Inheritance: (A New Adult Paranormal Romance) (Heart Lines Series Book 2)

by Heather Hildenbrand

  The venom made it hard to move any faster anyway. I could feel the hot poison sliding like sludge through my veins, slowing me down and making it hard to breathe. Or think. Or sense the danger—until it was too late.

  “Alex, can we talk about—” Sam began.

  Goose bumps rose and my skin prickled.

  “Shit. Not now,” I muttered. I paused for only a split second to try and determine where the fucking monster was.

  “On your left!” Sam called out and I knew then that I wasn’t going to be able to protect her. Not if I needed to rely on her eyes before my own supernatural senses told me what I needed to know.

  “Fuck,” I said, trying and failing to raise my spear gun with one hand. When it fell limp underneath my exhausted muscles, I grabbed it with my other hand and propped it at the incoming ball of fur.

  It swooped down from a low roof and I gritted my teeth at how close it had gotten before I’d sensed it. I barely managed to shove Sam aside and feint right before a large brown werewolf whizzed past, snapping its teeth against the empty night air that had just been my throat.

  I whirled at Sam, eyes wide, as I summoned all of the energy I had left. Reaching a hand into the back of my pants, I yanked the metal-tipped stake free and shoved it at her. “Take this and go for the store. I’ll meet you there.”

  “What? No, I’m not leaving you,” she said, looking pale but much more awake than I felt. Her eyes were wide and stark white against the darkness.

  “Sam, if you argue, you’ll get us both killed,” I said. “Now go! Lock yourself inside that store and call RJ for back up, okay?”

  She took the stake I thrust at her, her expression a terrified and frozen stare. I knew how she felt about killing things, but shit. I also knew how she felt about keeping her life. And mine. Well, that one wasn’t as much of a priority, at least for me. But I wasn’t about to mention that just now.

  I shoved her toward the back of the alley where darkness hung like a curtain. Three more steps and I wouldn’t be able to see her anymore. Then again, hopefully neither would the wolf I could feel at my back. Sam stumbled forward, her short breaths giving away her panic.

  As I turned back to face the werewolf, I had just enough time to notice the prickling of my skin that announced the asshole was too close for comfort, and then it attacked again.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Sam

  The lights were off inside Indra’s store. She’d never had any lights outside that I could remember, and when I finally found the door handle in the darkness, I was ready to collapse or dissolve into screams. Relief eclipsed the panic as I fumbled for the door handle and found it unlocked. When it opened, I sobbed as I stumbled inside.

  Candle light flickered softly from the back but there was also light coming from the storage room behind the register. In the dim glow, I could see the aftermath of the break-in she’d mentioned. Shelves and pots and exotic statues, all overturned and broken into pieces—her entire showroom had been destroyed.

  Kiwi’s house and now this? It didn’t make any sense.

  “Indra!” I paused, unsure which way to go and too afraid of wasting time searching for her in the rubble. I hoped she wasn’t injured. She hadn’t mentioned it in her texts. “Indra!”

  The storage room door opened. “Sam?” Indra appeared, her dress covered in dust, her brows knitted with confusion and then, when she saw me, her eyes widened in concern. “What’s wrong?”

  “Alex, my friend, he’s outside. There’s a … wolf,” I said, realizing too late that I was heading into an explanation that might be more than Indra could handle.

  Her eyes narrowed. “A werewolf?” she asked sharply.

  I blinked, surprised but glad I didn’t have to explain. There was no time. “Yes. And Alex is sick. He can’t fight it on his own. We have to help him.”

  I turned for the door, which I’d left open in my rush, but Indra somehow made it from behind the counter and around to block my exit before I could make it through. Her dress was tight around her chest and hips and then flowed into a full skirt around her ankles. It was covered in streaks of dirt and some of the hair around her face had come out of its braid. “Sam, if there’s a werewolf out there, we can’t leave. We are not a match for them,” she said.

  “I can’t leave him out there,” I argued, my voice rising. I held up the stake. “Besides, I am armed.”

  Indra eyed the stake thoughtfully and seemed to decide something. Before she could answer, a figure appeared in the doorway behind her. It was furry and four-legged and my breath caught as it advanced on Indra.

  She faced me, completely unaware of the danger.

  “Indra, don’t move,” I whispered, my eyes locked on the creature over her shoulder.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “Don’t move,” I said again, staring into its sickly yellow eyes as I crept closer. I still held the stake but even as I raised it, readying myself to at least attempt to defend us, a new thought formed. It wasn’t ideal, testing my powers in a situation so volatile, but I had to try. “It’s a werewolf. But I’ve got it.”

  Energy surged underneath my skin.

  My fingers and palms buzzed in anticipation of what I was about to do. And just like I’d realized with Sushna, instead of readying my magic to send into the wolf, I braced myself to receive whatever it was the wolf needed purged in order to heal.

  Sushna had been right. I was void. I was yin. I needed to take, not give.

  If I could take their sickness, they’d be healed.

  I knew there would be a price and it wouldn’t be pleasant but I was ready. In fact, I was positive this was my destiny. And there was no time to waste.

  Indra whirled, blocking me.

  Before I could reach the werewolf, her hand shot out and she grabbed it by the scruff. It bucked and tried yanking away, its teeth barely missing her pale, dainty wrist, but then just as quickly, it fell still again. Their eyes locked and something passed between them.

  Even from where I stood, I could feel the charge in the air. The energy. Something invisible yet powerful filling the space. And it wasn’t mine. This was clearly much bigger than anything I had to offer.

  As I watched the exchange, slowly, the werewolf’s sickly yellowed eyes turned white again. By the time Indra let go, the wolf had stopped growling and instead, lowered its head and then body, crouching on its belly in a clear sign of deference.

  “Rise,” Indra said quietly and the wolf rose and stood before her, calm as a golden retriever. “Go home,” she said to the wolf and it turned and ran.

  “You healed it,” I said, awed. “How did you do that?”

  Indra rose to face me and smiled, brushing her hands on her skirt. “I am like you, Samantha.”

  “You… know what I am?” I asked.

  “I’ve always known.”

  “But how?”

  She laughed lightly. “Magic can sense magic. Didn’t you feel mine?”

  My brows furrowed. “Well, I was a bit blocked for a while and then… yours is way bigger so I just assumed…” I shrugged, not even sure what I was saying. Had I just told her that hers was bigger than mine? I winced, glad we weren’t men. It would have made that statement slightly more awkward.

  Indra gestured back to the wolf. “You know how to do that?” she asked and this time she did sound surprised. Maybe she didn’t know as much as I thought.

  “In theory,” I admitted and left it at that. Best not to toss out all of my failures just now.

  Indra opened her mouth to say something else but a cry from outside cut her off. We both exchanged a look and hurried outside. We hadn’t gone far before I saw a dark shape rolling on the street. I blinked, willing my eyes to adjust to the darkness. Beside me, Indra hit a few buttons on something and then a light shone across the distance.

  I glanced over, half-expecting some magical beam of light to shoot through her palm.

  “My cell has a flashlight,” she said.
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br />   I blew out a breath and looked back at the rolling shape.

  It didn’t take me long to realize it wasn’t just one shape, but two, rolling around together as they scuffled and fought. Alex and a large, drooling werewolf were on the ground in a heap.

  Indra held up her arm, stopping me before I could get too close.

  “But you could just reach out and heal it,” I hissed.

  “Too dangerous when they’re fighting like this,” she said. “Wait.” But waiting was the only thing I couldn’t do. Alex didn’t have any time left.

  I started forward again, ready to push Indra aside and take my chances. A cry from the mouth of the alley stopped me. Footsteps followed; someone approaching at a run that sounded a bit off. I squinted and Indra re-positioned her light so that we could see who it was as he got closer.

  “RJ,” I said in relief.

  He was limping but he had a stake raised high and he was closing in fast on where Alex lay pinned underneath the werewolf. Indra and I fell back to give them some space as RJ spotted us. He gave another battle cry, grinned maniacally, and then stabbed the wolf in the throat.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Alex

  We went down, scuffling in a tangle of limbs and I knew I was probably screwed. The last thing you wanted in a fight with a werewolf was to be trapped in its paws. They didn’t have a far reach but once you got this close, there wasn’t much chance getting clear again. And I didn’t have enough energy left to get to my feet.

  So I let it tackle me and used the sideways momentum to send us rolling. But it was only buying time. Somewhere behind me, a light clicked on and my blood ran cold. If Sam had come back to help, I was going to throttle her. Or maybe I’d just die and haunt her forever.

  The distraction cost me too as the werewolf raked its razor-sharp claws over my abdomen. I curled up, trying to protect my vulnerable flesh but the damage was done. Pain ripped through me, and I could feel the blood already leaking from the wounds and soaking into my shirt.

  A battle cry rang out behind me but even as RJ appeared over me, weapon in hand and murder in his eyes, I felt the asshole’s teeth closing over my arm. It bit down hard and I swung out with my other hand, catching its furry cheek with my open palm. I slapped it loose and its teeth released me. I grunted, trying to yank my stake free from the thing, but it was stuck somewhere—probably lodged in a fat deposit instead of an organ because that was the day I was having.

  RJ yelled again—something that sounded like “fucking die!” and then the werewolf growled and its teeth gnashed together an inch from my chin as it was driven down harder on top of me by the force of whatever weapon RJ had used on it.

  The werewolf howled and jerked hard.

  I yelled a loud curse in response to the instant and intense burning in my arm, and RJ hooted as he delivered the killing blow.

  The werewolf’s high-pitched howl turned to a keen and then abruptly died off as it went limp over top of me. A pair of olive-skinned hands appeared, grabbing the werewolf roughly by its neck and yanking hard until the creature rolled off me, freeing me from where I lay pinned on the ground. I finally managed a full breath, wheezing as I dragged oxygen through my burning lungs.

  “You okay, man?” RJ asked, bending low over me.

  I groaned and before I could answer, he spotted the bloodied holes in my arm already oozing something nasty and yellow. Venom.

  Because that’s what I needed more of.

  “Shit,” he said, eyes narrowing and then widening as he realized what it was. And what it meant for me. His eyes met mine. “Shit,” he said again. “Where’s Sam?”

  I mumbled something that I hoped he could understand about her being locked inside Indra’s store. He disappeared and I shut my eyes, letting my head fall back against the ground as footsteps pounded closer and closer.

  I tried to stay awake but the pain in my arm had spread and like a candle burning at both ends, the venom seemed to meet in the middle of my veins somewhere. When it collided, my head swam. Pain, searing heat, and black vision all crashed together, drowning out sight and sound, until I finally felt the volume of it recede as the rush in my ears took over …

  Someone shook me—hard—and I woke before the blackness could fully pull me under. I forced my eyes open, groaning at the effort and the pain that came with trying to use my own muscles—even the ones in my eyelids. RJ stared down at me, his face blurred and black around the edges as if in a tunnel.

  I was half-aware of others’ voices, hushed and urgent. Sam came into view, her expression turning from worry to guilt to horror as RJ said something about me being bitten. The words were jumbled and lost, but then Sam fell down beside me, her eyes filling with tears.

  Another face swam close. A woman I’d never seen before. Her long, chestnut hair braided on one side and her face shimmering like a mask of magic. Or maybe I was drunk on death.

  She peered down, her full lips moving. If she spoke aloud, it was lost to me. The heat in my veins carried a roar that reached my eardrums until everything else faded. I tried reaching for Sam’s face but even when my brain ordered it, my hand stayed limp against the pavement.

  I sighed but it ended in a wet cough that I felt rather than heard. Something warm bubbled out of my throat and onto my chin. Sam started yelling, clearly panicked as tears streamed down her smooth, flushed cheeks. She looked like a goddess of the night.

  So this is how it would end for me. Reaching for the only woman I’d ever loved but would never have. I could only hope it was how they’d always remember me. A fallen soldier bleeding out in the street as I’d rushed in to save the girl.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Sam

  I couldn’t stop wringing my hands. It had been almost forty minutes since the attack. RJ had carried Alex into Indra’s store and laid him on a cot she’d found in her back room. But Alex had passed out before we were through the door, and since then, he hadn’t moved. Blood seeped from the deep and jagged claw marks across his abdomen. Three of them, each deeper than the last, where the werewolf had shredded him. The venom had begun bubbling at the wound site, and I’d sank to my knees at the sight of it. More venom. Alex couldn’t take more venom. This was it. And if he didn’t wake up, I wouldn’t even get to say goodbye. But in the midst of my tears, Indra had said not to worry and then run off into her store room behind the front counter. I’d heard a few strange noises coming from that direction, but I couldn’t make myself leave Alex’s side. RJ had limped out to make some calls, and I couldn’t allow Alex to be alone here.

  This was all my fault.

  While I waited for them to return, I paced the small back room and pressed my fingers to my mouth to keep the tears at bay. God, Alex Channing was a stubborn piece of work. Here I was, barely holding it together over his dying body with all the power to save him at my fingertips—and he didn’t want it.

  Casting a glance back at the door for the others, I made a decision.

  Alex wasn’t up to arguing his case. And besides, it wasn’t just his decision. If I wanted to heal him—if I was willing to accept the cost to do so—then that was on me. Not him.

  I didn’t give a shit if he hadn’t invited it. He was getting healed.

  I knelt beside his bed and reached for his arm, wrapping my hands around him and taking a deep breath to center myself.

  I wished I still had the Epidote but it was too risky to go home for it and there was no time. I’d have to do this without it.

  I took another breath, blowing it out and shutting my eyes as I called up the familiar energy into my hands and arms. Instead of letting it flow through and out of me like every time before, I held it there, right inside my own skin. It wasn’t theirs. It was mine.

  I was the yin. I was the void.

  Now, I just had to fill it.

  I concentrated on my breath and with each inhale, I imagined sucking in all the sickness and venom and poison from Alex’s body. It took a few tries but slowly, my sk
in heated to match his fever, until I couldn’t tell where my hands ended and his arm began. Still, I inhaled, imagining the sickness being taken into me.

  Inch by inch, my body heated from the neck down. Alex twitched.

  I held tighter and kept going.

  He moaned and I held even tighter, grasping him while he tried yanking away. “Noooo,” he moaned, thrashing now.

  But it was working. I could feel the exhaustion and the sharp prickle of pain deep inside me. This was his. And now it was mine.

  This would work.

  My chest ached and my lungs burned but still I inhaled, excited even through the paralyzing pain because it meant he might live after all.

  With a sharper move than I was prepared for, Alex jerked hard, yanking free of my hold. I opened my eyes to find him watching me, gaze wild and unfocused.

  “Alex, it’s me,” I said, reaching for him again. I winced at how much it hurt to move my arm now. But he shrank back from me, shaking his head wildly.

  “No. I don’t want this,” he cried, his eyes glassy.

  The energy inside me waned, leaving me exhausted and frustrated. Footsteps sounded from the front of the store, and I fell back against the cot. RJ and Indra found me, curled up on the floor and trying to catch my breath.

  “What happened?” RJ asked, bending over me.

  He helped me to my feet, his hands on my shoulders, and I looked down to find Alex’s eyes closed and his body limp. For a second, I was half-terrified I’d killed him but then I watched as his chest rose and fell with each breath. At least there was that.

  Another glance at his hands revealed that I hadn’t burned him like I had Mason. Progress.