21 Shades of Night, page 240
But she’d be a vampire. She had been born and trained to kill the rogues. Yet, her distant relation, Elizabeth, had wanted to be turned. For all eternity, she’d wanted to be with Ephraim. Why not Alena? What was holding her back?
A worry nagged at her. Why did the League pronounce him a rogue? What was Ephraim hiding? Or was it all the League’s fault for condemning him?
That’s what held her back from agreeing. The uncertainty of who was telling the truth.
A flapping stirred the air behind her. She whipped around, her sword readied.
Cybil smiled at her, her canines extended as she dropped to the pavement in front of her. She ran her tongue over the deadly sharp teeth. “Nice night for a walk, eh, Elizabeth?” She motioned around her. “Where’s lover boy? Tired of him already? Didn’t he warn you how dangerous it could be walking around all by your lonesome after dusk without a hunter to protect you? You know you’ll never match an ancient vampire’s strength, huntress.”
Cybil took a step forward, her bright red lips smiling, her wicked teeth gleaming white, ready for battle.
Chapter 13
ALENA HATED CYBIL. Partly, because she figured she was one of the Brotherhood—a sister to the Brotherhood, rather—but also because Ephraim had sex with the vamp. Alena couldn’t help the surge of jealousy that wormed its way into her system whenever she thought Ephraim had been interested in another woman. Especially, this woman.
“Nice night for a flyby? What brings you here? Lose your way to another bash—again?” Alena kept her voice cool, just like the vamp’s and the damp air that surrounded them.
“Ephraim and I used to be quite an item, didn’t you know?”
The vamp was attempting to bait her, distract her before she swooped in for the kill.
“Last year? I’ve heard all about it. Seems you didn’t interest him for long. One dissatisfying quickie and that was it.”
“Is that what he told you?” Cybil gave a caustic laugh, circling around her, the whole time Alena turning to maintain a frontal defensive posture. “What I don’t understand is why you haven’t blood bonded with him yet. I thought Elizabeth was ready.”
“Ah, but you see we have.”
Cybil smiled evilly. “No, if you had, he’d have warned you to stay in the house.”
“He did, only I don’t take orders from anyone.”
“But your father?”
“Not even my father, if they’re not sound orders.”
“The mighty League would issue faulty orders?” Cybil laughed. “You have a mind of your own, I see. Or is it that Ephraim has swayed you to his side?” She tapped her stiletto heel on the brick walk. “The League is well aware of his secret project, by the way.”
Alena’s heart took a nosedive. If Ephraim couldn’t be honest with her even after she told him the truth about what she’d been ordered to do, how could she blood bond with him? What was he truly up to? Was he using her to get to the League in his own way? She hated to think Cybil would know about it when Alena didn’t. Why would he share such knowledge with Cybil? Because she’d been his vampire lover, damn it.
“Why would the League care anything about his secret project?” Alena asked, fishing for the truth.
Cybil’s smile broadened. “Why, dear Elizabeth, he wants you back. Only he can’t have you. Not in this day and age. You’ll never agree to blood bond with him, and he knows this. You’ve been raised under League rules that weren’t in existence at the time he’d met you earlier. He intends to go back and rescue you. Hasn’t he told you? He’ll kill all of the MacLeods this time, before any one of them has a chance to hurt you.”
Alena attempted to calm her heartbeat that pounded like a hummingbird’s on speed. She fought the confusion swirling in her mind while the notion Ephraim had lied to her all along conflicted with what she’d thought to be the truth. And she tried to remain focused on the danger in front of her, knowing full well Cybil intended to rip out her throat and drain her of all her blood as soon as Alena let down her guard. But he couldn’t return to the past. He couldn’t alter the past.
“The color has drained from your face, Elizabeth. I take it this is not good news.”
“He has already told me he intended to rescue Elizabeth.”
He had, damn him, if Alena had only been listening. Well, not just listening, but believed his words. How many times had he said he wanted to go back and save her? She’d only thought it romantic sentiment, not something he truly planned to do. Besides, something like that wasn’t really possible, was it? Yet, it must be if the League was that concerned about it. Damn him for not telling her the truth, well, for not making her understand that he’d been telling her the truth all along.
“Then it won’t matter that you die here, now. After all, in a little while, he will change the past so that you would never have existed.”
Alena smiled. “Oh, Ephraim and I had such a wonderful afternoon of making love. He wishes to repeat this with me all evening long. So until he returns to the past, I’ll stick around.”
“He has not blood bonded with you,” Cybil hissed.
“No?” Alena pulled down the top edge of her turtleneck and showed Cybil the bite marks on her neck.
For an instant, Cybil stared at the bite marks, her face a red mottled mask of rage. Then without warning she half leapt at Alena, half flew. Slamming into Alena with her sleek body, she nearly knocked her off her feet. How could such a slender figure pack such a force? Alena dropped her sword with a clatter against the brick pavement and scowled at herself for the deadly mistake.
Cybil grabbed Alena’s throat, then sank her teeth into her shoulder. The pain streaked through Alena’s shoulder blade and down her arm all the way to the tips of her fingers. Alena cried out. Quickly, she jammed her wrist blade into the vamp’s chest, but the knife glanced off a rib. Cybil sucked Alena’s blood from her, drawing the strength from her.
Alena’s mind blackened briefly. Then she glimpsed Cybil’s golden hair draped over her shoulder while the vamp greedily sucked from her, pulling her lifeblood from her body.
Just nicking the vampire’s heart with the hunter’s ancient blade would kill her. Just a paper-thin cut would do the trick.
Alena struggled to free herself, attempting to line up her blade to stick the vampire’s heart muscle this time. With another thrust, the blade sank deep, missing the rib, which had prevented her success the first time.
Cybil shrieked. Then the ancient vampire shriveled up into a three-hundred-year old heap of bones and the black jeans, high-heeled boots, and blood red satin blouse she’d been wearing.
Nearly collapsing, Alena angrily kicked all that remained of Cybil’s vile being aside. Clutching her shoulder, the blood trickled over her fingers, and she gritted her teeth against the pain radiating all the way to her fingernails. She grabbed the back of a patio chair back to help her stay on her feet.
Her thoughts numbly shifted to Mona and Ephraim. Where were they? Well, Ephraim could fight his own demons and go to the devil. She had to locate and rescue Mona. Afterward, she’d take on the rest of the Brotherhood, one vampire at a time.
Finding Ephraim’s secret project and destroying it took priority next. Then? She’d leave him. Unless Cybil had lied about it all. Alena shook her head at herself. The truth was Ephraim had told her as much. She just hadn’t been listening.
But what if he’d changed his mind about attempting to return to an earlier time? Unless she stubbornly refused to blood bond with him. And then what?
He’d return to the past.
No wonder he hadn’t put much stock in what the League had ordered her to do. He wouldn’t be around long to worry about it. And no wonder the League wanted his project. It could mean the end of all of her family before they ever had a chance to exist. Maybe he’d change the future so that instead of the League taking power, vampires did. She hmpfd to herself. She’d said he wanted to destroy her whole family. Her cousin had warned her of the very same thing. And that Ephraim had denied it. Liar.
He was a rogue after all, just a sneakier one than usual. The worst kind. But she wouldn’t terminate him. Denying her love to him would kill him more slowly than any death she could envision. However, she had to find out how he intended to return to the past, then she’d destroy whatever means he planned to use.
She rubbed her temple, her brains slightly addled because of the blood loss. Ephraim loved her... but if she wouldn’t blood bond with him, and he wanted to return to the one who would... did that make him bad... or just so madly in love with her that he couldn’t give her up? Was Cybil trying to confuse the issue?
No, the part about him wanting her, that was okay. It was the part where he would terminate her family...
But what if he hadn’t intended to do that?
No… it was the only way to free her from her cursed existence wherein her kin killed her no matter the century. Wasn’t it?
Her mind fuzzed, and her stomach grew queasy.
She gripped her shoulder, the wound bleeding into her turtleneck. Any vampire could smell the scent of blood a half a mile away, triggering a sense of disquiet in the pit of her stomach. But she couldn’t hide in the house, not without finding out first what had happened to Ephraim and Mona. Yet as weak as she felt, it was her smartest option.
Ephraim must have left the area or he would have joined her before this. Was he with Mona? Or had something else taken him from here?
Silently, she listened for any sound that would clue her into their whereabouts. Then she thought she heard Mona calling to her from the rose garden. Taking a deep breath, she tried to quiet her nerves, assuming the noise was a trap.
She took a step away from the rose garden when her cell phone rang, nearly giving her a heart attack. She struggled to remove it from her belt. “Hello?” she whispered.
“Alena, this is David. Is everything all right? We seem to have a bad connection.”
“This isn’t a good time to talk.”
“Alena, what’s wrong?” Sensing she was in trouble, he said, “Where are you? Damn it, I’m on my way.”
She clicked off the phone, then turned it on vibrator mode. Mona... she had to save Mona. With a firm step, she walked toward the rose garden, her rubber-soled boots squishing slightly against the wet pavement.
Again, she heard fluttering behind her. She shook her head, not believing she’d have to fight all of the Brotherhood tonight, alone.
“Alena!” Ephraim grabbed her up in his arms and cradling her against his firm body, he stormed back toward the house.
“Let me down, damn it! I can walk on my own.”
“You’ve been bitten.” His words were couched in anger.
“Where’s Mona?” she demanded. Acting was something she’d never been good at. Somehow if she were to pretend she had no knowledge of his secret project, she had to act the loving girlfriend. Over her dead body. “Put me down, Ephraim!”
She tried to squirm out of his arms. He tightened his grip on her.
He slammed the door open, then walked inside and kicked the door shut. “Damn it, Alena, quit squirming. I told you to stay inside.”
“Where’s Mona?”
“Sleeping in her room. It was a wild goose chase. Only I see that one of them got to you. If you’d stayed inside like I told you...” He shook his head. “Stubborn as always. So what did he look like?”
“Mummified after I got through with... her.”
Ephraim cocked a brow at her.
“Your old lover, Cybil. Put me down, Ephraim! I want to see Mona.”
Wearing a robe, her hair disheveled, Mona walked into the living room, and her jaw dropped. “Ohmigod. I’ll get bandages.” She dashed down the hall.
Ephraim set Alena on the couch, then tried to lift her turtleneck, but she held it down. “I need to clean you up, and you’re still bleeding.”
“I can take care of it myself.” She rose from the sofa, but grew dizzy and collapsed on the down-filled cushions.
“Having two vampires feed on you tonight has been too much for you. Why didn’t you listen to me and stay inside like I told you to do?”
Infuriated with him, she ignored him, until he crouched before her to see to her wound, and she grabbed his shoulder to help herself up. On wobbly legs, she attempted to walk toward the bathroom.
“Fine. Be that way.” Ephraim swept her off her feet and carried her to the guestroom, cradling her tightly against his chest.
She should have loved the intimacy, but instead her heart hardened with the knowledge he planned to get rid of her soon.
“If you won’t listen to my advice, I’ll have to insist.”
“Order, you mean.” As soon as he laid her on the bed, she extended her wrist blade.
He frowned at her. “I see we’re back to the beginning again, though I’d thought we’d progressed forward some since then.”
“I have a job to do.” She waved for him to leave when Mona hurried into the room with the bandages and antiseptic. Mona could help her now. She had no use for Ephraim.
Mona looked at the damage Cybil had done to Alena’s shoulder’s and her brown eyes widened. All of a sudden, a sickly green sheen tinted Mona’s skin.
Ephraim took the items from Mona and set the bandages and antiseptic on the bedside table. “You may leave, Mona.”
“I want to help.”
“As long as you don’t collapse on me, too.”
“I did not collapse on you,” Alena said, her voice sounding more irritated than a stirred up swarm of red wasps.
He smiled, yanking at the strings that triggered her temper further. He quickly removed Alena’s wrist blades. She fought the urge to slug him, only in her weakened condition she feared he’d think her aggression was nothing more than a love pat. No way did she want him to consider her actions toward him as loving. Not after discovering what a heel he was.
Mona chewed on her bottom lip as if she were trying to get her stomach under control. When Ephraim cleaned the wound, she swallowed hard. “Thank you for trying to save me, Alena. Sutton told me the others made you think I was in danger. He says you’re staying with us for good now.”
“He was mistaken.”
Ephraim’s face fell, then his expression turned hard. “Leave us,” he said to Mona.
She hurried out of the room and closed the door.
“Do you want to tell me what’s wrong?” he asked through clenched teeth, his ears tinged red.
Alena folded her arms, groaning when the injury sent a new shot of pain down her arm.
He sighed and nudged her to move over so he could sit beside her on the mattress. She didn’t budge. He pulled gently at her shirt. She glowered at him.
“You will tell me what Cybil said that has angered you so.”
Alena tilted her chin up in defiance. If it weren’t for the fact that the League knew he was involved in a secret project, she would have assumed Cybil had lied. Former lover scorned scenario. But the League’s concern forced her to conclude Cybil told the truth, and Ephraim was a rogue. After all, Cybil had no way of knowing the League was having Alena investigate Ephraim over the matter.
He pulled her shirt off in as gentle a manner as he could but even so she cried out when shards of pain streaked down her arm.
“I’m sorry, lass.”
She scowled at him. Sure she hadn’t been honest with him in the beginning, but damn it, she’d finally told him the truth.
He ran a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol over the injury. Gasping, she gritted her teeth and tightened her stomach muscles while the wound burned like it was on fire.
He took a deep breath, his teeth extended. The bloodlust was calling to him, just smelling her warm blood, the sweetness he’d already feasted on earlier.
In silence, he covered the wounds with the cotton pad, then taped it.
Mona knocked on the door. “Sutton, Alena’s cousin is here.”
“Damn. Tell him to wait in the living area. And tell him she’s been injured, but—”
David barged into the guestroom. “What the hell happened—” David stopped speaking as Alena covered her exposed lacy bra with her arms, his eyes widening in surprise and alarm.
Chapter 14
ALENA’S COUSIN TURNED his attention to Ephraim, his face red with fury. She was torn between allowing David to kill Ephraim and put him out of his misery, or saving Ephraim herself, and letting him live a long, lingering death.
Ephraim grabbed her bloodied shirt and handed it to her to cover herself. Mortified David would see her like this, she covered herself with the shirt. She imagined he wasn’t happy that her cousin had seen her so exposed, not because Ephraim was worried about how it looked that he was treating her, but because he had some delusion that David wanted to seduce her himself.
Ephraim took a step back from the bed. “She was bitten by one of the Brotherhood when we assumed my housekeeper was in trouble. I ordered her to stay in the house while I investigated. But your cousin is rather stubborn.”
“Your housekeeper appears to be fine.” David looked back at Mona. “Why was she not the one treating my cousin’s injuries?”
“She cleans house. She knows nothing about taking care of vampiric wounds. And she’s rather squeamish. You’re here because?”
David fisted his hands on his hips. “I was worried about Alena’s safety. Now it seems my concern was warranted.” He advanced on the bed. “You’ll come home with me now.”
Tired of her cousin ordering her about, first with putting her into this untenable predicament and now she wasn’t sure what he had in mind, but she wasn’t putting up with his telling her what to do any longer.
Alena shook her head. “You have only a sofa that makes into a double bed!”
David glanced at Ephraim, as if waiting to hear his objection.
“She has her own guestroom here. And my bedroom is next door so that I can keep an eye on her safety.”
“It seems that you’re keeping her safe is not working,” David said darkly.
