by CY Jones
“I wonder, Bella, what your blood will taste like. Will it be sweet like your angelic face, or bitter like the lies you’re hiding,” he murmurs in my ear, making me jump back.
Not at all put off by my reaction, he grabs me and pulls me onto his lap, using one of his arms to tightly wrap around my waist and hold me there.
“Besides knowing I’m a vampire, did you know I have the ability to tell if someone is lying?” Gabriel growls, tightening his grip on me almost painfully.
“What does that have to do with me?” I squeak, gritting my teeth.
This arse is one second away from getting one of these pointy ass heels impaled in his leg. Looking around, I search the area for Hunter, but he’s nowhere to be seen. Neither are Gabriel’s guards. In fact, the restaurant is practically empty. What the hell happened to all the people who were here when we first arrived? Something definitely isn’t right.
“You’re a good actress, I’ll give you that,” he says, as his hand moves lower, edging my lace knickers. “Everything you told me was vague, and as close to the truth as possible, but you still can’t fool me. I see the lie in the illusion Shadow,” he growls, right before his finger enters inside of me.
I’m about to rear my head back and bash it into his face when Gabriel guessing my intent moves his mouth to my throat, and his sharp fangs scrape against the column of my neck, making his threat very clear. If I try anything he’ll rip my throat out. His fingers moves faster against my pussy, violating me further, and my traitorous body responds without my permission.
“That’s a good little whore,” Gabriel whispers, moving his mouth on my neck and sucking hard enough to leave a mark. When he pushes his finger in deeper, I close my eyes and bite back a moan. Fuck this. I need to figure a way out. I can’t just sit back and do nothing while he finger bangs me. Two chairs scrape across the floor in front of us, and I open my eyes to see Silas, and Hangman sitting in front of us. Gabriel’s finger circles around my clit pinching my piercing, and I’m horrified and disgusted with myself when I come all over Gabriel’s fingers, while Silas watches with a look of pure fury.
Satisfied with his little show, Gabriel moves me off his lap, practically tossing me back onto the seat next to him.
“Ahh, I see our other guests have arrived. Why don’t you get rid of the glamour you’re wearing, so we all can talk, Bella?” Gabriel says while moving his hand to his mouth and licking my arousal off his fingers.
Silas’s nostrils flare as he watches Gabriel with every intent to kill him. I lose the glamour revealing my cards, but instead of the pretty little lace dress, Gabriel requested I wear, I don tight, ripped black skinny jeans, a fitted black v neck t- shirt, with a red leather jacket. Gone are those stupid stilettos, and a pair of black steel toe work boots takes their place.
“You could have left the outfit on,” Gabriel retorts, wrinkling his nose like he smells something bad, “and I think I prefer you as a blonde,” Gabriel adds, frowning at me.
Good, I’m glad the arse hates my outfit. He needs to learn quickly that I am not the ditzy blonde I pretended to be. That people fear me for a reason. He’s not scared in the slightest, in fact he thinks with this little ambush of his that he is in control. He’s wrong, and soon he’s about to find out just how wrong he is.
“You know nothing,” I retort, just to be a smart ass. Hangman chuckles at my Jon Snow reference, while Silas continues to glare at Gabriel. If he isn’t careful, he’ll reveal which side he’s really on, and then we’ll both be fucked. The chances of that happening are high since Gabriel is a living, breathing lie detector. Luckily, he’s too focused on his triumph over me to notice Silas.
“What do you want?” I ask ,addressing Hangman.
It’s clear I’m being set up here. Probably the real reason behind Gabriel being late earlier.
“No need to be so angry, Shadow. Your father misses you, and your brother. He wants you both home safe, and sound,” Hangman answers, grinning like a fool. The idiot thinks he’s bested me. He’s wrong on both accounts. I’m not angry, at least not yet. This is just the calm before the storm.
“Half truths, is that all you have for me, Hangman?” I question, folding my arms in front of my chest.
I still have not seen Hunter and I’m hoping he’s ok, because I need to focus on my own situation. I can easily evade these three, but I’m sure there's more of The Circus blocking the exits. I could probably take on four of them, but not all of them at the same time, especially without any of my weapons. I tried conjuring up a gun along with my clothes, but that didn’t work. I’m guessing magic doesn’t work on human weapons. Maybe I can disarm one of them. Hangman never carries guns, just knives and rope. No need to explain how he got his moniker. I’m not sure if Silas is packing anything either, as he is a weapon in itself.
“You’re not exactly in the position to argue, so it doesn’t matter what I tell you. Your father wants you home, end of story,” Hangman states, unapologetically.
“That’s where you’re wrong, Hangman. There are plenty of pages left in this story,” I tell him, just as nonchalant. This fucker will not intimidate me.
“That’s what I like about you, Shadow. Always the optimistic, cocky little shit. Do you think you can take us all?” Hangman questions, holding both his arms out dramatically and grinning from ear to ear.
“I have before. Why do you think it’s so impossible now? Just because you have this pretty little mage here for backup, it still won’t be enough. I’ll destroy you and your merry little band of misfits you have blocking the exits, and then,” I say turning to Gabriel, “I’ll pull your fangs out, and cut off the fingers you had inside me, as a warning for having the audacity to touch me without permission. Did you get all that, lie detector? Tell me, am I lying?” I taunt.
Gabe pales slightly before his face lights up in anger. I bet he’s never had a female tell him that before. They all probably just fell on their back for him.
“You have quite the mouth on you, Bella, which I find commendable, but I know what happens to pretty little girls like yourself in O’Donnell’s care. You’ll be on your knees before me with my cock crammed down your pretty little throat,” Gabriel taunts back. The green in his hazel eyes glows making his threat even more menacing. I brush off his threat. There's truth in his words, but that just isn’t the future I have in store for me. I turn to Hangman who seems way too entertained by our verbal exchange.
“So, tell me,” I say, challenging the arsehole. “What’s it going to be?”
“Always so dramatic, but I think I’ll go with the only options you have available. Either come willingly, or tied with my rope, your choice. Either way, you’ll be coming with us,” Hangman's states.
“Well, that’s a big fuck you, and no,” I reply, giving him the bird, right before I push a gust of wind towards him, blowing him clear across the room. The wanker know I’m a wolf. He had no clue whatsoever that I have magic too. Giving myself no time to celebrate, I lash out again, and with supernatural strength, I grab Gabriel by the neck and slam his head down hard on the table over and over again until he blacks out.
“Pussy,” I growl at his unconscious body.
Recovering from his mid-dinner flight, Hangman comes at me with his rope, latching it onto my arm. Using the momentum, I allow Hangman to pull me to him, then I flip off his chest tugging on the rope, sending Hangman flying. I make sure to detach my arm so that I don’t go off with him. Not wasting anytime, I spare Silas one last parting glance before I run. I’m not that cocky to wait around for Hangman to recover, no matter how much fun it is to throw him around this place.
Grabbing a chair, I throw it at the window, shattering it and jump through, hitting the sand hard. Just like I thought, people are stationed at both the front and back entrances, but lucky for me no one thought to cover the windows on the side. I take off at a sprint through the white sand, not bothering to look back. I can hear the faint sounds of people pursuing, but they’re too far
back to be of any concern. I need to get off this beach. It is too straight and too open to not get hit from behind, and I’ll be damned if I go down like Rickon Stark. This bitch knows how to zig zag. I break a hard left racing up the steps by the pier towards the shops, and turn down a narrow alley, exiting out on the street by another set of buildings.
Where to fucking go? I do not know this area. This shite was not supposed to go down like this. We were not supposed to confront anyone until O’Donnell’s party. I step into another alley and hunch down low beside a large green dumpster. Pushing my hearing out, I listen for any sounds of pursuit. So far all I can hear are the regular night sounds, and the crashing of the waves. I need to gather the facts, and try to come up with some kind of plan.
Depending on how long Gabriel knew about us, Hunter is gone, probably taken as soon as they split us up at the club. It’s clear O'Donnell knows enough about my whereabouts to come up with such an elaborate plan to trick all of us.The only silver lining is that he did not know about Silas’s involvement yet. I could steal a car, but what about Hunter? Fuck, I need to find him, but I can’t go back alone. Where the fuck is everyone else? I wish I had that neat ability of Cody’s to disappear and reappear, but every time I try to do it doesn’t work. That’s one ability I do not have.
A noise to my left alerts me to the presence of someone near, and I hunch down lower blending into the shadows.
“Are you sure she ran this way, Kelpie?” I hear someone familiar ask.
“Shut up, Hatter. Are you trying to give our position away?” Kelpie whispers harshly.
Smiling, I make my move, using the shadows to hide me as I step lightly in their direction. I spot both of them on the other side of the street near the alley I just ran down. Ducking low, I ditch my leather jacket. The red color will just give me away, and I plan on using the shadows to keep following them.
Turning away, Maddie and Kelpie take a right down another alley, and I quickly dart across the street, pressing my body flush to the building. I follow them until they reach a dead end, and have to backtrack. Right before they reach me, I step out the shadows and throw my hands out, using wind to throw Kelpie face first into the brick wall, knocking her out. Apparently, wind was my element of choice today.
“Little bird,” Maddie whispers, hugging me tight to him.
“Maddie,” I murmur into his neck.
Besides in my dreams, I haven’t seen him since the club. I missed him dearly and I’m overjoyed to see him safe and sound. Pulling back, he gazes deep into my eyes, like he’s trying to make sure it’s really me, and not an illusion.
“You should have flown away when you had the chance. Why did you follow us?” he questions.
“You knew I was following you?” I ask dumbfounded.
“Yes, I could feel you. I knew you were close.”
Well damn. Here I thought I was getting the drop on them, and he knew I’d been here all along.
“Is that why you were talking so loud?” I ask him.
“Yes, Little bird. I was trying to warn you,” he responds, confirming my suspicion.
“I can’t leave,” I tell him. “They have Hunter. He’s my mate, and I can’t leave him behind,” I explain.
Sighing, Maddie looks at me and tilts his head, like he’s eyeing his prey or the way a cat would toy with a mouse right before it strikes. It’s a look that would send a lesser man running, but I knew Maddie would never hurt me.
“If they have him, then they took him to the warehouse. Are you sure you want to save him?”
“Yes,” I answer without a shred of doubt. I don’t even need to think twice about it. I love Hunter. I can’t let him suffer because of me, especially after all the suffering that he’s already been through.
“Even if it means trading your freedom for his?” Maddie questions.
“Yes,” I answer softly, never wavering my eyes from his.
Moving closer to me, Maddie grabs my wrist, and brings it to his mouth kissing my pulse gently while he stares deeply in my eyes.
“What are you do---,” I’m cut off when Maddie bites down hard on my vein, drawing blood and swallows it. As he licks the blood away, I feel a completeness between us as he seals our bond. A heat like nothing I ever felt before warms my back, and I gasp from the pain. This is far more intense than with the others.
“You will need my strength if you hope to survive,” Maddie explains as he winces from the pain of his own marking.
Pulling me back to him, he teleports us away, and we reappear across from a large brick warehouse.
“He’s being held in there,” Maddie says, pointing at the building. “I will do what I can to help, but if you choose to go after him, you’ll have to make a choice.” There’s no need to ask what kind of choice. I already know. His life for mine. Hunter is worth it. All my men were.
Thirty-Three
What the fuck are you?
Maddie leaves me, and I backtrack, circling the area around the building. It looks like a simple two story brick building with blackout windows. Unfortunately, it’s heavily guarded, but as far as I can tell from here, no one from The Circus is here. At least not on the outside. Sticking to the shadows, I sneak behind one of the guards and put him in a headlock, cutting off his air supply. Once he passes out I move his unconscious body into shadows, and out the way. Turning my attention to the door, I try the knob and find it’s unlocked.
Inside the doorway I come through, the lights are dim making the hall barely visible. It smells old and musty, like this building hasn’t been used in years. Straining my ears, I use my shifter hearing to get a read on the situation.
“I say we kill him and be done with it,” I hear a voice say further into the room.
“Boss said to work him until he tells us what we want,” an all too familiar voice says, making me clench my teeth in anger. Viper, the vapid bitch that killed Hunter’s parents is here, and she’s torturing Hunter for information.
“Tell me what I want to know, pretty wolf. Where is Phantom holed up? Tell me, and I’ll let you go,” Viper coos sweetly.
It’s all a lie of course. She has no intention of letting Hunter go. If he were to talk, she wouldn’t waste any time before killing him.
“Fuck off, cunt” another familiar voice says, followed by a loud slapping sound and a grunt. I try to muffle my gasp in shock. They also had Caleb. They were both captured, but how? Where is everyone else?
Having heard enough, I move closer to the voices. Another slap and the sound of someone pounding into someone’s flesh fills the silence.
“Where is Phantom?” Viper screams, punching Hunter in the jaw.
“I’m not telling your batshit shit crazy ass anything,” Hunter growls, spitting a wad of blood to the floor at her feet.
From my vantage point I can see Hunter and my dad tied to some old rusted chairs with Viper and another guard standing over them. Hunching lower in an old stairwell, I wait and look for an opportunity to act.
“Wrong answer, pretty wolf.” Viper growls, leaning into Hunter’s face. She is inches from his lips, and I have to hold back a possessive growl of my own that would definitely give up my position.
“I think you need help talking,” Viper says, smiling wickedly as she pulls a syringe from the back of her tight leather pants.
”Do you know what this is?” she asks, waving the syringe in Hunter’s face. When Hunter says nothing, she answers for him.
“This is spill your guts poison. Once administered, you will tell me whatever I want,” the crazy bitch says, giggling as she taunts him. “Unfortunately, it will also kill you after about twenty minutes of running through your system.”
Shite, I have to move now. There’s no more time to hold back. Caleb yells fills the room as well as the sounds of him and Hunter trying to violently break from their bindings. The other guy, which I could now see is Frost, punches Caleb in his face, yelling for him to shut up, while Viper tries holding Hunter down long enough to pri
ck him with the needle. While they’re all distracted, I come out from my hiding spot, and I flick out my hands, sending Viper and Frost flying through the air. Quickly, I run towards Hunter, and my dad.
Grabbing a knife sitting on a nearby table, I use it to saw at the thick rope tied around Hunter’s arms and legs. Once he’s free, I turn to my dad and try to work the bindings off him just as quickly. I’m barely able to get his legs free when Frost recovers and sends a wave of ice at me. I dodge rolling to the ground losing the knife.
“Well if it isn’t daddy’s, little princess. You learned a new trick while you’ve been gone,” Viper sneers, recovering from her flight across the room.
“I’d rather be a princess than a snake,” I reply holding out my hands again.
I want to look as in control as possible. No need for them to know that I’m just a beginner. With that blast of ice Frost just sent my way, it’s obvious he is fully in control with whatever the fuck he is. Why didn’t I catch on sooner that all the members of The Circus were also supernaturals?
“She’s mine,” Hunter growls, and I don’t question him. Viper killed his parents, so the revenge is his to take.
“Pretty wolf, do you honestly think you can kill me?” Viper taunts, and he growls in response.
Seconds later, he’s shifted, and his wolf is charging Viper. Caleb’s panicked shouts for me to watch out brings me back to my own situation in time to see a massive bolt of ice heading straight towards me. I know there's no way I’ll be able to dodge it in time. I brace myself for the blow, but the bolt fades through my body, and shatters on the wall behind me. Looking down I’m shocked to see my body flickering in and out, covered in shadows.
This isn’t a dream. This is real, and judging by Frost and my dad’s wide eyed looks, I know I’m not the only one seeing this.
“What the fuck are you?” Frost growls, hurdling another ice bolt at me, and I send a bolt of fire melting it.