Page 38

38

A Lover for a Lover

EMILIA

P ressed against the wall with Venus St. Claire tightly against me, we watched the vampires roam the house. They rummaged and sniffed through everything, rarely speaking. It seemed like they didn’t have to—they could convey things with just a look between them.

Their appearance, though unsettling, was not how I knew vampires to look. I thought they had red eyes and visible fangs. These two freaks were deathly pale, with haunting, narrow features, but their eyes were dark, not red. Their teeth were flat. Yet, I was sure they were vampires. By Venus’s utter silence and racing heart, I concluded she knew it, too.

Venus had spelled us to be invisible . She also must have blocked our scent or they would have smelled us right away. And then there was glamour magic…

Did vampires have a way of glamouring their appearance?

Had I been able to read that book this morning, maybe I would know.

They had also arrived from outside—outside where the morning sun was shining upon the world.

I thought they couldn’t walk in the sun!

The male vampire reappeared from down the hall. My heart fell into the pit of my gut when I saw he was holding Nyx’s brush. He held it up for the female to see. His expression beamed with putrid pride. “Full of silver hair.”

The female nodded. “She will be pleased.”

She? She who?

The two of them joined in the common room, only a few feet from where we stood.

“I smell death,” the female said. “Where is it coming from?”

The male flared his nostrils and inhaled deeply. He followed whatever scent he had caught wind of. He rounded a corner, disappearing down a different hallway than where the bedroom was. After a moment, he called out, “Here. There’s a door to a cellar.”

The female darted his way so fast that she blurred.

We listened as a door creaked open and footfalls descended a set of stairs.

For a beat, there was only silence. A heady charged silence.

Then a scream of pure horror and despair shook the foundation of the house, penetrating deep into my bones. The scream turned into harsh, ragged sobs and intelligible curses.

When the two vampires appeared again, the woman was cradling a body. Wailing and weeping still, she held the massive body, which was rotting beyond belief. Pieces of it fell to the floor in ashy, meaty clumps. The smell was enough to make me want to retch. She screamed and sobbed as she held the falling apart remains of what I had to assume used to be a male vampire.

“I’M GOING TO TEAR HIS HEART FROM HIS THROAT!” she shrieked. “ After I make him watch as I kill her slowly! A lover for a lover!”

The male seemed almost annoyed. “She wants the girl alive.”

The female vampire heaved with fractured breaths. Her rage and despair had her glamour cracking. Her eyes glitched, going from dark to red. Dark veins rippled under her bottom lashes. Her lips parted to reveal her fangs and elongated jaw.

“Who’s side are you on?” she hissed at him.

“We are all on the same side. They will pay for this. But she will decide how. Don’t let your grief cloud your judgment.”

“Fuck you,” the female snarled and then shot out of the house in a blur of black.

The male raised his eyebrows, watching after her. He didn’t follow. He took another slow, casual gander around the house. He did not share his partner’s sorrow, that was clear as day. He was unmoved by the dead vampire.

He strolled through the kitchen, noting every single object. Carefully as if he were cataloging it all. His nostrils flared, and then his eyes snapped right at us.

I almost gasped.

Venus went rigid against me.

I held onto her, fear bleeding through me like hot lead as the vampire stared directly at us. He didn’t make eye contact, but his glare was fixated right where we were standing.

He scoffed and started to walk over to us. Slowly, nonchalantly. Every inch of me was screaming with the instinct to run. Venus’s fingers latched onto my arm which was wrapped tightly around her. Her selenite wand scraped my skin. Was she going to use it?

His nostrils flared again. Breathing in our scent?

He paused in front of us. He couldn’t see us, I thought, or else he would have made eye contact. But he could sense us. He stared in silence, his dark eyes unreadable.

“Hmm,” he murmured to himself. His tone was light and curious

Then he walked away.

He left the house without so much as a glance back.

We stayed stunned in silence for several minutes.

Venus released a breath of relief first, loosening her grip on me. I followed suit, letting the pent-up air in my lungs free. We stepped apart as she waved her wand and lifted the invisibility spell.

“Holy fuck,” she whispered, her eyes wide as saucers. “I thought we were going to have to fight a vampire.”

“Me too,” I professed, my voice high-pitched and squeaky. “He sensed us, didn’t he?”

She nodded. “Definitely.”

“But he didn’t do anything about it.”

“No. He didn’t.” She crossed her arms, schooling her features. Her stoic, cat-like expression assembled back into place. “Smart. We would have totally destroyed him.”

I almost laughed, but my throat had a knot in it. “Vampires are looking for Nyx.”

Venus bit her lip. “We’ll find her first.”

“They have her hair !”

“Hey. Breathe.” Venus stepped closer to me, placing her hands on my shoulder. Something about her touch calmed me and her eyes snared mine. “You’ve seen what happens to vampires when they come for your sister. She can hold her own. But we’re going to find her, okay? We were so close today. Next time, we won’t miss her.”

The knot in my throat didn’t relent. My eyes burned. But I nodded because I had to. I had to believe Venus. “Okay. Yeah.”

She offered me a soft smile. “I’m always right, remember?”

By the time we returned to Luna, the sun had set, and everyone was dressed in their best gowns, heading to dinner.

“Come to dinner with me,” Venus tried.

I scoffed. How could I just go dress up and go on like everything was normal? “I’m good, thanks. I’m just gonna go back to my room.”

The genuine concern in her eyes confused me in more ways than one.

I left without a word, stalking through the narrow halls and up the spiral stairs to my room. Having found the house where Nyx had been hiding, I should have felt like we’d made some progress, but it was the opposite. It felt like a step back. I was even more disoriented now. I had more questions than ever! Blood, shattered glass, burned bed sheets, a mess of makeup, and a still-wet shower? And vampires showing up? Finding bodies in the cellar?

What was I to make of all that?

What if she was shacking up with Solaris after all? He was the one with vampire connections.

Was Venus right?

I hated entertaining the thought but…could I really put it past my sister? As fucking evil and demented as Solaris was, I couldn’t deny they had chemistry. I’d seen it for myself, that night at that demented club when she had danced and he’d watched from above like some regal god. The charge between them had been palpable. Now they were cast out from the Celestial Society, and labeled as terrorists. What if…what if all of this had driven her into his arms?

“No,” I muttered to myself, walking faster. “She wouldn’t.”

Jedidiah.

I had to remind myself of him. I’d seen the look on his face when he dropped me off outside the gates of the academy after the Clash. He’d been determined. He’d stop at nothing to find her—and it must have worked.

He’d been obsessed with her long before Solaris came along. He was unyielding. He had found my sister. He would protect her. From Solaris. From vampires. From herself.

It was a lot to put on one man but had to believe it. I had to.

I pushed through my dorm room door and slammed it behind me. Then gasped, my hand flying to my throat.

“Michael.”