Chapter 7
Sam
The next day, Lock met me outside the training room and took my hand. Instead of going inside, he led me into the stairwell.
“Where are we going?”
“Practicing on a wall isn’t going to do much for you.”
My stomach felt acidic as we exited onto the thirty-first floor. The door to the room I’d woken up in had been repaired and the entire hallway looked like nothing strange had ever happened. I was not only reminded of the day I became a vampire, but also the time when I’d killed Blake in one of these rooms. It was the first time I’d ever hurt someone and it had been a turning point in my relationship with Lock.
He scanned his thumb and pulled me into the room. There was a woman huddled in one corner with her arms wrapped around her knees. She looked up, her black hair falling into her face.
“Thank god,” she breathed. “I’ve been here forever.”
Lock crouched in front of her, cocking his head. It rarely failed to make someone uncomfortable and she was no exception.
“Vera, right?”
“Yeah. Have you talked to my coven yet? I need to get out of here.”
“You’re looking for someone named Brendan.”
“So, you did talk to them.”
“Of course I did. That’s my job as Domini.”
“Oh, shit. You’re Hemlock?”
I joined them by the corner, leaning against the wall so I could see both of them. Vera’s eyes landed on me and her brow furrowed.
“Is this your trainee? Like an intern or some shit.”
Lock’s resounding chuckle was dark. Her gaze immediately went back to him.
“Your coven has woefully underprepared its vamps. I’d say it’s not your fault, but it’s 2023. If you wanted to become knowledgeable, you have everything at your fingertips.”
“I’m not gonna lie. I don’t understand what’s going on right now.”
“You pissed him off,” I said, rolling my eyes.
He winked. “It really shouldn’t be hard to recognize when you’re in the presence of a being powerful enough to claim this world.”
“Well, that’s a little dramatic. Even for you.”
“I wasn’t talking about me, darling.”
Vera gulped. “I-I didn’t realize this was your mate.”
“Perhaps you should apologize for reducing her to something as insulting as an intern.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Not good enough.”
Lock’s blade was suddenly poised against her throat. She gasped and tried to press back further against the wall.
“Bow.”
“Are you serious?” She winced when he drew blood.
“Is there any other way to address the divine?”
“Lock,” I sighed. “Enough with the theatrics.”
“You’re right. It’s your turn.”
“I have no interest in this right now. Can we just go train?”
“This is training. We’re adding in a bit of realism.”
If anyone was more stubborn than me, it was Lock. I could walk away, but it would just further ignite his need to fix whatever he sensed was wrong with me. Maybe this would actually help with the pent-up energy I had, the urge to give in to my instincts.
“Fine. What am I supposed to be doing?”
“Question her.”
“I don’t even know what happened.”
“She killed a human in our territory because she’s on the hunt for someone.”
Turning to her, I raised my brows. “Who is Brendan and why do you need him?”
“He’s my friend.”
“Why’d he run away?”
Her gaze dropped to the floor. I waited a few minutes, but she didn’t offer up any more information. Looking at Lock, I shrugged.
He stood, wearing a maniacal grin, and gestured toward Vera. “If she won’t comply, she gets punished. Release it.”
“I don’t know how.”
“That’s why we’re here.”
Bouncing up and down on my toes, I moved my fingers, trying to summon that feeling of heat. I could feel it under the surface; I always could. Since I’d drank a little more blood today than I had been lately, it felt like there was more of it, but I didn’t know how to move it from the inside of me to the outside. The only times it had happened were involuntary.
“What’s going on?” Vera asked in a shaky voice. “My coven-”
“They’re not coming,” he interrupted, never taking his eyes off of me.
“B-but they have to. It wasn’t my fault what happened. I need to find Brendan.”
“That’s such a terrible name. Did his parents think Brandon was too mainstream?”
“Please.”
“Shut up and let her concentrate.”
“What’s she doing?”
I threw my hands in the air and walked toward the other end of the room. “Nothing, apparently.”
“Have patience, Belladonna.”
“As if that’s so simple. I don’t even know where to start.”
“How much blood did you have?”
“Enough,” I replied curtly.
Flexing my hands again, I willed it to just happen. It hadn’t needed coaxing before, but now that I wanted it to do something, it apparently had stage fright. Leave it to me to get this magical energy that refused to do what it was told. Maybe this was my version of Karma. I didn’t think I’d been that terrible of a person, outside of a few murders and torture sessions, but they were bad people. Most of them.
Parker hadn’t been a bad person. He was one of the purest people I’d ever met, vampire or human. I could see him sitting in the corner of the bar while I worked, reading a book while he made sure I was safe. He didn’t deserve what happened to him, what I had done to him.
My fingers began to feel hot just as Vera gasped. I opened my eyes and saw a tiny bit of orange smoke seeping from my fingers. When I started to get excited, it retreated back into my body. With a frustrated growl, I thrust my hands through my hair.
“This is hopeless.”
Lock turned his body toward me, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Where is that stubborn little witch I adore so much? She wouldn’t give up after five minutes.”
“She didn’t have this raging energy inside of her that literally kills people.”
Lock was suddenly knocked off his feet and landed on his back. Vera straddled him and thrust her hand through his chest. He twisted, dislodging her, then got to his feet and wrapped his fingers around her throat. Her foot connected with his chest, making him snarl.
There was a scream as a bright red thread of smoke burrowed directly into her chest. Lock was thrown backward just before her chest exploded, sending chunks and splatter across the room. She fell to her knees, then onto her side, showcasing a hole that looked like it could’ve been from a shotgun at close range.
Lock was already on his feet, staring with wide eyes. I raced over to him, running my hands across his body to check for injuries.
“I’m so sorry.”
“Sam, don’t be sorry.”
“No. I could’ve hurt you. Oh my god. That could’ve been you.”
He took my face in his hands. “You threw me out of the way. That was you protecting me, not hurting me.”
“We don’t know that.”
“Yes, we do. She attacked me and you responded, even if you didn’t mean to.”
I looked around at the blood-splattered walls. Whatever that was had effectively destroyed her heart while it was in her chest, so there was no doubt that she was dead. Somehow, none of it had gotten on Lock or I, which was unlikely to be dumb luck.
That could’ve been any of my friends. If I got upset, could it be their blood painting the walls next time? This had happened after I’d been drinking one bottle of blood a day for four days- a third of what a normal vamp needed. I was weak, barely able to stay awake throughout the day. Regardless, I apparently had the strength to perform some chest burster level shit.
He pinched my chin and smiled at me. “This is good, Sam.”
“I have to go,” I blurted.
Footsteps were right behind me, so I moved faster. When I accidentally put on a burst of speed, I slammed through the door into the stairwell and nearly went plummeting down. He caught my arm, stabilizing me, but I shook him off and continued descending until I reached the bottom floor of our private parking garage.
There was a vamp stationed there and his eyebrows immediately went up when he saw me. It looked like he was going to stop me, but he glanced over my shoulder, then moved to the side. I pushed through the door onto the side street, putting a hand up to shield my eyes from the sun. It was late afternoon, but the light felt brighter now that I was changed.
Even though Lock continued to follow me, he didn’t try to stop me. He didn’t even attempt to say anything. I’d rather he just left me alone for now, but silver linings or whatever.
I didn’t know where I was going, really. The city wasn’t too lively tonight, which meant it was probably a week night. I didn’t even know what day it was. Days spent mostly in bed and scrolling through social media had rendered me barely cognizant of what was happening around me. If someone had told me it had been weeks instead of five days since I woke, I would probably take their word for it.
None of this was fair and I didn’t care if saying that made me sound childish. Out of every person on this fucked up planet, what were the odds of it being me? Hadn’t my life been hard enough up to this point? I’d been through so much and now the thing that was going to break me was having too much power.
What was power if you couldn’t control it? It was simply chaos.
Raf had told me to come up with a cool name for myself if I didn’t like Samara, and Sam was too common. Maybe I’d just be Chaos. It sounded like a super villain name. A cheesy one, but I wasn’t feeling creative enough to think of something better.
The scent of blood assaulted my senses, making my canines lengthen on their own. Fuck. I hadn’t practiced self-control because I was too busy avoiding blood altogether. It didn’t help that I’d been starving myself.
It was like a beacon, blipping against the walls of my mind. I could tell which direction it was coming from and I started moving toward it automatically. There wasn’t even a lot of it, but I needed it. I wanted every last drop.
When I came to an alley, I veered into it, putting a hand against the wall to stabilize myself as I breathed. If I was your run-of-the-mill vampire, I wouldn’t mind hunting that human, but I couldn’t risk powering up like that, especially out in the open like this. I could end up killing everyone on this street.
“Sam,” Lock said from behind me. He sounded concerned and also curious about my state.
I shook my head, hunching over as the rest of my senses went into overdrive, activated by my instinct to hunt. My veins were screaming for more blood. They couldn’t have it. I’d just have to get used to being weak. I was still stronger than I had been as a human.
Putting my hands on either side of my head, I closed my eyes before quickly twisting. I heard the crack just before I was met with darkness.