Darker (Alexa O'Brien Huntress Book 6)

by Trina M. Lee

  “I hate to say it, but I’m kind of glad it was you and not me,” Arys admitted with a grin. “I’ve entertained the thought of sinking fangs into him more than once. How bad does it hurt?”

  I had to pull out the tissue Jez had given me and dab the blood from my nose again. “Like a bitch.”

  Then, I noticed that I hadn’t detected the slightest thought from him since his arrival. I stared at him, trying to pull something from him. Nothing.

  “I can hear the thoughts of most of the people in here, but I can’t hear yours.”

  “That’s the plan. I keep my thoughts guarded. Many things can read minds, and I take no chances. You should do the same. It’s no different than when you close me out of your mind. Same idea.”

  “Why are we not superheroes with abilities like this?” I joked. “Seems to me, we’d be pretty close to unstoppable.”

  Arys dropped his gaze, but not before I saw the worry flash through his eyes. Taking the tissue from me, he gently dabbed the blood that dripped from my nose. Maybe it was a very good thing that I couldn’t hear his thoughts. I didn’t think I wanted to know what was going on in his head right then.

  “Some people think we are just about unstoppable. They may be right.” He pulled me into his arms and kissed my forehead. Reaching to touch me metaphysically, I felt him shudder in response to what he felt thundering inside me. “You smell like wolf, but you feel like him. That fucking useless angel.”

  I didn’t need to be inside Arys’s head to know he would never stop blaming himself for condemning me to a future I now dreaded with every part of me. I needed him to know and to understand that it wasn’t his fault. He had to accept it. Until he did, he would forever hold us both hostage to his misery.

  A couple sat a few tables away, the only other people in the darkened corner. They were both human. Their hands were clasped across the table. Very clearly, I heard him wonder if she were really in love with the vampire she’d been shacking up with here or if she was under his influence. She stared at their hands and wondered why he had to make this so difficult; couldn’t he just accept her choice?

  She was breaking up with him, and I had to listen to her selfish thoughts as she did so. He was human. What could he offer her that would compare to the promise of eternity? Maybe some people were happy to settle for a “normal” life, but she had the chance to discover something extraordinary. Her mind was made up.

  “You’re making a huge mistake,” I whispered beneath my breath. I wanted to grab her, to shake her and tell her she didn’t know what she was getting into. Get out while you still can.

  Arys followed my gaze to the couple. “Is something wrong?”

  The couple’s voices became just two of many as the barrage of thoughts started up again. The pain in my head worsened, and I felt like I couldn’t breathe.

  “I can’t listen to this anymore.” A hand to my head, I squeezed my eyes shut, but it only served to increase the volume. “Can we talk outside?”

  “Of course.”

  With a hand on my lower back, he steered me toward the exit. The noise inside my head grew to a deafening crescendo. Sharp knives of pain pierced my skull. A storm of thoughts assaulted me, but one voice stood out above the rest. That one voice I knew well.

  I felt the touch of his energy before I saw him. A honey sweet essence that called to the undying hunger I would always possess for him. We never reached the door. Arys stopped dead beside me, and I looked up to find Kale standing there, his gorgeous eyes fixed upon me.

  For a moment none of us moved. It wasn’t hard to tell that Kale wasn’t himself. Madness caused his brown and blue eyes to glitter dangerously. The cacophony of noise fell away once Kale captured my full attention. He took one step toward me, and Arys snapped.

  Arys was a blur of speed as he crossed the distance. Without hesitation, he threw a punch. It connected with Kale’s jaw, and he stumbled back a few steps. Rubbing his chin, Kale turned to Arys with a malicious smile.

  “I’m sure you can do better than that,” he taunted, holding up both hands in invitation.

  “Arys, don’t!”

  My shout went unheeded. Arys grabbed the other vampire by his collar and threw him. Kale crashed into a table and went down along with those seated at it. They had barely scrambled out of the way before Arys was there, dragging Kale to his feet.

  “That’s right.” Kale spat blood. His grin was still in place. “I didn’t play so nice with your girl last time. Do what you’ve gotta do.”

  “I should fucking kill you,” Arys snarled. “She trusted you and you violated her. Like just another victim.”

  Kale’s gaze passed over me. I saw no sign of the Kale I’d known, only the monster that had brutally tried to kill me in the FPA basement. It was like a knife to my heart. Sure, he’d been walking on the edge of sanity for a long time. I’d been ignorant enough to believe he wouldn’t fall over into the abyss of bloodlust driven madness.

  Staring into Arys’s angry eyes, Kale laughed. “She is just another victim. Stop pretending you don’t kill her yourself in your mind, every time you taste the power in her blood.”

  Kale might not have known it, but he was cutting too near the bone for Arys. Without warning, Arys lashed out with a right hook that opened up a cut above Kale’s eye. I stood there knowing I had to do something, uncertain what that should be.

  I threw my hands up, intending to separate them. Falon’s power dominated my own, and instead of a simple separation, I threw them hard in opposite directions. I caught Jez’s eye across the room. She shook her head and shrugged. Apparently, Arys wasn’t the only one who thought Kale deserved an ass kicking.

  Arys recovered fast. He was at my side, ready to do more damage. I grabbed his arm and forced him to look at me.

  “Please don’t do this,” I pleaded.

  “I can’t let him get away with what he did to you.”

  Kale got up from where he’d fallen among the crowd gathered around the dance floor. Brushing himself off, he gave his short dark locks a toss and slowly made his way back for more. He paid Arys no mind; his gaze was on me.

  I stepped between them with my hands up in surrender. “Just stop, Kale. Ok? It doesn’t have to be like this.”

  “Doesn’t it?” He kept coming. “You heard the man. He needs to defend your honor. Can’t blame him for that.”

  “We can talk about this. Nobody has to get hurt.” Try as I might to preach peace to them, it was incredibly difficult with the skull-bashing agony that threatened to bring me down.

  Kale cocked his head to the side, studying me. “What happened, Alexa? Did you seduce one of the angels, too?”

  My temper flared at the cheap shot. I almost blasted him with Falon’s power but caught myself before I made a fatal mistake. Shaking with the effort it took to hold back, I sought out Willow’s watchful gaze.

  He stood close without getting involved. With his arms crossed and a casual stance, he gave the impression that he didn’t care what happened either way. A quick nod provided the reassurance I needed. This wasn’t his fight, but he wouldn’t let me set the place ablaze.

  “This isn’t you, Kale. Nothing you say can hurt me. I know you’re better than this.”

  “Are you still naive enough to think that? Haven’t you been paying attention? This is what I am.”

  Kale’s words echoed in my ears. Kale, who had once been wolf for such a short time, was now this monster, hell bent on destroying someone he once claimed to love. That would one day be me, too. It was too much for me to take.

  “It’s not always what you were,” I said, the words tumbling out on their accord. “You were like me once. Wolf.” Surprise flashed through his eyes at my words, so I bravely continued. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  The shock was gone from his face as quickly as it had come. The twisted smile was back in place. “I suppose that was bound to come out eventually. Better be careful, Alexa. Nobody likes a snoop.”

  “Why
didn’t you tell me?” I repeated. Arys stood beside me, frowning at this latest revelation.

  “You didn’t need to know.” Kale came closer, each step an unspoken promise.

  “Why, goddammit?” My temper surged, and my hands burst into flames. It didn’t hurt, but it scared the shit out of me.

  Willow waved a hand from where he stood, and the flames went out. I’d have to be grateful later. Right then, it was Kale that mattered.

  We faced off like the enemies we were never meant to be. Kale’s expression was carefully vacant, impossible to read. “Because it doesn’t matter. That time of my life was short. Almost non-existent compared to my years as a vampire. It meant nothing.”

  “It means something to me. You could have told me I’d lose the wolf. You could have…” I fell silent, realizing I’d been about to say you could have stopped me. I was distinctly aware of the tension and anger thrumming through Arys.

  “Could have what?” Kale snapped. “Could have warned you? It wouldn’t have made a difference. Look at you. Your choices are driven by your lust for power.”

  I had an anguished urge to hurt him the way he was hurting me. The loss of my wolf was a devastating fate. I merely had the inclination to strike him, and it happened without having to lift a finger. The power went out from me in a rush that left me breathless. It knocked Kale off his feet, flipping him head over heels. I gasped. I didn’t mean to do it.

  “I see how it is,” he said, getting to his feet with a shake of his head. “You have regrets. Does it really make you feel better to take it out on me? I can help if you like.” He moved fast. Pressing close enough to touch, Kale made a show of inhaling my scent. “I promise, Alexa, I’m going to finish what I started with you.”

  My bravado fled. Kale was staring at me as if I were prey. With the memory of what he’d done to me so fresh, I froze in fear. I’d trusted him; in some way, I’d even loved him. Until he’d made me a victim, that is, and then everything had changed.

  Arys was done waiting. His energy turned scalding hot to match his hate-filled rage. When he came at Kale this time, he didn’t let up. Kale did his best to defend himself, but after several weeks of being locked up, he had weakened. On a good day, he wouldn’t have been a match for Arys. On a bad day, he quickly got his ass kicked.

  I watched in horror as Arys threw a flurry of punches that all found their mark. A number of shots to the face had Kale bruised and bloody. A well-timed kick knocked him down. Several patrons turned their attention to the fight, many of them looking on in surprise as a vampire most of them knew well took a beating.

  It all happened so fast. Judging by Arys’s fierce aggression, he had wanted to do this for longer than the past few days.

  “You’re never going to touch her again.” Arys doubled his attack by throwing power at Kale along with every punch.

  “That’s enough, Arys,” I cried. My high-running emotions fed the foreign power inside me.

  “There’s only one way to guarantee that.” Kale’s smile had faded.

  He kept on rising, inviting every hit he took. The deranged glint in his eyes, wild and ruthless showed his total abandon. He wanted this.

  Through the insanity of voices in my head, his stood out above the rest. Do it, you bastard. Save her from me. Do what she couldn’t. As mind fucked as he was by the blood hunger, Kale still had enough coherency for that thought. It spurred me into action.

  I targeted Arys without a second thought. The force drove me to my knees. A bright, blinding light exploded behind my eyes, tearing a shriek from me. I could project Falon’s power, but I couldn’t control it. It was a force bigger than I was, one that I was pretty sure could kill me.

  It slammed into Arys. Not only did it stop him from throwing another hit, it lifted him right off his feet and pinned him against the ceiling. I panicked, unable to manipulate the force commanding me. Thinking fast, Arys slapped me with a psi ball the size of a basketball. I pitched ass over elbows, coming to a stop against Willow, who hauled me to my feet.

  He eased Arys back to the floor before turning to me. “You should get out of here, away from the crowd.”

  “I can’t leave them like this.” My vision swam, and I reached out to grab Willow for support but missed entirely. I slid to the floor, vaguely aware of the sticky residue of a spilled drink beneath me. My temperature rose. My palms grew sweaty, and I gasped for a breath that didn’t smell like humans, blood and sex.

  I watched in a dizzy haze as Arys grabbed Kale by the collar and jerked him close. His lips moved, but I couldn’t hear what he said. The noise inside my head was too loud. A spark of gold-tinted blue lit up the place. Arys drew on the power we shared, pulling energy from me. It hit Kale at point blank range. He flipped over the bar and crashed into the bottles stacked on the back shelves. A shower of broken glass and liquor rained down on his motionless form. I held my breath, waiting. He didn’t get up, but I suspected he wouldn’t be down for long. There were only a few ways to kill a vampire. A hell of a beating wasn’t one of them.

  “Come on, Alexa. We have to get you out of here,” Willow insisted.

  Arms slipped around me, but it wasn’t Willow dragging me to my feet this time. I knew that touch well. Arys guided me outside as I struggled to be free of him. After what I’d just seen him do, I was enraged, or I would be as soon as my head cleared.

  “Let me go,” I snarled, shoving him away.

  As I got further away from the nightclub, the voices in my head disappeared. Though I was lightheaded, the dizziness faded. I walked to the far end of the parking lot, near the rear door and the back of the building. When I could no longer hear a single thought but my own, I reached down and placed both hands on the ground.

  I tried to push the excess energy into the earth, to ground myself and refocus the power in my core. However, the earth refused to accept my offering. The fallen angel’s power was rejected, pushed back to me like an unwanted gift.

  “Why, goddammit?” I shouted to no one in particular.

  Arys stood behind me, waiting. I rose and turned to pin him with a fiery glare. With hands clenched at my sides, I reminded myself that I wanted to give him a verbal beating, not set him on fire.

  “How could you do that to Kale?” My voice wavered as I struggled to speak calmly.

  “Alexa, open your eyes, and see that son of a bitch for what he really is,” Arys shouted. “What you should be asking is how he could do that to you. He’s a killer. You’re blind to it. I don’t understand how you can still see him as anything else.”

  I was deep in denial, and I knew it. I sure as hell wasn’t going to admit it though. Chewing my lip anxiously, I studied Arys. His hands were balled into fists, and he looked ready to tear someone limb from limb.

  “I don’t need you to tell me how unhealthy my attachment to Kale is,” I said. “Don’t think I don’t know that.”

  “He violated you. What kind of man would I be if I didn’t do something about that?” Arys held his hands up in a gesture of helplessness.

  I shoved a lock of hair back from my face. The power dancing in my fingertips prickled along my scalp, and I shuddered. I shook my head sadly. “You’ve done enough. I won’t let you kill him.”

  “You think you can stop me?”

  There it was, the challenge. One of us was always bound to issue it with little regard for the consequences.

  “I think I’ll damn well try. Let it go, Arys.”

  “Have you lost your mind?” He raged, raising his hands to the sky. Thunder boomed overhead, and the ground rumbled beneath our feet. “You attacked me in there. With power you can’t control. You’re the one out of line here, Alexa.”

  “So killing him will make everything ok? I’ve seen enough people around me die lately. Why must you contribute to it? Will it really make you feel that much better?”

  “It might.”

  We stared at one another, the power of our anger spilling hot energy into the atmosphere. There was no rig
ht and wrong here. We were both entitled to what we felt, and no matter how I wished we could reach an understanding, I knew it would never happen.

  It wasn’t just Kale. It was everything: our differences over Shya, my safety and my inevitable fate as a vampire. Arys and I had never seen eye to eye. According to twin flame lore, we never would. I suddenly felt deflated, hopeless. I heard myself say something that I never thought would pass my lips.

  “I don’t think I can do this anymore.”

  “What?” Arys’s gaze grew shadowed as he hid what was going on inside him. “What are you saying?”

  “I don’t know.” A surge of emotion choked off my reply. What the hell was I doing? “I can’t handle the constant conflict anymore. It will keep getting worse; it does every time. At what point does it destroy us?”

  “Don’t talk like that,” he admonished with a scowl. “It’s not like we can escape each other.”

  I forced myself to look at him, really look at him. He was a reflection of me in so many ways. Where those similarities ended, a great divide began. I loved him with a desperation that could only lead to pain. What we were, it wasn’t natural. I didn’t want him to suffer any more than necessary. We’d already suffered so much torment.

  “No, maybe we can’t. That doesn’t mean we have to be together.”

  I hated myself when his guard fell and pain flashed through his blue eyes. I kept telling myself this was for the best. It would save our sanity and maybe even our lives.

  “I can’t believe you’re saying this. We share power, a purpose. You can’t turn your back on that.”

  “I’m not. I just think we need some time apart. I need some time.” A sob caught in my throat. God, I was really doing this. “My pack kicked me out tonight, and it doesn’t even matter because I’m going to lose my wolf. With Shaz gone, it’s so much harder to resist your darkness. It grows in me, Arys. Every night it grows.”

  He crossed the distance I’d put between us and grabbed my arms. He shook me in frustration, forcing me to look up into his eyes. “That will never stop. We need each other, Alexa. How can you think otherwise? I love you.”