Blood Vengeance (17 page)

Chapter 23

Nikulas

Nikulas rushed back to the apartments as fast as he could go, without raising suspicion from the hoard of humans on the crowded Seattle streets.

As he dodged tech nerds and tourists, he shook his head, again, at his brother’s words. He couldn’t believe that Luukas would really let that female die, not on purpose, not like this. The urge for revenge must be overwhelming for him, but if the witch was truly “his” like he kept shouting to everyone, it wasn’t possible for him to let her die. Not if Luukas felt for her anything near what he felt for Emma.

The constant ache in his chest expanded into a gaping, jagged hole at the thought of his female's lovely face. His head pounded, his throat ached, and his gums burned from the memory of her sweet blood. Her large, hazel eyes followed him everywhere he went. He couldn’t escape the memory of her, and he didn’t want to.

More and more every day, he felt the physical effects of being without her, and he just couldn’t be sure how, when, and where it would get worse. It seemed to be coming in spurts. He’d feel a bit better right after he choked down some bagged blood, but it only lasted a few hours, and then his energy level would fall and his body would begin to ache. He imagined it was similar to what human’s felt when they had the modern flu. He had to feed a lot more now just to try to stay somewhat level, and to enable him to get through a night while resembling any type of normalcy. When dawn came, he fell into his bed like the corpse he soon would be.

And it had only been a few days since she’d left.

Pushing the thought of her eyes, so like Keira’s, out of his head, he concentrated on the task at hand. He couldn’t let the witch die, if not for Luukas’ sake, then for Emma’s. He’d do whatever he had to do to keep that from happening.

Ducking through the front entry of their apartment building, he hit the stairs, beating the elevator up to the top floor, even in his weakened state. With a quick rap on the front door, he let himself into Luuk’s apartment.

“Luuk? I’m back. I brought the antibiotics, and some more food.”

The apartment was quiet. Setting the food on the counter, he glanced around, but didn’t see his brother anywhere, so he headed for his bedroom.

He knocked again, softer this time, and cracked the door open. Still no Luukas. Walking over to the bed, he saw that Keira had fallen back to sleep.

He shook her gently by the shoulder. “Keira? Keira? I need you to wake up now. I’ve got the antibiotics for you.”

Her eyelids fluttered, and he set down the pharmacy bag on the nightstand while he went into the bathroom to get a glass of water. Dumping a couple of pills into his hand, he slid an arm behind her to help her sit up a bit. Her skin felt way too hot, even through her clothing, and he frowned.

“Here you go. Open your mouth. That’s it.” Lifting the glass to her mouth, he pushed the pills between her lips and helped her to take a drink, then gently lowered her back down to the bed.

“I’ll be back before dawn to make sure you take another dose,” he promised.

“Thank you, Nikulas,” she murmured. Burrowing into the blankets, she was asleep again before he managed to get the top back on the pill bottle. He left it, and the glass of water, on the table beside her.

Closing the door quietly behind him, he set out to find his brother. He found him in the spare bedroom, sitting on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands.

Nikulas cleared his throat. “I gave her some antibiotics. She’ll need to take some more before you crash at dawn. I can come back, so you don't forget.”

Luukas lifted his head and stared at him coldly with those foreign, dark eyes. “You shouldn’t have bothered. She deserves whatever happens to her.”

“How can you say that, man? She’s not a bad person…”

“Do you know what she did to me in there, little brother?” Luukas interrupted him. “Do you
know
what she put me through?”

“She had no choice, Luuk, you know that.”

“No choice?” Luukas scoffed with disgust. “She had a fucking choice. She chose to help Leeha with her sick plan to, I don’t know, break me down or whatever the hell it was she was trying to accomplish. She
chose
to help her by taking my power. She
chose
to help her by keeping me weak. She
chose
to hold me immobile with her magic while they beat me, whipped me, salted my wounds…she
chose
to help them while they fucking burned me alive.”

Nikulas’ couldn’t have heard that correctly. “Burned you?” he breathed. “That’s not possible.”

His brother stood up, and began to pace back and forth. “Oh, it’s completely possible when you have a witch chanting a spell during the process. A spell that allows you to feel every single inch of your skin and muscle sizzling away in the flames, allows you to feel your own blood boiling, while not allowing any actual harm to come to you at all.”

Nik’s mouth fell open, and he quickly closed it again.

What the hell was he supposed to say to that?

Crossing his arms over his chest determinedly, he stepped in front of his brother, halting his incessant pacing. “She also gave your power back to you, and correct me if I’m wrong, but she hasn’t lifted one finger to harm you since you both left that place. She’s stayed here with you…”

“Because I won’t let her leave.”

“Of her own choice. She’s an extremely powerful witch. You know as well as I that she can leave here whenever the hell she wants.”

He pushed his hair back off of his face. “She hated doing that to you, Luukas.”

“And you would know this,
how
?”

“Because she told me, and I believe her. Leeha threatened to kill her sister if she didn’t do as she was ordered. Her
sister
, Emma. The only family she has left. She had to choose. And she didn't even know you at the time. I would’ve done the same.”

Luukas lifted his chin defiantly, a bit of that old cockiness showing, and remained stubbornly silent.

Nikulas sighed dramatically. “Well, if you hate her so much, maybe I’ll just take her down to my place, and take care of her there.”

Spinning on his heel, he only made it one step before he had a face full of angry vampire. The temperature dropped and the air stirred around them with Luukas’ fury, rattling the lamps and lifting the bed quilt.

His brother bared his fangs at him, “The witch in MINE,” he hissed. “You won’t be taking her anywhere.
Brother
.”

Nik leaned forward, his own fangs bared in challenge. “Then
help her
, you stubborn bastard. Give her your blood. It will heal her.”

Luukas hissed at him again as they faced off, his rising anger pulsing in the air, whipping out at his brother.

Nikulas’ muscles began to ache from holding himself against the invisible force of the Master vampire’s wrath, but dammit, he refused to give in on this.

Suddenly, the pressure eased.

“No.” Sheathing his fangs, Luukas backed off first. Drawing his anger back completely, he turned and left the room without another word.

Nikulas sucked in deep breaths of air, not quite sure how he’d gotten out of that one unscathed. If his brother had been back to his normal self, he never would’ve put up with such an act of disobedience, not even from his own brother.

Following him out into the other room, Nik refused to give up. “Just think about it, Luuk. If she
is
your mate, and you let her die, you won’t be far behind her.”

Before he left, he tossed out one last parting shot, “You’d have escaped Leeha’s torment, made it back home alive, only to let her win anyway.”

He thought he saw Luukas stiffen, but didn’t hang around to be sure.

***

Exiting the stairwell on his own floor, he found he had visitors in the form of four very large, very exhausted werewolves, in human form, sprawled in the hallway outside of his door. They jumped to their feet as soon as they saw him.

“Nikulas!” Cedric, the leader of the pack, greeted him with his heavy Scottish brogue, his startling, blue-white eyes shining happily in his tan face. “We thought we’d stop by tae chat and see how things were goin’ with Luukas.”

Nik ushered them all inside, closing the door firmly behind them before answering. “Did you guys find anything after we left?”

“No, we dinna. I’m sorry, my friend. We searched th’ entire place, every passageway we could find. It’s like they disappeared with Aiden into thin air.”

Lucian spoke up, his gravelly voice and cynical demeanor reminding him of Dante, but that's where the resemblance ended. Dante looked like a tatted-up biker who'd been through hell and back a few times, whereas Lucian looked more like he should be on the cover of a magazine with his dark auburn hair, high cheekbones, and stormy blue eyes.

“After we found each other again, we went as deep as th’ tunnels would take us. All we found were some more cells, all empty, and all looking like they’d never been used. Seems she only had Marc,” he nodded towards his friend, “the witch, and Luukas down there.”

“I never heard anyone else there but th’ three of us,” Marc confirmed, his dark brown eyes somber.

Cedric picked up the conversation again. “We found Leeha’s private quarters. All empty, yet all of the lass’s things were still there. If they did take off, they didn’t bother tae pack first, which is why I think they’re still in that mountain somewhere. Leeha would never go anywhere without all of ‘er fancy frocks.”

“But you said you searched the entire place. How could she still be there? There’s nowhere she could hide from those big noses of yours.” Nik ducked to the side as Duncan, the self-proclaimed ladies man of the group, chucked a glass bowl at him from the table in the foyer. Catching it before it smashed into the front door, Nik scowled at him.

“Dude, I like that bowl. I put my keys in it.”

Duncan grinned good-naturedly. “Ye’d best be watchin’ yerself then, or ye'll be finding yerself a new bowl.”

“You guys wanna go sit down?” Nik offered, placing the bowl carefully back on the table. "You're making me feel crowded in here."

He shooed them into the apartment, feeling like he could breathe again with the extra space. Nik wasn’t exaggerating about them not fitting in his foyer. They were all at least 6’2”, with Cedric topping them off at 6’7”, and not one of them weighed less than 220 lbs. They made him feel downright scrawny in comparison. Especially considering that werewolves were the only other supernatural species who were any threat to a vampire. They were the only ones who could actually beat them in a fight. And if one of their pack was in danger, they were a force to reckoned with.

A force Nikulas hoped he'd never have to experience.

Luckily, they were on the same side, and had been for hundreds of years.

“So, Marc, what unforgiveable offense did you commit to land yourself in the dregs of hell with my brother?”

“It wasna me, ‘twas Lucian.” He took a seat at the bar, the others hovering near him. “She just took me because I was the one who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Besides, you know all of us wolves look alike,” he smirked. “She didna even care that she had the wrong one. Just plucked me away, claiming she needed a new pet.”

Four sets of eyes looked at Lucian expectantly. He looked back like "Whaa?"

“Lucian,” Cedric ordered, “Tell Nikulas here what you did tae cause all of this. He deserves to know.”

Lucian’s lips lifted into something resembling a smile. It didn't quite make it. “I killed Thomas.”

“Who’s Thomas?”

“You dinna know who Thomas is?” Cedric questioned.

“Not our Thomas?” Nik retorted. “Thomas? Our friend who’s been with this colony since the beginning? I thought he’d just gotten a wild hair and was off scaling a mountain or something. He does that sometimes.”

“No. Thomas has been with the she-bitch all of this time.” Duncan clarified.

Nik’s mouth dropped open for the second time that day. “No fucking way.”

“Aye, way. He was ‘er right-hand.” Cedric flopped down onto Nik’s oversized armchair, causing it to groan in protest. “We were attempting tae have peace talks with ‘er, ye know, make a deal like we have with ye.  She’s been encroaching on our territory up north, and when we confronted ‘er about it, she laughed, and said she would keep ‘er vamps wherever she liked. So I arranged for us tae meet in private. She refused tae show up ‘erself, but said she would send Thomas. I agreed, and sent Lucian, as he was the only one available.” Cedric shot said spokesman a look, and he lowered his head, refusing to meet his leader’s eyes.

“I take it he didn’t agree to the terms?” Nikulas guessed.

“No. He didna," Lucian confirmed. "And what’s more, he refused tae negotiate at all. He’d only shown up tae pass on Leeha’s message that she will do whatever the hell she pleases, and if we got in ‘er way, she would wipe out our pack. So,” he shrugged carelessly. “I wolfed out, and ripped his jugular from his throat.”