Twisted (5 page)

Yeah, the Red Robed Wretches could go there.

“Hey, you're getting paler by the second. There's no reason for you to worry. I sent them away just like I sent the wolf away. Oh, and I sent the other group chasing
you away, too. A mix of males and females with sparkly skin.”

Please, no. Not—

“Fairies,” Tucker said. “They were definitely fairies.”

Confirmation. Wonderful. As many as she had drained, they had to want revenge just as badly as the witches. Tucker might have sent them away, but they'd be back. All of them.

“So what do you come here every day to read about, huh?” Tucker asked, changing the subject. To give her time to calm down? To distract her? “Tell me, and maybe I can help. More, that is. Help
more
.”

Subtle. “It involves Aden, and secrets he's shared with me. And I am
not
sharing those secrets with you.”

A moment passed in silence. Then, “Secrets, secrets, let's see. There are so many to choose from, I don't know where to start.”

“What do you mean?”

“Vlad had me research Aden before I stabbed him, and guess what? You're not the only one who's good at researching.”

Heart thundering with a storm of dread, she whipped upright. “What did you learn?” Aden did not like anyone knowing about him. He was embarrassed, but also cautious. If the wrong person found out about him—and
actually believed the truth—he could be used, tested, locked away, killed. Take your pick.

Tucker held up one hand and began ticking off items like he was reading from a list. “He has three souls trapped inside his head. He used to have four, and one of them was your mother—your real mother, not the aunt who raised you as if you were hers—but Eve's gone now. What else? Oh, yeah. He's now king of the vampires. Until Vlad decides to step in and take the crown back.”

Right on all counts. Her mouth went dry, and she croaked out, “How did you learn all that?”

“Honey, I can listen to any conversation, anytime, and no one ever knows I'm there. And I listened to a
lot
of yours.”

“You spied on me.”

“Isn't that what I just said?”

How many times? What all had he seen? She popped her jaw. Perhaps, if she was never able to drain him, she'd just stab him the same way he'd stabbed Aden. “What makes you think Vlad will succeed?”

Gray eyes went flat. “Please. As if there can be any other outcome. I researched Vlad, too, and he is a warrior who has won countless battles and survived for thousands of years. He's flat-out mean, underhanded and has no concept of honor. What is Aden? Nothing but a bag of meat to a guy like Vlad. Why? Because Aden will
want to fight fair and will actually care about collateral damage, both of which will handicap him.”

Phrased like that, there was no denying the truth. She needed all the help she could get for her original mission. Even from someone like Tucker.

Mary Ann fell back into her chair, closed her eyes for a moment and breathed. Just breathed. In and out, trying to relax, to come to grips with what she was about to do. If Tucker betrayed her, she would have done more harm than good to her friend. If he didn't, well, he could actually help keep Aden alive.

So. No contest. She had to do this.

“Okay,” she said, meeting his gaze dead-on. “Here it is, the whole story, the unvarnished truth.”

He rubbed his hands together with glee.

That didn't comfort her and, in fact, intensified her tension. But she said, “A few weeks ago, Riley and Victoria gave Aden and me a list. Because, on December twelfth, seventeen years ago—”

“Wait. December twelfth, your birthday?”

She blinked in surprise. He remembered. How had he remembered? “Yes. Anyway, fifty-three people died in the same hospital where Aden and I were born. St. Mary's.” At his look of confusion, she added, “Did I forget to mention Aden and I share a birthday?”

“Yes, but I already knew.”

“
Anyway.
A lot of those people died because of a bus accident. My mom died giving birth to me.” Her mom had been like Aden, a force of nature, able to do things “normal” people couldn't, and infant Mary Ann had drained her dry.
Don't think about that, either, or you'll, what? Cry.
“Somewhere on that list are the three other souls that Aden inadvertently sucked inside his head.” Maybe, they thought, hoped.

“You're sure? Maybe they died nearby, and their names aren't there.”

“A possibility, I guess.” One she wouldn't entertain at the moment. “Through my research, I've managed to cross off more than half the names already.”

“That seems excessive.”

Not really. “The remaining souls are male, so that automatically eliminated the females.”

Tucker arched a brow. “Unless they're transgender souls. I mean, really. Aden seems like the type to host a pink panty party inside his—”

“Tucker.”

“What? He
does
. And his friend Shannon is as gay as—”

“
Shut. Up.
The
males
possess the same special abilities now that they possessed when they were alive. I know this because my mother did, too. So I've been going through the names, looking for stories about raising the dead, body possession and predicting death. Even the minutest hint.”

He thought for a moment. “Backtrack a little. Why exactly do you want to identify the souls?”

“Because they need to remember what their last wish was, and do it. Then, they'll leave Aden and he'll be stronger, able to concentrate and defend himself from Vlad.”

“You really think that will help?”

“What is this? Twenty questions? Hell, yes, I do.” She had to. Otherwise her friend's chances were nil.

Once again Tucker was blinking down at her. “Mary Ann, you just cussed.”

“
Hell
isn't a cuss word.”

“To me it is.”

“Why? Because you're afraid of spending eternity there?”

Good humor, gone. “Something like that.”

He looked so sad, she actually felt bad for her waspishness. “Maybe, by the time this is over, I'll have earned myself a spot right next to you. We can keep each other company while roasting.”

He barked out a laugh, as she'd hoped, but that earned them another glare from Hush Girl. He flipped HG off and said to Mary Ann, “You
wish
I'd spend eternity with you. So, you got any leads?”

“Before you interrupted me—” she paused, waiting for an apology, but of course he didn't offer one “—I
was reading a story about a mortician at the hospital. Dr. Daniel Smart. Apparently he was murdered there. Defense wounds on his arms and legs, as if he'd rolled into a ball to protect himself while someone—” or something “—bit and punched him.”

“Great story. But what does that have to do with Aden's souls?”

“One of them can raise the dead. What if Dr. Smart raised a dead body in the morgue, and it killed him?”

“But wouldn't he have raised a dead body before? And if he had, why would he have continued to work there? He would have been in constant danger, and his secret would have gotten out. But it didn't, which means he didn't.”

“Maybe he could control the ability.”

“Maybe he couldn't.”

“I don't care what you say,” she grumbled, hating that he was right. Again. “This is the best lead I've got.”

“Our definition for the word
best
differs. Still,” Tucker went on blithely, “it's worth checking out.”

“I know.” How irritating! As if she needed his permission. “That's next on my To Do list.”

“What about his parents?”

“Who, Smart's?”

Tucker rolled his eyes. “No, moron. Aden's.”

“What about them?” Their current address was burning a hole in her pocket. Finding them had been first on that To Do list she'd mentioned, in fact, and she'd already crossed it off with shocking ease. A search engine, a (stolen) credit card Tucker had given her, and
boom.
Results.

They were still local; the shame of abandoning their son, when they might have been the only people in the world who could truly help him, hadn't driven them away. Were they happy with their decision? Regretful?

She'd debated: call Aden and tell him, or not call Aden? In the end, she'd opted for
not
. For the moment. He had a lot to deal with right now and if she met with the couple first—fine, spied on them—she could make a more informed decision.

“Close up for today,” Tucker said, drawing her back into the conversation, “and let's find a place to sleep. We'll head out for…” He paused, waiting.

“Smart's wife is still here in Tulsa, close to St. Mary's, the hospital where her husband used to work.” Tulsa, Oklahoma. Which was two hours away from Crossroads, Oklahoma. Two hours away from Riley.

Not that she'd imagined him driving that stretch of highway a thousand times.

“Good.” Tucker nodded. “Did you read the man's obituary?”

“Yes.”

“Checked out his family?”

“As best as I could.” He'd left the wife behind, but no one else had been mentioned.

“And you have an exact address?”

“No. I thought I'd drive around until a golden ray of sunlight shined down from the heavens and spotlighted the house.”

“Sarcasm again. Not your best look.”

“Then stop asking dumb questions.”

He sighed, the last sane guy in existence. “We'll drive there in the morning. Does that work for your timetable?” He didn't give her a chance to respond. He stretched out his hand and waved at her. “Come on.”

With a sigh of her own, she placed her hand in his. As he stood, he pulled her to her feet. He helped her into her jacket and tugged her out of the microfiche area. Just before they walked into the main library, someone screamed. A girl. Hush Girl, maybe. Fearing the worst, Mary Ann tried to turn around and see what was going on. Tucker threw his arm around her shoulders and forced her attention straight ahead.

“Believe me. You don't want to see.”

No attacking witches or fairies, then. “What did you do?” she whispered fiercely. And she knew he'd done something, the turd.

“Let's just say the snake under her desk is trying to converse with her,” he replied with another wicked grin.

Of course.

They stepped outside, into the moonlight and cold. She tugged the lapels of her jacket closer and glared up at him. “I thought you couldn't cast illusions when you were so close to me.”

His grin widened, and all she could see was straight white teeth flashing down at her in the darkness. She looked away before she gave into the urge to slap him. Repeatedly. Cars whizzed along the street in a
zoom, zoom
rhythm. No one stood on the sidewalk, and there were no insidious shadows lurking nearby. Searching had become a habit.

“Well?” she insisted.

He leaned down, as if sharing a naughty secret. “Let's just say my skills are going nuclear.”

Or her ability to mute was fading, she thought suddenly, and her eyes widened. Oh, please, please, please, let her ability be fading. If she stopped muting powers, she might stop draining energy, too. And if she stopped,
she could see Riley again. Could kiss him again. Could finally—please, finally—do more. Without worry.

“Okay, why did that make you so happy?” Tucker asked, suspicious.

What did he have to be suspicious about? “Nothing.”

“Liar.”

“Demon.”

He cleared his throat as if fighting a laugh. “That's not really an insult for me, you know.”

“I know.” She practically skipped along the concrete. Even the
thought
of safely seeing Riley lightened her mood. “Let's just enjoy the moment, okay?”

Tucker had to quicken his step to remain beside her. “What moment?”

“
This
moment.”

“Why? There's nothing special about it.”

“There could be if you shut your mouth.”

This time, he laughed outright. “Remind me why I dated you.”

“No. I'd only throw up in my mouth.”

“Nice, Mary Ann,” he said, but he was still grinning.

“I try.”

T
HE SCREAMS THAT HAD RAZED
Aden's mind for such a torturous eternity ceased abruptly, and he knew only silence. Yet, the silence was worse because, without the distraction, he became aware of a thick, gloomy fog surrounding him, writhing with malicious glee.

Escape, he needed to escape. He would die if he stayed here. Surely the fog would suffocate him. Was even now trying to do so. Determined, he clawed his way through, climbing…climbing…his body broken, throbbing…climbing…climbing…higher and higher until—

His eyelids sprang apart.

First thing he noticed, the fog had dissipated. Still, the world around him was hazy, as though smeared with Vaseline. He sucked in a deep breath to center himself, then growled. There was something sweet in the air, and his mouth watered. His blood heated.

Taste…

Someone called his name. A girl, her voice layered with concern and relief. He blinked, gradually clearing away the film, and sat up, ignoring the aches and pains shooting through him. His gaze panned the…bedroom. Yes, he was inside a bedroom. Or a snowstorm. All that white—white walls, white carpet, white furnishings—was as overwhelming as it was familiar.

A girl approached him, her hands wringing together and twisting the fabric of her black robe. Finally, a shade other than white. Long dark hair cascaded over one delicate shoulder. She had pale skin, smooth and flawless, and the loveliest blue eyes he'd ever seen.

She reached out, slowly, so slow, to feel his brow. The sweetness in the air thickened, and the urge to taste increased. Though he wanted to bite her, he leaned away from her touch.

Hurt consumed her features.

Within seconds, she masked the emotion and squared her shoulders. “I'm glad you're awake,” she said, voice devoid of any emotion as well.

Fangs peeked from between her lips, he noted. Vampire. She was a vampire. A vampire princess. Her name was Victoria, and she was his girlfriend. The details
came at him like they were baseballs being shot from a pitching machine. Yet no reaction accompanied them.

“How do you feel?” she asked.

He just looked at her. Feel? His nerve endings had calmed, and he didn't feel anything.

She gulped. “You were asleep for nearly four days. We gave you medication to quiet the souls, just in case they were the ones keeping you under.” Chewing on her bottom lip, she glanced over her shoulder. “We didn't feel we had any other choice.”

We,
she kept saying. Implying someone had helped her.

“Can we get you anything?”

We
again. Aden panned the room a second time and noticed a guy standing in the far corner. Tall, strong, dark hair, green eyes. Riley. A wolf shape-shifter and an all-around pain in the ass, but he was a good guy nonetheless.

A human girl stood beside him. How Aden knew she was human, he wasn't sure. He'd never met her before. She was nervous, moving her weight from one sandaled foot to the other, her short crop of blond hair dancing over her shoulders, her brown eyes looking anywhere but at him, and her freckled skin chalk white.

Again the sweetness in the air intensified. Except now
it was layered with something spicy, and his entire body vibrated with anticipation.

Anticipation. His first emotion since waking up, and it consumed him.

“Thirsty,” he croaked.

Victoria reached out, not to touch him but to offer her wrist. Distantly he recalled drinking from that wrist. His gaze lifted. And from that elegant neck. And that gorgeous mouth. He'd been besieged with need, utterly intoxicated. And he'd hated himself. He recalled that, too.

Also, he'd hated
her
. Or at least, a part of him had.

That part of him must have grown, taken over. Because, looking at her now, so lovely and serene, he wanted to grab her arms and shake her. To hurt her as she'd hurt him. To punish her for what she'd done to him.

The urges surprised him. What
had
she done to him? Besides try to turn him into a vampire. Besides feed him and feed from him. Besides fight him to survive. All of which he understood and accepted.

“Aden?” She wiggled her wrist.

The moisture in his mouth heated and burned, demanding relief, demanding…blood. He recognized the sensation and was leaning toward her before he registered
the fact that he was moving at all. Just before he sank his teeth into her skin, he stopped. What was he doing? He needed blood, yes, but not hers. Hers was dangerous. Addictive.

Shaking, he pushed her arm away—the part of him that still craved her screamed in protest. Her skin was warm, and though not as hot as before, he tingled where they'd touched all the same. He wanted to be touched again and again and again.

Focus on the human.
“You,” he said, nodding to her. He refused to fall under another girl's spell. If he did, he might not recover. There was no way anyone would affect him the way Victoria did. Surely. “Do you want to feed me?”

That dark gaze at last zoomed in on him. “Y-yes.”

Truth or lie? “Are you nervous?”

“Of you?” She shook her head with conviction, but her subsequent stuttering contradicted the motion. “N-no.”

She wasn't scared of him, but she
was
scared of something. That wouldn't stop him. “Good. Come here.”

Riley and Victoria shared a long, dark look. More than a look, actually. He knew Riley was pushing his thoughts into Victoria's head, and shrugged. Let them
say—or not say—what they wanted. Nothing would change his decided course of action.

Finally Victoria nodded, moved backward, and the wolf shifter gave the human a little push in Aden's direction. She scooted around the princess, remaining out of striking distance, and Aden suddenly comprehended the reason for her upset. She feared
Victoria
.

Smart of her. Victoria watched her through narrowed eyes, poised to launch into an attack at any second. Were they enemies? No, they couldn't be. No one was more protective of Victoria than Riley, and the wolf never would have let the human through the door if that had been the case. So…what was the problem?

Only when the girl was at Aden's side did she relax. She curtsied, grinned. “What can I do for you, my king?”

He didn't allow himself to study his vampire and her reaction to the girl's query. “Let me have your arm.”

Instantly she reached out. He wrapped his fingers around her wrist. It was thicker than Victoria's, with a little more meat under her skin. As hot as Aden's body temperature now was, the human felt chilled.

He absorbed her scent, testing it. Sharper than what he craved, he mused, with more spice than sweetness,
but he could deal. Already his stomach was twisting, knotting. He urged her closer…opened his mouth…

“Wait. You're going to hurt her,” Victoria snapped, beside the girl in the blink of an eye and jerking her from Aden's hold.

The human gasped and trembled.

Aden growled, even as the scent of the vampire stirred up some kind of animal inside him. A wild thing, cohabitating in a place where there was no room for emotion, only instinct honed on a battlefield.

Mine,
that wild thing said.

Never yours,
the other part of him hissed.

“You don't have fangs.” Victoria raised her chin. “So, like I said, you'll hurt her. I'll bite her and—”

“
I'll
bite her.” Fangs or not, he knew how to feed. Hadn't he proven that to Victoria, over and over again?

The memory had his gaze falling to her neck, where her pulse hammered swiftly. The ache in his gums returned.
Mine,
he thought again.
Mine to bite and to drink from and to kiss.

You don't even like her. Not anymore.

“I'll bite her,” she continued through gritted teeth, “and you can drink from her.” She didn't give him a chance to respond. She simply lifted and bit.

The human closed her eyes, moaning as the pleasure
hit her. Pleasure Aden knew very well and still craved, despite his determination to remain aloof.

Vampire fangs produced some kind of drug that numbed your skin and flowed straight into your veins, warming you up, making you feel good,
too good
. Which was exactly why so many humans became addicted, willing to do anything for another nibbling.

Not him. Never him. Not again.

A second passed, then another. Victoria lifted her head. Blood wetted her lips a deep scarlet, and Aden wanted to lick them. Instead, he forced his gaze on the two punctures in the human's wrist. Blood wetted there, too, and he groaned. What he didn't do was chastise Victoria for disobeying him.
What right do I have to chastise her?
He simply claimed the arm offered to him and brought the wound to his mouth.

He licked once, twice, tasting ambrosia, groaning again, before sucking, letting the nectar fill his mouth, swallowing, his eyes closing in the same surrender the human had experienced. And yet, in the back of his mind, he thought that as wonderful as this blood tasted, it should have tasted
better
. Should have been sweeter, with only a little hint of that spice.

“—has no fangs, yet he
still
craves blood,” Riley was
saying as Aden became aware of his surroundings again. “It's unheard of.”

“Apparently not,” Victoria snapped. “Look at him. He's enjoying every moment of this.”

“Enjoying? His eyes look dead, and have ever since he woke up. Something's wrong with him.”

Aden knew they were talking about him, but just as before, he didn't care.

“Well, she's enjoying it, then,” Victoria added, words sharp as a whip. “If I wasn't holding her back she'd be grinding on him.”

“Do you want me to deny that?” the wolf muttered. “Because we both know I'd be lying.”

“You're a terrible friend.”

“Whatever. Just don't kill her afterward. To borrow her, I had to promise Lauren you'd do her laundry for a week. And I had to promise you'd do it forever if any harm came to her slave.”

“Thanks a lot. You couldn't have asked Lauren for a male?”

A tremor rocked the human. Of fear? Or was she still too lost to the pleasure to care, either?

“I'm only guessing here, but I don't think humans—even former humans—are like us. They can't separate
feeding from sex. I figured Aden would appreciate a female.”

“Well, he's appreciating her too much!”

Riley arched a brow at Victoria. “Are you jealous, princess?”

“No. Yes. He's mine.” A pause. “Well, he
was
. Now…he pushed me away. Twice. Did you see him push me away?”

“Yeah, I did, but he loves you, Vic. You know that.”

“Do I?” she asked softly.

Did he? Aden wondered. Even though he didn't like her at the moment? Because, as he knew, you didn't have to like someone to love them. A lesson he'd learned as a child, when his parents had him committed, then walked away and never looked back.

He hadn't liked them, might even have hated them, but even still, he'd loved them. At least at first. But as the days had passed in a medicated haze, as other patients beat him up and called him names, that love had withered, leaving only the hate. Then, the hate, too, had left him, and he simply hadn't cared. He'd had the souls.

His souls. Where were his souls? They weren't chattering, and he couldn't feel them in the back of his mind. Did Victoria have them?

No longer was she watching him. Her gaze had moved just over his shoulder, perhaps even outside the room. Her eyes were as blue as before, no longer mixed with green, brown and gray. No, the souls were not inside her head.

They must be in his, and the medication must have put them to sleep. Another reason to dislike Victoria. The souls were his best friends, and a few times over the years, they'd been his only reason to live. They despised his medication and would not be happy when they woke up. She'd known that, yet she'd forced the pills down his throat anyway.

“Yes,” Victoria finally said. “He loves me. I know it.”

She did? She was a step ahead of him, then. Once, he
had
loved her; he knew that much. And why wouldn't he have? She was flawless, a walking fantasy. But what did he really know about her?

Bad—to her, humans were nothing more than food. Bad—she could enslave with a single bite. Good—she cared about her family. Bad—her father wanted to kill him. Good—she knew he was different than other humans and vampires, and she liked him anyway. Bad—she was insensitive to humans and their needs. Good—she was
trying
to be sensitive to humans and their needs.

During their one and only date, she had danced around him, telling jokes. Lame ones, but she'd been trying. For him. Trying to be what she thought he wanted and needed. So, yes, he had loved her. But now? He couldn't summon a single spark or hint of softness.

Oh, the attraction was still there. He wanted to push the human away and fall on the vampire. He wanted his teeth in her neck and his body pinning hers. He wanted her hands on him, and her mouth on him, and he wanted her gasping his name.

Even as the thoughts drifted through his head, images formed. Of her, of him, of the two of them together, doing exactly what he wanted. What he wanted so badly he was actually growling, the guttural sound rising in his throat and spilling into the bedroom, echoing menacingly between them.

Victoria must have assumed the growl was for the human. Suddenly she vibrated with anger and concern. He could actually taste the emotions in the air, and they had him sucking at the human with renewed fervor.

The human moaned her approval.

Strength was infusing his cells. His muscles were expanding, his bones humming. And, wow. If this human female affected him so powerfully, how would the vampire affect him?