Ice tinkled in my glass. I lifted the tumble to my lips, wincing at the sharp bitter sting of alcohol as it hit my tongue. My eyes bored into the fire crackling in the fireplace before me. My black leather armchair sat too close to the fire, making my usually cool skin warm.
The heat reminded me of the war. The hot sun beating down on us as we marched through the battlefields. Our hats barely did much to keep us from taking the brunt of the sun’s painful rays.
Shots rang out too close to each other, making our ears ring. The shouts and cries of men fighting and dying were a morbid background theme to the carnage around me.
My best friend, Carlos, begged me to help him but he was too far away. If I took the chance to save him then I could get hit by the crossing fire. I remembered battling with the decision for what seemed like hours. It’d only been mere moments.
Without announcing my intention, I’d run across the battle grounds, dodging and weaving between bodies, ducking at oncoming fire. My heartbeat pulsed in my ears like a battle roar, encouraging me to save him, save him, save him.
I never made it to him.
My body twitched in my seat as I resisted the urge to touch the long since healed places I’d been hit.
The bullets had ripped through my skin like it was mere paper. A hot searing pain spread across my chest and shoulder. By the time I’d fallen, I’d become numb. I knew now that I’d gone into shock. My world had closed in around me, darkening at the edges.
My fingers tightened on my glass. The clear surface fractured under the pressure of my fingers. I forced them to relax and blew out a breath. I didn’t require oxygen to live but, either by habit or some other reason, it still helped calm me.
I hadn’t thought of my death in decades. Why today? I asked myself, but I knew why.
Shoving to my feet, I stalked over to the fireplace, leaning my arm on the mantel as I stared into the fire.
Jaquelynn. Jack.Mi amore.
Well... not anymore. Or perhaps she had never been mine. Just a cruel trick of fate that lead me to think I found someone that complimented the bond Tate and I had.
I rubbed my hand down my face, my teeth clenched.
My sire, Kleon, would roll over in his grave had he known I’d betrayed him on such a profound level. Not just falling for the enemy but bedding her, defending her,claimingher. I should have ripped the Durand brat’s throat out the moment I met her.
Not that I’d known who she was at the time.
No.I snorted a laugh.
Jaquelynn had been quite thorough with her deception. She had even been able to fool me and my shadows.
Said shadows swirled around my feet, anxious to be near her. I forced them to still. I wouldn’t give into this weakness. She was the enemy, the very person responsible for my sire’s death.
Sure, she didn’t swing the sword, but it had been because of her that Kleon was no longer in this world. She was everything that I hated. The spawn of the Durands, those self-righteous vampires who thought that we should acclimate to the human world or perish.
No doubt they were being manipulated by the human woman they shared between the six of them. Everything that had happened leading up to Kleon’s death had beenherfault.
Now her daughter was making even bigger waves than the mother. Getting me all tangled up and thinking maybe the Durands were right.
No. Not me. I wouldn’t become her pawn.
“Here you are.”
I didn’t turn to greet the werewolf’s exasperated voice. The couch creaked letting me know that my blood bonded servant and lover had taken a seat.
Very few vampires ever bond with werewolves. Our kinds were enemies because of some squabble or another centuries ago. Except Tate’s pack.
The Mountain Ridge Clan.
Kleon had introduced me to their pack a long time ago. He hadn’t seen the point of fighting over past ancestors’ mistakes when we could be stronger together. He had bonded to every alpha wolf for the last four centuries. Unfortunately, either because of their nature or ours, Kleon out lived them all.
Then I outlived him.
The pack had come to me, requesting I keep my sire’s tradition alive. That was when I met Tate.
