Lisa Renee Jones (3 page)

She’d saved him from death, but it was clear to Cassie that she’d far from saved Troy’s life. His pain, his anger, his hatred of her as a wolf, were damn near palpable. But he was here now, and he was alive, and that is what mattered. That is what she planned to make count.

Cassie turned down the volume on the radio. “Troy, I -”

He growled, and jerked her attached wrist with him as he tried to turn the music back on.

Cassie covered the knob with her free hand. “Don’t even think about it,” she warned, her brows knitting together as she computed the growling sound he’d just made, and how very wolf-like it had been. But that was impossible, he was a vampire. She shook off the odd thought, insisting, “We have to talk.”

“We had a conversation back in the parking lot,” he ground out, his tone clipped. “That’s all the conversation we need to have until I say otherwise.”

“You mean those few words we spoke right after you slapped a handcuff on me and before you gave me a piggy back ride? That’s what you call a conversation?”

“When you need to know more, you’ll know more.”

“Well, consider the need to know now. I came with you willingly, Troy. I’m here because I want to be.”

“Willing or unwilling,” he said. “You were coming with me.”

“Since when did you become the big bad caveman?”

“I reserve my caveman side for wolves.”

“Well then,” she said. “I guess I’ll just have to dedicate my inner bitch to the vampires. Or rather – one vampire, because you’re starting to tick me off.”

“Next time I’ll bring you flowers with the handcuffs,” he said, cutting her with a crystal blue, unnatural stare that stole her breath.

“How is this possible?” she murmured. Now that she could really study him, she realized that he wasn’t disguising his black eyes with contacts, as she had assumed. “Your eyes-“

“Aren’t the only thing different about me. I told you that. Believe me, blue is a recent improvement. Before that, they glowed silver more times than they didn’t. They were a real attention grabber, I’m sure you’re sorry you missed.” He whipped the truck into the parking lot of a small apartment complex only a few blocks from the strip and pulled into a parking spot. He used their joined hands to shift the truck into park and turned to her. He shoved open the door. “Let’s go.” He snatched the key and stepped out of the truck, dragging her with him.

Cassie slid towards him, the cloth of her skirt riding up, yet again, in the process. She slid down to the ground, trying to keep it from going to her waist with only one hand to contribute to the effort. Thanks to the chain between her and Troy, her normal wolfish grace escaped her. She fell into Troy, her hands flattening on his chest, her body pressed to his harder one.

Powerful arms wrapped her waist, and her eyes locked with his, the familiar connection they’d always shared intensely present, but there was something else familiar there as well. “I’m done being punished for something she did. I’m not her.”

His eyes sharpened, so blue, so angry, they cut like crystal blades. “No,” he said in a voice so soft, which was somehow more lethal. “You’re far more dangerous than she ever was.”

The next thing she knew, he was dragging her towards the two-story brick building, lined with sidewalks and shrubs. An elderly man came out of the first doorway they passed and gaped at the handcuffs. Troy glanced at the man, and compelled him to see something that wasn’t there, “I’m just taking my groceries inside,” he said, using his vampire ability to control human minds.

“I’m not your groceries,” she grumbled, thankful werewolves were immune to vampire mind manipulation. She not only wanted to remember what was happening, she wanted Troy to remember the things he’d forgotten, the things that happened before the night he’d almost died. So Cassie followed Troy, even in his clearly rage-driven mood, more than willingly. She wasn’t afraid of him and she didn’t want to fight him. She wanted to fight the past that had made him this way, which had clearly changed him in far more ways than she’d realized.

The minute they were inside the small, bottom floor apartment, four doors down from the old man’s, Troy slammed the door shut and locked it. She turned to inspect the place, only to be dragged past an absolutely bare living room free of furniture, to a tiny rectangular kitchen.

He stopped at the fridge and yanked it open, then snatched a nearly empty bag of blood from inside which he instantly tilted back and began drinking. Shock, and a fizzle of unease, slid through Cassie. In the year that she’d hunted with him she’d never seen him feed or drink blood. As in, ever. Vampires had evolved to eating human food, with blood playing the role of supplement. Or, she thought with concern, a drug to gain added strength and power that, when abused, created bloodlust. That Troy was drinking blood now, in front of her, gulping it like there was no tomorrow, and that there was a primal, out of control, unnatural edge to him, where there had always been lethal calm, had her own blood freezing.

He tossed the bag in the sink, and now his blue eyes were glowing a kind of silvery color that she’d never seen before on anyone. A chill of warning raced down her spine. He was in trouble. Big trouble, that was far worse than she had imagined possible. Or maybe she was in trouble. Maybe, she really was his groceries. Her blood was richer than that of humans, a delicacy to vampires, which had long made them targets for their rogues.

“Ah,” she said finally, when he just kept staring at her. “Can I make you a sandwich for desert? Or maybe a steak served rare?” Still, he just looked at her, yellow bleeding into the silver. She clung to hope with the absence of red. “I take your silence as a ‘no’.” She wet her lips. His gaze followed and she felt the hunger in him, and this time it wasn’t for blood. It was for her, and it wasn’t the first time he’d look at her like this – okay, not exactly like this, not quite so… primitively. Her body heated, awareness rushing through her where perhaps there should have been fear, especially with the threat of bloodlust. But she was a wolf with a primal side of her own, one this man called to more than any other she’d ever known. Still, while she didn’t fear him, she was afraid for him.

“What’s happening to you, Troy?”

“That’s the question of the year,” he said, grabbing her hand beneath the cuff and headed out of the kitchen. “Let’s go talk about that.”

Cassie grimaced at the bite of the silver on her wrist, at him tugging her around like a dog, or in this case, a wolf on a leash. She cared about Troy, but this part of their meeting was wearing on her nerves.  

“Is the cuff necessary?” she asked, realizing they were headed down a hallway to what she was pretty sure was the only bedroom in the place. He didn’t answer. Of course he didn’t. Why did she think he would answer when he clearly had grown some aversion to conversation? 

A few more steps and they were in a small, dimly lit bedroom with a king sized bed and nothing but plain white sheets. She wasn’t beyond admitting she’d had more than a few fantasies about his bedroom and none of them looked quite like this. The place was a dump and she wondered why. All the Wardens were paid, and paid well.

He stopped by the broken down nightstand and unlocked his cuff, his long blonde hair draping his face. She reached up and gently shoved it away aside, and his gaze slowly lifted to hers, his eyes glowing silver, all remnants of yellow now gone. “What’s happening to you?” she repeated, then rephrased. “What happened to you?”

“A wolf happened to me,” he said, and then moved abruptly.

Suddenly, her hand was over her head, and her wrist was attached to the bedpost. Cassie was no push over. She was a member of the elite Royal Guard, and when she wanted to fight, she could fight. 

She wrapped her legs around Troy’s, and grabbed his shoulder with her free hand. “Take the cuff off of me,” she hissed. “I’m not going anywhere. I’ll help you.”

He held up the key and she reached for it. He flung it across the room. “Damn it, Troy!”

“Let go of me, Cassie, before I forget why I want you to. Before I’m no longer responsible for my actions. Believe me, you don’t want me this close to you when I’m like this. I don’t… want to hurt you.”

If the words had been a threat, she’d have rejected them instantly. But they weren’t. They were a plea of desperation. She had to let him go. She knew this. She sensed it. But everything inside her screamed to hold on. That if she let go of him, he might run out the door and she’d never find him again. The Troy she knew was still inside this rougher, darker Troy, and she was going to find him, one way or the other.

She was about to tell him as much, to beg him to talk to her, when he suddenly buried his face in her neck, a low growl escaping his lips, before he began to tremble… like a Red wolf about to shift.

“What’s happening?” Cassie asked urgently, sliding her free hand over his hair, and cursing the key he’d thrown away. “Let me help you, Troy. Please. Let me help.”

“I need up,” he hissed into her ear, pain etched in his tone. He tried to roll off of her and she let him this time. It wasn’t as if she could have really stopped him without a struggle that she would have ultimately lost. Something told her a struggle wasn’t a good idea right now.

Troy curled to his side, and gave her his back, which told her he was in serious pain. She’d seen him fight unfazed, with huge, gaping wounds that he didn’t even seem to notice. She tried to reach for him, but the cuff kept her from getting close enough. He moaned again, a wolfish sound that defied reason. Cassie gaped as his jeans ripped down his thighs. Not only was he doing the impossible for a vampire by shifting, the agony he was in told a story. Natural born wolves didn’t feel any form of discomfort with a shift. Red wolves did. Cassie didn’t want to think about what that meant for Troy, but she was pretty sure that allowing him to shift would be a very bad idea. She was also fairly sure that the only way she’d come out of this alive if he did was by shifting herself to hold her own. Troy was right, though. She really didn’t want to lose her hand in the process.

Cassie jerked hard at the cuff, and then did it again, over and over, trying to break it, but it wasn’t normal silver or steel, that was clear. It had to be spellcast by one of the ‘Coven of the Rain’ witches who’d recently aligned themselves with the vampires. Damn her brother Nico for pissing those ladies off. They were clearly better allies than foes.

Just when Cassie was going to give up on freedom and rethink her next move, the headboard creaked under her efforts. The next second, the metal bar her cuff was attached to, broke away from the frame.

Cassie tugged again and the bed piece came completely lose, and shot out towards her, all but smacking her in the face. She recovered, but much to her frustration, the ends of the bars were too wide to shove through the cuff. She was stuck with it. She needed the key.

Cassie kicked off her shoes that she had remarkably kept on up to this point, then lugged the bar with her, scrambling off the bed, half expecting Troy to grab her, but he didn’t. He just kept shaking.

Frantically, she searched for the key, and thankfully found it with surprising speed. Cassie snatched it up, quickly releasing her wrist. She rushed back to the bed, approaching Troy from behind, knowing that male wolves’ didn’t do well with anything they thought to be confrontational. And rational or not, right now, her vampire seemed more wolf than blood sucker.

Cassie pressed herself to Troy’s back, stroking his face. “I’m here,” she whispered. “Tell me how to help you.”

He tried to move away from her. She grabbed him, turning him over and climbing on top, straddling him.

He shackled her arms, his eyes glowing that silvery yellow again and his face beginning to change. “I need… blood,” he huffed, breathing heavily. “Have to stop… shift.” He tossed her off of him and she scrambled to get back to him, but suddenly, he was convulsing, the sound of cloth tearing and bones snapping telling her he was out of time, and so was she.

There was no hesitation in Cassie. With quick, decisive actions, she shoved Troy to his back, then snatched the blade she’d seen him shove inside his boot. His body jerked and cracked, driving her urgency. Cassie straddled him again, and sliced her wrist with a grimace at the acid burn of the silver on her flesh. Blood poured from the wound and she held it over his mouth the best she could with him moving around. She’d only have a short window to feed him before she’d have to shift to heal her wounds before she bled to death. The instant blood touched his lips, the vampire in him responded instantly, and somehow, that vampire’s existence comforted Cassie.

With a low moan escaping his lips, he grabbed her arm and held it to his mouth, drawing deeply on her arm. Only then, with him drinking, holding her with a vice grip, did Cassie let herself think of the consequences of her actions, that she might not be able to make him stop. The more he drank, the more she thought of shifting, but if she did that too soon, he might shift, too. And if he did, if he was a Red Wolf, she feared they would end up fighting, perhaps to the death. She cared about Troy, more than she’d let herself admit until this moment for all kinds of reasons. Beyond personal, and there was plenty of those, she couldn’t - wouldn’t - risk a battle with him, that might leave one of them dead, and ensure a war between their races.

No. She was going to have to trust in Troy, who she knew to be strong enough to battle any monster, even his own. She’d seen him battle the hurt of betrayal and never falter, never make a mistake that might have cost lives. She trusted him. She was still telling herself that when she started seeing spots, even moments before everything went black.

***

Troy came back to himself in a rush of awareness the instant Cassie collapsed on top of him, and fear for her slammed into him head on. The wolf, the monster inside him, was silent while his vampire senses were not. He could barely hear Cassie’s weak heartbeat and he reacted instantly.

He rolled her to her back, taking in the paleness of her face, the certainty he’d taken too much of her blood. He had only seconds to consider his options or she would die. If he gave her his blood, he could heal her, but he might infect her with the virus that had made him whatever he’d become. The time he’d lose to make the call, even to Marcus, could be too long. He wasn’t willing to risk Cassie’s life. She had to have known she was risking hers by giving him her blood while he was in the state he’d been in. It mattered to him. She mattered to him. 

Tormented by the potential of infecting her, Troy bit his wrist and held it to Cassie’s mouth, holding open her lips and forcing the blood down her throat. Praying his blood was still able to heal, despite the wolf he’d become.

After only a few drops, she licked her lips and relief flooded him at the response. He forced his arm more fully against her mouth, knowing she could swallow now, knowing his blood was working, that she was healing. Her hand went to his arm and she drank hungrily, and he grabbed her wrist and confirmed the wound there was all but gone.

When he was sure she’d had enough, he pried her mouth from his arm. “Enough,” he said softly, easing her mouth from his wrist with gentle insistence. He felt the wound on his wrist heal the instant she let him go and more relief flooded him. Every time he felt the qualities of a vampire alive within him, he was comforted with the hope that he wasn’t too far gone to be saved from the virus.  

Cassie blinked him into focus. “Troy?”

Anger and relief collided, products of his fear for her. “What were you thinking?” He pressed his hands to the side of her face, fighting the desire to hold her to him and reassure himself he hadn’t really hurt her. “What if I hadn’t stopped drinking in time? What if I had drained you and killed you?”

“You didn’t.”

“I almost did.”

“But you didn’t.”

“Damn it, Cass, I don’t even know what the hell I am. I don’t trust me. You shouldn’t either.”

“And still you chained yourself to me?”

“I had to make sure you came with me.”

She studied him a long moment. “And yet, we both know I would have. I trust you, even if you don’t trust me.”

Blood - his blood - stained her lips, and heat surged through his limbs, but this time, the vampire, not the wolf, had control. And it was her blood, he realized, that of a wolf, that had calmed the beast in him, that could have so easily driven him over the edge to take too much. He could have killed her. He almost had. 

He stared down at her. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to fuck her. He wanted to trust her. He wanted so many things with this woman, this wolf, he couldn’t have. He kissed her anyway.