Untamed (Vampire Awakenings, Book 3) (37 page)

Ethan's gaze was drawn to the left as Tristan
stepped into view. "There you are," he said in a taunting voice
that set Ethan's teeth on edge and caused his upper lip to curl
into a sneer. Tristan's eyes ran over Ethan and though he tried to
hide it, Ethan sensed his steadily increasing trepidation.

"We've been waiting." Tristan continued as he
walked over and rested his hands on the back of the chair. "Haven't
we Emma?"

A snarl escaped Ethan as Tristan's hands
settled upon her shoulders. The world seemed to lurch out from
underneath him as Tristan shook her roughly. Emma's head lulled for
a second before she slowly lifted it. Her eyes were dazed and
unseeing for a second but when she finally focused on him she
jerked in the chair and a strangled cry escaped her. Her right eye
was nearly swollen shut and had already turned a deep purple color.
Her lips had been split open; there was a line of dried blood from
her broken nose to her chin. The world around him lost its reddish
hue as everything became clear once more. All of his rage centered
upon one thing, murder, and Tristan was the target.

Emma had never seen anything like the man
standing in the doorway. She wasn't even entirely certain he could
be considered a man anymore. Everything about him reminded her of
the pictures she'd seen of Satan in countless paintings and books
over the years as Ethan's entire body was covered in a reddish
black color. Looking at him, she could understand where the legend
of the devil had originally come from. Even the whites of his eyes
had red veins in them that connected to the blood red iris of his
eyes. Terror trickled down her spine, a chill slid over her body as
her heart seemed to stop beating for a second.

Would he be able to come back from this? He
had fought his entire life to keep himself under control, but he
had let it all go, she was certain of that as his eyes remained on
Tristan. He couldn't lose himself, not now, not because of her. If
she was going to die today, she didn't want him to go with her.

"Yes we have definitely been waiting for
you," Tristan continued as he ran his hands over her shoulders and
down her arms. Emma shivered and tried to shrink away from his
touch but she couldn't escape his disgusting hands. "This is when
the fun can really begin. When you can just stand there and watch
helplessly as I get to enjoy what you stole from me."

"Don't!" Emma snapped when his hands circled
her waist and dropped down toward her lap. Ethan growled and leapt
forward only to be thrown back again by the barrier. Tears of
helplessness burned her eyes but she refused to give Tristan the
satisfaction of seeing her shed them.

"But then I did get here first." A shiver of
revulsion shook her as Tristan's lips brushed against her ear and
his hand slid between her legs. He chuckled as she clamped her legs
together and squeezed her thigh so roughly that the skin broke and
blood began to seep out.

"I haven't gotten to taste something I want
even more though," he whispered against her ear. "You smell
delicious." Emma tried to turn her head away as his hand wrapped
around her head and seized hold of her chin. Vomit surged up her
throat as his lips pressed against her neck and he inhaled deeply.
"Scrumptious," he said in a tone that made her think he was going
to have some fava beans and Chianti when he was done with her.

Brian and Stefan appeared in the doorway
behind Ethan, their eyes settled briefly upon her before shooting
up to Tristan. Brian's breath exploded out of him as Stefan placed
a hand against the barrier keeping them from entering the house.
Emma tried not to think about the fact that they would all be
forced to stand by and watch as Tristan did whatever it was that he
planned to do to her. Behind them, Isabelle, Aiden, and Ian
appeared and spread out across the porch.

"Imagine my surprise when I finally tracked
you down only to discover that you were spreading those pretty
little thighs," Emma jerked when he squeezed her thigh again,
drawing more blood from her. He ran his hands over her skin,
rubbing the blood over her leg before his hand slid over the bottom
of her shorts. "For another
vampire
. I told you Emma, that you are mine, that
you will
always
be mine."

She stared into his reddened eyes as he
lowered his face before her and licked the blood from his fingers.
"What happened to you?" Emma blurted as a way to try and buy
herself more time though she suspected her attempt at distraction
was useless. "How did you become like this?"

Tristan laughed as his blood dampened fingers
stroked over her face. She turned her head away but he jerked it
back and kept hold of her chin. He placed his cheek against hers
and held her so that she had to look at Ethan. "I caught the fancy
of a young girl who admired my unique
ways
."

She had admired his
insanity
, Ethan thought as Brian pressed closer against
his side and rested his hand on the barrier. Tristan's twisted mind
would have been extremely enticing to some of their kind, they
would have loved to see what perverted creation Tristan would
become and they were probably proud of this monster standing across
from him.

"You're stronger than you think pureblood,"
Brian whispered. "You're capable of more than all of us."

Ethan shot him a look but he didn't respond
as his attention was drawn back to Emma and Tristan. His fingers
had left streaks of her blood across her face. Frustration filled
him, he had no idea how he was going to get at her; how he was
going to save her from this monster.

"What happened to her?" Emma croaked in a
strangled voice when Tristan's hand wrapped around her throat and
his thumb stroked up to caress the underneath of her chin.

"You
are
and
always will be my only love Emma; no one was ever going to come
between us. I was the only one that had been within you, and I
will
make you pay for allowing
another to take my place, but you are still
mine
. My creator gifted me with immortality and
the ability to do as I please. She taught me everything she knew,
taught me the joys of our ways and one day while she was sleeping I
put a stake through her heart," Tristan said.

Unwillingly she flinched away from him as he
pressed a kiss against her cheek. "And just think, she didn't even
betray me like you have, with this man."

She inhaled sharply as his fingers dug into
her chin and he held her so that she had to look at Ethan. The fire
rose in Ethan's eyes as his gaze burned into hers. She flinched
away when Tristan's tongue ran from her chin to her temple, leaving
a trail of saliva behind.

"Fuck you!" she spat, unable to keep her
temper anymore as exasperation and helplessness tore through
her.

Tristan laughed and turned her face to his.
"Oh believe me Emma; you will be doing that again too."

Nausea and horror twisted within her at the
thought. Without thinking about the consequences, she leaned back
and spit in his face. His eyes turned red almost instantly, and
before she knew what he intended, he raised his arm and backhanded
her across the face with enough force that the chair toppled over.
Pain exploded through her head, her vision blurred as a roar filled
her ears. It felt like she'd been hit with a shovel instead of a
hand as blood spilled from the corner of her eye. She was still
trying to gather her wits when a hand wrapped in her hair. Her
skull screamed in protest, strands of hair were torn free as she
was lifted off the ground and the chair was returned to a seated
position. Though it felt like her head was going to explode, she
realized that it was Ethan's bellow vibrating through the room.

"It really sucks that you can't get in here,
believe me, I know. I had a door slammed in my face recently too,
but this time I'm going to leave it open just so you can watch,"
Tristan taunted Ethan.

Emma didn't have time to react before he sank
his fangs into her neck. A scream boiled up in her throat and
clogged there as he began to drain the blood from her body. Her
hands and legs strained against the ropes binding her, sweat broke
out on her forehead but though she tried to get away from him, it
was useless as the pain made it almost impossible for her to
move.

The scent of her blood lured Tristan's
cronies from the shadows; she saw the eager gleam in their eyes as
they narrowed in on her. Panic tore through her; she somehow
managed to get her fingers to spasm as she partially broke free of
the paralysis gripping her. A cruel smile curled the lips of the
woman she'd hit with the rock as she knelt by her side. Emma's
heart raced as she realized her intent and there was absolutely
nothing that anyone could do to stop her.

Tristan broke away from her and shoved the
woman away. "This one is mine; you can have the other one."

The woman hissed in protest but turned away
from her to approach Jill's immobile form. Jill hadn't moved from
that spot since Tristan had told her to sit and stay as if she were
nothing more than a dog. Emma's pulse began to race as the woman
knelt before Jill and rested her hands on Jill's thighs. Ten more
of Tristan's cohorts emerged from the shadows and moved toward her
friend.

"No," Emma croaked out.

The word was barely out of her mouth before
Tristan sank his teeth into her neck again. It was the strangest
feeling to go from moving to completely immobile in less than a
second but her body felt as if it were encased in cement when he
was feeding from her. There was a deafening almost static sound in
her ears due to the rapid pulse of her blood in her ears.

She could barely get her eyes to move toward
the doorway but when she did, she couldn't believe what she was
seeing. It seemed like there was a clear wall of rubber pushing
inward as Ethan put his shoulder down and pushed against whatever
it was that was blocking the doorway. Sweat coated his brow; his
face was strained as he moved one excruciatingly deliberate inch at
a time into the house. What he was doing should be impossible and
she thought perhaps she had taken a few too many blows to the head
today, but when she closed her eyes and looked again he appeared
even closer.

He was almost two feet inside the living room
when the wall seemed to give way. With a roar that could rival the
largest of lions, he raced at them in a blur of motion so fast that
she didn't see him again until he was snatching Tristan up by the
throat and heaving him across the room. Plaster cracked and
shattered as Tristan crashed loudly into the wall. The painting on
the wall slid to the ground and shattered when it hit the
ground.

Emma gasped in a breath as her lungs were
finally released from their paralysis enough for her to inhale
again. Her head lulled down, her chin bumped against her chest as
weakness crept through her now mobile body. Her heart felt like
lead in her chest as it labored to pump what blood remained through
her system.

Ethan grabbed hold of the ropes binding
Emma's wrist to the chair and shredded them before seizing the
ropes around her ankles. Her limp body slumped to the side but he
caught hold of her before she fell on the ground. He spun her
around and hunched protectively over her as Tristan launched
himself at them.

A grunt escaped him as something sliced down
his shoulder and ripped open his flesh. He realized that he'd been
stabbed when he felt the air blowing against his exposed skin and
felt the blood that spilled down his back. "Ethan!" Isabelle
screamed from the doorway.

He didn't bother to look at her though as he
kept Emma pressed against his chest with one arm and swung back at
Tristan with the other. The knife, still embedded in his shoulder,
hindered his movement but he was still faster than Tristan and
managed to catch him across the cheek. Blood spilled as he sliced
the right side of Tristan's face open from ear to chin with his
claws. The white of his cheekbone and his lower teeth were exposed
by the blow.

Shifting Emma, he bent and placed her
carefully on the floor before turning to face Tristan as he came
back at him with five of his companions. Reaching back, he wrapped
his hand around the handle of the knife and tore it free of his
muscle. Fresh blood spilled free but he paid it no mind as he
shoved Tristan back and smashed his hand into the chest of another
vampire. Bone gave way beneath the crushing impact as he drove his
fist straight into the man's chest cavity. His hand wrapped around
the man's beating heart, a victorious smile curved his mouth as the
man's eyes widened in horror a second before Ethan tore the heart
from his chest and crushed it in his hand.

One of the other vampires fell back but the
other three launched at him while Tristan made a move to get around
him toward Emma. Thrusting upward, Ethan's lips pulled back to
reveal his teeth as he drove the blade of the knife to the hilt
into the sternum of one of his attackers. The man's eyes bulged,
his hands clawed at the offending weapon as he staggered back.
Ethan grabbed another man by the throat, lifted him up and threw
him into two vampires. Darting to the side, he grabbed hold of
Tristan's arm and flung him back before he could get to Emma.
Someone grabbed hold of his arm but Ethan jerked it free and spun
to face his attacker. His fist caved in the right side of the man's
face, shattering his teeth and nose.

Behind him, Emma was trying to struggle to
her feet but he could hear the sluggish, erratic beat of her heart.
If there was any chance that she was going to survive, he had to
get her out of here,
now
. The rage
within him continued to grow as two more vampires came at him. A
bellow ripped from him as he tore the throat from one and thrust
his fist into the stomach of the other one. He was outnumbered but
his concern for Emma, his fury, and the power surging through him
made him realize that it didn't matter. He could and
would
kill every single vampire in
this house.