Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
REAL PIZZA WORK
We’ve got a situation here, Boss. We’re going to need some assistance.
Alek’s mental message cuts through my surveillance. For nights now I’ve shadowed Angelo, trying to understand why he’d waste his goons on my territory—sending a new pack for every one I turn to dust.
Clearly, he wants something, and I must have it, but what that is? I haven’t the vaguest idea.
Which is why I’m watching him now, a worm coiled on a throne while his blood-bound women move around him with dead eyes. I’d rather be anywhere else—even trading insults with the nosy hunter who has been pushing all my buttons.
Your summon could not have come at a better moment, Alek. I’m going to need to wash my eyes out with a strong solution after tonight.
Boss?
Alek’s reply is confused by my projected internal musings, but instead of offering an explanation, I turn to leave, then stop dead in my tracks when Angelo glances my way.
The victorious smirk on his pale lips is all the confirmation I need. It’s a hollow, gutting sensation I haven’t felt in centuries. The wild goose chase, the taunts—it was all a diversion. He didn’t want a confrontation here. He wanted me away from my territory.
Shit.
Giving him one last look that he returns with an insubordinate hand wave, I turn and speed off back towards my headquarters, adding extra speed as I mentally message Alek for more details.
Is my Daisy—
Angelo’s goons are at her door, Boss. It’s not going to hold. I can get her out the window, but I’m going to need help fighting through the small crowd awaiting us outside.
That fucker planned this!
There’s more, Boss. She smells like the hunter.
That sneaky fucker. I knew he was interested in my delicious-smelling flower, but I hadn’t realized he’d actually be as bold as to leave his scent on her.
My thumb traces the worn edge of the antique pocket watch tucked into my vest. An old habit.
I push my speed to its limits, the buildings, streets, and lights blurring into a meaningless smear. It doesn’t matter; I’m locked onto Alek’s position, the mental connection from his siring pulling me instinctively toward him.
It takes me no time at all to traverse the entire length of the city, and I barely slow when I get to Kallista’s apartment complex, using my blinding speed to surprise the feral pack waiting outside, all sharp claws and elongated fangs.
Angelo sent twenty feral vampires to kidnap my delicate flower.
What the fuck is wrong with him?
Rage overtakes me. I become a blur of claw and fang, ripping through the pack.
Corpse powder rains down, the husks of ferals disintegrating into ash around me.
Their mindless snarls fill the air as their freakish, blood-fueled strength lands blows that shred my suit, but they lack the logic to make the attacks count. They hit like animals; I hunt like one.
I only slow when I sense a flicker at the edge of my awareness, a faint trace of familiar power, one that usually would make me go on alert, but is not unwelcome in this particular fight.
The hunter has joined the fray, Boss.
A smirk graces my lips, and I know it’s terrifying—my fangs are elongated and stained black with the ashen remains of his kin. The red, glowing eyes of the feral before me widen in alarm, proving my point.
I am aware, Alek.
The two-tone eyed Guild hunter makes a tsking sound beside me.
“Well, well. Seems like you decided to have a party, and I wasn’t invited.” His enchanted blade pierces a feral’s heart, and the creature dissolves. “I’m disappointed, Livingburn, I thought we were friends.”
A scoff escapes me. The tattooed asshole has a certain lethal confidence I can’t entirely dismiss.
You’re going soft, Stark.
“Hardly. I’d consider us more like allies with a common goal.”
He gives me a dangerous smirk before throwing his dagger at me with blinding speed, but I’m faster, leaning just a tad for it to pass by. A fact I’m sure he knew already considering he seemed to have done his research before seeking me out.
“Although, you’ll have to improve your aim if you want to keep this truce alive,” I taunt.
“I’ll have you know that my aim was true,” he retorts, pushing past me to go retrieve his knife, now on the ground in a pile of ashes that used to be a feral vampire.
The feral was targeting my blind spot as I focused on the hunter—a calculated move. I’m getting sloppy.
Definitely going soft. Perhaps I’ve lived too many centuries.
A quick survey of the dark street reveals we’ve effectively eliminated the threat Angelo had sent for my pretty flower.
“You’re right, we have a common goal. And she has a name. So why don’t you tell me why Angelo is sending an army for one brunette with freckles?”
At the mention of my Daisy, the fury resurfaces, this time directed at the hunter whose nose is sniffing where it doesn’t belong.
The hunter’s interest is becoming a problem.
She belongs with me.
Not him.
And I will make sure he understands this time.
A growl rumbles out of my chest but gets interrupted by another mental message.
We have another problem, Boss.
His words are punctuated by Kallista’s panicked yell from somewhere above.
I react on instinct, ready to race up the five flights to her apartment, but then I hear them.
Snarls and hisses echo from down the street—more ferals, heading this way.
I pause, torn between eliminating the growing threat and shielding my Daisy before it’s too late.
“Go. Get her out. I’ll handle this.” The hunter gives me a sharp nod, his hands sweeping over his skin. I watch the rune for speed on his arm and another for strength on his neck flare with light, releasing the faint, sulfurous scent of Guild power.
A respectable display of power, but there are at least thirty more ferals coming. It won’t hold them for long.
Where does Angelo find all these goons? Turning has been impossible for ages.
It seems he’s found a loophole.
The hunter throws me a smile that is all dangerous edges and teeth, as he pulls out various weapons concealed on his person.
Insolent little shit.
“It’s an impressive arsenal, I must admit. For a human.” He rolls his eyes in response, but I can’t help but poke the bear a little. “Be careful not to stab yourself with the pointy end.”
I stay just long enough to hear the satisfying angry growl he lets out, then vanish.
The stairwell is a gray blur I ascend in a single heartbeat.
We’re out of time. My Daisy is in danger.
Half a second after leaving the street, I’m at the threshold of Kallista’s apartment.
The door is in shambles, air thick with dust. My pretty flower is bent over her human friend, who seems to have been bitten.
But the ridiculous vampire curse prevents me from entering the apartment without being invited. Again.
How did the human get bit?
The lingering stench of feral vamps and the broken door answer the questions without words.
Boss.
Alek steps into view, still speaking in my mind.
They charmed the human and convinced him to invite them in. Then they bit him.
Something pulls at the back of my throat—not thirst, but its opposite, a clenching I have no name for—and my eyes find Kallista before I’ve decided to look, scanning her beautiful smooth bronze skin for puncture marks. But it’s unmarred, perfect. Her veins thrum full of untouched blood.
I dispatched the disgusting leeches before they could get to her. But the human is… in a bad way. We need to get out of here.
I nod in response, swallowing down the strange forgotten emotion and focusing on the problem at hand.
We need to get the pretty flower out before she gets taken by ferals, and we need to patch up the human so he can’t be used to lure Kallista into a trap.
One quick listen confirms the hunter is still deep in battle outside. He seems to be handling himself, but I’ll be damned if I rest this entire plan on trusting a Guild hunter.
“Daisy, love, invite me in so I can help your friend.” My voice comes out smooth, but her scent—that unique floral note now sharp with the metallic tang of her worry—makes me antsy.
Kallista looks up at me, her eyes widening a fraction before she schools her features and steels her composure.
“Why should I trust you?”
I expected some push back.
Hell, I would have been disappointed without it.
But we don’t have the time.
I open my mouth to explain all the reasons we must leave this place, immediately, but she continues.
“Ever since I met you I’ve been followed, stalked and attacked. So why should I go anywhere with you? Seems to me, I should avoid you at all costs.”
Something unexpected happens then, her words triggering some deep buried human response I had not humored in quite some time. Centuries even.
Annoyance and impatience surface like a tidal wave, overruling common sense and logic.
Interesting.
Then the overwhelming urge to rile her up takes control of my mouth, spreading an insolent grin over my lips, my fangs flashing in response.
“I had warned you to stay away, Daisy love, but from where I’m standing someone seems to enjoy the danger.”
And Kallista scoffs, the flyaway little hairs framing her face blowing with her breath, her violet eyes flashing with anger, making her look wild, untamed and sending an entirely inappropriate signal low in my gut, and my cock awakens with a sharp curiosity.
Interesting. It’s been centuries since that part of my body stirred with anything more than function.
“Don’t Daisy Love me, mister. That shit won’t fly when Casey got hurt by one of your kind. I’m not going anywhere until you fix it. Fix him.”
As if on cue, her human friend she calls Casey groans in pain, his eyes screwed shut and hand pressing on the wound on his neck.
He doesn't appear to be bleeding as his blood scent is not fresh and raw but rather coagulating, but he looks clammy, feverish, his breaths coming in short pants and his scent changing strangely from human to—
A few of the ferals got past the hunter, Boss. We gotta go.
And we are officially out of time.
“I’ll make you a deal, Kallista. I’ll fix your friend if you invite me in so I can get you out.
” I pause, listening to the sound of snarls coming from the stairway and gaining speed.
There are five, maybe six of them headed this way.
“But I can’t do that here. “We need to get you somewhere safe. To a place where he can be treated.”
Kallista hesitates, her gaze flickering between her friend and Alek. I feel Alek’s mental affirmation before he even moves—a silent signal she clearly sees as a nod.
Does she… trust him more than me? Enough that he was invited in, and I wasn’t?
I want to examine the strange sensation now squeezing my ribcage further, but now is not the time nor the place when the ferals have reached the fifth floor landing.
“You can come in, Stark,” my little flower finally says, and I want to relish the way my name sounds on her lips, make her say it again, as a heated, breathless moan, but…
Like I said, not the time or place.
I waste no time at her invitation, the magic blocking my access evaporating as if it had never been there, and I race to my Daisy, scooping her up so fast she only has time to let out an adorable little squeak, and run to the window just as the ferals appear at the doorway, hissing and red eyes glowing.
Damn.
Angelo has definitely been busy. That fucking worm. I’m going to have to pay him an unfriendly visit.
I open the window and leap out—a movement so fast no human could follow—with Kallista clutched bridal style in my arms. She squeaks again, gripping my neck tightly.
I don’t particularly love touch, but with this little petal, I find myself craving it. A thought to explore later.
The ground rushes up, and we land without a sound, right in the middle of the ongoing fight. More of the fuckers have joined the battle.
Angelo must really want Kallista.
The question is why?
Alek lands beside me carrying the unconscious human man, noticing the same thing as I am.
Which way should we go?
“Here!” The hunter throws me a set of keys before resuming his clash with claws and teeth. I catch them in my teeth since my hands are currently occupied.
“Good boy!” The cheeky fucker has the gall to yell with a sideways smirk. Then throws Kallista a wink that makes her gasp with recognition. “ Use my Jeep to get them out of here. It’ll mask your scent trail.”
Just when I thought I’d have to kill him, he redeems himself.
Infuriating.
I don’t respond, however, and instead follow the scent trail the hunter left behind to where his vehicle is parked in a nearby alleyway, black and bulky, and concealed in the shadows.
Without a word, Kallista takes the keys from my teeth.
Her fingers brush my lips, a fleeting touch that makes me lock onto her violet eyes before she breaks contact to unlock the doors.
Alek deposits the human in one back seat as I buckle Kallista into the other.
He takes the wheel; I take the passenger seat.
I expected more push back from Kallista, but she lets me tuck her in safely, while turning her attention back to her human friend.
His complexion has gone ashen, his human scent already souring. It can only mean one thing—something that should be impossible.
Angelo is a far greater threat than I imagined.