“Jane!” Annette called. “Jane, I want to help you!”
But…when she rushed into that last room on the right, Jane wasn’t there. Bloody manacles were on the floor, but Jane was gone. Annette staggered to a stop. The vampire thudded into her back.
“Go find her,” Annette whispered. “Hurry. Find her.” Before Aidan does.
***
Jane’s bare feet pounded over the pavement. That powerful blood was in the air, calling to her. A heavy, stone fence waited just feet away—Jane ran forward and leapt right over the fence. When she landed, she crouched and looked around the cemetery. Her nostrils twitched.
To the left. Go. Left. Jane bounded forward, darting around crypts and then—then she came face to face with her prey.
Paris held Vivian in his arms. Vivian was bleeding. So much blood. So much sweet blood.
Jane’s teeth snapped together.
“Oh, hell, no,” Garrison muttered from behind Paris. “Tell me she’s not all vamped up.”
Jane wanted to talk to them. To tell them all to run but…
There’s so much blood. And it smells incredible.
She crept toward her prey. Paris had gone statue-still. “Jane,” he said, “I don’t want to hurt you.”
I don’t think you can.
Her hand reached for Vivian. She licked her lips.
“Jane…” Vivian’s weak voice. “Jane…h-help me…”
She doesn’t know what I am.
Vivian thought Jane was still just her friend.
I’m about to feed on my friend. No, no, no.
“Get…her away…” Jane rasped, then she turned and fled even deeper into the heart of that cemetery. This is the city of the dead. This is where I belong. I can’t attack. I can’t drink. I should be dead.
Dead.
She ran faster, aware that she was crying, her chest shuddering. She pounded on her chest, wanting to stop the terrible pain that she felt, wanting it all to end. As she should have ended when her brother shot her.
She darted around another crypt.
Howls penetrated the chaos of her thoughts. Terrible, frenzied howls.
Jane saw two beasts. One was a big, black wolf…with blue eyes that were forever burned into her memory.
The other beast…it was smaller, a white wolf with pale green eyes. As she stared at it, the white wolf slowly turned toward her. It sniffed the air, as if confused, and then its eyes lit with a killing fury.
Aidan always said…a werewolf has a primal instinct to kill a vampire.
That wolf coming toward her…it was going to kill her.
He’s the other alpha. She was having moments of sanity—desperate moments pushing through that wild, driving bloodlust that twisted her mind. The other alpha will kill me…that way, Aidan doesn’t have to do the dark deed. He won’t have my death on his conscience. He won’t carry that guilt forever.
She stretched her hands out at her sides. The white wolf was bounding toward her. Its heavy jaws were hanging open, and saliva dripped from his razor sharp teeth. This was the beast she’d been hunting. This was the beast who would kill her.
She could welcome her end. Her death would stop Aidan’s pain. It would stop her own pain.
Jane started to close her eyes.
But…
Screw this. I’m not ready. The wolf leapt for her and Jane caught him around the neck. Her strength surprised her. She held that wolf easily. She lifted him up—
And Jane drove her fangs past his fur and into his neck. The wolf let out a terrible cry—a scream of pain, a howl of fury—and he thrashed in her hold, but Jane held him fast. And she drank.
His blood is hot and rich. I like it.
And she wasn’t vomiting it up. His blood was flowing over her tongue and she just wanted to keep taking. Taking and taking and taking until nothing is left.
Jane shoved the wolf away from her, throwing him into the stone wall of a nearby crypt. “But I’m…not…a…killer.” Her breath heaved out. Each word was a struggle but she did it. She spoke. She fought the bloodlust. She won. “You’re…under…arrest…”
The white wolf leapt back to his feet. He shook his head. His blood had darkened his white coat. He pushed back onto his hind legs and hurtled into the air, coming right at her.
Because obviously, you want some more, huh, bastard?
But Aidan collided with him. The two wolves hit in a tangle of limbs. They rolled, clawing and biting and fighting with a savagery that she’d never witnessed before. They were strong. They were powerful. They were—
Aidan sank his teeth into the other wolf’s throat, right in the same spot she’d attacked. Only Aidan hadn’t gone for some little bite.
Jane sucked in a sharp breath as she stared at the scene before her.
Aidan ripped out the other wolf’s throat.
The heavy, coppery scent of blood flooded her nose again. And this time…I can smell death. It’s coming. Jane watched as the black wolf backed away from his prey. The white wolf slowly shifted, his fur melting away from his body. Soon a man was on the ground where the wolf had been. A man struggling to take a breath. Wheezing on the ground.