Chapter Sixteen
“Tell us one more time what you saw, Kayla.”
I sighed as Stavros asked me to repeat, for the third time, what had happened at my apartment. The first time, it had just been Stavros and Winter. Then they had called in Morgana and Vaughn, and I had to repeat it for them, and then Antonio came in, and now I was having to repeat it for him. “I somehow broke a picture frame and cut myself on the glass,” I began. “I went into the bathroom to clean the cut, and saw Mikhail in the mirror. And even though he was just a reflection, it was like he was actually there. He said my blood called to him, that it told him where I was. Then he sent me some sort of...vision, and I just blacked out. The next thing I knew, I was on the floor, and Chase was with me.”
The people in the room were listening intently, and I felt like some weird soap opera. Stavros nodded, letting me know I could continue. “Then on the way over here I said some really...not-me things to Chase, and I saw Mikhail again, this time inside my head, and afterwards I blacked out again, and when I came to I was on the side of the road, vomiting.”
“Were these not-you things sexual in nature?” Winter asked. I looked to Chase, wondering if I should share about the kiss or not.
“Somewhat,” he answered for me. He seemed uncomfortable. Stavros noticed.
“There is something the two of you are not sharing,” he said. “Chase, I demand that you tell me all that happened.”
I mustered up some balls and spoke up, saving Chase from having to say anything, since I think it kind of embarrassed him that he had let himself go and kissed me, and had not noticed that something was wrong. “There was definitely something that was making me act not like myself at all,” I said. “I said some really hurtful things to Chase, and then I kissed him. I think it would have gone further had he not pulled away when he did.”
The four vampires in the room exchanged looks. Somehow I felt like that didn’t bode well for me at all. “Why did you pull away, Chase?” Stavros asked.
He answered cautiously, “She smelled like vampire.”
Winter, who was sitting slightly behind Stavros, leaned up, hand on his master’s shoulder, and whispered in Stavros’ ear. In that moment I noticed that even though Winter was terribly feminine, he was the most masculine, feminine man I had ever seen. There weren’t words to describe it, really. It took me a few moments to notice that I was doing it again–experiencing thoughts and feelings that weren’t mine, because if I was in control of myself, then I wouldn’t possibly notice how utterly attractive Winter was, right?
“I think it’s happening again,” I muttered, and I felt Chase’s hand at my elbow.
“Do you need to sit down?” he asked.
I started to nod, and then I noticed how the light caught Winter’s ebony hair, bringing out the brown and red in it, because ebony is not true black. Thank God for tinted windows, I thought, because otherwise I would never had discovered how very pretty Winter looked in the sunlight. I was vaguely aware that Stavros was leaning in to Winter, answering whatever had been whispered to him. I realized that whatever they were whispering about had something to do with me, but at the moment, I didn’t care. All I cared about was the way the sunlight played across Winter’s face, making him seem oh-so-pale, and that the sight was even more enhanced because he was next to Stavros, who was so tan.
Suddenly, I was aware of another presence, and I thought that someone else had entered the room. It took me a moment to realize that the new presence I felt was inside me, in my mind. And as soon as I came to that realization, I knew who it was. Mikhail was back, and this time he had penetrated all the way into my mind, so that we saw the same things, heard the same things, felt the same things. Mikhail and I were one and the same, and it scared the hell out of me.
Looking at Winter, I felt his betrayal, felt the pain he had caused us. Why had he left us? How could Stavros compare to us? I wanted to tell Winter how much we missed him, how much he meant to us. I looked to him, and smiled. It wasn’t my smile, and as soon as he looked at me, he knew something was off. Morgana and Chase sniffed the air. “Something isn’t right here,” Morgana said quietly, as if afraid to disturb whatever was happening.
“Hello, ice bringer,” I said to Winter. His eyes widened. I enjoyed his shock.
“Mikhail,” he whispered. I relished in the fear I heard in his voice. We were so happy he remembered us.
Stavros got up, coming to stand in front of me. I looked up into his angered eyes. How we hated him. “And hello to you, Stavros, Master of Los Angeles.”
“Mikhail,” he said in return. “If you had wanted a conference with me, you should have just stopped by instead of wasting everyone’s time on vampire theatrics.” I hissed at him as he continued. “And besides, using my servant is not a way to bring yourself into my good graces.”
“Your servant?” Anger flared in us. “She belongs to me!” I didn’t want to say the words, they just sort of came out, and I was powerless to stop them. Before I could think to move, Stavros had grabbed me and pulled me close against his body. We struggled–he was ruining everything! As Stavros grabbed me, Chase moved forward, but Morgana took his arm and held him in place.
“He knows what he’s doing,” she whispered.
Stavros had a hold of me, and I didn’t like it one bit. I struggled a little, but he easily held me. “I can shove him out,” he said, “but you have to let me.”
Easily, almost too easily, I fought my way back to the surface. Why hadn’t I done it before if it had been so easy? Simple: I hadn’t wanted to. Having Mikhail there, even if it was just a presence in my head, felt good, comfortable. And that frightened me immensely. I was in control long enough to say, “Get him out of my head,” and then I was pushed back down again as Mikhail took control of me, and suddenly, once again, I became an us.
“Chase, get ready to grab her arms,” Stavros said.
“Why?”
He gave me an apologetic look. “Because she is not going to like this.” Suddenly we knew what he wanted to do. Rage filled us, and we screamed our frustration at him. He let go of our arms, and we lashed out at him. All we wanted to do was harm him, harm him like he had harmed us. I wasn’t sure how he had hurt us, but the rage we felt towards him had been building for decades, possibly centuries. Chase grabbed my arms to make sure I didn’t do anything physically damaging–not like I could actually do any physical damage to a vampire. As Chase held me, and Mikhail screamed and raged like a storm in my mind, Stavros took my face in his hands and moved my head to one side, so that he was looking at the bite Mikhail had given me five years ago. We screamed again, our best rage-filled scream, but he paid no notice. He lowered his face to the bite, so that we could feel his breath, hot against our skin. His fangs sank into me quickly, and Mikhail’s rage grew so intense that it felt as if my head was being split apart.
As quickly as he had come, Mikhail was gone, and it was me again, alone inside my head. I felt exhausted and somehow not complete anymore. Stavros stepped away from me and I fell into the comforting circle of Chase’s arms. He lifted me and cradled me against his chest like I was a child. At this moment, I really didn’t mind. “You bit me,” I said, staring accusingly at Stavros. My voice wasn’t as tough as I would have liked because, let’s face it, it’s hard to be tough when you’re cuddled up to someone like a little child.
“You wanted him gone,” Stavros said, giving a graceful shrug. “I got rid of him the only way I knew how.”
“But why did it have to involve biting me?”
Stavros shook his head. “Not now,” he said. “You need rest–sleep a while, and then we will talk.” With a nod, he dismissed Chase, who carried me from the room down a dim hallway. After taking me to a bathroom and cleaning up my neck, he took me into a bedroom and laid me down gently on a silk-covered bed. He kissed me on the forehead and turned to walk away when I grabbed his arm.
“Don’t leave me here,” I said.
“You’ll be safe in here,” he told me. “Just sleep.”
“Whose bedroom is this?”
He looked almost hesitant to answer. “Winter’s.” He left before I could make any comments. I was too tired to get off the bed, and decided not to care that I was laying in Winter’s bed, even though I hated him. I vaguely took notice of a large, wrought iron cross hanging on the wall opposite me, and then I thankfully fell into a deep, peaceful sleep.
xXxXxXxXxXx
I don’t know how long I slept, but when I woke up the sun had already set. The vampires would all be out and about–well, the ones who weren’t powerful enough to walk around during the day would be, anyway. I sat up on the bed, running a hand through my sleep-tousled red hair. I was feeling much better than I had been before, but I still felt empty, as if somehow, Mikhail had filled some void within me. As if he was my missing piece. It made no sense, but it was how I felt. I’ll tell you, it was damned scary.
Pushing thoughts of Mikhail out of my mind, wanting to save them for when I talked with Stavros, I looked around the room. Had I dreamed it, or had Chase said this was Winter’s room? It couldn’t possibly be Winter’s room, I thought, because there was a huge black cross hanging on the wall, a light shining down on it like it was some sort of art display. If this was Winter’s room, then how could he stand the pain of being near the cross? The room couldn’t possibly belong to the vampire. The bed was covered in silk, and the only window was covered with black drapes. The walls were a charcoal grey color. It was a very dark room, and it somehow seemed to fit with what I knew of Winter, but still, the cross...
I decided not to dwell on that, either. Why wasn’t I willing to actually use my brain tonight? Was it a side effect of whatever had happened today, not only with Mikhail, but with Stavros, as well? Hadn’t I also passed out after Mikhail had bitten me at the warehouse? And how come the only way for Stavros to drive Mikhail away had been to bite me? I was so not good at understanding how vampires operated within their own kind. All I knew was how they interacted with human society, and how to kill them.
It wasn’t until I stood that I realized how cold I was. Hugging myself, I exited the room and traveled back down the hallway, until I came to the living area of Stavros’ home. He, along with everyone else from earlier, were all sitting, talking in hushed tones. All talking ceased when I entered the room. I hated when that happened.
“You’re awake,” Chase said, standing, wanting to come help me. I held up a hand to stop him. I was so not having him walk me across the room. I wasn’t that helpless. At least, I hoped I wasn’t. Luckily, I made it all the way into the room without having to need help, and I got myself seated between Vaughn and Antonio–not my first choice of seating, but who was I to complain?
“I am sure you have many questions,” Stavros said once I was settled.
“You bet,” I said. “I want to know what’s going on with me, Stavros. Why do I suddenly have this connection with Mikhail when I didn’t before?”
“Oh, I think you’ve always had a connection to him.” The vampire stretched out lazily on the couch. He was fully clothed this time, not in just a robe, but still, the action was quite sexy. He ended up with his back leaned against Winter’s chest, the other vampire’s arm wrapped around his shoulders. Again, I got the impression of a married, or at least dating, couple.
“Well then why has he waited until now to use that connection?” I was so curious, the questions were beginning to eat away at me.
Stavros sighed, and I could tell his explanation would be a long one. “When a vampire tastes a human’s blood for the first time, a bond is made between the vampire and the human. The vampire can invade the human’s dreams, take control of their mind. The human starts gaining more of the vampire’s traits, becoming more like them with each passing day. When the human bleeds, the blood calls to the vampire.”
I felt fear rising in me with Stavros’ words. Did he mean to say that with each day that passed, I grew more to be like Mikhail? Mikhail had bitten me five years ago–had I changed that much, that I was now as sadistic and bloodthirsty as he was? I didn’t think I was, but what if I was wrong?
“Because only the vampire has the power to maintain the bond with the human,” Stavros continued, “the bond can be broken at any time the vampire wills it so. Creating that bond is the first step to making a human a vampire’s servant.”
I sucked in a breath. “Mikhail wanted me to be his human servant–that’s why he took Cassie, because I refused him.” I looked at Stavros then, because what he had just said had finally hit me completely. “You!” I said. “You bit me, do you have that bond with me now?”
“I do,” he said, sounding terribly nonchalant about it. “It was the only way I could remove Mikhail from your mind, and keep him out.”
“That’s why he was so angry,” I said to myself, but I got answered anyway.
“Yes, he hated the fact that I could overpower him in such a way.”
“You still haven’t answered my question about why he chose now to make this bond known,” I said. “I mean, why wait five years?”
“I think I know the answer to that,” Winter spoke for the first time. “If I may?” I shrugged, and Stavros nodded approvingly. “I think he didn’t make your connection known five years ago because you had just destroyed his power base. He only had a handful of his vampires that were still faithful, as all of us had left when you defeated him. He was weak, too weak to defend himself or even try to reestablish his territory.” I knew where the conversation was going before Winter even finished. “I think the reason he has chosen now to make himself known is because he has finally rebuilt what you destroyed.”
