“They really like pointing out the blessed one thing,” Shona said, trying to direct his attention to her instead of me.
I wasn’t about to let that happen. “It does sort of roll off the tongue.”
“Yeah, I think they get a rise out of finding you.”
I shrugged. “I’m clearly sporting a target on my hip.”
Shona snorted. “Yeah, one that says, ‘Kill me so my god-like warrior mate gets pissed and goes all dark and evil. Be sure to spread my guts across the city so he has to track my dead body down.’”
That had been their intention three years ago but they’d failed.
Just barely.
“Yep, that’d be the one. Why do they all assume he cares what the hell happens to me?” I asked, trying to wiggle out of the vampire’s hold on me.
Hudson pressed against me harder, before reaching back and grabbing me with one hand. “Ry-Mack.”
While the gesture was cute and appreciated, he didn’t understand who and what we were dealing with. No one could. “Let’s just kick their asses and get on with the show.”
“I’m ready on my end,” Shona said.
“Ryan, you understand that you are not to try to deal with him,” Hudson said sternly.
“Come out, come out from behind the lycan protector, Blessed One. I do so wish to get reacquainted with you.” The vampire leered at me.
I scanned the vampire’s magik, trying to understand it so I could break it down. I ran my hand up Hudson’s back. It was soothing to touch him and know he was near.
“Lycan, if you value your life, you will leave now. This does not concern you and you are young. This is between the Blessed One and us and it shall remain that way.”
Hudson growled, the sound threatening. “This is my fight. Not hers.”
My brow furrowed. Looking at Shona, I hoped she’d be a font of wisdom. The fact that her mouth was hanging open much like mine had been moments ago sort of shot that in the ass.
The vampire laughed. “This has nothing to do with you, but if you wish to play the game then you are most welcome to stay. The more people here to watch her die the better.”
“This has everything to do with me.” Hudson put his hands out and tipped his head. “She belongs to me.”
Hey, I was no man’s anything. I was my own woman. “I don’t belong to—”
He nudged me hard with his elbow. I shut up.
“Wolf, do you have a death wish?” asked the vampire.
Hudson shrugged. “People like to tell me I do.”
“Ah, Blessed One, you have a fool standing before you. By immortal standards he is but a pup. And he will die because of his concern for you.” The vampire glared at Hudson. “To lay claim to something that is second best, at that, is pathetic. Her mate did not want her. He cast her aside after he used her. Is that what you wish to do, wolf? Do you wish to fuck her and then walk away? She is experienced in that regard.”
I really didn’t want to hear this. Especially since I’d slept with Hudson. The fact that I wanted to beg Hudson to never leave me wasn’t helping either.
“Ryan is not second best. And she never has been! You fucks know that. You played off her insecurities. You twisted what happened.” Hudson’s entire body went rigid as he radiated anger. “She’s mine! You can’t have her. I think I made that very clear.”
The laugh that came from the vampire made my skin crawl. “I grow tired of you. You are nothing.”
“No. I am her mate and I’m not very fucking happy to hear about what’s been going on while we’ve been separated.” Hudson sounded so sure of his comment that I almost believed him. Thankfully, I’d grown up a lot over the last three years. No part of me was expecting a happily ever after.
“Are you mental? Seriously?” I asked, poking him hard in the back. “It’s one thing to help out during a fight. It’s another trying to get them gunning for you by making ridiculous claims. I am not your…umm, I’m not your—” I fought to get the words out but they wouldn’t come. My head hurt with something that could only be likened to an instant migraine. Pain built behind my eyes and I felt myself mentally reaching for something. I just couldn’t quite get it.
“Ryan, don’t fight what you know is true.”
Instantly, Hudson’s body was lifted high into the air. The vampire held him with his power for a second before hurtling him towards the wall. Quickly, I threw power out and cushioned him. I couldn’t break the vampire’s hold on Hudson. He pinned him to the wall and stared at me.
“Blessed One, you have learned to do simple tricks. I am so very unimpressed.” He glanced at Hudson and smiled. “Nice try, wolf.”
The vampire walked towards me and Shona went at him. Flicking his wrist out, he sent her flying towards the bar. I cushioned her fall as well.
“Blessed One, you banished us to Hell. To a place where we were not permitted to feed. We starved, some going mad with the need to feed, to find you, to find vengeance. We are free now. It is time you learned your place. You are but one little girl, and taking on the darkness’ warriors and generals was foolish. We know not how you did it, but you will not be so lucky again. You bought yourself close to three years from us. Your time has now run out.”
Since running and hiding under my bed wasn’t an option, not that I’d have taken it, I decided to do what I’d done so well over the past three years—pull upon sarcasm as a shield. Shrugging, I gave him a wry grin. “I’ve been on borrowed time from the word go, bucko. Try another one. That one doesn’t really scare me.”
He stopped and stood in place. “What happened to the terrified young woman who lay beneath us crying and praying her Guardian would come? The one who reached for her sister while the lycans we brought tore the sister into tiny pieces, teaching her a lesson for keeping us from you for so many years? Where is that girl, Ryan?”
Keeping up my brave face, I leveled my gaze on him. “That girl died that night. She left me in her place. If you’re planning on killing me, then get your pasty white ass up here and do it. Maybe, just maybe, you’ll succeed where all the others have failed.”
“So brave,” he said, glancing around. “Tell me, where is this vampire protector we have heard so much of?”
Jude.
I glanced at Shona.
The vampire laughed. “Is he off licking his wounds? Did he have his poor little heart broken by you?”
“You’re a dick,” said Shona.
The vampire seemed pleased with her assessment. He licked his rose-colored lips and tipped his head, his gaze on me. “I can still remember the moment you realized there was no one coming to help as The Powers had promised, as your mate himself had promised. It was the same moment you stopped fighting and laid there, crying silently, knowing we would have our way with you before we spread your corpse out for him to find. You were an open book. We read your mind, your memories, your hopes, your dreams. So sad. So pathetic. Now, we shall repeat the past.”
Hudson snarled. “Vampire, if you touch one—”
“No.” I tossed up protective barriers on Hudson and Shona, not wanting either of them to die for me. “This isn’t your fight. It’s mine and mine alone.”
Shona grunted. “No, Ryan, it’s not your fight. It’s the asshole’s who turned his back on you.”
“Maybe,” I shrugged, “but he doesn’t know or care that the fight’s been going on for years. So that leaves me to fill in the blanks. What I told the girls is true—I fight because someone has to.”
The vampire’s gaze slid to Shona. “I will kill your friend this evening. She knows this is true.”
“I’d say bite me, but you covered that already,” I said, giving him the finger. “That’s assuming I believe you were really part of the group that attacked me. I have my doubts. So how about I say, go fuck yourself?” I glared at him, daring him to come at me.
“Stop, Ryan,” said Hudson.
I couldn’t look at Hudson. I didn’t want the vampire to catch on that I
was trying to figure out a way to free the three of us.
The vampire glared at me. “Blessed One, you do not appreciate the title of dark general as much as your friends do. They know it means I am what your most powerful warriors dread coming up against. I do enjoy the fear your friends radiate for you. Just as much as I enjoyed peeling the flesh from your back as you screamed beneath me three years ago. Tell me, do the scars remain?”
He was getting to me, but I wasn’t about to show it. “Do you all have flashcards with creepy sayings you practice? This is old news. Every one of your slackies has spewed the same overdone peeling this, biting that, gutting there. It’s boring now. You’re bad. You’re scary. I should quiver in fear. Blah, blah.”
Reaching out mystically, I touched Shona and Hudson with my magik and pulled their hands towards the invisible wall that held them. I needed them to feel it so I could study it. They did. I also needed their emotional support. I found a small chink in the hold and went to work on slowly trying to unravel it. This guy was hella strong. So was I when I needed to be.
17
Chapter 17
Shona gasped and slammed against her hold. “Godammit, Ryan, worry about you! Go!”
I could feel the vampire’s power reaching out, trying to strike her. Unsure how long I could keep both Shona and Hudson safe from him, I decided to draw his attention back to me.
“You’re lying. You aren’t one of the men who attacked me. They’re stuck in hell. You’re just some dirtbag who heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend—” I knew he wasn’t an imposture but that was beside the point.
Shona groaned. “Not a great time to say this, but thanks for ear worming me. On a good note, Mickey has lost some of his fine-ness.”
I grinned.
Hey, I took amusement where I could get it.
The vampire looked perplexed. He probably wasn’t up on his Eighties music. In his defense, he was in an outfit that hadn’t been popular since Henry the eighth was on his second wife. Okay, maybe not that long ago, but still. His gaze narrowed on me, a look screaming exactly how much he wanted me dead.
The feeling was mutual.
“Ryan, he is who he claims to be,” a voice sounding close to Hudson’s whispered in my ear.
I threw my magik up, blocking the evil ones from being able to hear me. Glancing at the nothingness next to me, I couldn’t help but laugh. Porter the friendly ghost, had arrived. “Are you here to clean up his mess, Casper?”
“Meaning?” he asked.
I gave a droll look to midair and put a hand on my hip. “Guess.”
“Ryan?” Shona asked, glancing around the room. Her eyes widened and she shook her head no. “He can’t have you, Ryan. Tell Porter to go the fuck away. You aren’t about to die tonight!”
“What…?” Hudson asked, staring at me with puzzled eyes. He glanced around and gasped. He seemed to come to terms with something. “Help her, Porter. Please.”
Porter snorted, sounding disgusted. “I’ve always been here for her, asshole.”
The vampire looked even more lost now.
Good.
My attention instantly went to Hudson. His dark gaze locked on me and I found myself trying to get to him with no luck. “I’m tired of being strong, Porter.”
He held me tight. “You’re not that same woman you were three years ago, Ryan. You’re stronger now. Fight back.”
That was easier said than done. I wrapped my arms around his waist and pressed my head to his chest. It didn’t matter that I couldn’t see him. I could feel him just fine. “I can do this, right? Tell me that I can do this. I don’t want that thing near the people I love.”
Porter kissed the top of my head and gave me a tight squeeze. “You need to let your magik up fully. I added what I could from my side to fuzz the enemies’ minds. They won’t know that anything more than a few seconds have passed.”
I squeezed him tight. “Porter?”
“Yes?”
“Thank you.”
He stilled. “For what? This is my job.”
That made me smile through my fear. “Your job is to escort souls of the powerful who are at risk of being stolen when they crossover. Your job has never been to babysit me, keep me safe, have tea parties or make me love you like what you are to me—some sort of odd father—brother mix.”
His power rode over me and rushed over the room. He held me so tight I couldn’t breathe. Pressing on his chest, I stared through the nothingness at Hudson. He watched me carefully. “Can’t breathe.”
Porter eased up. “Sorry. I got a little emotional.”
I snorted. “Casper, you? Emotional? Get out. I don’t believe it for one second.”
“Ha. Ha. Now, let your magik up. I can’t hold the vampire any longer.”
I nodded and did as he said.
Grinning, the vampire licked his lower lip, never missing a beat in his version of our conversation. “Deny all you want. I was there. We tore your sister to tiny pieces while we held you back, crying, sniveling, begging for her life and for some chosen mate you were told all your life would show when you needed him most. He did not come. No one came.”
I tipped my head down, not wanting to hear the ugly truth again. I knew all of this already, and hearing it coming from this evil bastard was too much.
“Ryan,” Hudson said, softly.
The vampire laughed. “You were created for one purpose, to be a breeding mare for a man who did not want you. There are other Blessed Ones. Other women born for great powerful mates. Why is it your mate is the only one who wanted nothing to do with you?”
I’d asked myself the same thing many times before.
Unexpectedly, the vampire was next to me. He moved faster than humans could see. I should have seen him coming. I didn’t. That was worrisome.
“He did not come then, and he will not come now. A man, who cares not for his mate’s safety does not come to his senses and suddenly care, Blessed One.”
“Ryan!” Hudson shouted. “That piece of shit is—”
I put my hand up and shot power out to assure that none of our side could be hurt.
The vampire laughed. “Oh, pin them so I can kill them easier.” He spun and shot power at Shona. It bounced back at him and struck him in the hand. His hand was repelled instantly. Hissing, he looked down at it as it sizzled.
The vampire stood so close, we could have kissed. “How is it possible that you have learned to use your power? Even if these are small tricks for one such as yourself. It is a shame you will never be able to tap into the full power the gods granted you.”
Finding the escape hatch in his spell, I masked myself with an exact replica of me and place-jumped from his hold to stand outside of Hudson’s area. I normally left my actual body in a place and sent my spirit elsewhere. This time, all of me was needed in another spot. The vampire could look at the copy for bit.
Covering my scent, I tried to figure out how to get Hudson out of the vampire’s trap. Pressing my palm to the invisible wall, I shook my head as I tried to get the vampire’s spell to unweave faster. “Think, Ryan. Think.”
Shh, he’ll hear you.
Glancing up, I found Hudson’s palm pressed to mine. “I just heard you in my head.”
Ryan, think what you want to say and I’ll hear it, sweet-pea.
Bending down, he averted his gaze from me. Kissing the fingers on my free hand, I pressed them to the nothingness separating us. I’m so sorry that I got you dragged into this, Hudson.
No. It’s me who is sorry to have pulled you into it all.
The vampire continued to talk to my illusion as if it were me. I didn’t correct him. “Your mate never came. We all know that. You never completed the ritual. He fucked you. Used you to satisfy his needs. Left his seed planted in you and never once thought about you again. He never claimed you, leaving you unable to fully take the powers your sister had carried all those years for you. She held your darkness as his other had held his light when h
e was alive. He lost his light You lost your dark.”
Glancing over, I saw him lick his lips while he stared at the illusion’s neck. “She held your ruthlessness. The side allowing you to harm another, to fight back to do more than lie there, crying on the pavement as we stripped you down, touched you, watched you give up because your mate had left you so physically drained from breaking the bond that you could no more brush a fly from you than run.”
Oh gods, Ryan, they raped you?
I refused to meet Hudson’s gaze when I shook my head no. I banished them right before they…I don’t want to talk about this any more than I have to right now.
The vampire kept going, no doubt loving the sound of his own voice. “You were so sweet, so pure, so trusting. You truly thought the Guardian would come. That he would save you as he promised. That you could tell him he was to be a father. What did it feel like when you knew he’d rather be fucking a woman other than his mate?” he asked, running his hands through the illusion’s hair. “Do you like knowing the virginity you saved for him was wasted because the moment he returned home he was thrusting his cock into another woman? A better woman? How did it feel to know he not only took the ability for you to merge your dead sister’s powers, but he shortened your life considerably, weakening you, all for another woman, the woman he wanted, Ryan, not the one he’d been shackled to by The Powers?”
I put my head down a minute and did my best to hold my emotions in. I didn’t want to hear these things. Only because they were true. I wiped my cheek quickly because I felt a tear moving down it and glanced up to find Hudson still refusing to look me in the eyes.
Unsure what was wrong, and not wanting to get blindsided by the vampire again, I glanced back towards the illusion. The vampire put his hand on the illusion’s stomach and turned her slowly. I touched the air and the illusion shivered, looking very frightened. In reality, I was pissed.
He laughed, thinking he had the upper hand.
“I can smell your fear, Ryan. It is as intoxicating as it was that night.” He slashed his hand out, ripping the shirt away from the illusion’s body. It was identical to me in every way so it too carried the scars I did. Scars that covered the upper right portion of my back.
Crossing Hudson Page 16
