Page 7 of Blood Lovers (American Vampires #1)

He will make promises, darling.

Zusi bursts through the front door of my grandmother’s little house, face flushed red from the cold and eyes wild. “We need to get you out of here!”

The partiers are still in a frenzy outside, so the celebrations leak past Zusi along with the cold. “Shut the door.” I hiss this at her. “It’s fucking freezing out there.”

Zusi slams the door. “Did you hear me? You need to leave. Right now.”

“Calm down, OK? I’m not leaving her. I can’t, Zusi. Not when she’s so close—”

“The scion? He’s found you.”

“What? That’s not possible. She’s not even…” We both look at my grandma.

“No, she’s not dead. Yet.” Zusi finishes my thought. “And that’s why this is an emergency. He caught your scent in Vegas, Syrsee.”

“But that was only two days ago.” Whenever I have to leave the Guild compound, we take zigzag trips through many cities and airports. It takes almost a week to get anywhere so we can make sure that the scion can’t track me. Because even though I am cloaked from the vampire, I am not cloaked from his minion. But since this was an emergency, and my grandma is dying, we did a quick trip.

“Exactly.” Zusi throws up her hands like I’m the dumbest person alive. “The magic is already wearing off. Which means, by the time she does die, Syr? It’s highly probable that the scion will be able to waltz right into your present.”

I let out a long breath. Two days ago. He’s so close.

How does he track me? Scent?

I have never seen the scion, but the Guild has been tracking him for decades. If I were at home, in one of the Guild properties, none of this would be a problem. He could never find me there. They have cloaking magic for everything in that place.

But I’m not in the Guild and I’m not even going back to the Guild. This death is the end of my sanctuary there. They told me this before I left and I thought I was OK with it. I mean, at twenty-eight I should be more than capable of taking care of myself. But the truth is, I’m just not prepared for the new life ahead of me. A life without all the things that have kept me safe.

The scion has been close before, but this is the first time I’ve seen Zusi panic over his progress. So I frown. “This isn’t good.”

Zusi settles down now that the full threat is sinking in. “I’m sorry, Syrsee. I know you want to say a proper goodbye. You wouldn’t have come here if you didn’t feel strongly about it. But two days .”

“Yeah.” I sigh, and turn to look at my grandma. “But she’s close, Zuse. If I leave her now—”

“She would want you to leave her now. Two. Days .”

I shake my head and try to do the calculations, then look over at an expectant Zusi. “One more hour.” We both look at my grandma. “She could be minutes from death right now. I’m not leaving her, Zusi. I will not let her slip out of this world alone. I won’t be able to live with myself. I know it’s stupid, I know you’re screaming at me inside your head, I know you have the best intentions and you’re only trying to protect me, but I can’t leave her like this.”

Zusi sighs and I know I’ve won. “Two days calculates to…” She pauses to figure it out. “Not even four hours, Syrsee. Three hours and forty-five minutes.”

Calculating how many days ago I was in Vegas—two—to tell us how long it will take him to track me here—less than four hours—is based on a formula that the Guild uses to estimate his tracking abilities and private transportation options. It also takes into account that whatever he’s using to track me strengthens as my grandma ages—or slips into death, as it may be—and she loses her power.

I nod. “OK. Then one hour should be fine.”

“What if…” She shakes her head and rolls her eyes skyward. Like she’s asking the God who hates me for a favor.

I finish that thought for her, so she doesn’t have to. “What if she’s not dead in an hour?”

Zusi nods reluctantly. “Will you leave?”

My pause is too long.

“Syrsee?”

“Yeah. Fine.”

“One. Hour.” She shoots me a stern look. “I’ll be outside.”

When she’s gone, the room is frigid so I go back to my grandma’s bed and sit down, then gently push her long, gray hair out of her eyes. Letting myself imagine her life when she was my age. What she was doing and how she was doing it.

The Guild did not protect her. I am the first Black witch they’ve taken on. I am so, so lucky. I’ve been safe my whole life. But it wasn’t the Guild who kept me from being drained of blood and eaten like food. Not at first. It was my grandma. And I’m not leaving here if she’s still alive. I’m not. I owe her this.

I settle in next to her frail and chilled body, letting out a long, tired sigh, thinking about what will happen next.

I don’t know. I have no idea where I will end up after this. The only thing I do know is that I will probably never see the Guild library again.

“She’s going to give you away, Syrsee.”

My grandma’s weak and croaky voice startles me so bad, I nearly scream as I sit straight up. “Grandma? Grandma, are you awake?”

“Syrsee.” Her voice is barely a whisper.

“I’m here, Grandma.” I give her hand a squeeze. “I’m here.”

“She’s going to give you away.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“The old feeder. She never liked me. And when I got away, she just grew mean. She haunted me in the dreamwalk. Just like she’s haunting him right now.”

“ Him ? The vampire?”

“Paul.” My grandma says his name like she knows him intimately. And she does. Or at least she did. “Once upon a time he drank from me.”

I grimace, picturing this.

“He’s so gentle when he drinks. He caresses my face like a lover.”

Oh, God. That’s just gross. “Grandma, I think you’re maybe… delusional. He’s a vampire, remember? He hunts us.”

“Oh, he is.” She nearly moans these words. “Come, granddaughter. Come with me and watch him.”

And then the dreamwalk is back. Three fucking times in one night!

But I don’t have time to think about that, because I’m standing in a new room. A very… prison-like room. And there is a beautiful man sitting on a bed, holding a small girl in his arms.

My grandma whispers in my ear, like she’s afraid he might hear us. “This is Paul.”

Well… her infatuation makes a little bit of sense. Because he is beautiful. There is nothing demon about him. No wings, certainly. Just a very handsome man holding an equally beautiful child in his arms as he sucks on her neck.

“It’s an illusion.”

I look to my right and find my grandma standing next to me. She’s young too, maybe twenty. Younger than I am now, for sure. She is fair, and blonde, and gentle-eyed. But still, I can feel the wickedness hiding inside her. “I can hear you. That’s not possible. There’s no sound in a dreamwalk.”

“This is my dreamwalk, granddaughter. You are not me. Not yet.”

Not yet ? What does that mean?

“Look at him. Tell me he’s not pretty.”

I give a little noncommittal shrug. “I can see it, I guess.”

“That’s how they get you, darling. With the beauty. Never forget, Syrsee. The Devil craves beauty. Even in himself.”

We stare at each other. And I want to say so many things, but mostly I want to say I’m sorry.

Grandma reaches up to touch my cheek with the palm of her hand. It’s no longer frail and her skin is no longer transparent. Then she cups my whole face in both of her hands. “That boy is coming for you.”

The scion. She means the scion. “Yeah. He’s only two days behind.”

“The magic will be gone with me. You must learn to do it on your own. You must make your own choices now, Syrsee. I did what I could, but I can’t live your life for you.” She nods to the beautiful man drinking blood from a child just a few feet away from us. “He will come for you too. He will get you. And he will make you offers, dear heart.” She frowns and smiles at the same time. “These offers will tear at you.”

“What kind of offers?”

“They will tear at you. At your heart, and your soul, and your desires. He will make promises, darling.” She’s still cupping my face with her hands. “You need to be ready to hear them. Because they will be magnificent promises.”

“I’m not going to—”

“Oh, but you will.”

“Grandma. I have the entire Guild of Guardians on my side. They’re not gonna let him—”

“They don’t get a say, Syrsee. Only you get a say. And you. Will. Say. Yes.”

“But I won’t.”

She smiles again. “You’re not listening. This is done. It is known. He is going to promise you something you want very badly.”

“What, though? I don’t need anything.”

“No. You don’t. But someone you love will . So be very sure about the man you give your heart to, my love. Because he will be your downfall. He will steal your soul.”

I blink. And the room changes. And then Zusi is bursting through the door again. “Time’s up, Syrsee! Let’s go! He’s already on the move!”

I look down at my grandma. I’m holding her now. The same way that vampire was holding his feeder.

She is dying.

And so is her magic.

“You are the nightmare she has been waiting for.” These words slip past my grandma’s lips like they were a whisper left over from the illusion.

“What? What did she just say?” I look at Zusi, hoping she heard that. “Did she just say ‘nightmare?’”

But Zusi only has one thing on her mind. Getting me out of here. “We need to go now !”

Zusi grabs my arm, pulling me towards the door. But I resist, looking back at my grandma. “What did you say, Grandma?”

She has one more breath and when she takes it, she breathes out her final word. “ Run .”