Page 2 of To Love a Vampire
A werewolf.
* * *
Kaino leads us toward the raging flames in the distance. The flickering fire is held high by strong logs twice my size and make the mystics seem small and insignificant, despite their dominant personalities. Laughter and music blow through the breeze the closer we come to the gathering. Tonight’s celebration is the biggest I have seen.
He leans in close to me and whispers in a deep voice, his warm breath fanning my cheek, “I’m glad you chose to join us. Every Wanderer will be present for tonight’s celebration.”
I nod at his words, my eyes scanning the crowd. The Wandererscelebrateevery night. In their culture, every day is a celebration because their people didn’t always have the freedoms they have now. So rejoice, drink, love, and repeat.
It’s true though, it is an enormous turnout. Hundreds of people are gathered in the clearing before us. I watch as females in minimal clothing dance barefoot on the dry dusty ground. Some of the males in their usual attire, shirtless with black jeans and black boots, drink and laugh while others sway with the females to the pounding drums. The structure of their bodies are finely lined with a lifetime of training and strength. The werewolves are fearless to the point of carelessness, a confidence flows off of them with every breath they take.
Their clothes are usually what gives their heritage away. The warriors and wolves who make up most of the Wandering community refuse to wear anything constricting. They’d probably be naked if they could; their feral instincts just pushing at the surface to get out. The fae, though there are few within the village, are easily recognized by their beauty as well as their formal, crisp attire. Intelligence and mischievousness dances within their always watchful eyes.
As a human, I try my best to just blend in. My main goal is to truly go unnoticed. Not that that method works for me, the villageprincess. I struggle to keep the disgust from my face every time I hear the mocking title.
A single Infinity witch also mars this culture. She fills me with pain every time my gaze meets her pale green eyes that are identical to my own. My stomach twists, the breath dying on my lips… She’s the ghosting image of my mother.
Asher once told me Infinity witches appear as we wish them to. Their features are made up of our desires and hopes. It pains me that my hope is to see my mother, I can’t even look at her without tears burning my eyes. I spot her white blond hair instantly in the crowd and bite my lip until I taste blood, blinking hard until my eyes focus on anything else. With my focus kept on the blazing fire, I can still feel her eerie presence even as the flames scorch my sight.
Does she know what I see?
“Two weeks until our annual Treaty Celebration. Representatives from the city will join us in honor of our years of friendship. We celebrate to honor them as our guests. So tonight, we must revel even more for the lack of fun we will have in the preparing weeks,” Kaino says through clenched teeth.
He chances a glance at me out of the corner of his eye and I pretend to keep my focus on the flickering fire. He looks away quickly, taking a cup of alcohol off the closest table as we walk into the heart of the party. The warmth of the flames and the crowd floods my body.
People sway and dance around us. A few wolves watch me closely as I suppress the anger and annoyance that threatens to bubble to the surface, allowing it to smother out in my constricted breaths instead. Their eyes ignore the set of my jaw, the way my fists clench at my sides, the rigid posture of my shoulders and spine. They ignore the way they make me feel—just seeing an object.
Since the Wanderer’s leader, Lord Raske, first told me of his idea to join our races, to submissively put pressure on our government—to put a stop to the segregation within our society— every male I pass seems to think I’m a plaything. Something to be won in honor of theirlord.
The idea of a human joining with one of the minority races to end the decades of segregation, abuse and imprisonment is laughable. It would take more than one happy union to make a dent in our country’s oppression.
“Have any of them found the nerve to talk to the intimidating human girl yet?” someone asks over my shoulder.
Turning toward the voice, my lips tug into a half smile at Luca as she hands me a drink. She’s tall with unnatural maroon hair that’s shaved on one side. Confidence and strength radiates from her with every move she makes. A slash of beauty spreads over her face as she smiles back at me, revealing perfect white teeth. Teeth that are entirely…
Predator like.
A prowling stealth guides her steps, eyes sweeping in every detail of her surroundings. A carefully poised aggression sheathed beneath a soft and beautiful exterior.
She was my savior when Shaw’s men attacked. My stomach falls at the memory of my near death and the deaths of those who I love. I push the thought down into the darkness of my mind. “Not yet, but I’m sure they’re just waiting for our Prince to let his guard down,” I say, throwing a glance at Kaino, who stands with perfect posture at my side.
“Like these mystics would know what to say to anyone as beautiful as you.” Kaino doesn’t look at me as he speaks, keeping his eyes on the festivities, all but ignoring me. His half compliment is masked by a blank and careless expression.
A captivating water fae named Nerissa saunters by us. She brushes her curvy frame against Kaino’s bulking arm, sending him a welcoming smile that touches her emerald eyes, eyes that are as deep as the ocean... the ocean that she crawled right out of. A cringe scurries through his immense body, his spine becoming like steel as he pulls away from her touch, a glare hardening his hooded features. The title he holds as commander is washed away, a shrinking figure left hunched in his place.
Her wispy long green hair disappears into the crowd; she doesn’t give the scowling commander a second look.
Kaino’s strange but kind words circle my mind again and I can’t help but smile into my drink. The smirk causes a pain to flare in my stomach, so I bite my lip and the happiness is pulled away as quickly as it came. “Careful. That was nearly a compliment,” I warn before taking a big drink. The alcohol burns and threatens to take my breath away but I’m so familiar with the sensation the drink brings, that I no longer feel the effects of it when it passes over my tongue and down my throat.
An empty expression fills his dark eyes, his emotions once again lost within his calculating mind.
“Only an observation, Princess.”
Luca rolls her eyes and pushes Kaino away. His stumbling steps shuffle a bit under the unnatural power she holds. A look passes between the two of them, a smirking and playful moment, before Kaino walks off toward a group of other warriors and doesn’t look back at us in the shadows of the firelight.
What many within our community don’t know –another blanketed secret– is Kaino and Luca are brother and sister—half brother and sister. Unlike the village I grew up in, many people here have half and step siblings. The community is very open minded. Something I am still adjusting to.
Luca takes my arm and leads me to get another drink. Unlike Kaino, Luca really is my friend. My only friend. She knows everything. Everything I had. Everything I lost. Everything I now am. She found me alone and dying and made the two days hike back to the Wanderers. A place that accepts the broken and tries to find pieces to put you back together again. Though, I am still standing, I still have tears and scars that the Wanderers will never fix.
