The Willing (11 page)

I smashed my lips together, the breath
coming quickly through my nose as I realized he ran a fingernail up
and down one of my stitches. He seemed as if he were toying with
the idea of ripping it out. He tugged slightly at it. I gritted my
teeth and growled at him.

“You might as well calm down, Emily,”
he whispered as if he were consoling me. “If you Change with your
injuries, your death is assured. You are quite fortunate that the
moon will not wax full for another two weeks.” He stroked my hair
with this other hand as tenderly as any lover. “Tell
me.”

“I…don’t…know,” I choked out, hoping
the pain in my voice would convince him of my
truthfulness.

Another tug at the stich, harder this
time. I swear I felt the threat sliding out of the wound, but
refused to look down to check for blood.

“Tut, tut, Emily. I can tell that
speaking of Micah will get us nowhere. Very well. You are selfish
person. Let us talk of what will interest you then: your own
safety.”

I felt blood trickling down my ribs.
His finger massaged it into circles. Tears sprung to my eyes from
the pain and from what felt like betrayal. Luka, my warm, sweet,
wonderful Luka. How could he do this to me?

He still whispered. “Emily, I have a
son. Alexander. I would die for him, like I would have died for
Shasta, like I would die for you.”

I snarled at this. “So you would hold
him down and hurt him?”

His eyes portrayed sudden innocence.
“Do you think you would listen any other way?” His hand now stroked
the bloody mess he had made of my ribcage, sending small vibrations
mingled with tendrils of pain through me.

Before I could answer, his hot breath
poured over me again, words tumbling over each other in
desperation, making his accent thicker. I breathed in the
words:

“Do not hate me. I love you
as much as I ever have. I can feel how much you are enjoying this,
the pain and the pleasure. Like I said earlier, you are a Lycanti
through and through, but now you are listening. I need to know that
you are loyal to me. That you are loyal to my family. I cannot take
you to my father if you have any other motives in mind. I need you
to swear it on the blood of everything that matters to you. The
dead body of Will, your living son, your own esteem. Tell me,
Emily. Tell me you are loyal.
Jurar
. I need your
juromento
to
believe.”

Now we were nose to nose. His eyes
devoured me and I felt bare to the soul in front of him. This man
had saved me multiple times. I owed my life to him, and the things
I had planned would only hurt him. I cared nothing for his family,
but regardless, I wanted to please him, to make him happy. His
desperation infected me. I wanted to taste him, to have him run his
hands over the rest of me, testing my bruises and brandishing his
power over me.

I leaned up until my lips brushed his
as I spoke. “Luka, I would never…”

Just then the door opened, and Luka’s
father Ranier strode through, playing witness to his son’s hands up
the fabric of my loose shirt, our faces flushed and close as if we
were making out, and a look of guilt on both our faces which could
have matched that of the earth mother who kills her
children.

Luka slowly and as respectfully as
possible disengaged himself from me. “Father,” he said
uniformly.

Ranier just nodded in reply. I tried to
keep my face as still as possible. This is the same man whose
daughter died because of me last year. She made crude jokes about
me, threatened me, and finally Will ripped her apart.

“It is good to see you, my son,” Ranier
finally said. He did not appear nervous at all, nor did he react in
any visible way to seeing us together in what appeared to be an
intimate act. “We need to talk.”

Luka looked at me. “Alright, Father.
Emily, do you need anything while we’re out?”

“Not you and I,” Ranier said before I
could answer. “Emily and I. We will speak. You will
leave.”

Luka’s could not hide his shock, but he
swallowed this piece of news with stoicism. “Yes, Father. I will
wait outside.”

I could not hide my shock either. Luka
did not turn to look at me as he left the room, but Ranier’s eyes
never left my face. They were Luka’s eyes, but cold, hard crystal
instead of warm luminescence.

The door shut quietly. Without a hint
of sarcasm, malice, or anything bordering on anger, the leader of
the Brazilian clans caught my full attention
immediately.

“So tell me, Emily of the Lycanti: What
reason do I have not to splay your organs from this bed to that
window? It had better be good, young lady, for I do not suffer
fools, and you have played one for far too long.”

This was the chance I had
waited for, to set my revenge on Josh into action, but my throat
froze. In my head, over and over again, all I could hear was Luka’s
plea:
Tell me you are loyal.
Jurar.
I need
your
juromento
to
believe.

Words spilled out of my mouth before I
could control them.

Shasta

“Jesus! Rai, she said my
name!”

Slipping from the shadows, Rachel
barely made any noise. “Odd.”

“Uh, yeah, slightly.”

“Don’t wake it up. Just
eat.”

“But Rachel. She knows me. Maybe we
should take it back to the house. Delilah might know her. I
certainly don’t recognize her.”

I could tell immediately that Rachel
didn’t like the idea. She’s always so rational about things like
that. Where to go next, the schedule by which to do it, how we’ll
interact with the people around us by seeming as normal as
possible, etiquette on bringing a dying werewolf home—you know, the
basic courtesies and habits of life. The worst part about all this
is that Rachel, out of all of us, denies herself of blood the
longest, so it’s hard to gainsay her about anything. She is the
most human of all of us, and probably the strongest,
too.

A half grin played on her face as she
spoke. “If you feed it, it will just keep coming back, and then
we’ll have to buy it a collar and maybe get it a chew toy. A nice,
plump 14-year-old boy would probably work.”

I swallowed laugher to argue a more
practical side. “But Rachel, think: We could keep her. Feed from
her. Lock her up and never go hungry again. Or maybe she belongs to
someone.”

Rachel looked at me strangely.
Something happens when we go without it, that beautiful liquid
salty ruby. We become slaves to our hunger, eager to attack
anything. Feeding on humans or animals just makes us hungrier
though. Nothing satisfies except the Lycanthrope blood, and in this
state, only the mention of my name from a stranger could have
stopped me.

“We’re not animals,” she stated firmly.
“We will not subject it to that. You know what would happen if we
took it back.”

Endless attrition, that’s what. The
others would feed off her for days, probably torturing her. Vampire
venom is a nice spell to be under, and the blood loss makes people
euphoric, but the girl would have to be chained up, even if she
looked in a pitiful state right now. In fact, the girl in question
still lay on the forest floor, matted in her own blood in human
form. Poor thing was delusional when we found her, talking to
herself and snarling, but she sure didn’t seem like she even knew
we were there.

I knew what she meant. We feed on
Lycanti, who murder humans for sport. Therefore, we were the good
guys. We had all been taught this since becoming the Children of
Dacre. It’s like we’re superheroes or something. It’s kind of cool.
“OK, Rai, but next week when I’m wasting away, I want you to
remember my brilliant idea.”

She snorted at the idea, still serious
in her demeanor with that underlay of sarcasm. “You’re not taking
anything to go. Eat it and let’s go.”

“Bah. OK, fine.”

And that’s when it happened. I leaned
over her to cool the burning in my throat, and suddenly she said it
again.

“Shasta?”

I jumped back as if she were the one
who had bitten me.

“Gah, Rachel, I can’t eat something
that knows my name!”

Rachel rolled her eyes. “Leave it then.
We’ll hunt tomorrow night.”

I looked at her. The male leader of her
pack had shot her. Stupid, heathen Lycanti. My bite marks were
still all over her. Had she not been weak from blood loss, she may
have fought off that bastard. It was my fault she was laying like
this in the damp leaves.

“I can’t leave her.”

Rachel gazed at me in that deep,
knowing way she has. It can mean everything, or it can mean
nothing. That’s Rachel for you. “Fine. I’m not helping you carry it
though. Wake it up. It’s a long walk back to the house.”

When she awoke, it was in the company
of three vampires: me, Rachel, and our house mate Delilah. She
didn’t scream or even flinch. She did stare with those big sparkly
green eyes though, which is pretty rude if you ask me, no matter
how pretty your eyes are.

Rachel took the initiative as soon as
her eyes opened. “How do you feel?”

She answered a little groggily. “Like a
freight train hit me, then backed up over me to finish the
job.”

No one laughed at her joke, but it made
me want to smile a little. Vampires, for some reason, tend to be a
serious lot. Maybe it’s the being dead part. It’s pretty hard to
not take that seriously.

The Lycanti girl didn’t mind the
awkward silence though. “You’re vampires, aren’t you?”

Delilah practically hissed at her.
“Undead, you idiot. The Children of Dacre.”

The Lycanti glared at her coldly. “What
is it with you people and fancy labels? Werewolves who hate to be
called werewolves. Vampires who hate to be called vampires. I don’t
get it.”

I still didn’t say anything. She didn’t
look at me with any level of familiarity, so I didn’t feel inclined
to pretend that we were friends or acquaintances or even meal
buddies.

Rachel, as always, answered calmly.
“Humans are basically apes that walk upright. Did you ever in your
life want to be called an ape?”

The girl’s green eyes widened. “But
there’s nothing wrong with—“

“The terms are derogatory,” Rachel cut
in. “Society has made them superficial. We are not superficial, so
we disown their titles of us.”

“A little bit of Dracula pride, you
know,” I finally said.

The girl just looked at me like I had a
few bolts loose. I don’t, I really don’t. I just wish people didn’t
take all of this name crap so seriously. One of the newest Children
had his head bitten off—literally—by a few older Children a few
weeks ago for referring to them as the V-word. I try to keep all my
body parts attached at all times.

Our guest continued to look straight at
me. “Do you know a woman named Shasta?”

“We don’t give out rosters,” Rachel
answered immediately, saving me from any information I didn’t want
to reveal. “It’s not like we routinely have werewolves over
dinner—at least, not at home any way.”

I waited for the Lycanti’s violent
reaction to the term ‘werewolf,’ but there was none. Obviously she
really didn’t see the difference in any of the names. I kind of
liked her already.

The girl made to stand, but Rachel
pushed her back down. “You’ve lost a lot of blood. I wouldn’t stand
up if I were you.”

“Good plan,” she agreed. “Look, I’m not
trying to be rude, but there’s a few people I really need to kill,
so I can’t stay long.” She paused a moment. “Especially not for
dinner.”

Rachel smiled at this, but didn’t
address the issue. “Why are you looking for Shasta?”

The girl swallowed and breathed deeply
for a solid minute before answering. Delilah and I looked nervously
back and forth to each other, but Rachel just held her with that
steady Rachel stare.

“My name is Emily. It’s all pretty
complicated, so do you have a while?”

“All night,” Rachel answered simply.
“And all morning if necessary. We don’t actually blow up or
anything if the sun touches us. Anne Rice got it wrong.”

The Lycanti girl asked her next
question with all due seriousness. “You don’t sparkle, do
you?”

Delilah laughed. I hadn’t heard her
laugh in ages, but it is always a magical sound, full of the life
we once had. “Hell no, girl. I have to have the sun and margaritas
in my life—in any life I live. Sparkling in the sun with my natural
beauty? That’s just too much for normal people to handle. Though if
you happen to have a sexy male werewolf in your pocket who looks
like Taylor Lautner, please feel free to make him available at any
time! I’m pretty sure I have a few dollar bills around here
somewhere.” She waggled her eyebrows at us, and the tension was
gone. I am pretty sure I laughed for like five minutes. Of course,
we had to spend at least an hour talking Team Edward or Team Jacob
and giving specific counterarguments as to why or why not Bella
should date one or the other.