Joaquin’s head whipped around. “Don’t say things like that.” The words sent shards of pain through his heart, but he only had himself to blame.
Once Joaquin had been sired, he’d had an insatiable thirst for blood, and Devlin had made the mistake of being the first mortal to cross his path. Joaquin had begged him to leave, but Devlin hadn’t listened. As a police officer, he’d wanted to help, and he’d offered his assistance despite Joaquin’s repeated pleading for him to go away.
Then Joaquin had killed him, taking his life’s blood without restraint. It was only through Devlin’s amazing resilience and adaptability that they’d managed to remain friends once Devlin had arisen.
Joaquin didn’t know if he could have been so forgiving.
He cleared his throat. “Promise me you’ll stay here.”
“Can’t, but I can promise I’ll watch my back and yours. Now, are we going after Charon or not?”
* * * *
He loved her. He knew it the moment he woke to find her watching him, her hand propped up on the pillow next to his head. Dusk had just crept over the city, but the dim lighting in the room couldn’t hide the glow on her face.
His gaze took in every smooth line of her face before he touched her cheek with just the tips of his fingers. She smiled. At that exact moment, Joaquin felt as if his heart started to beat again. All these years he’d spent in a dark hell, wanting only to escape, and yet, he’d always known that freedom might mean a more torturous existence than what he now lived. And then he’d met Ariana.
“Why are you smiling?” He spoke the words on a whisper, not wanting to spoil the moment.
“Do you really have to ask that?” She leaned in to kiss him, allowing her lips to hover over his.
The scent of her skin enveloped him, but it was the warmth of her blood which beckoned him. He yearned to make her his, to cocoon her in a moment that would last for eternity, but he couldn’t. Not yet. Once he told her everything, she would need time to absorb the truth, to understand his existence.
His thumb plumped her lower lip. “I suppose not.”
She nipped at his chin. “Paris is a beautiful city, but I think I liked the view from the tub better than the walk.”
His chest rumbled with laughter. “Then perhaps we should have the maid prepare another bath for us.”
Her nose wrinkled. “I think I can fill a bathtub with water, Joaquin.” She tried to climb out from beneath the sheets, but he pulled her back in, needing to feel the warmth of her body against his. “What are you doing?”
The husky tone of her voice answered the question for him. “I’d like to make love to you again.”
She leaned into him, her breasts pressing against his chest. “Joaquin, what are we doing?”
His hands spanned her waist and lifted her on top of his body. “I believe it’s called making love.”
“You know that’s not what I meant.”
He smiled up at her. “Yeah, I know.” He brushed the tip of her nose with his finger. “That’s called falling in love.”
Her hands framed his face. “We barely know each other.”
He shifted his hips, allowing her to feel the hardness of his erection. “But we have all the time in the world to learn what we need to know and...” Another move of his hips had her gasping. “...I believe we shall enjoy the journey.”
* * * *
Ariana awoke in panic. She tried to gasp for air, but her lungs refused to cooperate. Fear pushed her upwards, but before she could scramble from the bed, Charon was there, a serene smile on her face.
“What’s happened to me?” The voice speaking sounded as rusty as an unoiled hinge, definitely not her own. “Why can’t I breathe?”
Charon tapped her hand with a soothing murmur. “You have been given a great gift, my dear, one I’m sure you will use with the utmost care.” She held out her hand, and Ariana took it because she needed something to hold on to, to ground her to this reality. “The fear you are feeling now will dissipate one your body grows accustomed to the change.”
“The change?” She tugged her hand free. “What have you done to me?”
“Simply what you asked. Your life will never be the same, Ariana, but never again will you fall prey to a vampire’s trap.”
“Why don’t I feel like myself anymore?” Ariana held up one hand to inspect it. Her body still looked the same, but something was off. Why couldn’t she breathe? And why did every scent in the bedroom assault her nostrils all at once?
Roses, lemon furniture polish, and fresh laundry detergent blended together into a sickeningly sweet aroma that should have made her nauseous. She’d always hated too many flowery or citrusy scents at one time. So why wasn’t her stomach revolting?
“It will take some time.” Charon stood, her hands folded in front of her like a queen bestowing a great honour upon a subject. “I’ll have my housekeeper bring you some breakfast.”
Now that Charon had mentioned it, Ariana was hungry. Ravenously so. Her stomach growled to punctuate the thought. “And then what?”
Charon rested a hand on her shoulder. “Then we get to work.”
* * * *
“How can you be sure you can trust her?” One of the legion spoke up, his face contorted grotesquely which wasn’t the fault of his sire. He’d been transformed seconds after a horrifying acid incident, leaving him disfigured.
Charon tried not to look at him, using the ruse of inspecting her nails instead. She didn’t like to be rude to her followers, though, at times, they did force her to remind them who was the head of this legion.
“I don’t have to trust her. She will get close to Joaquin because she wants to make sure he’ll never hurt another living soul again.” The thought brought a smile to her face. The vision had worked perfectly, giving Ariana a picturesque view of Joaquin’s fabricated nocturnal activities. She couldn’t imagine the girl would risk keeping her vampire lover alive now.
“Still,” the same vampire grumbled, “why do we even need her?”
Annoyance crept into Charon’s voice when she replied. “Because Joaquin would recognize any of our scents. Even if he were to recognize hers, he’ll still allow her to get close to him. In fact,” she favored the gathering of vampires with a pleasant smile, “she’ll be able to get closer than any of us ever could. And that’s when she’ll stake him.”
“What makes you so sure she’ll kill him?”
Charon grew weary of the vampire’s continuing questions, but she couldn’t afford to lose even one of her minion now. Her numbers were too low as it was, especially after the previous month’s clash with some vampires in Somalia that weren’t eager to join her mission.
“Ariana will kill Joaquin. Trust me. She wants nothing more than to see him dead.”
“We do trust you, Charon.” Another vampire spoke up, this one easier on the eyes. “But will she after she learns what you have done to her?”
“She need never learn until Joaquin is dead. All of you know my masking skills are the best among the undead. Now, let this be the end of any concerns. Go feed and let me take care of our newest acquisition.”
Walking away from the group that had gathered in the city park, Charon could only hope the girl wouldn’t fail her. Once Joaquin discovered the truth, if Ariana didn’t kill him, he’d come after Charon. And she’d never been sure she could defeat him.
* * * *
One month later
Redwood Forest
“Charon has hidden her well. Too damn well.” Joaquin punched a tree, his fist gouging a deep hole in the trunk. “I lost Charon’s scent at the Atlantic. She’s disappeared.” And taken Ariana with her.
There was no doubt in his mind now that Ariana had been changed. Charon would not have had the patience to keep her mortal. He refused to dwell on the possibility Ariana hadn’t been kept at all.
“Samuel told me about a small war in Somalia a couple of months back. It sounds like Charon’s group was involved. Maybe we shou
ld go check that out.” Devlin dropped to the floor of the forest, drawing his knees up to his chest.
“I’d sooner trust Charon than I would Samuel.” Joaquin’s lip curled. Samuel had been changed well over a hundred years ago, and bitterness had made him one hell of an enemy. Most vampires just tolerated him and none trusted him.
“I get that, but he’d have no reason to lie about a battle. How would that serve him?”
His friend had a point, but Joaquin wasn’t ready to leave the country. Something, call it instinct or just blind hope, told him Charon hadn’t left the United States. She wouldn’t want to stray too far as long as Joaquin was still alive. His death had always been her ultimate goal.
“I think I’m going to head back to New York for a while. I’ve left a trail for Charon to follow if she wants to find me.”
“And what about Ariana? What if she’s the one looking for you?”
“If Charon has changed her, Ariana can follow my scent, too.”
Devlin cursed and got to his feet. “If Charon has changed her? It’s been a month, Joaquin. Ariana is either a vampire, or she was a meal for Charon. Don’t kid yourself into thinking she’s still a human. That’ll only hurt worse when you meet up with her again.”
“There’s no guarantee I will meet up with her again.”
“Whatever you’re thinking, man, you shouldn’t be heading off on your own. Not now. Charon has upped the stakes. She’s always wanted you dead since you’re one of the last holdouts preventing her from dominating the East Coast, but you made the mistake of getting involved with a human, and she’s going to use that against you.”
Joaquin closed his eyes and tried to ignore the fury rising up inside him. How many times was Devlin going to remind him of Ariana? He’d crossed a line, but he didn’t regret a moment of it. And if he could go back, he’d do the same thing all over again. “I don’t want to listen to another lecture about the error of my ways, Dev.”
Holding both hands in the air like he was surrendering, Devlin turned away. “Fine. Go back to New York, but I hope if Ariana does come after you, you’ll have enough common sense to see her for what she is instead of what she was. If you see her, don’t make the mistake of thinking she’s a human. That’ll get you killed.”
“Yeah. I know.” The agreement fell flat, but Joaquin couldn’t stand there and guarantee he wouldn’t try to talk to Ariana, convince her he wasn’t the monster Charon had, no doubt, told her he was.
“Just take care of yourself.” Devlin didn’t hang around for a response. He sped off into the night, disappearing deep into the forest.
Six months later
Charleston, South Carolina
Shoulders hunched, Ariana rested her palms against her knees, breathing hard. It had been another clean kill. The vampire’s dust lay at her feet like ash from an old fire, and she felt nothing but emptiness, this strange, almost surreal feeling.
Straightening, she tugged her black shirt down over her exposed stomach and allowed the breeze to caress her face. She’d lost count of the number of vampires she’d exterminated over the past six months, and maybe that was a good thing.
Since joining with Charon, she’d done nothing but kill. Her life revolved around eliminating vampires until sun-up and starting all over again at sundown. She functioned, existed. But she didn’t live.
And she never stopped thinking about Joaquin.
Charon didn’t want her to go after him yet, and Ariana had to admit she was secretly glad. Facing Joaquin again would be difficult enough. Confronting him when she knew her job was to kill him…her thoughts trailed off as a smattering of applause interrupted her.
“Excellent, my dear.” Charon’s voice floated down from overhead seconds before her gold-rimmed sandals touched the dirt. “You have refined your skills and exceeded my wildest dreams for you. I can’t tell you how proud I am, but I can tell you the time has come for you to face your biggest enemy yet.” The glow on Charon’s face rivalled that of the moon.
Ariana didn’t have to wonder why she didn’t feel as pleased as her benefactress did. Rolling the kinks from her muscles, she retrieved the stake from the ground and turned away. “If you’ll excuse me, Charon, I’m exhausted.”
“Of course you are. Let me make you some tea, and then you can take a nice long rest. We can talk about Joaquin later.” She fell into step beside Ariana.
“No. I’d rather be alone.” Without giving Charon time to object, Ariana picked up the pace, her feet literally flying over the soft earth as she left behind the remnants of death.
She’d never make Charon understand how she felt after a kill because she couldn’t understand it herself. She was supposed to be doing the world a favor, ridding it of the hideous creatures who preyed on the unsuspecting, but each time she staked another vampire, she died a little inside.
No, Charon would never understand. What had started out as a noble undertaking had quickly segued to something repulsive. And no matter how much Charon talked about what was best for mankind, Ariana still wasn’t convinced her mentor had the world’s best interest at heart.
One thing she did know for certain. With each kill, she became more like a robot and less like a human out to save the world.
Chapter Four
“Samuel’s dead.” Devlin climbed in through the window of the penthouse suite, dusting off his black jeans once his feet touched the carpeted floor.
Joaquin barely flicked a glance at him before returning his gaze to the newspaper. “And?”
“And? Have you not been paying attention? Redwood has been picked clean. No vampires within a hundred mile radius, and any that are stupid enough to hang around drop like flies.
The newspaper lowered a fraction of an inch. Joaquin waited for his friend to finish.
“It’s gotta be her.”
Forgetting all about his reading, Joaquin tossed the paper aside and stood. “Ariana? You think Charon has turned her into some kind of hunter? That doesn’t even make sense. Charon wants more of us to join her. The only reason she wants us dead is because we won’t.”
“Okay, first,” Devlin held up one finger, “she only wants you dead, and second,” another finger joined the first, “what’s happening in California has nothing to do with joining anything. It’s been a massacre, and the ones that have made it out alive have been talking about a woman they don’t see, hear, or smell until she’s upon them. Now you tell me that doesn’t sound like Charon’s doing.”
Joaquin considered his friend’s words. Though it was true Charon had certain abilities no one in the vampire community could explain, it would take a lot to convince him she could make Ariana invisible. That would require so much more than just mere skills.
His hands in the pockets of his black slacks, he crossed the carpeted floor to the window. “We’ve always known there was more to Charon than we could see, but this is stretching out. How do we know this isn’t something Ariana has done on her own?”
Devlin snorted and joined Joaquin at the window. “Okay, so what? Your ex-lover is so heartbroken over your betrayal that she starts dabbling in the black arts? Even if that was true, do you really think she’d take it upon herself to start offing vampires? She’d have to know without a doubt that she wasn’t risking her own life. That’s the only way she could face a vampire with that much confidence.”
Joaquin’s brows dropped into a frown. “Stop referring to her as my ex-lover, and I didn’t betray her.”
“Really?” Devlin waved a hand in front of his face. “Everything that I just said, and that’s what you’re going to focus on? Get your head out of your ass, man. This is real. Vampires are being picked off one by one, and if someone can take on Samuel and win, we’ve got real problems.”
Edging the curtain back to see the moon, Joaquin shook his head. “Not problems, Dev. Problem. If Charon is behind this, we take her out, and the problem is solved.”
“You don’t think Ariana is going to need to be taken out as well
?”
Joaquin whipped around so fast the wind from his speed ruffled the newspaper stilly lying on the bed. “No one, and I mean no one, touches her. Got it?”
Devlin lifted his hands in surrender. “Hey, I’m not the one you have to worry about, unless she attacks me first. Then it’s game on.”
The muscles in Joaquin’s neck tightened. “She’s not going to attack you.”
“You can’t be sure of that.”
“Yes, I can.” Expressionless, Joaquin returned to the bed and slipped his feet into his shoes.
“How?”
“By giving her exactly what she wants.” Before his friend could ask anymore questions, he added, “me.”
Ariana caught his scent, that tempting aroma of hot male and warm musk. Spicy. Irrefutably Joaquin. She closed her eyes and just drank him in. After almost seven months, she thought her senses might have dulled a little, that she wouldn’t recognize him so easily.
Shoes smacked against the pavement, and Ariana took a step back into the shadows. Was he looking for her? He couldn’t know where she was. Charon had just given her his location a few hours ago.
Or maybe he’d known all along and had chosen not to come after her. Was it possible he didn’t have any intentions of killing her? She thought by now he would have already made a move, but Charon insisted Joaquin was still biding his time, trying to get her to lower her guard.
The steps grew closer. Steeling herself for the inevitable meeting, Ariana allowed the moon to find her, giving her visitor ample light to see her. Only the man who stopped in his tracks wasn’t Joaquin.
She frowned and sniffed the air. He certainly smelled like Joaquin. Her stomach took a nosedive as the unmistakeable aroma of vampire blood swept away the lingering scent of Joaquin’s unique smell. Had this vampire killed Joaquin? If not that, then he’d certainly been close to him.
Vampire Betrayed (Vampires Destined 3) Page 4
