“What?” I frowned.
No. I glared.
Nikki stiffened at Brad’s words and pushed backwards, giving them space. “What?”
“Them?” I asked Nikki, not glaring at her.
She was glaring too, at Brad. “What are you talking about?”
“Them. He’s here. With her.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
He shrugged. “Why you all pissy about it? Chill. I didn’t invite them. The vamp bitch is friends with someone here, and Jay came in with them. I haven’t talked to them either, but he was all over her. Figured that meant they were together.”
Nikki cursed at him before giving him her back and looking at me. “You okay?”
Kieran.
I hadn’t meant to reach out to him, but it was there.
He didn’t answer.
Nice.
Are you okay?
This was dumb. I shouldn’t have called out to him.
Yeah. I’m fine. Just hungry.
He was quiet again, and there was the connection.
I could feel him inside of me, and he was searching me.
What vampire is with him?
I felt his alarm. It was piqued, but he was keeping it at bay.
How was I feeling his feelings so easily now?
I don’t know her name, but it’s the same one he cheated on me with. Brad wouldn’t have said it if it wasn’t true.
There’s other vampires there?
I don’t know. Why are you getting alarmed?
He was quiet, again.
Then, a roar from his end. That was Rakon.
Kieran?!
It’s fine. Leave the party, just in case. I’m almost to you.
Almost? What?
My internal voice was hitching up in my own panic. It was clouding all around me now.
Leave the party? Man. I didn’t know about that. Nikki wanted to come for me, but also for her too. She was studying me, and she reached out. “What do you want to do? You want to leave?”
“What?” Brad groaned behind her. His hands went up to his hair, raking through both sides. “Come on. Deal with it. That relationship was a shitshow for the last two years—”
“Shut up!” Nikki whipped around to him, her hand on her hip.
He did, but it was taking effort.
Cary was still standing with us, holding onto his own drink. He gave me a pitying look, before nodding to Nikki and Brad. “I need to check the kitchen for more cups. Wanna come help?”
“Gladly.”
Kieran’s warning echoed in my head, but I would leave. In a few.
I glanced back over my shoulder as I was following Cary to the kitchen. Nikki was watching and she mouthed to me, Are you okay?
I nodded, giving her a thumbs-up. I mouthed back, I’ll be fine.
She frowned at that.
I gave her a second thumbs-up, switching my drink to my free hand.
She rolled her eyes, but grinned.
Brad moved in, his arm going around her from the front and he pulled her back to him. He tipped his head to see her, and hers moved to look up at him. He was tugging her backwards when we rounded the corner into the kitchen.
That’s when I saw Jay and her.
He had his arm around her shoulder, and seeing me, he dropped it real quick.
Real. Quick.
He straightened up from the counter he’d been leaning back against. “Hey, Cale. I never thought I’d see you here.” His eyes trailed behind me. “You and Brad are friends?”
Jay was cute.
He’d always been cute. He had a baby-type face with soft brown eyes, and he’d been tall and lanky. He was popular, athletic, and he had an affectionate smile. He was kind. That’s what made me fall for him. He hung out with the popular assholes, but not him. They were mean to someone and he told them to shut up. They never turned on him. They respected him.
Jay was the exception to so many of our rules. He was human, and he knew all about us.
Like I said, he’d been the exception.
We began dating, and I was proud to have him as my boyfriend in college.
He held my hand, walked me to my dorm room.
He met me on campus. We ate together.
He used to have his arm around my shoulder too.
But seeing him now, he wasn’t the guy I was thinking of.
That told me everything.
So, instead, I turned to her. “You got your orders from Quesadilla to stay with him too?”
Her mouth dropped, and before she could stop herself, her fangs were out.
Now!
That was me, yelling in my head, because I hadn’t known I was going to do this, but I did now.
And. It. Was. Awesome.
I felt my creature pushing to let loose, and just as Jay’s vamp girlfriend sprang toward me, her two other vampire friends coming to help her, there was an energy explosion in the room.
They didn’t see it.
I did.
And I was smiling the whole time because I flung my arms out, my drink went in the air, and I let her loose.
She spread through my body in a flash and this time, we were one. I saw through her eyes. I felt her hunger, but I felt her thirst for power. We went into their energy, and we yanked hard. We didn’t eat it, but we could harness it, and as we touched their energy, their bodies started seizing.
You have no energy, you have nothing.
This was my superpower.
I was hungry, so hungry.
I was starving.
They weren’t enough.
I needed more—I began looking behind me for more vampires. Anyone who would want to fight me. I took one step, their energy vibrating around me. I was almost levitating, but I felt fangs slice through my skin.
I screamed, the pain and invasion coursing through me.
I reached back, but the vampire was stronger than me.
I tried yanking her energy, but she was draining me too fast.
She. Her.
I recognized her energy, and as I couldn’t hold onto my own, the energy slipped from my control. They returned back to the vampires, and as I turned, falling to the ground, my eyes locked with hers.
She was standing there, my blood dripping from her mouth and she wiped at it with the back of her hand. She considered it, then stuck a finger back into
