Chapter Twenty-Three
“Oh no,” Reyna whispered.
The first time that Reyna had ever heard Harrington discuss the possibility of an antidote she had been sick to her stomach.
The idea that vampires could go back to drinking from any human that they wanted regardless of blood type was a horrifying concept.
The blood type cure kept them in check. Even if, as she had later learned, it wasn’t as potent for every vampire, it still helped to drink the right match.
But that would all go away with an antidote.
Reyna had stalled that research the day that she’d saved Jodie from Visage.
A doctor had said that she was critical to the development of the antidote and Reyna had broken her out.
They must have been further along or had used someone else’s blood in Jodie’s place.
Now Harrington was using it in his feeding camps to build up his army.
She was going to be sick. Reyna covered her mouth and turned away.
“How does it work?” Beckham asked.
“One vial per human. It’s injected into the blood system, essentially nulling the blood type and creating a universal host,” Graves explained. “It lasts the length of time it typically takes to replenish the blood.”
Reyna saw all of their potential plans unravel with the appearance of that one tiny vial. Jodie wasn’t important. Reyna wasn’t important. There was no reason that Harrington wouldn’t drain her and dump her. No reason at all. He had no weakness.
Graves passed the small vial into Beckham’s hand. “Because I’m feeling generous.”
Beckham hastily pocketed it.
“And as for where Harrington is holed up, I’d start trusting your enemies.”
“What does that mean?” Beckham asked.
“Don’t you mean which one?” Reyna drawled in annoyance. She hated that he was being purposely obscure. They had a lot of enemies. He could narrow down the list for them.
“Start at the top of your list and work your way down,” Graves said, and slid his hands back into his pockets.
Beckham glanced at Reyna. “Roland?”
“Penny,” she spat.
Graves gestured with his gloved hand as if agreeing with them. “Now, it’s been my pleasure to host you for the evening. I will have Edgar escort you out. I do hope that we meet again.”
Reyna shivered at the words as he disappeared through the massive double doors.
Reyna met Beckham’s gaze and lifted one shoulder. What the hell had they walked into?
Edgar entered the room almost immediately. “This way, please.”
They walked in a daze back through Graves’s unbelievable house, retrieved their coats, and were hastily pushed into the elevator. It spit them out onto the bottom floor in record time. The driver gave them back their hoods and they tugged them on once they were safely seated in the limo.
As soon as they left Graves’s house, she had the distinct feeling like she’d dreamed the entire thing.
It couldn’t possibly have been real. It felt too unbelievable to even contemplate.
And she didn’t know what the fuck he was.
Because he made it quite clear that he wasn’t a vampire or a human.
He didn’t seem to like either group much.
Whatever he was, it was powerful. That was for damn sure.
“What do you think he is?” she finally whispered into the silent limo.
“A bloody bastard.”
“Well, yes. That much is obvious. But he’s powerful.”
Beckham’s hand landed on her thigh. “I don’t give a fuck what he is.” His hand moved up higher and higher. “Or care to hear you talk about how powerful he is.”
“Jealous?” she breathed.
“Infuriated.”
He pressed her knee out wider and then wider still until she was spread open for him.
His fingers continued up to the apex of her thighs, parting her lips and slicking through her wetness.
She’d been hot all evening. On fire since the moment Beckham had seen her in her dress, and everything had only intensified through the night.
Her body reacted instantly to his touch as he swirled a finger around her clit until she was quivering beneath his skilled hands.
Heedless of consequences, Beckham tugged both hoods off of their heads and slammed their lips together. There was nothing gentle in his touch. Just claiming her body as his own. Reminding her exactly where she belonged.
The tension had been palpable when they’d been in Graves’s mansion.
He’d tested their limits. Pushed them beyond what they had even known they were capable.
He might be manipulative, arrogant, and conceited, but he’d played them like a fiddle.
And now they both wanted to erase the memory with the feel of each other’s body.
Beckham rocked her flat against the seat, splaying her out long. He hastily unbuckled his tuxedo pants and took his cock in his hand. A hand in her hair, lips melded together, bodies a furnace every place they touched, then his cock pressing against her waiting opening.
She gasped into his mouth. “Yes.”
He thrust to the hilt, burying himself inside of her. She threw her head back as he filled her to the brim. She’d been on the edge all night. God, she needed this. Needed him.
“Mine,” Beckham growled as he pulled out and pumped into her again.
She could sense that his anger about Graves had boiled over. This was a fervor that both of them couldn’t seem to find release from. They belonged to the other and they needed that belonging right now.
“I’m yours,” she repeated over and over again until her climax hit her like a tidal wave.
She cried out in the backseat of the limo as his own climax followed violently. As if his very roar of ecstasy could shake this world. And together they would remake it.
…
The rest of the ride was tense and silent.
Reyna had thought that, once they got that out of their system, things would go back to normal. But an uncomfortable strain echoed between them like a discordant song.
She’d never felt out of sync with Beckham. Even the days when she was terrified of him, where she had no idea what was going on in that limitless mind, even when she’d believed that he loved Penelope. They might have been on a different octave, but it was still in tune.
This stretched and expanded immeasurably.
All she had to do was reach out and touch his emotions to see what he was feeling. But she couldn’t. No, wouldn’t. Exposing herself to anything but his love was asking to push herself over the edge. He wouldn’t be pleased and she couldn’t blame him.
The limo finally came to a stop back at the pickup location. The driver opened the back door. “After you.”
Beckham slid out of the backseat. Reyna took a deep breath and followed him.
“Thank you so much for coming. Hope to see you again soon,” the driver said pleasantly.
Beckham inclined his head at the driver. Reyna threw him a half smile. She didn’t have to tap into Beckham’s emotions to know that seeing Graves again in this lifetime would be too soon. Reyna seconded that.
She followed Beckham through the double doors of the building.
He’d already phoned Gerard to come get them when they’d gotten close.
Gabe was waiting inside, pacing back and forth on the tiled floor like a caged animal.
He’d changed into all-black attire. His red hair stark against the rest of his clothes. His jaw set.
His head snapped up at their approach. “About fucking time.”
“Hey, Gabe,” she said.
“It’s one o’clock in the fucking morning. You were gone for-fucking-ever.”
Reyna chewed her lip. She hadn’t even realized how long they’d been at Graves’s. Time had seemed to slow and stretch.
“Well, we’re here now,” Beckham said.
His eyes jumped from one to the other. “So, how’d it go? Did you get the information? What was it like? What was he like?”
Without even a single word, Beckham punched Gabe in the face. He fell back a few steps, spiraling his arms to try to stay on his feet. Then his hand went to his jaw as he cursed violently.
“Beckham!” Reyna cried, reaching out for Gabe.
“What the fuck?” Gabe cried at almost the same.
But Beckham wasn’t even looking at them. He was far off somewhere else. His face cold and hard as stone. The mask she’d seen for so long before. Then he walked past them both.
“I just asked a fucking question,” he grumbled. “What’s with him?”
Reyna sighed. “It was tense and it’s been a long night. But he shouldn’t have taken that out on you.”
“You think?”
Reyna’s eyes were still following Beckham out the door to where Gerard waited. “We should probably get back.”
“What happened that has him so pissed off?”
“We got what we were looking for,” Reyna said on a sigh. “But there was a price. One neither of us wanted to pay.”
“Must have really rankled him.” Gabe followed her toward the door. “I’m dying to know though, what’s the contact’s name? Everyone is so secretive.”
Reyna opened her mouth.
Graves.
She coughed. Nothing came out. She tried again.
Graves.
Gabe raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t find out?”
She swallowed, shocked by the fact that she couldn’t make herself say his name. She could think it. She’d been able to say it in his presence—hell, he’d commanded her call him Graves. But now she couldn’t say it out loud. Had she said it out loud since leaving his house?
“He told us,” she muttered. “But I can’t say it.”
Gabe’s eyes widened. “What the fuck does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
“Okay. What did he look like? Maybe I’ve seen him around.”
Reyna opened her mouth to describe that midnight blue black hair. The stormy gray eyes. The immense height and expensive suit and the sheer magnitude of his beauty. And nothing.
She shrugged her shoulders. “I can’t say.”
“What the fuck, Reyna? Why not?”
“I don’t know.”
Gabe rubbed his jaw once before slipping the back door open for her. “What kind of guy can keep you from saying his name or what he looks like? Was he not human?”
Reyna chewed her lip. No. Definitely not human.
“Fuck me. You really can’t say,” Gabe said in shock.
“I really can’t.”
Reyna slid into the backseat of the van, carefully watching Beckham in the passenger seat.
Beckham never looked back at her, and she felt almost as if he had a block on his emotions.
She didn’t dare try to discover them through their bond, but his anger was so evident.
His shoulders tensed, his jaw set, his fingers typing rapidly on his phone in a way that felt all too familiar.
And not in the best way. She didn’t like that he was hurting or burying deep down whatever he was feeling.
It was a defense mechanism, but it didn’t make her feel any better.
It was a long and silent ride back to the mansion. The windows might as well have frozen over with Beckham’s frigidity the whole way.
Once the van came to a stop, before she could say something or reach for Beckham, he darted out of the car.
Beckham’s circle met him in the garage, and they loped off without a backward glance.
Reyna breathed out in frustration as he disappeared into the darkness.
Gabe dropped a hand on her shoulder in solidarity and then they walked back to the house.
They entered through the kitchen and Reyna made an ice pack for his face, which was already swelling an eye shut.
“Sorry again about this,” Reyna said.
“Occupational hazard. Should probably check in with Meghan.”
“Yeah. I’m going to look in on Brian.”
“Be careful, okay?”
Reyna nodded and then headed up the stairs.
A light was on at the end of the hall. The emotional roller coaster of the last couple hours hit her like a punch to the gut.
She was exhausted. She wanted to clean all this makeup off and sleep for at least the next twenty-four hours.
Deal with her brother and Graves and a vampire army and the fucking antidote another day.
But she didn’t.
She walked down the hall to her own personal hell and pushed the door open slightly. She startled at the sight of Genevieve reading from Dante’s Inferno. Brian was asleep. His chin resting against his chest as he remained chained to the chair.
“May not be the best choice,” Reyna whispered. “Descending into Hell.”
“Poignant,” Genevieve said softly.
“How’s he doing?”
Genevieve considered. “About the same. I believe he’s more lucid with those he doesn’t know. He’s full of guilt and seeing your face reminds him of his humanity.”
“Shouldn’t we want to remind him of that?”
“Guilt can crush a person. It’s best to start with people who understand. Let him come to some semblance of acceptance first.”
Reyna nodded. “Thank you for looking after him. I truly appreciate it.”
Genevieve got a far-off look on her face. “We’ve all been there before. It’s nice to bring them around before they do worse. A chance most of us weren’t offered.”
“He’s a fighter. He can come back from this.”
“I hope so.”
“You’ll be here all night?”
“Yes. Until Katarina comes for a reprieve. But I don’t mind.”
“Again, thank you. I wish I could be there for him, but at least someone is.”
“Get some rest, Reyna. Your brother just needs time.”
Reyna took one last wistful look at Brian before finding her bed and promptly passing out.