by Tessa Cole
I turned to block the punch from someone else when a gunshot roared through the room. Everyone froze, searching for the source of the shot. Jacob hadn’t drawn and Kol had been fighting without a sidearm as well.
“That’s better,” a stunningly beautiful woman at the top of the stairs said in a sultry alto. She looked like a stereotypical vampire, dark locks hanging artfully past her shoulders to frame her narrow face and porcelain complexion. Her red dress plunged low in the front and hugged voluptuous curves, promising sinful sex, and her dark eyes were filled with the same intensity that I saw in Jacob’s, only a hundred times more powerful.
Gideon stood beside her, his posture perfect and icy. Behind them, a sallow-skinned man shoved a gun into the waistband of his pants and sneered — I didn’t know where he’d fired but no one looked like they had a bullet wound — while Marcus stood beside him with his arms crossed, glowering at me. Just great.
“It’s been a long time, Jacob,” she said. “You should visit more often.”
Jacob bowed his head. “Of course, Victoria.”
“Gus, did you try to take what belongs to Jacob?”
“I doubt she’s his. I doubt any human is,” the rake-thin vampire said, wiping blood from his upper lip and shoving his broken nose back into place.
Victoria’s dark gaze leveled on the thin vampire, Gus, and he shrank back. “Is this true, Gideon? Is this human unclaimed?”
“No human should be claimed,” Jacob said.
Victoria’s eyes narrowed. “In my establishment they are. If she’s not yours, Gus has the right to take her and you’ll be confined to the box for a week.”
“That isn’t necessary,” Gideon said. “They’re here on my command.”
“And you know the rules.” Victoria turned to Gideon and traced her fingers over his sculpted chest. The temperature in the room warmed but I couldn’t tell if it was with desire or anger. “Did you think you could just sneak her in?”
Wow, that was surprising. I thought angels abided by every rule, even when it didn’t make sense.
“We’re here to see Zella,” Gideon said. “We won’t be long.”
“That doesn’t make it better.” Victoria raised a hand and made a fist.
Jacob gasped, grabbed his chest, and dropped to his knees, his face scrunched in pain, while Gus sneered in pleasure.
“That will be two weeks in the box for my offspring.” Her fist tightened and Jacob screamed.
“Victoria, be reasonable,” Gideon said.
“Reasonable?”
Jacob screamed again.
“You angels with your rules think you don’t have to follow mine.”
Another scream and the temperature turned sweltering.
“This is my house. My rules. The JP agreed to that.” She glared at Gideon, and Jacob screamed a third time, collapsed on his side, and curled into a ball of agony. “You think you can disrespect me like that, angel? Think again.”
She brought her other fist up and Jacob gasped and started gurgling.
For the love of God, just stop. I jerked a step forward. “I’m his.”
“Essie—” Marcus barked.
“He’s claimed me,” I said, even knowing that my luck probably wasn’t good enough for Victoria to just take my word for it.
Jeez, first an unwanted angel brand and now I was going to risk letting a vampire stake his claim to me. But I couldn’t stand by and watch Victoria torture him. A vampire’s claim entwined the vampire’s essence with the human’s in a way only vampires could sense. It signaled that the human had relinquished her free will and belonged to the vampire. I couldn’t imagine why anyone would let someone else control them — and this control was complete, take-over-your-body-and-make-you-do-horrible-things-even-commit-suicide kind of control — but they did.
For whatever reason, some people didn’t want control of their lives and some didn’t care about that price tag to reap the benefits of being claimed, like enhanced senses and an extended lifespan. And there had been people willing to be claimed before the vampires had joined the cause and helped save humanity. It boggled the mind. Of course, maybe the rumors of sexual euphoria were true, that being claimed enhanced the already erotic sensations that came with a vampire feeding.
“She’s lying,” Gus said. “Give her to me.”
“You can’t just give her away,” Marcus said. “There are laws.”
“And there are laws in my house, too,” Victoria said.
“She hasn’t been claimed.” Gus’s tone sharpened. “His essence isn’t in her.”
“Well, either she’s lying or it’s been too long since he’s fed and wrapped his essence in her.” Victoria’s eyes narrowed. “You should rectify that, Jacob.”
Gideon shifted, the only indication he was anything but icy calm. “Zella is expecting us.”
“You should have thought of that before trying to sneak an unclaimed human into my establishment,” Victoria said, her tone sickeningly sweet.
“She said she was claimed.” Marcus tensed and looked like he was going to attack, but Gideon put a hand up and stopped him.
“So she’s already submitted.” Victoria raised her chin, daring Gideon to defy her in her house. “Wrapping his essence in her again shouldn’t be a problem.”
Gus shoved me toward Jacob and I dropped to my knees at his side.
“You don’t have to do this,” he gasped, his voice low so only I could hear him.
“I’m not going to let her torture you,” I said just as quietly, and helped him sit up.
He leaned close, pressing his forehead to mine. “You don’t know what this will mean.”
“If you have a better plan, I’m all ears.”
“I’m waiting,” Victoria said in a singsong. “On your feet, vampire, and repossess your human.”
“I don’t just have to bite you,” he said. “I have to touch you, my palm over your heart, flesh to flesh to bind my essence with yours. It’s… intimate.”
A nervous tremor swept through me. I’d expected it would be something overly personal, but I had hoped just drinking my blood would have been personal enough. I didn’t know this guy. I didn’t know any of them other than Marcus, and now I was in a position where I needed them to protect me from the wraith. I still wasn’t sure I trusted them — including Marcus — but I couldn’t see any other option.
“Unless you’d prefer to take her on the bar floor.” Victoria flashed a dark smile. “Or I could just keep killing you.” She made a fist and Jacob tensed. He clenched his jaw but a strangled cry still slipped out.
“You do whatever it takes.” I met his gaze, letting him know I meant what I said, then pushed away from him and stood.
Gasping, he grabbed the chair beside him to help him rise and joined me.
“Atta boy,” Victoria said.
With an apologetic look, Jacob stepped close, with his chest at my back, and turned us to face away from Victoria and the others. But the master vampire tsked, and Jacob gasped again, tensing against me as if an electric shock had surged through him.
“You don’t get to be ashamed of what you are, Jacob. Turn around.” Her tone promised more pain if he didn’t obey. “I want to watch.”
“I’m sorry,” Jacob whispered against my temple, then turned us.
“Very good,” Victoria hissed, her smile deepening as Jacob wrapped a bulky arm across my waist.
He drew me tight against his broad chest and I was hyperaware of just how big he was, the broad muscular planes of his chest and his arms nearly the size of my thighs. He was probably double my weight if not more of pure muscle, and with my head tucked under his chin, his embrace nearly engulfed me.
I shivered but wasn’t sure if it was fear or the fear that I wasn’t afraid of him. His free hand tipped my head to the side and back and held me there with a light pressure. The hand at my waist slid along my stomach and dipped under my shirt. I expected his hand to be cold, being undead and all, but it wasn’t, m
erely chilled, which meant he’d eaten recently.
My mind latched on to that. That was good. He wasn’t starving. He could just take a quick sip, entwine his essence into mine, and we’d be done.
His hand moved up my chest, close to my skin but not touching, a whisper of movement that made me shiver, then his fingers dipped inside the sports bra, sliding over the top of my breast, and made my breath hitch. His palm settled over my heart, and I tried to detach myself from his touch, but it was so intimate it made my body thrum, desire flickering through me.
He dipped his head down, his lips against my throat, and murmured, “Just relax.”
Sharp pain bit my neck and I tensed, the realization that his teeth had plunged into my neck making panic surge through me and my pulse pound.
Victoria licked her lips. Her canines extended and a hunger burned in her eyes. Beside her Gideon was rigid, his expression pure ice while Marcus’s was pure rage. He looked like he was going to go on a rampage. To my left, Gus looked like he was going to throw a fit, and Kol had gone pale, hellfire burning in his eyes.
Jacob sucked, drinking my blood with a tug on my throat that pulled all the way down to my core. The tension that had seized me twisted into sudden aching need. My body grew limp, desperate to let him take me, overpower me, do whatever he wanted.
The boneless ecstasy seeped deeper, spreading over and into every nerve, making my breath shudder. Jacob held tight and his palm against my heart began to warm, adding a new pull, one that curled into me and made my head spin.
He took another pull, or was that his third or fourth? I couldn’t tell, I couldn’t feel his teeth in my neck anymore, only heat from his hand pressing against my heart and the aching pleasure coursing through me and gathering in my core.
I shuddered and Jacob groaned, the rumble in his chest vibrating through me, sending my cells into sympathetic vibration with his. The bliss swelled — I hadn’t thought it could be possible, not without actually having sex — as if our aligned resonance allowed his essence to penetrate deeper into me, and every part of me turned its attention to him. There was no one else in the room, the city, the world. There was only Jacob and his desires. If he needed to drink me dry, I’d slit my throat for him. If he needed protection, finances, sex, whatever I had, it was his. I’d give it freely.
As soon as the thoughts rooted within me, a part of my mind started screaming. That wasn’t right. He wasn’t my everything. He couldn’t be my everything. I barely knew him. A flicker of panic joined the screaming. He needed to let go. Release me. Stop. This wasn’t right. It had to stop.
Please. Stop.
But if he stopped, Victoria would resume torturing him. I had the power to stop that so long as I let him finish his claim. That was the reason I’d become a cop: to have the power to help others.
He took another bone-melting pull on my neck that left me spinning and weak. His grip on me tightened and his body trembled, then with a growl he jerked his mouth away. A chill swept around me and the panic surged at his absence, while that other, small part of my mind screamed that feeling that way was wrong. Then his mouth was back again, his lips against the puncture wounds and a flicker of heat, the miniscule healing magic every vampire possessed, sealed the wounds shut. It would still be obvious for the next day or so that I’d let a vampire bite me, but at least I wouldn’t bleed to death. The kiss was light, feathery, sending a shiver of desire down my spine, and he withdrew again, leaving me chilled even though I was still wrapped in his embrace.
“Satisfied?” he asked, his voice low, dark, and edged with hunger.
No, not even close.
“Until next time,” Victoria said.
I tried to open my eyes to see her expression, tried to find strength in my legs to stand without help, but everything within me just kept whirling.
Jacob’s hand slipped out from under my shirt and he hooked his arm under my legs, lifted me, and cradled me against his massive chest.
Just where I wanted to be…
Except I was pretty sure that wasn’t right.
“It’ll take you a minute to regain your bearings.” He pressed his lips to my forehead and the part of me now connected to Jacob soared with pleasure at his attention.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Marcus growled, his voice suddenly close, not far away on the second-story landing.
I forced my eyes open. Marcus stood close, they all did, but he was the only one glaring at me. Behind him, the room spun around and around and around and—
Marcus’s glare jumped above me to Jacob. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“Zella is waiting,” Gideon said, his body language so cold I wouldn’t have been surprised if frost formed on his sculpted cheekbones.
“You should have told me I wasn’t supposed to come here,” I said, my lips numb with pleasure, my words muddling in my mouth. “I’m sorry I got you in trouble.”
“That wouldn’t have stopped us from bringing you here,” Jacob said. His intense gaze had turned sad and the muscles in his jaw tightened. “It’s been nearly a hundred years since I’ve claimed someone. I’d forgotten how… intense it can be.”
“And the claim will fade, eventually,” Kol said, the fire and hunger still burning in his eyes.
“If I don’t feed from you again, it’ll be gone in a few months.”
My warring thoughts cheered and wailed at that, but I was too dizzy to try to figure out which side I wanted to win so I just leaned my cheek against Jacob’s chest instead.
“The first claiming is always the hardest on the human.” The angel glow in Gideon’s eyes dimmed, more clouds passing over his summer sky. “We should get to Zella’s apartment before anyone notices she’s still stunned.”
Marcus was hurrying toward a narrow door under the stairs before Gideon had finished talking. The others followed, with Jacob at the back still carrying me.
The room continued to spin and my muscles still felt like goo. At least this spinning was better than the concussion I’d had earlier. This time I didn’t feel like throwing up.
“When will I stop being stunned?” I asked Jacob.
“Everyone reacts differently.” His voice rumbled through me, making my essence vibrate again. “I tried to take as little as I could to keep the claim weak, but—” His grip on me tightened. “It’s been a long time since I’ve fed from a human. The claim is stronger than I’d like.”
Which meant he’d taken more than he’d intended. The sane part of me shuddered at that. The part that was possessed by him was thrilled.
And either way, there wasn’t anything I could do about it.
“It’s okay.” I pressed my palm to his chest. The claim would pass, and there wasn’t anything saying that once the wraith was apprehended I had to stick close to Gideon while I waited for Jacob’s essence to work its way out of me. This was manageable. I could handle this. I had to handle this.
The door under the stairs led to a narrow, rickety set of stairs going into the basement. Marcus led the way into a narrow, dimly lit hall. Sparks of light flickered through the glow from the bare bulbs hanging at irregular intervals from the ceiling, but I had no idea what kind of magic was on them that made them do that. The walls were fitted fieldstone, telling me the building was old, or that it sat on an old foundation. Moisture glistened in the cracks between the stones and a runnel of water trickled along a shallow gutter on the floor into a small metal grate.
I couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to live down here, but then I’d been assuming Zella was a human who’d made a demon-deal or had an ancestor who’d made a deal, and that was why she was a witch.
Perhaps she wasn’t human at all and didn’t want to live in areas frequented by humans. There were a few kinds of supers who could cast spells, primarily those who’d been born human and had been infected with lycanthropy or turned into a vampire. There were also a few angels who could cast spells beyond their one primary innate magical ability. But I couldn
’t imagine an angel wanting to live down here. Given that the bar above was a vampire den, I was guessing Zella was a vampire.
Except that didn’t fully explain why she was in the basement when there was UV-blocking glass on the windows above as well as over the street outside.
We reached a wide, heavy wooden door at the end of the hall. Marcus knocked and the door creaked open an inch. He shot Gideon a wide-eyed, worried look and the temperature in the hall chilled.
Jacob set me on my feet and leaned me against the wall, my head still spinning. “Stay here,” he said, and he drew his weapon.
Something twisted in my chest, but I didn’t know what, and really, the unlocked door and the guys’ fear was more important.
Marcus pushed the door open and froze. Frost rushed across my cheeks and a sense of powerful evil slammed into my chest. Gideon growled and Kol gasped.
The room was an underground chapel with a massive stained glass window against the back wall, impossibly illuminated — it had to be magic. An altar was positioned just before it and dead center above that was an angel, suspended in the air, her wings unfurled, mangled and bleeding, and her body ensnared in ice and wrapped in the wraith’s writhing tentacles.
Chapter 8
The angel gurgled and wrenched against the wraith, but its smoke had poured into her while its tentacles crushed her chest and sliced shallow, torturous cuts into her body. An angry red scar disfigured three quarters of her face and twisted over her bare forearms. The tentacle around her chest had hiked up her shirt, revealing more scars across her belly, as if she’d been flayed or set on fire and hadn’t been magically healed. Blood seeped down her body and pooled onto the floor, and ice encased her hands.
Except the ice wasn’t capturing any other part of her body. Instead, it held three tentacles and poured down the wraith’s side, anchoring it to the floor. More ice swelled around her hands, and spears of ice shot from her palms and shattered against the wraith’s chest, tearing into the smoke until I could almost see through it.