Marked By The Vampire (Purgatory 2)

“I will,” Chloe said. She was on her feet, too, swaying. She lifted her hands and Olivia saw that her friend had grabbed a gun. A gun that she must have taken from one of the downed guards. “Goodbye, daddy.” She fired the weapon.

The bullet slammed into the senator.

“Silver,” Shane muttered. “Straight to the heart.”

The senator fell then, his face slack with surprise.

Chloe dropped the gun. “He was a monster,” she said, pain heavy in her voice, “long before he became a werewolf.”

Chapter Twelve

“She can’t just run loose out in the world, Shane.” Pate was seated behind his desk, and currently sweating one hell of a lot. “She’s too dangerous.”

Shane leaned forward. He was done with the Para Unit…for now. He had other plans. Other priorities. Priority one was Olivia. But Pate had taken her back into custody, and that shit just wasn’t flying for Shane. “You found the senator’s Intel on her.”

Pate nodded. “Her wishes…she can wreck the world. There is no limit to her power. If she speaks it, it happens. Only her wishes twist up and can hurt thousands. With a djinn, no wish is a simple matter—they are all dark.”

Shane’s eyes narrowed. “Olivia isn’t evil.”

“No, dammit, I know she’s not.” Pate yanked a hand through his hair. “It’s all about her and her emotions. Don’t you see that? If she’s happy, then freaking fantastic—her wishes will come out good and smooth and millions won’t die.” His chair squeaked as he leaned forward. “But if she’s scared…if she’s angry…if someone pisses her off, then her wishes are designed to wreck and punish. It’s the way of the djinn—”

“That’s not Olivia. She’s not evil,” he said again. Olivia was the best thing that had ever happened to him.

“She’s not,” Pate agreed once more, but he paused. Pate swallowed as his eyelids flickered. Then he slowly asked, “But are you?”

Really, the SOB had just gone there?

“Because the senator was right,” Pate said. “You don’t have to cut out her heart to control that woman. I saw the way she looks at you. She’s half in love with you already. And according to the senator’s research, a djinn has to grant the wishes of the person he or she loves. Hell, that’s why Olivia’s father didn’t kill her when she was a kid and he went on that rampage. Her mother wished for Olivia’s safety, for her protection.”

Shane didn’t like where this was going.

“I know what you’ve done,” Pate spoke quietly, the words low and intense. “And I know what you could do. Are you seriously telling me that you trust yourself with her? Can you promise me that you’d never use her?”

His back teeth ground together. “I only want her safe. Happy.”

Pate shoved to his feet. “Right. That’s the damn problem. You want her happy so you wish there would never be a threat to her.” Pate snapped his fingers together. “Boom…your girl just took out all the werewolves in existence.”

Shane rose, slowly.

“Some bitch in a store says something catty to Olivia one day, and you wish the chick would shut her mouth…” Pate snapped his fingers again. “Boom…that woman doesn’t have a mouth. She can never talk.”

“I wouldn’t wish—”

“Donald found some damn shaman who told him that when a djinn mates—truly mates—she doesn’t even have to hear her lover’s wishes. She can feel his emotions. She grants all that he desires.” Pate lifted his hand, his fingers poised to snap once more. “So if—”

Shane grabbed his hand. “Don’t.”

A muscle jerked in Pate’s jaw. “It’s not even her voice that gives power to the wish. She just has to think it.” He stared into Shane’s eyes. “Go ask her if she wished for Donald’s death, because I think she did. Chloe can’t even remember attacking her father. She doesn’t remember anything that happened to her after Donald shoved that silver knife in her chest.”

Shane glanced away from him. “So what the hell are you suggesting we do with Olivia? Keep her locked up? Forever?”

“That’s an option.”

Shane grabbed his friend and pinned him to the wall. “The hell it is. No one cages her.”

Pate swallowed.

“What’s the second option?”

Pate didn’t speak.

Shane leaned in close. “You better not be f**king thinking death.”

“I-I didn’t realize how powerful she’d be—we have to stop the djinn inside of her…” Pate shook his head. “There’s a reason the djinn were killed off. Because if they’re not taken out, they’ll destroy the rest of us!”

He nearly destroyed Pate in that moment. “No one will hurt her. I won’t let that happen.”

Pate’s laugh was strangled. “She…doesn’t need you for protection. She’s got all her powers now. The woman could kill us all right at this moment, and we’d never have the chance to fight.”

“Not now,” Shane snarled. “Because you have her in a cell, caged with your damn blood marks!”

“It’s the only thing keeping her in check!”

Shane bared his fangs.

“Man…” Now fear entered Pate’s voice. “It’s me. Me. I’m your friend.”

“And she’s everything. Everything to me.” He was far too close to attacking Pate. Shane forced himself to step back. To think.

There had to be a way out of this mess. A way that didn’t involve losing Olivia. A way that would let them stay together, forever.

Forever…

He smiled.

“You’re going to kill me,” Pate said, sounding utterly certain.

“Not yet,” Shane told him. “But you’d better stop tempting me.” He whirled away. Headed for the door.

“Where are you going?” Pate yelled.

“To offer Olivia forever, if she’ll have me.”

“What?”

Shane slammed the door shut behind him.

***

Her cell door flew open. Olivia jumped to her feet, and when she saw Shane rushing toward her, happiness seemed to explode within her. She grabbed him, wrapped her arms around him, and held tight.

She wouldn’t have long with him. She knew that. Olivia had figured out the fate that waited for her already. So she’d hold him and enjoy him while she could.