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THE MOMENT WE STEPPED back into the empty pub, Viktor visibly reacted. His nostrils flared and his forehead creased up in concentration. Or maybe it was disgust. Either way, he didn’t seem too pleased with whatever he’d observed between Silas and me.
“Where is everyone?” Silas asked, hand still wrapped around mine.
Viktor’s eyes bore into our hands. “Ezra sent them somewhere safe,” Viktor replied coolly.
“And Ezra?” I asked.
“Somewhere safe,” Viktor said.
Silas tensed under my grip. Something about the way Viktor spat those words had us both on edge. I trusted the vampire...at least I think I did. But I didn’t like the attitude I was noticing now.
“Will he contact me?” I asked.
Viktor stared at me a moment before his glared relaxed. “Yes. He said he’d get back in touch with you both tomorrow. But for now, Silas is to lay low and you are to come with me.”
I looked up at an angry and anxious Silas. He ground his jaw together, physically stopping any words from passing his mouth. His arms trembled with tension, fingers digging into mine in a very possessive yet comforting way. Silas cared so much about me. And up until that moment, I never realized how much I needed that.
“Where are you taking her?” Silas asked Viktor.
“It’s better if you don’t know,” Viktor answered with a small twitch of his lips. Was he trying to hide a smile?
“It’s better for you if I do know,” Silas growled.
I placed my free hand on his arm. “I’ll be all right, Silas. Really.”
He looked down at me for a second before wrapping his arms around me. His chin rested on the top of my head and he squeezed hard enough to cause pain. But I didn’t stop him. Viktor shifted, his feet scraping against the painted concrete floor. Impatience didn’t suit him.
“I don’t like this,” Silas whispered into my ear, although I had no doubt Viktor could hear every word.
“It’s only temporary,” I assured him. “Ezra’s resourceful. He’ll figure a way out of this by tomorrow. I’m sure of it.”
Silas lifted my chin in the air so that I could see him. Ignoring the irritated vampire in the corner, Silas brushed his lips against mine in a way that felt so connected and heartfelt that it made my stomach ache. Not ache for more sex, but ache in loss. And love.
“I’ll call you later,” Silas promised before stepping away from me and toward the exit. With a deadly glare directed at Viktor, he said, “She better not have a single thing wrong with her tomorrow. Not one scrape. Not one hair out of place.”
Viktor simply nodded, making the wise decision not to engage. Or instigate. With a final, pleading look in my direction, Silas finally turned and left the pub. Leaving Viktor and me to deal with each other and the incredibly awkward silence.
“How will we lock the bar?” I don’t know why that was the thought to race to the surface of my mind, but I tended to be practical under duress.
Viktor lifted a set of keys out of his jacket pocket and raised a brow. “We should go.”
Ezra had given Viktor his keys. To our secret vampire hunter meeting place. He must have an immense amount of trust for Viktor. More trust than even I wanted to admit I could salvage.
“Where are we going?”
Viktor stepped closer and I held my ground. He sucked in a breath, smelling the air around me. Then, as quick as lightening, he grabbed my face and tilted my head to the side so he could view my bite. I tried to pull away, but his grip was too strong.
“Did that help?” he asked with an eerily calm voice.
“What?”
“Your encounter with the other hunter.”
I swear Viktor squeezed me a little harder when he thought about Silas. “I don’t understand,” I could barely get the words out with the way my mouth had been reshaped by Viktor’s hand.
“Your little fuck session in the office.” Viktor’s voice frightened me, the anger in it sending warning signals to my natural instincts to fight vampires. He suddenly dropped his arm, freeing up my face once again. “Did it help calm your bite?” he asked in a much more controlled voice.
I rubbed my cheeks and stepped back from him. “Yes. A little,” I finally answered. But as I focused on the bite, another round of excitement flared under my skin. Not enough to make me want to act, but enough to let me know that the bite was still there and continued to control my libido.
Viktor took a deep breath again, his shoulders shuddering when he relaxed a little. With a shake of his head, he started walking toward the door. “Let’s go,” he demanded.
“I’m not a dog,” I spat.
Viktor laughed. Actually laughed like I just told the funniest joke in the world. It only angered me.
I marched over to him and grabbed his shoulder, forcing him to turn around and look at me. “What’s so funny?” I asked.
“Nothing, Sophia.” He opened the door and gestured for me to go through.
I complied but only because I was anxious to get this night over with and not because he commanded me to do so. Once outside, I asked my question again.
“You are very interesting to me,” he said, completely throwing me off. A slight accent I hadn’t noticed before laced his words.
“Interesting?”
He glanced around the darkened streets, no doubt scouting the area with his superior eyesight. When he deemed it clear, he rested his hand on my lower back and guided me forward. We walked almost a block before he decided to continue. “You are strong-willed, yet highly susceptible to the very creatures you take down.”
“Are you calling yourself a creature?” I intended it to be a teasing question, but Viktor answered me seriously.
“Well, I am something that was created, so by definition, yes, I am a creature.” He paused and looked up toward the sky as though he’d heard something. “We have all been created.”
“You mean vampires?”
He nodded and pulled me across the street. It was late, almost three in the morning now, but still pedestrians could be found. This really was the city that never sleeps.
We continued down one of the main streets for several more blocks. Suddenly feeling tired, I was comfortable with the silence growing between us. It gave me time to think about all of the events that happened tonight. The bite. The vampire hoard. My friends in danger because I let myself get too close to Sebastian. The reason why I got so close to a vampire in the first place.
Silas.
I smiled at the recollection of our brief time together in the office. For as much as I craved something he couldn’t provide, Silas certainly did a decent job at satisfying all of my other needs. And the way he’d looked tonight—so protective and caring—I wondered once again if something had irrevocably changed in our relationship.
“Sophia, you’re doing it again.” Viktor’s sharp tone cut into my peaceful daydream.
“Excuse me?”
“How does your bite feel right now?”
I pressed my fingers against my neck, knowing exactly the spot to touch. When I did, a surge of heat penetrated them and a wave of excitement fluttered in my stomach. “Dammit,” I whispered, annoyed at the control this bite had over my body. I stopped walking and faced Viktor with tears threatening to burst free. “How do I get rid of this?”
He opened his perfectly shaped mouth, words ready to spill out. But then he noticed my eyes, and the tears in them, and snapped his lips together. Once again, he breathed in the air around us. Long and slow. Almost savoring it if the look on his face meant anything. “You really do want to get rid of it, don’t you?” he mused.
“Yes!” I shouted, then thought about his actions. “Did you just...smell me to see if I was telling the truth?”
The amused smile almost made me slap him. “You noticed that?”
“Do I notice every single time you scent me or the air around me? Yes, of course I do. It’s creepy.”
He chuckled. And that sound twisted another round of excitement in my lower body. “Creepy. Okay.”
I shook my head and crossed my arms, too tired to try and interpret anything Viktor was saying. “Can we just get this night over with?”
A split second later, Viktor was standing in my face, no more than two inches away. His baby blue eyes were now surrounded in a ring of black. His fangs had dropped, causing two small dimples to appear in lips where they pressed against them. Almost eye to eye, a rush of dread seized my body as I wondered if I’d finally pushed him too far.
He brushed his hand along the side of my face, the side that contained the bite. “Most humans love to be marked,” he whispered in an all-too-seductive voice. “They love the power that comes along with it. They love the heightened sensation. The extra confidence.” He rubbed his nose against my neck liked he’d done outside of the club several hours ago. “The increased need for sex.”
I closed my eyes, enjoying the sensation whether I wanted to or not. Did I actually like that I’d been marked? A thousand thoughts rushed through my brain, but the final vision was what snapped me back to reality. It was a future I couldn’t bear to see. A future where all of my friends had been murdered by the vampires chasing after me.
“I don’t want to have this mark,” I finally managed to say.
Viktor slowly lifted his head back so that he could look me in the eyes. “That’s not what your body is telling me, Sophia.” He ran his finger over my bite and brought it back to his lips. Tasting the tip, he continued to stare at me. “There is a part of you that wants to be desired by us. You’ve always craved that which you could not have. But now that you have it, do you really want to give it up so easily?”
Did I? Shaking my head, I answered, “I don’t want them to get hurt because of me.”
Viktor’s nostrils flared once more and he stepped back. “Truth,” he breathed.
“Of course I’m telling the truth,” I said. “Sometimes you need to find out for yourself that the grass isn’t always greener.”
Viktor tilted his head. “I don’t follow.”
And suddenly, our generational difference hit me. Viktor had been around a long time. He’d seen many wars and probably fought against many enemies. But he’d neglected to keep up with some of the sayings of our time. And that made me like him just a little bit more. Viktor could be vulnerable, even if only for a moment. “It’s just a saying,” I mumbled with amusement.
He studied me a little longer and then finally straightened out his jacket and sighed. “There is a way to help lessen the effects of a bite.”
I perked up. “Really? What is it?”
“Come. I’ll show you.”
He held out his arm with an invitation to escort me to our next stop. I accepted and tucked myself against his body, enjoying the feeling of his hardened muscles. Three blocks later, we finally reached our destination. A family-owned coffee shop that prided itself in being open all night and in serving the best cinnamon buns in the city. I’d visited this place once before, when I was on a hunt and had followed a vampire here.
“So, sugary pastries will help control my sexual urges triggered from this bite?” I asked as we reached the three small steps leading into the shop.
“No,” Viktor replied with a genuine smile. “But caffeine will.”
“Caffeine? Seriously?”
He nodded and held open the door. The delicious smell instantly made me relax and after we’d ordered drinks and a cinnamon roll, we sat next the window in the far front corner of the shop.
“Have you ever marked anyone before?” I asked Viktor once I had enough courage built up.
He didn’t answer for a long time. Or at least it seemed like a long time to me. Finally, he cleared his throat and shifted in his chair—a small movement not typical of vampire behavior. “Once. Yes.”
“And have you ever removed a mark before?” I wasn’t sure if that was the right way to ask the question but he understood what I meant.
“Yes.”
“How many times?”
“Once.” His voice drifted off in memory and I swear I saw a bit of pain cross his face.
I sipped my coffee and broke off a piece of cinnamon bun. Dipping it in the small cup of extra icing, I let Viktor sit with his memories for a while. I also needed to build up the nerve to ask him my next question. “How is a mark removed?”
Viktor sat still, eyes focused on the wall behind me. He had his own cup of coffee in his hands that had remained untouched up until now. When he finally took a sip, he refocused his attention to me. “Do you know how a vampire is made?”
Hoping this would ultimately lead to an answer, I shook my head. “Well, I understand that it’s different than most of the folklore. But we were never taught the exact process.” It was a small lie, but I didn’t want Viktor to have insight to all of our trade secrets.
His lips twitched. He knew I was lying yet he didn’t say a word. “It’s a multi-step process. One that many people don’t survive. There’s a delicate balance between the magic used to end a human life and reinstate the immortal one.”
“Blood,” I said with a nod. “It involves the exchange of blood, right?”
“Yes,” Viktor said quietly. “But only the blood of the creators can truly make a vampire.”
I pondered what he was saying. “So a vampire, created by the magic in the necromancers and sorcerers, can’t make their own kind?”
“Not usually,” Viktor said with a slight hesitation.
“Not usually?” I asked. My hunter instincts flared to the surface with this new information.
“It’s rarely a successful endeavor and most vampires are killed for trying.”
“Most?” I didn’t miss the vagueness in his words.
He nodded and said nothing else. Taking several more sips of coffee, I waited for him to continue. When it was evident that he didn’t plan on elaborating, I let out a sigh.
“So what does this have to do with removing my mark?”
Viktor’s finger twitched, a movement so small I probably wouldn’t have noticed had I not been watching his every reaction. And as I studied him more closely all of the pieces started to click into place. Perhaps it was because of the caffeine curbing my libido, but I suddenly saw more clearly than I had all night.
“There’s only one way to remove my mark, isn’t there?”
Viktor’s gaze tore through my own accusatory one. “I’m afraid so.”
“You need to turn me.”
*