The Dark Vampire: Last True Vampire 3 (38 page)

Bria turned toward Lucas. He kept his eyes on the road as he negotiated traffic, his expression tense. How had she not known that Ronan had a sister? “When did you agree to this?” Lucas’s visit to Mikhail’s house and his mysterious dealings with the king made so much more sense now.

“I’ve asked the king to turn me.” Bria opened her mouth to protest, but Lucas cut her off. “This is what I want, Bria. I’ve sworn fealty to him. He doesn’t trust Thomas or any member of the coven, and to be honest, I don’t blame him. We both know your uncle’s loyalty lies with only himself. I’m going to prove myself worthy. Ronan’s sister is . . .” He paused as if trying to find the right word. “An anomaly. Mikhail said that they needed a strong dhampir to feed her, and I’m more than strong
enough to do it. Mikhail has put his trust in me and I’m going to show him that it wasn’t misplaced. He’s promised to turn me if I prove myself.”

Who was Bria to judge Lucas’s decisions? All she wanted was for him to be happy.

“If Mikhail turns you,” Bria began. She swallowed down the lump of emotion that rose in her throat. “I hope that your soul is tethered soon after.”

Lucas reached over and squeezed Bria’s hand. “I’m starting to think I might be better off untethered.”

“I’m sorry if I’ve hurt you.” Her uncle had made promises that Bria couldn’t keep. Even if she’d remained a dhampir, she never could have been Lucas’s. Her soul belonged to Jenner. It always had and it always would.

“You haven’t.” Lucas’s voice tightened with the words. He pulled the car up to The Standard, Downtown L.A. and put it in park. “Call me if you need anything. I’ll come right over.” He handed her a shiny silver credit card and she tucked it into her pocket.

“I will,” she said. “Thank you, Lucas.”

“And be careful. I know that you think Jenner’s treatment of you is harsh, but Bria, if I were your mate I’d do far more than he has to keep you safe.”

Bria’s brow creased. Had she judged Jenner too harshly? “I’ll call you before sunrise to check in.”

He gave her a smile that didn’t reach his brilliant blue eyes before she climbed out, backpack in hand, and shut the door. She watched from under the awning as Lucas pulled out into traffic and disappeared in the steady stream.

She didn’t blame Jenner for wanting to protect her. The thought of any harm coming to him froze her with fear. But there had to be compromise. Without it she was nothing more than his possession. Bria wanted to be considered an equal. And if leaving Jenner—whether
temporarily or not—was the only way she could get him to see that, then so be it. She hadn’t made this decision lightly. She needed a few days to think, that was all. And when Jenner was close—his gaze burning with its intensity, his hands wandering over her flesh—Bria couldn’t think. Nothing mattered but him and the want that never loosened its hold.

A tingle of electricity brushed Bria’s senses as she headed for the entrance. Her step faltered and she rubbed at her bare arms as if to banish the sensation. Magic? It was almost too faint to tell. It could have been nerves or the guilt that slowly crept over her skin. Gods, she hoped she’d made the right decision. If not, she’d have to live with the knowledge that she’d given up the one thing she couldn’t afford to lose.

Jenner brought his Ducati to a screeching stop in Mikhail’s driveway. Wilder than he’d ever been, his thoughts a tangled mass of black matter, he barged through the front door, intent on tearing the house off of the foundation if that’s what it took to get his hands on that traitorous son of a bitch who’d stolen Bria from him.

He’d never regretted his decision to order Bria to stay put as much as he had the moment he’d walked into his apartment to find it empty. She’d left him a note to let him know that she was safe and that she’d asked Lucas to take her somewhere she could think.
I hope you understand that I have to do this, Jenner. I can’t be a prisoner, not anymore. I hope this time apart will help you to realize what I’ve been trying to tell you: We are stronger together than we will ever be apart.
He’d pushed her too far.
Gods.
Given her no other choice. She’d bared herself to him, confessed her disdain of being sheltered, kept. This was
his
fault. He might as well have pushed her out the door. The blame might have fallen on him, but that son of a
bitch Lucas had helped her. Hell, probably encouraged her. When Jenner got his hands on the dhampir, he was going to beat him to a bloody pulp.

Reason tugged at the back of Jenner’s consciousness, a voice that reminded him no male had stolen Bria from him. She’d left. Walked out the door of her own volition. Because he’d opted to make her a prisoner. Because he’d refused to listen to what she wanted and had treated her like something in his keeping. He stuffed that levelheaded reason and buried it deeper even than the Collective that took up residence in the darkest corner of his mind.

He wasn’t interested in logic or reason. He wanted someone to pay for what he’d lost. He wanted Lucas to
bleed
.

Fear pounded through Jenner’s chest. Something wasn’t right. He’d had enough of Bria’s blood and she’d taken enough of his for him to easily track her. He had no sense of her at all save the tether that bound them. It wasn’t possible, and yet some unknown force kept her hidden from him. How? What? The grim realization that the very thing that hunted Bria might have blocked their connection shredded Jenner’s composure. He needed to find her before he lost his gods-damned mind.

Jenner had lost precious hours during the day. The oblivion of daytime sleep had eluded him and his anger only mounted with every passing hour. He knew Bria’s frustration firsthand, as he’d been confined by the sun to his apartment, incapable of doing a damned thing about it. At sunset he’d taken off for Fairchild’s compound, hoping that Bria had sought his protection. Instead, Jenner learned that she’d refused to return home, which meant that dhampir bastard was the only one who knew where she was. Fairchild had nearly pissed his pants with fear at the sight of Jenner enraged and bloodthirsty. It hadn’t taken much for the male to splutter out Lucas’s location.
Jenner shouldn’t have been surprised to learn that Lucas had gone to Mikhail’s. The son of a bitch was worse than a needy pup.

“Where is he?” Jenner’s voice boomed through the expanse of Mikhail’s mansion. “Where the fuck is he?”

Mikhail and Ronan came down the hallway ready to take Jenner to the ground much the same way they had the night of his tethering. Unlike that first night, he’d die before they kept him from what he wanted. “Get the fuck out of my way!” he railed.

“Jenner!” Ronan barked. “Calm down.”

“The fuck I will! Where did you take her?” Jenner shouted to the cowardly fuck who was no doubt hiding from him. “Where is Bria?”

Ronan took a step toward him, hands outstretched. “Don’t,” Jenner growled. “Don’t come near me. I’m so far out of fucking control, I don’t know what I’ll do.”

“You’d better get yourself under control.” Power sizzled in the tenor of Mikhail’s warning. “Now. Lucas is under my protection and you won’t be allowed to touch a hair on his head.”

Jenner let out a bellow that ripped through him. Pain. Betrayal. Frustration. He felt it all to the marrow of his bones, as though his skin and muscles had been torn from his frame. Mikhail protected the male who had helped to spirit his mate away while he was out hunting for the creature that threatened her existence. Jenner wanted him to pay for what he’d done and Mikhail had offered him sanctuary?

Jenner’s breath sawed in and out of his chest. White lights swam in his vision and his fangs throbbed painfully in his gums. His throat burned with unquenched thirst and his soul cried out in agony for Bria. He’d rather someone ran a stake through his fucking heart right here
and now. Anything to put an end to this seemingly endless suffering.

“Get a grip.” Ronan took a tentative step toward him and Jenner snarled. His expression turned from one of anger to exasperation. “Jesus fucking Christ, Jenner. Lucas is here for Chelle. She needs someone strong to feed her. Dhampir females aren’t cutting it. Lucas is.”

Jenner took off toward the rear of the house. Mikhail grabbed him by the arm and Jenner stilled. He might have had a death wish, but he wouldn’t disrespect his king. “She’s volatile, Jenner. You know that. If you startle her, she might kill you before she’s even realized what she’s done.”

He gave Mikhail a sharp nod of acknowledgment and continued on his track. If he couldn’t find Bria and convince her to forgive him and come home with him he’d rather be dead.

Jenner exited through the media room and stepped out onto the paver path that would lead him to the guesthouse at the far end of the property. He approached the small cottage with considerably more care than he’d entered Mikhail’s house. The fine hairs stood up on the back of his neck and the predator in him rose to the surface, ready to defend against a potential threat. Chelle’s power rivaled Mikhail’s. It unnerved Jenner, felt unnatural as it brushed against his senses and banished the mindless haze of violent rage that had clouded his vision since he’d come home at sunrise to find Bria gone.

Chelle had always set Jenner on edge and that was before she’d been made into a vampire. Her mystical transition had cranked that strange energy of hers all the way up. No matter his unease, Jenner was determined to go into that room and get some fucking answers from Lucas if it killed him.

Hell, for all he knew, it might.

Rather than barge in, Jenner knocked on the door. He was answered with silence, and a renewed wave of anger burned through his chest. If Chelle had drained Lucas and killed him before Jenner could get his answers he was going to go
off
. He eased open the door and stepped inside the guesthouse. The place was dark and quiet as a tomb, the eerie stillness sending a chill over Jenner’s skin.

“Chelle?”

“Jenner.” Chelle’s voice slithered over him, sweet and sinister at once. She strode into the room from a dark hallway, her blond hair and bright green eyes hidden by shadow. “Did Ronan send his enforcer to make sure I didn’t kill the tasty dhampir he sent to feed me?”

He didn’t see any sign of Lucas, and for a second Jenner feared for the male’s safety. It was good that Siobhan hadn’t been allowed to see Chelle. No doubt she would waste no time in finding a way to exploit Ronan’s sister to her benefit. “I came to find my mate.”

Chelle’s amused laughter tinkled like wind chimes. “And you think I have her?”

“No. Lucas knows where she is.”

“I have to admit, you’re the last male I’d ever expect to be domesticated. Being tethered agrees with you,” she said offhandedly. “From the wild fire burning in your gaze, I’d be willing to bet it’s made you even more lethal.”

Only where Bria was concerned. “Can I talk to him?” Chelle had managed to chill Jenner out in a way that Ronan and Mikhail had failed to do. She was enough of a threat to put him on alert rather than being the aggressor.

“He’s asleep.” Her gaze met Jenner’s, cold and emotionless. “It seems I’ve taken a lot out of him.”

What had Mikhail been thinking to turn an innocent like Lucas over to Chelle? Lucas might have been physically formidable, but he was the lamb to Chelle’s lion.
She’d been practically raised by Siobhan, which made Chelle a certifiable badass to begin with. Her vampiric nature and soulless state had obviously enhanced that feral side of her personality.

“Then wake him.” Chelle might have made Jenner nervous, but he wasn’t about to back down.

She stepped fully into the small living room and flipped on a light. The tightness in Jenner’s chest relaxed by a small degree. Not much had changed since the last time he’d seen her. Still tall, lithe, powerfully built. Her gaze still pierced him with its intensity and the dimples in her cheeks still made her look like a child when she grinned. To see her relatively unchanged put Jenner more at ease. He didn’t know what he’d expected. Perhaps an ethereal creature. A shining goddess, ready to unleash her wrath on the world. The coffin that created her had transformed a god into the first vampire. Nothing about her transition would have surprised him at this point.

“No,” she replied idly. “I don’t think I will.”

“Chelle, I’m not in the mood to play games.”

“I can tell.” Her transition sure as hell hadn’t affected her snark. “Don’t get your boxers in a bunch. Mated males,” she said on a dramatic sigh. “So
intense
.”

Jenner’s patience hung by the barest of frayed threads. The control he’d regained when he stepped onto the walkway that led to the guesthouse tattered under the gale force of Chelle’s sarcasm. “Get his ass out of bed,” Jenner grated. “I won’t tell you again.”

“I like you better mated.” Her eyes flashed with silver, different from those of any vampire or dhampir he’d ever seen. It pooled in her irises like a swirling storm of quicksilver. “Before you were an asshole just because you could be. Now you’re an asshole with purpose.”

Jenner took a step forward, ready to rip Lucas out of Chelle’s bed by the scruff of his neck.

“I know where your mate is.”

He stopped dead in his tracks. Fear coursed through his veins hot and thick. A corner of Chelle’s mouth hinted at a smile. She’d no doubt picked up on the change of his scent and liked that she’d managed to rattle him.

“Lucas told you where Bria is?”

“More or less,” Chelle said with a shrug.

“What does that mean?”

“I plucked the thought right out of his head,” Chelle replied. “Cool trick, huh?”

Jenner’s eyes grew wide. “That’s impossible.”

“Not for me.” The tenor of her voice changed, almost sad. “I’m a freak, remember?”

Mikhail had made a mistake by keeping Chelle’s transition a secret. Jenner let out a slow sigh. It seemed they’d all kept too tight a grip on things lately. “You can’t stay shut up in this house forever.”

Chelle cocked her head. The action made her appear wild. “Are you talking to me, Jenner, or should those words be meant for someone else?”

His own damned stupidity had forced Bria to make good on her ultimatum. “You said it yourself. I’ve never been anything but an asshole.”