by Trina M. Lee
“We could be here all night at this rate,” Arys observed, coming at me fast enough to get me backing up.
“Then stop with the dark coercion tactics and just take me already. You know you want to.” Fisting my hair, I pulled it over a shoulder, baring my neck on one side.
Arys’s pupils dilated at my invitation. He bit down on his bottom lip, his gaze on my neck. “You’re a wicked woman. As always, it’s tempting. But what I’d really like is for you to stop fighting this already. Imagine what we could be if you’d let go of that goddamn spark.”
It pierced my soul to hear him say that. Even though I told myself it wasn’t really Arys. He overflowed with darkness. The entity whispered in his ear, manipulating him. Still, it hurt to see the detachment in his cold stare.
I didn’t doubt that the entity was bargaining with him right now. Offering him Lilah’s empire, for a price of course. Arys had no reason left not to accept.
I would not let him become Lilah.
Instigating a fight to rile him up wasn’t going to work. Not in his current headspace.
The heat of our conflict had fizzled out with the near obliteration of our light. Crazy as it sounded, I knew that wasn’t right. We needed the spark of fire that made us butt heads but also made us love hard and hot.
Everything about us right now was wrong.
So I used the only other weapon I could turn on him. The one he couldn’t fight. Because we were all slaves to our own desires.
I drenched Arys in succubus thrall. No gentle seduction or slip of power but a full immersion. He didn’t fight it, because it was in his nature not to want to. Instead he blinked a few times, awareness turning to fury, then unbridled lust. Arys grabbed for me, and this time I let him. Claiming my mouth in a brutal kiss, he jerked me against him.
The familiar sensation of his body against mine almost broke me. It was all I could do not to abandon my precarious hold on control here and fall headlong into the abyss with him.
With a frustrated snarl that was pure wolf, Arys somehow resisted. Grabbing hold of the seductive force, he twisted it into his own allure and threw it back at me. “Is that how you want to do it? You want to fuck each other into oblivion? Now that I can get on board with.”
He wasn’t the only one frustrated. Each angle I tried, he thwarted. We were too much the same. We couldn’t outplay one another.
Clawing my way back up from the pit of desire, I growled, “What I want is for you to stop screwing around and bleed me already.”
Arys had been a vampire far longer than I had. Using vampire abilities to force this situation wasn’t going to work either. So I targeted what I knew best, where my advantage lay: the wolf.
An echo of my wolf lived inside Arys. I sought it out now. Letting my wolf show in my eyes, I bared four beastly fangs and came at him with claw-tipped fingers. One slash and blood seeped from four deep gashes across his chest.
Like I’d anticipated, the beast within him saw the threat and rose to meet it. Arys’s blue eyes went solid wolf in a blink. Confusion warred with rage on his face.
Rage won.
He came at me, throwing a body check that knocked me off my feet. Before I could get up he grabbed my arm and dragged me several feet before throwing me. I crashed into the crumbling stone of the old hospital and dropped to the ground with a grunt.
All I had to do was get Arys to bleed me, somehow keep hold of my tiny match flame, and trust Falon to step in at the right time. Right. Simple.
Sharp pain through my side had me clutching what I suspected to be a broken rib. All in all, not a big deal. But any pain was weakness in a fight.
Needing a second to recover, I threw a hand up in front of Arys before he could grab me again. The force shoved him back, buying me a few precious seconds before he was on me.
When he seized me and jerked me close, his hungry kiss caught me off guard. It was dark and desperate, passionate and powerful. I fell into him. Remembering what we’d been. Longing for what we should be.
Then he grabbed me by the throat and smashed my head into the side of the building.
Seeing stars is an overused phrase I’d never really related to. Until now. Light burst behind my eyes like fireworks on a dark night. Blinding. Pain exploded through my skull. A scream tore from me, leaving my throat raw. Vaguely I was aware of raised voices nearby.
“Get up, love.” Arys nudged me with a foot. “You wanted to do this.”
So that’s how it was. Alright. Gritting my teeth, I kept telling myself that this wasn’t really him. I knew that deep down. Still, peering up into his gloating face made it hard to feel anything but revulsion and hate.
It’s not real, I told myself. You are the same soul. There can be no hate there. It’s a lie.
Right on the heels of my inner pep talk came the oily voice of the entity in my ear. ‘You belong with us. Stop fighting your fate, lost wolf.’
“Fuck you and your evil queen,” I hissed. I refused to listen to it, knowing well how easy it could get into one’s head.
A quick glance revealed that Falon still stood on the sidewalk, off the property and just out of reach of the entity’s touch.
I got to my feet, trying to ignore the pain racking my skull. I winced against the agony. Daring to touch the side of my head, I wasn’t surprised to find my fingers come away wet with blood. The damn vampire was going to bash my brains out in front of our wolf and my sister.
Going on the defensive, I lashed out with a shot of erratic energy as Arys grabbed for me. He deflected the attack, sending it wide. Pulling me into his arms, he spun me to put my back to his chest. Gripping my chin, he forced me to face our friends who watched our struggle play out.
“Look at them,” Arys demanded, fingers biting into my skin. “Smell that? It’s two werewolves. Hear their heartbeats? Listen.”
He shook me when I struggled against him. Arys picked through each of my senses, setting each one ablaze. The power of suggestion in his commands doused me in the erotic swell of the bloodlust.
“Remember how he feels beneath you,” Arys whispered, his words only for the two of us now. “Inside you. Don’t you want to feel him? Don’t you want to taste him?”
The seductive pull of his suggestion, along with his hard body snug against mine, brought to mind many wicked and sinful ideas. Erotic heat set my cheeks and groin ablaze. My gaze locked on Shaz. Memories of his blood and body flitted through my head. Oh yes, I most certainly did want him.
No, I couldn’t fall victim to this manipulation. I thrashed against Arys, pleading with him to stop. Hearing my desperation, I knew it wasn’t going to help my case here. Yet I couldn’t help it. If Arys convinced me to tag team our friends with him, I’d be forever lost to darkness.
“I’m not letting you have us both!” My shouted declaration accompanied a burst of energy that brought Arys to his knees.
I went down with him but broke free and rolled back to my feet. Bleeding. It shouldn’t be hard to redirect his focus now. I hoped. Extending my blood smeared fingers toward Arys, I appealed to his bloodlust. “Come on, Arys. Don’t you want to taste me?” For good measure I used a claw to open a gash on the side of my neck.
His brow furrowed and he seemed conflicted. I knew the entity spoke to him. Seeing him as the easier target now that he was full dark, it had little to say to me.
Hunger burned in his midnight eyes when they fell upon my bleeding neck. Knowing I had won his attention, I turned it up a notch, willing to pull out all the stops to make this happen. I peeled off my top and tossed it aside. Blood ran down my chest to stain my cleavage before disappearing inside my black bra.
The entity may have known darkness in its general form, but I knew Arys and his specific tastes. I was what he wanted most. More than anything else. Even he couldn’t change that.
Arys went to the dark place. A place I’d only thought I knew. My actions veered far from squeaky clean. But as dark as I’d ever played, never had I been without the
light to keep some kind of rein on me. No light lit Arys now.
But this was how we did things, Arys and I. All the way.
He held himself so rigid that I could see him tremble. I watched him have that final moment. The one we all have right before we succumb completely.
Chest heaving as super-charged adrenaline drove me, I dragged a finger down my chest, through the blood and over the swell of my breasts. Whatever made them all want me and my blood the way they did, it was stronger than anything else that afflicted Arys. He came at me and I braced for it.
When he grabbed me the instinctive urge to fight kicked in.
I struggled as he wrestled my arms down and pinned my wrists with one hand behind my back. With the other hand he grasped my face and kissed me. A torturous melding of mouths that made me forget what the hell I was doing. Arys’s kiss was possessive, his every touch a demand. He followed the rivulet of blood that ran down my chest, licking it up with hot, moist strokes of his tongue. An unbidden gasp encouraged him.
“You want me to take you?” he asked, voice raspy with want. “Your wish is my command, my queen. Remember that you asked for this. There’s no stopping it now.”
Terror followed his promise, trickling down my spine like ice water.
Arys buried his face in my breasts, kissing and nipping while tugging furiously at my pants. All while keeping my wrists restrained behind me. With Arys’s mouth on my needy flesh, I strained against him, seeking more of his touch.
A roar like the angriest window-rattling, storm-driven wind assaulted my ears. Power whipped wildly around us, blowing my hair about in a tousled mess.
With my pants around my ankles and Arys’s mouth sucking greedily at the blood staining my chest, I lost the last scrabbling hold I had on my control and plunged headlong into the abyss. It was just the two of us there in that place. Oblivious now to those who watched, Arys took me in every way.
Unlike the first time he’d killed me here on this property, he fed every one of his hungers with my body and blood. A low growl in my ear had me moaning as he licked the wound on my neck. A rustle of clothing and his hard on pressed against my thigh. Without releasing my wrists, he turned me around and forced me down on my knees. I had seconds to take in the hard ground beneath me and the rock that dug into my left shin.
Going to his knees behind me, Arys grabbed my hip and filled me with one forceful thrust. Hard and fast he filled me. Jerky, rough thrusts. Carnal and furious. If he hadn’t been holding tight to my wrists, I’d have been thrown onto my face.
A guttural snarl accompanied his aggressive possession of my body. Arys slid his free hand around my throat. Holding tight, he pulled me back toward him and leaned in to sink his fangs into my neck.
He went for the artery. Straight for a killing blow. For a human.
As a vampire, I wouldn’t bleed out as fast, and it would take being sucked dry of all blood and power, and then some, to kill me. Still, the first niggling scrap of worry hit me. What if I couldn’t trust Falon?
Blood spilled down my body, soaking the dead grass beneath me. Arys drew hard on my blood and the essence that lived within it. My wolf wanted to fight, but I’d already given myself to the abyss.
To my dark love.
All that I was, my entire life force, it flowed into my vampire. Filling him. Draining me weaker with each passing moment.
It took longer to weaken than the first time I’d died by Arys’s hand. The pleasure of his bite and his claiming of my body subsided under the swell of gut-wrenching agony.
Arys withdrew and gathered me in his embrace, tugging me onto his lap as he collapsed on the ground. With my hands free, I flung my arms around his neck. Another arterial bite and I choked back a sob. Weakened until I could no longer hold on, he clutched me tighter in his arms.
Power and blood gushed from me. Limp, I closed my eyes and waited. Was I supposed to know when I reached the brink? Would it be like last time? What if this didn’t work?
A sudden, final swell of power left me as Arys drew it in, feasting on everything he could take. I felt the tiny match flame leave me, all that remained of our spark.
He took it into himself and his head snapped up.
With wide eyes he stared at me. True recognition flickered across his face. “Alexa,” he murmured, caressing my face.
I couldn’t keep him in focus. My lashes fluttered closed, and I struggled to pry my lids open. “Don’t stop,” I gasped. “Not until Falon tells you.”
The sense of his hand on my face grew dim. Vaguely, I was aware of his mouth on my wounded neck.
Everything faded as Arys killed me for the second time.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
It took several moments for me to realize that I sat in a Paris café. How I knew it was a Paris café, as opposed to some hipster joint down the street, I wasn’t sure. I just knew I was there.
Disoriented and confused, I glanced around. There were several tables littered with people enjoying their coffee, speaking animatedly in French. Surely this wasn’t death. I seriously doubted the other side to be anything like Paris. But really, what did I know?
I scanned the sign behind the barista. Could I grab a latte in this strange place? No, that wasn’t right. This wasn’t real. I had to figure out where I was and how to leave. Did I want to leave?
Maybe I was dead. Like good and dead. And this was some kind of artsy afterlife. I could get used to this. It wasn’t the worst afterlife.
“Hey, gorgeous.” A familiar voice had me spinning in my seat. “Fancy meeting you here.”
The scent of leather and a cologne I’d never forget struck me before I laid eyes on him. Kale Sinclair sauntered up to the tiny bistro table where I sat. Wearing his trademark duster, he took a seat across from me. Enjoying my shock, he merely smiled, letting me soak it in.
“Is this for real?” I mustered, wanting so badly for it to be but knowing better than to trust blindly. Had the powers that be really sent Kale?
“It is most definitely for real.” His broad grin was free of fangs, but those enchanting mismatched eyes remained the same ones I’d always known. “Can’t say I’m too happy to see you here so soon, but I am happy to see you.” Kale took my hand.
He felt so warm and alive. No vampire essence. Just him. Still sweet as honey.
“Am I dead? Did Arys finally kill me for good this time?”
Kale’s genuine, carefree laughter was as rich with sugar as his vampy vibes had ever been. No doubt and darkness plagued him now. He was free of it, of me. I’d wondered if death had released him and now I knew. I could rest in peace with that knowledge.
“You’re in between but you won’t be staying. You’ve barely begun your journey, Alexa. It’s going to take you to amazing places.” Stroking a thumb over the back of my hand, Kale tapped the end of my nose. “Hey, why do you look so scared?”
“Because I came to restore the balance, and I don’t know how.” Unable to tear my gaze from his face, I let myself enjoy those eyes while I could. “Isn’t death going to pop in and demand the vampire its owed?” Despite my worries, Kale’s chuckle soothed me. I couldn’t help but relax.
“Alexa, you’re a light flame and a Hound of God. The hybrid queen. You command both light and dark, as you were called to. Death will get its vampire when you’re good and ready to give it one.”
Sadly I shook my head. “Just a dark queen now, I’m afraid.”
“You misunderstand, beautiful.” Kale brushed a hand over my cheek. His gentle caress brought many memories to life. “This isn’t death. It’s more of a visit. You haven’t left your world. And you won’t. Not tonight.” The calm he exuded made me unafraid, but it didn’t clear the confusion.
“Yeah, no, I really don’t understand. Why am I here? And why does it look like Paris?”
I gestured to the view of a city I’d never visited, right outside the window beside our table. Sunlight streamed in, lighting Kale’s eyes in a way I’d never seen before. I mar
veled at him, drinking it in and hoping the memory would stay.
That’s how I wanted to remember him. With sunlight in his eyes and a carefree smile.
“I loved Paris,” he responded, wistfully gazing out the window. “I would have loved to show it to you. This is as close as it gets. I chose to meet you here.”
The streets were different. Stone instead of asphalt. Old buildings held generations of stories to tell as opposed to the young concrete jungle of the downtown at home. People passed by, some quickly, others in no hurry. I didn’t have to leave the café to feel how different it was from home. If only Kale had been able to show me what he loved about it.
“What happens now?” I dared to ask, afraid this meeting would end as fast as it had begun.
Kale studied me with those oh-so-human eyes. Not a trace of predator lurked within them. They were more beautiful than I’d ever known.
“You go back,” he said, confirming my fear that we would part. “But not without what you came for.”
“Wait.” I sat up straighter in my chair, spine rigid, chest tight. “Do you mean it worked?”
He nodded, letting me crush his hand in my excited grip. “Embracing your darkness was the key all along. You faced the absolute worst and won. Like a phoenix, you will rise.”
“What do you mean it was the key all along? What about the others? Salem and Lilah? Ozzie and Rachel? Why just us?” Brow furrowed, I tried to puzzle this out.
The damn powers that be liked to throw unexpected twists and turns. At least they seemed to have sent Kale with some answers. Were the rules different for each set of twin flames? No, shit didn’t work that way. But there were always loopholes and outliers. Exceptions to every rule, so to speak.
“The immortals can’t die. They can never visit this place in between life and death. Humans rarely survive a trip here, to the brink.” Kale waved a hand over my head, motioning for the barista’s attention. “Now do you see what makes the two of you so special? Nobody else has gone toe to toe with death, twice, and returned even more powerful than before.”
