“Good luck with that,” I said and turned toward the hill. I could smell Taylor, though I couldn’t hear her voice. I just prayed she was still alive and that I was in time to save her. If I lost her, I didn’t know what I would do.
Lose myself, probably, I thought as I made my way quickly but stealthily up the hill. In all probability if Taylor died, my curse would overtake me and never let go. I was struggling right now to keep the beast inside me in check but only because I was afraid I might kill everyone—Taylor included—if I let go and gave in to the change. Have to keep it together, I told myself, lifting my head to scent the wind. Just long enough to save her and see her safely back to Addison and Corbin. Then I can change and hunt…hunt down every single fucker who hurt her.
That was my goal anyway but the burning at my lower back made me wonder if I would achieve it. Have to, I told myself. I have to—
Suddenly, I saw someone up ahead, crouched in the underbrush. The moonlight was bright enough to let me make out that it was a male and my nose told me it was a vampire. Clearly, Celeste had sent him to wait for me but I didn’t think he’d seen me yet.
I circled warily around and came up from behind him. Then, as silently as possible, I pounced. I had no weapons but the beast inside had forced a partial change, just as it had the night before. My eyes felt hot and my fangs were long and sharp and hungry for blood—I ripped his throat out before he could even struggle.
The tang of cool, metallic vampire blood filled my mouth making me want to gag. Disgusting—it tasted like meat that was just about to spoil. I spit it out and was lowering the vamp to the ground when what felt like five more jumped me from behind.
“What the fuck?” I roared, trying to throw them off. But there were too many of them—a confusing mixture of vamp and were, according to my nose.
“Just exacting some justice, sugar.” LeeAnn suddenly popped up in front of me and slipped a thick silver chain around my neck. The caustic metal burned me at once, making me throw back my head and howl. The others who had grabbed me looped silver chains around my arms, binding them behind my back.
I was trapped.
I wanted to change, wanted to let the beast inside out and rip them all to shreds but I couldn’t yet—I had to free Taylor and get her to safety first. Somehow I stayed human—mostly, anyway. I had no idea how the other wolves were managing to keep in human form during the full moon night. They must have already changed and satisfied the call of the moon in order to manage it. The fact that they were both buck naked except for thick hide gloves to protect themselves from the silver chains, seemed to confirm my guess.
“Look at him,” another were muttered nervously, staring at me. “His eyes are fucking red. Damn, I wish I never woulda got into this. No money’s worth messing with a cursed one.”
“Shut your fool mouth, Tozer, and let’s get him to Celeste,” LeeAnn snapped. “The sooner she does her little spell on his fanger girlfriend, the sooner I can kill him.”
“You’re the one who’s going to die tonight,” I told her, my voice dipping down into a growl.
“Oh, please,” she scoffed as they started dragging me up the hill. “I know your type, Victor—you’d never break the pack laws and do violence to a female.”
“I wouldn’t,” I said. “But the thing inside me—the beast—it doesn’t care, LeeAnn. All it wants is blood. And if I can’t control it…”
The wolf called Tozer went pale.
“You hear that, LeeAnn? We need to get up out of here.”
“We’ll be fine,” she said, giving him an exasperated look. “All that talk about cursed ones is just superstition and foolishness.”
“That’s what you think,” he said darkly. “That’s 'cause you never seen what a cursed one can do. Your daddy has—that’s why he told you to leave this guy alone.”
“Oh please.” LeeAnn rolled her eyes. “Daddy’s just trying to scare me so I’ll take the wolf he wants as the next pack master. Problem is, the only one I wanted was Victor.” She yanked viciously at the chain around my neck until I choked. “But he turned out to me a lying, cheating sack of shit.”
“I never cheated on you,” I said hoarsely. “Because we were never together. Because my dad taught me not to dip my dick in crazy.”
“Shut up,” she snarled. “You would have been lucky to have me—any wolf would!”
“That kind of luck I can live without,” I growled. “Thanks but no fucking thanks.”
At that point we got to the top of the large, flat hill and I saw Taylor for the first time. She was wearing a thin white gown that whipped around her legs in the night breeze and she was gagged with silver. I saw her eyes move as she looked at me and a knot I hadn’t known I had suddenly loosened inside my chest. She was alive—thank God, she was alive.
My heart leapt when I realized she was okay…and then sank down to my shoes. She was chained to a big old oak at the center of the hill—completely helpless. If I let the curse take me, if I gave in to the call of the moon, she would be a sitting duck. Way too easy to kill if the beast went on a rampage. I knew the wolf inside me recognized her as mine but I wasn’t sure the beast could be trusted.
A sudden image surfaced in my mind—a memory I had done my best to suppress. When I was younger, I’d had a pet, a dog called Champ. He was a mut—a lab/golden mix with a little terrier thrown in—the best pet a kid could have. Champ was with me during my first change. When puberty hit and the wolf came forward for the first time, we ran together under the full moon and I woke up the next morning to find him licking my face. After that, he always came with me on full moon nights—just a boy and his dog, happy as they could be.
That was until the first time the curse took me.
The beast didn’t care that Champ was a friend, a much loved pet I’d had for years. The morning after that change I had woken up to find Champ’s severed head lying in the grass at my feet and his disemboweled body a few yards away. I wanted to believe that some other animal had gotten to him but there was blood on my mouth—Champ’s blood. Apparently the beast had seen him as either a competitor or prey.
I had been horrified by what I had done and I mourned Champ for months afterward. The combination of guilt and grief had been damn near crippling and to be honest, in a way I had never really gotten over it. I started distancing myself from my family and it wasn’t too long after that I admitted to my father what was happening to me.
I didn’t expect compassion or understanding from him—he wasn’t that kind of a male. But his choice to brand me as cursed before he drove me away still hurt. It hurt but I understood it. The brand was a warning to others of my kind. Not to be trusted, it said. Violent. Unpredictable. Dangerous.
Was it any wonder, then, that I fought so hard to keep myself from making a complete change to the mindless beast that lived just under the surface? I couldn’t risk letting that part of me out—couldn’t risk waking up to find Taylor lying in pieces on the grass around me with a look of terror and pain on her face.
I’ll die first, I told myself. I’ll let them kill me before I change.
Little did I know how close I was going to come to having that promise come true.
“Tie him to the stake,” Celeste said, coming forward to gloat. “Where’s Carl?”
“Didn’t make it,” one of the vamps said shortly.
“A pity.” She sighed. “I hated to use him as bait but what could I do? Some losses are always inevitable.” So the vampire I’d killed had been merely there to lure me in—great. Corbin had been right when he said it was a trap set with me in mind. And I had walked right into it. Speaking of Corbin, where was he? How much longer was it going to take to get through the barrier? I could use a little help, here guys!
As I was kicking myself for being an idiot and wondering if I was going to get any backup, the vamps and weres who had jumped me fastened my chained hands to a thick metal pole. It was driven into the ground right across from where Taylor was tied to th
e tree. I could see her hair whipping in the wind and her eyes, big and blue and full of sorrow. She was less than ten feet away from me but it might as well have been a thousand miles—I couldn’t reach her. Couldn’t hold her and tell her how sorry I was or how much I cared. But at least I could talk—they hadn’t gagged me like they had her.
“Taylor,” I said hoarsely. “Are you all right, baby? I’m going to get you out of here somehow, I swear.”
Taylor only looked at me and I saw no hope in her sad eyes. I couldn’t exactly blame her for that. After all, I was tied up too. It was a pretty hopeless situation. Still, I was determined. I opened my mouth to speak again but just then Celeste came between us.
“So glad you could make it to our little party, Victor. My, my, you are a big boy, aren’t you?” she purred, running one sharp fingernail down my chest. “I’m sure Taylor enjoyed that when you fucked her.”
“You bitch.” I surged forward but the chains held. “You’re the one who gave LeeAnn the whip, aren’t you?” I demanded. “To be sure Taylor and I would have sex and fulfill that damn prophecy!”
“Oh, so you know about the prophecy already? Good—I’m so glad we’re all on the same page. Explanations are so tedious.” Celeste gave me a nasty smile. “Yes, I gave her the whip coated in lust potion—I had to make sure the two of you would finally consummate your oh-so-tender relationship.”
“You said it was coated in fire potion to make him burn,” LeeAnn interrupted, glaring at Celeste. “You never said it would make them fuck.”
“Be silent while your betters are speaking,” the vampire snapped. “You’ve been quite useful to me but I won’t tolerate interruptions.”
“But—” LeeAnn began.
The vampire held up one finger. “The next time you open your mouth, I’ll brand you. The time after that, I’ll rip your throat out. Am I making myself absolutely clear?”
LeeAnn looked like she wanted to protest but it was clear Celeste could back up her threat. Her face was looking less and less human and her eyes were huge and completely soulless in the moonlight. My brand burned. The enemy whispered the beast inside me. Kill…devour…destroy. Yes, but would it stop at destroying Celeste…or would it want to kill every vamp here tonight? I couldn’t take a chance.
I am calm, I am centered, I am one, I told myself. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I had to take it easy, couldn’t let Celeste get to me. I am calm, I am centered, I am one.
When I opened my eyes, she was talking again.
“…had to use the whip because my more subtle methods of pushing the two of you together weren’t working,” she said, twirling a long-ass silver dagger that glittered in the moonlight. “First, I had the trap planted on your land knowing that Taylor wouldn’t be able to resist healing the poor little wolf with the wounded paw. And of course, how could you help falling in love with her after she healed you? I was certain you’d fuck her after that—only for some reason, you didn’t.”
I felt a sick twist in my guts at her words.
“I didn’t want to hurt her,” I growled, glaring at her. “After the way you treated her—”
“Hurt her?” she interrupted and burst out laughing. “Oh, please—as if you could. Do you know how many males she’s been with? And females too—basically anyone who took a liking to her got a taste. She was my own personal whore—which was the only reason I kept her instead of killing her after I found out what a horrible vampire she made.”
“You bitch,” I said thickly. There were tears in Taylor’s eyes now and she wouldn’t look at me. Clearly she was ashamed, although, to my mind, she had nothing to be ashamed of.
“When Corbin took her away from me and gave her to you, I wanted to kill her even more,” Celeste went on. “But I noticed a kind of energy between the two of you. And I realized that you fit a kind of pattern—a pattern I’ve been looking for a long, long time. So I waited and watched and I tried to push you together. Of course, when subtler methods failed, I was forced to use cruder methods, like the whip, but they finally worked. And now that you’ve fucked her, I can take what it rightfully mine—her life.”
“You touch her and you’re fucking dead,” I growled. The beast inside wanted to break free and kill her right now but I couldn’t listen to him. He wasn’t trustworthy. Still, I could feel the brand burning and the beast leaking out, just a little around the edges. Along with sharper fangs, which I’d already had, I could feel the bones in my face shifting.
“Lookit his face!” Tozer exclaimed, his eyes full of fear. “He’s changing, Mistress—the curse—”
“I told you to shut up about that ridiculous curse,” she snapped, frowning at him. “But if it makes you feel any better, I’ll brand him with silver to bind him to this form.” She motioned at one of the other vamps. “You—bring me a brand.”
I watched as he brought her a red-hot glowing iron. The brand was a circle about the size of a silver dollar carved with intricate runes. The same runes that were burned into my lower back—warnings to anyone who saw them about what I was. Only this time it would be burned into my flesh with silver and right on my face for all to see.
The beast inside me roared and fought for freedom at the sight of the iron. He didn’t want to be branded again—that shit hurt. I didn’t blame him but I didn’t trust him either. We would just have to endure this, endure it and hope that Gwendolyn and Corbin could get the invisible barrier down in time to come help.
“Now hold still, Victor dear,” Celeste said, coming toward me with the iron. “It will only hurt for a minute.” She laughed. “Actually, no—I’m told it burns for hours. But nonetheless…”
“You really are a bitch, aren’t you?” I said hoarsely as the heated iron got closer and closer to my face. “You fucking enjoy this.”
“I have been told I’m a bit of a sadist,” Celeste remarked. “Of course I had the people who told me that flogged directly afterward.” She smirked at me. “That’s a joke—I actually had them killed. Now just hold still…” I could feel the sizzling heat of the brand radiating against my face as it got closer and closer. I jerked away—I couldn’t help myself, it was an instinctive reaction. Celeste frowned. “LeeAnn,” she called. “Come hold him.”
“Glad to.” LeeAnn, still naked except for her gloves, came forward and grabbed the silver chain around my neck. She pulled it tight, cutting off my air. “Not such a big guy now, are you?” she purred, smirking at me. “You’re gonna die tonight because you couldn’t keep it in your pants. I bet right about now you’re wishing you would have picked me over that fanger.”
“Never,” I whispered hoarsely, struggling to get the words out. “I’d rather have the month I had with Taylor than a lifetime with you.”
“You fucking asshole!” LeeAnn jerked the chain tight. It burned my skin and I saw stars as my air supply was cut to nothing.
“Not so tight,” Celeste said sharply. “I want him alive to witness his lover’s demise.”
“Fine.” LeeAnn muttered sulkily and the silver choke chain eased up enough for me to breathe.
“Let’s try this again,” Celeste said. “And this time, Victor dear, do try to hold still. I’m aiming for your cheek but it would be a great pity if I slipped and got your eye instead.”
I could see the metal glowing cherry red from the corner of my eye and I tensed as she brought it closer, trying to get ready for the pain. But no amount of preparation can really get you ready for the searing agony of getting branded.
“I think right, here should be good,” Celeste said and pressed the burning metal against my cheek.
I jerked again and a low hoarse sound came out of my throat—the sound of the beast fighting for release. The mark on my back was burning every bit as badly as the fresh brand on my cheek. My nerves were on fire, the pain was immense—blinding. Over-fucking-whelming. I had to change—I couldn’t stand it anymore.
No! I am calm, I am centered, I am one. I am calm, I am centered, I am one, I t
old myself over and over again.
“There.” Celeste tossed the hot iron carelessly away and examined my cheek. “Very nice. And it should hold you in this form with no trouble—even if it is a full moon night.”
She had no idea how wrong she was. A fresh silver brand might keep me from taking my wolf form but there was no stopping the beast. She could brand my whole body and he would still come charging out—if I couldn’t control him that was.
I am calm, I am centered, I am one, I told myself, trying to ignore the fiery pain in my cheek and lower back. Trying to think past the beast’s mindless rage, his demands to be set free to rip Celeste’s slender white throat out.
Across from me, Taylor was openly crying now. Her sobs were muffled by the silver gag but I could see the scarlet tears running down her cheeks. Her eyes were fixed on the fresh burn on my cheek and I knew she shared my pain. A fresh surge of love and protectiveness washed over me. I struggled fiercely against the silver chains holding me—just because I couldn’t let the beast out didn’t mean I couldn’t use his strength. If I could just get free…
“The circle is weakening.” The new voice came from a guy whose face I couldn’t see. I didn’t know why since I was staring right at him but his features seemed…obscured somehow. Weird.
“What do you mean it’s weakening?” Celeste asked, rounding on him. “How can it be weakening when it’s your job to keep it up?”
“They must have a witch with them,” he said, sounding pissed. “A strong one.”
“Stronger than you?” she snarled. “I thought you were supposed to be the most powerful warlock in the entire country.”
“I am—there’s no way she should be able to break my spell,” he said. “Either she’s got unprecedented depths of power in her or…”
“Or what?” Celeste demanded impatiently.
“Or else she’s willing to tap into a darker source—to open a doorway into the Abyss.”
“I thought you all did that…went to the Shadow Lands for power or wherever it is,” she snapped.