Northern Bites (Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter, Vol. 2) (34 page)

I quickly blinked back tears.

“To the right,” Marcus said.

I had never noticed anything to the
right of the staircase. A narrow hall skirted the far wall. I followed Marcus down the corridor into a small room. As I suspected, there were no instruments in the music room but there were a couple giant speakers surrounding a massive stereo system.

The walls had gray sponge-like padding on them.
Once I’d stepped inside, Marcus closed the door behind us. The familiar grip of terror seized my heart. This room reminded me way too much of my initiation room.

“What song would you like to die to, Aurora?”

I didn’t answer.

“Staying Alive? Somehow I don’t think that’s appropriate tonight.” Vampires really sucked at humor. “No last requests?”
Marcus asked.

“Just one,” I said
looking him square in the eye. “Bite me.”

Marcus grinned
slowly. “I like you, Aurora. I always have. It’s such a pity to have to kill you, but you’ve given me no choice. I tell you what,” he said, leaning in closer. “Before I do, I’ll grant your last request.”

I leaned toward him like a lover leaning in for a kiss. I needed him to suck my blood. My life depended on it.

From the corner of my eyes I saw him go for my neck. Marcus’s teeth pierced through my skin instantly. It felt like a clean break compared to the ones before. Should have known Marcus would be smooth to the end.

His lips formed a suction on my skin. He sucked. The sensation caused me to momentarily forget my predicament and shudder. Marcus kept his hands on me
while he sucked.

The warmth of his lips left my neck. He took a step back and stared me in the eye.

A second later he spit my blood out on the ground, his upper lip curling back.

I stared from the splatter of blood on the floor to Marcus in shock. He looked equally spooked. “You taste like death.”

“Marcus, I…” Oh God, he hadn’t swallowed my blood. I took a step back.

“
Why didn’t you say anything?” he asked.

I shook my head. “I don’t understand
.”

“You’re new, aren’t you? When did you die?” Marcus
asked.

I shook my head again.
What the hell did my blood taste like? Like Renard’s? Like the guy in the vamp house? Not quite human. Vampire.

It’s not as though I’d had an opportunity to ask before. Usually vampire
s swallowed after tasting my blood, which led to convulsion and death.

Did all AB blood taste this way
, or did it have to be activated by a virus? And how the hell did Marcus know what vamp blood tasted like? My guess? He’d sampled vampires and humans alike!

He
walked to my side and stroked my hair. “I should have known, my pet. I mistook your apprehension for something else. You must not worry about the boy. It was his fate to die. It is the fate of all humans, whether by our hands or the hands of time. The end result is the same.”

I suppose I should have felt relieved
, but I was still trapped inside a padded room with an admitted killer, and he still had his hand in my hair.

All I had to do
was go along with his theory. Play the newbie vamp card and be on my way. I tried to think of what to say.
Yep, sucks to be human. Glad I’m not.

Marcus’s fingers slid over my hair again and again as though petting me. His
hand suddenly stopped. I held my breath.

Marcus gathered a chunk of my hair in his fist and pulled. I screamed.

“What have you done to me?” His body began to shake, but he didn’t let go of my hair and he didn’t fall to the ground.

I tried to push a
way from him, but my arms felt like jelly. Instead, I dropped to the ground. My scalp screamed as a chunk of hair ripped out. I rolled quickly away the moment I hit the floor, and took a quick survey of the room.

Marcus
grasped pieces of long black hair in his hand, staring in disbelief. His shoulders and head twitched. “I know what you are,” he said, looking at me. His voice had changed. He spoke to me like he would a stranger—an extremely unwelcome one.

Marcus lifted the strands of my hair in front of his face then let go and watched them fall to the ground.
He walked slowly to the stereo system. With his back turned toward me, I reached around my waist. I willed the feeling back into my fingertips as I groped for my knife.

Marcus lifted a remote in a shaky hand.
An electric guitar screeched through the speakers followed by heavy drums and a deep, raspy snarling voice from Alice in Chains’ “We Die Young.” Our disco days were definitely over.

I used my elbows to
lift to my knees and then feet, clutching the hilt of my knife in a death grip.

Marcus turned. The convulsing put him at a disadvantage, but made him look manic
the way he shook all over. I didn’t think he even noticed my knife; his eyes were narrowed in on my face. It was beyond creepy the way he moved toward me at the same time Layne Staley sang that scary was on his way—like the whole thing had been choreographed. Is this how Mike died? No, I didn’t want to think about that right now.
 

One side of my brain screamed at me to run for the door
, but I couldn’t leave Marcus alive. What little blood he’d swallowed might wear off at any moment. Marcus knew a lot of vampires. I couldn’t allow him to alert any of them if I went running. Also, he’d killed Mike. And Crist. Maybe.

This whole double homic
ide had been playing Tetris inside my brain from the start. I kept trying to make all the pieces fit only to be bombarded by new information and uncertainties. It still didn’t stack up. The one thing I could be certain of was Marcus’s hand in killing Mike, and that’s what I needed to focus on right now. My head pounded with the music.

I backed away from Marcus.
He came at me slowly and we circled the center of the room. Fucking déjà vu.

The song ended abruptly. A second of silence ensued before the next Alice in Chains song started. Marcus and I locked eyes, saying nothing.

I squeezed the handle of my knife. I should attack. Every time I readied myself to spring forward, my fear reined me back in. It was like trying to psyche myself to bungee jump off a cliff. The moment I got too near the edge I panicked. If I didn’t take the leap, Marcus would push me himself. 

My heart lodged itself in my throat as I charged and rammed into Marcus with my shoulder. I hoped to knock him to the ground then plunge my knife into his heart as soon as I had him on his back, but even convulsing
, Marcus was all rock solid muscle mass. He stumbled back a foot, but didn’t fall. Fuck!

His lips curled back. Without taking a step toward me
, his hands shot forward and grabbed me by the neck. He began squeezing, crushing my windpipe.

The music drowned out my choking sounds.

Marcus squeezed harder. Another song ended and started.

I lifted my knife and jabbe
d at Marcus. It struck flesh.

He
let go of my neck and roared in fury.

I gasped and sucked in deep breaths. I looked at Marcus with his hand pressed firmly on his thigh. His head bent to survey the damage.

Now, Aurora. It’s time to jump.

I pulled my knife
back, took two swift steps up to Marcus, grabbed his shoulder with my left hand, and plunged my knife into his heart with the right.

His head snapped up, the whites of his eyes expanding to unnatural proportions.
He tried grasping for my hair but I shoved him backwards.

I walked to Marcus’s side, watching to make sure I’d hit my mark. His lips opened and closed. The twitching stopped. His eyes stared at the ceiling, unblinking.

I waited. His body didn’t move. His expression didn’t change. “Angry Chair” filled the room. The volume had been cranked so high I felt the notes vibrate inside my body. I grabbed the remote where Marcus had left it on a speaker and hit stop.

The silen
ce provided a momentary respite. I glanced down at Marcus one last time then fled from the padded room of horror.

I hurried past the living room to the front entrance and found my jacket
and scarf, the only ones hanging from a hook.

I
yanked my phone out of my coat pocket and dialed Melcher’s number. Hysteria overcame me the moment he answered. “I killed Marcus! He killed Mike and then he tried to kill me. So I killed him. He’s dead! Marcus is dead!”

“Aurora,” Melcher answered calmly. “Where are you?”

“I’m at Marcus’s townhouse!” Where the hell did he think I was?

“Stay put and stay calm. I’ll send someone over.”

I paced the entryway, clutching my phone in case Melcher called back. I walked in and out of the kitchen, briefly considering a swig of whiskey. I picked up my knife where I’d set it down on an end table before calling Melcher. In the kitchen, I ran it under the faucet, shook the water off the blade, and then wiped it with a kitchen towel. I pulled my sweater up in back and slid the knife into its sheath.

Back in the entryway, I pulled my
scarf and jacket off the hook and put them on, slipping my phone back inside my pocket. I stood on the edge of the living room.

I heard tires whine to a stop
outside and waited, my breath suddenly erratic. I turned my body around to face the door. The knob clicked as the person outside grasped the handle.

I watched the door open and Jared walk
ed in. He was dressed casually in jeans, a black tee, and a blue bandana tied around his forehead as though he’d been hanging out right before receiving Melcher’s call.

I recognized that bandana. I’d focused on it in the seconds before my crash. The other driver’s face had been hazy, an afterthought as I took in the vehicle coming at me head on. I’d seen his lips mouthing a curse.
I can’t imagine a head-on collision was pleasant, even for a vampire.

The bandana brought everything into focus.

Jared’s eyes locked on mine without a trace of sympathy.

25

My breath caught in my throat as Jared started toward me. I couldn’t move, no more than I could when his vehicle had come crashing into me that fateful afternoon when I lost three organs and my entire life to the agents.

The boy in the blue bandana.

I wasn’t meant to die. Jared had done it. That evil fucker had all but killed me.

This night kept getting better and better.

I didn’t have time to react. Jared grabbed me by the arm as he’d done at the totem park, but the chance of him letting go this time was slim. He crushed my bones between his fingers, but I barely felt it, not after hanging from the rafters thanks to Marcus. Oh, how I wished they were both dead. I wished I could rewind time and pop Jared myself.

I couldn’t tell if he’d worn the bandana to try and jog my memory or
if it was simply part of his casual attire. In Sitka he asked if I recognized him as though he wanted me to or maybe he’d been feeling me out. Keeping quiet felt best at the moment.