DEAD GIRL
Fuckfuckfuck.
Jessie is supposed to be dead.
My mind scrambles to understand. Last time I saw her, she was frozen on a bed after Kyle started changing her to vampire, before I killed him. I thought she would burn when the light hit her. Kind of hoped for it, to be honest. Or that Raven guards, when they broke up the North Wind cells, would have killed her. It’s not like I didn’t tell them where she was.
So why in darkness is she here?Howis she here? I reach for the emergency button once more.
‘Like I said, I wouldn’t.’
I remember her in a dingy bathroom, pinning me with her gaze, like a mouse mesmerised by a snake. And I fucking let her do it. Just like I’m doing now. She’s quick, spider-like, as she advances on me, her body strangely twisted, the bones loose beneath her skin.
I hit the button, several times. Nothing happens. What the fuck?
Jessie laughs again, that strange rasping sound, like bone against bone. ‘You think I didn’t disable that, Raven girl?’ Her mouth opens in a twisted grin, her fangs dropped and stained with blood.Myblood. She leans closer. ‘You think this is my first fucking rodeo?’
Disable it?My security system is state-of-the-art. It shouldn’t be able to be shut down by some bitch with a vendetta. Blood seeps down the sleeve of my sweatshirt, despite the pressure I’m keeping on my neck. I refuse to give into fear, reaching for rage instead. This isnothow it ends, not for Emelia fucking Raven. Not after all I’ve been through.
‘Get the hell out of my house.’
Jessie’s tongue, dark and rotted-looking, flicks across her lips. She smells of cold graves, her clothing tattered.
‘I’m not going anywhere,’ she snarls. ‘Not until I get what I want.’
‘I’m not giving youanything.’ I bare my teeth. I don’t understand how she isn’t burning in the light. Come on, Emelia.Think.I look around for a weapon, something, anything. Laurel is a humped, dark shape in the gloom.
‘Oh, you will.’ The last word is a hiss as she leans in, licking at my fingers.
I kick her, the movement a reflex. ‘Get away from me!’ The scar she carried as a human still twists from her neck to her chin, more scars on the side of her face. I wonder what in darkness happened to her. Kyle was strong, beautiful. His progeny should be as well. I ignore the lance of pain at the memory of how beautiful he was.
‘Bitch! Do you see this?’ She hisses, holding up her arm. The forearm has an angle to it, like it’s been broken then healed. ‘Do you fucking see what they did to me?’
‘What who did to you? I imagine you deserved it, whoever they were.’
‘Those assholes from the North Wind. They broke me. Then left me.’
‘The North Wind?’ I’m too surprised to give her a smart answer. ‘But you and Kyle were both?—’
‘You knownothingof what he was!’ She lunges at me, wild-eyed. ‘You killed him, you fucking bitch. And you left me there, frozen. Which is where they found me.’ Her voice is a wail. ‘When he died, the blood magic died with him. And now I’m some sort of half-vampire bullshit. Which is why I’m going to take your blood. Yourvampireblood.’ She licks her lips. ‘I’m going to drain you dry. And finish the fucking job.’
She pulls my hand away from my neck, her fingers rough. I whimper, despite my resolve.
She strokes my hair, her head tilting like a bird. ‘Cry all you want. No one is coming. I hope you feel the same fear I felt, when you left me to die. When you killed everything I loved.’ A tear, watery blood, trickles down her face.
Fuck her. Any pity I might have had died long ago in a dusty bedroom, with Kyle. I should have finished her off then, as well. I’m dizzy, half my top dark with blood. But I willnotend here. There’s another security button in the kitchen. I gather what’s left of my strength, pressing back into the wall.
A floorboard creaks. Jessie turns, but she’s not quick enough. A blurred male figure, clad in black, swipes at her once, twice, three times. I catch a glimpse of silver. Jessie screams, the sound like the closing of a rusty metal door.
But it is not yet dark.
A hand grabs Jessie, who’s still screaming, by the hair. Pulling her head back, exposing her throat. A silver blade comes to rest on her greyish skin.
And I look into Michael’s storm-dark gaze.
ChapterTen
VIOLETS AND SORROW
