by Trina M. Lee
Beside me, Jez tensed, in a fight stance, ready for the pending attack.
Taking on werewolves hopped up on vampire blood had not been part of the plan. Yet, here we were. I knew only that the wolves stood between me and the lab. They were Dayne’s wolves, and I didn’t want to hurt them. But if it was them or us, I chose us.
They launched into motion as if they were fine-tuned to move in synch. Considering they were pack, they likely were. However, the psychosis driving them made their attack somewhat erratic and unpredictable.
I had less than a second to analyze our surroundings: a cold, dank hallway with just one door that appeared to be some kind of utility closet. Going back the way we’d come was not an option since I needed to get to the lab.
The wolves reached us in a few strides, their powerful legs projecting them forward. They broke apart into small groups, coming at each of us. Jez, Ebyn, and I spread out, ready for the impact.
Jez leaped into the wolves coming at her, slashing with savage claws. Her tail raised high and taut, she landed a blow that opened a gash on the face of the closest wolf. There was no time for Ebyn to shift before the wolves were on him. They took him down easily. A yelp filled the hall as he succeeded in landing a punch to the jaw of a large male snapping fangs in his face.
I hit the bunch coming at me with a psi blast that drove them back before coming to Ebyn’s aid.
Throwing the wolves around was easy enough, but it didn’t help me get past them. They were relentless, coming back at us every time I managed to drive them back.
“You should shift,” I shouted at Ebyn. As strong as a wolf is in human form, it’s no match for those in wolf form.
“Can’t you take them all?” He swung a hand wildly at the wolves currently trapped behind an energy wall. “Just make short work of them and get us the hell out of here.”
Jez fixed me with green leopard eyes that said pretty much the same thing. She was done with this shithole and ready to leave.
Ignoring the feisty cat, I cast a derogatory look at Ebyn. “Are you a fucking coward or just lazy? I didn’t come here to kill them; I came to get them outta this shithole. What’s been done to them isn’t their fault. We only kill if we have to.”
Every wolf together hit my barrier. It wavered and then collapsed. That never would’ve happened without vampire blood racing through their veins.
The battle raged on. The wolves attacked us with rabid fervor. Ebyn and Jez managed a decent defense while I repeatedly forced them back. Throwing them around with a snap of my fingers did little to deter them, even when I smacked them into the stone walls.
I didn’t want to kill them. Yet as each moment passed with the entity whispering what I had to do, the urge grew.
Ebyn’s foot connected with a wolf’s jaw. The resulting crunch was cringe worthy. Backed against the wall, Jez swiped a claw across the face of a wolf fighting to tear her throat out, gouging its eye.
This back and forth shit could take all night. We had no time for this. I had to try something else.
I grabbed Ebyn’s arm and tugged him close, steering us over to Jez. Surrounding us all with a circle, I racked my brain for a way to handle Dayne’s wolves without killing them.
“You’re not part of that pack, are you?” I asked Ebyn. “The Doghead pack.”
“I don’t have a pack. I’m more of a lone wolf, which is how I prefer it.” He shook his head of dark hair and eyed me. “Why do they mean so much to you?”
I studied the wolves, watching in wonder as they threw themselves at my circle. It took drawing on Arys to keep it in place. If the Feds didn’t realize how strong their psychotic lab rats were on vampire blood, I’d never tell them. Though they didn’t have vampiric power, their sheer strength was off the charts. The blood had driven them crazy, as it had done to me in its own way. And crazy was always strong, because it didn’t know its limits.
The circle wavered, and I poured more power into holding it. “I made a promise to their Alpha. One I hope to keep.”
“So then what’s your plan?”
Jez’s tail whipped around, slapping my thigh. She too was impatient to take action rather than hiding in a circle.
I just needed a few moments to think.
Drawing hard on my bond with Arys, I kept feeding the circle. Snarling and drooling, the wolves flung themselves against my circle, some hitting so hard they stumbled back shaking their fool heads.
“If we wait long enough maybe they’ll knock themselves out,” Ebyn said wryly.
“No time for that. I just… I think there’s something I can do.” Never had I tried this on wolves. Well, not more than one anyway.
Closing my eyes, I reached inward, seeking the place of absolute focus. I’d pulled Zoey out when she’d been trapped in wolf form. When Coby struggled to keep his wolf contained, I’d forced it back down inside him. Could I manipulate so many of them in one shot? I was about to find out.
I readied myself, hoping this worked. If it didn’t, the wolves might just tear us apart. Since I couldn’t project power through the circle, I dropped it and opened my eyes. Power burst forth with such intensity I almost stumbled. Splitting off into several shards of energy, it hit each wolf with a weight that held them in place. In my mind’s eye I saw them each cowed, bowing down before me, accepting me as dominant. I forced my will upon them, needing it to be greater than the undead blood driving them.
The wolf and the vampire, so often divided within me, united into one beautiful force that filled with me such elation. So rare it was that I managed to unite the two. When it happened, it was a special kind of magic, a rare moment when I felt that perhaps I was not so divided after all.
A cool breeze swept through me, as I burned with the light and the dark. Stoking the fires of our twin flame union, I felt my dark half within.
The wolves struggled to break free of my hold. No way would I let go now. I fed the energy, letting it flow from me in a heady rush. Forcing them back into human form would make them less of a threat, but it wouldn’t stop them from coming at us. So I tried a different tactic.
Reaching into them, seeking the mind of their beasts, I issued a command I could only hope would be heard and obeyed. As I forced obedience on Coby and Zoey, I demanded it now.
No words were needed as my wolf dominated. The psychosis continued running its course, so I might as well put it to use. To the wolves I conveyed a message, an image of the enemy: any human in the building wielding a weapon.
And then I released my hold on the pack.
They never hesitated. Moving as one fluid unit, the pack scrambled into motion. Darting right by us, they were gone, the sounds of snarls and growls echoing in the halls as they went.
It worked. It fucking worked.
If it didn’t, at least they were no longer intent on attacking us. I could happy dance about it later. Now I had to get my ass to the lab.
“How the hell did you do that?” Eyes wide, jaw dropped in disbelief, Ebyn watched the last of the wolves go.
“I’m a hybrid,” I said, trying to keep my knees from buckling in relief. “It has its perks.”
I rushed forward, having only one thought in mind: get to Shaz. The building was a mass of commotion, but nothing mattered more to me right then.
I almost collided with Arys, as he stepped around the corner. My initial reaction was relief and then horror.
His eyes reflected a devilish glint. Blood spilled down his chin. In one hand, a dead woman. Not just a woman. A dead werewolf.
I recognized her.
She was the one Shya had made me turn. I’d wondered about her since, hoping that she’d escaped whatever Shya had planned for her. She had. Only to die by Arys’s hand.
“Arys.” Speaking the way I would to a dog about to bite, I held out a hand to keep Jez and Ebyn back. “You shouldn’t be in here.”
I’d seen this brand of crazy before. The evil entity had taken control. Any vampire would eventually succumb to the m
anipulative taunts and temptation. Kale had. Hell, even I had, and I had the light keeping the worst of it at bay. The last time Arys had fallen victim to it, he’d tried to kill both Shaz and I.
The dead woman hit the floor with a skull-crack that turned my stomach. In a slow, sly gesture, Arys wiped the blood from his chin. Holding my gaze, he licked the blood from his fingers.
“Alexa.” He practically purred my name. “I’ve been looking for you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“Of course you have.” Wary of the unholy hunger in his midnight gaze, I cursed inwardly. This was the last thing we needed.
Fear didn’t grip me right away, though it lurked close, ready to make an appearance. Arys didn’t often scare me. However, the last time he’d become the evil entity’s bitch, I’d been terrified. Not just because he lost control, but because he lost himself fully, becoming the darkness in a way that I never wanted to see again.
So much for that.
“She tried to run,” Arys said, speaking with a strange lilt to his tone. He gestured to the dead woman. “She wasn’t fast enough. Not even with vampire blood in her system. She’s not what I wanted though. Not really.”
He fixated on my neck, staring intently at the place he’d bitten me the night he’d killed me, right here on the property outside. Arys had been consumed by the entity, his mind lost in its hypnotic suggestions.
“No, of course not.” A tremor racked me. I didn’t want to fear him. Never should I feel terror in the presence of my lover. Yet my memories were powerful things, and it would take much more than a matter of months to forget what it felt like to die in his arms.
I expected it when he grabbed me but didn’t have time to brace for the impact when he slammed me against the stone wall. A pained cry slipped past my lips, feeding his fire.
“I want you.” With a hand on either side of my head, he trapped me with his body pressed against me. A wicked grin played about his lips. “I want you to bleed for me.”
Jez lunged forward with a growl.
Arys merely cast a glance her way, and it was enough to send her tumbling.
Ebyn’s cocky exterior had vanished. He made no move to intervene.
“Get out of here, you guys,” I said to the two of them. “Just go. Get out of the building. Be safe.”
Jez hesitated but only for a moment. She nudged Ebyn and bounded away. He was smart enough to follow.
“Arys, come on. This isn’t you. Don’t let that thing mind fuck you again. You’re stronger than that.” Trying to reason with him was a long shot. He’d fallen too far from reality.
Since Arys and I had had a monster of a fight on the street not so long ago, it had become apparent that we each had deep-seated issues that would not simply fade away. But I’d thought we’d moved beyond the worst of it. Seeing the entity use it against us now made me question if it would ever really go away.
“You smell like sex and power.” Ignoring my efforts to sway him, Arys stuck his nose in my hair and breathed deeply. “Please fight. I love it when you fight.”
Unfortunately, he just might get his wish. Because there was no way in hell I wouldn’t fight. I had to find Shaz and get Arys out of the building before he slaughtered every wolf in the place.
I tried another angle. “What about Shaz? We have to find our wolf, Arys. He needs us.”
With a brow raised playfully, he slid a hand down my side, cupped my ass, and jerked me hard against him. “He would make this a little more interesting. I do love how badly he wants me every time I touch him. But I want some one on one with you. I need it. It’s been too long.”
“Too long?” A hand on his chest, I pushed.
He didn’t budge.
“Too long since you tasted my blood? Or too long since you killed me? We can’t keep reliving this, Arys. I won’t.”
“You will.” Grabbing my hand from his chest, he pinned it to the wall beside my head. “We are not done until I say we’re done.”
Violence laced his voice, but he draped me in desire. Suddenly I drowned in it. Pulled under by the powerful current of his thrall, I fought hard to stay afloat.
Shielding against Arys did nothing. It just didn’t work with him. He was inside me. In a desperate move, I brought my leg up and kneed him in the balls. When his eyes widened in surprise, I hit him with enough force to break his hold and put some distance between us.
His malicious laughter echoed in the stark, silent hallway. He didn’t come at me right away as expected. Instead he stalked me, one slow step after another.
“That’s more like it.” He nodded, pleased when I raised my hands to defend myself. “Make me work for it. Pretend like you don’t want it as bad as I do.”
In such a state, talking to him would only encourage him. Never had I talked my way out of a bad situation with a vampire under the entity’s influence. Fighting was my only option.
In my ear the entity whispered, ‘You do want it. Violence is what you share. It’s all that you are.’
“That’s a lie,” I hissed.
Did Gabriel see this in his visions? Or was the worst still yet to come?
Arys prowled closer. “You do want it, don’t you? To feel my fangs buried in your vein. The weight of my body against yours. The power in my bite.”
The entity continued to chatter in my ear. The evil here might quickly prove deadly. It could so easily encourage the insanity, promising sinister satisfaction and tempting one’s personal weakness. It had made so many of us its bitches.
“You can’t kill me again, Arys,” I said, hating myself for being drawn to the darkness in him. “Not like that night. It’s over. You have to let it go.”
He got too close for comfort, and I hit him with a shot that he caught with a hand, effectively neutralizing the force. Damn that double-edged sword.
Lingering close enough to touch me but refraining from doing so, Arys’s gaze swept me from head to toe. “Let it go? I waited a century for that moment, and it was over in minutes. Several lifetimes of agony and anticipation just to have it end like that. I thought the torment would end once I killed you, but it had just begun.”
Shock flitted across Arys’s face, as if he couldn’t believe what he’d just confessed. The entity had a way of doing that. It had done it to Falon and me as well.
Sadly I shook my head and reached to touch Arys’s face. “You can’t keep killing me.”
He captured my hand and kissed my fingertips. For a moment Arys was himself again. A short-lived moment.
A violent shove threw me down on the hard floor. He stood over me, lost again to the absolute dark. “But it’s all I can think about every time I look at you.”
Something in his face, some element of malice that didn’t belong to him, it was the only warning I got. I didn’t need another. I flung both hands up, hitting him with enough power to wrench a cry from me.
He went down hard, skidding on the concrete. I scrambled to my feet and threw a wall up between us. There would be no stopping him. Not as long as he was in this building.
Not at all slowed by my attack, Arys hit my wall with a fist, and it shattered. I could run, but we all know how running from a predator ends. So I had to stand my ground and fight.
‘You must destroy one another,’ the entity uttered, its voice now inside my head. ‘It is your destiny.’
“No.” I shook my head in stubborn refusal. But with each word it spoke, I had to fight harder to resist the pull.
Arys caught me in a possessive embrace. I struggled to break free, but he held tight. His lips found mine in a burning, demanding kiss. I didn’t want to love it the way I did. Resistance escaped me as I fell into him.
I needed to fight, to stop this before it spiraled out of control to a place of regret neither of us would ever recover from.
Surrender to him. It echoed in my head, tempting me to give in and let it happen.
Why couldn’t I fight?
Arys and I were evenly matched now tha
t I too was vampire. Yet his darkness crashed over me, obliterating my spark, sucking me into the abyss. And though I knew I needed to fight back, to keep my little flame aflicker, part of me wanted to give in.
Kissing him back like this embrace would be our last, I wondered what I’d been on my way to do. A vague sense of urgency nagged me, yet I couldn’t place it. Fog clouded my mind.
The entity’s voice continued to taunt and tempt. Surrender to him.
Arys fisted a handful of my hair. His body thrummed with heat and desire. Against my bared neck, his mouth was hot, demanding. Anticipation sang through him, echoing inside me.
And in that moment, I wanted it as bad as he did.
I was jerked away from him so fast a chunk of hair tore from my head. Disoriented and confused, it took several blinks to put together that I now stared into silver eyes.
“Hey, dumbass.” Falon shook me, giving my face a slap. “Are you in there?”
As I came back to myself, I frowned in irritation. Baring fangs, I hissed, “Stop fucking shaking me.”
“Have you learned nothing about this place? He shouldn’t be in here.” Falon nodded toward Arys who stood trapped behind a wall of the fallen angel’s making, a wall he couldn’t burst through.
I blinked a few times to recenter myself. So easily I’d succumbed to the voice. Again. None of us should be in here.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, pulling out of reach, knowing Falon’s touch to be as dangerous here as Arys’s. “Don’t you dare say you came to save my ass, or I’ll slit your throat.”
The bastard angel just grinned. “I didn’t say it. Clearly didn’t have to.”
My scowl was wasted on him. “You’re just so amused with yourself, aren’t you?”
His chuckle confirmed my assumption. “Do you want to throw jabs, or do you want to know why I’m here?”
I eyed Arys who stood with arms crossed, looking both angry and calculating. Like a trapped snake, he awaited his moment. Then he would strike.
“Talk.”
Falon’s silver gaze narrowed. He didn’t like being ordered around. “Every vampire in this building is falling victim to the evil here. They’re turning on the wolves and each other. You have to stop it. You have to confront the murmur of Lilah’s empire and beat it back.”
