Back From Hell (10 page)

Steph was more interested in playing with sex and with men. It had never even occurred to her that Jenai might be interested in Ronan.

And this time, she’d focused on somebody her sister wanted.

And apparently, the man wanted her sister too.

Because he had gone after her, and Steph was left alone in the hotel room.

He returned hours later and she was still sitting there. “Your sister can disappear like the wind.”

Yes. Jenai knew how to hide. Very well.

Stephanie lifted her eyes and swallowed as she stared at Ronan. “I think it might be better for me and Jenai to talk without you here when she gets back,” she said slowly.

He arched a brow at her and drawled, “Kicking me out? And after that sweet kiss too.”

“Go away,” she said hollowly.

“And do what? Go where? I thought we were going hunting.”

Ronan crouched down in front of her and Stephanie had no choice but to meet his eyes. “I can’t go away, Stephanie.”

“This is private.”

His eyes darkened and his voice was several octaves deeper when he said roughly, “I know how damn private it is. But there is something you don’t bloody understand. Jenai is my woman—my mate, and I’ll be damned if I let her use this as an excuse to push me away.”

Steph felt her jaw drop. Closing it with a snap, she narrowed her eyes and glared at him. “Your mate? Damn it, you just
met
her.”

“We’ve known each other for years. I’ve dreamt of her since before she was even alive, and she’s been dreaming of me ever since she was old enough to be able to handle those kinds of dreams.”

Blood rushed up, staining Stephanie’s cheeks. Face hot, chest tight, she wheezed out, “You? Those crazy dreams of hers…they were about you?”

Rising from the bed, she shoved passed Ronan. She felt like a total fool—worse, she felt like a traitor. She should have fucking known—should have felt it, seen it—something.

“Stephanie…”

Whirling around, she glared at him as she saw the sympathy darkening his gaze. “Don’t! I don’t fucking want to hear anything. You two could have said something. Instead of hiding it from me. And that’s what you two did.”

His mouth tightened. “I wasn’t hiding a bloody thing. And Jenai is still trying to come to grips with it.”

Stephanie’s mouth opened and she started to say… something. Yes.

That was Jenai. Stephanie knew her sister—knew that Jenai would have a fit that fate had slammed a mate into her life, and she really had no say in the matter.

Steph had no issues with fate—but Jenai had hordes of them. And this… Shit, it wouldn’t have surprised Stephanie if she had started railing and screaming from it.

Chapter Six

On the third morning after Jenai had left, Stephanie woke up and felt her. Closing her eyes, she whispered, “Finally.”

The room was empty. Ronan must have left to go searching for her again. Although he said nothing, she suspected he had expected to be able to track her, and it both baffled and infuriated him that he couldn’t.

Stephanie wasn’t surprised though. When Jenai was hiding behind her fury, she could damn well disappear behind her internal walls, and nothing penetrated them.

But finally, that wall of fury that had separated Stephanie from her sister faded.

She started gathering their things together. There wasn’t much. Ronan had bought himself a few pairs of clothing and Stephanie had her bag, but that was it.

He wasn’t there, though, after two more hours, and some nagging voice in her gut wouldn’t let her wait. Leaving him a note, she slung her bag over her shoulder and left.

Since Jenai had so kindly taken the car, Stephanie was left on foot, but that was okay. She could hitch a ride easily enough once she knew where she was going.

Following her internal compass, she focused on the sense that was Jenai and headed south.

* * * * *

After three years of searching, Jenai had finally tracked down the bastard who had killed her mother and her stepfather. It was almost too easy.

Maybe it had been
, she mused as she moved on silent feet around the club, searching for another entrance. Last she’d heard, he had been in and out of Louisville, and he liked to frequent this club, but that had been several weeks ago and none of her sources had confirmed it.

But here he was. She’d come by here on a whim, and she had seen him sliding out of his car, a long black cloak flapping around his ankles. Jenai sneered a little at the affectation even as the skin on the back of her neck prickled just from watching him.

She’d seen a picture or two of him. Relief had curdled through her when she had seen they looked nothing alike. But now she could see some resemblances. They moved alike.

Stealthy, silent. That had come naturally to her, but it hadn’t come from her mother. It had come from him. Just like the blood hunger in her had come from him.

There was only one other entrance. And the door was guarded by not one, but two guards. Both of them
autre
. A vampire, a man built like a bull with broad, ugly features, and a slender, dark-haired man who looked like a wraith. But she felt the power in him.

Witch
… Her mind buzzed just staring at him and she retreated just as silently as she had come. Back on the street, she stared at the bar and brooded.

Not her normal hangout, but she knew what the place was. It was called The Dark. A club that catered to the
autre
…in a less than traditional sense.

None of her contacts had much to say about the place—none of them would go near it.

Now Jenai understood why.

Something here was wrong. She felt it in her bones.

There was a black, clinging feel to the place that kept her from opening her mind at all. It was a cloying sensation—and she knew whatever was happening in here would stain her mind and her soul if she let it in too much.

Again, that little voice whispered,
Don’t go in there alone
…

But she was alone. She’d run away from the two people in the world who mattered. And she wasn’t going to cry out for help, not now.

Leon Varnell was here. And he was
hers
.

Pasting a bland look on her face, she sauntered up to the door, meeting the eyes of the werewolf who stood on guard there.

It wasn’t like there was a line of people dying to get in. Jenai had seen only a few people trickle through the door and none were outside milling around, waiting to get in.

The werewolf looked at her, arching a brow before turning his head dismissively. But when Jenai continued to stand there, he looked back at her.

She didn’t like the smile on his face as he stood aside to let her enter.

And crossing the threshold, she saw things she liked even less.

A woman at the bar some twenty feet away—even from here, Jenai could feel the touch of a vampire’s taint on her. Somebody had fed from her a little too often and pushed too far inside her mind.

The woman was little more than a brainless zombie now. Still human—barely—but stripped completely of her own will, seeking just to please those who had marked her as theirs. She worked behind the bar, completely naked except for thick silver hoops that pierced her nipples. A black collar was around her neck and attached to it was a thin series of silver links, chaining her to the area behind the bar.

Bondage wasn’t Jenai’s scene, but she suspected what had happened to that woman went beyond safe, sane and consensual. Everything about her screamed “broken” and rage started to brew in Jenai’s gut.

Something was wrong here.

It was as though something had been trying to block her senses. But now, she just couldn’t see past it.

There was a black, clinging feel to the place that kept her from opening her mind at all. It was a cloying sensation.

Don’t go in alone. Wait for help
, part of her whispered.
Call out to Stephanie…to Ronan. And wait.

But she couldn’t wait.

She was close, this close, and Stephanie and Ronan—God only knew where they were.

Keeping her face blank, she sauntered up to the bar and ordered a rum and coke as she settled on the stool. The bartender slid it to her in silence, keeping her eyes low.

There were few women in here. The woman behind the bar, a few who knelt at the feet of men scattered throughout the room. Two wearing nothing more than silver rings through their nipples as they worked the floor.

She didn’t see Varnell anywhere. But he was in here someplace. There was an upstairs—the entrance again guarded.

There were eyes on her. She could feel them crawling over her body like greedy hands, but when she raised her head and tried to search out the people who stared at her, none were even looking in her direction.

She was the target of a lot of interest. She could hear the hum of thoughts in the air, and some of them amused her.
Snotty bitch…I want to be the one to bring her down
.

But some of them bothered her.

Those weren’t so much thoughts, more just a…presence. A presence of evil. And they were amused by her.

There was a nagging voice in her head.
You need to get out of here
. Like a buzzing insect, it echoed around in her head and she fought to think around it.

This place catered to the dominant. The male dominant, because every single person in here was
autre
. And in the world of the
autre
, power was all. The powerful dominated—physical power, magickal power, power was all that mattered, plain and simple. And even though the average
autre
woman was pretty damn strong, the male was physically stronger. The male vamp was stronger than the female, as was the male werewolf.

Here, that strength was all that mattered.

The people who could have leveled the power playing field didn’t like it here—most females instinctively avoided this place, unless it offered what they needed.

Pain.

People who were into pain. Jenai could understand that on some level.

You’re right, there. And unless you want to receive some of that pain, you need to be gone.
The voice was more insistent this time, and Jenai scowled. She had good instincts, damn good ones, but this didn’t feel like instinct, it felt like more.

But she had to stay, had to deal with Leon. Had to find out what was wrong here.

So much pain…

Hell, she didn’t mind a little pain…at the right time. But some people were into more than a little, and as much as it weirded her out, she had come to grips with the fact that some of them even enjoyed it enough to bleed from it.

If there wasn’t so much violence in the air, there might have been more of the female dominant in this place in the form of witches. No matter how strong a were or a vamp was, he wasn’t going to go face to face with a witch to establish his supremacy over her. Since witches could call fire almost as easy as they breathed, that wouldn’t be particularly smart.

A female Master vampire or werewolf wouldn’t come here. There were a decent number of females who had the superior strength, the superior control to become Master, but the men here made it obvious that the female’s place was to submit, and most of the female Masters knew how to fight their battles. Most females couldn’t win in an outright challenge against a male, and they wouldn’t risk what would happen if they lost.

All of that boiled down to one thing—females didn’t come here unless they were ready to submit. Jenai was the only female in there who didn’t drop her eyes when a man looked at her.

That was what amused them so.

She started to rise from her chair—she needed to get out of here. She was powerful, strong, but she knew when she was outnumbered.

But before she could head for the door, she saw him.

Leon Varnell stood at the foot of the stairs—and he was looking right at her.

* * * * *

Ronan stalked back into the room and hurled the keys on the table.

Nowhere. He couldn’t find her—and he’d fucking
looked
.

“Stephanie, you don’t have any idea where she might have gone?” he asked shortly.

His only answer was silence.

A low growl trickled from his throat as he studied the room. Her things were gone. His were packed up neatly. And on top was a note.

Had to go. Heading south, toward Kentucky. Should be around Louisville. Meet me there tomorrow. There’s a park on the riverfront. Meet me by the hot dog stand.

“Well, shit.”

Shoving a hand through his hair, he dropped down onto the bed. Had she heard from Jenai? Why hadn’t she said? Just
leaving
?

He debated for a second what in the hell he was going to do.

But in the end, he already knew what he’d do. Until Jenai stopped whatever in the hell she was doing to block him out, Stephanie was his only link to her.

Shouldering his bag, he left the key on the table. Within a matter of minutes, he was back on the highway, heading for I-65. Louisville, huh?

His gut churned. The PSA had several agents in Louisville. Bad vibes had been coming from that city for some time, people disappearing just a little too often.

Why in the hell had Jenai gone there?

* * * * *

Pain lashed out at her. It was like a hungry monster, biting and clawing at her.

She was surrounded by darkness. Never in her life had she been trapped in such an encompassing darkness.

She needed to do something—there was somebody she needed. But the pain bit at her with an intensity that was blinding, and it kept her from thinking.

From seeing. From doing much of anything, but shuddering and trying to get away from the things that came at her in the dark.

Call…

The voice whispered at her from the darkness. It wasn’t coming from inside her. It wasn’t a part of her. And it continued to come steadily.

Call them…

But the darkness came at her again. In desperation, she retreated inside herself. And didn’t call out to anybody.