APOLLO RISING (The Apollo Saga, Book 1) (14 page)

He looked from the collar to Vanessa. “Funny!”

“It’s not a joke, darling, it’s tradition. Put it on,” s
he commanded, more heavily.

He looked at it inquisitively. “What is it?”

“Consider it a gift.” Vanessa’s gracious statement was cut short by a faint chuckle from the gaunt man still posted at the front door. “Something funny, Deacon?”

“No ma’am,” he appeased her, subserviently.

“Good then,” she poised. “Now, Tyler, put the collar on, honey, won’t you?”

“Don’t do it,” Allie interjected.

He pushed it away from him like it was something alive. “No thanks, I’ll pass.”

Vanessa’s laughter was cold but brief. “You’re adorable. But I wasn’t giving you a choice. I was telling you what to do.
”

“And I’m telling you, you’re wasting your time,” he said. “I’m with Allie, so fuck off.”

Jonesy spun around to backhand Tyler across the face, but Tyler was ready and caught him by the wrist. When Becket spun to face him, Tyler swung straight up, catching him on the jaw and causing him to step back a pair of paces. Taking advantage of the distraction, he brought his right heel down hard on Jonesy’s foot with a satisfying crunch and jumped to his feet. As Jonesy doubled over in pain, Tyler met his chin with the top of his head and laid the big man out.

Allie was impressed – she hadn’t figured Tyler for such a capable fighter, but he obviously knew his way around a thug. Maybe there
were
a lot of things she didn’t know about him.

“Alright, enough!” Vanessa snapped, wheeling back to face Allie, this time with a pistol in her hand.

“Vanessa! What the--”
Allie began, but Vanessa leveled the barrel at her face. Across the room, Tyler saw it too, and froze in place.

“Okay, lovebirds,” Vanessa said to both of them. “Tyler wants a choice, I’ll give him a choice.” She turned her eyes toward Tyler, the gun still pointed at Allie. “Put the collar on, or I’ll kill your girlfriend.”

Tyler raised his hands, pleadingly.

“Wait!” he exclaimed. “This is crazy. Don’t shoot!” He picked the collar off the floor and took a few steps toward the two women. “I’ll do whatever you want, just put the gun down, all right?”

“No, Tyler, don’t,” Allie appealed, but her plea was silenced by the cold muzzle of Vanessa’s gun pressed firmly against her temple.

Vanessa drew back the gun’s slide, chambering the first round. “Put. The collar. On.”

The two goons got back to their feet, but Vanessa indicated for them to stay where they were. Tyler looked to Allie. She shook her head almost imperceptibly. If he noticed, she couldn’t tell.

“Okay, okay,” he yielded. “I will. But first…let her go.”

“No, Tyler, run!” Allie urged, trusting that her old pal was bluffing, “Don’t worry about me!”

“It’s me you want,” Tyler insisted. “This has nothing to do with her.”

Vanessa heckled them both.

“Isn’t this cute,” she laughed. “Girl wants to sacrifice herself for boy, and boy tries to save her. Ah, love” she sighed, “this is what fairytales are made of. But do you know what happens at the end of every single one of those stories?” She paused, taking a deep breath through her nose as the cold steel pushed harder into Allie’s temple. “
Someone
…has to die.”

“Not her!” Tyler shouted, relinquishing to Vanessa’s threat, his hands raised high. “Shoot me!” He pointed to his chest, suggesting an alternative target for Vanessa’s wrath.

Allie tried to hold back the tears swelling in her eyes. She realized then, that –despite telling her only once—he had really truly meant it when he said he loved her. She loved him, too—even more now than before— but she knew that his act of valor was no match against Vanessa’s evil and warned him so.

Vanessa’s turned her eyes toward Tyler, her finger steady on the trigger of the gun still pointed at Allie’s head.

“I appreciate your chivalry, dear, I really do,” she mocked. “But you’re no good to me dead.
Now go on,
” she
nodded, toward the thing in his hand, “let’s see how it fits.”

Tyler glanced down at his hands, stared at the collar as if contemplating what to do.

“No, Tyler, don’t!
Please
,” Allie begged.

“Silence!” Vanessa hissed, nudging her with the pistol.

“He’s not like you,” Allie argued, pushing back against the muzzle. “
He doesn’t even
want
to be a werewolf! Claiming him won’t change that!”

Vanessa’s tone grew stern, “No, but I’ll be mated and the pack will follow me, once and for all. Tyler will learn his place soon enough.”

Allie came back with, “If all you want is a mate, collar one of them!”

Vanessa looked to her thugs. “These two?” she laughed. “They're already loyal to me, putting a collar on them proves nothing. Tyler has refused me. Collaring him makes my leadership unquestionable."

Allie looked at Tyler, waited until he raised his head to look at her.
“
You’re
in control,” she reminded him, hoping she had taught him enough during their days together—about fear and accepting the wolf, and most importantly, taking control.

His eyes narrowed, as if he’d received her message.

Allie nodded.

“You’re right,” he said, lowering his head.

Allie
could see the defeat in his eyes as he looked down at the collar and back to her once more; his motive to save her life, clear.

Allie reached out to him instinctively. “No!” she screamed. It wasn’t what she had meant for him to do. “I meant you control the
wolf!
Change, now! Take the two of them, I’ll handle Vanessa—”

“Shut up!” Vanessa barked, pistol-whipping Allie across the head.

Allie winced from the pain throbbing behind her eyes as she tried to open them. The room was a blur. Vanessa had cocked her good. She barely heard the next exchange, past the ringing in her skull. Something about promises and letting her go. Tyler was still fighting for her safe release, oblivious to the magnitude of his surrender and what that meant for him. He was honorable, yes, but Allie couldn’t let him sacrifice his fate for hers.

She blinked, trying to refocus. Slowly, Tyler came into view, sharp and defined. He had already unlatched the clasp and now raised the silver collar to his neck.

“Tyler!” Allie screamed in agony. “No!”

“I’m so sorry,” he apologized, as if he had no choice. “But I
am
a wolf, and I need to accept that now. This isn’t about controlling that part of me, it's about taking responsibility for this one.” His right hand released its grip on the collar and came to rest over his heart. “
If something happened to you,
I... I couldn't live with myself."

The fear washed quickly from Tyler’s face and a look of sheer determination replaced his often uncertain disposition. His eyes fell hard on Allie, whose heart sank instantly. Through her tears, she saw him mouth the words
I love you
, and almost simultaneously, he affixed the collar around his neck.
The metal clasp locked and the silver on either side of it melded together as if it were one solid ring.

Allie’s new world—built in a matter of days by overcoming obstacles like death, myths and trust—crumbled to ruins in less time than it took for the air to collapse entirely from her lungs. And with it, the dreams of this newfound love she had happened upon so unexpectedly.

Vanessa crossed the room toward Tyler, speaking gently and, almost affectionately, to him.

“I’m glad you’ve finally come to your senses, darling” she said, turning slightly back toward Allie as she
flashed
a malevolent grin.

It was a wicked smile, laced with years of seething jealousy and rage, and Allie knew the moment she laid eyes upon it, that Vanessa was teeming with reprisal - and she had won.

It was time for Allie to go. She pulled the sheet tight around her chest and stood up. Tyler met her with a look of remorse, then glanced away. She wanted so desperately to call out his name, to tell him of her heartache and the love she had for him.

Her lips opened to speak, but Vanessa’s gun was faster, and louder. A powerful crack split the air, filling the room with noise, light and smoke. A sharp pain struck Allie in the chest, and she felt the breath burst from her lungs, and her legs were suddenly too weak to hold her up.
The floor reached up to catch her, but it missed and she felt as if she was falling straight through and into the earth itself.

The world exploded in an instant.

For Tyler, it felt suddenly as if all the air in the room had been replaced with flame, searing his throat and lungs, as he watched Allie’s body collapse to the floor. It was impossible, he told himself. She couldn’t be dead, she just couldn’t be.

Vanessa lowered the gun, a wisp of smoke trailing from the barrel. He remembered her now –remembered meeting her at the bar and thinking she was
attractive, sexy even, exuding the kind of strength and confidence that he generally found intoxicating in a woman. Whatever allure she had then was gone now, however. He could see her strength for what it truly was –
ruthless…heartless.

“Fuck! What the--?” he began, his words tripping over themselves in their rush to escape his lips, “Why’d you shoot? I thought we had a deal?!”

Vanessa clucked her tongue. “Oh, I’m sorry, lover. You didn’t think I’d actually let her live, did you?
” She raised the gun to her mouth, blew the smoke from the muzzle and smiled, mischievously.

He wanted to lash out—to wrap his hands around Vanessa’s neck and squeeze the very breath from her body that she used to deceive him—but she was still armed. Wanting
nothing more to do with this woman, he instinctively reached up to tear the collar off his neck in protest. But touching the collar now was like grabbing a live wire; it burned. Stubbornly, he held on to it for several seconds more until his fingers screamed in pain.
What the fuck?

His eyes returned to the unmoving body on the floor; he couldn’t think clearly. All he could feel was rage, and the undeniable shattering of his heart. Vanessa was responsible for this. She had taken Allie away from him, and suddenly he wanted nothing more than to be sure she paid for what she had done.

His eyes returned to Allie; her hair lay across her face, and a small red pool now formed against her cheek. Stricken by powerful grief, he longed to reach out, brush the hair away and kiss her lips – just hold her, one last time.

And then he remembered.

Stay with me,
she had taught him, in her efforts to keep him from changing that first night together -
stay with me
. Her words played over and over in his head as his heart filled with agony. And the thought occurred to him, amidst his powerful grief, that he could employ the very same focus to bring about the change.

Taking a deep breath, he dove headfirst into thoughts
of
revenge,
keeping his eyes on Allie. His burning desire to
punish the person responsible for her death reached out to the merciless creature within.
The pain in his chest pulsed quickly into a spark of fury, causing him to grind his teeth
as he wished for the wolf to come. He could feel it now, pacing below the surface. Full moon or not, he could hear it there, deep inside him.

But each time he reached out in an effort to bring it forth, the collar would send waves of pain through his body, and his transformation would fall short.

Vanessa loomed close beside him.
“Are you done?
” she taunted.

His only response was a glare of fierce determination to change, peppered by flinches of pain.

She continued, her voice as cold as the collar around his neck. “It’s silver, Tyler. Pure silver, bonded to titanium chains. Not only is it not coming off, but it’ll keep that wilder side of yours in check.” She smiled at his anguished expression. “It’ll hurt around the full moon, I’m told,
but you’ll get used to it.”

“Fuck you,” he spat, hell-bent on proving her wrong. But try as he may, the change would not occur.

“Don’t exhaust yourself, dear,” she insisted. “You’ll need that energy once we return to Apollo City.” She turned to one of her men, “Jonesy, get him ready, won’t you?”

Tyler’s gaze still fixed on Allie’s body, he noticed her moving increasingly farther away as he was forcefully
led down the hallway and shoved roughly into the bedroom. Jonesy stood in the doorway, behind him.

“Get dressed, puppy,” the man sneered.
“You’re coming back with us.”

“Over my dead body,” Tyler threatened.

“I’m sure that could be arranged,” Jonesy warned, “but unfortunately, the lady has other plans for you.”