“That’s brilliant. You mixed magic with weaponry, but you’d have to pay a higher cost to use it, correct?” Cole asked, frowning, and then smiled. “Hence why the curse was worse for you when you used it to save us, even though we didn’t really saving,” he stated matter-of-factly.
“More fool was I for trying to save Rhys because I assumed you were the Van Helsing alpha.”
“You thought I was the Van Helsing alpha? Please tell Rhys that,” he laughed, pulling into the reserved parking spot next to the front of the building.
Cole’s phone rang again, and he smirked, staring at the screen. Answering it, he held up his finger, exiting the car, and came around to open my door. I slipped out of the seat, standing against him. He dropped his mouth against my ear, sucking the lobe between his teeth while I listened to Rhys bitching him out for blindsiding him. Cole pulled the phone away, studying my face before lifting his head, and turning to look behind him.
“I need to call you back, brother. Something is…”
A gunshot echoed in the parking lot. Blood painted my face as I peered through Cole’s chest. I screamed, moving to help him. Something slammed against the side of my head, sending me to the ground as pain rang out through my head. Sobs filled my chest. My body was hit repeatedly by something hard, and solid.
Cole dropped to the ground, lifeless. I curled into the fetal position, groaning as Rhys’s voice echoed through the phone beside me. Another blow caused a scream of pain to escape my lips. Covering the phone with my body, grabbing it, I slipped it into my pocket. I was grabbed and dragged over concrete painfully.
My eyes refused to regain focus, pulsing light into my vision. My head dripped a steady stream of blood from a deep laceration in my forehead. Someone lifted me and tossed me into the trunk of a car. Cole was dropped on top of me, smashing me into the jack that stabbed into my neck. The trunk was slammed closed, and I felt the engine’s vibration as the vehicle peeled out of the parking lot.
It took everything I had to pull the phone from my pocket, lifting it to my still ringing ear. I could barely make out Rhys screaming orders as I whispered.
“Help us,” I pleaded.
“Remington? Are you okay?” he asked with worry etching his words.
“No,” I sobbed. “Help us, Rhys. They shot Cole, and he’s dead,” I cried, covering my mouth with my hand to smother the sobs.
“Tell me what you see around you?”
“The phone is on,” I swallowed. “Find us, Rhys.”
“You’re slurring your words, Remington. How badly are you hurt?”
“Bad… mmm…” I exhaled, losing consciousness as the phone dropped from my hand.
Chapter Thirty
I woke in a barn, chained to two posts with my arms spread, stripped to my panties, soaked in mine, and Cole’s blood. Squinting through my swollen eyes, I found Cole’s body, dumped on a pile of hay beside the corpses of a man and a woman, drained of blood and discarded like rubbish. I could hear the sounds of feeding and rough sex, raping women, and using them for food while they wept and cried out for help.
Turning to face forward, I saw Laura studying me, sitting patiently while waiting for me to regain consciousness. I lifted my head, only for the vampire beside her to punch me in the face again, causing me to cry out as my head jerked to the side. Spitting out the blood in my mouth, I looked down to see blood pouring from knife wounds that covered my body. They had carved me up, sliced me open, and left me to hang in a pool of blood.
“Do you think I’d forgive you? Stupid little whore. No one hurts me and lives,” Laura ground out, her head moving closer. She sank her painful incisors deep into my thigh, causing me to scream. Her bite sent fire burning through my leg as her nails sliced through the flesh she held. Laura pulled away with my blood coating her lips and smiled, “How does it feel to know you’re about to die for what you did to me?” she asked, her eyes glittering with excitement.
I searched for any silver to wield against Laura, but a fist slammed into my jaw, making me focus on the pain. For hours I’d been knocked around, my focus remaining on the pain her companions forced on me. My head dropped forward as consciousness slipped from my grasp. Darkness swelled around me, and then Rhys was there.
“I need you to hang on for me, Love. Can you do that?”
I sobbed, and he lifted his hands, cradling my face as he closed his eyes. In my subconscious thoughts, I was undamaged. I shook my head, not wanting to feel what they were doing to my body.
“Remington, we are close. I will not leave you, but I need to see what you see. Show me who took you. Let me look through your eyes. Open them,” he encouraged, and I did.
I turned to where Cole lay staring at the top of the barn, sightlessly. Next, I showed him the dead couple and the women they tortured as the vampires raped their bodies while shredding through their necks. Peering out the wide barn doors, I looked at the quaint little farmhouse that sat glowing beneath the blazing bonfire outside the barn where the drained bodies burned. Horses bayed, snorting, and kicking in their stalls as they shied away from the vampires.
I focused on Laura, feeling the pain of my body, slowly letting my gaze slide down to it. They had removed my panties and bitten my thighs several more times. I silently looked at the pool of blood at my feet and turned to focus on what else I could show Rhys. The vampire’s fist connected to my face several more times. Something slammed against my side, and I vomited blood into the puddle.
A vampire settled in the blood pool, staring up with an evil smile shining in his eyes, moving closer toward my unprotected sex. Rhys snarled in my head as the vampire’s fang elongated and pushed through the delicate flesh, causing me to let loose a bloodcurdling scream. Pain registered in my mind and sobs filled my chest, hurting my damaged ribs. He pulled away, pushing a sharp nail over my apex’s flesh, slicing through it while laughing at my cries of pain.
“Enough, we don’t want her dead yet. She must die from Cole’s hand when he wakes and feeds so that the feud begins anew. I couldn’t find the others, but I know they’re here. It must look the same as it did in the past.” Laura dragged her nail over her wrist, pushing it against my mouth. I gagged against the coppery taint of blood.
“Drink, you stupid little bitch! I have vowed to renew your family’s feud, and you don’t get to die unless the Van Helsing murders you. When he wakes, his hunger will be insatiable, and he will need to feed to heal. Cole will not be able to resist the feast we have provided and will feed from you until you’re dead. If you’re smart, you’ll use the silver to murder him before he can rape you. Place him next to her and start clearing the corpses. Rhys Van Helsing won’t take long to find this place. He’s a hunter and a damn good one at that. It’s really too bad he thinks this pathetic bitch is his mate, as it’s a waste of his magnificent cock.” Laura leaned down, licking my stomach as her fingers slid through my core. “You can save yourself, but to do it, you’ll have to use the silver I leave behind,” she laughed, reaching for something from the tray beside us, lifting her fingers to her mouth, sucking on something silver.
Laura held three large, shiny balls up in her palms, smirking wickedly before pushing them into my body. I cried out at the size of the Ben Wa Balls, feeling my body clenching to dispel them, but they were too large to come out on their own. I didn’t have the energy left to push them out.
“I do hope you find a better exit than your eyeballs, since I need you to murder Cole, ensuring that everything else will fall into place, Silversmith. Your family has worked hard to remain hidden, but hearing that you were raped and brutalized by a Van Helsing… well, Silversmiths will want Van Helsing blood. Van Helsings will once more hunt down the Silversmiths for sending their dirty little murderous whore in to murder one of their own. History repeating itself at the cost of Cole’s and your life, well, it’s a price I am willing to pay. Van Helsings always go harder when one of their own is needlessly murdered. Roslyn may have moved against them in her greed, bu
t they were not the only ones planning to move against their family. Some of us are tired of the Van Helsings holding us to the same rules. Humans are weak and nothing but food. Yet we are forced to starve, feeding in the shadows. We will rule this world.”
They placed Cole on the ground at my feet. His eyes filled with blackness that stared up at me. His body was healing, which sent relief flowing through me. The vampire slammed his fist into the side of my head again, lowering his body to kiss my thigh as he watched my sex clenching.
“I want to fuck her, My Queen,” he growled, tracing a pattern into my thigh.
“This Silversmith is about to be fucked hard and mercilessly by a demon blinded by his need to feed, to heal. When he feeds, he will push those balls deeper into her cunt, forcing her to pull them out through her body. Just like she did to me, which is a pity to miss since I can’t be here when it happens,” Laura purred. Cole grabbed my leg, his eyes lifting to mine. A deep growl escaped his chest while his focus zeroed in on me with hunger burning in them.
My head dropped as the sound of people moving into the barn echoed until someone screamed. Laura turned, screeching as power erupted around us. A sword cut through the air, and I lifted my eyes to see Rhys. He locked eyes with me and exhaled in relief as he turned, slicing through a vampire that shot toward him. Rhys turned sideways, cutting through another male so quickly that my eyes couldn’t even process the motion.
Ian was tearing vampires apart, using their legs and arms to trip others. Hunter stood in front of the barn doors, holding a small group of vampires on the ground with an invisible grip while they howled and cried tears of blood. Conrad was chewing through vampires as quickly as Acyn could toss them his way, slicing their heads off in midair.
All around me, alphas fought the horde of vampires that seemed to be flooding into the barn. Something grabbed my leg, lifting itself from my thighs to stand before me. Cole’s dark eyes held mine. He leaned forward, pushing against my opening. I screamed, and Nyx appeared, her hand touching Cole.
“I am here, lover. Come feed from me,” she offered, but he didn’t turn toward her. Instead, he continued trying to push into my body until I sobbed, but Rhys was there, pulling him away as Cole spun on him, hissing and growling.
“You’ll kill her, Cole!” Rhys warned, turning to Nyx. “Make that pussy wet, nymph. Get his attention, so I don’t have to murder my baby brother to protect Remington.”
Rhys walked around Cole, his blade held at the ready. Acyn slipped in beside Nyx, pushing his fingers into her pants as my head bobbed. Cole’s head turned, and Rhys slipped his arms around me while someone worked on the chains, releasing my wrists, shredded to the bone, causing me to scream out in pain.
Hunter grunted, reaching around Rhys to place his hand on my shoulder. I was no longer in the barn. The pain subsided to nothing more than a twinge of irritation. I was on a boat in the ocean, and it was peaceful. I peered around at the waves that swept over the ship’s deck. Hunter smiled softly, not speaking while he held my hand, staring into my eyes.
“Ian! I need blood now!” Rhys demanded, though it came from far away. “Her pulse is weakening to a dangerously slow beat. We’re losing her.”
I tasted the coppery tang of blood and Hunter cleared his throat. The taste of copper changed to something sweet and enticing. A glass appeared in my hand, and I held it against my mouth.
“She’s not drinking, Hunter,” Ian uttered. “Drink, woman,” he ordered as if he could demand I drink it even though I wasn’t there.
“It comes with no hidden cost, Silversmith. Just drink it,” Hunter pleaded.
I tipped the cup back, peering down when I felt someone licking my stomach, but I only found Hunter’s fingers tracing where I felt the tongue sliding against my flesh.
“There are too many fucking cuts. Conrad, get the hell over here and help me heal her wounds. She’s losing too much blood, and Ian cannot replace it at the volume she’s losing.”
“Look at me, Remington. They’re helping you heal, and there’s nothing to be afraid of,” Hunter said thickly, staring down my naked body. “Jesus, there’s something inside of her.”
Everyone stopped moving. Hunter removed his hand, and I was back in the barn. Rhys shook his head angrily releasing an exhale as his head leaned against my shoulder. “I’m sorry, Remington. I’m going to need to retrieve whatever they stuck inside you.”
“It’s Ben Wa Balls. They’re too big,” I warned, watching Hunter’s cheek twinge.
“They’re rather large, Van Helsing. You might want to wait until she is in a healing sleep, before forcing her to endure more pain. That area of her body is rather—wounded. I’m afraid to ask what that murderous bitch did to her or allowed to be done before we arrived.” Hunter’s eyes studied mine as tears slipped free to roll down my cheeks.
“She’s good enough to travel,” Rhys announced, lifting me into his arms. I wrapped my arms around his throat tightly. “I have you, Love. Laura will never harm you again.”
“Cole?” I whispered, feeling a sliver of fear.
“Already on his way to the estate with Acyn and Nyx, healing. Acyn will keep Cole from harming Nyx while she feeds him,” he whispered against my ear.
I looked over Rhys’s shoulder, where Ian, Conrad, and Hunter followed closely behind us, and saw the barn explode. It was a sight to see, the head of the alphas walking behind us, guarding us as we escaped a fiery hell. Men were loading the horses into waiting trailers, and Van Helsing knights watched Rhys carry me out, his cloak covering my naked body.
We slid into a waiting car, and the others climbed into the vehicles behind us. Rhys held me tightly against him, and I noted the tremble in his body.
“You knew that if the phone were on, I’d be able to trace it.”
“Yes,” I admitted. “It’s one of the things taught at E.V.I.E.”
“I’m aware. It’s something I slipped into the lessons in case I had to save one of them during capture. I’m glad it helped me find you, Remington. You frightened me, and I don’t intend to allow you out of my sight for a while.”
“The Ben Wa Balls that Laura placed inside of me are silver. She wanted to force me into ripping them from my body to use on Cole to save myself. She did this to start a war between our bloodlines again.”
“Don’t worry about those. You have broken ribs, and tendons torn apart in both of your arms. Your stomach is swollen and you are bleeding internally from the blows you sustained by a wooden bat that was discarded and left beside my favorite car. We healed many of your cuts, stopping most of the bleeding, but some still need attention. You have damage to your face from the repeated strikes to your cheeks and eyes, and you’re slurring your words. You’re going to need to sleep for a while in order to heal the damage. I’ll take care of you, Remington. I’ll remove the balls when you enter your healing sleep. I should have been here.”
“You saved me, and that is all that matters.” My eyes grew heavy. His grunt sounded within my ear as he kissed my shoulder. It was probably the only part of me that wasn’t cut or broken. “Don’t leave me alone when I fall asleep, Rhys. I don’t want to relive this in my nightmares. Stay with me, please?”
“I’ll be right here beside you, Love. Rest, we’re still an hour out from the estate. I won’t let you relive this experience again, even if it means never leaving your side.”
Chapter Thirty-One
I woke to someone washing my skin, and I jerked away from the hands touching me. Rhys held me tightly while Nyx stared at me uneasily. I was in a bathtub, being bathed by my best friend while the man I’d had scrupulously, delicious sex with, held me tightly against his hard body. I shivered, taking in the unmarred skin on my body. Frowning, I watched as Nyx knelt in front of me, exhaling a shuddering breath.
“I told you she would come back if you put her in hot water,” Nyx snorted while rolling her eyes dramatically. “You asshole,” Nyx said, glaring at me, “have had us all terrified that Laura broke th
at brilliant brain of yours.”
I tried to speak, but my mouth was parched. Nyx jumped, moving to the pitcher of water she’d had waiting beside the tub. I accepted the glass, downing the contents, before asking for more. Turning my head, I peered up at the IV pole attached to a bag of saline that sat beside the bathtub. I followed the tube to where it connected to my arm and groaned.
“How long have I been out?” I asked, and she dropped her eyes, pursing her lips together tightly until a white line formed over her mouth. “How long, Nyx?”
“A little over a month,” she admitted softly. “You had some pretty extensive damage to your body, vital organs, and brain. To put it in a nutshell, Rhys murdered three doctors who said to take you to the farm and put you out of your misery.”
“You murdered doctors?” I asked, resting my head against him, hearing his deep exhale while he brushed his lips over my shoulder, kissing it gently.
“Only the ones who wouldn’t save you,” he admitted softly. “Nyx, tell the physician who lived, that Remington is awake and speaking. Have him standing by outside the room to examine her. I’ll finish her bath,” Rhys ordered.
Nyx hesitated, watching me. “You promised not to leave me alone. Do you have any idea how terrifying it was to walk outside and smell your blood mixed with Cole’s? There was blood splattered all over the car and ground beside it, but we couldn’t find a trail anywhere. It just vanished, and I was alone and terrified!”
“I was in a trunk,” I whispered, coughing. Nyx rushed forward with more water, staring over my shoulder.
“Stuff it, Van Helsing. She’s my person, and I almost lost her. That shit messes with a girl’s head, and I haven’t reached an orgasm since. Cole ate me for an entire week, and still no orgasm! Although, that was the hottest thing I have ever been through in my entire life.”
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