Desperate as he was, his senses were still sharp, and it didn’t take long before he found a young buck that filled his need and recharged his power.
Ignoring the cold despite the pale sun, Finn shed his blood-soaked clothes and stepped into a glacial stream to clean up. Vampires were highly sensual beings, more than any other creature of the underworld. For that reason, they also had the capacity to shut down, both physically and mentally, if need be. It was a skill that was often misused by new vampires and misinterpreted by outsiders, one that made bloodsuckers look distant and cold when in reality they were just protecting themselves.
Over time, that skill developed into a sort of shield, allowing them to put distance between themselves and the outside world.
Now sitting in the stream, a semblance of calm returning, he closed his eyes and tried to remember how life had been before he met Violet and linked himself to her. Against his better judgment, he’d been fascinated by her, by the woman who’d made him smile with true amusement for the first time in forever.
He had used humans for food, for sex, to remind himself who he’d been when melancholy had hit, but Finn always considered them disposable tools, although he made it a point of honor to respect them. Creatures of the underworld were different as they were part of his world, knew of his existence. Although they rarely mixed, their own magic flowing through their veins, Finn couldn’t keep his distance, and when he’d met Valeria, he’d been accepted into the weirdest family he’d ever known. A family filled with shifters, monsters, and witches. And Violet—one of Valeria’s two best friends with shy Sera being the other—had turned his world upside down. Lines he didn’t know existed started to intersect, bringing all of them even closer.
For the first time in all his eternity, he didn’t wish for death, but wished he could be someone else, defy the system as Valeria and Sera did, and end his solitude. He’d fantasized about it with Violet, even though he knew very well that any kind of relationship with a witch was out of the question. Not only would the High Council have his hide, but if he allowed himself to bare his heart, it would only lead to suffering. No woman in her right mind would willingly ask to be turned into a vampire, and he didn’t know if he had the strength to see someone he cared about age and die while he remained living until the end of time. Alone.
The only reason he’d forged a friendship with Soren was that as a weredragon, he aged much slower than everyone else. Nonetheless, losing Soren would hurt deeply, so thinking about losing the woman who’d hold his heart was inconceivable.
Even as he fought against that possibility, Finn reached for that thin, almost invisible line of communication linking him to Violet.
It was like floating in murky waters, her body heavy, holding itself up only through gravity and the weight of the liquid surrounding it. Violet didn’t want her brain to work, not yet. For the first time in hours, she wasn’t feeling pain, and that alone was all she could ask for.
The shell that was her being felt so cold and empty, as if what had happened had robbed her of breath, blood, and life.
Where was her magic? That too, she was unable to feel. Way past the point of fear, a part of her was now willing to die to escape. With an ultimate effort, she used her last sliver of strength to force her eyelids open.
Either she was blind or surrounded by deep darkness. There wasn’t a speck of light, but she knew in her gut she was alone at the moment. With consciousness causing her brain stir, Violet knew she was lying on the floor, and when she forced her limbs to move, she shivered at the raking of chains over the ground.
That sound in the ocean of silence made her fearful someone would hear her and return. If only she could remember how she’d arrived here and who’d taken her.
The more she was aware of her body, the more aches and pains awakened, and the more her desperation threatened to get the better of her.
Mustering every possible ounce of energy, Violet tried to sit, but her body failed her.
Despite being unable to see with white dots blurring her vision and her head spinning, she relaxed once more, immobile, tears sliding down her cheeks in surrender.
Her end was near; she couldn’t endure much more. Life was slowly seeping out of her replaced by death, and if her torturers returned, Violet knew her fate.
She wished she could reach out to her friends and tell them how much she would miss them. Valeria and Sera had been the only family she’d had since her parents were murdered by vampires. She’d even come to consider Asher and Ian, the two werewolves who’d stolen her friends’ hearts, as big, annoying brothers. And then there was Finn… the contraction in her life. A vampire.
She should have killed him the first moment she’d laid eyes on him, but he’d proved to be trustworthy and useful, to the point where she’d even shared her blood with him.
When she thought about it, Violet still couldn’t understand why she’d done that. Finn had helped her friends so many times, that when he needed saving, she wanted to be the one who shared that bond with him.
When her mind circled around Finn’s image, something warmed in her belly. Even if he was a vampire, and she despised them all so greatly, she longed to have him by her side at this moment.
Of all the people close to her, he was the only one she would let see her like this. What a strange thought, it almost made her smile.
Her mind
