Chapter Forty-One
Sherese
“Sherese, Honey. Look at me.”
His words penetrate through the fog in my brain. I finally turn my head and stare at him. “What are you doing here?” I manage to get out, even though my mouth is so dry it feels like sandpaper. “You got out. Why did you come back?” I finally managed to meet his eyes again.
“You were here.”
I shake my head. “That makes no sense.”
“It makes perfect sense. I got the healer to safety, and I came back for you.”
His voice is so calm; it’s almost too calm. “I told you I was staying here.”
“You did.” A pang hits my stomach, and I cover my stomach with my trembling hands. “When did you get blood last?” he asks, confusing me at the change in conversation.
“I don’t know. You shouldn’t have come back for me. I want to stay here with the vampires.”
“No, you don’t; but we can argue about that later. Right now, you need to take my blood.”
“I can’t.” I take a step away from him; my restraint is cracking.
“You have to. They’re still watching, remember? At least pretend like you are, so they don’t come back in here.”
That gets me moving. I walk over to him and eye him warily before climbing onto his lap and straddling him. He goes still beneath me. “Act like you’re enthralled,” I tell him. “There’s no audio on those cameras.”
“No acting required,” he says in a low voice.
I lean forward and smell his neck. I groan because the scent of his blood is literally calling me. I drop my head onto his neck. “I can’t do this.”
“Yes, you can. How do you think we’re going to get out of here?”
“What?” I ask in confusion. My mouth is so dry, I can hardly swallow. My head aches, and I can’t concentrate on what he’s saying.
“We will have to fight our way out of here. Right now, you’re just going to be a liability.”
Those words jolt me. “I am not a liability.”
“You will be if you don’t get blood. Now, drink.”
“Bossy,” I mutter against his neck.
“You haven’t begun to see bossy if you continue to refuse what your body so desperately needs.
Please. Take from me what you need.” I fight against the pull.
“If I have to carry you instead of fighting, we’re both going to be in trouble.
I don’t—" I bite true, and rich, decadent blood hits my tongue. We both groan at the same time. Raw hunger roars through me with a vengeance. I’m vaguely aware of Hunter talking to me in low tones, but I can’t focus on anything but his blood.
“That’s my girl. Take what you need. I’m here now.
I won’t ever leave you again.” The words sort of float around in my brain and then escape before I can latch onto them.
I can’t get enough of his blood, and I can’t get enough of Hunter.
He seems to be everywhere; he’s all around me in the best way.
His scent fills my senses, his rich blood fills my stomach, and his muscled chest is hard against my body.
“Sherese. Okay, Love, I think that’s probably enough.
If you take too much, I may not be able to fight my way out of here. Then you’ll be carrying me.”
His words finally register, and reality crashes into me. I manage to release him, but remember to stay close, so it looks like I’m draining him. “Drop your head,” I whisper. “So you look drugged.” I wipe my mouth discreetly. “Are you okay?”
“Am I okay?”
Shame burns through me. “I’m so sorry; that’s—”
“Don’t you dare apologize for taking from me what you need. But we probably shouldn’t do that in public a whole lot. I had no idea how intimate that was going to be.”
I have no idea what to say to that, so I don’t respond to his comment. “What happens next?” I realize just how clear my mind is now, and I feel good. Really, really good. I have energy coursing through me, and I feel like I could run forever.
“Well, the next thing is for both of us to get out alive, if you have any ideas how to make that happen. My best plan is to just fight our way out. You have a better plan?”
With his blood rushing through me, my mind races with clarity.
In seconds, my mind races through dozens of possible scenarios and outcomes; none of them are favorable.
No matter how I think through it, we don’t make it out.
There are just too many vampires. And they know they can’t kill me, so they will all focus on Hunter.
And there is no way I’m taking that chance. “Our odds don’t look good.”
“If we can get outside, Garrett can help us.”
“Garrett’s here?”
“He came with, but that was a few days ago. Hopefully, he’s still around somewhere.”
Hope fills me, but just for a moment. “Hunter, you have to know they will never let me leave.”
“We’re not exactly going to ask.”
“You need to just go without me.”
He doesn’t hesitate a second. “Not going to happen.”
“But you can—” I don’t get a chance to finish what I was going to say.
“The hardest thing I’ve ever had to do was leave you behind when I left. I made that mistake once, and it nearly killed me. I’m not doing it again. When I leave this place, it will be with you at my side.”
His words confuse me, and I can’t blame it on the lack of blood this time. “Why?”
“This is the worst setting for this.”
“For what?”
“For me to tell you how I feel about you. When I envisioned it in my head, it wasn’t with you on my lap...Well, that part is about right. But the part where I pretend like you’re draining me to kill me? Yeah, that wasn’t part of my fantasy.”
His words reverberate through me. “Your fantasy?” I repeat dumbly.
“Yeah. And as much as I’d love to tell you about my fantasies, or better yet, show you, we should probably figure out how we’re going to escape.”
I finally manage to form words. “Did you hit your head?”
He chuckles darkly, and it reverberates through me. “Love, you and I are going to have a long, long talk after we get through this, but we need to come up with a plan. They're not going to wait forever to come back in. Do you have any weapons on you?”
I can’t respond because my mind sort of exploded at his term of endearment. “Love?”
“Yes. Love. Now weapon?”
Frustration builds, and I wish more than anything we had more time for this conversation. I try to move on; I really do. But I just can’t. “Don’t you have a mate?”
“Yes. She’s currently sitting on my lap.”
I scoff as much as I can without sitting up. “I’m a vampire.”
“Yes.”
“And you’re a wolf,” I point out.
“Yes.”
“That isn’t possible.” I pause, hardly daring to breathe.
“My wolf and I chose you, Sherese.”
“I don’t think it works that way, Hunter.”
“It doesn’t matter. I choose you.”
I squeeze my eyes tight, and I’m shocked when I feel something on my cheek.
I reach up with my right hand and wipe at it, feeling the wetness.
I haven’t cried in a really, really long time.
But as Hunter says, this is the worst time for all of this.
I force my thoughts to our escape. My mind runs through our chances of escape again.
It’s not good. I don’t see any way in which we make it alive.
My biggest fear is Rizo. He's just too strong; he has too much power. I can’t do anything against him.
It would be all on Hunter, and Rizo won’t fight fair.
He’ll have all his vampires at his disposal.
All I can picture is Hunter dying, and I’m not going to let that happen.
First things first. “Are your feet restrained as well as your arms?”
“Just my hands.”
Being careful to keep my arm right next to my body, I reach into my boot and pull out my knife.
“Lift your wrists towards me.” I touch the silver restraints a moment, hissing when the silver burns my fingers.
I hate that they’re using these on him. They have to be burning his wrists.
I find the little hole and stick the tip of my knife in and push.
The restraints slip off, and I catch them before they fall to the ground and tuck them in my boot. My pants protect me from the burn.
The door to the room opens, and suddenly we’re out of time. Hunter slumps forward, and I climb off him. “He doesn’t look dead to me,” Ajax says.
I keep my breathing even. It’s going to come down to how well I can sell this.
I take a step away from Hunter, even though it kills me.
I’m watching Hunter, and I don’t see Ajax until it’s too late.
There’s suddenly a knife at my chest, and I curse myself for not paying better attention.
“Easy,” Rizo says, but I’m not worried. Ajax would be beyond stupid to kill me.
“I’m just giving her my knife,” Ajax says, watching me carefully.
I don’t take it; this has to be a set-up. “Why?”
“Finish him off.”
I meet his gaze head-on. I’m done playing. It’s time to fight our way out of this. “No.”
Ajax grins, unsurprised. “You want to go that route? Let’s do it. I’ve always wanted to mark up that pretty face of yours. We can start with that and go from there.”
Suddenly, Hunter plows into Ajax, pinning him to the wall with his elbow against his throat. It’s almost pathetic how fast Hunter pinned him. Ajax sneers at Hunter. “You gonna kill me?”
“No. Somebody else is waiting for that privilege,” Hunter growls. I take a step closer to the two of them, and Ajax’s eyes land on me. “Don’t look at her; look at me.” Hunter snaps.
Rizo moves, but I’m ready. I hold up my knife, the one I used to unlock Hunter’s restraints. Rizo doesn’t look at all concerned. “What are you going to do, Little Lamb?” He takes another step towards me. “To harm me would be to harm yourself, and you don’t want to do that.”
I take a step back but keep him in my line of sight. “You’re going to let us walk out of here.”
He smiles, but it’s cold. “I knew you wouldn’t drain him. You're too weak to do the hard stuff.”
“You mean like killing? Yeah, I’m good. Thanks.”
His eyes turn to slits. “Don’t forget you chose this.
” Hunter goes rigid, and then his arm drops to his side.
He stumbles backwards a moment and then stands still.
I can see he’s fighting against it, but it’s not doing any good.
I look at Rizo, who’s staring at Hunter with an intensity that rocks me.
“Leave him alone,” I order. Hunter’s back bows, and he drops to his knees. “Stop it!”
Somehow, Ajax is next to me now. “Rizo can liquefy his bones with his mind power.” I can see the pain on Hunter’s face, and it guts me. He opens his mouth and grits his teeth, but somehow he doesn’t make a sound, and that makes it worse.
“Stop!” I yell at Rizo, but he doesn’t listen.
I grab my knife and turn on him, but I only make it a step or two.
I grind my teeth and try to push forward, but I can’t.
It’s like I hit a cement wall. I can’t go any closer.
I try to lift my knife to throw it, but I can’t throw it.
I turn back and see sweat dripping down Hunter’s brow.
He falls forward after a minute, and I scream.
I run towards him and drop next to him. “Stop!” Hunter’s entire body shakes, like he’s having a seizure.
I can hear Ajax laughing, but I don’t even bother to look at him.
Fury builds inside me, and my mind races to figure a way out of this.
But there is none. Even if we made it past Rizo and Ajax, we would still have to fight all the other vampires.
It would be a suicide mission. And then a solution comes to me.
I try to think if there’s any other way, but there’s not.
If there were, I would have already thought of it.
I put my hand on Hunter’s back, hoping he knows I’m here with him.
I grasp my knife tightly in my hand, but keep it at my side where no one can see it.
I lean forward to whisper in Hunter’s ear.
“Thank you for choosing me. I choose you too.” I give myself just one moment.
One moment to think about what life would have been like with Hunter by my side; one moment to mourn a life we will never have together.
And then I do the only thing I know that will stop a master vampire—kill his creation.
I know I have to be fast, so they don’t stop me.
I take the knife and shove it into my heart.
I hear a gasp, but I can’t look over. My body falls forward, and I lie next to Hunter.
I want to tell him that it will be okay.
That, with Rizo out of the picture, he’ll be able to get out.
Rizo won’t be able to call the other vampires, and Hunter can escape, especially if Garrett is waiting out there somewhere.
Together, they can fight off whatever vampires wait outside and get to freedom.
I hear commotion further away from me, but I can’t turn my head to see it. The cold starts seeping into my body, starting with my legs and working its way up my body. I will Hunter to fight, to be free, to live well, and to maybe remember me.