Twisted i-3

by Gena Showalter

  That was why she couldn’t walk away from him now. No matter how distant or unlike himself he was, she wouldn’t reject him.

  “Well?” he prompted.

  “Yes, I do.” She didn’t tell him what, though. “Do you recall anything specific about me? Besides this home?”

  “No.”

  “Oh.” A memory could have sparked compassion. Compassion could have sparked a thousand other emotions, one of them reminding him of just how much he freaking loved her. Or maybe this was for the best. There were some things a girl didn’t want her boyfriend to know about her.

  “Wait,” he said, blinking. “I do remember something.”

  Hope and dread battled for supremacy. “Yes?”

  “When you first came to Crossroads, summoned here because of the supernatural blast Mary Ann and I inadvertently created, you spotted me from a distance and thought, I should kill him.” Ouch. See? That was one of those things. “First, I told you about that. Second, taken out of context, the thought seems worse than it was.”

  “You mean a desire to kill me is a good thing when in context?”

  Her teeth gnashed. “No, but you’re forgetting how strange your pull was to us. We didn’t know why you’d summoned us here, what you had planned for us, or if you were helping our enemy. We—”

  “Enemies.”

  “What?”

  “You don’t have one, you have many. In fact, the only race you aren’t at war with is the wolves, and they’d be fighting you, too, if they weren’t so loyal by nature.”

  Well, well. An emotion from him. Only, it wasn’t one she’d wanted. He was disappointed. She didn’t understand why. “You have no idea the things that have taken place between the races throughout the centuries. How could you? You’ve been living in your little humanity bubble, unaware of the creatures that stalk the night.”

  “And yet I know alliances can be formed.”

  “With who? The witches? They know we crave their blood and can’t control our hunger in their presence. They would laugh in your face if you offered a truce. So who does that leave? The fairies? We feed off the humans they consider their children. They would wipe us out if they could. Don’t forget the fairy prince you helped kill, and the fairy princess who then tried to kill you. What about the goblins? They are mindless beings, caring only about their next meal, which just so happens to be living flesh. Our flesh. Shall I go on?”

  “Yes.” Glitter in his eyes, a twitch of his lips. “Explain to me why you war with other vampire factions.”

  “Explain to me why humans war with other humans.”

  He ran his tongue over his teeth. “Most humans desire peace.”

  “And yet they still have not found a way to facilitate it.”

  “Nor have the vampires.”

  They stood there, simply staring at each other in the silence. She was panting again, her aching shoulder rousing her fervor for the subject and perhaps making her snappier than she should have been when Aden had so calmly stated his case.

  “Aden,” she said, gentling her tone. “Peace is a wonderful thing. But that’s all it is. A thing—and sometimes the wrong thing. Will you roll over in the name of peace, allowing my father to reclaim his throne, or will you fight him?”

  “Fight,” he said without hesitation. “Then I will wage war until the other vampire factions are brought to heel. And if they can’t be brought to heel, they will be annihilated. Examples will be made, and peace will finally reign.”

  War at any cost was classic Vlad the Impaler ideology, and not something Aden Stone had ever before supported. Yet, this was the second time in the last five minutes that Aden had sounded exactly like her father. The third time that day.

  An idea rolled through her mind, frightening her.

  Were bits of her father somehow trapped inside him, driving him? If so, how? Aden had tangled with Victoria’s memories, not her father’s. Unless…were these her beliefs? Had they remained with him along with a few of her memories?

  Vlad had always viewed humans as food and nothing more, even though he’d once been human himself, and he had taught his children to view them the same way. Power had gone to his head, she supposed. To all their heads. But more than thinking himself superior to humans, he’d thought himself superior to all races. King of Kings, Lord of Lords. Peace had been an afterthought, the road to that peace violent and gruesome.

  Better others were wiped out than living and opposing every directive he gave them, Vlad had often said.

  After meeting Aden and seeing what he was willing to endure for those he loved, her entire perspective had changed. Vlad shattered. Aden restored. Vlad enjoyed the downfall of others, Aden mourned it. Vlad was never satisfied. Aden found joy where he could.

  She envied him for all of that. Not that she was now completely opposed to war. One day, she would have to face off with her father. One day, she would have to destroy him, for he would never allow Aden to rule. Vlad would fight until the end, and he would fight without mercy. Therefore, someone had to deliver that end, and she would rather that someone be her.

  Having been inside Aden’s head, she knew just how deeply his past hacked at his joy. He’d hurt people. He’d possessed other bodies, forcing people to do what he wanted, rather than what they believed. All to protect himself or someone he cared about, true, yet the guilt had never left him.

  I know the feeling. She still had no idea what she’d done to him, those last few minutes inside their cave, but the guilt was slicing at her, leaving raw, open wounds inside her.

  “Distracted?”

  Victoria focused on Aden. Were his lips curling into a grin? Surely not. That would mean she had amused him. “Yes. Sorry.”

  “You should—” He stiffened, his ears twitching. “Someone’s coming.”

  She looked up, and sure enough, two females were pounding down the stairs, black robes dancing at their ankles. Victoria wanted to ask how he’d heard them when she had not but didn’t want to admit her observational skills were inferior.

  “My king,” one of the girls said when she spotted him, stopping at the second to last step. She executed a perfect curtsy, pale hair falling over one shoulder.

  “My…Aden.” The other girl stopped, as well. Her curtsy was less graceful, but maybe that was because she was eyeing Aden as if he were a slice of candy and she had a sweet fang.

  She wasn’t attracted to him, Victoria knew. No, the dark-haired beauty was attracted to power. Which was why she’d challenged Victoria for rights to him.

  According to their laws, any vampire could challenge any other vampire for rights to a human blood-slave. Though Aden was acting king, he was still human—or had been, at the time the challenge was issued—and Draven had used the loophole to her advantage, hoping she would take over his “care” and become queen.

  They had yet to fight. Soon, though. Soon. Aden had only to announce when and where.

  Victoria seethed with the need to put Draven in her place—the crypt outside. There was protecting your loved ones out of duty, and then there was protecting your loved ones for fun. Draven would be given a taste of the latter.

  Perhaps Victoria was still like her father, after all.

  “Is today my birthday? Look who decided to stop hiding in her room,” Draven said with a pointed look at Victoria. “How courageous of you.”

  “You were welcome to knock on that door at any time. And yet you didn’t. I wonder why.”

  Draven flashed her fangs.

  Bring it.

  “Maddie. Draven.” Aden nodded to them both, inserting himself into the “conversation” and taking it over. With no other preamble, he added, “Go to my throne room and await me. I wish to speak with everyone who lives here.”

  Victoria’s hands fisted at her sides. He knew the sisters’ names, yet she didn’t think he’d ever before met Maddie the Lovely. Draven the Cunning, yes. Or as Victoria suddenly wanted to call her, Draven the Soon to Die Pain fully.

 
The vampire council had chosen the bitch—oops, was her anger showing again?—to date Aden, along with four others, one of whom had been Victoria’s sister Stephanie, hoping he would choose a wife, while at the same time pacifying mothers and fathers who wanted their daughters aligned with the royal house. Back then, Aden had claimed to desire only Victoria.

  Had that changed like everything else?

  “What is this meeting about?” Draven asked, batting her lashes at him.

  “You will find out when everyone else does.”

  While Victoria rejoiced over his abrupt answer, Draven struggled to hide her flare of anger.

  When she succeeded, she propped her hip to one side and twirled a lock of hair around her finger. “May I stand on your dais?”

  Simpering cow.

  The forcefulness—the humanness—of the thought surprised her. At least Aden seemed as unaffected by Draven’s seduction attempt as he had about everything else.

  “No, you may not,” he said, then added flatly, “But you may sit on the steps next to the dais. I want you close to me.”

  She threw Victoria a smug glance. “Because I’m beautiful and you can’t keep your eyes off me?”

  Maddie pinched her, clearly trying to shut her up, but Draven waved her hand away. She’d always been her own number one fan.

  Aden frowned. “No. The fact is, I don’t trust you, don’t like you and want to make sure I can see your hands. If you go for a weapon, you will be deemed a traitor and imprisoned.”

  Every bit of color drained from Draven’s cheeks. “Wh-what?”

  All right, Victoria loved this new Aden.

  “May we change our clothing before we enter the throne room, majesty?” Maddie asked softly, and when Aden nodded she pulled her sister away before the girl could say anything else.

  Victoria’s mouth opened, snapped closed, opened again, yet no words escaped. Not that she knew what to say. That had been spectacular. Simply spectacular.

  Back to business, Aden strode to the far wall and lifted the gold summoning horn hanging there. A thing of beauty, that horn. Solid gold, intricately carved, a dragon’s head curving from the top, scaled claws curving from the bottom and a mouthpiece rounding up into a tail. He placed that mouthpiece at his lips.

  “Wait. What are you doing? Don’t—” Victoria raced toward him, only to stop when he blew. A loud wail echoed throughout the entire mansion, bouncing off the walls, vibrating against the floors, rattling the very foundation. “—do that,” she finished weakly.

  He must have interpreted “don’t do that” as “do it again,” an easy mistake to make when you failed to listen, because he blew a second time, and another wail resounded.

  Dread worked through her, and she pinched the bridge of her nose. Finally the wailing ceased, leaving a strange, deafening silence.

  “You shouldn’t have done that,” she said.

  “Why?”

  Her hand fell to her side. “Uh, because I said not to?”

  “Why not use the horn,” he continued, “when it’s out in the open, waiting to be used?”

  “It’s out in the open for emergencies only.”

  “This is an emergency.”

  I will not scream at him. “How so?” Gritted, but not screamed. Good.

  “I didn’t want to climb the stairs, call, text, email or wait for the grapevine to inform everyone about my meeting.”

  I will not slap him. I absolutely will not. “Well, do you know what your laziness just did?”

  “Yes. I summoned my vampires. Efficiently. Quickly.”

  Maybe one little slap wouldn’t hurt. “Yes. You also summoned your allies and let your enemies know you are in need of aid. Wait. Let me rephrase. You summoned my father’s allies, and—” she lowered her voice in case anyone was eavesdropping “—he wants you dead—in case you’ve forgotten—and now he’ll have help. Because when he shows up—and he will—they’ll offer their support to him rather than to you.”

  Which meant… Her brother would return, she realized. Her brother would return and assist her father.

  What would she do if her brother fought her boyfriend?

  She’d always loathed the decree that kept her segregated from Sorin, had hoped he would one day seek her out, but he never had. Neither of them had been willing to risk their father’s ire. She’d spied on him a few times, though, watching him flirt with women before coldly maiming the vampires he trained with.

  She’d come to think of him as half irreverent brat, half homicidal maniac, and to this day she wondered what he thought of her, or if he would even care to learn. He’d always been Vlad’s staunchest supporter.

  Aden winning against her father was a long shot, but Aden winning against her father and her brother? Impossible. Because the only thing that would be sliced was Aden.

  She would talk to Sorin—for the first time ever, and sweet mercy, she wanted to vomit from nerves at just the thought—and ask him not to fight. And when she asked him, he would…she didn’t know what he would do.

  “If what you say is true,” Aden said, “your father would have snuck in here and used the horn himself. But he didn’t, which means he didn’t want anyone summoned.”

  “I—” Had no argument, and he had a point. Still!

  Aden shrugged. “Let him—and them—come.”

  What would it take to shake him out of this emotionless stupor? “Some will teleport into the surrounding forest. Some will travel as humans travel, but all will make their way here to hurt you.”

  “I know. And that’s a good thing. I want my opposition disposed of quickly, in one swoop.”

  Back to spouting Vlad’s—her—philosophy, was he? “My brother will be among those who travel here.”

  “I know.”

  He knew? And he didn’t care?

  “He’ll die like the others.”

  No, he didn’t care. She stared up at him for a long, silent moment. “Who are you?” Her Aden never would have planned something so cruel.

  “I’m your king.” His head tilted as his study of her intensified. “Unless you choose to serve your father now?”

  “Why? Would you kill me, too?”

  His expression became thoughtful, as if he were actually pondering his answer.

  “Never mind,” she gritted out. The conversation was only making her angrier. “But my brother—”

  “Is not up for discussion. Until Vlad develops the courage to show himself, our little war can’t begin. And it needs to begin, out in the open this time, so that it can end. We cannot have one without the other.”

  He’d just spouted another facet of her beliefs. How many times had she said You cannot have an end without a beginning to Riley throughout the years? Countless. Of course, she’d been trying to talk the shifter into letting her misbehave, not trying to convince him to ramp up the hostilities. But here was a question to last the ages: had she been this annoying?

  “You. Are. Frustrating. Me.”

  Aden shrugged, but underneath the casual, unconcerned action, she saw a glimmer of unease work through his expression. First thoughtful, now uneasy. He must not like frustrating her. She hoped.

  Hope that was demolished when he said, “Enough. We have things to do,” and strode to the throne room to at last host his precious meeting.

  Once again Victoria found herself trailing after him like a puppy. And she didn’t need Elijah to tell her bad, bad things were about to happen.

  SEVEN

  ADEN STEPPED INTO THE throne room, his bare footfalls silent against the plush red carpeting that formed a path directly to his throne. Black wards were woven into that carpet, and for the first time he could feel the full force of the power wafting from them, slithering around his feet. With every step, that power twined higher and higher, around his calves, his thighs, his waist. His stomach, chest and arms.

  He breathed deeply, the constant buzzing in his head finally quieting. The power swirled, forming a halo that lifted strands of his
hair, as if he’d just stuck his fingers into a light socket.

  He experienced a startling moment of clarity. Of…emotion. Suddenly he was Aden, not the cold-hearted vampire king he’d somehow become. He felt. Guilt, joy, remorse, excitement, sorrow…love.

  He reached back, extending his hand, needing to touch Victoria, even in so small a way. He knew she was behind him, each of his cells aware of her every move, her every breath. Every second that passed.

  A momentary pause, a gasp of surprise. Her fingers tentatively twined with his, meltingly warm and familiar. “Aden?”

  “Yes?”

  Her step faltered, and she stumbled into him. He stopped and wrapped his arm around her to hold her up, loving the way she fit against his side. Like a puzzle piece he’d been missing.

  “Your eyes…they’re normal.” Hope bubbled in the undertone of her voice.

  Normal? “I take it that’s a good thing.”

  “Very good.”

  He glanced around. Black candelabras lined the front of the concrete bleachers stretching at his sides. Between them were thick marble columns. “I can’t believe this,” he said, shocked that he was really here. “Forget the danger I caused by using the horn. I summoned everyone in here to prove a point, and that point could kill them.”

  “What point?”

  “I’m too embarrassed to say. I…need to sit down.” He kicked back into motion. When he reached the throne, he eased down, more candles flickering around him, smoke swirling from the tips.

  The buzzing in his head started up again. A split second later a grumble sounded, subdued, yet all the more savage and brutal because of that. And just like that, the veil of emotion lifted, leaving him feeling both a biting cold and a sizzling heat, neither of which could surpass his determination to lead his vampires to victory against Vlad.

  “I’m so happy, I could cry. How human of me, right? But then, I’m becoming more human by the second, I think. And that’s okay. Yes? That’s good?” A grinning Victoria crouched in front of him, resting her palms on his thighs. “Let’s go back to my bedroom and talk. We’ll…” Slowly her grin faded. “Your eyes.” Her voice was now flat.