5. CATALINA

FIVE

catalina

Asher slinked over and ran his hand down my arm. It was strange seeing such a concerned expression on a face that had glared at me so fervently. Miraculously, some tension fell away under his reassurance. Now that I had a moment to think, I couldn’t help but be grateful they hadn’t slapped me around or locked me in a cave.

Expecting the bare minimum, Catalina.

I was messed up in the head.

“Humans are never immune to compulsion. How are you blocking us somehow?” My reservations melted away, and I struggled to wrap my head around what slipped from his seductive bow lips.

“What are you talking about?” I croaked.

Asher lowered to his knees and placed his elbows on the edge of my seat, setting his chin on his fisted hands. “So, tell me, how are you doing it?”

I huddled closer to the arm rest, shaking my head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The smile he directed at me never wavered.

“My brother is so incredibly suspicious of you.” He paused, leaned forward, and stretched his fingers in my direction, caressing my chin and along my neck. His canine teeth were already pointed, so I watched, enraptured as those two fangs extended from his gums, lengthening past his blunt teeth. He brought his fingers back up and dragged them down the side of my neck.

“Please don’t.” I breathed hard as my hands became clammy. Not again.

“It won’t hurt, Pet. I’ll make sure you like it.” Tears made him blur in my sight, and there was a sigh. My body wanted to simultaneously curl and open up. Vampires were terrifying, but somehow, the fangs . . . I shuddered and images of snarling vampire at my neck filled my head and I squeezed my eyes shut. Tears streamed past as I struggled to breathe. I would suffocate if I didn’t get myself together.

His long fingers gripped my shaking hand and my eyes popped open at the soft squeeze. Asher’s lips pressed together tightly.

“Breathe, Pet. I won’t force you again,” he tacked on, but after emphasizing the ‘I’ in the sentence, I didn’t feel too great about it. The tips of his fangs poked from his smile, even with them retracted, they remained pointy.

“She’s human,” Tobias announced curtly.

“How are you so sure?” Jax crossed his arms.

“As delicious as she is, she doesn’t smell like any supernatural creature—and in my long life, I’ve encountered any that could exist.” Tobias’s curt response startled the twins and their expressions looked creepily alike. The corner of their bow lips slightly turned down and brows furrowed with a dent between them. Asher released my hand with a final pat and stood to face the other two. I stared down at my tingling fingers, rubbing the pads together. His touch wasn’t repellant... nor was Tobias’s. It was nothing like the one who hurt me.

“I agree, but she tastes—” Asher paused, and a shiver moved his shoulders. “Heavenly.” They spoke about me like I wasn’t present.

I rubbed my neck. Although I didn’t trust these vampires, I needed to calm myself before I gave myself another anxiety attack that triggered my asthma. After all, the worst they could do was kill me . . . okay, false, they could torture or rape me before they killed me, but at this point there was nothing I could do. I was in their lair in who-knew-where.

“I still think we should kill her.” It didn’t seem like Jax was going to let go of that, but fortunately, Tobias waved that away, like he was used to his over-the-top suggestions.

“No, we’ll not hurt her.” His English accent sharp as he snapped the words.

“I agree,” Asher added. “ Broder, sluta prata om att d?da henne .” It sounded like a Germanic language, but for the life of me, I couldn’t pinpoint which one.

That was the slight tilted accent in the twins. It was obvious in Jax, but Asher seemed to have suppressed it. Jax still glared at me.

“How is it that I saved his life,”—I poked a finger toward Tobias—“and you’re pissed at me?”

I met Jax’s eyes as they slitted. I swallowed hard but didn’t regret the question. They’d already intimidated me. I sniffed and tipped my nose up with false bravado.

“See what you’ve done? She thinks she can start asking questions.”

“Let her speak her mind.” My eyes rounded on Tobias. Well, then.

“I expect this bullshit from Asher. His obsession with pussy doesn’t leave much room for consideration in which way he’d argue for, but you, Tobias? You’ve never shown interest in anything, least of all a woman.”

Tobias’s jaw ticked.

“She saved me from Calliope’s progeny. The least I can do is speak for her since you won’t allow her a moment. Humans are sensitive.”

“She saved your life because you’ve been weakening from not feeding. And give it a rest with the blood bags. Drinking directly from the vein will hold you longer. Let me get someone here to feed you,” Asher interjected, straightening the hem of his shirt.

Tobias’s teeth clicked together. “No one comes here, Asher, don’t start with your mind games. As you well know, I haven’t been drinking as many of the bags, because we need to ensure we have enough.”

“So considerate. Must be the priest in you.” Jax smirked.

Tobias’s nostrils flared.

“Oooo, it’s getting juicy.” Asher crammed his large body beside me on the love seat. It was a tight fit with his huge body invading my personal space. He wiggled his leg beneath mine so my thigh was half on him. I gawked as he maneuvered me with ease.

“What are you doing?” I wheezed, tugging my purse into my lap and hugging it to my chest.

“Don’t worry, Pet.” He stroked my arm, dragging his warm fingers down the flesh in gentle caresses. My attempt to jerk away was met with resistance and he forced my arm back down. I didn’t get to continue arguing, because the other two continued their argument.

“It’s not about giving, it’s about decency. I also must chase after Asher to make sure he doesn’t do something idiotic while you stay here sulking, trying to find Ren’s whereabouts.”

My back was as straight as a board, but it didn’t take long to relax under Asher’s soft petting, and soon, I leaned into him as exhaustion weighed on my limbs.

“Tobias is—was—a priest in the sixteen hundreds. His moral compass sadly remains intact.” His breath tickled my ear and I shivered, releasing an unintentional laugh. My shoulders tightened and he chuckled but said nothing. Something hard pressed into my leg and it took me a few seconds to work out that it was his cock. I sucked in a breath, heat flushing over my face. It really shouldn’t have intrigued me as much as it did. I cleared my throat, my fingers flexing around my purse strap.

Warmth bloomed in my belly, spreading and inching low, near my core. My toes curled. Asher’s hand tensed on my arm, and I groaned at the pressure between my legs. If I moved a smidge to the side to straddle him, it would relieve some of the pressure.

Jaw clenching, my body tensed. No way was I getting turned on by an evil vampire right now. I refocused on the argument. It had faded to the background with the pleasure flushing through my nerve endings, but I was done with the petty sniping back and forth. What boiled my blood more was that Jax was hitting low blows, while Tobias was trying to find a logical way to get him to calm down. “The human needs to give us answers?—”

“Okay,” I shouted and shoved off Asher’s lap before his wandering hand reached my inner thigh. When all eyes rounded in my direction, I cleared my throat and shuffled from foot to foot. “I knew about vampires because I’ve met one before.”

Jax crossed arms, making them bulge intimidatingly. “That’s it? That’s all you’re going to say. No explanation? Was he your lover? Were you his pet? What?”

I rolled my lips into my mouth.

“I can make you talk.” Jax’s threat flushed through my brain and shot off warning bells. A boulder settled on my chest. I didn’t have the luxury of choice.

“I wasn’t with him willingly.”

Asher released a half-rumbled hiss. “And he released you?”

“He likely didn’t know she is resistant to compulsion,” Jax snapped.

“Wait a minute, she’s immune to vampire abilities,” Asher said like it was a revelation, which it clearly wasn’t. Jax uncrossed his arms and moved a step in my direction. They stared at me like I had a dick growing out of my head. Tobias smoothed his torn sweater down his chest.

“That means she can get close to them to figure out where Ren is. They’ll think they compelled the memory from her, but she’ll be able to tell us everything she hears.” The interest in Jax’s eyes scared me more than anything else. The twins seemed to speak on the same wavelength.

I licked my lips at the sudden interest glinting in my direction. They wanted me to get close to “them?” Oh no.

“I-I’m not getting involved with more vampires.” My fingers clenched as I wrapped my arms around my torso, shielding myself.

Jax’s eyebrow lifted and his lip twitched up in a sneer. The judgment in his expression hit my pride because although I may look a little disheveled, I wasn’t that fucked up. The twins exchanged a look and it caused my stomach to dip. Freaky blankness entered their eyes—almost glazed. A chill skittered down my spine.

“What do you desire?” Jax tacked on. Head twitching predatorily to the side. “Money?”

Unbelievable. Did I have needy written all over my face or something? I clenched my hand to hide the tremble.

Okay, yeah, it wouldn’t hurt to have more funds, or to build up my savings, but not in exchange for working with vampires. My mouth opened and closed but I was already shaking my head. I wasn’t to the point of desperation that I was okay with being exposed to vampires for a longer period of time. Being with them was already enough for me, any more and I may have a heart attack from the panic. I didn’t know what they wanted me to do, but it sounded like I would be surrounded by them and no thank you.

“No,” I said forcefully. Fuck no. They were stronger than me and outnumbered me. Force wasn’t out of the equation and I understood that, but if they ended up forcing me into it, there was nothing I could do.

Jax’s jaw twitched and he shrugged. “So she chooses death.”

I gasped, my heart rate spiking.

“Jax,” Tobias intoned.

“What? Do you want to let her go even though she knows of our existence? Our laws exist to ensure shit like this doesn’t happen.”

Vampire laws about their existence? That would make sense. I couldn’t imagine the hysteria if people knew about them.

“We need to keep her here until we decide.”

Tobias inclined his head.

I inhaled sharply and looked at the ex-priest. His eyelid twitched like he felt me looking at him, but he didn’t face me. I’d never given much thought to vampires other than they were evil, but they had extensive pasts. They’d witnessed so many historical events.

“There’s no need. You can let her return home.” I was really starting to like Asher. Relief lifted the corners of my lips. One of them had some compassion.

“After all, she lives right next door.”

I blinked at him. I lived where?

“I jacked off to her earlier.” My mouth dropped at the easy way Asher admitted it. “That’s what I was trying to tell you earlier before you so rudely interrupted. She’s our new neighbor.”

I rushed to the window and pulled the curtain to the side. The scratch of the metal rings lifted the hair on the back of my neck.

Even from the first floor of the house, it was more elevated since it was on an incline. The slanted roof of my home stared back at me from a small distance away. A huge leap over and you’d be on my house.

“You okay, neighbor?” I slowly craned my neck, nose almost grazing against Asher’s. Did he need to stand so close?

“I’m going to go,” I rushed out, hugging my Prada as I shoved past his looming form. Half of me expected to be stopped but no one did. It was a good thing, or I might have had a breakdown.

“Don’t try to run from us, human, or you won’t like it when we catch up to you.” Jax’s sharp words swirled in my head, stacking on to my dizziness.

The door was heavy, and I struggled to get it open. The chandelier lighting the entrance spilled into the darkness, and I left the front door open to guide my way.

I tripped descending the massive amount of stairs but caught myself in the last second. Fortunately, since that stumble down was steep. I reached the base with moisture beaded on my forehead, plastering the hairs to my skin. A burst of noise broke through my ragged breathing, and I yelped, cringing away from the gate. Black wings flapped with fervor, and I clutched my chest. A bat. A fucking bat. It disappeared into the night, and I staggered forward. The gate clanged as I shoved it shut behind me.

There were yards between their home and mine. Yards .

This was not good. I’d been trying to run away from vampires but instead, I’d moved in next to a group of them. They didn’t chain me up or stop me, but it wouldn’t last long. They were vampires, it was in their makeup to harm others.

The worst part was, I was stuck. There were currently no funds in my account to run.

I could try to sell my handful of luxury items I’d managed to collect over the years . . . but they were outdated and not in the cool vintage way—their resell value was nonexistent.

My hand wouldn’t stop shaking on the doorknob, making it difficult to open my front door. As my adrenaline wavered, lightheadedness surged forward, making my movements sluggish. I felt so weak . . . and aroused.