“No, and put me down!” I snapped.
“No,” he growled as he shoved me against a building and his mouth hovered dangerously close to mine. I shook my head, preparing to tell him off, but he kissed me. I moaned against it, hating that I kissed him back. My legs touched the ground as he released me and started pulling at my clothing. I stopped him and stepped away; regret filled my eyes, but I couldn’t lead him on.
“I can’t do this,” I mumbled as I turned, and left him standing between the buildings.
“Can’t do what? Can’t admit what you feel?” he snapped, and I turned on him.
“I can’t do this with you,” I growled. “I can’t be who I need to be with you. You left me—you left me. If those people who you answer to told you right this minute to leave me here, you would! You’d have to. Us? It’s too complicated.”
“There’s nothing complicated about it,” he replied angrily. “I want you; you want me. There’s nothing fucking complicated about it!”
“No? How about the fact that you need to feed from someone else, or that she orgasms every fucking time you feed, and I have to hear it! Every. Fucking. Time!” I shouted, uncaring that my voice was increasing in volume and people could probably hear us arguing. “Feed from me, Jaeden, right here, right now,” I challenged, knowing he couldn’t. Knowing he would never go against whatever Shamus and the elders told him to do. Not that he wouldn’t want to go against them. Part of the problem was his tie to his master; the compulsion to follow his master’s and the elders’ orders. Then there was the failsafe that I’d recently found out about. If a vampire managed to disobey or find a way around the compulsion, they were summarily put to death, as if they were defective or something.
“Emma,” he growled as his fangs extended, and his eyes flashed red. Even knowing what I did, hope still washed through me, but he shook his head, retracted his fangs, and stepped away from me.
“Didn’t think so, Jaeden,” I murmured as I adjusted my bag and hurried back to the group, ignoring the angry eyes of the other vampires, who didn’t look happy that I’d tried to make him break away from the elders’ decree or whatever fucked up shit they had to follow.
I felt his anger, and theirs. I didn’t care; I’d made my point. He wasn’t safe anymore. He wouldn’t and couldn’t choose me when it mattered, and I couldn’t count on him as long as he followed some ageless vampire cult that held his life in their hands. I couldn’t force him to choose, so letting him go seemed the only way to be sure he wasn’t tempted, while protecting myself in the process.
Yes, it was painful, but in the end, it protected us both.
“That was harsh, lass, even if he deserved it,” Lachlan commented, falling into step beside me. My heart hurt, but my pride was still intact.
“We’re toxic together. He can’t be with me as I need him to be, and I can’t be strong with him. I need to be strong right now, Lachlan. It’s the one thing holding me together. If those people told him to pick up and leave, he would. I can’t let emotions lead me; my father taught me better than that.”
“Yer da, Emma, he’d want ye tae be happy, no?” he asked.
“He’d want me to be strong. He’d want me to save my brother at any cost. He’d probably tell me to pull my head out of my ass where Jaeden is concerned. He taught me to go to war with my mind, not my body. With Jaeden, it is war with him, and it’s not with my mind,” I pointed out.
“Emma…”
Shots rang out, and Lachlan stared at me, his body stiff as he looked down at his chest, where blood was blooming across his white shirt. I screamed for help, but everyone was scrambling to figure out where the shots had come from. Instinctively, I reached out to catch Lachlan, which, by the way, holding up about two hundred pounds of werewolf wasn’t exactly an easy thing to do.
“Lachlan, stay with me,” I pleaded as I helped him walk to the buildings for cover against the unseen shooter.
“Emma, run,” he growled, as he began to shift into wolf form.
“Lachlan, you were shot, stop changing!” I demanded, knowing his wolf would be stronger than his current form, but also that he’d be stuck in wolf form if he was too weak to change back. He ignored me and tried to speak as his face contorted with the change, and his clothing ripped away from his body. “Dammit!” I snapped as I pulled out one of my small handguns and checked the chamber and clip to be sure they were full.
“Emma.” Jaeden’s voice was filled with worry as he slid in beside me, his eyes assessing me for wounds, then they snapped to Lachlan, who was mid-change; apparently wounded wolves didn’t change as easily. “Lachlan, we think there’s multiple shooters, be careful,” he warned.
“Are you expecting an answer?” I asked, incredulous as the change was now complete. What was Lachlan supposed to say, woof? He growled once, and then struggled up, whining as he limped to where the rest of his pack was waiting, all in wolf form.
“Stay down! Whoever it is, they used fucking silver bullets,” Jaeden explained, his eyes locking with mine as he grabbed me, protecting me as we used the wall for cover and made it to the next set of structures.
“I am wearing Kevlar,” I whispered, hoping he would let go of me. He didn’t; he used his body as a shield until we could hide in one of the buildings, and the other vampires filed in behind us. Once inside, he let go.
“Three have been shot, one wolf, two vampires,” Shamus rambled as he pushed one of the girls to where a vampire was laid out on the ground, having been carried in by Bjorn. I locked eyes with the girl, who knew exactly what was going to happen. No fear; in fact, she looked happy that she’d been chosen.
She was shoved to her knees, and she pushed her hair away from her neck, only the barest of moments before the vampire savagely bit into her. She moaned, smiling as he sucked noisily from her throat. Nausea swirled inside of me as she started fondling herself, right in front of everyone. She didn’t care, or seem to object as he gulped greedily, which would probably leave her on the brink of dying if he wasn’t stopped. I knew the pleasure of the bite, but only from Jaeden, who had done it during sex.
“How many of the girls were hit?” I asked, watching as Jaeden shifted uncomfortably. Yeah, that’s what I thought. Mortal lives meant nothing to this group. Not because they actually thought about it like that, but because when it came down to it, their own people meant more to them.
“A few,” Jaeden said carefully.
“Where are they?” I countered smoothly, wondering if they’d been left outside to die.
“Sven is changing one over; the others were killed instantly.”
“This wasn’t someone defending their turf,” I hissed, sending a silent prayer for the girls who’d been killed. “There’s also the problem of silver bullets. They know what you are.” That was a huge freaking problem. “Where did the wolves go?” I wondered why the pack had fled into the woods instead of staying with us.
“When the alpha is wounded, the pack will go wherever they think they can protect him best. Obviously, they didn’t feel he would be safe packed into a room full of vampires,” Shamus responded, his eyes blood-red as he watched the girl, who’d gone limp.
I raised an eyebrow when no one seemed in a hurry to stop the drinking binge. “You want to stop him?” I pointed at the spectacle on the floor. “He’ll kill her.” I felt my face flood with anger as they just stood around, watching. “I said stop him,” I growled angrily as the vampires turned to look at me. “She’s no good to you dead.”
“She knew what he needed. She refused to allow another to aid in his healing. She’s his woman.” Jaeden’s face was an unreadable mask. “Some care to understand our way of life more than others.” He turned his head to me with an accusing look.
“So, the way I understand it is, all of you are choosing to let her die. Maybe it’s better not to care, than to cho
ose to become a supplement, seeing that they’re a disposable commodity,” I countered as I took off my pack, set it on the ground, and pulled the AR-15 out of its case, which wasn’t ideal for long-range shots, but the scope would at least allow me to see into the woods to find the sniper.
“It’s not that easy, Emma.” Frustration laced Jaeden’s words as I pushed my way past the despicable sight and headed towards the stairs, hoping for a loftier perch to search the woods. “Would you just stop and listen to me?” he demanded as he grabbed my arm painfully. I stopped, turned and looked at him coldly.
“Let me go, Jaeden,” I said evenly, surprised I’d managed to keep my anger in check.
“Never.” His voice was barely audible over the noise of the room. A bullet exploded through the window, hitting another vampire who’d been staring out of it, and he hit the ground hard.
“Get away from the windows,” I shouted as I ripped my arm away from Jaeden’s grasp and ran up the stairs and down the hallway, until I found the door with access to the roof. I ignored Jaeden who followed close on my heels, or tried to.
I crouched low and combat-crawled towards one of the large, protruding vents, and brought the gun up to butt it against my arm; I closed one eye as I peered through the scope with the other. I caught the sight of a muzzle flash and tried to focus on it, but whoever was shooting was doing so from a gunny suit or heavy camouflage, one that the shooter must have spent a lot of time in to be sure it blended in with the terrain.
“Human, I think,” I muttered to myself as I looked through the scope, taking in the area around him. There was a truck a few paces away from the guy, and other people were there, rifles in hand, but it was difficult to see from this distance. They were blurry at best; the AR-15’s scope wasn’t meant to see at this great of a distance.
“What’s that?” Jaeden whispered, pointing to somewhere closer to us, about a mile outside of the small town. “I smell blood.”
“Maybe from the girl being drained downstairs?” I snapped, unable to stop myself because I hated it. I hated that he fed from another, I hated that it gave her pleasure when he did it. I also hated their blatant disregard for human lives.
“Stop it, now,” he growled. “There,” his finger indicated the spot, and I looked through the scope.
“What…children?” There were two of them, along with three women? All of them were covered in blood that ran from fresh wounds. “Jaeden…” I whispered as I watched them dodge bullets. “They’re being hunted.”
I looked away from the scope to focus on him, but he was gone. I looked around briefly before looking back through the scope, watching as he rushed to where the women and children were hidden. Fucking hell, he was making his way towards them, and a heavily armed male was moving in the same direction. I butted the gun against my shoulder and released the safety.
The moment the guy spotted Jaeden and lifted his gun, I took the shot, watching as it sailed through the guy’s forehead, and he fell backwards. I directed the scope back to Jaeden, who was looking directly at me. My ears rang from the noise the gun made when firing, but I refused to stop protecting him as he made his way to the women and children.
Another shot, another body. I kept taking aim and firing, until a bullet tinged next to my head; shards of wood flew outward and I was forced to take cover. I peered around the other side, making sure my head was protected by the vent. Once my position was concealed, I looked through the scope once more.
I froze.
I’d assumed my heart was erratic because of the current situation, but just at the edge of the woods stood a man. One dressed in tactical gear, but unlike the others I’d shot, he wore black instead of camo and his gear looked more like all-over body armor. Cerulean blue eyes watched me, looking right at me. Most of his face was covered by a mask, but I didn’t need to be told who I was looking at—I felt him. I let my finger hover over the trigger before I released it, and continued to look at him.
Although he wasn’t quite as tall as Jaeden, he was still well over six foot in height, and the hair I could see peeking out from the mask looked dark, but it could have been a shadow distortion caused from a combination of the scope and the distance between us. As I watched him, he held up a strawberry blonde lock of hair and smelled it, never taking his eyes from mine.
“Soon, Emma,” a male voice whispered inside my head, and I blinked in disbelief. Much like those other Sentinels on the day Grayson had been taken, he could talk inside my head.
“Soon what, asshole?” I muttered out loud.
As I watched him, I felt a bullet moving through the air for a split-second before it hit the barrel of the gun I held, sending me to all fours. The reverberation hurt, and it took effort to regain my balance and take cover. I picked the gun back up and peered through the scope in time to watch as Jaeden took down two assailants easily, retrieved the women and children, and ushered them to the safety of the buildings that skirted town.
I shifted the scope to where the Sentinel was, but he was gone. I heard shots ringing out in the hills and tried to peer through the scope again, and just as the ringing became unbearable, I saw a black blur take down the men who’d fired at me.
I smiled as he snapped a neck and turned to look directly at me before pointing at his eyes, and then me. I swallowed, wondering if he’d ever saved me before without me even knowing about it. It was possible; this world was a fucked-up place, and no one was being spared. No one.
Chapter 3
The rescued women were giving details of the men who’d been hunting them as the vampires looked them over. To me, something about these women seemed off, but the vampires seemed okay with them, so I settled in and helped out bandaging up the newcomer’s wounds with Jaeden. My mind wandered away from the task at hand as I wondered if Lachlan was okay. There had been no word from the wolves, and that bothered me.
I missed Lachlan; his humor and wisdom seemed to keep me balanced, and knowing he was out there, hurt, bothered me.
“Hold that,” I told the woman I was working on as I moved her hand over the gauze I had placed over the stitches so I could secure it with medical tape. Her eyes were fixed on the men who milled around the room. “How old is she?” I asked, nodding towards the tiny girl who sat crying without any sign of stopping.
“Her? I don’t know,” she grunted indifferently, once again ignoring me.
“You don’t know how old she is?” I sat back and removed my gloves.
“She’s not mine,” she hissed as she tried to move her arm. “Just one of the brats we picked up on our way.”
“She’s not from the town?” My eyes zeroed in on her pulse.
“Yeah, but she’s not mine.”
I looked at the children, and then at Jaeden, who was talking to one of the women he’d saved; she was staring at him like he hung the moon high in the sky, just for her. I shook my head mentally. I realized that the vampires needed to replace some members of their ‘blood buffet’ and would probably say or do whatever they could to suck up to these women. Literally. If the vampires got their way, then the women would be staying with them, trading blood and sex for protection. I sat back and stood up as I replaced the medical supplies in the duffle bag and headed to one of the couches to observe the room. I felt like an outsider, as if I didn’t belong here.
“You don’t,” a sultry male voice whispered through my mind, and I mentally shrugged.
I didn’t fit in anywhere, except at the shelter.
“With me. You belong with me,” the voice growled in my head.
“No, don’t think so,” I whispered, wondering how the hell he was hearing my thoughts.
“Something wrong?” Raphael asked carefully, his eyes keen as he watched my reaction to his words. His eyes were a startling shade of blue, and with all of that thick, beautiful hair that brushed against his shoulders, he
was guaranteed to have a bevy of blood-bags vying for his attention every time we broke for camp. That much I knew about him.
“No,” I huffed, leaning my head back against the couch, which was as tattered as I felt.
“You always talk to yourself?” he mused as he sat too close to me, and placed his hand on my thigh.
“Yes; I’m also partial to biting limp flesh and other things that get too close,” I replied easily, turning my head to look at him and then pointedly at his hand, which he removed as Jaeden made his way to us.
“No sign of the wolves, but I don’t imagine they’d bring Lachlan too close to us if he’s been seriously injured. We probably won’t see him or them until he’s finished healing.”
“Great,” I muttered and looked at the women, who watched us carefully. “They seem off.” I wondered if it was just me who’d noticed it.
“If you watched an entire town being slaughtered, you’d be off, too,” Jaeden said sharply, and I looked up at him. His eyes were on me, and then they slowly slid to my thigh, which Raphael had just released. “You can’t expect everyone to deal with shit the way you do, Emma.”
“No, but they took children into their group. Children which they seem to know nothing about, nor are they caring for them. Look at them, the one child is hurt, and not one of those women has moved a muscle to help or comfort her. She’s been crying since you rescued them, you’d think they’d try to calm her,” I pointed out.
“This is a new world, Emma, shit happens. Look at the shelter, its mismatched people, those who cling to each other for support. These women? They didn’t have that. They saved those children; don’t expect them to know shit about them.”
“The massacre at that town happened days ago, Jaeden, are you telling me that they wouldn’t have asked the children anything about who they were? Seems a little bit off, but if you want to defend their honor, by all means, continue.”