Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

Evelyn

“WAKE UP, EVELYN.”

I lift my head from the pillow and blink at Lizzie. My head pounds in time with my heartbeat and my mouth tastes … well, best not to think too hard about how bad my mouth tastes. “I need a toothbrush.” I look around, recognition rolling over me in waves. I’ve been here only a few times; I recognize the large bed with its absurdly high thread count and nice down comforter. I’m still not even sure if vampires sleep, but Lizzie does nothing halfway. The bedroom is a luxurious dark oasis. Too luxurious for my tastes. Too dark. But I can appreciate it in small doses.

“Why am I in your bed?” I sit up and have to press my lips together to keep from being sick. “Why did you bring me here? You should have just sent me home.” I have a vague memory of her carrying me into the house and tucking me in with her usual capable briskness. It might warm my heart if I didn’t feel so nauseous.

Of course, then she promptly ruins it. “So you could choke on your own vomit and die alone? I don’t think so.” She waves a hand. “It doesn’t matter now. There’s no time. You need to go.” Her expression is cold and her voice remote, not even a hint of the warmth I’ve gotten used to. There’s definitely none of the softness she showed me last night.

Silly to miss something I’m half-sure I imagined in the first place. I shove my hair out of my face and try to focus past the hangover making me want to burrow back into the bed and not move for another few hours. “Why? What’s going on?”

“This thing between us ends. Right now.” She looks away, her skin so pale it’s almost translucent in the moonlight streaming in from the open window. “I just received word that my mother is on her way. She’ll be here soon.”

Suddenly, I’m not worried about my hangover. Lizzie might have a soft spot for me, but her mother has an even more fearsome reputation than she does. If she finds out her daughter has been sleeping with a lowly witch, she’s liable to yank every drop of blood from my body.

Damn it, Bunny was right. I never should have messed with vampires.

I happen to like my blood right where it is, so I jump up. My stomach sloshes in a worrying way, but I don’t have time to be sick right now. I start throwing my clothes on. “How long do I have?”

“Not long.” She sounds almost bored. Like I’ve been a fun toy she’s amused herself with, and now it’s time for that toy to be discarded.

No reason for that to sting. I knew what this was when I let her seduce me in that club all those months ago. Silly me for getting sentimental. But last night felt … different. Or maybe that was the tequila making me silly and sentimental. Lizzie brought me back here because I was making a fool of myself—not because she actually cares.

If she cared, she wouldn’t be standing idly by while my death approaches.

Gods, but I’m a fool. I actually started to fall for her. I yank on my boots and tie them quickly. “If you’d just let me go home, this wouldn’t be an issue.”

“Just another mistake in a long line of them.”

Well, fuck, that definitely stings. I drag in a breath, trying to think past all the emotions swirling with leftover tequila in my system. I can focus on my bruised heart later. If I don’t get away, Lizzie’s mother might rip it right out of my chest. “You have to get me out.” Lizzie has the same powers as her mother—as the rest of her family. She can protect me long enough for me to run for my life.

“I don’t have time. I have to meet her when she arrives.” She drags off her clothes from last night—from earlier tonight?—and sets about dressing in a clean outfit. Fool that I am, I can’t stop myself from mourning each inch of skin covered by her plain button-up dress. I’ve never had a lover quite as physically perfect as Lizzie, and what she can do with blood heightens every sexual encounter we’ve had.

And she … took care of me last night? Even though I know better, I can’t help thinking about that soft moment in the car. I didn’t imagine it. I swear I didn’t. I hesitate, my heart pounding. Maybe I was wrong about this being nothing. Maybe … “Come with me,” I blurt.

Lizzie lifts a brow. “Evelyn.”

I know better than to fight a losing battle, but my foolish heart has run away with my mouth. “Please, Lizzie. You’re more than the weapon they use you for. You could be so much more.” I don’t want to change her. Never that. But what could she be if she was actually free of her family’s shackles? I never would have dared ask if I wasn’t scared for my life.

She crosses to me and catches my chin lightly. Her dark eyes are fathomless. “I honestly can’t tell if you’re trying to manipulate me or if you actually believe that.” She shakes her head slowly. “Either way, it won’t work. I have no need to be more than a weapon. I enjoy being a weapon.” Her grip goes tight and for several beats I think she might do something truly shocking, like kiss me. Even though I know better, I go a little soft in response.

Then she pushes me away. “Get out.”

I don’t have a heart left to break. Life is cruel and merciless at the best of times, and people even more so. I know that. Of course I know that. It doesn’t change the fact that it hurts to have the woman I’ve spent six months sleeping with basically admit that she doesn’t care if I live or die.

On the heels of the emotional turmoil from last night, there’s a part of me that wants to curl up and just let what will happen happen.

The impulse doesn’t last long, but it shames me nonetheless.

I watch Lizzie walk out of the room, her stride long and predatory. She’s not even going to stick around to ensure I make it to an exit before her mother comes calling. That’s all I’m worth to her. Less than nothing.

The thought is at least a little bit a lie, but somehow that just makes it hurt worse. She does care about me, but not enough to stand between me and her family. Not enough to save my life. “You are such a bitch sometimes, Lizzie.”

I’m not going down like this.

I go to my knees and reach under the bed to pull out the pack I stashed there the second time Lizzie brought me to her house. As Bunny used to say, always have an exit route or six planned. It pays to be prepared for any eventuality in normal life, and sleeping with a vampire makes that doubly true. You never know when you’ll run into your not-girlfriend’s murderous mother.

I sling the backpack on and turn to the window. We’re on the second floor facing the front of the house, so that exit is out of the question. No reason to present a target. There’s a staircase used by the human servants near the back of the house; a door there will get me out. It means hiking through the forest that surrounds the estate, but it’s a small price to pay.

I start for the door, but pause in front of the dresser with the big antique mirror attached to it. Lizzie doesn’t wear jewelry as a general rule, but there’s a bowl of it just sitting there for the taking. Bracelets, necklaces, rings, and brooches, all studded with jewels. Many of the pieces look like they’re hundreds of years old. This kind of haul could set me up for years … or at least a few months of lavish living.

I don’t make a habit of stealing from friends or lovers, but Lizzie’s just proven that she’s neither. That makes this jewelry fair game. I cast one furious look at the door and then shrug out of my backpack to dump the jewelry into it. The satisfaction I feel at the thought of her rage when she finds it gone …

I’m being petty and I don’t give a fuck.

The hallway is blessedly empty and I don’t bother to be quiet as I sprint toward the stairs. It’s not like I can effectively hide from a vampire of Lizzie’s family. Their magic is even more blood-based than normal bloodline vampires. In addition to a whole host of tricks, they can sense any creature with blood in their bodies within a certain range.

Makes for a quick game of hide-and-seek, I imagine.

I take the staircase down, moving so fast, I almost trip. I’d love to say all the sex with Lizzie has improved my cardio, but the truth is that I only run when jobs go bad, and my jobs rarely go bad. If you have to run, you’re already fucked.

Each breath feels like a knife in my lungs, but I can’t afford to slow down. Not a single person appears as I burst out of the doorway at the bottom of the stairs. Where’s the door? I clocked it when I explored the house, but adrenaline and my hangover make my head buzz and muddy my memory. There are dozens of doors dotting this hallway. Servants’ quarters? Was the exit four doors down or five?

A shiver shoots down my spine as my sensing ward around the house pings the presence of … Five. Ten. Twenty-five. Oh fuck, that’s a lot of vampires. What is this, a family reunion?

I yank open the fourth door and rush through. Right into a dusty sitting room. I stop short. “What the fuck?” I was sure this was the way out. A moth-eaten couch squats against one wall, directly across from two equally decaying chairs. There’s a dresser that appears one sneeze away from collapsing and a large swivel mirror on a stand that seems completely out of place.

Hushed voices sound in the hallway, accompanied by the sound of quick footsteps. I scan them without thinking. Humans, but that doesn’t mean I want to get caught. I pull the door shut softly behind me and hold my breath as I wait for them to move past.

Except they don’t.

They stop a few feet away from my door and continue speaking in soft, harried tones. I could wait them out, but I have mere minutes before the vampires reach the house.

The window it is.

I head for the window, scrunching my nose as each step sends up clouds of dust. Why don’t the maids clean this room? Every other part of this house I’ve explored has been pristine. I shove the curtains aside and instantly regret it when a sneeze threatens. It doesn’t matter. I just have to get the window open …

It’s painted shut.

“You have got to be kidding me.” I don’t have time to cut the damn thing open. Surely there’s another exit somewhere. I take a few steps toward the door but pause when the mirror in the room flickers oddly. Even knowing I don’t have time to explore, curiosity takes hold. It will take only a moment to investigate. I move to it and send a flicker of my magic at it. What I find makes me grin.

“Lizzie, you’ve been keeping secrets.” She’s got a portal in her house. No wonder this room is forbidden to the staff. Having them fall through a portal when they try to clean the mirror would be a nightmare to deal with.

Where does it go, though?

I glance at the door and bite my lip. Trying to find the exit is still a good plan, but I can’t move as fast as the vampires outside, and if Lizzie figures out I stole from her, she’ll come after me. And not in a fun way.

But the portal? I can go through it and ensure no one can follow. It won’t stop her from hunting me, but I’ve spent my entire life learning to lose myself. I can stay ahead of her long enough for her mother to send her off to do some murderous shit or for Lizzie to find some other poor soul to torment.

Easy peasy.

The words feel like a lie, so I ignore them.

It takes two precious minutes to cut my thumb and carve a quick spell onto the mirror frame. Once I trigger it, it will explode in thirty seconds, closing the portal behind me. A risk, but giving Lizzie a direct way to follow me is riskier.

I hope.

There’s no time to hesitate. I pull my shirt open a bit more to reveal the network of tattoos on my chest. Each is a prepped spell, just waiting for a bit of blood to activate it. I press my bleeding finger to the one in the center of my chest, drawing a shield around me. It will only hold as long as my concentration and power do, but I don’t know what I’m walking into.

The door flies open as I take one step into the portal. Lizzie rushes into the room. “What the fuck are you doing?”

“Escaping.” I just have to trigger the spell to destroy the mirror after I step through. Damn it, I’m going to have to time this right.

My backpack clinks as I shift farther into the mirror. She narrows her eyes. “You didn’t.”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about.” My heart is beating so fast, she has to be able to sense the lie. I need to go and I need to go now.

I thought all warmth was gone from Lizzie. Turns out I was wrong. The last bit of softness disappears and she bares her fangs at me. “Drop the bag right now, Evelyn.”

It’s the smart thing to do, but I haven’t been doing the smart thing for a long time. No reason to start now. “Nope.” One last deep breath and I trigger the spell on the mirror frame.

Lizzie lunges for me, but it’s too late. The last thing I see is her furious face as she screams. “I’m going to fucking kill you!” Then the mirror explodes, cutting us off from each other.

I realize my mistake the moment it does. This isn’t a direct portal at all. Of course it’s not. I should have known Lizzie wouldn’t keep an open door to somewhere else in her house.

Darkness presses close, thick and syrupy. I can’t see a single thing, can’t breathe, can’t think. Oh gods, please tell me I didn’t flee from Lizzie only to die in this space of nothingness.

Damn it, no. Instinct gets me moving, despite the difficulty it is to take one step and then another. The only other option is holding still and suffocating, and I’m not going out like that. Panic flutters in my chest, screaming through my mind. I’ve heard drowning is a peaceful way to die, but there’s no peace in this. Just terror.

Keep going. Keep moving. One foot in front of the other. You still have strength, and you’re going to fucking use it.

Step after step after step. It feels like the abyss is swallowing me whole, but I’m walking on something, even if I can’t see it. There has to be a way out. There has to be. I just need to find it.

But nothing has changed by the time my lungs start screaming for air. In desperation, I pick up my pace. I don’t have much time left. Hard to say if black dots are dancing across my vision when I can’t see anything at all. The very non-air seeming to fight against me, trying to hold me still and slow me down.

Fuck you.

I’m running now, pumping my arms as fast as I can while my lungs shriek. I clamp my lips together to keep from gasping, but I’m seconds away from my body taking over.

I’m moving so fast, I don’t realize the ground beneath my feet is gone until I’m falling.

Between one blink and the next, the darkness is replaced by pale dawn light. I drag in one glorious salty breath … and then hit something hard enough that everything goes black.