Chapter 55
Fifty-Five
MARIS
Just as quickly as I went through the window and accepted my fate of dying in the middle of the street everything changes again.
“Open your eyes, mortal.”
I jerk in surprise and open my eyes. I’m suspended in the air a few feet off the ground. The idiot that stepped in front of me has his hand out towards me. I look from him to the other four hooded people with him. When they push back their hoods I realize they’re not people.
“You’re a vampire,” I whisper.
The man drops his hand and I fall. I hit the ground with a groan. The injuries I have are minimal from going through the windshield. Somehow, I’m not that hurt. The fall hurt more. I roll onto my back and look up at the sky. The five vampires move in a blur and surround me.
“How do you know what we are?”
A scream rings out through the air and we hear the sound of shattering glass. “A lucky guess,” I mutter and slowly push myself up into a sitting position. “A little air? I know you don’t need that but some of us are still alive. Back up and give me some space.”
They move back a step instantly. I didn’t think they would listen to me. Apparently, neither did they.
“She’s a witch, Ethan. You should have let her die,” one of them sneers.
“I’m not a witch.” I get to my feet unsteadily and look them over. They’ve arranged into a half circle around me.
The man that dropped me gives me a once over. “She’s telling the truth, Delilah. I would know a witch, but she is something.”
A woman pushes her hood back and rubs her temples. “Ethan, please…”
“I say we kill her. I’m hungry and this town is beyond saving. We’ll have to wipe it clean,” a man sighs. When he steps towards me I hold up my hands to stop him.
“Don’t come any closer.”
The man goes still. What the fuck is going on?
He tries to step forward and growls at me. “You did this. What are you?”
I hold up my hands. “I don’t have time for this. I know who you are.” It doesn’t take a genius to know exactly who I almost ran over.
“The Varcolacus will no doubt give her the Final Death for her last antic.”
“What the hell is that?”
“Vampire Council. They run our world, run the human world too as a shadow council, but that’s more of a need to know thing. Rosanna made the mistake of being too greedy and attracted the wrong attention. She’s their problem now.”
“And who do you think we are, mortal?”
“The Varcolacus,” I answer. My chest hurts using Julian’s words. The memory of us together is too tender to linger on. I push it away and focus on them. “I know who you’re looking for.”
“And how could a human know that?”
“She’s not a human. A human would be injured more severely than she is from going through a windshield at the speed she was driving.
They might have even died,” one of them says and leans forward to look at me.
He’s blonde and tired looking. For a vampire, he looks exhausted.
“She’s a siren, you dimwits. You’ll do well to watch yourselves with her.
The next words she says could be your end. ”
I hadn’t thought of ending the vampire council after Rosanna but now that I know it’s an option, I might. My fingers itch for my gun but it’s long gone.
One of the vampires shakes his head and moves towards me. “This is foolishness. She’s human. You can smell it on her. I’ll not fear a human.”
“I’m siren enough to fuck you up. You heard him. Half human or not, I have enough siren blood in me to make you do anything. I could make you rip your own fucking head off,” I point at my car, “and after that, you’re lucky I don’t.”
They fall back and I look at them all. “I’m Maris and I’m exactly what he says I am.” I cross my arms and wait a beat to see if any of them will try to take me out. I’m hurt. Not as badly as they think I should be but I’m not great. If they tried, I wouldn’t last long.
Thankfully the Varcolacus are a bunch of hesitant fucks. When no one moves, I put my hand in play.
“I have a deal for you.”
“Very well, Maris. What is this deal?”
“Before we get into the deal, I want to go over something. In town there are three vampires, one of them is mine. He’s off limits. You can do whatever you want to the other two.”
“Who is he to have earned a siren as a lover?”
“I don’t usually kiss and tell but his name is Julian Vale. You touch him and I’ll make you eat each other’s intestines.”
The vampire smirks. “I can see why one of our kind would choose you as more than a meal. Fine, your vampire is off limits. You have our word.”
I don’t know what a vampire’s word is worth but it’s all I have to work with right now.
“Good, then you won’t fuck this up. The vampire you’re looking for is Rosanna. She arrived in town to cause issues for my vampire and I. She started turning people. They’re out of control now.”
“She’s always been the jealous type,” the female vampire hums. “I bet she thinks you stole him from her. You know what they say about a scorned woman.”
“I do but I’m worse. I want her dead and I’m guessing you’re here to drag her back to where she should be. I can help you get her. She’s my vampire’s maker. He’ll know how to find her.”
I don’t know if it’s true that Julian can find her but I’ll figure that out once I get there. What I’m saying has to be possible since the five hooded Varcolacus nod.
“Anything else?” One of them drawls.
“As a matter of fact, yes. Since you’ve all been so agreeable. I’ll tell you where to get your hands on a siren and she’s not like me. She’s full-blooded. The real deal. Blood sweeter than anything you’ve ever had before.”
All five of them drop their fangs. Every last one of them. Jesus.
“And how would you know where to find a siren?”
“Because she’s my family and she’s overstayed her welcome. I want her gone, and you want Rosanna but before you get Rosanna, I want the siren dead. It’s win-win. Do we have a deal?”
I’m surprised when one of the Varcolacus steps forward. It’s the tired vampire who knew I was part siren. He holds his hand out to me. “We do, Maris. Take us to your siren.”
I shake his hand. His fingers feel wrong. Like paper wrapped over steel. I’ve never felt anything that was so breakable and unmoveable all at once. He’s colder than Julian too. Like the winter sea. I drop his hand and point up the hill.
I step back from them and storm back to Julian’s car. It starts when I crank the engine. Thank god. I wasn’t about to ask for one of them to carry me back up the hill.
“Follow me.” I slam the door and throw the car in reverse to pull a U-turn.
Someone’s house catches on fire to the right of us and I force myself not to look.
I’ve had a love-hate relationship with this town for so long, but still it hurts to see it falling apart the way it is. Damn Rosanna and her shit vampires.
I don’t look anywhere but straight ahead on my way back up the hill. When we arrive, the Varcolacus step up beside me without a hair out of place like they went for a stroll and weren’t just keeping pace with a speeding car.
I don’t bother to park Julian’s car. I just stop in the street and point towards Vesper House. “She’s inside. I’ll invite you in.”
“And you’re certain you wish to betray your family? You could do this? Many humans regret their blood sacrifice once the price has been paid in full.”
I scoff. “My real family’s dead. She’s just an imposter. The only thing I want now is my vampire.”
“I have got to see this vampire.”
I ignore the comment and powerwalk up the sidewalk and walkway to the house. The familiar sight of it doesn’t comfort me the way it did before. I know its secrets now. The blood spilled to make it. The women that gave their entire lives to it without realizing.
That ends today.
I shove open the door. It swings forward with an ominous creak. I hesitate for a second before I cross the threshold. It’s too quiet. Something happened. I walk forward a few steps before I turn to the vampires behind me.
“Please come into my home.”
They’re inside in an instant. I expect them to go off and I don’t know, hunt Isla but they don’t. They stay together and look around the foyer. It’ll be me that goes first.
“Julian?” I call out. “Julian, where are you?”
Julian doesn’t answer me back. I wring my hands and walk further into the house. “Julian?”
“If you lied to us, siren, we’ll eat you first and then your vampire.”
I block them out and reach for the power I let loose before. I wasn’t even trying when I made the Varcolacus stop earlier. It just happened. “Come on, you fucker, where are you?” I keep searching, poking around inside of my head until I feel something.
There it is.
I grab it and yank. The only way to describe it is like pulling the thread of an unraveling sweater. The more I pull, the faster it comes apart and fills the space around me.
“Julian! Answer me, now!” My voice echoes through the house and this time there’s an answer. It’s the sound of cracking wood….above me? No, not above me. It’s coming from the second floor. “Fuck, the guardians. Right.”
Shadows start to swirl and move across the walls and stairs. “One tiny thing I forgot to tell you is that she has those things guarding her.”
“What are they?” The female vampire gives them a curious look.
“She calls them her guardians. I don’t know what they do but I would keep your distance. They control this entire house and-” I’m cut off when Julian and Isla come tumbling down the stairs. She’s first because he’s thrown her but she manages to hold on to him.
“Stop! I command you to stop. I am your master!”
Julian slows but he doesn’t stop. He rips free of her and throws her from the top of the stairs.
“I have no master but Maris.”
Isla doesn’t hit the floor. Her guardians rush up to catch her. They move together in a living shadow and slow her fall before they gently put her on her feet.
“You’re going to regret this, vampire! You’ll die screaming with my granddaughter's name in your mouth,” Isla screams at him.
I step forward and Julian sees me. Isla doesn’t exist to him anymore, I can see it on his handsome face. His face falls the second he does. “Maris. Maris, no. What are you doing here?”
Isla turns to look at me and smiles. “I knew you’d come back.”
I point. “There’s your siren,” I tell the Varcolacus. “Eat her.”