Chapter Eleven

Pain radiated through me, reminding me that I was alive as I woke up. I tried to bring my hand up to my head to check the wound the silver knife made, but wasn’t surprised to find my hands tied behind my back. Opening my eyes, I saw the born vampire lounging on the sofa. In front of her my gun sat on the coffee table. The lights in the living room of Haven were on, and the TV tuned in to some reality show. The vampire flipped through a magazine as she twirled her mousy brown hair around a finger. She wore a white tank top and khaki capris with pink flip flops on her elegant feet. How normal she looked sitting there surprised me. The vampire smiled as she heard my thoughts.

“Rose will be back in a minute,” the vampire said smoothly. “Amythist ran off again.”

As I thought about Amythist at Malevolent Dead, the born vampire closed the magazine and turned to me.

“She’s making friends?” she asked.

“Evidently Dez could get her the Symbol of Khor without a price.”

She growled. “I told Rose we couldn’t trust her.”

“Who are you?” I asked, changing the subject.

“Sharice. Rose’s daughter.”

My mind reeled. How in the world could this be Rose’s daughter? Rose was a witch, and this was a magic wielding vampire. If a witch got turned into a vamp, their magic would disappear. Same thing if a witch got turned into a Were. This in itself was an abomination.

“Rose is freaking out about the twins,” I muttered to myself.

Sharice’s hazel eyes flashed with anger. “I am not some abomination that needs to be killed,” she snarled. Standing up, she stalked across the room to where I lay. She bent down, digging her long, manicured nail into the bandage on my arm until I hissed in pain. “You will do well to remember that.”

As Sharice returned to the sofa, I heard the front door open and footsteps as the person walked into the room. Sharice looked up, smiling and nodding at me.

The woman looked like she was in her seventies, with her white hair tied up in a tight bun. Her steel blue eyes flashed with triumph when she saw me. Rose Mykal, witch leader of the Blood Moon Corporation said, “Hello, Sarah. How great it is to see you. I see you’ve already met Sharice.”

“I had the pleasure,” I growled.

When Rose flexed her fingers, I felt a shock of pain slice through me. “Manners,” she warned.

“I’m here, Rose,” I said quickly, “ready to accept my punishment for breaking my contract. You can leave the Weres alone now.”

Pain reverberated through me. “Who are you to tell me what I can and cannot do, dog? The witch bred with that mutt. The abomination has to be dealt with.”

“She had twins,” I screamed as the pain started to burn within me. “One’s a witch and one’s a Were. There’s no atrocity there.”

Rose shook her head as she sat on the couch next to Sharice. I saw the resemblance as they sat side by side. Sharice had told the truth.

“Just kill her already,” Sharice begged. “I want to get back at them for killing Samson.”

“I killed the dragon,” I said as pain ricocheted through me. Rose didn’t even need to keep eye contact with me for her magic to work. I gritted my teeth as I realized the stupidity of my actions. Of course Rose wasn’t going to give up just because I came here. She wanted the DeLocket Clan dead and nothing would stop that. What about Damian? How long would he live after they found out about his assistance?

“The vampire Lord will not be harmed,” Sharice said. “He’s a part of this.”

I wanted to ask a part of what, but Rose’s magic shot through me.

I felt something familiar in my mind, but my agony-ridden thoughts couldn’t decipher it. I tried using my wolf, but the pain kept those abilities at bay as well. The pain blinded me, and I felt like a human waiting for Rose to tire and end my existence.

“Leave her alone, Mykal.”

I wanted to cry as I heard Jared’s British accent. The witch never moved as Jared walked into the room. Sharice glanced at him, but turned her attention back to her reality show.

“She’s being punished for her crimes, Fontaine,” Rose said matter-of-factly. “I’d leave if I were you.”

“I can’t,” he said. “I have a message for you from Damian.”

Rose turned her head a fraction of an inch and her magic stopped ravaging my body. “Yes?”

“He said that torturing the woman he loves is no way to get back on his good side.”

In a movement too fast to see, Rose jumped onto her feet with her face inches away from Jared’s. “You tell him that I had no choice. I wasn’t going to risk everything for a human!”

I felt rage will my mind, and knew that it wasn’t Sharice or Jared. Damian’s anger bubbled over into me. Using Damian’s rage to my advantage, I easily turned it into strength and flexed. The bonds that held me snapped and I pulled myself to my feet and staggered into Jared’s arms.

“What were you thinking?” his mind yelled at me.

I sighed. “You are just going to get yourself killed,” I warned. “I broke my contract. Let me deal with the consequences.”

“Over my dead body.”

The door crashed open, breaking off its hinges from the force. Damian strode in with his plum colored eyes ablaze with fury.

“I wouldn’t have believed it had Sarah’s mind not shown me,” he hissed as he stalked over to Rose. “What in the hell do you think you are doing?”

Sharice stood up, standing off to her mother’s right. I blinked, looking from Rose to Damian and back to Rose again. How in the world did they know each other?

“Trying to save you,” Rose said. “You know what happened last time you fell for a human. I can’t stand for you to go through that again.”

“So you sent a vampire necromancer to kill me?”

Rose’s eyes grew wide. “Is that what you think? I sent him to kill her.” Rose pointed at me. “The second he found out that she wasn’t Phaedra she was supposed to die. You were never supposed to get hurt.” Rose turned to Sharice. “Kill her.”

Damian made a move to stop the vampire, but Rose’s hand closed around his wrist. “You forget that I am stronger than you. Watch as my daughter drains your pet.”

I narrowed my eyes, careful to keep my mind blank as Sharice stalked over to me. Jared reached for his gun and Sharice smiled.

“Guns don’t kill me, mutt,” she snarled. “Not even ones like yours with wooden rounds.”

“Yeah,” I growled as Sharice came within arm’s reach. My eyes had changed from their human blue to wolfish amber. “What about wolves?”

I changed forms before she could react, my jaws clamped down on her arm. Sharice backpedaled, succeeding only in tripping and falling onto the floor. I heard scuffling as Damian prevented Rose from coming over as my jaws shredded the vampire’s arm before letting go and focusing on her chest. I wasn’t sure if decapitation would work with her kind, but I bet a shredded heart would. Gun fire roared as the scuffling turned frantic. I used my paws to dig through Sharice’s flesh. Sharice screamed as she tried to fight me off, but it was no use. I was a Were with a born vampire’s blood running through my system. Sharice had surprised me before, but now I had the advantage.

I felt Rose’s magic tear through my body. I faltered as I tried to brace myself, but it was too late. Sharice grabbed the scruff of my neck, wrapping her viselike arms around me as she attempted to wrench my head off my shoulders. I snarled. My jaws snapped as I struggled to get a hold of her. I tried to get into her thoughts like I could do with either Jared or Damian, but she had her mind locked up tight. I had no clue what her next move would be or where her thoughts lay about her mother.

It made no sense to me that Rose and Damian knew each other. Intimately it seemed. Had they been an item once upon a time? It sounded like Rose had been there when Damian’s wife, Phaedra died, but that would be impossible. A witch’s lifespan of only 200 years compared to that of a vampire, who lived until someone or something killed them. So either Rose lied about knowing Damian for that long…

Or she wasn’t a witch like we had thought.

Sharice hissed as she forced her feet under me and pushed, sending me end over end across the living room. I rolled to my feet with my eyes glancing to Jared and Damian. The woman they held back had long, auburn hair that hung wildly around her face. I glanced around, but didn’t see Rose anywhere. Did she run off, leaving her people to take care of us for her? The woman tossed Jared and Damian aside like nothing, running to Sharice’s side in an instant. Sharice’s injuries weren’t life threatening, but it made no difference to the auburn-haired woman. She looked up at me and hissed, exposing her glistening fangs.

As my eyes looked into the steel blues of the auburn haired woman, I realized that Rose had never left the room. Rose Mykal looked decades younger. Giving me a dangerous smile, Rose slowly rose to her feet as she stalked across the room. I shifted back into my human form as confusion took over. Rose was a witch, which explained the magic and the glamour. Everyone at the BMC knew it. Witches didn’t retain their power as vampires. So what in the hell was Rose and why did she have fangs and magic?

In a blur of motion too fast to see, Damian stood between me and Rose. He crossed his arms over his chest as he stared down the woman in front of him.

“You can’t kill her without hurting me,” he said calmly, “and we both know you won’t put me through that again.”

Rose’s eyes narrowed. “You’re wrong. She’s broken her contract and must pay. Even you can’t keep her from this.”

“Then you leave me no choice.”

Damian turned and walked over to me with his plum-colored eyes filled with pain.

“I’m so sorry, Sarah,” he said as he wrapped his arms around me.

So this was it. I would die as soon as Damian moved. I braced myself, hoping that my death would be swift.

Then I felt Damian’s fangs pierce my neck.