Apocalyptic Read online

  “More powerful than before? Ok, Kale, hold on a minute here. Let me get this straight.” Flustered, I tried to make sense of this. “Letting fate play out as it may brought me here. That’s the key? To stop fighting it and give in? Falon was right?”

  A hand appeared between us, placing a drink on the tiny table. Whoever it was, the barista I assumed, disappeared before I could get a look.

  “He was right,” Kale agreed. “The problem with the solution is that, for most twin flames, it’s a catch twenty-two. Except for you and Arys. Be aware, Alexa, upon your return the two of you will be the most powerful twin flames in existence. More so than even the immortals. Watch your back.”

  Because we’d be restored. Balanced as we should be. I took Kale’s warning to heart.

  Kale began to sip from the coffee cup. He was right at home here, beyond life and death. I couldn’t stop staring at him.

  “Are you completely free of me now, Kale?” I blurted, unable to hold it inside. I needed to hear him say it. “Did you find the peace you sought?”

  Setting the cup aside, he took both of my hands in his. “I did. I’m free of every burden I carried as a vampire. That life had more than run its course for me. I couldn’t have asked for a better ending than to know and love you.”

  He was happy. It’s all I’d wanted for him.

  Could one cry in the in-between? Apparently so. The tear that streaked down my cheek to splash on the table top was crystal clear. “Ok, good. All I wanted was for you to find your freedom.”

  “And I want you to find yours.” Leaning across the table, Kale kissed me. A tender press of lips over much too quickly. “Never underestimate yourself, Alexa. Your enemies will never know what hit them.”

  Sensing that I was about to be sent off, I grabbed his wrist, needing more time with him. “Can’t I stay longer?”

  Kale winced and sighed. “I wish you could. Staying too long means never going back. You’ll lose your window to get home.” With great reluctance, he pulled his hands from mine.

  Digging into the pocket of his jacket, he produced a large black stone. It filled the palm of his hand as he extended it to me. When it was nestled firmly in my hand, the stone erupted into flames. Blue and gold flames, dancing in a pattern, winding around one another. Like a yin yang of fire.

  I gaped at the mesmerizing and strange flames. “What do I do with it?”

  “Take it with you.” Kale pointed to the back entry of the café. “Through that door.”

  He got up and I reluctantly followed suit. Nobody in the café paid us any attention. Like we weren’t even there. I threw my arms around Kale, refusing to leave without feeling his arms around me one last time.

  “I miss you,” I whispered, choking on a sob. Dear God, how I missed him.

  Kale crushed me to him in a hug. Into my hair he murmured, “Not as much as I miss you.”

  I didn’t want to go, but staying was not an option. With the fiery stone in one hand, I grabbed for him with the other. One last squeeze.

  Then I turned and opened the café door, stepping into a blinding white light.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  SHAZ

  I watched them fight, needing to jump in and have her back. My wolf wouldn’t accept anything less than death beside its mate. Falon held me back.

  Seeing her slip away in Arys’s arms, for the second goddamn time, gutted me. Through this ordeal I’d tried so hard to keep up a tough front when face to face with her. She needed my encouragement, not my doubts and fears. But I felt anything but confident now.

  As she hung limp in Arys’s arms, something changed in him. He grew frantic, shaking her, imploring her to forgive him. He completely fell apart.

  I went to him, kneeling next to them, helping him balance her weight. I tugged her clothing back into place, resting her head gently on the ground. Then I turned to Arys, who sat there staring at her, both hands fisting his hair, blood tears streaming silently down his face.

  Adrenaline pumped hot through my veins. It was no small wonder that I managed to keep my composure. Slinging an arm around Arys’s shoulders, I dragged him close and pressed my face to his. A wolf nuzzle felt like the most natural way to offer him comfort.

  “It had to be this way,” I assured him, praying that Lex was right about this. That Falon was right about this. “You did what you had to do.”

  Arys had no words, which didn’t happen often. He leaned heavily against me, staring at Alexa’s prone form. In silence we sat there together, waiting. For what felt like an eternity.

  After several long, excruciating minutes she sat up with a gasp, eyes wide. She saw us there and reached out a hand. Ashes fell from her palm, littering the beaten earth.

  Arys grabbed her and pulled her close, settling her between us. They clung to each other, each of them holding onto me as well. I sat back and stared up at the night sky, sucking in a deep breath.

  She made it. She survived.

  * * * *

  Arys put his house up for sale and moved in with Alexa. At his gentle insistence, I also packed up and moved out of my apartment. Not willing to take any chances after the crap we’d all been through, Arys wanted the three of us to share a living space. It wasn’t the worst idea, and it was probably about time for us to take this step. Alexa’s house had more than enough space for the three of us. So did her bed.

  Here we were one week later, all moving in together like some happy little trio. I kept waiting for it to feel strange. Yet, walking out the door to the apartment I’d rented alone for years, I didn’t look back. I knew I belonged with them.

  “Hey, careful now! You’re going to take out my light fixture.” Alexa’s shrill shout pierced my eardrums.

  While backing up the stairs, I managed to shift the trajectory of the heavy antique to avoid said fixture. Arys and his damn old furniture. This was the one large item he refused to part with, some dresser he’d been hauling around for a century.

  At Alexa’s instruction, Arys and I carried it up to the guest bedroom. There Arys and I shoved the old dresser against a wall. He paused to run a finger over a deep groove in the wood. A date was etched into the surface: 1849.

  “The year I first saw her in my dreams,” he explained, spying my curious stare. “I don’t know why I carved it in there. Once I did, I felt like I had to cart it around with me everywhere.”

  “I get it.” A smile quirked my lips. Every glimpse of the man behind the vampire continued to amaze me.

  Seeing my amusement, he slugged me in the shoulder. “I just have a box of art supplies to bring in. How about you? Got much left?”

  I followed him from the room and down the stairs to the main floor. “Just a few boxes of clothes and video games in the back of my Jeep.”

  Doing something as domestic and normal as moving in with the woman I loved shouldn’t have been so exciting. But it was. Even with her barking orders at us, instructing us on where to put each item we brought into the house. The woman was a control freak, but I friggin’ loved her.

  Since they’d had their balance restored the A team was back to how they’d been in the start. Before Lex turned. Before all of this. When they first united. They were both still feisty, temperamental vampires. But they no longer swung so far to the dark side that they couldn’t control themselves.

  At least, not yet.

  Both of them still looked at me with hunger in their eyes, gazes straying to my throat. Only now it was with playful intent rather than a predator’s need to kill. Oh, that lingered within each of them. The killer darkness. I saw it. Bound now by the restoration of their twin flame.

  One would be a fool to forget that it was half of what they were.

  After spending most of the night moving both Arys’s stuff and mine, I was ready to unwind. I dug a cold beer out of the fridge. Popping off the top, I drank back a quarter of the bottle.

  I felt at home.

  “Your ugly old recliner is taking over my living room,” Alexa c
omplained as she entered with Arys behind her. “I know you love it, but maybe it’s time to get a new one. And put it somewhere else. Like the basement.” She said this with a sweet smile, but her tone was dead serious.

  So far she’d been a good sport about her lovers’ sudden move into her house. As soon as Arys suggested it, she’d been on board. She wanted us close. Of course that didn’t mean we could put our shit wherever we liked.

  Arys plopped into the offending chair he’d shoved into the middle of the living room. He ran a hand over the worn upholstery. “It’s gonna take an awful lot of sweet talk to convince me to get rid of this chair. Maybe a little more than sweet talk.”

  Lex turned to me, tossing long blonde waves over her shoulder. The thick black streak stood out against the rest. She’d turned so dark that it had crept into her hair. I kind of liked it though.

  “Help me out here, Shaz. Do you think this crappy chair belongs in the middle of the living room?” Long lashes framed soft brown eyes. She batted them at me, hoping I’d back her up.

  “The middle? No. Maybe the corner.” I ducked the throw pillow she snatched from the couch, anticipating the incoming projectile. I knew her so well.

  “Screw you guys. That chair is out of here.” She flung the next pillow at Arys who deflected it with a palm.

  She was too damn cute when all fired up. It didn’t take much to tease her into a frenzy. This time I opted to tease Arys instead. “No worries, Lex. He can’t sit in it forever. He’ll have to get up at some point. I’ll help you sneak it out of here when he’s not looking.”

  “Like hell you will,” Arys fired back, taking the bait. “Touch this chair and I’ll have it reupholstered in your white furry hide.” A dark brow raised, he regarded me with an unspoken challenge.

  Tipping the beer to my lips, I suppressed a laugh. “Never gonna happen. You know you couldn’t bring yourself to do it. Just like at Doghead. You can’t really hurt me.” My tone had taken on a playful lilt.

  Was I flirting with him? Maybe a little. Couldn’t even blame it on the beer, having only had the one.

  “Don’t go there, pup,” Arys warned, his seductive voice low and hypnotic. The vampire was all fun and games until the tables were turned on him.

  I’d touched a nerve. Something had transpired between us that night in the Doghead parking lot. Our bond had been put to the test and survived. It had grown stronger. He seemed a little touchy about it.

  “What’s your problem, Arys? Not ready to admit that you couldn’t kill me?” I straight up called him out. Hey, if he wanted us to live, fight, and screw together, then he could crack the hard exterior and be honest.

  “Oh, I could have definitely killed you, Shaz. I chose not to.” Haughty as ever, one of the vampire’s strongest traits, he sat there in his crappy chair, projecting a high and mighty attitude that even had Alexa scoffing.

  For some reason I couldn’t leave it alone. The past week since the events of that night at the hospital, I’d spent a lot of time in thought. As if I didn’t do that enough.

  They say that actions speak louder than words, but sometimes all you need is words. “Yeah? So why did you choose not to?” I challenged.

  By forcing him to give voice to whatever this was between us, I forced myself to do the same. A small part of me thought I should shut the hell up and drink my beer. But it was too late for turning into a chicken shit now.

  Alexa watched this exchange with growing curiosity. She studied me with a brow raised in puzzlement, wondering about my point here.

  But Arys knew.

  He and I locked eyes. I could feel him willing me to shut up and drop it. So I said nothing, but the challenge remained in my gaze.

  With a curse, Arys shoved out of the chair. Fists clenched and jaw twitching, he snarled, “Because I love you, goddammit. Does that surprise you? It shouldn’t. You are hers, Shaz. So you are mine too.”

  He said it. Now it was out there. My own suspicions confirmed. I’d needed to hear him say it, to make it real.

  Arys waited for me to absorb his confession. Now I had to decide what I really felt for him. I’d put myself in this position, needing to face this truth before I buried it completely in denial.

  My fierce gaze sank into Arys like a blade. “You think I don’t know that? The moment I learned about the twin flame bond, I knew. On some level. I guess I’ve been in denial for a while.”

  Across the room we stared at one another. The air crackled with tension.

  Lex gripped the edge of the counter, watching with bated breath. She didn’t seem surprised at his claim. I suspected she’d already known. But she didn’t know how I would react. Hell, I didn’t even know.

  “And now?” Arys challenged.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  So much emotion flowed across Shaz’s face. He seemed to wrestle with himself, just for a second. Then he launched into motion. Depositing his beer on the counter, he crossed the room in a few long, smooth strides and stopped in front of the waiting vampire.

  Shaz slid a palm along Arys’s jaw up the side of his face into his unruly black hair. Without hesitation, my white wolf claimed my dark vampire with a possessive kiss that screamed the declaration Shaz struggled to voice.

  Something had shifted between the two of them. More so in recent weeks than ever before. I sensed it. Nobody could have pushed Shaz to this point. He had to work through his feelings on his own. Evidently he’d been doing that.

  Arys so rarely allowed anyone else to take the lead that it both pleasantly surprised and delighted me when he submitted to Shaz, letting him guide the kiss. A slip of tongue was visible as Shaz licked Arys’s bottom lip before tugging it between his teeth.

  A week ago I’d never have trusted Arys this close to either of us. I’d come back from my much too brief visit with Kale to find my hands filled with ashes.

  Right away I’d felt the balance restored.

  Everything inside me that had been heavy and oppressive had been forced back. The light and dark hung in balance again. It felt like a crushing weight had been lifted from my soul. Dark thoughts and urges did their best to test the limits here and there, but the light kept them in check.

  A lightness I hadn’t felt in months spurred my steps now when I walked. Everything felt right. Like it was all as it should be. Which naturally just made me suspicious as to what lurked right around the corner.

  When Arys insisted on selling his house and moving in, my first instinct had been to resist. The last time we’d lived together, temporarily, we’d driven each other crazy. But seeing as that was kind of our thing, I couldn’t come up with a legit reason for us not to share a house. Shaz’s ready willingness to join us was the clincher.

  Watching them together now, devouring one another in a kiss that screamed passion, it confirmed that we were in the right place together. Here. Now.

  Slowly, I went to them. Taking my time. Enjoying the view.

  When Shaz broke off the kiss, Arys muttered, “You’re a goddamn enigma, wolf.”

  Shaz gave him a playful shove and reached for me. Encircling my wrist with his fingers, he pulled me between them.

  Right where I wanted to be.

  “I think we’ve done enough work for one night,” Arys purred before going in for a kiss, letting me taste Shaz on his lips. “Time for some play. You’re always up for some play, aren’t you, my love?”

  Arys would always run darker than I would. It showed in the mischievous glint in his eyes. Even after all that had passed between us, I still swooned when he looked at me that way. Like he wanted to devour me.

  His hunger for me still burned hot but no longer did it tread into the murder zone. It would probably take some time for me to completely let my guard down around him. One couldn’t be too careful. Not with a vampire like Arys. That would just be stupid. But it felt nice not to have to fear my other half.

  This sense of peace between the three of us, it was surreal. I kept waiting to wake up. Or maybe I wa
s still dead, and this was my heaven. But I was still a vampire so probably not.

  A warm hand on my side drew me out of my thoughts. Shaz slipped an arm around my waist, pressing close. I turned between them, a hand on each of their chests. With a gentle push, I nodded to the sectional couch.

  “Go sit down. Both of you,” I said. “Take off your clothes first.”

  They exchanged a look with each other before glancing back at me. With a half shrug and a grin, Shaz kept us guessing by being the first to disrobe. Stripping his t-shirt off, he tossed it onto Arys’s crappy old chair before heading to the couch.

  Hands on his belt, he paused. “Feel free to join me.”

  Arys playfully pinched my behind before sauntering toward the couch, undressing as he went. I watched him move. Glide, really. Stealthy and sleek. Inhuman. The muscles in his back rippled beneath the golden light cast from the kitchen. My fingertips burned with the need to feel the hard lines of him and that smooth, forever-young skin.

  Their obedience got me going on a little power trip. When they both went for the middle cushion I said, “Opposite ends. Facing each other.”

  A dark brow raised in intrigue, Arys settled himself onto the couch. Leaning back against the arm, he regarded me with a smoldering stare. Across from him Shaz sat with his legs crossed, watching me, hands hanging loose in his lap.

  The middle was all mine. I stripped down to my bra and panties before joining them. When Arys reached for me, I batted his hand away. “Patience,” I admonished with a naughty smile.

  Not the submissive type, Arys ate up the sight of me and sat back. He’d play along for now, but once I pushed him to his breaking point, he’d snatch control away.

  To punish him a little for being so impatient, I started with Shaz. I climbed onto the couch between them. On my knees, I stroked a finger along the edge of his jaw. “Close your eyes.”