Page 45 of Wicked Bite
“Oh, I’ll say it to your face.” I stopped in front of the mirror and stared at myself for a moment. My hair was a disheveled mess. I looked more rested than I’d ever been, but my clothes were rumpled up and I’d never been more worried.
I’d woken up this morning with the lightest, most pleasant feeling in the world. Like everything was right and all I wanted was more of her. There wasn’t a single thing I could think of that was more important or pressing. And therein lay the problem. Piper was slowly consuming me with her witty, sassy vivaciousness, and her sweet gentle side. The scary part was, I wanted to let her. I needed to talk to Sav, to get my head on straight. How could one little creature have me so backwards?
I hung up on him. This wasn’t the type of conversation that needed to happen over the phone. I hopped up on the sink and pressed my hand to the mirror. I didn’t make it a habit of mirror travel. Truth be told, it was kept secret among the vampire society, and before I went to work with the witches, I’d been told to keep it as such. The folklore was that vampires couldn’t see their own reflection. The truth was the natural born Vampires could travel by mirror, but we kept our talent close to the vest. So, we didn’t readily go near them in public even if we could see ourselves. But now I was alone, and it was my hour of need.
I closed my eyes for a moment thinking about exactly where I wanted to go and who I wanted to see. I pressed my fingertips to the cool surface of the mirror and let my blood come to life. It wasn’t the same kind of power of a witch or warlock, but it was deeper. Vampires felt it in our blood. We were never more aware of our bodies than when we called upon our blood magic. It was a warmth that spread from our chest and out toward our limbs.
The surface gave way to my intentions and rippled under my touch. I opened my eyes and pushed my hand forward. It felt like slowly dipping my fingers into icy water. It drifted up over my skin, chilling me to the bone. The blood in my veins slowed, and my body cooled. I moved forward and stepped into the mirror and walked forward. This was different than magical portals. It was like walking into a long dark hallway with a light at the end. I strolled through there, listening to only the echo of my own footsteps.
My heart raced as I neared the end of the hall. The light was another shimmering mirror, and I pressed my hand to it and shoved my way through. On the other side, warmth touched my fingertips, chasing away the cold of the mirror travel. I shoved even more and stepped into Sav’s room. It was the middle of the night in London, and he was already comfortable in his bed. He lay there shirtless, with a red velvet blanket draped low over his hips. Tattoos covered his upper body and laced around his shoulders. Across the room, a huge fireplace flickered with a warm burning light. It popped and fizzled, giving the room a warm glow. Shadows danced between the carved wood paneling that covered the walls. The floors were a dark wood that matched the walls and ceiling. A bevy of shelves lined the wall across from his bed and were full of old books that Sav had collected over the last hundred years or so.
He dropped his book on his chest and glanced up at me with those multicolored eyes of his. “Oh, you’ve arrived. Shall I call Titus?”
“You’ll do no such thing.” I curled my hand into a fist and began pacing at the end of his bed.
He rolled his eyes. “Very well. Tell me, reluctant Prince, what brings you home?”
“Don’t call me that, and I’m not home.” Annoyance ran through my body. I’d never been more so.
“Then what would you I suggest I call you? You are the crown Prince, and this is your home.”
Don’t hit him. Don’t hit him. I paused and put my hands on my hips. “Don’t be a prat.”
He sat up and rested his arm across his knee, giving me a withered look. “Something vexes you?”
“Do you bloody well think?” I began pacing again. The castle had me on edge. Being home was not something I planned on, but something was more important. “That woman. That woman vexes me.”
“And this surprises you? Did you not see your own face when you saw her? Like a moth to the flame. Besotted.” He shook his head. “Horrible to watch, really.”
“Besotted is right.” I ran my hands through my hair. “I can’t think straight. It’s like the woman is under my skin.”
I pulled at my shirt, trying to get it away from my skin. She was everywhere, and I wanted it so damn bad I could almost feel her. Sav kicked his legs over the side of the bed and threw his blankets off. He rose to his feet and snatched a shirt off the end of the bed. He glared at me as he shoved his arms into it.
“Did I not warn you of the things to come? Do you wish to suffer the same fate as your father? Because I do not wish it.” He slashed his hand through the air. “I do not want to see you fall to the curse, not now, not ever. No woman is worth that. People depend on you. A kingdom is yours to reign, and you are faffing about with some human.”
He shook his head and glared at me. “I’ve never seen such selfishness from you.”
“Selfish? Me? Really?” I spent months disguised as a much younger vampire to rid the world of evil and protect the future.
“Oh, yes, bloody selfish you are. You’ll fall to the curse and then what? For what?” He turned away from me and grabbed the book off the bed and threw it against the wall. It slammed into the wood, splintering it as it wedged into the wood. “A woman.”
He spat the word as if it was a curse. In this house, love was a curse. A woman could be the end of a good man and there was no going back. Once it was done, there wasn’t anything anyone could do to be saved. Love was pain, quite literally, in The House of Shade.
“You’re right.” I sank down on the edge of the bed. Piper was everything, and that was the problem.
“I am. I don’t want to see you descend into madness never to return. You know what must happen to feral Vampires.” He sank down beside me.
Feral Vampires, if they couldn’t be saved, were either executed or locked away in the dungeons until they eventually died of the madness. The kicker was it usually only affected made vampires, the kind that had to die to become a vampire. The transition was so hard that their fragile minds couldn’t handle it. Even so, most made Vampires didn’t rise. It took twenty-four hours and if they didn’t wake, they were gone forever. It was a gamble that some Vampires took. But when The House of Shade was cursed, none of us believed a born royal vampire would fall to it. Until my father, and cousins, and other distant family did. As the head of the royal family, my uncle would never take a wife and I . . . I would be the same. Because to love was madness and death for any who shared the blood of The House of Shade.
“I’m well versed.”
His hair fell over his face and his shoulders sagged. “I’ve been the last sight for many of the fallen feral. I don’t want to be your executioner. Just not you.”
“Then it’s decided.” I rose to my feet and already felt myself hurting at the thought of not seeing Piper tomorrow or the next day. Sav stood up beside me.
“Where are you going?” My voice sounded deflated and hollow. I didn’t want it to be this way between the two of us. I thought we could enjoy each other, be friends and lovers without falling. So many other people lived in relationships like that. But she was too spectacular, and I felt myself growing more attached daily.
“You’ve got to be daft if you think I’m going to leave you alone to do this. I’ve seen the way you look at her. Nah, mate, I’m here for the duration.”
