Page 10 of Bitten By Chaos

“If you ask him, he’d probably say he still is. Though I ask him for things rarely these days. The last thing I purchased from him was my car.”

I gaped, all distraction now erased, as the mystery of the vamp mobile that magically reappeared even after being destroyed or across the planet the previous day made sense. Sort of.

“That’s almost an impossible level of witchcraft,” I argued, folding my arms. I was raised by witches—some of the best, and that was not something I’d ever heard of.

“Almost impossible means absolutely possible, just unlikely,” Julian said, relaxing back with a wicked smile. “The important thing is that you do not hire him for anything, do you understand?”

“Excuse me?” My eyebrows shot upward, and Julian leaned toward me, suddenly serious.

“His payments are too high for anything we may get in return. He knows his blood is like nectar for vampires, and believe me, that free sample he gave you was meant to hook you like a drug. You won’t need to feed again until this evening, and you are two days old.”

I wondered what it was Merl demanded as payment for magic or blood, but I trusted Julian enough to know that he meant every word. Swallowing hard, I nodded my understanding. A memory flooded my mind from my first weeks on the island. He’d made an ominous comment about there always being a price for magic. Had he been referring to Merl?

“There will likely be another person here soon that you will come across,” Julian said, ripping me from my thoughts. “And Merl is an angel compared to her. You have nothing to fear as long as you keep your distance and do not take any ‘samples’ from her.”

“Who is that?” I whispered.

“Her name is Kayora, and she is to Elsa what Merl is to me.” Julian took my hands in his and traced his thumbs lightly over my knuckles eliciting shivers of anticipation that mixed with the shivers of foreboding at his words.

“Thanks for the warning,” I said.

“We are likely to be here for a while, so it’s prudent to be wary. At least we will be together, so whatever comes our way, we can face it as partners.” He dipped his head and brushed his lips across mine.

“We should probably figure out what our next move is regarding the demons,” I said, disconcerted that my body would awaken so easily to his lightest touch even in the midst of our serious conversation.

As though reading my mind, Julian’s eyes flashed a deep purple, and his voice took on the gravely tone that heated my core. “Do not be alarmed. You are feeling the mating bond that is only getting stronger now that you’ve turned. I feel it and am adjusting as well. It is natural, and we will become more accustomed to it over time.” He brushed the hair from my cheek, and a trail of electric want coursed down from the point of contact.

I was captive to his gaze, his scent—so strong and all-encompassing as he leaned over me. Instead of discussing demons, I might have found myself back in our rooms breaking through more plaster if Lydia’s voice hadn’t broken the spell.

“There you are,” she said, and Julian sat back against the sofa as though she hadn’t just interrupted a moment. “Sam said he’s been trying to reach you both. We’re meeting in the lab in an hour to regroup.”

“The lab?” I asked, blinking. “Isn’t it my father’s workspace?”

“And ours,” Lydia said, sitting on the arm of the couch closest to me. “It’s soundproofed and warded to prevent eavesdropping, even by vamps. And he’ll vacate, but only on one condition.”

“What’s that?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.

“That you speak with him alone first and hear him out.”

“I don’t know that I’m ready to do that yet,” I answered, shifting on the couch. “I may never be ready.”

Though Julian’s hand landed reassuringly over my shoulder, Lydia frowned and stared unblinkingly at me. “I’m about to give you my opinion, doc, so brace yourself.”

“He waited twenty years before deigning to speak to me,” I argued, ready to fight whatever she said.

“Suck it up, buttercup,” Lydia countered, ignoring Julian’s answering growl. “You don’t have to forgive him or even like him, but you are going to be working with him if the rumors are true, so you might as well get it over with.”

My mouth hung open as she leaped lightly from the arm of the sofa and popped a candy from a dish on the coffee table before sauntering away.

Chapter 4

The Man I Call Father

While the moment was inevitable, confronting my father was not exactly first on my list while being hunted by demons, having just been turned into a vampire, and hiding from everyone but Julian the inexplicable fact that my psychic powers were somehow intact. I hadn’t even seen or spoken to Daphne or Em since saving them from the fairy queen, the woman to whom I owed allegiance in exchange for saving Julian’s life. Not that I had shared that information either, even with the man I loved. He’d been through so much already, and I couldn’t bear to add another worry, especially one so ambiguous.

I hated secrets. And my father was the king of them. I blamed him for my being in this position in the first place. He’d experimented on my sister and me as kids, injecting us with demon DNA, claiming he was gifting us. I didn’t care that he thought they were gods, what type of father does that? Then he was turned and took off, abandoning the rest of the family. And if that wasn’t enough, he’d apparently turned Julian in to SHADE for killing his sire, Silas, AKA the most evil being I’d ever encountered. The things he’d done to torture Julian, even the psychic glimpses I’d seen… I shuddered as the tumble of painful memories played through my mind. If Julian hadn’t killed Silas, I would have, after he’d tried to turn and torture me as well.

By the time I made the walk to the basement laboratory, my vision was tinted red again, and my nails dug so hard into my palms that if I’d been human, I’d be dripping blood. I knocked on the door and sucked in a breath I no longer needed. I hadn’t considered that the last time I’d been in this space, I’d almost suffered a fate worse than death and had allowed Julian to kill Silas.

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