Dark Secrets (24 page)
An ache of sadness washed through me and I forced myself not
to look away from her. She still didn’t acknowledge that I was her son or that
Eli existed, something Castro said she might never get back. A collective gasp
sounded from the council’s table at the sight of her. Richard shoved his chair
back and rose, feigning outrage—acting as if he had no idea what we’d been up
to. Surely he’d known we broke into the facility.
The second Marianna saw him, she jerked back as if she’d
been slapped. Fear filled her eyes, one of the first emotions I’d
seen—felt—from her. Ella grabbed my arm, keeping me from doing something
incredibly satisfying, such as slitting Richard’s throat.
“What kind of a sick joke is this?” Richard bellowed.
His face was red, his eyes wild. While the council might see
his reaction as anger, I knew the truth. Panic. Sweat poured off his skin and
rolled down the sides of his face and neck. The pungent odor of his fear filled
the room.
“What is the meaning of this?” Cornelius asked, his confused
gaze never leaving Marianna. She looked at him with an inkling of recognition.
Something like hope filled his watery eyes. I’d never known much about my
mother’s life before Richard and I wondered if she’d been close to her family.
Hannah pressed a kiss to Roy’s check and strode forward with
her bounty of stolen records, her hips sashaying with confidence as she went.
She glared at Richard, then placed a folder in front of each man, the contents
inside directly, and in some cases indirectly, relating to them. We’d discussed
at great length our strategy going in.
“Your honor,” she said, stopping in front of Cornelius, her
voice sweet and soft, I’m sure matching the smile she gave him. “As you can
see, your niece is alive. She, along with several other women, were abducted
and held at a private facility where they were tortured and forced to breed
with demons and shape shifters.”
“Outrageous lies!” Richard yelled, his anger causing spittle
to fly through the air.
My wrath lashed through the room. Joining with it was Ella’s,
Eli’s and Roy’s. The hard ball of fire in my gut roiled and my skin prickled
with rage. A need for violence consumed, my only mission in life to make
Richard pay for every single one of his sins.
“Bullshit, you cocksucking prick.” I crossed the room in two
strides.
I slammed open each folder and shoved them at the
councilmen, pointing to the ugly truth of what the institution had done. “These
women were drugged. Raped. Their memories swept, and then sent back into the
world. Some survived, others didn’t. Look at what this bastard did to my
mother! She doesn’t even know who the fuck I am!”
I glanced back in time to see Marianna flinch. Tears filled
her eyes and slowly rolled down her cheeks.
My voice cracked from the intensity of emotion running
rampant inside me. “She’s a fucking shell of a woman, her life stolen and it’s
his fault.” I pointed to Richard, aiming between his eyes where I should have
placed a bullet long ago.
Dillon Sanders, the man on Richard’s right, glanced at the
file, scanned the print. He looked up at me. His growing anger fed my own. “Where
did you get this information?”
I had his and everyone else’s rapt attention.
“There’s a facility near Albany.” I removed the file I’d
tucked into my suit jacket and handed it to Cornelius. “This is Marianna’s
file. Richard isn’t my blood. My father was a Feurety demon whose name was
Derrik.”
I flipped my hand up to show them the mark embedded in my
palm.
“Do. Not. Open. That. File,” Richard seethed. “They lie.
They use sorcery to trick you. She is the Queen of the Vampires, she killed
four agents!”
“That is hearsay, Richard,” Leon snapped. “Their bodies have
yet to be recovered, and without a proper autopsy, we can’t determine what
happened to them.”
I tracked Richard’s movement, seeing it in my head before
his hand even twitched. He reached for the file—the damning evidence of his
involvement. Ella got to him first. Phazing behind him, she hooked an arm
around his throat and pulled him back.
Her voice was low and feral. “Touch it and I’ll snap your
neck.”
Damn she was sexy.
“You bitch!” he screamed.
A growl ripped from my throat and I advanced. The four men
seated at the table jumped up and looked wildly around the room—unprepared for or
unaccustomed to what Ella could do. They glanced first to where she’d stood a
second ago, then at Richard and her restraining him. He kicked and squirmed. I
read the violence lurking in her eyes and knew she wanted to break his neck, to
feel the bone snap beneath her hands. I also saw the restraint and the
resolve—it wasn’t her job to decide his fate.
“Open the folder,” I demanded, trusting Ella to keep Richard
occupied. Of the two of us, she was less likely to harm him.
A squadron of armed guards marched in and surrounded the
perimeter of the room. Their drawn weapons were as much a part of their uniform
as the expressions of concentration on their faces. The women we’d brought
shrieked. A jumble of panic and terror spread out.
Wonderful, just what we needed. Trigger-happy hunters swept
up in the panic. Eli let go of Roy’s arm and gathered the women close, using
his body to shield them as best he could if things went south. Good boy. Dante
stalked to Hannah’s side, positioning himself in the line of fire to keep her
out of it.
The room fell silent as Cornelius scanned the file.
Revulsion filled his face, twisting his mouth into a grimace. He looked up,
into Richard’s face with something akin to horror. “This, this is your
handwriting, Richard. You knew about—you authorized this?”
Richard mocked him with a snort. “No one wanted to prepare
for the future. The world evolves while we sit back and do nothing! I would not
see humans lose this war to the demons and the vampires. We needed an edge. I
saw an opportunity and took it. I did what needed to be done.”
“And what exactly was that?” Ella hissed into his ear.
Her words ripped through me until I saw nothing but red. My
sister flashed before my eyes and with it, flames curled from my hand and up my
arm, a heat I didn’t feel through the burning rage.
“Forcing women to mate with demons who ripped them apart
from the inside out?” Her grip on his throat tightened. “Erasing their memories
and rewriting their path in life like you did with Marianna? She never loved
you and you couldn’t accept that. Then later, when you wanted me and was told
no, you just couldn’t accept it. I know what you paid Julian to do. That
backfired, didn’t it? Everything you’ve ever done is coming back to blow the
fuck up in your face, you piece of shit.”
“You cunt!” He slammed his head back, cracking her in the
forehead.
I surged forward and reached across the table, grabbing
Richard by the front of his robes. I jerked him to me and brought my fist
across his face. Blood arced into the air. I let go of Richard, allowing him to
hit the ground seconds after the splattering drops did.
“I could stand here and tell you how pathetic you are.” I
advanced.
Flames I now controlled licked out, curling in the air like
an extension of myself. I stepped on Richard’s throat, pinning him to the floor
when the weasel would have crawled on his hands and knees to get away from me.
How many times had he made me crawl? Blood leaking from my
mouth? My wrist broken? My ribs battered?
“But I’m better than that. You abused me and Eli for years
while you sat on your goddamn pedestal like your shit didn’t stink. I hope you
rot in hell for what you’ve done, for the pain you’ve caused.”
The air shifted, my skin prickling in warning micro-seconds
before Julian appeared beside me. I snarled, baring my teeth at him. No way in
hell was he getting anywhere near Ella. The guards shifted their weapons this
way and that, not knowing whom to aim at.
Julian didn’t look at me, didn’t acknowledge Ella, who
looked at him with a very carefully constructed blank expression. Her gaze met
mine and we shared the same the thought—what the hell was he doing here?
The vampire pulled out several pieces of paper and set them
on the desk as if phazing into the Shadow Agency headquarters was an everyday
occurrence. “Here you’ll find documentation that Richard obtained a
Laminas
Animarum
also known as the Blade of Souls. Several weeks ago, he approached
me about removing Ella’s soul. In addition to recording the conversation, I
have bank documents showing the transfer of funds into my account from your
agency.”
Richard sputtered and I pressed harder on his throat,
shutting him up.
Julian turned, spearing me with his one good eye. A piratical
black patch concealed the one Ella had stabbed. “She’s yours, mongrel.”
He vanished as if he’d never been. Cornelius rose and
motioned the soldiers to come forward. “Detain Richard McGregor and take him to
the cells. We have enough evidence for an arrest.” His gaze met mine. “In
addition to the new evidence we’ve just acquired, you can rest assured the agency
will investigate this hospital, shut it down, and uncover its purpose and those
behind it.”
“No!” Richard growled. He clutched my ankle, fingers biting
into my skin, and struggled.
Ella phazed to my side and lifted her chin, acting as if
Richard wasn’t flopping on the ground at her feet. The councilman on the far
left placed his clasped hands on the table and spoke, his voice carrying as if
he used a microphone. “Ms. Grey, we find you innocent of the charges filed
against you. You’ve taken control of the vampires?”
Not that I’d had any doubt, but thank fuck. Ella’s relief,
her hope, curled out.
“Yes, I have,” she said with confidence. “They won’t be a
problem any longer—no more revolts or mass raids. I’ll make sure of it, and
punish those who decide the rules don’t apply to them.”
“Right.” He nodded. “See that you do. You’re free to go.”
I stepped out of the way when the guards approached. Before
Richard could move, the hunters descended and flipped him onto his stomach,
slamming him against the floor. They pinned him down, catching his flailing
limbs and cuffing him before drawing him up off the floor.
“You think you’ve won, but you haven’t.” He spat on the
ground. The doors opened and the men filed out, taking Richard with them. His
voice carried down the hall. “You haven’t won!”
The fuck we hadn’t.
Cornelius and the other council members surrounded Marianna
and the group of women we’d brought, a flurry of conversation commencing. What
had happened to them? Had they seen Richard involved personally? I tuned out
their discussion and focused on my soon-to-be wife.
Fuck she was gorgeous. Her eyes were bright with triumph,
her skin flushed. She took my hand, lacing our fingers together, the connection
between us tangible. Ella met my gaze and grinned like an idiot. It wasn’t
badass. It wasn’t sexy. But holy hell it was the best thing I’d ever seen.
Her happiness filled me near to bursting. “I think you owe
me a date,” she said in a smug voice.
I bent, pressing my lips to hers softly. My words were low
and husky, for her ears only. “If by date you mean us checking into a hotel for
some really hot, really debauched sex, then yes I do.”
She snorted. “You won’t be saying that when I’m as big as a
house and I’ve got cankles.”
I tried to imagine what she’d look like in a few months, her
stomach swollen with my child. My cock hardened at the thought. “Knowin’ you
carry my child makes you ten times hotter. Cankles. Mood swings. Midday
cravings. Whatever. I’ll be there every step of the way.”
She laughed against my lips, a sweet sound I’d cherish until
the day I died.
“You say that now. Just wait until I have to push this kid
from my—”
I shook my head and pressed a finger to her lips, shushing
her. “Don’t ruin it.”
“Take me home and make love to me?” she asked.
“I can do that.”
I lifted her chin and sealed my mouth over hers, taking her
lips in a possessive kiss that didn’t come close to showing her how much I
loved her, what I’d do for her. Whatever came at us, we’d deal with it
together.
Madeline Pryce wrote her first novel when she was ten,
penned with neon-pink ink in a loose-leaf binder. Captivated by romantic
literature, yet intrigued by the paranormal, she continues to develop her own
voice, writing the kinds of stories that inspired her as a teen.
Madeline welcomes comments from readers. You can find her
website and email addresses on her
author
bio page
at
www.ellorascave.com
.
Tell Us What You Think
We appreciate hearing reader opinions about our books. You
can email
the
author
directly or you can email us at
[email protected]
(when
contacting Customer Service, be sure to state the book title and author).
Madeline
Pryce
Ellora’s Cave Publishing
Dark Secrets
ISBN 9781419991370
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Dark Secrets Copyright © 2014 Madeline Pryce
Edited by Elizabeth London
Cover design by Kelly A. Martin
Cover photography by Luna Vandoorne
Electronic book publication July 2014
The terms Romantica® and Quickies® are registered trademarks of
Ellora’s Cave Publishing.
With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not
be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written
permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.® 1056 Home
Avenue, Akron OH 44310-3502.
Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this
copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or
distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without
the publisher’s permission. Criminal copyright infringement, including
infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is
punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000. (http://www.fbi.gov/ipr/).
Please purchase only authorized electronic or print editions and do not
participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted material. Your
support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons,
living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The
characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
The publisher and author(s) acknowledge the trademark status and
trademark ownership of all trademarks, service marks and word marks mentioned
in this book.
The publisher does not have any control over, and does not assume
any responsibility for, author or third-party websites or their content.
Discover for yourself why readers can’t get enough of the
multiple award-winning publisher Ellora’s Cave. Be sure to visit EC on the web
at www.ellorascave.com to find erotic reading experiences that will leave you
breathless. You can also find our books at all the major e-tailers (Barnes &
Noble, Amazon Kindle, Sony, Kobo, Google, Apple iBookstore, All Romance eBooks,
and others).