A Kiss Is Worse Than a Bite

The flashes begin the same time pain consumes me and my scream is all my body knows. I hear nothing over the roaring until finally the pain begins to douse and sweet bliss starts to warm me everywhere. 

Flowers brush against my legs as I run. I'm laughing. No. Not me. Her ruby dress glitters under the sun, blowing because of the wind distracting me. She's laughing. I love it when she does. I'm gaining on her. Just a little further and—

A knife thrusts into our stomach and I double over in agony, the pain is burning even hotter. 

When we look up, fire surrounds me instead and my senses drag between the two lives as smoke fills my lungs. 

I'm running after her again. Blood is everywhere. We have to get to her. Fear. She's singing. Darkness. She's screaming at me. Hunger. I'm a monster. She's dead.

Grief. 

**Pain!**

**Pain!!**

**Pain!!!**

“Aaaaaaaargh!!!”

A scream jolts me back into the present. The dank, dark corridor comes back into my vision. I blink. What—

“No! Don't go! Come back Lucille!”

A figure lies on the cold floor, rocking back and forth and crying. Three others surround him, trying to calm him down.

“Tyler, snap out of it,” one of them demands, grabbing his shoulders. He turns to the others. “What in Hel is wrong with him?”

“I don't know. When we came in we met him like this." 

“Lucille! Lucille!”

I stare, blinking profusely. Why is someone crying—everything rushes back to me.

The Order is under attack. I was bit. The sting on my neck pulses as I push myself upright, but somehow I'm alive. Why?

My head spins. Have I been turned? My tongue runs through my teeth. No fangs. My heart beats against my ribs. No hunger for blood either. I don't feel different. I'm still human. 

Relief comes hard and fast. Then dies just as quickly. The vampires. My dagger. I need my dagger. I scan the floor. Where is it—a glint near a cell bar catches my eyes. 

Thank the gods, it's reachable. Stilling my breath, I stretch my arm, wincing as I reach for it. 

Almost there— 

Fingers not mine close around it first. The vampire in the cell has picked it up.

“Have you reconsidered opening the gates?" 

My head snaps up.

The green-eyed vampire holds my dagger loosely between his fingers on the other side. 

Behind me, Tyler screams again. “Lucille!”

“Give it back,” I hiss through a clenched jaw.

“Open the gates.”

“Not happening.” 

“Then I suggest you find another weapon.”

I raise my voice. “You—”

Every vampire in the corridor suddenly looks at me.

Ah.

My body lifts from the floor. Before I can blink, an invisible-like pressure slams my back hard against the iron cell bars.

“Ugh…” Once again fire slices through me, but this time my wrists are being forced above my head and as I twist violently, trying to break free, I can't break hold.

Just my luck, they have powers.

“What did you do to Tyler?” One of the vampires steps into my space before I can even fully register him.

Red eyes meet mine but I don’t flinch. Unlike the calm monster behind the bars, this one wears every ounce of his anger openly. 

“I didn’t do anything.”

Behind him, Tyler’s voice cracks again from the floor.

“Lucille… Lucille…”

The name twists inside my head. Flowers. A ruby dress. Laughter. One by one, they flash through my head, then they're gone.

The force around my wrists tightens until I bite back a cry. 

“Shut up, hunter. I'm not talking to you,” he growls, his gaze sliding past me and settling behind me.

He takes another step forward. “I’m not asking again, Kaine. What the fuck did you do to Tyler?”

The corridor falls silent. One beat passes. Then another. I didn't need to see Kaine's face to know his gaze was on me. The prickly sensation on the spot where my neck was bitten is proof enough.

“Nothing.” His reply comes after another long pause.

The eyes in front of me darken. “Do you fucking think I'm stupid?” The pressure around my wrists increases. “Do you think I'll believe that after everything you’ve done?”

“Believe what you like.”

Tyler suddenly lets out another broken sob. 

“Look at him!” the red-eyed vampire snarls. “You got inside his head.”

“No.”

“Liar!” A violent force jerks me higher against the bars and that finally does it for me.

“Enough!” 

The red-eyed vampire’s gaze snaps to mine. “What?”

“If your plan is ripping me apart every time he answers you—” I choke out, lifting my head against the pressure, “then congratulations, you're wasting your time.”

My shoulders burn harder. Great Hel. I bare my teeth, careful not to draw blood. 

“So either stop pretending I'm part of this conversation, or kill me and get it over with.” 

A round of silence passes.

A low huff from behind me breaks it. “Kill her, she says.”

My head twitches toward his cell. Irritation swirls in me. 

Did he actually find that funny? 

Red eyes seem to feel the same way, because the crushing grip cinches until spots dance across my vision. He draws nearer. “Who do you think you’re talking—" 

He stops, his eyes dropping.

For the first time since grabbing me, his attention leaves Kaine completely and settles on the ring of keys hanging from my belt. 

The fury on his face doesn't disappear. It changes.

“Let’s see how smug you are when those bars aren't between us.” 

The threat is clearly meant for Kaine.

The next second, my body jerks away from the bars. My arms drop and my knees nearly buckle. For one glorious second, I think I've been released.

“Open the cage.” He orders, his powers pushing me upright. My relief disappears. His hold is still on me. But he didn't have a hold on my mind.

“I'd rather die.” 

“She’s very stubborn.” Kaine comments.

“Hector.” 

One of the vampires kneeling beside Tyler appears to him in a blur.

“Charm her.”

That's all I hear before he's in my space. One look into his warm, hypnotic eyes and I know something bad is coming.

“Get away from—”

“Won’t you open the gates, my dear?”

This shouldn't have any effect on me. Normally. But I haven't taken the anti-compulsion tonics since being placed on probation. 

“Anything for you.” 

The words spill out despite my horror and I move. It doesn't matter if every nerve in my body is screaming not to. My darling wants me to do this. How could I refuse?

I slide the key to the lock and turn it. The lock clicks and I come to.

Hel.

The cell door swings open. 

Kaine is in front of me and his voice drops as he whispers in my ear. “No matter what,

don't scream.”

The warning sends a chill down my spine. “What do you—”

A hand closes around the back of my neck.

Before I can jerk away, his mouth crashes against mine.