Twisted (23 page)

“He's alive and needs medical help. Let me take him inside the hospital,” Seth said with a mix of panic and relief.

“He's not alive,” Aden said, much as he wished otherwise. No, he shouldn't have done this to his friend. Either friend. He'd given Seth hope.

Tucker clapped, a round of applause meant to gain everyone's attention. It got their attention, all right, but it also upped the tension another thousand degrees. “You're all playing right into Vlad's hands. You're distracted and pulling in opposite directions.”

“As if you care.” Maxwell didn't budge from his perch atop the now-struggling Shannon.

“You have no idea what I feel! Vlad has threatened my brother. I'll do whatever it takes to save him. And yes, that includes murdering each of you if it proves necessary. I'm hoping you won't prove it necessary.”

Whether the brother thing was the truth or a lie, Aden didn't know. He did know Vlad was capable of using anyone.

“Including,” Tucker continued, “make a deal with you, when I know you'll kill me afterward. So here it
is. Save my brother, protect him, and I'll help you save Mary Ann and Riley.”

Yeah, they'd get right on that. Because everyone here was borderline certifiable. “And give you the chance to betray us?
Again?
No.”

Tucker launched forward, in Aden's face a heartbeat later. “I hate what that bastard makes me do. I like Mary Ann. Do you think I enjoyed watching her suffer?”

From the corner of his eye, he could see that Maxwell had to stretch out his arm to hold Nathan back. Good thing he did. Otherwise the wolf's pearly whites would have been embedded in Tucker's cheeks.

Aden's wound hadn't yet closed when he shoved Tucker backward, the action ripping his skin farther. “Yes. I do.”

“I want
Vlad
to suffer. Do you understand
that?
I hate him. I hate what he makes me do.” Tucker's nostrils flared with the force of his breathing, but he remained in his seat. “I can't act against him until I make sure my brother's okay.”

His concern seemed genuine, and much as Aden loathed admitting it, Tucker
was
the best way to get his friends out of St. Mary's. But. “You want my help
with your bro, you help me with Mary Ann and Riley. First.”

“First? No way. You'll get what you want from me and dispose of me. No, help me first, I help you second.”

He studied Ryder's face, expecting some kind of change but seeing nothing. His blood would work, or it wouldn't, but there was nothing else he could do. He emerged from the car, Junior immediately calming down, and opened his arms to Victoria. She threw herself against him, her body still quaking.

“I'd rather kill you now,” he said to Tucker, “and send your brother a Hope All's Well card.” Cold of him, and he wouldn't let himself ponder whether he was bluffing or not. Not here, not now.

Tucker ground his molars together. “How can I trust you?”

“How can
I
trust
you?
”

More grinding. Then, “We have a deal. I'll help you now, you help me later.”

No more argument than that? Huh. Was Aden playing right into some kind of plan? And Tucker had one, he would bet money on it. Hell, he was betting the lives of his people. “If I think, even for a second, that you're
doing this for Vlad, I will…” What? There was no threat vile enough.

“I'm not. Not at this time,” Tucker added. “He comes and goes, and right now he's gone.”

“He possesses you like he did Ryder?”

“No. He…guides me.”

Easy fix. “Resist him.”

Tucker jerked at the collar of his shirt. “You don't understand. I
can't
resist.”

“Free will, dude. You should try it.” His gaze flipped back to Ryder. The flesh in his neck actually appeared to be weaving back together, and his features were contorted in a pain-filled grimace.

Pain was good.

Pain meant life.

“Maxwell, drive Ryder and Shannon back to the house,” Aden said, issuing orders to get things rolling. Victoria had saved Aden; Aden would save his friends. Hopefully the consequences would not be as severe. Hopefully he could find a way to prevent Shannon from—
don't think it
—rotting. “Lock them in separate rooms, doctor Ryder up, and ignore everything he says, just in case Vlad tries to take him over. Have a vampire, Stephanie maybe, feed them both a little blood.”

“Shannon's already dead, so okay, but Ryder won't
survive transport,” the wolf said, and after restraining Shannon with the seat belt, knotting the length around his wrists and chest, he moved to the driver's seat.

“Will he?” Aden asked Elijah.

Silence, again such oppressive silence.

Very well. He'd move forward without the soul's aid.

“Why don't you go with them, Seth? You can help take care of both.” What he didn't say: Seth was fully human, and Vlad could now possess humans. Aden didn't know how the former king was doing it—he himself had to touch a body to step into it—so he had to take every precaution.

Red suffused the boy's cheeks as he braced his legs apart in a classic attack position. “I'll go. But if either one dies…” His narrowed gaze lanced at Victoria.

He'd want revenge.

“It won't be Victoria's fault, and you won't touch her. Ever.” He did, and they'd become enemies. Aden didn't want that.

There was no backing down on Seth's part.

A bowl full of cherries right there, but they'd have to deal with it later—if Seth made that necessary. “Victoria will stay with me.” He didn't like the thought of her around Tucker, but he also didn't like the thought of her out of his sight. Look what had happened last time.

He reached into the waist of his jeans and tugged out the papers that hadn't flown the coop. He tossed them on a clean section of the floorboard. “Read everything. Call and tell me what you find.”

Tucker emerged and moved to stand behind the car in the next slot over, using it as a shield. Seth took his place in the passenger seat.

“Can you make sure they aren't spotted on the drive home?” Aden asked Tucker.

“Yes.”

“Will you?” Wouldn't be smart to leave things open to interpretation. “Yes.”

Aden had no choice but to believe him. “Then do it.”

“How are you gonna get home?” Maxwell asked.

Good question. “I'll steal a car.” And it wouldn't be the first time.

“All right, then. I'll see you when I see you.” A few seconds later, the SUV was motoring away, leaving Aden, Victoria, Tucker and Nathan—in wolf form—to take care of business here.

“I still can't risking going inside the hospital,” Aden told them. “As you can see, I'm still in the body-raising business.”

“Nathan and I can go with Tucker,” Victoria said. “We'll meet you out here.”

He'd known she would step up. That didn't lessen his nervousness. She was strong, he told himself. She couldn't teleport, but she could move quickly. “If anything happens to her…” Everyone knew the words were for Tucker, and Tucker alone.

“I won't be at fault.”

“I bet that's your excuse every time you hurt someone.”

A muscle ticked below the demon's eye. “Your friend needed to be eliminated. I let her eliminate him. No excuses necessary. What's wrong with that?”

They weren't going to debate this now. Wasn't like they'd change their minds about each other. “Riley made the mistake of trusting you, and look where it got him. Believe me, I'll give you enough rope to hang yourself, but that's it.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning, she comes back to me in the condition she's in now, or I hunt you down and make it hurt when I finish you.”

Tucker snorted, not the least intimidated. “Riley plans to make it hurt anyway. And guess what? I warned him. He didn't listen to me. This is his fault. So let's stop
yakking and do this. I'll get your friends, and you'll get my brother. That's the deal.”

Before Aden could respond, Victoria said, “I'll be fine,” as she stepped between them. She offered Aden a small smile. “Besides, Nathan is with me. He won't let Tucker do anything.”

Aden didn't point out that Nathan wouldn't be able to stop Tucker if the guy started throwing those illusions around.

He kissed her, hard and fast. “Do what you gotta do, but you come out of there.”

Her pupils expanded, black consuming blue, and he knew she understood. If she had to rip out a few throats to get out safely, she would just have to rip out a few throats.

“We doing this or what?” Tucker snapped.

“We're doing this,” Victoria said without looking away from Aden. Then she turned, and the threesome walked away from him, disappearing through the hospital doors.

Aden was left in the parking lot, on his own with his worries and regrets. They wouldn't help him steal a car, so he shoved them aside and cased the parking lot.

D
ARKNESS
.

Light.

Darkness.

Light.

The darkness offered solace, the light anguish. Therefore, it wasn't hard to pick which one Mary Ann preferred. Sweet, sweet darkness. But that stupid,
stupid
light kept forcing its way into her mind.

Like now.
Bump, bump. Bump, bump.
Her poor, battered body was being jostled, each movement a new lesson in agony. An advanced class of you-think-you-know-what-it's-like-to-hurt-well-try-this she would have been very happy to fail.

“You should carry her, Vic,” a raspy male voice said above her.

Familiar. Maybe…unwelcome? Or
too
welcome? Her heartbeat kicked up a notch in the speed department.

“Don't call me that. And why would I want to carry her?” Wait.
That
had sounded like her sorta friend and Aden's girlfriend, Victoria.

“Maxwell took off with my clothes, so I'm tripping on the toga I stole from little bro's bed,” the male replied. Yes, he was familiar…somehow. She should know him, but couldn't quite place him. He just wasn't who she'd hoped he'd be, that much she puzzled out. “If I drop her, Riley will flip his lid.”

Riley. Yes! That was the voice she craved but had yet to hear.

“You complain, yet I'm carrying the big guy.” Hey, that had sounded like Tucker. “He needs to diet. Seriously.”

“Just do your jobs,” Victoria said with a weariness Mary Ann had never before heard from her. Usually, the princess was tireless. “We're almost outside. Tucker, are you sure no one can see us?”

Tucker grumbled under his breath. Something along the lines of
how many times can you ask me this already?
“Yes, I'm sure.”

“What about the guards and nurses—”

“They can still see the bodies in their beds. In fact,
they're trying to revive them and failing right now. The kids are dying. So sad. Boo-hoo.”

“Don't they feel—”

“No. First, my evil deeds increase my power. As you can guess, I'm pretty powerful. Second, the human brain accepts what it sees and fills in the rest. And if it doesn't, I do. So by the time the people here realize their suspects are dead and missing, it'll be too late. Now shut up. They
can
hear us.”

“But—”

“Do you doubt Aden's skills this much? You do, don't you? FYI, he probably wants to cut off his ears and mail them somewhere else. Geez-us!”

Now Victoria was the one to grumble. “I thought you couldn't work with Mary Ann nearby.”

“Things change.”

“Yes,” she said on a sigh, “they do.”

Were they…rescuing her? Surely. But from where? Last thing Mary Ann remembered was kissing Riley, loving it, wanting more, thinking they were finally going to go all the way, wishing their surroundings were different, then a shooting pain through her shoulder, the flow of warm blood, Riley telling her to feed from him—wait, wait, wait, back up that train.

She had fed from Riley.

Was he okay? Was he nearby?

Reckless in her need to find out, she struggled for freedom.

Bands tightened around her. “Mary Ann. Stop, you have to stop.” The familiar yet unfamiliar male again.

“Riley,” she managed to squeeze out of her raw throat.

“He's safe. He's with us.”

Good. Okay. Yes. She relaxed, the intensity of her relief forcing the light to go bye-bye, and just like that, the darkness returned.

 

L
IGHT
.

Mary Ann heard squealing tires. Then loud, pounding rock music. Then soft, quiet rock and a muttered argument. She was no longer being jostled but resting against something soft. Although, there was a small, hard object pushing into her side.

Her mind immediately went somewhere it shouldn't.

She pried her heavy eyelids apart. Someone must have smeared Vaseline over them because everything was hazy. Well, the joke was not funny, and she'd be lodging a complaint just as soon as she could pry open her mouth.

“—telling you, I'm good,” Tucker was saying.

“Sorry, but you'll understand if I still take precautions,” Aden replied.

Aden. Aden was here.

“Letting your girlfriend drive while you hold a knife to my throat is not a precaution. It's a death wish. Besides, you still need me, you know. Without me, you could be pulled over.”

“And you still need
me.
Don't forget.”

Silence followed, allowing her thoughts to align. Rescued. With Riley. Where was Riley? Her heart drummed in her chest, reminding her of something, but she didn't know what. She raised shaky hands to wipe at her eyes. Though nothing coated her fingers, her line of vision cleared slightly, and she was able to look around. She was in some sort of van, sprawled across the backseat.

Okay, so a seat belt was the thing poking her in the back, not some guy's… Well, that was a relief.

More relief: she spotted Riley propped up in the seat in front of hers. Even in sleep, he must have heard her moving around because he turned his head in her direction. His eyes were closed, his expression pinched.

Pinched was better than lifeless any day.

She reached up, her shaking getting worse by the second, and wound her fingers around his arm. He gave no
reaction, but that was okay. Whatever had happened to them, they were going to survive.

A sigh escaped her, the darkness closing back in around her. This time, she was smiling as she drifted away.

 

M
ARY
A
NN AWOKE
to a grumbling stomach.

Frowning, she blinked open her eyes, stretched the soreness from her body as best she could—which equated to not at all—and gingerly sat up. After a moment of dizziness, she was able to make out her new surroundings. The car had been replaced by a small, tidy room, and the backseat with an unfamiliar bed. Whoever had done the decorating really liked the color brown. Brown carpet, brown drapes, brown comforter.

“—have to feed,” Victoria was saying.

“You do, too.”

“Yes, well, I'm okay for now.”

“How is that possible? I haven't seen you eat.”

“Just because you haven't seen something doesn't mean it hasn't happened, right?”

“So you have? Eaten?”

Feed. Food. Eat. Mary Ann's stomach threw another growl into the mix, and both Aden and Victoria—who sat in a brown chair across from the bed, Victoria on
Aden's lap—leveled their gazes her way. Talk about embarrassing.

Unlike the other times she and Aden first encountered each other, Mary Ann was not filled with the urge to hug him and run. She just wanted to hug him. He was one of her best friends, she loved him like a brother, but their abilities—his to draw, strengthen, and hers to repulse, weaken—made them complete opposites. They were like two magnets forcibly pressed together, wrong ends up, and they just weren't meant to coexist. Until now.

She wondered what had changed but was too hungry to unravel the pieces.

“You're awake,” Aden said, his relief palpable.

“Yeah.” He looked different. A lot different. Gone was his dark hair, and in its place was a short crop of blond. His face was harder, harsher, his shoulders wider. If she wasn't mistaken, his legs were longer, too.

All that growth, in about two weeks time. Wow. But then, she probably looked different, too. She was tattooed, thinner, maybe even gaunt. “Where's Riley?”

“Right beside you.” Victoria motioned to the other side of the bed with a tilt of her head.

Barely concealing her jolt of surprise, Mary Ann twisted on the mattress, the springs protesting. Sure
enough. Riley was beside her. He was awake, propped up on pillows, and…in pain? His skin was pallid but for the dark circles under his eyes. The normally luminous glow of his green eyes had blunted.

She reached up to trace her fingertips along the edge of those circles, halfway hoping to brush them away, but he jerked his head to the side, preventing contact.

Astonishment? Yes, she experienced that. Then utter, absolute distress. He didn't even glance in her direction, just kept staring over at Aden and Victoria. He didn't offer an explanation, just kept his lips pressed together in a hard line.

What was wrong with him?

Had she done something, said something?

Or was he simply hurting too badly to be touched?

He was shirtless, his chest free of injuries, but his lower half was hidden under the covers. Maybe his legs were giving him fits, making the rest of him sensitive to any type of human contact. She wanted so badly to believe that was the answer, but deep down she suspected the worst.

He was done with her.

And if that was the case, well, she'd pushed for that, hadn't she?

“I thought I heard Tucker earlier,” she croaked out, turning back to Aden and Victoria.

The vampire princess hadn't budged from his lap. Why would she? It was probably the most comfortable seat in the room. Although…her back was straight, her posture perfect, her hands folded neatly atop her thighs. Anyone else would have thrown in the towel and sprawled. Aden had, though he was running one of his hands up and down Victoria's spine.

They looked every inch the couple. In sync,
together
together. They might be having problems, as Riley had told her, but they were clearly working on them.

A pang of longing moved through her. Would she and Riley work things out? Did she want to?

No pondering necessary. Yes, she wanted to. Would she let herself be with him, though, placing him in even more danger than she already had?

Yes, she thought again. She would. After the kiss they'd shared, she would do
anything
to be with him. If he would have her. She'd run from him, yet he'd chased her. She'd tried to get rid of him, yet he'd stayed with her. And now…now she had no idea what was going through his guy brain.

Well, they would find a way around the draining
thing. He'd always been so confident about that, and it was time she believed him.

“Mary Ann? You listening? Tucker's gone,” Aden said.

“Oh. Where'd he go?”

“We don't know.” Victoria pursed her lips. “Riley was about to kill him, so his disappearing act was for the best.”

“You should have let me do my job,” Riley snapped at Aden. “Majesty.”

Hearing the harsh rasp of his voice left her shivering. Or maybe shuddering. He hadn't lost his ability to speak—he just didn't want to speak to her. Ouch.

“Where's the other guy?” she asked. “The one at the hospital? The one who carried me?”

Victoria's brow furrowed, creating worry lines in her forehead. “You remember that?”

“Vaguely.”

“Did you hear—never mind. That was Nathan, Riley's brother, but he didn't travel with us. His presence upset Tucker.”

And they hadn't wanted to upset Tucker? Shocker. “Will someone please tell me what's going on?” Her stomach released another grumble, soliciting the return of her blush.

“Hungry?” Aden asked.

“I…yes.” Wait. She hadn't been hungry for food, real food, for several weeks. Only energy. Magic. Power. Now, she would have killed for a hamburger.

Mmm, a hamburger…

All three sets of eyes regarded her strangely.

“That's…weird,” Victoria finally said.

Her stomach protested the description with yet another growl. “That doesn't change the facts. I'm starved!”

“Well, then, let's feed you.” The princess popped to her feet, her expression a little too eager. “I'll fetch you something.”

“No.” Aden shook his head. “Absolutely not. Tucker's out there. I don't want you—”

“I'll be fine. If not, well, I'll text you. As you've probably noticed, I'm getting good at using modern technology,” she said and bent down to kiss his cheek. “Besides, you can't go. You have a lot to tell Mary Ann.”

“You could tell her.”

“Impossible. I've already forgotten half of what you wanted her to know.”

“No way,” he said. “You and Riley did that joining hands and exchanging of memories thing. You know more than all of us.”

“True. Which means you've got some catching up to do, too.”

She didn't wait for his reply, and shockingly, neither Aden nor Riley tried to stop her as they once would have done. The door shut with a soft snick behind her, sunlight pouring in for a moment, then vanishing like vapor.

“Stubborn,” Aden muttered.

“Typical,” Riley groused.

Chauvinists.

“What do you have to tell me?” Mary Ann asked, dread blending with her hunger and leaving a thick coat of acid on her sternum.

“Brace yourself.” For the next half hour, Aden told her so many gruesome things, she wanted to scrub her ears with sandpaper.

A coven of witches, slaughtered. The D and M ranch, burned to the ground. Vlad the Impaler, possessing humans and forcing them to do despicable things. Tucker's little brother, potential kidnap and murder victim.

Shannon, stabbed to death. Currently a zombie.

Aden's voice wobbled a few times, as if he was fighting tears, but he battled them back and continued. When he finished, she kinda wished he hadn't.

“So much death,” she whispered. Poor, sweet Shan
non, who would die all over again if something wasn't done. Could anything be done, though? She wanted to sob for him, for what he'd lost. She wanted to bring him back
as he'd been
. Wanted to hug him. Wanted to punish Vlad in the most terrible way.

She wanted Riley to put his arm around her, to comfort her, to tell her everything was going to be okay.

Big shocker, she didn't get any of that. Even worse, the silence that followed her horrified whisper acted like a thick cloud of oppression. No one knew where to look or how to respond.