Page 66 of Claiming Her Vampire

Ava and I got into the wine. Then we got into the scotch. We watched the vampire show Harmony recommended. I sent her a text, asking what a good one was. We laughed and talked for a couple of hours. Tristan remained in the office with headphones in. He was probably cursing Ryker and Bash to hell.

Then we got bored. And drunk. Ryker was correct. It takes a lot of alcohol to get intoxicated. We gave it our best effort to get there. I wasn’t sure how long it would last, though, so I had to try this before it wore off.

It all began after the second bottle. I told Ava about my experience in the bathroom. She was fascinated. She wanted to see it in person.

So here we are in Ryker’s gym. It has lots of mirrors.

“Okay, concentrate this time,” Ava encourages me. She looks ridiculous. She found a boxer's helmet, which she thought would be good to protect herself, just in case. She’s got it on her head, and she’s bouncing from one leg to another, and a bottle in her hand, occasionally taking a swig. She’s giving me pointers.

“I got this,” I state, determined. I’ve been trying for a while now, and nothing is happening.

I close my eyes and reach inside of myself, like last time. I locate that mysterious ball of energy and concentrate on moving it up and out. I hold my hands in front of me, open my eyes and stare at the mirror. My eyes go black. My hands start to shake. I point them towards the mirror and…nothing. I look at them, confused.

“Maybe you need to feel what you were feeling then?” Ava suggests. She takes a big gulp of the bottle. “What were you feeling that night?”

“It was right after I heard about my eyes. I went into the bathroom to see them and see if I had any other changes,” I say, trying to remember my emotions. “I felt angry. Confused and a little scared.”

“Alright, let’s go with anger. Think of something to be angry about.” She taps her chin. “It’s not the sex, that’s for sure. How about your mom? Or your dad? The way they treated you, ignored you, and controlled you. What about Tom? What a loser. All the time, he hit you and belittled you.”

I take all that in and feel the spark of anger. My eyes line with black, and I hold my hands out. They tremble slightly, and then sparks shoot out and hit the mirror. I look down at my hands in awe and then at the mirror.

“That is so freaking cool,” Ava yells and runs over. “It didn’t shatter, though.”

It did crack it. A long jagged crack runs down the center.

“Ryker will know what to do to get it to work better,” I say, nodding. I feel my eyes go back to white. That’s new, feeling them transform instead of just seeing it.

“One more time,” she encourages. She grins and runs back to the doorway. I wanted her to have an easy exit if things went to shit.

I close my eyes again and look inside. I feel the power. I picture it in my head, expanding, bigger and bigger, and move it throughout my body.

I pause when I feel something different slide in.

Something is wrong.

Suddenly I feel Ryker inside of me. But he’s not close by. He’s not at the club. I sense his frustration. I don’t know how, but I know someone took him. They took him away from me. Away from our home, intent on harming him.

The room booms like a train is crashing through it. I open my eyes and know they are bleeding black. My hands are steady, but black veins flow just under the skin. They were seeping down from my wrists to my fingers. I blink, and every mirror in the room shatters into millions of pieces. Shards of glass hit me but bounced off, leaving me unharmed. My demon is shielding me, blocking the massive noise from breaking my eardrums. Gusts of wind come out of nowhere, blowing my hair around my face.

Thankfully Ava threw herself out of the door right before it happened, shielding her face. I guess she did need the helmet.

“Ryker has been taken. I have to go to him,” I say, my voice unrecognizable.

I blur past her, intent on getting to my mate, as Tristan steps out of the office.

“What the fuck was that?” he asks. His face transforms into shock and then awe as he looks at me.

“Ryker was taken. I have to go,” I explain, my voice grave.

All I have to do is think about Ryker and his location. I find myself outside of an old building. I lift my hand towards the door, and it explodes inward.

“Baby, you came,” Ryker says. He’s inside a cage in the middle of the room, leaning against the back as if he is bored.

They put him in a cage?

I sweep my gaze over the rest of the room. I freeze as I see my father standing there staring at me in shock.

“What the fucking hell? You?” I sneer.

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