Sinister Pretty (Alexa O'Brien Huntress Book 11)

by Trina M. Lee

“Not really.” I spat crimson onto the floor. “I’m quite confident there will be much blood taken tonight.”

  Apparently that was over the line because she raised a hand and Jez received another zap that had her yowling amid the growls. I’d been willing to let Briggs have Winston, but now I reconsidered.

  She continued without sparing a glance at Jez. “As I told you, this room is used for testing purposes. In my time with the FPA, we haven’t had the opportunity to witness a succubus or incubus in action. So you see, it would be wasteful of me not to make the most of this.”

  I stared at her, aghast. “Is this a fucking joke? You want to watch me energy feed on someone? I’ll gladly rock your world right now, Winston. You must’ve really liked Arys’s touch.”

  “Not with me, of course.” Her frown couldn’t possibly sag any deeper. “With someone of my choosing.”

  “And you just expect me to go along with this? To play lab rat for you?” Offended at being a test subject for her, I didn’t mind the chance to use someone’s energy to heal the worst of my injuries.

  Winston shrugged and swung a hand toward Jez. “I guess it’s your choice.”

  Twenty minutes had to be up. I’d play along. Keeping Winston distracted might help the others take care of her people outside without her knowing.

  ‘What’s going on out there?’ I reached out to Arys, needing to know they were taking action.

  He showed me a visual of agents going down, blood spurting, weapons tossed aside. Gabriel was with him as the two of them, along with a few others from The Kiss, slaughtered the crew Winston had sent outside.

  Arys’s enthusiasm was palpable. Nothing pleased him quite like the kill.

  ‘Except for you, my love. Nothing pleases me quite like you do.’

  To Winston I said, “Well it’s not much of a choice then, is it? Let’s get this over with.”

  I half expected her to hook me up to machines with wires and whatnot, but technology had advanced beyond that. A woman in a lab coat approached and strapped a smart watch-type device onto my wrist.

  “That will monitor your energy levels and any vitals you may have,” Winston explained.

  “And my victim?” I inquired, brow raised. “You are aware you’re asking me to victimize someone, right?”

  Maggie Winston’s smile was downright devious. “Of course. I hope you find him to your liking.”

  I did not like the sound of that. Winston and the white-coat woman entered the lab area on the other side of the transparent wall, leaving me there with Jez’s cage and the agents beside it, standing ready to torture her. The agent swarm backed up against the wall, forming a large half circle around the exterior of the room.

  The warehouse door slid open again, and a Fed shoved someone through before it promptly slammed shut.

  I did a double take.

  With murder in his wolf eyes, having clearly had his ass recently kicked as well, there stood Ebyn Tyler.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  “You have got to be kidding me.” No. Just no. My victim couldn’t be Ebyn Tyler, the playboy wolf with too much ego and too little respectability.

  Winston merely shook her head and smiled. “Anytime you’re ready, Ms. O’Brien.”

  Son of a bitch.

  A glance at Ebyn showed a monitoring device strapped to his wrist as well. It was tough to meet his dark gaze. The man was vile. Already his expression had changed to one of mischievous intrigue despite our circumstances.

  With Winston’s beady eyes on me and agents standing ready to shock the shit out of Jez, I had no room to argue. If I wanted us all to get out of here alive, I’d have to accept what I was about to do.

  I headed for Ebyn who stood there somehow managing to look both confused and amused. Our eyes met, and I tried to will him to play along without making this worse than it had to be. Tension held his shoulders taut. Aware of our audience, he watched my every step with keen interest.

  “Ebyn,” I said softly, keeping my voice low. “Are you ok?”

  The conceited werewolf surveyed the room, taking in Winston, her goons, and Jez in the cage. When he looked back at me, it was with curious suspicion. “Things seem to be looking up,” he said with a raised brow. “Nice to see you again, Queen V.” His smile unnerved me.

  As I reached him, I draped him in a light cloud of seductive energy. Just enough to keep him from getting too jumpy when I touched him. With a hand on the back of his neck, I pulled him close, hoping Winston would assume this was part of the seduction.

  “You have to trust me if you want to get out of here,” I breathed the words, so low only a keen wolf ear might hear. “And don’t enjoy this too much. She’s making me do it.”

  I pulled back to gaze into his eyes, letting our wolves communicate, needing him to understand the severity of the situation. His wolf peered out at me. It wanted freedom above all else. For freedom, it would trust me. I could work with that.

  Turning up the thrall, I touched the side of his face, hoping he wouldn’t actively participate. I didn’t want to do this.

  A quizzical frown furrowed his brow. He glanced at Winston where she huddled behind the divider staring alternatively between us and a bank of screens. Ebyn seemed to piece it together.

  With a nod, he whispered, “So we’re lab rats. I suppose I could have a worse partner.”

  Saying too much would draw the wrong attention from Winston, so I merely nodded and gave his arm a warning squeeze. I wondered how he’d feel about me after I blew his mind.

  Knowing Winston waited to see something on her screen, I swallowed hard and pulled Ebyn under my thrall. Right away, he leaned into me, grabbing at me with greedy hands. He shouldn’t have been so willing. All I knew of him was that he came off as a cheating dirtbag with too much money and even more ego. And yet, his energy had this flavor, this rich, decadent quality that tempted me.

  The massive room fell silent. Too silent. The only sound being Jez’s steady, low growl. The sensation of so many people watching made my skin crawl. I might be a lot of things, but an exhibitionist wasn’t one of them.

  Trying to keep things clean, I nuzzled Ebyn’s neck in a gesture much more wolf than vampire. The masculine wolf scent of him toyed with me. Beneath that lay the tempting aroma of primal, supernaturally charged blood. Knowing Arys was occupied with securing the building, I shoved him out of my head. He didn’t need to experience any of this through me.

  When a wave of erotic energy rolled off Ebyn, I couldn’t help but savor it. Even as I did, a voice in my head shouted at me to remember where I was, to stay in control.

  His breath came faster, and he grabbed a handful of my ass. Oh boy. Lifting his lip in a silent snarl, Ebyn tried to kiss me. He grew aggressive and not in the good way. With a hand on his chest, I shook my head. I was in charge here. The wolf inside him didn’t like that, and yet after a moment of resistance, it backed down.

  Winston watched with a brow raised, skepticism on her puckered face. This wasn’t enough for her? Well too damn bad. No way in hell was I screwing Ebyn Tyler for her twisted test.

  I brushed my lips along Ebyn’s, the barest of touches to spike his arousal. I continued to draw on his energy, just enough to give Winston what she wanted without draining him to the point of weakness. Knowing she expected the bite, I would give it to her.

  Ebyn was going to lose his mind.

  My fangs against his vein brought forth a crash of lusty wonder. I couldn’t help but eat it up. Why let such splendor go to waste?

  Just a little bite, I told myself. Just a taste.

  Somehow I managed to keep from biting deep. Having an unwelcome audience somehow made it easier to keep the bloodlust reined, even with the evil entity whispering in my ear, demanding more. It would get its wish soon enough.

  Having made barely a scratch, just enough blood spilled from Ebyn’s vein to taunt me with a hunger for more. For a split second, the darkness surged forth, demanding I take all Ebyn had to give. I wrestled
with it before swiping blindly behind me, hitting nothing. If only that voice would just shut the fuck up.

  Unaware of my inner battle, Ebyn got a little handsy. He groped at me, forcing me to push him away. It was just what I needed to come back to myself before I slipped too far into the void.

  I licked the blood from my lips and fangs. Putting space between Ebyn and me, my gaze found Jez’s. We shared an unspoken agreement. Feds were going to die tonight.

  “Excuse me, Alexa, but I’d been under the impression a succubus feed ended in sex and often death. Is that not the case?” Winston stood behind the wall, arms crossed, face crinkled in scrutiny.

  “No, that is not the case. You didn’t know that? I think you just like to watch.” There was no curbing my attitude. A taste of wolf blood had amped up my feisty side. “Sex only happens with people I select. Death also happens at my discretion. I definitely won’t be screwing this dirtbag on the cold, dirty floor for you or killing him.”

  Winston seemed disappointed. “Pity. It would have been nice to have that data for our supernatural sex study. I suppose the white wolf is one of your partners. Too bad he’s occupied at the moment.”

  That did not give me a good feeling.

  “What the fuck did you do to him?” Though aware of Ebyn listing toward me, unsteady on his feet, I had eyes only for Agent Winston.

  Enjoying my upset, she said, “We didn’t have much of your blood to work with. We’d only used small samples as a stabilizing agent for our vampire blood trials. So we chose the two strongest werewolves in our lockup and gave them a full transfusion with what we had left. Your wolf is one of the two.”

  Claws dug into my hands as they clenched into fists. My wolf wanted to tear the bitch apart. She used my mate as a lab rat. She made him an experiment. It was all I could do to keep a leash on myself. Being reckless and hotheaded wouldn’t help either of us.

  Shaz would be alright. He had to be alright. Although I couldn’t imagine what my blood might do to a werewolf. Vampire blood caused psychosis. How much worse would my blood be?

  “Anyway,” she went on, stepping out from behind the dividing wall, flanked by agents. “About that blood of yours. I’ll be needing more.”

  As she advanced on me, I held my ground. I had nowhere to run. Ebyn stepped in front of me, his willingness to defend me both surprising and appreciated. Too bad there was fuck all we could do. Not while she had Shaz in a lab.

  She didn’t leave me much choice. “I’m not giving you shit until Jez is out of that cage and I see Shaz. That was the deal. Let them go, and you get what you want.”

  I assessed the situation, wondering if I could kill the agent holding the rifle trained on Jez before he could fire a shot. Was it worth the risk? Even if I could, there were well over a hundred agents. Could I kill them all before one of them killed Jez?

  Fuck. Not worth the risk.

  The doors slammed open, and I nearly slumped in relief to see Briggs accompanied by several vampires and werewolves. Maggie Winston gaped at him, mouth open. Several agents raised weapons, but she held them at bay with a raised hand.

  “What do you think you’re doing, Briggs? How did you get in? I had your fingerprint erased from the database. You don’t work here anymore.”

  Briggs took in the room, assessing the situation. He held my gaze for a split second, long enough for me to see his disgust. It was Winston who dominated his hatred though. “I most certainly damn well do,” he barked. “I run this facility. You may have killed off most of my remaining agents, but the crew in the control room is still loyal to me. I had Andy override the security system.”

  Winston stalked over to Briggs, ignorant and fearless. She had no idea.

  “Head office thinks you’re MIA, Thomas. You don’t exist to them anymore. This facility is mine now.” Winston cast a derogatory glower my way. “If only Alexa had killed you as I’d hoped. Now I have to get my hands dirty.”

  Briggs stood his ground. The wolves and vampires flanking him awaited some kind of command. How strange. Surely, Arys told them to answer to Briggs, but I imagined a guy like Briggs might go on a power trip if the monsters responded to his command.

  “Oh, she killed me.” Briggs offered a grim smile that revealed fangs. He paused, enjoying the utter shock on Winston’s face. “We’ve employed vampires before. I imagine the head office won’t mind reinstating me. I’m damn good at what I do, and now I have further skills to bring to the table.”

  “They’ll kill you.” She didn’t sound convinced. A trickle of fear permeated the room. Winston was afraid of Briggs.

  “They won’t. I’ve achieved too much, and you will never take it from me.” Hunger burning in his dilated pupils, Briggs surprised us all by giving Agent Winston a shove that sent her tumbling ass over teakettle.

  Only about a third of the gathered agents moved to defend her. The rest seemed uncertain, like they didn’t realize they’d been pawns in Winston’s takeover and weren’t sure who they should answer to.

  She recovered fast, using the momentum to roll and push back to her feet. She went for her gun but didn’t get off a shot before I knocked it from her hand with a flick of my wrist.

  Frazzled and suddenly afraid, she shouted, “Kill them.”

  Commotion broke out as a handful of agents reacted to her demand. Shots were fired, but the targets were in motion, dodging and attacking. Briggs raised his voice, shouting commands. Those who valued their jobs and lives obeyed.

  I used the chaos as a distraction while I turned on those guarding Jez’s cage. The rifle-toting agent backed away, hands up, choosing loyalty to Briggs. The remaining two were easily subdued with a slap of power.

  Protecting myself with an energy wall, I busied myself manipulating the lock on the cage. Jez watched me with wide eyes that demanded I hurry.

  A quick glance over my shoulder showed me shifting wolves and bloodthirsty vampires, all intent on one thing: vengeance. We might fight among ourselves, but this human-dominated government op had dared to tread too far into our world. They needed to be sent a message.

  Screams and shouts echoed in the vast room. Briggs attempted to launch a swirling green psi ball at Winston who barked orders at agents who no longer responded. The psi ball went wide, slamming into my energy wall.

  Newbie.

  Forcing my way into Briggs’s head, I commanded, ‘Focus. Visualize it in your head. Then aim and fire. Concentration is key.’

  ‘Stay out of my head.’

  He shut me out and I let him. I didn’t want to be there any more than he wanted me there. Nothing like being blood bonded to a royal, grade-A asshole.

  Despite his rude response, his next attack proved much more precise. You’re welcome.

  Taking my own advice, I focused hard on the intricate lock holding Jez imprisoned. It resisted, but with enough mental force, I was able to crack it. As bodies began to hit the floor, I swung the cage door open and stepped back. Jez wasted no time leaping out with fangs bared.

  I threw my hands up in time to ward off a stray bullet that flew between us as an agent went down, his gun misfiring. In my peripheral vision, I saw Winston throw herself behind the divider wall and seal herself inside. Briggs disentangled from the agent daring enough to try to take him down and beat on the glass-like surface.

  “Come on, Jez,” I shouted over the noise. “We have to find Shaz.”

  A wolf hit the floor at my feet, bleeding and battered. The Feds were fighting hard to hold their own. Ultimately, they were failing.

  Ebyn chose not to join the fight alongside the Doghead wolves. He waited to follow my lead.

  The vampires were in their element, breaking bodies and opening arteries. Briggs was intent on getting to Winston. I watched as he broke through the divider door and grabbed her by the throat.

  As much as I wanted to watch him kill her, I needed to take advantage of the current distraction. Without wasting another minute, I headed for the open door, Jez and Ebyn hot on my hee
ls. It took me several moments to decide which way led back to Collins’s lab. Shaz had to be there.

  In my mind, I reached for Arys as I ran. What I found was thoughts of blood and destruction. And darkness. So much darkness. Like a worm, the evil entity squirmed its way into his head.

  Fuck.

  I couldn’t tell where he was, but flashes of fluorescent lighting and grey walls told me he’d come inside the building. Like the last time he’d ventured in here, he didn’t stand a chance against the entity.

  ‘Hold on, damn you,’ I shoved into his head, hoping my voice was louder than the entity’s. ‘Don’t you dare give in so easily.’

  “So where exactly are you leading us?” Ebyn asked, keeping pace with me. “Please tell me it’s out of this shithole.”

  “I have to find someone first. Feel free to find your own way out.” I suppose I didn’t have to be rude, although he hadn’t exactly given me a reason to play nice with him in the short time we’d known each other.

  Ebyn gave a scoffing laugh. “Leave the side of the most powerful person in here? Not likely. I’m all yours, Queen V. Use me as you will.”

  His flirtatious tone sounded out of place as we darted through the maze of halls. Damn Winston for making me enthrall him. Having the rake of a wolf infatuated with me was the last thing I needed.

  Is it really? No such thing as too many victims, a voice whispered in my head.

  “Shut up,” I muttered beneath my breath to the evil entity. Louder, to Ebyn I said, “Make yourself useful, and I’ll let you tag along. And stop calling me that.”

  “Would you prefer Your Majesty?” he quipped. “Sounds a little old school to me.”

  We careened around a corner to find ourselves face to face with a pack of snarling wolves. Judging by the shark-like vacancy in their eyes and the death-hungry vibes emanating from them, they’d escaped the lockup.

  Or had someone let them out?

  “Fuck me,” Ebyn muttered through wolf fangs.

  “I thought it was supposed to wear off,” I wondered aloud. Just how long was that supposed to take?