STEP (The Senses)

by Paterson, Cindy

Kilter choked on his next words, his stomach revolting at the thought of Rayne being killed so mercilessly. No. Fuck that, he’d find her. She’d stay alive. “Where is she?”

  Roarke glanced between Waleron and Delara. “She wants you to find her. She wants you to see Rayne suffer.” Roarke directed his gaze to Delara. “She blames you for him escaping her.”

  Kilter took two steps and grabbed Roarke by the shirt and shook him. “Damn it, where the hell is she?” Roarke ignored the assault and remained calm. Kilter wanted to punch the words out of his mouth with his bloody fist, but knew it would only delay what he wanted—answers.

  “She has been staying at Tarek’s house,” Roarke said. Delara’s ex who was currently in Rest for attempting to kill Delara a number of years ago. Waleron had escaped Jasmine’s clutches on the very day that Tarek had nearly killed Delara. “I’ve been tracking her movements and have seen her there often.”

  “That house has been empty since—”

  “Since Tarek tried to kill me,” Delara finished, then shoved Jedrik’s hand away and staggered out into the kitchen. Kilter noticed a slight movement from Waleron as if he was going to go after her and then decided against it.

  “Bring the witch,” Roarke said. “Liam will be there. We can distract him with her. You have no chance against Liam and his vamps as well as Jasmine and her followers. Give him the witch. He won’t care what happens to Jasmine.”

  “No,” Waleron stated.

  “You’re planning to kill her anyways, right?”

  No one said a word. Not even a shift in weight, then Kilter noticed Waleron’s nod.

  “Then kill her later.” Roarke took a deep breathe. “Jasmine has the key. Go for her first. Release Rayne. If you can’t, then . . .” he paused and Waleron finished for him.

  “Jasmine will release Rayne in exchange for me,” Waleron said as if he already knew.

  Delara appeared in the doorway, her face gaunt, shock plastered all over her face from Waleron’s words “Waleron?” she questioned, but he ignored her.

  “Get Abby,” Waleron said to Keir. Then he turned to Roarke. “Are you coming with us?”

  “I am.” Roarke directed his gaze on Kilter and their eyes clashed. “I love her.”

  ****

  Rayne stood paralyzed. Her arms ached from being stretched upwards with the metal bands attached to the ceiling. She could barely balance on her tiptoes that throbbed with relentless cramps.

  A chain looped around her neck with sharp metal spikes pointed towards her skin like the prong collar that some owners put on their dogs. Any movement caused the spikes to graze her flesh, any larger movements or if she lost her footing, the spikes would puncture her neck.

  Liam stood and watched, never saying a word while Jasmine hooked her up like a Christmas tree ornament. But Rayne saw Liam’s uncertainty, as he looked away several times, head bowed as if he regretted what this had come to.

  “Just think, my child. Your father had to remain like this for hours at a time. Sometimes, I left him for days just to see his resilience.” Jasmine ran a hand over her head in a soft caress and she flinched, but couldn’t move away. “He is obstinate.” She grabbed a handful of hair and yanked on it. The prongs dug into the back of her neck. “You are a reminder that he once escaped my grasp to be with that bitch.”

  Delara? What had happened between them? The Lilac was obsessed with Waleron. All this time, she was waiting to use her against Waleron. For the right moment, the right time. She’d do anything to have him back.

  Her toes cramped and the spikes pierced her skin as she readjusted her stance. A tear slid silent and slow down her check.

  Kilter. If only she could reach him with her mind. She’d tell him . . . yes she’d tell him she loved him. She closed her eyes. Kilter would swear and curse and fight to his death, and there would be nothing she could do to stop him.

  “Did you know that Roarke sacrificed himself for you?” Jasmine asked, her finger sliding down the side of her cheek. “That day the Senses escaped, Roarke became my play toy. He was as you are right now for several days, I might add.”

  Oh god, no. Roarke, why?

  Jasmine raked a nail into her skin along her temple, and blood dripped down the bridge of her nose. “You were supposed to be punished severely for what you did. I don’t take kindly to betrayal, Rayne. I saved your life. Kept you safe, raised you. Educated you. And you repay me by helping them escape.” She hissed. “He took your beating for you, that is why he wasn’t there when Kilter came back for you. I kept him for weeks.” Jasmine strode away and went to the window, pushing the curtains aside. “He’s rather stoic. I would have kept him for myself if you hadn’t escaped.” She shrugged. “But I knew he’d lead me right to you.”

  A shiver coursed down her spine. Tears teetered on the rims of her eyes, and if she blinked she was afraid they’d fall and Jasmine would win.

  “Leave her alone,” Liam said as he strode back and forth across the hardwood floors.

  “Soft spot for the girl?”

  “No, sick of hearing your voice,” Liam shot back.

  “Don’t be such a—”

  The door burst open.

  Chapter 33

  “Release her Jasmine,” Waleron said, striding into the room, his face a mask of stone.

  He was alone.

  Jasmine put her hand on Rayne’s neck. “Well what a surprise. I didn’t expect you to find us so quickly. Let me guess—Roarke. Where are the others? I’m certain you didn’t come alone.”

  Waleron glared at Liam. “Abby is with us. You will have her, but Rayne is to be released first.”

  Jasmine made a gesture to four of her followers and they took off through the house. Her nails dug into her neck and Rayne felt the drops of blood sliding down the inside of her shirt. She winced as the grip tightened and Waleron’s expression darkened.

  “Abby first,” Liam said.

  “No.” Waleron walked further into the room. “Release Rayne. This is what you want, isn’t it, Jasmine? Me.” Rayne could see the hunger in her eyes, her breath quickening at the anticipation. “Once she is free of that,” he nodded to the contraption, “only then will Abby be brought in.”

  “You first,” Jasmine said. “Come here to me. Put your hands behind your back.”

  Waleron walked towards her. “No Waleron, don’t. Please.”

  “It is better I than you, Rayne. This is how it’s supposed to be.”

  “No. No, please she will kill you.”

  “No.” He paused. “No, Rayne, Jasmine will never kill me.”

  “You don’t negotiate. You said that.”

  “I’m not,” he stated and she saw the barest of grins.

  Jasmine shot her fingers towards Waleron and the white sticky substance wrapped around his wrists. She grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around to face her, a slow sensual smile on her lips. She slithered up to him, her long lanky legs pressed up against him. Lips inches away from his own as she traced his brow with her finger.

  Rayne noticed the snake tattoo on his neck turn bright red and begin to slither across his skin. “Release her,” Waleron reiterated.

  Jasmine sighed. “I could get you to do anything if I kept her.”

  Liam strode across the room. “They won’t give me Abby without her release.” Liam grabbed the necklace around Jasmine’s neck and yanked. He pulled the key from the locket and slid it into the prong collar’s latch.

  Rayne let her arms take the weight of her body as the collar released. Every muscle straining from remaining paralyzed for hours let go and caused severe trembling in her limbs. God, Roarke. Waleron. How could she have done this to you? How did they remain in this contraption for days?

  Liam glared at Waleron. “Tell them to give me Abby.”

  Rayne tried to get her hands out of the manacles, the chains clanking and swinging when Balen appeared in the doorway, Abby standing beside him, Talu guarding her.

  Balen dropped his hand from Ab
by’s shoulder. She hissed and sneered at them as she began to walk towards Liam.

  When Abby was two feet away from Liam, there was a shift in the emotions, the sudden alert of danger as heartbeats escalated. Waleron’s eyes strayed from Abby to the staircase. “Damien,” Waleron shouted. “No.”

  Damien ignored his Taldeburu’s orders and blocked Abby’s path to Liam.

  ****

  Damien stepped towards Abby. No way in hell was he letting her go to Liam. Never.

  Her eyes were wild with hunger and bloodlust, but he knew she was there. Abby. He reached out to her. “Abb.”

  It was her small weak voice that started it all. “Fulfill the promise I asked of you, Damien. Before it’s too late.”

  Damien’s plan went ape-shit. Abby’s haunting whisper sifted across his mind as if she was gripping his boiling veins with her voice. The promise. That one promise he could never give her. Those tormented eyes filled with agony at what she had become and hating it. She was asking him the unthinkable—to end her life of bloodlust by his own hand.

  Liam attacked, leaping on him in one single fluid movement, throwing Damien onto his back on the unforgiving ground. He shoved upwards then turned with a scissor kick, sending Liam to the side and giving him the chance to gain his feet.

  From the corner of his eye, he saw the commotion around him as the Senses crashed through the windows and attacked Liam’s underlings.

  Balen leapt for Abby, encasing her in his embrace. She was flailing and screaming with words that were unintelligible. Damien was uncertain whether she was screaming at him to kill her or for him to kill Liam. The later was his plan regardless of what she was raving.

  Liam’s fist slammed into his jaw with a brutal punch, and he felt his neck crack and blood swimming in his mouth. He staggered backwards and shook his head, trying to clear his vision.

  Shit, he had to think about fighting instead of Abby.

  He retaliated with a swift kick to Liam’s chin, then another to his chest, making the vamp stumble backwards into the glass table, which shattered beneath the weight.

  Damien focused his eyes on his adversary. The burning swirled and his vision went red. He let the power build until Liam leapt from the shards of glass and came for him. He shot the laser beam of heat at the vamp’s neck.

  The bastard saw it coming, ducked, and rolled across the floor like a goddamn leopard on some kind of Agility Quick Tablets. Damien growled deep in his throat as Liam came like a rocket with a full body slam.

  They both crashed to the floor, Liam on top as he sank his dagger nails into Damien’s throat and squeezed.

  Abby’s mind swarmed with confusion as she watched Liam and Damien. Her body was crying out for Liam to come to her, and yet in the back of her mind she was screaming Damien’s name. Instinct ruled her body, straining against Balen’s arms. She needed Liam desperately, yet her mind was filled with fear for Damien.

  How could she live without Liam’s blood? It was calling to her; it fed her mind and body like a mother’s milk to her baby. His voice ruled her thoughts, as if a string attached her to him. Even if her mind detested doing as he said, her body could do no other. It was as if her body knew that he was its survival.

  Please Damien, remember the promise, she begged. He’d refused it that day in the cottage. But now that he’d seen her, maybe . . . maybe he’d realize that her life meant nothing. She couldn’t live this way. Don’t make me live like this.

  Balen tightened his grip around her midsection, dragging her back towards the door. “Kilter Scar,” Balen called.

  She looked to her right as she heard a deep roar from across the room. Kilter’s Scar, half man half beast, came running towards her. Balen let her go, and she tried to run but Kilter’s Scar wrapped its arms around her chest and nearly crushed her ribs.

  Balen ran towards Kilter. Kilter was fighting off two vampires, trying to make his way towards Rayne, while Jedrik was sending bolts into a vamp that had Tye in a grip-lock around the neck. A wolf came out of nowhere, leaping though the air at a vamp who was trying to jump up into the beams. The wolf’s jaws clamped down on his leg and, with one shake of his head, ripped the vamp’s leg off. They both crashed to the floor, then the wolf dove for the throat. With one vicious bite, he tore open the vamp’s neck, shaking the flesh with triumph.

  “Talu,” Balen called and the tiger came running and then jumped. It vanished into a beam of light where it merged with him.

  The scent of blood was overpowering. Her gaze darted unwillingly towards the bloody vampire Talu had left on the floor and her heartbeat increased. Her mouth began to water and her need tripled at the sight of the red fluid that was her only way of survival.

  She had fought it constantly, but having it in front of her, seeing it so close, was an unbearable agony. She cried inside her mind for the sickening betrayal of her body.

  She had to get away. She had to escape before Damien died for something that he couldn’t save. Her.

  Chapter 34

  “Get to Waleron. Now!” Keir shouted to Tye, Jedrik and Balen.

  Rayne saw Jasmine’s webs wrapping around Waleron. She was backing away, her hands on his wrists, pulling Waleron with her. Every movement he made, Rayne could see him wince as the webs tightened around his body.

  Rayne looked up at her chains, jerking on the manacles that sliced into her wrists. Jasmine was nearly at the back door. Tye and Jedrik were fighting two of Jasmine’s Long Necks, and they weren’t going to get to him. Roarke was holding off two vamps, while Kilter and Keir had their backs against the wall, fighting off three of them.

  “Delara! Balen!” Rayne screamed.

  Delara raised her head just as she drove her dagger into a Long Neck’s jugular. Her gaze went from her to Waleron and Jasmine.

  Balen ran straight for Jasmine.

  Delara followed, dagger in one hand and an axe-like weapon in the other.

  An arrow went flying through the air and embedded in the wall inches away from Jasmine’s head.

  “Rayne,” Delara shouted. She threw the axe-like weapon at the chain at the top of the ceiling, and both chains dropped to the floor with a heavy thud. “Knife,” Delara warned and threw it towards her. Rayne grabbed it as it slid across the floor.

  Jedrik was on her right, shooting a bow and arrow at whatever was entering the front door.

  Rayne recognized them immediately—the CWOs from the compound. Two Long Necks, and five Worms, at least that was what Roarke had called them because they could grow back their limbs and they loved damp weather. They smelled like apples and had cold gray skin that sweated profusely. But the scent that slammed into her was from the garbage-reeking Long Necks.

  “Balen, duck,” Delara yelled as she threw a knife at Jasmine. It plunged into the drywall centimeters from Jasmine’s head.

  Balen leapt, diving onto Waleron and sending him crashing to the floor. Rayne threw the knife as hard as she could, and it struck Jasmine’s left shoulder. Jasmine flicked her fingers towards Delara and webs came shooting forth. Delara dove to the right while Balen sawed at Waleron’s webs with his knife.

  “Bitch,” Jasmine screamed at Delara. “Know that I will hunt you, torture you, then have you beg me for mercy.”

  Jasmine shot both hands forward and webs went in every direction, blinding them all for mere seconds. When the webs dropped, Jasmine had disappeared.

  Roarke sliced the head off a Long Neck and came running towards her. He had blood all over his T-shirt and several wounds on his bare arms. He grabbed her around the waist and hauled her up against him. His hand stroked her head as his lips came close to her ear. “I’m going after her. I have to.” He pulled back so he could look at her. With one finger, he traced her lower lip. He glanced over his shoulder to where Kilter fought then lowered his head and, with a fierce urgency, claimed her lips. His tongue plunged into her mouth with what seemed like starvation. A low growl. His body pressed hard against her. Mouth warm and filled with unadulter
ated desire as if he knew he’d never taste her again. She was frozen beneath his kiss, mouth lifeless to his demand. She felt nothing and he knew it. He groaned, pulling himself away.

  “Stay close to him.” His hand cupped the side of her face, eyes staring into her as if . . . as if it was going to be the last time he ever saw her. “He loves you, Rayne.”

  “Roarke . . .” But he was gone.

  “Rayne, damn it,” Kilter yelled from across the room, trying to get to her, but several Long Necks stood in his way. “Move.” Something pulled her feet right from under her. A vamp had her chains in his grasp and was pulling her towards him. She slid across the floor, trying to scramble back, but he yanked and she fell forward again, arms outstretched.

  Balen was already on his feet trying to get to her, but five Pests came charging in the back door where Jasmine had vanished. Delara and Balen fought them off while Waleron finished sawing at the last of the webs on his thighs.

  “Rayne,” Waleron said. “Use your ability.”

  The vamp grabbed her by the wrists and she bit her tongue to stop from screaming. Concentrate. She felt his bloodlust swarm into her with a feeding frenzy. His coldness. The rage. She sucked it into her body, trembling at the darkness that dragged her under. Shivers raked her body as his emotions grew stronger. His hands suddenly began shoving her away when he realized what she was doing. She pushed and pushed. Taking every last emotion from him until his hand dropped from her wrists, and he fell to the floor.

  “Good girl,” Kilter said. “Now get the fuck out of here.”

  Rayne looked at Kilter, who was now fighting alongside Balen and Keir against one vampire and four Worms. One slice of Balen’s Telwar had decapitated one Worm’s head and the other Worms were real pissed about it.

  They would protect him. Kilter would be all right. He had to be. She saw a path to the front door and took it. She ran. Her legs trembled as she dodged in and out of the overturned furniture.