Bitter Blood (Blood and Moonlight Book 3) (16 page)

“I need a doctor!”

The scream came from the front of building, jarring Annette. She had been trying to scry in the chunks of glass she had left, but she’d seen
nothing.
Paris had been silent and watchful behind her and Garrison…

He’d been a guard dog. She wasn’t even sure how long the guy had been pacing the perimeter around her and the frantic scream had her crashing back to reality.

At that scream, Garrison lunged out of the back room. She rose, about to follow.

“Don’t.” Paris’s rough voice. “Stay with me.”

She looked back at him. He still seemed sane, so maybe the blood he’d taken had turned the tide for him. Perhaps it was her imagination, but he just
appeared
better to her. She hoped it wasn’t just wishful thinking.

“I’m
bleeding!
” The plaintive voice cried out. “Take me to a hospital! Take—”

She grabbed her gun and made sure it was hidden behind the loose skirt of her dress. Then she took up a position in the middle of that room. Anyone coming through that door would have to go through her before getting to Paris.

A few moments later, she also saw their guests.

“I’m back,” Vincent Connor said, flashing her a tired smile as he sauntered into the back room. “And I’ve brought friends.”

He had his hands clamped on the shoulders of a man with dark hair and dark eyes, a man who seemed familiar to Annette though she’d never met him in person before, she was sure of it. Deep gashes covered his neck and jaw, obvious signs of a wolf attack.

Just which wolf had the guy pissed off? And why was he
there?

Garrison was glaring at the injured human, but not attacking. Not yet, anyway.

And there was a woman in the little group, too. A woman with pale, blonde hair and bright green eyes. Heavy gold bracelets—bands?—curled around her wrists.

“Just what friends are these?” Annette murmured. She made sure to keep her position in the middle of the room, and Garrison hurried to her side.

“This…” Vincent’s hold tightened on the bleeding human. She was surprised he hadn’t decided to take a bite with all that tempting blood flowing. “This is Drew Hart. The human who has been fucking everything up for us.”

“Vampire bastard!” Drew cried out. “You let me the fuck go, right now, you—”

“Lena…” Vincent sighed out the name. “Make him stop talking.”

The blonde waved her hand toward Drew. Instantly, his lips clamped together and he stopped speaking.

“Thank you.” Vincent didn’t look the blonde’s way. His gaze was on Annette. “How’s our wolf? Still rabid?” Then he made a show of glancing around her.

She bristled. “No, he’s—”

“
Not
freaking rabid,” Paris muttered from behind her.

Surprise flashed on Vincent’s face. “He speaks…and with sense, too.”

Lena inched forward.

“Where’s Aidan?” Annette demanded. Her hand tightened on her weapon.

Vincent glanced over at Lena.

Sadness flickered on her face. “When I saw him last, the darkness had taken him over. He’d lost the battle and was running wild into the night.”

What?
No, no way. He—

“Aidan had two beasts inside of him, a werewolf and a vampire.” Lena’s voice was so soft that Annette had to strain in order to hear her. “That’s not the way things were meant to be.”

Paris is carrying two beasts.

“They ripped apart his sanity. Only bloodlust and rage are left in him now.” Lena shook her head. “I tried to warn Mary Jane Hart, but she wouldn’t listen to me.”

Drew frantically shook his head. Blood dripped from his wounds.

Vincent’s teeth snapped together.

“Mary Jane went after him.” Lena’s shoulders fell. “But I’m afraid that when she finds Aidan, he won’t be the man she needs. He may not even be a man at all.”

Paris was dead silent behind Annette and tension seemed to be rolling off Garrison.

“I tried to tell Jane.” Vincent shoved Drew down onto his knees before him. “She wasn’t meant to be with Aidan. The consequences of their mating would be disastrous. Now, she’ll see for herself just what I meant.”

Annette backed away from him. Her gaze fell to her broken scrying mirror. Those precious chunks…

And for just a moment, she saw something. A quick flash.

Of Hell.

***

Hell’s Gate. Jane followed Aidan’s scent back to the club on Bourbon Street. His haven. The place where it had all started for them.

She’d met Aidan just outside of Hell’s Gate while working her first case as a homicide detective. A woman’s dead body had been dumped near the club. Of course, that particular victim hadn’t stayed dead, not for long. And Jane’s world had quickly spun out of control.

Slowly, she approached the entrance to Hell’s Gate. The guard stood as she neared. “Ms. Jane…” Troy looked over his shoulder at the closed door. “You shouldn’t…I don’t think you should go in tonight. Something isn’t right.”

Troy had claw marks on his stomach. She’d smelled his blood from a block away. Jane swallowed. “Aidan did that to you?”

He nodded.

Shit. “When I go inside, lock the door behind me. Then go back to the werewolf compound and get that wound treated, okay?”

But he didn’t move. Troy’s eyes—one blue and one green—stayed locked on her. “It isn’t safe for you.”

“I can handle him.” She sounded way more confident than she felt. “But everyone else needs to stay away for now.” Until she had
her
Aidan back. And she would get him back. There was no alternative for her. Whatever she had to do in that place, she’d do it. Jane wasn’t about to lose him. They’d already been through too much together. She wouldn’t give him up now. “Lock the door behind me,” so they wouldn’t get any unexpected visitors, “then go,” Jane ordered.

He hesitated but, after a moment, Troy stepped out of her way. Jane’s hand curled around the door handle and she opened it slowly, the hinges creaking. She stepped into the club, and it was dark inside, a cavernous darkness.

It was a good thing she could see so well in the dark.

She advanced a few feet and the door swung shut behind her. The locks turned, a loud, distinct click of the tumblers. She listened a moment and heard Troy’s footsteps fading away. Now…now she was alone with her beast.

Jane knew Aidan was there. She hadn’t spotted him, not yet, but Jane could feel him. Watching her. The hungry stare of a predator.

Was he a wolf?

Or a man?

Both?

She rubbed her hands on her jeans. She still had blood on her—Roth’s blood. She wanted to go back to his place, to search for clues, to get his damn body taken care of but…

Aidan came first.

He mattered. Because Jane was very afraid that Aidan was slipping away from her.

She walked into the middle of the club. Her gaze swept over the ground floor of Hell’s Gate. “Aidan?”

A low growl had the hair on her nape rising. Her gaze shot upward, toward the second level of the club, and she saw his hulking form.

He wasn’t a wolf, not any longer.

Her breath expelled in a relieved rush and a wide smile curved her lips. “Aidan, you’re okay!”

He began walking down the stairs, a slow, steady glide. His eyes glowed a bright blue in the darkness.

He was…bigger. The guy had always been muscled, but this was different. His arms were bigger, his shoulders far wider, his height even a few inches taller.

An alpha on steroids.

Jane licked her lips. “You’re okay,” she said again but it sounded as if she was trying to convince herself of that fact.

He didn’t speak. Jane retreated a step, then stopped herself. She forced her shoulders to straighten as she waited for Aidan to come to her.

They’d made love in this same place just a little while before. Aidan had said that he loved her, and she knew he’d meant those words. He loved her.

She loved him.

They were going to get through this madness.

Some way.

She could practically feel the threat in the air around her. It was instinctive, the way a hunted animal could sense the predator closing in.

Aidan was before her and the hard, dangerous expression on his face clearly said Jane was his prey.

He lifted his hand and his dark claws came toward her face.

***

“The alpha won’t hurt Jane.” Garrison was adamant. “He loves her.”

Annette bent to get a better view of her broken mirror chunks. She could see fire and hell. Blood and death and…

Jane.

“He won’t kill her,” Vincent agreed. “Because I don’t think he can. Beast, man, or vamp…he still thinks of Jane as his. But when the chips are down…” He exhaled slowly. “I’m afraid Jane won’t have an option. She’ll have to stop him before he turns on innocents.”

Annette stared into her glass. “The end.” That was what the burn mark on Jane’s right side symbolized. She looked up at Vincent.

“Yes,” he said. “Jane will be his end.”

Drew was straining in Vincent’s hold. Straining and still bleeding.

Paris growled.

Instantly, Annette straightened. She pointed at Drew—a still bleeding Drew.
That blood scent is just going to make Paris wild.
“Get him out of here! Paris might not have been able to keep human blood down, but that doesn’t mean the scent won’t screw with his mind!” She gave a hard negative shake of her head. “He isn’t like you, Vincent. Paris doesn’t have centuries’ worth of strength to hold his hunger in check.”

Vincent nodded. “No, he isn’t like me. I was born to be this way. He wasn’t.” He hauled Drew to his feet and yanked him toward the door. “Another end.”

No, nothing is ending for Paris.

Lena stared at Annette.

“I’ll secure him in the other room,” Vincent called. “Jane is going to want to see her brother when she gets here.”

He was confident that Jane would be arriving but…what about Aidan?

“He thinks Aidan will die tonight,” Lena whispered.

Annette eyed the woman.

“He doesn’t get it,” Lena added. “The man Aidan was…he’s
already
dead.”

Garrison took a lunging step toward her. “
Liar!”

Annette put her hand on the young wolf’s shoulder. “Easy.” Too much was happening, too fast. She needed to figure things out. Paris was eerily silent behind her and she was almost afraid to look back at him.

Aidan, get your hairy alpha ass back here and help out your pack.

“Aidan is the strongest wolf I know,” Garrison said, his pride in Aidan obvious. “Nothing takes him down.”

“Jane will.” Lena seemed certain. “That’s what she was meant to be, don’t you see that? The end.
His
end. The end for them all.”

“Witch,” Annette muttered. “I’m really not liking you.”

Lena’s eyelids flickered. “Why do people keep calling me that?” She sauntered around the room and her toe brushed against a chunk of broken black glass. “Bet you wish that was still working, don’t you?”

Suspicions swirled within Annette. She knew there were lots of powerful paranormal beings out there but Lena…

“Lena!” Vincent roared. “I need you! Come to me!”

Lena offered Annette a faint smile. Then she turned away.

Power seemed to pulse in the air behind her as she left them.

“You need to call Police Captain Vivian Harris!” Annette shouted after her. “Drew should be in her custody! She can help us!”

Another growl built from Paris’s throat. Annette looked back at him. His eyes were darkening with emotion.

With…bloodlust.

“Here we go again,” Annette whispered and she felt her heart break a bit more.

Aidan’s claws slid over her cheek, his touch as soft as a whisper, not so much as scratching her skin.

Jane’s breath eased out on a ragged sigh. “I’m afraid.”

His nostrils flared. “I can smell your fear.” He smiled at her as his claws slid down her neck. “I like that scent.”

She caught his hand, held tight. “No, you don’t. You hate it when I’m afraid.”

Aidan just stared down at her. Such a cold, empty stare.

“You love me,” she told him. “You don’t ever want me to be afraid.”

His brow furrowed.

“I know you’re in there.” Jane tightened her grip on him. “And I’m going to get you out. I’m—”

He lifted her up and they seemed to fly across the club. In the next instant, she was sitting on the bar, and he was standing between her legs. He’d grabbed her wrists, and he’d pinned them to the bar top, one on either side of her body.

Jane stared at him and remembered him making love to her. Right there.

But when he looked back at her, his gaze was that of a hunter, one who was about to devour his prey.

“Aidan…” Jane began.

And he bit her. He moved so fast that she didn’t realize his intent, not until it was too late. Jane had still thought that she could reach him. But he sank his fangs into her throat and the white-hot sting of his bite stole her breath. He drank from her, seeming to glory in her taste. Because this was Aidan—her Aidan—her body responded to him. Her breasts ached, her sex yearned.

He licked her neck. “I like that.” His voice rasped against her. “I’ll take more.” His fangs raked over her skin.

“Stop!” She yanked her wrists from his grasp and slammed her hands against his chest.

His head lifted.

“Aidan…” Chill bumps were on her arms. “Say my name.”

His eyes narrowed.

“Say my name,” Jane ordered again, frantic, desperate. Because he was gazing at her as if she were a stranger and that scared her most of all. Whatever was happening inside of him, Jane needed Aidan to remember her. To remember them. To remember what they were to each other. “Do you even know who I am?”

His fangs flashed. “Yes.” A hiss. “I know…you’re mine.” His head came back toward her, lowering over her neck.

He was going to bite her again.

“No!”

Jane shoved him, hard. Hard enough that he stumbled back and slammed into a nearby table. Her breath sawed out of her lungs as she jumped off the bar. “Aidan.” Now she snapped out his name. “
Aidan,
get your shit together and get it together
now.
Because this isn’t you.”

He’d shattered the table and fallen to the floor. He glared up at her, snarling, and he shot to his feet. He swiped out at her with his claws, but Jane jumped back, dodging the attack.

“What are you doing?” Jane yelled at him. “Don’t make me hurt you.” That wasn’t what she wanted. She never wanted to hurt Aidan. She loved him too much.

That love was why she was standing there right then, why she was so desperate to reach him. To get past the darkness and find her lover.

“Hurt me?” He laughed, and it was a guttural, brutal sound.
Not Aidan’s laugh.
“Come try.” He opened his arms to her, spreading them wide. “Nothing can hurt me. No one. I’m a fucking alpha.”

Her chin notched up as she began to circle him.

“I like the way you smell.” He turned, keeping his gaze on her as she moved around the bar. “Like the way you taste even better.”

“Aidan,
stop this.
” Because the tension was getting worse. She could feel it thickening in the room. He was going to attack, she knew it. And when he did… “I don’t want to lose us.”

He smiled at her, flashing fangs. “I think I’ll like the way you fuck, too.”

He is a stranger. Where is my Aidan?
“Trust me, you love the way I fuck.” She grabbed one of the broken chair legs. Held it tight. “But that’s because you love me, and you need to remember that, right now. Because if you do anything to me…oh, Aidan, it will destroy you once you get past this darkness. The guilt will eat you alive.” She knew it. “I matter too much to you.”

He leapt at her. Jane hit out, swinging with the chair leg, but he just ripped it from her hand. He shattered that wood with a careless grip, then he was holding her, shoving her back against the wall and caging her with his body. “I don’t think…” he whispered. “You matter much at all.”

Pain knifed through her. White-hot agony because it was a blow straight to her heart. “No, you remember me…somewhere inside, I know you do. You remember everything. You said I was yours…because you know I am. Just as you’re mine. You came to Hell’s Gate because this place is your haven. You came here because you wanted to be safe. You—”

“You have my mark on you.” His claws slid down and rested in the spot where her neck curved into her shoulder, the spot he’d marked before. “I can
feel
it. That’s how I know you’re mine.”

She searched his eyes, wanting more than an animal instinct of recognition. “And this place? You came back to Hell—”

“My scent was all over this building, so I know it’s mine, too.” Once more, he gave that rough laugh. “This whole town will be mine. I’ll take
everything.
I’ll destroy the humans in my path. I’ll make the cities fucking red with blood. I’ll show them all the power I possess.”

A tear slid down her cheek. “This isn’t you.”

“It’s very, very much
me.
”

“I did this,” Jane whispered. “My blood. Mixing with yours…the wolf and the vamp were battling inside you, but in that fight, something happened to the man you were.”

Aidan nodded and he gave her that cold smile. “He died.”

“No—”

But his fangs were coming at her again.

***

Annette stared down at the biggest chunk of black glass. The image of hell had faded and now she saw Aidan. He stood alone in a cemetery, with his hands clenched at his sides. Grief ravaged his face. Torment. She could feel his pain. It was ripping him apart because…

Jane was gone.

A massive mausoleum waited in front of Aidan. The doors were chained. Aidan took a step toward that desolate place—

“Ms. Benoit?” Garrison poked her shoulder. “You okay? You’ve been staring at that glass for a while.”

She blinked and rose to her feet. Dizziness rolled through her, but Garrison steadied her with his strong grip. “Aidan.”

“He’s not here yet,” Garrison spoke softly. “Shouldn’t he be here? What’s taking him so long?”

Annette tried to pull in a deep breath. Her lungs felt empty. “You need to get to him.”

Alarm flashed on Garrison’s face. “Why?” His gaze dipped down to the mirror. “What did you see?”

Aidan is going to hurt Jane.
“Go to him. He’s in Hell’s Gate.” That was why she’d seen hell. Sometimes, her visions weren’t literal. “Stop him.”

Garrison nodded and surged away from her, but then…

He stopped.

Garrison turned back to face her, his hands clenched. “I…I can’t.”

She cast a quick look at Paris. He stared at her with a ravenous gaze. She licked her lips then dragged her gaze back to Garrison. “Why not?”

“My alpha gave me an order.” Garrison marched toward her. “He told me to protect Paris, and that’s what I’m going to do. I won’t break my alpha’s command.”

Are you freaking kidding me?
“Even if your alpha suffers for it?”

Garrison bit his lip, but…nodded. “I swore to protect Paris, and that’s what I’m going to do.”

Oh, hell. Now he was going to be a rule follower. “You damn well better protect him.” She jabbed her finger into Garrison’s chest. “And do
not
cross that dirt line until I get back.” She was actually starting to worry about just how much longer that dirt of the dead would work. It hadn’t stopped Aidan and the more time that she spent with Paris…

He doesn’t seem like just a vamp to me. He had werewolf claws a bit ago. Aidan’s blood and Jane’s blood…they’re mixing in him now, changing him.
And it just might be enough of a change to fool the magic she’d put in place.

They were running out of time, she knew it. Annette had to act. She wasn’t going to leave that building, but she would go get Vincent. If anyone was strong enough to stop the alpha, it would be him.

Garrison would never stand a chance against Aidan anyway.

Annette left her bag and rushed out of that back room. It was eerily silent in the long hallway. Where was Vincent? He’d taken Drew away earlier, but she had no idea where they’d gone. She ran by several empty rooms and then, through an open doorway, she saw them.

Drew was on his knees. Vincent’s hands were locked around Drew’s throat. “I snapped your sister’s neck,” Vincent said, his face twisted and angry. “Just like I’m—”

“
What are you doing?”
Annette yelled at him.

Vincent stiffened. Then he shoved Drew away from him.

Lena just stood there, a few feet to Vincent’s right. She was watchful, silent.

“Were you about to kill him?” Annette marched closer to him, her gaze sweeping the room. Drew’s lips were still pressed tightly together. “Why the hell haven’t you called Captain Harris? She should be handling him.”

“I didn’t hear you coming.” Vincent slanted a quick glance at Lena. “Why didn’t I hear her coming?”

Lena just shrugged.

Annette glanced between the two of them.

Drew threw his body forward and tried to crawl toward her, but Vincent caught him and jerked him back.

This is wrong.
“Captain Harris should be here,” Annette said as she edged back a bit. “She handles the paranormals.”

“I can handle him.” Vincent smiled at her. “I’m trying to understand why he hates vampires so much. I mean, his father was a vamp. Shouldn’t he be
grateful
to our kind? This hatred…this determination to kill paranormals is unnatural.”

Drew’s gaze fired fury at the vamp.

Lena just watched them.

Annette found her gaze dipping to the bracelets around Lena’s wrists. There was something familiar to her about those golden bangles. Something that nagged at her mind.

“You won’t be a threat to Jane any longer,” Vincent assured Drew. “You won’t be a threat to anyone.” He bared his fangs and Annette knew he was about to rip out the human’s throat.

“Stop it!” Annette yelled. “He’s her brother!”

“A murdering bastard of a brother.” Vincent glanced over at Annette. “You do realize, of course, that he came to this town with the express purpose of killing paranormals?”

Annette hesitated.

“Think about it,” Vincent said. “When he shot Jane at that college campus, he was armed with a gun that contained
silver
bullets. Humans don’t just pack silver bullets by chance. He knew what Aidan Locke was. He knew about werewolves. He was here to kill them.
And
to wipe out any vamps who got in his way.”

“How would he have known?” Annette asked.

“Because he had hired a man to follow Jane around town. A bastard named Roth Sly.” Vincent paced closer to her. “That’s what I’ve been able to learn so far. Drew hired Roth to watch and to report back on everything that he learned. Roth was his eyes and ears but…” His shoulders slumped. “He killed Roth tonight. That’s where Lena and I found this bastard…at Roth’s apartment. The whole building reeked of blood and death.”

Her heart thudded too fast and hard in her chest. Annette inched back another step. “Drew Hart hasn’t said a word.”

Vincent lifted one perfect brow. Such a handsome face. So charming.

“You had Lena stop him from talking earlier. His lips…they’re still sealed together.” She could see it. Drew was straining hard to talk but it was as if his mouth had been glued shut.

Vincent shrugged. “He was talking a moment ago, I assure you. Just ask Lena. Lena…” He threw a quick glance her way. “Tell the voodoo queen that Drew was talking.”

“If that’s what you wish…” Lena’s voice was mild, but there was just the faintest emphasis on that last word.

Wish…

Annette’s stare jerked to the gold bracelets.
Oh, shit. We are all so screwed.

“He was talking plenty,” Lena murmured. “Telling us how he hated paranormals. How he wanted us all to die. He came to New Orleans with those silver bullets to take out paranormals. He won’t stop until we’re all dead.”

Vincent nodded, looking satisfied. “See? That’s why it just makes sense for me to kill the bastard right now.”

Drew frantically shook his head. More grunts and moans came from behind his sealed lips.

“After all…if I don’t end him, he’ll just attack Jane and Aidan again. They’re your friends.” Vincent appeared pained. “You don’t want your friends to die, do you?”

Her throat had gone desert dry. “No, no, I don’t want them to die.”

And she didn’t want to die, either. So Annette was going to have to play these next few moments very, very carefully…

Because she’d just realized she was standing in the room with a devil.

***

Darkness was choking him. His head throbbed, his heart raced, and a ravenous hunger for blood had his whole body aching.

She was in front of him. The beautiful woman with the dark hair and the deep eyes. The one that he looked at and just knew…

She’s mine.

She was crying and that was wrong. His hand lifted and he caught one of her tears on his claw.

“Aidan, come back to me.”

He was Aidan. He had trouble thinking. Everything was slow and muddied by the dark. And by his hunger. He wanted to attack. To rage. To destroy.

But the woman was there.

And she was his.

The scent of her fear was still heavy in the air. But there was something more there, too. Apples. Lavender.

Those light scents were familiar, just as she was familiar to him. He wanted to pull her close. To hold her. To kill her.

And he wanted to fuck her. Hard and deep. Endlessly. Until she submitted to him, completely, totally.

He wanted to drink her blood and gorge on it. He wanted…

I want to get away from the darkness.

“How can I reach you?” She put her hand on his chest. “You’re not just a wolf. You’re not just a vamp. You’re a man. A good man. That part of you has just been pushed down, deep inside. You weren’t born to the bloodlust.” She rose onto her toes, staring up at him. “I want you back. I’ll
have
you back.”