10
My eyes dragged over Sebastian as he lay still on the cot. When the sun came up, vampires died. He didn’t look like he was sleeping. His chest wasn’t moving and his skin was cold and marble-like, hard and pale. I didn’t linger. Instead, I left him in the safe room and ran across campus.
Our house was likely compromised. Even if I was safe from vampires during the day, Sanguine Society had daylight workers. Blood bags that had yet to be turned, more than willing to do their bidding.
I walked by the house, staying across the street. My car was still parked in the driveway and I needed to get that. Today I planned to burn that fucking building to the ground and be done with this. It was a rapid-fire, reckless plan but it was better than sitting around and waiting for a better one. Each night Sanguine Society was alive, was another night they could find us.
I would never let them have Sebastian. I didn’t want to entertain the idea of what would happen if I failed him. Even if we weren’t really partners anymore I still felt obligated to him as if we were. I couldn’t shake off the ingrained habit of taking care of him. The last three years of my life had been solely focused on that very task and now more than ever he needed me to pull through.
Quickly, I darted across the street, racing towards my car. My eyes stayed glued to the front door of our rental house, anticipating an enemy to emerge.
I got to the car and crouched down at the back wheel, retrieving the magnetic box that held the spare key. Then I jumped in the car and slammed the key in, turning it on and snapping the vehicle in reverse.
The front door finally opened as I peeled out of the driveway. Except it wasn’t the enemy that I saw. My eyes widened as I saw Ophelia stepping out, another hunter that had graduated at the same time as Sebastian and me. I pressed on the gas and left before she could see me. Even if they didn’t know it yet, I wasn’t one of them anymore.
I made sure I hadn’t been followed and then pulled into the back parking lot of a home improvement store. Before I went in I leaned back in my chair and sighed, running my hands through my hair.
I’d never thought of myself as a blind follower. The Brotherhood was strict but it wasn’t a cult. It had its ways and it stuck to it because fighting monsters involved skill, dedication, and knowledge.
I wasn’t a brainwashed soldier. Still, I had soaked in what I’d been taught. They were the sole resource for knowledge on vampires. Questioning them about what I was told never crossed my mind.
Sebastian didn’t come across quite like I was told. I’d been telling myself he’d been acting since he woke up. That the real him was gone, his soul torn from his body the moment he died and became a vampire. Except, that wasn’t adding up anymore. He was disturbed and angry about being made a vampire. He showed empathy, remorse, and fear.
His hunger seemed like a compulsion he had little control over but wished he did. He wasn’t a monster with no morality like I’d been told. He was Sebastian and he was struggling with what he’d become. His new drives were out of control. That was it. That was the only difference between the man I knew last week and the one chained up in the basement of the school.
He was dangerous but he was mine.
I blew out a breath and went about collecting what I needed. The hope that Sebastian was still himself burned until it was a blazing belief. The realization made me feel high, my feet barely touching the ground.
He wasn’t acting. He wasn’t using sex just as some means to get my blood.
The rest of the day I spent avoiding being seen as much as possible while collecting everything I might need to burn a building down. The most important ingredients were spite and rage—fortunately I had those in buckets.
The bastards were in their dank catacomb where the only improvements were basic electricity. They didn’t need running water and so it wasn’t a concern to them. Which also meant they had no sprinklers in case of a fire.
It was already dusk by the time I made it back to the Sanguine building, my car stacked with supplies. A few students and staff moved around but I ignored them, pulling boxes from my car and carrying them into the building. Inside hid accelerants and weapons. I also had several pipe bombs and other explosives that sprayed silver.
For once, things went smoothly and according to plan. I turned Sanguine Society into a barbeque and listened to their wails as I stood at the top of the stairs, making sure none tried to escape. Whenever one came running out, he got a silver bullet between the eyes and in his heart.
A good hour later the stench was atrocious and the smoke was pouring up the stairs into the main hall. I’d made sure to douse the entire building in gasoline to be thorough, so when the flames licked through the red door at the top of the stairs and began spilling into the hall, it was time for me to go.
I made my way back to Sebastian. The sky was growing dark and he’d be awake before I got back. I couldn’t wait to see him. I needed him. He wasn’t a monster, he was my Sebastian.
Now that Sanguine was gone, he was free.
11
Tate came back into the room covered in ash and blood, panting as he barreled in like he was being chased. I shot off the bed.
“You went against them. Are they dead?” I asked as the chain caught, tugging me into a standstill. Tate locked the door behind him and then turned around, looking at me. His blue eyes were startling crystal pools in the mess smeared across his skin.
“Yes,” he sighed. He smelled like smoke and adrenaline. It had been a long time since I saw him in his hunter outfit. I’d grown used to the jock appearance—jersey shorts and stretched-out tanks. Now he was encapsulated in tight black fabric and strapped to the nines with gear. His leather shoulder holster was snug along his built shoulders with guns hanging below his thick biceps.
“You went in there with some half-cocked plan. You could have died,” I hissed, feeling delayed panic at the risk he’d put himself in.
“What about you?” He asked.
“What?”
