Chosen by Blood (44 page)

Prime cowered back when Knox slammed his palms on the table in front of him and leaned down until his face was just inches away.

“I’m going to enjoy ripping your heart out, Prime. But first, I need information. Where is Kyle Mahone?”

Prime puffed out his chest and raised his brows imperiously.

Reaching out, Knox grabbed Prime’s medallion and ripped it off him.

“Knox! Have you gone mad?” Commons moved to grab him, as did several others on the Council. Before he could, Hunt, O’Flare, Wraith, and Lucy restrained them. Growls erupted from the vamps’ throats until Knox ordered his guards, “Shoot any vamp who tries to stop me.”

The growls stopped and all the Council members stood still, watching Knox carefully. Knox ripped off Prime’s shirt, then stripped him of the rest of his clothes to make sure, like Lesander, the vamp wasn’t hiding gold anywhere else on him. When Prime was wearing nothing but his shorts, Knox taunted, “Although I don’t doubt for a moment you’d shove gold up your ass and enjoy it, I’m sure no one wants to see anything more.” Knox tapped Prime’s mind not just for Mahone’s secrets, but for everything in it. He delved deeper than he’d ever delved before, making no allowances for the vamp’s privacy or for his mental well-being, either.

What Knox read was horrifying and it was enough to shame him.

His mother had been right. Jacques Devereaux hadn’t been a traitor. He’d simply been a human torn between two races—his own and that of the vampire he loved. Moreover, because Prime had convinced other vamps to turn humans and a few of the turners had survived the process, Prime suspected it was actually Bianca who’d turned her human husband into a moite. The possibility stunned Knox but not as much as the knowledge that Prime had been using the newly turned vamps for his own purposes. There were now leagues of vampires, original and turned, that posed a growing danger to humans, particularly if the vamp antidote worked.

With a growl of disgust, Knox disengaged. As soon as he did, Prime stared at him vacantly, obviously shaken by the depth to which Knox had probed his mind. Mercilessly, Knox pierced the vamp with persuasion—forcing him to feel fear and, yes, the type of shame he’d never otherwise feel on his own.

“The shape-shifter was telling the truth about Lafleur being dead,” Knox told the team, “but he was alive when he helped kill the scientists. They didn’t die from taking the damn antidote ; that was just a line of bullshit Prime planted. In addition, what he didn’t tell us was that Mahone killed Lafleur. Of course, Prime punished Mahone for that, but they’ve kept him alive—barely—in case they need him in the future. Plus, Mahone has more secrets in him, which they’ve slowly been trying to extract. Somehow, however, no matter how many vamps have tried, they haven’t been able to access Malone’s mind completely.” Not even Prime knew about Bianca’s relationship with Mahone. However he was doing it, Mahone was continuing to protect Knox’s mother.

Knox looked at O’Flare. “He left Mahone in the same warehouse where those scientists died.”

O’Flare nodded. “I’ll contact Team Blue immediately.” Releasing the vamp he’d been holding and shoving him into a chair, O’Flare strode outside.

Knox took in the rest of the Council. “Now, gentlemen, I apologize for any embarrassment this is going to cause you, but I’m going to need each of you to take off your medallions and allow me to probe your minds. If anyone objects, they’ll be stripped down just like Prime. I hope we can avoid that.”

As one, the Council’s gazes moved to Prime, whose soundless whimpers and frantic tics outwardly revealed the emotions he was still experiencing. Commons stood and slipped his medallion off, then tossed it to Knox. “I’ll go first.”

Knox dipped his head. “Thank you, CouncilmemberCom—”

The door to the chambers swung open once more. Knox blinked.

In the doorway stood a vamp looking as powerful as any he’d ever seen. Next to him stood Bianca. Knox inhaled sharply at the vision of his mother, radiating all the things that had been taken from her not just in the past ten years, but in the past three hundred, ever since his father had been taken from them. Health. Vitality. Beauty. Joy.

Knox grinned. “Hello, Mother.” Knox turned to the man he’d thought he would never see again. “Hello, Father. You’re just in time to take over, but first I need you to answer one question for me.”

His father lifted a brow, but the small smile on his face told Knox he already knew what he was going to ask. Knox didn’t bother to account for technicalities. Felicia was his and she’d always been his. That was why, when he asked his question, he referred to her the way he’d always thought of her.

“Where the fuck is my wife?”

 

 

The world had turned red. Everything he saw, which was very little given how swollen his eyes were, was tinged in varying degrees of scarlet and brick and, yes, even pink. Mahone bit back a groan when he felt the damn vamp prodding at his brain again, trying to suck out the information that Mahone was stubbornly clinging to.

National secrets.

Personal secrets.

Secrets that, if revealed, would result in the deaths of so many.

Maybe even the death of Bianca and her clan.

They’d gotten the information about the Para-Ops team, Barker, and the scientists because Mahone hadn’t had enough time to train his brain to suppress those memories. Not surprisingly, they had no knowledge of his bargain with the Goddess and he assumed that was through her own doing, not his. But they obviously wanted more. More than the vamp antidote. More than a preliminary alliance with the vamps that would ultimately be used to infiltrate them.

Otherwise, they would have killed him hours ago.

Clenching his jaw against a sudden spike in pain, Mahone sensed the blessed darkness closing in on him again. Once again, he fought it off. He couldn’t pass out. He couldn’t sleep. He wouldn’t be able to block his thoughts if he did.

Bianca had taught him to do it for a reason. He couldn’t betray her. Not again.

“And what of me, Mahone? You give no thought to our bargain ? To how your brethren will surely perish once you’re dead, dead because you wanted to protect one vampire?”

Mahone’s head jerked to the right, his blind eyes trying fruitlessly to focus on the soft, feminine voice, even though he knew it was in his own head or coming from a transparent visage that he wouldn’t want to look upon anyway.

Once had been quite enough.

Light flashed behind his lids, dispersing red in favor of white. Instantly, his pain was gone, his consciousness separated from his body as if he’d been given a high-octane painkiller.

Damn it, go away, he tried to yell. He didn’t want her here, cajoling him to let the bastards rape his mind so he could continue doing her bidding.

She made a sound that, oddly enough, sounded like an indulgent chuckle. “Very well. But your shields won’t last for long, Mahone. Not without more.” He flinched when he felt her breath against his face, fire and ice, burning his skin as sensation returned.

“Who . . . Why . . .?” he managed to choke out, even though he didn’t really believe she’d tell him who she was or why she’d really come to him. However, he didn’t need her to give him answers. He had a pretty good idea who she was. He had from the very beginning.

She was the Earth Goddess Essenia.

The deity most of the Others worshipped but few had claimed to meet.

The Goddess who, despite her threats, must have sought Mahone out in order to save her creatures, not kill them. But the fact that she needed to prove a prophesy true to save them, the fact she’d needed to come to Mahone at all, made him wonder if it was really
her
they needed to fear, or someone else.

Someone higher up on the totem pole, so to speak.

Someone or something . . .

The pain he felt ratcheted up several notches, making him gasp.

“You’re smart, Mahone, but you need to save your strength for your current situation rather than figuring out the meaning of life. Just don’t put me in the role of savior. Not yet. My anger is real. My vengeance unimaginable. But I want you to have your year. So reach for the pain, Mahone. Focus on it. On me. On how much you hate me and what I’m making you do. Reach for it.”

When the light faded, he automatically mourned it. Was tempted to follow. But he didn’t. Instead, he did what she’d told him to do.

He reached for the pain. Focused on it. Bit his tongue. Immersed himself in sensation until it became his entire world. Until he could hear his own crazed shouts echoing around him. Until even the vamp trying to read his mind had to back off or risk that the pain radiating from Mahone would enter his own body.

And when the pain eased slightly and he heard the muddled sounds of voices, Mahone marveled at the fact that he could actually open his eyes and see the two males in front of him.

“It’s no use. The bastard’s too strong.”

The vamp he’d never seen before turned to the man dressed in “Caribbean Joe” casual, the one the vamp called Smith. With balding hair and wire-rimmed spectacles, the man looked harmless despite the great power he wielded. He was the beginning and ending of pain. He was the bigger motive behind all of this.

“I have a plane to catch,” Smith said with obvious disgust. “Before I do, I want word that he’s dead. Do we understand each other?”

“Yes, sir. But what about Prime? He wanted to interrogate Mahone—”

“Dante Prime thinks he’s in charge here, but we both know that’s not true, now don’t we? Do you have a problem with that?”

The vamp didn’t answer and the reason was obvious. He didn’t want to admit he had a problem and risk pissing off the boss, but he couldn’t lie either.

Smith obviously came to the same conclusions. “You’ll be well compensated for obeying me, I assure you. If not with money, then with more blood.
Pure
blood. Remember?”

“Yes,” the vamp answered, obviously properly swayed.

Leaning against an intricately carved wooden cane, Smith pivoted and slowly began to walk away. Gasping and gurgling past the blood in his mouth, Mahone had to try several times before he could be heard. “Who?” It came out as barely a whisper. The next word came out only slightly louder. “Why?”

The man with the cane stopped. He didn’t turn to face Mahone, but his voice drifted back to him, clear and concise. “We’re a quorum, Mahone. A unified front. We’re here and we’re everywhere. And we want things back to the way they were. If the FBI won’t give it to us, we’ll get there ourselves, one painful step at a time.”

He finally turned and smiled, and it was the kind of smile one gave a friend. “You’re spoken well of, Mahone. I regret things had to end this way for you.”

Mahone didn’t even bother looking at the vamp who was surely sharpening his fangs in anticipation of ripping Mahone’s throat out. At least the pain would end now. But not yet. He couldn’t let it go yet.

He’d hang on to it until the breath left his body. That way, no stray memories would sneak out to endanger those Mahone loved.

Hanging his head, Mahone sighed. This time, however, when the blackness called out to him, he almost couldn’t fight it back. Just when he thought he was going to lose, he heard shouts and a commotion.

Hands touched him. His binds loosened. Voices called out.

One voice Mahone recognized.

He couldn’t move. He couldn’t open his eyes. He could barely gather the energy to breathe. But he heard O’Flare’s voice just the same.

“We’re here, Mahone. We made it back. And we got the antidote.”

A
fter feeding Bianca, Felicia had gone to the nursery to rest. Twenty minutes later, she still felt weak, even though Bianca had been careful to drink only a few sips from her vein. Apparently, it didn’t require a huge amount of pure blood to strengthen a vamp, but Felicia had given her blood to quite a few of them in the past twenty-four hours. Even so, her body didn’t feel half as weak as her soul did at the moment.

She’d at least hoped to see Thomas and Joelle one last time before she left, but they weren’t there. Serena had probably taken them out into the garden to enjoy some fresh air and sun. It was a beautiful day, after all, poetically reflecting the fact that Knox’s father had reunited with his wife just as he should have long ago.

Seeing Jacques and Bianca together and in full health had been almost more than she could bear. The sheer love and happiness that had radiated from them had served only to remind her why a union between her and Knox could never be. Sure, Jacques had been human. Once. But look how that had turned out. Now that he was a vamp, he would help Bianca lead her clan. Just because Knox would be relieved of that duty didn’t mean he could abandon all the other responsibilities he had to the clan.

The antidote wasn’t going to save his people, at least not yet. Although Felicia had pure blood, she wasn’t stupid. It might not last. Or she could be dead tomorrow because of the antidote. Besides, even if the antidote turned out to be completely safe, she couldn’t give vamps blood at enough volume or enough frequency to save the entire clan. And it wasn’t like the vamp clan was going to suddenly suffer from a population explosion just because they got healthy. That meant Knox would still be duty-bound to produce children with another vamp.

Throwing herself on Joelle’s bed and burying her face in the girl’s pillow, Felicia sobbed. She told herself to be honest for once. If it was just the issue of his fidelity, Felicia knew she’d no longer fight it. She loved Knox so much that she’d rather share him than lose him.

But the truth was, Knox no longer wanted her.

He couldn’t. Not when he’d looked at her with such disdain and pushed her away from him.

She had to accept that. She needed to learn to live without Knox, just as she should have learned to long ago.