Marked by the Vampire (14 page)

Damn the bastards.

His gaze flew around the room. Case was on the floor, not moving at all.  There was no sign of Olivia or Chloe.  He inhaled, trying to pull in their scents and—
got you.

He whirled back toward the window. The glass was broken, courtesy of the bullets and the sniper assholes who’d fired them. He looked below. Sure enough, there were black SUVs out there on the street. Olivia was being loaded into one.

I promised to protect her.

He jumped right through the glass. He plummeted down, down, and when he slammed into the ground, his knees dented the concrete.

“Kill him!” He heard the shouted order as he pushed to his feet. Men started firing at him again but, this time, they missed his heart.

He grabbed one of the fools. Yanked the guy in front of his body, used him as cover—and Shane sank his fangs into the man’s throat.

He needed blood. He’d take everything from the bastards who’d tried to take Olivia.

When more bullets flew through the air, he dropped his prey. Shane went after the others. He’d take them all out. One by one.

A black SUV slammed into him.  Shane hurtled through the air and hit the side of the building.

The SUV backed up.

Shane tried to shove to his feet. His legs were broken.

The SUV raced away.

And the men with guns closed in.

“I guess you’re about to lose your head, vampire,” one of the men yelled. “When we shoot you in your heart and you freeze up, do you think you’ll still feel it when we saw off your head?”

Shane’s hands flattened on the concrete. “Will you…feel it…when my friend…shoves his claws…into you?”

“What—?”

Connor attacked. Shane had smelled him, had known that back-up had come to help him. Connor ran up behind the men and sliced with his claws. One down. Two.

Then Duncan hurtled from the shadows. He took out two more men.

Pate rushed to Shane’s side.  “Damn, man, you look like hell.” Pate put his wrist to Shane’s mouth. “Haven’t we done this shit before?”

Shane sank his teeth into Pate’s wrist. The blood hit him, a punch of power, but it was nothing like the power boost he got from Olivia.

Olivia.

Shane shoved Pate’s wrist away. He pushed his bones back into place and ignored the agony that pierced him.

He forced himself to rise. Shane took a step and managed to stay upright. Mostly. “They…took her.”

“And we’ll get her back,” Pate promised. “She was bleeding so—”

“I’ve got her scent,” Connor said at once as he dropped the guard he’d just clawed.

Shane staggered past them.

“You don’t need her scent to track her,” Pate said, coming up behind him. “Shane took her blood. There’s nowhere she can go that he can’t ever follow.”

Nowhere.
I’d follow them to hell in order to get her back.
“Case…is upstairs.” He hardly recognized his own growling voice. “Help him.” Then he looked back at Pate. “And try to…keep up, with me.”

You’ll die for this, Senator Quick. 

And Shane would make sure that it wouldn’t be an easy death.

Olivia was his. Body, soul, heart. No one hurt her and lived.

The darkness that he kept chained so tightly took over and Shane started his hunt. 

***

They’d gagged her. Tied up her hands. Bound her feet. And the senator kept a gun at her head as the SUV hurtled down the street.

“Are you angry, Olivia?” Donald asked as he leaned in close to her. “Are you afraid?”

She was
pissed
, and he should be the one who was afraid.

“I know all of your secrets. I know more than you can imagine.”

She hated him.  This,
this
was the man who’d attended all of her graduation ceremonies? Who’d been such a solid supporter in her life over the years?

He was using me, all along. 

“Your father was a full-blood djinn.  Your mother didn’t realize that, though, not until it was too late. I actually think that part of her was always afraid of you. Afraid of what you might be.”

No, no, her mother had
loved
her.

“She saw your father die.  Vampires came after him…they like the taste of djinn blood, you see. The blood of a paranormal always gives them more power, but a djinn’s blood—that’s something quite special to them.”

My vampire will come after me.

“The vampires came in full force and attacked your father.  But he fought them. Took out most of those fanged bastards, slaughtered them, right in front of your mother.  You were there, too, screaming.” His lips twisted in a stark smile that was revealed by the faint light in the SUV. “At least, that’s what she told me.”

The SUV hit a pothole and the whole vehicle lurched.

She squeezed her eyes shut because she thought he might shoot her then. How easy would it be for that gun to discharge if the SUV hit another pothole that hard?

“Better move this,” Donald murmured. “Don’t want to accidently destroy all that magic.”

That was all she was to him. Magic. Power.

But her eyes opened and she saw that he’d lowered the gun.

“Do you remember how he died?” Now he sounded curious.

Olivia shook her head.

“It was her,” Donald whispered. “He’d fought the vamps. He was weak, and she killed him. Your mother thought he was evil. She’d seen what his wishes could do…watched as he twisted desires and played with the lives of humans. Your father—all djinn enjoy torment.  Your mother knew he’d make you just like him, so she had to act.”

Tears slipped down her cheeks. She wanted his words to be nothing more than lies but…

I don’t think they are.

“Your powers were dormant. I knew I had to wake them, I just didn’t know
how.
” Now frustration thickened his words. “I sent you to killers. I put you face to face with evil, hoping it would trigger your own darkness.”

He’d gotten her access to all of those serial killers in prison. She’d thought he wanted to help people, to
stop
death. But he’d just wanted to use her.

“But the humans weren’t enough. They couldn’t break through your wall. I’d met a shaman who told me that fear would be the key for breaking you.”

So he’d sent her to Purgatory.
Opportunity of a lifetime, my ass.

“Everyone fears the monsters there.”

Olivia swallowed.

“But it still wasn’t enough. So I had to try once more…all in,” he murmured. “I thought…maybe what kills a djinn can make a djinn.”

She glared at him.

“Blood and fire,” he said.

The cabin. The werewolves.

“That woke you up, didn’t it?” he whispered. “That woke up the beast that was sleeping in you. And now, that beast is
mine.
”

He thought he was going to control her?

He needed to think the hell again.

“You know the secret to controlling a djinn?” He put his hand on her chest. Right over her heart. “It’s here.”

The SUV stopped. Behind them, more headlights flashed. Another vehicle had pulled up behind them.

“You’re going to grant my wishes, Olivia. You’re going to give me everything that I want.”

The SUV’s door was opened. Donald shoved Olivia out. She hit the ground. The damn gag was still in place.

“Your power only works when you speak. So you’re helpless now.”

She heard a whimper. Olivia glanced over and saw Chloe being dragged out of the second SUV.  Behind her gag, she shouted her friend’s name.

A knife pressed to Olivia’s chest. Right in the same spot that Donald had touched moments before. “I’m going to cut out your heart.”

He was
insane!

“Don’t worry. You’ll stay alive. The djinn do.” He leaned toward her. Dropped his voice to a low murmur as he told her, “The hearts were kept in the bottles so long ago. That’s where the real power was. Control a djinn’s heart, control a djinn’s power. I
will
control you.” He smiled at her, the smile glinted in the darkness, and she realized that his teeth were too sharp. And his eyes were almost glowing.

The senator was a werewolf. Had he been born that way? And passed the DNA of a paranormal on down to his daughter? That would explain how Chloe had survived her attack as a teen.  Or maybe…had the senator been bitten at some point, too?

“You’re going to give me more power than anyone else has ever possessed. The world will be
mine.
”

Olivia realized that how the guy had become a werewolf didn’t matter—not then. All that mattered was that he was the enemy, and she couldn’t let him win. The blade of the knife cut into her. Olivia twisted, shoving out with her feet, and she hit the senator in the stomach. He grunted and staggered back. She took that opportunity and rolled, as fast and hard as she could. She would get away. Somehow. That bastard wasn’t cutting out her heart!

The blade sliced over her arm. He grabbed her legs. “Soon, you’ll never fight me again.”

She’d fight him until she died.

“
Get your fucking hands off her!
”

Shane’s voice. Shane’s wonderful roar of rage.

Then he was there, yanking the senator back, tossing him away from her. Shane reached for her legs. Ripped the rope away. He caught her hands and jerked—

A white werewolf—fully shifted—tackled him.  Shane tumbled to the ground, rolling with that beast. The wolf sank his teeth into Shane’s neck.

She twisted and yanked her hands as she struggled to get out of the rope. The rope wasn’t giving, so—
screw it.
Olivia contorted her body as best she could. Her shoulder popped, and she knew she’d dislocated it, but she managed to get her hands around her bunched up legs so that her bound hands weren’t behind her anymore. They were in front of her, and she could reach her gag.

She grabbed for the gag just as Shane locked his fingers around the werewolf’s jaws.

Shane pried the jaws off him.

Olivia yanked out her gag.

“
I wish the beast would be a man!”

The werewolf shifted before her, changing instantly. The white fur melted. His bones snapped and popped. Shane lost his grip on the werewolf—
a man now—
and David curled into a ball on the ground.

David was completely naked and—
sobbing?

“You fucking killed him!” David yelled as he tipped back his head and glared at her. “I felt it—
you killed my beast!”

The senator had gotten back to his feet. He also had his knife—now pressed over his daughter’s heart.

“Lost it,” David muttered as he rocked back and forth. “Lost my beast,
lost my beast!”

Shane, bleeding but still standing, crossed to Olivia’s side. He tore the ropes away from her raw wrists even as he kept his glare on David. “Guess that means you aren’t an alpha any longer.”

Shane was looking at the wrong threat. “I wish you’d let her go,” Olivia said to Donald.

He nodded. “Right…” His voice was soft. “I will…
let her go…
”

And he shoved the knife into his daughter’s chest.

Olivia screamed as Chloe fell to the ground.

“I let her go,” Donald whispered.

Horror froze Olivia. Too late, she remembered that a djinn’s wishes were twisted.  What had she been told? That they could turn dreams into nightmares?

She’d just killed Chloe! “I wish she was alive!” The words tumbled from her in a frantic shout. “I wish—”

“Olivia,
no!”
Shane grabbed her and held tight. “Stop it! He’s pushing you! Manipulating you!”

But Chloe was moving now. Gasping. Shuddering.
Alive.

“You are as strong as they say,” Donald murmured, with a flash of his fangs. “How fucking wonderful.”

Another vehicle raced to the scene. A big, black van.  The driver’s side opened and Pate leapt out.  Connor and Duncan jumped out, too, and they rushed toward the senator.

David kept whimpering on the ground.
“Lost my beast, lost…
”

“It’s over, senator.” Pate’s voice rang out, strong and clear. “You’re done.”

“Oh? And here I thought I was just getting started…”

Olivia had clamped her lips together. She wanted to make another wish. Wanted it so badly.

But it was a dark wish. Evil.

I shouldn’t wish for a man’s death.

“They’ve been using you, Olivia,” Donald called out as Pate and Connor closed in on him. Duncan stalked toward David. “I told you…the way to control a djinn is through the heart.  I would’ve kept your heart safe, but what do you think the vampire will do to it?”

Shane’s arms tightened around her.

“His family is corrupt. They’ve bathed in blood for centuries. Do you know how many innocents your lover slaughtered? He and his family—they’re the reason vampires exist today. The reason so many humans hunt and kill.”

Pate yanked the bloody knife from Donald’s hand. “Guess where you’re going, senator?  I’m glad you liked Purgatory so much because it’s going to be your new home.”

Donald didn’t look at him. His eyes were on Olivia. “He didn’t even have to cut out your heart in order to control you. All the vampire had to do was make you love him. You
gave
him your heart, and he’ll use it. He’ll use your power. You’ll do anything, everything, he wants now, and you’ll be helpless.”

Pate locked his hands around the senator’s shoulder, but Donald jerked away from him.

“They’ve all been using you!” He screamed at Olivia.

She kept her mouth closed.
Don’t wish his death…don’t!

“The vampire marked you because he wanted that power for himself! He doesn’t love you, he’s just screwing you for—”

Shane rushed at the senator. He grabbed the man’s shirt. Lifted him high into the air. “You were going to cut out her heart!”

The senator smiled. “One day, I will,” he promised. “I’ll come back. I won’t stop, I’ll have everything—”

“You’ll have nothing.”  Then Shane sank his teeth into the senator’s throat. Donald howled and slashed out at Shane with his claws. He punched and twisted, but Shane didn’t let him go.