As Bella made her way to the bathroom to run cool water over her bleeding hand, she reminded herself that this wasn't a surprise. She had known Victor was going to see Jeff long before she read the note, from the moment she walked into that empty room. Somehow, the visual confirmation made it real. She frowned when she realized that the blood wasn't rinsing off her hand. In fact, every time a blast of water would send some down the drain, more would appear only to take on the vague outline of a circle. She withdrew her hand from the water, and it trembled as a faint crescent started to appear on her palm. palm. It wasn't as strong as the mark she had seen on the back of her hand in the hallucination, but it was undeniably the same pattern. Still shaking, Bella turned to find that the stranger shaving in the sink next to her was already giving her a weird look. "I'm sorry, this must sound odd, but do you see anything on my hand?" she asked, too bewildered for shyness.
Bella checked the phone again only to find not a single message. Maybe Darian really had given up. She thought of texting him again but decided against it. If he did reply, it would only be to talk her out of her plan, and she would only be teasing him with the idea that he could have done something more to stop her.The flight seemed to stretch out forever. The closer they got to Austin, the more anxious she became. It wasn't fear on her own behalf, but rather that she wouldn't make it in time to save Victor. Victor was physically strong enough, and from the way Clara described his powers, he was formidable in that regard as well. It was the fact that even Victor himself had expressed dismay at Jeff's psychic handiwork that scared her. Then there was Mr. Alderdice.She shuddered at the thought of the ruthless mogul. He wasn't the most physically imposing man, but what he lacked in stature he made up for in pure maliciousness. If she could only remember what he was c
"This isn't a game." Bella's voice shook in anger. "I don't care who you are. If you hurt him, I'll kill you.""There, much better," Sarah said proudly. "Still, those are big words coming from the little boy who was terrified of his own mate for killing one of my goons."The words reverberated in Bella's mind, but they wouldn't settle in. "You sent that vampire after me?" "Of course. It was his entrance test to get into my little troupe, and he failed. My men would have killed him as soon as they realized he wasn't bringing you back to me, but I figured that best case scenario I'd have you and worst case scenario I'd have the excuse I've been waiting for to wipe out his entire clan." "You used me?" Bella hissed. "You knew Darian would track him down and that he wouldn't stop until every member of his clan was dead." "Of course I knew. That boy is nothing if not predictable. Can't say he's any smarter than he was when he was little, but I'll be damned if he isn't pret
The front lobby of the Alderdice Hotel had changed a lot since the last mixer Jeff had brought Bella to as arm candy. Jeff's father had been there, and she'd somehow gotten blindingly drunk despite only having a couple of glasses of wine. She made her way over to the main desk, and the clerk recognized her immediately."It's been a long time, Mr. Cole. I have a package for you," she said brightly, pulling a wide box out from underneath her desk. The box was obviously meant for clothing, but going off of what little Bella knew about Sarah, anything could be inside."Thank you," Bella said, taking the box, wary of revealing its contents out in the open with so many people wandering around the lobby."You can use our supply room," the clerk offered, gesturing to a door behind the desk. "The party begins in eleven minutes.""Thank you," Bella said, afraid to ask how she knew where she was going. She took the box and glumly headed into the supply closet to change. To her relief, it really
Bella felt a growing sense of dread as the crowd parted around her, making an aisle with far too much automatic precision for it not to be the product of mind control. Even more horrifying than the realization that she was in a room full of vampires—and had been on countless occasions without even knowing—was the fact that this one woman was somehow capable of controlling them all simultaneously. Resistance would be nothing more than a sad joke.The thought that Victor had to be somewhere close was the only thing that propelled her forward. Sarah took her hand and pulled her onstage beside her, crushing her to her side with unexpected strength."There's my girl. Isn't she just the spitting image of his mother?" She laughed, squishing Bella's face in her hand. "It's like looking in a mirror." She turned back to the crowd, beaming with pride. The only response that came from the vampires was nervous chattering amongst themselves."Don't make me regret leaving you in control of your
Bella looked up at the stage to see Sarah beckoning her. "Come along, darling. That's enough dancing. We still haven't had cake, and you've only opened one of your presents," Sarah said. The orchestra stopped playing in unison, and the sudden stop made it sound as if the needle had been pulled from a record. Bella turned back to Victor for guidance. He touched her face with a gloved hand. Before she could register what he was doing, he pulled her in for a deep kiss that called everything in her world into question. The kiss made her heart ache with betrayal, and yet she returned it with far too much passion, desperate for more. As long as their lips touched, there were no vampires or werewolves or psychotic party hosts. There was no Daria, either. In that moment, Bella and Victor were the only things that existed, a single entity.The kiss was over much too soon. If Victor hadn't held her for a moment while she got her bearings, she knew her legs would give out on her.
"Like I said, I laid the framework in your mind a long time before Jeff and his old man came into the picture and you were just fine. I did it to protect you, to keep both sides dormant until it was time for you to embrace who you really are." She sighed. "That idiot werewolf expedited things by marking you, of course, but everything I've done has been to protect you.""You're lying," Bella said, backing away from her. "You don't care about protecting me. If you did, you wouldn't have abandoned me. You wouldn't have let me spend eighteen years of my life moving from one home to another, wondering what I had done to make you hate me so much that you would leave me." Tears streamed down her face as she struggled to keep herself together. "If you gave a shit about me, you would have stopped the abuse, the neglect, the loneliness. You would have done something before now, anything to let me know that I was something more than trash you threw away." She listened without a
"I know you're upset I wasn't there to protect you when you were younger, but I made sure that Jeff paid for his sins and I'm about to give you the gift of revenge against the other man who tormented you," she continued, resting her hands on her shoulders. Bella squinted and tried to block out the light with her hand. "Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you your clan leader, Phillip Alderdice in all his glory." Jeff's father was suspended on a huge wooden panel, naked except for his white cotton underpants, suspenders and socks. His usually intimidating visage was dashed as he hung from the board, his gut exposed as he hung and writhed from the four posts his arms and legs were tied to. "As you can see, this present requires a bit more disassembly than the last one." Sarah withdrew a wooden stake identical to the one I had found in Jeff's heart and offered it to her. Bella shook her head, horrified. "I can't." "I thought you might say that," Sarah said,
Bella froze when she realized what she was doing and tossed the pieces in the empty bread basket to hide the evidence. “Sorry,” she murmured, blushing. “You uh, get my blood boiling.”“I can tell,” he said, blinking. He looked down at his hands. “I'm sorry. I had no idea I was that intolerable.”“But you're not,” Bella said earnestly. “You make me angrier than anyone else, but you also make me laugh more than anyone else. You push me, sometimes to the brink of sanity, but she's a better person when she's with him. He's all of those annoying things, but he's also sweet and funny and protective and so compassionate toward the other members of the pack. He's a natural-born leader, and a good one. Whenever she sees the way he is with the other wolves, the way he cares for them and puts their needs above his own without even thinking, she falls a little more in love with him.” He stared at her in shock. “You love me? And you're admitting that freely?”Bella laughed, embarrassed. T
Bella reached across the table and rested her hand on his forearm. “You make it sound like I'm the one who's out of your league and not the other way around.” His eyebrows knit into a perplexed frown. He finally relaxed as if he'd given up trying to figure out whatever it was that was bothering him. “You are. Even aside from the fact that you're probably one of the mythological creatures our entire religion is based on, I don't deserve you. Neither does he, but I'm a big enough man to admit that Vic is a hell of a lot closer to being worthy of you than I am.” “Don't be so sure about that,” Bella said with a wry smile. “You both have your positive qualities.” “And negative ones, I'm sure.” Bella smiled wider.“Well, let's have it. Give me the side-by-side analysis,” he said, sitting back and folding his hands studiously on the table in front of him since he had already finished his meal.She laughed, but stopped abruptly when she realized he wasn't kidding. “You're
Bella reached across the table and rested her hand on his forearm. “You make it sound like I'm the one who's out of your league and not the other way around.” His eyebrows knit into a perplexed frown. He finally relaxed as if he'd given up trying to figure out whatever it was that was bothering him. “You are. Even aside from the fact that you're probably one of the mythological creatures our entire religion is based on, I don't deserve you. Neither does he, but I'm a big enough man to admit that Vic is a hell of a lot closer to being worthy of you than I am.” “Don't be so sure about that,” Bella said with a wry smile. “You both have your positive qualities.” “And negative ones, I'm sure.” Bella smiled wider.“Well, let's have it. Give me the side-by-side analysis,” he said, sitting back and folding his hands studiously on the table in front of him since he had already finished his meal.She laughed, but stopped abruptly when she realized he wasn't kidding. “You're
“Not sweet, innocent Clara,” Bella said doubtfully. “Oh, I've caught Jason coming out of her apartment once or twice.” “Jason and Clara?” Bella blanched. “But he's so... He chuckled at her reaction. “I know. Doubt he's her type, but the moon makes everyone go crazy, especially unmated fleurs. The rest of us try to stick to our subs, but what happens on a full moon stays on a full moon.”“Until now,” Bella reminded him. “You just told me.”“Hey, you didn't hear it from me.”Bella grinned mischievously. “Nope. I'm thinking now I own you.”“I don't go that way, kiddo. Not even for you,” he scoffed. “Now, if you ever decide you want a new master...”“My contract with Victor isn't exclusive. And don't try to change the subject.”“Sheesh. Okay, fine. It's probably already pretty obvious, but Brendan and Clarence don't just take care of Foster's emotional needs. They share him as a sub, but there's no relationship there otherwise. I'm pretty sure even that's tapered off since
"Are all the others out?" Bella asked, noting that the lot was almost empty. "Most of them," he said. "Clara and your dad are still around, as usual. Vic has been holed up in his office all day. Hunter and Clarence are still frolicking in the woods somewhere. Brendan was heading out with Maverick last I heard and uh, I think I saw Sarah with Jason." Anger started to boil inside Bella, but it couldn't take hold for some reason. "Oh, whatever," she muttered. "As long as she's leaving Dad alone." He glanced at her as he turned onto the road that led past campus. "That's a surprisingly zen attitude you got there." "I'm trying out a new approach to life," Bella said, admiring the heavily forested path. He shrugged. "Hey, I'm not complaining as long as you're okay.""I'm okay," Bella said. For the first time in a long time, she meant it.No one said a word for the rest of the ride. Darian took them into the city, or at least what passed for one in their little section o
A knock at the door jolted Bella awake from the most delightful nap. Despite the dull throbbing in her head, she woke feeling more refreshed and alive than she had in recent memory. “Be right there,” she called, yawning as she sat up. Her head spun a bit once she got to her feet, but it wasn't bad enough to make her stagger.On her way to the door, she noticed something strange about her room. All her stuff was there, but it looked like half of the room had been cleared out. Before the thought could trouble her too much, she remembered that Victor had probably just come for the remainder of his old things. She did have his old room, after all. Strange that he wouldn't have mentioned it, though.She shrugged it off and pulled the door open to find Darian waiting on the other side. At least, she thought it was Darian. The man before her had lightly slicked back hair, a stark contrast from his usual tousled brown locks. He wasn't wearing a suit or anything, but for Darian, a gray b
When Bella turned around, he was walking toward her calmly. She pressed herself against the door and struggled to slow her fluttering pulse as she looked around the room for escape. The window was too far to reach, and even if she did somehow manage to escape, she would only be prolonging the inevitable. Once Victor set his mind on something, no matter how horrible that something was, he got it. It briefly occurred to her that maybe that was why he was doing this. Maybe he thought his will had been strong enough to conquer her own and that removing all traces of it was the only way she would truly be free to choose. “I'm sorry, pup. I didn't want this to be a traumatic experience,” he murmured. “I was planning on waiting until tomorrow night, but it's just as well that I don't have time to talk myself out of this.” “Please don't do this,” she begged for what seemed like the hundredth time. “I don't want to forget you.” “You won't forget me,” he said softly. “J
“Of course,” Bella said, startled that he felt like he had to ask. “Well, I know you didn't like him so I just thought...” He trailed off, losing his enthusiasm for a moment. “Thank you. It would mean a lot to have you there. Victor is coming, and he said your dad would probably want to come, too.” He glanced toward the stairs. “I'll let you go; I have to find Brendan.” “He's probably still out with the others celebrating, but I know he was planning on seeing if you wanted to go out later,” Bella said carefully. “Oh, darn. I wanted to invite him, but I'll just have to wait until later. Bye, Bella!” he waved, already halfway down the hall. “Bye, Mav.” Bella waved back, mystified. Barely recovered from the macabre interaction, she knocked on Victor's office door and waited for permission before she entered. “Aren't you supposed to be with him?” was his immediate response. “Hi to you, too,” Bella muttered, walking over to his desk.He gave her an apologetic sm
“I'm fine,” Bella lied, brushing past her. She grabbed Bella's arm before she could head up the stairs. “You're a terrible liar,” she said, sounding a bit disappointed. “You get that from your father, obviously. Tell me what's wrong, maybe I can help.” “I went out to watch the others shift,” Bella said, leaning on the railing. “Now there's an all-American pastime,” she said, casting a lustful glance in the direction of the forest. “Honey, trust me, if your boy toys are upset about you sneaking a little peek at the competition, they probably don't have the equipment for the job in the first place.” “That's not it!” Bella snapped. “And they both have plenty of equipment for the—they're both well equipped, okay?” Bella stammered. “That's not what this is about.” “No?” She blinked. “Then what?” “I left the Lodge by myself. Months ago, Victor put a mental block up that would keep me from leaving the Lodge without permission,” Bella said. “It was our trade