OmegaMine (27 page)

Hands grasped her shoulders and she lifted her head.

Nathan’s concerned face came into view, his lips moving, but
she couldn’t hear anything he said. He touched the throbbing ache at the back
of her skull and his eyes widened in alarm, the pupils erasing the amber
portion of his irises. An unexpected surge of nausea overtook her, causing her
to choke, making the pain in her head so much worse. Her stomach heaved and
lurched, the dryness in her mouth nearly unbearable as her nose filled with the
acrid stench of smoke and some other odor she couldn’t define.

Nathan lifted her and she watched the ground sway back and
forth. He carried her into the bedroom and walked past the bed. With a firm kick,
he took out the only window on the floor. The dizziness was worse, the
throbbing in her head intensifying. Smoke billowed, carrying through the
window, and as she turned her head she saw flames were engulfing the room.

“Diskant,” she whispered but couldn’t hear herself. Her ears
continued to hum, the only sound she could perceive the steady, shrilling drone
that went on and on and on.

Nathan smoothed a hand over her forehead and his lips moved
again, as if he were trying to comfort her. Keeping her close, he climbed from
the window onto a fire escape. She focused on the interlocking iron, mesmerized
by the clouds of steam and smoke that rose to the sky.

A sharp, unexpected burning in her leg caused her to cry out
and Nathan whipped around. She couldn’t see anything but knew from his
expression that something was wrong, something he hadn’t anticipated. Her
stomach barreled into her throat as he leapt from the fire escape to the
ground, keeping her snug against his chest as he landed.

Several of the same men who had approached her and Diskant
outside her building blocked the alleyway, their guns leveled. Nathan didn’t
move but remained as he was, his arms around her, the heat from his body
considerably less than that coming from the building alongside them. As they
all said something, lips moving in perfect harmony, she felt Nathan brace
himself and the world spun as he turned, shielding her with his body.

She felt each bullet that tore through his back, the
accompanying jerks against her too violent to be anything else. She expected to
fall to the ground but as he sank to his knees he kept her in the secure cradle
of his arms. Her head fell back and her gaze rested on the blood forming at the
corner of his mouth. His expression was one of sorrow and regret and she tried
to reassure him but discovered that she was unable to speak, her tongue
suddenly heavy and uncoordinated.

An image of Diskant seated on his bike earlier that
afternoon, uncertain and hesitant, flashed before her eyes. She’d felt the same
thing he had in that moment, that something was about to go horribly wrong.
Blaming it on her raging hormones and newfound feelings, she’d forced her
intuition aside. It was a shame that she hadn’t listened to her instincts.

Her gut reactions had never steered her wrong.

A shadow appeared, blocking out the light of the moon over
Nathan’s shoulder. Ava lifted her gaze, expecting to see the barrel of a gun,
only to meet a pair of large, violet-hued eyes. She studied the beautiful face
framed by illuminating white, entranced by the way her blonde hair appeared to
glow. She’d seen her before at Liminality, always on her own, seated in the
back where no one would notice her.

Nathan lifted his head and snarled, baring pointed fangs.
His breathing was shallow, a steady bubbling of blood forming at his left
nostril. After a moment the angelic face was gone, leaving Ava to stare at the
sky. Her vision began to blur, the outlines of the fire escape becoming hazy.

Nathan tried to speak to her, shaking her forcefully when
her lids slid closed.

She knew he was trying to keep her awake but she was so damn
tired and her eyes were becoming so heavy…

As Sadie peered into the face of the dying woman held inside
the arms of the shifter who had taken an array of bullets in the back to
protect her, she felt the rage that came with being half-demon stir.

She wasn’t sure what had possessed her to stay behind when
Trey left, keeping a close watch on the building where the remaining shifters
waited. Something had warned her she’d be needed here, something she couldn’t
shake. Unfortunately, when she’d focused on the lone man entering the bar there
had been no time to warn anyone or to stop what had been set into motion. The
blast had shattered the glass of the building and demolished all of those
within a close proximity.

She turned to face the Shepherds standing at the end of the
alley. There were four of them, their weapons now spent. “You’re all going to
die,” she informed them and retrieved the sword at her back, removing it with a
slow, practiced movement.

They went for the weapons strapped to their chests but they
weren’t fast enough. Vampire movement was impossible to beat when in the grip
of fury.

She took the head of the first one, ensuring he died faster
than he deserved. As his face literally pounded concrete she moved to the
second, delivering a blow to the heart that would guarantee he didn’t achieve
the same demise. A bullet struck her in the chest and exited her back, bringing
her to her third target. He managed to get another shot off—to her abdomen this
time—before she delivered a blow to his midsection that sent his innards
spilling to his knees.

The forth one stood his ground, although he was breathing
too erratically to be as calm as he wanted her to believe. She advanced on him
slowly, drawing the death out, making him anticipate his passing. It was no
less than he deserved for taking the lives of those he didn’t understand,
killing them simply because they were different.

When he squeezed the trigger she pounced, sending shiny,
unyielding steel through his throat. His head shot back and she yanked hard,
removing the blade from his spine. His wide eyes revealed his panic, his mouth
opening and closing like a fish out of water as blood poured from the gaping
hole beneath his chin. As he fell forward she moved aside and took a perverse
amount of pleasure in the sound of his body scraping against the pavement.

“Ava, please. Wake up!” she heard the shifter snap and she
turned, gazing over her shoulder. The large male was shaking the woman in his
arms, her head wobbling on his elbow. From this angle she could see the mortal
wound at the base of her head, the large, gaping hole revealing a bloody mass.

She swiped her sword clean using the shirt of the dead man
at her feet, returned the blade to the sheath situated along her spine and
walked back to the woman and shifter, taking purposeful steps. The male growled
weakly at her approach but she didn’t hesitate, taking a knee at his side,
studying the fragile female in his arms.

“Stay back, vampire.” The shifter wheezed and attempted to
move away.

“She’s mated to your Omega, is she not?” He didn’t answer
but he didn’t have to. She’d been in attendance the night Diskant Black had
swooped in and claimed the tiny female onstage at Club Liminality. “Listen to
me carefully. Her mate won’t make in time to seal the final stage of the
bloodbond. I can scent death consuming her.” Sadie met his glowing,
topaz-colored eyes. “My blood can sustain her until he arrives and assists her
through the transition.”

She watched him struggle with the truth. “You expect me to
trust you?”

“I’ve given you no reason not to.” She motioned to the dead
Shepherds. “If I meant you harm, I wouldn’t have bothered.”

After a moment, he allowed her to move closer. She studied the
woman—Ava—closely, trying not to inhale the perfume of her blood. Her skin was
now ashen, her eyes sunken. Pulling back her sleeve, Sadie bared her wrist. A
quick strike and her blood flowed.

“Open her mouth.”

He tilted Ava’s head back and pressed his fingers to the
crease of her lips. When they parted Sadie carefully lifted her hand so blood
drizzled from her wrist. Drops splattered against pale skin while others made
it to the intended goal, spilling past bluish-hued lips.

Sadie felt the weight of the shifter’s stare and had to
force herself not to squirm. “Who are you?” he asked. “What were you doing
here?”

“That’s not important.” She studied the woman in his arms
and breathed a sigh of relief when her throat convulsed. As a mage vampire with
a capacity for healing, it wouldn’t take much, a few tablespoons at most, to be
certain Ava would survive.

Slowly color returned to Ava’s cheeks and her throat moved
as she swallowed. Sadie felt the bloody spot at the base of her skull with her
free hand and exhaled in relief when she felt the bone start the mending
process, the rough, uneven edges coming together.

Unexpectedly, she was thrown from Ava and the shifter. Her
head struck the wall before she crashed to the ground. Training ensured she
landed in a crouched, defensive position, knees bent and hands extended.

Lifting her head, she met the infuriated gaze of the fallen
woman’s mate.

Shit.

The Omega.

Diskant snarled at the vampire trapped against the wall,
allowing his fury, outrage and devastation to bleed through. His mind was a
haze of pain, anger and loss. The void so deep and unrelenting it hurt to
breathe. As a being who was tied to all the races, he’d felt the death of each
of his pack mates, like an electrical blackout leaving everything dark and empty.
There was only one light left shining in the abyss, one soul among the lost who
continued to exist.

Ava.

He’d transformed into the fastest form possible—the
peregrine falcon—to make it back to his mate, his only relief arising in the
knowledge that somehow she’d managed to survive. As he’d descended upon the
fiery wreckage of the bar he’d allowed the grizzly to come to the surface. He
wanted to hurt those who had hurt him, to make them bleed and suffer as none
had ever suffered before.

“D!” Nathan screamed. “Stop!”

He didn’t listen, stuck in a frenzy of fury and contempt.
The bodies littering the alley wouldn’t provide sufficient relief. He needed to
kill something, to repay the loss of life with something of equal value. He
lashed out with claws that sliced flesh and scored bone. The vampire’s blood
flowed in a heavy stream down her torso, her pale blonde hair speckled with it
as it sprayed into the air.

He was too far gone to realize that she wasn’t fighting
back, her arms defenseless at her sides. Instead he gloried in the rusty odor
of her blood as she bled out, able to see the pulsing of her heart as his claws
had penetrated far enough to allow him to glimpse within.

“Ava needs you, Diskant,” Nathan thundered. “Stop fucking
around!”

The words penetrated the red haze of madness.

Ava needs you
.

Turning from the vampire, he focused on Nathan and the limp
form in his arms. The beast receded, replaced with the fear of a mated male.

“Ava,” he whispered and rushed to her side and pulled her
from Nathan’s embrace. She was smeared in blood from nose to chin, her heavy
lashes resting peacefully against her cheeks. She didn’t move as he held her in
the safety of his arms—too still and too limp.

“You have to finish the bloodbonding,” Nathan said quickly.
“The wound at the back of her head is a mortal one. The vampire helped keep her
alive but her blood will only do so much.”

Shifting Ava slightly, he moved his hand until he could
carefully examine the injury Nathan spoke of. His stomach contorted, fear
returning sharp and merciless. It was indeed a mortal wound, one that would
have likely killed her if not for the bonds already established between them.
Although the bone wasn’t crushed, the skull bent inward. There was likely blood
pooling in her skull, something that was dangerous for anyone, shifter or no.

Grief engulfed him in a heavy shroud, settling like a dead
weight in the center of his chest. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. He
intended to unlock the most important mark during an intimate moment, when he
could look into her eyes, see her accept him and cherish her willingness to
spend their lives together. It shouldn’t occur when she wasn’t conscious of it,
taken unaware because it was the only way he could be certain she’d heal and
survive following his inability to protect her.

Sirens wailed in the distance and Nathan grasped his
shoulder. “We don’t need to be here when the police start asking questions.”

Diskant stood, lifted his mate and gave a sidelong glance at
the wall. The vampire was gone, leaving nothing behind but a large pool of
blood on the concrete. Remorse washed over him but vanished when Ava moaned
slightly, bringing his attention back to her. He hurried down the alley, toward
the road. There was a vehicle the pack kept parked a few buildings down, in
case of an emergency.

An emergency
, he thought bitterly. This was far more
than that. Shepherds might be dead on the street but they’d done what they’d
set out to do, creating a substantial void in the shifter population.

His temper resurfaced when he thought of how lucky they were
the explosive inside the van didn’t detonate. If it had, they entire city would
have been in chaos.

Fortunately, no one cared about the nude man striding down
the sidewalk with a woman hoisted in his arms. They were too concerned about
the blazing building that was slowly collapsing and the broken and burned
bodies strewn around the front. When Diskant made it to the car he climbed into
the back and left Nathan to drive. As the Beta settled in the front seat,
Diskant saw the oozing holes in his back, two on the left shoulder and one on
the right where the bulletproof vest didn’t protect.

Diskant made a silent vow that as soon as he’d bloodbonded
Ava entirely and knew she would be safe, he would properly thank Trey’s second for
saving her life and locate the vampire in order to do the same.