Blood Cursed (16 page)

Who the fuck knows? Diamond can’t chancify. Half the town could be chasing his pretty candygirl, and he’s not letting them have her. Keep her alive. Keep her safe. Worry about this souly-twiny-go-to-hell thing later.

Diamond stalks to the door and checks the locks. Bolt, chain, key, all in place. Fine. If they kick it in, he’ll hearify. If they can magicate a door open, he’s screwed anyway. Bring it, scumsuckers.

Ember murmurs soft confusion, her limbs shifting, and desire melts hot like chocolate into his veins. Tellify everything. Take her in his arms, run his fingers through that glorious fiery hair, hold her close and kiss her dreams away. Forget Angelo, Rosa, Vincent, forgettify it all and just take her away, fly on the moonlit summer breeze to some warm shadowy place where no one will ever find them.

Yeah. Right after she punches his nose to splinters and refuses to speakify him again.
By the byebye, your third gemstone is my psycho vampire ex-girlfriend, and I nearly toxicated you.
That’ll work.

It’ll never happen. Never anything between them but biznificality. She’s a decentsweet girl, and he’s … well, he’s him. Broken. Rotten. Corruptified.

Discomfited, he flits over the junk toward the balcony, the only other place anyone can get in. The glass table gleams up at him, sparkles in blue and green tempting his tongue wet. But he’s got no headspace for giggles and drifting. Not now.

Out on the balcony, warm breeze lifts his wings on the gritty scent of river water and darkness. Moonlight gloats on marble edges, the sides of buildings sharp in shadow and light, and in the distance, warm dawnfingers grope the horizon pale. Already the heat is oppressive. It’s gonna be a scorcher. Urgency throbs in his blood, a useless compulsion to flee. Frustration zaps static in his hair. He wants to fly, but he can’t, and with a hot shock, he understands how Ember feels.

Trapped.

If it wasn’t his own stupidbrain fault, it’d be laugh-a-fucking-licious.

Sweat slicks his chest, and he twists his wings and shucks his shirt off. His glamourglow springs brighter, pink shadow spilling. Summer parches his skin. Only minutes till sunrise. Only a blink before she wakifies and he has to explain.

Somehow, he doesn’t think
vampire bait
is gonna go down well.

His faesense brightens, monochrome outlines zooming sharp, sucking in traffic noise, breeze, the distant urban hum, filtering for creepings and murmurings, the sly slidings of encroaching wings. Anything out of place, a breath, a whisper, a sniff of sweat not his own.

He senses Ember’s heartbeat, swift and hot, waxing moonlight a ripe lure in her blood. Unwilled, he inhales, and her sexy honeyflavor wraps hot fingers around his cock and drags his desire out hard.

She murmurs, her sleepy smile tingling his spine. His glassfae sight paints her outline so clear in his mind, her curving hip, her swelling breasts, the sugary softness of her lips, her sex’s honey scent a glossy shimmer. She’s dreaming, her pulse racing, a sigh quivering her lips.

Diamond’s breath catches. So easy, to touch her, safe in this glassy cocoon. He doesn’t have to move. Just let this sneaky, covetous faetouch do its work. Slide a shadowy caress between her legs, stroke her, fill her, make love to her in a darkbleeding glassy world where she’ll never see. Never know it was real. Just a fevered dream …

He blinks, and the mindglass shatters, leaving only night and breeze and a burning ache he can’t satisfy.

Let her dream. It isn’t truth, this connection he feels. This compulsion to protectify her, please her, hold her close. It can’t be real.

Real is, he can’t have her. And she real as shit doesn’t want him. What the hell has he got that a decent woman would want?

He pulls the glass door closed on her tempting sighs, hops onto the railing with wings tucked back like an owl, and settles in hot brightening dawn to wait.

17

In bloodstained darkness, burning hands claimed me. Ashen kisses swept my face, and something dry and loathsome stroked me, scaly like a worm.

I struggled. I didn’t want it. The evil stink of charcoal swamped my senses thick. Hot moisture smothered me like boiling quicksand, wrapping around my legs, dragging me deeper into hell. My lungs filled with ash. Blindly I kicked, terror sucking me beneath the surface. I gulped and thrashed, air only a few inches away, but I couldn’t reach. I’d stay trapped here forever.

Cool fingers brushed my forehead, distant like an echo. “Ember. S’okay. Me. Quietify, angel.”

His bellchime voice resonated in my bones, so calm and confident, feeding my strength. With a scream and a thrash of wings, I broke the surface and gasped for air.

His arms wrapped me, smooth and damp, his rosepetal scent washing cool comfort over my limbs. I clung to him, my head throbbing. My pulse echoed in his chest, swift and terrified. The damp quilt tangled my legs, and blindly I scrabbled it off. I tried to talk, but only incoherent sounds came out.

“Time to wakify.” His cool hair spilled over my face, fresh and alive. It felt nice. I wanted him to hold me, kiss my nightmare away.

But I sat up, pushing him off. Just Jasper’s evil ring, poisoning my dreams. I wasn’t dying. Not yet. And I didn’t want Diamond to touch me. He’d tricked me last night. Tried to control me with his faetalent. I knew my fear was stupid, that if it weren’t for Jasper’s tricks, I wouldn’t be so frightened now. But that didn’t make what Diamond did to me okay.

My hair sprang tight and angry. Damn him. My palms itched at me to scream, demand an apology, ask what the hell gave him the right. But stubbornly, I kept it in. I didn’t want to give him the chance to attack me with that knee-melting smile and talk me out of being pissed off with him.

“What time is it?” I wiped my damp face, still trembling. The air conditioner wasn’t on, and the quilt lay rumpled, the sheets damp and sanguine with my sweat. The place was silent, lights out, daylight leaking under the curtains.

“Six-ish.” Diamond knelt by the bed, a thick luminous knot of hair spilling over his bare chest. Magenta warmth shed gently from his wings, like he’d dimmed it to ease my eyes. It wasn’t the only part of him that eased my eyes, and I flushed and dragged my gaze from all that glistening hard-packed muscle, the flat line of his hip, the way his stomach muscles flexed under wisp-thin skin as he moved … .

Ahem. Fairy boys should really keep their shirts on. It’s a matter of public safety.

“Six? Is that all?” My voice croaked. My muscles ached rotten, and sleep furred my tongue. I felt like I’d drowned for an age.

“In the p.m., sleepybrain.”

“No way.” Urgency stripped my nerves, and I struggled up. The tiles were hot and dry under my feet as I stumbled over piles of his junk to the window and dragged the curtain aside. Outside, deep shadows angled, late afternoon sun throwing tall buildings into black relief.

Shit. I’d slept all day. Who the hell had time to sleep?

But hey, at least my clothes were still on, which I seemed to recall hadn’t been a given in last night’s delicious madness. My bag was still here, with Crimson’s stone still inside. One down, two to go. And all things considered, I didn’t feel too bad.

I stretched my neck with a pop. It all seemed a bad dream. The casino, ghoulish Crimson, that sick crack as her head hit porcelain. Running from stupid security guards. Kissing Diamond in glorious moonshine like an infatuated little girl.

I flushed, and my finger burned, icy metal tightening. It wasn’t a dream. Jasper’s cursed ring still wrapped my finger. My bones still scorched inside with ashen flame, and I was still going to hell if I didn’t find this Famine and his friends.

“Jeez, why didn’t you wake me?” I dragged damp hair back and aimed for the door. But I turned too fast and stumbled into the hot window.

Diamond flitted over to help me, setting me gently on my feet. “Easify. We got time.”

“Easy for you to say.” I wrinkled my nose. I needed a shower real bad. Must have been a stinker of a day. “You could at least’ve left the aircon on.”

“No zappies.”

“Huh?”

“Power’s out. Too bloody hot, everyone puts the air on, poof. No more electricality.”

I peered outside, tinted windowglass hot under my fingers. No lights twinkled in the skyscrapers, no spotlights or flashing neon signs. The whole city was out. Orange heat halo sizzled the sun-bleached buildings. Distant thunder growled. On the train tracks across the river, carriages queued motionless. Sirens echoed. Traffic still grated, but the noise was subdued, eerily silent.

I sighed. Great. Another Melbourne summer blackout. Now I’d have to find this Famine character with the lights out. At least for an hour or two, until they restored the grid.

I slid the glass door open, and heat slapped my face like an angry hand.

Sweat roasted my skin, the hot air drowning me like an acrid spa bath. Burning wind swirled my hair in my eyes. I inhaled, and my lungs seared, my mouth parching instantly. Smoke roughened the air, and beyond the city an ominous blood-orange pall filtered the sky, the telltale smear of wildfire. The stink of metal and hot tar hung heavy over curdled river water and salt, and under it all the crusty, cackling reek of hell.

I slammed the door shut. Lately, every summer we broke some record for Shittiest Weather Ever or Most Days in a Row Hotter than Hell. Last year, roads melted and train tracks buckled in the heat, with half the state either on fire or still smoking. I stayed inside for three days with the curtains drawn and a damp towel over my head. Some said the heat was what you deserved when you let a demon run your town. What else did you expect, with the city one step away from hell?

“Stinky, huh.” His breath sparkled on my shoulder, warm and tingly.

I walked away, my nerves tight. I had only a few hours before the moon rose and sent me stupid. I had things to do. Better get on with it.

I straightened my skirt and tugged back my tangled hair. “Okay, I’m outta here. Thanks for the, uh, nap. See ya.” And I braced myself for sucking heat and tugged the door open again.

Hot wind crackled my sweat dry, whipping my hair wild. I hopped my butt up onto the rail to swing myself over.

Diamond grabbed my wrist, wings glaring in the sun. “What you doing?”

“Power’s off, dumbo. The lift won’t be working.” I tried to shrug him off.

But he held me, gentle but firm. “You can’t leavify.”

I ripped my arm away and jumped down, anger at last bubbling over. “Really? Don’t you remember your little mindtricks last night? You practically date-raped me, you creep. I’m not spending a second longer with you than I have to.”

“Ember, stop it. Really gotta talk to you—”

“You expect me to be okay with it? Christ, you’ve got an ego.”

“Just let me explainify—”

“No. I’m not interested. I guess you must be out of practice. Who knows what I woulda done if you’d mindfucked me properly!”

I expected a flip-off, a saucy comeback, maybe a snap of teeth. But the ruby light in his eyes froze iceblue. “Angel, you don’t knowem half.”

I gaped. “Excuse me?”

“Will you upshut and hearify? Trying to explain you something. I … I haven’t totally upfronted with you, Ember. I’m sorry.”

My face burned, tight. Damn him. I knew it. But that deceptively tame little word of apology frightened me. Whatever he was about to say would hurt, and it pinched all the harder because I knew it meant I cared. About him, about us. That maybe there was an “us,” despite everything.

Shit. I didn’t want to have this conversation. I just wanted to get away from him.

But I hated it when people didn’t listen to me. When Jasper lost it at me for some imagined misdemeanor without hearing me out. I couldn’t do that now, even if Diamond was so full of shit, I could smell it. “Go on, then, astonish me. I’m listening.”

“A friend of mine’s got trouble. I came with you last night because I wanted your helpings.” His voice cracked, pretty bellchimes discordant, and such strain twanged there that sympathy melted warm in my stupid girly heart.

I cursed under my breath.
You’re not his girlfriend. You’re not even his friend. His problems are not yours. He lied to you.

But I stayed. I had to.

He peeled shining hair from his neck and knotted it. “I need you to do me a favor so I can help her. Okay? Choicem off.”

My skin prickled.
Her.
A lover? So fooling around with me was just a game? Cheating bastard.

Like I cared, right? I perched my butt on the rail, exasperated. “Right. Sure. That makes it okay to control my mind, does it?”

“Ember, I didn’t meanify—”

“I don’t care what you meant!” I swooped down again on angry wings. “I want you to stop lying to me! You’ve said about three words I can rely on for the whole damn night, and two of them were
kiss me
. Maybe I’m an idiot, but how the flippin’ hell does fooling around with me help your girlfriend? Because I’d really
love
to know that.”

I glared at him, arms crossed over my chest.

For a moment, his gaze slipped. And then he sighed and pulled his hand from his pocket to show me a sparkling glass vial with a cork stuffed in one end. It glittered half-empty, an evil green liquid that spat and swirled. He looked me full in the eye, hot and rubyred. “I was gonna poison you. She’s in some vampire messes, and I wanted to toxicate your blood so I could use you as bait.”

Scorching wind buffeted my face, and my guts tore hollow.

He wanted to taint my blood. Make me bait. Trap me on the burning cusp of a full moon, when my glamour sparkled bright and bloodscent poured off me in luscious scarlet waves.

He wanted me to feed a vampire. Give myself to some rotten bloodsucker who’d probably drink me dry.

And he thought I’d just go along with it. Like a good little bloodwhore.

“It’s only poison for vamps.” Diamond’s voice gleamed hard with desperation. “It wouldn’ta hurt you. And I seen you feeding that kid for Jasper last night, and I thinkem—”

“You thought I was a whore.” My throat cracked dry. He thought I did that all the time. That I could let some monster drink me and just laugh it off. “Well, I’m not, okay?”

Yeah. You just go on telling yourself that, Emmy.

“Knowify that! But I thought you could trickem without getting hurt. At the café, I … I was gonna sneaky the juice in your drink. But I couldn’t. You were too …” He clawed his glittery hair. “Fuck.”

Hot tears swelled my eyelids, and I blinked them back, hard. Diamond used me like he used everyone. Just like Jasper, only worse. I shouldn’t have expected otherwise.

But for a few heady hours, I’d believed his bullshit. Thought he told the truth about helping me. Imagined that the desire flaming in his kiss, the urgency driving his touch was real, the attraction flowering between us something more than a cheap thrill.

Dreamed that he thought better of me than vampire bait.

Silly little Ember actually thought he cared.

Silly little Ember was wrong.

“Hey, don’t—” Diamond reached out to brush my cheek clean.

I jerked backwards, a stupid ache swelling my throat. “No. Get away from me.”

“I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t knowify what else. But then you came all pretty and dangerfied and I … I liked you. I mindchanged, right up—”

“Were you gonna pay me, was that the deal? Blood for a pile of lousy cash?” Fury shot fire through my blood, and my heart raced. I heaved another breath, trying to stay calm, but the words wouldn’t stop pouring out. “Or were you just gonna fuck me with your sleazy mindtricks and call it even? You disgust me. You and your fucking lies. At least Jasper was an honest asshole.”

His glossy wings flushed scarlet. “What’d you want me sayify? ‘Oh, hey, sugarplum, sorry your boyfriend died, come drink this sparkalicious poison so I can murder a vampire, it won’t hurt, I swear’?”

My fingers itched to claw his lying eyes out. “So you pretend to help me instead? How is that even close to the right thing to do?”

“No pretendings. Got your shiny, didn’t ya?”

“Oh, so this is your favor, is it? Feed a vampire my blood? And here I was thinking it’d be a good old-fashioned blowjob. Pity you didn’t stick with that.” It fell out before I could stop it, and I flushed, thankfully hidden by the heat. Going down on him had just dropped way to the bottom of my list. From higher up than it ever should’ve been. The rest of him was so glassy-beautiful, I had to admit I’d wondered … . Hmph. Stupid full moon, putting ideas in my head.

“Please, Ember. I know it’s shitful. But I said I’d help you find your gemstones and I truthed it. What the fuck would you have done? She’s Ange’s prisoner. She’ll die if I don’t get her outta there.” He yanked his knotted hair in one fist, a pent-up flutter of frustration and no options.

He really believed it.

I shivered. I’d heard bad stories about Ange Valenti, Diamond’s vampire boss. If Ange had this girl, she was probably toast. What would I do, if someone I loved was in mortal danger? Wouldn’t I do everything I could to get them back? Even if it meant deception and untruths?

Right this very second, wasn’t I planning on damning others to hell, so I could free myself? Hell, I’d already done it.

That didn’t make it okay that I’d trusted him and he’d treated me like scum. Did it?

I swallowed, parched. “This girl really means that much to you, huh? I’m just bait? Is that all I am?”

“You know it inn’t that.” His burning gaze trapped me. The muscles in his bare chest corded tight, and his whisper shook beneath a distant burst of thunder. “She and me, we’re … Fuck, it’s no matter. But please, Ember. Believify. I never meant you harmings. But I need to help her. I can’t just let her die.”

Cruel sympathy warmed my heart, and I wanted to touch his face, stroke his hair back, tell him it was okay.

But it wasn’t. And it had nothing to do with right and wrong, or my blood spilling over some dirty vampire’s chin.