Thicker than Water (Fangs and Feuds #1)

Until Im turned to dust

UNTIL I'M TURNED TO DUST

Celine

I stare at Amara incredulously. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“I swear on the moon,” she says, hand over heart. “It’ll fly, trust me.”

“You swear on the moon ? How did I never realize you’re a witch?”

“My excellent spying abilities?” she says with a shrug. The motion seems to surprise her. “Wow, I can’t believe I feel so…amazing!”

I nod. “Vampire blood. The older it is, the more powerful its healing effects. But are you sure you’re well enough to fly? I could carry you.”

She flashes me a smile, holding the tattered old broomstick up. She found it in a hall closet in Lazarus’s mansion. “No way! I’ve been itching to use my magic, and now I’ve got all sorts of vampiric energy in my veins too.”

I start to protest, but I’m interrupted by a shuffling noise from the basement. Amara peers down the corridor anxiously.

“Let’s go,” she says, taking my hand and pulling me back into the empty hallway. “I knocked out some vampire guards earlier tonight. They must have stayed behind with Lazarus. They won’t be happy when they find his body.”

Her hand in mine calms me. Then she lets go, mounting her secondhand broom. She takes off quickly, soaring through the shattered glass window into the snowy sky. I follow her, surprised at how skillful her flying is.

Although the circumstances are dire, it feels amazing to be flying beside her. Not many vampires can fly, so I don’t have many partners. And she is clearly in her element. The bright moon illuminates the pure joy on her face as she cruises easily through the air. She doesn’t seem bothered by the cold, or the whipping wind. She puts her face up to the sky, eyes closed.

As we head toward the hotel, she opens them again. When she catches me looking at her, she startles slightly.

“Sorry,” she says, self-consciously. “I just missed this so much. But I know we’ve got to focus. Your revenge on Cedric…”

“It’s nothing,” I reply, surprising myself. But I know the words I’m speaking are true. “Cedric doesn’t matter to me now. Maybe everyone was right. I was holding onto a grudge because it was all I had. But that isn’t true anymore.”

She smiles sheepishly. “What are you going to do? Tudor will be furious when he finds out about me…”

“I’m done with Tudor,” I reply. “I told him as much.”

Her eyes widen. “Really?”

“Really.”

“But what about the hotel? The business?”

“I…I don’t know. I need to make sure my sisters are safe…and Xia and the others. But after that, I have no idea what’s going to happen. Tudor is attacking Elmwood Academy with Oana and the Arundel wolf shifters tonight.”

If Amara wasn’t so skilled on her broomstick, I’m sure she would have fallen off in surprise.

“He’s what ?” she gasps. “But that’s…”

“Ludicrous, I know. But the conflict with Tudor and the Hecate witches was bound to come to a head at some point.”

She sighs. “It was. I just hope that everyone is ok.”

I pause. “If you…want to go to help them…I would understand.”

She shakes her head firmly, snowflakes falling from her long braids. “Absolutely not. I’m going with you to the hotel. I won’t let Cedric hurt your sisters, or anyone else.”

Her eyes shine brightly in the light of the city. My unbeating heart swells in my chest.

She grins at me. “If you told me eight months ago that I would be flying through the air with a vampire, I would never have believed you. ”

I laugh. “That makes two of us.”

We’re certainly a strange pair…but at the same time, there’s something so natural about this moment. And something about the two of us that just makes sense.

I’m going to do everything I can to protect her.

For now until I’m turned to dust.

But this sweet moment can’t last forever.

We come upon the hotel much faster than I had anticipated. Amara must be a powerful witch to be able to keep up with me on her broom.

We enter the hotel and hurry through the lobby toward the service elevator. It’s suspiciously quiet. When the elevator arrives, Amara enters, but I stay outside.

“Aren’t you coming?” she asks, putting her arm out to hold the door.

“I’m going to distract Cedric,” I reply. “He’ll be waiting in the club. My sisters and the night guard will be on the holding floor. You’ll have the element of surprise, but be careful. Lazarus’s progeny are fairly young, and I don’t think they’ll give you much trouble. But if anyone suspects you, just play dumb. Pretend to be a bartender, and I’ll come break you out after I deal with Cedric.”

Her lip quivers faintly. There’s an expression of tender worry in her hazel eyes. For just a moment, I have a strong desire to run away, to take Amara and leave all of this behind.

But I know I would never be able to exist with myself if I did that.

And she would never make that choice, either.

That’s why we’re perfect for each other.

And why I need to succeed.

I expect her to say something, but instead, she grabs me by the collar and pulls me toward her, her lips meeting mine in a deep, passionate kiss.

I wish it could never end, but of course, the elevator door chimes.

We pull away from each other, and I press my thumbprint to the red button, pushing it three times for the holding floor.

As the doors close, I hope with my whole, unbeating heart that this isn’t the last time I’m ever going to see her .

I take the emergency exit to the club. It’s what he suspects I’ll do. Because the obvious thing would be for me to go to the holding floor, to break out my sister and the guard. So of course what I’ll actually do is go to the emergency exit and through the club.

I was always better at strategy than my brother. It’s why Tudor made me the head of the illegal side of the business.

And I hope for Amara’s sake that I’m right, and that she’ll have an easy time breaking everyone out. We’re taking a big swing, but we don’t have any other option.

There’s someone stationed at the top of the stairs. Not to stop me, but to warn Cedric and the others that I’m coming. There’s a supernatural blur as they disappear down the staircase.

But I’m angry. And I’m not playing this game.

I’m faster than this young vampire, and I easily catch them by the back of their black shirt. They shout when I grab them and hoist them up.

I toss them to the side, and kick in the emergency exit door. It flies off its hinges and into the club, knocking over several standing tables and barstools.

As I enter the club, the thick, hazy air permeates my skin, and a slow clap greets me.

My brother sits on a velvet chaise from my private suite, which has been mounted on top of the oval bar in the center of the club. He looks like a prince on a throne. He’s surrounded by at least a dozen other vampires, all darkly attired, at various vantage points around him.

This isn’t going to be easy.

“Well, well, look who decided to choose revenge over love,” Cedric says in a slow drawl. “You never disappoint, sis. So incredibly predictable. I guess I really do know you better than anyone.”

The last thing I want to do is engage with Cedric’s evil monologue. I cross my arms and survey him with narrowed eyes.

“Must be hard for you,” he continues with a sigh. “She was quite pretty. Although I know you’ve never been the one to keep pets. I guess that is out of character for you, C.”

“Don’t call me that,” I hiss, a flare of fury in my chest. “Only my sisters call me that.”

“Well, I am your brother. And I’ve known you the longest of them all.”

“You’re not my brother.”

“That’s not what you said after our Creator turned us. You were so young then, don’t you remember?”

My jaw tightens.

“No? Well, then let me remind you. Tudor had just brutally murdered your little sister and your entire family, and turned you into a vampire against your will. I dug you up, if you recall.”

He reaches down beside him and takes a wine glass from the top of the bar. It’s full of thick, red liquid. He makes a show of taking a long sip, then wrinkles his nose.

“Yikes, this is disgusting. Our sister really has too much time on her hands, doesn’t she? She was always a spoiled brat.”

Instinctively, I move toward him. But immediately, half of his guard tighten their stances, and I stop.

My eyes flick quickly between all of them, assessing their strength and number.

Fuck, there are lot of them…

Cedric laughs, a whooping, chaotic sound. “So loyal! But loyal to who , Celine? Our sniveling, naive baby sister? Our self-absorbed Creator who cares more about the witches than his own progeny?”

He stands, and throws the wine glass to the ground. It shatters, christening the hard club floor with glass and blood.

Then he jumps down from the bar.

“It was me , Celine,” he declares. “ I was there, when you were turned. I dug you up. You were so frail, and so terrified. Those first years…it was just you and me. Tudor never cared for us, you know that. He wanted to be powerful, to establish himself. Even then, he was always preoccupied with his own business dealings. We were pawns to him.”

He moves closer. I can see the wild whites of his eyes.

“It was just you and I, sister. And I told you that I would always be there for you, always be your brother…”

My eyes and fingers itch. I need him to stop talking.

“Lazarus is dead,” I reply, my voice as empty as my heart. “He was staked. He’s gone.”

Cedric frowns in surprise, his eyebrows bunched together. But he quickly composes himself.

“It doesn’t matter,” he says. “I had no real attachment to Lazarus. He was just a replacement for Tudor.”

He’s close to me now, so close that we’re almost touching. His guard huddle nearer, but he raises a hand to stop them.

His voice lowers. “It can be you and me again, Celine. Finally rid of our Creator.”

I cast my eyes down, suddenly afraid of what looking at him might spark. But this makes him more frenzied, more urgent. He grabs my shoulders.

“Think of what it could be, Celine! Together, we can do anything. We can take over Lazarus’s business, take advantage of Tudor’s obsession with the witches to move into his territory. We can be the most powerful vampire mafia on the entire continent!”

I shake my head. “No…no, Cedric, I…”

But he squeezes my shoulders, pulling me closer to him.

I don’t stop him.

“Celine, nobody knows you like I do. I know your heart…your unbeating heart. I know how ruthless you are, how powerful you are. I know how important it is for you to be powerful, to be safe. And I can give you that. You could never fully trust Tudor, but with me, you know you’ll never be hurt again. You’ll be running the show…

“You and I…we understand each other. We’re the same, Celine. Nobody else will ever be able to understand that.”

I raise my eyes to his, finding their matching violet twins. I ease into his grip. I wasn’t expecting this. I thought that he would stake me immediately, furious at how I’d bested him.

I wasn’t ready for this.

Then the elevator chimes. Cedric’s head snaps toward the club exit. His vampire guard move in a blur.

I take the opportunity to wrench myself out of his grasp. He gives me a confused, almost hurt look.

There’s a roar from the front of the club and a standing table goes flying through the air, knocking one of Cedric’s vampires off of their feet. A massive bear barrels into the club in a flash of white, toppling over tables in its wake.

Lexi’s the next on the scene, towering in the high heels she refuses to ever take off. Taking advantage of her superior strength and height, she grabs one of Cedric’s vampire guards and throws her across the room into the DJ booth.

“Take that, sucker!” she screeches.

She’s immediately pummeled by three of Cedric’s guard, who attempt to use their numbers to their advantage. Renata, who was following close behind, rolls her eyes and moves to assist her.

“I don’t need help, I’m fine!” Lexi yells, from under the pile of vampires, their limbs thrashing in every direction.

“You have a ridiculous definition of fine,” Renata snorts, pulling her dagger from the folds of her white blouse. Only Renata can keep her outfit crisp in the middle of an attack, after just being kidnapped.

A warm rush of gratitude fills me. I’m so glad my sisters weren’t hurt. But I can’t let myself get comfortable just yet. Cedric has a large guard. He must have brought most of Lazarus’s gang with him.

And where’s Amara? I look around the scuffle.

There’s a blast of red light from over the bar. Xia stands upright on a broomstick, riding it like a surfboard through the air. She laughs as she uses her red energy magic to scatter the vampires who are guarding Cedric. Amara flies close behind her, on the secondhand broom from Lazarus’s mansion.

“Oh, I missed this!” Xia shouts.

“Me too,” Amara replies, adding her gold energy magic to the fray.

Two of Cedric’s vampire guard can hover slightly, and they attempt to follow Xia and Amara, but the witches are too fast for them. It looks like our side is winning, even against Cedric’s numbers. Renata has staked two vampires already, and Nova has captured one in the coat check booth. I can see a few of Cedric’s guard hurrying out the emergency exit, not willing to continue a losing fight.

Cedric looks up angrily at Xia and Amara, then launches himself onto the bar in a supernatural leap. He might not be able to fly, but he manages to jump high enough to grab the end of Amara’s broom.

“Hey!” she shouts. She loses height, but manages to stay upright.

“Let her go!” I yell, flying up toward Cedric.

I close the distance quickly, grabbing him by the wrist and twisting. He lets go of Amara’s broom. I grab him by the shirt and pin him against the far wall of the club, several feet above the ground .

Amara hovers anxiously nearby. From out of the corner of my eye, I can see Renata and Lexi watching.

“Finish him, C!” Lexi shouts.

I take the dagger-stake from its sheath and put it to his throat. His lip twitches, but he doesn’t protest. He shuts his eyes tightly.

It’s tempting…I could end this all right now. Put my anger to bed. Come out the victor. Ensure that I never have to worry about my monstrous brother ever again.

Or is he really so monstrous? After all, he and I had the exact same upbringing. Made the same choices.

Well, not quite the same.

I regard him quietly, stretching out this moment. He’s accepted his fate. He knows he’s lost.

For just this moment, he looks like the scared young man that dug me up.

I take my dagger…and slide it into my belt.

“Celine!” Renata shouts. “What are you doing ?”

Cedric’s eyes open. He looks even more scared, wondering what I’m going to do.

I look him in the eyes, my voice oddly steady.

“You’re going to get away from here,” I tell him. “Far, far away. You’re never going to drain another living human. And you’re never , ever going to set foot in the northern region again. Do you understand?”

He licks his lips, then nods once.

I don’t need anything else. I drop him.

He falls to the ground, then dashes out of the emergency exit of the club, like a cockroach released from a trap.

“That goes for all of you, too!” I shout to his remaining vampire guard.

They don’t need much convincing. They follow their leader, scattering into the snowy December night.

Nova shifts out of their bear form, and Xia disembarks. Renata and Lexi survey the damage in the club.

But I only care about one person. She hovers closer to me on her broom, looking at me with an expression of pure love.

“You…you let him go,” she breathes.

I nod. “ I guess we weren’t the same, after all.”

Amara swallows, a ripple along the smooth line of her neck. “Celine, I…”

“Celine! Renata!” shouts a voice.

My head snaps toward the emergency exit. What could it be now?

It’s an…owl?