STEP (The Senses) (37 page)

Damien. She tried to focus on that one smell she knew so well, the man
who’d stayed with her all these months. Why? Why was she here? Why had he stayed with her?

She could hear voices in her head, deep male tones that were not speaking aloud, but tap-danced across her mind. She wanted to block them out and just sleep. Clear her mind from the agony of sensations that were plowing through her body.

The animal that had calmed her was near her again. It was soothing, hearing his deep breathing, knowing that he’d protect her from—what did she need protection from? What was happening to her?

Her mind screamed Damien’s name, but no words emerged from her throat, instead she heard a hiss and then her thirst intensified. She narrowed her eyes, trying to focus on the shadows in the room, but all she saw
were muddled shapes in red.

So thirsty
. Water. She needed water. No, her mind battled, it needed blood. Her body revolted at the thought. No. No. It wasn’t true. She couldn’t have Turned; Damien would never let her Turn. But she knew. She craved the thirst of blood and it would never end.

Words wouldn’t form as she screamed. Screamed for death to take her and end what she knew would be a life of hell. Trapped to Liam. Trapped to blood-thirst. A slave to her bod
y’s needs regardless of the sane thoughts that roamed her mind.

She tried to form words, but nothing except a hiss emerged. She required blood to gain her strength and clear her mind.

“Abb. Simian is going to pick you up.”

Her eyes darted to the red shadow a few feet from the bed, a voice she knew so well—Damien. She wanted to cry, knowing that she had lost him with the Turn. She couldn’t see his eyes, but she knew he had to hate her now. She was something he detested, his enemy, the witches’ enemy. Her own enemy.

She jerked as warm, soft hands slid underneath her and for a second she rebelled until she smelled the scent of Damien mixed with a slight burning. It wasn’t Damien, but a part of him, a piece of his own entity.

Abby relaxed and let the red shadow pick her up in his arms
. She curled her body into his massive strength. The soft fur warmed her cold flesh and she laid her head on its chest as he carried her from the room.

Voices again muddled her head as if a fuzzy radio station
were playing and she couldn’t turn it off. She pressed her hands to her ears hoping to stop them, but they refused and she gritted her teeth in pain. A hand, slow and easy, caressed her hair and she closed her eyes to the red haze. Soothing. Warm.
Keep me warm.

The wind touching her skin and the scent of pine trees and moss had her senses go into overload. It was too strong. The wind felt like hands smothering her skin, suffocating her with its touch. The scents
burned her nostrils as if she was on fire. She had to go back. Back inside where it was safe.

She struggled against the massive arms, pushing on the chest, her legs kicking out and her scream piercing her own ears.

“She has no control over the magnified senses yet.” A calm, patient voice stated.

“When does it get better for her?”

Damien, she thought. He was close to her and the urge to escape lessened a little.

“We will give her blood when she is contained. It will ease her pain and strengthen her, but it isn’t Liam’s blood. She will crave his.”

She heard Damien swear under his breath and it echoed in her ears as if she were inside a hollow cave. She was all mixed up thinking of Damien, but mixed with a need for Liam. Just the mention of his name had her body hungering for him.

A loud bang sounded and she jerked, lifting her head to see that they were enclosed in a dark small space. Car? It was hard to tell with everything still fuzzy, but the smells had grown faint and the suffocating wind on her skin had left.

She felt the soft touch of a hand on her cheek and she knew who it was immediately—Damien. She kept her eyes closed as a tear slipped from the rim and slid down her cold flesh. The urgency to bite his finger and take his blood was overwhelming, and it took the last of her strength and sanity to move her head away.

“Abb, I’m sorry. Christ, I’m sorry.” His words wrapped around her mind and clamped down on her soul. He’d never touch her again, never take the risk again
, and that was the end of who she once was.

Abby was dead.

“Rayne. Stay in the goddamn car. Keep your head down,” Kilter shouted.

He didn’t make a move until he saw Rayne slid
e into the back seat of the SUV. He hated that she was close to what would soon be a war, but it was too much of a risk telling her to run.

Time to dance.

He liked challenges and this was going to be the ultimate. He intended to be the last man standing if he had anything to say about it. The Lilac was a surprise and he had to stay clear of her webbed fingers. The beauty queen was anything but beautiful in mind—deceitful, cunning and deadly. Luckily, for him they could be killed by any means necessary. Unfortunately, it was difficult to get near them and dodging webs was tricky.

“Leave now and I’ll let you live,” the Lilac shouted from behind the brick wall.

“I really don’t give a shit about living, but what I do care about is ripping your head from your shoulders,” Kilter retorted. He was looking for a good fight, and by the looks of her pissed-off glare it would be a good one. His fear and rage had set off like burst transformers when Keir called to tell him Rayne had left the house. The only reason he’d found her so quick was that he suspected she’d head for Danielle’s gallery a block away. Using his vision, he’d searched every block in a mile radius. Didn’t take him long when he heard the screams.

Time to slice
’em and dice ’em.

He dove to the right as the Lilac
expelled webs from her fingers like overcooked cappellini The deadly substance whizzed through the air and attached itself to the brick wall behind him. He landed facedown on the unforgiving pavement, with his Magnum shooting. He jumped to his feet and went running for a parked VW. He sprang behind it just as the back windshield broke with a shuriken embedded into the glass.

He rolled to the side and felt the fire in his eyes burning as the rage escalated. He could use his
vision to see through things but he couldn’t let fire stream from his eyes when humans could be watching, nor use his Scar. Using either was against the laws and could put him in Rest again and no way was that happening with Rayne in danger. With gunshots, there was a good chance that the police were already on their way.

Footsteps approached. Without looking, using only his senses, he shot at the movement. The steps faltered then stopped.

“Get out of there,” Roarke shouted. Bloody GQ was helping him?

Kilter dove to the right just as webs came around the side of the car. Goddamn it, she was faster than he’d anticipated. Being caught was not an option. The only way free of a
Lilac’s web was with a damn sharp knife or a bloody chainsaw, and that risked a limb.

Kilter jumped to his feet and saw the Lilac coming towards him. He threw his knife while following its motion, going full tilt towards her.

“Jasmine,” Roarke shouted. The distraction worked and the Lilac glanced at Roarke for mere seconds.

She dodged and the pointed blade pierced her shoulder instead of her heart. She staggered, yanked the knife out and threw it to the ground. There was a determination of fierce battle rage in her eyes. This chick was not going to hide or make a run for it. She wanted his demise.

“Roarke,” he called as he threw him a knife. If the guy could get out of her webs, then maybe they had a chance of getting Rayne out of here.

“Why do you want her? She is of no importance to you,” Kilter called out from behind a blue Dumpster.

Jasmine’s voice purred. “Simple, she is mine. I never let go what is mine. Never.”

What the hell did that mean? Possessive grave
-robbing bitch. Kilter took a quick glance at Roarke, who was now sawing at the webs latched to his wrists. It was taking too long.

“You won’t defeat me,” Jasmine said, then nodded to the rooftops. “Put down the gun, Kilter.”

Several Worms and Long Necks stood alongside a few vamps. What the hell was going on here? Since when were vamps and CWOs running together?

He heard Rayne scream and a scrambling of feet. As he turned, he saw a Long Neck slap Rayne across the face
, sending her back ten feet.

Fury exploded. He dove to the right, shooting off several rounds at the Lilac. “Roarke, hurry, damn it. I can’t hold them.”

He felt a shuriken pierce his left shoulder, then a knife stabbed into his leg. He staggered, falling to his knees.

His eyes met Rayne’s.

She called his name as she came for him. The Long Neck grabbed her arm and sent her flying through the air again. She crashed into the hood of the car, and blood ran down the side of her face and her lower lip.

His low roar of vehemence was cut off as webs wrapped around his lower legs.
No.
The anxiety ripped through his insides like a shredded blade. He’d never felt such fear in his life. Nothing mattered. Nothing except her. She was his world. She was his life.

“Rayne,” he shouted in an agonized rage.

He rolled to the side to try to avoid the webs from creeping up his body, knife slashing at them with one hand and his gun shooting with the other in the direction of the Lilac.

Vamps leapt from the rooftops
like goddamn acrobats. Where had they all come from?

Kilter knew he was fucked. The Lilac laughed as three of them jumped him at once, pinning him to the ground, one on each shoulder, the other crushing his windpipe with his hands.

A loud wail tore through the alley. Rayne? No, it couldn’t have been.

Kilter kicked the vamp holding his right shoulder in the nuts and he fell backwards. He rolled to the side, seeing Rayne standing over the dead Long Neck. No wounds. No blood. Dead.

She’d used her ability.

Good girl, he thought. Now, all he needed was a bloody machete to decapitate these bastards.

“Let him go,” Rayne said. The sound of a gun cocking. “I said let him go.”

Rayne
, no.
“Goddamn it, listen to me for once and get the hell out of here,” Kilter said in a croak that was cut off by a vamp’s fingers tightening on his throat. “Now, Rayne,” he growled.

Kilter reacted violently against the hold around his neck, but he was immobile. Webs around him, vamps on top, his air a breath of a whisper as his windpipe crushed beneath fingers.

Jasmine laughed. “Are you going to shoot me, Rayne? The one who saved your life.” She blocked his view of Rayne. She made a tsking sound. “Now, that wouldn’t be nice. After all I’ve done for you.”

“Kill him and I will put a bullet through your bitchy face before any of your pets can get to me. Or let him go and I walk away with you and no one gets hurt.”

What? Kilter’s mind screamed with sheer panic at what Rayne was doing. The thought of her walking away with that psychotic Lilac was like a wheel of darts pounding into his head.

“Rayne
, no,” Roarke yelled, his voice crackling with desperation.

“
Do what I bloody well tell you. Shoot her and run like hell. They won’t go after you if she’s dead.
” What the hell was she thinking? Why didn’t she run?

He saw
Rayne’s defeat, the anguish in her eyes, the light vanishing as the gun wavered in her trembling hand. Resolved to what fate had dealt her. In that moment, a piece of his heart ripped and was swallowed up by his devastation.
“Don’t give up. Never give up, Rayne.”
He’d suffer at his brother’s hands a thousand times over rather than see that expression.

“You can fight. You’
re strong, baby.”
His breath was failing him, as the piss-head wasn’t letting up on his throat.
“Jesus, Rayne, I’m not worth it. Shoot and get the hell out of here.
” He prayed she could hear his words, would listen to him begging for her life.

“
You are worth my life, Kilter,”
Rayne replied.

He was shocked to hear her speak telepathically with the clarity of an ancient. Then realization pumped through him as he deciphered what they meant. No one had ever said anything like that to him in his life. No one. Yet, he never wanted to hear those words slip from her trembling lips.

He felt his body slipping, lungs screaming for air as his vision faded.
She is mine. Protect her. Fight.

“Let him go,” Rayne repeated. The gun went off and gravel pitched up as it hit the ground beside Jasmine’s feet. “You want me, then let him go.”

Kilter sucked air into his lungs as the vamp suddenly let go of his neck. He heard Rayne approaching and he tried desperately to crawl to his feet, but a foot slammed into his shoulder where the shuriken was lodged, and a low ragged sound ripped from his throat.