Dark Vengeance Part 2
Page 42
Lina, please. Hanging his head, he closed his eyes. What happened in Florida…it was all my fault. I messed everything up and I know that. I can’t take it back, but I…I can make it right by you. Somehow, some way, I can put things right between us. I know I can. Everything that happened to me…everything the Davenants did…it disappeared the second I saw you standing in the infirmary. It’s like it didn’t even matter. Nothing in the whole world mattered except for you. I want to be with you…more than anything.
“Oh, Brandon,” Lina breathed. A single tear slipped past the edge of her lashes and rolled down her cheek. Closing her eyes, she sniffled and wiped it away. When she looked at him again, her expression was grave. “What about Pilar?”
I’m not going to let my Brethren nature come between us ever again, he said. I don’t want Pilar. I want you. I…I need you, Lina.
“But you’re in Kentucky,” Lina said. “It’s easy for you to say those things. You’re not with her right now. What happens when we go back to Bayshore and you see her again—and all of those feelings, those Brethren urges, come back? You couldn’t fight them before. They kept getting stronger, you said, the more you were near her.”
Then I won’t be near her, Brandon said. Never again. We don’t have to go back to Florida. We can go to California, back to the Morin compound. Or we can stay here at the great house. We…
His voice faded as her expression grew distraught.
“Brandon, I have a job in Bayshore,” she said. “It’s a good job, back on a police force, just like I’ve wanted. It’s important to me. My mother’s there, too—and my grandfather, and Jackie…”
Then I’ll go back with you. He cut her short. When the Davenants took me, Julianne gave me some sort of medicine—mirtazapine, I think she called it. It’s like the Wellbutrin I used to take, only stronger. It suppressed all of my Brethren abilities—my telepathy, the bloodlust, everything. I can start taking it again. Then being in Bayshore—being near Pilar—won’t matter. It won’t do anything to me.
“But you…” Lina whispered. “You couldn’t talk anymore. Not with your telepathy. Not like…”
I can talk like this, he signed. At least with you and Jackie. And I spent most of my life writing notes to everyone. I can get back in the habit—hell, I can probably find my old notebook to carry around with me again. He looked at her, pleading. Please say you’ll give me another chance.
“Oh, Brandon.” Her hand darted to her mouth and she began to cry. She stumbled into his arms, her entire body shaking. I love you. God, Brandon…so much…!
I love you, too. He stroked her hair, turning his face to kiss her ear. Please, can’t we just start all over again?
All at once, his head swam and it felt like he browned out—not quite passing out, but his body weightless, his mind submerged in hazy depths of semi-consciousness. He could see, but only hazy shadows and dim lights bobbing in and out of focus before him; he could sense telepathically, but only a tangled chorus of overlapping sounds and sensations, nothing concrete or tangible. He thought he heard Lina screaming, her voice shrill and agonized—and that was when he abruptly snapped to. To his surprise and alarm, he found himself on top of her, his fangs buried in the meat of her throat.
What the fuck—! he thought, scrambling away from her, his teeth ripping loose from her neck. Blood spurted weakly from the ragged holes he left behind, and he could taste it in his mouth, bittersweet and metallic. I…oh, Christ, I was feeding from her…!
From the looks of things, that hadn’t been all that had happened. All around them in a broad circumference, paintings had been knocked askew or off the walls altogether. The plaster had been struck hard enough in at least a half-dozen places to crack or crater, and he saw blood smeared and splattered on the carpeted stair runner, bannister, and walls. It looked like there’d been a hell of a struggle; his T-shirt had been torn and left blood-smeared and tattered. Although when he touched his nostril, his fingertips coming away spotted with blood, he could tell by the smell that the blood on his shirt wasn’t all from him.
Lina! he cried, rushing back to her side, collapsing to his knees. Oh, Jesus! Lina!
She lay sprawled between several risers, her shirt torn open, leaving her breasts exposed. Her eyes were closed, her face battered and bleeding. Her lips were swollen, split open in places, and around her throat, he could see the grim shadow of bruises from where someone had violently choked her.
Not someone, he thought in horrified dismay. Me. I did this to her!
He groped along her neck until he found her weak, thready pulse, but she didn’t respond to him, no matter how urgently he shook her or called out in her mind. She was knocked out cold.
Lina…! Brandon pulled her up into a clumsy, seated position and clutched her against his shoulder, burying his face in his hair. I’m sorry, Lina. Oh, Christ, I’m so sorry! What have I done? How…how could I have…?
Not you, boy. A sinister voice filled his mind and Brandon froze, his eyes widening in sudden, absolute shock.
Stupid boy, the voice seethed—all-too familiar, and all-too terrifying. Did you think it was over? That you could escape me so easily?
Lamar Davenant.
It’s not possible, he thought, but then brittle laughter, like the scraping of a knifepoint against steel, echoed in his head. Brandon whipped his head from side to side, looking around the stairwell. It’s not possible, he thought again. It can’t be Lamar—it can’t be! Aaron shot him in the head. He killed him!
Did he? Lamar asked, his voice falling with obscene intimacy in Brandon’s mind, like the cold caress of a corpse’s hand. Or in the end, did Aaron only set me free—free from the pathetic mortal frailties that had held me prisoner for far too long?
He chuckled again, and Brandon couldn’t shake the feeling that he was there somehow, in the great house with him, so close by, he could see Brandon. Again, he cut his gaze around him wildly; again, he saw nothing.
No. Brandon shook his head. No, you’re dead. You son of a bitch—you’re dead!
My body may be gone, but my mind—the energy that is my consciousness—has been liberated, and is more powerful than ever, Lamar said. In fact, I am able now to enjoy rebirth again and again, as many times as I wish—in as many forms as I choose.
That’s a lie! Brandon shouted. You can’t come back!
Stupid boy, Lamar purred again. I’ve already come back once…through you.
Brandon looked down in dismay at Lina, dangling limply in his embrace. He remembered how Lamar had seized control of Aaron in the warehouse beneath his mansion. While in the end, he’d given Aaron some semblance of physical control, he’d still manipulated his son’s mind. But in the beginning, he hadn’t given Aaron even this modicum of freedom.
Your body is young and strong yet, Lamar told him. Unburdened by age or disease…as exquisite as any drug. I can’t wait to enjoy another taste.
You son of a bitch, Brandon seethed. Throwing his head back, his brows furrowed deeply, he screamed inside his mind. I’ll get you for this! You hear me, Davenant? I’ll send what’s left of your goddamn soul straight to hell for making me hurt her!
In his mind, he heard the fading refrains of ghostly laughter.
You’re mine now, boy, Lamar hissed. I can take you—control you—anytime I want. And this time, there will be no escape…no one to rescue you.
TO BE CONCLUDED…
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
“Definitely an author to watch.” That's how Romantic Times Book Reviews magazine describes Sara Reinke. New York Times bestselling author Karen Robards calls Reinke “a new paranormal star” and Love Romances and More hails her as “a fresh new voice to a genre that has grown stale.” Dark Thirst and Dark Hunger, the first two books in The Brethren Series of vampire romance are available from Kensington/Zebra Books, while the third installment, Dark Passion, is available from Double Dragon Publishing. The series continues with Dark Passages: Tristan & Karen, Dark Passages 2: Pilar & Elías and
Dark Vengeance Parts 1 and 2, from Bloodhorse Press, and in a free online graphic novel, Dark Interludes, available at: www.sarareinke.com.