Wren growled. I jumped when I heard another deeper undertone that she hadn’t added before. It had been from Wren before, but this sound was from the vampire in her.
All the sudden, Shelly and Wren moved away. Shelly screamed in protest and Roane’s hand slipped behind me. He grabbed the doorknob, but didn’t turn it. I watched, confused, and then as another explosion occurred, Roane pushed the door open. I was quickly on the other side before I realized what happened and the door was shut behind me.
Well… hell.
I turned and looked at the closed door. Roane didn’t want me in danger. I got that, but what he didn’t know is that we couldn’t be divided—for whatever reason. The scary voice inside of Blue’s head said so.
I heard another explosion on the other side followed by a loud thump. I pressed my ear against the door and heard a lot of growling, a bunch more thumps. When I heard a shrill scream, the pain blasted me. I could’ve blocked it, but I didn’t want to—I sighed in relief when I realized it wasn’t Roane. Then I slipped inside their pain and nearly choked as they died. The body’s coldness quickly became cemented. It had been a vampire, but now it was just a body. His eyes were open. I looked through him at the room from the ground. His head was turned to the right and I had a perfect view of the action.
Wren had shoved Shelly into a corner with a table to block her.
Roane warned me never to be alone with her. Now I knew why.
She swept forward, dodged a vampire, grabbed his and another’s leg and rolled to the ground. She used her body’s momentum and pulled both vampires to the ground. Their necks snapped as she completed her roll. Somehow, she grabbed a knife in each hand and quickly stuck them into two more vampires who were focused on Roane.
My mouth went dry watching her. All of the sudden, I felt another searing pain in my chest. I gasped and clutched my chest. When I pulled it away, I was surprised to find there was no blood. I’d expected blood and then I cursed underneath my breath. I quickly slipped back into the dead vampire and looked for Roane. I couldn’t see him
. The pain must’ve been his.
When I tried to get inside of Roane, he lashed at me, ‘Stay out!’
I tried again—nothing. Roane had completely locked me out.
The dead vampire was turned the other way now. He wasn’t a help and so I did what I probably shouldn’t have. I slipped inside of Wren. She was boiling with adrenaline, excitement, and wrath all at once. Complicated.
As she bent forward, I reeled, and suddenly she was back up with her legs in the air and her fists between them. I felt like I was on a roller coaster. Then another scream punctured the air and everything froze.
Wren whirled around, her insides surging.
Lucan held Shelly in front of him with his mouth turned towards her neck. He lowered his teeth, but looked up—Wren followed the gaze—and there stood Roane with two vampires in his hands.
It was a direct challenge.
Roane straightened, deftly flexed his hands and snapped the vampires’ necks. Their bodies fell to the ground and he stepped over them, calm and assured.
Wren stretched her hands, ready for Roane’s command. None came. He held his human brother’s gaze steadily. “Do you want to drink? Go ahead. You know what will happen.”
Lucan grinned, lethally, and nipped lightly at Shelly’s skin.
She shuddered against his chest, but Lucan only had eyes for Roane. “Is this how you thought it’d end? After all this time and I’ve got the girl in my arms. You had your chance, brother. Too bad you forgot who you were when you chose them.”
“Do you want the Immortal or do you want me?” Roane threw out the challenge.
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
For a moment I saw indecision in Lucan’s eyes. Roane was right. Lucan did want his brother back, but something had gone wrong between them, more than the ready-to-kill-each-other type of wrong. “Is that what it would take, Lucas? If I let her go, would you remember who you’re supposed to be? Do you think I’m still the stupid one?” A hard glint appeared in Lucan’s black eyes. “Or maybe if I drink from her, you’ll have no other choice. You’ll have to come back to my side.”
“That’s what you want, isn’t it?”
I felt Roane’s confidence. It was sweltering, sexy, and entirely too alarming. I felt what was on the other side—the acceptance of what was to come….
Lucan hesitated, but an emotion quickly stormed in those blackened eyes. His hand grasped Shelly’s neck tighter and a vein jerked in her neck.
Wren wetted her lips. She wanted a taste too, but her fear and loyalty to Roane held her back.
For a moment, just a moment, I was tempted to slip inside of Shelly, but I knew the fear would paralyze me. I didn’t know for sure if I could withstand it, but then another thought came to my mind….With a gasp, I was inside of Shelly. The terror was suffocating, but I tried to wade through it. It was like hardening cement. I felt Lucan pressed behind me. I felt my neck, Shelly’s neck, trembling and weak. Then a box opened behind me. There was a light, but it quickly shut off.
The terror was gone. The trembling had stopped. Shelly had gone into a back corner of her mind where she could escape. She was no longer in control of her body. I would’ve done the same thing. Hell, I had done the same thing in my recent past.