by Kaia Bennett
“Tonight, then. I plan to make you suffer for making me wait.”
“Take a number. You’re not the only one holding a grudge against me.”
She spun on her heel and exited the room in a haze of rose perfume, the musk of arousal, and the staccato drum of her stilettos echoing her seething anger.
I almost felt sorry for her. Altani couldn’t have been more beautiful.
She’d die beautiful, with her spine clenched in my fist. She’d never know another life but fucking and breeding. Somewhere out there, children who bore her face would never know her name.
28
Night blanketed the city. I dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, thick socks and worn boots, hoping to make a quick break for it after killing the queen, but Cai came for me.
He took one look and shook his head.
“Lose the clothes.” He wiped his fingers down his mouth and licked his fangs, looking like he’d just fed.
I wanted to argue and started to speak, but he tilted his head, then made a pointed look toward the ceiling. Left then right.
Security cameras, courtesy of my father. At least in this apartment, we were being recorded. I stripped off my clothes again, and stood naked and bruised for the inspection of Cai of the endless and expensive black suits.
“Follow me.”
I wonder if he put those cameras in while he was torturing me or if they’ve always been here?
This wasn’t my safehouse of choice. I liked a little distance in case my father and I were in the city at the same time, and I had my own real estate options. So, for all I knew he’d watched me on the few occasions when I took up temporary residence on this floor. But no, this surveillance had to be a byproduct of the visiting queen. Father thought he had me towing the line now, but trusting a foreign true born without surveillance would be bad for business.
Once out in the hallway, Cai leaned in close and whispered, “I’ll be waiting to make sure the mating proceeds as planned. There’re no cameras inside this room, I made sure, but there’re cameras in the hallway. If you go with option A, none of that matters. If you go with option B, knock on the door three times. I’ll open the door, come in, and give you time to change into the clothes in the go bags I’ve stashed in the wall closet. I’ll say you incapacitated me, and by the time I woke up, you and the witch were gone.”
My heartbeat ratcheted to hummingbird pace. What the fuck were we gonna do then? Where do you run when the person you’re running from owns the land you’re running on? For the last couple hundred years, a vampire could only seek sanctuary in another territory under special circumstances.
“A block away there’s a black SUV with a man waiting to take you to Asylum for a meeting with your father,” Cai continued. We got into the elevator and he pressed the button that took us to the bottom level. “Get in the car and wait for the wolf and the kid to join you. I gave them the option of taking off, but they wanted to wait for you.”
Jesus. I knew Stark would do whatever he had to for Evie, but Vaughn? I guess he chose brotherhood in the end if he’s willing to run with me.
“Make sure you knock the driver out and dump him before you head for Syracuse. Off exit eighteen there’s a white van on the side of the road. Leave the SUV for me, I’ll take care of planting it elsewhere, then get in that van and don’t stop till you reach the Syracuse address in the glove compartment. There’s no GPS in the van, so follow the directions carefully. Burn the address once you get there. By the time you arrive, your father will know you’re gone.”
“There’s no way he’s gonna wait hours for me—”
“That’s exactly what he’ll do. The mating takes at least that long, and he’ll be having fun of his own. He thinks he’s won, he’s gonna celebrate at Asylum.”
Each ding signaled one more step towards the end of freedom. I’d run my whole life wanting to escape responsibility and my role as heir.
Well here’s your chance. Freedom with a hefty price tag.
“The people at that address will sneak you into Canada, which is where your mate said you had to go.” I nodded in confirmation.
“After that, you’re on your own. You know the terrain, anyway. When I plant the SUV he’ll think the trail goes south. All the signs will point to you trying your luck at sanctuary in South America. That’ll give you time to find that coven you were talking about and get settled. Once he catches on, though?” Cai stared up at the numbers. We were headed for the second floor.
“He’ll know you let us escape.” I stared at his profile. “This is a test, isn’t it? Part of the torture?”
“No. Metis isn’t that subtle.”
“But the man betraying him is?”
Cai suppressed a sneer, his lips a straight, twitching line of contempt. “In order to betray him, I’d have to be loyal to him. I never was. Ever. I’m loyal only to myself.”
I hit the stop button on the elevator and pushed him against the wall. My nose touched his and my healing fangs grew to nearly their full length.
“Don’t fuck with me, Cai. You didn’t just wake up this morning and decide it would be in your interest to collect a favor from me after I forfeit my territory. You saw what happens to people who piss my father off. What’s your angle?”
He stayed silent for a long moment, his gaze searching mine as he weighed what to say. He smiled, lazy as a cat that got the cream.
I fucking hate cats.
“You’re not in a position to question me. This isn’t friendship or some whim. This is business. I’ve seen an opportunity to speed up the timeline of my plans, and I’m going to take it. At a time of my choosing, if I need you or Evie, I claim the right to ask for a favor, and your answer will be ‘yes’. Maybe my favor will be that I get to bend you and your mate over and have a go.”
He laughed, even when I placed my hand around his throat and squeezed. The blow to my stomach came so quickly, I saw only a blur of movement as I doubled over. The back of Cai’s hand stung my face and propelled my head into the wall. I caught myself just in time for Cai to grab my throat and lift me off the ground, pinning me to the opposite wall. The chain of motions happened faster than a true born blink.
He held back. I knew he was older, but he hid how strong he is, how fast.
“If I wanted to, I could fuck you right now, Jesse. I could have had the girl over and over by now as payment for letting you escape. But I’m such a nice guy, all I ask is that you don’t piss me off. And I’ll let you in on a little secret. Son.”
He pulled me bodily off the wall and close enough to him to kiss.
“Between Metis and me, I’m the man you should be most afraid of. Know that wherever you go, I’ll be able to find you. Maybe I’ll change my mind and turn you in if it suits me, but for now,”—his grin broadened and the edges of his eyes crinkled with mirth—“I’ve set up a nice present for you. You can question my generosity or you can take it. Better make up your mind fast, however. Once we get off the elevator the clock starts ticking.”
He released me and I landed on my feet, inhaling deep to steady my nerves.
I rubbed my neck and gave him an incredulous glare.
“So, is this all about you staging a coup? You think you’d make a good ruler, Cai?”
Cai pressed the button and we descended again. One more floor.
“You just assumed I’d save Evie and take her away from here. If you’re wrong and I tell my father—”
“I’m not. You won’t. Even if you got the stupid idea to blab, I have all my bases covered and you’re not exactly in the old man’s good graces, are you Oldman? You’ve given Daddy trust issues. He must think he’s paying for all his past misdeeds.”
“What did he do to you, Cai? What kind of baggage makes an errand boy turn on his master?”
He smiled that congenial smile again, dagger-sharp in its duplicity.
“From the moment I found out she was still alive, I knew you wouldn’t let her go, Jesse. She’s an empath.”
His eyes sucked all the light out of the room, black holes of rage and something so deep I could’ve mistaken the look for sorrow. “They’re like sweet poison in the blood, a curse. And they’re the only cure for the disease they wreak upon us.”
The door opened, he shoved me out, but I walked the long hallway of my own accord.
“The room at the end of the hall, to the left.” Cai followed like an unneeded tail as I walked the gangplank toward my future. “Happy mating.”
He’d given me a glimpse of his true face. Owing Cai a favor meant Evie and I would never be safe. I knew one day, if we lived, he’d come to collect. As I approached the door I tried to think of a way out of this that didn’t rely on the mercy of Metis or the traitor serving him.
Think, Jesse. Think!
Negotiating with my father would likely end up with Evie worse for wear and me back in the box. Taking my chances on my own and running for asylum in another territory could work, but the chances of that being successful were slim. We’re territorial for a reason. Even before V-Sep, staying in our own boundaries cut down on coups and issues with the humans. After V-Sep and WWI, that changed. Evie’s nature would make asylum an issue as well. We could mask her duality for a while maybe, but eventually being at the mercy of foreign vampires looking to exploit us would expose her secret. She’d either be a prize to flaunt or yet another ruler would see my bond witch as a threat.
The sweat of my palm slicked the handle. Should I kill Evie now?
Killing her would set her free. Saving her means she’ll probably die at my hands anyway.
I turned the handle and entered the blinding white of a studio apartment. The door closed in Cai’s face with a hiss and a beep as the lock set.
In the center of the room lay a raised white block of quartz, so white the naked queen perched on top look flushed pink with life.
No adornments. No diamonds earrings or glittering rings. She lay on her side, resting her head on her arm, a lithe, curvy sprawl of temptation.
The whole thing is fake. Her willingness, this ceremonial room. Starving us before we meet so we’ll be too hungry to do anything but drain a witch and fuck ourselves raw.
It’s like a poor man’s mate bond. All designed to force us to crave each other.
Disgust and hunger had become strange bedfellows within me.
Altani smiled and sat up, sliding her hand along the polished hard surface we’d have to fuck on. Her dark hair sprawled over her breasts, the sharp indentation of her hip stood out like a stark outline, an oil painting on bitter white canvas. She looked damn near human. Except for those ravenous black eyes.
White everything to make the blood pop, make us hungrier to mate. I tried to remind myself that this was a carefully orchestrated illusion. If I focused on the mechanisms, the gears turning inside my head, maybe I could stave off the hunger. My breaths grew shallow and I felt faint. Wet pussy made me tilt my head to the ceiling and clench my fists.
This isn’t me. This isn’t what I want.
For the first time I worried, truly worried, what would happen to Evie if she entered this room. She’d find me feverish and hungry, with a strong queen who wouldn’t hesitate to rip her apart.
“Are you ready for me now?”
I swallowed and met Altani’s gaze, focusing with predatory intensity. “Ready to be a stud horse? I suppose.”
She frowned, then charged me, a blur of pale skin and dark hair. I used her weight against her and spun her. Now, I had the upper hand, tumbling her onto the slick white floor with her wrists in my hands.
Wily bitch had tucked her knees in when she realized she wouldn’t be straddling me. She let out a cry as her spine connected with the unyielding floor, a whoosh of air hissing past her teeth at the pain. But she recovered quickly, wrapping her long legs around my waist and cinching my hips against hers. She pumped her slick pussy along the underside of my cock at a frantic pace. I squeezed her wrists, hard enough to break, if she were human, and growled in frustration.
Liam broke Evie’s wrist that night with just a squeeze.
I shook my head, hunger and arousal robbing my brain of blood and common sense.
The queen’s cheeks were rosy pink, her lips swollen and red from biting them as she gyrated against me. Her blood teased me as she lifted her head, struggling for a kiss I—barely—denied her.
“Fuck me, Jesse! Give me your cock. Give it to me, give me your seed!”
I want more, Jesse. Give it….
Evie’s voice whispered in my mind, calling for me, the taste of her juices sizzled on my tongue, the feel of her arousal rushed against my fingertips in the back seat of a car, lights streamed across the ceiling like blue flames as she drank from me. We hurtled toward caverns as dark as this room was white, hurtling toward this future, toward the surrender of her kiss, her willingness, the slick heat of her mouth, her cunt squeezing life from me.
I could love you.
I don’t hate you!
I growled at the memories, imagining her under me. Her skin would glow golden brown against this white floor, like her body had against white sheets, against my own copper skin.
The door opened. Altani and I stared in unison at Evie, naked and tumbling to her hands and knees just a few feet away from us. Her eyes bloomed black at the sight of Altani and I engaged in an embrace, at two other predators who would turn on her. She smelled of witch blood, of prey. Sweet, sweet witch blood. So heady was the scent that saliva dripped from my fangs. Between her thighs as she scrambled backward, I spied trickles of life-giving blood, the nectar of the gods, running out of her womb.
Conflicting emotions did battle on her face. Betrayal and rage, confusion and hunger. Like a spooked snake, she retreated in slithering patterns, until she had the entire room in her sights from her crouch in the corner. Altani growled at my mate, seeing only a witch with a full womb, the first meal she’d had in days. The queen didn’t know if she wanted to fuck or feed, and she pounded her fists on my shoulders and pumped her hips, trying to flip me over so she could straddle me or run for Evie.
“Come any closer, and I’ll rip your throat out, bitch.” Evie pulled her lips away from her fangs, growling at Altani in a way that made me harder than my forced hunger and the queen’s welcoming body ever could.
In another life, the queen might’ve made some cutting quip, but now, she saw nothing but red. Bloodlust shook her.
Bloodlust shook me.
I looked down to see my hips pumping of their own will, slick with Altani’s juices and my own pre-come.
Evie turned her head to the side as she narrowed her eyes.
“I’ve got something for you too, motherfucker.”
She thinks I’ve forgotten. She thinks I won’t keep my word.
I didn’t blame her. My predatory nature had won out before.
The queen shoved me hard enough to launch me in the air and sprang for Evie. I landed on my hands and the balls of my feet like a runner in the blocks before the gun goes off—several feet from the advancing Altani, and several feet further still from Evie. I shuddered, thinking I wouldn’t reach her in time as I forced my muscles forward.
My mate roared at the queen.
I sprang out of my crouch.
Just before the queen grabbed Evie’s throat and sank her fangs, Evie swung the arm loaded across her hip with all her strength at the queen’s face. The back of her fist connected with Altani’s curved cheekbone. I heard the crack of the porcelain illusion as Altani spun in the air and landed on her belly at my feet. Blood and surprise splattered the white floor. The queen growled in outrage. Before she could recover, and launch herself at Evie with feral rage and a stronger attack, I slammed my knee down on her spine.
The queen screamed in agony, twisting to stare up at me in betrayal. Her cracked spine shifted under my shin as I slid into place to pin her. I captured both wrists and held her wriggling arms down before looking up at Evie.
Evie’s glance traveled from the subdued quee
n to me. The black curtain of Altani’s hair parted as she thrashed her head from side to side, howling like a banshee and exposing the ivory column of her neck. While the queen howled in outrage, I tipped my head.
“Evie,” I whispered, fighting every impulse in me to fuck and kill whatever lay beneath me or around me. My mate’s tentative approach stirred up her scent. My mouth watered as I watch the blood from her sex drip on the cold white floor.
“Come hold her,” I barked. “Hurry up!”
Evie rose and hurried to me, falling to her knees in front of Altani’s head. “Hold her so I can—”
I lost words when Evie wrenched the queen up by her hair so they could stare at one another.
“You thought I’d be the one dying today.” Evie’s calm voice belied the murder in her eyes. “I won’t be. I’m sorry, but at least now you’ll never have to hurt another witch for the sake of children you’ll never know.”
My mate, the witch I’d seen mercy-kill a human, pressed Altani’s face into the floor, braced the queen’s head with a steady grip, and dug her nails deep into Altani’s neck.
“No! No! Sto—” the queen wailed. Fear for the first time, true fear lacing her regal predator’s voice.
Evie slammed her eyes shut when the queen began to beg, but she didn’t stop. She didn’t cry. She dug her fingers into the soft flesh, squeezed the muscle in order to seize the bone, and wrenched fist skyward with all her strength. The spinal cord snapped and Evie shuddered at the hideous squelch made by ripping a brain stem free, even as she pulled the source of our regeneration free from the queen’s body.
Red life force splattered Evie’s face and coated her hand. She let the twitching muscle and bone drop to the floor with a splat. Before I thought she could begin to process what she’d done, she licked her arm and fingers clean.
They hadn’t fed her, or if they had, they hadn’t fed her much. Her black eyes met mine, but for the first time I saw a merging of Evie in their depths. Not a vampire wearing her face, not a witch hiding the vampire within, but a hybrid of that girl and this one. Both strong. Both mine.
