Haven by Celia Breslin Page A

floor.
    The crowd-diving vampire landed near us, his face a battered, bloody mess. He growled, baring long white fangs in a freakishly wide mouth. Faith shrieked and whipped out her pepper spray, delivering a stream into the monster’s eyes. He roared and shot back out of reach, pawing at his face. Mark shot him in the chest, dead center. The vampire howled. Several more shots from both Mark and Ren and still he advanced on us. We needed better bullets.
    Faith and Kai pulled me away from the carnage. Despair gripped me. We’re going to die.
    “Enough.” Thomas’s voice reverberated throughout the room.
    A chilling silence ensued, broken only by the rasp of my feeble breathing attempts, and the sharp click of Thomas’s footsteps. He approached, accompanied by four, gigantic, undead linebackers.
    Relief flooded me. Thomas would fix my lungs.
    Instead he stalked straight to Alexander.
    “What part of do not touch her did you not comprehend?” he snarled.
    Alexander scowled.
    Thomas flicked a hand at his goons. In mere seconds, two of them enthralled, disarmed and threw Mark and Ren over their shoulders like sacks of potatoes. The other two whisked away Faith and Kai. Without their support, I headed for the ground.
    Thomas scooped me up, leapt off the stage, and rushed me through the club to Heaven. I clung to him, desperate for one little word to extinguish the inferno raging in my lungs. In the VIP lounge, he tossed me onto the couch where, not so long ago, Adrian had pleasured me. I landed in an ungraceful heap, the last bit of air blasted from my lungs. Darkness took me. A sting on my cheek brought me back.
    Thomas leaned over me, his face a mask of fury. “What part of do not touch him did you not comprehend?” Anger poured off him in chilling waves.
    “What would you have of us, sire?” A male voice rumbled.
    The four giants pushed my friends to their knees in front of the couch. My boys were stoned, vampire-style. Faith, however, remained lucid and terrified, her captor’s meaty hands squeezing her delicate shoulders.
    “Thomas Ward, you must help her,” Faith pleaded.
    Thomas harrumphed.
    My eyes burned. He’s going to let me die. He doesn’t love me at all. Maybe he’d loved the thirteen-year-old me, but he’d allow the adult me to suffocate.
    Alexander stalked into the room, a livid lion of a man. “What are you doing?”
    Thomas waved him off. “Stay out of this.”
    “She’s dying,” he snarled, emotion clear on his face.
    “Oh, now you believe?” Thomas straightened his cuffs. “You could not trust my word.”
    Guilt lined Alexander’s face. “But I held back my power this time, it should’ve—”
    “Should have what?”
    “Should’ve been fine,” he finished. “I didn’t mean to hurt her, I just—”
    Thomas stepped into him. “You forget yourself, Youngling. You think like a human, though you are vampire. You scoff at our laws, our ways, you think us old and foolish.” He pointed at me, struggling against a veil of gray threatening my vision. “Witness what happens when you disobey a direct order. You suffer little, vampire, while she suffers greatly for your foolishness.”
    Thomas’s tirade faded into white noise and my body fell into a black ocean where my lungs no longer burned and my limbs floated pain free. I’m dying.
    “Breathe, cara mia , breathe.”
    My lungs obeyed the soft command. Cool fingers feathered over my face. My eyes fluttered open.
    Thomas stared down at me with his hypnotic, green eyes. “There, much better.”
    My anger flared and I bolted upright. “You—” My fist flew at his face.
    He caught it with ease, eyes bright with amusement. “As I said, much better.”
    “Rina.” A frantic Faith reached for me.
    I glared at the huge vampire restraining her, speaking through gritted teeth. “Let her go.”
    Thomas nodded at the big guy and Faith scrambled to me. “Not over. It’s not over,” she babbled. “The door is destroyed, a mind