Darker (Alexa O'Brien Huntress Book 6) Read online

  I pressed a hand to my neck. Blood streamed through my fingers to drip on the floor. Kale hadn’t taken it easy with that bite. This could be bad.

  ‘You need to get out of there. I’m coming for you.’ His insistence was worrisome. This place would eat him alive.

  ‘Don’t be an idiot, Arys. This place will kick your ass. Again. If the FPA don’t do it first.’ I glanced around the dimly lit room. The lamp base had shattered, but the bulb remained lit.

  I didn’t think Kale would be out for long. I went to the door and stood on my tiptoes to look out the window. I saw only the door across from me. A faint light glowed beyond, but I couldn’t see the occupant.

  I banged on the window a few times, fearful of rousing Kale. If he started to move, I might have to hit him with the chair again. I banged again, adding a shout along with it. It was futile I knew. If anyone heard me, it would likely be Agent Asshole and his pitiful excuse for a partner.

  ‘Don’t come here, Arys. Get a hold of Juliet. Tell her I’m here. And, find Jez if you can. I need to know her and Willow made it out.’

  ‘Of course, you had accomplices.’ His disdain was evident.

  A shadow moved in the hallway. Someone was approaching. I tensed. The surprises kept coming. It was Bianca, and she was in a hurry.

  I backed away from the door and grabbed the chair. I’d let Kale kill me before I let Shaz’s lover lay a hand on me. She opened the door and slipped inside, closing it fast.

  “I’m here to get you out,” she said in a rush, eyeing the chair in my grip and Kale’s prone form on the bed. “We have to hurry.”

  “Are you kidding me? I don’t trust you.”

  “I don’t blame you. I wouldn’t trust me either, but you’ve got to believe me; I’m sorry for what happened with Shaz. I respect you, and not just because you kicked my ass.” She glanced furtively toward the door. “But, we really don’t have time for this now.”

  “I can’t leave without Kale. He’s the reason I’m here.” The prospect of freedom was promising. However, the thought of leaving this building for the second time without Kale was crushing.

  Bianca’s long black ponytail swung as she opened the door and peeked into the hall. “I’ll come back for him later. We’ve got to go. Briggs doesn’t know you’re here yet. Trust me when I say you want to keep it that way.”

  I was torn. Could I trust Bianca? For all I knew she could have unsavory plans for me. Despite what he’d just done to me, I didn’t want to leave Kale.

  ‘What are you waiting for? Get the hell out of there before Briggs knows he has you,’ Arys warned.

  I cast one last glance back at Kale and followed Bianca into the hall. “How did you know I was here?”

  Instead of heading back the way I had come in with Jez and Willow, Bianca led me through a maze of halls in the opposite direction. She paused to remove the horrible handcuffs. I rubbed my bruised wrists and gratefully tapped my power. It surged through me, a comforting sensation.

  “I ran into your friends. I recognized the leopard. She told me about Hunter. The man is an oversized child with a gun. It’s ridiculous.”

  “Hunter? You mean Agent Asshole?”

  Bianca laughed, a short clipped sound. “Yeah, that’d be him.”

  A tall, leggy thing, Bianca had ebony hair and eyes that glittered with sensuality. She’d seduced my wolf mate, making him her willing blood slave. I hated her. That she sprung me from Kale’s prison rubbed salt in a wound that might never fully heal. It was one of life’s little kicks in the teeth.

  “So, where is Jez now?” We passed a wing of empty rooms rife with spiritual unrest. The residual energy screamed of violence and death. Spirits swarmed me. They pulled at my clothes and whispered obscenities in my ears. I shielded against them, forcing them back.

  “She got out. With the angel, who called me a harlot.” Bianca slid a sidelong glance my way. “I suppose I deserved that.”

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  If we dredged this up, I wouldn’t be able to censor myself. I wanted to blame her for taking Shaz away from me, to tell her she’s the one who turned him into a junkie and drove him out of town. It wasn’t true though. She had merely taken advantage of Shaz’s weakness, but it had started with Arys and me.

  “Fair enough. I get it. I’d hate me, too. But, I was just taking what he was freely giving,” she said, leading me to the left when we reached a T in the corridor. “This way.”

  We rounded a corner, and I was happy to see a stairwell ahead. I wanted desperately to escape the truth lurking behind her ugly excuse. My adrenaline had long since run out. I forced myself to keep moving, shoving aside the blood loss and exhaustion of having my ass kicked.

  My short-lived imprisonment was almost over. I couldn’t wait to get away from the writhing black mass plaguing my every step. I cast a wary look at the vampiress, curious as to how it was affecting her. The last time I saw her here, she had been on the top floor, far from the basement.

  As blessedly short as my stay had been, I was ready to get out. So, when Agents Hunter and Hastings stepped into our path, I groaned in exasperation. Without hesitation, I slammed them both with the power pent up inside me. It felt so damn good to unleash it.

  “Bianca, what the fuck are you doing down here?” Hastings grunted. He gasped for breath and reached for his weapon.

  Bianca was on him before he could aim it. Her guttural snarl echoed in the dank, empty corridor. The atmosphere hummed with her savage hunger. She bit into Hastings with the intensity of a rabid dog. That answered my earlier question. She couldn’t handle it down here either.

  I fixed my attention on the asshole I now knew as Agent Hunter. He stared up at me with terror-filled eyes. The force of the blast I’d hit him with kept him pinned to the rubble-littered floor. I stood over him, savoring the way his human energy so easily bent to my will. I could feel his fragile heart, every beat palpable. So easily, I could crush him. I bent down, retrieved my phone from his pocket and gazed deep into him.

  “Agent Hunter, you’ve made a very big mistake. I’m going to leave now, but I promise I will hunt you down and kill you slowly. And, you will love it even as you’re screaming for your pathetic life.”

  Anger flashed in his eyes. I didn’t hang around long enough to hear his retort. Leaving Bianca to have her way with the agents, I sprinted up the stairs with that disembodied voice begging me to stay. I didn’t stop running until I had escaped the haunted hospital, leaving Kale behind for the second time.

  Chapter Eight

  “Ok, we’re not doing that again.” I collapsed in the passenger seat of Jez’s Jeep. “Not only did I get my ass kicked by two humans, but I have Shaz’s playmate to thank for springing me from Kale’s private prison.”

  “You saw Kale?” Jez turned to me excitedly, almost side swiping a parked car as she drove us away from the hospital. “You’re bleeding. Are you ok? Is he ok? What happened?”

  I sucked in a deep breath and slowly let it out. I turned in my seat to look at Willow who watched me with an expectant expression.

  “He’s far from ok,” I said, reluctant to tell them everything. “That place has driven him mad. He bit me. Obviously.”

  “And?” Jez prompted. “Come on, spill it.”

  “What happened, Alexa?” Willow spoke up, a knowing look in his gold-flecked eyes.

  I gripped the door handle tight as Jez took a sharp corner. “They cuffed me and locked me in a room with him. He attacked me. And, he tried to take more than my blood. He didn’t get far.”

  My cheeks flushed hot. I stared out the window, wishing I could forget the entire thing.

  ‘I won’t be forgetting.’ Arys’s unbidden thought added to my unease.

  ‘Can we talk about this later? I’m safe now. I’m going home.’

  ‘I’ll meet you there.’ He slipped away, closing the mental door between us before I could either agree or refuse.

  “Wait, are you saying he tr
ied to…?” Jez was aghast, leaving the question unfinished. “Son of a bitch. I knew we shouldn’t have left you alone.”

  Willow showed no surprise. “Are you alright?”

  “Is it still a violation if you like it?” I asked bitterly. “I’m fine. I’m not sure I can say the same for Kale. Arys knows and he’s pissed.” I waved a hand, dismissing the subject. “Did you guys find anything after we split up? Because I saw something I can’t ignore.”

  As Jez drove through the city, I held a tissue to my bleeding neck and told them about the people that the FPA kept in the basement. They in turn told me about the lab they had discovered deep within the maze of halls, where gruesome experiments were being performed on live supernaturals and humans.

  “I’ve never seen anything so fucking scary.” Jez shook her head, remembering. “They’re up to no good in there. It’s like the shit that nut job conspiracy theorists talk about. Everyone thinks they’re full of crap, but they’re not.”

  As she spoke, I went cold inside; I was relieved that I’d only had to contend with Kale. It took a lot to truly scare me, but the things Jez went on to describe were deeply disturbing. Some experiments caused human and supernatural mutations with grotesque malformations; others seemingly compared disease or poison progression between mortal species, leaving the limp victims slowly dying. One restrained vamp even had an assortment of shifter limbs grafted onto his body.

  Did they take samples from Juliet? My ill feeling grew. It was no wonder the spirits in there were so restless.

  “Humans playing God,” said Willow. “It happens all the time. Still, it’s worse when the demons do it. In every generation humans try in one way or another to harness the power of the supernatural for their own gain. It never works out well for them.”

  He didn’t elaborate and I didn’t ask. That conversation would have to wait for another time, preferably one with copious amounts of alcohol. After what I discovered in Veryl’s file on me, I’d be having a chat with Shya soon. Until then, I didn’t want to entertain thoughts of what the demons might be doing.

  “I don’t know what to do about that place,” I muttered. “I don’t feel right just leaving all those people locked up in there.”

  Jez’s tight smile was sympathetic. “If you keep going in there, one of these times you won’t come out.”

  * * * *

  The plentiful scents of the forest were a great comfort. I paused to sniff at the earth, savoring the many things it told me about the creatures that called this place home. A doe and her young had passed through earlier. The rich foliage emanated purity. It washed away the remnants of the city and its obnoxious sounds and odors.

  Sunrise was an hour away. I hadn’t wasted any time vacating the city and heading for home. I was in need of some time to myself, in my town where I could run free in the surrounding forest. I made it to my house before Arys did and took the opportunity to abandon my human form and the life that went with it, if just for a while. Maybe I was avoiding him, but the freedom I found in being wolf was comparable to none. I needed it.

  I loped through the trees and brush trying to shake the things that plagued me. I wouldn’t let myself replay what had happened with Kale. He had victimized me. I’d both loved and hated it. I knew better than to trust the monsters, even those who claimed to love me. Love didn’t stop a vampire from being what they were. If anything, it made it worse.

  Slowing my pace, I slipped into a copse of trees that had come to be one of my favorite places. In amongst the trees was a small pond. The sound of crickets and croaking frogs greeted me. An owl peered down at me from his perch in a nearby spruce. We shared a look, a brief acknowledgment of our mutual acceptance and respect. Nature got it right. What the hell was wrong with everyone else?

  I padded over to the pond and sat beside it. My tongue lolling out, I gazed into the water at the tiny creatures that called it home. My ears twitched, picking up the many sounds of the forest right before night retreated to allow the dawn. I felt safe. I belonged here. There was just one thing missing.

  I raised my nose to the sky and howled. The sound echoed in the stillness. I waited, knowing I wouldn’t hear the reply I ached for but hoping anyway.

  Shaz should have been by my side. I longed to see his white fur shine just a little brighter in the moonlight. He didn’t even know about the new house. I was happy to have my own little piece of forest near my backyard, but I wanted to share it with him.

  I stayed there beside the pond until I felt Arys’s insistent nudge in my head. ‘Get your furry ass back here, Alexa. You can’t avoid me forever.’

  ‘I can try.’ I let a glimmer of amusement show; I enjoyed antagonizing him.

  ‘I’m waiting for you.’

  As much as I would have loved to welcome the sunrise there amid the calm and comfort of my forest home, my lover called, and I could only avoid him for so long. I headed for home both eager and reluctant to see Arys.

  A great span of field separated the forest from my backyard as it did with most of the houses in the outlying area. My house was a little better because it was beside a cemetery, where very few wanted to live. I had just one neighbor on the other side of the graveyard, hidden from sight.

  Arys stood in the backyard with his arms crossed over his chest. He watched me approach with a haughty arrogance that quickly turned to appreciative wonder. I sat back on my haunches, staring up at him.

  “You’re magnificent.” He moved closer, a flicker of vampire fire in his midnight blue eyes. “And, as much as I love to see you as wolf, we need to talk.”

  I simply stared at him. He could talk; I would listen. That way this couldn’t blow up into a fight. I knew that look in his eyes. Arys was going to say something I wouldn’t like, and he was bracing for a clash of wills.

  “Really?” He prompted after a few minutes of staring at one another. “Is this how you want to do this?” When I didn’t move, he nodded. “Alright, fine. Have it your way. I shouldn’t have to tell you how stupid it was to go back into the FPA building, but apparently I do. Briggs could have caught you. It’s bad enough that anyone caught you. And Sinclair… I don’t even know where to start.”

  He paced the length of the yard, waving his hands in a grand gesture of ire. “He was going to fuck you and kill you, Alexa. You know why? Because you’re so deep in his system, it’s the only way he’ll ever be rid of you. If he gets out of there, you’ll never be safe from him.”

  I wanted to argue, which was exactly why I’d stayed in wolf form. Being patient and allowing Arys to vent first would be better for both of us. Yet, the fire had already sparked within my belly. We shared the need for a good fight. Though my instinct was to tell Arys he was wrong, that Kale would never hurt me, I knew I could no longer believe that.

  “He’s not going to get away with what he did tonight,” Arys declared. “I can’t let him.”

  A muscle twitched in Arys’s jaw. He ran a hand haphazardly through his black hair, making it more of a sexy mess than usual. The mixed scent of cologne and hair products, an aroma that was solely his, reached me. It made me itch to bury my face in his neck and savor the many sensations of him.

  “The last thing you need to deal with is a psychotic vampire with an incurable obsession. It will distract you from the real issue, Lilah. She’s going to do everything she can to force your hand. She’ll keep targeting those you’ve sworn to protect. Those you love.” He sat heavily on the small concrete wall encircling the fire pit in the center of the yard. “We have to stop her.”

  We sure did. I agreed with him there, but I still didn’t believe playing nice with Shya was the way to do it. I considered shifting back to human form but decided to hold off a little longer. Arys was doing just fine spilling his thoughts and feelings with my silence.

  “She won’t stop until you willingly surrender your blood to break her curse,” he continued with a shrug. “I don’t know what to do. I just know I have to protect you.”

  Hi
s desperation was so tangible that I pawed the grass and whined. It was unusual for him to show such vulnerability. If Shya caught a whiff of it, he would use it as a weapon against Arys.

  Our eyes locked, and I peered into my vampire with hope that he would see how much his concern meant to me. Arys had always put my safety first. Unfortunately, that often meant hiding things from me or doing things without my knowledge. I did my share of things without making him aware, like I had tonight, but it was going to catch up to us eventually.

  “I know you think I’m wrong about this, but Shya knows things that could help us. He has abilities we don’t. And, he wants the same thing we do.” The hardness was back in Arys’s enchanting gaze. “I made a deal with him, Alexa.”

  That did it. That was all I had to hear; I couldn’t keep quiet anymore. I shifted so fast it hurt. In a fluid, smooth motion, I was standing there naked before him. Crossing my arms, I fixed him with my best take no shit expression.

  “Are you out of your damn mind?” I asked in disbelief. “Please tell me that was just a ploy to get me to shift.”

  “No, it wasn’t.” Arys’s gaze travelled over me, taking in my nudity with appraising interest. “I told him we’d co-operate with him until Lilah can be dealt with. We all play nice until we get rid of her. That’s it.”

  “Too easy. There’s no way that’s it.” I shook my head vigorously. “He’s a demon, Arys. He can twist your words, take them literally or figuratively. Whatever. He can’t be trusted. Bottom line.”

  “He offered protection for you, Alexa. Shya doesn’t want Lilah getting her hands on your blood either. It can be useful.”

  I stared at him, incredulous. “Have you forgotten he’s the idiot that told her my blood would break her curse? That blew up in his face when she refused him. Now, he wants to save his own ass. This isn’t about you or me. Shya is in it only for himself. Trusting him would be stupid. This isn’t like you, Arys.”

  Arys rose and came to stand before me. The spark between us flashed at his sudden close proximity. “I don’t trust him. In fact, I wish there was a way to kill two birds with one stone. Shya’s been pulling strings behind the scenes for so long. Now, he’s stepping out front and center, and that doesn’t sit well with me. If we get close to him, we can find out what he’s up to.”