Page 36 of Worse Fates (Soulmates Suck #1)

Laying on the soft carpet in the living room, I stare blankly at the ceiling.

“Lucero is an old vampire, he’ll be okay,”

Ramy tells me, his soft voice reassuring.

“Exactly,”

Kai chimes. However, even as he nervously tugs at his sandy blonde braids.

“Apollo will be okay, too. He’s coming back,”

I remark, scooting closer to where Kai’s lounging on the sofa.

“I’m pretty sure Rurik would tear down the whole city to get to him.”

Kai’s easy smile slowly drops, along with his shoulders.

“I know. But also my life has turned upside down. I finally got my best mate back only to lose another; who was apparently a fucking vampire the whole time. And now Summer’s an eighty year old mage who casually repairs the tattoo studio on the side. What next?”

Kai blows out.

“Absolutely mental, mate.”

I hug my knees, whole body rocking as I nod my head.

“Right, it’s fucking looney tunes. How do you deal with it, Ramy?”

There’s a pause, and then Ramy pulls a set of keys from his pocket.

“We can always bail?”

And he grins, no longer small or hesitant, he’s all big and goofy.

I crack up, throwing myself on the ground laughing hard with Kai, who wraps his arms around Ramy.

“I guess we’ll stick around for now. C’mere, Ramy, lemme do your hair.”

Ramy obediently sits between Kai’s legs, and when Ramy looks at me with a knowing glint, I mouth ‘thank you’ as Kai already begins to calm now that he can fuss over someone.

While Kai brushes out Ramy’s long midnight strands, I grab his discarded phone.

“Can I borrow this, Kai?”

Distracted, Kai nods while he chats away with Ramy, and I flop on my side, sofa cushion under my head as I bring up the search engine. Making love with Lucero brought up so many emotions; love and lust and connection, but also confusion, and I think it’s time I do some exploring.

Phone glowing in my face, I type the question that’s been quietly whispering in the very back of my mind since Lucero left this morning.

'How do I know if I'm asexual?'

“And you're done.”

Kai’s voice startles me out of my zone and I realise it’s been over half an hour.

“Thank you,”

Ramy replies, fingering the two cornrow braids that go all the way down his back.

Kai adds some oils to Ramy’s scalp that I have no idea where he got.

“I know that face, Golden, what were you looking at?”

I sit up.

“Well you know how you mentioned you thought I was asexual?”

Kai nods absently and once he’s slicked Ramy’s hair up to his high standard, he rubs the excess oil through my curls.

“I just wanted to know more.”

I shrug, scalp tingling at the quick head massage.

“Instead I learnt so much about flags!”

Ramy chuckles. “Flags?”

“Of course you did,”

Kai replies, long-suffering and smiling.

“Go on then, tell me all about flags.”

“So, there’s actually a study of flags called vexillology—”

Before I can dive into this fascinating flag subject, a crash echoes through the mansion. Ramy bolts up, moving so fast to the door I don’t even see it, and presses his ear to the wood.

I scramble up, shoving Kai’s phone into my pocket, and move to stand in front of him. I want Ramy to turn around and laugh, wave away our fear and tell us it was nothing, we’re all too on edge.

Ramy doesn’t do that.

He looks at us over his shoulder, face drawn tight and fangs descending.

“Someone’s inside the mansion,”

he whispers.

A shaky exhale slips past my lips as fear coils around my middle like a snake and squeezes. I rush over to the fireplace, struggling to suck in new air as I snatch up two pokers, black metal warmed from the fire and hand one over to Kai.

Kai has to dry both trembling hands on his jeans, rubbing away oil and sweat, before he can get a proper hold on our make-shift weapons. All the while Ramy stands like a statue, head tilted up and listening for something my human ears can’t pick up.

Smash.

I jolt at the noise but keep my feet planted. Somewhere in the distance something crashes to the floor and a boom reverberates through the halls.

Ramy puts a finger to his mouth, indicating to us to stay quiet and after a beat, the vampire cracks open the door and slips out before either of us can stop him.

My shoulder presses to Kai’s, needing something solid as just knowing he’s there isn’t enough. The heavy quiet—punctuated by slams and shattering—closes in, tightening like a noose around my neck.

We wait, tense and muscles so tight they could pop.

Kai’s short, heavy pants pound against my ear like a second racing pulse, and I use each exhale to count the stretching seconds. It’s when I’m about to say ‘fuck it’ and go find my friend, the door cracks open and Ramy slips back inside as quiet as a shadow, his face a torrent of supperessed rage.

“Blood mages.”

I straighten my back.

“Tell us what to do.”

Ramy is silent as he rushes across to the window, the grey clouds overhead making him appear colourless as he looks out. Moments later he pushes up the window leading into the garden.

“I need to get you two to another part of the mansion.”

“Are you fucking kidding me, Ramy?”

Kai hisses, low and taut.

“We all gotta get out of here!”

Ramy’s shaking his head before Kai finishes.

“The mansion is surrounded.”

“Shit. Then we start taking those bastards out, one by one,”

I snarl, my protruding knuckles shaking as I clutch the poker in a vise-like hold.

“If you kill one of the rats, you make the others more powerful,”

Ramy tells us.

“We need to move—now.”

And with that we rush over, and drawing from my years of experience escaping through windows, I slip out with ease.

Then help Kai so he doesn’t fall on his ass.

My socks aren’t thick enough to protect me from the cold that begins to sink into my feet.

But when I hear the window shutting and Ramy moving ahead of us past skeletal trees, bushes and rows of winter flowers, I ignore my feet turning into ice.

Ramy directing us from the rough pathway and onto the grass to cover our hurried steps.

It doesn’t take long for the icy dew to soak my socks.

It’s uncomfortable, the cold nearly painful, but I push it to the back of my mind and keep my ears open for any sudden sounds.

My heart speeds up when more crashes come from inside the mansion as we pass the bench where Lucero and I had our discussion all those days ago.

Ramy ushers us to a window boarded by stone moulding, then lays his long delicate hand on the glass.

He waits for something, my stomach located in my throat, and then there's a boom and something topples hard enough to shake the entire house.

It gives Ramy the chance he needs to smash through the glass.

I expect to see cuts, but when the vampire pulls away, any cuts are quickly healed in a blink of an eye and with not a drop of blood spilt.

Efficiently, he unclasps the lock, sliding open the window and helps us both inside within moments.

This room is large, smelling of old paper and wax, soaked in silvery light that catches dust motes.

Chestnut bookshelves line the walls, the carpet a luxurious brown, and brass hooded lamps dot the heavy coffee tables and leather armchairs.

It’s also the room I’ve been purposely avoiding—the library.

“This way.”

Ramy takes us past floor-to-ceiling shelves lined with old leather bound tomes and newer paperbacks, the carpet muffling my wet steps.

Here, the grey clouds outside darken the corners, so when Ramy leads us to a table hidden in the back, weighed down by unorganised hardcovers, it’s almost pitch black.

Without being told, I crawl under and bring my knees in, hugging my poker to my chest as Kai sits beside me, his own poker at his hip.

“I counted ten mages, but there could be more.”

Ramy kneels.

“Jace is with them.”

“Fuck,”

I curse, ripping my socks off to toss them into the corner with a dull splat.

“This is all my fault.”

“That bastard has free will,”

Kai tells me, voice stern.

“This shit is on him.”

Ramy nods, eyes fierce.

“And I’ll rip out his throat for invading our home.”

“Okay then,”

I breathe.

“What’s our plan?”

“We have to get to the garage,”

Ramy says, firm.

“We take one of the cars, it doesn’t matter if they see us or not once we drive out of here. It’s daytime and we might be in the middle of nowhere, but the further we head towards the city the higher chance someone will spot them. And they might be reckless, but if they’re noticed doing magic the full force of the supernatural community will come down on them with no mercy.”

There’s another smash, causing me and Kai to jump.

“But they’re hunting through the mansion room by room.”

Kai’s voice shakes.

Ramy steadies the knee I didn’t know was bouncing, and takes Kai’s hand. His dark, beautiful gaze unwavering.

“I need to draw their attention away.”

“Fuck off, no!”

Kai whisper shouts.

“There’s gotta be a different way, Ramy, we ain’t letting you get hurt!”

Heart pounding, I shake my head.

“This mansion might be big, but if they find us we’ll all die. Let them destroy this place, but they aren’t hurting my friends.”

Ramy’s tone cuts—sharp, angry, precise.

I don’t want to let Ramy go. I want to call Lucero and for him to come save us, or hide under this table until the fucking blood mages get bored and leave.

But we don’t always get what we want.

“Don’t take any risks, alright?”

I force out.

“What do you need us to do?”

“And this plan better include you, Ramy,”

Kai adds, voice laced with steel.

“because we aren’t leaving without you.”

There’s another crash, louder and closer than any of the others.

“I’m going to get upstairs and start making some noise. Kai, put your phone on silent and I’ll do the same. Once I have them distracted I’ll text you and you both run to the garage.”

Kai curses.

“I don’t have my phone.”

I fish it from my pocket and hand it over.

Kai mutters a ‘thanks’ and puts it on silent, while I ask.

“What do we do when we get to the garage?”

Ramy gives me the pair of keys he flashed earlier.

“These are for a range rover, grab it and get out. I’ll catch up no matter what.”

Ramy shoots me a devilish smile, it’s so unlike him that my racing heart begins to slow.

“I’m a vampire, afterall.”

We don’t say ‘goodbye’ or ‘good luck’ when Ramy leaves us, we simply tuck in our legs and count every destructive racket as his back vanishes from view.

Kai keeps his phone out and we stare at the black mirror, waiting for Ramy’s name to come up. When minutes go by, I can’t bear to stare unblinking at the dark reflection and raise my gaze to the opposite wall.

Then freeze, coming face to face with the very things keeping me away.

“What?”

Kai whispers.

It’s weird to see the three portraits, each one held up in a 24-karat carved frame. They’re all beautiful, regal like princes from another time, one with hair so blonde it really does resemble spun silk. The other with eyes such a dazzling hazel they sparkle like coins and the last holding a large gilded cross close to his strong chest.

I rest my head on Kai’s shoulder, and say, very quietly.

“Lucero’s past soulmates.”

And all gold, gold, gold and Golden.

I try to find myself, yet….there’s nothing; no shared nose, or familiar eyes.

Disappointment.

It catches me suddenly, like a breeze when I thought the day would be calm, and as the dust settles, there’s a lonely part of myself—probably the kid who wondered why his parents gave him up—that hoped these strangers would be the family I never had.

But they aren’t, and they never were.

“You’re way hotter,”

Kai gently jokes, resting his head on mine.

I smile, snuggling into him.

And it’s okay, I’ve already got my own patched work family.

Kai’s phone lights up and Ramy’s name is in a bubble telling us to go, now.

We don’t waste time. Pokers in hand, we hurry past the tall bookshelves towards the door as heavy footsteps drum above us. Not even a second later, many feet pound up against the stairs.

Ripping open the door, me and Kai rush down the carpeted runners, trying to keep our steps light as my heart smacks against my ribcage.

A door slams somewhere upstairs, more feet running back and forth.

When we reach the kitchen, we find the place in ruins—chairs and tables broken, the fridge toppled, milk pooling around it like blood, as if it were some great beast hunted down and slaughtered.

I don’t have time to let my rage build that Jace wrecked the carefully decorated home Ramy designed, once we’re out of here I’ll curse every blood mage under the sun, but for now I’m careful not to step on anything broken and tip-toe around the debris to make our way into the chilled garage. The freezing floor is a shock to my unprotected feet, but I take us inside the gloom and count nine cars.

But we only need one, and luckily, the closest is the range rover.

A figure darts from the shadows and I’m raising the poker before I can think, swinging at the shape.

It dodges and I line up another hit until it speaks.

“Golden! It’s me!”

Ramy cuts in.

“Shit.”

My arm drops.

“You're okay.”

“Thank fuck,”

Kai mutters at the same time.

Ramy rushes over to the car.

“C’mon, we don’t have much time—”

His words are cut off by a scream as a long, red spear pins him to the hood, Ramy’s hot blood splashes all over my chest.

“RAMY!”

Kai cries.

A scream pours out of me.

“Hey, goofball.”

Jace’s sharp voice is like a slap across the face, his arm bleeding and spellbook in hand. But it’s also the thing that gets me moving. I hurtle towards him, whacking him with the poker like it was a baseball bat.

Startled, Jace steps sideways, yet I just manage to graze his chest and he’s stumbling back, shirt ripped open.

Kai bolts up behind him, his own poker high. But this time Jace is prepared and clocks him in the jaw, sending Kai flying to the unforgiving ground.

“I’m fucking tired of this, Golden!”

Jace snarls.

I run at him, aiming a punch but he dodges, so I bring my knee up, directed right for his fucking balls.

His forearm slams down, pushing me back.

“You don’t think I know you’re tricks by—”

He doesn’t get to finish as I bring my forehead down to collide with his nose. It ruptures, blood spraying out all over me.

“ENOUGH!”

Jace’s fist tightens, and the spear Kai is struggling to pull from Ramy suddenly sprouts vicious thorns, tearing through his insides and ripping a shriek of pure agony from his chest. Kai jerks back with a shout as if electrocuted, his hands sliced open.

“Stop it!”

I wail.

“Just fucking stop this, Jace! I don’t have your fucking pills what do you even want?!”

Jace backhands me so hard I taste iron. Then takes hold of my shirt and hulls me up.

“I want what I’m owed. So, you come with me now,”

he growls.

“Or I kill your friends—then you come with me, anyway.”

In the distance, the pounding of feet approaches us like a gathering storm.

Jace grabs my face, eyes shining with rage and something else…something that makes bile rise.

“Your. Choice.”