by Cynthia Eden
Ah, key phrase there. At first.
“Then the prick started trying to worm his way into my mind.” His chin lifted. “That link gets weaker the farther you are from the Born, so my tactic was to stay as far away from Grim as I could.”
Her fingers knotted around the sheets. “Guess that tactic didn’t work so well, huh?”
“He knew what I was doing. Sometimes, it seems like Grim knows everything.” He exhaled heavily. “To teach me a lesson, he went after my family. They didn’t know. They had no idea what I’d become and when the vampires came for them…” He shuddered. “They suffered. Grim and Leo made sure of it. All so they could bring ‘my ass in line.’”
She flinched.
“I buried them, and I heard Grim’s call in my head every fucking second.” He unballed his fists, stared down at his palms. “He wanted me to come to him. Wanted me to kill. Wanted me to be part of his twisted vampire family.”
“The alpha,” she managed. “Controlling his pack.” And sensing a challenge from within. “What did you do?”
He glanced at her. “Made a deal with the devil.”
That didn’t sound good. Dee rose, fumbled with her clothes, and managed to dress.
The silence in the room thickened.
She shoved on her shoes.
Simon just stood there, bare feet, bare chest. Watching her.
Dressed, armored, she finally asked, “What kind of deal?” No, not for me. Don’t tell me that you’re—
“I found a warlock in Vegas. Asshole named Skye. He has magic—dark magic—and he used it on me, for a price.”
Dee licked her lips. His gaze darted to her mouth. “What price?”
“I bled for him. Thirty days straight. Skye drained me nearly to death before each sunrise.”
“Simon!” Blood loss like that—
“In return, he put a spell shield in place for me. One strong enough to weaken Grim’s call. Not block it completely, but to mute it so I could turn away from the Born.” He stalked toward her. Lifted his hand and ran his fingers down her cheek. “And find you.”
Her fingers lifted and curled around his wrist. “Why didn’t you tell me all this at the beginning?”
“Because you would have run from me. No.” A slow shake of his head. “You would have tried to kill me, and I needed you too much to have you turn away. You’re my shot at freedom, Dee. Real freedom. This shield won’t last forever. I’ll be lucky if it lasts a few more months. Grim’s too strong to keep out. I know it. Skye knows it. Grim knows it.” His eyes blazed darkness as he told her, “I don’t want to become what he’ll make me.”
Her fingers tightened around his. “You won’t.” He wasn’t like the others. He’d fought too hard. Held on to his sanity by going right into the darkness.
“Over the years, there have been others who were changed and didn’t become—” His lips flattened. “Vamps don’t have to be killing machines. It’s the Borns, they’re in control. The Taken just dance like puppets on freaking strings. The Borns who have been tainted by the power—”
Or curse, depending on who you asked.
“—they’re the ones who want the blood on the streets.”
“Is that what Grim wants?”
A bitter laugh. “Grim wants the world. And if he can, he’ll take it.”
Not while she was around. “He’ll keep coming for me, won’t he?” Keep attacking those she cared for, just as he’d attacked Simon’s family.
“It’s his way. He separates his prey. Makes you suffer, tries to break you.”
His flesh was warm against her. “I don’t break easily.” Never had. Never would.
“No, you don’t.” He leaned down, brushed his lips over hers. “That’s one of the things I love about you.”
Whoa, now, what was that—
“Dee, I know this thing between us—shit, I know I wasn’t honest with you at the start, but you and me, what we’ve got between us, it’s real.”
“It’s lust,” she told him, fighting to keep her voice even. Couldn’t be more.
“It’s that.” One brow rose. “But if it was just me wanting to fuck you, things wouldn’t be so damn complicated.”
Ah, okay.
“We want the same thing, Dee. We want to stop Grim.”
A nod.
“Partners?”
She’d need him. No doubt. But when hell came calling, would she be able to trust him in those last minutes? Or would Grim take control?
His lips thinned at her hesitation. “When you drink from me, what happens?”
Pleasure. Need. Fire. Dee swallowed. “I get stronger.” The revulsion wasn’t there. Not with him. It had never been there with him.
“No.” He stepped back from her, putting a few feet between their bodies. “What do you see?”
Her breath caught.
“I thought so. You see my life, don’t you? Flashes?”
“Yes.” She knew that wasn’t supposed to happen. Sure, vampires could use their power to look into the mind of prey, but she hadn’t been focusing, hadn’t been trying, hadn’t even wanted to see—
“You saw with Leo, didn’t you?”
“I saw him kill his wife.”
Simon blinked.
“I saw that asshole Grim, standing over them, laughing.” She’d seen Leo cry. If he’d been enjoying the kill, he wouldn’t have shed a tear. Maybe, back then, he’d still had a conscience. A soul.
But no control.
“Borns don’t have to focus their power to steal memories.”
Steal memories. Not her plan.
“They have to focus not to do it. Their psychic power is so strong, the images come automatically.”
Well, damn. She’d been afraid of that. “You don’t have to try and convince me anymore.” Time for her own honesty. She crossed her arms. “I know what I’ve become.”
“Knowing and accepting are two different things, babe.”
Hit. They were and she was a long way from accepting her new “life.” “We’ll hunt him together,” she told him, straightening her spine. “But if I think you’re turning on me…”
He marched to the bag she’d thrown to the floor last night. Pulled a stake out. “You’ll shove this into my heart?”
Her gaze fell to the stake.
No. Not that easy. Not anymore.
Because the vampire had gotten to her. Made her care. Made her feel.
He tossed the stake into the air, then caught it easily with his left hand. “I’ll prove that you can count on me. Trust me.”
Maybe. If only she could.
She turned away from him, unnerved by his stare.
“Dee?”
She didn’t glance back because she was too worried about what he’d see in her gaze.
“I’ll take the lust. I’ll take anything you can give me.” His fingers brushed her shoulders. He’d moved fast and soundlessly. She should have heard him, with her enhanced hearing, she should have—
“And one day, I’ll take everything.” His breath blew over her nape. “Just like you’ll take everything I have.”
Dee shivered.
His mouth closed over her skin.
She leaned back against him, strength and power, surrounding her, seducing her.
Someone rapped against their door. Her nose twitched.
Timing, timing, timing. “Catalina, chill, all right? I’ll be down in five.” No way was she leaving right then. No, she wanted a moment, okay, more than a moment, to just stay in the quiet and pretend the big, bad eternal monster wasn’t after her.
To pretend that she was just an ordinary woman wrapped in her lover’s arms.
“That’s not Catalina.”
Dee’s nostrils twitched. She smelled Catalina’s scent. The light mix of incense and roses. She turned in his arms. “Yeah, it is—”
The door flew open and the light scent vanished. A spell? A trick? What—
“Oh, hell,” she whispered.
Zane
Wynter stood in the doorway, filling the frame, and his eyes glittered demon black.
Her time had run out. She knew he’d come for her. Come to keep the promise he’d given a year ago.
Zane had come to kill her.
Unfortunately for him, she wasn’t ready to die yet.
Chapter 12
“Zane, no!” Dee’s cry echoed in Simon’s ears. Fear. Fury. So the demon had tracked them? Big damn deal. He’d never been afraid of a demon, and he sure wasn’t about to start fearing one now.
Zane’s gaze scanned over them. Froze on the stake that Simon still gripped in his hands. “Were you planning to take her out, too?”
What? His brow furrowed and then the words registered. No, one word. Too. “The fuck you say.” He shoved Dee fully behind him. No way was a demon coming after his woman with death in his eyes.
“It’s what she wants.” The demon crossed the threshold. Strolled in and swung a blue bag from his shoulders. He shoved his hand inside the unzipped top and drew out a stake of his own. “What she’s always wanted.”
“You’re not touching her.” Killing the demon would be easy.
The only problem? He didn’t want to rip the man’s heart out, not in front of Dee. This demon had been her friend once.
A friend who was about to kill her.
“I won’t hide from him,” Dee said and her voice was clear. Strong. She stepped to Simon’s side, her chin up, her head back. The charred ends of her hair had vanished while she slept. Her blond mane was tousled around her face. Her cheeks were flushed, her lips bright red.
Sexy. The woman always looked so sexy to him.
“Dee.” The demon’s eyes swept her body once more. “You’re looking good for a dead woman.”
She shrugged.
“I take it that this asshole is the one who changed you?” Rage slipped past the ice in Zane’s voice. Cracked through.
“No.” Her hand brushed over Simon’s arm. “He’s the one who saved my life. More than once.”
A sad shake of Zane’s head. “So you’ve already gone to his side, huh, Dee? Already forsaken—”
“I’m Born.”
The guy’s eyes bulged. “Bullshit.”
“It’s the reason my parents were killed. The reason the vamps came after me again and again. I’m Born and I’m going to take out the bastard—Grim—who is on my tail.”
Damn. The woman sure had one hell of a bite.
Sexy. If there wasn’t a demon standing there, glaring and threatening death, he’d lick that long column of her throat once more.
If.
“Sorry, Dee, that’s not gonna happen.” Zane glanced down at the floor, then back at her. “I got a promise to keep.”
Then he lunged forward, the stake up, ready, moving faster than a human ever could and flying straight at Dee.
Simon tried to jump in front of her, but Dee shoved him to the side. Then her left hand shot out and she snatched the stake, ripped it right out of the demon’s hand and snapped the wood in two.
The broken stake thudded onto the carpet.
She grabbed Zane, bunched his shirt in her fist, and jerked him close to her face.
He smiled at her. “I tried.”
What?
“You gonna bite me now? Gonna sink those, um, really long and what looks like freakishly sharp teeth in my neck? Gonna drain me dry?”
The demon didn’t seem particularly worried.
Dee rolled her eyes. “Don’t tempt me, asshole. Don’t tempt me.”
The smile that had curled his lips faded. “You’re still in there, aren’t you, Dee? All this…” His hand lifted, traced her lips, and Simon had to bite back a growl. “It’s just surface.”
She blinked and her head cocked.
Surface.
Being a vampire was a hell of a lot more than that.
“Not a cold-blooded killer, are you?”
Dee freed him.
“If you were, you would have drained me by now.” He straightened his shirt, then raised a brow. “Born, huh? Never saw that one coming.”
She shoved a hand through her hair. “Me either.”
Zane grunted and looked his way. “So what’s your story?”
Simon just stared back at him.
“Man, you need to bring that down a notch. Dee and I weren’t lovers. You want to get all territorial and kick-ass, save that crap for Tony.”
Simon locked his jaw and gritted, “Why are you here?”
Another fleeting smile. “I’m here because if Dee really had become some soul-less bloodsucker, I would have kept my promise.” His stare slanted to a watchful Dee. “Don’t worry, sweet, I would have made it fast and as painless as possible.” A shrug. “But the minute I saw you, I knew you were still my Dee—”
A woman screamed. Loud, high. Terrified.
The scent hit Simon then. Thick and cloying. Smoke.
Fire.
“Fuck!” Zane spun around and ran for the door. Dee and Simon raced after him.
Not another damn fire. Not again. Grim’s pack, they just weren’t going to stop, not until they killed Dee.
Not on his watch.
Zane shoved open the door at the bottom of the stairs and they walked into—
An inferno.
It should have been impossible. Fire couldn’t spread this fast. With their senses, they would have known but—
But Delaney’s burned. The flames crackled and licked at the ceiling, growing bigger, hungrier, and giving them a glimpse of sweet hell.
“Catalina!” Dee’s scream.
The witch stood behind the bar, seemingly frozen. Her eyes were on the flames that surrounded her. Bright, dancing flames.
The demon swore and charged for her. He waved his hand and the flames dimmed around the witch.
He flew over the fire and grabbed her.
“Burn,” she whispered, but Simon could hear her over the flames. “Burn so fast.” She closed her eyes and turned her head against Zane’s shoulder.
The flames shot higher. The smoke thickened, but the fire didn’t race back toward the witch. Instead, it headed right for Dee.
“Wynter!” Simon yelled. The demon could control fire. He didn’t know what kind of power scale the guy had, but right then, as long as the guy could stop the fire, he didn’t care.
Zane hoisted the witch over his shoulder, then made a fast movement with his hand.
The flames flickered, faded.
Only to start rising once again.
“Magic!”
Yeah, he’d figured that out. Dee had a tablecloth in her hands and she was fighting the flames.
“No, forget it, Dee! Get out of here!” Zane ordered.
Good plan. Simon grabbed her arm.
The demon led the way, using his power to push back the fire that just kept rising, rising…
“Her!” The demon’s snarl. He froze before the door. Simon barreled into him. So not the time for this—
But then Zane ran forward. The glass doors exploded around them. Smoke billowed up into the night. Simon sucked in sharp, clean air, choking as his lungs began to clear.
“Stop her!” He glanced up at the yell. He saw Zane struggling with the witch, and Simon glimpsed a woman with curly red hair running down the street.
He blinked and Dee took off. Fast, so fast, his little vampire. She caught the woman in two seconds and tackled her, sending her prey slamming into the pavement.
“No!” The woman’s cry. Afraid. Furious. “Why can’t you die?”
Oh, so not what she needed to be saying to Dee.
He bounded after them.
Dee flipped the woman over and pinned her wrists to the ground.
Simon saw the tears on the woman’s cheeks. Long, thin trickles that slipped over her skin, fell into her hair.
“Do it, Nina.” The whisper was on the wind. He froze. “Kill her or they die.”
Dee’s head snapped up. “What the hell? Hey, jerkoff—come out and face me!�
�
Another vamp. One of Grim’s men. Had to be. But he was telling the woman to kill Dee? How was she supposed to do—
“Ignitor!” Zane’s scream of fear.
No, no. Simon’s gaze snapped back to the woman’s, and he finally saw her eyes, the bleed of red.
Grim wasn’t screwing around anymore. He’d pulled out the big guns.
“Dee!”
Ignitor—a human. A very, very rare human gifted with the power of fire. She’d burn Dee, burn her with just a thought and kill her in an instant. She’d—
“Hell, no,” Dee growled when her T-shirt began to smoke. Then she slammed the woman’s head back against the cement. Hard.
The Ignitor’s eyes fell closed, hiding that deadly red, and she lay, limp, beneath Dee.
He could love that vampire.
Already did.
“I’ve got her,” Dee called. “You get that other bastard!”
Done. Simon took off, legs pumping fast. He flew down the dark street, snaked into the alley. His nose twitched as he caught the scent of blood. A woman stood, weaving slightly, her hand on the grimy wall. Alcohol fumed off her but she’d been prey, too.
Close.
“Come out!”
The woman flinched. She looked over at him with bleary eyes. “Run,” he told her quietly, flashing fangs.
She did.
That left him all alone in the alley with his prey. A Dumpster squeaked. A shoe scraped over the asphalt. Simon licked his lips. “Hiding with the garbage?”
The vamp came out, claws ready, a bit of blood still dripping down his mouth. “You picked the wrong side in this fight.”
Simon lifted his brows. He caught the whisper of footsteps behind him. His backup. No way would he ever mistake Dee’s rich scent. “I don’t think so.”
The vamp’s eyes darted behind Simon, and for an instant, fear flashed on his thin face. Then he spun around, and leapt up, clearing the brick wall behind him in one bound.
Simon lunged after him. No way was this scum getting away from him.
The man knew how to leap over a wall. Really kinda sexy the way he could move so fast.
Dee exhaled, watched a bit longer, admiring her view, then she eyed the wall. Um, yeah, she could take that. She hoped.
Dee ran—a running start never hurt anything—then leapt. She cleared the wall, but slammed into the ground below. The impact jarred every bone in her body, but Dee rolled, and came back up on her feet and took off.