Blood Enchantment (23 page)

“I agree,” Jen says, walking up to them, and that's all it takes.

Julia's stoic veneer crumples, and her future sister-in-law holds her as she cries.

Not all tears are sad.

Some are cathartic.

Adi

Lazily spinning silver eyes peer inside the bag where Adi tensely waits. He wrinkles his nose.

Lanarre.

Adi's surprise is chased by a crazy thought. Adi feels like Little Red Riding Hood, ready to be eaten by the big bad wolf.

“Hello, female.” His hot breath bathes Adi, and her beast recoils.

She makes a split decision. Sliding to quarter-change, she rolls in an agile wiggle, beginning to fall from the stainless cot and away from Romeo.

The wheels aren't locked, and the cart rocks abruptly from her sharp motion. She bursts from the bag, landing with her ass still inside the crinkling plastic as her palms slap the concrete of the underground parking structure.

Adi grunts from the impact of her knees cracking against concrete. Healing fire burns along her kneecaps, momentarily weakening her.

The cart is flung, and Adi watches it hit one of the circular support pillars before it lands on the roof of a parked car. A security alarm begins to blare.

Adi moves forward, getting caught up in the plastic, and kicking backward to extradite herself.

Strong arms encircle her waist, lifting her from the ground.

Talons burst from her fingertips, and Adi blindly swipes backward. The Were roars, his hold momentarily loosening.

Adi spins.

Jenni's wide brown eyes find hers, a talon at her throat.

Adi's breath catches. The human female's fear is like ashes in her nose.

“Is this your pet, female?”

Oh my Moon.

Adi backs up until a cold pillar meets her spine. She shivers with fear, chill, and desperation.

The three Lanarre males circle Adi. The one in the center easily holds a struggling Jenni.

Adi fights to track their movements as they separate. “The human doesn't matter. I threatened to kill her if she didn’t get me out of here.” Adi shrugs.
Small lie.

The Lanarre swipes a finger across Jenni's throat, and the skin peels away. White at first, it quickly fills with her blood.

Adi's heart sinks. She'd rolled the dice, hoping they would just let Jenni go if they assumed she meant nothing to her.

She lost that bet. “No,” Adi whispers fervently.

He drops Jenni, who clasps her fingers around her own neck, gasping as she drops hard to her knees.

Bastards.
Rage uncoils like a snake preparing to strike.

“We've done you a favor then, female.”

Adi stands straighter, flinging her claws wide. “You are Lanarre—the best of us, but you'll threaten me and kill an innocent human?”

“A human who is dying,” another scoffs with a dismissive chuff, coming a step closer.

So let's kill her slowly.
Makes so much sense.

“That doesn't matter,” Adi says, her anger chasing tears to dryness. “You guys aren't top dogs in my book.” Her sarcasm rings in the barren parking lot.

Their eyes spin a little faster. “We do not come to threaten you, female.”

Right.
“Then let me go,” Adi says in a low voice. “I am mated to another.” Though Slash doesn’t give a fuck, it's still technically true. They must scent the truth of her words.

Maybe they don't care?

The one who grabbed her before spreads his arms inoffensively, his half-smile smug. “Then where is your mate? And what kind of male would leave his female unprotected while she cycles?” One of his dark eyebrows rises.

Adi's gaze skates back and forth between the three.

A pool of Jenni's blood spreads beneath her body, coloring the concrete black. Adi sees red—literally. She would prefer
their
blood covering the garage floor instead of her human friend's.

Loyalty has always been Adi's greatest character flaw—and her greatest strength. Adi's face whips to the males.

They can fucking
try
me.
Adi clicks her talons together, and they sound like the bones of her enemies.

Their eyes move to her aggressive stance.

“We are Lanarre; we don't hurt females.” He sounds so insulted.

Is he high?
Didn't he just slit Jenni's throat?
Adi laughs. “You'll just breed me. Yeah.”

“Of course.” The clowns look at each other as if seeking agreement in their attempt at rape.

“We will take care of whatever young you have,” the Were who'd laid hands on her says. His smile hangs vacantly on his face. His teeth are very sharp.

“You're not
listening
, pal.”

His eyebrows jerk up. If things weren't so serious, Adi would laugh.
Nothing's funny right now.

Jenni's bleeding out on the hard cement like discarded trash, and three males are discussing a phantom future pregnancy as though she should be all flattered by their attention.

Bull honkey.
“Stay where you are,” Adi says as they fan out, eyes never leaving her.

Grabber puts his hand out, palm facing her. “We won't hurt you. We simply want to take you back to our den.”

Placating cheese dick.

“I am not unmated. You've got to be the dumbest male I've ever had the misfortune of running into.”

At a single yip, the males at his side rushes her.

Adi does the unexpected, using the balls of her feet as she leaps to Grabber.

He reacts swiftly, but not swiftly enough.

Adi has one shot. She sails toward him, and he instinctively tries to catch her, exposing his throat.

Adi goes wolfen midair, sucking in a heated, pain-filled breath, and claims his open neck with her teeth.

She tears out his esophagus like a glossy worm ripped from the dirt of his flesh. Jerking her head back, jaws locked, she swings her head around, releasing a chunk of his breathing tube behind her.

Grabber gasps, flailing for purchase on her suddenly bigger form. She hops away, swings her leg, and plants a foot on his chest, shooting his ass against the pillar she'd stopped cowering against.

Heal that, asswipe.

Powerful hands grip her upper arms, and Adi thrashes. One hand holds her nape painfully tight, and she whimpers.

Her eyes meet Jenni's.

Slash,
Adi wails inside her mind, knowing he can't hear her. She hates that she would want a male's protection—and loathes herself because she thought she already had it.

The metal door leading into the parking garage bangs against the wall, shattering into twisted curly cues of steel. They skitter across the smooth concrete like metallic sleet, rolling to a stop at the edge of Jenni's blood.

Slash moves through the jagged open mouth of what used to be the doorway.

Their eyes meet. His are already wolfen green. His utter calm as he surveys gasping Grabber and the two Lanarre who hold her terrifies Adi.

“Slash,” her beast growls out of a throat raw with her anguish.

But the Lanarre don’t give a shit about what she thinks. She's an alpha female running rogue who's cycling. So Adi's fair game.

She's betting Slash won't let them hurt her even though he doesn't want her anymore. She doesn't even have time to think about why Slash would even appear.

The Lanarre's heads jerk in his direction, their stub wolfen snouts rising to scent Slash.

Their grips tighten painfully.

Adi bows her head, breathing through the pain of their hold.

Words are unnecessary.

Slash's wolf bursts his skin. Blood, flesh, and bone fly, covering a ten foot diameter.

Bits of Slash's human form land like gory rain on Jenni. She attempts to cover her face, but is too weak to do so. The remnants fall into her blood.

“Slash! No!”
He can't kill the Lanarre.
It's a death sentence.

Then he does.

*

Adi crawls toward Jenni. The throbbing sound of the car alarm has finally quieted, and she has a moment's consideration of how lucky they are that no one has come down into the underground garage. The short war felt like hours, but the time was likely only minutes.

Slash is ripping up pieces of the males behind her. Ominous crunching, gnashing, and flesh rending is the only noise inside the space.

He told her what he was: a male who didn't deserve her because of his deeds.

He heaves a head, and it tumbles like a bowling ball alongside Adi. It rolls to a stop, sightless eyes appearing to track her slow progress toward the bleeding nurse.

She ignores those dead eyes that seem to follow her, continuing her plodding course toward Jenni.

Jenni reaches for Adi. Really, it just sort of falling toward her. Adi grasps, hauling the woman into her arms.

Jenni coughs, and blood shoots out of her mouth.

Adi's tears fall on her face.

“Is that—”

“Don't talk, Jenni.” Adi swallows her sobs like open wounds.

“Slash?” Jenni whispers, her eyes vaguely turning in the direction of the sounds Slash makes as he tears the Lanarre to pieces.

Adi nods, pressing her fingers to Jenni's lips. “I'm sorry. I—this is my fault.”

Jenni squeezes her arm. “Is okay—” She coughs up more blood. “Dying anyway.”

Their eyes meet.

Both devastated.

Growling erupts behind Adi, and she shields Jenni, quickly swiveling her body in the direction of the commotion.

Grabber is healed.

No.

Slash has shifted back to wolfen and is circling the Lanarre.

“I am Lanarre, Red. I
order
you to back away. You might live yet, despite your crime against Lycan.”

Adi's eyes laser on the scattered remains of the other Lanarre.

Slash doesn't answer. He grabs the other Were by the throat and smashes his head against the pillar Adi had kicked him into.

Grabber sets his teeth in Slash's shoulder, and Slash howls in agony. He severs Grabber's head with his talons. A string of gristle still holds the head, and it tips backward, hitting Grabber's lower back. The gore is a gut-wrenching sight, even for her, and Adi gasps, turning her attention back to Jenni.

She’s hanging on, but Adi smells her death. She's a tough human. Adi smooths her dyed-black hair back from her forehead.

“Make me—” Jenni's gaze pleads with an unfinished question.

Adi's eyes widen in realization.

“Like you.” Jenni's bright brown eyes begin to dim then close.

A thread of life lingers.

Adi's beast feels that barrier between life and death. Her decision made, she closes her teeth over Jenni's throat, secreting the essence of what makes Adi Lycan directly into Jenni's bloodstream.

Adi's so intent on what's she's doing, she doesn't realize Slash is there until it's too late.

*

Slash

His mate lies in a pool of human's blood. He doesn't know the state of her injury, but he intends to find out.

Slash returns his attention to the last Lanarre male he would bring to true death. He knows the repercussions for this particular sin.

And they are worth it.

Slash was doomed from the moment he scented the malesʼ lust for
his
female.

They will not have her,
he thought.

And then Slash had not thought much more.
He
did
.

His eyes move to the disaster of what is left of the royal branch of Lycan, and he sniffs in disgust.
So much for the caretakers of females.

Without another glance, he moves toward his mate. He stops when he sees what she does next.

“Adrianna!” Slash roars.

She ignores him.

He grabs her gently and attempts to pry her off the dying female.

Adi slaps his hands away.

Slash could easily overpower her. She is a small female. But he doesn’t want to force her.

Slash wants to love her. Desperately.

“Adrianna—don't condemn her. She is not born of us.”

“Get your hands off me!”

She turns to face him, lips bloody, teeth longer than a human’s. Her hair is a rat's nest, and her eyes are filled with fear and anger—directed at him, no doubt.

Still, she is beautiful. Her scent wipes away rational thought.

“You lost the right to order me around when you told me to—” Her lips trembles, and Slash aches to kiss it. “When you told me to ʻget the fuck away from you.ʼ I believe those were your words.”

Slash winces at her reminder. But they have more important matters.