Bite of Cinder

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

RoanHours later and I could still smell the little morsel that ran out of the party before midnight. It was my fault. I had spooked her. I knew that. But damn, she smelled so good, like flowers and sunshine.

And her eyes.

I couldn't get the girl out of my head since the first time I had seen her at the concert. Her green eyes with specks of yellow burned into my mind and wouldn't let go.

And then I had smelled her scent mixed with Golden's. That tiny drop of blood when Golden bit her.

The f*****g i***t. Couldn't he tell she wasn't all human? Maybe he could and didn't care, which meant he had planned on draining her. I couldn't let that happen.

Hart grumbled as he mesmerized the last few guests. He was in a fouler mood than even his usual. Did he know about the girl? Better yet, did he know Golden bit her?

This was going to turn into a disaster. Who was I kidding? It was already a disaster. The rest might not know it yet, but they were never as good at sensing half-fae as I was.

What was the chance that Golden didn't know even after he tasted her?

"We're missing someone," Hart said. "There was a blond girl in a blue dress."

"She left before midnight," Golden answered and threw me a dirty look.

Screw him. He never should've started feeding early. He definitely never should've started feeding on a half-fae.

Hart dropped the last girl unconscious as his powers flowed through her, erasing the last few hours from her mind. "Why?"

Golden waved at me. "The dickhead showed up with his fangs out. She freaked out and ran away. It's fine. No one would believe her, anyway."

"They will when she turns," I said matter-of-factly.

Everyone went deathly quiet and stared at me.

"Hey, I wasn't the one who screwed up," I said, then nodded at Golden. "He is."

"She was human," he said, but his eyes went wide like he finally understood just how much he f****d up.

"She was half sun fae," Hart said.

And how would he know that?

Sure, I could sense that she was half fae. I could even guess she was linked to something warm based on her smell, but there was no way in hell Hart could figure out something as specific as the exact type.

"Sun, huh?" I asked, leaning against the wall like none of it mattered.

We were all going to get killed for this, including the girl.

Hart gritted his teeth and admitted, "I had her brought here on purpose. I hadn't thought any of you would touch her before midnight."

"Why would you need a sun fae?" Blister asked the important question.

"It doesn't matter now," Hart answered, and it was the biggest load of crap I had ever heard. Of course, it mattered. He wouldn't be caught dead with a sun fae if he could help it. They tended to be too bright and shiny, too upbeat. Besides, they could kill us. "What matters is that we have to find her before she turns."

"And then what?" I asked. "Kill her so the king doesn't find out?"

"No," Golden answered. "We can't. She did nothing except walk into the wrong party and judging by what I'm hearing, that was Hart's fault."

"You bit her," Hart reminded him. "Your head will be the first to roll."

"Hate to say it, but we're all dead if the king finds out," Blister added.

Moon above, with Blister here to witness this conversation, the king finding out was a very strong possibility. What were the chances he’d forget about it before the compulsion to report back to the king took hold?

I looked from one face to the other, ignoring the hundreds of sleeping humans that covered the hall. Sure, I understood the problem at hand. We hadn't been authorized to turn her, and the king wasn't known for being generous and forgiving.

And she was half sun fae. We were definitely all dead if he found out.

But damn. The girl's eyes.

"We can't just kill her," Golden said.

Screw this. I would probably regret saying it, but Golden was right, I couldn't stomach seeing that cutie get slaughtered. "Whoever finds her first gets the girl and decides what happens to her."

"Bullshit." Golden took a step toward me like he was ready to throw punches. "I bit her. She's mine."

"Relax. When I find her, I'll let you screw her." And then I stepped into the shadow, grabbed the darkness, and transported myself to my room.

I would find her first. Tonight.

Unfortunately, I only had an hour before sunrise, and Hart might know how to find her, but I had a little help, too.

Cutie had forgotten her shoes at the party. I had known I'd need them, so I had grabbed them, hid them in my room, and now I could scry for the girl.

As I pulled the crystal pair from the corner of my closet where I had stashed them away, I concentrated on their cool surface, on the last wearer, on her warmth, her smell, her glowing skin.

The shadows wrapped around me and spat me out in the forest outside the mansion. The magic pulled me further, showing me the way. I warped through shadows, following the call, hating how close it was to sunrise. If she was too far for me to get to her, I might have to stop for the night, and it would give Hart the extra time he needed to find her.

He wouldn't get to her first. I couldn't allow it.

Finally, the pull of the scrying magic lessened, signaling that I was almost there. The strands led me to a house with a tiny herb garden in the front. It reeked of witches here, but the girl's sunny smell was here too.

Hating that I had to do it, I knocked on the door and waited. Things would've been so much easier if I could just break in, but no, I had my limitations.

The door creaked open, and two fiery eyes appeared. "Get the hell away from my house."

Witches. I really hated witches.

"I'm looking for someone. May I come in?"

"No," she barked.

"Miranda?" the voice floated from the back of the house, and it sounded as delicious as the rest of the girl.

"It's no one special. Wrong address," the witch shouted back.

"It's not nice to lie," I said, then gathered my powers, the ones I had before I had been turned and said to the girl who was coming closer now, "Can we talk?"

"No," the witch answered for her.

The girl nudged the witch out of the way but didn't leave her house. Still, I could look into her eyes now. That's all I needed.

"I have something for you," I said as I lifted the crystal shoes.

As she reached for them, her hand cleared the door. I grabbed her wrist and yanked, pulling her into the nearest shadow just as a car screeched to a halt in the driveway.

"Let her go," Hart shouted.

A spring fae hopped out of the car with him, her lithe figure graceful as she raised her hands to attack me. I hugged the freshly turned half-fae to my chest and wrapped shadows around us, taking us both to the mansion.

The moment we materialized in my bedroom, she shoved against my chest. I let her go. It's not as if she had anywhere to run.

"Easy," I said with my hands raised. "I won’t hurt you."

"Bullshit," she answered, her eyes darting around.

Shadows rippled, and Hart stepped into my room, his eyes blazing with hatred. I stepped between him and the girl.

"I had her brought here. I decide what to do with her," he growled.

"You want to tell that to the king?" I asked. "Or would you like me to do the honors? He might go easy on me if I throw you under the bus."

My door flew open as Golden burst in. "I bit her. She's mine."

"Same question for you. Do you want to tell that to the king?"

The girl made a tiny strangled noise behind me.

"I'm not letting you kill her," Golden said, taking another step forward, his hands raised, ready for a fight.

"I wasn't planning to. Now, can we all calm the f**k down and talk this over?" I shot a look at Hart because he was definitely not the talking type.

"What is there to talk about? If the king finds out about this, we're all dead. So, the only way any of this can end well for us is if she dies." Hart's eyes burned into the girl.

"Or we can pretend we didn't do anything wrong, and she was turned by a rogue. In fact, we don't even have to tell anyone she was turned. She's just our new maid. Or a cook," I answered. "It's not like the king ever graced us with his presence."

"What king? What are you even talking about?" the girl asked.

Golden tried to circle me to get to her, but I blocked his way. "You two need to get the hell out of my room, so I can calm her down and make sure she doesn't run away and f**k this up for us."

"I turned her. She's mine," Golden said like the stubborn mule that he was.

"And I found her after you bit her and let her escape. She's mine."

Blister chose that moment to barge in. Thankfully, he still had a few brain cells left, so instead of adding to the cluster f**k of a situation, he grabbed Hart and pushed him out the door, leaving me, Golden, and the girl.

As much as I hated having Golden here, at least he didn't want to murder the girl. Just bang her.

"Cynthia, Princess, are you okay?" he asked as he peered at her over my shoulder.

She plastered herself against the wall and looked at us both with wild eyes. "Who the hell are you, people? What do you want from me?"

"Come on, cutie, you know who we are. You've seen us on stage," I answered. "Don't tell me you forgot."

A tiny pitiful whine escaped her, proving that my charm wasn't what it used to be.

Golden combed his fingers through his hair and took another step closer. I stepped aside, hoping he'd be better at this.

"Princess, I'm so sorry I bit you. I didn't realize you were half-fae."

Yeah, no, he was not better at this. Not by a mile.

"I'm a what?"

"Cutie," I said as I reached to touch her face, right where Golden had bitten her lip. When she flinched, my hand froze. "We're vampires. And now that Golden bit you, you're most likely going to turn as well."

"I'm so sorry," Golden repeated. "If I knew you had magic in you, I never would've bitten you."

"I don't have magic." Her eyes watered. "Please, let me go."

Golden and I exchanged a look.

"You have magic," I said for her and Golden's benefit. "I can smell it on you."

She shook her head so hard I thought she might knock herself out.

So, she somehow didn't know about her ancestry. Not the first halfling who was in the dark.

The rooster outside my window screamed b****y murder, making me want to break his neck. The bastard wasn't that useful when we had alarm clocks. If it wasn't Hart's pet, it'd be dead a long time ago.

"You can sleep with me today," Golden said.

"Like hell she will," I cut him off.

The girl was mine. Period. End of story.

I wrapped the shadow around her, looked into her eyes, and willed her to sleep as I transported us into the mausoleum under the mansion.