Addict (40 page)

“I promise to kill you quickly.” I could be magnanimous. It really was a good deal since my original plan had been to slowly eviscerate him and force him to watch as I fed his entrails to a cat.

“You see, that’s what I was afraid of.” Bellamy stayed outside of my reach. “Do you think I want all this chaos crap? Do you know what it’s going to do to my stock?”

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. “I don’t give a crap about your stock. You knew what you were getting into.”

He grimaced. “Sort of. Look, all the demons I’d met before had next to no interest in this plane. They wanted to be left alone to do their thing. I built this company. You all think I signed a contract, but I haven’t. I’ve managed to make myself valuable enough that I haven’t been forced to sell my soul, and I’m not going to.”

“You won’t have to. You’ll be dead as soon as Winter and my father figure out what’s happening,” Matthew pointed out.

“Not if we kill them all.” Gray groaned as he rolled off the cot. “I think I have this under control for the time being. I have to concentrate, but I can stay in the now. I wish Jacob had hung around though.”

“He said he would come back for you. I would bet anything he’s wherever this thing is going down.” Apparently we were in the middle of something important, and watching was what Jacob liked to do.

“We can’t kill Father,” Matthew argued. “I agree that we need to slaughter Abbas Hiberna, but without Father, both Gray and I are vulnerable. Especially now.”

Without his father, Gray didn’t have to go to Hell, so I was kind of all for killing Papa Sloane. “I think we’ll worry about that later. I’m going to take out anyone who tries to disrupt the balance on this plane.”

“You don’t understand. All Father was trying to do was create his prophet. He wanted to give his son power and Abbas Hiberna was the only one who could help him. He’s already left this plane. You won’t be able to find him again. Abbas Hiberna, on the other hand, will be wherever the chaos is,” Matthew insisted.

“You give our dear old dad way too much credit,” Gray said, touching his forehead as though it pained him. “This was never about giving me power. It was about taking it for himself. He doesn’t care about us. He never has.”

“You are so cynical,” Matthew replied with a little snarl. “Family is all we have and you’ll see it one of these days. I’m going to do what I should have done hours ago. I’m going to protect the love of my life. Whether he likes it or not.”

His eyes went blank and he fell.

I shot over to try to catch him, but Gray got there before I did. Jamie opened his eyes and shuddered as Gray moved him to the cot.

“Dude, your brother’s an asshole,” Jamie said with a frown. “And I’m so getting inked.”

“Are you all right?” I knelt beside my brother, looking into his eyes because I wasn’t completely certain Matthew wouldn’t try to trick us.

“I’m never watching
The Exorcist
again. That was horrible. I could feel his…he was evil, Kelsey. So evil and he doesn’t even know it. I think he thinks he’s normal.” Jamie looked over at Gray. “You are not your brother. You are nothing like him.”

Gray sent him a sad smile. “Many would disagree with you. A demon’s a demon.”

The things Jacob had said to me made perfect sense. “Even a demon has choices. We choose who we become.” I looked back at Bellamy. “I promise no retribution if you let us out of this cage and tell us what Winter is planning.”

“And you’ll kill him? You’ll kill Julius Winter?” The key dangled from his hand.

“You better believe it, buddy.” That was one choice I had no problem making.

Chapter Twenty-One

“So he’s found a way to get the drug into Ether?” I tried to wrap my head around everything Bellamy was telling me as he drove his outrageously outfitted Audi through the snowy streets toward downtown.

Outside the snow kept falling, but we’d made it out of Winter’s compound with no struggle. No giant snowmen had been waiting this time, likely because Winter was concentrating his efforts elsewhere.

“Well, this is really the part where you should remember that you promised not to do that whole playing with my entrails thing,” Bellamy reminded me.

“I didn’t promise anything.” Jamie was kind of itching to hurt someone.

“James,” I warned before turning back to Bellamy. He was driving with Jamie in the seat beside him while Gray and I sat in the back, our hands tangled together. Maybe it was wrong, but after what we’d been through, I needed to have his flesh against mine in some way. I needed to have him close. “Your entrails are safe, Bellamy. Tell me what’s happening.”

“My labs might have tweaked the drug and now it sends shifters and werewolves into fits of rage. Some alphas might be able to control themselves, but no one else will be able to. The drug is in a shipment of beer scheduled to be on sale tonight. It’s Ether’s on tap brew of the night. Winter has a man on the inside who’s making sure everyone gets a taste.”

“It’s going to be a bloodbath. Thank god they can’t get into the residential parts of the building.” Gray’s hand squeezed mine.

“I might have found a way to override the security systems. Not the individual ones, but they can make it to the residential portion,” Bellamy admitted.

And cell phone service was out due to the storm. Winter had covered the place with a blizzard and knocked out cell service for the building. I’d been trying and trying and couldn’t get hold of anyone.

Panic threatened to overwhelm me, and I didn’t hold it back. Marcus needed to know there was a reason to panic if he didn’t already.

“The doors won’t keep out werewolves if they want to get in,” Jamie pointed out. “But how many are we talking about? The king truly is a death machine. He can handle a lot of werewolves. Not everyone drinks beer.”

Bellamy got off the freeway and made the turn to get on to Pearl. “The drug will take roughly an hour to truly set in. By my count, we should be getting there just as things get interesting. And it’s a lot of wolves. And shifters. If the king slays them all, he’s going to have to deal with the ramifications of killing so many of his allies.”

“Beyond that he’ll have to deal with rumors and conjecture from an already unstable alliance,” Gray added. “No one understands what’s going on, and they won’t believe the truth from the king’s
Nex Apparatus
. There will be many conspiracy theories, including the one where the vampires are trying to thin the were populations.”

“That’s ridiculous.” Donovan had no reason to do that. He needed them on his side.

“It doesn’t matter,” Jamie agreed. “The rumors will be out there.”

“We have another problem.” Bellamy made the turn that would take us to Ether. The winds were whipping up, getting stronger the closer we got. “I’ve done a lot of research on Winter, and there’s something you all should know. He can’t be killed by anyone but demonkind.”

Gray’s eyes closed. “That’s a rumor. Fucker probably started it himself.”

“What do you mean? I can’t kill him? I have no shot at this?” I didn’t like going into something all pessimistic, but it was better to know.

“There are four elemental demons,” Gray explained. “They have the powers of the seasons. Fall can touch you and cause you to age. Winter can obviously freeze. Summer can start fires with his gaze. You don’t want to know what spring can do. The rumor is they can only be killed by flesh of their flesh. Demonkind. Kelsey, you were right. My demon will be making another appearance.”

He was far too weak. “No. We have to hope that’s a rumor. If I have to I’ll find another way. Gray, you don’t know when your new powers will take over and how they’ll affect you. I think you should sit this one out. Apparently your brother will be in there somewhere. Maybe I can get him to try to kill Winter. I don’t suppose you can tell me who his lost love is?”

“I’ve never met him,” Gray admitted. “When they were together, they lived on the Hell plane. For obvious reasons, I don’t go there. He called his lover his sweet puppy. I know he’s a werewolf.”

I had a couple of people I could ask—if they weren’t currently fighting for their lives.

Up ahead, I could see the building that housed Ether. It housed all of us really. So many of us lived in that building, but I was happy for Quinn’s complete psycho paranoia about keeping business and pleasure apart. It wasn’t easy to get from Ether into the residences. Even if a few got in, it would take time to get through those reinforced doors.

I breathed a sigh of relief as Bellamy stopped inside the parking garage.

“This is where I leave you. I’m going underground for a while.”

He was going to try to wait it out and see who wanted to kill him at the end of our venture. I couldn’t blame the idiot for that.

Gray, Jamie, and I hightailed it for the elevator. I had the code memorized, and we all stood waiting as the elevator started the trek down. We were all wondering the same thing. What would we be walking into? My heart was pounding in my chest at the idea of those elevator doors opening and facing a bloodbath. How many of our people had already died?

And where would Abbas Hiberna be? How the hell was I going to take down a demon who could only be killed by another demon?

“Jamie, I think you should take Kelsey and run,” Gray said quietly.

Jamie’s head turned and one brow arched over his eye. “I don’t think she wants to run. Have you tried making her do something she doesn’t want to do?”

Gray was being Gray, and arguing wasn’t going to help anything. The doors opened and we were assaulted by the sounds of…

Industrial music? I stepped off the elevator. The entrance to Ether was packed, as it was every night. The red carpet and red velvet rope that marked the line to get into the nightclub were the only red I could see. Thumping music could be heard coming from the club, and the line was almost back to the elevators.

“Could Bellamy have been wrong?” I asked.

“Maybe,” Gray allowed as we skipped the line and started for the bouncers. “But my brother wouldn’t lie. Not about this.”

“I actually agree. I had the fucker in my head for hours. He was worried about the wolf. He’s really in love. Well, it’s a perverted, crazy-creepy-stalker kind of love, but it’s what he considers love. I got a vision of the guy. It was hard to see because mostly I was screaming because being trapped in your own body sucks, but he looked familiar. I think he’s a wolf who works with the king.”

My mind immediately went to Trent and I laughed it off because that big wolf wouldn’t ever look at another man. He liked pussy too much… A vision of Trent Wilcox naked flooded my head, assaulting my senses. He had the sweetest smile on his face as he leaned over to cover my lips with his.

Oh, god. I’d seen a potential future where he was my lover. That had to be one of those offshoot weird worlds that wouldn’t ever, ever really happen.

I couldn’t remember much, but I remembered he’d been amazingly good in bed. The man liked to use his tongue. And his cock. Oh, I needed to stop thinking about it.

“Kels? You okay?” Jamie asked because I’d stopped in the middle of the lobby.

“Kelsey?” Gray was staring at me like he could see what I was thinking.

I didn’t need anyone to ever know I’d seen that. Ever. For the rest of all time. It was embarrassing. And had me a little bit hot. Which was also embarrassing. I broke into a jog. “I’m good. Let’s find Marcus and the king and talk this out.”

Up ahead, who should I see but the object of my complete and utter denial. Trent stood at the front of the line talking to three of the bouncers from the club. He was altogether too masculine in his T-shirt and jeans and close-cropped hair. He was all muscly and wolfy, and it absolutely, one hundred percent didn’t do anything for me. When he turned and saw me and his face lit up with a kind of crazy, sexy smile, I did not care. My heart rate stayed the exact same, and any deviations were from the run.

Totally.

“Kelsey, hey. You’re back. We didn’t expect you back for another couple of hours. Not that I was…” He stopped. “I was actually. I was kind of counting the time. I was worried about you. I’m glad to see you’re all whole and shit.”

This was the time I would give the big were a mouthy comeback. I would show him my sarcastic side. Instead, I kind of stared because flashes of what I’d seen were coming back to me, and I couldn’t help but think about how good he looked naked.

What the fuck?

“I believe what she’s trying to say is where is the king?” Gray’s tone was rough and he was looking at me with terrifically judgey eyes.

What had he seen before I took that moment away from him?

“Or maybe Marcus?” Gray continued. “She probably wants to see her boyfriend.”

Yeah, he’d seen something, too.

Trent’s eyes went from Gray back to me as though he felt the weird tension between us and wasn’t sure what was going on, but then he hadn’t been treated to the “all possibilities in the world” sex show this evening. “They’re up in the penthouse.”

“Have you seen Winter?” Thank god Jamie was focused on the mission and not his potential sex life. “We need to know exactly where he is.”