by Laura Kaye
“That is correct, dear. And you are Emily Ross, Kenric’s newest and most fleeting interest.”
“Kenric will kill you for this.” Emily pushed away from the wall, striding a few steps forward. She wouldn’t go down without a fight. And she sure as hell would not let this bitch see her beg.
Marguerite’s head tilted back with a laugh born in hell. “Oh, dear, I sure hope he’ll try. Don’t you realize that is exactly why you’re here? Kenric needs a reminder of the place he is destined to take at my side. So you be a good girl and let your latest fuck find you. And when he does, I’m going to enjoy making him watch while I kill you.”
Insane laughter followed the monster as she exited Emily’s prison. Her Spanish guard turned to follow his mistress, pausing long enough to purse his lips in an exaggerated kiss between the bars. Her stomach heaved.
Emily stumbled backward until she found the wall, and her false sense of bravado gave out. From her spot on the floor, she reached for Kenric in her mind, praying that by some chance she might find him there. If only they’d had more time, she would have learned how to tap into her mate. Instead of becoming a pawn in Marguerite’s sick game.
…
The stranglehold of the sun had never driven Kenric as close to the point of madness as it had today. It had taken every ounce of self-control not to lash out at his warriors earlier and possibly kill one of them for keeping him from his mate. But they’d been right. Emily had been taken less than an hour before sunrise. Not enough time remained to find her.
Sunlight continued to paint the sky outside. He felt it in the way his skin prickled and itched. But he wouldn’t last another minute banging around like a damn pinball within the confines of his residence. Dressed in black leather and with every inch of his body armed, Kenric hit the stairs.
Time to bring his mate home and put an end to Marguerite once and for all.
Outside the entrance to central command, Kenric punched in his access code and placed his right hand on the identification screen. A blue beam of light scanned his palm, and the heavy steel door slid open. The door sealed with a brush of air behind him as he entered the expanse of the room. His boots ground to a halt. Swallowing hard, he worked his throat while his brain attempted to churn out some intellect befitting for what waited for him.
The entire Enclave—except for Markus, which he found odd—had assembled. Damn impressive. With the exception of Guerin, his warriors were young, under two hundred years old. An early rise would have proven quite a feat.
Guerin came forward and met him.
“Don’t look so surprised. We pledged to protect her as our own, even before she became your mate. And your Enclave would gladly give their lives to bring her home to you.” Kenric gripped Guerin’s forearm with a firm shake that needed no words.
Gathered around the conference table, the team plotted their strategy. Kenric stood with both arms braced on the back of his chair. “I want all of you to know how much I respect and appreciate your commitment. Not just to the Enclave, but to Emily and me as well. You’ve demonstrated that tonight, with the strength it took for you to be here at this hour. I won’t forget.” Kenric studied his knuckles as they gripped the black leather of his chair. “Marguerite took Emily for one reason. It’s her way of saying, you want her? Come and get her. She doesn’t realize Emily is my mate, but she would have assumed I’d taken her blood, knowing how easy that would make it to track her.” Heads rotated, and brows lifted around the table at the clear implication. “Yeah, it’s a trap. Not only does she want Emily dead, she wants me there to witness it.” A muttering of curses drifted from his team.
“Marguerite alone is an incredible adversary, but as you’ve seen, she has a colony of loyal minions and DEADs at her disposal. This may very well be a suicide mission.” Kenric met each fierce gaze of his warriors. He would never force any of them into a battle they didn’t wish to take on as their own. Emily was his life. His world. And if he had to go alone… Nothing could stop him from finding her and bringing her home. Alive.
“If you’re waiting to see if any of us want out”—Logan grabbed his attention—“I can assure you, my oath to the Enclave had no strings attached. From what I’ve witnessed, taking Marguerite out will be a great service to the world.” Logan kicked back in his chair and cracked his knuckles.
Around the table, the crew added their parallel sentiments and their desires to remove Marguerite’s head and smoke some DEADs.
“Very well.” Kenric nodded. “Let’s bring my mate home and make sure Marguerite and her minions never see another sunset.”
While the team readied their comm links and gear, Kenric met with his second-in-command. “Guerin, have the team ready. Once I’m as close as I can get to Emily without detection, I’ll contact you with my coordinates. I’ll take to the air for a recon of the surroundings and inform you of what resistance to expect once I shift back.”
“Don’t go in there alone, Kenric. You know that’s what she’s hoping you’ll do.”
He wouldn’t promise a damn thing. Instead, he turned and headed to the door.
“Dammit, Kenric. You fucking wait for us before you go in,” Guerin shouted to his back.
“Just be there.” Kenric closed the door and phased.
…
At the end of his first phase, Kenric rematerialized from his atomic state onto the rooftop of an aluminum and steel warehouse building. He sat back on his haunches, searching once more for a sense of his mate’s presence in order to head in her direction.
“Kenric, can you hear me?”
The soft echo of Emily’s voice in his head rocked him. He hadn’t been deluding himself. She was alive. Grabbing the edge of the roof, he braced himself before responding.
“Kenric, please… Can you hear me?”
“Yes. Emily… I hear you.” A relieved sigh filled his mind.
“Thank God. Marguerite—”
“Yes, I know. And I’m on my way. I will get you out of there.” If only it were as simple as a touch of their minds. He’d be by her side in an instant.
“No!” Her voice rose into a terrified pitch, slicing a new hole in his heart. “That’s exactly why I’ve been trying to contact you. Marguerite knows you will come for me. Oh, God, Kenric. She plans to… She wants you here when she kills me.”
His nails lengthened into claws, puncturing the metal of the roof. They dug into the structure as he tightened the lid on the rage that threatened to rob him of his better judgment. Keep it together. Nothing short of thinking with his head, not his heart, would do if he hoped to save Emily. Marguerite wanted him enraged enough to lose his mind.
“It’s not going to happen. Marguerite remembers the young master vampire who escaped from her three hundred years ago. Through her dream visits, she’s aware I’ve grown stronger, but she has yet to meet me in the flesh. You will not die. But she will,” he assured Emily.
“Please be careful. I love you so much.”
“Wildflower… I love you, too. We have to focus on getting you out. Can you tell me anything about who took you and where you are?”
“Not much. Someone shot me with a dart containing some sort of drug. It knocked me out, and I woke up here, in an underground cell.”
Her omission of the details on how she was actually holding up told him all he needed to know. Locked away like some kind of animal. He of all people knew what that felt like. His skin crawled from the memory. But Emily… Putting her behind bars was hell-on-earth.
“I’ll chew my tongue in two, Kenric, before I give that bitch the satisfaction of seeing me squirm.”
He couldn’t help but smile. There was the fire of the woman he had fallen in love with. “Do you know how much it turns me on when you talk like that?”
“Turns you on…? Nice try, buddy, but all the dirty talk in the world can’t make me forget the evil on the other side of these bars. Hold on…They’re back.”
“What do they want?”
�
�They’ve come for me. Marguerite wants me brought to her. She wants me ready for you. Whatever that means.”
“Stay strong, and know that I’m coming for you. You will be in my arms tonight.”
Silence followed his last statement. He wouldn’t allow himself to think about what they were doing to her, or he’d lose it.
After his fourth phase he arrived at the end of a dirt road. Taking cover in oaks laden with Spanish moss, he surveyed the outline of an old Victorian house. Very Marguerite. Of course she would love something so nostalgic.
A tap to the back of his earpiece activated his comm link, and Guerin responded in less than a second. Kenric provided the needed GPS location for them to take action.
ETA, thirty minutes.
In the form of a raven, Kenric took flight. Spreading his wings, he sought and found the air currents that took him high above the trees. He circled the house and noted several guards strategically placed around the main dwelling and the entrance to the property. It would be a fight for his warriors to gain entrance, but they were the best. Before landing, he risked a closer look in the windows of the house, hoping for a glimpse of Emily.
Through the large first-floor window at the back of the house, he spotted her. He seated his talons on the paint-chipped exterior ledge for a better look. Marguerite had made sure she wouldn’t be missed. She’d stripped Emily naked, and Emily lay with her arms and legs cuffed on a parallel rack. From what he could tell from his angle at the window, her body appeared to be intact. No doubt, Marguerite was awaiting his arrival before damaging her flesh. Much more painful for both him and Emily that way.
He took to the sky again and, seconds later, landed without a sound near his clothes. In human form, he activated his link and informed his team of the geography of the property and the position and number of guards.
Re-dressed and rearmed, Kenric blended into the shadows and headed for the house. His mate lay strapped to a torture device. Not even Hell could keep him from her.
…
Marguerite leered over Emily’s naked body. Her lip curled in disgust, showing off the tip of one fang. “What he sees in you, I’ll never know. I can smell him all over you.” The long fingers of one hand gripped Emily’s cheeks, the tips of Marguerite’s nails digging into her flesh, forcing her to stare into Marguerite’s insane eyes. Emily didn’t know what hurt worse: the searing pain of the silver cuffs that pinned her to the wood or the sharp fingernails making a new hole in her face. “I can understand why you wanted him. He can fuck like a beast, can he not?” Marguerite sneered. “And I bet you loved the taste of his cum filling your throat. So sweet, wasn’t it?”
Emily pursed her lips and spat. She couldn’t have asked for a better shot. The ball of saliva landed with a splat near Marguerite’s right eye.
“How do you like that? You insane bitch!”
The hand that had held Emily’s face reared back and scalded her left cheek with an ear-ringing slap. The warm taste of blood seeped into her mouth. Emily blinked, trying to clear her vision.
A cool finger traced her bleeding lip. “Don’t make me kill you, whore, before our lover arrives.” Marguerite licked the smear of blood from her fingertip. As if in slow motion, she paled, then tilted her head and met Emily’s stare. This time, the jade green of Marguerite’s eyes disappeared, replaced by the eerie glow of red.
Oh shit.
“You didn’t…” Marguerite screamed. “I can taste him in your blood. You filthy fucking whore! How dare you mate him!” Emily flinched and jammed her eyelids tightly shut, waiting for the worst to come. The high-pitched squeal pierced her skull and went on and on until she knew her eardrums bled.
The sound finally faded, until the only sounds were her rapid pants for air. She risked a peek from under her lids. Marguerite stood a few steps away. Two of her fingers were dipped inside a crimson vessel the size of a fist. It had to be Goran’s blood, the ancient relic that Kenric had mentioned. Marguerite pulled her digits from the relic, her flesh coated in the thick dark matter, brought them to her mouth, and shoved them between her lips.
Oh God!
Marguerite’s expression morphed, drunk on the ancient’s essence. Before Emily could form a scream of her own, fangs sank into her throat with brutal precision. The DEAD attack had been nothing compared to the agony tearing into her neck. Marguerite chewed into her, making sure Emily felt every piece of her life rip into bits and drain away.
No! Think. She couldn’t allow the pain and Marguerite to win.
A familiar warm vibration in her soul alerted her to Kenric’s approach, helping to jolt her memory. As his mate, she should possess the ability to draw on his strength. Not knowing what to do, or how it worked, she was desperate enough to try anything. Anything to get this crazy bitch off her. Emily pictured a field of energy, buzzing with life, separating Marguerite from her. Marguerite flew from her vein with a furious wail.
Yes! It worked. A swirling pale blue haze covered Emily in a blanket of protective energy.
“He was to be my mate!” Marguerite whirled with her arms spread wide, crazed. “Both of you will pay. Kenric will hurt as he’s never hurt before. Such betrayal,” she wheezed. The once-exotic beauty had transformed into a wild, evil beast intent on pure destruction.
With fingertips more animal than human, Marguerite clawed at Emily’s energy barrier. “You’re not fit. I made him! He was to be the glue that would bring us together.”
What the hell is she raving about?
“You don’t deserve the gift of such a powerful vampire as he.”
“Deserving or not,” Emily said. “He’s mine.”
Kenric materialized in the center of the large room the moment Emily’s declaration fell from her lips. At that instant, he loved her even more than he had thought possible.
“Truer words have never been spoken,” he said. Marguerite’s head swiveled in his direction. The image of his mate, beneath a power shield of her own making—as she tapped into his power and protected herself from the talons of an enraged Marguerite—would remain forever burned into his mind.
Marguerite knew. He’d taken a mate, and it would never be her. In her delusional world, the news had to be a bitch.
Immediately, her guards formed a circle with him at its center. The tips of their swords aimed at his back and chest. Their points pricked at his skin, but with his mind, he maintained control over the advance of their weapons. For the moment, he allowed them their show of force. Why waste energy on the wrong enemy? He needed his full strength for Marguerite.
They wouldn’t kill him, anyway. Not without Marguerite’s command. And the last thing she wanted was him dead. Well, at least not by another’s hand. No, if he was to die, she would want that honor for herself.
Marguerite straightened to her full height and approached the top step of the elevated platform that held her and Emily. “You realize you’ve ruined everything,” she said to Kenric, running her fingers through her wild hair. “Together we could have ruled the world. Now… Now you’ve mated with this.” She gestured wildly at Emily, who still lay bound behind her.
Her red eyes blazed with fury as she glided down toward him. The guards parted. He’d waited for this moment for centuries. The blood in his veins surged in anticipation. Patience. His assault would need perfect timing.
She stopped less than a foot away. “Leave us.” Her guards’ heads turned to one another in confusion. “I said leave us!” she roared. “This is between me and the master of the Enclave.”
The door clanked shut as the last vampire exited, sending an echo across the room.
“I loved you.”
“Dear God. Your tongue defiles the very meaning of the words.”
“I loved you, Kenric.” Her head slowly shook from side to side. “I did. No other did I covet as much as you. The others beg incessantly for my attention. Freely, I offered it to you.” Her face twisted. “Yet you have spat on me at every turn. I gave you the gift of becoming a mast
er vampire and tossed it into your lap. And this is how you repay me?” Her voice rose into a hysterical frenzy. “All I asked was for you to share it with me.”
“You don’t love me. You love the power, Marguerite. You took what was not yours to take.” His palms gripped the hilts of the daggers at his thighs. “You expect love and gratitude from one you chained and fed upon like an animal. And then you stole my life. You went too far, Marguerite. It ends tonight.”
Like cannon fire, explosive discharges of energy from both of them resounded throughout the room. The sound waves bounced around inside his head like a mallet against his brain before his back slammed into a solid wall. Kenric shook off the haze from the impact. He steadied himself at the same time he spotted Marguerite across the room, picking herself up from the floor.
“Kenric! Emily’s voice slipped into his mind. “Get me off this thing so I can help you kick her ass.”
“She’s my fight, Wildflower. Believe me, she won’t be winning this battle.” He launched into the air less than a second later, rolling into a somersault and landing behind his target. With his blade in his right hand, he struck. Marguerite ducked, but not before he grazed the back of her neck.
She whirled, throwing out another blast of energy that knocked him sideways. Kenric hit the floor but continued to roll until he was back on his feet. This time, he hit her with a blast and spun on his heels in her direction.
Caught off guard by his sudden recovery, Marguerite didn’t have time to dodge his counterattack. Her feet left the floor under the brute force of the wave of energy. She flew backward, slamming into the lead glass window that covered half of one wall. The window shattered.
Marguerite’s body lay unmoving on the shards of glass. Silence fell over the room.
“Kenric?” Emily’s voice, like music from heaven, rang in his ears.
He took the steps by three, making it to her before he could breathe a reply.
Silver cuffs held Emily’s wrists and ankles. His chest throbbed at the sight. “One last step,” Kenric said. “And then yes, it’s over, and we’re going home.” He wanted the validation of seeing Marguerite personally turned to dust.
