Crimson Covenant

by Samantha Whiskey

  He pressed his forehead against mine, closing his eyes as he loosed a long breath. “Ransom will be your guard tonight,” he said, and I smiled, bouncing against him as I stood to my full height. He quickly followed, still holding my hands. “Lachlan and Benedict are with me tonight, and Hawke will stay with Avi.”

  “But Olivia,” I said, tilting my head. Avi’s bodyguard definitely appeared soft spoken and sweet, but I could see it in her eyes. She had the same ferocious tenacity as any of the Assassins. The sweetness was likely another weapon to throw off her opponents. “Do you think the threat is bad enough that she needs more protection?”

  Alek sighed. “I’m not taking any more chances,” he said. “I know you’re stronger as a vampire, Lyric,” he said. “But you’re not trained. Yet. And Ransom is the finest combat general I’ve ever seen in all my centuries. His predictive senses are lethal. If anyone can detect an attack before it happens, it’ll be him.”

  I clapped my hands together before throwing my arms around his neck. “Wait,” I said, dropping to my feet. “I get to train?” Anticipation flooded my veins—the idea of being an asset beyond my research abilities fueled the fire in my blood.

  “Get to?” He titled his head. “Lyric, the choice is always yours. I won’t force you, but I’d breathe easier if you knew how to defend yourself. Do you not want to?”

  I let the fire show in my eyes. “Unknown enemies are attacking our family, our home,” I said, and his eyes guttered. “Hell yes, I want to train.” A cold slice of terror shot through the fire in my blood.

  “You don’t have to fear them,” Alek said, smelling the shift in me. “I will find them and kill them—”

  “It’s not them,” I cut him off.

  “Then what is it?”

  I pressed my lips together. “Do I have to train with Hawke?” I knew the assassin would never harm me, but there was something about the brutal edge in his eyes that told my every instinct to fear him. To never take for granted that he was on our side.

  Alek let out a rough laugh, smoothing my hair back. “You’ll train with me. But, when the time comes that you want to test my enforcer, I will be more than pleased to watch you kick his ass all over the estate.”

  Appreciation and pride and love and lust and hunger rippled along the bond between us, and I smiled up at my mate. “Thank you,” I said, pressing a gentle kiss to his lips.

  “For what?”

  “For giving me you. For giving me this extraordinary life.”

  His brow knitted. “A life filled with attacks and blood and pain.”

  I shook my head, cupping his cheek. “A life filled with love, with family.” I shrugged. “I’ve never had anything like it before. It’s…you’re more than I ever hoped of finding.”

  Alek pressed his lips to mine, soft at first, then harder and harder until I was a breathless, limp thing in his grasp.

  I was late to my meeting, but only by seconds. Ransom drove even faster than Lachlan, if that was possible.

  After a quick farewell, I walked out of the advisor’s office beaming. She’d more than loved my thesis and had given me a glowing recommendation letter to use at my discretion for any endeavors I may pursue. Of course, being what I was now, I wasn’t sure exactly what I would do, but I knew it would be to help the family. To be the best queen I could be for my newly inherited people.

  “From the cheesy-ass smile on your face, I’m guessing you didn’t make a snack of her?” Ransom pushed off the shelf of books he’d been leaning against in the campus library, cocking a brow at me. His sapphire eyes practically glittered beneath the library’s amber-colored lights, his black hair falling just perfectly over his angular face. He was by far the most beautiful of Alek’s Assassins, and from what he’d told me, the deadliest as well. Coincidentally enough, he was likely the funniest, too, which set me at ease.

  I flipped him off, and his lips parted open, his hand splaying over his chest like I’d physically wounded him. “Don’t make fun,” I whisper-hissed as I neared him. “It was hard enough being in a closed room with her.” The smell of her was thick and rich, but it was nothing compared to Alek’s. Yes, I’d been tempted by the smell, by the way the blood pumped through her veins, but I hadn’t needed it bad enough to act on it.

  “You’re tougher than you look,” he said, his eyes grazing over my small frame compared to his massive one. “Alek wouldn’t have let you out if he thought you weren’t in control.”

  I nodded, knowing it wasn’t for his benefit to keep me protected in the estate, but for mine. I definitely wouldn’t have forgiven myself if I’d eaten my advisor. I shuddered at the thought, and Ransom placed a hand on my shoulder.

  “I wouldn’t have let it happen either,” he said, eying me. “You know that, right?”

  I nodded, taking a quick scan of the library. Several female students were shooting daggers my way, and I chuckled.

  “What?” he asked before following my gaze. “Oh,” he said quickly and dropped his hand. “Damn. Now I’ve lost all those prospects,” he hissed, a flicker of mischief in his deadly eyes.

  I rolled mine. “Please,” I said, shaking my head. “You could walk up to any of them right this second, tell them we’re married, and they’d still go home with you if you asked.”

  Ransom growled. “Don’t even joke about that,” he hissed as we walked toward the library’s lobby. “Alek would tear me to pieces and use my torso as a display piece in the banquet hall.”

  I paused in the lobby, the marble floor squeaking under my shoes. “Ick.”

  He furrowed his brow at me. “What?” He smoothed his hands over his impeccable abs. “You deny these are a work of art?”

  Another laugh ripped through me, and I rolled my eyes again. “I’ve got to hit the bathroom before we make the trip back home.”

  Ransom blew out a breath, following me to the left where the restrooms laid. “I can’t wait until you learn how to wend,” he practically grumbled under his breath.

  I spun outside the bathroom entrance, arching a brow at him. “I’m sorry,” I said, my voice all jest. “Are you grumbling about your queen?”

  His eyes widened in apology, but I burst out laughing, and he chuckled with me.

  “You’re going to be fun,” he said, wagging his finger at me. “Finally. It’s been centuries since someone has known the value of a good laugh.”

  I nodded at him, then went to push open the door. Ransom was hot on my heels. “What are you doing?”

  “I go where you go.” He shrugged.

  “Uh,” I said, shaking my head. “I think I can manage to pee by myself.”

  He grimaced, a battle raging in his eyes. “Alek will literally kill me. Not in the funny way.”

  I blew out a breath. “Fine,” I relented. “But you stay in this section,” I said, motioning to the library’s women’s restroom lounge. The ancient building had the luxury of having bathrooms with an entire sitting area perched out front, complete with a loveseat and coffee table stacked with magazines. I’d never understood why anyone would find it fun to simply lounge in the bathroom, but to each her own.

  “Deal,” he said, nodding. “Covers the entry points.”

  “Without being gross,” I added, heading through the swinging door to where the stalls rested. I hurried about my business, quickly washing my hands. I couldn’t wait to get home and celebrate my accomplishments with Alek—hopefully all night long.

  “Hey, Ransom,” I called as I smoothed my hair back and headed toward the door. A few soft pops sounded from behind it and I wondered if he’d grown so bored he’d resulted to throwing his knives against the wall. “Can we stop and grab some champagne? I’d really love to celebrate with Alek. I know he already has a mountain of alcohol in the house, but I want it to be my treat—”

  My words lodged in my throat as I swung open the door to the lounge. Ice splintered across my skin.

  Blood.

  Ransom lying face down in a pile of it. He had no
less than nine bullet holes peppering his back. The smell of blood and something sweeter, cloying almost, curled in the air.

  I scanned the room, finding it empty before I sank to my knees, relief coursing through my chest that he was still breathing. His hands twitched on his Glock, and I reached for it—

  A blinding, searing pain cracked at the back of my skull.

  All the power in my muscles weakened as if someone had hit me with a sleeping spell. I slumped over Ransom, my body giving out as my vision wobbled.

  “Get her,” a masculine voice demanded from behind the bathroom door. “Leave the trash.”

  I hissed, trying like hell to swing my arms as someone hauled me up and up—

  “Hit her with it again,” the voice snapped when I’d managed to kick out and clip someone’s chin. Masks. They all had masks on.

  “Cowards,” I spit, my tongue like sandpaper. Black bled along the edges of my vision.

  “She’s stronger than we thought,” another voice said.

  “You fuc—” A sharp, white-hot pain speared my neck, stealing my words. Acid clawed at my veins, searing and soaring with each beat of my heart. A force yanked me back and back and back until all I could see or think or feel was black.

  17

  Alek

  “Whoever they are, they’re careful.” Lachlan leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest as we sat in the war room, going over the intel Ransom had managed to extract from the cell phone.

  “It’s like they knew we’d hack into it,” I muttered. Code names. Blocked numbers. GPS disabled. Any other time in my life, I’d almost welcome the challenge of solving this mystery, but not now—not with Lyric in the crosshairs.

  “And it’s pretty fucking obvious they’ve got inside information…” Benedict started, but his voice drifted into nothingness as a roar filled my ears.

  “Alek?”

  A gaping, black hole formed in my chest, sucking in the light I’d come to rely on—the luminescence of my mating bond with— “Lyric,” I whispered, already grasping for the dimming strands of that bond.

  “My lord?”

  My gaze flashed to Lachlan’s. “Follow.”

  I wended to the last traceable location I sensed her at, nearly forgetting to glamour myself as I materialized in the middle of the crowded library. The scent of parchment and dozens of humans filled my nose, but the sweet, unmistakable combination of cinnamon and vanilla made my head whip toward the back of the library. And something else—the tang of metal and pine…

  Ransom’s blood.

  My heart pounded as I sped past the tables and aisles of books that lined the cavernous space. Something was very, very wrong, and the overwhelming, obvious answer wasn’t something I was willing to even consider.

  Lyric. The bond was nothing but a glimmer, and her scent was fading. Shit, both scents stopped here, at the restroom door, as though the barrier was more than simple wood.

  I pushed through the heavy door marked ‘Ladies’ as Lachlan and Benedict appeared behind me.

  A sickly, saccharine smell filled the air as we entered the space, turning the corner into the open—

  “Shit!”

  Ransom lay on the ground, surrounded by a pool of his own blood, his cell phone inches from his outstretched hand. Too much blood…

  “I’ve got him!” Lachlan dropped beside Ransom’s fallen frame, and I continued on, throwing open the next door that separated the stalls from the powder room.

  “Lyric!” The grating sound of metal slamming into metal echoed as I kicked open one stall door after another, confirming what my soul already knew. She wasn’t here, and the bond was fading. Panic took me hostage with an icy grip, making my thoughts trip over one another. If my heart still beat, then hers had to. She couldn’t be gone. It wasn’t possible.

  Well, she’s sure as fuck not here.

  “Damn it!” I shouted, putting a fist-sized hole in the door of the last stall.

  “He’s alive!” Benedict yelled through the entrance.

  Lyric was, too. She had to be.

  “I found Lyric’s phone.” Benedict tossed the cell at me and held the door as I charged back into the other room, where Olivia now knelt by Ransom’s head, her wrist over his mouth. Her brow furrowed with worry as Ransom’s blood stained her slacks.

  “I called Hawke, and she showed up,” Lachlan said in way of explanation, still pocketing his cell.

  Lyric’s had a small crack in the screen, but nothing else was out of place.

  “Hawke is with your sister,” Olivia said, not even bothering to look in my direction. Avi’s bodyguard had come quickly, I’d give her that, and there would be no one more ruthless about Avianna’s safety than Hawthorne. He saw her as an extension of the crown he was unwaveringly loyal to.

  “There’s too much blood,” Benedict muttered, moving to Ransom’s other side. It would take at least two of us to wend him back once he’d taken enough from Olivia.

  The blood. I couldn’t scent anything but that thick, disorienting—

  Pffft! A battery-operated deodorizer sent another blast of the chemical into the air. There was something horrifyingly familiar about that scent. It danced at the edges of my memories, tantalizing me with yet another key to this puzzle.

  “There. He’s fed enough to move him,” Olivia announced.

  I yanked the atomizer off the wall, and we wended straight into Gabriel’s infirmary where the surgeon already waited, Julian at his side.

  “The queen…” Julian’s gaze darted from Lachlan and Benedict—who were hefting Ransom onto the gurney—and mine. “Oh, no.”

  “She’s missing.” The words barely escaped the vise of my throat.

  “My lord?” Julian paled as Gabriel and his nurses launched into action, ushering us into the hallway. The glass doors swung shut behind us, and his gaze narrowed on the atomizer. “Where did you get that?”

  “At the library,” I answered, handing him the little machine. “I think it masked Lyric and Ransom’s scents because I can’t get a trace on her.”

  He lifted it to his nose, and his pupils dilated slightly. “It can’t be…”

  “Can’t be what?” Lachlan prompted in a low growl.

  “It’s impossible,” Julian muttered to himself, then glanced up at us. “It’s been centuries. I need to be sure. Can I borrow this?”

  I nodded, knowing if anyone had a chance of identifying that chemical, it was Julian. Or was it a chemical? There was something herbal in there, too.

  “I’ll find you as soon as I’m certain.” Julian walked off without another word, turning left at the fork in the tunnels to head to the archive.

  The three of us stood at the glass, watching Gabriel do his best to save our wounded brother, who also happened to be the only person in the world who might be able to tell us just who had taken my mate.

  “He’s out of the woods,” Lachlan announced as he walked into the war room six hours later.

  “Thank God,” Benedict sagged in relief.

  My own shoulders relaxed the barest of inches. Ransom would make it. It had been touch and go there for an hour or two as we’d stared through the operating doors, but he was a tough fucker.

  Eight. Fucking. Hours. That was how long my wife—my mate—had been in enemy hands. She was still alive. That bond between us was faint and delicate as a thread of spider-spun silk, but still there. And I still couldn’t scent her. Couldn’t trace her. Couldn’t do a goddamned thing but sit and stare at her phone like it might spontaneously give me the answer to where she was.

  “Is he awake yet?” Hawke asked, hot on Lachlan’s heels.

  “No. Gabriel said he’d call as soon as he was conscious,” Lachlan answered.

  “You’re supposed to be with Avianna.” My gut wrenched into a knot, and I nearly flew out of my chair. I was already missing the love of my life, I sure as hell wasn’t about to lose my sister, too.

  “Relax.” Hawke waved me off. “Olivia is back
at full strength, and I may have locked them into Avianna’s suite.”

  I blinked.

  “You what?” Benedict swung around from his seat at the ops station, his brows skyrocketing.

  “They’re safer that way. Trust me.” Hawke practically seethed with aggression as he pointed at me. “Your sister is a fucking menace who doesn’t listen to a damned thing anyone else has to say.”

  What the fuck? She was a little headstrong, but menace wasn’t quite accurate.

  “Little Avianna?” Lachlan fell into his chair and tilted his head at Hawke. “You’re telling me that sweet little girl gave you trouble?”

  “Oh, she might look sweet, but trust me—” Hawke started, ripping his hands over his hair and lacing his fingers on top of his head.

  An alarm sounded from the ops station, and Benedict swung back to the monitor. “Holy fuck, Alek, we have a problem.”

  “Where?” Within a heartbeat we all stood directly behind him, watching the video feed from the security cameras at the edge of the estate.

  “Hold on, it will pan back. See? There’s a woman out there, and something tells me she’s not out for a hike in the moonlight.” Benedict pointed to the screen.

  Fuck. That knot in my stomach twisted a little tighter.

  “That redhead’s not a moon, she’s a fucking space station,” Lachlan muttered. “How the hell did she find us?”

  “Is that—” Hawke craned his head.

  “Valor,” I confirmed, already headed back to the table where I’d set my weapons down after cleaning them.

  “Lyric’s best friend,” Lachlan filled Benedict in as I holstered my glocks.

  There was zero fucking chance her being here was coincidence.

  “I’m with you.” Lachlan checked the clip in his own weapon and holstered it.

  “Me, too.” Hawke was already strapped.

  I nodded once, and they followed me out of the war room.