[excerpt] (22 page)

The vampire’s blaring gaze followed Lucian’s every step. Blisters formed on his person, as if he had been struck with a hot poker repeatedly.

“What is it that you want from me? If it is just me you’re after then let the woman go unharmed,” Lucian pleaded.

“Do you not mean your wife?”

Lucian stared in disbelief at the physical condition of this vampire. That it could speak, think, and live boggled his chaotic mind. Lucian fully understood the phrase, “a walking nightmare,” now. With every breath it took, grayish skin sloughed off like the worst case of dandruff he’d ever seen.

Having a slight tickle and feeling something warm and wet dripping from his head, Lucian touched his finger to his ear. Blood. If that wasn’t enough, Lucian watched horrified as the vampire licked his thin, pale, blue lips.

Oh shite!

With each step closer the ghoul took, Lucian stepped back.

“I see you saved the last dance for me. Thoughtful, but I do not care to dance with you, Lucian. That was your wife’s job at one time, not that she’s much of one.”

Lucian avoided eye contact. If the tales were true, he certainly didn’t want to get snared in
its
web. He focused on its mouth, which he found no easier to look at. Jasper’s grin displayed an excess of twisted, decayed fangs that left Lucian wondering how many people before him had met this very fate. His heart rate increased tenfold and the vamp dropped his gaze to Lucian’s chest and laughed.

His mouth now bone dry, he was barely able to ask, “How is it you know my name? Or anything about my wife?” If the vampire wanted money, he could pay him one hundred times the bounty offered.

“I do not know you, Lucian, but the man that bid me to do his dirty work knows you well. When I last saw him, he was dying to meet you—” He paused to pick at a rough growth on his cheek. “—and you too shall have the same fate.” The vampire brought his finger into his view, inspected the chunk of dried up flesh and then popped it into his mouth.

Lucian’s stomach churned.

Jasper leaned against a tree, both legs stretched in front of him and crossed at the ankles. “Lucian, I will tell you my plans for this night go far beyond just you. How you and the little enchantress want to set up housekeeping after tonight is naught to concern me, but you will be needing new accommodations if you make yet another miraculous comeback. And one more thing, I must say you look bloody well from the events of the past. How is that you fared so well, after I did such a divine job ripping your throat out?”

“You?” Lucian asked astonished.

The vampire saluted him with two fingers.

“I am a fast healer. You’re a lousy vampire. Your choice. Why did you do this to us? And who is this man dying to meet me?” Lucian asked, as he searched for Serina, trying not to back himself into a corner between the boulders or fall off the cliff by the waterfall’s edge.

She’d been on the ground not a minute ago and had simply vanished. Terror was about to bury him alive with no hope of breaking open ground. He needed to get her the hell away from here.

Serina, where are you? Please answer me.

Lucian
?

Has he hurt you?

No. The wolf has me pinned behind a boulder off to your right. Lucian he could have ripped me to shreds a hundred times over, yet he just keeps
looking into my eyes. Do you still have the cross Father gave you? If you do, aim for his blackened heart. I have mine on me, but it does no good where werewolves are concerned unless I can get him to swallow it. I don’t suppose we have any silver bullets or wooden stakes in our picnic basket?
Serina actually tried to joke in the midst of the wolf looming over her even with their lives in mortal danger.

Whatever that stuff is Raven made in the basket could possibly kill him.
Lucian too needed humor regardless of the circumstances. It proved futile.

Conflicted, Jonah could not decide what exactly he wanted to do with Serina. The wolf wanted blood, pure and simple. He wanted to rip her apart limb by limb, prance off with one of her legs, and gnaw on it all night. He watched the blood trickle down her neck from her head wound and he smacked his lips together a few times. Inhaling, he scented her fear but it didn’t stop him. Her blood awakened a visceral hunger. The wolf wanted her heart, not to love, but to devour.
Such a tasty, chewy treat.

The man trapped beneath all the fur wanted her too. Carnal pleasures were forthright in his mind, because beneath him lay a ravishing beauty. He wanted to taste her sex and watch her writhe beneath him as he licked every inch of her delicious body with his long tongue, between her breasts, between her thighs and take her body again and again. He wanted to sink himself deep within her and watch her green eyes glaze over from the ecstasy. He wanted her locked away from everyone. He wanted her to fill his empty soul.

He could have both.

Reading his mind, Serina couldn’t decide which fate would be worse. Being ripped apart and eaten alive or being raped at his every whim, with no way out. Although, if she were made to choose, the ripped apart really held no appealing qualities. She had to try something and fast.

“You’ll die from a broken heart before you have any part of me,” she screamed. Serina exerted as much pressure as she could muster and blasted it towards the wolf’s heart, in an attempt to shatter it. She imagined her nails digging into his aorta, gouging large holes in the
intima
, in hopes of a swift closure to this hideous abomination to life.

His eyes grew wide with disbelief, or something Serina couldn’t understand. Pain? The wolf faltered and within that second, she used the opportunity and brought her knee up into his groin. The wolf toppled backwards, whimpering. Serina scrambled to her feet and fled.

“Lucian?” Serina screamed in a blind run, ending up directly in between the vampire and her husband. Both of them reached for her at the same time making her the prize in a tug of war.

Just bloody dandy. I’m going to be ripped in half regardless
.
“Let go of me,” she screamed at Jasper. “Dear God, you’re hideous.” She kicked at his loins repeatedly, but he didn’t flinch.

Jasper circled his free finger in Lucian’s direction and levitated him while maintaining his grasp on Serina. He blew a hard rancid breath and watched Lucian careen through the air and impact a tree, the bark splintering under pressure.

With the flick of his wrist, Jasper tossed Serina on her bottom. He watched her crawl to her soon-to-be-extinct husband, cradle his head in her hands, and then do what he hadn’t done in centuries—pray. “I’m about done playing this game you two. I’ve had my fun. Now kiss your husband good-bye and let me get the hell out of these woods.” Jasper took a step back, then swatted in front of his face at a swarm of angry insects. “Is it just me the bloody flies want?” he screamed. He evanesced from tree to tree trying to escape them, ending up beside Serina again, the pesky nuisances close behind.

Serina covered Lucian protectively and didn’t budge. She sent her powers into her husband to heal his head with no one the wiser. The bleeding stopped, but he didn’t regain consciousness.

“Do you have a name?” Serina asked as she wiped away a stray tear. She stood, wearily, holding her arms crossed over her chest, no longer afraid but angrier than the insects were.

“You are too stubborn for your own health, Ducky, just like your Mum. I shall indulge you this one last time. Jasper Black. You’ve met my companion, Jonah. Why would you care?”

Serina felt ill as she took in the rotted piece of flesh before her. He even had the audacity to mimic her stance. “Didn’t I autopsy you once already? For the love of God, how are you still on this earth? ’Tis neither here nor there. I’ve two reasons you fetid bastard. My first, if I live to see tomorrow, I’ll know who to come looking for. My second, if I don’t then I’ll know who to spend an eternity haunting and make your bleak existence on this earth a hell beyond that which you already believe it to be. And stop calling me Ducky.” Serina bent to Lucian again. She held his face tenderly in her hands and kissed him.

“Lucian, you need to help me,” she whispered. His glassy eyes stared straight ahead. Once again, Serina let her spirit move throughout his body before Jasper grew weary. So focused on Lucian, she never saw the wolf come up behind her.

“What did you do to my wolf, Ducky? He’s walking with a distinct limp.” Jasper looked between Serina and Jonah and let out a loud blood-curdling snarl. He was on the wolf without warning and bit him. Jonah gripped Jasper’s hair, and almost scalped him to get out of his clutches, but the vamp clamped down harder. When finished, Jasper shoved Jonah to the ground and accused, “You are weak, my friend. A puny woman did this to you? Maybe I should spare her life and end your useless one.”

Jonah stood and stumbled from blood loss. He pressed his hand over his ravaged neck.

Serina shouted, “I’m not bloody puny.”
Who the hell does he think he is?

Jonah struggled to breathe. “She is not” pant, “human, Jasper. I think” pant, “witch. She tried—to kill me.” He doubled over.

With a pound of sarcasm, Jasper responded, “Really? A witch?” He glanced to Serina and Lucian. “Jonah, what rock have you sought shelter beneath all these years? Her mother is only the most powerful seductress in this hemisphere, if not the entire world. Of course she’s a bloody sorceress.”

And here I thought my secret was safe. Ha!

Out of her element, she needed help.

Raven, I have no idea if you can feel me. I only pray you do. Please watch out for yourself and André in the days ahead. Lucian and I have encountered a vampire, Jasper Black. He travels with a werewolf, Jonah. Watch for them. Their sole intent is death. I fear the worst for your brother and myself. I’m so sorry I failed you.
Know that your brother is valiant, and holds a love for you with no boundaries
.

Careful not to be seen, Serina reached into her blouse for her cross while the wolf and vampire hashed out their differences. She stood and took a step toward the vampire. As she closed in on him, the cross took on its own identity, shining so brightly it looked like the North Star on a clear night.

Jasper wailed like a baby when he caught sight of the religious symbol. He plowed into her faster than he had attacked the wolf.

Serina went down. She held the cross for dear life in front of her even as he bashed her a second time with the back of his hand. The blow wrenched her head to the side with a loud snap.

I’m going to feel that later. I hope!

“Ouch! You scoundrel. Beating up women make you feel like a man? Because you sure as hell don’t look like one.” With a quick jab, she landed her cross on his ankle. A loud sizzling sound just happened to coincide with the lovely scent of burnt flesh. “God wanted to give you a reminder who the real boss is.”

He grabbed her shirt, lifted her and sent her directly into the arms of the wolf.

“Ducky, that was not nice. You don’t play fair. I have been more of a gentleman than you deserve. That time has ended.” He strutted to Lucian, who still lay unconscious, and hoisted him to his chest. Jasper held Lucian at an odd angle, which caused his head to fall backwards exposing his neck. Jasper licked his thin lips. “Breakfast the royals would die for.”

Lucian lay like a broken rag-doll in the arms of the beast. That’s when the full-blown panic hit her harder than Jasper had. In that one second, she watched helpless, as this monster destroyed her beloved husband.

Serina kicked, screamed, punched at anything, dug her nails into the wolf’s arms, and tried to bite any part of him in which she could to make contact. She had to get away from the wolf and get to Lucian.

“Lucian wake up. Wake up,” Serina screamed to him over and over, leaving her throat raw. Her desperation turned to tears. Her heart thudded so loud even the wolf looked at her chest. She watched mortified as the vampire’s leather-like tongue tasted Lucian, his vacant eyes laughing her.

“Why?” She was barely able to whisper.

Jasper paused. “Why does anyone do anything, Ducky? Power and money, and that whole do unto others as they do unto you line. I had neither money nor power when I lived. People would just as soon spit on me and walk over me rather than to see if they could offer assistance or a kind word. Neither ever came. I’ve been walking this God-forsaken land since the birth of Henry the VIII. I was the hooded bloke on the chopping block that whacked off Anne Boleyn’s incestuous noggin, and Catherine Howard’s as well. Although, I never fancied her as much. People avoided me altogether as if I were something contagious…”

“You are the black plague,” she blurted.

Just never know when to shut up do you, Serina?

“You are beyond the realm of medical science. What could you possibly gain from killing us?”

“I want England, Ducky.”

“But you’re dead.”

“Define dead. Am I not up and walking about?”

“All right, I’ll cave on that point but, well, there’s really no nice way to say this, you look dead, like
shite
really.” Would nothing stop her mouth? she wondered. “I can see blooming grey matter between your sparse hairs.”