Bite the Bullet (Bitten Book 5)

by C. C. Wood

We’d walked directly into a trap.

  I wanted to scream at Asher, to warn him. Instead, I waited a moment, watching as Frederick and Asher made small talk. When Frederick invited us into the parlor, I reached out to Asher with my mind.

  It’s a trap.

  He didn’t acknowledge me at first and I feared that Kerry’s amulet made it impossible for me to communicate with him telepathically.

  I know.

  I realized that I was no longer paying attention to my expression and managed to school my face into the blank mask I’d previously worn before Frederick turned around to look at us.

  I’m sorry I didn’t warn you. I didn’t sense it until we were inside.

  “Would you care for a drink?” Frederick asked Asher. After his examination of me, he acted as if I didn’t exist, as if I were merely furniture.

  “Yes, please. Red wine if you have it.”

  Frederick smiled. “I believe we have a lovely French Bordeaux,” he replied.

  I couldn’t believe that he was going to accept a drink from that warlock.

  You can’t drink that!

  Asher’s head tilted toward me slightly in acknowledgement of my words, but he didn’t respond telepathically.

  I followed his lead and stopped trying to communicate with him. I watched as Frederick poured Asher a glass of wine and brought it to him.

  “Alistair will be joining us shortly,” he stated.

  “And your master?” Asher asked.

  I didn’t look directly at Frederick, but out of the corner of my eye, I could see his sly smile.

  “Oh, he’ll be along later.”

  I felt a presence behind me though I never heard a step. It was the only reason I didn’t jump when the vampire behind me spoke. This mask was more difficult to maintain in the face of so much malevolence than I’d expected it to be.

  “Our guests have arrived. Lovely!” The man brushed past me. I got the impression of pride, greed, and lust. He wasn’t completely evil like Frederick, but he was without conscience, which was worse. All he cared about were his own personal wants and needs. He had no higher purpose. “At last we meet! I’m Alistair.”

  His jovial bluster and outstretched hand were met with a cold stare from Asher. “Asher Leroux.”

  The lack of enthusiasm from Asher seemed to throw Alistair off balance. “Ah, well, it’s a pleasure.”

  Asher’s only reply was a regal nod. Using only his name, his intense blue gaze, and a gesture, the male I was rapidly beginning to consider my vampire had immediately stripped this arrogant, powerful being of his self-importance. I wanted to cheer.

  Alistair moved to the decanters on the table behind Frederick and poured himself a glass of amber liquor.

  “Was your drive pleasant?” he asked.

  “Pleasant enough,” Asher answered shortly, setting his wine on the side table next to him.

  I realized that he’d been holding his wineglass without drinking from it. His borderline rude behavior was to distract Frederick and Alistair from the fact that he hadn’t tasted the liquid.

  That’s when I felt it. The source of the evil in the house was moving toward us. The sheer mass of the consciousness behind it made me want to drop to my knees. He was old, older than any of the beings in this room or any that I’d ever met.

  Even without seeing it, I knew this being was unlike any I’d ever met.

  Unable to stop myself, I slowly turned to face the door. I half expected a dark shadow to precede the evil that was coming toward me, but it didn’t.

  He moved as silently as a vampire, gliding through the doorway with the grace of a dancer. He was beautiful, fair-haired and well formed, his appearance belying the sheer wickedness within his soul.

  A smile slowly spread across his face when his eyes fell on me.

  Then all hell broke loose.

  Chapter Twelve

  My head spun sickeningly when I tried to open my eyes. I bit back a groan and squeezed them closed again. I took slow, deep breaths in an effort to control the nausea that twisted my stomach. I was definitely concussed.

  I heard several male voices murmuring softly nearby. The room we were in must have been large, because their quiet words echoed. It was cool, the air creeping beneath the skirt Asher had picked out for me to wear and making me shiver.

  I took stock of my body. Other than the ache in my head, I didn’t hurt anywhere else. One of those fuckers had sucker punched me before they jumped Asher, and I’d been so distracted by Cornelius’ appearance that I hadn’t sensed it before it happened.

  As the pain in my head began to recede, I gradually lifted my eyelids again. I was grateful that the room was dim because even the low light hurt my eyes. I blinked several times before I realized I was staring at the ceiling.

  I rotated my head to the left, away from the sounds of the men, and looked around. I was in a large stone room. The light seemed to waver sporadically. I closed my eyes and reopened them, thinking that my concussion was affecting my vision. Then I realized the room was lit by candlelight.

  While my wrists were tied, they were crossed in front of me. My feet were free. Whoever had secured me obviously didn’t consider me a threat. If they knew anything about my background, they would have tied my feet together and my hands behind my back. I touched my left hand, feeling the ring Kerry made me still securely on my finger. The amulet rested against the skin of my breast, warm and pulsing.

  Whatever I was lying on was ice cold against my back and hard as a rock. I shifted slightly and my cheek brushed the smooth surface. It was marble.

  Where in the hell was I?

  The meaty thunk of a fist hitting flesh brought my head around. Asher was chained to the wall, his arms stretched above his head. They’d stripped the shirt from his body. Trails of blood marred his muscled torso, but there were no corresponding wounds.

  I watched as a blond vampire hit him again. A bruise immediately formed, darkening to purple then lightening to blue, green, and finally yellow. It was like watching a stop motion slide show of a bruise healing.

  Horrified, I realized that they were injuring him, but he was healing almost instantaneously. They could torture him as long as they wanted without killing him.

  The blond vampire turned to face Frederick and Cornelius and my heart stopped.

  It was Duncan.

  Betrayal sliced through me, painful and deep. I cared for Duncan and I thought he’d cared for me. I lived with him for over a month and had no indication that he was a traitor.

  That was how they trapped us. They knew our entire plan.

  My mind whirled, and I finally understood part of the portent that had haunted me these last few weeks. It was because of him.

  “It appears our guest is awake.”

  Cornelius’ sibilant whisper echoed throughout the room. As one, the vampires and warlock turned to look at me. Asher’s eyes flared and burned when they met mine. I felt him pushing against the barriers of my mind and let him through.

  I’m sorry, Shannon.

  Don’t be. I should have seen this coming.

  I shifted my attention to Duncan, hoping that my loathing was clear in my face.

  “Oh dear, Duncan, she seems to be quite upset with you for harming her master,” Cornelius chuckled.

  It was as if he didn’t know that I wasn’t enthralled. He should have. Duncan knew everything, surely he’d shared it with Cornelius and Frederick.

  Cornelius approached me, moving with an eerie grace. He seemed to float above the ground. He stood over me, his expression disconcerting, a mixture of adoring and covetous.

  “Do not be afraid, little bird,” he crooned.

  He reached out and brushed my hair out of my face. While my skin had broken out into goose bumps when Frederick touched me, it crawled at Cornelius’ caress.

  I jerked back, recoiling from his repugnant touch.

  He tisked me. “Now, now, my dear, that’s no way to treat your future owner, is it?”

&n
bsp; Dear God, I had to do something. I laced my fingers together, my eyes going to the space between Cornelius and Duncan to Asher. He was watching me. When our eyes met, I discreetly tapped the ring on my left hand with my finger.

  He caught the movement and nodded.

  Cornelius cupped my chin and tipped my face up so that I was looking at him. “Do not be rude, little bird. It would be a shame for me to have to teach you some manners. You’ll find I’m very strict.”

  I took several slow, deep breaths, drawing oxygen into my lungs. I lowered my eyelids, using my peripheral vision to scan the room. The door was to my right. I only hoped I could find the key to free Asher before everyone woke up. Regardless, I had to try as this would probably be my only chance of escape.

  The hand around my jaw turned into a punishing grip and I allowed a whimper to escape my throat. Playing right into his expectations, I lifted my eyes back to Cornelius.

  “There, that’s better.” He didn’t release my face but his grip eased, and I saw my opportunity.

  Striking quickly, I sank my teeth into the base of his thumb. When he roared in pain, I rolled off the slab, yanking the ring off my finger at the same time. I landed hard on my feet and slammed the stone of the ring against the marble.

  A pale blue mist enveloped us. Holding my breath, I darted around the stone and ran for Asher, hoping like hell the mist worked instantaneously. When I chanced a glance over my shoulder, I saw that Cornelius and Frederick were gone, seemingly vanished into thin air.

  My blood ran cold when I saw Duncan making his way toward me, his eyes glowing. There was no way I could take him in a fight, especially while holding my breath. I backed up as he reached into his pocket, quickly looking around me for a weapon, something to give me an advantage.

  I watched in horror as he removed something metallic from his pocket, wondering if he was going to kill me. God, I’d never wanted a gun in my hand more than I did at that moment.

  Then he walked right past me to Asher and unlocked the shackles around his wrists.

  “Let’s go,” he muttered.

  Asher grabbed me, sweeping me off my feet, and hauled me out of the room. As we emerged, I realized we had been inside a mausoleum.

  “This way,” Duncan directed.

  Asher tore the bonds from my wrists and shifted me so that I was draped over his shoulder. I didn’t bother to argue. The two of them could move more quickly if he carried me and I wanted to get as far away from that place as possible.

  I focused my eyes on Asher’s lower back, hoping that it would help with the vertigo from the motion and from my head injury. They weren’t running long before we came to a halt. I heard car doors opening and Asher helped me into the backseat of the vehicle.

  Within seconds, we were on our way.

  “What in the hell just happened? I can’t believe you’re working for the fucking Faction!” I yelled, wincing as the loud noise made my headache worse. “And why in the hell did you lay me on a fucking tomb?” That question was pointed toward Duncan.

  “It wasn’t my choice,” he evaded. “And I’m not working for the Faction. Not really.”

  I rolled my eyes. “How did you even end up here?”

  “Asher wasn’t the only one set up for this assignment. If Cornelius didn’t take the bait when Asher called him, Conner wanted me to take you back to the safe house and act as a double agent.”

  “So either way, Conner was going to use me as bait?” I asked in shock. I’d told Conner I wanted to help, but I thought he only allowed it because he hadn’t seen another way. Instead, he’d been planning to use me all along. I wanted to be angry that he manipulated me, but I would have volunteered either way, so it was a moot point.

  “Yes.”

  Jesus, the Council wasn’t fucking around anymore and I was glad. That meant they were serious about stopping this war before it began to spread to other parts of the south.

  “So what now?” I asked.

  Before either of them could answer, two headlights appeared in the middle of the road. They were headed straight toward us.

  “Buckle up!” Asher yelled.

  I scrambled for the seatbelt, but there was no time. Duncan tried to steer away from the car, but it swerved with him, following his movements in an eerie, macabre dance.

  The impact was violent, the air filled with the sounds of shattering glass and screaming metal.

  My body flew forward and I saw the dashboard coming toward me. Then I was gone.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Shannon…dammit, Shannon. Open your eyes.”

  I groaned. Unlike the last time I’d been rendered unconscious, more than my head hurt. There wasn’t a single place on my body that wasn’t in white hot agony.

  “Shannon, open your eyes.”

  “No,” I moaned. I didn’t want to. Even they hurt.

  “Just once and then you can go back to sleep.”

  I recognized Asher’s voice, ragged as it was. He’d never spoken to me like that; a mixture of pleading and command. I did as he asked, cracking my lids open to stare up at his blurry face.

  This damn car accident was not going to help my concussion that was for sure.

  I thought I saw him smile. “Good, you’re doing great. I need you to answer just one question.”

  I made a sound low in my throat. He’d promised that I could go back to sleep.

  “I’m sorry, Shannon, but I need you to answer just one question.”

  “Hurry up, Asher. She’s losing too much blood. I’m not sure how much longer she’ll last.”

  “Huh?” I asked. What was Duncan talking about?

  “Focus on me,” Asher demanded sharply.

  My eyes drifted to his face. “What?”

  “You’re bleeding to death, Shannon. If I don’t turn you, you won’t survive. Will you let me do it?”

  Though it felt as though my arm weighed a hundred pounds, I managed to lift it, my hand touching his cheek. “Of course. It was always supposed to be you,” I whispered.

  Then I lost consciousness.

  * * *

  I was drowning in the visions.

  One after another, I saw images of my friends, of Asher, of Cornelius, and of the future. I’d never experienced visions such as these and I knew that’s what they were. They were more than dreams, I was certain of that.

  The future and the past began to mingle in my mind until I wasn’t sure which was which.

  It was like swimming in an ocean of memories. They ran thick, like syrup, and I struggled to surface. Finally, after what felt like days, I broke through, no longer bound by the images that had held me captive before.

  When I awoke, I remembered everything that I saw of the past, present, and future. It was as if I’d traveled the continuum of my own life. I didn’t foresee everything, but I’d watched enough to know that this war with the Faction wouldn’t be the end of us.

  I knew what we had to do to defeat Cornelius. The largest obstacle would be convincing the Council and my friends that it would work.

  As soon as my eyes opened, I felt the difference in my body. I was fiercely alive, every sense heightened.

  Looking around, I didn’t recognize the room I was in, but it was beautiful. Decorated in shades of cream and white with touches of pastel blue and light grey, it was peaceful and light, everything my mind was not.

  I tossed back the blankets covering me. I was wearing a thin t-shirt and pajama bottoms, and I was squeaky clean. Someone had bathed and dressed me.

  Walking to the window, I peeked out between the curtains, looking for clues as to where I was. I was shocked to see Conner’s backyard. Then I realized I was standing in the room that had been destroyed the night Ricki was attacked. Conner and Donna must have had it redone.

  I heard footsteps approaching the door and turned toward it just as it opened to admit Duncan.

  “Wow,” I muttered beneath my breath.

  He hesitated when he saw me standing by the window
. “You’re up. And why did you say ‘wow’?”

  “I heard your footsteps. I could never hear you walking before, but I just did. It’s like I suddenly have bionic ears.”

  The corners of his mouth twitched. “That tends to happen when you become a vampire.”

  Without missing a beat, I asked, “How long was I out?”

  “Three days or so. It was nice and peaceful, at least for me.”

  I smiled at him, then my eyes fell on the tray in his hands. “Oh my God, did you bring me coffee?”

  “What, you can’t smell it?” he asked.

  I held out a hand. “Yes, which is why I asked. Gimme!”

  Duncan chuckled and carried the tray over to the table by the sofa. I watched as he poured us each a cup of coffee and brought one over to me.

  I took my first sip, surprised at how sharp the flavor was. It exploded on my tongue, bitter and rich.

  “Even the coffee tastes different,” I commented.

  “If you say so,” Duncan responded, shaking his head at me.

  “No wonder all you vampires demand the best quality when you’re ordering food and drinks. If something tastes bad, it will be twice as nasty.”

  “All you vampires? I believe you’re one of us now.”

  “Hmmm. Good point,” I mumbled, continuing to drink my coffee. “So wanna tell me what happened? The last the thing I remember was lying on the ground in excruciating pain.” While I saw a lot in my visions, what happened that night wasn’t one of them.

  I watched as Duncan’s face shut down. He looked stricken. “I’m sorry, Shannon. It was my fault.”

  “What was your fault?”

  “I should have known it was a spell.”

  “What are you talking about, Duncan? What was a spell?” I prompted.

  “Do you remember the car that we hit?”

  I nodded.

  With a sigh, he walked over to the sofa and took a seat. I hesitated briefly, but joined him. “The human driving it was killed, but Frederick arrived not long after the accident, looking for you. We think he placed a spell or glamour on the other driver. You were unconscious, but Asher managed to injure him and he ran.”