Sanibel Seduction - Vampire Werewolf Menage (Fanged Romance Series Book Four) (27 page)

The elevator dipped and then stopped with its doors opening between floors. She didn’t know what to do. Adrenalin punched through her, but she didn’t feel brave, not at all. She was totally freaked. If she stayed inside, the elevator might drop. If she tried to climb out, it might lurch and crush her.

“Who’s in there?”

“W-will?” She’d barely moved.

“Az, honey? Is that you in there?”

“Please.” Realizing that hauling out of there was her only option. “I have to get out.”

His hands came in, followed by those strong arms. Shaking ensued after something snapped overhead. “Hurry, Azure!” He was risking his life to save hers, and she wasn’t going to make him wait. She grabbed onto Will, swinging her legs high so he could pull her up. With his aid, Azure pushed through the narrow opening and landed face down on the carpeted corridor.

Though tears burned her eyes, she had no time cry before he had her over his wide shoulder, sweeping through the open door of his apartment. He kicked it shut with his foot and sat her down gingerly. “I’m so glad you’re here.” He hugged her fiercely, running his large hands up and down her back. “I told you that I had something of yours.”

“Will? We have to get out of this building. Now! There’s a fire right above in the penthouse.” She skirted him, reaching for the door.

“It’s your mother’s rosary,” he continued. “I want to apologize. I knew I had it, but I was wrong for not giving it back sooner.”

“Get Elise if she’s here. Hurry! Let’s get to the stairs before we’re unable.”

“And I knew you would want it back, especially after she passed away.”

“Will? Forget the rosary. Focus on what I’m saying. Did you hit your head, by chance?”

“I wanted you back,” he admitted. “I made so many mistakes, Az. So many.”

“Oh, God.” Could this night get any better? “You’re drunk, Will. I don’t want to leave you here, please, please take the stairs. Come on!” Strangely, she didn’t feel the building shaking or hear any other explosions. But she knew better than to hang around and wait for more. His arms slid around her body, pulling her back when she reached for the door again.

“I’m not drunk. I truly want to apologize, Azure. Elise is gone, now. For good. It’s just you and me.”

She reached back and patted his shoulder. “I’m sorry she left you, or that you dumped her. Right now, you have to get out of the building. I sure as hell am.” She hit the door, and his arms pulled her back more forcefully.

“See,” he whispered against her face, his breath putrid. “I can’t let you do that.”

“Why are you so cold, Will?”

“He’s coming for you.”

“Who?” She twisted around in his arms, only because he allowed it. The halogen blared down from the foyer light, illuminating his face, and she screamed on first sight.

He dropped her, cupping his ears as he bellowed for her to stop. “My ears are more sensitive now!”

Will looked dangerous, pale and gaunt. Large incisors stretched over Will’s chin, dripping with saliva and fresh blood. In fact, blood was everywhere, splattered on his chest, clothes, and face. Bits of flesh matted his dark hair.

“Who did this to you?” She sputtered, staring on in shocked fascination at the man she’d known for more than a decade. The one she’d truly loved not so long ago. Her knees were buckling, but she shook them out, eyeing the front door discreetly. “Oh, Will,” she sobbed brokenly, “h-how can I help you?”

Blindingly fast, he reached down and pulled her through the foyer. Then, he slowed his pace while wandering from side to side in the main hall. His hands were manacles around her, an iron grip she couldn’t escape. They passed his living room, dining room, and then his kitchen. Not a single fixture was on save the flickering refrigerator bulb. Its door stood wide open with light spilling out in a small radius, spotlighting a dark pool of blood centered by pale, feminine legs. Elise! He’d killed Elise!

“The rosary is over here.” He was using a normal, everyday voice as if they were chatting. “I must get it for you.”

A misplaced rosary was the least of their problems, but he wasn’t thinking clearly because he wasn’t Will any longer. He was
other
. And the other she thought him to be just would not register in her mind.
Vampire?
Vampires exist? Right alongside monsters, she realized.

But she had no time to dwell on what was real and what wasn’t. A slow clap intruded her thoughts, like mocking applause. The man she remembered from the gala who had introduced himself as Tare stood in Will’s media room.

“The perfect setting,” Tare said, bringing his hands together slowly. “Lost loves reunited. A happy ending I never got.” His eyes flashed, the irises soaking up the whites. “But I’m feeling like a generous vampire tonight, Azure Malloy. Ask me what it will take to save your man, and this young one will go free.”

A noise on the balcony caught her attention. She looked up without a pause, seeing Sayer and another vampire standing on a half wall that separated the balcony from death’s fall. The long silver still plunged straight through Sayer’s chest, his face grimly grave. He was still alive but for how long?

“I’ll do anything for him,” she whispered nearly inaudibly, but he’d heard.

“Excellent. All it takes is your sacrifice. You see, Azure. Gage MacGelton fucked and killed my Bride almost two-hundred years ago. As you may notice, I’m a patient vampire, very patient.” He glided next to her, sniffing her throat, eliciting a hideous growl from Sayer. “Finding you was all I cared about. Finding you was the only reason for living. Finding you was the only way to exact vengeance of the most painful kind.” He trailed the backs of his claws down her jawline. “I sure know what that painful kind is because your mate left me to walk a hell on earth. A lonely existence I don’t wish on anyone, apart from him.” He brushed her hair from her face tenderly, rubbing the strands between his thumb and finger. “When I have your lover on his knees, bathing in your blood, only then can I be freed to join her.”

Azure was beyond afraid, so only a few things clicked into place. The principal one being that this
vampire
was dying tonight because of a centuries-old vendetta, and he didn’t have anything to lose before he went out. That made him the most dangerous thing in the room. Meaning things were going to get bad,
really
bad.

Somehow, she had to put everything out of her mind and focus on helping Sayer. So many times, she’d watched death consume. Felt hands holding hers and then go limp after days, hours, and minutes of suffering. Nevertheless, the thought of that happening to Sayer and Gage gouged her soul. It
couldn’t
happen. Her eyes stayed pinned to Sayer. “What’s the sacrifice?” Her voice grew, sounding braver than she was. Watching her man on that ledge was spurring an unfamiliar but wholly welcome ire, she wanted to fight and fight
hard
.

But Tare wasn’t listening to her. “Collin?” He tilted his head questioningly, distracted. “So soon?” The vampire holding Sayer didn’t respond so he obviously wasn’t Collin.

The room grew instantly cold, even with the warm sea breeze wafting through, an inhuman power falling from the sky. She started to sense it before she saw it. An ominous mist formed behind Tare, dark and rolling, whipping in a menacing vortex so potent, Azure dared a step back, even with Tare’s claws still poised near her throat.

Blue eyes flashed, staring straight at her, before a gravelly murmur almost too low to catch said, “There you are
Mine
.” The floor shook, and the monster that was Gage formed right behind Tare. His oversized body covered in some strange, white liquid, rolling down his bulging flesh in thick rivulets.

In Azure’s next breath, she watched claws pierce Tare’s back, lengthening through his chest, and she knew they were piercing and grasping for his…

“Your heart is in my hands, Tare,” Gage rasped behind him. “I bathed in your brother’s blood just now.” Azure shuddered, now realizing what was dripping from Gage. She hoped he only did it to hide his scent, but somehow she knew that Gage thoroughly enjoyed it. “Now, I will bathe in yours.” Gurgling while going to his knees, Gage yanked Tare back up to face Azure. “Centuries I’ve waited for her.” The most animalistic growl Azure had ever heard left his throat, the war cry of a killer. “You think to take her?”

Tare’s mouth opened, white oozing out, “Only after I do everything…you did to my Clarice…while you watch. Fuck and kill,” he sputtered, “a mate for a mate.”

By his need for revenge, Tare had long ago sealed his fate. A terrifying laugh left the Beast. “I remember being the last one inside your Bride. How does that feel, Tare?” More of Gage’s voice came through, taunting the dying vampire. “Though I must say you haven’t missed much, my own hand is a better lay than that boring fuck,” he whispered frighteningly. “Trust me. Killing her was an act of mercy, a blessing from me to you.”

“You blessed Clarice, as well, since you killed her so quickly,” Tare spat through a withering mouth. “Not wanting her to suffer. But I want your Azure to die slowly, you know?”

“Slowly, like the way you drank our female younglings?” A bellow of rage left Gage’s chest. “Enjoying the taste of their fear with every swallow?”

“Just as you’ve killed countless others,” Tare hissed brokenly. “After all, you’re well known in the immortal world as an expert torturer, aren’t you?” His heart was faltering. “Only…cowards…,” he panted roughly, “kill from…behind.”

“Only cowards stalk women and children,” he whispered and gave Tare’s heart an extra squeeze. “And even though there’s not much fun in a quick kill, your time on this earth is long past.”

Gage easily dragged him, now carrying Tare to the balcony away from
her
. Milky blood poured from his chest when Gage pulled his hand away with Tare’s beating
heart
in it. Tare bit back his howl of pain and forced himself not to bow his body, keeping himself stoic yet proud. He smiled brightly, right at Azure. A secret, chilling smile meant just for her. “I may not see your death, Azure Malloy, but you’re about to join me in hell.” He leapt back, freefalling for what seemed like an eternity before he landed with a definite thud on the low beachfront deck.

Without a backward glance, Gage ran straight for her, fierce animalistic sounds rumbling from his enormous body. Without a second thought, she sprinted to the left of him, ready to tear that vampire away from Sayer. Fear no longer registered. She shoved past the sofa while whirling past Will, muttering something entirely incoherent. Though she knew that it was something in the lines of she didn’t want to live without Sayer because that wouldn’t be living at all.

Bands of steel wrapped around her ribcage, squeezing painfully. “No, Gage. No!”

“Guess again,” Will said, breaking two of her ribs in his deadly embrace.

The anger coursing through Azure’s veins made her feel native, incredibly feral, temporarily numbing the pain. She kicked out right as Gage wrapped his massive forearm around Will’s throat, hauling him off her. A snap louder than a tree branch hit her ears and Will went down, one hand reaching out to her in utter longing. She didn’t have time to think about his death or the way he was about to end her life so easily as he did Elise’s. She needed to save Sayer.

Azure jumped back up, gasping through a sharper pain. Understanding one of her broken ribs may have punctured a lung. But the determination to help Sayer flooded her, yet Gage had other ideas. He picked her up
with his mouth -
the way a mother cat carries her kittens, propelling her with his body. She clutched her throat, feeling large teeth so hot, so powerful, she couldn’t imagine being on the receiving end of Gage’s bite. But they anchored her vulnerable neck without so much as nicking her while one of his powerful arms cupped her body. Azure was not a small woman, but next to this thing, she was minuscule.

In the next second, someone hit the brakes, slamming everything into slow motion. Sayer literally evaporated and a mammoth-sized, monochromatic tiger took his place, his slashing claws raking his attacker into broken shreds. Flesh and more of that opaque blood hit his fur in arterial spurts. Those wicked blue-fire flames from earlier erupted from the bits that were his fallen body and the tiger jumped high, aiming for the sea.

Azure heard a bitter, yet contented laugh swell from the ocean, certainly
not
Sayer’s.

“Vengeance rings true this night,” a rumbling male roared from the water just as Gage jumped high with her still in his mouth, aiming for his rooftop garden. “I, Ciaran, Alpha of Scotland claim your blood for the loss of my clan’s, and it tastes sweet upon my tongue!”

She braved a glance down, watching on as the blue flames became smaller, diminishing inside an enormous waterspout uncharacteristic for a clear night such as this. If the terrifying creature who centered it was Ciaran, she hoped she never, ever laid eyes on him again.

Azure tightened her arms around Gage’s broad neck, listening as a deep purr left his body and reverberated into hers. He eased his mouth from her throat. Her mind was unraveling, trying to assimilate everything that happened. And just like that. Ancient images began to surge within Azure, markings of a tribe long past, swirling inside her mind. A slow release of pain, a gentle wave of pleasure followed by welcoming warmth so much like a mother’s hand soothing her forehead as if she were still a child being lulled to sleep.
Him.
Gage was doing this. She fought the darkness, pushed it back with everything she had. “I want to see the sun come up,” she told the monster from her nightmares. And this time, he listened.

The sound of Sayer’s rumbling voice threaded through her body, heating her in cold places, cracking another wall of fear that had settled around her heart. She looked around her mother’s old stuff. Gage had everything placed carefully in one of the penthouse’s many spare rooms. She sat on the floor while wondering why a grown woman, such as herself, took to hiding like a child during a storm.

“The door isn’t locked, Sayer.” A short burst of laughter left her. He could turn into a tiger whenever he damned well felt like it. “Like a lock would keep you out.”