“I will what?” I ask, shocked, staring back at Vic. “Are you friggin’ crazy?”
“Bullshit,” Phin says, and his angry voice echoes off the concrete walls of the parking garage. “She went through weeks of cleansing.”
“You underestimate the power of a strigoi,” Victorian replies.
“We underestimate nothing,” Eli says quietly, deadly. Threatening. “You’re wrong, Arcos.”
“She broke my power of suggestion,” Victorian argues, flashing me a glimpse. “Started growling, convulsing.” He glances at me, then to Eli. “Nearly jumped from my car going eighty-five. I had to pull over and restrain her physically, and even then she briefly overpowered me.”
“So where were you taking her?” Phin said. His voice sounded not his own; he was getting impatient. Out of character for Séraphin Dupré.
Then again, the flashes I’d had while running through the wood behind the rest stop had been out of character for me. What the hell was that? I settle it within myself to believe it was nothing more than backlash from the trauma at Tunnel 9.
“Where?” Eli states. His patience is going fast, too.
Victorian’s unholy gaze settles on mine. “To my family home in Kudzsir. To my father.”
I blink, and Eli’s body flies in front of me. By the time my vision finds them, Eli has Victorian crushed against a wall. “So you can turn her? Have her for yourself?”
“Eli!” I yell.
With his face close to Victorian’s, Eli growls, “I’ll fucking tear your limbs from your body and burn them myself before I let that happen. And I’ll start with your goddamn head.”
“No!” I run now, because Eli’s looking like he’s about to start dismembering Victorian right where they stand. My arm is grabbed and I jerk to a jolting halt. I turn and glare at Phin. “You’d better turn me loose.”
Phin just looks at me. Tightens his grip.
Just then, a beam of light arcs over the gray concrete walls of the garage; an SUV pulls in.
“Eli, let’s go,” I plead. “Now. Just forget about this. I’m all right.”
At first, he ignores me—nothing new there. Then he flings Victorian several feet and storms toward me. As he passes, he grabs my hand. He doesn’t say a word.
Victorian has more balls than I give him credit for. He’s leapt up and now stands directly in Eli’s path. With an assured look, he speaks. “Know this, Eligius. Only a powerful strigoi like my father can cast out the evil growing inside Riley. And you will soon see—it is definitely there.”
Eli stares at Victorian for a split second, then takes his hand and shoves him out of the way. We continue on through the parking garage. I turn and watch Victorian.
“You will soon see,” he says, standing in place. “You’ll bring her back to me. I will be here, waiting.”
We round a corner, and Victorian is no longer in my sight.
His voice resonates through the garage.
“You fool!” he yells. “You’ll soon see, Dupré. When you do, and the evil overtakes her and she becomes unstoppable, I will be here, waiting. Do you hear me, Riley? Whatever it takes, I will wait for you!”
We reach Phin’s black Ford F-150 in tense silence. In the distance, I hear a door slam and an engine start up. It’s not Victorian’s Jag. Phin hits the lock-release button on his key chain, and Eli opens my door. As I put my foot on the side step to climb in, he stops me.
With both hands on my face, he kisses me, long, ungentle, desperate. I breathe in his scent and return the kiss. His lukewarm lips are full, sensual as they devour mine. Then he pulls back. With startling blue eyes, he inspects me from head to toe; at my bare thigh, he lingers, lowers his hand, and grazes a large scrape.
“Must’ve gotten that at the rest area,” I say, and although his features are cast in shadow, I know he studies me with ferocious intensity.
“Let’s go home,” he says, and climbs in beside me.
Phin starts up the truck and exit the parking garage. It’s not until we hit Peachtree Street that I realize Victorian and I had made it all the way to Atlanta.
It’s close to four a.m.; traffic is nonexistent as we weave through downtown Atlanta and make our way back to Savannah. Before we hit the Interstate, Phin pulls in to a BP and fuels up. I run inside, Eli right behind me, and use the bathroom, grab some drinks and a bag of Chic-O-Stix, and settle in for the drive home.
Even with Eli’s body crowding mine in the cab of Phin’s truck, his hand protectively on my thigh, one thought pounds through my brain; one thing needles me and doesn’t let go.
Am I truly turning evil? Am I going to kill?
Will I crave blood?
Goddamn, I hope to hell not.
I’m sleepy again—why, I don’t know, but I feel like I haven’t slept in days. I close my eyes and slumber soon takes over.
Elle Jasper, Everdark
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