TWO
Ultimately, I decided to take some time for myself in the library. I loved the library. It was totally Beauty and the Beast. There was a big fireplace and shelves and shelves of all kinds of books. And when I couldn't figure out what was going on in my own life, I liked to turn to the literary world.
I wandered the shelves, letting my fingers glide over all the different books. Some were made of leather, some were cloth, and some were flimsy paperbacks. The collection was as varied as it was astonishing, and I loved it.
My father had moved us around a lot. I always thought that it had been because of work, but recently I had reason to believe that work was only part of it. I plucked my way through different sections of novels, remembering that, for the better part of my life, books and their cousins, comics, had been my best friends. That, I hoped, was changing, but only a little. Even so, there wasn't anyone I could chat with at two o'clock in the morning after a nightmare and the weirdest version of hot and cold ever. Too bad.
I picked up half a dozen novels and plopped myself into the world's most comfortable chair. I had a little bit of everything in my mini collection of novels, mostly because I didn't know what I really wanted to get into. Eventually, I settled on a book that I had already read before. There was something comforting about re-reading a novel, as if you were having a conversation with a friend.
I was just getting into it when I realized that someone was watching me.
I shouldn't have been surprised to see Dmitri there. After all, the library was as much his escape as it was mine.
“Hey,” I said, using my thumb to mark the page I was on. “I didn't expect to see you up yet.”
In fact, I hadn't expected to see him up at all. He'd been pretty badly wounded during the great escape from the compound of the Order. He looked tired, a little worn around the edges, but he was up and moving. He still looked a little out of it, and there was a paleness to him that I didn't like. I mean, he was a vampire, and therefore always pale, but this went a little too far.
He still continued to stand there and just stare at me, almost like he didn't expect to see me either. Maybe it was a trick of the light, but there was a brightness in his eyes that normally wasn't there.
“Is...is everything okay?”
He moved slowly towards me. There was something primal about his movements, as if he was some great hulking beast hunting down his prey. I felt my pulse jump, and not in a good way.
“Dmitri?” I asked, trying very hard not to let my voice quake.
He lifted his head, sniffing the air. His dark curls fell back, freeing his face. His ears weren't normal; they had points, and the tips of them had a glimmer of fur.
“Why do I smell Wei on you?” he asked, his voice like chipped gravel.
How the frick could he smell that? I'd taken a shower. I'd changed clothes. I mean, just how good was his sense of smell? But seriously, not my primary problem right now. “I really don't think that's any of your business.” I probably sounded snippy, but I was feeling snippy. What right did he have to be jealous?
“Have you already chosen your mate?” he snarled.
Mate? What was this? Some weird alpha werewolf thing? No, thank you. I held up the book as a barrier between the two of us as he continued to creep forward.
“I haven't chosen anything, and you need to back off.”
He sniffed the air again. “You believe what you say.”
“Okay, what the hell is wrong with you?” I demanded. I didn't stand up, mostly because, if I did, I'd be closer to Dmitri, and right now, I didn't want that. I wanted a couple hours of reading so I could relax. Instead, I was dealing with a mantrum.
“He said he didn't want you. That he was not competing.”
My temper, already short, popped. “Hey, listen buddy. I'm not a prize. I'm not handing out medals. I'm participating in this little thing because I wasn't given a whole lot of choice. It was either do this or let people die out.”
It was true enough. It had been thoroughly explained to me that without magic, those people attached to magic, like vampires, elves, werewolves, and who knew what else, would slowly die. It's why there were only the better part of a dozen vampires in the world when there could have been a few thousand. It was also why everyone was really hard on me to pick a baby-daddy or whatever the term was.
“He wasn't supposed to want you.”
Well, that was just rude. I resisted the urge to slap him with the book, partly because he was beginning to shift in front of me and that was pretty much terrifying. His mouth grew longer and more bestial, and his eyes shimmered with an angry light. Claws formed on the ends of his fingers, and my flight or fight response was still loading in the back of my mind.
“I...” I had to swallow around the lump of fear that had grown in my throat. “I don't know what he wants. I just...”
“Liar!” He snapped and dove forward. I scrambled backwards, inhibited by the shape of the chair.
It's funny. All the movies I had ever watched and all the books I had ever read depicted brave heroines making these awesome leaps or elegant steps out of harm's reach. Me? I scrambled like some kind of petrified crab over one of the arms and slithered between the stacks of books in the hopes that some space would do the both of us good. My carefully curated pile of books fell to the ground. I'm pretty sure I made some kind of protesting squeak. There was absolutely nothing elegant about it.
“Dmitri, what the hell is wrong with you?”
“I want you.” He snarled it; all the words were said with teeth and snapping. “You should be mine.”
Yeah, no. I didn't think so. Making a girl terrified did not equate to being attracted to her. That was some creepy red flag stuff. Some chicks were into that. Me? No, thanks. I, apparently, preferred guys who couldn't figure out what they wanted.
The shelf to my right shuddered as a weight slammed into it. I could only assume it was Dmitri. A moment later, his shadow loomed, and I realized I had run further into the room rather than out of it as I had intended. He was bigger and faster and a whole lot angrier than I was. Any move I could make, he could make faster.
“Why?” I demanded, as it was the only question going through my mind. “Why should I be yours?”
It was, apparently, a really difficult question. His head, more animal now than human, cocked to one side like some great big dog. His eyes flickered as if he was stuttering through whatever thought process I had started.
“You like me.”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. I did not think being flippant was going to help me at all in this situation. “So? I like a lot of people.”
Apparently, my mouth thought flippant was the way to go. Awesome.
He snarled. No, that wasn't right. Dogs snarled. This sound was not human, but it wasn't even bestial. It rumbled like speakers with too much bass, like a dozen wolves in the valley between mountains. His teeth were pricks of white against a wild darkness. I watched them move as the snarl morphed into a howl.
I had never had that kind of response to a relatively simple question, and I used to work fast food.
He grabbed one shelf with his clawed hand, and it vibrated with the strength of the movement. The wood squeaked a protest.
“Why...not...me?” Each word was punctuated, carefully spoken, mostly because he didn't seem to have human lips anymore.
This was not the first time a nice guy had asked why I wasn't interested in him. It was, however, the first time that my lack of interest wasn't ultimately true. I liked Dmitri. I thought he was fun to hang out with. I liked hearing him read. I liked the way he smiled. I didn't not like him. I was just having a lot of feelings for Wei that was taking me by surprise, and I didn't really know what to do with that.
“I haven't picked!” I finally snapped around the ball of fiery fear that I was choking on. “I haven't picked anything. We kissed!”
Okay, that wasn't fair; it was a lot more than a kiss, but I really didn't think that Dmitri needed to know that. I was allowed to have some privacy.
It was also, apparently, the wrong thing to say. He howled. It was a wild, angry sound that shook dust from the tops of the shelves. I ran. It was stupid and blind, but I ran. Tears, unwanted and frustrating, ran out of my eyes, and I stumbled out of the sanctuary of the bookshelves and back towards the sitting area. My slippered feet slid across the slick wooden floors, offering me little to no help in my escape. Moments later, I became a stereotype; I took a bad step and tumbled to the ground. My knee hit first, a brilliant shock of pain leaving me temporarily blind.
Dmitri was over me like a shot, or I should say the animal with Dmitri's face was. He had grown. Normally, he was a little over six feet tall and built like a linebacker. Now, he was more like a seven-and-a-half-foot tall Mr. Universe covered in rich dark hair. If not for the fangs as long as my thumbs sticking out of his mouth, I would have thought he was a werewolf, not a vampire.
His breath was hot on my face as his nose flared, taking in my scent. I didn't know what fear smelled like, but the look on his face told me he wasn't turned off. Oh, boy. I squirmed back as much as I could, but my back met the relentless line of a wall, and I knew I was doomed. Goodbye, prophecy. I wasn't going to make it.
“Dmitri,” I whispered. “Please stop.”
He bent his head and pressed his nose to my neck, taking in a deep breath. “Want,” he growled.
I don't know what would have happened next. One moment, Dmitri was over me, his breath on my face, and the next, he made a sound like a kicked dog. The enormous presence of him disappeared, and I could breathe again.
I expected to see Wei. I don't know why, but I did. Instead, Zane, tall and dark, stood over me, holding Dmitri in one hand at the back of the neck like a very bad dog. The last time I had seen Zane, he had looked like a guy who had just woken up from a twenty-year-long coma, skinny and sunken-eyed. The man who stood there now was not those things. He was the very essence of empowerment. His muscles still had a lanky grace to them, but the definition was incredible. His dark hair had been pulled into neat braids, falling just to his ears. His eyes were bright gold, like a hawk’s, and glittered angrily.
He wasn't the only angry one.
Dmitri snarled and tugged against the grip, lashing out with his claws. I don't know what happened, but he never hit. He should have. Dmitri was no slouch in the fighting department, but everywhere that those animalistic claws struck out turned to a shadowy mist.
“Stop,” Zane's deep voice boomed. It wasn't just that he had a voice worth of James Earl Jones; there was a power to it. Dmitri went still, and so did I. His eyes flicked up to see me, and he gave me a look full of a meaning I couldn't interpret in my state. “Relax.”
It was as if I had just received a ten-hour massage. All the fear I had drained, and then a little more until I was little more than a boneless mass sitting on the library floor. Dmitri was no better, though his change was a little more wild...or maybe less wild, since he went from that animal hybrid form to something more human.
“What the hell?” I asked.
“We are the Sons of Vlad, created in the mirror of his image” Zane said as if that made perfect sense. “Dmitri is the aspect of the beast.”
I struggled to try to remember what had been told to me, what I had read in my grandmother's grimoire, or book of magical knowledge. The sons of Vlad, a term for the vampire offspring of Vlad Dracul, the first vampire, were aspects of him. I knew, thanks to certain authors and the binge watching of several vampire shows, that Dracula had a lot of special talents.
He could change his appearance, either to be beautiful or terrifying, or not be seen at all. He could call to animals. He could scale walls and all of that too. Perhaps I hadn't thought about the fact that his sons, or offspring, whatever you wanted to call them, couldn't do everything that he could do. They had their own talents, or rather, they could do one of Vlad's talents really well.
Dmitri, apparently, got all the animal traits. I wasn't too sure about what everyone else could do.
“And you?”
Zane's smile was slow and not altogether kind. “I am the shadow.”
Okay. Yeah. Sure. That made a whole lot of sense.
“Lorena?” Dmitri's voice sounded harsh, as if he had a sore throat. Maybe howling did that to a guy. I didn't know.
“You should not speak with her.” Zane kept a firm hold on the back of Dmitri's neck. “You have lost that privilege.”
“I...I didn't...I...” He hung his head in shame. I almost felt sorry for him until my knee gave a throb. “I came in to visit, and I smelled him on her.”
“Jeez,” I said, pushing a hand through my hair. Way to call me out.
“I didn't expect it. I... was angry.”
“Why?” I asked. I would have sounded a lot angrier if the magic of Zane's voice wasn't still a comfortable blanket on me.
Dmitri hung his head. He muttered something I couldn't hear. Zane gave him a shake.
“Is that necessary?”
Zane raised his eyes to mine. The look he gave me was easier to understand. He was saying that I was being stupid. Maybe I was. I just didn't like to see people hurt, even if they hurt me. Empathy was weird.
“It is,” Dmitri said. He hung his head even lower, until his rich curls formed a curtain over his face. “I hurt you.”
I wasn't going to argue with that. He totally had. “Why? I mean, I don't understand. Why do you care?”
“Alan has made it clear that you were not going to choose him,” Zane said when Dmitri stayed silent.
Well, that was news to me. Yeah, it was true enough that I considered Alan out of the running. After all, he was completely, one hundred percent, in love with Dmitri. It was hard for me to have warm, fuzzy feelings when I knew I was always going to be second best in his eyes. But that didn't mean that I had decided on Dmitri. I hadn't decided on anything really.
“So let me get this straight. Alan made it clear, and you decided that you were going to…what? Come in here and claim your prize?” Suddenly, the calm feeling evaporated, and I was on my feet. “You thought that, since you see me as some kind of trophy, you could just come in here and take what was yours by default?”
“I...that wasn't my intent. I came to speak with you, and then I smelled him.”
“Who or what I smell like is none of your damn business.” I spread my arms wide. “I don't care if I smell like a sweaty football team and half the cheerleaders. I don't care if I smell pure as the driven snow. You can keep your nose to yourself. Do you hear me?”
“Have you chosen him?” he asked. He sounded like I'd kicked him. Even with how mad I was at him, it was heartbreaking to hear.
I shoved my fingers through my hair. I hadn't chosen Wei. It had just been a moment, a random, crazy, hormone-filled moment, and I wasn't going to be cornered with making any kind of decision when my feelings were on super max. No, sir.
“I need to get out of here.”
“That isn't a good idea.” Zane's voice was a gentle roll, like distant thunder.
“You know what bothers me even more than someone sniffing out my personal business? People saying that me going out isn't a good idea. Me leaving, right now, is what's best for everyone.”
“I-” Dmitri started.
I did not want to hear it. It didn't much matter if he agreed with me or not. Right this moment, his opinion mattered less than the next fight between Batman and the Wallflower; no one cared. I pushed past them. This time, I didn't forget my magic. I wasn't terrified out of my mind. I was pissed.
My magic flowed out of me and wrapped around them like a glove. It was so easy. So simple to just fling them back and away from me. I had never cast something so easily. It didn't take words or a lot of thought or herbs and ritual. All it took for me was to know that they were the undead, and I was a necromancer. I heard books crash, but I didn't look back. I was swimming in my own power, and it was like being drunk.
I went up to my room and hauled my big satchel bag out from its hiding place under my great big four poster bed. No, I thought, not mine. This place wasn't mine. This mansion belonged to a bunch of vampires, Sons of Vlad, whatever the heck they wanted to call themselves. I didn't belong here. This was nuts. Right?
In a flurry of confusion, I began shoving things into my bag. Anything and everything that felt right, regardless of whether or not I would need it.
What the hell was happening tonight? I had just begun to get out of bed after what could only be called an epic battle, and I had nearly gone to third base, been assaulted, and then been emotionally manipulated. It was too much too fast, and I just didn't have the strength for it. I needed to get out, and I needed to get out now.
There was a polite knock on my bedroom door. For a moment, I thought it was Wei; then, I realized that Wei probably wouldn't have knocked, politely or otherwise.
“What?”
The door opened, and Alan stood there.
Alan, I had thought, looked like the perfect fallen angel. His golden blonde hair hung longer than mine had ever been. His face was a play of softness and angles that gave him a particular attractiveness that I could only define as masculine beauty. Like the quintessential vampire that he was, his clothing, tonight in shades of blue velvet, spoke of old French aristocracy. Funny, considering when he'd been alive, he'd been a French peasant.
“I heard of...what happened.”
“Which part?”
His smile was slow. “I heard of Dmitri's...impropriety.”
“That's a fancy term for attack.”
Alan sighed softly. When I looked at him, I saw his mask of perfect politeness slip and a flicker of raw emotion shine through. When he was thinking about it, Alan had a tendency to look mildly amused at everything; his lips were perpetually smirking, and his eyes always had a slight impish shine to them. But I knew better. Alan and I had gone on a few outings, but none had helped me understand him more than our trip to France when he'd shown me where he grew up. I had also known, before the night was out, that Alan would never love me because he was too in love with Dmitri.
Well, he can have him, I thought. The thought, vivid and visceral as it was, had me going still. Had I already chosen?
No, I decided. I hadn't chosen anything. I was too close to the guys. Too close to this house and the melodrama of all this crap. I had come to Virginia with one goal. I was going to live in my grandmother's house and learn who and what I was. I was going to figure out what I wanted in life, and all of that had been messed up when an elderly witch had told me about a prophecy that involved not just me, but the child I would eventually have.
Well, screw that. Right this moment, that child was the most distant desire in my mind. All I wanted was some time to myself.
“Dmitri cannot always control his baser instincts.”
“That's on him. I shouldn't have to put up with it. I'm not the one that's in love with him.”
Alan didn't flinch. He went still. Perfectly and utterly still. Humans couldn't be that motionless. He didn't breathe, didn't blink. Not a single muscle moved. He was a statue. I knew what I had said really bothered him.
I sighed. “I'm sorry. You haven't done anything wrong, and I'm lashing out.”
He was still for another moment, and then he hugged me. It was a slow thing, filled with velvet and lace and strength. It was an interesting person that could go from being offended to hugging in a matter of seconds. I couldn't have done it.
“These weeks have not been easy on you. I'd be more surprised if you didn't need a vacation from it.” He gave me a little squeeze. “Where will you go?”
There was only one place where I could be safe, where I could learn more about me. “My grandmother's.”
He nodded and placed a single chaste kiss on my forehead. “A wise enough choice. May I visit?”
I hugged him tighter. He was so slender that it was so easy for me to wrap around him even as he did the same with me. “Of course.”
We stood like that for another minute, and then my phone went off. It was Jenny asking what I needed. I smiled. For all the crap going on in my life, how great was it to have a friend who asked what I needed at two thirty in the morning?
I sent a single message: “Pizza and video games?”
The response was a slew of emojis that told me she was all for it.
Alan placed a finger under my chin and tilted my head up to look into his ridiculously beautiful face. “I do not wish to place an even greater burden on you, but remember that even while you take this vacation that there are still three men waiting here for you.”
I frowned. “I thought we decided that you were out of the running?”
He smiled and pressed a single finger to my lips. “While I will hardly explain to you that love isn't necessary to create a child, you are correct. We have decided that I am not for your bed. However, I am not speaking of myself.”
I don't know why it took me forever to put two and two together, but it totally did. Then, a handsome face popped into my head with a voice like liquid gold. “Zane?”
Alan nodded slowly. “He doesn't appeal to you?”
I shrugged. “Alan, he's very cute, but...but I don't know him.”
“A few weeks ago, you didn't know any of us.”