Vampire Betrayed (Vampires Destined) (6 page)

“Just take care of yourself.” Devlin didn’t hang around for a response. He sped off into the night, disappearing deep into the forest.

Six months later

Charleston, South Carolina

Shoulders hunched, Ariana rested her palms against her knees, breathing hard. It had been another clean kill. The vampire’s dust lay at her feet like ash from an old fire, and she felt nothing but emptiness, this strange, almost surreal feeling.

Straightening, she tugged her black shirt down over her exposed stomach and allowed the breeze to caress her face. She’d lost count of the number of vampires she’d exterminated over the past six months, and maybe that was a good thing.

Since joining with Charon, she’d done nothing but kill. Her life revolved around eliminating vampires until sun-up and starting all over again at sundown. She functioned, existed. But she didn’t live.

And she never stopped thinking about Joaquin.

Charon didn’t want her to go after him yet, and Ariana had to admit she was secretly glad. Facing Joaquin again would be difficult enough. Confronting him when she knew her job was to kill him…her thoughts trailed off as a smattering of applause interrupted her.

“Excellent, my dear.” Charon’s voice floated down from overhead seconds before her gold-rimmed sandals touched the dirt. “You have refined your skills and exceeded my wildest dreams for you. I can’t tell you how proud I am, but I can tell you the time has come for you to face your biggest enemy yet.” The glow on Charon’s face rivalled that of the moon.

Ariana didn’t have to wonder why she didn’t feel as pleased as her benefactress did. Rolling the kinks from her muscles, she retrieved the stake from the ground and turned away. “If you’ll excuse me, Charon, I’m exhausted.”

“Of course you are. Let me make you some tea, and then you can take a nice long rest. We can talk about Joaquin later.” She fell into step beside Ariana.

“No. I’d rather be alone.” Without giving Charon time to object, Ariana picked up the pace, her feet literally flying over the soft earth as she left behind the remnants of death.

She’d never make Charon understand how she felt after a kill because she couldn’t understand it herself. She was supposed to be doing the world a favor, ridding it of the hideous creatures who preyed on the unsuspecting, but each time she staked another vampire, she died a little inside.

No, Charon would never understand. What had started out as a noble undertaking had quickly segued to something repulsive. And no matter how much Charon talked about what was best for mankind, Ariana still wasn’t convinced her mentor had the world’s best interest at heart.

One thing she did know for certain. With each kill, she became more like a robot and less like a human out to save the world.

Chapter Four

“Samuel’s dead.” Devlin climbed in through the window of the penthouse suite, dusting off his black jeans once his feet touched the carpeted floor.

Joaquin barely flicked a glance at him before returning his gaze to the newspaper. “And?”

“And? Have you not been paying attention? Redwood has been picked clean. No vampires within a hundred mile radius, and any that are stupid enough to hang around drop like flies.

The newspaper lowered a fraction of an inch. Joaquin waited for his friend to finish.

“It’s gotta be her.”

Forgetting all about his reading, Joaquin tossed the paper aside and stood. “Ariana? You think Charon has turned her into some kind of hunter? That doesn’t even make sense. Charon wants more of us to join her. The only reason she wants us dead is because we won’t.”

“Okay, first,” Devlin held up one finger, “she only wants you dead, and second,” another finger joined the first, “what’s happening in California has nothing to do with joining anything. It’s been a massacre, and the ones that have made it out alive have been talking about a woman they don’t see, hear, or smell until she’s upon them. Now you tell me that doesn’t sound like Charon’s doing.”

Joaquin considered his friend’s words. Though it was true Charon had certain abilities no one in the vampire community could explain, it would take a lot to convince him she could make Ariana invisible. That would require so much more than just mere skills.

His hands in the pockets of his black slacks, he crossed the carpeted floor to the window. “We’ve always known there was more to Charon than we could see, but this is stretching out. How do we know this isn’t something Ariana has done on her own?”

Devlin snorted and joined Joaquin at the window. “Okay, so what? Your ex-lover is so heartbroken over your betrayal that she starts dabbling in the black arts? Even if that was true, do you really think she’d take it upon herself to start offing vampires? She’d have to know without a doubt that she wasn’t risking her own life. That’s the only way she could face a vampire with that much confidence.”

  Joaquin’s brows dropped into a frown. “Stop referring to her as my ex-lover, and I didn’t betray her.”

“Really?” Devlin waved a hand in front of his face. “Everything that I just said, and that’s what you’re going to focus on? Get your head out of your ass, man. This is real. Vampires are being picked off one by one, and if someone can take on Samuel and win, we’ve got real problems.”

Edging the curtain back to see the moon, Joaquin shook his head. “Not problems, Dev. Problem. If Charon is behind this, we take her out, and the problem is solved.”

“You don’t think Ariana is going to need to be taken out as well?”

Joaquin whipped around so fast the wind from his speed ruffled the newspaper stilly lying on the bed. “No one, and I mean no one, touches her. Got it?”

Devlin lifted his hands in surrender. “Hey, I’m not the one you have to worry about, unless she attacks me first. Then it’s game on.”

The muscles in Joaquin’s neck tightened. “She’s not going to attack you.”

“You can’t be sure of that.”

“Yes, I can.” Expressionless, Joaquin returned to the bed and slipped his feet into his shoes.

“How?”

“By giving her exactly what she wants.” Before his friend could ask anymore questions, he added, “me.”

Ariana caught his scent, that tempting aroma of hot male and warm musk. Spicy. Irrefutably Joaquin. She closed her eyes and just drank him in. After almost seven months, she thought her senses might have dulled a little, that she wouldn’t recognize him so easily.

Shoes smacked against the pavement, and Ariana took a step back into the shadows. Was he looking for her? He couldn’t know where she was. Charon had just given her his location a few hours ago.

Or maybe he’d known all along and had chosen not to come after her. Was it possible he didn’t have any intentions of killing her? She thought by now he would have already made a move, but Charon insisted Joaquin was still biding his time, trying to get her to lower her guard.

The steps grew closer. Steeling herself for the inevitable meeting, Ariana allowed the moon to find her, giving her visitor ample light to see her. Only the man who stopped in his tracks wasn’t Joaquin.

She frowned and sniffed the air. He certainly smelled like Joaquin. Her stomach took a nosedive as the unmistakeable aroma of vampire blood swept away the lingering scent of Joaquin’s unique smell.  Had this vampire killed Joaquin? If not that, then he’d certainly been close to him.

“Who are you?” She faced the broad-shouldered vampire with a snarl to her voice.

“Devlin, and you must be Ariana.”

“How do you know my name?” Her muscles tensed, ready to spring into action should he make even the slightest move toward her.

“Because Joaquin’s talked about you often enough. He told me you were beautiful, and he wasn’t lying.”

Ariana’s lip curled. Was this vampire really trying to charm her? Obviously, he knew nothing about her. She zoomed forward, catching him around the throat and off-guard. “Where is he?”

Devlin caught hold of her wrist, attempting to yank her arm away, but she held tight. “Let go of me or things are going to get very ugly.”

“Why? Because you’re a vampire?” She said the word with so much venom there could be no doubt in his mind what she thought of his kind. Her fingers flexed, and she lifted him off the ground. “Now, I’ll ask you again. Where is Joaquin?”

“I’m not your personal GPS. If you want to find him, you’re going to have to do it without my help.”

Once he made the statement so plainly, Ariana threw him across the parking lot. He bounced off the hood of a Toyota before dropping to the asphalt. He knew where Joaquin was, and now that she was this close to him, she had to see him.

Devlin was back on his feet before she made it half way across the asphalt. “I did mention this was going to get ugly, didn’t I?” He sped forward, and they clashed together like two locomotives going at full steam.

The heels of her boots digging in, Ariana pushed back, giving as much strength and force as he gave. Her body went on autopilot, following all the necessary steps to meet the ultimate goal. Kill the vampire.

Duck. Turn. Weave. Kick. Each move executed without hesitation. Without thought. Or emotion.

“Ariana!”

The shout brought the match to an abrupt halt. The voice she still remembered in her dreams called her name again. Sweat pooled between her breasts, a grim reminder of the man she was about to face and her own disillusionment. The sound of his footsteps raised the hair on her arms, and she turned slowly.

Dressed all in black, he looked like he’d walked off the pages of a men’s magazine, stylish and sexy, but his eyes reflected pure fury. For a brief moment, she wondered if she could fulfill the task ahead of her.

She didn’t doubt her physical ability. That had never let her down, but those other vampires were nothing. Meant nothing. This was Joaquin.

Her mind flashed back to the nights spent aboard his yacht en route to the Bahamas, the sunrises watched from the darkened windows of the hotel room on Grand Cayman, and the crisp blue waters where they’d snorkeled at night.

This vampire meant something.

“Devlin, get out of here.”

“I’m not leaving you alone with her.” Devlin came to stand beside Joaquin, his voice just as hard.

“Let him stay, Joaquin. Two kills are better than one.” Refusing to allow the gleam in his eyes to scare her, she stared straight back at him. “You never told me that you had vampire friends, too. Oh, wait.” One fingernail tapped her cheek. “You didn’t even tell me that you were one.”

“So all these vampires that have been dying. That’s your handiwork?” Joaquin didn’t move any closer, just stood watching her with his hands in his pockets, the wind ruffling his hair.

“I had to do something to make the world a safer place. I just wish I could have stopped you sooner.”

His eyebrow arched. “Stopped me? For what exactly?”

The bastard probably didn’t even remember the girl he’d killed seven months ago. No doubt he’d ended so many lives his victims all ran together. “I saw her, Joaquin, and before you can ask, the woman you killed a night or so after I made you leave.”

“What in the hell are you talking about?” Devlin took a threatening step toward her, obviously eager to continue their battle.

“Of course you would stand up for him. You’re his friend.” She spat out the last word like an epithet. Who knew vampires could have friends? “But I know the truth, and you’re the reason I’m doing what I do. Thanks to you, I now have a purpose, a duty even. Eventually, I’ll get around to you…unless you like your life to end tonight.”

Joaquin studied her for a long moment, long enough to send shivers down her spine. She’d never seen him so furious. “You might want to rethink your calling, Ariana.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Don’t push this. You don’t want me for an enemy.”       

The threat in his voice incited her anger. “I’ve changed a bit since we last saw one another. I can take care of myself quite well.”

“So is Charon the reason you’re doing this? Did she tell you our kind needed to be eliminated? What about what she is? Did she tell you that, too?”

 “The only thing that matters is what you should have told me. The truth. You owed me, Joaquin.”

“Why? So we could have missed the nights we had together? I treated you like gold. Did you really think I would have hurt you?”

A lump formed in her throat. “You think lying to me didn’t hurt?”

“How long are you going to act the part of the scorned lover?” Joaquin’s question slapped her in the face.

The sudden rush of tears shocked her, took away her control. She needed to get away. With this newest stab to her heart, she bled inside, and fighting would have to wait.

She didn’t say anything else. No, she couldn’t say anything else. When she turned and sped away, neither vampire followed her. But Joaquin’s words stayed with her with each mile she ran. So cold. Unfeeling. And so unlike the man she’d given her heart to.

His arms went around her waist, pulling her back against his chest. A warm tongue licked her cheek, and Ariana shivered.