A click of Orrin’s fingers was followed by the swift appearance of a stout, cheery looking female. “Moira, be a dear and take care of these people.” He gestured to Jared and the squad.
Suddenly the squad began to drop to the ground, one by one. Instinctively, I brought my shield up and extended it around Jared before the woman could place her focus on him – which appeared to agitate the hell out of Orrin. “What did you do to them?” I demanded.
“Don’t be alarmed, they’re merely in a very deep sleep. After a few hours – it differs from person to person – they’ll wake again. It’s a useful gift to have when you’re caring for babies.” He signalled to Moira to return inside. A nervous Blake went with her.
Jared asked the very question that was bugging me. “Why didn’t you get her to do that at the beginning?”
“I wanted to see what Samantha was capable of. And it’s not often you get the chance to observe the Heir and his own personal squad in action.” Orrin gave me what I guessed was supposed to be a reassuring smile. “I had considered plucking you out of harm’s way so that we could leave a little sooner, but I was confident that you would escape it unscathed. And I was right, wasn’t I?”
I had to have heard him wrong. “Excuse me, but it sounds like you have the impression that I’m going somewhere with you.”
“Well of course you are. You think I don’t know what the brothers did to you? You think I didn’t play some part in what happened?”
“What do you mean?” growled Jared. Yeah, it had been dumb of Orrin to admit that in front of a very protective Jared.
Orrin sighed. “The brothers are what you might call…I guess sociopaths, is probably the best term.” And wasn’t that the pot calling the kettle black. “They know what’s right and wrong, they just think the rules don’t apply to them. It’s what makes them such good scientists − no guilt or ethics to interfere.
“They’re both obsessed with the idea of glory, of making a discovery or an achievement that no one else can match. Their goal is to create the ultimate vampire − a blend of all three. Unfortunately, the brothers can be a little eccentric and unpredictable, but the right amount of motivation and the right amount of adoration from me had them focusing on the task.”
He looked as though he actually expected us to praise him for that. Snort.
“Unfortunately, none of their experiments turned out well. I admit, I didn’t actually think they would be successful.” He tilted his head as if in thought. “Maybe they can find a way to amplify my gift so that it’s strong enough that I can manipulate the density of other peoples’ bodies, too.” He shrugged.
That gave me an idea. Call Reuben, I told Jared.
Baby, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he’s in dreamland right now.
So wake him up using your telepathy.
I don’t think that’ll work.
Try, I growled.
Hey, don’t get pissy with me.
I can’t just – You know what, we can argue later. Just try to wake Reuben, and tell him what to do. I addressed Orrin then, hoping to keep him talking. “I can understand why the brothers would want to create a hybrid – it’s all about glory, all in the name of science. But what’s in it for you?”
His smile was creepily wide. “Tell me, Samantha, what vampire out there wouldn’t pay – and pay very well – to become as powerful as you?”
“So this is about money?”
“Isn’t that what makes the world go around? Come on, you’re a Sventé. Or, should I say, you were a Sventé. You know what it’s like to be seen as the weaker breed, to feel the weaker breed, to be dismissed, and to be targeted. If someone had offered to make you stronger, given you the opportunity to help yourself, wouldn’t you have jumped at their offer?”
I did kind of get his point. After all, that was exactly what I had done. Sebastian had appeared with his offer to get me out of my shitty situation and find something better, and I’d taken it. But this…this was a little different. “I’m surprised at you, Orrin – and not in a good way.”
“Surprised, how?”
“See, it’s not a shock that the brothers haven’t looked beyond their goal – they have tunnel vision. But you…I would have thought you’d have been able to see the bigger picture. How can you not see the complications and possible consequences of what you’ve done?”
He narrowed his eyes. “I don’t follow.”
“That’s my point. Let’s say I was to Turn a human. They’re not going to become a Sventé, they’re going to become just like me. So will other humans I Turn, and any humans that they turn. The same applies to any vampires that the brothers work their magic on. Before you know it, you have a new breed of vampire. That’s not good.”
Orrin inhaled deeply as he considered that. “I don’t see why it would be a huge problem. Sventés, Kejas, and Pagoris have co-existed well enough. Why would the introduction of a new breed be such a bad thing?”
“Because this new breed will be stronger. A lot stronger. That’s a threat to the status quo. Although it chafes most, they do accept that Pagoris are the most powerful of the three breeds, they accept that Kejas are a close second, and that Sventés are the weakest. They accept that that’s the way of things. Introducing a stronger breed will unsettle everyone. Sventés will worry that they’re now easy pickings. Kejas won’t like that they’ve gone a step down in the hierarchy, now being in the place that Sventés once had. And Pagoris, so used to sitting on the throne, won’t like that they’ve lost that throne. They’ll all want to react, and it won’t be pretty.”
Uncertainty briefly flashed on his face. “The point may be moot since, for all I know, you’re no longer able to Turn humans. I will take you to the brothers and let them look at you. They can tell us more.”
The bloke lived in another reality if he thought that would happen. “Here’s the thing…I don’t have any intention of leaving Jared or the squad to go anywhere, let alone with you. Shame, isn’t it.”
He was quiet for a moment, studying Jared intently. “We could take him with us, I suppose. But not conscious. Jared is too powerful for us to take any risks with him.”
“Jared is right here,” snapped my fiancé. “And Jared isn’t going to let you take him or Sam anywhere. It’s really that simple.”
“I didn’t come this far to allow you or anyone else to be a hindrance. Samantha comes with me. I assure you, she’ll come to no harm.”
Jared snickered, crossing his arms over his chest. “The brothers said the same thing. Then she went through nights of agony and all kinds of weird stuff happened. Forgive me if I’m not reassured.”
“Then look at it this way: harming her would totally go against what I’m trying to achieve. Therefore, it makes no sense that I would hurt her, does it?”
Scepticism dripped from Jared’s smile and voice. “And I suppose you’re going to let me and the guys go free.”
Orrin jiggled his head. “If Samantha agrees to drop her shield and come with me, I shall agree to simply have Moira put you to sleep for a while – long enough for Samantha and I to be gone. I do not like to kill for killing’s sake.”
Unreal. “But you don’t mind mothers being butchered and their babies being sold?”
“That’s just business, nothing more.” He returned his attention to Jared. “You know what it’s like to yearn for things like power, respect, and status. Unfortunately, nobody came and took me to the Grand High Master. I had to get those things for myself. And I have.” He seemed to take pride in that. “Once Samantha agrees to drop her shield, Moira will put you to sleep long enough for Samantha and I to leave.”
I cocked my head. “And just what would make me agree to drop my shield? There’s no point in threatening me. You can’t get inside this shield to reach either of us.”
“No,” he allowed, “but I can always ask Moira to make the squad’s sleep more permanent. She can do that, you know.”
“I don’t believe you. I th
ink you’re just calling my bluff.”
“Do you really want to take that chance? Do you really—” He gasped as two strong hands manacled his ankles. Lying on the ground behind him was a drained-looking Reuben. Orrin managed to kick him aside, but it didn’t matter because Reuben had touched him long enough to have the desired effect.
“My good squad member there has the ability to temporarily amplify a person’s gift,” Jared told Orrin. “He can also make it temporarily weaker. You feel it, don’t you? See how quickly you’re becoming substantial?”
Orrin peered down at himself and smiled. He was beyond weird. “It’s an admirable gift.” He focused on me, losing his smile. “I suppose you’re going to kill me while my gift isn’t working.”
I pursed my lips. “No. But someone else is.”
Jared locked his hand around Orrin’s throat and dragged him inside the house.
“If you’re looking for the child—”
“Don’t worry, Orrin, the baby is safe and sound,” assured Jared as we stopped inside the kitchen. “I’m not sure I can say the same for Moira, though.”
He definitely couldn’t say the same for Moira, considering that Jude was in the hallway holding her beloved knife and that it was dripping with blood. Looking a combination of irate and keyed up, she slowly began advancing toward us. Her gaze never moved from Orrin, who Jared was holding directly in front of him, presenting him to Jude.
“Good ole Moira won’t be joining us,” she told Orrin when she came to stand before him. “Which is a shame, really, because I’d happily kill her twice. If you’re thinking that the memory guy might run to your rescue, I’ve got news that’ll kill that dream. He jumped into one of your SUVs about five minutes ago. Couldn’t get away fast enough. You just can’t get the staff these days, can you?”
In a rather sluggish movement, Jude ran the tip of her blade down Orrin’s chest, over his navel, and continued downwards. It finally came to a stop when the tip was pressed against the space between his bollocks and his arse hole.
Orrin gulped. Of course he did. Right at that moment, Jude looked far from sane…and fully capable of relieving him of his crown jewels.
Shakily, he asked, “Who might you be?”
“That’s not important,” Jude told him calmly. “What’s important is that you’re in agony when you die. It’ll never match the kind of agony I went through when my child was taken from me. No, nothing can match that. But it can certainly be damn well close.” And then, as if to demonstrate that, she thrust the knife upwards.
Jared winced, though not in sympathy with a screaming Orrin. He winced again when she twisted the knife before withdrawing it. Damn, that would hurt.
“I’ll take it from here,” Jude told us, though her gaze hadn’t left her victim.
Had I not seen what an accurate shot she was with that knife, I might have worried about leaving her alone with him in case he tried to fight her off and make a run for it. It was like she and that knife were one entity.
Understanding that she needed to do this – and do it alone – in order to find some measure of peace, I gestured for Jared to release Orrin. The vampire dropped to his knees, still crying out in agony. “It should be about an hour before his gift begins to strengthen again,” I told Jude.
Still, she didn’t look away from him as she spoke. “Then I’ll make those minutes count.”
Taking the hand that Jared offered me, I allowed him to lead me out of the house towards where our squad was lying, still dozing – and snoring, in some cases. It seemed that Reuben had returned to dreamland.
As we were walking away, we heard Jude speaking again to Orrin. “Do you know what’s great about how quickly you heal? It means I can do this to you over and over again before I finally kill you.” By the sound of his squeal, she had just made that evident.
I was pretty sure the next hour was going to feel very long for Orrin.
It was impossible not to balk as I watched Harvey repeatedly poke his arm through the hole in Damien’s stomach. Both seemed to think it was absolutely hilarious. The hole was slowly shrinking in size now that his body was healing, but it would be a few hours before it finally closed over.
They were the only squad members who weren’t lying on one of the infirmary beds around them. The others hadn’t yet woken from Moira’s induced sleep, but their wounds had healed nicely.
Antonio came to my side, frowning at Reuben. “I do not think I have ever heard anyone snore so loud.”
“Me neither,” said Jared as he came up on my other side. Tension was still thrumming through him and I had a feeling he was thinking, just as I was, that if Moira’s gift had been to induce a fatal sleep as opposed to a temporary one, the squad would be nothing but ashes now. It was scary to think that no matter how well we trained them, it might only take a vampire with a unique gift to kill them all − and us, for that matter.
Antonio exhaled heavily. “It is a relief to know that the operation has been put to a halt, but I still have to locate the couples who purchased the human babies who were taken from their mothers.”
I doubted that that would be an easy feat. “I take it you’re sending Sebastian?”
Antonio nodded. “Once he returns from finding the brothers, I will do so. I have sent out a message to all vampirekind that if these couples give themselves up to me, they will not be punished with death. If they do not do this, however, they will be executed once Sebastian has hunted them down – and he will hunt them down. That is something that I am certain about.”
“What are you going to do with the babies once you have them?” asked Jared.
“The only thing I can do: I plan to hand them over to human authorities. Of course it is not possible to return them to their mothers, but they still have fathers and other relatives. It is up to the humans to return the children to the right families − that is something I have no control over.”
“Poor Jude,” I said quietly, looking at the woman in question, who was at the other side of the infirmary. She hadn’t spoken a word since we got back. “Every single cell of her must want her daughter back even though she understands it can’t happen.”
“Yes, it has to be heart-breaking.” Antonio sighed.
“Do you think she might stay, if we asked her?”
“If that is your way of requesting for a place to be made for her here, then yes.”
Nodding my thanks at him, I walked over to where she sat beside Chico’s bed. I’d noticed that they spent a little time together, but there was nothing going on between them as far as I knew. “Hi.”
She smiled at me, but it wasn’t a full smile. “Hi.”
“How do you feel?”
She blew out a breath. “Tired. Tired in too many ways to count. You know, I didn’t expect that I’d feel better afterwards, so it’s no surprise that I don’t. But I guess I’m…relieved. I feel like I got vengeance for Holly, for the life she should have had.”
“For the life you both should have had,” I corrected.
“It’s weird. Now that it’s over, I don’t know what to do. For so long, I’ve been running on a need for vengeance. Now that I have it, I feel…”
Seeing that she was struggling for words, I offered, “without purpose.” She nodded. “You could stay. You could make a place for yourself here.”
She glanced fleetingly at Chico. “Thanks. Maybe.”
I doubted that she truly would stay. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Jude spent her life watching over her daughter, looking out for her from a distance. That was what I’d have done in her position.
Feeling that Jared was behind me, I turned to him.
“Ready to go?” At my nod, he took my hand in his and teleported us to the living area of our apartment. There, he pulled me to him, fitting me against him. Trapping my gaze with his, he slid both hands into my hair. “You’re okay.”
And that was no little thing, given just how powerful those vampires had been tonight. “Yes.”
“If you had been one of the people lying on an infirmary bed, I really don’t think I could have taken it.” Of course he couldn’t have taken it. He’d been pushed to his limits so many times already this week.
“But I’m not. I’m fine. And I’m here. With you.”
Then he was on me. Mouths fused together, tongues tangling, teeth biting, we stumbled through the apartment − stripping as we went. We had only gotten as far as the kitchen when Jared ended the kiss. “I can’t wait. I need this.” With an impatient growl, he tore the only remaining clothes from my body − my jeans and panties − and slammed me against the kitchen cupboards. Just as impatient, I ripped open the fly of his jeans. His cock was hot and throbbing in my hand as I pumped fast.
He rested his forehead against mine. “Harder.”
When I gave him what he wanted, he groaned loudly. But it wasn’t long before he tried pulling my hand away. I resisted.
“I want inside you,” he growled, again tugging at my hand. This time, I let him go. Then with our mouths again meshed together, he slid his hands to the back of my thighs, lifted me, and placed me on the countertop. When his probing fingers discovered that I was wet and ready, a growl of approval rumbled its way up his chest. “Just how I like it.” Angling my hips just right, he slammed home, and my muscles rippled around him. “Christ, Sam.”
He held himself still, giving me a minute to adjust to him, but I didn’t want that minute. I scratched at his back. “Move, move, move.”
He did. There was no teasing this time. His fingertips bit into my skin as he gripped my hips tightly, possessively, and punched his cock in and out of me. All the while, he groaned into the crook of my neck, whispering about how good I felt, about how amazing I was to him, about how much he needed to feel me come apart around him.
He wouldn’t have to wait long for that, because the tension was quickly building inside me, burning me hotter and hotter, and sending me closer and closer to finding my release. But I didn’t want to find it yet, didn’t want it to end so soon.