The Wicked Within

“It’s pretty.”

Her slim fingers played over the bodice. Pascal waddled out from under the dresses and padded to the small, plastic kiddie pool Violet had put in the corner of her room.

I sat on the floor, resting my back against her dresser, and drew in my legs. “The witch the other day . . . do you think he can lift my curse?”

Violet’s expression turned pensive. Then she shrugged. “He thinks he can,” she answered, as though that was all that mattered. If the River Witch thought he could, then he could, apparently.

I played with the hem of the blue gown. “Why did he say those things to you? About sacrifice and putting yourself in harm’s way?”

She kept her gaze on the dress, fiddling with one of the rhinestones at the neckline. “He says that stuff all the time.”

“What else does he say?”

She lifted her chin, her dark gaze looking so huge and fragile. “That I’m a treasure,” she whispered. “The crowning jewel. A great, shining star. A diamond, black as night and tougher than the gods.”

Shivers ran through me. Her answer was uttered with such . . . hope it made my heart hurt. I wondered how many times she’d heard those words, wondered if they’d sparked her obsession with building her own treasure, her own shining things. She wanted desperately to believe that she was valued and important. To me, she was.

“He’s old,” I commented after a moment, not wanting her to feel like this was an interrogation, but at the same time, I couldn’t dismiss the River Witch’s involvement in her life and his connection to Athena.

She nodded. “And he loves shiny things too. His treasure room is better than mine.” She flipped the gown over. “Sometimes the zippers are stuck in the back or ripped. Then I have to fix them. This one is good, though.”

The River Witch didn’t strike me as one to like “the sparklies.” But a greedy son of a bitch? Sure. In that way, he might be one of the greatest treasure hoarders alive. Who knew? “Where does he come from?”

“From the earth. Far away. I don’t know. Where did you come from?”

“Memphis,” I answered with a smile.

She thought about that and nodded.

“Violet?”

“Yes, Ari?”

“Do you know what you are?”

Her hands stilled and fell into the folds of the gown. Her throat worked as she swallowed. My breath held. Her eyes seemed to grow rounder as she stared at me. Her lips thinned. She shook her head, her bob swinging. “I don’t know.”

I reached over the gown and took her tiny hand. At my touch she crawled over the material and into my lap, hugging me tightly. “I don’t know,” she whispered against my neck. The fear in her voice caused tears to prick my eyes. She didn’t know and it frightened her.

She pulled my hair around her, nestling in the white shield as though it would protect her. “I’m a treasure,” she assured herself, her voice the barest whisper. “The crowning jewel. A great, shining star. A diamond, black as night and tougher than the gods. Like you, Ari. Just like you . . . ”

“You are a star,” I said, rocking her. “No matter what, you are the best of all the treasures in all the world.”

Sometimes love took time to grow. Sometimes it came quicker, pinging you right between the eyes. The connection I felt with Violet was like that. She was right, too. In a lot of ways, we were the same. When I was her age, I hadn’t known what I was either. I only knew that I was different, that a darkness lurked inside me.

“I love you, Violet.”

Her voice was muffled. “I love you, too, Ari.”

Black as night, Violet had said. I’d often felt that way, but now it wasn’t a negative thing anymore. My darkness was a fierce thing, a strong thing, a powerful force that could kick ass and stand up to bullies like Athena.

As I held her, I stared up at the ceiling. Today had been one emotional ride after another. When it rains, it pours. First my father and now Violet. And I still had a whole lot of unanswered questions.

I held Violet as long as she wanted, but it wasn’t too long before she pulled away and crawled back under her pile of gowns. “See you in the morning,” she said from under layers of fabric and netting. Pascal crawled from the pool, leaving a wet path behind him as he nosed his way beneath the gowns.

“See you in the morning.” My legs were stiff as I rose and shuffled out, closing Violet’s door behind me. Once in the hall, I didn’t know if I had the emotional fortitude left to confront Sebastian.

But I didn’t have to decide, because his door opened.

He stilled when he saw me standing there, my hand on Violet’s doorknob. His hair was wet from the shower, face flushed, eyes bright. The hallway seemed to shrink with his presence. My breath grew shallow as all sorts of chaotic signals fired through my body. The instant reaction pissed me off. I gritted my teeth.

“Feel better?” I asked, the first thing that popped into my head.

“What?”

“Your drumming . . . Never mind.” I bit the inside of my cheek, trying unsuccessfully to keep Gabriel’s words from getting the best of me. “Were you with someone last night?”

His entire demeanor changed. He walked back into his room. He hadn’t shut the door in my face, so I followed him inside, closing the door behind me as he leaned his hip against the dresser.

I’d intended to ask him about the meeting with the council, but instead “Another vampire? Were you?” came out of my mouth.

Damn Gabriel! Damn me for my weakness, and damn Sebastian, because he wasn’t even denying it.

“Is that where you were all last night and today?” I asked.

His eyes sparked and his mouth drew into a tight line, the agitation in him filling the room. He gave a short, disbelieving laugh, disappointment written all over his face. “You’re really asking me that?”

“I am, and you know what? It pisses me off that I am. How would I know? You won’t tell me anything. I have no idea when you feed, how you feed. . . . I’m in the dark, Sebastian. So, yeah, I’m asking.”

“It is what I am now. I feed. I have to. And trust me, I like it a hell of a lot less than you do.”

“Yeah, I hear it’s terrible.” I hated the sarcasm that leaped out, but I was unable to stop it. “Look,” I said in a calmer voice, “I’ve learned enough to know feeding is some kind of high, a really good one. When you bit me . . . ” Heat filled my face, and my pulse sped up. I know what I felt, and it was far from terrible. “You can’t tell me you didn’t . . . ” Enjoy it? Love it? But maybe I was wrong, maybe he’d had an entirely different reaction from me. And if that was the case, I was digging myself into one hell of an embarrassing hole.

Quiet filled the room; the memories of his bite were still so vivid. The way he’d held me pinned against the wall. His hot mouth on my neck. His tongue flicking out to lick, teeth piercing skin . . . I swallowed.

“Never mind. Just forget it.” Why did I even go there? I should have kept walking right out of Violet’s room and back to mine. I stepped to the door, but his hand slapped it shut. His body hovered behind mine, his hand staying braced on the door in front of me. Seconds passed. Then his other hand lifted a strand of my hair. A shiver went down my back. I let my forehead fall against the door and closed my eyes, as a whirlwind of emotions swirled through me.

Sebastian moved closer and gathered my hair, draping all of it over one shoulder and baring the other. I went to turn toward him. “Don’t,” he commanded in a low voice.

My breath went shallow as he dipped his head and brushed a light kiss on my exposed shoulder, then my neck. His breath was so warm. My fingernails dug into the door as his lips trailed up my neck and to my ear. “I did like it,” he murmured. “I loved it.” His words sent tingles dancing along my nerves. “But it’s a dark thing.” His hand closed around my hip. “I wanted to use you, take everything you had to give until I was satisfied. I almost killed you.”

He turned me to face him. “I almost killed you,” he repeated.

I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. My heart pounded like one of his drums. “It was the first time,” I said.