Apocalyptic Read online

  One had just fled from me. The other was here.

  Shaz stood at the pool table, a cue in hand. He and a few others were clustered around the table, drinking and shooting the shit. Like everyone else, his gaze found me. But his was the only one I’d been searching for.

  Piercing green eyes scanned me as Shaz did a quick analysis, gauging my mental state before I got too close. Whatever he saw made him hand off the cue to another guy and excuse himself from the game.

  With a slight head tilt, he directed me to the office at the back. Knowing better than to turn his back to me, Shaz waited for me to get a few steps ahead of him. He kept his distance, ready to defend himself until I gave him a reason to relax. He’d made handling the twin flame insanity into an art. Shaz learned how to read us, as a duo and individuals. He knew us, likely better than we knew ourselves.

  The office was small. Painfully small. A narrow sofa had been crammed against one wall and a desk against the other. Not much else. The window had those annoying metal blinds that clattered together as I jerked them open. I needed to feel less trapped in this tiny room with him.

  When he started to close the door, I raised a hand. “Might want to leave it open a bit.”

  Pausing, Shaz searched my eyes. I let him see it all. “Where is she?” he asked, knowing without me having to say a word.

  “I don’t know. I told her to stop me and she did. Then she ran. Somewhere safe by now. Her blood den, I assume.” I didn’t sit. I couldn’t. So I stood stiff near the window, as far as I could get from him.

  “Did you hurt her?” His tone was guarded, his expression expectant.

  I sighed and rubbed my forehead, squeezing my eyes shut. “Didn’t sink a fang. I would have though. I followed her. I shouldn’t have. Cornered her in the park and… It doesn’t matter. She’s safe.”

  Eyes closed, his wolfish scent became my focus. I knew Shaz’s scent well. Like forest, animal, and man all mingled into one intoxicating cocktail that reached down and grabbed me by the balls.

  I felt him move. My eyes snapped open and he was there. Too close. Too confident.

  “Do you want to hurt me?” A loaded question if there ever was one. He knew how this would play out.

  “You know what you’re asking for, don’t you, pup? You won’t get a chance to change your mind.” I advanced on him, driving him back toward the door. Giving him one chance to leave before I took what he was offering.

  We hadn’t been alone together in weeks. It wasn’t something we engaged in frequently, although I wouldn’t mind changing that.

  Without breaking eye contact, Shaz retreated, walking backward in slow steps. Upon reaching the door, he closed it and turned the lock. “You need it. I want it. And we both know I’m not the one you really want to kill. It’s safer this way.”

  Shaz’s willingness was an aphrodisiac all its own. It stirred my desire to life. The anticipation of tasting his flesh and coating my tongue with his blood had me rock hard.

  I’d wanted him from the start, despite our rocky beginning. Because Alexa wanted him. I never expected it to evolve into something genuine. It had taken some time for me to come to recognize it for what it was, but I’d fallen for Shaz.

  And only Alexa knew.

  For a moment I simply held his gaze. I had yet to reach for my power. His attraction, his craving for my touch and my bite, it was all him. Shaz wasn’t under my influence. His hunger for this moment was as real as mine.

  Then I let my hold slip. A slow trickle at first. The erotic vibe grew steady and strong as I fed it. Catching Shaz up in my thrall took little effort. He all but threw himself headlong into it.

  With a hand on his shoulder, I backed him up against the closed door. I filled my senses with him, seeking to escape the obsession for her with the infatuation with him. A hand in his platinum hair, I held his head tight enough to imply control. A silent challenge. Shaz wasn’t the type to play submissive. Despite welcoming my bite, he was no victim. He was my lover. In almost every sense of the word.

  I had no interest in forcing Shaz further than he wanted to take it. He could set the boundaries of our relationship, and I’d happily play within them.

  Relaxing against the door, he affected a casual stance. Unafraid and eager. A hint of defiance glinted in his eyes. I searched for it every time, needing to see that he was ready to defy me.

  I wondered if I would ever tell him that I loved him.

  Sure Shaz had come a long way since we’d first met. But I doubted he’d come quite that far. Certainly not as far as I had.

  With my free hand I traced a finger along his jawline, down the side of his neck, and over his jugular. Outwardly he appeared unmoved, but I felt the tremor that ran through him on the inside.

  “You should have called me,” Shaz said, voice husky with want. “I would have stopped you from going after her.”

  He had a way of saying so much with such a simple statement. Hands flat against the door on either side of him, we only touched where I touched him. My hand in his hair, finger on his vein. A breath of space kept our bodies apart. Just barely.

  “I know.” I wanted to close the distance, to feel his hard lines and soft flesh. To feel him shudder beneath my touch. “You’re helping now.”

  When Shaz’s gaze dropped to the silver ring in my bottom lip, I leaned in to kiss the edge of his mouth. He allowed it but evaded my attempt to kiss him more deeply. What a damn tease, and I knew that he knew it too.

  I had to taste him. The faint stubble covering his chin and jaw was rough against the tip of my tongue. His skin was hot, his blood pumping faster in my ears. Despite the careful space I left between our lower halves, I knew he was rock hard.

  And I knew I could bring him to orgasm without ever laying a hand on him.

  The push and pull of sex-charged energy cycled between us, growing with each cycle. My mouth found his jugular. His pulse raced beneath the skin, faster with each second. Slowly I released a warm breath, an exhalation of abso-fucking-lution.

  The white wolf set me free. His willingness and, most importantly, his trust helped me remember how it used to be with Alexa. Before her death and my obsession. It gave me hope that we’d all have that again. Together.

  His excitement grew into a force all its own. It sucker punched me, testing my control. My cock throbbed, and I groaned softly as I scraped fangs over his flesh. Shaz gasped, the sound shocking my system into overdrive.

  My hunger for my wolves wouldn’t be teased any longer. With Alexa lurking in the back of my thoughts, I sank fangs into Shaz. Then I held them there, buried deep, knowing it was both pain and pleasure. More intimate in some ways than even fucking.

  The trust he gave me in that moment was priceless. I didn’t know how bad I’d needed it, to be trusted again. Because Alexa didn’t trust me anymore, and it killed me.

  A sexy growl-like moan from Shaz made my balls tighten. I withdrew my fangs, letting the blood flow free. Swirling my tongue over the punctures, I sucked hard on the bite. I couldn’t help but wonder, did he ever think about how my mouth would feel anywhere else?

  With a snarl he grabbed hold of my hair and roughly pulled my head from his neck. Our faces were mere inches apart. Shaz’s green eyes were wild and all wolf. He searched me for a moment before dragging my mouth to his.

  Shaz dominated the kiss. It was aggressive and dirty, blowing my mind. He continued to surprise me. His tongue clashed with mine as he tasted his blood on my lips. Using both hands I braced myself against the door, able to shove away if things went too far. Although I’d started to question what his idea of too far was these days.

  He caught my lip ring between his teeth and gently tugged. If he kept this shit up I was going to lose it.

  “Shaz,” I murmured, a soft warning.

  He blinked at me with lust-filled eyes, like he was drugged. Which he very much was. Slowly he came back to himself.

  His gaze lingered on my mouth when he said, “I should probably get b
ack out there. Are you good?”

  I backed off, freeing him from his place against the door. “Yeah, I’m good. Thanks. If you don’t mind, I’m going to hang around here for a while. Play some pool. Cool?”

  “Yeah, of course.” He nodded his platinum head, scrubbing a hand through it so his slightly shaggy hair was tousled. “Stay as long as you want.”

  I didn’t trust myself to stay away from Alexa if I left right now. And perhaps I wasn’t quite ready to leave Shaz just yet.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Across the room Jenner lounged on a bright-red sofa. An exuberant blonde sat splayed in his lap, bouncing and squirming. Feeling my gaze upon him, he slid me a mischievous grin and a wink.

  With a roll of my eyes I looked away. Jenner had enough attention in this place. He didn’t need mine.

  He’d made himself quite at home here. On somewhat of an extended vacation away from his home in Las Vegas, he’d admitted he’d come here because he’d been run out of his city. His nightclub had been taken over by a vampire named Loric. The closest thing to a brother Harley Kayson had had. As the person who’d killed Harley, this was not great news for me.

  Jenner had begged Arys to come back to Vegas with him. To take their city back from the vampire who sought to revive the blood ring we’d begun to dismantle, among other things. Arys and I had agreed that we’d go. After we dealt with our more pressing matter of not killing each other.

  That was a trip I sure did not look forward to. I had a love/hate relationship with Las Vegas. I wasn’t a big fan of Jenner either. He wasn’t all bad. Sure, he’d been there for Arys and me, and he fucked like a champ, but he and Arys had history that they just couldn’t let go of. And I didn’t trust it not to cause problems.

  I sat alone in the booth. Falon left after saying something about needing to see a demon about a horse. I’d flipped him off, and he’d chuckled. Over by the pool table Willow chatted up the girl with pink hair.

  My phone buzzed in my bag, and I dug around to grab it before it went to voicemail. Shaz’s name on the screen gave me the warm and fuzzies.

  “Hey, babe,” I answered with a smile on my face. Suddenly I very much needed to hear his voice. “What’s up?”

  I got up and ambled away from the booth, toward the corner by the pool table. The furthest I could get from the band. Pressing the phone tight to my ear, I tried not to worry. A call at random from Shaz after running from Arys didn’t automatically mean something bad.

  “Arys is here, Lex. I just wanted you to know. Is everything ok with you?” Heavy concern laced Shaz’s voice. Arys must have told him what went down.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. How’s Arys?” I’d once felt left out from what had developed between Shaz and Arys. Now that I understood their bond, I just felt relieved that Arys had gone to him.

  “Hanging in there. Better now. Calm.” A pause. “He’s going to hang out here for a while. But I’m going to swing by your place at sunrise. I want to see you.”

  The warm and fuzzy feeling grew, spreading through my chest. “Looking forward to it. Keep our vampire out of trouble.”

  Shaz’s laugh released some of my tension. “Will do. Love you.”

  “Love you.” I hung up with the sudden realization that I’d referred to Arys as our vampire, and Shaz had rolled with it. Arys and I referred to Shaz as ours all the time, but it didn’t go the other way. Until just now.

  Gabriel’s dark energy announced his arrival. I turned in time to watch the black-magic vampire step through the entryway. His long raven hair was tied back. In a long black gothic-style trench coat and black jeans, he wore power like a fragrance.

  People noticed him. Tall, a little lanky but firm. Not willowy or gaunt by any means. Every time I saw him there was less of the awkward teen I’d first met and so much more of the confident vampire. Young, twenty now, but all man nonetheless.

  Immediately he took command of the room. They responded. Some were quick to get out of his way. Others gravitated closer. He’d grown into himself and everyone sensed it. How had I not noticed until now?

  His dark gaze found mine across the distance. So he was looking for me. Crap. I’d been hoping he was here to play, like the others. If he was here for me, it couldn’t be good.

  I tucked my phone in my bag and met him in the middle of the club. “What’s up, kid?”

  It just slipped out. I pretended not to notice the flicker of irritation that passed over his face. I didn’t blame him for being annoyed. I’d have been too. It sucked when people saw you one way but you knew they weren’t getting the whole picture. That presence couldn’t be forced. They either saw you or they didn’t.

  “I need to tell you something.” He killed me with that statement. How many horrific confessions had started with those words?

  His dark-brown eyes revealed nothing. I didn’t have the luxury of telling him to get lost. That I had my own problems to deal with. Whatever he had to say, I had to hear it out. Because he belonged to Arys and me. Our responsibility.

  “How bad is it?” Not the question I should have first asked but the one that spilled out. I grimaced. “Sorry. Do you want to sit?”

  He glanced around before shaking his head. He eased out of the flow of traffic, and I joined him. Leaning in close enough to speak without shouting, Gabriel said, “The vampire you’re hunting, I know who it is.”

  A prick on the back of my neck set off a chain reaction as a chill stole over me. He’d turned someone? No, I couldn’t jump the gun just yet. I needed to be able to trust him. “Tell me what you know.”

  I didn’t want to believe Gabriel was as bad as Hurst had predicted. He’d warned us not to turn him. And Gabriel had done some shady shit. All was forgiven, though never forgotten, and we’d moved on.

  Still, I did worry that he’d become a liability. He knew it too. So it took guts for him to walk in here.

  “Her name is Lizzy. I turned her.” Gabriel looked me right in the eye, owning his confession. “But I didn’t plan to. It just… Things got out of control and, shit, I didn’t know this would happen.” Gabriel had said he wanted me to trust him, to consider him part of my inner circle. I suspected he feared blowing any shot he may have had at that.

  Decision time. Lose it and snap the kid like a twig or try to extend some understanding. I mean, who was I to act like I’d never fucked up?

  “Tell me everything.”

  Gabriel nodded and paused to gather his thoughts. His gaze strayed past me. I felt someone draw close. He grabbed the wrist of the man who’d been about to make a grab for my ass.

  The drunken idiot slurred something about having a good time. This shit happened. Most people knew better than to make uninvited grabs in my nightclub, but those who didn’t, well, they learned. The hard way.

  “Hands off,” Gabriel hissed, twisting the man’s wrist so he shrieked. Then he gave the guy a shove in the opposite direction.

  Obviously I didn’t need him to fend off drunken grope attempts. I could take care of that myself. Still, his courtesy didn’t go unnoticed.

  He asked, “Can we talk about this outside?”

  The pressure inside my head had grown substantially at his arrival. The constant static from Willow and Jenner had already been loud enough. Four of us inside one building pushed my tolerance.

  “Yeah, go.” I waved a hand for him to head out, glancing back at the injured man holding his wrist. Gabriel’s chivalrous act had been a plea. What he told me outside would affect how I chose to respond.

  In the parking lot Gabriel lit up a cigarette. Taking huge drags, he strode to the far end of the lot, near the back of the building, where the streetlight didn’t fall and most people didn’t park.

  Crossing my arms, I waited for him to start talking.

  He paced back and forth a few times, puffing on the smoke. His energy was frazzled. Scattered. Like he was all over the place inside his head.

  “I didn’t mean to do it, Alexa. I swear.” He jerked to a stop and su
cked in another lungful of smoke. As he spoke, it spewed from between his lips. “I knew Lizzy from before. When I was just dabbling in witchcraft. Since high school. We were part of the same coven. I lost touch with her, and everyone else, when I got caught up with Shya. I ran into her at a concert a couple months ago. I knew I shouldn’t take her home but I did. I screwed up.”

  “Looks to be that way. How did the whole turning her thing come about?” Try as I might to resist, the urge to feel him out won me over. Just a subtle poke at his aura.

  So dark. Heavy with the succulent incubus vibes bestowed on him by Arys. If I studied him closely enough, I saw a faint ripple in the air around him. Like when hot meets cold. There were vampires pushing a thousand years old who’d never know half the power Gabriel had now as a relative newbie.

  I had to admit, it was enticing. Running high and hot, and he didn’t even have to try. I wanted to sample it for myself. To taste that certain something I could feel in his power, the part that made it all his own.

  Gabriel had to have felt my intrusion, but he gave no indication. “We slept together a few times. She’s a witch. She knew I’d changed and she wanted in. I refused though, Alexa, I promise.”

  Shifting my weight from foot to foot, I nodded, agreeing to withhold judgment a little longer. He tossed the cigarette butt to the ground and immediately pulled another from a pack in his jacket pocket.

  “Lizzy got kind of obsessive. She came to the house one night, right before sunrise. I wasn’t expecting her. She came to seduce me into turning her, used a spell to trigger the bloodlust.” Puffing on the smoke, Gabriel stared at his boots. Remembering. “She didn’t know what she was doing, messing with a vampire’s hunger like that. It backfired. I lost it. I’m still not sure how I managed to keep from killing her before it was too late.”

  I stifled a groan as I put the pieces together. “You turned her to save her. Risky decision to make in the moment. But I get it. You thought you were doing the right thing.”