Chapter 30
Sam
When we reached the bottom of the stairs, Raf made a mirage along the walls and across the space between us and Vas.
“It’s a barrier to keep him in,” Raf explained.
The dinosaur was kneeling on the floor draining what looked like the last human. After dropping them, he turned, planting his feet and resting his arms on his knees.
Now that we weren’t in imminent danger, I could take him in more fully. He was tall like Raf, but leaner. His face was young, with sharp cheekbones and full lips. He was beautiful in an ethereal way. Honestly, he was pretty damn hot, but I wouldn’t say it aloud because if Lock heard, he’d be over here in an instant to kill him.
“Let me guess,” he drawled. “You’re going to torture me for information.”
“Of course not,” Raf replied, looking slightly offended.
Lock’s scent reached my nose, then he was behind me, his arms wrapping tightly around my middle. He dipped his face into my neck, inhaling deeply.
“Did you come running because you heard the word torture?” I asked.
“No.”
“That’s believable.”
“That’s not why we’re here,” Raf said impatiently.
Vas cocked his head, his eyes seeming to burn into me. “If I’m answering questions, I have some as well.”
“We’re not giving you information you could use against us,” I replied.
“He won’t be escaping anyway,” Lock whispered in my ear, as if we weren’t surrounded by people with vamp hearing.
Wiping the smile from my face, I stepped a little closer to the barrier. Lock stayed latched onto me from behind, his face burrowed into my neck, and it was hard not to laugh. This was the big, bad monster whose name was feared by nearly every vampire in the world and he was codependent as fuck.
“How about a game?” I suggested.
“Fuck,” Lock murmured against my skin. I was pretty confident that was his dick getting hard in my back. Jesus.
I couldn’t tell if Vas seemed more amused or annoyed by our antics. He looked down at the blood on his jacket, then shrugged it off his shoulders. Kicking his booted feet out, he leaned back on his hands, making his t-shirt ride up on his lean stomach. With his black attire, fingerless gloves, and curling dark hair, he looked straight out of a sexy punk Pinterest board.
“Games are for children,” he said casually. “Let’s approach this like adults, although I’d hardly call you one.”
“Whatever.”
“Exactly. Tell me, Ark, what are you capable of?”
“Murder,” I said with a smirk. “Want to find out?”
“One on one, I would be the victor within two minutes, but you’re welcome to test it. This time, I’ll make sure your mate dies before you wake.”
Lock sucked in a sharp breath when cold smoke began to seep from my skin. He didn’t let go, even as I struggled to rein it in. Ice seemed to be the most volatile and it was a bitch to figure out.
“Interesting,” Vas mused, leaning forward. “Obviously, you have flame in your arsenal. Judging by the storm you summoned earlier and what you’ve just displayed, I’m willing to guess you possess three separate abilities.”
“How would you know that? I’ve used more than three types of magic.”
“It’s the manifestation of them that helps me to discern their nature.”
“Go on.”
His gaze shifted to Lock. “How many people have you killed, Hemlock?”
“I’ve never hurt a soul,” he replied.
“Come on. I’m sure you love to boast about your conquests. How many?”
“Too many to count.”
“I highly doubt that. You possess a sort of psychopathy that would never allow you to lose track. It’s a compulsion, a need for control you can’t deny.”
“Do you know?” I asked, twisting a little to look at him.
He pushed his lips out, then the corner lifted slightly. “Maybe.”
“Tell me.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because he wants to know.”
“Teamwork, baby. Please?”
He ground his teeth together, but when he met my eyes, he huffed. “47,203.”
My mouth fell open so abruptly, my jaw popped. “Forty-seven-thousand?”
“And two-hundred-and-three.”
“What the fuck, Lock?”
Vas had a hand over his mouth, trying to muffle his laughter. Raf pressed two fingers to his temple and shook his head. I didn’t know how to feel. Sure, he was a freaking serial killer and a very stabby vampire, but this was… Absurd.
“That’s a small town. How have you managed to kill that many people?”
“I started when I was twelve,” he said matter-of-factly. “By the time I was changed, I’d removed one hundred and nine people from the world of the living.”
“I bet he knows how many were human and vampire,” Raf said.
“Seventy eight percent were human and twenty two percent were vampires, if you must know.”
“How the fuck do you keep track of that?”
“I have a spreadsheet.”
“That’s horrible,” I said, shaking my head.
“It’s less than two each day. Ninety-seven percent were adults, if that helps.”
“It really doesn’t.”
“If everyone is done treating me like a spectacle, perhaps we can return to the issue at hand.”
He’d taken a step away from me, so I moved closer and lifted his arm, tucking myself into his side. After a moment, he tightened it around me and pressed a kiss to the top of my head.
“I still love you,” I muttered.
“That was never in question, darling.”
“Your turn, crust bucket.”
Vas’ brows raised momentarily. “My turn for what?”
“To expand on that little tidbit about my magic.”
“It doesn’t do you any good to know, considering you’ll be dead soon.”
Lock growled and stepped forward. “You won’t touch her.”
“I don’t have to. She won’t stop, even if you kill me. If anything, you’ll piss her off more.”
“Let me guess. You’re going to suggest we release you.”
“I don’t much care what you do. Nothing can save your mate and if Sibon finds out what she can do, she’ll be foaming at the mouth to get her hands on Sam.”
“She already knows I’m strong, though,” I pointed out. “Raf is strong also. If she was that desperate to consume us or whatever, why hasn’t she brought out the big guns already? Or is that you?”
“Me?” he laughed. “No, I’m here to check on our little flame since he has been ignoring our calls. I see why, but it was stupid. An Ark is one thing. An Ark with a Nexus is something else entirely and now she knows. Pray she doesn’t learn of your other abilities.”
“Maybe it’ll deter her from coming after me. She’s not at full strength and apparently I have some badass abilities.”
“Not if you can’t use them.”
“But I can. We’ve established this.”
He dropped his head back and groaned. “It’s easy to forget how young you truly are when I’ve lived among those with youthful faces and centuries of knowledge. You have no idea how a Nexus works, do you?”
“Raf said I’m essentially the center of a circle and somehow that gives me more magic tricks than everyone else.”
“The thing about an Ark is that your powers cannot manifest on their own. They don’t belong to you. See, you weren’t born with the ability to do anything in particular. You’re… unmolded clay, but your potential is greater than that of someone born with their own magic. Your blood is tied to that of your Nexus from the moment you’re born or they’re born.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that since Seraphim is your fire link, you manifest his magic.”
“Then, my other abilities…”
“They aren’t yours. You have the potential to wield anything, so long as your blood is tied to another.”
I looked at Raf, whose brow was furrowed in concentration. Lock was rubbing his jaw as he seemed to put it together as well.
“There are others,” I said, putting a hand over my mouth. My eyes stung at the idea of it.
“Somewhere, yes. That is why you’ll be so valuable to her. An Ark is meaningless on its own.”
“Do you know anything about them?” I asked, bouncing on my toes.
“No. We had no idea of their existence.”
“Would they have sensed that Sam changed?” Raf asked.
“Maybe if they’re vampires, but you know how unlikely it is that they would be.”
“Why not?” I wondered.
“Humans are the majority. They always have been and it should remain that way or we would run out of food and both of our species would die. Before someone is changed they wouldn’t know they’re anything special. Seraphim was different, but he couldn’t harness flame as a human. These people would just be normal, really.”
My heart sank. “Then there’s no way to find them.”
“I felt you when you were human,” Raf mused. “You’re my Ark and you were in pain, so it was stronger, but you might be able to feel your Nexus. You’d probably have to interact with them, though. If they’re, say, in London, you’d never know.”
With a growl, I pulled away from Lock and paced to the other end of the room. If I had three abilities, like Vas said, there were two people out there that could help us. Together, we could stand a chance against Sibon. I just knew it. It was hopeless, though. We were given information that could help us, but it was useless.
“Why are you telling us this?” Lock broke the silence. “You don’t want us to pose a threat to this thing.”
“It doesn’t do you any good,” Vas replied.
“Maybe, but why give us anything at all?”
His gaze shifted to Raf. “Your stupidity has put someone I care about in danger. Now that you see what it all means, you should realize that there’s only one way you make it out of this relatively unharmed.”
“How is that?” Raf asked.
“Kill her.”
Lock advanced on him but stopped in front of the barrier. His fingers twitched and I worried he’d hurt himself trying to break through. After a moment, he turned to glare at Raf.
“I’m not going to kill her,” Raf said. “We’ve come this far and if we both go down trying to earn our freedom, I’ll accept that.”
Vas jumped to his feet. “Don’t you see? She doesn’t have to kill you. By being bound to Sam, all she has to do is consume her and the hold she has on you will strengthen tenfold. If she learns that there are others, she will keep you both in chains until she has found them. An Ark with a complete Nexus is just what she needs to regain her full power for another few centuries.”
“And why does that matter to you?” Lock asked. “If you serve her, should you not want her to achieve that?”
“I happen to believe free will is a thing that should never be taken away. To be bound to an Ark is a dangerous thing. Maybe Sam would not control him, but Sibon will not hesitate to bend Seraphim to her will relentlessly. His very breath would belong to her. That cannot happen.”
“You still haven’t explained why. He already serves her. I’m failing to see what else she could get from him that he wouldn’t already give her.”
Vas and Raf’s eyes met. My head cocked, then I closed the distance and grabbed Raf’s arm. He narrowed his eyes, but didn’t stop me as I opened a connection between us.
Immediately, I felt that wrongness that occupied his head, though it felt weaker than before. The longer I stayed, the more distant it seemed. I wondered if what he and I shared gave her less power over him. If that was the case, we needed to do this more often to ensure she couldn’t try to interfere.
I wasn’t sure what I was looking for, but whatever they were hiding between them pissed me off. They said I could control him, but I had no idea how and I didn’t want to take away his free will. Keeping secrets, though? Fuck no.
Through the connection, I felt the force of his energy. It was wild, untamed. There was heat and anger, an intensity so fierce I thought it could consume me whole.
A whimper left my lips as my skin warmed considerably. Raf’s hand cupped the side of my neck and his breaths quickened. This felt good, but terrifying. I didn’t know if I could trust him, especially after learning that his flame could harm me.
I wanted to pull back, but it felt like I was falling, tumbling further into a place I couldn’t even name. It wasn’t corporeal and I didn’t know where it existed. In our minds, maybe, or it could’ve just been some void of magical energy I was sifting through.
“Sam, let me go,” Raf demanded. I felt him pushing me, but I held tight. “Lock, help me.”
Suddenly, I was enveloped in a wave of heat. It wasn’t like the times he’d burned me, though. This made my blood boil and my bones felt like they were breaking. I thought I was screaming, but I couldn’t hear it. When I opened my eyes, it was just as dark as before.
Help me. Help me please. Was I speaking out loud?
Raf and Lock’s voices were bouncing around in my head, but I couldn’t make any of it out. I was burning, disintegrating into nothing. There would be no trace of me when this darkness was done with me.
There was a pain in my neck before the pain finally stopped.