Page 22 of Born Wicked

“Two knives, one in each hand, and from behind?” Jon shakes his head. “I didn’t stand a chance. Never saw him coming.”

I shake my head in horror, imagining how much it must have hurt. “Did it go all the way through?”

“This side, yes,” he answers, putting a finger on his right cheek. “The other, not quite. One of my guys had been messing with the local seamstress for a few days. When he heard me screaming, he came out and took me straight to her.”

The doctor in me is running through how it should have been treated. It’s such a weird circumstance. I hope it’s something I never have to worry about in my immortal life.

“The infection nearly killed me then,” Jon says, raising an eyebrow. “I was delirious for days with a fever. Asked one of my guys to kill me then, but the bastard wouldn’t listen. We were stuck there for two weeks before I was well enough to get on my feet again.”

“So that wasn’t what took you out,” I state.

Jon shakes his head. “No, I got another two years before we got ourselves in a bad spot with some other pirates. Took a bullet straight through the heart. Woke up four days later at the bottom of the ocean, fishes trying to eat my flesh.”

“Shit,” I state in shock.

Jon nods, his brows raising as if he knows just how insane it sounds. “Swam to the surface and could barely see the port in the distance. Thought I was going to die again, but the newfound strength was incredible. I shouldn’t have been able to fight the current, but in less than an hour, I reached the harbor and climbed out of the water. I still feel damn guilty about all those dock hands.”

I killed two people within an hour of Resurrecting. And no one seemed surprised by that.

Seems Jon was no different when he woke up again to this immortal life.

“You wouldn’t believe the looks on the faces of my crew when I found them three weeks later,” Jon says, crooking an entertained smile. “They thought I was a ghost come back to punish them for not burying me properly. You wouldn’t believe what coming back from the dead as a vampire does for your reputation.”

I just laugh and shake my head. It’s so ridiculous, but the best story ever.

“Turns out, my second mate was a vampire, too. When he heard who my father was, he’d tracked me down and joined the crew. He knew this lifestyle would eventually kill me. All he had to do was wait. He was the one who told me about what I am, explained everything he knew.”

“But he let your crew throw your dead body overboard, knowing you were going to wake up four days later?” I ask, horrified and slightly amused.

“Bastard did always have a twisted sense of humor,” Jon says, and it’s obvious he’s had a long time to process this, because he actually smiles about it.

“I really didn’t realize how lucky I was that Elena and Mason were there right when I Resurrected to explain it all,” I move on, because I don’t know whether to laugh, or be mad in Jon’s behalf. “Sebastian and Roman didn’t know what they were either, when they came back.”

Jon nods, understanding. “It was an exceptionally confusing time. Not that I was really even all that coherent the first week. The blood lust…” he shakes his head. “Took me a bit to get things under control.”

“I wonder how many vampires there are out there that never get control over their bloodlust, or just don’t care to try,” I think out loud.

“Not many,” he says with the shake of his head. “Just think how much attention it draws. People dying, disappearing. That kind of stuff gets noticed. And that’s what the whole Royal House system is all about. Making sure stuff like that doesn’t happen. King Cyrus, he takes this shit seriously.”

I shake my head. “It doesn’t even seem real that the vampires have a King, and Royals…”

“Pray you never have to get tangled with them,” Jon says, and something in his voice turns hollow. “Especially Cyrus.”

“You’ve met the King?” I question, disbelief heavy in my voice.

Jon’s eyes are haunted when he looks back up. “Piracy became less and less viable. So, in 1845, our crew disbanded. I’d made an insane amount of money, I didn’t really have a reason to keep raiding. So, I got curious. I set out to Austria.”

I’m not sure if it sounds like a fairytale or a nightmare. This vampire king who lives in Austria, someone who is thousands of years old.

“At first the town just seemed normal. Other than the fact that half the residents were vampires. But then I realized that everyone,everyone, was dressed in black.”

The story he’s weaving is totally giving me the creeps.

The flight attendant comes by, asking if we’d like anything to drink. I’m disoriented for a second. I completely forgot I’m in an airplane, headed to the state I was born in. I completely forgot that there are hundreds of other people around me.

Jon orders a Coke and I get some orange juice. The woman smiles politely, serving up our drinks, and moves on.

“I laid low, tried to blend in, so I stole some clothes, dressed in their creepy black attire,” Jon continues. “For a few days, it just seemed normal, as normal as it could be, considering the residents. But on my third day there, all the vampires started heading to the castle.”

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