Eternal Beast: Mark of the Vampire (28 page)

“Did you see who started it?”

Vincent chuckled. “No. But we have a pretty good guess.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“The Order doesn’t take kindly to those who hack their server.” He lifted a brow. “You got that mental text we sent, yes?”

“Long reaching and clear as crystal.” Gray glanced sideways at the massive Impure. Of course that’s what they all thought. That the Order was punishing them for breaking into their frequency and listening in. Hell, maybe that was part of the reason, but there was more. And Gray was going to have to tell them all about it.

When they pulled open the doors leading into the main hall, the space that would serve as a meeting place for all Impures in residence, Gray scented her. Not Piper or Uma or any of the other females who were standing around talking inside the large rectangle space—but
her
.

His nostrils flared and he cocked his head to the side. No, no, no. Not possible. Had to be her scent lingering on him—his clothes. There was no way—

“Hi.”

She moved out from behind Rio then, her gaze locked on his. The cat was caged. She was a
veana
again, and she made his fucking heart stop.

The room went dead silent.

“What is she doing here?” he demanded of Rio.

The male looked at him like he was crazy. “She came with you, didn’t she? Two seconds before you came in here.”

Gray felt as though he were about to explode. He wanted to run at her, grab her and haul her against him, take her mouth as he wanted to take her body, then shake her until she told him why she kept running
back instead of away. Why the hell was she playing with him? Was that all she knew how to do? Shred someone’s heart into pieces because she didn’t have one of her own? He was done—so goddamn done.

“Fuck you,” he uttered, then turned around and walked out of the hall. Inside his head, he heard the room explode into thought, but out loud he heard her say, “I guess I’ll follow him.”

He’d known she would. Shit, maybe he’d even wanted her too. Maybe he’d just needed to unload his anger, his fear, his relief.

When they were alone in his office and she’d closed the door behind herself, Gray rounded on her. “How did you find me?”

She nodded at the back of his hand. “True mates.”

“No,” he said, his voice like steel. “You need Impure blood to get in here. Who’d you con into helping you?”

“I have Impure blood inside me, Gray. Yours.”

That fact, that delectable fact, clipped his wings for a moment, maybe even punched the shit out of his heart. “Well, maybe the important question should be why. Why did you come? What? Do you need me to bring the jaguar back again? Or did you need—”

“Stop,” Dillon interrupted, her eyes suddenly grave. “It’s your mother. She was taken by the Order.”

A low growl of warning erupted within him. “What did you say?”

Dillon moved a step closer to him. “She’s in Mondrar, Gray.”

“W
here are you going?” Dillon followed him out of the office and down the hall, back toward the main gathering room.

His jaw set, his eyes blazing, Gray refused to slow. “If my mother’s in Mondrar, I need to find a way to get her the hell out.”

“You can’t just walk into Mondrar. Trust me. You need to plan.” She quickened her pace to keep up with him. “And you need help, especially of the Pureblood variety.”

“You know Mondrar, huh?”

“Yes. And it’s a total labyrinth. Impossible to find what you’re looking for without a tour guide.”

He was at the door to the main hall, his hand—the one that held the mark of the jaguar—wrapped around the silver knob. “Thanks for the advice.”

“Wait,” she cried out.

“No time, D.”

“But I can help you!”

He paused for only a second, his chin cocked, his eyes evading hers. “This ain’t your fight, remember?”

He was through the doors in an instant, leaving Dillon behind, her cat scratching to get out and run after its mate.

Alexander stalked the tunnels below the SoHo house, following his nose to a room of rock and iron that had once contained the animal inside himself, and most recently, the one inside of Dillon. He found the cage door open and his true mate sitting inside, clutching her cell phone.

“Here you are,” he said with relief. He leaned against the side of the rock wall and took in her hunched shoulders and grim mouth.

“I’m not hiding, I swear,” she said, her gaze remaining on her cell. “It’s just quiet down here, in here.”

“It is that. Always felt too quiet for me, though.” He walked in, looked around. “In fact, I’m beginning to enjoy the sounds of family around me.”

She didn’t respond to his gentle push to talk about the life growing inside her, the life she hadn’t wanted to share with him. And he needed to know why. He sat in front of her, their knees touching.

“Nicky and I went to the Hollow of Shadows,” he said, thankful when her eyes lifted hopefully. He shook his head. “The Order wouldn’t see us, didn’t even acknowledge our presence.”

She growled out a breath. “Why are they doing this? She didn’t even know where Gray was.”

Alex reached for her hands. “Don’t worry, Sara. We’ll get her out.”

“Do you think Dillon got to Gray?”

He nodded. “If they really are true mates.” He shifted closer. He wanted to pull her onto his lap, but she looked like she still needed her space. “I can’t believe those two.”

“I can.” Her eyes found his and they glistened. “I knew they were falling for each other back when she found him whoring it up at the nightclub. She didn’t like him with other women.”

He tilted his head and joked, “Another secret you’ve been keeping from me?”

He’d made sure his tone was anything but accusatory, but her lower lip began to tremble.

“Sara, come here.”

She didn’t move, but burst out with an intense apology. “I’m sorry for not telling you.”

This time he did pull her onto his lap, and held her close and tight and safe. “Don’t be sorry for that.”

She looked up into his eyes, not understanding his meaning.

He touched her face. Her beautiful, intelligent face that always made his gut ache with love—and that might very well be replicated on the wee one who grew within her. “Did you really think I’d react badly to this?”

Sara closed her eyes and sighed. “I know the thought of being a parent scares you.”

“Damn right. Like nothing ever has or could.”

“Then you understand why. All the changes this brings, a little life that’s all ours. I couldn’t bear it if you were disappointed, if I looked into your eyes and didn’t see pleasure and excitement.”

She was scared too, he realized. Not of the
balas
, but of losing his love. He had to make sure she understood that his love was always for her, would never wane, and was inside of her right now, growing strong and healthy.

“Look in my eyes,
Veana
,” he demanded, tilting her chin with his fingers. “Tell me what you see.”

Sara gave him a small smile before she took in his gaze. For several moments, she truly studied him; his eyes, his expression, and when he broke into a wide and happy smile, she did too.

He leaned in and kissed her. “Can’t wait, my love. Can’t wait to meet this
balas
.” The sudden appearance of tears in her eyes brought him to his knees emotionally. “I don’t know how I got this lucky. From a prisoner in this very cage to a mate and a father.” His mouth was so close to hers. “From we to three. Oh, my dear, I love you so.”

The round, red Impure Resistance symbol was painted into the entire length of floor in the room off the main hall. The four coiled snakes with fangs extended was permanent and a reminder of why this
credenti
was built, and for whom, and that the Impures would always fight for choice and freedom.

Rio pulled back from the small vampire circle that stood around the painted one. “We’re blocked again.”

“We were too quick going in,” Piper added.

“Or too sloppy,” Rio remarked.

Piper tossed him a testy glare. “Let’s try again. We’ll go slower this time.”

Gray felt the power of the warriors recede inside of
him and the hum of unease saturate his organs. “This isn’t going to happen. The Order has severed all known links into the mainframe. What are our other options? I need to get into Mondrar tonight.”

“I’ll give our contact a call,” Piper said. “The one who gave us information on the senator. But something like this…It’s going to cost big-time.”

“Do it,” Gray said without hesitation. “I’ll cover it—whatever the cost.”

Piper nodded. “Give me a couple of hours, okay?”

“If I have to,” Gray grumbled.

“Better to go in under the cover of night anyway.”

When she walked away, no doubt heading to her office within the main hall, Vincent dropped a hand on Gray’s shoulder. “Go back to your place,” he said, and Rio gave a nod of agreement. “Get some rest; get some food. You’re going to need serious muscle if you expect to pull this off.”

There was no point in arguing, and no other options at the moment. Vin and Rio were right. He needed to unplug, get something to eat, and get himself right before he went into the Order’s jail and took what belonged to him and his family.

He left the main building and walked down the path to the private strip of beach. The anger that swelled within him every time he thought about his mother and the lies she’d just kept spewing over the years was still there, deep inside him. He didn’t think it would ever truly go away. But shit, just the thought of her in that hole. It made him want to rip off the heads of every Order member, then refasten them and do it all over again.

Betraying the Breed. Fuck them. His mother was innocent. It was the Order—they’d been betraying the Breed since the beginning of time.

As he neared his cottage, the scent of
veana
and jaguar rushed into his nostrils and dropped three feet, giving him an instant hard-on.

So she hadn’t bolted. She’d found her way to his home and invaded it like the delectable plague she was. His chest swelled; the back of his hand went hot. He could fight this need all goddamn day and night, but it went far beyond a response he could control now.

The small house he’d designed stood sturdy and welcoming, but instead of going inside, Gray headed around the side to the back. Her scent became heavy and lush there, and he wasn’t surprised to find her in the small hot spring that had once been connected to the ocean in the distance.

She looked to be sitting on a rock beneath the water, her arms outstretched on the bank. The sight shook him up something fierce. Not because she was naked, her breasts and ripe nipples floating deliciously at eye level with the water. But because he’d imagined her here, just like this.

Waiting for him.

“How did you get in here?” he demanded. “How did you find this place?”

“Followed my nose,” she said with irritating simplicity. “Been working really well so far.”

He didn’t appreciate this game she was playing. Not after she’d run out on him in the alley this morning. “Making yourself at home.”

She shrugged, which only managed to show off her
incredible breasts even more. “You don’t have a shower. I was pretty filthy, so I thought I’d take a bath.” She looked around herself. “What is this place? A new Resistance Headquarters?”

“The new Impure
credenti
,” he told her. “We’ve been building it for several months. Should be ready in a few weeks.”

Dillon’s soft gaze hardened. In fact, she was looking at him like he was crazy.

“An Impure
credenti
?” she repeated with disdain. “You offer this to a significant portion of the vampire population and it’s like waging war on the Order.”

He moved closer to her, closer to the heat. “If they wish to make it so.”

Dillon rolled her eyes and scoffed. “They’ll make it so—they’ll make it a huge motherfucking death sentence.”

“We’ll see.” He walked past her, his gaze on the ocean in the distance, pulling its weight to shore.

“You really ready to fight to the death over this?” she called to his back. “And before you answer, let me say it won’t be just your death. Everyone you take on this trip into battle will go down with you.”

Go down
. Why was she always ready to admit defeat? Run in the other direction when something got hard and daunting? He turned back to face her. “The problem is, D, you think the Order is indestructible.”

She turned too, rested her arms on the bank. “I know the Order, Gray. I know one of their ex-members so well I could scent him at a thousand feet. They are ruthless, unsympathetic devil vampires. They’ll never surrender to Impures—no matter how just the Cause.”

Her passion, her fear burst from her features. This wasn’t just about winning an argument or losing a battle with the Order. This was about her feelings for him. She cared, maybe even more than she knew. And right now, with the moon lighting up her face, he could see it all, an unmasked expression of care, desire, maybe even love.

And it was irresistible.

He stripped out of his clothes as he walked toward her, then dove over her head into the pool. When he surfaced, he found her just a few feet away.

“They’re everything you say and more, D,” he said, watching the steam rise around her. “And that’s just one of the reasons they must be dealt with. Not reasoned with—but dealt with. The warriors and I will exhaust all avenues until we have a place of equality within this society.”

Her gaze moved over his shoulders, his chest. “Why not just live outside the
credenti
, your own rule, under the radar, running if you need to—”

“We shouldn’t have to run,” he said, adding pointedly, “No one should.” He swam toward her, and she backed up until the curve of the bank stopped her. Gray placed one hand on either side of her shoulders, blocking her in. “Not from our pain, our past—or a future we refuse to fight for because we’re scared.”

“I’m not scared,” she assured him.

But he didn’t stop. “Or because we don’t think we deserve it.”

“Gray, please stop this. You’re not listening to me. This isn’t the way to fight them—”