CHAPTER 0
ALEX
∞
I can’t believe I was able to control Wren’s anger. He had every reason to kill Adrian in that moment, and if it was anyone but Adrian, I would have gutted him myself. My feelings for him had me screaming out for him to stop before I even registered what I was doing.
I hope Frankie makes it through the change. It’ll break Wren if she ends up dying, and he doesn’t deserve it. He deserves to be happy, and he deserves someone to love him unconditionally. I hope she doesn’t end up hating him because I feel like that may be far worse than her dying…saving her and having her resent him for what she is.
He did the same thing to her that Charlotte did to him. Charlotte did it for different reasons though. Wren was a toy that she wasn’t willing to part with yet, and she treated him like shit.
I’m running down the hall towards Adrian’s office. The door is open, and I step through it to see him throwing shit into a box. “Adrian,”
I huff out. He turns to glare at me for a moment before returning to his packing. “Listen, I---”
“I don’t want to fucking hear it!”
He screams. “Self-righteous King. He has no idea what he’s doing.”
“Adrian, you’re angry and I understand that, but you have to understand---”
“Understand what? That he’s defending a worthless human whore instead of listening to someone that has been in his ranks for centuries? He’s in over his head,”
he mumbles.
“Adrian, Wren won’t hurt you.”
“Hurt me,”
he scoffs. “He wants me dead, Alex. There’s nothing you can do about that. The only way he’ll let me live is if he dies before I do.”
I frown at him and step further into the office. “What are you planning to do?”
I ask hesitantly.
“I don’t really have a choice, do I? He wants me out of his city. That bitch ruined my life. I should have let her die in the fucking pits, but I got greedy and thought I could use her to my advantage. I thought she could be the weapon I needed…”
His train of thought doesn’t make any sense to me. “What do you mean?”
“She’s capable of killing dark worlders, Alex. That’s an asset no matter how you look at it.”
He glances over at me once he grips his box of belongings in his arms. A small grin pulls at his lips, and I catch an edge of darkness in his eyes. “Wanna come over for a bit? I still have to pack my house up, and I could use the company.”
“Sure.”
I hate that he has to leave. I like Adrian a lot. Sure, he has some asshole tendencies, but don’t we all?
I follow him out of the building to the street and watch as he tosses his box into the trunk of his SUV. I drove Wren and I here in my truck and I hate to leave him without a vehicle. I send a text to Jared, to have him and Zen, bring a vehicle for him to get home with Frankie. “I’ll follow you to your place!”
I call out to Adrian. He raises his hand in acknowledgement, and I hop into the truck.
He lives pretty far from the compound, and I know he’s been staying in the loft upstairs most nights through the week because of it. The drive is long, but I don’t mind it. It gives me time to think.
I should try and find a way to get Wren to ease up on the banishment. Adrian isn’t the issue. He was just doing his job, even though it was a bit extreme. He beat the shit out of her, and I cringe as I remember the slashes across her back as she bled out on the floor.
We pull up to his apartment building after a few hours, and I hop out of the truck to help him with his stuff as he struggles to open the door. I’m not sure why he's even taking it up with him since he has to pack up anyways, but I don’t question his thought process. I’m sure he’s struggling to wrap his head around everything that’s happening right now.
“Have a seat,”
he says once we get inside. “I’ll make us up some drinks.”
I settle into the couch with my arms splayed across the back as I watch him set the box with his belongings on the counter. He shifts to his bar set off in the corner and grabs a bottle of whiskey. He glances over his shoulder at me and gives me a small smile. I laugh and lean my head back on the cushions, glancing up when he stands in front of me.
I take the glass from him and watch as he tips the tumbler back against his lips. Adrian is definitely good looking, and I can’t help but appreciate his lean frame wrapped in hard muscle. I chug back the shot and hold my glass back out to him. He takes it and watches me for a moment.
I blink rapidly and feel my heart trying to beat out of my chest. I look back up at him and his smile turns sinister. I stumble off the couch as confusion rips through my mind.
He drugged me. Why?
“Adrian,”
I gasp. My body is shaking as I try to pull myself up from the floor.
I feel his hand grip the back of my neck, and then he shoves me down. “You were always on the list, Alex. I held off doing what I was supposed to because I did like you, but now…”
I feel his breath, hot against my ear. “Now I just want him to suffer,”
he snarls, gripping my neck harder.
My body feels numb, and my mind feels hazy. “Why?”
I choke out as panic settles into my bones.
“Wren Valkyrie doesn’t deserve to be King!”
He yells. “Charlotte will be a better ruler, and the only way to ensure she’s no longer challenged, is to rid this world of her bloodlines…you included. Aiden was her sire, and he betrayed her the moment he named Wren King. She will take back her throne by force and you’re just collateral damage. I had hopes for Frankie. I thought her hatred for vampires and the King’s natural cocky attitude would have been enough for her to kill him herself, but she’s weak. She’s always been weak.”
He rips me to my feet and wraps his hand around my throat. I want to fight him…I need to fight him, but my arms feel weak as I try to pry his hand away from me.
“I wanted this to be clean at first, but now…after the way your precious King treated me, I want him to suffer as much as possible. The easiest way to make him suffer, is by making you suffer.”
I feel his fangs pierce into my neck, and I claw at his arm harder. No. This can’t be happening. He’s going to kill me. I can feel the venom pulse from his fangs into my system. I can feel it clouding my mind and my veins burn at the invasion.
He tosses me to the ground, and I grip at my chest as the venom rips through my body. “Let’s see if you can make it back in time to warn him,”
he sneers, crouching down in front of me. “Goodbye, Alex.”
I shove him away and rush towards the door, slamming my finger into the button for the elevator. The slow tick down to the main lobby is excruciating. I’m so far away from the tower and my body feels like it’s burning from the inside out. I run and stumble towards my truck as my breath starts to burn in my throat.
I don’t know how much time I have before the venom takes me, but I have to try and make it back. I have to warn Wren of Adrian’s betrayal and Charlotte’s plan to overthrow him.
I’m hanging onto consciousness as I get closer and closer to the tower. I can barely breathe, and the pain in my chest has now progressed up into my throat. I see the tower and my eyes feel heavy. I’m jolted back to my senses when I feel myself hit the curb in front of the doors.
I stagger out of the truck, hanging onto the hood as I make my way around through the doors. I look up to see Frankie standing in the foyer. Her eyes are red from crying, and she’s headed towards the door.
No.
She’s leaving him. She fucking hates him for what he’s done to her and she’s fucking leaving him. I can’t…I can’t let her leave him. Not now. She’s all he’ll have left once I’m gone, and there’s no way in hell I’m making it out of this alive. I can feel the venom gripping at my heart and my legs give out. My knees slam into the ground and Frankie is running towards me. She cradles my head in her lap as I writhe in pain.
“Alex, what’s wrong?”
She whispers.
I reach up towards her face and new tears are forming in her eyes. I bring her head down towards my lips. “Frankie…”
I cough as my voice scratches at my throat. Talking is painful but I need to do this.
“He loves you, Frankie. He did this to you because you were dying, and he fucking loves you. He loves you so much…”
I cough again and try to swallow around the pressure in my throat. “Don’t leave him…please. He needs you. I’m dead, Frankie. He’ll break completely if you leave him too.”
Tears are dripping onto my face as they tumble down her cheeks. She pulls me closer to her and chokes out a breath. “I’m scared,”
she says through a sob.
“Don’t be. He’ll protect you with his life, Frankie. You mean more to him than you realize. Promise me you won’t leave him.”
“I…I promise,”
she whispers.
My ears are ringing now, and the pressure in my head has my vision pulsing. I can’t hear the next words out of her mouth, but suddenly, Wren is here. The panic and pain on his face grips at my heart. He pulls me into him, and I feel…peace. I’m home. I made it home and I get to see him one more time.
“Who did this?”
I barely hear him, but I can’t tell him. I don’t have much time left and I need him to know. I touch his face and smile at him. “I love you, Wren.”
Darkness swirls around me and I feel like I’m being dragged into a void. The pain I felt in my last moments is gone, but my heart still aches for the pain I caused Wren in leaving him. I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want to abandon him. I should have listened to him and cut my ties with Adrian, but I thought I knew better, and I saw good in him when I shouldn’t have.
I’m so fucking sorry, Wren.
The darkness is endless, and the silence is crippling. I’ve never felt more alone than in this moment.
I feel a tugging in my chest, pulling me forward, aimlessly in one direction. I have no idea how long I hover here, and I thought there would be more. I thought there was still something to look forward to after death and not this endless darkness that pulls at your mind.
“When we give, we take in turn.”
I hear someone say.
“When we take, we give back again.”
Another voice whispers through the darkness.
“That is the price that must be paid.”
A third one giggles.
“There is still much to be done, sisters.”
The first one speaks again.
“Dark one…”
the giggly one whispers.
“Yes?”
Silence stretches on, and I hear nothing more. What were those voices? Am I being tormented in death? No one knows what death is like because no one comes back from it.
This fucking sucks.