by Cynthia Eden
He could all but smell the fear covering her. He hated that smell on her.
“How.” Drake bit off the world. How had she become a vampire? Had she chosen this life? Some humans wanted to be vampires. They went out seeking the bite because they wanted to live forever.
Fools. The price of forever was a river of blood and death.
He hadn’t thought Paige would be like those desperate humans. He also hadn’t thought she’d vanish and leave him aching for her–ten damn years.
“It doesn’t matter,” she told him and both of her eyes opened fully as she gazed up at him. “I can’t change what I am.”
The scent of her blood filled his nostrils. When he got hold of Michael again, he was gonna give that claw-happy werewolf some marks to remember him by. You don’t touch her.
Drake caught both of her wrists in his left hand and raised them over her head. She wasn’t fighting him, and as a vampire, her delicate form was hiding one hell of a lot of strength.
She just stared up at him, reminding him of all the stupid dreams he’d once had…and lost.
He’d almost left his pack for her. He’d wanted to be human. For her.
But now, the beast was in charge. There was no going back. There was only blood, death, and darkness.
For both of them.
He gazed down at her, trying to figure out when she’d stopped being human and become a vampire. She’d been nineteen the last time he saw her. He’d been twenty-one.
Right then, Paige’s skin was still flawless and pure, giving no hint to her real age.
What did her age matter? She was right. There was no going back. Not for either of them.
“Are you going to glare at me all night?” Paige asked. “Or do you want to know why I’m here?”
Why she was there…and still wearing his medallion. Or she had been wearing it, until he’d taken it from her neck. It was on the floor now. He’d dropped it when he’d pushed her onto the bed. Paige’s neck was bare, and…why the hell did he want to bend down and lick her flesh?
Because I still want her. More than breath. More than life. He saw her, and he needed.
“Why?” He didn’t lift his body off hers. Paige would feel his aroused flesh pressing against her. So what? If she wanted a favor from him, she’d pay the price he demanded.
And I demand her.
Vampire or not, she was still his.
Even death couldn’t change some things.
“I’m being hunted,” she told him in that low, husky voice that made his cock swell even more. He could just see the hint of her fangs behind her red lips. The sight should have repulsed him. It didn’t. “If you don’t help me, I’ll die.”
“You’re already dead.” That knowledge made him feel as if his chest had been ripped open. Since Paige had been human when he’d known her before, she must have been made into a vampire.
A rare few, the purebloods, were actually born as vamps, but the rest of the parasites out there? They’d been turned. They were bled until the point of death, then brought back as a vampire.
Drake would kill the one who’d turned her. He couldn’t wait to hear the vampire’s screams.
“Don’t say that,” Paige snapped at him, then she showed him just how strong she really was. She twisted beneath him and yanked her hands free. A fast roll sent them tumbling across the bed. Then she was on top of him. Her knees straddled his hips, and her hands slammed down against his chest. “I’m as alive as you are!”
Color stained her cheeks. Her breath heaved out. For an instant, they just stared at each other. Then she grabbed his hand and shoved it against her breasts.
“My heart still beats,” she told him and he could feel the frantic beat beneath his hand. That fast beat…and that sweet, plump flesh. Paige was curved in all the right places.
“I breathe,” she told him and he heard the rush of her breath. “I feel. More than you can imagine, all right? So stop treating me like shit!”
Maybe if she’d stop clawing his heart out…
But then, she was doing that just by breathing. Just by being there. Close enough to take…
So take her. The growl was from his beast, one that was never far from the surface these days.
“You want me to protect you.” He held the beast back, barely, because they had a deal to strike. He knew how these bargains worked in the supernatural world. So much could be bartered and exchanged. Flesh. Blood. Sex. Souls.
Sure, humans might be shocked by a deal like this–but then, humans would be shocked to see a man turn into a wolf.
Deal with it.
“You came to me, to my pack,” he said slowly, determined not to let his rage escape, not yet, “because you want us to keep you safe.” And he would. He–
“No.” She shook her head.
Drake frowned. If not for protection, then–
“I want you to kill the bastard after me.” Her fangs seemed to lengthen. “I want you to rip his head off, and I want you to make damn sure that he never rises again.”
Never rises again.
“You’ve got a vampire you want me to fight.” He’d grown used to battling them. In this part of Alaska, where the cold could creep straight to the bone, where darkness could reign for days and days…this part was home to all manner of supernatural beasts.
The ones at the top of the food chain? The wolves…and the vamps who kept trying to fight them for supremacy. A supremacy they weren’t ever getting.
“I’ve got a vampire I want you to behead.” Her breath rushed out. “A vampire named Gabe is the one who made me, he’s–”
Drake’s claws burst from his fingertips and sliced into the bedding. “He’s fucking already dead.” As far as Drake was concerned, the vamp–Gabe–had died the instant he put his fangs in Paige.
Her gaze held his, and he saw the worry there. “Gabe is a pureblood. He’s strong, he’s–”
“No match for an alpha.” Didn’t she get it? He wasn’t the boy she’d left behind. He was a warrior. A monster. A walking nightmare.
Since she’d left him, he’d seen more blood and hell than she could possibly imagine. No, he’d always known the blood and hell…Paige had been the only thing that had been good in his life.
Sweet. Pure.
Then she’d left him, and he’d gone back to the darkness.
She won’t leave again.
He stared up at her. He could move her easily enough, but he didn’t want to do so. He wanted to keep her just where she was, only he’d like to remove a few of her clothes. Or all of them.
But business came first. “What will you do for me?” Drake demanded.
She blinked. Vampires weren’t supposed to look so innocent. “I…um…”
He smiled and knew that his own sharpened teeth would flash. “Death doesn’t come for free. In the supernatural world, there’s always a price.”
He heard the slight hitch of her breath. “And what do you want?”
You.
But he wanted to play the game longer and see just what she’d offer him. “What have you got?”
Her gaze fell to his chest, but while she wasn’t looking at him, her slender shoulders straightened in a move he remembered. Pride. “I have some money. Not much, but a few thousand that I can pay–”
Drake laughed at that. A hard, deep laugh that sent her bouncing on him. Really? A few thousand to take out a vamp? She didn’t quite understand the paranormal market value. Most assassins wouldn’t touch a vamp for less than fifty grand.
Unless those assassins were werewolves.
Sometimes we do those hits for free. Depending on the vamp…and the blood and death that the bastard had left in his wake.
But she didn’t need to know about the free hits. That knowledge wouldn’t work in his favor.
“I can–I can fight with you. Help your pack.” Her gaze rose to meet his and a light flush still covered her cheeks. Her voice had hardened, probably because she was pissed by his laughter. “Having a vampire o
n your side wouldn’t be a bad thing.”
The laughter faded away and Drake knew his gaze hardened as he said, “I don’t want your strength.” She’d always had strength, even as a human. A solid core that had drawn him to her. Paige’s parents had both been killed when she was just thirteen. They’d only been in Alaska for a little over a year before their accident. Her parents had promised her that they’d all get a fresh start in America’s last frontier.
They’d only gotten death.
After their funeral, he knew that she’d bounced around the foster care system and never found a real home. But all that pain, it had never weakened her.
Wolves were attracted to strength.
“Then what do you want?”
Did she realize that her nails were digging into his shoulders? The wolf inside growled.
He liked that.
Time to take what he wanted. Drake stared up at her and said, “I want to fuck you.” Endlessly. Again and again until the ache for her, that damn gnawing ache that had kept his body tense and hungry for her–for years–finally vanished.
She stared down at him. Swallowed.
And nodded.
Chapter Three
So, what? Did the wolf think that she was gonna pull some kind of shocked, Oh, no, you can’t have sex with me! routine on him? When she’d been dreaming about him for so long?
Guess again, wolf. If he beheaded that sick freak Gabe and gave her the passion that she’d been yearning for, well that was just win-win in her book.
But she didn’t want to look too eager. A girl had her pride, after all, and she’d already had to come dragging into his compound looking for some werewolf strength.
Paige swallowed back that eagerness and slowly said, “Well, I guess once we can–”
“Not once, sweet, not even close.”
Sweet. He’d called her that, so long before. Only then the word had whispered with affection, and not held the tight, tense edge that honed the endearment now.
“H-how many times?” So she could plan. Savor.
His eyes burned up at her. His cock was also shoving right at the junction of her legs. It was all she could do not to rub against him. If she told him that there’d never been anyone since him, Drake wouldn’t believe her.
Even if the words were the truth.
Her body was starving. She was already wet for him. Just the touch of his hands had sent a shiver sliding over her. She wanted more. Just how much more would she get?
“As many times as I want,” Drake told her, voice rough and dark. “Until you can’t breathe without feeling me on every inch of your body.”
Her nipples ached. She wanted his hands on them. His mouth.
Did he smell her arousal? Those wolves…
His lips curled in the faintest of smiles. Damn him, he did.
His hands rose and tangled in her hair. He began to pull her toward him. Toward his mouth.
Her heartbeat drummed in her ears. They had a deal, and finally, she’d have him.
His lips were so close. She could already taste him on her tongue. Would taste him. And he’d taste her. He’d–
A shrill alarm cut through the room.
Sonofbitch.
She blinked, confused, aroused and–
Drake pushed her to the side of the bed and jumped to his feet. “Stay here,” he ordered and rushed for the door as the alarm kept shrieking.
Stay? She was a vampire, not a dog. Paige jumped up and raced after him.
He was already thundering down the stairs. More men and women were out now, all racing toward the main level of the house. She joined them, and hoped no one decided to attack the vamp in their midst.
“Fire!” Someone shouted even as she caught the scent of smoke drifting in the air.
Then they were shoving open the front doors and hurrying into the darkness that waited outside of the main house. She saw the flames then, rising quickly, burning right up that thick wall that surrounded their compound. Red and gold flames, burning in a world of snow.
Paige stumbled to a stop even as the wolves fought the blaze. They had buckets of water. Hoses. The water blasted at the flames, but the fire kept attacking all around the compound walls. To the left. To the right.
“You can’t escape me.” Gabe’s words rang in her ears. He’d warned her of this, so many times. He’d said, “I’ll find you and destroy anyone who gets in my way.”
Someone bumped into her and Paige jerked, then she realized–I can’t just stand here. She’d seen this type of attack before. It was Gabe’s specialty. Distract and conquer. He’d been using this technique for centuries.
Gabe…or rather, Gabriel, had been born long ago, in the midst of battles and carnage. War was what he knew, what he craved.
When it came to fighting strategies, he liked to think he was a master. The pureblood vamp was always plotting and planning.
The wolves didn’t realize that this was just a trick. They were scattering. Each going to a different spot to fight the flames. Each–vulnerable.
“Stop!” Paige screamed.
No one listened to her.
More water. More fire.
“Stop! They’re coming for you!” An attack that had been planned for far too long. She ran forward and grabbed the arm of one woman, a chick with long red hair. “They’re coming!”
The woman spun around and her eyes widened. “Vampire.”
Yes, she was. “And more of my kind are coming. Move away from the walls! Get ready.”
Because Gabe didn’t fight fair. He never had.
Thunder rumbled. Someone screamed. No, no, that wasn’t thunder. In the wild confusion of the fire, that was someone shooting. A man fell to the ground as blood covered the snow behind him.
Gabe always planned so well.
She looked up, her gaze flying along the length of the burning walls. There, to the left. Covered in darkness, she could just see the outline of the shooter.
Only…he wasn’t the only one up there.
Paige pushed the woman away. “Get back!” Paige yelled because she knew those guns would be loaded with silver bullets. The fire was just the bait. Carefully placed and targeted to draw out the wolves…
So they could be taken out easier.
She raced forward and leapt up that wall. As a human, she never would have been able to make that climb. The wall was at least fifteen feet high. As a vamp–
Two seconds. That was all it took.
The gunman turned on her. Fired.
The silver bullet tore right through her shoulder. She gasped at the pain, and, somewhere below her, she heard a roar. “Try…harder,” Paige gritted out to the shooter as she snatched the gun from him. Then she shot him, right in the heart.
He fell off the wall, tumbling down below.
The vamp wouldn’t be dead, not from a silver bullet hit. He’d just be stunned for a while.
More gunshots. More screams.
She whirled around, balancing easily on top of the wall. More vamp shooters had positioned themselves, carefully hiding away from the flames. But the wolves were seeing them now. They were launching at the vamps, trying to take them out.
They just had to take them out faster.
Because there was blood on the ground. Injured shifters crying out in pain. And vamps were always attracted to that blood…
Her fangs burned in her mouth as they stretched and sharpened. An instinctive response to the scent of blood. She hurried along the wall’s edge, being careful to stay away from those flames. She had her eyes on another gunman. That jerk waited just five feet away, aiming down below. Her gaze darted to the right as she tracked his target. The vamp was–
Aiming at Drake.
No! Drake was rushing toward her, not even looking over at the gunman. “Get down!” She yelled at Drake, and she slammed her body into the vamp’s.
His gun fired. The bullet thundered as it exploded from the weapon.
The vampire laughed. “Got the alpha
. Fuckin’ got him in the heart!”
She drove her fist into his jaw. She heard bones snap and wasn’t sure if that snapping was from the breaking of her own fingers or his jaw.
Her gaze lifted and flew to the area below. “Drake!” He was on the ground. Not moving.
The vamp’s gun had fallen into the snow near the bottom of the wall. Didn’t matter. She could deal with this jerk. He’d shot Drake. She grabbed for the stake that she kept in her left boot, strapped to her ankle. The vamp was twisting and fighting, and the ledge of the wall was barely a foot across and–
They both tumbled off the wall–falling not toward the inside of the compound, with the werewolves, but back outside.
When they hit the ground, Paige landed on top of the vamp. Even with the snow to cushion them, the thud of the impact shook through her body.
When she sucked in a deep breath, the vampire drove his knee into her stomach.
“Bitch,” the vamp snarled. But he wasn’t just any vamp. Henry DeVeau. She knew him. Had always hated the prick. He liked to torture his victims. The way he’d tortured her.Henry was Gabe’s number one attack vamp. A sadistic bastard who deserved to burn forever.
“You thought you’d be safe,” Henry spat the words at her as he punched out with his ham-like fists. “You thought he’d save you, but–”
“No,” Paige gasped out because, what did she have to lose now? No one else would hear what she said to Henry. The wolves were too busy fighting the flames and the other shooters. “I thought I’d save him.” Because she’d known that Gabe’s attack on the wolves was coming. She’d known that he was going after Drake.
So I wanted to be at Drake’s side, to keep him safe.
The bargain she’d made hadn’t been about her protection, not really. It had been about his.
But she’d failed him. After only a few damn minutes, she’d failed.
Henry’s thick brow lowered in confusion. “What? You–”
She had the stake in her hand. She rushed forward–and drove it into Henry’s heart. “I loved him,” she whispered as she twisted that stake. She had once loved him more than anything else in this world, but Henry and Gabe had taken Drake from her. Then, and now. “So you burn, asshole, burn.”
