Chapter Fifteen
Aidan’s claws slid over her cheek, his touch as soft as a whisper, not so much as scratching her skin.
Jane’s breath eased out on a ragged sigh. “I’m afraid.”
His nostrils flared. “I can smell your fear.” He smiled at her as his claws slid down her neck. “I like that scent.”
She caught his hand, held tight. “No, you don’t. You hate it when I’m afraid.”
Aidan just stared down at her. Such a cold, empty stare.
“You love me,” she told him. “You don’t ever want me to be afraid.”
His brow furrowed.
“I know you’re in there.” Jane tightened her grip on him. “And I’m going to get you out. I’m—”
He lifted her up and they seemed to fly across the club. In the next instant, she was sitting on the bar, and he was standing between her legs. He’d grabbed her wrists, and he’d pinned them to the bar top, one on either side of her body.
Jane stared at him and remembered him making love to her. Right there.
But when he looked back at her, his gaze was that of a hunter, one who was about to devour his prey.
“Aidan…” Jane began.
And he bit her. He moved so fast that she didn’t realize his intent, not until it was too late. Jane had still thought that she could reach him. But he sank his fangs into her throat and the white-hot sting of his bite stole her breath. He drank from her, seeming to glory in her taste. Because this was Aidan—her Aidan—her body responded to him. Her breasts ached, her sex yearned.
He licked her neck. “I like that.” His voice rasped against her. “I’ll take more.” His fangs raked over her skin.
“Stop!” She yanked her wrists from his grasp and slammed her hands against his chest.
His head lifted.
“Aidan…” Chill bumps were on her arms. “Say my name.”
His eyes narrowed.
“Say my name,” Jane ordered again, frantic, desperate. Because he was gazing at her as if she were a stranger and that scared her most of all. Whatever was happening inside of him, Jane needed Aidan to remember her. To remember them. To remember what they were to each other. “Do you even know who I am?”
His fangs flashed. “Yes.” A hiss. “I know…you’re mine.” His head came back toward her, lowering over her neck.
He was going to bite her again.
“No!”
Jane shoved him, hard. Hard enough that he stumbled back and slammed into a nearby table. Her breath sawed out of her lungs as she jumped off the bar. “Aidan.” Now she snapped out his name. “Aidan, get your shit together and get it together now. Because this isn’t you.”
He’d shattered the table and fallen to the floor. He glared up at her, snarling, and he shot to his feet. He swiped out at her with his claws, but Jane jumped back, dodging the attack.
“What are you doing?” Jane yelled at him. “Don’t make me hurt you.” That wasn’t what she wanted. She never wanted to hurt Aidan. She loved him too much.
That love was why she was standing there right then, why she was so desperate to reach him. To get past the darkness and find her lover.
“Hurt me?” He laughed, and it was a guttural, brutal sound. Not Aidan’s laugh. “Come try.” He opened his arms to her, spreading them wide. “Nothing can hurt me. No one. I’m a fucking alpha.”
Her chin notched up as she began to circle him.
“I like the way you smell.” He turned, keeping his gaze on her as she moved around the bar. “Like the way you taste even better.”
“Aidan, stop this.” Because the tension was getting worse. She could feel it thickening in the room. He was going to attack, she knew it. And when he did… “I don’t want to lose us.”
He smiled at her, flashing fangs. “I think I’ll like the way you fuck, too.”
He is a stranger. Where is my Aidan? “Trust me, you love the way I fuck.” She grabbed one of the broken chair legs. Held it tight. “But that’s because you love me, and you need to remember that, right now. Because if you do anything to me…oh, Aidan, it will destroy you once you get past this darkness. The guilt will eat you alive.” She knew it. “I matter too much to you.”
He leapt at her. Jane hit out, swinging with the chair leg, but he just ripped it from her hand. He shattered that wood with a careless grip, then he was holding her, shoving her back against the wall and caging her with his body. “I don’t think…” he whispered. “You matter much at all.”
Pain knifed through her. White-hot agony because it was a blow straight to her heart. “No, you remember me…somewhere inside, I know you do. You remember everything. You said I was yours…because you know I am. Just as you’re mine. You came to Hell’s Gate because this place is your haven. You came here because you wanted to be safe. You—”
“You have my mark on you.” His claws slid down and rested in the spot where her neck curved into her shoulder, the spot he’d marked before. “I can feel it. That’s how I know you’re mine.”
She searched his eyes, wanting more than an animal instinct of recognition. “And this place? You came back to Hell—”
“My scent was all over this building, so I know it’s mine, too.” Once more, he gave that rough laugh. “This whole town will be mine. I’ll take everything. I’ll destroy the humans in my path. I’ll make the cities fucking red with blood. I’ll show them all the power I possess.”
A tear slid down her cheek. “This isn’t you.”
“It’s very, very much me.”
“I did this,” Jane whispered. “My blood. Mixing with yours…the wolf and the vamp were battling inside you, but in that fight, something happened to the man you were.”
Aidan nodded and he gave her that cold smile. “He died.”
“No—”
But his fangs were coming at her again.
***
Annette stared down at the biggest chunk of black glass. The image of hell had faded and now she saw Aidan. He stood alone in a cemetery, with his hands clenched at his sides. Grief ravaged his face. Torment. She could feel his pain. It was ripping him apart because…
Jane was gone.
A massive mausoleum waited in front of Aidan. The doors were chained. Aidan took a step toward that desolate place—
“Ms. Benoit?” Garrison poked her shoulder. “You okay? You’ve been staring at that glass for a while.”
She blinked and rose to her feet. Dizziness rolled through her, but Garrison steadied her with his strong grip. “Aidan.”
“He’s not here yet,” Garrison spoke softly. “Shouldn’t he be here? What’s taking him so long?”
Annette tried to pull in a deep breath. Her lungs felt empty. “You need to get to him.”
Alarm flashed on Garrison’s face. “Why?” His gaze dipped down to the mirror. “What did you see?”
Aidan is going to hurt Jane. “Go to him. He’s in Hell’s Gate.” That was why she’d seen hell. Sometimes, her visions weren’t literal. “Stop him.”
Garrison nodded and surged away from her, but then…
He stopped.
Garrison turned back to face her, his hands clenched. “I…I can’t.”
She cast a quick look at Paris. He stared at her with a ravenous gaze. She licked her lips then dragged her gaze back to Garrison. “Why not?”
“My alpha gave me an order.” Garrison marched toward her. “He told me to protect Paris, and that’s what I’m going to do. I won’t break my alpha’s command.”
Are you freaking kidding me? “Even if your alpha suffers for it?”
Garrison bit his lip, but…nodded. “I swore to protect Paris, and that’s what I’m going to do.”
Oh, hell. Now he was going to be a rule follower. “You damn well better protect him.” She jabbed her finger into Garrison’s chest. “And do not cross that dirt line until I get back.” She was actually starting to worry about just how much longer that dirt of the dead would work. It hadn’t stopped Aidan and the more time that she spent with Paris…
He doesn’t seem like just a vamp to me. He had werewolf claws a bit ago. Aidan’s blood and Jane’s blood…they’re mixing in him now, changing him. And it just might be enough of a change to fool the magic she’d put in place.
They were running out of time, she knew it. Annette had to act. She wasn’t going to leave that building, but she would go get Vincent. If anyone was strong enough to stop the alpha, it would be him.
Garrison would never stand a chance against Aidan anyway.
Annette left her bag and rushed out of that back room. It was eerily silent in the long hallway. Where was Vincent? He’d taken Drew away earlier, but she had no idea where they’d gone. She ran by several empty rooms and then, through an open doorway, she saw them.
Drew was on his knees. Vincent’s hands were locked around Drew’s throat. “I snapped your sister’s neck,” Vincent said, his face twisted and angry. “Just like I’m—”
“What are you doing?” Annette yelled at him.
Vincent stiffened. Then he shoved Drew away from him.
Lena just stood there, a few feet to Vincent’s right. She was watchful, silent.
“Were you about to kill him?” Annette marched closer to him, her gaze sweeping the room. Drew’s lips were still pressed tightly together. “Why the hell haven’t you called Captain Harris? She should be handling him.”
“I didn’t hear you coming.” Vincent slanted a quick glance at Lena. “Why didn’t I hear her coming?”
Lena just shrugged.
Annette glanced between the two of them.
Drew threw his body forward and tried to crawl toward her, but Vincent caught him and jerked him back.
This is wrong. “Captain Harris should be here,” Annette said as she edged back a bit. “She handles the paranormals.”
“I can handle him.” Vincent smiled at her. “I’m trying to understand why he hates vampires so much. I mean, his father was a vamp. Shouldn’t he be grateful to our kind? This hatred…this determination to kill paranormals is unnatural.”
Drew’s gaze fired fury at the vamp.
Lena just watched them.
Annette found her gaze dipping to the bracelets around Lena’s wrists. There was something familiar to her about those golden bangles. Something that nagged at her mind.
“You won’t be a threat to Jane any longer,” Vincent assured Drew. “You won’t be a threat to anyone.” He bared his fangs and Annette knew he was about to rip out the human’s throat.
“Stop it!” Annette yelled. “He’s her brother!”
“A murdering bastard of a brother.” Vincent glanced over at Annette. “You do realize, of course, that he came to this town with the express purpose of killing paranormals?”
Annette hesitated.
“Think about it,” Vincent said. “When he shot Jane at that college campus, he was armed with a gun that contained silver bullets. Humans don’t just pack silver bullets by chance. He knew what Aidan Locke was. He knew about werewolves. He was here to kill them. And to wipe out any vamps who got in his way.”
“How would he have known?” Annette asked.
“Because he had hired a man to follow Jane around town. A bastard named Roth Sly.” Vincent paced closer to her. “That’s what I’ve been able to learn so far. Drew hired Roth to watch and to report back on everything that he learned. Roth was his eyes and ears but…” His shoulders slumped. “He killed Roth tonight. That’s where Lena and I found this bastard…at Roth’s apartment. The whole building reeked of blood and death.”
Her heart thudded too fast and hard in her chest. Annette inched back another step. “Drew Hart hasn’t said a word.”
Vincent lifted one perfect brow. Such a handsome face. So charming.
“You had Lena stop him from talking earlier. His lips…they’re still sealed together.” She could see it. Drew was straining hard to talk but it was as if his mouth had been glued shut.
Vincent shrugged. “He was talking a moment ago, I assure you. Just ask Lena. Lena…” He threw a quick glance her way. “Tell the voodoo queen that Drew was talking.”
“If that’s what you wish…” Lena’s voice was mild, but there was just the faintest emphasis on that last word.
Wish…
Annette’s stare jerked to the gold bracelets. Oh, shit. We are all so screwed.
“He was talking plenty,” Lena murmured. “Telling us how he hated paranormals. How he wanted us all to die. He came to New Orleans with those silver bullets to take out paranormals. He won’t stop until we’re all dead.”
Vincent nodded, looking satisfied. “See? That’s why it just makes sense for me to kill the bastard right now.”
Drew frantically shook his head. More grunts and moans came from behind his sealed lips.
“After all…if I don’t end him, he’ll just attack Jane and Aidan again. They’re your friends.” Vincent appeared pained. “You don’t want your friends to die, do you?”
Her throat had gone desert dry. “No, no, I don’t want them to die.”
And she didn’t want to die, either. So Annette was going to have to play these next few moments very, very carefully…
Because she’d just realized she was standing in the room with a devil.
***
Darkness was choking him. His head throbbed, his heart raced, and a ravenous hunger for blood had his whole body aching.
She was in front of him. The beautiful woman with the dark hair and the deep eyes. The one that he looked at and just knew…
She’s mine.
She was crying and that was wrong. His hand lifted and he caught one of her tears on his claw.
“Aidan, come back to me.”
He was Aidan. He had trouble thinking. Everything was slow and muddied by the dark. And by his hunger. He wanted to attack. To rage. To destroy.
But the woman was there.
And she was his.
The scent of her fear was still heavy in the air. But there was something more there, too. Apples. Lavender.
Those light scents were familiar, just as she was familiar to him. He wanted to pull her close. To hold her. To kill her.
And he wanted to fuck her. Hard and deep. Endlessly. Until she submitted to him, completely, totally.
He wanted to drink her blood and gorge on it. He wanted…
I want to get away from the darkness.
“How can I reach you?” She put her hand on his chest. “You’re not just a wolf. You’re not just a vamp. You’re a man. A good man. That part of you has just been pushed down, deep inside. You weren’t born to the bloodlust.” She rose onto her toes, staring up at him. “I want you back. I’ll have you back.”
Then she was pulling his head down toward her. Her mouth took his in a kiss that was soft and sweet, gentle and searching.
It was all wrong. He didn’t want soft. Didn’t want sweet.
He wanted rough and wild and consuming. That was what his beast demanded. Her sex. Her blood.
Her…life?
No, not her. She’s mine.
She’s…
Jane?
The name was there, whispering through the chaos of his mind. He tried to grab it and hold on to it, hold on to her, but in the next instant, it was gone.
He was gone.
“No.” Her hands clamped tightly around his shoulders, her nails biting into his skin. “I felt you. You were back, just for a moment. You were with me.”
He growled.
“You want me?”
He was on fucking fire for her.
“I want you. My Aidan. My lover. The man who would take any pain to protect me. The man who loves me more than anyone ever has before.” Her breath shuddered out. “Because that’s the way I love him.”
His chest burned.
“I love him…I love you, good and bad. I don’t care about the darkness that you think is taking you over. I can deal with the dark. I can deal with the light. I can deal with everything…” And another tear leaked down her cheek. “Everything but losing you.” She pressed her mouth to his. Her tongue slipped out, licking along his lips, arousing him even more. “I love you.”
Inside of him, there was pain, so much pain. Tearing him apart. Gutting him. The dark was swallowing him whole and the pain was burning his insides but she…
She was still kissing him.
And his need for her pushed past the pain. Another growl tore from him. He caught her hair in his hand and he pulled back her head, giving him better access to her sweet mouth. His tongue thrust inside. He took and took and…
She gave.
There was such terrible pain but she felt right. Good.
And he wasn’t going to let her go.
***
Annette schooled her expression as she stared at Vincent. “I need to get back to Paris.”
A hard banging seemed to suddenly echo through the building. She jumped and her gaze flew behind her.
The banging—the knocking—came again.
Someone’s here, at the door. Someone wants inside this hell-forsaken club.
“Lena,” Vincent snapped. “See who the hell that is.”
Lena’s eyes closed. “It’s the ME, Heider.”
The woman could see something like that without the aid of a scrying mirror? Annette’s suspicions about just what Lena was deepened…and so did her fear. She licked her lips and said, “Garrison was with him earlier. He must have told Heider we were here. Heider was analyzing Paris’s blood. I’d—I’d better go see what he discovered.” She’d stuttered. Oh, hell. She never stuttered. Mostly because she never allowed herself to feel fear. But the fear racing through her blood wasn’t just for herself.
It was for them all.
Paris.
Garrison.
Aidan.
Jane.
We’ve been tricked. By a creature who is the most skilled at tricks.
She hurried from the room. “I’ll go get Heider.” I’ll give him a message. Get him to run and bring back Vivian. Vivian and the whole freaking pack. Because they were about to enter a blood bath.
They were about to face the true end.
She nearly tripped in her haste to get to that front door. She pulled it open, the rusty hinges groaning, and Heider stood there, his tortoiseshell glasses in place, his hair standing a bit on end as if he’d been running his fingers through it all night. When he saw her, he took a quick step back. “Ah, Annette…” She heard the faint click as he swallowed. “Is, um, is Jane here? I really need to talk to her and Garrison said that—”
She grabbed his shirt front and yanked him close. “Go get Vivian.” Her words were barely a breath of sound.
He stared down at the hand fisting his shirt. “Um, yeah, I need Jane. I have to tell her about the tests I did—”
Footsteps tapped behind her. Vincent was coming close. With his vamp hearing, had he picked up on her words to Heider? “Leave,” she said, her voice even softer. “Run.”
Heider backed up. “Jane’s blood was definitely given to Paris. And when I thought about it, I remembered that I’d had samples at my old lab. I’d taken them from her right before everything pretty much went to hell.”
They were in hell. The guy was not getting the freaking hint and Vincent’s steps were coming ever closer.
“I think someone stole her blood and gave it to Paris.” He nodded, decisively. “They stole it from me and used it against Paris.”
“Don’t worry about Paris.” They had another immediate concern. She could practically feel Vincent behind her.
“Maybe the good doctor could help patch up Drew,” Vincent called out. His voice was mild, friendly. Non-threatening. Clever bastard. “Especially since you’ve said I can’t kill him, Annette.”
She caught the slight widening of Heider’s eyes. Really—was he just now seeing the vamp closing in on them? “Go.” This time, she didn’t speak the words at all. She just mouthed them as she frantically conveyed her message. “Go! Enemy. Get help.”
Heider grabbed his phone from his pocket as he stumbled. “Oh, damn, I have a text from the office.” He backed away, fast and looked down at the phone in his hand. “Another dead body. The dead just don’t stop.” Then he turned on his heel. “I’ll be back with—”
Vincent tried to lunge past her and grab Heider, but Annette twisted her body and she threw herself against him as hard as she could, hoping to catch him by surprise. They slammed down onto the floor together. “Run!” She screamed at Heider but he was already running, not even stopping to look back.
She’d always known the man had a very high sense of self-preservation.
“You bitch,” Vincent snarled.
She was on top of him, but she was hardly strong enough to hold down a vampire. He threw her off him, and Annette hurtled through the air. She expected to hit a wall. To feel her back break…
But someone caught her. Strong arms wrapped around her and held her close. “You’re all right.”
What the hell? Her head jerked to the left and she saw that her rescuer was Garrison. Garrison!
He eased her to her feet then pushed her behind him. She peeked over his shoulder and saw that Vincent had risen to his feet. Lena had closed in on their little group, but she just stood there, watching. Not helping Vincent but certainly not doing anything to stop him, either.
But then Lena caught Annette’s eye. She lifted her hands, and the bracelets around her wrists gleamed.
If she’s what I think she is…she can’t help but she sure can destroy us.
Outside, she heard the sound of tires squealing. Heider had gotten away. Now, if he could just bring help—
“You’ll be dead, voodoo queen, long before anyone comes back to you.” Vincent flashed his fangs. “Figured it out, did you? Or maybe you just finally fucking saw the truth in your black glass? Lena said the truth could only hide for so long. The more blood and death that was shed, the more the truth would emerge.” He didn’t even sound worried. “I knew I was working against the clock.”
That was why he’d come to see her at the Voodoo Shop. His little visit made sense now. He’d been trying to figure out just how much she knew.
Too little.
Too damn late.
“Go to Paris,” Garrison told her. “I’ll hold him back.”
“You, pup?” Vincent laughed as he began to stalk toward them. “You can hold nothing back. You’re worthless, useless. You should have died years ago when the vamps took the rest of your family.” His disgust was obvious. “All of the fucking werewolves should be gone. They are nothing but animals, savages, and it’s time for their end.”
She held tight to Garrison’s arm. If she left him, he’d die.
“I was always meant to be the end of the werewolves, I knew it,” Vincent continued. “It just took me a while to realize how that end would come.”
Annette glanced down the long hallway that would lead her back to Paris. Her bag was back there with him. Her weapons.
Shit.
“I was patient. I waited centuries. Then Lena saw Jane…I actually wished for Jane, and she was born. A perfect weapon. A perfect poison.”
Jane’s blood. That’s what he’s talking about. Her blood is the poison. Because her blood had transformed not one, but two werewolves. Turned them into something…else.
“I just had to make sure she was prepared properly. Had to take her away from her family…easy enough to do, I just sent one of my most trusted vamps to kill them. And to mark her. I wanted the world to know what she was.”
The end.
The symbol that had been soldered into Jane’s skin made sick sense.
“I’d hoped that she and Aidan would come together. When she became a police detective, I even arranged the first murder victim for her to find. I made sure the body was dumped at Aidan’s place so that Jane would meet him. I know what happens when an alpha werewolf gets close to a female vamp-in-waiting.” Smug satisfaction rolled off the bastard. “So I let nature take its course. I waited and—”
“You didn’t count on Jane actually falling in love with Aidan.” The words slipped from her but she knew they were true. “You thought she’d kill him.”
He laughed once more. “Well, of course, she’s going to kill him. She’s killing him tonight. I told you, Jane is my poison. She’s poisoned Aidan with her blood. There is no going back. He dies tonight.” A beat of silence. “And so do you.” He lunged for them and Garrison leaped to meet him, surging forward in a fierce attack.