“Your claws.”
It takes a moment to realize he’s speaking to me, to understand what he wants. I close my eyes and concentrate, trying to envision my fingers changing to claws the way they’ve done in the past. For a beat, nothing happens, but then a faint tingling starts at my fingertips. It’s tempting to open my eyes, but I resist, focusing on that feeling, on expanding it until my nails shift.
When I finally look down, the tips of my fingers have morphed to dainty claws. They’re small, but they’re sharp. “Could I do more?”
“This is how training starts.” Rylan leans forward to examine my new fingers. “You have to work up to a full shift, because if you panic halfway through…” He doesn’t quite shudder, but the feeling is there in his voice. “It won’t kill you, but it’s a painful and scary experience. Better to wait until you master this first.”
The thought of being stuck in some half-transformed state makes me feel vaguely ill. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready for that.”
“You will.” He says it with a quiet confidence that makes me take it as truth. Maybe someday I’ll be able to shift into a giant wolf the same way he can and we’ll run together. The thought pleases me. It’s not something I would have sought out as an ultimate dream before now, but I want it. Another part of our future that I will fight to be able to experience.
I drag a single claw along Malachi’s forearm. Not deep enough that it won’t heal easily, but it also won’t close immediately. He presses his forearm to my mouth and I drink greedily. The first explosion of his blood against my tongue feels so right that I moan. This.Thisis what I’ve been craving.
Drinking this time isn’t the frenzy from before. I can feel that monster inside me, pressing up against my skin, but Malachi’s blood sates it before it has a chance to crave more. Or maybe I just haven’t depleted the energy I got from the last feeding. This is all so new, it’s impossible to say for sure.
All I know is that I lean back a few minutes later, sated and sleepy. “Thank you.”
“Sleep now.” Malachi’s words rumble through my back. “We’ll look out for you.”
I want to stay awake. I do. But with his blood thrumming through my veins, my body has other ideas. My blinks lengthen and deepen. I’m aware of Rylan reclining on the bed next to us and Wolf flopping on top of him with a casual intimacy that makes my lips curve.
Together.
We’re together.
This is how I want it to be.
Always.
49
When I was dragged from my father’s compound and tossed in a car to be delivered to Malachi, I never thought to return. I wasn’t supposed to live this long. I can admit that now, crouched precariously high in a tree and looking down over the familiar walls and buildings.
He planned for me to die by Malachi’s hand. A convenient snack that got his powerless dhampir daughter out of his hair and kept the trapped bloodline vampire alive. Malachi and I were never supposed to get along, to fall in love. We were never supposed to join up with Wolf and Rylan and break the blood ward, awaken the powers no one thought I had, and come for my father’s head.
It’s happening now.
There’s no going back.
“Can you make the shot, Lizzie?” Malachi’s hand is warm where it’s wrapped around my bicep. I’m not in danger of falling, but he’s taking no risks. I don’t move with the same supernatural grace as the vampires, but my balance is better than it’s ever been. A good thing, that. I’m going to need every advantage I can come up with for the pending confrontation.
Lizzie is in the next tree over. She’s wearing high-end workout leggings, a long-sleeved shirt, and a puffy vest. She’s added a soft headband to her ponytail today. She looks like she should be jogging in some carefully curated park…except for the rifle slung across her back.
She narrows her eyes at the compound. “I can make the shot. This is well within my range.”
I blink. I know this is why we risked asking for her assistance, but the compound has to be a mile away. Maybe more. “Even for your powers?”
She smirks. “Yes, little girl. Even for my powers. You get him where I can see him, and there won’t be much left of his throat when the hit lands.”
We estimated timeline based on the worst-case scenario. Even so, getting my father out into the courtyard is going to be a risk.He’s going to compel me. That’s the one thing we haven’t spoken about, that no one’s addressed directly. To keep my father complacent enough for Lizzie’s attack to land, I have to lose. There’s no guarantee that his power will break when his concentration does, but I’m not one of his followers, happy to follow his instructions and open to compulsion. I will be fighting it every step of the way.
It will break.
It has to.
And that’s when I’ll strike.
“Then we move.” Malachi scoops me into his arms before I have a chance to tense and drops down to the forest floor. Rylan and Wolf land soundlessly on either side of him. There’s no need to speak. We went over the plan one last time before leaving the house. They’ll deposit me just outside the sentry lines and I’ll wait ten minutes while they circle around to their respective locations.