Bound to the Vampire Chapter 12

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CHAPTER 12

Kayla

“Her sleep is laboring again,” a voice murmured above her head. “We should wake her.”

Sleep? Her father just turned down the lights.

“Back away from my daughter,” her father ordered.

“Donovan, he means well,” Marnie said, her voice soft.

Oh no, she dropped into a dream within a dream because the conversation above her head didn’t make sense. Sure, her father not liking Garrick was a given. But Marnie siding with a vampire was not. Just the day before, she treated him like he was the bearer of the apocalypse, now they were practically pals.

Kayla blinked. Three shadows eclipsed her face before clarifying to Garrick, Marnie, and her father hovering above her head. She flinched back.

“You’re awake.” Garrick’s shoulders eased, but for the life of her, she couldn’t understand why.

“Are you okay?” Her father scooted toward her from the corner of the bed and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“Yeah, why?”

“You’ve been in fever.” Garrick sat on the cot opposite her with worry lines contorting his face into a slight frown. Her father visibly scowled at him, but Garrick didn’t seem to notice.

As she sat up, the linens peeled from her skin. The bed under her back was soaked through. Even the back of her neck near her hairline was still sweaty. Vertigo made her rock forward slightly. Nausea unsettled her stomach.

“Are you alright?” Her father’s cold hand found hers.

“Your hands are cold.” She recoiled from the jolt of ice freezing her veins. Her father put his hand to her forehead before pressing them against her cheeks, then her neck, checking her temperature.

“You’re still very warm.” He frowned. “Marn, can we do anything?”

Marnie shook her head. “Her magic is the only thing that’ll help.”

“I’m fine,” she lied, pushing his hand away and fighting another bout of nausea. Her magic was gone now and she was fully prepared to deal with that for the rest of her life. As soon as this bout of nausea settled. “I just need some coffee.”

“How about water?” Her father reached to the side of the bed.

Her forehead wrinkled as she stared at a brand-new bedside table beside her, then looked to the bed, which had also been replaced. She looked around. The bunker they’d been in had been redecorated. But that couldn’t have been true with the sheer amount of muscle and energy it would have taken to get their medieval panic room into fighting shape.

“Did you move me?” She grabbed the glass of water her father thrust in her direction.

He and Marnie shared a look.

“No,” her father said.

“Looks different.” She shrugged and took a sip of water.

“What do you see?” Marnie asked, tucking her fists under her elbows.

Kayla stole another glance at the room, then carefully described it. Wallpaper stretched across the previously concrete slabbed walls. Fresh flowers adorned several bedside tables. A small stool was put at the foot of her bed replacing the stack of blankets that had been there the night before. She checked the opposite end to see the antique wood burning stove still in the same place but restored from its rusted dilapidated origins.

Relief penetrated her father’s eyes. “Many thanks to the foremages. Your magic is returning.”

Her back straightened. Her previous nausea became worse. Alarm blurred her vision. That couldn’t be true. Her magic couldn’t come back.

Immediately, she opened her palms. When clean skin met her gaze, she relaxed. At least they weren’t currently plotting for destruction. For how long, she wasn’t sure.

Her father noticed her lack of enthusiasm.

“This is a good thing.” He smiled. “Your fever is your magic presenting itself again. It’s mending. You used to get fevers often when you were little before your magic appeared. Remember?”

Yep, and her magic was so unstable, she set fire to the drapes, shot enough electricity from her fingertips to cause a street-wide blackout that lasted hours, and nearly melted her father’s car. This was not a cause for relief.

It was cause for dread. She’d been fully prepared for her magic to never come back. Losing it caused a terrible chain of events, but having it come back would be worse than not having it at all. It would go out of control again. And her magic out of control was nothing but destruction and chaos.

Her hands trembled at the thought. But every eye in the room was on her. She forced them and her glass of water into her lap so no one would notice. At least the water hadn’t heated to boiling yet. For now, her magic was in check. Soon, it wouldn’t be.

She had to figure out a way to get to a phone, profusely apologize to Chem, and get more tonic. She’d use it the right way this time—just to take the edge off enough to keep her hands from going completely off the deep end.

Yeah, that’s what she’d do. Take enough to keep her magic calm, but not too much to make it go away altogether. It would be the best of both worlds.

She just had to hope her magic was very slow to come to her. Otherwise…

No. She shook herself from the nasty thought. They were going to see a council of elders. Once they did that, maybe they’ll be able to lay low somewhere and she could call Chem. After that, they’d…

Her thoughts stopped dead. They’d what?

Her father said the Rogue had been after them before she was born. And with the way Marnie, who’d used her magic with ease, was petrified of the thought of him, they couldn’t face him. How did one even go after a rogue mage-vampire hybrid? They didn’t. They ran.

Maybe the council would destroy the Rogue and help them regain the life they had.

“What time do we go to the council?”

“Immediately,” her father replied. “We were supposed to go first thing this morning, but—”

“Wait, what time is it now?”

“Sunfall is nearing,” Garrick said, then clarified, “About an hour or two until dark.”

Her father groaned in annoyance that Garrick was talking to her. She looked between them in confusion. Something must’ve transpired between them while she slept. Her father was completely annoyed that Garrick spoke to her in his presence.

“I’m sorry, what? How long have I been sleeping?”

“Fourteen hours, nine minutes,” Garrick answered.

Did he just say fourteen hours? As in more than half-a-day? She’d barely needed to sleep more than six on a good night, four if she needed to push herself to study for an exam.

“You should drink more water,” her father encouraged before cutting his gaze over to Marnie and ground out, “I don’t see why he’s still here.”

“He is the reason the other vampires haven’t come tearing down my door looking for you.”

Kayla’s gaze shot over to Garrick. “There are other vampires?”

“Don’t worry about them. They can’t travel in the sun anyhow,” Marnie said, but from her tone, she was clearly leaving out the ‘and you won’t be staying long’ portion of her sentence that was still on her tongue. Instead, she grabbed what looked like a pile of folded clothing from the bottom of her stairs and tossed a batch to Garrick, then to her. “These should fit you two.”

In her hands lay a complete outfit that included underwear. Before she had the chance to scrunch her nose at the possibility of wearing someone else’s unmentionables, purchase tags dangled from them.

“You bought these for us? Thank you.” Kayla unfolded the black tank top and distressed jeans.

Then, she looked down at her father. He’d already been dressed in different clothes than what he’d had on the night before. Yet, Garrick hadn’t.

“Alright, enough hovering,” Marnie said to the two men. “Food will be ready for you when you come upstairs. Vampire, you can stay down here, since my house is full of windows. I don’t have any blood to give so I hope you’ll be fine without it.”

Garrick nodded. “I have no need of blood at present. But I do wish to join you upstairs.”

“I don’t draw the shades in my house.”

“As you wish.” Garrick shrugged uncaringly.

“I think what Marnie means is that the sun is out,” Kayla offered when it didn’t seem like Garrick got the hint.

“I am not like the vampires here. I will be fine.”

A sound that was a cross between a snort and a grunt came from the back of Marnie’s throat as if to say okay, you stupid fool, but she settled for a shrug. “Food will be on the go. The Council doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

Kayla nodded, and her father checked for her temperature again. “Dad, I’m fine. Really.”

She forced his hand away from her face until he rose from the corner of her bed.

“I’ll meet you upstairs.”

“Yeah, sure,” she said, but her mouth had gone slack, her gaze trained on the vampire.

At that precise moment, Garrick decided to peel his shirt off, causing his muscles to ripple and her breath to catch. He was definitely a soldier and built like one too. The vampire had abs for days. Even more mesmerizing was the intricate pattern of near-transparent tattoos he had racing down his arms.

Unfortunately, her father followed her gaze to the very nude chest of the vampire behind him. A flush crept up her cheeks that she’d been caught staring. Foremages, she was acting like a horndog in front of her dad.

“What the hell are you doing?” her father sputtered and moved to block her view, but she leaned to the side to catch a glimpse of Garrick from behind his back, unable to peel her eyes away.

“I am switching clothes,” Garrick said plainly.

He was telling the truth, but watching a vampire undress had to rank high on the top ten most erotic things she’d ever seen list. All this time she thought Brian from ECON 301 was beautiful.

Please. Brian was a lanky stick bug compared to the ripped god in front of her.

When her eyes met Garrick’s, his fangs drew down. Another flush went through her. Foremages, he looked like pure sex.

Her father must have thought so too because he viciously whipped toward her. But just as quick, she looked down at her chipped fingernails, finding them quite interesting. Her father’s face went blisteringly red, veins appeared in his forehead as he turned back to Garrick.

“You cannot change in front of her.”

“Why not? Is she not used to the sight of flesh?”

The air stilled, and for a second, she could see her father trying to answer that question for himself as he stared her down. As his only child and off to college for the first time, he wasn’t sure what to think. She’d never brought a boyfriend home. Hell, she never even spoke of boys with him.

Ever since he’d given her that disastrous-birds-and-the-bees speech when she was twelve, she vowed to never discuss that side of her life with him again. So no, her father didn’t know she’d seen a few boys in the flesh before, even though none of them prepared her for the glory that was Garrick.

She did the only thing that came to mind. Shook her head in the negative. Her father turned back to Garrick with a glare.

“It’s common courtesy not to get naked in front of people. Or does your kind not have any manners?”

Garrick’s nostrils flared and she popped off the bed before it could get any worse.

“It’s okay. I’ll go upstairs and change.” Her heart raced when they both looked at her. Redness coated her cheeks and disappeared into her hairline. This couldn’t have been any more awkward if she tried. She didn’t wait for anyone to respond, just bolted up Marnie’s stairs and into the sitting room.

“You look like the devil’s after you,” Marnie said with a chuckle when she entered the kitchen. “Those two have been at each other all day. The vampire’s taken to you, wouldn’t move from your side.”

Really? Before she could ask for Marnie to explain, someone started up the stairs a few rooms away. Her heart thumped hard. “Uh… Do you have someplace I can change?”

Marnie showed her to a three-piece bathroom before she had to face anyone else. There was just enough elbow room to shower and slide into her new digs. Surprisingly, everything fit like she’d gone shopping with the mage herself to pick them out.

Though, she nearly jumped from her skin when she looked at herself in the mirror. With her makeup smeared to death, hair in a jumble all over her head, she looked like a wild woman. Embarrassment flushed her cheeks again.

To think, she’d been ogling Garrick looking like she’d just spent the night partying in the jungle. She washed what remained of her makeup off, taking great care to clean up around her eyes where her mascara made her look like a raccoon. Then turned to her hair.

For a preposterous minute, she wondered if fugitives used combs while they were on the run. She decided on a finger comb and a French braid instead of asking Marnie for one. She’d already been kind enough to them as it was.

Washing up felt amazing. There was something about feeling hot water on her skin and cleaning off every spec of the filth of the night before that made her feel renewed.

Emerging from the bathroom and into the kitchen, she felt fresh and a lot less embarrassed to be seen in the world.

“What’s to eat?” she asked to a frozen kitchen.

Marnie held a thick iron skillet in her hands, ready to put pan-seared chicken cutlets on a couple of pieces of toast for a makeshift sandwich, but didn’t move when Garrick strolled into her kitchen.

“What in the hell?” Marnie gaped.

Kayla stared at Garrick too. He was basking in the glow of the sunlight, the afternoon rays bouncing off his face.

“Who allows you to walk in the sun, vampire?” Marnie asked, looking ready to throw the pan of grease at Garrick.

“I walk on my own.”

“Whose power allows it?” Then her eyes cut to her. “Did you do this?”

“What, me? No. I don’t even know how. I don’t have magic.” The words came rushing again. If she wanted others to believe what she said, she’d need to learn to speak without sounding guilty.

Marnie turned back to the vampire monopolizing a fair bit of space in her kitchen doorway. “Then, how are you in the sun? Vampires can’t walk in the daylight.”

“I am not like the vampires here.” He shrugged. “I was born able to walk in the sun.”

Both Marnie and her father choked.

“What do you mean, born?”

“To a mother and father. I’m sure the mechanics are similar to humans.”

“Say that again?” Marnie’s voice pinched.

Garrick’s patience was lost so he spoke slowly. “My mother and father coupled and were able to produce me, therefore I was born. Is that not how mages come to be?”

“But you’re all made,” Marnie pressed, trying to get Garrick to agree to the known knowledge about vampires. Kayla glanced between the two of them, then her gaze settled on her father who’d raised a current of magic behind his back.

“Some of my kind are, yes.” Garrick stopped short of finishing, detecting the climate in the air had changed. Marnie dropped the skillet on her table, marring the delicate floral print with the charred underside.

“How many of you are out there?”

“I fail to see why that matters.”

“I don’t.” Marnie’s red magic raced up her body and settled into her hands.

“I see that I have stayed on your favor too long.” Garrick reached for a sandwich from the table and started to leave.

“And you eat?” Marnie asked.

He ignored her, and instead said, “May many rising suns meet you well. I must be leaving.”

Garrick crossed the kitchen in three strides, but a red web spread across the doorway blocking him in. “What are you doing, mage?”

“You’re not going anywhere, vampire. You’re coming with us to the council.”

Marnie’s magic slid from the bottom of the doorway and curled up Garrick’s legs, binding him in place. A similar sensation, like a boa constrictor slithering up her legs, coiled tightly around her knees. Kayla looked down at her sneakers. There was no magic to be found, but her legs felt like they’d been shackled into place alongside his. A knot formed in her throat.

“You will make me your prisoner although I have not caused you harm?” Garrick fought against the binds of Marnie’s magic, but she held on to him firm. The pressure of it dug into Kayla’s legs. Her knees buckled.

What was happening to her?

“What are you doing?” she whimpered, clutching at her legs. “Stop.” She looked up at her father. “Make her stop.”

“No, not until we determine whether he’s a threat or not.”

“Look at him, does he look like he’s threatening anyone?” she urged, trying to force her limbs free.

“If what he speaks is true, his very existence is a threat,” Marnie replied and squeezed the magical binds tighter onto Garrick. She squirmed in pain.

“I have already said I am not here to cause you harm. I am only passing through,” Garrick gritted out.

“We’ll see about that. Donovan, take us to the council.”

With a nod, her father’s magic wrapped around them, freezing everyone in place before he whisked them away.

Author’s Note: Mmm. I love Garrick’s defiance. He’s so damn yummy when he gets like this.