BELLATRIX

by Natalie Grey

  Now he thought his instincts had been correct, though. What was this place?

  First there was the guy who looked at people as though they were beneath him, and sometimes he actually goddamned growled. Who did that?

  Then there were the screams.

  He slumped against the wall. His mother was going to yell at him. She was going to remind him that this was the third job in three months. She was going to tell him that Cristina would never stay with a guy who couldn’t provide for her and the baby.

  The scream decided him, though. He had to get out of here. He’d given them a fake name, on a hunch he wouldn’t even put words to. Hopefully they couldn’t find him. He took off down the road without a backward glance.

  Better unemployed than dead. Only one of those two situations could be fixed.

  He skidded around the corner and stopped when he saw the group in front of them. Huge guys that looked like bodybuilders, and a few women, all of them pretty. None of them seemed scared to be out at night.

  “What are you running from?” A woman, in all black, strolled forward. She had a look in her eyes that said he didn’t want to mess with her.

  He wasn’t going to. He wasn’t a total idiot. Jamie looked over his shoulder and gulped. “My boss is torturing someone.”

  One of the women gave a little cry.

  “So you just ran away rather than helping?” she demanded, her eyes narrowing in anger.

  “Please.” Jamie held out his hands. “Please, you don’t get it, this guy is terrifying. He growls when he’s mad, three of the guys have gone missing in the past week and there’s blood on the stairs. I got a baby to take care of. I can’t get killed.”

  The woman reached out. She didn’t look like a bodybuilder, but she dragged him close without any effort at all. Her eyes stared into his very mind without emotion, and Jamie felt more terror than he had ever known. When the woman released him, he thudded to his knees on the frozen ground.

  “You are fortunate.” The woman’s voice didn’t seem human now.

  When Jamie looked up, he screamed. Her eyes were red, and glowing red lines threaded along her skin. The air around her seemed to crackle with power. He scrambled to kneel and pressed his forehead onto the ground.

  She was not of this world. He could only pray for mercy.

  “I am letting you live because you did not participate in the torture,” she told him. “And because it would not be fair to your child if I were to kill you. But let this be a warning, Jamie Constantin.”

  “How do you know my—”

  “Stop … talking,” she told him before commanding, “Look at me.”

  Trembling, he did so.

  “You will never do something like this again,” she told him. “You will never again stand by while someone is hurt. If you do, the next time we meet, I will not be merciful. Do you understand?” he nodded.

  She stepped around him without another word, and the rest of the team followed her.

  Screams drifted faintly on the breeze and Jamie huddled on the ground, sobbing with fear. Eventually, he picked himself up and began to stumble back to town.

  Never again, he promised himself. He would not ever think he was too good for work. He’d go back to working at the butcher shop in the morning. Good, honest work where he didn’t have to stand by and listen to people get tortured.

  They’d never be rich, but he’d provide for the baby and Cristina.

  He stopped at the bottom of the hill. The house behind him lost in the trees, but he looked back anyway. Then, he was smiling.

  That bastard was about to get what he deserved.

  In spades.

  ___

  “I think you’re getting soft in your old age.” John flashed a smile at Bethany Anne as the group ran up the hill. He wouldn’t have dared say anything like that normally—at least, not without expecting a hundred push-ups while Bethany Anne stood on his back in very pointy heels—but Yelena looked like she was going to throw up.

  “I got her!” Ecaterina slipped an arm around Yelena to help her and the others went ahead of them for the last little bit.

  They could hear the screams now, and with every one, Yelena gave a whimper. She stumbled, and John remembered Ecaterina saying that Yelena felt her brother’s pain. He couldn’t imagine what this was like—but he knew this woman wasn’t going to let anything keep her from getting revenge.

  “Let’s deal with this dickless regurgitated piece of mouse shit, and then you and I can see if I’m getting soft, Mr. Grimes,” Bethany Anne chuckled.

  As they came up to the door, she brought up one foot and kicked it forward. The heavy old door, a thick slab of wood banded with iron, practically disintegrated with the force of her kick. She strode into the house, the energy radiating from her and Yelena noticed two pieces of iron glowed hot when she passed. “He’s upstairs, I saw in that guy’s mind that he was never allowed onto the second floor.”

  “It smells like weak werewolf in here!” Pete called. He changed a moment later, following Bethany Anne up the stairs with a snarl and a clatter of claws.

  Yelena could feel her brother’s pain radiating through her. She steadied herself on Ecaterina’s arm, and felt Bellatrix at her side.

  “We have to help him, Trix.” She used the words to steady herself. “We have to.”

  Upstairs, she could hear yelling and snarling. She forced her shaking muscles into a run. Her brother’s screams were echoing in her ears, unstoppable.

  Alec, I won’t let him kill you.

  She came around the corner to find Bethany Anne suspending a man by his neck. His feet kicked and he yelled contemptuously at her.

  “Who the hell do you think you are?” he half screamed, half gurgled.

  “I’m the fucking Queen Bitch, you cunt-rotting testicle wanking fuckwitted bastard!” Her eyes were glowing.

  In the corner, Alec was slumped in a chair. Yelena ran to him, her heart in her throat. She could sense the pulse of life in him, but his skin was covered in bruises and cuts.

  She worked at the bindings on his hands, “Alec, please. Please wake up, Alec. Alec, it’s me. It’s Yelena. Are you still with me?” Her voice pleaded, “Please wake up, please, please, please….”

  ___

  She was the Queen Bitch? Fuck that. The vampires were gone, dead from fighting amongst themselves. Everyone knew that. The rumors about space, about TQB—they were just rumors. The vampires weren’t seeking out new challenges, they were running away because they knew they were weak.

  Of course, he didn’t have a particularly good explanation for why the woman’s eyes were glowing, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to let her steal his place. He had waited too long for this.

  “Listen, bitch—“

  Her fist sent him sprawling to the floor the very next moment. He could taste is blood as he choked on his teeth and bit his tongue.

  “That’s Queen Bitch to you, you ass-faced monkey-fucking wank addict!” The woman stared him down. At her side, a huge wolf bared its teeth.

  He was hallucinating. That was the only possible reason for this. Vampires weren’t as strong as this one was. She’d brought humans with her—humans they actually seemed to fight with. The humans needed to be shown that Emilian wouldn’t just roll over and play dead for them, that he wasn’t as sentimental and weak as she was and they would follow a real leader.

  And he knew just the way to do that.

  ___

  Yelena was crying. Bellatrix sniffed worriedly at Alec. She could feel his pain. She could feel whatever Yelena felt.

  When her mistress was happy, Bellatrix was happy. When her mistress was sad, nothing was right with the world.

  Right now, her mistress was terribly afraid. She was whispering to her twin, to the man who smelled so much like her and yet so different. He was nice, Bellatrix thought, even if he didn’t couldn’t understand Bellatrix the way her mistress did.

  He was trying to talk now.

  “What
did you say?” Yelena leaned close as he fell, and she caught him. “You’re safe now. You’re safe.”

  “Another … skier.” Alec’s lips were bleeding. He clutched at Yelena’s shirt, leaving a bloody smear. “I was … wrong guy. They’re going to kill him. On the slope. Have to save him…”

  All of a sudden, Bellatrix’s hackles went up. The Enemy, the man with the weak scent like a wolf, was looking at Yelena. And Bellatrix did not like the way he was looking. He snatched at something on the ground.

  The man screamed, “There is only power!” his hand raising up.

  Get out of the way!

  But Yelena didn’t hear, all of her attention was focused on her brother.

  There was no thought, no hesitation. Bellatrix leapt in front of her mistress as the gun went off with a roar.

  ___

  “NO!” The scream was raw, ripped from her throat.

  Yelena heard a sizzle of energy and a blaze of heat nearby, and the man with the gun screamed in a way she was sure she would never forget, but she couldn’t pay attention to any of it. She was at Bellatrix’s side, pressing her hands desperately over the flow of blood. “No, no, take me—take me, instead. Trix. Trix!”

  Tears were running down her cheeks. She had come here to save Alec, and while she had Alec, she had gotten Bellatrix killed.

  Yelena was sobbing, rocking back and forth as Bellatrix wheezed with pain. There had been no doubt in the dog, nothing but the absolute, pure love of one pack mate to another.

  She didn’t deserve that kind of love. “You saved me,” Yelena whispered. Tears were running down her cheeks. “You saved me, and I can’t save you. I’m so sorry.”

  You saved me, too. The thought held no pain and no fear, only love. I would never let you be hurt.

  “Gott Verdammt! ERIC!” Bethany Anne shouted and then Eric was there. The man levered his arms beneath Bellatrix’s body.

  “Come with me,” he told Yelena.

  “No—no, just let me be with her.” It was a childish plea, but she couldn’t bear to let Bellatrix be in more pain.

  “We will save her.” He picked Bellatrix up and ran for the door.

  “It’s not possible,” Yelena whispered.

  But Ecaterina hauled her up. “Come on. Leave your brother with John, he’ll be okay. We have to get to the Pod!”

  “Go,” Alec called weakly. He had blood smeared around his mouth for some reason, but he already looked stronger. “I’ll be fine, go.”

  Yelena didn’t know what a Pod was, and she didn’t care. She took off after Eric. If there was a chance of saving Bellatrix, she would do anything.’

  ___

  Bethany Anne watched the black Pods take off, heading into the sky. She’d given Eric very exact instructions but she had another task and called Pete to join her.

  The trip through the forest was quick, and they found the underworld lackey without much trouble. He was flailing around in the dark. Perhaps he thought he was quiet, but both she and Pete could easily hear him. When they stepped out from the trees in front of him, the man froze.

  “Hello,” Bethany Anne said pleasantly. Her eyes went red, her fangs slid out. “Going somewhere?”

  The wolf next to her chuffed in anticipation.

  The man stumbled back. “Emilian?”

  “Not so sadly, not with us any longer.” Bethany Anne stalked forward. “He’s paid for his sins. Are you ready to pay for yours?”

  “Please—please, I was only trying to stay alive!” But he felt her hands on his head, dragging him down as she looked into all of his thoughts.

  “Earlier this evening, I found another one of you assholes. Do you know what I told him?”

  “No.” He was sobbing with fear.

  “I told him that I would let him go because he had a child to protect … and because he hadn’t actually taken part in Emilian’s crimes.”

  Oh, no.

  “Marcel, you are judged and I have found you guilty.” The last thing Marcel ever saw was red eyes blazing down at him. He only lived another moment, but it was a moment filled with every agony he had inflicted on the man back at the house.

  Multiplied.

  Bethany Anne let the now inert body drop into the snow. “What you sow, so shall you reap. Your deeds will come back to you tenfold. Enjoy hell.”

  She looked around herself. It only took a few moments before she sensed a faint pulse of life nearby. As she pushed her way through the underbrush, she let herself fade back to looking human.

  The skier lay on the ground, half delirious. His eyes focused on Bethany Anne. “Are you … real?”

  “I’m real.” She crouched down next to him in the snow. “We have to get you to safety.”

  “Dangerous.” He barely made out the word. “And I’m going crazy. Saw a big wolf. A big wolf. So big.”

  Bethany Anne motioned to Pete to stay back. “Now, now, I’m sure you didn’t see that.”

  “I know.” The skier’s head lolled and he winced as she picked him up. “It’s … crazy, right?”

  “I hear people hallucinate all sorts of things,” Bethany Anne told him, her voice soothing. “But there’s no reason to be afraid. No wolves around.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  Theo passed out before he thought to ask just how a slender woman was carrying him so easily.

  ___

  On the G’laxix Sphaea, Hidden in a Romania Forest

  Three days later, Yelena opened her eyes, and stared up into a friendly face.

  “Hi!” Ecaterina offered her a hand to get up. “So. How are you feeling?”

  “Good. Better than good.” Yelena stretched. “I feel like I slept for a week.”

  “Almost.” Ecaterina handed her a shirt and pants. “You’re all healed now.”

  “I wasn’t hurt.” She felt a bit guilty about that. “How is Bellatrix?”

  “Out and frolicking in the snow. Absolutely fine.” Ecaterina gestured to a heavy winter coat. “You two just took a while to wake up so you got moved in here. And you might not have been injured, but you could say the pod-doc cures … everything. So old injuries, muscle knots, all of that. You’ve been upgraded. So has Alec.”

  Somewhere across the room, Alec gave a sleepy mumble.

  “Alec!” Yelena went over to look down at him, and winced when she saw he was naked. “Get this man some pants.”

  Ecaterina threw them across the room, laughing.

  “How do you feel?” Yelena asked him. Her brother’s skin was completely clean. No trace of the torture remained there, and she could not even see the scar he’d gotten when he was twelve, on a sharp rock in the river.

  “Good.” Alec sat up. “I had some weird dreams, though. And where are we? Some kind of hospital?”

  Yelena and Ecaterina exchanged a look.

  “Sort of,” Yelena explained. “We’d better take you to see Bethany Anne and then get you setup in a hotel.”

  CHAPTER TEN