Trina M. Lee

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

  “What’s wrong, Alexa?” He met my eyes briefly before turning his attention back to the road. “Is it Shya? You don’t have to worry about him. Keep your distance, don’t get tricked into anything, and it will be fine.”

  “I wasn’t thinking about Shya, but now that you mention it, I’m more afraid of myself right now than I am of him. I killed Veryl, without a second thought, and I don’t regret it. Now, I’ve made an agreement with a demon, and I’m not even sure what he wants from me.” Suddenly panicked, I stared out the window at the dark storefronts and office buildings as we passed. “I’m afraid of turning into the same thing I’ve been killing all these years.”

  Kale’s energy grew warm as his mood shifted. “That won’t happen. That’s not what you are. Shya believes you have power over both werewolves and vampires, and judging by the way your power can manipulate me, I’m inclined to agree with him.”

  I flashed back to an incident at The Wicked Kiss a few months earlier. A vampire had attacked me with a stake, swearing to never bow down to me. I’m nobody’s slave, he’d said as he pressed a stake between my ribs.

  “I feel like I’m living in denial, like everyone else knows more about me than I do. I’m not sure I know who I am anymore.” The confession fell from my lips. I doubt I would have said it to anyone else.

  Kale reached over, and I thought he was going to take my hand. He seemed to think better of it and instead smoothed a strand of my hair back behind my ear. “You’ll find out. We all do eventually. Even if it takes five hundred years.”

  Closing my eyes, I concentrated on the way the breeze streaming through the open window felt on my face. I wasn’t sure how to feel about Shya and the role he wanted me to play, his personal assassin, the one who would keep the vampires and werewolves in line. It sounded huge.

  I was wary. However, I did believe that creatures of the night needed to stay in the dark. Much of our power lies in the myth that we don’t exist. It had to stay that way. Otherwise, all hell would break loose. I was willing to do my part to keep that from happening. All I could do was pray that I never had to become a monster to do it.

  Too late. I ignored the ugly voice of guilt that taunted me. Kale was right. Things to come would show me who I really was, one day at a time. Still, I couldn’t help but wonder if I was just another one of the bad guys.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “Are you sure about this?” I couldn’t sit still. Squirming on my seat with discomfort, I started to question my decision to listen to Arys.

  He sat next to me, an untouched martini in front of him. He kept trying to slide it in front of me, and I slid it right back. I wasn’t touching a drop of alcohol, not with what he had in mind.

  “Relax, Alexa. Enjoy the buildup. It’s like foreplay. No need to be impatient.”

  “I’m not impatient. I’m nervous and starting to change my mind.”

  Tearing his gaze from the interior of the martini lounge, he fixed me with a daring stare. “Oh no, you’re not. I told you, I’m not going to let you be bloodlust’s bitch anymore. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. You’ll see.”

  He hadn’t let go of his intent for us to hunt together. It made me uncomfortable in more ways than I could count. I’d seen Arys in action. It was both thrilling and frightening. But, to accompany him? It didn’t sit well with me.

  “You damn hypocrite.” I ran a finger along the top of my sparkling water glass. I felt too nervous to drink it. “You live by the rule of all or nothing. Isn’t that why you look down on the vampires that feed at The Kiss?”

  “This isn’t about them. It’s about you. You try to hide that it drives you crazy, but then you break down and slaughter someone. You’re not cut out to live my lifestyle. The guilt would eat you alive.” He offered me the olive from his drink, and I grimaced at the smell. “Besides, I don’t take the kill every time. Just more often than not. Every now and then, I like the tease of resistance.”

  I didn’t know what to expect from a hunt with Arys. I’d half expected to stalk helpless victims in dark back alleys. When I’d voiced that very thing to Arys, he’d both scowled and laughed at me. Instead we’d ended up in a martini bar on the main floor of a five-star hotel with a key to a room upstairs. It seemed like excessive work to me though Arys shrugged it off as no big deal.

  I watched Arys as he scanned the lounge for the right victim. I was impatient and wanted to get this over quickly if I had to do it at all. But, he was calm, like the fox in the hen-house, deciding which one he liked the most.

  “So, what are we waiting for? Can’t we just do this already?”

  He frowned and ran his tongue over his lips. Just watching him perform the casual action made my stomach tighten.

  “Patience, my wolf. Don’t be so quick to act. If you’re stuck with the bloodlust, you might as well learn to enjoy it. It doesn’t have to all be bad.”

  “That’s the problem. I want to hate it, but once I’m caught up in the moment, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be. And, that’s what I hate.”

  Arys took my hand and lightly ran a finger over the back of it. His touch stirred my longing. The bloodlust was running high. Arys had wanted me to be at its mercy. I couldn’t say I was loving it. My senses were on fire. Every touch and smell was amplified. All I could focus on was the tingle in my loins as he stroked a finger up my bare arm and the thick scent of human blood. It begged for my attention, making it hard to acknowledge any other smells in the lounge.

  “That one, right there.” Arys drew my attention to a woman sitting alone at a table on the opposite side of the room. “She’s perfect. Do you want her?”

  She was a leggy brunette in a designer dress, staring intently at her cell phone. Nothing distinguished her from any other woman in the lounge except for the fact that she was alone.

  “A woman, huh?” I teased. “I guess that’s fair considering I’m usually the only woman present.”

  Arys grinned, but his eyes glinted seriously. “Alexa, I don’t mind sharing you with the wolf pup. You seem to think I do, but sharing you with him means not having to share you with anyone else. Simple logic but it works.”

  I thought it over, finding his logic to be a tad skewed like usual, but somehow, it made sense this time. “Alright. You want her, that’s fine with me.”

  I was uneasy, but Arys had promised me that we weren’t killing anyone tonight. This was about finding the balance I needed to appease the bloodlust without taking the kill.

  Tipping my head up with a hand under my chin, Arys kissed me lightly. “Stay here until I give you a signal.”

  He slid off his stool and was gone before I could change my mind. The sound of my heart beating was suddenly deafening in my ears. I clutched my purse tightly and fidgeted with my short skirt. I couldn’t tear my gaze off Arys as he sauntered through the room like a wolf stalking prey. As I watched him go, the nerves melted away, replaced by a hungry anticipation.

  Arys was a vision of sensuality. He moved through the room with dark intentions, drawing the attention of several women as he passed. It was impossible not to look at him. From head to toe the man oozed sex. It didn’t come as a surprise that the majority of other women thought so, too.

  At his approach, his intended victim glanced up from her cell phone. She looked wary, but once Arys started talking, she smiled. I would have loved to hear what he was saying. The grin he beamed at her was downright seductive. I was falling for it from where I sat. So when she gestured to the chair next to her, I wasn’t surprised. Actually, I was a little turned on watching Arys work his magic, although a little part of me wondered if I was as easy a target as this woman was turning out to be.

  Watching Arys seduce our victim made me ache for satisfaction. My growing hunger was testing the limits of my control. I’d questioned his intent to lure her upstairs to the room, but my patience was slipping. Now, I just wanted to make it happen.

  The brunette leaned into Arys as they talked. Something in her eye
s, a strange glazed look, indicated Arys’s influence over her. That had been easy. Not many vampires had that ability to make people want to surrender, happily accepting that he would drain their life away. I was painfully aware that, because I loved him, I often forgot how very dangerous Arys really was.

  Catching my eye, Arys nodded ever so slightly toward the door. With eager anticipation, I picked the olive out of his abandoned glass and tossed back the contents. Then, I made my way out of the lounge and up to our room.

  I was a mess waiting for them. I paced the small but nicely kept hotel room, unable to sit or stand still. I turned on the gas fireplace but then turned it off. Finally, I went to stare out the window at the street below.

  By the time Arys opened the door, I was gripping the window sill so hard my clawed nails left gouges in the wood. I whirled around to face him. I hadn’t sated the bloodlust in days. I wasn’t sure how much more I could take. He had wanted me to be pushed to the breaking point. It was nearing quickly.

  “Alexa, this is Roxanne. She was supposed to meet a blind date in the bar, but lucky us, she has agreed to keep us company.” Arys flashed me a smug smile and a wink. He ushered Roxanne into the room and locked the door. She didn’t seem to notice.

  She stared at me with a big smile plastered on her pink lips. The spellbound expression she wore was unsettling. I didn’t like it. The vampire in me thought back to something Kale had once said. He preferred it when they knew it was coming, when they begged and screamed. If this mesmerized complacency was the alternative, I’d prefer the screams, too.

  No sooner had that thought crossed my mind than I wondered what it would take to make Roxanne scream. My fangs filled my mouth, four brutal points that I ached to sink into her. I moved toward her, and Arys stepped in between us.

  He must have seen the intent in my eyes because he smiled and shook his head. “Patience, my love. This is about satisfaction through control, not weakness because of the loss of it. Follow my lead.”

  Roxanne stood there like a human doll, waiting for us to play with her. It was disturbing to see someone so completely lost in the thrall of a powerful vampire. I hated that I kind of liked it.

  “Roxanne, sweetheart,” Arys purred, taking her hand and bringing it to his lips. “We won’t keep you long. Just a little taste, alright my dear?”

  She didn’t even speak. Gazing up at him with those glazed eyes, she merely smiled timidly and nodded. Arys kissed his way up her bare arm, and she giggled. I waited for jealousy to hit, but it never did. I wanted to watch him in his element. The seduction and the hunt, that was Arys at his best, and I wanted to see it.

  He took his time, making his way from her wrist to her neck. Her eyes closed, and her head fell back. Desire flowed from her, tantalizing and hot. My grip was slipping, and I knew I couldn’t cling to sanity much longer. The bloodlust was a powerful master, and once again, it had made me its slave.

  His lips on her skin, the scent of her growing desire, and the sound of her heart beat growing louder in my ears, it all came at me in a rush, driving me into a frenzy. Arys, being the incubus he was, manipulated her sexual response to him, encouraging it to flow freely as he fed upon it.

  The energy in the room became suffocating. I snarled, baring my fangs. Arys lifted his head to find me on the edge of the abyss, about to step past the point of no return. He gripped her forearm, and with a sudden aggression that spoke to the wolf in me, Arys bit into her wrist.

  Blood spilled forth, and I was ravenous. I lunged at them, willing to knock Arys aside to get to that glorious red stream. He held me back with a hand on my throat, cutting off my air supply just enough to shake some sense back into me.

  “You can’t bite her, Alexa. You’ll turn her or kill her. That’s not what you want.”

  I wasn’t listening. I was staring at the blood that ran down Roxanne’s hand to drip off the tips of her fingers. It was all I could smell, all I could focus on.

  Arys sat Roxanne on the end of the bed. Her eyes fluttered open and then closed again. She sighed softly. Gripping both of my arms tightly, Arys forced me to look into his eyes.

  “It will always be part of you, but it doesn’t have to own you. You can control this.” He shook me when I growled at him. “Stop giving in so easily. You’re stronger than that.”

  Then he slapped me.

  It was startling. The sound of his hand hitting my cheek was loud in the quiet room. I laughed. It earned me a glare.

  “Let me have her. Just this once.” I was detached, hearing myself talk but not fully aware it was me.

  The power flared between us as Arys struggled to get through to me. “You will master this or else it masters you. Got it? Is that what you want? To be just another killer?”

  “Why not?” I snapped. “It seems to be good enough for you.”

  Arys dragged me close and pressed his forehead to mine. His eyes closed, and I felt the warm push of calming energy. It filled me from head to toe, bringing me back to myself. I hovered precariously in that awkward place between who I was and what I had become.

  His voice low, almost a whisper, Arys loosened his grip. “You are the light in my darkness. I can’t watch you become something you will grow to hate.”

  Something in his tone struck a nerve deep down. I blinked a few times, and the bloodlust cleared from my vision. “Arys…”

  Opening his eyes, he gazed deep into me, and then he released me entirely. Together we approached the bed where Roxanne sat in a deep thrall. I could do this. I had to. I was stronger than the bloodlust.

  Arys watched me as I sat on the floor before her and took her bloody wrist in my hands. The scent of her blood filled my lungs, and it tore at my fragile control. I ran my tongue over her smooth, lightly tanned skin. The urge to rush into the kill was strong, but I wasn’t giving in this time. I slowly licked the red rivulets that dripped into the palm of her hand. No words could describe the way it felt; orgasmic, pure bliss, they didn’t even come close. Tasting her was like finding a peace I never knew existed. It felt right, like I was finally whole. And, I knew it was all a lie.

  As I drank the blood from Arys’s bite, I saw it all so clearly. We were all creatures in unbearable pain, always seeking escape from something, even if we didn’t know it at the time. Every one of us found our moment of peace in something dark and twisted. This was mine.

  On the bed, Arys knelt beside our victim. I could see them from where I sat. He bit into her neck, and she gasped. Or had it been me? I wasn’t sure.

  A roar filled my ears as the power Arys and I shared grew to an explosive level. He reached out for me, his hand seeking mine. I surrendered it to him, crying out when a hot jolt of electricity burned my skin where it touched his.

  Blood in my mouth and Arys’s skin on mine stirred my longing. Heat flooded my loins as I watched his lips against her skin, his tongue running over the wound. It wasn’t enough. The hunger grew, and my moment of peace was shattered.

  Arys must have felt me slip because he stopped me from doing something I would deeply regret. With a snarl, I bared my fangs, craving the sensation of having them buried in flesh. The blood wasn’t enough. The need to tear into Roxanne was driven by more than the bloodlust. Caught up in the throes of power and hunger, my wolf struggled to break free.

  I was on my ass across the room before I had a chance to hurt her. Trapped by Arys’s energy wall, there was a sense of déjà vu as I remembered how recently this had happened in the bathroom at The Wicked Kiss. One day, Arys wouldn’t be there to save me from myself.

  With a hand on Roxanne’s face, he got her up on her feet. Her eyes were open but unfocused. Stuffing some cash into her hand, Arys spoke slow and clear. “Go downstairs, get into the first cab you see and go straight home. You won’t ever tell anyone anything you might remember because they would never believe you. There is no such thing as vampires.”

  She nodded and allowed Arys to lead her to the door. I was intent on the barrier he’d thrown at
me. Like the last time, I was certain I could bend it to my will. Instead of fighting it, I concentrated on pulling it into me and making it mine. A strange, almost sick feeling hit my stomach as the barrier broke. I couldn’t breathe as it rushed into me, becoming one with my power.

  It was easier than I’d expected. It also proved what I’d suspected for a while. Arys and I could turn our power on one another, but we could also take that power into ourselves. His power was mine, and therefore, he couldn’t truly harm me, not if I took the control back from him.

  Free of his hold on me, I lunged at the door as Arys closed it behind her. Astonished but alert, he reacted quickly. Arys shoved me back, blocking my path to the door. I wanted her, and he had just let her go.

  “Come on, Alexa.” He taunted me, curling a finger in invitation. “You have some aggression to unleash. Let’s have it.”

  He was right. I had a burning need for violence and gratification. Licking the blood from my lips, I advanced on him with a wicked yearning clawing at my insides.

  The fire in Arys’s midnight eyes brought a naughty smile to my face. Pressing my body against his, I grasped a handful of his hair and pulled his head down to mine. I licked his bottom lip before nipping it with my upper fangs. Sucking it into my mouth, I delighted in the spicy taste of his blood.

  I kissed him, seeking to feel his tongue on mine. It was a hard and bruising kiss. I wanted to devour him. Arys groaned, his hands sliding to my waist. Our power was heightened, creating a dizzying storm that I could feel both in and out. Urgency gripped me.

  I clawed Arys’s arms and chest in my haste to tear his shirt off, leaving bloody scratches behind. I wanted him, and I didn’t want to wait. I ran a finger through a crimson smear on his abdomen, pausing to taste it. It fueled my desire for him.

  I slipped my underwear down from under my skirt, kicking them off. “I need you now.”

  A wolf-like growl came from Arys. He grabbed me roughly. His fingers dug into my arms as he slid my top up and over my head. Undeniably, he felt it, too, the rabid need that drove me. Shoving me on the bed, Arys pressed his face into the swell of my cleavage and bit into my left breast.