Demon Day (44 page)

The animated expression bled from her
face until all that was left was the effortlessly blank look all
vampires seemed so good at. “I think you should be more worried
about what happens next.” Her hand stroked the side of her throat
and her tongue flicked over a fang.

The vampires surrounding us took a
step forward and the anticipation became so thick in the air I
could taste it.

I blinked and Gwendolyn was behind me,
yanking my head to the side, fangs scraping my throat. Yet, as the
points of her fangs pricked my skin I wrapped my hand in the
ringlets that brushed my wrist and yanked, hard. There was no way
in hell she was biting me. Her head jack-knifed back and I released
her only to run at super speed right into Tomas’ waiting
hands.

At the contact, the darkness flared
again and my body went limp, lethargic, and weightless. Tomas
lifted me like a rag doll. “I promise it wont hurt,” he whispered.
“I’ll take care of you.”

I shivered and waited for the pain. I
had no energy to fight, my mind was exhausted from fighting his
compulsion, and my body was simply confused from all the mixed
signals it was receiving. Honestly, my spirit felt broken, and I
could not bring myself to struggle.

All that would be left for Breandan
was a promise of forever, that I had loved him, and would have
loved him, always. Oh gods give him strength. I had to believe he
would be fine. He would suffer, but in the end, Lochlann would give
him a life worth living. Conall would be full of rage, but he was
sensible enough to know I would want him to watch over my
friends.

In a sick twisted way, this end was of
my making. Had I not acted like a fool and ended up tied to Tomas
he never would have been able to bring me here. I would die in the
arms of my vampire-boy, and I tried not to feel ambivalent about
it, but found fear lacking. Truth was I still felt as if death had
been postponed for me. It was an inevitable conclusion I would have
to face sooner than some had thought.

I embraced death in the arms of one I
could have loved … I was okay.

Tomas sank his teeth into my throat
and I sucked a breath in between my teeth, but was otherwise still.
I scrunched my eyes tight and fisted my hands in his shirt, trying
to claw comfort from his embrace. He lowered me to the ground, and
I saw the others crowd nearer, eager for a taste.

The moonlight drifted down, and my
wings fluttered as my eyes slid closed. A cool breeze carried the
scent of green things, and Tomas’ mineral scent.

Gently, with reverence and care, my
vampire fed from me until my heart stuttered.

Chapter Nine

Opening my eyes, I sighed at the stone
ceiling. My mind was clear, all too clear, and I knew I had been
captured. Again. This time it was nothing but my own foolishness I
had to thank.

Sniffing, I tried to sense where I
was, up high, or down low, and was relieved when I had not
travelled far from the last place I was conscious. I scrunched my
nose up. It smelt dreadful; so bad I could taste the
decay.

Rolling onto my side, I ignored the
figure I had sensed in the corner when I woke up, and touched a
hand to my neck. The skin was tender but fully healed. I fingered
the two raised lumps of skin and closed my eyes remembering how it
felt to have fangs sink beneath your skin and your blood sucked
from you. No, that part was not a dream either.

“
Our bite marks leave
scars.” The voice from the corner was hesitant.

Wonderful, as if I needed more of
those.

My sweaty palms slapped loudly on the
hard floor “Why do I always find myself in these uncomfortable
situations? Why don’t holding dungeons come with warm blankets and
cushions?”

Shifting onto my hands and knees I
arched my back, working out the stiffness then levered myself up
onto my knees. I stood and rolled my shoulders. When I opened my
eyes Tomas stood in front of me, eyes fathomless and deceptively
filled with life.

I breathed out slowly. “Why are you
here?”

“
Protecting
you.”

I chewed my bottom lip. “From the
vampire Queen?” He nodded once. I flushed angrily. “Why does it
matter? I saw the way she looked at me when she realized we have a
blood tie. It’s only a matter of time before she drains me,
right?”

Like hell it was, but I was curious.
For all intensive purposes, he had betrayed me, but then why was he
down here lurking in the shadows like a weirdo?

“
None shall feed from you
but me.”

“
Oh don’t you like to
share.” My eyes narrowed. “Unless you have something I would want
to hear I suggest you leave. Looking at you is making me feel
ill.”

His hand lifted as if to touch me, but
he let it fall loosely to his side. “You hate me.”

“
What do you think,” I
snapped and moved around him to place my hands on the door. No
iron, just wood. It had a locked rusty doorknob. I frowned and
opened my senses. Okay, no iron close by. I furrowed my brows at
him over my shoulder. “It’s like you were expecting me to stay in
here.”

“
Yes,” the response was
unassuming.

The rank odor of my prison had me
retching again. “What is that sm–” My eyes landed on the body
twisted in the corner. My heart sank to my feet and my face flushed
in anger. “Oh gods.” Swallowing hard my eyes twitched to his. “Why
have you done this?”

Tomas glanced at the body in the
corner. “That was not my doing. He and his followers entered the
city and Gwendolyn defended her territory. No doubt she was hungry
too.”

My mouth swung open, and all I could
see was a chain of events that had spiraled out of control and led
me to this moment. Was this my fault? No … he had come here to
escape his own mad actions. Knowing this made the sight in front of
me no less easy to bear. “Do you have any idea what you’ve
done?”

The body explained why Devlin had
unexpectedly disappeared from my future, from everybody’s
future.

He simply did not have one
anymore.

In this moment of pain, I did not
think of the entire fairy race but of Wasp. She would be
devastated. Hell, deranged would be a better description. I
remembered Devlin speak of his life-mate. The way the insanity had
drained from his eyes to be replaced with adoration. He would not
have left her, anyone else but her. What if that had been Breandan
lying there and I was her?

I spun on him with tears in my eyes.
“You evil, heartless–”

Blurring into motion Tomas pressed his
forehead to mine and backed me against the wall. My wrists were
pinned to my side as one of his thighs slid between my legs until
my feet lifted off the floor.

“
No. No, I have a heart and
it is yours. I even have a soul though you may question this as I
willingly did this to you despite the tie we share. You put your
trust in me, gifted me all faith in the hope I was a clean dark. I
have manipulated and pulled you. Twisted your mind until it was
confused and pliant.” I turned my head as the knife in my heart
twisted at his words, but he simply pressed himself harder into me
and spoke into my ear. “You should know I always meant to bring you
here, but I could not have imagined losing the love that lingers
inside me to one such as you.” Stunned, my head snapped round so I
could see his face. He peered into my eyes, his blinkless stare
allowing my own unfaltering gaze to measure his. “Whatever you
think of me, if you never dare trust another word that comes from
my mouth, I beg you to believe that.”

He released my wrists and eased back.
My feet touched the ground and my heart thundered in my
chest.

My hands lifted, fell. What did I
feel? Not the same overwhelming need to connect that broke me down
each time Breandan came too near. It was not the flare of need, and
want, that attacked me before Breandan and I touched.

I reached up again, steeling myself,
and my palms slid over his cool face and my eyes closed.

When my skin touched his, there was
not a dual sense of completeness and breathless infatuation.
Something was there. The same spark that allowed the blood tie to
form between us. It was hot, and bright, and when I tried to touch
it or see it more clearly it burned me. Possibly such a thing is
not to be understood, or endured? How did it get there in the first
place? Why did Tomas appeal to me so but not enough to form an
attachment over what I felt for Breandan? Why was I pulled to him
then ultimately here? To this Nest where once again my life hung in
the balance.

“
I don’t understand you,” I
whispered. Frustration gave way to anger for I simply could not
figure this thing between us out. I knew I should hate him but I
didn’t. “I don’t understand us.”

He looked saddened when I took my
hands away. “You don’t have to. I will protect you, Rae. Believe it
or not you were not brought here for blood. Gwendolyn has a plan,
but the Nest is hungry, and they will do everything they can to
taste you. Few have any control and that situation would be … bad
for you. So only I will feed from you and the others will feed from
me until I mange to discover what Gwen has planned.” He jerked his
head toward Devlin’s mangled and dry corpse. “That is more than I
can say for him.”

“
Lucky me,” I muttered and
put my hands back on him. I let them slide down his neck to his
chest. Keeping eye contact, I started at his collarbone and dragged
my talons down his chest, ripping through the fabric of his top,
and gouging deep groves that gushed with blood, my blood. I hissed
and bared my teeth at him, as he snarled at me. “You will never
taste me again. This I swear.”

As expected magic thickened in the
air.

Tomas sniffed and his eyes darkened.
“I don’t want you to die.”

I hissed. “How touching.”

“
Don’t be like this.” He
touched my cheek and I turned my head away, disgusted that my heart
still tripped at his touch. “We can make this work.”

I snapped my head back round to glare
at him. “You’re delusional if you think Breandan is not on his way
down here with an army to tear you apart.”

The vampire’s lips lifted with a hint
of a smirk. “Will he? The last memory he has of you is you walking
off into the dark, with me. The vampire with whom you share a blood
tie.” He leaned in to whisper in my ear, his cool breath tickling
my neck. “You’ve mated your fairy but still your tie to me remains.
Why do you think that is?”

My conviction waved for less than a
beat, and I ignored his barb about the blood tie’s significance.
“He won’t be fooled. Breandan knows I’m his.” I shook my head
pityingly. “When he gets here this Nest is finished. Hell, I’ll
help him stake you all in the sun with a smile.” I snapped for his
throat and he never even leaned back, he did not flinch.

His arms bracketed me and I bashed my
head back against the wall, upset with the whole
situation.

“
Bold words yet here we
stand. You could kill me if you wanted to,” his gaze flicked to the
circlet that framed my face, “Priestess. So why don’t you? Kill me
then walk out that door.”

I lifted my chin. “Step back.” His
lips quirked but he did as I asked. Pushing the hair out of my eyes
my hand trailed down to touch the gold upon my brow. “I expect more
from myself. I won’t be a mindless killer; I’m worth more than
that.” Pausing I made up my mind. “I understand that the Nest is
starving and I sympathize, I always have, but you must not keep me
here. You must let me leave peacefully. If I have to fight my way
out of here there will be nothing I can do to stop the others
coming here.”

He regarded me thoughtfully, a pillar
of darkness, arms loose at his sides and stance confident. “You
truly have grown.” His head turned to the door as it squeaked
open.

I sniffed and screwed up my nose at
the dry and moldy smell that saturated everything.

A vampire-girl stepped into the room,
her gaze flicking between us curiously. Her eyes were a murky brown
color and would have been rather unremarkable had they not had a
most unusual shape – two slim ovals with ridiculously long and
straight lashes the colour of dried wheat. She had white-blonde
slender braids and surprisingly tanned skin covered in freckles,
and dark eyebrows. Dressed in cut off jeans, boots, and a dark
green plaid shirt she had the same skinny, starved look all the
vampires had, though there was a flush of colour in her
cheeks.

She inhaled deeply, head falling back,
and nose pointed in my direction. As her eyes opened, her fangs ran
out, and I noticed a rather wide gap between her two front teeth.
She started, and placed a hand over her mouth, shooting a guilty
look at Tomas.

“
It’s okay Daphne,” he said
soothingly and smiled at her broadly opening his arms.

The young girl darted another look at
me before stepping fully into the room, shutting the door firmly
behind her. She blurred over to Tomas and wrapped her arms around
him, tucking her head under his.