“He insisted on an audience.” A tall, blond vampire stepped forward, carrying an unconscious dark-haired man whose neck and clothes were smeared with blood. Ariel recognized both men as the guards from the mine entrance. As the limp man moaned and began to stir, the tall man set the other down on the floor and continued. “Jachin wants to make sure the prophecy is fulfilled.”
While the blond man had Braeden’s attention, Jachin spoke in Ariel’s mind. Are you unharmed?
Rage made her chest burn. She wanted to scream at him, to slam her fist against his jaw for dragging her into his world, but right now Jachin was the lesser of many evils around her.
“You were wrong,” she repeated through clenched teeth, glancing his way.
The grip around her arm tightened. “Quiet,” Braeden ordered before he met Jachin’s gaze. “I think it’s best if you see this with your own eyes.” Nodding to the three vampires who’d moved behind Jachin, he finished, “Before we put you to death.”
As he spoke, the vampires rushed forward. Two men grabbed Jachin’s arms while one stood behind him, ready if he broke free.
Braeden raised his voice and addressed the whole room of vampires. “This human doesn’t believe I’ll fulfill my duties as your leader. What do the Sanguinas say?”
“You’ll do your duty.”
“We know better, Braeden.”
“Prove her wrong,” several shouts called over the general murmur.
“Behold…” Braeden grabbed Ariel’s arm. Her heart jerked and her stomach pitched as he walked her in a circle in front of his people like a piece of meat about to be slaughtered.
Chapter 11
W hile Braeden worked the Sanguinas into a frenzy, Jachin stared at Ariel’s bravado-filled expression. In the short time he’d known her he’d learned to read her. Sharp pain stabbed at his heart and gut in jealous, possessive jabs. Even in her fear, her ethereal beauty and core strength reflected outward, making him feel, for the first time in his life, inferior to a human.
His duty to his people warred within him as he scanned the Sanguinas’ faces around him. Hope welled in several of them, but most gazes held bloodthirst, not expectant looks for salvation.
Jachin’s eyes locked with Ariel’s, and the look of sheer betrayal in their beautiful blue depths hit him as if he’d been slammed by a battering ram. Sharp guilt and remorse tore through his body, slicing through his heart and lungs, stealing his soul.
“Let’s prove once and for all the validity of the prophecy,” Braeden grabbed Ariel’s other arm and turned her to face him. His dark gaze locked with hers. “Ready to be my mate and all that entails, Ariel Swanson?”
Ariel shook her head in frantic jerks. She struggled, trying to tug away from his hold. “No! Let me go.”
“Too late.” Braeden’s fanged smile, both devious and gleeful, made Jachin want to pound his face to mush.
In her heart, Ariel knew the Sanguinas leader cared nothing for the vampires around him. Why couldn’t Jachin see that? she wondered as a sense of hopelessness plunged to her stomach.
When Braeden yanked her forward and lowered his fangs toward her neck, her heart rate quadrupled. She let out a scream of sheer terror and shoved at his powerful shoulders while trying to mentally brace herself for the pain she knew he’d inflict.
Before his teeth connected, she was jerked sideways and slammed to the floor by a forceful hit. Ariel gasped for air, and her hip throbbed from the impact with the stone floor. She stared in surprise at the sight a few feet away from her.
Jachin had Braeden pinned to the floor. He sat on the vampire leader’s chest, his fingers around the man’s throat. “Don’t touch her. She is all that is good and pure. I wanted to believe in you, Braeden—for the sake of the clan—but you’ll only destroy her.”
Several vampires rushed forward. While one removed Jachin’s knife from his belt, others hauled him off Braeden’s chest. The vampire leader stood up and brushed at his suit with unhurried motions. His gaze filled with loathing as he approached Jachin, now held back by four male vampires.
“That’s what this is about, isn’t it? You want this human. You always want my women—and yet you’ll never have them,” he sneered.
Extending his claws, he ripped one side of Jachin’s face and then the other. Deep furrows welled with blood down Jachin’s cheeks while Braeden slammed him in the gut with several punches.
Ariel’s heart died a little with each blow. Tears filled her eyes and she bit her lower lip. She’d never been more frightened for Jachin than she was at this moment. How he withstood the pummeling without yelling in pain, she had no idea.
After Braeden gave the final insult by spitting on Jachin, he walked over to Ariel. He hauled her to her feet by her arm. “I will fulfill this prophecy once and for all.”
Before Ariel could prepare herself once more, Braeden yanked her forward and plunged his teeth deep into her neck.
The pain shooting down her throat was so unbearable her knees buckled. Braeden gripped her arms tight to keep her from falling to the floor. As she screamed at the all-consuming fire tearing at her neck, he closed his bottom teeth against her skin, as well, taking her level of pain to new depths. A vicious growl erupted from his throat right before he began to suck.
Once he took his first swallow, Braeden withdrew his fangs and spat her blood on the floor. He turned in fury toward Jachin, eyes blazing, canines coated bright red. “Her blood is tainted like all the others.” His icy gaze narrowed as he grabbed the back of Ariel’s hair pinned atop her head and turned her toward Jachin like a throwaway trophy. “Was that your plan? To poison me so you could to take my place?”
Ariel winced at the sharp pain radiating from her head. She trembled when Braeden confirmed that her blood was poisonous. She’d be worth nothing to the vampires now. She might not want to be the vampire leader’s mate, but she didn’t want to die, either.
Her situation was dire, yet in the darkness surrounding her one tiny light shone. Jachin had tried to save her. He did care.
Braeden jerked her around in a circle once more, this time by her hair. Sharp pinpricks shot through her skull. Her eyes watered as he displayed her to all the vampires looking on. “You have before you another tainted human—”
She was surprised when Braeden cut himself off and sucked in his breath as if shocked. He drew her hair up tighter, forcing her to bend her head forward to keep from passing out from the pain. Tears rolled down her face from the stabbing agony his action caused.
“You are wrong!” Jachin ground out through his own pain.
Braeden turned her around so her back faced the crowd and Jachin. “Jachin is not only a traitor but he brings an enemy in our midst. See this crescent shape on her neck? Tell them your name.” Ariel tried to turn and look at him, but he kept his hold tight and growled, “Tell them!”
“Arianna Lee,” Ariel screeched out in pain as a sick, twisted realization settled in her mind. There was only one way this vampire could know Ariel Swanson wasn’t her real name.
“Does that last name sound familiar, anyone? She bears the same mark as the man who ordered the destruction of the Scions project. My father took care of the human responsible and his wife, and I made sure his other descendents paid the ultimate price—until the sickness caused us to withdraw from their world. I never could find one female. She’s the last in his line.” He turned her back around so she faced the crowd. “George Marvin Lee tried to eradicate our family, and now we can finally destroy his.”
Ariel felt Jachin’s heavy gaze on her, the question in his eyes. She was just as surprised at the news that her grandfather was the man responsible for the government project’s demise, but now the systematic murders of her family members made a kind of morbid sense.
Fury for her family’s murders rose from deep within her, spreading like a disease through her lungs, filling her chest with black revenge.
“Take her,” Braeden demanded to a vampire nearby. When the man trie
d to grab Ariel’s arm, she shrugged free and dove for Braeden, ready to dig her nails into his hateful face. “You murdering bastard! You killed my entire family.”
Braeden grabbed her wrists before she connected. A satisfied smile spread across his face. “Why, yes, I did. And I enjoyed every minute stalking the weak humans who thought it was acceptable to destroy my family. Even your pathetic brother.”
Peter hadn’t committed suicide? Ariel growled her wrath, enraged that the man stood there mocking her as if he enjoyed every second of her pain. “You’ll never teach your people humanity or help them find happiness with such blackness in your heart.”
Braeden backhanded her straight into another vampire’s waiting arms.
“Hold her,” he barked, then turned to the men holding Jachin. “Let him go. I have a score to settle first.”
Jachin broke free of the vampires’ hold and sprang across the room toward Braeden, fangs displayed and claws extended. Watching the bastard bite Ariel, purposefully inflicting pain, took him over the edge.
The force of his impact sent both men skidding across the floor. While they were still moving, both sliding on their shoulders, Jachin slammed his fist into Braeden’s jaw and throat before shredding Braeden’s jacket with his extended claws.
When they came to a halting stop, bright red blood appeared, seeping into Braeden’s white shirt underneath. The Sanguinas leader roared in pain and rammed his hand into Jachin’s chest, sending him across the room to slam against the far wall.
Disoriented from the blow, Jachin slid down the stone wall, then shook his head and stood.
The crowd spread, allowing Braeden room. He let out a combat roar and launched himself across the twenty-foot distance toward Jachin.
They collided midair, both men striking out at one another, each landing damaging blows. Braeden caught Jachin’s left bicep with his claws, while Jachin sliced at Braeden’s neck.
When they landed, Jachin folded his fingers in a beckoning motion. “Come and get it. You and I both know this is going to end with me digging your sadistic black heart out of your chest—”
Braeden’s face twisted with fury. He dove at Jachin, ramming his head right into his gut. Jachin’s breath whooshed from his lungs and he slammed into a solid marble column. Excruciating pain splintered down his spine, but Jachin shoved the pain away, focusing on one thing.
Ending this.
Grabbing the back of Braeden’s coat, Jachin quickly flipped the man over. With a bloodcurdling yell, he gripped Braeden’s lapel and extended his claws once more—
“Jachin!”
Ariel’s terrified scream stopped Jachin cold.
Aaron held a knife to Ariel’s throat, a determined look in his eyes. “Let him go.”
Jachin’s heart thumped hard, his muscles tense. Revenge for his people and for Ariel flowed through him with such a palpable thrum, he had a hard time letting go of Braeden’s coat. Finally his fingers listened to his brain and they began to ease.
Braeden scrambled to his feet and backed several feet away from Jachin.
Ariel’s fear ricocheted throughout her body. The sharp knife pressed against her neck told her just how close to death she was.
Braeden swayed slightly and straightened his torn lapels. A cold, deadly smile tilted his lips as he glanced over Jachin’s injuries.
“You’ve lost a lot of blood. How long has it been since you’ve fed? I hear your stomach rumbling.” Jerking his chin toward Ariel, Braeden continued, “Her family tried to kill us. I think it would be the perfect revenge for her last breath in this life to be at the hands of the voracious beast within you.”
Jachin snarled in disgust. “Have the guts to finish the job yourself, you spineless bastard.”
Braeden closed the distance between them and slammed his fist hard into Jachin’s face, knocking him out.
Once Jachin was out of commission, the vampire holding Ariel removed the knife from her throat. Ariel shook, and her stomach roiled at the sight of Jachin lying there bleeding and unconscious. As two men picked him up by his arms and began to drag his limp, bleeding body out of the room, she wept for Jachin and for herself. She couldn’t believe that he’d risked the Sanguinas’ future to save her from Braeden and, by doing so, had sealed his own fate.
The look on Jachin’s face when Braeden had told him that her grandfather was the man who’d shut down the program had been heart-wrenching. Fury, anger and betrayal had burned in his eyes. Not only were they both about to die, but any sympathy he might have felt for her, any emotion, had disappeared from his gaze before he’d looked away.
Now he would spare her no mercy.
The man grasping her arm began to pull her along, following the men who now carried Jachin. Vivian’s cold smile held triumph as Ariel walked past her, while unshed tears glittered in Mira’s sad blue eyes. Many in the crowd turned their backs to her, and others stared at her with hatred.
Led by Braeden, the vampires carried Jachin down a hall on the opposite side of the castle and began to descend a set of narrow curved stone stairs. Ariel stumbled when the man holding her shoved her forward, indicating she should follow them downward.
One of the men hit a button on the wall, and sconces lit up ahead of them, lighting their way as they spiraled down several stories of stairs. Once they reached the bottom, a man pulled open the heavy wooden door.
Cooler air rushed forth when they passed through the doorway and entered a long hall full of heavy wood doors. It’s a dungeon, she thought at the same time a groan of pain escaped Jachin.
A guard used his key to open a door and then both men tossed Jachin into the room with satisfied laughs.
“Wait here,” Braeden said to her guard before he went inside the room, pulling the door closed behind him.
When Ariel heard a loud thump as if someone had been thrown against one of the walls in the dungeon, she winced and worried for Jachin.
A few minutes later, Braeden walked out with a satisfied smile on his face. He gripped her face as the guards pushed her forward.
“Maybe you’ll get lucky and he won’t drain you dry before the sunlight takes care of him.” He let out a vindictive laugh. “Either way, you’ll rot in this prison.” He moved to the side and the guards shoved her inside the room so hard she fell to the floor, gasping in pain.
Her circlet askew, her eyes wide with apprehension, Ariel met Jachin’s gaze. The heavy door shut behind her, sealing their fates with a resounding thunk.
The air grew thick with tension and the sweet smell of her blood around them. Even the tiny bit of blood at the corner of her mouth was enough to incite his hunger. The sconces’ light reflected off her white-blond hair, making it appear to shimmer.
She looked so beautiful and fragile with her red skirt swirled around her on the hard, cold floor. He knew her blood would revive him, but he also knew the primal survival instinct inside him would bloom into a ravaging beast. He wouldn’t be able to stop until she was completely dead.
His fangs elongated at his traitorous thoughts. Jachin clamped his lips shut and closed his eyes, lying perfectly still on his back. As long as she didn’t move, didn’t stir the air, he might be able to keep the thirst inside him under control.
Ariel spoke in a rush, her voice shaking with regret. “I didn’t know about my grandfather’s connection. I never knew what his job was, just that he worked for the government before he retired. After my brother died, my family was gone. I changed my name to try to stay one step ahead of the vampire I feared would come looking for me next. I’ve had this identity so long Ariel is my name now. I’m so sorry, Jachin.”
Jachin didn’t want her to apologize. He didn’t want her to be completely innocent. He was fighting his need for blood with every ounce of willpower left inside him. Eventually he wouldn’t be able to contain the bloodlust raging throughout his body. He wanted to blame her—but he knew he couldn’t.
Concern etched her words. “You need to get up, use your streng
th to fight your way out of here,” she continued, digging deeper…making him want her even more.
Ariel stared at Jachin’s tense jaw. The man was awake, but he was completely ignoring her. She glanced up at the circular window covered with cross-bars in the corner of the room. It was too small to crawl through, yet it was large enough to let in plenty of sunlight. She was pretty sure it went all the way up to outside ground level. In the bare, stone-walled room, there wasn’t anywhere Jachin could hide from the sun. Fury swept through her, making her chest ache. He was their only chance out of this dungeon, and yet he lay there on that mesh bed hanging from the wall by chains as if he planned to accept his death with open arms.
“Damn it, get up, Jachin!” She literally shook in her anger. “Where is that survival instinct that kept you alive during your banishment?”
His dark gaze narrowed on her, his voice low and deadly. “Do you know what I did to survive? I killed humans for money and I never once felt an ounce of guilt.”
When he finished, he closed his eyes again. She clenched her fists in frustration that he was trying to alienate her…as if he wanted her to hate him. She realized that was exactly what he was trying to do.
Squaring her shoulders, she strengthened her tone. “It’s not going to work. You saved me today when you had everything to lose by doing so. There is humanity stirring in that heart of yours.”
Nothing, not a flicker of acknowledgment.
“Where’s your will to live?” Ariel stood and walked over to stand next to the bed. Hitting his shoulder, she demanded, “Survive, Jachin! Survive for both of us!”
Jachin turned to face her so fast she jumped back. Ariel tripped on her gown’s hem and fell to the floor, bruising her rear in the process.
He sat up on his elbow and roared, “All I hear is your warm blood rushing in your veins. Stay away!”
The feral look on his face, his eyes glazed with bloodlust and the sight of his fangs fully extended told her he would drain her. She didn’t think her death would be a quick one. Ariel had never been more frightened in her life.
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