Half Blood (29 page)

‘Don’t move you stupid bastard,’ a familiar voice said. Against his better judgement, Rhett turned his head towards Brax, finding his face ashen.

Rhett’s mouth was dry when he tried to talk. Brax produced a bottle of Gatorade with a straw sticking out of it. He took a sip and tried again. ‘B, I’m the one who got his ass handed to him. Why do you look so sick?’

Rhett shook his head. He couldn’t remember a damn thing after the fifth blow. Hell, he thought he’d seen Indi in there with him. Brax brought the bottle to his mouth again and positioned the straw near his mouth. After he swallowed he said, ‘I need to get out of here. I need to go to Indi.’

Rhett growled, low and steady. ‘I’ll make it work. I have to get back to Indi.’ There was something about seeing her when he was delirious with pain that resonated in him. “Find me,” she’d mouthed.

Brax eventually did what he was told, carefully manoeuvring Rhett’s body to the side of the mattress. ‘I can’t get you down without hurting you more.’

‘Hurt me more then,’ Rhett bit out. The pain had to be worth it if Indi was still alive. He’d take the punishment again if he had to. Brax gave him one last shove and Rhett was getting some intimate time with the floor. Pain erupted from his back, blistering his entire body with red-hot fire. He couldn’t stop the scream.

Rhett ground his teeth together; partly because of the pain, and partly because of the pain Brax was causing him. ‘Fine. Go get me something to eat between shifts.’

Brax left Rhett alone, closing the door softly behind him. With him gone, he could focus on flooding his body with calm. He needed to get into the right head space for this to happen. He emptied his mind and even though his every instinct was fighting him, he called The Change to him. It was only a faint feather’s caress over his body and it wasn’t enough. He gritted his teeth and tried again, this time getting the sensation of hot liquid being poured over his naked body. His bones began breaking and resetting. His muscles tore and knit back together again, his ligaments repositioning themselves to make his lupine body fit together.

The heat burned through his body until he was sweating and panting and writhing on the floor. Rhett looked at his hands. His fingers were shrinking, his nails becoming giant, obsidian claws. His hip bone exploded; shattering into a thousand pieced before coming back together to fit a wolf’s body. His jaw ached, lengthening to accommodate the sharp incisors that he’d used to tear apart his enemies.

Pain rocked his body until every new bone and muscle was in its place, until his fur began to grow. The follicles pushed their way through his raw, open skin; covering his entire body in hair the same colour as the dark hair on his head. He screamed again, but this time it was the howl of a wolf that came through his new vocal cords.

He lay there panting for a long time, his body still shivering from the new form. At least his back wasn’t on fire anymore. There was a gentle knock on the door, and Rhett’s enhanced sense of smell told him it was Brax, and he had meat with him. He whined and the door opened slowly. A surprised werewolf was not a happy werewolf. Brax slid into the room carrying a plate.

‘I got you hamburger meat. I think it’s supposed to be for dinner though,’ he shrugged and placed the plate on the ground. Rhett devoured the whole thing.

Two more less painful changes later, Rhett had fully healed himself, although he was weak with hunger from the rapid shifts. It was always dangerous shifting more than once, maybe twice, within an hour. The risk of having organ failure nearly doubled, but it was a risk he’d had to take.

Rhett stared into Brax’s constantly slipping eyes and wondered why he hadn’t seen this side to Brax before. He was the class clown, the joker—but this side of him was new. He was serious and smart and intuitive. He wanted to tell him that he was right, but couldn’t. As far as he was concerned, he had failed Indi and the guilt from his mistake was like ice in his chest. But he didn’t. He turned and walked down the hallway, waiting to hear Brax fire up the Xbox again.

He jogged down the stairs, taking them two at a time. Bursting through the front door, he unlocked his car and slid into the driver’s seat. As he sped down the gravel drive, the guilt began freezing the blood in his veins again. Yeah, he had failed Indi once and he’d be damned if he let it happen again.

Nox prowled the streets of Buxton, his shitkickers pounding against the pavement as he searched for the half blood. It was colder than it had been the last time he was here, not that it mattered too much. He was as cold-blooded as a snake right now. He hadn’t been able to return to his brothers to feed properly, and it would have to wait. He had to finish the job this time.

He’d been irresponsible and a fool for believing that just draining her of blood would have been enough; that she would have died like a human. After all, she
was
still human. But when he was interrupted by the wolves, he had no choice but to abandon his kill. His life was more important than risking it for the death of a half breed.

He went to her apartment block, finding only a trace of her scent leaving the building. It was still fresh. He went north, keeping the scent of his quarry in his nose.

As he rounded a corner, fresh blood was on the breeze. It was human blood, but it was a start. Perhaps her transition had already begun. He tracked the scent to an alleyway and smiled. The half blood was there, curled up against a wall in the shadows of the alley. At her feet was her first kill.

The walls were painted with her victim’s blood, dripping from the mortar, pooling in sticky puddles in the corners. Nox’s heavy footsteps echoed all around him, amplified by the high walls. She didn’t even stir as he crouched down in front of her. He drew in a deep breath to confirm what he had suspected. She had transitioned. She was the last half blood in existence, and he was about to kill her. He would be a hero amongst the other Sicarii, remembered forever in the history for eradicating the half bloods from the vampire race.

Sliding his blade free, he positioned it above her heart. The tip dimpled her skin, but was yet to draw blood. He wondered what he would do after this. If all the half bloods were dead, what were the Sicarii to do? Perhaps he and his brothers would take up contract killing humans, or maybe bounty hunting fae? The only thing he was sure of was there would be death wherever he walked.

*

Indi’s eyes opened slowly when she felt a pinching sensation on her chest. When she focused on what was in front of her, a lump formed in her throat as the flood of memories came back to her. She was drowning in them, barely keeping her head above dark water as she remembered what she had forgotten. Her nose began to bleed.

The dank smell of death in that alleyway haunted her senses, her memories. She kept thinking this was the end—this was what death felt like, what death looked like. Death was a …

‘Vampire,’ she whispered. The word sounded implausible, but the idea of it felt so right. Nox’s head snapped around, his pearlescent eyes penetrating hers so completely that she couldn’t look away. She dived into the cool water of his eyes and knew that he was the one who had dragged her into the alleyway. He was the one that had attacked her, snapping her collarbone and draining her dry. Burning pain brushed through her left shoulder, her body remembering the pain of her injury even though it had healed long ago.

Swallowing her pained sounds, she forced the fear from her eyes. ‘You killed me,’ she breathed, swallowing down on the hard lump in her throat. It wasn’t often that someone got an opportunity to come face to face with their killer.

‘I did, but I didn’t get to give you your final death. That’s why I’m here, to take your head and your heart.’ He pressed the blade in, drawing a bead of blood from her skin that trickled like a warm finger caressing her skin. She held in the scream, the searing pain lancing through her heart. The pain woke up her anger; the giant cat stretching and sniffing at the air. Its lips peeled back from its teeth as a trickle of a growl vibrated through its vocal cords.

Nox’s eyes widened, the pressure on the knife tip easing off just a little. ‘What are you?’ he breathed.

‘I’m fucking angry, that’s what I am.’ She kicked out at one of his kneecaps, pain exploding through her own legs as she felt like she’d just kicked a brick wall. Fighting back the tears, she watched as his face turned into an ugly grimace. Her anger growled at her, demanding she got up and protected herself. Sitting back on her haunches, she sucked in deep breaths to stop the feeling of queasiness that had been assaulting her body before. She couldn’t afford to just wait for him to recover. Forcing her mind back in the game, she looked up to see that she had taken too long.

He was standing now, towering above her crouched form. She turned her body towards the dumpsters and began crab walking backwards until she bumped into Beth. Her best friend was still out cold, the blood from the cut on her head oozing out slowly. The smell drifted up Indi’s nose, making her head swim for a moment. She felt intoxicated by it.

The only thing she could hear was the rush of air filling and emptying from her lungs. Her jaw ached, pounding in time with the blood surging through her veins. It was Nox’s laughter that eventually brought her back. She looked up at him, anger curling around her body.

‘What?!’ she spat.

He laughed again. ‘This is going to be so easy.’ Nox launched himself at her as the last syllable slipped over his tongue. Time slowed down, her brain working through her options. Her eyes darted left and right, searching for a weapon. Her breathing was sawing through her open mouth, the noise echoing in her ears, cancelling out any other sound as she focused hard on survival.

She looked up, checking where Nox was, but she couldn’t see him. She blinked slowly, a soft growling breaking through the sound of her breaths.

The growling became louder, more angry and violent. This sound she understood. Her vision swam, but she forced her brain to focus. Standing over Nox was a giant, shaggy-haired, black dog. Its fangs were bared in Nox’s face, Nox returning the favour, revealing incisors two inches long. Spittle hung from the jaws of the dog, landing in thick, hot, sticky strands on Nox’s cheeks and forehead.

Nox’s eyes were glowing as he fought back against the dog. Indi stood up shakily and took a tentative step towards the two of them. A piece of glass crunched under her shoe, and the dog turned around to stare at her, its lips curled back from its teeth in challenge.

Indi stared into its eyes and recognised something familiar about them. One was the colour of an emerald, the other icy-blue. Indi took another step closer, determined to get a better look at the dog. But when its ears flattened against its skull, she rethought her actions. She took a step back, dropping her eyes to the ground until a yelp exploded through the night.

Indi’s eyes swung back. Blood was pouring from the dog’s side, the hilt of a knife flush against its side. Nox pulled the blade free, causing more blood to cascade from the wound. The dog jumped off Nox, backing away until the wall was at its back. Nox stood up, flipping the bloodied knife from one hand to the other, watching the blood pour from the wound. Nox’s lips twisted into a menacing smile and Indi licked her lips. The smell of it; coppery and sweet, the sound of it spilling from the dog’s body whispered to every cell in her body. She suddenly felt like an addict to something she hadn’t ever sampled before; a slave to something that was primal and raw and everything felt right to take what she wanted. She fought her body, fought her legs from taking a step towards the dog. If she gave herself that one step, it would lead to another and another until she took its life.