“She’s not human.”
“Get the fuck out of here, Rylan.”
I keep my eyes closed and maintain my slow breathing. I’m lying on a bed, and the lack of dust smells means it’s likely Malachi’s. I also don’t seem to have acquired any new aches and pains, which means Rylan didn’t let me face-plant in the kitchen. Honestly, I’m surprised. He seems the type to let me crumple and then leave me there for someone else to find. Or maybe just kicked me a few times while I was down.
“Listen to me, you idiot. She might be half vampire, but her other half isn’t entirely human.”
What’s he talking about? The ice has cracked in his voice and he sounds almost… Excited isn’t the right word. Intense. Incredibly intense.
Malachi curses. “You’ve done enough, don’t you think?”
“Mal—”
A low whistle. “I leave for an hour and look what trouble you two get into.” Wolf. The crinkle of a plastic bag. “Did you kill her?” He sounds only mildly interested, and I might be hurt if I didn’t recognize the question as so incredibly Wolf. He’s pure chaos in motion. I’m honestly a little surprised he actually made it to the store and returned, rather than wandering off to get into trouble elsewhere and reappearing in a few days—or a few years.
“He bit her.” The accusation in Malachi’s quiet statement is nearly enough to make me open my eyes.
“She’s fine. She just needs to eat something.”
“She’s mortal.”
“Not as mortal as you think.”
There it is again. He still hasn’t elaborated what the hell he’s talking about. I finally give up and open my eyes. Malachi and Rylan stand over the bed, a bare six inches between them. They look half a second from fighting or fucking, and as I blink up at them, I’m honestly not sure which outcome is most likely. The intensity in the room makes it hard to breathe, or maybe that’s because I’m so lightheaded.
Wolf has a plastic bag dangling from one finger and looks distantly amused like he always seems to. He sees me first and crosses to drop the bag on the bed next to me. “I got what you asked for.”
I leverage myself up to sit, ignoring the other two men for now. This is the priority. I dig out the pills and raise my eyebrows at the vanilla protein drink he also purchased. Not to mention the dozens of boxes of condoms in every variety and…flavor. “Huh.”
“Covering all the bases, love.” He plucks the pill package from my hand and opens it, but he hesitates when I reach for it. “Are you sure?”
“What is that?”
I don’t look at Malachi. “We didn’t use protection.” We didn’t even talk about using protection. Stuff like diseases might not be an issue—vampires heal everything, even that—but we should have been smarter when half the reason I’m here is because my father wants a little bloodline vampire baby to control. Reckless. So fucking reckless.
He catches Wolf’s wrist and snags the box out of his hand. The more he reads, the harder he frowns. “What is this?”
“It’s Plan B. It’s a…” I wave my hand vaguely. “A concentrated form of birth control.” I heard a group of the humans talking about it when they didn’t think any of the vampires were around. No one in my father’s compound used protection, but they were whispering about a way to avoid getting pregnant by the turned vampires. They all had their eyes set on the bloodline ones and didn’t want a dhampir baby without any powers. None of them seemed to worry their bloodline dhampir child might not have powers. Another way I’m a freak, an eternal disappointment.
“Will this hurt you?”
I hadn’t really thought about it. “No?” I honestly don’t know. It’s made for humans, and while my system seems to function nearly identically, there’s really no telling. “I don’t think so?”
“But you don’t know.”
I reach for it, but he holds it just beyond my grasp. “Malachi, give it here. Worst case, something goes wrong and you just give me blood to heal me. It’s fine.” I’m sure it’s fine. I don’t sound quite as confident as I want to, but I’m rattled and I can feel Rylan’s gaze drilling a hole into the side of my head. I turn to him. “Tell him! This is what you want, isn’t it?”
A muscle in Rylan’s jaw twitches. “Have you taken human medication before?”
I blink. “Not you, too. You’ve been petitioning for my death since you showed up. What do you care?”
“Circumstances have changed.”
I blink again. “Yeah, I’m going to need you to elaborate on what the hell you mean because you aren’t making any sense.”
Rylan crosses his arms over his chest. “You’re not human.”
“I’m dhampir.”
He glares. “That’s not what I’m talking about. These two don’t recognize it because they’re babies.” He motions at Malachi and Wolf. “By the time they were born, we’d already started retreating and so dhampirs became more and more uncommon outside of colonies like your fathers; places we don’t go.”
I’m still trying to comprehend how old Rylan must be if he’s calling Malachi and Wolf babies. I’m still not quite sure how long they’ve been around, but it’s long enough to get stuffy and mad, respectively. If I lined the three of them up, I’d assume Rylan was the youngest based on how he acts. Shows what I know.
Malachi’s looking at Rylan with something other than antagonism. “What are you saying?”
“Who cares? Regardless of what I am, I have no magic to speak of so it doesn’t matter.” I try to grab the box again. “None of this matters or has anything to do with the potential pregnancy.”
“Ingesting chemicals the humans have thrown together is dangerous. There’s no guarantee our blood would be enough to counteract it.”
I am half a second from shrieking in frustration. “Then you get your wish and I’m dead. I still don’t see why you’re arguing.”
Rylan leans down and looks at me. Silver flashes over his eyes and the sight of it holds me immobile despite my anger. “You really don’t know, do you?”
“Rylan,” Wolf drawls. “You’re not usually such a tease. Spit it out and tell us what she is.”
“I don’t know.”
Malachi curses and Wolf laughs. “All that build up, for nothing. Pity.”
“If I knew what she was, this would be simpler to navigate.” He still hasn’t taken his gaze from me. Finally, Rylan shakes his head. “We can’t risk it.”
That’s about enough of that. I start moving to the edge of the mattress. I can’t let myself believe what he’s saying. When I was young, I dreamed someday my magic would present itself and I’d be able to cast illusions like other dhampirs of my father’s bloodline. Those dreams have long since turned to ash. It’s not happening. Wanting it despite all evidence pointing to the contrary is a recipe for hating myself, and there’s already enough people in this world who hate me. I don’t need to add to their number. I’m not about to start now. “Yeah, you’re still not making any sense, so I’m going to need that pill now.”
Malachi tosses the box to Wolf and catches my shoulders. “Let’s hear what he has to say.” His expression is carefully neutral. “If, when he’s done talking, you still want it, you can have it.”
Frustration sinks its claws into me, but I do my best to stifle it. At least they’re talking to me and no one has set the damn pill on fire or something, so I suppose that’s progress. “Fine.”
“And drink that.” Wolf points at the protein drink. “You’re looking peaky, love.”
“Thanks,” I say drily, but I am feeling dizzy still, so I make myself open the bottle and take a few drinks. It’s warm and less than appetizing, but it’s better than nothing. I twist to look at Rylan. “It doesn’t matter what other theoretical supernatural blood I carry because I have no magic. I’m not even particularly strong or fast for a dhampir. I am utterly average in every way, aside from apparently being particularly tasty.”
Instead of answering, he moves back to lean against the wall and studies me. “What do you know about other supernatural creatures?”
Little more than rumors. My father is so hyper-focused on vampires, he doesn’t care about the other things out there that aren’t human. Why would he? They don’t bother him, they can’t help him accomplish his goals, and so they’re beneath his notice. “Next to nothing. Other than apparently some of them would be strong enough to break the blood ward.” Understanding dawns. I frown. “But, again, for the millionth time; I have no magic. I can’t break a blood ward. I wouldn’t even know how to try.” And I don’t want to try. Not when it won’t change anything. I spent countless hours focusing so hard I got piercing headaches because I was sure if I just focused hard enough, I could manifest my magic. It didn’t work then. It won’t work now.
“Some of them mature late. A quarter century is nothing.”
My chest gets tight and I have to fight to speak through it without yelling. “Stop it.”
His brows draw together and he looks actually confused instead of just icy and terrifying. “I don’t understand why you’re fighting this. It’s a fact. Your blood is not just vampire and human. There’s something else there. It’s familiar, but I can’t place it. The fact it’s strong enough to be tasted means it’s strong enough to manifest.” He tilts his head to the side. “It would explain your lack of magic. The other blood is more powerful than the vampire half of you.”
“You’re crazy.”
His blue eyes are merciless. “Why not try? What do you have to lose?”
I close my eyes and strive to think instead of reacting emotionally. It will hurt if this is all bullshit and nothing changes. It will hurt a lot. But it won’t kill me. If I don’t get out of this house, if Malachi doesn’t get out of this house, my father might.
Really, it’s a simple decision when I lay it out like that.
I exhale slowly and open my eyes. “What do I have to do?”
Rylan glances at Wolf and Malachi, and then refocuses on me. “There are two ways. Pain or pleasure.”
I wait, but he doesn’t offer anything more. “So you want to torture me.”
Malachi snorts. “No, little dhampir, no one is getting tortured.”
“It might be the only answer.” I glance at him, and gods, my chest aches just looking at him. It’s too soon to feel something so strong, but hell if I can push the feeling away. “I’ve had pleasure since I’ve been here, especially in the last twelve hours. Nothing’s happened.”
“Pleasure.” Wolf drops onto the bed beside me and laughs in that slightly unhinged way of his. “You haven’t seen anything yet, love.” He grins, flashing fang. “But it’ll be fun to blow that pretty little mind of yours.”
I had already planned on grabbing every bit of pleasure possible, so I suppose this isn’t exactly a trial. Still… I look over to find Rylan still watching me too closely. Every instinct I have says the other shoe is about to drop. “What am I missing?”
“Those two can’t do it on their own.” He doesn’t move, doesn’t seem to breathe. “I have to be involved.”
I blink. “You wanted me dead—literally dead—twenty minutes ago.”
“Things change.”
“You don’t like me.”
His lips twitch the tiniest bit. “Are you really that naive you think sex and fondness have anything to do with each other?”
No, of course not. But there is a large distance between fondness and wanting to murder someone. Isn’t there? “No. I guess I’m not.” I guess if he can handle his side of things, all he has to do is bite me to get me onboard.
And Rylan is sexy. I really hate he’s sexy. He’s like some ice king that’s wandered in and letting him touch me might freeze me right down to my bones, but I can’t quite forget how good it felt to have him pressed against me.
Apparently now I’ve gotten a taste for sex and bloodline vampire bites, I’m in danger of getting addicted. The thought should worry me, but I’ll deal with the consequences later. If there’s a way to get us out of this trap my father’s constructed, I’m going to do it.
I look up at Malachi. He doesn’t seem particularly pleased by this turn of events, but he’s not exactly displeased, either. I can’t read the expression on his face. He motions to the box in his hand. “Will you agree to hold off on this until we try?”
“The longer I hold off, the less effective it is.”
“All the same.”
I search his face, but it’s like the first few days here. I can’t tell what he’s thinking. “If this works, you’ll be free.” He’ll have no reason to keep me around.
That should make me happy, right? After all, the only thing I want is what I’ve wanted since I was old enough to watch my hopes turn to ash. Freedom. No vampires to speak of. A chance to figure out my own way. And hopefully not stumble right into a government facility that will spend the rest of my life doing experiments on me.
I drop my gaze, but Malachi plants his hand on the bed and leans down until it’s more awkward to avoid his gaze than to look at him. I still can’t read the expression on his face. “We won’t leave you hanging.”
Something like hope flutters in my chest and I want nothing more than to squash it. “You’ve been locked up here a long time, Malachi. You’re not in any position to offer me protection.” Which isn’t what he’s offering anyway. He said they won’t leave me hanging. They. I shake my head. “And you can’t speak for them.”
“No, I can’t.” He doesn’t move. “But I’m speaking for me. I want you to stay with me. If that’s not what you want, we’ll figure out a way for you to land safely. I give you my word.”
There’s no reason to trust him. We’ve known each other a tiny fraction of a moment and he might be a liar in addition to everything else. I can’t help trusting him all the same. “Okay,” I whisper.
“Okay?”
Gods, why does he always make me say it? I know, though, don’t I? “Okay, let’s try this.”
