Suddenly, she advances, running at me so fast she appears like a blur. Before I know what’s happening, she knocks me over. The chair hits the ground hard, and my head hits even harder, smacking the same spot that was hit before. My ears ring and my vision fades. Nausea twists in my stomach, but then that pain takes second to another as she sinks her fangs into my neck.
I cry out, trying to jerk away. I’m tied to the chair and can’t go anywhere. My powers are useless with the warding. There’s nothing I can do to fight her. I feel my flesh pulling and tearing apart. When Lucas bites me, he carefully pushes his fangs through my skin, taking only what he needs. He’s as gentle as one can be while puncturing two holes in my neck, and there’s almost always something erotic about it.
There’s nothing pleasurable about this. The vampire is biting me to cause pain. To drain me of my blood. To kill me.
“Suzanna!” The Russian vampire yells. “We’re under strict orders not to bite her!”
The two male vampires rush forward and try to pull her off. Suzanna takes her mouth off me and sits up. My blood drips down her face, and I can feel the warm liquid pouring out of my body at a scary fast rate. Lucas knows where to bite me that won’t cause me to bleed out, and I know without a doubt this bitch didn’t take any care.
She pushes one of the male vampires away, obviously the older of the three, and goes back to bite me again. I squeeze my eyes closed, feeling my heart race.
“No!” I shout, and a ball of white light erupts from my fingertips. My wrists are tied to the arms of this wooden chair, but I flick my wrist and hit Suzanna with the magic.
“What the hell?” one of the guys shouts.
Suzanna jerks back and turns to the other female vampire. “Dina!” she roars. “You said you blocked her powers!”
“I did.”
I turn my head, stars still dotting my vision, and see Dina looking down at us.
“Both the circle and the hagstone blocks a witch’s powers. Trust me,” she says. “I remember the spells exactly from when I was a witch.”
Oh shit. Some vampires think if they turn a witch, they’ll be born again undead and with magical powers. But our powers die with us, and for some reason, that pisses the vampires off even more.
Blood is still oozing down my neck, soaking my hair and my shoulder. I need to stop the bleeding before I lose too much blood and am too weak to fight them off.
“Then how the hell did she do that?”
I close my eyes again and try to conjure an energy ball. I must have broken through the warding somehow. I can do it again.
But I can’t.
No magic sizzles at my fingers.
“Sit her up,” Dina orders. “And stay the fuck away, Suzanna. The cost of that bite is coming out of your share.”
Suzanna speeds over to Dina, and they start yelling at each other. The short and stocky vampire comes over and picks up the chair, sitting it back on four legs. He leans in, fangs popping down from the scent of fresh blood.
“You smell so fucking good.” He licks his lips and inches in, putting one leg between my thigh. “It would be a shame to let this blood go to waste.”
“Don’t you dare touch me.” I try to shove my leg up, hitting him in the balls, but my ankle is tied too tight. The ropes dig into my skin, tearing off the first layer.
“I’ll be gentle, sweetheart.” He swipes a finger over my neck and puts it in his mouth. His whole body shudders, and he groans, bringing his other hand to his crouch and rubbing himself. “It’s like I’m tasting sunshine. I need more.” He lowers himself onto me and brings his face in, open-mouthed.
And then light sizzles at my fingers again, though something is different. Usually when I conjure energy, I’m pulling it in from around me. This time, the energy is coming from inside me, growing stronger with each beat of my heart.
“I said get the fuck away!” The bright blue energy ball explodes, burning through the ropes on my right hand. It sends the vampire flying back, and he whacks his head against the tiled side of the pool. His skull cracks, and he slides down, leaving a trail of blood.
The three other vampires freeze, looking from the stocky vamp to me and back again.
“I thought you said she was a witch,” the other male vampire snarls. He flashes his fangs at me, body twitching as he tries to resist lunging forward and attacking me. Maybe Dina is his maker, and he’s obeying her order? I don’t know. And I don’t care.
Because I need to get out of here now. I’m feeling weak from blood loss, and my head is pounding.
“I thought she was.” Dina’s eyes flash.
“The bounty is for a witch,” he presses. “If she’s not a fucking witch, what the hell is she?”
Dina shakes her eyes. “I…I don’t know.”
“She’s worthless then,” Suzanna sneers. “Only good for one thing.” She opens her mouth, fangs bared, and rushes at me. Even if I had time to practice using my own aura or energy or whatever to conjure a string of magic, I don’t think I could. My eyelids are heavy, I feel like I’m going to throw up, and I can feel my pulse slowing.
Suzanna takes a running leap off the side of the pool. I close my eyes, bracing for the pain of her attack, but it never comes. Instead, a strangled sound comes from her lips, and I blink my eyes open to see Lucas standing in front of me, holding Suzanna by the throat.
He’s growling, fangs drawn and looking absolutely menacing.
“Holy fuck,” the male vampire who’s not passed out at the bottom of the empty pool whimpers. He tries to take off, but Lucas throws Suzanna at him. She knocks into him, and they both go crashing down.
My eyes start to flutter shut again, and between blinking them open and closed, I see Lucas twist Suzanna’s neck around. Her body goes limp and he tosses her aside. My head droops forward, and my vision fades.
The distinct sound of bones breaking echoes through the pool, and the male vampire screams and cries in pain. I try to lift my head up again, forcing my eyes open. Lucas is covered in blood—not his own, of course—and a pile of ashy goo surrounds his feet. Suzanna’s hands are on her head, trying to spin her neck back into place so it can heal.
The last thing I see before passing out is Lucas ripping Dina’s teeth out one by one. And then I lose consciousness again.
Chapter 21
“Callie,” Lucas whispers, cradling me against his chest. “Can you hear me?”
I want to open my eyes and tell him yes, but I can’t. I’m too weak right now, and if I open my eyes, I’m pretty sure I’m going to puke.
Suddenly, I’m in the forest again, and he’s not really with me. My head lolls to the side and the dream takes over, pulling me back to the ring of hellfire. The same thing plays out just like before. I watch myself, tied to the large tree, coughing from smoke, ready to give up because I don’t know how else it will end. The demon raises its arms, and the flames grow higher and higher, so hot the heat feels like it’s going to melt the skin right off my face.
The blue-eyed man is there, but this time he’s not looking at me. He’s staring at the tree. I step through the flames and feel the same overwhelming sense of familiarity washing over me.
“Who are you?” I whisper, not expecting him to so much as look at me.
But he does.
His eyes meet mine, and he reaches out, hand going to my neck. Pain radiates through me, waking me and reminding me that I’m back in Lucas’s arms. The blue-eyed man isn’t touching my neck, but I am.
“I can hear you,” I tell Lucas, forcing my eyes open.
“Good,” he says, and holds me tighter against himself. We’re outside, and he’s moving at vampire speed toward his car.
“I’m taking you to the hospital.” Holding me with one arm, he opens the passenger door and sets me down on the seat.
“No,” I protest. “I don’t want to go.”
“You lost a lot of blood.” He zooms around and gets in, brows furrowed. “Your neck and your head are blee
ding.”
The car lurches forward, and I feel sick again. I let my eyes fall shut and reach up to my neck with a shaky hand. I should apply pressure to the wound.
“Lucas,” I gasp. “Look.”
He takes his eyes off the road. “You’re healed. How did you…?”
“The blue-eyed man.” I squeeze my eyes shut and think about him, trying to mentally call out. I had a vision or something of him touching my neck, and now I’m healed. “He put his hand on my neck and healed me.”
“You touched your own neck,” Lucas tells me. “Yellow magic glowed around your fingers.”
“I don’t know how to make yellow magic. It’s usually blue or white. Red if I’m angry. Pink is pretty, but I have to think about that one.”
His eyes are still on me as he lets off the gas. “Your head is still bleeding. Head injuries can be serious.”
“I think I’m okay.”
“That’s not good enough for me.”
“Please don’t take me to the hospital.” The gravity of everything is crashing down on me. There’s a bounty on my head, and vampires know Lucas is dating a witch. This is bad. Really bad. “I’m scared of hospitals,” I confess. “Ever since I was sold to one…”
“I will not leave your side.” Lucas grips my hand. “You need to get checked out, Callie.”
“My sister,” I start. “Let me call my sister. She’s an ER doctor. Dammit. My purse and my car are at some random gas station.”