Athan

I knew what coffee was, but I’d never smelled it before. Tendra insisted she needed some before we left. She begged Zeb until he pulled a dark powder out of his cabinet that he said he kept for his “human friends.” Ten grumbled about “instant crap” but dutifully sat on the couch and sipped the hot liquid with exaggerated happy sighs. She’d pulled her hair into a messy knot on top of her head, and changed into a pair of jeans, a tight T-shirt, and flat sneakers. She’d put on her makeup, too, insisting her sharp-winged eyeliner gave her courage.

I wrinkled my nose at the scent coming from her drink. “Smells bitter.”

“It is.” She peered at me over the rim while Brex purred on her lap.

“Why do you drink that stuff?”

“Why do you drink blood?”

I frowned. “I need it to survive.”

“When you’re tired and feeling weak, does blood make you feel all energized again?”

“Yes.”

She pointed to her mug. “That’s coffee for me.”

I raised my eyebrows, because this wasn’t something I was aware of. “You need coffee to survive?”

She nodded solemnly.

“Really?”

“Okay so I don’t exactly need it.” She waffled her hand. “But trust me that you don’t want to be around me when I haven’t had my coffee.”

“Ah, well, you might want to start weaning yourself. Coffee isn’t exactly readily available to vampires.”

She glared. “Will you just let me enjoy this in peace before we’re on the run?”

I pulled my phone out of my pocket. “We leave in a half hour.”

She squinted at me, and damn if it wasn’t cute. “Fine.”

“Fine.”

She turned away from me with a dismissed huff. Which, again, was kind of cute. I would have stayed sitting there while she ignored me just to be annoying, but I had a call to make.

I retreated to Zeb’s room and tapped my phone on my palm. I wasn’t quite feeling like myself. Tendra was throwing me off and if we were going to get to the Gregorie household alive, then I needed to get my shit together. With a heavy sigh, I scrolled through my contacts and hit Call. The phone rang once before he answered. “Brother.”

“Idris,” I said. “I have her.”

There was a pause. “Any problems?”

“Yeah, that’s why I’m calling. We’re both fine. We’re at Zeb’s, but the Valarians have hired some Quellen.”

Idris, ever the soldier, immediately went into tactical mode. “How many?”

“I’m not sure. They found us in the apartment where I’d been staying, and we got away, but Tendra said they saw us.”

“Tendra?”

My brother was fucking clueless sometimes. He had a whole dossier on Tendra. Did he read it? “Tendra, you dumbass. Your future wife? Sanguivita?”

“Oh.”

I gritted my teeth, irritation flaring. “She’s fine, by the way. Nice of you to ask.”

“What’s wrong with you?”

I didn’t know. I didn’t know at all. I blew out a breath and rubbed my forehead. “Nothing.”

“Are you worried about making it home?”

Was I worried about making it home or was I worried because Tendra had managed to get under my skin in less than twenty-four hours? I ran my fingers over my lips. “No, I’m not worried. I can handle it. It’ll just take longer.”

“You can always put her out and carry her if she gives you trouble.”

I stifled the growl in my throat, not wanting Idris to get the impression that I was growing fond of her. “It’ll be fine. We’ll travel underground until we get outside the city. This might be good for her anyway. She’ll get to see how the Gregorie live, how we interact with humans. So she understands how important this is.”

Idris was quiet for a moment. “Yes, I guess that’s a good thing.”

I didn’t give him the chance to say anything else that would anger me. He hadn’t met her, and he was as clueless about humans as I was. If the roles were reversed, I’d have the same attitude as he did.

He would change once he met Tendra. He had to. It was impossible not to be fond of her, not to admire the way she faced everything head-on. I cleared my throat. “I’ll be in touch. Keep your ear to the ground and let me know if you hear anything about the Valarians.”

He was all soldier now. “Of course. You’ll be the first to know. Stay safe. Protect Tendra at all costs and get her to me safely.”

Right, I was delivering her to my brother. That was my mission. Focus, Athan. I swallowed. “I will, brother.”

“You, too,” he said quieter. “You come home safe, too.”

I closed my eyes, the rare affection in his tone squeezing my heart. “Of course.”

The phone call disconnected and I stood like that for a long time, hearing my brother’s voice ringing in my ear. We’d been brought up very differently, as we’d been told at birth we had separate but very important futures. We were born to our vampire king and his human queen, so we lived as dhampirs until adulthood, when we were turned by our father. While Idris and I had never been very close, we’d shared an undeniable connection, a bond that had never been broken.

I intended to keep it that way, by bringing him a healthy Tendra Parrish.

Why did that make my gut twist?

I ignored the feeling and went to join Zeb in a small room at the back of his apartment. He sat on a chair, sharpening a knife, and nodded at me as I walked in. Zeb had also been born a dhampir and turned at adulthood like I was. It wasn’t uncommon for vampires to mate with humans—and it was often up to the child whether they would live as human or be turned. His human mother was a distant friend of my mother’s, and so we’d both been educated at the Gregorie home by tutors. Zeb had received much of the same training as I did, which was why we were so close. While Idris was off preparing to be king, I was sweating in the arena with Zeb while we faced off against each other with knives, our trainer nearby. I didn’t want to be cocky, but I usually won.

Zeb was often asked to provide personal security to members of our clan and other clans who visited. Although Mission was our home base, Gregorie clan members lived all around the world in secret, just like Valarians did. We were the two largest clans, but there were many smaller clans, as well.

One of those was the Quellen, a clan so old, they didn’t even look human anymore. The addition of the Quellen to this journey meant I needed more firepower than I’d thought. Good thing Zeb had an entire room filled with just about everything I could want. The walls were covered with weapons. An assortment of knives, guns, rope, and various other accessories meant to maim or kill. I’d trained with them all, although my preferred weapon was a twelve-inch knife in each hand.

I picked a Glock off its hook in the wall and tested the weight.

“That’s an 18c with a muzzle velocity of one thousand, two hundred and thirty feet per sec—”

“For fuck’s sake, Zeb, I don’t give a shit.” Guns weren’t the most effective against vampires. At best, they slowed us down if powerful enough. Zeb’s were powerful enough. I dropped it in my bag and moved on to the rack of knives.

Zeb huffed out a breath. “I’m letting you borrow my shit. The least you could do is let me nerd out about them.”

“Zeb—”

“The last thing you borrowed from me was my I’m a bloody good time engraved flask. That was five years ago, and where is that exactly?”

“Uh, probably back home,” I mumbled.

“Exactly!” He swiped a finger through the air as an imaginary point. “So I know I’m going to get approximately twenty percent of my shit back.”

“Charge me interest, all right? I’ll bring it all back.” I picked up a knife and pricked my finger, then sucked the drop of blood that oozed out. “I picture you in here sharpening your knives and getting off on it, you perv.”

“Fuck you!” Zeb laughed.

A throat cleared and we both glanced up to see Ten standing in the doorway, holding her cat. Her brown eyes shifted between Zeb and me. “So, I have some questions.”

I shoved the knife in my duffel. “Go on.”

“So what’s the immediate plan. As in, we leave here and…?”

I straightened. “Travel underground until we reach the city limits. Then travel another fifty miles to the Gregorie compound.”

She glanced around. “Yeah, about that. Where are we exactly? Do you all live underground?”

Zeb spoke up. “This is all old subway routes that we took over when they restructured. This set of apartments was built from employee tunnels—paths they used to travel between tracks. We’ve been here for about a hundred years.”

“How old are you?”

“I’m sixty-two years old,” Zeb said.

She blinked at him, her face going slightly pale, then her gaze shifted to me.

“I’m sixty-five.”

“Fuck, this is weird,” she muttered. “So are you immortal?”

“Yes, for the most part. We don’t die of old age, but eventually we go into a kind of stasis around five hundred years old.”

Ten nodded, her hand stroking Brex before she placed him at her feet. “Okay, well, I only got about ninety in me, maybe less because I smoked a lot as a teenager.” She inhaled deeply and released her breath before settling her gaze on me. “So how did you…come to be? Have vampires always existed?”

I nodded. “We’re a species just like you. My heart beats, but I need blood to fuel it. Kind of like how an engine needs gasoline.” I tilted my head. “You probably think shifters don’t exist, either, right?”

Her eyes nearly bugged out of her head. “What?”

“Animal shifters. Like werewolves? They exist, too. Same as us.” While I didn’t think Brex was a shifter, I had my suspicions he wasn’t a regular cat, but I couldn’t be sure yet. “We don’t expose ourselves, because we prefer to live on our terms. And as you are now aware, not all of us are good. We prefer not to be villainized for the worst of our species.”

She nodded slowly, and I could tell she was processing. “Okay, that makes sense.”

I grabbed a couple more guns off the wall, as well as several boxes of ammo. “On our way out of the city, you’ll get to see how we live down here. I know you’re curious about that.”

She smiled. “Me? Curious? No way.”

I stood up and slung the bag over my shoulder. “Can you handle carrying your bag and Brex?”

“Of course.”

She lifted her chin up in determination. Zeb rose to his feet next to me. “You know if you need anything, all you have to do is holler.”

I nodded. “I know. I’m expecting it to take us several days to get out of Mission, then another couple of days to get home.”

“Sounds about right,” he said. He walked over to Ten and stuck his hand out. “It was nice to meet you. You’re in good hands with Athan.”

She ignored his hand and wrapped her arms around his waist with a squeeze. His eyes widened and he turned his head to stare at me. I smirked at him.

“Thanks for everything, Zeb,” she said. “Even the instant coffee.”

He hugged her back and dropped a kiss on the top of her head. “Of course. Anytime.”

She pulled away and picked up Brex. “My bag’s by the door. I’m ready.” Her eyes held a little defiance, but fear lurked there, too, just below the surface.

A sudden urge to wrap her in my arms prodded at me. To assure her that she’d be safe, that I’d take care of her. That she’d have a good life.

Instead I met her gaze and said firmly, “When I tell you to do something, it’s for your safety. So I need you to promise to listen to me and do what I say. And I’ll keep you alive and unharmed.”

She blinked at me, and her chin wobbled slightly before she clenched her jaw. “I promise, Athan.”

Leaving Zeb’s meant leaving a sanctuary, a place I felt I could ensure her safety. I sure as hell hoped I could ensure it once we left these walls. But it had to be done. “Then let’s go.”

Tendra

I didn’t want to be terrified. I tried to tell myself that Athan—a freaking seven-foot vampire—had promised to keep me safe.

But I wasn’t a moron, and my brain was still blaring alarm signals. My sweaty hands slipped on the nylon strap of the bag I held. My stomach rolled, upset at being fed instant coffee and also pretty anxious about the fact that I had fucking assassins after me. I hated how dependent I was on Athan—physically and emotionally. When my mom was alive, she’d been the one to calm my fears and anxiety, but I still felt like I could take care of myself. Down here with a clan of vampires? Not so much.

I wished I could talk to her one last time, hear her voice say “Tenny,” and feel the tug of her fingers slipping through my hair. Despite my fears, in my heart I felt her spirit telling me that this was my destiny, that I had to be strong. I hoped I didn’t let her down.

After leaving Zeb’s apartment, we made our way down another dark set of stairs and then dropped down onto an abandoned subway track. He said he could see in the dark, but it took more energy. And since as a human I couldn’t see in the dark, he lit our way with a flashlight.

He strode with purpose, and I had to ask him to slow down a couple of times. My mind was already on my next meal. Athan had said he only needed to feed once a day. He needed fresh blood every two to three days. Yeah, well, I was a healthy woman who needed three solid meals a day. Snacks were great, too. Plus, I had a cat to feed.

We passed a couple of staircases and Athan explained those led to other apartments—homes and spaces the vampires had built underground, not too far from humans. While I’d been walking home from work at night, there’d been a whole other world beneath the cracked sidewalks.

“So does the vampire community here in Mission always stay underground?” I asked.

He shook his head. “There are a select few powerful humans that know we exist. We have some human-vampire hybrids in power—called dhampirs—who make sure the electricity that gives us light down here stays on. We pay for services just like humans do.”

“Powerful humans as in…the government?”

He nodded.

“What’s to keep them from telling everyone you exist?”

“We have an old alliance—they let us live in peace, and we only feed from humans who allow us. And we keep clans in line who threaten that alliance, like the Valarians.”

I kicked a stone down the track. “I can’t believe I didn’t know this.”

He laughed softly. “If you didn’t know, that means we’re doing our jobs. You’re not supposed to know about us.”

“But the Valarians want to change that?”

He sobered quickly. “Yes. If they had their way, you’d all know about them, and you wouldn’t be free.”

I shuddered, and stepped closer to Athan.

His presence was comforting, and my stomach was finally calming, my heart returning to a normal rate. He was capable, and so was I. My mom had prepared me for this day, hadn’t she? I’d make her proud.

After walking for another hour, the bag on my shoulder began to grow heavy, and Brex was protesting loudly. I unzipped the bag so he could hop out, and he trotted ahead of us.

Occasionally he’d disappear, only to leap back in front of us minutes later. One time he had a mouse clutched in his jaws.

After about a mile, Athan broke the silence. “We need to keep your identity as Sanguivita a secret.”

“Really?” I asked. “But you told Zeb.”

“Zeb doesn’t count. I trust him to keep his mouth shut. But any other vampires we run into…I’m not so sure.”

I frowned. “You think one of them will tell the Valarians?”

“No, I don’t think they will intentionally. But rumors will spread that I’m with the Sanguivita, and I worry about that getting back to our enemies.”

“Oh.” I bit my lip.

“If anyone asks, we’ll tell them we’re training you to work at the family house, and I’m taking you there.”

“Working doing what?”

He hesitated. “Managing the humans we bring to the house for feedings.”

Okay, I wasn’t ready to deal with that right now. “So how come Zeb seems to know all about human life and you don’t?”

Athan didn’t answer for a long time, and I wasn’t sure if I’d overstepped my boundaries or what. Finally, he spoke. “We were brought up different. My father is King Connell and my mother was his human queen.”

“So are you half-human, too?”

He shook his head. “No, I was fully turned once I reached adulthood. By my father.”

Holy crap. “Whoa.”

“Since I was aware of the world, I was told that my duty in life would be to protect the Sanguivita. That is always the job of the youngest vampire child in the ruling family. I didn’t have the freedom Zeb did. We attended school together, but then I trained for hours afterward, how to fight, how to protect. I learned about humans but the basic textbook version and my own brief encounters were much different than”—he gestured to me—“this.”

“This?” I laughed, waving my arms in front of my body. “I can’t possibly be that different.”

“Maybe it’s your blood, or maybe it’s that I’ve been raised all my life to do what I’m doing now. I don’t know.” He seemed confused in a way, like his vampire emotions were on the fritz over dealing with me.

“I’m sorry you’re stuck with me,” I said. “I’m sure you’ve met much more pleasant humans who listen to what you say and don’t ask a million questions. And who don’t have a cat.”

Athan watched me as I talked. “I have,” he said. “But now I realize I wasn’t getting the full experience.” His lips twitched into a small smirk that heated my blood.

“Good luck with that,” I snorted. Brex circled my legs, meowing. He seemed like my last link to my old life, and as every minute passed, I was desperate to have some sort of closure. “Hey, am I allowed to call my friend?”

“No,” Athan said quickly and firmly.

“No? We can’t even discuss it?”

“Why do you need to call your friend?”

I glared at him. “Uh, because she’s going to be worried about me. I won’t show up for work tonight. She’ll wonder where the hell I am.”

He pressed his lips together, and I could see he was thinking about it.

“Please?” I asked. Maybe I could have batted my eyelashes, poured on the charm. But I was tired and kind of cranky and Athan would see right through the act anyway. He wasn’t a human drinking beer in my bar. “Look, I never made friends, okay? My mom moved us constantly, and now I know why. After she died, I had no one. Ruby is just about the only friend I’ve ever had. I just want to…say goodbye.” Shit, my throat was closing up. “I never got to say goodbye to my mom. Can’t I have this?”

His nostrils flared, and a muscle in his jaw ticked. For a moment I thought he’d snap at me, tell me no again in that sharp voice. I knew I’d laid on the guilt, but none of it had been a lie. Finally, he nodded. “Okay, but you can’t tell her who you’re with, or about our existence, or anything. So think of a story to explain why you won’t be back.”

Well, shit, lying to Ruby was not something I wanted to do. I trudged along, working out in my head what I was going to tell her. I needed to make notes to keep track of all my damn cover stories.

After another couple hundred yards, Athan pressed something hard into my hand. I looked down to see a small cell phone, the screen illuminated.

“It’s a burner,” he said. “You have a faint signal down here, so go ahead and call.”

I glanced up at him, to see worry etched in the lines on his forehead. He didn’t want to let me call, that much was clear, but he was giving this to me. “Thank you,” I said softly.

“Make it quick.” He turned and walked over to the side of the tracks, bending down to pet Brex. He was even giving me privacy. My vision blurred as tears threatened. I took a deep breath and stared down at the phone. It took me several minutes before I could remember Ruby’s number, and I typed in the digits three times before I got it right. Finally, the phone connected and began to ring. “Please pick up, Ruby. Please pick up. Please pick up,” I chanted.

Then, the line clicked, and her groggy voice came on the line. “ ’Ello?”

“Ruby,” I said, the relief nearly making me cry. Again.

“Ten?” she said, and a rustling let me know she was still in bed.

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“Shit, I slept in. What’s going on? You never call. ‘Texting is a perfectly acceptable mode of communication, Ruby,’ ” she said in a mocking voice.

I smiled a little at her teasing me. But her question wasn’t easy to answer. What’s going on? What’s going on? I almost laughed hysterically. “Ruby I need to tell you something important, so you sure you’re awake?”

More rustling, then her voice, clearer now. “Yeah, I’m up. You okay? You sound weird.”

Nope, I was not okay. “Look, you know how I said I moved a lot as a kid?”

“Yeah. Ten, seriously, why do you sound weird? And what number are you calling me from?”

I ignored her questions and lied through my teeth. “I found some family members that I didn’t know I had. I’m going to visit them. So I won’t be in at work tonight. In fact, I’m not sure when I’ll be back.”

“What? Tendra Parrish!”

“I know it’s weird. I’m sorry. It’s kind of a long story that I can explain later…” Lies. “But I have to do this. I thought I had no one else…”

There was a beat of silence, then she spoke softly. “I do know. But you always had me. You still have me. And you can always come back. Are you letting your apartment go?”

Fuck, this was hard. “Yes.”

“Okay, well you can always stay with me if you come back to visit this hellhole.”

I choked out a laugh. “Thank you.”

I could hear the smile in her voice. “Keep in touch? I feel like you’re acting like we’ll never talk again, and that’s just not going to happen.”

I wasn’t sure I’d be able to call her again. But I wasn’t going to tell her that. “Of course.”

“Did you get a new phone?”

“Uh, this is just a temporary one for now.” I racked my brain. “I’ll call you when I have my new permanent number.”

“Perfect!” Her voice was cheery. “I mean, I’m bummed you’re leaving without me getting to hug you, but you gotta do what you gotta do.”

“I’m going to miss you, Ruby.”

“I’ll miss you, too. If your new family doesn’t appreciate you, then come back, you hear me?”

I nodded, not trusting my voice anymore. My throat was closing up, my eyes stinging with tears. “Yes,” I whispered. Athan began to walk toward me, his boots crunching on broken glass. I shut my eyes so tightly that tears squeezed out the sides. “I’ll talk to you soon, Ruby.”

“Love you, Ten.”

“Love you, too.” My voice cracked on the last syllable, and I jabbed the End button, then reared my arm back and with a scream, hurled the phone at the wall. It shattered against the brick as I crouched into a ball and sobbed. I’d never been able to stay in one place, to earn a lifelong friend, to have a steady relationship or even date. Why was this my life?

Athan’s boots stopped in front of me, and I stared at them until I was able to get myself under control.

When I stood up, wiping at my eyes, he watched me with a softened expression. I felt sorry for myself, and I would for a while. And it was a little comforting he felt bad for me, too. This wasn’t a life he chose, either. So we had that in common. He let me have my time to grieve, and I didn’t feel judged for it. That was all I could ask from him, really.

We stared at each other in silence before he said, “She was a good friend to you?”

“Yes,” I whispered. “I was never really able to make friends…I thought this was finally someone I could hold on to.”

A muscle in his jaw ticked. “I’m sorry you had to say goodbye.”

I sniffed. “Me, too.”

He jerked his chin down in a nod, then kept walking.

I followed, already feeling less like Tendra Parrish and more like…the Sanguivita to the Gregorie clan.

Whatever that was. Either way, it was my new life.