Bloody Freak (A Bloody Series Book #1) (11 page)

    "It's fine, Alex. Don't worry, we're trained professionals." Adam flashed some fang and turned to walk towards the house. Ethan could have killed him.

    "Do they understand what they're getting into?" She asked quietly. She was really asking if he understood. He looked down into her clear green eyes, clear even in the dark.

    "Yes, they understand." He walked after them without looking back to see he
r reaction. Would she figure it out? How could she not? Would she run? No, Brena was still inside. She would see this through before she fled. He buried the pain that flared up at the thought of her leaving.
It was hopeless after all.

    Alex followed af
ter them after a few moments to herself. So there it was. Ethan was a vampire. She had known there was something about him. He was quiet like a ghost. His speech, which was odd even when he was speaking with an American accent because he still had perfect
English grammar. His lack of real surprise when she bit him. She briefly wondered why he didn
’
t bite her back, but then figured he was hiding what he was from her after all. He had seen her fangs again this afternoon, but again not said a word. Having her
fears confirmed strangely didn't frighten her at all. Her only real thought was to question why he was still helping her if he knew who and what she was. She stared after him as he walked away. When they stopped just before the walk way to the house, Etha
n
pulled the two obvious ones to the side and whispered that they weren
’
t shielding properly and to take a moment to concentrate on that. They both took deep breaths, and after few seconds they felt as normal to her as Ethan did. Ethan turned to look back
t
o her.

    "You coming in or staying out here?"

    "Pfft. What kind of stupid question is that? This isn't my first rodeo," she stated with a bravado she barely felt. She walked up onto the porch and rang the bell. Ethan stayed to the side of the door, ro
lling up the sleeves on his shirt, he shielded himself completely.
So that
’
s how he had done it at the club.
It explained why Brena couldn
’
t find her. He was much more powerful than her. Something to keep in mind. The others fanned out around the sides of
the house. She might have been scared before but something about knowing you have a half dozen powerful Vampires at your back gives a girl a boost of confidence.

A big guy Alex had never seen before answered the door. "You here for the bitch?"

    "No, I'
m here to deliver pizza," she said right before she kicked him in the chest. He stumbled back but didn't go down. She rushed him and tore into his neck before he could respond. Then all hell broke loose. The men broke in the windows and several Weres came
rushing from upstairs. Ethan walked in the door and glanced at the body of the Were she had downed. Blood gushed from his neck.

    "And I thought you were going to need help," he said. She laughed as she wiped the blood from her mouth onto her sleeve. The
n he rushed the two Weres coming up from the basement behind her. He snapped the neck of the one on the left in seconds and downed the one on the right with a punch to the throat. He was really something to see in action. After getting into a sparring mat
c
h with one and killing him with a severe hit to the temple, he went searching for more. She rushed upstairs to where she could hear Brena screaming for her to get out. She found her bound to a bed, spread eagled, Joseph held a knife to her throat.

    "So
you came. Excellent. I'm sorry to have had to go to such lengths to get an audience with you," he said with a sneer, holding Brena down as she thrashed wildly.

    "You could have asked me."

     “
Where
’
s the fun in that?”
He struck Brena across the face
when she tried to bite him.

    “
I don
’
t care what your plan is Joseph. Not one bit. But I promise if you let her go, I
’
ll talk the guys into going easy on you. They might not kill you right away.”
She leaned casually against the door frame.

    “
No, it
’
s
going to go like this. You trade yourself for Brena and me and you are leaving out the back door. If one of those leeches touches me, you die.”

    “
You weren
’
t calling me a leech in bed two nights ago, you flea ridden mutt!”
Brena exclaimed. He glanced d
own at her.

    “
All part of my plan, darling. Seducing your cold skin was just a way to get 'The Freak' into my grasp. Everyone knows the Government wants her. Thanks to you I have her, and I
’
m going to force them to bow to my demands if they want her.”
 
Bren looked up at Alex, worry clear in her eyes. She shook her head but Alex was too far gone to notice. That was it. Kidnapping, torture, and threatening were enough for Alex to go ape shit on this dog, but calling her 'The Freak' to her face? That meant
war. She leapt over the bed and threw herself at Joseph, catching him off guard.

    They went down in a tangle of limbs and she felt him try to turn the arm he was holding the knife with to get the upper hand. Brena was screaming wildly, threatening to c
astrate him if he hurt her. She twisted his arm in what amounted in nothing more than a nasty Indian burn, but she managed to get him to drop the knife. There was some swearing, hair pulling and biting involved but she couldn't get the upper hand with him.
Every time she went for his throat he spun her around. It was possible she should have studied some more fighting techniques along with her forensic lab work. Joseph had both hands around her neck and she was finally starting to lose faith in her own cap
a
bilities, when he was yanked up in mid air and flung off of her. It was Ethan, breathing heavily, eyes wild on Alex searching for wounds. For some reason instead of being grateful for her safety, Brena began to panic worse than when Joseph was on top of h
e
r with the knife. It worried Alex enough to open her mouth to ask what was wrong but before she could utter a word, Bren had worked herself into such a fit, she passed out. To say that was rare for a Vampire was an understatement.

    "Well, that
’
s conveni
ent," Ethan said.

    "You want to explain that to me?" She said nodding to Brenas unconscious form.

    "Not really," he said, and turned to grab Joseph who was trying to sneak up behind him. "Not so fast Spot." He dragged Joseph down the stairs. Alex sto
od to follow but first turned to check Bren's pulse. Finding it thready but stable she followed quickly downstairs, finding the others. They were piling up the bodies of the fallen Weres across the floor of the living room. Some had shifted to wolf form.

    "Look what I got, mates. A survivor." He threw Joseph down and Adam and Odin tied his hands and feet with a length of TV cable. Dominic grasped his face and turned it, looking for some recognition.

    “
Never seen him. You, Ethan?”
He asked in a cool
Caribbean accent.

    “
No, never. I look forward to figuring out who he is,”
he said and started cracking the knuckles on his hands.

    "His name is Joseph. He was the leader of Brena's peace group. Everyone was supposed to be passive. I guess half the f
ucking group turned out to be manipulative pricks." She kicked the Were closest to her. Adam smirked.

    "I doubt Joseph was his real name, Dove." Ethan glared up at Adam after his use of the endearment. "Could your friend help out naming the other member
s so we can track them down? Ask a few more questions?"

    "I'm sure she will," she said.

    "You should wake her up," Ethan told her, barely meeting her eye.

    "I will. What are you going to do with Joseph?"

    "Let me worry about that." He turned back to the furry wretch with a gleam that spoke volumes.

    "Don't kill him before I get back." She very much wanted to see what they were going to do to him, but Brena was her first priority. She raced up the st
airs three at a time.

    When she got Brena untied, she did an inventory of her injuries. Her face was bruised and someone had obviously tried to choke her at one point but she would heal. It hadn't affected her ability to scream so she knew there was no
damage. They must have drained her a bit to keep her weak. There was a small incision made in her upper left arm. Her injuries weren't healing properly either. She wanted to check if she had been raped but Brena wouldn
’
t appreciate it and she really didn
’
t want to know right now. She was still dressed, so that counted for something. Alex bit into her wrist and let some of her blood drain into Brena's mouth. She woke up not long after, blinking confusedly a second, before the last few hours kicked back in.
Then she panicked, yelling in a language Alex had never heard her speak before.

    "Bren, it's okay, they're dead. We're safe." She had to hold her down.

    "Oh, Christ. I was so scared. I thought Joseph was going to kill you." She hugged her to her ches
t. "And I thought I saw Ethan. I must have been so worked up I was hallucinating." She sighed.

Alex backed up. "What about Ethan?" She was sure she had never mentioned Ethan's name to Bren.

    "Oh, it's nothing babe. We're safe. Let
’
s get out of here." Sh
e went to get out of bed, Alex pushed her back down again.

    "No, what about Ethan?" She urged.

Brena stared at her for a second. "He's one of the Kings servants. Head of the team sent out to kill you. I never told you before. I'm sorry; I didn't want t
o worry you." She looked at her questioningly.

But Alex hadn't heard anything passed 'sent to kill you'.

    Ethan quickly finished beating information out of Joseph. Like most bullies, he had caved almost immediately to dominance from someone stronger. C
learly not an Alpha, this one. He admitted to not only plotting the attack at the news station, but to kidnapping Alex and Brena for ransom. Ethan very much wanted to kill the cur, but the King would want to see him brought in and tried in the Were system.
Damn them. It was much less satisfying. He was wiping the blood off his hands when Adam came in out of the parlor, hanging up the phone.

    "Okay, we have to bring him in tonight. The King says no further harm is to be done to him until Master Orleans s
ees to him," Adam said. Ethan kicked the mutt in the ribs one more time.

    "I didn
’
t see that.”
He laughed. “
Alright, let
’
s get the ladies and head out." Adam bent to pick up the unconscious wolf.

    "Wait. Why are the women coming?" Ethan stopped him.

    "Why wouldn't they? They were a part of this, albeit unwillingly. They need to testify to what they did and saw." He stared at Ethan as if he'd lost his mind.

    “
I didn't want Alex brought into this. The King doesn't need to know all the details."

 
  "Well, you should have said something to me before, mate. I just told him."

Chapter Eleven

    I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. He's going to cut my head off and feed it to the royal dogs.
Coincidently, both Ethan and Alex we're think this at the same tim
e. After Ethan came upstairs, Brena had realized she hadn
’
t imagined him and fought tooth and nail to escape him. It took all of the men to subdue them both. They were thrown into the trunk of one of the cars and neither had any idea what to do. Brena fou
g
ht to kick the lid off but was too weak from her ordeal and fighting so hard. Alex didn
’
t fight at all after they threw her in the trunk. She was too far gone into self pity. It had been occurring to her before she found out who Ethan was that he might ac
t
ually care for her. The connection she felt to him before was strong. Stronger than she realized, until he had cut it. After she discovered his secret and watched him fight for her, she decided she wanted to give him a chance. Maybe he wasn
’
t her enemy, s
h
e had thought. She laughed to herself. So much for that idea. He had only kept her alive so the King could dissect her later. Brena had told her from the first day they met that she was different. That the government hunted things that were different and
k
illed them. That
’
s why they had always been on the run. Since the very first time Brena laid eyes on her, she had been her guardian. She would always love her for that. And for being her friend.