AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I should call my parents.
The fact hung in the air right along with the other truths I’d known: my parents had always known exactly where I was, because their friends had sold me to Lazarus. I still didn’t know why they’d done so, although money was certainly a motivating factor. After ten years, I wasn’t sure it even mattered anymore. Clearly, my parents had never tried hard enough to get me out of the community or buy me out. And the human authorities had never done anything to aid victims of these communities. The vampire lords like Lazarus held simply too much power and influence in the city to risk upsetting.
“Are you well after today’s events?”
I jumped, rocketing off the bed and onto my feet as the voice filled my head, the same smooth tones that’d whispered freedom to me in Lazarus’s community this morning.
Flashes burst through my mind—the ancient book, the shadow drawing, fire, magic, and death.
“I did not mean to startle you, Aisling.”
My brow twisted. My pulse pounded in my ears, but I blinked through the panic. The voice, though startling, wasn’t new. This voice—this entity of some sort—had helped me escape. Had formed some sort of deal with me in exchange for freedom.
“Hi,” I uttered softly, glancing around the room. “Why can’t I see you?”
“Because I am not fully here on this plane of existence,”the voice said, just before it felt like a hand touched my elbow.
I was pretty sure the gesture was meant to be reassuring, but I jumped again, unable to contain my fear. With rare exception, everyone who had touched me for the last ten years had sunk their fangs into my skin.
“Aisling,”the voice said. Calm. Collected.
“I’m sorry.” Tears pricked my eyes. I blinked rapidly to clear them. “I-I’m just confused. And…”
The sensation of a hand brushing mine, holding mine, came over me. Slowly. Cautiously. I allowed the entity to hold my hand. Except, when I looked down, I once again saw nothing.
“I know,”the entity said.“I can only imagine how much today was for you. But I’m with you now. We made a pact, and I will protect you.”
My face scrunched up. “Why me?”
“You summoned me with my tome.”
Right. I’d nearly forgotten. Gods, today was becoming a blur of fangs and blood and fire. “Mrak, was it?”
The entity’s tentative hold on my hand grew firmer now that I hadn’t jumped away again.“Yes.”
“Well.” I wiped away an errant tear that had broken free. “Thank you, Mrak. I wouldn’t have escaped without your help and fire magic. I assume that was yours?”
Mrak’s ethereal hands held both of mine now, a touch I was growing grateful for. Kind. Caring. Not demanding or violent. I appreciated that he didn’t try to ethereally hold me more. As it was, this strange ethereal touch was kind of a mind-fuck at the moment. But I couldn’t deny the way my body craved this kindness, even if I couldn’t see the hands holding mine—and even if Mrak was a stranger.
“It is yours now.”Mrak’s tone, calm and strong, flitted through the air around me. In my mind, most definitely, but it was also like he was everywhere at once outside of my mind, too. I couldn’t pinpoint where he was.
My eyes widened and I raised my palm. He kept holding it. “Mine?”
“It is a gift to you as part of our pact,”Mrak said as sparks of fire lit along my fingertips.“I will protect you with my presence, but now you have a portion of my power as well.”
Tears welled in my eyes again. I wasn’t totally sure why at this point, other than everything had been so much today, thatemotionin general was all I felt. An intense mixture of relief and fear, panic and freedom, joy at being free, but also sadness in what had been lost. Because regardless of the violence and the feedings, the communityhadbeen a twisted sort of home for me for ten years. Now everything—everything—had changed and I didn’t even want to go home to my parents.
I had no home anymore, I realized.
No place to live. No job. A whole future in front of me, but I had nowhere to start.
“Aisling?”Mrak asked when I hadn’t spoken.
I wiped tears away from my cheeks again. “I’m okay. I’m fine. Thank you for the magic. And for helping me. I owe you.”
“In time you will pay this pact back,”Mrak said.“For now, you need rest.”
“And a future.” I mean, I had one now. Wide open and ready for me to make of it what I wanted. But whatdidI want?
