by Cynthia Eden
When you knew someone so well, it was easy to work their weak spots. He knew just how to make Tore suffer.
His brother had begged him for death over twelve hundred years ago. When he’d seen what Grim had become. When he’d found the bodies and known that he’d be the next to feel Grim’s fangs on his throat.
There’d been no controlling the bloodlust. No stopping the vicious thirst. But he hadn’t wanted to stop it. He’d just wanted to kill.
He’d granted his little brother’s wish. Too bad Tore hadn’t stayed down.
“He’ll be our next project,” Grim said, giving a nod. “It’s time we freed him from his torment.” A gift.
The music ended. He glanced over at the woman. Heaving chest. Glistening lips.
He’d screw her first.
Then kill her.
“It’s a pity. I always loved my brother.”
Malik didn’t speak. Didn’t call him a liar. Or a fool.
And Grim was both. After all, he’d let Tore survive for this long. He should have taken his head long ago.
But when his brother had woken—just like me.
Sentiment. Attachment. So yes, he had a soft spot for the man he’d known as his brother. Tore had tried to save him once, right before his father’s bitch of a new wife had betrayed them all.
Tore had come to him, worked to free him from the chains, but there hadn’t been enough time.
Too many warriors around them. Too much rage.
Blood eagle.
He squeezed his eyes shut but the memory of agony seared his flesh. His hands reached behind him automatically, touching his back.
No wings.
But he’d never forget, never. The snap of his ribs, the jerk backward—
Death had not come fast enough as his blood spilled onto the ground.
The silence hit him then. Thick and complete. His arms still behind him, he looked up at the dancer. Dark skin. Long, supple limbs. Her eyes were on him. Studying. Watching.
Watching like all those others. Watching and laughing as he fell to the ground.
No one had helped him then. No one.
“We’ll kill the Born bitch.” Grim’s voice came out hoarse. He’d screamed that long ago night. Screamed until they took his breath and ripped his lungs out.
Blood eagle. No myth of Viking torture. Real. Real.
He would not die again. The vampiress coming would know the agony. Not him. Not again.
She’d die. He stepped forward. The dancer lifted her chin and asked, “Kill me…or change me?”
Humans were always wanting to live forever. He reached for her and didn’t answer.
Because he’d never wanted to be a liar.
Or a killer.
Such a pity he was both.
Chapter 13
That day Simon dreamed of agony. Of a snow-covered battlefield that turned from white to red beneath him. Simon twisted on the bed, jerking and shuddering, but he couldn’t make his eyes open. Couldn’t escape.
Hands caught his body. Held too tight. Two men. One on each side. Long braids surrounded their faces. Thick helmets sat on top of their heads and some kind of cape or cloak billowed behind them.
A scream burst from him as fiery pain pierced his back. Simon choked, struggling for breath. He heard a snap, as if a bone were breaking. Again—
What the hell?
Pain, so much pain. Death would come. Death had to come. I will die with honor, I will not—
“Wake up, vampire.”
His eyes flew open at the soft voice and he sprang up, breath heaving. His hands flew to his back. He expected to find the flesh torn open, his ribs ripped out and broken, to look like—
“You dream of him.” Catalina eyed him and shook her head. “His link to you is growing once again.”
Fuck, no. Simon ran a trembling hand over his face.
She glanced toward the door. A cheap motel room door. They were on the Louisiana/Texas border. She’d come with him and Dee. Come with the demon and the Ignitor—the woman who could only sit and cry.
“If you don’t kill him soon, he’ll start to control you again.” No censure there. Catalina just seemed to be stating a fact.
Okay, she was stating a fact.
Simon climbed from the bed. When had the witch come in? “Where’s Dee?” He reached for his shirt. Good thing he still had his jeans on or Catalina would’ve gotten a show.
“With Zane. She wants him to take the human away.” Catalina blew out a hard breath. “He wants to stay by Dee’s side.”
He yanked the shirt over his head. “Do you know what’s going to happen?” He’d first gone to Catalina weeks before. He’d known she was close to the hunters at Night Watch. He’d told her about Grim and asked if she understood what would be coming.
“I’ve been waiting for you.” Her first response. “You’re the one who’s come for Dee.”
Her shoulders rolled and she glanced back at him. “I know if I go with you, I die.”
He blinked at that. “You been looking into the future?” There was a price for that. A heavy one. And looking forward took dark magic.
She gave him a weak nod and rubbed her right hand over her forehead. “It was the fire. I had to make sure I wasn’t going to—”
The door swung open. “Well, that guy is a pure asshole.” Dee stormed inside. “Won’t listen to a thing I say, and the woman—Nina—she’s doesn’t even seem to know where she is.” She stopped, blinked. “Uh, what’s going on?”
Catalina’s spine straightened. “I’m leaving.”
Dee gave a fast smile. “Good. I knew you’d see reason, at least. I mean, you could have stayed in the city, you didn’t even have to come this far.”
“Everyone is going to die, Dee.”
Her lips parted. She hesitated. “Wh-what’s that?”
“I looked.” Catalina shook her head. “I saw death. Zane was surrounded by flames. I burned. Nina—her throat was cut.” She swallowed. “And you…”
“What about me?”
Catalina’s eyes darted to Simon.
Shit. Not good.
“You die, Dee.” Said again, softly. Sadly.
“I’ve already died once.”
“You won’t come back this time.” Catalina looked back at her. “You can’t win against Grim. I saw—”
“You’re afraid.” Dee’s arms crossed over her chest. “I know you are. Hell, I’m scared, too, okay?”
Had Dee just admitted that? No way. Simon stepped toward her but she threw up a quick hand. “Just…hold on. When you touch me, it’s hard to think.”
Well, damn.
She turned that hand and pointed at Catalina. “You can’t look into the future when you have fear in your heart. Even I know that.”
Catalina didn’t speak.
“You mess with the Dark, and it’ll show you the things that scare you the most, not what will be.” Dee gave a hard sigh. “I’ve been playing these games for a while, and I know about witches. And what you can and can’t see.”
“I saw death.” Catalina’s hands clenched. “I’m not going to a slaughter for a fight that can’t be won.”
“He killed my family. Simon’s family. Nina’s family. He won’t stop.” Dee paused, then said, “We have to stop him.”
“You’d kill us all for vengeance?”
“Watch it, witch,” Simon warned. The fear in Catalina was new. The fire had ignited the terror and the strong woman he’d met now seemed to have vanished. Fear could do that. Twist you. Change you. “Walk away if you want. This fight isn’t yours.” It was his. There’d be no stopping for him. No choice.
Her gaze held his. Sadness there. “You’ll kill her,” Catalina whispered.
Simon’s heart shuddered in his chest. No, no, he wouldn’t.
He’ll start to control you once again.
His vision dimmed. Fear, his own, licked at his gut and rose to his throat as—
“If you send her after him, you’re
as good as killing her,” the witch finished and Simon’s breath came back.
“No, I’ll stand by her. Grim’s afraid of her. He knows she can kill him.” Or else he wouldn’t want her dead so badly.
“Can.” Catalina’s eyes closed. “Just because she can doesn’t mean she will.”
“I will.” Absolute certainty in Dee’s voice.
He’d back her any day.
Catalina’s lashes lifted. “You’re always so sure of yourself. From the first moment I met you, you were so strong—”
“You mean when that idiot warlock came and tried to bind you?”
A warlock like Skye. A former wizard who’d turned to the dark.
“We kicked his ass, didn’t we?” Dee murmured and Simon wished he could have seen that.
Wished he could have known Dee, before hell came calling at both of their doors.
The witch licked her lips. “We did.” A pause. “And I thought—I thought we’d be able to kick ass again. When he”—a weak flutter of her hand toward Simon—“came to me, asking me for the promised Born, I thought we could make everything all right. Thought we’d be strong enough to face what’s coming.”
“We will be,” Dee said. Her voice was sure and confident but Simon happened to glance down, and he saw that her fingers shook.
“I’m not.” Simple and as certain as Dee sounded. “I’m leaving tonight. I don’t even know where I’m heading,” Catalina said, lips curving down, “I just have to get away from here. The fire—”
Fire. The one thing that could scare a strong witch. Grim had known exactly what he was doing. Separate. Yank Dee away from the friends who could help her.
Grim could have gotten the Ignitor to attack Dee at any time. But, no, he’d waited until Dee sought shelter with Catalina.
He’d sent his other goons with fire the first time. But the second time, he hadn’t been playing. Grim had brought out the big guns. Ignitor.
Burned around her.
One down. Grim was working his twisted magic.
Dee stepped away from him and crept close to Catalina. She pushed a hand through her short hair and stared in silence for a moment. “I understand.”
No pleas to stay. No guilt trips that they could use the witch’s magic.
Dee’s arms wrapped around the other woman. “Just be safe.”
He caught a glimpse of Catalina’s face. Simon saw the tear that leaked down her cheek. Her arms clamped tight around Dee. “You, too.”
Friends.
But Catalina was still walking away.
And Dee was trying to force the demon to leave her side.
Friends.
She wanted them safe and being safe meant that she didn’t want them anywhere near Grim.
Catalina eased back and swiped her hand over her cheek.
Then she walked away. The door shut behind her with the softest of clicks.
Dee’s shoulders straightened. “You want to tell me…” she began slowly, then glanced back at him, “why I had a vision of you, dying, in some freaking blizzard right before I stormed in here?”
He blinked. How had she—
She rubbed her eyes. “Damn, Simon, that was bad. One minute, I was talking to Zane—idiot won’t listen to me. The next, all I could see was you and you were—”
“It wasn’t me.” He could give her that much, at least. It had to be their blood link. Grim was trying to tune back to him, but Dee was slipping inside his mind, without even trying.
Her body turned fully toward him. Her gaze dipped over his chest and she crossed to him. “Uh, yeah, it was.” She walked behind him. Her fingers trailed down his back and Simon stiffened at the light touch. “What they did to you—”
“Not to me,” he said again, his breath sucking in. Her scent always got to him. Sensual and rich.
“I saw you.”
Because she’d been in his mind, and the images had taken hold of his consciousness and hadn’t let go. “Grim.” Her palms pressed into his back, seeming to burn his flesh even through the T-shirt. “What you saw—it was him.”
Her breath feathered over his flesh. Warm. His eyes closed. She lifted the back of the shirt and her lips pressed into his skin.
Simon swallowed. “They called it the blood eagle.”
Her fingers slipped down the skin of his back and he knew she’d remember the image from the dream. Vision. Whatever the hell it had been.
Torn, broken, ribs spread to look like an eagle’s wings. “An old Viking torture.” One he knew had been used on Grim. Their link had shown him that before.
Her lips rose and he missed the touch of her mouth. “Why?”
Glancing over his shoulder, he met her stare. “Not all monsters are born, Dee, some are made.” Once upon a time, a very long-ass time ago, Grim hadn’t been the sick twisted bastard of today. He’d just been a man. One who’d been broken. Savaged.
“If the stories are true,” Simon said, watching her carefully, “the first thing he did on rising was to find every man who’d participated in his torture, and he ripped them apart.”
Her gaze held his. “Revenge.” The same thing she sought.
He gave a nod. “There’s a price, you know.” Why hadn’t he realized how heavy the price would be for her? Why had he only thought of himself? Of the way he wanted his life to be?
He’d pulled Dee into this war, yanked her into the blood.
“I’ve always known there was a price.” A mirthless smile tilted her lips. “Why do you think I put a kill order on myself?”
His hands knotted at that. No way. No damn way would that demon Zane ever come at her with death in his eyes.
“I’ve seen death for the last sixteen years,” Dee said. “I’ve always known I was living on borrowed time.”
Not borrowed.
“What I don’t understand is why me?” Pain there, breaking beneath the surface. “Why the hell am I one of the Born? I’m nobody. Nobody. I was a freaking clueless kid when the vamps came after my family. I wasn’t special. I’m not special.”
He caught her hands. Held her tight. “You’re the strongest woman I’ve ever met.” True. He’d never seen her back down. A fighter, straight to the soul.
Her gaze fell. “When I was a kid, my family used to go to church together every Sunday.”
He waited. Dee’s life, before the nightmares.
Her stare didn’t meet his. “A lot of people think God cursed vampires. Cursed the Borns and they spread the virus—”
Was that what people were calling it these days? A virus?
“—like a plague. That’s why the holy water works on vampires.”
Yeah, he’d been burned by that once. Holy water and vamps didn’t mix—that one wasn’t a myth.
“So what did I do, Simon, that would have condemned me at fifteen?” Her eyes rose. “What did I do that was so bad, I was cursed, too? I lost my whole family—what did I do?”
Nothing. His fingers tightened around hers. “I don’t know why you’re a Born.” He’d chosen this path. For her, fate had chosen. “I know the stories, too. That the first Born committed a betrayal, that all vamps were punished for his crimes.” He shook his head. “You didn’t do anything wrong. Nothing, got me?”
Her face was as blank as a doll’s. “But I’ll still wind up like Grim, won’t I?”
“No! You’ll never be like him.”
She flashed a bitter smile. “I think I already am.” A pause. Then, quietly, “And deep down, so do you.”
No. “Dee, I—”
“Fuck!” A snarl from outside. “Dee!” Zane’s voice. His fist thudded against the door. Half a second later, the door came crashing open. “She’s gone.” His chest heaved and his eyes glinted back.
Dee nodded. “I know. I told Catalina that—”
“Not her!” He shook his head and snarled, “We both knew the witch would cut and run. Cat can’t handle fire. That shit just brought up too many bad memories for her and she’s too afraid of burni
ng.” He slammed a hand against the door frame. “Nina’s bolted.”
A curse erupted from Simon’s lips. Her family killed—yeah, they’d had that confirmed by a quick call to Dee’s friendly cop contact.
A massacred family.
An Ignitor who knew the location of the Born vampire behind the slaughter.
“She’s gone after him,” Dee said, and it was what they all knew. “How long of a head start?”
His jaw clenched, Zane gritted, “At least three hours. I thought she was sleeping in her room. She’d been crying so much, I didn’t even think to go in there and check.”
Shit. Three hours.
Hell of a lead she had on them. With that much time, she’d definitely get to Grim first.
Ignitors were so strong psychically. Strong enough to create and control fire with their minds. But nature was a sly bitch. For all their psychic strength, Ignitors were so very weak physically.
A careless touch could bruise them, like when Zane had wrapped his fingers around the Ignitor’s wrists.
And killing them would only take one blow.
If Grim saw her coming, if he felt her, Nina would be dead.
But if he didn’t…
Burn, bastard.
“Simon.” Dee’s voice, vibrating with tension. “Let’s get on the road, now.”
He was already moving. He grabbed his bag. This was it. Final match.
Should have never brought Dee in on this.
He’d thought they would make the perfect team. Same enemy. Same goal.
But if anything happened to Dee…
Can’t lose her.
Won’t lose her.
How had his master plan gotten so screwed up?
Zane braced his legs apart. “He’s gonna kill her. We have to get there before—”
Dee marched up to him, that weird, faint smile on her face. Her hand pressed against his chest. “I told you before, this fight’s not yours. Not yours. Not Cat’s.”
Zane’s eyes narrowed as he stared down at her. “You think I’m walking away from you? You’re not going out on a death fight. I’ve had your back before, I’ll have it again. I’m not—”
“You don’t have a choice.” Her right hand snaked up his neck. “Sorry.” Her left hand came up, and delivered a hard, fast hit to his chin. The demon went down. “After all the times with Tony, you should have seen that coming.” She stared down at him, her body taut.
