“You can’t harm us,” Rylan says from where he’s just pulled on a pair of lounge pants. “We’re stronger than you and there are more of us. If you get out of control, we’re more than capable of handling it.”
I blush. I can’t help it. “I get overwhelmed.”
“That’s just practice, love. All baby vamps get a little wild.” Wolf flashes fang. He’s not quite back to normal—I don’t think he will be until we’re done dealing with his sister—but he’s a bit more of his wild and charismatic self.
“Come, Mina.” Malachi practically carries me to the bed and drops onto it with me in his lap. He holds me with my back to his chest and offers me his arm. “Drink.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. I’ll not have you weak simply because we don’t understand what’s going on. Obviously you’re taking blood the same way a full vampire does. We’ll not deprive you.”
I press my fingers to my lips. “What if my teeth change again and I do damage?”
“Try to control it.”
Considering I still don’t know what is going on with me, trying to control it is a laughable objective. Still, for them, I will attempt it. “Okay.”
“Your claws.”
It takes a moment to realize he’s speaking to me, to understand what he wants. I close my eyes and concentrate, trying to envision my fingers changing to claws the way they’ve done in the past. For a beat, nothing happens, but then a faint tingling starts at my fingertips. It’s tempting to open my eyes, but I resist, focusing on that feeling, on expanding it until my nails shift.
When I finally look down, the tips of my fingers have morphed to dainty claws. They’re small, but they’re sharp. “Could I do more?”
“This is how training starts.” Rylan leans forward to examine my new fingers. “You have to work up to a full shift, because if you panic halfway through…” He doesn’t quite shudder, but the feeling is there in his voice. “It won’t kill you, but it’s a painful and scary experience. Better to wait until you master this first.”
The thought of being stuck in some half-transformed state makes me feel vaguely ill. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready for that.”
“You will.” He says it with a quiet confidence that makes me take it as truth. Maybe someday I’ll be able to shift into a giant wolf the same way he can and we’ll run together. The thought pleases me. It’s not something I would have sought out as an ultimate dream before now, but I want it. Another part of our future that I will fight to be able to experience.
I drag a single claw along Malachi’s forearm. Not deep enough that it won’t heal easily, but it also won’t close immediately. He presses his forearm to my mouth and I drink greedily. The first explosion of his blood against my tongue feels so right that I moan. This. This is what I’ve been craving.
Drinking this time isn’t the frenzy from before. I can feel that monster inside me, pressing up against my skin, but Malachi’s blood sates it before it has a chance to crave more. Or maybe I just haven’t depleted the energy I got from the last feeding. This is all so new, it’s impossible to say for sure.
All I know is that I lean back a few minutes later, sated and sleepy. “Thank you.”
“Sleep now.” Malachi’s words rumble through my back. “We’ll look out for you.”
I want to stay awake. I do. But with his blood thrumming through my veins, my body has other ideas. My blinks lengthen and deepen. I’m aware of Rylan reclining on the bed next to us and Wolf flopping on top of him with a casual intimacy that makes my lips curve.
Together.
We’re together.
This is how I want it to be.
Always.
17
When I was dragged from my father’s compound and tossed in a car to be delivered to Malachi, I never thought to return. I wasn’t supposed to live this long. I can admit that now, crouched precariously high in a tree and looking down over the familiar walls and buildings.
He planned for me to die by Malachi’s hand. A convenient snack that got his powerless dhampir daughter out of his hair and kept the trapped bloodline vampire alive. Malachi and I were never supposed to get along, to fall in love. We were never supposed to join up with Wolf and Rylan and break the blood ward, awaken the powers no one thought I had, and come for my father’s head.
It’s happening now.
There’s no going back.
“Can you make the shot, Lizzie?” Malachi’s hand is warm where it’s wrapped around my bicep. I’m not in danger of falling, but he’s taking no risks. I don’t move with the same supernatural grace as the vampires, but my balance is better than it’s ever been. A good thing, that. I’m going to need every advantage I can come up with for the pending confrontation.