WALERON PICKED UP HIS CELL and tapped into it at the stop sign, then placed it to his ear. “Balen. Need the jet examined. No. Now. Put guards on it too. No one gets near it.” He paused then pressed the End button, tossed his phone into the console, and pulled his car out onto Post Street.
When I asked why we didn’t Trace to his house, he’d said because he’d driven. In other words, he was wounded, although there weren’t any visible wounds.
“Abby will be pleased to see you,” he said.
I wasn’t friends with Abby, but I’d helped her escape the vampire who was responsible for her Transition. “She’d prefer Damien.” But Waleron would never let that happen.
“She is a vampire, Delara. It’s impossible for them. And better this way.”
“She’s a witch vampire. And it’s impossible because you don’t believe in love conquering all.” Damien loved Abby. He’d begged Waleron to end his life when Abby left to be executed.
“A vampire’s craving will always win over love, maitagarri. In time, perhaps Damien can be told.”
“He’ll hate you.”
He shrugged.
Of course, others hating him were of no concern. He did what he thought was best and screw everyone’s feelings. Emotions rarely got in the way of his decisions—until now. Because me going to his house was purely emotional.
Waleron changed gears, then put his hand on top of mine resting on my thigh. His thumb rhythmically stroked back and forth across the back of my hand. It was a gesture I hadn’t anticipated from him.
I didn’t want to pull away, but should’ve. Every touch by him only made us worse.
“You will never discuss where I live. Ever.” Fair enough. “A few rooms remain locked. Do not attempt to open them. For any reason.” Okay, so he had more secrets locked away. “And despite what I show you tonight, you will not speak of the Lilac. Do you understand me?”
“Tac, I know your kaleidoscope of rules.”
“Then you know that I will accept nothing but compliance from you in my house.”
“I can follow a few rules when I have to.”
His brows lifted. “Can you, Delara?”
Asshole. “I’ve always broken rules and I can fuck whoever I want. I’m single, remember.”
“You’re trying to hurt me.” I didn’t say anything. “How long have you been with Xamien, Delara?”
Sometimes, I didn’t feel like a Scar at all. I was weak and vulnerable, and loving Waleron had made me that way. No, I made me that way.
“Delara.”
“A while.”
He glanced at me and I recognized the unyielding scowl. “When you fucked Trinity, I went to Xamien.”
More silence and his hand slipped from mine.
He turned at the next corner and stopped at a red light. When he looked at me, his eyes were… haunted. The steely ice blue had dissipated to a bluish gray and swirled with black. His jaw clenched and temples throbbed
“I never wanted to be with her, maitagarri. It was business. We required her visions. You know this.”
It had been a bargain. He sacrificed himself for Trinity’s visions, but it ruined a piece of me. It destroyed my faith in our love.
I’d thought our love would overcome whatever distance Waleron had put between us because of the Lilac. Him agreeing to sleep with Trinity proved how wrong I was. It had been the beginning of my pain.
“I’m asking you to stop seeing him, Delara. I cannot…. I know what I am asking is wrong, but understand that…. Jesus.” He ran his hand over the top of his head then pounded his fist into the steering wheel. “He is one man who can take you from me.”
That was the issue. He saw in Xamien what was more dangerous than Liam and Edan: Xamien had the capability to make me forget him. He was the one man who could steal me away and Waleron might not be able to stop him.
I replied softly, “I’m not yours for him to take away, Tac.”
His hands tightened around the steering wheel, the leather crackling beneath the pressure. The light changed to green, but before he accelerated, his head snapped to the right. I sensed it at the same time.
“Delara!” Waleron slammed my head down into my lap as a bullet smashed through the back window, grazing Waleron’s right ear. He pressed on the gas and the car swerved through the intersection.
“Shit. Tarek.”
He revved the engine and the car jolted forward as he made a sudden turn onto the ramp for the highway.
I peeked over my shoulder and saw a dark SUV following us. I grabbed the gun attached to my belt and rolled down my window.
My shoulder hit the door as Waleron cranked the wheel left and we skidded across three lanes on the highway.
“Delara, stay down.”
I had already tried to track who was in the SUV, but the scent of fish and garlic muffled the smell. The same as when Xamien was shot with the dart. Whoever it was knew I was a Tracker and was using other scents to hide their own. “They are masking their scent.”
I undid my seat belt and leaned out the window. I shot off two rounds, but both missed as the SUV swerved back and forth through traffic. A shot rang back and Waleron grabbed me by the back of the jeans, hauling me inside the car.
Another two bullets narrowly missed Waleron’s head. But another one hadn’t, and blood soaked into his gray T-shirt on his shoulder.
“Tac.” Shit. I leaned over and pressed my hand to the wound while Waleron maneuvered through the traffic. “I need to stop the bleeding.”
He didn’t say anything as I ripped off part of my shirt and quickly made a makeshift pressure bandage. “It should hold until we get back to Anstice.”
I reloaded, climbed over the backseat, and kicked out what was left of the back window. My shot broke their windshield and the SUV swerved, then slowed for several seconds before speeding up again.
“Delara, call the others. Tell them our location.” Waleron went onto the shoulder to get past a traffic jam.
I ducked down in the backseat and dialed Jedrik’s number—no signal. I tried Keir’s—no signal. Oh God, they had to be jamming it. “They’re jamming our cells.”
If it was Tarek, he knew damn well we were too far away from any of the others to speak telepathically—except Danni. He wouldn’t know about Balen’s maite, Danni.
The SUV gained on us and slammed into the back bumper, sending me onto the floor. I grabbed the gun that went flying and tried to aim, but the SUV rammed us again and my shot went wild, dinging the roof of the SUV.
“Christ,” Waleron growled as another car came up beside us.
It hammered into the passenger door, sending Waleron’s car onto the shoulder. “Delara—” Waleron’s words were cut off as the car jerked into us again, this time so hard we went off the shoulder into the deep ditch. I held on to the seat as the car rolled twice before landing on its roof.
“Delara? Baby. Fuck.”
I groaned as I tried to clear my head, pulling myself up. Waleron had blood above his right brow where he must have banged his head in the roll. “I’m okay.”
Waleron climbed over the seat, his eyes running over me as if to make sure I was all in one piece. “Look at me,” he said.
Then it hit me.
“Tarek,” I whispered. “Tarek is here.” His scent was all around me and in my mind the instinct to run clashed with the desire to kill him for what he’d done.
Could I face Tarek again? Just the thought of seeing his face, the way his black eyes had watched me…. God, it had been twenty years and it suddenly felt like yesterday.
“Baby, you good?”
I inhaled a deep, shaky breath. “I’m good. Let’s get out of here.” Pulling my knife from my boot, I crawled through the broken window. Waleron fired off a few shots—there was no return fire—then crawled out after me.
“Head to that building over there.” Waleron nodded to the northeast. “I’ll cover you.”
I nodded.
“Delara?”
I sucked in air and my stomach lurched at the sound of Tarek’s voice.
Waleron cupped my chin, his fingers bruising. “Do not listen to his voice. Block him out. Do not let him into your mind.”
I swallowed the bile in my throat. That wasn’t so easy; it was like he had a pull on me and I couldn’t stop it.
Waleron’s grip tightened. “Delara! I need you here with me now.”
I heard Waleron’s voice, yet I was trapped in the past. My past. With Tarek. What he’d done. His control over me. The pain. God, there’d been so much pain.
What if I didn’t go to him this time? What if I fought back? No. I shook my head, trying to break the hold his voice had over me.
“Delara. Be a good girl and don’t fight me,” Tarek called from the other side of the car. His voice crept across my mind, images shooting like electricity through my body, and I dropped my knife.
Waleron shook my shoulders. “Delara!”
The sound of police sirens was the distraction I needed.
“Baby.” I intertwined our fingers. “We need to get the hell out of here. I am ordering you to run. Run, damn it. Do you hear me?” That did it. Her eyes narrowed and her chin lifted. “Get your ass moving.” She was a fighter, but when it came to Tarek, something happened.
Tarek’s fuckin’ voice was like flicking a switch to her nightmare. I’d seen the result of what he’d done to her, and it played with her mind to hear him again after twenty years.
Holding her hand, we ran across the parking lot of a low office building, and squealing tires followed us. My shoulder hurt like hell and bled through the bandage.
Tarek knew to wound me so I was unable to Trace, although he didn’t know I’d already been wounded. That’s why they’d been aiming for me.
I glanced over my shoulder and saw the SUV pull a U-turn and disappear around a corner while the other car came after us.
Delara stumbled and fell to her knees.
I hauled her up and went to put my arm around her waist, but she was already running. “I’m good.”
We rounded the side of the building and slammed our backs to the wall while I reloaded my gun. “Cops are on our tail. We start shooting, we’re going to have more trouble than we can handle. I’ve contacted Danni. Balen is on his way and has called in the others.”
Two car doors slammed shut.
“We’re going to have to fight them.”
She nodded.
“Block out his voice, Delara. He has a hold over you.”
She held up her knife. “This is for him.”
Fuck, I wanted to kiss her.
Her nose scrunched and eyes narrowed. “Something’s wrong. There’s the scent of—”
A golden rope dropped around her neck from above and before either of us could get our hands on it, the rope jerked and tightened like a noose.
I unsheathed my knife and sliced at the rope but as soon as the blade touched the rope’s golden fibers, I was thrown back several feet and landed on my ass.
“Delara,” I shouted, jumping to my feet and running for her.
Her hands pawed at the rope, desperate to loosen it. She coughed and choked on the small amount of air she managed to breathe in.
Laughter came from the right, not from where the SUV had been parked. Jesus, the other car had come around in the opposite direction. A man walked out from the shadows with a gun in his hand pointed at me.
Tarek.
I didn’t hesitate as I threw a wave of energy at Tarek, but it bounced off him. Fuck, he was shielded. Who the hell was shielding him?
Tarek flicked his wrist to someone above. The other end of the rope flew through the air, and Tarek grabbed it.
He yanked, knocking Delara off her feet.
I bent and grabbed my knife from my boot then dove for Delara.
“I wouldn’t,” Tarek said as he tightened the noose while she frantically pulled at it.
I skidded to a stop.
Tarek walked toward Delara and pulled her to her feet by the noose. “Only I can release the rope. She dies, it doesn’t matter to me. If I can’t have her then no one will.”
I lowered my knife, eyes shifting to Delara, who was breathing raggedly. “Danni. Need the Scars here now.”
“Balen and Damien are two minutes out.”
I sensed the two men coming up behind me.
Tarek loosened the noose and Delara bent over, sucking in gulps of air. “Where were you running, Delara? I told you what would happen if you ever left me, didn’t I?”
Delara’s face blanched.
Jesus Christ, what the hell did this man do to her for years? Why hadn’t Jedrik and Keir fuckin’ done anything?
But I knew the answer. Delara had been broken. Fragmented, and she’d have hidden it from the other Scars, whether in fear of Tarek or because she’d given up.
“Come here, Delara.”
The indecision on Delara’s face was a haunting image. Disgust. Fear.
Tarek left nothing to be decided as he tugged on the rope and she fell to her knees on the pavement.
My roar of outrage was uncontrollable as my Ink awakened, and I dove for her.
The two men tried to grab me, but with a weak blast I sent them back enough to give me time.
Tarek laughed and I sent another blast of energy at him, but again it bounced off Tarek’s shield and this time it came back at me full force, sending me crashing into the brick wall.
I climbed to my feet as Tarek dragged Delara up against his chest.
“Waleron, don’t fight him. Please. You can’t fight him alone, not with his shield.”
She was right, but I couldn’t accept that. I’d rather die.
Why the hell hadn’t the bastard been sent to Rest for eternity? Why had the Wraiths been so forgiving with his sentence? Even Zurina had asked for mercy on Tarek. She’d thought he was redeemable. Did any of them know the extent of his abuse? Zurina had. But the Wraiths had only seen Delara after she was healed.
“You were supposed to be dead,” Tarek seethed.
“Yeah, well, I’m not.” I flew across the alley toward them.
Tarek tightened the rope and instantly Delara choked and fell to her knees, just as my knife plunged straight for Tarek’s heart.
I was hoping it would crack his shield, but it bounced off it and landed on the ground, and the impact sent me crashing to the pavement.
Tarek dragged Delara to his SUV and she struggled against him until he jerked on the rope. “Get in the car.”
I got to my feet and went after them. “Delara. Do not get in that car. Damien and Balen are coming. Call your Ink, baby.”
“What do you gain by this?” I shouted at Tarek, trying to give us more time.
“I gain my maite!” Tarek spit.
“She was never your maite, and she will never be yours. She is mine. Always has been,” I said.
“And I need you safe.” Delara’s words whispered across my mind.
What the hell was she saying? No. Never. “Delara, your Ink. Use it. Now.”
“I can’t.”
“What the hell do you mean?”
“He killed it. A long time ago.”
“Fuck. Fuck! Jesus.” I had never sworn so much in my life, but everything was caving in around me. My woman’s Ink was killed. The bastard had killed it. The thought was unbearable. But what impacted me more was that I hadn’t known. How did I not know? Fuck, there was so much of Delara that I’d missed.
Delara lifted her leg to get in the SUV and I sent a ball of energy at her legs. It sent her off her feet, into the door, and to the ground. Tarek hadn’t expected me to aim at Delara and his hand slipped on the rope.
“No!” Tarek yelled.
I ran and dove on top of her motionless body.
She was stunned from the blast, but I hadn’t put enough energy behind it to harm her. I placed my hands into the loop of the rope before Tarek had the chance to pull it.
The second my bare hands wrapped around it, it seared my palms and I smelled burning flesh.
Tarek jerked on it.
Delara’s hands appeared as she tried to help me release the rope. It refused to budge.
“Waleron, leave me.”
“Never ask me to do that!” I said through gritted teeth. “I will never leave you. Ever.”
My hands were so burnt I couldn’t hold on any longer.
Suddenly the rope gave way.
We both yanked it off her neck then I fell back, taking Delara with me, arms wrapped around her as I rolled so she was protected beneath me.
“Delara? Waleron?” Balen charged into the alley, Damien on his heels.
The SUV was empty and Tarek was gone.
“Take her to the Talde house. Lock it down,” I ordered. “I’ll be back to Trace her to Spain.” Then I Traced to the Realm.