by Cynthia Eden
Like she hadn’t already had the same fear.
“I was the one who ordered his poisoning. That’s what it is, you see. A poison. Jane’s blood…Aidan was a fool to give her his blood before her change. It just made the vamp power in her even stronger. So strong that now her blood can transform anyone, even a werewolf.”
“You were the one watching Jane, all along.”
He shrugged. “I hired a dumbass human to keep an eye on her…then to see how she was developing. I also used him to administer the poison to Paris there. After all, I needed a good test subject.”
Paris’s hold tightened on Annette.
“Paris has certainly proven that this little experiment is successful. Jane’s poison can transform werewolves.” He stepped closer to the line of dirt, but didn’t cross it. “Do you know what that means?”
She did. “The end…of the werewolves.” She clearly saw what he wanted, what he’d been aiming for all along.
Vincent nodded. “They’ll become vampires. Werewolves will cease to exist. The fucking beasts that destroyed my family…werewolves…they’ll be gone. Wiped from the earth never to appear again.”
She felt the hot stir of Paris’s breath along her neck.
“Unless you were born to be a vampire,” Vincent murmured. “You have very little control. Paris was fucked from the word go. A lost soul, ready to turn the streets red with blood. Soon, I’ll have an army just like him. Werewolf power and vamp bloodlust. We’re going to change the world. Humans will live in fear and finally, finally, it will be the hour of the vampire. We’ll dominate the way nature always intended.”
It wasn’t nature. It was his screwed up plan.
“It’s not going to happen,” she whispered even as Paris’s teeth raked over her throat. “Help will come. Jane and Aidan will stop—”
“I saw Aidan, right before I came here tonight. He’s the best part of this little plan, you see. He showed me what happens to an alpha. His beast is too strong to die during the transformation into a vamp…so the vamp and the beast fight inside of him, and from what I saw, that fight was ripping away the last of his humanity.” He smiled at her. “Newly turned vamps often feed on those closest to them. Family members. Friends. Lovers. I saw Aidan. He was on the edge. And Jane, lovesick fool that she is…she ran after him.” Vincent’s head tilted as he studied Annette. “He’ll try to make a meal of her, and Jane…well, she’ll have no choice but to fight back. She’ll kill him.” He turned away. “Just as Paris is about to kill you.”
She tried to slip from Paris’s hold, but he just held her tighter. “What if Aidan kills Jane? Aren’t you worried about that? Then you’ll lose your precious poison! This will all be over and—”
“I have Paris now. He has Jane’s blood mutation. He’ll spread the poison. I’ll give it to his whole pack. They will fall.” He kept walking. “I hope it doesn’t hurt you too much when he bites.”
She felt the prick of pain as Paris’s mouth opened wider on her.
Vincent paused at the door and looked back at her. His lips twisted. “Oh, who am I fucking kidding? I hope it hurts like a bitch, voodoo queen. I hope your last moments are agony and hell.”
Then he left her.
She shoved her hand down into her bag, her hand fisting over the wooden stake inside. She didn’t want to do this. Not to Paris. “Don’t,” she whispered.
Don’t make me end you. Please, don’t. Not to you. Not—
But his teeth slid away from her skin. Once more, she felt the hot stir of his breath against her neck. “Not to you,” he whispered, as if echoing her thoughts.
And he spun her in his arms so that she faced him. Annette stared up at Paris and she saw his clear gaze. Not filled with bloodlust, just…Paris.
“Had to make it…look good,” he muttered.
He had, definitely.
“I’m me.” He swallowed. “Don’t know how long it will last…but I’m me.”
Yes, yes!
“So, love, let’s think fast,” Paris said. “And figure a way out of this fucking nightmare.”
Chapter Seventeen
“Never do this shit again,” Aidan whispered as he brushed a kiss over Jane’s lips. They were upstairs in his office and she’d just dressed in the last spare pair of clothes he had for her.
Aidan made a mental note to buy the woman more clothes to keep on hand at his club—lots of them—because he seemed to keep ripping her outfits to shreds.
Jane turned toward him, one brow raised. “What shit? You’d definitely better not be talking about the sex…”
His hand wrapped around her waist and he pulled her close, bending to press a quick kiss to her lips. Making love, sweetheart. You taught me that. “I mean you, risking your life, when I’ve gone over the fucking edge.”
“But don’t you see, Aidan? I’d go over the edge with you, any day.”
She would, she had.
He kissed her again. Then he put his forehead against hers. Time for some hard truth. “I lost myself.” He knew it. “I was being ripped apart and I couldn’t stop it. I wanted pain. I wanted blood. I wanted death.” That shamed him.
“But you didn’t kill anyone…though you will owe your guard a serious apology bonus for that slice you gave him.”
Aidan winced. Dammit, he hadn’t meant—
“You came back.” Her voice was soft. “Whatever was happening on the inside, you beat it. You’re strong and you’re sane and you’re here with me.” Her smile made his heart ache. “Just the way it’s supposed to be.”
He could stare at her smile forever.
But….
Her smile slipped. “We have to go and talk to Drew. I have to settle things with him.” She pulled from his arms.
And he felt colder. “I was going to kill him.” Aidan wouldn’t lie, a big part of him still wanted to kill that little bastard for all that he’d done. If Jane hadn’t stopped him…
“I know,” she said.
He looked into her eyes and realized that she did know—exactly how he felt. All of his secrets. With Jane, his soul would always be bare.
But that was okay because he knew her secrets, too.
“I need to question him. Find out just what the hell is happening. It just…it doesn’t make sense to me that he’d hire Roth. And all those tests? Drew wouldn’t do that. It doesn’t fit.” She turned and marched for the door. “The pieces aren’t going into place. I’m missing something.”
He followed her down the stairs.
She was halfway down the stairs when she froze. “How did Vincent know we’d be at Roth’s?” Jane slowly turned to face him. “I didn’t…everything was happening so fast that I didn’t even question how he was there. I raced into the alley after you and he just…he appeared.”
Yeah. “The vamp has a bad habit of doing that.”
Jane licked her lips. “I can never detect his scent. He hides it somehow.”
With magic.
“I don’t know if he was there before we arrived,” Jane said, her gaze sharpening with suspicion. “Or if he arrived when we raced outside.”
Aidan stared into her eyes. “There was an awful lot of blood at that scene.”
“Only there was no blood on Drew’s knife. Or on him.” Her breath came faster. “If he’d just cut Roth’s throat, there should have been spray on him. There wasn’t.”
He strained, trying to remember. Had there been blood on Vincent?
“No blood was on Vincent,” Jane said, a frown tugging down her lips. “But he could have moved so fast, used that vamp speed…he could have killed Roth and never gotten so much as a speck of blood on him.”
While Drew wouldn’t have been so fortunate. “Drew was following us.” Aidan thought this through. “He could have been watching Hell’s Gate and when we left, he tailed us.” And Aidan had already been so fucking on the edge he hadn’t even noticed the guy. “He was coming to kill us—”
“But Drew hadn’t killed Roth.” She sp
un around and raced down those last stairs. “He didn’t do it but Vincent sure as hell could have!”
He’d never liked that damn vamp. They rushed outside and—
“Jane!”
And they saw Heider shoving his way through the crowd on Bourbon Street. The guy was huffing and puffing and appearing absolutely terrified.
Jane ran toward him, but Aidan beat her to the ME. He grabbed the guy, holding tight to his shoulders.
“You…won’t answer your damn phone,” Heider wheezed. “Neither will Captain Harris.”
“I’m not answering because my phone was confiscated by you,” Jane replied. “Remember, when you put me in a body bag? You got all my belongings and I didn’t exactly have the chance to get them back.”
Heider opened his mouth, closed it. Frowned.
“Heider,” Aidan snarled.
The ME’s frightened gaze shot to him. “Annette,” his voice broke on the name. “Something is wrong. She needs help and the vampire—that scary ass freak Vincent—he was there.”
Vincent.
“I tried to get the captain but she wasn’t answering her phone, Jane wasn’t answering—so I came here, to you.” Heider lifted his chin and stared at Aidan. “You’re alpha, right? That means you handle the paranormals in this town.”
Aidan let go of the doctor and his fingers twined with Jane’s. “We do.”
“Good…then get to Annette. She needs you. Something bad is going down.” Heider backed up a step. Sweat coated his forehead. “I mean, it has to be bad, right? If the voodoo queen is scared…”
If Annette was scared, the situation wasn’t just bad.
It was a nightmare.
“Go to the werewolf compound in the swamp,” Aidan ordered.
Heider immediately lifted his hands. “Hold on, hold on, I’m the human here—”
“Vivian will be there. She always loses her cell signal when she goes out there. So if she’s not answering her phone, she’s still there. Get her and the other wolves and tell them what’s happening.”
Heider blinked. “What is happening?”
“We have a vamp who needs his ass put down.” Finally. I’ve been waiting to kill that bastard. “And the wolves are going to war.”
“C-can’t I just keep calling her?” Heider gulped and pulled out his phone. “I…I can just keep trying. She’ll get a signal eventually. I can—”
“Bob.” Jane said his name flatly.
He flinched.
“I know this is scary,” Jane said and her voice softened. “I know this is far more than you signed on for—”
“I’m human,” he whispered. “Not a paranormal. I get involved in this war, and I’ll be dead.”
“You’re already in this war,” Aidan said. Didn’t the guy see that? Heider had been working for the wolves for years.
“It’s okay to be afraid,” Jane continued, firing a fast frown at Aidan before focusing on Heider once more. “But we need you. I need you. Vincent is trying to destroy us—not just wolves but I’m afraid he’s out to destroy anyone in his path. We need to stop him.”
Heider swallowed and managed a weak nod.
Jane’s hand squeezed his shoulder. “Go out to the werewolf compound. The wolves know you, they’ll listen to you. Get them back to town. Get Vivian.”
“And then bring them all to us,” Aidan said. “We’ll be at the old club near the cemetery.”
Heider swiped his hand over his forehead. “You assholes really need to get better cell service out at that compound.”
Aidan stared at him.
“I’m going!” Heider snapped. “I’ll find the wolves and you just—you make sure that bastard doesn’t hurt the voodoo queen, okay?” He turned away. “I…I like her, too. Dammit, you paranormals have got to stop growing on me…” His footsteps rushed away.
Jane gazed at Aidan. “Are you ready for this?”
Ready to destroy the vampire who’d tried to take Jane from him? Ready to stop the bastard who’d thought to attack his pack? “Hell, yes.”
It was Vincent who wouldn’t be ready for them.
***
They made a pit stop before they headed for the confrontation with Vincent, a fast little stop by the Voodoo Shop. Jane picked up some needed supplies and then they raced to the site of what she knew would be her last stand against Vincent.
Jane stood outside of that little building. The old BDSM club. When she’d first become a vampire, Vincent had brought her there. He’d chained her up, he’d given her blood, he’d acted as if he were helping her but…
All along, just what was your master plan, Vincent?
She and Aidan could have gone in there, fangs bared, claws out, but…
Vincent would have expected that. He’d been playing them all along, so now, it was time for her and Aidan to play him.
So she lifted her hand and she pounded on the door. She didn’t kick it in, in a giant show of force, but, oh, she was so tempted. Kicking it in would reveal that she knew Vincent’s game. Playing the scene another way…that would give Jane the chance to get killing close to Vincent.
The door opened a few moments later. Only Vincent wasn’t the one who greeted her. Lena stood there, her gaze oddly sad. “You shouldn’t come inside,” Lena murmured.
There was something about that woman…Jane couldn’t decide if Lena was as evil as Vincent or if she was another victim.
“Where is Aidan?” Lena asked as she looked over Jane’s shoulder. “You two…you’re stronger together.”
Goosebumps rose on Jane’s arms. That was something that she and Aidan only said to each other. For that woman to know… “You’re not a witch, are you?”
Lena gave a barely perceptible shake of her head.
“What are you?”
Footsteps pounded toward them. “Jane!” Vincent’s bellowing voice.
“Imprisoned,” Lena breathed back. Then she stepped away.
Vincent ran toward Jane, a broad smile on his face. What she was doing was a huge gamble. But Vincent wouldn’t know that Dr. Bob had found her. Especially if she came in, playing it cool and…
Jane started to cry.
Grieving.
The tears weren’t hard to summon. After all, when she thought of how close she’d come to losing Aidan, pain knifed right through her body. It had been a near thing, all because of the asshole who was staring at her with his own fake emotion—concern.
“Jane?” He reached for her shoulder and pulled her inside. Pulled her close to him. “Jane, what happened?”
She looked down at her hands. They were shaking. Rage would do that to a woman. Make her shake. “I…killed him.”
He sucked in a sharp breath. His arm wrapped around her and he pulled her close. “I’m so sorry.”
No, you’re not.
“He was b-beyond reason,” Jane stumbled over the words. “Trying to take my blood, trying to attack with his claws…” She blinked back her tears and stared up at him. Saddened. Grief-stricken. “What happened to him?”
Lena shuffled away from them. Jane could hear the faint rustle of footsteps in the far back room—was that Annette and Paris? And where was Drew—was her brother even still alive?
“I don’t know what happened,” Vincent replied. “Such a terrible situation.”
Liar.
Jane’s hand slipped beneath her jacket. Her fingers curled around the wooden stake that she’d brought with her.
“It’s going to be all right, Jane,” Vincent assured her as he pulled her even closer. So close that she could feel his heart beating. “I’ll help you.”
Oh, I don’t think you will.
Since she was close enough to feel his heart beat…that meant she was more than close enough to kill. Sometimes, you didn’t see your enemy coming, not until it was too late. Vincent had taught her that. “I-I need to see Paris and Annette. I have to tell them—”
His head lifted and he stared down at her with a solemn expression. “I’m sor
ry, Jane.”
Are you? Are you really?
“Paris attacked Annette. He…he went as crazy as, well, as I think Aidan did. She got too close to him, she made the mistake of trusting him, and…he ripped out her throat.”
Jane didn’t move.
“He came for me, then,” Vincent said, his jaw hardening. “And I had to stop him, Jane.”
She kept staring at him, as if she were shell-shocked.
Lena waited in the shadows, just a few feet away.
Jane’s fingers were itching to take that stake and plunge it into his heart but the cop in her…the cop that always demanded justice, the cop that never took on the role of judge, jury, and executioner, she hesitated.
“I lied,” Vincent suddenly confessed.
She let her brow furrow.
“I do know what happened.” His lips twisted down in sadness. “Werewolves…their beasts aren’t meant to transform. It drives them mad. Aidan had your blood, Jane. Your blood is what drove him over the edge. It mutated his cells, changed him. Destroyed him.”
Her skin was absolutely icy right then. And the hand hidden beneath her coat had a death grip on the stake.
“Alphas keep their blood on hand for their pack, right?” He was speaking quickly, as if he’d just figured something out. “Aidan must have given his contaminated blood—contaminated because of you—he must have given it to Paris. That’s why Paris changed.” Horror flashed on his face. “The whole pack could be changing. If they got the contaminated blood, they could all become mindless predators. But don’t worry, I’ll help you stop them.” He nodded decisively. “We’ll put them all down. We’ll—”
“End them?” Jane cut in, finishing for him.
He smiled. “Yes, if that’s what we must do…”
Sick sonofabitch. “I’m going to end someone,” Jane snapped. “But it’s not them.”
Lena gave a fast, warning scream.
But it was too late. Jane yanked up her stake and drove it right at Vincent’s heart.
Never saw that coming, did you?
***
Aidan slipped through one of the old, broken windows in the BDSM club. Silently, he made his way to the room that Paris had been chained inside. He didn’t worry about his scent giving him away. Yeah, Vincent had an enhanced sense of smell, but Aidan and Jane had picked up a potion to disguise that scent.