by K. A. Linde
“Wait! No, stop!” Reyna cried. She rushed a step toward Jodie. “Please don’t. Just let Jodie go and I’ll come willingly.” She brought her hand to her mouth and turned wide eyes on Harrington. “You don’t need her.”
“I had a feeling you would think that way.”
“Let her walk out of this building and then…then I’m yours,” she whispered in despair.
“Wonderful,” Harrington said as if she had just agreed to a business deal rather than given up her soul. “Come to me first and then I’ll release her.”
Reyna’s eyes flickered between Jodie and Harrington. She nodded her head. What other option was there?
“You will be happy with me. Together we’re going to take over the world. You can stand at my side while I rule. Come to me, my little queen.” He gestured for her to approach him.
Reyna took a step forward and then another. Her steps were heavy and reluctant. She couldn’t make herself take another step. She couldn’t do it.
“This was one step on the path to total domination. Vampires are in the light, but soon we will own the world. And I will do anything to make it so. Subjugate the humans, infect vampires with a blood disease, kill everyone who stands in my way. Be on the winning side of history. Stand by me.”
Reyna glanced once more at Jodie. “I’m sorry. Please forgive me.”
“Reyna, no! Don’t do this!”
“Just get on with it,” Rowland said dryly from behind Harrington. He crossed his arms in irritation.
“Come here, Reyna,” Harrington coaxed. “Take my hand. Nothing and no one can stop me now.”
Reyna chewed on her lip and then opened herself up to Beckham. She wanted to sense him, know him one more time. He would be furious with what she was about to do. He’d never understand.
She took another step forward and placed her hand into the devil’s grasp.
Harrington’s smile widened in triumph. “Check.”
“And mate,” Reyna replied.
Then she grasped for Beckham’s powers, pulling them all into her like lightning into a conduit. Speed, strength, hearing. All of them at once, making her as unstoppable as the person before her believed that he was.
Her hand grasped at her ponytail holder, yanking it loose. Braided up into her ponytail was a small hidden vial that Genevieve had placed in her hand before she’d left. The last of its kind.
“This is for Washington, you bastard,” Reyna said.
Then she jammed the needle into the carotid artery in his neck and released the plunger.
Golden Blood flooded his system.
Chapter 36
“What did you do to me?” Harrington gasped, collapsing forward onto the glass floor. His cane clattered next to him.
Rowland took a step forward but she glared at him and there must have been something in her face to stop him in his tracks.
“What did I do to you?” Reyna repeated. She grinned devilishly. “I just cured you.”
“Cured…me,” he spat out.
“Oh, not of whatever has been ailing you for hundreds of years. Just of the virus you’ve been carrying around to keep yourself alive through it,” Reyna said. “A cure for vampirism.”
Harrington cried out as the Golden Blood whisked through his system, eating away at the virus that had infected him for centuries.
“Impossible,” Reyna heard Rowland mutter behind her. He tensed, and it seemed as if he wanted to move against her, but stayed back, clearly not certain of the new abilities she’d just demonstrated.
“Oh, it’s possible,” she said to Rowland with a glare. Then she turned back to Harrington. “Washington finally perfected it and we tested it. And you just got a dose.”
Suddenly he began to convulse rapidly. The seizures hit him fresh, rocking through his mangled body. Reyna moved forward and adjusted him onto his side the way that she’d seen Washington do for Brian.
“Uh-uh, we’re not ready for you to die yet,” Reyna said.
“How can this be?” Rowland asked. He sounded disgusted and terrified. She knew that he would be the last person alive to want to take such measures.
Reyna ignored him. She stood and wiped her hands off on her pants. She sent a signal to Beckham that all had gone as planned and he could come upstairs when he was ready. She was anxious to find out what had happened with Bronwyn and hoped that her using her abilities hadn’t weakened him too much before it was resolved. She’d delayed and stalled and made Harrington talk out of his ass for as long as she could stomach it.
Now that Harrington was officially going through the transformation, she turned and tipped her head at Jodie. “Katarina, you can release Jodie now.”
Rowland scoffed in shock as the pair pulled apart, moving into a defensive stance. Katarina tugged off her hat, revealing her freshly dyed black hair. The disguise had been good enough to fool the guard Katarina had traded places with in the hallway when she had brought Jodie upstairs. And clearly neither Harrington nor Rowland had recognized her, as she kept her hat low and hid her face.
“That hurt!” Jodie accused, holding her hand to her mouth.
Katarina laughed. She smacked Jodie’s butt. “Good acting though, babe.”
“Acting,” Rowland said in monotone.
A choked sob came from Harrington, still rolling around on the floor. Reyna knew it would take a couple more minutes before the entire cure went through him. Though it was a guess. They hadn’t tested it on someone as old as Harrington. The virus had its claws in him. It could take longer presumably.
She felt a little twisted that she was enjoying his pain. But the bastard deserved it.
“Rowland, why don’t you move away from the desk?” Katarina said in a low dangerous tone.
“Ah Katarina, don’t use that tone with me.” His eyes flicked to Jodie and back. “I see you’re slumming now.”
Katarina bared her fangs in anger. “Watch what you say and step back against the wall.”
Rowland laughed. “You are no match for me.”
Then he was gone. His movements so blurred, so quick, that Reyna had no time to react. She couldn’t even reach for Beckham’s powers to try to get away from him. And having seen Beckham and Rowland fight, she knew she would need his powers for a lot longer than she could hold on to them. She’d need them as a surprise…and she’d used that surprise on Harrington.
Fuck.
In a blink, Rowland had his arm around her neck with her back pressed against his chest. His mouth dangerously close to her ear.
“You double-crossing bastard,” Reyna spat at him.
Rowland laughed in her ear. “Tell me, Reyna, how did you move that fast?”
“Trick of the trade.”
“You’ve turned?” Rowland guessed.
“Do I look like I’ve turned?”
He pressed himself further against her and then sniffed his way from her neck up into her hair. She shuddered at the forced touch.
“I can still smell you. I can still hear your pattering heartbeat. I…don’t understand.”
“Good. I like when you admit you’re an idiot.”
“No matter.” Rowland’s grip on her tightened. “I acquired Beckham’s trust and led you here. I was waiting for you to make your move and expose yourself.”
“Reyna,” Katarina said from the corner. “Stay very still.”
“Keep out of this!” Rowland spat at her.
Jodie slowly eased out the door. It was clear she was going to get help, but who could help Reyna out of this? Even Beckham couldn’t move fast enough to stop Rowland from snapping her neck. She had to do it. She had to make him stop.
“Why are you doing this?” Reyna asked. “You helped us. You gave us the information to stop Harrington. You were on our side.”
“You’re the key, Reyn
a. If I control you, then I control Beckham. I can take Visage. I can put him in his place. I can rule.”
She sighed in exasperation. “God, get an original idea. Harrington already tried that one. Look how well that went for him.”
Rowland snarled low and then did the unthinkable. He reared back and sank his fangs into her neck.
Reyna screamed as he pierced the tender skin. His venom flooded her system. It felt like black sludge in her veins in comparison to Beckham’s sweet euphoria. But it rocked through her nonetheless. Adrenaline raced through her. Flight or fight started and all she wanted to do was flee. She struggled against him, attempting anything to dislodge him, but he had her in his grasp.
She was the sheep.
He was the wolf.
Nothing she could do would stop him.
Then he pulled back, gasping in pleasure. “Sweet nectar of the gods,” he groaned. “No wonder he has held you to himself.”
Reyna reached out, dizzy and disoriented, for Beckham. But she felt nothing. She felt like ice. Rowland couldn’t have drunk that much from her. It wasn’t possible.
She tried again, grasping for Beckham to heal her. She felt a flicker of his location. The sense of where he was somewhere below her in this enormous compound. But that was it. Either he was too weak to heal her…or she was too weak to reach him.
She slumped forward in Rowland’s arms.
“Let her go,” Katarina snarled. “You are killing her. What is wrong with you?”
“Many things, sweet Kat. Many many things.”
“No fucking shit.”
“I wanted to taste her, as I have wanted to for too long.”
Reyna coughed and tried to hang on to coherent thought. She straightened and opened her dark eyes. She could do this. “Do you know what happens if you kill me?”
“I take over the world.”
“Beckham kills you. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. You will be dead within twenty-four hours. If you go through with this, you die.” Reyna’s head lolled. “Beckham will kill you. He will hunt you down and end your worthless existence. You think you’re going to get Visage out of this bargain? Now that you’ve tasted my blood? If you kill me?”
“That’s your version of things.”
“If you let me go,” Reyna continued, “you’ll get a head start. We can go back to being enemies tomorrow.”
Rowland laughed. “We never stopped being enemies, ma cherie.”
“At least that we can agree on.”
She closed her eyes, ignoring the pain from her neck and felt for Beckham. He was closer than before. Much closer. He was coming for her. She didn’t want him to come in here. Then he would be in the same position she had pretended to be in with Jodie. She needed to get Rowland to release her before Beckham came inside. Because that was precisely what Rowland wanted from her.
“Worse,” Reyna finally struggled out. “We can do worse to you.”
“Worse than killing me?” he asked with a laugh.
That was when she saw her opening and pressed into his ego and his sense of self-preservation. “We can cure you. Make you nothing more than a worthless human. Force you to live out your days…just…like…me.”
Rowland reared back in shock. “He would never.”
“Oh, but I would. And I just did.” Reyna took a deep breath. “This is my promise to you, Rowland Batiste, if you do not leave here this minute, you will be hunted and cured. Forced to live your life as a human.”
Reyna felt the tension in his grip on her. Practically heard the indecision working through his mind. He hadn’t considered that option. Hadn’t ever considered being anything but a vampire. He was too proud to allow it to happen.
Rowland threw Reyna onto the ground, took one last look at her, and said, “Until next time, ma cherie.”
Then he bolted out a side door. Reyna flopped on the ground, attempting to get up to follow him, but Katarina was already on her way. She fled through the same door and out of sight.
Reyna rolled onto her back and groaned. She pressed her hand to the wound, glad that the vamp venom was healing the wound so it wouldn’t continue to gush out her precious blood. She felt weak and weary. Completely and utterly spent.
That was the moment that Beckham barreled in, taking up the entire doorway with his massive body and surveying the glass room. His chest was heaving. His shirt ripped in innumerable places. Blood coated his body. She didn’t know if it was his or Bronwyn’s. He looked like a beast, wild and savage.
“Are you okay?” she squeaked out.
“You look like death and you ask of my well-being.” Beckham approached her cautiously, but when he got a look at her neck, he swore. “Who did this?”
“Rowland.”
“That double-crossing bastard. I’ll kill him.”
Reyna reached out for him. “Don’t. Kat went after him. I need…heal me.”
Beckham frowned. “I…can’t. I can barely sense you.”
Reyna’s eyes fluttered closed. “Okay. I’ll be okay. The blood will replenish quickly.”
Beckham swore again, violently, and helped her into a sitting position. “I can try,” he offered.
“No. Conserve your energy.”
She threaded her fingers into his hair, bringing his lips down to hers.
“You…cured…me,” a voice came from the front of the desk.
Beckham sprang up, ready to defend Reyna with his life. When he saw Harrington slowly moving into a sitting position, his eyes widened in horror.
“He’s alive,” Beckham said.
“I used the cure,” Reyna said.
“But it was gone…”
“Genevieve had one more. She gave it to me before we left.”
“Why wouldn’t you tell me that?”
Reyna frowned. “I thought he deserved to pay for his crimes. That killing him would be too easy. That was why I had Jodie broadcasting everything he said to me. So he can’t come back and say he didn’t intend to do everything he said.”
Harrington was staring at his hands as if he’d never seen them before. “How could you do this?”
“I outsmarted you, old man,” Reyna said with a smug smile. “And now you’re just a sickly human again.”
“Reyna, we cannot keep him alive,” Beckham said. “Do you know what people will do if they find out? You leave a deposed king alive and you are risking him rallying support to put himself back on the throne.”
“He’s right,” Harrington said with a quirky smile at Beckham.
“Stop it. This is what Washington would have wanted. He was trying to tell me from the start that I just needed to open my eyes. This is justice, Becks.”
Beckham glanced away. “No one will accept this.”
“Reyna,” Harrington said. “Come here, my dear.”
“Don’t you dare,” Beckham said.
“What do you have to say? This is the end of the line for you.”
Harrington smiled. It split his severe features. Almost made him look…human. Fuck, he was human again. It was hard to wrap her mind around that fact.
“I’m glad it was you,” Harrington said. “Glad that you were the queen I always knew you could be. That I was defeated by a competent opponent. I’m proud of you.”
Reyna’s eyes widened at his words. He was…proud of her? This monster?
“Both of you.” Harrington looked between Beckham and Reyna. “But this is a fate worse than death.”
Then he pulled a knife from his jacket pocket and stabbed himself in the heart.
Chapter 37
“No!” Reyna screamed.
She launched herself across the room toward him. Her hand moved to the knife sticking out of his chest and fluttered around anxiously as if she could stop this somehow. Blood gushed from the wound, co
ating his crisp white button-up. Then sticking to her hands as she attempted to stop it.
She needed him. She needed him alive.
She had chosen justice. She had chosen good. Done exactly what Washington would have wanted of her. Had used the cure when anyone else would have just ended his worthless life for the horrors he’d inflicted on her.
And he had done this anyway!
He was supposed to pay for his crimes. This was all supposed to happen a different way.
Her hands were red with blood as she put pressure on the wound. But it was no use.
“Why?” she gasped.
Harrington gurgled incoherently…and then the light went out of those intelligent eyes. They went blank and empty. Gone was the visionary man. The ruthless monster. The sick lonely broken boy. A nightmare and a genius.
“Reyna, he’s gone,” Beckham said gently. He put his hands under her arms and lifted her off of the ground. He pulled her tight against his chest. “He’s gone.”
“I know he deserved it,” she said, leaning her head into Beckham’s shoulder. “But I wanted more.”
“We all play the hand we’re dealt.”
She sighed against him and nodded. This wasn’t over. Harrington was the first step in a long game. His death wasn’t a tragedy. It was a mercy. One he didn’t deserve. But they would end this without him all the same.
“Let’s go save the world.”
* * *
—
“William Harrington is dead,” Beckham bellowed to the remaining fighters, from the front of the observation deck. “Rowland Batiste has fled the building. And Bronwyn…” He gestured to his sister, tied up and unconscious. “She no longer leads your army.”
All fighting stilled at the news. At the commanding presence Beckham issued.
“I am the new leader of Visage and I command you to stop. Or I will hunt you all down and rip out your bloody throats myself,” he roared. “Get down on your knees and surrender.”