I was surprised he was still conscious. Damn annoyingly powerful vampire.
“Maybe it’s not vampire power, you idiot.” I flexed my hands, the power tangible in my grasp, like roiling, magnetic balls. “Maybe it’s just mine.”
He narrowed his eyes, calculating, assessing. “Seize her.”
His minions were fast, but I was faster. They swarmed me like angry bees. In one swift move, I tore the top off Alexander’s cage. He surged out and attacked. Four vampires tumbled off to the side with him, my man ripping them to shreds.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one benefitting from a power upgrade. Thanks, fated mate bond.
One of the remaining biker vamps lunged for me. I snagged his neck. My fire fried him to ash in seconds. I coughed and tried not to breathe him in. Ew. Another vampire struck. A palm to his chest reduced him to ash in a blink. The last few vamps looked at me in terror and whooshed from the room.
They were smart to run. The last time I burned a whole man, or rather a vampire, I was five and out of control. I knew exactly what I was doing now, in perfect control of my power. Naughty vampires, beware.
I arched a brow at Dixon. “You need to hire better help.”
His eyes widened, and he looked at me like he’d never seen me before. “What
are
you?”
I shrugged. “You tell me.”
“Bullocks,” he growled. “You are vampire. You are human. But damn it to hell, you are more.
Other.
” His eyes flashed silver fire. “Fucking bloody bullocks.”
He surged to his feet. Inside his chest, his body generated a new heart, the gaping hole knitting itself closed. Damn, he healed fast. His arm, too, regenerated, a bit of bone peeking from the socket, growing fast, layering with tissue, flowing quickly to his elbow area. The sight was trippy and disgusting, fascinating and horrifying. I didn’t have time for the creep show.
“Oh no you don’t.” I’d already dealt out enough death to add to my post-traumatic stress disorder tonight, but I had to kill him. He would never stop haunting me, or my family, never relent, never admit defeat.
I tackled him to the ground, straddling him. He bucked, trying to throw me off, without success. Last time we sat in this very position, he held me prisoner, wanted me on top of him, wanted me to feed from him. I’d resisted.
This time, the upper hand belonged to me.
“Déjà vu,” I quipped, then grabbed his head.
His spiky platinum hair burned away in a flurry of white smoke. Beneath my palms, his scalp reddened and crackled like a mosaic, skin blackening like tar spreading over a road under construction. The rest of him followed suit.
“Goodbye, Dixon.”
“You little brat,” Genevieve screeched.
She shot into me like a demented cannonball, flying me across the room until my back made painful acquaintance with the chain link fence where Kai hung. Metal dug into my back, ripping my skin. Shit. It was serrated metal. Oh, God, what did that mean for Kai?
I tried to look at him—too quiet next to me—but the crazed hyena that was Genevieve held me aloft with one hand wrapped around my throat and a mega ton of power, cold like Dixon’s but more powerful. My power swiped at her with angry claws, my hands trying to grab her physical form and fry her ass, both attempts doing little damage, bouncing off her like pebbles on the surface of a pond. One very angry pond.
She sneered, fangs bloodied, cheeks and chin covered in blood. “Little princess. Little warrior. Little star
.
I am sick to true death of hearing the others speak of you. You’ve made them all weak with their love for you. We were strong. Dominant. Now they spend their days worrying about
you.
” Her grip tightened on my throat. “Always you.”
She banged me against the fence like I was a naughty rag doll, once, twice… On the third go, the blood flowed in earnest from the many slices I imagined decorating my back, the pain I should feel kept at bay by my power and likely a mega load of adrenaline.
“You’ve ruined my minion with his relentless obsession with you. You owe me big for that one. And Stella. She hates everyone. Yet she likes you, a lowly half-breed. Now you dare try to kill my brother?” Another slam of my body accompanied her feral growl. “For that, I will kill you slowly. Break you limb by limb before wrenching your pathetic head from your neck.” A sly smile crossed her face. “But before you die, I’ll make you watch as I finish my snack.”
She yanked me from the fence and shoved me to my knees in front of Kai, her hand fisted in my hair, her power making sure I stayed there.
He slumped in his bindings. His head hung low, mouth open. Angry new bite marks joined the other, older wounds on his neck. Blood oozed in a slow trickle from the twin holes. Too slow. I stared at his chest. His unmoving chest. My world collapsed. Dead. Kai was dead.
I snapped.
I broke through her power, grabbed her legs through her pretty dress and pulled her to ground. The wolves—too big for the door—bounded into the room by smashing through the wall and proceeded to dismember enemy vamps as I leapt on top of Genevieve and beat her face with furious fists over and over.
Kai is dead, all my fault, no, no, no,
played on infinite repeat in my head as I wailed on the vampire under me.
She didn’t stand a chance.
“Carina.” My name blasted through the room. Alexander, my mate, calling to me.
I checked my next blow, my fist close to my target. Blood covered my arm from my hand to my shoulder, painted my chest, wet my face. I squeezed my prey between my legs. Her rib cage gave a satisfying crunch and caved.
“It’s over. You can stop now.” Alexander’s voice soothed my beast.
Somewhat. I looked around, snarling at the room, daring any enemy to come near me, my hair snapping around my head like live wires.
But he spoke the truth.
Our enemies were down for the count. Body parts, blood, and gore littered the cement floor. The smell was… I started breathing through my mouth. Huddled amid the carnage, a few survivors prostrated themselves, face down in the filth.
The wolves watched me, all six of them as large as ponies, sharp teeth bared, their coats—two golden furred, the other four gray—drenched and matted with blood. Their yellow eyes shone bright like the sun dropped into hell.
My own personal hell.
The biggest golden wolf, Connor the alpha I guessed, held an unconscious Dixon on the ground under one gigantic front paw. The vampire’s skin remained cracked and blackened like used charcoals. Why hadn’t he healed? Had I succeeded in pushing him near or to true death?
“He has to be alive. He has to be alive. He has to…” Faith’s trembling voice whipped my attention from the wolves to the fence. She couldn’t possibly mean Dixon.
The fencing had toppled over a large crack in the cement floor where the strange stream of water bubbled along in the floor for several feet then disappeared into the wall beyond it. Faith and Alexander knelt on top of it, on either side of Kai, both working to free him from his bonds.
Kai didn’t make a sound.
“I sense life in him, Faith.” Alexander’s voice conveyed tension and worry. “But it’s…not good.”
My mind reeled. I thought Genevieve had killed him. Yet Alexander sounded so grim. Wasn’t a spark of life better than nothing?
“He can’t die,” Faith insisted. “I saw him in our future. I saw him with us.”
“I’m sorry.” Alexander sounded like Kai was already gone.
Metal snapped, and Alexander pulled a huge length of chain from Kai, tossing it away to land with a rattle by some prostrated vampires. They didn’t budge. Smart bad guys.
An enormous hand closed around the fist I held poised above Genevieve, ready to pound her further into the ground if she dared make a move. My power roared and snapped, then recognized warm-blooded friend as opposed to undead enemy—aka tinder for my fire power—and quieted. My hair settled onto my shoulders. I blinked up at Connor, in human form and wearing jeans, T-shirt, and boots.
At my questioning look he smiled. “Part of the wolf package.” His stare slid over my bare legs and torso. “Convenient, wouldn’t ye agree?” He pulled on my arm, slick with blood, his gaze straying to Genevieve. “I think ye can get off her now. She’s road kill. For a good long while, I’d wager.”
I looked down, finally registering the state of myself and my prey. Genevieve’s blood coated me everywhere—my arms, torso, thighs. Her blood, from the damage I’d done to her head. What was left of it. I retched.
Connor yanked me off her and held my hair as I lost the contents of my stomach on the cold and red cement next to Genevieve’s mangled remains.
Oh, God. What have I done?
“What you had to do,” Fin replied from the wide-open, wolf-sized space in the wall where a smaller doorway used to be.
Bravo, Rina. Nice work.
I sat back on my heels and wiped my mouth with the back of my bloodied hand. Relief flooded me at the sight of Fin, good as new, as if Genevieve hadn’t seriously kicked his undead ass earlier at all.
Connor released my hair and gave me quite the guy-thing fist bump on my shoulder. “The old vamp is right. Good job.” He whistled to his wolves. The air wavered, and they took human form in street clothes, gave me a friendly wave, and stomped past Fin.
Con was the last to depart. “We’ll take our leave now, Princess.” His gaze locked with mine and he winked. “But I’ll be needin’ that favor sooner rather than later. Seein’ as ye survived and all.” He clapped Fin on the shoulder as he passed the other man, then disappeared.
Fin rushed to my side in a blur of speed, draping his leather jacket over my shoulders. I sank my arms into the sleeves, welcoming the warmth. Now that my power had quieted and I’d come to my senses, and my inner beast had retreated to her cave deep in my core, all of the heat seemed to have leeched from my body. Cold radiated through me as if my guts were made of ice. I shivered and wrapped my arms around my middle, my arms and hands lost in the sleeves of Fin’s jacket.
He put his arm around me and pulled me against his side. “You are going to be just fine, Rina.”
Despite the deathly chill invading me, I believed him, but what about Kai? That evil bitch had, had… I couldn’t complete the thought. My mind jumped to another person she’d hurt. “Is Stella okay?”
She whooshed into the room, good as new, and snorted at my question. “Of course I am.” She surveyed the room, her gaze lingering on Dixon and Genevieve, both thankfully showing no signs of awakening. She grinned, an honest to God genuine grin for the first time in
ever
and nodded her approval.
I kept my gaze away from my handiwork, afraid I’d puke all over again.
“Take me to Kai.” I didn’t think I’d make it there on my own steam. I had no steam, only ice cubes. Chills wracked my body, making me tremble.
Fin scooped me into his arms and carried me to my friends. Kai looked truly dead. Blood trailed on the sloped cement under the fallen fence to drip into the bubbling brook, tinting the water pink as it was carried away on the gentle current. Fin put me down, and I stumbled to the edge of the fencing but he pulled me back, arms wrapped tight around my middle.
“Let me go, Fin.”
“Your family will kill me for sure if I allow you to experience additional injury at this point, damage that could be easily avoided.”
I squirmed to no avail. “What are you talking about?”
“The fence.”
I looked at the scene before me. Faith and Alexander, deep in conversation, knelt on the serrated metal, their hands cut and bleeding. I imagined their legs looked the same.
Alexander shook his head vehemently as he pulled the last of the wire away from Kai’s battered body. “No.”
“You must,” Faith replied.
Another shake of his head. “I can’t. Not without his consent. And he can’t give it. I’m sorry.”
She grabbed his arm. “But I see him with us. At the Endgame. We’re with her.
All
of us. We—”
It took me no time at all to understand. “Do it, Alexander.”
Make him vampire.
My man looked at me, face tight with anguish. “Carina. No.”
Stella snorted. “I’ll do it.” She stomped onto the metal fence in her big boots, lifted Faith and set her next to me on the cement floor.
Fin released me. I pulled Faith close, trembling as much from emotion as from the bone-breaking cold chilling me from the inside out. Stella lifted Kai into her arms and carried him off the fencing, lowering him to the ground at our feet. She cradled him against her torso and bit her wrist.
“No, wait,” Faith ordered, from the circle of my arms. “I see… It has to be Alexander.”
“You heard the seer. Do it, mate of mine.” I laced my voice with steel, with the power of my station and that of our bond, as that was my only power at the moment. Dizziness and darkness danced in the edges of my consciousness, my body nearing its limit for action-packed drama.
“Shit.” Alexander speared his wrist with his fangs and pressed it to Kai’s mouth.
Stella released a jolt of her power into Kai’s body, pulling him from death’s door.
Kai awakened. And drank.
My body called Game Over, and I passed out somewhere between Kai’s transformation and his first feeding from Faith, and the arrival of Jonas, Thomas, and Housekeeping.
I flitted in and out of consciousness as Alexander carried me out of Dixon’s hell hole in the bowels of the building and into the back of a limo, where my man cocooned me in a thick and fuzzy blanket, fed me his blood, then gave me the arm of a familiar female, whose blood was fast becoming one of my favorite beverages on the planet.
Ember. I might have to permanently take her from Fin and put her on my payroll if this kept up.
Primo, of course, drove us to Doc Scott’s clinic where my doctor and his crew tended to me. Half asleep during their ministrations, but I heard my unhappy doctor barking orders and grumbling about me being half human and I needed to stop acting like I was full-on vampire or the next time I wouldn’t be so lucky, yadda, yadda, yadda.