Enemy Within (Vampire Born Trilogy, #2) (6 page)

She smiles. “Same here.”

“Have a seat, ladies,” Garwin says, and people clear out of the room.

I walk with Kaitlynn to the sitting area, but halt. Anger blooms inside me and I growl, “What is Holly Anne doing here?”

Her focus turns to me and she lifts her hand, waving manicured fingers my way.

“Oh, definitely not.” I turn around and grab Mirko on my way out. “What the—“

“I didn’t know she was coming,” he replies before I can finish. “I asked Ace to bring everyone and anyone who was willing, and she was one of them. I even asked him to offer money, but she came and isn’t accepting any of it.”

“Yeah, because her reward is to steal Jaren and mess with me.”

Mirko cocks his jaw.

Saying she is here to steal Jaren is a reminder that I still think of him as mine. “I hate her and want her gone.”

He nods. “I get that, but we need all the manpower we can get when the time comes—your father—Head of all the Pijawikas in the world, or did you forget?”

“Of course I didn’t forget. But it’s not like she’d step in front of a bullet for me, either. There’s no point in keeping her here.”

“She already has,” he replies dryly.

I furrow my brows at him. “What do you mean?”

“The fact that she’s here is an act of treason, a death sentence, Slatki. Do you really think she’d risk that simply for Jaren, or to mess with you?”

“Oh.” That’s all I can say. Whatever her reasons for being here, they have to be legitimate to risk this. It doesn’t make me like her, though. “Keep her away from me.” I turn to go back to the den, but stop. I step back to Mirko and point my finger at him. “And you’d better make sure she doesn’t use Sanjam on anyone while she’s here, or I’ll kill her myself.”

I can do it too. Mirko’s blood courses through my veins and gives me unprecedented power. I revel in it.

He tilts his head and frowns.

Yeah, the look on his face indicates he’ll talk to her. Good. It might save her life.

I go back into the den and settle next to Kaitlynn on the couch while we wait for Garwin to start.

Did I really threaten to kill Holly Anne? Maybe that’s why Mirko frowned. I am a monster. I bit him. And sure, I don’t like Holly Anne—if she did use Sanjam on Jaren, it was wrong and she should pay for it, but is death really the punishment that fits the crime?

What is wrong with me? How can I have so little regard for someone’s life, even someone I don’t like? Killing Jelena in self-defense is one thing, but this? I don’t like it.

Am I already losing my humanity? Is it because I drank blood, or simply because of who I am?

Guilt lurches in my stomach and molds into fear, which then spins into anger. I shouldn’t have to deal with these emotions, but at the same time, how can I be so selfish and cold? What will Kaitlynn think of me if she finds out what I said to Mirko in the hall? What does Mirko think of me?

My careening thoughts silence when Garwin calls the room to attention. Only my most trusted confidants remain—Garwin, Mom, Ace, Mirko, Jaren, and Kaitlynn.

“Mirko and I have come up with a strategy that we think will be our best bet in keeping you alive.”

“Wow,” I say, excited we have a plan, but nervous because whatever it is, it can’t be easy. “How long was I out for?”

Garwin answers. “Six days.”

“Six days?” Wow. That’s a long time to be out of the loop. “That must mean we don’t have much time then. My father has to be coming soon?”

“We’re afraid so. We’ve had a few unknown callers, but they were ignored as the plan isn’t set yet. We don’t have much time to implement it.”

Kaitlynn grabs my hand. She’s tense, but so am I. “Okay,” I say. “What do I have to do?”

“As long as you’re a threat, an unknown to the Pijawikas, they’ll fear what you are, what you might become, and that you simply exist. The Društvos have a serious problem. We’re short on our supply of providers—feeders, if you will—and this problem carries over to the Pijawikas. So if we could group you in with the Društvos, a subservient class of citizens to the Pijawikas, and show them you only want to live as a human, and that you can fulfill a place in their world they are desperately in need of, I think our chances of convincing Zladislov that you deserve to live and should be given a chance to serve them is pretty good.”

My jaw drops. Are they really telling me that I have to go into servitude to survive? I look over at my mom.

She nods reassuringly and pleads with her eyes, asking me to go along with what Garwin suggests. She fed the Pijawikas until she got pregnant with me, so if she is telling me to do it, it must not be so bad.

I look back at Garwin. He’s a Društvo as well, which must mean he has to feed the Pijawikas too. “But . . . what does this mean for me exactly? What about my powers? And do I need to . . . feed now?”

Mirko answers. “The point of this plan is to put you into a box the Pijawikas can easily identify with. We need them to see you’re not an ‘unknown’ to them. People fear what they don’t understand, so you shouldn’t use your powers. And as long as you’re not using that side of yourself, you won’t need to feed often, if at all.” Although his features remain stoic, his eyes reflect pain. I’ve seen it there before, so he can’t it hide it from me like he can everyone else.

I study him. Is he sad because he’s asking me to bottle up something he’s been trying to pull out of me since we met, or is it because he knows I’ll never truly be happy in servitude as a Društvo?

It has to be both.

“Well,” my mom says, “what do you think?”

I open my mouth to respond, but too many words want to come out at once. I don’t want to do this. I’m strong and powerful now. Especially after having fed off Mirko. I feel incredible and I’m not sure I can give this up. I’d have to learn how to drink so I don’t harm anyone else, but I want that now. And after having embraced some of this Pijawikan side of me, I exude confidence in a way I never have before.

Would all that go away if I try to lock it up again? It isn’t like simply locking it up will give me my life back. I won’t ever be a normal human girl. I’ll have to let someone bite me and drink from me.

Oh, no way!

I fed from Mirko and I know what that is like. Intimate. Ecstasy. I’m not sure I can handle someone else feeling that way as they bite me.

“Well?” Garwin asks, bringing me back to the conversation.

“I don’t like it. I’m not fond of the idea of letting someone bite me. Who would it be? And would it be more than one, or what are we talking about here?”

“You would be assigned to one Pijawika, and as long as things work out between you two, that’s the only person you’ll ever have to feed.”

Well, that’s better than allowing multiple people to feed from me, but even the one, some Pijawika I don’t know, a stranger to me in every way . . . Am I simply supposed to offer up my neck to them? “And this is the only way? No other plan? Nothing?” Running away with Mirko is starting to seem like a good idea.

“It’s really the only option we have at this point.”

I peer around the room, taking stock of the emotions on display. Everyone wants me to do it.

Everyone except Mirko. He can say he wants me to do it, but I know he doesn’t. His eyes betray him, but he wouldn’t ask me to do it unless he really thought it was a good plan.

I trust him, but this sucks.

“It can’t be that bad,” Jaren says. “You’ll get to come back to school. You can pretty much go back to the way things were except for when you have to feed your Pijawika. It can be a good thing, right?” He nods, imploring me to agree.

Of course he wants me to go along with it. Going back to the way things were, or as close as possible in my circumstance, is ideal for him. It’ll almost put us back on the same level. As a Pijawika, I’ll always be stronger, immersed in a world he doesn’t fit into. If I agree to serve with the Društvos, I’m mostly back to normal.

Do I want that, though? A few weeks ago, I would’ve jumped at the chance for what they’re offering me. I wanted to go to school dances, football games, graduation—to have the teenage, high school experience. I wanted it so badly.

But now? It feels wrong, like a regression, a front to be someone I’m really not anymore.

Do I have a choice? I convinced Mirko to bring me home. I begged him for it, and Garwin is now offering me a way to
stay
home. A way to survive, to graduate, to live near Kaitlynn and move on with my life. Yes, these things will come at the cost of having someone bite me, but the sacrifice should be worth it.

“Okay,” I say, hesitantly. I’m about to commit to this and I have to be sure I can actually do it. “I’m scared, but I’m willing to go along with it.”

The room relaxes on a proverbial exhale, and Kaitlynn hugs me.

I don’t want to do this, but it makes me happy that she’s happy.

“All right,” Garwin says with a full smile. “I’ll make the calls and get it set up.”

CHAPT
ER FIVE

Brooke

I chase after the vehicles as they tear down the street. Jaren’s bound and gagged in the first one, and Mirko’s bound and gagged inside the one directly in front of me.

I pick up my speed and dig deep to reach all of my Pijawikan strength, but I can
’t tap into it right. No matter how hard I try, I can’t flex my Nestati right to jump space and arrive inside one of the cars, let alone go fast enough to touch the bumper. But when the cars accelerate, I’m able to speed up in tandem with them. What the . . . ?

Fear clutches at my heart. Both Jaren and Mirko captured at the same time. How did this happen?

I don’t know—I can’t remember.

I’m confused, frustrated I can’t gain any ground and do something to help them.

I chase and chase after the cars for what feels like hours, never gaining or losing ground, always the same distance between me and the cars.

The next thing I know, I’m in a big, open space.

A warehouse maybe?

Jaren’s tied to a pole holding up a ceiling beam; Mirko’s tied to another one across the room. Both are still gagged. Both look at me with horror in their eyes.

“Which one will it be?” a gravelly voice behind me asks.

I turn to see a man dressed in a sharp, expensive suit, but I can’t make out his features. They’re blurry, or dull, and when I try to focus on his nose or his chin, it swirls and changes and goes blurry again.

“You have to choose. You can only save one,” the faceless man says.

I turn back to Jaren and Mirko, but now men stand about three feet in front of each of them—holding rifles.

My heart stops.

“You have until my count of three to choose which one you will take the bullet for. “One,” he counts. Confusion drowns me.

Can he really do this?

Are the guns loaded?

Will those men really pull the triggers?

I can’t think.

I don’t know what to do.

I glance back and forth between Mirko and Jaren, both of them screaming at me with terrified eyes to save them.

I step toward Jaren to save him.

“Two.”

I hesitate and turn to Mirko, stepping toward him.

“Three.”

The guns go off and bullets tear into Mirko and Jaren at the same time.

I scream until my voice dies.

I can’t move.

Burnt gunpowder lingers in the air.