by Leeah Taylor
Take me. Kill me. I’ll take her place.
She swallowed, struggling to suck in another breath. Tears slipped down her cheeks, and it broke him. This girl was wrecking him one more time.
“Say it.”
I’ll take her place.
“Don’t make me say goodbye like this.”
Riley jerked her hand free, and Juliette cried out.
“I got it.” She brought it to her nose and pulled it back. “Belladonna.”
She pushed up to her feet, and Damien barely registered the conversation that erupted in the room. The voices faded into the background as he took Juliette in. The brightness slowly disappearing from her eyes. He knew what Belladonna meant, and by the way Juliette peered up at him, pleading, she did too.
“Damien.”
“You don’t get to leave me here alone, Jules.”
She reached up and touched his face. “I’m not.”
He looked up to the ceiling and blew out a breath. A hand rested on his shoulder, making it impossible to keep it together. Chest tight with every ounce of emotion he held inside.
I want my chance with her.
“Say it, Damien,” Lucien choked out.
He wasn’t ready to watch her galaxy die. This couldn’t be how it ended.
I love you is supposed to be enough.
The fireworks boomed off in the distance, people cheering outside. They had no idea the world was about to darken. Oblivious to what it took to make sure they could remain blissfully ignorant to the evils of their city. The sacrifices.
It isn’t worth it if I can’t have her by my side.
He could not bury her. He’d be burying the only good part of himself.
The hand on his shoulder tightened with a silent plea to say it before he lost the chance. He swallowed back the emotions fighting to takeover.
“I love you, Juliette.” He pushed the damp hair out of her face, taking in all her beauty. “You’re the galaxy to my storm. You’re all the good in me.”
A calm glossed over in her eyes. She sucked in a breath. The rattling in her chest made him sick. Not like this, Luv.
“I told you, Damien Frost…” She sucked in a shallow breath. “By the end of the night.”
He mustered a weak smile while his heart shattered, and the burn of hot tears won against his resolve.
“I love you too,” she whispered.
The light of her galaxy, the gorgeous purple and turquoise of her eyes dimmed, snuffed out.
We’ve had lifetimes to figure it out and failed.
Her heart barely beat, clinging to the last bit of life. When her heart stopped, his life would follow. Because she’d always been the center of his world even when she wasn’t there.
He lowered his lips to hers and kissed them. The first part of his soul died when she didn’t kiss him back.
“You wait for me, Luv.” He dropped his head into her chest and wept. “Just wait a little longer for me.”
Ollie dropped to his knees. The agony in his soul bleeding into his expression. “Never should have left her side.”
“Oliver…” Lucien whispered.
“No, fuck you, Lucien.” He lifted her limp hand into his and pressed his lips to her fingers. “All you had to do was keep her safe, and you failed.”
Lucien growled. “Oliver…”
“He’s right,” Damien said.
“I’ll never forgive you for this,” Ollie muttered.
Riley stalked into the room with her hands full and dropped to the floor between them. “I said she wasn’t dying. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever.”
“What are you going to do?” Damien asked.
She grabbed his arm. “Her heart is still beating.”
She searched and found a vein, stuck him with a needle, and the tube running from it filled with his blood. She crimped it between her fingers at the end.
“Which means if we pump her full of vampire blood, she might just make it. That okay with you?”
He needed the small, probably wasted, bloom of hope in his chest. If just to keep from sinking into the dark abyss cracking open beneath him. “Do it.”
“Will it work?” Ollie asked.
“Maybe.” She stuck Juliette in the arm and released the tube. “Better than doing nothing.”
The hours ticked by. Sometime past midnight she developed a high fever, but her heart kept beating. Each hour that passed gave him hope. Ollie had fallen asleep holding Juliette’s hand. He’d refused to move when Lucien urged him to come downstairs. Damien didn’t blame him for staying by her side. She was his lifeline.
Damien looked back at Riley sitting in one of the leather armchairs. She rubbed red eyes and looked like she needed a week of sleep. “Can I ask you something?”
She sat up. “Yeah.”
“How did you two meet?”
She smirked, getting up and going to the spot next to Ollie on the floor. “This tracker I’d been dodging finally cornered me behind this bar in Gary. Jules was bartending inside.”
Damien huffed. “Go figure.”
“And I couldn’t best this guy. He was that good. Well, Jules came out the back door holding a bag of trash. She caught the scent of blood in the air, and her eyes lit up.”
“Can be scary intimidating.”
“She tore that man to shreds. There was nothing left. Then, like a switch, she became the Jules we all love, turned to me, and said, ‘let’s have a drink’. That was five years ago, and we’ve been inseparable ever since.”
I should have known. “You’re the reason she disappeared. You’re the girl my guys told me about.”
“The one and only.” Riley smiled big, smug, and proud then morphed to more serious. “She was just barely keeping it together back then, Damien. I told her she needed to start over. We dumped everything. Phones, social media, all of it. Wiped ourselves out of existence. Paid cash for everything. Even changed our hair and wore contacts for a while.”
Smart little cat, isn’t she.
She reached over, crimped the tube that he forgot was there, took the needle out of his arm, and did the same with Juliette.
“You don’t deserve her,” she said.
“You’re right, I don’t.”
“It took her to be dying in your arms to say it.”
“I swear, I had it all planned to tell—”
“You could have told her standing in a pit, covered head to toe in mud, in a rainstorm.” Riley’s expression softened. “And she’d have been the happiest woman in the world. Why don’t you know that?”
He hung his head with a low growl. “I—”
Riley covered his hand. “Hey, what’s important is she’s going to live, and I know you’ll spend forever making sure she hears you say it every day. Right?”
He chuckled, not missing the firmness in her tone.
“Every hour of every day if that’s what it takes.”
“Damn right you will.” Riley got to her feet. “Or you’ll deal with me.”
Damien swept a few strands of hair out of Juliette’s face. “What time is it?”
“Four in the morning.”
“We should take her home.”
Riley glanced at Ollie. “I think we’d all do some good by going home.”
Damien stood up and, without hesitation, grabbed Riley and embraced her.
“You’re family now.” He pulled back. “Understand?
Riley glanced at Ollie again. “Yeah, I think I do.”
Damien | 41
Damien sat in the chair, in the corner of her room, keeping watch over her. Ollie was curled up on one side of her and Riley on the other. They refused to leave her side until she woke up. He didn’t want to imagine what it would mean if she didn’t.
The reports began coming in early, just after sunrise and about the time Damien had Juliette settled in her bed. Vampires were dying.
Lucien stepped into the ro
om carrying two fresh blood bags. “Her color is coming back.”
Damien rubbed his eyes and got up from the chair. “Yeah, just started.”
Lucien hung the bags on a hook on the wall next to her bed, expertly changing out the old ones that had emptied barely an hour ago.
“How’s Chelsea?” Damien asked.
“Keeping busy. Like she does.”
“You should go make sure she’s okay.”
“I will but we should talk about Ramsey.”
Fury boiled in his veins. Ramsey’s actions made it hard to live by family always matters principle. “Any more attacks?”
“Not in the last hour.”
“Do you think he can turn wolves?”
Dragging a hand down his face, Lucien sighed. “I really hope not.”
“I should have never left her side,” Damien said. “If I just stayed—"
“What ifs and maybes don’t change what happened. Don’t beat yourself up.”
“He shouldn’t have been able to complete the spell in the middle of the street,” Damien insisted.
“Maybe when Juliette wakes up, she’ll be able to tell us more,” Lucien said. “Until then, there isn’t much we can do.”
“What are we going to do with Ramsey?” Damien asked.
There was an instant war brewing in his brother’s eyes. “Damien, we can’t kill him.”
He knew why, and he hated it.
“He tried to kill her.” He glared over at his brother. “Three times.”
“I know, but he’s our brother.”
Family always mattered was really pissing him off. Not just because it protected Ramsey but because he felt a measure of loyalty to him for no other reason than they shared blood. Bond of family always trumped all. But he needed to know why Ramsey felt so compelled to do it. If it wasn’t revenge, then why?
Lucien patted Ollie on the shoulder. “Grab Riley and let’s go downstairs. Need food and blood and some sanity.”
Ollie curled closer into Juliette’s side. “No.”
Damien sighed, shaking his head. “Leave him—"
“No.” Lucien gripped Ollie’s arm. “I’m not asking, Oliver. Get up.”
Lucien went from big brother to father in a beat, demanding obedience. Damien thought he might resist. Riley crawled out of the bed and went over to Ollie.
She slipped her hand in his, giving it a tug. “Come on, let’s not turn this into one of y’all’s things. I’ll make breakfast.”
Ollie brought Juliette’s fingers up to his lips and kissed them while glaring at Damien. He didn’t like the look in his baby brother’s eyes. He’d seen it before, and he counted his blessings Ollie hadn’t lost it on him yet. He watched Riley, unfazed by Ollie’s cold demeanor, lead him out.
Lucien let out a breath. “He’ll come around.”
“He’s more likely to murder me in my sleep.”
“No, he’s just scared.”
“Scared and murderous.”
“Maybe but if she does wake—"
“You’ll know,” Damien promised.
Lucien stopped at the door. “It might do you some good to come down and get something to eat.”
“I’m not hungry.”
Lucien nodded gently and left.
“Oh, Luv.” Damien sat down on the edge of the bed. “You really are wrecking me in all kinds of ways.” He needed to see her galaxy, so his storm would calm. “When this is done, I’m taking you far away for a very long time, Jules. Keep you all to myself for a while.”
She shifted in the bed, winced, and opened her eyes. “Cabin in the middle of nowhere?”
The words caught in his throat. He lowered down, taking her face in his hands, and kissed her.
“Anywhere you want,” he whispered. “God, Luv.” He pulled her up into his arms, needing to feel her. Just hold her. “I should go get everyone.”
Juliette clung to his chest. “Not yet.”
Damien moved up on the bed to be closer and snuggled her into his chest. “Whatever you want.”
He kissed the top of her head, taking in the scent of strawberries in her hair.
“Say it again,” she whispered.
“I love you.”
She lifted her eyes to his. “One more time.”
Ollie appeared in the doorway, too soon for Damien’s liking, and froze. “Jules.”
She sat up in the bed and opened her arms. “Come here.”
He practically crashed into her arms. “You really have to stop almost dying.”
“You know me, living on the edge.”
“Yeah, well, stop it,” Ollie said.
“Ollie, we need to go.” Lucien stopped in the door, looking between the three of them, his stare stopping on Juliette. “Welcome back.”
“What’s going on?” Damien asked.
“The warehouse is wide open, and it’s a bloodbath,” Ollie said, finally acknowledging him.
Lucien ordered the vampire community to Juleps after the first reported attack, and when it got full, the rest were sent to the Frosts’ warehouses on the Docks.
Damien gaped. “There were at least seventeen vampires there.”
“Yeah.” Lucien nodded with a less than an encouraging look. “Which is why we need to go.”
“I’m coming.” Juliette started to push the blankets off, but Damien stopped her.
Not a chance in hell.
“Absolutely not,” Damien said. “You’ll stay right here with Riley.”
“Damien, I can’t just—"
“You can and you will,” he insisted.
And there it was. Everything he fell in love with staring up at him with a challenge in her eyes. Too bad. She did not leave the house. Not when Ramsey was out there hell bent on finding a way to kill her.
“I’m Sterling Regent—"
Damien shook his head. “Not today, you aren’t. Today, you are just Jules. Today, you will stay in this house where I know you’re safe.” He grabbed her hands. “You almost died in my arms last night. Please, Luv, just this once do this my way.”
“Oh, she’s not going anywhere,” Riley declared from the door with her arms crossed and brow arched. “I didn’t dig the tip of that blade out of your heart and save your life for you to go gallivanting back out into the streets to get yourself killed anyways. Try me, Jules.”
“I really hate you.” Juliette sighed.
“You really don’t.” Riley smirked. “And you’re welcome if you wanted to say thank you.”
Juliette crossed her arms, failing to stifle her own smirk. “Not particularly.”
“I love you too,” Riley said.
Damien kissed Juliette on the forehead. “We’ll be back as soon as we can.”
He pulled Riley out into the hall. “Do not let her out into the garden.”
“She isn’t getting out of that bed.”
Damien | 42
They pulled onto the Docks and Damien got out of the SUV and rushed towards the crowd. He pushed through until he was standing in front of the open doors. His stomach lurched and churned. Bodies were scattered everywhere. Blood painted the walls, splattered across the crates, shelves, and coolers that stored their personal supply. Guts hung from the rafters.
“Oh my god,” he mumbled.
He’d seen a lot of horrific scenes, but this was the worst. Most of the bodies weren’t even recognizable. There was one though that hit him square in the chest. A face he loathed but it kicked him in the gut. Drew lay almost on display, his throat eviscerated, body torn to shreds.
His stomach plummeted when Ollie made it through the crowd. Damien hurried to block his path before he could see it. Pushing him back and shaking his head.
“You don’t want to see this,” Damien said.
Ollie shoved him off. “Screw off, Damien. I can handle it.”
Damien shoved back harder. “Not this time.” Ollie fisted his hands at his sides
. “Just this once I’m asking you not to look.”
Ollie had his eyes on the werecat, with Drew in the past, but that didn’t mean his baby brother wouldn’t care.
It would break him.
Ollie dodged around him then froze, the color draining from his face and his knees nearly giving out before Damien grabbed him.
He bristled then pushed Damien away, shaking his head. He staggered over to the edge of the pier and was sick.
Damien forced back bile and took a breath.
Lucien’s expression hardened. “We need to find out what he wants.”
“Pretty sure we both know what our littlest brother wants.”
All of them dead.
Michael Kordall stormed towards them and stopped short as the view came into sight. “What is going on?”
Lucien and Damien eyed the crowd growing around them, and Michael moved quickly; shouting at his deputies to mark off the crime scene and get these people out of there. The entire Docks were shut down starting at the beginning of the warehouses, forcing onlookers to watch on almost from the road.
“Now will someone please tell me what in the actual fuck is going on? Because I can’t spin this.”
Michael looked from Lucien to Damien. Ollie leaned with his back against the building, still pale and sickly. None of them said anything. What could they say?
“Hello! One of you assholes better tell me something really good.”
“We didn’t stop him,” Damien admitted. “And now Ramsey is tearing through the vampire community.”
Michael pointed at the open warehouse. “Are you trying to tell me that was one person?”
“As far as we know,” Lucien said.
“Do you people know anything?”
Damien shook his head. “Not much. He attacked Juliette last night, almost killed her, and she just woke up before we came down here. Didn’t have time to get the details of what happened.”
“Then go back and get them,” Michael gritted out.
“Well, which is it? Get down here now or go home?” Ollie spat. “Asshole.”
Michael jammed his finger towards Ollie. “Look here, you little shit, I’m not joking around.”
“You think I’m joking around?” Ollie kicked off the side of the building. “She almost fucking died. People, my people, are dying… you know what...”