Ignoring his offer, I limped past him. “I can make it by myself just fine, thank you.”
He harrumphed at me and grabbed my elbow. “Don’t be dramatic. How are you going to get down when you can hardly walk?”
My eyes flashed to his, and even though I wanted to hold onto the anger, pain was starting to leak in. I’d just thrown myself out there, and he’d just rejected me…again. And it stung. A lot. Yanking my arm away, I sniffed back the tears that were building. “I’ll find a way. I don’t need you.”
My voice hitched, and I knew that wasn’t true. I did need him. I only felt truly alive when I was with him. Hunter’s voice softened when he heard my pain. “Nika, I’m so sorry. I don’t know why this keeps happening between us.”
Straightening, I lifted my chin. “It keeps happening, because you can’t accept yourself. You can’t accept what you are now, so you can’t accept me, can’t accept us. Because you’re giving up. You’re throwing us away. The only problem here…is you.”
Hunter’s eyes lowered, and he responded with silence. I was tired of silence. With an exhale that felt a lot like defeat, I told him, “Every time I see you, you break my heart. You know that, don’t you?”
His eyes snapped to mine. “I’m sorry. I’m not trying to hurt you. I’m just…”
Just as he was about to say something—something that was surely going to be deep, profound, and possibly start to heal this massive gap between us—I smelled something on the breeze that immediately caught my attention. Blood. Fresh blood. Fresh human blood. Hunter stopped talking as he smelled it too. Fangs crashing to full length, his head snapped in the direction of the heavenly smell. A low growl erupted from his chest, a primal growl, full of interest.
“No, Hunter—”
I tried to grab him, but I wasn’t fast enough. He blurred away from me, leaping off the roof and disappearing into the night.
“Shit.”
Hunter had shown an enormous amount of control at the ranch, and Halina said he wasn’t drinking, even when she exposed blood in the air…but he was so hungry. I could see it every time he looked at me, every time he listened to my heartbeat. I wasn’t sure if he was at his breaking point yet, but I knew I couldn’t just sit here and let Hunter stare down a bleeding meal all on his own. He would never recover if he lost control and hurt somebody. I’d lose him forever.
I tightened my jaw as I prepared to jump off the roof and run after him. This wasn’t going to feel good. Testing my ankle, I braced myself to take a supernatural leap. Cringing as the dull ache radiated around my swollen joint, I noticed a less painful option—there were stairs on the corner of the roof. Stairs would hurt a loss less than asphalt. Ignoring everything my body was feeling, I phased toward the staircase and hurried down them.
I was on the ground and blurring toward the smell of blood—toward Hunter—faster than the human eye could even begin to process. My foot felt better as I moved it, as the blood and adrenaline surged through me. Hunter’s supersonic exit from the roof, followed quickly by mine, alerted every single one of my family members. Already on edge from feeling my pain when I twisted my ankle, Julian was spiking with concern. Along with Mom, Dad, and Halina, he was slowly moving toward me. They were all still in the gym, still surrounded by humans, and they had to move and act normally. I was the only one who could get to Hunter in time, before he truly did something he regretted.
When I approached the source of the blood, I froze in shock. It was just a few blocks from the high school in a parking lot for a doctor’s office. The back wall of the lot had a chain link fence, the kind with plastic slates between the metal links to make it look a little more elegant than it really was. It was secluded back here, dark, but my sharp eyes could clearly make out a young girl lying on her stomach in front of the fence, arms stretched in front of her. She was dressed in a formal gown like I was, so I had to assume she’d come from the dance. Dark hair covered her face, masking her identity, and her pale pink dress was splattered in blood. She was alive; her heartbeat was slow and thready, but still beating. Deep gashes down her arms oozed dark crimson rivulets of blood that dripped onto the cold pavement beneath her. The splashing droplets were ominously loud to my sensitive ears. While there was no evidence of it around her, she looked like she’d just run head first through a plate glass window or something. It didn’t make any sense. There was nothing sinister around her. Nothing but Hunter.
He crouched down as he stalked her, and the look on his face was no longer conflicted. He was hungry. She was food. It was that simple. The smell of blood was overwhelming this close, and I had to consciously keep my fangs up. Hunter wasn’t concerned about his anymore. They were fully extended, gleaming in the dim parking lot lights. I knew by the predatory way he was moving toward her that Hunter wasn’t going to pass this test. Resisting reheated cow’s blood was one thing. Resisting biting me, the person he loved, another. But this? A fresh, bloody stranger who was offering no resistance? This was too much for any starved vampire to resist.
Just as I screamed at him to stop, Hunter blurred to the comatose body and clamped his mouth around a gaping wound in her arm. She didn’t even react when he bit down and started draining her. Knowing he was hungry enough to kill her in seconds, before he even comprehended what he was doing, I stuck my shoulder out and plowed into him. The impact hurt like hell, but it knocked him backward. I landed on top of him, and quickly pressed all my weight into his chest, hoping beyond hope that my tiny body could hold him down. At least for a few more seconds, until the calvary arrived.
Fresh blood streaming from his mouth, Hunter snarled at me in a starvation-induced fury. His piercing eyes were wild with hunger and desire. He was completely out of control, and even though he was weak, he was still strong. It took everything I had to keep him on the ground. My heart pounded in my chest. If I let go of him, that girl was going to die.
As he growled and snarled, twisting beneath me, I tried to reason with him, tried to return him to his senses. “Hunter, stop! Stop fighting me! You don’t drink blood! You don’t want to hurt anybody! You’re a good person. You don’t kill! Snap out of it!”
My words made zero difference to him. Leaning up, he hissed in my face, then his eyes locked onto my neck. His expression changed, and ice washed through me. He was looking at me in a way he’d never looked at me before. Like he suddenly realized…I was food too. I’d been expecting him to try and get away from me, but I hadn’t ever expected him to attack me. When he lunged, his fangs aiming for my throat, I did the only thing I could think to do…I head-butted him. It hurt so bad I saw stars. My stomach clenched like I was going to vomit, but the force I’d used was enough to make Hunter’s head snap back and hit the concrete. He stopped moving, and I collapsed against him, feeling ill, sore, and really tired.
And that was when my family finally showed up.
HOW DID MY sister always manage to talk me into letting her do things I didn’t want her to do? Either I was a sucker, or Nika had an uncanny gift for manipulating me. I supposed the damn bond was to blame. It was hard to refuse someone when you could feel their need for something, even if it was a stupid need. But Nika had asked to be alone with Hunter, and I’d agreed. And now I had to stall my parents to give her that time. Super.
Perplexed, Arianna looked up at me and grabbed my hand. “What was all that about?”
Sighing, I looked down into her brown-flecked green eyes. “Nika won’t rest until she talks to Hunter.”
Arianna stepped closer to me, like she was a little frightened. Purebloods still unsettled her. “Is that…wise?”
I scoffed as I felt my parents nearly upon me. “You’re asking me if my sister is wise?” As far as I was concerned, she’d stopped being wise the minute she’d met Hunter.
Seeing my parents breeze past me as they made their way to the doors, I hurried over and grabbed my dad’s arm. “Hey, can I…talk to you? Both of you?”
Dad glanced from me to the doors, then ba
ck to me. “We’ll be back in a minute.”
He patted my shoulder, then twisted to leave. “It’s about sex!” I blurted out. Embarrassment heated my body. I might owe my sister for giving me the okay to sleep with my girlfriend, but after this little mortifying distraction, she was the one who owed me.
Arianna gaped at me as Mom and Dad stopped dead in their tracks. Some students around us had heard me say that and were sniggering. I tuned them out as I locked eyes with Dad. “Nika is fine. Halina is out there with her.” I indicated Arianna by my side. She was white as a ghost. “You’ve always said I should wait until I’m older, and I was just wondering…why?”
Dad seemed torn. This was something I knew he wanted to seriously discuss with me, but I also knew he wanted to check on my sister. He looked over to Mom, like he was going to tell her to go ahead while he had a chat with me. Beating him to the punch, I asked Mom, “What do you think?”
The music blared in the gym as my parents open and shut their mouths, trying to come up with a reasonable, responsible answer. For a moment, Nika was forgotten. Mission accomplished. As Dad fully turned to me and said, “Well, it’s just…” I felt Nika’s mood shift, and her location. She was on the roof now, following Hunter, while Halina was strolling through the doors. A sharp pain shot through Nika and I did my best not to cringe as I felt it too. I was concerned for a moment, but her pain faded quickly. Whatever had happened to her must have been minor.
As my parents felt Halina approaching, they stopped talking. I knew detaining them for long while Nika was alone with Hunter was going to be even more difficult. As Halina stopped beside us, she gave Arianna and me a onceover. “Aren’t you two adorable.”
Dad looked up to the roof and immediately said, “You left Nika alone with Hunter?”
Not wanting the conversation to shift to Hunter, I stepped forward and asked Halina, “Do you think I’m too young to have sex?”
Arianna covered her face with her hand. Oh yeah, Nika owed me big time. Halina gave me a wide smile. “Are you going to become a man tonight, Julian?”
Mom and Dad responded simultaneously. “No.”
Halina turned to Dad. “Why not? He loves her, she loves him. She’s already accepted us. Why delay it? They might as well start giving us heirs.” She sighed as she tilted her head. “I miss having babies around the house.”
Arianna started choking and sputtering. Smirking, Halina gently patted her back. “What? Heirs? Babies? I’m not…” Arianna turned to look at me, her eyes as wide as her gaping mouth. “I’m not having kids right now.”
I wanted to rewind to about five minutes ago, and smack myself into unconsciousness for ever agreeing to delay my parents. It was working, but oh my God…I did not want to be having this conversation. “Uh…of course not…now…”
Crossing his arms over his chest, Dad stared Halina down. “They’re not having children at sixteen. And they’re under no obligation to continue the line. Don’t push them like you pushed me.”
Halina stepped up to my father, staring right back. I felt a familiar tension building between the pair. While they loved each other more than anything, there was a battle of wills between them when it came to certain topics. Nika’s and my sex life was one of those topics. Nika’s current situation on the roof was all but forgotten now. Except by me. I was feeling something from her that was making me a little nauseous. She was…turned on…really turned on. I guess things were going well with Hunter. Maybe I should stop distracting my parents now. While they bickered about my virginity, Nika was about to lose hers.
Oh God, I was going to be sick.
Halina’s eyes narrowed. “He asked for her memories to remain intact, and in return he agreed to have children with the girl. Why not get a jump on it?” As Arianna beside me gasped, my grandmother’s expression softened. “Think of Ben, Teren. True humanity is possible. It’s actually possible. We can’t stop now. We’re so close.”
Dad sighed. It was a long-standing wish in my family for the vampirism to be “bred” out. With each generation the side effects lessened, and the recent discovery that Ben, my father’s completely human best friend, was a descendent of a vampire had given my family hope. Our line could be human again. All Nika and I had to do was have children to keep it going. To say it was weird to have my great, great grandmother fighting for me to have sex was an understatement.
The entire conversation was suddenly too much for Arianna. She turned to Halina with wide eyes. “Whoa…get a jump on it? I’m sixteen.” Maybe realizing who she was talking to, Arianna shifted her eyes to me. “I don’t even know if I want kids, but I definitely know I don’t want them right now. You agreed to this, Julian? Without even asking me how I felt about it?”
People around us were starting to pay attention to our wildly inappropriate conversation. As I tried to convince Arianna that I hadn’t signed her up for some weird vampire breeding program, Halina started “telling” people to forget what they’d just heard and go back to dancing.
“It’s not like that,” I told her, shaking my head. “I agreed to maybe, I agreed to one day we might have kids, if we were ready. But really, I just wanted a chance to see if that was our future. I wanted you to remember me.” My heart was breaking, but then I realized it wasn’t my pain I was feeling. It was Nika. Her heart was breaking.
Trying to remain focused on my problems, I was about to tell Arianna how much she meant to me, when Halina snapped her head to the far wall—Hunter was leaving the roof, in a hurry. Halina’s brow furrowed as she tracked him, and she hastily began making her way to the door. Mom and Dad glanced at each other, then started following. Sighing, I shifted my attention back to Arianna. “I’m sorry. I was going to tell you about that, but it doesn’t—”
I cut off when I felt my sister streaking away from the gym roof. I knew she was in pain, physically and emotionally, so her leaving in such a rush was alarming. Switching my words, I told Arianna, “Something’s wrong…I have to go. Stay here with Trey.”
I didn’t have time to explain further. Gently moving her aside, I ran toward the exit. Arianna asked what was wrong, but I couldn’t answer her. Nika was worried—no, panicked. I sensed the streaks of my other family members rushing away once they were outside, and my concern leapt even higher. What was going on? When I burst outside into the chilly night air, I knew instantly. I smelled it. Blood. Human blood. It was heavy on the breeze. More confused than ever, I hurried over to a dark corner of the school, then zipped toward my family. Whatever was going on, I wasn’t about to let them face it alone.
When I arrived where Nika was, I slowed to a human run. Then I stopped in my tracks. Nothing about the scene I was witnessing made sense. An unconscious woman was lying in front of a fence, bleeding all over the ground. Nika was lying on top of Hunter, looking dazed. Halina was beside Nika, asking her if she felt okay enough to stand up. Hunter had his fangs fully extended, and a stream of blood was trickling out of his mouth as he stared up at the sky; his expression was completely void of emotion.
What the hell had happened here?
My parents had stopped a fraction of a second before me, and were taking in the odd scene with equally bewildered expressions. Then Dad blurred over to Nika and helped Halina get her to her feet. Nika stumbled, and I felt the ache in her leg and the throb in her head. Dad looked enraged as he examined her skin. “Did he bite you?” he snapped.
Nika was still disoriented and confused. I didn’t feel any pain coming from her that matched a bite, but Dad seemed to take her mumbling speech as an affirmative. His jaw tight, he handed Nika to Halina. Then he reached down and snatched Hunter lightning-quick. Yanking him to his feet, he yelled, “What did you do?”
Halina snarled at Dad; I thought she would have ripped him away from Hunter if she wasn’t holding Nika. “He did not hurt her.”
Hunter seemed just as dazed as Nika, but Dad’s aggressiveness woke him up. Scowling, he batted Dad’s hands away. “Nothing.” Then his eyes t
urned to my sister. She was blinking and shaking her head like she was trying to focus. Looking like he’d just remembered something awful, Hunter’s face shifted into remorse. “Nika, I’m so sorry…”
He took a step toward her, but Dad pushed him back. I wasn’t sure what Hunter was sorry for, but I didn’t think it had anything to do with biting. Looking back at the poor girl bleeding on the ground, I thought she was more likely the reason for Hunter’s contrition. Her arms were sliced open, and she was bleeding pretty badly. Had Hunter scratched her up like that? What the hell?
Mom was tending to the girl, flipping her over and cooing in her ear that everything would be all right. When Mom twisted her, exposing her face, my heart leapt into my throat. I knew that girl…knew her very well. The shock coursing through me was powerful enough to clear Nika from her mental fog. Her eyes shot over to me as I shouted, “Raquel!” and rushed to her side.
Brushing Raquel’s dark hair from her face, I frantically whispered, “No, no, no.” Even though I could hear her slow heartbeat, I checked her pulse. Feeling the light beat of life under my fingertips, I lifted my gaze to Hunter. “What the hell did you do to her?”
Looking sicklier than I’d ever seen him, Hunter clenched his stomach. “I didn’t…”
By the way he looked like he was about to vomit, I knew he was lying. He had done this. Jumping to my feet, I blurred over to him. “I’m going to kill you, you sick son of a bitch!” Hatred shot through my veins like liquid fire. He’d sliced her open and fed on her like some twisted psychopath. He couldn’t deny that the blood on his lips was hers. Not with the guilty way he was wiping it away with the back of his hand.
Nika yelled at me to stop, but I ignored her. If my father wasn’t going to end him, then I would. But as I lunged for Hunter, Halina blocked me. Fangs lowered, I growled at her. Leaning into my face, she growled right back. She wasn’t going to let me hurt her child, even if he deserved it. Frustration grew in me as I stared her down. I knew I couldn’t take her. She was a pureblood, I was a fourth-generation mixed vampire…practically human. I didn’t stand a chance against her. Not that I wanted to fight my grandmother. But Hunter had to be punished for this.