Dark Secrets (8 page)

They were slow and sloppy, a disgrace to both the agency and
humankind in general.

They rushed me. “You killed him, you soulless cunt!”

Too close for guns and not well enough trained to think
through their anger—the soldiers dropped their weapons next to their fallen
comrade and pulled out wooden stakes.

Lucky for me, their aim was shit. The first oversized
splinter hit my arm and pierced flesh. I gritted my teeth through the pain. The
second, as I ducked out of the way, glanced off my shoulder and ripped through
fabric and flesh. I twisted and kicked out, easily evading Jared’s killing
blow.

The front door burst open and Eiven met my gaze before he
took in the situation. His attention landed on his fallen wolves—what remained
of them. Pure, honest anguish twisted his features. He’d loved them. He curled
his lip and an inhuman growl ripped from his throat.

Dread sank in. Vision of blood and flying body parts took
hold. This wasn’t going to end well.

“Whatever you do,” I shouted at him, “don’t kill them, they’re
human—they work for the Shadow Agency.”

For my efforts, I got an elbow to the gut and a fist to the
side of my head. Pain bloomed, sent stars dancing in front of my face, but I
kept upright. Eiven, two big-ass burly wolves at his sides, rushed into the
fray, their movements lithe and seamless in a way I might have admired if I
wasn’t so worried about what they were about to do.

A large part of me didn’t want to care, wanted to let them
extract their revenge. The other part of me couldn’t let it go. Couldn’t
separate myself from the knowledge I’d been like Jared a few months ago.

Eiven let out an ear-piercing war cry, grabbed one man by
his blond, shaggy hair and ripped. It all happened so fast—too quickly for me
to do more than stare. Blood arced into the air, spraying me in a fine mist of
hot liquid. Hunger ripped through me, made it hard to concentrate, to keep from
licking the blood from my lips.

The other two wolves, fur gleaming in the night, leapt. They
were all teeth and claws. Flesh split open, a slick ripping sound. Their quarry
screamed in pain as they tore him apart and devoured.

Holy shit.

I stood there, speechless, looking on in a sick combination
of horror and admiration. Jared took advantage of my distraction and launched
himself at me. The air shifted seconds before impact. I kicked, swept my leg
out and tripped him. I followed him down to the cold, bloodstained ground and
pressed my elbow to his neck. I leaned in enough for our noses to touch.

Blood dripped off my face and hit his cheek in a fat,
splattering drops. I met his wild gaze and barely had to put forth any effort
to keep him pinned beneath me. How had they thought they could defeat me? What
felt like bands around my soul pulsed, some strange restriction I hadn’t
noticed until now that held me back.

“You did this, Jared. You brought on their deaths when you
killed those wolves. You live with that, not me.”

He gasped for air and dug his nails into my forearms. Blood
welled, skin ripped, but I hung on tight, determined to make my point. The old
Ella surfaced, the snarky girl who didn’t give a fuck about anything except
ridding the world of those who hurt others.

“Richard,” he sputtered, “was right. You all”—I pressed down
harder on his windpipe—“deserve to die.”

His eyes rolled back into his head and he went still beneath
me. The thud, thud, thud of his heart was a steady reassurance—proof I was
better than this asshole.

I stood and wiped my hands on my pants. I had a present for
Richard. I wondered if they made greeting cards that said “You’re a fucking
asshole, I hope you choke on your own dick”.

If this queen business didn’t work out, I was going to start
writing greeting cards, the ones that conveyed what people really wanted to
say.

“Rope,” I ordered. “We need to tie him up.”

Blinding light eclipsed the darkness and I turned my head
away from the skin-crawling energy as the wolves shifted forms. Two naked men
circled the downed hunter at my feet. They licked their lips, their eyes still
holding the amber sheen of their beasts. Blood dripped from their mouths, down
their muscular chests.

“Move aside,” Eiven growled, the same murderous glints
shining in his eyes.

I shook my head and pressed a hand to my throbbing cheek.
Now that the fight was over, my head ached. The rich, salty scent of my blood
filled the air, mixed with the stench of death.

“I’m not letting you kill any more of them. You’ve got your
pound of flesh. Three for two. You won.”

The packmaster curled his lip and stepped over the mess of
bodies at his feet. Every instinct I possessed told me to back off. I never had
been good at listening to that little voice.

He walked a circle around me. “You are nothing but a weak,
sniveling child.”

His words were the last ones I’d expected to hear. My mouth
dropped open and I whipped my head around to keep him in my sights. He stopped
in front of me and stepped close, the tips of his shoes hitting mine. His
nostrils flared and his hot, roiling energy cocooned me.

“You will kill vampires and demons.” He motioned to Jared
with his chin. “But this pathetic creature earns your mercy? Why? Because he’s
human? Bullshit. I suggest you choose a side, your majesty, before it’s too
late.”

He grabbed the knife I’d tucked into its sheath. My heart
hammered at the challenge in his eyes. He held out the blade to me, hilt first.
He was asking me to kill this man, to prove my loyalty to the vampires, to the
wolves, to the creatures who’d taken to the darkness.

I stared at him, my stillness a silent protest. I wasn’t a
murderer.
Liar
. Sickness rose and I pushed it down where it belonged,
tucked in some shadowed corner of my psyche. Doubt surfaced and try as hard as
I might, I couldn’t push it away. I’d killed demons and vampires, not all of
them the red-eyed homicidal kind, without batting an eye. Had they had friends?
Family? How many demons at the Vault had I orphaned? I didn’t, couldn’t, add to
that list.

“Pathetic,” Eiven said.

I flinched at the truth I saw in his words—at how they
mocked what I knew was fact.

He dropped to his knee and shoved the blade directly between
Jared’s eyes with a sickening thwack. Eiven pulled out the blade and rose,
wiping the excess blood and other matter on my sleeve. Moisture seeped through
the fabric and onto my skin.

I had a strange flashback to seeing my mother’s bloody body.
I’d touched cold, thick blood, rubbed it between my fingers until my father had
pulled me from the carnage.

Jesus. Jared had a little girl. Would she grow up with an
uncle instead of a father, as I had? For that matter, did Hellix and Ja-air
have kids somewhere? I’d never asked, never invested the time in getting to
know any of the Fenrir.

Headlights flashed through the trees and cut the darkness,
illuminating the grisly scene. I knew the sound of Micah’s car, felt the knot
of tension easing inside my gut.

Eiven drew the point of my blade down my cheek as if it were
his finger, light and caressing. I sucked in a breath that tasted of blood and
death. I lifted my head to meet his ice-cold gaze.

He curled his lip, exposing the tips of elongated teeth. The
tip of the knife pressed harder, cutting skin. “I might owe you my allegiance,
but not my respect. That’s a right you haven’t earned.”

As much as I wanted to disagree, to pull away from the bite
of his blade, I couldn’t. Staring into Eiven’s gaze, I realized he was right. I’d
done nothing to earn the respect from anyone around me.

I’d been weak. Emotional. Plagued with doubt and indecision.

I’d lived the last seven years of my life fighting for
esteem from the agency before discovering I didn’t agree with what they were
about. Now I was among people who had one priority—protecting me and mine.

It was time to pull me head from my ass and start acting
instead of reacting.

The car’s headlights cut through the darkness, the beams
reflecting off a silver blade before exposing the rest of the scene. Bodies
littered the driveway—blood darkened the snow. Ella stood, back straight, chin
high, the tip of a knife pressed to her cheek. Her dark hair whipped furiously
around her, dancing in the drifts of wind. Toe to toe, she and Eiven stared at
each other. The white puffs their breaths made mingled.

What the fuck?

The packmaster drew the blade down the curve of Ella’s
cheek, a line of red appearing in its wake. My girl stood there without
flinching, without blinking. Why the hell wasn’t she fighting back?

Heat uncurled from the depth of my soul and I pressed harder
on the accelerator, the car’s motor a loud vibration over the chaotic sounds of
Slayer blaring through the speakers. I stopped inches away from the carnage and
barely had the car in park before I was out the door.

My every step was a loud crunching of heavy soles melting
through gravel-covered snow. I was far beyond stealth and didn’t give a fuck.

“What the hell?” I growled, grabbing Ella by the arm and
ripping her away from the blade cutting into her skin.

The line of red I’d seen from several feet away now dripped
down her face. I curled my hand into a fist and swung out, connecting with the
solid surface of Eiven’s cheek. Crunch. The wolf’s head jerked back. His growl
ripped through the air and he came at me swinging. I leaned back, the blow
missing me and swung in from the side, landing another solid hit that filled me
with vindication and made me crave more.

The blow knocked Eiven forward and I took the opportunity to
shove my knee into his gut with a satisfying grunt. He looked up at me and
snarled, blood dripping from his mouth.

His packmates circled close and I spared only the briefest
of glances at Ella. She stood, hands loose at her side, staring at the dead
body on the ground.

Eiven’s voice drew my attention to the fight. “You cripple
her, demon.”

I lunged, ready to inflict more pain. I needed to hurt him
with a ferocity that scared me. We came together in a clash of fists. I felt
nothing except the red-hot burn smoldering in my gut.

Between hits, I grunted, “You’re supposed to be protecting
her.”

I threw him off me and swiped my bleeding nose on the sleeve
of my jacket as we circled each other, both looking for an opening. By some
unspoken rule, the wolves at his command held back, waiting until they were
invited into the fray to try to kick my ass.

Eiven rolled his neck. “I did my duty.”

“Yeah, that really looked like duty, your fucking knife
pressed to her face.”

“It was her knife and I had it because she was too weak to
do what needed to be done.”

I stopped and looked at the corpse on the ground. It took me
a few seconds before recognition took hold. Jared. He was an agency hunter, a
douche if I remembered correctly. I swept the grounds, taking in the severed
heads and other limbs from two other bodies. Blood drenched the snow.

“What happened?” I asked, forcing the heat inside.

Eiven spat on the body at his feet and kicked the corpse.
Disgust and fury radiated, mixing with the neck-ruffling press of his wolf
straining for freedom. His eyes shimmered with the barely restrained beast. “Your
agency happened. These assholes slaughtered two of my wolves and then came
after Ella.”

Disgust filled me. Richard. I should have known the Shadow Agency
hadn’t planned on playing fair. “It’s not my agency, not any longer.”

Eiven jerked his head as if nodding. “You want to protect
her? Wake her the fuck up. Playtime’s over. This isn’t a game.”

I glared at the packmaster, hungry for the taste of his blood.

“I’ll get right on that, asshole.” I cracked my knuckles and
tilted my head to one side, then the other, readying for more brutality. “Touch
her again, and I swear to God I’ll make you pay.”

Eiven sneered. “Noted.” He turned to his wolves. “Get rid of
these bodies.”

With one last disgust-filled glare aimed in Ella’s
direction—as if the he blamed her for the death of his wolves—the packmaster
strode in the direction of the woods. Mid-step, amidst a burst of light, he
shifted forms and sprinted into the darkness.

Where the fuck was he going?

I turned to Ella and cupped her cheek, pulling her gaze from
the dead to me. Had she even heard the fight?

I thumbed the blood on her cheek and found the wound beneath
healed. Her gaze was far away, in a place I didn’t know if I could reach.

“Are you hurt?”

She shook her head but said nothing. The two Fenrir worked
silently, not sparing Ella or me a glance as they followed orders. They stacked
bodies, throwing dismembered limbs on top of the pile as if they were firewood.
Were they going to burn the evidence?

Jesus.

I cupped her face harder, squeezing until life surfaced in
her eyes. “Tell me what happened, babe.”

She shook her head and looked up at me with hatred. “Agency
hunters. They came for me—killed two of the Fenrir. Eiven and his boys,” she
swallowed, “they did the rest…I didn’t kill him but I should have. I didn’t…” Her
voice trailed off.

“Shit.” I grabbed her arm and drew her along behind me, into
the house.

I pulled her up the stairs, down one hallway then another,
navigating the maze with ease. In the safety of our room, I closed and locked
the door behind me.

Ella strode for the connected bathroom and toed off her
shoes without bothering with light switches. Her guilt whipped through me.
Tears rolled down her cheeks, cutting through the splattering of dried blood
that painted her skin. She stepped into the large glass shower stall fully
clothed and twisted the faucet to the coldest setting. After weeks of holding
everything inside, had my girl finally lost it?

Wake her the fuck up.

“Babe.” I grabbed her arm to pull her out of the way before
the full blast of water came, but she yanked free of my hold.

The full force of the icy water hit her, the echoing din
eclipsing her gasp of shock. She sputtered under the torrential spray drenching
her from the dual front and back showerheads. She pressed both hands against
the slick mosaic wall and arched her back, tipping her face up and inviting
more water to hit her.

“Ella.” I tried again, the ice-cold water soaking through my
shirt and making the fabric stick to my skin.

“Don’t,” she whispered and shook off my touch.

Pink water dripped from her face and clothes, swirling down
the small brass grate in the center of the shower’s floor. Ella leaned forward
and rested her forehead against the wall to stare at it.

“There’s so much blood.” Her voice cracked with such a
confused jumble of emotion it broke my heart. “They’re all dead, all because of
me. Everything I touch dies.”

“No, it doesn’t.” Fully clothed, I stepped under the spray
and gathered her close.

“The darkness inside me is growing and I can’t see what’s
right anymore.”

Didn’t she know I’d always be her light? “You aren’t alone.”

She was limp in my arms, so unlike the fierce huntress I’d
grown to love. I cupped the back of her head and forced her nose to my throat.
In my arms she was tiny and delicate. Under her small packaging lay a strength
I couldn’t comprehend. I felt like an asshole for the way I’d talked to her at
the hospital, but it needed to be said. I needed my Ella back.

The raining water mixed with her tears. I held her closer,
wishing I could take away her pain—wishing I knew how to fix her problems.

I’d been so consumed with plotting Richard’s death that I
hadn’t been paying attention to how out of control the situation had become.
Eli was right—I had been ignoring her. Pushing her away. I’d made everything
worse.

She shivered against me, the subtle chattering of her teeth
enough for me to pull myself together. I reached to the side and twisted the knob,
adjusting the frosty temperature to hot.

As the water gradually heated, I lifted the bottom of her
shirt and pulled it up, over her head. The material splattered to the ground
where I dropped it. Methodically, one article at a time, I took off her wrist
sheaths and knives before starting on her pants. Once I was done, I hurried to
get off my own and added them to the sodden pile of weapons and clothes on the
bathroom floor.

Through the steam billowing around us, I drank her in. Her
vacant eyes were haunted and shadowed with bruise-like circles. Dark hair
streamed over her shoulders, long enough to cover her tits and tease me with
glimpses of her nipples. The cuts and bruises showing starkly on her pale skin
healed before my eyes, leaving nothing but unblemished porcelain in its wake.
Water ran between her high, firm breasts, down her stomach to the thatch of
curls covering her sex.

I swallowed, trying to force my desire back. Sex was the
last thing she needed. My prick hardened anyway, having a mind of its own. I
rubbed against her, not able to control my unruly cock. Desire sparked, filling
her eyes with hunger as she responded. Ella ran her gaze over me, pausing to
caress the length of my erection. Lust surged, overshadowing the whirring
emotions she seemed to be trying to escape.

She stepped close and pressed her mouth to mine in a
desperate kiss I felt in the depths of my soul. She slid her hand down my
stomach, trailing her nails over skin. Where she touched, muscles flexed.

The demon inside me surged to the surface, scenting its mate’s
need. My desire consumed me. I had visions of flipping her over and shoving my
cock inside her. I wanted to lick her pussy, watch her writhe beneath me. I
growled against her mouth, tempted to give in, to be what she needed. But I—the
man—couldn’t. Not like this.

“Ella,” I said softly, gently redirecting her hand away from
my straining cock. “We need to talk.”

I cupped her cheek and steadied her face so she had no
choice but to look at me. Rage drew her predator to the surface and her bright
eyes went electric with fury. My nostrils flared and my cock jerked with want.
Her temper always had turned me on.

“Why do you keep pushing me away?” Anger lifted the volume
of her voice. “What the fuck is wrong with me?” She screamed her question at
me, the shrill tone pitched high enough to make me flinch.

I kept my voice low and gentle. “Nothing is wrong with you.
We need to talk this out.”

I pushed the wet strands of her hair off her face and
pressed my forehead to hers, willing my erection to go away so I could think.

“Well, I don’t want to talk.” She pressed her smooth leg
between mine and used her thigh to caress my testicles.

Fuck. My dick pulsed and I closed my eyes at the waves of
sensation slamming through me. Two weeks without sex, without jacking off, had
me ready to come at the briefest of touches. My resolve faded and I cupped her
hip, digging my fingers into flesh to draw her closer. Her skin was soft, the
perfect canvas for me to leave little nipping bites along.

She pressed her wet chest against mine, the tips of her
nipples tiny little pebbles I wanted in my mouth. Ella cupped my cock,
squeezing the base before stroking up to the crown. My eyes rolled into the
back of my head right about the same time Ella lifted onto her toes and licked
the water from my bottom lip.

I was a goner. The second I opened my mouth, she stroked her
tongue against mine and had me straining to get closer. My girl was good at a
lot of things, kissing being one of them. From base to tip, she caressed the
length of my shaft. I took over the kiss, dominating her mouth and thrusting my
hips into her grasp. I was in control here, not her.

Shit. No. Damn.

We weren’t doing this. Ella’s cure-all was sex, a handy
avoidance tactic. Normally I’d be all for it but not this time. Tonight we were
going to be adults. She’d accused me of cheating on her. We were clearing that
shit up right now. A swift spark of anger gave me the willpower to untangle my
mouth from hers.

“Damn it, Ella, knock it off.”

I grabbed her wrist, stilling her movement before I came in
her palm. I wondered if she could see the hunger in my eyes, feel the waves of
lust that radiated from me.

Her back bowed and she made a needy mewling noise in the
back of her throat I found sexy as fuck. Under her grip, my erection jerked,
straining to get closer.

She pulled her lower lip between her teeth and stared up at
me as if my cock was her entire world. Ella released her lip and my gaze was
drawn to the swollen flesh against my will.

“What’s the matter?” she purred in a really erotic, really
sexy way. Her lip, the one I was imagining her dragging along my shaft, plumped
out in a pout. “You don’t want me anymore?”

Women were creatures I’d never understand. Of course I
wanted her! My dick was hard. Weeping in fact. My balls were ready to fucking
explode and I was seconds away from forcing her to her knees and shoving my
dick into her mouth.

I blew out an angry breath. “That’s bullshit and you know
it. I’m tired of this crap, Ella. We fight and then we fuck. The root issue is
never resolved. It’s time to grow up and deal with our problems. Sex isn’t
going to fix anything.”

Ella’s anger simmered, making her electric irises look
sinister. Like a switch, her mood shifted. “So you think I’m a child too?”

Too? I shook my head and frowned down at her. “What are you
talking about? Of course I don’t think that.”

“Then shut up and fuck me. You told me to take some time to
figure out what I want. Well, I want you.” She ran her hand up her stomach and
cupped her right breast, squeezing the flesh. A breathy moan left her. “Right
now.”

I clenched my teeth together and backed up, needing
distance. “No. Not like this, not until you tell me what the hell is going on
in that brain of yours.”