Beware, p.3
Beware, page 3
Molly stopped short, her boots skidding her to a halt. She glanced at the centivalk, who still hadn’t moved. Raising her weapon, she aimed it at the creature and fired, hoping she hit it because Faye was on her in two seconds flat as soon as the gun went off.
Faye had a hand against her throat, fingers pressing down and cutting off Molly’s airway so she struggled to breathe. She kept her gun clenched in her fingers, intuitively knowing Faye wouldn’t injure her, she never did. They were rough together. But this time…Molly drew in a sharp breath. Faye’s eyes were wild.
“Faye stop. I think I know what’s wrong.” Molly whispered, barely able to speak through the force of Faye’s hand.
Faye’s eyes blinked, briefly flashing to their normal slate-gray before going back to completely black, the entirety of the eye, not just the iris and color vanishing. Faye drew in sharp breaths, her chest rising and falling in an uneven rhythm.
“Faye. It’s too much.”
Before Molly could finish speaking, Faye’s lips were against her ear, her tongue curling over the edge of her earlobe. Molly tried to glance around and find where Ben and Joel had gone off to, see if she’d managed to take down the centivalk for them, but she could see nothing but Faye.
“Faye—”
“Bloooood.” Faye’s voice was deep, but it was slow as well, like she had to work hard to get the word out. Her fingers twitched against Molly’s neck, and Molly knew she was going to have a bruise from it.
Bringing her own hand up, Molly cupped Faye’s cheek to try and distract her from whatever was going through her head. “Faye.”
“Bloooood.”
“You can have some when we get home.”
Faye snorted. “Now.”
“Why? You shouldn’t need any yet.”
Faye’s long teeth scraped down the tender and soft skin of Molly’s neck from just under her ear to the top of her collarbone. Molly couldn’t help the shiver than ran through her body, settling in the base of her spine. Something was very wrong—this was so unlike her. Faye hated being a vampire, and she certainly wouldn’t beg for energy, as Faye called it, in the middle of a capture without good reason.
Nearly giving in, since it was her one weaknesses, Molly focused everything she had on Faye. “What’s wrong?”
“Bloooood.”
Molly moved her hand down to the one Faye had wrapped around her throat and attempted to loosen her fingers. It worked momentarily, and once again Faye’s eyes flashed back to their slate-gray before morphing into their vampiric black.
“So you keep saying,” Molly whispered. “Now is neither the time nor the place.”
Faye drew in a deep breath through her nose, the hiss of air surprising in the dark of the night. Her forehead pressed into Molly’s shoulder as her hand skimmed down to Molly’s side. Faye clenched her fist while holding Molly’s hip, her sharp and long nails breaking through the fabric and skin at Molly’s side.
Molly cried out from the pain, white flashing in her vision as she tried to focus on what was happening. What shouldn’t be happening. Something was wrong, and she had no idea what it was.
“Faye, you’re hurting me,” Molly spoke through clenched teeth, tears stinging at her eyes. “Faye, stop, please.”
Shouts could be heard from the edge of the pier, but Molly couldn’t focus on them. Faye had hold of her, her nails piercing so deeply into her waist that Molly worried if she moved the damage done to her side would be irreparable. Molly panicked. For the first time in decades, she full-out panicked.
“Let go of me.”
“Bloooood,” Faye repeated.
Molly whimpered. “Then take it already.”
Faye’s teeth plunged into Molly’s neck, but this time, it wasn’t pleasurable like it had been every other time they had done this. Pain surged through Molly’s body, rocking her to her core. She could barely focus as Faye’s tongue lapped against her skin, feeling like it had spikes on every taste bud as it dragged along her flesh.
The power that had been working into Molly’s fingers intensified. It was a protective reaction, and she knew it was one she was going to have to follow as much as she didn’t want to. Blinking tears from her pain, Molly called on her power, building it in her chest before she blew it out at Faye, ripping her strong body from Molly’s and flinging her back at least twenty feet. Faye’s form bounced against the cement of the pier, skidding as she came to a halt.
Molly dropped down to her knees, blood pouring form her side where Faye had no doubt ripped a chunk of flesh. Whipping her head around, Molly stared at Joel and Ben, who were struggling with the centivalk in its net as they tried to get the situation under control. Molly closed her eyes and called on the power she had left, the nature around her. Thunder rocked the pier, loudly booming.
When she opened her eyes, Faye was coming back to her, stalking her like a prey ready to be consumed. Molly could help with the centivalk, but Joel and Ben would be helpless against Faye. Pulling down two fingers of electricity, Molly aimed them. One hit her target completely, rendering the centivalk motionless so Ben and Joel could take care of it, but Faye dodged the second finger of lightening.
“Faye, please,” Molly pleaded. She wasn’t sure she had the focus to cast another spell. Not to mention the will to do it.
Faye’s jaw was set as she moved forward. Molly lifted up her hand from her side, putting both out in front of her as she focused everything she had. Faye’s body once again flung back, but Molly hadn’t done it. Looking around wildly, Molly cursed as she slumped to the ground. Malek stood near the shipping container, his eyes glowing with light as he used his own magic, holding her in place.
Molly’s shoulders pressed into the cold cement as she pushed her hand back into her side, fruitlessly trying to stop the bleeding. She tasted iron in the back of her throat as Faye stood up again. Something was wrong, seriously wrong. Faye shouldn’t be able to break hold of Malek’s holding spell.
Twisting her head, Molly watched Malek walk closer as he put all his energy into holding her back. Molly was going to have to help him. There was no other option at that point. With a mutter of words on the whisper of a breath, Molly cast the spell, binding Faye unto herself. Faye dropped to the pier, her body writhing as she tried to break loose. Molly kept the spell in place as Malek ran toward her along with Joel and Ben.
They crowded around her, Malek’s hand against her side. Ben looked like he was going to run from fear, and Joel looked flat-out confused. Blood moved into Molly’s mouth. She didn’t have much time. Malek said something, but she couldn’t hear him. Joel and Ben backed up, stepping away as they watched. Molly turned to look down at Malek, their eyes locking.
“This is going to hurt.”
She nodded sharply, knowing exactly what was about to happen, and it wasn’t going to hurt her near as much as it was going to hurt him, but once again, her injuries were severe, and he would need her magical assistance in order to seal the wound while also maintaining the spell to keep Faye bound.
“Quickly,” Molly whisper, her voice so far off she wasn’t even sure she had spoken.
Malek’s hand was hot against her side, and she knew blood still spilled from her. Molly turned toward Faye, who struggled to get loose from the invisible bonds. While Malek worked a second spell, Molly began a third. She mimicked his words, adding her magic to his. The wound was bad. Malek closed his eyes to concentrate. Molly joined their magic, briefly, and Malek’s head rose back in pain as her injury seared across his body before it vanished completely.
Before he had a chance to step back, Molly doubled her magic on the bonds that held Faye, keeping her completely still. Malek’s thumb brushed against her cheek, just under her eye, as he stared down at her. She said nothing as she rolled away from him and pushed to her knees. Joel and Ben still stared wide-eyed, but she nodded at the centivalk.
“Finish containing the creature.” Her voice still didn’t sound like hers. It sounded far off, and Molly was certain Malek’s magic hadn’t been able to penetrate all of her injuries. She would have to deal with that later.
As she stood, the sticky feel of blood rubbed against her leg and side, the battered fabric of her shirt showing the true amount of blood she’d lost. Malek held her arm to steady her, and as much as Molly didn’t want to hold on, she needed to in order to stay upright.
She stalked toward Faye, and then once again dropped to her knees. Faye’s form kept morphing into her human form from her Tainted form and then back again. She was unable to control it. Molly brushed fingers through Faye’s dirty-blonde shoulder-length hair.
“What did you do?” she whispered.
“Bloooood. Please.”
“Let me,” Malek whispered.
Molly shook her head immediately. No. She and Faye had agreed that if Faye were to need blood it would be from Molly, not to mention, she didn’t want Faye to get a taste of Malek’s purer blood, the stronger blood. It might pull Faye away from her. Even though she was weak, Molly extended her wrist over Faye’s lips, waiting for the pierce of her teeth into her skin.
Faye drank freely, pain once again showering Molly’s body. She winced but bit her cheek to keep the scream threatening inside. Faye couldn’t stop. Molly realized it too late. Whatever Faye had done, she couldn’t control herself, and Molly’s blood wasn’t helping to heal her. Malek ripped Molly’s arm away, obviously realizing the same thing. He wrapped her wrist with his hand as blood continued to pool along her skin and held tight to stop the flow of it.
“What’s wrong with her?” Malek asked.
“No idea. We need get back.”
He grunted, helping Molly to stand. She swayed into his side, barely able to keep her feet steady on the ground. Closing her eyes, Molly turned into Malek as much as she didn’t want to. Everything around her spun in circles, and she felt weaker than she had in so long she couldn’t even remember the last time.
Joel and Ben finished wrangling the centivalk into the van, and then Joel came back to her, helping her to stand and move while Ben helped Malek with Faye. As soon as she was pressed inside her Tesla, which Malek had obviously taken from her garage, Molly closed her eyes.
It was almost too much. Everything had been going so well for the past months since Faye had come back into her life. She had shared with Faye all about the combined histories of vampires and witches, how they needed to join together to be strong and powerful, how witches had been weakened significantly since the genocide of vampires.
Faye had been rooted, even-keeled since then. They had worked together as a team. She’d banished drugs from her house, and Molly knew Faye hadn’t imbibed, but even then, when Faye was high, she’d never been like this. This was…Molly had no idea what had happened, but she intended to find out.
She watched out the front windshield as they shoved Faye into the back of the van with the centivalk, Malek still holding the spell with Molly’s help. They wouldn’t be able to get too far from them as they drove home, but Molly was sure both Joel and Malek were aware of that.
Sighing, Molly closed her eyes, whispering, “Faye…what have you done this time?”
Chapter Four
Faye had been pliant on the hospital bed in Amachon’s medical bay for hours. Molly had been in the next section on her own bed, watching Faye through the glass windows that afforded her a view in. Amachon had given Faye something to make her sleep and then panicked when her heart stopped briefly and he had to shock her back to life.
Whatever Faye had done, it rendered her body human. Not even Molly’s blood that Faye had insisted on taking and Amachon had given even more of could help her come back around to her normal strength and healing. Molly’s lips pressed together, nearly disappearing as her mind worked through everything that could have happened.
She’d allowed Faye and Joel to go out that night, hoping they would have a night out on the town—which they did. It wasn’t solely for the purpose of letting them relax, Molly had hoped they’d glean some information from the local Tainted crowd. There were rumors running amok, and Molly wanted to know if they were true or not, and if they were, how much weight they had to them. She’d done it on purpose, though neither Faye nor Joel had known that at the time.
She wished she could get up off the bed, but she knew she had to reserve her strength. Malek would have expected her to expend a lot of her magical energy, but she still had some in store. Faye’s bloodletting wasn’t helping anything, not to mention the internal bleeding Malek had failed to heal which had landed her in the medical bay with Amachon to begin with.
Groaning as she shifted on the thin mattress, Molly turned as best as she could to look at Faye through the glass. In all their years together, there were only two times she had seen Faye in a bed like this, completely out. When they’d first met and Faye had been weak from feeding only on dead animals for years instead of humans or Tainted and injured. Faye had extreme base jumped from one of the skyscrapers near her house and landed rather spectacularly in the maple tree in the front yard. Molly’s suspicions had been up since then.
The only other time Faye had been in a bed like this was after she’d done a self-abortion, a baby that had been the product of a month long kidnapping, torture, and rape. She’d been this pale then too, though not as weak, and Molly’s blood would have healed her right up. This time, however, Molly feared she’d never be back to her usual vampiric self.
The door shutting alerted her to the fact she wasn’t alone. Molly hadn’t realized how lost she’d become in her thoughts. Turning toward the door, she was glad to see Joel instead of Malek, though she had no doubt Malek would join her soon enough.
“How’s the centivalk?”
“Fine. Hanging out in a habitat for now. Joel is fixing it up to be more pleasant and specific.”
“No attacks?”
Joel shook his head. “No, that lightening bolt you hit him with seemed to take everything out of him. He’s slowly coming around. A lot easier to handle for now.”
“Good.” Molly relaxed, her gaze moving straight back to Faye through the open window. “Tell me what happened tonight.”
Joel shrugged and shoved his hands into his pockets, rocking back on his heels. “We captured the creature you’d been hunting all night. I’d say that was a success.”
Molly’s lips pulled into a slight smile. Joel was good at avoiding what she really wanted to know when he didn’t want to talk about it. She was also very good at waiting him out to convince him to speak.
“Whatever happened with Faye and you…”
“What happened before you got to the docks?”
“Not much.” Joel shrugged. “We went to the sewers. Had some drinks. Did a lot of dancing—she likes to dance, by the way.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Well, you should. Anyway, we did a lot of dancing, and then finally we went for a walk.”
“Where’d you go?” Molly wanted to know if Faye was high on something or if another witch had cursed her. Faye had been anything but normal when they’d gotten to the docks.
Joel blanched. “We went down to the pier and then to visit her troll friend.”
Molly stiffened. “I didn’t realize she still visited him.”
“They’re friends.”
Snorting, Molly glared at Faye through the glass. “No one is friends with him. He uses people and then he kills them.”
“Molly—”
“Did she do anything else?”
“No. No drugs. I swear.”
Molly pursed her lips. “All right. See if you can find anything else. Amachon’s running some tests.”
“Molly.” Joel’s voice nearly broke, and he sat on the edge of the bed to get her full attention. “How are you?”
“Fine.”
“No, really.”
“I’m fine, Joel. Thank you for asking.” She reached up and cupped his cheek. They had been close too long for her to fool him. “I’ll be fine shortly, as soon as Faye wakes up and my power is restored.”
At his nod, Joel stood and smirked at the door. “You have another visitor.”
“Malek?”
“Yeah.”
“Go check on Benjamin, would you?”
“Absolutely.”
As Joel left, Malek came in. Malek didn’t waste any time, sitting on the edge of the mattress and running a hand up and down Molly’s arm. His eyes looked so soft and concerned for her, and she knew she could easily lose herself in him again, but she wouldn’t. She would never risk herself like that.
“How are you?” Malek’s accent almost matched her own, but it held a hint of otherness to it.
“Well enough,” Molly answered, not wanting to show any weakness to him. It would be the death of her if he saw her weaker than she already was.
“She near killed you.”
Molly turned back to Faye, lying prone still. “She did. What the hell were you doing there? How did you know where to find us?”
“I’m not immune to the workings of your house, Molly. I saw you and Ben leave. I thought I could help.”
“So instead of offering it outright, you stalked us until you could come in and be the hero. Typical.” Rolling her eyes, she snorted out a breath. “Never would a man glean to offer help instead of just giving it.”
“Why are you so angry? I saved your life.”
“You didn’t need to.”
“Obviously I did.”
Molly was very close to letting it slip, but she held back and shook her head. “Your presence in this house is at my discretion only. You are not to interfere with how operations occur here.”
“Noted.” Malek glared at her. “Would you like me to leave?”
“Yes. And don’t think about joining in on our work again. You are not welcome.”
“Such hostility.” Malek leaned down close to her, nose to nose. “I wonder, Molly, if that hostility is because you may have feelings still.”
