Midnight Magic, page 11
He glanced at Eden, who licked the blood off her lips, and his heart swelled at such an intimate moment.
He pushed the memory down, as he hurried out of the gym.
“Where are you going?” Taj asked.
Jasmine came into sight, and Cassius felt his speed kick in involuntarily. His mind raced with thoughts and he needed to quiet them.
The streets of Chester were quiet everywhere, but the campus and Cassius found solace on the main street, under the streetlights. He sat on a bench and watched the flickering of neon on the sign of Cory’s Diner, focusing on the buzzing sound from the wires inside of it.
The faint thrum of a pulse, steady and warm filled his body and he reveled in its warmth.
CHAPTER 8
The news hadn’t forgotten about Ross, but he was only a footnote now that two girls had been found dead in one of the apartments in The Heights. The campus was aflutter with gossip and news of the horrific murder was hard to avoid.
Danica and Riley Klume, twin sisters were found in their apartment and had died of blood loss.
The strange thing was...
Except for two puncture marks on their bodies—one on Danica’s neck, and one on Riley’s inner thigh—there were no wounds or cuts to explain the loss of blood.
Ava felt overwhelmed. Chester U hadn’t had a student death in over fifty years. Until her first semester. Not to mention, the constant feeling as if she was being watched...
Ava wasn’t a paranoid person, but she still couldn't shake the feeling. Sometimes she’d look up and swear she caught a glimpse of glowing green eyes.
Ember pushed the paper cup of coffee toward her. “Drink up, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover,” she said sweetly.
Ava grabbed the cup, glancing at her wrist. It had been two weeks since the day she received the bite, and it had become a permanent scar. Thankfully, she could cover it up with concealer or jewelry, but it still bothered her.
Her phone rang, interrupting their study session, and Ava was surprised to see the caller. She answered quickly.
“Mal?” Her voice lit up.
“Hey, Simba, how's college life treating you?” The sound of her brother’s voice was remarkably refreshing.
“Well, it hasn’t been quiet up here, that’s for sure.” She looked at Ember, and motioned to her she’d return in a moment. Ember nodded and Ava pushed herself away from the table in the quad and walked outside.
The sight of the autumn leaves as they scattered the green grass was comforting as the chill set in. Ava pulled on her grey sweater, the cuff itching her bite scar.
“I heard. That’s kind of why I’m calling. I’m stopping home for a bit, and I’d like to see you if that’s okay?” Ava could hear the concern in his voice, but he masked it as a question and not a command. She knew him better than that.
“Where are you?” she asked.
“In the parking lot of Grayson Building C,” he said plainly.
“Let me wrap up this session with my partner, and I’ll be right over,” she answered with a smile.
“Sounds great,” he said.
She couldn’t wait to see her brother.
CHAPTER 9
Ava walked up to the familiar red Chevelle, and her brother smiled at her from inside the car. “You hungry?” He raised his eyebrow at her.
She came around to the passenger side, pushing her long hair back behind her. “The question is not am I hungry...” she said as he pushed the door open for her from inside. “The question is can I eat food? And to that you know the answer is most certainly always yes.” She smiled back at him.
Mal turned the car on, and Ava had to admit, she wondered where Mal would have fit in at Chester U. The eleven years between them should have separated them more than it did, but Ava had always felt closer to her brother than anyone, including her parents.
Especially after they died.
The thought careened through her brain, and she frowned.
It was only three years ago...
She tried to push the memory away. She didn’t want to remember the sight of her parents when she came home, their lifeless bodies strewn about on the carpet, saturated in blood in their home. She closed her eyes and tried to imagine anything else.
“Place is a freaking nuthouse with all these reporters and police everywhere,” Mal said as he pulled out of the parking lot onto the road.
Ava opened her eyes and let out a deep breath. “Yeah, well, you know how it is. Nothing interesting ever happens around here, so can’t say I blame them for all the attention.” She leaned back into the squeaky leather seats.
“So, what's good up this way?” He leaned back casually as he palmed the steering wheel, turning onto the main street of the campus.
“Depends, what are you hungry for?” she asked as she peered in the back seat at the amp and guitar that looked as if they had collected dust.
Strange for a musician.
She looked up briefly to see Mal’s eyes in the rearview mirror, staring back at her.
“Pizza?” His tone was casual, but his eyes serious. Something about him seemed on edge.
Of course, he’s on edge. His baby sister is attending a university where three people were just murdered.
“There’s Julian’s a couple of blocks from here. Just keep going straight until you hit the traffic light, then turn right on Tucker,” she directed Mal.
His gaze turned back to the road.
“Did you know them?” he asked as they pulled up to the traffic light, which changed from yellow to red.
“What?” She turned toward him, with question.
“The...victims. Did you know them?” The way he said the word victims didn’t sit right with her. She shrugged it off. “I knew the guy. Ross Parish.” She spoke honestly.
“I’m sorry.” His sympathy sounded genuine, but the look in his eyes was still quite serious. The light blinked green.
Ava pulled at the cuff on her sweater, covering her wrist.
“We only went out a couple times. He was a sophomore. Member of Alpha Pi Omega.” It felt good to be honest with someone.
“So... you didn’t know the girls then?” He turned right on Tucker Street.
Why was he pressing about this?
“No.” Her answer was simple.
“Look, Ava, I know college can be exciting, what with all that goes on up here...” he started as he drove down the street, looking for the sign for Julian’s. Ava shifted in her seat uncomfortably.
Please don’t try to be the responsible older sibling. It just isn’t you, Mal.
“So...you came all this way to lecture me?” She huffed.
Mal, of all people, had no room to lecture her. She wasn’t some naive kid. She knew all too well what kind of shenanigans he got up to when he traveled for his gigs.
“I was eighteen once too. I know what happens at college parties. I also know that your friend and those girls were at a party the night they died.” His lips straightened.
Ava shrugged as Mal parked the car.
“I’m fine, Mal. Really. You don’t need to worry.” She opened the door as quickly as she could. Her stomach growled.
“I’m not telling you not to do it. I know you’re going to. I’m just telling you to be smart.” He shut the car door and leaned against the hood of the Chevelle, as he took out a cigarette from his flannel pocket. He lit it with a stainless-steel lighter and the motion as he did so exposed his pentagram sun tattoo on his forearm, the rays of the sun sticking out like black daggers. Ava pulled her sweater tight around her.
“Finish your cigarette. I’m hungry,” she grumbled.
Mal blew a ring of smoke in the air, and just like that the serious tone was gone, and his eyes lit up with a smile. “As you wish, Miss Crowley.”
Ava closed her eyes and let a small moan of appreciation escape her lips. The cheese was absolutely delectable. “They really do have the best pizza,” she mumbled through a mouth full of food.
Mal seemed to be on edge, his gaze darting around the room. It was only a Tuesday night, and still early by campus time, but fall had started to set in, and the outside was bathed in darkness, save for the streetlights and lights from places like Julian’s.
Mal picked up another slice of pizza from the platter and scarfed it down equally as quickly as he had the other three slices.
The door jingled and Ava felt the familiar prickling of flesh and heated sensation at her wrist.
She looked up to see a group of students filing into one of the booths. California was with them. He sat with his posse, which consisted of three other men, all of which were impeccably dressed even for brothers of the fraternity.
Mal’s gaze darted over to them.
“You know those guys?” he asked between bites.
“Not really, just seen them around campus. I think they belong to Alpha Pi Omega.” She took a sip of her coke and tried to ignore the chills.
Probably some stupid flu.
California locked eyes with her and nodded back at her.
“That the fraternity your friend was from?” Mal asked as he took another bite of cheese pizza.
Ava nodded in response. “Yeah.” Her head felt fuzzy again.
“Interesting,” Mal said under his breath. Ava broke eye contact with California and shook off the feeling. She pretended not to hear him.
CHAPTER 10
Two girls. In addition to the boy at the frat house, Liam, the Boracelli’s newest member, had managed to kill two innocent girls. Cassius was furious at the sight of what the news called The Chester Murders. They’d been killed at the off-campus housing complex, known as The Heights, or rather the apartment complex that they had visited two weeks ago, on the hunt for Liam.
Jasmine had told Taj to let it go. She didn’t think Liam would do any harm. “It’s just words, Taj. Seriously. He’s a kid, let it go,” she had said sweetly, but Cassius knew Taj better than Jasmine.
Liam was a baby as far as vampire years were concerned. He’d been turned within the last twenty years, and as Cassius had learned, been sired by a rogue vampire, which in itself was quite a rare occurrence. Rogues didn’t usually have the ability to sire as their bloodlines were usually so diluted. Liam had no coven, no real understanding of rules, and yet the Boracelli’s took him into their coven, likely because he was racking up quite the body count—which was something the Boracelli’s favored above all else. Kills. If the rumors were true, he’d be an apprentice before the fifty-year mark. He’d only surfaced in Virginia a month ago, and already in the course of two weeks, he’d managed to kill three students at the campus. All Greek row, all in their early twenties.
Like him.
It could have been four. He reminded himself as he felt the faint thrum in his veins of a pulse that didn’t belong to him.
Still, newborn vamps like Liam were arrogant and didn’t understand how to blend in. Their cocky attitudes coupled with the new fondness of eternal life meant sometimes they drew too much attention, where there should have been none.
Taj walked through the parking lot, and his whistle pulled Cassius out of his thoughts.
Taj walked around the red Chevelle and licked his lips. “They just don’t make them like this anymore, do they Cassius?” Taj sounded like he’d fallen in love.
The red paint shimmered in the streetlight, casting a glare.
“Not really my type.” He shrugged.
Taj flipped him off.
“You wouldn’t know taste if it walked up to you and bit you,” he retorted.
Cassius noticed something catching a glare from the light, the sparkle glinting against the window.
He peered in the backseat and felt an immediate fear.
The source of the glare belonged to the expanse of a blade, made of what Cassius assumed to be pure silver, its markings all too familiar.
To the naked eye it looked no different than a hunting jackknife, but any vampire worth his blood knew it was anything but ordinary. The symbols etched into the pure silver blade were deadly to his kind.
“Taj, look. Back seat.” He shoved his hands into his pockets as he stared at the blade.
“Fucking hunters. Great,” Taj cursed.
Cassius could feel the stolen pulse in his veins quicken, and a chill came over him.
What the hell...
He pulled his hand out of his pocket, the feeling of fire dull at his wrist, but noticeable enough to make him jump.
“You alright over there?” Taj walked hastily over toward him.
“Yeah... I...” Cassius flexed his fingers. He could feel the quickening heartbeat, and he knew it wasn’t his.
“Lovely.” Taj looked in the opposite direction, his sights settling on Julian’s.
“What...” Cassius’s thoughts felt jumbled.
Taj pulled him closer to the edge of the parking lot.
Cassius felt the pulse become stronger. “What is this? What is happening to me?” he asked.
“It’s the mark. It knows she’s close.” Taj dropped his hand and nodded in the direction of Julian’s.
Cassius’s own heart stilled, which was a feat considering it was a slow beat, to begin with.
She sat there in front of the window, with a dark-haired man, eating cheese pizza.
But it wasn’t the sight of her that stilled his heart, not entirely.
It was the sight of Liam and his three henchmen, who walked in the door of Julian’s.
CHAPTER 11
Mal pulled out his wallet and fished around for the proper bills and change. The motion was normal, but his demeanor seemed to have changed. Ava finished the last slice of pizza and took another swig of her coke, and when she looked up California was beside the table.
“I know this may seem a bit forward, but you look awfully familiar to me. Do I know you?” California’s voice didn’t sound like a regional surfer, but more like a Tiffany Jewelry salesclerk. Combined with his preppy style, and expertly styled coif of hair, Ava couldn't help but blush.
Her brain felt fuzzy again, and the chills were still there, and she knew this man...but...
She didn’t seem to remember how.
That’s strange...
“I think so, but forgive me... I can’t remember how.” She glanced at Mal who’s face had gone stone cold as he stood up slowly, against one of the other men who refused to move.
“Back off,” he growled.
The man against Mal was wearing a pink polo of all things, and khakis with boat shoes. His backward hat looked slightly out of place with the rest of his ensemble and his dark eyes looked excited as he chewed his lip.
“Looking for a fight, pal?” Pink Polo challenged.
California held his hand out.
“Not tonight, Brody. Take it easy. You need your strength,” he continued to speak, never taking his eyes off Ava.
“Well, then I think we should introduce ourselves thoroughly. I’m Liam Bancroft.” He smiled, and although her brain felt hazy, she found her eyes had resisted the heavy pull.
“Ava Crowley,” she smiled. Something about California...no Liam’s demeanor felt unbelievably captivating. Memories of lips on her skin, biting at her flesh...
Biting...
Ava blinked and looked down to her wrist for only a second, remembering what lay underneath her sweater. She tugged at the cuff, as something told her she needed to keep it hidden.
The door jingled, and Liam and Brody turned their heads.
“Back up right now, or I will make you,” Mal sneered at Brody as he puffed his chest out.
Liam sighed. “Can’t a guy just get a decent pizza around here without getting into an argument?” He looked back at Ava, and she cracked a smile.
“See you around, Ava.” He smiled in return, his lips pulling back just enough that as he turned, Ava could have sworn that she saw it.
The razor-sharp fang.
Just like in the field.
Liam and Brody backed away slowly as they headed towards the door, and Ava was surprised to see no one was there.
How odd. She thought to herself as she looked out the window.
Where Brody and Liam should have been, there was no one. Not a soul on the street, across the street, or anywhere to be found where a person should be.
Mal’s shoulders eased, and he shot Ava a serious glance.
“You’re coming home with me tonight.” The way he said the words was definitive, and solid.
“What? Why? There’s absolutely...” she started to rattle, but Mal held his hand up to stop her.
“I’d just feel better if we were both under the same roof. I’ll drop you off at class tomorrow. I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.” He stood in front of her, his eyes serious as he waited for her to rise.
“You’re being ridiculous, but I can see that you are clearly worried. If it makes you feel better, I’ll come home for a few days, but I’m a freshman. I can’t have a car on campus, so I’ll need you to drive me to and from school for the foreseeable future until you are satisfied. Also, we’ll need to stop by my dorm to get a few things.” She crossed her arms.
“Always the negotiator,” Mal smiled only a fraction as he turned toward the door, and Ava followed.
Stacy’s eyes sparkled at the sight of Mal, and Ava’s stomach turned with disgust.
“You didn’t tell me you had a brother. A very hot brother, I might add,” Stacy whispered as Ava threw some clothes in her duffel bag.
“My brother is not hot, by any definition of the word, and most certainly is not suitable dating material. He’s a musician, and therefore leaves for long periods of time, and isn’t exactly the committed type.” Ava wrinkled her nose.
“Like I said. Hot.” Stacy shrugged.
“He’s at least eight years older than you, Stacy.” Ava strung up her laundry bag full of clothes she’d planned on taking to the Laundromat before Mal showed up.
