He slapped my face, and I hit the ground. Even in my haze, I could feel the smack of the ground and the ache forming on my back where I’d struck the pavement.Yep…that is going to hurt.
Strong hands hauled me up. It was Ace’s father again. He seemed to be around to rescue me a lot. Maybe hewasthe nicest of the bunch. “Let’s get you back inside. Come. Now.”
Fredrick left without another look as I was quasi-dragged back to my residence by a vampire whose motives I couldn’t discern. “Why do you keep helping me?”
“I explained already.”
Once again, I had no answers. Just a throbbing cheek and another feeding to add to my never-ending list.
* * *
It wasfunny how fast the next three months passed. Every day, I anticipated being hauled to the meeting to see the monsters inhabiting the bodies of the guys I had once loved. The days went by, yet the moment never came. I’d almost come to believe that it wouldn’t.
Until it did.
Life was funny like that. The last few months had felt like I had to hurry up and wait. Or maybe that hadn’t happened at all, and the whole feeling of urgency had only been in my own head. As sunset started to descend on a random Wednesday, three months before my eighteenth birthday, Charlotte shoved me in a seat to do my hair and makeup while Bethany arrived with clothes that looked like Andrea had picked them out.
“Why are you doing this?” I batted Charlotte’s hand away.
“We want you to look fierce for whatever this is. Not defeated. Not like they’ve spent the last months defeating you. When you stand there, we want you to be the girl you were nine months ago.”
That was sweet, surprisingly so. “You guys have been good to me, and you didn’t have to be. You could have made this even harder. Thank you.”
I didn’t have to agree with everything they believed to recognize they were good people inside. Lost, for sure, but kindhearted.
“Maybe there will be a happy ending for this.” Charlotte squeezed me from behind while I stared at myself. Even before the mess started, I’d never had clothes like the ones I wore. Jeans that fit perfectly and made my legs look long. A soft white turtleneck that felt expensive. There were no holes anywhere, nothing that would make anyone judge me as anything other than a well put together teenager. Even my shoes, the boots they’d put me in so that I could avoid getting wet from any leftover snow on the ground, were expensive.
“Where did you get these?”
She shrugged. “One of the paramours has nice taste, and you’re tiny like she is. Well, you are now. You didn’t used to be.”
She hadn’t said it, but I’d bet it was Andrea. She had the nicest taste in clothing to go with her bad attitude. It had been so long since I’d looked in the mirror. I was almost waif-like, and it wasn’t a natural look for me. She was right—I was tiny. I didn’t have a lot of curves to begin with, and even that was almost all gone.
My eyes were older than they’d ever been.
So much so, that I didn’t recognize my own gaze.
“It’s three months until my eighteenth birthday.”
Bethany took my hand. “If you’re still here, we’ll get you a cake.”
Was the turtleneck meant to dissuade anyone from biting me? Because I sincerely doubted the soft fabric would stop a vampire intent on delivering me a death blow to the neck. That was why feeding from the neck was only for paramours. It implied an ownership to other vampires, that only the owner of the paramour could end their life.
Or at least that was how it seemed to me.
That evening’s meeting was a big one. New vampires were regularly introduced, but not ones who were the sons of the monsters in charge. They’d really dragged out the whole group to reintroduce them to everyone. Fires were lit, which said a lot. Vampires could die in fire. To do this meant they weren’t afraid, not even of that which could kill them.
As we approached the blazing bonfire, conversation hushed around us. Some of the vampires actually smiled. They must have been expecting this moment, waiting for it, enjoying my discomfort. I lifted my chin. I wouldn’t be meek.
The monsters in my guys’ bodies stood in a semicircle around the flames, their fathers interwoven around them.
I let myself look at them for a long second.
The changes were evident in their bodies. They were bigger, stronger, as though their months being dead had increased their muscle mass rather than decreased it from disuse. I wondered how that worked.Oh well. Another question I’ll never know the answer to.
Their eyes were red-rimmed—they needed to feed. That look would lessen when they were well fed. I was sure that was purposeful. They’d been left hungry so they could easily feed off of me.
Caesar rocked back and forth on his feet. The others were still, regarding me silently. Every second was like a piece of hell jabbing into my heart. I needed this over.