“No, Massimo don’t do it,” Red yelled. She started coming toward me, but the blade Torrid was holding sliced across her back and she went down. I watched her as she fell to her knees. A scream loosed from her lips. Emerick came to me and pulled the stopper from the vial and shoved it into my hand.
“This is what you want. Trust me, brother.”
Ravana flipped over and stared at her attacker. She was giving me the choice. This is what she wanted for me…for us. Did Emerick know what he was doing? A fair fight?
Hulk went after Emerick. He picked him up and held him over his head, then brought him down to his knee, but Emerick rolled back as he came down and flipped out of his grasp. The rest of the vampires were all standing around watching. Clearly under orders not to get in the way. Torrid gave a whistle and they sprang into action just as men dressed in black came pouring onto the beach.
Emerick was keeping vamps away from me, one look behind him told me he was not impressed. I didn’t think about it. I drank the contents of the vial and knew it was blood once the metallic tang hit the back of my mouth. I didn’t feel any different, but I wasn’t going to let Red get killed by that blade.
“He has a blade that can kill her. Forget me. Go help her. He’s here for you anyway.”
“What? What are you talking about?” He notched an arrow and set it free. Again, and again.
“I know how you kept finding her. That’s your man.” I bent my neck side to side. The blood stopped pouring down my face and when I placed my hand on my head the wound was gone. “Thanks for not killing me.”
“I told you it was the right one.” He took off, throwing his bow to the ground and pulled a sword free from his side.
When Emerick moved in to help Massimo I thought he would just as easily run him through with his own blade. Figured he’d still have a soft spot for the one he called his brother. Maybe he gave me that vial as much for Massimo’s sake as he had for mine.
When the blade slid across my back it barely went through my sweatshirt, but I still dropped to my knees in pain. It was a heat I’ve never felt before. Not in this lifetime. Not until he’d placed the side of that blade on my flesh. I needed to end him and everyone who knew how to make that weapon.
Waiting until he was straddling the back of me I lifted my body to buck under his throwing him off balance. He stumbled, but regained himself quicker than I had anticipated. I clenched my fists around the handles of my blades and pushed off the ground with them. Spinning to the left I caught him off guard, but he deflected with his blade hitting it against mine. I pushed the metal forward as he tried to do the same. I had them back far enough that the metal of my sword was biting into his neck, and Emerick pulled me free.
“What are you doing going up against a weapon such as his, alone?”
“I almost had him.” I swiped my blade toward Emerick and he deflected with a sword instead of the bow he was wielding a moment ago.
“Excuse me, but we were in the middle of something.” Torrid waved his blade back and forth between the two of us. “Who the hell are you?”
“He doesn’t know you?”
“No, I do business dealings through an associate.”
“Hey, over here. What the fuck?”
“Watch your mouth in front of the lady,” Emerick screamed and I almost lost my shit.
“I’ll be sure to do that when I see one.”
Emerick charged after Torrid and I was caught off guard by a female looking for an ass kicking. She shoved her foot onto the side of my leg, misjudging her position and slide down onto her ass. I grabbed the knot that made her ponytail and pulled her head up off the ground, but only so far so I could drop it down to my knee. The bone of her skull crunched when it made contact with my knee and her body slumped to the ground. I spun around to look for Massimo who was in the middle of a large group of vampires battling all in black. He must have gotten the signal sent to the Order. His head had healed, but I had no way of knowing if he had taken the contents of the vial.
I turned at the feeling of a hand on my shoulder to see a vampire about my height. The male had blood dripping from his mouth, and my eyes went to the bloodied figure of an agent lying on the ground. He grabbed my hair and pulled my forehead against his, disorienting me. I stumbled back and he advanced again. He had no weapons and mine were beginning to feel heavy in my hands. I let the blades drop to the ground and pulled the dagger from my waist. I never leave home without it.
He moved toward me. His fangs clearly visible, so I lowered mine. His eyes widened. “Finally, someone who doesn’t know me,” I said and he laughed.
“Doesn’t matter. I can still kill you without knowing who you are.” He laughed, and I sprinted toward him, my dagger tucked under my forearm.
He sidestepped me and swung his leg around, his foot slammed into my back. I used the force to pull myself into a roll. Instead of standing, I put my free hand on the ground and pushed my feet up in the air behind me to connect with him as he advanced. One of my heels slid into the space between his shoulder blade and collarbone. He screamed, but the scowl on his face said he was more angered than hurt.
“You’re going to pay for that one, bitch.” He looked over his shoulder as the iron started to do its work then advanced on me again.
I hesitated, seeing Massimo battling three vamps on his own. Before I knew it, I was in a lock hold, my throat was starting to constrict, and my feet had come up off the ground. I kicked wildly, my lungs were on fire as the male laughed in my face. I could hear Emerick in the background shout for me, but it wasn’t my name he used. It was the name I no longer bore. The one belonging to the girl who died. I was not that girl, that Annabelle. I was stronger than she ever was, and I wouldn’t be taken down by a vampire with an opioid addiction. I fisted my hand, dug a heel into his knee. He loosened his grip and I flung my fist to the underside of the vamp’s chin.
I leaned closer to him, whispering in his ear, “Ravana…Moon.” I struggled through his grip on my throat.
He laughed at me until the realization came to him as his throat and mouth began to fill with blood. The tip of the sword I wore on my finger began piercing the roof of his mouth as the flesh above my fist turned to ash. His grip on me released and I dropped to the ground gasping for breath. His hands moved to cover the wound, but quickly his face was all but gone and his blood-soaked body began to stumble about.
I rubbed my neck and lifted a foot to kick him over, then bent down and retrieved my swords from the sand. Only a few vampires remained. Massimo still tangled with three. Emerick and Torrid were still going at it, and the sun looked to be rising soon. What better way to get rid of a group of vampires than to let the sun do our job for us. I ran to Massimo, stopping only to pierce the throat of a female who stepped in front of me. She hissed as she fell, but turned to ash quickly.
Massimo landed a nice blow on a male and kicked him in the gut. He spun his Sai in his hands and thrust them into the neck of the male, decapitating him. Both head and body turned to ash in the sand. The last took a look at us and decided to turn and run. We couldn’t let a single one of them free. Even if they weren’t a threat because they were all a threat. I grabbed a Sai from Massimo and threw it at the vampire’s back. He went down, face first in the sand. The body was gone before I made it over to retrieve the Sai.
“We have to get to the truck before the sun comes up.”
Massimo was panting. “What? Why? There are a few more. Emerick isn’t done with Torrid yet.”
“I don’t give a shit about those two. They deserve each other. I need to get you away from the sunlight.”
“I took it.”
“When?”
“An hour ago. I don’t know. I feel fine, my cuts have healed already, and without blood. I think…we need to be sure. Right…you’re right. What do we do about that?”
He said pointing to where Emerick and Torrid still faced off. Torrid’s blade was a risk, and he knew Emerick wouldn’t get close to
it. He held it in front of himself like a shield. The sun rose over the water’s edge, but it was an overcast morning. Apparently, we would have no help from the morning sun as I’d hoped, but we couldn’t let Torrid leave and recruit new people into his plans.
“That’s it. I’ve had enough of these two.” I grabbed Emerick’s discarded bow and found an arrow sunken into a piece of driftwood. I notched it and sent the arrow sailing toward the two. It went through Emerick’s side and then stuck in Torrid’s thigh.
Emerick grabbed his side and looked back at me then to Torrid. “What have you done?”
The Order agents went after Torrid while he tried to free himself of the wood sticking out of his leg. “No, don’t.”
“What?” I asked as I stomped my feet over to him. Walking in heels on a beach was not the greatest idea I’ve had. “Why are we not killing him?”
“Because he has my blood in his veins now.”
“Why does that mean we can’t kill him? And how do you know that’s going to do anything to him?” I stuck my hands on my hips.
“Ravana, what do you think was in that vial Massimo drank?” The look on Massimo’s face was enough for me to know where the conversation was going. “Take him to the Space Needle, but for God’s sake, shackle him. I’ll be along in a minute.”
“Wait, why to your place? Why not my building? We’re equipped to handle him there.”
“You are?” they both asked in unison.
“Yes, of course. What do you think the extra empty floors are for?” I looked at my men. “Fifty-third floor, cell five should be good,” I told them and turned back to Emerick and Massimo staring at me. “If he isn’t dead by the time we get there, then we know his blood transfer worked. If he is, then Massimo is unchanged. Looks like I did us a favor.”
“You’ll need to give me access to the facility. You won’t have anyone on staff that has dealt with this type of configuration before.”
I shook my head walking away, my back to them both. “Fine, but just so you know you’re a wanted man…and not in a good way. Unless you like it rough.”
“Work with him? Red, not two hours ago you wanted him dead.”
Massimo was getting more upset by the minute. There was nothing I could do about it. I backed the Order, but I refused to call the shots. Had I known it would cause complications in the long run, I would have dealt with it. Worked out a way to do both. Hunt Emerick and run the Order, but I left Amanda in charge. She was, after all, an unbiased third party, which at that very moment worked well. It was the only reason why Massimo wasn’t screaming at me for following the orders we’d gotten on the way back to the Tower.
I stepped off the elevator and into my empty apartment, aside for Massimo behind me, nobody was around. I hadn’t been able to relax since the moment I followed Emerick to his apartment. I hadn’t had a moment to contemplate all I learned, or figure out what it meant to have all the memories flood back to me.
Massimo continued yelling as he followed me to the infusion room. Delia had added a second table. The pole placed between the two. I moved to the drawer under the machine and grabbed two IV tubes signaling to him to sit. The fridge was full. I grabbed four bags and hung them on the pole.
“Yes, I understand your point, but I have my orders. We have our orders. He has to analyze that asshole’s blood, which is my fault for shooting the bastard. I get it, you’re pissed, but until he finds out what we need to know, we need to cooperate.”
“Are you sure that’s it?”
“What do you mean, Massimo?”
“You got your memories back. You told me you did. Is there something I should know about the two of you from before you were sired?”
“No. Nothing of importance.”
“But you knew him before. He came to you?”
“Yes, he came to me.” I plunged the needle into his arm and attached the tubing to his bags, then repeated the process with mine. I sat back on the table. “This is not about that.”
“You don’t want him killed. I don’t get it. What it is about, then?”
“I want him dead. For everything, he’s done. I don’t care if he lives or dies. However, my orders are to allow him to analyze Torrid’s blood, and yours. Then the Order wants to know if other vampires could be changed as well using his blood.”
“What? Like a hunter, vampire breeding experiment? Do we really need more of us running around unchecked?” He smacked the back of his head against the table.
The blood heated my veins even though it was cold. I felt rejuvenated and never realized how different this process was for me compared to ingesting it. Considering that was the one and only time I’d ever ingested human blood, I’d never been able to compare.
“Like Nunzio. If he’s interested in becoming a test subject, he would be offered immunity and a place with the Order. A place here.”
He looked up at me. “You’d do that?”
“I have the capabilities to offer the same to his mate. Yes, I’d do that. I think we need more agents who have our backs and less of these PCI flunkies who are only worried about one thing.”
“And what, pray tell would that be anyway?”
“Getting their hands on the Ruby of Amid.”
“What…in the ever-living-fuck? Do you mean to tell me that’s what they were looking for? That you have the Ruby in your possession?”
“At all times. What’s it to you?”
“That thing is evil. It could kill us as easily as protect us. Why do you have it?”
“It was entrusted to me, by a very dear friend. I carry it with me at all times. You’re not dead yet, so stop your bellyaching.”
“Well Red, you certainly have a unique definition of death.”
“You’re a breathing, heart functioning, whiny-ass vampire. Surely that can be considered living.”
“In a manner of sorts, I suppose.” He pulled the tubing from his arm and tossed it and the empty bags into the trash. “I suppose we get to go deal with the troll now? In the dungeon?” He held his hands up under his chin and moved them like an evil mastermind.
“This is not Harry Potter. I don’t have a dungeon.” I dropped my bags in the waste bin and turned to leave, but Massimo’s hand grabbed my arm. “Don’t.”
“We have to talk about it.”
“Do we? Do we really need to hash this out now, when the reason for this conversation is downstairs interrogating our prisoner? Analyzing the blood that could be your death sentence?”
“It’s not going to kill me. I’m fine.”
“Says you.” I pulled my arm from his grasp and headed toward my room.
The door didn’t slam shut as I intended. Instead, he waltzed right in behind me stopping it from hitting him in the face. I had to agree his reflexes were recognizably faster.
“We’re going to talk about this. In spite of, or because of the fact that he’s here in this building. He doesn’t have access to this floor. This is the one place we can have this conversation. What better time than the present?”
“Um, how about later.”
“What if there isn’t a later? We never seem to get a moment of peace.”
“This is not how I want to do this.”
“Do what?”
His steely eyes bore into me and my heart skipped a beat. Of course, he heard it, and in a blur of movement he couldn’t have managed before, he was in front of me, his hands roaming over my body.
“What are you doing?” My words came out with a sigh.
“Getting you vulnerable to tell me what happened.”
I pushed him away from me, unchecked strength smashing his body into the wall. He blurred back over to me. My body hit the soft comforts of my bed and his pressed hard against me. I moved again throwing him to the floor and moved toward my closet. Not thinking, I removed my shirt and was instantly spun around against the now closed door to my closet.
“You’re making this easier than I thought,” he purred against me.
&n
bsp; I shook my head and tried to push him off me, but he had my wrists pinned to the door above my head. He held them with one hand and ran the other down my arm to my side, then my waist. His eyes never left mine.
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what? Don’t make love to you?”
“No.”
“You’ll have to be clearer, love.”
“Don’t make love to me.” His hands moved away from me in a flash and he was on the other side of the room. The movement made the drapes swing back and forth allowing small bursts of light in the room. “Just fuck me.”
His eyes shot up. He sauntered over to me. One deliberate step after another. First, his shirt fell to the floor. One boot, then two were kicked at the door which was still open to the rest of the apartment. I unbuttoned my pants, but he put up a finger, wagging it at me.
“No, no. I got this.” He moved so fast I didn’t see him.
In a matter of seconds, I was in nothing but my bra and shoes. I looked down and he gave me the, no you don’t look again.
He wrapped his arms around me and our mouths crashed together. He didn’t wait, but plunged his tongue into my mouth in search of mine. I closed my eyes and let a moan escape. When I opened my eyes, we were on the wall closer to the open door. Massimo placed his hands on my thighs and lifted me up, his fingers digging into flesh. He lowered himself and pushed me up the wall until my legs came to rest on his shoulders. I placed my hands on the ceiling for support as his tongue found my clit and swirled around it in a frenzy. I cried out moving my hands to his hair. He moved away from the wall giving me ample room to move in motion to his assault on my sex. His hands squeezed my ass and I bucked my pelvis forward pushing my shoulder blades against the wall. My hair tangling in his fingers. I pulled his hair and pushed his face into me.
His hand moved so his thumb was pressed against my backside. I tightened and clenched at the feel of him against my entrance. His eyes flung up to meet mine, but he never moved his mouth away from my sex. With each small burst, he swirled his thumb moving my juices, then pushed the tip of his thumb inside me as he let his fangs graze around my clit. I yelled in pain and pleasure and relaxed over him once he moved his thumb in deeper, and moved a finger up to my clit and down to slip inside of me. The combined pressure of his thumb and finger caused me to buck harder against him, all while his tongue continued pleasuring me. I moved slowly, letting both his finger and thumb slide in and out of me until I couldn’t hold it anymore and my body shook, juices flowed, and I went limp against the wall. My fingers dug into his shoulders.
The Darker Side of Me (Ravana Moon Book 1) Page 19
