Chapter 5
“So, what do we know?” I asked Star while standing in front of the mirror, eerie red eyes looking back at me.
Natasha had somehow retreated into the darkness inside me, and I had no idea why… or how to bring her back.
“Let her out, you psychopath!”
“I’m not fucking holding her back!” I snapped, throwing my hands in the air. “Why are you making me the enemy? I’m part of both of you, remember?”
“Well, you have been a bitch to Natasha before. Just saying. There’s precedent.”
Rolling my eyes, I wiped the steam from the shower off the mirror’s surface.
“That might be true, but I already said I was sorry for being with André on my own, and I have no control over this now. Nonetheless, I won’t apologize for burning the crap out of that zombie, Vampir thingy.”
“The crawler,” she corrected, and a full-body shiver coursed through our spine.
“That thing. I will not apologize for saving us then. Also, might I remind you that it was the two of you who burned Dante’s bathroom to the ground with my fire?
I wasn’t even conscious for that one. Furthermore, Natasha was the one to incinerate everything during the whole boathouse debacle.
So no, I will not assume responsibility for all of the bitchiness we have imparted, because I was only a bitch once. ”
“One could argue you are innately a bitch,” Star mumbled, and I rolled my eyes again. “Wait. What boathouse?”
My breath faltered with her words, and the darkness tightened around my mind. The boathouse… A memory fought to come to light, but it was promptly swallowed by the heavy fog, leaving a terribly uncomfortable feeling behind it.
One that made my heart burn.
“Natasha?” Star called into the darkness, feeling what I felt, but there was no answer.
I tried to reach into the side of my mind where the fog lingered. Natasha’s presence had come from there before, but I couldn’t grasp it now.
“I don’t like the way that feels…”
“Me neither, Star,” I admitted, silently dreading that they were right, and I had unconsciously done something to Natasha.
“It’s Starlight!”
“Same thing.”
“Bitch.”
“You are the one on all fours, so…”
“Can you at least stop it with the freaky eyes? They are making me uncomfortable.”
“Right,” I mumbled, leaning close to my reflection again and pulling at the skin under my eyes.
It was like some red substance was swirling inside my irises, and I didn’t like it one bit. I was too used to seeing Natasha’s blueish-silver eyes when she looked in the mirror.
What the fuck were these red eyes for? They didn’t even go with my hair.
“Is it a Vampire thing?”
I nodded.
“Oh! Is it your venom?”
Hmm. I considered that for a moment, but I knew the answer was a hard no. As a hybrid, I didn’t exactly have venom, I had a fire that acted like my venom—or at least André had said something like that.
It was my fire that allowed me to burn through the magical blockage formed inside us and finally unleash me, and Star. It had healed me in a way by releasing me… or at least that was how it felt.
“No. It’s not my venom. I don’t quite have that.”
“Right. You have blue fire… Maybe we should just dry up, get dressed, and find someone who can help us figure this shit out.”
“Agreed.”
Letting out a frustrated sigh, I stepped back. Only, I didn’t just take a step, I dashed halfway across the room, crashing into the coffee table in the sitting area.
“Can you please get a hold of yourself, Bitch?!” Star growled while I pushed the pieces of shattered wood off me. “You’ve already destroyed half of Natasha’s room this morning.”
“You try turning into the Flash overnight and see how you fare,” I growled back, standing.
“The Flash?”
“The fast-running superhero from the comic book we read earlier,” I replied as an afterthought. Star had a point though; I needed to get a hold of this Vampiri speed sooner rather than later.
“Um, you are bleeding.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Can’t you feel it?”
Feel…
I had sort of blocked everything around me just to be able to shower. Including my senses.
Everything was so intense now that I’d awakened as my Vampir self.
Sounds were louder than ever, tormenting me.
Like the constant blasts of the waterdrops exploding against the tile, lungs expanding and constricting as people breathed nearby, the marching steps of the guard booming against the wooden floors of the castle.
Then, there was the feeling of the wind seeming to slice against my skin as it blew through the open balcony doors.
I supposed my senses had to adjust eventually, might as well get it over with now.
Taking a settling breath, I slowly opened myself again and the instant sting of pain spread through my thigh, a piece of wood protruding from my leg. The leg of the coffee table.
“Dante!”
Star called for him almost instinctively, but I just gripped the wood and yanked it out of my leg.
The door burst open to reveal Dante and André rushing back into the room.
“Were they standing right outside?” Star asked, confused.
“That was your annoying breathing and heartbeats beating my ears into submission, wasn’t it?” I growled.
“Why are you hurt?” André asked just as Dante stopped in front of me, hands swirling with healing shadows ready to mend me.
“Let me heal—"
“It’s nothing,” I protested, my words confirmed when the spark of blue fire ignited inside the gaping wound, flames rushing along the edges and knitting the skin back together before Dante could even touch me.
Muscles tensed along André’s jaw when I glanced up at him, a strange emotion intensifying his gaze for a moment.
What had I done now?
“Maybe he’s taken aback by your unusual healing?”
“The fire is my venom,” I reminded him, throwing the wooden stake on the rug.
Only, as his jaw clenched again and a troubled gleam briefly captured his eyes, I realized it wasn’t my wound that had caused him to react.
Bringing my attention back to the mirror, I caught the eerie red eyes that glanced back at me. Purposedly slow, not to destroy anything else, I walked back to the vanity, realizing the red irises weren’t the only new thing I’d woken up with this morning.
My neck stretched as I turned my head, the white strands slipping off my shoulder and revealing the outline of the brand new Sunburst that surrounded Dante’s Starburst. It was André’s symbol.
“We are bonded to him now… Natasha will be happy to see that.”
“She will be,” I agreed, an uncomfortable feeling coursing through me when I glanced through the mirror at André… Why was there a troubled gleam in his stare?
“It’s the freaky red eyes,” Star offered. “He just has to get used to them.”
Would he?
No…
Straightening, I pushed the stupid feeling aside because it wasn’t mine and turned around to face him. His attention flickered to my neck and then back to my eyes, assessing me, deciding how to proceed with this twist of fate.
It suddenly dawned on me what this was. I was his mate, and yet, I wasn’t her. I wasn’t his Natasha.
For a few more seconds his gaze remained on mine, like he was searching for something inside my eyes, searching for her.
“Hey,” Dante finally called, breaking the stare down between us. “Do you need help choosing an outfit?” He smirked, hands smoothing the sleek black suit he wore as proof of his fashion sense.
Offering him a sinful smile, I faced him fully. “Sure, handsome.”
Leaning into me, Dante placed a kiss on my lips and put a hand on my lower back, guiding me toward the closet. As he steered me away, his hard stare descended on André, something I wasn’t meant to see but caught through the mirror.
Releasing a settling breath, André plunged his hands into his jeans and offered me a crooked smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes—the eyes that were still searching, hoping to see her in me.
After finding a pair of skin-tight leather pants, and a lacy bustier that looked dangerously close to lingerie while pushing my boobs to the heavens, I threw on André’s rider jacket and glanced at Dante. His hands slowly caressed my legs as he zipped up my knee-high leather boots.
Dante’s gaze darkened with desire when he began to stand, glancing up at me while his fingers let go of the zipper. The change in him sent instant tingles to my navel and below, the intensity increasing in him with every inch he touched of my body.
Need pooled between my thighs when I remembered how delicious it felt with his hard length inside me, his mouth kissing me, his hands squeezing my ass cheeks. He caressed my legs on his way up, one slipping between my thighs while his mouth stopped to kiss the top of my breasts.
The tingles spread to my tightening nipples when his breath fanned the lace that covered them, and his fingers brushed my sensitive center over the leather. There was no direct contact, but my stomach still dipped with need, and I began to throb for him.
“You look mouthwatering in black.” His husky words brushed one of my nipples before he closed his mouth around it over the lace… and sucked it. Hard.
“Fuck!” Star gasped.
“Fuck!” I breathed, gripping his arms while he slowly pressed me to the door.
Fire immediately ignited inside me, not the one that destroyed things, but the one that aroused me and Star, awakening every desire we could possibly experience and demanding everything from him.
“Touch me,” I half begged, half ordered, feeling his teeth bite down on my nipple.
The next second, his hand slipped into my waistband to cup my heated center and squeeze, pulling a needy whimper out of me.
His fingers expertly parted my delicate skin, finding the throbbing, sensitive spot screaming for him.
He rubbed it, the tight leather constricting his movements but somehow intensifying the contact.
My nipple bounced out of his mouth as he let it go, the lace remaining wet over it and Dante rose to look into my eyes. His lips stopped only an inch from mine. “Touch me,” he echoed.