Page 6 of Claiming Starlight
She put it on.
He helped her move her braids out of the way and gave her a smile of approval. “Good girl.”
For some reason, that smile on his full lips, the brightness of his blue eyes in his warm-toned skin, those words, all combined, caused another hot blush. Living among the vampir had taught her how to fear, but this blushing discomfort and feeling embarrassed was new. He was too attractive, too male. She didn’t know how to deal with him.
Jumper cursed. “Fuck, Micah. Do you need to own all the pussy in town?”
Faster than she could process, Micah’s hand shot out towards the back seat. Jumper made a noise, a gasp, then more cussing. Sophie was afraid to turn and see why. It sounded like he’d hit his friend. Hard.
“What’s your name, little girl?”
“Sophie.”
“Sophie.” He repeated it back. Warmly. “This is Jumper. He’s a dick. I’m Micah, not gonna be a dick to you if you do what I say. Okay?”
She couldn’t look at him, drowning in a jacket that filled her senses with his smell, trembling because something was happening here, and she didn’t know how to stop it. She wished she could wind back the clock, make Alexi listen to her and not come to South Bloc in the first place.
Micah got out of the gas guzzler, making it rock on its axles, and shut the door before coming around the front to open hers and help her out like some gentleman from a movie. He stopped her in front of him and tipped her chin up with a finger, giving gave her another smile of approval, a reassuring “good girl.” His smile made butterflies flutter under her skin.
“You do what I tell you, yeah?” He made her meet his gaze before dipping his as he zipped the jacket as far as it would go. Then he reached down, took her small white hand into his larger brown one, swallowing it in his big paw and tugging her close like they were familiar.
she could do this. Would do this, whatever he wanted. She’d do what he said, keep herself safe until better options presented themselves.
Glancing around, Sophie realized he’d brought her back to the Red House. A rectangle brick building with six floors and a broken elevator, the boarding house was a sanctuary for red-bloods.
It wasn’t anything like the uptown hotels and rentals for humans in the vampir districts. This place smelled like urine and stale beer. It had needed a good cleaning before Apocalypse Day came and needed it more after. They went up the concrete stoop, through the front door as Jumper pushed the heavy thing open for them. Sophie saw the unseelie clerk appear in the office window, take one look at Micah’s blank face and disappear into another room.
Up the stairs two flights, Micah led her to a recess in the wall where she thought an end table or something must have once sat. “Stay here, Sophie. Don’t move. Not one step.”
“Okay.”
She didn’t know what else to do. She wanted to be at home. She wanted to turn invisible every time he looked at her. He called her little girl, but his voice, his eyes, said he saw her as a woman. Terrifying and exciting, she didn’t know what to think about that. He made it hard to think at all.
She was going to be a professional virgin, her future was all planned out. He had to know that when she said she’d give him a lock of her hair. He may not need it for anything—shifters rarely used that kind of magic. Though, if given the chance, many would sell the token. It didn’t negate the value or intent of the original transaction.
The vampir would part her out for the rest of her life. The older she got, the more powerful her blood would become. They would drink from her or take her blood for magic spells It was not the best kind of life. Alexi had sneered at the idea and lost his virginity the first chance he got. Not him, he’d told her. They wouldn’t use him.
But it was not a terrible life. Trained for this position since she was eight years old, Sophie knew what the archon, Silver, wanted from her. Katya was an awful caretaker, but Sophie had been to the brood house many times. She knew not all vampir were selfish and bitter. Most of them were simply indifferent. Sophie wouldn’t have to live with Katya forever.
This handsome shifter had caught Sophie off guard, though. Why did he look at her like that? What did he want? Why did he say “good girl” in that way that made her clench deep inside? This was not the attention she wanted from anyone, especially from shifters, the natural enemies of the vampir. And yet…
She watched as they stopped to knock on a door nearby, pounding hard. “Hey, Diaz. I got some fresh stuff. Let me in, man,” Jumper said.
“Jumper?” Someone the other side answered with muffled cussing. In the alcove, Sophie couldn’t see. She heard the door unlock, its witched security pinging in her head when the seal broke before the door opened.
“Micah!” the man yelped in surprise and fear.
Then there was a struggle, the sound of pushing bodies. Yelling and violence followed, the sound tempered as they receded into the apartment. A slap, hand to flesh, had Sophie flinching in empathy at the sharp sound. Slapped more than once in her lifetime, her skin knew that sound. There was a loud crash. The floor trembled. She could only imagine the cause.
“You got twenty-four more hours, and I know your sorry ass isn’t going to get it done,” she heard Micah say with a growl she felt in her belly.
“I’ll get it done. I’ll take care of him. Told you I would. Just haven’t had a chance. I still got time.” The man inside sounded winded and afraid.
“You still got time. But if I don’t get the message tomorrow and I have to take care of him, I’m taking outallthe trash this time. You understand me? Not just your brother. The whole fuckin’ family. All of you are worthless shits and weak-ass cowards, and I’m done with you.”
“Micah, they didn’t—”
Another blow. Not a slap, this time. The thudding impact of a fist in the gut or face, Sophie didn’t know, but it sounded like something from an action movie. The door was open. She could hear most of the sounds clearly. Sophie inched out of the alcove. Was he beating that man to death?
