Fin,
I shouted.
Fin!
With Fin’s protection around me, only he could hear my mental cry for backup.
No reply. Ominous silence sounded from the rest of the house. No fight in the living room, not even the rumbling of music and video games from Stella and my boys on the first floor. My head spun in confusion. Working hard to ignore the muscle pain and nausea caused by that damn blood, I scrambled to my feet and faced Dixon, unwilling to give him my back in my weakened state. With one arm behind me, I felt for the doorknob, fumbling to unlock it.
“Going somewhere, pet?”
His taunt kicked up my pulse even faster than it already sped. Revved up my anger too. “What have you done to my friends?” The silence of the house weighed heavy on my heart.
Dixon’s lips curled upward, his long fangs gleaming in the light of my room. “Me? Nothing at all.”
“I don’t believe you,” I snapped. “Tell me.” The lock gave way. The knob turned, but the door remained shut, thanks to Dixon’s power. Damn the man. I wanted to roar in frustration.
Deep inside me, my power glimmered, that primal, inner tigress trying to wake up to aid my fight, but the magic, poison blood had done its job. I was cornered, and my power neutralized. “What have you done to me, you bastard?”
His confident chuckle gnawed at my nerves. “Don’t you mean, what have you done to yourself?” I didn’t follow his logic but he was happy to explain. “You chose to drink the blood. You chose to agree to my terms. You did this to yourself. That’s the beauty of my plan, you see. You always have a choice.” He rushed me, smashing me against the door, pinning me there with his power and body.
“Get off me, you sick piece of sh—”
He slapped a hand over my mouth. “Here’s another one for you, my pet. Thanks to your cleverness with the wolves, I had to move up my timetable. Come with me now. Or your friends die. Right now.”
He trailed one fang along my forehead, slicing me. Blood trickled down, and he lapped it up. The touch of his tongue made me retch. He dug his fingers into my face, hand still covering my mouth. “Don’t you dare, pet. Now choose.”
A commotion in the hallway saved me from responding.
“Bullocks,” Dixon cursed, and whisked me away from the door to the far side of the room. My door exploded inward, blown off its hinges. It crashed into the opposite wall, taking out my nightstand and bedside lamp.
A body flew through the opening, landing on the mess by my bed. Fin. Neck snapped and hanging at an odd angle. Both forearms bent in the wrong place, broken right in the middle. His throat gaped open, blood everywhere. A bullet wound was the final touch, dead center in his pale forehead. Before I could react to the horror, another body followed, this one making me growl behind Dixon’s hand.
Alexander, his face swollen, bruised, and bloodied. A huge gash on his forehead rained blood down his front. His shirt was gone, his chest a mass of angry red scratches as if a tiger had used him as a scratching post. He was conscious and looking at me. Anger, love, fear for me boiled in the depths of his eyes, vampire black and fixated on me and only me. He struggled to stand, made it halfway up then collapsed back to the ground with a frustrated curse.
Fury burned off a bit of the poison blood’s hold on my system. My fangs punched out and punctured Dixon’s hand. My claws came next, and I scratched his hands and arms, digging deep trenches.
“Bloody fucking hell,” he roared. He snatched his hand away from my mouth, but managed to hang onto me despite my hellcat struggles.
“What’s wrong, brother? Can’t handle your toys? Must I always show you how it’s done?”
I froze at the sound of that sultry, unfamiliar voice, the owner all too familiar from the photos and videos I’d seen online. Genevieve de Champagne sauntered into my room like she owned it, her lithe dancer’s body encased in tight, navy pencil pants, a crisp matching button-down shirt with bright gold buttons—likely real gold—and killer high heels I would’ve admired if I didn’t hate every damn inch of the vile vampire. Blood spattered her face, at odds with the perfection of her makeup, her hands also bloodied. In one she swung a gun back and forth, as if it were a purse she dangled from its strap.
“You.” The venom in my voice should have dropped her dead where she stood.
She gave me a cursory, dismissive once-over, then glared at Alexander on the ground at her feet. “You would deny me for
that
?”
She planted one foot on his chest, impaling him with one stiletto heel. She ground it into him but he didn’t make a sound, eyes on me. Only me. Always me. If ever I had doubted his word after our reunion—which I hadn’t—his actions now told me the truth loud and clear.
“He’s mine, you anorexic cougar,” I hissed. I renewed my efforts to escape Dixon so I could rush that bitch and rip out her damn throat and toss it in my fireplace, burn it to ash, along with her cold, useless heart.
Dixon held me tight, damn him. “Vivi, must you always ruin my fun?”
“She ruined mine first, brother.” She pouted, flicking her bloodied hand with its manicured navy blue nails in my direction.
I hissed at her again then froze in Dixon’s grasp, her words sinking in. That’s the second time she said brother.
I twisted to glare up at my captor. “She’s your
sister
?”
Dixon chuckled. “I see your family has, once again, left you in the dark, my pretty pet. Don’t you tire of their deceit? Don’t you long for a fresh start far away from their secrets and lies?”
Had to admit, I agreed with him on that one topic. Why had my family neglected to mention Tessa’s second in command was their enemy’s sister? Wasn’t that a ginormous conflict of interest? “None of this makes any sense.”
“Well, it would if your family would bother to fill in the blanks for you,” Dixon teased. He tightened his hold on my torso, lifting me off the ground so my feet dangled, useless, in the air. With his strength, he could hold me like this for days.
“Leave my family out of this,” I growled and tried to hit him with the back of my head. I grazed his chin, doing no damage to the taller vampire and only succeeded in improving his mood.
“I love it when you squirm against me, my kitten.”
He squeezed me until I thought my ribs would crack. My lungs burned and I struggled to gather in adequate air.
“Put her down, you bastard.” Alexander shot to his feet, stumbled, then blurred forward.
But Genevieve moved faster. She stepped in his way and pushed him back with one hand and a shit ton of power.
Alexander hit my closet doors, smashing them. He fell to the floor with wood raining down on him. He didn’t get up.
The fallout of Genevieve’s power hit me between the eyes, momentarily blinding me with its force. Shit. She felt as powerful as Tessa. It would be tough to beat her, especially with Dixon’s poison pushing down my fire power though I called for it. Over and over and over—
Genevieve put her face too close to mine. “He’s mine, half-breed. Never doubt that.”
“In your impotent dreams, Grandma.” I head-butted her face.
Her nose gave a satisfying crunch, almost as satisfying as the screech of outrage the harpy let out at my blow. She rushed forward, but Dixon shifted me out of harm’s way. He clutched me to his side with an iron hand at my waist, his other wrapped around his sister’s neck, holding her off.
Her eyes glowed black with her fury. She snarled at me, her nose a squishy mess on her face, though it healed fast as I watched. Pity.
Dixon growled, the sound of a frustrated sibling. “Enough, Vivi. She’s mine. I will not let you break another of my playthings.”
“Too bad, brother. Get a new one.” She raised her arm, pointing her gun at my face.
Faced with death by bullet, my frustration and fury overrode common sense. I couldn’t stop myself from taunting the she-devil. “A gun? Seriously? What’s wrong, old lady, don’t have the ovaries to take me one-on-one?”
Her outraged shriek mingled with Dixon’s laughter. “See, Vivi? This is why I like her so much.”
The gun’s muzzle touched my forehead. “I don’t care.”
Dixon growled while I grabbed Genevieve’s wrist, digging my claws in nice and deep. “Do it,” I dared her.
“Vivi, I swear if you pull that trigger—”
A black blur streaked into the room, bringing with it the scent of cloves and power like an army of biting fire ants. Stella, rushing to my rescue. She bowled into us, toppling us all to the ground. Dixon rolled me away as Stella fought with the demented old bat. They disappeared into the hallway. From the sounds of it, every wall in my house was going down tonight.
Dixon held me tight, arms and legs wrapped around mine. “Damn. Now Vivi is going to break my other favorite plaything. Alas.” He nuzzled my hair. “But I won’t let her break you. That’s for my pleasure and mine alone.”
I squirmed in his embrace. “Screw you, asshole.”
He chuckled and ground his hips against my back. “Oh yes, my pet. Perhaps as soon as tonight.”
Alexander roared and surged to his feet, shedding the remnants of the doors like they were shredded paper. He stalked forward. “Carina is mine.”
“Yes.” My voice rang loud and strong with conviction. “I’m yours, Alexander Wallace.” Ritual words, true words, words with power. The air in the room trembled with it.
“Fuck,” Dixon cursed and shot to his feet, securing me tight by the throat. “I see you two have been busy magnifying your bond. One more step, Youngling, and she will be no one’s at all.”
Alexander froze in his tracks halfway across the room. His gaze locked with mine. Fear for my safety shone in his eyes.
“I love you,” I mouthed, putting every ounce of feeling I had into my eyes.
His worried expression softened. “And I you. I’m yours, Carina Tranquilli.” The air roiled with the power forged by our bond and my fire power stuttered to life deep within me, a small ember to be sure, but better than nothing. Nothing was useless. Something I could stoke.
Dixon sensed it, too. “Shit.”
A loud pop sounded, making my ears ring. A perfect red circle appeared in Alexander’s forehead. The life drained from his eyes, and he crumpled to the ground.
“No!” Not this again.
My gut clenched as memories of the last time I saw Alexander shot flashed in my mind—the Ward-Tranquilli museum, ambushed by a witch and betrayed by two of the family bodyguards. The horror I experienced then resurfaced and hammered my chest with heartache. They’d riddled Alexander’s body with so many bullets I thought for sure he’d die a true death, but he survived. He would survive this one too, but that knowledge didn’t lessen my anguish at seeing him shot between the eyes, his lifeless body unmoving on my bedroom floor.
Genevieve stepped farther into the room, dragging an unconscious Stella by one arm. She tossed Stella next to Alexander. Jagged fang marks marred the perfection of Stella’s slender, pale neck, and her jaw hung askew from its natural position, her fangs cracked and blunted; a sight so grotesque my stomach turned. There was so much blood on her I feared she might never awaken, never heal unless given a transfusion. With her mouth in such a state she wouldn’t be able to feed herself.
“You evil bitch. How dare you,” I spat at Genevieve. The spark of power inside me burned a bit brighter, my need for vengeance seeming to stoke it, helping it fight the prison made by Dixon’s poison. “Let me go, Dixon. I’m going to fry your sister. One body part at a time.”
Dixon chuckled. “That’s my girl. So spicy.”
Genevieve snorted in disgust and waved her gun at me. “What is it about you? First Alexander and now Stella. Have you brainwashed everyone? These are
my
minions. Mine to command, to give life, to destroy. Yet they fight me. For
you
.”
“They’re not your soldiers, you frigid corpse. They’re Tessa’s. Don’t think I won’t tell her what you’ve done here.”
Genevieve laughed. “You think the Contessa doesn’t know? Ha. That’s priceless.”
I snapped my mouth shut on a retort. She was trying provoke me with lies. Tessa would never condone this. Nothing on earth could convince me my surrogate mother would ever betray me in this way. “How about I tell her right now?”
It was an empty threat. With Fin unconscious, his mental protection was down, but Dixon and Genevieve could easily block my call. Still, I pushed the evil cougar’s buttons, hoping to keep her enraged. As long as she continued her attacks on me, that would force Dixon to focus on her, maybe buy me time to find a weakness to exploit. I shot her the snootiest snarl I could muster and shouted,
Tessa, help me, Dixon and Genevieve are—
Dixon bit my neck, fangs locked in tight.
Naughty kitty. I told you not to tell your family.
Well, hell. My plan to pit brother against sister backfired. Dixon drank in long pulls, sending pain ricocheting through me. He took too much, sapping my strength. I sagged in his arms. Black dots swam in my vision, speckling his wicked sister, who stood and watched us, one stiletto heel tapping with impatience on my hardwood floor. Tap, tap, tap,
as fast as my panicked pulse.
Shit. I couldn’t pass out. Not now, not when Dixon had the upper hand.
The slide of his fangs from my flesh sent a fresh round of pain shooting through me. He raised his head. “Bloody hell, Vivi, you’re going to ruin everything. That call for help almost made it through. Now take your broken boy toy and let’s go.” He swung me up into his arms. My world blackened further, consciousness seeping away.
“Fine, brother, but what of her humans and Stella and Fin?”
Her humans.
My chest tightened at her words, and I fought to stay awake. “What did you do to my boys?” My words came out as less than a whisper, my neck burning in agony from Dixon’s feeding.
Genevieve’s face neared mine, and she smiled. A wicked, evil smile. “They were quite tasty.”
Horror robbed me of speech. My world faded to black.