Blood Twist (The Erris Coven Series) (18 page)

Braden reached over, and looked in. A large seagull with a thread thin pulse was unconscious inside. As his fangs descended, he knew it wasn’t the best option, but Strix was right. If he wanted to live, he needed blood, and he didn’t think anyone would be willing to fetch him an elk.

As Braden fed, Strix continued talking. “Stay on guard. Don’t trust any of them. I’ve taught your brother ho
w to survive and I can teach you
,
too.”

Turning to the door, Strix grew silent. Braden could hear footsteps and then another voice.

Riley
…
.

Opening the door, their gazes loc
ked. Braden knew his was
furious. For a moment, both brothers
did nothing but stare
.

“Leave us, Strix,” Riley said.

As the
vampire hurried out, he smiled encouragingly at Braden. “Be watchful,” he whispered before closing the door.

“Are you happy?” Braden said finally.

“Happy? Why the hell would I be happy?” Riley spit back.

“Isn’t this a part of the plan? Why you and Maze pulled that stunt to get me thrown down here?
”

“
That had nothing to do with me. Maze does what she wants.
Yes,
I heard h
er go in your room when I was
talking to Liz, but that was all,” Riley wondered across the room, his mouth a tense line.

“But you still
told Garrick I
was trying to screw his female? Is that how you and Maze have fun?”

“Really brother?”
Riley
through his hands up, exasperated.
“You think I’m that stupid? Well, I’m
not and neither is Maze. We aren’t the one
s
who
told him.”

“And why should I believe you?”

“Because, normally Garrick would have killed both you and Maze for doing it and then, when he was done,
he’d
torture
me and Liz to for extra emphasis. That’s hardly why I asked you to come here.”

“Why then? Why did you
make me
?
If you didn’t want to see me dead, then why make me leave home and turn myself over to these demons?”

Riley just stared at the wall.
Braden wondered
what the hell was so hard to admit
that his brother had to try
saying
the words in his mind first.

Finally, Riley cleared his throat.
“I want us to be brothers again.”

“We’ve always been brothers,” Braden answered uncomfortably.

“No,” Riley said softly. “We’ve been linked to members of the same clan, but we haven’t been brothers in years.”

“You gave into the thirst. You know the way we’re raised. It isn’t an option to be like
them
.”

Riley slid down the wall, taking a spot on the floor. “I tried explaining to Liz. I’m not exactly the same as them.
Maybe in the beginning, when I first changed.
My blood craving was insatiable. It was hard not to kill when I drank. But, after a while, I discovered I needed less and less, that it could be pleasurable for my prey –” Glancing up, Riley shook his head, struggling to explain.
“Women, anyway.”

“Tell me about Dad,” Braden said. “Tell me why it wasn’t bad enough that you drank from a human, but why you felt compelled to take him too.”

“I don’t know…”

“Don’t give me that. He
was a good man, a good father.” Braden struggled to control his tone. Seeing Riley sitting there claiming to be misunderstood was too much.

After a long pause, Riley tilted his head, meeting Braden’s gaze. “You went through the final phase not too long ago. You remember what it fe
els like when that second heart
starts pounding beneath your ribs, screaming for blood. Dad and I stopped for drinks, just outside of Quebec. He was at the bar while I waited in a back booth. It was late, almost closing time, but we’d been out all day looking at different properties. That’s
when it hit, the pain was so bad,
people
were looking. I tried calling out to him, but I couldn’t even make a sound…”

Braden listened intently. He remembered all too well how quick it hap
pens. One minute you
’
r
e
sitting
outside with your family enjoying a moonlit night, the next thing you know you feel like the devil just chewed you up and spit you out and you wake up restrained in Cian’s basement until you have
control of
your head back.

Dad knew Riley was on the verge of changing. He shouldn’t have taken him from home…

“I just kept thinking
,
I had to get out of there. Away from people before I lost control. I stumbled through the exit and this poor son of a bitch
out there, digging cans out of the trash,
wouldn’t let me be. The next thing I knew, I was on top of him, and his throat was ripped wide open.” Riley stared a
t the wall, his mind back in that
moment. “I was so angry at myself…so disappointed I lost control.”

“Then what?”
Braden asked, needing the final piece.

“That’s the part I’ve never understood,” he said carefully. “I remember carrying the man, the one I killed, up onto the roof.
Pe
ople would see me in the alley and I didn’t want to be interrupted.
I couldn’t hear or smell or feel anything but my thirst. After every bit of him was dry,
reality set in.
I realized
I had to give myself to Dad.
Even if he killed me.
So
I
climbed back down
,” Riley paused, his blue eyes moist, “he was laying on his stomach, dead. I pushed him over, trying to figure out was wrong, and I couldn’t make sense of what I was seeing. His face, his neck, even his wrists – they were all bloody, but it was his chest I can’t forget. His heart
s
had been torn out.
Both of them.
I never heard the fight. I didn’t
even
know he was in trouble.
”

“How do you know it wasn’t you?”

“At first I thought so. But I quickly learned, a vampire my size couldn’t have fought a damphyr as strong as Lachlan. Dad used to take down bears and moose. It took months before I could
even
fight another vampire without
having my ass
handed to me.”

“So you left him there?
In the alley?”

“I didn’t know what to do. I
was panicking so I
tried hiding him behind the building. They had a shed area used for storing lawn equipment.
I dragged him in there and covered him with a tarp.
All I wanted to do was hide him so humans wouldn’t figure out what he was. I thought if I could just sleep a while, the thirst would wear off and I could bury him. Once it was over
, I planned on facing
the dawn and put
ting
myself out of misery.”

“So? Why didn’t you?”

“That other
man
I killed
. I
felt so bad. I looked in his wallet and found out where he was from. I loaded him in Dad’s car and left him on his front steps so his people could find him.
When I returned
, Dad
’s
was gone.”

Confused, Braden shook his head. “But he was dead. Even we can’t heal from that.”

“I know,” Riley said, looking down at his hands. “What
ever killed him
must have been lying in wait
while I
carried him
to the shed. Once I left,
it came back
.
” Pushing himself up from the floor, he brushed off his pant legs.
“
After discovering he was gone, I was hopeless. I tried killing myself, but each time I did it,
I just ended up losing control of my thirst and feeding
to regenerate any injury I sustained
.
It was hopeless.
A few days later, I met Garrick and Strix
. T
hey helpe
d me, t
aught me how to survive.
I
t’s not the life I wanted, but I
’ve been with them ever since.”

Br
ade
n blew out the
breath
he had been holding
. The story sounded reasonable enough, but there was no way he could ever know
for
sure. Regardless of the details, his brother didn’
t have it easy. For some reason, he never guessed Riley wasn’t responsible.

“What about the draugar? Did one of them do it?” he asked.

“No,” Riley shook his head. “They didn’t even know what damphyr was. I had to explain it ten times. They didn’t even know where they came from. Every time I mention their Norse history, they can’t believe they aren’t like the vamps from Anne Rice novels.”

“Can they all shift, like Maze?”

“Nah, only the real old.
Most don’t live that long because they kill each other over the stupidest things. Even Garrick can’t and he’s been a vampire for thirty
-seven
years.”

“Maze is older?”
Braden
said, raising his eyebrow.

Riley smiled. “Yeah, well, she keeps under the radar. That’s what you have to do around he
re. You
either serve others and
appear so weak you aren’t a threat or, you be
come a leader
like Garrick,
and kill the ones who want to take
charge.”

“He’s kept you an awfully long time.”

“I swear the only reason Garrick has kept me alive is because he likes listening to
my stories. They make him think
he’
s a bad
ass Viking or some bullshit like that.”
Coming closer,
Ril
ey stood eye to eye with Braden, trying to appeal to his sense of kinship.
“I know my time with him is running out. That’s why I thought if you came here, saw I’m different, that maybe we could build our own coven.
Like in Erris.”

Braden turned away from the heaviness of his brother
’
s stare
. As long as he was living, there was no way he could
leave his
elders, his mother. Still, it wasn’t Riley’s fault
he had been dealt a bad hand
. His brothe
r may have made mistakes, but he
wasn’
t like the stories
.
Riley had retained some level of himself. If Braden
survived, he could try to talk to Donovan and the others ab
out helping Riley find a way to co-exist
.
His thirst for blood would remain, but if he found a way to feed without harming someone, maybe he could be a part of their lives.

“There is one more thing I need to know,” Braden said, glancing back at Riley.
His brother began pacing the room again, like an animal in a crate.

“Anything,” he replied.

“
What is your interest in Liz?
”

“
I would never
hurt her if that’s what you’re wondering.”

“That’s
not what I mean and you know it.”

Riley nodded his head
in
understanding. “I didn’t want to say it, but now that we’re spilling our souls – I guess it doesn’t matter much.” Walking across the room, Riley hoisted h
imself up on an old counter
t
op
. “Before I turned, when my abilities first started appearin
g, I dreamed of my fate-partner,
”
he said,
slowly.
“Just once.
She was
exquisite
.
But, when I became what I am
now and my human heart
slowed down
and died, I felt the ties
that would bind me to her die with it.
”
Riley’s voice
had softened
to a mere whisper.
“
It released her before I even had a chance to find out who she was.”

“Liz,”
Braden answered
, completel
y stunned. “You would have been pair
ed
with Liz.”

“Yes, no – does it matter?”
Riley rushed, now agitated
. “Maybe that’s why you were born? The magic that made us what we were knew before I did that I would give into the thirst and become
this
. Clearly, you were stronger than I was because you went through the temptation without failing. You
deserve a fate-partner like her
and I don’t
.”