27. Amethyst
Twenty-Seven
Amethyst
A fter tidying the house a bit, I called the body shop to check on Delilah. It was a hard decision, but I ultimately told them not to do any repairs to her. From what they were able to tell me; diesel was put in the tank. When I tried to drive her home that night, it destroyed the engine.
I don’t remember making such a massive mistake, but I’ve been scatter brained since coming home. I guess anything is possible.
With a sigh, I plop down on the couch and pull up my app to the local pizza place.
Pizza makes everything better. I tap through the options like second nature and place an order for a pepperoni and pineapple thin crust with a side of cheese sticks.
I close that app, staring at the home screen of my phone.
For the first time since coming home I feel the urge to open my Hourglass.
Biting the nail of my thumb, I tap the icon.
The first video is a day in the life with one of the girls I had gotten to know fairly well in Angel’s Rest. She always finds the most interesting items at thrift shops.
Swiping to the next video, it’s of a cat being rescued. Just the wholesome energy I needed.
But as I swipe to the next — my heart stops .
I recognize the woman. She does quick news videos and in the top right corner is a picture of me.
Me shirtless on Skyler’s lap in the hotel bed.
She’s speaking, but I can’t hear anything.
My phone falls from my hands, hitting the floor with a thud.
Blood pulses in my ears as my world crumbles around me.
Somehow, I force myself up. Fumbling for the keys in my pocket, only one thought blares in my mind. Skyler. Retrieving my phone from the floor and quickly switching Hourglass for my contact list, I rush toward the door. As my hand wraps around the knob, a choking grip tightens around my throat.
From the cool feel of the flesh, I already know who it is. The scent of blood mixed with mint only confirms it. Without even a moment to scream, I’m on the floor. Enzo’s fingers fist into my hair, roughly pulling me along behind him. This can’t be real. It’s a nightmare just like the others.
Except this time, it is real. My nose really is bleeding from how hard I hit the floor. I feel it dripping over my lip. Taste it on my tongue.
Tears sting my eyes even though I know they serve no purpose. I mourn the life I could have had. Torn away from me in the blink of an eye. I can only assume he’s here to finish the job, and I am helpless to stop it. I never learned how to shift, and projecting won’t protect my physical body.
Enzo grabs my wrists with such force I fear the bones will snap. I frantically fight his hold, but he’s leagues stronger than me. It’s like trying to move a mountain with a feather. Discouragement seeps through my veins. I can’t win this.
Numbness takes over my limbs, and I drift out of this reality, losing myself in thoughts of mine and Skyler’s time together. The universe is purely fucking cruel. Were a few short weeks truly all we’re allowed to have?
“You’re certainly a crafty bitch, Ame, I’ll give you that.” Enzo’s treacherous voice unfortunately filters through. “Or should I say, Amethyst?” He lets out a disgusted huff. “Imagine my disappointment when there was not a single address in Quartzville registered to the name Ame Langley.”
Through blurry eyes, I realize he has my phone in his hand. A growl tries to escape, dying on my tongue as he presses my thumb to the screen. “No matter. I’ve found you now and you’ll pay for making me look like a fool. This has been a PR nightmare. You were supposed to be mine .”
His fingers tap on the screen of my phone. “As if some small-town nobody could be better than me.” Clicking his tongue, he taunts, “Let’s see how well he handles your rejection.”
A scream tears up my throat, “NO!” I desperately try to get up, but to no avail. “Leave him out of it, Enzo!” I sob, “It’s me you want, please.” I beg shamelessly.
A laugh answers my plead. “These messages are pathetic,” Enzo mocks, “You called him Angel , really?” My cheek falls back against the floor as I hear the swoosh of the message sending. Enzo tosses the phone, kneeling in front of me.
“You honestly thought no one would recognize you? That dying your hair would be good enough to disguise you?” He laughs in my face.
“You might not have been famous by any means, but Hourglass has millions of viewers. Surely you didn’t think not one single person from this pitiful fucking town would be one of them.
” He takes my chin between his fingers, and I fight the urge to vomit.
Leaning closer his words brush against my ear, “So naive, darling.” A growl does lick its way out this time as my eyes narrow.
He chuckles, still holding my face. “A picture is worth a million dollars. Or however the saying goes,” he shrugs.
“You can thank your pink-haired friend for the lovely photo. To think she almost backed out of our deal after getting chummy with you. But she came around after a little reminder of what happens to people who cross me.”
Disbelief sparks in my chest. Nitasha took the picture, sold it to Enzo, and left me for dead. The fast friendship, the odd disappearances. Goddess above! Delilah… I should have trusted my intuition. I never fucking do and always pay for it.
It’s my fault too, for leaving the fucking curtains open at the hotel.
Goddess, how could I be this stupid? Fear took over after hearing the voice outside, and I couldn’t bring myself to go near enough to close them.
Then while I was wrapped up in Skyler, the curtains were the farthest thing from my mind.
The worst part is that I can understand Nitasha’s side. She didn’t know what revealing my location would mean for me. She just saw the opportunity and took it. Who wouldn’t want a million dollars for one quick photo? This was all Enzo. Goddess only knows what he did to her. But why ?
“What makes me worth all this trouble, all this money? Why couldn’t you just leave me the fuck alone?” Dropping my face, he stands, crossing his arms. “Lover boy didn’t tell you? I’ve looked into him. I know he’s a shifter and he knows what you are.” What the hell is that supposed to mean?
“A shifter? A witch? What part is it that makes me special?” I press. The bastard plasters a smug grin on his face, huffing another laugh. “Mirixia’s fangs. You don’t know. How wonderful.” “Feel like fucking sharing?” I snap. Enzo tuts, “Patience, darling. We’re waiting on our audience.”
A knock sounds at the door and my heart stops. No, Skyler. Don’t come here. “Don’t worry. He’s not here yet. Just your pizza.” I bare my teeth at the mention of Skyler.
He doesn’t need to see this. He needs to stay far away. “Bare those fangs all you want, darling, it does no good when you don’t know how to use them.”
Enzo disappears to retrieve my fucking pizza. I close my eyes, shutting everything out.
Turns out pizza does not make everything better.
Rage simmers beneath my skin. This can’t be the end; it just can’t be. A new sensation ripples across my chest. It feels akin to my fury, but underneath, it is pure anguish. If that emotion is coming from Skyler, then he must have read the message from Enzo.
The devil himself enters the room once more.
“I will kill you, Enzo. Even if it isn’t in this life; I will fucking kill you.”
He just raises his hands, wiggling his fingers, “Oh no, a wolf stuck in her human form. I’m shaking in my boots.” He turns back to me, taunting, “Look at her eyes glow, but no wolf to be found. It’s a shame, really. What a waste.”
He paces the floor with his hands folded behind his back. “You have more power than you know, and no clue how to use it. So rarely do traits from more than two species manifest in one child.” He chuckles darkly. “You and I could have ruled this fucking world.
“How about a taste of real power while we wait? You were supposed to stay asleep far longer the night you left. But you just had to wake up while I was out taking care of another errand.” I quirk a brow. “What does that have to do with powers?”
“So clueless, it was what I loved most about you.” He kneels in front of me again, “Vampires can manipulate minds, darling. Alter memories. Make you see a rainbow where there was a tornado.”
My mouth hangs open in shock at this new development. His voice is sinister. “Perhaps make you remember falling asleep on the couch watching a movie. When actually you were being drained of all that delicious blood.”
I’m frozen, thinking back on every memory I have of Enzo. Are they all fake? “Care to see? It won’t hurt.” He shrugs, flicking his fingers, “Much.” If what he says is true and he’s altered my memories, if there were more than one time when he...
“Goddess, no. Keep them how they are.”
A sharp pain splits my brain in half. My eyes squeeze shut and I curl in on myself.
“Too late.”
Enzo’s voice barely registers. The pain is unimaginable but the scene playing out behind my eyelids is even worse. Just as he said, we were on the couch in his suite watching a movie. But I remembered falling asleep alone in my apartment.
The true memory shows his arms looped under mine, holding my head to the side and locking me in place while he drinks from my neck. And when my consciousness becomes hazy, it isn’t from sleep. It’s from blood loss. But if he’s done this more than once, then how...
“Amazing, isn’t it? I could drink and drink, but you’d never die.
I didn’t believe it. That an angel’s blood could add centuries to a vampire’s life span.
Turns out, it was true. The only cost is the vampire’s sanity.
” My body shudders, the remnants of the splitting pain still rippling through my skull.
“But who needs a brain, when their body could walk the earth for all eternity?
“That’s why the angels fled this world thousands of years ago. And yet, it’s told that some of those brave souls stayed behind, disguising themselves by wearing contact lenses. But you,” his head tilts, a manic smile spreading across his lips and sending a shiver down my spine.
“You my naive, darling girl didn’t know any better.” Leave it to me to be the target and cause of his insanity. “Anyway, lover boy should be here soon. Guess he missed the history lesson after all, but don’t worry. I’ll drain him, too. You’d hate for him to be left out wouldn’t you?”
What stands before me is no man. Enzo is pure, sentient evil. “But not before he watches me drink every last drop of that delicious fucking blood.”