Sweet Blood of Mine (44 page)

The minutes ticked by but Elyssa didn't move. A cold knife of fear twisted in my stomach. What if her body was stil alive, but I'd destroyed her mind? Dad had warned me that was possible. Elyssa had been weak. Poisoned by the vamplings. And then I'd sucked her dry. Left nothing.

Tears flooded my eyes.

I'd kiled the girl I loved and left only an empty shel.

"No, no, no," I moaned. What had I done?

I ripped the bandages off my hand. The blood had clotted and the wound was healing despite the silver poisoning. I grabbed the knife. I would pour the blood straight from my hand and into her mouth. She could suck straight from my hand and into her mouth. She could suck me dry. I didn't care. Life had nothing left for me to care about without Elyssa.

I slashed my hand, crying out at the pain, and held it a few inches over her mouth. She gulped the steady stream of blood. I cut my hand again and again as it tried to heal.

The pain was so overwhelming my hand went numb. My skin blanched partly from pain but mostly from blood loss.

The room spun. I felt cold. Sleepy. I shook my head, fighting the urge to pass out.

* * * * *

Something or someone was watching me. I looked left. Tear-filed violet eyes gazed back at me.

"Elyssa?"

She smiled and caressed my cheek. "I'm here."

I sat up. Crusted blood had glued the sheets to my hand. I peeled the sheet away and looked at my palm.

Some of the multiple cuts had healed.

"What did you do to yourself?" she asked.

"What I had to do."

She pushed herself up and gripped my hand. She went into the bathroom and stared at her blood-stained lips. After cleaning her face, she emerged with a sad look.

"How much blood did you give me?" She looked green. "Did I feed directly from your flesh?"

I shrugged. "No, I let the blood pour into your mouth. As for how much, I have no idea. I passed out."

She gently took my injured hand and kissed it. Her eyes glistened. I wrapped my other arm around her waist and puled her to me. I pressed my lips to hers and tasted salty tears. I wasn't sure if they were mine or hers. After a moment of joyful kissing, I checked her shoulder and was relieved to see the vampling bite had healed.

She jerked upright and put a hand to her cheek.

"Oh crap. I've got to text my parents. They're probably flipping out right now."

"What wil you tel them?"

She grabbed her phone and entered the password,
Justin
.

"My name is the password?"

She flushed crimson and gave me a stern look.

"Not another word."

I nodded as she tapped out a text to her mom:
Vampire trouble at Morningside. Taken care of. Lost
my phone or I would've texted sooner. Sorry.

"Wil they buy it?"

She sighed. "I think so. It's not the first time something like that has happened." She leaned back against the headboard and focused those beautiful but tired eyes on me.

A question that had been simmering at the back of my mind burst out. "Are you the one who kiled the moggy a few nights ago and saved me?"

Confusion clouded her face. "Huh? A moggy?"

Unless she was stil dazed from almost dying, her expression convinced me. "Uh, oh, nothing. I must have had a nightmare after I passed out. Are you feeling okay?"

She nodded. "I thought we were going to die."

"So did I."

"I've never been so scared."

I squeezed her hand. "You were scared? You didn't look scared."

"
You
looked totaly scared."

"No I did not."

She grinned. "You were wetting-your-pants scared."

"If I had to rank that on my al-time scare list it would probably rank a five. Maybe a six."

Her mouth dropped open. "You've got to be kidding me. A five or a six? What would you rank a ten?"

"Clowns."

"Clowns."

She giggled. It was music to my ears. "What do you want to do today?"

"How about a movie?"

"A movie?"

"You heard me. I have been chased by the undead, fought vampires, freed my dad from a crypt, and brought my super-hot vampire lover back from the dead by letting her drink my blood. Man, I need something normal."

She pursed her lips. "I'm your super-hot lover?"

"Yep."

"Want to prove it to me?"

I locked the door to my bedroom. Took her in my arms. Kissed her and the world fel away.

"Do you like the
Princess Bride
?" I asked.

"It's my favorite movie! Do you have it?"

I kissed her again. The heat from her lips ran through my chest and tingled down to my toes. "Of course I have that movie," I said after coming up for breath.

She smiled and pecked a kiss on my nose. "We should watch it."

I grinned back at her. "As you wish."

# # # #

Dark Light of Mine Excerpt

Read an excerpt from Dark Light of Mine, the
sequel to John Corwin's
Sweet Blood of Mine
,
available in 2012:

I answered my phone on the fourth ring and a voice I hadn't heard in a long time said, "Justin, you have to leave your father and you have to do it now."

"Mom?" My legs turned to jely and I fel onto the ugly plaid sofa in the den.

Elyssa emerged from my bedroom, her face stil pale from blood loss. Our encounter with vamplings the night before had left her wan and tired. Dark circles underscored her eyes. She gave me one look and furrowed her brow in concern.

"Yes, it's me," Mom said.

I clenched my cel phone. A fine line ran down the glass and joined two other stress cracks. "You abandon me a day before my birthday without anything but a crummy letter and now you're caling me and teling me to abandon the parent who didn't leave?" My voice rose to a shout by the end of the sentence.

"Justin, I couldn't explain everything in the letter.

There's too much information that might fal into the wrong hands."

"Like Ivy?"

She paused for the briefest of seconds before answering. "Yes, like the existence of your sister. I couldn't let your father's family find out about her."

"But it's fine if they know about me?"

"No, it's not. You were kept a secret too. Apparently, when your abilities bloomed, you caught the attention of someone in the supernatural community."

"Oh, so it's my fault."

"I'm not saying that at al." Her breath caught. "I don't have much time. Get out of the house. And whatever you do, don't—"

"Mom? Mom?" No answer. The line was dead.

"Is she okay?" Elyssa asked.

I hung up the phone and turned to her. "I—I hope so." My forehead crumpled. I took deep breaths to keep the tears at bay. I couldn't afford to wimp out right in front of my tough ninja-dhampyr and al-around badass girlfriend.

She encircled me with her arms and pressed herself against me, soft, warm, and oh-so amazing. "Everything wil be okay."

I pressed a stray lock of her raven-black hair behind her ear and pecked a kiss on her nose. "She told me to leave Dad."

Her left eyebrow quirked a notch. "Leave your Dad?

After you just rescued him from rogue vampires? Why?"

"She didn't say. We got cut off."

"That's not good."

I shook my head. "Nope. But I don't know what to do. I can't just leave Dad."

The front door burst open and Dad bolted inside.

"Justin, you have to leave now." His face was pale and frightened.

I puled away from Elyssa. "What the hel is going on?

First Mom and now you?"

He drew in a sharp breath. "Your mother contacted you?"

"She just caled and told me to leave you."

He streaked inhumanly fast across the kitchen, into the den, and took my shoulders in his hands. "Did she say where she was?" Hope and agony warred in his features.

"No, Dad." I repeated the conversation and each word seemed to dim the light of hope in his eyes.

He slumped to the couch. "She's right, son. You need to get out of here immediately. Pack lightly and leave."

to get out of here immediately. Pack lightly and leave."

I sat down on the easy chair and stared at him. "I'm not going anywhere until you tel me what's going on."

"My family is coming."

"Is that realy bad?"

"Worse than you can imagine," Elyssa said.

I looked from her to Dad. "You're coming with me, right?"

"I can't. Someone tagged me with a tracking spel and told my family where to find me."

"Who tagged you with a tracker? The vampires?"

He shook his head. "It must have been that sorcerer who tried to capture us."

"Shelton? But he just helped us rescue you."

"The tracker wasn't there yesterday, and I haven't been around any other sorcerers lately." He puled down the colar of his shirt and revealed a tiny red and gold tattoo in the shape of a hummingbird on the back of his neck. The skin around it was slightly red. "Blasted thing itches."

"Uh, Dad, this is a tattoo. Shelton never had the chance to touch you much less ink your skin. What about the vampires who had you?"

"Sorcerers don't need to touch you to tattoo you,"

Elyssa said, her eyes growing cold and hard. "They only need to be close enough to see where they want the tracker to reside."

"But it's a stinking tattoo. Why don't they make it invisible if they're gonna track you?"

Dad sighed. "I don't know. Maybe it requires more power." He scratched the tattoo and scowled. "In any case, there's no teling how long this thing wil last. My family has the scent now and they'l find me wherever I run."

"Didn't you tel me this house is on a magical ley line? I thought al that energy confused magical tracking."

"It does, but since they know where we live now, they don't need the tracker, just a GPS. If I run, then the tracker wil make it just as easy to find me. I might as wel wait for them here."

"Are you kidding me?" I grunted in frustration. "What about a backup plan? With al the money you and Mom have in the bank, surely you bought a backup house somewhere on another ley line."

"We have two others."

"Why didn't you say so? Let's go!"

"They're already compromised. I checked them out and both places were trashed. That means this house is next on the list."

"Son of a—" I paced the room, wracking my brain for answers.

"Justin, you have to go. Now."

"I just got you back, Dad. I'm not leaving you again."

"Maybe Shelton can help," Elyssa said.

"And what if he's the one who put it on him?" I thought back to the fight with the vampires when they'd kidnapped Dad. Had Shelton tossed a tracker on him then and not told me? Or had he possibly put one on Dad when we rescued him? It would have been the perfect time. Shelton had driven me, Dad, and Elyssa to my house. I'd been exhausted and barely able to think straight. If Shelton had put one on Dad before the vampires took him, maybe that's how he knew where they were keeping him. If that were the case I wouldn't be as ticked off. But if he'd put it on after the rescue, Shelton wasn't getting away from me without a mouth ful of broken teeth.

Elyssa put her hands on my neck, tugging down my colar.

"What are you doing?"

"Checking you for tattoos."

A chil ran through me. It would be realy, realy bad if we were both tagged. "I didn't even think about that."

"It's a good thing I'm around, then."

The touch of her warm hands on my back and neck The touch of her warm hands on my back and neck were almost enough to make me forget the oncoming danger. I'd had such high hopes for the day. We'd snuggled down and watched the Princess Bride, made out a little, and planned to grab some Chinese food for dinner. In the back of my mind I'd even envisioned what would happen later. How I'd kiss her, unclothe her, and we'd lose our virginity together, the way it was meant to be. She was The One.

"What are you thinking about?" Elyssa said in a low voice.

I realized how strongly my body was reacting to the fantasy playing out in my head and my face burned with embarrassment. Thankfuly, Dad wasn't paying attention.

He hopped up from the couch and raced into his room.

"Just you."

Elyssa giggled and kissed me on the cheek. "You should pack."

"Yeah." My voice was hoarse at the thought of leaving home with my demon spawn relatives hot on our tails. But I had to face reality. I dashed into my room. Grabbed my large green duffel bag and shoved underwear, socks, shirts, and everything I could fit inside. Elyssa came from the bathroom with my toiletries kit packed ful to bursting and shoved it inside the duffel. I was zipping it up when another thought occurred to me. I sat down in my closet, removed a panel of drywal, and grabbed the stacks of money behind it.

"Did you rob a bank?"

"My parents." It had been their rainy-day fund before Mom left either to rescue my little sister, Ivy, from her parents, the Conroys, or to join them. I had a feeling she'd joined them, though not by choice. I shoved the money into the duffel and reached back inside the wal for one more thing—a flash drive. I'd copied some files off my mom's computer a while back and forgotten al about them. The files looked mostly like gibberish and some kind of programming code when I'd opened them in a text viewer, but at some point I intended to sit down and go through them thoroughly. I dropped the flash drive in the duffel and zipped it shut.