Eternal Craving (11 page)

Fin offered them only a glance; he seemed to be searching for something. The something was the third brother’s headless torso. They’d caught him in human form, and he hadn’t had a chance to free his soul. She’d seen how fast Al could change, and she couldn’t imagine anything human moving fast enough to catch him by surprise. But then she remembered the speed of the shadows she’d seen.

Jenna looked away from Fin to watch Al. He’d left her to walk toward the two raptors, and something deep inside her bled fear for him.

Each of the raptors had to be close to twenty feet long, with bladelike claws and deadly teeth. The bodies scattered over the ruins of the restaurant attested to their power and fury.

“Utah, Tor, it’s over.” Al’s voice was softer than she’d ever heard it. “You’ve avenged him. Now it’s time to mourn. Control your souls.”

Rap. It had been Rap. He’d hated the cold. Now he’d never be cold again. God, she was crying for a man she hardly knew, but it felt as if she’d known him forever.

Both animals raised their heads and screamed, and the scream was a tortured cry that transcended human or animal. All living things would recognize the agony of it.

And then their forms dissolved, leaving only the two men.

They stumbled past Al to get to Rap. Jenna turned to follow them, wanting to comfort them but not knowing how. And the tears still coursed down her face. Then she felt warm fingers lock with hers. She knew Al’s touch as a coming home. It was comfort, safety, and the strangeness of that feeling shattered her control.

Jenna clamped her hand over her mouth to keep any sounds from emerging and lifted her gaze to Al’s face. She saw him through a watery film. His face was all harsh lines and planes, his eyes filled with barely controlled rage, pain,
sorrow
.

But when he saw her looking at him, he seemed to make a conscious effort to soften his expression. It didn’t work.

She reached up to slide her fingers over his clenched jaw. Jenna wanted to say words of comfort, but none came to mind.

“Fin wants us.” His words came out as a harsh rasp.

They took the few steps needed to reach Fin. Jenna forced herself to look. These men had come from a distant time to make sure humanity survived. Humanity owed them. And so now she’d witness for her whole race. She
would
watch.

While Al had been trying to talk the two remaining raptors back into human form, Fin had laid Rap’s head and the rest of his body out in a macabre imitation of life.

Fin looked up at her from where he crouched over what remained of Rap. For the first time since she’d met him, emotion flowed in those eyes. They were no longer silver. Deep purple glowed with so much emotion that it backed her up a step. The universe moved in those eyes. Jenna thought she’d experienced sadness, anger, regret. But what she saw in Fin’s eyes made her puny emotions seem worthless. She couldn’t stand it; she looked away.

“I’m including you, Jenna Maloy, in our final good-bye to Rap’s mortal form because you are the key to his revenge.”

Jenna swung her gaze back to Fin’s face. He simply nodded.

The key.
She had a horrible feeling a date with Eight was in her near future.

Al watched Jenna try to push her panic away. How much violence, how much terror could she absorb before she broke? She was strong beyond anything he would have expected. That was surprise number one.

Surprise number two? He felt…sorrow. For someone who wasn’t pack, who wasn’t even a friend. After feeling only rage for so long, the sorrow seemed strange. Frightening. Was it a sign of weakness? Al hadn’t decided. But now wasn’t the time for decisions.

“You okay?” He wanted to touch her, stroke her shining hair,
comfort
her but feared her emotions were too fragile to withstand contact with him, with his soul.

Her hand shook as she pushed a strand of hair from her face. “No.
Not
okay. Hysteria is this far away.” She put her thumb and index finger close together. Very close. “It’s like a swarm of bees. Bat one away and five more take its place. I’m no Superwoman. I’ve never been great at anything. And putting my life on the line doesn’t give me a rush.”

Not great at anything? Al didn’t believe that. But her fear gave him even more reason to be pissed at Fin.

Fin evidently took her key status as a done deal because he shifted his attention to his three followers. “I mourn with you.”

Al blinked back what felt suspiciously like emotion leaking from his eyes. Even Al, who woke up each morning with the hope of finding some new sin to drop at Fin’s feet, couldn’t deny the reality of his leader’s grief.

“I will now take Rap’s soul from his human shell and return him to a place of safety.” Fin’s words sounded stilted, ritualistic, and totally removed from the emotion of the moment. But his eyes held all the emotion his words lacked.

Utah stepped forward, his fists clenched so tightly that Al saw blood dripping from where his nails dug into his flesh. “Give him a new body. Now.”

“I cannot.” Fin’s denial was remote and strangely formal, as if he’d slipped into someone else’s skin.

Al felt Jenna tense beside him. God, this must be a nightmare for her. He almost gave into his need to wrap her in his arms, protect her from what Fin had in store for her. No. He resisted the urge. This moment belonged to Rap.

“Sure you can. You’re a fucking god.” Tor’s voice was thick with tears. “We’re pack. We’ve been pack for millions of years.”

“And you will be again. But not now. I don’t have the power to keep Zero at bay and put Rap’s soul into another body. Zero must be controlled, so Rap’s soul will wait.”

“How long?” Tor edged closer.

Fin just shook his head. “I must speak the words now or else his soul will escape to a place I cannot follow.”

“He’s our brother. We want to take part.” Utah’s eyes were great pools of pain.

“I will give all of you the words in your mind. Accept them without asking questions.” Fin speared Jenna with his gaze. “Do you want to take part?”

Al felt her hesitation, and then she nodded.

Fin began. He rested one hand on Rap’s bloody forehead and the other one over his heart. Suddenly, Al felt a door opening in his mind. He was in a place he recognized but couldn’t see, spoke in a language he didn’t know but understood. The words flowed into the place of death the restaurant had become, but they came from somewhere lost in time and memory. They spoke of love and friendship, sorrow and despair, hope and redemption. And then they were done. The door closed, and he was back.

Everyone’s eyes looked glazed for a moment until Fin caught their attention. He held out his hand to them, and nestled in his palm was a small glowing ball of light.

“Touch your brother one last time before I send him on his journey.”

First Utah and then Tor reached out and stroked a gentle finger over the light. It shimmered, growing brighter at their touch and then dimming.

Suddenly Al knew he had to say good-bye too. He’d thought he felt no kinship with any of the Eleven, but he was wrong. Friendship was a funny thing. He hadn’t known it was there until it was gone.

He reached out and touched the light. All that Rap was flowed through Al—his laughter, his temper, his love of Philly cheesesteaks. And his tormented need to return to his brothers. Al made a promise that he’d see Rap’s need fulfilled and let it flow back into the light.

Then a real shock. Her hand shaking, Jenna touched Rap’s soul. Tears streamed down her face. She spoke her words aloud. “I’ll buy earmuffs for you so you won’t be cold when you get back.” Her eyes widened. She slowly removed her finger and stared at Al. “He said he’d hold me to that.”

A smile touched Fin’s eyes, and the purple faded a little. Then his gaze grew distant, and Al knew Fin was somewhere else. “I send you to your place of safety, Rap Endeka. May time treat you gently, and may your sleep be peaceful.” The light winked out.

Al frowned. Those words didn’t sound like Rap would be rejoining them anytime soon.

Jenna broke the silence. “Why hasn’t anyone called the police? People have to have heard or seen something.”

“Whoever planned this wove a spell that repelled humans from wandering into the area. Didn’t any of you feel it?” Fin’s eyes had returned to their usual silver.

Utah and Tor seemed unable or unwilling to talk. Al didn’t blame them. “I didn’t like the feeling of the place, but I thought I was just being overly cautious.” He frowned. “Jenna didn’t feel anything.” He glanced at her for confirmation.

Jenna shook her head. “I was so miserable from the cold, I would’ve chalked up any bad feelings to that.” She glanced out at the dark street. “But I did notice there weren’t any people or cars around.”

“Where did you send him?” Utah’s voice was hoarse; his breathing sounded loud in the stillness of the room.

“There’s a place beneath Sedona in Arizona where he’ll rest until I can call him forth again.”

Al broached the unthinkable. “And if you don’t survive Zero’s attack?”

Fin didn’t look upset by the question, but then Fin never looked upset. Except for a few minutes ago. Rap’s death had gotten to him.

“If I don’t survive, then Rap will sleep for eternity.” Fin didn’t give any of them a chance to think about the finality of that statement. “I’ve contacted Shen. We’re lucky that everyone on his cleanup crew has magic skills. By morning when the spell fades, all that’ll be left is a burned-out building. No bodies will be found. No one will remember seeing how the fire started.”

“They were vampires.”

Tor’s voice was almost a whisper, but Al had never heard so much hate packed into such a quiet tone.

“They were fucking vampires, and I’m going to make sure all the bloodsuckers in Philly find their final deaths before I’m done.” If Tor had his way, Philly would lose its title as the City of Brotherly Love.

Fin moved toward the rear of the restaurant. “Let’s go out the back. I don’t sense anything out front, but I don’t know if Zero’s in town yet. I’d have trouble picking him up if he wanted to hide his presence. And I don’t want to face him until I’m ready.” He didn’t look at them as he stood in the shadowed alley behind the restaurant. “We’ll meet back at my condo. I’ve called in all of the Eleven.”

“We’re not eleven anymore.” Al didn’t know why he had to voice the obvious, but it seemed important. Fin had always made a big deal about the number eleven. It was a master number. It was
their
number of power. He wondered what power the number ten had going for it?

Suddenly, Fin’s expression looked unutterably sad, but Al thought that might just be a trick of the shadows slanting across his leader’s face.

“Perhaps. Perhaps not.” Fin stared into the darkness as though he saw something none of the others could see. “There’s one who stays close, who might…” He shook his head. “But I don’t know. Not yet.”

What the hell was that about? As Al guided Jenna to their car, he thought about Fin’s words. The Eleven didn’t know anything about Fin or each other. Except for the raptors, none of them had physically met in that past life. Kind of weird.

He had lots of time to think on the way back to Ritten-house Square because Utah and Tor sat in the backseat, frozen in their silent agony. Jenna remained quiet too. He wished she hadn’t seen any of this. She should’ve stayed in Houston.

But then you never would’ve known her.
A selfish part of him, the part that answered to his predatory soul, thought he was damn glad she was here and had every intention of sating his sexual hunger with her. His soul’s savage need drowned out any softer thoughts.

That was good, because sex was all they could ever share. What woman would ever accept what he’d been, what he was, what he would always be?
Kelly accepted Ty.
Al pushed that truth away. Ty was a nicer guy than he was.

Once back in the condo, Al, Jenna, and the two remaining triplets gathered around the dining room table in silence. Fin sat at its head. Shen solemnly placed eleven candles on the table, lit ten of them, and then turned off the lights.

The flickering flames cast shadows across their faces, changing them in subtle ways. As Al glanced around at those he thought he knew, he realized he didn’t know them at all. Not really. Familiar and yet unfamiliar. An unsettling revelation.

Slowly, other members of the Eleven arrived to join them.

Al didn’t question the fact that Jenna and Kelly were at the table with them. Surprisingly, Jenna didn’t get up to sit with her sister when Ty and Kelly arrived. She remained beside him. And something that felt a lot like satisfaction touched him.

Shen offered to serve coffee, but no one took him up on it. Finally, everyone had arrived. Utah and Tor sat together as they always had, but they’d left an empty chair between them.

Fin stood. “We have lost one of us to night. We will mourn him now.”

The men rose as one. Then all except Fin opened their mouths and roared their pain, their sorrow, their anger. And it wasn’t their human voices that emerged. It was the voices of their souls, sounds from a primal past they’d once ruled. The room shook with the sound and fury of that emotion.

Finally, Fin joined them. His voice rose above them all, and it was like nothing Earth had ever heard. It carried beyond that room, that building. A night that a few minutes before was cold and clear suddenly lit with zigzag flashes of lightning. The whole building shook with the booming cracks of thunder. It went on and on, and then it stopped.

Everyone sat except for Fin.

The silence was a deep well of despair, and Al knew they’d all have to make the climb out of it to continue their pursuit of Eight. To say they were motivated now was a gross understatement.

The despair was so human it scared him. And it had come from their
souls
, the ones that shouldn’t feel this kind of emotion. Could souls change, become something else? He shook his head to clear away the question. He didn’t know, didn’t want to think about it now.

Al looked at Jenna. Her face was bleached white in the dim light, her eyes wide and staring. But it wasn’t fear he saw in those eyes. It was the sorrow they all felt. And he wanted to enfold her in his arms and hold on.

He didn’t. His soul wouldn’t let him. Even as he mourned for Rap, his soul roared for blood, for death, for destruction. He beat it back into its cave, but Al knew it wouldn’t stay there long.

Fin still stood at the head of the table, calm now. Nothing remained visible of the being that had cried out his grief for Rap. “I’ve asked Jude to come to night.”

“No.” Utah half rose from his seat. “I don’t want any fucking vampire here after what they did to Rap.”

“This isn’t your decision. We need to know what happened. Jude proved his loyalty in Houston. We need a friend in Philadelphia’s vampire community.” Fin was once more in his cold, calm, and commanding mode.

“Should I stay?” Jenna’s voice was strung tight with tension.

“Do you want to stay?” Al tried not to let his expression influence her.

“Yes.”

Al nodded. “Then stay.” He marveled at the rush of pride he felt in her. She wasn’t his, so why all the emotion? Sex was one thing, other feelings weren’t part of the deal. Besides, Jenna wouldn’t want his touch after seeing what he was capable of. Tonight she’d let him close because she’d been terrified. Tomorrow everything would be back to normal.

Jenna watched Al watch her. She couldn’t read anything in his expression. But he was there beside her, and for whatever it was worth, that’s where she wanted him to be.

She glanced over at her sister. Kelly met her gaze and offered her sister a tremulous smile. This sudden death had to be a lot harder on Kelly. She’d known Rap longer than Jenna had. At least Kelly had Ty to share her sorrow with. Jenna was glad for that.

Shen came in and whispered to Fin. Fin nodded and then sat down. “Jude is on his way up. He’s being careful to night. He has bodyguards with him.”

A low rumbling growl spread around the table.

Fin shook his head. “He’s not stupid. What happened tonight has to have sent shock waves around the paranormal community. The humans may be blissfully ignorant, but our nonhuman friends aren’t. And the outcome of our battle will affect all of them.” He leaned back in his chair, looking relaxed and nonthreatening. “I don’t want anyone causing trouble, no matter what your soul tells you.” He cast Utah, Tor, and Al hard glances.

Jenna heard the door to the condo open. Evidently Shen was also playing doorman to night. And then Jude and five other male vampires strode into the dining room.

Just as it had the first time, Jude’s beauty took her breath away. He’d dressed for effect to night. Leather pants, a black silk shirt open halfway down his chest, and knee-high boots. With his pale perfection, darkly wicked eyes, and flowing black hair, he would be every woman’s evil pleasure.

Except for her. That surprised Jenna. She cast a quick glance at the man beside her. Where Jude’s threat was hidden beneath smooth temptation, Al’s was upfront and in your face.

His was a harsh and unforgiving face with eyes that said, “Danger, run like hell.” Al’s raw sensuality called to the primal need in every woman. The need that wanted a man to rip her clothes from her body and drive into her until she writhed, screamed, and tore bloody furrows in his sweat-sheened back with her nails.