Blood Instinct (7 page)

‘You know I do.’

‘Really? Then prove it. You’re the one person who has always accepted me the way I am. You’re the only one who hasn’t tried to change me. So why do you want to now?’

‘You know that’s not what this is about.’

‘Then what
is
it about?’

Her eyes flared at his hesitation. Eyes that were equally laced with pain.

‘I’m a serryn now, Jask, and I’m staying a serryn. If that’s not good enough for you, well…’

She moved to sidestep him but he caught her arm, her continued attempt to control the closure of their conversation finally sparking the alpha inside him.

She glanced down at his hand – a hand he realised was squeezing.

‘I think you should be focusing on managing your own issues rather than trying to persuade me how to manage mine,’ she remarked, her glare laced with accusation as she yanked her arm free.

This time he let her go.

He fisted his hands, fighting to keep his composure as she slammed the door behind her, the noise resounding around the room and, no doubt, down the corridor beyond.

An unsteady sigh escaped his lips as he stepped up to the vanity unit to look at himself in the mirror. He leaned closer to check the rims around his eyes, to check his nails. There were no other signs, no other symptoms.

Not yet.

The door reopened. Part of him hoped to see contrite brown eyes.

He knew he should have known better.

Instead, he glanced in the mirror to see Leila rejoin him – the first time he’d ever been alone with her.

‘I’d know the sound of that slamming door anywhere.’

Jask leaned back against the vanity unit, his arms folded. ‘I don’t doubt it.’

‘She’s trying hard though, Jask. I know I don’t know you, but I know what I’ve seen. You’ve had quite the impact on her.’ She took a step closer. ‘You’ve managed to bring elements of Sophie back to the surface – from before everything went wrong. I thought I was the only one who got it: who saw the real Sophie behind the fear and the anger.’

‘I understand better than she realises.’

‘And I think, because of that, you’ll understand why I’m trying to do the same with Caleb.’

‘Caleb and Phia have nothing in common.’

‘They have plenty in common.’

‘You were going to ask him about the syringe, weren’t you? Back in the TSCD. That’s why you agreed to be a part of the plan. Were you going to tell him about the alternative then too?’

‘Help me help her, Jask.’

He took a step closer. ‘Why, when what Phia said makes perfect sense?’

‘So you don’t even want to try?’

‘You know the guilt she carries for what happened to your mother. You’re asking her to take responsibility for what happens to you with only a chance, the
slightest
of chances, of it gaining anything. If it goes wrong, you know as well as I do what it’ll do to her.’

‘And I also know what her continued serrynity will do to her. I mean it when I say this is going to get harder, Jask – for you both. It
will
possess her. It’s what it does. You saw her in that room. That wasn’t her. I can read the signs as clearly in her as you can read the signs of what’s happening with your pack. Except there’s nothing to suppress what’s growing inside of Sophie; there are no drugs I can give her to help it ease. There’s no time frame to help it pass. And it doesn’t care if it leaves her scarred and beaten and lonely and hated in the process. She’s vulnerable, Jask, even if she’s refusing to accept it. Because, as I’m sure you know by now, vulnerability is not something my sister likes to accept – or to show.’

‘So you want me to go behind her back? Betray her trust? She’d never forgive me. I’d lose her.’

‘You’re already losing her, Jask. In a few days’ time, she won’t be Sophie anymore. A few days from now, she won’t even know who you are – nor will she care. She might not be willing to face up to it, but you have to. This is your only chance to get her back. Your Sophia is still in there. For now,
our
Sophia is still in there. If you want to save her, you have to let me go. Let me do this.
Please
.’

F
einith found
Caleb out on the balcony.

He was lying on his back on the stone table, casually exhaling cigarette smoke directly up into the night sky before it dissipated into the breeze that ruffled his dark hair.

With the backs of his knees over the edge of the table, his parted feet resting on the bench, he couldn’t have looked more relaxed if he’d tried.

Two centuries of waiting for the chosen leader to be identified was over. Eighty years since inciting his rise had finally paid off. Now there was no time to waste.

But Caleb being Caleb was acting like he already had his Tryan crown, despite not completing his transformation. And that transformation
had
to happen in order for the fulfilment of the prophecy to be guaranteed.

They needed Sophia McKay. And with a plethora of spies out there already on the lookout, they would
get
Sophia McKay. And when they did, they needed Caleb to be willing to act upon it – and for that, Feinith needed to make sure she severed any feelings he held towards the eldest of the three sisters.

Something had happened between him and Leila. Though she had yet to work out what, the ex-serryn bitch had some kind of hold over him for him to have let her go – a course of action she’d never seen coming. By the time she’d found out, it had been too late: Leila had already been taken to the TSCD.

But irritating as it was to have had Leila McKay slip through her fingers, her arrival at the TSCD had granted Feinith her first notch in regaining Caleb’s trust: by severing it between him and the witch.

Because she knew – just as he knew – that they couldn’t force him to take Sophia to the Brink, to the ethereal place where he could steal her soul, even when they did get her.

So far though, her plan to rebuild their relationship was being met by infuriating disinterest. He’d been nothing other than nonchalant since she’d secured his release from the TSCD’s detainment centre.

Caleb, it seemed, was playing his usual games. Even on the precipice of finally bringing the vampire prophecy into fruition, he was twirling the outcome between his fingers like a knife-thrower taunting his audience.

He’d already secured Jake and Hade’s return to the club. She knew better than anyone that, with so much hanging in the balance, she’d only have to make one threat against either of them and Caleb would call her bluff. Because Caleb never feared calling anyone’s bluff, especially not when he knew he had the upper hand.

Irritatingly, there had been too much on the line for her not to concede.

For now.

Feinith closed the glass door behind her. ‘How long are you planning to keep this up?’

‘Keep what up?’ he asked as he exhaled another stream of smoke, not bothering to grant her even the basic courtesy of looking in her direction.

Feinith stepped over to the edge of the balcony and wrapped her well-manicured hands around the rail that topped the wall as she surveyed Blackthorn below. The night breeze teased her cropped hair, chilling her scalp; wafted against her silken kimono dress to caress her bare breasts beneath. The dense fog that had descended those past twenty-four hours was now all-encompassing. ‘Blackthorn is already under martial law, Caleb. The military are on the boundaries as we speak.’

‘So I hear.’

She turned to face him, stretching her arms out along the barrier. ‘So we’ve got less than twenty-four hours to find that serryn and see this through before Sirius ups the ante and brings his personal army in.’

‘And whose fault is that?’

She clenched her jaw at the dismissive accusation in his tone, especially considering how much of a struggle it had been to orchestrate it all. Having heard Sirius had failed
again
to capture Kane Malloy, she’d had to act quickly to turn it to her advantage.

It had been less than twenty-four hours since she’d announced to the entire Global Council that the vampire leader had risen; had lied about Kane Malloy being the one.

Cameron, the vice head, had promptly taken both her and Sirius into his office. He’d also paced and deliberated like the irritant he was.

‘We’re wasting time,’ Sirius had said. ‘You’ve got a whole room in there waiting. We have to act. Whatever I did with Malloy, you need to put it aside for now. You need to go back in there and withdraw the vote of no confidence in my position – and you need to get them to vote for us to move in. Prosecute me later if that’s what you want but, for now, let’s save lives.’

Cameron had looked back across at Feinith. ‘And you’re completely sure about this? Kane Malloy is definitely the prophesied leader?’

‘Without doubt. My sources are infallible. I have assured you from the beginning that should the Higher Order ever get word of this uprising, we would help prevent it any way we could. Sirius was right to issue a call to action against the presence of the fourth species. They are indeed a sign of the uprising, but the risk is now far greater than just contending with their presence. I have it on good authority that Malloy is already plotting his revolt. I’m telling you that we
have
to close Blackthorn down.’

‘If word gets out about this we’ll have panic on our hands,’ Cameron had said. ‘This could become uncontrollable quickly. We cannot have revolts kicking off in other locales.’

‘Which is why I fully agree with Sirius that it’s best word doesn’t leak out beyond the boardroom.’

Cameron sighed heavily. ‘But we have to have
something
to justify this level of action. We’ve already agreed we can’t let information leak out about the fourth species. Panic will spread beyond Blackthorn and Lowtown into Midtown and Summerton.’

‘Then we present a threat that is containable yet worthy of a strenuous course of action,’ Sirius had suggested.

‘Like what?’

‘We’re approaching a blue moon.’

And Feinith had known exactly where Sirius was heading. She hadn’t seen it coming but it had been perfect.

Cameron’s gaze had lingered on Sirius’s. ‘Go on.’

‘Should there be rumours of morphed lycans in Blackthorn, we’ll have every reason to close the borders. No one beyond is going to object to the threat being contained within. And no one within will protest against support coming in from the outside. We need the district to be scared. We need them to feel vulnerable. A threat of morphed lycans will do that.’

Cameron had looked to Feinith.

‘I believe it’s a sensible option,’ she’d declared. ‘You’ll have the Higher Order’s full backing – in this locale and every other.’

Cameron had sunk into his chair. He’d pinched the bridge of his nose, silence dominating the room. ‘You can’t use the lycans as scapegoats.’ He’d looked up at them. ‘Not only is it wrong, but what if you turn the rest of Blackthorn against them? We could have a war within a war.’

‘You’re treating them as if they’re an innocent party in this,’ Sirius had said. ‘Jask Tao and his pack are heavily involved with Malloy. They’ve been conspiring since the Arana Malloy case. I had reports from the LCU only a couple of days ago that the lycans have already burned their supplies in their own retaliation against the system.’

‘You didn’t think to mention this earlier?’

‘When you were in the middle of accusing me of not doing my job? My first priority was dealing with the pending fourth-species crisis. Once that was contained, the Lycan Control Unit was going in to deal with Jask Tao.’

Sirius had leaned forward slightly, his penetrating gaze locked on his second-in-command. ‘You may believe me underhand and unconventional in my approach, Cameron. You may sit there with your principles without having to keep the most volatile core we have under control, but I know Blackthorn and I know its residents. If you want this contained and dealt with quickly, we lock Blackthorn down. We have a system in place should this course of action ever be required, so why not use it? Yes, we may lose some lycans, but we will be saving thousands more lives –
and
containing the situation with the vampire leader.’

‘And your claim that Caleb Dehain can bring Malloy to us?’ he’d asked Feinith. ‘We still need him alive. We need that permanent cure.’

‘If anyone can bring him to us alive, he can.’

‘How can you be so sure he won’t join Malloy’s cause? Dehain is not without reputation himself.’

‘We will make him an offer,’ Sirius had said. ‘Privileges once this situation is contained.’

‘And if that doesn’t work?’

‘Caleb will know this revolt is flawed,’ Feinith had declared. ‘He’ll know which side to fight on.’

‘I say we give Dehain twenty-four hours,’ Sirius had said. ‘We’ll move our presence in there in the interim. We need the military there to draw Kane out further, to justify a feigned allegiance between Kane and Caleb that will enable Caleb to get close to him.’

Cameron’s eyes had flashed with minor suspicion as he’d looked back at Feinith. ‘And if he succeeds, you’ll be securing us the permanent cure that will render your purpose defunct – that will no longer require our symbiotic relationship. Why are you so keen to support this?’

‘Because we trust the promise your kind made to us. Once this is done, once you have the cure you need and we destroy the prophecy, we can finally move on. All we want is a right to coexist as equals. We want a peaceful outcome in all of this and we’ll do whatever it takes to get to that point. This is the day that begins.’

Instead, it was the day the humans’ downfall would begin.
When
she persuaded
Caleb to play ball.

Though struggling to keep her composure intact, her patience already wearing thin, Feinith pulled herself away from the balcony wall, turning her back on Blackthorn’s landscape as she closed the gap between her and Caleb.

‘I did what I had to in order to safeguard you, Caleb. As long as Sirius and everyone else think Kane is the Tryan, the focus remains away from you. And as long as they think you’re working for them, you can walk those streets in safety. In less than twenty-four hours, we
will
have Sophia McKay and you
will
have completed your transformation. I’ve even brought your opposition right into these walls like rats in a trap. You can wipe them all out in one go. And we
will
begin this.’

Caleb shifted slightly but only to rest his arm behind his head, his attention still on the night sky as he flicked ash onto the stone floor.

A sense of frustration swept through her.

‘You don’t seriously think Throme believes you?’ he said. ‘That it’s Kane?’

‘It doesn’t matter if he does or he doesn’t. All that matters is that he doesn’t suspect
you
. As far as Sirius is concerned, I’m turning everything to my own personal advantage. I get Malloy to him, I give him his permanent cure, and my reward is maintaining my position in Midtown while he puts Blackthorn and every other third-species core under my control. He’ll rule the humans and I’ll rule the third species.’

‘Like he’s going to do that.’

‘Of course he isn’t. But all of that will be irrelevant once you rise.’

Because once they had Sophia, they would no longer need Kane alive. When they had the Tryan, Kane would be defunct, and they would no longer need the carrot of the permanent cure Sirius and the Global Council craved.

And once he was the Tryan, she would see to it that Caleb hunted Kane down. The alpha baiting would begin. It would be west versus east – and Caleb
would
win.

The master vampires would no longer be feared or respected; they’d become insignificant in the face of their new leader. The Higher Order would be the supremacy of the vampire race with Caleb Dehain at the helm. Vampires globally would know their ruler and they would bow in the absence of opposition.

And she would be his queen.

Yet
still
Caleb lay there moonbathing as if she hadn’t spent the last few hours bending over backwards for him. No one knew Caleb like she did though; no one else understood the inner workings of his mind. He wanted to make her crawl on her knees first – she would have to earn her place by his side.

She stepped between his thighs as he exhaled another steady stream of smoke above him. She gazed into his green eyes, which still didn’t make contact with hers.

Lying beneath her, he couldn’t have looked more beautiful. Or more indifferent to her. But she would change that; she would have him back under her thumb. She
would
own him again.

‘You’re still mad at me,’ she said as she ran her hands up his thighs.

He didn’t rebuke her. He didn’t move, didn’t even flinch.

‘I came down hard on you over Leila, I know,’ she added. ‘We both got heated. But I was there when you needed me, Caleb.’

That was why, once she’d worked out what he was, when the presence of the fourth species had raised her suspicion that there was more to Leila losing her serrynity than she’d thought, she’d had to put him inside the TSCD. There was no other way she could’ve acquired a sample of his blood to prove he was of Higher Order descent. And there’d been no better way to start winning him back than by rescuing him. Turning up on his doorstep to announce she knew what he was would have meant the door slamming right in her face.

His eyes finally met hers. ‘You would have left me in that cell for days if you hadn’t been so worried about me being shadow read and revealing all your dirty little secrets. Maybe even for years if you hadn’t found out what I am.’

She smiled. ‘But I did find out what you are, didn’t I? I always find things out, Caleb.’

She wrapped her thumbs around his inner thighs as she slid her hands up to his groin.

Caleb still didn’t flinch, his gaze remaining steady on hers.

Encouraged by his lack of rejection, she leaned over him and rested her palm beside his waist. She slid her other hand up over the hardness stirring within the confines of his black trousers and up over his chest before unfastening his shirt button by button on the way back down.

‘And now I’ll see to it that you and Jake live like the kings you were intended to be,’ she declared, baring his chest to the night sky.