I stand up from the settee and start to pace. Moving helps me think. I rub my temples and walk to the windows. The storm is worse now, the sky made dark from the approaching night. I’m glad we’re not on the road.
“Then who could have done it? If it’s not a coincidence that means the vampire was targeting one of us, right?” I turn from the window to face Julian. “ We just have to start at square one and-”
“Maris, get down!” Julian interrupts me with a shout.
I know better than to hesitate when I’m told to get down. I hit the ground without looking behind me and bang my elbow on the ground. Fuck. There’s a smash of glass as a bottle shatters the window and lands on the floor a few feet away from me.
I point at the bottle. “Is that a fucking Molotov Coctkail?”
“Rosanna,” Julian whispers. He picks the bottle up from the ground and launches it back through the window. I cover my head as fresh glass falls down beside me.
Shock hits me. I know who Rosanna is.
“Your maker is here?”
Forty-Three
MARIS
“In the flesh, lover. Miss me?”A singsong voice calls.
“Fuck that fucking bitch.” I push myself up from the floor and get a look at Julian’s maker. “How-where did she come from?”
“Seattle,” Julian mutters and holds a hand out to me. “Maris, come here.” I move to Julian’s side but keep my eyes on the dark-haired woman outside. She’s standing in the middle of the yard in the rain. She’s wearing leather pants, boots, and a red corset with gold and velvet trim. The whole look is very vampire, in the sense that it looks like what you might see a vampire dressed in for a movie, or some long-lived tv series where everyone is too hot. She looks good. A fact that I hate because she just threw a fucking firebomb through my front window.
Rosanna crosses her arms and tosses her dark hair over her shoulder with a pout. “It’s not nice to ignore your maker, Julian. No invite? Just leaving me out in the cold like this? I see our time apart has done nothing for your sense of decorum and loyalty.” Her eyes cut to me. “Did you enjoy my surprise on the second floor? A pity it didn’t take.”
Oh my god. This bitch blew out the windows earlier.
Julian tucks me into his side. “I’m plenty loyal to those who deserve it.”
“To those who-” she laughs and shakes her head, “to those who deserve it?I made you,”she yells. Her voice echoes with the thunder overhead. “Without me you would be dead in the ground, worm food. Without me, you never would have gotten the chance to bag yourself a little mermaid to fuck. I think that’s worth something, don’t you?”
I don’t understand what she means by mermaid. “What is she talking about, Julian?” I look up at him to see he’s looking at me, but there’s something different in his gaze. When Julian looks at me it's warm, open, as caring a look as you might think a vampire could give a woman while being obsessed, but this is different.
I’ve never seen him look like this.
It’s calculating.Cold.
The hand that holds mine tightens and I watch him turn into something else. He’s like stone now. My body starts to fire. Adrenaline hits my system while it whispers to me what’s coming next. Screams at me to run because the man I’m standing next to isn’t a man.
He’s a vampire.
Dangerpredatorkiller.
“Julian? You’re scaring me.” I move to step away from him, but I can’t break Julian’s hold on me. “Let me go.” I push at his hand but it's useless. He’s too strong. “Julian.” The same feeling that swept over me with Liz hits me again. It’s not as strong, just there and gone again before I can grab hold of it to understand what it is.
“Let me go,”I order.
Julian gasps and jerks his hand away from me like he’s been shot. “No.” He looks at Rosanna. She’s watching us through thewindow with a lazy smile on her face.“No, she’s not. She’s my mate.”
When Julian’s maker moves, it’s a blur. She moves so much faster than he has around me. Rosanna perches on the ledge outside the smashed window and leans in as close as she can without entering. “She just gave you a sassy little siren command and you think she’s human?” Rosanna laughs and gives Julian a pitying look. “Always the romantic, Julian. The artist in you never died, did it? That’s why I loved you, my tenderhearted artist.” She gives me a once over and nods in approval. “I get the allure. She’s beautiful, but she’s not your mate. Not hardly. The pull you’re feeling is the siren call.”
“You're a liar.” Julian shakes his head. “No, Rosanna. You’re not taking her away from me.”
Rosanna flicks a broken shard of glass into the house. “Oh, Julian. You fool. You romantic fool.”
I look from Rosanna to him. “Julian, please tell me what’s going on. I don’t understand. Please, tell me,” I plead.
