by Jeff Hale
“Fine, I won’t talk her out of it. But only because I think she has a right to know.” He gave me a hard look. “But I’ll warn you, Reno is not going to be a safe place for her, vampires are more than welcome there. I’m going to have to trust her life to you two.”
“You can come with us if you’d like.”
He laughed, not in amusement. “I don’t think putting your wolf and me in the same vehicle for any length of time is a wise move right now, so no. But I’ll hold you responsible if anything happens to her.” He stood up. “I think I’ll head upstairs and get a drink. By myself, if you don’t mind. You might want to head over to the Treasure Island yourself, check in on your wolf.” It was a dismissal and much stronger than a suggestion. I gave him a brief nod, then followed him back upstairs and headed out of the club.
NINETEEN
Katelyn
I wiped tears away as I left the club. I knew that Aerick was upset with me, or at least I thought he was, and I could understand why, but he needed to realize that I had things I needed to deal with as well.
My reaction to Darien and Aerick’s fight had sickened me. As soon as Darien had shifted and that first blow had been dealt, the cat had roared to the surface and I had been too shocked to hold her back. All I knew was that there was blood being spilled and I had wanted to be a part of it. So I was. Luckily, Nina had used her head and come up with an alternate solution.
Why the fuck had they even started it anyway? Some sort of pissing contest over me? I knew that Aerick was only coming to my defense, that he wouldn’t have done anything if Darien hadn’t started to be such an ass to me, but he could have killed Darien. In fact would have if not for me, from what I heard. I knew that Aerick had done some shocking things, had seen him tear through vampires, but it had still shaken me.
I had always been one of those people that thought violence was the last resort to anything, that everything could be calmly and rationally talked through to come to some sort of resolution. That I now found it to be something that made me want to join in in wild abandon, wanting the feel of flesh rending under my claws, was a contradiction to everything that I believed in at my core. Sure, I knew that violence was sometimes necessary, but that didn’t mean I had to like it, or want to participate in it.
But now I did like it, too much, and it made me feel ashamed.
It was a Sunday evening and traffic was light on the Strip. I stood on the sidewalk, the lights from the casinos and hotels not as bright as they could be since the sun was still up. The Treasure Island rose impressively across the street, despite some of the damage that had been done to the top floors. The pirate show they were famous for was currently closed, and I could see repair crews working on the ships to fix them.
I crossed when it was safe, ignoring the whistles of appreciation from several young men in a car as they went by. I was confused by their behavior, unaware of the wildness that still haunted my eyes and the lithe grace to my movements that gave me an inhuman attractiveness. I would learn later that shifters, especially the cat shifters, had a draw to them where humans were concerned, as though the wild within acted as a magnet.
I crossed the walkway between the two large pools that housed the ships, following it to the entrance of the hotel/casino and in through the glass doors. It took me a few minutes to find the hotel reception area and once there I asked what room Roslyn Shaughnessy or Roslyn Newell was staying in. They directed me to the fifth floor, room five twenty four.
I had barely raised my hand to the door when it was yanked open, my mother squeezing the breath out of me with a crushing hug before dragging me into the room. I had no sooner taken a breath than Kris was forcing it out of me with another rib cracking embrace.
“Don’t you ever frighten me like that again, young lady!” My mother’s tone was harsh, but the love, and fear, I saw in her eyes was enough to have me sinking onto the nearest bed in shame.
“I’m sorry, Momma, it was so stupid of me to force the issue about going out, and now…” I stiffened my shoulders, refusing to cry again, even though I knew that Cody’s eyes as he died would haunt me for the rest of my life. “And now Cody’s dead because of it. I can’t ever fix that.”
“You knew they killed him?” Kris asked me, watching me closely as she handed me my little leather purse. The one I had left in Cody’s car.
I nodded, biting my lip. “They drained him right in front of me, Kris, made me watch, before they tried to kill me too.”
“What happened, sweetie?” Mom sat down next to me, pulled me in against her, whether to give me comfort, or comfort herself that I was solid and real I wasn’t sure.
“We’d gone to the park, to, well,” I blushed a little, even though I was still frowning, “and they pulled us both right out of the car. There were nine of them.” I shuddered, fear running through me, and pushed the cat back down as she perked up inside me.
“Like I said, they killed Cody,” I continued, rubbing at my eyes, “made me watch, then all of them jumped on me while their leader watched. I was so scared, I knew I was going to die. I just wanted to get away from them, and that’s when I shifted for the first time. I guess they weren’t expecting it, because I got loose. I was surprised I could even move, they paralyze you when they bite you, ya know.” I rubbed at the thin scar on my neck, the reminder of the first time a vampire had gotten its fangs into me. My shifter healing had been at full capability on the second attack, so I hadn’t gotten any new scars from it, thankfully.
I let out a shaky breath. “So I ran, and I kept running, until I thought I had lost them, and then I shifted back to human and found a phone and called for help.”
“Why did you call that boy?” my mom demanded, scowling at me. “Why didn’t you call the house? Darien and Matt and Alex would have been right there, and they were closer.”
I shrugged, half smiling. I hadn’t really known myself why my first instinctual thought had been to call Aerick. It had just been the first thing that had come to mind.
“I don’t know, Mom, I don’t know. But I’ve known Rick for awhile now, since we came up here for those few months over the winter, and I felt a connection to him then, almost like the one I have with Darien. And it’s not like he’s normal, he’s a Sentinel, a special kind of sorcerer with very powerful magical abilities.”
“Like the ones who stopped us at the airport?”
Mom explained to me how they had been pulled aside by some people from an organization called MAGE, and that Darien and Alex had had to submit to some form of registration. She said the agents there claimed they were sorcerers. She hedged a bit when she told me about it, as though she was leaving something out, but I didn’t press her. I wasn’t sure how they had gotten hold of a private plane, but I knew she had access to money because my dead, abusive, asshole of a stepfather had been worth quite a bit, and for all I knew Darien had secured the plane; he seemed wealthy in his own right as well.
“Sort of. Those are the people that Rick used to work for, but he’s actually stronger than they are.” Aerick and I had spent the morning talking about a lot of things, his ties with MAGE and my stepfather’s timely demise among other things.
“Is that the reason he was so flakey on his dates with you?” Kris raised her eyebrows.
“Yeah, it was, he just couldn’t tell anyone about it.”
“So, he what? Popped out of thin air, killed the vampires and whisked you away?” Kris asked.
I almost laughed, because that was just about what had happened. “He had some of his friends teleport him to my location, he kicked some vampire ass, although their leader got away, and then Nina picked us both up and drove us here, to Vegas. Lucien, he’s a friend of—”
“We met him,” my mother interrupted, and I got the impression that she hadn’t been too happy over what Lucien had said or done.
“Lucien is very powerful, a Primal Aspect, The Phoenix.” I heard my mother groan and thought I understood her reaction. After all, it was
n’t every day that you got to meet the embodiment of Life and Death, as close to a god as you could get without actually being one. “He doesn’t like vampires, at all, so any of them coming after me would be chased right back out.” I pulled away and looked at my mom. “Rick did the safest thing, Mom, he brought me somewhere where they couldn’t get to me, at least not very easily.”
She nodded, sighing, and hugged me again. I stood up.
“I need to go talk to Darien, Mom, he and Rick got into it and he’s really upset right now.”
Kris was looking at me with furrowed brows, then her eyes went wide. “You’re seeing Aerick now, aren’t you? As in, he’s your boyfriend?”
Kris was always more perceptive than she should be.
“Yes, and Darien knows, and… I need to talk to him, explain…” I chewed my lip.
My mother just gave me that look, the one that says she doesn’t understand the choices that you have made, but she loves you anyway and will support you. “He’s on the next floor up, Kat, six thirteen. And Kat?” She smiled softly at me. “Be gentle with him, you didn’t see how torn up he was when he thought you were dead.”
I closed my eyes, giving her a quick nod before leaving the room. I felt something in my heart begin to ache. I didn’t want to know that he was hurting, it made it all that harder for me.
Darien answered on the fourth knock, wearing nothing more than a pair of dark blue Levis and a large bandage on his stomach. His black hair fell in wet tangles down his back and over his shoulders, water still glistening on his bronzed skin. He was barefoot. My heart skipped madly when I saw him and I had to resist the urge reach out and wipe water droplets from his chest with my fingers. I took a deep breath and calmed myself.
“Darien. Alex said you needed to talk to me?”
“Yeah.” His voice was flat, emotionless, and when I met his eyes, the fire that used to spark in them when he looked at me was missing.
“Can I come in? Or did you want to talk in the hall?”
“Sorry.” He held the door wider, stepping as far away from me as possible as I stepped past him into the room.
I felt a lump form in my throat. Why does it bother me so much that he doesn’t want me to accidentally touch him? I love Aerick, don’t I? I knew the truth to that question: I did love Aerick, but I was still just as drawn to Darien as I had ever been.
“Make yourself at home,” Darien told me. “Just give me a minute to finish getting dressed.”
He disappeared back into the bathroom, leaving me to stare at the two king-size beds that dominated the main room. I perched carefully on the edge of one of them, and fidgeted uncomfortably while I waited.
He didn’t take long, emerging back out wearing a dark navy button up shirt, his hair brushed so it fell straight down his back. I’d never seen him in anything but a t-shirt and black jeans before, so this new look kind of threw me. It looked good on him. Too good.
“I need to you come with me to Reno,” he said without preamble, fiddling with the buttons on the sleeve cuffs before finally giving up and leaving them undone.
I was taken slightly aback. Reno? Whatever for? “What the hell is in Reno? Other than more casinos,” I asked him, surprised.
“Unfortunately, I can’t tell you, only that it’s important and you’ll just have to take my word for it.” He didn’t look at me, just continued to find things to do with his hands. He was rolling the sleeves of the shirt up now.
Take his word for it. I could do that. He’d never lied to me about anything, never done anything purposely to hurt me. As long as Aerick didn’t have a huge problem with it, I couldn’t see any reason not to indulge him.
“Okay, I guess, if you feel it’s that important. As long as Rick doesn’t mind.” I saw him tense when I mentioned Aerick’s name and his hand absently rubbed at the area of his stomach where Aerick had run him through. I could only guess that he had a similar bandage on his back as to what he had on his stomach. I stood, unthinking, and approached him, my hand reaching toward his abdomen. “Shouldn’t it have healed more by now?”
He flinched away from me and I bit my lip to keep new tears from forming.
“I’ll be fine,” he said through clenched teeth. He still wouldn’t look at me and I reached up to touch his face, trying to turn his head toward me.
“Look at me, Darien, please?” He continued to resist my pull on his chin, his jaw stubbornly set, and the tears that I had been holding back spilled over and slid down my cheeks. “I’m sorry, Darien, I really am,” I said gently, hating myself for hurting him.
He must have heard something in my voice, because he finally let his head turn so that his eyes looked into mine and I could see the confusion and misery and pain in them. I heard his voice in my head, an echo from what seemed ages ago. I can’t lose you, not again. It would kill me.
“Kat?” His voice was the barest whisper, and then his hands grabbed my arms and his head swooped down, his lips savage on mine, as though he were trying to work out all his anger and desperation in that one kiss.
Fire burned down my spine and into my lower body, searing my nerves as desire flared. This was the first time he had kissed me, touched me, since I had shifted, and the animal in me was fully awake now to respond to his own. The cat growled under the surface, pushing her will forward, wanting to mate with someone of her own kind, or at least as close to it as she could get.
“No… Darien…” I tried to protest, my mind screaming at me that it did not want to do this, that I was in love with Aerick and I would not do anything to jeopardize that relationship.
Darien either didn’t hear or didn’t care, swinging me around to lift me and press my back into the wall, pinning me there with his body and one hand while the other found its way under my shirt to roam the bare skin of my belly. His lips still ravaged mine, hurting me, trying to punish me, while it took all my willpower to not wrap my legs around his waist and urge him to do even more.
He finally freed my lips, biting his way across my neck until I could feel his breath caress my ear. I shuddered, feeling the desire curl itself around me, wanting to sink my teeth into the warm flesh so close to me, wanting to make him tremble as he called my name in ecstasy. I bit my lip and curled my fingers into my palms instead, trying to keep the image of Aerick’s face in my mind as I pushed the cat down under my will.
“Does he make you feel like this?” Darien murmured in my ear, breathing hard. “Does he make you want to slip your skin and scream to the heavens?” He ran his tongue along the rim of my ear while his free hand found my nipple through my bra and pinched hard, his knee coming up to rub against the area between my thighs.
The combination of pain and pleasure made me whimper and I felt my resolve start to slip, the cat shredding my will. I began crying in earnest because I did not want to do this, did not want to cheat on Aerick, but my body and my beast were betraying me.
“Please, Darien, don’t,” I begged softly, quivering under his touch as his tongue moved down my neck, teeth nipping at my skin. My free hand tried feebly to push him away. “I love him.”
He stilled at my words, lips still pressed against my neck, hands still imprisoning my breast and arm and a heartrending moan escaped his throat, vibrating along my skin.
“Darien, what the bloody hell! Put her down!” Alex’s voice cut through the room like a gunshot.
Darien pulled away from me, letting me go, and I slid down the wall, my legs feeling like jelly, until my butt hit the floor. Darien’s eyes were dark and wild as he backed away from me and the look he gave me was one of utter revulsion. But it wasn’t directed at me, it was directed at himself.
He sank slowly onto the bed, eyes locked on mine the way a drowning man looks at a life boat that is slowly pulling away. “I’m sorry, Kat,” he said, voice ragged and breaking. “I promise I won’t touch you again, ever.” He finally looked away from me.
I tried to catch my breath, turning my head to look at Alex, who was standing j
ust inside the room with a murderous glare directed at Darien. I had never seen Alex angry before, let alone furious enough to have the look in his eye of someone who wanted to kill. It had never occurred to me that it was even possible for him to get that enraged; he came across as so… harmless… most of the time. But there he was now, with the desire to hurt Darien so evident on his face that it made me want to weep.
He moved in between us, so that I was staring at the backs of his legs as he was facing Darien, and I could feel the rage from his beast rolling off of him. The cat, so recently brought to the surface, howled inside me, wanting to taste that rage for herself, snarling in frustration when I slammed her back down. Involuntarily, my hand went to rub at the faint scar on my neck.
“You may be my best mate, Darien, and my Alpha, but so help me if I ever see you touching her against her will like that again, I will rip your heart out myself or find someone to do it for me.” Alex’s voice was cold with unleashed wrath and his fingers were curled into his thighs to keep his hands still.
I saw Darien’s head bob, although he was staring at Alex’s feet, and then he stood abruptly and darted for the door. I could hear him running down the carpeted hallway outside, leaving Alex and me in the room alone together.
“Katie? You okay?” Alex turned, dropping so that he was squatting in front of me, concern starting to edge the fury out of his hazel eyes.
I took a deep breath and nodded, feeling the cat retreat farther down and pace restlessly inside me. I held my hands out to him and he frowned when he saw the still bloody, but healing, half-moons I’d gouged into my palms. He stood and pulled me to my feet.
“Did he leave any marks?” I asked, running my hand across my neck nervously. I didn’t want Aerick to see, didn’t want him to know my shame at my almost lack of inability to fend off Darien. “Rick will kill him if he finds out.”
“I’m half tempted to tell your Aerick myself,” Alex muttered.
“Oh, Alex, please don’t! I don’t want him to know. I don’t want this animosity between them and this will only make it worse. It’s not like it was all Darien’s fault anyway, I mean, I couldn’t help it, but a part of me still liked what he was doing.” I felt like crying again and I wiped my wrist across my eyes, sniffling.
