The Becoming

Avery has the ability to stand so still one might think he was made of iron or steel, and at the same time radiate energy so great it stops your heart and freezes your ability to think or to feel anything except sheer terror. I felt it yesterday in the attic.

I feel it again now.

I have to fight it, calm myself, swallow back the fear and stop the pounding of my blood. He may be older than I am, but I've proven myself with Donaldson and Williams. I have used the knowledge passed to me through Avery's own blood, and I can do it again.

He smiles as he reads all this in my thoughts and interprets the rigid bearing of my body. "You are ready to fight me."

It's not a question, nor is it a simple statement. He's making a joke, laughing at my audacity. The fact that he's chosen to vocalize this emphasizes his contempt for the presumption.

If I have to. I want you to explain why you did it. You knew how important David is to me. My house was a thing, you took that without a second thought, but David is a person-a human being. You had no right-

Before my eyes register the movement, before I can move away, he's come around the table and is standing so close, I feel his breath on my cheek. "Don't speak to me with your mind. You are so tied to mortals, you denigrate the vampire heritage. Use your voice, it's all you have a right to."

He's leaning over me, his mouth at my neck. He's gnashing his teeth as if fighting to keep from tearing my throat out. I have to wonder why he doesn't.

He pulls back an inch. "I thought you wanted answers. You've given me a great deal of pleasure in the last few days. I will tell what you want to know before you die. But," he leans in again, "first, you must tell me. Where did you take David?"

Now it's my turn to let the anger come through. Stubbornly, I send my thoughts out to him. He is safe. And protected. You can't get to him no matter what happens to me.

"Oh you think not?" His hands encircle my waist, pull me close. "I will take the information I need. I will take it with the last drop of your blood."

Every nerve in my body tenses. The adrenaline turns my blood to fire as I prepare to fight. Then I remember Williams. I clear my mind, center myself, let my muscles relax for just the instant it takes to catch Avery slightly off guard. He expected me to lunge or jerk away, instead, I lean in toward him and bring my hands up to rest on his chest. Before he can react, I use every ounce of strength to hurl him away.

He flies back, crashing into one of the wooden patio chairs dotting the pool deck. It splinters under his weight. His eyes widen, then flash. Suddenly, he's on his feet again, a movement so quick it's like an illusion. One second he's on the ground, the next he's coming toward me.

"Very good. I see how you got the better of Williams. Well, I won't make the mistake of underestimating your strength again. Let's see if you are as mentally powerful."

He stops a foot from me, and without warning, his eyes change. I watch transfixed as the pupils elongate, like a cat's, and the color loses depth and becomes translucent. He's using them to bore into my head, to fill my mind with numbing pain that roots me to the spot. I can't even lower my eyelids or raise my hands to ward it off. It's like a laser cutting into my thoughts, seeking out the information and excising it with white-hot efficiency.

Then it stops.

Avery smiles. His eyes morph back into human ones. "Beso de la Muerta. Very resourceful."

No.

"And you've enlisted the help of Culebra. Well. He may prove to be a formidable adversary. But not an insurmountable one."

Leave David out of this.

He starts to circle. "Leave him out? He's the reason I've lost you. I should have simply killed him and been done with it."

Then what? Would you have gone after my parents next, and Max?

"If necessary. Frankly, I thought by this time you would have realized that mortals are food to us, like cattle, nothing more. I chose David to make the point because he is a friend, not a blood tie or an involvement. Once he was out of your life, you could move on.

He seemed the most expendable."

Expendable?

"An object lesson. You would have grieved for him, but that would have passed. Like your home, another tie to your life as a mortal would have been removed. Just as you came to me after your confrontation with the Revengers, and again after the fire, you would have turned to me for solace, and I would have reminded you how temporary human attachments are. I told you once before, it's a lesson best learned at the beginning."

And then I would have been all yours.

"You were all mine. You needed very little persuasion to fall under my spell."

He's still circling, toying with me again like a cat with a mouse, projecting a smug haughtiness that lets me know how insignificant I had proved to be in the scheme of things.

Your spell? Was it a trick, then? The way you made me feel?

He snorts and throws up a hand. "Spell? Merely a turn of phrase. I needed no spell to win you. You are a very sexual woman, Anna. I introduced you to the most pleasurable coupling of all-the mingling of body and mind and blood-and you responded.

Why do you think I chose David and not Max? I knew with Max it would be only a matter of time before you found sex with him unfulfilling. Even if you fed from him, it would not be the same. David, on the other hand, holds you in the stronger grip of friendship. I needed to loosen that grip."

His words prick at my conscience because I know he is right. I wanted to believe Avery somehow worked a spell on me that I was powerless to resist. But the truth is, I found him the most exciting man I'd ever been with. Even now, the memory of how it felt sends an involuntary thrill up my spine.

He laughs at my reaction. "You see."

No. I can fight it. I must. I shake my head, willing the feelings to pass. He's misjudged me. Sex would never be enough to make me forget the rest of what he's done. And I would have found out, one way or the other. He should have let me choose my own path.

Avery picks up on my last thought.

"You sound like a whiny child," he says with another wave of his hand. "'Let me choose my own path.' Why would I? I've lived three hundred years on my own terms. I've always dictated what choices my consorts have, not the other way around."

That ignites a spark within me. "Which might explain why Marianna killed herself."

He reacts as if I'd slapped his face. He rears back, teeth flashing, eyes sparking with fury. "Don't mention her name."

Have I touched a nerve, Avery? What did you want Marianna to do that drove her to take her own life? Did you try to turn her? Did you force yourself on her like you did Dena? Did she refuse to let you take her blood?

Avery lunges at me, bending me back over the table before I can counter his thrust. "I grow weary of this conversation," he hisses in my ear. "It's time to end it."

His teeth grab the skin just at my jugular and start to rip it away. I work an arm between his face and my chest and heave him back.

He doesn't fall completely away, but his body gives enough for me to leverage myself with one hand on his chin and the other on his chest. I push with all my strength, keeping those snapping teeth away from my neck. But I can't reach his neck, either, so we're caught in a macabre embrace.

Anna, look at me.

But I press my eyes shut. I know what he's trying to do.

No.

Open your eyes. You can't resist. You know that.

But I do resist, though I don't know how long I'll be able to hold him off. He's wearing away at my strength and resolve. He's in my head, telling me to let go, telling me how easy it will be and how peaceful when it's over.

No. I won't let him kill me.

I reach deep into myself and channel all my anger towards him for a final thrust. It's a feeling that starts in the pit of my stomach, a fury that gains momentum and power until it explodes outward. Suddenly, it's Avery, not me, bent over that table. I grab his arms and fling him onto the ground, bent on finishing it. He fights back, sending me flying off him and crashing into a chair. I feel it disintegrate into a hundred pieces beneath me. But before I can regain balance, he's on top of me, holding me down. His face moves closer, a smile twisting his mouth.

It would have been so good, Anna. I waited so long for a worthy companion. I reveled in finding you, in showing you what could be. I loved you. I loved you.

His anguish burns through me, first the love, then the hatred. It sears into my brain, cuts nerve endings and flays my flesh. I feel it stripping away. He isn't using his teeth, he isn't draining my blood. The intensity of his hatred peels my skin as if with a knife. I'm on fire. He wants me to suffer before he ends it.

Frantically, I feel around for something, anything, to use as a weapon. My hand closes around a wooden spool, the armrest of the chair I'm resting upon. I snatch it up, grasp it with both hands, and with a single motion, plunge it into Avery's back.

There's a moment when all time stops. Avery's face hovers above me, his eyes reflect surprise, then sadness. A pitiful howl erupts from deep inside him, and in the next instant, he's gone.