by Trina M. Lee
“Hey,” Shaz protested. “I just got that thing.”
A well-timed slash of claws grazed the side of Arys’s neck, just enough to produce a thin line of blood. I watched with rising apprehension as Arys retaliated with a headbutt that split the skin across Dayne’s nose. The resounding crunch had me grimacing.
Shaz sprang into action with Owen right behind him. A two man fight quickly became four. Rather than splitting Dayne and Arys up, the other two ended up throwing their own punches.
With a huff I rolled my eyes. Was this for real?
For a moment I couldn’t tell who fought whom. It appeared that Arys fought all three wolves at one point, though Shaz seemed to be seeking a way to grab hold of him. When he ate one of Arys’s fists, his inner fire flared to life, and he hit back.
To my relief he didn’t unleash any strange power surge.
To his credit Owen attempted to drag Dayne away. The Alpha wolf threw an elbow that struck him in the jaw. Ouch.
“Alright,” I muttered to myself. “I think that’s enough.” Before things could really get out of hand, I flung the four of them apart. “Ok, guys. I’m really not in the mood for any more testosterone-driven crap tonight. So let’s all just agree to disagree, or what-the-fuck-ever, and go our separate ways.”
Dayne backed toward the clubhouse, stabbing a finger in the air at Arys. “Keep that fucking vampire off my property. In fact, same goes for you, Alexa. Don’t come back here.”
“Then don’t give me a reason to. Because next time I come, I will be the one kicking your ass.” I met his gaze, unflinching. After all this time the fool wolf still didn’t understand who he was dealing with. “Watch your ass, Dayne. I’ve tried to play nice with you. Now Arys has a taste for wolf, and I can’t imagine anyone of importance missing you should you disappear.”
The threat rolled off my tongue with disturbing ease. It didn’t feel entirely right, but I’d given the man so many chances to work with me. No matter what I said or did, he responded with bitterness and anger.
“You seem to have forgotten who freed you from the FPA lab,” I added as I made my way back to the car. “A mistake I won’t make again.”
I waited for Arys to get in before dropping down into the driver’s seat. Dayne didn’t hang around to offer any more shitty remarks. He went back inside with Owen on his heels.
Shaz lingered like he couldn’t decide who to follow before going with the others. I couldn’t blame him. We’d put him in a tough position.
Temper surging, I hit the gas on my way out of the parking lot. The Charger fishtailed, and I found a grim sense of satisfaction in the precarious moment before I regained control.
“Alexa—”
“Don’t.” I had to bite my tongue to keep from laying into him for the crap he’d just pulled. “Just don’t.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Truth be told, I hadn’t planned to kill this guy tonight. After the evening I’d just had, I changed my mind. Bleeding the lowlife would ease my nerves.
Brinley Kane, youth worker and local superhero, had cut me off cold after seeing me kill a man. It was understandable, as I’d done so in front of a girl whose friend went missing. We all knew the guy deserved what he got, but Brinley, being not only human but also a by-the-book sort, couldn’t handle seeing the justice I served.
So I’d been tailing him here and there. Just to keep an eye on the scum buying and selling underage girls in the city. I wished I could say it wasn’t so bad, that the numbers were low. Yeah, if only.
I found the address easily, a typical middle-class house in a typical middle-class neighborhood. The usual.
Though I didn’t need much information on the guy I planned to kill, Jez easily dug up all his dirt through her PI connections. The guy worked as a mortgage broker at a national bank. Divorced, he lived alone. His ex had let him keep the house since she moved in with her new boyfriend.
When I arrived, the scumbag begged and bargained, as they often did. I didn’t give a crap if he paid those girls well. They were young and desperate, easy targets for a guy like him.
Now he just bled, gazing at me in transfixed wonder.
Arys lounged on the pristine white recliner in the corner, watching. He’d declined my invite to share the fun, preferring to enjoy from a distance.
Frustration filled me to overflowing. Needing a release, this had been the best way to keep from killing an innocent. I straddled the guy, my favorite power position when enthralling a victim. Peering into his glassy eyes, his face slack and body relaxed, I found this encounter lacking.
Also I was painfully aware that, in this moment, handing out my own twisted justice, I was no different than Willow. Guilt threatened to ruin the high I’d built.
With a snarl, I slashed claws across my victim’s throat, striking the carotid. Blood spilled from the wound, appeasing the itch beneath my skin and purging the deep-rooted agony of being me.
My own personal pity party. Woe is me, right? Yeah, being a powerful hybrid didn’t exactly make me hard done by. But damn, the stress that came with it was no joke.
So I shed myself of it with the taste of human blood in my mouth and the sensational energy of arousal. Nothing could match it.
Well… almost nothing.
“Like what you see?” I licked blood from my lips and turned to Arys.
I hadn’t forgotten my anger at him for stirring further trouble with Dayne, but right then I could only think of one way to work out those feelings.
“Always. Nothing gets me harder than watching you.” A wicked chuckle followed. He stroked a hand over the soft, suede-like fabric, such a random action yet he made it so sensual. “Well, nothing except your anger. I can never resist the allure of your hot temper.”
Holding up bloody fingertips, I sucked the tip of my pinky into my mouth. A leisurely swirl of my tongue around the tip and Arys leaned forward. Hunger blazed in his eyes.
Having tired of the man beneath me, I slid off his lap, leaving him to bleed out. Barely conscious, his demise wouldn’t be long.
Prowling toward Arys, I held his watchful gaze. “Oh? You like my temper, huh? Is that why you make a point of doing exactly the opposite of everything I ask?”
A dark brow lifted in intrigue, he settled back in the chair. “Maybe. Sometimes.” A sexy smirk adorned his perfect face. “But there are times, like tonight, when you need me to push things in the right direction.”
I paused to examine a lion sculpture on the coffee table. The ceramic was smooth and cool beneath my fingers. In the wake of my touch, a faint blood smear remained.
“Why do you want Dayne’s pack so bad, Arys? What’s in it for you?”
“I don’t. I want you and Shaz to run the pack. Me and you to run the vampires. And if we could take over the local FPA, things would be as good as they can get.” With both hands on the arm rests, relaxed in the recliner, Arys radiated a movie bad guy vibe. The difference being that his vibe was no act.
Arys wanted total control of this city. As much control as any vampire could have anyway.
Other than a few who strayed into our world, the angels and demons of the city operated on their own playing field. Our worlds didn’t cross over much, and I’d prefer that didn’t change. Keeping up with Shya, Falon, and Willow proved trying enough. I might be a Hound of God, but even I had my limits. If Arys’s antics brought down the wrath of the angels and demons running The Circle, I intended to be pissed.
But for now I had other ideas. “I see. So you’ve got it all planned out.” A gentle sway to my hips, I glided closer to the waiting vampire and stopped just out of reach.
Fangs glinted from within his grin. “You know it needs to happen, my reluctant queen. The underworld of this city needs rulers. It needs us. Especially you.” Crooking a finger, he beckoned me closer. The heat in his gaze went straight to my groin.
I didn’t question the need for rulers among so many creatures of the night. I merely questioned if I were the right
person to rule them. I’d been batting a big fat zero lately. If I were really destined to be this big bad queen of the things that go bump in the night, I expected a little more respect from my subjects.
“Well, if you’re right, then shouldn’t I be the one to call the shots with the wolves?” My tone teasing, I taunted him by tossing my hair aside and dragging a bloody finger down the side of my neck.
Arys’s pupils dilated, and he shifted in his seat just enough to convey his growing discomfort. “Baby, you can do whatever the hell you like. I’m just trying to make you see that.”
“Whatever the hell I like, huh?”
Lacking patience to play this game any longer, I stopped trying to drag it out and flung myself into his lap. His arms pulled tight around my waist. With a little growl he went for my neck, dragging his tongue over the bloody mark. Every nerve in my body reacted, sensitive to his demanding touch. My back arched as a tickle shot down my spine. I couldn’t help the delighted laugh that bubbled up.
The bulge in his jeans nestled between my thighs. I found comfort in the way he felt against me. Like he belonged there.
Licking and sucking at my neck, Arys reached beneath my tank top to cup my breasts. I leaned into him, needing more. He made his way to my lips and captured my mouth in a fierce kiss that I felt to the soles of my feet. With a hand in his mess of hair, I held him close. Our mouths melded together, and the passion between us ignited.
I gave a little squeak of protest as Arys stood. Gripping my hips he carried me. I wrapped my legs around his waist and glanced back to see where he took me. The kitchen.
Doing it on the kitchen table in a stranger’s house? Sure, why not?
Arys set me down on the sturdy wooden table and proceeded to strip off my pants. I reached to free him as well. The urgency to create that heady rush, to get high on each other, it drove us to move quickly in search of that critical moment when it would all crash together.
The one light we’d turned on in the living room flickered. My skin prickled as the energy level in the house rose. I spread my legs in invitation, and Arys was quick to comply.
He took my lips in another pulse-pounding kiss as he claimed my body. Slow and slick Arys thrust into me. I gripped his arm with clawed fingertips, wanting faster and harder.
Arys would not be rushed.
He set the pace until I was biting his lip. The sensation of insects under my skin had me pawing at him in my impatience. Usually a fan of slow and sensual lovemaking, I needed more aggression to purge my frustration.
With a chuckle Arys pushed me down on the table. Hooking his arms beneath my legs, he filled me the way I wanted. Lying back on the table, I pulled him down over me, so I could peer into his eyes. The intensity of our union seemed to darken their color. So deep a blue, they were almost black.
Gritting my teeth I held tight to him. For just a moment we were at war. I saw in his predator’s stare that he wanted my blood. But he always did. And to appease his need for me, I often played the victim.
Not tonight.
With Arys I had to play the game. So often he needed to sate the killer within, and he needed to sate it with me. His craving for me would never truly be satisfied. Still I gave in more often than not, allowing him that short-lived moment when he could, for just a second, taste my blood and relive his moment of glory. My death.
However, I had cravings too. They often involved the sex-charged energy of my lovers and occasionally the magic in their blood. Sure we could share a mutual exchange, taking blood and power from one another. And yet, it seemed to lack a certain element of predatory pleasure.
Because we were predators.
We had the desire to dominate the other. It was essential to the creatures we were.
Threading my hand into his hair, I held tight and jerked him closer. He put up just enough resistance to make it exciting before allowing me to bare his neck. I licked his jugular, enjoying the way his pulse felt pounding against my tongue.
His fingers dug into my hips hard enough to bruise. I rose to meet his thrusts, oblivious to the hard table beneath me. In tune with his energy, I waited until he reached that pivotal point.
Then I sank fangs into his vein. He twitched inside me, groaning in my ear. Blood filled with the chill of night drizzled into my mouth. My claws cut into Arys’s lower back. He made a sound of both pain and pleasure. I reached the highest point possible with him inside me in all ways. The power boomed, crashing between us. The chandelier above the table flickered several times. By experience alone we managed to keep it from raining shards over us.
Rejuvenated and freed from much of my tension, I lay on the table for a minute after Arys pulled away to put himself back together. Half-naked, I stared at the acrylic drops of the faux-crystal chandelier, scowling at its ugliness.
“I’m the same as Willow,” I stated. “How the hell can I tell him what he’s doing is wrong?” Without looking I flung a hand toward the living room where my victim sat upright on his couch. Dead.
Arys sighed and grabbed my hand to pull me up. “You are not the same as a demon, Alexa. You killed a piece of crap who preyed on teen girls. Willow killed a kind man who never gave you reason to think he deserved it.”
“Willow thinks he did. Just like I think this asshole deserved it. But other people wouldn’t agree. Brinley, as much as he wants justice, doesn’t agree with this coldblooded killing.” I accepted the black yoga pants Arys tossed at me and slid them on.
“Well, justice is subjective. And Brinley would be wrong.” Arys pulled me close when I hopped down from the table. Breathing deeply of my scent, he stroked a hand through my tousled mane. “You’re the hero, my love. I’ve been saying that all along. Start believing it.”
“Tell that to the people I’ve killed,” I muttered.
Holding my shoulders, Arys stared me in the face. “You just ensured that no other girl will feel that sick fuck’s hands on her. It may never make up for the innocents you’ve killed, but it’s evidence of who you are. You’re not a coldblooded killer, my wolf. Leave that to me. You keep handing out the justice that needs to be served and stop looking to the past to define yourself. Mistakes will be made. Such is life as a vampire. But you are more than that. You are light and beauty, and I am honored to belong to you.”
His words penetrated the shell I’d tried to build around my emotions. As usual, Arys was right. Stroking a hand over his cheek, I kissed him. Somehow he knew me better than I knew myself.
The guilt didn’t disperse, but its shout had become a whisper.
CHAPTER NINE
Clutching the bag of salt crystals, I watched Gabriel spread a handful in a circle on my office floor. Willow would be furious, but he hadn’t left me much choice.
“I need a little more.” Gabriel held a hand out for the bag.
When I called him to ask for assistance with a demon summoning, he hadn’t hesitated. Since finding out that the head of Arys’s bloodline back in Vegas had told us it would be a mistake to turn Gabriel, the teenage vampire had fought to prove himself. I felt shitty for telling him that in a fit of temper, but there wasn’t much I could do about it now. Though I’d directed the barb at Arys, Gabriel had been gutted regardless.
And yet, I still believed it was just a matter of time until the reason behind Hurst’s warning would become clear.
Gabriel finished the salt circle. “Are you sure you want to do this? Might be better to just wait for him.”
“I can’t. He killed Father Andrew last night. The angels might be after him. I need to talk to him before they get their hands on him.” Summoning Willow like a run-of-the-mill demon would piss him off, but I’d tried to reach him and been ignored. Now I had to do something different.
“Alright. I’ll speak the summons, then you offer your blood.” Tucking the remaining salt into a pocket, Gabriel studied me from behind a curtain of long black hair. “Ready?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
I’d done this once
to summon Falon, but summoning demons was not my forte. At times like this Gabriel came in especially handy. Although his black magic made me nervous, the kid repeatedly proved his usefulness.
“Am I early?” A voice from behind had me whirling to find Willow leaning in the doorway. Pretty sure the door had been closed. I hadn’t heard it open.
“Willow.” Did my voice tremble? Dammit. Showing fear in front of a demon was an absolute no-no. Willow included.
“Alexa.” Blood-red eyes sprinkled with beautiful gold flecks appraised me. “You wanted to see me. Thought I’d save you the trouble.” He nodded toward the salt circle.
I glanced at Gabriel. “Thanks, Gabriel. I guess I won’t be needing your help after all.”
He looked uncertainly from Willow to me. “No problem. I’ll just take off then.”
Gabriel headed for the door, but Willow blocked his exit. He gave the kid a studious once-over. The way Gabriel froze told me Willow had poked at him metaphysically, sampling his power. That made me uneasy as well.
Willow asked, “You spent a lot of time studying with Shya?” At Gabriel’s sullen nod he pursed his lips in thought. “So you know things that perhaps the average vampire or witch wouldn’t.”
“Willow,” I broke in. “We need to talk, and Gabriel has his own shit to do.”
For a moment Willow stood his ground, and I worried he might hassle Gabriel further. Then he stepped back to allow the young vamp through. When Gabriel had disappeared down the hall, Willow entered the office and closed the door behind him. Without touching it. So we were off to an eerie start.
Willow pointed to the couch. “Would you like to sit down?”
I hated feeling like I didn’t know who I was dealing with. This person had become a dear friend, family really. But I didn’t know him these days.
Sitting gingerly on one end of the couch, I gathered my thoughts, trying to pick the most productive way to phrase everything.