Rebel Bitten (Blood Alliance Book 4)

by Lexi C. Foss

  “I won’t.”

  He rolled off of me to draw me into his side, my head using his shoulder as a pillow. My bite mark on the opposite side hadn’t started to heal yet, pleasing me in the darkest sense. Mine.

  “I love you, Willow,” he whispered, his lips pressing into my forehead. “In case that wasn’t clear.”

  “It was,” I assured him, grinning. “I love you, too.”

  “Get some sleep,” he added. “I have a surprise coming for you tonight.”

  “A surprise?”

  “You’ll see, sweet pet,” he promised. “Now dream of me.”

  “I don’t need to dream,” I told him. “Not anymore.”

  Because he was my dream. I just hadn’t known it. And now that I had him, I’d never let him go.

  He was the light at the edge of my dreams, that little glimmer of hope I was too scared to believe in. So I ran to the nightmares instead, hardening my heart to prepare for the world around me.

  It was still a violent existence.

  Monsters continued to lurk in the shadows.

  And the world wouldn’t brighten overnight.

  But I had a beast in my corner now.

  My royal. My prince. My Ryder.

  My star in an otherwise dark night.

  I would forever reach for him.

  Just as I knew he would forever light my path.

  My eyes fell closed.

  No dreams.

  Only my reality.

  With my forever mate.

  I woke sometime later to the sensation of a finger drifting across my jaw. My eyes blinked open to find Ryder standing above me, dressed in an all-black suit. “Your surprise is here,” he whispered.

  “What?” I asked, my mind fuzzy from sleeping for what felt like too long. A glance out the windows showcased a pitch-black night with the city lights gleaming all around. I much preferred the view from his house, something about the isolation calling to me.

  “Go have a shower. Then you’ll understand,” he said softly, his thumb tracing my lower lip.

  “Are you joining me?”

  “Mmm, an offer I’d love to accept, but I have company to attend to.” He leaned down to kiss me softly before pressing his lips to my ear. “And so, my darling pet, do you.”

  I frowned, not understanding.

  Then my nose twitched.

  We had company in the suite.

  “Silas,” I recognized, smiling.

  “Yes, he’s here,” he replied, a secret twinkling in his gaze. “Go shower, pet. You’ll see.”

  I blamed a night of fucking and my groggy state for missing the obvious. Because it wasn’t until I’d showered, changed, and walked into the living room that I finally caught on to the surprise he had in store.

  She stood in the middle of the living room, her familiar red hair glistening beneath the lights, as she turned to greet me with a smile I felt to my very soul. “Rae!” I ran to her, throwing my arms around her neck and holding on for dear life. She broke the second we touched, her shoulders shaking as we embraced in a sea of silent tears, our misery turning to joyous disbelief.

  Silas watched from the side of the room, his own eyes holding a glimmer that said he understood.

  Because he did.

  We all did.

  It was that unspoken feeling between us, that knowledge that we would never see each other again after Blood Day. Yet we never actually said it. We refused to acknowledge it. But it was there, that dreaded feeling of our pending separation and subsequent deaths. And it came true the second they called my number, gave me a designation, and sent me off to the breeding camps to die.

  We couldn’t show our fear that day.

  We were forced to hide our tears.

  But we could shed them now.

  And we did. For each other. For our past. For our future.

  We were alive.

  Together.

  And immortal.

  It was the miracle we never could have anticipated, an impossibility that floored all of us now. Our tears turned to smiles, blossoming into laughs. And then the three of us were hugging, our trio flourishing with renewed friendship, underlined in hope.

  “I can’t believe you’re here,” Rae finally said, grabbing my cheeks as though to convince herself I was alive. “And a hybrid? What’s that like?”

  “Oh, no. I want to hear about being Kylan’s Erosita,” I said. Silas had told me all about Rae’s relationship with the infamous royal, but now I wanted to hear it from her.

  “I imagine it’s similar to being Ryder’s mate,” she replied, arching a brow. “That’s what he called you when I arrived this morning.”

  “Did he?” I asked, my cheeks warming. It was one thing for him to say it to me, another to refer to me in that manner to others.

  “His exact words were, ‘You. Upstairs. My mate wants to see you,’ ” Silas said, doing a horrible impersonation of Ryder’s voice. “Apparently, I’m also mandated to be here. He informed me I am to visit monthly at a minimum.”

  My lips twitched. “That sounds like Ryder.”

  “Edon wasn’t amused,” Silas replied.

  “Neither was Kylan,” Rae agreed.

  “ ‘My Raelyn has a name,’ ” Silas said, deepening his voice and giving it a slight accent.

  Rae frowned at him. “You do not have a future in impersonations.”

  He lifted a shoulder. “I’ll just keep being an Enforcer, then.”

  Rae and I both nodded, agreeing that was a much better path for him.

  “Oh, you need to meet Juliet,” Rae said.

  “Juliet?” I repeated.

  “Darius’s Erosita,” she replied. “He’s Jace’s sovereign. Sort of a scary, broody vampire—”

  “Says the female mated to Kylan,” Silas drawled.

  “But she’s really sweet,” Rae continued. “She’s a blood virgin.”

  “What’s a blood virgin?” I’d never heard of such a thing.

  “A human with a unique blood type. They’re raised at a completely separate school, then auctioned off to the wealthier vampires.” She pinched her lips to the side. “She’s a little different from us. Softer. More accepting?”

  “She was raised to be a fuck toy for vampires,” Silas muttered. “That had to be hell on her mind.”

  “We were raised to want to kill each other all in the name of immortality,” Rae reminded him flatly. “That was hell on our minds.”

  I snorted in agreement.

  Rae waved it off and began telling me more about Juliet—someone she’d apparently been spending a lot of time with—and her odd relationship with Darius. Unlike Ryder, Darius did share Juliet. At least her blood. Typically, with Jace.

  Hearing his name brought up memories of my turning, so I told Rae about what had happened.

  Then we lost ourselves in a conversation underlined in storytelling, all three of us bringing one another up to speed, sharing things we’d learned, and explaining how we’d ended up in certain places.

  By the end, I felt almost human again.

  Yet not.

  Because unlike when I was human, I actually smiled now.

  And laughed.

  And genuinely enjoyed myself.

  All because I tried to fight two vampires while dying from a wolf bite.

  Two vampires I ended up saving just last night.

  By taking down the Goddess herself.

  How’s that for a twist of events? I mused. So what the fuck comes next?

  I glanced at my phone, checking on Willow again, and smiled as she chatted animatedly with her friends.

  Kylan peered over my shoulder. “Stalker,” he muttered. But I caught the happiness in his gaze at seeing Rae.

  “Not all of us have telepathic links to our mates,” I said, putting away my phone.

  “Yes, it’s quite strange to me that you can’t speak to her. I was able to talk to Silas after giving him my blood nearly two months ago.”

  Edon growled at th
e mention of the incident, which I assumed was in relation to his mate being shot by a silver bullet and nearly dying as a result. Kylan’s blood had saved him.

  “I’ve never possessed telepathy as a gift,” I admitted. “I suppose the Almighty decided I was blessed enough in looks, skill, and other areas that I didn’t require the additional compensation.”

  Kylan smirked. “I’ve always adored your wit, even when improperly applied.”

  “There was nothing improper about it.” I lifted my ankle to place it over my opposite knee, then fixed my gaze on Jace, who sat at the head of the table. “I see you’re in charge again.”

  “It appears to be my role of late.” He didn’t sound very pleased about it. “But as I’m the only one who seems keen on deciding a path forward, I’ll be taking that job until someone else says otherwise.”

  I glanced at Kylan again. “You want to lead?”

  “Nope.” His lips popped on the p sound.

  “Neither do I,” I said conversationally. “That would leave Jace as next in line.”

  “It would,” he agreed. “Everyone else is too young.”

  “Age isn’t always the deciding factor in leadership,” Darius piped up.

  “Are you saying you want to lead, then?” I asked him.

  “Absolutely not,” he replied.

  “Then your comment is invalid. Anyone else?” I asked, glancing around the group of vampires and lycans.

  We had representation from all over the globe, our group barely fitting in this conference room meant for thirty.

  I was actually impressed to realize Jace had so many immortals on his side for this rebellion. Together we represented three of the now seventeen vampire regions—I no longer counted Lilith’s former territory—and three of the seventeen clan countries.

  That might not have seemed like good odds, but the age and experience in this room said otherwise.

  There were also several gray areas on the map of regions or clans Luka and Jace suspected might fall to our side in the case of an eventual war—one I’d accelerated by removing Lilith’s head.

  However, that had worked well in our favor because we were now in possession of every detail we could possibly desire about the existing council.

  We’d spent two hours today going through all her notes on each leader, flagging the alphas and royals she held the biggest contentions with as ones for us to pursue for potential recruitment.

  Now we all glanced around, agreeing without a vote on Jace’s clear leadership role. While I wouldn’t admit it out loud, I could quietly say, He was born for this.

  Because he was.

  He possessed an even-keeled approach, and his penchant for playing the political game was evident in how he’d handled himself the last century and a half. He was also genuinely well liked, even by those who were among Lilith’s strongest allies.

  “All right, leader,” I said to him. “What do we do now?”

  “We find that lab,” he replied, referring to the one Lilith had clearly been running experiments out of. “And we find Cam.”

  “Does he come equipped with a wizard gown and a wand?” Kylan asked. “Because we’ll need that for the next council meeting.”

  I smirked, amused. Because he had a point. All Jace kept harping on was finding Cam, as though he would magically appear with all the answers. And while I wanted to find him—especially after learning what Lilith had done to him—I didn’t see how that would solve any of our problems.

  “I was under her telepathic thrall for less than thirty minutes,” I said. “It gave me a taste of what Cam’s been going through. Trust me when I say he’s not going to be of sound mind when you locate him.”

  It had taken me hours to get rid of that odd sensation in my head. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like for someone suffering from that intrusion for over a century.

  Jace nodded, confirming he’d heard both comments. “We have two options. We can either preemptively inform the world of Lilith’s demise or we can wait until the council meeting. There are merits to both options. The former allows the others to come to grips with the reality before we see them. The latter gives us the element of surprise.”

  “Why are we even discussing attending?” I asked, slightly miffed by the very notion of giving in to Lilith’s political bullshit for one more minute of my life. “Do we consider ourselves part of her council? Or is this our council?”

  Jace’s icy blue eyes met mine, a challenge in his depths. “Do you feel we have enough allies in this room to take them down and provoke change?”

  “I think we have enough allies in this room to make them consider a discussion regarding change,” I countered.

  “It’s a fair consideration,” Ivan informed us. He sat beside Darius. We’d met briefly at the beginning of all this. Jace had introduced him as a political advisor of sorts. Apparently, he had a foreign policy background in the old world.

  “Go on,” Kylan said, clearly unconvinced. “Tell me how six leaders will fare against twenty-eight.”

  “That’s twenty percent of their council. But more importantly, we have three of the oldest vampires on our side. And there’s power in age, as I believe you’re quite familiar with,” Ivan returned.

  Damien gave me a look from across the table, one that said, I like him.

  I tilted my chin in agreement. The vampire had courage. I valued courage.

  “On the lycan side, we’re less top-heavy,” Luka said. “Logan and Edon are new alphas. Jolene has been out of the game for several centuries. And my word may sway some, but not all of them.” He steepled his long fingers together on the mahogany wood, leaning forward.

  “However,” he continued, “Lilith’s telepathic technology indicates she used lycans to create it, something I doubt my brethren will approve of. If we can find further proof of that, you’ll win over the lycan vote.”

  “Which brings us back to finding the lab,” Jace said. “And Cam.”

  Silence fell, everyone considering the next play.

  “Can we keep her death a secret until the next council meeting?” Darius finally asked. “Is that even feasible?”

  “We have her phone,” Damien replied. “We can continue to communicate on her behalf. I can also build something to resemble her voice, should someone call.”

  “A Lilith AI,” I said, shuddering.

  Damien’s lips twitched. “Is that the upgrade you had in mind?”

  “Do you want me to burn the building down?” I asked him.

  “You two should date,” Kylan interjected.

  “He’s not my type,” Damien said. “His pet, however…”

  I growled at him. “Careful.”

  “Can we postpone the council meeting?” Edon asked suddenly. “To give us more time to find the lab? You have her phone. Couldn’t you just send out a blast saying she needs to move it to next month? Say she’s dealing with Ryder and his bullshit here, or cleaning up his mess and working with him. Whatever’s believable.”

  “The two of us working together would not be believable,” I put in.

  “It would if Willow can play the role of Goddess,” Luna said from beside Edon. She’d remained quiet for most of the discussion, but she was very much aware.

  “Elaborate,” Jace said.

  “She’s blonde. Tall for a female. Similar figure. Put her in the right clothes, only show her from behind, keep her away from the crowds, and you have a glimpse of a Goddess.”

  Several of us gaped at the woman, including myself. Then I laughed. Because it was fucking brilliant in the most immoral and depraved sense. Which, of course, made me love it. “I can almost feel Lilith rolling over in her… well… the freezer. No grave yet. Or coffin.”

  “That might actually work,” Damien said, ignoring me. “I could capture some photos and leak them. We can have her in Ryder’s office when he goes to meet with others in the conference room. He’d just need to shut the blinds as he leaves to give her privacy—something Lili
th would demand. For a few weeks? We could totally pull this off.”

  “While Jace and I search for the labs in Chicago,” Darius said.

  “That also gives us time to reach out to a few of the members on Lilith’s unhappy list,” Jace added.

  “Let me do that,” Kylan said. “Everyone knows I’m dissatisfied with Lilith already. It won’t come as a shock when I call and say vile things about her.”

  Jace nodded. “Meanwhile, Luka, Logan, and Edon can start working on the clans closest to home. Find out what their pain points are. And, Jolene, it’s time to start reaching out to your older contacts who might be willing to help inspire a revolution within their clans earlier than expected.”

  “That’s why you turned out halfway decent,” I said, looking at Edon. “Jolene kept you in line.”

  Edon grunted at me, obviously still sour at my commanding his Enforcer up to my room earlier. Well, he’d just have to get over it. Willow needed her friends.

  And I needed her.

  I checked my phone again to find her no longer in the suite. Frowning, I searched the hallway to see it empty as well.

  “Does she know you stalk her?” Kylan asked, looking over my shoulder again.

  “Where’d they take her?” I demanded.

  Kylan nodded toward the glass doors to where the three of them were approaching. “I told Raelyn they might want to venture upstairs so Willow could agree to the asinine plan of impersonating the Goddess.”

  “It’s not asinine,” Luna fired back.

  “It’s brilliant,” Edon assured her.

  “I didn’t mean to imply it won’t work; it’s just a lot to ask of a recently turned hybrid who will have to mask her scent everywhere she goes in that stench Lilith referred to as a perfume.”

  “It really was horrible,” I agreed.

  “I know,” Kylan replied. “You would think she’d have chosen a more attractive scent. I mean, particularly as she essentially conquered the world.”

  “There’s just no accounting for taste,” I told him.

  “Sadly, true,” he murmured as the doors opened. Rae entered first, walking straight to Kylan to sit in the empty seat on the other side of him.

  Willow didn’t appear as certain, her surprise at finding herself in a room full of vampires and lycans palpable. I stood to offer her my chair, as there weren’t enough in the room, while Silas wandered over to stand behind Edon and Luna. His smirk told me he was communicating mentally with his triad, a trait I now envied.