Eternal Hearts (A Darkness Within)

by Jennifer Turner

  Anger flashed behind his eyes. “No! We need to stay together.”

  “We don’t have time, Dom. If Christian isn’t at his office…we’ll never make it to the Planetarium in time. And if he isn’t at the Planetarium, we’ll never get to his office in time. We don’t really have a choice. And I’m not gonna let Christian die because we picked the wrong place to go!”

  Dominic growled then slammed a fist into the concrete wall next to them. “Fine, I’ll head to Christian’s office. But do you even know what to do with a bomb?”

  She nodded. “I know someone I can call once I get there. Now go, we gotta hurry!”

  When he snatched up her hand and made a break for their cars, she offered no resistance. Once they were in the parking lot, he pulled her into a tight hug before he got in his car and drove away.

  Toni jumped into her own car and headed for the Planetarium. She stomped down on the gas as she raced through the snowy streets of Chicago. All she could think about was saving Christian. She wanted to stay in the city so bad it almost hurt, but at the same time, she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she didn’t do everything in her power to stop Stryker. She may not have always liked Christian, but she’d never wished death on him. And especially not after hearing what he’d done with her family home.

  She shivered as she considered how easily the situation could have gone horribly wrong. Had she not taken the time to stop and talk to Robert earlier, she would have never known who Stryker was after, and by the time she’d found out another way…it would have probably been too late.

  As she neared the Planetarium, Toni eased her foot off the gas. She approached the front of the building at little more than a crawl, looking to make sure that no one was there. The only car in the parking lot was a black Viper, but it was parked in the back of the lot and it didn’t look as though anyone was inside.

  She pulled into the lot and parked her car about fifty feet from the front doors. She didn’t want it to be too close, but just in case the wolves were there, she didn’t want it to be too far away either.

  Toni reached into the back seat, grabbed her katana, and then stepped out of the car. She shivered as the sensation of pins and needles shot down her arms and into her fingers. She’d never dealt with a bomb before, and if she wasn’t careful…she didn’t even want to think about the outcome.

  She quietly approached the glass frontage and peered inside. She didn’t see anyone. No silhouettes. No shadows. The sign on the door stated the building was open twenty-four hours, so she wasn’t exactly surprised to find the door unlocked.

  As she inched down the hallway, she tried to think of where she would put a bomb if she wanted to blow the building up. It made sense to her that if Stryker wanted to kill Christian, she’d put the bomb in the room he’d be in. But which room was that?

  Toni crept into the main stargazing room then frowned. Not only was the room completely dark, but there were rows upon rows of seats that someone could easily stick a bomb under…

  And at that moment, she was extremely happy that she’d convinced her brother that they’d needed to split up. She had no idea how long it would to take to find the bomb, especially considering she didn’t even know what one looked like.

  When Toni bent down to start searching, a searing pain shot through her skull while a cracking sound thundered in her ears. Unable to respond fast enough, she lost her balance and fell forward. Her face smashed into the pavement. Her sword went skittering across the concrete floor.

  She groaned as bright white lights flared in her field of vision. Her nose was broken, her right cheek felt like it would explode at any minute, and her teeth had cut the inside of her lips to ribbons.

  Toni flipped over when she caught the click of a heel against the floor, just in time to see Stryker swinging at her again with a wooden baseball bat. She rolled to avoid the blow and called on the power of her blood for extra strength and speed.

  “You’re not going to get away this time, you little bitch!” Stryker squealed. “This time you’re going to die!”

  Toni braced her hands on the floor behind her head and kicked herself up to her feet. Her head hurt like hell, but there was no way she was going to miss her chance to finally put an end to this feud.

  She dodged Stryker when she ran at her with the bat, and then whipped her leg out. She connected with Stryker’s shins, sending her crashing face first into the floor.

  “I’m not running this time,” Toni spat down at her. “This time I’m gonna make sure I finish the job I stared three years ago.”

  Toni tried to steady herself as the room burst into a brilliant shade of crimson framed by obsidian shadows. The beast inside her roared at a nearly deafening level in her ears, but there was something else…another sound, another presence behind it. Almost like an extremely low, but steady rumbling growl that wasn’t hers.

  Finish her. Toni turned and drove the heel of her boot into the back of Stryker’s blonde head. But when she reached down to grab Stryker’s hair, she threw her head back into Toni’s face.

  Toni stumbled back, and before she had the time to prepare, Stryker lunged at her and slammed her back into a row of seats. She groaned as pain raced down her spine. Mere seconds passed before she felt Stryker’s sharp fangs sink deep into her neck. Toni fought to bend her knee then kicked Stryker in the gut, sending her flying back into the wall.

  Toni willed her wounds to close then climbed to her feet. She locked eyes with Stryker, who’d also managed to regain her footing. “This ends now, Stryker.”

  Stryker flashed a fanged smile. “You’re way out of your league little girl. You have no idea who you’re playing with.”

  When Stryker snapped her fingers, fear sent chills shooting down the back of Toni’s neck then across her shoulder blades as two figures emerged from the darkness behind Stryker. She recognized the men from the descriptions Christian had given her.

  “Allow me the pleasure of introducing you to Death and Rattle,” Stryker cooed. “Did you forget about them, you stupid, ignorant, pathetic excuse for a vampire?”

  Toni shot a glance to where her sword rested on the floor. With a little luck, she’d be able reach it and, if nothing else, at least kill Stryker before the wolves got her.

  “Oh, don’t tell me you’re actually thinking about fighting,” Stryker laughed. “You really are dumber than I thought. What you should be doing right now is groveling for your life!”

  “I wouldn’t grovel to you. You sold out my family!”

  Stryker waved away the accusation. “So I sold your family’s address to Oktober. Maybe I just wanted to have a hand in making sure that Alexander couldn’t fill the world with any more Mexican scum. Consider it my attempt to help the Warriors purify their worthless blood.”

  When Toni glared over at the sword again, Stryker burst out laughing. “You really shouldn’t be thinking about how to get your weapon, Toni. What you should be asking yourself is…where’s Thomas?”

  Toni stiffened as Stryker’s words processed in her mind. But just as she turned to scan the room, pain exploded somewhere behind her eyes and the world went black.

  ***

  When Toni finally regained consciousness, she opened her eyes to a clear view of the night sky. Her body ached, her head was pounding, and all she could taste and smell was her own blood.

  She cast a glance down her body, but then cringed. She was even more wounded now than she remembered being when her world had gone dark. Stryker and her werewolf buddies must have taken the opportunity to beat her while she couldn’t fight back.

  Somehow…Toni wasn’t surprised.

  She tried to sit up but agony exploded in her chest then shot down her arms where it raced circles around her wrists. She tipped her head up and looked down to her hands. Thick chains wrapped around both of her wrists, tethering her to even thicker steel plates that’d been riveted to the concrete.

  Toni thrashed and pulled at the chains, but they wouldn’t bu
dge. She screamed into the night as her beast lashed and clawed inside her. She concentrated on her blood once again to give her the extra strength to break the chains, but it just wasn’t enough.

  “Don’t even bother,” Stryker chimed in. “I hope you recognize where you are though. After all, we’ve been here before.”

  Toni bared her fangs and snapped her teeth at the condescending tone in Stryker’s voice. She turned her head to look for the bitch, but froze when she realized exactly where they were.

  Stryker had chained her to the roof of The Rivers Building…

  “Fitting isn’t it?” Stryker purred. “You dropped me from this roof, and now you’ll die on this roof. But there are a few things I want you to know before the sun rises. Are you ready?”

  Toni laughed bitterly as her beast stalked inside her. Stryker finally had her, and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it. “Fuck you! You might kill me, but you’ll never be able to take over the city.” She laughed in a voice that didn’t even sound like her own. “By now, Christian knows you’re the one behind the werewolves. You’ll be dead before sundown tomorrow!”

  Stryker shook her head. “You are so stupid.”

  Toni tried to pull away when Stryker leaned down and ran a finger over the cut on her cheek. “Christian’s already dead.”

  Toni stared up at her. “No he isn’t.”

  “Yes, he is. While you were eavesdropping on my secret meeting in the alley, the other werewolves were already on their way to his office. It really was a pity how fast you sent your own brother off to save him. I’m sure Dominic is dead now, too.”

  Tears welled in Toni’s eyes. It couldn’t be true. “You lie!”

  “Poor, poor, Toni. Tell me, how does it feel to know you sent your own brother off to die? The only flesh and blood you had left in this world. Does it make you angry? Or does it inspire something more like guilt?”

  Toni pulled at the chains when Stryker’s cold breath crawled up her earlobe. “At least his death was quick. Nothing like yours is going to be, and not even close to what I had done to your family. Do you know how much I enjoyed watching them die over and over with just the click of a button? Or how much pleasure it gave me to write that little note for you. And do you know what it cost to have your family slaughtered? Two words. A single name...that’s all.”

  Stryker stood up and clucked her tongue. “And to think, the whole thing almost worked. You came after me just like I thought you would. Only, instead of Christian killing you like he would have done to anyone else…all he did was exile you. But, I guess if he’d killed you back then, we wouldn’t be having this lovely little moment now, would we? I have to admit, I think I’ll get a lot more satisfaction out of seeing you die in person.”

  Toni closed her eyes and turned her head away from Stryker. She couldn’t listen to her anymore. Stryker had planned it all, every single moment of it…

  How could she have been so blind?

  She opened her eyes to glare back over at Stryker, but instead she saw Thomas, Death, and Rattle standing on the other side of her. There was no way out of this.

  She was going to die on this roof, alone.

  Tears overflowed her eyes as she thought about her brother. She’d waited so long to see him, and now he was gone. Her entire body trembled and a sob broke the seal of her lips as her thoughts turned to Drake. She’d never get to see him again. She’d never see his smiling face, never get to hold him the way he deserved, and she’d never get to tell him she loved him. And somewhere deep in depths of her soul, that was what hurt more than anything.

  She loved him…and she’d never be able to say the words.

  The beast inside Toni burst forth from the vicious mixture of anger and hatred raging in her blood, forcing her to scream as it seized complete control. Stryker was not going to take everything from her again. She wasn’t going to get away with this!

  Toni thought about her family as she pulled against the chains with everything she had. And it was Drake she focused on while she pushed her muscles far beyond the strength she alone possessed.

  The hollow sound of a metal door colliding with concrete rang out somewhere behind Toni at the same moment the rivets holding her chains in place snapped. She kicked herself to her feet and spun around to see a tall African American man step through the doorway leading back into the building with her katana in his hands.

  “You traitor!” Stryker shrieked as she ran towards him. But just before she could reach him, he threw the sword over her head.

  At the exact same moment that the katana landed in Toni’s outstretched hands, Stryker shoved the man who’d thrown it to her. He fell back against the ledge bordering the roof, his wide eyes blazing with defiance.

  Toni ran for them…

  “Now you’ll get what you deserve!” Stryker screamed, and then she shoved him.

  Toni drew back with her sword when Stryker began to turn around. And just as her pale blue eyes came into view, the razor sharp edge of the blade connected with her throat. Stryker’s ear piercing shriek echoed into the night mere seconds before her entire body burst into a golden red haze.

  Toni fell against the edge of the roof as her sword buried into the concrete. Never in her life had she felt that much power course through her blood. Exhaustion crashed over her in a heavy wave. Every muscle in her body burned as she struggled to breathe.

  She leaned against the edge of the roof when the animal inside her drew back. Stryker was finally gone. Knowing she was dead should have given Toni comfort, it should have made her feel better…but it didn’t. Nothing had changed. Stryker’s death hadn’t brought back her mother. It hadn’t brought back her sister or her little brother. And it wouldn’t bring Dominic back, either.

  Her thoughts scattered in a thousand different directions as the cracking and popping of bones filled the air. She looked up, but before she could even begin to process what was happening, the three men who’d been standing on the other side of the roof…weren’t men anymore.

  Each one was almost twice as tall as they had been before, and their large, muscular bodies, which were now a strange combination of human and wolf, were covered head to toe with thick fur. Their faces appeared to be purely wolf, and they growled and snarled as they neared her.

  Toni had never seen anything more terrifying in her life. She clamored to back up as fast as possible, but froze when the raised edge of the roof dug into her lower back. Panic surged through her. She had nowhere to go, no place to run.

  She let loose with a scream when the gray werewolf jumped at her. And again when it landed in front of her then snatched her up by her hair. It drew back a human-shaped hand, palm up, and then thrust it forward, its claws slicing deep into her throat.

  “This is where you die,” it growled in a raspy voice.

  Toni stared into its steely gray eyes as her feet dangled above the roof. She gasped for air then tried to talk, but the unfamiliar sensation of blood filling her mouth caused her to choke instead.

  She didn’t understand how she was bleeding. She shouldn’t be bleeding! Aside from her brief encounter with Molenyar, her heart hadn’t beat since Drake left her. There was no pressure building in her veins to push the blood through her body.

  No driving force to make it flood her wounds…

  Toni struggled to keep her eyes open, but just as her world began to dim, a baleful howl echoed all around her. The entire building shook as something heavy hit the concrete behind the werewolves. She coughed and sputtered as the gray wolf whipped around with her still impaled on its claws. And she couldn’t do anything to stop it when the animal lifted its arm then threw her to the ground in an effort to remove her from its claws.

  After she crashed down hard against the pavement, Toni used the last shreds of strength she had left to pull herself away from the werewolves. She paused to look up when a shadow fell across her. There was another werewolf standing on the rooftop now. Only this wolf’s fur was jet black, and it was
easily twice, if not almost three times, as big as the others. The new werewolf moved to stand over her before it let loose with a pained howl.

  Toni’s eyes flooded with tears as a set of piercing blue eyes that she knew almost as well as her own stared down at her. How did he know she’d needed him? How did he know where she was?

  All she could do was listen while the battle raged around her. She didn’t have the strength to stand up and fight at his side like she wanted to. She didn’t even have enough control of her muscles to move so that she could see what was happening. Howls and yelps sounded all around the rooftop. Her consciousness came and went as the fight continued.

  Toni snapped back to reality when she felt the telltale weight of the sun beginning to break the horizon. Her blood instantly panicked. The animal inside her thrashed and roared as her skin began to sear. But just when she was sure the sun would claim her, two unmistakable arms wrapped tight around her.

  Chapter 24

  Drake cradled Toni in his arms and watched as her eyes fluttered open the second the sun finally fell from the sky. He’d been waiting all day for this moment, and for the first time in his life, he almost wished the sun would never rise again just so he could spend more time with her. He stared down into her beautiful brown eyes as the smile he’d probably never see enough slowly crept across her face.

  “Good morning sleepy head,” he whispered.

  Her smile faded right before she buried her face in his chest and started crying. He pulled her tighter against him and stroked her hair as her body shook. He wasn’t sure what her tears were for this time, but whatever the reason, good or bad…they’d face it together.

  “Dominic is dead and so is Christian,” she sobbed.

  Drake leaned back a bit so the he could see her face. “Christian and Dominic are both fine, Toni. Everything is fine. You don’t have anything to worry about.”

  “But Stryker said that…she told me…”