Page 44 of The Midnight Order (The Thorngray Vampires Duet #1)

Lowell

Heaving breaths in and out of my chest, I stare at Silver.

Fuck the rest of them. Knowing that Aurelias is after her is like a dagger to the fucking heart.

She’s untouchable. Sure, we could break this curse with her love.

Shit, I’m already obsessed with her. Utterly transfixed by her. Love isn’t far off.

The moment blood enters her system, Aurelias will know. He will come for her. Everything we’ve built here will go up in smoke.

Corvin already tested her. Jasper is next. But for what? If we could never have her like we truly wanted, what the fuck is the point of it all?

It feels daunting. It feels like the end.

The end of hope.

The end of it all.

How long until she petrifies? She should’ve already.

How long until she accidentally gives in to hunger and bites one of us?

“Lowell?” Jasper shouts, and I get the feeling it isn’t the first time he’s yelled my name.

“What?” I snap, still staring at Silver.

Her chest rises and falls, and the paper in her hand shakes, but I can smell her arousal like the coming rain in the summer. Her scent is like humidity decorating the air before the skies open.

“How bad is this?” Jasper asks me.

“Nuclear.”

“What does this mean for Silver?” Corvin asks.

I raise my hand toward Silver. I mean for her to hand me the paper, but she walks over, hops onto the treadmill in front of me, and looks up at me instead. Air rushes from my lungs as her scent batters me over the head, knocking good sense out of me.

My lips slam to hers, demanding entrance.

She opens to me quickly, moaning as I suck her bottom lip into my mouth. Our girl loves attention; she also loves distraction.

She stumbles back into the control panel when I tug away from her spellbinding lips. I take advantage of her momentary daze and snatch the paper from her.

My eyes scan over it twice. “There could be a hidden message.”

“She’s given me permission to study it.”

I nod curtly.

“She can’t feed. If Aurelias is after her but hasn’t found her, she’s been left in this suspended state for a reason.”

“She can’t trigger the gene,” Asher mutters.

“Who is he?” Silver asks.

“Dark witch. Leader of the Nightshade Coven.”

“They deal in blood magic,” Jasper adds, realizing just how dangerous this situation is as I hear his heartbeat off cadence.

“They do.” My eyes are locked on Silver; her finger is tracing over her kiss-bruised lips as her eyes watch the paper in my hand with determination.

“So I just don’t trigger the gene.” She shrugs.

I grin, stepping into her. “Easier said than done, little lamb.”

“Why? It’s not like I hunger for blood now. Why would I start?”

“Because you’ve found us.” Leaning down, I brush my nose over hers.

Her change in breathing in my proximity is my favorite thing in the world; I’m quickly becoming addicted to the sounds she makes.

“The longer you’re with us, the more you let us touch you, feed from you, and play with you, the more your vampiric side will awaken.

There will come a moment, and it might be years from now, when you’ll long for nothing more than the taste of one of us, than to hear the popping of one of our veins against your teeth.

Until the very thought of partaking in one of our essences will drive you insane.

” My lips hover over hers, her breathing driving me mad as blood pools in my cock, causing it to jerk against my pants.

“I don’t think I’ll ever… I mean, I can’t be sure, but I don’t want to drink your blood.”

“Now,” I counter.

“What are we going to do?” Jasper asks, ever the problem solver.

“I can’t leave you all cursed to save myself. I can’t go back to my world.” Silver’s eyes brim with tears, and my fists ball on either side of her at the sight of them.

“It might be the only option,” Asher says, and his tone is dour.

He’ll be in the basement tonight.

Fuck, they all might be.

One look at Jasper tells me he’s reeling.

“Fuck that! Some asshole from the 1500s can’t dictate my life. No more than the bitch who cursed you can dictate yours!” Silver shouts, ducking under my arm and bounding off the treadmill.

She looks around the room for something, and we watch with rapt fascination.

When she lifts Asher’s favorite clip-pointed knife off a table near the back of the room, I glower at him for leaving it out.

Corvin steps in front of Silver, his hands raised as he approaches her. There’s no telling what she could do with that, nor what she intends to do. “Silver, put the knife down. We’ll figure out what to do from here. We just need time to process and then?—”

Silver presses the blade of the knife to her throat, and the entire room collectively stops breathing.

The slayer inside of me snarls. I can’t be here.

Rushing towards the door, my hand grips the handle as the first scent of her blood rips through the fucking room.

“Lowell!” Jasper bellows in warning.

Closing my eyes, I breathe it in. I breathe her in.

There’s a song in her blood, one that caresses my fucked-up soul like the softest melody, like the finest silk. Turning, I find my coven surrounding her.

Protecting her.

Good.

She’ll need it.

Fangs bare at me as even Corvin stands before the bloody girl who was foolish enough to bleed in my presence.

“Move!” I command.

Silver drops the blade to the floor in a clink as she holds her throat.

“No,” Asher growls.

Jasper walks toward me, daring me to come for her.

Her blood is sickly sweet in the air, and my stomach growls with hunger at the scent.

“She is mine.” My eyes lock on how she grips her neck tightly with both hands.

How deep had she cut?

Blood spurts from the wound through her fingers, painting her creamy skin the most delectable red.

“She needs stitches,” Corvin tells me as if I care. As if my blood won’t fix her.

“She’ll feed from me.” My voice isn’t my own. It’s a voice I haven’t heard in so very long.

“She can’t. He will come for her.” Jasper’s hand on my arm makes me realize how close he is.

It’s sobering, his touch.

It does nothing for the hunger.

As the seconds tick by, I notice even Asher wavering at the scent bathing the room.

“Go,” Jasper says, flicking a hand toward the door to open it.

“Lowell,” Silver whispers, and it finally clears my vision and gets my feet moving as I turn and dart out of the basement, finding solace in the woods surrounding Thorngray.

Before

Ossana tugs my hand, leading me further into the woods. The palace walls loom behind us, casting a shadow even this far in.

Leaves crunch under my boots as she pulls on my hand, smiling at me over her shoulder.

Her light hair bounces, the ribbon she has it tied back with looks looser with each step.

“Where are we going?” I ask, unable to help the grin on my face and the light feeling in my chest each time she casts a glance at me over her shoulder.

“It’s a surprise. Don’t be such a stick in the mud.”

“I’m not. I just want to be prepared if you’re leading me to my death.”

“Please. As if you can be killed.” Her tone has an edge as her human heart beats a touch faster.

Her envy isn’t something new.

She’s expressed her wish for me to turn her more than once.

If I were found out for turning an unsanctioned human, especially one under the King’s employ, I’d be fated for the dungeons. And living in squalor beneath King Strixx’s palace isn’t where I want to spend my eternal life.

“Ossana, we’ve talked about this…”

“Shh,”—she turns on me—“don’t worry. I said I wouldn’t ask again, and I won’t. I just found something that I wanted to show you.”

“Fine. But I must return soon. The king will notice my absence. I can’t risk us being found out. For your sake.”

“Just a little further,” she says, wholly entranced by whatever mission she’s on, and I dutifully fall into step with her as I allow her to lead me through the thick forest.

Nearly thirty more minutes pass before we’re standing before a cave opening.

“You wanted to show me a cave?”

“Not just any cave. It’s magical. What I want to show you is inside.”

“Ossana, I don’t have time for games. I must return…”

She grumbles, turning on me and pressing her chest against mine. “Will you just humor me?”

I eye the opening as her breathing changes at our proximity to one another, and part of me wonders if she’s trying to lure me inside so she can have her wicked, carnal way with me. Which I’m not opposed to.

“Fine. Lead the way.” I sigh heavily as she squeals.

“You won’t regret it.”

I shake away from the memory as I stare at Silver’s house absently. It’s the blood.

The scent permeated my brain and dragged up awful memories.

I would come to regret stepping into that cave every day after I did so.

“Lowell.” Silver’s voice cuts through the night, and I snarl.

“Go! Leave me!” My fangs bare, and I watch her shift on her feet

There’s a bandage at her throat, covering where she so wickedly opened her vein to a room of vampires, to the slayer himself.

She’s washed, and the overwhelming smell of blood is gone, but the aroma of her healing wound is enough to have venom dripping from my fangs, leaving a tangy flavor dripping down my throat.

“I’m sorry,” she says, emotion braided into her tone as her voice shakes.

“You should be! I could’ve killed you. I could’ve drained you. What were you thinking?!” I’m on her before I can think twice, pressing her into the bark of a tree and watching her wince at the sharp bite of it.

“I wanted to make myself irresistible so that the test could end! I wanted some part of this shit over with! I need to know something, even if I can’t know who I truly am or regain my memories. You four are the tangible thing in my life now. I need you.”

Her confession has caused my anger to subside.

“I could’ve killed you.”

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”

I close my eyes as she cups my cheek, the tips of her fingers edging the godforsaken mask adhered to my face. “I fear I’ll never be able to return to before you, and I don’t know what that means for me, little lamb.”

“It means you’re mine,” she whispers.

My eyes open and lock on hers. Her stare is unwavering, her pulse even, her hand steady.

I’m hers, and she’s unafraid of that fact even when she just saw the deep, dark roots of me that are poisoned.

Tucking my fingers beneath the edge of the bandage Corvin painstakingly applied to her throat, I rip it off in one fluid movement.

She hisses, her face blanching at the pain.

There are stitches in her throat, red and irritated. If only fangs had opened her throat, then venom could’ve closed it.

Tugging on the first stitch, I remove them one by one, tossing the thread to the forest floor as her blood oozes to the surface, angry and red, sweet on the night breeze.

“Lowell,” she whimpers, pain radiating from her tone.

“Shh, little lamb. You’re mine, remember. I’ll do with you what I wish.”

I watch her blood trickle down her neck while I grapple with the significance of the next few moments. Should I go forward with this?

It could go badly.

History could repeat itself.

Or… Silver could be the thing I needed all along. To break the cycle.

Sure, they want to retest her, but no drug can mask the Predestinat bond. I knew that. So do they.

I’m the final key to the question.

Is her blood the thing to remove this fucking mask, or is she the thing that’ll bring the Slayer back to Thorngray Manor?

“Lowell, step away from Silver right now.” Jasper’s voice rends the air, but he doesn’t command me.

I command them.

All of them.

“Tilt your head, little lamb. Let me see my dinner.”