Page 20 of Black Hand
“If Noah found us, there will be more coming.” The words were like a bucket of water over my libido. “If we stay here, we’re all going to die.”
“I will be back before you know it.” He was already stepping outside, the rain pouring over him like from a hose. “Get the human ready so we can leave immediately.” I was already turning to do just that when I heard him say, “And then we will talk.”
Was it too much to ask that we not talk about it? One look at his face and I had my answer.
Yes. Yes, it was.
11
By the time I reached the room at the back of the house, I regretted the deal Dominic made with me. He should’ve handled Alice and I should’ve gone to deal with Noah. I was not made for this. Calming people down and having them complacent was Veronica’s field of expertise. The lump in my throat did its best to choke me, but I pushed it down, blinking away the burning at the back of my eyes. Thinking about her only made me less willing to face the human. Stopping a few feet from the closed door, I leaned one shoulder on the wall and stared at the entrance as if the entire Council was waiting there for me. Alice’s voice floated through the wood and tickled my ears.
“Don’t be stupid Alice, vampires and people turning into animals is your crazy imagination,” she hissed, the frustration evident in her tone. “Right, because you didn’t see fangs and damn panthers in your living room like it was a set for a horror movie,” she answered herself, which made me frown until I heard the wolf shifter snarling softly, agreeing or disagreeing with her, I couldn’t guess which it was from the sound. “If she really was a monster from nightmares, she would’ve killed me many times by now. I yelled at her all the time … hello … I yelled…” My heart broke when her voice trembled at the end. I didn’t want her to be afraid of me, especially when I needed to get her out of here alive.
The sound of shuffling and a few things banging echoed from behind the closed door, and it was followed by more arguments, but this time her words were muffled as if her head was stuck between two of those large pillows. Glancing down at myself, I grimaced at my torn clothing and the drying blood all over me. I had nothing to change into, nor could I go back to my room to take a shower to protect the fragile state of the human, but I had one thing going for me. Backtracking down the hallway, I crossed the room that was trashed from the fight with Noah and stepped outside under the still-pouring rain.
Straining my ears in case someone was approaching, I lifted my face to the sky and let the rain wash away the night. Hot tears mixed with the icy drops sliding down my face, but I ignored them the best I could. Aware of the dagger still buried under broken wood and splinters behind me, I knew I was stalling. Not even the lightning still splitting the sky or the booming thunder could force me inside to look at Alice. Would she see me, Brooklyn, or would she see the monster she was referring to while talking to herself? It made no difference one way or another because I could tell her to do anything and she would have no choice but to listen. But I didn’t want that. I didn’t want her to hate me.
It would mean I was just like the rest of my kind.
Keeping my eyes closed and my face turned skyward, I pretended I didn’t hear her cautious steps when she approached the front doors, the wolf padding softly over the debris behind her. It irked me that the coward continued to pretend he was an animal, which saved him from whatever fear or disgust Alice felt toward us. A pang in my chest followed her whispered words.
“Brooklyn?” The catch in her voice felt like a knife twisted between my ribs.
I said nothing, the rain peppering my face like tiny needles.
“Brooklyn,” Alice hissed fearfully as she leaned on the doorframe. I brought my face down to look at her. “Where are the … the others?”
Her eyes looked too big on her face, while her long hair was sticking in all directions and the thick frames of her glasses were barely holding on to the tip of her nose. She blinked owlishly, her gaze darting all around me as if waiting for something to jump at her out of nowhere. Her throat worked as she swallowed and the pulse in her neck was thrumming like butterfly wings.
My fangs throbbed in my gums, and that reminded me just how much blood I’d actually lost.
I forced my eyes from her neck to her face.
“There is no one near your home.” I wanted to kick myself when my words came out with a lisp, draining what little color had returned to her face. “Don’t be afraid of me, Alice. I won’t hurt you.”
Her pulse picked up and the hunger twisting my stomach called me a liar.
“What are you?” Alice breathed as she took a step back.
“Atua,” I answered simply, my words bringing her eyebrows down like an arrow pointing at her nose.
“A what-a?” Shaking her head, she came out of the confusion and the Alice I know peeked through the frightened woman in front of me. “Don’t talk in riddles, Brooklyn, it’s annoying. You have fangs,” she said as if I was unaware of that fact and had no idea what was inside my mouth.
“I do, yes.” The rain was like icicles hitting my skin, and I shivered but didn’t move in case I scared her into running. “I’ve had them since I was born. I had them the day you met me, and every day after that.”
“That makes you a vampire, Brooklyn, not a whatever amataua you said.”
“Atua,” I corrected her on a sigh. “Vampires don’t exist—”
“Right, cause I’m not talking to one…”
“It’s a human, made-up creature.”
“You have fangs.” She was the last one to finish talking, and when she did she held both her forefingers pointed down in front of her mouth as if I had no clue what fangs were. She even wiggled them to make her point.
“I can walk in the daylight.” Which wasn’t a big lie. We could, we were just sluggish and felt like falling asleep on our feet. The sun made us weak, but that was all.
“There is a name for that type of vampire too …”
