Sun Kissed (The Guardian Angel Series Book 2) (15 page)

The empty space in front of me was filled
with a body, Lucian’s body. The vampires move so quickly I can barely track them.

“Am I that predictable?” He didn’t go out
of his way to hide his hideous fangs as a wide, greasy smile spread over his
face, but then again, why would he? He enjoyed making me uncomfortable. He knew
what Hank did to me.

“You do need to pay for wasting my time,
though.”

My spine shook with every shiver that
spiralled down it. I pondered what he could do to me. He wouldn’t kill me, he
needed me, but he didn’t need Eli, and the best way to get at me would be to
hurt Eli.

“We should go, Lucian,” said a vampire with
a long scar from his furrowed brow to the top of his lip — immediately he was
stored in my brain as Scar-face. “We’ve had nothing but possums and the
occasional hiker to feed on. We’re getting restless.”

The vampires that circled us mumbled and
moaned in agreement. Lucian watched his feet as he took slow steps over to the
mouthy vampire.

“Oh, you’re hungry are you?”

Scar-face nodded slowly, regretfully.

“Go on, take a bite.”

Some vampires spat in jealousy, other
vampires inhaled sharply in shock and my stomach dropped as Lucian flicked his
head in my direction. I felt Eli tense next to me. If this vampire came anywhere
near me, Eli would tear his head off. Scar-face eyed Lucian and me suspiciously,
unsure of what he should do. His charcoal eyes searched Lucian’s for any hint
of a joke, and when he couldn’t find one, he slowly put one boot-clad foot in
front of the other, eyeing me hungrily. A low growl rumbled through Eli’s chest
and Ludiia chuckled under her breath, but my attention was elsewhere. I
remained riveted solely on Scar-face, who was approaching me with increasing
speed. Soon he was within inches of me.

“Unh,” Scar-face groaned as Eli jumped in
front of me, slamming into the vampire.

The collision caused a loud crack to
crepitate through the air and Scar-face stumbled backwards before regaining his
balance. Ludiia purred beside me, somehow aroused by the situation. The
vampire’s fangs were bared as he hissed angrily at Eli. The ground squished and
gurgled as the vampires slowly began moving in on us.

“Stop,” Lucian ordered.

The surrounding vampires came to a halt,
but I still couldn’t release the big gulp of air I had swallowed. This wasn’t
over yet.

“Liam, Yasmine, and Oryx — restrain Mr De
Luca.”

The three vampires dashed in a blur over to
Eli. Long, pale arms wrapped around his arms, neck, and waist. Eli thrashed and
tried to break free, but he couldn’t.

“Well, Cage? You said you were hungry.”

Scar-face has a name — Cage. I still think
the nickname I gave him suited him better. Cage was wasting no time. He zipped
over to me and I saw his face up close. I felt like a small fish in the deep blue
sea and Cage was a Great White shark about to eat me. ‘Take a bite’ was what
Lucian said, but if Cage was as hungry as he looked, then there was no way he
would stop. He could drain me completely before anyone realized what was
happening. His cold, hard hand grasped my shoulder and I winced under the
pressure. His other hand grasped my neck. I saw his face in great detail now,
his scar was a lot thicker than I thought. His damp clothes came into contact
with my skin and an unpleasant earthy scent floated into my nose. I pushed
against him, trying to distance myself from his fangs, but here was no point. He
had a powerful grip, so I wasn’t going anywhere. Close by I heard Eli grunt and
swear as he tried to pull away from the three vampires restraining him.

Cage’s fangs clicked loudly as they
protruded further out of his gums. Hastily, he tilted my neck to the side. My
heart began to beat erratically as he slowly brought his fangs to my neck,
savouring the moment. Tears burned my eyes and a lump rose in my throat. I wanted
to be somewhere bright and safe. Warm tears wet my cheek as I squeezed my eyes
shut, waiting for the bite to be over with, and if I was lucky, the sweet
release of death.

A distinct neck snapping crack forced me to
open my eyes. Cage’s face was replaced by Lucian’s. I glanced down and Cage was
in a twitchy heap. Having his neck snapped didn’t kill him, it just hurt and
immobilized him.

Lucian knelt beside Cage. “You didn’t
actually think I was going to let you feed on her, did you?” Lucian’s voice was
high and amused.

He put one foot on Cage’s chest and his
hands grasped the sides of his face. In one swift move, Cage’s head was removed
from his body. I jumped backwards as blood spilled out from the large orifice
at the top of his neck. The vampires that circled us made no noise, they didn’t
dare to.

The three vampires let Eli go and he ran
over to me. I stared unblinkingly at the headless body in front of me.

“Is anyone else hungry?” Lucian asked.

The vampires shook their heads and sunk
back into themselves. How could one vampire have the masses in fear? If they
all ganged up on him, they could take him easily. So many questions flooded my
brain. Was he really that powerful? Could my father’s blood make him that
powerful?

“Good. Let’s go.”

Most of the vampires disappeared into the
bush with the exception of a few, Lucian being one of them.

“Here’s the address, sweetheart,” Ludiia
whispered to Eli.

I tried not to cringe as her dead, cold
lips came into contact with his warm skin, and then she disappeared.

We stood in silence, waiting for the green
light to leave. The trees loomed over us, utterly still like statues in a
museum, no leaf daring to fall.

“Ahh,” Lucian sighed. “We have an intruder.”

My skin tingled uncomfortably all over, like
a million tiny bugs were running rampant all over my body.

Please be over, please just let us go!
my mind screamed. I nervously rubbed the
palms of my hands with my fingertips. My skin felt so clammy, covered with a
cold sweat.

Out of the bushes stepped Liam, a tall,
blonde vampire. As the rest of his body emerged from the cloak of the darkness,
he had a hold of someone, someone I immediately recognized.

“Hunter!”

Hunted

My breath caught in my throat and
instinctively I lunged forward, but Eli’s hand grasped my forearm firmly,
preventing me from making any progress.

“Hunter, what are you doing?” I called, my
voice shaky.

A large bruise had already begun to form on
his upper left cheekbone.

“I’m coming with you,” he stated fiercely. Hunter
made eye contact with Eli briefly before turning his eyes back to me.

“This god killed Oryx, Yasmine, and Dane,” Liam
spat.

He killed three vampires? I couldn’t
imagine Hunter taking on so many. He seemed too ‘pretty’ for that.

“Liam are you hungry?”

“If you want me to be, sir …”

Even though I wasn’t looking at him, I
could feel Lucian’s dark eyes searching my face.

“No!” I shouted. “Please!”

“Finders keepers. He’s all yours.”

A wry smile spread over Liam’s lips and
Lucian kept his attention on me. The flood gates opened and tears spilled down
my cheeks. I bit my lip, not giving my cry a chance to turn hysterical.

“Please,” I sobbed.

Liam wasted no time. Hunter gasped in pain
as the vampire sank his teeth into his skin. The bottom half of my body gave
way and I fell to my knees. His eyes became dull and lifeless, then Liam let
Hunter’s body fall into a heap on the ground. I wanted to scream and run over
to his body, shake him and pray for him to wake up, but I couldn't. My body
wouldn’t move. I just knelt there, hating myself for not being able to do
anything.

“You have somewhere to be,” Lucian growled
at Eli. “It’s a very long drive and you have to be there by Sunday at six p.m.
Have I not made it clear how serious I am about punctuality?”

“Ruby, let’s go,” Eli whispered, kneeling
down beside me.

When he saw I couldn’t move, he pulled me
to my feet and shifted my weight onto him. My body was numb. I couldn’t feel
the warmth from Eli’s body; I couldn’t feel the damp leaves, or the sloppy
forest floor as we passed through it.

“We just have to make it to the car park,” Eli
muttered.

“I can walk,” I replied, sniffling.

Eli let me go and I pushed through. It was
only six-thirty; most of the kids would still be in the dining hall. We needed
to make it to the car park. As we crossed the oval, my tears managed to dry up.
The swelling of my eyes didn’t go down, though, and the redness would surely be
noticeable in the light.

We managed to cross the student campus
without being noticed. Sera was waiting at the car. She was a female guardian
angel. I saw her in the dining room mostly, or whenever she was on shift
patrolling the school.

“Eli.” Her voice was relieved and kind.

“Sit in the car,” he uttered to me. I
climbed in.

The car was quiet, forcing me to listen to my
breathing and uneven heartbeat. I didn’t want to be alone, even if it was only for
a few seconds. The driver’s door opened and Eli climbed in. The cool air that
blew into the car carried a sad tune in with it — or perhaps I was imagining
things.

“Sera brought your boxes and things down to
the car earlier. Are you ready to go?”

Slowly my head bobbled up and down, but Eli
didn’t start the car. Instead, he got out. I glanced in my side mirror; he was
coming around to my side. He opened my door and more cool air blew in, causing
me to shiver slightly. My teeth sank into my bottom lip as I used pain to fight
back the fresh batch of tears.

“Are you all right?” His words made it
impossible to hold back the tsunami that pushed relentlessly at my tear ducts.

“It’s my fault,” I cried hysterically.

“Hey.” He pulled me into him. Usually his
sweet, crisp scent and low comforting voice was enough to sooth me, but not
this time. This time my pain was too fresh, too overwhelming.

“None of this is your fault, Ruby.”

My chest ached as my lungs desperately
fought against my distraught sobs for air. Slowly I nodded my head and my tears
ran out once again.

“Aleksandrov has a plan. We’ll get out of
this. We just have to go with the flow for now, okay?”

“Okay.” I sniffled.

Eli kissed the top of my head and guilt
struck me as Hunter flashed across my mind. I cringed as I pushed the image
from my head. I wasn’t ready to think about him. I needed to focus on getting
out of this mess and protecting what little amount of loved ones I had left. I
pulled away from Eli’s embrace and sat back in the leather seat. I was thankful
for it, I would have collapsed without it.

“We have a lot of driving to do,” Eli said
as he climbed back into the driver’s seat. “If you’re up for it, we can talk
about —”

“Thank you.” I sounded a little rude,
although I didn’t mean to. I just didn’t think I could handle hearing his name
out loud. I stared unblinkingly for long periods of time and I felt like I was
going to start hyperventilating at any second. I needed to get over it,
otherwise I could put many, many lives in danger.

In my side mirror I saw the school
disappearing rapidly behind us. Before long, we were encompassed by the forest.
If you’d asked me a year ago what I thought about the forest, I would described
it as tranquil, serene, and quiet, but all I could think of now were secrets,
dark, and evil. I looked at Eli; here he was again, helping me and protecting
me. What if I lost him, too?

“A penny for your thoughts?” he asked, not
taking his eyes off the road.

“You’re going to need a lot of pennies…”

The corner of Eli’s mouth twitched as he
fought a smile.

“I don’t know what I’m thinking. It changes
so quickly, I’m all over the place.”

“That’s normal. You’ve been through so much
tonight, and I know this might come off as insensitive, but we need to go into
this thing with a clear head, otherwise we’re going to die. I know you cared
for Hunter; he was there for you when I wasn’t. He might have been a bad
influence, but he kept you going and kept you safe. For that I will be forever grateful.”

Mr De Luca and his words of wisdom were correct
once again.

“You might have lost a few friends along
the way, Ruby, but you still have me… and Mila.”

“I know.”

And for that I was truly grateful. I’d be
dead without them or worse— a vampire.

As I peered into the darkness, I tried to
ignore the feeling someone was watching me. A twisted feeling filled my stomach,
making me uneasy.

I had cried so much my eyes grew heavy. I
sat forward in my seat, trying to keep myself awake.