Enemy Within (Vampire Born Trilogy, #2) (7 page)

The gunfire rings in my ears as their bodies hang from the poles, bloody and broken.

I hesitated too long.

I didn’t save either of them.

I open my eyes to darkness.

My heart pounds, and I verge on hyperventilating.

I try to focus, breathing heavily in and out, and soon the moonlight allows the room to take shape. My desk, the closet door, the corner lamp.

Oh, thank God.

It’s only a dream. But that doesn’t calm me in the slightest.

I jump out of bed, run across the room, and throw open the door.

CHAPTE
R SIX

Mirko

I jerk awake when the door slams open and Brooke barrels toward me. My eyes adjust to the darkness as she jumps onto the bed, landing on top of me.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” I pull her up by her shoulders to look at her. She’s in hysterics. “Hey,” I brush her wild hair out of her face, “what’s going on?”

“You died,” she says between ragged breaths.

“Slow down.”

Did she say I died?

A bad dream, maybe?

“Both of you.” She takes a deep breath and sits back on her heels. I hold onto her shoulders and she wraps her hands around my arms. “You and Jaren. Someone took you. They took you somewhere and told me I had to choose only one of you to save. I hesitated and they
shot
you both.”

“A bad dream?”

She shakes her head, so much more to her than a dream. “It felt so real. You and Jaren hung there from the poles. Both of you bloody and lifeless. Just hanging there.” Her forehead creases, the image obviously distressing.

I tuck her close and wrap my arms around her. “Okay, calm down. It was only a nightmare.”

She pulls away from me, head shaking. “No.” She swallows. “I was willing to die for both of you, but I took too long and the guns went off.”

“A dream, Slatki—”

“No, listen, please. Both of you were tied to a pole. Both of you shot, bleeding, and then dead. Jaren’s death broke my heart . . .”

Of course Jaren dying will hurt her, but it still pains me to hear her say it.

“But seeing you there, hanging corpses . . . it broke me completely. It broke my soul, Mirko. I choose you. From here on out, I choose you.”

I stare at her as the meaning hangs in the air.

When her words sink in, I long to pull her down onto the bed with me, but I have to be certain. Her dream rocked her, so I have to make sure she means what she’s saying. I can’t handle it if she wakes up in the morning, calms down, and then wants to take it back.

“You choose me?”

“Yes, yes! I choose you.”

“It was a dream, Slatki. Are you sure you’re not going to change your mind?”

She kisses me and leans me down onto the bed as her lips try to communicate what I’m not hearing in her words.

I wrap my arms around her and kiss her back.

She withdraws enough to meet my eyes. “I choose you.” Then her mouth is again on mine, nipping at the soft flesh of my bottom lip.

It sets my body on fire.

I almost lose myself before I roll over on top of her, staring down at her flushed cheeks. “And you’re not going to change your mind?” I’ve wanted her to choose me for so long; I’ve ached for it so deeply, I’m now having a hard time accepting that she’s actually giving it to me.

She places her hands delicately on the sides of my face. “I’m serious, Mirko. I’ve never been surer of anything in my life.”

I crush my lips to hers and give in to the call of my body. She smells so good—lemon drops and rain titillate my senses.

I need more of her, so I open my mouth and move my tongue over hers.

She responds by latching onto my tongue. She gives it a delicate suck, and I about lose control.

I push her back gently, breaking the contact of our mouths.

She smiles, clearly amused by the effect she has on me.

“Give me a minute.” I want nothing more than to take her, here and now, but it doesn’t seem right after the dream she’s had. When the time comes, it will be because she’s ready and not because of a dream amplifying what could amount to false feelings.

I kiss her forehead. “You should go back to your room.” I can’t resist her much longer, no matter what caused her to come crashing into my room in the middle of the night.

“Nooo.” She frowns. “Can’t I lie here with you? We don’t have to do anything. I want you to hold me. Please.”

Dammit. I can’t tell her no when she looks at me like this. We’ll be in deep shit if her mom or Garwin walk in on us. She’s still a young girl in their eyes.

However, I really don’t want her to leave, either, but I’m dressed only in my boxer briefs. Only those and the blanket separate her from me.

Oh, and her thin sleep shorts.

Talk about heaven and hell.

“All right,” I give in, “but you have to stay on
top
of the covers. Grab that quilt from over there.”

She hops off the bed.

Her top rides up and I’m disappointed when she pulls it back over her exposed skin.

She grabs the blanket and skips back, a huge grin on her face.

Damn me to hell, but I’m a sucker for this girl.

I give her one of my pillows and put my arm out for her to lie down on.

She throws the blanket over herself and snuggles close, her head resting against my chest. She’s quiet as her breathing evens out and she eventually falls asleep.

I’m more than comfortable with her in my arms.

I’m home.

This is definitely more heaven than it is hell.

Well, at least until I wake up some time later as she rubs her leg across me. I reach down and caress her delicate, bare outer thigh. Her leg’s draped over my hip—under the blankets.

Shit.

I freeze my hand in place and then remove it like it’s hot coals.

Heaven’s turned back into hell, but I still can’t bear for her to leave, so I lie still, torn between bliss and agony until the sun rises.

“Slatki,” I say. I nudge her shoulder, followed by a kiss on her cheek. “You have to get up for school.” It’s a little early still, but she has to be out of my bed before Garwin or her mom start looking for her.

Jaren can look for her all he wants. I don’t care if he’s the one who happens upon us. If he did, I’d lie here grinning up at him.

Brooke rouses a little and looks up at me with a big grin. “Hi.”

I chuckle. I love it when she’s pissed at me, but this sure as hell tops that. “Good morning.” I kiss her smile. “What happened to you staying on top of the covers?” I give her thigh a light smack.

She giggles and offers only a devious smirk in reply.

I’m going to have to watch her, and apparently grow some balls when it comes to her. Any other night and her clothes would’ve hit the floor within seconds of her bursting through my door.

I shove her lightly. “Go on.”

“All right,” she drawls as she sits up and drags herself out of my bed.

The loss of her body leaves me cold, but it lessens as I watch her pert ass jiggle when she walks away from me.

She looks back over her shoulder and grins.

She knows what I’m staring at as she leaves.

Damn.

I throw off the blankets and take a cold shower.

CHAPTER
SEVEN

Brooke

My morning starts off on such an extreme high, I dread going to school. School means seeing Jaren since he left the house before I did. Seeing Jaren means telling him I’ve made my choice, and he isn’t it.

I play scenario after scenario in my mind, each with different ways of telling him, but no matter how I break the news, he
’ll still get hurt.

Ace drives with me to school as some of the younger looking Zao Duhs are enrolling today to watch over me and my friends until things with my father are figured out. I asked Mirko to let me speak to Jaren alone, and Jaren seeing Mirko and me together right before I break the news will be way harsher than he deserves. But having Ace with me doesn’t make the car ride any easier.

I’m a mess. I go from scared and nervous about confronting Jaren, to excited and blissed-out over my night spent with Mirko.

Did I really tempt him like that?

It’s so unlike me. I’m almost embarrassed, except I kind of love it.

I smile. I have something Mirko wants, and it pleases me to no end to know it, to be able to tease him with it.

This drinking-blood stuff is actually a brilliant idea. It’s almost like I can be whatever I want, do anything, handle anything. Well, except for telling Jaren I choose Mirko. I’d avoid that if I could.

I step out of the car, and despite my knotting stomach, I walk toward Jaren with a confidence I’ve never had before.

He stands outside the front foyer with a huge smile on his face. I have no doubt he’s waiting for me. With me returning to school and agreeing to move forward with the Društvo-servitude plan, he probably believes I will eventually choose him.

My throat tightens because I’m about to shatter whatever dreams he possesses about us.

I try to recall the lines I practiced this morning, but as soon as he greets me, my mind goes blank. “Hi,” I say. It’s the only word I can form.

“How are you?”

“Good,” I say nervously.

“Can you believe you’re back? Winter Formal is coming up soon. And you can go to dances now too.” He raises his brow at me, and I tick another mental mark on my dream-crushing tally board.

“Yeah.” I smile slightly, not sure how to segue into telling him what I’m about to. It’s ironic that I’ve always dreamed of going to dances with him, and here he is, pretty much asking me to Winter Formal, and here I am about to not only let him down but tell him I’ve chosen another. “Hey, can I talk to you for a second?”

The light in his eyes fades but he follows me over to the side of the building. “Sure. What’s going on?”

Hmmm. What’s the best way to tell him? There’s no right way to say it. I blurt out whatever comes to me next. “I choose Mirko.”

His forehead creases with a mixture of confusion and anger. “You’re joking.”

“I’m sorry, Jaren.”

He stares down at me in disbelief. “You know he thinks you’re gonna die, right?”

I look up at him.

I blink.

No, I didn’t know that. If Mirko thinks I won’t make it, then I’m pretty sure I have no chance. My stomach clenches tighter.

Jaren steps closer to me and grabs my hands, probably feeling bad for scaring the crap out of me. “But I don’t think so. Garwin’s plan will allow you to have a life. But what kind of life can you have with Mirko? If your dad agrees to you serving with the Društvos, is Mirko going to stick around while you finish high school? Is he going to follow you to college? Or will he be too busy saving the next person from the next bad guy, and then the next and the next?”