“I wanted to tell you the truth. I tried to, but Cooper—”
“Don't bring him into this,” he spat, shoving a finger in my face. “He's in his own little pile of shit with me right now.”
“But that's just it,” I cried, sniveling like the weakling I was. “He shouldn't be.”
“And why not?”
“Because I infected Matty,” I said softly, tears running down my face. “It's all my fault.”
“What?” he asked, his voice barely audible.
“It was an accident!” I cried, trying desperately to gain some ground in my defense. “I scratched him in class and—”
“Shut up!” he roared, dialing his phone. After several seconds, he hung up and tried another number to no success. His face tightened further.
“I know you fucked him,” he said, turning his black eyes on me.
“It wasn't me,” I yelled, desperate to explain. “Something happened the night he Changed.”
“Yes,” he said coldly, suddenly devoid of emotion entirely. The abrupt switch from one to the other was unnerving. “Something certainly did. You fucked another man. You betrayed me.”
“No!” I shrieked. “Something else! Scarlet broke through when she saw him. I woke up hours later with no recollection of what happened, Sean. I couldn't tell you what happened because I didn't know!” I spat my words at him as my sobs peppered my outbursts. “I didn't choose to do anything I did that night. Scarlet blocked me out. She did it again last night. She made me take off my ring while Matty killed those men, and, God help me, I have no idea what she did once she was out. For all I know, she killed the last one!”
I was borderlining on hysterical at that point, but I let the truth fly out without pause.
“They're mated, Sean. MATED!” I screamed. “I'm losing control over everything. My body. My relationships. I can't do this anymore. You said you'd take me out if you had to.”
“Ruby—”
“Do it! FUCKING DO IT!” I shouted, pounding my fists against the chair until the pressure in my head grew too great. My eardrum ruptured, rendering my left ear useless.
He stared at me blankly until I couldn't stand it any longer. I launched myself at him hoping to provoke a response. Instead, all I got was a vicious bear hug lifting me up off the floor, clamping down on me like a vice until all the fight in me left.
“I want to talk to her,” he said softly. “Now.”
“Fine,” I said, reaching around behind him to slowly pry my ring off of my hand. “Maybe that'll make it easier for you. You won't have to look into my eyes when you take my last breath.”
“We'll see.”
27
His grip tightened, his arms digging in deeper underneath my ribs. Scarlet didn't bother to fight him. She was interested in talking her way out of things, not a battle. The latter was always a backup plan that she was willing to resort to if necessary.
“What did you do the night he Changed?” he asked, his lips on her ear.
“You already know the answer to that one. Maybe you should move onto something you actually want to hear about. You won't be able to erase the pictures I'd paint for you anyway,” she purred. “Matty was creative. Very creative indeed.”
“And now he's very dead,” he whispered. “Very dead indeed.”
“You lie,” she said, a breath of hesitation before the words left her mouth. The slightest flash of panic shot through her at the thought of his demise.
“Do I? He gave me no choice. Right now there are two brothers at his house to collect and dispose of him. I should be getting word back any minute.”
“If you harm him, I'll make your death excruciatingly slow,” she threatened, starting to press against his arms.
“There'll be time for talk like that later, but first you're going to tell me about last night. Who killed the eighth man?”
“Matty did,” she said, struggling harder, “but I enjoyed it. That bastard deserved what he got. He went after Ruby twice. He won't have the chance to do it again.”
A cry from the stairwell shot Sean's attention to the door, and it was the tiny lapse that Scarlet needed to break free. Just as she ripped herself from his grip, the door flew open. Matty was covered in blood from head to toe.
Don't you dare fucking shut me out!
“Relax, Ruby,” she laughed. “I think you should see how this all plays out.”
She stalked to the door as Sean flew at Matty. The two locked down on each other in an epic battle for control. I'd felt firsthand the power in Sean's hands, but Matty seemed an equal match at first, easily able to go toe-to-toe with him. Scarlet delighted in the match, howling every time Matty appeared to have the upper hand.
They crashed into a freestanding shelf of guns, knocking it down to the ground. Matty landed on top of it with a crunching sound that made Scarlet shudder. She seemed dismayed at how slowly he seemed to be recovering from the blow. Coming to his aid, she lunged at Sean, sacking him to the ground and pinning him down momentarily. It was all the extra time Matty needed to get his bearings. He grabbed a knife out of a nearby case and brought it over to the two.
“This should help,” he said, flipping it over and over in his hand before driving it straight through Sean's right shoulder, burying the tip deep into the hardwood floor beneath him. Scarlet sprang off of her position to let Matty regain control. “Grab me another one, babe. I like things symmetrical.”
Matty pummeled Sean while he fought against his restraint to get up. As Scarlet rushed over to the case, I was in full protest mode, screaming at her to stop, to let me out. My requests fell on deaf ears. Instead, she withdrew a long serrated blade and brought it quickly over to Matty, who instantly lodged it into Sean's left shoulder.
“He doesn't seem so all-powerful now, does he, my love?”
Scarlet flinched for a second. There was something about his voice, his tone—his words.
“What did you say?” she whispered, shaking her head slightly.
“I said he doesn't seem so all-powerful, does he, my love?” he repeated, looking at her longingly. “I'm going to need a few more,” he said, driving his fist into Sean's face a few more times.
She faltered for a second before heading back to the case with the blades, grabbing an armful of them.
“Matty,” she said timidly. “What's your plan?”
“We're going to kill him so we can be together,” he informed her, reaching his hand out for a knife. “Cooper is next.”
“Why don't we just leave now? Run away?”
“Because I need you for my own,” he explained as though the answer was obvious. “I can't have them around trying to take you from me. You are mine forever.”
Chills shot through our body, déjà vu running rampant in our mind. Those last four words: you are mine forever. Those words had been spoken just days before.
It wasn't us.
I screamed that over and over in her head trying to force her to see the truth. I thought back to that night months earlier in the alley outside my building; the night the Rev let me know just how easily he could get to me and the ones I loved. He'd gotten to someone I loved. I just hadn't realized it.
The slash marks on Matty’s jacket was the next memory that flashed and I forced Scarlet to see it too. We'd both overlooked it at the time, she too amped up for a fight and I was too concerned for Matty's well-being. There was no blood that we could see. How could either of us have known?
Sean's grunting brought our attention back to the present. Matty had been helping himself to the stash of knives in Scarlet's hands, impaling them into various joints in Sean’s body, slowly rendering him incapacitated. Matty wasn't even kneeling on him anymore.
He ripped Sean's shirt open exposing the flesh of his abdomen, dragging the knife dramatically back and forth, up and down. Flashbacks of the pain I endured the night that Gregory gutted me shot through my mind so violently that Scarlet even jumped from it. She remembered that night just as vividly
as I did.
“It wasn't me,” she said quietly, distracting Matty's attention.
“What are you talking about,” he said, rising up to come closer to her.
“How long did you have those scratches on your back, Matty?”
“Oh,” he said, a wicked grin taking over his face. “A long, long time now.”
“You knew,” she whispered, in total disbelief. “You knew this whole time what you'd become.”
“Hoped,” he said, cupping her face. “I hoped to be one of you. I've loved Ruby for so long, and once I got over the shock of what she was—what you were—I knew I could have her if I was one of you.” He kissed her long and slow, and with every second I felt her forgiving him, overlooking what he'd done, what he was doing. “When I noticed the scratches weren't healing, I knew something was happening and I needed to know more, so I came home. I came home to you.”
Scarlet shot a look down to Sean who was pale and weak, his blood running everywhere. She thought of how he'd saved her, held her, fought beside her. But with one look at Matty, none of that mattered—only him.
He held out the knife to her. “I will allow you the honors,” he said, gesturing to Sean. “Kill him. Be mine and mine alone.”
Again she flinched at his words, knowing something deep within her, a truth that couldn't be shaken. The Rev had sought to own her—keep her as a prize, a trophy for his collection. If Matty was destined to become that which had made him, then he would seek to do the same. Own her. Keep her. Cage her. Her hair bristled, and I felt the discourse within her. It was my only chance to strike.
We will never be free, ever. He'll see to that as the Rev tried to. I won't be caged again. Never again.
She growled and took the knife.
STOP THIS! He'll never stop, Scarlet. He'll kill everyone around us...Cooper, Ronnie, Peyta!
“She'll never forgive you,” Sean said, unfazed by his impending death. Sophie had said he could be killed, and I had a hunch that one of those ways was by an RB. I wasn't sure Sean believed that because he showed none of the fear that I felt.
“You have to kill him,” Matty growled.
“She'll never forgive you,” Sean repeated, his eyes locked on Scarlet's.
“I know,” she agreed, averting her gaze. “I know.”
She crouched down low over Sean's body while I wrestled to take her over as she had me. He was my mate. Our bond was strong and powerful too.
She hovered over him, blade drawn back for a killing blow.
“I'm sorry,” she whispered, closing her eyes.
In a single fluid motion, the blade swept down in a flash, crossing her body as she pulled up at the last possible second, following through as she shot to her feet. She followed the momentum around as the blade drew perfectly through flesh even though her eyes remained shut.
She envisioned the perfect line she'd just carved across Matty's throat.
Blindness gave you a sense of spatial awareness that never left you. She, through me, knew exactly where he stood—where to strike. The fall of his heavy body marked the death of both him and their bond. The agony was unbearable, and, for once, Scarlet felt pain.
Her eyes shot open to see her love, lying on the floor, beheaded. The blade she held in her hand was silver-plated. There would be no healing for Matty. She howled a high and brutal cry that shook the room and my soul to the core. Her grief was stifling, and I struggled to breathe under the weight of it, my vision slowly going dark.
Through the haze that enveloped me as she stuffed me down into the black corner of my mind, I saw her come to stand over Sean, her hatred palpable. I tried one last time to fight her, but as my resolve weakened, I felt her strength building, a hostile takeover brewing.
“You will pay for this,” she said menacingly. “You both will.”
No!
It was my final effort, my last push to save him. As the darkness drew me in, I watched her lean forward for him, felt her lips pull back, teeth bared. She screeched an ungodly sound, her warrior cry, before she abruptly stood up and ran from him. Pausing in the doorway, she afforded me one last look at Sean, bleeding on the floor.
“Say goodbye, Ruby,” she said with a bitter laugh. “It'll be your last.”
With that, the deep part of my mind that had been calling to me, coaxing me to it, swallowed me whole as she blocked me out for good.
It'll be your last...
Of that I had no doubt.
Epilogue
Sean
No matter how far you run.
Or where you hide.
To the edge of the earth.
Till the end of time.
Seasons will change.
Centuries will pass.
But this truth will always remain:
I will track you.
Hunt you.
Find you.
You cannot escape me.
It'll be your last...?
Never. You are mine.
You.
Are.
Mine.
I want to hear from you!
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FRACTURED
Book 5 in The Caged Series
Available Feb/March 2013
I thought about watching from afar, hidden by the nearby trees or headstones, so I could avoid the onslaught of grief I was sure to be bombarded with. It was cowardly, but I was certain that when faced with the totality of my own grief, I would crumble under the weight of any extra. He was always so strong both physically and emotionally – I selfishly wished for his strength in that moment. If I couldn’t be strong, then I would at least be honorable and bear my pain publicly, for all who loved him to see.
It was by my actions that he was about to be put six feet under, and I owed it to him to be there.
Tempted by Evil
Book 1
The Light and Shadow Trilogy
Release Date: November 2012
A brand new YA Fantasy/Paranormal Romance trilogy by Shannon Morton and Amber Lynn Natusch!
A sheltered girl.
The perfect boy.
A mysterious stranger.
Random messages delivering a sobering prophecy plague Aspen's existence. With every curious encounter, her sanity further wavers. Before long, Aspen finds herself balancing the fate of humanity on her shoulders, until a single act turns her world upside down. She finds herself alone, isolated from those she thought she could trust.
Alone to damn the world.
See more about Author Shannon Morton:
Redheadsread.com
Author Spotlight here
******* What I’m Reading *******
Caroline Hanson
Love is Darkness (A Valerie Dearborn Novel)
Link to book on Amazon
carolinehanson.blogspot.com/
Valerie Dearborn wants a cotton candy life, but it’s more like a puffer fish: pointy, unusual, and—if not prepared exactly right—deadly.
In London for graduate school, Val knows she's finally free. Her father and ex-almost-boyfriend are back in California and she's out of the Vampire hunting biz for good. Or is she?
She draws the attention of Lucas, a 1600 year old Vampire, and King to his kind. He’s also wicked hot. As golden as Lucifer, and just as tempting, he makes Valerie an offer she can't refuse— help him find out if the Others (Empaths, Fey and Werewolves) still ex
ist or he'll stop protecting those she loves.
Lucas tells her that Empaths were a Vampire’s biggest weakness before going extinct hundreds of years ago. While the Fey or a Werewolf might kill a Vampire, an Empath could enslave them, seducing or harming with emotions at will. The one detail he leaves out? Valerie is an Empath.
And after 1600 years of an emotionless existence, Lucas wants Valerie like a recovering alcoholic wants a wine cooler.
Can she keep those she loves alive, stop Lucas from munching on her, survive a fanged revolution and still find a way to have that boring, normal life she’s always wanted? Probably not, but boy is she gonna try!
Samantha Towle
First Bitten (The Alexandra Jones Series #1)
Link to book on Amazon
samanthatowle.blogspot.com/
A love story with bite…
Walking home after a night out drowning her sorrows with her best friend, Carrie, Alexandra Jones stupidly takes a phone call from her cheating ex-boyfriend, Eddie, and in her anger hurls her phone into the forest before her.
But when Alex goes to retrieve her phone from the undergrowth, she and Carrie come face-to-face with a monster they never even knew existed, a Vârcolac (a nightmarish vampire-werewolf hybrid) and he's in search of fresh blood. The next thing Alex knows, she is staring at the impossibly handsome but mysterious Nathan who has helped bring her back to life, but not to the life she left.
To her horror, she discovers she has now become a blood-drinking Vârcolac herself and she is the only female of her kind, with the potential for breeding a whole new army of Vârcolacs if they can only track her down and press her into service.
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