“Of course, I did. As soon as they said they were bringing in another vampire like you, I knew my position undercover in the Order would not have been for nothing. Ten years I’ve worked there waiting for you to need a new Keeper. There was a revolving door into this place until Delia came along and never left.”
“That’s because she likes me.”
“Highly unlikely. All she ever does is complain about you. Ravana, you are not the nicest person to work for.” She looked over at Massimo. “When you started snooping around, I told Amanda you would be an asset to the company. You think you’re here because of her? She’d have killed you months ago.”
That couldn’t have been too big of a shock to him, I’d told him as much. “So, you came here to get the stone? Why didn’t you look for it before?”
“Hasn’t been a chance. Has there? I have Delia shadowing me everywhere. Apparently, she didn’t trust me. Until I gave her what she wanted. Then she finally gave me some space. Fucking someone gives them a sense of security.”
“You bitch!” I spun around to see Delia had followed us downstairs. “So, you were just using me? What on earth is here that’s worth all of this?”
“She doesn’t know? You didn’t trust your Keeper enough to tell her about the ruby?”
“I wanted to keep her safe. Nobody knows about it. I still don’t even know how the PCI knows. It was given to me by its creator for safe keeping, and this is where it’s staying.”
Kelly pointed the Taser at me, and I could see the sweat building on her upper lip and forehead as her finger threatened to pull the trigger. A shot rang out and Kelly dropped to the floor in front of me. The Taser fell from her hand as she clutched her arm. Massimo kicked it aside and picked her up off the floor.
I looked back at Delia who was shaking, a gun dangling from her hand. I moved next to her and gently took the pistol from her, stuffing it into my waistband and wrapped my arms around her. She shivered and shook and almost went down on her knees, but I held her up and moved her to her own apartment across the hall. I sat her down on her sofa and turned on the burner under the tea kettle on the stove.
Delia rocked back and forth, mumbling under her breath. I knelt in front of her. My hands cupping hers. “What are you saying?”
“I killed her. I shot someone, and I killed her.”
“No. She’s fine. She just got the wind knocked out of her. I’m going to get you a cup of tea, and I’m going to go upstairs to deal with Kelly and call Amanda. She’s going to fine, and so are you. Do you hear me? You are going to be fine.” I all but shouted at her.
Delia snapped her head and looked right at me. My glamour working to get her under control. I hated using it on her, but I knew after this was all settled, she’d understand.
Kelly was taken to the infusion room. Delia shot her in the arm and the wound needed closing, and she needed blood. Once she was stitched up, Massimo placed her in a cell on the same floor as Torrid. I moved downstairs to the cells. Kelly was still unconscious. I left her, going to find Torrid’s cell two hallways away. Keeping vampire and human separated.
Torrid was sitting on his cot. I watched him for a moment. His nail dragged along the topside of his hand and he watched as the cut healed up.
“I told you everything I know. What more could you want from me?” He licked the blood from his hand.
“Just wondering if you’d like steak and potatoes?”
His eyes made contact with mine. A variable I knew I could count on. No matter whom you were, steak was a flavor sorely missed. “I’ll be able to?” He choked on his words.
“Yes. One of the best parts of being like me. Besides the not dying easy, thing. Food is now a necessity. Blood is important, but you won’t need to drink as you have. You won’t feel the burning in your throat and chest. You will become tired and weaker without it. Like a human with a blood disorder.”
“Food? I can eat again?”
“So, I was thinking of a trade.”
“What kind of trade?” He stood and walked to the door.
“I need you to let me test your blood. Make sure you and Massimo are like me. Make sure you’re going to live.”
“You mean you don’t plan to off me?”
“No. I won’t get rid of those like me. You’ve been given a gift, and I know you’re after someone. We can help you get him. The man who pretended to be the Ancient One. We can give you purpose. As I see it, we now have a common unknown enemy. I for one would like to know who that is. Wouldn’t you?”
“Join the Order? Yeah, no thanks.”
“Then I suppose you can stay a prisoner and I’ll just send agents down here to sedate you and take your blood. Either way, I get my tests, and we will get your enemy. However, it’s up to you if you become a lab rat or a resource.”
I turned from the room and let the door slam behind me. The lock slid into place before I headed back to Kelly. An agent stood guard at each of the cells. I nodded to the male standing in front of hers.
Most of the agents in the PCI were human. They didn’t like vampires or demons and refused to work with them. The Order employed all types of creatures. Vampires being at the top of the list for their enhanced abilities. If Kelly woke without one of us present, she’d have a hard time getting out of the room, and an even harder time getting past a vampire agent of the Order.
Keeping Kelly and Torrid prisoners meant more agents roaming around the Tower, more contact with the Order, and one more reason for the PCI to be all over my ass. We had to let them think she was still undercover within the Order, looking for the ruby.
Delia eventually came to. The glamour faded off a little at a time until she could handle the idea that she had shot someone. Besides that, she had grown to care for Kelly. Pouring all her energy into work was her way of coping. Though she refused to carry a weapon any longer. She insisted an agent be with her at all times.
“What are you thinking?” Massimo moved a stray hair from my face as we lay in bed. The sun was just about to come up, and we’d been up dealing with clean-up for more than twenty-four hours. We were both dead on our feet.
“I’m thinking that things are going to become increasingly complicated.”
“How so, love?”
“Emerick is living in this building. An undercover PCI agent is in one of my cells, as is a newly made hunter hybrid. Then there is you, and the fact we need to do all kinds of tests to make sure nothing bad is going to happen. We didn’t even get a chance to analyze that blood before you took it.”
“Red, I’m fine. Everything you have going for you, I’m feeling it; the speed, the hunger in my stomach for food. Actual food. I didn’t think I’d ever taste food again, let alone hunger for it. The burning in my throat is gone. I’m fine.”
I heard the words coming from his mouth, and by god, I knew I didn’t believe him. The problem was I told myself I wasn’t going to push his memories on him, but I so badly wanted him to remember. Because the moment I remembered my life from before my death, I’d become scared for the first time. Scared to lose him all over again.
Liam. My Liam was right here. He was in my bed. He’d been the one trying to make me believe he and I were right for each other and all I did, all I could do was think about how much of a monster he was. He was a vampire. Now…now he was like me. I so wanted to believe he was like me. I wanted to believe that we had lost each other once before, but now we have eternity. Not just eternity, but time. Time itself belonged to us if only his blood wasn’t going to be the death of him.
My Liam.
A tear escaped my eye and fell down landing on his bare chest. “Shh, Red. Sleep now. We can take care of all of this when the sun goes down.”
“Promise me.” I looked up at him, at the eyes that were like mine, even more so since he’d drank the vial. The blue showed through where the darkness used to be.
“Promise you what, love?” He used the pad of his thumb to wipe away the drying tear from my face.
&
nbsp; “That we’ll spend a day in the sun. That we’ll find out you’re truly fine, and that we can go back.”
He kissed my temple and laid his head on mine. “Go back to where?”
“Home.”
S.L. Perrine is a wife and mother of four grown kids. S.L. is finally living the dream of being a full-time writer and spending time with her children. Shannon’s hobbies are camping, fishing, and anything that means family time.
During the summer months she can be found at camp with her laptop by the pool.
She and her family reside in Middleburgh, NY.
"I write stories to fill the world with imagination for those who have a hard time finding their own."
- SL PERRINE, 2016
The Darker Side of Me (Ravana Moon Book 1) Page 22