by Nashoda Rose
“Hey, witch vamp, you remember Damien?” The moment Jasper mentioned Damien, Abby whirled around to face him. “Well, that worked rather nicely.”
Xamien rolled his eyes heavenward and I swore beneath my breath.
“Damien thinks she’s dead? Yeah?” Jasper asked.
“I said distraction, not a memory that might send her into a wild frenzy!” Xamien barked.
“Wild frenzy sounds good to me.”
Xamien grunted. “Sadist.”
Jasper shrugged.
I crawled across the floor, the scent of blood overpowering as I drew closer to Max. I didn’t know the girl very well—like Jasper said, Max kept to herself when anyone came to the house.
From what Xamien had told me, Max was raised in a horde of vampires who abused her for years. Max was also a Scar, although there was no indication as to what kind.
Xamien took a few steps closer. “Keep talking to her, Jasper.”
“Give me a second, Xamien. I’m speaking with Danni.”
Danni was one of the few who could speak telepathically from a great distance. She’d been given the gift when she was changed into a Scar at the Stream of Hell in Zugarramurdi a couple years ago.
“Shit. Danni doesn’t know Abby is alive.” I stopped my approach when Abby sniffed the air then hissed.
Xamien scowled. “Jasper, what the fuck are you doing?”
Jasper’s jade eyes squinted, as if in concentration. “Asking Danni a couple questions. Not liking her answers.” He peered at Xamien, shaking his head. “Damn, man, he is going to kill you when he finds out.”
“What’s he talking about, Xamien?” I asked.
Red dots blazed in the center of Abby’s eyes and her stance was that of a cat ready to pounce. I froze.
“I heard Damien was locked away, Abby,” Jasper said.
“Christ. Never ask Jasper to be a negotiator,” I muttered.
“He never negotiates, kitten. They’re dead before it gets to that. This is a new thing for him.” Xamien moved forward when Abby’s attention turned to Jasper. Her head tilted to the side, as if she were trying to remember something.
Jasper continued. “Babe, Damien’s coming to see you.”
The moment the words were out of his mouth, I reached Max and pulled her up against my chest, then dragged her unconscious body toward the door.
“Jesus. Did you have to lie to her?” I said. “Wow, Xamien, your friend’s an ass.”
“I never lie, babe. Danni is telling Damien that this witch vamp is here. Done deal.”
“What?” Both Xamien and I shouted.
“Why the hell would you do that?” I asked.
Xamien sighed. “Because Jasper doesn’t believe in prisoners. That’s why I never told him Abby was here.”
“Not true. I’m good with a willing female prisoner.”
I snorted, not liking Jasper one bit.
Xamien made his way to me, but Abby was interested in what Jasper had to say so she wasn’t paying attention to us. Xamien lifted Max up into his arms and we backed away.
“Can you make it out without harming her?” Xamien asked Jasper.
Xamien passed Max to Glunk and he disappeared down the stairs. “Max is safe, Jasper. Get out.”
When Abby turned to look for Max on the floor, she went wild. Her eyes dilated, her nose scrunched up in anger, and she screamed. Jasper used his telekinesis to send a lounge chair into the back of her legs, and Abby crashed to the floor.
“This chick deserves to be killed or set free,” Jasper said as he walked out the door while Abby struggled to disentangle herself from the chair.
The door slammed and Xamien turned the key just as her body banged against it. Abby hissed while her fists pounded on the door.
“What the fuck?” Jasper said. “This is wrong. You get me, Xamien? Fuckin’ wrong.”
Xamien sighed. “It’s been months since she’s done anything. I was even considering taking the lock off the door. I can’t understand why she’d attack Max.”
“She’s a fuckin’ prisoner. The attitude comes with the territory.”
I touched Xamien’s forearm. “We have bigger problems, thanks to your friend here.”
Jasper’s dark brows rose. “Suspect this was Waleron’s doing. He should’ve executed her. Guy needs to learn how to not let his emotions get in the way of what needs to be done.”
I snorted.
Jasper didn’t stop giving his opinions. “Guessing Damien will be causing a scene right about now. And he’ll be here in… oh, I’d say nine, ten hours if he can get a flight that quick.” Jasper shook his head at the door as Abby’s fists continued to pound. “Fuck, man, just kill her.”
I already didn’t like the guy. “Wrong or not, Waleron will have your ass. And it wasn’t only him, you know—Abby never wanted Damien to see her this way.”
Jasper shrugged, then went downstairs.
“I’ll try to reach Waleron,” Xamien said. “But first I need to check on Max.”
As we walked down the stairs, the haunting sounds of Abby’s cries vibrated the very foundation and I wondered if maybe Jasper was right.
“Damien.”
Danni’s voice infiltrated my shields as I grabbed my weapons to hunt Tarek.
“What the fuck do you want?” The only woman I’d ever tolerated was Abby. The little witch had been sassy, sweet, and sexy as hell. She was also fuckin’ dead.
“She’s alive. Abby’s alive. Waleron took her to Spain. To Xamien’s.”
I stopped, my knife slipping from my grip to clatter onto the hardwood floor. No. I was hearing voices again. Fuck, I really was going insane. Hearing shit in my head that I wanted to be true.
“Damien. Please, say something. Balen is on his way to the Talde house. Don’t do anything. Wait for him, okay?”
I swayed, reaching for the wall, and used it to keep myself upright. Jesus, I couldn’t breathe. Short gasps of air, chest rising and falling as I bowed my head and tried to grasp what she was telling me.
Sweet, tortured words. Impossible words.
A spike drove through the top of my head to the floor, keeping me in place.
The venom of betrayal mocked. And at the same time, the sweet fuckin’ hope.
Abby had died. Executed.
How was it possible? She’d walked away from me with her executioner, Waleron. She was a half vampire now. Dangerous.
Fuck, why wouldn’t she contact me if she was alive?
Palms flat against the wall, I banged my head into it so hard drywall crumbled to the floor.
“Fuck. Abby,” I growled as the conflicting emotions drilled into me. The relief and sudden, unexpected joy clashed with the betrayal and agony of knowing she’d been alive and never come to me.
Spain. She was in Spain. Xamien. Goddamn Xamien.
“Nooooo!” I plowed my fist through the wall as a scream bellowed from my throat.
I detonated into a million fragments of a tortured man. My fingers raked at the holes as I ripped the wall apart with my bare hands.
Uncontrollable desperation to see her mixed with the urge to kill everyone who had deceived me.
“Damien? What the hell, man?” Jedrik said as he ran into the living room with Ryker close behind.
“Stay back.” Ryker grabbed Jedrik’s arm.
The front door burst open and Balen charged into the room, skidding to a stop. “Damien, fuck, we didn’t know.”
The room spun and I grabbed my head with my hands. “Shut the fuck up.” Lies. Fuckin’ lies. They’d kept me locked up for months, afraid of what I’d do, but really it had been to make certain Abby was hidden from me.
She lived. The little witch who’d flirted with me in the grocery store. The girl I’d fucked until the wee hours of the morning then couldn’t forget when I left for Florida. The woman I’d spent months with, trying to stop her from transitioning into a vampire. The woman who’d carried my child in her womb.
The fuckin’ beautif
ul woman I loved. The woman my goddamn Ink loved.
She was alive. She was fuckin’ alive.
“Why?” My voice was haggard and unrecognizable.
Fuck this. I wasn’t waiting to hear more lies. I picked up the leather chair in my way and threw it across the room, straight at the bay window.
Glass shattered and crashed to the floor as the chair went flying through it.
A shattered roar escaped my lungs as I stood blazing with unadulterated fury.
Balen approached me. “Damien, the jet is in England to pick up Hack, but I booked you on the first commercial flight,” he said. “If you leave now, you can make it.”
Keir entered the room, his expression a mask of coldness, mouth firm, temples throbbing as he looked from me to the broken window. “Waleron will pay for that. This is his fault, keeping shit from us,” Keir said. He turned to Jedrik. “Get him to the airport. He can’t fuckin’ drive like that.”
I shot Keir a glare, but the fucker was right and that pissed me off more. I shoved Jedrik out of the way and walked past him out the front door.
“WHERE THE FUCK IS SHE?” Damien’s roar echoed through the house.
Shit. I threw on my jeans and raced out of my bedroom in time to see the ragged and ravaged Damien downstairs, kicking open every door on the main floor.
Glunk stood at the front door, not attempting to stop Damien—not that he’d be able to.
Xamien met me on the landing, the top button on his jeans undone, hair disheveled, and in the process of pulling his T-shirt over his head.
“Morning, kitten.” He brushed a kiss to my forehead. “Miss me last night?”
“Morning.” He had dark circles under his eyes and looked exhausted. “You didn’t sleep.”
“Not much. Being on my brother’s hit list kept me awake.”
I jolted. “What?”
What the hell was he talking about? Damien was Xamien’s brother? The names were similar, but other than that there was nothing similar about them. “I…. Holy shit…. Damien is your brother?”
Xamien nodded. “But he doesn’t consider us brothers.”
“How come we never knew?” That explained the animosity between them in Toronto.
“He wanted it that way.”
“Abby. Fuck! Where are you?” Damien shouted, followed by a loud crash that sounded like a window shattering.
“I better let him see Abby. He can enter at his own risk.” Xamien sauntered down the stairs as if his raging brother were of no concern.
I followed.
“Damien,” Xamien said.
“Where the fuck is she? I swear to God, I’m going to fuckin’ crucify you.”
“You already tried that once and failed. I suggest you wait until after I show you where she is,” Xamien replied calmly.
Xamien looked over his shoulder at me and winked. “Make some coffee, kitten? Be back in a minute.”
Holy shit. Damien and Xamien were brothers and whatever history between them was explosive.
Xamien led me up a stairwell from the kitchen, and the only reason I didn’t kill him was because right now all I wanted to do was hold Abby in my arms.
I felt as if I hadn’t taken a single breath since I’d walked into the house and her scent had seeped into me. It was different now, more vampire than witch, but still Abby. My Abby.
My usual steady nerves vibrated as the key unlocked a door at the top of the stairs. I didn’t wait for Xamien to pull the key out before I shoved the door open with the heel of my hand.
“Damien, it was her choice. She asked that you never know she was alive. She—”
I kicked the door closed in Xamien’s face.
Her scent was everywhere, and it took me a second to move as it settled into me.
God, Abby was alive. All this time. I still had trouble wrapping my mind around it, even after nine hours on the plane.
So much rage had swirled since Danni told me. The only way I hadn’t lost it on the flight was by putting on headphones and zoning out with music blasting.
My pulse leapt when I heard movement in what was probably a bedroom.
Abby.
Jesus, let me see her smile. No more pain. There’d been so much pain. Months of her suffering as the vampire blood pumped through her veins. The miscarriage. The nights when she’d gone crazy with blood thirst, trying to kill me. The mornings when she’d lain exhausted and still as death.
Her begging me to end her life. The one moment I’d died inside as she’d walked away with Waleron. My begging. The sound of my roar.
“Abb.”
A gasp. Even though it was a mere breath, I recognized it.
Slender fingers curled around the doorframe. Fuckin’ beautiful fingers. They’d rested on my chest so many times in that cottage. It had been months of torture for us both.
A lock of red hair appeared in the doorway.
Slowly, she came into view, her body hugging the doorframe as if afraid to let go of her security.
No smile. No movement toward me.
But her expression was all I needed. Her eyes were wide with recognition and her lips parted as if she’d just taken a deep breath.
Then I saw the pooling of tears in her eyes and my shoulders sagged.
“Christ, Abby.”
A tear tipped over her lid and trailed down her cheek.
Her nails dug into the doorframe so hard that the wood splintered under the pressure, but she didn’t move. Her eyes were locked on me as if in disbelief.
“Abb, baby.” It took me three strides to reach her.
I hooked her waist and dragged her away from the wall and cocooned her within my embrace. Her cheek lay against my chest while my hand stroked her head and I whispered soothing words over and over again. I fuckin’ had no clue what I said, just words of love for the girl I’d thought was dead.
The overwhelming relief of having her in my arms was too much to bear and I lowered us to the floor. Our legs entwined as I cradled her to me, her body shaking as she sobbed.
“Fuck, baby.” I kissed the top of her hair. “Jesus. I’m falling apart here, Abbs.”
All my emotions surfaced and I let go.
I let go of the fear of never holding her again.
The anguish of being denied her sweet honey voice for so long.
The fury at having her taken from me.
I tightened my hold on her and lowered my head to the side of her neck.
“Love you so damn much, baby.”
“WHERE’S DAMIEN?”
My coffee mug slipped from my grasp and fell onto the ceramic floor, black liquid splattering.
“Waleron.” God, I hated when he Traced into a room behind me.
“Mmm,” he replied, looking from me to Xamien, who casually pushed back his chair from the kitchen table and stood.
“It was a misunderstanding,” Xamien said.
“A misunderstanding?” Waleron strode toward us, stopping a foot away. “Your friend, an unpredictable rogue assassin Scar who has no qualms about killing anyone who pisses him off, blatantly told Danni Abby’s alive.”
“There was an incident and—” I began.
Waleron cut me off. “Damn it, Delara. No incident surpasses my word. What am I supposed to do now? Tell me. Because I’m at a loss. Now, the Toronto Talde knows, and if Trinity hears or the Wraiths….” He ran his hand over the top of his shaved head. “She is considered a danger to the Scars, humans, witches—a liability. And she broke the law.”
The Wraiths finding out Waleron had never killed Abby would solidify that he acted irrationally, and he’d lose his Taldeburu.
“Then why did you let her live?” I asked quietly.
Waleron stood silent, but I’d known him intimately—and that twitch in his temple told me he didn’t have an answer. At least not one he’d care to share.
Damien’s words played in my mind and I wanted desperately to not give up on Waleron. But it was nearly impossible when he kept so much of
himself a secret.
I would fight for his Taldeburu. No way in hell were they taking away his Taldeburu.
Xamien said, “Abby remains unnoticed by the Wraiths due to a spell on the house. They cannot detect her here.”
“Where is Damien?”
Xamien gestured to the back stairwell. “With her.”
Waleron approached the stairs.
“Tac.” No, he couldn’t take Damien away from her again. I scrambled after him. “Tac, please. Let them have time together.” I gripped his forearms and his gaze lowered to my hands holding him.
When his eyes met mine, they were cold and harsh—pure ice. His coldness penetrated and I shivered, releasing him and stepping back. “Damn it, Waleron, let me in.”
Waleron ignored me and his eyes snapped to Xamien. “What is Abby’s condition? Is she stable?”
Shit.
Xamien tensed. “If you’d asked me that a few days ago, I’d have said good. Now….” He sighed, mouth pulled down in the corners. “She attacked Max. Bit her neck. It’s been the only incident since she’s been here though.”
Waleron nodded and turned to go up the stairs.
He might not believe in love, but I did, and Damien loved Abby. “If you separate them, I’ll never forgive you.”
God, it felt as if I was fighting for us through what he’d done to Damien and Abby.
He paused.
“Kitten, perhaps this isn’t—”
I ignored Xamien. “There will be nothing left of us.” The muscles in Waleron’s back tensed, but he didn’t turn around. “I said I didn’t trust you. What I meant was that I don’t trust that you’ll never leave me, but I do trust that you will never physically harm me. I trust that no matter what you say or do, you care about me.”
He spun around, brows lowered, jaw clamped. The scent of rage emanated from his skin and I pinched the sides of my legs as he approached me.
“Waleron,” Xamien warned.
I swallowed, shifting back until the backs of my thighs hit the table.
He reached me and his hand grabbed the back of my neck, fingers digging into me cruelly. “Like this,” Waleron growled.
“Jesus, Waleron. What the fuck.” Xamien came toward us, but stopped when Waleron shot him a threatening glare.