Sacrifice Me (4 page)

“And Franki, whether you realize it or not,
you are…” His words broke off and he stared deep into my
eyes, as if searching there for the right words. “I can’t
explain it. I’ve never felt energy quite like yours before.
Powerful, but something beyond that. It’s as if darkness and
light have always been fighting over your soul.”

His words cut me to my core. I knew their truth in
the deepest, most secret part of myself.

Fear and anger and years of holding back the truth
from anyone who tried to get too close all came to a head in that
moment. I fought it as hard as I could, but I felt it slipping
through the cracks like sand through an hourglass. I pressed my hands
tightly against my chest and squeezed my eyes shut as if maybe I
could keep it inside, but it was no use.

Control slipped just out of reach and I felt the
magic within me ooze through the cracks in my resolve.

I cried out as a gust of wind blew my hair across
my face. My arms thrust out, palms open as the air moved faster
around us, circling the room like a tornado. It roared in my ears,
drowning out the sounds of my despair.

Glass flew up and shattered into tiny pieces that
whipped around, cutting the skin on my face and arms. Furniture
shifted and toppled over.

Despair poured from me like tears from a grieving
widow, raw and painful and full of regret.

Rend’s arms wrapped around me, shielding me
from the glass and debris. He pulled me down toward the floor and
covered me with his body as the wind storm destroyed his office.

“Franki,” he said, his voice distant
but commanding. He placed a hand on my cheek and pressed his face
close to mine. “It’s okay, Franki. It’s going to be
okay. I’m going to help you. You’re not alone anymore.”

His words slowly calmed the storm raging inside
me. The winds died down as he held me tight against his strong body.

I put my arms around him, clinging to him for dear
life as my heartbeat slowed and the storm passed. I gasped for air at
first, then concentrated on the slow, rhythmic rise and fall of his
chest against mine.

“Just breathe,” he said as he stroked
my hair.

Despite his soft tone and caressing touch, his
entire body was tense and hard, as if he was struggling to hold on to
his control, the same way I had struggled.

After a few minutes, I pulled back but didn’t
let go.

“I think I ruined your office.” My
breath hitched in my chest.

I was scared to look, so I kept my eyes on his,
still matching him breath for breath.

A sad smile wrinkled his eyes. “I don't care
about my office,” he said. “I just want to know that
you’re all right.”

His face was inches from mine. I had never wanted
to kiss someone so badly in my entire life. But at the same time, I
felt completely exposed and afraid. No one was ever supposed to see
me like this. I had worked so hard to conceal and control it.

This power of mine had terrified and pushed away
the only person I had ever loved, and when she left me three years
ago, I promised myself I would never let it happen again. I would
never lose myself to anger like that again.

And I would never let anyone close enough to see
it, just in case.

Now I had let a stranger bring me to the breaking
point. I wanted to hate him for it as much as I hated myself.

I reached up and took his hands in mine, then
slowly pulled them down, away from my face. It was too intimate. Too
revealing.

Trust was too damned hard.

“I should go,” I said. I tried to
stand, but my knees gave out and I fell back to the ground with a
whimper.

Rend stared down at his hands, now smeared with
red blood.

His fingers trembled, then curled into strong
fists. He stood, turning away from me and wiping his hands on his
jeans.

“You need to rest,” he said. The
tenderness that had been in his voice earlier was replaced by a
stiffness that punctuated every word. “Something so powerful
can take days of recovery until you’re feeling normal again.”

“I should get home,” I said.

“No,” he said. He practically growled
it. I shrank down, away from him. What had caused this sudden shift
in him? Was he angry about the office? “I'll take you home
later, but first you need to rest for a while.”

He picked me up into his arms like I weighed
nothing. I tried to protest, but all the strength and fight had been
sucked from my body.

He lowered me onto the soft leather couch and
pulled a blanket across me. I looked up into his eyes, begging for
some return of that softness he'd shown earlier, but he stood quickly
and backed away, putting distance between us.

“Franki, there's something else—”

A frantic knock on the door interrupted him.

“What is it?” He reached for the back
of the leather chair that still stood upright in the chaos of his
office, gripping it so hard his knuckles turned white.

“Is everything okay in there?” A man’s
voice.

“We're fine.”

“We heard—”

“I said everything was fine.” His
voice was rough and commanding, leaving no room for argument. “Wait
for me in the bar. I’ll be out in a minute.”

“Okay, sorry, boss.”

Rend glared at the door, his jaw rigid and
hard-lined. He released his grip on the chair and when he turned back
to me, I knew whatever moment of closeness we had shared had passed.
Whatever he had decided to say to me was bottled back up inside.

He said he wanted to protect me, but there was
something bothering him. Like, he wished he didn't have to protect
me.

I wanted to tell him I didn't need him and that he
could just leave me alone, but the thought of those men coming after
me in the dark, fangs flashing, had me settling back under the covers
like a good girl.

“I’ll be back in a few hours,”
he said. “I have some things to take care of first, but I’ll
be back to check on you when I can. I’m expecting you to really
rest. If I come back and find that you’ve cleaned up one piece
of this office, you’ll have to answer to me, you understand?”

I swallowed down my normal smart-ass-response
instinct and nodded instead. I was so exhausted, rest wasn't going to
be a problem. There would be plenty of time to be a smart-ass later.

Rend turned off the lights as he left, leaving me
alone in the darkness.

When I woke up, I was back in my own bed in the
dorm apartment I shared with Katy. The room was nearly pitch black.
What time was it?

I sat up, my mind fuzzy, like I had slept for five
days. My mouth tasted of ash and cinnamon. Not a pleasant
combination.

I grabbed my cell phone from the side table and
hit the power button to bring up the time. Fourteen after eleven. I
checked the date just in case, relieved to see that I hadn’t
somehow missed a day.

But how had I gotten home?

I climbed out of bed and padded into the small
living area Katy and I shared. We were seniors and after three years
in crappy small rooms on campus, we had practically won the lottery
with our small dorm apartment in the middle of campus this year. It
had two small bedrooms, a bathroom, and a separate living and kitchen
area. Katy had her laptop set up on the kitchen table and was
checking email.

“Thank God, you’re awake,” she
said, barely looking up from the screen. “I was starting to
think you’d sleep the rest of the night away. What happened to
you? You were gone when I got up this morning.”

“Were you here when I got home?” I
asked.

She shook her head. “No, I was at the
library studying this afternoon. Why?”

I yanked on the door to the fridge and stood there
for a second trying to decide what my best option was for washing
this taste out of mouth. I grabbed a Pepsi and downed half of it in a
couple of seconds.

I was also stalling. How much should I tell her? I
didn’t want to get a lecture from her, but I guess she needed
to know that I had a new job. I knew she wouldn’t like it,
though. Especially not after how spooked I’d been when we left
the other night.

“Franki?”

I leaned against the bar that separated the living
room and kitchen. “I don’t know how I got home,” I
said simply.

That got her attention.

She turned in her chair, her eyes fixed on me.
“What do you mean? Where were you?”

Apparently she hadn’t noticed my t-shirt
yet. I stood and pointed to the front. Her eyes grew wide.

“You went back there? Why?”

I turned around and pointed to the back of the
shirt. “I sort of work there now.”

“Holy what?” she said, popping up from
her chair and coming to stand across from me. “I knew you
needed a new job, but I thought you were totally creeped out by that
place? You yanked me off the dance-floor so fast last night, I got
whiplash.”

I took another drink of my soda. “I don't
know. I guess it's not so bad,” I said. “That guy? The
hot bartender? Turns out he owns the place. He offered me a job and I
really couldn't afford to turn it down.”

I always believed honesty was the best policy, but
when it came to vampires and indoor tornadoes and magical powers, I
decided Katy was better off not knowing the whole truth. So how was I
supposed to explain my new job?

“You’re acting strange,” she
said. “Last night, you were acting like you never wanted to
step foot in that place again.”

I shrugged, trying to play it casual. “I had
given the bartender my number and he called this morning and told me
they had an opening if I wanted it,” I said. “He said I
could make some killer tips.”

I cringed at my own words. Killer. Yes, I was now
working at a place where people had tried to kill me. And probably
would again.

Rend said he could protect me, but for how long?
And what if one of the vampires from the club figured out where I
lived? It wasn’t like I could expect him to keep me safe when I
was home or walking around campus.

Still, what choice did I have? He assured me that
those guys didn’t mess with his girls, and now, apparently, I
was one of his girls. Whatever that meant.

“Are you sure it’s worth it?”
she asked. “That club was weird, to say the least. And wait a
second, if you were there today, why don’t you remember how you
got home? Did something happen?”

“I passed out,” I said, running a hand
along my head. A sharp pain was forming just behind my left eye.

Katy propped her elbows against the bar. “Franki,
this is insane,” she said. “You kind of look like hell,
to be honest. Are you sick?”

“I don’t know,” I said, which
was the truth. Rend had said using that much magic without practice
could be draining, but damn. I wasn’t expecting that to mean
hours of feeling like crap. “I think I just pushed myself too
hard after being out drinking late last night.”

“Do you think that guy brought you home?”
she asked, a curious smile on her face. “The bartender or owner
or whatever he is?”

“His name is Rend,” I said. “And
I don’t know. Maybe, but how did he know where I live?”

“Did you fill out paperwork and stuff to
work there? He probably just read it on there.”

“Oh, yeah,” I said absently. I didn't
want to tell her what Azure had said. We technically weren’t on
the books. Paid in cash every night. It seemed sketchy.

Besides, the dorm apartment wasn't even my real
address. My driver’s license still had my Mom’s old
address on it and my mailing address here on campus was a P.O. Box.
So how the hell did he figure out where I lived?

It spooked me, for sure. What was I getting myself
into with this new job?

“When do you go back?” she asked. “Do
you have a schedule or anything? I’m going to be sad if you’re
working late nights again, like you did when you worked at Shade last
year. That sucked. We never saw each other except in class, and we
don’t even have any classes together this semester.”

“We didn’t get a chance to go over my
hours or anything,” I said. “But they don’t even
open until, like, eight every night. I can’t imagine he hired
me to work during the day. Besides, I’ve got class every day
except Fridays this semester.”

She groaned. “I still don’t know how
you managed that one,” she said. “I’m so jealous I
could die.”

I laughed. Yeah, I had gotten super lucky with my
course schedule this semester. I had a three day weekend every single
week, and it was awesome. Of course, now I was probably going to be
working late on weekends. The club didn’t close until three in
the morning, so that could mean I wouldn’t be home until nearly
four. Ugh, that was going to suck.

Unless the money really was good. I could
certainly use it. Rend and Azure had both failed to mention money at
all.

I had a small scholarship, but most of my expenses
were being paid out of money I’d earned over the past few
years, working sometimes two jobs to make ends meet. I had no idea
what I was going to do when I graduated in May.

I’d need some starter money, though,
regardless of what I decided to do. A down payment on a new apartment
and new work clothes and stuff like that wouldn’t be cheap.

I envied girls like Katy who had their parents to
fall back on when they needed it. Her entire college education was
paid for. They even gave her money for food and clothes and books and
anything else she needed. She only worked part-time so she could have
money to go out on the weekends. I don’t even think she
realized just how lucky she was to have that kind of support.

I’d been working since I was fourteen,
babysitting and picking up neighborhood jobs just to put food on the
table.

As much as the truth of what Rend had told me
earlier scared the mess out of me, there was a part of me that was
relieved to know I wasn’t the only one out there with these
kinds of powers. I had spent so much of my life thinking I was a
freak, worried about how to hide it so that no one ever found out.