Was he in pain from the bite? There was a smear of blood on his pale neck, but it wasn’t that much. Luc hadn’t wounded Jacks too deeply. But Luc had bitten him. Jacks was probably still testy about that.
But that didn’t seem quite right. Evangeline remembered the way Jacks had nearly dropped her wrist earlier, when Luc had said that he’d been cursed. Jacks had been thrown off-kilter then. Had he been surprised to learn that Luc had truly been under a spell? Or … had it been something else? Had Jacks been unsettled that Evangeline had finally learned the truth about Luc? Luc had said Marisol cursed him, but what if she hadn’t achieved it on her own?
Evangeline felt a sudden wave of sick on top of everything else.
“Did you curse him?” Evangeline asked. “Did you make a deal with Marisol and put a spell on Luc so that—”
“You can stop right there,” Jacks cut in. “I already told you what I think about your stepsister. I did not make a deal with her, and I never will.”
“Then why were you so alarmed when Luc revealed he’d been under a spell?”
“It was terrible timing—and you have absolutely no sense when it comes to him,” Jacks all but growled, jaw clenching in between his words. “For most people, I’m the worst thing that can happen to them. But not you. It’s as if you want that boy to destroy you, and he’s only human—or he was until you helped him change.”
Evangeline wanted to argue. She didn’t care that Jacks was clearly right about Luc and that she actually believed him about not having made a deal with Marisol—which gave her an unexpected feeling of relief. But Jacks still didn’t have to be so cruel about it just because she couldn’t shut off her feelings the way he did. She knew there were downsides to feeling deeply; it could get in the way of logic and reason. But shutting off emotions was just as treacherous.
Evangeline took her frustration out on the stairs, quickening her pace to pass Jacks as they took another flight. They’d finally reached the levels where shackles no longer clung to the walls and Evangeline could no longer hear the desperate sounds of vampire changelings.
And yet, she still felt the occasional bite of heat at her throat. Usually, it hovered right over her pulse. But just then, she felt it on the back of her neck.
She quickly took another set of steps and reached a well-lit landing, where at last she saw the glowing doorway that would take them outside. But the burn at the back of her neck was becoming impossible to ignore.
And why couldn’t she hear Jacks anymore?
“Jacks—” Evangeline broke off as she turned.
Jacks was so close. Too close. Whisper close. She should have heard him right behind her, but he was eerily silent. And his appearance, it had changed. “Your hair—”
The blue was gone. It was gold once more, shimmering and brilliant and absolutely magnificent. She shouldn’t have stared—staring at Jacks was never a good idea. But it was impossible to pull her gaze away. His skin was flushed with color, and his eyes were brighter as well, a radiant sapphire blue. He looked part angel, part fallen star, and completely devastating.
“Evangeline—stop looking at me like that. You’re making this much more difficult.” Jacks spoke between clenched teeth, but she still caught a glimpse of his sharpened incisors, which now looked startlingly like fangs.
There are two different types of vampire bites, Chaos had said. We can bite a human merely to feed from them. Or we can infect our bites with vampire venom to turn a human into a vampire.
She sucked in a sharp breath. Luc hadn’t just bitten Jacks to feed. “He infected you with venom.”
43
Jacks took an eerily silent step back, leather boots soundless against the stone floors.
“You should go,” he edged out, fangs lengthening as he spoke.
Evangeline became very aware of the blood rushing through her veins and the pounding of her heart. If she ever saw Luc again, she would use a sword. She might not be able to cut off his head, but she would definitely be able to cut him.
“Why aren’t you leaving?” Jacks’s nostrils flared, and Evangeline felt another bolt of heat over her pulse, further dimming the brief thrall she’d been under. Jacks was not part fallen angel; he was on the verge of becoming something so much worse.
She curled her toes inside of her boots, fighting the urge to slowly back away or burst into a run. If Jacks bit her, he would change into a vampire. He hated vampires, and she didn’t like them much either. But if she left him now and he found another human before dawn, she didn’t know if he’d be able to exert the same level of control he seemed to possess with her.