She didn’t want to be like that. But already, Jane could feel her humanity sliding away. Need blood. Need it.
“You won’t be this way,” Vincent said, as if he were making a promise to her. “I won’t let you make the same mistakes I did.” His voice was grim. “You will be the end. Just like you were supposed to be…only they’re wrong about how that end will come. You’ll change everything for the vampires. I know you can do it. I know it.”
He knew nothing.
Her lashes slowly lifted. “Blood.” It was all she could manage. So guttural. So…desperate.
He nodded. Then he…he lifted up what looked like a plastic bag, one that was filled with red liquid. “I’ve got all the blood you need, right here.”
Bagged. Not from a person. Somewhere deep inside, joy burst through Jane. She wasn’t going to feed from a person. She could just take the blood bags! She wouldn’t be a monster! She wouldn’t!
He ripped open the bag. “Open wide, Jane.” Vincent was smiling. Looking happy…or as happy as a vamp could look.
She opened her mouth. He lifted up the bag and blood poured past her lips, over her tongue, down her throat. That terrible, twisted need she had felt moments before began to lessen as she gorged herself and then—
Jane vomited. The blood all came back up—and landed right on Vincent.
And in a very dim part of her mind, Jane thought…Serves you right, asshole. That’s what you get for killing me.
Vincent wiped the blood vomit from his eyes. “We may need to try something else.”
The bloodlust grew again, even stronger than before. She snapped at him with her teeth because his throat suddenly looked way too appealing.
Vincent hurriedly stepped back. “We definitely need to try something else.”
***
“Where is Jane?” Aidan asked Annette as he stood in her shop, in the private back room. Paris was right behind him. Garrison lurked in the shadows, poking at the objects on her shelf. Garrison had been trying to sneak his little ass out of town, but Aidan had stopped him. Pack didn’t run. Pack stayed together.
No matter what.
He knew Garrison was afraid of having to hurt Jane…Join the fucking club. That was why they were all there with Annette. Because there has to be another option. We can’t kill Jane.
Annette sat at the small table she used for her scrying work, and her gaze was on the mirror before her. To Aidan, the mirror looked completely black, but he knew that Annette saw…things…in that dark surface.
See Jane.
Annette smoothed back her hair. “How did your beast react to her?”
“Can’t you see for yourself?” He snapped. “Isn’t it all right there in that fucking glass?”
She looked up at him.
Paris put his hand on Aidan’s shoulder. “Easy.”
Aidan’s lip curled in a snarl. “There is nothing easy about this situation.” It was a fucking nightmare. “I lost my Jane.”
“And now…” Annette murmured, her face sad. “You think she will attack you…turn on you…the same way that your mother did.”
His teeth ground together. “Isn’t that what vampires do?”
Her gaze searched his. “Jane is not your mother. You are not your father.”
That wasn’t an answer to his question.
“How did your beast react to her?” Annette asked again. Aidan just stared at her. Annette’s fist slammed down on the table, making the scrying mirror bounce. “Dammit, I don’t see what happened, Aidan! That’s why I’m asking! Now stop being a dick and tell me!”
Silence.
Garrison cleared his throat. “You shouldn’t call the alpha a dick.”
“Then he shouldn’t be one,” Annette snapped right back. “Look, I get this is hard.”
Aidan laughed. “Hard doesn’t cover it.” She wanted to know? Fine. “Jane went for my throat and my beast went for her. I shifted before I could stop myself and if Vincent hadn’t vanished with her.” Fucking parlor trick that I still don’t understand. “If he hadn’t vanished, I would have killed them both.” It was a truth that made him sick.
Killed…Jane.
His hands fisted. “I don’t want this.”
“Guilt can be a terrible monster to carry,” she said, her voice softening. “I’m sorry.”
“I did this to her. If I’d moved faster, if I hadn’t brought in her bastard of a brother…”
Annette shook her head. “Fate can’t be changed. Jane was born to be a vampire.”
“Fuck fate. Jane was born to be mine.”
Her brow furrowed at his words, and Annette leaned over her mirror once more. “Yes,” she said, voice a bit dazed. “I think she was.”
And her brother is a dead man. I’ve already got a call in to Vivian’s office…I want access to that prisoner. Drew Hart was in intensive care at the local hospital, under constant police protection. Once Aidan spoke with Vivian, that protection would vanish. Drew would die.