Keeping Cambria (12 page)

Viper laughed. “I don’t think she forgives you, bro.”

All but Judge chuckled, the rich sounds filling the living space and vibrating against her skin.

“I don’t.”

Judge didn’t say anything, his face an unreadable mask, but he stared at her, almost dared her to glance away.

“Judge has a wonderful idea.”

She snapped her gaze to Viper’s.
Oh, this I gotta hear.
She arched a brow.

“You’re looking for this guy named Steven. If you’ll give Venom and me a picture in our mind, we’ll show it to them. That way, when they are asking around, they can…”

“Plunder their brains,” added Judge.

Viper glared at his twin.

“You have to admit,” Venom said behind her, “it’s a good plan.”

It was, even though the butthole had come up with it. And somehow, that galled her ass.

“And how do I do it without them getting in my head?” Because she’d never let their brothers in.

The one called Bear grinned. “She doesn’t trust us. That’s good. We swear not to wander around in there.”

She noted all but Judge agreed.

“And we’ll know if they get in, but if you just reach for ours and not theirs, you’ll be safe.”

There was no way it could be that simple. “Okay, as long as they don’t get in and you don’t—poke around.”

Venom hugged her, planted a soft kiss on her cheek. “We promise.”

This wasn’t a plan she was comfortable with, but for Steven’s sake, it was the best one she’d had since he disappeared.

So she unbolted her mind, just reached for her
mates
. She smiled as warmth flooded her. That was Venom. Then hot sex scenes were next. That was Viper.

She showed them her favorite memory. Steven, with his tall, lanky self, blond hair kissed by the sun, fishing with her on the bank of a pond in rural North Carolina. God, he loved to fish. She still didn’t know what possessed him to leave their sleepy hometown and travel to Atlanta. He’d just said he had to go, and he’d be in touch. There had been something off in his voice, a weary tone that had her asking all kinds of questions which he sidestepped.

After three weeks had passed and she couldn’t catch up with him, she took a weekend to go home. She’d found papers in his bedroom where he’d written vampire and Atlanta and club in the curly, expressive script of his. Why hadn’t she insisted he visit her in New Orleans instead?

Don’t be sad,
said Venom.
We’ll find him.

She rammed the door closed to her mind, and battled tears. God, how she missed Steven. Fighting for composure, she sank back onto Venom, her steady ship in a storm. She glanced at Viper and grinned. He was her storm.

And she looked forward to seeing them tonight after hunting.

“Who is this man to you?” asked either Beast or Bear. She’d caught the absurd names, hadn’t been nimble-minded enough to pin the name to the vampire.

“Which one are you?”

“I’m Beast.”

“You know, all of you should hang signs around your necks so people can tell you apart.”

She blinked, and Beast, Bear, Viper, and Jury all had signs with their names. Judge’s said ‘asshole,’ and she hid a smile. “Much better.”

“We aim to please,” replied Bear.

“You did that?”

He nodded.

“Okay, back to Beast’s question. Steven is my older brother.” She relayed the story about how he disappeared, what she found in his room, how she combed clubs asking around, and how she’d discovered that vampires were killing people. “Present company excluded,” she added.

“We kill when we have to,” replied Viper. “We can’t let a werewolf or vampire hunt the human race, because these degenerates have too much strength, and humans can’t possibly win.”

Unfortunately, all that made sense to her—there was good and evil in all species, apparently, even the freaky ones.

“I’ve seen your brother,” said Beast.

She tried to pull free of Venom, but he held her tight with his arms around her middle. The room was quiet, the air appeared to harbor some energy she couldn’t see, but could feel it as it flicked across her skin.

“So tell me.”

The one called Beast cleared his throat, “I met your brother in an old farmhouse outside of Atlanta in the little town of Adairsville. There was a party in a dilapidated barn. Three women were strung up with ropes from the rafters. They had bite marks all over their bodies.”

Cambria’s skin crawled with dread, a sinking feeling in her belly. Her chest tightened, and she swallowed hard to keep the bile down. Blood sizzled in her ears, muffling and distorting everything.

“I found a master vampire and two newly-turned vamps taking turns with whatever they wanted from the girls. The females had been raped, tortured, almost sucked dry.”

The lights dimmed, and suddenly she watched the scene in the barn through Beast’s eyes as it played out on the wall. Her brother was shirtless, standing in front of one of the women, her head lolled over to one side, his head at her neck. When he saw the intruder, he released her flesh. Fangs flashed. Then the screen in her brain went black.

It wasn’t possible. Steven would never let himself intentionally be used by a filthy bastard of a vampire. “That can’t be true. You made it up!”

He shook his head, and a kind of sadness filled his eyes. “While I was checking his mind, I discovered how he became a vampire.”

Cambria stood rooted in her spot, watching as her brother sat in a bar conversing with what she knew was a vampire. The vamp offered Steven immortality and all the sex and drugs he could handle. And her weakling brother had eagerly agreed.

“We always check the werewolves’ or vampires’ minds to see if they are salvageable, to determine if they’re just under a vampire’s influence or have a diseased mind that’s too far gone.”

Nooooo, please don’t say it!

“Your brother was…his mind was black with bloodlust. He couldn’t be saved.”

Her legs buckled as agony threatened to rip her soul from her body. She forced herself to hold his gaze, waited for the cry of ‘April fool’s’ or the just-fucking-with-you sign.

“I killed him.”

Several
fucks
and
damn’s
echoed from a distance. Blackness threatened to consume her. The anguish in her chest was so constricting, it was as if a fist grabbed her heart and squeezed like a vise. Some part of her wanted the hand to finish the job.

“I’m sorry.”

Sorry?

Cambria’s vision returned, crisp and sharp like a finely-honed blade. Her muscles tensed as fight or flight slammed into her full force. She smashed her head into Venom, catching him in the nose. When one hand went to his face, she raked her boot down his shin. She yelled, tugged as hard as she could, and broke free because she knew he’d let her go.

Mates are so stupid and gullible.

She snatched the sword from the chair, ran as fast as possible, brought the weapon over her head for a killing blow, and launched herself off the coffee table.

Then she was suspended in midair—again—the blade pressed against Beast’s neck, a thin ribbon of blood running down his skin and along the edge of the sword.

Her breaths came in gasps, her chest heaving as pure rage raced unbridled through her system. The man before her didn’t even blink.

“Let me go, you motherfucker.”

“I don’t have you,” he answered quietly.

She tried to turn her head, to see who held her, but she couldn’t. She levitated backward, came to rest against Viper’s hard chest. It surprised her when he didn’t take her weapon, but it was moot. He could freeze her before she had the opportunity do any real damage.

He wrapped his arms around her, and she tried to break free, but her arms, legs, and head were immobilized. “Don’t touch me.”

Viper ignored her, pulled her hard against her body. “He—we have a job to do. None of us would have let a vampire in the clutches of bloodlust go free. The devastation that one feral can heap upon humans is beyond comprehension. And we lump ourselves into the same category. We have a Hell’s Hunter pact. We will destroy any brother who turns feral.”

She didn’t care. Steven was dead, and no one had tried to save him. The vision of Steven with fangs rooted its way to the forefront of her mind. Something about his gaze bothered her.

“I’ll take my brother’s place,” said Viper.

She blinked.
What?

The room erupted with “Fuck, no!” “Over my dead body.” “Have you lost your fucking mind?”

“You can have your revenge on me, because, Cambria, I would have done the same thing as Beast.”

Venom, with blood smeared across his cheek, came and stood in front of her. He looked tortured, a sadness in his gaze that punched her in the gut. “Take my life, too.”

This was insane. She couldn’t kill an innocent, much less two. Blood still ran from Beast’s neck. Why hadn’t he stopped it with all those superpowers he had?

In a blink of an eye, they could kill her, scatter her body on every continent. She’d drawn blood. And why hadn’t they? She’d threatened one of the Hell’s Hunters. Hated, feared, hunted and all that shit. She glanced at Bear. He wouldn’t let her kill his brothers, much less his twin, and Lord knew why Judge hadn’t eliminated her.

Beast stood, spread his hands out to the side, angled his head. “Extract your revenge, Cambria. No one will stop you.”

Jury stood too. “No, take me instead.”

“Fuck that shit. If anyone has to die, I’ll be the one,” said Judge.

Her rage evaporated at the sacrifices standing before her, but she wanted the rage, needed it to fuel her revenge for her only brother. Some part of her wanted to kill them all.

“Let me go.”

When she was free, she avoided looking at Venom or Viper, and moved to the chair and snatched her belongings. Then she pointed her sword at them. “I’m walking out the door. If I ever see any of you again, I will fucking kill you. And by the time I get to the first floor, I want my own sword in my hand.” She turned and headed for the elevator. Agony seared her blood, threatened to overwhelm her.

“Cambria, wait,” Viper and Venom both said simultaneously.

Her lower lip quivered, moisture blurred her vision, but she kept walking, each step coming with a price she surely couldn’t survive.

“Just remember, Cambria. You’ve done the same thing—killed ferals.”

“Shut the fuck up, Judge,” yelled her twins.

She pressed the button and the elevator door opened immediately. After stepping in, she stood to the side so she couldn’t see her mates. A anguished sob escaped. The door closed, and the cage became a tomb with air too thick to take in. Her body shook, but not with anger. No, it was sorrow for the death of her brother, the knowledge that there wasn’t a body to bury. And there was another sadness she couldn’t, wouldn’t acknowledge.

As the elevator made its slow descent to hell, she wiped her face and shrugged into her coat. She knew the moment her sword had returned to her hand. She secured it in the scabbard hidden in the side of her coat.

When the door opened, she fully expected to see Viper and Venom, but it was empty. Relief and sorrow tore through her. Relief that she didn’t have to kill them. Sorrow because she already missed them. She tilted her chin up and walked, the world distorted from the tears that refused to stop.

* * * * *

Judge watched his brothers sink to the couch, the smell of their torment pungent enough to choke him. Mixed with Cambria’s, it was a lethal concoction.

“You want me to follow her?” asked Jury.

Venom shook his head. “No. I’m afraid she’ll kill you.”

Jury smiled. “It’s kinda hard to kill a Hell’s Hunter.”

“But you wouldn’t harm her, would you?” Venom pointed out.

“No. She’s your mate, and I’d gladly lay down my life for her, but it doesn’t mean I’d let her kill me. I
can
defend myself.”

“Let him go,” said Judge. “You need to know she’s safe until you figure out what to do.”

“And if she kills Jury, what will you do?” asked Viper.

“If she kills any one of you, I will kill her,” Judge replied.

“Then you’d better kill me, too,” snarled Viper.

“She’s your mate, not your executioner. She’s no better than we are. Her soul is tainted too,” said Judge

“Shut your mouth,” Venom said through clenched teeth, his body vibrating with barely-restrained rage.

For once in his life, Judge didn’t know how to fix this. He could only imagine the treasure Cambria was to his brothers, so important to them that they’d probably kill him if he looked at her wrong. But he wouldn’t let her rip their hearts out because of something she knew deep down had been the right thing to do. He only hoped she’d come to her senses.

He nodded to Jury, and he traced out.

The agony on Venom and Viper’s face spoke volumes. Never before had any of them given a damn about anything but fucking and feeding and killing.

Judge laughed and his brothers bared their fangs. “I’m not laughing at you. I’m laughing because one human female has managed to almost bring Hell’s Hunters to their knees.”

And
almost
was all it would be. If he had to, he’d arrange for a powerful vampire to wipe her memory of this whole mess. It would be better for her if she kept looking for her brother forever than knowing he had been slain by her mates’ brother. The former was hope; the latter was despair.

He looked at Beast, who had blood still trickling down his neck. Beast was the lone wolf of the group, preferring to hunt alone, pretty much keeping to himself. And even though Beast sat quietly, expressionless, seemingly calm, they could all tell that wasn’t the case. He’d caused his brothers’ mate to lose someone she loved, and in turn, caused his brothers to lose their mate.

And Judge didn’t know if Beast could survive that knowledge.

But Judge could fix one thing.

When this crisis was over, he’d suggest, with a strong influence, they hunt in packs of two or more. No one would be alone, a counterweight for every kill they had to make. A way to keep an eye on the mental health of his family.