Karolina Dalca, Dark Eyes Read online

  They kept their distance walking around me. The woman with the stroller whispered to her husband. I worked to look normal, while panting, and walked down the sidewalk.

  A taxicab rounded the corner up ahead. I flagged down the cabby. He smiled as he approached, until he was close enough to see the dirt on my clothes. Then the look he gave made me want to jump into the nearest shower. Once he spotted the hundred-dollar bill in my hand, however, he jerked his head to the backseat.

  I hurled myself into the cab before anyone else could see me. “Carleton dorms, Grenville, please,” I said. Forty-five minutes later, we entered the campus grounds.

  “Right here is fine, keep the change,” I said.

  I stepped out of the cab and tossed my borrowed pack on the ground. Carleton University was nothing like the historical buildings of the University of Ottawa. For every dull brown brick the Carleton buildings had, there was an old retired KGB or CIA agent for a professor to go with it. It was part of the charm.

  I peeled off Roman’s sweater and let the cool wind hit my skin. Then I slung the bag over my back again, hoping to blend in. A quick glance around the campus told me it was mostly deserted during the lingering end of summer. The occasional person’s voice quietly chimed in the distance.

  I walked toward my dorm, Grenville, the only place left which had my belongings. Being covered in mud at the airport wasn’t incognito, and I wasn’t about to show my face on a store camera. Spread against the side of the building, I paused to listen. Everything was silent—except for the breeze against the grass.

  I rushed the corner, ready to sprint in and out.

  A low whistle broke the quiet. “Wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

  I spun toward the wall and caught sight of a tall, black-haired man leaning against the bricks. “Oh yeah? Why’s that?” I asked. My eyes surveyed him for a badge. A day ago, I dreamed of being an officer. Now I was afraid of seeing one.

  “They’re waiting for you in there,” he said. “I’m here to help.” His blue eyes studied me back. His face was young and almost boyish, like it’d been frozen in time compared to his athletic body. The accent he had was slight and hard to place.

  “Who is?” I asked and stepped into the building’s shadow.

  His body blurred and streaked forward, so fast, that in the time it took for me to draw a breath, he’d jarred to a halt before me. My hair blew back over my shoulders.

  “You’re not normal,” I said.

  “Thank you?” he asked. “Neither are you, princess. If you want my help, we have to move—now.”

  “I don’t know who you’re calling princess, but I’m not going anywhere with you.”

  “Fine,” he said, “but I’m leaving, because no amount of money is worth dying for a stubborn brat.”

  Dying. He turned to leave, but I stretched for his arm. “What money? You’re being paid for me? By whom?”

  “That’s none of your concern, but what should be is how quickly we get the hell out of here,” he said.

  He presented me with answers, and who was I to look a gift monster in the mouth. “Lead the way,” I said. Instead, he snagged my waist and threw me over his shoulder. I huffed out a breath when my stomach hit like a sack of bricks. He held me in place like I was paper light. I was small, but being half vampire, I was pure muscle. Whatever he was, he had unnatural strength too.

  The world blurred around me the instant he ran. His feet turned up hunks of grass, and a second later my neck jolted when he stopped in the cover of the next building. I kicked my legs out while he rounded the corner, and he threw me down.

  “Fine, but you better run your ass off,” he said.

  I followed and called up my vampiric agility. But no matter how hard I ran, I lagged behind. We took cover again, and then he led me to the Frontenac dorm. He paused at his reflection in the window—fixed his mop of a haircut—and then walked inside. He shot a look at the young lady, a rezdon, behind the front desk. She blushed and buzzed us through the doors. When I joined him at the elevator, he hit the button.

  “How do you have a room here?” I asked.

  “They rent out the empty dorm rooms in the summer. It was the best place to stay close to your dorm and keep a low profile.”

  “What are you, some kind of detective?” I asked.

  “Close,” he said.

  The elevator door beeped open and I followed him in. My face reflected at me in the steel doors. I touched a patch of hickeys on my neck. Guilt and butterflies swirled in my guts, but I reminded myself Roman could show up at any time to try to drag me back into our hometown. I imagined meeting his wolf form again wouldn’t end as pleasantly as the last time.

  When we got off, he opened the door at the end of the hall, and we hurried inside.

  I threw off the backpack and melted into the closest chair. I kicked off my shoes and lay limp for a moment, closing my eyes. I had the uneasy feeling of someone staring at me. I snapped my head up and caught him eyeing up my body.

  “Who are you anyway?” I asked.

  “Andre,” he said. “Private Investigator, but I’ll do anything for money.” He winked.

  “You’re not human,” I said. “What are you?” I stretched out my Charmed senses and felt magic within him.

  “I’m a vampire, princess. Same as you, but with a little extra dark superpower. I’m a full vamp though, and from what I can tell from your dismal amount of speed out there, you’re half.”

  He dragged a chair from the wall and sat across from me.

  “You have the Dark Charm?” I asked. “I should have figured; you ooze sleaze bag.”

  “And you have a little special magic up your sleeve too, don’t you, princess? I bet you get a little hot now and then, don’t you?”

  I narrowed my eyes.

  “And with a name like Karolina Dalca…I bet you’ve got enough training to back up that look you’re giving me.”

  He knew my name, my powers, and where to find me. My eyes fell over his body, sizing him up as he sat across from me. Strong jaw, tall, six feet and maybe four inches, and muscular broad shoulders. I could take him—if I took him by surprise.

  I leapt from my chair, snatched his front chair legs, and flipped him over. He landed on his back with a thud. I advanced and mounted him with one knee over his throat. “Who hired you?” I leaned more weight into his neck. “Why are you here? Who’s looking for me? Who sent the Forged?”

  He choked out a noise. “I can’t speak, ease up.”

  I released my hold.

  He wrapped an arm around my thigh and slammed me to the ground. He was on top of me, pinning down my shoulders and hips in the time it took to blink. His cologne flooded my sense of smell. I fought for an opening, but every strike I made he caught and forced to the ground. Panic birthed a fury in me. I attempted to lash out any way I could.

  “Stop struggling. I’m not going to hurt you,” he said. “Plus, you have the smell of wolf on you; I can’t stand being this close to you for long.”

  With my struggle, I felt the fire spark inside my chest. Heat hummed through the air toward him. He flinched back and flicked his eyes down to me. In that instant they’d changed from blue to swirling black pools.

  “You smell. You are going to take a shower to calm down. Then you are going to come out and have a civil conversation with me,” he said.

  My insides screamed as he let me up, and I robotically walked into the bathroom. I tried to close the door, but my body wasn’t my own. Instead my limbs hung at my side, and the door stayed open. Andre watched, sitting back in his chair with one eyebrow raised as I stripped down.

  “Sorry,” he said. “Wasn’t much time to be specific.”

  Every instinct in my body recoiled, but my hands kept completing the task they’d been ordered. I stepped into the shower, red-faced with nothing but my necklace on. At least there was a shower curtain, so my shattered dignity had a momentary place to hide. The hot water hit my skin, igniting it with plea
sure. After hours in the woods, a shower was a moment of bliss. My rib cage bore a huge bruise which matched the one on my leg. I unwrapped the tiny hotel toiletries, my body still on autopilot.

  When I finished, I opened the curtain and stepped out. Water soaked the floor as I walked toward him. My cheeks burned with heat. I tried to will one of my arms to snatch a towel on the way out the door, but they just felt numb. I stopped before him, water pooling at my feet on ground.

  “Miss Dalca, would you please sit down?” he asked.

  “Yes, of course. Thank you, Andre.” I felt like a droid, following dutifully while my instincts wanted the opposite. I fought to draw up my earth magic. Focusing my will, I called to it, but the Charm didn’t answer. Andre never specified how long our civilized conversation was going to last.

  A warm sensation passed over my skin and my senses snapped back under my control. My arm jolted with the delayed message from my brain, and I lunged off my seat for a towel. I wrapped it around myself frantically.

  His eyes turned back to blue as he laughed. “I’m glad your need for a towel won over your need to strangle me. You really are just a baby vampy.”

  I was so angry my hands shook. My fangs broke through the roof of my mouth, and my skin crawled with the need to tear him apart.

  “Is being naked really that embarrassing for you?” he asked.

  “You’re here for a reason,” I said. “You were hired to come here. Why? By whom?”

  “I’ve been hired by a benefactor to find you,” he said, “and retrieve the appropriate verification of your identity. Once that’s been completed, I’m to deliver you out of the country to my benefactor.”

  I believed the person who hired him might be someone who could help, but unless it was the person at the address, I would be wary. Still, Andre shared a valuable truth—he needed me. I also had a ride out of the country. My toes began to tingle with a familiar sensation. It was my earth magic I summoned. I need more time.

  “What type of verification do you need?” I asked and paced the perimeter of his reach, careful not to look at his eyes.

  “Your birth records, and your mother’s birth-certificate,” he said.

  Interesting. Mine alone wasn’t enough. “And how do you plan on getting those things?” I could feel the magic building in my chest. I focused on a protective spell, and hoped I remembered it right.

  “You’re going to tell me,” he said. “Or even better, give them to me, and don’t think I can’t feel what you’re doing right now.”

  He launched from the chair, his mouth wide and fangs gleaming, causing me to flinch. Within my pause he’d closed the distance. His frightening black eyes reappeared, and he slammed me up against the wall. “Tell me where to find the certificates,” he said.

  But he was too late.

  I let go of the climaxed power in fear, the second he’d sprung from the chair. Now, I stared down the dark pools of his eyes and felt their lure, but my own magic hummed within me. My body was my own. I laughed in his face. “Aw Andre, I wish I could,” I said. “But my house burned down and I’m on the run. If you want my help, you’re going to help me first.”

  “How about, I just rip your throat out instead?” His body shook, and the air crackled around him. Veins of violet lightning streamed across his body, shocking my skin where we touched.

  “Now now, Andre, you can’t touch the cargo,” I said. “Your benefactor didn’t go through all this trouble for you to deposit my dead body.” I hoped.

  The dark lightning around him grew, hitting my skin like needle pricks. He held me against the wall, and the drywall cracked behind me. His black eyes honed in on my neck. His face grew closer with each pulse in my throat, which boomed like a drum in my ears. My instinct was to fight—but incinerating my ride out of the country wasn’t ideal.

  He ran his lips down my neck, sending goosebumps sprawling across my skin.

  “If…this is going to work,” I said.

  He paused at the base of my throat.

  “Then we need to make a deal,” I said.

  He laughed and the wet of his mouth touched my skin.

  “You can’t…” I said.

  “No?” he asked.

  I cringed at my own stammering voice. Pleading wouldn’t help. “Do it,” I said. “Do it and see what your benefactor does to you.” I was bluffing, but I forced more power into my voice. “What will the big bad Andre do then?”

  He tore himself away, punching his fist into the wall. The violet electricity which coated his skin flew from him in a sizzling blast. It burned like a comet into the drywall and a chemical smell filled the air. A large charred crater was all that remained on the wall. He extended his hand to the ceiling and ripped the fire alarm off before the smoke wafted up against the panels, then sat down.

  “What are your demands?” he asked.

  As gracefully as I could manage in a towel, I sat down. “I want the name of your benefactor. I need to know what’s going on, his interest in me. If you give me this, then I will go with you willingly. But first you have to use your crazy mind powers to get my stuff from my dorm.” It felt silly to tack on, but I needed my clothes.

  “Fine, but ladies first,” he said. “Where are the certificates?”

  “Benefactor first or you don’t get them,” I said.

  “Your uncle. Now, where?” he said.

  What the hell type of uncle hires him? I eyed the leather duffle bag by the bed. I needed more information on this man. I needed to know his story was true.

  “In my pack beside you, in the wooden box at the top,” I said.

  He rummaged through the bag, then a gold sphere of light burst outward. With a whooshing noise he flew from his chair and collided with the ceiling. His body fell back to the ground with a thump, and lay limp on the floor.

  I just killed my only lead.

  Chapter Five

  Cat Nip

  Shit, shit, shit. I scrambled over to him. Please be breathing. I shoved his chest, hoping it would recoil. It didn’t.

  “Come on. You’re not dead,” I said.

  After a grueling second, his rib cage expanded. His breathing was sluggish, and from the slack in his face—I knew he was out cold.

  Private Investigator my ass. I unzipped his bag and saw a bunch of folded dress shirts. Nestled between them I could see the spine of a black leather book. It glittered under the lamp, like it was covered with dried blood. I picked up the book.

  A blistering pain ripped up my arm. My hand clamped around the book locking it in my grasp. I flailed, unable to let go. Smoke seethed from the pages, gathering in a ball around my fist. The vapor plume shot outward, slamming me against the wooden desk. My fingertips blackened. The darkness sped up my arm in streaks, feeling like hot knives cutting my skin. I screamed.

  “Andre!” I stumbled toward him and collapsed to my knees. “Andre! Wake up!” I shook him. The pain felt like poison overtaking my senses. I buckled to the floor beside him. “Andre, please!” I tried to shove him again, but my arms contorted against my chest. I kicked at him. “Andre! Wake up!”

  His eyes opened. He jerked his head to the side, squishing his cheek against the floor.

  “Andre!”

  He looked to my face, and then to the book in my hand. “Pay back’sss a bitch.”

  “You bastard. Help me!”

  He rolled onto his side. His legs hung limp as he wormed toward me. With each wheeze, his face looked more paralyzed and bloated.

  “Hurry,” I cried.

  He moaned and dragged himself to my shoulder. “Drink me,” he said. The veins in his neck bulged making him look like a giant toad.

  “No,” I cried, “use your magic.”

  “Drink,” he said.

  My body seized. I jerked forward and faceplanted against his chest. With all my strength I lifted my head into the nook of his neck. My fangs popped through the roof of my mouth. I opened my jaws and let my fangs sink into his swollen artery.
/>   His blood tasted like salted caramel. My eyes rolled back into my head. I swallowed him down. The pain I felt washed away, and my body felt like it was thawing into the carpet. All that existed was the blood and the need for more.

  Andre moaned in my ear. My hand entwined in his hair. I sucked harder. He shoved me away and I landed on my back, panting. The book had fallen from my hand and lay beside me.

  “Oh…my…God,” I said.

  “Your turn, sweetheart,” he said as saliva dripped from his mouth. His skin looked sickly green.

  “But you’re better,” I lied. “It’s fading.”

  “The earth spell is wearing off but I’m weak. I need blood to heal,” he said.

  “But I’ve never been bitten before.”

  He propped himself up against the bed. “Karolina, I need it.”

  “No, you’ll drain me dry.”

  “I’m not eight years old anymore,” he said and yanked me onto his lap. “It won’t hurt, you’ll love it.”

  “Fine. But I’m only doing this because I need you to—”

  He drove his fangs into my neck.

  Pure unrefined ecstasy exploded from the veins in my throat and coursed through my body. My back arched, and I trembled in orgasmic pleasure. He held me tightly against his chest, tugging my hips into his. The towel around me loosened as his hand ran up my back to my neck. My head tilted in a moan. A tingle arose from his skin, alike the sensation of my own magic but stronger and pulsing. Where my thighs lay against him the feeling overtook me again, and I cried out. The warmth of my own magic poured out over our bodies.

  He jerked his face from my neck.

  I looked up at him, breathless.

  His boyish face had returned, and he licked up the blood droplets that trickled from his mouth.

  “You taste—so good,” he said. “Like fire and sunshine. Chili pepper and cinnamon.” He looked down at me and paused…staring at my lips.

  I peeled some sweaty hair from my face and dismounted him, averting my gaze from the huge bulge in his jeans.

  “Why do we taste like that?” I asked.

  “When you drink from another being you taste their soul, their essence,” he said.