by Cat Miller
“Are you ready, Sparky?” he asked before placing a kiss on both corners of her mouth.
“Ready?” she replied.
“Yes, ready to be my wife? I know we’ve already done the all-important bonding but a wedding ceremony would mean a lot to me. So, are you ready?” he asked again.
“I… Of course, I would love to marry you in the way of your people.”
She kissed him this time. Relief washed over her heart like a soothing balm. Derek was in her arms and he wanted her to be his mate and his wife. Derek pulled away first.
“You keep that up and we’ll never make it down the aisle,” he teased.
Derek smacked her ass and led her to the chapel doors. When he knocked, they opened wide to reveal a room full of family and close friends. The entire Horde and many warriors were also in attendance. Conspicuous in her absence was Brandi’s own mother but her twin, Samantha, and her father were front and center.
Derek and Brandi stepped through the chapel doors together and when they closed behind them, several Wrath guards took up positions. Brandi looked at Derek inquisitively. He leaned over to kiss her nose and whisper in her ear.
“I’m not taking any chances, Sparky. I learn from the mistakes of others.”
Brandi laughed out loud. The attendants cheered and clapped when Derek and Brandi walked up the aisle hand in hand to the altar. They applauded again in celebration of their once forbidden bond when they returned down the aisle as man and wife.
EPILOGUE
“Are we having fun yet?”
Sheena smiled down at the little slut who thought she could replace Sheena in David’s affections. The girl was a sweaty mess on the floor. She was shaking with the after effects of the new drug they had been testing on her. The drug had been in development for longer than the Hypnovam and they were getting close to a stable formula.
This new creation was the polar opposite of the Hypno and it would be a much more effective weapon against the Council. Instead of rendering its victim powerless, the new formula worked with the chemicals in the brain to cause extreme aggression. It had been great fun to watch David’s pretty little toy go against all of her own instincts and attack everyone they put in the cell with her. The girl was horrified by her need for blood. Her introduction to the vampire nation had been less than welcoming and Sheena was doing everything possible to promote the girl’s self-loathing. She was having fun turning the girl into her own worst nightmare.
Now that David was in the custody of the Council, Sheena needed a new tool of destruction until she was able to find a way to get him back under her control. At this distance, and without the ability to feed him her blood, maintaining control over him was impossible. Sheena chuckled to herself. She bet waking up to thoughts of his own after decades of telepathic mind control knocked David on his ass. She just wished she had been there to see him try to explain that he didn’t know what he was doing. They would never believe him.
“How does it feel to be the monster you fear most?” Sheena laughed and stalked around the girl, being careful not to get to close. When she came down from the drug the girl was always as docile as a kitten, but if you got too close before the drug completely wore off, she was dangerous.
The girl began to cry again. The limp body of a guy they’d picked up off the street lay next to the leggy blond David had obsessed with. He actually had tried to bond himself to the bitch! After everything she had done to solidify her position in his life he was trying to replace her with a twenty-one year old kid. Just like every other man, David was ruled by his lust.
“I think we need to ramp up the dosage,” Sheena told the doctor who watched on from the doorway.
“She didn’t kill him. That means she has some level of control.” Sheena nudged the human guy with the toe of her shoe and he moaned. They had brought in dozens of humans but she never killed them. She would come close and pull back before the deed was done. Until the drug was able to render the subject completely mindless with rage and hunger, it wouldn’t be ready.
“I don’t think that’s wise. An overdose would be lethal. She’s already suffering withdrawal symptoms from the dose we’re administering. We are skirting the edge of addiction with this one.” The doctor looked thoughtfully at the girl. Sheena had no doubt the doctor was ruled by his lust also.
****
The doctor approached the whimpering female to check her vitals. Her heart was racing. He brushed the damp hair from her forehead to check her pupils and a tortured black gaze greeted him. Blood dripped from her chin, staining the front of her hospital gown. Her eyes pleaded for help and he struggled against the urge to give in to her need. Before he could back away, she reached out and plowed her fist into his chest. The doctor flew across the room from the force of the blow. His motion was stopped by the cinderblock wall. He slid down to the floor and struggled to draw a breath. Sheena roared with amusement. The girl murmured apologies and cried harder. Sheena stepped over the doctor’s legs on the way out the door, stopping to glare down at him.
“I don’t pay you to worry about whether or not they live, Doctor. Just do as I say, or you’ll be the next to get locked in with our little monster.” She smiled but there was no mistaking the venom in her words.
The lights on the lower level of their new nest began to blink in a rhythmic pattern. Sheena turned the air blue with curses. Someone had triggered the silent alarms. She thought her new home was safe from prying eyes, but obviously she was wrong. They had found her already.
****
Brandi wasn’t allowed to enter the building until the Horde proclaimed it clear. She was hunkered down in the brush with Dani and Karrie. She looked over to where Derek was discussing a plan of entry with Cayden and several of the Horde. She worried about his emotional well-being. They had been searching for his mother for weeks. Now that they had her in their sights, Derek was hoping to take her in alive. Even though she had told him lies his entire life, she was still his mother and Brandi knew the disdain the rest of the men felt for his mother wore on Derek.
Sheena had disappeared after the battle to retake the Enclave, but they finally caught up with the crazy bitch. She left a trail of dead humans and sick vampire youth in her wake. The Council’s main priority was to bring the insane female to justice, dead or alive. Brandi and Derek both believed the key to ending the conflict was to get to the bottom of the Hypno manufacturing. They didn’t believe Sheena was working alone. Her operation was too large to maintain without sufficient funds and her benefactor was the root of the problem. The drug was being distributed as a recreational drug to vampire youth in clubs and on college campuses along the eastern seaboard. The kids were eating it up. The only way for a vamp to catch a buzz was to feed on an inebriated human. Hypno, taken in small doses, achieved the same effect. Unfortunately, in larger doses it could be lethal.
The Wrath had searched high and low, but it was the fearsome and brooding Hawk who had finally turned over the right rock to reveal Sheena’s new hiding place. Hawk was an older demi-vamp who had taken it upon himself to gather up all of the misguided hybrid vamps like himself and bring them into order. They were often misunderstood by their human families and rejected by their vampire parents. Hawk had become a leader and father figure for them all. In his wisdom, Hawk had enlisted Cayden to help him train the Horde and be a liaison between them and the vampire nation. There were many of them and their existence still had the Council reeling.
The Horde didn’t live under the Council’s rule so they felt no need to inform them of the coming raid. Brandi was just grateful she was allowed to come along. The search of The Nest Derek had called home turned up empty. They found it abandoned and Brandi prayed daily for Lindsay’s safety. She promised Lindsay she would come back for her and it was a promise she fully intended to keep. If they didn’t find Lindsay today, chances were that Brandi had failed to save her new friend. If she wasn’t in there, then she was more than likely dead along with countless others.
>
****
“I didn’t mean to do it. I didn’t mean to do it,” Lindsay repeated over and over in her head. The body of her latest victim was sprawled next to her. She knew the man still lived because she could hear his staggering heartbeats but he would die soon without medical attention.
“I’m so sorry,” she told him through tears of shame.
Lindsay heard movement in the hall and scrambled back into the corner. She wouldn’t let them inject her again. She wouldn’t hurt another person. The shots they gave her made her mindless with hunger and rage. She was unable to control herself until the hunger began to recede. Sadly, by the time she was able to find herself, there was usually a dying person in her arms and blood on her soul. She was a creature who needed to be destroyed. She was a living nightmare. When she attacked the people they put in her cell, Lindsay could feel their terror, but she was powerless to stop the driving need to feed and destroy. It wasn’t until later that she was forced to deal with the misery and pain she felt when she drained the life sustaining blood from her victims. She refused to do it again. Either they would kill her, or she would find a way to do the job herself before they drugged her to the point of becoming a murderer.
“We’ve got a live one in here,” a deep voice shouted from the door. Lindsay looked up and realized that the cell door had been left open. If she’d had the strength she could have escaped, or at least tried to.
The man entered her cell and she cowered in the corner. He was dressed in head to toe black and wore a ski mask that covered his face except for his hazel-green eyes.
“Whoa, it’s alright. We’re the good guys.” He laid his massive gun on the floor and pulled the mask from his head.
Lindsay didn’t know if she should believe the handsome stranger. She knew he was a vampire, though she wasn’t sure how she knew it. She thought it was possibly her acute sense of smell. The last time she trusted a vampire it had gotten her where she was today, but if he was telling the truth maybe he could help the dying man at her feet.
“I didn’t mean to do it,” she told him, her voice rough and gravelly. She pointed to the injured man.
“I know you didn’t. You wouldn’t do that. Do you remember me?” he asked.
Lindsay studied his face more closely. He was familiar but she couldn’t place him. For all she knew he could be one of the monsters who had tried to buy her the day she woke up to this hell.
“I’m Cayden Paris. We’ve run into each other before at Thirst,” he explained. “I’m a friend of Dani Deidrick. I guess she was Danielle Vaughn back then.”
Movement behind him caught her eyes and her breath caught in her throat. It was Derek. It wasn’t until then that Lindsay knew the drug hadn’t fully worn off because the sight of him through her into a rage. She rushed from the corner and tried to take off his head. She would kill him. This was entirely his fault. He had done this to her. Cayden tried to catch her but she was faster and she barreled into her ex-friend. They hit the ground and rolled, coming to rest with her on top and already swinging.
She would kill him. Kill him. Kill him. It was her only thought but somewhere in her subconscious Lindsay knew it wasn’t really her that wanted him dead. It was the creature those drugs had awaked inside of her. They had changed her forever. That little voice that told her to drink and destroy would never go away.
Cayden wrestled her off of Derek but she fought to continue her assault. He held her tightly to his chest and allowed her to pummel him until she ran out of steam and the tears began to flow.
“I trusted you!” she screamed. “I fell for you and you killed me! I’m a monster, a nightmare, because of you!”
Cayden made calming sounds and stroked her back while Derek looked on from his position on the floor. He rose and came to comfort her but she shrank away from his touch. She tried to retreat to her corner but Cayden wouldn’t her let go.
“I’m sorry, Lindsay. I didn’t mean to drag you down with me. I swear I didn’t,” Derek vowed before he quietly retreated from the room. When the sound of his footsteps faded, Lindsay collapsed into Cayden arms. She didn’t have any fight left in her, but the pain of betrayal and the sorrow for her lost humanity burned brightly. Cayden sank to the floor and held her tight while she fell apart.
“It’s alright now. I’ve got you. We can make this right. From now on, I’ve got you,” Cayden whispered into her hair.
She didn’t believe they could make things right again. But she believed he wanted to help her. Lindsay could feel his sincere and deep need to protect her rolling off of him in waves. It was weird to feel the emotions of others. Exhaustion and the after effects of the drugs pulled Lindsay under while she rested in the vampire’s huge arms. She felt safe for the first time since she was snatched from the night club. The warmth of his body seeped into her and Lindsay let herself go.
About the Author
To learn more about Cat Miller, please visit the following links:
http://www.catmillerbooks.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/catmillerbooks
https://twitter.com/CatMillerAuthor
Coming Soon:
Unafraid
A Forbidden Bond Novella
Unmerciful
The Forbidden Bond Series
Unmasked
The Forbidden Bond Series
Table of Contents
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY ONE
TWENTY TWO
TWENTY THREE
TWENTY FOUR
EPILOGUE
Table of Contents
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY ONE
TWENTY TWO
TWENTY THREE
TWENTY FOUR
EPILOGUE
