Junkyard Queen (Alexa O'Brien Huntress Book 12)

by Trina M. Lee

  “Yeah, I know. The more I look into it, the more horrified I become.” She took a sip from her coffee and stared out the window. “That guy that took off from Doghead, he’s ghosted us, but we found something worrying, Lexi. Video he took of the wolf fight that night. Online.”

  “Oh, fuck.” For that very reason cell phones were checked at the door of my nightclub and anyone caught trying to sneak one in rarely made it out.

  “I have a tech team on it. They’re taking it down. Thankfully the internet is loaded with fake footage of ghosts and shit. Hopefully nothing comes of it.” She swept her hair back from her face.

  For just a second she looked like the little girl I remembered. Worry creased her smooth brow into a mess of furrows. So young and dumped with so much responsibility by an organization that would just as soon see her in the lab as leading one of their biggest sectors.

  “I’ll look for him,” I promised, hoping to ease her mind. “He has to be found before the next full moon.”

  “So, Kale’s back.” Her smile appeared forced. “Should I be worried about you two going on a murder spree?” Her joke fell flat, the subject too grim for levity.

  I couldn’t even fake a laugh. “He wants me to kill him to break my curse.” Flashing my palm at her, I allowed her a glimpse of the strange mark in the center of my hand. “So a murder spree is definitely not on the agenda.”

  Juliet’s face fell. “Oh, shit, Lexi. I’m so sorry.”

  Wrinkling my nose at the sickly-sweet smell of her coffee, I sat back in my chair. “It is what it is. But I wanted to ask you something. I need the FPA to back off. To stay away from my vampires and especially Doghead. Shaz has things under control there.”

  Confused, she pursed her lips. “What do you mean? You know I have a job to do. That includes monitoring all supernatural activity.”

  “Then let me have an inside role. Bring me in. Keep me informed. Let me know what you guys are up to. Instead of working against each other, we can try for a partnership of sorts.” This was coming out all wrong, but I wanted to avoid taking it to the extreme.

  Suspicion crossed Juliet’s pretty face. She regarded me once again like I was the enemy. “What’s going on? Why do I get the feeling that you’re working an angle on me?”

  “Because I am.” No sense lying to the one person who’d known me as long as she’d been alive. “I just took down one of the most powerful demons who has ever walked this earth. This is my city, and I’m going to run it as I see fit. That includes securing and maintaining a semblance of control over the FPA. I don’t want to do this the hard way, so I’m really hoping we can work something out here.”

  Her eyes narrowed and flashed wolf, as anger took her. Juliet leaned forward on the table. “Do tell, Alexa, what is the hard way?”

  “Can’t we work something out? It would be beneficial to both of us if we can cooperate.”

  “At this point, after what you did to Briggs, you can’t possibly expect me to trust you. And this conversation isn’t helping that.” Juliet slid both hands around her cup. She made the bruskness of that mundane action menacing.

  Gritting my teeth, I tried one last time. “We’re sisters. We shouldn’t be divided. I don’t want that for us. It never should’ve been that way. We’ve let others put us on opposite sides, and it doesn’t have to be like that.”

  Since I’d discovered Juliet was alive, our relationship stayed in constant turmoil. I wished we could be close again with every piece of me. Instead, every new drama pushed us apart. I doubted we’d ever be able to call a truce.

  “I’m not sure what you’re getting at, but I won’t put my job on the line for you,” she said, vehement. “I made a commitment. With Briggs locked up, everything here is in my hands. I’m not screwing that up by letting you in where you don’t belong.”

  Keeping calm, because someone had to, I pushed the most subtle pulse of calm toward her. “Why do you think so little of me, Juliet? Our goals aren’t so different. I work for The Circle. We maintain a sense of order and discretion.”

  “Just get to the part where you threaten me,” she growled, low so she wouldn’t be overheard. “It’s coming, isn’t it?”

  So little sister still thought I was a monster without a care other than keeping monster business booming. Thanks, Briggs, for spending years brainwashing her into believing such crap.

  “It’s more of an ultimatum, really.” I sighed, having no will to fight with her. “Either we learn to compromise in a way that’s beneficial to us both, or I use what I know about your time in Vegas to get what I want.”

  That did it. Seething, Juliet gripped her cup with fingertips that had become claws. “And what do you know?”

  “I know you killed the wrong man. And I know that Jenner and Kale helped you cover it up.” Letting that hang between us, I abandoned any effort to calm her. I wanted to compromise, but I couldn’t force it.

  “And of course they made sure to tell you all about it,” she snarled. “So now what? I do what you say or you rat me out to the higher ups? The only proof you have is two vampires with shady reputations.”

  Because I didn’t want to throw Kale under the bus, I added, “For the record, only Jenner told me. And is lack of proof really enough for you to call my bluff? Are you that confident?”

  Her gaze dropped. No, she wasn’t confident at all.

  “Look, Juliet,” I continued. “I want to reach a compromise. There’s no reason we can’t do that. You have an opportunity to do better than Briggs did. This doesn’t have to get ugly.”

  She drank back the rest of her latte and shoved the cup toward me. “It just did.” Without giving me a chance to respond she was up and out of her seat, headed for the door.

  I probably could’ve handled that better.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  Because I didn’t have enough reasons to question myself in recent days, Kale was waiting for me at The Wicked Kiss. It wasn’t like I could avoid him forever. And we both knew it.

  When I arrived he had his hands full with a busty redhead who squirmed across his lap. They occupied a booth near the door so he could see me the moment I walked in, though he felt me coming long before I reached the door.

  I swept past, surveying the interior for Hayden. Or Ebyn. Although I preferred the wolf, either would do to keep me busy while I waited for Jez. She and I, along with Smudge, would spend the evening hunting for the newly turned MIA werewolf.

  Kale set his friend aside and hurried after me. “Alexa, stop. You can’t keep avoiding me. We need to talk.”

  “Oh? About what?” Feigning stupid would only buy me a moment, but I needed those precious seconds. Every glance at him was a punch to the heart.

  “Don’t do that.” Kale gestured to the back hall exit. “I just want a few minutes of your time. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”

  I shrugged. “Arys wants to kill me. Willow will never forgive me. My sister hates me. Sure, what’s one more?”

  The music grew muffled as we stepped into the back hall. Lined with doors on either side, the hall buzzed with the tantalizing flavor of vampires and victims.

  Kale ambled along to the room he’d long ago claimed as his. Flinging the door open, he stood back and allowed me to enter first.

  “Leave the door open.” I said, knowing that wouldn’t make a difference if things got crazy.

  Even though the room held a bed and a table with two chairs, I chose to stand. Kale pulled out one of the chairs, turned it backward, and sat. We stared at one another as the discomfort between us grew.

  From down the hall a woman’s cry of pleasure rang out. Yeah, that wasn’t awkward or anything.

  “I need you to let me go,” Kale said. “I want you to tell me here and now that you’ll do it.”

  Pressing my lips tightly together, I wanted to scream. “You’re not going to drop this, are you?”

  “Hell no. It’s what I want. What I’ve wanted for some time now. And I can’t help bu
t feel you kind of owe me that freedom.” A challenge on his handsome face, he braced himself, expecting a fight.

  Lucky for him, I didn’t have much fight left in me. After the past few nights, I needed some time to regroup, mentally more so than physically. Letting out my breath in a huff, I leaned against the wall next to the open door, as far from him as I could get without leaving the room. “You’re right. I probably do. But that doesn’t make this any easier.”

  Kale’s face fell. “This isn’t easy for me either.”

  How could it be? He sat there begging me for death. Part of me wished he’d just stayed in Las Vegas. Where he was safe from me. And not dead. But that was the problem, wasn’t it? He wasn’t safe from me anywhere.

  “What you’re asking me to do, I can’t even imagine it. Killing you.” My voice cracked.

  Such sorrow in his lovely eyes. It reached down to the depths of my being and crushed the part of me that was all his. “I’m a ready and willing sacrifice. You have to be willing too. We can choose our ending. But it only works if we’re together on this. Please.” Solemn and calm, he was ready.

  But I was not.

  “And if I refuse?” I asked without challenge. I needed to know.

  “I’m not sure,” he admitted. “Then I guess I go on like this until I can’t take it anymore. Perhaps the sun finishes me. Maybe Arys does. I imagine there’s any number of ways it could go down.”

  Squeezing my eyes shut, I counted down from ten. I would not cry. “So that’s it then. There’s no talking you out of this.”

  I heard him move. Felt him go to his knees before me. So close, yet he didn’t touch. “Every night you kill me.” Hoarse, his voice threatened to fail him. “But the pain never stops. I’m asking you, with every part of me that loves you more than anything, end this.”

  I had to look at him then. What I saw was someone I wasn’t supposed to love. Someone who’d been my partner, my friend, my lover, and my foe. And now… my sacrifice. To deny him would be to claim that my pain meant more than his. That it didn’t matter that he suffered, as long as I could keep him. But Kale wasn’t a pet nor was he my lover any longer. He was, however, my captive. And he deserved to be free.

  “Alexa.” On his lips my name embodied anguish. Pain. Longing and loathing. Abject misery.

  Selfishly I wanted to deny him. To shout at him to never ask such a thing of me again. That he had no right to force me to go to that place. A place I could never come back from. Killing Kale would not be something I’d get over. It would follow me every night for the rest of my existence. Didn’t he see that?

  Don’t you see that same pain plagues him now?

  Stupid conscience.

  He took my hand and pressed his face to my palm. I couldn’t bring myself to pull away. Every breath I took was so sweet it sickened me. But only because I would miss it with every part of me.

  The yearning in his touch sang through me. Like Jenner he craved me. Yet Kale’s craving had little to do with bloodlines and power, and everything to do with forbidden desire.

  When I didn’t stop him, Kale kissed the pulse point in my wrist. He wanted it. Needed it. Cruelty had played too big a role in our twisted relationship. It had to end.

  He hesitated, giving me a chance to shove him away. Cracking my eyes open, I found him peering up at me with agony and adoration. I touched his face with my free hand, slipping my fingertips into his hair.

  We needed no words to communicate. We’d said all we possibly could say.

  Baring fangs, Kale bit into my wrist. I gasped at the familiar sensation of his bite. Oh, how I’d missed it. The honey vibe of him mingled with the winter chill that was all me. Two forces that felt good but ultimately didn’t belong together. Like the sun and the moon, they could never both shine at once.

  Again he murmured my name. Lips pressed to the twin punctures, the warmth of his tongue threatened my control. I had to escape. Before it was too late. Because once Kale and I went down that path again, nothing would stop us from becoming the absolute worst versions of ourselves. Nothing short of death.

  He was right. That could not be the end to our story.

  “I’ll do it.” I heard myself say. Choking on a sob, I struggled to keep myself from falling to pieces. “I’ll let you go.” In taking a demon mark from Shya to save him, I’d only doomed us both to this torment.

  Love is not selfish. Or so they say. In that moment, I proved it to both Kale and myself. And it hurt like hell.

  Knowing I couldn’t hold on much longer, I pushed away from him. The claiming of Kale hadn’t started and ended that night in the Black Market cemetery when first I’d made him mine. If I didn’t leave now, I’d claim him all over again. Right there on the floor of room number thirteen with the door wide open. I fled before the sinful urges could take me. As much as I’d have loved to feel him one more time, he’d suffered enough.

  No sooner had I turned back into the main part of the club than Falon stepped out of the shadows. He grabbed hold of my wounded wrist and jerked me close. “What about me, Alexa?” He snarled into my face. “When do you let me go?”

  I was almost too surprised to be pissed. Almost. I shook him off with a shove as my temper flared to life. “Eavesdropping, Falon? Pretty tacky, even for you.”

  Anger lit him up. He vibrated with it. Refusing to ease off, he backed me into a corner near the washrooms. “You tapped my power the night of the alignment. You shouldn’t be able to do that. What the fuck have you done to me?”

  “Me? From what I remember you’ve been a pretty willing and eager participant. Back off and get out of my face.” I let an aggressive slap of power slip from my fingers.

  Expecting it, Falon easily blocked the hit. He remained unmoved. “Somehow you claimed me. Like I’m one of your goddamn pet vampires. Whatever you did, undo it. I don’t belong to you, bitch.” So he was pissed. I got that. I’d have been pissed too.

  And yet, I was just as confused. “Do you think I’d bind you to me on purpose? Is that really something you think I’d want? Get over yourself.”

  My back against the wall, Falon pressed against me. Violence clouded around him so thick he reeked of it, a sharp, tangy aroma that raised my defenses. “Then how did it happen?” The heat of his demand would have taunted me if I hadn’t been so emotionally drained.

  “You’re asking the wrong person,” I replied, refusing to react to the enticing way he felt so tight against me. “But from my experience I’ve found the one being claimed plays their own role. My vampires chose to take my blood. You took me in every way you could. Whatever happened, it’s not all on me.”

  Falon mulled this over, scowling when he couldn’t argue my point. “I don’t belong to you.”

  Someone was in denial.

  “Trust me, I don’t want you to. I didn’t mean to tap you. It just happened.” I started to shove him away.

  Falon stepped back suddenly, like being so close had stung.

  I considered telling him what the evil entity in the FPA building had said. Recognizing my claim over Falon, it had goaded me to mark him as mine, something visible to all the underworld’s creatures, and apparently I did place some metaphysical brand on him.

  But, oh hell no, he didn’t need to know that. I had no intention of divulging any such thing.

  “You better find a way to fix it. If the wrong people find out, it could put us both in danger.” He backed away, scowl firmly in place. Falon had always been a moody prick. Though it seemed to have escalated since the night we let our fling become intimate.

  “Duly noted, General Asshole.” I was so done with this conversation.

  Falon seemed reluctant to leave without a parting shot. “Take this shit seriously, wolf. I won’t be owned.” Once he got that barb in, he vanished.

  Needing a break from all things involving vampires or angels, I headed out into the night to meet Smudge and Jez. We had a newly turned werewolf to find.

  EPILOGUE

  “Pre
tty sure this is the place.” Smudge jerked a thumb toward a rowdy sports bar.

  Jez made a face somewhere between disgust and dismay. “Loaded with drunk college guys trying to out dick one another. Great.”

  “That’s pretty much the world, Jezzy.” Smudge found out that our missing werewolf hadn’t been to work since the night Dayne grabbed him. And it seemed that he grabbed his shit and left his apartment in a hurry. “So remember, his name is Rylan Chow. Ask around. See what you can find out.” Smudge shot me a pointed look. “Let’s try not to break anyone’s hand this time.”

  I grinned, not in the least bit apologetic. “The guy shouldn’t have grabbed my ass.”

  “Agreed.” Despite the serious watchdog persona she pushed for, Smudge smiled. “But we’re trying to keep a low profile here.”

  Jez scoffed, scrutinizing her fresh manicure. “Have you seen the three of us? Low profile isn’t exactly our calling card.”

  Smudge’s gaze lingered on Jez with keen appreciation. “Yeah, well, make an effort.”

  We entered the bar. Splitting up we made our way through, asking about Rylan. We hadn’t had much luck all evening, and that didn’t seem to be changing.

  A newly turned werewolf who had no qualms about posting evidence for all the world to see was a danger to all The Circle stood for. We had a secret to keep. Anyone not on board with that would find themselves six feet under. Which was not at all what I wanted for Rylan. I wanted to help those new to our world, not wipe them out. Killing them had to be a last resort. I hoped he didn’t push it to that point.

  This wasn’t be the first time someone, knowingly or not, had tried to expose us. Doubtful it would be the last. In this age of technology and CGI, the majority passed it off as fake. Definitely made our job easier.

  But all we needed was that one person with a superhero complex getting it into their head that we were real. Then we’d be hunted. Killed. Shown to the public in an undeniable manner.