A gentle tug on her hair roused her, but she kept her eyes closed. It had been too long since she’d last slept without being plagued by nightmares and she didn’t want it to end. She hovered somewhere in the realm between sleep and wakefulness, floating as if on a wave. The tug came again and Alexandra shivered. Tristan knew that she hated being woken up like this, she was going to have to snap at him. She didn’t like it, but Tristan never seemed to notice her protests until she was harsh with him. But then she felt fingers running through her hair, nails lightly scraping her scalp, and she heard herself moan softly. Oh, that felt too good.
Her eyes fluttered open and she tried to focus on the person crouching next to her. Not Tristan? Her brain was sluggish from sleep, so she didn’t think much of it when she didn’t recognize him at first.
Dark hair fell into his pale gray eyes and he made no move to push it away. He was staring at Lex heatedly and his fingers were still running through her hair. He was fine-boned, lanky, and his countenance seemed naturally somber. His thick, dark lashes contrasted with gray eyes so light that they appeared almost silver. He watched her take him in and smiled. The smile transformed him, made him seem younger somehow. His fingers drifted from her hair and Lex could feel his touch starting to descend to the back of her neck.
Betrayal, hands around her throat...
Recognition was a sudden, stinging slap of fear. Lex abruptly wrenched away from him until she felt the wall against her back. The bed was on her right, so she tried to crawl left to escape from him, but he followed her persistently. He placed his hands against the wall on either side of her so that she was trapped between his arms.
Aiden St. Helen looked wounded somehow, as if she had hurt him by pulling away. What the hell had he expected?
“What are you doing here?” she asked him.
“Did you think I wouldn’t come for you?” His voice was low and warm, like a purr.
Alexandra was at a loss. “Why— I don’t—”
“You knew I was watching you, Eve. Did you honestly think that I wouldn’t notice?”
“What are you talking about? I’m Alexandra. Remember? We met on the subway with Angie.”
He frowned and seemed confused for a moment, but then he recovered. “Oh, I remember you from the subway,” he said quietly as he leaned into Lex. He was gazing intently at her, and Alexandra felt a rush of heat course through her in spite of herself. “I remember your eyes, the way you looked at me.”
A fresh wave of shame shook her and she glanced away, staring down at the buttons on his shirt. She’d almost forgotten how her power had risen, making her plunge into his soul. But now she remembered the way her heart had caught fire when his essence flooded her, the eerie familiarity of his pain. She felt compelled to use what she’d gleaned from him, to hurt and degrade him. It was what she’d been taught and the urge terrified her. She tried to battle it back.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean—”
“Don’t apologize,” Aiden said shortly. “I think we’re beyond the point where either of us can apologize for what we’ve done to each other.”
Puzzled, Alexandra lifted her gaze back up to him. “I don’t understand.”
“I know it’s you, Eve. You can stop acting so obtuse now.”
“Alexandra. My name is Alexandra.”
Aiden scowled at her. “You’re my soulmate, damn it. I can feel you. Stop lying to me.”
Flashes from a stolen memory came to her. Kisses falling like rain on her neck… him, only him, comfort and warmth…laughter, caresses, his lips on hers, soulmate... I love you, Aiden…
“Genevieve,” Lex whispered. “Genevieve is your soulmate, not me. She’s dead.” Alexandra didn’t mention that she was responsible for his soulmate’s death. His intensity was scaring her badly enough as it was.
Aiden looked at her strangely, with a vicious gleam in his eyes. “Fine, we’ll play it this way,” he said sharply. “I know that she’s dead. I watched you kill her. But I know she’s in you, Soul Stealer. I can feel her.”
Oh god, he was insane, Alexandra realized. Genevieve’s death made him crazy. She didn’t know what to say to him. She was still caged by his arms and body, and there was no way she could fight him off. No, she was at the mercy of a deranged vampire who had tried to kill his own soulmate.
Reece had promised her that should be safe and she’d actually believed him. Lex supposed she deserved whatever Aiden was going to do to her because of her own sheer stupidity. She deserved it because, regardless of the protests she’d shouted at Reece and would soon throw at Aiden, she was so goddamn disgusting that part of her would enjoy being laid to waste. She remembered that when the pain stopped, the pleasure from the simple absence of pain was so acute that it had no equal. She deserved it because she wanted it, even as she didn’t want it. She could lose herself in it, but when she crashed back into herself, she would still be the repulsive person she hated.
Christ, it had been three years since she’d felt this. Three long years of enduring this sickness, this need to self-destruct, by walling herself in and staying with someone who could never touch her, never make her feel this kind of desire. Tristan had saved her from herself and let her pretend for a while that she was something better. But he was dead now. No more pretences, no more lies.
Aiden leaned in closer to her and lowered his head. Alexandra could feel his warm breath on her neck, a whispering caress. “I feel you, angel,” he murmured against her skin. It was starting, the prickles of desire and disgust. Lex sighed softly. “You are so beautiful,” Aiden continued. “Ravishing. I’ve wanted to do this since the moment you looked into my eyes.”
“Which one of us do you even want, Aiden?” she asked, oddly fascinated.
His soft laugh against her ear sent shivers down her spine. “I want you, Eve. You can try to run from body to body if you like, but I will always find you.”
Alexandra almost hissed at his words, which echoed those of her Maker after she had tried to detach her mind from her body those first few nights. “Don’t try to escape. I will always find you.”
But she had escaped, hadn’t she?
She brought her hands up and clenched the fabric of Aiden’s shirt at his shoulders. In effect, she was pulling him closer.
Her Maker had left her for dead, but she was alive.
Aiden’s hands slowly slid down the sides of her body, as if he were memorizing her figure. His touch teased her breasts before settling on her waist.
But her Maker still haunted her dreams. She still saw him in herself, in her power, her words, her impulses. He’d made her a vampire, but he’d also made her who she was. She could never escape that.
“I’m not her,” Lex said in a dull voice. Aiden’s grip on her waist tightened and she gasped. “She’s dead. It’s what you wanted. You tried to kill her. Are you forgetting that?”
Aiden pulled back to look at her face. His gray eyes had darkened, turning the color of slate. “I’m not forgetting anything,” he said. “I did try to kill you. But you eviscerated me. I have nothing left because of you. If I had been able to kill you it would have been kinder than what you’ve done to me.”
“I’m not her,” Alexandra said again, more forcefully this time. “She’s dead. I should know. I’m the one who killed her. I watched her die, Aiden.”
“Mmm. You looked into her eyes, the way you did with me on the subway. You seized her soul, the way you did to me before I broke the connection. She let you kill her, she let you take her blue fire, and she let you take her soul. To get away from me.”
Lex couldn’t stand the way he talked about her power so openly. He knew more than she ever wanted anyone to know. “It doesn’t work that way,” she whispered.
“Really.” It wasn’t a question. He was taking it as a challenge.
There was a soft groan from the corner of the room and Aiden’s head snapped away from her toward the source of the noise. Lex followed his gaze and saw a body lying on the floor. Hope soared inside of her. This person could help her, had to help her.
Save me from him. Save me from myself.
Lex took a deep breath to scream.
Aiden turned back and brutally clamped his hand over her mouth to silence her. It felt as if a current of fire suddenly flared between them, hot and consuming. Alexandra would have gasped, but Aiden’s hand was pressed too tightly against her mouth. She tasted blood on her tongue and she felt as if she could barely get enough air. Aiden looked at her and shuddered. Then he closed his eyes and seemed to be feeding off the energy connecting them, as if it were a drug.
She heard Aiden’s voice in her mind. Yes. God yes. He’d been dying for this, she realized. It was an insatiable craving that he was helpless to fight.
But Lex’s mind fought fiercely against it. It felt so incredibly wrong to have this connection with Aiden. Her entire being cried out from the utter blasphemy of this after she’d already found Reece. This is not mine. He is not mine!
Oh yes, he told her. I am.
She sobbed soundlessly in his hold. It felt as if her soul was being raped—penetrated and used against her will. Aiden delved into her mind, her emotions. He didn’t care about Genevieve now. He only cared about the rush of the connection and absorbing everything Alexandra was. The link she found with Reece was terrifying because of her past, but it hadn’t left her feeling violated. This was what she feared more than anything. This was what she had spent three years running from.
And part of her reveled in it, as she knew it would. The darker parts of her soul that she despised exulted in this familiar defilement, at finally receiving the punishment she knew she deserved for crimes she could not define. Plunder my mind, ravage my body. Do what you will, I am nothing without this.
No, no, no! she screamed telepathically, but she didn’t know if she was screaming at Aiden or at herself. It didn’t matter. She kept screaming. She was helpless and abused, she loved it and she wanted to die. Oh god, oh god. Make it stop.
Make it stop!
Something ignited inside of her; Lex felt the snap of something being set into motion. Suddenly the heat of the connection with Aiden was nothing compared to the energy that began to burn her from the inside out.
Make it stop!
The heat and desperation spiraled within her, higher and higher. She screamed against Aiden’s hand and felt the scalding energy explode out of her. It thrust Aiden away from her, throwing him into the opposite wall of her cell. He fell to the floor, motionless.
Alexandra was trembling violently with silent sobs. She pulled her knees into her chest and hugged them tightly. She sniffed and shook, rocked back and forth uselessly.
“Lex!” she heard from the other side of the door. “Hang on!”
After a few seconds the door opened. Reece Cahill ran to her side and pulled her into his arms. She might have resisted, wanted to resist, but she couldn’t bring herself to move. She couldn’t stop shaking.
Reece rubbed her arms briskly, as if she were shivering from the cold. “It’s all right,” he whispered. His arms tightened around her and his chin rested on the top of her head. “It’s over, it’s all right.”
Lame platitudes, but Lex didn’t care.
She felt Reece turn his head. “ Shit,” he cursed. “Don’t move, okay? I need to check on Carden.”
Reece released her and went over to the person on the floor that she’d heard groan earlier. He struggled to turn the person over, but when he did, Alexandra saw the gunshot wound on the person’s chest.
“Damn it, no,” Reece snapped. He placed his hands over the wound and shut his eyes. Alexandra didn’t know what the witch was doing, but it seemed to take all of his concentration. Reece was eerily still except for his deep, even breaths. After a few long moments, the person on the floor opened his eyes.
“Cahill?” he gasped.
“It’s me.” Reece smiled tightly. “Too stubborn to die, Carden?”
“Hell yes.”
“Good. Hold on a few more minutes. I’ll get more help.”
Reece used his cell phone to ask that healers be sent down to the 25th floor immediately. There was a vampire down with three gunshot wounds, one of which was potentially fatal. Belatedly, the witch went over to examine Aiden St. Helen.
“Is he alive?” Lex asked in a small voice. “Is he okay?”
Reece glanced at her curiously, the turned his attention back to Aiden and his cell phone. “There’s a second vampire down, unconscious. Probably a head trauma. It’s a hostile, so come with backup.”
“I didn’t mean—” Lex started after Reece had finished his call. “I don’t know how— I just wanted him to stop. Oh god, I am what you thought, aren’t I? I’m a Wild Power.” She didn’t really understand what that meant, but the words shook her to her core.
Her witch left Aiden and came back to her. His arms were warm around her as he held her against his chest. “It’s all right,” he murmured again. “Everything will be all right.”
Angie Catellini was in agony. She lay in an artificial darkness that was created by her heavy velvet drapes. Sunrise was still a few hours away, but it was never truly dark in the city. Streetlights, headlights, and lights from a multitude of apartment buildings spilled through her large windows, casting an unnatural, orange glow in her bedroom. Most nights it didn’t bother her, but now her head hurt so badly that even the starlight was unbearable.
She was too tense, squeezing her eyes shut and cringing against the onslaught of voices, and it made the headache worse. But she couldn’t help it. Although her apartment was silent, her walls and windows completely sound-proof, when her head hurt like this, the relentless noise in Angie’s mind was excruciating. The only thought that she would soon have peace was the only thing that ever got her through this.
When she’d gotten back to her penthouse, Angie had called her only remaining mole in Circle Daybreak, now that Aiden had defected. He was usually useless because he was new to the organization and therefore wasn’t privy to much information. But this time he did have some news for her. Anton Parish had told everyone that Genevieve Harman had been killed. The Daybreakers were so distressed that a riot nearly broke out before Anton revealed that another Wild Power had been found and she was, curiously enough, the very same vampire who had killed Genevieve. The new Wild Power was brought into the compound for protection and questioning.
Angie had stood in the living room of her penthouse with her cell phone pressed to her ear long after her infiltrator had hung up. Pure rage burned her in veins. Another Wild Power. Alexandra Harper. No relief, only this incessant buzzing forever. The anger was more than she could contain and in one moment, every glass object in her penthouse exploded, creating violent swarms of jagged shards that cut Angie’s face and hands.
After that she phoned every Night World contact that she had, from low-level snitches to governors from other cities. She had even tried to reach Hunter Redfern, but hadn’t been able to find a current number. No one knew anything.
And so Angie turned her attention to the source of the problem, Alexandra Harper. She opened herself completely to the din and searched for the voice of the fifth Wild Power.
It took longer than she’d expected. Angie had been able to find Alexandra’s tortured mind fairly easily before, but something had changed in her, making her mind harder to recognize. Alexandra was sleeping when Angie found her, no dreams to speak of and no anxiety plaguing her. It was as if some of the pain that Angie had found so delicious had abated. Envy smothered Angie, made her sick.
She kept the connection open, letting her mind meld with Alexandra’s. When the girl finally woke up, Angie saw Aiden through the vampire girl’s eyes. In different circumstances Angie might have laughed hysterically over the madness that had taken Aiden St. Helen. He’d always been so cold. All work and no play. But now it seemed that he’d become a wreck, deluded enough to believe that Alexandra Harper was Genevieve. Oh yes, Angie wanted to laugh, but then she felt Aiden’s hand clamp over Alexandra’s mouth. The shocks that ran through the vampire girl’s mind could be only one thing: the soulmate principle.
No, that wasn’t possible. Genevieve was Aiden’s soulmate. But there wasn’t any mistaking the connection between Alexandra and Aiden. It was raw and it slammed their minds into each other, not caring if the force of it shattered either one of them.
Angie felt it as vividly as Alexandra did. God, Aiden all around her. Aiden sucking the life force out of her, giving her his own in return. It was so fucking good. But Alexandra was screaming. She fought it with everything she had. Damn Soul Stealer didn’t know what a good thing she had. Angie had wanted to be this close to Aiden for years and while they had often screwed each other senseless, he hadn’t felt a thing. Not long after he’d met Genevieve, the sex stopped completely. But damn, sex was nothing compared to this. Angie soared while Alexandra thrashed.
But then she felt the energy welling up in the vampire girl and suddenly Angie felt the fire explode from Alexandra, severing the soulmate connection as it threw Aiden away from her.
No. It couldn’t be.
Blue fire.
Wild Power.
Soul Stealer.
She’d stolen Genevieve’s power. It was true.
Angie felt Alexandra’s hands shaking and she let the vampire girl’s mind go. She couldn’t concentrate any more. She fell to her knees on the floor in front of her sofa and slivers of glass cut through her pants, slicing her knees.
She had allowed herself to hope. She’d tried to quash it until she knew for sure, especially when Aiden had sounded so strange, but Angie realized now that the hope had filled her heart despite her best intentions. It made this moment all the more devastating. After all of her work over the past year, Angie was back to where she had started and no more contingencies plans to fall back on.
Her head began to pound. She’d focused on Alexandra too hard for too long and Angie knew from experience that the headache was only going to get worse. There was nothing to be done about it. There was nothing to be done about any of it.
Fuck that. Fuck it all.
Angie’s heart pounded as she desperately searched for her phone in the glass on the floor. She dialed number after number, gathering forces with threats and promises. The local Night World either feared her or lusted after her and Angie used both to her advantage. She threw money at the mercenaries and promotions to the ambitious. Within a few hours, Angie had built an army.
She was through screwing around. She’d tried being tactful and methodical. She’d tried distractions and blackmail. To hell with all of that. She was sick of waiting, sick of hoping and leaving herself open to defeat. She was sick of the fucking blaring endless maelstrom of voices in her head. It would end tomorrow, one way or another.
Angie lay in the softness of her bed now, feeling the agony of the headache overwhelm her. This was the last time. It wasn’t hope that filled her now, but sheer determination. She would kill the Wild Power tomorrow or die trying.
Either way, she would have peace.
For a while, time ceased to mean anything to her. Healers came and took away the vampire Reece had called Carden. They took Aiden too, roughly lifting him up and dropping him on a stretcher. One of them grumbled about helping a guy who had now attacked two Wild Powers. Reece threw that witch a glare of warning and then no one said another word. Lex couldn’t say if that had been minutes or hours ago.
The tremors had lessened a little, but they were still strong enough to make her teeth chatter. Someone gave her a mug of hot chocolate, but she didn’t feel steady enough to drink it yet. She just held it tightly in her icy hands as she sat cross-legged on the lumpy cot.
The door of her cell was kept open now. Reece was just outside in the hallway, arguing with someone. He was having trouble keeping his impassioned voice quiet enough so that Alexandra couldn’t hear what he was saying. She caught a few words here and there, enough to know that the argument was about her and how dangerous she was.
Finally he came back inside with an older looking vampire behind him. “Lex, this is Anton Parish,” he said as he sat beside her on the cot. The other vampire remained standing. “He runs this compound. Anton, this is Alexandra Harper.”
Lex just nodded to the older vampire and looked to Reece questioningly.
“He wants to ask you a few questions,” he told her. “Apparently he doesn’t trust my impartiality.” Reece gave the lamia a contemptuous glance. “But once he sees that you’re not a threat, I can move you to another room.”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself, Cahill,” Anton warned. Then the lamia looked down at Alexandra. She supposed his dark expression was meant to scare her, but Lex had seen much worse. “Do you work for Angie Catellini?”
Damn it, more questions. She was sick of answering questions. Tristan hadn’t even thrown this many at her in one day. But if telling the lamia what he wanted to know would get her out of this cell, she thought it might be worth it. Aiden had assaulted her here and she desperately wanted to get away from that memory. She didn’t think she could bear to stay here another minute.
“Not officially,” she finally replied softly. In the corner of her eye she saw Reece wince. The lamia towering over her looked somewhat pleased with himself. “I told Reece already. Tristan and I haven’t been here very long. We met with Angie when we decided to stay, just to get her approval. Then we didn’t see her until this morning, or yesterday morning. I don’t even know what day it is any more. She had Aiden with her, but he didn’t say much. She told us that we had to kill a Daybreak witch, Genevieve Harman, or she would kill us. It was a one time deal.”
“Did she mention anything at all about Gen being a Wild Power?”
“No. She just said that the witch had information about her business and that it would be easier for Tristan and me to get close to her because we weren’t involved in Angie’s operations.”
“So she wanted you to kill a Wild Power and didn’t tell you anything about Gen’s powers? I find that hard to believe.”
Reece interjected vehemently. “I also find it hard to believe that Angie would order two outsiders to do something that important, Anton. Think about it.”
Alexandra shrugged. “I didn’t know anything about it. She showed up after I had followed Reece and Genevieve, which I thought was strange. I think she was just using us as a distraction.”
“But you did kill Genevieve Harman,” the lamia insisted.
“Yes,” Lex admitted. “I tried to do what Angie said, but I, um…I don’t really know how to fight. Someone staked me, stabbed me in the stomach.”
“Nigel,” Reece supplied. “He fought Lex while Gen ran away.”
“I don’t know who he was. Things got hazy, I don’t remember much after that until I saw the witch.” Alexandra explained what had happened with Genevieve, how she killed her. But she didn’t talk about what she did to the witch while she was dying, how she kissed Genevieve and fell into her mind. What had happened between Lex and the witch seemed too…intimate to discuss like this.
“Why did you use the blue fire on Reece’s team?” Anton asked. “How did you know how to use it?”
“I don’t remember doing it. I don’t know how it happened. One minute I was looking at Reece and people were charging me with stakes…the next minute I woke up here.”
Anton looked at her skeptically. “And what about just now, with Aiden?”
Alexandra couldn’t answer. She was ashamed of what had happened with Aiden and she had no words for it. She didn’t know how to explain any of it. “He was hurting me,” she finally said. Her voice was too soft and she thought it made her weaknesses too obvious. Lex sat up straight and tried to strengthen her tone. “And I wanted him to stop, I couldn’t make him stop. And, I don’t know, I felt like I was burning up inside and then this energy poured out of me and hit him.”
“Do you realize that what you did put thousands of people at risk? You could have destroyed this entire compound with that blue fire.”
Lex’s eyes widened. “No, I didn’t know. I didn’t do anything. I just wanted Aiden off of me.”
“Are you hurt at all?” he asked her carefully. Lex didn’t know where that question came from. Anton hadn’t given her any evidence to believe that he cared if she was in pain. “Physically hurt?”
“Not really,” she replied. “I bit the inside of my lip pretty hard when he slapped his hand over my mouth. But it stopped bleeding a while ago.”
The lamia paused, as if he’d run out of questions to ask her. Lex hoped that he had. She wanted to get out of here. Anton and Reece looked at each other for a long moment, communicating silently. Then the lamia nodded. “Do you know that there’s a war coming?” he asked her urgently.
“I heard bits and pieces about it, but Tristan and I didn’t really pay much attention. We kept to ourselves.”
“That’s not an option any more. You have Genevieve’s power and you have to take a stand, one way or the other,” Anton told her. “We need to know now what side you’ll be fighting for. Circle Daybreak would protect you until you’re needed for the war. The Wild Powers will play a pivotal role in preventing the annihilation of the world as we know it. It won’t be easy or glamorous. The Night World would most likely kill you or figure out how to take the power from you to use against the world. It’s your choice.”
“Well, let me think,” Alexandra replied, her words dripping with sarcasm. She sighed dramatically. “I can work with Daybreak and stay alive, or I can leave here and get slaughtered by Angie or some other person in the Night World who is trying to get ahead. I might need a little bit of time to think, that’s a pretty difficult decision.”
Anton glared at her. “Don’t take this lightly, girl,” he warned her gravely. “Daybreak has already been betrayed by one of our best people. If you give us any reason to doubt your loyalties, you will come to regret it. I promise you that.”
Alexandra was too tired to be intimidated by him. She returned his stare passively. “Will you keep me alive or not?” she asked Anton impatiently.
The lamia’s lip curled. “Yes,” he snapped.
Lex gave him a bright smile. “Then I’m with you.”
Anton nodded once and made some offhand gesture. “She’s all yours, Cahill,” he said curtly on his way out of the cell. The message was clear: Reece was going to be held responsible for more than her safety; if Alexandra betrayed Daybreak in any way, Reece was going to have to answer for that as well.
Reece exhaled slowly. “That went well,” he said under his breath. Then he looked at Lex and stood up tiredly. “Let’s get out of here.”
Part 14
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