“Abigail.” Merick’s face came into view, but it was the sphynx face.
I blinked at him and almost pressed myself further into the floor. “You’re a cat,” I whispered. “Do they know?”
There was a short laugh from somewhere in the room. Merick smiled, and it looked really odd. “Drink this.” He pressed something against my lips as someone lifted my head.
I was going to protest, but I had a feeling it was going to make me sleep. The warm liquid slid down my throat, almost burning my freezing body. Levi came to my side, his face coming back together.
“Sleep, Abigail.” I could feel his power roll through me. I didn’t want to give in, but the drug made it impossible to resist.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
When I woke, the world was still spinning slightly. I was curled up against something incredibly warm and furry. I took a deep breath before I opened my eyes. My fingers were buried into the multicolor coat that made up the red-tinted fur of Simon’s wolf.
I closed my eyes and snuggled into him more. The world wasn’t steady. I wasn’t steady, and the bite on my neck hurt like a bitch.
At the thought of the bite, anger filled me. Levi. He’d told me to dance with Samuel. I felt like the whole thing had been a setup. I stood from the bed, stumbling slightly.
I wasn’t in my dress anymore. I wore one of Simon’s shirts, and it covered me enough to yell at Levi. Simon moved, and his teeth caught the shirt, trying to tug me back to the bed. “No. I’m going to talk to Levi.”
Simon’s yellow eyes narrowed at me.
“I’ll leave my gun here. But I am pissed.” A shiver wracked my body hard enough that I almost fell to the ground. I was freezing. Simon got off the bed and nudged me back toward it.
I sighed and climbed back into the bed and pulled the covers up on me. He laid on top of me like an oversized house dog. I scratched his ears and looked down at him.
“That was the most terrifying experience of my life.” He looked up as if to say, ‘yeah, for me too.’
I studied the strands of his hair as they moved through my fingers. Each strand seemed to have several different colors. “Levi let him bite me.”
“I didn’t,” Levi said when he walked into the room. “I couldn’t move. He’d given me a silent command to stay.” He sat down on the bed and held his head down. “I’m sorry.”
I frowned. “You never apologize to me.”
“This was my fault. The moment that I even thought he’d plan something for the party, I should have canceled it, but I wanted you to feel welcomed into your new life, not shunned. And now we both pay for it.”
I shook my head. “There’s a cleansing spell for vampire bites. Oliver and Merick have performed it for me before, remember? As soon as I can walk a straight line, they will help me.”
It was a painful spell, but I couldn’t let Samuel have any sort of control over me. “Ira got his ability from Samuel. What other abilities does Samuel have?”
Levi glanced at Simon and then to me. “He’ll know where you are. He’s powerful, Abigail. He can enter your dreams. He can’t harm you, not like Hannah, but he can drive you insane if you let him.”
“And he can flash me back to when he fed from me. Great. A drug-induced trip each time. The sooner I can clean it, the better.” I touched the side of my neck and cringed.
Levi hung his head, and I could see the defeat in him. I touched his hand. “I’m okay.”
“All the power I’ve accumulated, everything I’ve done, and he still has so much control.”
I didn’t know how to comfort him. I’d never seen him this way before. He looked up, and his eyes were glowing red.
“Levi… you need to feed,” I whispered.
“Abigail, I’m fine.” He reached out to me, and his fingers had grown claws. No. I was hallucinating again.
I swallowed, trying to control my fear. Simon put a paw on my chest as if trying to get me to lay down. “How much drug was there in the wine?”
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out, and we’re working on who did it. Rest, and then we can discuss the details.”
Merick and Oliver wouldn’t be able to perform the spell. There was no promise that I wouldn’t lash out with my magic again. “What happened when I tried to attack Samuel?”
Levi chuckled. “He laughed at you, but then your magic hit him hard enough that he was shoved back, and you made him bleed.”
“Oh good, I got him.” I snorted and closed my eyes. “Coffee?” I asked almost weakly as if Levi would deny me.
“Rest, I’ll get you some coffee.”
I nodded and tried to control the fear still flooding through me. At this point, if Samuel pulled on his power, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to tell the difference between that and the drugs.
Simon laid his head on my shoulder, providing me both comfort and warmth while I waited for Levi to bring my coffee.
At some point, I sank into that warmth and fell back to sleep.
“Let her go back to work.” I heard Liz’s voice in my room. I reached for the warmth of Simon’s wolf, but it was gone.
I sighed and pulled the covers closer to me.
“She hasn’t recovered, and we don’t know if Samuel will use that bite against her.” This time it was Mario’s voice, not Levi’s like I was expecting.
“We need to hunt down Adrianna before she takes any more vampires or
