Chosen by Blood (12 page)

It had left them exactly where Mahone had expected. Knox was still determined that Felicia would yield to him, but he was going to have to convince her without keeping tabs on her whereabouts and while earning his pay from the U.S. government.

Once more, Knox took in the three Others in front of him. Total honesty, he reminded himself, although his biology wouldn’t allow him to lie even if he’d wanted to. Before he changed his mind, he confessed, “I’ve got two. The first? My father, a human, was executed for treason by order of the High Vamp Council. He confessed to revealing vamp secrets to a human during the French Revolution. As a result, hundreds of vampires were slaughtered.”

“I’m sure growing up must have been a joy,” Wraith muttered.

Knox shrugged. “Sometimes it was. Just know I owe it to my race to find this antidote. Any questions?”

“Why do you rule the clan?” Lucy asked.

Knox’s stomach clenched but his gaze didn’t waver. “I rule because of the vampire Queen’s weakness and because of my own strength, for although the blood of a traitor runs through my veins, it’s also that blood that makes me able to withstand the effects of the vamp vaccine.” He paused a second, then continued, this time even more reluctantly. “My second secret? I’m in love with a human female.”

Silence.

Finally, Lucy rolled her eyes. “That’s horrible,” she breathed.

Her blatant sarcasm almost made him smile. “Actually, it is. You see, she won’t have me because, as you all know, the vamp race is dwindling in numbers. As its present leader, I feel duty bound to contribute to its repopulation.”

“You mean she’d have to deal with you fucking female vamps in order to knock them up?” Wraith asked.

“Will you shut up,” hissed O’Flare.

The wraith narrowed her eyes at him. “Why don’t you try and make me?”

“She’s right,” Knox said loudly even as he clenched his fists. His first instinct had been to kill the wraith for her insult, but truth be told, she
had
been right. He just hadn’t liked hearing it said so bluntly, which was no one’s problem but his own. “She’s right,” he repeated. “But the point is, that’s not included in your files or anyone else’s that I know of. It should be. She should be. Because she’s my weakness. If an enemy knew that, he’d use her to get to me. And that means he’d use her to get to you. Her refusal to be with me doesn’t change that, it just means I can’t protect her. And I don’t want to hear another word about it unless it’s a matter of personal security. Got it?”

No one said a thing, but he hadn’t expected anything else. He pointed at Wraith. “You next.”

She arched an arrogant brow. “Why me next?”

“Because as the walking dead, you’re certain to have more baggage than the rest of us.”

“That’s ridicu—”

“He’s right,” O’Flare interrupted.

Wraith turned on him. “Mind your own fucking business.”

“ Anything that weakens the team is his business,” Lucy said in that same rational tone she’d used since she’d arrived. “Denial being one of them.”

“Listen, you bitch,” Wraith spat, walking closer to the mage. Knox reached out to grab her arm, but she jerked around and hissed, “Don’t you dare!”

Whoa. Right. No touching the wraith.

Knox held up both hands. “You will not attack another team member.” He gave the slightest of smiles to lighten the tension. “Bad for morale.”

“I’m not afraid of you hurting me. You touch me and I’ll kill you. Then who’s going to lead this team?” She cast a disdainful glance at the others. “I don’t want the job and there’s no other palatable option.”

Lucy stood, finally looking pissed off, but O’Flare just burst out laughing.

Knox crossed his arms over his chest. “You think something’s funny here? Then why don’t you tell us your secret weakness?”

O’Flare shrugged and leaned back in his chair, stretching his long legs in front of him and cupping his hands behind his head. “My psychic powers aren’t exactly reliable. They’re spotty, but have come in handy a time or two. They usually come to me in dreams that I have to interpret. The ones that I’ve had warning me of danger generally focus on people who are close to me, either in proximity or emotion.”

“Since I’m planning on keeping my distance, I guess you’re useless to me. Somehow, I’m not surprised,” Wraith said.

O’Flare smiled tightly. “You never know. You just may grow to like me. Want to know what my second weakness is? I’m irresistible to women.”

“Oh, spare me, Romeo.”

O’Flare ignored the wraith to look at Knox. “No, really. Take that little scene a second ago? When Mahone told me there were two females on the team, I warned him to expect trouble, and here the two girls are, fighting over me already. If someone had knocked down the door and come in shooting, we’d have been goners.”

The wraith was a blur of movement and then she was straddling him, one hand yanking his hair back as the other shoved a small gun under his chin. “You, maybe,” she purred. “This girl? She’d be walking away before anyone even thought to clean up the bodies.”

Braced to grab her, Knox cursed at his carelessness. Just because another’s touch could hurt her obviously didn’t mean the wraith wouldn’t suck up the pain to make a point. Then again, her bare skin only touched O’Flare’s hair—the other parts pressed against him were clothed. Did that make a difference? It was something he should have known the answer to.

Sloppy, Knox. Damn sloppy.

He took a step toward her, but O’Flare’s heated, furious gaze met his. “No,” he snapped. Turning back to Wraith, O’Flare slowly raised one hand to her face. Although she didn’t flinch, his hand stopped a hairsbreadth from her cheek. “Of course you wouldn’t be one of the bodies, darling. You’re already dead, after all. But walking away is the last thing you’d want for yourself, right?”

Wraith sucked in a breath and left his lap with decidedly less grace than she’d used to get there. “Fuck you!”

O’Flare smiled tightly. “Thanks for the offer, but I prefer females with a little heat to them. You’re so cold, and I mean that literally, you’d freeze my dick off before it got inside you.”

“Don’t!” Lucy gasped, her eyes wide and filled with pity as she looked at Wraith.

Knox made a mental note: Another weakness identified. The mage hid a soft heart beneath her cool reasoning.

The wraith’s head snapped toward Lucy. Then she smiled, her blue-hued lips curling evilly. “You think I deserve your pity? You think this—this human,” she spat, “can hurt me?” She snorted and backed away.

O’Flare continued to stare quietly at the wraith. When she turned away, his eyes flickered with regret before going blank. The man’s gaze locked on Knox’s, then at a point over his shoulder. Knox stiffened.

“Jesus,” growled a raspy voice behind him, the speaker’s disgust more than obvious. “If this is what I’ve got to work with, kill me now.”

Knox took a fortifying breath and turned around.

The werebeast had arrived.

Slightly less than six feet, Dex Hunt was still taller than most werebeasts. His sheer brawn, heavy muscles packed onto a rangy, broad frame, was more common in his full-blooded ancestors than in half-weres. Burnished skin, thick tawny hair, and light hazel eyes, however, placed him squarely in the half-were corner.

Their gazes locked. Despite his mocking words, Hunt stared Knox down, a clear challenge in his gaze. Maybe it was because Knox knew weres believed in only one alpha male per pack. Or maybe it was simply because he hated Hunt on sight. For whatever reason, Knox felt it happen.

Beneath his loose clothing, his muscles hardened and swelled. Knox grew taller, broader, not enough to rip his clothes but enough to make them strain their seams. He felt his fangs lengthen and knew from the sound of Lucy’s gasp that his eyes had shifted from silver to a demonic, glowing scarlet. Control slithered away and a primal growl vibrated in his throat.

“No fucking way,” O’Flare breathed.

Knox’s mouth stretched into a tight smile. One by one, he looked at his crew. None of them, not even the wraith, would meet his eyes directly. They’d clearly never seen the transformation of royal vamp. Perhaps it was better they did so now.

Sometimes individuals performed best when they were too scared not to.

Knox returned his attention to Hunt, who not only met his stare head-on, but jerked his chin in challenge. “Might as well get it over with now,” Hunt drawled.

Laughter, a sinister, chilling sound, tickled Knox’s throat.

Oh yeah, he thought.

Things were going to get a whole lot more fun before the day was through.

Knox took three lightning-quick steps toward Hunt, then froze. His nostrils flared as he caught her scent. A second later, he saw the woman standing just behind Hunt.

What the fuck?

Felicia.

What was she doing—

Before he could complete the thought, a heavy weight slammed into his chest, knocking the air out of him and propelling him off his feet. He didn’t stop until his body slammed into a wall on the other side of the room. Knox hit the ground. Stunned, but immediately moving into a crouch, he blinked as dust and plaster rained down on him, momentarily obstructing his vision. When it cleared, he saw Felicia wrestling with the werebeast. And then he saw the werebeast shove her down.

With an enraged shout, Knox teleported so fast he caught her before impact. He lowered her, gently but swiftly, then almost instantly wrapped his fingers around Dex Hunt’s throat.

Imagining that Hunt’s throat was an aluminum can, Knox squeezed.

Only one thought remained.

Kill the bastard who’d touched Felicia.

 

 

Felicia scrambled to her feet and tried to latch on to Knox’s arm. Before she could, he dragged the werebeast, who was already wheezing for air, across the room and threw him like a shot put into the same wall he’d slammed against moments before. Already weakened, the wall literally crumbled as Hunt’s body hit it, plaster and Sheetrock caving in so that it cradled Hunt between its studs like a hammock defying gravity. The werebeast was struggling to get free, teeth bared and growling, when Knox grasped him by his jacket lapels and tossed him to the ground.

Looming over the were, Knox pressed his foot into Hunt’s neck and asked, “If you’re hoping to shift before I kill you,
dog
, you better do so now.”

Shaking off her paralysis, Felicia rushed forward. “Knox!”

He jerked his head up, pinning her with those ruby red eyes and pointing a finger at her for emphasis. “Don’t. Move.”

The order, combined with his fierce appearance, had its desired effect. She literally froze again, unable to believe her eyes. She knew how royal vamps transformed when they were pushed beyond their limits. She’d read about it. She’d never seen it before, though, and the sight of Knox—bigger, buffer, and badder—was mind-boggling. When Hunt groaned, recapturing Knox’s interest, Felicia lunged toward them. “He’s part of the team.”

“He pushed you,” Knox fired back.

“Only because I was about to beat the shit out of him.”

A snort came from somewhere near the ground. Hunt, who seemingly had managed to catch his breath despite the foot pressed to his throat, wiped the back of his hand across his mouth and studied the blood staining his flesh. “Let’s not get carried away, Red. I just didn’t want a hysterical female to get in my way while I shoved this vamp’s face in the ground.”

“Shut up—” Felicia snapped, but it was too late.

Knox gripped the were’s thick, wavy hair in one hand and literally lifted him off his feet. “ Are you talking about this vamp, perhaps? Because you—”

Knox grunted when Hunt’s legs kicked out, scissoring so that they struck him in the face before wrapping around his neck in a vicious vise. Although Knox released Hunt’s hair, the werebeast simply pulled himself around, as if Knox were an apparatus, and landed a blow to Knox’s abs.

Staggering back several steps, Knox grunted.

“If you’re gonna teleport away before I kill you, vamp, you better do so now,” the werebeast taunted.

Knox laughed. The feral sound of it sent a shiver down Felicia’s spine.

Not in fear, but in desire.

And that was wrong on so many levels.

“You should have shifted when you had the chance.” Arching his fist like a pendulum, Knox rammed it with brutal accuracy into Hunt’s crotch. Immediately, the were’s legs loosened and Knox gripped them, using them to fling his opponent across the floor like a rock skipping over water.

“Ouch,” a male voice said from behind Felicia. Whipping around, she glared at the shockingly handsome human who could only be Caleb O’Flare.

“Do something!” she shouted. “They’re going to kill each other.”

O’Flare shrugged. “Better each other than me.”

“Damn it!” Felicia pulled her weapon and fired it near the two males, who were now locked in a wrestling move that eerily reminded her of the waltz she’d danced with Knox so long ago. Neither one of them so much as flinched.

Felicia looked toward the other females in the room. The wraith was leaning against a wall, pretending great interest in her cuticles. The mage, however, nodded when she caught Felicia’s eye. “Okay, okay,” she muttered. The petite female took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and raised her arms above her head, palms together. Slowly, she lowered her arms until her hands were pressed prayer-style against her lips.

“Fuck!”

Felicia turned at the hoarse yell. Knox’s fangs were deep in Hunt’s arm. With his other arm, Hunt pounded his fist into Knox’s face several times, bloodying it but failing to dislodge him. Swiftly, Hunt reached behind him and whipped out a buck knife with a four-inch blade.

“Hurry!” Felicia yelled at the mage.

The mage’s eyelids snapped open, revealing only the whites of her eyes, as if her eyeballs had rolled to the back of her head. Fine tremors shook her body, but there was no other movement.