Touch of Temptation (26 page)

Digging his claws into the snow-crusted ground,
Kellan pulled his body forward, pain tearing through his system like a knife, excruciating and sharp. Tears burned at the backs of his eyes, but he gritted his teeth and managed to drag himself another foot over the ground, determined to somehow find the strength to deal with Gregory.

“Lycan, stop.”

Kellan cursed at the sound of the soft words and kept going.

“Damn it.” The female’s voice was closer this time, coming from his right. “Stop crawling away from me. You’re only going to weaken yourself even more, and I intend to help you.”

“Help me?” A bitter laugh scraped against his throat. “Oh, Christ. How effing stupid do you think I am?”

“I could care less about your intelligence,” she snapped. “I’m just trying to save your life.”

Wondering what the hell she was up to, he stopped, and the female—Asa’s sister—knelt beside him, quickly taking something out of the pack she slipped off her shoulder. The next thing he knew, she’d pushed him to his side, ripped open his sleeve, and injected a needle-tipped syringe into his vein.

“What are you doing?” he snarled, his arm suddenly burning with heat, the skin around the needle throbbing with pain.

She kept her focus on his arm, her brow knitted with concentration as she said, “I’m helping you, just like I said I was going to.”

Kellan’s thoughts spun with confusion, whatever she was injecting into his system chasing away the cold that had settled into his veins, and replacing it with a slick, scalding heat that had beads of sweat breaking out over
his face. “Why?” he wheezed, trying to focus his wavering vision. “Why…help me?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I’m just crazy.” She sounded irritated as she flung the words at him, her gaze still focused on the place where she had the needle imbedded in his vein. “Now shut up, relax and let the antidote do its thing, or you’re not going to do that woman you’re so set on protecting a damn bit of good. You get me?”

“You’re lying,” he growled, struggling to sit up, but she plastered one hand against the center of his chest and pushed him back against the ground, his body still too weak to offer any resistance.

“You really need to work on your trust issues,” she muttered, her gray eyes glittering with frustration as she glared down at him. “And for God’s sake, learn to have a little faith. I get that you probably piss a lot of people off and make your fair share of enemies, but not everyone in the world is out to get you. Just trust me, okay? I’m golden, I swear.”

Kellan wanted to tell her to shut up, but the cocky little vamp was right. He
had
lost his faith. Or maybe he’d just given up, months ago, when he’d realized what a fuckup he’d become…and slowly allowed his guilt to hollow him out inside. Allowed it to turn him into a man who’d been willing to accept his fate, no matter how shitty, instead of fighting against it.

It was unforgivable, when you thought about what he had to fight for. His family and friends, not to mention the woman who had laid claim to his heart and now owned his soul. Instead of focusing so much on what had happened in his past, he should have been moving mountains to sort out his future. And Christ, who gave a shit if he wasn’t good enough for Chloe? None of that
crap mattered. All that mattered was that he became the kind of man she
could
be proud of. One who was worthy of her—who cherished her the way she deserved.

You should have listened to me. I told you we’d find a cure
, the wolf chuffed, and Kellan realized there’d be no living with the animal now. It would be gloating about this for years, holding it over his head whenever they disagreed.

Eyeing the syringe the vampire was slowly decompressing, feeding what looked like a thick, golden liquid into his vein, he said, “So then your brother wasn’t lying when he told me there was an antidote for the poison?”

“Asa might be a bastard, but he’s an honest one. At least sometimes,” she added dryly.

Kellan’s heart began to pound a little faster as he realized he was actually going to have the chance to throw himself at Chloe’s feet and beg her for a second chance, but he took a deep breath and pushed the breathtaking thought to the back of his mind, knowing he had to keep his focus on Gregory before he could go running back to her.

“What’s your name?” he asked, cutting his gaze back to the vampire’s sharp little face.

“Everyone calls me Gabby.”

“I’m not trying to sound ungrateful for what you’re doing, but why didn’t you help me before? On the night that Asa poisoned me?”

Her short brown curls brushed against the sides of her face as she depressed the plunger all the way down, emptying the contents of the syringe into his vein. “To be honest,” she murmured, slipping the needle from his arm and dropping it back into its case, “I didn’t see anything
worth risking my neck to save. See, my brother and I both have special…talents, I guess you could say. While Asa can bloodtrack, mine are more intuitive.”

“You’re psychic?” he asked, while she gave him a shot that she explained would help his blood supply regenerate.

“No. I just…I see things. All kinds of things. Truths. Lies. And sometimes I can see inside a person’s heart. Kind of like…like reading an aura.” As she finished zipping up her pack, she looked down at him as she added, “You’ve changed this past week. The anger you carried inside of you has been replaced with love, and that’s something I’m willing to take a risk for.”

He grunted in response, gritting his teeth against the blistering heat sliding through his veins, the sensation as scalding as if he’d been injected with liquid fire, the antidote literally burning the poison from his system. When the pain finally started to recede, he asked, “Why haven’t you given the antidote to your brother?”

With a frown, she explained, “Although this antidote will work on the Reykers’ victims, I still haven’t managed to create one that can purge the poison from its carriers.”

“How did he get infected in the first place?”

“How else?” she muttered with a soft snort, rolling her eyes. “He and a cousin of mine made a mistake that affected every male in the family.”

“So you’re not poisonous?” he asked, managing to sit up as she moved to her feet.

“Nope, I’m in the clear,” she replied, slipping her nylon pack back over her shoulder. “Only the males were cursed with the poison. I’m also not condemned to the Wasteland.”

Moving first to his knees, Kellan waited until his head had stopped spinning before taking the small hand she offered and letting her help him to his feet. She was a tiny thing, like Chloe, barely reaching his shoulder, but she had a look about her that said she was anything but delicate. More like a pint-sized Doberman dressed in jeans and a heavy, cable-knit sweater. “If you’re not exiled,” he said, “then what are you doing here?”

“Some witch friends of mine have been helping me formulate the antidote, and we only just came up with a workable sample last week. I’d brought the news of the antidote to Asa on the day that he poisoned you.”

Using his sleeve to wipe at his bloodied throat, he said, “That explains why the Sabins didn’t know about the antidote.”

Gabby lifted her brows. “It’s true that we haven’t exactly spread the word around, but I’m surprised the psychic you’ve been traveling with couldn’t tell you that the antidote was real.”

Kellan winced. “Raine’s in bad shape after her time at Westmore’s compound. Her powers are weak right now, and when she tried to get a read on Asa for me, his mind was filled with too much violence for her to see anything clearly.”

“That sounds like my brother,” she muttered under her breath, and he could sense the pain that roughened the edges of her words.

“You mentioned Asa and your cousin made a mistake that brought about the curse. What was it?”

Her knuckles turned white as she gripped the strap that crossed her shoulder. “Her name was Merol, and she’s a prickly sorceress. One who likes to play with men as if they were her personal toys, but expects utter
devotion in return. Needless to say, they screwed with the wrong woman when they got involved with her.”

“Haven’t we all?” he grunted.

“And yet, fate has granted you a gift in the witch,” she told him. “I still hope the same can happen for my brother.”

“I’d tell you you’re wasting your time,” he rasped, reaching out to brace his hand against a nearby tree as a wave of dizziness swept through him, “but since I have a brother, I understand.”

She responded with a slight nod, then seemed to take a moment to study his eyes. “If you just give it a minute, the dizziness should fade.”

Clearing his throat, he said, “Listen, I know I acted like a dick at first, but I owe you for—”

She waved away the words with her hand. “You didn’t ask for my help, therefore you owe me nothing. This was my choice.”

“Will your brother be angry with you?” he asked, pushing his hair back from his face with a shaking hand as he fought the nausea twisting through his stomach.

The vampire shook her head. “I can handle Asa. Just get the hell out of the Wasteland as soon as you can. And whatever you do,
don’t
come back.”

Eager to get on with his hunt for Gregory, Kellan thanked her for her help, then turned and headed into the woods, searching the forest for that faint trace of the Casus’s scent that he’d picked up on earlier. Though his head was still spinning, he knew that the sooner he dealt with DeKreznick, the sooner he could make his way back to Chloe, throwing himself on her mercy. He was thinking about what he would say to her when he realized that Gabby was following him, and he cut her
a sharp look over his shoulder. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Helping you finish it.” Wearing a determined expression, she hiked her pack higher on her shoulder and lifted her chin. “The way I see it, the sooner you’re done here, the sooner you’re gone. And I really don’t want to keep worrying about Asa coming after you again.”

“Just be careful,” he muttered, figuring she’d earned the right to follow him wherever she wanted, considering she’d just saved his life. Some light snow flurries were beginning to fall from the slate-gray sky, screwing with his sense of smell, so he headed north, which was the direction he’d caught the Casus’s scent coming from earlier. Kellan estimated they were already at least a few miles north of the Sabin compound, and with each step he took, he could feel the antidote fighting to destroy the remnants of the poison, his healing abilities slowly returning to full strength, working hard to replenish his blood supply with the help of the shot that Gabby had given him. He was still a long way off from being at a hundred percent, but he was no longer knocking on death’s door, and his thoughts turned to the coming fight.

“You need to mask your scent,” he told Gabby, hoping like hell there was still enough juniper on his skin to disguise his presence. “The Casus has a witch with him who can lock their opponents in place. My only chance against him is to take the witch out first.”

“Lycan,” she murmured, her tone signifying a problem, and he caught the scents in the next instant, fear and frustration searing through his veins.

“Goddamn it,” he snarled, running toward the source, powering his way through the moonlit forest as
he dodged low-hanging limbs and jumped over fallen logs. Gabby was right on his heels as he burst into a small clearing a few minutes later, unable to believe his friggin’ eyes.

They were all there, except for Raine. His brother and his friends and their allies. Every single bloody one of them.

And Chloe Harcourt was standing right in the center of the group.

O
H SHIT
,
HE THOUGHT.
This
cannot
be happening!

Kellan quickly blinked his eyes, certain he must be imagining that Chloe was standing there between his brother and Morgan. But no…she was real. Jesus, had Kierland lost his bloody mind? Kellan had trusted him to take care of her, and instead, he’d brought her out into the open!

“Get her out of here!” he snarled, his wolf on the verge of breaking free as he advanced on his brother with long, furious strides. “What the hell were you thinking?”

Kierland’s green eyes burned with his own fury. “I could ask you the same thing,” he shot back, getting right in Kellan’s face.

“You stubborn bastard!” His voice cracked as he shoved hard at Kierland’s shoulders, a flare of satisfaction burning through his veins when he managed to knock the powerful Lycan back a step, his body becoming stronger by the second. “I trusted you to take care of her! Not offer her up to Gregory like a goddamn sacrifice!”

“You didn’t leave us any choice,” Kierland argued, his words biting and sharp. “After Chloe woke up and found you gone, she came to me and we found your letter. So
what exactly was I meant to do, Kell? Sit around and wait for you to get yourself killed?”

“You were meant to trust me to handle my own life, you bloody control freak.”

“Kellan, please calm down,” Morgan murmured. “You know Kier only wants you to be safe.”

“I don’t wanna hear it,” he growled, cutting her a hard look of warning. He knew damn well that she’d used her bloodtracking ability to lead the group to him, which put her at the top of his shit list at the moment. The only reason he’d had Morgan make the damn bond was to ensure Chloe’s safety—not his own!

From the corner of his eye, Kellan noticed that Aiden and the others were fanning out around him, and he couldn’t help but wonder if they planned to drag him back to the Sabin compound kicking and screaming.

If that’s their plan
, he thought, his nostrils flaring with rage,
then they’d better be ready to get bloody, because I’m not going without a fight
.

“Did you honestly expect me to leave you out here on your own?” Kierland rolled his shoulder in a hard act of aggression, as if he was getting ready to throw a punch.

“I expected you to keep her safe,” Kellan muttered in disgust. “But I guess I should have relied on someone else.”

Kierland flinched, but before he could say anything to defend his actions, Chloe moved toward them, her soft voice thick with emotion. “Your brother asked me to stay behind, Kell, but I refused. So if you’re going to be angry with anyone, it should be me.”

Ignoring her, Kellan kept his furious gaze locked on Kierland’s rigid features. “If Gregory finds us like
this, the witch will have us frozen in place within seconds. We’ll be as good as dead.” Rough, gritty words that vibrated with anger. “So I’m going to make this very clear. Turn around and get your asses back to the compound.”

“He’s right,” Gabby murmured. “You don’t have any time to lose.”

“Who the hell are you?” Kierland demanded, his pale gaze landing with blistering animosity on the petite vampire.

It was Juliana who answered. “I can tell by her scent that she’s from the Reyker nest.”

“Leave her alone,” Kellan barked, stepping between his brother and Gabby when Kierland’s expression turned deadly. “She’s not an enemy. She helped me tonight.”

“Why would she help you?” Juliana asked, her forehead scrunching with confusion. “The Reykers only ever look out for themselves.”

Gabby moved out from behind him, sliding Juliana a wry look. “Asa might be a bastard these days, but we’re not all bloodthirsty savages, Sabin. You think your family’s the only one who landed here because of a bad choice?”

“What are you talking about? What bad choice?” Ashe demanded, obviously hoping to find out why the Sabins had been exiled, but Kierland cut him off.

“Just what exactly was your plan for the night, Kellan?”

Furious that he was having to waste time on this shit, Kellan scrubbed his hands down his face, then said, “I figured if I was on my own, I had a chance of sneaking up on Gregory and taking out the witch first, then
the Casus. And after that, I’d promised Asa Reyker a fight.”

“But my brother found Kellan before he could track down the Casus,” Gabby explained, “and that’s where things went wrong. Though he was meant to give Kellan the chance to fight him for the antidote to the poison, Asa attacked him instead.”

“Antidote?” Kierland’s eyes went almost comically wide. “What antidote?”

“The one I’ve already given him,” Gabby replied. “It was close, but he got it in time to make a full recovery.”

“You’re not dying?” Kierland rasped, his deep voice choked with tears as he locked his bright gaze with Kellan’s. “In your letter, you said…that the poison was killing you. And when I confronted Juliana, she admitted that the Reykers’ poison is fatal to
all
species.”

“What I said in the letter was true at the time,” Kellan told him, stunned by the depth of Kierland’s reaction. “But I’m okay now.”

For a moment, Kierland simply stared at him, his expression shifting between shock and relief, and then he seemed to snap back to the moment. “You said the antidote was what Kellan would have won if he beat your brother in the fight,” he rasped, sliding his stormy gaze back toward Gabby. “But what would have happened if he’d lost?”

“If he’d lost, my brother would have been allowed to finish the feeding, draining him completely. Which is what almost happened.”

Chloe gasped, while his brother blanched. “It would have hardly been a fair fight when Kellan’s been fighting off a lethal poison!”

Gabby frowned. “I didn’t say it was fair. I said that’s what Kellan agreed to. And he had every intention of honoring that deal.”

“How do you know what Kellan intended to do?” Morgan asked, eyeing Gabby with a wary gaze.

“I know because I happen to possess the ability to see the truths in a person’s heart. Even though Kellan believed Asa’s promise of an antidote was most likely a lie, he would have kept his word and met Asa’s challenge.”

Kellan listened as Chloe took a deep breath, his heart stuttering with fear as she moved closer to him, her tear-dark gaze first settling on the bite wound Asa had left on the side of his throat, before lifting to his face. “Is all of that true, Kellan?”

He shrugged, and she shook her head in disbelief, a flush of heat beginning to burn beneath her fair skin. “So this is why you wouldn’t talk to me about any kind of future between us? Because you were
dying?
”

His jerky nod only seemed to make her angrier.

“God, do you have any idea how ridiculous that was? Why not just tell me the truth?”

“I didn’t want to hurt you.” He swallowed, wishing like hell that he could take her into his arms, but knowing that it wasn’t the time. “Didn’t want you worrying about me or feeling guilty about something that was
my
fault. If I hadn’t stumbled onto the Reykers’ land last week, I never would have been poisoned.”

Frustration glittered in her eyes, her fangs visible beneath the curve of her upper lip as she argued, “And what about Gregory? What if you’d found him? Did you think it wouldn’t bother me when I learned that
you’d gone off and gotten yourself killed while trying to protect me?”

He clenched his jaw. “I was
trying
to do the right thing.”

“Damn it, Kell. Don’t you get it? You don’t have to kill yourself for me!”

“Worth it,” he grunted, working his jaw. “I’d do anything to keep you safe.”

“No, it’s not worth it, you damn idiot!” She trembled, more furious than he’d ever seen her, and he could feel the power of the Merrick rising up within her, burning behind those beautiful, stormy eyes. “It’s not worth it if it means I lose you. I want a partner. Someone to spend my life with. Not a goddamn memory!”

“Damn it, we don’t have time for this,” he muttered, raking both hands through his windblown hair. Her dark eyes were full of worry and fear, as well as a wealth of hurt that he couldn’t allow himself to think about. Not then. Not when her bloody life was still in danger. “Gregory’s too close! You need to get out of here!”

“If that was true,” Quinn offered in a rough voice, “Jamison would have sounded a warning. He’s running a perimeter on the clearing.”

“No. The Lycan is right,” Gabby murmured, lifting her nose to the whispering breeze as she released her talons from the tips of her fingers. “The Casus isn’t far.”

Accepting that they were out of time, Kellan forced down his rage and pulled the Marker from his pocket, slipping it over Chloe’s head before shoving her behind him. As he scanned the surrounding woods with a sharp gaze, searching for any sign of the bastard, she whispered his name, and he told her, “Stay quiet.”

Ashe pulled in a deep, searching breath, then released his talons at the same time as Gideon. “The Reyker female is right. He’s here.”

A hawk screeched in the distance, a cold breeze slicing through the trees that whipped viciously at their hair, and then Gregory waltzed out of the thick shadows on the far side of the clearing, a body slung over his broad shoulders. For a split second, Kellan thought it might be the golden-haired witch he was carrying, the darkness making it difficult to see—but then she stepped out of the trees, as well, standing a little off to the Casus’s right.

“Tell me,” Gregory called out, his long hair slicked back from his chiseled face as he slid a glittering look toward Kierland, “was this your pathetic attempt at a guard dog?” Lifting the body over his head, he tossed it into the center of the clearing, a gleaming shaft of moonlight revealing Jamison’s bruised face, his torso a bloodied, pulverized mess. With a slow smile, the Casus said, “As you can see, I went right for that tender under-belly. Works every time on you Lycans.”

Kierland, Quinn and Aiden roared with fury as they rushed toward the Casus, but the witch lifted her hand, freezing them each on the spot. Kellan felt her power lock his own body in place, and knew the same had been done to everyone but Chloe, who was clutching the back of his shirt with shaking hands, her breaths coming in sharp, shallow pants, while his friends growled and cursed, struggling against the invisible force that bound them.

“He would have stopped you, if you’d given him a fair fight,” Kierland snarled in a savage voice. “But you had
the witch freeze him, didn’t you? You fucking murdered him!”

“Yes, well, I’m afraid honor escapes me at the best of times. And when I’m tracking my Merrick…” His voice trailed away as he shrugged. “I’m hardly going to allow something as insignificant as honor stand in my way.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t go after Westmore first,” Kellan forced through his gritted teeth, “considering how badly you want him.”

A crooked smile touched the bastard’s mouth. “I
do
want him. And I’ll get him, too, right after I’ve filled myself up on the little Merrick.”

“She’s wearing a Marker,” Kellan growled, his own fangs dropping hard and fast. “You won’t be able to touch her.”

“Sure I will. With the right persuasion, I bet I can get her to do anything I want,” Gregory drawled, his smile widening as he slid his gaze toward Chloe, who had stepped out from behind him, and was now standing at Kellan’s side. “Once I get my claws around the Lycan’s throat, you’ll take the cross off for me. Won’t you, sweetheart?”

Kellan snarled as another bitter wind swept through the clearing, shaking the leaves in the trees, catching at their clothes and hair. As the witch’s tangled locks were blown back from her gaunt, hollow-eyed face, Noah, who stood a little ways off to Kellan’s left, made a sharp sound of disbelief. “Sienna?” the human croaked, shaking his head. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“You know her?” Aiden grunted with a thick note of disbelief.

“Yeah.” Though Noah looked as if he was staring at a ghost, the golden-haired witch gave no sign that she
recognized him, simply returning his stare with those cold, expressionless eyes that gave nothing away. “At least, I used to know her,” he rasped. “But she didn’t look like…this.”

“I imagine she might have been beautiful at one time,” Gregory murmured, “before grief ravaged her features. But that would have been a lifetime ago, and Sienna has a new life now. One that ties her to me. You see, we’ve made a deal.”

“What kind of deal?” Noah demanded, struggling even harder against the witch’s power, the tendons in his dark throat straining beneath his skin. “Whatever he’s promised you, Sienna, it’s a lie!”

The Casus tsked under his breath, his sun-streaked hair brushing his shoulders as he shook his head. “You have it all wrong, because I didn’t seek out the witch. She came to me,” he explained, his ice-blue eyes shining with laughter. “I was already halfway back to Meridian, after that little human bitch shot me up in Washington, when Sienna reached in and used her power to pull me back. Took her a while to get me on my feet again, but she was determined to make it happen.”

“But why?” Chloe asked the woman. “What could you possibly need him for?”

Before the witch could respond, Gregory came a few steps closer, his bright gaze landing on Chloe as he drew in a slow, deep breath. “God, you smell good,” he drawled, stroking two fingers against the hard edge of his jaw, a wicked smile touching his lips. “Sweet and warm…and powerful. If I’d had any idea you were going to be this tempting, I’d have come after you a long time ago.”

“Stay the fuck away from her!” Kellan roared, his
body racked with agonizing pain as he strained against the witch’s power with everything that he had. But no matter how savagely he fought the hold she had over his body, he couldn’t break free. And he was out of time. In the next instant, Gregory threw back his head, a deep-throated laugh rumbling up from his chest as the bastard gave himself over to the change, taking his true form. DeKreznick’s clothing ripped as his body transformed into the monstrous shape of the Casus, leathery gray skin stretched over his towering frame and wolf-shaped head, his jaws gaping with jagged, deadly fangs. He let out a stark, guttural howl, then lowered his head, his nostrils flaring as he settled his bloodthirsty gaze back on Chloe.