Bite Marks (The Lycans 5)

He leaned in and bared his teeth, his eyes dark and dead and terrifying. “I’ve been trying to find a way to hurt him, been trying to make him feel what I felt.” His hand went back to his throat. Spittle sprayed out of his mouth, and I lifted a leg to kick at him. “And the only way to do that is through you.” He held my gaze for long seconds, and I felt that heavy weight of darkness taking me under.

I felt my limbs become too weighty, felt the temptation to just let go come on strong. And when the fight started to lessen in me, when I stopped clawing at his hand, only then did he let go of me. I crumpled to the floor, my hand lifting on its own as I touched my neck and winced at the searing pain. I still couldn’t breathe, my throat raw and sore as I sucked in a great lungful of oxygen. My head throbbed from the sudden increase of blood flow, my throat burning something fierce. I tried to stand, but my legs felt like jelly.

I looked up at him, his attention trained on me like he was about to attack once more. “He took from me the only thing that matters.” There was so much raw anger in his words that I felt them on my skin, all slimy and hot and nauseating. “And all I want to do is the exact same thing to him, right here, right now. With you.”

I tried to get up again, telling myself I had to get to the door; I had to scream. I have to show I’m not weak. But his words had me freezing.

“But there are plans for you, plans I agreed to that I can’t go against.” He got down on his haunches and grinned, his smile chilling. “But the end result will still be the same for me. Your pain and suffering will ultimately bring upon his.”

“He’ll come for me,” I whispered and let my anger rise. “Adryan will kill you for this, and I’ll be smiling the whole time.” I didn't know where this twisted side of me came from, but God did it feel good to spit those words at him.

The vampire’s expression was void of emotion a second before it morphed into something sinister, something sadistic. He grinned. “I know. That’s what I’m hoping for.”

That was the last thing I heard right before I saw his arm come up and felt his fist slam into the side of my head, promptly knocking me out.

26

Adryan

We’d been going over logistics for the last hour, and with each passing second, I grew more and more uneasy and on edge but couldn't place why.

I didn’t give two shits about what anyone said right now, couldn’t even concentrate on the very real threat we were up against or the magnitude of how powerful this organization truly was. I could feel Sebastian shifting back and forth beside me, no doubt feeling how fucking restless I was getting. I also knew he didn’t like being separated from his brother. But he kept his mouth shut, and the longer Banner spoke, the closer I was to saying fuck it and letting the wolves just have a damn field day in Vermont.

I could have blamed my unease on the fact that shit was for sure going down tonight whether I called the shots or not. I could see that in the Lycans’ eyes, felt it come from the rippling aggression and anticipation pouring off them. There would be bloodshed, more than likely some bodies hitting the ground too.

But I knew that wasn’t why I felt off-kilter. The threat of death didn’t scare me. I welcomed it with open arms. Violence and pain, bloodshed was an old friend, one I embraced.

This… this was something else.

Listening to the wolves talk about what the hell they planned on doing tonight, that this wasn’t about any kind of reconnaissance operation but a full-blown infiltration, told me more than enough about the future of… everything.

“Adryan, I know ye can’t be bothered with half the shite we say, but can ye at least pretend tae give a fook?”

I glanced up at Banner. My brother-in-law scowled at me in that annoying way of his.

“Yeah.” I straightened. “I heard everything, and you know I’m on board. We good here?”

Banner straightened as well and looked down his nose at me. “Ye’re in one fooking hurry, vampire. Ye have somewhere else tae be? Something more important that yer time should be devoted tae?”

The room grew tense, quiet. Heavy.

“As a matter of fact, yeah, I really fucking do.” It was my turn to stare down my nose at him.

Banner scoffed and exhaled. “Fine. Do what ye have tae do, but we leave in half an hour. Make the calls to yer airfield and have a plane ready. Trip is less than an hour and a half, so make sure yer boys are ready.”