Chapter Nine
Scepter watched Aurora nearly stumble down the stairs. He reached out to steady her as she righted herself. Stepping back, he lifted his hands, knowing Savage was a territorial fucker. He didn’t blame his best friend and Boss.
“Savage,” Aurora yelled.
Trystina appeared from a side door leading from the formal dining room. Her eyes widened with shock. “Aurora, is everything okay?”
“Have you seen Savage?” Aurora asked, stumbling to a halt in front of the vampire female.
Scepter wondered why she didn’t ask him since he and Savage were usually conducting business if he wasn’t with her, but whatever.
He followed Aurora as she rushed inside the dining room, where several members of the clan were sitting around the large table, eating. Aurora’s dark hair swung back and forth like she was scanning the space for her mate. The female needed to learn how to inhale and use her senses for fuckssake.
“Dammit, I’ve been trying to reach Savage for the last five minutes, and he’s blocking me. Where the fuck is he?”
Ah, Scepter let out a slow breath. Savage was definitely going to be in the doghouse.
Aurora’s yell made every being in the room turn toward her, their eyes turning red with shock. He needed to let his presence be known so the others wouldn’t say or do anything stupid.
Oakley flashed to her side. “What’s wrong?”
“My sister wants to return here. She says she needs to hear from Savage first, that it’s okay. I can’t get him to respond to me, and it’s been two months since I’ve actually seen her. I swear, she sounds so much older, more mature. Not like the girl who left, and I will gut him if he disagrees.”
Scepter froze. Starla wants to come home. She belongs with her family. He closed his eyes, getting his shit together before he fucked up again.
He searched for his link to Savage and found him in the club's basement. Before the others could detect him, he dispersed and reformed outside the outer door leading to the interrogation room dubbed the candy shop. His body vibrated as he placed his palm on the security panel.
Savage turned toward him, red eyes flashing. “Good of you to join us, Scepter. Our friend here thought it was a good idea to use Club Jus Sanguinus as his personal playground.”
Scepter circled the male strapped to the cross in the center of the room. “That was very nice of him. And what kind of games does he like to play?”
“It appears he enjoys hide and seek, but the ones he seeks are unaware they’re playing.
He feeds off their fear, and ultimately, after he finds his prey, he spends a little time torturing them and then disposes of their bodies.
He also likes to leave a little trail of false clues for the authorities so they can play along, but he’s only teasing them as part of his game. ”
The low growl in Savage’s voice was enough to let Scepter know he wasn’t happy.
An angry head of his clan was not a good thing, especially for this male.
Scepter inhaled, smelling a full human. “Are we going to hand him over to the authorities or?” he asked Savage, but he had a feeling he already knew the answer.
“I think we will let him see how it feels to be prey.”
Scepter could make others relive memories or experience a fake reality they’d swear was real.
The illusion could break the mind of the strongest being.
Each one of their kind had unique abilities, some greater than others.
With those abilities came blowback. He found himself in a dark space while those around him thought he wielded the power with ease.
They didn’t realize the damage he took on.
He’d flush the darkness out of him by taking a female or ten, burying himself inside their welcoming bodies, and filling himself with their blood.
Now, though, he knew he wouldn’t be able to do that. The only female he wanted hated him.
He put his back to Savage, knowing he’d do what his King ordered. The darkness would leave him in time. He’d have to leave until he could be sure there wasn’t a risk to Aurora or the other females.
“Let me see the memories,” he said, reaching for the male.
“Wait. What brought you here? I smell my female.” Savage pulled Scepter back.
He twisted to look at Savage. “Your female has been trying to reach you. You’ve blocked her. I’m afraid to be the bearer of bad news, my friend, but you’re probably going to be in the dog house.”
“Ah, fuck. I guess we’ll just have to kill this bastard. However, I do know how he likes to play with his prey. Don’t think you’re getting off lucky, fucker. You’re going to die slowly and painfully.” Savage snapped his fingers. A scream ripped from the male.
Scepter glanced behind him, wincing at the scene of the male stripped naked, as layers of his skin began disappearing from his body in irregular slices. A ball gag slammed into the asshole’s mouth, silencing him. The heavy stench of urine and copper filled the room.
“Couldn’t you have warned a vamp first?” Scepter asked.
“I didn’t know you had such a sensitive nose.”
Scepter flashed his fangs. The male’s fear skyrocketed at the sight of Savage’s and Scepter’s obvious non-human status.
“Oh, did you not realize we were not like you?” Savage asked.
He clapped his friend on the shoulder. “Let’s leave him to your wicked mind. I’m sure Godsven will be glad to check in on him in a little while.”
Savage closed his eyes and then nodded. “Godsven will be here shortly. Enjoy your last few hours on Earth. Say hello to Satan for me,” Savage said.
He left Savage to return to Aurora while he decided to return to the club.
He wasn’t sure how long it would take for Starla to return from the Fey Realm.
Hell, the thought of her going to a completely different world still amazed him.
She’d been gone for months, and he’d missed the fuck out of her.
How he could miss a being he didn’t know, had never actually met, bewildered him.
He stood on the top level of the club, watching the floor below with the strobe lights dancing across the ground as if they were part of the living. Hell, they were more alive than he was.
“Why the long face, brother?”
Scepter glared at Trystan for a long beat, then let out a breath.
“I think I’m going to ask Savage if I can go back to the old country for a little while.
He and Aurora could use some space. With all of you here to run the club, I can oversee our businesses there for a while.
I’m restless,” he admitted. If anyone could understand him, it would be Trystan.
“I’m sure you’re right. Do you think your heart will heal with distance?
” Trystan held his hand up. “I can tell you from my own experience that time and space haven’t helped.
Ellora’s death over a hundred years ago still feels like a knife to the gut today.
If I hadn’t had Trystina to keep me going, I’d have joined Ellora in the Everlife. ”
“Don’t say that, man. You know she wouldn’t have wanted you to go out like that.
” He didn’t voice his true thoughts on Trystan’s female.
Ellora was a selfish whore who’d died in the arms of another man.
The other man, being human and married as well, took Ellora to his home, where his own wife was supposed to be gone.
Sadly, the human female returned to find Ellora asleep with her husband.
By the time Trystan tracked his wife down, she’d lost too much blood and refused to leave her lover, who was dying in her arms. Scepter took those memories from his friend.
He couldn’t let the male live the rest of his life knowing his bonded mate chose another.
Instead, Scepter took that darkness inside him, losing a piece of himself in the process.
“I’m fine, Scepter. That’s what I’m saying.
Time does heal. You won’t forget. Like a wound we might get from a silver-laced knife or bullet, we can survive such an attack.
We’ll still carry a visible scar. Yes? That’s how it is when one we love is lost. Only nobody else can see the wound but us.
” Trystan tapped his heart. “Someday, you and I might be given another chance, brother. All is not lost.”
Scepter heard the heavy Irish brogue as his friend spoke. It came out when Trystan was passionate or injured. Really, anytime he was feeling deeply.
“If you decide to go back, I’ll go with you,” Trystan offered
“You know I can’t take you from Savage, especially now that he’s found his bonded mate. I appreciate the offer, though.” He closed his eyes as Savage’s voice entered his mind.
“I need you to return to the main house.” Savage’s voice sounded even. He tried to look into Savage’s mind to see what transpired since he’d left, but the male blocked him.
“I’ll be there in a few,” he answered him.
“No, return now.” Scepter winced at the order.
He grit his teeth as he stood straight. The fucker didn’t make demands on him by forcing his will without a reason.
However, Scepter loathed it when Savage or anyone tried to make him do shit.
All they needed to do was ask, and he’d do it without argument.
Never had he disobeyed Savage. If he said he’d be there shortly, that meant within minutes, not hours, not even five or ten minutes.
“Do not ever force your will upon me, Savage. You won’t like the male I become.
” He growled through their link, and then he severed their connection.
He’d allowed the male to enter his mind.
Savage and he were the same age. Their powers were equal.
He didn’t want the authority that came with being King.
The Boss of their territory wasn’t something he’d ever wanted.
His job, his priority, had been protecting Savage and their clan—by choice.
He let his body become smoke and then reappeared inside the opulent foyer of Savage’s and now Aurora’s home. The other male's flashing red eyes stood glaring at him.