A year had passed since Amanda’s mortal death, yet she walked again, forever young, forever frozen in time. It was unnerving to look at her dead twin.
This thing
, she reminded herself through a shiver,
is not Amanda.
As the demon animating her twin’s corpse neared, its strangely colorless lips curved into an upward arc, but there was sparkle in the depths of her eyes. Amanda’s pale blue-gray irises had changed, taking on a strange, shimmery silver color.
“Jesse,” she murmured, sitting on the edge of the bed and extending a hand. “I’ve waited so long for you to come home.” Her voice was clear enough, but it was tinged with . . . What? Layers of time? It was a ridiculous notion, but she couldn’t shake off the impressions bombarding her mind. Time and darkness were somber companions, feeding off each other.
Time and darkness.
Jesse felt cool fingers entwine around her own. Amanda’s skin felt strangely rubbery, having none of the elasticity or warmth of a living human being. Recoiling, she immediately pulled her hand away. “This isn’t my home,” she grated. “And you’re not my sister.”
This thing, this creature instantly repulsed her. Her sister had a bubbly, lively personality, always joking, laughing, and kidding around. Yes, it was true that Amanda’s body still walked the face of this earth. But the demon presently animating her corpse was a soulless abomination.
Amanda’s lips didn’t deviate from the cool smile the demon had pasted on her face. “Of course I am,” she corrected in the same murmur. “For we are all birthed from the same dark master.”
“I’m not like you!” Jesse spat. “I’m still alive. I still have a soul and a mind of my own.”
A sardonic smile twitched on Amanda’s lips. “I know what you are,” she crooned in that same flat tone. “We’ve all been waiting for you to come.”
Scooting toward the edge of the bed, Jesse kept the sheet pulled high. “I’m not what you think I am.” After she’d been attacked by the vampire women, she remembered nothing. She didn’t know how she’d come to be in this place, or what had happened to her clothes. Everything was a big black void.
Thousands of questions teemed through her unquiet mind, but she had no answers. She wasn’t even sure whether Sam Chen was dead or alive. Knowing the Telave, he was probably very much dead. She hoped he hadn’t suffered.
Amanda smiled, but her features held no warmth or liveliness. “Oh, but you are,” was all she said.
Trying to reason with the undead was maddening. The thing reminded her of one of those dolls with a string at the back of its neck. When the string was pulled, the toy would spit out some inane remark, usually something chirpy and positive. Sam had told her it took at least a decade for a fledgling to develop a personality of its own, to learn to think and react the way a human did. The demon inside Amanda had risen only a year ago. Despite its outward appearance, it was still very much a child.
She looked around for a way out. A window was a few feet away. If she had to, she would go right through the glass.
Taking care to make no fast movements, Jesse slowly slipped off the bed. “You’re mistaken,” she said evenly. “I’m nothing like you.” She tucked the sheet around her body to conceal her nudity. Though she and Amanda had shared the same room all their lives and had often seen each other naked, she was uncomfortable with the idea that this thing should see her so vulnerable and exposed.
Rushing toward the window, she pulled aside the drapes. The bright morning sun flooded over her skin. Below her second-floor window was an immaculately groomed garden, surrounded by high stone walls and a towering menagerie of trees. It was a stunning view. But she had no chance of ever seeing it from the outside.
The windows, she noted with a frown, were barred. Even if she was brave enough to throw herself through the glass panes, she wouldn’t get very far. Like the bird in the gilded cage, she’d obviously have comfort, but no freedom.
Amanda leveled a look at her, one penetrating enough to make her fidget. Her twin’s unblinking stare and silence were filled with accusation before she slipped off the bed. “Did you think it would be that easy?”
Silently cursing her stupidity, Jesse pressed a palm against the glass. If only she’d listened to Sam, they wouldn’t be in this predicament. He’d warned her that the Kindred were just as dangerous, if not more so, than the undead.
A thought niggled in the back of her mind. Turning away from the window, she said, “I thought you things were supposed to be asleep in the daytime.” Knowing how lethargic she often felt during the high heat of the day, she wondered how something that shunned the sun’s light could even be up and around.
“It is always a new day somewhere in the world.” To demonstrate, Amanda stepped into a shaft of light. Unlike the skin of a living being, hers did not warm or flush from the change in temperature. She remained pale and wan, more of a translucent phantom than anything alive and breathing. “By day, our energy wanes, but we are able to move around freely. Unless we are wounded, exposure causes little damage.” One corner of her mouth twitched. “We are still beings made of human flesh.”
Jesse vehemently shook her head. “You’re nothing but body thieves,” she accused.
Her demonic twin raised her hands, sliding her palms around Jesse’s face. Her silver eyes narrowed, glinting ominously. “We have the right to survive”—she chuckled softly, then brushed her lips across Jesse’s in a feathery kiss—“and the right to take what we want, when we want it.”
It was all Jesse could do not to bolt from the window and run from the room. Her twin’s touch was stirring wild sensations behind her breast. Her sister’s strangely masculine aggression expertly strummed Jesse’s sexual awareness. Her bones were becoming rubbery. Heat suffused her.
“Stop it!” she cried as embarrassment surged through her. “Don’t touch me!”
The demon Amanda persisted. It nibbled at Jesse’s left earlobe while its right hand cupped and kneaded one of Jesse’s breasts beneath the silky sheet. “I could taste you here and now,” the creature whispered into her ear.
Jesse felt a stab of revulsion. With a forceful shove, she slammed her palms against Amanda’s chest and extricated herself from the creature’s hold. “You sick bitch!” she fumed, then swiped an arm across her mouth to erase the feel of dead lips against hers. “You were my sister,” she whispered.
To her chagrin, the demon threw back its head and laughed, emitting a high tittering sound. Still clutching the sheet, Jesse knotted her fists. “I’ll kill you,” she said between clenched teeth.
The smirk on Amanda’s face mocked her anger. “Ah, my sister, you’ll do nothing of the sort. You belong to us now. You always have.”
Without hesitation, Jesse replied, “No. I never have and I never will.” Suddenly, she thought she heard a voice calling from far away, but the words were too indistinct to recognize.
The Amanda creature dealt her a brooding look. At the same time, a vivid green vein pulsed at its left temple. The demon winced as if in pain. Lifting a hand toward its head, it stopped short of making contact. An immediate change came over its demeanor. “Mistress is summoning us,” it stated in a flat, emotionless tone. “She is ready to see you.”
“No. I won’t go anywhere.”
The demon gave her a narrowed look, which heightened the unnaturally silvery sheen of its pupils. “Unless you wish Mistress to send her servants to do it for you, you will present yourself before her as she wishes.”
Jesse made a futile bid to appear calmer than she felt. She didn’t like the way Amanda’s features hardened. “I can’t,” she snapped. “I don’t have any clothes on.”
“You are to wear these.” The creature walked toward a large mirrored armoire. Though its reflection was perfectly cast in the shiny depths of the glass, there was one distinctive feature that failed to appear.
A chill passed through Jesse, and darkness appeared at the perimeter of her vision. It closed in, tunneling her view of Amanda’s head. Her twin’s eyes were blank, black holes, as though the sockets had been carved out and the skull’s contents drained away.
As if disbelieving what she saw, Jesse blinked hard and shook her head.
Damn.
That wasn’t just odd to look at—it was downright scary.
The prospect of actually becoming such a creature was frightening. At the same time, she feared death and its corrosive state; the rotting away of the flesh and the insects that feasted on it. The mere image of it happening to her wasn’t anything she wanted to think about, either. She wanted life. She wanted to live.
I doubt I’m going to get that chance
, she thought as the door to the armoire swung open.
“You will wear this,” Amanda said, showing her the contents.
Jesse gasped when she realized what hung inside the closet. She’d expected to see clothes similar to those Amanda wore; chic, modern, edgy.
“You’re not serious.” She stifled a nervous laugh. “Is that what I think it is?”
The Amanda creature cocked its head. “Yes.” It gave a wry smile. “For your becoming ceremony.”
Jesse’s brows shot up. The confection of silk and lace looked all too familiar. She was so stunned, she almost laughed out loud with disbelief. “You have got to be kidding me.” Even as she said the words, her guts tied into a thousand tiny painful knots.
The clothing she’d been supplied with was a wedding dress.
Over the last few days, Maddox had often asked himself why he couldn’t detach his thoughts from Jesse Burke or will away his attraction to her.
The first night he’d met her, he’d convinced himself she would not last long. But even in the face of Reyen’s disapproval, she’d shown herself to be a brave and tenacious fighter, determined to carve a place for herself in a world that had no use for her kind.
To believe fate had contrived to bring them together was perhaps naive. But it was all he had to cling to. The question now facing him was simple and yet tormenting.
Was Jesse Burke worth going after?
Now, with desire painfully burning in his blood, he wished he had snuffed out her life that first night and spared himself his present misery.
She has half a soul
, he reminded himself. She could turn demon at any moment.
“Damn it,” he muttered under his breath. While logic dictated that he should let her go and walk away without looking back, his heart kept intruding on his thoughts. He didn’t know why he wanted Jesse. He just did.
Finding her meant he would have to do some very bad things; things that would probably take him straight into hell, and beyond.
Reyen glanced up. “You sure you want to do this?” he asked.
Maddox took in a deep breath and released it.
“Yeah,” he stated with finality. “I want her back.”
The big Indian shook his head. “I still think it’s a mistake.”
“If you don’t want to come, I’ll handle it myself,” he grated back.
Reyen’s expression didn’t give a clue to his feelings. “You know this is the kind of fighting I live for,” he said, his voice overly controlled.
Maddox nodded. “I know . . .”
An aura of deadly calm surrounded Reyen as he folded his massive arms across his chest. “We’ve played at being slayers, but we’ve never really gotten our hands dirty because they outnumber us. Taking out a few fledglings and then running off to hide again isn’t the way to win a war.” His eyes gleamed in the morning sunlight, his unblinking gaze carrying the weight of a sledgehammer. “If we’re seriously going after these things, it has to be all or nothing.”
Maddox released a biting laugh. He’d known the day would come when he’d truly have to choose a side, take a stance, lay down his life. Tucking his tail between his legs and running away, avoiding the inevitable, was no longer an option. “I’m in, a hundred and ten percent.”
Reyen grinned. “Let’s go in and get her.”
Maddox squared his shoulders. As much as he wished it were Jesse they were going after right now, that wasn’t the case. They knew the Telave had taken her, but they didn’t exactly know who or where her captor was.
To get the answer they needed, they’d have to roust a few Consanguines. By day, the creatures withdrew into the shadows to rest. They were at their weakest, unable to shift and slip away.
Sunglasses shielding their eyes from the bright morning glare, the two men headed through the ruined Ninth Ward, heading for the places that were sure to shelter a vamp during the day. Specifically they were going to Sin Court, to Dante’s Inferno.
Reyen shot him a disgusted look as they walked through the derelict area. During the day, the old shopping center was totally abandoned, the vendors of illegal services having rolled up their wares and retreated at sunrise. “I can’t believe you hang out in this place. It’s lower than low.”
Maddox shot his friend a look. “We’ll find what we want here,” he replied tersely.
Reaching their destination, Reyen tugged on the door. “Locked.” He stepped back. Lifting a leg, he drove his metal-tipped boot straight through the flimsy thing. Glass shattering, the door flew open.
The women resting inside the shadows shrieked. Many of the females were simply humans who peddled themselves. They were essentially harmless.
Reyen barreled in. “Who do we need,” he snapped as the women scattered.
Maddox slipped past him, pushing past a few scantily clad female bodies to locate the dressing rooms. Finding the one he sought, he yanked open the door.
Clad only in a bra and panties, Nayia was stretched out on her mattress. The candles around her flickered, close to burning out. Arms across her chest, she lay unmoving, not even breathing, and her skin looked strangely waxen. Contrary to the old legends, the undead did not have to sleep in a coffin containing the earth of their grave. Nor were they unconscious, dead to the world, as they rested. They could be up and around during the daylight hours, though most preferred to remain inactive.