Dark Awakening

I want to go home, she thought, her breaths shallow, panic beginning to rush through her system like a drug. I just want to go home.



“I need your help,” he said. “I don’t have any more say in this than you do.”



“I don’t have any help to give.” Her voice sounded thin, breathless, and she despised the weakness in it.



Tynan’s eyes sought hers again, catching them, holding her captive.



“Oh, I think you do. In fact, I’m now sure of it.”



“Well, you’re wrong. And if you don’t get the hell out of here in about two seconds, I’m hitting the panic button. They’ve got good campus security. And antistalking laws with actual teeth, if you think you’re going to keep following me around.”



For some bizarre reason, he seemed to think that was funny, which only confirmed to Lily that not only was this guy dangerous, but he was also crazy. His grin flashed in the darkness, as quick and beautiful as lightning in a summer sky. He was a terrible waste, Lily thought, hating herself for the hot twist of lust that coiled deep in her belly at that gorgeous, fleeting grin. Then it was gone, leaving no indication that he was anything but deadly serious.



“You can make this easy or hard, Lily. But the end result will be the same. Your choice.”



“Then I’m choosing not to have this conversation,” Lily replied, thumbing the panic button on her keychain. She knew she ought to just hit it and send him running, but something stopped her. Despite everything, despite her heart pumping like she had just run a marathon, some small, twisted part of her wasn’t quite ready to let Tynan vanish again. But she had to make this stop, she knew. The stress, the return of her insomnia, and then the nightmare… Somehow she knew it had all started again because of his appearance in her life. Whatever he wanted to say to her, whatever help he wanted, Lily needed to walk away from it now, on her own terms. Because all of her instincts were telling her that to stand here any longer was to invite madness.



She’d spent too long building walls against such things to let it in now.



“I’m leaving now, Tynan. If that really is your name,” Lily said. “If you try anything, I’ll set off the alarm. If you try to contact me again, I’ll call the cops. Find somebody else to fixate on. I can’t help you.”



His dark brows drew together as she backed toward her car, not stopping now. Her heart still thundered in her ears, but she tried to keep her breathing steady, tried not to stumble.



“Lily,” he began, his voice full of warning, and she knew she was going to have to push that button after all. But just as she felt the comforting bulk of her car against her back and began to grasp frantically for the door handle, Tynan’s head snapped to the side, almost as though he’d heard someone calling his name. The movement was so abrupt, so unexpected, that even Lily paused for a moment to see what he had heard. Whatever it was, he didn’t like it.



“Bloody hell.”



When he looked at her again, the change in him was stunning. Lily felt a scream welling in her throat, trapped only because the look on his face had stolen her breath completely away. His eyes were as bright as the moon, filled with unholy light. His lips were peeled back in a feral snarl over teeth that glinted long and sharp. He looked like a—



“Go home. Now,” he said, his posture tense, waiting, as though bracing for an attack—or preparing to launch one. “Lock the doors and windows. Let no one in. I’ll meet you there.”



She stared, astounded at the instructions. What kind of fool did he think she was?



“You actually think I’m going to—”



“I think you’ll do as I say if you want to survive, Lily Quinn. There are far worse things stalking the night than me, and it seems I’m not the only one who’s found you. If you want to live, do as I say. Go home. Now. And don’t even think about running to anyone else, unless you want to be responsible for losing them.”



Her legs trembled beneath her, even as her fingers wrapped around the door handle. She couldn’t contain her sob of relief as she managed to pull it partway open. She turned, nearly falling to the pavement in her haste to get in. She couldn’t think straight, couldn’t think at all, really. There was only Tynan’s voice, his terrible words, ringing in her ears. And coupled with everything she’d seen, everything she’d felt, they rang horrifically true.



The night had thickened around her to the point where any movement felt as though she were pushing through water. Even the lights, normally so bright, seemed to have gone dull and dim. As she threw herself into the car, shaking so badly she could barely disentangle herself from her bag enough to get the door shut, a low, menacing noise was vibrating through the darkness.



Growling.



She finally got the door shut. Lily slammed the key into the ignition and turned it, hearing her own shaking moan as the engine started only distantly, as though someone else were running her body and she was only an observer. She threw the car into drive, gripping the wheel so hard her hands ached. And still she couldn’t stop herself from looking one last time at the man—the creature—who had just laid out a choice between letting him into her life or dying at the hands of who knew what. Probably something like him.



He had hunched his back, reminding her of a cat giving its last warning before attacking. His head was turned as he looked somewhere off to the side of her, out toward the athletic fields. And he was so still he might have been made of stone. But he must have sensed her gaze on him, because, although his eyes never left whatever he was tracking, he spoke, and the word he snarled was so loud he might have been in the car with her.



“Go!”



Lily slammed her foot down on the gas and tore out of the parking lot, tires squealing. This time, she didn’t look back. Whatever lay ahead was bad enough.



Chapter FOUR



THE NIGHT AIR stank of death. And still, the coward did not show himself.



Ty didn’t even turn to watch Lily leave; the squeal of her car’s tires on the pavement was enough to give him some small amount of relief. But the rest of what churned within him was raw fury, all the more potent because it wasn’t just a meal that some other vamp had decided to encroach upon. It was his mission, his future. And whoever had decided to try poaching was about to get a very nasty lesson in how to conduct oneself around a Cait Sith.



The animal within Ty stirred uneasily, reacting the same way any beast does to an approaching storm. Cold whispered over the ground, the temperature dropping twenty degrees in a matter of seconds. Even Ty’s breath, though not as warm as a mortal’s, escaped his mouth in a small cloud of vapor.



“Come on, you bastard,” Ty growled, staring unblinkingly at the darkened sports fields where he knew the interloper was hiding. His cat’s eyes picked up nothing, no hint of movement. But intuition, honed over long, hard years of experience, had never failed him.



Nor would it now, Ty thought, deadly anticipation beginning to course through his veins as he watched one particular patch of shadow divide itself in two, half of it pulling away into a shape that was unmistakably human. Even from this distance, Ty could see the red eyes glinting at him. Bright, murderous red. The sign of a vampire so hungry it was near starvation.



Ty fought the urge to recoil. There had been a time when such hunger was common to see. He had felt the knife’s edge of it many a time when he was younger and newly sired, hiding in shadow, living in fear of being discovered and brutally destroyed. The memories were nothing he cared to revisit.



“Fight me, then,” Ty snarled, his incisors elongating farther, his fingers hooking into claws. His stance was rigid, but his muscles were loose and limber, ready to spring. In truth, he savored the thought of making a kill. It was the only way he could think of to release the tension that had been building in him since he’d first seen Lily standing in the moonlight.



The red eyes watched him, glowing balefully, and the shadow tipped its head slightly to one side, considering him. Finally, a voice escaped it that sounded as though it had been dragged through gravel. The words it spoke were clear as day, delivered in a cockney accent that brought back memories of London’s dirty streets long ago.



“It’s not you I want, kitty cat. Don’t fancy getting a hairball. The pretty one, though… she’s quite the prize.”



Ty’s lip curled. “She’s off-limits.”



There was a harsh chuckle. “Says who? This ain’t your territory. Your lot don’t have territory. Gutterborn, bunch o’ filthy strays. I’ve known many a good lowblood, but someone shoulda drowned your line at the first.”



Ty let the words slide off his back like water. It was nothing he hadn’t heard before. He wanted to get this done, to get the kill.



“This place is no one’s territory, coward. And the woman is mine.”



“The woman is worm’s meat, kitty. And you will be, too, when I’m done with you.” The breathing grew audibly harsh, and the man’s voice changed then, sending a chill down Ty’s spine that surprised him. “I’m just… so… hungry…. ” he wailed, his voice turning high-pitched and piteous, childlike, making Ty remember similar wails in darkened alleyways, the stench of flesh and garbage.



Enough, Ty thought. The past was best left in the darkness.



Ty crouched lower, sensing the impending attack before the other vampire moved a muscle. Then the gleaming red eyes were rushing toward him, and as the old bloodlust crashed over him, Ty opened his arms to receive his attacker.



The blow lifted him off his feet, surprising him with its strength and ferocity. Then the two of them were tangled together as they slammed to the pavement, becoming a rolling, snapping, hissing whirl of movement and sound. Ty fought the urge to gag as the other vampire’s fetid breath mixed with the stench of rotting flesh, scents that were utterly overwhelming to his heightened senses. His eyes began to water, and the instant his vision blurred, jaws snapped together less than an inch from his nose.



It was enough to give him the focus he needed to finish it.

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