by Cat Miller
“I have distressing news. I was just notified that two warriors and David are missing. They were on the way to meet with Griffin when they disappeared,” Gage informed them all.
“To hell with David. Something is wrong. Lindsay is gone.” Kayden was hefting his bag onto his shoulder.
“Gone?” Hawk asked, also getting to his feet and grabbing his bag.
“She’s gone. I can’t feel her. She just disappeared,” Kayden shouted. He was feeling out of control. The connection between him and Lindsay was a lifeline. She thought she needed him, but Lindsay didn’t seem to understand how desperately Kayden needed her. She was his heart, and at the moment his heart wasn’t beating. There had been no sign of distress. No call for help. She just vanished from his mind.
“I’m calling Samantha,” Hawk told him as they exited the chinook.
“This mission is delayed until we find my daughter,” Gage informed his crew.
“Samantha isn’t answering,” said Hawk.
Kayden was running toward his truck and trying to decide where he should start looking for his mate when his phone began to ring with a distinct tone. He stopped short. Abel had gone dark, and no one had heard from him in over a week. Could it be a coincidence that he was calling now?
“What’s going on?” Kayden greeted gruffly.
“You felt her fade out?” Abel asked.
“I sure as fuck did. What happened?” Kayden put his phone on speaker so Gage and Hawk could also hear.
“I’ve been tracking Nick. I just about had the noose tightened around the bastard when he made his move. I knew there had to be a reason for him to risk getting so close to the Enclave. I followed him to a brownstone on 5th and West Streets. Thank God I decided to move to the rear of the building. I was too far away to stop him when he left carrying Lindsay over one shoulder. Another guy was carrying Samantha. Sarah followed them and got into the vehicle on her own. I’m following them now. I’ll call you back as soon as I know where they’ve been taken, but you should probably start heading east toward the water.” Abel disconnected the call.
Kayden roared again. He felt like he’d swallowed his heart. This was Sheena’s work. If Nick was involved Sheena wasn’t far behind. Kayden dialed Griffin while he ran to the parking lot. Sarah was involved in this plot and Griffin needed to be on guard. She was going down for her crime this time. If Lindsay was harmed the council wouldn’t need to worry about another trial. Kayden would end Sarah’s life on sight. Sarah was no better than Sheena if she dragged her child into such a dangerous situation. They both needed to be put down.
Twenty-one
David rolled to his side with a groan. He felt like his head was full of cotton. Confused, he attempted to rub at the throb in his temples, but first, he had to disentangle himself from his suit jacket. David looked around to orient himself, blinking several times before his surroundings finally came into focus and dread filled his chest. He slowly sat up on the cold, bloodstained, concrete floor he was sprawled across and leaned against the damp stone wall. He was in a cell, and not just any cell, but one of the cells that he’d used to keep his captives in when he was an insane puppet. He was in the compound that had served as his nest for many years while he plotted against his own people, his own house.
David tried to recall how he’d gotten there without success. The last thing he remembered was sitting in the backseat of a car on his way to meet Griffin, who wanted to talk to him about some pressing matter. What Griffin thought David could do to help him David had no idea, but he’d try to assist his brother-in-law if it was at all possible. Every time David was confronted with Griffin, Lloyd, or one of Griffin’s children it was like being stabbed in the heart. He could see Leann’s perfect shade of blue eyes so vividly in the members of her family. After everything Griffin had done to help David since his reawakening, David would do anything he could to support the male. In some small way, it felt like giving a gift to Leann when David helped her family.
He’d asked Gage for an escort to Griffin’s estate. David didn’t go anywhere alone. It was too dangerous with Sheena still on the loose. Mason was also going to meet with David and Griffin. It would be good to see both males and David hoped to be of some use to his people after all the harm he’d done.
Somewhere between the Enclave and Griffin’s estate, David lost a chunk of time. They’d been driving the freeway. David was in the backseat, and there were two warriors in the front of the sedan. David was lost in memories of the past and all of the sins he’d committed. There wasn’t a day that passed that he didn’t think about all of the people he’d killed and the lives he’d ruined. David had been stroking the letter he kept in his pocket and staring out the window... The rest of the ride was entirely blank for David. He had no memory of how he came to be at the nest Sheena had built on the backs of the weak-minded, like David, and the blood of the innocent, like Abel, their son. This place should have been demolished and burned to the ground.
On shaky legs, David got to his feet and began to prepare himself for what he knew was coming. This was Sheena’s doing. In spite of the precautions he’d taken to prevent this from happening, he’d once again been captured by the female who’d destroyed his life. There was no other possible explanation. David began to use the exercises he’d learned from his therapist. He had to shield his mind from Sheena. He would rather die than be her tool of destruction again. Not that it would happen that way this time. David would be put down like a rabid animal if he made an aggressive move toward the Vampire Nation. Sheena had to know this by now. There was no use trying to understand the mind of a lunatic. Instead, he used the trick he’d been practicing to protect his brain from invasion. David closed his eyes and imagined a pile of bricks and bucket of mortar. In his hand was a trowel. Brick by brick, he built a wall around himself. He was supposed to imagine the bricks were coated with iron to block any telepathic waves in the air. He did this, but David also inserted the protection and love of his mate into the staggered joints of mortar that held his walls together. The strength of the love he’d shared with Leann wouldn’t fail David. Eyes shut, hands fisted, mind focused, he built a barrier between himself and anything that might take the memory of Leann from him again or cause him to do anything that wouldn’t make her proud.
He didn’t stop spreading mortar and stacking bricks in his mind until the sound of high-heeled shoes and muffled cursing could be heard approaching the metal bars that trapped David. He was as ready as he would ever be to face his personal demon. David looked around his cage for anything he could use as a weapon, but he wasn’t lucky. There was nothing but a solid slab floor and stone walls.
“David. Oh, David,” Sheena called in a sing-song voice as she approached. “I’ve brought you a present, my love.”
David’s skin crawled at the sound of her voice, but the shuffling feet and muted swearing in the background sent a shaft of regret and guilt through him that was so intense it nearly took David to his knees. This couldn’t be happening. He closed his eyes again and prayed this was a bad dream.
“Don’t you want to see my gift to you, master?” Sheena asked in a purr as she peered at him through the bars.
David hated that word. The master he’d been was a monster of Sheena’s making. He glared at Sheena who stood in the door to his cell looking like she’d just left an elegant garden party in a wrap dress with a birdcage hat. She was also wielding a baseball bat that ruined the air of confident superiority she was striving for. Someone out of David’s sight was struggling and grunting. Sheena struck out hard with the bat. There was a sickening thud as the bat struck a solid blow and then the shuffling silenced.
“Can’t you control one little vampire? You better grow a backbone if you want your own little vampire to remain in one piece,” Sheena seethed at her minion before smoothing her expression and returning her attention to David.
“You know how much I’ve missed you?” She batted her eyelashes. “I’ve been trying to bring you home
since the day they stole you from me, darling. Now that we’ve returned to our nest, what kind of mate would I be if I didn’t give you exactly what you wanted so very badly?” she finished with a snarl.
“Sheena, I’m the one you want. Now that you have me, there’s no reason for you to torture anyone else. I’ll do whatever you want.” There was no hope for him, and he knew it. Once Sheena wormed her way into his mind again, David would have no control over his actions. He would have to sacrifice himself and pray that Gage would get the chance to put him down before he did any more damage than he’d already done. David’s freedom and life weren’t worth that of Sheena’s other captive.
“Aww. Aren’t you just the sweetest? He’s so willing to martyr himself for the love of his fucking life!”
Sheena grabbed her unconscious victim from the minion holding her up and slammed her against the bars. She ripped the dark cloth off the female’s head so David could see her and David cringed. Lindsay dropped in a heap on the floor at Sheena’s feet without opening her eyes. David fought the urge to move toward the door. He wanted to grab Sheena and bash her head against the bars like she’d done to Lindsay, but if he showed any more concern for Lindsay, Sheena would only get more violent.
David knew Lindsay’s voice very intimately, and even though it was muffled, David had known it was her before he’d seen her. He’d do anything within his power to prevent even one more moment of trauma or ounce of pain from touching Lindsay. He’d ruined her just like Sheena had ruined him by stealing Leann from his life.
“Lindsay was not the love of my life, Sheena, and you know it. You murdered the love of my life. Lindsay had the misfortune of reminding me of my one true mate, even in my addled state.”
“I was your one true mate, David! Me! I was with you first! I was willing to live and die for you! I killed for you! That mousy little bitch was nothing more than a high-class whore being sold by her house!”
David wanted to strike back at Sheena. He itched to tell her what a crazy bitch she was then and now. Sheena had been a human girl who’d warmed his bed for a time. She was beautiful and intense, but he’d never had any intention of having anything more than an affair with her. David hadn’t known until twenty-five years later when he woke up to this nightmare that Sheena was a half-breed vampire with the ability to control the minds of some other vampires. She didn’t have the strength and speed of a vampire though. Hence the use of a bat that she wouldn’t put down.
“What do you want, Sheena?” David asked. He’d have to pretend to go along with her plan and keep his eyes open for an opportunity to contact the Enclave.
“What do I want? I’ll tell you what I want. Let’s start with my mate and son. I’d like the men in my life to get their shit together and rejoin me in our mission. Can you make that happen?” she asked.
“You have me. That’s the best you can hope for. I don’t have a link with Abel. He wants nothing to do with me, but he has been taken in by my house, not to mention his connection to the House of Vaughn through his mating. He’s untouchable.” It was the truth, but even if he could, David wouldn’t drag Abel back into Sheena’s web.
“No one is untouchable. You were in the custody of the nation’s central Enclave a few hours ago, and look at you now.” Sheena chuckled. “Lindsay was easier to get my hands on. She was out shopping with one of the precious Vaughn twins. Too bad it wasn’t the whore who stole my son. I could have brought him home in exchange for his mate’s release, but the blonde is nearly as valuable. So you see, with enough money and manpower, nobody is beyond my reach. I will bring our son home eventually. It’s only a matter of time. You can save him some penance by helping me accomplish it more quickly because the longer he stays gone, them more he’ll have to pay for his disobedience.”
“Like I said, Abel wants nothing to do with me. The man wouldn’t piss on me if I were on fire. I can’t bring him to you.”
“Oh well, then. I guess, for now, I’ll have to settle for punishing the whore you and Abel shared.”
“We didn’t share her, Sheena. Abel and Lindsay were good friends. That was all. Trust me, I was in her mind, so I know what kind of relationship they had. That’s why he didn’t try to save her.” David knew Abel agonized over his decision to leave Lindsay with David to protect his mother, Sheena, whom Abel believed was under David’s control. They all learned far too late that it was the other way around, and David was the one being manipulated. Christ, no wonder Abel couldn’t stand either of his parents.
“If you can’t get my son back for me, Lindsay will be the one to pay. You too will pay, because this is entirely your fault. You ruined everything. You took my family from me. Now I’m going to have to take something important from you.” Sheena lowered herself to a crouch and yanked Lindsay’s head up roughly.
Lindsay’s eyes opened a crack. Blood still trickled from a cut on her forehead and coated the left side of her face. The injury was healing already, thanks to her vampire blood. David hoped Lindsay would regain her wits before Sheena could do her any more harm. Sheena held out her hand, and the minion standing just out of David’s sightline handed over a syringe. David was struck by the small size of the hand of the person he couldn’t see. It looked like Sheena had an unwilling accomplice if threats were needed to control the other vampire. David took in a deep breath and tried to sort through the scents in the air over the odor of old blood and mildew. The ones he could identify were Lindsay, Sheena, and after a moment of searching his memory for the distinct aroma of the stranger, David knew he would commit murder once again if he ever made it out of that cell. Sarah had been warned not to fuck with David’s family again, but there she was, endangering one of Griffin’s children. Sheena had to have one of Sarah and Griffin’s kids to use as leverage. He watched in horror as Sheena pulled off the cap on the syringe with her teeth and stabbed the needle into Lindsay’s upper arm. Lindsay was still out from the blow to her head and didn’t even flinch.
“Be useful and open the cell,” Sheena said to Sarah, who was doing her best not to be seen by David. A small manicured hand reached around to unlock the cell. Sheena pulled a wicked looking straight razor out of the cleft of her breasts. With practiced ease, she flipped it open and held the sharp blade to Lindsay’s throat. Blood spilled down Lindsay’s neck when Sheena exerted just enough pressure to show David she wasn’t kidding. “If you make a move while this door is opened I’ll sever her neck so deeply she’ll never be able to heal before she bleeds out.”
David put his hands up and backed up a few feet. If he rushed the door, he’d get himself free, but he’d never be able to save Lindsay. David could give Lindsay his blood and hope there was time to get her to a doctor before she bled out, but he was pretty sure Lindsay would rather die than to have David’s blood in her mouth again. When he’d breathed in Lindsay’s scent, he also recognized the smell of a male permeating her body. Lindsay was a mated female now. David had a sliver of hope that Lindsay would get out of this alive. He would stall Sheena and keep her talking for as long as possible because he had no doubt that Lindsay’s mate would be tearing the world apart searching for her.
The door to the cell opened, and Lindsay’s limp body fell in. Sheena had to kick Lindsay’s legs into the cage so she could slam the door shut again. Lindsay moaned from her bent position against the bars. Sheena cackled insanely and glared at David.
David started to think of ways to get Sheena talking, so she didn’t leave.
“Poor Lindsay, look at what has become of her because of your defiance.” Sheena looked at David as if he were a careless child who’d left an expensive toy out in the rain and it was now ruined.
“Lindsay is a victim in all of this mess just like Leann. I loved my mate. I still love my mate. Lindsay was simply a reminder to my sleeping subconscious that I’d once had the world, and you stole it all from me. Lindsay was a blessing. She was waking me up little by little. I refuse to kill her.” David knew any mention of Leann brought a reactio
n from Sheena.
Sheena’s cool demeanor slipped. She was enraged by David’s continued adoration for his mate. “Then you will die, and Lindsay will live the rest of her considerably longer life with the guilt of having your blood on her hands. It would be kinder of you to end her now,” Sheena insisted. “She’s already eaten alive by guilt for the lives of all of the humans she killed during the drug testing. Murdering you will be too much for her fragile human sensibilities, don’t you think?”
“Lindsay never killed anyone, and you know it, Sheena. According to the data found in your nest, your drug was never able to push her all the way over the edge. You starved her near to death before pumping her full of that poison. It wasn’t her fault she attacked, and it wasn’t her fault those people died. It was all you,” David accused.
Sheena chuckled as she explained, “I know that, and you know that, but Lindsay still blames herself. Poor thing,” Sheena said with an insincere pout. “You’re correct, though, she never fed until the human was dead. She’s a stubborn little bitch. I must say, she was a more worthy foe than any other I’ve had the pleasure of defeating. It was refreshing if I’m honest. I tortured her. I humiliated her. I watched while deep tissue samples were ripped from her lusciously curved body without the benefit of anesthesia. She screamed. She cried. She begged for death. But she didn’t let me win. I starved her to the point of bloodlust before dosing her and sending in the sheep. It was so fucking frustrating. She’d attack and feed, but as soon as she was full enough to stop the pain, she would stop feeding.”
“You’re insane, Sheena. Do you hear yourself? You’ve killed and tortured innocent people. You’ve brainwashed people. You’ve supported the habits of the lowest of the low. And for what?”
“For what? You really want to know?” Sheena clutched the bars in a white-knuckled grip. She looked like a socialite but sounded like a maniac when she replied, “I just want to watch the Vampire Nation burn. You all think you’re so superior. Isn’t it hysterical that a half human with very little power infiltrated your highest ranks and brought you to your knees? Isn’t it ironic that someone you all think is beneath you has destroyed your false sense of security? ”