That’s how it felt as I stared into the sleeping face of a girl I hadn’t seen since my junior year of high school.
“Careful,” he said, brushing his knuckles down the back of my arm as I approached her. “She’s bound and sedated, but she’s still a vampire, Gray.”
I nodded, keeping my stake at the ready just in case. Her hair was a little longer than when I’d last seen her, her skin unnaturally flawless, but otherwise she looked exactly as I remembered her.
Still sedated, she rested calmly, not moving a muscle.
Not even to breathe.
She no longer needed to.
Little Fiona Brentwood is a vampire.
I couldn’t wrap my head around it.
She’d been an awkward kid back then, two years our junior, a little too loud, way too clingy. She had a huge crush on Jonathan, which I found endearing, but he couldn’t stand her. She’d tag along everywhere we went—to the Shop-’N-Save on early dismissal days, where she’d offer to pay for our ice cream or candy. To the Palace Theater for a Sunday matinee. On our bikes to the wooden playground not far from school, where she’d do flips on the parallel bars while he and I sat under the fake drawbridge kissing until we ran out of breath.
Jonathan was perpetually annoyed by her.
I used to feel bad about it, inviting her along for pizza or a hike up Duckback Mountain on the weekends. He’d go along with it, but he always said the same thing afterward:I just want you all to myself once in awhile, Sunshine. What’s wrong with that?
I loved it when he called me Sunshine.Rayanne, he used to say.My little ray of sunshine. In my immature, starry-eyed mind, I thought he was just being romantic.
Goosebumps rose on my arms.
Without warning, Fiona’s eyes opened.
“Shit!” I jumped back, my heart leaping into my throat.
Her lips curved, but her smile was small and sad, tinged with something that looked an awful lot like regret. She wouldn’t look me in the eye. “Hey, Ray-Ray.”
“Hey, Feefs,” I said automatically, the nickname I’d given her coming back as easily as the one she’d given me.
Guys! I got my mom’s credit card! Wanna go to Java House?
Her voice echoed through my memory, and I stared at her open-mouthed, struggling to reconcile the sweet-but-goofy kid I’d once known with the beautiful vampire sitting before me now.
The vampire Darius had captured.
The Grinaldi rogue who’d teamed up with Jonathan to murder my best friend.
Holy. Shit.
It’d taken all those minutes for the initial surprise to wear off, and when the fog finally lifted, the reality of the situation struck me like lightning, fierce and destructive, a raw bolt of power shocking me into action.
I lunged for her, grabbing a fistful of her hair and jerking her head backward, pressing the tip of my stake to the soft underside of her chin.
I waited for a pair of strong hands to land on my shoulders, an arm to slip around my waist, a calm voice of reason to talk me down. But none of the guys made a move to stop me. They simply stood by my side, rock-solid and supportive, their own stakes held tight.
“Tell me hemadeyou do it,” I said, my teeth clenched so hard my jaw ached. “He threatened your family and forced you to turn, forced you to give him your blood. Tell me he preyed on your feelings for him and lured you into his trap. Tell me he left you no other choice.”
My arms trembled, my chest heaving like I couldn’t get enough air. I wanted it so, so badly to be true—that he’d forced her. Because then I might be able to make sense of it. I might be able to channel all of my rage, all of my grief, all of this churning, roiling, boiling fury into making sure Jonathan died in the most painful, horrific way imaginable.
I might even be able to forgive her.
“Tell me!” I screamed.
But even with a stake pressed uncomfortably against her throat, she still shook her head. “All he’s ever wanted was to reclaim his magical heritage. He told me he needed a vampire to do that.”
