“I’ve linked us,” he said, the words little more than a whisper, yet she heard him clearly. “You don’t remember, but you accepted the bond. You won’t ever be his, not really, because you are mine. Body and soul, forever.”
No, no, this wasn’t right.
“My pain…is yours. Your life…is mine.”
She wanted to deny it, but Jane couldn’t. Not when her injuries were a perfect match to his.
“Go get that witch!” Alerac pointed to the woods.
She’d tossed the witch that way, hadn’t she?
Darkness thickened around Jane.
“If your wolf, kills…me. Then he kills you…too.”
Sick bastard.
She turned her head. Saw the flames, still shooting into the sky. Her brother had gone into those flames.
I didn’t get to know him.
Her heart ached.
“Jane, it’s going to be all right.” Alerac was before her. He’d slit his lower arm, and he pushed the blood offering toward her lips. “Just drink from me.”
She was hurt badly, she knew it. The wounds should have killed her—and Lorcan.
Without Alerac’s blood, she would die right there on the ground. So Jane drank. And as she drank, Alerac’s powerful blood healed her.
It also healed Lorcan.
Soon he was on his feet, no wounds on his body. Healed too fast, from blood that he’d never tasted.
“Amazing, isn’t it?” Lorcan murmured. “How some bonds can cut through flesh and be buried in the blood? And that is our bond. Through blood and pain…until death.”
Two wolves broke from the woods. The blonde woman was in front of them. She was bleeding, stumbling, but she didn’t look in immediate danger of dying.
Zoe hurried toward the witch. “You try a spell on me, and I’ll knock your ass out.”
The blonde’s head was bowed. “You are already under one spell. Mine will not weaken you anymore than you are—”
“Did you just say I’m weak?” Zoe leapt for her.
“Don’t kill her, Zoe. I need the witch alive.” Alerac’s voice. Flat. Alerac pulled Jane to her feet, then he wrapped his arm around her. Wolves still circled Lorcan, trapping him with their bodies. “You sonofabitch, you think you’ve won, don’t you?”
Lorcan smirked. “Unless you’re planning to kill the vampiress there, then, yes, I have.” He rubbed at his neck, at the wound that wasn’t there any longer. “You see, you can’t kill me—not f**king ever—not if you want the one you call Jane to keep walking on this earth with you.”
How had he done it? How?
Magic, witchcraft, terrified Jane.
And Lorcan pissed her off. “You killed my brother.”
A shrug. “He was going to die anyway. The poison had eaten up his insides, and it was starting to play with his mind.” Lorcan tapped his forehead. “The mind is the weakest part, you know. Once it breaks, there’s no saving the body. Or the soul.”
“You don’t have a soul,” she whispered.
“And you don’t have a life,” he fired back, “not without me.”
Alerac’s body felt like stone against hers. She knew he wanted Lorcan’s head. But if he attacked Lorcan, then Alerac would hurt her.
“You had men in that house,” she said, her mind struggling desperately to find a way out of this nightmare.
“I had bait in that house. They were expendable.”
So cold. Callous.
“I also have men coming from the woods now. I’d say, Alerac, that you have about one minute to get your pack to safety, and then the silver bullets will start flying.” Lorcan’s lips twisted. “Ah, didn’t I tell you? I planned for that stupid human to tell you my location—and to tell you about the so-called cure for Ryan. I needed you here. I needed you to bring me Jane.”
And they had.
“There was no cure,” she said, voice leaden.
“Sure there was,” Lorcan told her, frowning. “Death is the cure. It always is.”
What?
“Now leave Jane here with me, and run while you can.”
Alerac’s head tilted toward the woods. “I don’t smell them.”
“I’ve cloaked their scents. A little trick I learned from a voodoo priestess in Africa.”
Alerac’s teeth snapped together. “Don’t smell ‘em, but I hear ‘em—attack!”
The wolves jumped into motion, even as the thunder of gunfire erupted. Bullets slammed the two wolves who were next to the witch. They howled in pain, and their coats thickened with blood.
The witch sank to the ground, her hands going over her head.
Then a bullet drove into her shoulder.
More bullets. More cries. More blood.
“Enough!” Alerac roared. Then he was hurtling forward. Transforming, shifting, and running toward the woods.
He had to protect his pack.
She had to help him.
Jane ran after him. She spared one final glare for Lorcan.
“I’ll see you again!” he called out.
She chased her werewolf into the woods.
A bullet grazed her arm. I hope you feel that, Lorcan.
Then a man in black charged at her.
She grabbed the gun right out of his hands. With a quick twist, Jane broke those hands. Then she sank her teeth into the guy’s throat.
Alerac’s wolf was growling. Attacking. Taking down men left and right.
And they were just men—not vampires. Men. Mortal men who were in over their heads.
They’d chosen the wrong side in this fight.
Another bullet hit Jane in the back. She dropped her prey. He wasn’t a threat any longer. Not dead, but not about to fight back.
She spun on the new attacker. The bloodlust within her was rising as it never had before.
The man who’d just shot her was taking aim at Alerac now.
No.
She rushed toward him. Before he could fire, her teeth were in his neck.
***
The bastard called Lorcan was getting away. Zoe chased after him, trying to dodge the bullets that were still flying. Silver. She hated silver.
What werewolf didn’t?
Lorcan was rushing into a dilapidated storage building that was about thirty yards away from the remains of the burning house.
She heard the growl of an engine.
No.
When a truck burst from the side of that storage building moments later, Zoe jumped in its path. She had to stop him.
Lorcan was behind the wheel. Smiling at her. He reeved that engine and the vehicle zoomed right at her.