Almost Human (8 page)

She seized a hand full of my hair
and yanked me off the ground. “This one killed me. You should
avenge your ancestors, and instead you feed it. Do you fuck it,
too?”

She punched me in the jaw and sent me spinning, face
first, into the wall. My vision fuzzed out for a second. She had
one hell of a right hook.

She moved toward Alaric. “You will
die, vampire. You turned one of mine, and her mother called me back
to kill you.”

Alaric shook his head. He looked
even paler than usual. “You’re dead.”

She took another step toward him.
“Yes, you killed me. Did you know that blood bonding me to you
would kill me slowly, and painfully?”

He flinched. “No, I swear. I only
meant to control you, so you wouldn’t kill any of my brothers or
me.”

“You deserve to die,” she
screeched. “You’re evil.”

I banged my fist on the wall, and
Alaric’s distant gaze jerked away from her. “Stop talking to her,
Alaric. Kill her. She came back wrong.”

He snapped back to himself and decked her right in
the jaw. She landed on her ass on the ground. He pulled a sword
from under the bed and swung it at her neck.

The blow that should have severed
her head passed through it, as if she were made of smoke. “Mortal
weapons can’t kill me.” Her voice gained a demonic echo and
Alaric’s eyes widened. She planted a foot in his stomach and he
crashed into the wall above the bed.

He knelt on all fours, wheezing.
“Holy shit.”

Sherra drew a knife and stepped
toward him. I pushed myself to my feet and hurled myself at her. I
grabbed her knife hand and nailed her with a kick to the face. She
stumbled backward, but didn’t fall.

There was a sharp, blinding pain in my abdomen. I
glanced down to see another knife sticking out of it. She twisted
it and I howled, releasing her other hand.

“Kori,” Alaric yelled.

She yanked the knife out, and I clutched the wound
with my hands. I lifted them and stared at the blood. I knew what
to do with what little time I had left. I grasped either side of
her head as my knees buckled. I stumbled into her and felt a spark
of power flow from her. I ripped her magic from her and she
screamed in agony.

“I cast you out,”
I shouted in the old language. She burst apart
right under my hands. I collapsed on the ground without her
support. The door fell inward and all the residents of the house,
and Dagger, tumbled in a giant pile on the floor.

I managed to lock eyes with Casey
and she screamed. “Kori. Oh my God.” There were several curses as
she kicked herself free of the heap. She rushed toward me and
dropped to her knees beside me.

“Alaric, help me roll her
over.”

I moaned as they did. God, the pain was
excruciating, but it was slowly starting to fade.

I grabbed Alaric’s forearms and
sunk my nails into it. “Hurry, you have to finish the spell. Smear
blood under all the doors, and on the windowsills. My spell won’t
last forever.”

He nodded. “Does it need to be
your blood?”

“No, anyone’s will do.”

He glanced across the room.
“Fallon, Misha, get on it.”

I put my hand on Casey’s where she
tried to stop the bleeding. “Don’t bother. Internal bleeding. Not
that much blood left to lose anyway. I stole enough time to tell
you—”

She grasped my hand. I had to
break off and take a breath. “I love you, little sister. I want you
to be happy. You need to get out of town. Hell, maybe out of the
country.”

I had to take another pause.

Casey shook her head before I
could start again. “No, this isn’t goodbye. You can become a
vampire. To a vampire this wound is nothing.”

“No.” I tried to put as much power
behind the word as possible, but I got the feeling it was
lacking.

Tears made tracks down her pretty
face. “Yes. You have to live. I can’t let you die. I need you in
the world.”

“I won’t be a vampire.”

“It’s better than
dying.”

“I don’t want to spend my last
minutes with you arguing, little sister.”

She dropped my hands and stood
slowly. “Alaric, turn her.”

I coughed and blood splattered my
lips, the copper taste settling in my mouth. “Don’t make me get up
and beat your ass. I’m capable, damn it.”

She ignored me and focused on
Alaric. “Do it. I don’t care what she wants.” She glared down at
me. “I’m a selfish spoiled, brat and I will have my way in
this.”

Alaric looked into my eyes. His face was completely
blank.

“Don’t you dare? You know better.
I’ll kill you if you turn me, you bastard.”

He arched an eyebrow. “I’m so very
afraid. You already hate me. Turning you couldn’t make you hate me
less.” He glanced at my sister. “It might make her hate you,
though. You prepared for that?”

“Yes. I know the consequences,
Alaric.”

Black spots filled my vision and I let my eyes fall
closed. It took too much effort to keep them open.

“Alaric, hurry.”

I heard the pop of cartilage as
Alaric bit into his own wrist. I tried to turn my head away, but he
grabbed my jaw in his painfully tight grip, keeping my mouth open,
unless I wanted to attempt to bite his hand. No matter what, he got
his way. He shoved his wrist against my tongue.

The rich, copper taste of his blood hit me and a
spark of raw power flooded my body. All thoughts of resisting fled.
Hell, all thoughts period were gone. I grasped his wrist with both
hands and drank in giant gulps.

He stroked my hair. He was
whispering something, but I couldn’t make out what he was
saying.

I released his wrist as agony
flooded my body. It overrode the pain of being stabbed. I couldn’t
see or hear as I writhed on the floor. But I could feel hands on
me, adding to the blinding torture as they touched my sensitive
skin. And then everything went black.

Chapter Seven

I moaned and cracked my eyes open.
I grimaced and shut them again. Even with the lights dimmed, they
still managed to go right to the source of my headache.

“Turn the light out.”

The clicks as someone turned off
the little lamp were deafening. God, was I hung over? Astra and I
had gotten smashed before after a high kill count, but I’d never
felt like this.

It felt like I had two metal
spikes sticking in my temples, and my stomach felt like it was
taking a boat trip. Even the sheets against my skin were
uncomfortable. And I was hot. Burning up. Witches didn’t get sick,
so what the hell was going on?

I could hear everything. The
whisper of clothing as the bed dipped under someone’s weight. And
breathing. There were at least four people in the room. And there
was pounding. It was faint, but for some reason, incredibly
comforting.

“What’s that thumping?” I slurred.
My mouth was as dry as the desert.

A rough hand caressed my jaw and
the most incredible smell filled my nose. Clean male. I turned my
face into his palm. “It’s heartbeats, babe.” His deep, slightly
accented voice was like a caress.

I definitely wasn’t at Astra’s.
None of her friends sounded like that. I recognized that voice. I
opened my eyes again. A gorgeous, blond man with a goatee leaned
over me. He was close, and his hair fell in a curtain around us. He
licked his lips, and I desperately wanted to kiss him, but I was so
tired I could barely lift my head.

It took me a second to realize who
this beautiful man was. “Alaric?”

He nodded. “Good, you remember who
I am. How are you feeling?”

“Achy, nauseated, exhausted. And
my memory is a little…gone.”

Someone across the room cleared
his throat. “Is that normal? The not remembering thing?”

Alaric broke eye contact with me
to look at whoever was speaking. “Dagger, you don’t remember your
own conversion?”

“Not really. In my defense, it was
a couple thousand years ago, and I wasn’t exactly in my right mind
then.”

Another person laughed. “Only
then?”

“Don’t make me kill you, gnat.
Just because you’re of my line doesn’t mean I won’t gut
you.”

“Fallon, please don’t goad Dagger.
I’d hate to have to try and steam clean your blood out of the
carpet. And to answer your question, Dagger, yes, this is normal
for someone who’s had a tough transition.”

A little bubble of panic welled in
my chest. I grabbed Alaric’s wrist. “Transition?” The memory
surfaced, fighting past the barriers of my lethargic
brain.

I pushed Alaric back and sat up.
It was a bad idea. My head felt like it was going to explode. I
dropped my hand to the hem of the tank top and pulled it up to
examine my stomach. There was no wound there—only tender, pink scar
tissue.

“It’s healed. In a few more hours
there won’t even be a mark,” Alaric explained, his expression
completely vacant. He probably knew I didn’t need an
explanation.

I ground my teeth together. “I
told you not to do this. I told you I’d kill you.”

His eyes narrowed. “I’m not your
bitch, Kori. You’ll be weak until you feed, not that I’m
particularly worried about you killing me anyway. You might be a
tad faster and stronger than you used to be, but I still have some
seven hundred years on you.”

Casey, who had been silent until
now, broke our staring contest. “Don’t blame Alaric, Kori. I asked
him to.”

I didn’t stop glaring at Alaric.
“Get out. I need to speak with my sister alone.”

The room dropped about ten degrees
in temperature. His hand clamped onto the back of my neck. He
squeezed, letting me feel his strength. “You
will
stop ordering me
around.”

I smacked his arm and jerked back.
He rose smoothly and was at the door before I could blink. “Come
on, boys. Let’s give the ladies some alone time.”

The door shut softly behind him,
even though I could still feel Alaric’s rage echoing in my head.
What the F? He’d left the room, but for some reason I still felt
his presence. God, I seriously hoped that went away eventually.
Because underneath all that rage was pain and confusion.

I shook my head to clear it. Now was not the time to
wonder about the vampire.

I glanced at Casey. She was
staring at me, twirling a long strand of blonde hair around her
finger.

“How could you let him do this to
me, Casey?”

She bit her lip and refused to
meet my gaze. “I didn’t want to lose you.”

“I didn’t want to be a vampire.
You should have respected my wishes.”

Her gaze met mine. “Do you still
think I’m evil?”

I pursed my lips. “I was doubting
it, but this incident does make a girl wonder.”

She stood quickly, knocking her
chair to the ground. “You expected me to let you die? To lose you
like we lost Tahira? Or did you forget that vampires kidnapped my
twin? That we never found a body? Fuck you. You think I can live
without you, too? I love you as much as you love me, probably more.
I clung to you when she was gone. I’d lost my other half and you
wanted me to do that again?”

She took a deep, shaking breath.
“Even if you hate me, at least now you’ll be alive, somewhere in
the world.”

She turned and stomped to the
door. Where Alaric had shut it silently, she slammed it with all
her strength. I was surprised she hadn’t broken it.

I sighed. My sister had to be the only person in the
world who could make me feel guilty about not wanting to become a
vampire.

Of course I hadn’t forgotten about
Tahira. And could I fault Casey for wanting to keep her only
surviving sister? Probably not.

“Crap.”

“You shouldn’t be so harsh with
her. She loves you. That’s how all my brothers ended up vampires.
They would have died if I hadn’t turned them.”

I glanced up to see Alaric
standing inside the room. How had he gotten the door opened and
closed without me hearing him? The words “silent as the grave” came
to mind.

“And why did you agree to this?
You hate me.”

He shrugged. “I would do anything
Casey asked of me because she’s made my brother happy. And you did
save me. Maybe I didn’t feel like you deserved to die.”

I snorted. “I don’t exactly
consider this saving my life.”

He smiled. “We have a difference
of opinion, then. I saved all my brothers, and my brother saved
your sweet sister. I wouldn’t have a family if I hadn’t turned
them. They all would have died painful, lingering
deaths.”

“Is that what you were thinking about
earlier? You were hurting.”

He snorted. “Right, the link between us. It
will fade. Ignore what you feel. It’s not as if you actually
care.”

As I felt a sliver of fear go through him, I
realized he was wrong. For some reason, I did care. I slid over in
bed and patted the spot beside me. Alaric’s brows drew together in
a frown. “Sit. Tell me what you’re thinking.”