Page 11 of Of Flame and Fate
Celia is the last to leave. I know she wants to talk me out of helping Misha, and beg me to keep my distance from the vampires. After all, I gave her the same speech when she left us to be with them.
I’m ready to offer a little sarcasm for the road and to pique her smile. But the sadness in her features shuts my mouth and drives an extra pang of guilt straight into my heart. I shouldn’t have left without telling them. Except sometimes, you do shitty things to keep those you love safe.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” she tells me. “Not for me, not for anyone.”
“Oh, you know me,” I reply.
She shakes her head, walking away and pulling the door behind her.
The door barely finishes clicking shut when Gemini’s deep and graveled voice unveils his displeasure and draws my focus. “We need to talk.”
His anger and frustration appears to have doubled since leaving the room. Anyone else would think twice about contradicting him. Except I’m not just anyone, not to him.
“No,” I respond. “That’s not what we need.” I pull off my towel and let it fall at my feet as I walk to the shower.
With a sigh filled with too much stress and way more exhaustion, I lean in and turn on the water, adjusting the temperature before stepping inside. Swirls of black, brown, and red, splatter along my feet as the water drenches my skin and hair. The red and brown are a mix of sand and blood. The black . . . Christ, it could be demon poop for all I know. I don’t want to guess, and am glad I took Shayna’s advice against soiling my sheets with evil.
I reach for my shower gel and loofa, working fast and scrubbing hard. Whatever is painting my skin this awful color, I just want it gone, and half-wish I could apologize to my drain for all the gross chunks it’s had to swallow since we first moved in.
The water isn’t yet clear and I haven’t quite finished washing my body when Gemini steps into the shower with me.
Brown muck and bits of leftover DNA still cover my back. Yet he embraces me, loving me and offering forgiveness I probably don’t deserve. “I don’t want anything to happen to you,” he murmurs, curling against me and stroking my chin carefully.
“I know.”
It’s what I tell him. But as I think about the fate of the world, and how it all comes down to my sister’s babies being born, I don’t believe there’s a choice. Someone has to live. And that someone is Celia.
Chapter Three
I like shoes.
Pretty shoes.
The taller, the better.
At only about five-foot three, they make me feel statuesque.
My only gripe, they’re hard to run in.
And right now, I’m running pretty damn hard.
“Excuse me. Pardon me.Pardon me.” Shit. “For the love of God, move out of the way!”
I’m in Reno, the Nevada side of Tahoe. We don’t come here much. Sure it’s close to home and has a lively nightlife, and yes, there are beautiful forests and stunning attractions nearby. But too many times my love and his furry friends have found partially eaten body parts in those woods and more than a few of the attractions have been splattered with blood and innards as a result of supernaturals gone wild.
Humans chalk them up to gruesome homicides committed by psychopathic serial killers.
I wish I was that naïve, strolling through life believing monsters don’t actually exist.
Instead I’m running down the sidewalk past one of too many casinos and snaking around far too many bodies.
The flashing lights strobe against the vampire I’m chasing, setting his white dress shirt aglow and bleaching his skin. It’s not a good look for him, and despite my cute giraffe print open shoulder flouncy dress, it’s probably a bad look for me, too. I don’t do sweat well, and right now, I’m bathing in it, my back is drenched and the fabric of my dress clings to my skin.
My stilettos pound against the sidewalk as I jet after him. His stride is easy, using a tenth of the muscle I am. If he wanted to, he would run, and I wouldn’t be able to catch him. His pace is fast enough that I can’t shoot a bolt of lightning into his back or set him ablaze without striking some poor unsuspecting tourist. But it’s slow enough to make sure I follow. If I had any doubt, the glance he tosses me over his shoulder squashes that doubt to bits.
Yeah, this leech wants to lead me into a trap, and maybe take a bite. But Gemini is the only one I let bite me, and his nibbles tend to be south of my neck.
My phone rings. I answer it only because I see that it’s Shayna.