When the woman saw Theodore, her eyes widened, and her fangs extended as she smiled. Shit, she was a vampire. The man she lay with had bite marks all along his neck, and he looked completely zoned out from blood loss.
“No,” Theodore whispered in disbelief. “How could you …?”
The vampire laughed cruelly. “Oh, come on, you didn’t think I was going to stop, did you?”
Theodore’s eyes narrowed to slits. “I thought you were mine. I told you I would give you all the blood you needed, so long as you stayed faithful to me.”
“The thrill of the hunt is half the joy of feeding, Theo dear. Surely, you can understand that.”
“I told you I loved you,” he seethed.
The vampire continued to laugh. “People our age don’t know the meaning of love. Love is for mortals.”
“You are mortal, Jessica.”
“Not the way a human is. I’m six hundred years old.”
“And I am two centuries older than that, but still, I did love you. At least until I found you here … copulating.”
“You have to stop taking things so seriously,” Jessica replied. “I like to play with my human toys every now and again. You’ll just have to learn to live with it.”
Theodore’s anger came to a bursting point when he boomed, “No! I will not learn to live with it!”
He jumped onto the bed and grabbed the zoned out human, pressing his hand into his face. Magic sizzled from his fingertips, and the man’s life started to drain until his complexion paled and his life left him. Jessica watched Theodore kill the guy she’d just been drinking from and having sex with, no emotion in her eyes. She didn’t even seem shocked.
She did, however, look scared when Theodore turned his attention to her, purple magic still zinging from the palm of his hand.
“Don’t,” she said, in a voice that sounded calm on the surface but contained barely concealed panic underneath.
He grabbed her by the hair and threw her from the bed to the floor.
“You vampires,” he spat, “I thought you had hearts, but now I see I was wrong. You’re all dead inside with nothing but blackened stones inside your chests.”
“Theo, please, don’t do this,” Jessica begged, all pretences of calm completely gone now.
“Why not? I’m done with you. Never again will I allow myself to be fooled by one of your kind. I hate you. I hate all of you.”
At this, he threw both his hands forward, gesturing a rapid and intricate spell. He wasn’t even touching her anymore, but her head started to twist. It kept turning until her neck snapped and she was rendered unconscious. She wasn’t dead though. Not yet. Theodore strode to the four-poster bed and smashed it apart with his magic. He picked up a broken, jagged piece of wood before walking back to Jessica. Without preamble, he aimed the wood at her heart and stabbed her, emitting a heartbroken grunt as he did.
Theodore dropped to the floor, his face in his hands. It took a second for me to realise that he was crying.
“This is why he hates vampires so much,” Alora whispered, suddenly enlightened.
A second later, we were both descending back into darkness. The next time I opened my eyes, we were in Tribane again, standing on a path on Campion Row. There were people everywhere, and it was even more crowded than it had been the day Theodore had gathered his mob to burn all the vampires in their homes.
“Are we in the future now?” I asked Alora.
“I think so,” she answered quietly.
People chattered excitedly all around us, sort of like they were waiting impatiently for their favourite boy band to make an appearance. It was daytime. The skies were clear and sunny above us. Then I heard someone gasp and others started to cry out in terror. The atmosphere changed so rapidly that it took me a moment to pinpoint what was happening.
I looked up and saw the sunny sky darkened as a black cloud descended. It was Theodore’s chaos mist. All light was completely obliterated within seconds, and the chaos drifted down from above, invading the bodies of the humans below. Instantly their bodies fell and convulsed, and no more than a minute later they went still. I turned to look at Alora in time to see the chaos hovering above both of us. It bypassed Alora and came straight for me. There was nothing I could do to fight it, and then there was no more time left. The mist had taken me over and drained the life from my body.
Waking up, I was covered in sweat and shaking all over. I was back in bed. Relief washed over me when I realised none of that really happened, not yet anyway. Alora came to beside me, her mouth open in shock.
“You were inside my vision,” she said, her expression showing clear amazement.
“You said you thought it was because I was touching you when it happened. Has anyone ever been touching you when a vision came before?”
She shook her head. “No, most people’s reactions when I start convulsing is to get as far away as possible.” She let out a sad little laugh. “Like this crap is contagious or something.”
I pulled her close and rubbed her shoulders soothingly.
“We were in the past,” I murmured, trying to figure out what it all meant.
“My ability must have shown me that for a reason. It wanted me to know that Theodore has a cause for wanting to wipe out vampires.”
“The guy must have a very easily wounded ego. I mean, he got cheated on. Build a bridge and get over it.”
“Sorcerers are so old though. It makes them crazier. Every little thing is a personal affront, so imagine how angry being cheated on would make them.”
“I’m still trying to get my head around the fact that such a hot vampire was with Theodore.”
Alora shrugged. “Some women find power a strong aphrodisiac. And Theodore has lots of power. He was eight-hundred years old back then. That means he must be over a thousand now.”
“He’s older than the oldest vampires,” I said in awe, studying her closely. “Are you okay? Those visions have to take a lot out of you.”
“They do, but I’ll be alright.”
I pulled her closer, keeping her in my embrace as we both fell into quiet thought. Somewhere along the way, she nuzzled my neck, and a bolt of arousal shot through me. I brought my mouth to her earlobe and sucked, soliciting a soft moan from her.
“I love it when you make that noise,” I rasped and flipped us so that she was lying flat on the bed. I stared into her eyes, and a sense of urgency took over. Maybe it was what I saw in that vision and how I was almost certain I died in it, but suddenly everything seemed so vital, almost like we only had so much time left.
It always felt like that in this city. There was the constant knowledge that your next breath could be your last, which was kind of an occupational hazard when your job involved slaying vampires. Well, I guess that wasn’t really my job anymore.
Capturing Alora’s mouth in a kiss, I cradled her face in my hands.
“Finn,” she gasped as my hand drifted down between her legs.
“I want you,” I breathed, and her thighs fell apart, welcoming me in. I shoved her T-shirt up and over her head before swiftly discarding her bra. Then her beautiful tits were bared to me, and I groaned aloud. She was too fucking perfect. I trailed my hand down her side, revelling in how her hips curved out lavishly from her small waist.