Leyanne sighs heavily, her expression grim as she walks around me and enters the car without hesitation. Her temper pulled thin, leaving me standing on the roadside, flexing my hands and trying to stop my claws from coming out. I can feel my eyes burning with fury and know they’re probably glowing as red as lava with how mad I am at this second. My anger and instinctual aggression peeking out because I’m standing four feet from the enemy, and everything in me screams, ‘kill it.’ I can barely suppress the anxiety and hatred, yet I know I must follow her deep down.
“Hurry up, pet. I’ve not got all day.” Leyanne’s voice coos from inside, a slight thawing of her icy tone in what I guess is a bid to try and cool my jets, and I swallow my fury. I snort at the standing guard, throwing him a nasty glare, almost tasting the urge to strike him down, yet throwing caution to the wind. She said they weren’t a threat and would still help us… I shouldn’t believe her, but I can’t help thinking of the fact she warned me I wouldn’t like this arrival last night.
I grit my teeth and shake my head at how stupid this is as I climb inside the dark interior of the vehicle and give the stinking vampire freak a wide berth. I have more questions than apprehension, and knowing I need to be braver if we’re going to help our pack, means I lay my suspicion aside and trust that the fates wouldn’t lead me here for no reason. I jump when the door is snapped shut behind me, the interior so dark that I’m momentarily blind before my nocturnal vision kicks in, and I almost fall onto my seat as I clutch the cold leather and edge myself to sit down.
The inner car is spacious and unlit, and my vision starts to adjust properly just before Leyanne lights it up with a glowing ball in the center of her palm. I blink, flinching painfully at the sudden white light she just dazzled me with, and snort again, showing my displeasure with her.
“Not all of us have night vision goggles, Darrius. The sun doesn’t hurt you, so why are we sitting in a dark box? Are you allergic to interior lighting?”
Wait, what?
The heavy sarcasm holds a hint of warmth, and her voice pulls me to blink rapidly and look toward the person she’s addressing, sitting opposite us. I only now see that she’s drawn him to me, and I freeze in terror as I realize the scent that’s still offending my nostrils isn’t just from the driver at the door but the opposite foreboding figure.
I can smell him, much like the other one. This, too, is a vampire, and I know for a fact the sun DOES hurt them. It’s why we are safer in daylight.
Confusion causes me to furrow my brow, wrinkle my nose, and cast Leyanne a look as if to say, ‘are you kidding?’ Surely she has more knowledge than that about these pale, ugly creatures.
“Old habits, Miss Cruden…. I dwell in the dark. I’m not used to being around in the day due to the nature of my profession.” The muscular figure leans forward, still clouded in shadow, somehow shielded from Leyanne’s light with a heavy dark coat with the oversized hood pulled up so only the lower half of his face can be seen. Carved masculine lips, clean-shaven, and those pointy white teeth that are impossible to hide are, hinting out over the outer edges of his lower lip. Although this one has a square jawline, his pallor doesn’t seem as lifeless as the ones I have come up against. His skin almost looks humanly colored and warm, like his teeth are fake and he’s not really what he smells like.
I’m met with a deep, heavily accented voice in a body that screams strength and power. He’s one of them, only he seems different and carries the same dark and intense aura as Leyanne. He’s in a tailored set of dark clothes; his outer jacket is leather and long on that tall body, almost like a suit, with dark crimson lining peeking out and adding a hint of luxury. I’m surprised to be able to feel body heat emanating his way and not the cold iciness we have encountered when we fight his kind. In fact, if I didn’t smell him and see his fangs with my own eyes, I would doubt what he was.
“You’re not exactly giving her reason to relax with the hood? Sinister and mysterious are not always the way to make new friends, Darrius.” Leyanne points out, ironically, given she was wearing one when we met her last night. The vampire pauses… seeming to ponder it for a moment, then with a slight tilt of his head and a raised arm. He pulls back his hood slowly to reveal a handsome, masculine face under dark brows and a crown of modern-styled black hair. I freeze as he blinks blood red, glowing eyes, my way that makes my breath catch in my throat, and I choke. Startled with the intensity of their light in this dark space, they almost glow like crimson candles in the pitch black of night.
“And that reaction is somehow better?” He asks her drily, seemingly amused at my instant shock and unimpressed at the same time. Vampires we’ve been against never had the same color of eyes as me. He’s the first I have ever seen, and it throws me off kilter completely, gawping his way and blinking like an imbecile.
“I figured it would be a familiarity rather than a shock, wee pet. Surely you, of all wolves, can’t be afraid of red eyes?” She chuckles, mocking me in that sing-song way she has of talking, leaning out to pat my hand with hers, somewhat reassuringly. She leans back in her seat with a smile. I glance from her to him and back again, ignoring that he’s hot for a vamp man, something we NEVER see, yet his eyes make him look like the devil. I am at a loss for words.
Caught in silent awe, staring at this hunky, devil-eyed creature before me as he gazes right back. He has no expression at all, and his focus makes me tremble under the intensity of his gaze. It’s like he’s staring through me, yet I have no sense of danger from this thirty-something-year-old person. No alarm bells or kill switches, and I realize; I have completely forgotten that his kind is someone I should never sit in a car with and have a normal chit-chat.
“Well, this is her. The one I told you about last night. Alora….. she’s her child. Survived all this time, a hidden wee gem that time forgot.” Leyanne doesn’t waste time getting up to the task, and I flutter my eyes to her and back to him, my heart beating through my chest. Nerves fraught, panic hitching because I’m in over my head, trying to get a read on the situation. Leyanne seems relaxed and comfortable, but that means nothing to me. I still don’t know if we can trust her and him. He isn’t moving or doing anything that tells me I should run; he isn’t fazed by a wolf in his car. He seems bored!
“How can you be sure? There have been rumors before that never came to fruition. Varro won’t listen if there’s no certainty.” He openly states that I’m not even here and addresses her directly. I try to decipher his strange accent; his English is clear and well-spoken, but the overlying way he rolls his words is almost Russian and transatlantic. It’s light, almost not there. American hints, but in some words, it’s heavy and pronounced. I’m unsure where to place his origin, which might explain why he’s nothing like the vampires in Arizona. Maybe they have races, much like humans do. Like wolves have colors. And until now, we have seen the ugliest, scrawniest, whitest, and lowest gene pool of his kind. He’s nothing like what we know of them at all. This one is strong, built, sinister, and extremely poised and graceful, with an intelligent expression on that almost model-like rugged face.
“Really? How can I be sure? You’re asking me? Come on, Darrius, you know better than to question my skill and knowledge in anything important. Look at her eyes… she’s also white when she turns wolf. Her mother was called Marina, and her family died on the battlefield at the hands of the Santo pack…. Sound familiar? We don’t get many coincidences in these lands.” Leyanne leans towards him stiffly, a rise of her attitude that he would question her, and I curl back into the corner and try to pull apart the words she just said. Not knowing how to feel about what she’s telling him or why it’s important. My head is confused and overactive with the sudden surge of possibilities.
“Hmmm,” he growls under his breath, and I try my hardest to sit upright and keep all my internal reactions down.