by Cynthia Eden
He grabbed her and hoisted her into his arms. The flames crackled and flared around him, licking out at his skin. He ignored the burn. Morgan’s head sagged against him, and her eyes didn’t open.
Jace held her tight and leapt back through that broken doorway.
Smoke billowed out behind him.
She barely seemed to breathe. Ash and soot covered her, and Jace could see the angry red blisters that lined her perfect skin.
Hurt. On his watch.
Not ever again.
Windows shattered behind him, and Jace hunched his shoulders, curling his body in to protect her. Glass flew into the air, and shards sank into his flesh.
Rage grew within him with each step that he took away from the inferno.
Jace didn’t ease his hold on Morgan, not until he’d settled behind Louis’s truck. Then he carefully lowered her onto the ground. Her eyes still didn’t open.
“Oh, hell…” Louis’s drawl. “She’s not…” The shifter’s voice cracked. “The cher ain’t alive, is she now?”
Jace put his hand over her heart and didn’t feel it beat.
Chapter Four
Blood flowed into her mouth, hot and rich, and she drank greedily. The blood brought memories. His memories. Not of death and hell this time, but of a wild run through the woods. The thrill of the chase.
I’m hunting.
Morgan’s eyes cracked open. She wondered why she hurt. Every part of her body burned and ached and—
Oh, yes, she burned because she’d been on fire.
Jace pulled his wrist away from her mouth. “Don’t ever do that to me again, got it?”
She was on the ground. No, not on the ground, but sitting on Jace’s lap. His blood was already sliding through her veins, healing her even in sunlight.
She wasn’t naked anymore. Because she’d had to run through that fire naked. She’d woken in his room only because the fire licked at her skin. She’d leapt through the flames even as she screamed his name.
Now she wore his shirt. It smelled of smoke and him. And her teeth were still sharp, and she was pissed.
In a flash, she twisted around and pinned him against the ground. “What did you do?”
His twisted grin flashed. “Glad you’re feeling better.”
She felt rather like burned shit right then. “You tried to kill me.” The bastard had left her to the flames.
That wiped the grin right off his face. “The hell I did.”
But he hadn’t been there. “You left me when you knew I was weak.” Her hands dug into his wrists. She was aware of the other wolf shifter walking cautiously around her. Smart wolf, he wasn’t coming too close, not yet. “You set me on fire.”
The Council had been right. She should have known better than to trust the alpha.
Not even married a full day and he was already trying to kill her.
Her teeth snapped together as she glared down at him. She’d actually started to trust the wolf. How stupid was she?
“I saved you,” he threw at her and—and he wasn’t fighting her. He was just staring at her, eyes too bright, and…bleeding. Cuts and blisters covered his skin. Blisters, as if he’d been in the fire.
Her head snapped up. An ugly green pickup blocked her view of the house, but she could hear the crackle of the flames and the stench of the smoke burned her nose.
“I was out here with Louis when the fire started.” Jace’s voice hummed with quiet fury. “Then I fucking raced in for you.”
He’d…gone in there for her?
“I thought you were dead.” So much rage underscored his words. “So I made you drink. I knew my blood could help heal you.”
Not dead. But close.
She gazed at him. Her thighs hugged his hips just as they had last night. The memories were there, between them both.
“Uh, I hate to interrupt this would-be make-out scene…” The other wolf mumbled as he ran a hand over his face. “But I think we got us a real big problem.” Tension had tightened the faint lines on his handsome face.
Morgan rose slowly. Her knees wanted to wobble but she forced herself to stand. A quick glance showed the blisters on her arms were almost gone.
Such powerful blood.
Jace rose and towered over her. He glanced back at his house, and she saw the muscle flex in his jaw. “Some asshole is going to pay.” He pointed at the blond wolf. “Louis, get the pack.” Then he was gone. Running back toward the fire.
No, really, just…no.
Morgan leapt after him. “Jace, stop!”
“Easy.” The other guy—Louis—had his arms around her. She head-butted him and kept going after Jace. But Jace wasn’t heading back into the flames. He raced around the house. Leaned toward the flames. Sniffed—
Got a scent.
He spun around and stared at her. His whole face seemed to just go blank.
“Something you need to tell me, princess?” He murmured, voice a silken threat.
The fire raged behind him. They were at the edge of the glades. No neighbors to see the flames and call 9-1-1.
His chest was bare. His eyes bright. Sexy.
Jace closed the distance between them and caught her hand. “Now’s the time. If you’ve been holding back, tell me.”
Holding back? Morgan shook her head.
His lips tightened. “So be it.”
What? Her head throbbed. The sun was too bright. The flames too hot, and, even with Jace’s blood, she was weak.
Almost human again.
Before she could speak, Jace had her. The guy moved in one of his quick lunges and caught her in his arms. The world spun, and she found herself hanging over his shoulder.
“Jace!” He ignored her yelp and marched for the truck.
Louis was already inside. Morgan slapped her hands against Jace’s rather fine ass. He didn’t stop marching. Didn’t even pause.
“What are you doing?” Other than hauling her around like—
He yanked open the passenger door and tossed her into the truck. “The game just changed on us.”
Her hair fell over her eyes. Morgan shoved it back and frowned at him. “This isn’t a game.”
“No.”
The truck’s motor snarled to life.
“You know whose scent I caught all around that house?”
Louis pulled out his phone and dialed quickly.
Morgan licked her lips. “Demon scent.” It made sense. If they knew she’d agreed to team up with Jace, then they’d come after her. She just hadn’t expected an attack so soon.
“Got a fire out on Mooreline Road,” Louis said into his phone. “Send the trucks.”
“Not demons.” Jace spared a glance back at his burning house. “Not this time.” His gaze came back to her. “You were almost burned alive by your own kind. It’s the vamps who came—their stench was all around the house. They set the fucking place to blow with you inside it.”
***
When a wolf stormed a vampire stronghold, he damn well stormed it.
Louis drove the pickup right through the fancy electronic gate at the vampire compound.
“Don’t do this!” Morgan ordered Jace, grabbing his arm. “It’s a mistake! They didn’t attack me!”
Yeah, they had. And they’d pay.
The other wolves in his pack flooded in behind them.
Attacking in the daylight gave them the advantage, and Jace was more than ready to kick some vampire ass.
He jumped out of the truck and barely held back his howl of fury. She hadn’t even seemed to be breathing. Oh, yeah, vamps were about to pay.
Morgan hopped out right behind him. Dogs were barking, snarling. Figured the vamps would keep Dobermans as their attack dogs.
Jace turned his head and snarled at the dog. “Bite me,” he dared.
“He won’t,” Morgan said, voice soft and wan because she’d nearly died, “but if you don’t stand down, I will.”
Then his vampiress put herself between him and the entrance to the vampire pit
.
Not a pit, really. More like a million dollar mansion. The vampires had to do everything with style.
“You’re choosing the wrong side,” he told her as his pack lined up behind him.
But she shook her head even as he heard the soft echo of an alarm from inside the mansion. The vamps were coming…
“They didn’t do this.”
“Their scents were everywhere.”
The door opened behind her. He’d expected human guards. Instead, the vampires filled the doorway. Three men. Forever young. Pale like Morgan, but with wide shoulders and hard jaws.
And eyes that burned with rage.
“What is the meaning of this, Morganna?” The first guy demanded, an old-school English accent dripping from the words.
“We’ve got a problem,” she said, not glancing back. “He thinks you tried to kill me today.”
Silence.
Morgan blinked and, this time, she did look back over her shoulder. “Tell him it’s not true, Devon,” she demanded. “Tell him you didn’t—”
“Try to burn her to ash while she was still in my bed,” Jace finished, his claws stretching. It would be so easy to kill that bastard. One stroke from his claws, and the vampire’s head would hit the ground.
“We merely…tested,” Devon said quietly as he shrugged. “It was necessary.”
Morgan rocked on her heels, then spun around and caught the vamp bastard by his throat. “Run that by me again.”
Devon blanched. “Ah, Morganna…”
“You tested me? With fire?”
He tried to talk, but no sound emerged from his lips.
“She’s startin’ to remind me of someone…” Louis murmured from beside Jace.
“Morgan?” Jace called out.
Her hold tightened on the vampire.
“I don’t think he can speak,” Louis shouted, probably in what he thought would be a helping way.
Morgan’s hold eased a bit.
Oddly enough, the other two vampires didn’t move to restrain her. Smart of them, because if they’d touched her, Jace would have ripped them apart.
They just waited. Watched. One even glared at Devon Shire, Council-fucking-extraordinaire-member.
Jace had come across Devon before. Almost killed him twice. Third time will be the charm.
“You drank his blood.” Devon’s voice held a distinct wheeze now. “We had to see…had to make sure it was making you stronger…”
“So you set me on fire?”
But Devon didn’t back down. “If you’re going to shut the doorway to hell, you have to be able to withstand the heat, Morganna. We have to test your skin, see how it’s holding up against the flames—”
She punched him, a hard right cut that took the vampire down.
“Looks like your strength’s improving, Morg,” one of the other vampire’s said, lips twitching.
Fuck this. “Kill them,” Jace ordered.
Morgan whirled around, eyes wide. “Wh-what?”
The wolves were already shifting.
“Come.” He held his hand to her. “No sense in you watching them get ripped apart.”
The smiling vampire lunged forward then. A tall bloodsucker, with pale green eyes and a sloping scar that wrapped around his chin. One made, not born, or he wouldn’t be sporting that scar.
The blond made the mistake of putting his body between Morgan and Jace. “We’re not your prey,” he snarled.
Morgan put her hand on his shoulder. “Paul…”
Fury pushed through Jace’s body. There was something between them, he could see it. Smell it.
Morgan’s blood, in the vampire. She’d made him.
Oh, the fuck, no.
His claws burst from his fingertips as he prepared to attack.
The wind whipped around them, blowing hot and hard. Wait, hot?
He glanced up at the sky and saw the creatures coming. Flying toward them. Fucking flying in daylight.
Demons.
“They are the ones we need to fight!” Devon screamed as he scrambled to his feet. “Not each other!”
This from the asshole who’d torched his place?
But then Devon surprised him. The guy grabbed Morgan and hauled her back toward the house. “You’re not strong enough yet. We can’t let them get you!”
Now the asshole was protecting her?
Jace’s men spun around, snarling at the new threat. A threat that smelled of brimstone and death. The demons looked like humans, for the most part. Their faces appeared human, their bodies shaped like men. But they had claws that sprouted from their hands, claws even sharper than a wolf’s. Big and strong, demons had eyes that blazed as red as hell and skin that was twisted and marked with scars that sliced across their flesh.
Demons could fly. Demons could control fire. And, most days, demons could kick ass.
Not today.
His gaze met Morgan’s. A vampire in the sunlight. Even with his blood, how strong could she be?
He shoved back the one she’d called Paul. “Get inside.”
Paul didn’t move. “We fight, we don’t flee, we—”
The demons hit the ground and came running. The wolves turned, holding their line, not attacking, not yet.
Not until Jace gave the word.
“I’m the one who gets to rip you apart,” Jace promised. “Not them.” Demons… “Now get Morgan inside.”
“Jace!”
He didn’t turn at her cry. He grabbed Louis, stopping his friend before he could change. The heavy metal door swung shut behind the vampires.
The demons were smiling, showing fangs as sharp as a vampire’s.
“Guard the door,” Jace ordered. “Nothing gets to her.” No one.
Louis nodded.
“Send them back to hell,” he told his men as his bones began to shift. The change didn’t even hurt, not anymore. All he could think about now was the battle. “In pieces.”
The wolves attacked.
***
“They’re fighting for us,” Devon’s voice trembled. “They’re actually honoring the agreement.”
Morgan paced. She’d quickly changed once she’d entered the compound. No longer over-exposed in Jace’s shirt, she now wore jeans, a t-shirt, and her boots. As she paced, the sounds of battle seemed to burn her ears. Howls. Screams. “We need to be out there!”
But Paul shook his head. “The demons came at us in the daylight. They knew we’d be weak.” The sun would set soon, just not soon enough for them.
“They didn’t know we’d have the wolves with us!” Devon was all but crowing. “The bastards can fight and kill each other off, and when night comes, we’ll be stronger than them all.”
She was tired of the Council leader’s bullshit. Jace had fed her twice. He had to be weak from that loss, and now he was out there, fighting, while she stayed safe inside?
No.
“What if I’d died this morning?” She’d never forget waking to that blaze. The bastard must have planted one of his bombs. She knew he’d taken out other enemies that way over the years.
Am I an enemy?
“It was merely a test, Morganna. Merely—”
More howls from the wolves and screams from the demons. A demon’s scream sounded like nails ripping down a chalkboard. “What if I’d died? Jace had to pull me from the fire. He could have left me there. I would have burned.”
Devon just stared back at her with his soulless blue eyes. “Then we would have known the plan wasn’t working.”
The big plan. To mix the blood of a vampire and a werewolf. To create a being strong enough to shut the doorway to hell, a being who’d be able to survive the fires of hell long enough to make sure that doorway stayed closed. Forever.
A vampire couldn’t do it on her own. Fire killed vamps too easily. At least, it had before. But today, the fire hadn’t destroyed her. An inferno that should have killed her had only left her with blisters.
“You just need more blood from
him,” Devon said with a nod. “More blood, and you’ll be strong enough for the job.”
Paul had moved to peer through the series of spy holes located along the room’s perimeter. “Or he will be.”
Now Devon finally showed emotion. Confusion. “What?”
Paul whistled. “That wolf is cutting right through the demons. Slashing every last one. Never seen anything like this…”
She shoved him aside and stared through the spy hole. Her gaze locked on the wolf, a wolf that was bigger than he had been last night. The giant black beast turned around and Jace’s bright stare flew past her as he snarled.
His teeth and claws were covered with blood.
“He’s not supposed to be that big,” Devon muttered. “I’ve seen him shift before, he’s not—” Devon broke off as he caught her arm and jerked her toward him. “You let him drink from you.”
Her shoulder seemed to burn, and she remembered his bite. “You know the rules of a werewolf mating. He had to drink.”
But Devon started shaking his head. “I didn’t realize…the bastard knew!”His hands wrapped around her shoulders, and he hauled Morgan off her feet. “Don’t give him anymore blood.” Spittle flew from his mouth.
“What? Look, you know you don’t have to worry about me turning him. Werewolves can’t become vampires.”
The transformation from human to vampire was brutal. The victim had to be near death, a heartbeat away from the afterlife. The vampire had to drain her prey and then force him to drink her own blood.
Only…werewolves had never transformed. Vamps had tried to change a few of them, centuries before, but it hadn’t worked. Their beasts were too strong to die. They couldn’t transform.
Devon had told her that. He’d been the one to “experiment” on those unlucky wolves in the past.
Did Jace know? Did he realize that Devon had captured wolves over the centuries and sliced them apart to see how much pain they could take? To learn how fast they’d regenerate?
Know your enemy. One of Devon’s favorite phrases.
Asshole.
He’d ruled the vampires in this area for too long. But now he wasn’t the strongest vamp in the room.
I am.
Devon didn’t even seem to see her as he said, “They can’t become like us…” His gaze stared at the past. “Fucking animals…should have seen it…didn’t think…” He spun around and his fist slammed into the wall. “They can become more.”