Chapter 6 #3
“I’ll take my time,” he murmured softly, his lips brushing my ear. “Make sure her weak little vampire boyfriend watches as my guys beat him up.”
My hands curled tighter, nails digging into my palms now as I forced myself to stay still. Every instinct screamed at me to fight, to lash out, to do something, but I locked it down, forcing my body into stillness.
Eventually, the pressure on my throat eased just enough for me to drag in a shallow, ragged breath as his other hand rose into view.
His fingers flexed once, then the nails began to grow.
Slow, deliberate, they stretched into sharp, gleaming points. Each one tapered into something more blade-like than nail, the edges reflecting faintly as he turned his hand.
He exhaled softly, eyes closing for a brief second as if savoring the moment. Then one of those sharpened tips pressed lightly against my cheek.
I froze. Quick movements blurred in front of me, then pain sliced clean across my skin. I sucked in a broken breath as a warm, thick wet line trailed down the side of my cheek toward my jaw. A weak, pitiful sound escaped me.
His fingers loosened, releasing my throat, and I dropped hard against the floor, coughing as air rushed back into my lungs in uneven, painful pulls.
“After you watch all of that,” he stood over me, talking like this was a casual meet-up of friends, “then I’ll kill you.”
He pulled a pocket square from his jacket, unfolding it with care before wiping the blood from his knife-like nails as they shrank back to regular size. The white fabric stained quickly, red spreading across it before flicking it in my face.
“Do you understand?” he asked, tilting his head as he looked down at me. “Or do I need to make it clearer?”
My hands trembled as I pushed myself up just enough to meet his gaze. My throat burned with every breath, each inhale dragging rough and uneven.
“No,” I rasped. “I understand.” I tried to swallow, forcing the words out despite the ache. “Help you win… or everything I care about gets destroyed.”
I lifted my chin just slightly, steadily holding his gaze even as my body betrayed me with small, uncontrollable tremors.
He watched me for a full sixty seconds before turning away without another word.
The shift was abrupt, final. His back to me, his attention already elsewhere as if the conversation had never mattered. The soft click of his loafers echoed across the concrete, each step measured, unhurried, stretching across the empty garage.
He reached the control panel and pressed the button. The roll-up door shuddered, then began to rise. Metal groaned against metal, inch by inch, the sound dragging through the space as my pulse mimicked it.
Soft moonlight bled in slowly, cutting across the floor in a widening strip. Dust lifted in the air as the door climbed, catching in the light before settling again. Each creak landed heavier than the last.
“Good,” he said, not looking back. “For a human, you’re smarter than most.”
At the threshold, he paused just long enough to turn his head. The light from outside caught his face, casting half of it in shadow while the other half revealed that same easy smile.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, sweetheart.”
A low chuckle followed him out into the night.
The sound lingered for a moment, then faded with the rhythm of his footsteps. The engine outside roared to life not long after, the vibration carrying faintly through the walls before it disappeared into the distance.
Only then did the silence settle back in and my body gave out.
I sank to the floor, the cool concrete pressing against my back as I let myself fully sink onto it. The pain dulled slightly against the cold surface. My eyes drifted up to the metal ceiling, tracing the beams running overhead in straight, unbroken lines.
My chest heaved, breath coming too fast as everything I’d kept buried began to break loose.
I clamped a hand over my mouth, smothering the sound before it could escape, but it didn’t stop the rest of me.
My shoulders trembled in small, uneven jerks I couldn’t control, the shaking spilling down my arms, into my fingers, until it consumed me entirely.
The strength I desperately held on to earlier dissipated, no longer an option.
Just as I felt myself giving way to despair, a thought struck, sudden and sharp.
Alto. He needs to know. It’s the right thing to do.
The image of him in the front office, laughing with customers, leaning over the counter with that easy smile, flashed through my mind. His horrified face once he knew what I had agreed to. My fingers curled tighter against my face.
Manshu’s voice echoed back in my head. The way he’d said it. The way he hadn’t needed to raise his tone for this threat to land.
I knew he was at least as strong as Alto, maybe stronger, and if I told Alto, he would insist on facing him alone.
I squeezed my eyes shut, but it only made it worse, Tera’s face flashing behind my eyelids, twisted with grief, her screams ringing out as she clutched Alto’s lifeless body.
The blame in her eyes was unmistakable, fixed squarely on me.
No. That was not going to happen. Not because of me.
My lids lifted, fixing on the ceiling for a moment as I turned over Manshu’s words in my head, the name he had given, the one who had betrayed me. My hands curled at my sides, fists tightening.
Yendor.
The image of him earlier had me seeing red. The fidgeting, glancing toward the office, words caught in his throat, all of it lined up too neatly now.
My jaw clenched as I pictured grabbing him by the neck and shaking him until something solid formed where his spine should’ve been. Forcing him to understand what his fear had cost us, cost me.
The image fell apart just as quickly when I realized he must have been scared too. Just like me. Different reactions, same result.
A slow breath slipped out through my nose as I dragged myself back from the pull of vengeance because it wouldn’t change anything. I was still here, still stuck in this situation.
Quickly wiping at my cheeks, I brushed away the dampness before it could linger. This was mine, my problem, which meant I was the one who had to fix it.
Rolling onto my side, I slowly pushed myself up, the movement tugging at the ache in my back. My balance wavered for a moment before I steadied and forced myself to stand.
The garage looked the same as it always did. Tools in place. Workbench clear. The cot tucked into the corner. Nothing had changed.
Except everything had.
I made my way toward the cot, each step slower than the last, one hand brushing against the edge of a table for balance. The small cabinet beside it creaked open when I pulled it, the familiar contents inside exactly where I’d left them.
The jar of healing cream Alto got me for Christmas sat near the front. It worked wonders on all the cuts I got from working on cars.
I unscrewed the lid, the faint scent of herbs and magic rising up as I dipped my fingers into it. Carefully, I pressed it along the cut on my cheek. The sting flared briefly before settling into a dull warmth.
It would be gone by morning. Like it never happened.
Clearing away the rest of the blood with a rag, I moved slower than usual, more deliberately. Each motion grounded me a little more, pulling me back into something steady, something I understood.
By the time I was done, the garage had fallen completely quiet again.
I sat on the edge of the cot for a moment, then lowered myself down, wincing as my back protested against the thin mattress. The canvas dipped beneath me, familiar and unforgiving.
My eyes drifted to the ceiling again, and my mind… It didn’t stop.
His car. Every flaw I’d noticed in the split-second I’d seen it. The weight distribution. The tuning. The way the engine sounded when it pulled away.
Adjustments. Upgrades. Better ways to build it flooded my mind. The thoughts lined themselves up automatically, one after another, solutions forming faster than I could stop them.
Eventually, my eyes grew heavy. The ceiling faded.
Just before sleep took me, something warm, wet, slipped down the side of my face, trailing into my hair.
I didn’t wipe it away.
Just this once, I would let the tears run, but after tonight, never again.