Ill Will Read online

  “I’m sure I’ll be ruining many things for you in the near future, Victoria Holmwood.” The pressure on my throat eased a little. “We agree that you’ve lost this battle?”

  “Don’t tell me you’re going to yank my teeth out and wear them as earrings, but yeah. I’d say this looks like a loss for me.”

  Hope battled with the lingering fear in my chest. Call me crazy, but it looked like I was going to live to fight another day… for what reason, I didn’t know, but I wasn’t going to look a second chance at life in the mouth.

  “I have no need for your blunt, puny canines.” He sat up, his fingers trailing over my throat as he looked me over. “You will walk out of the Clouded Court unharmed tonight.”

  If I didn’t still have two hundred and fifty pounds of musclebound vampire sitting on my chest, I would’ve sagged with relief. “What’s the catch?” I was terrified he’d cut his wrist and drip some of that blackened blood in my mouth, effectively binding me to him, but Càel’s fingertips stopped at the edge of my collar and moved no further.

  “You will take Eluned’s fangs and-”

  “Absolutely not. Go ahead and tear out my throat, but I’m not a vampire, and I’m not beholden to your savage little traditions.”

  A dark expression crossed his face, and for a second, I thought he might dig his fingers right back in. Instead, he leaned in close, so close I felt his breath on my face. Surprisingly, he didn’t reek of blood. “One day, you will honor my sister. But tonight, I’m willing to make an exception. In honor of our new… friendship.” His smile showed his fangs very clearly.

  Fuck me and my big, smart mouth. “So, I’m free to go?”

  Càel finally stood and I took a deep breath, a sharp pain zinging through my ribs. He bent down and dug his fingers into my collar, then lifted me upright to stand on legs still shaking from the adrenaline rush. “You owe me your life.”

  I was fully prepared to say something snotty in return, but the massive vampire ducked his head and pressed his lips to my neck. He took a deep breath that tickled the sensitive skin at the nape of my neck, and the tip of his tongue flicked out to brush against the pulsing artery under my skin.

  All thoughts of smart-assery died. I was one second away from a brutal death, completely on his sufferance. For once in my life, I could shut the fuck up and take the gift of life without ruining it.

  Càel was less than an inch away from the rest of me, close enough that I felt every flex and bunch of his muscles, the tension radiating from his powerful limbs. The spot where his lips and tongue moved over my neck was tingling, but he didn’t sink his fangs in. He just kissed me, one hand rising to touch my face.

  He smelled like a forest, juniper and mint and deep woods combined with the delectable scent of a male, which was disturbing, because he was a vampire and they should’ve rightfully smelled like blood and graves…

  I exhaled, disgusted with myself for my brief moment of attraction, and realized that his tension wasn’t the only thing I felt between us. “Ugh!” I planted my hands on his chest and shoved him away, and he let me.

  His pupils were dilated, and he ran his tongue over his lower lip. “You smell delicious.” His voice had gone deep and raspy, and a chill ran over me.

  “You’re a vampire, you think anything with blood in it smells delicious. Christ.”

  He exhaled and took a deep breath of grimy city air. His fists were balled at his sides again, and I kept my eyes focused on his face rather than the broad expanse of body below it. That was the first sign of weakness: letting the enemy in behind your guard. He was a Shadowed Worlder, no matter how good he might’ve looked as a human, and no matter how large his… tension was.

  “You’re to check in at Club Bathory once a week, no less.” Càel picked up my sword and handed it to me hilt-first. I didn’t try to get cute and kill him again; it was pretty obvious how that would pan out. “I’ll know as soon as you step foot on Clouded Court territory, so don’t worry about trying to find me.”

  “Oh, I wasn’t going to worry about that at all,” I muttered, sliding my sword in its sheath. “Wait, how will you know I’m in the Court?”

  He licked his lips, his gaze on my throat.

  I touched my neck, and my finger came away tinged pink with blood. Did he bite me?

  Càel saw the question in my eyes when I glared up at him. “You were already bleeding, Victoria. But now I’ve tasted you. I know you… and I intend to know far more.”

  Usually I wasn’t speechless, but he really had me there. No defensive sarcasm came to my rescue. “Why? I’m not going to spy for you, you’re absolutely not feeding on me, and I’m responsible for Eluned’s death. What do you get out of this?”

  He crossed his arms over his massive chest, and I picked up his shirt from near my feet and handed it to him. He looked down at the fabric, and let it drop again.

  “Seriously, can you put your clothes back on?”

  “Does this make you uncomfortable?” He took a step closer. “I don’t need you to spy for me. I don’t care what the slayers do in their little fortress. I’ll feed from you if I damn well please, and you’ll thank me for it, because it’ll mean you’re not dead yet. And you are not responsible for Eluned’s death.”

  “None of that really answers my question.” I took a step back from the advancing vampire and bumped into the access door.

  “And you didn’t answer mine.” He braced his huge hands on either side of my shoulders- the old adage that you could tell the size of a man’s dick by the size of his hands popped into my head, and boy, was that shit accurate right now- and leaned in close.

  I owed the vampire my continued existence… for now. “Yeah, you being half-naked makes me uncomfortable. Where I come from, it’s considered civilized to wear clothes.” Says I, Victoria of the Ass-Revealing Hoochie Dress.

  A faint grin played around Càel’s lips. “Or… is it because you don’t want to lose face in front of your kind?”

  I scoffed. “Lose face how, exactly? Please don’t tell me you’re implying some sort of attraction on my part, because that would never happen.”

  He cupped my chin, like this was a romantic movie and he wasn’t a blood-sucking monster, and tilted my face up so I had to look him in the eye. There were tiny crow’s feet at the corners of his eyes, and his nose had been broken several times while he was human. Not even vampiric perfection could smooth that out; he must’ve been in his late twenties when he’d been turned.

  If I’d been born millennia ago and he didn’t have fangs, there wouldn’t have been a question in my mind. Huge, Nordic, and clearly ready for a good time? Check, check, and check.

  But not a vampire. Whatever Apolline and her like found acceptable, that wasn’t the way I’d been raised. The lines between slayers and other Shadowed Worlders were too deep and indelible to be crossed just because he was rugged and gorgeous.

  “You forget something,” he whispered, raising goosebumps on my skin. “Slayers still have a human physiology. I hear your heart race when I touch you. I see your pupils dilate when you look at me.” True to form, my heart was in fact racing as his fingertips traced my jaw. “The blood rises in your cheeks.”

  “Thanks for the biology lesson, but all of that could also be chalked up to an organism under extreme stress. Don’t look into it so hard.”

  “It could.” His smile grew wider and his thumb ran over my lower lip. “But your body language tells me a different story. You’re an open book.”

  I immediately crossed my arms over my chest. “Read this one, then.”

  He leaned in closer, maybe to threaten me with a bite, but his body stiffened and he drew back, pulling me away from the door.

  It swung open. Will and Sura spilled out, swords in their hands. My stepbrother’s eyes widened, and immediately narrowed, almost as icy as Càel’s, while Sura gave the knight a veiled look.

  “Is there a reason you’re up here with the White Wolf, Tori?” Will asked, his ton
e as cutting as glass.

  Càel looked him over, his light eyes somehow growing even paler even though he had a little half-smile on his face. “Your sister and I were simply… exchanging stories.” His gaze shifted to mine conspiratorially. “Interesting that you’d have no last words for this brother.”

  “Stepbrother,” Will muttered. I could almost hear him gritting his teeth.

  “That’s because we’re related by marriage only. Not blood.” My stomach was flopping around like a fish in my abdomen. There was no way in hell I was telling Will or Sura how badly I’d fucked up… or that I was now on the hook with one of Thraustila’s most loyal knights.

  Or that somewhere between the beginning and ending of our fight, he’d apparently taken a dangerous shine to me, and I had no idea why.

  “Why would Victoria need any last words at all?” Sura was still tense and unsmiling, his eyes flicking between us, tongue running over his lip like he could taste what had happened between us.

  “We were talking about morbid shit because that’s what vampires are best at.” I shot Càel a look that told him no, I was definitely off-limits, no matter what my physiology was telling him. “You know, last words, dead siblings, wearing teeth, stuff like that.”

  I needed to get out of here and be alone with my thoughts. I’d been granted a reprieve on my life… but at what price?

  Will sheathed his sword, and Sura followed suit, even if neither of them looked happy about it. “Maybe you should do that where we can see you.”

  “This is all part of negotiations, isn’t it?” I asked my stepbrother quietly. “Get friendly with the vamps, make Papa Thraustila happy?”

  “Don’t let him hear you call him that,” Càel murmured. “He doesn’t need any more ideas.”

  Will hadn’t stopped glaring at Càel. I got it, vampires were disgusting, but it wasn’t like he was the one who’d just spent an hour thinking it was the last moments of his life. “Maybe not that friendly.”

  “Don’t you slayers have some trite phrase? Sharing is caring?”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa. I’m not an object you can just pass around whenever you feel like-”

  “Of course you’re not, Victoria,” Càel purred. “But this brother of yours seems unnecessarily defensive for a male without a claim on you.”

  A claim? A male without a claim?

  “Stepbrother,” I automatically corrected. “And you know what? I’m leaving. Nobody has a claim on me, and I don’t need either of you to defend my honor. If I want to talk to a vampire, I will damn well talk to a vampire- but don’t take that to heart, Càel. I’d like to see as little of you as possible.”

  The knight only grinned at me as I pushed past Will, running his tongue over his fangs. “We’ll see about that, Victoria Holmwood.”

  Like hell he was getting the last word. I popped my head back through the door. “No, we won’t!”

  Unfortunately, his voice drifted down the stairs after me. “Oh yes, we will.”

  Nope. The terms were crystal clear- as long as I stepped foot in Club Bathory once a week, his conditions were satisfied. I’d walk in the door and walk right back out.

  Càel the White Wolf could take it or leave it, but either way, it was the best he was going to get.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  ________

  TORI

  The rest of the week passed without incident from either demons or vampire knights, which was just the way I liked it.

  What I didn’t like was Will’s newfound protectiveness that seemed to have come out of nowhere.

  Ermengol tossed us in the jungle biome for training that week. “It’ll be just like Indiana Jones, my precious little doves. NOW GO GET THAT BLOOD-RUBY OR YOUR ASSES ARE MINE!”

  Aislin Liddell and the rest of Lux were already halfway up the side of the Aztec pyramid, and most of Tenebris had orders to tail them and hinder their quest in whatever way possible. I squinted up at the glittering sandstone steps. “Is this a replica, or did some crazy headmaster actually decide to transplant an entire pyramid into underground New York?”

  “Try option two.” Will bypassed the main steps and led me, Sura, and Gilcrist along the side, crashing through thick undergrowth. The humidity was localized to the jungle biome, but I was already sweating through my shirt. “Pretty sure it was in the 1850s, when P.T. Barnum was stealing the limelight with his museum.”

  “So… people toured down here to see a real Aztec pyramid? They let in humans?”

  “No. I think just having the thing was enough to satisfy the need for one-upmanship. Who cares about Barnum’s flea circus when you’ve got this?”

  Gilcrist swiped glittering sweat off his forehead. “I’d take almost anything over this.”

  A portion of the pyramid’s base was a little lighter in color. Will and Sura pushed against it, and a secret door slid aside, revealing a pitch-black passageway. “Knew it was still here,” Sura said. He grabbed an old torch off a wall bracket that looked distinctly un-Aztec to me and pulled a lighter out of his pocket.

  When our torch was blazing, we filed into the tunnel, Sura leading the way. A hundred yards in, a dry, rasping sound filled the still air, and Sura stopped.

  “What is that?” I peered around him, but the blackness ahead was impenetrable.

  “If you get vertigo, don’t look down.” Sura held the torch out, illuminating the way ahead. The hall suddenly narrowed into a rail-less stone bridge only a foot wide, dropping ten feet on either side.

  Snakes filled the bottom of the pit, their scales glittering under the torchlight in a rainbow of hues, sliding over and under each other in a writhing mass. Their pale underbellies flashed white.

  Bile rose in the back of my throat. “A literal snake pit. That’s… super cool.”

  I hated the creepy-crawly little fuckers, the way they coiled in endless loops, how fast they moved when they wanted to strike, the pale translucence of their fangs. Fuck. Snakes.

  “Can you keep going, Tori?” Will’s voice was quiet.

  I swallowed, willing my stomach to stop lurching. “Yeah. I just… ugh, I just hate snakes so much.”

  “I know, I remember you said something about that this summer.” Will shifted behind me. “I forgot about this part, or I would’ve sent you with everyone else…”

  “No, I can do this. It’s just snakes. No big deal.”

  Sura held the torch high to illuminate the bridge all the way across. My fingers trembled as I took one step at a time across the narrow bridge, the scaly rasp of the snake nests filling the air on either side of me, but my body knew balance. There was no way for me to fall in.

  Still, I breathed a sigh of relief when the hallway widened again and we left the snakes behind.

  “The antechamber should be just ahead,” Will said. “It’s a shortcut we’re not supposed to know about.”

  True to his word, there was one more secret door, which opened to reveal a plinth lit with magical sunlight. A ruby the size of my fist was nestled on top, its innards shining bloody red.

  “That was a little too easy.” I wasn’t stepping foot in that antechamber until someone else did. “What’s the catch?”

  Will strode in and grabbed the blood-ruby from the plinth. He tossed it in the air and caught it solidly in his palm. “The catch is that there is no catch. It’s so simple nobody believes it could possibly work… so they end up scaling the pyramid and going through a bunch of rigged traps instead.” He grinned and tucked the blood-ruby in his pocket.

  “Wow. You’re an evil genius, Will.” I had to admire his cunning at times.

  “Here’s the tricky part,” he said, pushing the door shut until it was cracked a hair’s width, just enough to see the plinth within. “Aislin’s more straightforward, but she’s not stupid. There’s a good chance she knew Tenebris was coming for her and waited them out, then circled around. Ermengol still counts it as a win if you steal the artifact off the opposing team.”

  “So, we wait for her to
show up before we leave,” I said. As soon as Aislin arrived in the antechamber, we’d be good to go.

  “One of us waits,” Will said. “I’m not carrying the artifact out into the jungle until I’m sure Lux isn’t waiting to jump us out there. You wait here for Aislin. I’ll wait by the pyramid entrance. Sura and Gilcrist will go scout ahead and come back when it’s clear. If Lux makes it to the antechamber first, Tori, you’ll know the coast is clear, and we’ll run it back together.”

  The dry rasp of the snakes echoed down the hall. “What if Gilcrist stays, and I scout with Sura?”

  Gilcrist laughed. “Aww, are you afraid of being alone in the dark?”

  “No, but I do have a lot of experience in stealth and tracking, so it seems a little more sensible to send me.”

  For a moment, Will’s expression was twisted by the torchlight so he looked furious, green eyes snapping with anger, then it was gone. “That’s the thing, Tori. You’ve got the practical experience, but he doesn’t, and he’s not going to learn if we keep him back.”

  That was a fair point. My guts twisted. “Can I have your lighter then, Sura?”

  “Sure.” He pressed the warm metal cylinder into my palm, his fingers lingering against mine for a little longer than strictly necessary. “We’ll make this fast, okay, Tori?”

  I gave him a quick smile. “Seriously, it’s fine. I’m not afraid of the dark.”

  “If Lux shows up, just beat a quick retreat,” Will said. Sura and Gilcrist went ahead, leaving us alone in shadow for a moment. Something touched my shoulder and I resisted the urge to jerk back. It was just Will… his hands on my shoulders, so close I felt his presence in front of me.

  “Look, Tori. I trust you to keep them off our backs. Gilcrist is okay in a fight, but he’s a flake, and I need Sura out on the front lines.” His fingers tightened and he rubbed his thumbs over me. He trusted me, finally. I almost hated how a warm, fuzzy glow lit up in my chest at that admission.

  I let out a tiny sigh. James was right. I could do this. It would take time and patience, but eventually, I’d have a happy relationship with my stepbrother. Step one, winning his trust, was almost complete. “I’ve got this, Will.”