by Eve Newton
I am about to step forward to plunge the stake into his heart when the look of sheer terror that crosses his face makes me stop.
“That afraid to die?” I mock him and raise my arm, but he points a shaking finger behind me, his mouth opening and closing like a goldfish.
I frown at him and turn to where he is pointing, catching a glimpse of Aria in the process. She has gone ashen, but her face shows a determination that makes me swing my gaze further around.
I gape, as in the doorway of this trashed villa, is a man so tall and so wide I have to lift my gaze from eyelevel to about two feet above that.
“Christ,” I mutter as I stare at the looming Ambassador.
“I am Cahl,” he says in a voice so flat and commanding, I drop my arm and place my back flat against the wall. I hear a faint crashing of glass and I don’t need to be a genius to figure out that the henchman has done a runner through the window.
We would be wise to follow him. Now!
“Aria,” I say calmly, holding out my hand for her.
“You have a name?” Aria sneers, not seeming the least bit surprised to see him.
“Aria,” I hiss at her, waving my hand in her direction.
“Oh no,” she says giving me a look that speaks volumes. “This is going to make my day.” She slams her fist into her palm and I groan.
“Humph,” I say with a grimace. “You can’t…” I leave the sentence hanging, not really wanting to tip off this beast that she is less than her best. Although, all he has to do is use his eyes. She is still bruised and bandaged and favoring her broken ribs. “Shift then,” I murmur to her and circle around away from her so that I can flank ‘Cahl’. I have to say that I am surprised as well to learn that they have names. Here I thought they were an army of large Ken doll types; automatons with no feelings, no personality and no dangly bits. I snicker as I think about that.
“So, ‘Cahl,’” I say, drawing his attention to me as he just stands there staring at Aria like he wants to jump her. To do what… hmmm… “What you got hiding under that armor?” I taunt him.
He looks down at his golden armor and growls at me. He turns towards me, raising his sword and I swallow. Well, I was trying to get the attention off Aria.
“No way,” Aria says, coming fully into the sitting room. “This is my fight, vamp.”
“It’s Ember,” I snap at her, “And I’d say we are both his targets,” I add, keeping a wary eye out. He isn’t coming at us, but why?
“Are we confusing you?” I ask him with an arched eyebrow. “Do you understand our words?” I enunciate slowly and Aria snorts brazenly in his face. He turns back to her with a roar. He lashes out at her with his sword, but she ducks, her reactions slowed, but she is still swift enough to avoid being hacked at. She comes up, with a look of pure rage on her face and I can see my partner in destiny hold back the wolf within her.
“Let it out!” I yell at her, leaning down to pull free a throwing knife from my ankle holster. It won’t pierce his armor, but it will pierce his skin. Without a second thought, I throw it at him and it embeds itself deep in his neck.
He lets out a surprised grunt, but that is all. He reaches up to pull it out of his neck as if it is merely a fly he is brushing away.
“Oh shit,” I mumble as he brandishes his sword at me and with a flash of speed, I am in front of him, executing a roundhouse kick that does nothing to deter him. I reach up and grab hold of his arm, using his own strength to gain purchase as I kick him again in the stomach, hitting his solid armor with a thud that reverberates up my whole leg.
“Fuck,” I snarl as he grabs my ankle and twists me around in the air, sending me crashing through the open doorway.
Okay, now I am pissed. I have to take this fucker down before he takes Aria out. I cannot have my whole raison d’être wiped off the face of the Earth.
They are circling each other, but again neither one of them attacks. I glance over my shoulder to see if there are any other Ambassadors surrounding this place, but I don’t see any. There is only Cahl and that in itself makes me suspicious.
I stagger to my feet and see the eyeball still impaled on my heel. With an evil smile, I delicately pull it off and then, with all the force of the vampire within, I throw it at the back of Cahl’s head. Just to amuse myself.
It hits his head with a soft, wet thump and he grunts in surprise and reaches up to rub his head. With all of the speed and strength I can muster, I launch myself at Cahl while he is sidetracked by my gory distraction, with my claws extended. I push him forward, intending to flatten him against the wall so that I can sink my fangs into his neck and hopefully slow him down long enough to wrestle his sword away from him. It is one of the only things that will kill his kind. Only, as soon as I attack, Aria steps forward, going on the offensive and I slam him directly into her.
“Shit,” she mutters as his huge body presses against hers.
“Argh!” he cries out, as I scramble up his back, ready to draw blood. He tries to shake me off, but I hold on, clawing at him.
“Aria! The sword!” I scream at her as she just stands there with this humungous jackass pawing at her. His hand has landed on her right boob and he is feeling her up while I try to kill him.
What. The. Fuck?
Chapter 9
~Aria~
I can’t believe this piece of shit Ambassador. Is he really copping a feel here? In the middle of battle?
I don’t understand what’s happening.
He seems…different. He’s not like the rest. He’s actually spoken more than a single word, he’s displayed emotion—anger, mainly—and now he’s…he’s touching me like this.
He seems to have more humanity than the rest of them. He seems like less of a monster.
I’m not sure how to handle it.
When it comes to the Ambassadors, I’ve only ever seen things in black and white. They are monsters. They are brutal, ruthless and merciless. They murdered my father. They are the enemy.
So, what is this now? This one…‘Cahl’…he’s not like any other Ambassador that I’ve encountered before.
I mentally bitch-slap myself. Who cares? He’s still here to kill us. Get a grip, Aria.
I grab his shoulders, ripping Ember off him in the process, and use his mammoth weight against him to slam him into the wall. The drywall cracks at the impact.
“You cop a good enough feel of my boobs there, asshole? You’re more twisted than the others, huh? Is that it? You like to play with your prey before you kill them?”
He doesn’t answer. His striking hazel eyes just bore into mine, searching. Searching for what?
I shake him roughly, my claws digging through his durable golden armor. “You think you can violate me like that? I’ll fucking castrate you, Cahl.”
“Aria!” Ember calls to me. “You can’t. You’re—”
“Shut it!” I snap, not taking my eyes off Cahl.
I’m getting sick of her bullshit here. She clearly doesn’t know fuck all about me. Yeah, I’m still healing from my injuries after that brutal attack at the compound, but I’m more than capable of kicking ass, even in this state. Also, the fury burning through me right now is all the power I need to transcend the fact that I’m not at full strength.
“Not…violate,” he says.
“What?” I bark.
He doesn’t answer.
Let’s see how he likes it. I slide my hand underneath his armor and press it roughly to his dick. I fail to stifle a gasp as I feel that he’s rock hard.
Our eyes lock, both of us as surprised as the other.
Oh my God.
Desire burns in his wide-eyed gaze and it’s like a punch in the gut, slamming into me and knocking me off-kilter in an unfamiliar way.
I pull my hand away quickly and he groans.
“Yeah, see how you like being…touched…like that,” I bite at him, needing to save face here big time now, but failing miserably with the breaks in my voice.
H
e looks as uncomfortable and as out of sorts as I feel. He breaks our strange, intense eye contact and his gaze sweeps down my body. “You are badly injured. You will not be victorious. To take me on is foolish.”
Is he warning me? Giving me a way out?
No. Impossible. Wow, maybe it’s not just my body that’s in a state. My mind seems to be playing tricks on me.
I feel movement to my right. Ember. She’s about to make a move.
Cahl tenses. Shit, he’s sensing it too.
Damn, that vamp can move. I barely see the blade. It’s little more than a blur as she comes at him with it.
But his hand shoots out, grabbing her wrist.
I hear a crack and she grunts with the pain, before she shakes it off in the next second. It seems like it’s already healed.
Before I can do anything, his hand to my chest propels me into the opposite wall of the hotel room. I grunt as my back jars painfully against it. As I slump to the floor, I see Cahl throw the knife at Ember. It embeds itself deep in her neck. I guess that’s his payback to her for earlier. Oh fuck. She chokes, stumbling back, as she clutches at her neck. It’s hit an artery. That much is clear from the rapid pulses of blood spewing from her neck. Good thing she’s a vamp, or that’d be an instant death.
As she collapses to her knees, our eyes lock. I see her fear there. Fear for me. Cahl’s advancing on me and she’s afraid he’s going to kill me while I’m in a weakened state like this. Why? Why does she care whether I live or die? Who the hell is she?
His mammoth shadow falls over me and I look up to see him towering above me. His eyes dance with confusion as he takes me in.
“You do not shift, wolf? Why?”
Grunting, I push myself back to my feet, using the wall behind me for support. Urgh. I hate not being at full strength. It’s a real bitch.
“Your kind is stronger in wolf form,” he goes on.
His hand shoots out and he grabs my chin. Shockingly, his touch is actually gentle. He tips my head back, making me look him in the eyes.
“You are not what they told me.”
I glance behind him at Ember and she has the same what-the-hell-is-this expression on her face as I do. She’s struggling to pull out the blade. Looks like he drove it really deep.
Cahl releases my chin and steps back, shaking his head to himself. It seems like he’s fighting something and trying to get a grip.
It’s my opportunity to end this.
I roar and pounce at him.
Either I’m slower right now, or he’s faster than the other Ambassadors I’ve come into contact with, because he catches me.
We struggle, each trying to subdue the other. It sends us crashing into the closed bathroom door. The damn thing tears from its hinges at the impact of our combined weight. I hear it smack into the shower wall with a nasty thud as I lose my footing and slip on the stupid tiled floor. Before I know it, I’m on my back on the cold floor with Cahl’s heavy body on top of mine.
Jesus Christ. How much does he weigh?
I realize just how weak I really am when I press my hands to his chest to push him off me and I can’t lift him.
He moves quickly, his hands grabbing my arms and wrenching them above my head. He holds them to the floor with one hand, his grip so powerful and crushing that it has me hissing at him. His legs hold mine subdued.
“That was foolish, wolf.”
“Aria,” I snap. “You asshole. I have a name.”
“Aria,” his deep baritone booms back at me. God, the way it sounds in his mouth is…stop it!
I’ve had enough of this bullshit.
“Kill me then,” I challenge, as he just stays on top of me, studying me intently for God knows what reason.
“You are asking me to kill you?”
I scoff. “Asking? I don’t ask for shit, babe. I’m telling you.”
He shifts his weight. I see his hand go to the sword at his hip. His fingers slowly close over the handle of the deadly weapon. And then he stills. “You wish for this?”
“It’s kill, or be killed.” Make your damn move, so I can make mine already.
Something flashes in his eyes then. Something I don’t understand. “Is it?”
“What?”
“Is there not more than…this?” he says, the regret in his voice shocking me to my core.
Before I can get a word out, he does that head-shaking thing again and abruptly climbs off me.
The next thing I know, he’s launching himself through the broken window and disappearing into the night.
“What the—?”
“My sentiments exactly,” Ember says, suddenly in the bathroom doorway.
I growl with agitation and get to my feet slowly. “Jesus, how long does it take a vamp to pull a damn knife outta their neck? It isn’t like you’re gonna bleed out and die from it.”
Her eyes narrow. “It was embedded in my C3 vertebrae, if you must know, wolf. Takes me a minute to shake it off. How about you? What exactly were you trying to do? Kill him, or fuck him, huh?”
I glare at her for a second, before turning from her and crossing to the shower. I switch it on and tell her, “I need a damn shower.”
“What? We need to leave.”
“And we will. After I shower.”
“Humph,” she grumbles. “It’s going to take time for me to find another place.”
I eye her as I start stripping off my leather jacket. “I have a place.”
“Where?”
“You’ll see.”
She folds her arms across her chest and strikes a pose. Urgh. Rich bitch vamp. “You’re not going to tell me? You don’t trust me? I saved your life—more than once.”
“It’s been made clear to me recently that saving a life isn’t enough to keep someone’s trust these days.” Speaking of that, I’m gonna track that fucker, Tony, and kill him for his betrayal.
I see her thinking over what I’ve just said, probably trying to gauge her best way to manipulate me in order to change my mind.
She must sense my resolve, because all she actually says is, “Whatever.”
She’s still not leaving the bathroom, though.
I strip off my tank top and reach around to unclasp my bra.
Her eyes widen, going straight to the wolf tattoo over my heart.
“You want a show?”
"Not my type," she growls, pissed at my dismissal. "But I want to keep an eye on you."
She turns and walks out, hovering on the edge of the doorway, grumbling some shit to herself.
I finish stripping off and then I step into the shower. I close my eyes and let the warm water soothe me as much as possible. I just need…I just need a moment to zone out. The last few hours have been intense…for several reasons.
I need to get my shit together. And fast.
And then the vamp and I will talk about why the hell she’s here and why she bothered saving my life back at the compound.
I already know one thing for sure: more trouble is coming my way.
Chapter 10
~Aria~
I heave a tired sigh as I close the door to my new 'bedroom' in our new wolf base, situated deep in the Cormon Mountains. It’s the room at the far end of the second floor corridor, slightly set off from the other rooms. It’s a little perk of being Alpha—a bit more privacy than everyone else.
Bringing a vampire to our new safe house did not go over well with my wolves at all. That age-old hatred between wolves and vampires is still very much alive today. Even with me explaining that Ember had saved their Alpha’s life, they were still incredibly skeptical.
I’ve managed to settle them down for now.
Besides, after my display of power to them outside that biker bar, they know I have the means to protect them, even if this goes sour. If the vampire shows any signs of jeopardizing the safety of my pack, I will kill her in an instant. No hesitation.
But, for now, I need to keep her around.
Her abilities are beyond t
hat of any regular vamp. I witnessed her strength and speed during the battle in the hotel. It’s not hard to put two and two together. She’s like me, I believe. More than the rest of her species. And vampire, or not, I could use the backup. Being the first and last line of defense and the only one who can take on those Ambassador assholes and live to tell the tale has been taxing, to say the least. Real hell on earth. It never stops. I can never let my guard down. I always have to be at my best and one step ahead of everyone.
I guess the stress of that is what had me making a huge mistake with Tony. I should’ve seen that coming, but I hadn’t. It almost cost me my life. The fact that it put me out of commission for hours was bad enough. If Ember hadn’t been there, what the hell would I have done? Jesus, I messed up.
We need to talk. I’d wanted to on the way over here, but it’d been a hell of a rush to make it here before the sun came up. After airing her complaints about our pitiful living conditions, she settled into one of the spare rooms pretty quickly, citing that she was exhausted and needed to rest. I guess, even with her special abilities, she still feels the exhausting effects of the sun like any other vamp.
I eye the queen-sized bed in the corner of the simple room. I really should rest, too. My body needs it to finish healing fully. I can’t afford to be in a weakened state any longer.
I walk to the bed, stripping off my disgusting clothes as I go. They’re stained with blood, dirty beyond belief and ripped all over. A gym bag beside the bed catches my attention. Thank you, Carter. There will be clean clothes, weapons, toiletries and everything I need in there.
I pull the thin duvet cover back and climb into bed naked. I don’t even have the energy to check for pajamas, or whatever, inside the bag. I just need to rest.
As soon as my head hits the pillow, I’m out.
