Blood Instinct (18 page)

He looked back at Sophia – only it wasn’t Sophia looking back at him; wasn’t Sophia who had the hint of a triumphant smirk on her lips, standing there with his T-shirt skimming the top of her thighs, the shard of metal in her hand coated with his blood.

It wasn’t Sophia who swiped at him another once – twice – her eyes blazing, the second strike snagging his vest long enough for him to catch her wrist.

He didn’t give himself a second to think. He spun her to face the pillar again and slammed her hands against it, the shard clinking to the floor, grabbing her hair to keep her in place.

He felt her try to struggle and it only spurred him on.

Jask bit deep into her neck, releasing a guttural groan at the relief he felt as her blood rushed into his mouth.

There were thuds somewhere in the distance.

He felt her shudder.

A shudder that was deeply sating.

He opened his eyes to see her hands clawing weakly at the concrete pillar, her knuckles scuffed and torn.

‘Jask!’ a male voice echoed from beyond the door. But he didn’t relent.

The banging continued.

‘Jask! Open this door!’

He coiled his fingers tighter in her hair, no longer the hair of his mate but that of the poisonous witch who had tried to kill him. Who had stolen his Sophia from him.

And now she’d be punished for it.

‘JASK!’ the voice yelled.

Corbin.

Jask paused at the sound of his beta’s voice, his canines still embedded in the witch, her blood coating his mouth.

‘Jask,
please
,’ Sophia pleaded, her face damp with tears.

Her voice tore through him; appealed to the part of him still incapable of hurting her.

He withdrew his canines and forced himself to back away.

Sophia slid down the wall face first, clutching her neck as she slumped to her knees, her breathing ragged.

He raked his fingers back through his hair, felt their wetness and stared down at the blood that covered them.

Her
blood.
His Sophia’s
blood.

He couldn’t move.

As Corbin continued to bang on the door, Jonah no doubt having expressed his concerns, Jask couldn’t take his eyes off her.

A few moments later, Sophia pushed herself to her feet without looking at him. She hurried across to the door, her hand still clasped to her neck. She yanked back the latch and shoved her way past Corbin, past Solstice, the latter instantly pursuing her.

He wasn’t going to let her go like that. He marched towards the door.

‘Leave it,’ Corbin warned, blocking his way.

‘Corbin,
move
!’

‘I said
leave
it,’ Corbin reiterated, his brows furrowed.

Jask looked past him to where Sorran and Jonah stood behind him, their eyes troubled.

He looked back at his beta, at the equally weighted concern in his eyes – his beta who was trying to help.

‘Give her a minute,’ Corbin said. ‘More importantly, give yourself one.’

S
ophia burst
into the wash area and dropped her forearms onto the cold metal vanity unit as she clutched her neck.

Still trembling from her fear of the bite’s implications, her teeth chattering from the shock, she flinched as she felt Solstice’s hand on her back, guiding her upright so she could check the wound.

Solstice ran the nearest hand towel under water.

‘Keep the pressure there,’ Solstice said, pressing the towel against Sophia’s neck. ‘It’s not as bad as it looks. I’ll get something for it.’ Her hand slid to Sophia’s upper arm. ‘He’ll be mortified, Phia. Jask will
never
forgive himself for this.’

‘Sophie?’

Sophia looked over her shoulder to see Leila had joined them.

Instinctively her tears came hard and fast at seeing her big sister, at seeing Leila’s attention switch to the bloodied towel, her hazel eyes flaring with horror as they locked on Sophia’s.

‘I’m fine,’ Sophia said, knowing she needed to defuse the situation quickly.

But she wasn’t. She knew she was anything but fine.

All of it was still hazy, whatever had happened still a blur, but she knew she’d been as much a part of what had happened as Jask had.

She’d failed
again
.

‘He didn’t go in as deep as it looks,’ Sophia added. ‘He pulled back.’

‘He
bit
you?’

Leila closed the gap between them a second later, moving the towel so she could see the extent of the damage.

But the physical consequences were the least of Sophia’s concerns as even more memories flooded back.

She’d tried to kill him. She’d tried to kill Jask.

Leila pulled away and spun on her heels.

‘Where are you going?’ Sophia asked, the movement bringing her back to the present.

‘This has to end
now
before you get seriously hurt. You’re both on borrowed time. You’re lucky to be alive.’ She stopped in front of Solstice. ‘Where is he?’

‘I know you’re upset…’ Solstice said calmly.

‘
Upset
? Your leader almost killed my sister! Where the
fuck
is he?’

Sophia rushed to her side and grabbed her arm. ‘Lei, wait!’

Because Sophia knew that look only too well. It was that second when her big sister switched from the quiet, mouse-like librarian to the sister who took no messing.

‘It’s okay. I’m okay,’ Sophia insisted.

‘
Okay
? He could have
killed
you!’

‘But he didn’t.’

Leila gripped her sister’s upper arms and stared into her eyes. ‘
This
time maybe. Sophie, for fuck’s sake: it’s not like vampire incisors. We’re talking lycan canines – used to suppress and to kill. You’re lucky he didn’t tear through you – that he didn’t get close to an artery.’

‘It’s not his fault. It was mine too.’

Leila looked down as if only just realising she was wearing nothing but a T-shirt. Her eyes flared again as she read between the lines.

‘I tried to hurt him, Lei,’ Sophia said, the words, their reality, spilling out as she tried to defend him from her sister’s wrath. ‘I tried to kill Jask.’

The next thing she knew she’d fallen into Leila’s arms, sobbing into her sister’s shoulder as she clutched onto her with both hands.

‘It was like I was looking in on myself and I couldn’t stop what I was doing,’ Sophia explained, knowing if anyone would understand, Leila would. ‘It was like I was watching Jask with someone else and not being able to stop. And I wanted him to hurt me like only pain could satisfy me. Like hurting him was the only thing that could satisfy me. I fucked up. I fucked up so bad. Just like you said I would. Just like I always do.’

Stroking Sophia’s hair, Leila sighed heavily.

Sophia held her hand to her mouth as she fought back the tears. ‘I keep pushing him; pushing the lycan part of him. And, at the time, I don’t care. I feel nothing. No connection, nothing. It renders me numb. The bitch rendered me numb in there. She was in control and it fucking terrified me.’

She wiped a tear from her eye as she pulled back.

‘I thought I was strong enough, but you’re right: it’s like poison. Like an infection taking over me. Multiplying like a disease. And I can’t fight it. It’s killing something in me. It’s like a part of me is dying inside. Lei, is it going to kill my love for Jask? I can’t bear it if it is.’

‘Just because it’s stronger doesn’t make you weak, Soph, but you cannot fight this. I’m telling you the truth. You
have
to give it up. You have to let me do what I need to do.’

‘I can’t,’ Sophia said. ‘I can’t choose. I can’t choose him over you anymore than I can choose you over him. You’re my
sister
.’

‘Exactly,’ Leila said.

She spun on her heels again.

‘This is not a good idea,’ Solstice called. ‘Jask needs time out.’

‘He can have time out once he’s talked to me,’ Leila declared, Solstice hot on her heels.

As would Sophia have been if the pain hadn’t come from nowhere.

She twisted round and bent over the vanity unit, clutching her stomach as she vomited into the basin, the shock clearly not yet out of her system.

J
ask paced the room
, clutching his head as his world crumbled before him.

He’d ruined it. He’d ruined everything. But Corbin was right: he needed to calm down.

Corbin was waiting patiently a few feet away, Sorran and Elias now outside, marking either side of the door. They wouldn’t let him go until they knew he was safe; that they were all safe.

The bite, his climax, may have appeased the lycan for now, but he knew he couldn’t rest until he saw her. Until he knew Sophia was okay.

‘I warned you, Jask!’ Leila said as she all but burst into the room – Sorran and Elias stopping her, Solstice close behind.

Solstice met Jask’s gaze and gave him a nod – Sophia was okay. Physically, at least.

Relief flooded him.

‘Now do you see?’ Leila demanded, her hazel eyes glaring into his. ‘You are
not
in control of this, Jask! You need to let me go. Now. And I want my sisters transferred somewhere else.’

‘
Where
, Leila?’ he said, irritation rising to the surface at the reality that it was just as bad beyond the doors as it was in there. ‘You know the dangers out there. Better than most.’

‘And what about the dangers in here? At this rate you won’t need to worry about Caleb killing Phia – you’re going to do it for him! I don’t care who you choose to help us – Eden, Jessie – but you cannot continue like this and you know it.’

As silence consumed the space between them, her composure eased a little, her accusatory glare switching to a plea.

‘If you love her, Jask, you’ll let her go. And you’ll let me do what I have to do.’

Jask gave the nod to Sorran and Elias to let her pass, Corbin not disagreeing but staying close to her side as she entered the room.

‘I don’t know what else it’s going to take,’ Leila said, closing the gap between them. ‘We both know she can’t choose between us so you need to make the decision for her.’

She stared at him imploringly, the seconds scraping by. This time she wasn’t giving up. This time she wasn’t walking away.

And he knew she had every right not to.

‘Then tell me exactly what happened that night, Leila.’

She frowned as she searched his gaze. ‘I’ve already told you.’

‘I want to know everything, not some brief summary. Convince me I’m doing the right thing even considering this. One minute Caleb had every intention of killing you and the next minute he changed his mind. One minute
you
had every intention of killing him and then
you
changed your mind.’

‘I was going to kill him only because he was going to kill me. I had no choice.’

‘But to sleep with him?’

‘I told you: everything depended on whether I was still a serryn or not. At that point, I didn’t know. I didn’t even know for sure if I
had
fallen for him. And if I had, I didn’t know
when
it had happened so I had no idea whether we’d consummated it or not.’

‘Whether you’d lost it already?’

‘Yes. The second I suspected, I had to do something – especially when I realised that he planned to go ahead with it. Everything was at stake. I had to give myself – us all – the best odds I could.’

‘By cursing Phia with it. By letting your serrynity jump to her.’

‘Which it might have already done. I told you: I didn’t know.’

‘So you wanted to be sure.’

‘Ensuring I lost my serrynity was all I had left to fight with. If he went ahead with his plan, he’d be drinking me to death thinking he was taking me to the Brink as a serryn.’

‘When instead he’d be unwittingly killing himself by drinking a regular witch. Ironic considering the very reason Alisha got you there in the first place was to save Jake from having drunk dying blood. That was one hell of a gamble. What if you were wrong? What if you didn’t love him at all?’

‘Then I was accepting my fate. I’d fight him at the Brink as a serryn just as the prophecy dictates.’

He searched her hazel eyes; hazel eyes that didn’t leave his.

‘You were willing to die either way,’ he said, unable not to admire her dedication.

‘If I was going down, I was willing to take him down with me at that point, yes.’

‘And that was a guy you claim to love? Remind me never to cross you.’

‘I didn’t relish in the prospect, Jask,’ she replied, her eyes narrowing defensively. ‘My back was to the wall. My obligation was to stop the prophecy any way I could. I tried every other way. I tried to persuade him with all I had.’

‘But he turned down your advances. Instead, he tried to kill you. And you resolved to let him. So what changed his mind?’

‘I don’t know. I lost consciousness. Alisha told me she’d said to Jake that I might love him and what the implications of that could be. I don’t know if that had an impact.’

Jask looked across at Corbin. ‘Get Alisha.’

‘What?’ Leila asked, her gaze switching between him and Corbin. ‘Why?’

‘We’re going to sort this once and for all,’ Jask replied.

Corbin glanced at Leila, looked back at Jask, then nodded, exiting the room.

‘He must have worked out you’d tried to sleep with him to kill him,’ Jask said. ‘And yet you’re
still
alive.’

‘I guess what mattered to him was that he knew I
believed
I loved him enough to try it. I guess in some warped way trying to kill him was proof enough of my feelings. And yes, he could have killed me there and then. He could have taken me to the Brink. He could have already become the Tryan, especially as he’d since found out I was still a serryn.’

‘Instead he deceived you into losing it.’

‘When I regained consciousness, he told me he was waiting on a text from Jake to confirm whether or not I was still a serryn – a text he’d already received. He told me that if I took a gamble, if I slept with him regardless before we knew the outcome, that he would let me go.’

‘Why go to that effort? Why not just get it over and done with?’

‘Because that’s what I keep telling you: I don’t think he wants this. He wanted me to seek out this alternative. The gamble was a test of both my love
and
my trust before he made the final decision about whether to let me go or not.’

‘Because you knew, by agreeing, you’d wilfully be putting Phia on the line – Phia who you already knew by that point was most likely in Blackthorn. When it comes to prizes for mind games…’

‘Tell me about it,’ she said, her eyes solemn.

‘And you’re trying to convince me to let you go back to him knowing
that
’s what he did to you? The guy’s been a complete bastard to you from beginning to end.’

‘Or he’s been a guy caught between a rock and a hard place – his own desires and his obligation to his kind.’

‘You really
do
love him, don’t you?’

‘You saw through Sophie to who she is beneath. Why are my feelings for Caleb any less valid than yours are for Sophie? Judge me all you want, all I did was aim for the best of both worlds: stopping the prophecy
and
having the vampire I love love me back.’

Alisha stood just inside the room, Corbin and Solstice marking the door.

Arm wrapped around her waist, she chewed on her nail, her eyes wary.

‘Don’t look so panicked,’ Jask said. ‘I’m not going to hurt you.’

‘Maybe yesterday I would have believed that – but I’ve just been with Sophie.’

‘It’s alright,’ Leila said. ‘Jask wants to know a few things, that’s all.’

‘What about?’

‘You were intimate with Jake. I want to know if he gave you any inclination of Caleb’s plans,’ Jask said.

‘Like what?’

‘Like how Caleb really feels about Leila.’

Alisha frowned pensively as the motivation behind his questioning clearly fell into place. She glanced at her sister.

‘Tell him what he wants to know,’ Leila said.

‘Why do
you
think Caleb let her go?’ Jask asked.

‘Either he doesn’t want to be the Tryan, or he cares about her. All I know is that when it came down to it, he
couldn’t
kill her.’

‘Why?’

‘I don’t know. Maybe believing she’d fallen for him had changed things.’

‘That would be a very romantic view of Caleb Dehain. Do you know how many relationships he’s had?’

Alisha glanced anxiously at Leila.

Jask closed the gap between them just a little. ‘Feinith is the only female he’s ever been close to. What does that tell you?’

‘I know him and Leila seems unlikely…’

‘My problem is that my decision from here is based on second-guessing Caleb and you’re telling me that you can’t confirm anything about his feelings towards your sister.’

‘All I know she’s our best chance. Maybe our only chance of turning this around before it’s too late.’

‘I know you want me to kill him, Jask,’ Leila cut in. ‘I know you think that’s the best option, but it’s not.’

‘Did you already know this alternative existed before you made the deal with him?’