Enslaved (11 page)

* * *

Splice sighed as he entered the post office, he was expecting a letter from his cousin and wasn't sure if it had come yet...

"Gregory Jonson?" The post master called out over the sea of people crowding into the small area.

Splice raised a gloved hand into the air and made his way through the throng of juicy British humans. He had had to create a new name, because who in their right mind would consider a guy with the name of "Splice" normal? No one, really, and if he was going to fit in around here he was going to need to at least SEEM like a human.

"Here, this came in earlier today...from a Vincent
DeCorello
-"

"De-CHORE-
ello
."
Splice corrected briskly. "Thank you," he snatched the white envelope from the man's hand and sauntered off.

Once outside in the chilly air, Splice tore into the paper, pulling out the note enclosed.

Splice,

Word just came in that
Raina's
back in the states. She's somewhere near my territory and you need to get moving or you'll lose her- again. She's stirring up some problems for me, killing too many vampires near the boundaries and making me clean up the mess whenever the Guardians find out. She has one last chance before I go after her and she never comes back, Splice.
One Last Chance.
I'll see you soon and wish me luck with the Gathering.

Your merciful cousin,

Vincent
DeChorello

Oh, shit. Splice thought as he got into his car and started for the apartment he had rented. Vince wasn't good with troublemakers, Splice should know, he had been- is- one himself...Swallowing nervously, Splice pushed the speed limit.
Raina
better not screw up again, he thought. His mate was a rebellious vampire hunter...he guessed that was what attracted him to her.

Damn, attraction, Splice thought, it always gets
ya
killed in the end.

And he was
right,
Attraction came with the beauty of Death.

Chapter 23

Tori felt strange pulling sensations at her mind as if invisible fingers were tugging at her brain, forcing it in different directions. Her body seemed a little colder than normal and her heart...well she couldn't really feel it beating in her chest like she used to...she wondered why. And than everything came crashing back into her throbbing head...she was a vampire now...she loved Vincent Gabe
DeChorello
...she was his slave...his lover...his
Viktoria
...

She tried to open her eyes, but every time she did she felt as if she had a bright light shining directly in her eyes. Slowly, millimeter by sluggish millimeter she slid her eyelids open and stared up at a black ceiling. Her eyes slowly moved to her left, then to her right, surveying the maroon-painted walls. Tori attempted to move her arm, found it moving far too
fast to be normal for a human-

Vampire, she thought, trying to drill it into her brain. I'm a vampire now, bloodsucker, thirsty creature of the night...but yet, she wasn't thirsty, didn't crave blood like Vince had told her she would. Am I still a human? Or am I vampire? She asked, suddenly not sure of herself.

And then she saw crimson eyes that filled her sight, felt cool fingers brush her cheek,
heard
a voice that had always kept her up at night...

"
Viktoria
, darling, you're awake," Vince whispered, a slight smile in his tone. But as she struggled to sit up, her limbs moving at a speed that mystified her, she saw that Vince's face was slightly strained, drawn...he seemed aged somehow without altering his twenty-year-old
vampiric
youth.

"What's wrong? What happened?" She demanded, remembering that she had succumbed to the change right before the Gathering.

He hesitated slightly and if
Viktoria
hadn't known him she wouldn't have known that he was...holding something back from her as he said smoothly, "Nothing of interest. The Gathering went well, the Oracle spoke about you, Jon got a knife to the arm, we drank blood, had a good time." Vince spoke in an unnatural- for him- rush.

"Wait, back up, Vince
. '
The Oracle spoke about you' which is me, and the Oracle is the wisest person to walk this Earth. Vince...what did she say?"

Vince couldn't lie to her, no matter what the Oracle had commanded of him. He couldn't lie to the person he actually LOVED, nor could he let
Viktoria
live with a piece of her missing...

"Wait, back up, Vince
. '
The Oracle spoke about you' which is me, and the Oracle is the wisest person to walk this Earth. Vince...what did she say?"

I bit my lip and said in
an
flawless voice, "Said that you'd be a vampire who won't change fully." There, it was half of the truth- well, a quarter of the truth, he amended.

Her brow furrowed slightly as she thought. "That's all? Knowing you, you wouldn't get flustered about that as much as you are now."

Vince looked away. "Yeah, that's all she said," he lied, sealing the deal right there, there was no going back now. "Are you thirsty?"

Viktoria
didn't say anything for a moment, "No. Not really, but please, explain how Jon got a knife stuck in his arm."

"Well..." Vince said and launched into an altered story that would comply with his little white lie.

He hoped
Viktoria
didn't find out about what happened three nights ago, because if she did, Vince would lose her once again...and possibly forever. Vince didn't want to end up like his cousin, trailing after his mate, looking out for her on the sidelines while his cousin cleaned up her vamp-hunting messes...

Oh, God, Vince thought, what did I get myself into?

Chapter 24

Splice could sense the boarders of Vince's territory. It gave off a dizzying sensation that crept into your head and disoriented you, made you almost forget about what you were about to do. But Splice just kept reminding himself that he needed to get to Vince to protect
R
aina
...Protect
Raina
...
Raina
...

* * *

Splice made it to the Gothic mansion-like building sitting between two sheer cliff faces. It was monstrous and
elaborate
with huge stone pillars supporting the overhang that shielded the wide porch from the sunlight. The windows' shutters were painted black, the structure itself coated in a pearly white that still, to this day, looked fresh as if it had just been painted a day ago.

He made it to the glass front doors and rapped on its surface, his mind feeling as if it was being tugged at, someone inside the house had powers. Little did he know that when that door opened his life would change
forever.

Tori glowered at one of the
vampiresses
who had nearly killed one of the servants as she headed for the door, for someone had just knocked. She didn't like it and she guessed that was her human side speaking seeing as she was a damned hybrid.

"You know when to stop feeding, Maya. Don't go overboard unless you want to starve." She snapped. Most of the vampires already knew her in the
Hotel,
after all she had been a "full-fledged" vamp for nearly two weeks.

Tori got to the door, opened it cautiously and stopped dead in her tracks...hadn't Vince been upstairs when she had last seen him? How could he have changed his clothes and gotten outside so fast...? Tori stroked the white gauze bandages that had been wrapped around her right arm when she had woken up a few weeks prier, Vince had mentioned something about her falling in the woods right after she started to finish the change...she seemed to do it now whenever she was uncertain. The gauze wrapped all the way up to her right shoulder from her wrist,

"Hello, I'm looking for Vincent
DeChorello
," the Vince-replica said. He was tall with pale skin, rusty-red colored eyes, long, shaggy black hair and that same facial structure. Though he wore informal jeans, a black T-shirt, and DC shoes...hmm, this is a change,
Viktoria
mused.

"Who are you?" She demanded warily, Vince had told her to watch who she let into the house, said that there had been some kind of disagreement about something during the Gathering and that people where trying to get at someone within the building- he hadn't said who, though, and that made Tori edgy.

"Who are you?" He echoed, raising an eyebrow the same way Vince did when he was confused or reprimanding a servant.

"
Viktoria
.
You?"

"Splice," the guy answered and understanding filled Tori.

"
Ohhh
, come right in," Tori let Splice in, closing the door quietly behind him and leading Vince's favorite cousin up the spiral staircase to the second floor.

She could practically feel Vince's presence on this level, it was as if her mind was acutely aware of him to the point that she could sense his mind...odd, but she liked the strange tugging feeling coming from him. Vince had said that that only happened to vampire mates, but lately...she wasn't sure, she had been feeling that tugging feeling constantly and if she was honest with herself, it was extremely strong now, pulsing like a heart in her head.

When she glanced over her shoulder to make sure Splice was still behind her, the pulsing got stronger than before, when she looked away it lightened slightly, but was still stronger than all the other tugs...

She reached Vince's bedroom door and motioned for Splice to wait a moment. Tori knocked on the door and strode in, gesturing one more time for Splice to stay put.

Splice looked the
Viktoria
girl up and down as she led him deeper into the house. She was a very attractive girl with flowing snow-white hair, piercing blue eyes with a nearly invisible ring of scarlet lining her pupils. She was definitely a vampire, though he wasn't sure what significance she was to Vince, Splice thought the human was his. Shaking his head he continued to examine this
vampiress
, she was a newbie, but her skin was a flawless porcelain color, it took a vampire a good year to gain that much paleness, and her body...
Mmm
, curves in all the right places....

Raina
.

The thought popped into his mind suddenly...what was he THINKING?
Raina
was his mate...The insistent pulling of a soul against his mind distracted him, and with another jolt, Splice realized that this
Viktoria
had some sort of power...but shouldn't she have a mark like he did?

Splice glanced down at his right wrist, seeing the little fist made of silver...it looked like stainless steel had been sewn into his flesh, flashing in different lights. Of course, he was a copy-cat and he already had so many different forms and powers to him that it made him and his mark stronger, more prominent.

The
vampiress
stopped at a door and put up a slim finger, telling him to wait a moment.

Splice raised an eyebrow but leaned against the wall, trying to figure out this mysterious and powerful-seeming woman...