Blood Lust (36 page)

She wondered briefly what would have happened if she’d succeeded in getting a vamp to turn her. Would she have still been destined for Cole, or would he have seen her as the enemy?

Jane had calmed enough for the pain to subside. She laughed in the hollow room. She’d never been in physical pain from a man’s absence before. Must be love, she thought sardonically.

She tensed and jerked her head around. She couldn’t be sure, but she had the intense feeling she wasn’t alone. A cramp clenched her gut. Okay, now was not the time for the incomplete mating to yell at her some more. She got it. She’d let Cole mark her at the first available opportunity.

She inched closer to the steel door that led into the tunnels, her eyes on the entrance at the other side of the room. Then the door slid open, and Rhonda appeared, standing with a big grin on her face, looking as if a canary feather might fall out of her mouth.

“Jane!” she beamed. “All alone are we?” She looked around dramatically.

“Not for long,” Jane said, biting her lip against the pain that was trying to well up again. She willed herself to calm down.

“Are you all right, dear?”

Jane spun on her heel and raced for the door. She punched in the code and the door slid open. The steel panel started to shut behind her, and she let out a sigh of relief. She heard a whoosh and looked down to find Rhonda’s shoe wedged in the door to stop it from closing.

Her lungs screamed at her as she ran for Cole’s den, her stomach cramping from the panic overtaking her. She reached the second key pad.

As the door to the den slid open, she felt herself pulled back by her hair. “Wait for me,” Rhonda said.

The blonde stood in her stockings, her shoes abandoned at the other doorway. She shoved Jane into the smaller den.

The wolf crossed her arms over her chest. “Do you know that even as the weakest wolf, I’m still about five times stronger than the average human? And faster? If my heel hadn’t been wedged in the door, I would have caught you already. But it takes a lot of strength to push that steel door open with such a tiny thing stopping it from closing all the way. I thought that was pretty inventive. It comes from all those hours watching Buffy where she was using things in her surroundings to fight.”

Jane rolled her eyes. Rhonda was a disagreeable bitch, and she wasn’t about to show her fear. “I’ve been imprisoned with things far bigger and badder than you’ll ever be,” she retorted.

The comment hit its mark. Rhonda recovered quickly and laughed. “My, don’t we have a death wish? But if I do the killing, I can’t be with Cole.”

Jane gawked at her. Rhonda was completely out of her mind if she thought she still had a chance with him.

“Cole is my mate,” Jane said, feeling a bit like a possessive caveman. She did have the distinct urge to club the wolf over the head right then. There was nothing like a verbal cat fight to let a girl know who she wanted to be with.

Rhonda burst out laughing, bending over so her hands rested on her knees. “Oh, that’s rich. Baby, you think him screwing you makes you his mate? That’s so cute. Nice try, but he hasn’t marked you.”

She strode closer to Jane, inspecting her neck better. She ran a finger over the bite mark Paul had left the night Jane met Cole.

“But I see someone else has. Little vampire whore, thinks a wolf would want her after that? He’s just playing with you. And tonight, he’ll be playing with your entrails. That’ll be fun. For me.”

Jane’s hand slipped into her pocket, fingering the silver knife Cole had given her. She’d kept it with her, always remembering that although they didn’t look like monsters, they could shift into one. And if that happened, her life could be over in an instant.

In one swift movement, she pulled the knife out and slashed at the wolf. Rhonda howled and clutched her arm, smoke rising off it as if she were melting. Jane had never seen what silver did to a wolf before. She raced for the door, her fingers trembling as she punched in the numbers.

As she neared the end of the code, her leg was yanked out from under her. Rhonda’s arm was still sizzling as she tugged Jane sharply toward her and punched her in the face.

The room went black.

When she came to, the wolf was crouched over her, smirking. Jane’s eyes drifted to the bandage on her arm. She’d hoped the silver would kill the psycho.

Rhonda unfolded her limbs from her crouched position and stared down at Jane. “Good thing Cole keeps lots of rubbing alcohol. It hurts like a son of a bitch, but if you pour it into a cut made with a silver weapon, it stops the damage. It’ll scar though, so don’t think you’re off the hook.”

Jane slowly sat up, feeling around on the floor for the knife. Rhonda withdrew a hypodermic needle from her pocket, and Jane’s eyes widened.

She took the protective cap off the needle and laughed. “Don’t worry, sweetie. This isn’t for you. But believe me, if it was something painful, I’d shoot you full of it.” She tapped the needle to release the air and pulled an elastic band out of her other pocket to use as a tourniquet.

“I know what you’re trying to do,” she said conversationally, as she poked around trying to find the best spot in her vein to inject.

“What’s that?” Jane asked, eyeing the crazy werewolf. The last thing she needed was for Rhonda to inject something that would make her even more unstable. Now wasn’t the time for recreational drug use.

“You’re trying to get me to kill you. But it won’t work. Cole’s going to do that. And this ensures it.” Rhonda sighed as she slid the needle into her arm and pumped the drug in.

She tossed the used needle in the trashcan by the sofa and hauled Jane to her feet. She went to the bathroom, then reappeared with the silver knife. It had been cleaned of Rhonda’s blood, and now it gleamed in the light.

“Turnabout is fair play.”

The pain burnt down Jane’s arm as the blade sliced across it, and for one crazy moment she was afraid smoke would rise off her as it had Rhonda. After all, she had enough vampire blood in her veins to see vampires, and enough to be Cole’s mate. But the silver had no effect.

Rhonda smiled, satisfied with her work, “Not too deep, but we’ve got a nice drip going. We’re going to leave a trail of bread crumbs for our hero to find.”

Cole caught the scent of Jonathan, the last black wolf in the pack. The others had turned up clean. It has to be Jonathan. He couldn’t accept what it would mean if it wasn’t. The rich tang of blood entered his nostrils, and for the first time in his life he prayed it was a human.

The wolf looked up at him, his golden eyes confused, his muzzle wet from feasting on a bear. Cole slammed his fist into a nearby tree.

“Fuck!”

Why didn’t I mark her when I had the chance, instead of acting like a human with her? Jane was his and giving her time to get used to it wouldn’t change that.

He raced back to the portal entry point just inside a small natural cave. His head darted back and forth, his nostrils flaring to catch evidence of any witnesses. Before he could retrieve the talisman from his pocket, Mara and Blake came barreling through the portal. They seemed startled to see him standing there.

“That was fast. We thought we’d have to hunt for you,” Blake said.

Why weren’t they in their fur? They couldn’t be out like this on a full moon night in human form unless they’d fed first. He looked at them suspiciously, anger creasing his brow.

Mara put her hands up defensively, “I know we aren’t supposed to hunt in Cary Town, but we stayed away from everything and were quick. We needed to hunt before we came to find you.”

Cole let out a breath. “What’s wrong?”

“Jane. She needs you. She’s in pain.”

“What?”

“From leaving the mating incomplete,” Mara said.

“What?!?” What was she talking about? He’d never heard of such a thing, but Mara knew mating like the back of her hand. She’d studied it and had charts and pie graphs. Now he wished he’d listened to her blabbering.

His expression grew angry as she explained the situation. “And you left her alone in the den?”

Blake shifted on his feet a little, but Cole noticed and growled. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“I gave her the code,” he mumbled.

“You WHAT?”

“She was in distress. She begged. You know what a softie I am if a woman’s upset.”

Cole didn’t have time to listen to his beta’s excuses.

As he ran down the street through Cain’s territory, the demon poked his head out of a nearby tent. “Found the hunter yet?”

He rounded on the incubus and punched him in the nose, “NO! And if my mate dies because you wouldn’t tell me the name, I will find a way to make your life hell.”

He chuckled and wiped the blood off his face. “Too late. Demon, here. Good luck.” He disappeared back inside the tent, and Cole wished, not for the first time, that there was a way to kill a demon.

If Jane died, he’d find a spell to pay Cain back. He should have found a magic user who could torture the hell out of him until he talked, but he’d thought he could avoid that messiness. Cain was a necessary evil at the moment if the pack wanted to retain their autonomy.

He exited the portal on the other side and raced to the den. The scent of Jane’s blood hit him, and he felt a sickness sweep over him so strong he stumbled. He punched in the code, terrified of what he’d find.

He was relieved to find no body. Without the sound of her heartbeat, an empty den was the best-case scenario. The den was in disarray with end tables and books knocked over on the floor. He spotted the syringe in the trash can by the sofa and picked it up, inhaling the sickly sweet poison.

He recognized the scent immediately. It was a drug some werewolves and other therians used to resist the change. But it was dangerous. A wolf could become dependent and lose the ability to control the change, shifting without warning. It wasn’t worth the risk, and Cole had warned the pack when he’d heard the drug was being sold.

Someone hadn’t listened.

His eyes scanned the den, but he knew Jane wouldn’t be there. She’d been moved. And she was bleeding. He shifted back into his fur.

He’d gone three miles before the trail stopped on the edge of town at an old abandoned church. The windows were cracked and broken. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. He stared at the building, aware of the trap waiting inside and knowing he had no choice but to walk into it.

He pushed open the heavy rotting door with his nose and stepped just inside, working hard to change back to reclaim his human form. He had to maintain control. Whatever it took, he had to hold onto his humanity so the vision he’d painted wouldn’t come true.

The church pews had been cleared out. A dome window in the center of the ceiling caused moonlight to shine brightly into the circle creating a halo of light around his mate. The scent of Jane’s blood, fear, and pain almost knocked him over.

She was tied to a chair in the middle of the circle, bleeding heavily from multiple cuts criss-crossing her arms and legs. Rhonda stepped out from behind the shadows into the full moon light, smiling brightly.

“Ta da. No change.” She twirled in a slutty little red dress.

Cole growled. “I found the syringe.”

“You stopped to investigate the crime scene? Well, that’s a shame. Our sweet little Jane could have bled to death waiting for you. She still might.”

How can it be Rhonda? Cole tried to wrap his mind around the fact that the pack member he’d always kept safely protected under his wing, had taken his mate and carved her up like a Christmas turkey.

He’d believed her experience as the omega, always picked on, always the weak one, needing his protection, would have made her at least sympathetic. He hadn’t realized how desperate she’d become where he was concerned, and the responsibility of his carelessness weighed down on him.

“Where’s the knife?”

“Come on, Cole. She’s just a human. Part of a complete and balanced breakfast.”

He was keenly aware of how much blood Jane was losing. “You’ve been hunting humans.” He was somewhat relieved there wasn’t a second wolf to worry about. He watched her hand move as the silver flickered in the moonlight.

“They’re very tasty. You should try one. Try Jane. I wrapped her up for you.”

“Never.”

“Oh admit it . . . when you found my present all laid out pretty for you in the woods, a part of you thought ‘dinner.’ ”

Cole dove for Rhonda, but she’d been waiting for it. She tossed the knife into the center of the circle. Jane stretched her arm as far as she could, straining against her bonds. Cole could see the ropes digging into her circulation as she struggled, but she was still too far from the blade that could set her free.

***

Jane had felt his presence before she saw his face. The pain from the incomplete mating vanished, and a wave of calm washed over her. It didn’t matter that they were in position to act out Cole’s painting. She didn’t believe it was true. Couldn’t believe it.

Whatever he’d seen, it was wrong. Cole wouldn’t hurt her. He was her mate. Or would be.

“Cole, help me!” she cried.

Rhonda moved behind him and stage-whispered in his ear loud enough for Jane to hear. “She’s just a human. Kill her, and let the blood lust take you. Then join with me.”