Trina M. Lee

by Alexa O'Brien Huntress Series Book 1-4 Box Set (Retail)

  “Why? Because of Harley? Is this really just business? Because I know there are many people who would love to fill his role. I know you Claire, you’ll take any opportunity to buy your way to the top.”

  She met Arys’s challenging glare with one equally furious. “It’s a good thing you’re pretty, Arys, because love has turned you into an idiot.”

  The tension in the room became unbearable. It was stifling, making each breath a struggle. I couldn’t shake the feeling that somebody was going to snap soon, quite possibly me.

  Arys nodded knowingly. “This is about Harley’s power in Vegas. You think handing his killers over to the rest of the blood ring will work in your favor. The two of you aren’t fit to fill his shoes. You’re delusional to think that will work.”

  Claire laughed openly at Arys, and I felt uneasy. This wasn’t going well at all. Something inside me insisted that this was all wrong. Why would these two leave Lena unwatched if she was the only pull they had over us? Even if they had someone else watching her, it just didn’t make sense. She was their leverage. Why not bring her? Something wasn’t adding up.

  “Arys, you have no power here. Our intent is none of your concern.” Maxwell spoke for the first time, drawing everyone’s attention to him. His voice was low and even, holding the same sense of mystery as the rest of him. He was packing serious power. It scared me.

  Maxwell seemed to stare right through Arys. His pupils dilated ever so slightly, and he flashed fang when he spoke. “You seem to be under the assumption that you have room to negotiate. We’re not here to bargain, merely to state the terms. Hand over the wolves.” To me he said, “Give yourself up willingly, and we don’t kill the people you care about.”

  I couldn’t speak. I could barely breathe. This wasn’t what I’d expected to hear.

  Claire looked spitefully at Arys, but she gestured to me. “Be grateful we’re only demanding something you already have in your possession. We could have come demanding virgins and children. You remember how much I like virgins.”

  A twisted grin crossed her face. With one brow raised, she smirked at Arys. A sudden flash of images moved behind my eyes like a strobe light as Arys’s memories swam up from my subconscious. I was battered with visuals of his past, the torturous virgin deaths Claire spoke of. The two of them together … and so much blood. I fought back a shriek, one hand going to my head. It disappeared as fast as it had come on, leaving me shaky and confused. For a moment I thought I might be sick.

  Jez’s hand was warm against my back as she steadied me. Claire chuckled wickedly, but Maxwell just watched me in eerie silence.

  If Arys was aware of what I’d just seen, he gave no indication. “Go back to Vegas and earn your place, you worthless pieces of shit.”

  “I was hoping you’d say something like that.” Maxwell stood, and power rose up quickly to engulf us.

  I was on my knees before I realized what was happening. A shrill, high-pitched sound pierced my skull, and I screamed as pain tore through me. Arys was on the floor next to me.

  Shaz grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet, but I slumped against him. He was unharmed by Maxwell’s psychic attack. It had been meant for Arys and me. Jez was by the exit, looking out onto the street. Claire and Maxwell were gone. The searing pain in my head began to subside, but still I gasped for breath like I’d been kicked in the stomach.

  Shaz did his best to brush off the staff as they converged on us. Shoving me toward Jez, he hauled Arys to his feet and pushed us all out the door. I tried so hard to get the words out, but they wouldn’t come. Lena. God, no.

  “Are you alright, Alexa?” Jez forced me to look at her as she dragged me along to the car.

  I shook my head. It felt like I’d been scorched from the inside out. I coughed, and my lungs ached when I spat blood. Collapsing in the back seat of my car, I was joined by Arys while Shaz and Jez climbed in the front. I handed the keys over the seat to Shaz, though it took far more effort than it should have.

  “Lena’s,” I gasped. “We have to go to Lena’s.” She and Kale were in trouble. I knew it. It was too late. We’d fucked up.

  “What the hell happened?” Shaz was in Alpha wolf mode. He spoke calmly, but the way he maneuvered the Charger into traffic revealed the urgency driving him. “What did he do to you two?”

  Arys sat up in his seat, his hands on his head. Blood trickled from his nose, evidence that he’d taken a serious power hit. “Power push. He shoved more into us than we could channel. Forced overload.”

  “Did you know he could do that? I mean, why would you walk into that?” Jez glanced back at us, her face a mask of worry.

  Arys and I exchanged a glance. Of course he’d known Maxwell could do it. I could do it, too. I’d done it to Harley.

  “Not everyone can do what he did.” Arys offered nothing else in the way of explanation.

  Adrenaline did little to ease the pain. Even as the initial blast slowly faded, the burning sensation remained. I grabbed the tissue box from the back window, taking a few and passing the rest to Arys. Another painful cough brought up more blood, and I groaned in agony.

  “This is not looking good.” Jez eyed me uncertainly, but I waved a hand dismissively.

  “I’ll be fine. It’s Lena we need to worry about.”

  “She’s as good as dead.” Self-blame shone in Arys’s eyes. “I should have done something, tried to bargain somehow.”

  “How? By handing Alexa and Shaz over to be used in a blood ring?” Jez shook her head and swore when Shaz cut off another driver. “They never gave you room to compromise.”

  Shaz sped through an amber light seconds before it turned red. Under any other circumstance, I would have had a fit over the way he drove my car. With Lena’s life on the line, I didn’t give a damn as long as he got us there.

  Arys slumped against the door and stared out the window. “They demanded something they knew I wouldn’t provide. This was their intent all along. Lena was just a pawn to them, a way to make us show up.”

  “What were we supposed to do? They would’ve taken Jez as a peace-offering. How fucked is that?” The sound of my own voice made my head throb.

  “Julian.” Shaz’s voice was low, but I heard him clearly. “We should have arranged to give them Julian.”

  “I can’t believe you just said that.” I stared at him in horror. “When did you become so ruthless?”

  Shaz met my gaze in the rearview mirror. The ice in his jade eyes scared me. “About five minutes ago, when I watched my mate take a hit that dropped her like a corpse. I’d gladly hand Julian over if that’s what it took to make this situation go away.”

  “You heard them,” Arys interjected. “They won’t be happy with one inferior werewolf. They want something valuable enough to buy their way into a position of power.”

  An exasperated sigh came from Jez. “Yep, woke up this evening and asked myself, what’s missing from my life? Oh, I know, a run-in with vampires that would love to use me as part of their blood fetish games. Now my life is complete.”

  The rest of the drive to Lena’s was suffered in strained silence. I tried to focus on pulling natural energy into me. From the breeze through my open window to the tree-filled park we passed, it wasn’t enough. The moon was washed out by the city. It offered me nothing.

  Arys reached across the seat to take my hand. The power of the undead washed over me, and I fell back against the seat with relief.

  Power like ours had a few drawbacks, including my mortal body. Arys was able to take more than I could. I was grateful that even as he recovered from the attack, he was able to breathe that healing energy into me.

  My apprehension grew when we turned on to Lena’s street. No amount of preparation would be enough for what we were about to see.

  “Nobody’s here,” Arys announced as we turned into the parking lot. “They were though.”

  Kale’s car sat in the visitor parking. I almost fell out of the car in my haste. On unsteady legs, I ra
n as fast as my weakened body would carry me to the lobby door.

  It was open, the lock broken. I abandoned the notion of using the elevator and took the stairs two at a time. Shaz and Jez easily overtook me, and I was forced to accept how badly I’d been injured. When Arys and I reached Lena’s suite, Shaz was standing in the doorway. I could hear Jez inside, her voice high and panicked.

  The look on Shaz’s face said it all. “It’s bad, Lex.”

  Though I’d expected that, his confirmation made my heart sink. I had to see for myself. The air inside the small apartment was stuffy and smelled of blood and death. Immediately, the harsh negativity of the energy inside crawled along my flesh as if seeking a way in. It hurt and my shield was weak against it. I was raw in places that had no physical location. The pain echoed like a scream inside my mind.

  Rounding the corner from the kitchen to the living room, I jerked to a halt when I took in the scene before me. Kale was on his knees on the floor, his head in his hands. Jez knelt beside him, but her emerald eyes were transfixed on Lena’s crumpled form across the room.

  She was dead. They’d torn her throat out after slowly bleeding her from every limb. It hadn’t been a quick death or even a recent one. She’d clearly been dead for a day already, long before tonight. A pool of old, black blood stained the carpet beneath her. Her limbs were bound. A gag in her mouth had muffled her screams. Her eyes were wide open, frozen in terror.

  I thought back to all the times I’d come here for guidance or a visit while she forced tea and baked goods on me. How could I have let this happen?

  Tears stung my eyes, crimson drops that blurred my vision. “I shouldn’t have left her alone. I should have been here.”

  “Lex, this isn’t your fault.” Shaz spoke softly.

  I shook my head, unable to speak. I never would have guessed that killing Harley would lead to this. It wasn’t fair. Lena had nothing to do with any of it. She was innocent, endangered by association with me. That knowledge weighed heavily, like the weight of the world on my shoulders.

  “They pulled one over on you. They killed her long before tonight.” Kale looked up at me with pain etched in the depths of his eyes. “One of us should have been here. I should have known.”

  He looked at Lena’s still form, and I saw my own self-blame reflected in his gaze. Kale thought this was his fault. He was wrong.

  “We didn’t know.” I was afraid to speak too loud. The faded essence of witch power lingered in the atmosphere, as if she should still be here.

  We could do nothing more. I stared into the living room for a long time, wishing I could do something. I couldn’t even close her eyes or cover her up. It was best to touch nothing.

  Only my loved ones presence kept me standing. I wanted to sink to my knees beside Lena and sob like a little girl. I felt like a worm on a hook. Sooner or later, we would have another confrontation with Maxwell and Claire. How many more people were going to die because of my actions?

  Jez pulled Kale to his feet. Misery clung to him, bitter in its intensity. I didn’t want to leave. It felt like I was abandoning Lena, leaving her there alone. I had no choice.

  When everyone had left the apartment, I used a dish towel to pick up the phone and punch in 911. The operator’s voice came on the line, asking what the emergency was. It wouldn’t take them long to dispatch when no response came. I left without looking back. Burying the pain deep inside, I concentrated on what I was going to do to Maxwell and his crew when I got the chance.

  “The cops are on their way,” I announced when I joined them in the lobby. “We should head back to The Kiss for now.”

  “I’ll go with Kale,” Jez swiped a hand through her tears.

  Arys was unusually quiet during the ride back to The Wicked Kiss. The vampire that never apologized for his actions was sitting in silence, lost in regret. I stared out the passenger window, watching in the side mirror as Kale’s black car navigated the city streets behind us, until a changing light left the others behind.

  It ate at me, the knowledge that Lena had been dead before I’d ever laid eyes on Maxwell and Claire. It made me sick. “We can’t let them get away with this, Arys. They have to suffer for what they did to Lena.”

  His voice was low and menacing. “They’ll be kissing sunrise when we’re done with them.”

  * * * *

  Sunrise was quickly approaching. I stood behind the bar, a bottle of whiskey raised to my lips. It did nothing to fill the hole I felt inside.

  The club was empty. Last call had been an hour ago. It had taken me that long to convince Jez, Shaz and Arys to go home after Kale disappeared into the night. I wasn’t ready to leave yet.

  I was in a dangerous frame of mind. I didn’t want to think or feel. I just wanted to be numb. The blood hunger carving out my insides promised relief if I would just give in. My weakened state made me an easy target, and I felt myself slipping.

  Just let go. The thought whispered through me. I had no strength to resist, not after what Maxwell had done to me. On every level, I was defeated. The emotional distress of Lena’s death lurked behind the wall I’d built around it. It too would crash down and swallow me.

  I don’t remember abandoning the liquor or leaving the bar. I moved automatically, following the deep-rooted vampire instinct that guided me to the back hall. Like every time the bloodlust took hold, I became a rabid mess, moving and acting but not thinking.

  I spun in a slow circle, feeling the energy in each of the occupied rooms. A noise drew me down the hall, the sound of a vampire and his blood whore lost in the throes of sexual gratification. Their heady tantric energy was sweet like candy as it rolled over me. A smile tugged at my lips.

  The door exploded off its hinges as I entered. Everything moved in choppy scenes, like it all happened too fast for me to follow. Blood was a thick, seductive aroma in the room. Ravenous and wild, I was on them before they could react.

  Dragging the vampire off his partner, I flung him aside. Without glancing his way, I held out a hand and drew the energy from him. With the other hand, I grabbed his human lover around the throat and pulled her close. She stank like prey, having been bitten previously. I tore into her viciously so that flesh tore and blood sprayed. She never even got a scream out first.

  The vampire tried to fight me off, but it was too late. I had a strong hold on him, and I pulled hard on it. As I sucked him dry of his power, I delighted in the hot crimson fount that ran over my tongue. Blood and power poured into me, and I fell into a state of euphoria. Nothing felt like this.

  Letting go and giving in to the bloodlust released me from the chains I’d inflicted upon myself. I drank down the scarlet nectar, delighting in the way it scratched the eternal itch inside me. The rush of blood and power, dancing together around and within me, was thrilling and more importantly, comforting.

  It wasn’t borrowed hunger anymore. I needed this. As much as I tried to deny that, to escape it, in that moment it was painfully and irrefutably clear. I wanted to savor the magic of falling headlong into the abyss of dark bliss, to feel like this always, free of pain, spiritual and physical … free from the emotional agony of Lena’s blood on my hands. None of that existed as long as that warm human blood passed my lips.

  The vampire fell to the floor, drained of everything he had to give. His body burst into dust before it hit the carpet. My victim’s heart had slowed, beating its last. I was breathless and exhilarated when I let her drop to the bed.

  There was a lot of blood. Such a waste. My fangs had torn a gaping wound in her throat, causing blood to spray and splatter. I licked a smear off the back of my hand and surveyed the mess. I was detached, unable to feel anything about it other than mild acceptance. It was what it was. I stared around at the mess I’d made, and I was at peace.

  Drunk on blood and power, I lost my balance and fell on my ass beside the bed. I giggled like a lunatic as I scrambled to my feet. I was on sensory overload, keenly aware of everything. The lights in the hall hu
mmed with an irritating high-pitched squeal. Anxiety rolled off the other vampires in the building as they wondered if I’d come for them next. The scarce traffic far beyond the back exit sounded much too close and far too loud.

  I was a disaster. I crashed into the wall on my way out of the room, catching myself before I went down again. Draining a human and a vampire simultaneously had overdosed me. Though I laughed to myself like it was the world’s best joke, I was going to have to come down sometime and face reality. But not yet.

  I returned to the bar, stopping to stare at the dark, empty interior. It felt so much bigger without the throngs of people littering every square foot. The remnants of their energy still hung on the air, though it was faint now. Catching a glimpse of my reflection in the mirror behind the bar, my jaw dropped.

  I was all fangs and bright blue eyes. Arys’s eyes. The spatters of blood that decorated my face and hair were deep scarlet in the dim lighting. I was drawn closer to my image, as horrified by what I saw as I was intrigued. I couldn’t keep seeing myself like this.

  Nothing human remained behind my eyes. The wicked light that glinted in my unnatural orbs was pure predator. Both the wolf and the vampire were present together, something I didn’t like to see. It scared me, usually. Intoxicated laughter spilled from me, and I turned away from the mirror before it could become manic sobs. My emotions were all over the place, several hitting me at once.

  With the damp bar towel I gave my face a halfhearted wipe. The scent of human blood clung to me. I felt Kale enter the building, and I jerked into action, frantically scrubbing at my face as if it would remove the evidence of what I’d done, but when I pictured him finding the mess I’d left in the back hall, I smiled.

  I felt him, every step he took leading him closer to me. Stepping out from behind the bar, I waited for him. Temptation called as his honey sweet energy rolled over me. Kale was a hunger that had never been sated.

  He appeared in the doorway, a strange look on his face. “Alexa?”