Unseen (The Heights, Vol. 1) (9 page)

She glanced back and saw him…ignoring every
other human on the street. He chased only her, his easy strides
overtaking her panicky, lame ones. Fumbling along the sidewalk in
search of a shred of sunlight, she headed for the closest
intersection, pushing people out of the way and hurdling over a
leash stretched between a man and his dog.

Even though good manners seemed far less
important than running for her life, she said ‘sorry’ to everyone
she bumped into or mowed over, or who jumped out of the way.
Unfortunately, she was creating a long line of pissed-off people
for him to follow.

A couple drops of blood and he goes fucking
ballistic. Why did he tell her to run? So murdering her would be
more fun?

The past couple days flashed through her
mind. At the end of each, a big ‘you’re so fucking stupid’ sticker
was slapped across the image.

You can’t trust a vamp. You can’t think a
vamp wants to be friends or will take pity on you or feel obligated
to you when you help them. They are killers and the only thing that
stops them from killing whoever they want to is the Treaty and the
threat of execution.

But he was the Prime. So rules were nonsense
everybody
else
had to follow.

Wood. Look for wood. Or a church.

She didn’t even hear him. But she sure as
hell felt his hand on the back of her neck. She stumbled and heard
him curse as she fell out of his grasp. She scrambled to her feet
and turned.

“I told you to run,” he growled, taunting.
Why was he being so cruel?

She was going to die. Here in the street.
Shit
. She couldn’t die in the street. All these humans would
witness him tearing her apart, and they’d have to get wiped. If she
was going to die anyway, she couldn’t ruin their lives on her way
out.

She yanked open a glass door and ran into…a
high-end kitchenware shop.
Look for a weapon.
While she
pawed through the display to grab a large silver kitchen platter,
she heard the ding of the doorbell. She turned around, holding the
platter in front of her like a shield. A shitty shield.

His eyes burned red. Some breeds of demon’s
eyes were red, not vamps. But it wasn’t the color that meant
death—it was the darkness behind them.

“Did you know?” he asked as he walked
forward.

Two women stood behind the counter, one with
a phone in her hand. “I’m calling the police if you don’t get out
right now.”

“Call them!” Addison yelled. Even the Prime
couldn’t avoid trouble if the human police were involved.
Probably.

“I’ll do it,” the woman said.

He looked in their direction and closed his
eyes.

“Don’t!” Addison screamed, lunging
forward.

Can’t move faster than a vamp.
The
women looked stunned, blinking as if they’d just woken up. And then
they crumbled, falling behind the counter as if they’d gone back to
sleep. When they woke up for real, they wouldn’t remember anything.
Unless they’d been wiped a few times prior to this. Then instead of
waking up, they’d live in a permanent nightmare filled with
monsters and shadows.

His steps faltered as if he was running out
of steam, but he kept moving. Addison bumped into a display table
and scooted to the side so she could go around. She bolted for the
counter the women had fallen behind, hoping to…shit…to get the
phone and dial 9-1-1 before he drained her completely. Good luck
with that.

She didn’t make it. He grabbed her from
behind and she spun, holding that stupid silver platter in front of
her until he yanked it from her and tossed it over his
shoulder.

“Stainless steel,” he said. “You should know
the difference.”

She stumbled back until her ass hit the
counter. It was over. It had been over ever since those chains came
off. Ever since she brought him into her apartment. Into her
life.

“I saved you. I could’ve left you outside
until the sun came up.”

“I imagine you wish you had.”

“Can you…can you not kill me? Just take some,
but not all?”

He brushed her hair behind her shoulder and
curled his fingers around the nape of her neck, whispering, “Do you
trust me that much?”

“I don’t even trust you a little.” She felt
the sting of tears. “I don’t want to be turned. If you drain me,
let me die.”

He ran his other hand up her shoulder, to her
throat and slowly closed his fingers around it. One wrong move and
her neck would break. “To drain you I would have to drink from you.
And that, my pet, I will not do.”

She didn’t know what he meant, but now seemed
like a bad time to argue.

The red in his eyes wasn’t as bright as it
had been. “Did you know what you are? How many of you exist?”

She didn’t answer, partially because speaking
required the air he was cutting off. Then his hands were gone, just
like the rest of him.

Was it over?

One of the women behind the counter moaned.
What the fuck?
Addison went to make sure they weren’t
hurt.

Rhyse was on top of her, his fangs obviously
burrowed in her neck. The woman moaned again, her legs wrapping
around him. One hand clutched his shoulder and the other slapped
the wall, searching for a hold.

It
had
to have been shock that made
Addison not look away. Or
run
away. The woman’s moans got
louder, then crested, and her body went limp. Not in a dead way but
in an I-just-had-the-best-orgasm-of-my-life way.

Get out of here.

“Leave and they will die.” His voice stopped
her after only two steps. “Stay and they will wake up from a very
pleasant, very erotic dream.”

She ground her teeth when she heard another
moan. He must have moved on to the other woman. With two to feed
from, there was less of a chance he would drain them, but… “Why
should I trust you?”

The woman’s moans stopped and she whined,
“No,” in frustration.

“I do not care if you trust me,” he said.
“Only that you obey me.”

“Fuck you.” But she didn’t move. “Are they
alive?”

“Of course. It is against the law to kill
humans.”

“Then let me go.”

“You are not human, Addison.” His voice came
from just over her shoulder.

“I am. I promise. Totally human.” Somehow
he’d missed the fact that seers
were
human, despite her
telling him at least five times.

She heard the shuffling of fabric and looked
down to see him wrapping his already-bloody shirt around the arm
she’d cut. He tied a knot with the sleeves and pulled it tight. Was
he worried about a little blood slipping out and being wasted?
There was no part of this that she understood.

She sucked in a breath when he put his hands
on her hipbones. Then another as they slid to her belly and down,
pressing her back into him. She felt his heat and a vibration on
her back as he made a sound similar to a cat’s purr but scarier.
Clenching her eyes shut, she waited for death.

“You should thank them.” His voice was all
sex. Dangerous, risky, awesome sex. “They just saved your
life.”

They did? “Thank you,” she called out with a
shaking voice. “Now that your belly’s full, how about you back off
a little?”

“I should kill you.”

“I totally disagree.”

After a moment he stepped away, sighing as if
he’d just made a really tough decision and wasn’t sure it was the
right one.

“So,” she said, heading for the door, “it
seems like you’re feeling better, which is great. I’m really happy
for you. Since you don’t need me anymore, I’m gonna go now. See you
around.”

“Come to me, Addison.” His eyes were back to
their original inhumanly beautiful color. Though he didn’t quite
look calm, he
did
look satisfied.

“No.”

“Come to me or I will snap your neck.”

“Okay.”

“If you had simply brought a human to me,
this all could have been avoided.”

“I was just thinking the same thing.” Total
lie—she wasn’t thinking a goddamn thing besides,
‘
Shiiiiit
!’

“You and I have things to discuss and a few
memories to alter along the way back to your home.”

Damn it on many counts. “Alter or wipe?”

“Alter, of course. Although my strength has
returned, wiping that many minds would still be highly taxing. I
prefer to save my power for other activities.”

Like…? Nah, she didn’t want to know.

He opened the door and gestured for her to go
first. Which he’d probably never done before. Minions opened doors
for him and she doubted chivalry ranked high on his list of
valuable traits. But she went because when you gotta go, you gotta
go.

“Did you know?” he asked.

What
was
it with that question? “Know
what? That your victims come while you feed? Yeah, I heard it
happens occasionally.”

“Always. They
always
come while I
feed. If it were possible, I would show you.”

“I just heard more proof than I wanted,
thanks.”

“It would be far more enjoyable to
feel
yourself come than to
hear
her do it.” He walked
behind her so closely, their steps exactly in sync. In sync with a
vampire.

“Obviously you’re good to go, at least enough
to chase and almost kill me,” she said. “So my work here is done
and you should probably go home. Your
own
home.”

“That is no longer an option.”

“Do you mind explaining why?”

“Because I now know what you are.”

“You’re new to explaining things, aren’t you?
I’m going to need more than that, preferably something that makes
sense.”
Crap
. She stopped abruptly. If he wasn’t a vamp, he
would have crashed into her, but he was, so he didn’t.

“I don’t know where we are,” she said. “My
work route is in the opposite direction, so I don’t come to this
side very often. Especially not the backstreets—they aren’t
safe.”

“You are safe with me.”

“Says the guy who barely stopped himself from
murdering me a minute ago.”

“But I
did
stop. And prior to that, I
very graciously told you to run.” He paused. “It was a need,
greater than the hunger.” His voice softened, as if he didn’t
understand what was going on, either. “I would have killed you if
I’d caught you before its effects wore off.”

“Effect of what?”

“Do you really not know?” He spun her around.
“Let me into your mind.”

She shrugged. “Even if I knew how to let you,
I wouldn’t.” The idea of a vamp poking around in her head was
hugely unpleasant. If he was going to poke around anywhere, she’d
prefer another location.
Ugh, really?
Thoughts like that
were yet another reason why she couldn’t ‘let him into her mind.’
Stress was making her hormonal—a completely normal human reaction
to living at the brink of death…always.

“Do not move.” If he wasn’t gripping her arms
so tightly, she would’ve run for it—totally useless, but why make
it even easier for him to kill her? He shut his eyes and relaxed, a
smug look on his face. “Yes, it would be as enjoyable as you
imagine. But right now, think about my question: Did you know what
your blood would do to me?”

There was no
way
her blood had created
that reaction. He’d barely had any. And she’d just gotten a
checkup—she was cootie-free.

“How could you not know?” He opened his eyes
to look at her in wonder. “You are correct in that you carry no
disease, not that human diseases affect me. But neither do they
affect
you
. I reacted to your blood…because it is not
human.”

What the hell? Why was she even listening and
considering the idea that he might
not
be psychotic? Of
course
, she was human. “Ye—”

“Your protestations do not change anything.
Vampires know many things and one of the things we know best is
blood. Yours is not human.” He turned her around by her shoulders
and shoved her forward. “If you are what I believe you are, then we
both have grave problems. We will speak of it no more until we are
inside.”

Addison stopped thinking, because nothing in
her mind right now was good or even coherent. She focused on her
feet. One foot, then the other. Repeat. Don’t run into walls. That
was pretty much the extent of her current capabilities. She
definitely wasn’t going to think about blood or humans or
not-humans or murder or anything other than her feet.

Back at her apartment, the first thing out of
his mouth wasn’t an explanation—at least not one that made sense.
“I believe you are dat vitae.”

There’s a point at which the human brain is
in such a state of shock that it becomes utterly useless. And,
despite what the mad king over there claimed, Addison was human and
had a human brain. A human brain that was well beyond the point of
utter uselessness. Therefore, had he told her she was on fire, her
reaction would’ve been the same.

She shrugged. “Okay.”

He took her by the shoulders, making her
focus on him. “It is said that the dat vitae died out long before
even my human life began. Whoever said that was wrong.”

Although all oracles were blind, it didn’t
seem appropriate to visit bare chested. Rhyse’s shirt was ruined
even
before
it came in contact with Addison’s blood, so he
slipped his suit jacket on, catching her stare with his own.

“I just wanted to see how your booboo is
doing,” she said uncomfortably.

He ran his hand across his chest. Once he’d
fed and she had removed the splinters—wood and silver—the wound had
healed as it should have and left no scar.

“How considerate of you.” While he
appreciated beauty, he was not moved by it. He knew his own
attractiveness, as did all of his kind, as should all beings. Yet
Addison seemed unaware of how the light caressed her cheekbones,
how her eyes reflected the life inside her. Perhaps because she’d
grown up as a human, she held the same insecurities they all did.
Except she was no more human than he was.