Devil's Cut: Immortal Keeper Vampire Paranormal Romance Series

by L. A. McGinnis

  “How will you get word to me?”

  “You’ll know,” he said with a churlish snort, right before he vanished. I watched him reappear in front of the smoking guard, who dropped his cigarette. A few words between them and then Cade disappeared through the front gates. Then I waited. And waited.

  A flash of fire exploded from a window, and I heard the crack of the blast a second later, strong enough that I felt it in my chest. The glow gilded the forest in yellow light.

  Forge. Selena’s voice echoed in my head. I’m here.

  Reaching her was my only thought, and without hesitation, I materialized.

  30

  When we arrived, the Elder didn’t waste any time.

  The hood over my head, I was led to a room where a man, a vampire, was chained to a metal chair bolted to the stone floor. I averted my eyes the second I saw him. He was naked, and had been tortured, in awful ways that I couldn’t—and didn’t—want to imagine.

  One of the bodyguards grabbed his hair and pulled his head up so he was looking at me, while the other one maneuvered me roughly into place in front of him. The chained vampire had been beaten so badly that both eyes were swollen shut, and dried blood matted his hair.

  Brandon leaned against the wall, bracing his unsteady legs, but his eyes were bright as he surveyed the scene.

  “Can I trust him?” the Elder asked, gliding into the room, showing his yellow teeth in an eager grimace that probably passed for a smile around here. “Or did he betray me?”

  “I…” My mouth snapped shut as I realized this was my test. Maybe my only one. If I failed, not only would I be dead, but Holloway as well. If I was successful, this guy would die. “Fine,” I said, thinking of ways I could keep all of us alive. “I’ll do it. But it takes some time for me to get a feel for his thoughts—especially if there’s been…damage.”

  Actually, the poor guy was easy to read. Pain, pain and more pain. I pushed past the waves of agony to what was left of his addled brain. I didn’t mean to… I tried… He hadn’t betrayed anyone, but he’d failed the Elder, and I supposed, in his book, that counted as deception.

  “He’s in too much pain for me to read him,” I said flatly. “Next time, I suggest you leave me something to work with.” I was sick as I said it, but passing the buck to someone else was the only way around this impossible situation.

  “Kill him,” the Elder ordered his bodyguards dispassionately. “Unless you’d like to change your story?”

  I shook my head. If I told them what I’d seen, then they’d kill him anyway.

  The guard’s hand was poised at the vampire’s throat, ready to rip it out, I supposed, when the entire room rocked back and forth, a cloud of gravel and dust showering us. I went down, as did Brandon and one of the guards.

  Forge, I thought as loudly as I could. I’m here.

  “Get outside and see what’s happening,” the Elder snarled, turning on his heel. “Lock the door behind us.” He disappeared through the door, locking me, Brandon and the half-conscious vampire in together. With no windows in this room, I prayed the power held out.

  Forge, I half screamed in my head. Where are you?

  Right here, Selena. I’m coming. Hold on.

  For the first time in hours, relief flooded through me. He was close enough to hear me, and just that little bit of knowledge caused tears to flood my eyes. I sniffed, and Brandon looked at me suspiciously.

  “Dust,” I told him, wiping the tears with my sleeve. “It gets to me every time.”

  “Why did they lock me in here with you?” Brandon whined. “I should be outside.”

  Surprise, big brother, you are nothing but a loose end. I hooked my fingers around the door handle and yanked, but it wouldn’t budge. The smell of acrid smoke seeped beneath the door, along with a puff of black. Looking around, I was comforted by the fact everything was stone, so maybe we wouldn’t burn to death.

  The light overhead flickered slightly, smoke now swirling around it. The table in the corner was heaped with junk, but the shiny silver keys looked like they might belong to the shiny chains holding the vampire to the chair. I found a tattered blanket and laid it on the floor next to him, then fumbled with the keys and the locks until I worked his hands and ankles free.

  “Help me with him,” I told Brandon, my hands on the vampire’s shoulders.

  “Do it yourself,” my brother retorted, pacing the length of the small room. “I have to get out of here.” He was getting jittery, which meant the drugs were wearing off. Pretty soon he’d realize he wasn’t as useful as he thought, and then he’d panic. I so didn’t want to be around for that.

  I half dumped the poor guy onto the blanket, but at least he was free. Kneeling down beside him, I whispered softly, “If you can, you need to materialize out of here. I won’t be able to get you out of here. I’m sorry.”

  Brandon’s incessant pacing stopped. “Since when do you care about some piece-of-shit vampire more than you care about your own family?”

  “I don’t have a family anymore. You made sure of that.”

  “Oh, now you’re going to have a pity party over Dad? He’d had a stroke—his days were numbered anyway.”

  All I could do was stare. When had he become so evil, or had he been born that way? “Shut up, Brandon, before I do something stupid.” I drew a steadying breath. “You stole Dad’s life, and in turn, mine as well. Because you are a selfish little bastard.” I lifted my eyes to his. “And when the Elder finally kills you, I hope I’m there to see it.”

  The second I reappeared, I heard Selena again. Forge. Where are you?

  I landed right in the middle of the chaos, thick smoke rolling down the stairs and a clearly panicked guard hitting me in the chest, driving me into the stone wall. There was no sign of Cade, and the guard and I grappled for a moment before I threw him off me and headed for the steps. The explosion had come from the third level, so that was where I’d find Cade.

  I fought my way upward through the smoke, leaving bodies in my wake, looking for any sign of Selena.

  “Who the fuck are you?” I’d barely crested the top step when both of the posted guards converged on me. A knife sank deeply into my side as fangs tore at my other shoulder, instantly drenching me with blood. I feinted right, plowing through the cartilage in the guard’s chest until my hand closed around his heart. I dropped it to the floor as I faced the other guard, but Cade got there first, snapping his neck with an audible pop.

  “Better late than never,” he said, his cool eyes raking me over. “No sign of your human, though.”

  Where are you? I shouted through the bond.

  In a locked room. In the basement, maybe. I couldn’t see.

  “Basement?” I shouted to Cade. “Where is it?”

  “Three levels down.” He gestured toward the stairs. “You’ll have to walk—everything is reinforced with steel, so there’s no materializing. Locks are all copper.”

  I killed everything in my way as I took the steps three at a time, so focused on Selena that I didn’t even take the time to make sure my enemies were dead, only to keep moving toward her.

  31

  I was trying the door again when it opened, throwing me halfway across the room.

  Brandon was still whining about how he’d been shortchanged, and the beaten vampire was groaning in pain when the Elder and his henchmen flew through the door then slammed it shut behind them. Not quickly enough. I glimpsed the utter chaos outside, vampires rushing through the hall, smoke billowing along the ceiling.

  Brandon stepped toward them, on the verge of asking a question when the Elder snapped. Faster than I could see, before I could even scream a warning, he was at Brandon’s throat. The wet, ripping sound made me squeeze my hands over my ears, and then he dropped my brother’s body to the floor before he advanced on me, his eyes glowing, his words low.

  “Now. Tell me where that bastard is.”

  After that, everything happened so quickly.

  Bastian
materialized out of nothingness, surrounded by so many shadows that he looked like a winged avenger. He took one long look at me and vanished, reappearing behind one guard, then the next, disappearing before their bodies hit the floor.

  The next thing I knew, I was behind him, blocked from the blood, the bodies on the floor and the Elder, who showed his displeasure with a long hiss.

  “Impossible,” the Elder screamed, his face going blue. “You can’t materialize in here.”

  “Old dog, new tricks,” Bastian said mildly, his hand finding mine and giving it a reassuring squeeze before it dropped to his side, his fingers curling in readiness. “You’d know that if you cared to keep up with the times.”

  The same sort of shadows that swirled around Bastian surrounded the Elder, almost masking his gloating smile. “I should have killed you all those years ago.”

  Bastian said nothing in response, but something shuddered through him—surprise, maybe—before he pushed me backward as the Elder’s shadows shot forward and closed around him. My back struck the wall, harder than he’d probably intended, driving the breath out of me as I doubled over. When I was able to rise, Bastian was stock-still, bound—like he had bound Dobson—and unable to move.

  “But now is as good a time as any,” the Elder said, gliding forward, his fangs descending. The shadows were so dense that I could hardly even see Bastian now, his face disappearing from view as I watched in desperation.

  I scrambled to reach Bastian, but the darkness kept me at bay, as if there were an invisible wall between us. He let out a low moan, and I clawed at it until my fingertips bled, but there was no getting through it.

  Run, Selena. Run and find Cade. He’ll get you out of here.

  “No,” I said, my hands scrambling against the Elder’s magic. “I’m not leaving.”

  Please. You won’t get another chance.

  I couldn’t break through the magic, but I might be able to break through the bastard’s mind. I just had to want it badly enough. I hit his shield like a ram, the thing reverberating from my blow, and the old vampire stumbled back a step, then another as I continued my assault, not giving him an opportunity to shore up his defenses.

  The second I found a crack, I pried it open and stabbed my consciousness through it, my only intention to hurt him as badly as he was hurting Bastian. A trickle of black blood ran from his nostril, more blooming in one clouded eye.

  Encouraged, I pressed harder, deeper, driving into his consciousness with a brutality I hadn’t thought I possessed. Within the shadows, Bastian groaned, and I felt a flicker of him in my head, helping shore up my own defenses, protecting me, just like he always did.

  The Elder was breathing hard now, his shadows slipping enough that I saw Forge’s face, bruised and bloodied, and pushed again. Something snapped within the Elder, some invisible barrier, and he went to his knees, blood spurting from seemingly everywhere as Forge reappeared.

  One step and his hands were around the old vampire’s head—a sharp twist, and his neck snapped every bit as easily as Brandon’s. I sank to the floor, hands to my aching head as Bastian gathered me up. Selena. I thought…

  “Are you all right?” he asked, his voice beyond gentle, but a hint of anger still vibrated beneath his calm words. Anger that wasn’t directed at me, but at what had happened. Almost happened.

  I could have lied. I usually did lie. “No,” I said. “I’m not.” Admitting it broke something inside me, and I sobbed, clutching Bastian’s shirt.

  Bastian slid his arms around me, holding me tight. For a long time, we sat there together, my eyes tightly closed, my face buried in Bastian’s chest as I tried to block everything out.

  “I never wanted to believe he was this evil,” I finally said, knowing he knew exactly who I was talking about. “If the Elder hadn’t killed him”—I swallowed, the words like bile in my mouth—“I think I might have. I know I wanted to.”

  “If I could take this all away,” Bastian murmured into my hair, “if I could do that for you, I would. I hate seeing you like this, and knowing there’s nothing I can do to change it.”

  I sank deeper into his arms. “You already have.”

  The door crashed open, startling the half-dead vampire, who curled into a ball.

  “Oi,” Cade shouted. “There’s guards to be killed, and I’m the only one doing the work while you’re sitting in here on your arse.”

  “How…are you alive?” My voice faltered as I remembered Bastian ordering me to find Cade. “Are you helping us?”

  “If doing all the work is helping, then yes.”

  “But I thought you were dead?”

  Cade snorted. “It’ll take more than this lightweight to kill me.”

  “He threw the fight, of course,” Forge said with a wink, as Cade glowered at the both of us. “You don’t actually think I could beat him in a fair fight?”

  Cade shrugged, his shoulders bunching. “We had our share of go-arounds when we were pups, but Forge’s right—he fights too clean for me. No eye-gouging for the high and mighty Forge.” Cade pursed his lips as he looked at us. “Of course, now that the Elder’s dead, it leaves this fine establishment up for grabs.”

  Bastian shook his head, holding me tighter. “I don’t want any part of this. How about you?”

  “I could get used to this. Been living rough for too long now.” Cade surveyed our surroundings with a sour look on his face. “Redecorating will be in order.”

  “I’d say so,” Bastian said, a touch of his humor returning. “But don’t look at me. You’re on your own.” He paused. “My only request—”

  “Ah, now we’re making requests.”

  “—would be to have my privileges restored.” He gave me a hard squeeze. “I’d like to have my distillery back, and my land.”

  “It’s all yours,” Cade said with a wave of his hand. “So long as you help me whip these bastards into shape and back me for Elder.”

  32

  We left Cade in charge of the clusterfuck at the castle, as Selena had started calling it, and headed for my plane. We’d be in Philadelphia by sunrise. As keen as I was to set down roots in Scotland again, I didn’t think she’d be half as eager, not after tonight.

  “We’re going home,” I said firmly, surveying her frozen face, the lingering shock and fear. “Then you can decide what comes next.”

  “I have no idea,” she whispered, her voice hoarse. “I don’t even know…where to start with all of this.”

  She’d been quiet the entire ride, but she hadn’t let go of me either, her hands wrapped around my arm like vises, her face pale. Her brother… If I agreed with Selena about anything, it was his death. Not that death would erase everything he’d done to her. Taken from her.

  “In time,” I said carefully, unsure how she’d take this, when the pain was so fresh, “you will come to terms with what he did. Not forgive him, but learn to deal with it, so it does not hurt so badly.”

  “I don’t know…maybe,” she whispered. “I was so surprised to see him, leaning against the Rover, looking exactly like the last time I saw him. I thought… For a split second, I thought he was a ghost. Then I knew.”

  Brandon Langston had been the one I was tracking the morning I’d left her alone, but I didn’t think mentioning that right now would soothe any of her wounds.

  “For years I tried to make him into a victim, I suppose. To cut him slack for his shortcomings, excuse his behavior. But the things he said about Dad…about me…there was something wrong with him, Bastian, something terribly wrong. And he didn’t even know it.”

  We stopped in front of the plane, and I reached over and smoothed her hair back, then tipped her face up so she was looking in my eyes. “You can’t fix other people, Selena. You couldn’t have stopped him even if you’d tried.”

  “I know. But…now I know how Dad felt, all those times he tried. Hopeless.”

  I ushered her into the plane, Selena moving as if she was in a trance, never letting go of me. N
ot even when we were safely inside. She was a mess, we both were, but I was more concerned about what was going on in her head than her appearance at the moment.

  Selena. Look at me.

  There was an empty bleakness in her eyes, a hopelessness that was so at odds with her usual fire that I smoothed her hair back again. Just so I could keep touching her.

  Oh, Bastian. She leaned further into me, and I folded her against my chest, my arms crossed over her back. Her fear was a sour tang in the air, but her trembling had stopped. Mostly.

  I can’t stop thinking about it. All the blood, my brother…the vampire. She pulled away from me. Did you get him out? I told him we’d…

  Cade is taking care of it right now. He’ll get him home safely.

  Good. She closed her eyes and sank against me. Good.

  I did something I’d never done before, and I hoped to never do again. I settled us into the nearest seat and touched her forehead lightly with my lips. Sleep, I told her silently. Sleep, and it will go away for a while.

  Once again, I woke up on a plane in Bastian’s arms. When he’d become Bastian to me and not Forge, I couldn’t tell, but he was different now. We were different.

  The last thing I remembered was falling asleep, my slumber so deep that even the bloodstained images of Scotland didn’t penetrate the fog. I lifted my head, and my cheek peeled away from his shirt. “Ugh,” I murmured. “We need to get cleaned up.”

  “We do,” he agreed, not loosening his arms. “But you needed rest more than you needed a shower.”

  “Maybe so. But…” I lifted my hand, dirty and caked with dried blood where my nails had torn off. “Oh my, that looks…bad.” Now that I was awake, I was aware of how my body ached. My very bones seemed to hurt.

  “I didn’t mean to push you so hard,” Bastian said sheepishly. “I only thought of getting you away from the Elder’s magic before he captured us both.”