Bound In Death (A Vampire and Werewolf Romance) (12 page)

Now, too late, she realized it wasn’t about physical love. Or even some kind of emotional attachment that had linked him to her across time. To him, her blood was power.

And he wanted as much power as he could get.

“I could have taken your blood when I took your body.”  Cold words. Brutal words.

True words.

“I didn’t,” he said.

No, he hadn’t, but she remembered a moment when his teeth had edged over the curve of her shoulder. When she’d felt just a flash of pain.   

Then he’d pulled back.

“You wanted to,” she whispered.

One dark brow rose. “Are you going to pretend that you didn’t want to taste me? Because I’ll know that you’re lying. I saw your fangs.”

Fangs that were emerging, even then. She clamped her lips closed, horrified.

“It’s what we are,” he said simply, shrugging. “When we fight and when we fuck, the bloodlust rises within us.” 

She didn’t want bloodlust. She just wanted—

I don’t know! But it isn’t this!

“We can’t fight nature.”

She wanted to try. “You found me in Florida. Then you brought me here…because my blood makes you stronger?”

His eyelids flickered. “I brought you here to keep you safe.”     

She knew he was lying to her. Jane shook her head. “Try again.”

Before he could speak, she heard someone calling his name. Then Liam was shoving open the bedroom door. The werewolf glanced at her—a fast sweep with his eyes that took in her sheet-clad body—then focused completely on Alerac. “We have company.”

The way he said it, Jane knew he wasn’t talking about the good kind of guest.

Alerac spun toward him.

“Ryan,” Liam said flatly.  “He must have heard that we have her.”

Alerac marched for the door.

“Wait!”  She hurried after him.

Alerac didn’t slow.

So she grabbed him and made him stop. “Who is Ryan?”

Jane didn’t like the look that Liam and Alerac shared.

“Who is Ryan?” Jane repeated.

“A vampire.” It was Liam who spoke. “A very powerful, very angry vampire.”

Great. “Someone else who wants me dead?” Maybe they should just make a line.

Alerac glanced down at her hand as it curled around his arm. “I have a…truce…of sorts with Ryan.”

“A truce that will be ending,” Liam muttered. “You know it’s gonna be over.”

Alerac nodded. “I will speak with him. Have the guards escort him to cabin on the ridge. I’ll meet him there.”

So he was just waltzing off to meet this Ryan guy? “I want to come with you.”

“No.” An immediate and hard denial. “If he sees you…” Alerac exhaled. “I’ll have an even worse battle on my hands.”

“Is he the one who has been trying to kill me?” The vampire who’d sent men after her? 
Twice?

“Lorcan has been hunting you. As for Ryan, I’ll find out exactly what he wants.” His focus shifted briefly to Jane’s face. “He won’t be a threat to you.”

That wasn’t the answer she’d wanted.

But it appeared to be all that she was getting.

Alerac left her, with Liam following right on his heels behind him. There were murmurs in the hallway. Jane put her ear to the door and heard—Alerac was putting guards on her! Men to make sure that she didn’t leave the bedroom. 

What. The. Hell.

She started searching for clothes. She yanked open the closet. She’d take something of Alerac’s and make an outfit. Just like on that fashion show she liked to watch.

Except she didn’t have to make anything work.

Because one side of that massive closet contained clothes. Women’s clothes. 

“What’s happening?”  Did the werewolf have another lover? Lovers?  Her eyes narrowed as she yanked some clothes from the hangers. She jerked them on.

A perfect fit.

She glanced into the long mirror that waited at the end of the closet.

The shirt that she’d grabbed was the same blue as her eyes. The jeans hugged her hips and curled over her legs.

She found shoes next—shoes that were the exact size that she wore.

The tightness in Jane’s gut grew worse.

Whirling, she rushed from the closet.

She didn’t waste time heading for the door and the guards out there. Instead, Jane hurried toward the big window that looked out over the mountains. She put her hands on the window pane and stared down.

Alerac and Liam were walking beneath her.  The glow from the moon illuminated them.

They’re going to meet the one called Ryan.

A vampire.

Alerac killed vampires.

He can’t kill this one.
Because something had happened when Alerac mentioned Ryan’s name.

An image had flashed in her mind. An image of a tall man, with pale skin and blond hair.

And her eyes.

She wanted to see this man—this vampire.

She wanted to make sure that he stayed alive.

Jane waited. Watched until Alerac vanished down a snaking path that led into the woods.

Then she opened the window.  Three floors up.

A fall like that would kill a human.

Good thing she wasn’t human. 

She crawled through the window, clung to the side of the house for an instant, then she let go and just fell.

***

“Where is she?”

Alerac schooled his features as he faced off against Ryan McDonough.

It had been five years since he’d last seen the vampire.  That night, they’d both been covered in blood. They’d gone for each other’s throats.

He could have killed the vampire then.  Alerac had been moments away from taking the man’s head. But he’d stopped.

Because Ryan had
her
eyes.

“She’s free, I know she is.” Ryan’s voice no longer held even the hint of an Irish accent. Like Alerac, he’d left their homeland long ago. 

Left searching for what had been taken.

Alerac glanced over his shoulder. Liam was watching them with a guarded gaze.  Liam had never trusted the vampire, and he’d sure never understood why Alerac let the guy keep living.

“I was at the bar in Miami. I talked to the woman who owned the place. She told me—”

“Talked?” Alerac interrupted slowly as he sauntered around the small cabin.  “Or did you drink her?”

Ryan’s lips thinned. “I needed the truth. I got it. Then I had to fly all the damn way up here to catch you—and you know I hate those damn planes.” Then he moved in a fast lunge and grabbed Alerac’s arms. “
Where is Keira?”

Alerac’s claws had burst free at the attack. Even as Ryan tightened his hold, Alerac had his claws at the vamp’s throat.  “I let you come onto
my
land.”

“Because you have my sister!”  There was no fear in Ryan’s blue gaze. Only rage. “And I want her back.”

Not happening.
“You need to step back. Or else we’re about to see if you’re still as much of a bleeder as before.”

Jaw locking, Ryan slowly released Alerac. But he didn’t retreat. The vamp kept standing toe-to-toe with him. “I heard her cries in my mind. Over and over again, until they nearly drove me mad.”

He’d always known that Ryan shared a deep connection with Keira. Twins. The only born vampire twins that Alerac knew of in this world. 

He just hadn’t realized exactly how deep that connection went for them.

“I knew the exact moment when she was free,” Ryan’s voice was low. “Because that’s when her screams stopped.” 

Alerac swallowed.  “If you were so tied to her, then why the hell couldn’t you find her?”

Ryan shoved him across the room. Alerac slammed into the wall.

“I tried!” Ryan snarled.

Liam rushed at him.

Ryan’s fist sent the wolf down. 

“In my mind, all I saw was darkness. All I could hear was her screams.  I searched…” Ryan stalked toward him. “Just as hard as you did. I never gave up on her.”

The vamp’s fangs were out. 

Only fair, since Alerac had never lost his claws.

“You just found her first,” Ryan continued. His lips twisted into a savage grin. “But you don’t get to keep her.  She’s my blood.  My clan.  And I’m taking her home.”

The hell he was.

“Home?” The word was barely human. It took all of the control Alerac possessed to keep the form of a man. “A crumbling castle in Ireland? One that even
you
haven’t inhabited in a century? And don’t damn well talk to me about her clan. It was her clan that turned on her. That let her be sentenced to that hell.”

“For you!”  Something seemed to break behind Ryan’s eyes.  He lunged at Alerac. Punching. Kicking. Clawing. “You destroyed everything!”

As the vampire’s teeth came for his throat, Alerac realized that Ryan hadn’t just come to the mountains in order to retrieve his sister.   

The vamp had come to kill him.

Too bad for Ryan. He wasn’t in the mood to die.

She followed the sound of snarls. Of growls. And the scent of blood. 

Her steps were soundless as she slipped through the woods. She expected some of Alerac’s pack to come at her, but they didn’t.  Maybe it was her lucky night. She’d eluded them easily enough.

Or maybe she’d just caught them unprepared because they hadn’t been expecting her to do a header out of the window. Whatever.

Jane barely breathed as she approached the cabin on the ridge. A small cabin, its exterior dark. But…

The growls were coming from that place.

So was the scent of blood.

She eased toward the narrow window. Faint light shone from behind that glass, and when she leaned closer, pushing up on her tip toes, Jane saw—

Alerac. With his claws slicing toward the throat of a man with blond hair. A man with fangs. A man who turned his head at that exact moment.

The man’s eyes—blue, bright—met hers.

“
Keira.”

She could have sworn that she heard his whisper in her mind.

Alerac’s claws were flying toward the man’s throat.

“No!” Jane screamed and pounded on the window.

The glass shattered, flying inward.

“Let him go!” She’d cut her hands on the glass. Blood dripped from her fingers.

Alerac’s head turned toward her.  His eyes widened.

This scene—it was just like the scenes from her visions.  Alerac, killing.

A river of blood that never stopped.

“Don’t,” she whispered. “Please.”

Then hard hands grabbed her. She kicked back, landing a hard blow to someone’s shin, but her captor didn’t free her. He spun her around to face him.

She found herself staring at Liam’s furious face. “You shouldn’t be here!”

Screw that. It was her life.  She wasn’t going to be locked in any room while the werewolves decided her fate. She tried to break free. Liam didn’t let her go.

Liam…

He’d been in those visions. He’d taken the blood from the vampires, too. He’d fed, just like Alerac had.

And Liam’s eyes were already dropping to her throat.

No!

She slammed her head into his and punched him in the gut as hard as she could. He stumbled back, and she raced into the cabin.

Alerac stood frozen, with his claws less than an inch from the blond-haired man’s throat.

“Don’t kill him!” Jane yelled.

“Keira,” the man whispered. The word almost sounded like a prayer.

The name still meant nothing to her. 

But that man…his eyes…
he
mattered to her. She knew it, deep inside.

“Please,” she took a cautious step toward Alerac. “Let him go.”

The floor creaked behind her. Then Liam’s arms wrapped around her once more. “No more head butts,” he snapped into her right ear. “I think you broke my freakin’ nose.” 

Alerac’s gaze jerked to Liam’s arms. Then to Jane’s face. “Take Jane back to the main house,” he ordered. “
Now.”

The blond man broke free of Alerac’s hold.  His fangs flashed—definitely a vampire—as he backed into the far corner. He frowned at her. “Who’s Jane?”

I am.

Liam tried to pull her toward the door. Jane dug in her heels and got ready to do more damage to the werewolf’s nose.

“Let her go!” The sharp order came from the blond vampire. Then he was there, right in front of Jane. He’d moved so quickly.  Vamp fast. And he wasn’t waiting for Liam to follow his order. The vampire grabbed Liam’s right arm. Broke it. Then he pulled Jane against his chest.

“
You’re alive.
” The vampire was trembling against her.  His scent filled her nose. He smelled like the ocean.  The scent reassured her.

He
reassured her. 

And she had no memory of him at all. 

But she found her hands wanting to rise. Wanting to hold tight to him.

“She doesn’t remember,” Alerac said as the wood of the floor creaked beneath his approaching feet. “You know the spell that was put on her. She doesn’t remember a damn thing, Ryan.”

Ryan.  She tilted her head back. Stared up at him. 

“I think she remembers me,” the one called Ryan murmured.  “Don’t you, Keira?”

There was blood on his mouth.  She hadn’t noticed it before. Her gaze dropped to that blood, then she looked over at Alerac.

His neck was bleeding.

The vampire had taken his blood.  She’d thought that Alerac was the one attacking, but had he just been defending himself?

The vampires want you dead.
Alerac had told her that before. 

He’d also saved her life.

And in your visions, he killed vampires.

“She doesn’t remember,” Alerac said again, voice rougher.

Jane glanced back into Ryan’s eyes, so like the ones that she saw when she looked into a mirror. “I don’t remember you,” she told him, almost hating to say the words.

Pain flashed over his handsome face.  “But you remember
him?
” He threw a hard glare toward Alerac.

“She remembers
nothing.”
Alerac reached for her. His claws were out, but his hands were incredibly gentle as he pulled her away from Ryan.  “Lorcan wanted her to be this way.  The bastard thought he’d get to her first.”

Ryan’s eyes had hardened. “But you put him out of commission, didn’t you?  I heard that you killed five of his closest allies—”