That explains why they’re so shitty. Any vampire his brother made may as well have stayed human. They’re just as vulnerable. I think about having him call his idiot brother so I can end this now but Maris moans behind me. Right. She’s drugged. I have to get that shit out of her system and her somewhere that she can recover.
“I’ll kill your brother on my time,” I tell the vampire in my hold. I start to squeeze and he claws at my hand trying to get away, even though he knows it’s useless.
“Wait, wait, you-”
His words are cut off when I crush his windpipe and keep squeezing. I squeeze until his spinal cord and vertebrae are putty in my fucking hand and then tear him apart. His body hits the ground and I toss his head to the side before going to Maris.
I pick her up off the ground and Maris grabs weakly at my shoulders. “Julian?”
“I’m here. It’s me,” I tell her.
I almost lost her. I almost lost her to three fuck up vampires. She’s not safe as a human. I have to turn her. I have to keep her safe. I walk towards the docks. There’s a building there, an old repair station from the looks of the inside of it but I don’t take her inside. I put her up against the wall facing the water and pull her jacket to the side to expose her neck.
“Julian,” Maris whispers.
“I’m here,” I whisper back. Maris’ lips curve up into a smile, I feel it against my hand when I cover her mouth and bite down.
Forty-Nine
MARIS
Everything happens in slow motion and at lightspeed. First, I’m about to get my throat ripped out and then Julian’s there, leaning over me like an adoring avenging angel. I think I’m imagining him. Some figment of my brain on the brink of death, the last offering of dopamine to ease my leaving this world. I start to cry. I didn’t mean to leave him.
Not after he made me promise.
I thought I’d keep that promise.
Forever.
But then he’s there again. I see him kill Ben. I know he killed the others. They’re gone. He did that. And now I’m here.
I don’t know wherehereis.
Pain, sharp and hot, radiates from my neck. I’m standing, but I’m not holding myself up. My back hits a wall and I open my eyes. The world isn’t so shaky anymore. The drugs they gave me are wearing off, at least I think they are. The inky black sea is in front of me. I stare at the water, the moonlight shining off the sea changes and swirls. It feels upside down, like someone poured the sky right into the sea. It’s so achingly beautiful. I don't want to look anywhere else but at it. The waves rise and fall, the starsshine and blend with the sky. Water. Sky. It’s all the same when you look for long enough.
But it’s not just the stars I see.
I see a woman. She’s there, in the waves. Pale skin, luminescent, dark hair that vanishes into the sea when she turns her head.
Is it in my head? Is she in my head?
There’s a mist that blows in from the water and wets my face. No. It’s real. I’m here. She’s here. The clouds have parted and it’s not raining anymore.
I open my mouth to call to her but there’s a hand over my throat.
Julian.
The moon breaks through the clouds and the woman is gone. There’s only Julian. It shines down on him. I don’t look at the sea anymore. I don’t want to. I called him an angel before. I still mean it. If he’s not an angel, I don’t ever want to see one. Leave me with this devil. He’s mine. His head is bent and I understand why my neck aches.
He’s feeding on me. I push at his shoulders for him to let me go but he just holds me closer. The hand covering my mouth turns my head away from him and gives him better access to my throat. It hurts more. Like he’s tearing a chunk of my neck out. I kick my feet, trying to get away. It doesn’t work, all I do is end up scuffing my boots when I slam my heels against the wall.
It didn’t hurt this bad before, or did it? Was I just so out of my mind on orgasms that I didn’t realize?
The pain sharpens into a single point. Like a knife being driven into the side of my neck. The blade sinks deeper, it turns, my throat shreds from it. I scream against Julian’s palm but he doesn’t let up and he doesn’t let me go.
It’s when I think I’m going to pass out that he finally raises his head and stops feeding. I have to look up at him when heforces my head back against the wall behind me. We’re on the dock on the waterside of a repair building. Beneath us the water laps against the pilings. The sound is relaxing, should be at least but right now it just forces my anxiety higher. Every second Julian doesn’t speak scares me. He moves in front of me and glares down at me.
“What were you thinking?” I raise my hand to shove his away from my mouth but he doesn’t let me. He keeps his hand there and forces my head back. “No talking. I’m not letting you talk your way out of this. You almost got yourself killed. If I hadn’t come in time you’d be dead, wife.”
