Do you know how agonizingly dull it is to be stuck in a motel room for a week? Now I’m supposed to remain in this room for another fucking week?! And now I won’t have the distraction of Diana and the doctor? Seven days alone with Khalid Adio, this is not going to be fun. It was easier to be cooped up in this room with Diana and the doctor as distractions. But now it’s just us. And he will be dependent on me, to a degree, as he continues his recovery. If I had acted faster, maybe told him about the escape path, things would have been different. I’ve got nearly eighty years’ worth of shoulda, woulda, coulda on my shoulders. At least Khalid is alive. So, I don’t have his death weighing on me too. Have enough blood and innocent lives on my hands. Granted, I probably shouldn’t consider Khalid innocent. His hands have plenty of blood on them just from being a hunter. “I would rather handle killing him alone. It is personal, and no offense, but I don’t include you in people that get to kno
Yeah, that just won for the most embarrassing moment of my life. Daniela not only helped me into the bathroom but to undress and walked out with that comment that a vibrator could outperform my dick. Yeah, this was the most embarrassing moment of my short eighteen years. The worst part is I have no clue how old she is, so there is a high probability she’s seen bigger dicks. Yeah, that’s an excellent thought to be left with as I sit on a shower bench, unable to stand on my own, washing a weeks’ worth of filth off. Yes, I just admitted I hadn’t washed since before I killed my mother. Even if you count that gas station where I changed my clothes and scrubbed blood off me with wet paper towels as washing, it’s still been since her death. And now I’m in a proper shower to wash, but I must be extra careful and use lukewarm water to avoid more damage to my burned back. Won’t feel comfortable taking my shirt off in public for a while. I’m going to have a scar for the rest of my life. I have
He is infuriating! I didn’t want him in my house in the first place. I told Diana it was a bad idea. I said he would be a distraction. But she was adamant I would need him for my revenge. I do not see how that is in the cards. His face is plastered all over the news, increasing the target on our backs. And as if all that wasn’t enough, he’s injured, and I have to help him get around. I can’t successfully escape my father, infiltrate his operations, and kill him while babysitting this hunter. I don’t care how hot he is! I can’t afford distractions, no matter their attractive package. At least he was quiet on the walk through the tunnels and for most of the drive to Los Mochis. I say most because he opened that mouth of his about halfway there. “Does anyone else know about your safe house in Los Mochis?” Khalid broke the peaceful silence. I shouldn’t have been so irritated that he spoke. It was a reasonable question, given why we had to flee the last two safe spaces. Yet I still can’
I was brought to Daniela to protect her. And beyond our first encounter, I haven’t done that. I’ve been out of commission for a week, and while I should rest and continue to recover, I don’t think I can. I hate feeling useless. Especially as I feel like an ass sleeping in her bed when she’s on the sofa. I don’t want my injury to mean I’m treated with kid gloves. I tried resting for a while. I was exhausted from the long walk through the tunnel, and the burns on my back were sore from the car ride here. So, I did end up falling asleep, even if laying on my stomach is not how I prefer to sleep. I was somewhat surprised that it was nearly noon when I woke up because I was hungry. With some effort, I managed to get out of bed. At least I can stand and walk on my own, so that’s a good thing. As hot as the nurse fantasy may sound, and Daniela would look good in a nurse uniform, I don’t want to depend on her. I need to stand, literally and metaphorically, on my own two feet. I tried to qui
kay, so he gets points for having more skill than I would give a hunter credit. I always figured hunters used whatever bits of magic they picked up to hunt us down and find new inventive ways to kill us. Though I suppose being able to disguise themselves as well as Khalid’s Clark Kent glasses would help them better infiltrate and make stealth kills if their target could recognize them. But points aside for creativity, I’m still not sold on this. Khalid better not use those often or behave in any way that would make him stand out in a crowd. It may be daytime, but that doesn’t mean the dangers of we who stay cling to the night aren’t out there. Plenty of humans eagerly act as minions for a vampire in hopes of being turned. I’m not a heavy sleeper. I have never been. Even when I was still human, the slightest noise could wake me. Which was an issue when I was turned, and my senses were heightened. Of course, in my sixty years as a vampire, I’ve learned to control it so I can rest witho
Despite the recent popular opinion of me, I am not stupid. I knew very well that this was most likely a trap. Florencia was shouting for help and for the most part behaving like someone who was in danger like any of the other vampire bait I’ve seen and read about. The ruse of having a damsel in distress to lure in victims is so overdone by the vampire community it’s just sad. But there was one significant difference; the real giveaway to her performance was the look in her eyes. There was no terror or mild fear in her eyes as she pretended to be assaulted. She was into it. Which means the vampire, that’s the other issue, but I’ll get to that, groping her is either her mate or a lover. It was not the first time they were getting up close and personal like this. Now to the final point. The three attackers were vampires. It was still early enough, and they were sticking to the shadows but still taking a risk to set an early morning trap. I’m sure if I wasn’t a hunter, I’d have been take
Maybe I have lost my mind. It’s about the only thing that makes sense. Why else would I say Khalid is mine? I don’t want a mate! I’ve never wanted a mate. I’ve been alive for seventy-nine years and have only loved once and realized that it wasn’t even real love, just teenage hormones. I’ve had plenty of lovers since I was turned but never considered claiming them. I wouldn’t even mark Byron, and he was my longest relationship. I made him a vampire as he wanted, but when he pushed to be my mate, to mark him and be marked by him, that was a line I wouldn’t cross. I didn’t trust him to remain with me. I didn’t trust him to be faithful, especially as we are immortal. It was the breaking point of our relationship. The night he tried to mark me by force, I left him paralyzed in a pool of his drool from my psychic attack was the death knell. Yet here I am, without thinking it through, claiming Khalid in front of Tulio and his nest. That’s a lot of witnesses to take it back. I don’t know wha
I’ve officially lost my mind. I was born and raised to be a Hunter, to kill the supernatural beings that endanger the lives of humans. I was trained to kill vampires, not fuck them. Yet here I am in an alley, literally balls deep in Daniela. I shouldn’t be doing this. I really shouldn’t be enjoying it this much either. Oh, how the Adio line has fallen. My mother raped a werewolf, my aunt is mates with a werewolf, my sister is mates with a werewolf, and I have a vampire trying to claim me. Sure she said it to save me, but it will change everything about my life and hers. I don’t know if I’d ever be ready for that change. I mean fuck, Dania and I broke up because she wanted marriage right out of school, and I couldn’t make that commitment. And that was just marriage, a human construct. It’s not set in stone. Marriages end faster than some people change socks. A supernatural mating is something completely different. Each species has different views and magic bindings. But one thing rem
You miss many things when you’re a nocturnal being like me. I love being a mom and raising Zory with Khalid. But I know I miss out on a lot during the day. It makes it hard knowing that I’ve missed her firsts because I was sleeping. Even if Khalid records things so I can watch them later, it’s not the same. After I missed her first steps at nine months, I decided I needed to modify my sleep schedule. After all, I can safely walk around the house during the day. I can’t go outside with her to play during the day. So instead of waking up just after sunset, I started getting up three hours before sunset to spend time with her. I can’t ever wholly flip my schedule. I am still a vampire, and night is the only time I can leave the house. Plus, my Delta duties are centered around being the one nocturnal member of the ranked leadership. I am the one the pack comes to first for any emergencies after dark. I am the one in charge of the overnight patrol units. So I will never spend an entire da
Things moved so fast after we came home with Zory. We looked around Mount Adams and found an existing house we could agree on. From there, it was a matter of waiting for all the windows to be replaced with specialized windows that would block the harmful UV rays of the sun so that no matter what time of day it was, Dani could walk past a window without worrying if blackout curtains were drawn. Then it was a matter of furnishing the four bedrooms, three and a half bath, just over four thousand one hundred square foot home. Did we need a house that big? Probably not. But it has a guest suite that Dani thought would be perfect for Agustín to crash in when he comes to visit. Then Zory gets a bedroom, and we plan to use the fourth bedroom as her playroom. This may sound like a lot, but the amount of crap we’ve been gifted from the pack is insane. These people barely survived, living as rogues when we took Noya down. Now they’ve all been given jobs working either for companies that are par
Once at Aunt Sarael’s house, everyone quickly made their way to the living room, waiting impatiently for us to explain what was happening. How I have a baby and who the guy Dani punched is. “Alright, so I guess I’ll start at the beginning. I know you have many questions, but if you wait till I’ve finished before asking, I may answer them with what I’m about to say.” I started. “So, when Dani and I left Mount Adams, it was to handle personal business. That personal business was on my half, addressing the issue of dad and his bounty on me with the guild. And for Dani, it was revenge against her father who killed her mother, and she believed he killed her son the day he was born and later turned her and her sister into vampires.” “He thought it would be easier to start with the guild,” Dani explained, shifting Zory in her arms as she fed her a bottle. “An American hunter with a horrid name of Blaine, that Khalid failed to ensure was dead was turned into a vampire and helped broker a d
I don’t know who handled the flight worse, Zory or the cats. I felt a little empathy for the cats, but what little sympathy I had seemed to go down every time Asim would reach out from his carrier to take a swing at Dani or when Jordan or Keith would leave the cockpit to get food or use the bathroom. I know he was trained to distrust and attack all supernatural beings from a young age, but he will need to learn to get along with certain ones. At least the kittens seemed better about it than him, but they are young, so we can train them to accept certain vampires and werewolves as allies. I know it can be done. As I know Asim can understand, not all supernatural beings are evil. He must have known Isis was a hybrid all this time but still loved and protected her. Especially after her cat passed away, he took on the guardian role for both of us. Sure she had her cat, but that didn’t stop me from finding Asim curled up in her lap or on her bed. So I have high hopes he can be retrai
I never understood the phrase ‘slept like a baby.’ And while babies do not sleep for long periods, they generally have a restful sleep, having no real fears or concerns to weigh on their minds. I prefer to sleep like a log or like the dead. That was not happening with Zory in the room. She’s a newborn and was up every couple of hours, needing to be fed and changed. But once her needs were met, she went back to sleep. During one of her feedings, I managed to stop Sameer, the real one this time, in the hall and ask if there have been any messages for Khalid or me. He seemed confused that I knew his name, which reminded me that all my interactions with him weren’t him. But he had a note from Agustín telling me that he would meet us in Portland as Auðr was playing a festival in New Orleans, and it was easier for him to get to Portland than back here to Egypt. We won’t see him for at least another day or longer. I kept reminding myself I’d waited sixty years so that I could wait a few day
It’s getting hard to differentiate my emotions from Dani’s. We were both getting angry the most Diana talked. This was all some elaborate setup orchestrated by her? She’s just admitted to being the puppet master. Each time she opens her mouth, she’s digging a deeper grave. And when I think she’s going to hammer in that last nail, she says the most unexpected and absurd thing yet. I shook my head. “That’s not possible. No supernatural being could survive a photokinesis attack from an angel. They call it the Holy White Light for a reason. It cleanses a room of any supernatural being the light touches. Dani only survived because I shielded her with my human body and that table.” Dani struggled to find words, but her face hardened as she gripped Diana tightly. She finally found words, and they were laced with rage. “Agustín couldn’t have survived that blast. He was part of the ash pile with Toño. So stop telling me lies to save your neck. You orchestrated all this and thought you got t
I had a sinking feeling as we followed Sameer away from the others. I don’t know if it’s a sign of danger ahead or just that I’m numb. Some may suggest that I’m still processing my father’s and son’s deaths. They are only half right. There is nothing to process about Toño’s death. I’ve yearned for his death for decades. The only regret I have, other than I lost my son a second time, is that I didn’t kill him myself. I have a lot to unpack and process regarding Agustín. Both that he was alive all this time and that he died again. I still plan to corner Diana soon and drill her about that tidbit. Because if she has known all along that my son was alive… I don’t know what I’ll do. I may beat her within an inch of her life or kill her straight up. All I know for sure is if she’s kept my son’s existence from me our whole friendship, she’s dead to me. There was a lot that I was dreading about entering the room Sameer had to unlock. For all I knew, this was a double cross, and we were about
I don’t know what’s harder to believe. That Diana is here simply because she was Toño’s prisoner or Sameer supporting me had created a domino effect within the others from the guild down here. I’m going to go with the latter. It isn’t that I find Sameer believing me a hard pill to swallow. He’s been my best friend since we were in diapers. He is to me what Silvercloud is to Kurt. The person will always have your back, even if you lead them down stupid paths. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for the support. But other than Sameer, I find it hard to believe that you believe my words. We’ve all worked together as hunters, and while your dislike of me was never as apparent as Blaine’s, I still knew most of you didn’t like me because I was the Adio heir. So why believe me? Or is it more than you believe Sameer?” I questioned. “Khalid, my dear friend, have some more faith in your brethren than that. No one ever disliked you.” Sameer sighed, stepping closer. I arched an eyebrow because we kno
This is my worst nightmare coming to life. Toño is holding Khalid by the throat, his hand ready and itching to rip his heart out. He takes pleasure in killing people I care about, especially in front of me. I can’t let this happen! I can’t lose Khalid. Of course, the damn asshole would choose NOW to tell me he loves me. I haven’t heard those words since I was human. My backstabbing piece of trash boyfriend whispered them along with promises of marrying me and starting a family in America. Cirilo may not have meant it, or at least not unconditionally, but Khalid does. I can feel it through our bond. I started to move, hoping to get there fast enough. I won’t let Khalid die. I will not let my nightmare become a reality. I can’t just wake up and reach for his half of the bed to be sure he’s safe. This is happening, and if I don’t stop Toño, I will lose the man I love. Now I, like most vampires, can move very fast. But I’m not as fast as Caleb or apparently as fast as my son. All the co