Everything a pained blur, I fight my way through the crowd, stumbling, taking hits, dishing them out as I try to get to Elijah and Jack. And as the shifters around me start turning on each other—the carnage grows. As they tear each other apart with human teeth and nails, the screams are deafening.
But at least we’re no longer the only targets.
Fearghas yells something from the back of the room, but I can’t make out the words as I meet the brown eyes of the man I kneed in the nuts.
“Hey, bitch.” He spits at me. “Not so tough now, are you?”
“Had to wait until they wore me down? Now, I guess it’s a fair fight.” I hold up the daggers I’ve barely managed to hold on to this entire time, ready for a fight. Fearghas was supposed to dematerialize out to get our weapons if we needed them, which is why I didn’t bring more than two fucking daggers with me. If I’d known the bastard would get bloodthirsty and distracted, I would have brought more.
Power beckons to me, the void begging to be opened—to be filled.
I could easily access it—let myself go for a time—but after Heather, I can never know if it will be me coming back.
And the last time I lost control, I nearly killed Jack.
The man grins at me. “I can’t wait to take you down a few pegs.” Dropping his shoulder, he charges, slamming against my abdomen. I drive both blades down into his back, and he roars in anger, tackling me to the ground. His hands bury in my hair, and he rips me off the ground and rears back, attempting to make me kiss the bar top. I rotate though, sweeping out with a leg and dropping us both to the ground again.
My ears ring with the force of my head’s impact with the floor. My vision sways, and I roll away, my daggers unfortunately still buried in his fucking back. Which makes me broken, bloody, bruised, and without a fucking weapon. Perfect. When he stares down at me again, it’s with eyes so black I can see my reflection.
He lunges toward me, and I put up my one good leg, kicking him in the chest and sending him back a few feet. Someone blurs into the room and grabs the man by the throat, ripping. Blood flies in all directions as Tarnley tosses the guy’s esophagus to the side and turns to me. Without a word, he yanks me from the ground and throws me over his shoulder before racing outside.
We move so fast I don’t have time to look for Elijah, Fearghas, or Jack, but when Tarnley sets me down near the entrance, I breathe a sigh of relief as all three of my escorts race out right behind us, an army of deranged shifters following.
The doors slam shut as they hit it, solid hitting metal, and chains appear out of nowhere, looping through the handles and sealing every one of them inside as they continue to roar and beat against the door.
I turn my head to look behind me, and I’m pleasantly surprised when Bronywyn, dressed in stark white, hair in a tight bun, stands a few yards behind me.
“That should hold them,” she says and wipes her hands on pristine jeans.
“Fuck, Rainey.” Elijah’s at my side in what feels like the blink of an eye, so either he’s gone vamp again, or I keep half blacking out.
Since my vision wavers again, I’m guessing it’s the latter.
“You just had to go and get mouthy, didn’t you?” Fearghas jokes. Though I can see no humor on his face. All three of the men before me are covered in cuts, scrapes, bruises, some more serious than others. Blood drips down Elijah’s forehead. His mouth is split in two places, and when he glares over me at Fearghas, I’m genuinely concerned about what he might do to the fae.
Especially when he stands and marches straight for him, stopping only inches away. “Why the fuck didn’t you get us the hell out of there?” he demands.
Fearghas steps right up into his face. “My magic was useless inside. Someone spell blocked the bloody place.”
“Probably why they couldn’t shift.” I cough, gripping my ribs as I attempt to use a car to stand. Tarnley is beside me, helping me before I can refuse.
Not that I would have, my body fucking hurts.
“How did you know where we were?” I ask the vampire.
“Elijah called. Said, and I’m paraphrasing here, the fae bastard had failed you, and if I didn’t get my ass over here straight away, everyone was going to die.”
“Dramatic much?” Fearghas asks, and Elijah growls.
“Rainey nearly died, you fucking asshole.”
“In case you missed it, we all nearly died,” Fearghas reminds him. “I’m sure Rainey would want to remind you that the world does not revolve around her. The rest of us don’t want to die either.”
“Are you okay?” Jack asks me, and I nod.
“Nothing I won’t recover from.”
“What the fuck was that?” Elijah asks Bronywyn. “How did we not make them as supernaturals?”
“My best guess is glamour. Since I wasn’t actually here when the spell was cast or broken, I can’t know for sure. They were all supernaturals?”
My thoughts drift back to the bartender. “Shit, I don’t think the bartender was.”
“She’s dead now,” Tarnley says. “No way in hell a human could survive in there for long.”
“She was tucked away behind the bar. Maybe we can sneak in the back and check.”
“Oh, for the love of—witch, can you remove the spell block?” Fearghas snaps.
Bronywyn closes her eyes and snaps her fingers. “Done.”
Fearghas disappears and reappears a few seconds later. “No one was behind the bar. If she was there, she’s dead now. Happy?”
“Thrilled that an innocent woman is dead,” I reply dryly.
Elijah comes to my side and wraps an arm around my waist. I lean against him, letting his solid body hold me up as pain radiates through every inch of my own. “Can we go somewhere now? I’d like to sleep for three weeks.”
“Bronywyn said you can stay at her house up in the mountains. Since the police aren’t aware of your connection, it should be safe.”
“Are you sure?” I ask her, and she nods. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Elijah knows the address.” Then, she turns to Tarnley. “Think you can take me back now? I am not at your beck and call every second of every day.”
He looks to Elijah.
“We’ll be fine,” he assures him.
“Then let’s go.” Tarnley turns back to Bronywyn and leads her over to her car.
Jack turns to Fearghas. “We ready to go?”
Fearghas’s reply is to reappear right beside us. After grabbing my hand, which is clutching Elijah, and clasping Jack’s shoulder, we leave the dead and dying behind.
26
Elijah
Lying on my side, I study Rainey’s bruised face in the dim light of dawn. Her entire cheek is purple, starting from her strong jaw and leading up over the bone just beneath her eye. No matter how many times I tried to sleep last night, my mind kept reminding me—over and over again—that she came within moments of dying.
Had Tarnley not shown up when he did—I shut my eyes and swallow hard. I would have lost her all because Heather shoved that fucking cure down my throat and took away every advantage I had.
I’d felt helpless before, when we thought someone was trying to pull her into the void, but now? I feel completely and totally useless.
And for the first time in over four hundred years, I long to be what I once was. A vampire with witch blood in his veins.
Sighing, I roll over onto my back and stare up at the ceiling fan as it turns slowly above us. How the fuck am I supposed to cope with this? How am I supposed to fight alongside her when one moment could steal her away?
“Morning.” Her sleep-filled voice whispers.
I turn my head to look at her. “Morning.”
“What are you thinking about?”
Sighing, I stare back up at the ceiling. How am I supposed to tell her that I hate what I am now? “We came close last night.”
“It was definitely one of the more insane hunts I’ve ever been on,” she agre
es. Because that’s what Rainey does—she downplays when things are over. And it frustrates the shit out of me. I sit up and scoot back to lean against the headboard.
“You nearly died, Rainey.”
She sits up and faces me, stretching both legs out. I let my gaze travel down them, settling on the huge black and blue patch of skin from where her shin was shattered. I heard the bone crunch, watched her stumble, and had been completely helpless to do anything about it.
“I didn’t die.”
“No, because Tarnley showed up moments before that fucker would have killed you.” I shake my head angrily and cross both arms across my chest.
“What’s going on with you?”
As I consider how I’m supposed to tell the hunter I love that I hate being a hunter, I take a deep breath and try to rationally approach the situation. Rainey has always been a warrior—a cop. She plunges into danger every single damned day without focusing too much on the potential consequences.
Hell, I pulled her from those vampire tunnels she ran right into without a single thought. So why am I so damned bothered by that fact now?
“I can’t protect you like I used to,” I admit. “You are vulnerable, and there’s not a fucking thing I can do to help.”
Rainey arches her brow and folds both hands into her lap. “You think you can’t protect me because you aren’t a vampire anymore.”
“Had I been? I wouldn’t have needed Tarnley to rescue you. I could have gotten us all out in the blink of an eye. Instead, I was stuck fighting yards away while you were being beaten half to death.”
“Elijah, I’m a hunter. Impending death is kind of my thing. It’s possible he would have killed me before the night was over, but it’s also just as possible I would have rebounded and kicked his ass myself.” She sighs. “I told you when we first started this that I refused to let it change who I am. I won’t bow down and be a damsel just because that’s what you need in order to feel the hero.”
“I don’t want to be a hero. But I sure as fuck don’t want to lose you.”
“I can’t promise that you won’t,” she replies honestly. “Just like you can’t promise me that nothing will ever happen to you. Shit, we may both die before this thing is over, and that terrifies me so damned much I was willing to go after Heather alone. But you told me we had to stand together, that we’re stronger at each other’s sides.”
Every word she speaks seeps into my mind, doing nothing to settle my racing heart.
“I’m sorry she stole who you were, but that doesn’t change who I am.” Reaching forward, Rainey rests a hand on the comforter right over my thigh. “If that alters how you feel—”
I grip her hand immediately. “There’s not a damn thing that will change how I feel about you, Rainey. But you have to understand that I need to shield you, I need to fight for you even if you can hold the blade yourself.”
“Then let’s just agree to stand side by side. I have enough silver for both of us.” She climbs onto my lap, straddling me, and I grip her thighs, swallowing hard as I stare up into dark, caramel-flecked eyes that have become my grounding rod.
“I’ll never leave your side, Rainey. Not if I can help it.”
She smiles and leans down, pressing her lips to mine in a gentle caress that knocks the very air from my lungs. Hands buried in my hair, she slides her tongue into my mouth, slowly, easily.
Slipping both hands beneath her shirt, I slide them up her bare skin, feeling the warmth of the woman beneath my fingertips. She grinds against my cock, torturing me with the sensual movement.
“I’ll make you a deal,” she whispers against my mouth before kissing me again.
“I’m listening.”
“If you promise to stop trying to alpha me in a fight, I’ll let you be the boss of me in the bedroom.” She pulls back and grins wickedly at me.
“I can try.”
“Then own me, Elijah Hawthorne.”
My fingers dig into the skin of her back as I roll her over, pinning her beneath me. Thighs wrapped around my hips, I thrust against her, the thin layers of clothing feeling more like prison shackles.
“I already do.” I smile at her.
“You do.”
“But you own me too,” I whisper and kiss her deeply, one hand propping me up, the other gripping her hip. She moans against me, a throaty sound that drives me wild. Leaning back just enough to hold myself with my knees, I grip the bottom of her shirt and pull it up over her head. “Every time I see you,” I say as she lies back down and I toss her shirt to the side, “you are even more perfect.” I cup her breast, running the pad of my thumb over her taut nipple. She moans, arching up into my touch.
My cock is painfully stiff, begging for release, but the idea of tormenting her is far too delicious to pass up. So instead of driving into her, of burying myself inside her heat, I pull away and hold her eyes as I draw black lace down her legs.
“What will you do with me?” she asks, and I grin, kneeling beside the bed.
“Whatever the fuck I want.”
Rainey’s answering smile is fucking gorgeous. And it only grows when I grip her ankles and yank her toward the edge of the bed, bringing her pussy right to my mouth. She arches up as I run my tongue over her, again and again.
The way she cries my name, the way she feels beneath my fingers—my tongue—it’s my kryptonite.
Out there, she may be a feared hunter.
A badass warrior.
But in here, she’s a woman. My fucking woman.
She cries out, gripping the sheets with white-knuckled hands as her orgasm tears through her. I don’t stop though—not while I have every intention of owning every part of her and showing her just what it means to be alive.
After all, it’s what she did for me.
“Elijah,” she whispers as I draw her clit into my mouth, sucking gently, drawing every ounce of pleasure I can out of her. “Please.”
I pull back just long enough to ask, “What is it you want from me, Hunter?” I run my tongue over her again, and she shivers. “Tell me what you want, Rainey.”
“You.”
Getting to my feet, I shove my shorts down and watch her as Rainey’s gaze travels down over my body. I’ll never tire of the way she sees me. “How will you have me, Rainey Astor?”
“Any fucking way I can.”
Covering her body with mine, I take her mouth as I drive into her. Heat surrounds me, warming me from the inside out as I thrust into her body, again and again, her fingernails scraping against my back, urging me to move faster. And I comply, because she may make jokes about me being an alpha in the bedroom and a partner in war, but in reality, she can control my every thought—moment—with no effort.
She owns me. My name leaves her lips again as she comes, and I fall right along with her, my body shaking with the force of my release.
And as I lean my forehead against hers, unwilling to leave her body, I realize just how far I’ve fallen over the last few weeks.
Rainey Astor is my everything.
My heart.
My soul.
The hunter who brought me to my knees.
And I don’t ever want to get back up.
“Why does Bronywyn have a second house all the way up in the mountains?” Rainey asks as she joins me on the porch an hour later. Wrapped in a blanket, she hands me a mug of coffee and sits beside me on the bench as we stare out over the trees.
“She’s never been an overly social person,” I tell her.
“You don’t say. I’m surprised, given her sparkling personality.”
I chuckle and take a drink of coffee. “She didn’t used to be that way, I fear her current attitude toward you is my fault.”
“I can’t blame her. If you ditched me, I’d be pissed too.”
“I left her as much for her as myself.”
“Did you love her?”
“No. But to be fair, she didn’t love me either.”
Rainey doesn’t say anything,
just leans her head against my shoulder, and I lift my arm, wrapping it around her shoulders.
“We were a distraction from everything going on around us,” I admit. “That’s all it ever was, and had I broken things off cleanly, we probably could have remained friends.”
“Shit happens,” Rainey says. “And you two are friends. If you weren’t, I very much doubt she would be hanging around like she does.”
“Probably not. Though, between you and me, I think she has a thing for Tarnley.”
“Color me surprised,” Rainey says with a laugh.
I watch her smile, the way it fades softly as the sun rose this morning. When she turns to me, I can’t look away. “What? Why are you staring at me?”
“You’re beautiful, you know that?”
Color floods her cheeks. “And now I’m embarrassed.”
Chuckling, I press a kiss to her temple as we sit in companionable silence for a few minutes. It’s so peaceful—this morning between us here in the mountains. And it’s a direct contrast to the current state of our world.
Still, I will take advantage of every calm moment I can get my hands on. At least until there is no more battle to fight.
“Do you think it’s possible for me to reach the power in the void?” She pulls away from me and rotates so she’s facing me instead of looking out over the trees.
“What do you mean ‘access it’?”
Her brow furrows, and she pulls her bottom lip into her mouth as she processes whatever’s on her mind. As I wait, I try not to let fear cloud my mind. The last time she accessed this void, Heather was the one who surfaced, and while I know that won’t happen this time, it doesn’t erase the considerable concern something else might happen. It’s not like luck has really been on our side lately.
“The world is changing, Elijah. Last night at the club—that just proved as much. We can’t afford to keep getting caught off guard. If we die, she wins. Hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent humans will die if she manages to unleash her evil on the world. We can’t let that happen.”
Blood Cure: A Paranormal Vampire Romance (Vampire Huntress Chronicles Book 3) Page 17
