A hissing sound distracted me from my thoughts. I looked around to find a large reptile tank that contained one hell of a huge snake. A python. Its black eyes regarded me, and suddenly I was thinking of another set of black eyes. The image of a brilliant blue snake flashed in my mind. “I have a snake.” No, no, I didn’t. I almost laughed at the absurdity of that statement. Of course I didn’t have one, why would I ever have –?
The python hissed again, and another, similar image flashed before me; this time the same blue snake was curled up on a sofa…A sofa that I recognised, yet didn’t. It certainly wasn’t from my flat.
Maybe these blokes had slipped something in my drink.
“You have a snake?” said Quinn.
I meant to say no, but the word wouldn’t come out of my mouth. It felt unnatural to deny ever having owned one, even though I had no recollection of ever having bought a snake.
As if Wyatt sensed my confusion, he said, “The disorientation is normal. Do you need to feed?”
I wasn’t about to accept anything from these people who had obviously been giving me drugs or something. I shook my head. Involuntarily, I found my gaze moving back to the reptile tank. As I looked at the python, an image again flickered in front of my eyes. This time, it was the same snake as before, yet its colouring was different…Red. It was wrapped around me, hissing at…at…And then the memory was gone, and I couldn’t reach for it.
But it couldn’t be a memory, could it? None of that could be real. So why was I seeing these things? Why did I feel…more than before? And why did I feel restless – like there was something important I was supposed to do, someone important I was supposed to see?
That wasn’t the only thing that I could feel. Strangely, I felt a mood besides my own. Not like when I sensed Victor’s mood, no, not that type of connection. But I could feel echoes of irritation and apprehension that were not coming from me. Nor were they coming from a person. More like an animal.
“I would recommend that you stay here with us,” said Quinn. “We can keep you safe and can help you avenge the death of your Sire.”
Like I cared about that! If I ever met the vampire who killed him, I’d shake his hand.
“Yes,” agreed Wyatt. “We can also help you find out why energy seems to be magnetised to you, and why you feel ‘different’, as you described it.”
Quinn nodded. “It is what Victor would want.”
“Besides, do you really want to be alone, Samantha?”
Once more, the damn python hissed. Like a trigger, the sound sent various pictures shooting through my mind: a blue snake twined around my arm, a red snake striking at a faceless person, a piebald snake tattoo on my arm, a black snake slithering from my arm to another arm. This arm was male, sprinkled with chestnut hairs.
More images now: the same arm holding me close, strong male hands cradling my face, thumbs brushing tears from my eyes.
Sensations rolled through me: hands knotting in my hair and tugging, fingers probing and sinking inside me, thumbs sending electric shards of pleasure/pain through me.
Another hiss stole me from my memories. Yes, memories. They were memories. “I have a snake,” I said with utter surety this time. Again, I saw a flash of that snake on a crescent sofa…my sofa. “I have an apartment.” An apartment with soft beige carpets, white walls, a glossy-cream kitchenette, and a queen-sized bed covered in rosy-pink satin sheets who I shared with –
“I have a fiancé.” It was only then that I looked up, only then that I saw the horror and dread on the faces of the five vampires around me. “I have a fiancé, and his name is Jared.”
Suddenly, with the force of a slap, everything came flooding back to me. Oh the little bastards!
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
(Sam)
In under a second, my whip was in my hand and I’d cracked it at Quinn, slicing through his shirt and chest. Knowing Wyatt would attempt to freeze me, I remoulded my whip into a shield, wrapping it around me.
I almost jumped out of my bloody skin when Jared appeared beside me. Instinctively, I pushed the shield outward to encompass him as well.
He crushed me to him, kissing me hard. “I couldn’t feel you. I’ve never been so fucking scared in my life.”
“Blake took my memories of you.”
Jared’s eyes slammed on the person in question. “Oh did he now?”
“You could teleport you and Samantha away, Jared, but we would find her again,” vowed Quinn. “She is ours.” He couldn’t have said a worse thing.
Jared’s voice was deadly. “That’s where you’re wrong. She’s mine. And neither of us is going anywhere until all five of you are dead.”
Wyatt laughed. “Do you think that we are the only vampires here? I appreciate that you both are very powerful, but you are not a match for sixty Pagori vampires who have special gifts of their own.”
Jared’s smug smile had me instantly intrigued. “That would be a good point…if most of them weren’t dead.”
Confusion splattered across Wyatt’s face. “What are you talking about?”
At that moment, he got his answer as several vampires barged into the room – all of whom I recognised: Sebastian, five of his men, Reuben, and Salem. I hadn’t been expecting that.
Reuben shot straight to the brothers, momentarily touching their shoulders. That easily, their powers were weakened. Sebastian, his men, and Salem took out Blake and the other two vampires, leaving them nothing but ashes.
Still not willing to trust that they didn’t have the ability to harm Jared, I didn’t lower the shield as he and I walked to where the two brothers were now being held to the wall. When did Sebastian get here? I asked Jared.
He returned to The Hollow not long ago; said that he’d located the brothers and that they had you. I gathered the squad and we came here with Sebastian and his guys, and infiltrated the place. We’d been halfway through killing the vampires outside and in the rear of the house when I felt you.
Wyatt stopped struggling when he looked at me. “Quinn…her eyes.”
Similarly, Quinn stilled. “They glow silver. Mercury. Beautiful.”
I jiggled my head. “I tend to think of it as a bad side effect. But now that we have you, you’re going to fix that for me.”
Does Sebastian know what they did to me?
Yeah, I told him − I know we can trust him. But the others have no idea.
Obviously understanding that it was important that very few people knew about my new ‘hybrid’ status, Sebastian turned to his men. “Go and see if the others need any assistance.” As his men did as ordered, Sebastian turned to Salem and Reuben. “Perhaps it would be a good idea for you to check on the rest of your squad.”
When Salem and Reuben both looked to me, I nodded.
Only once they were gone did I speak to the brothers. “Now it’s time to put right what you did.”
“As your vampire has weakened our gifts, we cannot,” said Quinn.
I shrugged. “That’s fine. We’ll just keep you in a containment cell at The Hollow while we wait for the effect of Reuben’s gift to wear off.”
“I could not reverse the changes even if I wanted to.”
Jared shook his head. “If you did it, you can reverse it.”
“I could try, but I would not be able to completely reverse them.”
Narrowing his eyes, Jared demanded, “What does that mean?”
“It means that she would be somewhere between a Sventé, and what she is now.” Quinn gazed at me curiously. “Would you really want to change, Samantha? Would you really want to go back to being a Sventé?”