Revenge: A Shifter Paranormal Romance

by Keira Blackwood

  “He’s a wolf,” my father said. “You need to let this go. You can’t mate a wolf.”

  It was the reaction I had expected, and it changed nothing.

  He continued, “You can’t keep running around in the middle of the night putting yourself at risk.”

  We’d already had this conversation. At least this time he didn’t tell me I had to leave.

  “Look what happened to Kaylee,” he said.

  I closed my eyes. I didn’t have to look to see her. The image of her pale skin, the marks on her neck—it was etched in my mind.

  “I didn’t make her leave,” I said, though his words stung. More than him, I was trying to convince myself.

  “I don’t know what to do with you,” my father said, and walked away.

  I watched him go, then Axel appeared in the doorway.

  Part of me wanted to apologize for my father. Part of me wanted to ask if he’d heard. Instead, we stood, me in the dark, him silhouetted by the light in the hall, without words.

  How could I explain everything that I felt? How could I explain my need to stay by my sister’s side? How could I put into words the connection I felt to him? The feeling he gave me, the certainty in myself, in who I was? How could I tell him what I needed?

  Axel entered the room, his steps slow and sure. There was strength in his stride, and understanding in his eyes. He clasped my face in his palms and kissed my forehead.

  “I should go,” he said, just loud enough for me to hear.

  I glanced back at my sister, conflicted.

  “I know,” Axel said, “you need to stay.”

  And with that, he turned to go. I watched, a million unsaid confessions spinning through my head, but I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t find the words, and then he was gone.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Axel

  It fucking killed me to see her like that. I would have given anything to take that away, make it me that hurt instead of Penny. I couldn’t ask her to come with me. I wouldn’t. She needed to be with her sister. It was clear in the way she kept her body turned toward Kaylee, kept her eyes glued to the bed.

  It wasn’t my place to stay, even though it hurt to leave. I wanted to be there for Penny, but I wasn’t welcome in that house. And there was still work to be done.

  I backtracked through the streets we had traveled, searching for the silver Charger. It wasn’t at the hospital, or the house. I found it at the cemetery. As soon the silver metal caught my eye, I felt the rise of something all too familiar. Anger boiled, an old friend I no longer cared to suppress.

  Empty seats, engine cold—the bastard had been here a while. Dangerous, but human, I couldn’t risk exposing my shift. I didn’t need my fangs for him anyway. I had my fists. And I would make him regret what he had done.

  This time, I didn’t hide in the shadows. This time, I wasn’t there to watch. I strode straight to the mausoleum, threw open the door, and found exactly what I was looking for.

  His shoulders jolted before he whirled around, coat tails whipping behind him. Sunglasses lodged in the center of dark hair, Trench’s wide eyes were as bright as the moon.

  Surprise morphed into confusion. Recognition, but not fear. That was a mistake on his part. He should have been very fucking afraid.

  “Mr. Barnes? The not-a-reporter, right?” he asked. “What are you doing here?”

  “Hunting for you.”

  For every step I took forward, he took one back. His heart raced, eyes wide with realization—he’d been caught.

  “Wait, wait,” he said. “There must be some mistake.”

  With a slip of a heel, he was on his ass. The bastard looked up at me, hands and feet scrambling.

  “Oh, there was,” I said. “You shouldn’t have touched the girl.”

  “Whoa, whoa,” he said. “I never touched any girl. Please. You’ve got the wrong guy.”

  His pulse, his pupils, his scent—he was terrified, but not lying. As a natural born lie detector, I was sure.

  “Black hair,” I said. “Pretty.”

  “Really,” he said, voice cracking, “I swear I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  I had been so sure.

  “You were there,” I said.

  “Where?” Was it possible that he was that good of a liar?

  “At the morgue.”

  “I stopped by earlier to pick up my paycheck,” he said. “But I didn’t see any girl.”

  I studied him. The stink of urine filled the small space. No, he wasn’t lying.

  I took a step back, seeing the reflection on his glazed eyes. I saw what he saw—I had become what I’d spent so long running from. I’d become what I had accused him of being—a monster.

  “She was on your table, barely breathing,” I said.

  His wide eyes opened further.

  It wasn’t him, but I refused to believe he’d seen nothing. So I asked, “What did you see?”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Penny

  Like a shoelace, Austin’s limbs wound around Kaylee as they both slept. If she so much as breathed funny, he had made sure that he would be the first to know. She was lucky in that way. Their love was easy, as natural as, well, breathing.

  When she woke, I would be here, too. I sat beside the bed, in the hard, wooden desk chair that she’d had in her room since she was little. It was the seat where she used to draw, every day as long as I could remember. First it had been scribbles that she had needed to explain to me. Like when she’d made three squiggly lines that somehow were meant to be a turtle. Then it had been fairies and unicorns. By then, the drawings spoke for themselves. I still remember the pink and purple glitter that had to be on everything. Even all of these years later, there was probably a few rogue flecks in the nooks and crannies of the hardwood.

  It was difficult to just sit. It was hard not to do something, anything, to help. Part of me wished I was with Axel, that I could be out there catching the degenerate that had hurt my sister. The rest of me felt guilty for even considering it.

  I watched the subtle rise and fall of the purple comforter, and thanked the stars that she still breathed. It should have been me. I was out every night. It should have been me that was attacked. I wished I could have said the right thing. Whatever that was. If only I had convinced Kaylee to stay home. I should have tried harder, figured out the words.

  Time ticked by, and all I had to show for it was regret. Replaying the last conversation I had shared with my sister. And worse, reliving the night that Danny had died.

  I was toxic, harmful to those closest to me. More than ever, I understood Axel. Traveling across the country, away from everything and everyone, held appeal. If I was too far to follow, Kaylee would be safe. She’d be happy here, like she was meant to be, if she didn’t need to worry about me.

  A pained sound broke the silence in the room. At the edge of my seat, I took Kaylee’s hand. Her brows furrowed, and her eyes squeezed tight before she finally woke.

  “What, where…” her voice was soft, broken.

  “I’m here,” I whispered. “You’re okay.”

  Kaylee released my hand and touched her neck, where two puncture wounds healed slower than they should have. It was like a bite from a zombie, yet different, cleaner.

  “I thought I was dead,” she said, as she inched upright from beneath Austin’s arm. He slept soundly, and didn’t move.

  “I’m sure,” I said. “You weren’t far from it. When we found you there on the table, I thought that piece-of…” I choked back the tears that threatened to fall. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

  “Yeah,” she said. “Thanks.”

  “Why were you there?” I asked. “I know you were looking for me, but why there? Did you find something I missed?” How had she known it was the coroner before I did? After all of this time, it was my sister who had gotten close to figuring this whole thing out. “How is he turning them? Did you see him?”

  She looked at me with confusion. It
was too much too fast, she’d only just woken.

  “The blond-haired zombie,” I said. “The one that murdered our brother.”

  “No,” Kaylee said, and put her hand to her forehead. “No zombies.”

  “Did the doctor say anything? Did he tell you why he drained your blood? Did he tell you anything that explains his connection to those monsters?”

  “What?” She was still too pale, and more confused than ever.

  “The coroner,” I said. “Tall guy, black hair, stupid sunglasses. We followed him to you. He did this to you. Don’t you remember?”

  “It wasn’t a man,” she said.

  “What?” It was my turn to stare at her in confusion and disbelief.

  “I was looking for you,” she said, then cleared her throat. “And when I heard this rustling behind the clinic, I went to check it out.”

  My first thought was to tell her that she shouldn’t have checked anything out, that she should have been home. But that wouldn’t help anything, not now. So I just listened.

  “There was a woman on the ground, digging through the trash,” she said. “I wasn’t sure what to do. Her clothes were nice, but dirty. Her hair was a mess. When I got close, she looked at me. And I knew her.”

  “Who was it?” I asked.

  “Amber Maine,” she said. “The girl who buys strawberry ice-cream at the shop every Thursday. Or at least it kind of was her. One of her eyes was yellow, and she didn’t seem to recognize me. She had this crazed look, so I backed away.”

  One eye? Did that mean she wasn’t yet completely turned? I hadn’t encountered any zombies like that.

  “Did she attack?” I asked.

  “I thought she would,” Kaylee said. “But she didn’t. She just stared at me. Her lips moved like she might say something, but she didn’t.”

  That, too, was interesting. I’d never encountered a zombie that didn’t attack. We were getting closer to the truth. Hopefully that meant we were closer to the thing that killed Danny.

  “That’s when she grabbed me,” Kaylee said.

  “Amber?” I asked.

  “No, the woman that did this,” she said, touching her neck. “The vampire.”

  Vampire. I didn’t know what to think of that. Could it really be true? The marks certainly looked like it. Then it hit me. What was most important wasn’t whether or not this woman was really a vampire, but that Axel was out there right then hunting down the wrong man, completely unaware of the real threat.

  I jumped up from my seat. I had to find him. I had to warn him.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Axel

  Just like before, chemical fumes burned my nose. The morgue was no place for a wolf shifter. I flipped the switch, but no lights came on. Still, my night vision was better than any human’s. If she thought killing the power would offer her an advantage, she was wrong.

  A black blur crossed the shadows. There was no question—I wasn’t alone.

  “The moment you stepped up to the desk, I knew it would come to this.” The sweet, southern accent was gone, replaced by something cold and foreign.

  Ruby stepped into view. She looked like she’d stepped straight out of the fifties, with her big skirt and her hair up. For all I knew, maybe she had. A strange power radiated off of her—the one-time receptionist, nightshift nurse, and something sinister I had yet to discover.

  Every hair stood on end, instinct telling me that this predator was cunning.

  “What are you?” I asked.

  “You don’t know?” she asked, raising a brow. “I’ve certainly encountered your kind before. Shifter young are especially sweet.” A thick tongue emerged from her mouth and licked slowly over her lower, then upper lip. A shiver snaked down my spine.

  “What are you?” I growled.

  “I’m eternal night,” Ruby said with a wide smile. Sharp fangs stood out in her mouth of bleach-white teeth. They hadn’t been there before. “Blood reaper. Damned and undead.”

  I said nothing.

  She furrowed her brows. “Vampire, dummy.”

  “Uh huh,” I said, questioning what seemed obvious, right before my eyes. The wounds on Kaylee’s neck, the undeniably realistic canines, a town full of zombies—I was way outside of what I’d thought was reality.

  “So what happens next is up to you,” she said. “You can go on your way, and never return. Or you can die.”

  It was so matter-of-fact. She was completely confident that I was no threat to her. How could she be so certain? I wasn’t sure that I wanted to know.

  I listened for a pulse. She had none. Not faint, not erratic, completely void of life. How had I not noticed that before?

  “And the town?” I asked. “What happens if I walk away?”

  “Oh, it’s been delightful here,” she said. “And will continue to be no matter whether you choose to throw your life away or not. I’ll remain until I’m bored.”

  “Doing what?” I spat. “Feeding off of defenseless girls?”

  “Ohhhhhhhhh,” she said, “I get it. You care about the birds for some reason. No need to worry, I’ll drain them slowly, one by one. But they’ll live, for now.”

  My knuckles ached with the tightness of my fists. I couldn’t let her do this. No way could I let this thing hunt down Penny and the ones she loved. This ended tonight.

  The sweet scent of morning dew hit me before I heard her footsteps. Penny was here.

  “The zombies,” Penny said, voice carrying down the stairs and echoing in the cold, open darkness. “Tell me how you made them. Tell me where I can find the one with a wide, crooked nose.”

  “That’s why you care,” Ruby said to me. “Your girlfriend’s a bird. How delicious.”

  Penny reached the bottom of the steps. I kept myself between the two, my eyes trained on the threat.

  “Where is he?” Penny’s voice was tight, her anger clear.

  “There’s no such thing as zombies, child.” The vampire smiled, amusement showing through every word. “They’re called thrall. They’re my playthings. I make them because it amuses me. And I don’t care where they go.”

  “Blond hair, big arms, bigger gut. Yellow fucking eyes.”

  “Oh, Neil,” the vampire said. “He’s gone. Dead, and not just with one foot in the grave like before.”

  “No,” Penny said, “that can’t be.” Sadness tainted disbelief. I could feel the tears well without seeing. I could feel the pain, the heartbreak, and it killed me.

  I turned to console her. That was a mistake.

  Cold fingers clamped down on my throat, crushing, lifting me up into the air.

  “I’ve changed my mind,” the vampire said. “No one leaves.”

  I fought to pull the tightening vice from my neck, kicked my legs toward death’s flowing skirt.

  Penny’s eyes blazed. Her muscles tensed just before she charged—not away to safety, but straight at us.

  With a flick of the wrist, Ruby threw Penny across the room. Without laying a finger on her, the witch had tossed her, like she was insignificant, like she had any right. I’d thought I’d been angry before, at the cemetery. It was nothing compared to the fear, the frustration, the fury within me as I saw Penny slide across the cement floor.

  That was it. I broke. The calm that I’d worked for, the distance I’d kept from everyone and everything—it was all gone. There was only this fight. There was only Penny.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Penny

  Beneath panting and choking, beneath the sound of my pounding heart, grew something feral. That sound was both terrifying and hopeful.

  Snap. Crack.

  The breaking of bones had always meant damage to me, loss of control, that the enemy had the upper hand. But that wasn’t the case for Axel. With Axel, it meant the wolf was coming. It meant survival.

  In a violent torrent, fur erupted, bones reshaped, and fangs grew long. It wasn’t graceful. It was raw, real, exposed.

  His neck grew thick as his human form wa
s left behind for the strength of the wolf. Clothing fell away, then so did Axel. He twisted and writhed in her grasp one moment. The next, he was free.

  His legs grew short, his ears tall. The shift was nearly complete when the mother of zombies dove over him. As if in slow motion, I saw the sharp points of her fangs, the hunger in her eyes, which shone red as blood. But I wasn’t fast enough to stop it.

  “Axel!” I cried as I watched fangs tear into his back. My feet were moving beneath me, with the dagger held tight in my fist. I couldn’t blink, couldn’t think.

  Flashes of my brother’s final moments haunted me. The blood. The vicious torrent of the attack. The end in such little time. Not again.

  With all my weight, all my strength behind it, I shoved the blade between rib bones. The vampire spun, ripping the hilt from my fist. The blade remained lodged in her back, while her attention shifted to me. Mission accomplished. Axel bled, but he was still standing.

  “That hurt,” the vampire said, smile gone from her smooth, round, terrifying face.

  “Good,” I replied. “That was the point—”

  Like fireworks tossed in flames, the side of my face crunched from pressure, and burst in white-hot fire. My neck twisted in the momentum of her fist, my body after. I crumpled to the floor like a rag doll. Sounds dulled to distant growls, and ripping, tearing.

  I shook my head, righting my swirled vision, fighting the intense throb behind my eyes. I looked toward the motion, to the dark shape of a wolf, tearing into the legs of the red-eyed beast.

  Down to hands and knees, the vampire collapsed with a thud.

  I rose on unsteady feet, and ripped the blade from her back. She hissed and turned her face to me. I saw the zombie that had killed Danny in that moment. This was his maker, the one responsible for everything. I’d never killed a vampire before, didn’t know what it would take, but I had all that I needed to do it—hatred, anger, and a knife.