The drumming in my ears magnified. There was so much going on, I hadn’t noticed it until we were abandoned. Waiting was a test of my patience; it felt like hours had passed, and my tolerance was diminishing quickly. Not healing fast was new, and honestly, I didn’t envy humans at the moment—pain sucked.
What I wanted was to get out of my blood-soaked shirt. It surprised me that a vampire hadn’t attacked me yet. I knew they could smell me. Maybe that’s why I hadn’t seen anyone.
The creak of a hidden door behind the bookcase perked me up. Ethan and Sonya walked out from behind it—Sonya, with her grace and elegance, and Ethan, who was so gorgeous my heart thumped faster as he closed the gap between us. It was too bad he was such a jerk. Emily was passed out and curled up into my side. I shook her slightly as the two approached, waking her.
“Ethan will give you a tour of the facility and also show you to your quarters,” Sonya said. “Once you are settled, I would like to evaluate the training you have had thus far. We will also need to start Emily on a training routine. It’s not something we take lightly around here.”
“Fine.”
Emily stood up groggily, putting her weight on me to steady herself. She let go of my hand, and we wiped our palms on our pants. As we walked away, I turned back to see Sonya’s dark eyes watching us. She was hiding something. I could feel it.
Ethan left no time for small talk. “The upstairs is where all the different learning and training rooms are—media, study, art, so forth.”
“There’s a school up there?” Emily asked.
“Yes. We have to learn as much as we can. Times change faster than we do, and we need to keep up with it. You’ll probably use it to further your education. If you’re staying with us, you’ll have to finish school. It’s a Sonya rule.”
Emily sighed before letting out an unexpected yawn.
He led us through the hidden entry, which doubled as a bookcase. Behind it was a long, dark hallway with many doors on either side. There were antique sconces mounted on the walls every few feet, giving the hall a faint, flickering light.
“Why is this hidden?”
“Safety.”
His tone told me he was uninterested in anything that came out of my mouth. Emily gave me a sympathetic smile, picking up on his brief answers, and asked a follow-up question.
“So why safety? Isn’t the building safe enough? I mean, you need a code to get in.”
“It’s safe, but while we sleep, we prefer to stay hidden, in case someone learns how to bypass the key code.”
Ethan spoke gently to Emily. It infuriated me. He didn’t seem to have an issue talking to her, but with me, daggers shot out of his eyes, repeatedly stabbing me over and over. I shouldn’t care at all, but it bothered me.
“It’s peaceful around here,” Emily said.
“Most of us are still sleeping. Give it another hour or two. Once the evening rolls around, everyone will be up.”
“The lack of sleep might explain some attitudes around here,” I said.
Ethan stopped. I braced myself for the backlash, but before he could turn to say anything, Emily smacked my arm, making me cringe. She was lucky that was my uninjured arm.
Emily kept the conversation going despite my snide remark. “So do we need to switch our sleep schedule?”
“You should try. It may take a few days, but you’ll get used to it,” Ethan said, leading us to our room, which was the last one on the left.
Emily grinned like the Cheshire cat upon entering. The cream-colored walls, dark wood trim, and plush chocolate-brown rug made the room comfortable. The lighting was warm and inviting. It was what I thought a ritzy boarding school might look like, except there were no windows.
Rushing in, Emily threw her backpack on the desk farthest from the door. She then jumped onto the bed next to it, scrambling under the covers.
“Can I stay here for the rest of tonight? Please, I need one night,” she said.
“I don’t know, Em. I mean, it might take a while to get my shoulder patched up, and we just got here. We don’t even know—”
“If you’re worried about her safety, I promise, she’ll be fine here.” Ethan placed his hand on the small of my back. The electricity zoomed through me, tickling my fingertips. He flinched, then pulled back. But that small moment between us had sent me the comfort I needed.
“Please, Tasi,” Emily begged, fingers interlaced as if she were praying.
“Okay, but only because someone is betting his life that you’ll be safe.”
“I’ll give your sister the rest of the tour. She can show you around tomorrow.”
“Thanks, Ethan. Thanks, Tasi.” She reached for the pillow, wrapping her arms so tightly around it that if it were alive, she would have taken its last breath.
“No problem, Emily,” he said. There was a hint of a smile.
Throwing my stuff on the other desk, I gave Emily a wink and headed out. Ethan and I looked away from each other. My guess was there wouldn’t be a lot of conversation happening from this point on.
Ethan must have thought the same thing, because he put his hands in his pockets and headed toward the last door, marked security. That was probably for the best, because a small part of me worried I would fall into those eyes if I had to look at him for too long.
There was a steep set of spiral stairs leading downward. We walked in silence, hearing only the clinking of our feet against the metal steps. When we reached the bottom, there was another long hallway. This hall was cold and industrial-looking. The walls were white, and the doors were made of metal. Each room had a small window on one side. We stopped at the only set of double doors, to our right.
“This is where the control room is.”
We stepped into the room. Two men were sitting in chairs, monitoring about a dozen large screens that covered the wall. Most of the pictures on the screens were of the area outside the building. Some were of the main entrance, and the others were of different angles from the main floor. I saw none of the sleeping quarters or learning rooms Ethan had pointed out earlier.
Both men were good-looking, with short dirty-blond hair and stunning topaz eyes. I thought they might be related.
“Hey, you must be one of the Vasile girls. Heard a lot about you guys,” one of them said with a huge grin plastered on his face.
“Hopefully all good things,” I said.
“Nothing but good. This here is Leonard, and I’m James.”
“You can call me Len.”
“I’m Antanasia. Some people call me Tasia or Tasi for short, but whatever is fine.”
“Okay, ‘Whatever,’” Len joked.
James roared with laughter, which made me giggle.
“Come on, let’s keep moving,” Ethan said. “These two will keep you talking all day.”
They continued to laugh as James said, “He’s right—pretty girls don’t visit us very often.”
Ethan rolled his eyes and hurried me out, but not before my cheeks burned in embarrassment.
“Sorry, they’re like Tweedledee and Tweedledum. I just don’t know which one is which.” Ethan talking directly to me made me smile a little. We continued down the corridor, and he appeared a little more relaxed. “These are where some of our weapons rooms are as well as storage and infirmary rooms,” he pointed out.
“Weapons?” I asked, keeping my questions short.
He stopped at the door labeled infirmary and opened it, letting me walk past him into the room. “Sometimes we confiscate weapons from our attackers, plus we keep a supply of our own on hand—never know when one might come in handy.” A knowing smile crossed his face.
My heart leaped into my throat. Standing behind me, he leaned in, stopping me in my tracks. His silky lips brushed along my ear, tickling me with his cool breath.
“Don’t worry, we won’t be taking your weapons away. But I wouldn’t let on that you have them either. Some of us might find it threatening. Although, soaking them in holy water—genius.”
I caught a trace of his warm brown eyes as he maneuvered around me. It made something happen in my stomach I had never experienced before. I wasn’t sure what it was, but it felt as if someone were tickling me on the inside, in a good way. My eyes locked onto him for a few more moments before returning to the room.
I supposed this was what a doctor’s office would look like. Since Emily and I were dhampyrs, we’d never gone to the doctor. Along the back wall, there was a counter with a built-in sink. A small mirror decorated the wall, and a plethora of bandages and gauze in containers rested on the shelves. There was an examination table against another wall, raised high enough so someone could stand while checking out their patient.
“Is it shoulder time?”
“Yes, it is.” He pointed to the table. “Your wounds need to be cleaned. God knows what germs are crawling around in Cas’s shirt.”
Being with Ethan in this moment felt natural and right. He was actually being nice to me, and I was trying hard to keep my snide comments to myself instead of self-sabotaging, as I usually did.
I jumped up on the table, but misjudged the height and slightly lost my bearings. Ethan, with quick reflexes, grabbed me by the waist, and I held on to his shoulders as he helped me stabilize.
“Careful there—I don’t want to be responsible for taking out a Vasile girl.” His smile was genuine.
He let me go once I was safely sitting on the examiner’s table.
“Very funny.”
I looked around, paying closer attention to the details. The room felt frigid. Everything in it was white and metallic. The tools on the counter glimmered like newly polished silver, even though most of it looked as if it belonged in a horror movie.
Ethan picked out a few supplies before putting them on a tray and walking back over. I tried to keep from staring, even though all I wanted to do was fall into those big brown eyes of his. He gracefully hopped up next to me. Our eyes met one last time, and I looked away.
“Do you want me to get someone else to do this for you?”
My answer came out too fast and too loud. “You can do it. I want you to do it.”
His eyes searched mine for the truth. It must have satisfied him, as he turned toward my shoulder. Pulling my arm out of my sleeve would be a task, but I didn’t hesitate for fear he might actually find someone else. I winced. He moved closer to help me, and our fingers touched. That desire for him ran through me again. My stomach tightened as I watched him delicately run his hands along my skin, trying his best not to hurt me. He was gentle and purposely kept his eyes off mine.
Delicately reaching under my shirt, he helped me take it off. My heart raced. Underneath, I had on a black tank top that was damp with my blood. Was it hard for him to be near the blood, like it had been for Cas, or was he being distracted by something else?
He moved closer and untied the bandage Cas had made with his sleeve. My eyes followed his every move, his every touch, and caught every stolen glance. I bit my lip, trying to keep my composure. Turning back to the tray, he grabbed some cotton and dipped it into a clear liquid.
“This may sting a little, but the good news is you don’t need stitches. It looks like the chemical they used doesn’t have as much of an effect on dhampyrs.”
“Good to know.”
He wiped off all the dried blood that had streamed down my arm. Then, slowly, he moved up to where the bullet had taken a bite out of my shoulder.
Studying his face, I thought about how he’d been so hot and cold with me. “Why are you being nice to me right now? I mean, typically, you’re angry at me. Like that night at the church, you looked like you were going to kill me.”
He stiffened, then let out a long huff. “I swear, you’re the only person I know who can infuriate me within seconds.”
“So that’s the reason? I piss you off? Then why didn’t you kill me that night? That way, you could’ve rid the world of me.”
So much for keeping my mouth under control. The cotton fell from his hand as he eyed me in disbelief.
“Jeez, Tasi, you seriously need to let someone finish talking before you jump down their throat.” He picked up another piece of cotton and dabbed it into the liquid. “I scared you back into the church because there was a group of six rogue vampires heading toward you. If you had gone their way, they would have ripped us to pieces—all of us.”
Before I could protest, he interrupted me.
“And don’t say you could have waited it out in the church. You still don’t get it. You two dhampyrs have a smell that is far more exquisite than a normal human’s. It would be like having expensive champagne instead of sparkling cider. Get it? Rogue vampires don’t give up when they smell something they want. They lack the self-control needed to sit and endure the temptation.”
I thought back to the vampire at the motel and how he’d found me, how he’d tried to pass himself off as a housekeeper to gain access to the room. I wondered if he’d risked getting stuck in the sun to find and kill me, all because he was obsessed with the smell of my blood.
“Oh. I’m sorry. I thought—”
“It’s fine. You didn’t know, but maybe you could find out all the facts next time. You have a habit of thinking the worst right away. Not everyone wants to hurt you.” He picked up a piece of gauze and placed it over the wound. Taping it up, he looked at me.
Blood raced to the surface of my skin, and my cheeks burned, this time from embarrassment, not anger. He didn’t understand. How could he? Everyone I trusted had lied to me, and now I was trying to figure out a puzzle with a ton of missing pieces. When I looked up at him, my breath caught. His eyes sparkled as he watched me. He took my hand and placed it in his, palm up. With his other hand, he touched my fingers, outlining them. A tickle ran up my arm.
“You’re strong, Tasi. You’re a survivor,” he said in a low voice, before jumping off the table and carrying the tray back to the counter. After a while, still turned away from me, he said, “Put your shirt on, and I’ll show you the rest of the place.”
Squeezing my eyes tight, I pulled on my shirt. We continued the tour, heading upstairs, then across to the other side of the main hall. When we reached the kitchen, a dark-haired boy was sitting at the far end of the table. Ethan leaned into my ear. His scent was dizzying. His hand slipped around my waist, and I immediately felt vulnerable. I hoped he couldn’t tell how much I liked it.
“That’s Austin. He’s one of the oldest vampires in this house. Unfortunately, he’s also the biggest jerk.”
“I heard that,” Austin said, standing up and moving closer to us. Before he could say anything else to Ethan, his eye caught mine. “Fabulous, you found the half-breed. Did Sonya give you a cookie, Ethan? How about a pat on the head and a ‘good boy’?”
“No, but you could get the hell out of my way before I knock you across the room.”
“Tsk, tsk, Ethan—we have a guest.” He looked me up and down, grimacing. “So what’s your story?”
“No story—staying for a while until I can figure out what’s going on.” My voice was shaky. Something about Austin made me nervous.
“Good luck with that. Somehow, I don’t think you’ll get very far. If you get bored, sweetheart, you can stop by my room.” He leaned into my neck. “You smell wonderful. If you want, we could get together sometime.”
Before he could say another word, Ethan grabbed him and shoved him up against the fridge. “Touch either of the Vasile girls, and I will rip your limbs off and use them as firewood.”
Ethan looked deadlier than I had ever seen before, but Austin just laughed in his face. “Relax, I won’t touch your precious girlfriends. Not unless they want me to.” He winked at me.
His words made me cringe. I wasn’t sure if Austin was implying I smelled edible, but the thought of any vampire biting me made me sick. Austin pushed past Ethan and smiled at me one last time before leaving the kitchen.
“One day, that guy is going to make the wrong move, and I’m going to be there to rip his head from his neck,” he said. “C’mon, I’ll take you back to your room.”
He led me back through the main hall. It was early evening, and I saw a couple people wandering around now. They stared at Ethan and me as we walked back to the dorm area.
“Here you are,” he said.
“Thanks again for bandaging me up, taking me around, and . . . stuff.”
“No problem.” He opened his mouth to say something else, but instead, he let out an exasperated huff and left.