Better Off Undead - Cynthia Eden Page 0,73

Fucking parlor trick that I still don’t understand. “If he hadn’t vanished, I would have killed them both.” It was a truth that made him sick.

Killed…Jane.

His hands fisted. “I don’t want this.”

“Guilt can be a terrible monster to carry,” she said, her voice softening. “I’m sorry.”

“I did this to her. If I’d moved faster, if I hadn’t brought in her bastard of a brother…”

Annette shook her head. “Fate can’t be changed. Jane was born to be a vampire.”

“Fuck fate. Jane was born to be mine.”

Her brow furrowed at his words, and Annette leaned over her mirror once more. “Yes,” she said, voice a bit dazed. “I think she was.”

And her brother is a dead man. I’ve already got a call in to Vivian’s office…I want access to that prisoner. Drew Hart was in intensive care at the local hospital, under constant police protection. Once Aidan spoke with Vivian, that protection would vanish. Drew would die.

A life for a life.

Why the hell hasn’t Vivian called me back already? He’d put her in that position as police captain for two reasons. One—Vivian was fucking fantastic at the job. And two—she was a werewolf who’d always been loyal to the pack. He could always count on her to do what he needed.

Only Vivian hasn’t called me…

“There are other threats out there,” Annette said and her words were way too close to Vincent’s for Aidan’s comfort. “Others you need to face before you see Jane.”

He knew where this was going. “The other alpha.” The sonofabitch who was killing in Aidan’s territory.

Annette nodded. “You think he won’t have the same urge that you do? When confronted by not one, but two vampires, his primal instincts will overwhelm him. He’ll attack. He’ll destroy Jane.”

Aidan’s chest was ice cold.

“But I suppose that’s what you want,” Annette mused silkily. “For her to just be…gone.”

Aidan shot to his feet. “I want her back. I want my Jane back.” His throat seemed to throb where she’d bit him. “I want her in my arms. In my bed. In my life.” Then he had to say the truth that tore him apart. “But my beast wants her dead.”

Annette turned her hand so that it faced him, palm up. “Give me your blood so I can see…”

He gave her his hand. She sliced across his palm with her knife and as the blood dripped onto her mirror, he saw Jane.

Jane and blood. The two would always be bound together in his mind.

***

“Jane.”

She hung limply in her chains. Every part of her body hurt. Her lips and tongue were so swollen. The thirst wouldn’t end. It was ripping her apart. She wanted to feed so badly. So. Badly. She’d do anything to stop that terrible hunger. Anything.

Then a smell hit her. Light. Sweet. Intoxicating.

Her eyes flew open.

Vincent stood a few feet away. A woman with dark red hair was before him and…blood trickled down the woman’s throat.

“I think the problem,” Vincent said, “is that you need live prey.”

Jane shook her head. No. No. Stay away.

The woman’s eyes were dazed, unfocused. Was she drugged?

Vincent pushed his victim—no, my victim—forward. “Does her blood smell good, Jane?”

Damn him. Yes.

“Are you hurting, Jane?”

I’m being ripped apart. But I deserve the pain. I—

“Take a few sips of her blood and the pain will stop.”

Jane shook her head. “S-stay away…” It was all she could manage. Barely a whisper.

Vincent’s face tightened. “The longer you delay, the more powerful the bloodlust becomes. Soon you won’t be able to control yourself at all. You’ll attack everyone in your path. You’ll be beyond thought. Beyond control. That’s why so many new vampires go on their bloody rampages. That’s why Aidan’s mother couldn’t be stopped.”

Aidan’s…mother?

“She tried not to feed. She held out too long. She’d starved herself, refusing to eat at all, going weeks…until she was only a shell. She lost herself completely. She turned on the ones closest to her. She destroyed them. Took all of her family in that bloodlust, and only Aidan escaped.”

Tears were pouring down her cheeks now. Aidan hadn’t told her. He hadn’t said…

Paris tried to warn me. He’d told her to ask Aidan about his family, but she hadn’t. All that time, Aidan had been with her, and he’d known…he’d realized just what would happen to her in the end.

Because I am like his mother.

But…but he’d loved Jane anyway. Despite the hell he knew would come.

“Drink from her, Jane,” Vincent urged. His voice was a dark temptation. “You don’t have to be a monster. If you get