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to feel. I knew that I had almost loved him once.
I remembered wanting him with me always hours spent thinking of his face. Now,
I couldn't quite manage to bring those feelings to the surface. He was like an interesting
specimen underneath a microscope, nothing more.
"What should I do with him?" I asked finally. Zach just smiled wider.
"Whatever you wish," Valentine answered. "Leave him, kill him it makes no
difference."
"Killing him would be messy." Zach bent over the ground, rearranging tiny rocks into
unintelligible patterns. He confused me. "Could I take him with me? He makes pretty
music."
Valentine stared at me for a long moment and finally shrugged. "Are you building a
collection?"
I smiled. "I like pretty things."
His laugh trailed over me like a feather tickling down my senses. "So long as your
new pet is potty-trained."
"Don't forget about this one." Cynthie's voice rang out as she reappeared from the
shadows. I looked up in time to see her push Sam to the ground at my feet. "I found her
sneaking around out here."
Fear widened Sam eyes as she looked frantically from one face to the other. Blood
oozed from a cut in the corner of her mouth.
I sighed. "I told you to leave."
"Hex." My name was forced from her lips in a gasp as Cynthie's foot on her back
forced Sam closer to the ground. "I'm sorry. I wanted to help."
I knelt on the ground and touched her bruised lips. "You're bleeding."
Her eyes widened as I brought the tip of my finger to my mouth and licked it clean.
"What's happened to you?" she whispered. "Where's Zach?"
Cynthie ground her heel hard into Sam's back. "It's not Zach you should be worried
about."
Her whimpers of pain drew my gaze back to Sam's face. She was mine.
"Leave her be," I said sharply.
Cynthie arched an eyebrow and slid her stiletto heel across the delicate arch of
Sam's spine. Sam screamed as a thin line of blood soaked into her shirt. I stood quickly,
but Cynthie backed gracefully away and spoke with a smirk in her voice. "This is
boring." She slid away to stand near Valentine who watched us all, his face
emotionless.
Sam was crying. I raised her into a sitting position and cupped her cold hands in
mine. Her skin was soft and so thin that I could feel her pulse beat against my fingers. I
stroked it absentmindedly.
"It's over now."
"Over?" Her tear-streaked face was inches from mine. "What are you talking about?
What happened to Zach?
"He's fine," I said sharply. She was asking too many questions. I didn't like it.
Whispers rose in a sudden cadence.
Take her.
Eat her.
Kill her.
I looked wildly around for the source of the voice but no one new had appeared on
the pier. Sam stared at me now, fear still evident in her widened eyes. Except now I
couldn't tell if it was fear of Valentine, Cynthie or me.
Her gaze moved to Zach, who was arranging the pebbles into concentric circles so
he sat in the center of a bull's eye. "He doesn't look fine," she said softly.
Blood still oozed from the wound in her back. I could smell it in the air. Sharp,
metallic and full of possibility.
I pushed away from Sam, standing so quickly that it made me dizzy. The sudden
image of pulling the blood from her body drop from drop burned in front of my eyes.
Using her life force to feed my magic. I stared at the dark waves slapping against the
pier until the urge was gone.
The glow faded and I was left feeling only weary and broken.
"I'm leaving, Sam," I said finally. "Everything can go back to normal."
"Leaving?" She struggled to her feet, tears streaking her cheeks
"Pretend we never met." Valentine stared at me from over her head. Even now, the
darkness in him called to me. Resisting him was like physical pain. "It's better this way."
"If only it were that simple." Cynthie strode towards us. The triumph in her face was
evident.
She pulled a long knife seemingly out of thin air and advanced slowly, a cruel smile
twisting her lips. I moved in between her and Sam. The hairs on the back of my neck
stood on end as power rose between us.
"What are you doing?" My voice was soft. I knew I should be angry, but the emotion
was distant.
"I think I might slit their throats and throw the bodies off the pier." Light played on
the blade as Cynthie twisted the knife in her hands. "Unless you want something more
dramatic."
"You aren't going to touch them."
"That isn't how it works. You broke the rules. You showed magic to a human." Sam
made a small sound and Cynthie laughed. "Did you think no one would figure it out?"
"No," I whispered, but the protestation sounded weak even to my ears.
"They have to die. It's me or the Blooded."
The two men behind Valentine suddenly stepped forward, eyes hungry.
I stared from Sam's frightened face to Zach's oblivious one. Was this feeling of
possession the same thing as love? Was love the same as wanting to seal him away
like an exotic curio so he was saved only for me?
Sam hyperventilated, breathing so hard and deep that I wondered if she would pass
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