Taste of Torment (16 page)

“No. I won’t leave until my squad is
out
. Besides, I have a little more evidence here to get rid of. Teleport to the others and take them back first.”

He growled, “Fuck, Sam.”

“Do it. We don’t have time to argue.”

“Pain in my goddamn Pagori ass,” he muttered before disappearing.

Thirty seconds later, we’d destroyed the last of the evidence. I turned to David and Salem. “Come on. Staying in the vehicle won’t be the best idea.”

“Where are we going?” asked David, following me as I quietly scampered to the double doors at the back of the vehicle.

“The trees,” guessed Salem, knowing exactly how my mind worked. Rainforest trees were good for hiding in.

“Yes.” Carefully and quietly I swung the door open…and was knocked flat on my back as a skeletal, grotesque-looking Keja dived on me and clamped his teeth around my throat.
Well, fuck.
I didn’t even have time to defend myself before it burst into ashes, thanks to either David or Salem – I wasn’t sure. They were both at my side at the exact same time that Jared teleported in front of me, clearly having felt my pain through the bond.

He blanched. “Oh, fuck no.”

It was my own bloody fault. I’d had everyone concentrating so hard on the humans, trusting Quentin and the others to deal with all the tainted vampires. I should have known better than to take it for granted that we were completely safe from them. Jared immediately dragged me against him and took me to The Hollow. It was lucky that David and Salem were holding onto me or Jared might have absentmindedly left them behind in his haste to get me home.

Arriving in the infirmary, Jared laid me down on one of the beds. “No, baby, no – this can’t be fucking happening.” He clasped his hands behind his head, staring down at me in pure disbelief.

A good-natured Keja who liked to act as a nurse – apparently letting go of her human profession had been hard – rushed over with a towel. Salem snatched it from her and pressed it firmly against the bite wound on my throat. Following that, he immediately called Antonio using the infirmary phone. The rest of the squad – who had clearly arrived there with Rodney’s injured squad members and were supportively remaining at their side – surrounded my bed. They cursed, growled, gawked, and hit me with questions that I was too distracted to answer. Fuck, the bite was itching like crazy and it was taking everything I had not to scratch it. Was it supposed to itch? I didn’t recall Evan, Max, or Stuart reporting that.

The nurse, Mary Jane, repeatedly tried to squeeze through the boys to reach me, but they weren’t budging. I internally shrugged. It wasn’t like there was anything she could do to help me anyway.

David swallowed hard. “Coach…Shit, I feel like I tempted fate.”

“This is no one’s fault but my own for concentrating too much on the humans.”

He knotted his hands in his tousled hair. “We should have sensed that vampire out there.”

“If we hadn’t already been surrounded by the scent of rotten fish, we would have done.”

“You just wouldn’t let me teleport you home, would you?” Jared took to pacing beside my bed, which was why people were giving him a wide berth. This was what Jared did whenever I got hurt. Took it out on me. Yes, it was unfair. But logic never prevailed over his panic and fear. I was used to it at this point. “You just had to wait until the others were safe.”

“Yes, I did. And I’d make the same decision again.” That was clearly the wrong thing to say, despite that it was the truth, because everyone looked ready to explode at me. “You can lecture me about it later.” I went to sit up, but Jared pushed me back down.

“No, don’t move.”

“Why? Lying here isn’t going to make any difference. And it’s not like there’s anything anyone can do. The only thing to do now i
s
”

Jared’s eyes flared with rage, his irises glowing like lasers. “
Don’t
ask me to lock you up in a fucking cell!”

“You want me to attack people and let the taint spread, is that it?”

“And you’d be perfectly fine with confining me in a glass cage, would you?”

“Well of course not,” I snapped. “But what else do you expect me t
o
” I double-blinked as there was a whizz of movement through the doors and suddenly Antonio was beside me. Clearly he’d used vampire momentum to get here.

He looked distraught. “Sam, how did this happen?”

“How do you think it happened?” Jared snorted. “She did what she always does. She put herself in the line of fire. If she had just let me teleport her out of there when I suggested it, sh
e
”

“I’ve told you,
you can lecture me later
.” I returned my attention to Antonio. “I need to know something. Will Jared become tainted too because of our bond?”

“No.” Antonio sighed, his voice low and filled with regret. “But he will gradually deteriorate and weaken as you do. Then when you die, he will die also.”

Fuck, fuck, fuckety, fuck.

“Let me take a look at the bite.” Antonio gently eased back the towel. The combination of horror, repugnance, and confusion in his expression made my stomach plummet. “David, I need a wet pad to clean the wound.”

In vampire speed, David was back with the pad. “Here.”

“Thank you.” Each gentle dab only made the wound itchier. It was driving me bloody mental and I had to ball my fists to keep from clawing at it. When Antonio was done, he gasped. David’s mouth fell open. The others had similar reactions.

Oh God, now what?

“What’s wrong?” Jared cupped my chin, turned my head, and leaned over to get a good look. “It’s almost fully healed,” he said incredulously.

“But not in a good way,” warned Antonio.

I frowned. “How can it be bad if I’m healed?”

Antonio’s gaze darted from me to Jared. “This is something we need to discuss in private.”

So this was related to my hybrid status, then. Well there was no way he could clear the room, since the injured were being tended to here.

“Then we talk alone,” Jared stated. Understanding, Antonio held onto my hand while Jared lifted me into his arms. Then suddenly we were in our apartment and Jared was positioning me on the sofa.

I tried to sit up, but he urged me to lie back down. Huffing, I humoured him.

“Now what did you mean?” Jared asked Antonio, keeping his hand on my shoulder.

“Do you remember how swiftly Sam healed during her duel with Magda? She had gaping holes in her shoulder
s
”

“Thanks for the reminder,” I grumbled.

“You shut up,” Jared said, but his tone was surprisingly gentle despite the anger surging through him.

“My point is that she healed unnaturally fast, which we all attribute to her being a hybrid. Vampires have accelerated healing, but if our injuries are quite severe, we can take hours to fully heal. In the case of The Call, the bite marks worsen. They do not heal at all. As you can see, Sam’s wound has closed. But the teeth marks remain, and they look ugly and angry.”

“Ugly?” I echoed. “Someone get me a mirror. I want to know what all the fuss is about.” Truthfully, I wasn’t as calm as I sounded. But if I was to express my panic, it would feed Jared’s fear and make him ten times worse. When no one moved, I pressed, “A mirror!”

Cursing, Jared disappeared into the bedroom. He was back at my side in a blink with my handheld mirror. At the same time, there was a knock at the door.

“That will be my guards. I lost them in my haste to get to Sam.” It turned out that Antonio was right. The guards entered with Luther and the pit-bulls in tow.

Jared arched a brow at Luther. “You didn’t foresee this happening?” The Advisor had been known to keep things to himself for fear of altering a person’s path too much.

Grim, Luther shook his head. “Believe me, this is not something that I would have kept from you. In fact, I would have locked her away myself to keep her safe.”

Any other time, I might have scowled at him for that comment. But I was too busy panicking about the bite mark on my throat. Dear God, it looked disgusting. Just as Antonio had said, the mark was in fact seriously ugly. Although the skin had healed, it was in a weird zigzag fashion, like someone had done a really bad stitching job. Furthermore, the patch of skin around it was blotchy and a blazing red. “All right,” I said shakily, placing the mirror on the coffee table. “What does this mean?”

“I can only speculate, because I have never seen this happen before.” Antonio sighed. “But it seems to me that although the skin has strangely closed, your system is tainted.”

That was my guess as well. I swallowed hard. “You know what needs to be done.”

“We’re not locking her up,” Jared quickly and vehemently stated.

Luther laid a supportive hand on Jared’s shoulder. “I hate to agree with her, Jared, I truly hate it. I do not like the idea of her caged any more than you do. But it
is
important that she is isolated.”

He shook off Luther’s hand and stepped away. Denial was pasted all over his face. “She can’t pass it on unless she bites someone.”

“She might lose rationality quicker than the others did,” Antonio cautioned in a sensitive tone. “She’s a hybrid, Jared. We have no idea how she will react to The Call. But we do know that she will not survive it,” he added in a low voice that was loaded with anguish. The resolve in Jared’s expression didn’t even slightly lessen.

“Can you give us a few minutes alone?” I asked Antonio and Luther.

Antonio nodded. “Certainly. I will make the appropriate preparations.” In other words, he’d ready me a cell.

Once Jared and I were alone, I sat up and appealed to him with a look. “I know it’s hard for you to do this. But I don’t want to hurt someone. I don’t want to taint someone. Please don’t put me in a position where I might do that. It’s bad enough that I know you’re going to die because of me.”

He snickered, but his anger was gone now. There was only a sense of defeat. “You think I’d want to live without you? You think I even could, whether we were Bound or not?”

A lump of emotion suddenly clogged my throat and my eyes filled. “I’m so sorry.”

He crouched down in front of me and tucked my hair behind my ear. “We knew when we Bound in that ceremony that it would mean we depended on each other to live. I don’t regret it, and I’d make that commitment all over again.”

“Then you’re a dumb prat.”

He swiped my tears away with the pads of his thumbs. “And you’re a crazy bitch.”

I gently curled my hands around his wrists. “You have to let them confine me, Jared.”

“Sam, don’
t
”

“I need to be sure that I can’t hurt anyone. I’d have to go in it sooner or later anyway. It might as well be sooner.” Shuddering at the prickly itch tormenting me, I released his wrist and went to rake my nails over the skin. Jared snatched my hand and kissed my palm.

“Don’t scratch it. I can
feel
how much it’s driving you crazy.”

My guess was that it would get worse the longer I was tainted. “Take me to the cell. Please.”

Squeezing his eyes shut, he rested his forehead against mine. “Baby…” His panic, fear, and devastation were zooming through me, swarming me, stealing my breath. There was even an element of guilt there – typical.

“You’re not at fault,” I insisted. It didn’t seem to make any difference.

After a series of deep breaths, he rose to his feet and stared down at me through tormented eyes. I thought he’d scoop me up and take me to the cells. Instead, he retrieved his cell phone from the table and punched in some keys. Seconds later, he was speaking in a defeated yet resigned voice. “Call Sebastian. Tell him to bring Paige West here.”

Oh.

Chapter Eleven

(
Jared)

Standing outside the glass cell, having that impenetrable barrier between Sam and I that even my gift of teleporting couldn’t breach, felt so damn wrong that my stomach was twisting painfully. The idea that I couldn’t reach her if I wanted to was like a lead weight in my gut, because I already knew that feeling. It brought back all the fear and panic from the time the Trent brothers had taken her from me – as if I wasn’t panicking enough right now.

She just sat on the mattress with her head resting against the glass and her legs pulled up to her chest with one arm wrapped around them. Her aquamarine eyes were holding mine and pleading with me. Not to help her, but to stop feeling guilty. Maybe she was right and it
was
dumb to blame myself for this. But if I had just ignored her stupid insistence on waiting for the squad to be out of there before leaving, she’d be fine right now. Of course I knew deep down that putting the squad’s safety before her own was what any commander would have done. Hell, I’d have done it. But I was still angry at both of us.

I had agreed to isolate Sam from everyone while I dealt with Paige West – whenever the hell she arrived – because I knew that Sam needed the peace of mind that she couldn’t harm anyone. Midway through the process of becoming a hybrid, there had been an incident when she had lost all sense of rationality and dived on me, latching onto my throat – much like a newborn vampire would. That loss of control, that knowledge that she had hurt me, had never sat well with her. If she did it again now, she wouldn’t just hurt someone, she would taint them. So, yeah, I definitely understood why she didn’t want to take any chances here. Still, if I hadn’t known that confining her like this was only a temporary measure, I probably wouldn’t have agreed to it.

Movement in the cell beside hers caught my attention: Evan was staggering across the room with the most agonising look on his face. How must it feel to literally starve, to feel as your body withered away? How must it feel to sense you were beginning to lose reason and rationality? Max and Stuart looked in much the same agony. There was nothing left of
them
there. They were all just shells now. Droning, skeletal, starving shells. It was fucking…Shit, there were no words to describe what it felt like to see the two people that I loved most in the world dying.

I wanted to hit something, smash something, wanted to rage at fate – it truly was a bitch. Instead, I placed the palm of my hand against the glass of Sam’s cell. Reaching over, she splayed her hand over mine. I hated that I couldn’t touch her when it was the one thing I needed right then, hated that I couldn’t comfort her. Whether Sam would admit it aloud or not, she was scared. “
You’ll be out of there soon,” I promised her. “Paige’s gift will heal you.”

Her smile was sad. “
I hope you’re right.”

I
had
to be right, otherwise I’d agreed for that female to be brought to The Hollow – thus chancing Luther’s vision coming true – for no damn good reason at all. But Paige coming here didn’t have to mean that the vision
would
become reality, I mused. The things Luther foresaw didn’t always happen, as I knew perfectly well. If we took precautions by getting the female out of here as quickly as possible, we could prevent anything more from happening. It was hardly likely that she would want to stick around here for long anyway, not if she was so set on being away from the rest of her kind.

Hearing voices, I glanced at the door. Not only was Antonio, Luther, and the guards here, but also the squad, Jude, Ava, Cristiano, and – oh shit – Alora. Evan was going to have my balls for this if – no,
when
– Paige healed him. As Alora caught sight of Evan, her now horrified eyes instantly watered and she slapped a hand over her mouth. How much she cared for him was flashing on her face like a neon sign. Evan briefly glanced at the crowd, but there was no sign of recognition in his eyes.

Antonio gave me a sympathetic smile. “Sebastian has arrived with Miss West and who seems to be a friend of hers. Apparently Miss West refused to leave without her. They are waiting for you in the piano room. You should know that she has no idea why she has been brought here. Sebastian worried that if he told her what we wanted from her, she would put up a huge fight. He merely told her that she had been sent for by you and he assured her that she would come to no harm whatsoever.”

Dropping my hand from the glass, I told Sam, “I’ll be back soon.”

She nodded, giving me a half-smile.

Leaving her felt wrong, but I forced myself to step away from the cell. I was just about to teleport out of there when I noticed that Cristiano had separated himself from the crowd and was leaning against the back wall; the expression on his face stopped me short. He wasn’t looking at me, but at Sam. Like the others, he was clearly distressed and angered by what had happened to her. But there was so much more to be seen on his face: pain, anguish, yearning, and utter despair. Slowly, I walked over to him. “That’s why you never went to the Binding ceremony. You love her, don’t you?”

My voice seemed to snap him out of whatever zone he had been in. His gaze met mine. As my words filtered through, he sighed and returned his eyes to Sam. “I accepted a long time ago that I’d never have her. Victor hadn’t allowed me or anyone else to touch her. But even if he had, she’d never looked at me that way. Not once. Not even the night I kissed her when she was human. But just because I accepted that I’d never have her didn’t mean I could watch her Bind with someone else.”

Oddly, I felt a twinge of sympathy for him. I wasn’t a particularly sympathetic person, but I knew that if
I’d
had to see Sam with someone else, it would have destroyed me.

“Do you know what’s strange? The fact that I’ve drank from her actually makes it worse. I know
exactly
what I’m missing.” His eyes returned to me. “So as much as you think I’m smug that I’ve tasted her, you couldn’t be more wrong. It would be a hell of a lot easier if I didn’t know what I
could
have had if things had been different.” He swallowed hard. “You make sure you save her. I’d rather watch her with someone else than watch her die.”

“So would I.” And that proved just how important she was to me, because I wasn’t the self-sacrificing type. Without another word to anyone, I teleported to the ground floor of the mansion and appeared outside the piano room. Opening the double doors wide, I strode inside. In addition to Sebastian and three guards were too dark-haired females, but that was where the similarities ended for the two women. One was tall and lithe with blazing green eyes while the other was short and curvy with brown doe eyes.

The tall brunette stood slightly in front of the other female – a protective move. I recalled what Antonio had said about Paige refusing to leave her friend behind, which suggested that the protective vampire was Paige West. I thought the ‘keep the fuck back’ body language was kind of odd. Did she think I wanted her friend for some reason?

“You’re the Heir,” Paige realised. Her protective stance didn’t ease. In fact, it turned aggressive, but she made no move toward me.

“I am.”

“Well if you’re going to hurt me, let’s go,” she dared tauntingly.

“So you can give your injury to me? No thanks. In any case, I have no intention of harming you…or your friend, if that’s your worry.”

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Then why did you have someone track us down?”

“Not both of you, just you. I need your healing skills.”

She blinked in surprise. “I’m not a healer.”

“But your gift
does
heal, in a sense, doesn’t it?”

“Yes,” she eventually allowed.

“That’s why you’ve been brought here.”

She was silent for a moment. “You just want me to heal someone for you? That’s it?” Her tone was sceptical.

“Not just one, there are four.”

She snickered. “And then you’ll hand me over to my Sire or, worse, execute me for whatever it is that he’s accused me of doing so that people will hunt me down.”

“I have no interest in anything that has happened between you or your Sire.”

“You’re the Heir. It’s part of your job to ensure that justice is found.”

“Right now, I’m not talking to you as the Heir. I’m talking to you as someone whose mate is so badly hurt, she’s dying.” Her friend gasped. “If you can heal her injury and that of the others, your crimes – whatever they are – will be instantly pardoned.”

Paige cocked her head, assessing me carefully. “If I heal them, you’ll let us leave?
Both
of us?”

“Yes. You have my word that.”

Still seeming suspicious, she let her gaze dance from me to Sebastian and back again. After a moment of silence, she gave a curt nod. “Okay. I’ll help them. But Imani stays with me – I don’t want her leaving my side.”

“Fine.”

My disinterest in separating them appeared to surprise Paige. It also made her relax her stance slightly. “Good. I guess you better take me to them then so we can get this over with.”

I couldn’t have agreed more. The quicker I got everyone healed, the quicker I could get both of these females out of The Hollow before any shit had the chance to hit the fan. Sebastian gently took Paige’s arm, who quickly clasped Imani’s hand, and teleported them away. I immediately followed, appearing outside the row of cells beneath the mansion. Paige was regarding the crowd of people warily while gripping Imani’s hand tightly.

“Everyone, move side,” I ordered. Obediently, the crowd parted, which then allowed Paige a clear view of what was inside the cells.

She gaped. “You said they were
injured
.”

I jiggled my head. “I may have downplayed the matter slightly.”

“Slightly? These people are tainted with The Call! I can’t help them.”

“Sure you can. If you take away their injury and their pain, you should automatically take away the taint.”

“They’ll attack me the second I go near them. Thanks, but I kind of like being alive.”

I pointed to the three droning males. “See the guy chewing on his mattress? That’s my twin brother, Evan. It’s kind of hard to tell that we’re even related when he looks like that, huh? The other two are members of my squad, Max and Stuart.” Maybe if I made her see them as people, it would help. I walked to where Sam still sat; her aquamarine eyes glimmering with a contradictory mixture of sadness and hope. “And this is my mate, Sam.”

“I’ve heard about her,” Imani said softly. “You were Bound recently, weren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“And if she dies, you die too,” mused Paige. The implication that it was only my own ass I was bothered about saving was clear in her voice.

“That’s right, I do, but it’s her life I’m more interested in saving.”

Paige rested her hands on her hips, blowing out a long breath. “Look, I’m sorry that they’re all sick, okay. I really am. But I can’
t
”

“We have ways of holding them still so that they can’t hurt you,” I quickly assured her. “All you need to do is touch them.”

“I could be tainted!”

“
Only
if they bite you. They won’t be able to do that because they’ll be unconscious. And even if they do
bite you, you can simply pass that injury back to them.” I took a step toward her, too frantic with worry to keep calm any longer. “Maybe you’re right and you can’t help them, I don’t know. But you have nothing to lose by trying. I have
everything
to lose by you not trying.”

“You really love her,” whispered Imani, sounding shocked.

Yeah it probably was surprising to see that the big, bad Heir who they had undoubtedly heard plenty of dark shit about actually felt something for another person. “More than anything,” I confirmed.

Imani tugged on Paige’s hand. “Help them.”

Paige was quiet for a minute, seemingly torn. I was pretty sure that everyone was holding their breath. “I have a condition.”

Okay, I could negotiate. “What condition is that?”

“You give Imani and me refuge in The Hollow. Permanently.”

My eyes closed as desolation hit me. If I agreed to her condition, Luther’s vision could come into effect. Through the bond, I felt Sam’s anxiety.

“We’ve been hiding for a long time,” continued Paige. “We want to
live
again.”

While that was understandable, she truly had no idea what she was asking. Of course I could explain Luther’s vision, but that would likely make Paige demand to leave immediately – especially since she seemed to be so protective of her friend. She was scared of something, and she looked ready to bolt any second.

“It is your choice, Jared,” said Antonio. But it wasn’t really a choice at all. There was no way I could turn Paige down. I’d exhausted every other avenue – she was the only chance we had left to save Sam and the guys.

I sighed inwardly, turning to the crowd. “Harvey, I’ll need you to hold the guys into position while David and Salem put them to sleep.” Swallowing hard, I told Paige, “I’ll grant you refuge if you heal the four of them.”