The Sharpest Kiss by Elizabeth Myles (the false prince .txt) 📕

“No.” Nathan’s voice was low, his eyes glittering. “You were bitten by a master. As far as I know, they are the only ones who can turn human beings into what you and I now are. And even then, they can only do so if certain magic is employed. The one who bit you must have spoken the correct incantation over you, to complete the transformation.”

Aaron’s mouth twisted into a scowl. “Lucky me,” he muttered. A shiver wracked his body and Lucy, whose hand still rested on his shoulder, felt him tremble violently. His skin felt cold and clammy even through his t-shirt.

“Hey, are you still feeling sick?” she asked.

He swallowed. “A little, yeah.”

Lucy noticed he had circles under his eyes, and that his lips were dry. He didn’t look as healthy as Jason did. She cast a worried glance Nathan’s way.

“As I told you, the bite is liable to affect different people in different ways,” he said. “We should get him inside and give him the elixir.”

She nodded, turning back to Aaron. “We brought some medicine for you. It’s not a cure, but it should help you feel better.”

He let her help him to his feet and back inside, past the others.

In the kitchen, Aaron sat down at the tiny table and watched as everyone else gathered around him. “Hey, Jessica,” he said, seeming pleased to recognize someone. His eyes fell on Jason, and he curled his lip. “Another vampire?” he said. “Just how many of us are there, anyway?”

“We think Jason was bitten by the same woman who got you,” Lucy explained. “We’re trying to help him turn back, too.”

“Turn back?” Aaron’s face lit up a degree. “Is that really possible?”

“It might be.” Lucy flashed a cautious smile. While Kiefer mixed some of the blood and elixir in a glass, she introduced everyone else and, with their help, tried to catch Aaron up on everything that had transpired while he’d been asleep.

“So, what are we going to do now?” Aaron asked when the others had finished their story. He’d drunk his blood/elixir cocktail without any fuss and now, to Lucy’s relief, was already regaining some of the color in his face. He’d stopped shaking and looked more alert.

“Our only hope for turning you and Jason back is to catch this master who attacked you and kill her,” Nathan said.

“You said it was next to impossible to kill a master,” Aaron pointed out dismally.

“Yes, but if it was Celia who bit you, she has been underground, starving, for nearly nine years. It is possible she is weak enough now that she can be harmed.”

“That’s how I killed my master,” Kiefer interjected. Along with Nathan and Jessica, he’d remained standing, and now he had one hand splayed out on the table, leaning his weight against it. Every sinewy muscle in his arm stood out. “Caught her and starved her for ten years, and then dug her up again and chopped off her head. Poof, she turned into a pile of ashes right in front of me, and I went back to normal.”

“That’s great!” Dara said. “Let’s do that to Celia.”

Nathan sent her a small smile. “First we must find her.”

“How did you track her the first time?” Jessica asked. “You told me masters don’t usually turn more than one person. They just bite and then move on.”

“Well, you’re half right,” Kiefer said. “Masters don’t usually turn anybody. Or if they do, it’s only one person. But, if what we’ve heard from other hunters is true, vampires in general do like to feed on people. And Celia’s sure got an appetite like I’ve never heard of, even among vampire-kind. I speculate she’d been underground for a while before she showed up here nine years ago, either by choice or because someone else had captured her before we did. Either way, she was super hungry when she popped up, and she bit at least half a dozen people. Nathan and I hung around the places where she’d attacked, and eventually she showed up nearby. Then we did what I’d done with my master:  threw an enchanted bag over her head and used more magic to put her to sleep. After that, we took her out to the middle of nowhere and buried her in concrete.”

“Well that doesn’t sound so hard,” Jessica said, looking hopeful. “The tracking part, anyway.”

Lucy had to agree. Thank goodness this vampire, Celia, had already been underground for almost a decade. Assuming he still wanted her to, Lucy wouldn’t necessarily balk at waiting ten years for Aaron to recover from vampirism before she hung out with him again. And she had no doubt that Dara would stay with her husband no matter what ended up happening to him. But she was glad it was at least possible neither man would have to suffer as an undead creature for that long. Speaking of which…

“How long were you a vampire, Kiefer?” she asked him. “What happened to you?”

His caramel gaze settled on her. “Me?” he said. “Oh, I was turned back in 1996. Just a kid, barely eighteen years old.” His face hardened. “Yeah, I know. I’d just started getting used to the idea that Cobain was really gone for good, and then this happened. But I’ll tell you what. My master picked the wrong ‘dumb teenager’ to mess with. I’d been studying magic and the occult for years by that point, and I knew a thing or two about vampires. It took me a few years to track her down, but when I found my master, I took care of her pretty quick. In the meantime, while I waited for her to tap out, I spent thirteen years undead.” He glanced at Nathan. “I met Nathan about a year after I turned human again. That’s a different story, but he wound up helping me find Celia, and we took care of her, too. We’ve been watching each other’s backs ever since.”

Lucy