Chapter 32
Sam
Well, Vas’ willingness to share trade secrets hadn’t lasted. Whatever had possessed him to be forthcoming before was gone and we were left with nothing. I was fucking pissed about it.
“Calm down,” Raf instructed around two whole Oreos he’d stuffed in his mouth.
I wrinkled my nose. “What’s with you and cookies?”
His eyes widened slightly. “What’s with me and cookies? Sam, have you tasted cookies?”
“Clearly I have.”
It was silent, then something hit me in the head. I caught the Oreo before it fell to the ground, shooting Raf a glare.
“Don’t throw things at me.”
“Or what?” he taunted. “Are you gonna send your little mate in here to get his heart turned into a Chicharrón?”
“Fuck you, Raf.”
Before I could make it to the door, he appeared in front of me. He leaned against the frame casually, tapping his fingers against the wood.
“Move,” I demanded.
“You’ve become super grumpy as an immortal.”
“You haven’t been much better lately.”
“You’re right,” he mused. “We haven’t been ourselves. Let’s go out.”
“Out,” I repeated dryly. “I’ll pass.”
“No passing. You demanded my acquiescence and whined about teamwork. I’m trying to give you what you want.”
“I think you’re trying to be annoying.”
“If you want the slightest chance of surviving longer than a year, I suggest you get on board. Otherwise, we’re likely to have more mishaps like the one earlier.”
“How will going out prevent that?”
“Trust, Sam. We’re literally connected by some freaky magical leash and you’re attempting deep dives into my fucking soul.”
“Is that what I did?”
“No, but it’s a more interesting way to say things. Let’s go.”
“Lock will freak out if I disappear.”
“Send him a text and get your ass moving. He’s busy anyway.”
I could see him across the lake, sitting at the edge of our dock with his feet in the water. He was staring down into it intently, as if watching something. Whatever he was up to, I was pretty sure I didn’t want to know, so I sighed heavily and held a hand out to Raf. He grinned, then took it and shifted us to smoke. I let him lead, curious what his idea of a fun time was.
When we materialized, I was attacked by sensory overload. A loud beat pounded in my ears and flashing lights made me shut my eyes. I smelled sweat, alcohol, and something bitter that reminded me of the way some pills tasted.
“Sam,” Raf said in my ear.
“Clubbing? Really?”
“You’re twenty-one. This should be your ideal scene.”
“It’s not. There’s a reason I chose to work in a bar that didn’t have this type of crowd.”
“This is the best place to hunt on a Friday night.”
Opening my eyes, I looked around at the tightly packed bodies. “There are too many eyes.”
“That’s because you’re used to being loud and making a mess. We’re not doing that.”
“Alright, you’re activating Sage mode. I’ll humor you.”
He smiled before grabbing my hand and pulling me toward the bar.
“Two vodkas,” he told the bartender.
He slid one to me and raised his expectantly. I tapped his glass and took the shot, shuddering when I finished. The shitty thing about having heightened senses was that cheap liquor tasted cheaper. No wonder Lock hated drinking at my bar.
“If you want to really feel it, you drink from someone that already has it in their blood,” Raf explained. “You can smell it.”
He grabbed the arm of a woman walking by, pulling her into his lap. Dipping his face into her neck, he inhaled deeply. The woman tried to move away, but he tightened his grip.
“Relax,” he purred. “You’re a lovely little thing.”
She blushed. “Oh. Thank you.”
He stroked her jaw with his thumb. “Tell me your name.”
“Courtney. What’s yours?”
“I’m Raf. This is my friend, Samara. Careful. She’s quite touchy these days. I’d go so far as to call her deadly, like nightshade.”
His eyes twinkled when he met my gaze. Courtney was tense and wouldn’t look directly at me. Her fear woke something in me, making me lean forward to smell her. The scent of alcohol was in her veins and combined with her blood, it forced my fangs to descend.
Raf raised a brow. “For someone that hunts with Lock, I’m surprised he hasn’t taught you better control.”
I pursed my lips, trying to hide my canines, but they just jabbed me. When I took a deep breath, my gums ached more. Now that the instinct to hunt was activated, I could smell blood everywhere. I could fucking hear it moving through their veins.
“Come on,” he said, standing and wrapping an arm around Courtney’s waist. “Let’s go somewhere a little quieter.”
“Why?” she asked, trying to step away.
“My friend is a bit overstimulated. I promise you’ll have a good time.”
She glanced at me, her brow furrowing when she saw the awkward way I was covering my mouth. When Raf began walking, she reluctantly let him drag her along. I followed him out a side door, then around the back of the building.
The fresh night air helped me regain enough control to shorten my canines. I watched curiously as Raf pushed Courtney up against a wall. It reminded me of that night in the alley when he’d shown me what obsequium meant. The memory made me uncomfortable and I wished Lock were here with me instead.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“I’m going to teach you something.”
“It looks like you’re going to fuck some random bitch up against a wall.”
He hummed thoughtfully as he brushed his lips over Courtney’s. She rose on her toes to get closer and he smiled before grabbing her by the throat and kissing her. My eyes widened at the way she so readily accepted his touch. She’d been afraid and uncertain, but that seemed to have faded away.
I crossed my arms, contemplating just going home. What was Raf trying to teach me? How to get herpes behind a sketchy nightclub was my best guess.
One of his hands traveled under her sequined top to grip her side. With his grip on her throat, he tilted her head and moved his lips to her neck.
“Were you paying attention?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I replied. “Your tongue game needs work.”
He breathed a laugh against her skin. “Look at her eyes.”
Moving to his other side, I looked at Courtney. She wasn’t staring at anything in particular and her eyes were vacant. The scent of her blood became overwhelming when he bit into her neck.
I fought to maintain control of myself. My body was all but buzzing with the need to taste her. I had blood after I woke up from my little death nap, but right now it felt like I hadn’t fed in days.
Raf pulled away and looked at me. His lips were dripping red and it forced my fangs out further than they were before.
“That’s kind of pathetic,” he noted.
“Don’t be rude.”
“Come here, you fucking Novus.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“It’s what you are, and you haven’t taken the time to learn blood control. It’s even more imperative with how much you need to drink.”
Grinding my teeth, I joined him, my mouth watering when I saw the puncture marks on Courtney’s neck. The way he’d bitten her didn’t cause nearly as much of a mess as when I bit Lewis. While being covered in it had been exhilarating, this was obviously more practical.
I lunged forward, but Raf blocked me. With a growl, I shoved at his arm. When he still didn’t relent, I struck out at him. His hand locked around my throat and I was shoved against the wall beside Courtney.
“Stop acting like an animal,” he said.
“Just let me feed. That’s why we’re here.”
“No, because you’re going to kill her.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “That’s kind of how this works.”
“You’re so fucking bloodthirsty, but I guess you don’t know any better. This one is going to be dinner, then she’s going to return to the club.”
“Don’t be all self-righteous. We’re vampires. We feed. We kill.”
“This isn’t some ‘doing what’s right’ spiel, Sam. As vampires that have to drink significantly more blood than others, we can’t go around killing all of our victims. There may be times when you don’t have the means to drink from blood bottles, which means you have to hunt. You can’t leave bodies scattered everywhere, so you drink and leave them with enough to walk away.”
“That just sounds like we’re leaving loose ends.”
“Some won’t remember a thing, especially if they’re under the influence. They’re drawn in by us and the allure makes their memories hazy. Not all of them are weak, though.”
“And we kill those ones,” I guessed.
“No. We use our super special abilities because we’re cooler than other vampires.”
“I don’t understand.”
He turned toward Courtney, who was still in a semi-vegetative state.
“We fuck with their brains.”
Raising a finger in the air, he released a tiny tendril of smoke that turned into something akin to a spark.
“When I was younger, I played around with my abilities. I don’t like hearing them scream.” His eyes darkened, then he cleared his throat. “Humans can’t study many things because they’re unethical, so they’re left with a very shallow understanding of how the living brain works. I found that at the right temperature, a spark like this one can stimulate certain responses.
“Done correctly, this can be sent into their heads for many purposes. You can dull their pain receptors, shut off most of their senses permanently or temporarily, silence them, and affect their memories.”
“Is that what you did to Courtney?”
“One of these is suppressing a place in her prefrontal cortex that is responsible for forming memories. While it’s there, she won’t be able to create any substantial images of what happened here. She may remember being afraid or some of the things leading up to us coming out here, but nothing that would make any sense.”
“And what about the bite mark?” I asked, motioning to her neck.
He shrugged. “If the simple allure of my vampiric nature is enough, her mind will gloss over it. In any other case, it just doesn’t matter.”
“How?”
“What the fuck is she going to do? She won’t remember, so she’ll have no real basis for any explanation she might come up with. If she sees puncture marks and thinks she was bit by a vampire, she and everyone else will think she’s crazy. Eventually, she’ll move on.”
“This all seems overly complicated. Lock doesn’t appear concerned about just killing people.”
He released my neck and shook his head. “Lock knows how to manage the carnage he deals. Do you think he chooses his victims because he actually cares about justice? His mother instilled that idea into him to keep him safe because she knew what he was. He never cared enough about her or anyone else, barring you, to stick to that code, but he’s smart enough to know that people care less about vagrants and criminals. Killing them means he can more easily get away with the number of victims he claims.
“Aside from that, he has incredible blood control. He is a mass murderer, but every single kill he makes is purposeful, driven by his own desire to inflict pain, not an instinct built into his vampire DNA. You, on the other hand, have not learned how to control yourself. Kill as many people as you like if it brings you fulfillment, but mistakes happen when you’re mindless with bloodlust.”
I hated that he had a point. Maybe Lock didn’t think about it because he’d never needed to practice blood control. It could have also slipped his mind during all of the other chaos we’d been through. Regardless, I had to be grateful that Raf was here to help me. If I was being honest, Lock probably wouldn’t even know how to go about it and we’d both end up frustrated, then killing or fucking. Probably both.
“Okay, I want to try,” I said, bringing my own orange smoke into my hand. It took a while, but eventually I managed to create a small spark like he had.
“Go up her nose carefully,” he instructed, planting his hands on my shoulders from behind.
“Okay. Now what?”
“If you focus, you should be able to sense where mine is. We can practice this as many times as you need until you know exactly how to position it. It’ll become like an instinct.”
Biting my lip, I guided the spark toward his. It was fucking difficult. Even though it was connected to me and I could feel it, not being able to actually see the thing made me anxious.
“I think I’m almost there.”
“Go slow,” he said. “You don’t want to-”
Courtney dropped to the ground; something cracked when she hit the asphalt. I stared down at her, listening to the slowing of her heart. When it stopped beating, I slumped against the wall.
To my surprise, Raf laughed. “You’re going to need a lot more practice, young Padawan.”
“Fuck off. It was my first try.”
“Well, let’s get another. You pick this time.”
“Okay, but I’m not making out with them like you did.”
“It’s a lot more fun, but you do you, sunshine.”
Raf was still inside the bar doing god knows what, but I didn’t want to be in there. It was loud and I had my fill of blood. Maybe it would’ve been fun if I was in a better mood.
I flipped my dagger over my fingers, trying to mimic the way Lock did it. He must’ve possessed some blade-wielding magic because it seemed impossible. The way he moved was so adept and smooth, as if he was connected to the soul of the weapon.
With a frustrated huff, I sent it flying. My eyes were able to track it and I watched as it sank into the trunk of a tree. At least that was something I could manage.
What was really weighing on my mind tonight was home. Not the place I claimed now, but the one I’d come from. Ever since we’d gone to Alabama, I’d been thinking about it more.
Did I have any desire to reconnect with those people? No, but my business there felt unfinished. Maybe I wanted revenge. Whatever it was, I thought I needed to give myself a chance to figure it out.
I’d dreamed about Joseph again the other night, which might have contributed to it. Since Lock was, well, Lock, I hadn’t mentioned the dream to him. He’d probably come up with a hundred ways to filet the poor guy, and that wasn’t what I wanted. I harbored a certain amount of resentment for him, but I also knew he was a victim in that place. He was different than they were. At least, he used to be. Judging by Lock’s interaction with him, I hoped that was still the case.
It was far from a priority right now, but if we might be facing death at some point in the near future, this might be the only time. What was the worst that could happen?
Well, I could probably obliterate Fern Springs from the map. It was a good thing I had my magic fairy on my side.