Wanted

by Kristen Strassel

  “You lied to me,” she whispered, but there was no missing the scorn that laced her tone. “You meant to bring me here all along.”

  “He’s lying to you.” I moved her, so she could see Olivia in Pierce’s arms. “We found your friend. She needs to get out of here immediately if she has any chance of surviving.”

  “Turn her,” Corynne sneered, wriggling to break free of my grasp, angry when she didn’t succeed.

  “Absolutely not. None of us know this girl.” And I had a feeling she was nothing but trouble after meeting her roommate.

  “You liar!” Corynne’s scream bounced off the trees. She tried to pry my hand away from her chin. I closed my other hand over hers, and she stilled. The life returned to her eyes, but now it held nothing but contempt. Oscar had her long enough to convince her I was the devil he believed me to be.

  I brushed my lips against hers, figuring if anything would jog her memory and make her realize he was the biggest con artist to ever roam the planet, it was that. Her lips moved, but she didn’t kiss me back.

  After six hundred years of being undead, I didn’t think it was possible for my heart to break.

  I cradled her face in my hands and did the thing I promised I’d never do. Glamour her.

  “It doesn’t matter.” Fucking Oscar hung around, waiting for me to fail. In the four hundred years since I turned him, he had been my only failure. It was a mistake I wouldn’t make twice. “She’ll doubt you until the end of time unless you give her every single thing she wants. Your power will be undermined by a human, and she’ll be the downfall of your coven.”

  “So be it.” I didn’t break my gaze with Corynne until she blinked rapidly like she’d just woken up.

  A smile spread over her face when Oscar’s powers disintegrated, and she pulled me into a hug. “I’m so glad to see you!” She looked around us, not stopping on Oscar at all. “Olivia! Is she okay?”

  “No, love, she isn’t.” But I was. For a moment, I expected my heart to beat.

  Corynne bit her lip, frowning. “We have to make her okay.” She looked around again. “Where’s Sabrina?”

  Good question. “She should be with you.” Oscar had figured out a way to separate Corynne from safety. Sabrina had some explaining to do. She shouldn’t have ever let that happen.

  Corynne shook her head, panic setting in. “We came across the cops, and I ran. I didn’t know what else to do.”

  “That was dangerous.” And stupid. But I would’ve done the same thing if I was her. “Look what happened to you.”

  “I didn’t think. It was like last time, I was in the forest, running from the cops... Is there any way to contact her?”

  I turned back to Pierce. “Put Olivia in my car, and don’t come back to the city until everyone is accounted for.”

  “SHE’S LOST A LOT OF blood, but otherwise, she looks to be okay.” Sierra examined Olivia when we got home. She ran her hand lightly over Olivia’s forehead, and Corynne clasped her hands together when Olivia’s lips quivered up into a weak smile. “Now please explain to me why Sabrina didn’t come back with you?”

  I had no explanation for this. I glanced over to Corynne.

  “We were on our way back to the car, and I saw the police. I don’t really remember what happened after that, besides something with Oscar.”

  “He glamoured her,” I said to Sierra. “But I still don’t know how he got her away from Sabrina.”

  “Sabrina sees the best in everyone, even the scum of the earth like Oscar.” Sierra sighed.

  “Why was he allowed to come to auction if he’s so horrible?” Corynne asked, reaching for Olivia’s hand and squeezing it. Another weak smile. “Please tell me he can’t come back now.”

  “We knew he had bad intentions, but we could never prove what he’d done. Once the courtesans leave, we don’t keep any records on them. The council wouldn’t let us ban him from our coven, so we let him in, but now he’ll never be back.”

  “Good.” Corynne looked up from her friend to me. “When she gets the blood she needs, will that make her a vampire?”

  I sighed. “Probably.” And I hoped to hell it would be worth it. This was not something we did without considering every consequence. But Olivia didn’t have much time, and since we put her in danger, we decided to take the chance to save her.

  Corynne nodded and looked away.

  Everyone jumped when the door to the dressing room burst open. Pierce filled the space, carrying Sabrina’s limp body. Sierra rushed to welcome her lover home, but fell to the floor, screaming.

  Pierce shook his head, eyes wide and almost as lost as I’d found Corynne. But he hadn’t been glamoured. He turned just enough so I could see that Sabrina came home for the very last time.

  Without her head.

  Chapter Thirteen

  CORYNNE

  No.

  This had to be a horrible, awful nightmare, but that didn’t make anything any better. Nightmares were worse than the truth.

  Nash rushed to Sierra, who’d fallen in a screaming, sobbing heap on the floor. Other vampires had come out of their apartments to see what was wrong, and panic swept through the building. Sweet, gentle Sabrina had lost her head in the forest. ‘Lost’ made it sound like she got distracted and left it behind. Someone brutally separated it from her body, that’s what really happened.

  And it was all my fault.

  “Do you have her head?” one of them asked. The room swam around me like I was drowning—between the screaming, the blood, the exhaustion of being glamoured by two powerful vampires in one night, and the absolute finality of Sabrina being gone when she was meant to live forever.

  “I looked everywhere,” Pierce said, his voice flat. “The older ones stayed in the forest since they can handle sunlight. They won’t leave until they have her head or know that they can’t get it back.”

  A chance. Something to hang on to.

  I concentrated hard on picturing Sabrina’s beautiful face, her gray eyes and cotton candy lips that always had a smile for me, hoping that I’d see it one more time.

  “Put her on ice,” someone suggested. “It will keep the body intact until we can put her back together.”

  Sierra collapsed beside the bathtub, clutching the hand of her best friend, her companion, her everything. Tears streamed down her face, and she sang softly as if she could will Sabrina back to life.

  “I did this.” I fell against Nash when we got back to his apartment. The sun would shatter the night any minute. I wanted to stay with him, even though everything had changed. I didn’t think he wanted me anymore, and now I doubted he ever wanted me in the first place. The effect of Oscar’s glamour lingered like I was getting over the flu. It could make me sick at any minute.

  “Yes, you did.” Nash did nothing to cushion the blow. “You should’ve never left her side.”

  “But the police—“

  “Did you ever stop to think that you were with a vampire who could cast a spell over a group of humans like you’d order a pizza? Or that maybe someone had just wanted you to think you saw the police, knowing you’d act like a complete fool?”

  It would’ve felt better if he slapped me in the face with every bit of his vampire strength. “You should’ve turned me already. Taught me how to harness my power.”

  Nash scoffed. “Ah, a little bit of Oscar lingers inside you.” He approached me, so close I hoped he’d kiss me and make everything go away. Nope. “You deserve that, for what you did. Now you understand why I don’t turn people without really knowing who they are. And someone who abandons a coven mate—“

  “I’d never do anything to hurt her!” I screamed, but no one came running for me. The tears finally broke through, the gravity of what I’d done pulling them out of me. “I didn’t know what would happen. I need your help. This is what happens when people are close to me. I hurt them, and I can’t fix it anymore.”

  He didn’t comfort me, but he let me cry on his shoulder. The power had beco
me pure evil, whatever was inside of me had lashed out at someone I cared about.

  “I’d planned to punish Sabrina for leaving you unprotected in the forest because she was smarter than that. But now I think you should serve that punishment, so you’ll understand when you’re given an order, you need to obey it. If you have a prayer of becoming a part of this coven, you’ll learn to do that.”

  Whatever it took. I could handle it. I’d happily trade places with Sabrina if it made things better. I nodded.

  “Look at me, Corynne.” Nash stepped away from me and I almost fell. “For Sabrina, Hell on earth was to be alone. She loved to care for people, to make them feel good—” I choked back a sob. I hated the way he referred to her in past tense, but Nash didn’t care. “—Instead, I’ll have you attend to Sierra as she mourns, and your task is to make her understand why she can’t spend forever with her beloved.”

  I gasped, and he nodded. There was more. “If I were you, I’d be thinking of nothing but where to find that head.” Like I could think of anything else. “Desiree will ask for retribution if she thinks you caused this.”

  My days at the coven were numbered. I understood, more than I ever wanted to. “Please.” I could barely speak. “Teach me how to use my power. Or kill me. For real. I can’t live if this is what I do to people.”

  “I’ll think about it. Get some rest. You’ll need it.” He walked away from me and closed the door to his bedroom.

  He’d left me with nothing. I couldn’t lay in these blood-splattered, filthy clothes. I stripped them off and turned the fire on. I lay on the couch, naked and shivering, wishing I could fix everything. Something. Anything.

  At the beginning of the night, Nash wanted to keep me forever. He’d been willing to help me rescue Olivia, who I couldn’t even be happy about finding anymore. I’d throw her back to the forest if it meant one more day with Sabrina.

  No, I couldn’t think that, either. I’d go mad unless someone helped me, and I just alienated the only people willing to do that.

  Sometimes, the visions came in the form of a riddle. I wondered if that’s what Oscar had been. A fortune teller.

  The likelihood of Nash wanting anything to do with me after tonight...I didn’t want to think about my odds. They sucked. I’d have nowhere to turn but the forest and Oscar would be too happy to have me on my hands and knees, covered with blood...

  No. This was it. A one-way train to crazy town, and it had no brakes. I drifted in and out of consciousness, picturing Sabrina in the sunlight, and snapping awake at the reality of her lying headless in that tub of ice.

  I had to take a chance. There was no place else to run. Nash didn’t answer the door when I knocked, so I held my breath and pushed it open. I’d never seen a sleeping vampire, and had no idea what to expect when I picked up the blanket and crawled under it.

  His body shifted. “Corynne?” he mumbled, having no trouble sleeping.

  “Please let me stay with you,” I whispered. Maybe in his dreams, I wasn’t a monster. “I’m scared to be alone.”

  He put his arm around me and pulled me into his still chest. For once, I believed that everything could be okay.

  “WE HAVE THE HEAD!” My eyes snapped open as soon as I heard the chaos in the hall. “Who’s awake? We need you! We have the head!”

  “Nash.” I pushed at him, having no idea what time it was, or if I’d be able to wake him. I hadn’t stayed with the vampires all that long, but some basic knowledge of how things worked would’ve have been priceless. I was too chicken shit to go out there alone, in case anyone wanted to exact some instant justice. After last night, I was pretty sure this crowd was into that sort of thing. Nash might still protect me, even if it was only to make me suffer on his own terms.

  One more hard shove. “Nash! Wake up. They found Sabrina.”

  His eyes opened and he mumbled something unintelligible. I shook him again. “They have her head?” he finally said.

  “Yes! They’re calling for help. You’re the oldest. They need you.” I jumped out of bed, remembering I was naked. I almost asked Nash to borrow some clothes, but that would’ve made things even more disrespectful, like I’d spent the night my friend was murdered getting my brains fucked out. And there was no way I’d ask him for anything. Back to last night’s clothes that stunk of Oscar’s glamour and my fatal mistake.

  Nash made the sign of the cross before leaving the apartment. He hadn’t lost his faith.

  Mayhem filled the dressing room as the vampires frantically worked to save Sabrina. Sierra stood alone, motionless, clutching the wall. Her eyes were huge and unblinking, her face so pale she almost blended into the paint. However much my heart had healed as I rested, it crumbled once I saw her.

  The room fell silent when I appeared behind Nash. My beating heart must’ve alerted them to danger like a ticking time bomb. Nash grabbed my arm; he could read my mind, and he knew I’d run if given a chance. “Go to her,” he commanded, his voice low in my ear.

  Nash forgot about me, joining the group of vampires attending to Sabrina. My rubbery legs barely carried me to Sierra. I had absolutely no idea what to say to her, which was fine because she didn’t acknowledge me. There was nothing else in her world but Sabrina’s lifeless body in that tub.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered. I wanted to reach for her, offer her some comfort, but I’d taken everything away from her. She didn’t acknowledge me, lost in her own world.

  “Everything’s going to be okay,” I added, more to assure myself. I needed her to agree with me if there was any chance of me forgiving myself for what I’d done. Her eyes caught mine, full of desperation and despair, and she shook her head so slightly that I wasn’t sure that it happened.

  I leaned against the wall next to her, hoping she could read my mind, too. Then she’d know it was all a horrible mistake, and I’d change everything if I had the chance.

  The group at the table seemed confused, frustrated, and exhausted. Theoretically, Sabrina’s skin should’ve knitted itself back together, protecting her inner organs while they healed. The problem was while everyone knew it was possible, none of them had ever done it. Some vocalized the fear that Sabrina had been in pieces too long and she wasn’t capable of the regeneration. Sierra’s fingers slipped between mine and I squeezed them.

  They worked so long my legs had gone numb, but I didn’t dare move, or let go of Sierra. I tried my damnedest to keep positive, thinking of Sabrina alive and whole, but exhaustion was getting the best of me.

  “It’s not working,” Pierce said, stepping away from the table. “It’s been almost twenty-four hours. The healing should’ve taken hold by now.”

  “No!” Lady Desiree cried. She’d been in the thick of things, working to save her courtesan.

  “What else do we do?” one of the other vampires asked, completely bewildered.

  Nash wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. “We say goodbye.”

  Sierra slid down the wall, dragging me with her. I put my arms around her, but she shook away from me, crawling toward the table, but she couldn’t make it. She lay in the middle of the floor and sobbed. Two vampires picked her up and brought her to the tub. Lady Desiree held her upright as she said goodbye to Sabrina.

  They carried Sierra out of the room. It didn’t do her any good to be in here. One by one, the vampires murmured their goodbyes and left. Only Sabrina, Nash, and I remained. He bowed his head and prayed softly in French, guiding her on her journey.

  I couldn’t breathe as he approached me. There was nothing else we could do for Sabrina, and I had no idea what that meant for me.

  Nash held his hand out, but I didn’t take it. His skin was gray with reddish purple smudges under his eyes.

  “Come,” he commanded. “I need to feed.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  CORYNNE

  “Take it all.” I tore the neck of my shirt when the door closed behind me. “Don’t bother being gentle.”

  Nash looked like shit,
starvation taking root deep inside him. He could be close to death himself for all I knew. He cocked his eyebrow at me. “I won’t do that.”

  “Of course not.” I sighed, landing on the couch hard. My body hurt. My own hunger, exhaustion, and grief pulled me down to earth. “You’d rather torture me. Kill me, Nash. That way Sabrina won’t be alone anymore.”

  He lifted me from the couch. My body trembled under his grip. “Sabrina’s at peace now.” I cringed when he raised his hand and swallowed my scream when he smoothed my matted hair away from my face. “As long as we live, it’s something we know we can never have unless we meet the final death. It’s the one thing that gives me comfort when I lose a friend.”

  Something flashed in his eyes that cut way deeper than losing Sabrina. “Is that what happened to Alexandra?”

  “I wish I could say so.” Emotion frayed the edge of each word. “Then her death would’ve have come quickly. She was captured by the Nazis before the Second World War. I did everything I could to rescue her, but all I had to track her with was her thoughts. We also shared that bond. They denied her blood and performed experiments on her. She went mad as I searched for her, then her information became too unreliable. Eventually, it stopped coming.”

  He bowed his head like he did when he said goodbye to Sabrina. I put my hand over his heart, wishing I could feel it beat. “I’m so sorry.”

  Nash nodded. I couldn’t see his eyes, his hair cast them in dark shadows. “Being in there with Sabrina, hoping there was some way to save her when I knew we didn’t have a chance, and praying by some miracle I could make it better, I realized how my mistakes could destroy the coven. I could’ve lost you to Oscar after you put all your trust in me. If he could turn you against me, what about the rest of the coven? He’s been waiting for an opportunity to come back to the council and take my place. After losing Alexandra, I stopped caring what happened to me. But I have to protect those who put their faith in me. Especially you. I had no business bringing you to the forest tonight. It was too much of a risk.”