Lisa Renee Jones (7 page)

Cassie came with a wave of pleasure like nothing she had ever experienced, so intense that her vision blurred and her knees buckled. Suddenly, Troy was thrusting his wrist to her mouth and she was drinking, and Lord help her, she felt her body clench around his shaft in yet another release. She lost time, lost everything but the taste of him, the feel of him, the pleasure of him, she didn’t know for how long. They were on the bathroom floor, and she was sprawled on top of Troy, her hand on his chest, before she really came back to reality. She couldn’t move. She was just that bone tired.

“Oh hell,” Troy muttered. “My brothers are here.”

Adrenaline replaced exhaustion and Cassie sat up. “What? What are they doing here?”

“Marcus must have told them where I was,” he said, helping her to his feet and reaching for his jeans. “I haven’t exactly been excelling at communication with them these days. This isn’t going to be a delicate conversation. Count on it taking a while.” He zipped his pants, that were clearly still wet, and pulled her close. “Marcus said there are clothes that should work for you in the closet. And no, I have no idea who they belong to. No telling with him.” He kissed her. “I’ll be right back. Okay. Not right back. Don’t worry if you hear yelling.” He headed out of the bathroom and she didn’t move, standing completely still as she heard the bedroom door shut.

The stunned realization that Evan and Aiden were here began to shift to panic. She trusted Troy to give Nico the benefit of the doubt, but not his brothers, and she even understood why. They wanted to save their brother, they wanted to avenge him. She’d feel the same way.

Cassie didn’t know what to do and for several moments she contemplated her options, and none of her choices were good. Nico was her brother. She had to give him a chance to survive. Before she could talk herself out of it, Cassie grabbed her wet clothes and got dressed, and then rushed into the bedroom, barely registering the splendor of the massive four-post bed that set on top of a pedestal. Instead, she hurried to a small desk in the corner and looked for a pen and paper, shoving strands of wet hair from her face and scribbling a short note.

Nico has the necklace. I’m going to get it. I’ll call you when I know where I‘m meeting him. Please come but don’t bring your brothers. I beg you, don’t bring them. I’m afraid they’ll kill Nico, and I love him, Troy. I love him and I love you. I have to try to save you both. 

Cassie tore the paper from the pad, rushed to the bed and set it in the center of the champagne colored comforter. Rain splattered on the windows, the sound and scent outside the open door wickedly clear, and promising a long, hard run in the mountains. But now was the right time to do this, if she was going to. She could hear Troy and his brothers arguing in the other room, and this was her best chance to escape without being heard. It wasn’t much of a chance, really, not with the exceptional hearing of not one, but three vampires, but they were distracted, and if she shifted, she’d be fast. Troy would follow. She just had to hope that he would read the note first. She rushed to the patio and stopped dead in her tracks to find Troy standing there under the overhang, his hair slicked back from his face, still wet from the shower.

“Troy,” she gasped.

He didn’t say anything but she could read between the lines. “I’m not betraying you. I’m not.”

“I didn’t say you were.”

“You’re thinking it.”  

“No,” he said. “I’m just trying to digest you leaving without saying goodbye.”

“I didn’t.”

“You were about to.”

“I left a note explaining -”

“Right. Dear John becomes Dear Troy.”

“No!” She rushed towards him, and he caught her shoulders. “Go read the note. Go read it now. I was trying to get you to follow me so I could talk to you alone. I needed to tell you what I wanted to tell you earlier.”

“Damn it to hell, Cassie,” came a curse from behind her in the bedroom, and she knew the voice. It was Aiden, the middle of the three Brooks brothers. She inhaled and turned so that Troy had her profile.  Aiden appeared in the doorway, holding back the curtain, with the note she’d written in his hand. She sucked in a breath at the sight of his long black hair and his deep black eyes, so strikingly similar to the Troy of the past.

“We are not going to just go off and kill Nico,” Aiden said. “You worked with all of us for six months and you can’t give us a little credit?” He lifted the note at Troy and said, “She was going to find Nico, and wanted you to meet her and yada yada,” he read from the note, “Please do not bring your brothers. I’m afraid they will kill Nico.” He dropped his hand with the paper in it. “Seriously, Cassie, we’re cold-blooded by nature, but we aren’t assholes.”

“I know you love Troy,” Cassie said. “I know you want Andres to pay for what he’s done. And I don’t want my brother to be involved in any of this but I’m afraid he is.” Cassie turned to Troy again. “Nico has the necklace. I don’t know how or why, but he has it. Around his neck. I wasn’t leaving you. I was trying to keep you both alive.”

Troy grabbed her and wrapped her in his arms and held her, and she was terrified this would be the last time she felt him close, the last day he was with her. The last day Nico was with her. She pulled back. “This needs to end. We have to make it end. Whatever that means, however it has to happen. It ends today.”

“It ends today,” Troy said.

“And by the way, vampire,” she said. “Not only was I not leaving you. I’m a wolf and a stubborn one at that. You can’t get rid of me, even if you try.”

He wrapped his fingers around her neck and pulled her mouth to his. “Is that a promise?”

“Yes,” she said. “It’s a promise. I just don’t want this one to be sealed in my brother’s blood.”

“Sealed with a kiss,” he countered, and slanted his mouth over hers.

It ended tonight, and everything about the plan Cassie had agreed to with Troy and his brothers, was designed to make that a fact.

It was near midnight, five days after she and Troy had taken over Marcus’s mountain home, when Cassie walked up the wooden steps of an Area 51 diner off the deserted highway thirty miles out of the city limits where she was meeting Nico. A place where trouble could unfold safely, as there were very few humans that would come to the diner at this time. And there were plenty of vampires nearby to make sure the humans would forget whatever they might mistakenly encounter –like, an alien with fangs, that wasn’t an alien at all.

After much discussion, she and Troy had decided to allow days to pass before she contacted her brother, under the pretense of making Nico more urgent to see her. The truth was, at least for her, she was happy for the time with Troy, most of which they’d spent in bed either making love or talking. And though neither of them had said it, secretly, she was afraid the end that came tonight would be his, and she sensed he worried about the same.

Bells dinged on the door as Cassie entered the building, bringing into view the ten or so red booths, and a counter customers could eat at. No one else was here. Just herself, a waitress behind the counter who Cassie waved to and Nico.  

Her brother sat in the back booth to her left, his dark hair, long and tousled. In typical Nico fashion, in contrast, his goatee was neatly trimmed. His eyes were sharp, intelligent. Aware. Just like his nose. Exactly why she’d showered and changed into new clothes at a rattrap hotel a block away, to be sure she had no scent on her that would alert Nico that she wasn’t alone tonight.

Cassie walked towards her brother, her heart racing, heavy with emotions which she tried to suppress because he’d smell them, and even if he didn’t, he might read them on her face. She was close to Nico. Or she thought she was. For the first time ever she doubted that.

Cassie scooted into the booth across from Nico, but not before he gave her an assessing, head to toe, stare. She’d dressed for easy weapons access in a sleek, fitted pair of black jeans and a black V-neck tank top, with stylish, but sturdy boots. A petite shoulder bag hung crossed over her chest. It was an outfit that looked like it had no room for silver and blades, but accommodated, she knew, all kinds of creative, and easily accessed ways to hide a weapon. Her backup plan to the silver lining her clothes was Troy and his two brothers, who were nearby and out of sight. Just like old times. Only in the old times, Nico would be part of the plan, not the target of it. And Marcus and Aylia wouldn’t be involved, waiting nearby for the moment that Aylia could work her magic on Troy.

For several long seconds, they sat there staring at each other. “Did it even cross your mind that I’ve been worried?” he demanded softly, his tone sharp, his anger crackling in the air.

Her temper flared to match his. “You’re worried? You have no idea how I’ve worried about you these last few days. What are you involved in that you shouldn’t be?”

He tilted his head slightly. “Elaborate.”

He hadn’t denied there was something. “Tell you so you know what I know?” she demanded. “Forget it. So I’ll ask you again. What are you involved in that you shouldn’t be?”

“Not a damn thing.”

She scented the air and there was nothing but truth there. Nothing. It made no sense. “Andres,” she said softly. “I know you have met with him.”

Fury rolled off of him. “You stay out of anything to do with Andres.”

“I’m already in it.”

“Because Troy dragged you into it,” he growled and pushed to his feet. “If Troy wants to know what I’ve been doing then let him ask me himself.” He motioned to the door. “Let’s go.”

She stood in front of him, desperate to stop a confrontation that could turn bloody. “Wait. Please.” She hesitated only a moment, choosing to trust her brother. “Andres was the wolf that attacked Troy in Reno. He was trying to use magic to turn himself into some undefeatable hybrid wolf vampire. Instead, he turned Troy. He’s battling the Red Virus and the only way we can save him is with the necklace I know you have.”

Seconds ticked by, and Cassie felt nothing from Nico, saw nothing in his face, until he pulled her close and kissed her forehead. “Let’s go to your vampire, or whatever he is now.” He set her away from him and started for the door. She growled with irritation. Why did she ever think things would go her way with the stubborn ass alpha wolf that was her brother?

“Nico, what part of ‘wait’ did you not understand?” She grabbed his arm. “That ‘whatever’ thing he’s become is dangerous.”

“I’m quaking in my boots,” he said flatly and then shoved the door open and exited before her, leaving her to follow on his heels. “Damn it, Nico.”

“Always a potty mouth,” he said. “Too much time in The Royal Guard.”

Cassie cursed again as Troy and his brothers appeared at the far end of the parking lot illuminated by moonlight, despite the streetlights they’d purposely blown out. “You know, we should talk before you talk to them,” she said, stepping to Nico’s side.

Nico ignored her, striding forward. “Why repeat myself more than once?” he asked. “They need to hear exactly what you need to hear.”

Cassie double stepped and kept pace, giving up on fighting what was to come, but still holding her breath as she and Nico stopped in front of Troy and his brothers. Her eyes sought out Troy’s, but his were locked on Nico, and beginning to glow silver. She moved to Troy’s side, curling her arm around his, needing him to feel her close, to remember how important Nico was to her. And equally so, she wanted Nico to see how openly she cared for Troy.

Nico didn’t seem to notice that anything might be wrong, and if he did, he didn’t care. “You going for the Fabio look with that blond hair or what, Troy?” he asked, not bothering with ‘hello’.

“His alter ego,” Troy said flatly. “The one that eats werewolves for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”

Nico snorted. “Well, if you want to eat a wolf, how about chomping down on Andres, and sooner rather than later?? He’s a stick up my ass I can’t get rid of.” He glanced at Evan and Aiden. “I’d say it’s good to see you two, but I’ll hold that greeting until after you decide you don’t want to shove some silver in my heart. I assume you left your women home for the slaughter.”

“No one needs to get slaughtered but Andres,” Evan said with a chuckle and scrubbed his jaw.

“You’ve always had an exaggerated way with words, Nico,” Aiden said.

“Amen to that,” Evan agreed.

“A way of attracting assholes too, it seems,” Nico added grimly. “Andres specifically. He’s been after this.” He pulled the necklace from under his t-shirt and relief washed through Cassie. Troy was saved. And Nico was Nico, her brother, who she loved, and who she knew would prove the honorable, if not bossy and arrogant wolf, that he had always been.

“I yanked the chain from Sarah’s body,” Nico continued to the group. “I knew she’d stolen it from Aylia and I knew about the experiment, but talking about it only put the Coven at more risk. I spread the word that a rebel had the necklace and then that it had been destroyed. Andres chased the story for a year and I thought it was handled.  I don’t have a flipping clue how he found out it wasn’t true. ” He gave Troy a pointed look. “I damn sure didn’t know that the necklace had been used on you, man. I haven’t heard from you since Reno and the vampires and the wolves haven’t exactly been meeting up for Sunday football and beer since your attack.”

Marcus and Aylia appeared to their left. “You have my necklace?” Aylia demanded, charging forward. “Damn you, Nico. Why would you keep it from me? You know what it means to me.”

“Because I was protecting your sweet little witchy ass, that’s why,” he said, when she stopped toe to toe with him, not the least bit cowered by the alpha wolf. “Andres will slaughter you for your magic.”

“You can’t shift with it on without destroying it,” she said. “What if you had destroyed it?” She lifted her hand and the necklace glowed, then snapped from his neck and into her hand. She closed her hand around it. “It knows where it belongs.” She stared at him for several seconds, and Cassie could smell the sense of betrayal in the air waving off of Aylia, the hurt she felt that Nico had held something from her she considered so precious. Cassie had been right. These two had a history, all right. “And so do you.”

Aylia started to move away from Nico, and he gently shackled her arm, pulling her to stand beside him, lowering his voice. “We need to talk.”

“I don’t have anything to say to you, wolf.”

“Andres has someone else on the inside of the Society,” Troy said, clearly not feeling any need to let these two resolve their issues.

“That insider has to have seen you wearing the necklace.”

Nico shook his head, rejecting the idea. “I didn’t start wearing the damn thing until Andres called me to a meeting with a threat that he would kill off The Guard, one by one, if I didn’t hand it over.” He glanced at Aylia. “Because I didn’t want to risk shifting and destroying it.” He eyed the entire group. “But Andres was too confident I had it for me to leave it where it had been. Up to that point, it was in my private quarters, in my safe. I really have no idea how he discovered I had it.” He glanced at Cassie. “He captured Ryan and was holding him for ransom.”

“Was,” Cassie repeated. Ryan was the king’s oldest son and the heir to his throne. She swallowed hard. “He’s dead.”

He nodded. “Yeah. He’s dead.”

“Magic,” Aylia said softly. “That’s the only way that Andres could have discovered the necklace was in your possession. The necklace imprints on anyone who touches it. When Andres invited you to a meeting, he used magic to find that imprint on you. He had to discover how to use that magic to make it work, which must be why it has taken him this long to make a move. No. He couldn’t have done it on his own. Someone is helping him.”

What happened next was so fast, so unexpected, Cassie could barely process it. The necklace began to glow and Aylia’s eyes went wide. “Run.”

But it was too little, too late. A bright light flashed like an explosion, crackling with something electric.

Troy grabbed Cassie and took her down to the ground, covering her body with his. “Hang on, baby, and be ready to fight when it ends.”

“Magic,” she whispered.

“Magic,” Troy agreed. “And magic is never a good thing. We know that. Try to pick out what is real and what’s not before we have to fight.”

Cassie stretched her senses, but she found nothing but emptiness as seconds ticked by that felt like hours, that shattered when Aylia let out a blood curdling scream of pure pain. “Help her, Troy. Help her!”

He never got the chance. A snarl sounded and a wolf pounced on top of them. Cassie rolled as Troy tumbled away with the attacker. She blinked into the bright light and reached for her weapons. But even with those silver blades in her hands, she was frozen, unsure where to go. She still couldn’t see and her sensitive wolf nose was failing her as well. She was about to flip to her feet when a hard mass of wolf came down on top of her. Her instinct was to shift but it was an instinct destroyed by instant pain that ended in complete darkness.