Blood Twist (The Erris Coven Series) (29 page)

Vampires were always draining humans after feeding them their blood. Most of the time, the newly turned victims had no idea what they were until they stepped out into the sunshine and went up in flames. Only a few of the smart ones found their way to a nest, or were dragged in by an older vampire who knew they needed to learn how to mind.

Garrick was a ruthless bastard and killed any vampire tha
t came across as a threat. Calling himself Strix, after the form of
the owl he could shift into, Death
made sure he
never
appeared strong in any way. Stumbling and squirming, he hovered before the leader like he was nothing but an errand boy. It was a game he acted out in countless nests before this one. As he grew tire
d of the draugars around him, Death
slaughtered them all and moved on to the next. That was how he had survived two centuries – how he would continue to live in the
years
to come.

After
a couple of nights, they hunted down Riley and brought him into the fold.
The boy failed to be impressive
at first, but as the yea
rs went on, he matured and stopped fighting what he had evolved into
. Witty and educated, he quickly set himself apart from the other vampires Garrick kept on hand.
Death
taught him to keep his head down and never challenge Garrick unless he wanted to die.

It surprised him how much he didn’t mind having the young one around. Listenin
g to stories of his coven, Death
hoped Riley would eventually lead him t
here. When it became clear the young one
intended on taking the secret of the location
to his grave, Death
planted the thought in his head that he should reunite with his brother
,
Braden.
It wasn’t hard to do.

Now he was here.

While Braden was
locked in the cell, Death
rummaged through his things until he found his passport and ID. Erris Maine, even the name sounded
antiquated
. During the day, he could only face the sun in his alternate form.
I
t wasn’t difficult to sneak aboard an outgoing flight to the states in the belly of a plane’s cargo hold.

Using Riley’s phone to message Braden was just for fun. Adding insult to injury would make the damphyr’s blood that much sweeter. Sitting on a fountain in back of one of the damphyr’s houses, he waited for the boy to come to him.
After
crossing his scent, he sat and waited for the young male to emerge from one of the
cozy
structures. Others were blissful in their homes or attending festivities downtown. Picking them off one by one would be utterly pleasing.

Licking his lips, he awaited the fight.
His own rotten heart roared with the thrill of the chase.
The more energy he used, the hungrie
r
his appetite
became
.
Staring into the darkness, he
planned
to feast all night.

35

BRADEN

Trusting his instincts, Braden was relieved when the scent of the draugr led him in the opposite direction of his
mother
’s
residence
.
Heading through Torin’s yard and into Cian’s, his teeth
were bared and his eyes glittered white as he prepared to fight to the death
.
Even the heavily clouded
night sky couldn’t mask the vampire
’
s trail.

Moving with lightning speed, his inner hunter united at once with all of his senses. He had perfect vision and could make out every blade of grass an
d leaf dangling from the tree limbs. His hearing was
complete
as he registered every breath and heart beat from within each family’s home.
For whatever reason, other than his mother, only the women of the coven
were home and
had gathered at Endellion’s.

The rustle of his own clothing and hammering blood
were
made silent by his focus. It was the odor of the vampire that was left trailing through the lawns like he had meandered a while
before staking his claim. T
he air tasted of
his
sweat, an old grainy musk
, and years of crawling through basements and filth.

Rounding Cian’s ho
use, the dream he shared
with Liz
earlier
now made sense. The fountain was instantly recognizable. Fianna had Seamus ship it from her homeland in Eire.
It was the same one they discovered coated with Courtney Parson’s blood only days before.
But
upon awakening from his sleep,
it was the
imagery of the
owl that had
him confused
.

Slowing
his speed, he could see it now
. It wasn’t a dream, but it filled him with rage. S
pread out like the angel that
mounted the sc
ulpture
and rose in the center of the pool
, a large owl perched waiting
. The bird was bigger than it was in Vancouver, but the smell and coloring were the same. Chastising himself now would not help his attack, but he
should have realized then it was no ordinary beast. It was a
shifter
and it came to destroy
. 

Dropping down in front of him,
the feathers covering
the creature
pulled and parted until
a man
’s
naked
form
appeared
. Staring at him through pitch-black black eyes, Strix smiled, revealing jagged, sharp teeth.

Taking his time, Strix stre
tched his wiry neck. Thick skin
the color
of
ash,
glowed deathly in the moonlight. His lips peeled back and a long black tongue darted out, swiping where they had cracked and dried. The black vein in his forehead pulsed, s
sign of thirst Braden knew all to
o
well.

“Sorry I’m not your brother,” the vampire
garbled, “I hope the lack of kinship between us won’t disappoint.”

“I knew you weren’t Riley,”
Braden said, gritting his teeth
. “He doesn’t need to cower behind the shape of a bird.”

“Oh?” Strix seemed surprised. “Then my ruse didn’t work. Well so much for that little game. Best we get on to more serious matters.”
Grabbing hold of a tempered glass dining table,
Strix
hurdled
it through air, but Braden dodged it
, as it crashed down around him
.

Braden kept his chin up
and his feet moving, never taking his eyes from his opponent
. Regardless of how dangerous a vampire as old as Strix was, Braden wasn’t about to back down now. Thinking of Liz and how amazing she made him feel while spending the afternoon in her arms, a tug of love bolted through their bond.

She was worth fighting for. They were worth fighting for. Regardless of the cost, he would not back down.

Sniffi
ng the air, a pleased look showed
on
Strix’s
face. “You smell different somehow. You always smelled delicious, but now, more so. Like your father even. What’s the change?”

Braden
took an angry step
forward, then
another one.
That creature didn’t deserve to mention Lachlan. Clenching his fists into angry balls, just the thought of Strix knowing his family made him seethe.

“No telling? Maybe I can guess. Your brother said your kind had all sorts of special tricks that my own lineage missed out on. Oh, what did he call it?
Soul-twisting, soul-gathering?
Is that what has occurred? You and that mouse you dragged up North
are
now an eternal
p
air?”

“Why don’t you come closer and ask that to my face? If not, I don’t want to hear you mention Liz or my father.”

Strix dove at him, clenching powerful arms around his
chest and launched
them both
straight up
. Despite the whirling air that whipped around them, Braden kicked out at the vampire, forcing him to let go.
Crashing
into a deck chair, Braden looked
up just in time to see Strix collide with the fountain. The force
of the vampire
’s
impact
broke large pieces of rock free, causing the cherub in the center, to teeter and crack
, before plummeting into the pool
.

Showing no signs of injury, Strix was back on his feet and diving for Braden. “Don’t like me talking about Daddy? But he was so delicious when I bled him dry
then ate him piece by piece
. Of course I never told Riley that. I feared if he knew, he would never let me meet you. Of course, he was al
l concerned about your female.
I’m surprised he worked
so hard to let you go.
”

Braden’s jaw clenched. He should have known it was Strix from the beginning. Riley’s misplaced trust
in
the monster blinded him. Digging his fingers into the dirt, Braden
dislodged a thick granite patio rock. Gearing back with a sideways kick, he sent it careening at
Strix’s
head.
  

When the vampire sidestepped the blow, Braden sent off three more in quick secession. Each time, the older vampire evaded his attacks and moved ever closer.

“Do you know what I think? I think she’s a distraction.”
In a second, Strix
was on him and
grabbed him by the
h
air
.
Whipping
his
face down into the earth
, the vampires bulk was surprisingly heavy
. He
tried turning his head to lessen the pain in his scalp
, but Strix just adjusted his hold
so that his long fingers found
his throat
.

“If you touch her, I will end you,” Braden warned.

“I was
once like you,” Strix explained, squeezing even tighter.
“I too once had a second heart beat in my chest
.
But after almost five decades of being hunted by men b
ecause my kind didn’t age the
same way, I grew tired of being weak.
Aigle
, my brother, and I were out hunting when we came upon a group of soldiers that had heard we were sorcerers and ran my brother through with a sword. We barely escaped, perhaps wouldn’t have if I hadn’t known the mountains the way that I did.
”

Squirming beneath him, Braden tried dislodging the beast’s claws.
Strix’s
voice
was rough like sandpaper and held such
wistfulness about it, like Braden should be proud
to share something with the creature
.
“Well aren’t you a saint,” he choked while the pressure continued to build in his lungs. 

“
I carried him deep within the belly of a cave so his flesh could have time to regenerate. While sitting there watching him, I knew the day would only be repeated again and again because we were weak.
Our kind was weak and it would never change. While my own wife and child
were at home waiting for me to bring sustenance, I was trapped like a chicken in a cage waiting for death. The angrier I became, the more my thirst, demanded I drink. Looking at
Aigle
, I kne
w then that I could evolve
and never know fear again.”
  

Strix’s
hands cut so hard into Braden’s throat that he was incapable of uttering a single word. Staring up at the beady eyed monster, his brain was, with difficulty, trying to absorb this information.

“Before my brother even knew what I was going to do, I tore out his heart and feasted on his flesh.
”
Lowering his face
towards Braden’s Strix ran his tongue along Braden’s jawline. 
“Why do you look so disturbed?
Not so different than your
own brother’s transformation
. Someday, Riley will be like me. Someday, he will lose his disillusion that he can keep his family now that he is a killer. By the time I deliver death to each of you, he will have nothing left to save and finally embrace the power within him.”