Quinn's Undying Rose (Scanguards Vampires #6) (33 page)

Quinn’s chuckle came utterly unexpected. “Turn you? Not a chance, Blake.”

Blake tried to sit up, but winced from the pain it caused him. “I’m dying. Forget what I said at the house. I was in shock from Oliver sucking on my neck. I’m better now. I know I can handle it.”

Quinn shook his head and exchanged a smile with Rose. “Blake, it’s a flesh wound. It’ll heal in no time. There’s no need to turn you.”

“Are you sure?”

Rose interrupted. “He’s sure. But,” she hesitated, “maybe we should give him some blood to ease the pain and speed up the healing process?”

She looked at Quinn who slowly nodded. “Agreed. No need for him to suffer needlessly.”

“What blood?” Blake asked. Were they going to give him a transfusion? Surely, the paramedics would take care of that.

Quinn brought his wrist to his mouth and elongated his fangs. Instantly Blake realized what he was about to do.

“Fuck no!” he shouted.

“It’ll help you heal faster,” Quinn claimed and lowered his mouth to his wrist, ready to bite into it.

“No!” Blake motioned his head toward Rose. “If I have to drink anybody’s blood, I want Rose’s.”

“No way!” Quinn protested, his eyes suddenly glaring red.

Rose put her hand on his arm to calm him. “Maybe just this once. He
is
our grandson, and we got him into this.”

A silent battle seemed to rage between the two as they stared at each other. Then finally, Quinn nodded and looked at him.

“This will be the first and last time you’ll ever drink Rose’s blood. And if I see you enjoying it, I’ll bash your brains out later. Do you get that?”

Blake nodded hastily. Why would he enjoy it? Blood tasted gross!

He watched with fascination as Rose pierced her own wrist with her fangs then set the open wound to his lips. When the first drops of her blood reached his taste buds, Blake jolted in surprise.

Shit, it tasted good!

Now he also knew why Quinn was so mad at him: he was jealous that Blake got to drink Rose’s blood.

37

As soon as Blake had stopped drinking from Rose and he had left them in the nearest room, Quinn rushed upstairs again, bumping into Eddie who came running up the stairs, followed by Cain.

“Did we miss the fight?” Eddie asked.

Quinn listened for any sounds from upstairs. It had gone quieter, but some fighting was still going on.

“Almost. Cain, stay with Rose and Blake.” He motioned to the room he’d just left. “Eddie, come with me.”

It was time to finish this. Quinn only hoped it wasn’t too late for Thomas. He and Rose had left Thomas only three minutes earlier, but in a battle of mind control, three minutes could be an eternity.

He hoped the others had defeated their opponents and were somehow able to help Thomas. But deep down he knew that he hoped for the impossible. Nobody could interfere in a fight of mind control without risking his own sanity and life.

Quinn burst through the door into the room just as Zane dealt a deadly blow with his knife, severing the head of his opponent, covering himself in a cloud of dust as the vampire disintegrated.

“Oh God no!” Eddie cried out when he entered the room, his eyes instantly falling on Thomas and the battle he was still locked into.

He rushed toward him, but Quinn was faster and pulled him back.

“We have to help him!”

“You can’t get between them. If you do, the energy that’s traveling between them will incinerate your mind,” Quinn warned.

“Then shoot the guy!” Eddie ordered, looking around the room for who had a gun.

Quinn looked at Thomas and Keegan, but they weren’t stationary anymore. They moved back and forth at varying speeds, circling each other like prize fighters in a ring.

“And risk killing Thomas?” Quinn shook his head.

“Then what are we gonna do? Don’t you see, he’s in pain.”

Eddie was right, Thomas’s face was contorted in pain, yet his body still held up. But for how long?

“I’ve got it,” Wesley’s voice suddenly came from behind them.

Quinn turned to him, but before he could inquire what Wesley meant, he ran past them, lifting his arm, swinging it, then throwing something. A small item, a bottle or something, flew through the air, then landed on the floor between the two fighters, where it smashed into pieces.

Blue smoke rose from the spilled liquid, making the air sizzle as if acid were burning through metal. Thomas instantly tumbled back, freed from the invisible hold Keegan had had on him.

Keegan too stumbled, but seemed less affected. His eyes instantly roamed the room. Realizing that only one of his associates was still alive and would soon be dead, he jumped to the bed where one of the human women had taken refuge.

He grabbed her amidst her high-pitched shrieks, dragged her against his body like a shield and made for the secondary door that led out of the room.

“One move, and she dies!” Keegan warned.

Thomas, lying on the floor, unable to lift himself, issued his own warning. “Next time you die, Kasper.”

“There will be no next time,” Keegan predicted instead, shaking his head.

“You’ve got that right,” Quinn murmured under his breath and pulled a knife from Eddie’s belt, having lost his own earlier in the fight.

He flicked his wrist. The weapon lodged in Keegan’s throat a split-second later. A surprised gurgle was Keegan’s response before he lost his hold on the panicked human. As the woman scrambled from him, stumbling to the floor in the process, Quinn pulled his stake from his pocket and lunged for him.

A gunshot stopped him. For a split-second he was in shock, but then he saw Keegan as he combusted, then disintegrated into dust. Quinn whirled his head around, trying to locate the shooter, when he found Rose standing in the door, still holding the handgun that had fired the deadly shot.

She smiled. “You were right. Small caliber works best.” She shrugged. “I borrowed it from Cain.”

Quinn returned her smile then let his eyes sweep over the room, confirming that all enemies were dead. Eddie was kneeling next to Thomas on the floor, helping him to a sitting position. Quinn rushed to him, crouching down.

“Thank God you’re all right.”

Thomas gave a tired nod. “I almost had him. Just a little longer, and I would have had him.” He dropped his head.

Quinn exchanged a silent look with Eddie, who shook his head, confirming that he too doubted Thomas’s statement.

“I’ve never seen anything like it . . .” He knew what he wanted to ask, but the condition Thomas was in, Quinn wasn’t sure he had the right to question him. It appeared he didn’t have to.

“His real name was Kasper. He was my sire.”

Shock spread on the faces of his colleagues as Thomas confirmed what Quinn had suspected from the heated exchange between the two, and the fact that Keegan had called him son.

“I’m sorry,” Quinn murmured.

Thomas lifted his head, an effort which seemed to cost him all his strength. Quinn watched how Eddie supported the weight of his torso to keep him sitting upright, allowing him to lean against him.

“I left him decades ago. I wanted nothing to do with him. He was evil to the core. And his mind control abilities were unparalleled . . . I carry his blood.”

Quinn guessed what Thomas was insinuating: he had inherited the same skill. And Quinn had seen it in action.

“He was your sire, yet you were prepared to kill him,” Quinn said, then his gaze involuntarily drifted to Rose who stood watching them just as his friends and colleagues did.

“Because he threatened my family. You all, you’re my family. He meant nothing to me.” Pure hatred colored Thomas’s voice. “And if I hadn’t been stopped, I would have killed him myself. It was my duty, not yours.”

As Thomas’s gaze fell on Wesley, Quinn put a calming hand on Thomas’s arm. “I’ll have a serious word with Wes about that.”

Thomas nodded.

Quinn rose. “We need to do damage control.” He looked at his colleagues. “Guests and employees will have heard the fighting. Let’s get to work.”

Then he turned to Eddie. “I trust you’ll get Thomas home?”

“Leave it to me.”

“I’ll take care of Vera,” Rose interjected, looking at him.

Quinn walked to where Rose was helping Vera, assisting her to sit on the sofa. Her arm hung limply from her shoulder.

“I’m Quinn. Thank you for helping Rose,” he offered.

She gave a quick smile then winced when she tried to lean back in the cushions. “We all owe her. When I got her message, I knew what I had to do.”

Quinn felt a stab in his chest. She had trusted her friend, but she hadn’t trusted him. Could he even blame her for it?

“You showed up just in time,” Vera added. “Lucky coincidence?”

“Not exactly.” He cast a glance at Rose. This wasn’t the time to talk to her about Keegan’s text message. He would have to wait for a private moment. “I’m assuming Keegan got mad when you didn’t give him the flash drive.”

“Oh, I gave him a flash drive, but an empty one.” Rose motioned to Vera. “Vera was so kind as to make sure there was one that looked identical to the real one. While Keegan was checking it, we had just enough time to get Blake out of the room and—”

“But not enough time to save yourselves,” Quinn interrupted.

“No.” Rose hesitated. “How did you find me?”

“We’ll talk about that later. First, I’ve got to take care of this mess here.”

Quinn turned, then looked at Wesley who was standing near the door. “A word.”

As soon as they reached the corridor, he turned to Wesley, who appeared apprehensive and immediately went on the defensive. “Hey, I only wanted to help.”

“I wanted to thank you,” Quinn interrupted.

Wesley looked at him, stunned.

“No matter what Thomas says, if you hadn’t broken their concentration, Thomas would have died. You saved his life.”

“I did?” He paused, then smiled. “I did.”

Quinn gave him a friendly slap on the shoulder. “Now, what was that stuff?”

“Just something I’ve been working on. I found the recipe in Francine’s books. It’s supposed to paralyze a vampire.” He grinned sheepishly. “Guess it didn’t quite work that way, but hey, it worked out fine anyway, right?”

Quinn rolled his eyes. “No more using any untried potions, are we clear on that?”

A hopeful look spread over Wesley’s face. “You mean I can try them out on you guys first?”

“I didn’t say that! And no, you can’t.”

“Oh. But, if you want me to help you guys, you should support my research.”

Quinn exhaled. “Research?”

“Yeah. I mean, next time we get attacked by evil vampires, we should be prepared.”

“I think you should leave that up to us. And not a word of this to Thomas. He’s going to be pissed at you for a while anyway. No need to stir more shit up by telling anybody that you’re working on your witchcraft.”

“Fine.”

As he looked at Wesley, Quinn guessed that the last word had not yet been spoken on that subject.

38

By the time all human witnesses to the fight had had their memories wiped and the injured had been taken care of, it was almost daytime.

Blake’s injury had healed quickly, and he seemed to suddenly be all excited about the fact that he was related to two vampires.

“So, tell me more. What was it like to see history happen?” Blake asked Rose, his eyes wide.

She smiled. “You don’t think it’s history when you’re right in the middle of it. It becomes history later.”

“There you are.”

Rose turned to see Quinn enter the living room. Her heartbeat instantly spiked. They hadn’t had a single minute alone since the fight, and she yearned to feel his arms around her. But she also knew that she owned him something—the truth.

“Can we talk?” she asked him. “In private.”

“Of course.” Quinn smiled at his grandson. “Excuse us, Blake.”

As Quinn followed her out of the room and up the stairs, her body tensed. The moment they entered their bedroom, she turned to him.

“Now that Blake is safe, it’s time for the truth.”

His expression was serious when he nodded without saying anything.

“We have to talk about Wallace, your sire.”

She avoided looking at him, tears threatening to overwhelm her. She forced them back. Once he knew the truth, her life would be over. But she was ready. Blake was safe, and Quinn would make sure it remained that way. She had fulfilled all promises she’d made to Charlotte.

“Wallace turned me against my will. He attacked me as I tried to flee London, murdered my coachman, and made me into this. Wallace is dead. I killed him the night I awoke as a vampire.”

Lifting her chin, she looked at Quinn. Her revelation didn’t seem to surprise him much.

He simply nodded. “I know.”

Shock coursed through her veins. “You do? How?”

“I guessed it when I read Keegan’s text messages. Thomas set it up so he got duplicates of everything that was sent. I put two and two together. I realized that the only reason why you couldn’t tell me about your turning had to be because it would lead back to Wallace.”

She swallowed hard, wondering why he had even bothered saving her, knowing what she’d done.

“Now that you know, do what you need to do. Kill me to avenge your sire’s death.”

She closed her eyes, waiting for the blow that would end her life.

Quinn stared at her. She had confirmed what he’d assumed ever since he’d read Keegan’s message. And it made his heart bleed. Anger welled up, made his chest heavy with pain and guilt. How could his sire have betrayed him like this? How could he have let it happen?

“I would have killed him myself if I had known what he did to you!”

Rose’s eyes shot open, her surprised gaze pinning him. “You would have . . . but . . .” Her voice faltered.

“Of course I would have. He hurt you! Wallace hurt you. And I promised to keep you safe. When I married you, I pledged my life to you. And I failed you.” Because he now realized that it was all his fault. He had caused this.

“But I thought you would avenge your sire’s death. It’s an unwritten law. An urge . . .”