by L. E. Wilson
"Grace, luv..."
"What am I supposed to do with that, Aiden?" she yelled as she yanked one of his tee shirts over her head. She covered her face with her hands. "Gods."
He was standing in front of her before she realized he had moved. Pulling her hands gently away from her face, he forced her to look up at him."I am truly sorry. I've known for some time that this was how it was with us, but I hesitated to say anything because I wanted to protect you."
He scratched his head and then rubbed his hair hard with his both hands until it was sticking up all over. "Thing is, poppet, I have a bloody demon inside of me. How can I ask you to be with me?" His features hardened with determination. "I'll fight it until I can't anymore. For you."
Grace saw the pain in his eyes and took a breath. If she was going to be honest with herself, she knew she wanted to be with him. She'd known since that night at the shelter when she'd come back from making the deal with the Suits, the guilt at what she'd done eating her alive inside. Maybe even sooner than that.
"Please trust me, Grace. I'll find a way to get us through this."
Trust me, Grace.
Listen to me, Grace! You can't trust a vampire. Ever!
"I need some time," she whispered.
He opened his mouth to say more, than seemed to change his mind. Instead he just nodded.
Picking up the pile of clean clothes Emma had lent her from the dresser, she said, "I'll just go sleep on the pullout since Brock is gone."
"There's no need for that. Stay here with me," he pleaded.
But she shook her head. "I need some time alone, Aiden. Please. I won't be far."
He rubbed his forehead. "No, luv. You stay in here. I'll sleep out there."
Pulling on a pair of running pants, he strode out of the room, pausing at the doorway to tell her, "Just call if you need anything. Or when you come to your senses and realize that you love me and cannot go a second longer without sacrificing yourself to my lusty vampire needs."
She giggled as he closed the door, but her laughter faded fast as she sank onto the edge of the bed, and the full impact of what he'd just told her hit her full force.
"Wow," she said aloud to the empty room. "Gives a whole new meaning to the words "safe sex, doesn't it?"
***
Aiden smiled as he heard Grace giggling, and pulled the door closed behind him. She would come around, he told himself; she just needed some time to digest it all. Barging back in there now would just muck everything up again, no matter how he ached to be near her.
At least she hadn't kicked him out completely. Or left the apartment.
He glanced out the window on his way to the office and the location of his temporary lodgings. The sun would be coming up soon.
Maybe the wolf would come back and pick a fight when he found him in his bed.
Ah, see? There was a bright side to everything. He briefly wondered if Grace would be upset if he added his head to his collection?
Somehow, he didn't think she'd be fond of that idea. He sighed. Well, he'd better get used to having the old "ball and chain". His life was about to change forever. No longer will he be able to run off whenever he wishes and wander into a fight somewhere or shag a pretty female.
Retract that last part. He'd still be shagging a pretty female. The loveliest female he'd ever had the honor of being with.
He smiled, wondering how long she would need to think about things.
Suddenly, his blood began to hum in his veins. The smile left his face and he rubbed the center of his chest, his brows drawn together in confusion. What was this strange feeling? It seemed vaguely familiar...
Then it came to him, and he realized what it was he was listening to, but it wasn't a song he wanted to hear. It had been so long since anyone had evoked this power over him, he was a bit taken aback at first.
He was being summoned, and it wasn't by Luukas.
Bloody hell. It couldn't be!
The humming grew stronger and more painful. Stumbling over to the phone, he hit the fast dial.
"What's up, man? We were just heading back up that way," Nikulas answered.
"Nik..." he rasped, then groaned as the pain became more severe. The demon, Waano, stirred unhappily inside of him.
"Aid? Aiden? What's wrong?"
Aiden could hear Nik's pounding footsteps as he began to run.
Unable to hang onto it anymore, Aiden dropped the phone just as the front door slammed open.
"Aiden!"
Grace ran from the bedroom just as Nik got to him.
"Keep her away!" he hissed.
"Grace, stay there!" Nik ordered.
His eyes rolled back in his head and he jerked backwards, his spine nearly twisting in half as the agony of his blood flowing through his veins hit him with a whole new level of pain.
Waano roared with displeasure within him, his presence rising from whatever depths he'd hidden away in.
Aiden gripped the front of Nik's shirt.
"He's coming, mate," he rasped. "I can't stop him. She's calling me, and him...I can't stop him."
"Who's calling you?" Nik asked just as Emma arrived at a run.
"Leeha...the bloody bitch."
"Leeha?" Emma exclaimed.
"Emma, take Grace and get the hell out of here. Go! Now!" Nik yelled when she didn't move fast enough.
"I'm not going anywhere," Grace insisted.
Aiden begged Nik with his eyes as he writhed in pain on the floor, no longer able to speak without crying out like a girl.
"Grace..." Emma started towards her.
"No! No! I'm not leaving him!"
"Just take her to the other room," Nik told Emma. "And call Keira. Keep Luukas away from here. No matter what."
Aiden saw Grace dig in her heels from the corner of his eyes. There was no help for it. He was going to have to kill her, just as soon as he was finished dying.
Another pulse of burning pain pounded through him, and Waano began to unfold, stretching into Aiden's limbs, polluting his cells.
What is this?
It's Leeha. She's calling us to her.
An angry breath blew through him. I'm growing weary of her.
"Nikulas," he managed to choke out. "Get away from me."
Chapter Thirty-Six
Nik's couldn't believe what he was seeing. He was looking at his best friend, but it wasn't his friend at all, not anymore.
Aiden, or whoever it was inside of Aiden, pushed his hands away.
"Get off of me," it growled.
Nik backed off immediately.
"Oh my gods." Emma's voice came from somewhere in the vicinity behind him. "His accent is gone completely."
"Because that's not him," Grace said quietly.
Nikulas glanced behind him, his instinct to protect his mate kicking into high gear. "I told you to take her into the other room!"
Emma never took her eyes from Aiden as he came to his feet. "I tried."
Nik stood in the middle of the group, trying to divide his attention evenly between the girls and Aiden.
Damn stubborn witches.
Grace walked up to stand beside Nikulas. "Give him back to me," she gritted out.
Waano brushed off his sleeves, tilting his head at her strangely. "No."
Nik's arm shot out as she went after him, her hands curled into claws.
Emma took a step forward to help him. Or her. He wasn't sure. He pointed at her. "You! Stay right where you are. Or so help me, Em..."
The thing in Aiden's body began to laugh. "I'm not going to hurt your precious female, though she does smell delicious."
Nik's head whipped back around to Aiden, or the thing inside of Aiden. A feral growl rose up as his fangs shot down and his body prepared to fight for his female, to the death if necessary.
Shadowy grey eyes focused back on Grace. "I can smell your fear." He smiled a sick smile. "It excites me."
Nik stepped in front of her. "Grace, back away, and you two get out of here. NOW.
"
"I'm not leaving you here with that," Emma insisted.
"Emma! Do not fucking argue with me on this!"
"I'm not leaving either," Grace said quietly.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Nik asked, at his wit's end with the both of them. He weighed his options. If it came down to it, he would save Emma. He had no choice. She was his.
But how was he supposed to tell his best friend that he didn't protect his Grace? He eyed up the entity in front of him. If he ever saw his best friend again.
The thing inside of Aiden chuckled. "You won't be able to save either of them, vampire."
Nik narrowed his eyes. The fucker was reading his mind now? "Try me, you son of a bitch."
But it just scoffed. "All of this quarreling. There is no need. Let me pass, and you will all survive another day."
"Let you pass?" Grace repeated in disbelief. "No! You're not going anywhere with him!"
He heaved an impatient sigh. With a flick of his wrist, he sent them all flying through the air to different sides of the room, where they stuck to the walls three feet off the floor.
"Where are you going?" Nik shouted as the thing strode passed by. Fear shot through him as he fought against the invisible hold the thing had on him so effortlessly.
"To finish this," Waano told him, slamming the door closed behind him.
A few seconds later, they all dropped to the floor.
Nik rushed to Emma's side but she yelled out, "Go get him!"
Giving her a quick once over anyway, he flew out of the apartments, moving faster than any human could track, but he was too late.
Aiden's body was gone.
Back at the apartment, he found Emma still on the floor consoling Grace. She looked up questioningly when he came in, but he shook his head. "He's fucking gone. Again."
Chewing on the inside of his cheek, he came up with multiple ideas and discarded them just as quickly. He went round and round in his head, but he kept coming back to the same thing.
They needed Luukas.
As a Master vampire, he was the only one who had any hope at all of competing with that thing.
Emma looked up at him as she pulled Grace to her feet. "What is it? Nik? What is it?"
"I think I know where he went."
"To Leeha," Emma said.
He nodded.
Grace looked up at him hopefully. "You know where she is?"
"Not exactly. But we can find her."
"Oh, thank the gods," she breathed. "But, he said he wasn't giving Aiden back." She glanced between him and Emma. "Do you really think he's not going to give him back this time?"
Nikulas shared a look with Emma. He wasn't giving up. Not yet. "Oh, he'll give him back, don't you worry. I'm not losing my best friend again."
"How are we going to accomplish that if he doesn't want to leave?" Emma asked.
"We need Luukas. Why don't you get dressed," he said to Grace. "And we'll go upstairs."
"I'll stay with her," Emma told him. "And we can meet you up there."
Nik's heart stopped in his chest, imagining all of the things that could happen to her. Besides, she tended to have a knack for getting herself into trouble.
"No way in hell, sweetheart. You're not leaving my sight until I know for a fact that that thing is far, far away."
She rolled her eyes and he lifted his eyebrows, daring her to challenge him.
Grace murmured, "I'll just go get dressed."
***
Luukas listened to Nik's account of what happened, Keira at his side. When his brother was finished, he reached over and took Keira's small hand in his.
"I'll go."
"Luukas..." Keira began.
But he cut her off. "It's all right, witch. I can handle this."
"But what if you can't?" she asked worriedly. "You freaked out when he was in the room as Aiden."
He smiled at her. "But he's not Aiden now, is he?"
"You can't kill him, bro," Nikulas insisted. "He's my best friend. I won't let you kill him."
Luukas turned to his brother. Would he be able to control himself enough to not kill him? Possibly. In any case, the demon had to be dealt with.
"Is there any way to get the demon out?" Grace asked Keira.
"I don't know. I only ever saw them after the vampires were possessed. I never saw how Leeha did it, and if she ever reversed the process, I never heard of it."
"Keira was kept in a cell also, not far from me," Luukas told her. His bowels clenched thinking of that wretched place he'd spent seven years of his life in, but he pushed it from his mind. He needed to concentrate on what was going on now. It was bad enough that they all watched him so closely, just waiting for him to break.
"Oh, I didn't know," Grace said. "I'm so sorry."
Keira smiled at her. "Don't look so horrified. It's all over now. And it all worked out for the best."
She squeezed Luukas' hand, and his heart swelled with love for her. She had saved him in the end. She saved him still, every day.
"Grace," Emma said. "Aiden showed us something that you have. An old spell?"
"What? Oh! I'd forgotten all about that with everything that's been going on." She rubbed her temples. "Yeah, it's old. Ancient. My parents made sure I found it after they died, but I don't know why."
"You have no idea what it is? Or what it's for?"
"No. I'm sorry, but I don't. I had no idea it even existed until after they were both gone. I tried to ask them, but they never came to me again."
"We'll look at it when we get Aiden back here. Maybe between all of us, we can figure it out. So, what are your powers?" Keira asked.
Grace gave a self-depreciating laugh. "Nothing that will help us. Or Aiden."
"Tell us anyway," Emma said encouragingly.
"I can sort of communicate with animals."
"Like talk to them?" Luukas asked.
"Um...not really? More like, if I concentrate, they can get the gist of what I'm telling them. Like, I'll tell Mojo that I'm going to work, or whatever."
"Her hedgehog," Emma told Luukas and Keira when they looked at her questioningly. "He's up in our apartment in the office."
"It's running loose in my office?" Nik shouted.
"Don't worry, he has a litter box," Grace said.
"Anything else?" Keira asked. "Can you do anything else?"
"I can move objects. That's pretty easy. And I can heal, but only myself."
"Have you ever tried to heal someone else?" Nik asked.
"All the time, dude. I work in a hospital, in the operating room. I've never been able to save anyone. Ever."
Luukas heard the sadness in her voice. "That's all right, Grace. Healing yourself is a very useful power to have. I wish I were able to do that." He smirked a little. "It would've come in handy in recent years."
Everyone stared at him strangely, except for Grace.
He scowled. "What?"
"Look at you," Nik said. "Cracking jokes."
He frowned at his brother, not understanding what the big deal was.
"What about you and Emma?" Grace asked. "What can you do?"
"Well, other than moving things without touching them...that seems to be pretty much the norm with us witches...Emma can immobilize people. Even vampires and werewolves."
"Especially when she's pissed off," Nik chimed in, and Emma smacked him on the arm.
"You bring it on yourself," she told him.
"And you?" Grace asked Keira.
She glanced up at Luukas and he nodded once. "Go on, witch. Tell her what you can do."
She hesitated a moment, and then said quickly, "I can take the powers away from vampires."
"Even a Master vampire," Luukas added, smiling at her. He held no ill will against what she had down to him. She'd been trying to protect her sister, and she had suffered as greatly as he had. He could feel her suffering still, just as he did.
"Does that work on anyone besides vampires?" Grace asked. "Like a demon, for instan
ce?"
"No," Luukas said instantly. He knew where this was going.
"Luukas. I could try..."
But he didn't let her finish. He flashed his fangs at her, the thought of her in any sort of dangerous situation making his blood run cold. "I said no, witch. I need you here, where you're safe, if I'm going to be in any condition to help Aiden."
His beautiful angel narrowed her eyes at him in challenge, and he met her look for look. She didn't like to be told no, although she gave in to him quite often to protect his sanity. However, he had a feeling this time was not going to be one of those times.
But he could not give in to her. He would tie her down if he had to. He'd done it before.
"The dawn is coming," Nikulas said.
"We'll head out at dusk," Luukas told him. "Do we know where she is?"
"Leeha? We have a general idea. She didn't go far from the mountain prison you destroyed. I'll call our scouts. See if they can nail her down." He stood up to leave, Emma and Grace following suit. "Should we ask the wolves if they want in on this?"
"It wouldn't hurt."
Luukas noticed the three witches exchange looks, and he sighed.
They were going to have to tie them ALL down.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Aiden awoke at dusk the following night. The scene was hauntingly familiar. Only instead of waking up covered in grain with no idea of where he was, he was covered in dirt.
With no idea of where he was.
Luckily, the dirt was much less condense than the grain had been, and as such he had a much easier time unearthing himself from the ground. Lifting himself out of his shallow grave, he sat beside it and shook the dirt from his hair. He'd never been buried alive so much in his life, and was this close to becoming seriously claustrophobic. Not a good syndrome for a vampire with severe sun allergies to have.
Looking down at himself, he was happy to see that the thing had at least acquired some trainers for his feet, and even a grey hoodie to cover his bare chest.
Waano stirred inside of him. He hadn't completely retreated this time, but had only settled down to doze after getting them within a few miles of Leeha's call; and apparently burying them in the dirt under a large rock overhang to protect him from the sun.