Stefan (Lost Nights Series Book 1) (22 page)

Chapter 17

Come find me, Stefan. I’ll be keeping watch with Juliet.

I squatted down in the deepest shadows I could find, half hidden against the brick wall. Vines crept down the wall, their dark green leaves helping to conceal me. My cell phone was tucked in the pocket of my oversized black hoodie with it set on vibrate. He had an hour to reach me and then I would leave, find some other spot in Italy to hide, while I thought of a new plan. I needed to keep moving. After Ignacio’s warning the night before, I felt too vulnerable being so close to Mira and Danaus. Sure, there was a chance that they weren’t my enemy, but I was afraid to risk it. Their ignorance was my only edge in this game.

In the waning moonlight, I glanced up at the stone balcony overlooking the small square. People liked to say that it was Juliet Capulet’s balcony and Romeo had whispered sweet words while staring up at that balcony. It was all bullshit, but it seemed a good place. Maybe the ghost of poor Juliet would help me through this night. I was certainly hoping to avoid her tragic ending, but it seemed more unlikely with each passing night.

Stefan stunned me by suddenly appearing after the passage of less than fifteen minutes. He stood in the middle of the square, the moonlight causing his pale skin to glow. The nightwalker seemed bigger, more powerful, and certainly more menacing than I remembered. He glanced up at the statue of Juliet in the center of the square for only a moment before dismissing it. I stayed completely still, hoping that he would overlook me. He didn’t notice me with his eyes, but I felt his powers cut through me as he scanned the area. Jerking around, a low hiss slithered from him as he glared at me.

“Leave! You’re not welcome here,” he growled in Italian.

Something in my heart broke at his words. He recognized me as a nightwalker, but his brief search had not revealed to him my identity. He didn’t know the woman he searched for was the nightwalker before him. Maybe he wasn’t behind Vanko’s kidnapping of me, but it certainly didn’t mean that he was going to accept me when he discovered the truth.

Very slowly, I stood and took one step toward him, my knees threatening to give out. He glared at me, looking as if he was going to rip my throat out if I didn’t leave the area immediately. With shaking hands, I reached up and pushed back the deep hood so that he could clearly see my face.

“Erin?” he whispered, joy filling his eyes as he took a step toward me, but he froze as his brain connected that last of the dots. His joy instantly gave way to horror. A low moan tumbled from his part lips, the sound seeming to echo from the depths of his soul. He stumbled back, shaking his head as he refused to accept what all his senses were telling him. The human he had come to care for was dead and gone forever. I was now just a creature that resembled that woman.

Pain sliced through me until I wasn’t sure how I was still standing. It was like losing my parents all over again. I hurt for Stefan and I hurt for myself. I hurt for what we’d lost. I didn’t know what future we could have had as a nightwalker and a human, but now we’d never know.

It was several minutes of tense silence before Stefan managed to get control of his raging emotions. At long last, he looked at me with only anger. “Why did you do this?”

“What?” I gasped, stunned by his accusation.

“Have yourself turned,” he snarled in answer. “Why did you do this?”

My shoulder slumped with those horrible words, my hope that he might feel some compassion toward me still dying a quick death. He didn’t want me now. He’d only wanted the human and her fragility. I was just chum to him now.

“Go back to Venice, Stefan,” I muttered in a flat voice. “We have nothing more to say to each other. Just tell the Coven that you found my body. Tell them I’m dead.” I was going back to Poland. Daphne was right. This had been a big fucking mistake.

When I tried to walk away from him, heading toward the small iron gate at the back of the square, Stefan grabbed my elbow. I jumped at his touch, instantly jerking away from him at the same time hissing loudly while exposing my fangs. There had been no thought in that moment. Only a survival instinct that swam to the forefront of my mind. The second thought returned, I gasped, clapping a hand over my mouth as if to hide my fangs in shame.

“I’m sorry,” I said quickly in a wavering voice. “You-You surprised me and I-I didn’t think. I’m sorry. I’m still trying to figure this stupid nightwalker shit out.” Not looking at him, I started for the gate again, but in a blur of movement, Stefan had slipped around me and was now standing in front of the gate with his hand extended toward me.

“Wait, please,” he whispered. He paused, his expression twisting in pain and frustration. “I’m … I’m handling this wrong.” He pushed away from the gate and took a slow step toward me. I took at matching step backward toward the center of the courtyard. I didn’t think he meant to harm me, but I just felt safer keeping some distance between us.

“Look, I just came back to … to tell you not to worry about me any longer. I – I can look out for myself. I’d just appreciate it if you’d let everyone else think I was dead and gone. I don’t want any more trouble.”

“And that’s it? You pulled me out of Venice just to tell me you’re not dead.”

“What more do you want, Stefan?” I snapped, finally losing my hold on my emotions and my tongue. “I’ve already died for you. What else is there?”

The nightwalker flinched at the lash of my words and I instantly regretted them. I didn’t want to hurt him. I was scared and confused. We were doing a better job of hurting each other as we both struggled with this unexpected development than finding a middle ground of compassion and understanding. Our relationship had been too new and fragile to try to handle something so horrible. It was cracking under the weight.

“What happened?” Stefan asked, his voice soft and even as he fought valiantly to bring his emotions under control.

Looking down at my hand, I felt a wave of disgust slip through me as the memory rose to the forefront of my mind. “I was grabbed by a pair of shifters, though I didn’t know it at the time. I was taken north to Poland where I was held by a nightwalker called Vanko. He said you told him to change me to a nightwalker. He said that Mira was trying to get rid of you through me.”

“Lies,” he growled in a low voice. “All of it was lies. I would never have just handed you over to someone like that and I had no desire to see you changed.”

“Yeah, that’s what I figured,” I said with a smirk. “I bought myself some time and escaped.” I paused, feeling utterly lost and useless for a second. “But as you can tell, I didn’t get far enough. Vanko caught me. He ... he...”

“You don’t have to say it.”

“I do.” My head snapped up and I swallowed back my fear. I had to say the words to make it real, to finally move past it so I could try to embrace this new life I had been given. We both needed to hear the words. “He killed me in the woods. It was dark and cold and I’d never been so scared in all my life. And when I heard the voice, I held on because I wanted to see you again. I didn’t want you to worry about me.”

Stefan took another step toward me, but this time I didn’t move. He didn’t touch me as I expected. Emotions flashed across his face; anger, frustration, pain, sorrow, and confusion tugged at his lips and sparkled in his eyes. I wanted to close the last few feet of open space separating us and hold him, but I was afraid.

“Is it true?” I finally asked when the silence had stretched longer than I could stand.

“What?”

“They said that you’re a First Blood.”

“Yes,” Stefan replied stiffly and I could almost hear the air of royalty and entitlement in his voice.

“They said that you wouldn’t be able to tolerate me because Vanko made me chum. They said...” I broke off when my voice threatened to crack. Clearing my throat, I pushed on. “They said that I was only unique and interesting to you because I was mortal, and now that I’m chum I’m useless and disposable.”

“God no,” Stefan said in a harsh breath. He closed the distance between us in a blink, gathering me up in strong arms so that I was crushed against his hard chest. “You are my Erin.
Ma petite
. Mine.” His lips came down on mine, capturing me in a searing kiss that wiped away the last of my doubts. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I kissed him back with the same desperate enthusiasm. After nearly three weeks of not seeing him and living in an almost constant state of fear, I wanted to be lost in this man. I wanted him to blot out the world so that there was only the sound of his voice, the touch of fingers, and the taste of his lips.

And for a short time, I did. Now that I was a nightwalker, his scent was so much richer, taking on textures I hadn’t picked up before. He was still the haunting spirit of autumn but now when I dragged him scent into me, it reminded me of spiced pumpkin and cinnamon. He was the crackle of dried leaves and that deep woodsy scent of fire and earth.

There was another aspect to his kiss that I hadn’t noticed before, but it was absolutely intoxicating. I could feel a hint of his emotions now echoing through him as he kissed me. His fear and hunger drifted through me. Sharp joy edged with relief and sadness rippled through the kiss. I let my own emotions loose, knowing that he could feel mine like I could feel his. I wanted him to feel my joy and relief at finding him. I wanted him to sense my trust and the love that was growing for him. Let it become a balm for his lingering anger and frustration.

After what seemed like an eternity, Stefan broke off the kiss and pressed his forehead to mine. “If your question had come from anyone else, the answer very well could have been yes, but never for you. Not even the dark thirst could change you,
ma petite
.”

A little giggle escaped me before I could swallow it back. “I missed that,” I whispered.

“And I have missed you. We have much to catch up on.”

And then we were suddenly airborne. My arms tightened around Stefan’s throat and I buried my face into his shoulder. “What are you doing?”

“I thought we would put a little more distance between ourselves and Venice,” he said over the rush of the cold air. “We need to talk. Tomorrow night, I am hunting down that bastard who touched you and I will make him pay for harming my woman.”

“That’s sweet, Stefan, but there’s no need.”

Stefan’s arms tightened in anger and he turned his head to glare at me. “He terrorized you and murdered you. He can’t be permitted to continue a night longer. He—”

“I’m not disagreeing with you,” I interrupted with a weak smile. “Well, maybe a little. But the point is, you can’t.”

“Why?”

“I ... kind of ... accidentally ... killed him already,” I said, wincing.

“You killed your maker?” he repeated tonelessly.

“It was an accident. He wanted me to feed from this young girl. After I’d accidentally killed the werewolf when he came to fetch me my first night as a nightwalker, I really didn’t think the young girl would survive me feeding so I fought Vanko ... and staked him.” I explained it in a brisk torrent of words as if saying them all at once could stop the look of horror I fully expected to fill his handsome face.

“You killed your maker
and
a werewolf on your first night?” Stefan demanded incredulously.

I cringed. “Yes.”

Stefan laughed. It was a deep, joyous sound that vibrated up his chest. Squeezing me tight, he swooped higher into the clouds, turning in like a pirouette with me in my arms. I held tight to him, confused and relieved by his response.

“You’re going to be a wonderful nightwalker,” Stefan crowed to the stars, somehow managing to sound like a proud father and doting boyfriend at the same time. It was a little creepy. And a little endearing.

I wasn’t feeling quite as confident as Stefan, but I appreciated his conviction. The deaths of Vanko and Otto had been accidents. I’d been desperate to survive and nothing more. For now, I was just happy to be back in Stefan’s arms. My only hope was that I was now on the right track to figuring out why I had been framed for murder and who was trying to hurt Stefan. Those were my top concerns.

I don’t know how long we flew. It didn’t seem too long before we were descending back to the earth so that we were now standing before a large house in the middle of nowhere. There were a few lights dimly shining through the windows, but for the most part, the place was dark.

“Where are we?” I asked, as I stepped away from Stefan and looked up at the elegant three-story home. The windows were shut against the cool night air, but there was some patio furniture set out as if someone had already begun to enjoy the warmer temperatures during the day.

“It’s the home of a friend,” he said, but there was some tension layered in his words as if he were grinding the word “friend” between his molars.

“I always got the impression that you didn’t have friends,” I said nervously.

A reluctant smile tweaked the corner of his mouth and he extended his hand to me. “Since becoming one of the Elders on the Coven, I’ve found that it is in my best interest to acquire a few friends.”

I slid my hand into his and returned his smile. “It’s always good to have someone watching your back.”

Stefan’s soft chuckle danced around me as he tugged me along a path that ran along the side of the house to an entrance that opened from what looked to be a library. “That would be expecting a lot from these friends.”