Saved Mate

by L. J. Red

  Jacob picked himself up from the ground, the explosion still ringing in his ears. He felt knocked off-balance, fragile, frantic and desperate, and it was only after a moment that he realized those emotions weren’t coming from him. They were leaking around the veil he had placed over his soulmate bond. They were coming from Sparrow. He shot to his feet. “It’s a trap,” he said, calling Lucian’s attention toward him. “A distraction.” Jacob rocked back a step as he realized their mistake. “He wanted us here while he attacked the courthouse.” Jacob pointed, knowing unerringly where Sparrow was, halfway across the city.

  Lucian’s face went slack with realization. “Go,” he whispered.

  Jacob ran, gathering shadows underneath him as he went, moving with desperate speed, hoping he wasn’t too late.

  Chapter 25

  A shudder ran through Sparrow’s body. A crawling, itching sensation like spiders running up her spine. She shook her shoulders and twisted her head round to look, but there was nothing there, just a phantom sensation. Fear crawled through her insides. No, not again. It couldn’t be another vision. She couldn’t do this right now.

  She was in the courthouse, all the other rescued vampires in the seats behind Castillo and the rest of her team. Brigit was sitting next to her at the end of the row.

  Sparrow turned to scan the room, not sure who she was looking for until her eyes landed on Ben and Cas standing by the door and she felt the empty ache where her sense of Jacob should be. Where was he? She hadn’t been able to find him before going to the courthouse. The entire Sanctuary had been abuzz with something, some news, but she had been closed up with the other rescued vampires and Castillo, running through last-minute legal preparations. She hadn’t realized he was gone until Brigit had arrived to escort them to the courthouse.

  She had been so focused on the upcoming trial she hadn’t thought to ask where Jacob or Dana were, but now she wished she had because she was very afraid that something was wrong and that Jacob’s missing presence was not a coincidence.

  The feeling came again, tiny prickles up her spine, and Sparrow noticed with a flicker of horror that the other rescued vampires were twitching as well. Their gazes were going vacant. Just as Sparrow’s vision began flickering in and out, she saw their eyes go milky white.

  It was Roman, she thought with a dawning sense of horror. She turned to the front of the courtroom and there he was, his shape wavery and pale. The HUNT lawyer who had been explaining his case turned and walked straight through him. He didn’t even seem to notice Roman was there. Because he wasn’t there, she realized. He was in her mind, in all of their minds, and in that moment, Roman raised his hand, stretching out his fingers like claws toward them.

  This was it. This had been his plan all along, to grip into their minds, break their spirits, and use them against the Shadows. But how? How was he going to do it? Then a strange, alien hunger rose in her chest and in her throat and she suddenly knew. It was like when she had caught Alex attempting to feed off the vassal in the Sanctuary hallway all those weeks ago. It was the same uncontrollable hunger she had felt for blood under the bridge. He was sending them into a blood craze; they would behave just like the monster of Chicago. They would tear through all the humans in the courthouse: innocent jurors, lawyers, cops, guards, judges, journalists. Shit, she thought, he couldn’t have calculated a worse place for us to go crazy. That was her last thought as she was consumed with the desperate struggle to fight off Roman’s hunger.

  She got to her feet a second before it peaked and screamed, desperately trying to form words that Roman choked off in her chest. “No,” she cried, catching Brigit’s eyes, then turning to Ben and Cas standing by the door. “Stop us,” she screamed, throwing out her hand to indicate the other vampires who were jerking and twisting, now rising to their feet along with her. Her voice cut out. Her throat tightened and constricted. She couldn’t breathe and Roman appeared before her, his face transformed into a rictus of hate. “Too late,” he hissed. “I’ve got you and your precious Shadows are right now being blown to pieces in my trap.”

  “No.” Tears welled in Sparrow’s eyes. It couldn’t be true. Misery tore at her insides, giving him a solid grip on her mind and on her body. The hunger rose again and she turned blindly, desperate, full of that aching need.

  The first person in front of her was Brigit, and Sparrow took in the woman’s shock and horror as Sparrow approached. Sparrow’s fangs lengthened and she took a rushing step toward Brigit. Her soul railed against this. Brigit was her friend. One of the few people she trusted. She didn’t want to hurt her.

  She could see Brigit didn’t want to hurt her either. Her hand went to her gun but she raised it slowly, clearly unwilling to shoot. Sparrow felt Roman’s satisfaction through her mind and she knew he wanted her to take advantage of Brigit’s hesitance and tear her apart. Sparrow’s misery peaked. Jacob was gone, the Shadows were gone, and now she and the other rescued vampires were going to destroy any of the goodwill the Shadows had gained in this city. Roman was setting fire to all their good work and burning it down to the ground.

  There was a sudden flicker at the back of her mind. A shred of awareness that roared into a torrent. Like a veil being drawn back from a shining light, she suddenly felt Jacob’s presence across her mind. He was alive. Thank God, he was alive.

  He was coming for her. She felt it as if he had said the words out loud, and the knowledge gave her the final bit of strength she needed to throw off Roman’s control. She stumbled to a stop and felt her eyes clear in time to see relief break across Brigit’s gaze.

  But she was the only one able to fight off Roman’s will, she realized, turning to take in the shambles the courtroom had descended into.

  The rescued vampires were tearing their way through the humans in the courthouse, and as she watched she realized there was no way to call them back. The only reason she had been able to keep her mind was because of the soulmate bond and none of them had that. They were all tied to Roman; they were lost.

  There was no time to restrain them, no time to lose. The humans were going to die. The only way to stop the blood-crazed vampires was to kill them.

  Even as she had that thought, Alex tore away from the group and ran toward Brigit. His fangs were stretched wide, his gaze sightless. He was gone. The man she had started to get to know had disappeared and all that was left was an empty shell.

  Brigit raised her gun, her hand steady though her face was full of pain, and a second later gunshots echoed out once, twice.

  Alex shuddered to a stop, the bullets lodging in his heart, and a moment later his body exploded into dust.

  As if Brigit’s act had been a signal, Ben and Cas were suddenly in the midst of the blood-crazed vampires, smashing them down to the ground, gripping them tightly and snapping off makeshift stakes made from chair legs, plunging them into their chests. With a grim sense of the inevitable, Sparrow reached for one of the broken chairs and, spinning on her heel, put into action the very same moves she had learned in Dana’s self-defense class, helping Cas, Ben, and Brigit put down the screaming, mad vampires she had hoped to one day call friends.

  She didn’t realize tears were tracking down her face, mingling with the ash of the dead and leaving black streaky marks on her cheeks.

  It wasn’t until Jacob smashed open the doors and stood framed between them that Sparrow finally let herself feel the misery and loss she had been holding back.

  The vampires were dead. The wounded humans were lying crumpled on the floor or cowering under tables. She could hear the blazing noise of sirens from outside and she knew with certainty that their chance at holding HUNT accountable for what they had done and getting some kind of justice for the trauma she had been through had just been utterly and completely destroyed.

  Misery dragged her feet and weighted her limbs as she crossed the distance to Jacob and collapsed into his arms. “I just want to go home,” she said quietly, her voice empty of emotion. “Take me home,” she s
aid, pressing her eyes shut and turning her face into his chest.

  Chapter 26

  Sparrow stepped away from Jacob the moment they landed in a small courtyard in the Sanctuary. She could hear the gentle sound of a fountain trickling behind them, and the scent of honeysuckle wound through the air. But none of it made a mark on her. She gazed around with sightless eyes and finally walked over to the fountain and lowered herself to a seat on its edge. Jacob walked slowly behind her, but instead of sitting beside her he surprised her by crouching down at her feet and resting his hands on her knees. He stared up into her face. “Tell me what I can do,” he said.

  Sparrow shook her head. “Nothing,” she said. “There’s nothing you can do. Just… Just be here.” She rested her hand on top of his.

  She couldn’t believe the other vampires were gone. She hadn’t really known them, but they had been the only ones to have lived through the trauma and pain that she had. They were the only ones that truly understood, and now they were gone. Roman had snatched them from her. Just like he had snatched her human life away. She had lost them just like she lost her mother, just like she lost anyone she ever got close to.

  She looked at Jacob, her eyes tracing over the sharp blue of his eyes, the line of his cheekbones, his chin, his dark hair. Would she lose him too? Was that part of Roman’s plan? Was there any way she could stop him?

  “I should have been there,” Jacob snarled. “It was a trap. Roman led us away. He tricked us.”

  Sparrow was shocked by the depth of rage in his voice. She shook her head. “He tricked everyone.” He had outplayed them all and now it was too late.

  “What happened?” he asked. “I don’t understand. Why did they start attacking everyone?”

  She wanted to tell him. She wanted to tell Jacob everything. She wanted to explain that it had been Roman. He had appeared in a vision just like he had been doing ever since they escaped the factory and he had used his control over them as leader of the bloodline to drive them into a blood craze. But she couldn’t do it. She choked, sobbed, and scrubbed roughly at the tears on her face, only now noticing the ash smeared on the backs of her hands. Roman was still in her mind, his presence heavy at the base of her skull and thick in her throat. She might have fought off his control this one time, but he wasn’t done with her. In some strange way he seemed stronger, almost as if the deaths of all those other vampires had lent him greater power, and now he was using it all to focus down on her, his strength a sharp point, splintering through the soulmate bond with Jacob. The only protection she had.

  She gripped Jacob’s hand tightly. How could she explain to him what was happening? How could she stay here if she was a threat to him? Roman was going to use her to harm the Shadows just as he had tried in the courthouse. And eventually he would get through to her again. She was a danger to Jacob, to them all. She needed to get away, but the moment she pulled away from Jacob in her mind she felt Roman’s presence rise within her. Like a balancing act, she was held between the two bonds: one belonging to her soulmate, the other to the leader of her Bloodline. She needed to embrace the soulmate bond to keep her sanity and keep everyone safe, but the longer she stayed here the longer Roman had to find a way to break through to her. He was centuries old and had spent all his effort on this plot. Given enough time, he would break through and take control of her once more. Only next time he wouldn’t let her fight him off.

  “It must be HUNT,” Jacob said. “Something they did to you when you were captured. Some poison they placed in your veins that makes you go crazy when you scent human blood.”

  No, Sparrow wanted to say. That’s not it.

  “Just like under the bridge,” Jacob continued.

  Sparrow despaired, but none of it showed on her face. She felt like she was carved from stone, like Roman had put a mask over her expressions, and she couldn’t break it. She knew why Jacob thought it was HUNT. It made sense. He hated the hunters. He would, of course, blame them first. But for once it wasn’t their plot. Everything they had done to her, the torture and experiments they had put her through, paled in comparison to what Roman was doing to her now. He wasn’t torturing her body; he was torturing her very soul.

  “We will stop them,” Jacob said, roughly. “I swear to you, we will find a way to fix this.” He stood from his kneeling position and pulled her into his arms. Sparrow hugged him tightly back, saying nothing.

  She still felt fragile, off-balance, but she had run out of tears and her eyes were dry. She had to find a way to protect Jacob and the Shadows who had taken her in. Her mind flashed back to Brigit’s face, the horror and desperation when Sparrow had almost attacked her under Roman’s control. She never wanted to see that expression on her friend’s face again. She would find a way to escape, to put distance between herself and Jacob and the people she loved. There was no way she would allow Roman to hurt them. She would destroy herself before she let that happen.

  Chapter 27

  Jacob closed the door softly behind him. He had managed to coax a silent Sparrow into his rooms to have a long, hot bath and she had finally fallen asleep, tucked up in the center of his bed, surrounded by covers. It eased something deep within him to see her comfortable enough to lay down her barriers and sleep in his bed.

  He hated that she been exposed to the violence that had exploded in the courthouse. He blamed himself for not being there. He should have stayed with Sparrow rather than chasing after Roman. He felt torn in two by his duties as a Shadow and his bond with his soulmate.

  His connection with her was still muffled. Due to her exhaustion, no doubt. Her emotions were dulled; she must be exhausted after everything she had experienced. It was no wonder she was feeling numb. And yet there was a niggling worry at the back of Jacob’s mind, fear that there was something more going on, that Sparrow was hiding something from him. But no, surely not. What could she have to hide from him? It didn’t make any sense. No, it had to be her reaction to what she had been forced to do in the courthouse. That and the lingering influence of whatever poison HUNT had pumped into their systems to make them flip out at the scent of human blood.

  It made sense; the hunters had tested all their weapons on the ten vampires while in captivity. Jacob leaned back against the door. One rescued vampire was all that was left. Sparrow was the last one and it burned that the rescue and all they had done to try and protect those vampires had been in vain. Roman and the hunters had conspired to kill them even after they had been rescued. It was a bitter blow, and Jacob didn’t think anyone would be recovering from it soon.

  He walked slowly away from his room, intending to get some food so Sparrow could eat when she woke up. He had noticed her tendency toward food hoarding and, while he understood the urge, he wanted her to feel safe and secure in the knowledge that he would provide for her every need.

  The dining hall was sadly empty. A somber feeling had fallen over the entire Sanctuary after the failed attack on Roman and the loss of the rescued vampires.

  Jacob served himself from the side table and made up a plate, covering it with a napkin and turning to take it back up to Sparrow.

  There was a soft footstep behind him and a quick inhale. Jacob turned to see Rune framed in the doorway, his large hand pressed against his ribs and a spasm of pain on his face.

  “Should you even be up?” Jacob said.

  “Don’t,” Rune growled, his eyes flashing. “Brigit has already been on at me for that.” He walked forward and Jacob noted the stiffness in his gait. “I couldn’t stay in the infirmary one second longer,” Rune growled. “I’m not made to lie in bed all night long.”

  Jacob raised an eyebrow. “But you’ll be back in there the moment Brigit gets back from her shift, I’m guessing.”

  Rune grinned and raised a finger to his lips. “What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her,” he said, his eyes flicking over Jacob’s shoulder to the dining table. “Is that cold chicken?” he asked. “You can make me a sandwich.”

  Jacob mock-
frowned at him. “What, am I your servant now?”

  Rune sat down gingerly and stretched his legs out in front of him, then pasted an expression of pain on his face. “I’m injured,” he said, “an invalid.”

  “You will be,” Jacob growled, rolling his eyes. He could see that Rune was covering his injury with humor but he remembered the explosion all too well and he suspected Rune really should be in bed. “You know, whatever Brigit does to you will pale in comparison to what Dr. Patil will do if she sees you out and about.”

  Rune’s expression suddenly shifted into one of tension and he glanced over his shoulder.

  Jacob placed Sparrow’s plate on the table and turned to grab a couple of slices of bread to make Rune’s sandwich.

  “You owe me, brother,” he said as he packed it up high with chicken.

  “You bet,” Rune said. There was silence between them for a moment, then Rune looked up from the table. “How are things going between you and Sparrow?”

  Jacob hesitated from where he was finishing up the sandwich, then turned and placed it in front of Rune. “She is my soulmate,” Jacob said, confirming what Rune had clearly already guessed.

  A smile spread over Rune’s face and he reached out to slap Jacob on the shoulder, pulling short and wincing in pain as the motion pulled on his wound before slowly retracting his hand.

  “You know, you’re not looking so good,” Jacob said. He took in the paleness of Rune’s face. “Maybe you should take this down to the infirmary.”

  “Are you joking?” Rune said. “Eat in the infirmary? Dr. Patil would stake me. She can be more terrifying than Lucian.” Jacob laughed softly. “And anyhow,” Rune continued, “we are talking about you. That is such good news; congratulations, Jacob, I’m happy for you. Having a soulmate, it’s indescribable, well,” he sighed, “you must know.”