The Society Series Box Set 2

by Mason Sabre

  How the hell did he have this strength and speed if he wasn’t Other?

  In one swift movement, he straddled her struggling body, squeezing her ribs between his thick, heavy thighs and crushing the air out of her. “Ready?” he breathed with an evil grin.

  Gemma pulled, trying to get her arms free. He leant down, his face so close to hers that she could smell his breath, foul and …

  She gasped.

  “You’re Human?”

  “Clever girl,” he jeered.

  She felt his grip on her arms slacken slightly.

  “Damn fucking right,” she muttered, jerking her arms free and slamming her fists into his temples, knuckles first, with as much force as she could muster. Just like her brother, Stephen, had shown her how to do. The man reeled from the blow, but it wasn’t enough to knock him off her. With a curse, he raised a fist and brought it down hard, smashing it into her nose and making Gemma’s vision blur.

  “This isn’t going to happen. I have too much riding on this to disappoint the MacDonalds.”

  MacDonalds? The name pierced her mind through the excruciating pain in her nose, worse than any punch or hit. “Wha—?” she spluttered through the gushing blood.

  The man simply grinned at her, then pulled out a thin, stiletto-like blade. Gemma started to fight in earnest again, desperate. But he held her down easily, raising the blade into the air and bringing it down with an expression of relish on his face. It pierced her shoulder, making her scream.

  Fucking silver.

  It burned like fires from hell and slowly rendered her weak as a baby, sapping her strength. She thrashed feebly, bringing her legs up behind him in another flimsy attempt to throw him off her. But he pushed down a plunger on top of it, and her shoulder exploded in blinding pain.

  Her back arched, her breathing growing shallow as her vision blurred once more. Every muscle in her body contracted and then froze. Her tiger scrabbled to get free, but gradually fell away to nothing. The world around her began to fade, and Gemma was falling … falling …

  “I don’t …” Her words came out slurred.

  “It’s a shame you won’t be awake for this,” he taunted. “But it makes it so much easier.”

  Yes, she thought, it does.

  Fighting to stay awake, she blinked sluggishly, her eyes looking past her assailant … and locking onto a man in a hood …

  Her stalker.

  Standing right behind the Human.

  He raised a blade in the air….

  Chapter 10

  Natalie

  Every step Natalie took, she knew she was walking along an invisible path that would give way any moment and send her plummeting into the deep dark chasm of lost souls and fools. The centre of her chest ached—the visualisations of Cade standing above her and glaring at her. What would happen to her and her family if she messed this up? She was dangling by her….

  Closing the door to Cade’s office, she leant against it, hand against her chest as she tried to calm herself. This was beyond ridiculous. She was a grown woman, and she was acting like a damn teenager around the popular boy, waiting for him to smile at her. She felt like a whore when she was around him—not that he did anything to make her feel that way. No, he had been quite the gentleman. But even that played on her mind … Did he not want her?

  “Stop it,” she berated herself. But it was so damn hard. If it wasn’t for the deal between her mother and his father, Cade MacDonald would never have even looked twice at her. She could tell herself she was attractive all she wanted. She could console herself with the notion that she had a line of suitors … but it didn’t matter.

  Cade’s deep, masculine voice carried through the door as he spoke to someone on the phone. There was quiet command in his tone that demanded he be paid attention to. She pictured him as a father … that was why they were here, after all. She imagined he would never shout at his child. The sound of the deep firm baritone only seemed to set off butterflies in her stomach.

  Stopping by her room, she dressed first, did her hair, brushed her teeth … all the usual morning things. It was odd not to be going to work … not to have that rush before dashing out of the door. She hadn't given up her job to be with Cade, but Trevor suggested that she take a leave of absence for some time while she and Cade got accustomed to each other. Did no one realise that Cade worked so damn much he was hardly ever home anyway?

  When she was ready, she went downstairs to make some breakfast but stopped dead in her tracks at the kitchen door. Tears stung her eyes, and a pang of hurt she had no right to feel hit her. The rabbit she had prepared for Cade for dinner sat on the counter—untouched. She held herself still for a moment as her mind tried to whisper a hundred different reasons why it was still there. None of them were logical, and all of them were pointing big fat fingers at her failure.

  This wasn’t her, though. It wasn’t. She stood in this house feeling like she was coming undone. She was Natalie. Natalie Castle … self-sufficient Natalie who worked in research, spending her days reading books, filing reports and reviewing papers that Humans put out to find anything that would be useful to Others.

  She was Natalie … wolf. She was a god damn fucking wolf for Christ sake, and she was ready to fall apart at the seams for no reason at all—other than the rubbish her mind wanted to make up. She glared at the rabbit and exhaled heavily. So what if he hadn't come home and eaten it last night? So what if she had put it there as a gift to him and he hadn't taken it?

  So … what?

  So what—that was the very thing that was making her feel so out of sorts. She had come home last night after seeing Beth, high with love for her sister and the moment of peace she’d actually had for the first time in a while. The medication finally seemed to be working, and although her mother had said they shouldn’t have hope, she couldn’t help the swell in her heart. If she wished anything for Beth, it was that she would one day have a happy, normal life.

  That was part of the ‘whore’ feeling. She felt odd to be here, to be moving on and marrying a man. It was unfair—she was unfair. Why could she have this and her sister couldn’t?

  Beth wouldn’t want her to suffer, she knew that, she did … but it felt so wrong. Last night had been like a miracle. She had even held Beth’s hand, and … nothing. Absolutely nothing. That was a miracle in itself.

  When she had come home afterwards, she had been too excited to sit down calmly and just read. Her entire body had been so alive with hope and love … she had wanted to share it. Cade hadn’t been home, so she had gone to hunt.

  His house was in such a perfect spot. He was close to the river, but also close to the wastelands rife with wild rabbit and hare. She had caught one for herself and taken the time to sit and eat it. Cade caught and froze his in bulk, but hell, there was nothing like biting into the flesh of a fresh kill with the sweet taste of sunshine and sky still lingering on the animal’s skin.

  Even the note hadn't been touched. The one she’d left saying she hoped he’d had a good day and that she had left a gift for him. She stared at her words and ran a finger lightly over the note now, untouched by Cade. She felt the same hope she had felt when she had written it—please like me. Even though this was just a note, and that was just a rabbit, and the reason it hadn't moved was probably because he hadn't seen it, she couldn’t help but feel the solid ball rising in her chest.

  Maybe she was trying too hard. Kara had said to her. Told her not to overthink things, and if she let it, everything would come naturally. It was okay for Kara to say—she held the power of foresight. Unfortunately for Natalie, she couldn’t see the future for Cade and her. She was too close for that … but she had hope.

  “It’s just a rabbit,” she muttered to herself as she grabbed it and put it in the fridge so it didn’t spoil. He could eat it later if he wanted to, or she would. It didn’t matter.

  One thing Natalie had realised with Cade’s house was that because it was old, it gave away secrets. The walls were
thick stone, built to stand for decades. And it would. But its solidness meant that the leaden pipes were old, too, and they rattled in places when the water was run in another room—like they were now, a gentle bang inside the ceiling above her as Cade showered.

  She had realised that Cade was a creature of habit. He would shower for no longer than ten minutes. He would dress in a clean shirt, tie and pants, and then he would come down for coffee before dashing out to work. Only twice had she ever seen him not do that, and that was on his day off. Day off to Cade meant reading for the morning and then going to work in the afternoon.

  Cade liked his coffee rich and strong, and as stupid as it sounded, Natalie tried her best to make it right for him—like making an art out of it. She’d never been so much into coffee herself, but the cabinet above the coffee machine was crammed with so many kinds—she never knew so many existed. She busied herself with it now, filling the machine with water and the right amount of coffee for it to filter into the pot. So far, every morning, he had taken the time to sit with her ... which might just be him being polite …

  When she had first moved in, it had been so awkward. Both of them asked the conventional questions, making polite conversation just like strangers do. Her mind kept telling her how lame she sounded, and she’d be better if she’d just shut the hell up. But, on the occasion she hit on a topic he loved, his eyes would light up and he would start to speak with relish.

  The coffee had brewed by the time she heard Cade coming down the stairs between the dining room and kitchen—he hadn't carpeted that yet. She sucked in a breath and poured coffee into his mug, hoping that she wouldn’t mess up.

  “I was going to bring this up to you,” she said with a smile, putting the mug down on the table. He was wearing a blue shirt today—usually they were white—emphasising the colour of his eyes and making her weak in the knees. He truly was a magnificent male.

  He dumped his jacket and case file onto the table next to the coffee, a frown marring his brow.

  “Everything okay?” she asked worriedly.

  “Yes,” he murmured distractedly, and then he held up two different coloured ties, one of them with a pattern down the middle. “This one, or this one?”

  Trying to quell the thumping of her heart that he was bothering to ask her opinion, she went over to him and took them from his hands. She held the plain one up under his chin first then the other, trying to look natural and unaffected even as her knuckles grazed his slight stubble and sent her hormones into a frenzy. “Plain one, I think.” She silently congratulated herself for managing to sound cool. “Besides, you’re working on Jessica’s case today?”

  He nodded. “Got to get the warrant off my father.”

  “Then you want a plain tie.” She tossed the patterned one onto the back of the chair, and then dared to reach out and pop the collar of his shirt up.

  He tensed and went to push her arms away. “I can do my own—”

  “Let me,” she said softly, her eyes beseeching his.

  His eyes bored into hers for a moment, and she thought he would say no, but then his gaze softened and he nodded. “Sure.”

  It had been so long since she had done a man’s tie. She had done her father’s so often before he died, but now there were no other men in her life. Cade watched her as she tried to focus, and it was throwing her off. His blue gaze pierced her as if he could read her every thought, as if he could hear how hard her heart was pounding. She cleared her throat and quickly said, “I used to do my dad’s ties when he went to work. It became kind of habit.”

  Cade just nodded.

  “You didn’t get anywhere with Malcolm?”

  “I actually couldn’t get hold of him ... which is strange. He always answers the Council phone. But I can't wait for him. Grieving parent will raid that room soon and then any evidence that might have been useful may well be lost. My father will give me a warrant, mostly just because it will p—annoy Malcolm.”

  Natalie finished with Cade’s tie, skilfully adjusting the knot. Instinctively, she ran her hands along his broad shoulders, smoothing out his shirt the way she would do with her father. It was only when she ran her hands down the hard, solid muscle of his arms that she realised what she had done. She snapped her hands away. “Sorry,” she muttered quickly, stepping back.

  If Cade was bothered, he didn’t say anything. He glanced in the small mirror near the table and pulled the knot tighter. “Good job … thank you.”

  “You can swear in front of me, you know,” Natalie said, trying to get back on topic as she returned to the counter for her coffee … mostly to calm her mind down.

  Cade raised a questioning brow.

  “You were about to say it would piss Malcolm off before, but you changed it.”

  “Sorry,” he said. “Old habit.”

  He gulped down his steaming hot coffee, and Natalie thought he either had no feeling in his mouth anymore, or he wanted out of there quickly. Probably the latter, her inner voice taunted her. She wished to God it would stop.

  “What time do you get off work today?” he asked, flipping through his file. When Natalie didn’t answer, he looked up again. “Don’t you have work today?”

  “No. Your father told me to take leave, remember?”

  “But didn’t you go back?”

  Unable to fully hide her disappointment at the inertia of her life, she shook her head. “Nope.”

  “My father?”

  “He said maybe I need more time off.”

  “Do you?”

  It was a simple enough question, but she felt like she was admitting something bad. “Not really.”

  Cade scowled before saying, “I’ll talk to him about that, too.” She gave a brief nod. “It might be afternoon, or even tomorrow, for you to see the estate. Is that still okay?”

  “Sure, just let me—”

  His phone rang, cutting her off. He knocked back the rest of his coffee, dumping the mug in the sink before answering. “Aaron,” he said into the phone as he picked up his file and jacket. Just a second.” He turned back to Natalie. “I’ll call you later, okay?” And then he was gone, racing out of the door, phone to his ear, file and jacket under his arm.

  The door to his house closed behind him ... closing her into silence …

  Again.

  Chapter 11

  Gemma

  Gemma blinked long and hard, her mind swaying in and out of consciousness. She felt like she had passed out for hours. A gurgling sound somewhere above her had her forcing her eyes open and trying to focus. The Human was still there, sitting over her, his eyes wide, his hands over his sternum where a blade poked out. His brain hadn't caught up with the fact that his heart had just stopped beating on a permanent basis.

  With a strained gasp and a gurgled obscenity, he fell forward. Gemma’s hands snapped out to stop him from falling onto her, but the sudden movement brought a yelp from her as pain lanced through her wounded shoulder.

  The man behind the Human shook his head then grabbed for the man and tossed him to the side like a rag. “Such fragile creatures,” he said with haughty disdain.

  Gemma stared as the Human toppled over and landed on the broken pots with a clatter. The security light went out right at that moment again, as if her stalker had timed it with perfection, plunging them into eerie pre-dawn darkness.

  Then something hissed.…

  She held her breath when she realised the Human was … fizzing ... the way that vampires did. She shuffled back just as his body disintegrated into ashes, spilling out in a heap of black soot across her floor.

  “Shit.... What was that?"

  “Danger.…”

  The man had been Human. She would have bet her life on it. “I don’t understand.” She raised bewildered eyes from the mess on her floor to her stalker—he was vampire, definitely. His face was still hidden from view, but no doubt he could see her perfectly. He had that dead stink about him, although not like the older vampires she had seen. It was as
though they rotted as they lived. For shifters, the older the vampire, the easier it was to detect their scent.

  She tried to slide away, her hand going for the blade sticking out of her shoulder that felt like a hot poker in her bones. "I need to get this out," she breathed, wincing with the effort.

  The man took a step closer as if to help. “No,” she burst out, stopping him. “I can do it.” Her heart was still pounding at the sight of the Human—or non-Human—or whatever the hell he was. There was no scent to him—nothing that would give her a clue as to what he was exactly. It made no sense, but at the moment, he was the least of her worries.

  “Stop,” the vampire rasped, holding his hand out. “Please, do not touch the blade.” His voice was deep, his accent otherworldly.

  “I need to take it out.” Her body was slick with sweat, her head swimming. Tiny teeth of silver seemed to hum under her skin, running through her body until she couldn’t think. “If I don’t get it out soon,” she panted, “the silver will reach my heart.”

  “If you try to remove it, it will surely kill you. Please, allow me. It is armed.” He moved closer again.

  Gemma narrowed her eyes at him. His steps seemed light, cautious … it was as if he wasn’t moving at all.

  “Who are you?” He didn’t answer. Instead, his focus was on the blade. “I can take it out,” she gritted out, gripping the handle.

  “Please ... stop....” When she hooked her fingers under the hilt, every intention of pulling it out anyway, he lunged for her. “The purpose of this blade is to take your life. Have patience,” he growled as he grabbed the blade and her hand. His fingers were warm … oddly warm. He was vampire. She could swear she had gone to some kind of alternate universe where nothing made an ounce of sense.

  She tried to shove him away. “It burns—”

  “I know. I apologise.” He loosened his grip on her wrist. On the top of the blade there seemed to be a sort of decorative pearl. With a quick twist of his fingers, the top came loose in his hand. He hissed as it melted between his fingers, sending liquid silver across his flesh and sending him reeling back, clutching his hand. He uttered words Gemma didn't catch before he finally ground out, “You may remove the blade now.” His fangs had come down, his eyes bright with fury as the silver soaked into his flesh.