Chapter 23
THE CREATURE
My heartbeats matched each step she took away from me, except instead of becoming quieter, they became louder as the distance grew. Oh, what it would be to paint the walls with her. What a feast that would be.
I jerked my head back along with a mouthful of bourbon, then another. Once the second swallow was down, the Fixer was already breathing on my neck.
“Slow down,” he said as he snagged my arm. “What are you doing?”
“This is stupid; why are we entertaining this foolery?” I shoved my empty glass into his hand before taking the full glass from the other.
Before he could grab me, I stepped up onto the coffee table and swiped a silver spit from a nearby appetizer tray, using it to chime the glass.
The rumbling of laughter and chatter died down like a wet ember.
“I just wanted to say that I am just so grateful for such a lovely invitation, and such wonderful hospitality from the Sire and Dam,” I began, tipping the glass to the Dam, who politely tipped hers back.
There were some laughs from the pun and confused looks relaxing among the guests.
“Not to mention the handsome crowd gathered here today!”
A few whistles and raised glasses.
In the middle of the menially jovial faces was one sour grape. My darling shadow, appropriately named for her mood-dampening attire, still and focused as ever. Not even the black veil could hide the visceral disgust she held just for me. My core was alight with a fire I could not dare name.
“You know, it feels good to be welcome somewhere.” I paced along the table, sipping the mouth-numbing cocktail that went to waste in my throat.
“America has been a bit of a shock for me. New York is so cold; it takes forever to get to the next city, but I do agree the food is better,” I joked.
Another couple laughed, but I kept eye contact with Alina as I finished my drink.
“Though I’m a bit muddy on this, let me walk it through.
” I gestured in the air. “See, I come from a rather large Nest. Larger than life! You would not believe how many Vipera we could fit on one estate. I could greet a new person every day and maybe only see the same person a handful of times in a year. High turnover, I suppose. Dozens on the premises at once, thousands more in loyalists. Reserves enough to buy fresh human meat every night, three square meals along with some of the most beautiful Hosts you could imagine.” I smirked at Alina before being handed another drink.
They started to whisper among themselves.
“And now they’re all dead.”
It was as if I let off a shotgun. The silence was deafening. I took my time and soaked it in, reveling in the tension.
Luka stiffened beside me; I could smell the sweat beading on his forehead. I could also hear dozens of pulses elevate, the sound of blood flowing faster and faster.
“Do you wanna know why?” I laughed, and no one else joined, though I caught my composure after nearly sputtering my drink.
“Because they were weak. They tricked themselves into thinking they could be like humans, civilized and poised. Which I suppose would work, if they had any sort of strength or talent. I hear America is about merits. So why are you letting humans hold you by your taints?”
“Here, here!” the drunken Sire whistled, raising a glass.
“What is stopping you from taking what you want?” I raised a glass back to the accompaniment of some whistles and a slowly resonating sound of favorable chatter. The noise of the room rumbled into a shuffling.
Blood-black eyes leered at the relatively few number of Hosts. The only ones squirming were Alina’s pretty toys.
Luka tugged my sleeve, yanking me low. “Stop it now, you fool.”
I pulled my sleeve away and threw my glass across the room. “Why do you let the food decide when you’re hungry, brothers?” I shouted, and a couple more crashes of glass followed like the symphony of a party.
Luka’s chastisements faded into the noise of it all.
Now the party is finally starting!
The phonograph skipped with the occasional screech as people bumped into it, each other, and the like.
The voices became louder, jovial as the energy of the room fed on each other, catalyzing it at a rapid rate.
Many rose to their feet, some caught Hosts, the jumping of glasses and scraping of chairs really gave me a hungry itch.
Alina desperately clawed through the crowd, unable to collect her birds before being snatched by the same rowdy Sire from the corner.
Bodies bumped and crowded me like a swelling tide, crashing into each other in careless chaos. I could see her just in between riots, closer and closer.
I couldn’t help but get giddy. Finally, I could step in, and she would have to admit I saved her. That she needed me. That—
Alina slipped from the man’s arms, her hair falling from her neat entanglement as he snatched her veil instead of her hair. Then, she dragged her knuckle across his throat, a fine line appeared, and his eyes shot open. Genuine disarmament.
It was then that I knew that the death of my Nest was no accident, no outlier, no miracle. It was destined, a matter of time. The sight before me was something I knew would be historic, a new era for our beloved prey.
Along the slice on his neck, blood came but stopped just as fast; instead, the veins turned black from the source, the skin around it slowly degraded into a leathery ash as it crept along the live skin.
He fell to the floor, his body tense like he was made of wood, and the foam from his mouth was violet, diluted with Vipera blood.
She had done it.
She had perfected her poison.
The only noise present from the aftermath of the Sire.
The attendants carefully made room to inspect the example that was made of a once-living man.
The silence was harrowing, the loud ring of fear polluting the room like pure incense.
It was thrilling, even more so knowing it could have been my neck on the end of her blade.
The Dam of the house shoved past, her talons for nails cutting through the guests in her way. Nothing would stop her from reaching the ashen remains of her lover. She tumbled to her knees, a puff of dust from the corpse making bystanders step back.
The Dam’s palms trembled as they hovered above her mate’s chest.
You would think a bloodbath would be next, and it certainly would be the case if there was much capacity left to feel after something so terrible.
I could only describe it as shock, denial of the vision before her.
Vipera were not supposed to die, not by anything less than a snap of the neck, a task requiring an inhuman amount of strength.
Even I felt the air of unease, the improbability of the thing we just witnessed.
A predator was born; the scales of nature had tipped. Evolved.
“Leave!” she wailed, a slender finger pointed at Alina. “Leave!” A horrid sob followed before she, herself, crumbled over her lover.
Georgiana hid her face, dedicated to the delicate corpse.
The scent of tears pinched my senses. The amazing thing about our keen senses was how you could read minds.
The body was honest, Alina used to say. She was right.
The Dam’s tears were of some sorrow, but the overwhelming tang of adrenaline nearly aroused my own instincts.
Her shaking was not of grief, not from her cries, but because her body was fighting the overwhelming inclination that there was something in the room that was able to kill us without as much as a lifted finger.
Alina was still, amid the havoc, unmoving before lifting her gaze from the pile of a man. She looked directly at me.
The girls did not scatter, nor did they panic at such a grotesque happening.
In her eyes, I wished I saw rage. I hoped she would scream at me, shout, or spout profanities like she once did. Considering the event, I would have taken a smug look from her at the very least.
No, she simply shook her head and walked from the abode, her girls neatly filing behind her without a word needing to be said.
Something burned in my chest, and it wasn’t the liquor.
It could have been jealousy of their fervent loyalty, but was it from power?
From fear? Both? Somedays I thought her allure was that she was beautiful and hard to catch.
The revelation should have dawned on me earlier, but it was her terror.
Raw yet tame. A fire I wanted—I needed. To possess such a thing that brings gods to their knees—or rather, turns them to dust. The ultimate flirtation with death.
I glanced at Luka, frozen, pale, and betraying a slight tremor, a once-steady man reduced by the image of what could have been all those years ago.