Chapter Two
PISCES
A splatter of rain falls on my cheek. I tug my hood down over my forehead instead of stepping further back into the alcove my friends and I are waiting in.
“Any sign of him yet?” Shaun asks in his usual matter-of-fact way. Especially at times like this, he’s all business.
“Nope,” I say, popping the “p” and glancing over at him with a brow raised. Somehow, despite the dismal weather, not a single strand of his short golden blonde hair is out of place. “How long are we going to wait?”
It’s already getting light out and we’ve waited for this vamp almost all night.
Evan shifts his position on the ground, switching which leg he has extended out in front of him.
He flicks his lighter open, letting the little flame dance.
As a fire elemental, he can still wield the other elements, but fire is his strongest and flame or heat is the only way he can recharge his magic.
“You do have a busy day tomorrow, mate.”
Shaun ignores him, glancing at his watch. “Marcus said there’s been a turned vampire feeding in this alleyway for the past three nights. He’ll show.”
“Maybe he’s gorged himself and is still sleeping it off,” Benny supplies, running a hand casually through his dark brown waves. He sits on crates stacked along the back wall of the alcove. “That’s what happened to me when I turned.”
Evan and Shaun exchange a look. “We know,” Evan responds with a small smirk. Benny huffs out a breath and returns to watching the alley in the direction behind me. I follow suit, trying to keep my mind off tomorrow—well, later today.
I slow my breathing, attempting to check in with my friends’ emotions.
Shaun and Evan are fairly unreadable, but that’s normal.
I think they’ve developed ways of shielding me out.
But Benny is an open book. Thankfully, he’s peaceful, with just a hint of anticipation.
Very at odds with the adrenaline poised to run its course through my veins.
My fingers twitch with the desire to move across piano keys in an effort to dispel the excess energy.
But I have a job to do, so I clench them firmly at my sides.
“Incoming,” I say, spotting two women attempting to walk down the cobblestone alley in high heels. They look hungover and tired from a night of partying. Perfect prey for a ravenous vampire.
The others follow my gaze. Evan snaps his lighter shut, getting to his feet and coming to stand next to me. He’s an inch taller than me when we’re both wearing shoes, since he always opts for boots with a bit of a platform. As if being six five isn’t tall enough.
We barely have enough time to react when a large body jumps off the fire escape of the building across from us, slamming into one of the women, knocking the other over in the process.
It’s a mix of screams from the women and hungry shrieks from the vampire as he bites into the neck of the blonde one.
Her friend gets to her feet, screaming her head off.
But then Shaun is there, ripping the vamp off the blonde and throwing him to the ground in front of Evan, who makes a disgusted face. “Stars, do you think he’s high?”
My attention snags on the vampire’s face. His eyes are bloodshot, and there’s blood and gore caked all over him. He snarls up at Evan, crouching, readying to attack again.
I can’t help but allow my siren teeth to slide out of my gums. It’s a reaction to the blood and the violence. The urge to rip into someone is strong.
I push it down, though, even as the newly Made fae launches at Evan, who puts out his hands to wield his magic.
The ground around the vampire rumbles and cracks, and his uneven footing sends him crashing back to the now destroyed cobblestones.
Benny is able to restrain his arms from behind him, but the vamp struggles against Benny and gnashes his teeth at Evan, his gaze finding mine.
I stare him down, sparing a quick glance at Shaun. He has successfully gotten the two women a safe distance away. Sunlight starts to gleam down on us. “We need to use the tranq,” Shaun orders. “Evan, heal them and get them out of here.”
Benny takes the tranq needle out of his pocket, holding on to the vampire with only one hand.
The vampire falls still for a moment. He turns, sinking his teeth into Benny.
He lets out a groan—probably realizing that fae taste way better than humans—and pushes Benny to the ground, the rest of us forgotten.
Maybe it’s the scent of my friend’s blood—a scent that causes me to salivate—but suddenly I’m ripping into the vamp from behind.
I think Benny is able to kick himself free of our tangled limbs, but I’m not sure because all I can focus on is taking another bite and another.
I turn him around, straddling him as I rip into his neck, relishing in the taste of his blood and flesh as I swallow it.
“Pisces! Let him go!” someone shouts at me.
Strong hands pull me off the vampire, who’s now gone slack and wide-eyed, staring at me like I’m the monster. Benny finishes his job of tranquilizing him as I sink into Evan’s side, satiated. Awareness floods back into me as the vampire’s scared expression fades into sleep.
I rip out of Evan’s hold, pulling my hood up once again as I leave my friends behind in the alleyway.
We were there to catch a monster.
Fucking hypocrites.
Because I am a monster, much more so than any vampire.
“He’s awake,” Benny says softly from the door to my bedroom. I thought I’d closed it. Locked it, actually, but Benny’s never met a lock he couldn’t magically pick.
“Is he healed?” I ask, throat tight. Images of me ripping into the poor turned vampire flash through my mind. I can see myself attacking him, my hood falling back, blood splashing my light skin and dark hair. And then later, the blood rinsing down the drain in an almost unending stream.
“Good as new.” Benny sits on my bed, but I don’t look at him. I keep my gaze on the ceiling. “Sces?” he asks, shortening my name in a way that used to annoy me when we first met.
It’s been about six years since I moved in with them, into an old church that Evan bought and slowly fixed up.
It’s become a haven for the four of us and anyone else that needs it.
Currently about nine of us live here, a mix of Born and Made fae and kindreds who have nowhere else to go.
And it hasn’t just been a roof over my head.
I’ve found a slice of salvation—as much as a wraith-made fae like me can.
“That’s the perk of feeding off other fae.
It’s really fucking hard to kill one of us that way,” Benny reminds me, picking up my hand and threading his fingers through mine.
I squeeze his fingers, closing my eyes against the tears that threaten to spill.
At least I haven’t fed off a human since the night I found out what I’d turned into.
But the memory of what I did that night lingers fresh in my mind, as if it happened yesterday.
“I lost control,” I manage to say, even as tears leak out of my closed lids.
“That’s normal,” Benny soothes. “It takes time to get things under control. You have to learn how to forgive yourself.”
“How did you forgive yourself?” I look at him, a sob wanting to escape me, but I take a deep breath instead. “You said you were like that vampire, that you went on a binge?”
He nods, looking out my window into the gray London sky.
“I killed a lot people, Sces. I honestly don’t even remember most of it.
When vampires turn we go insane with bloodlust. I’m just grateful Evan and Shaun found me when they did.
And that’s why I stayed with them. It’s why I help them out, and—” he looks at me pointedly, “—it’s why I wanted to play music with you so badly. ”
“Why?”
“For the same reason you write it, I suppose,” he says cryptically. I stare at him until he says more. He lets out a sigh and nudges me with his shoulder. “It’s absolving.”
Benny stands up, tugging me off the bed. “Come see the newbie vamp. He’s completely healed, awake, and not unhinged by blood anymore.” The corners of his mouth tick up. “You can apologize for trying to eat him.”
I allow Benny to lead me to the basement, where we found it was necessary to install a few barred cells to restrain newer fae when we first find them. All but one cell is empty, the vamp sitting cross-legged on a cot in the corner.
Evan’s arm snags out and stops me from entering the room. I glare at him, looking between his face and his arm. Some of his bleach blonde hair has escaped his bun. “Problem?” I grit out.
“You good?” he asks, green eyes fixed on me.
I flash my teeth at him. My normal ones. “Peachy. I ate not too long ago, if you recall.”
I push past him, knocking his arm away from me, and follow Benny into the room, catching Benny’s disapproving look to Evan. The vamp shifts on his cot once he notices me.
“Austin, this is Pisces.”
“The one that tried to eat you,” Evan supplies from behind me, as if anyone could forget me feeding off them.
I look over my shoulder at him. “Thanks,” I deadpan.
He smirks at me. “Welcome.”
“Would you two do this later?” Benny chides, stepping into the cell. I didn’t even notice him unlock it. He leans against the bars, turning his attention to Austin. “Do you remember when or where you were turned? And by who?”
Austin looks between Evan and I for a second. He nods. “I don’t remember when or where exactly. Time kinda stopped making any sense.”
“That’s fairly normal,” Benny says, nodding as well.
“But I know who turned me. It was a vampire named Stretcher.”
“Stretcher?” Evan asks. “What the fuck kinda name is Stretcher?”
Austin shrugs. “He’s a friend of a friend. I don’t think that’s his real name, but he’s in a band and they all have these weird stage names.”
Benny looks out of the cell at Evan and I, grinning. “Fucking weird.”
I can’t help but smile back. All four of us have our own stage names.
Though none as bad as Stretcher.
“Why’d he turn you?” Shaun asks from the doorway.
I shuffle over to make room for him to stand outside the cell with us, forcing Evan to also take a step back.
He shoots a glare my way, half-heartedly elbowing me in the chest, hitting my right nipple piercing.
I rub at the sensitive bud and I show him my canines again.
“Would you two stop fucking around?” Shaun barks, then pins Austin with his stormy blue eyes.
Austin seems to curl into himself on the cot. “We uhh—we hooked up a couple of times. Just after shows and stuff. It wasn’t anything serious, well, at least I thought, but then he started showing up everywhere.”
“Seems like his stage name should be Stalker,” Evan huffs out.
“At one point he showed up where I work, and he was saying all this crazy stuff about wanting to be together forever.” Austin breaks out into a sob. “Why did he do this to me?”
Benny lowers himself onto the cot beside Austin, comforting him. “It’s not uncommon for vampires to get like that. Possessive. Obsessed.”
“You seem normal,” I say, trying to offer the newer vampire hope.
Benny nods. “Inner work is pretty helpful.”
Austin leans into Benny, his sobs only getting louder. Benny exchanges a look with Shaun and the wolf shifter herds us out of the room. “I think only Benny being in there for now will be good. Austin needs to see what he can become if he puts in the work.”
I nod, exhaling through my nose. “I wanted to apologize to him, but I guess it can wait.”
“It’s not like you were doing anything he wasn’t doing,” Shaun says, shrugging.
“It still wasn’t right.”
“No, it wasn’t,” Evan cuts in before Shaun can. “You lost control. If he’d been human, you would have killed him.” Evan glares at me, and I know he’s thinking I should have this handled by now. He turns away from me and heads back up the stairs, leaving Shaun and I standing there.
Shaun takes a few steps up the stairs and turns, looking down at me. “Pisces, you’re doing good. Evan’s never been through what you have. He doesn’t understand what you’re battling. I’ll talk to him.”
“Don’t.” I shake my head. “I need him to be hard on me.”
“Are you calling Benny and I soft?” Shaun asks, a rare smile coming to his face.
I grin. “Yes, that’s exactly how I’d describe you both,” I say, a genuine laugh bubbling out of my throat. “Nah, Evan just gets under my skin sometimes.”
“He’d say the same thing about you.”
My grin grows. “Well, then I’m doing something right.” We continue up the stairs. “Probably time to get ready for your ceremony, isn’t it?”