Authors: Melody Johnson
“I never thought to live hundreds of years either, yet here we are,” Dominic said, his gaze focused on me. “And thank God I have.”
The look in Dominic’s eyes as he stared into mine was unmistakable. I didn’t need a vampire’s senses to see the intent behind his gaze.
“They’re expecting us,” I whispered shakily, not sure I wanted to stop but knowing for certain that if we didn’t stop now, we never would. “Nathan will attack someone tonight, and Bex is expecting us to help her stop him.”
“So she is,” Dominic said, his voice deliberately measured.
I extracted myself from his embrace and stood, tasting the heavy reluctance in my heart like syrupy medicine.
Dominic stood still, not pulling away but not stopping me either. I shook my head regretfully at his appearance. His clothes were ruined, stained by my blood.
“I don’t know why you even bother dressing up,” I commented. “That was one of your nicer shirts.”
“All of my shirts are nice.” He looked down at himself, as if just noticing his soiled clothing. He fingered a bloody patch on his shirt and then, locking his gaze on me, slipped that finger into his mouth.
I swallowed, partly disgusted because that’s how I was supposed to feel, but the rest of me was intrigued. I could smell the sharp spice of my taste on his tongue. Later, I might blame his blood for tainting my judgment, but I wanted him in that moment like I’d never wanted anyone in my entire life.
“One day you’ll look at me, not as a vampire or an ally or a problem to resolve, but as a man. And when that day comes, I’ll be right here in front of you, the same man I’ve been since the first we met. It’s you who will see me with new eyes.”
I shook my head, at a loss. “Dominic, I—”
Before I could continue, Dominic took me in his arms, and we were soaring over the trees and through the darkness toward Bex’s coven.
Jillian was a walking, talking, living skeleton.
We were once again in Bex’s main dining hall. Dominic, Bex, and Rene were arguing about the best means to capture and subdue Nathan, but I couldn’t focus on their conversation without being distracted by Jillian, by the boney protrusions of her collar bones, the straggles of hair sprouting from her skull, and the revolting motion of her bare jaw as the tenuous strings of tendon and skin—the remains of her flesh—attempted to articulate words and expressions.
The last time I’d seen her, Jillian had been in the peak of health and challenging Dominic for the position of coven Master. She’d been uncommonly beautiful, petite, and voluptuous with rioting, curly blond hair that bounced down her back to the curve of her waist. She’d worn leather from head to toe and carried herself with a weight of power that belied her petite stature. I’d witnessed her rip a fellow vampire’s throat out, exposing the gleaming bone of his spinal column, in punishment for speaking out of turn. I’d watched her impale Dominic with her claws—hell, she’d impaled me on her claws, too—and I’d felt the clever ruthlessness of her thoughts when our minds had entwined. But beneath the ruthlessness, beneath the raging thirst for blood, and deep beneath the power that she wielded like a shield as much as she did a weapon, was bone-deep betrayal and fear.
Now, Jillian struggled to hold herself upright. She was nothing but bones and blisters after enduring the last three weeks inside a silver prison. I wondered absently how long Ronnie would have survived in Walker’s silver-lined basement before she looked like Jillian. Three days? Three hours?
Jillian’s gaze met mine.
I breathed in sharply, caught staring.
“Miss me?” Jillian whispered.
A great, steaming wave of rage crashed over me, and for a choked, suspended moment as everything Jillian had inflicted on me and mine boiled through my veins in vivid, shining, red detail—impaling me on her claws, betraying Dominic, leading an uprising of murderous vampires, leeching onto my mind, nourishing herself on my life-force, and transforming my brother into a heart-eating monster—I couldn’t do anything but stare open-mouthed at her, into those beautiful, icy blue eyes, nearly identical to Dominic’s eyes, imbedded in that grotesque skull that was once her face.
“How dare you,” I said, low and surprisingly calm-sounding despite the inferno inside me. “After everything you’ve done—”
“Everything
I’ve
done?” Jillian laughed, and the sound was like nails scraping across the back of my eyelids. “You’ve known Lysander for, what, maybe a month? I lived with the man for decades. This was not his path. His brother—”
“I know all about your sad, sob story. This is entirely
your
fault, so don’t act the martyr. You have no right.”
“I have every right. Vampires are confined to a mere shell of an existence, living in shadows and hiding underground. We deserve more. We deserve a leader who is willing to strive for more, for freedom from the night!”
“I’ve heard that speech before, too. I didn’t buy it then, and I’m not buying it now,” I snapped. “My brother was a night blood, a cherished future vampire, or so I’m told, yet look at the life you gave him! You transformed him into a monster!”
She smiled. Or at least I think she did. She didn’t have lips, so her teeth and fangs were already exposed, but the muscles that remained over her cheekbones bunched and lifted.
“Sacrifice for the cause,” she said.
I saw red. “He was my brother, you bitch, not some pawn in your fucking game for you to—”
“Cassidy!” Dominic’s voice broke our conversation, and I realized that his hand was squeezing my upper arm, holding me back. “Now is not the time.”
I met his gaze and looked around. Every eye in the room was on me.
“Sorry,” I muttered. Having four vampires’ eyes trained on me was not the attention I wanted.
Dominic released my arm. “Bex and I are both needed to restrain Jillian while we’re above ground, leaving only Rene to guard you. I’d prefer to guard you myself, but—”
“—But Jillian is your responsibility. I know. I’ll be fine with Rene.”
Dominic shook his head. “It’s not enough. Rene is powerful for someone so newly transformed, but he’s still young.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What do you suggest we do?”
“As much as it pains me to admit, Walker’s skills could be useful. I would certainly feel more comfortable with you more heavily guarded.”
“I don’t know how much help we’ll get from Walker,” I admitted. “We had a sort of, er, falling out.”
“I was only gone four hours,” Dominic said, and I could hear a tinge of interest surface in his voice.
I sighed. “It’s been an eventful four hours.”
“Well, we won’t have another four hours, eventful or otherwise, if we don’t focus and finalize this plan. With the Day Reapers already here, there’s no telling what kind of timeframe we should expect.”
“The Day Reapers waited several years before intervening last time,” Bex said, indicating Jillian with a tip of her head. “And the creature hasn’t caused nearly as much destruction. I doubt they’re here so soon.”
“They’re here already,” Dominic said grimly.
“Y’all know that for sure?”
“They transformed someone mid-day, someone who never should have been turned.”
Bex raised her eyebrows, her gaze darting between Dominic and me.
“Ronnie,” I said finally, unable to stand the tension. “She was a human this morning, but sometime between then and sunset, she was attacked and transformed.”
Bex frowned. “And you found her body?”
I shook my head. “No, she found me. Her transformation was already completed. She’s a vampire.”
Bex gaped at me. “She should still be transforming if she was just turned.”
I nodded. “Yes, she should, but she’s not. She attacked me.”
“You saw her?” Bex asked sharply. “With your own eyes, you saw her?”
I frowned. “Yes, I saw her. She drank from me.”
Bex’s mouth opened and closed several times before she snapped it shut.
“More importantly than Ronnie’s unfortunate transformation,” Dominic interrupted, eyeing Bex intently, “is the fact that a Day Reaper transformed her. They’re here.”
Bex cleared her throat. “Right. Please continue, Lysander. If they’re already here, then as you’ve already stated, we don’t have much time.”
Dominic’s gaze lingered on Bex a moment longer before looking back at me. “If Walker won’t help, than Rene will be your only guard.”
“I’m better than Walker anyway,” Rene said. He winked at me. “No worries there.”
Dominic ignored him and continued. “Once we’re outside the coven, Rene will bite you.” He cut his eyes on Rene. “A small bite.”
Rene smiled. “My pleasure.”
“And you, Cassidy, will smear your blood on the ground and surrounding trees to draw Nathan to you. He’s been searching for you and tracking your every move: to the first scene where you dropped your spray, to Ronnie’s abandoned house where you cut your knees, and outside Bex’s coven, where Walker smeared your blood on the ground. Considering he followed you all the way here from the city, I see no reason why he wouldn’t continue to do so now.”
I swallowed. “And when he shows up? Then what?”
“Then we subdue him,” Bex said flatly.
I glanced askance at Bex. “And exactly how are we going to do that? He beat us to a pulp last night.”
“You were taken by surprise last night. And now we have Jillian,” Dominic said, gesturing to the skeleton.
Jillian looked at me, but what I saw in her didn’t inspire much confidence.
I turned back to Dominic and raised my eyebrows.
Dominic pursed his lips. “Once Jillian drinks from Nathan, taking all of her blood back from him into herself, I will replenish him with my blood. The healthy blood of a full Master should revive him enough to complete a full transformation.”
I took a deep breath. It was the plan Dominic had proposed when we spoke last night, but now that Jillian was here and staring at me with those icy blue-ringed eyes in that grotesque skull, it seemed impossible.
I leaned into Dominic and whispered, “Nathan’s skin is different from yours. He has—” I swallowed, reluctant to admit, “He has scales, and from the firepower Walker blasted at him—silver firepower, mind you—those scales are pretty much impenetrable.”
“Jillian is Nathan’s maker. If there’s anything that can wound him, the blow must come from her,” Dominic assured.
I sighed. “What if she drinks too much? She’s starved. What if she drains him?”
“You’re lucky I’m not draining you for an appetizer,” Jillian said coolly.
I straightened away from Dominic, chagrined. No sharing secrets with vampires around.
“Control yourself,” Dominic growled, and the walls shuddered under the thunder in his voice.
“That is my very point,” Jillian said, her voice still collected and measured. “I could drain her right now if I chose to, but I am controlling myself.” She looked into my eyes, and this time I knew, even without lips or muscles to express herself, that she was smiling at me. “So if I do drain him, you’ll know I did it on purpose.”
I opened my mouth—God only knew what would have flown from my tongue—but Dominic lifted his hand in a halting motion. I swallowed the words and closed my mouth. I knew that look. I’d been on the receiving end of that look a time or two and it never boded well for me. I doubt it boded well for Jillian now.
Dominic cocked his head to the left, and Jillian stiffened, if a skeleton could become stiffer. Her bones, most of which I could see through the tatters of charred skin and muscle, seemed to vibrate.
“You couldn’t drain Cassidy now because I won’t allow it. You couldn’t exist if it wasn’t my wish for you to do so,” Dominic said. Although his words were low and softly spoken, Jillian cringed away from them like they’d scalded what little remained of her flesh.
“I exist because you couldn’t find it within yourself to kill me,” Jillian whispered between gasps. “And I’m here now because Cassidy has you wrapped around her little finger. The man I knew and respected and trusted to lead our coven would have let her brother rot and transformed her, whether he had her permission or not. The man I knew wouldn’t have wasted time on the whims of another.”
Dominic shook his head sadly. “You didn’t trust the man you knew to lead our coven. You tried to take it from me. Despite Cassidy’s whims and my motives, you turned against me, your Master, and attempted to transform a night blood. And you failed. You created this mess, and I’ll be damned if you don’t clean it up.”
Jillian laughed, and the sound was a shredding grate against my skull. “I’m here because you
need
me here. You can’t retransform Nathan without me.”
Dominic cocked his head again and Jillian’s laughter cut short. Her limbs started vibrating again, but this time, he didn’t let go. She shook so badly I feared that she might fall apart in a heap of bones and crumbled ash.
“Dominic,” I said softly.
He let go. Jillian crumpled to her knees on the stone floor, gasping.
“You would do well to remember that you exist because I allow it. When this is over I may not be so generous,” Dominic said, his voice shaking at the end.
“Yes,
Master
,” she murmured, but even I could hear the sarcasm in her voice.
Bex sighed. “She can’t be trusted. This plan is dangerous enough without relying on the very vampire who betrayed you.”
“It doesn’t matter if she can be trusted or not. She can be controlled,” Dominic said. “Night is dwindling. We’re running out of time.”
“If you want to wait one more night, that’s fine with me,” Rene said jovially.
Dominic glanced at him, and his look could slice a lesser person in half.
Rene just smiled. “Or not. That’s fine with me, too.”
Bex rolled her eye, but otherwise let Rene’s sass go unchecked.
“Well,” I said, gathering my nerves. “What are we waiting for? Let’s go.”
Something hard, pointy, and warm jabbed into my side. An arm yanked me back against a tall man wearing Kevlar.
“Don’t. Fucking. Move. Any of you,” Walker said, and I realized, somewhat belatedly and incredulously, that the object jabbing into my side was his sawed-off shotgun.