14. Rina #2
I brushed him off, not wanting to feel his pity. “Anyway, it’s fine. I’ve got my coven and my grandma and that’s enough.” I looked down at my lap, scratching his head. “And now this little guy, I guess.”
“What are you going to name him?”
I hadn’t even thought about a name. “Oh. I don’t know.” He’d gone back to sleep as soon as I’d settled into the seat. “I probably should pick up a few things for him, too.” Some food, a blanket—Ezra’s shirt wouldn’t work forever—plus, some medicine and ointment for his injured leg.
“What about Ambrose?”
Surprise had me blinking at him. “Thought you didn’t want me to keep him?” I raised an eyebrow at the vampire. “Now you’re suggesting names?”
“You’ve got a better one?” He asked. “If you say Salem, you can walk the rest of the way home.”
“Again, this is where teleporting would come in handy. Saves a lot of time, too. It’s a shame you can’t.”
“Well…” he trailed off. “I wouldn’t say can’t, exactly.”
My jaw dropped. “Are you telling me you can teleport, and still insisted on a thirty-hour drive to the middle of nowhere?”
He grunted. “It doesn’t work like that. I can only trace to places I’ve been before. And in my other form—”
“Other form?” I sat up. “What other form?”
“Gods, you ask a lot of questions.”
“Then explain faster.” I stuck out my tongue.
“Some of the strongest vampires can shift into bat form. No one really knows why, but I assume it has something to do with the way the first vampires were made.”
“Made, not born?” I clarified, remembering our first conversation.
He shook his head. “It’s more complicated than that. Some think we descended from a race of demons, cursed to eternal night, requiring blood to survive.”
“Cursed?” That sounded familiar.
He winced. “By a coven of witches, tens of thousands of years ago.”
“Oh. No wonder you don’t like witches.”
“I never—” Ezra groaned. “Dammit.”
“It’s obvious, though. From the very beginning, you haven’t liked me.” I quirked an eyebrow. “Tell me I’m wrong.”
Ezra said nothing, one hand on the steering wheel, the other draped across the center console. Not touching me—but closer than I would have liked.
“That’s what I thought,” I muttered, busying myself with the raccoon in my lap.
When we found a store still open, Ezra pulled off the road, letting me run inside.
I’d transferred Ambrose—since I hadn’t come up with any better names for the little guy—into my sweatshirt, leaving him sleeping in the car next to the vampire.
It was easier than trying to explain what I was doing with a wild baby animal, anyway.
Inside the store, I grabbed some bandages and medicinal ointment, hoping that would be enough, plus some wet cat food, dry food, and some treats. If I could get him to eat, he’d probably survive the night. I found a fluffy dog bed and a little water bowl, and threw them in my cart, too.
Once I’d finally finished grabbing things—and some snacks for me, since I hadn’t eaten since we’d left the hotel—I checked out, bags in my hand.
An enormous figure blocked my way out.
“Excuse me,” I said, trying to push my way past the man.
I frowned when he didn’t move, looking up—into a pair of eyes that were so dark they were practically black. Teeth bared at me, I backed up, clinging to the bag.
“I don’t want any problems,” I told the man. His aura was an angry violet color, pulsing and rippling, and the feeling of it as my magic brushed against it made me shudder. “Just trying to get back to my—”
“I smell him on you. Vampire.” The word was spit in disgust, the man offering no room for debate.
My eyes widened. The store was practically abandoned; no one else was around besides me and this colossal man dressed in a dark leather jacket and jeans that looked like they had seen better days.
“Please, just let me go,” I whispered, fear making me unable to focus on what I should do, what Ezra had taught me: using my magic to affect his aura. All I could focus on was the large blade in his hand, pointed directly at my abdomen.
I couldn’t sense what he was—but his overall being reminded me of Barrett, though his soul felt nothing like the gentle red wolf’s did.
“What are you?” I asked, taking a step backward for each step he took toward me.
“I’m the man who gets rid of those filthy parasites,” he spit. “Worthless leeches. They’re mosquitos, infecting our ecosystem. Ruining our women.”
“No, he’s not—” I shook my head. Deep down, at my core, I knew Ezra wasn’t a bad guy.
He’d had ample opportunity to take advantage of me, and he never had.
Hell, he could have pinned me down the first night and drank from me, but he’d never so much as tried.
“They’re not like that,” I said, not sure why I tried to reason with the man.
I only knew one vampire. The rest of them could be exactly what he was describing, and how would I know any different?
I’d been sheltered from this world my whole life, and I continued to pay the consequences.
My back hit a metal fixture, and I froze, stiffening. What was I waiting for? Ezra to come running in from the car to save me? Fuck, I didn’t want to be a damsel in distress. I wanted to prove to him I wasn’t weak—that I was strong enough to get out of a situation like this.
“They took my little girl from me,” he snarled. “My darling daughter.” I could tell there was something not right about this man. Anger and grief had warped his brain, turning him into someone who had no fear. “She’s dead because of bloodsuckers like him.”
“What are you?” I asked again, right as he lunged—his body morphing, bones crackling as he shifted forms. I threw out my magic against him, items from the shelf behind me whizzing out and hitting him like tiny projectiles.
This man was a wolf—but not like anything I’d ever imagined. He stood on two legs, foam dripping from his maw, eyes black as the night. I knew then that he wasn’t a shifter. This was something else entirely.
Magic surged again within me, and I levitated more objects. If it was my only defense, I’d throw everything in this store at him before I let him hurt me, or the vampire who waited for me.
“I’m sorry you lost someone,” I told him, meaning it. My heart ached, knowing he’d lost someone precious to him. Someone he loved. “But I can’t bring her back. Killing us won’t save her.”
He tilted his head. “No? But you know someone who can, don’t you, witch?” His voice felt distorted in this form, grotesque in a way that felt like nails scraping against a chalkboard.
Then the air in the room changed, and I felt it—the moment the wolf’s attention shifted.
“Rina.” Ezra’s voice from the door was cold—devoid of all emotion. “Get in the car.”
The wolf turned towards my vampire. Because he was mine, whether I liked it or not. Whether I liked him or not.
He let out a snarl that made my blood curdle, that had me fearing for Ezra’s safety.
“No!” I shouted, letting everything fly towards the werewolf. The items—a myriad of silverware that I didn’t even realize I’d been controlling—pierced through his hide.
The man howled in pain, distracted for a moment, and I dashed past him.
A paw wrapped around my abdomen, tugging me back towards him. “Not so fast.”
But then Ezra was there, fangs elongated—longer than I’d ever seen. Fierce. Terrifying. Every bit the monster hunter I knew him to be.
“Close your eyes, Sabrina.”
“But—”
“Close your eyes.” His tone brokered no argument, and I complied. Whatever he was about to do—whatever he was about to become—he didn’t want me to see this.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to see it either.
The only thought running through my mind was how my first reaction was to protect him—that when he’d been threatened, I’d thought of him as mine.
Fuck, I was in trouble.