Soul-Mate (Immortal Love 1) (33 page)

Sebastien started to lecture them with some tough love about reckless attitudes and suicidal behavior in fights against adults and strong beings. It was almost funny. One moment, they were heroes; the other, they were in detention for saving Sebastien’s life. It seemed a bad thing to do, but it was necessary. Better that they were alive than dead heroes.

Shane held my hand and got my attention. I looked at him, and we both stared at each other quietly. We didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know, at least. I had been mad before, but now that all those things had happened, I was just feeling relieved that he was okay. His eyes were sad, showing how much he wanted me to forgive him. I sighed and looked elsewhere.

“I’m still really angry at you for following me.”

“I know.”

“And on top of that, I’m extremely annoyed because you even found a way to get yourself almost killed! What were you thinking? Why didn’t you just follow us to the palace?”

“They had no one else to back them up. And I didn’t think I was going to get myself in the middle of a fight with Alaric’s men.”

“That’s another issue. Why didn’t you tell me that Alaric was family? He’s my freaking uncle! You knew I hated him, that he had killed my father.”

“I was going to tell you everything when we got home. That was why I didn’t let Eric see you this afternoon. I knew you would spot the resemblance and would freak out. I was trying to protect you and find the best time to tell you.”

“Well, how did that turn out for you?” I asked, unable to hold back my sarcasm.

“Not so good…” He looked down at his feet. “But I love you. All I did was to protect you.”

“I know,” I mumbled, knowing perfectly well that Shane never intended to harm me. “But you said that you were going to wait for me to tell you everything about me. You shouldn’t have followed me.”

“I was afraid that…”

“I was cheating on you,” I tried to complete his sentence.

“No, that you would leave me. I had no idea if the mate bond would be strong enough to make you stay.”

“To make me stay,” I muttered, repeating his words, which annoyed me.

“I didn’t mean it like that, Anna. What I meant was that I wanted you to stay with me, but it doesn’t matter where you want to live. Now that I’ve found you, I’m…”

I silenced his babbling with my lips over his. I was tuned in to his thoughts, so I understood what he meant the minute he started to explain himself. I could feel his love for me and that he was true to his words. I didn’t want him to suffer any longer. I had no heart to stay mad. I could have lost him and then my life would have been over.

“You scared me to death,” I complained with watering eyes, my muffled words against his lips.

He knew what I was referring to, because he hugged me tight and cuddled my hair. I was allowed to feel vulnerable next to him, so I was not going to hold it back. I’d been scared for him, and I also felt the need to scream at him for being so damn reckless.

“I was not reckless, honey. And I love you, even if you are mad at me. In fact, I think I just fell in love with you all over again,” he whispered in my ear, raising my chin with his finger so I would look at him. “You are my favorite superhero,” he added, making me smile. A tear rolled down my eye; he caught it with his thumb. I stared at his lips and closed my eyes. I needed him to kiss me again.

“So…” Jessie’s voice was next to us and killed the moment. I opened my eyes and stared at her like Shane did. “Aren’t you going to introduce us to your wolf?”

“We are kind of busy,” I whispered, furrowing my eyebrows to make her understand that it was not the best time to interrupt us.

“You two have lot of time to do that. Now that I’ve saved your butts,” she reminded me, folding her arms. “No need to thank me. Anyway,” she said, breathing out, “Jason and I want to meet your mate.”

"Fine! Shane, this is Jessie and…" I looked back past her and saw my cousin, holding his hair with his hand. "That is Jason."

“Hi,” he said. “I’m Anna’s cousin.”

“And the guy who stole your files,” I added, folding my arms as I glared at him.

“Yes and that,” he chuckled, adding, “And read them.”

“Oh!” Shane said. It intrigued me, because he felt really shy in his thoughts all of a sudden.

“Yeah, dude, like you have a serious fixation on my cousin. I mean, Kage. You have to read what he wrote about you!”

“What did he write?” I asked, gazing at Shane, who had actually turned red. “Before or after he knew who I was?”

“Before, much before. He really admired you. I guess it’s good that you and Kage are the same person or you’d have serious competition.”

“Now I
really
want to read it.” I moved near Shane and brushed my lips to his. “So, I’m your superhero,
huh
?” I smiled and he smiled back at me.

“Shouldn’t we be going to the clinic?” Jessica reminded us, staring at her watch.

“Yes, we should,” I said, holding on to Shane’s hands. “We need to get going. Eric should be getting there any time now.”

“Who’s Eric?” Jason asked.

“My uncle.”

“We can go in my car. I can turn on the emergency lights, and we won’t be stopped,” Shane offered.

“That’s a good idea.”

“I’d rather go in my car, but I can follow you,” Jason said.

As we prepared to leave, Shane gave Aaron total control of the operation. The captured vampires would be locked away until Shane decided to come back to question them, and the kids would go back to their homes after giving their statements. The dead officer would go to the morgue and his family would have to be notified. That was the hardest part. At least the other one who had been shot was out of danger, thanks to Jessica’s healing abilities.

At that moment, I just wanted to get to the clinic and wait for my brother to wake up. I hoped he would wake up. I hoped it wasn’t too late for the blood to work. The doctors and researchers all counted on him to wake up so they could make a vaccine that would inoculate hybrids against the serum and stop the silent, deadly chemical weapon from killing other hybrids.

BETH LOOKED DOWN
at the seriously deadly fall from the balcony of her bedroom into the ocean. The fortress, as she liked to call it, was situated on a high cliff above an ocean view. Even for her, a pureblooded vampire, it would be extremely difficult to survive that fall. However, most of the time, throwing herself into the void sounded more appealing than living there with her kidnappers and abusers. The only thing keeping her alive was her sister; otherwise, she would have gladly asked for a divorce.

At least her holder, who had the arrogance to call her his mate, was nowhere to be seen; she had slept alone, without his hateful presence and despicable appetite for raping her. But she had to face it: he wasn’t as evil and insane as his master. Alaric was the personification of evil. He could be someone’s worst nightmare. He was
her
worst nightmare. She was as scared of him as she hated and wanted to kill him. To make things worse, Alaric was her sister’s mate. Her
real
soul-mate; they didn’t have the fake mate bond that Alaric had imposed between her and his loyal subject, Vincent.

Beth was Alaric’s gift to Vincent, a gift Vincent treasured and made sure to treat a bit better than Alaric had treated her. She had gotten out of the dungeons and was living in the main house, in Vincent’s bedroom, as Vincent’s mate. She hated him a bit less than Alaric, but she couldn’t show it. Vincent had a sick obsession for her that he called love. And Alaric still harassed her and made her life miserable; but at least her sister Marie had started to talk with her again after months of silence.

Beth’s life was complicated and meaningless.
Why not just jump
? All she had to do was climb out and fly to freedom. It would feel like freedom to fall into the deep, deadly waves that crashed against the rocks below, like falling asleep and never waking up again.

She leaned forward, her hair falling over her face and pulled everywhere by the wind. Then she felt arms surrounding her waist that brought her against someone’s chest.

“What do you think you are doing?” a hoarse voice asked next to her ear.

It startled her and left her breathless, especially when she understood who was holding her. She shivered with horror, wanting him to let her go immediately, but she said nothing and did nothing to upset him. Upsetting him was a really bad idea. She wouldn’t make that mistake again.

After sniffing her hair and trailing his hand from her stomach to one of her breasts, then holding it and releasing a moan of pleasure, he spoke again. “I missed you. My worst mistake was giving you away. Did you miss me?” he asked with what could be a sensual voice had he not been as sick and twisted as Beth knew him to be. As much as she hated Vincent, at least being his kept Alaric away from her. Kept her away from his rapes and abuses. “Don’t you miss me, Beth?” he asked, annoyed by her lack of an answer. His voice was no longer sweet; he turned her on her feet, making her look at him.

Beth gazed, breathless, at his green, evil eyes that demanded a swift response. She had to lie to make him happy. “Yes,” she whispered, just audible for vampires like themselves. His face softened and his mouth spread opening into a terrifying smile that made Beth swallow hard. She hoped he would just let her go and leave. She
really
hoped that he wouldn’t try to force himself on her. She held back her tears and self-pity.

“You are such a bad liar, Beth,” he sneered at her. “You know I didn’t have any other choice but to give you away. You know, it was probably
you
who asked your sister for that. You bitch!” Alaric was being psychopathic like always. One moment, he was sweet; the next, he made a one-hundred-eighty-degree turn and became neurotic, sometimes beating people up.

“I didn’t,” she whispered a bit louder, putting her hands over his face and trying to make him believe that she cared for him so he would calm down. He had serious abandonment issues. “She was the one who was jealous,” she added. Her words seemed to have an effect on his mood.

Beth had no idea why, but she was the only one who was able to calm him down. She was not even his mate—her sister was. However, Alaric hated her sister. He scorned and abused her. He would beat Marie down, even knowing that anything he did to her, he was doing to himself. They were bonded, not just by mate bond, but also by a spell that had been cast on him a long time ago by a witch. It was the only thing that kept Beth’s sister alive all these years. Beth had no idea how many years they had been trapped there. There were no TVs or any kind of technological gadgets to keep track of time. It had felt like an eternity.

“You should be my mate, not her. That would make you love me and want me,” he whispered with a boyish voice that sounded almost unnatural on him.

Beth hated when he said things like that. She would most likely cut her head off herself in some guillotine if he was her mate. The idea of being forced to love him was the worst torture imaginable.

“Vincent is so lucky to have you,” he added, hugging her tightly, almost making her lose her breath. “Don’t you miss me, Beth?”

Beth almost sighed out of impatience. They had had that conversation already; she didn’t want to tell him again just to make him happy. She just wanted him to leave her alone with her misery.

“Didn’t you?” he asked, irritated this time.

“Yes, I did,” Beth lied again. His hug became less possessive and hurtful.

“You aren’t saying it right, Beth. Do you want me to punish you?”

“No, master, I don’t,” she answered, afraid of his threat. She wanted him to leave. If the gods existed, they would make him leave. It was all she was thinking and begging, trying to hold back her tears. She felt his hands circle her back, trailing his fingers on her spine until he grabbed her butt cheeks. He groaned with pleasure, and it made her shriek in fear.

“You are so beautiful, it hurts,” he whispered, smelling her neck again.

“Master, please don’t do this,” she begged. Showing fear would only make it worse, but she needed him to stay away from her.

He didn’t seem to hear her; he was busy pulling the skirt of her dress up her legs and kissing her neck.

“I promise, I’ll make you feel good this time,” he said in her ear, nibbling her earlobe and whimpering of lust as he reached her inner thighs with his fingers.

Beth suppressed a scream of horror when she heard him say that. She seriously doubted he could make her feel anything but hate and disgust.

“She will hurt you,” she said, trying to change his mind. It was all she could think of, though she doubted that it would make him stop. He liked pain; he wouldn’t mind if her sister hurt him.

“When I get that witch to cancel the spell,” he said, holding one hand on the top of her dress and ripping off the front, “I’ll make you mine.” He gazed at her breasts inside her bra.

He smirked at the sight of her upper body. His eyes turned red, and his fangs grew in his mouth. Beth squealed in terror, immediately putting her hand to her lips.
No screaming, no screaming
! He liked it when she screamed and asked him to stop. He liked it when she fought him off. It made him hurt her harder and take longer to satisfy his needs.

When she looked at him, he was not smirking anymore. He was still gazing at her face, but he seemed hurt in some weird, twisted way. His fangs disappeared, and his eyes turned green again.

“I said I wouldn’t hurt you this time,” he whispered, menacingly. “So why the fuck do you have that look on your face?” He was yelling now, making her sob. Tears fell down her face. “Don’t cry, don’t cry,” he begged, worried like he actually cared. Twisted and crazy was all Beth could think of him. “Just stop crying,” he repeated, seeming to lose his patience again. Beth did her best to obey. She cleared her tears with one hand and held her damaged dress with the other. “Nice girl. Now give me a kiss,” he whispered near her mouth, waiting for her to lean forward to touch his lips. But she just stared at him, perplexed and gasping for air, praying to all the gods to make him go away for good.