She stood motionless aside from the subtle tremble in her lips, the shallow but rapid heaving of her chest, all the while glowering at him like he was clueless.
Only he knew
exactly
how it felt. He knew every one of those emotions spilling over from inside her. And the self-loathing he knew better than anything.
If it hadn’t been for his pack, he would have been dead years ago. If Corbin hadn’t dragged him out of every fight, every confrontation, every drunken assault – anything where he could feel pain, feel just an inch of what he had inflicted on Ellen. Back when he’d wanted nothing but to spit on the world around him and spread the disease of his anger.
And now the Phia glaring back at him was a reflection of how he’d once been.
He saw it all behind those wild eyes as she’d condemned herself.
Her life was just one incident after another in a long line of defiance, of disorder, or rebellion. Though she had survived that day in the lake, Phia had never stopped drowning. Every day she was grappling, gasping for air and reaching out for something to grab on to. All the while she was sinking deeper, pulled under by her own wild ferocity – kicking away anyone who tried to save her, mistaking them for a further threat amidst her panic. In Phia’s head, she was
still
fighting for the surface.
Only now he saw far beyond the irrational, arrogant and petulant girl to the true one, who was lost, alone and scared. The one who carried a burden too heavy of guilt and self-hatred and regret. A plight that had since been worsened by a curse coursing through her veins. A curse that was beyond her control. A curse that had taken hold of an already vulnerable soul.
But there was no way that self-destruct button was going off in his presence – not now he’d dared to feel something for her. Not now that he saw more than ever how his polar opposite undeniably had more similar traits than he could ignore. Not now that the female who stared back at him with that unrelenting chaos back in her eyes was far too deeply embedded.
He’d help her. His first instinct was to help her. But not until he got his head around what the fuck he was going to do about it all.
‘This downward spiral tirade you’re on will get you nowhere,’ he said.
‘You can’t stop me.’
‘I fucking well can. And I will. Which is why you’re going back to the compound.’
She recoiled further. ‘No!
Please,
Jask
.
I can do this. I need to do it. Keep me with you and I’ll do what you want. Tell me what you want me to do. We’ll do that first if that’s what it takes.
Please
.’
The desperation in her eyes tore through him. The pleas as she stood there with her defences down, the mission so important to her that she didn’t care he saw it, gave him a power over her that he hated.
‘You’re not ready.’
‘You don’t know that.’ She stepped closer to him, her eyes painfully searching his for hope that only he could give her. ‘It’s about more than my mother, Jask. It’s about all I have left. I fucked up the mission with the Dehains. Whoever came after The Alliance came after them because of me. I need to find who’s responsible. I
have
to put this right. You do understand that, don’t you, Jask?’
‘I can find Marid without you. I can get answers.’
‘No you can’t. You must know how big Drake’s is. You might be able to sniff him out eventually, but I bet he sees you coming first. Only I kept my eyes open when they led me out of there. All I needed was the name of the estate and the building. Now I can lead you right to his room. You need me for this. Neither of us can risk losing our only lead.’
He stared up at the sky, at the pending storm, the indecision between wanting to protect her, wanting to keep her close, and needing to do what was right for their mission all winning their own battles in the seconds that passed.
‘Come on, Jask. You know it makes sense. You’re smarter than this. I promise I’ll be on my best behaviour.’
He looked back at her, into those wide and expectant eyes, as she bit into her bottom lip.
Eyes that he swore could melt even his most rigid resolution.
‘I’d better not fucking regret this,’ he said, taking her hand a little too sharply before frogmarching her back down the alley.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
T
hey ploughed through the spitting rain, through the crowds.
Sophia tried to maintain her focus, but something was stirring inside again – something provoked by rubbing shoulders with so many vampires. Like a gambler stepping into a casino, temptation was all around her.
Only the pull felt even stronger than before. Even stronger than when she’d headed to Daniel’s place and to the safe house. Even stronger than when heading to Hemlick’s. Her encounter with Zee had unearthed something. Something that was fast becoming harder to control than she’d conceived.
Her hand loosened in Jask’s as she felt herself being drawn back into the crowds. But sensing it, he only held on tighter, pulling her closer, proving that fate really had thrown her a lifeline in the shape of the lycan. A lycan who now led her purposefully through the darkness and density ahead.
Every instinct of self-preservation resented it, but for the first time in years she needed someone. The very feeling she had tried to avoid, to shut out, for all that time, was inevitably rising to the surface.
And it was only proven more when someone pushed between them, her heart jolting as their hands were pulled apart.
But they only lost contact for a second before Jask had hold of her again, this time tighter, this time his fingers interlaced with hers to secure his grip.
Only when the crowds gradually dispersed, as they left them behind, did he finally release her.
As they picked up a steady pace along the quieter streets, as her head became clearer, so too came a flush of embarrassment as recollections of pinning him against the wall, of lowering to her knees, of taking him in her mouth, came flooding back. And the persistence… the pulling at his trousers… let alone the words that had slipped from her mouth.
At the time she’d felt like an outsider looking in on herself. She’d felt so distant, not there in the moment at all – conscious of what she was doing, but unable to stop herself. She’d wanted him so badly.
So
badly.
And he’d said no.
She lowered her gaze to the pavement, the humiliation taking full hold as they turned down another street.
She wondered if he sensed her awkwardness, but he didn’t say anything. Just as he didn’t say anything further about her serrynity. She could tell he was annoyed – annoyance that was only suppressed by a sense of purpose.
‘Are you taking me up on my offer?’ she asked. ‘Are we going to do what you need me to do first?’
‘No,’ he said. ‘I need you completely level-headed and at ease for that. And I don’t think you’re going to get to that stage until we get answers.’
‘Taking a risk, aren’t you? How are you going to persuade me to do what you want if you’ve done everything I want first?’
He looked down at her, but this time he didn’t answer.
Jask took a left down a lane, led her through concrete forecourts before heading across a short patch of wasteland.
They stopped at the periphery of the abandoned housing estate. The multi-storey blocks loomed down at them – the regimented windows and concrete balconies reflecting more an abandoned institution than a once thriving residential area.
Jask led the way through the buildings, weaving through block after block, the overgrowth, the litter, abandoned cars and household items.
Her heart skipped a beat as she saw the play area in the distance, tucked behind rusted, buckled railings.
Children were now few and far between in Blackthorn, most of them kept locked away – mainly from the cons. Vampires had even fewer young than the lycans. They rarely chose to reproduce and usually vampires did so only much later in life when they wanted to continue their line. So the play parks remained abandoned and damaged. It was a haunting sight but no more than the emptiness that loomed from the vacant apartments that surrounded them.
But the park, the faded pink elephant rocker with the broken ear, told her they were there.
‘This is the Regency,’ he said, before she had time to say the same. ‘But there are several ways in.’
She looked ahead at the doorway. ‘That’s the one,’ she said. ‘That’s where they brought me out.’
‘Are you sure?’
She nodded, a chill creeping over her. ‘Oh, I’m sure.’
It had been the first thing she’d seen as she’d been led out of the building. That was before she’d nearly fallen face first into the wall after she’d managed to wrench herself from their grasp. The graffiti face that had loomed back at her in partial shock and distaste was one she would never forget.
And it stared across the park at her now, right next to the doorway.
‘I kept my eyes open so I could find my way back,’ she said.
As she felt his gaze burning into her, she looked back at him, his eyebrows raised slightly.
She shrugged. ‘You don’t think I was going to let him off that easily, do you?’
He looked back at the building and scanned the windows. ‘Then let’s be quick about it.’
Marching over, Jask yanked open the door, instantly tucking Phia behind him.
‘I don’t need your protection,’ she whispered.
But his swift glower was enough to silence her as they stepped inside.
Jask was perfectly still for a moment, and she knew he was listening out for the slightest sound as well as taking in scents in the air.
The fact he stepped further into the confines reassured her all was okay.
Dust motes lingered in the air, glistening in the weak moonlight as they made their way along the empty corridor, deeper into the darkness.
As they stopped at the stairs, he indicated upwards but Sophia shook her head, cocking it to the right instead. She remembered the elevators ahead, the corridor that spanned to the right.
As they turned the corner, Phia pointed towards the metal balustrade cornering off a stone staircase. Steps that descended to another level. Steps that led to the basement.
He frowned.
She nodded. ‘Definitely,’ she mouthed.
He led the way down the steps, down to the door below. But it wasn’t locked. It wasn’t even properly on its hinges.
He looked back at her and she could tell he was contemplating leaving her behind.
She shook her head in warning, giving him her best stubborn glare. He seemed to pick up on the fact there was no way he was going in there without her.
Clenching his jaw, he turned his attention back to the door. Deftly, silently, he eased it aside.
It was a tight space, poorly lit other than a hint of light coming from an open door to the left.
A room Sophia remembered only too well.
Seeing it again flooded her with anger and resentment, with renewed humiliation, not least as Jask stood alongside her and finally saw for himself what she had been through.
Three single metal beds sat along the wall opposite. Beds that were bolted to the floor, housed only with stained mattresses. Up above them, the barred and partially boarded-up window barely let in enough moonlight let alone daylight – something she had remembered well as she’d slipped in and out of consciousness during the time she’d been there.
In the far top right-hand corner behind the door was the camera she had no doubt Marid used for more than just monitoring his captives’ wellbeing. A single metal toilet and sink were tucked beneath it.
Jask glanced across at her, unease in his eyes. He knew as much as she did that she’d been lucky to survive.
‘Like I said,’ she whispered, ‘he should have been wiped out a long time ago.’
Jask stepped back out of the room to turn his attention to the only other door down there – this one at the end of the corridor. This one firmly shut.
She looked up at Jask, at his narrowed eyes.
‘What is it?’ she whispered.
‘Stay here,’ he said, holding his palm up to her as he proceeded cautiously ahead.
‘Like hell I will,’ she whispered curtly, following behind him.
But as his eyes locked back on hers, flashing disquiet, discomfort tightened her chest. ‘Jask?’
He continued on down the corridor.
And stopped a couple of feet away from the door.
He reached out and turned the handle.
The back of his hand went to his nose instantly.
The stench was overwhelming enough for her, let alone him. She instinctively took a step back, barely having glanced at the blood-stained walls before recoiling.
She spun away, facing the corridor again, and gasped for air.
When she turned back around, Jask had stepped inside the room, just a foot, but enough to take in the full extent of the slaughter.
And slaughter was a kind way of putting it from what she had glimpsed.
‘Marid?’ she asked across her shoulder.
He nodded. ‘What’s left of him.’
She cupped her hand over her mouth – not with sorrow, not with regret, but a pure physical response to the stench of his remains. ‘Recent?’
‘Last twenty-four hours, I’d say.’
She turned around, composed herself and stepped into the doorway behind him. She always thought she’d be able to handle it – could never understand why on movies so many vomited at the first crime scene. And it never irritated her more than when it was the woman who ran out first.
But right there and then, she knew that was exactly what would have happened if she had had anything in her stomach
to
spill. Instead she wretched dryly, gulping back the acidic taste it generated in her mouth.
He’d been torn limb from limb to the point the room looked like nothing more than a deranged butcher had been left loose in an abattoir, cleaving up whatever he could find.
She pulled away again, taking a few steps back down the corridor. ‘What the fuck…’ she whispered, her body cold, her hands numb against the heat of her face.
‘Let’s get out of here,’ Jask said, grabbing her arm and leading her back up the steps.
‘Who’s done this? That’s got to be a third species, right? I mean he hadn’t just been hacked up – they literally tore him apart. Do you think it’s them? The ones that came after The Alliance? I mean, what the fuck is going on here, Jask?’
He led her back up the steps, back out into the corridor above, his eyes alert, his tension unsettling her even more.
‘What are we going to do?’ she asked, struggling to keep up with his pace as he burst through the door, marching back past the play area.
‘We’re out of here,’ he said, checking over both shoulders, scanning every section of the estate they passed back through.
‘This
must
be something to do with The Alliance. The coincidence is too great. But why would they go after Marid too? Just how desperate
are
they to cover their tracks?’
‘All we know is we just lost our best and only lead.’ He frowned as he looked across at her. He stopped, Sophia doing the same. He wiped some damp hair from her cheek in a move that was surprisingly tender. ‘You’re trembling.’
‘I’m cold,’ she said. ‘What do you expect?’
‘You’re also in shock.’
‘I’m fine. I can handle a dead body or two. Especially vampires.’ She rubbed her hand across her numb nose before folding her arms. ‘Who doesn’t care about the code? Who’s willing to come in here and take on The Alliance as well as tear one of their own limb from limb?’ It all seemed too obvious. ‘This has to be down to Caleb, right?’
‘This isn’t his style.’
‘Murder, mutilation and torture? Are you kidding me?’
‘Marid did his job. He delivered you. It makes no sense for Caleb to want to kill him. Besides, if Caleb wanted you he would have come after you and he would have found you, not hired someone. Marid is the last vampire Caleb would get entangled with. And he would also have been down there in those ruins handling things personally. Hiding behind others isn’t his style.’
‘Caleb’s a monster and everybody knows it. Say what you like, that’s proof enough to me.’
‘It’s not proof of anything.’
‘It’s proof enough that I have to get my sisters out of there. That I–’
‘Your sisters?’
She slammed her eyes shut as if it would take away what she’d said.
When she opened them again, she expected to be greeted by a Jask-style grilling. Instead he was staring across her shoulder into the darkness beyond, his eyes narrowed, watchful.
‘What’s wrong?’ she whispered, her heart pounding painfully.
‘Vampires,’ he whispered back.