“Aurora!”Kai suddenly turned and yelled at me. I broke out of my thoughts and ran overto him. Concern etched across his face, his nostrils flaring.
“Doyou smell that?” he quizzed me.
Ifroze and inhaled. “Alek?” What was he doing here? Alek was the only vampire Ihad met that was good. He drank exclusively from blood banks and lived with a humanwife.
Kaigrabbed my hand and we jogged around to the front of our house. Tossing my gardeninggloves on the ground, we ran down the main road and towards the smell. The roadwas lined with densely packed trees and as we rounded the corner, I saw thatthe headlights of a car showed that Alek was being pinned to the hood, Max’selbow at his throat. Jai had pinned a young teenage vampire face down on theground and had a stake in one hand.
Kaishouted in a deep baritone voice, “Stand down! They’re friends of mine.”
Maxlooked in Kai’s direction but didn’t ease up on Alek’s windpipe. Lookingcloser, I saw now that Max had a silver spike in his other hand. Alek wasn’tfighting back; he was rigid and calm. Max was Kai’s second in command for along time until I came along. He was very dominant and often times didn’tlisten, now seemed to be one of those times.
“Areyou deaf, Max? Stand down!” I shouted and power oozed out of my voice. Kai gaveme a side glance and I saw he was smirking. Max pulled off of Alek and gave mea glare that told me he didn’t appreciate my comment and I might be paying forit later. Well, too bad.
Ipicked up my pace into super-fast mode and grabbed Alek’s elbow, helping himup. Jai pulled the teen vampire into a standing position.
“I’msorry, they don’t know about you,” I told Alek.
Aleknodded, eyeing Max with a look of revenge.
Jaipushed the other guy in our direction. “Since when are blood suckers ourfriends?” he addressed his brother.
Theteenage vampire hissed, making a move to attack Jai, but Alek’s hand snaked outgrabbing him by the shirt, restraining him. The boy’s hair was greasy andblack, his frame was thin, and his hands shook. I inhaled. He smelled ofheroin. That metallic smell was familiar now. I had first smelled it in thenightclub when Kai and I discovered that vampires were getting humans high onheroin and then drinking from them. Vampires couldn’t get high themselves; theymetabolized it too fast. Drinking through a human was the only way.
“Calmdown, lad, we have enough problems to worry about,” Alek told the teenager.
Hisvoice shook. Now that I was close to him, I could see that Alek’s normallypristine appearance was disheveled. His pupils were black, dark circles ringedhis eyes, and his clothes were dirty.
Kaipicked up on it, too. “Are you guys okay?”
Aleksighed, then he looked at Jai and Max. “Can we talk in private?”
Maxchuckled. “So you can kill our Alpha or steal Aurora? Nice try. No.”
Kaiglared at Max but didn’t dismiss him.
‘Hehas a point,’Kai told me.
Iagreed, as shitty as it felt. We didn’t really know Alek that well. I motionedto Jai. “Jai, go get Alexa.”
Jailooked disappointed at the dismissal but did as I asked. Max was staying.
“What’sgoing on, Alek?” I asked him.
Helet out a shaky breath. “Where do I begin?”
Theteenager scratched his arms. “We need blood.”
Alekfit him with a death glare and for the first time I saw just how deadly Alekcould be when provoked.
Kaihad straightened his posture. To anyone else he may have looked like he was justadjusting his stance, but I knew he was getting ready for a possible fight.
Alekput his arms up in a gesture of peace. “That’s not why we’re here. The kid is anewly-changed vampire. He’s strung out on heroin. I’m trying to help him getclean. When you’re newly changed, all you can think about is blood.”
“Butyou don’t look so great either, Alek, so is it true? Do you need blood?” Kaiasked him and put the power of the Alpha into his words.
Alekswallowed as if salivating. “Yes, the blood banks have all been burned to theground, thanks to your little shout out to my people.” He looked at me.
Irecoiled. “What shout out?”
