Micaela’s Big Bad by Tijan

18

Quesadilla Bitch

I woketo a headache and a thought.This was the second Halloween night she ruined.

Bitch.

My second thought, I hurt like a bitch.

I couldn’t move, not even an inch.

“Tsk, tsk. She wakes.”

I recognized that voice, and growled. Or wanted to growl.

I would’ve growled if I had the energy, and speaking of irony.

“You took my energy.”

“I did.” She sounded so smug, coming to stand above me.

I was becoming more oriented.

She had me strapped to a table, my legs and arms tied down and something over my neck to hold me in place. I felt something warm and sticky all over my body, and judging by the blood on her face, I was guessing it wasn’t her blood.

“I drained you dry, and you were so sweet.” She closed her eyes, looking almost blissful. “An energist’s blood is like honey from heaven. Now I’m going to do what I do to all my other energy bunnies.” She moved, reached out of eyesight, and came back with a syringe. “I drained you, now I’m going to drug you so I can do it all over again. Wouldn’t want you to be able to drain my energy, now would we?”

A moan came from somewhere in the room.

“Who’s that?”

“Cale.” That whimper was Nikki.

I struggled against my restraints. I had enough energy for that. “Let me out!”

“I have your whole group here.”

A punching sound, and another groan. This one was deeper.

“Fucking whore,” was spat out.

That was Brad.

“They all fought for you.”

Brad did?

Quesadilla went on. “It was a valiant effort, but they were outnumbered.”

“Cale, I’m so sorry.”

Slap!

That’d been Jay.

Quesadilla was looking back down on me. She must’ve seen my confusion. “Even the ex fought for you.” She knelt down, her nail drawing a line down my arm, blood seeping from it.

It wasn’t painful. That’s how far gone I was.

“You and Dragon Lord screwed up. You drained me. He beheaded me. You burned my body, but I wasn’t dead. You missed about fifty other vampires I have.”

I narrowed my eyes.

I was trying to summon some fight in me, but I had none. I’d used it all up fighting against my restraints when I heard Nikki’s whimper.

“Are they all here now?”

Some of the cockiness faded. Some. Not all. “Why do you want to know that?” She was raising her head up, a hungry look coming over her face. Her tongue cleaned one of her fangs, and she was eyeing the fleshy part of my arm that she just cut.

I felt the earth rumbling.

Was I the only one?

It didn’t matter.

I felt him coming.

No, no.

I felt them coming.

I was rumbling.

The table I was on was rumbling.

The room was rumbling.

Quesadilla lowered her head, her fangs sinking into my arm. She was oblivious.

I heard things rattling in the room.

Something shattered.

There were curses.

“What the hell?”

A pounding of feet. A door was slammed open. “We have incoming.”

Quesadilla moaned, grasping my arm and holding me tighter to her mouth. She was sucking me dry.

Where are you?

Kieran was Rakon. They were one, and chills went through me.

Quesadilla was going to die tonight.

I felt Kieran’s darkness.

I could see it in the air. It was filling the room, being sent ahead of him. He was looking for me, and once he found me, that energy filled the entire room up. It was coming over me, covering me.

It was moving over my body.

I felt it licking my body, like a dog would lick a hurt paw.

He was trying to heal me, or his energy was.

Another ferocious roar sounded in my head, but I heard it too. It shook the entire room. There was more stampeding happening.

A door crashed open again. “We have to go. Now!”

“What’s happening?”

“Fucking Kieran Raoul is happening. He’s coming for her.”

“What?!”

A vampire came up behind Quesadilla, who was still drinking from me, and reached for her shoulder.

No!I barked at her in my head.

I didn’t know if she heard me, or she just felt me, but she hesitated—and that was enough.

It was Jay’s fuck-friend.

She was studying me, and whatever she saw had her whispering, “Oh God. He’s your mate, isn’t he?”

“What?”

“What?!” from inside the room.

Both were from vampires, or I was guessing vampires, that I didn’t know.

“WHAT?!” That was Nikki.

“Who’s he?” Jay.

“Shit.” Uncle Cream. “What’s everyone going on about?”

There was another roar, and this one shook everyone. Jay’s bitch trembled before she raised her head, turning to face away.

He was here.

I felt him.

In a blink, he swooped in and everyone was gone.

Jay’s bitch.

Quesadilla.

It was silence. An eerie silence.

A third roar, but from farther away.

“Oh my God. He’s eating them.” Nikki sounded anguished.

“That’s one way to kill ‘em.”

I sighed. Brad. Of course.

There was more screaming.

People or whoever was running.

“He’s coming back.”

I didn’t know who said that, but I felt them.

They swooped over us, Kieran and Rakon’s shadow like a quick blink of the eye, and there were more screams.

It was the screams. The sound of terror.

I felt their energy.

It was all being drained down to me.

I was so drained, so weak.

I didn’t want to taste what they felt, but I couldn’t not. I needed to eat. I was too weak otherwise—Do not!

I need to eat.

No. Me. That's it. No one else.

Kieran…

I was so hungry. So tired. So exhausted.

I can’t—

You will! Two more sweeps and I have them all. Hold on. Just, hold on.

He did two more sweeps, and I ignored the energy that was dancing around me. I was almost frothing with drool. I was so hungry, but I held on.

I waited.

Until there was silence.

Someone was crying. Nikki.

Someone was weeping. I didn’t know who.

“This shit is insane.” A whisper from Brad.

A deep thud, and I felt Kieran coming to me.

I was able to move my head, and there he was.

He was looking at me through Rakon’s eyes.

I thought, You’re beautiful.

He was all black, with the points of his scales tinted in blue. His eyes were large and oval, a literal fire inside of them. His body was the size of three football fields. He had blown the house away, so when he walked over, I felt a chill in the air. He seemed to sense this and his head lowered, his breath coming out to coat me like a warm blanket.

He moved to see me more squarely. Are you okay?

I’m hungry.

But it was more.

If our creatures were mates, or we were mates, I didn’t know. I didn’t care at this point. I needed him.

He blinked, understanding there. Trust me, okay?

I closed my eyes. Yes.

A muffled scream came from someone just as I felt more of his hot breath, then his teeth were nudging at my restraints. They came undone. I think one melted under his fire, which only teased at my skin, before I felt his teeth moving over me.

He was scraping me gently.

What are you doing?

Testing your injuries.

“What are you doing to her?”

Kieran ignored them, continuing with my restraints.

He freed my legs.

He was moving to my arm when Nikki yelled, “Hey! I don’t care who you are, if you hurt her—”

Kieran whipped his head around, flames breathing out from his nostrils. You’ll do what?

I had enough energy to look more around, and I saw Nikki shrink backwards.

I knew his voice had gotten inside her head.

“Nik,” I whispered.

Her large eyes moved to mine. I saw her standing in a cage. Where the cage came from, I hadn’t a clue, but she fell down seeing me seeing her. Her hands were wrapped tightly around the bars.

“I’m okay.”

He freed my second arm, and he opened his giant mouth over me.

“He's going to eat you,” she whispered back.

“No.”

His jaws closed over me, but he only lifted me from the table.

I was secure in his mouth. Nothing was hurting anymore.

I was tuned into him and Rakon. Both were worried about me.

He was about to lift off again.

I said to Nikki right before he did, “Trust me. I’ll be back.”

He sprang up, and we were soaring. Going higher and higher.

I was flying.