The Replacement: A Culling of Blood and Magic Page 5

  Still, she had to admit, August wasn’t what she expected the crown prince of vampires to be.

  Left to her own devices, and the knowledge Ada had ingrained within her from the age of five, Emery imagined he’d be more like Dracula with a touch more supervillain. While his dominance reeked of villainous tendencies, there was more to him than he let on. He was an artist and a prince. A brother and a ruler. Two sides of a coin she desperately wanted to add to her piggy bank.

  She may not know much about her heritage, but she knew it was dangerous for a witch to want a vampire. August confirmed it. Even led her to believe it may be more of a grey area than the black and white explanation Ada gave her.

  Emery had always been grateful to have been born second. Her life may not have been sunshine and rainbows, but she always believed it was better than being raised by vampires. It was why she struggled to believe Sloane could be happy living at the castle.

  But she was.

  The binder had proved that with pictures of Sloane at events with the other Culling women, smiling and laughing. It didn’t seem to be the fate worse than death like Ada tried to make her believe. And while August was an asshole, he didn’t seem to be anything like the awful creatures Ada described.

  Emery ordered room service for dinner. She wished she hadn’t lost her phone the night before at the club so she could scroll social media one last time as Emery Montgomery. Before she could pick another movie to watch, a knock came at the door. Her heart dropped into her stomach as her hands trembled. Had he come back? She wanted to apologize for how she’d acted earlier. Not that she felt she was completely out of place, but she could have been more kind with her words and not lost her temper with him.

  She opened the door, and her shoulders drooped. Instead of August, a man stood outside her door holding the same formal picture of Sloane she’d seen in the binder. “I’m Lenny. Mr. Nicholson sent me here to make you look like her.”

  Emery slid to the wall inside the door and allowed Lenny to enter. She watched from the corner as he set up a workstation in a robotic manner.

  When she tried to ask him questions, he didn’t respond. It was then she guessed the poor guy was under a compulsion. He’d likely forget her the moment he left the room.

  When it was time to begin, Lenny gestured for Emery to sit in the chair he’d set up in front of the window, giving her a beautiful view of the city. As he swung the beauty cape around her, Emery’s heart constricted. It was really happening. She was becoming Sloane.

  Just one more look in the mirror. One more glance to memorize who she was.

  Tears silently fell down her face as Lenny mixed the natural ash blonde dye to match the rest of her hair. Emery realized then she hadn’t allowed herself to fully come to terms with what she’d agreed to. Learning facts was easy, she’d always loved to learn. But this? This made it real. It was losing her pink locks, a seemingly insignificant part of herself, that threatened to break her.

  They’d been an impulse decision. A way to say ‘fuck you’ to a life micromanaged by Ada. Not to say her life had been terrible with her. She had many happy memories to outweigh the dark ones. Wren and Miles made sure of it, helping her to escape the endless negativity Ada could weave into the tightest blanket of happiness.

  When Ada died suddenly her freshman year of college, Emery vowed that her degree would be the last thing she did that was expected of her by another person.

  As soon as she graduated, she dyed her hair pink and started working at the club with Miles to save for an epic trip around the world.

  Emery winced as Lenny’s brush lathered on the dye that matched her natural hair color. Sloane’s hair color. So much for being herself. There she was, once again, becoming a woman who went along with what she was told to do.

  That wasn't fair, though. This time, she wasn’t doing it out of fear. Well, mostly not out of fear. Going along with August’s plan was her choosing. She willingly agreed to lose herself. All she could do was hope it wasn’t all for nothing.

  Tense at first, Emery eventually relaxed and maybe even enjoyed herself. Lenny took his time making her hair just right. He polished her nails and sculpted her brows. The man even gave her a bikini wax, something she would never forget. Still, she’d never felt so pampered in all her life.

  Lenny wasn’t much of a conversationalist, which didn’t bother her too much. At least, it didn’t until her thoughts drifted back to a certain vampire. One who confused the shit out of her. His hot and cold demeanor, in addition to the secrets he kept, left her suspicious and unsettled. And yet, as much as she didn’t want to be a vampire’s bride, she couldn’t deny the magnetic pull between them. The connection she would likely forever struggle to ignore.

  The battle within her raged on until Lenny finished up her transformation and left without a word.

  Compulsion was no joke.

  Emery stood and made her way to the mirror atop the dresser. She closed her eyes, as if doing so could possibly bring back her old look. After a deep inhale, she steadied her nerves and mentally counted down.

  Three…

  Two…

  One…

  She opened her eyes, and a soft gasp escaped her. Lenny was a magician. She could have fooled herself. It was no longer Emery staring at her.

  It was Sloane.

  “Holy shit. You look just like her.”

  Too busy admiring herself, Emery didn’t hear the door open, or the dark haired vampire sneak up on her.

  In the reflection, she met the obsidian eyes of Malcolm standing behind her. They held each other’s gaze, neither saying anything more. His eyes clearly searched hers for something, but she didn’t know what, her mind too unsure of the moment to help her formulate any sort of thought. He wasn’t the brother she wanted to come through the door, but he stood behind her, nonetheless.

  Malcolm reached up and pulled the front strands of her hair back, then grabbed two bobby pins from the dresser and delicately braided the hair out of her face. “She wore it like this nearly every day.”

  “Thank you,” she managed to whisper.

  When he finished securing the braids, he gently finger combed the rest forward to frame her face. He continued trailing his fingers out to her arms, eliciting a shiver. She tucked her chin and looked down at his hands as they softly touched the silver mark of the Culling.

  She slowly turned around, not realizing how close he stood to her until she was face to chest. Emery braved a look and met Malcolm’s smoldering eyes.

  He licked his lips, his teeth catching the lower between them. In every romance she’d ever seen, that was the signal. The moment just before the couple would inevitably kiss. But that didn’t make sense. Malcolm shouldn’t want to kiss her. She was no one. Even if he saw her as Sloane, her sister belonged to August.

  She searched his eyes for any indication of what he was thinking but found only the same entranced gaze he’d had since walking in.

  “You’re so damn beautiful.”

  Before she could respond, his lips crashed against hers, and his hands tangled in the hair he’d just fixed to perfection.

  Chapter Six

  Malcolm was kissing her.

  She parted her lips to question him, but he took advantage and delved his tongue inside. He was quite the kisser. Passionate. Frenzied. Skilled.

  One thing she knew for sure was his kiss didn’t cause her stomach to drop or make her skin vibrate. It wasn’t a bad kiss, it just didn’t feel right.

  Not like August’s had.

  She deepened the kiss, if only to ensure that there was nothing between them. There wasn’t. It felt wrong. Slimy even.

  Emery gripped Malcolm’s shoulders and pushed him away. “This isn’t right.”

  He stumbled back from her and brought his hands to his lips, dumbfounded.

  “Are you going to say something?”

  “I…I’m sorry. I thought...” His voice was soft, almost defeated. He turned away from her toward the window.

  She wanted to comfort him, but that wasn’t right. He shouldn’t have kissed her. She was a part of August’s Culling. “Thought what? You can’t just kiss me like that.” Which was a load of shit, and she knew it. He was a prince and likely thought he could do whatever he wanted. Even if he shouldn’t. His brother did, after all. Maybe it was a family trait. The difference was, she liked August’s lips on her.

  Malcolm rolled his shoulders back, straightening his stance. When he turned to look at her, his eyes had lost the softness that had been there moments before and were replaced with a cold stare.

  “Pack your things.” His words were clipped short. “August decided it would be better if we brought you to the castle tonight under the cover of darkness. Showing up in the morning might cause more questions than we want.”

  “Are we not going to talk about what just happened?”

  “No.”

  Figured. Fucking blood-sucking men and their inability to take responsibility for their actions.

  Emery held Malcolm’s gaze for a moment longer, trying to understand the moment that passed between them. She usually would push until he talked, but castle educated Sloane wouldn’t, and that’s who she was now. “Let me grab my things.”

  Malcolm didn’t offer to help, instead he carefully watched Emery as she packed. Pacing the length of the window impatiently. Every few moments, he would sigh and shake his head, lost in whatever was eating at him.

  His attitude didn’t improve much once they made it down to the car, a black BMW convertible of all things. He couldn’t keep his eyes off her, but always looked away when she caught him staring. He was quiet for most of the drive, only mentioning it would take upwards of an hour to reach the castle.

  When the silence had reached the point of grating her nerves, she spoke. “What’s going on with you?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Liar.”

  “Just leave it alone, Emery.” His words came out as a deep growl, and he white knuckled the steering wheel.

  “Don’t you mean Sloane?”

  He didn’t answer, but she was afraid if he gripped much harder, the wheel would snap under his strength.

  “Fine. If you won’t tell me why you’re acting like kissing me was the worst thing in the world, will you at least test me on the people at the castle? I think I have them all, but I’m worried I’m going to fuck it up.”

  “You already have. Sloane would never talk like that.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Please, Malcolm? I’m trying here. We’re going to have to be around each other, the least we can do is be cordial.”

  “No. It will be so much more fun to watch you figure it out on your own.”

  “There he is,” she threw her hands in the air. “I knew the asshole tendencies of the Nicholson princes were lurking just below the surface. I was worried you’d gone soft on me.”

  “Still here, and very much hard.”

  Emery tried to keep her mind out of the gutter, but failed, her eyes dropping to Malcolm’s crotch. “Do you really want to see me make a fool of myself? Doesn’t this affect your family too? August mentioned how the situation was a personal slight.”

  “You have no idea,” he muttered, flexing his tense fingers. “Honestly, I think this is a fucking terrible idea, but once we learned of your presence and the magic’s transference to a twin, my father thought it was needed. So, of course, August went along with the plan.”

  “You didn’t know about me?” She tried to hide the hurt in her voice. The fact Sloane never mentioned her twin hurt like a knife to the chest.

  “No.” He pressed the accelerator, propelling the car in sync with the growing tension between them. “You’ll never be her, Emery. You’re crass and impulsive and don’t think beyond the moment. All things Sloane was not.”

  “Look, asshole, I may not have grown up in a castle, but I can be snooty and uptight like the rest of you.” She took a sip of her water bottle, making a show of sticking her pinky up in the air as she did. “I may struggle at first to become the tame, timid girl Sloane was, but it can’t be that hard. She grew up in a castle where she was kept away from the rest of the world. Her life couldn’t be that complicated.”

  He shook his head, and his body went rigid once again. “If only you knew.”

  “Knew what, Malcolm?”

  “Nothing.”

  “No, it’s not nothing.” Her anger became a tangible part of the air around them. It had already been an emotional day, and her nerves were fraying more with every passing moment. “I know you felt something when you saw me earlier, otherwise you wouldn’t have kissed me.”

  Malcolm stayed silent.

  Emery hit her fist against the window. “Damn it, Malcolm, just tell me what is going on! How am I supposed to believably become Sloane if you guys won’t tell me everything?” She turned as best she could to face the older prince.

  Malcolm jerked the wheel to the right, and Emery braced herself, nearly cracking her head on the window. When he hit the shoulder, he slammed on the brakes, thrusting her forward.

  “What the fuck, Malcolm?”

  He turned on her, his brows furrowed and mouth in a straight line. “You want to know what August didn’t tell you? What I keep trying to forget but can’t every time I look at your stupid, beautiful face? Sloane was my everything. She was my reason for existing. She was kind, and patient, and, for God knows what reasons, she loved me, too.” He gazed out the front window. “August had been sneaking Sloane out so no one would know one of his Culling women was seeing another man, which is strictly forbidden. Punishable-by-death, kind of forbidden.”

  Malcolm sighed, he turned, his eyes locking with hers.

  “In reality, he was bringing her to see me. We had a plan.” He choked on his words, and she could see the pain behind his gaze. That powerful vampire was figuratively on his knees as he spoke of her twin. “We were going to tell my parents and make a show of August sending her home. She was going to ask to be turned so we could be together forever, but we never got that chance. She called it off between us and then was found dead the next morning. The morning we had planned to tell everyone of our decision. My very reason for living stopped breathing, and not in the fun vampire way.” He paused and took a deep breath. “Now, I get to see you every day as a reminder I can never have her back.”

  Emery sat, shocked, staring at Malcolm, unsure of what to say. She was on her way to pretend to be her dead twin, only to find out her dead twin’s boyfriend was driving her there to do it. The situation was so much more fucked up than she originally thought, and she wasn’t the only one having to endure. Malcolm was going to have to live through his own personal hell. It was no wonder he kissed her earlier.

  “I’m sorry, Malcolm,” she could only manage a whisper. “I didn’t know.”

  “Yeah, well, now you do.” He spat his words and put the car in gear before getting back on the highway.

  The minutes flew by in silence. With each one, Emery felt like total and utter shit. She wanted to speak, to ask questions, but she knew Malcolm wouldn’t answer.

  Finally, when she spoke, she chose her words carefully. “Did you know I felt her the moment she died?”

  She initially thought maybe he hadn’t heard her, but after a moment, he broke his silence. “You did?”

  Emery nodded, instantly pulled back to the moment it happened. “It was early in the morning. Three a.m., I think. I was in Madrid. I had just left a bar with Wren and some friends we made while traveling.”

  She thought back to how she’d stopped abruptly in the middle of the busy city street, clutching her chest while the group kept walking and making plans for the following day, none the wiser. “It felt as though my heart was being ripped in two. I thought I was dying. And then it was as if a piece of my soul was just gone. Vanished. People say twins have a bond. I always knew I shared something with Sloane, but never put much thought into it until that moment. I know now it’s very real and how lucky I was to have that for twenty-five years, even if I didn’t truly know her. Then, as if on cue, my wrist burned hot.”

  Emery looked down at her wrist, remembering the way the vines appeared, each one etched as if someone had taken a hot piece of steel to her skin. “The moment the mark of the Culling finished branding me, the pull began. All I wanted was to mourn the loss of my sister, but I couldn’t ignore the pull, despite how hard I tried.”

  She wiped a tear from her eye. “I may not understand your connection with Sloane, but I know what it’s like to lose a piece of yourself.”

  Malcolm stayed quiet, giving her nothing of how he felt about her admission.

  They entered the castle grounds via a long gravel driveway, and Emery got her first glimpse of her new home. Even only lit by the moon, the stone castle was magnificent. A well-manicured lawn led to a circular drive at the base of a grand staircase that led to the main entrance. The castle itself looked to be plucked right from a fairy tale, with turrets and spires to complete the medieval feel.

  It was breathtaking.

  She wished Malcolm would slow down so she could admire every minor detail, but she wasn’t about to ask him to. He passed the circular drive and pulled around to a secluded entrance on the side of the castle.

  The car stopped, and the visage of August appeared in the doorway. He stepped out slightly and rested against the frame. He might as well have been a gargoyle with the stoneface glare he gave her.

  Emery reached for the door, wishing she could clear the air between her and Malcolm before facing her new life in the castle. He was literally trying his best to keep it together, and for losing the love of his life just days ago, he was doing a damn good job.

  As she opened the door, Malcolm grabbed her hand and looked her in the eyes. “Thank you, Emery,” he whispered.

  A low growl from behind her broke the moment. Emery swung her head to see August. She glared daggers into his thick skull before looking back to Malcolm. With a squeeze of his hand, she stepped out of the car and into the cool air.