Jake (The Clan Legacy)

by J. S. Striker

  “He’s a stickler for rules,” Olivia explained. “But he means well. That’s just how he is.”

  Trying to kidnap Gabby in some elaborate scheme? his mind supplied. But he didn’t voice it out, instead observing the rooms she toured him around. Raz seemed to like ancient furniture.

  “How’s your master holding up?” Olivia asked.

  “She’s doing fine. Sleeping,” he said, trying to dismiss the subject. He really didn’t want to be thinking of her now.

  But Olivia pushed on, stopping at one of the hallways and facing him. “It’s really good she’s been sleeping lately. I heard she hasn’t been sleeping well and wasn’t even able to shift during a fight. Is it true it almost cost her life?”

  Jake nodded. “That’s why we need to get back home as soon as we can. I just want her to recuperate.”

  The assistant looked at him with understanding, and he wished it was as easy to explain to her boss. But they both had completely different genetic makeup, so he didn’t try to argue his case and decided to just follow her to the back kitchen. This area was apparently used for the staff, and the modern setting made him considerably more comfortable as he sat in front of the kitchen island and watched her make some coffee. He was about to say that he didn’t need it, but then again, why not? He wasn’t even sure what time he was going to get another sleep in, considering they might have to make a run for it at any minute.

  The taste hit him in the back of the throat and slid down smoothly, hot and thick. Jake complimented her on the brew, to which she flashed him a smile and said coffee was her knack that even her master started to drink it. They chatted casually, never really delving into personal matters that would jeopardize their work. Jake found himself relaxing in her presence, especially when she sat beside him companionably.

  “What would you have been had you not been Miss Gabby’s protector?” Olivia asked.

  The question threw him off, but her expression told him she was genuinely curious. “I’d have continued with missions. You?”

  “I would be more powerful,” she said. “Not political-wise, because I’m not interested in that. I prefer to be strong in the sense that I could take down anyone in my way.”

  “Hmm. Who do you want to take down?”

  She flashed him an amused look. “No one in particular. Just those who underestimate my kind and think we’re weak.”

  “No one weak can ever work here,” Jake intoned, making Olivia brighten.

  “That’s right! I’m so glad you understand.”

  They chatted some more until Jake could feel sleepiness seeping in. That puzzled him, considering the coffee he just took, but it was perhaps a testament to just how tired he was. He stifled a yawn and bid Olivia goodnight, then stood up to go back to the bedroom and check on Gabby again. It was pointless to avoid her when he still kept thinking about her.

  So he might as well confront it.

  A thought crossed his mind, and he turned back to look at Olivia, who was quietly watching him.

  “Can we really trust Raz?”

  “Are you asking as a bodyguard?” Olivia asked.

  Jake shook his head. “I’m asking as a fellow non-vampire.”

  The assistant smiled. “If that’s the case, then yes. He can be trusted. He will never experiment with your master.”

  The words had Jake freezing. He kept looking at Olivia, whose smile only grew wider.

  Gabby had never mentioned experiments to anyone—and she’d certainly never talked about it to anyone.

  The puzzle clicked into place, but his vision blurred. Dimly, Jake realized that he was getting dizzy, not just sleepy, and the smile on Olivia’s face had turned smug.

  Then darkness was taking over.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Something was wrong.

  Gabby felt it deep in her bones, a sinking feeling that had her eyes snapping open and her body out of bed before she could even try to make sense of it. Instinct was a part of her survival skill, and despite the fact that it often was a false alarm, there were also plenty of times when it helped her avoid situations that could cause her danger. She trusted that now as she donned on some clothes and tried to ignore the tingling feeling in her body that reminded her of what exactly happened between her and Jake earlier.

  Or rather, how loudly she’d screamed.

  The thought alone had Gabby’s cheeks turning hot as she slipped out of the bedroom and into the hallway, which was as quiet as a tomb. She tried not to dwell over the fact that she had the best orgasm of her life, as well as the certainty that the man who gave it to her was the one who made her blood sing and pound and would continue to do so for many years to come.

  Mating was a headache in that aspect because you didn’t get to choose who your animal side wanted to be with—it just happened, and you had no choice but to go along with the flow or fight it tooth and nail every step of the way.

  Now she just had to decide which one she wanted to do.

  Because the hallway was empty, Gabby did her best to be extra quiet as she toured Raz’s mansion and tried not to be intimidated. The vampire’s wealth being this stupendous wasn’t something that fazed her, considering her family was just as filthy rich and thriving. But while her home’s halls and rooms were warm; Raz’s were full of coldness and uniformity, giving off an eerie feeling without meaning to—or maybe the second-in-line meant it so as to intimidate whoever he invited in.

  She was about to round the corner when she felt it more than heard it—footsteps and a strong presence. Gabby didn’t shift, but she braced herself all the same, ready to attack if need be. There was no one around, so she made a run for it to yet another corner, trying to calculate in her mind how she was going to handle facing—

  “Hello.”

  —a strong vampire.

  This vampire wasn’t Raz, and he had stronger aristocratic features and a harder expression. Unlike Raz’s easy charm, this man oozed none as he stared at her with two bottomless pits for eyes. They were so black, they might as well have been staring into her soul.

  She’d never met Vladimir until now—had only heard of his reputation as the first-in-line with no mercy. The thought made her shudder, but she stifled it and tried to nod at his greeting.

  “Good evening,” she murmured politely. “Vladimir, is it? I didn’t realize you would be here.”

  Vladimir kept looking at her, never blinking. She realized that he didn’t make any unnecessary movements, and that made it harder to predict when he was going to attack. She tried to get a feel for him but found only an endless void. Dimly, she realized that whatever wrong thing she was feeling wasn’t coming from him.

  But that didn’t make him any less sinister.

  “We’re waiting for Lucinda,” he intoned, his voice cold but not unfriendly. Just impersonal. “I believe there’s a matter to be discussed about some dead vampires.”

  Gabby nodded. The sinking feeling in her stomach grew, but instincts screamed that it didn’t involve the vampire standing in front of her. She excused herself right away at the pretense of wanting to get some water, not in the mood to make small talk. She searched the mansion, trying to find Jake and tell him that they needed to stick together. But how was she going to find him?

  The answer came to her almost immediately, and Gabby used her senses. Disregarding any kind of poise at the moment, she crouched on the floor right before dropping on all fours as quietly as she could. Then she began sniffing, placing her nose inches away from the tiles until she finally detected it—a whiff of Jake’s earthy, male scent, faint but there.

  She followed it, praying she wouldn’t bump into any vampire and suffer some kind of humiliation. She detected another scent, one that wasn’t vampire but still familiar. She smelled this before. The scent led her to the kitchen, which she found empty save for some coffee and…the smell of poison.

  Gabby stood up, blood rushing through her brain.

  It was the same poison smell used in her k
idnapping last year.

  Panic hit her, realizing that Jake must have encountered it. She followed the scent as it led to the southern part of the mansion, where everything was still so quiet. The poison triggered dizziness, and she had to get Jake before it was too late, and he became a dead weight.

  Gabby stopped when the scent suddenly disappeared at the very end, where she was surrounded by more hallways and no door. Frustration hit her at the abrupt halt, right before an idea popped into her head. She felt around the walls twice, felt behind some of Raz’s expensive paintings, then tilted a large vase to the side—

  A secret compartment opened. Without hesitation, Gabby slipped into darkness.

  There were brick stairs leading downstairs, and she stuck to the side and followed it, careful to not even breathe unevenly. A few minutes later, she smelled the poison again. Then she heard voices—Jake’s muffled one, along with a familiar female voice talking to him.

  “I’m sorry, Jake. You seem like a great person, and I have nothing against you personally. But you’re strong and powerful, so you can’t understand my plight. I’m a pawn in this supernatural-ridden world, and I’m tired of it. Your master’s blood will help me come to my full potential—and she’ll also be a great experimental body before I find the perfect mix of blood and magic to help me stop being this…weak.”

  Gabby’s eyes widened as she crouched down. Now she remembered that voice—it was the woman who accompanied Raz to the business event. Her eyes still couldn’t see anything, but her ears strained as Jake’s muffled voice spoke out.

  “I will…tear…Raz…pieces…”

  The words had the woman laughing. “Oh, I already told you. He’s innocent. But he’s going to be framed sooner or later, so he might as well be guilty. I need a scapegoat, after all. Like you. Hold still, please.”

  There was the sound of something clanking, then a heavy thump. Gabby’s vision finally adjusted, and she took a peek to the center of what looked like a dungeon. There, she found Jake lying unconscious, blood pooling from his head in a steady flow.

  Her heart stopped.

  In an instant, she was lunging for the woman, who had her back turned. The woman heard the noise and turned in her direction, metal pipe in hand. There was still blood there from Jake’s hit, and the sight had rage exploding out of Gabby. The woman’s eyes widened, and she backed off, raising the makeshift weapon.

  In no less than two seconds, Gabby shifted. Then she was jumping on the woman and tearing her apart, feeling the hot blood on her tongue and spitting it out. She clawed and tore, the monster inside her whispering that this woman deserved it.

  The darkness within her was egging her on.

  The wolf and fox in her protested and screamed at her to get back to her senses. The fight had her body straining, and she snarled against it and went still, feeling her bones and muscles crunch at the exertion. Finally, she shifted back to her human form, feeling her energy drain away faster than she wanted.

  Gabby stared at the mess she made of the woman—entrails everywhere, skull crushed, eyes ripped out. The sight had bile rising from her throat, but she pushed it back down and crawled over to where Jake was. Her leg was dislocated due to the monster and shifter in her fighting each other, and she tried gritting her teeth against the pain as she checked on Jake.

  He had no pulse.

  Panic hit her. She tried to stand up, stifling the scream of pain and intent on heading back up the stairs to get help. She turned around—

  And found Vladimir staring at the scene, then at her in quiet, cold judgment.

  “It’s not what you…think,” she gurgled out, blood coming out of her cut lip.

  But the first-in-line was shaking his head. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to report this murderous scene, Miss Montgomery.”

  She felt a hand press against her neck’s pressure point.

  Then she saw darkness.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  “Wake up, man.”

  The sound of the male voice broke through the haze that Jake found himself in. Instantly, his eyes snapped open to find the sight of the familiar bedroom he and Gabby shared earlier, with no Gabby in it. That had him sitting up and staring at the man who initially asked him to wake up.

  Familiarity hit him right away, and Jake found himself on the defense at the sight of the very famous Finn Jackles.

  On the one hand, Finn was a shifter just like him—a more famous one, considering he was a dragon shifter and there were only four of those left in the world. He was known for his good humor in general, and even when he was no longer in the shifter world and doing missions with them, his name was still mentioned every now and then. Finn was also familiar, with his bright red hair, and that red hair now had Jake feeling a certain kinship between them.

  On the other hand, Finn had done something few people would have had the guts to do—chosen Lucinda, the vampire leader, as his mate and been at her side since. That practically made him her right-hand man, and Jake could feel a certain wariness seep in as he stared at the dragon that was neither friend nor foe, who stared back from his standing position beside the bed.

  His mind was still fuzzy, but there was no forgetting what Olivia had done to him and her confession.

  “Where’s Olivia?”

  Finn tilted his head. “Dead.”

  Surprise filled Jake. “Who killed her?”

  Finn’s face grew grim. This time, the surprise turned to dread.

  “Gabrielle Montgomery.”

  *****

  The trial for the death of two village vampires and a human assistant were being held in Raz’s mansion’s meeting room, which was large enough to fit a grand party and still have plenty of space left. He watched as three people—no, vampires—sat on the long table, eyes following his movements as he entered the room with Finn.

  In the middle of the room stood Gabby, her hands bound behind her and her body ramrod straight. She didn’t look in his direction when he stood next to her, instead facing the jury with a placid expression on her face.

  “It’s good to see you awake, Mr. Kismet.”

  Jake turned to the female speaking. With her long blonde hair and big, deep-set green eyes, she was easily one of the most beautiful women he’d ever seen. But it was Lucinda Bennett’s graceful aura that set her apart, along with the waves of power that radiated from her. There was no doubt that she was the head here, even while she didn’t force her authority on them.

  Instead, she tilted her head as Finn left Jake’s side and stood behind her seated form.

  “Miss Montgomery and Mr. Kismet, this interrogation is merely a formality. Mr. Dylan Masters is traveling as we speak and on his way to our headquarters in New York, where we will be transporting you soon enough. For now, the vampire community just wants to know the truth.”

  Jake’s mouth thinned, while Gabby nodded her head. It bothered him that she was so calm about this. Even Raz was less calm, his stone-faced expression indicating that he wasn’t in the mood to charm and be polite right now.

  Jake glanced at the third vampire—the first-in-line. Anger surged inside him when he remembered Finn saying it was this one who rendered Gabby unconscious, but he banked it down and tried to listen to the questions.

  They were basic ones, really, easily answered as Jake gave his account of everything that had happened, starting from the time Gabby was kidnapped to how they were brought here by Raz. He then told them word for word what Olivia had said, along with her confession that Raz had nothing to do with any of it. Jake understood his version of events sounded sketchy, especially when he couldn’t really tell what the assistant wanted with Gabby.

  How could he, when he didn’t even know?

  Then it was Gabby’s turn, and she gave them her own version. It started with how she was kidnapped last year while trying to meet up with Raz and had initially suspected him, and how she orchestrated their dinner this year, so she could be kidnapped again. She told of the witch in the c
ontainer van taking her blood, of Raz helping them get to the village where they were attacked by two old vampires and had to kill them for self-defense…then, of Olivia’s attack on Jake and Gabby tracking them down, where she heard the assistant’s confession before she killed the woman to rescue Jake.

  She was leaving out something, and it was what Lucinda zoned in on right away.

  “But why would two vampires attack you if your scent was masked? And why would a lowly assistant want your blood? Clarify, Miss Montgomery.”

  “My scent was no longer masked because I transformed into something. And my blood…it contains that something—something deep inside me that only gets to come out from time to time. Give me the chance to use my own chains, Miss Bennett, and I can show you.”

  It was the oddest request ever. But the vampire leader didn’t even blink, and it was Raz who got up to retrieve said chains he found in the barn where Gabby and Jake had killed the vampire villagers. Everyone watched as Finn removed the restrictions from Gabby’s hands, then started to place the chains on her. The sight had Jake’s blood boiling.

  “Wait,” he barked out. He glared at the dragon shifter. “I’ll do it.”

  There was no protest to his request—or rather, his order. Gently, he wrapped the chains around Gabby’s hands, which were put out in front of her as she stared straight ahead. He watched her, waiting for her to meet his eyes, questions filling his mind at this very odd scenario.

  She ignored him at first, up until his fingers brushed against hers and sparks zinged between them. Her gaze flew to meet his, and something swam in hers before she stifled it and read what his eyes were trying to say.

  What are you up to, Gabby?

  She shook her head, then pressed her mouth together. He saw regret simmer there before she kept her face carefully blank again.

  When Jake was done, she stepped back from him first. Then she sat on the floor and nodded her head at her watchers.