by L. J. Red
A noise broke the air. A shout, a thump, like the impact of something heavy on the ground. He frowned. The voice called to him. It woke some spark deep inside, as familiar to him as breathing. Sparrow? No, impossible. It was just because he had been thinking of her, that was all. And yet he still felt a strange pull somewhere deep within his chest, like a hook bound to the back of his ribs. He closed his mind and focused in on the sensation. Could it be? His muscles pulled taut. Fuck. Yes. He could sense her. Her presence close, intense. Sharp as a blade. She wasn’t just near him. She needed him. His eyes snapped open. He could sense it now, now that he was paying attention: a pulsing need, a tangle of fear, tension, danger.
The sounds came again; a fight? They were coming from the floor below. He didn’t stop to think. He reached for the railing once more and launched himself up, somersaulting over the balcony, catching a shadow, and riding at a sweeping angle down to the lower floor. Brickwork spun past his face. Moving lightning fast, he tucked his knees then kicked out, driving his legs forward and smashing through the glass window of the floor below and landing, catlike, on the carpet of the hallway, glass raining down around him.
He flicked his head up and had a single moment to take in the sight of Sparrow braced against the floor, a snarling vampire above her. She had her forearm between them, but the vamp was bearing down, snapping his fangs, trying to get close to her neck. Pure rage consumed him. His vision turned red, eyes glowing with an unholy light as he shot forward, crossing the space in a flicker of darkness and tearing the vampire away from her. He slammed the attacker so hard into the far wall the plaster cracked and rained down around them.
Jacob spun back to Sparrow. She rolled over unsteadily, pushing herself to her feet. Injured? But not fatal. He rounded on her attacker, his anger sharpening to a point. The vampire was slumped against the ground, his body still. There was no heartbeat, but he was a vamp; that wasn’t a surprise. No, he was still alive, still a threat. Jacob snarled and leaped forward, but Sparrow was suddenly between them, her vampire strength lending her speed.
“No,” she said, reaching for Jacob. “Wait, he’s not himself.”
Jacob pulled up short at the sudden press of her fingertips against his chest. His breath froze in his lungs. The touch went straight through him like an iron poker through his ribs. Like a brand, he felt the mark on his skin even as her eyes widened and she snatched her hand away. It was almost as if she had felt it too. Sparrow curled her fingers into her palm, and his vampire hearing caught the hitch in her breathing.
He knew what it meant. He knew exactly what it meant. It was exactly what he had suspected. He drank in the sight of her. She was his soulmate. The feeling clicked into place, everything he’d felt for her suddenly coming clear. She was his. Possessive desire rushed through him and he leaned forward, halting when he saw her tremble. Fuck. She was terrified. What was he doing? She’d just been in a fight, and to her he was that brutal warrior she barely knew. After all the trauma she had been through, what the fuck was he thinking? Thoughts of the pain that Roman and HUNT had put her through made him wild with anger, and he felt his lips curling back from his teeth in an involuntarily snarl.
Sparrow stepped back, and Jacob felt a flash of anguish and despair as he realized his anger was only scaring her further. He had to get a grip. Get his control back. He tore his eyes away from her, only to land on her attacker, who was starting to pull himself to his feet. Jacob’s rage rose once more. This fucker had tried to harm his soulmate. He would make him pay. He took a step forward, but Sparrow blocked him again. Tiny and fragile, but insistent. He couldn’t help being impressed. “He hurt you,” Jacob snarled.
“Wait, just wait,” she said. Her voice, fuck, he could listen to it all day. It was an effort to make himself listen to the words. He wanted to hear her go on speaking, No, he wanted to hear her say his name, over and over, scream it, while riding him—his cock pulsed. Shit. Down boy. He made himself listen. “He was behaving strangely,” she continued. “I don’t think he knew what he was doing. Alex wouldn’t—”
“Alex?” Did she know him? Jacob turned to look at the vampire again and this time he recognized him. One of the rescued vampires. But that made no sense. Why would he turn against Sparrow? Hell, she looked out for the others. She was the closest thing they had to a leader.
She turned to look over her shoulder to where the vampire was waking up, shaking his head confusedly back and forth. He blinked up at the both of them, his eyes clearing, a milky film fading until they were back to a gentle blue. Jacob frowned. He’d never seen that before.
“What happened?” Alex asked. He took a half step forward. Jacob snarled and reached for Sparrow, tugging her round behind him before she could protest. Not ripping the guy apart was one thing, but no fucking way was he letting him near Sparrow.
“Stay the fuck back,” he said, his voice lethal and low.
Alex gulped and froze, stock-still.
“It’s okay,” Sparrow said softly from behind him, and her voice wound around him like gentle music, stirring his blood. He shifted, a heavy weight between his legs. He needed to get a grip or else he was going to do something dangerous, like take her right here in the hallway.
“I think it was just the blood; he wanted to feed off a vassal.”
Jacob clenched his fingers into a fist against his thigh. Focus on the words, man, the words. Feed off a vassal? Bloodlust?
“Do you remember what you were doing?” she asked Alex, taking a step to the side. Jacob growled threateningly. She better not get any closer. She glanced at him; her eyes flashed, but she didn’t push it.
“Remember?” Alex said, raising a hand to his head. “I think there was a vassal. I smelled… I don’t know… I was so hungry. What happened?” He looked up. “Were we fighting?”
Jacob stared at him intently, but he couldn’t sense a lie. The confusion seemed real. Fledglings were at risk of bloodlust. Without guidance, they could descend into a kind of craze, but for it to happen here? When these rescued vampires were already being monitored? It didn’t make sense. Unless… unless it was something HUNT had done to them. Part of their experiments, a side effect that twisted their vampire nature. Could Sparrow have been exposed to the same thing? Worry ran through him. His senses sharpened and he smelled blood. Not from a human, but from a vampire, from Sparrow. “You’re injured,” he growled. His voice, a low rumble, echoed through the hallway and he took a step toward her.
She stilled like a rabbit in the headlights at his sudden proximity. Moving slowly, telegraphing his intent, he reached out and gently pulled down the neck of her shirt to expose the line of her collarbone and the blood that dripped across it, soaking into the cloth. The sight sparked a terrible yawning rage within him. He forced it back though it made his hands shake. He couldn’t scare her any more than he already had. He needed to remain calm, he needed to stay here, not round on the vampire who had hurt her and rip his arms off then beat him to death with them. No. No. He pushed the images of violence away. Sparrow needed him calm. She needed medical treatment. He had to get her down to the infirmary now. Before his control snapped.
“Let me help you,” he urged, drawing her in toward him. His voice had gone echoey and hollow, emotion resonating within it.
“I—” She frowned, raised her hand to her chest and lifted her fingertips away, red with blood. Shock spread across her face. “Oh,” she said, “You’re right. I… I didn’t realize…” Her face went white and she swayed. Jacob shot forward just as her knees gave way.
Chapter 3
Strong arms around her body, a thick, musky scent all around her, wrapping her up, heady and intoxicating. Sparrow pressed her eyes shut, hating her weakness. She always fainted at the sight of her own blood. She didn’t know why it affected her so badly. She could keep her calm in any other situation; all through her captivity she’d done what she could to treat the wounds HUNT had inflicted on the others. But when it was her own blood? She suddenl
y went woozy and all fainting maiden. It was embarrassing on a normal day, but right here, in front of a Shadow warrior? Jacob in particular, the one that made her heart thump hard behind her ribs and her core flush with heat? Fuck. No. She wasn’t having it. She snapped her eyes back open and forced herself not to look down at the blood.
Big mistake. She stared straight up into Jacob’s eyes and her breath caught and tangled in her throat. His presence was overwhelming. It was like he was the only thing that existed. His body curled around hers, making her feel small. His eyes were a piercing blue that cut straight through her like he could see every thought in her head. Shadows seem to cluster and rub in at the edges of his body, cloaking his arms, slipping over his shoulders like familiar spirits. It should have been terrifying. It was terrifying, and yet… it wasn’t just terror running through her veins and winding around her bones, pulling her in toward him, urging her to close the remaining gap between their bodies and press her small form against his hard one.
He was gorgeous, sinfully gorgeous. The kind of gorgeous that shouldn’t exist in real life. That only existed between the pages of a romance novel. Cheekbones sharp enough to cut yourself on. Those eyes, long-lashed and piercing. Everything hard and firm, but his lips, so soft and red and full. Deliciously mobile and expressive. Only a moment ago they had been twisted in a snarl of rage toward Alex, but now… Sparrow couldn’t work out what his expression meant; she kept getting too caught on the edges of his jaw, on the intensity in his eyes. She couldn’t pull the pieces together. He was too much, too sharp. Every glance cut right through her.
She could barely get enough air to breathe, his body all around her, his shoulders broad as he loomed above her. She could only take him in in snatches. She trembled, the pain from her cut forgotten, the fragile instability she had felt at the sight of her blood burning away to be replaced with a different feeling altogether. Slow, heavy, a heady mix of lust and need. She swayed again, her knees weakening for a different reason. God, he was all around her, muscled forearm against her back, chest pressed against her front. Her mouth parted and she dragged in a breath.
Her heartbeat shook through her like a bass drum. She’d thought her heart would never beat again after Roman had turned her, and yet from the moment Jacob had appeared in the room they were held hostage in and cut down the guards who were holding her, her chest had suddenly shaken with her returned heartbeat.
She didn’t realize it was him, but now she was standing so close, the air between them electric with desire, it was obvious. His heart was beating in time with her own. Thrumming through both their bodies in a shared rhythm. Impossible, compelling, an insistent beat, an urge to get closer, closer. Her skin still tingled from where his fingertips had ever so gently brushed against her skin as he exposed her wound. Shit. Her wound. She needed to get it seen to. Focus, Sparrow. And she couldn’t forget Alex behind her. He’d gone crazy for no reason. He needed help.
She dropped her gaze from his, feeling the break like it was almost physical, like looking away lost her something. Her breath came fast, but she firmed her legs and stepped free. She could do this; she wasn’t going to collapse into a dead faint. “I’m okay,” she said, avoiding his gaze. “We need to get to the infirmary.” She took a half step back and saw him tense from the corner of her eye. He was clearly on edge, ready to explode into an attack just like the avenging angel he’d seemed when he’d pulled Alex off her. And yet, there was something calm about him, a stillness, a readiness, like he saw everything, missed nothing. All the Shadows were like that, but there was something more to Jacob. He was a force of nature, like he was a whirlwind and Sparrow, standing next to him, was caught in its very heart. The only place where she could be safe. Her eyes trailed up his broad chest, the collar of his shirt, his neck, the line of his jaw, those lips…
Alex groaned from behind her. Fuck. She tore her gaze away from Jacob. Stop it, Sparrow. They needed to get to the infirmary. Both of them. She took a step and Jacob moved, slick and fast between the shadows, until he was between Alex and her. “Let’s go then.” He hovered close to her side, and awkwardly the three of them descended to the lower levels. Alex in front, Sparrow and Jacob behind. He didn’t seem to have any idea what his presence was doing to her. She gripped the stair rail and tried to focus on one step after the other. Desire clenched her limbs, pooling between her legs. She wanted, she wanted… She wanted to get to the infirmary. That was what she wanted.
“How are you doing, Alex?” Sparrow called. She felt Jacob’s awareness flicker across her body, but she ignored him as best she could. She needed to do something to distract herself.
“I’m okay,” Alex said, his blond head bobbing. “Um, sorry about your… you know.”
Jacob’s presence was impossible to ignore. She could practically feel the way he tensed at the reminder of her wound, like his body was connected to her own.
“It’s fine,” she said quickly, thinking better of her plan to distract herself with talk. Maybe better to just keep quiet.
They reached the bottom of the stairs. “This way,” Jacob said, his hand hovering by her elbow, palm broad and wide. She wanted to lean in, wanted to press herself against him, arch up and… she stepped smartly away. Nope. Not happening. Control yourself, Sparrow. There’s no fucking way a vampire warrior wants you plastering yourself over him like a bitch in heat.
By the time they reached the medical rooms Sparrow was a shivering mess. Jacob shoved open the door to the lab. “Get Dr. Patil,” he snarled to whoever was inside, then jerked his head for Alex to get inside before turning back to Sparrow. “In here,” he said and gestured forward. Sparrow noticed he was careful to put distance between them this time, not hovering as close. Right, because he’d been staying close while Alex was there, because he saw Alex as a threat, not because he wanted to be close to her. She was extremely glad she hadn’t acted on any of her distracting thoughts. How awkward would that have been? She tried to ignore the twinge of disappointment as she shuffled past him. Tried not to be distracted by the delicious scent that enveloped her as she sidled past his body. He didn’t feel for her the way she felt for him. He was a Shadow, just protecting someone who needed protecting. It wasn’t his fault he was as gorgeous as sin and twice as distracting.
She winced and dropped her eyes, hunching her shoulders, knowing it made her already small frame look even smaller, but unable to stop the instinctive movement. For a second it looked like Jacob was going to say something, but then Dr. Patil bustled up and herded her toward the bed on the other side of the room. “Sit up here, please.” Dr. Patil patted the mattress.
Sparrow liked the doctor. She had a genuine care for her patients and an unflappable sort of calm that said she had seen a lot worse than even what had been done to Sparrow. Sparrow wasn’t sure if that was true, but she liked the fact that Dr. Patil hadn’t reacted with pity or shock when she had seen the extent of Sparrow’s injuries. She’d just helped her to get better. Unfortunately, Dr. Patil’s calming presence wasn’t doing so well with the looming shape of Jacob in the background. Why was he still here? The expression on his face was so intent, so focused. She quailed underneath it. No one had ever looked at her like that. Her heart thumped. Was it because she was an outsider? Like Alex? Neither of them were part of his bloodline. Was it because she had invaded his territory by being here? Well, she wouldn’t be here long. As soon as they were allowed to leave, once the cops were sure HUNT wouldn’t come after them to stop them testifying, she would be out of here. The streets might not be much, but at least they were familiar.
“You’re bothering my patient,” Dr. Patil said, finally rounding on Jacob. Sparrow’s eyes widened; the doctor seemed fearless as she strode over to Jacob, looking up until he finally met her eyes. “You can wait outside,” she said firmly.
“I’m not going anywhere.” He turned away from the doctor, back to Sparrow. Dr. Patil stepped between them, blocking Sparrow’s view of him. She felt cut off suddenly, like
she’d been holding onto a live wire and only now let it go, the electric thrum that had been in the air between them suddenly disconnected. Dr. Patil was speaking to Jacob in a low voice, and Sparrow only caught the end of it. “Trauma… private… trust.”
Jacob took a step back and Sparrow had the strangest urge to call for him to stay. His footsteps paused, a tiny hesitation, then he started walking again, right out of the room, pulling the door closed behind him.
