by Zoe Forward
Julio stammered. “You’re…alive.”
Blay held up a silencing hand. “He’s coming with me.” He gazed out the window. “We’re about to be invaded by Squad vamps. Priority number one is to get His Majesty out of here.” He leaned close to Lexan and said, “You need to keep as still as possible for the next hour. If you don’t and your heart rate goes above one-ten, then it gets painful and possibly life-threatening.”
“I’m not leaving without Vee.” Lexan locked gazes with Blay.
“She also needs to stay as still as possible until she comes around. I’ll keep her safe until then.”
“She comes with us. With me.”
Blay’s face soured. “I’m not impressed with your handling of her up to this point. Ryder might suffice to provide her any necessary blood from this point on.”
“Now, I am going to order you. She comes with me.” He warned Blay telepathically, “Resist and I will make sure your dead status becomes reality.”
Blay stepped back with wide eyes. “Why?”
He answered telepathically. “She’s mine.”
“Like forever shit?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll be damned.” Blay nodded his head in respect. “Of course. She goes with you.”
Lexan tried to cycle down from the red haze of crazy at the thought of someone taking Vee from him. “Things have changed, Blay. Ambrose DiFalco hit me with this death shot. On purpose.”
“Christ.” Blay shook his head and released a long exhale. He texted on his cell phone. “Before we march into battle, Lexan, may I suggest you contact Viktor DiFalco. He should hear what his stupid kid did direct from you. He might not want war. Or this might be his plan.” He glanced around the room. “Julio, take your people and go out the back. Go to your primary retreat. Ryder, you’re with me. Lexan, you and your boys will come with Vee and me to Canada.”
“Canada?” Lexan said.
“It’s safe, neutral, and far the hell away from here. We can take my plane. But before we go, I need to collect a certain forgetful vampire runt who will be taking this journey with us.”
Chapter Twenty-One
No spit. Vee worked her tongue against the sensation she’d sucked on a cotton ball. Disgusting. Time to get moving, but she was exhausted as if she’d had a flu, not that she’d ever had a viral infection. She assumed it’d feel like this—drained to the point she couldn’t open her eyes or lift her head.
At least someone put her on a sofa and gave her a blanket. Wherever she’d been taken didn’t smell like the same house as before. This room carried the stale smell of disuse.
She pushed her mind to recall what happened after she drank so much of Lexan’s blood. There’d been lot of pain and cramping. Then, everything was blank.
Her acute hearing detected two heartbeats close. Lexan? She needed it to be him…to confirm he lived. Her heart picked up its pace.
A blink to open…too much light. She slammed her eyes closed. Her skin didn’t burn. So, not outdoors. Vision wasn’t happening right now.
A mental scan sent her mind into a nauseating whirl like someone had put her on a carousel and set the speed for too fast. Survival instinct demanded she take inventory and survey the area.
A deep sniff detected one wolf and one vampire close. A vamp?
An unfamiliar male asked, “You awake over there?” She focused on the voice, wondering if it spoke to her. She picked up mental vibrations consistent with werewolf.
“Trace? You awake?” the voice asked.
Trace was here? Had Dominic’s goons captured her back? No. Couldn’t be. The wolf speaking sounded too in charge. Where was Lexan? Maybe he hadn’t survived.
She couldn’t breathe. Her chest clamped down tight. He’s didn’t die. She needed to believe it.
“Aren’t you dead?” Trace’s tone transmitted stress and exhaustion.
She would attack to free Trace, if they planned to torture him.
She cracked her eyelids. This time the light didn’t hurt as much. Trace rested his forehead in his hands. He sat uncuffed in a kitchen chair across what appeared to be an ornately decorated sitting room. The furnishings were a late nineteenth century style, possibly earlier. Expensive. Not well used.
“Apparently, I’m alive.” There was humor in the wolf’s voice.
“Dominic said he killed you.” Trace gazed in the direction of the wolf’s voice.
“Do you believe everything Dominic Scarpa says?”
“My head…” Trace massaged his forehead. “Why’d you knock me out with a tranq dart?”
“You were about to do something stupid and probably die. The Squad Vamps thought themselves the ambushers, when they were, in fact, the ambushees. My wolves had all of you surrounded. I’d be surprised if anyone other than you survived.”
“If Dominic didn’t kill you, then who did he kill? He killed a wolf.”
A tall man stalked into her sightline. Long, dark hair fell loose well past wide shoulders. He wore a dark, long coat, which hid his body. His potent aura saturated her brain. Dangerous. Lethal. This being, like Lexan, had the capacity to be the monster she’d grown up hearing about. But Lexan hadn’t induced the level of wariness this guy did.
“Dominic murdered a wolf that night—an innocent friend in the wrong place at the wrong time. The real question is who killed your mother?”
Our mother? Goosebumps ridged Vee’s arms.
“You killed her.” Then less certainly Trace added, “Didn’t you?”
“Again, believing everything Dominic says.” The werewolf pulled a velvet-upholstered chair in front of Trace. His back remained to Vee as he sat. “Do you remember our private talk on the day of your fifteenth year of birth, a year before your mother died? Or did you think it an alcohol-induced delusion?” He handed Trace a cup of liquid. The smell of blood teased her nose.
Her stomach rumbled.
Trace’s gaze shot to her. He didn’t change expressions or give away he knew she was awake while he drank. “I thought it a side effect of my first overindulgence in my father’s scotch. That was real?”
“Let me refresh your memory. Your mother was my mate, even though she was vamp and I wolf. This improbability happens on rare occasions. I am sure you of all vamps know cross-species attraction happens.”
That’s my father? Blay something.
Trace’s cheeks colored dark red. He really had been sleeping with a werewolf. Ambrose had been right.
Blay shook his head. “You may not realize it, but it was good for everyone when she died.”
“We weren’t involved when she had the accident.” His gaze slid to hers and quickly darted away. “I told her to piss off when I discovered she was trying to take out Aleksander Dimitrov again. That was a few years ago. But you and my mother…”
“I have yet to find her murderer. I interviewed everyone within fifty miles of her place except you and Dominic. There were only two wolves in the area. One is dead. I’m the other. I’ve come to my own conclusions, but—”
“I picked up there were two wolves and a vampire other than my mother.”
“No, there were only two wolves. Madden and me. No vampire.”
“I distinctly picked up the odor of the vampire.”
“Which vampire?”
“I don’t know.”
Blay sat deeper in the chair and tapped his lip. “I was there on that night, but last time I saw Arie she was alive. She coerced me to take Vee to visit your aunt, who used to live close by. While I was away someone murdered her. I suspect Arie planned to meet someone and wanted Vee and me out of there. Arie didn’t share her concerns when she feared for those she loved. Did you ever ask yourself why Carol had Vee that day? Why Vee wasn’t also killed?”
Trace rubbed his chin. “I never thought about Vee. It doesn’t change the fact a wolf killed my mother. My father didn’t. Dominic attended a big event. He was seen there the whole night.”
“Look at me,” Blay commanded. “Did
you kill your mother?”
Trace gazed as if mesmerized. “No.”
“Do you know who killed your mother?”
“No.”
“Damn it,” he muttered. Then louder, “Were there really three scents to you?”
“Yes.”
Blay changed his tone. “You may be free now.”
Trace rubbed his head again. “What happened? I blanked for a second there or something.”
Blay shook his head dismissively. “Dominic starting a war over less than solid facts is asinine.”
“Why didn’t my mother leave my father and the two of you run off? Do the happily-ever-after scenario?”
“Arie wasn’t in a good situation with Dominic. She stayed because she loved her children. She loved you more than anything else in her life, even me. That’s tough for me to confess. It’s why I won’t kill you now. You represent a small piece of the brightest part of my existence. Her love for you kept her with Dominic. Had you been older and more able to defend yourself from Dominic, she might have considered leaving him. Dominic wasn’t nice to her, even during the times when he thought her faithful to him.”
“I know,” Trace said softly. “I wanted to kill him every time he hurt her but I was only a teenager.”
“Dominic was too egocentric to consider she’d prefer another. If she hadn’t tied my hands, I would’ve killed Dominic long ago. Arie forced me to vow to leave him alone. Ridiculous worrying woman. Dominic is child’s play.” He snorted.
“I wanted to kill him for what he did to Vee for a long time, but Vee stopped me. She didn’t believe I could take him.”
“You’re no match for Dominic, but I am.” No ego in his tone, just confidence.
Trace relaxed back into the chair, throwing out his legs. “You do know he and Vee have faced off many times over the decades.”
“What’d he do to her?”
“Maybe you should ask Vee about the specifics on that. You can ask her yourself.” He directed his chin toward her.
Blay whipped around. She gazed into eyes identical to hers down to the brown spot.
“What did Dominic do?” Blay demanded.
Oh my God. This was her biological father. Don’t be intimidated. She broke the stare with him to gingerly sat upright. Muscles ached. Her head spun. “You must be…Dad? Or do you prefer Father?”
“Call me whatever you wish.”
“Dad?” Trace repeated dully. The horror on Trace’s face shredded her heart.
Don’t hate me, please. Forcing bravery, she said, “He didn’t fill you in on that gem, Trace? I was told by the wolves that Mom and this guy started their fling long before I was born. Dominic’s not really my father.”
Trace’s thoughts bombarded her. It’s bullshit. They’re playing her for some reason. Out loud, he said, “It’s not true. If so, you were…you’d be a…” He inhaled sharply. “A mix?”
Blay moved to stand between her and Trace. Protective?
“It’s not my fault, if it’s true.” The abomination of a mix would go against every code of purity they’d both been brought up to believe as law in the Scarpa household.
“I didn’t mean for it to come out like that. You’re still Vee. Still my sister,” Trace said. It’s bullshit.
She smoothed wrinkles in her shirt. “How did you end up here, Trace?”
“We planned to get you back and tracked you to that house. This wolf knocked me out during the fight.”
She scooted to see around Blay. “What exactly was the plan for me when you got me, Trace?”
“Everyone had their own plans. Ambrose, Dominic, Hsu-Li. I planned to get you the hell away from the wolves, and then away. Anywhere away. Safe. Maybe with Aunt Carol.”
“Our sister just married into the New York vamps where Carol lives. Dominic owns that territory now. How could you even think to put her at risk like that?”
“Carol has many connections. It’s why most vamps steer clear of her. She’s your best bet of getting out of the country at this point.”
“Where’s Lexan?” she asked Blay.
“He’s dealing with political minutiae. I would still like an answer to what Dominic did to you. Exactly.”
Relief whooshed through Vee. Lexan lived. He was here. When no one around her was speaking, she glanced up. What had they been talking about? Right. Her and Dominic. “I’m not sure this makes great father-daughter getting-to-know-each-other conversation.”
Blay glowered. “Tell me what the sadistic guttersnipe did.”
“Dominic and I have never gotten along. I’ve never bowed to his dictates easily, which meant sometimes he got mean. I got mean back. We both got hurt.” She shrugged, unwilling to relive the specifics of the past.
Trace said softly, “She barely survived one or two of those when she was a teenager.”
“I held my own just fine.”
“How could you not kill Dominic for that?” Blay growled at Trace.
“It’s not his fault. He would’ve. I asked him not to.” Vee wished she could jump up and tell Blay to back off of Trace, but she was still acclimating to sitting upright.
“I, too, would like to know why Trace put up with Dominic’s behavior,” Lexan said from the doorway. He added telepathically to her, “You okay?”
Her heart slammed into her ribs so hard that it stole her breath.
Okay from what? Ingesting blood or issues with Dominic. She wanted to end the Dominic discussion. It resurrected bad memories buried long ago.
“Sis, you’re in serious danger. How can you pass for vamp and none of us ever picked it up? I mean, if anyone got a whiff, especially Dominic, you’d be—”
“Executed,” she finished.
“I still don’t detect anything.” Trace sniffed in her direction and shook his head. This is a scam. Don’t fall for these guys’ bullshit.
If she hadn’t seen her own arm change, she might believe Trace. She zeroed in on Blay. “Who killed my mother, if it wasn’t you?”
“I don’t know,” Blay replied.
Lexan folded his arms across his chest. His face, closed and dangerous, glared distrust at Trace. “Vee, we should talk in private now that you’re awake.”
The room shifted as she stood. Light-headed. She managed to walk a straight line to Lexan, drawn by the need to be close to him. She needed to confirm he’d survived the silver toxicosis without residual issues. His arms unfolded. She wanted to touch but stopped when his broad chest was mere inches from her aching chest. She attempted to keep her breathing slow and even in order to fake calm, but it didn’t work. His gaze lowered to her heaving chest. Then his lashes lifted to reveal a heat so intense that her entire body caught fire. He ran his knuckles lightly up her arm, leaving a wake of goose bumps. “Come.”
“Don’t you dare go with him. He’s dangerous!” Trace screamed at her mentally. “He’s mesmerizing you. Break free of this trance.”
Lexan held her arm as if he understood her weakness.
“Are you...well?” His voice was like a narcotic, flooding her system with the insane need for him. She had to be susceptible to his female charm ability despite everyone claiming otherwise. Even if so, right now she didn’t care. She was so relieved he lived and was here with her.
She nodded. Lethargy diminished, leaving a gut-wrenching craving. To bite him. To be with him again. Okay, bite first.
Lexan’s gaze dipped down her body, pausing on her chest. His thought echoed in her mind, “Run with me. All fur. In the moonlight. Then, I’ll give you what you want.”
She stared at him, remembering him as a wolf. She couldn’t imagine herself with fur, definitely not shifting into something not vampire. The afterward part? She could be on board with that.
“Does my neck tempt you, catifea?” The low rumble of his voice in her head warmed her.
She’d ingested so much of his blood, even if it’d been tainted, but even now it wasn’t enough. She needed more. “Starving.”
“I will
only let you drink if you run with me.”
“After we run, then,” she agreed.
He took her hand.
Before they exited Trace called out, “You’re Aleksander Dimitrov, aren’t you?”
“Lexan.” His muscles tensed. She wondered if he’d attack Trace. Instead, he said low, “Surprising we never met back when you were fucking my wife. She must’ve secreted you out of my house before I got there.”
Color drained from Trace’s face. His mouth worked, but no words came out.
Blay said, “You were used, Trace. She was a bitch whose sole focus was power. And to hurt Lexan.” Blay shrugged as if over the matter.
“It is in the past.” Lexan’s grip on her hand hurt. She stretched her fingers inside his clasp. He loosened and shot her a quick apologetic gaze.
“Why haven’t you come after me before?” Trace asked in a whisper. “Is that why I’m here?”
Lexan’s gaze met Blay’s. “As Blay said, she used you. Your future is your choice. Bless her dead soul; she’d get a thrill out of males fighting over her. I stopped caring about her antics long before you two became involved.”
Lexan’s expression softened when it met hers. He whispered in her ear, “The time to run under the moon draws close. I sense your fear, but it’ll be okay. Do you trust me?”
Did she trust him? She thought so.
Trace’s thoughts blasted into her skull. “Snap out of it. He’s doing his mesmerizing thing again. I’m going to get us both out of here.”
Blay stared at her with concern. “Is it time?”
“Soon.” Lexan pulled her out of the room.
Her head swirled as they stepped into the hallway. “I might need something before running. Food…or something else.”
“No something else from me until after we run, but food can be had.” He led her into a vacant kitchen. “Sit.” He walked to the windows and closed the blinds where waning sunlight filtered in. From the refrigerator he removed orange juice and held up the container.