Read Bizarre Life of Sydney Sedrick Online
Authors: Mandi Casey
Lisa tossed her head back and laughed dramatically. “Wow, that rogue must have drained your senses when he took your blood. There’s nothing you can do except what you’re told to do. By the way, if those bites aren’t treated soon with antibiotics, you will get an infection in your blood. Once that infection reaches your heart, your body won’t be able to handle it. Shock will set in, and when there’s no one to help you...Well, you can figure out the rest.”
Yes, I would die. A chill swept over me. I couldn’t die. Not yet. Not without seeing Blake again.
“My father sent a messenger to expect Andras soon. So, Selected, time’s a wasting,” Lisa said, as if her prediction of my demise meant nothing.
“Kieran will never go along with your plan. He wouldn’t take my blood against my will.”
Lisa snickered, swung her annoyingly bouncy blond hair around her shoulders, and said, “Yes, he will. My brother has already taken care of that part of the deal. All we needed was a little leverage to make you more agreeable, and we have it. Kieran even said he’ll take you off our hands when the deed is done.” Still giggling with self-appreciation, Lisa left.
Clanking sounds of keys in the cell door woke me. How much time had past? The pain in my body was still excruciating. Everywhere the rogue vampire had sunk his teeth into my flesh burned like festering boils. Sweat dripped down my forehead, along the sides of my face, around my ears, and onto the sheet of the mattress. The room was spinning, and my vision was cloudy.
Trevor strolled into the room holding the cell phone Blake had given me with the neon screen shining brightly in the dimly lit room.
“Yeah, I’m here,” he said into the phone’s receiver. “I’m ready. Put her on the phone.”
He held my cell phone against his chest so whoever was on the phone couldn’t hear what he was about to say. Trevor leaned over the mattress and spoke quietly into my ear. “One of our rogues is at your house right now. She’s with your precious aunt, keeping her company. You are going to talk to your aunt, tell her that everything is fine, and that you’re going to spend the night with a friend. Tell her she’s not to wait up for you. Do you understand?”
I cleared my throat and asked, “Why are you doing this? What is she going to do to her?” I struggled against the restraints, but my body was too weak to break the binding straps.
“I’ve told you exactly why we have to do this. We can’t have that demon killing my sister. She will take her rightful place at his side in Hell, and you’re going to do everything we tell you to make that happen. Now, if you don’t want the wolf to rip your aunt apart one limb at a time, you’ll tell her exactly what I just said.” He pulled the phone away from his chest and placed it next to my face, just far enough away so he could hear everything we said to each other.
“Sydney, are you there?” Aunt Judith was trying not to sound worried, but it was apparent she didn’t think everything was on the up and up.
I cleared my throat again. It still felt rough from throwing up, screaming, and being bitten by the rogue vampire.
“Aunt Judith, I’m fine. You’ll have the house to yourself tonight. An old friend from school came to the store, and we’ve just been having so much fun, I’m going to stay over. But I’ll see you tomorrow after work, okay?”
Suspicion laced her voice. “Sydney, your friend is here. Why would she stop here if she knew you weren’t home, honey?”
I close my eyes, trying not to sob as I lied to her. “We were talking, and she said she was in the neighborhood. She’s supposed to come and meet me in a little bit. She’s going to grab me an overnight bag.” The attempt to laugh and sound lighthearted only resulted in my gagging. Tears rolled from my eyes down to my temples.
Aunt Judith took a deep breath into the phone. She wasn’t buying it, but she didn’t argue. “Okay, honey. I’ll get your things together, and I’ll see you tomorrow. Oh, before we hang up, Blake came over. He seemed quite disappointed that you weren’t here.”
“Oh, geez! Aunt Judith, we just got so caught up in talking that time just got away from me. I’ll give him a call tomorrow and tell him I’m sorry about the change of plans.”
Aunt Judith was supposed to be at Meredith’s house. What was she even doing home?
I could tell Aunt Judith didn’t believe a word of it. Her voice was steely, and it was possible she knew there was trouble, but she went along with it. Hopefully, she would just go to bed and not get involved. I bet that wasn’t likely to be the case.
The rogue wolf kept the phone on, so I listened while she gathered my things from Aunt Judith.
After closing the front door and getting into a car, the rogue said into the phone, “All right, the old woman is secured. I’ll be parked down the street, ready to act. All you have to do is say the word. It’s been a while since I’ve killed a human.” The female wolf cackled into the phone.
My heart beat in slow, painful, heavy thumps against my chest. Hopefully Aunt Judith would hide somewhere in the house and stay far away from that rogue.
Trevor closed the phone. “So, now you know how serious we are. If you won’t give Kieran your blood willingly, we’ll kill your aunt. The vampire coven leader will be here in a few minutes. All you have to do is let him take a few sips, and he’ll give us some of his blood. Everyone will be happy, and you’ll be free to go.” When he smiled, his eyes sparkled, literally.
Lisa, followed by a rogue wolf and a rogue vampire, came down the stairs. My body reacted like it did every time a rogue was near me, times three. Spasms racked my entire body. Bile and acid began to rise in my chest, threatening the dry heaves.
“Kieran’s here, dearest Selected. He’s come to take you out of our hair.” Glee was all over Lisa’s face. She was finally going to get what she wanted, to become immortal and marry a demon lord. Lisa had odd life aspirations. If I ever got out of this alive, I was going to tell her exactly what I thought of her.
Heavy footsteps sounded at the top of the staircase. When they began their descent, Lisa pulled the door farther open. The rogues stepped away from the entrance as Kieran came into view through the cell bars. As he walked over to the doorway, he stopped before passing over the threshold.
The head vampire wasn’t wearing sunglasses to cover his red glowing eyes. They were like lasers coming out of his eye sockets. When he spoke, the undertone of rage was barely kept in check. “Why are there tainted bite marks all over her body? You were specifically instructed that she was to be left unharmed!
I felt the bass of his voice in my lungs.
Trevor stepped out from behind Kieran. Beside the vampire, Trevor didn’t seem so menacing. Kieran was a few inches taller than the lightning demon, but Trevor seemed a lot smaller now, standing next to his advisory.
Kieran stepped up to the puke-stained mattress holding me in place, gently grabbed my chin, and tilted my head away from him so he could examine the damage on my neck.
“Where exactly do you expect me to take blood from the Selected? It looks like your gluttonous rogue has already defiled all the accessible access sites on her body.” While he spoke, he kept his eyes on me. Didn’t he worry about what they were doing behind his back?
Trevor spoke. “Kieran, my rogue’s misbehavior is unpardonable. He has been punished severely for his actions, and you can be sure nothing like that will happen again.”
Kieran looked toward Trevor, Lisa, and the other rogues standing behind them. His menacing glare would have made my knees buckle if his anger was ever directed toward me like it was at them. If Kieran got me out alive, I’d make sure to never piss off the vampire coven leader on purpose.
Without a sound, Kieran shifted his body so his nose, in a downward position, was a mere centimeter away from Trevor’s face. “You are correct, demon. You will never have this woman in your midst ever. Never again will you be able to harm her. You had my compliance to go along with your deal because it suits my purposes as well. Once this deal is over, I’m taking her out of here, and you and your rogues will remove yourselves from my city immediately. Understood?”
Trevor stepped back from Kieran and nodded. It was surprising to see fear from the lightening demon. Even though he was trying not to show his intimidation, he couldn’t help it.
“I understand perfectly.” Trevor stepped closer to Kieran and said in a low growl, “And you better understand that if you try to betray us, you will never make it out of this house alive. You saw how strong we are in numbers when you were escorted from the street. So it’s up to you how this is going to end.” Maybe my intuition was wrong, maybe Trevor wasn’t afraid of Kieran as much as he seemed to be?
Kieran snarled at Trevor, but remained silent. He turned back toward me and slowly approached the mattress.
“Since you have been so careless with the well-being of the Selected, there is only one site left to take blood from. Her tongue. The thought of putting my mouth anywhere near one of those festering wounds your rogue caused is deplorable. The taint of his vile essence is still on her skin,” he said with clear distaste.
I stared into the vampire’s red eyes, pleading, “Kieran, please don’t do this. They have Aunt Judith right now, and if they don’t get what they want, they said they were going to kill her.” Fresh tears streaked down my face, and my head pounded with the consistency of a drum line.
Kieran leaned over, put his hand on my forehead, then gently patted the top of my head. He was actually trying to console and sooth me.
“Sydney, everything will be fine. You have my word. We’ll just do what they want, and then we’ll get out of here. Your aunt will be fine. I’m sorry for what I’m about to do, but there really isn’t an alternative to the situation.”
Trevor and Lisa approached the cell bars. They were blocked by Kieran’s massive body, but I could hear their footsteps scrape on the cement. Trevor said to his sister, “Lisa, go upstairs and prepare for Andras’ arrival. Take these two with you, and make sure the others are ready as well. We’re going to make this go as smoothly as possible. And there better not be any trouble from either of you.”
Against my will, Kieran put his lips against mine. Blanking out my thoughts, I tried to calm the chaos in my head. They needed me to be agreeable to what was going to happen, and they needed me to be willing to give him my blood so Aunt Judith wouldn’t get hurt. My family was my biggest priority. What was a little blood? The rogue had taken blood already; a few drops more wasn’t a big deal.
I told myself not to think of Blake, Morris, or the rest of the Midwestern Werewolf Pack. They would probably think of me as a traitor, and that the vampires convinced me to go behind their back and help them. Blake might not understand there’s nothing else that could be done to make sure Aunt Judith stayed safe.
Would Blake ever talk to me again? Would he hate me? I’d have to try and explain things to him, if we ever got out of this mess. Blake was kind, caring, and sexier than any warm- bodied man I’d ever had the pleasure to look upon. His gaze on my body made me weak with need. The fact that he was able to smell it on me just made the situation more hot, intense, and sensual.
If Blake ever forgave me for what was about to happen, he would hear just how much he was growing on me, and how I loved being with him. I’d even tell him how hot it was when he pressed his firm body against mine, wrapping his arms tightly around me, and how much I liked it when he kissed me.
Kieran opened his mouth against my lips. My breathing stopped. I waited for the sharp nick of his fangs against my tongue. It never came. Ice-cold liquid dripped onto my tongue from Kieran’s mouth.
The vampire wasn’t taking my blood.
He was giving me his.
I tried to shake my head to the side to get away from what he was doing. A cold hand clamped onto my jaw, holding my head in place. He locked his lips to mine. I knew screaming wouldn’t do anything.
Kieran lifted his head and stared deeply into my eyes. He smeared his own blood over his mouth and fangs. He told me with a wink that he wasn’t going to force me to give my blood to him. In that moment, the possibility of survival blossomed in my heart. We may get out of the jail cell alive. As long as Kieran didn’t go along with Trevor and Lisa’s plan to complete the prophecy of the Elders, there was a chance.
Trevor came halfway into the cell. Kieran turned and snarled at him, baring his fangs to show the blood smeared on his mouth, and to make the lightening demon believe that he had just taken my blood.
Trevor smiled. “Good, now half of the deal is done. All you have to do is give me some of your blood, and you and the Selected can be on your way.”
“Untie her. You will not get anything from me until she is out of this cell.”
Electricity resonated in the air, and Trevor sneered. “I don’t think so. You give us your blood, and you’ll both be free to go.” He crossed his arms over his chest and widened his stance. He didn’t seem to be bothered by the aggression pouring from Kieran.
“How do you want to make the exchange?” Kieran took a step toward Trevor. When his foot hit the cement, Trevor stepped back and grabbed the door of the cell. Kieran was too fast. Before Trevor could slam the cell door shut, Kieran had one hand on the doorframe, the other on Trevor’s neck.