I have seen this man before. This vampire. He was the same one that Adrian shot at the club on the first night we met. I remember those evil eyes and that dark smile on his full mouth.
“You should know better than to be out here alone, dear Jade.” He spoke with a smooth voice. “Drop her, Mona.” He ordered.
Mona turned to him and snarled. He fisted a hand in her short hair and pulled her head back violently.
“Drop her, I said.” He gritted his teeth and the woman complied.
I fell to the floor in a gasping heap.
My throat throbbed with pain, blood leaked all over me from the gash in my throat.
My beast surfaced – I felt her inside me. Felt her struggle for freedom and revenge for the harm they had done us.
“Tsk. Tsk.” The man crouched in front of me. “Don’t do that, youngster.” He warned. “You are not yet strong enough to fight me, and I would hate to kill you before surrendering you to Gabriel.”
He moved closer. His pale hand reached to touch me.
I flinched and spat in his face.
He gripped my chin and forced me to look at him while he wiped his face and then licked his fingers.
He gave me a smile that made me shiver. Then he shook his head and grabbed my hair tightly and pulled me into his body.
“Such a pity…” he whispered, licking my face. “Such a waste of beauty…and warmth.” He was trembling and swallowing back his own saliva. “I didn’t think I would have such a difficult time controlling myself…” Fangs appeared in his mouth and he pulled me closer, bending my head at a painful angle.
Mona moved in and slapped him hard across his face. “Don’t. We need to bring her to that thirsty bastard if we want to walk in the sun!” She roared.
“But she’s so…tempting.” He swallowed again.
I felt my wolf rise to the surface and began choking on her fur.
I started coughing, sharp pain started coming in waves from my stomach to my throat. It felt like my ribcage was going to collapse on my stomach.
My hands convulsed. My fingernails exploded into long claws. I growled and lunged for the vampire, but he moved too quickly – like a roach under a light.
He didn’t get far though, someone grabbed him from behind and tore him in half before I could blink. His body fell in two bloody piles next to me.
The female vampire shrieked and moved like the wind. In one motion, she swept me up by the throat. “I’ll rip her throat out!” She snarled.
It was only that moment that I saw my father balancing on the balls of his feet on the balcony railing. His gray eyes had bled to black. The growl escaping from his mouth caused goose bumps to rise along my skin. “Let us find out if that is a possibility.” Lucian taunted.
While Stephan, Adrian, and my two bodyguards flanked my father, four vampires came up behind them. Hideous, muscled vampires with drooling mouths, black eyes, massive bat-like wings, and hairless, ivory bodies.
They snarled and attacked. My father lunged for me, but Mona yanked me out of reach and tossed me up into the air like a Frisbee.
One of the hairless creatures snatched me by my arms in mid-air and soared high above the house. Blood continued to seep all over me from the gash in my neck. I felt too weak to fight. Before succumbing to darkness, I faintly heard my father scream out for me.
***
I was freezing and naked.
Somewhere nearby I could smell smoke and hear the crackle of flames.
It was dark and I was sore all over, but I staggered to my feet and felt my way around. The bricks around me were ice cold. I moved slowly against the wall until my fingers brushed steel. I was in a cell. But where?
All around me I could hear faint whimpering.
“There is no way out.” A frail voice cried. “It’s pointless.”
“Who’s there?” I asked, trying to blink away the dark.
“Alexia,” she said in a whisper.
My heart pounded with aggression.
“Alexia Tate?” I asked.
After a moment she affirmed. “Yes.”
I did my best to concentrate and use the beast inside of me like a pair of night vision goggles.
Slowly, the cell came into view.
Huddled together in a corner, naked and muddy with matted hair and quivering lips, three girls stared at me wide-eyed.
When I could breathe past their fear, I couldn’t help but smile.
They were here.
They were alive.
I had to get them to safety.
“Don’t be afraid, girls.” I urged and walked slowly toward them. “My name is Jade. I’ve been looking for you.”
They said nothing as I approached, but the look on their dirty faces said enough. They had been traumatized. Even if I saved them, I don’t know that any amount of therapy would heal them.
“You can’t help us.” One of them cried. I believed she was Olivia. “He will kill you.”
“Let him try.” I hissed. I was close enough now that I could touch them if I wanted to. But I didn’t.
“I will get you home, girls.” I promised.
They didn’t respond.
A door opened, but I couldn’t see any kind of light streaming through the blackness. The sound of approaching footsteps raised my pulse and caused the girls to begin trembling and weeping.
As they got closer I began seeing the faint glow of a traveling light. The same blonde woman from before came into view. She was wearing a white fur around her shoulders and black leather pants on her bony legs.
She opened the cell door and summoned me forward but I resisted. She hissed and came at me with blinding speed. Her hand gripped a fistful of my hair and yanked my head back.
“You will do as I say, girl!” She demanded.
“Fuck you!” I yelled through gritted teeth and let my power slip out and slam into her. She fell to her knees as the pain gripped her.
“Run, girls!” I roared. “Run!”
But they didn’t move. They sat still and cried harder.
The vampire stood up, grabbed me by the throat and head-butted me in the face. Blood immediately spurted from my nose and top lip.
“They are bewitched to remain in this cell.” She barked. “And you won’t catch me off guard again, bitch. Now, get up and walk.” She ordered. “Or you will regret it.”
Without any other option, I started walking slowly out of the cell.
A few feet later she shoved me up a set of concrete stairs and through a wooden door that led into a dimly lit bedroom with thick red carpet and high ceilings. Across from a four-poster bed, a fireplace roared to life with sizzling logs inside.
I ached for warmth but didn’t dare move.
In front of the fireplace was a bronze bathtub with steaming water.
“You will bathe.” She directed.
When I didn’t move fast enough, she picked me up and tossed me into the scalding liquid.
It took my body a few seconds to register the pain, and I screamed as my flesh blistered. She shoved my head underwater and just as my lungs were threatening to explode she lifted up my head by my hair.
She then crushed her hand down on my jaw. “I will not repeat myself!”
A blur of a movement later, she was on her knees in front of the French doors that concealed a possible balcony.
Behind her, a slender man with long black hair, pasty skin, and empty amber eyes was smiling at me while holding her neck at an awkward angle.
“She is harmed, Mona,” he said to her in a bored voice. “You did not follow orders. And now…”
“Master.” She cried.
“Shhhh.” He caressed the side of her pale neck with his thumb and lowered his head to whisper in her ear. “I will not repeat myself either.” He winked at me as he shoved his fist through her chest and ripped out her heart.
She gasped before her body fell forward.
“Anica!” He roared. “Come and take out the trash.” He ordered w
hile grinning at me.
A small woman scrambled in and out with Mona’s body before I could even catch a glimpse of her.
“Hello, Jade Sinclair.” He addressed me. “Welcome to Romania. I’m Gabriel.”
I wasn’t far away when I smelled them and picked up on Jade’s distress, but apparently far enough to give them an opportunity to close in on her. Lucian is not pleased. His anger is painted in purple on my face. We can’t find her. Her mother tried a locator spell. Lucian tried his connection as her alpha, and the lapdog tried reading her mind. Nothing. She is gone, and it’s all my fault.
Adrian
Chapter Thirty-one
Gabriel
He walked over to the bed, retrieved two white towels and then offered them to me.
I flinched and hugged my knees to my chest.
“You don’t need to fear me, Jade.” He assured. “I asked that you not be harmed and Mona disobeyed me. That is why she met the fate you just witnessed.”
“What do you want from me?” I asked.
“Well.” He sighed. “I want a lot of things, Jade. I want to see your father suffer for killing my mate. I want to be the president of the vampires in your country, I want to be adored and obeyed by all, and I will be. But for now…I want to walk under the sun, Jade, and you are my ticket.”
“How?”
He crouched beside the tub and stuck his hand in the water beside my legs. The moment he did, the water chilled instantly.
“Your potent, power-absorbing-virgin blood will please them, and they will grant me a favor for my service. You are special, Jade. I was first attracted to your unique scent when your path crossed mine during your little investigation. I knew you were Lucian’s daughter, and if I didn’t snag you, his rival packs would beat me to it and use you for their own personal vendettas. It took a lot of watching and listening, but now I have you, and I am that much closer to daylight.”
My bones quivered with fear but I tried calming myself enough to speak. “You have the girls too,” I said.
“I do.” He admitted while taking his hand out of the water and standing up. “Their virgin blood and familial connections to the ladies would have been sufficient for a small favor. Perhaps a month in the daylight but not nearly enough for such a grand gesture. Now that I have you, they are an added bonus. Another bartering tool. Your blood is equivalent to one hundred virgins.” He opened a towel. “Come, Jade. The water has cooled and you are cold. I could hear your heartbeat changing with your temperature drop.”
I didn’t want to admit that he was right, but I was cold. I stood up and yanked a towel from his hand. “What do you mean their familial ties?”
He shrugged nonchalantly. “Without the young blood of their relatives, the ladies may not be so pretty to look at and come sunlight, they’d become one with the wind.” He joked. “Perhaps they’d perish for good, but who is to know? Every seventeen years they find the virgin blood they need without much effort. I planned this seventeen years ago because I wanted to make sure I was the one to have what they desire. All of their fathers are from Alexandru’s bloodline, and all of their mothers were cursed not to procreate without the help of my witch.”
“You killed Carlisle Cross, and you are the one that cast me out of his mind so that I do not find the girls…”
“I had Cross killed because he was sloppy and weak. And I had my witch cast you out because I couldn’t have you ruin everything. But enough with questions.” He stopped. “Anica will bring you some food and clothes.”
“You have me, why not let them go?” I asked.
He shook his head and smiled. “You think me a fool, Jade. I will not allow them to slip from my grasp. They are still useful to me.” He headed toward the door. “Oh, and in case you haven’t noticed, I had my witch bind your power after your little attack on Mona. She also cut your ties to your pack. No one can hear you. No one can detect your scent.”
“My father will find me.” I assured him.
He laughed as he walked out the door. “Well, he has until midnight to do so, Jade.” He looked at his watch. “That’s thirty minutes. Tick-tock.” He tapped his watch and walked out.
As soon as he was gone, I ran to the French doors and opened them, but I couldn’t step outside. An invisible wall kept me inside.
I tried focusing all my energy into reaching my father. But I felt nothing. Heard nothing. I was powerless.
The door opened and the same woman from before hurried inside with a white garment over her forearm.
“Help me, please,” I whispered. “How do I get out of here?”
She didn’t speak.
“Please.” I implored.
She shook her head.
I grabbed her shoulders and made her look at me. “I need to get out of here. Please, help me.”
Tears fell down her round cheeks as she opened her mouth but no words came out. Instead, I got a view of her tongue and gasped. It was cut in half.
She pulled herself out of my grip, handed me the dress and left the room quickly.
Maybe I had to face the truth. I would be sacrificed. The girls would be sacrificed.
No one could find us.
Tick-tock. Tick-tock.
With no other choice, I put on the dress and stared into the blazing flames until Gabriel came back into the room. He was wearing a white unbuttoned shirt and black pants that hung from his narrow waist. His long black hair fell in careless waves to his shoulders.
“It’s time, Jade,” he said, casually.
Though inside I shuddered with fear, I raised my chin and walked forward, down a set of marble stairs and out the front door, where a black coach with four horses awaited.
Gabriel offered me his hand.
I sneered at it and climbed in.
Already sitting in the coach was an older woman with red hair in loose braids, wearing a crimson top with gold embroidery and a bright green ankle-length skirt.
“Who are you?” I asked, even though she fit the description of the witch the girl’s parents had described.
She didn’t answer.
Gabriel climbed in and sat beside her.
“She is my witch, Jade. She is here to make sure everything runs smoothly.”
“Is she the one binding me?”
Gabriel laughed but didn’t answer.
After a quick, steadying breath, I lunged at the witch. My nails dug into her face and scratched as deep as I could.
She shrieked and chanted in her tongue.
“Enough!” Gabriel snarled and peeled us away from each other. He took her jaw in his hands and squeezed until she cried out in pain. “I can’t offer them damaged goods.”
“You’re lucky.” She hissed tearing herself from his grasp. “Daca era dupa mine, te mancau viermii pana acuma.”
Gabriel laughed as he sat beside me. “She said if it were up to her maggots would have been long feasting on your flesh.”
A few moments later, the carriage came to a stop and Gabriel smiled. “We are here.” He opened the small door and climbed out.
“Come, Jade.” He coaxed. “Fighting is pointless. It’ll just be more painful.”
I climbed out and spit in his face. “I won’t be worth much if I’m damaged.” I chortled and shoved him as hard as I could into the carriage door.
He gasped and bent forward but didn’t fall. I tried running, but he caught me by my hair. “I’ve been patient, Jade. I won’t let you ruin this for me. Not now.”
Another carriage arrived.
One by one, Alexia Tate and the other two girls climbed out, bound at the hands and feet and wearing a similar dress to mine.
Each one glanced in my direction before disappearing into the forest.
Their heartbreaking gazes crippled me and tears fell down my cheeks.
“I will kill you.” I stated to Gabriel.
Angrily, he grabbed my chin. The silver glow of the moon shone on my face, and suddenly I hit the ground hard.
At
that moment, the wolf inside me flared to life with a thunderous growl.
She clawed at the surface, and I hollered in pain as wave after wave of agonizing, bone shattering seconds ticked by.
“What’s happening?” Gabriel shouted.
“The moon is too strong. She’s shifting!” The witch cried.
“No!” Gabriel snarled. “You were supposed to stop her!”
My ribcage felt like it was being ripped open, the skin on my body rippled and gray fur exploded from the inside.
My jaw unhinged and a muzzle sprouted where my mouth should have been. I bowed backward with a howl when the bones in my spine snapped.
“Give yourself to me…” a voice whispered. “Surrender…”
I focused on my labored breathing.
In…and…out.
The pain slowly subsided.
I struggled up on all fours.
Very slowly, I started feeling stronger, until I felt invincible. I even felt the tissue and muscles on my neck begin to mend my previously inflicted wounds.
Everything around me became clear like high definition. I could hear the rush of blood in the witch’s body, the steady unnecessary breath of the vampire watching me.
I immediately turned my attention to the witch. She wanted to run, but I sprang effortlessly on top of her and tore the flesh from her throat.
Gabriel took off.
I followed.
“Jade?” I heard an echo in my head.
“Stephan?”
I heard him laugh. “I’m coming, Duchess! We’re coming, hold on!”
As I ran through the dense, peculiar vegetation, two wolves sprang from the darkness and flanked me.
I stopped my pursuit on the edge of a massive fire.
The black wolf came close and nuzzled me.
Lucian.
The dark gray one licked my face and whimpered.
Stephan.
More wolves emerged from the forest and stopped beside us.
I immediately recognized one of the scents. A light gray wolf came to me and put his large head against mine.
Adrian.
Lucian growled, and Adrian backed up.
“We have to hurry, Jade.” My father’s voice cut through me. “Your mother can’t keep us from their view much longer.”
I am Jade Page 15
