Taste of Torment (18 page)

It was a few minutes before I could speak again. “Shit, I needed that.”

Panting, she breathed, “Me as well.”

As I dried her body with a towel, she remained pliant against me. I couldn’t help but smile since Sam being pliant wasn’t a regular occurrence. She was still limp as a noodle when I positioned her on the bed and came to rest next to her, my head propped on my hand. “You okay?”

Her eyes fluttered open. They were pleasure-drunk but also…baffled. “You really would do anything for me, wouldn’t you?”

“You’re only beginning to realise this now?” I gently ran my finger from the hollow of her throat down between her breasts and further down to circle her belly button. “You should already know that.” My hand splayed possessively over her stomach. “You should feel it here. In your gut.”

“I really didn’t think that you would bring Paige here. Not when it was possible that it would bring trouble to The Hollow and everyone here.”

She thought that I’d ever let her die for any reason? I shook my head, gazing at her with mock sympathy. “I love this place, and I care about some of the people in it, and I consider it my responsibility to keep everyone who resides here safe. But you come before everything and everyone.”

Her brow furrowed as her expression suddenly turned vulnerable. I knew why it was so hard for her to comprehend. No one had ever put Sam first. Not her parents, who had been more interested in running the family business than caring for her. Not her Sire, who had killed someone she cared for and then used her in every sense of the word. Not her nest, who had stood by and watched as she was used that way. Granted, many of them feared Victor and a few of them
had
tried to help her, but it hadn’t been enough. So even though she could
feel
how important she was to me, she still couldn’t understand it. She didn’t realise what lengths I’d go to in order to keep her or to protect her.

She snuggled into me and pressed a soft kiss to my chest. “I really am sorry that I put your life in danger.”

I cupped her face, brushing the pad of my thumb along her cheekbone. “Baby, you don’t need to apologise for that. You did your job; you looked out for our squad. I was never angry that my life was threatened. I was only angry that something had happened to you. It wasn’t your fault – I shouldn’t have blamed you.”

“But you could have died.” Her voice was low, pained.

“I was more worried about you.” Confusion flashed across her face. See? She just couldn’t quite grasp that someone would put her first, that they would find her so vital and necessary to them. Making a mental note to try to tell her I loved her more often, I kissed her mouth softly. “Sleep, baby. You’re exhausted.”

“Only if you don’t let me sleep too long. We need to make sure that Evan has the chance to speak to Alora before she leaves.”

“I’ll wake you up in a couple of hours.”

She closed her eyes. “Stay here with me.”

Her plea squeezed my chest. As much as she had tried to hide it, she had been terrified when she’d been bitten – more terrified for me than for herself. I knew from experience that coming extremely close to death had a way of making you realise just exactly how much you had to lose, just exactly what was important and just how important it truly was. It could shake you and your equilibrium in a way that not much else could. And she
was
shaken. I rested my head on the pillow and practically enveloped her body with mine. “I’ll be right here.”

She drifted to sleep with a smile on her face, and – just like I’d done the time she’d been unconscious after killing her Sire – I stayed where I was and watched her sleep.

Chapter Twelve

(
Jared)

When I arrived at the infirmary a few hours later, it was to find that it was empty apart from a still unconscious Evan and Mary Jane. She explained that Max and Stuart had already woken over an hour ago and had gone to their apartments to wash and change. A little worried that Evan hadn’t yet woken, I settled on the chair beside his bed, intending to wait until he did. Mary Jane wanted to linger so she could tend to him when he woke – purely because she liked to fuss over people. But as I knew I’d need to speak to Evan privately, I asked her to leave. Besides, he was healed now, so her help was no longer required.

It was over half an hour later that his eyes finally flickered open. Relief breezed through me. “Hey, shithead.”

Tired eyes landed on me and his mouth slowly curved into an amused grin. “Hey, asshole.” He looked totally drained and hung-over, but that was a hell of a lot better than how he’d looked a few hours ago.

“Here.” I handed him an orange-flavoured NST. He chugged it down. “Take it easy.” Evan being Evan, he didn’t listen. “I’d hug you, but you still stink.”

He chuckled. His voice slightly hoarse, he said, “You found a counteragent?”

“You don’t remember what happened?”

He shook his head. “I don’t remember much. But I remember the thirst. I remember the hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach.” He gave me the empty bottle and then gratefully took another NST. He drank that one a little slower. “It’s strange…I feel thirsty,
really
thirsty, but I don’t have awful hunger pangs or anything. Shouldn’t my system want to make up for lost time?”

“Mary Jane put you, Max, and Stuart on a drip of pure blood for the first hour after you were healed when you were all unconscious.”

“That explains it then. But it doesn’t explain how I’m healed, or how I ended up unconscious in the first place.”

“I didn’t find a counteragent. I found someone who, sort of, has the ability to heal.” I told him about Paige West, including the part about Luther’s vision – it turned out that Evan didn’t remember the time I had telepathically told him about it all while he was ill. I also told him about the assignment and about how Sam had been bitten. His eyebrows rose higher and higher as the story went on. “I’m sorry I never brought Paige here sooner, bu
t
”

Evan raised a hand. “Don’t be. You were protecting your mate. I’d never want anything to happen to Sam either. She’s like my sister. I’m glad she’s okay.” His face pulled into a frown. “It’s kind of odd that her bite wound healed by itself, huh.”

“Antonio thinks it’s because she’s now a hybrid. Her skin heals unbelievably fast – maybe even so fast that it began to heal before The Call had the chance to fully taint her system and fuck up its healing abilities.”

“Is the ugly mark still there?”

“No, it disappeared once Paige removed the taint from her body.” I rubbed my nape as I continued, uncomfortable, “On a whole other subject…There’s something you should know. Alora’s here.”

Evan blinked. “Alora? Why?”

“When she heard you were tainted, she came here.”

Incredibly perceptive, Evan narrowed his eyes as he said accusingly, “You broke your promise, didn’t you? You let her see me like that?”

“Alora cares about you, Evan. She wouldn’t have come on an assignment and endangered her life if sh
e
”

“You let her go on an assignment?” He gaped, clearly horrified and pissed.

Damn, I was just digging a deeper hole for myself here. I pushed on. “Even though she believes you’ll never want her, she came here and asked for permission to stay for a while to help find a way to save you.” I let that sink in for a minute. “She told us everything, Evan. To be honest, I was a bit of a bastard to her in the beginning because I thought she’d rejected you.”

He averted his gaze. “It was me who rejected her. It was a shock, you know. What she told me…I’d never have seen that coming.”

“Me neither.”

He blew out a long breath. “I guess that because I saw her in the vision, I always took it for granted that she’d be mine. That once I finally found her, everything would fall into place, you know? It never occurred to me that there would be other obstacles. And as obstacles go, this one’s a bitch.”

“Was it only shock that made you reject her or is she right and you really don’t want her?”

He ran a hand through his unkempt hair. “We’d never have what you and Sam have.”

I leaned forward in my seat. “Evan, I love being Bound to Sam. If you want the truth, it’s the extra security that someone as fucked up as me needs. But we were still happy before the Binding, and we would have continued to be happy if we hadn’t done it.”

He met my eyes then. “But could you have been happy with her knowing that someone else was Bound to her? That she belonged to someone else?”

“I won’t lie, it would have been fucking torture if she was Bound to another guy. But it wouldn’t have kept me away from her. Nothing could.” It was the truth. “You’re thinking that Alora belongs to that prick because they’re Bound, but that’s not how it works. Someone can only belong to you if they allow it. We know that better than most. Our mother never saw people as people – they were objects for her to own, use, and manipulate. But we never let her own us. We rejected her, just as Alora rejected that prick.”

“I can’t even kill him. If I killed him, she’d die.” His laugh was hollow. “Hell, Jared, her fucking life-force is tied to someone else’s. I don’t know how to even begin to deal with that.”

“I get that but, like I said before, she doesn’t belong to him. She made an error of judgement when she was young and she’s been paying for it ever since in a truly big way. Do you think
she
likes being joined to someone she despises? Or did you get so wrapped up in your pain that you forgot about hers?” His silence spoke for him. “If you’re prepared to let this keep you from Alora, then maybe you were wrong and you guys aren’t meant to be together after all.” Evan opened his mouth as though to object, but then he snapped it shut. “Maybe you just made yourself think she’d be yours because you saw her in that vision through Luther. Maybe you had that vision for no good reason at all.”

Evan tilted his head. “You’ve never told me about the vision that you had through Luther.”

I stiffened. “You never told me about yours until Alora finally arrived here.”

He winced. “I didn’t want you to spoil it.”

“How would I have spoiled it?”

“By laughing about how I was being faithful to someone I hadn’t even met yet.”

That actually hurt. “I’m not
that
much of a bastard, Evan. Just because I hadn’t really seen the point of relationships back then didn’t mean I thought everyone else was dumb for wanting one. I knew you didn’t function like I did, and I didn’t want you to. I envied the fact that you weren’t fucked up about women and relationships despite our childhood. But I was glad for it, too.”

His smile was a little sad. “Oh I’m messed up in my own special way, trust me on that. But you went through a hell of a lot worse than I did. That kind of shit makes its mark. And don’t think I didn’t notice that you totally evaded the subject of your own vision, by the way.”

Yeah, well, that wasn’t something I had any intention of touching on. If I was going to talk about it, then Sam deserved to be the first to know. “That’s not important at the moment. We’re talking about
you
. About your future. Are you really going to fuck it up?” The stubborn shithead said nothing. “She only came here to help find a way to save you,” I reminded him. “You’re fine now, which means she’ll be leaving very soon unless you stop her.”

It was clear how much the idea pained him. “She’s probably already gone.”

A smile slowly surfaced on my face. “Sam’s keeping her occupied.”

“Of course she is,” he said dryly, smiling. “You’re a pair of interfering little shits, you know.”

“Yeah, I know.” I stood. “Come on. I’ll take you back to your place so you can shower and change, because you really do reek. Then I’ll take you to Alora.”

He sighed. “I hurt her badly.”

“So make it up to her. She cares about you, and you care abou
t
” The doors suddenly opened and the entire squad piled into the room. Every one of them was so jovial and keyed up that they looked like a kid in Disneyworld.

Stuart grinned at Evan. “You’re awake. In case you didn’t already know, you look like shit.”

Max was also grinning. “Yeah, like a tornado survivor or something.”

Evan snorted. “You guys don’t look like spring chickens either, you know. Glad you’re both healed, too.”

So was I but, not really good with emotional stuff, I simply said, “Yeah, it’s good to see that you’re okay.”

Max exhaled heavily as he turned to me. His expression was serious now. “I wanted to talk to you about something. The guys told me about that asshole, Collins. I’ve already told Sam, but I want you to know too that the fucker’s lying – I did
not
make any kind of complaint about her.”

“None of us believes that you did.”

He looked taken aback. “Not even you? I mean, I know you don’t like me. And you’re still paranoid that I want Sam.”

“I’m actually not.” It was true. Sure, I could be possessive and jealous and overreact when someone touched or flirted with her. But I knew when someone
wanted
her and when someone was just trying to fuck with me for their own damn entertainment. The latter applied to Max. “I’ve known for a while that you don’t want her anymore. You even told me that, remember?”

“Yeah, but I wasn’t sure if you believed me.”

“Well, I did.” I snickered. “If I thought you really had said that shit to the Prelature out of bitterness and some kind of ‘if you can’t have her than no one can’, I wouldn’t have asked Paige to heal you. I’d have let you die and not given a shit.” Max tipped his head, accepting that.

“Okay, I’m feeling left out here,” said Evan. “Who the hell is Collins?”

“I’ll explain everything before I take you to Alora.” When Evan grimaced, I added, “You’ll regret it forever if you don’t at least talk to her. Even if it’s just to say goodbye.”

After a moment, Evan nodded and got to his feet. I grabbed his arm, ready to teleport us away, when Chico suddenly spoke.

“Wait, the main reason we’re here is to invite you both to the party we’re having tonight.” He gave us a pointed look. “I’ll expect to see you there. If anything deserves to be celebrated, it’s the fact that everyone’s alive and well.”

I couldn’t argue with that. “I’ll be there.”

“Me too,” said Evan. Only then did the squad leave the room, still giddy and even boyish in their excitement to be a whole squad once again.

I then teleported Evan to his apartment where he showered and changed into fresh clothes. As we both drank some NSTs, I told him all about Collins and Eloise. Evan’s face increasingly darkened until he looked ready to pounce on someone. Yeah, Collins and Eloise seemed to have that effect on everyone.

“I’m surprised by – and kind of in awe of – Sam’s restraint.” Evan chucked all the empty NST bottles into the garbage can.

“So is everyone else.” Tapping into my bond with Sam, I found her exact location and teleported both Evan and I there. This particular room was the only one inside Antonio’s mansion that had a tall glass aviary i
n the centre which was framed by a narrow stream. Inside the aviary were trees, plants, and animals such as rabbits, guinea pigs, canaries, and other species of birds. It was a place Antonio often came when he needed to relax and think.

Sam, Alora, Antonio, Luther, Sebastian, and – God help us – Collins were gathered around the aviary. Talking about him to Evan had gotten me all wound up, and now it was taking everything I had not to punch the smarmy bastard.

“Evan, it is great to see you well again.” Antonio hugged Evan, giving him a paternal smile. “You have been sorely missed.”

Sebastian lightly slapped Evan’s back, smiling widely. “Yes, it’s good to have you back.”

Luther’s expression was grim. “I wish I had foreseen what would happen to you, Evan. If I ha
d
”

Evan raised his hand to halt Luther’s words. “You can’t foresee everything. And look, I’m fine now.”

“Stop hogging my sort-of-brother-in-law,” Sam playfully griped before giving him a brief hug. “I didn’t think I’d ever be glad to see that cocky smirk again.” Evan laughed, returning the hug.

The second Evan and Alora locked eyes, everything in the room seemed to still. It was a pivotal moment, because it could go either way – particularly since I still had no idea what Evan intended to do about the situation. He went to speak, but then Collins stepped forward.

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Evan.”

Evan automatically shook the hand he offered. “And who are you?”

“My name is Fredrick Collins.”

Snatching back his hand, Evan glared at him. “I can’t say it’s a pleasure for me.”