Into the void, p.20
Into the Void, page 20
“Exactly,” she said.
“Why doesn’t that happen for normal people?”
“Almost everyone has small levels of magic inside them. The world has always been full of the supernatural, and the human body evolved to survive alongside it. Low levels of supernatural energy allowed people to exist in an environment filled with ambient magic and energy. Otherwise, the magical gradient would have been different and humans would have been filled with magic their bodies couldn’t handle.”
“Makes sense. I think. So I’m an exception.”
“You have no magic inside you. At all.”
“Like a black hole.”
“It’s not a perfect metaphor, but we won’t get into the details of black holes right now.”
Nick smiled. “Fine by me.”
“Do you understand what I was saying? I’m not sure if I explained it properly.”
“You did great. I don’t know how it will help to control the void, but I understand it more now than I did five minutes ago.”
“Don’t forget, it’s just a theory,” she said. “There’s a lot that we don’t know. In my research, some of the stories directly contradicted this idea, so I could be wrong.”
He shrugged. “The stories could be wrong. Rumours get twisted and stories change when people pass them on.”
“Maybe. But there could be more going on. Voids have always been rare, and the ones that inspired stories like those... They weren’t exactly willing to be studied.”
“Because they killed everyone,” Nick said.
Cara hesitated. “Yes.”
“My ancestors didn’t do me any favours, did they?”
***
Chapter 39 - Cara
Cara knew it was a bad idea, but she let herself relax. The world was insane and chaotic and crazy, and it kept trying to kill them, but they both needed to blow off some steam. So she stayed in the bar with Nick, and for a while, they pretended to be normal people.
“Oh my god! Guys!”
Cara turned at the familiar voice, and she spotted Quinn in the crowd, wearing a tight black dress and pushing through a crowd of college boys. They didn’t look like they cared about the hot girl bursting through their group, and Quinn ignored them.
Cara smiled at Jackson and Julia as they followed Quinn, and the three of them approached the table where Nick and Cara sat.
“You never told us you’d be here tonight!” Quinn said, pulling Cara into a tight hug.
“It was a last-minute decision,” Cara said.
“So, you’re back?” Julia asked.
“I’m back,” Cara said.
Nick moved around the table, taking the chair right beside Cara and making space for the others to sit down.
“We should get drinks,” Quinn said.
“We have drinks,” Cara said, but Quinn was already moving towards the bar.
“She’ll be fine,” Julia said, sitting beside Cara. “She had that big exam today, and it went well, so she’s celebrating.”
“Oh, that’s great news,” Cara said. She completely forgot about the exam, even though Quinn had been stressing about it for weeks. “I’m so glad.”
“Yeah, she’s really happy,” Julia said, but her expression made it clear that she knew Cara had forgotten.
Cara sighed and gave both of them, Julia and Jackson, an apologetic look. “I know, I know, I’m a terrible friend. Don’t tell her I forgot, okay? I’ll make it up to her.”
“It’s okay, you’ve been busy,” Julia said.
“It’s not okay, but there’s been so much going on. More than I can tell you.”
Cara glanced towards the bar, and she spotted Quinn moving through the crowd with a tray of drinks in her hand. It seemed impossible that she already got served, but that was typical for Quinn. She had a way with bartenders.
“Thanks for being there for her, Julia. And you, Jackson. Both of you have been great.”
Julia touched Cara’s hand. “Don’t even think about it. We’re there for her, the same way you’re there for us. We all care about each other. Are you okay, Cara?”
“I’m fine.”
“You’ve been... You haven’t been yourself.”
Cara glanced at Nick before she replied. “Can you trust me if I tell you there’s weird stuff going on?”
“Weird? Yeah, I could have told you that,” Julia said.
“No, I mean really weird stuff. Beyond strange.”
Julia frowned. “Like what?”
“No, see, that’s why I need you to trust me. I can’t tell you.”
“Okay,” Julia said, still frowning.
“I... I think I will. I will tell you, but for right now, I need you to trust me. Can you do that?”
Julia nodded. “Yeah, sure, as long as you promise me you’re okay.”
“I’m okay.”
Julia nodded again. “Alright, then. Just don’t tell Quinn. She won’t sleep until she knows whatever secret you’re hiding.”
As if she was summoned by the sound of her name, Quinn appeared from the crowd. The tray of drinks in her hand was full, and Cara laughed when she saw how much Quinn decided to buy.
“We’re celebrating,” Quinn said.
“Cheers,” Cara said, lifting her glass. “To Quinn’s exam.”
“No, no, no,” Quinn said, lifting her own glass. “To us.”
Quinn sat beside her, throwing her arm around Cara, and they turned to other conversations. Normal conversations. Every so often, she caught Nick’s eye, and they were both thinking the same thing. They were having a great moment with their friends, laughing and joking and talking about the things other people talked about.
But it was only a matter of time before they were forced back into the fray.
***
Chapter 40 - Nick
Every day that passed felt like a stolen moment.
Nick was convinced that the coven would come for Cara, but they didn’t. Cara spoke to her parents and calmed them down, but Nick didn’t believe it was that easy. Nick and Cara tried to keep their distance from each other, just in case the witches showed up unexpectedly and thought the evil void was using Cara like a magical battery. So they kept their visits brief and spent the rest of their time apart.
With every hour, every day, it felt like things were returning to normal. Nick knew it wasn’t real, but sometimes, he let himself believe it, just for a while.
Eventually, the witches would come for Cara, and the vampires were being far too quiet. Nick hadn’t heard anything from them since they broke Brett out of the den. They were planning something. They had to be. He just didn’t know what to do about it.
“How’s Cara doing?” Henry asked.
Nick shrugged. “Her family’s not too happy, but it looks like they’ve accepted the fact that I’m not going to kill her at any given moment. Her father almost lost his mind, but she talked him down, and I think it helped that I wasn’t there. Her family knows that I had the chance to kill her, but I didn’t, and now she’s back at her house again.”
“It seems too easy,” Henry said. “I don’t want to rain on your parade, but did they really change their minds that easily?”
“I thought the same. Apparently, the elder witches-” Nick cut himself off to explain, “They’re the ones in charge of the coven, like the leaders.”
“I know how it works,” Henry said.
“Yeah, sorry, of course you do. Anyway, the elders made the decision. I don’t know why. Maybe they’re using Cara as bait to see what I’ll do. Or maybe they don’t want to imprison one of their own. Either way, it’s been almost a week since she left her parents’ house, and nobody is trying to kidnap her and bring her back.”
“That’s good,” Henry said.
“I guess,” Nick said, and he frowned. “The bar for ‘good’ is really low these days, isn’t it?”
Henry laughed. “It’s progress. That’s all we can hope for right now. It’ll take time, Nick.”
Nick gave him a weak smile. “I guess.”
They heard a car pull up outside the house, and the sound of someone getting out and closing the door. Nick tensed, but Henry brushed it off with a gesture.
“It’s just Brett,” Henry told him.
“When did he leave?”
“Late last night. He went hunting,” Henry explained. “But I think he was a bit... embarrassed, maybe? I don’t think he wanted to tell you.”
Nick wanted to protest, but he understood. Brett was still adjusting. They waited, but Brett didn’t come inside. They shared a glance, and Nick led the way outside, but Henry was right behind him with a kitchen knife in his hand.
Weapons, Nick reminded himself. He needed to get better at carrying around weapons.
Brett was standing outside, frowning at the ground.
“Brett? You alright?”
He looked up. “Yeah, but I can’t get past this spot.”
Nick realised that Brett was standing just beyond the lines of runes surrounding the house. “Really? The magic is stopping you?”
Henry walked up to Brett and crossed the wards without a problem. “I should have expected this.”
“Brett came in before,” Nick said.
“He was touching me,” Henry said. “I had my arm around him. As a resident, the spell lets me pass, and I brought Brett with me.”
Brett raised an eyebrow. “So I can’t even get into my own house now?”
Henry held out his hand, but Nick spoke before Brett could take it.
“Wait. You should try to do it yourself.”
Brett frowned. “What do you mean?”
“You’re part void, right? Maybe if you focus, you can get past them.”
Henry looked at Nick. “Is this the right time to try new things?”
“No, I want to try,” Brett said quickly.
“Alright,” Henry said, stepping back. “Just remember, we don’t know how this works. Vampirism might impact your void abilities in unexpected ways.”
“This is insane,” Brett smirked. “Do you ever wonder if we’ve all gone crazy, and this is just a shared delusion?”
“It’s crossed my mind,” Nick said.
Henry sighed. “Just be careful. Being a vampire could negate the void. Most supernatural beings can’t coexist.”
“We’re talking about supernatural creatures,” Brett said. “We’ve definitely gone crazy.”
“At least we’re crazy together,” Nick said.
Brett nodded. “True. Alright, how does this work?”
Nick didn’t have a plan, but he spoke the words as they came to him. “Sunlight doesn’t harm you like normal vampires. That’s survival, self-preservation, so it happened automatically. Like me and magic. If someone attacked me, it wouldn’t work, and I wouldn’t have to do anything. But if I want to actually use the void, I have to focus.”
“So you think I can control it.”
“Maybe. Think about the feeling you get when sunlight hits you.”
“I mean... I guess it doesn’t feel good. Is that what you mean?”
“Yeah. That’s probably the void,” Nick said, and he could feel Henry watching him. “It doesn’t feel good for me, either.”
“Or it could be the sun,” Brett said. “Vampires and sunlight don’t mix, remember?”
“Just try it.”
Brett hesitated, and he reached out, extending his arm until he reached the perimeter of the wards. They glowed and he hissed in pain, but he didn’t pull back. His head tilted, and after a few seconds, the wards went dark again.
Brett stepped closer, but the wards flared up again and he hissed and stumbled backwards.
“It’s okay,” Nick said. “Do you want to try again?”
Brett hesitated. “Yeah. Just give me a minute.”
Nick nodded, and he filled the silence while Brett caught his breath.
“I didn’t know you were going hunting. Did it go well?”
Brett snorted a laugh. “Time of my life.”
“It won’t be forever,” Henry said. “We can contact the blood banks and get everything set up, but right now, the vampire situation in the city is too unstable. I’m sure Samuel has people in every organisation involved in the vampire blood trade.”
“I tried finding bigger animals that would be able to survive losing a bit of blood,” Brett said. “It worked, mostly.”
“It’s still only a temporary fix.”
“You could have taken mine,” Nick said. When they both looked at him, Nick shrugged. “What? I don’t care.”
“Brett’s too new,” Henry said. “It’s far too soon to risk his control with a real person. His first taste of human blood could push him over the edge. We can’t risk it.”
“Killing you would really ruin my week,” Brett said.
“That would be a shame, since you’ve been having such a good time recently,” Nick said.
Brett grinned. “Exactly. You get it.”
“Besides,” Henry said. “You’re a void. We don’t know how your blood would react to a daywalker, or vice versa. There are too many unknowns, and I don’t want to test it out with your lives on the line. If anyone was donating, it would be me, but I still think it’s too soon. Brett doesn’t need my death on his conscience.”
Nick frowned. “And, you know, you’d be dead. Also bad.”
“Very bad,” Brett said. “So no human blood for now.”
Brett took a deep breath, extended his arm, and then grimaced as the runes glowed to life.
“I’ve got it,” Nick said. “We’ll try again another time.”
Nick touched his hand to the ground. The light flowed into his fingers as black veins rose to the surface of his skin. After a moment, the wards flickered and faded to nothing. Nick straightened up, trying to ignore his racing heartbeat and the flash of euphoria.
Brett hesitantly moved forward, and he patted Nick on the shoulder as he passed. “Thanks, man.”
“No problem.”
***
Chapter 41 - Cara
Cara pulled the blinds, giving them some privacy from the outside world. “The coven has been very quiet, but they haven’t given up. I can feel it. We probably shouldn’t stay long. A few hours, at most. ”
“Works for me,” Nick said.
“How’s Brett?”
“I don’t want to talk about Brett,” Nick said, moving closer. “I don’t want to talk about vampires or witches or anything else that wants to kill us.”
Cara smiled. “You’re not doing a very good job.”
Nick grabbed her and pulled her against him, and she laughed, putting her arms around his neck to pull herself up.
“Better,” she whispered.
He leaned down until their lips were almost touching. “Where are Quinn and Julia?”
“Not here.”
He grinned and kissed her, and the rest of the world went away.
Later, Cara curled up on the couch beside him with her head on his chest.
“We should watch a movie,” she said.
His arm was around her, and his thumb ran lazy circles over her skin. “I thought we didn’t have much time.”
“Right now, I don’t think I care.”
Nick chuckled. “Neither do I.”
She untangled herself and stood up, but the doorbell rang, and she sighed.
“I guess things were going too well,” she said. “I’ll be right back.”
She grabbed the clothes she’d lost and pulled them on, glancing over at Nick as she left the room. He was just wearing his jeans, and when he caught her looking at him, he grinned.
The doorbell rang again.
Cara hurried down the hall and opened the door without checking who it was.
“Dad?”
Her father gave her a tentative smile. “Hey, Cara. Can I come in?”
“Uh, sure,” she said, looking up to make sure the door to the living room was open. She could only hope that Nick heard the voices.
Her father already hated him because he was a void. If he found Nick shirtless in Cara’s living room, he might actually kill him.
“Thanks for talking to me,” her dad said, walking inside and heading straight for the open door. “I know things have been rough between us recently.”
“No problem,” Cara said. She ran her fingers through her hair, making sure it didn’t look crazy, and hurried after him. The hallway was too narrow to get past him without making it obvious, so she just held her breath and waited for him to go into the living room.
The room was empty, and she tried to hide the sound of her relief.
She looked around as her dad walked through to the kitchen and pulled out a chair. Nick’s shirt was still lying on the couch, and she slipped a cushion over it when her dad wasn’t looking.
“How are you doing?” Eric asked. “How’s college going?”
“Good,” she said, sitting down and wondering where Nick disappeared to. Her eyes landed on the back door leading from the kitchen out to the back.
“And your friends? How are Quinn and Julia?”
“They’re good,” Cara said. “Listen, Dad, we don’t need to do this. If you’re here to talk about the coven, we don’t have to dance around it.”
He sighed. “The elders haven’t made a decision.”
“So why are you here?”
Eric raised an eyebrow, and she blushed.
“I mean, you’re always welcome, obviously, but you know what I mean. Why are you here right now?”
“I don’t trust the void,” he said.
“Nick,” Cara said. “His name is Nick.”
“I know what his name is.”
Cara glanced at the door again, wondering how much of this Nick could hear. This house wasn’t exactly soundproof.
“Where is he?”
Her eyes snapped back to her father. “What? How would I know?”
He frowned. “Don’t you two... talk?”
“Oh. Uh, yeah, I guess we do.”
“So where is he?”
She had to stop herself from glancing at the door again. She was really bad at this, she realised. “I don’t know. Probably at college, or at home. Do you want to talk to him?”
“Why doesn’t that happen for normal people?”
“Almost everyone has small levels of magic inside them. The world has always been full of the supernatural, and the human body evolved to survive alongside it. Low levels of supernatural energy allowed people to exist in an environment filled with ambient magic and energy. Otherwise, the magical gradient would have been different and humans would have been filled with magic their bodies couldn’t handle.”
“Makes sense. I think. So I’m an exception.”
“You have no magic inside you. At all.”
“Like a black hole.”
“It’s not a perfect metaphor, but we won’t get into the details of black holes right now.”
Nick smiled. “Fine by me.”
“Do you understand what I was saying? I’m not sure if I explained it properly.”
“You did great. I don’t know how it will help to control the void, but I understand it more now than I did five minutes ago.”
“Don’t forget, it’s just a theory,” she said. “There’s a lot that we don’t know. In my research, some of the stories directly contradicted this idea, so I could be wrong.”
He shrugged. “The stories could be wrong. Rumours get twisted and stories change when people pass them on.”
“Maybe. But there could be more going on. Voids have always been rare, and the ones that inspired stories like those... They weren’t exactly willing to be studied.”
“Because they killed everyone,” Nick said.
Cara hesitated. “Yes.”
“My ancestors didn’t do me any favours, did they?”
***
Chapter 39 - Cara
Cara knew it was a bad idea, but she let herself relax. The world was insane and chaotic and crazy, and it kept trying to kill them, but they both needed to blow off some steam. So she stayed in the bar with Nick, and for a while, they pretended to be normal people.
“Oh my god! Guys!”
Cara turned at the familiar voice, and she spotted Quinn in the crowd, wearing a tight black dress and pushing through a crowd of college boys. They didn’t look like they cared about the hot girl bursting through their group, and Quinn ignored them.
Cara smiled at Jackson and Julia as they followed Quinn, and the three of them approached the table where Nick and Cara sat.
“You never told us you’d be here tonight!” Quinn said, pulling Cara into a tight hug.
“It was a last-minute decision,” Cara said.
“So, you’re back?” Julia asked.
“I’m back,” Cara said.
Nick moved around the table, taking the chair right beside Cara and making space for the others to sit down.
“We should get drinks,” Quinn said.
“We have drinks,” Cara said, but Quinn was already moving towards the bar.
“She’ll be fine,” Julia said, sitting beside Cara. “She had that big exam today, and it went well, so she’s celebrating.”
“Oh, that’s great news,” Cara said. She completely forgot about the exam, even though Quinn had been stressing about it for weeks. “I’m so glad.”
“Yeah, she’s really happy,” Julia said, but her expression made it clear that she knew Cara had forgotten.
Cara sighed and gave both of them, Julia and Jackson, an apologetic look. “I know, I know, I’m a terrible friend. Don’t tell her I forgot, okay? I’ll make it up to her.”
“It’s okay, you’ve been busy,” Julia said.
“It’s not okay, but there’s been so much going on. More than I can tell you.”
Cara glanced towards the bar, and she spotted Quinn moving through the crowd with a tray of drinks in her hand. It seemed impossible that she already got served, but that was typical for Quinn. She had a way with bartenders.
“Thanks for being there for her, Julia. And you, Jackson. Both of you have been great.”
Julia touched Cara’s hand. “Don’t even think about it. We’re there for her, the same way you’re there for us. We all care about each other. Are you okay, Cara?”
“I’m fine.”
“You’ve been... You haven’t been yourself.”
Cara glanced at Nick before she replied. “Can you trust me if I tell you there’s weird stuff going on?”
“Weird? Yeah, I could have told you that,” Julia said.
“No, I mean really weird stuff. Beyond strange.”
Julia frowned. “Like what?”
“No, see, that’s why I need you to trust me. I can’t tell you.”
“Okay,” Julia said, still frowning.
“I... I think I will. I will tell you, but for right now, I need you to trust me. Can you do that?”
Julia nodded. “Yeah, sure, as long as you promise me you’re okay.”
“I’m okay.”
Julia nodded again. “Alright, then. Just don’t tell Quinn. She won’t sleep until she knows whatever secret you’re hiding.”
As if she was summoned by the sound of her name, Quinn appeared from the crowd. The tray of drinks in her hand was full, and Cara laughed when she saw how much Quinn decided to buy.
“We’re celebrating,” Quinn said.
“Cheers,” Cara said, lifting her glass. “To Quinn’s exam.”
“No, no, no,” Quinn said, lifting her own glass. “To us.”
Quinn sat beside her, throwing her arm around Cara, and they turned to other conversations. Normal conversations. Every so often, she caught Nick’s eye, and they were both thinking the same thing. They were having a great moment with their friends, laughing and joking and talking about the things other people talked about.
But it was only a matter of time before they were forced back into the fray.
***
Chapter 40 - Nick
Every day that passed felt like a stolen moment.
Nick was convinced that the coven would come for Cara, but they didn’t. Cara spoke to her parents and calmed them down, but Nick didn’t believe it was that easy. Nick and Cara tried to keep their distance from each other, just in case the witches showed up unexpectedly and thought the evil void was using Cara like a magical battery. So they kept their visits brief and spent the rest of their time apart.
With every hour, every day, it felt like things were returning to normal. Nick knew it wasn’t real, but sometimes, he let himself believe it, just for a while.
Eventually, the witches would come for Cara, and the vampires were being far too quiet. Nick hadn’t heard anything from them since they broke Brett out of the den. They were planning something. They had to be. He just didn’t know what to do about it.
“How’s Cara doing?” Henry asked.
Nick shrugged. “Her family’s not too happy, but it looks like they’ve accepted the fact that I’m not going to kill her at any given moment. Her father almost lost his mind, but she talked him down, and I think it helped that I wasn’t there. Her family knows that I had the chance to kill her, but I didn’t, and now she’s back at her house again.”
“It seems too easy,” Henry said. “I don’t want to rain on your parade, but did they really change their minds that easily?”
“I thought the same. Apparently, the elder witches-” Nick cut himself off to explain, “They’re the ones in charge of the coven, like the leaders.”
“I know how it works,” Henry said.
“Yeah, sorry, of course you do. Anyway, the elders made the decision. I don’t know why. Maybe they’re using Cara as bait to see what I’ll do. Or maybe they don’t want to imprison one of their own. Either way, it’s been almost a week since she left her parents’ house, and nobody is trying to kidnap her and bring her back.”
“That’s good,” Henry said.
“I guess,” Nick said, and he frowned. “The bar for ‘good’ is really low these days, isn’t it?”
Henry laughed. “It’s progress. That’s all we can hope for right now. It’ll take time, Nick.”
Nick gave him a weak smile. “I guess.”
They heard a car pull up outside the house, and the sound of someone getting out and closing the door. Nick tensed, but Henry brushed it off with a gesture.
“It’s just Brett,” Henry told him.
“When did he leave?”
“Late last night. He went hunting,” Henry explained. “But I think he was a bit... embarrassed, maybe? I don’t think he wanted to tell you.”
Nick wanted to protest, but he understood. Brett was still adjusting. They waited, but Brett didn’t come inside. They shared a glance, and Nick led the way outside, but Henry was right behind him with a kitchen knife in his hand.
Weapons, Nick reminded himself. He needed to get better at carrying around weapons.
Brett was standing outside, frowning at the ground.
“Brett? You alright?”
He looked up. “Yeah, but I can’t get past this spot.”
Nick realised that Brett was standing just beyond the lines of runes surrounding the house. “Really? The magic is stopping you?”
Henry walked up to Brett and crossed the wards without a problem. “I should have expected this.”
“Brett came in before,” Nick said.
“He was touching me,” Henry said. “I had my arm around him. As a resident, the spell lets me pass, and I brought Brett with me.”
Brett raised an eyebrow. “So I can’t even get into my own house now?”
Henry held out his hand, but Nick spoke before Brett could take it.
“Wait. You should try to do it yourself.”
Brett frowned. “What do you mean?”
“You’re part void, right? Maybe if you focus, you can get past them.”
Henry looked at Nick. “Is this the right time to try new things?”
“No, I want to try,” Brett said quickly.
“Alright,” Henry said, stepping back. “Just remember, we don’t know how this works. Vampirism might impact your void abilities in unexpected ways.”
“This is insane,” Brett smirked. “Do you ever wonder if we’ve all gone crazy, and this is just a shared delusion?”
“It’s crossed my mind,” Nick said.
Henry sighed. “Just be careful. Being a vampire could negate the void. Most supernatural beings can’t coexist.”
“We’re talking about supernatural creatures,” Brett said. “We’ve definitely gone crazy.”
“At least we’re crazy together,” Nick said.
Brett nodded. “True. Alright, how does this work?”
Nick didn’t have a plan, but he spoke the words as they came to him. “Sunlight doesn’t harm you like normal vampires. That’s survival, self-preservation, so it happened automatically. Like me and magic. If someone attacked me, it wouldn’t work, and I wouldn’t have to do anything. But if I want to actually use the void, I have to focus.”
“So you think I can control it.”
“Maybe. Think about the feeling you get when sunlight hits you.”
“I mean... I guess it doesn’t feel good. Is that what you mean?”
“Yeah. That’s probably the void,” Nick said, and he could feel Henry watching him. “It doesn’t feel good for me, either.”
“Or it could be the sun,” Brett said. “Vampires and sunlight don’t mix, remember?”
“Just try it.”
Brett hesitated, and he reached out, extending his arm until he reached the perimeter of the wards. They glowed and he hissed in pain, but he didn’t pull back. His head tilted, and after a few seconds, the wards went dark again.
Brett stepped closer, but the wards flared up again and he hissed and stumbled backwards.
“It’s okay,” Nick said. “Do you want to try again?”
Brett hesitated. “Yeah. Just give me a minute.”
Nick nodded, and he filled the silence while Brett caught his breath.
“I didn’t know you were going hunting. Did it go well?”
Brett snorted a laugh. “Time of my life.”
“It won’t be forever,” Henry said. “We can contact the blood banks and get everything set up, but right now, the vampire situation in the city is too unstable. I’m sure Samuel has people in every organisation involved in the vampire blood trade.”
“I tried finding bigger animals that would be able to survive losing a bit of blood,” Brett said. “It worked, mostly.”
“It’s still only a temporary fix.”
“You could have taken mine,” Nick said. When they both looked at him, Nick shrugged. “What? I don’t care.”
“Brett’s too new,” Henry said. “It’s far too soon to risk his control with a real person. His first taste of human blood could push him over the edge. We can’t risk it.”
“Killing you would really ruin my week,” Brett said.
“That would be a shame, since you’ve been having such a good time recently,” Nick said.
Brett grinned. “Exactly. You get it.”
“Besides,” Henry said. “You’re a void. We don’t know how your blood would react to a daywalker, or vice versa. There are too many unknowns, and I don’t want to test it out with your lives on the line. If anyone was donating, it would be me, but I still think it’s too soon. Brett doesn’t need my death on his conscience.”
Nick frowned. “And, you know, you’d be dead. Also bad.”
“Very bad,” Brett said. “So no human blood for now.”
Brett took a deep breath, extended his arm, and then grimaced as the runes glowed to life.
“I’ve got it,” Nick said. “We’ll try again another time.”
Nick touched his hand to the ground. The light flowed into his fingers as black veins rose to the surface of his skin. After a moment, the wards flickered and faded to nothing. Nick straightened up, trying to ignore his racing heartbeat and the flash of euphoria.
Brett hesitantly moved forward, and he patted Nick on the shoulder as he passed. “Thanks, man.”
“No problem.”
***
Chapter 41 - Cara
Cara pulled the blinds, giving them some privacy from the outside world. “The coven has been very quiet, but they haven’t given up. I can feel it. We probably shouldn’t stay long. A few hours, at most. ”
“Works for me,” Nick said.
“How’s Brett?”
“I don’t want to talk about Brett,” Nick said, moving closer. “I don’t want to talk about vampires or witches or anything else that wants to kill us.”
Cara smiled. “You’re not doing a very good job.”
Nick grabbed her and pulled her against him, and she laughed, putting her arms around his neck to pull herself up.
“Better,” she whispered.
He leaned down until their lips were almost touching. “Where are Quinn and Julia?”
“Not here.”
He grinned and kissed her, and the rest of the world went away.
Later, Cara curled up on the couch beside him with her head on his chest.
“We should watch a movie,” she said.
His arm was around her, and his thumb ran lazy circles over her skin. “I thought we didn’t have much time.”
“Right now, I don’t think I care.”
Nick chuckled. “Neither do I.”
She untangled herself and stood up, but the doorbell rang, and she sighed.
“I guess things were going too well,” she said. “I’ll be right back.”
She grabbed the clothes she’d lost and pulled them on, glancing over at Nick as she left the room. He was just wearing his jeans, and when he caught her looking at him, he grinned.
The doorbell rang again.
Cara hurried down the hall and opened the door without checking who it was.
“Dad?”
Her father gave her a tentative smile. “Hey, Cara. Can I come in?”
“Uh, sure,” she said, looking up to make sure the door to the living room was open. She could only hope that Nick heard the voices.
Her father already hated him because he was a void. If he found Nick shirtless in Cara’s living room, he might actually kill him.
“Thanks for talking to me,” her dad said, walking inside and heading straight for the open door. “I know things have been rough between us recently.”
“No problem,” Cara said. She ran her fingers through her hair, making sure it didn’t look crazy, and hurried after him. The hallway was too narrow to get past him without making it obvious, so she just held her breath and waited for him to go into the living room.
The room was empty, and she tried to hide the sound of her relief.
She looked around as her dad walked through to the kitchen and pulled out a chair. Nick’s shirt was still lying on the couch, and she slipped a cushion over it when her dad wasn’t looking.
“How are you doing?” Eric asked. “How’s college going?”
“Good,” she said, sitting down and wondering where Nick disappeared to. Her eyes landed on the back door leading from the kitchen out to the back.
“And your friends? How are Quinn and Julia?”
“They’re good,” Cara said. “Listen, Dad, we don’t need to do this. If you’re here to talk about the coven, we don’t have to dance around it.”
He sighed. “The elders haven’t made a decision.”
“So why are you here?”
Eric raised an eyebrow, and she blushed.
“I mean, you’re always welcome, obviously, but you know what I mean. Why are you here right now?”
“I don’t trust the void,” he said.
“Nick,” Cara said. “His name is Nick.”
“I know what his name is.”
Cara glanced at the door again, wondering how much of this Nick could hear. This house wasn’t exactly soundproof.
“Where is he?”
Her eyes snapped back to her father. “What? How would I know?”
He frowned. “Don’t you two... talk?”
“Oh. Uh, yeah, I guess we do.”
“So where is he?”
She had to stop herself from glancing at the door again. She was really bad at this, she realised. “I don’t know. Probably at college, or at home. Do you want to talk to him?”
