Pierced [Pain & Love 2] (BookStrand Publishing Romance)

by Ashlei D. Hawley

  Though it didn’t make sense to her how it happened, she was able to feel Henry’s blood flow as it rushed into her own veins. Fire coursed under her skin, burning new pathways through her system. It couldn’t have hurt more if molten iron had been pumping through her veins.

  Henry ate the whimpers, moans, and curses from Mallory’s mouth as she writhed, trying to break free from their connection. He was so strong, far stronger than Leigh had shown Mallory they could be. His free hand was a vise around her waist, cementing them together as the blood flowed between them.

  When Henry finally pulled away and released her, Mallory watched their wound close with a fascinating, miraculous speed. She harbored a powerful curiosity about how no blood had been spilled. Close on her puzzlement came pain. A burning agony that manifested as a powerful headache and a deep, sickening fire in her limbs made her fear Henry had lied to her. She couldn’t fight and save her family if she felt like she’d had her ass kicked by a volcano.

  As she was about to start screaming and throwing angry punches, Mallory realized the pain was fading. Even her wrist, which had been the seat and source of the all-consuming internal flames, began to cease throbbing. She sighed out a breath she’d been holding and met Henry’s gaze. Her glare made it obvious the little episode had only made her trust him less.

  “Almost time to go,” Henry said the words with his trademark grin.

  Mallory crossed her arms and sat back against the couch and wondered what to do about the strangeness and hostility between them.

  * * * *

  Leigh awakened with a sharp kick of fear in his throat. He’d slept the whole day through. When was the last time he’d done that? Mallory had probably been awake for hours.

  Flinging himself out of bed, Leigh dressed with record speed and listened for audible evidence of his guests. Fingering the light blue shirt he wanted to wear, he instead grabbed one black as his mood to match his tight black jeans. He hated meeting the vampire dress code perpetuated by mainstream media, but the more Mallory delved into any uniqueness he presented her, the closer she’d come to the man she’d known and loved before. He couldn’t risk that, so he stepped out looking like the most dangerous and dark of storm clouds. His eyes were bright like lightning when they met Mallory’s.

  Their connection made him think the sooner the better to have what they were doing finished. He’d loved Marlyna with all of him, but there was more of him now. What he’d felt centuries past was dissolved into the surging, electric flow of feelings he had for Mallory.

  He loved her completely, he lamented as he watched her stand and move toward him. Her minimal clothing revealed the gorgeous, toned limbs that he yearned to have wrapped around him again. Her smile for him was wide and easy, but he sensed a tension beneath it.

  Until Henry stood, Leigh didn’t even remember he was there. The distraction Mallory presented could be devastating if he allowed it. Instead of risking the preoccupation, Leigh approached Henry first, after giving Mallory as polite a smile as he could manage. He wanted to discuss the plan with Henry before they left, anyway.

  Mallory was insulted and hurt at Leigh’s level of disinterest in her. If he was so excited to be around Henry, maybe he should just be with him the way the old maker desired. She frowned and sat down on the bottom step, reconsidered because she thought she looked like a pouting child, and finally decided to lean against the wall beside the stairs. If she looked impatient, so much the better.

  “We’ll be going soon, pet,” Henry assured her, and Mallory wanted to fly at him, spitting and clawing like an alley cat. She wasn’t his damn pet.

  Leigh felt the animosity between his maker and Mallory. He wanted to address it, but the main issue of importance was to rescue Mallory’s family and then finish things. Whatever bad blood existed between Mallory and Henry wouldn’t matter as soon as she was returned to her human life.

  “You’ll watch our exit and keep it clear,” Leigh instructed Henry. “You don’t know the layout, so Mallory and I will enter. Stay with her car and keep it available for her family. There are three. Mallory will drive, her father will sit up front, and her brother and mother will sit in back. We’ll run out of sight while she drives them home.”

  “They can’t stay there until this is finished,” Mallory spoke up. “They’ll just be taken again, or worse.”

  Leigh gave her a look, and Mallory was immediately silenced. Somebody could flay a person with that look. Because she worried for her family, she didn’t wilt under his gaze, but met it with a tilt of challenge set to her chin.

  “From there, after they pack bags, they will be directed out of town,” Leigh continued. “I have a house I rarely use two hours from here. They will get the directions and go tonight.”

  With a nod and a meaningful expression, Leigh silently insinuated that Mallory needed to listen before jumping in with objections. She just glared harder. They were wasting moonlight.

  “Let’s go then,” she insisted impatiently. Without waiting to hear more of Leigh’s plan, Mallory took the stairs up two at a time.

  Henry smirked as Leigh watched her leave. “I stand corrected,” the older vampire said with a chuckle. “She is very little like Marlyna. None of the softness and sweetness that made you love her so.”

  Leigh wanted to counter Henry’s cutting words, but he knew the older vampire would not respond favorably to his scolding. He was a man set in his ways, and women were adornments to one’s life, not partners. Henry thought of every female as something to be used and discarded, appreciated as a momentary form of enjoyment, if anything. It wasn’t worth an argument, especially because Henry’s long-standing, irritating attitude toward women would work to Leigh’s benefit in the current situation, no matter that it bothered him more than it ever had.

  Mallory experienced a quick stab of pain to accompany Henry’s words. She’d felt Marlyna and had known her from within. Aside from the Munetero, she’d indeed seemed to radiate sweetness. Mallory knew she was a flighty, bull-headed ditz. She had a bubbly personality, but it’d been dulled by her overwhelming concern for her family. Was she really such an inferior specimen compared to Marlyna?

  The men approached from behind Mallory and she slipped outside the door into the night. She wanted to mention what Henry had said about Marlyna, but stubbornly held her tongue.

  “Are we running?” she questioned.

  “For the Hunters to assume you are still human, you will have to drive.” Leigh’s logic was solid, so she nodded her agreement.

  “And where will you be?” Leigh cleared his throat before he answered Mallory’s second question.

  “In the trunk.” Mallory almost laughed, but she was nervous and annoyed. The sound couldn’t fight its way from her dry mouth.

  “Will you fit?” Henry added his query in an amused tone. Mallory wanted to hate him for daring to have laughter in his own voice in the current situation. She’d wanted to laugh, as well, though, so she told herself she was just being picky. And bitchy.

  “Not comfortably,” Leigh grumbled. “But I will fit.”

  Mallory’s car was still parked in the driveway of the house where Tyler and Reyna had been killed. Leigh had already instructed her to run to the area, and then walk down the street. The Hunters would undoubtedly be observing the house. She was to get in the car, and then drive it to her parents’ home, where the Hunters would have left some indication that they were in possession of Luke, Annette, and Junior. In a panic, because at least one Hunter would be watching there, too, she was to drive to the lake, park in the tree-sheltered lot beside it, and allow Leigh to get into the trunk. Henry would follow them to the Hunters’ domain and guard their exit as instructed.

  “It will work,” Leigh encouraged.

  “It better,” she said simply.

  They didn’t say anything else, though Mallory wanted to. Henry moved to flank Leigh on his other side and secured Mallory’s silence. Instead of continuing to fight the urge to speak, Mallory r
an.

  She came upon the area where the house was faster than she wanted to. Slowing her pace, she checked the area with her heightened senses. She heard the rustle of leaves as they lazily danced in the breeze. A dog in a neighboring yard sniffed and searched around to find an ideal spot to relieve its bladder. Scenting the air, Mallory found a mélange of smells that meant nothing to her.

  There was the subtle reminder of alfredo and pasta drifting from an open kitchen window as she passed, fresh dirt from a recently weeded garden, and the fruity, perfumed aroma of some scented bubble bath.

  Another scent hit her and she knew it immediately as what she was seeking. Metallic at first contact, it then began to smell like blood infected with an illness. The smell came along with a thick, cloying cologne that on another man could have been appealing. On this one, it was nauseating.

  Mallory recognized the man who rose leisurely from the front step of the house. He stood smoothly, bearing not one wrinkle in his clothing though Mallory had no idea how long he’d been sitting there. His smile was wide and easy, but fake and lacking entirely in warmth. His eyes were flat and dead, no light or humor in them. If he didn’t look so artificial, he could have been attractive. As it was, his model-quality dark hair, toned frame, and blemish-free skin made Mallory think of a prettily made-up corpse or a plastic man with wires for veins and a data processor for a heart.

  She’d seen him leading the charge against her friends, and knew him from other encounters with people she’d offered help and protection to. He was one of the most formidable Hunters, and he was the man who’d been responsible for Tyler and Reyna’s deaths.

  “Hi, there,” he said affably. “I’m Jerry.”

  Stretching his hand out as Mallory finished her walk up the drive, he awaited her hand to shake.

  Though she didn’t know what compelled her to do it, as soon as she took Jerry’s hand, Mallory blurted out, “They’re normal. They aren’t unique like I am.”

  After a squeeze in lieu of a shake, Jerry patted the top of Mallory’s hand and gave her a disapproving look.

  “Now, Mallory, you shouldn’t start an exchange off with a lie. Things could go badly if you lie to me.”

  “How will they go if I tell the truth?” Mallory inquired. Jerry chuckled and gestured to her vehicle.

  “That’s a question with several answers. Shall we drive?”

  Mallory noted that Jerry didn’t seem surprised that she’d brought up her family with no provocation, nor had he asked who she was talking about. The night was fucked from the get-go, she lamented.

  “How long have you been sitting on the porch?” Mallory asked as she unlocked her car and opened her door. Jerry got in the passenger seat while he responded.

  “Long enough. Why did you leave your car here so long?”

  “I was doing some soul searching.” Mallory kept her tone bland and her heart rate steady. She didn’t know if the Hunters had talents like those they hunted and could detect a lie with power, but she thought it best not to take the risk.

  “Quaint,” Jerry said. Mallory wondered if he had a soul to search. “Drive to Park and take a right. Hang a left when you get to Maple and hop on the freeway when you hit it. Go east. Your exit is going to be 8. Wake me when we get there and I’ll give you more directions. Sound good to you?”

  Not really, Mallory thought to herself, but outwardly she nodded.

  Jerry leaned back against the seat and closed his eyes. Linking his hands behind his head, he settled himself to his comfort. He didn’t wear a seatbelt, Mallory noticed. If she got the car up to a crazy speed and crashed it intentionally, would it kill him? Gran said they were Fallen Angels, but they inhabited mortal bodies. The lessons of the Hunters had been interwoven intimately with Gran’s stories of the origins of their town. The Hunters had been there even longer than the town, and would remain long after. They died in their human bodies each lifetime, but were reborn into a new form each generation. They were imprisoned here, and the town was their jailhouse. Though they were human in body, they were stronger than most and resilient to all forms of pain. If the crash didn’t kill Jerry, it would most certainly piss him off.

  Would the crash kill her? she wondered. With irritation, she decided it wasn’t worth the risk. She turned left on Maple St. as she’d been instructed.

  The freeway entrance was less than five minutes away. She wasn’t taking the route that would pass her by the lake. That meant Leigh would not be getting in the trunk. She was alone, Mallory realized with a flutter of concern in her stomach. She was alone and the plan was dissolved by Jerry’s sudden appearance.

  “You weren’t surprised to see me,” Jerry commented nonchalantly. “You hadn’t been seen anywhere else. Why weren’t you more surprised to see me?”

  “I’m psychic,” Mallory responded dryly. She tried to imply his idiocy in every syllable.

  “Mmm,” Jerry vocalized belatedly. He didn’t say anything else and Mallory felt no driving need to draw him into further conversation.

  Mallory steered her car onto the freeway and hiked up her speed. With her driving, it wouldn’t take long to get them where they were going.

  Chapter Eleven

  Leigh paced by the lakeside. Henry watched him, trying to project an air of concern. He knew Leigh was two minutes way from taking drastic action.

  “She should have been here ten minutes ago.” Leigh had said the same thing at the seven minute mark. And the five minute one.

  “Then let’s go,” Henry suggested. “Her goal is still the Hunters. She’s undoubtedly heading there.”

  “I didn’t give her directions.” Leigh didn’t have the good sense to look embarrassed, though he was beginning to question what he’d thought was a sound decision on his part. His reasoning had been in anticipation of just such a situation. He hadn’t wanted her going without him.

  Henry’s eyebrows crawled up slowly in surprise, but he didn’t respond with anything beyond a quiet, “Hmm…”

  “She may have gotten held up. We could wait longer.”

  Henry wasn’t used to hearing Leigh be so indecisive and hesitant to act. Mallory was a bad influence on him, as Marlyna had been. Women made Leigh weak.

  “We’ll go to the Hunters.” Henry took charge, making the decision for them both, though it wasn’t his style or preference. “If she isn’t there, we can always go another night.”

  “Her family may not have many more nights,” Leigh barked. Henry hated that Leigh became so snappish with him in these kinds of situations. He’d made him, taught him, protected him, and loved him. He expected the same in return. He hadn’t turned Leigh to be a child that would eventually cut loose and leave him. He’d turned him to have a friend, a partner, and a cornerstone of support in his long life. He was done settling for less than he’d planned for centuries ago.

  Leigh nodded. He was terrified for Mallory and didn’t know how to stop the feeling or prevent it from showing. He’d been so careful this time around, trying to ensure her safety. Hadn’t he resisted the urge to approach her even once before their contact had become absolutely necessary? She needed to be kept sane, safe, and alive. He needed to make sure of it.

  “Let’s go. Keep close to me.” Henry smiled at Leigh’s newly determined tone.

  See, he thought to himself. I always manage to bring out the best in him…

  * * * *

  As instructed, Mallory awakened Jerry as soon as her vehicle began to drift off of exit 8. He was an asshole who’d authorized and orchestrated the kidnapping of her family. Or he’d at least known of it. Either way, she felt it justified waking him by punching him in the chest.

  His eyes slid open, but he made no sound or action to indicate she’d hurt him.

  “You didn’t wake up when I said your name,” Mallory lied.

  “Funny,” Jerry retorted as he adjusted himself to sit straighter. “Usually I’m a very light sleeper.”

  Mallory shrugged and switched topics. “Am I going ri
ght or left?”

  Jerry continued to glare at her and said irritably, “Left. Then a left at the light. Then a left into the second driveway.”

  “Dang, easy access,” Mallory commented as she steered. The light was flashing yellow, so she coasted through it. “Right off the freeway. You guys don’t feel the need to hide even a little bit?”

  “We aren’t bothered where we are.”

  Not yet, Mallory corrected him internally. She intended to open a whole can of bother and then some on their asses.

  Mallory turned into the driveway that Jerry instructed. There were three large semitrucks parked in the back, and the building they flanked was dark and deserted. It was windowless, and the front doors were tinted black, completely unable to be seen through from the outside. There were no other cars in the parking lot and no lights were on to illuminate the area.

  Signs done in yellow to either side of the door suggested the building at one time housed an adult entertainment store. Mallory almost laughed, but quelled her nervous giggling. Seriously, though, she thought to herself. A group of Fallen Angels operating out of an abandoned sex shop? Too funny.

  She laughed, though she’d tried to contain it. Trying to stifle herself didn’t work. Jerry glared, but said nothing about her case of the giggles.

  “Park behind the store,” he ordered. She did so, and saw other cars tucked into the neat little employee lot.

  They were invisible from all streets around. The semis blocked the view off the freeway, the building did the same for the main road, and a great copse of trees sheltered them from the back and other side. Mallory couldn’t see anything but trucks and trees when she parked, killed the engine, and stepped onto the gravel.

  The backdoor had a keypad. Jerry punched in a sequence and the door unlocked. The click was deafening to Mallory. Big lock, she assumed.