Coda (Alexa O'Brien Huntress Book 13)

by Trina M. Lee

  Because I couldn’t stop myself, couldn’t possibly keep from reaching for Arys, I did. Needing to share this with him, I opened the door between us, finding him there where he lived always inside my mind.

  I said nothing, making no verbal communication. Instead, I just let him see what I saw and hear what I heard.

  “My dear, sweet, absolute fool,” Lilah purred, a genuine smile flickering over her lips. “There is no saving us from this curse.” This woman’s words had haunted me for months. Her certainty that twin flames were cursed.

  They caused me doubt, but I refused to live her way. “I just killed someone I love to break a curse,” I said, demanding her attention. “There’s not much worse than that. If this can be done, I’ll do it. I don’t care what it takes.”

  Lilah’s cackle filled the room. She pulled away from Salem and prowled toward me. He moved with her, keeping her at a safe distance. If there were such a thing.

  “Better watch that feisty tongue, Alexa. That kind of shit is music to a demon’s ears. Such promises often come with a price.” A power pulse accompanied this statement. She openly felt me out, tasting my power, discovering what I’d become in the time she’d been away.

  I let her. Unafraid, I had nothing to hide. “A price worth paying if it means an end to the unrest between Arys and me. You say you don’t want that for yourself, but it’s a lie. You can’t lie to me. I am you.”

  Lips twisted into a smirk, Lilah gripped the back of one of the chairs in the sitting area. Salem shadowed her every move. “Thousands upon thousands of years we have bore this curse. You can’t even begin to fathom the ways you will suffer. You might be a badass vampire now, but you can’t change this.”

  Knowing the dark flame as I did, I suspected her reaction to be fear based. Fear brought out the worst in Arys too. “If that’s what you really believe, then you have nothing to lose by helping me try.” I threw out the challenge with defiance written all over my face. “Unless you’re afraid I’ll succeed.”

  Lilah abandoned the plastered-on smile and hit me straight with a soul-sucking glare. “Why are you really here, Alexa? What do you want from me?”

  Her question stunned me. Because for a moment, I wasn’t sure. The answer swam up from the depths of my subconscious, surprising me. “What was Shya to you?” I blurted, wincing inwardly because of Salem but needing to hear her say it.

  She gaped at me like she couldn’t decide whether to rip my head off or rip my heart out. Salem stood next to her, his expression like stone. I held my ground, unwilling to take it back or redirect the conversation. Some part of me needed to know.

  Lilah clutched the back of the chair so tight it creaked in her grasp. “Shya was a way to pass the time. One of those flings that sticks like dog shit on your shoe. I was done with him, but he never moved on.”

  Liar. She said it like she believed it though, so I had to give her points for that. “Ok, now tell me the truth. What was he really to you?”

  A crack as the wood began to splinter under Lilah’s hold. Her fiery eyes pinned me with seething rage. “I loved him once. We were bad together in the best of ways. He brought to life the darkest parts of me, and I loved him for it. But that was ages ago, and we are long over.”

  Lilah clamped her mouth shut tight to keep more of that truth from spilling out. She seemed in disbelief at having told me.

  Salem had shown me a memory from their past. I knew about Shya. He was her Kale. The one who brought out her worst parts, enabling her to run from her twin flame while never escaping him. In that way I related to Lilah most.

  “Is it?” I asked. “I saw Shya about a month ago. He was drunk and feeling sorry for himself. Pining over you.”

  Salem’s jaw twitched at this.

  I’d apologize later. I needed to push them both if they were to help me.

  Lilah’s gaze dropped but not before I caught the pain that flickered through her eyes. Huh. She was still in love with Shya. Not entirely shocking all things considered. Although I had witnessed her call him a worm.

  “Did you sleep with him?” she asked, catching me off guard.

  “With Shya? Oh, hell no.” My disgust couldn’t have been more authentic. The very thought gave me the creeps all the way to my bones.

  “Who then?” Squinting slightly, she shoved away from the chair and came toward me. “You’ve taken an immortal lover. I can feel him all over your aura.”

  I held my ground as she came at me. Salem caught her elbow before she could get within touching range and jerked her to a halt. It didn’t matter. She’d figured it out.

  Eyes wide with realization, she laughed. A small sound that grew quickly until her amusement became sheer incredulity. “You have got to be kidding me. Falon? You’ve made him yours.”

  Made him yours.

  What could I do but own it? “Yeah, I guess I did.”

  Her laughter became downright skin-crawling wicked. “But he despises you. Absolutely loathes you. How did you ever manage to entangle him?”

  “Yes, well, the loathing is mutual. Falon and I are happily in hate with one another. No change there.” I shrugged, offering her a grin of my own. “Just a lot of crazy hot sex.”

  She eyed me with suspicion, like she just realized she was seeing the real me for the first time. “It’s his darkness. You seek it out in all of them. Your lovers. It draws you. Even your too good to be true, squeaky clean white wolf. You see it, don’t you?”

  It wasn’t something I could argue. Although I didn’t appreciate her spinning this to expose me as I’d just done to her. Well played, bitch.

  Every man I’d ever been drawn to had his dark side, no doubt about that. Some more so than others. Even Shaz, sweet soul that he was, had a dark streak a mile wide, hidden from all but Arys and me.

  “I do. Just as you’re drawn to the light. Which is why you try so hard to cling to the dark. To people like Shya.” I took a step toward her, a hand raised in appeal to hear me out. “I don’t doubt that there are parts of the twin-flame bond that will never change, but that doesn’t mean the rift can’t be mended. We have a purpose, all of us. Don’t you want to see that through?”

  Salem did. It was written all over his face as he gazed at her with such love it baffled me.

  Lilah wouldn’t be so easily won over to our way of thinking. With a huff she gave a toss of her hair and stalked over to the vanity where she poured herself a generous glass of a dark liquid. “You both are living a fantasy. What we are, it’s not supposed to be easy. Do you get that? Curses are not meant to be easy.” She downed the entire glass and refilled it.

  Watching her, Salem began to get antsy. “Lilah, this is not a curse. Let Alexa prove that to you. Nobody is asking anything of you other than willingness.”

  She shot daggers at him with a glance. “Be part of this foolishness if you must, Salem. Don’t expect me to feed your flights of fancy. Some things are better left alone. I believe this is one of them.”

  Another glass of what was most likely demon-made liquor went down the hatch, and Lilah laughed bitterly to herself. Turning back to face her reflection in the mirror, she muttered something beneath her breath.

  Salem took that as our cue to leave. He gestured toward the door. “After you.”

  Lilah turned back, waving her glass about. “Who was it that you killed to break Shya’s curse?”

  Ah, so she knew the details of that, did she? Well, of course she did. Salem had probably told her about Shya’s imprisonment with great satisfaction.

  “Kale.” His name felt wrong on my lips, saying it like this. To her.

  She nodded, suspecting as much. “Whatever you do, Alexa, be careful. Your attempt to fix this might just condemn us all to a much worse fate.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  I came back to my office with a start. Suddenly blinking at Willow who regarded me with kind, cautious eyes, I took a minute to get my bearings.

  “You alright?” Willow patted my arm until I no
dded.

  “Where’s Salem?” We were alone. The angel had dropped me and left, meaning I couldn’t apologize for digging into their dirty laundry. Shit.

  “Gone. Did it go well? Did you get what you needed?”

  I had to consider this. “Yeah, I think I did.”

  No longer did I feel my connection to Arys. It had closed during the trip back into my body. Painfully I yearned for him so much my stomach ached. I couldn’t decide which was more dangerous. Being together or apart. Both felt like hell.

  Salem didn’t want this either. Hopefully I hadn’t ticked him off. Either way, he’d help me if I needed him.

  Music boomed through the building. The party was well under way. I nudged Willow. “I’m ok now. Feel free to go peruse the party favors. Unless you prefer Arys’s way of doing things.”

  To be fair it was my preferred way of doing things as well. Taking blood without the thrill of the kill could get you through a night, even several. But it never truly satisfied the predator’s need to hunt.

  Still, there had to be boundaries. We might be killers by nature, but we were people too. With a purpose. To protect and lead our own kind while also protecting our secret. To protect mankind while also preying upon them. This could not be done indiscriminately. Victims had to be selected with some care.

  “Come on now, Alexa, you know I don’t. That night with Arys, it wasn’t what he made you think it was.” Scratching a hand through the faint stubble decorating his jaw, Willow sighed. “We went after a loan shark. The guy had just busted the legs of a single mom who owed him money.”

  I stared at him, aghast. Arys had led me to believe they were up to much worse. I’d had visions of our first outing with Briggs, and he’d fed that assumption. It had created a domino effect of me with Jenner, and then Arys going at Juliet. What in the hell?

  “He fucked with me,” I mused, nodding to myself. Of course he had.

  I could be upset—and I was to some extent—or I could be encouraged to proceed with what I’d gotten it in my head that I would somehow accomplish:

  Save us.

  I felt him, and I all but flew out of the office chair in my haste to get to him. That cold vampire breeze blew through me, urging me on down the hall. I cleared the hall in seconds, entered the club, and weaved my way through the growing throng.

  Arys sauntered through the room, drawing attention from those he passed. Feeling my approach, he paused to look for me. Our eyes met. My insides fluttered, more intense now than ever before.

  Our need for each other would continue to grow stronger. Until it all became too much. But we had hope now. And though the seed of that hope had been planted by Falon, I trusted that there was some validity to his claim.

  I dodged a guy carrying a tray of drinks to a table. All I saw was those midnight-blue eyes. I had to get to him.

  Arys opened his arms to receive me as I flung myself at him.

  “Don’t give up,” I begged. “Promise me that we won’t give up.”

  “Never,” he murmured in my ear. “I waited so long for you. For us.” Pulling back to capture my face gently in his hands, Arys kissed me. Tender but possessive, a claiming of my lips.

  I was his. “I’m going to save us,” I promised between kisses. “If there’s a way I’ll find it.” A spark went off inside me. Our power collided and merged, the missing puzzle piece slipped into place, creating a temporary sense of completion. I yearned to feel that whole all the time.

  “I know you will.” Arys pulled back so he could see me better. “I’m sorry about Juliet. And I’m sorry about Kale. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you that night.”

  The wound he’d created that night ached at the memory. The jagged edges of our bond had cut especially deep. When the urge to lash out gripped me, I was able to push past it.

  This time.

  “Stop.” I shook my head and kissed Arys to silence the flow of apologies. “Just help me fight through this. Help me fix this.”

  “Yes, of course. Anything.” He slid a hand up the back of my neck into my hair. Pressing his lips to my temple, he breathed me in. “Fuck, I miss you, my wolf. I need to be inside you. But I don’t trust myself to be alone with you anymore.”

  The shiver that slithered through me radiated both fear and desire. I always wanted Arys. It was part of the danger.

  I tried to kiss away the pain that he couldn’t hide, because it echoed inside me. “This will not break us.”

  Doubt lurked as it is wont to do. I hadn’t killed Kale to escape Shya only to self-destruct alongside Arys. If we couldn’t be alone together, then so be it. “We have Shaz,” I said with a smile, trying to lighten the mood. “He’s not going to let us fall apart.” It wouldn’t be easy though, not for any of us.

  Arys slipped his fingers through mine and pressed the back of my hand to his face. “I think I love him, Alexa.” Cool and confident, Arys’s confession came as no surprise.

  I laughed and nudged him playfully. “I’ve noticed. It was bound to happen. I love him, and you’re my other half. Maybe Kylarai’s soul mate theory isn’t so far off.”

  He laughed, that velvet sound that stroked me in private places. “I suspect she’s not wrong.”

  A familiar voice called Arys’s name. We whirled to find Jenner striding into the building with determination in each step. I’d assumed he’d be leaving. With Willow seated at the bar in his favorite spot, gazing mournfully at a bottle of tequila, the incubus vibes grew to a dizzying level.

  “Shouldn’t you be on a plane right now?” Arys demanded with a scowl.

  “I need to call in that favor you owe me.” With that one sentence Jenner dropped a steaming load of crap on my night. “You were right. There is another reason I’m here. There’s trouble back home.”

  No. Just no. Not this. Not right now.

  Trouble back home meant shit going down in Las Vegas. Arys’s home turf. This was no time for a trip to Sin City.

  Arys frowned. “What kind of trouble?”

  “It’s Loric,” Jenner said.

  That name immediately drew a curse from Arys.

  “He’s back, and he’s pissed about the blood ring.”

  A silent exchange passed between them.

  I didn’t like not being in the know. “Who’s Loric?”

  After a moment Arys said, “Loric was sired by Hurst. Just like Harley.”

  “Ok.” Getting nothing further from Arys, I turned to Jenner. “And what’s his tie to the blood ring?”

  “Loric was a founder, back when Harley got the whole sordid thing going.” Tattooed arms crossed, Jenner paused to thoughtfully chew the inside of his cheek before saying, “He left a while ago. Went to Europe or something. Now he’s back. He’s kind of taken over my nightclub. He wants to get things going again, using the club to lure victims for the auctions.”

  Which was the very thing we’d all worked to keep from happening since Harley’s death. Shit. I’d known Vegas would be a problem when Arys staked his claim over that city.

  Beside me Arys vibrated with steadily growing ire. “And you waited this long to tell me?”

  Jenner shrugged, offering no apology. “I was working my way up to it. Roscoe’s there keeping me posted. He’s good with Loric, keeping him too plied with blood and women to do much else, but when he tires of Sin City’s novelties, he’ll get serious. This is a business venture for Loric. He doesn’t give a damn how right or wrong it may be.”

  Shadows stole over Arys’s face. “You should’ve told me the moment Loric stepped foot in my city.”

  “Your city?” Jenner muttered. “If you gave a damn about that city you’d be there. This is your city now, Arys.”

  The two of them engaged in a brotherly stare down.

  “Do you want my help or not?” Arys hissed.

  Jenner hissed right back, “You owe me a favor anyway, asshole. Which I shouldn’t have to call in if you love Vegas so goddamn much.”

  “We’ll take care of it, al
right? All of us. So get your ass home and start taking a stand.” Arys gave Jenner a shove.

  This of course resulted in more shoving that I stopped by putting myself between them. “We have things to take care of here first,” I declared, daring either vampire to argue. “We can’t fix Vegas until we fix us.”

  Jaw clenched, Arys fumed. He wanted to rush off to Sin City and wrestle it back from Loric, and he didn’t like me telling him not to.

  I braced for the backlash as his anger bloomed. In an effort to quell the rising tension, I walked a few feet away from them to mutter obscenities to myself without punching either of them in frustration.

  So we were going back to Las Vegas? Woo-fucking-hoo. Not until we’d fixed our own immediate issue here at home if I had anything to say about it. And I would.

  A soft rumble beneath my feet drew my gaze to the bar where Willow stood in a nose to nose stare down with Brook. Talking with Jenner, I hadn’t noticed the demon’s arrival. So the bottom feeder thought he’d be the first to take a shot at Willow. This should be interesting.

  Brook said something with a sneer while Willow merely grinned in response. I didn’t doubt for a moment that Willow was the calmest, most in control of all of us. He’d accessed power far vaster than ours, bent it to his will.

  When he flicked his wrist and had Brook on his knees, I knew I’d made the right choice. He could handle this. Blood would replace tequila, but Willow was more himself now than he’d ever been as a demon.

  Staying down, Brook flung both hands up. Black smoke seeped from his palms. Willow deflected the assault with a hand, forcing it back at Brook. The smoke wrapped around the demon, resisting his attempts to control it even though it was a product of his energy.

  I marveled at Willow. None of us had pulled off a countermove like that with as much skill and ease. Of course, we were but infants compared to the lifetimes he’d lived and the power he’d known. I had no doubt that Willow could teach us to fully maximize our potential.