Secret of the Vampire

by L. E. Wilson

  Gradually, I realized the lights in my head had dimmed, the pain in my body little more than a dull throb.

  The hands that were holding my head lifted away.

  “Grace? Here, let me help you, love.” The British voice again.

  “Alex?”

  I blinked my eyes open to find Kenya’s lovely face above me, her hair blocking the dark sky behind her and her wrist still pressed to my mouth. A tear fell, hitting me on the forehead.

  “You need to stop drinking, Alex,” the first female voice said. I shifted my eyes slightly to the right to see a pretty woman with pale skin and dark hair. “I know she tastes great and all that, but you’re taking too much.”

  Immediately, I released her arm from my grip. I didn’t even realize I was still holding it.

  She lifted her wrist to her mouth, licking the wound closed. Now that I could see her clearly, she did look a bit woozy.

  I sat up so fast she didn’t have time to get out of the way, taking her in my arms. “Take some of it back,” I demanded.

  But she just shook her head, her soft curls brushing my face. “I’m okay. You need it more than I do right now.” Then she wiggled her arms out from between our bodies and wrapped them around my neck, squeezing tight as a deep sob shook her. “I thought I’d lost you,” she told me. “I thought he’d killed you.”

  I held her tight and let her cry. Over her shoulder, I eyed up the crowd that stood around us, including the creature with the glowing yellow eyes.

  As I watched, it pushed the hood back off its head, and I saw that it was not a creature at all, but a man. He gave me a nod when he saw me staring at him.

  I turned my face into Kenya’s neck. “Who are all these people?” I asked her.

  “I have no idea,” she told me. “But they saved you.”

  Chapter 24

  Kenya

  Killian shook hands with Luukas, the master vampire from Seattle, Washington. Apparently, while Alex and I were trapped at the swamp house, he had called Killian and gotten permission to bring his vampires and their mates into our territory. Once here, the scary one in the black robe—the warlock—had asked that he call the witch coven and invite them to The Purple Fang. Killian had closed the club, and once everyone was there and introduced, the warlock had explained why they’d all made the trip.

  The witches had been especially thrilled to find out they had more family just a short plane ride away.

  Imagine their surprise when they found out the djinn was not only here, but that he’d taken me, and Alex had gone missing when he’d tried to find me. It didn’t help that I’d stepped on his phone.

  Jamal had filled them all in with anything they didn’t know, and Killian was furious with me for not telling him about Alex’s involvement. But I didn’t care. All I cared about right now was that the djinn was gone, and Alex and I were both alive and safe.

  The scary one, Jesse, was furious Marcus had escaped him. That flash of light Shea and I had seen was a spell thrown by the djinn, one Jesse couldn’t track or counter, enabling him to get away. The raven had flown around, covering a good mile radius or more around the swamp house, but when she’d come back, the warlock told us she’d seen nothing. He’d walked away, stroking her feathers and whispering words of assurance that she had done well. I’d never seen such a relationship between a warlock and a bird before.

  “You get used to her,” Shea had told me. “Although she does hog a lot of his attention.”

  Now we were all gathered in the kitchen of the house and I’d just finished telling Killian what the djinn had told me about myself. Alex sat next to me at the small kitchen table, holding my hand and refusing to leave my side.

  Killian stared down at the table. “When I found you as a human, you’d already bled out so much you were on death’s door.”

  Alex’s fingers tightened around mine and I smiled at the look on his face.

  “I didn’t need to do anything but give you my blood to turn you,” Killian continued. “If there’s voodoo in you, Kenya, I wouldn’t know it. And I don’t know that I would be able to tell anyway. I taste nothing in Lizzy’s blood that tells me she’s a witch. I only know that she appeases my thirst better than any others.”

  I caught the High Priestess’s grimace from the corner of my eye. When she caught me looking at her though, she smiled, and her smile was kind. Then she shrugged. “I can’t help it,” she said. “Just the thought…”

  She made another face and I smiled as Lizzy scolded her.

  “Aunt Jude!”

  “It’s an acquired taste,” I told her. “Even I had to get used to it at first.”

  “I would imagine.”

  “So, what’s next?” Alex asked, directing his question at Jesse.

  “That remains to be seen,” he told him. “If it’s all right with you,”—he looked pointedly at Killian and Judy—“I’d like us to remain here a few more days and see what I can find out.”

  Killian nodded as Judy said, “Of course.”

  I looked between the two males. It was obvious they were related, from their dark hair, strong jawlines, and golden eyes, to the dark feel of their magic. The warlock and his mate had arrived just in time to save Alex and I, bringing the other vampires and witches from Seattle with them, and for that I would always be grateful. Killian, Lizzy, and Judy had arrived later, after it was all over.

  However, I didn’t know that I’d ever be comfortable around him. And from the way everyone else except his mate gave him the side-eye, I wasn’t alone in that.

  “How about we get you home?” Killian told me. “Yeah?”

  “I’ll go back with Alex,” I told him. “Can you leave us a car?”

  Killian narrowed his eyes at me, but then Lizzy touched his arm. “You can have ours. We’ll ride back with Aunt Jude.”

  “Kenya will be coming back with us,” Killian said, his tone not allowing for any arguments.

  But Lizzy rolled her eyes. “Killian. He saved her life. Again. I don’t think there’s any danger in letting him give her a ride home.”

  He looked like he was about to say more, but then he made the mistake of catching his mate’s eyes with his. After a moment, he sighed and slid his keys and his cell phone across the table. “Call Lizzy’s phone if you need anything. You know the code.”

  “Yes,” I told him. “Thank you.”

  He got up from the table, ran his eyes over Alex and the way he was still holding my hand, and then he nodded.

  A few minutes later, they were all on their way back to the city and we were alone at the table.

  “I’m so sorry,” Alex told me. His voice broke and he looked down at our hands for a moment, then back at me.

  In his eyes, I saw nothing but anguish.

  “Sorry? Alex, you saved us.”

  He made a disgusted noise. “I didn’t. I was weak. And I almost killed us both.”

  “No. You were not.”

  But he wasn’t listening to me. “If I’d just waited a little bit longer, Jesse and Shea would have gotten here, and I could’ve helped him take out Marcus. But no. I had to be the fucking hero.”

  I would never understand the male mind. “We didn’t know they were coming. I didn’t even know they were here until they showed themselves. Jesse must’ve cloaked himself and Shea somehow. Alex—” I waited until he was looking at me. “You didn’t know. And what if they hadn’t been here?” I asked him. “You. Saved. Us.”

  All I got was a grunt of acknowledgment that perhaps I was right. It would have to be good enough. “I really thought you were on his side,” I told him softly.

  That got his attention. “I know. I’m so sorry.” He released my hand just long enough to pull his chair closer to me. Turning me toward him, he pushed my glasses up on the bridge of my nose. “And I should be furious with you for coming back instead of running like I’d told you to.”

  “I couldn’t leave you here alone to fight him, Alex.”

  “Why not?”<
br />
  I frowned. “Why not?”

  A smile played around the corners of his mouth. “Yes. Why not, Kenya? Why couldn’t you leave me?”

  Heat travelled from my chest to my neck and finally my cheeks. “You know why.”

  “I do. But I want to hear you say it.”

  It wasn’t an order, more of a plea. And when I looked up at him, I could see the longing in his beautiful eyes, the apprehension.

  “Because you’re mine,” I whispered.

  He swallowed hard. “And?”

  “And…” My heart began to race, the words getting stuck in my throat.

  Alex touched my face, his eyes on mine, holding me there so I couldn’t look away as he waited. I thought of Shea and her love for her djinn. And she did love him. Anyone with eyes could see that.

  “And I think I’m falling in love with you,” I confessed.

  Out of all the things I thought I would feel at this moment—fear, nervousness, doubt—relief wasn’t one of them. But that was exactly how I felt, relieved to finally tell him. Relieved the others finally knew. Relieved we didn’t have to hide anymore. I found myself blinking away tears as my heart filled my chest to the point that I thought it was going to explode.

  “That’s good,” he told me, taking my hands in his and holding them on my lap. “Because I’ve known from the moment I saw you lying in that bed back there,”—he lifted his chin toward the back of the house—“your hair a tangle of frizzy curls around your gorgeous face and your beautiful skin gray with whatever the hell that disease was Marcus cast on you, that you were meant for me. Maybe even before that, if I’m going to be completely honest. I couldn’t take my eyes off you. And the thought of you dying…” He stopped, glancing away as he cleared his throat. “Kenya, I had to save you. I fucking had to.”

  Something in his voice drew my attention. “You knew,” I said. “You knew it would bring out the djinn side of you.”

  He just looked at me.

  “Alex…”

  But he shook his head. “I didn’t know what it was, exactly, only that it was something dark and unlike any other magic I’d ever known.” He looked down at our joined hands, and when his eyes came back to mine, they were full of a stubborn rebelliousness. “I knew what it would do to me, to tap into it. But I couldn’t allow you to die. I wasn’t going to give you up. Not for a curse. Not for a fucking djinn. You’re mine, Kenya. And he can’t fucking have you.”

  “Why not?” I threw his own question back at him.

  Alex’s expression softened. Lifting my hands to his mouth, he kissed the insides of both my wrists one at a time, something that always made butterflies flutter in my stomach, then he leaned in and brushed my lips with his. “Because I’m falling in love with you, too,” he whispered against my mouth.

  I moaned as he kissed me. His mouth possessive on mine. His magic wrapping around me. Only this time, I wasn’t frightened by it.

  When he finally broke away from me, he said, “I can’t stand to be away from you. But we need to get you home before the sun comes up.”

  “Come back to the house with me,” I told him.

  He stood, pulling me up beside him. “Killian won’t like that.”

  “Killian will have to get used to it.”

  Surprised by the vehemence in my voice, he stopped. “I guess he will.”

  “Yes, he will. Because I’m hungry for you, Alex.”

  He growled low in his throat and caught me up against him, his body hard, ready.

  I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him, not hiding anything from him this time.

  “Kenya…” he moaned. “Ah, honey.” His arms tightened around me, and then he swooped down and gathered me up into his arms. Striding through the house, he willed the front door open and took me out to the car, all the while telling me all of the dirty things he wanted to do to me as I grazed his throat with my fangs, drops of his blood teasing my tongue.

  I think we’re going to need to get our own place.

  Epilogue

  Angel Moss

  I wrapped one arm around the djinn’s waist, propping him up against me. Luckily, I was tall enough and strong enough that his weight didn’t send me to the ground. Thank the gods for Krav Maga.

  His sorcery fluttered around me, broken and weak. I don’t think he was capable of drawing it back.

  It gave me hope.

  “Don’t even think it, witch,” Marcus breathed. “I’ll be back to normal by the time we reach the city.” He grunted as he tripped over something on the ground, his arm tightening around the back of my neck and his fingers digging painfully into my shoulder even through my thick coat. “I was caught by surprise. Otherwise, they would all be dead right now.”

  I caught a glimmer of water on the ground and redirected us to skirt the edge of the swamp. The urge to toss him in and leave him there to feed the gators wouldn’t go away, but somehow, I restrained myself.

  “Do not forget our deal, witch.”

  “Stay the fuck out of my head, djinn,” I grumbled. I would keep my end of the stupid agreement I’d made. I had to. I had no other choice. But I didn’t have to like it.

  “Just get me back to the city,” he told me. “And, for now, your part in all this will be over. At least until I need you again.”

  I stepped over a fallen tree branch, and my boot sank down into the muck. Yanking it out, I moved us further away from the water. Clouds had suddenly filled the night sky, and I couldn’t see for shit. “I didn’t agree for this to be an on-call arrangement. That wasn’t our deal. I told you your niece and nephew were alive and living here. I gave you a hideout where no one would find you—”

  “Not so hidden anymore.”

  “—and I’m helping your ass not get killed by some crazy ass monk and his bird. So, I do believe I’ve gone above and beyond our original agreement. This was a one-time thing, Marcus.”

  “I’ve changed my mind.”

  He changed his mind.

  Tears burned the inside of my eyelids, but I blinked them away. I was an idiot to get involved with all of this. But getting all teary wouldn’t change anything. What I needed to do was think.

  No. First, I needed to get this bastard the hell away from me and out of my head. I tried to keep him out, but every once in a while my shields would slip and he’d be waiting. He didn’t trust me. And I didn’t blame him. He shouldn’t trust me at all, because as soon as I found a way to get out of this situation I’d put myself in, I would turn on him faster than a viper.

  I saw my car up ahead and quickened our pace. Dumping him into the backseat, I jogged around the front of the car and got into the driver’s seat. Pushing the ignition button, I left the headlights off for now, praying to any god who would listen that I wouldn’t drive us right into the swamp. Luckily, there was plenty of brush here lining the dirt road that led to the house.

  By the time we got to the city, Marcus was sitting up in the backseat, his phone in his hand.

  “Where should I drop you?” I asked him.

  “The airport,” he told me.

  I glanced in the rearview mirror, taking note of his of ragtag appearance. “You don’t think you’ll raise a few suspicions walking in there looking like that?”

  He looked up from his phone, then swung his arms out to the side as he eyed his clothes. “You’re absolutely right.” With a wave of his hand, he was dressed in a white dress shirt, a black jacket, and—I would assume—clean, pressed dress slacks. His dark hair was combed back from his face, and there wasn’t a speck of grime on him. “That should do it.” Then he went back to his phone.

  “Who are you talking to?” I asked, hoping my voice didn’t betray my anxiety. There was only one reason he should be on his phone right now, and that reason had damned well better be alive and well when I got back to my apartment.

  “I’m making arrangements for my flight back to my mountain.”

  I kept my eyes on the road, but I had to consciously loosen
my grip on the steering wheel before he noticed. “Don’t you just mind-fuck everyone into doing what you want?”

  “To a point,” he said, without explaining further.

  A few minutes passed by. I turned onto I-10 and headed to the airport. “What about our deal?” I asked him. “You can’t just leave him as he is.”

  I refused to look at him. Wouldn’t allow him to see the pleading in my eyes. He was silent for so long I thought he was going to ignore my question.

  Finally, he sighed. “He will be released after I get onto the plane and it’s in the air.” Marcus leaned forward until his mouth was right behind my ear, and I had to repress the urge to shiver with repulsion when I felt his hot breath on my neck. “However,” he said quietly. “There is a very strong thread between us now. I can easily find him anywhere and do whatever I please to him. So I would strongly suggest that you don’t get any ideas after I leave. You are still held to your end of the deal. And if I call you, you will answer. That is the new deal.”

  “You’re a motherfucker,” I told him through my teeth.

  He chuckled, and leaned back in his seat again. “So I’ve been told.”

  I hope you enjoyed Alex and Kenya’s story! If you haven’t read the original Deathless Night story where we first meet Luukas and the rest of the vampires, along with their mates, you can start reading here with A Vampire Bewitched.

  If you don’t want to go all the way back to book one, Night of the Vampire is a great entry point as the series picks up the storyline of the Moss witches.

  Already read all of Deathless Night and looking for more? The Kincaid Werewolves have their own series, and you can start with Lone Wolf’s Claim Here.

  Check out my website HERE for even more books and the reading order of each series!

  Thanks again for reading!

  Much love,

  L.E.

  Also by L.E. WIlson