Amaury's Hellion (33 page)

Thirty-three

The light from the open door spilled onto the sidewalk. Samson stormed up the front steps to his home just ahead of Amaury.

The hallway and living room were scenes of destruction: overthrown furniture, broken glass, and blood. Amaury’s stomach twisted painfully. He inhaled sharply, and the scent of Nina’s blood hit him.

No!

He stumbled into the room, almost tripping over Samson. On the floor lay Carl, a heap of torn muscle and blood, but he was breathing, his eyes open.

“Where’s Delilah?” Samson asked.

Carl’s response was a gurgle. “Gone.”

“And Nina?” Amaury’s throat was so dry he could barely talk. There was no response from Carl.

Behind them the rest of their colleagues charged into the house, Gabriel barking commands.

“Zane, Quinn—check upstairs. Yvette, Ricky—take the back of the house. Oliver, we need you here.”

Samson knelt next to Carl who’d lost consciousness, blood pouring from his stomach wounds. Why they hadn’t outright killed him, Amaury couldn’t figure out.

“He needs fresh blood. Gabriel, we need a donor.”

Before Gabriel could answer, Oliver pushed through the door. “You’ve got one.”

Without hesitation he crouched down and pulled back his sleeve.

“Carl has never bitten anyone,” Samson explained.

“Well, he’s just gonna have to bite the bullet now, won’t he?” Oliver placed his wrist at Carl’s lips.

“He won’t be able to. One of us will have to open your vein for him.”

Oliver nodded at Samson and stretched his wrist out to him.

“Thank you. But Gabriel will have to do it for you,” Samson said and motioned Gabriel to approach.

Amaury instantly realized why. As a blood-bonded vampire he didn’t take blood from anybody else but Delilah. Even just piercing Oliver’s skin to open the vein would make him taste some of his employee’s blood. Samson’s body would reject the foreign essence, making him sick in the process.

Gabriel took Oliver’s wrist and set his fangs, piercing the skin. A moment later, Oliver placed his wrist at Carl’s mouth again and let the blood drip between his lips. The red liquid ran into his mouth, and seconds later Carl’s lips latched around the wound. He started suckling.

“Nothing in the back of the house,” Ricky announced as he and Yvette came back into the living room. “No sign of them.”

Amaury exchanged a terse look with Samson. Their mates had been taken, and any blood-bonded vampire would give his own life to have his mate returned unharmed. Never in the last four hundred years had he ever thought he’d feel what he felt right now: devastation. Not even the pain he’d experienced in his head all these years could compare to it. Nothing felt as painful as knowing Nina was in the hands of a madman.

“We need to find out what happened and where he’s taken them.” Samson glanced in Gabriel’s direction.

“I’m sorry, Samson: I can’t lock onto Carl’s memories while he’s unconscious. We need to wait until he comes to.”

Amaury shook his head. “We don’t have time. Nina is injured. I smelled her blood.”

He paced nervously. What if the injury was life threatening? He could heal her with his blood, but he had to get to her. He needed to do something.

“She must have been fighting him when he took them. Always the fighter,” he mumbled to himself. He cast a look at Samson who stood motionless next to Gabriel.

“How can you be so calm?”

Samson’s lips pressed into a thin line. “It doesn’t help either Delilah or Nina if we lose our heads. That’s not how we can save them.”

Amaury huffed, but kept his next comment to himself.

Samson put a hand on his shoulder. “I know exactly what you feel right now. I’m going through the same thing.” For a moment the pain was evident in his hazel eyes. Yes, he suffered as much as Amaury did, if not more. Not only did Samson stand to lose his mate, but also his unborn child. Even without his gift, Amaury recognized the pain in his friend.

He clasped his hand over Samson’s. “I know.”

“Upstairs is clear.” Zane and Quinn entered the room. “It must have all happened downstairs. Nothing was disturbed upstairs. No sign of forced entry.”

“You mean they let him in?” Samson asked.

“That’s what it looks like.” Zane nodded at the door. “It doesn’t look like the front door is damaged.”

There was a loud groan from the floor. Everybody’s eyes snapped to Carl who’d released Oliver’s wrist and coughed.

Samson dropped down to his level. “Carl, we nearly lost you.”

“I couldn’t stop them.” Carl’s eyes lowered in shame.

“How many were there?”

“Three. Luther, I recognized him, and two others.” His voice was still weak.

“What happened?”

Carl swallowed and accepted Samson’s help to sit up. “Miss Delilah was in the living room when I heard the front door open. By the time I ran into the hallway, they’d already stormed in and grabbed her.”

“Where was Nina? Was she fighting them? Is that how she got injured?” Amaury interrupted.

There was a pissed-off look on Carl’s face when he answered. “Oh, she was fighting alright, but not against them.”

“What?” Samson looked from Carl to Amaury.

“No, you’re lying!” The implication buried in Carl’s words conjured up images that twisted a knife in Amaury’s gut.

Carl scrambled to his feet. “I never lie. I was fighting one of them, and she was talking to Luther. And then the one I fought saw her. They knew each other. When he was distracted I tried to stake him, but she threw herself in between and saved him.”

Amaury gasped. “No. You must be wrong.” Nina wouldn’t betray them. He would have felt her treachery, sensed her deceit if there had been any in the heart.

“I’m not wrong,” Carl barked. “She took my stake in her arm to save him. She was all worried about him, screamed ‘
Oh, no, Eddie
’—”

“Eddie?” Amaury’s heart knotted.

“Her brother?” Samson asked.

Amaury nodded, squeezing his eyes shut. His mate had betrayed them and taken her brother’s side. “She wouldn’t do that to me. She wouldn’t.” But she had. There could be no doubt now. Why had he not seen it?

“Was that why they didn’t kill you, so you could tell me what she’d done?” Was that her last cruel deed toward him?

Carl shook his head. “Luther left me alive to give you and Samson a message.”

Samson faced Carl. “What’s the message?”

“His words were: Vivian needs company.”

Amaury felt as if his guts had just been ripped out. For the first time he could see a physical manifestation of Samson’s pain. His friend’s knees buckled, and he had to grip Gabriel’s arm to stay upright.

Zane’s and Quinn’s inquisitive stares landed on Amaury. They knew Samson wasn’t in any condition to answer. “Vivian is dead.” Luther was planning to kill their mates. But then, if he wanted to kill Nina, wouldn’t that mean she wasn’t on Luther’s side after all? Or had his plan changed after he’d realized that Nina was now Amaury’s mate? Had she in fact been on Luther’s side in the beginning, but by bonding with him signed her own death sentence?

“I know where they are,” Samson suddenly said. “Let’s go.” He stepped toward the door, only to be blocked by Gabriel and his New York crew.

“No.”

Amaury instantly took Samson’s flank, getting into battle position. Why would their colleagues stop them from rescuing their women?

“Get out of my way, Gabriel.” Samson’s voice was a snarl.

“Can’t do that. It’s too close to sunrise. Whatever you’re planning, we won’t have enough time tonight. And besides, we’re not going in without a plan.”

“He’s right, Sir,” Carl’s voice came from behind. Samson and Amaury turned to him.

“If he wanted to kill Delilah right away, he would have done it here. There’s a reason he left me alive to tell you.” Carl paused. “He’s going to wait until you get there, so you’ll have to watch when he kills her.”

Samson nodded slowly.

And Nina—was nobody thinking of Amaury’s mate? Were they all convinced that she was a traitor? Amaury wasn’t. He couldn’t allow that thought to take residence in his mind. If Luther wanted to kill her, it could only mean one thing: she wasn’t on his side after all. Or was it all a big deception? Had Carl misunderstood? Was he planning to kill only Delilah and not Nina?

Nina, where are you? Talk to me.

He reached out to her with his mind, but there was no reply. She should hear him. There were only two reasons why she wouldn’t reply: she either refused because she was with Luther, or she was dead. Amaury couldn’t accept either reason.

Thirty-four

A familiar voice broke through the fog.

Nina, where are you? Talk to me.

Then another voice, this one closer. “Nina, can you hear me?”

Nina opened her eyes. The light around her was dim. She found herself lying on a cold stone floor.

“Thank God, you’re okay,” Delilah said. Nina took her helping arm to sit up. Her side hurt. She looked down at her arm. There were traces of encrusted blood on the spot where Carl had caught her with the stake, but the wound had closed and healed.

“Where are we?”

Nina glanced around the dark room. It was made of stone and concrete without any windows and only a few wall sconces for light. There was one heavy-looking door, no furniture or decoration. If she had to guess, she’d say it was underground.

“I don’t know. They blindfolded me on the way here. But we were in the car for over half an hour, maybe longer.”

Nina gave Delilah a cautious look. She didn’t appear to be upset with her, when she had every right to be so. After all, she’d prevented Carl from killing one of the vampires, her brother.

“How’s your arm?”

“I think it’s fine. It seems to have healed already. How long was I out for?” Judging by the state of her injury she guessed at least two days.

“Only a couple of hours. Your brother healed the injury.”

So she hadn’t imagined it all. Eddie was alive, and he was a vampire—a vampire working for the other side. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”

Delilah squeezed her hand. “I understand.”

Nina shook her head. “I couldn’t let Carl kill him. He’s still my brother.”

“Nina. Please, I would have done the same in your situation. I had a brother once, too. I would have done anything to save him.” There was a faraway look in her eyes before she snapped back to the present. “Now we just have to convince Samson and Amaury of your innocence. They think you were working for Luther all along.”

Nina swallowed the shock of Delilah’s statement. Amaury thought she was a traitor? Yet he’d bonded with her? It didn’t make any sense.

“When did you talk to him?”

“On the way here.”

“They left you a cell phone?”

Delilah chuckled softly. “Of course not. I communicated with Samson via our bond.”

Her expression must have been utterly confused, because Delilah clarified, “Telepathically. All blood-bonded couples do it.”

“Oh.” She’d never heard of such a thing. “You mean I can do that with Amaury?”

Delilah nodded. “I’m sure he’s already tried to reach you, but you were out cold.”

“I’m normally not the person who faints.” Nina, the self-confessed vampire fighter, had to faint when push came to shove. How embarrassing.

“You were injured; you had a lot to deal with. The shock of seeing your brother. It was just too much for you. Sometimes our body just tells us when we’ve had enough.”

Delilah seemed calm considering the situation they were in.

“I didn’t know Eddie is alive ...”

Delilah squeezed Nina’s hand. “I know that now. But when our guys got back to the house they found Carl—”

A bolt of guilt shot through Nina. “Carl—oh God, Luther killed him. I’m so sorry.” She pushed back the tears.

Delilah shook her head. “Carl’s alive. But he told them that you fought on Luther’s side when you defended Eddie. That’s why they believe you’ve betrayed us.”

“But I couldn’t let Eddie be killed, I couldn’t. They have to understand that. He’s my brother. He’s all the family I have.” If she lost him, she’d have nobody.

“They’ll understand – in time. Amaury will understand.”

Amaury. Would he really understand? The man who jumped to conclusions in two seconds flat? He would condemn her.

“Unfortunately, they also think you let Luther in the house. I didn’t have a chance to tell Samson before our communication ended. He’s going to be so upset.”

Nina stared at her. “About what?”

“Luther used mind control on me and made me open the door,” she explained.

“Can’t you contact him now?” Nina asked.

Delilah shook her head. “I can’t get through. Either he’s too occupied with preparing a plan to get us out, or we’re just too far apart.”

“Oh no. What now?”

“I know Samson and the guys are coming for us.”

Nina had to admire her confidence. She herself didn’t feel this sure of anything right now. There was just too much to come to grips with. Her brother was alive and working for the enemy. She was in some sort of underground bunker with no means of escape, and the men who were supposedly on their way to rescue them believed she was a traitor. Where would she even start to fix things?

“How are they going to find us?”

“Trust me, they will. A blood-bonded vampire will never give up on his mate. If he does, it will be his own death.”

This sounded far too dramatic to be true. “What do you mean?”

“Samson will only feed off me. The longer he’s away from me the longer he won’t feed. A blood-bonded vampire can’t metabolize foreign blood. He can only live off his mate’s blood. As long as I’m alive he’ll need my blood. Only when I die, will his body accept blood from somebody else.”

Delilah’s words were spoken with calmness despite the fundamental implications they carried.

“But that can’t be.”

“That’s how it is. Without our blood, our men will die.”

Nina swallowed hard, but the lump in her throat didn’t disappear. “You mean Amaury would starve without me?”

Delilah nodded. “I’m sorry.”