by Elena Lawson
A gruff and smoky voice shouted over the intercom, “What?”
“Blake?”
The line went dead. There was a thudding sound from inside the building, the quick steps down the stairs like the beating of a drum.
The door was wrenched open and he was standing there, his hair disheveled and mouth agape. He was wearing a simple white undershirt and black jeans. His dark hair glistening as though he’d just come out of a shower.
“Rose?” he asked as though he wasn’t sure, his voice not the steady, detached one I’d heard just days ago. Now, it was slightly strangled.
“Hey handsome.”
His gaze flicked to the vampire standing at my back and his expression changed. His eyes darkened and his fangs slid low to puncture his bottom lip. He growled and I watched all the muscles in his arms and shoulders flex, poised for the kill.
“Blake!” I shouted to get his attention. It worked. He glanced at me for a fraction of a second and I was able to shake my head. “Don’t.”
Just then the thunderous sound of double footfalls thudded down into the entry. Frost muscled his way into place beside Blake and Ethan shoved them both out of the way as he hit the bottom step.
“You’re alive,” Frost breathed, frozen in shock.
Ethan pulled me into his arms and held me so tight it was almost painful. I felt his chest tighten. He wasn’t breathing. “Ethan,” I breathed into the crook of his neck. “I’m alright.”
“Rafe,” Frost seethed, and I turned to find both Blake and Frost in fighting stances, their fangs protruding, and hand curled into white-knuckled fists.
Rafe?
So, I had been right, then? He was lying to me the whole time?
I cursed the sting of betrayal I felt. You couldn’t feel betrayed unless there was trust to begin with. I’d never trusted him. Had I?
Azrael—er—Rafe, or whoever he was cocked his head at them. “You know my brother?”
Frost’s brows lowered, and Blake’s jaw twitched.
I thanked my lucky starts they weren’t stupid enough to go full bore and attack him. As Ethan positioned me slightly behind him, we backed away so I was surrounded by the warm bodies of my guys. Ethan never released me but kept me tucked into his side with an arm tightly wrapped around my shoulder. Frost reached back to squeeze my hand. I held tight to it.
If only they knew that they couldn’t shield me this time.
They couldn’t save me at all.
But it was sweet of them to try.
“Your brother?” Ethan asked, his tone clipped.
Frost stomped out onto the stoop and my heart jumped into my throat. “Frost! Don’t—”
The hulking brute stopped a few inches from the ancient vampire, and I was surprised to see they were the same height. Frost outweighed Azrael by at least fifty pounds, but what Azrael lacked in size, he made up for in malice. He stared down Frost as though he were a bug to be quashed.
“If you hurt him, I’ll never cooperate. I’ll fight tooth and—”
“Yes. Yes. I know,” Azrael said, waving me off, annoyed.
Frost seemed to be studying Azrael, seething and red-faced as he did, but Frost was no idiot. He didn’t move to strike.
“Azrael?” Frost breathed the name as a question after a moment and I saw the muscles in his shoulders droop, but only a fraction.
“There you go. For someone who knows my dear brother, it’s quite easy to tell the difference, is it not?”
Frost staggered back, shaking his head.
I noticed Blake wasn’t coiled to strike anymore, either. His fangs were still out, and I had to admit that they somehow suited him, and his fists were still clenched, but he didn’t look like he was about to tear someone’s throat out anymore.
“Are you sure?” Ethan’s voice was strained as he asked Frost, his grip on me loosening slightly.
“I’m sure,” Frost replied, stepping further back from the vamp. “It’s not Rafe.”
So…wait…
They knew the vampire who killed my mother this entire time?
I stepped out of Ethan’s arms. “Did you know that Raphael was the vampire who killed my mother?” I asked them, trying not to feel utterly betrayed. Why would they keep that from me?
Frost turned to face me; his face hard as he ran a wide hand through his white-blond hair. “Yes,” he said in a breath. “At least, we believed he was. We’ve been tracking him for a long time.”
“And he’s been tracking you,” Blake added, his voice dripping venom. “He’s the one who put the bounty on your head, Rose.”
I struggled to keep up with what they were telling me. To connect the dots. “That’s not right,” I told them all. “It couldn’t have been this Raphael vamp. He’s over a thousand years old—there’s no way my mother could have compelled him.”
It just wasn’t possible.
I felt the power of Azrael’s compulsion. I never felt anything like it. I knew beyond a shadow of doubt that I wouldn’t ever be able to hold him under the power of my own inferior compulsion. I knew that I would never be able to deny him.
“Impressive, isn’t it?” Azrael mused, his eyes alight with an emotion close to excitement. “If I’d know the woman had a surviving heir, I’d have been searching for you much sooner.”
My head was suddenly pounding as I struggled to make everything they were saying fit within the confines of my mind.
“She couldn’t have…” I trailed off.
Azrael fixed me with a knowing stare. “Oh, but it is, my dear Rose,” he said. “The compulsion of an untainted Vocari would prove stronger than some of the eldest vampires I know. But the compulsion of a female untainted Vocari would rival even my own…with years of practice, anyway.”
I was flabbergasted. The fuck? So, he was saying that if I practiced enough—if I trailed my ability hard enough—that I could compel him?
The guys seemed just as confused as I was, and I could already see the gears and cogs turning in Ethan’s mind.
When no one spoke, all of us mulling over this new tidbit of information, Azrael held out a hand for me and my stomach dropped. “Come, Rose. You’ve seen they’re unharmed, as promised. Time to go.”
Ethan shoved me behind them into the stairwell as they formed a wall of muscle at my front, blocking Azrael from me.
Idiots.
I shoved between Frost and Blake, trying to pass, my chest tight.
“You aren’t going anywhere, Rosie,” Frost growled. “Just stay behind us.”
I groaned. “We had a deal,” I told them. “My cooperation in exchange for your safety.”
“Your cooperation?” Ethan asked, brow furrowed as he glanced at me over his shoulder.
“Our safety?” Blake scoffed. “You don’t have to worry about us, luv.”
Yup. Idiots.
Didn’t they know how old Azrael was?
Or were they just that cocky?
“I don’t have time for this,” Azrael said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Rose will come with me, and once I’m finished with her, I will happily return her to you, though I don’t expect she’ll live long without my protection.”
Frost’s face pinched. He didn’t like what Azrael was insinuating; that they weren’t enough to protect me. “Where are you taking her?”
I finally manage to get past Frost, though his big hand circled my wrist, stopping me from crossing the five feet of distance between us. I stopped and set a gentle, calming hand on Frost’s forearm. “It’s alright big guy,” I told him. “Once fuckface over there realizes my blood can’t do what he thinks it can, he’ll let me go.” I tried to keep my tone light, but the truth was, I didn’t know if he would ever let me leave. Especially if my blood didn’t prove to be the missing ingredient he needed.
But they didn’t need to know that.
“What is it you want with her blood?” Ethan asked, his tone calmly dangerous. He was grinding his teeth in that way he did when he was keeping from sayin
g what he really wanted to say.
Azrael sighed. “You might as well know,” he replied. “For it’s the same reason my brother wants to spill it. Rose is the last surviving untainted Vocari—”
“You said that, already,” Blake snapped.
Azrael, unperturbed by the injection, continued. “I believe her blood could be the key to lifting the curse,” he said plainly. “Or, at least, it could allow for the ability to walk in sunlight.”
Ethan paled.
Frost’s jaw clenched.
Blake looked like he was thinking up ways to dissect Azrael into tiny pieces and scatter them across the globe.
“That isn’t possible.” Ethan began grinding his teeth again.
“Isn’t it?” Azrael challenged.
Ethan’s gaze grew distant as he considered what Azrael said, and then, seemingly deciding something, he snapped his head up. “Take me with you.”
It wasn’t a question. Not a request at all. Ethan was submitting a demand and by the steely look in his gaze, I knew he would find some way to follow if that demand wasn’t met.
Fuck he was hot when he took charge like that. I had a vivid image of him, naked and sweaty between the sheets, taking charge of—
“Rose,” Azrael warned. “Do you mind?”
I groaned. “If you don’t like what you find in there, stay the fuck out!”
The guys looked between Azrael and I, brows quirked.
“He can read minds,” I explained. “Sorry, probably should’ve mentioned that before.”
The guys didn’t seem at all surprised to hear it. Frost inhaled sharply and I saw him painstakingly trying to stop his fists from clenching. He didn’t like that this other vampire held any sort of sway over me. I could see it in the darkness of his gaze and rigidness of his spine.
He wanted to kill Azrael.
But he knew that no matter how strong he was—he would be no match for the millennia old vamp who was holding me captive.
“Why allow her to come at all if you were just going to drag her away the moment she arrived?” Frost spat, a snarl curling his top lip over his fangs.
Azrael fixed me with a cutting glare. “Because she’s stubborn as a mule and annoying as a Strix in heat. She wouldn’t shut up about seeing you.”
Strix?
“Sounds about right,” Blake whispered under his breath and I punched him in the arm.
“Why didn’t you just compel her?” Ethan asked, suspicion in the narrowing of his gaze.
A look of disgust crossed Azrael’s face. “This may come as a shock to you, especially if you’re familiar with my dear brother’s beliefs, but I do not relish what we have become. And I do not enjoy bending another’s will to my own.”
I wasn’t buying it. But whatever the true reason was, I was just grateful I’d gotten a chance to see my guys again before I resigned myself to an indeterminate amount of time in a dank fucking cave with a thousand-year-old monster.
A group of young men, drunk by the look of it, were making their way down the street, but as one caught sight of us, he dragged the others to the opposite side of the road. Smart fuckers. Even normal humans could sense the presence of a predator if they were near enough to one.
“Why don’t we take this conversation inside?” Frost asked, tilting his head toward the stairwell behind us.
“This conversation is over,” Azrael replied, his tone lethal, warning my guys not to argue with him.
I strode forward, shaking off Frost’s grip, until I was eye to eye with Azrael. It took me a moment to choke down my pride before I was able to grind out the words, my fists white-knuckled balls at my sides. “Please.”
Azrael looked down at me with surprise, considering the simple word. I thought I saw his eyes soften for an instant before his hard mask was back in place. He inhaled sharply, but I spoke again quickly, interrupting him before he could begin. “Let me stay.”
Fire flashed in his eyes.
“Let me stay, just for a little while. A week? Hell, I’ll take a day! I’ll do whatever you want if you just give me some—”
“You have three hours,” Azrael said in a deadpan voice. “We leave before dawn.”
I couldn’t help the elation bubbling up through my core, bringing a smile to my lips. It wasn’t much, but it was something. I knew he didn’t have to offer me this. He could have subdued all three of the guys and dragged me back with him.
He was trying to keep me pliant. Probably hopeful for a patient and willing test subject he wouldn’t have to exert energy to compel every five minutes.
“If you don’t return with me of your own volition…” Azrael warned, his eyes boring into my soul. I shuddered at the force of his stare, feeling the beginnings of his compulsion taking told. I stifled a whimper, not wanting the guys to attack.
Once his grip lessened, I let out an unrestricted breath and nodded. “I understand.”
And then Azrael was gone. My hair whipped around my face at his insane speed and not even my inhuman vision could catch his movements as he vanished into the dark.
9
The guys spirited me up the stairs and into the apartment above the tattoo shop.
We were inside with the door shut behind us before I could get a word in. “Why is he listening to you?” Blake demanded the moment we were sealed inside.
“What’s going on, Rose?” Ethan added, worry in the furrow of his brow and the crease in his forehead.
Hot frustration welled up inside me at their inquisition. How the hell was I supposed to know what the fuck was going on? It wasn’t like I could read Azrael’s mind. “I don’t know, okay!” I hissed, pushing off the door to stalk past them, deeper into the wide-open space.
It was the truth. I didn’t understand why Azrael was giving me these things that I requested instead of just forcing me to do as he pleased. I didn’t know why he didn’t just kill Blake, Frost, and Ethan. I didn’t know what his plans were other than to use my blood as some kind of fucking vampire sunblock. I didn’t know jack shit other than the fact that if I didn’t submit to his demands, he would hurt them.
“I can think of no logical reason why he’d take the risk of bringing you here,” Ethan said in a tight voice that told me he really didn’t like not knowing the reason.
That made two of us.
“Yeah, because everything else he does is so damned logical?” I hissed. “The bastard thinks my blood is the cure to vampirism, Ethan. Sane and logical are not words I would use to describe this creep.”
“Actually, it’s a valid theory,” Ethan retorted, catching scathing looks of incredulity from the other three of us.
Frost’s face soured. “You’ve got to be shitting me.”
Ethan shook his head.
Blake ran a hand over his dark hair, his near-black gray eyes flashing in the overhead lights. “Man, don’t even say that shit if you aren’t serious.”
“I am,” Ethan said. “It makes sense. I’m not saying he’ll succeed. I definitely wouldn’t be the first to test his theory. But…Azrael might be on to something.”
Now look who drank the kool-aid…
“You had my blood,” I said to Frost. “Did you magically gain the ability to walk in sunlight?”
Frost didn’t hesitate. “No,” he answered. “But it’s not like I tried to.”
Ugh. I rolled my eyes.
“Is this really how we want to spend our three hours? Arguing about something none of us know is actually possible? About the inner workings of a mind that’s over a thousand fucking years old?” I asked the guys, changing the subject before I could get good and riled up about the ridiculousness of the whole ordeal.
The three of them shut up, looking me over as though just seeing me for the first time.
“No,” Blake growled.
“I doubt it would help,” Ethan agreed.
“You aren’t going back with him, Rosie,” Frost’s voice rose above all the others.
I walked back over to him a
nd poked him hard in his big burly chest, I glared up at him. “Oh yes I am, big guy,” I near shouted before I could get control of myself. Once I was able, I laid my palms more gently on his heaving chest and sighed. With a cheeky grin I was sure wouldn’t reach my eyes, I added, “I’ll knock you on your ass myself if you try to attack Azrael. It’ll hurt a lot less than whatever he would do to you.”
Fury sparked in Frost’s gaze.
“Don’t make me do it,” I warned him, wagging a pointed finger.
If I was being honest, I wasn’t entirely sure if I could take Frost. If I got the jump on him, sure. But if he saw it coming, we might be on equal ground. If I compelled him, though…he wouldn’t stand a chance, and he knew it.
My compulsion was stronger than his. And I didn’t have to test that theory to know it was true.
“Rosie,” Frost started, his voice strained.
“It’s alright,” I told him. “If he was going to kill me, he’d have done it already. He wants to keep me safe probably as much as you do.”
Frost wasn’t buying that, but some of the tension leaked out of his stiff shoulders and flexed core.
After a few beats of heavy silence, I shook off the unease and decided to make the most of this little visit. Might as well soak it all up while I can. I would need some good memories to get me through the days ahead to be spent in the cold dark.
“So, this is home?” I asked them as I spun on the spot, taking in the space.
Ethan moved to stand beside me. “The closest thing to it we’ve got.”
The interior of the heritage building was just as beautiful and lavish as the exterior. But in here, it’d been updated to suit the modern era. The door we came through opened up into a large central space with a sleek stainless-steel kitchen far to my left, and the bank of covered windows I’d seen from outside lining the wall to my right. In the middle was a sunken living space with cozy looking couches and low coffee tables. A column ran up through the middle of it with an electric fireplace set into it and a large flat screen mounted above.
A glass desk was pushed against the far wall in a little nook. And between there and the kitchen was a wide hallway that I assumed would lead back to where the bathrooms and bedrooms were.