. Every fiber of my being feels like it’s on fire. This fucking witch has me trapped in a spell that’s eating me from the inside. All because of what I did. I let a fledgling vampire out with no one to guide her. And now I’m paying the price.
“Stop it!” Claire screams. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
I want to turn around and take her in my arms, shield her from Thea’s power. But I can’t.
“You didn’t know?” Thea asks. “You didn’t care.”
She snarls and holds up a fist before rolling it around in a small circular motion. An invisible knife twists in my chest, and I can’t help but cry out in agony. Claire’s fear radiates through our connection.
“Stop! Please.” The sob in Claire’s voice makes me wish I could move. I need to hold her and tell her it’s going to be fine. But if I’m honest with myself, I’m not sure that’s the truth.
Thea stares at me, hatred in her eyes, then she flicks her gaze to Claire. "You took from me the person I held most dear. Now it's time for retribution."
She murmurs something under her breath that I can't understand over the howling wind in my ears and the crackle of magic all around us. I grit my teeth against the pain inside my body and the invasion of her spell in my mind. I can't let Claire think this creature is hurting me. And I won’t go down without a fight.
A loud crack sounds overhead, and I smell tree sap in the air. She’s made herself a makeshift wooden stake. The thought flashes in my mind before I see the branch she has pulled from high up in the tree using only her mind. This witch has gone dark.
In a flash, the sharp-ended branch appears in her palm, probably more dangerous to me than anything she’s used so far.
She must lose some of her concentration, because her hold on me seems to lighten. I'm able to move, even if only slightly. Claire rushes to my side, her strength having pushed through the spell holding her hostage.
“No!” Thea roars. She sends a pulse of power towards ,us and it hits me straight in the chest. My skin buzzes, and my shirt turns to ash around me. My mate puts her hands on my shoulders and attempts to pull me away, but every movement leaves blisters rising to the surface of my skin where she touches me.
A dark chuckle falls from the woman in front of us. "Such a sweet gesture." She looks down at the weapon in her hand, narrows her eyes, then tosses it aside. "I was going to kill you, but I hear your hearts beating in tandem. I know the truth of a vampire who has found its mate. While killing you would cause her untold pain, I think I have a better idea."
Apprehension turns my stomach. Claire isn't touching me anymore, not after she saw the blisters burning on my arms. "What do you want from me?" Claire asks.
What must have once been a beautiful face twists again into a hideous mask of madness and unrestrained rage. “I want my son back! I want my life back. But since you can’t do that for me, I want to take away your mate.”
Her hold on me diminishes as her anger rises, and instead of pressure on my heart, I feel a faint squeeze. I’m able to turn my head enough that I can see Claire next to me. Her eyes are haunted and full of tears, swimming with guilt.
The insane, grieving woman mutters an incantation under her breath. It’s more of a hiss of words in what sounds like Latin, maybe. Dread overtakes me. This is a curse. The air around us drops to nearly freezing from what had been a balmy summer evening. “Claire, run. Run now,” I warn her with a harshness I’d never normally use when speaking to her.
“No. I’m not leaving you here with her.”
Between Thea’s palms, a sickly green ball of light manifests. Her eyes glow the same color and she laughs as she throws the curse on the ground where I’m kneeling. Intense pain washes over me, the tendrils of magic working their way up my body and into my mouth.
The hold on us must break because as I’m losing the battle with the fire in my veins, Claire lets out an inhuman scream and rushes the witch. But it’s too late. Whatever this is, it’s bad.
; I need to stop Claire before she gets hurt too, but the wicked woman attacking us shakes her head and turns from a solid form to a wisp of black smoke tinged with the green of her spell. Then I fall to the ground, free of her magic, but not free of the curse. Something is twisting and changing me from the inside. Slowly.
“Brandt! Oh, God. Are you okay?” Claire runs to me, pulling me into her arms and pressing a kiss to my lips.
Liquid fire burns across my skin wherever she touches me. I can’t help but scream. Her hands flutter over me, leaving burns everywhere until she realizes she’s causing my pain. She falls back onto the ground, hands at her sides.
“What did she do?” she asks, her voice raw.
“She took you from me with a curse. She’s torturing us both. You can’t touch me without burning me as surely as silver does. It’s the perfect punishment because death would be too easy.” I struggle to my feet and instinctively hold out a hand for her, but she resists.
“We can’t touch?”
“It doesn’t seem like it. And right now, the way I feel, I don’t want to test it out again.”
Nausea rolls through me, twisting and turning my gut. It’s hunger. Hunger so deep it aches and my stomach feels like a pit that can never be sated. The desire to feed and rid myself of this suffering is strong enough that I have to close my eyes and ball my fists at my sides. I can’t do this right now. I can’t lose control.
Claire’s scent calls to me, making that pit open up, and the monster inside starts clawing its way to the forefront of my mind. I need her. I need to feed from my mate, ease this hunger, fill myself completely with her.
“Brandt,” she says, getting to her feet. “What are you doing?”
I can’t stop. Deep inside I know it’s wrong, that this will kill us both, but I have to have her. My fangs ready themselves to take from her and I reach to immobilize Claire.
“Stop!” she screams, but I don’t. I ignore the pain in my hands when I touch her and I lunge.
She’s quicker than I give her credit for though. The little woman zips past me, and I turn to give chase. But instead, she meets me head on with her two hands gripping my face. I scream in pain, rage boiling inside me.
Then, with a well-timed twist of my neck, she snaps my vertebrae and everything goes dark.
12
Claire
“Shit, what do I do? What do I do?” I stare at the big vampire on the forest floor, face down, angry red burns across his arms, his neck, everywhere I touched him. He was going to kill me…and himself. Thea’s curse wasn’t just going to torture us, it was going to end everything at his hand.
I pull Brandt toward the house, desperate to get him to somewhere we can be safe. Somewhere we aren't exposed. But every touch still causes blisters to rise on his skin, the scent of burning flesh hitting my nose making me want to cry.
“Why do you have to be so damned enormous? I mean, it’s great when you're conscious and all, but right now I really wish you were on the smaller side." I know he can't hear me. He's as dead as can be until he heals. But it helps me get through this.
Every step I take as I drag him behind me through the bush tires me, not to mention, it’s less than stealthy. If anyone was after us, they’d hear me for sure.
"I thought I was supposed to have an insane amount of strength. That seems to be false advertising," I grumble and let go of him.
I hate the angry welts on his skin. The pain I know he’ll feel when he wakes. Unless his madness has taken over by then and he only feels hunger. That sends a chill over my skin.
Stopping in a clearing, I stand over him and stare down in absolute bewilderment. A rhythmic vibration fills the air. I don't know what it is until I take a moment to home in on the familiar sound. A phone. Brandt’s phone.
I drop to my knees, shoving my hands in his back pocket until I find the buzzing device. I pull it free and immediately answer.
"Hello?" I’m sure I sound frantic because I feel it.
“Who is this?" A deep masculine voice I recognize comes over the line.
"Claire. It's Claire."
A gasp from the other end of the line sends fear through me.
"It worked?"
“Wait. Is this Mattias?”
“He turned you. He found his mate." Mattias doesn’t answer my question, instead he focuses on the one thing Brandt had been determined to achieve with me.
“Yes. It’s all very romantic.” I try to hide the annoyance in my voice.
“Where is he?"
“Dead at the moment. I snapped his neck."
“What the fuck? Why?"
"He was trying to kill me. And himself in the end."
"I don't understand."
“A witch. She cursed us. When we touch, his skin buns. But he lost control. His hunger took over. I don't know what to do."
“Where are you?" Then he lets out a heavy sigh. “Never mind. I'll send someone for you. Just don't turn off his phone."
I nod and he hangs up. Then I wait. I reach out to brush a smudge of dirt off his face but stop myself a millimeter away. I’ll hurt him again. I watch the moon’s progression across the sky, working to build my strength and resolve. If I have to hurt Brandt to save him from the sun, I will.
“What in the world?" Lucas Blackthorne's voice is a welcome sound, and as he approaches, my heart lifts.
"It was a witch. She—“
“She cursed you for killing her son. I know.”
"How do you know?"
“Mattias called.” He picks Brandt up and tosses him on his shoulder. “Also, are you really under the assumption that I don’t know what's happening with the local coven? They are our biggest allies and our biggest threats all wrapped up in a pretty package.”
"I didn't know what to do. He wouldn’t stop trying to...eat me."
Lucas grins, but nods.
“A wise choice. He would've killed himself and you.”
I knew this. But I’m glad he’s feeling the same way. "How do we fix this? He's already lost his mind?”
“Well, before he wakes up, we need to get him restrained." He continues walking through the forest with me following behind. “Then, we’ll go see the witches.”
I swallow past the lump in my throat as we approach the front porch of the house. “Right, witches.”
“Don’t worry. You’re already cursed. They can’t do much more to you.”
Lucas kicks open the door and heads straight for the basement. The stairs creak with each step, and my heart turns heavy at the sight of the cage in the corner. The sharp metallic scent of silver radiates off the bars.
“Why is this here?”
He cuts me a glance and then shrugs. “You never know when a vampire is going to need to be restrained. Sun sickness, madness, blood lust. Any of those things are possible.”
“Sun sickness?” That sounds ominous.
“Don’t worry. It doesn’t effect made vampires. Just those of us born as what we are.”
“What is it?”
Brandt groans as Lucas opens the cage, and my chest tightens. The thought of my mate suffering because of me physically hurts. But the moment Lucas sets Brandt on the cot, I know it’s the right choice. There’s nothing behind my mate’s eyes but hunger. Lucas slams the door shut and locks it with a silver chain even as Brandt lunges.
“Give me my mate,” Brandt growls. He grips the bars and hisses when the silver burns his skin. “I need her.”
Lucas stands between us, keeping me from stepping too close. “Brandt, we’re doing this for your own good.”
“You liar. You’re trying to take what’s mine. You want her for yourself. That’s all you Blackthornes do. Steal what you want without care for what might happen.”
That makes Lucas’s shoulders tense, and the air around us grows heavy with frustration. “You know better than anyone that I don’t take what I want. If I did, I wouldn’t be here with you. Now, Claire and I are leaving so we can find some way to cure you of thi
s curse before you kill both yourself and her.”
“Keep your hands off my mate, Blackthorne.”
I bristle at the pure hatred in his voice. It’s not out of worry for me. That is the sound of absolute possessiveness. “I’m not your property,” I snap. “If I don’t want him to touch me, I’ll tell him so. And if he dared to put his hands on me, he’d find himself without hands. Are we clear?” I stare at Brandt with unbridled defiance in my eyes.
“I need you, Claire,” he says. “Everything hurts without you.” He pushes closer to the bars and this time, when the silver burns his skin, he doesn’t flinch. Then the eyes which had gone completely black flash back to their natural beauty. They widen as the realization of where we are hits. He backs away from the bars, eyes narrowed as he forces words through a rough throat. “Get out of here before this madness takes us both.”
I don’t need him to tell me again. Turning on my heel, I take the stairs two at a time until there’s nothing behind me but the heavy oak door. Brandt is right. The madness is inside me too. I can feel it curled in the back of my mind, waiting to grow. Lucas’s feet on the creaky staircase in the basement echo somewhere in my consciousness, but I’m more focused on the man I’m leaving. The man I’m going to save. Brandt might have saved me from death when we first met, but I’m going to rescue him and give us what he promised me. Forever.
13
Claire
“How are we going to stop this?” I ask as Lucas.
He cocks a perfectly arched brow at me. “How do you think? We’re going to talk to the coven. Nora and I have…something of a history. She’ll help us.”
“Nora?”
“The leader of the sisters of Our Lady of the Lake.”