by J. M. Adele
“Don’t you remember?” He gave her a pitying look and helped her to sit up, packing cushions behind her back. “Oh, baby. Your memory has gone again. You haven’t been the same since the accident.”
Accident? He spooned some soup into her mouth. She sputtered, struggling to swallow the salty, hot broth.
“Shiloh blamed it on you. She said you grabbed the wheel. Your family kicked you out of home. I’ve been looking after you ever since.” Stroking her face, he enchanted her with his kaleidoscopic eyes. “I’m so sorry, baby. It’s just you and me now.”
Her heart swelled at his declaration, euphoria flooding her veins. He offered another spoonful. She leaned forward to take it, wincing as pain shot through her head. “Thanks for taking care of me.”
He frowned and put the bowl on the bedside table. “You’re in pain. I’ll get you your medication.”
Her euphoria faded a little as he retreated through the door, and jumbled thoughts formed a confusing tapestry in her head. It made sense that she’d been kicked out of home. It was inevitable. But Shiloh and Seth were in love. Was it Lanie’s fault they’d broken up? She groaned again, frustrated that she couldn’t remember something so major.
“Here.” He placed the pills in her palm and helped her raise them to her mouth, a glass of water at the ready to wash them down. “There. You’ll feel better again soon.
She stared at him over the rim of the glass. Lucky me. I get to look at him all day. “Where are we?”
“Shh, you’re safe. You don’t need to worry about that.”
She frowned for a second as her mind tried to think, but she lost the trail, diverted towards gratitude. “I’m not worried.”
“Good.” He smiled again, lifting another spoonful of soup. “Finish all your dinner. We want you fully recovered by your birthday. Sweet sixteen.” His eyes seemed to spark with flecks of red.
Mesmerizing. She stared as she swallowed down the liquid, not listening to what he was saying.
“I have big plans, baby. Big plans.”
_____
Bile burned the back of Shiloh’s throat as her wet T-shirt dripped water down her bare legs. She hadn’t had time to throw on her shorts and they were soaked from the tsunami anyway. This can’t be happening. She pictured Lanie’s beaten and bruised body lying in the hospital bed, tubes and wires snaking in a tangle of technology. Heard the hum and click of the machine breathing for her sister and the rhythmic beep of the monitor giving assurance of life.
How could Lanie have survived being unplugged from all of that?
“What did he say?” Devlin demanded as he stormed out of the billiards room, wrapping a towel around his waist, with Shiloh and Lock following.
“Checkmate.”
Devlin’s footsteps stopped abruptly, his fist pounding the wall to form a crater in the brick. “Fucker.” Continuing his march, he flexed his hand. “Where’s Sienna?”
“She’s at the hospital. They called her.”
Why didn’t they call us? How could they have let this happen? A high-pitched ringing assaulted Shiloh’s ears as images of a dead Lanie barraged her mind. Or worse. Vampire Lanie.
“Get her on the phone.” Devlin slammed the flat of his palm into the air in front of him. The resulting pulse of energy swung open the door to the theatre room with a loud crack.
Shiloh bolted past him, thumping on the control room door. If they could tap into the city’s CCTV, then surely they could access the hospital’s security cameras.
Evren greeted her with a scowl, blocking her entry. “Staff only.”
“Back the fuck up, Evren.” Devlin loomed behind Shiloh, his breath hot on her neck.
“Gone soft.” Ren moved back, pouting and muttering under her breath.
“You really wanna test me right now?” He swung a finger in her direction and she fell on her ass.
Lock passed Devlin a cell phone, giving Evren a sidelong look as he followed her to the desk.
“Sienna. How the fuck did he get through?” Devlin’s fingers yanked at his hair, eyes fixed on the screen showing a deserted hospital room. “A fucking linen cart? You gotta be shitting me. Did you find the nurse?” Releasing his hair, his arm dropped by his side as his red eyes flicked to Shiloh’s. “Dead.” He pulled the phone away from his ear, the crunch of his teeth grinding together sending shivers down her spine. Stretching his neck side to side until it cracked, he screwed up his nose and sniffed before resuming the conversation. “Find him.”
Passing the phone back to Lock, Devlin searched the screens again. “He mind-fucked a nurse to do the deed and put a bullet in the guy’s brain on delivery of the package. Where’s the footage?”
Another innocent life extinguished. Shiloh squatted down, leaning her back against the wall and squeezing her eyes shut. She didn’t want to see after all. There’d been enough bloodshed and madness. If she watched her sister’s lifeless body being carted away, she’d never be able to get the image out of her head.
“There. That door. I want the view outside that door.”
“Okay, give me a sec.”
Shiloh heard the play of Zain’s fingers over the keyboard, thinking it sounded a lot like rain on a windshield. The last thing a person would hear before skidding out of control on a wet, stormy night.
“Fuck . . . wait. Back it up,” Devlin barked.
Shiloh pushed her palms into her closed eyes, the temptation to open them almost overpowering her. Thank God the video had no sound. It was bad enough hearing the commentary.
“That ain’t him holding the gun. He’s got another vampire helping him. Added to the dead bodies in the yard and any humans he decides to screw with, and he has himself an army. How the fuck is he controlling so many? It ain’t with blood.”
“Money, probably.” Evren weighed in. “Vampires are just as greedy as humans.”
“Nah. He ain’t got that much. People ain’t gonna lay down their lives just for a piss-weak amount of dough. They do it to protect something they believe in, or fight for their right to it.”
Shiloh uncovered her eyes, immediately caught in Devlin’s gaze.
“He either threatened ’em or promised ’em something.” He paused, still looking at her. “Power. Immortality . . . magic.”
Moving towards her, his energy field encircled her with a magnetic pull before he took her hands and tugged her to her feet. “Evren, take Shiloh upstairs.”
What? No. “Why can’t I stay?”
Shiloh’s question got lost underneath Evren’s simultaneous protest. “You’re sending me off to fucking babysit?” Her chair squealed as she swiveled to gape at his back.
Devlin didn’t take his eyes off Shiloh. “Is there somethin’ wrong with your hearing, Ren?”
“Naw, boss. We got you.” Lock frowned at his girl with a subtle shake of his head.
“I’ll take her,” Zain offered.
His grip tightening around Shiloh’s hands, Devlin twisted his head slowly to stare at the teen.
If she had to go anywhere with anyone other than Devlin, she’d rather it be with Zain. Even Lock would be better than Ren. But she didn’t want to go at all.
She repeated her question. “Why do I have to go?”
Devlin released his hold and nodded his head at his IT guru. “It’s safer this way.”
Zain brushed past and held the door for her. “Shiloh, come on.”
She hesitated, searching Devlin’s black gaze for a shred of warmth.
Heaven and hell.
He turned away, taking the seat Zain had vacated.
Dismissed.
She felt a tug on her hand before her body followed through the exit. “Where are we going? What are they going to do?” Shiloh watched the flicker of changing screens over her shoulder before she lost sight through the narrowing crack in the door.
“They’re going to track him. The sneaky bastard knows how to fly under the radar, but now he’s got baggage.” Zain’s shoulders bunched and he snapped his g
aze to hers. “Sorry. That sounded bad.”
Her nose screwed up at his callous referral to her sister before he came to an abrupt stop, Shiloh bumping into his back. “What—”
“Wait here.” Spinning on his heel, he jogged down the stairs, and stuck his head back in the control room. “Check the skies; he might have wings.”
Eyebrows shooting up, Shiloh pictured Jax sprouting wings and carrying her sister off in his claws like a vulture with a prize carcass.
Zain caught up to her, a smirk on his face. “Not actual wings.” He trotted past the rows of recliners facing the big-screen.
“Oh. You meant he might’ve taken a flight. But he would have had to hide Lanie.” Her eyes widened as her body recoiled. “He’s stuffed her in a suitcase. She’s small enough. Oh, my God. She’s going to die.”
“Whoa. Stop. She’s not gonna die. We’ll get her back.”
Shiloh halted, her nostrils flaring and anger rising to a boil in her blood. “You know what? I don’t want to hear any more bullshit stories about how everything is going to be fine. How the fuck is anything fine?” Her voice gradually rose to ear-pounding levels. “My sister could already be dead, for all we know. And if not, she’s at Jax’s mercy. Is he going to bite her, too? What the hell does he want with her? Why do I have to lose everyone I love?” She let out a growl at the unfairness of it all. The sound pierced everything within reach. The curtains lining the theatre room ripped from their fastenings. Yards of gray fabric dropped in piles, looking like the fortified walls of a bunker. All she needed to add was a topping of twisted barbed wire and she was ready for Jax’s war. He wanted it? He was going to get it.
“Fuck me. Are you sure she’s not part banshee?” Evren jiggled her finger in her ear, scowling at Shiloh from the control room door.
“Come on, Shiloh. Let’s go.” Zain tapped her on the elbow.
“I’m not leaving.” Zeroing in on the goth, a pulse of energy started vibrating in Shiloh’s tailbone. One more word from this bitch and the last thread of Shiloh’s control would snap. She shifted her stance as the pressure in her back became uncomfortable.
“Aw, baby doesn’t wanna sit in the corner.” Ren sneered, her statement inciting a rage that burned Shiloh to the core.
A wave of power raced up her spine, juicing her muscles for attack. Releasing a hiss, Shiloh pounced, crossing the room in one move to knock Ren out cold with a punch. The pulses of energy kept coming, building and building until the air shimmered around her in oily ribbons like the heat rising off desert dunes.
Something was happening to her being. Something irrevocable. God help me.
“What the fuck?” Lock lurched into the room, following Devlin.
Dev slapped a palm out, stopping his friend from moving an inch. “Don’t touch her.”
A low rumble of thunder rolled out from Lock’s chest. Ren moaned, dragging herself upright with awkward movements. Leaning on her arms, with her legs curled beside her, she stretched her jaw. “Fuck.” Aiming eyes of crimson malice in Shiloh’s direction, Ren stumbled to her feet and pitched her body at her target.
Grinding her teeth, Shiloh held both palms out in an unmistakable signal to back off.
Coming up against an invisible barrier, Ren’s body twisted and fell. Growling, she tried again, looking like a mime the morning after a bender. “Cut the shit, D. Let me at her.”
“I ain’t doin’ nothin’.” Devlin smirked.
“Bullshit.” Evren came at Shiloh again, bouncing off thin air.
Devlin growled at his sniper. “I ain’t a fucking liar. Sit your ass down, you’re embarrassing yourself.”
Muscles convulsing, bones warping—each molecule somehow morphed to shed the bulk of Shiloh’s humanity. The force of the change had her hovering an inch above the floor. She held in a cry of pain, focusing her attention on keeping this woman the hell away, rather than acknowledging the possibility that she was losing herself completely. “Leave me alone.” The demand rumbled out as if demons plucked the fleshy harp of her voice box.
“What the fuck is going on, then?” the goth spat.
“It’s her.” Devlin’s eyes lit up.
Ren’s head swiveled back to Shiloh. “What about her?”
Devlin looked at Shiloh, his face stretched in elation, gaze glowing like a beacon guiding her home. “She found her power. Fuck, yeah.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Shiloh reconnected with the floor. Energy draining through the soles of her feet, her body collapsed just as the curtains had. Managing choppy gasps of air between clenched teeth, she whimpered at the horrible realization—I can’t see. Her hearing filtered through a tunnel lined in cotton wool. She was able to grab words here and there—Shock. Myles. Med room—and then . . . nothing.
Suspicious
Lanie propped herself up against the pillows, head pounding like it’d been stuck between clashing cymbals for hours. It was dark outside, from what she could tell. There was only one window across the small room. The glass was covered with aluminum foil behind a heavy, woven curtain. If not for a small tear in the foil, she wouldn’t have had any visual marker of time, the break leaking in a fine beam of light just visible through the weave early in the morning. The other clue to the time was the intermittent song of a mockingbird chirping through the most popular bird mating calls. Fucking thing wouldn’t shut up.
She stared at the pills in a cup beside the bed. Seth had left them there before leaving. He told her he’d be back soon and to take them if she had pain. Pain was her constant. The houseguest that needed a place to crash for ‘a few days’ and never left. Yeah, she could swallow the pills and retreat into numbness again, but they always knocked her out. She’d barely been awake for days. It could’ve been weeks. Who the fuck knew?
Seth did.
Where did he go? I need to pee.
She slapped a palm on her thigh, tightening her lips because she’d barely felt a sting. It was like her legs were made of rubber. Useless appendages. For decorative purposes only. They moved sometimes, but not where she wanted them to go, and never much more than a twitch or a shudder. She was working on it. Whenever she was conscious.
I refuse to cry.
Flaring her nostrils, she clamped her eyelids shut and dragged in a breath.
I seriously need to pee.
At least she still had bladder control.
Where is he?
Through narrowed eyes, she estimated the distance to the door and the height of the bed. Letting out a sigh, she figured she didn’t have a choice. She’d have to drag herself to the bathroom. She tipped her shoulders to the side, reaching towards the floor. Both hands flat on the carpet, she walked them slowly forward as the blood rushed to her head, amplifying the percussion section between her ears.
Fuck. Maybe I should’ve had the damn pills.
Gritting her teeth, she looked back as her legs slid towards the edge of the mattress. Bracing her arms, she waited for the thud. One. Two. Ooh, I think I felt that. Dust teased a sneeze from her nose. Goddamn, Seth, would it kill you to vacuum?
Where was he?
Digging her elbows into the plush pile, she inched forward.
How could he leave me like this?
Crash, clang—the cymbals continued their barrage as her pulse drummed a beat behind her temples. She sneezed again, wondering if her head would explode before her bladder did. Another two feet and she’d be at the door. Left, right. Twelve more inches. She lifted her arm to grab the handle. Too far. Shuffling her butt closer to the door, she straightened up her torso and reached again. Shit. She’d never be able to reach the door handle. Either this place was designed by giants, or she was too much of a short-ass.
He said he’d take care of me. That he’d never leave me. Where the fuck is he now, huh? Why were they together? She wasn’t even sure if they liked each other.
That was it. She couldn’t hold it any longer. The discomfort in her bladder suddenly eased off and she looked down as a
wet patch soaked her shorts. Biting her lip, she swiped at the renegade tear defiantly trailing down her cheek. Fuck it. Fuck this. And fuck him.
Throwing up a middle finger, she aimed it at the exit, fully prepared to hold the pose until Seth copped an eyeful of her dissatisfaction.
She didn’t have to wait long.
She heard a key rattle the handle before a click. The door was locked? Why was the door locked? Watching the handle turn, she knew her body was blocking the door from swinging open but was unable to move fast enough to prevent the collision.
Whack. Her side caught the brunt of the force. Ouch.
“Lanie!” Seth snapped as he poked his head through the gap. “What are you doing out of bed?”
She glared at him, finger still raised.
His face screwed up. “Did you piss yourself?”
“Well done, genius, you figured it out.”
His eyes snapped to hers. She could’ve sworn they blazed red for a second before simmering to a shade of amber. What was that? He paused, smoothing out his features.
A feeling of bliss filtered through her system. The cacophony in her head hushed. She dropped her arm, finding it hard to remember why she’d had it up in the first place. Oh, he is gorgeous. And he’s all mine. “Sorry about the mess. I tried to get to the bathroom.”
He smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I know, baby. I’m sorry I wasn’t back in time.”
“Where’d you go?”
“Out.” His brow tightened as he dropped his gaze. “I’ll get a towel.”
“Thanks.” He disappeared and she started to worry that he wasn’t coming back, the bliss fading a little as if he’d taken it with him. “Seth?”
Silence.
Her mouth dried to a crisp. “Seth?” She raised her voice, shuffling her body to the side and out of the way of the door, exposing the full extent of her disgrace. Oh. He’s gonna be angry.
The door swung open before he dumped a towel in her lap. “Here, clean yourself up.” Shoulders bunched, he turned away, leaving her again.
“Um, I might need a bit of help.”