Thirteen
Being chained naked to the stone altar was every bit as bad as I remembered. The only difference was the moon overhead wasn’t full this time and it wasn’t ropes that bound my arms but real silver manacles that burned and chafed my wrists. Apparently Frank and the other alphas weren’t taking any chances that I might escape. They hadn’t bothered with putting silver on my legs, though—they didn’t need to. My ankles had been tied with a thick rope to a kind of pulley system at the end of the altar so no matter how hard I tried to close my legs, I couldn’t manage it.
The altar was set in the middle of a small clearing, surrounded by the woods that were the pack’s hunting grounds. The stones were rough and cold under my back and a cool breeze played over my naked body, making me shiver. I felt horribly exposed, laid out bare and helpless as the uncaring moon wheeled overhead and the alphas of the Arm Gard pack surrounded me. They were all shirtless and silent, their bare chests gleaming in the silvery moonlight. But I could still feel their eyes on me, wolf gold and as cold as the surface of the moon, as they stared at me dispassionately and waited for the ceremony to begin.
I closed my eyes to shut it out, praying it would be over quickly. But since Engle had been waiting fourteen years to have me, it didn’t seem likely that he would settle for a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am approach. Calm. Be calm. You can get through this. You’ll be all right. I didn’t know why I was trying to calm myself down—maybe going into full panic attack mode would put Engle off fucking me. Then again, he might enjoy it even more and I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.
“Well, well—so the prodigal returns.” It was Engle’s voice in my ear and I jumped—or would have if the silver chains and ropes hadn’t been holding me down.
“Leave me alone,” I said but with no conviction. There was no way he was going to leave me alone. He had me right where he’d wanted me and he was going to make the most of it.
Engle stood up and raised his arms over his head. He always was all about the drama. “Brothers of the Arm Gard pack, tonight we come to the end of an era. For tonight I will step down and name another to take my place—but first I have a little bit of unfinished business to attend to.” Deep, trollish laughter greeted his words. Engle smiled to acknowledge his own wit and continued.
“Fourteen years ago when I ascended as your pack master I was promised this girl’s virginity to mark the occasion. Well, as most of you know, that didn’t happen. Luz Velez,” he continued, looking down at me. “You stand accused of willfully refusing to shift in order to avoid giving your pack master his due.”
“I don’t owe you anything,” I said angrily, yanking at the chains that held me down. “I was thirteen when my parents offered me to you—too young to consent to any kind of sex, especially with a man twenty years older than me, you sick fuck.”
There were angry murmurs from the alphas of the pack and Engle leaned down and slapped my face. It must have looked like a casual blow to those observing but the force of it rocked my head to one side and split my lip. I tasted the warm copper flavor of my own blood and there was a ringing in my ears that hadn’t been there before.
Clearly it was a warning but I didn’t care. I spat the blood in Engle’s direction and had the grim satisfaction of seeing it speckle his cheeks. He wiped his face with one hand in a quick, angry motion. “You’ll pay for that.”
I was sure I would but I was sick of being a victim, sick of hiding in the shadows and trying not to think of what he’d done to me. “Fuck you,” I said and the alphas murmured again. Some of them even came forward but Engle held up a hand.
“As I said, Luz Velez is finally being brought to justice after all these years. I regret, however, that her virginity is gone—given to another when it should have been saved for me and me alone.”
“She should be punished!” shouted one deep male voice that I recognized as Frank’s.
Engle nodded. “And so she will be. For I will have this girl and though I am not the first, nor will I be the last.” He looked at me, a cruel smile playing around his slash of a mouth. “Luz Velez, it is my ruling that tonight every alpha in the Arm Gard pack will taste your favors. Beginning with me.”
“What?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “You-you can’t do this,” I said frantically. “There’s no law that allows you—”
“As pack master I am the law.” Engle gave me an ugly grin. “Prepare to be mounted, bitch.”
I closed my eyes, trying desperately to remember the dulce de leche flavor of Jude’s blood, trying to keep the panic from overtaking me. But I couldn’t breathe and my heart was pounding so hard it felt as if it were trying to break through my ribs with a sledgehammer. Oh God, I can’t…I can’t…
“Stop!” Another voice rang out, just as Engle was about to climb on the altar with me.
My eyes flew open and I saw Diego standing there, shirtless in the moonlight.
Engle snarled and suddenly there was a gun in his hand and it was pointed at my little brother. “What do you want, cub? We’re conducting a ceremony and you’re trespassing on our pack grounds.”
“I want my sister, untied and unharmed. Let her go, Engle, you fucking pendejo, or I swear to God I’m gonna rip you apart.” Diego’s eyes were wolf gold in the moonlight but he was all alone this time and Engle knew it.
“Move along.” He waved the gun in a menacing manner. “Or would you prefer to be shot? This gun is loaded with silver bullets—you’d never survive.”
“My pack will take revenge if you dare,” Diego warned.
Engle laughed. “No, they won’t. Your pack master is very unhappy with you right now—he’d know you got what was coming to you.”
I wanted to beg Diego to just go, to run as fast and as far as he could. If Engle said he would shoot, I had no doubt that he would. There was no way Diego could save me without backup and there was no sense in him being killed to save me from a fate I seemed doomed to endure.
But before I could say anything, Diego took a deep breath. “Pack Master Engle,” he said in an official tone I had never heard him use before. “I offer you formal challenge for the rights to my sister, Luz Velez.”
“Diego, no!” I gasped, having finally found my voice. But neither man paid any attention to me.
“Formal challenge, hmmm?” Engle frowned. “You’re really a glutton for punishment, aren’t you, cub?”
“Unless you’re too chickenshit to accept.” Diego bared his teeth in a silent growl.
Engle shrugged. “Formal challenge it is.” He nodded at the alpha standing closest to him. “Darius, take him out.”
I could barely stand to watch what followed. Darius, who was built like a Mack Truck, lumbered toward my much smaller brother. I was afraid he would bulldoze right over Diego but that didn’t happen. At the last minute Diego stepped aside and stuck out a leg to trip him. The other alpha went down and then Diego was on his back. He grabbed the other male’s head and twisted until a low cracking sound echoed through the forest around us.
It was only then, when my brother got up and turned to face Engle and the other alphas again, that it really hit home with me. This was a fight to the death and in order to free me, Diego was going to have to take on every one of the fifteen remaining alphas and Engle as well and kill them all. Even as fast and as deadly as he was, there was no way he could do it. He would get tired or injured and one of them would kill him instead.
“Please,” I murmured to Engle, pitching my voice so that only he could hear. “Please, just let him go home. I…I’ll give you what you want. I won’t even struggle, I swear.”
Engle uttered a harsh, barking laugh. “Stupid little bitch—don’t you know the struggle is part of the fun? Besides, I think it’ll be much more entertaining to fuck you after you watch your brother die trying to save you. This little family drama is really whetting my appetite.”
“You cold-hearted bastard,” I snarled but he only laughed again.
“You should have given it up back when I first took over the pack, Luz. Think how much pain and suffering you could have saved if you’d just shifted like you were supposed to and let me have you afterward. Now shut up and let me watch the fight.”
I wanted to say more—to curse him and call him names. But just then he called another alpha out to fight Diego and I watched, my heart in my throat, to see what would happen.
This time Diego wasn’t quite fast enough to avoid taking some punches. One of them landed squarely in his face and I was horrified to see his left eye begin to swell shut. Still, he finally managed to get the other male in a chokehold and after a horribly long time, the body stopped twitching and he dropped it in the grass beside the first alpha.
“Next.” He glared at Engle with his one good eye. “Come on, you hijo de puta, why don’t you face me yourself? Or are you so scared you have to hide behind your wolves?”
If he was hoping to shame Engle into fighting him right away instead of waiting until the last alpha of the Arm Gard pack was killed, he failed. Engle only laughed and sent another alpha up against him. And another and another.
Finally five bodies lay scattered in the grass at Diego’s feet—five alphas who had died because Engle was determined to have what he wanted—me. Diego was bloody and bruised and barely able to stay on his feet but his face was still rigid with determination. I wanted to beg him to leave but it was far too late. If he ran now the other alphas would pursue him and tear him to bits.
My brother was going to die and it was all my fault.
Engle seemed to know that Diego was on his last legs because he turned to my brother-in-law and nodded. “Frank, finish him off.”
Frank grinned and stepped out onto the bloody grass. “Come on, you little shit. I never liked you anyway.”
“Right back at you, fucker.” Diego spat blood to one side and began to circle warily. “You and Essie deserve each other. You’re both assholes.”
Frank yelled and charged forward, just as the first alpha had. Diego stepped out of the way but at the last moment, Frank changed course. I realized that he had been counting on Diego’s move and Diego must have realized it too—a moment too late. He tried to get out of the way but a split second later Frank had him down on the ground with his teeth in Diego’s throat.
“No!” I screamed as. And to my surprise, another, deeper voice echoed me.
“No. Let her go. Let both of them go.”
I looked up to see Jude step out of the shadows of the trees and into the moonlight. He was shirtless too and the white skin of his broad chest gleamed like pure silver. His eyes were coal red and filled with a rage so frightening my blood ran cold. His appearance must have frightened more than me because I heard a low murmur go through the ranks of the alphas behind me.
Frank sat up, his mouth covered in Diego’s blood, and looked back at Engle uncertainly. “Pack master?”
“I know who you are.” Engle took a step forward, looking at Jude. “You’re the son of a bitch who skinned Jack Evans, the Clear Water pack master. What the fuck are you doing here?”
“The girl is mine. And I would not see her brother hurt either—she loves him.” Jude lifted his head, his eyes glowing so brightly they actually cast shadows on the ground. “I will give you this one chance to keep your hide, Engle, though you deserve death many times over. Let Luz and her brother go now and I will spare your life.”
Engle spat to one side, his eyes never leaving Jude’s. “You’re outnumbered and you have no power here. Fuck off.”
“Very well, if that is your choice.” Suddenly Jude was a blur. Everything happened so fast that I couldn’t see what he was doing, only the results of his actions. I watched, unable to do anything, as the slaughter began.
Frank was the first to go. Jude pulled him off Diego and ripped out his throat but before he could even sink to his knees with the arterial blood pulsing out in spurts, another alpha was going down. And another and another.
All around there were strangled screams that turned into bloody gurgles. The men behind me tried to run or fight but I could see from the corner of my eye that they were dropping like flies. And then there was only Engle left.
Suddenly Jude was in front of him. His mouth and chin and chest were covered in blood but his eyes were cold. “Now,” he told Engle. “You die.”
“No, now you die, you fanged son of a bitch.” Engle raised the gun he’d been holding concealed by his leg and fired at Jude at point-blank range.
I watched in horror as a large bloody hole opened on the left side of Jude’s chest and the light in his eyes died, from red to his normal pale green.
“Luz…” He fell to his knees and looked up at me.
“Jude.” I was crying and fighting the silver chains but I couldn’t get free. “Jude, no!”
“Forgive me, beloved.” He slumped over onto the ground and was silent.
“No! No!” I screamed. But it was useless—all my screaming couldn’t bring Jude back. As powerful as he was, I knew a point-blank shot with a silver bullet was lethal to any vamp or were.
Engle poked Jude’s body with one boot. “I guess that’s the vamp you gave your virginity to. Too bad he didn’t live to come back for seconds.”
“You son of a bitch! I hate you!” I spat at him again but he just laughed.
“This is one hell of a mess we’re gonna have to clean up,” he said with disgust. “Having you has turned out to be harder than I thought. But it looks like I won in the end, didn’t I?” He grinned and leaned over me.
My mind was in a whirl. Jude was dead and Diego probably was too. All the other alphas of the Arm Gard pack lay dead or dying and Engle, sick fuck that he was, still wanted to have sex with me.
“Get off me!” I screamed but just then something very strange happened. Engle’s face went from looking satisfied to surprised and his eyes flew from my face down to his chest. I followed his gaze with my own and saw something I’d never seen before.
Sticking out of the center of Engle’s chest was a bloody arm and in its hand was a still-beating heart. As I watched, the hand turned into a fist and crushed the bloody muscle to a dark and dripping pulp. Then Engle’s eyes glazed over and he slumped to the ground.
Standing behind him was a vampire I had never seen before. He had pale skin and light brown hair and, of course, one very bloody hand and arm.
“Who are you?” I gasped as he went through Engle’s pockets and found the key to my manacles.
“Gavin,” he said shortly, unlocking the chains and going to work on the ropes that bound my feet. Apparently the knots frustrated him because he leaned down and just bit through them, his fangs working as quickly and neatly as a pair of shears.
“Gavin.” I sat up looked at him in surprise. “Diego’s vampire?”
He grinned, flashing his fangs. “Or you could call him my werewolf, I guess. Do you want to save him?”
I wasn’t sure what he was talking about until I realized he was looking at Jude’s body.
“Can I?” Jude had landed facedown and I leaned against his shoulder and grunted, trying to push him over on his back so I could get to him.
“There is still a spark of life—I can sense it. But it is dying fast.” Gavin, who was already bending over Diego, looked up and frowned at me. “I ask you again, do you want to save him? I only ask because he could have killed me when he came looking for you tonight but he didn’t.”
“Yes,” I said, knowing it was true. “Yes, I want to save him.”
“No matter what the cost? He is a very powerful incubus and there is a bond between you that is more than half formed. You can be free of him and his influence forever if you wish.”
“I don’t want to be free of him.” I started to cry. “Please…just tell me how to save him.”
“Give him your blood.” Gavin bit his own wrist and held it to Diego’s mouth. My brother choked at first and then began to swallow. “It won’t bond you to him unless you take some of his in exchange. But you will be close…very close to the final step. Letting only one drop of his blood pass your lips after this will bind you to him for eternity.”
“I don’t care about that. Not now.” Lifting my wrist to my teeth, I did as Gavin had and bit down hard, shredding the tender bracelet of veins beneath my skin. It hurt like hell since I was already silver burned but that couldn’t be helped. I pressed my wounded wrist to Jude’s mouth and prayed.
At first the blood ran out of the corners of his mouth and I cursed in frustration. “Jude,” I whispered. “Jude, please…please drink. Please.”
Then, so faintly I was afraid I had imagined it, I felt his mouth move against my skin. It happened again and this time there was a faint suction at the place where I had bitten myself. I almost cried with happiness as I felt him draw my blood into his mouth. And slowly but surely the ragged hole in his chest began to close.
I don’t know how long I fed him or how much he took but it must have been a lot because I started to see black spots dancing in front of my eyes. Then Gavin was suddenly by my side.
“Pull away. You’re too small to completely replenish him—he’ll kill you.”
I tried but I was too weak or Jude’s suction on my arm was too strong. Gavin seemed to see the problem.
“Incubus.” He slapped Jude’s cheek until Jude’s eyelids fluttered up, revealing eyes that were a normal pale green. “You’re killing her,” Gavin said, glaring at the other vampire. “Let her go now or watch her die.”
“Luz?” Jude stopped sucking and his eyes focused on mine. “Are you all right?”
“I think we both are.” I was half laughing, half crying. I looked at Gavin. “Is Diego okay?”
“He will be fine. I will take him home and nurse him.” He turned and looked over to where my brother was sitting up and rubbing his head like he was getting over a terrible headache. “Are you all right, lover?”
“Yeah, yeah.” Diego staggered to his feet and shambled over to us. “Mira, Gavin, don’t call me that in front of my sister.” He looked embarrassed.
“Forgive me, sweetheart.” Gavin smiled at him and though Diego was scowling, I could tell he wasn’t really mad.
“Luz?” he asked. “Are you okay?” He was trying to look me over for injuries without actually looking at me and I realized I was still nude.
I looked at Gavin appealingly. “Uh, I know I barely know you but do you think you could loan me your shirt? You’re the only one wearing one.”
“Never let it be said that I would not give the shirt off my back to a lady in need.” He took off his shirt—which was a white poet-type deal with lace at the neck and flowing sleeves—and handed it to me. There was a pattern of blood drops sprayed across the front of it but I slipped it on gratefully anyway.
“Thanks. You’re already an improvement over my last brother-in-law.”
“Which one was that?” Jude asked, looking up at me.
“That would be Frank—the first one you killed.” I blinked back sudden tears. Frank had been an asshole and Essie was a bitch but now their kids were fatherless. What a horrible night, and all because of me!
I didn’t want to think about it. “Come on. Let’s get you home,” I told Jude. I tried to help him sit up but both of us were in pretty bad shape. In the end Gavin did most of the heavy lifting and then the four of us, Gavin, Diego, Jude and I, staggered out to Diego’s car.
Gavin drove since he was in the best shape. He and Diego sat in the front and had a whispered argument while Jude and I slumped in the back.
“You shouldn’t have come after me,” Diego was telling his lover in a low voice. “I had it handled.”
“I had to come. I couldn’t let you go to certain death alone.”
“Well, I for one am glad you showed up,” Jude said to Gavin. “I am assuming you are the one who finished off that bastard, Engle?”
“He did—just in time. He, uh, crushed his heart.” I shivered at the memory of Gavin’s bloody arm with Engle’s still-beating heart crushed in his fist.
“Good,” Jude and Diego said at once.
Diego turned his head to grin at Jude. “Looks like you and I finally agree on something, hermano.”
Jude smiled back. “I think you might be right. I am glad you were there to defend Luz—I would have been too late.”
“And I’m glad you showed up when you did. You, uh, kinda saved my ass,” Diego admitted. “I know I didn’t care for you much in the past but you’re all right with me, ‘mano.”
“What? Why will you thank the incubus and not your own lover?” Gavin turned his head to glare at my brother who blushed dark red in the dim light of the dash.
“Damn it, Gavin, I told you don’t call me that in front of my sister.”
“It’s okay, really.” I reached over the seat and put a hand on Diego’s arm. “And I want to thank all of you for saving me. I just wish…I just wish it hadn’t been necessary in the first place.” My voice was suddenly choked with tears and then Jude was pulling me into his arms.
“Luz,” he murmured softly. “Luz, it’s all right. It’s over now.”
“All that blood. All that violence. And it was my fault,” I whispered. “All my fault.”
“Don’t talk like that, Luz,” Diego said fiercely. “It was that cabrón Engle’s fault. He’s the one who started the whole mess.”
“I know.” I wiped at my eyes with the long sleeves of Gavin’s shirt but the tears kept coming. “But if I had just shifted and let…let him have what he wanted all those years ago—”
“You were a child being abused.” Jude stroked my hair. “It wasn’t your fault. It was a burden too heavy for anyone to bear.”
“Jude is right. Mom and Dad and Essie and Frank—the whole damn pack, really—have some fucked-up ideas.” Diego shook his head. “I’m not going to talk to them or see them anymore, Luz, and I don’t think you should either.”
I took a deep breath and sat up. “Well, there go our plans for a big family Christmas.” But my efforts at sarcasm only made me cry again because I started thinking of Essie’s kids having their first Christmas without their dad.
“Come here.” Jude pulled me to him and I nestled my face in his shoulder and let myself go, let the tears flow like a river down his bloodstained chest.
But even as he held me and whispered soothing things into my ear, I wondered if he was secretly enjoying the taste of my misery and that thought in itself made me even more miserable. I wept until I thought my heart would break and not only for the pain and bloodshed I had caused that night. I wept because despite everything that had happened, I still wasn’t sure about Jude.
And I was very, very careful not to get any of his blood in my mouth.