Page 8 of Vampire Sins
Before I had a chance to protest, he slipped out of the room in a flurry of shadows, leaving my hand hanging in the air hopelessly trying to stop him.
Damn it.
I hadn’t expectedto sleep, but the moment my head hit the pillow I’d gone out like a light. Luke’s reassuring warmth as he curled his arm protectively around me made me feel safe. I woke up, tucked close to his chest, but it wasn’t his steady heartbeat that made me stir. My brows scrunched together when a grating, foreign sound found its way into the peaceful bedroom, echoing through the night and sending the hairs on the back of my neck to stand on end.
Screams.
I jerked awake and untangled myself from Luke’s arms. “What was that?” I asked, my voice still groggy with the need to fall under and not wake up until the weariness had left my bones. I hadn’t fed, and my body was starting to feel the strain. I withdrew a sliver of power from my Blood Stone to compensate, but winced as an ache permeated my chest. My body was starting to retaliate from my avoidance to naturally feed. The Blood Stone’s power could sustain me, but not forever.
Running a finger over my chest, Luke missed my discomfort and sat up and cocked his head, danger taking precedence. He had much better hearing than me. He should have been the first awake. When I saw the red haze in his eyes, I swallowed hard. I hadn’t fed on him, but there was no telling what kind of effect having sex with a succubus and a vampire had on his powers.
Another scream pierced the stillness, and then the city came alive as if it had awoken all at once.
“The bloody hell is going on?” I asked and swung my legs over the bed. Marching to the windows, I yanked one open and shivered at the onslaught of fear and panic that permeated the chilled air.
The city glowed with a golden predawn allure that glimmered against the staggered buildings that littered Venice, but it was the ruby motes that caught my interest. It wasn’t just the spark of sunlight that promised to peek over the horizon, but the evidence of magic that came from vampires—or a Blood Stone.
A fine mist of magic wound through the streets in a wandering ball of hazy power. It went door to door and each home it touched left fresh screams in its wake. People stumbled out onto the streets clutching any weapons they could get their hands on. Kitchen knives, bats, and car keys wedged between knuckles seemed to be the weapons of choice.
“Something bad is happening,” I told Luke.
He joined me and frowned at the growing panic that was taking hold of the city. “Do you think it’s the vampires?”
I pointed at the winding ball of red that meandered through the streets. “Is that vampiric power?”
Luke wrapped an arm protectively around my shoulders and drew me in close. “I’d say that’s proof that Derek got his hands on another Blood Stone. Although, I don’t know how he externalized the power like that. It must be Apollo’s doing.”
Cursing, I shrugged off Luke’s touch. As much as I wanted to indulge in the comfort he offered, I wasn’t a damsel in distress. If Derek was coming after this city, then it was because he knew I was here. My mess, my problem. I had to fix this.
“Do you think he’s trying to flush me out?” I asked.
Luke smirked. “Don’t get so full of yourself. One of the male muses lives in this city, remember? If Derek is trying to flush anyone out, it’ll be Hades.”
It didn’t make sense. Surely Derek knew that the ancient vampire slept and couldn’t be woken up. Then I remembered something Xavier had said. It would take two things to wake Hades. The power of a Blood Stone and a vampire who commanded it.
Shouts in another language broke my concentration as a mob chased down one of the vampires. He was impossible to miss with the red haze of panic in his eyes and flashing fangs. Vampires weren’t supernaturals that did well out in the open. They innately lurked in the shadows, employed misdirection and seduction… and they never ran.
But this one did. He stumbled and crashed to his knees, scrambling to get away from the mob coming after him with weapons poised to strike.
“They’re going to kill him,” I hissed. I couldn’t say I knew if this was a vampire worthy of being saved, but the raw panic in his eyes made me cringe. What if that was me? What if humans knew what I’d done and what I was capable of? There’d be a witch hunt for sure.
Luke gripped my wrist when I went for the door. “We need to figure out what’s going on first. We can’t just go—”
His words were cut off by a bloodcurdling scream. I shoved Luke aside and peered out the window again just in time to see the vampire clutching at the splintered end of a broken bat skewered into his chest. Blood gurgled at his lips as his eyes glazed over and he fell to the ground.
He didn’t puff into ash like I half-expected. The corpse remained there, motionless and holding me with a blank stare as it bled out onto the street. No one deserved to die like that. The mob shouted and cheered their victory, shifting when the lingering red haze overwhelmed them, sending them scattering with murder in their eyes.
Grabbing Luke’s hand, I dragged him out of the room. “Come on. We can’t just sit here and do nothing.”
Luke followed me under protest. “We can’t stop a city full of people who just realized that vampires exist.”
I dragged him down the hall and only stilled when I heard the soft murmur of voices, then realized it was a news station. I swept into the living room to find Xavier glaring at a TV screen.
A surprising sense of relief hit me when I saw the vampire. Xavier should have instilled fear with the long, dangerous fangs at his lips and the curl of red power that wrapped around his wrists, but I’d seen a part of him that was vulnerable and beautifully flawed. When his gaze met mine, a shiver ran down my spine.
“I can’t understand how this is possible,” he said, his voice a low, dangerous growl. He pointed at the screen as a panicked camera zoomed in on the red ball of power that curled through the streets of Venice, bringing with it screams and people brandishing weapons. “That’s the power of a Blood Stone.”
Luke stepped in front of me, no doubt taking Xavier’s aggression as a threat. “It’s not Sonya’s doing, if that’s what you’re getting at.”
