Last Vamp Standing (28 page)

“Don’t see how that’s my problem.” Footsteps pounded down the stairs. Four stomps, two sets of feet. They were alone. “I told you from the start that if we catch your lady-projector, we gotta make it real. We’ll sell her the same as any other. How am I supposed to know which elder is yours from the one she’s takin’ back to you?”

Juan Carlos knew all along.
That’s why she’d been able to get in and out of the black market so easily. He’d been expecting her.
Part of the deal.

Ariana scowled as her Primus descended the final stair and stood in the entry, his shoulders brushing the frame. Every fiber of her being wanted to jump through the image and rip his head off. He’d betrayed her. Sent her into the black market full knowing what would happen if she got caught.

And for what?

So she could strengthen Black Moon’s barrier? No . . . there had to be more to it than that.

Juan Carlos descended the final stair, meeting her Primus on equal footing. His hair was slicked back, his midnight-black robe sweeping the floor.

“Here’s the thing, Primus, I don’t care who you are or what haven you call home.” He took a giant step forward until the two egomaniacs were chest to chest. “We’re gonna keep playing it my way. I’ll keep tracking down elders and bringing them here to auction off. You’ll buy whoever you see fit and keep this place underground.”

Is that why the black market was hidden, only accessible to those in an elite, inner circle of slimy clientele? Because her Primus was using Ariana’s maware to dust onto it, too? Hatred boiled hot in her stomach.

As Eve began to pull on Ariana’s shoulder, to coax her out of the image and back to the Ever After, Ariana shrugged her off.

She couldn’t leave until she figured out what was missing.

Why would her Primus care to keep the black market running and hidden if he didn’t need the elders to keep Black Moon safe?

“Tell you what I’m going to do, Juan.” Her Primus scowled so menacingly, heat radiated through the image. “I’ll keep this place hidden for you so you can keep up the dealings you’ve got goin’ on behind closed doors. But my Ariana isn’t projecting here again. Your guards let a Watcher get by, and now my whole operation is threatened. If you keep tracking elders, do it for yourself, not for me.”

“Stop being overdramatic. You’ve already secured your army of elders. No one is going to touch your precious haven.”

As Juan Carlos crossed the stage and jerked open a narrow closet door, her Primus followed step for step, one arm held awkwardly behind his back. When Juan pulled out a cane from inside the shadowed belly of the closet, Ariana couldn’t help but stare at its warped shape. It was charred black with the head of an open-mouthed dragon at the top. Two ruby-jeweled reptile eyes stared up from the sides, right into Juan’s hand. Who would’ve thought a greaseball like Juan Carlos would own something so downright warlockish?

“That’s just it,” her Primus said, stepping closer still. “Now that I’ve built my army of elders and I’ve got Ariana squashed under my thumb, no one is going to hold leverage over me now. Not even you.”

Juan Carlos ducked and spun around to dodge the coming blow, but it was too late. Her Primus swung his arm from behind his back, revealing a long, silver blade. With an ear-piercing hiss and a blur of speed, her Primus sliced the blade across Juan Carlos’s throat. Then, when Juan hit the floor, landing in a thick pool of his own blood, her Primus showed his true character.

He picked up Juan’s charred cane and held it high. Examined the rubies glimmering on the sides. Tucked it under his arm. And whistled “Puff the Magic Dragon” as he walked away.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

N
OT IN A
million years would Dante ever . . .
ever
forgive himself.

He’d called Ruan into the bathroom to see if there was anything he could do to help, to bring her back. Or maybe he just didn’t want to be left alone with his conscience.

Ever After help him,
it was too late.

“You gotta let go, buddy.” Ruan tried to pry Ariana out of Dante’s arms and got a back-the-fuck-off growl that made the thunderstorm outside sound like pitter-patter. “Okay, maybe another minute.”

He retreated to the opposite side of the bathroom, but it still wouldn’t be far enough away to survive the wrath churning in Dante’s middle. He was coiled tight, ready to explode. He clutched Ariana’s cold body with a steely death grip. Carried her into her room and laid her on her bed, covering her in blankets.

“There’s got to be something I can do.” He kneeled beside the bed and pressed his forehead to hers. “She’s got to come back. She’s strong enough to fight through this. She can do it . . . you can do it.”

“I told you,” Ruan’s voice droned. “If she returns it has nothing to do with how strong she is. If you killed her because you lost control, she’s long gone. She was probably sipping tea in the Ever After before you covered her up.”

Here came that growl again, reverberating from Dante’s chest, vibrating the bed, the floor.

Ruan put a hand on Dante’s shoulder, probably to be sympathetic or some shit. “On the other hand, if you drained her because you love her—”

“I told you what happened,” Dante snapped.

Soul. Souring. Silence.

Ruan blew out a deep breath. “Then we have to wait and see.”

Dante loved Ariana. With everything he had. But what if it wasn’t enough to bring her back? How could he live with the guilt? With the knowledge of what he did to his one true love, his soul mate?

With a hiss, Ariana jerked upright. Like she’d been shocked with invisible defibrillator paddles. Then she sank back onto her pillow. Eyes closed. Not breathing.

“Now!” Ruan said, rushing the bed.

But Dante knew what to do without having to be told. Raw instinct took over. He bit into the flesh of his wrist until blood ran freely across his lips. Then he sat on the bed, raised her neck up to meet him, and kissed her, smudging blood onto her lips. They were stiff from death’s unrelenting hold.

“Come on, baby,” he whispered, his forehead pressed against hers.

Nothing.

He tore into his wrist, thrashing his fangs near his vein. He let the blood flow like a river down his arm and into her mouth.

“Damn it, Ariana, come back to me.”

Desperation peaking, Dante sucked from his own vein. Pulled a mouthful of blood into his cheeks. Then he parted her lips with his and let the blood slide past them, across her tongue and into her cheeks.

As he pushed his tongue into her mouth, tasting the metallic tang of his blood mixed with the sweet, familiar taste of his life mate, a miracle happened.

She responded by kissing him back.

Her lips softened and her tongue came to life, twirling along his with soft, languid strokes.

Sighing into her mouth, Dante cradled Ariana against him. And swore he’d do everything in his power to both protect her and love her, no matter what it took. He wouldn’t drink the Nightshade and weaken himself again. And damn it, he should be able to love her without tainting the purity of her soul.

Hell or high water, he’d find a way to do both.

“You’re back,” he said as he led her dried, cracked lips to his bleeding wrist.

Her fangs slipped in deep and she sucked hard, whimpering like a newborn kitten. Her fingers curled around his wrist. He let her stay there awhile, drinking, gaining the strength he’d taken from her.

As her draws slowed and the air seemed to still around them, Ariana gazed into his eyes, batting thick fans of eyelashes. “I learned so much on the other side . . . there’s so much to tell you . . . but nothing matters more than my love for you. Have I told you that? That I love you?”

Not wasting any time, Dante kissed the corners of her lips, her chin, her cheek. “Tell me again . . .”

“I love you now.” She sighed, sinking into his arms. “I’ll love you forever.”

“I’ll ah—” Ruan said, backing toward the living room. “Catch you guys later.”

She rose to sitting, dragging the blankets to cover her chest. “Thank you, Ruan, for everything.”

“I’m the one who should be thanking you. I thought we lost Dante back there, but from the looks of things you healed him up good.”

Settling beside Ariana on the bed, Dante pulled her against him. He’d never felt more alive. More at peace. “With this woman at my side I’ll never be lost again.”

“Would you do something for me, Ruan?” Ariana asked. “Would you give Eve my thanks? And tell her I’m glad she was the one who enlightened me.”

His brows pinched together as he raised his gaze to the bedroom ceiling, though Dante was sure Ruan was thinking of the world beyond theirs. “She’s a busy one, that’s for sure. Consider it done.”

As Ruan left the room, Dante leaned into Ariana’s neck and smudged a kiss against her collarbone. Where his fangs had drained her within an inch of her life.

“I’m sorry for that, love,” he whispered, tracing a line down her neck. “But I’m so grateful you came back to me.”

Her skin shivered beneath his lips. “It’s your love that brought me back, your love that saved me.”

“I think you’ve got that backwards. If anyone needed to be saved, it was me.”

She looked over her shoulder at him then, her gaze shimmering with a level of awareness he couldn’t penetrate if he tried.

“What are you thinking?” he asked finally, when the lines of his face had been examined well enough.

She put her hand over his heart and closed her eyes as it thumped against her hand. “I’m thinking if I can dust upon the elders in Black Moon, brush my energy upon the haven itself, then I should be able to heal the hurt in your soul.”

Although he didn’t understand most of what she’d said, he understood her desire to save him. Covering her hand with his, he said, “Some filth can’t be cleaned.”

“I won’t believe that. I can’t.” Her eyes flipped open. “Wait. Did you feel that?”

He felt the bed solidly beneath him, the warmth of her skin as it grazed his.

He brushed the back of his hand down her cheek. “I feel you.”

“No, listen . . .” She focused far off, her gaze going soft as if she searched for something deep within herself. “We need to get dressed. Something’s wrong. The Seekers are gearing up for battle.”

A
RIANA WAS RIGHT.
Something was wrong. But Dante didn’t have to feel the tremors of Black Moon charging through his veins to know it.

When they hit the bottom floor and the elevator doors slid open, Ruan was waiting.

“Savage is coming,” he said, fists clenching at his side. “We got word from a Seeker that he just entered Darkly Meadow. He’ll be here as fast as those possessed suckers can run.”

The meadow wasn’t far. Dante had left the forest through that area the first night he’d met Ariana.

“We’ve got ten minutes tops.” Dante pushed past Ruan as lightning lit up the lobby. “Damn it, if Savage has any death shades floating around that haven’t possessed a body, I don’t know if this weather’s going to work for us or against us. We won’t be able to see those shadows in the dark.”

“It’ll work
for
us,” Ariana said, nodding to a group of elders standing near the double doors. “We’ve got elders who can harness energy in the lightning and use it as a weapon. Once the forest gets lit up, we’ll see what’s breathing down our necks.”

Dante nodded and sized Ariana up for the umpteenth time since she got dressed. Although she looked completely recovered from their mating ritual, with her hair tied at the base of her neck and a rosy tint to her cheeks, she should’ve been weak. Drained and recovering. Instead she looked stronger in her head-to-toe leather get-up, with a hard glare in her eyes topping the cake.

“You sure you’re up for this?”

“The offer still stands,” Ruan said to Ariana, adjusting the knife on his belt. “You can stay behind with Dylan. Slade’s not letting her out of this haven in her state.”

If Ariana was carrying his child, Dante wouldn’t let her out either. As his thoughts carried past protectiveness into the territory of having a family and children with Ariana, chills danced up his spine, clenching into a ball at the base of his neck. He wanted that with her more than anything else.

Ariana folded her arms. “I’m not staying. Not while everyone I love is out there fighting. Besides, if someone gets hurt, they’re going to need my help.”

“Don’t say I didn’t offer. Twice.” Ruan shrugged. “I’m going to check on the east wall, make sure the repairs are holding up.”

“They are—” she blurted, rubbing her hands over her arms as a wave of elders entered through the main doors. “The east wall is as strong as the others.”

“Have you seen the Primus?” Ruan did a quick search of the packed lobby. “He’s not in his chamber, and none of his guards seem to know where he went.”

“I have a pretty good idea,” Ariana hissed and averted her gaze. “I’m betting he’ll be back before long. He’s safer behind these walls than anywhere else.”

“Find him,” Dante growled, picking up on her tension. “Let us know the minute he comes back. We’ll need to know how he wants the khissmates mobilized.”

As Ruan took off, rounding the corner near the hearth, Ariana whispered, “The Primus won’t be much help.”

“You all right?” Dante asked.

“I’ll be fine, just don’t trust the Primus’s words as gold. What about you?” She snapped out of whatever daze she was in and kept her attention on the elders swarming the lobby. “Is your strength back?”

Which was code for
Have your voices returned?

“Don’t worry about me.” He squeezed her shoulders. “I let Savage get away from me once before in an alley behind Mirage. He took me off guard with a trippy firework show. I won’t let him slip through my fingers again.”

“There’s so much at stake. All of this. The haven could fall and I—”

“Don’t even finish the thought. Nothing’s going to happen to you. Everything’s going to work itself out. If elders get hurt, you’ll heal them.”

“And if elders get dead?”

He kissed her forehead. “We’ll have to take that stride when it comes.”

Slade stormed into the lobby with all the grace of a bull. Dylan trailed behind him, her lips slanted into a worried line.

“Listen up, elders,” Slade boomed, jumping onto a lounge chair in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows. “The vamps we brought from the city are gathering in the gym. Ruan is heading that group, taking them out the south gate, meeting Savage and his mob halfway between here and Darkly Meadow.”

Whispers spread through the haven. Curious eyes set upon Ariana. She nodded and smiled to each wondering gaze. She couldn’t possibly have the answers to how this was going to end. But it would end tonight, that much was certain. Blood would soak into Black Moon’s dirt before the sun rose over the eastern treetops. Whose blood was to be decided.

Thunder rumbled the glass behind Slade as the storm raged on.

“We have reason to believe Black Moon is the last standing haven in the state,” he said. “Which makes you all the last standing elders. We can’t allow Savage to steal part of your spirit. We won’t allow him to keep you from the Ever After!” Slade stomped on the armrest. “We will fight!”

“But they’re innocent,” an elder by the kitchen yelled above the others. “Savage possessed havenless vamps on the streets. That could’ve been any one of us if it wasn’t for Ariana bringing us here when she did. How can we be expected to fight against our brothers and sisters?”

“Because they’ll kill you,” Dante said, hushing the mob. “They’re not the vamps they were before. Not by a long shot. They won’t hesitate to strike, and if you want to survive this, you won’t either.”

Ariana squeezed Dante’s hand. He looked down and caught a glimpse of the hilt of a sword on her arm. This was more than her home, this was her life. She was bound to this land, if not by a brand on her arm, then by her heart.

And that meant he was bound here, too.

If he had to fight this battle all by himself, he would not let Black Moon fall.