Bloodstains and Bitemarks Page 5

  My mother stands in front of one headstone. She watches me with a tiny sad smile, her umber eyes sparkling with unshed tears. She’s wearing her favorite floral wrap dress, the one she saved for beach days and special occasions in the summer. A black rose is tucked behind her ear.

  “Nadia,” she whispers, reaching for my cheek before dropping her arm to her side. “How did you get here?”

  This isn’t real. It can’t be. I cried over my mother’s body for hours after Kane murdered her. I ran away from home two years ago with nothing but the clothes on my back soaked in her blood. This is all a dream, or a fucked-up trick Kane is playing with my mind. My eyes flicker over her body, but there’s no sign of the blade Kane buried in her chest the night I joined the Dark Hunt.

  I swivel my head around the cemetery. “Where is here?”

  Her face falls. “Witches call it the Between. It’s the thin space between the realm of the living and... well, my realm.”

  She’s kind enough not to say it, but my stomach still drops. “I’ll kill the bastard who did this to you. I swear on my life.”

  The tears spill from her eyes. “Don’t. Revenge is a toxic pursuit that will only blacken your soul. I know how much this hurts, but you can’t let your hatred consume you.”

  Too late. I surrendered to my darkest impulses the moment I joined the Dark Hunt. Killing monsters won’t bring my mother back, but it’s cathartic to think I’m doing my part to protect Miami from threats they’re safer not knowing about.

  “We don’t have long,” she says, her eyes flickering around the empty graveyard. “The veil between realms won’t stay open long. But if you resist your fears and allow your powers to bloom, we’ll see each other again soon. You’re free now.”

  “I don’t understand. How did I even get here? Is this a dream?”

  The sad smile returns. “There’s so much I wish I’d told you. But I wanted to preserve your innocence for as long as possible. You deserved that, especially after the childhood we gave you. I wrestled with telling you the truth every day, but every day I decided the timing wasn’t right. If I could change anything about my life, I’d tell you everything the morning you turned thirteen.”

  If she’s a figment of my imagination, she’s a fragmented one. “Tell me… everything about what?”

  “Who you are and where you come from. How everything that’s happened to you is because of me and your father.” She sighs. “Everything.”

  My head spins. I trusted my mother. How did I spot none of the lies she built my childhood on?

  “The veil is closing,” she says, her face twisted with regret. “Trust nothing but your intuition, Nadia. Your visions won’t lead you astray if you learn to master them. I love you.”

  My mother’s face and everything around us disappear. The darkness returns accompanied by an agonizing pain splitting through my skull. Sensation returns to my body, but I squeeze my eyes shut, hopeful I might glimpse my mother before she’s lost to me forever.

  The dream fades away, replaced by white-hot pain spreading from my head through my back and into my legs. My throat is raw and sore, but my mouth is too dry to swallow. A dry, metallic taste clings to the inside of my mouth. Blood. My blood?

  Each inhale of breath plunges tiny knives through my ribs. I try to readjust my position only to regret it instantly. The slightest twitch of my body sends a jolt of pain through me like electricity. A tiny whimper escapes my clenched teeth. What did those bastards do to me?

  It takes an act of God to pry open my heavy, swollen eyes. Only darkness greets me. My eyelashes flutter against a smooth material, my vision gone. A blindfold. I almost laugh. Does Kane think a blindfold will stop me from identifying him when I escape? I have every line of the bastard’s face memorized. Even without my sight, I know who my tormentor is.

  What I don’t know is where he’s taken me or what he wants. Or how he’s screwing with my head without touching me. The protective symbol Zeke tattooed on the inside of my ankle shields me from black magic. Combined with the injection given to me only days ago, Kane shouldn’t have any power to influence my thoughts.

  But it’s him. There’s no other explanation for the ghosts and memories sauntering around inside my skull. He’s using what he did to my mother to drive the knife further into my heart. Kane means to break me, just like he did two years ago. But I won’t grant him the satisfaction twice. Thanks to his betrayal, I don’t have a heart left for him to break.

  I strain my ears and listen for voices or traffic outside, anything that might tell me where I am. Only silence answers.

  Terror wraps itself around my throat and squeezes until I struggle for air. None of my training prepared me for this. Monsters don’t take prisoners. So what does Kane have planned for me?

  Hysteria bubbles from me before I can stop myself. Tears roll down my face, the salt burning the cracks in my lips. This is how I die. My fantasies of avenging my mother’s death led me right into the hands of the monster who killed her.

  Zeke warned me hunters don’t get happy endings, but I refused to listen. I never planned to stay with the Dark Hunt forever. As soon as I killed Kane, I’d planned to say my farewells and move on with my life. I had put little thought into where I’d go next. Anywhere but Miami.

  A door swings open somewhere nearby. My body goes rigid. Footsteps creak across the wooden floor beneath me, stopping a few feet from where I lay. I recognize his musky cologne before he speaks.

  “Figured you’d wake up around now. Nice nap?”

  His voice still sounds the same as it did the first time he approached me two years ago, rich with a hint of gravel. A chill spreads through me as my thoughts drift back in time to the day we met. He showed up out of nowhere in his dark jeans and leather jacket, pretending to rescue me from an uncomfortable conversation with another guy. He charmed me, teased me, and made me laugh more than any of the men I’d gone out with in the past. Despite the blanket of red flags he carried around, I fell for Kane so hard and fast it scared me. His betrayal blindsided me, but only because I refused to see him for what he was. A mistake I won’t make again.

  “Go to Hell,” I snarl, pushing away the unbidden memories.

  Kane chuckles. “Don’t tell me that’s the best you’ve got. Didn’t they teach you how to shit talk with the Dark Hunt?”

  “No need. We converse little with our targets.” My voice is dry and raspy, but at least the tears have stopped. I refuse to give Kane the pleasure of seeing me cry, even if it’s beneath a blindfold. “Monsters like you aren’t worth the oxygen.”

  Pain tears through my scalp as a hand reaches down and jerks me up by a fistful of my hair. I thrash and wiggle against the restraints as Kane dangles me above the ground by my hair. His other hand wraps around my neck and squeezes. Tobacco and lime lingers on his breath.

  “Watch that tongue of yours or I’ll carve it from your mouth, pet.”

  My blood turns to ice. After what he did to my mother, I have no trouble believing Kane will make good on his threat. But death sounds more appealing than whatever this barbaric demon has in mind for me. “Let me go. I’m not your fucking pet.”

  His grip around my throat tightens as he chuckles. When he speaks, his voice is smoky. Sexy, even, under different circumstances. “I don’t think you’re understanding how this works. You’re whatever I say you are now, pet. Until we kill you or release you, you’re mine.”

  The last word is almost a growl, sending a chill through my body. His grip on my hair disappears, sending my body crashing onto the hardwood floor. My back slams against the ground. Only when I feel the cool floor against my back do I realize he’s taken my clothes.

  Kane’s voice appears in my ear, his breath warm against my face. “Our time together doesn’t have to be miserable. I’ll drag the information I need out of you either way, so there’s no point in resisting. The more you cooperate with us, the less we’ll hurt you.”

  His hand slides up my leg, his nails trail
ing along my skin until goosebumps form. He stops at my clenched knees for a moment, then forces his fingers into the space between my thighs. He slides up towards my most sensitive region, stopping only inches away. A callous chuckle echoes through the room. “We can both have a lot of fun with this. If you’re an obedient girl.”

  My pulse speeds. I picture Kane’s body lifeless on the ground, his onyx eyes gazing helplessly at the ceiling as I smash the heel of my boot into the bridge of his nose. My nails bite into my palms. The second I figure out how to escape, I’ll tear his throat out with my teeth.

  The door swings open once more. A pair of heels clack against the floor, stopping a few feet away.

  “Sorry to interrupt,” a feminine voice purrs. “Your brother requests a word. He’s waiting in the second-floor study.”

  Kane growls. “It can wait.”

  “Do you want to explain to Dagon why you kept him waiting?”

  He sighs. The fabric of his clothes rustles as he rises to his feet beside me. “Let’s give our prisoner a little time to ponder what she’s learned. We’ll pick this up later, when she’s in a more helpful mood.”

  “Fuck you,” I growl, unable to stop myself. He can hurt me all he likes, but I’ll never tell him anything. My loyalty to Zeke and Jade outweighs my selfish desire to live.

  Kane gives my head a patronizing pat. “I hope you’ll reconsider. In case you missed it, no one’s coming to save you. Zeke and Michael don’t care about what happens to you. They’ll drag a kid in from the streets and teach them to kill. You’re disposable to them, easy to replace when you inevitably meet a nasty end.”

  I snarl. “I’ll take my chances, thanks.”

  “Suit yourself. Let’s see if a few hours alone in here change your mind.”

  The door slams shut. I hold my breath and listen as the soft click of the woman’s heels grow softer and disappear. Kane had one thing right—no one is coming to rescue me. If I want to survive, I must come up with a plan on my own.

  * * *

  I’m left alone in the dark for what feels like an eternity. Moments of sleep come and go, but it’s impossible to rest. Coarse ropes dig into my wrists, pinned behind my back. I twist and struggle against the restraints until my muscles are too sore to move. Minutes stretch into hours, but the blindfold makes it impossible to track the passage of time with any accuracy. I try to will myself to stay focused on planning my escape, but the forced darkness causes my thoughts to spiral into chaos. Images of my mother’s body remain burned onto the backs of my eyelids. Her lifeless eyes stare past me into the void. Blood drips from the corner of her lips, her mouth open in a frozen scream.

  My chest swells with rage until it’s so tight, every inhale is a struggle. I abandoned my dreams of college and a normal life to pursue Kane. On my darkest nights, I’d imagine how vindicated I’d feel when I bury my blade in the side of his neck. My obsession became my undoing. After two years of searching every dark corner for Kane, it never occurred to me he might find me first.

  The room is frigid, leaving my skin decorated in tiny goosebumps. I guess even demons can’t stand the sweltering late summer heat. With no clothes to protect me, I’m left vulnerable to whatever the demons have planned for me. I’ve collected a lot of information about demons in my hunts over the years, but nothing about their interrogation techniques. In my experience, demons kill their victims instantly. If I’m still alive, it’s only because they want something from me.

  Kane doesn’t care about me. Whatever he’s after has something to do with Zeke and the Dark Hunt. He probably doesn’t remember much about our history aside from murdering my mother. I’m the only one tortured with memories of his mouth on mine.

  Kane’s hips press mine into the wall behind me. He lifts his hand and tucks a lock of hair behind my ear with more tenderness than I’d imagined possible from a man his size dressed head-to-toe in black. His lips inches away, the warmth of his breath tickles my face. My stomach flips. A tiny voice in the back of my head screams at me to run, but he crushes his lips against mine before I move. He tastes like cigarettes and broken promises and whiskey. All at once, I know I’m screwed.

  I can’t afford to dwell on the past. Not when my current situation is so dire. Kane will kill me once I tell him whatever he wants to know. My mother never did a damn thing to him, but he had no problem slaughtering her to punish me. God only knows what he’ll do now that he has me in his claws.

  No matter how hard I try to focus on the present and how to escape, my thoughts drift through memories I’ve fought hard to suppress. I can still remember our first date, clutching Kane tightly as we raced through the streets of Miami on a massive motorcycle. They say you never forget your first kiss. I can still remember the way his lips felt against mine as if it happened minutes ago, but the memory brings nothing but nausea now. I’ll never forgive myself for the way I allowed his charms to blind me to the truth. Every alarm bell in my head screamed at me to run, but I couldn’t bring myself to let him go. Not until he destroyed me.

  The door eventually slides open. My body turns to stone. Sweat drips from my hairline down my neck despite the icy air conditioning. My fingernails bite into my palms as I wait for Kane to approach and resume his torture. Whatever he throws my way, I can take it. He can take my life, but he’s powerless to steal my secrets.

  Instead, a deeper voice cuts into the silence. “You’re a little on the slight side for a hunter, no?”

  I grit my teeth. Despite the blindfold, I have my suspicions of who the silky voice belongs to. “I was even younger when your brother murdered my mother. You didn’t seem to care.”

  “Kane?” Dagon laughs. “We’re guilty of a lot, little one, but neither of us touched a hair on your mother’s head. Why would we? The Legion protects witches the same as any other Paranormal.”

  It shouldn’t surprise me Kane didn’t tell anyone about me or what he’d done. Slumming it with human girls can’t score him many points with the other demons. “He killed her because I told him we couldn’t see each other anymore.”

  The demon chuckles once more. “Believe what you like. It’s a waste of time to convince you otherwise. Michael doesn’t train his hunters with critical thinking skills. But I’m happy to swear on the Dark Lord’s name Kane did not kill Alana Gray. He had no reason to. We needed her.”

  I shake my head, the one part of my body I can still move. A sharp pain spreads up my neck and into my skull. “You didn’t know my mother.”

  “You sure about that? I recognized you the moment I laid eyes on you. Your daddy is a bit of a star around here. And your dearly departed mom? Never met a better witch.”

  My skin tingles. A bark of sarcastic laughter escapes my lips. “You’re fucking insane. I’ll rip your tongue out if you say another word about my mother.”

  “Have it your way. I didn’t come up here to argue.”

  My mouth goes dry. “Why are you here?”

  “I promised Kane I’d deliver his present. He insists you need something for the pain.”

  “Wait!”

  A hand grips my arm before I can finish, squashing my hopes of asking him to untie me long enough for a bathroom break. I squeal as something pierces my skin, injecting fire into my bloodstream. The hand disappears, and Dagon’s footsteps make their way towards the door.

  “That shit’s pretty strong. You’ll be lights out for a while. Enjoy. When you wake up, we’ll get down to business.”

  Within seconds, I can tell he’s right about the potency. My head swims and my vision doubles before the door opens and shuts. My eyelids grow heavy. Within minutes the darkness returns for me. I close my eyes and slide into it willingly this time. Anything to escape the hell Kane has in store for me.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Nadia

  Consciousness returns to my body slowly. My head continues to float long after my muscles burn in protest of their contorted position. The frigid room leaves my exposed nipples hard enough to cut diamonds. Go
osebumps decorate my flesh. I open my eyes, but the blindfold is still secure around my head. The rope digs into my skin, cutting off circulation to my wrists and ankles. Spices perfume the room, and my stomach grumbles. I can’t even remember the last time I ate.

  “Welcome back to the land of the living,” Kane’s voice teases from somewhere across the room. “How’s your head feel?”

  “Fuck you,” I snarl, pushing away the throbbing pain in my temples. “I won’t tell you anything, so you’d might as well kill me now.”

  “That’s not how this works.” His footsteps move closer to where I’m trapped. My muscles tense. “I’ll kill you with pleasure, but not until you’ve told me what I need to know. If you’re an agreeable girl, we might even consider setting you free.”

  “Liar.”

  “I’m a lot of things, but not dishonest.”

  “Then why the blindfold?” It’s not as if his face isn’t already burned into my memory. I’ve seen him in my nightmares countless times over the years.

  For the first six months after leaving home, I couldn’t close my eyes without picturing Kane and remembering what he’d done. I’d spot a happy couple strolling down the sidewalk hand-in-hand and think about his warm skin pressed against my own. I’d remember his forceful but gentle kisses and the way my heart sped each time he said my name. But the memories always ended in finding him covered in my mother’s blood as he fled from our backyard, and I’d hate myself for recalling anything else about him.

  He chuckles. “That wasn’t my decision, but I figured it couldn’t hurt. Why? Does it make you nervous when you can’t see what’s coming?”

  “If you were any actual threat, you wouldn’t have brought so many of your demon pals to help capture me,” I growl through gritted teeth.

  Pain shoots through my scalp. His fingers wrap around my hair and lift my head from the ground. His breath warms the side of my face, the faintest trace of alcohol and tobacco still on him. I swallow back a yelp, unwilling to give him the satisfaction of knowing he hurt me.