Unforgiven (The Forbidden Bond 2) (39 page)

Chase stormed into the office. He fisted his hands and slammed them onto the desk in front of Gage. Gage stood and glared down at Chase.

“Something is wrong! I know it! We have to go after her! She’s my mate! I…” Chase couldn’t finish the sentence. If he gave voice to his fears it would make them more real. Tears filled his eyes and his mother appeared to stroke his back. Gage spoke calmly, but Chase could see the lightning flash in his eyes.

“Do you think you love her any more than I love my mate? Do you think sending people out on a wild goose chase will do anything but make
you
feel better? I told you before that even if I had permission to take Danielle into my charge, I can’t protect a girl that doesn’t want protection. She left of her own free will.”

“She left to give us a chance to save our people!” Chase shouted.

Voices on the TV distracted the room from the impending explosion between Chase and Gage. A tall dark-haired man in a suit began to speak to the crowd. He stood on the landing with the four fanged vamps looking out at his subjects. He was praising their efforts and promising them all high-ranking positions in his new world order. This was the face of the mysterious Rogue. He was revealed to the Council without his knowledge and gasps of disbelief circled the room. Seleste collapsed into a chair and put her head between her knees.

“It can’t be. It’s a lie,” Seleste stammered. Mason got closer to the screen and squinted.

“What the hell is this?” Griffin barked.

“I don’t believe what I’m seeing. We were friends. He wouldn’t do this.” Donavan chimed in from the corner.

“I knew it!” Kane shouted.

Chase watched the charismatic vamp boast about his strength and wisdom and his plans for his Shade army once he took over the Council. He insisted he would have the power this very day to rule over all. Half of the crowd cheered wildly while the other half stared blankly at the vamp.

Chase looked at his father and back to the man. It was spooky. They looked very much alike. He looked around the room for an explanation but was greeted with open mouthed horror all around.

“Who is it, Dad?”

“It’s David. My brother,” he whispered.

Seleste cried openly. It was her eldest son, the son that had killed himself to keep the Rogue from using him to get to his secret mate. David and Leann Vaughn were forbidden from bonding because they were both betrothed to other vamps by their parents.

“That son of a bitch,” Lloyd hissed.

Leann was the oldest child of Lloyd and Adele. Adele was also openly sobbing at the implications. Leann killed herself when the overwhelming experience of losing her mate swallowed her whole. The prophecy that caused so much trouble for Chase and Lovely had come from Leann. Everyone believed the Rogue wanted her precognitive ability and David was taken to draw Leann out. So for many years, until Chase and Lovely bonded, the Vaughn family and the Deidrick family were at odds, blaming each other for the loss of their children. The question now was, if David was still alive, what happened to Leann? She would have known her mate was still alive when she ended her life.

“Didn’t you see his body?” Chase asked.

Mason swallowed hard.

“By the time he was found, he was unrecognizable. The body was the right size and he wore David’s clothes and his ring.” Mason looked down at the ring on his hand. Chase’s father had worn the ring for as long as he could remember.

There was movement in the corner of the screen and Chase focused on the couple coming into view. A female was being roughly led up the stairs by none other than Derek, the son of the Rogue. Derek was his uncle’s son. He was his cousin.

Chase’s heart froze in his chest and he screamed a keening sound of pain and disbelief. The hood was pulled from the female’s head and a mane of dark hair, streaked with white and red, fell forward. His soul cried out to her. She cried back, begging forgiveness and understanding.

Mason reached out to touch her head on the screen and looked back at Griffin with tears in his eyes. Debbie squinted at the screen and moved in close to get a better look. She opened her mouth to speak but shook her head and closed it before the words came out. She returned to Chase and wrapped her arms around him and held on when he dropped to the floor.

“Not again. Not again,” Adele moaned from the corner.

“The girl is making a noble sacrifice if you ask me. One for the good of many,” said Kane.

Donavan reached over and punched his grandfather in the jaw, knocking him out.

“Asshole!” Donavan cursed.        

David noticed Derek moving up the stairs and beamed at him. Derek leaned in and whispered something to Danielle. She jerked away from him and kept walking. Chase wailed and screamed at the screen as if she could hear him.

“Don’t do this, Lovely! We can get them all out! I love you! Please, don’t leave me! You can’t leave me!”

Mason came to kneel on the floor beside his wife and son to encompass them both in his arms. David spoke to the assembly.

“Ah. Here is my prize. Finally,” he held his hand out toward Derek and Lovely.

“You see. The strongest and most loyal of my Shades has brought me the power I need. Bring me the girl,” David crooned.

“Damn it! I know she’s strong but she doesn’t have anything he can’t get elsewhere. David is already telekinetic. Dani isn’t the only strong telepath in the world. She has the ability to enthrall vampires as well as humans, but Lance proved she isn’t the only vamp alive who can do that. The only thing that makes her special is that she’s multi-talented. Why Danielle?” Gage wondered aloud.

David grabbed Lovely by the hair and dragged her up the last few stairs. He put his nose in her hair and inhaled with a smile. Chase knew the exact vanilla and lavender sweetness that would be filling David’s senses. He howled. The bastard had no right to touch her. He had no right to breath in Chase’s mate and smile. Chase searched his mind and dug deep in his soul for traces of her, but a quiet shadow, curled up in the back of his mind was all he found.

David continued to speak. He had his hands wrapped tightly in her distinctive hair. She didn’t struggle to free herself. Even if she had, there was nowhere to go but into the arms of the Shade or a traitor to her people. The four fanged vamps stepped forward to enclose them.

“It isn’t about Danielle anymore. It’s about the game. We have her and he wants her. She defeated him before. She embarrassed him publicly. He has made her out to be such a powerful icon to his men to explain away his defeat. To redeem himself, he has to have her. He has to prove he can beat the Council by taking their new toy and breaking it,” Donavan answered Gage’s question. Half the room turned to look at him with raised eyebrows. He shrugged.

“I’m a lawyer. I studied criminal psychology. He can’t be the biggest bully on the block if he allows others to take his lunch money. The other bullies won’t respect him,” Donavan explained his theory.

“Why doesn’t she do something? Why doesn’t she fight? She should just kill him where he stands. I would force him to do it himself or have one of his men do it if I could control the minds of others,” Lloyd mused.

“She isn’t as strong as she once was,” Adele sniffed. “She is riding a difficult line between telepathic and physical strength. Since she was turned, her power has teetered back and forth. The more she begins to feel physical strength, her telepathic strength wanes and vice versa. Darren took more from her than just the humanity she held so dear. Her gifts were partially human in nature. He also weakened her considerably.”

Griffin looked at his mother in stunned silence.

“She came to me for help because she said I had the best shields in town. We’d been working on strengthening hers against attack. Right now she could probably hold her own in a fight, but telepathically there isn’t much fight left in her. She can probably pick up some thought from unshielded minds but that’s it.”

Chase knew all this, but it had been a secret to everyone else but Adele. She had been working with Lovely on building her mental shields for these telepathically weak times. Lovely was working with her friend Karrie to build her physical and self-defense skills for the physically weak days. His Lovely had paid dearly for her change. She was much healthier and happier as a demi-vamp. It was just one more reason to see Darren suffer before he died.

David finished his speech and looked down at Lovely. He pulled her closer by her hair and stroked her cheek.

“This is your last chance, beauty. Will you join me, or do you die today?” he purred the question.

Lovely spat in his face and struck out with an open handed strike to his face. He roared at her and struck back. Derek stood nearby cringing and squirming. Chase roared when his Lovely’s body went limp and fell into David.

“Now is the time!” David shouted to the crowd.

“Today begins our new world order!”

He lifted Lovely’s limp body from the ground and sank his fangs in her jugular. He drank greedily. Chase struggled to his feet and went for the door only to be tackled by Gage. He fought to get to his mate while Gage told him over and over that it was far too late. He would need to save his energy to avenge his mate now. It was the only thing left to do. Chase crumpled and turned to watch his uncle murder his one true love. He would need to remember this in the days to come when he wanted to lie down and die. He would need this memory to keep him alive long enough to make this bastard pay.

When David finished his meal he lifted his head to look down at the female in his arms, with eyes the black of night. Blood covered his lips and dripped from his fangs. The crowd cheered while David shook with energy. He released Lovely without a care and her body tumbled end over end down the concrete stairs and came to rest in an unnatural looking heap on the sidewalk. David shook his head like a confused animal and staggered into the building without a word to his gathered army.

The Shade looked around at each other and began to quickly disband as if they were used to their leader’s unpredictable behavior. Chase watched Derek surreptitiously make his way down the stairs and scoop up Lovely’s broken body. He moved quickly off screen.

The office had taken on the cold sorrowful atmosphere of a mausoleum. The women sniffled and moaned. The men struggled to bear up under the heavy sadness. Across the room, Griffin actually passed out. The trauma of watching his child die was too much. He would have to be the one to tell Tessa that only her child was dead.

TWENTY THREE

Chase just couldn’t wrap his head around the loss of his mate. He felt crushed into the ground. When the horror of seeing his only love murdered faded a bit, he expected to feel the loss of the warmth she brought to his soul but the emptiness of her absence never came.

Griffin slumped back into a corner chair. A never-ending flow of tears streamed down his face. Chase’s father and mother were taking turns going back and forth between Lovely’s grieving mate and her father, but Chase wasn’t grieving. He closed his eyes and prayed for the thousandth time. He heard Lloyd say to Adele that he was in denial. It was possible that his heart and mind refused to let go of Lovely. Maybe this was why vamps that lost their mates tended to go nuts. If he had to live without her but still feel that she was alive in his heart, Chase would never stop looking for her.

Chase closed his eyes and bowed his head. He searched every corner of his mind for any trace of his mate. He had just about given hope when he felt the dark spot where the presence of his Lovely had curled up disappeared begin to unfurl and warm the depths of his soul. His body moved of its own volition and he was completely unable to react. He rose from the chair and looked at his mother.

“I’m going home. I want to be alone. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

Chase’s mouth said the words but his mind was not in control. His heart pounded. His mind screamed a joyous sound of relief. It was his Lovely. She was leading him to her without the others knowing. His body carried him toward the door but Adele grabbed his arm. She looked deeply into his eyes and the tightness around her eyes relaxed. The sorrow was fading. Chase had the feeling she was talking to Lovely instead of him when she spoke. There was more to Adele Vaughn than she ever let on in public. Adele knew that Lovely was in the room even if the others didn’t.

“You will call me also. Won’t you… Chase?” She smirked and released his arm.

“Yes, Ma’am,” his mouth said.

On the way out of the house he was greeted by dozens of warriors and Wrath guards that gave him condolences on the loss of his mate. Many of the warriors had been friends with Lovely during her time on the Enclave and Chase felt the sincerity of their sorrow for a female many of them had considered to be one of their own. His mouth thanked them and his feet slowly took him out the door. His mind howled and wallowed in the glory of knowing that his mate was very near. She didn’t have the strength to do this trick from afar.

As soon as he figured out how she survived the scene he had watched, Chase was going to put her over his knee. Then he was going to kiss it all better. He loved her so much and was so thankful for another chance at life with his mate. He was glad someone else controlled his limbs because his knees were weak. The last couple of years were a crazy rollercoaster ride but the past hour had been the worst of his life. Watching his mate’s lifeless body roll down the steps and come to an unnatural looking rest would be a thing that brought him nightmares for years to come.

****

Gage felt a restless anticipation and couldn’t figure out if it was his nerves or Koren’s. In all of his years as a warrior, Gage never knew fear the likes of which he experienced when he knew for sure his mate, his sweet gentle hearted Koren, was in the group of females held prisoner on the Enclave.

He placed the blame for this debacle squarely on his own shoulders. When the Council hall was attacked, he threw everything he had at it and left the Enclave undermanned and vulnerable. His careless judgment had cost the lives of an unknown number of warriors and he shuddered to think of what was happening to the females. Gage was certain Koren had taken a beating. He would spend the rest of his life making up for every scratch and bruise on her beautiful body if he ever got her back in his arms.