A strange smile captured Alexandra’s lips. A chilling calm settled over her, slowing her breath and brightening her eyes. It had been stupid to leave Reece, to follow a pain that she only felt because of a connection that never should have been. Oh, she had been thoughtless and daft, but seeing Angie Catellini before her now, Lex realized that she’d never had a choice in the matter. She felt a sort of shiver inside, something akin to what she’d felt when Reece had touched her for the first time. Something like the shock of Aiden’s hand over her mouth. Something like the awe she’d felt when she first saw the ethereal figure of Genevieve Harman. Alexandra recognized it now as the touch of fate. She’d never believed in something so far-fetched and yet so clichéd, but looking into Angie’s eyes, it was undeniable. This was where she was supposed to be at this moment. And Lex found that she unafraid, because whatever was meant to happen was about to happen.
She had never been fearless before and the sudden lightness of it surged through her, cool and empowering. She put her hands on her hips and looked back at Angie defiantly.
The fiery vampire noticed the change in Lex’s posture and laughed. “Ooh,” she exclaimed. “I see you’ve gotten a little feisty since the last time I saw you, Luscious. That should make this a little more interesting, then.”
Angie raised her arm, pointing a gun at Alexandra’s head. Lex only smiled. “Don’t be ridiculous,” she said pleasantly. “You can’t shoot me. I can move too fast. You won’t be able to kill me without drawing blood.”
With an ugly sneer, Angie threw her weapon to the ground. She took a step to her left and Lex did the same. They started to circle each other. “Daybreak has told you too much.”
“More than I would have trusted me with, but they didn’t have much of a choice. I’m the Wild Power now.”
“They’re fools. We both know that it takes so little pressure to make you bend to someone’s will.”
Lex took another step, staying directly across the room from Angie. “People change.”
At that, Angie laughed bitterly. “Trust me, they don’t. I hear them buzzing around in my head, day after day, year after year. It’s always the same. Hate, fear, vanity, greed. The more they change, the more they stay the same, Luscious.”
Alexandra shook her head. “For all of your power, you don’t understand much about people.”
“Take you, for instance,” Angie challenged. “You stand there, arrogantly believing that you have a will of your own. But you’re here now because I made you come.”
“And for what, Angie? You can’t kill me, you know that. You can’t do it unless I let you, and I think you’ve seen exactly what I would go through to survive.”
“You’re forgetting one thing, Soul Stealer. I may not be able to shoot you, stake you, or beat you to death, but there are ways to kill you without drawing blood. And I’m a hell of a lot stronger than you.”
As soon as the words fell from her lips, Angie dove for Alexandra, catching her around the waist, and they both fell to the floor. Pain shot up Lex’s arms as her elbows cracked against the tile.
Angie hadn’t been exaggerating; she was at least six inches taller and perhaps twenty-five pounds heavier than Lex was. And even though Alexandra had fed earlier, one blood bag did not undo the damage from years of deprivation. She felt like a weak deer being attacked by a tiger. Her feeble attempts at defending herself would not help her. There was only one thing that could…
Angie’s weight was on top of her, sliding up her body. The fiery vampire grabbed Alexandra’s curly hair and used it to wrench her head up and slam it back onto the floor. Lex saw stars as the pain exploded behind her eyes. She literally felt as if she’d been knocked senseless; her conscious thoughts were broken and she couldn’t find her way back to them.
“You like that?” Angie demanded as used her knees to clamp Lex’s arms tightly against her sides. And then the vampire’s hands were around Alexandra’s throat, thumbs crushing into her as she squeezed. “You like how your head pounds and the ringing in your ears is so loud that you can barely hear? Everything is spinning and you can hardly see? Does it feel good, Soul Stealer?”
Instinctively, Alexandra bucked her hips to try and throw Angie off of her, but the other vampire was situated too high on her torso for it to work. She tried to get her hands free, but Angie’s knees pressed into her arms, holding them against her body. Her heartbeat thundered in her ears as she struggled in vain to take another breath.
Red hair brushed Lex’s face as Angie glared down at her, screaming shrilly. “Imagine living with that for years. Constantly. You can’t sleep and sometimes it hurts too much to think. And you dare to trudge around whining about your power and how it reminds you of your maker and how it makes you feel like him. Fuck you, you pathetic little bitch. At least yours isn’t constantly screaming in your head. I tell you, your maker knew nothing about torture. This is hell, this is torture!”
White spots flickered and danced in front of Alexandra’s eyes. Her lungs burned, demanding air, and she thrashed out desperately, like an animal. Angie held her fast.
“I will not live like this any more. The human race will die and there is nothing you can do about it. I will have peace, do you understand me?”
The white spots faded into black as Lex’s vision went dark. It was strange how familiar this moment was. But no…Genevieve, of course. She remembered Genevieve. Lex felt bad for the witch, but she couldn’t quite remember why.
And then there was a flash of another witch in her mind, auburn hair and green eyes. Steady gaze that calmed her, smile that warmed her. Lex felt her heart swell.
Reece. Oh, she was sorry for Reece. She hoped that he would understand. This was meant to be. There was nothing to be done about it. The darkness was pulling her under the surface.
Distantly she heard a loud rustle of clinks and then a muffled voice above her. “Start with a piece of me.”
And suddenly there was air. Glorious, rich air all around her. Alexandra sucked in a breath and it felt as if she was being propelled upwards, rushing towards reality with too much velocity. She coughed painfully, rolling onto her side. The room spun and the floor seemed to tilt underneath her. She realized belatedly that Angie’s weight was off of her completely.
She looked up and tried to focus on the two blurry figures that were moving above her. She could make out the red mass of Angie’s hair, but the other person was nearly colorless aside from a splotch of red on the shirt. With a slow glance at the empty hospital bed, Lex realized that it was Aiden.
Angie cried out angrily as Aiden lashed a chain at her, beating her to the ground. Frantically Angie grabbed hold of the gun that she had thrown down before. With a tired laugh, she aimed up at Aiden from the floor, her hands shaking. “I may not be able to shoot her,” she said between breaths. “But I sure as hell can shoot you.”
The shots were loud in the small room as Angie pulled the trigger twice in succession. Aiden fell to the floor, blood now blooming from his chest as well as his stomach. Lex screamed at the sharp stings that burst through the soulmate link and into her own body. Angie’s head snapped towards her, as if she suddenly remembered that Alexandra was there.
Snarling like a beast, Angie crawled over to Lex, the cat-green eyes boring down into her. It was as if Angie’s entire being was completely focused on her prey. Alexandra was too unsteady to stand so she turned onto her back and clawed away from Angie. As she used her legs to push herself away, Lex viciously bit into her own lips with her needle-sharp canines. The coppery flavor of her blood hit her tongue and Alexandra smiled.
The fiery vampire leapt at her and Angie’s knee rammed into Lex’s stomach, knocking the air out of her. Then Angie was on top of her again, hands finding their way back to Alexandra’s throat. Lex collected as much saliva and blood as she could and spat into Angie’s face.
“Bitch!” Angie hissed. But she didn’t move to wipe the spit away. Her grip tightened until Lex thought that her eyes would burst out of her head.
Blue fire, she thought, but she couldn’t make it come. The two times that she’d used it, she’d done it unconsciously. And now, even with her blood staining her lips, she didn’t know how to force the blue fire out of her.
Genevieve, help me…
An arm wrapped around Angie’s throat from behind her, tearing her hands from Alexandra’s neck. Angie’s legs thrashed wildly as Reece pulled her away. His skin was marred with dark bruises and his face was smeared with blood. The quiet grace in him was gone. Rage flashed brightly in his eyes, burning there like green flames. He held Angie in a headlock and growled something softly into her ear.
Angie breathed something unintelligible back at him.
Reece’s voice filled the room, sounding deep and utterly foreign to Alexandra. Time seemed to stretch then. She looked at Angie, trapped in the bend of Reece’s arm. Her red hair was in tangles around her porcelain face and she was smiling dreamily.
Alexandra’s eyes were drawn to Angie’s. Lex could feel her power starting to course through her, like a flush over her body. But the eerie calm descended on her again and she simply watched her power rise like a wave, as if she were someone else. There was no fear, no panic. She took a slow breath, and it started to dissipate, tingling across her skin. A violent shiver shook her, and then it was over.
Angie smiled at Lex. She closed her eyes and tipped her head back. Reece roared and then Angie Catellini was nothing but a pile of ashes dusting his clothes.
The battle continued in the compound, but it didn’t seem to matter any more. Reece held his hands over Aiden St. Helen, pouring that last of his Power into the vampire. He didn’t want to be doing this. If Lex hadn’t begged him to heal Aiden, Reece probably would have left the vampire to die. The thought unsettled him.
She was still crying. Tears streamed from her luminescent eyes, over her fine-boned cheeks. It stole Reece’s breath and it cut his heart to pieces. He’d come so close to losing her and he hadn’t even realized that she was gone until it was nearly too late.
The spell he’d done on Angie was an illegal one and the only one that had come to mind once he’d gotten his arm around her. Angie had appeared to die instantly, but Reece knew that the instant felt like an eternity of agony for the victim. He’d never done an illegal spell before. Reece should have felt guilty, should have felt regret. He felt neither and that thought unsettled him as well.
Aiden’s eyes opened and he coughed. “Alexandra?”
Lex crawled to the vampire’s side. “I’m here,” she whispered. Her voice was gone, her larynx crushed. It would heal with time.
“Angie?”
“Dead,” Lex replied with a nod to Reece.
Aiden looked at the witch. “Thank you.”
Reece should have said the same. Aiden had rescued Lex during the fight, before Reece got there. He broke through layers of heavy chains, even has he bled out, just to save her.
The witch said nothing.
The three of them were still and silent. It hurt Reece to be there. It hurt to see the blood on Lex’s lips, the thumbprints staining her pale throat. Had he kissed her neck yet? He didn’t think so. How could he ever do it now, without thinking about…
Alexandra raised her eyes to him and there was a sparkle there that soothed him slightly. It told him that she was alive and she was his. Angie was dead, Aiden didn’t matter. It was only them. Reece knew it wasn’t true, but for the moment he let himself believe it.
After a time, Reece’s cell phone rang.
“Where are you?” Anton Parish demanded.
“The infirmary,” Reece replied. His voice sounded too loud as it cut through the silence of the room.
“Is the Wild Power—”
“She’s fine. What’s our status?”
“Back under control. Camera surveillance is showing that the intruders are dead or out of commission. What about Angie?”
“Dead.”
“Thank the gods…”
Normally Reece would not have agreed with that sentiment. A life was a life. But not now. He just snapped his phone shut.
He looked at Alexandra. “It’s all clear,” he said softly.
Reece stood up and left the room.
Bodies littered the stairwell, the hallway. Daybreak and Night World alike.
His room was as they left it when the alarm had gone off. Reece walked in and stared around, not knowing what to do. Finally he grabbed a duffel bag from under the bed, opened the dresser draws and began to shove his things into the bag. What was left in the room was negligible; he’d been planning on leaving it all behind when he took Genevieve out of here. But now that he had the time, he might as well pack it up.
He felt her when she came inside without making a sound. She watched him wordlessly for a few minutes. She knew he was aware of her. The useless things the soulmate link told him.
“What are you doing?” she finally whispered.
Reece didn’t turn around. “Packing.”
“You’re leaving?”
“Angie’s dead, a lot of her people are dead.” Reece roughly stuffed a shirt into his bag without folding it. “I think my presence here is no longer needed.”
Lex was quiet and against his better judgement, he glanced over his shoulder at her. She was looking at him steadily, her gaze as strong as he’d ever seen it. Reece turned away. Swallowed.
“Why are you doing this?”
“I told you. My presence here is no—”
“Fuck that,” Alexandra whispered. Though her voice had no tone, the force behind her words was formidable. “Why are you doing this?”
Reece didn’t answer. He had stopped packing and stood tiredly, staring at the wall.
Alexandra came up behind him, took hold of his shoulder, and turned him to face her. Reece let it happen. She could have touched him and would have known the truth, but she wanted to hear it from him. And that was his undoing.
A sob escaped him and Reece covered his face with his hands. Tears mixed with the blood on his face and it dripped onto the floor. Everything stung, but he didn’t care. He fell to his knees before Alexandra and then she was on the floor next to him. Her arms were around him and Reece buried his face in her hair.
“You left me,” he sobbed. “You almost died. I didn’t know you were gone. You went to him…you left me. I couldn’t…And Genevieve and Beth and Sumitra…fucked, everything’s fucked. And if Aiden hadn’t been there…but you went to him. And if I hadn’t gotten there when I did...What I did to Angie, oh Goddess…”
Christ, he wasn’t making sense. The words wouldn’t form, the sentences wouldn’t finish. There was only grief and anger and loss.
“How could you do that?” he finally got out. “Did you want to die?”
And now Alexandra was the silent one. This wasn’t the time for answers or discussions. He wasn’t rational, wasn’t entirely sane. Neither was she. She just held him and they both cried.
Aiden felt like pain incarnate. He’d been shot before and really, that wasn’t so bad. And, of course, this wasn’t the first time that Angie had run him through with a stake. But it had never hurt like this. The witch might have healed him, but he hadn’t done anything to numb the pain.
He smiled wryly. Aiden knew that, if he’d been in the witch’s position, he would have done the same. After all, it was his fault that Angie had been able to lure Alexandra to her. Aiden should have stayed away, should never have come back to this compound searching for his lost soulmate. He should have remembered that Angie would use everyone and everything to achieve her ends. Aiden was never exempt from that.
Aside from the physical pain, he felt very…detached. He felt like he could lie on the floor in the infirmary for the rest of his life, watching time pass by above him. In the world, but not part of it.
Eve never would’ve approved. She believed that as long as you were alive, you had a responsibility to do something with your life. Aiden supposed that, maybe, was what finally killed her. She didn’t want to feel pain and she was sick of being a Wild Power, but she couldn’t allow herself to simply separate herself from the world either. She wouldn’t have believed that she could come back. That left only one option.
Aiden contemplated that option as well. He had no real reason to live. His work was over, his soulmate dead, no friends or family. There was nothing…
Except for her.
She wasn’t his real soulmate, no. Aiden didn’t think they qualified as friends either. But still she was something to hang on to.
He couldn’t erase the image of Angie straddling Alexandra, slowly extinguishing her life. It somehow melded with the older image of his hands around Eve’s throat and Alexandra’s blue eyes took on a violet hue.
He’d gone mad. If Angie hadn’t shot him, he would have torn her apart with his bare hands. In a way, it would have felt like he was tearing himself apart. Maybe that would have been redemption. If she hadn’t shot him…
If, if, if…
No, the witch was right. Alexandra was far better off without Aiden. The witch had a strength and an inherent sense of decency that Aiden would never have. Alexandra needed it right now. She might hate herself with a religious fervor, but there was still a chance for something to change, and the witch would be a part of it.
But Aiden held her smile and her words, “I like you, too”, close to his heart. He clutched it tightly, like a talisman. It would be enough.
Gritting his teeth, Aiden sat up. He struggled to keep his torso straight as he tried to stand. His knees nearly buckled under him and the room spun. He’d lost so much blood. After a long moment, his vision cleared and he trudged slowly out of the room, closing the door behind him.
Injured Daybreakers were starting to fill the infirmary, some limping in and others wheeled in on stretchers. Witches and doctors ran around frantically, trying to heal them one by one. No one noticed Aiden walk by as he made his way to the elevator.
He pushed the button for the ground floor. Feeling a draft on his neck, Aiden looked up to find a large hole in the ceiling of the elevator. Angie’s work, no question. He laughed to himself, but it hurt too much.
The ground floor was even more chaotic than the infirmary had been. Angie’s army had wreaked havoc here. Walls were destroyed and bodies were strewn about. Dust, gunpowder, and the scent of blood filled the air. Aiden didn’t pause to marvel at the damage. He’d had enough already.
He walked through broken glass across the threshold of the Daybreak compound and stepped outside. The sun was climbing higher and the air was already warm. Spring had seized Washington.
Aiden St. Helen took one last look at the compound. In that moment, it felt like he relived every second he’d spent with Eve there and his heart ached. But talisman in hand, he turned back and started down the stairs.
He was calmer now, his sudden, sharp intakes of breath coming less often. Lex still didn’t release him. She was afraid that if she did, he would grab the stuffed duffle bag lying on the bed and bolt. She was afraid that she would never see him again. But her arms around him now told her that he was here, that he was real.
Reece lifted his head. “I’m sorry,” he murmured against her cheek.
“Not at all,” Alexandra whispered. It was hard not having a voice, not being able to express in her tone what she truly meant.
“This entire mission…” he trailed off.
“Clusterfuck.”
She could feel his smile. “That’s my word.”
“I stole it from you.”
Alexandra sighed. She could feel the truth in his skin brushing against hers, but she asked anyway. “Are you sorry you took it?”
“No.” The certainty of that single word was something solid for Lex to cling to. She slowly eased her hold on him. “I’m sorry that so many people died. I’m sorry that you nearly died. I’m sorry for what’s happened to you. But I’m not sorry for coming here and finding you.”
“I thought…just now, I thought that you hated me.”
There was a flash of darkness in Reece’s eyes that faded almost instantly. “No. I didn’t mean…everything just crashed in on me at once. You were dying and I didn’t even notice that you were gone until it was almost too late.” His expression was pained. “Why did you go?”
The easy answer was that the soulmate link had involuntarily pulled her to Aiden, but Alexandra felt that that would only hurt Reece more. So she settled for the incomprehensible truth. “It was time.”
She was expecting more questions or at least a strange look, but Reece seemed to accept her answer for what it was.
“So what happens now?” she asked.
Reece brushed her hair back from her face. “I think that’s up to you. You could stay here. Daybreak would take care of you. Or you could stay at another safe house in some other city if, for some bizarre reason, you don’t feel safe enough here.”
Lex laughed humorlessly. “What about you?”
“I’m going back to Montreal, to my team. It’s my home.”
“Does, uh, Daybreak have any safe houses there?”
“No, it’s just me.”
“Oh, right,” she said. Then she sarcastically tossed his own words back to him. “That’s where you’ve been leading battles against the Night World since you were younger than I look.”
Reece gave her a dry look. “Go ahead, mock me now. But you’ll see. My team hangs on my every word.”
Lex’s breath caught. “I’ll see?”
“If you’d like.”
Alexandra smiled softly. “I would like. But I truly doubt you’d surround yourself with ass-kissers.”
“Since I think I’m stuck with you for a while, I guess it’s a good thing that you’re right. Because your ass-kissing skills are seriously underwhelming.”
Lex gave Reece a playful push, but he held her fast. He kissed her lips and Alexandra tasted his blood and tears. He’d shed both of them for her and there would never be a way for her to thank him for something like that. Maybe she didn’t have to. But she was willing to spend eternity trying anyway.
Part 18
Epilogue
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