by K.N. Lee
He continued. “But I am glad that you made it out of the Netherworld safely.”
Koa dared to smile. “I am glad that you made it out as well. I was worried about you.”
Halston rested his gaze on her. His old mischievous smile hid in the corners of his mouth. “How many times have I told you not to worry about me? I am your boss. You’re not mine. Leave the worrying to me.”
Koa twirled the ends of her hair and nodded. “Yes, I forgot. Sometimes it’s hard. That’s why I prefer for you not to leave me like that. Don’t do it again.”
Silence stretched between the two as Halston looked her over and seemed to mull over her words. The silence wasn’t an awkward one. They were comfortable within it. They didn’t need words to fill in the blanks. They both seemed to know what needed to be said. And yet, neither said the obvious.
Koa began to wonder if it really was that obvious. “You won’t leave me again, will you?” She sat on her hands, anxious for an answer.
Halston cracked his knuckles and sucked in a breath. “Yes, actually. I have to. I need to head to headquarters soon.”
Koa came to her feet. She raised a brow. “Viktor?”
Halston nodded. His eyes landed on her and she felt encouraged to come closer. And so she did. She crossed the space between them and stood directly before him. She felt bold. She felt fear.
He reached out to touch her and Koa saw the fear in his own eyes. She held her breath. When he withdrew his hand, her chest deflated. All of the pent up anticipation vanished.
“Take me with you,” Koa blurted. She took his hand in hers and pressed his palm to her face. She was tired of waiting and wondering.
Halston’s eyes widened. Koa tilted her head to rest her cheek in the palm of his hand. It was warm. She missed his warmth. His touch wasn’t cold like Jax’s.
Koa refused to let him look away. To her surprise, he didn’t. He raised his other hand and cupped the base of her head. Koa held her breath and closed her eyes as Halston rested his forehead against hers.
“I can’t take you with me, Koa,” Halston whispered.
Koa lowered her voice as well. “Why? Is it because Viktor doesn’t like me?”
“No. Viktor doesn’t like anyone really,” Halston assured her. “He barely likes me, and we’re brothers.”
Koa looked up at him. She wrapped both arms around his waist and buried her face in his chest. “Please, Halston. I don’t think I can handle being away from you again. I’ll worry too much.”
Halston laughed softly. He took her by the shoulders and held her out at arm’s length. He smirked. He stroked her cheek. “What did I tell you about worrying about me?”
Koa smirked as well. “What did I tell you about leaving me?”
Halston sighed. His smile faded and he folded his hands behind him and turned away.
Koa’s hands dropped to her sides in disappointment. She hated it when he turned his back on her. And so, she walked up to stand beside him. They both looked back at the old church.
She thought of the catacombs below. Dark. Creepy. Quiet. Jax and Evina would be safe from the sun there. They were probably sound asleep by now, preparing for the night ahead.
Koa’s brows furrowed. She realized that she still hadn’t slept. She wondered if she would be able to do so now that she knew that Halston was all right.
“I’m not leaving right away, Koa. There are a few things I need to take care of before I leave for Egypt. You can come with me.”
Koa’s eyes brightened. “Yes, I’ll go anywhere. What do we have to do?”
Halston sighed. “We need to warn Lexi of Greggan’s arrival.”
Koa’s smile faded. “Why? Is she in danger?”
Halston shook his head. “I don’t think so, but she is Greggan’s sire. He’s sure to come for her. And she knows too much about you.”
“Her loyalty to me is nothing compared to her loyalty to her master.”
“I know,” he said. “But we can try. I also want to make sure the humans there will be safe from what Greggan has planned.”
“I was just there, and Lexi didn’t come when I requested her,” Koa said as she thought of how odd that was. One of the Wryn clan’s leaders, Lexi had a crush on Koa and always spoke to her whenever she spent time in her castle.
Halston’s jaw clenched. “Maybe he’s already gotten to her.”
“All right,” Koa said. She checked that her sword was in its baton state at her side. “Let’s go tonight. Let’s not waste any more time.”
Halston stroked her cheek. Koa instantly felt warm all over at his touch.
“There’s that fire I missed,” Halston said softly. He withdrew his hand and checked his watch. In an instant he went back to being an authority figure.
“Tonight then. Let me brief the others first.”
Koa stood there and watched as Halston started back for the church. She sat on the ground and smoothed the spot on her cheek where Halston had touched her. A smile came to her face. There was so much to do. They needed to kill Bund, Greggan, and break her mother’s curse, but Koa decided to add one more thing to that list. She and Halston would be together.
Whether he knew it yet or not.
Part II
Netherworld
Enemies
19
“Tell me,” Greggan began. He touched the rich velvet drapes and examined the tapestries. When he turned back, Lexi was on her knees, a blank look on her face. Silver barbed wire was wrapped around her neck but she did not flinch. She was indeed stronger than he had anticipated.
That made Greggan proud. She was one of his first sires, one of the first humans to whom he had passed the vampire strain in the ancient times.
Greggan remembered those wonderful days as if they had just happened moments ago. He was a young vampire back then. Young and full of ambition. He’d been free to roam the night and feast on human blood whenever he pleased. That is, until the angels came and forced them back into the Netherworld.
The Netherworld was created to give the vampires a home of their own, but to Greggan it had always felt like a prison. That’s what it really was. While most of the nephilim had been vanquished by the great flood in Noah’s time, the vampires and the other races found salvation in that very prison.
He sat down in his chair and rubbed his temples. His eyes looked across the room at Lexi. She was stoic.
“What do you know about the half-blood?”
Lexi didn’t hesitate. She couldn’t if she wanted to. As his sire, she could never hide anything from him. She looked up and her eyes watered for the first time. Greggan lifted a brow. After all of the torture, it was mention of Koa that made her resolve falter.
Lexi cleared her throat. She found a spot on the wall and fixated her dark brown-eyed gaze on it. She refused to look at Greggan while she betrayed a friend.
“She’s filthy rich,” Lexi began softly. “She used to live in France, but moved here only weeks ago. I don’t know where she lives now. She comes about once a month to Wryn Castle to feed from her pet.”
“Who is her pet?” Greggan interrupted.
Lexi shrugged. She flicked a worried look at him and looked away almost too quickly for him to notice. “Just an American girl. No one special.”
Greggan nodded. “Come now, everything about the half-blood is special to me. Don’t be shy. Tell me, do you know where this American girl is?”
Lexi swallowed. She shook her head of mahogany brown curls. “I do not know where she is, Master. Koa set her up with a new home somewhere in the city of London.”
Greggan motioned for Trinity to come from his post against the exit. Trinity walked forward. He was a large Scath, cloaked in black to hide his hideous features. He had patches over both of his eyes. He stood behind Lexi and yanked her head back by a handful of her hair. To his surprise, Lexi did not struggle or cry out. She took the pain like a warrior.
“What is her name? And do not think to hide anything from me.”
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“Lindley Price,” Lexi said through clenched teeth.
“What does she look like?”
Lexi dared to glare at him, even with her neck strained and her head held back. Greggan could see her veins pulsing with restrained anger.
“Why? What does it matter? She has nothing to do with anything.”
Greggan made a signal to Trinity. Trinity pulled Lexi down to the floor, straddled her, and held a wooden stake over her heart.
Lexi paled. She swallowed and looked up at the ceiling. She knew that unlike her Netherworld ancestors, she was a New World vampire, one that was once human and turned… not born with the vampire trait. And that meant that once staked, she would not recover from such a fatal blow.
Trinity ripped the front of her black collared button-down blouse, exposing her full breasts. He pressed the sharp end of the stake into her milky white chest.
“Pardon my outburst, Master. She is about five-foot-three, blonde bob, blue eyes, Southern American accent, petite, pretty.”
Greggan nodded to Trinity. “Track her and bring her to me. Alive.”
Trinity stood and left the room as silently as he had appeared. Greggan watched him vanish like a shadow. He drank a cup of fresh blood and watched Lexi lying on the floor. Trinity’s appearance was effective. She was clearly too frightened to move.
He ran his finger around the rim of the cup and watched her chest rise and fall with her breaths.
“Get up,” Greggan called with a tug of the silver wire that was wrapped around her neck.
She screeched as the wire tightened with the force with which he pulled her. She was brought to her feet by his tug alone.
His interest was sparked when he saw her mascara drip onto her cheeks. He’d made her shed tears.
He pulled her closer and closer until she was right before him. Her thighs stopped at his knees. She rubbed her eyes roughly with the back of her hand and breathed deeply. She avoided eye contact.
Greggan was almost disappointed that he had broken such a stoic vampire clan leader so quickly. It was amazing what forcing an individual to face their mortality could do.
Greggan sat up and put a hand on each side of her slim waist. Her silk blouse rested on his knuckles as he ran a hand across her belly.
He pulled her into his lap and she let out a little whimper.
“You’re a quick learner, Alexis Cabane.” He chewed on her soft skin with his teeth, leaving puncture marks on her breasts.
Lexi looked up at the ceiling with fresh tears in her eyes. She nodded. “Thank you, Master.”
“Good. After we’re done here, I need you to make me a list of every vampire clan in the country.”
All the vitality had drained from her face. She was nothing more than a slave now, and she knew it. “Yes, Master.”
20
When they went back inside, Halston was no longer a friend, but Koa’s boss. In front of the others, he would never be anything more than that. He simply nodded to the others and sat in front of his computer station. Everyone turned silent and watched him, waiting for him to say something.
Koa sat on the counter top and watched him, just like the others. The tension in the room was palpable. They wanted to know what they had been brought there for. What was the next move for this team of supernatural agents and soldiers?
“Halston,” Alice called.
Halston held a hand up, silencing her. He went back to playing around with his computer system. There were five different flat computer screens encircling him, and he seemed to be studying each of them simultaneously.
Alice rolled her eyes. “Oh yes, you’re in deep thought. Pardon.”
They watched him, as patiently as they could until he stopped typing, swirled around on the swivel chair, and faced them.
He folded his hands in his lap and gave them each a look.
His gaze landed on Jax. His face was unreadable. “Jax, tell us about your latest prophecy.”
“A grand ball.”
Everyone but Koa kept a serious face. Koa laughed. “Why is that relevant to our plan?”
Halston unfolded his hands and put them on the arms of his chair. “Because Jax is a prophet. Every dream he has is important to our plan.”
Koa made a face. “But a ball? Really?”
Jax nodded. “Yes, grand ball, like the one my father threw when you were presented to us. With vampires and humans together as equals. Except he isn’t the one throwing the ball. He is not invited, and yet, he will be there.”
Halston came to his feet, and made a perplexed face. “So he’s crashing parties now?”
No one replied. It was apparent that he was asking himself that question.
“Not what I expected, but it’s something we can work with.”
Koa hopped off the counter top. “What are you thinking? Wryn Castle?”
Halston shrugged. “It could be at one of the many clan castles. Wryn seems the most likely.”
“We need to warn Lexi and the others then,” Koa said.
“Good thing we already planned on paying Lexi a visit. Are you ready?”
Koa nodded. “Yes.”
“He’ll likely exterminate them, and assert himself owner of their territory.” Halston checked his infinity gun. He charged it by feeding some of his angelic glow to it.
“But Lexi and the others, they never harmed anyone. They set up a system that keeps vampires fed and humans alive,” Koa explained. “The system works, it has for centuries. How can Greggan come along and ruin it?”
“Koa, do you think he really cares about this ‘system’?” Alice asked softly.
Evina shook her head. “Father cares about nothing, except being on top. The vampires up here, the turned ones, they are inferior to him. They are children and he is their father. The vampires up here carry part of our bloodline,” Evina explained. “To King Greggan, they are his property, and if they don’t cooperate, he will not think twice about killing them all.”
“Who is King Greggan?” Ian asked. He looked alarmed. “He’s going to kill Lexi and the other Wryn members?”
Koa walked over to him and sat on the arm of the sofa. She put an arm around his shoulder. She suddenly realized that she had put him in danger by turning him. She had inevitably put Ian on the wrong side of this war. Her stomach churned with dread. She touched his cheek. Ian was no longer warm. He was as cold as ice.
“I warned you about going there, Koa.” Halston sighed and nodded to Ian. “Now we have a baby vamp to look after, amongst everything else on our plate.”
“I had to do it, or he would have died.”
Halston lifted a brow. “Always an excuse.”
Koa bit her tongue. She understood that Halston had to be the authority figure. She didn’t want to be insubordinate in front of everyone. She just hated being scolded. She would keep quiet now and address it in private later.
To her surprise, Spoons arrived. Koa watched him from the window of the church. The ghoul refused to come inside, so Halston and Alice had to go out to speak with him. It was still dark out and the upper level of the church was without electricity.
The ghoul was interesting to Koa. She’d seen them before, but Spoons was different. For a ghoul, he seemed to function at a slightly higher level. The fact that Alice was able to convince him to work with them was impressive.
Ghouls had no allegiance, no loyalty, and yet this one was tracking Greggan and his crew for them. She wanted to go out there and hear what he had to say, but Halston had her stay inside. So Koa trusted him, and waited.
Just as quickly as Spoons had arrived, he transformed into a ragged jackal and ran off into the dark woods. Koa leaned back on her heels at the sight. She’d never seen a ghoul do that before. Alice shot into the sky and Halston came back towards the church.
Halston opened the door and peeked inside. “Come on.”
Koa nodded gleefully. She was ready for action. She ran to the door and slipped through with a quick wave to the others
.
Once outside, Halston reached a hand out. She looked at it and a smile crept onto her lips. She took the hand and he gave her small hand a squeeze. “You handled yourself well in there,” he said.
Koa laughed and slid her hand out of his. She leapt into the sky. “You underestimate me, Halston!”
He peered up at her and smiled. With a blast of air, he met her in the sky.
She was exhilarated. They hadn’t flown together in ages. He motioned for her to follow, and together they made their way high into the clouds where they could fly undetected. The cool wind wrapped around her as if welcoming her back. She sucked in a cleansing breath. It felt good.
The Wryn clan needed her. A good friend needed her. Koa was eager to actually be of some use again. She was happy to have her Halston back.
21
They flew for what felt like hours and Koa realized just how long it had been since she’d slept. Still, her adrenaline pumped through her veins and kept her awake. She was ready. She could sense the danger and it thrilled her. With Halston anything was possible, and she feared absolutely nothing.
She almost forgot the severity of the situation as they flew through the night sky towards Wryn Castle. The wind swept through her hair as she tried to keep up with Halston. They flew high above the clouds, where no one would see them. Koa sniffed the air as she flew. The clouds were dark and she could smell rain.
Koa smiled. She didn’t want this time together to end. Jax was left behind with his sister and Tristan. She was glad for a small break from him. She needed to figure out exactly what she wanted and how she felt about him.
One thing was certain. She loved Halston, no matter what. That certainty gave her a sense of freedom. As they flew closer towards Wryn Castle, Halston began to slow his speed. He paused and hovered in the air. He held a hand out for Koa.