by Cynthia Eden
Holly shook her head. “No, she’s a threat, she—”
“I have to find her.”
Not cage her, never that. Find her and convince her to stay. To give him a chance. No lies. No secrets.
No cages.
Fear rolled through him on a wave that seemed to make his vision dim for a moment. It wasn’t safe for Ella to be out there alone. There could still be other members of Keegan’s pack who wanted to hunt her. If they knew about what her wings could do—and Eric suspected they did—others would go after her. It wouldn’t be safe.
“Easy…” Shane said as he approached Eric with his hands up. “Once a vampire tastes his prey, he can track her anywhere. You know you can find her.”
“I’m not a vampire.” So much more. “I can’t track her that way.” But there was another method he could use even as the thought of what he’d done sent a spike of shame through him. He’d tagged her—had Holly put that tracking device beneath her skin. Ella didn’t know about that betrayal, not yet.
As long as the device stayed hidden, he could find her.
He would find her.
Chapter Ten
She perched on the top of an old church. One that looked as if it had been abandoned long ago. The sun was behind her, and Ella knew she should seek shelter inside. Not because the rays of the sun would hurt her. She didn’t have a vampire’s weakness that way. But because humans might see her. Humans might freak out.
Humans…
The fey had thought that humans were never really any sort of threat. And Ella, so long ago, she’d been curious about them. Then she’d met Cedric. Handsome, charming, smart Cedric. She’d given him her heart, even though she’d been raised to believe that she must mate with her own kind. That she had to keep her precious bloodline going.
Only now there is no bloodline. There’s nothing.
Ella had tried to explain to Cedric that centuries could pass and she wouldn’t age, but he would. She hadn’t wanted to watch him wither and die—she hadn’t wanted to see his pain at all. When the elders gave the order that she had to leave him…
Cedric changed everything.
He’d gone after her with that golden net. She’d been the one to reveal that weakness to him. He’d tossed that net over her. Kept her prisoner in his castle. He’d sent out his men…so many humans…and they’d been armed with gold, too.
Suddenly, the humans had been very much a threat.
Her eyes closed. For just an instant, she was back there with him…
“Cedric, please, release me!” The gold had burned her wings and she’d been in so much agony.
”You were going to leave me. Me? After promising me your heart?” His brown eyes had glittered with his fury. His handsome face had been a hard mask. A stranger had stood before her. “Not after all I did to acquire you.”
Acquire. That one word had pounded through her.
“We can’t be together¸” Ella had told him softly. “I don’t die, Cedric. I can’t—”
“Your kind will die. I’ll see to it.”
Fear had burst through her. So much fear. “No, please!”
“You will all beg me before I am done.” His hand had slipped through the net and curled under her chin. “I was meant to have your power. I was meant to live forever. And I will find a way.” He’d smiled at her. “Fey are too flawed. Too arrogant. Too rage-filled. I will change them. I will change you. And then you will be mine, forever.”
No…
Her eyes opened. The past vanished. Cedric had kept his word. He had changed her. He had changed all the fey. And her kind had died.
But she hadn’t been his. She’d gotten out of that castle and left fire in her wake. She’d burned the place to the very ground.
Another fire.
Just like the one that had taken Keegan.
Two men who’d held her captive. Two men who’d lost their lives.
And now…now there was Eric.
Her wings stretched behind her. She flew off that chapel and broke through one of the stained-glass windows of that old church. She barely registered the shattering of the glass.
Her feet touched down on the dirty, dusty floor. Her arms wrapped around her stomach. Why had she been so very certain that Eric was the one? Because he’d altered his body, his very genetic structure, and her senses had been fooled?
She sat on the ground. Her wings fluttered around her as her head sagged forward.
Maybe it hadn’t been her senses that were fooled. Maybe her heart had been the problem.
A heart that had been fooled by a human once.
And now again.
Fool me once, shame on you…
Fool me twice…
A tear slipped down her cheek.
Shame on me.
***
“Damn. That lady can sure fly fast and hard.” Connor gave a low whistle as he stared down at the laptop screen in front of him. Eric kept his foot shoved down on the gas pedal as he hurtled the SUV down the road. “According to this, she’s over thirty miles away.”
Hell. He hadn’t wanted to go in with a full team. The last thing Eric wanted to do was spook her. He just wanted to talk with Ella. To convince her that she didn’t need to run from him.
“I still think we should have brought the net,” Connor said.
Eric’s hands tightened around the wheel. “She isn’t the enemy.”
“Is that your brain talking?” Connor asked bluntly. “Or your dick?”
He just growled back.
“Thought so,” Connor muttered. “Choice number three. Your heart?”
“Screw that shit. You know the stories. I don’t have a heart.”
“I know bull when I hear it. You’re hot to get this woman back, not because you think she could be some asset to the Para Unit, but because you just want her close—close to you. She’s incredibly dangerous, and, by her own account, her kind are evil. You told me the same shit just a few hours ago. Fey play with humans. They can’t be trusted.”
“Ella and I have a deal. She’ll stick to the deal. So will I.”
“Turn right up ahead,” Connor said calmly.
He jerked the wheel to the right and kept flooring the gas.
Connor’s right hand flew out and locked around the dashboard as the tires squealed. “Sonofabitch,” Connor groused. “We’re strong, but we can still get hurt man. I don’t want to go flying through the windshield today.”
And he didn’t want Ella flying away. “Is her signal still at the same location?”
“Just where it’s been for the last five minutes. I think your girl has found her some shelter for the day. Now we just need to get there…and see if she tries to kill you or not.”
“She won’t.”
“Uh, her wings came out. Isn’t that supposed to be some big sign that she’s all raging-up?”
Maybe. Yes. No. Shit, he didn’t know. “She was hurt. I hurt her.”
“Because you lied?”
He should have brought Shane with him. Or maybe even Lawrence. Sure, Lawrence was human, but the guy was cool under pressure. And he didn’t ask a million freaking questions. “Stop pushing me, dammit. I didn’t lie, I just—”
“Pulled a Pate? Mislead? Got her to do what you wanted?” Connor’s laughter was a bit cold. “You tagged her, man. Like she was some kind of animal. And we’re tracking her. I realize you haven’t dated in a while, but this really isn’t the way this shit works.”
He shot Connor a glare.
“How do you think she’s going to react when she realizes you put a tracking chip under her skin?”
“Can I just deal with one fucking problem at a time?” Eric snarled back. Jesus. He had to get to Ella first. He had to talk to her. Had to convince her not to fly away and leave him. Again.
And until he did convince her of that, he wouldn’t be talking about the chip. Because it’s my only way to find her.
“Lies never work, man. Take that bit of advice from a guy
who has been there.” A pause. Then, Connor said, “Go left at the light. But, seriously, slow the fuck down before you make that turn.”
He did slow the fuck down. A bit. Then he made the turn. And he also had to ask, “How the hell are you holding up?”
The temperature in the car seemed to ice. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Connor asked.
“Keegan’s dead.”
“Yeah, and so what? That’s one less threat to my Chloe, one less—”
“He was your brother.” A brother that Connor hadn’t known about, not until the guy had come around and started killing.
“He was a twisted psychopath,” Connor replied flatly. “And the world is safer without him.”
But that still doesn’t tell me how you’re doing. If he hadn’t been so torn up over Ella, then Eric would have pushed the guy. Instead, he just pushed the accelerator down more.
They traveled in silence for a time until Connor spoke again. “Something else for you to consider…if Ella does go all Fey crazy, what will you do?”
“It’s not going to happen.”
“You don’t know that. Just like I didn’t know Keegan would be freaking insane.” His breath heaved out. “So you need to plan ahead. If she goes crazy, if she attacks you or humans…what will you do? Will you really be able to send her off to Purgatory?”
He’d taken over Purgatory. Put his men in charge there. He’d gotten the power straight from the federal government after the place had gone to hell in a hand basket. There would be no more uprisings in the prison. The inmates would be treated civilly. Olivia was even working on possible rehabilitation programs…
If one could rehabilitate monsters who thirsted for blood and death.
“I don’t think you can do it,” Connor said, his voice rough. “And that is a big damn problem.”
Eric locked his jaw. “It’s not going to come to that.”
“We’d better hope not.”
***
She heard him coming before she saw him.
At the faint sound of footsteps, Ella tensed. Then, in the next instant, she shot to her feet. Someone was coming toward her, a man—she could catch his scent in the air. Masculine, slightly wild, woodsy.
Not Eric.
And surely that wasn’t disappointment she felt, now was it? She hadn’t actually expected him to rush after her, apologizing on his knees, telling her how wrong he was?
Maybe.
Her wings had vanished again. Her back ached a bit, and she knew her shirt was pretty much ripped to pieces in the rear. She could feel the air against her spine. But the front of the shirt was mostly in place. She wasn’t flashing anything she shouldn’t be.
And the guy—
He was closing in.
Had he seen her fly into the old church? Was he coming to investigate?
Her gaze flew around. She could hide. Or she could—
“You don’t need to run from me.”
A shudder slid along her body. No way.
Absolutely no way…
Her gaze flew to the church’s doors. Doors that she knew had been locked. She’d seen the heavy chain herself. But now those doors were open. And that masculine, woodsy scent was a whole lot stronger.
Because he was there.
Still handsome. Still young. Still strong.
When he should have been dead and buried centuries ago.
Tall, dark and handsome. No new lines were on his face. His jaw was just as hard. His shoulders and body just as powerful as always.
“C-Cedric?” Ella’s voice trembled. Both from fear and from straight-up shock.
He smiled at her. Same smile. “Hello, love. It’s been too long.”
No, no this could not be happening. “You aren’t here.” Had she finally gone crazy? Another side effect of living forever…sometimes your mind just wasn’t as strong as your body. No matter what you did…
Something broke, sooner or later.
She laughed. Her eyes were wide open and she was still seeing the past.
He walked toward her. The sound of his footsteps echoed around them.
Her laughter faded. His hand lifted and touched her cheek. She gasped at that contact, because his touch took her right back to the dungeon he’d kept her in.
Another man. Another hell.
Her body froze as she stared up at him. “You’re here.”
He smiled at her. A wide, slow grin. The grin that had first charmed her so long ago. “Of course, I am. I found you.”
Her body was frozen, her limbs stiff with shock, but her heart was racing frantically in her chest. “You can’t be here.”
He laughed. “Oh, my beautiful, Ella…I told you that we were meant to be. I was always meant to be more than a man.” And now she could see the fangs peeking just behind his lips. “And you were always meant to be mine.”
She jumped back from him, putting a fast distance between their bodies. “You’re a vampire?”
“No.”
He didn’t follow her. Just watched her.
“You are a vampire.” It made sense. “That’s how you’re still alive. That’s—”
“Your elders said you had to mate with one of your own kind. I couldn’t let you go to another…so I killed all of them.”
Nausea hit her. Cold, shattering. The guilt—the guilt she’d carried for centuries—rose once more to nearly choke her. My fault. All of them. Because I fell for a monster even worse than me.
“Fey were vicious and cold, so I just had to be more vicious. I had to be colder. Crueler.” He shrugged. “I was.”
A vehicle’s engine growled outside. Her gaze jumped toward the open doorway. She didn’t even know how long she’d been in that church. She’d huddled on the ground for far too long, her wings around her, tears on her cheeks. Then she’d looked up and the wings had been gone.
The rage—gone.
She’d been empty.
“You wanted a mate. Someone just like you.” He spread his arms wide. “And I was always right there. You didn’t realize it then. You ran from me.”
Centuries had passed. If he’d been out there, all that time…
His jaw hardened. “I searched the world for you. I followed and followed, but you were always one step ahead of me. So frantic. I knew what you were doing. You were trying to find someone else to mate. Someone that would match you. But you already had me.”
“No, You’re not…” Not my mate. Not anything.
Car doors slammed. Footsteps rushed toward them.
“I killed the one who hurt you. Do you want me to tell you how he begged before I dropped him? How he pleaded with me?”
Ella shook her head. New scents had reached her, and she was terrified. That’s Eric out there. He can’t face Cedric.
“He thought he would make you his captive again. The fool believed your power would be his.” Cedric began to advance. He seemed so totally focused on her. Had he even heard the car’s approach? “I wasn’t going to let him hurt you again. I protected you. Just as I will do for the rest of our very long lives.” He smiled once more. And he offered her his hand. “I missed you.”
She stared at his hand as she backed up. The hand that had imprisoned her. The hand that had tortured her. The hand that had injected her with who the hell knew what in his monstrous castle. She’d begged and begged to be let go. She’d begged and begged for him to free the other fey.
She’d begged.
No more.
Her hand slid down and curled around an old church pew. The wood was broken. She just needed to yank it loose a bit more…
“I dreamed of you, Ella.”
“And I had nightmares about you.”
His smile slipped.
“Ella!”
At Eric’s shout, Cedric whipped around—and she saw his back for the first time.
His wings were back there, curled down so she hadn’t seen them before. Full wings. Powerful. Strong.
Now those wings were stretching out.
Dark and big—a Fey’s wings.
Wings that he shouldn’t have.
She yanked harder on that wood, and a chunk broke loose in her hand. “Get back!” Ella yelled to Eric. She shot to the side, trying to see him around Cedric’s body. “Get out of here!”
But Eric wasn’t fleeing. He stood in the doorway, his legs braced apart, and Connor was right behind him.
“Told you we should’ve brought that gold net,” Connor said. “Now there are two of them.”
The gold net?
Cedric glanced at her. “See, my love. To them, you are a beast. Nothing more. Bet they want to lock you up.”
“You mean like you did?” Ella retorted. No one had attacked. Not yet. Good. She’d be the one drawing first blood. Ella kept the chunk of wood hidden behind her leg as she slowly advanced on Cedric. “I was just a beast to you, too. You think I don’t know that? You just wanted to take my power away. It was never about me.”
But he shook his head and his dark gaze hardened. “You are my key. My everything. I will have you.” He flew toward her with a sudden burst of speed.
And Ella slammed the chunk of wood into his chest. “Guess what? We broke up. Centuries ago. In case you didn’t get the message.”
Blood darkened his shirt and he let out a terrible bellow, one that seemed to shake the very church.
“Ella…” Cedric said her name with a twisted combination of fury and desire. “You haven’t changed. Still so blood-thirsty…”
She stared at his wings. “You’ve changed plenty.”
“I changed for you.” He yanked the wood out of his chest and tossed it onto the floor. “I became what you wanted.”
“No…” She shook her head—and then she dove for cover.
Because she’d seen Eric pulling out his weapon. Eric and Connor and she’d distracted Cedric so that they would have time to fire.
And fire they did. The sound of blasting bullets filled the air. Cedric roared and whirled toward them.
The bullets hit him right in the chest. Again and again and—
Silence.
Cedric fell to the ground.
Dead? No, that wouldn’t be so easy. She could see the slow rise and fall of his chest.
“Since the tranqs didn’t take him down last time,” Eric called out. “I got Holly to add a little something extra to the mix for him.”