4. Catalina
FOUR
catalina
A burnt scent seared the insides of my nose. Everything was on fire!
Flames licked my arm . . . Gasping, I shot up. A nail hammered into my ankle and I screamed. Panting, I palmed my broken leg. Moving was agonizing. A drilling agony, deep and relentless.
The pain medication was for sure out of my system.
“Take care, little human,” a sinister voice echoed off the walls.
A chill traveled up my spine. I picked up and held a pillow to my chest with my good arm. Poor defense against vampires, but clutching it brought me comfort.
A lamp lit up the bedroom. Red silk bed sheets bunched under me, and gold glinted off the fixtures embedded into the wall. No, no, I couldn’t be back—a chestnut wardrobe loomed against the furthest wall near the door, confirming that it was Asher’s bedroom.
“Tell me about your dealings with Calliope.” Ren’s crossed arms bulged. His cool gaze flickered with avarice, and he pushed his shoulder off the wall. This creature walking toward me had burned my house to force me out.
Yet, all I wanted to do was rub my nose against his skin to breathe him in. He reached the end of the bed, and I helplessly looked around. The metal shutters were raised to expose the night. Before the fire, it’d been close to morning, so I clearly slept through the day.
He suddenly appeared next to the bed, looming over me with the corners of his mouth tilted up and his teeth showing. It was less a grin and more a baring of his teeth.
I flinched.
My gaze bounced to the door—to freedom.
“Running will land you another injury.”
I tore my gaze away from the exit. I could only see the corner of the doorframe since his wide, massive shoulders blocked most of it.
My heartbeat drummed in my ears. I was too high up and unless I wanted to snap my neck upon landing, I could see no way out—alive. I struggled to swallow, my rib cage aching with each inhale. Ren wobbled in my vision, his broad, strong features blurring. I gritted my teeth and focused. On his strong nose with a shorter bridge, the stiff set of his lips, and the tan hue of his skin, a shade lighter than mine—attractive and wild eyes. I fisted the silk sheets with my good hand, focusing on relaxing the tension wracking my limbs. It made everything feel worse than it was.
Unlike when I first arrived to this God forsaken town, I’d managed not to have an asthmatic attack from merely being in the presence of a vampire.
Some would say that was a positive that came out of all of it, but I was not ‘some’. I bit the inside of my cheek hard enough that I tasted blood.
My heartbeat calmed a notch. Enough so my chest didn’t burn.
“What is it about you?” Ren loomed closer, too close, his face hovering inches from mine.
I jerked back and the movement agonizingly tugged at my injuries. I gasped.
“You’ve caused quite the stir. Is it just because of your,” he paused and his tongue flicked out to swipe across his lower lip, “succulent taste?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I croaked.
He gripped my chin, stealing the precious control I’d managed to wrangle on my heart.
“You’re not too bad on the eyes. You have nice, perky breasts that’d look delightful painted with my cum.” I felt like a horse being sized up. “If I were into fucking humans, you would make the list.” His white fangs flashed. “That is, of course, before draining you dry.”
Tears welled in my eyes. He stared at the single one that escaped and rolled down my face and his pupils dilated.
“Yes,” he breathed against my cheek. “Cry, weak human. That’s all you can do.”
I gritted my teeth, trying to control my rampant emotions. Not crying in front of them was non-negotiable. Nor would I beg. I wouldn’t be brought down before my death; I would keep that part of myself from their evil grip. With everything in me, I suppressed the urge to sob and glared at him.
His eyes narrowed. Since his dark eyelashes slanted down, it created a divot between them. His skin was so smooth, it seemed pore-less. Unfair vampire perks.
I had multiple skin care routines to attain skin like that and had never achieved that level of flawlessness without make-up.
He released my chin with a harsh shove.
The back of my head smacked into the headboard. I cried out as a dull thud radiated down to my arm.
The door crashed open and Tobias stormed inside, his coat fluttering behind him. Soot stained his clothes.
“What did you do to her?” he hissed.
Ren lifted his hands and backed up.
Then Tobias was in my space. Moving too fast. They all moved much too fast.
I sucked in a breath.
“I’ve been searching for you,” Tobias breathed as he clasped my face with such care—opposite to Ren’s grip.
Tobias searched for me? Why? I didn’t understand any of this.
A knot swelled in my throat with so much emotion it became lodged. I dropped my eyes, not wanting to face his piercing gray ones. His sweet breath was tinged with orange. His voice, his scent, his touch reached inside me and prodded me to soften.
Seams of his frayed collar split in two. Brown splatters stained the white shirt. Dried blood.
“Catalina?” he murmured, his voice lilting with hints of his English accent.
A slight chuckle dragged my attention to Ren.
What did he find so funny?
I gritted my teeth.
Tobias and Ren were opposites. The flip of a coin. One was coldly evil and the other attempted a semblance of morals.
Or so I thought, until he lied to me. I shouldn’t let my guard down. He’d fooled me. No, I fooled myself. They were vampires, I let myself get carried away from the start. I had no one to blame but myself.
Locking my jaw, I glared at Tobias.
“You lied to me about blood-whores.” It was a non-issue, since I knew I couldn’t be one if the Pale One never made me one, but I’d trusted the lies he told.
The time frame to become a blood-whore was significantly shorter than the reality. Asher planned for me to be his blood-whore all along, and Tobias went along with it. They never saw me as a person, I was just a play thing.
Something to manipulate.
And Tobias was the one they all believed to have a ‘moral compass’. The fact remained that even if they were born human, vampires became twisted and inhuman.
Nothing but their pleasure mattered to them.
Asher practically told me his intentions. He’d had such an apt name for me: Pet.
Well, I should have fucking read the signs.
Tobias’s hand slipped off my face, his fingertips gently grazing down my cheeks before lowering to the mattress. He propped his fist on my other side, corralling me within his arms, while not touching me. I backed as flat as I could against the headboard, avoiding even his coat grazing me.
His eyebrows furrowed and if I were being fanciful, I would have said guilt flickered across his features.
“I did lie.” He cleared his throat.
He hadn’t needed to confirm it, I knew.
“I want to leave.” My voice held a huskiness, and it was difficult to swallow. But it was the taste coating my tongue that drove in what caused me to be in this state: smoke from Ren burning my rental down. I didn’t want to think about the ramifications. Now I was homeless, I didn’t know where my car was, and what would my landlord demand?
I bit the inside of my lip again to snap myself out of it.
I’d stress about that later, if I even had a later.
Tobias’s angled jawline flexed and the tips of his mussed brown hair kissed the top of his eyebrows. Enough staring at his confusing, yet perfect features.
“Just get it over with,” I croaked. I dragged my glare to Ren hovering behind him like an intimidating wall. He had no right to be that large. None of them did. They towered over me and any other person I’d ever encountered. “Kill me.”
Tobias straightened as if his spine was pulled by a string.
“What have you said to her?”
Ren’s gaze burned a hole in my forehead.
“Don’t get your panties in a twist, Priest. I won’t kill the human just yet.”
“You will not kill her at all. We agreed.”
Ren was suddenly in Tobias’s face.
I cringed back and stifled my whimper, clutching my arm close to my chest.
“We tied,” Ren hissed. “It was an impasse.”
“Enough.” Asher entered, carrying a tray. “She does not die.”
“You should have no say, Youngling,” Ren snapped.
“Jaxon is my age,” Asher said. “His vote would not count either, and by your logic, Tobias is the oldest, so his vote holds more weight than yours.”
Ren stilled eerily. Red flashed in his pupils briefly, but it quickly disappeared.
“The discussion isn’t over,” he intoned eerily and disappeared from where he stood. My throat closed up—I would not see him coming when he killed me.
Asher placed the tray on the bedside nightstand. Faint redness smudged beneath his eyes and was easy to see because of his pale skin. His Viking-like stature should have intimidated me, but my body remembered the way he touched me. Stupid, fucking idiotic body.
I clenched my teeth so hard they might break.
His lack of belief in me hurt the most.
Out of all of them . . . I’d weakened for him the most. I believed in him and everything he promised.
My nose burned and I gritted my teeth harder, keeping those tears inside even though it hurt.
“What happened to you?” Asher loomed beside the end of the bed, gaze roving over my body.
I focused on my clenched hand. I’d been clasping it so tight my nails created little dents on my palm.
“Fetch Jax to check her wounds,” Tobias ordered.
“She is mine, I will tend to her.” Asher set the tray on the nightstand.
“She is not only yours,” Tobias hissed.
“I’ve fucked and fed from her.”
Tobias’s nostrils flared, his shoulders rising and falling.
“Do not speak of her as if she were a whore.”
“Do me a favor and shove your sanctimonious morals up your ass.” Asher brushed his hands across his chest as he straightened, smearing some red substance across the silk fabric.
Tobias flashed to Asher. I startled, struggling to make sense of Tobias wrapping his hands around Asher’s throat. I couldn’t tear my attention off the train wreck happening a few feet away from me. Even though the English vampire was a few inches shorter, and slighter than the Viking, menace emanated from him.
“Do it,” Asher smirked.
Tobias’s eyes flashed red, but he finally dropped Asher. “Get Jax to heal her.” With that he slammed the door behind him.
The thud of the door echoed in the silence.
Asher’s gaze settled on me.
His words wouldn’t leave my thoughts, nor the look on his face as he ordered me to leave. My lungs squeezed and made it difficult to breathe.
Jax had accused me of stealing and Asher had kicked me out.
Sure from an outside perspective, it was his brother versus me, but I had given him everything, willingly. I’d expected a little more defense on my behalf.
Asher dropped to his knees and his waist hovered by the top of the tall bed.
“What happened, Catalina?” He gingerly touched the top of the cast on my leg and I stiffened.
“Don’t touch me,” I wheezed, inching back a little more. It sent a shockwave of agony through my limbs. I squeezed the pillow I still held to my chest.
“Don’t be stubborn.”
I gritted my teeth. Stubborn? How was this stubbornness? It was only self-preservation!
“No,” I shouted in his face.
Asher’s blue eyes widened and he studied my features.
“Why are you angry?”
I blinked, no way he was serious. It was enough to calm the verging hysterics. His expression didn’t waver.
“You lied and . . .” I trailed off, taking a beat to get it together again. “You didn’t believe me.” Despite my attempt to keep it in, my voice cracked with emotion at the end.
“Oh.” His eyebrow raised. “Nothing came of it. I should have handled the situation differently.”
“That’s not the point?—”
“I do not understand.”
Of course he didn’t understand, he wasn’t human.
“Are you ready to explain your bargain with Calliope? It will help me convince the others to spare your life.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“Are you expecting my thanks?”
Both of his eyebrows raised this time.
“You do not understand, traitors are not tolerated, but I will speak on your behalf.” He drove the metaphorical stake deeper into my chest.
I didn’t have the energy to defend myself. He still thought I had tried stealing the urn with their precious Imogen’s ashes in it. He wasn’t asking me if I did, he had no doubt I had.
I would stick to my written boyfriends from here on out. Only the characters I wrote never failed me. I’d also take pleasure in creating one named Asher and killing him in the most painful way possible.
“Catalina. You are mine. I will protect you.”
“I will never be yours,” I spat.
His sharp incisors elongated. In a movement so quick it made my head spin, his hands cupped beneath my thighs and he pulled me to the end of the mattress. The pillow slipped out of my grasp, falling off the side of the bed. My thighs spread and a pinch twinged the leg with the cast.
“Calm yourself, Pet,” he murmured, with the corner of his lips curled up seductively. His eyelids lowered, framing his eyes with those long dark blonde lashes.
Pet.
His palm dragged down my side in a gentle rub. His waistband pressed between my legs, widening my thighs.
Was he getting frisky with me?
He grazed his nose against my cheek and down to my neck, inhaling deeply as he hovered over my pounding pulse.
Instinct bade me to clench my legs together. I wanted pressure at the swelling throb. His fangs flashed in my memory, the feel of them sinking into my throat.
I shivered.
I’d let my body get me in this situation in the first place. I turned away from his mouth and hugged my chest as if I could contain my lust within my body.
I would not give in to my desires.
I slammed my good knee into his dick.
Christ! A throb radiated down my knee and to my ankle. Did his stiff cock break my other leg?
He erupted in a string of curses in Swedish.
He rolled to the side, flopping onto the bed. Good to know that the move was just as effective on vampires.
“Don’t touch me.” I wouldn’t be fooled. Fancifulness would lead me nowhere.
Guttural grunts escaped from his mouth and his shoulders twitched.
Waiting to die was my last resort.