Evan captured her wrist. “Then we’ll eat with you.”
Aiden nodded. “I can always do a pizza justice.”
“I don’t think I can share. I’m exceptionally hungry.”
Aiden chuckled. Evan didn’t. “It’s the wolf.”
She nodded. “I know. I can…feel it.” Emotion welled in her chest, and she knew now that wasn’t a good thing. “Please just let me go eat.”
He stared at her a moment and then let her go. She headed to the living room, afraid now – and not of him, not of the other vampire either. Of her, of what she was becoming.
Male voices sounded in the kitchen and she didn’t want to hear them. She couldn’t deal with anything else right now, didn’t want to hear something that would make her have to. She grabbed the remote and turned up the volume on her decade old television she’d gotten on Craigslist that someone had muted. Then she sat down on her faded brown couch, and started eating her pizza while she was still human enough to enjoy it.
***
“I’m going to help you save her,” Aiden said, the instant she was out of the room.
“You already told me that.”
“Well I mean it this time,” Aiden said.
Evan arched a brow. “And that would be because?”
“Because you care about her, I saw it in your face when you were looking at her. You met her and something about her found some real emotion in you man. I get it now. I should have gotten it the minute I heard you put your life on the line for her, but you had just met her. We’ll get this wolf and then you can get her the hell out of here and then decide what to do about the rest from there.”
He meant the council and the decision to covert Marissa, for her own protection. But it didn’t matter if he converted her or not. In the end, he’d broken the law, and he’d be punished. He could save her, just not himself.
“There’s always a way,” Aiden said, as if reading his thoughts. “We should have died and we didn’t. And so should she have. Clearly she wasn’t meant to die any more than we were. I’m envious man. You have something other than ice in your veins for the first time since we were changed. This thing that we do gets mechanical. I have to remind myself we are saving lives, but we’re so removed from those we’re fighting for, it’s hard to remember why that’s important. Maybe keeping the humans at a distance isn’t all we’ve cracked it up to be. Maybe we need to feel something to keep fighting.”
Evan took that in, let it roll around inside him, let it take root. Until Marissa walked into that bar, Aiden didn’t remember the last time he’d felt anything real besides fleeting lust. The fire for vengeance had faded centuries ago.
Aiden’s cell phone rang and he tugged it from his jeans. “Troy,” he said. “And you know without me telling you he’s going to be hard to deal with because of Sarah.”
Sarah, the wolf that had tried to kill him, the one he’d been in love with. “I know,” Evan said. “Believe me, I know.” And while Aiden had always been the one who rolled with the punches and seemed unaffected by the hell of a hundred plus years of fighting. Listening to him talk about Marissa now, Evan wondered if it wasn’t all an act.
“Talk to me my brother,” Aiden said answering his phone. Listening, his gaze lifted to Evan’s almost instantly and Evan knew the news wasn’t good. Aiden snapped his phone shut. “The wolf is headed this way.”
Chapter Eight
Marissa had just finished – no – inhaled – the last of the three slices of pizza that had been in the box, when she felt a rush of awareness, a powerful energy. She whirled around to find Evan charging toward her.
“Go get dressed,” he said. “We have to leave now.”
“What? I--”
“Just do it Marissa,” he ordered. “Do it now.”
Panic rushed through her, and she could feel the tingling of her skin begin again. She turned toward the hallway, with Evan on her heels, and rushed to her room.
She turned to him, tugging on shorts. “What’s happening?” She asked, yanking a tee over her head, and sliding on her Keds. “Is it the wolf?”
“Yes,” he said, shackling her arm. “It’s the wolf.” He proceeded to all but drag her to the backdoor where an Escalade was waiting. The door popped open immediately and Aiden got out. “Take the wheel and drive north on IH-35.” He was already rounding the truck to get into the back on the opposite side.
Evan motioned for Marissa to get into the passenger seat. Marissa rushed to the other side of the vehicle and Evan reached over and shoved the door open. She froze when she saw the man in the backseat with Aiden, his long blond hair draped over Aiden’s arm as he bent over it. The man looked up at her and she could see claw marks on his face oozing with blood, his silvery eyes piercing hers with what looked like hatred.
“Get in, Marissa, damn it,” Evan shouted.
“Hello Marissa,” came a male voice from directly behind her.
She whirled around to find a tall muscular man with dark hair curling around his face. “I enjoyed playing with you in the alley. Shall we play again?” His eyes went red. She sucked in a breath, the wolf. This was the wolf. She’d barely had the thought before he began to shift, his face contorting, teeth extending. In some distant part of her mind, she heard Evan scream her name – and saw Aiden was out of the truck and lunging at the wolf but he wasn’t fast enough. The wolf sunk teeth into his shoulder. Evan was over the hood of the truck and jumping down on the half shifted wolf’s back.
Marissa didn’t know what to do. She turned to find the silver eyed man coming for her, blood dripping from his arm, the man who hated her. Fight or flight kicked in and fighting wasn’t an option. She turned and ran. He grabbed her arm and somehow she evaded his firm grip, and managed to escape. She ran toward the line of woods behind her house. When she cleared the line of trees, the darkness didn’t stop her. Her heart was pumping, that tingling sensation on her skin turning to a burn now. She had to run, she had to get away. Faster and faster, she pushed forward, feeling limbs cut her, but she didn’t care. She just had to run. She had to keep moving.
“Marissa, stop!”
She heard the voice, and panic swelled inside her. The wolf and he was coming for her. The wolf would kill her. She could hear him, feel how close he was. She stumbled and went down hard on her hands and then tried to push to her feet. But he was on her, a heavy weight. She scrambled forward and turned to fight. Fighting was all she had left. She couldn’t escape.
***
“Marissa, stop,” Evan ordered, deflecting her punches and straddling her, shoving her hand over her head. “It’s me, Marissa. Stop!”
“Evan,” she panted, her chest rising and falling, her eyes red. Damn it to hell.
“Yes. It’s me.”
“Oh God,” she gasped, her eyes going wide at the claw mark down his neck. “You’re bleeding.”
He bit his wrist, the easiest most comfortable way for her to take in blood right now. “What are you doing?” she demanded.
“You need blood and you need it now.”
“No,” she said. “You’re hurt. You’re--
He slid his wrist to her mouth, knowing the taste of the blood, the need of her body would take over. She hesitated only a second and then grabbed his arm and began to drink. He was weak, injured, and so were both of his brothers. This wasn’t any wolf he’d ever fought before. It was stronger, more agile. He forced himself to move, scooping up Marissa even as she drank. He didn’t want her to stop. Not when his gut said this virus had mutated, and he wasn’t sure what that meant for her, or for their ability to deal with the rogue wolf.
Evan took off running, trying to compel Marissa to stop drinking before he was too weak to get them to safety. She didn’t respond, which meant the blood bond had already made her immune to his commands, or he was already too weak to deliver one. So he let her drink. He couldn’t stop her, without stopping, and he wasn’t stopping. Not until he had her, and his brothers, the hell out of here. The
wolf had fled, and it was wounded too, but that didn’t mean it was going to stay away.
He cleared the woods to find the truck sitting in wait. The back door popped open and he managed to get him and Marissa inside. They were moving before he ever shut the door, which felt about two thousand pounds. Marissa had taken too much of his blood when he was already injured.
“How is he?” Evan asked, eying Aiden in the rear view mirror, and settling Marissa across his lap so that her back was against the door.
“Bad,” Aiden said. “I gave him what blood I could but I’m bleeding like a stuck pig myself. And it doesn’t look like you have a vein to spare. Stop her before she kills you.”
“Enough,” Evan told her softly, pressing his head to the side of hers and then louder when she didn’t respond, “Enough.” Still she didn’t stop. He shoved his fingers in her hair and pulled her head back as gently as he could, the vein in her soft, ivory curved neck pulsed.
“Evan?” she gaped, blood dripping from her lips, disorientation in her now blue eyes.
“Sorry sweetheart, but I have to do this right here and now.” He sunk his teeth in her neck. She gasped again and then moaned, the scent of her instant arousal flaring in his nostrils. The taste of her blood was sweet like honey. He could feel his wounds closing, could feel the power flowing into his veins. He became aware of her fingers stroking his hair, his face. The stronger he became, the more aware he became of the woman in his arms, of her gentle caresses. Of how afraid he’d been that he was going to lose her tonight, when he’d only just begun to discover her. He wasn’t losing her, or his brothers. He tore his mouth from her neck, licked the wound, and then caught Aiden’s gaze in the mirror. “Pull over.”
“Not a chance,” Aiden said. “We’ll be sitting out in the open, wounded ducks waiting for the wolf.”
One look at Troy, who was completely knocked out in the passenger seat, and Evan rejected that answer. “You have to take a vein and give one to Troy. He doesn’t have much time.”
“I can drive,” Marissa said sitting up. “I’m okay. I can drive. Please. Please let me do this to help.”
Again Evan shared a look in the mirror with Aiden who nodded. Evan lifted Marissa over the top of him and settled her by the door, still speaking to Aiden. “Move Troy back here so we only have to stop once.” He focused on Marissa. “I’ll walk you to the door. Don’t move without me.”
She blinked up at him. “I wasn’t planning on it. After what happened tonight, you’re stuck with me until you have to kill me.”
Chapter Nine
Thirty minutes later, with Evan now in the passenger seat, Marissa drove the truck down a dark highway between Temple and the next city south – Waco. The sky was dark with thick storm clouds moving in, rumbles of thunder echoing in their depths. “Pull into that rattrap motel,” Evan told her of the place to her right that fit his description perfectly. “We don’t have any idea where the wolf is and we need to regroup and recover.”
She maneuvered into the lot and parked. Evan gave the place a keen inspection. “It’s a dump but at least we don’t have to walk through a lobby all bloodied up.”
“And it’s near the road if we need to get the heck out of dodge,” Aiden commented from behind them. “Therefore you have my approval.”
“I don’t remember asking for your approval,” Evan said, glancing over his shoulder. “One of you two, toss me a clean shirt. I don’t think the blood I’m sporting is going to earn me any fans in the office.” He tugged his shirt over his head and threw it at his brothers.
Marissa went breathless at the sight of him, of taut tanned skin over rock hard muscle. And blood. Blood stained his skin, his blood and probably some of hers. She could almost taste it, taste him. The velvety, spicy richness of him filling her, his blood, his cock…She stopped herself. Shoving aside the thought she was rattled by the intensity of her thoughts.
Her gaze lifted to find his dark eyes fixed on her, his expression a mirror of everything she was feeling -- lust, passion, hunger. She didn’t know if this burn inside her for Evan was created by their blood bond, or by the wolf growing and taking form inside her. She didn’t care either. She might be dying in thirteen days. She wasn’t going to spend those days analyzing why she wanted Evan. Right then and there, she knew she wasn’t going to spend them in fear either. She’d fight to the end, but she’d face the end if it came.
A shirt flew past the seat and hit Evan in the head, breaking their connection. “Save it for the bedroom,” Aiden quipped. “We’re ready to get out of this backseat.”
Marissa felt her cheeks flush, which considering how wanton she’d suddenly become, seemed ridiculous. Evan tugged the shirt over his head, and used a bottle of water and a napkin to clean the blood off his neck. She turned to face the hotel, not watching. She couldn’t watch and stay in control.
Seconds later, Evan touched her arm to draw her attention back to him. The physical reaction to his touch was instant and shivers rushed over her skin, across her shoulder, fanning her chest. “Lock it,” he ordered softly when she looked at him, his voice gruff, telling her how he was feeling.
For a moment he held her stare, the connection between them, intimate – right, in a way she’d never experienced before. Not another man. Not family. She’d never known her father who had died when she’d barely been walking age. She’d loved, and lost her mother. Enjoyed friends, and even a few steady male companions, but no one that ever made her feel like Evan. Regret filled Marissa, replacing her bravado of living life she’d mentally celebrated only a few minutes before. She was going to die before she had really lived.
“You’re not going to die,” Evan said softly, and then disappeared quickly, slamming the door behind him. She blinked at the door, trying to understand how he’d known what she was thinking. Could he read her mind?
He knocked on the window and pointed at the lock. She jumped and locked it. And then it hit her. She was alone with Aiden and Troy.
Marissa inhaled and turned to the back of the large vehicle and found her gaze locked with a now recovered, but incredibly silent, and frightening, Troy. “How are you?” she asked.
“Better than you I suspect,” he said, inclining his head at her fingers on the seat. “You’re trembling.”
She knew. God, did she know. “If someone has to kill me,” she blurted, before it was too late and Evan returned. “Make sure it’s you and not Evan.”
“No one is going to kill you,” Aiden said, sitting up so that she could see him more clearly. “We’re going to kill the wolf, Marissa.”
Troy’s silver eyes bore into hers, unchanged at his brother’s comments. “Do you want to know why I have blond hair and silver eyes?”
She did, but the odd question took her off guard and a fizzle of warning flared inside her. She wasn’t going to like where this was going. “No,” she said cautiously. “Why?”
“A werewolf attacked me and pretty much ripped my throat out. When I recovered, I was different.”
Dread filled her. “Please don’t tell me that I’ve infected Evan with the virus.”
“Vampires are immune to the virus,” Aiden said. “We don’t know why the attack changed Troy. Just that it did.”
“Yes,” Troy said. “It changed me.” The way he said the statement indicated that he meant in more ways than his hair and eye color. “And the point of this story is that I know what a wolf can do more than either of my brothers. If it comes down to choosing between you or my brother – I’ll choose my brother.”
Her chest tightened and she could almost feel the wolf inside her clawing at it, trying to get out. As if it hated Troy, as if it rejected his declaration. That she knew what that part of her was thinking, feeling, terrified her. “That’s not good enough. If it comes to the midnight hour and my chances of staying human are gone – kill me. And don’t let Evan talk you out of it. The wolf in me…it’ll kill him. Don’t let it – me – kill him.” It was the first time she realized
the intent of the wolf in her, but there was no question in her mind.
Evan knocked on the window and she quickly popped the locks. The door opened and she quickly turned to Evan as he slid inside. “Around back,” he said and flicked a look over his shoulder at his brothers. “Side by side adjoined rooms.”
“Excellent,” Aiden said dryly. “We can be one big happy family.”
Marissa inhaled on his comment, hoping he wasn’t going to tell Evan what she’d said, and almost certain he was. Damn, damn, damn. A few minutes later they filed into one of the dingy rooms with two double beds and orange comforters. The space was small as it was, but add in three big vampires, and it was a matchbox. She quickly headed to the second room through the adjoining doors, to find an identical room, aware Evan was following her. She could sense every move the vampire male made, every breath he drew.
She turned to face him. “I need to call my employer.”
His expression instantly darkened. “And tell them what Marissa?”
“I need my job. When this is over I still have bills, a life.” And I’ve no one else to depend on, but me. His lips firmed his expression grim. The silence stretched immeasurably long and she couldn’t take it. “You don’t think I’ll make it back to my job do you?”
“Do you?” Troy asked from the doorway.
The question infuriated her and she whirled on him. “I need to believe that I can beat this…this thing growing inside me. So yes, I’m going back. And I’m calling my work to make sure I have a job when I do.” She stormed towards the bed and grabbed the phone, ignoring the shake of her hand as she started to dial. She punched in the number, her gaze lifting to see Evan and Troy disappear into the other room, shutting the door behind them. She hung up the phone. She had no excuse that would last two weeks. Her boss knew she had no family who could be ill or in need of her help. Her employer was one of the best hospitals in the country, so medical wasn’t a good excuse. Temple was a small town where she could walk to work, so car trouble was also marked off the possible list of excuses. Plain and simple, she had nothing, including a job anymore.