Freak Show (Alexa O'Brien Huntress Book 7)

by Lee, Trina M.

  It was easy to slip into his head. Though he didn’t directly acknowledge my presence, he knew I was there. I saw the destruction and chaos through his eyes.

  He was in the arena, backed into a corner with Jenner, Shaz and several Wicked Kiss vampires. Tense, with fists clenched, Arys had a lot more fight left in him. But the intruding vampires had the upper hand, because they had Sloane.

  She was on her knees between several of them, with more than enough strong hands to subdue her. Blood dripped from her nose. It took a lot to hurt a vampire. They hadn’t wasted their time giving her a beating. I wondered if they’d found her or if she’d gone to them.

  “Now Jenner, I know this one here is your favorite. So be a good boy and offer me a deal I can’t refuse. Or we’d be happy to finish what we started with your little casino here.” This came from a mean looking vampire who stood apart from the rest, establishing himself as the leader. He was tall and slender with a gaunt face. Hard set, dark eyes shone with ruthlessness. A gun glinted in his hand. It appeared to have been modified, most likely to make it deadly to vampires. The average handgun is little danger to the supernatural.

  “Let’s sit down and talk about this, Linden,” Jenner pleaded, trying to sound like he wasn’t. “It wasn’t necessary for you to come in here and trash my livelihood.”

  “Funny. That didn’t sound like an offer. You can do better than that.” Linden’s vicious stare swung to Arys. It felt like he could see me there, behind Arys’s eyes. “And you…man am I glad to see you. You have one more wolf for me, yes? Where is she?”

  Arys smiled, chuckling as if he had a great secret he wasn’t about to share. “It’s a busy city. She could be anywhere. I’m sure she’s planning your death right about now.”

  Linden gave a slight nod to one of his guys who raised a crossbow and fired. The bolt struck Arys in the arm he raised to block. I felt the pain as if it were my own, though he didn’t so much as flinch.

  Arys’s fingertips burned with ready power. Linden’s man reloaded the crossbow and trained it on Shaz.

  “Go ahead,” Linden said. “We’ll wait while you take your shot. Then I’ll have your wolf crippled.”

  Panic thrilled through me, spilling into Arys through my thoughts. He considered doing it, certain he could take them all out. They had muscle but no real power.

  He relented, dropping his hold on the power he’d tapped. I knew he’d done it for me. His decision earned him a crack in the head with a crossbow from the closest weapon-wielding vamp.

  A bright light flashed behind my eyes. I cried out in pain and dropped to my knees. I was thrust out of Arys’s head, whether by his doing or my own, I wasn’t sure.

  “Alexa?” Jez was beside me, pushing hair back from my face. “What happened? Is it Arys?”

  I nodded and dug my fingers into the carpet. Blinking rapidly, I concentrated hard on the hotel room around me, disoriented as Arys and The Wicked Kiss slipped away. “Yeah. I connected with him, but he’s gone now. Everyone is ok, but it’s pretty bad over there.” I repeated to her what I’d seen as she helped me to my feet. “We have to find Roscoe. And get ready for a fight.”

  “What exactly are the three of us going to do? We can’t take on that many vampires. Can we?”

  “We might have to try. Roscoe should have a better idea of what we’re facing. There’s got to be someone else in this city he can call on for help.” I hope.

  I retreated to the washroom where I washed the blood from my skin and freshened up before heading to the bedroom to change. Jeans and a racer back tank top were much more fight friendly than a skirt. I slid a chunky silver bracelet on to hide the bite on my wrist. My hair did a decent job concealing the others.

  Returning to the empty living room, I stared out the floor-to-ceiling window at The Strip. The Bellagio fountain was on. The water shimmered with bright lights as it leaped and danced. It was enchanting. I gazed at the fountain and wondered how the hell I was going to help Arys and Shaz without ending up in the blood ring’s clutches myself.

  When Jez re-entered from her adjoined room, she too wore jeans. Along with a Batman t-shirt, ass-kicking boots, and a high ponytail, she looked ready to lay down a beating.

  She strode over to the minibar and appraised the interior. Plucking a bottle from its place, she studied the label.

  “Twenty seconds,” I warned.

  “No worries.” She twisted the lid off and took a swig. “I don’t need that long to decide.”

  “Look, Jez, I know that it’s Vegas and that you can process booze like a champ, but I’m not sure this is the time for that.” I couldn’t help but be concerned. Our group had just been split in half. I needed her alert and at my side.

  Without warning, Jez tossed a bottle of imported beer my way. “I can’t think of a better time for a drink.”

  I turned the bottle over in my hands a few times before opening it. The girl had a point. “Alright, let’s go find Roscoe.”

  I felt naked without my phone and wallet. They were both inside my shoulder bag back at the club. Slipping Shaz’s key card into my back pocket, I closed the hotel door behind us, fearing I might not return.

  * * * *

  After battling not one but two pedways jam-packed with warm, blood-filled bodies, we were walking through Planet Hollywood.

  “So where do we start?” Jez asked, surveying the casino.

  It was a nice place, like most casinos, full of lights, noise and tourists. It was also big enough that simply walking around looking for the vampire would be a waste of time.

  “I think I can find him.” I reached out metaphysically, feeling for any vampire energy in the building. There were a few in the vicinity, but that familiar flavor of vampire energy drew me to Roscoe. “This way.”

  We weaved between slot machines, taking careful note of our surroundings. The pull led us away from the main casino and into a more adult-only area called The Pleasure Pit. It was a sensory overload. There was an abundance of glowing pink, heart-shaped signs boasting the casino’s name. It was certainly an interesting place. All of the dealers were gorgeous women clad in very little. Wearing even less were the ladies dancing and gyrating on poles at various points around the casino.

  “Holy shit, why have I not been here before?” Jez gushed. “I think this might be my new favorite place.”

  “Settle down, wildcat. Let’s try to keep it to one woman a night, shall we?” I grinned, shaking my head.

  The casino was busy. It came as no surprise that the patrons were mostly male. Following the trace I had on Roscoe’s energy, I led the way through to a Blackjack table where we found him flirting with the dealer.

  He appeared mildly surprised to see us though surely he’d felt me when I metaphysically reached for him. He looked past me, clearly expecting Arys to be on my heels.

  “What are you doing here?” Roscoe got right to the point. I enjoyed a man who doesn’t beat around the bush.

  “Jenner sent me,” I said, studying the two other men seated at the table, both human. They didn’t seem to be with Roscoe. “There’s some shit going down at the club. You might want to check it out.”

  I was wary of saying too much in front of the humans present, but none of them paid much attention to us. Roscoe nodded and tapped his cards. The dealer laid another card on the table. Bust.

  Roscoe turned in his seat to face us. He raised a hand, signaling to a waitress. “Bring these two a drink. It’s on me.”

  “No, thanks. I’m good,” I protested at the same time Jez said, “I’ll have a long island iced tea.” I shot her a frown, which was wasted on her. Ignoring me, she added, “She’ll have the same.”

  “So what happened?” Roscoe prompted. “Did Jenner and Arys finally kill one another? That’s been a long time coming.”

  The dealer glanced up at that. It didn’t sit well with me. I wasn’t discussing vampire politics with so many humans within earshot.

  “Is there somewhere else we could talk
about this?” Maybe I was being paranoid, but we had enough trouble already. Jenner might have had the Vegas FPA in his pocket, yet that didn’t mean they’d be happy with me speaking so candidly in public. And one thing I did not need was to catch hell from my local sector when I got home.

  Roscoe rolled his eyes. “Whatever’s going on over there, it must be good. Go grab a seat at those slot machines over there. I’m on a bit of a roll here. I’ll join you in a few.”

  Was he kidding me? I glared and opened my mouth to tell him to fuck the cards. Jez steered me away before I could blast him.

  “We don’t have the fucking time for this,” I fumed.

  “No, we don’t. Either he doesn’t give a shit, or he doesn’t think it’s his problem. Losing your temper on him won’t help though. Let’s give him a few minutes, then we walk. We can handle this without him.” Jez dropped into a seat in front of a slot machine and produced a twenty.

  Reluctantly, I sat at the machine next to her and watched her play. I considered reaching out to Arys but feared the connection would drop me again. Or worse, distract him when he needed focus. I squirmed, impatient and anxious.

  Jez had played her way down to three remaining dollars when Roscoe sidled up with drinks in hand. He set them in front of us and took the free chair beside me.

  “This better be worth interrupting my game. Did you see the fox working the table? I want a nip of that.” He grinned wide, flashing me a glimpse of gold fang.

  I wasn’t sharing his mischievous humor. “The blood ring launched some kind of attack on the club. They’re over there with Arys and Jenner right now doing God knows what. We made it out, but they stayed. They need us.”

  Roscoe’s head bobbed. “Uh huh. I warned Jenner that this would happen. He was so insistent on getting out of the blood ring. He failed to secure his replacement. It was only a matter of time until they came to collect.”

  I stared at him as if he’d sprouted a second, even stupider, head. “Ok, so what are we going to do about it?”

  “We?” He chuckled. “Jenner should have known better. You don’t just tell an organization like that you won’t be supplying them anymore. Not without finding a supplier to fill the hole. He’ll have to do some fast talking to weasel his way out of this one.” Roscoe’s throaty laugh picked at my nerves. This was a joke to him.

  “I thought you were Jenner’s right hand. Doesn’t that mean you should be there with him instead of Arys?” Jez piped up. She sipped from the long island iced tea and made a small noise of satisfaction. “Damn, this is good.”

  With a shrug, he popped some money into the slot machine. “I am Jenner’s right hand. He’s like a brother to me. He’s also a know-it-all who gets too arrogant for his own good.”

  “Sounds like every other vampire in your bloodline,” I muttered, tasting the iced tea. It was pretty darn good. Sweet and smooth.

  “Yes, it does. Harley wasn’t big on the meek and mild type.” The vampire’s gaze traveled over me, lingering on my breasts before meeting my eyes. I raised a brow in question. He didn’t bother to fake being apologetic. “I bet he really liked you. When he wasn’t busy hating you, of course.”

  “That mother fucker tried to blood bond me against my will. He was a selfish monster who saw us all as toys to collect, but he didn’t want us to play with each other. Twisted bastard.”

  The slot machine made a bunch of noise, and Roscoe swore appreciatively as his money doubled. “Harley got what he deserved. But if anyone asks, I never said that.” He laughed and gave me a nudge that almost knocked me off my chair.

  “And what about Arys and Jenner? Do they deserve whatever’s happening to them right now?” I asked.

  Roscoe tapped away at the screen of his machine, silently playing a few hands of video poker. When I was ready to flick him in the forehead, he drawled, “Aw, they’ll be fine. They’re no use to the blood ring dead. If anything, Arys’s presence will keep them interested in working out a deal.”

  For someone who had come to Caesars to threaten us as soon as we’d arrived, Roscoe wasn’t showing much concern now that Jenner was facing serious trouble.

  “I can see this was a waste of valuable time.” The words felt funny in my mouth, like I was speaking with a cotton ball on my tongue. “Forget we even came.”

  When I stood up, the room tilted dangerously. I grabbed onto my chair to keep from going down, barely keeping myself off the floor. What the hell?

  “What the fuck…did you put in our drinks?” Jez’s demand came out slurred. The half-empty glass slipped from her hand. It spilled on the floor, and she went down with it.

  I made a clumsy attempt to grab for her. Everything spun. I tried to stay on my feet, but it was difficult to tell which way was up. The disorienting sensations grew quickly, stealing my ability to speak coherently.

  “Shifter sedative,” he said with a sly grin. “Handy little mix of wolfsbane and a tranquilizer strong enough to take down a bear. Sorry ladies, can’t have you getting in the way.”

  The last thing I saw was Roscoe’s mildly amused face. Then the black abyss of drug-induced unconsciousness swallowed me whole.

  Chapter Ten

  Blood filled my mouth. My head ached, and my heavy eyelids refused to open. Pain shot through my joints when I tried to move. After several attempts, my eyes opened and focused, but my head still refused to lift. My cheek felt raw and scratchy from being mushed into the carpet. Where the hell am I?

  When I caught sight of my surroundings, I lowered my head back to the floor and counted to ten. This was bad. Really bad. I was in an unfamiliar hotel room, surrounded by bodies. Everything was so red. Blood spattered the floor, the walls, and the bed.

  The last thing I remembered was blacking out in Planet Hollywood. Wolfsbane. There were so many stories about it, most of them very old and likely untrue. I had never encountered it until now. I hoped never to have it inside me again.

  I struggled to sit up, immediately horrified and shocked by the realization that I was naked. My horror grew as I counted five bodies splayed out in various displays of grotesque violence and death. The room was nice, not a penthouse but not a slum either. A small party had been taking place. Bottles and glasses littered a small coffee table, complete with perfectly cut lines of white powder. It wasn’t hard to put together what had happened: I’d torn them to pieces.

  A frantic glance around the room revealed what was left of my clothes. Scraps of fabric littered the space not yet occupied by body parts. I surveyed the destruction and knew with absolute certainty that the vampire in me had nothing to do with this. It was all wolf.

  Voices in the hallway beyond the hotel door infused me with panic. It got me on my feet, albeit unsteadily, and ready to take on whoever walked through. But nobody did. The voices passed by.

  “Oh, fuck me,” I muttered, stepping around what was left of my victims. Using a scrap of fabric from the floor, I slowly opened the door just enough to ensure the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign was on the other side.

  Satisfied that it was, I locked the door and stared at the mess. All of the victims were men. I must have interrupted a boy’s night out. I had to get out of there. I needed to find Jez.

  Part of me wanted to sink to the bloody carpet and cry. In just one night, Vegas had separated me from everyone I loved. I was alone, and they were God only knew where. In fact, where the hell was I?

  The room service menu on the table said Paris Las Vegas.

  “What the hell?” I whispered, needing to hear a sound in the silent room, even if it was only the sound of my own voice.

  Somehow, I’d managed to go from Planet Hollywood down the block to Paris Las Vegas in a total blackout. It wasn’t all that far but felt like miles since I couldn’t recall a second of it. Then I’d murdered a group of guys just trying to get their party on. I wracked my brain trying to remember, but it was all a blank.

  I reached out to Arys, finding nothing. No response. No contact. He was either shutting me
out or unconscious. If he were dead, I would know. I had to do something before it got to that point.

  First things first, clean up. A visit to the bathroom resulted in another shock; seeing myself as a monster was never easy. A quick but thorough rinse in the shower washed away the blood, but the stain of shame remained. How could I have done this?

  As ill as it made me, I had no choice but to swipe a t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants from a dead guy’s suitcase. Standing awkwardly in pants that were way too long for my short frame and a baggy shirt that felt like a dress, I dreaded what I had to do next.

  Searching the scene for any shred of my DNA made my stomach churn. More than a few times, I wanted to toss my cookies. Getting up close with each victim allowed me to see the gaping holes in their throats, the random chucks of flesh strewn about. I did manage to find my hotel key card though.

  A slow clap broke the silence. I whirled around with a yelp to find Falon appraising my handiwork. As much as I hated the fallen angel, right then I was almost happy to see him.

  “Holy shit, Alexa, you have been a bad little wolf,” he said, a trace of awe in his tone. “I never imagined you were capable of such destruction. I’m impressed. What do you know? You may be useful after all.”

  “What are you doing here? Did Shya send you?” I was afraid to blink, fearing he would disappear, that perhaps I was so desperate I was imagining him.

  “Of course. Your vampire contacted Shya in a fit because you weren’t answering your phone. He was so sure you were in danger.” Falon’s silver wings tucked in snug against his back. He walked through the room, examining the slaughter. “Shya couldn’t risk that so, like usual, he sent me to see what stupid shit you pulled this time.”

  “My vampire?” It took me a moment to realize he meant Kale. I watched Falon lean in close over one guy whose neck was torn so wide his head barely hung on. “Don’t touch anything! Please. Just…help me.”

  Falon’s silver gaze landed on me, ice cold and brimming with judgment. “Why should I? You’re alive. In fact, you’re the only one here who still is. Looks like you’re just fine to me. I’ll be sure to let Shya know.”