Cassie’s breath lodged in her throat as she was almost certain she’d seen the necklace before, that she knew where it was. Her gaze settled on Aylia’s neck, seeking a visual confirmation of what it looked like, telling herself she was mistaken. Only Aylia wore no necklace.
“It was stolen from you,” Cassie said, and Lord help her, Cassie was now certain she knew where that necklace was.
Aylia shook her head and pulled down her shirt, showing a long scar on her shoulder. “I was lucky to survive and I’m thankful it wasn’t a Red that did this or I’d be a monster now myself.”
She was attacked by a natural born. Like herself and Nico. No, Cassie thought. No. Nico would not do that to Aylia. He would not betray his race, his blood. “Did you know the wolf that attacked you?”
Aylia glanced in Troy’s direction. “Sarah,” she said solemnly. “And I’m so sorry, Troy, that my magic has hurt you in the way it has. I regret that spell on Andres more than you can ever know.”
“What does this mean for Troy?” Cassie asked and not gently. Everything was spinning out of control, and she desperately needed to make sense of it all.
“I don’t know,” Aylia said. “But it’s been more than a year since you were infected. It has to be a good sign that the Red virus hasn’t completely claimed you yet.”
“Yet,” Cassie repeated softly and the silence that followed was deafening as her eyes met Marcus’s in pained understanding. They both knew Troy was barely hanging on. They both needed an answer now, not later.
“We all know where this is going,” Troy said, abruptly dropping her hand and pushing to his feet.
Cassie quickly jumped up as well, grabbing his arms, and standing in front of him, giving her back to Marcus and Aylia who were now standing as well. “Where is this going?” Cassie asked. “What are you saying?”
“Marcus,” Troy said looking over her head at his Warden-in-Charge. “I’m going after Andres. I need you to take care of Cassie.”
“I do not need to be taken care of,” she objected, still focused on Troy and Troy alone. “I need you here, irritating me, saying things like ‘take care of Cassie’ who is a member of The Royal Guard… That’s what I need.”
“Cass,” he said softly, pulling her close and kissing her soundly on the lips, then brushing her hair out of her eyes. “The rebels are plotting to kill The Royal Guard, and there’s an insider helping them. That’s why I grabbed you so forcefully today. I wasn’t taking any chances of you being hurt. And you know who I’m afraid that insider is.”
“No,” Cassie rejected immediately. “It’s not him.”
“Let Marcus help you find out.”
“You help me find out.”
“I’m dangerous. You know I’m dangerous. I won’t risk hurting you.”
“You won’t.”
“I’m going after Andres, Cass, before I’m too far gone to do it.” He lowered his voice with a lethal vow. “I’m taking him with me if it’s the last thing I do on this earth.”
“Taking him with you?” Cassie demanded. “No. No. You aren’t doing anything but taking me with you to kill Andres, and Aylia is going to come up with a spell to save you while we do it. That’s what’s going to happen.” Cassie whirled around to face Aylia, too emotional to even try and be fair to the witch. “Fix this, Aylia. Fix it just like your coven fixed you when Sarah attacked you. You did this… this… whatever the hell you did to Troy, with irresponsible black magic and you’re going to undo it.”
Troy pulled her against him, wrapping his arms around her, her back to his chest. “Easy, Cass.”
“I’m sorry,” Aylia whispered. “I’m so very sorry.”
“Sorry isn’t enough,” Cass said. “Sorry won’t save his life.”
Troy turned her in his arms. “Cass -”
“Don’t say whatever you’re going to say,” she said, pressing a hand on his chest. “We’re going to fix this.”
“There is one possibility,” Aylia said softly from behind them.
Cassie’s heart leapt into her throat and she turned around, Troy’s hands settling on her shoulders. “I’m listening. What possibility?”
Aylia hesitated and looked at Marcus. He nodded again, as if this was something they’d discussed before now. “Tell them,” Marcus urged.
“Please,” Cassie said, but the word was a demand. Her knees were shaking.
“I can try and bind the Red in Troy with a natural born wolf’s blood,” she said. “If it succeeds it will give him the kind of control Andres has.”
“Why didn’t you say that before?” Cassie asked. “Do it. Do it now. Use my blood.”
“She didn’t tell us,” Troy said, “because there’s a catch. Why didn’t you tell us this earlier?” Aylia licked her lips nervously. “There are risks. Cassie, or the wolf who completes the blood bond, could potentially be infected by the virus.”
His hands tightened on Cassie’s shoulders. “So she could become a Red Wolf and end up on the chopping block with me.” It wasn’t a question.
“Yes,” Aylia confirmed.
“I don’t care,” Cassie said, facing him, her hands on his chest. “I’ll do it. I have to do it. We have to do this.”
“No, you don’t,” Troy said. “We don’t. We aren’t.”
“We are.”
His hands framed her face, his expression tender. “You risked your life for me back in Reno and then again today by giving me your vein when I was out of my mind. I owe you so much and I’ve done everything wrong with you. I can’t ever make those things up to you. I won’t allow you to risk yourself for me again.”
“Yes,” she said. “You can make it all up to me because we’re doing the blood bond.”
He shook his head. “No, Cass. No. Unless Aylia can come up with an option that doesn’t put you at risk, this is a closed subject.”
Cassie turned to Aylia, and she immediately shook her head. “This is the best I can do without the original spell that is cast into the necklace.”
“The necklace,” Cassie repeated. “You’re telling me you can undo this with the necklace?”
“If I had the necklace, then yes, I could bind the Red virus in Troy and give him control without any risk to you or anyone else.”
Cassie stood there as both hope and hell seemed to claim her at once. Nico was her brother, and she loved him. He was honorable, a warrior of warriors. But he had Aylia’s necklace. He’d met with Andres more than one time. Nico held Troy’s life in his hands and to save Troy, she had to face the fact that she might lose Nico. Or worse, she could lose them both.
“I need… some air,” Cassie said, as a sudden rush of adrenaline overcame her. She shot for the living room and the front door.
“Cassie!” Troy yelled and she heard him say something to Marcus, but she didn’t tune into what. Her thoughts were too loud, too consuming.
Cassie was at the front door, and outside in seconds. She started to run, but didn’t know where to go. Thunder rolled overhead, no doubt, extending the darkness of night. But it didn’t matter – dark or light. The sun would rise soon, but the idea that vampires could not stand sunlight was a myth. Troy would follow her.
Her mind raced with options she weeded through and discarded. She yearned to shift, to escape with her wolf, to run and work through her emotions. She could dash for Nico’s place and confront him, demand he give her the necklace, but knew that wasn’t a smart plan. Not if she objectively considered what she knew of his meetings with Andres, and of him holding the necklace in his possession. That meant she couldn’t go to her house, not when Nico would surely be looking for her there after Troy had carried her off from the hotel. She didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know where to go and she found herself at the back fence behind the apartment complex, thankful for the dark that hid her from watchful eyes. She fell against the wooden surface and slid down to the ground, letting her forehead rest on her knees.
She felt Troy a moment before she knew he wa
s standing over her. She had a decision to make that was tearing her up inside. Did she try to deal with Nico on her own, or did she tell Troy and trust him to give Nico the benefit of the doubt?
Chapter Eleven
Troy bent down in front of Cassie, touching her hair. She lifted her eyes to his. “I can’t let you die,” she whispered.
“Oh Cass, baby,” he said, sitting down next to her and pulling her into his lap. Her words touched Troy like few others had in all of his many years, perhaps even more than the confession of love he wanted from her, but knew he didn’t deserve. “I’m here now. That’s what counts.”
“Now isn’t enough.” She maneuvered to straddle him, her hands going to his face. “I won’t let you die.” She pressed her lips to his. “I won’t.”
“No,” he agreed. “Now isn’t enough but it’s all we have for certain.”
“That’s acceptance,” she said. “That’s giving up and you aren’t a quitter or you wouldn’t still be here.”
He twined his fingers into her hair and kissed her, tasting the pain, the desperation, the passion on her tongue. Desire flared inside him, hot and fiery. But it was her emotion, and all the things he’d left unspoken for far too long, that had Troy tearing his mouth from hers before he lost himself in how damn good it felt to hold her, to not feel guilt or fear for doing so. He didn’t want to lose her when he’d just truly found her. “If ever there was a reason for me to stay here and keep fighting, it’s you, Cass. I don’t want to leave you again. Not ever.”
“Promise me you mean that. Promise me you aren’t just going to accept this as the end.”
She made him want to fight. She made him want to believe he was strong enough to overcome the virus. She made him a man again, not some monster destined for destruction. And right then, holding her, he meant his vow as he spoke it. “I promise.” He dropped his forehead to hers. “For you, I promise. For you… ” Emotion tightened in his chest. “There is so much I need to say to you. And I swear, I say and do everything too late, and at all the wrong times, but this can’t wait. It has waited too long.” He leaned back to look at her. “I’ve been so unfair to you. I need you to know that you not only have my trust, you always had it. It was me I didn’t trust. I told myself I was afraid I’d be blind and allow others to be hurt, but the truth is that I was a coward, afraid of getting hurt myself.”
“Sarah messed with your head and your emotions.” Her fingers splayed softly on his cheek. “You loved her and she betrayed you. I understand what that did to you.”
He shook his head. “No. I didn’t love her and I’m not just saying that. I was infatuated with everything she represented. She came along at a time when I was feeling like a hundred years of fighting had made no difference in this world at all. She gave me the chance to feel like I was a part of uniting our races.” He brushed his lips over hers. “I never came close to feeling what I feel for you with her. You, Cassie Moore, I love. I’ve loved you for far too long to have never told you.”
“I love you, too,” she whispered and pressed her lips to his again. He kissed her, a deep, passionate kiss, sweeter for his confession, with the relief of no longer denying what she was to him. Sweetness that quickly turned to torment, as the taste of her salty tears touched his lips. Cass was crying. She never cried. His gut clenched with the very real possibility, the deserving possibility, that he’d wronged her for too long, that he was too late to save what they might have been.
“What is it?” he asked, brushing away the dampness from her cheeks.
She wrapped her arms around him and held him, her body melting into his, telling him silently that she sought solace in him, rather than seeking escape. “What is it, sweetheart?” he prodded gently, caressing her back, holding her, giving her the time to deal with whatever she was struggling with.
“I just,” she eased back so that her cheek was pressed to his. “I’m afraid of losing you and… I’m afraid of losing Nico, too.”
Yes, Troy thought. He was afraid of that, too, and it ate him alive to think of what it would do to her if Nico was truly betraying his race, betraying her with it. And he knew how selfish he had been back in the apartment to tell her to deal with this with Marcus. Damn it to hell, he was a bastard over and over with Cassie.
“Look Cass,” he eased her back so she could look at him. “We can’t be sure it’s Nico from what I’ve discovered about him, but we aren’t writing him off either. There was always a part of me that felt off with Sarah. Always. That’s how I started looking into some of her activity and discovered she was spying for the rebels. I have never, ever, felt that way with you or Nico. I should have trusted myself and my instincts.”
“Thank you,” Cassie said. “I love him. He’s my only family, and I know there has to be an explanation for his actions.” Her fingers curled on his chest. “But Troy, Nico… I need to tell you -”
“What I need is you,” he said, his teeth scraping her lip, sensing whatever she had to say was going to be heavy and he wasn’t ready to hear it yet.
“I need to tell you this,” she whispered.
“And you will,” he said. “Just not now. We need some time together, Cass. For the first time in a year, I don’t want to think about what comes next. I just want to be with you.”
She ran her fingers over his mouth. “This is big, Troy. This -”
He covered her mouth with his. His tongue stroked hers with a demand he couldn’t feel sorry for. A demand that for just a few hours, she let the world fade away, the uncertain future with it, leaving just the two of them.
He could feel her resistance though; the tension in her, the worry, and he rejected those things. He deepened the kiss, pushing her shirt upward, filling his hands with her bare breasts, teasing her nipples. The sound of her moan as she wrapped her arms around his neck, merged with the thunder rumbling overhead, and lightening flickering in its wake, telling of a storm that was brewing. But the storm was already here, the storm that was the wolf inside him, he couldn’t escape. He’d promised her he would fight to survive this and he would. For her, he would. But he could only do so unless he became a danger to others, to her. Right now, this time with her was all he could be sure of. Her pleasure was all he could fairly promise her without limitations. And if that is all he could have, he wanted everything she would give him. The rest he would take.
He eased one hand lower, over her back, pressing inside her leggings to caress her bare ass, pulling her solidly over his hips, her heat pressed to his cock. She rocked into him, and her hand traveled down his chest then over his hip, and up his back.
“We should go inside,” she panted.
“Not yet.” He slid the hand on her backside around her waist, seeking and finding her clit, teasing it. She made a soft sound of pleasure and he added softly, “We still have more to do here.”
His fingers explored the intimate folds of her body, spreading the slick wet proof of her arousal. She wrapped her arms around his neck, clinging to him, as he pushed inside her with one finger, and then the other. He curved his hand around the nape of her neck, under her silky mass of chestnut hair. His mouth slanted over hers, and he kissed her deeply, making love to her with his mouth even as he caressed her inner wall, stroking her, searching for that sweet spot that would drive her over the edge. Determined to find, and enjoy, every little pleasure zone on her body before he let the real world back in.
She moaned and panted, tearing her mouth from his to bury her face in his neck. Troy’s mouth settled at her throat as well, the scent of her pouring through him, igniting lust and setting his nerve endings on fire. He could hear her heart beat, feel the pulse of liquid through her veins, damn near taste it on his tongue. He wanted inside her, and he wanted her blood, her life, her pleasure, inside him.
His incisors extended, the hunger engulfing him, his teeth scraping her lobe, her neck. He felt no fear of losing control. Her blood had changed something in him, given him more control. Or maybe it was simply he
r – that she was here with him, that she believed in him; that forced the wolf into submission, that allowed the vampire to dominate her pleasure.
“Do it,” she pleaded, tilting her head to give him better access. “God please, just do it.” Troy sunk his teeth into the delicate flesh just below her ear. Cassie gasped with shock, then moaned with the pleasure that followed. Her release was instantaneous, her body spasming around his fingers. The sweet spicy flavor of her blood exploded inside his mouth, pouring through him and warming every cell of his body, just as her love had his heart. She completed him. He knew that now. Ravenous need overcame him with that knowledge, a need to claim her. He burned to make her his, to make sure she knew, without any doubt, who she belonged to, who he belonged to. But deep down, he knew he had no right, that the red virus inside him could still steal her from him, and him from her.
Cassie collapsed against him with release and he licked the wound to seal it. He wrapped her in an embrace, burying his face in her wet hair. Only then did he realize it was raining.
“Now we go,” he said softly.
He stood up with her in his arms, and shot into action, using his vampire speed. Not more than a few minutes later, they stopped on an enclosed balcony, overlooking a mountain in a one-story stucco house.
“Where are we?” Cassie asked, still in his arms, her legs wrapped around his waist.
“Marcus gave me the okay to use his Vegas home,” he said, shoving open the sliding glass door and entering. “And you deserve better than the dump I had you in.” He left the door open behind him and walked towards the bathroom in the far corner of the massive master bedroom. He set her down in front of the shower and began undressing her. If he lost her, if he lost this battle with the beast within him, he was determined that her memories of him would be of pleasure, not the pain he knew he’d caused her.
***
Cassie let Troy drag her against him inside the shower, the warm water pouring over them. He kissed her and she let him, but she wasn’t prepared to make this all about her pleasure. She fully intended to show him that love wasn’t just taking, and that they were so much more than that together. The wolf in her wasn’t shy about how to make that happen either.