Witch Way to Turn (34 page)

Mr. Mysterious motioned DeVito Twin toward Orin, and Greaser in Myles’s direction.

He nodded at Myles. “Greetings,
N’namoun
. It has been too long.”

“Who are you?” Breena didn’t have the patience for formalities.

The tall vampire lifted his chin and his smooth dark brow also rose. “I am surprised my child has not mentioned me.”

“Child?” Hell’s bells. That’s why he couldn’t protect her from him. “Myles?” Breena looked at his battered face.

Myles nodded, eyes lowered.

When she turned back, Mr. Mysterious stood directly in front of her. She swallowed her surprise. “My name is Atian.” He pronounced it
Ah-tee-ahn
and she thought she picked up the faintest trace of an accent, though she couldn’t place it. “I have looked forward to meeting you officially, Breena Cross.”

What was it with vamps and their damned official meetings?

“It is a shame I am here to kill you.” His gaze roamed over her body. “Since I now know you do not belong to my child, I could make you mine.”

Breena wondered how he knew she wasn’t Myles’s. Then she thought about it, deciding maybe if she had belonged to Myles he would’ve been able to fight his master. She
knew
they should’ve slept together. Oh well, not much she could do about it now. Hindsight was twenty-twenty.

Atian towered over her. She looked up, then up some more to see his face and really had to work to keep her knees from knocking together. Despite her fear, he’d pushed the wrong button. Yeah, she might want to belong to someone, but she didn’t need some a-hole vampire to make decisions for her. She controlled her own fate. Sort of.

“I don’t belong to anyone.” Breena squinted her eyes and pursed her lips together in the hope it made an intimidating statement.

He grinned. “You have a fiery tongue. You bravery is misplaced, but you would make an excellent vampire.”

Why did supes always want to turn her into something else? Wasn’t being half-witch, half-preternatural enough?

“No, thank you, ass-wipe.”

Atian acted like Breena hadn’t just called him a butt tissue. He reached down toward her face. Unsure of what he would do, but sure she didn’t want any part of it, she smacked his massive hand away.

Big mistake.

He grabbed her left arm and twisted until it snapped like a twig.

Breena screamed. Shooting pain coursed through her body. Orin rushed toward her, but DeVito Twin zipped in front of him. The preternatural reached down to pull a different object from his other pant leg. He brandished a wooden stake as they toppled to the floor.

She scanned the room for Myles. He was currently being body-slammed by Greaser and wouldn’t be able to get to her in time.

The throb of her broken arm seemed to spread through her body. Atian grabbed her by the neck and hoisted her up against the wall. He looked straight into her eyes.

“I find no pleasure in killing you, Breena Cross. You are young and beautiful and I have never experienced a halfling. I must confess I am curious about you.”

His face was so close she could feel his cool breath on her cheek. She flinched and tried to turn away from him but his grip on her neck wouldn’t allow it.

His long tongue slid over a cut on her face. He seemed to savor it. “I can taste why my child toils so to make you his. An ancient magical power courses through your blood. It draws the supernatural to you.”

What option did she have left? She tried to think. Form a plan. Myles and Orin had been there to save her in the past, but they both fought their own battles now. She’d at least had her hunger to save her from the werewolves, but now, facing this soulless creature with his menacing stare and deadly grip, rescue seemed completely out of her reach. As she began to lose consciousness she remembered one other time she’d felt trapped. Orin had been trying to take away her pain. Closing her eyes, she pictured Myles’s living room…his couch…the little throw pillow. She opened her eyes. Still here.

Dammit!

Why? She needed to try again. Gasping, she squeezed her eyes shut one more time. Then the realization hit her full force. She’d seen it happen with Orin when the werewolf bit him and then again with Dandi’s pin. Poofing to safety wouldn’t work until she healed.

Hope didn’t exist for Breena anymore. At least Jenny wasn’t here. Breena didn’t know where her sister was, but she had to believe it was somewhere safe.

She couldn’t bear it if Jenny saw her die. Not like this. Maybe of natural causes, when she turned old and gray. Of course, being half-and-half, she wasn’t exactly sure of her shelf life. Not that it mattered now.

As Atian tightened his hands around her neck, the haze of sleep, like fog creeping over a meadow, began to roll over her.

Something moved across the floor, crept toward her.

Jenny?

Breena thought she’d said her name aloud but her words were held captive by the fingers around her throat. Jenny must’ve slipped in through the window.

No!

Jenny pressed her finger to her lips in a be-quiet gesture.

No prob, Bob
.

Breena had practically gone down for the count. If she didn’t take a breath soon, she wouldn’t make it.

Atian loosened his hold ever so slightly, his fingers making way for his fangs. He reared back, ready to bite, to drain every last drop of halfling blood from her body.

Atian hissed and struck at something behind him. Blood oozing from the corner of her mouth, Jenny careened across the hardwood floor and sailed straight through the open front door and down the steps. Atian let go of Breena and she crashed to the floor, sharp pain stabbing through her. Unable to catch herself, she’d landed on her left side with her broken arm underneath her. Slowly, Breena raised her uninjured arm to her throat. The vampire hadn’t bitten her.

Ignoring Breena completely, Atian did an about-face, headed for the porch. She spotted the hole in his pant leg where Jenny had bitten him. No way would Atian let that go.

Sucking in a deep breath, she let the anger flow through her. With a crazy shot of adrenaline coursing through her veins, her ears shot up through her hair. Breena duck-walked for a couple steps, until she got her balance and stood with some difficulty. But once she unleashed the adrenaline, she took off, Spanish bull style. She rammed into Atian’s thigh as hard as possible.

Rearing back, he threw her to the ground with a force so powerful Breena heard her spine snap the second she hit the floor. She couldn’t feel her legs.

“I have lost patience with you, Breena Cross. I will kill you before I finish your sister.”

Fangs extended, he lunged. Instinctively, she threw her good arm in front of her face, palm up. Atian’s fangs pierced Breena’s skin, which instantly shot a stream of bright blue light outward.

His huge body contorted and flopped like a fish–more like a shark–out of water.

She could hardly believe it. Her glowing blue palm was a supernatural light socket. Had her witch-half actually come to her rescue when she’d needed it to?

Everyone froze like statues cemented to the floor. No one breathed. Her attacker lay on the floor, unmoving. She didn’t know what to expect.

Seconds ticked by, each breath full of hope and fear.

Then, rising like a phoenix from its ashes, Atian gathered himself off the floor in one graceful movement. She held her breath. He might still kill her. He might kill them all.

Breena swallowed dry air. She waited for his next strike.

“I would offer you my blood, however, I do not wish to form a bond with you
yet,
” Atian said with a cool voice and devilish smile. “You win this round, Breena Cross. I look forward to our next encounter.”

Before she could even think to lower her arm, the bats swooped down and spun out the front door in a tornado of black rodent fur. The three vampires vanished.

This changed things. Atian may have been following Victor’s orders when he walked through Mackie-High Funeral Home’s front door but he’d definitely had his own agenda when he’d breezed back out.

He had tasted her blood and, no matter what she did, her life would never be the same again.

Breena sucked down a raspy breath, listened as it rattled around inside her lungs, and heaved it out with a choking cough that sounded as though it were her last. Next thing she knew, Jenny, Myles and Orin hovered above her wearing the same expression. The taste of iron scraped down her throat and her body wrenched. The room grew smaller as the light faded.

Finally, silence filled the vacuum-sealed bubble around her, and the familiar arms of darkness pulled Breena into their embrace.

Chapter 29

Myles knew exactly what he’d done, and he dreaded calling the president to tell her. Stepping out the back exit of Granite Drug, he walked over to his Camaro and sat inside while he dialed the number.

This time Lucinda herself picked up. “Tell me it’s not true.”

“She would’ve died if I hadn’t.”

“You’ve given her your blood three times, and taken hers twice.”

“Yes,” he said, even though she hadn’t actually asked.

The president’s tone was difficult to read. Maybe angry. Maybe pleased. It was hard to tell with her. “Does Breena know?”

“Not yet, but she will soon enough.”

“How soon?”

Myles tugged his fingers through his hair. “A day or two. Maybe sooner.”

“You still have a job to do, even after your sentence is fulfilled. Will the bond affect your work?”

“No,” he lied.

It already did affect his work. His heart. His mind. His life. He loved Breena completely, with a fire so hot it could never be extinguished. Even now that he knew there was a part of her that didn’t belong to him. That might never belong to him. But he wouldn’t give up hope. She lived. What else really mattered?

“Good. Make certain it doesn’t.”

“I will.”

“Is everything taken care of with the foster-mother situation?”

Myles tapped the steering wheel and smiled. He’d taken care of it all right. Breena was free. Mostly. “Yes.”

“Continue your regular check-ins. I’ll be in touch when I’m ready.” The president disconnected.

Myles had a lot to think about. Not only did he have to keep his love for Breena a secret from the president, but he had to shield her from his master–and how he’d protect her without drinking her blood a third time and making her his, he had no idea. But the thing that really wrenched his pill-driven heart was the fact that his sentence would end. Soon. And without the daily dose of bewitched drugs, he’d lose his humanity…completely. Where would that leave him? Bound to the girl he loved and unable to stop himself from doing unspeakable things to her. God, no. He wouldn’t allow it. Whatever he had to do, he would do. In order to maintain his supply, he’d continue to deal in Lucinda’s evil magic.

Whether he liked it or not, this was the way things were. The president had spies–consultants–everywhere. When she said jump, he would be there to make sure Breena asked how high.

When his phone beeped, he glanced down and saw the message icon. Jenny had texted to say she was about to wake up Breena. As he flipped the cell shut, he closed his eyes and pictured Breena. Taking a deep breath, he imagined the sweet taste of her blood on his tongue, tempting him like no other. He could never taste her again. Ever. Otherwise, if she died, she would become like him. Soulless. Evil. A vampire.

The very thought of doing something so vile to her lit a flame of fear in his veins.

Snap.

His phone crumpled in his hand.

* * * *

Breena woke to the smell of breakfast, Jenny bouncing on the bed and an overwhelming wave of fear.

“Good morning, sis!” Jenny sang. “We’re really sisters now. For real, for real.”

She snatched the dark-eyed girl to her chest and crushed Jenny in a tight bear hug, trying to ignore the strange panic. “We were always sisters in my book, short stuff.”

“Come on, let’s eat. Breakfast is almost ready.”

“Be there in a few.” She squeezed her sister one last time before Jenny bounded out the door and down the hall.

Breena eased out of bed then stretched for a long time. It felt good to stand. She’d been recuperating for two solid weeks, even on Myles’s vamp blood. She’d had cuts, bruises, bites, a dislocated elbow, a broken arm, not to mention a fractured spine that had left her paralyzed from the waist down for over a week.

A quick glance at the alarm clock on the nightstand showed eight o’clock in the morning. Today was supposed to be her first day back at work, but she’d begged one of the photo-shop girls to cover her shift. Breena and Jenny had a very important date at the courthouse at two o’clock. Work had to take a backseat, even if Tammy had had the baby two days ago and they were short-handed. Breena wasn’t about to miss her appointment to sign the paperwork for legal guardianship of Jenny.

Soon they could put Norma out of their minds completely. She’d been arrested on murder charges with the trial set for six months’ time. Breena couldn’t help thinking of all the times she’d wished for this to happen, and it finally had. Maybe wishes did come true.