Oh Fang, page 6
I left without looking back, leaving the past firmly where it needed to stay. The moment I spotted Killian, I was sure he hadn’t heard a single word, because he was just as mad as when he left me standing with Mikkel.
He said nothing as I reached him and Ethan, who took my arm and Killian’s, and with a whoosh we were soon back in the Manor’s foyer.
Killian said nothing, simply rushed up the stairs with vampiric speed. I followed and was nearly on his heels as he entered our suite.
“You’re mad,” I said as I shut the door behind us.
“No,” he said gruffly.
“You are mad.”
“I’m not.”
I closed the distance and slid my hands down his arms feeling him trembling. He was ramrod stiff. “I’m sorry you felt that. I—”
“Goddammit, Willa, don’t be sorry.” He turned, cupping my face, intensity glowing in his eyes. “I love that your heart is so big that you still care for someone who threw you away because he felt you weren’t enough. I am not shaken that you once loved him.”
“Then what are you?” I asked.
He leaned closer and said slowly, “I want to rip his heart out of his chest and make him hurt like he made you hurt.”
Not that I didn’t understand, and love that he wanted to defend me, but… “Mikkel isn’t a bad warlock.”
Killian looked at me aghast. “He’s not a bad warlock? That is a joke, right?”
“He never treated me badly while we were together,” I quickly added. “He treated me well. We were friends, good friends before we were together. And even with all that, he was gentle and sweet.”
“Willa,” Killian snapped, his jaw muscles twitching. “He abandoned you. That’s it. No matter what he did before that. He abandoned you.”
“Because he had to,” I countered. “He had no choice.”
Killian took a step back and glared. “Why are you defending him?”
“I’m not,” I argued. “You just weren’t there. You don’t understand what happened between us. He doesn’t deserve the hatred you have for him.”
A pause. Then Killian’s nostrils flared. “You’re damn right I wasn’t there. Because if I was there, I would have ripped his fucking throat out the moment he made you feel alone.” Spinning on his heels, he rushed from the room with vampiric speed, the door shaking on the hinges.
Well, shit.
Chapter Seven
Bored of staring at the walls, attempting to reconcile the past couple hours, I called Ari, who also put Zara on the phone, and updated them on the meeting with the Assembly. Both agreed I’d made the right choice. I left the part about Mikkel out, not needing to spill the argument with Killian to him. Then I went looking for Ambrose. He was at the foot of the bed when I woke up earlier, and took to the skies after he ate, but I hadn’t seen him since. Needing a little bit of his love to chase away the chill of all that happened, I headed for the gardens.
Rows of flowers and bushes surrounded me, with a cobblestone pathway in between. I strode by the concrete, four-tiered garden fountain trickling into the night, and headed for the grass off to the right side of the garden.
With every step, my head throbbed like someone was playing drums on my brain. Worry felt all around me, pressing in on me tight. When I reached the open grass area, I whistled into the dark night. “Ambrose,” I called.
When clear skies greeted me, I frowned at the stars.
“This would be a good place to hide if you weren’t in a home full of vampires.”
I glanced over my shoulder and smiled at Killian. “I’m not hiding. I’m looking for my MIA dragon.”
“He still hasn’t come home?” Killian asked, taking slow, but purposeful steps toward me.
I shook my head, dread filling me. “I hope he’s okay.”
“I’m sure he is out flying. He’s bigger now. He’ll need more exercise.” Killian closed the distance and gathered me into his arms. He stared at me for a long moment before he sighed. “I’m sorry for losing my temper.”
I loved when he did that—held me with no hesitation, like nothing would ever come between us, no matter what. “I’m sorry for everything too.” I wrapped my arms around his waist, hoping he felt exactly how I felt through the bond. “I understand why you hate Mikkel. Why you hate all of them. I love you for supporting me like that. It’s just… my memories of Mikkel were happy ones.”
“I’m glad.” He leaned away so he could brush his fingers down my cheek. “No matter how old I am”—he tucked the hair behind my ear—“this bond is new to me. It’s been… challenging to keep my composure.”
I shook my head. “I should have controlled what I felt around him, and shouldn’t have defended him, and I’m sorry for that.”
“No, Willa,” he said firmly, pressing me close with a hand at my back. “Never control what you feel around me. I don’t want that.”
“But it would have saved you from feeling this way.”
He held my face in the strength of his hands. “You will do me no favors by not being your honest self. Mikkel is your past. I can accept that. Don’t shield me, Willa. Just be patient while I get used to feeling this protectiveness.”
I nodded and smiled. “I can do that.” Besides, I got it. The bond seemed to make everything bigger. From pleasure, to happiness, to comfort, the bond seemed to amplify it all. “And I don’t expect you to like him. Just tolerate him.”
Again, his thumbs brushed across my cheeks, and he gave a dry laugh. “Good, because I still want to bleed him dry, along with everyone else who cast you out. I’m feeling…”
“Protective?”
A nod.
“Jealous?”
Another nod.
“Scared?”
His lips pursed. “I’m not used to feeling that last one. Our safe world is threatened, and it’s… like I said, challenging, where it comes to you. Especially since our bond is not official.”
He cringed immediately, and I could tell instantly he wanted to take the words back. “It’s not that I don’t want to bond with you.”
“I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I know that.”
I heard what he’d said but the longing on his face made it impossible to stay quiet. “There’s just been so much change. My entire life changed in a heartbeat. Once I was just Willa Farrington, a magicless witch and bookshop owner living in a city of vampires. Now I’m Willa von Stein, a vampire with elvish magic humming in my blood alongside witch magic. I just want to be steady in my own shoes before I become Willa Constantine. And I don’t want to bond when that happiness is overshadowed by danger everywhere we look.”
Killian snorted, holding my face firmly in his hands. “The very last thing I want is for you to officially bond with me out of pity. I told you, I will wait, and I’m fine to do so. You are not only vampire, but you are also witch. I knew from the start to love you forever meant to gain your heart.” His warm smile spiraled heat down to my toes. “I don’t mind the challenge. I look forward to the night where you walk to me freely, not because a bond dictates it.”
I smiled, squishing up against him, adoring him even more. “Thank you. And I do understand this bond is new and challenging, as are all the feelings that go along with it.” I knew where he was coming from. Because my life had changed drastically. But so had Killian’s. I couldn’t forget that. “I hope you know that Mikkel doesn’t mean anything to me anymore. Not like what you mean to me. Yes, I loved him, but that was a very long time ago, and I’m not the same me as I was then.”
Another snort. His eyes glowed. “Believe me, knowing that is true is the only reason he still breathes.”
Then his mouth met mine and there was nothing sweet about the fierceness he pressed against me. His kiss was wicked and commanding. His tongue swiftly entering and swirling to capture mine. With every rough embrace, he proved a singular point no one could deny—I was his, and he was mine. Something that echoed in my soul.
I answered his powerful kiss with one of my own, and with vampiric speed and strength, I shoved him back through the garden until he hit the fountain, splashing the water around him. A crack in the stone broke the silence.
Killian arched an eyebrow, his eyes glowing with arousal as that same intensity slid through the bond. “That’s a gift from Ari all the way from Italy, you know?”
“I’m not sorry,” I purred, and was on him a second later, capturing his mouth again.
Not wanting to draw this out, and to avoid showing any of the staff a show I doubted they wanted, I opened his pants and thrust them, along with his boxer briefs down, as he rid me of my jeans. The warm breeze brushed across hot, wet flesh as I pressed against his chest, until he was leaning against the fountain. His hands to came to my waist as I climbed up, resting my knees on the stone and sank down on him in one swift stroke.
His low, gravelly moan filled my ears as I took him all the way in, not gently, but swiftly and eagerly.
Answering his plea to remind him I was all his, I angled my neck, knowing exactly what he needed.
“I am yours, Killian,” I told him, shifting my hips back and forth, so full of him. “Only yours to drink.”
Killian cursed, fisted my hair, and sank his fangs deep into my throat. His other hand came to my hip, and he rocked up into me and fell into rhythm with my thrusts.
Harder.
Faster.
He drank and drank and drank, and I swam in the darkness of sin with every long drawl of my blood.
Until he grew harder inside me. So impossibly big and hard, that I could only shut my eyes, leaking with tears of satisfaction. I rocked my hips into a blinding, mind-numbing pleasure that had no beginning and no end, only sweet euphoria.
And as I screamed his name while I came, he sucked hard on my neck and followed me.
It took many, many minutes to realize that classical music was being blared in the house. I laughed, as Killian licked the side of my neck, drawing the trail of blood into his mouth and sealing the wounds. “Higgins,” I said.
Killian pressed a soft kiss to my neck. “I will thank him for that later.”
Higgins had probably saved me many embarrassing moments whenever Killian and I lacked control around each other and didn’t make it to one of the soundproofed rooms. Not like it really mattered; vampires loved sex. They were not ashamed to watch others, and some of Killian’s legendary balls ended in orgies, or so I’d heard.
I swiftly slid down Killian’s body and hurried to dress, as did he. Right as I buttoned up my jeans, Killian’s glowing eyes snapped to the Manor.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“There’s trouble,” he said, taking my hand. “Come.”
In a hurry, we were back inside the house and heading down the steps to the basement and entered the all-stone room, where monitors lined the wall and vampires sat at desks with computer monitors on top. I rarely came into the Manor’s command center, but this was where all security was handled.
The moment we entered, I gasped at the monitors lining the stone wall, placing my hand over my mouth. Every screen showed chaos in the city streets. Vampires destroying other vampires’ businesses, burning them to the ground. Fights were breaking out between vampires, ending in deaths, bodies littering the streets.
Killian barked out orders to those in the room, and then his silence became heavy, and I knew that he was mind-linking to his vampires with more orders.
“What is this?” I barely managed to ask.
Killian glanced over his shoulder at me, gaze troubled, heavy. “Riots in nearly every capital of every state.”
“Why?” I asked, moving in next to him, taking his hand.
One of the guards sitting at his desk answered, “Ezra has created a divide between vampires and that rage is being fueled tonight.”
Another vampire added, “It’s a coordinated attack. Ezra’s followers will stay silent no longer.”
“This is awful,” I said, squeezing Killian’s hand. He held mine back just as tight. I started at the monitors, watching the businesses in larger cities, currently burning to the ground, my heart squeezing for whoever owned them. “Is this happening here?”
“Not to this scale,” Killian said, “but yes.”
Before I could even think what to do next, a breeze rushed into the room as Gwen, Finnick, and Severine crossed the threshold. And on their heels was Ambrose.
Tears were in Gwen’s eyes. “It’s bad, Willa.”
“Total insanity,” Finnick grumbled.
Relief at seeing them safe nearly had me sinking to my knees. I ran toward Gwen and Finnick. “Oh, Goddess, thank you.” I threw myself at them and they caught me. “Were you downtown?”
“In the apartment,” Gwen said, holding me tight. I could feel her trembling.
“You’re not hurt at all?” I stepped back, looking them over from head to toe. Vampires could heal with blood. The worse the injury, the more blood they needed.
“No,” Gwen said, glancing at Severin with a warm smile. “Severin got us out.”
I released my best friends and nearly tackled Severin. “Thank you, Severin. Thank you for getting them here safely.”
He seemed stunned at first, stiff as a board, but then he wrapped his arms around me. “You’re welcome, Willa.”
I squeezed his arms as I let him go, hoping he could see in my expression how much I appreciated him and his skill before I looked back at the monitors. “Do you have cameras downtown?” I asked.
A click of a keyboard later, and I leaned forward to the monitors seeing the fighting happening downtown, but further down from my bookshop. Businesses weren’t being burned in Charleston, but the fighting looked as violent. I squinted and recognized a few vampires fighting with a skill I’d never seen before. “Is that your guard?” I asked Killian.
He nodded. “I’ve sent the full guard downtown. Your bookshop stands, minor damage. No one will get close.”
“Thank you,” I whispered. But what about the rest of the shops and the lovely owners I knew. I shut my eyes a moment and breathed deep, praying to the Goddess that no one got hurt.
When I reopened my eyes to the horror—rage, so hot and deep, began burning in my belly. “Ezra is creating this unrest,” I said to no one in particular.
Killian replied anyway, “Unrest to make Ari’s leadership look weak.”
I swallowed deeply at that thought. Because this wasn’t only not going away, the fight with Ezra getting worse. I glanced from Killian to Ambrose to Gwen, Finnick, and Severin and felt the tears well in my eyes as fear I’d never known engulfed me. “How do we stop this?”
Killian’s stare was ice cold. “We kill Ezra.”
Chapter Eight
Chaos stole over the Manor as everyone went on high alert. Killian had left me in the safety of his guard to deal with the riots in Charleston, and Ari returned to the Citadel to meet with reporters to condemn the crimes. I had no doubt that they were all handling the situation, and the politics, and doing what they were all very good at doing—restoring quiet in the city streets. Severin had gone back to the bookshop with Finnick and Gwen.
Seated in the kitchen at the island, I finished a warm glass of blood and licked my lips. Finnick asked once if it was weird to drink blood, being part witch. The only way I could explain was it was like drinking the best margarita I’d ever tasted. Nothing that tasted that good would make me turn my nose up at it.
“Care to join me in the gardens?”
I glanced over my shoulder, finding Zara and her sweet smile. “Sure, love to.” I quickly rinsed out my glass and set it in the dishwasher before following my mother outside.
The moment we made it to the maze of flowers, a blur of silver caught my eye, and my heart skipped an entire beat.
“Thank the Goddess,” I breathed, hurrying my steps to meet Ambrose as he shifted into mini-size and landed at my feet. “You have to stop leaving and not coming back.” I squished his face tight. “I was so worried about you.”
His tongue happily hung from his mouth as his tail wagged.
“Okay, you’re forgiven,” I told him. “But you have to stop leaving for so long.” I kissed his wet nose. “You must be hungry. There’s a big juicy steak for you on the counter.” He swirled around my feet before flying off toward to the open window.
“Where’s he been off to?” Zara asked as we continued walking along the pathway.
I shrugged. “He’s always off and about doing something or other. I think he needs more exercise now that he’s bigger.”
“Makes sense,” she replied.
A closer look at my mother revealed tight eyes. I still didn’t know all Zara’s tells, but those eyes looked like my eyes whenever I was stressed. “This is a lot,” I said to her. “All that’s happened.”
She smiled softly. “It is a lot.” She gestured to the cement bench where Ari and I once discussed Zara, thinking she was dead.
“What’s troubling you the most?” I asked as I took a seat next to her.
She looked out at the peonies in the garden, her favorite flower, or so Ari had told me. “All of this is not what I imagined.”
My heart went out to her because I could not imagine how things must be for her. The last time she’d seen me I was a kid. The entire world had changed since she’d been entrapped by the spell. “This must be jarring for you.”
She met my gaze and gave a soft nod. “It’s been emotional. I’ve missed out on so much, but…” Her brows furrowed, her voice turning rough, “It’s hard to believe the Assembly ever turned their back on you, even with my leaving to bond with Ari.”
“Well, I don’t think it was that hard of a decision for them,” I countered. “I had no magic. It’s not like they could do anything.”
Her lips pursed. “But all your friends were there. Your life was there. I’m struggling with that part. To imagine how alone you were after they made you leave the coven.”
The last thing I wanted was for her to feel guilt over something she could never have controlled. “Honestly, I’m okay,” I said, taking her hand. “Was my journey hard? Yes. Was it lonely? Sometimes. But I came to Charleston and my life changed for the better. You don’t need to feel bad about anything that happened. I’m here, and who I am, because of what happened.”
