Chapter 16
Lock
Pissed off was an understatement for how I felt right now. If it wasn’t enough that Seraphim was here, my ire was compounded by the fact that Samara was being utterly stupid. She was lying, hiding, and denying herself. I’d told her on countless occasions that denying one’s nature never ended well, but here she was doing just that.
I couldn’t give a single shit if she were to destroy an entire state in her quest to understand her powers. Now, she was offering herself to the enemy, trying to be some sort of martyr. That was unacceptable. This was going to end right now.
Grabbing all four of the humans in the basement, I flew them out to the dock and deposited them beside Sam. She jumped, furrowing her brow when she looked at me.
“Feed,” I demanded.
She set her jaw. “No.”
“Samara, this is not a request.”
“You can’t tell me what to do.”
Seraphim chuckled and I ignored him. That was something I’d deal with later. I didn’t know how, but I’d figure it out.
“Feed,” I repeated.
She crossed her arms and turned away from me. I dropped my head back, staring at the stars as I laughed. It had been too long since I had a good massacre. Well, it had only been a couple of weeks, but it felt like ages.
I grabbed one of the women and sank my fangs into her neck, making sure to pierce her carotid artery. She screamed and thrashed, heightening my blood lust. Letting her go, I thrust her toward Sam.
She made a startled sound and scrambled away. The human choked and spluttered, holding a hand to her neck. She was bleeding profusely and I watched as it drained into the water, going to waste.
Taking the next human, I did the same thing. Even when I’d torn open the throat of the fourth one, Sam wouldn’t take a drop. She was visibly shaking with the effort to restrain herself and tears were streaming down her face, but she held on. I could tell how much it pained her; I could feel it through our bond. It just made me more angry.
Seraphim disappeared in a cloud of smoke and I watched him dart away.
“God damnit,” I muttered.
“Stop, Lock,” Sam begged.
“I’ll stop when you’re thoroughly sated and done with this ridiculous game.”
“It’s not a game.”
“It’s fucking stupid!”
She covered her face with her hands. “Leave me alone.”
She jumped when Seraphim dropped onto the dock again, carrying four humans. He thrust two of them toward me, ripping into the throats of the ones he kept. I couldn’t help but smile as I dragged one of them over to Sam.
“Look at all this waste. Why don’t you join us, Belladonna?”
“I’m sure I don’t need to tell you this,” Seraphim drawled. “But your mate is incredibly stubborn.”
“She’s infuriating,” I agreed. “We’re going to need more.”
Shifting, I raced toward the town and plucked as many as I could from their hotel rooms. After five trips, we had twenty more bodies, all of them terrified and making my predatory instincts ignite fiercely. There was no way she could keep resisting.
Seraphim took one of them by the back of the neck and crouched in front of Sam. She turned away, but he grabbed her jaw and turned her toward him. If she fed, I had no doubt she’d be strong enough to obliterate him for touching her. Even though I wanted to do the same, I watched.
“Come on, Sam,” he taunted. “This one smells the best.”
“Fuck off, Raf.”
“You’re fucking pathetic.”
The amber of her eyes seemed to burn brighter, as if there were flames dancing in them. The raw power lurking just under the surface made my body tingle with excitement. I wanted to see it, taste it, experience it.
“If I wanted to kill your mate right now, you couldn’t stop me.”
She whimpered, glancing briefly at me. I raised a brow at her.
“If she wanted to, she could pluck you right off this dock. The only one that would have a chance of stopping her is you, but not like this.”
My head cocked as I listened. Whatever information he had about this thing would be extremely useful. Regardless of what he was doing here right now, I was under no delusion that he’d give us anything. I had no idea why he was even trying to help her right now, but this was the most I’d gotten out of her since she turned.
“She would obliterate everyone you cared about and bend you to her will so easily. For a second, I thought you might stand a chance. I thought you were strong, but look at you. You’re a pathetic excuse for a vampire, let alone an Iraivan.”
“What’s an Iraivan?” I asked.
He inclined his head toward me slightly, then returned his attention to Sam. When she still didn’t respond, he grabbed her shoulders and forced her to stand. He pressed her back against a tree and I stepped forward, but he held a hand out behind him.
Gritting my teeth, I stopped a few feet away. I saw a golden glow form between their skin. She tried to get out of his grip, but he held firm. His breaths came quicker and he grunted as if he was in pain, but he didn’t relent.
“Stop,” she demanded, sounding frantic.
“You feel it this time, Sam. All that power.”
“Please stop.”
“You told me you didn’t care about power, but I bet this feels really damn good. Stop resisting.”
“No. Let me go. I don’t want your magic.”
“Of course you do. It’s everything your blood craves. If you weren’t a fucking idiot, you’d know that keeping yourself at full power makes it easier to control.”
She shook her head. “No. I can’t control it.”
“Yes, you can.”
He fisted her hair, bringing her closer to him. I was so close to ripping his arm from his body. If this worked, though, I might choose to give him a quick death someday.
Pulling his dagger out, he made a cut on his neck. Blood flowed quickly from the wound, dripping onto the ground. Sam’s canines lengthened and she whimpered.
“You want to burn the world, Samara. Start with me.”
“Let me go,” she pleaded.
“Show me what’s lurking under that pretty skin.”
Tightening his grip, he pulled her against his neck. She struggled, but he held her against him. Her frantic sounds caused me physical pain.
Flames sprung up around them, then crawled up Seraphim’s arms. He dropped his head back against the tree, a smile forming on his lips as he stared at the sky.
“Is that all you’ve got?”
Her grip tightened on his arms and thick smoke enveloped him.
“Come on, Sam. Burn me!”
She screamed, releasing a burst of magic so powerful, I was flung backward. When I returned, I found the grass completely burned away and the forest was on fire. Smoke rose into the sky, shrouding the moon. Finally, I heard her teeth sink into Seraphim’s skin as she pulled him closer.
He tugged her to the ground with him, his eyes closing as he pulled all of the smoke into his hands. The flames receded, leaving only charred remains where they’d once been.
As she fed, his body began to slump a little more, yet he didn’t stop her. Above us, storm clouds started to roll in, but it didn’t rage like before. They simply sat there while rain fell steadily and a few sheets of lightning flashed in the sky.
When she pulled away, he put a hand on the ground to steady himself. I immediately grabbed her and carried her over to the dock, bringing one of the humans with us.
“Please, Sam.”
Her brow furrowed, but she nodded and started drinking from their neck. Grabbing another, I brought him over to Seraphim and thrust him to the ground. He barely glanced at me before sinking his fangs into him. A thin strand of orange smoke drained from his hand and traveled through the guy’s eye socket. A moment later, he went silent and still, though he was still alive.
I didn’t know what the point of that was, but he could feed however he wanted. Sam dropped the now dead woman when I returned to her side.
“How do you feel?”
“Fine.”
“At this point, I need more than that, Sam. What happened here was unnecessary and, just like every other problem we’ve faced, could have been dealt with by communicating with each other.”
A tear slid down her cheek as she nodded. Shaking my head, I picked her up and carried her back into the house, not caring about the mess outside or the cursed fire angel. Everything else could wait until after my mate and I figured out our shit.
“Do you want to go to bed?”
“I’m not tired.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “It’s about damn time.”
“Lock, I’m sorry.”
Setting her on the counter, I put two fingers over her lips. “I don’t need your apologies. All I want is to have my mate back. How long has this been going on?”
“Since I flew out the window that night.”
“How much have you been restricting?”
Her gaze fell. “I’ve been having one bottle a day, if that.”
Gritting my teeth, I tried to keep from shouting at her. That was too little blood for the weakest vampire, let alone someone like her. How she’d managed to stay anywhere close to sane was beyond me.
“We’re done with this,” I said firmly. “I don’t care if your magic makes you kill everyone in a hundred-mile radius. Do you understand?”
It looked like she wanted to argue. I held both sides of her face and stared into her eyes. Finally, she nodded.
The back door opened and I rushed over to Seraphim, grabbing him by the throat. When I slammed him against the wall, he looked amused, which just pissed me off more.
“Stop,” Sam demanded.
“Yeah, Hemlock,” Seraphim said, smiling a little. “I did help you out, you know.”
“I don’t care. Whatever you’re doing, there’s a motive that I don’t like.”
“Maybe you should hear me out.”
“Not a chance.”
He sighed, then grabbed my wrist. I held onto his throat, even as he burned through my skin. My other hand went for his chest. He grabbed my fist, trying to push me back.
“Stop!” Sam shouted.
We were thrust apart and a wall of ice rose between us. Seraphim melted it but didn’t come any closer.
“Sam, he wants us both dead.”
“You can’t hurt him.”
“Well, I can certainly try.”
“You can’t,” she repeated. “I don’t think I can let you.”
My mouth fell open. “That’s ridiculous. This is a joke, right?”
She chewed on her lip, glancing back and forth between us. “I don’t think so.”
“Oh, what the fuck?”
Seraphim laughed. “She’s kind of attached to me.”
“I will skin you and turn you into a winter jacket.”
“Lock,” Sam scolded, jumping down from the counter. I stepped in front of her before she could go near Seraphim and wrapped an arm around her waist.
“What do we do, then? Invite him to Christmas dinner? I’m not buying him a gift.”
“I just want to help,” he said.
“That’s laughable. You’ve made it very clear that she has to die.”
He shrugged. “I had a chance to kill her and I didn’t.”
“You had her heart in your hand, so I’m inclined to think you were going to.”
He rolled his lips, looking thoughtful. After a moment, he pushed off the wall. I tightened my grip on Sam, but she squeezed my arm reassuringly. When he held out a hand, she took it, and there was a sort of humming energy that awoke where they touched.
“We’re part of a Nexus,” he said. “The only two, as far as we know, which makes it a lot harder for her. Generally, there would be at least a few more that would help balance her power. What I’ve seen her do already is enough to tell me she should have more of us, but the only one she has to abate that immense energy is me. You can take your chances trying to train her, but you’re only putting her at risk.”
“We’ll figure it out.”
“Not before the enemy gets impatient and comes for her. If that happens, she won’t be nearly ready and it’ll be over.”
“We’ll fight it together.”
“Even if you bound yourselves, it wouldn’t do any good if she hasn’t mastered it. She would dispense with you quicker than I did, Hemlock.”
With a growl, I swiped a hand down my face. “I don’t trust you.”
“Do you trust me, Sam?”
“Yes,” she said immediately.
I stared at him intently. There was nothing on his face to betray what he was thinking or if he was being genuine. Even now, it infuriated me to see him, the man that I’d trusted from the Seattle coven. I’d been blind to his treachery then and not for one second would I believe he didn’t have nefarious intentions this time around. He was right, though, and I hated the powerlessness of that realization.
“Fine, but I’m going to be here every moment and if I think for one second that you’re up to something, I will kill you.”
He smiled, then pursed his lips. “Yeah, okay. I’ll let you feel big and scary if it helps.”
Turning to Sam, I implored her with my eyes. She shook her head and I groaned.
Seraphim headed into the kitchen, opening the cabinets like he owned the place.
“Got any Oreos? Being drained of magic really takes its toll on the body.”
“Sam-”
“No, Lock. You’re not going to serve him for Thanksgiving dinner.”
“Maybe he’d have a naturally smoky flavor.”
Her exasperation was palpable through the bond. The familiarity of it made me feel slightly better about her state, even though everything else going on right now was sure to give me an aneurysm severe enough to kill my immortal body.