*I lied. I think I might be able to get the rest of the chaps up by tomorrow! Again, i apologize for the spelling mistakes. I know there are a lot but i am the only one editing this at the moment, so sue me*
Chapter 23
I could only stare, eyes wide, as he pulled me closer.
His arms were a prison, holding me still. He felt frozen beneath his clothing, and the fingers on my cheeks were so cold it almost burned where they touched me—he was glacial. His breath brushed my frozen cheek whenever he spoke.
“I thought I’d lost you,” he breathed. “I thought you wouldn’t come back.”
I didn’t know what the hell he was talking about—shit, I didn’t want to know. But, before I could react, his hands were moving from my jaw, down to my shoulders…to my waist. I shivered as he pressed me against him.
I didn’t like this. My entire mind was in a panic of; must run away, must run away. Bad, bad, bad!
But even I couldn’t ignore a fragile, distant part of me that sighed as those icy fingers fanned out over my hips. A part of me that still controlled my body as my head tilted back to meet those obsidian eyes.
A part of me that whispered home—even as the rest of me finally panicked.
The overwhelming terror was what finally broke the ghostly hold over my body, I guess. I felt my fingers clench. I could feel my heart begin to thump like crazy. I could finally begin to feel control of my toes—but even that wasn’t enough to save me as the guy leaned down and pressed his mouth against mine.
Whoa, whoa, WHOA!
Shock crackled through me like lightning as his icy lips nudged my own. My mouth opened against my will, and just like that his tongue slipped inside…
All hell broke loose.
Fire danced through me. Despite the guy’s freezing skin, everywhere he touched me burned. Like I was on fire.
My heart stopped beating—I swear it did. It was all I could do just to keep from passing out then and there, as all the breath left my chest in a whoosh.
This wasn’t your Grandma’s chaste lip-touch. It was like being shocked by a random burst of static. The guy pulled me closer with a growl, and his lips seemed to devour mine.
It was like he wanted to eat me alive, body and soul. And a shadowy, hidden part of me, wanted him to.
He was crushing me, though I didn’t think he realized it. I was pressed so hard against a cement-like chest that it took everything I had in me just to suck air into my lungs. Until I couldn’t even do that anymore…
Then, like the delicate shatter of smashing glass, the remaining ghostly hold over my body shattered and I had full control of my limbs again.
“No!” The shout ripped from my chest, mingling with the hungry kiss.
My hands flew to his shoulders, and I pushed hard with all my might against his chest—but he was too strong. For a moment, I feared that my puny strength wouldn’t be enough.
But then, his mouth disentangled from mine with a hoarse gasp.
“Maryne—”
“Let me go!” My voice was a frantic shriek, and he released my waist more from shock than anything.
He took a step forward as I stumbled back, but the look on my face made him stop in his tracks. My body hit the hard wall of a nearby warehouse and I had to lean against it just to keep standing.
My legs shook. My bottom lip trembled. Any moment I felt like I was going to cry, and then I was. Big, blotchy tears streamed down my face before I could help it, smearing everything into a shapeless blur.
“Leave me alone,” I whispered as the dark blob that was Demitri reached out for me again.
He made a tortured noise in the back of his throat. As if someone were twisting a knife in his gut. As if he were in so much agonizing pain that words couldn’t voice it.
Any other day, I might have cared.
But now, all that mattered was that he stayed far away.
“Please.” My voice shook so badly that I barely understood my own words. “I don’t know who M-Maryne is—but sh…she’s not me. She’s not me!”
He looked confused—so painfully, horribly confused, that a part of me flinched at the sight. But then, his eyes darkened, and smoothed over into blank emptiness in the blink of an eye.
I didn’t see him move. I could hardly see anything, and with my hands shaking I reached up to wipe the screen of tears away. I only felt a tug on my throat—making me jump—and a subtle clink like that of metal snapping.
Blinking, I looked down to find his arm outstretched with the broken chains of Melanie Maloney’s necklace trailing from his fist like torn wings.
With a smooth motion he tucked the necklace into his pocket.
“Sorry,” he said on a frigid whisper. “I must have mistaken you for someone else.”
Then, he turned his back to me, and I could only watch as he disappeared into the shadows of the Pier, leaving me alone to sink to the dirty ground as my trembling legs finally gave way.
_____________
What the hell just happened? The logical part of me tried to rationalize that, while the irrational part blubbered and sniffled all over the front of Dustyn’s borrowed sweatshirt.
I was freezing. Even the icy breeze whipping up from the river wasn’t enough to cut the achy burn I could still feel all over from when he kissed me…
“What the hell?” It takes me a moment to realize that the pitiful moan was my own. I’d been muttering the words over and over without even realizing it.
What the hell, what the hell…
Without the sham of the nightmare, it took a full minute to sink in that this was real. Really, really real.
I had jumped from the window of Dustyn’s apartment and landed without a freakin’ scratch. I had wandered all the way to the Pier from the other side of the city. I had just walked up to some random dude and kissed him like…
Like he was a whole lot more to me than just some dark, handsome stranger. Like I knew him—wanted him—and that part of me mourned as I watched him go.
What the hell was happening to me?
I was gasping. Every breath seemed to sink into my chest like a punch, and it was getting so hard just to keep breathing. I was hyperventilating, I realized somewhere at the back of my mind. If I didn’t get a hold of myself soon, I would pass out.
Breathe, I ordered myself. Shakily, I took a deep breath and let it out on whine.
Then, I broke down and just started crying even harder than before.
Where was Dustyn when you needed him? The thought slipped out before I could take it back, and I had to realize that—not for the first time—I needed him.
I doubted even Dave with his cool calm and soothing voice could comfort me now. Besides, I didn’t want to be comforted.
I wanted someone there to smack some sense into me. To call me a crybaby—make me get a hold of myself.
Only Dustyn could do that. I couldn’t help but think that if he were here, he’d scoff. Those gray eyes would flash as he glared down on the slobbering, sobbing mess of me.
‘Get up,’ he’d sneer. ‘You don’t want to be caught alone and defenseless in an alley…’
Which brought my attention to the very important point.
Voices floated in my direction—along with footsteps. People were coming closer. I could hear them, walking stealthily up the length of the Pier toward my narrow little hiding place.
“Did you see where he went?” A deep voice asked into the silence.
“Nope.” This newer voice was a woman’s, as light and crisp as summer air. “Though that’s Demitri for ya. He’s always running off.”
I flinched at the name and hugged myself a little tighter.
“Hmmm.” A second man scoffed, gruffly—though maybe he was a boy. His voice squeaked as if he were in the middle of puberty. “It’s just our luck if the damn Slayers come back and Mit’s gone…”
“Don’t think like that,” the woman said cheerfully—or maybe she was a girl. Her voice was so chirpy it made my ears ache. “I think Demtiri is around somewhere, and Alexi—”
“Pompous ass,” the first voice grouched. “Those damn Stroggha think that just because they chose to mooch off us—and Mit let them in—that they run the damn place.”
“Riley,” the girl scolded. “Don’t talk like that.”
“Yeah,” the third voice added. “Ashley’s right. Those two are totally arrogant brats, but they could have you in prison with a snap of their fingers. Especially that blond one.”
“Serenity,” the girl, Ashley, said almost dreamily. “She’s so pretty. I wish I looked like her…”
“You’re prettier, Ash,” the first boy, Riley, said automatically. “I just wish Demtiri didn’t have to take them in. I’m so sick of them looking down their autocratic noses at us just because we’re not—”
“Its ‘aristocratic,’ Ri,” Ashley corrected breezily. “And hell, I would look down my nose if I was like them. They’re royalty.”
She said the word the same way someone might say, ‘super-special.’
“My ass,” Riley grumbled. “A royal pain is the butt is more like it…”
“Plus,” the other boy said softly. “They’ve got nothing on Demitri. He acts a lot more ‘royal’ than those two ass holes.”
“Yes,” Ashley admitted. Her voice sounded much closer than before. “But he’s not Stroggha…”
“Wait.” The three sets of footsteps went quiet, and I could imagine them sniffing at the air. “Do you smell that?”
“Human,” Ashley agreed, almost on a whine.
“Somewhere close by,” the second boy added, in a grumble.
And that, my friends, was my clue to leave.
I pressed my hand against the wall by my head for balance, and slowly began to pull myself upright. I was shaking like a leaf, but somehow I managed to make it to my feet in one piece.
My heart was skipping like mad in my chest. I had to press my lips together just to keep from screaming as a shadow slipped over the mouth of my alley like a blanket.
Three sets of dark eyes gleamed through the darkness to hone in on me.
Bingo. That’s what I figured the vampires would have said if they were the stupid clichéd kind from a t.v. show.
But these vampires weren’t like the kind from your television.
“She’s pretty,” a perky blond, who could only guess was Ashley, announced as she flounced forward with her hands on her hips.
She was a tiny, pint-sized package—the perfect cheerleader had she been alive. As it was, death seemed to have put a gothic edge on her. Her blond hair was cut short into a wispy pixie cut that framed a doll-like face where two, large blue eyes eyed me hungrily.
She wore a black and blue, plaid skirt with a mid-drift baring top that would have seemed baffling had she been able to feel the icy cold; as it was, the ensemble just made her look like some Gothic Lolita doll come to life.
Her face seemed familiar, and it took me a moment to figure out why—she was the missing girl. The one from the newspaper clippings.
Ashley Bryson.
She wrinkled her nose. Those massive eyes swept over my tangled, knotted hair and the dried tears streaked across my chin.
“Think she’s a runaway?” She said over her shoulder to the two figures who flanked her on either side.
One of them—a slender teen with ruffled red hair—shrugged. “Possibly.” I recognized his squeaky voice as Riley’s.
The other one—a tall, hulking shape of pure muscle—shook his head. “She’s too clean to be a runaway.” His voice grumbled on the air like a roll of thunder, and I took a step back without thinking.
These kids—though they could have been any age, really—did not look like the type of crew I wanted to play with after hours.
Sorry, kiddos, I thought hysterically. Mary’s got a curfew…
My fingers trembled as I tried to push free of the wall—but before I could blink, the perky vampire, Ashley, was in front of me.
Her pretty face hovered just inches from mine.
“She smells good,” she said simply. Her button nose wrinkled as she sniffed, and those blue eyes took a lazy gleam that made my stomach quake. “All peppermint-y, like my grandma’s house.”
I shied away, as she brought two pale fingers beneath my chin and snapped them together.
“Hi!” She said perkily. “I’m Ashley, what’s your name?”
“I don’t think she’s into introductions, Ash,” Riley said from the mouth of the alley. He shrugged his pale shoulders and flicked his gaze up at the taller boy. “We gonna feed from her, or what?”
The giant shrugged. “Demitri wouldn’t like it. You know he doesn’t like us to feed when he’s not around.” He rolled his black eyes. “He thinks we’ll kill someone and draw even more attention to us.”
Ashley beamed and skipped away from me on dirty gray combat boots. “But Demitri isn’t here,” she sing-songed.
Suddenly the mood of the alley took on a dangerous tone.
I gulped as the eyes of three predators leered from the shadows, in instead of three dirty teens. They were hungry. I didn’t know much about vampires, but I could tell that much.
Their skin was a sickly, bluish hue. Their dark eyes were vibrant with hunger.
I clutched at the wall for balance, as my legs began to bend and sway.
No…no…no!
“We should change her, after we feed.” Ashley remarked from beside the big guy, as Riley began to close in. “She seems nice. And she’s pretty. She could be my friend…”
“You know we can’t do that,” the giant grumbled. “Only Demitri, or those two Stroggha idiots can—”
“She smells like him,” Riley announced from about a pace away. His mouth curled up as he sniffed the air blown off me by the wind. “That Slayer who attacked us the other night. His scent is all over her—”
“Ooooh!” Ashley’s eyes went bug-wide. “You think she’s his girlfriend?”
Ha, I thought. Maybe in a parallel universe.
“No,” the tall one said. His tone was coldly calculating. “If she was, you could bet that he wouldn’t allow her anywhere near here alone.”
“It could be a trap.” Riley’s black eyes smoldered as they took me in with a single, eager sweep. “How else do you explain his scent on her?”
The big guy shrugged.
“Maybe he dumped her?” Ashley proposed. “She was crying.”
Angrily, I reached up to swipe away the traitorous tears still leaking from behind my eyes. This was not the time to be crying.
I should have been standing tall, shoulders held back—all kick ass and brave.
As it was, I could barely keep a trail of slimy snot from running down my chin as I trembled on my bare feet.
“Ash is right,” Riley said in a low voice. He steadily picked his way through the trash to head in my direction. “Demitri isn’t here…and even that disgusting scent is beginning to smell good…”
“Yay!” Ashley almost seemed to jump up and down as she clapped her hands. “It’s been so long since we’ve had fresh feeds!”
“Nobody’s feeding on anyone.”
The ominous statement came from behind the three baby vampires. Their heads swiveled around in comic unison to face the dark figure standing before the mouth of the alley.
My first thought was that it was the mysterious Demtiri, returned. But then, I caught sight of the mocking tilt to the pale mouth and the haunting black eyes.
“Alexi,” Riley hissed under his breath.
Sure enough, I could make out that inky cap of dark hair as the vampire stalked forward to push his way in between Ashley and the tall brute.
“I told you little punks to guard the warehouse, and what do you do?” His voice was deceptively calm—but there was no mistaking the prickly rage underneath. “You go scouting for night-time snacks. You little Damphirs…how very naughty of you.”
His eyes narrowed.
“To think that you’d keep your little prize all to yourself. After all we’ve done for you.” He glared pointedly in Riley’s direction and the slender vamp fell back with a wince. “Weren’t you all taught any manners? …Sharing is caring.”
His eyes fell upon me and, in an instant, that cocky smirk fell flat.
“Shit,” he hissed. His gaze swept over me, taking in my wide-eyed appearance and the trash strewn beneath my cold feet. He sniffed.
I must have looked worse than I thought.
His black eyes narrowed even more, and I had an idea why Ashley and the other vamps were smart to be afraid of him.
“Playtimes over, kiddies,” he said to them without turning around. “Run along.”
“But we found her!” Ashley’s voice was a desperate whine. “Can’t we just…”
Alexi shot her a glare from over his shoulder that made her hush up in an instant. Her blue eyes widened with fear.
“No.”
She fell back, and without another word, she and the two others disappeared within the shadows of the Pier.
“Well, isn’t this a pleasant surprise,” Alexi said coldly, turning back to me. He crossed his arms over his chest. “Are you going to be civilized this time, Maryne? Or are we going to have to do this the hard way?”