Energy slithered around the corners and crawled along the walls of this place. This compound was for protection, for the outer reaches of the Fae stronghold. And it was a stronghold. Their dark magic was the lifeblood of our Immortal existence, feeding, corrupting, growing roots into this mortal world until we sucked the life from every living thing…leaving Immortals to rule.
My steps grew heavy as a door opened at the end of the hallway and a soft green light spilled out. I could hate us, hate our very fucking existence and our predatory nature. But I’d rather change it, even if changing it came with a price, and Alliard had paid that price with his life.
There was a hiss from the corner of the room. Shadows snarled, flicking out along the walls and the ceiling like a midnight fire before they drew away, sucking downwards from the walls to gather into the outline of a male on a stretcher.
I swallowed hard and stepped closer, wincing at the ghastly gray tone of his skin and open, unblinking eyes. “You said he was alive.”
“You see the chest rise?” Mojin gave one slow nod toward the thing on the table. “Then he’s alive…which is a lot more than we had when he was brought here.”
Hurrow cut me a look of concern. But it was too late to back out now.
Ruth’s desperate words pushed into my mind.
Far too fucking late.
“You said Kapre’s power would be strong enough to bring him back.” Anger rose inside me.
“Bring him back…yes. But there’s no undoing this.” Mojin stepped close and lifted the edge of the sheet, revealing the bodyguard’s mess of a fucking body.
“Fuck me.” Hurrow looked away. “Did you have to do that?”
Still the edge of the sheet hovered in the air. I couldn’t look away, not from the bullet-riddled mess, or the hard muscle left behind. She liked the guard…maybe even felt a flicker of desire for the mortal. But what would she think about him now? Would she be horrified? Would she hate me for what he’d become?
One nod, and Mojin lowered the sheet, letting it suck back down against the slick, bloody mess. “Is he going to become…”
“Like Kapre? Partially. Even a taste will be enough to break his mortal coil. You wanted alive. So he’s alive. How alive he becomes is up to him. But make no mistake, Vampire. As far as mortals go, this…male is going to be terrifying.”
Hurrow clenched his jaw and met my gaze as the answer came to the only question that mattered.
Even if the bodyguard survived all of this, there was no way we’d trust him.
No way we’d let him anywhere near her.
And no way in hell we’d ever tell her the truth of what the mortal was now.
“I appreciate all you’ve done,” I murmured, and met that piercing Unseelie stare. “Call me if anything changes.”
Stop fighting, the words flew as I glanced at the bodyguard and strode to the door. It’d be better for her if you died.
3
Ruth
Alexander, NO!
“Ruth…Ruth, I’m right here.”
Chains around my ankles, pulling me down into the dark…holding me under.
Fire raged in my chest and ripped from my throat.
I yanked my feet high and kicked, fighting…fighting…FIGHTING.
Screams filled my ears, sounding hoarse, broken…raw.
“Ruth, you’re safe.” Strong arms wrapped around me, pressing me against a mammoth chest.
I coughed and heaved, clenched fists pummeling a muscled back as I opened my eyes and sucked in lungfuls of air, but still the fire burned.
“I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Long hair tickled my cheek. I tried to crawl back into my skin, tried to remember where I was as someone stroked my hair, comforting me.
“It’s Justice,” the Vampire murmured in my ear. “It’s just me.”
“Justice?” His name was a hoarse burn that tore through my chest.
“It’s me, Ruth. You’re safe, baby, you’re safe.”
But the chains were cinched tight around my ankles, and the metallic tang of blood welled in my mouth. “My ankles…there’s something around my ankles.”
Callused fingers skimmed my knee and brushed the side of my foot. “There’s nothing there,” he reassured me. “See? Not around your ankles or your wrists…or your neck.”
I flinched as he skimmed his fingers along my chest and over the base of my throat. But still, desperation clung to my bones. It filled my heart and raced through my veins. It welled in jumping muscles and nerves wound tight.
It hid in the darkness of my mind…in the sleep that waited. “I don’t want to go back there.” His face blurred as I met his gaze. “I can’t go back there.”
“You won’t have to,” Justice promised.
The leather patch over his eye shone in the soft bedroom light. “How long have I been asleep?”
“Three hours.” He brushed the hair from my face. “And this is the second nightmare you’ve had. You’re so tired, you just need to rest, so just relax and let yourself rest.”
I lowered my head to his shoulder and took comfort in his touch. He cradled me, running his hand down one side of my spine and back up again.
“The doctor…Samuel.”
“Yes, the good doctor’s checked on you. He’s going to stay here for as long as you need.”
There was something he wasn’t saying. Something he was hiding under the rhythmic motion of his hand as he lulled me back to sleep. But the darkness waited down there, the cold like I’d never felt before. “I don’t want to sleep…ever again.”
His silver eye glinted in the soft bathroom light as he held my gaze. Had someone like him ever known fear? Real fear, the kind that slipped into your heart and found a home? I lifted my hand, fingers trembling as I skimmed the thick bones of his wrist.
Corded forearms tightened under my touch as I opened my hand wide and circled the bulging muscle of his arm. “Have you ever been terrified? The kind where you feel totally out of control…'cause right now I feel out of control.”
“Yes.” He inhaled hard, his chest pressing into mine. “I felt very out of control last night…”
My hand froze at the top of his shoulder as I met that steely stare.
Why?
The word raged.
Why care about me? After all…I was only mortal.
I’d known these Vampires mere months, and yet…it felt like I’d known them my entire lifetime. They should hate me…at the very least distrust me. After all, it was my family who'd led to the Immortal Vampire, Prince Alliard Xuemel, being brutally murdered.
And the killer hadn’t been caught.
So, why me? Why any of this?
If you have to ask that question, then you really don’t know us at all…Elithien’s voice slipped into my mind. Look into his eyes…press your hand against his chest. There’s your answer, Ruth.
I swallowed hard and let my hand slide. The Vampire’s lips parted with the sudden breath as I rested my hand over the hard muscle of Justice’s chest.
Thud…thud…thud…
I wrenched my hand away, my eyes widening.