Getting up from the couch, I headed into the bathroom to check my makeup. I was going out, even if it was only for an iced latte. I wouldn’t let fear ruin my life. My fear or the fear of the other’s around me. I was a grown witch, a powerful witch, and I was going out.
I hurried across the city, my convertible going as fast as traffic would allow. The last thing I wanted was for something to attack while I was behind the wheel. I didn’t know how well someone could sling magic while steering, and I didn’t want to find out.
I pulled into the parking lot of my favorite coffee shop. So far, so good. Mocha-deliciousness here I come. The line was short and before I knew it, I had my latte. Now if I could only survive the trip back home, everything would be perfect.
I hurried back out to the car. I didn’t want to tempt fate any more than I already had. Digging through my purse, I looked for my keys. Why is it they never stay on the top where you put them?
“Hello, Maxie,” a voice greeted me. I glanced up. Standing on the other side of my car was a young guy. He smiled at me, his handsome face lighting up as he did.
“Hello,” I said, not wanting to be rude. I had no idea who this guy was, but his casual manner and boyish good looks helped set me at ease. I was used to being hit on. This was a return to the normal for me.
Wait a minute. That wasn’t right. Fear suddenly washed through me. He knew my name. This wasn’t some random come-on.
His startling green eyes shifted, sensing something had changed in my stance. He stepped a little closer to my car. “Someone wants to have a word with you.” He smiled again, his perfect white teeth reminding me of someone else.
This guy looked too perfect to be human. I could only guess what he truly was, but vampire was at the top of my list. I tapped the energy inside of me. I thought about turning him into a frog, but decided that was too good for this slimy lackey sent to do someone else’s dirty work.
His smile deepened as he felt the energy crackle around me. “Oh, the attack’s not coming from me,” he said, amusement making his green eyes dance.
Realization dawned on me. Smug-boy had only been a distraction…and I fell for it. I turned, but it was too late. Something very heavy collided with the side of my head. I saw fireworks that rivaled the best shows in the world as the cement reached up to greet me. I laid there, fading into the darkness around me and groaned. If I lived through this, Van was so going to kill me.
Thirty Three
My head throbbed. The sensation filling me as I swam out of the murky depths of my mind. Instant pain, creeping down the back of my head and blossoming, like a bouquet of torture throughout my whole body. Opening my eyes, I stared into the black void in front of me. Nothing. I was surrounded by nothing, the complete absence of everything, and I couldn’t figure out how I had ended up here.
I tried to move, but I was frozen in place, the void restraining me where I was. I stopped and listened, straining to hear something that could tell me what this place was. A roar surrounded me, crashing down on something underneath me. I wasn’t in a void after all. There was something in here with me. I wasn’t alone. Inhaling deeply, I tasted the bitter sting of salt in the air. I knew what that roaring was. I could hear the ocean. It was all around me.
I struggled against the void, trying to remember why I was here. Why would I willingly come to the ocean and sit in the dark? It didn’t seem like a very Maxie thing to do. The answer crashed into my mind the same time as the wave below me crashed into the rocks. I had been jumped. By a vampire no less.
With my mind back in reality, I recognized the feel of a wooden chair beneath me, my arms and legs firmly held in place by some kind of metal chain. I wiggled my nose, trying to figure out why I couldn’t see. The rustle of fabric confirmed what I had been thinking. Blindfolded. Well, this was shaping up to be a super day.
I reached down inside of me, to the very core of my essence. I’d teach them to mess with me. I was going to blow this whole place apart. But as I reached my core, I came up empty. There was nothing there. No glow. No sizzle. My magic was gone. I was numb inside. It was like the spark that had been awakened in me had been silenced. Even Jensen’s sliver of soul was keeping quiet down there. I was on my own.
I tried to physically break free of my restraints. But that was no use. The chains were bound too tight and I was too weak. Who ever had placed me here knew exactly what they were doing. Anger trickled into the hollow parts of my essence. I had been abandoned, left to die with nothing to protect myself with. Had my powers been taken? Or was this my punishment for being so stupid?
I stopped struggling. It was no use. I was up doo doo creek without a paddle. Tears, as hot as the shame within me, streaked down my face. I had been careless, and now I would pay.
“What’s a matter?” a voice, as coiled as a snake, asked in my ear. “Did you just realize how much trouble you’re in?”
I flinched, trying to shrink down into myself. I didn’t recognize the voice, but I didn’t have to. I knew how serious this situation was. Those words were made up of pure malice.
Laughter surrounded me. The room was filled with people and this was all a game to them. I was merely a mouse being toyed with before dinner. A hand stroked my arm, its fingers hard and cold against my skin. Dead fingers. Funny how Ryan’s never felt that way to me.
“Don’t worry,” the voice spoke again, no doubt the owner of the fingers on my skin. “It doesn’t have to be all bad.”
If it could have, my skin would have crawled away at that. Pain flared into my system as my body rejected his touch. My shame intensified as I sat there, dirtied from the touch. To think I had let one of them touch me was unimaginable. No wonder why my friends had tried to stop me from dating Ryan.
“Don’t you dare touch me,” I growled, wishing to God I could do more than that. More laughter erupted around me. The peanut gallery was getting one heck of a kick out of this.
A door opened to the right of me. The click of expensive shoes silenced the laughter immediately. “What are you doing?” a deep, charming voice dripping with authority asked.
“What you told me to,” the first voice spoke; slight fear replacing the malice as he quickly pulled his hand away from me. I sighed as the pain stopped from the lack of the vampire’s touch.
“I told you to restrain her, not torment her.” Those expensive shoes stepped closer and my blindfold was yanked free.
I blinked as my eyes adjusted to the beams of light shooting in through the holes in the ceiling. People stood around, staring at me, curiosity in their eyes. And people said vampires couldn’t be in the sunlight. I glanced around, trying to get my bearings. Faded posters of clowns and sideshow acts littered the walls. I looked up, staring at the skeletal remains of a Ferris Wheel through the ceiling. I was in an old amusement park. More exactly, given the ocean around us, I was in Ryan’s abandoned boardwalk park.
The thought of betrayal stung deep. Ryan was in on this, too. What better place to hide someone, then a place no one even knew existed.
I glanced up, fighting tears as I stared at the man who had given me back my sight. He smiled at me, charm oozing from every pore. I had to say, if I hadn’t been tied up to the chair, fearing for my life, I might have succumbed to that charm. He was devastatingly good looking, reminding me of Errol Flynn in those old movies my mom loved so much. He looked as young as me. He looked as ancient as time itself. Someone of this magnitude could only be one person.
Ryan’s father.
Richard Everheart.
“I’m sorry about that, my dear,” he told me soothingly, glancing at someone next to my chair. “Cass can be a little unruly at times.”
I turned my head, the ache in it complaining as I did. The green-eyed guy from the parking lot stood there. He bared his teeth in a suggestive smile. “Hello, love.”
Richard frowned at him, turning his attention back to me. “What can I say? My other son has all the charm.”
Other son? I looked
back at the green-eyed guy, the light slowly going on in my head. Ryan had a brother. How many other things was Ryan keeping from me? I was getting a very bad feeling about all of this. Ryan’s whole family was here. Had this been a set up all along? Was Ryan going to pop out of the woodwork himself and say “Thanks for the goods, now we have to kill you?” I had to stop this.
“Look,” I said to Richard, trying to appeal to the business man in him. “You don’t have to kill me. You can call off all your attacks and let me go. I’m not a threat to you. I’m not even dating your son anymore.”
He frowned down at me, puzzled by my words. “First of all, I have never tried to harm you. The attacks you speak of were not sent by me. And secondly, you breaking up with my son is exactly why you’re here.”
Great. Breaking up with Ryan was coming back to bite me. Literally. “I’m sorry I broke Ryan’s heart. We were just not right for each other.”
Richard dismissed me with a wave of his hand. “Oh, I don’t care about his feelings. He’s always been too much of a sentimental bleeding heart for a vampire. He was a disgrace to the Everheart name. Running off to play pretend, when he should have been with me, running the vampire regime.” He shrugged nonchalantly. “I’d written him off a long time ago. The boy was useless to me. But then…he goes and snags himself a witch. And not just any witch, a very powerful one.”
I shook my head. What was he talking about? I wasn’t anything special. I was just a novice. A dumb blonde one at that. There was certainly no reason to go to this length over me.
“You may think you’re nothing,” he said, guessing my thoughts. “But you’re destined for greatness.” He leaned towards me, a predatory smile on his lips. “I can smell it on you.” He stood back up, straightening his suit and tie. His demeanor once again casual. “Any way…where was I?”
Cass spoke suddenly, “Ryan.”
“Oh, yes. The disappointment. Somehow he gets a witch to fall in love with him, willingly. That’s never happened before. Most witches have more sense than that. Or their powers prevent them, or something. But you…you came willingly to a vampire and that’s all I needed.”
“Why?” I asked him, lost among his words. Why should any of this matter? “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Richard sighed as if he was talking to a three-year-old. “You see, I’m at war with the West Coast Vampires. If they knew I was here right now all hell would break loose. The problem is…we’re evenly matched. No other Supernatural will join our war, and I can’t say I blame them. We are a nasty lot. But…if I had a witch on my side, a witch as great as you, I could be invincible.”
Cass shook his head as he stared down at me. “But your boyfriend couldn’t even do that job right.”
“What job?” I asked, the terrible feeling magnifying in my stomach. That was it, wasn’t it? Ryan had been using me this whole time. I was only a pawn in his daddy’s game.
“When I contacted Ryan about you, I told him how special you are,” Richard continued, “I told him you’d be a powerful woman on his arm and I would gladly accept both of you back into the family. At first, he didn’t want anything to do with me. He had his life, but…after that vampire attacked you in the elevator; he flew home to talk things over with me.”
What? “Ryan knew about the attack?” I couldn’t believe it. How could he have left at a time like that?
“Of course, he did. When a rival vampire attacks someone important to me, everyone around me knows about it. Ryan figured as long as he was dating you, you’d be a target for the other side. I told him if he brought you into the family, I’d protect you with everything I had.”
So it wasn’t Ryan’s idea. He had only wanted to be with me. But that didn’t change a thing. Maybe he wasn’t using me, but he sure as heck knew his father wanted to.
Richard tsked sadly. “But instead, he let you get away. What a fool. And to think for a short while I was proud that he was one of my children.”
A door opened and several people came in. Ryan stood in the middle of them, looking like he lost a fight with a dump truck. The others shoved him and he stumbled, landing hard in front of me. “Ryan,” I yelled, but whether I was calling out for him or cursing his name, even I wasn’t sure.
He sat there on his knees. The pitiful look on his face was almost heartbreaking. “I’m sorry, Maxie,” he spoke softly. “I never thought he’d do something like this. He gave me his word he’d leave you alone. No wonder why you hate me.” He glanced over at his father. “Vampires are vile, depraved creatures.”
Cass stiffened at those words and walked over to Ryan, pulling him up off his knees. “That is our father you’re talking about, brother. Show some respect.” He backhanded him, sending him flying into the wall behind them.
My eyes widened in terror. I was in trouble here. Vampires were as bad as everyone said they were. I was getting a front row seat to that point. Where were my powers? I needed to stop this before it went any further.
Ryan got up off the floor. The other vampires moved back to watch the show. He wiped his mouth, smearing the blood flowing there. “Just because he chose us to be monsters, doesn’t make him our father.”
Cass snarled, his rage practically shaking the already crumbling room apart. He lunged forward, his deadly sights set on Ryan.
Richard reached out and grabbed him, tossing him back as if he was nothing more than a harmless kitten. “Now, boys. Please. Stop fighting. We have more pressing issues to attend to.” Turning, he looked down at me, frustration in his eyes. “Like this little witch right here. I need her on my side,” he said, looking at Ryan. “You two can still be together. I won’t stop that. Just blood bind her and this can all be over. You two can live happily-ever-after as long as I have that witch willing to do whatever I ask.”
What? Now that just wasn’t right. I didn’t know exactly what blood bind meant, but I could guess. He wanted to turn me into a slave. Heck, no. I wasn’t going to play slave girl to his Jabba the Hutt. How dare he even think about it. I didn’t want to be robbed of who I was and I definitely didn’t want to spend the rest of my life as a vampire’s lapdog.
Blind panic took a hold of me as I fought the silver chains tying me down. They bit angrily into my wrists, crushing flesh, but I didn’t care, I had to get out of there. “No, Ryan. Please don’t do this,” I begged, yanking on the chains.
Ryan spit out the blood pooling in his mouth, then turned to his father. “I will not bind her to me. She doesn’t want anything to do with our messed up family. I won’t do that to her.”
Richard growled, baring long white fangs at him.
“It doesn’t matter what you do to me, I won’t subject her to that.” Ryan stepped past his father, coming to stand in front of me. “I’m so sorry, Maxie,” he said, moisture forming in his eyes. “If I had known this would happen, I would have stayed far away from you. I didn’t want you to get pulled into this.”
Richard rolled his eyes, yanking Ryan back away from me. “I told you he was a sentimental fool. Pathetic. I don’t know what I was thinking when I chose him.” He tossed Ryan back to the guards by the door, who grabbed onto him, holding him in place.
“I still need you blood bound, my dear,” Richard said to me. “Even if your boyfriend is too squeamish to do it.”
Cass stepped forward and looked into his father’s eyes. “I don’t know the meaning of squeamish. Never have,” he said with a shark’s grin.
Richard looked at him, contemplation in his eyes. With a glance in Ryan’s direction, he let a smile dance across his lips, revealing his fangs. “Then…she is yours.”
“No,” Ryan snarled, struggling against his captors, but there were too many of them, he couldn’t break free.
Cass turned to me, a cocky look on his young face. “Who says Ryan gets everything?” he cooed at me.
A whimper escaped my lips as I started to tremble, my body already beginning to feel the shock of what was to become of me. I knew there would be n
o kindness in Cass’ touch, only cold hard want and the encompassing need for blood.
He moved closer, unspent desire coming off him in waves.
“Don’t you dare,” Ryan called to him, his voice darker than I had ever heard it before. At that moment, I could see the true monster in him. “You do this, and I will kill you.”
Cass looked over at his brother and rolled his eyes. “Please. You have never killed anything in your whole existence.”
“There’s a first time for everything.”
Cass brushed off the threat and stepped in front of my chair, trailing a finger down my arm once again. Fire ignited my skin at his touch. He leaned close, his eyes burning bright. He looked at me like my father looked at steak and lobster.
“No,” I cried, terror coating every inch of my body. I couldn’t stop myself. That’s what you do when a predator has its sights set on you, you beg for your life. “Please don’t do this. I’ll help you. Just don’t bind me. Please.”
Richard looked down at me, shaking his head sadly. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. We could never really trust you. No. A witch as powerful as you has to be on a leash.”
Cass chuckled, leaning down towards me, his face inches from mine.
“I’m sorry, Maxie,” Ryan called from across the room, his voice cracking as he did. “I’ll find a way to fix this. I swear.”
Cass leaned closer, pressing into me. My body screamed in agony as his hands roamed freely. His hair tickled my face as he lifted my chin, his mouth going straight for my neck.
I closed my eyes, giving in to the despair. There was nothing I could do now. I had just found myself and now I would be lost forever, nothing more than a vampire’s stooge. A weapon to be used.
Maxie Duncan Box Set Page 16
