Chapter 24 #2
But in the past few days, it had gotten harder to pay attention. Her focus was drifting, drawing her to turn away from Aleksander just so she could gaze in the direction her heart was beating.
“No. Not really.”
Aleksander’s eyes narrowed. He cocked his head, looking at her as though she was a complex mathematical equation.
“Do you really hate yourself so much that it clouds your desire for understanding?”
“I understand just fine. I’ve seen enough aspects of this world that I get it. I don’t hate myself, I just hate that vampires are…”
Possessive. Violent. Frightening.
“We’re varied,” Aleksander said. “Wickedness exists in all groups, forms, and degrees. As does power. You’ve been with my Court for months now, and the only thing that gives me pause about you is this refusal to understand yourself, even when you’re given the chance to do so.”
“I wasn’t given—”
“You were. Just now and before, too. Angela suggested you seek me out. Yet you didn’t.”
Maya’s eyes widened. “She told you that?”
“No. I told her. I didn’t want her to share what she knew.
This matter is one she knows of in a factual sense, but she can never hope to understand it.
I doubt any creature can, if they haven’t experienced the effects of it themselves.
” The look in his eyes turned from steel to silk.
“So I ask you again. Do you have any questions for me?”
She almost bit out another no. Her reason for being here was practical, and she engaged with her duties as much as she had to and no further.
Members of Kieran’s pack had been conducting raids against their border and the people stationed there. It wasn’t organized. Just random attacks occurring out of boredom, which resulted in losses on both sides. But since she and Aleksander had shown up, they had stopped.
Instead, there was just tension. Both around her body and her heart.
“There’s this… pull. This intensity. It keeps growing, and it won’t go away. I don’t know what it is.”
It was more than a pull. It was a demand. A need to find Harper again. To feel the peace her presence afforded, to give in to the rage that came when she was threatened. A yearning based in necessity, like a falling feather drifting by the laws of gravity.
“It’s not unheard of,” Aleksander said. “It’s something many vampires experience, though how they handle it varies.
A few years ago, I asked Angela to look into it, which is how she knows about it.
According to her research, certain humans are uniquely compatible with certain fangers, summoning a pull, you could say.
It’s one-sided, meaning the human doesn’t feel it, but the supernatural creature does.
Ms. Montgomery is one such human, only she is exceptionally unique, given that she has a connection to a lycanthrope as well. ”
“She doesn’t have any connection to him,” Maya snarled.
“Said connection also makes vampires highly possessive. Something in her blood matches with yours, making it sweeter and more invigorating to you. Makes you stronger. Faster. Makes you feel alive. It only takes a taste to establish the link, and after that, your fangs will hunger for no one but the human in question. You’ll always know where they are, no matter the distance.
Will always be able to find them. Needless to say, not many humans survive that kind of attention. ”
Nausea rose in her throat. “So you’re saying that… that I could have…”
“Killed her? Yes.” His voice was even. “Did you get close to doing so?”
She tried to remember. Searched for it, because it had to be there. She had seen what vampires did to humans whose taste they liked. Had almost succumbed to it herself when a guest of her vampire master had seen her as a disposable slave rather than a favored pet.
When she’d tasted Harper, she’d wanted more. She still wanted more, if she was honest with herself. But it wasn’t as monstrous a craving as the first time she’d fed. It wasn’t mindless or ravenous.
It was just an ache. One far less agonizing than just the thought of Harper getting hurt.
“You let me be around her even though you knew of the risk?” she asked in place of an answer.
“I didn’t know for certain. I started suspecting it after you got back to Chicago. If I had known before you went to St. Louis, I would never have let you go. Even though it didn’t matter. You pulled away from her, even though you didn’t want to.”
Aleksander put a hand on her shoulder. “You are unique in more ways than one. I don’t know where your abilities start, nor where they end.
But you are more than the monster you believe yourself to be.
” That ghost of a smile returned. “And if you want to dull how painful this longing is… hearing her voice helps. In my experience.”
It sounded so simple when said like that. So easy. There was nothing she wanted more than talk to Harper, but would she even be able to? When she couldn’t even get a return text?
“I have another question,” Maya said, as Aleksander stepped away. “Why did we stay by the cabins? During training?”
“Because there was an audience. It is to our benefit that our enemies fear you. Not our allies.”
“You don’t believe that. Everyone’s afraid of you, too. You don’t seem bothered by it.”
“That’s because it doesn’t impede me. It does for you. Letting your peers see you fail at something makes you far less frightening.” He stepped away from her, turning toward the outpost. “You show promise, Maya. Take an hour to yourself and rest in that, if nothing else.”
In the next moment, he vanished. Another unexpected characteristic of the Chains Regents. They enjoyed dramatic exits, especially if they involved leaving her standing all alone in a dark forest.
She sank down onto a felled tree trunk and buried her face in her hands. She hadn’t exactly expected kindness from the King of Chains. But he’d offered just that. In his own way.
In hindsight, he’d done it in more subtle ways than just stabbing her a bunch.
All the Chains soldiers slept in close quarters, with the vampires present sharing the basement beneath the main hunting lodge.
He’d put her there, too. And since she was constantly busy, she passed out as soon as she made it to her cot.
She’d also been too exhausted to notice that the people still giving her a wide berth didn’t exude fear anymore. Diana was still the only one who talked to her, but the tentative looks being pointed her way weren’t scared now. Just curious.
A good development. One she’d craved for months. But part of her wanted to return to that old state. She would gladly deal with the whispers and frightened stares if it meant she could have Harper close again.
But maybe it was lost. Maybe distance had ruined whatever they’d had before it could gain a proper foothold.
Crunching snow cut through the quiet. Hesitant footsteps, creeping through the dark.
Maya’s head snapped up. The forest was as still as before, with the rush of the nearby river mixing with the wind.
Movement in the distance. A dark shadow, drifting between the trees.
Maya stood. She moved towards the figure, her footsteps silent and her eyes fixed on the stranger.
A man. Wearing dark camo and moving with a heavy gait.
And he had red hair.
Rage flared through Maya’s chest as she saw Booker making his way through the trees. He was downwind of the outpost, using it as cover. What he expected to gain from it, be it information or a surprise hit against the Chains, didn’t matter.
He was encroaching. And unlike all other supernatural creatures, her scent didn’t give away her presence.
She moved alongside him, drifting closer, a shadow among shadows. He kept forging ahead, moving almost sloppily, as though he wasn’t expecting to meet any danger yet.
She would show him danger. He was still wearing the scars she’d given him the last time they clashed. His throat was marred with scar tissue, and a bright red line showed around one wrist where his hand had gotten reattached.
This time, the wounds she caused wouldn’t have time to scar over.
Jaw aching, Maya let her fangs extend.
A persistent buzzing sounded from her pocket. Her phone, ringing. Booker spun towards the noise, eyes flicking around the dark.
They didn’t find her. But he didn’t waste time searching. He was a coward at heart, and cowards had good survival instincts.
He broke into a sprint, running back towards the river. She set off after him, moving slower than usual on account of Aleksander’s rigorous training regimen. She couldn’t get winded, since she didn’t need to breathe, but her muscles could still ache from exhaustion.
Booker crashed through the tree line, aiming straight for the riverbank.
With no hesitation, he tore off his jacket and leaped into the frigid water.
The temperature alone would have confined a human to a watery grave, but Booker was sturdier than that.
As Maya stopped at the bank, she was given a prime view of the man being dragged along by the current, paddling towards the opposite shore.
Maya glared after him. She could continue the pursuit, but that would draw her outside Chains territory. Though unlikely, given that he’d crossed alone, Booker might have friends close by.
She could confront them anyway. Or just scare them into handing Booker over. The fact that he was still breathing was her greatest mistake, and right then, she wanted nothing more than to amend it.
She could do it. She could cross the water and give chase once he thought himself safe. Could make him cower and beg, and then show him just how pointless either act would be. In that moment, nothing was more important than making him fucking scream.
Then her phone started ringing again.