by Trina M. Lee
Beneath my touch the circle wavered and fell apart. But not before my dark vampire buried his fangs in my sister.
So this was it. The moment Gabriel had seen months ago. He’d warned me. Now I could be relieved that it had finally happened so I could stop waiting for it.
Under his thrall, Juliet sagged in his grasp. She pressed tight against him, begging for more. I half expected her to climb him. Boy was she gonna be pissed in about three minutes. I’d never hear the end of it.
It took about seven seconds for everything to dissolve into total chaos.
Circle down, I surged forward. Arys had seconds to cast Juliet aside before I was on him. He flung her at Jenner and thrust a hand in my face. The blast he threw at such close range hit like a baseball bat to the head. And I ought to know, having taken one to the skull not so long ago.
It dropped me at Arys’s feet. My ears rang like a bomb had gone off beside me. Disoriented, I concentrated on the floor beneath my fingertips, seeking a focal point to stop the world from spinning.
Arys grabbed my arm and dragged me to my feet. Blood stained his fangs as he bared them at me. “I’m fucking drowning in you, Alexa. Why can’t I get you out of my head?”
Because we were destined to drive each other insane.
My response was a fist in his face. “Screw you for touching my sister. You want me so damn bad, then come get me. Leave others out of it.”
Vaguely, I was aware of Juliet straining to get to Arys and Jenner holding her back. Now that his spell had broken, she’d snapped. Shouting something about assaulting a federal agent, she wrestled Jenner for the gun he’d swiped.
From behind me came a shout from Briggs as he arrived on the scene. Livid, he barrelled toward us.
With a flick of his wrist, Arys surrounded the two of us in another circle, locking everyone else out. “Needing to hurt you the way I do, I don’t want that. I know it’s not right. But you haunt me, my wolf.” Oblivious to those shouting at us, Arys held me by both arms, shaking me in his desperation. “I don’t want this for us.”
He was breaking. From one extreme to the next, he swung. Violence became confusion. Anger became fear. Our love tore him apart, piece by piece.
My fist froze, cocked back and ready. In him I saw my pain reflected. “We are not giving up. Promise me right now.” Unclenching my fist I grabbed his face. “Promise me!”
His gaze slid away, like he couldn’t look me in the eye right then. “I don’t know who I am anymore. You’ve haunted my dreams for centuries. But now you haunt my every thought. And I know it will only end when we do.”
Everyone outside the circle became a blur of background noise. My anger died at the sight of my dark vampire wearing defeat like a second skin. I could count on one hand how many times I’d seen Arys beat down and broken. It never got easier.
“Don’t talk like that. We made a choice together. No giving up.” Annoyed when he still wouldn’t look at me, I slapped his face. “Don’t you dare give up now.”
His gaze snapped to mine, and he snarled. “Why do you still care, Alexa? After everything I’ve done, how can you still look at me like that? Like I’m everything.”
“You are everything, Arys.” Torn between wanting to beat the hell out of him and kiss the worry off his face, I fell apart. “I can’t do this without you.”
Arys jerked me close and kissed me hard. So much angst lived in that kiss. So much regret. And always the promise of a violent end. “I don’t know how to be what we’re supposed to be.”
I felt him struggling for clarity and control. Everything we’d been told came down to one thing: the inevitable destruction of a twin-flame duo. Brought on by their own twisted love and hate. None had beaten the odds. No two who’d stared destiny in the face, told it to fuck off and lived to tell the tale.
A shadow crossed his face, darkening his deep-blue eyes. I was losing him. But I’d been where he was now, and somehow that was enough in that moment to keep me fighting.
I knew when he succumbed, and I was ready when he threw the next blast in my face. Throwing my hands up, my defensive hit collided with his offensive shot. The force threw us both back against the circle.
Arys had tasted wolf, and now he wanted the one wolf he most craved. Me. He sprang for me, fangs bared. Not vampire fangs though, wolf.
So I did the only thing I could think of in that split second. I reached for the vampires outside the circle, tapping their power, channelling it through the light in my core, as only a Hound of God could. The addition of Willow was like a brilliant beacon in my head, a lighthouse of power.
Then I threw it all at Arys.
Evenly matched as we were, he hadn’t anticipated I’d take advantage of our progeny looking on. I took him down hard, slamming him against the side of the circle. Feeding the force, I pinned him in place.
Never had I used the channelled force of our vampires against Arys. Seeing him fighting to break my hold, to tear me to shreds, it beckoned a memory of the oily voice of the evil entity on FPA property.
You must destroy one another. It is your destiny.
Fuck the entity and fuck destiny too.
“Clever trick,” Arys mused, grunting as he focused hard on the force that held him. Perhaps he couldn’t channel the energy, but he could manipulate the power I called.
In a swift motion he twirled his wrist, wrapping the power around his forearm as if he coiled a rope. It yanked me forward, and I fell hard on my knees. But I held tight to the force, fighting to wrestle control back from him.
From outside the circle our friends and foes shouted at us. Efforts were made to break through, to no avail. I couldn’t spare a moment’s attention for the mess of noise outside our wall. We were in a literal tug of war. A metaphor come to life in deadly form.
As he coiled the energy, it gradually began to drag me toward him. I resisted, trying to wrench the power stream from his grasp. With a frustrated cry, I slammed a hand against the floor.
Nobody could win this war. We were too evenly matched. But damn if we weren’t going to try, caught up as we were in this dance of devastation.
The circle shattered, falling in sharp fragments like glass. Stunned, Arys and I lost our grips. The raw energy surged wide without the circle to contain it. Power scattered in every direction. It shook the building to its very foundation. People screamed. One of them may have been me. Drawn back to those I’d pulled it from, it nailed each vampire in turn.
Willow alone stood his ground, relatively unfazed by the whole thing.
Silver wings flared wide, blocking my view of Arys. Falon stood between us, keeping us separated. “How many times is it now that I’ve stopped you idiot twins from killing each other?” The fallen angel pinned me with a derisive glare. “If this city wouldn’t immediately go to hell without you, I’d grab a drink and watch you ash yourselves.”
Dropping my hold on what little remaining power I commanded, my shoulders slumped, and I grabbed for the closest table to steady myself.
My sister’s high-pitched shrieks rang in my ears. Yeah, she was pissed alright.
Needing to vacate the situation, to walk away while I could, I headed for the front door without a glance back.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Walking out as the shit was about to hit the fan was probably not the best choice. Voices followed me. My sister flung angry threats as she promised Arys that he would spend the next century in lockup. Shaz struggled to keep everyone calm. Briggs demanded Jenner keep his hands off Juliet.
I couldn’t care. I very much needed to not give a fuck. In light of everything that had crashed down upon me in the last twenty-four hours, it seemed only fitting that it would all become too much.
The weight of chaos is a funny thing. One moment it seems doable, like maybe it’s really not so bad after all. Then without warning, it’s worse than you ever imagined it could be.
Knowing that Arys and I couldn’t go on like this and survive each other, I found my
self considering the one person who might actually be able to offer some solid feedback. Lilah. I wanted to see her.
All I knew was that an angel or demon could feel it when you called on them. So I focused on Salem, begging for him to hear me. Begging him to come.
“If I were you, I’d let them all kill one another and be done with it.” Falon emerged from the shadows beside me. “It’s no wonder they need a queen. They’re a bunch of blathering fools who would be lost without you.”
Cocking my head to the side, I eyed him suspiciously. “Good timing in there. I can’t imagine that was a coincidence.”
“You’re welcome.” Falon emphasized each word, astounded at my lack of gratitude. “The rumbles of twin-flame upheaval is felt far and wide throughout the underworld. But it’s not time yet for the two of you. So someone must step in. Willow is unable. The Circle thinks it should be me.”
My sense of suspicion grew until it left a bad taste in my mouth. “Because we’re partners? Or because we’re lovers?”
“Lovers,” Falon spat the word. “There’s a lot of connotation in such a word.”
I’d have laughed if I wasn’t so concerned about what might be going on back inside. The calm emptiness of the parking lot refreshed me after the suffocating pressure of so many vampires. Smudge should be here any minute.
“Yeah, well, it is what it is.” I shrugged. “Wait, what do you mean it’s not time yet?”
Wide eyed in feigned innocence, he said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Nope, didn’t care. I did not have the mental capacity to beat it out of him right now. “You should probably go back inside and make sure nobody dies tonight. I can’t be here right now.”
“No, you’ve got to find the leopard.” With a nod of his silver head, Falon grew serious in a way I rarely saw. “She’s in a bad way. She needs you. Forget about your idiot vampires for now. Set your own pain aside. Go be the Hound.”
I studied him until he fidgeted uncomfortably. “I’m not sure I like it when you’re serious. I really don’t know how to talk to you.”
“Good. Can’t have you getting too comfortable now, can I?” Just like that his facetious grin was back. “Your wolf has his hands full playing peacemaker. I’ll back him up until everyone calms the fuck down. You deal with the leopard before she draws attention.” He was gone before I could form a snarky retort.
Just as well. I didn’t have it in me.
Waiting for Smudge, I paced the full length of the parking lot. My stomach flip-flopped when I thought about Jez. My knowledge of nephilim was limited at best. I could only imagine what she dealt with. If it was anything like the crap I dealt with on a nightly basis, then she would benefit from a strong support system. We had both lost Kale. We needed to be there for each other now.
“Have you lost your godforsaken mind, Alexa?” My sister rampaged toward me. Eyes solid wolf, flashing in the beam of the overhead streetlight, Juliet boiled over with the wolf’s rage. “Your fucking vampire violates me, and you just walk away? He could’ve killed me. I should take him in. I should take you both in.”
Seeing as she was absolutely seething and had every right to be, I stifled the eye roll that would have otherwise happened. “Juliet, I’m sorry. You know I’d never let him hurt you.”
And I hadn’t. I’d jumped in without a second thought. Did my sister really think I’d stand aside and watch as Arys killed her?
“I’m aware the two of you have some screwed up so called destiny bullshit working against you, but in no way does that give either of you a free pass to act like rabid douchebags.” She waved a hand furiously, indicating the perfect bite she bore. A match to the one marking Shaz. “What he did to me should sicken you.”
Screwed up so-called destiny bullshit. In all this time I’d never come up with a more fitting way of describing it.
“It does.” I held up a hand, trying to calm her but mostly just nodding as she ranted.
It quickly became clear to me that what had Juliet the most upset wasn’t how near to death she’d been in Arys’s arms but that she’d liked it. Based on the speed of her pulse and the heat of her anger, I was willing to bet she’d liked it so much she’d probably go home and think about it later. Alone.
What I found most disturbing was that he’d done it, not because of his lust for wolf blood, but because of his desire to hurt me. “It won’t happen again. It never should have happened at all. I wish there was something else I could say or do.”
The wound was minor. Nothing a werewolf couldn’t shrug off. Of course in Juliet’s eyes it was a great offense against a government agent. Arys’s rash action had only worked to prove her view of us as correct. She saw us as different. As monsters needing to be policed by humans. Always forgetting that she was no longer human.
It showed in her now, in her deep-brown wolf eyes and the four vicious fangs. The last moon night called to her. She shouldn’t have even been here in human form but running as wolf. As the beast pushing against her insides longed to do.
“I hope you never wonder why I can’t trust you, Lexi.” Sadness passed over her face. Her gaze dropped, and she studied the toe of her boot.
Again I was reminded that family was more than those who grew up with us. It includes those we grow toward when others are growing away. Or some bullshit like that.
“Look, Juliet, you’ve made it perfectly clear that we’re family in name only. And if you want to change that somehow, I wouldn’t blame you.” Gripping a handful of my hair so tight it hurt, I sighed. “But I’m just one person, and I can only handle so much. Tonight, Jez needs me.”
That’s all there was to it. My best friend needed me to share in her grief while she adapted to change. She was out there alone while I was here picking up everyone’s broken pieces. Juggling them as they continued to pile up. Eventually the pieces would become more than I could hold. Then it would all crash down.
People died. Things changed. And we either changed with them, or we paid the price for refusing to adapt.
“Sometimes I wish you cared as much about me as you do about everyone else,” Juliet blurted, her voice husky with wolf. “I thought you were dead. And then you weren’t. I was so fucking happy to learn that you were alive. But nothing has gone the way I’d imagined it. It’s like you came back from the dead and turned my life upside down.”
I stared at Juliet in stony silence. Did she expect me to have a response to that? No, I did. Against my better judgment, I fired back, “I’m guessing you wish I’d stayed dead. Sorry to disappoint you, little sister.”
Headlights lit up the parking lot as a sleek black SUV pulled in with Smudge behind the wheel. Good timing.
Juliet turned away with a huff. “I’m not disappointed. I just wish it didn’t have to be this way.”
“You and me both,” I muttered to her retreating form.
A little part of me felt reluctant to leave. Inside Shaz had Arys as tightly leashed as anyone could. No telling how long Falon would stick around, but as a Circle of the Veil member he had good reason to keep the violence and mayhem from boiling over.
I opened the passenger door of Smudge’s SUV and climbed inside. The watchdog vampire slid a worried glance my way. “Have you heard from Jez?”
“Not since last night when she told me she was fine but needed to stay away from people right now.” The sudden warmth of the vehicle enveloped me. I snuggled in against the heated seat, appreciative of the comfort. “What did you find out?”
Smudge tossed her long black bangs out of her eyes and put the car in gear. “One of my sources found a body. A husk really. Mummified. Drained dry of its life force. So I went to check it out. It got worse.”
“Oh?” I watched her cute pixie-like features move as she spoke, the green dash light illuminating her face in an eerie glow. “How bad is it?”
Jez had been so afraid that she would end up like her father. That she would become evil and enjoy it. As Smudge spoke my imagi
nation ran away, painting ugly pictures across the walls of my mind.
“As I stood there looking at this hollowed out body, it started to move. Then it got up and started walking around.” Hands tight on the wheel, Smudge laughed, a sound of utter disbelief. “Jez is a necromancer. She absorbs their life force, and then they reanimate.”
Holy shit. I’d heard tales of necromancy but never met anyone with the ability. A zombie master reanimated the dead and controlled them, using the stolen life force to boost their strength and stamina.
Smudge buzzed with an anxious energy that pricked my skin like needles. No need to feed that with my own concerns.
“She didn’t want this,” I mused. “But if anyone can handle it, it’s Jez.” I did believe that. My best friend was a supreme badass. And far more capable than even she might know.
We drove in silence for several blocks before Smudge said, “We’re not supposed to let it get personal, what we do in The Circle. I guess I’m kind of breaking the rules here.”
A wry smile crossed my lips. “Preaching to the choir, my friend.”
“How does that happen anyway?” she asked, slowing to take a corner. “A succubus vampire hooking up with a fallen angel.”
I shrugged even though she wasn’t looking in my direction. “What can I say? I’m power hungry. He has a lot of it. It kind of just happened.”
“Uh huh. Kind of just happened is the story of my life.” Her laughter lacked genuine mirth.
“Yeah?” In the dim light I studied her. “Does that include Jez?”
Smudge paused to consider how much to share, but she visibly relaxed as she considered Jez. “Yeah, it does. I’ve only known her a month, but it feels like I’ve known her forever. That’s so cliché but it’s true.”
“Well for what it’s worth, I think she’s crazy about you. It’s nice. She was lost there for a while.” The scenery changed from the busy city streets to a quiet neighborhood not so far from Kale’s house. “Where are we going?”
