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CHAPTER1
The guy standing in front of me in the alleyway might just kill me. Well, considering his immortality and constant bloodlust, the termvampireis more accurate thanguy.
His name is Legend, and his silvery grey eyes are bleeding with irritation. Every muscle in his lean body is wound tight, and his crimson lips are curled, revealing razor-sharp fangs descending from his gums.
If I were a normal girl, fear would be spiking through my veins by now. But only calm lulls inside me. A laugh even escapes my lips.
Legend won’t hurt me, even if he does look like he wants to throttle me.
“You think this is funny?” He stalks toward me, his clunky boots scuffing against the pavement. “There’s a woman lying behind me who has bite marks in her neck.”
I stifle a laugh threatening to bubble up from my throat. “I know. And I don’t think it’s funny.” A total lie, but I don’t want to amp him up more. He might lose control.
Well, what little control he has left.
I peek over his shoulder at the woman lying in the alleyway. Moonlight blankets her, her eyelids fluttering as she battles to remain conscious. She was that way when we stumbled out of the bar and into the alley, shit-faced drunk. Or, well, I’m shit-faced drunk. Legend has a difficult time getting trashed due to his stealthy vampire tolerance for alcohol.
“Laikyn, this isn’t funny,” Legend hisses, using my full name instead of my nickname. “I have one more day left in this godforsaken realm, and if the police pin this on me, they might call the Eternals, and then I’ll be stuck here for another year.”
I frown at the reminder that tomorrow night he’ll be leaving me behind to return to his own realm. “You’ll be fine. You didn’t even bite her, so there should be no evidence to point them in your direction.”
Shaking his head, he glances back at the woman, who is now staring at us, looking delirious from the vampire bite, at least says the two pinpricks on her neck.
“They might,” he whispers. “What if I get accused of biting her? What if they think I broke my spell? What if I’m stuck here for another year? I can’t handle another year in the Common Realm.” He looks back at me apologetically. “No offense, but this place is beyond boring. If it weren’t for you, I would’ve died … again of boredom. Vampire knows what would’ve happened to me if you and I hadn’t become friends.”
I feel the same way, but I keep the words to myself to avoid turning this into a drunken sob-fest. On the inside, though, my heart is breaking. Shattering.
Legend has been my best friend for a year, after he literally dropped into my life and saved me from a horrific situation. Well, he saved me during a horrific situation. Things would’ve been even more worse if he hadn’t …
I shudder as images of that haunting day pierce my mind. No, I won’t think of that. Won’t think of themever.
“Yeah, you’re pretty lucky you met me,” I tease with a strained smile. “I think I might be the only human crazy enough to hang out with a banished vampire.”
“Yeah, humans aren’t very fond of me, are they? I don’t get why. I haven’t ever done anything to them.” He doesn’t seem upset. Just curious as to why.
“They fear you because you’re a powerful creature who’s been dropped into a realm full of powerless humans who have been taught to fear you. Most of them probably think you’re here because you did something horrible, like murder a bunch of people or something.”
It’s not true, though. Legend was banished to the Common Realm, also known as the Human Realm, for a year for sleeping with one of the Vampire Eternal’s—aka, the leaders of the vampires—mistresses. According to Legend, touching anything that belongs to a Vampire Eternal is a huge crime in the Midnight Realm, the realm he was born and raised in, and where every night, creatures, from vampires to werewolves, live. Getting sent to the Common Realm is the worst punishment a paranormal can receive, right up there with getting staked, getting shocked by a silver bullet, or any of their other kryptonite.
The Common Realm is basically a prison for paranormal creatures who commit crimes in their own realms. The law was put into place over a century ago after a treaty was signed between the Common Realm ruler and each of the rulers for the six realms. The treaty states that all the paranormal realms could use the Common Realm as a place to banish their criminals. In exchange, they’d stop letting their wars enter our portals.
Every imprisoned paranormal has a spell cast on them while they’re here that hinders them from attacking humans. Although, I think they may be able to attack each other, and a few paranormals have occasionally broken the spell. I know this firsthand.
Another part of the treaty is that the realms position guards at the entrances of each portal in the Common Realm to prevent paranormals from getting inside our realm and to keep us from wandering into theirs. They do allow humans to occasionally visit certain realms, via the portals, but you have to be pretty wealthy and important to attain a traveling pass.
I’ve never been out of the Common Realm. Well, at least not that I know of. But I also can’t remember anything before the age of eight, either. I have no clue who my parents are, where I came from; only that the police found me, wandering on the side of the road near the edges of the Midnight Realm.
I shudder at the memory of how terrified I felt that night, and then at the memories of the sheer loneliness that followed. And the day Legend saved me from them.
“You never acted afraid of me,” Legend points out, tearing me out of my thoughts. His fangs ascend back into his gums, an indicator that he’s starting to relax. “Why is that?”
“Because I am awesome. Besides, I was lonely before I met you, and lonely people are desperate for friends, even if it means being friends with a big, old, scary vampire,” I tease with a grin.
Some of my words do carry truth. Up until I met Legend, I spent most of my time going to school, doing homework, and struggling to survive as I was passed along through foster homes. My time in foster care ended about eight months ago—thank God—when I turned eighteen and graduated from high school.
I was actually okay when I was released into the wild to fend for myself. I already had a job waitressing at a restaurant and had saved up enough money to get an apartment. My place isn’t on the good side of town, but I have my very own vampire guard since Legend practically lives with me.
I don’t have any other friends. Legend is the first person I’ve ever felt a connection to, and he’s not even a person. What that says about me, I’m not sure, other than maybe all the kids who called me a freak during high school were on to something. It also has me worried about what’s going to happen to me when he leaves tomorrow night.
