Dark and Deadly: Eight Bad Boys of Paranormal Romance (53 page)

“No, Snow.”

Snow didn’t stop. He whined and slashed his arms, his wrists, blood flowing freely. Andreu and Chica grabbed his thickly muscled arms, trying to restrain him. Payne helped them but Snow was too strong. He tried to shake them off, growling and whining, the sound harrowing as it echoed around the theatre.

Antoine grasped Snow’s hand and Snow stopped to look at him, a lost expression on his blood-streaked face.

“Calm yourself, Brother,” Antoine whispered and swallowed. “You did not do this.”

Snow’s face twisted in agony and he offered his wrist again, his entire arm drenched in blood now. It pulsed from the lacerations, dripping thick and fast onto the black stage floor.

The corners of Antoine’s lips lifted in a pained smile. “I will take it... there is no need to spill more for me.”

Snow moved his arm towards his mouth and Antoine closed his eyes and fixed his lips around one of the cuts. From what Payne could tell, he only took a little blood from his brother. Was he afraid that he would make Snow worse if he took more than a sip? Payne didn’t want to find out the answer to that question. Snow was scary enough as it was. He didn’t want to encounter Snow in a darker wilder mood than the one he was in now.

“All the pretty colours... do you see them... Aurora...” Snow rocked, his eyes locked on Antoine, and then tilted his head back and stared at the black ceiling of the theatre, his eyes glazed and face streaked with blood. “Come home with me... we can go together... don’t go away.”

Antoine looked at Chica, eyes swimming with pain and remorse, with sorrow. She nodded and glanced at Andreu, and he nodded too.

Chica released Snow’s arm and laid her palm against his cheek. She moved to kneel beside him and he looked at her, his eyes as black as midnight but soft with trust. Was he aware of what Chica was going to do?

“Take me home,” Snow whispered in a low broken voice and his eyebrows furrowed. “Aurora. Prettier than the heavens. Take me there with you.”

Chica leaned in and pressed her lips to his, and kissed him.

Snow’s arm instantly dropped from Antoine’s lips. No one besides their mate or the strongest of males could withstand a succubus’s kiss. Snow was strong. How much energy would Chica have to steal to render him unconscious? He wavered, eyelids drooping, and then fell back onto the stage with a heavy thud.

Antoine pushed himself up and grabbed Snow’s hand, his distress written across his face and in his scent. He shirked Sera’s touch, crawled to his brother and gathered Snow to him, sitting with his arms around his broad shoulders and his face pressed into his bloodied white hair.

Chica leaned over and pressed her ear to Snow’s chest, and relief crossed her face.

She sat back and looked around at everyone, and then settled her eyes on Antoine. “He will be alright, but I had to take a lot of energy. When coupled with the amount of blood he lost... I’m not sure how long he will be out.”

“The longer the better,” Antoine whispered and smoothed Snow’s bloodstained brow, brushing the hair from it, his pale blue eyes fixed on him with affection and a touch of fear. “He will need rest to recover from this setback.”

Andreu stared at the back of Antoine’s head. “Did you know he was capable of this?”

Payne’s gaze briefly scanned the carnage strewn across the black boards around them. Snow had torn more than one incubus apart, littering the theatre with their remains. Vampires were notoriously violent when driven into a protective rage, but Snow’s actions had been more than that. Payne could recognise signs of a terrible past haunting someone, and whatever had happened in Snow and Antoine’s history, had been darker than black and it had wounded the two brothers deeply, especially Snow. Payne had seen the scars on Antoine’s body. He could piece things together for himself and knew why Snow had lost it when he had seen Antoine bleeding.

Antoine growled. “He would have been fine... we wouldn’t be in this mess... Snow wouldn’t be like this if it wasn’t for that witch.”

“No.” Payne placed himself between Antoine and Elissa, struggling to keep his balance on the slippery bloody stage. The lacerations on his forearms stung, blood leaking from the deep gashes, but it wouldn’t stop him from fighting to protect her. “You dare blame her for this. I brought her here... I killed their leader... my grandfather. I ruined her... I ruined everything. This is my fault.”

Antoine snarled at him, baring his fangs, his eyes blazing red. Sera went to him and wrapped her arms around both him and Snow, whispering soothing words to her lover.

Payne watched him closely, not trusting him.

“Elissa doesn’t deserve your anger. She gave us the key to fixing the mess you created, Antoine. It was an incubus who hurt you... but it was you who refused Snow’s blood and sent him into some sort of self-harming trance... blame me, if you want, but don’t you dare blame her.”

This was all his fault. Yet again, he had brought pain to people he cared about when all he ever wanted to do was protect and care for them.

They would all reject him now.

He had to do something to stop that from happening.

“Let me help you with Snow,” he said and Antoine scowled at him.

“No.”

Sera helped Antoine to his feet and then Andreu tried to help him with Snow. It was ridiculous. Antoine needed blood and rest. He didn’t have the strength to lift Snow when he was a dead weight. Chica stepped in and her strain was visible on her face as she tried to teleport them.

“Let me help you.” Payne tried again. “Please, Antoine? Let me try to make this right.”

Elissa’s feelings flowed through the link between their blood and he cursed her for pitying him, for knowing his innermost fears and how terrible he felt, and his crushing need to try to make amends.

“Please?”

Sera whispered to Antoine, her face a picture of concern. Antoine nodded.

Before Payne could take a step towards Snow, Elissa was beside him. He glanced down at her and she lowered the boy, setting his feet on the floor and keeping one arm around his back. She gently laid her free hand on Payne’s bloodied left arm and her eyes twinkled. A hot ache ignited in his bones and he grimaced as the cuts on his forearms stung fiercer than before, burning as she used her magic to seal his wounds. The pain slowly eased and then faded completely, leaving only a peaceful sort of warmth behind. She smiled shakily and he helped her lift the boy back into her arms, and couldn’t resist pressing a kiss to her forehead, silently thanking her for easing his pain and for caring about him.

Payne lifted Snow with Andreu’s help and looked back at Elissa. He didn’t want to leave her here with the others, was afraid that something might happen to her if he did, but he needed to try to make amends, and this was the only way he could think of making things better between him and Antoine. Elissa held his gaze, no trace of fear in her now, her silvery eyes sparkling like starlight. She was powerful and he knew deep in his heart that she could take care of herself and her youngling if it came down to it, and he would sense if she was in any danger.

“Stay here. I will only be a moment,” he said and she nodded.

He teleported both Snow and Andreu to Snow’s room and settled the large unconscious male on his bed. Chica appeared with Antoine. Sera burst into the room as Payne was removing Snow’s ruined t-shirt. She rushed to Antoine and helped him to the chair beside Snow’s steel four-poster bed.

“Take five,” she whispered and kissed Antoine. “I’ll help get Snow settled.”

Payne looked away from them, guilt tearing him apart inside. She was so loving. It made him feel terrible. There was a witch waiting for him downstairs and he wasn’t sure what to say to her to make everything all right between them.

Sera was extremely gentle with Snow, carefully stripping him down to his underwear and then helping Payne chain him to the bed. Payne let her deal with the final shackle and rounded the foot of the bed to Antoine. He wasn’t sure what to say to him either.

Antoine held his hand out to him. Payne helped him to the bed and held him steady as he settled beside Snow.

“I’ll leave,” Payne said, his voice steady despite the turbulence churning inside him, pain colliding with fear, stripping away his strength. It was all he could do to make up for tonight. He would leave Vampirerotique and everyone’s lives forever. He would go before he brought any more pain to their lives, to people he had come to care about.

He turned to leave.

Antoine caught his wrist, his grip surprisingly strong, and held him firm. “I will expect you back at work tomorrow.”

Payne said nothing. He couldn’t bring himself to believe that Antoine meant that.

He shirked his grip and took a step towards the door. Andreu was there, blocking the exit. A futile move considering that Payne could teleport. The women stared at him.

Chica poured a glass of blood and handed it to Antoine.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Sera said, her voice soft and filled with warmth.

Payne closed his eyes and kept his back to her. “It doesn’t change what happened. I’m still leaving.”

“Why?” Antoine this time and he sounded as though he was losing patience now.

Payne sighed. “I don’t belong here.”

“Nonsense.” Antoine’s tone had taken a turn towards dark, a commanding snarl that Payne had heard many times in the months he had been at Vampirerotique, the one that warned to obey or face the consequences. “You are due at work tomorrow and I have something I need you to do tonight.”

Payne looked over his shoulder at the dark-haired male.

“Please apologise to the witch and thank her for helping fix what I did to Chica... for undoing some of the pain I have caused. No one here is perfect, Payne, but we can all move past our mistakes and make things better. We are family.”

Payne wasn’t sure what to say. He stared at Antoine, struggling between rejecting what he had said to protect himself and his heart from a blow that would likely kill him if Antoine was lying and accepting it as the truth. They were family. He did belong here.

He wasn’t sure he would ever truly believe that, but he could apologise to Elissa on Antoine’s behalf and thank her.

He could make things right with her, and then he would work to make things right with everyone else he had hurt.

He nodded and teleported back to the stage.

Elissa was gone.

Payne focused on Elissa’s scent and the icy fingers squeezing his heart eased their grip when he sensed she was still in the theatre. He teleported to the foyer and found her there.

She turned to face him, her back to the glass doors and the night beyond. The warm lights from the chandeliers did strange things to her hair. Or perhaps not. He frowned. Silver streaks shot through the chestnut, and the more he stared, the more strands turned the colour of stars. Why?

Elissa looked away.

“Where are you going?” he said and took a step towards her, fear turning his blood to icy sludge.

“I’m sorry... I caused so much hurt and I didn’t mean to.”

“Antoine will be fine and Snow will recover.”

She lifted her head and shook it, her silvery eyes filled with sorrow that flowed through the connection between their blood.

“I wasn’t talking about them... I was talking about you.”

Payne looked at her hair. More of it was silver and he had a horrible feeling he knew why. She was marked now. Tainted.

“I’ve done terrible things to you too... why didn’t you tell me this would happen?” He longed to close the gap between them, run his fingers through her hair and tell her that he would fix it somehow. He would make everything right and he would take care of her if she would only let him. He would be a good mate, and would protect her and Luca.

The boy stirred, opening sleep-filled grey eyes, his expression soft and docile. When he saw Elissa, tears sprang into his eyes and he sobbed. She set him down on his bare feet, crouched and held him, rubbing his back as he cried into her hair, his little fingers buried in it, clinging to her. Payne clenched his fists and then took a step towards them, unable to deny his need to comfort them both.

Elissa looked up at Payne.

Several women appeared on the pavement beyond her, outside the theatre. Payne growled. The little boy tensed in Elissa’s arms. She gathered him closer and turned to face the newcomers.

Witches.

A blonde middle-aged woman moved forwards and paused with her foot in the air, close to the boundary of Vampirerotique. She set it down, glared at the stone steps and then up at the facade of the theatre.

“Elissa,” she shouted, loud enough for Payne to hear it through the glass.

Elissa took Luca’s hand, walked with him to the door and opened it.

Payne’s heart broke at the thought she might still leave.

The witches would hurt her if she tried.

“Leave this place of death.” The woman stared up at Elissa, flanked by six other witches, all of them dressed in traditional dull black dresses. They were here on business then. “We have come to take you home.”

Elissa looked back over her shoulder at him. In the low light, he couldn’t see the silver in her hair, and that meant the witches couldn’t either. Didn’t they know what he had done to her or were they just trying to fool her and lure her out so they could hurt her? Was it as she had said and he had thought, and the spell that cloaked the incubi den had severed her coven’s connection to her, so they hadn’t felt what he had done to her there and were unaware of it?

Payne stared straight into her eyes, unable to put voice to everything he wanted to tell her. It hurt too much. He could see in her eyes that she longed to go with these witches. She wanted to believe that they would accept her even though he had tainted her, ruined her. She didn’t want to be with him, and he couldn’t blame her. He could only blame himself.

He had never thought he would find another woman to love, a second chance at having a destined mate. He had never thought he would find a woman that he could love without fear, safe in the knowledge that her feelings and desires were her own, and that she would never turn on him. The phantom’s words still haunted him. They had all come true. What had that female seen in his future?