by J. L. Weil
“Were you ever part of the guard?”
“Yes. Not everything I told you was a lie. Colin and I have known each other for years. I was, in fact, raised by a witch, not by Lilith.”
“Get off me.” I struggled against the hands holding my wrists. I didn’t want to listen to his sad childhood story. I didn’t want to feel an ounce of sympathy for the man or the vampire.
His hold on me held. “Do I have your word you won’t try anything else stupid?”
I lifted a single brow. “Define stupid.”
We both knew I wanted to string him up by his balls. “Sky, that includes hitting me again,” he added.
What was the point of lying? “I do want to hit you again, and I doubt the feeling will pass.”
Zavier was faster and stronger than me, and if he wanted, he could have me back in the same position in five seconds flat.
“Understandable. And there will come a time when you can act out on those urges, just not today.”
My gaze flicked to his smirking lips. Slowly, the feeling to stab him ebbed. “Fine. I’ll behave…for the moment.”
Knock it off. You have no business thinking about his lips, unless it’s to draw blood.
Why did I have to love this half-breed? It wasn’t fair. He hurt me in ways he couldn’t ever understand.
Zavier let out a ragged breath. Still holding onto my wrists, he helped me up. “I hated lying to you, but I had no choice. I’m not the bad guy.”
I snorted, rolling my wrists to put the feeling back into them. “Says the vampire holding me against my will.”
“Half,” he said, as he was so fond of pointing out every chance he got.
“Where are we?” I asked, noticing this wasn’t a cell. My feet touched the cool floor as I glanced around.
“My chambers.”
My gaze whipped to his. “Your chambers?” I echoed, the outrage clear. He had a room in Lilith’s underground palace. My eyes swept over the room, viewing it with a different perspective. It made sense now why there was a familiarity in the air. The sheets on the bed were ruffled, drawing my eyes, and the last place I wanted to be was alone with Zavier in any room that had a bed.
He raked a hand through his dark hair. “I thought you would be more comfortable.”
“And what? Making me comfortable is suddenly a priority?” I edged off the bed and strutted to the door. “Take me back,” I demanded, feeling this horrible sinking sense of betrayal.
“No. I get that our relationship is complicated…” he started to say.
I spun around, feeling my hackles go up. “Our relationship is nothing. We are nothing! The sooner you get it through your thick skull—”
Whoosh.
He was no longer sitting on the bed, but was standing in front of me, pressing my back against the door with his body. Grabbing my hand, he flipped my arm over. “This mark says we have more than a relationship. You’re mine. You will always be mine.”
I snatched my wrist from under his fingers. “I don’t give a rat’s ass what this mark means. Besides, maybe that was part of your plan, to bind me to you.”
“You know that is crap. I can’t fake the emotions I feel for you.”
Damn his stupid voice, the voice that had told me he loved me…
I flinched, biting my lower lip. He might be right. Maybe he couldn’t fake his love, but it didn’t change the situation. I was still a prisoner. “It doesn’t matter, unless you remove these damn shackles from my feet and get me out of here.”
“If I could, I would, but I don’t have the key,” he tried to reason with me.
He wasn’t talking about a tangible key. These were magically bound, only broken by a witch. Kind of ironic, since I was a witch, yet couldn’t use magic. “Just as I thought. Lies.”
“I’m trying to tell you the truth,” he insisted, hissing between his teeth.
I angled my head to the side, refusing to shy from the darkness that lived within him. He could flash his fangs all night long, but I wasn’t afraid of him. “As if you’re capable of doing such a thing.”
“Blame me all you want, hate me now if you must, but I know how you truly feel about me, what you can’t admit to yourself now.” His hand rested over my heart, the fire in his eyes melting. “What I feel for you is very real, as real as the air I breathe.”
I wanted to scrape my nails down his pretty face. Was he being serious? Did he expect me to tell him I loved him and all was forgiven? “That’s great, but it isn’t going to help me or keep me safe. Haven’t you hurt me enough?”
He sent me a look I couldn’t decipher. “I don’t want you hurt, minx, believe it or not. Your safety is still my only concern, which is why I’m here, in a place I vowed never to return.”
Don’t do it, Sky. Don’t let him pull on your heartstrings. I motioned to my ankles. “If you don’t want to see me harmed, find a witch to take these off.” I tapped my heels together, making the chain links jingle.
“I would, but the moment you’re free, how do I know you won’t try to incinerate me from the inside out?”
At least he understood me. “No more than you deserve,” I spat.
He curled his hand under my arm, helping me stand.
I jerked out of his hold, words of anger spewing from my lips before I could stop them. There was so much hurt and rage built up inside me. I was going to explode if I didn’t release it. “Don’t ever touch me.”
“You like being caged?” he asked.
Coldness radiated over my body. Who was this man? Where was the warden who inspired such a rush of emotions and heat? As I stared into his eyes, I didn’t know this vampire in front of me. “You like having two balls?” I countered.
Those lips I used to dream about twitched, now all I wanted to do was punch him. “I’m glad to see you haven’t lost your spirit. You’re going to need it to get through this ordeal.”
No shit, Sherlock. I took a step and wavered, pain shooting through my ankles. I winced.
“Did you hurt yourself?” Zavier’s eyes went straight to the shackles. He crouched in front of me, inspecting the cuts caused by the metal. “You’re bleeding.”
“What do you care?” I snapped. The wounds I received from last night’s surprise attack had reopened while I’d made a sad attempt to break free. Blood oozed from the gash on the side of my left ankle. I hissed.
Straightening to his full height, he kept his gaze locked on mine. “Contrary to what you think of me right now, I am your only hope. I want to give you what you desire, minx.” His voice was just above a whisper.
I angled my head to the side, wondering what he was getting at. What game was he playing now? “And what is it you think I want? To be a prisoner? To be your sex slave?” I scoffed. As if I would ever let the half-breed put his paws on me again. Mate or not, I would find a way to break our bond.
“Revenge.”
He sure knew how to tease a girl. I’d give him that. “I refuse to be duped by you again.”
Zavier closed the space between us, hard determination locking his jaw. “No tricks. No lies. I swear it. I want her dead the same as you.”
My chin shot up. “How can you possibly expect me to trust you? You’re here, in the vampire nest as one of them. I’m not stupid.”
“I never thought you were.”
“What has the vampire queen done to you? Are you one of her loyal subjects, sent to do her bidding? It is obvious where your devotion lies.”
A muscle popped on Zavier’s face. “I have my reasons. You forget. I’m only half-vampire.”
I hadn’t forgotten, but it didn’t change my position or how I felt about him. “Why would I believe you? Trust you?”
He shook his head. “The moment I got wind of your abduction, I came immediately. I hurt you by keeping the truth about who I was from you, but it was never what I wanted. I didn’t know how strong I would feel about you.”
Conflicted feelings of love and anger mingled inside me. “Yeah, that
backfired, didn’t it?”
He studied me intently, captivating me in the same way I enthralled him. It was strange. Part of me responded with excitement to the intensity of his gaze. “I tried to pretend I felt nothing for you, tried to convince myself you would be safer not mixed up with me, but when I’m near you, all my senses go on high alert. You’re the first thing I think about when I wake up, and the last before I fall asleep. I couldn’t let you go even if I tried, and now that your soul is linked to mine, there is no turning back time.”
“What a lovely speech. How long have you been rehearsing it?” I said dryly.
“I knew this wasn’t going to be easy, but you know me, I’m always up for a challenge.”
“You still haven’t told me what I’m doing here.”
A shadow fell across his face in such a way that it made the silver in his eyes hard to see. He didn’t inherit the usual iridescent eyes of a vampire. “Lilith has been searching for you for years, for the blood of a Rift witch. She wants more than your power. Don’t get me wrong—her sole agenda is to reverse the blood curse—but she also wants something else from you.”
“A child,” I guessed.
He nodded. “The perfect hybrid, a vampire with the ability to do magic, strong magic.”
Knots formed in my belly. The bitch wanted to impregnate me with her son’s vampire seed. “Over my dead body. I would never let her near my child.”
“That makes two of us.” He walked to one of the plush armchairs, folding his six-foot-two frame into the seat.
“Does Colin know I’ve been taken?”
He nodded. “By now he does.”
“Crap,” I mumbled.
“Exactly. Colin will have every man alive looking for you around the clock. He won’t stop until you’re safely at Silent Bend again.”
“He must be going crazy.”
“I imagine he is. Vampires are not all evil spawns of hell, you know.”
“Maybe not to you.”
“You have your reasons to hate them. What Lilith took from you is unforgiveable, but for both our lives, I’m going to give you a piece of advice. Don’t entice her displeasure. She is even more reckless than you when provoked. She needs you, but that doesn’t mean your life isn’t in danger. Her impulsiveness can still get you killed.”
“I can’t make any promises,” I replied, keeping my face blank. I took a seat on the edge of bed, keeping the space of the room between us. “If you’re really here to help me, how is it I am going to get the chance to kill your mother?”
His lips twisted into a wry smile. “I’m so glad you asked.”
Blood would certainly flow, and some of it might be mine.
Chapter 22
Crossing my legs, I studied Zavier, trying to make sense out of this mess. It was hard to see him as he had once been to me, a warden with this mysterious aura of invincibility. My gaze flicked to the mark on the inside of his wrist. I was ignoring its twin—the one I also wore. If Colin only knew the disorder I’d made of my life. Big brother couldn’t save me this time. “Did Colin agree to this?”
“You being captured? Definitely not. There were things in your brother’s plan he hadn’t accounted for, like the vampire queen being able to find you as quickly as she did. Invading your dreams was a dirty trick. I got wind of your planned abduction as it was unfolding, and I knew we were going to need an ally inside. I couldn’t leave you here alone.”
“Wonderful. The world is on the brink of a colossal shit storm, and I’m stuck underground with someone who claims to love me, yet here we are.”
Zavier’s lips turned into a smile. “Technically, I didn’t kidnap you. I’m a double agent who is going to rescue you.”
I propped my elbow on my knee, and laid my chin into the palm of my hand. “Comrade, you might need to step up your game. These shackles on my ankles are starting to piss me off.”
“Trust me, I’m working on it. It shouldn’t be much longer. Lilith will summon you again. Soon. The vampire queen isn’t known for her patience, and now that she has you in her lair, she isn’t going to waste time. You aren’t the only who has waited years for this moment.”
“How is it you weren’t raised in her coven, but by a witch?” I asked, curious despite myself.
“I was different. She only saw the human in me, not the vampire heir she wanted. A witch found me in the woods.”
I raised a brow. “She abandoned you as a baby?”
He nodded, standing up and pacing the room. “I have no loyalty to Lilith, and the only reason I am allowed in her coven is because of you, not because she trusts me.”
The woman wasn’t fit to raise a child. I would drop dead before I let her anywhere near mine. “She means to use our child, but why?”
His eyes flicked from my face to my stomach and back. “Are you?”
I made a face and shook my head. “No. I made sure I was protected.” Birth control wasn’t an option in the Bay, unless people sought a witch for a potion or a spell. I happened to take care of my own birth control, by the rune etched into my inner thigh.
He exhaled, the panic lines that had crinkled at the edges of his eyes relaxing. “Good, because you’re right, she would use that child to get us to do what she wants. Lilith has witches in her possession, but they’ve stopped being able to sire vampires, and none of them have the amount of power required to reverse the curse. Her line is dwindling. Each time she sends a group out into the Bay in search of a witch, she risks losing members of the coven.”
“And the human babies who have been born, what does she do with them?” I was almost afraid to ask.
“What do you think? There hasn’t been an abundance of infants in the village.”
My eyes widened. “S-she kills them.”
“They are useless to her.”
I shuddered, wrapping my arms around myself. “I’m going to rip out her dead heart.”
“Brave words, little minx.”
“They’re true,” I replied defiantly. “You know that the first chance I get, I will kill her.” Not just for my mom, but for every innocent she had taken from this world.
He sat on the bed beside me, his weight dipping the foam mattress. His scent drifted in the air, and my heart skipped. “You’ve the blood of a Rift witch. Your power is stronger than any other in the Bay. You might be the only person who can defeat her.”
“You won’t stand in my way?”
Without warning, he reached out and ran his fingers along the side of my face. I gasped, remembering the way he touched me, and it was the same now, exactly as I remembered. “I will stand beside you. She can no longer keep poisoning the Bay with her madness. I won’t let her take what is mine.”
I swallowed. He meant me. I wanted to trust him, and through the connection I didn’t want, I could tell he believed in the words he was saying. “How much time do we have?” Lilith wasn’t a patient vampire. She would summon me again, and soon. We both knew it.
“Not long enough.” He caught hold of my hand, placing it over his chest. “No matter what you think of me, this is real, what I feel for you is real. I would give my life to keep you safe.”
I froze, and stopped breathing altogether. “I can’t think about that now.” Feelings muddled the brain, and I needed my wits if I was going to stay alive.
Both of his hands moved up and cupped my face. His fingertips were light. “After then, when you get your justice, we’re going to talk.” A finger trailed down the side of my neck, coming to rest on the pulsing vein. Heat leapt into his eyes, implying he wanted to do more than talk to me.
I stared at him, memories of his fangs sinking blissfully into my neck making their way into the forefront of my mind, and once there, I couldn’t stop thinking about how it had felt. “Assuming we make it out of here alive.”
“There’s that little tidbit, and in the meantime, you should try to get some sleep. You’re going to need your strength to get us through what comes next. Whatever that may be
.”
He was right, but how could I close my eyes and relax in the place of my archenemy? With my head on the bed, I thought about extracting my revenge on Lilith. Never in a million years had I envisioned it like this. How had I gotten so derailed from my path?
I didn’t dream that night. I dropped into a void of sleep, floating there until my body had enough.
As I stirred and began to wake, a child’s face appeared in my mind. She had the face of angel, rosy cheeks, raven hair, and eyes that twinkled like stars in a moonless night. The beautiful baby’s face blurred with Lilith’s.
She was poised on her black throne, tapping her long, dark nails with impatience. “Bring her to me,” she demanded.
I tucked the baby underneath my cloak, as if that would keep her safe. “I’ll bring this cavern down on our heads before I let you anywhere near her.”
Lilith didn’t flinch. She was unmoved by my threats, so confident in her authority. “And risk the baby’s life? I think not.” She smirked, calling my bluff.
Before I had a chance to do anything, I was sandwiched by two vampires. A scream wrenched from my lungs as I tried to turn to protect my child. My scream turned to pure terror as the baby was ripped from my arms, her soft cries piercing my heart.
I bolted up, fear rising in my throat like acidic bile. The little girl had been mine, I was sure of it, and Lilith had taken her—my daughter. My fingers bunched on the bed, nails digging into my skin.
Disorientated, I blinked, forgetting where I was until I moved my feet and heard the clanking of the chains around my feet. Lilith, my mind hissed. The large bed was silky and rumpled.
And then I remembered. My magic didn’t work here. The shackles stripped me of my power, of any defense I might have against the vampires. I exhaled in an attempt to calm my pounding heart.
“What is it?” Zavier asked in the darkened room.
I heard his voice, but the bed beside me was empty. My eyes scanned the room until they landed on my mate. He was sitting near the simmering fire. “Just a dream.” There was no sense in worrying him when I didn’t know if any of it was true. I couldn’t possibly pregnant, and if I was, Lilith couldn’t know. It was far too soon. Conception took time for detection, and I planned to kill the vampire queen before she ever got the chance to hope. “What time is it?” I asked.
