Death Wish (22 page)

“I will be happy. Eventually. Once the shock wears off.”

A rush of thrilling energy came up like a sudden rain, stealing my words along with my breath. Desire fueled the immense force. The muffled sound of a woman’s voice reached us. Shrieks gave way to cries of pleasure.

I shuddered, unable to refuse the call of such tantalizing energy. It piqued my interest, stirring my hunger to life. I did not want to react to it. Not here with Kale. Yet, I was pulled by a memory, knowing how easy it would be to blow the door down and devour the power of the vampire driving this dizzying wave.

I shook with the effort it took to hold myself together. I’d come a long way in controlling my power in past months. The hungers, the ache to wrap myself in the ecstasy of letting go… it seemed to grow by the day. As my power grew, so did my weakness. This double-edged sword cut deep. It was going to kill me; I could feel it in my soul.

“You’re dangerous like this.” Kale’s voice was low and rough. 

Trying to keep my cool was a challenge. I eyed him curiously. “Dangerous for whom, exactly?”

The roar in my ears grew like thunder rumbling in the distance. Drawing on the energy humming freely around us, I let it sweep in and through me. Kale’s tension was palpable.  He reached out to me metaphysically. The hypnotic pull of our hyped-up power mingled, dancing together.

“Dangerous for you if you keep that up.” His voice was low, a sexy murmur. A shock of electricity raced down my spine.

“I’m not doing that on my own, in case you didn’t notice.” I was always ready to devour him.

His energy moved over me, making my knees as weak as my will. I could feel his battle between intrigue and apprehension.

 “I’m serious, Alexa. Be careful.” Heat emanated from him in waves. Fueled by emotion, his energy was dark and held the promise of violent passion.

“See what I mean,” I threw both hands up in exasperation. “Crazy. You, me. All of us. Just fucking nuts.”

 Kale pushed away from the couch and came dangerously close. I backed up in response, trepidation driving my step. With the tornado of energy coaxing me to enjoy the promised delights, I was tapping some serious strength to resist.

“Crazy definitely covers it,” he murmured. His eyes were twin pools of absolute black. Only the barest trace of color was visible.

The sound of sex grew louder in the otherwise quiet hallway. Kale’s gaze went to my throat, lingering on the bites he’d left there. When his eyes once again met mine, the longing I saw in their depths was startling.

“I need to take off. Thanks for listening, Kale. I appreciate it.”

I shoved past him, my eyes on the exit. It seemed so far away. How did the hallway get so impossibly long?

“So soon? Come to haunt me like the ghost of a memory I can’t stop reliving and then leave me hanging?” His tone was low and deadly.

There it was, the dark side of Kale. The monster beneath the gorgeous eyes and friendly ear had emerged yet again. That evil, tormented side of Kale had led him to attack both Jez and me on separate occasions. Unpredictable and sinister, this creature was a result of several decades of torture at the hands of the one who’d made him.

Slowly I turned to face him. “We shouldn’t be alone together. Not like this. It’s not safe.”

“No. It isn’t.”

I never made it another step before Kale had me pressed up against the wall. With a hand on either side of my head, he stood painfully close but not quite touching. I couldn’t possibly slip past him without making it physical. Patience and restraint, I had to have them.

“Please,” I whispered, careful to keep my tone neutral. “Don’t do this. It can’t always happen like this. Let me go.”

He closed his eyes and pounded a fist against the wall beside my head in frustration. It was loud, echoing in the empty space around us. “Why didn’t you let him kill me? You could have set me free.”

When his eyes reopened, the pupils had shrunk down. In them, I saw pain.

I could offer him nothing. No words of comfort. No apology that wouldn’t be a lie. So, I shook my head sadly and didn’t say a thing. With a hand on the side of his face, I leaned in and brushed my lips across his.

Kale returned my kiss with a gentle passion that crushed me. Despite how dangerous he could be, I felt safe with him. Too safe. And, that made it risky.

With a ragged sigh, I broke off the kiss and said, “I’m setting you free now.”

I gave in to the urge to slide a hand through his hair. I had done a pretty good job at burying my confusing feelings for Kale, but this made the wounds new again. Raw.

He stepped back, freeing me from his hold. I gave his hand a squeeze before turning toward the glowing red exit sign. “Goodnight, Kale.”

Chapter Fifteen

“You reek like booze. And Sinclair.” Arys waited for me outside, leaning against my car with arms crossed and a sexy scowl on his face. “Sure you should be driving?”

Ignoring his jibe, I tossed my keys at him. “Feel free.”

I hated it when Arys drove. He was a menace behind the wheel though he somehow managed to escape incident. However, driving would keep him from glowering at me in the dark while I drove, which made it an easy decision.

I winced when he peeled out of the parking lot with a squeal of tires. “What’s the rush? It won’t be sunrise for two more hours.”

“Shaz needs you to give him a hand with your new wolf. When you didn’t answer your phone, he called me. Sounds like Coby’s losing his marbles.”

I groaned as the worst-case scenario played out in my head. “He wolfed out in public a few days ago. That can’t happen again.”

“Better keep your fingers crossed then.”

The drive back to town was spent in silence. I stared out the window as the scenery whipped by. Arys’s discontent marched across my skin like an angry troop of fire ants. So, he was ticked about my choice to save Kale’s ass. But, how could he expect anything less of me? Arys and I belonged together. That didn’t mean I would never form bonds with or have feelings for others. Kale and I were friends. I wasn’t turning my back on that.

Arys drove to the park on the edge of town. A concrete walking path wound through the grass and trees in a wide circle that led around a large pond complete with a fountain. 

As I drew close to the gazebo at the park’s entrance, I saw Shaz and Coby. The glow of a streetlight illuminated their silhouettes. Shaz stood stiffly, braced as if ready to pounce. Coby’s hunched frame and arched back alerted me to exactly how close he was to the change. My pace quickened. 

“Thank God you’re here.” Shaz’s tension was palpable. He fixed me with eyes that were pure wolf. The strain of keeping Coby from losing it was showing. A sniff in my direction drew him right to the wounds on my neck. He looked from me to Arys but said nothing.

I crouched near Coby and gently pulled his shaky hands from his face. Claws protruded from his fingertips. His hazel eyes were wild, all wolf. He bared fangs, and a growl rumbled low in his throat.

 “What happened?” I asked Shaz though my gaze was locked on the man about to burst into a wolf. Coby’s energy ran hot. I focused on it, letting it flow over me. He was barely hanging on.

“We went to Lucy’s Lounge to have a beer and shoot some pool. I think it all just overwhelmed him, being there with so many people. So many smells.” Shaz shrugged as if it was self-explanatory.

In some ways it was.

A bar was filled with a wide array of human scents. Any one of them could trigger the wolf. Fear, pheromones, and sensuality all caught the wolf’s attention and enticed the predator to hunt. This wasn’t like the bloodlust; the change was confusing when it was new. If the wolf suddenly decided to break free and prowl after a particular enticing scent, it was nearly impossible to stop it. 

Coby stank of fear, rage and wolf. His energy was a mess of ever changing vibes, taunting the vampire power lying in quiet wait inside me. I took a deep breath, focusing on the night air entering my lungs. I could feel the bloodlust lurking, anticipating the moment when the quaking wolf would push me too far.

“Coby.” His head jerked at the sound of my voice. “You can control this. You have no choice.”

His eyes were wide as he looked from me to Shaz with a whimper. “It hurts. I feel like I’m dying.”

“That’s because you’re fighting it. You are the wolf, Coby. It can’t hurt you.” I waited, giving him a chance to believe that. I wanted him to handle this because I couldn’t bear the thought of having to watch it destroy him. It would be my fault.

He backed away, his body contorting violently as he fought the change. It was hurting him, I knew that. It did hurt, even when giving in and allowing it to happen, but then the pain was brief and quickly became relief and even bliss. Fighting it was excruciating. Watching him stirred my wolf’s sympathy.

“Alexa, do something.” The touch of Shaz’s hand on my arm pulled my gaze to him. He was trembling. Coby’s frightened wolf was affecting him, too. 

I’d used my power to manipulate the wolf before. I had forced Zoey, a hybrid trapped in wolf form, back into her human body. I didn’t have time to think about the root of that power, the twin flame revelation or the events of the evening thus far. My wolf was in pain, and I reacted.

 The moment I touched Coby, my wolf recognized him as mine. He was a part of me in a way that no other wolf I knew was. I sensed the connection of our wolves deep down inside me. Had Raoul felt this way towards me? As the one he’d turned, I had been unaware of our connection.

He growled and snapped but didn’t pull away. I rested my hand against his forehead, bracing against the onslaught of energy pouring from him like an angry wave. He was on his knees before me, our eyes locked.

There was a roar of white noise in my ears. Pushing through the attack of emotion and pain in his energy, I concentrated on the wolf straining to break free. Coby’s wolf was strong and desperate, anxious to give in to instinct and break free from the prison of his human form. 

Everything around me fell away. The park, Shaz and Arys, all of it faded to black. All I saw was Coby. I grasped the energy of his wolf and forced it to bend to my will. I envisioned it lying quiet inside him.

Power went out from me, and Coby fell back on his ass gasping. When he looked up at me again, the fangs and wolf eyes were gone. The hand I’d touched him with shook slightly, and I was mildly breathless.

He gaped up at me, astonished. Extending a hand, I pulled him to his feet. Calling the power to manipulate his wolf had brought forth the hungers of that vampiric power. I released him quickly and stepped back.

Coby watched me with a strange expression, like he was wary. Then I realized he was looking past me to Shaz who was reacting to the power I’d called like a junkie hurting for a fix.

Shaz’s eyes were wolf, frozen on me in a look of wonder and desire. His own energy grew frazzled. Not everyone could feel energy like this. Some were more tuned into it than others. However, this was a case of addiction on overdrive. Put someone who had never used drugs before in the presence of a powerful narcotic, and it would have little effect on them. Stick an addict in there, and they’ll come undone. 

I stared at Shaz in stunned silence. The glimmer in his eyes revealed something I had never seen before, the dangerous lust of the smitten blood whore. I watched as my worst fear for Shaz came to life. He eyed me like a pet waiting eagerly for attention, aching so desperately for it. I could have told him to get on his knees and worship me like a slave, and he would have done it if it meant riding the high he sought.

“Shaz?” I heard the hesitance in my voice, fear that this was about to get weird.

“Lex.” He spoke softly, so low I barely heard it. He moved toward me with a staggered step.

“Are you alright?”

His hands were hot on my skin as he slid them up my arms, over my shoulders, finally burying his fingers in my tresses. Leaning in close he breathed deeply of my scent and sighed. “I’m afraid I’m losing my mind.”

Desperate passion laced his touch. He kissed me with a drowning hunger. The bloodlust burst inside me, testing my control. With a groan, I tried to push him away, but he held tight. I didn’t want it to be this way between us. It wasn’t right.

Shaz pressed closer. I was quickly overwhelmed by his scent, so deliciously wolf and thrumming with that heady crimson. I couldn’t do this. I wanted to bite into the soft flesh of his throat and bleed him so badly I ached, and knowing he wanted it too made the urge almost impossible to resist.

 “Shaz, stop. I don’t want to hurt you.”

With both hands on his chest, I shoved. He stood his ground, refusing to budge. My precarious hold on control was slipping. Shaz was intent on seducing me. His mouth moved on mine with a feverish hunger.

“But, I want you to. I need it.” He shoved his hands beneath the hem of my top to caress my bare belly.

I was humming with built up energy. I had everything Shaz wanted: the need for his blood and the power capable to take him to heights most could never dream of visiting. We were both slaves to our own personal drug of choice; in a horrific twist of fate, we were also just what the other desired.