Stygian Read online

  “Like you were going to let me know about being Anstice’s brother?”

  I really could come up with nothing. Literally nothing. Because I was Anstice’s brother and I’d kept it from Danni. I’d thought I’d be either dead or in Rest, never to see her again.

  “I’m not staying here.” Danni tried to move out of my arms, but I tightened my hold.

  It was obvious she was still angry and hurt over the lies and I couldn’t blame her. But the truth was a hell of a lot to take in right now. “Anstice loves you. I know it’s hard without answers, but I swear, I’ll tell you everything soon. When you understand, you’ll forgive your friend for what she’s had to do.” I leaned forward and kissed her again and it took a few seconds before I managed to get her to submit. “I have to go. Get some rest. I’ll be back in a bit and we’ll talk.”

  “I’m coming with you. I’ll just throw on some clothes.” Danni pulled from my arms and rushed to the foot of the bed where someone had laid her clothes.

  “No.” I strode over to her and grabbed her shirt from her before she had a chance to put it on. “This isn’t something you can be a part of. Stay here.”

  Danni put her hands on her hips. “I deserve to know what the hell is going on.”

  “Danni.” I tried to keep my voice gentle, but it came out like a warning instead. Habit. I was a Scar and it was difficult being anything but. I made decisions and expected others to listen to me, no questions.

  Shit, she looked pissed.

  She picked up her jeans, whipping them at me, smacking me in the face. “Fine, I won’t get dressed.”

  With a determined look on her face, she headed for the door dressed in the slinky tank top and boxer shorts.

  “Danni,” I warned. “Don’t you—Fuck.”

  She ignored me and walked out the door.

  I went after her. “Danni. Stop.” I caught up to her and grabbed her arm. “What the hell are you doing?”

  She glared.

  “This can’t go down like this. You need to trust me.” Then my eyes trailed down the front of her and my cock hardened. “If another fuckin’ guy looks at you like this, I’m going to lose it. Have some mercy here. This shit is complicated. Give me some time.”

  “You had two years.”

  I sighed. “I need you to do this for me. Please.”

  I felt the moment she gave in to me as the stiffness went out of her body. “Fine. But I want to know every detail. And if you’re longer than an hour, I’m coming down naked.” She slipped from my grasp and turned to go back to her room, hips swaying provocatively. She glanced over her shoulder. “Oh, and it was your cock straining against your jeans that convinced me to let you win—this time.”

  I groaned. Hell, I was in trouble with this chick.

  “Where have you been for two years?” Keir demanded as soon as I entered the living room.

  I walked over to the bar and helped myself to a Bombay and tonic. “Nowhere special.” Reliving the hell I’d been through and trying to rid myself of the vampire blood was not something I wanted to go into. Ever.

  Waleron, who rarely sat in anyone’s presence, sat in the high-backed leather chair, one leg resting over the other. Casual. Too casual. “Did you mention Danielle to anyone?”

  “I was trying to forget her, not torture myself.” And it had failed miserably considering she’d haunted my mind twenty-four seven.

  “I don’t understand it,” Keir said. “Who can do this? And why? What is the point of Bonding two people together? It has no purpose. Even Trinity can’t bond two people together like this.”

  Shit. Could it be possible that some fuckin’ witch put a spell on us? “Bonded? That hasn’t been done. At least I’ve never heard of it being done.” I leaned up against the cabinet that held an array of ancient artifacts and took a sip of my drink. “As far as I know, only a damn powerful witch can pull that shit off.”

  “And a witch would have nothing to gain.” Keir shook his head. “No, someone more powerful. Danni would’ve died if you’d been put in Rest.”

  “More powerful,” Waleron repeated. “Did you feel anything while you were away? A spell being cast?”

  I hesitated. I’d spent most of my time fighting the tainted blood inside me. It took every bit of control to refrain from seeking vampires and joining them. The constant thirst begged me to drink from any who came near me.

  “Balen?” Waleron asked.

  “No. Not that I was aware of,” I replied. I couldn’t tell them I had drunk Ryszard’s blood and Danni’s. It couldn’t be the reason for our connection; I’d driven all the tainted blood from my system.

  “How far were you from here?” Waleron asked.

  “I went to England for the first year then returned to Canada. However, I never came to see her until recently.”

  “And when you came back?” Waleron asked.

  All I knew was that I’d had this urgency to be with Danni the minute I laid eyes on her again. “It was odd. I never thought of it before now, but when I came back and saw her again, it was like . . . shit, I don’t know, like I was compelled to be with her. God, I even stayed outside her place like some stalker.” It had to be a spell.

  “Shit.” Keir pressed his fingers to his temple. “Sounds like a spell. Why, though?”

  “Delara knows something,” Waleron said. I froze, drink halfway to my mouth. “She warned me that Danielle would die if I put you in Rest. She refused to tell me anything more.”

  “Refused you?” Keir asked, brows rising.

  Waleron ignored him. “Bonding is an old spell used by the ancients. It was originally for breeding purposes. The most powerful male Scars were Bonded to the most powerful women so reproduction was guaranteed to produce a child with the strongest abilities. It was a way for us to gain strength. Damien is of a Bonded line. That is why he is a Tracker and a Visionary.”

  “But there is nothing gained by Bonding us together. She’s human.” Fuck, this was bad. I’d be hunted by the Wraiths and now I was Bonded to Danni—a human.

  “Who is capable of Bonding?” Keir asked.

  “Few,” Waleron replied. He placed his untouched brandy on the coffee table and rose. “Be ready. The Wraiths, they will come for you. I’ll be back shortly.”

  “I promised to tell her about us,” I said before Waleron had a chance to Trace.

  Keir swore under his breath, but remained quiet.

  Waleron nodded. “Yes. It’s time. She must join us.”

  “What the hell does that mean?” My eyes narrowed and my body tensed.

  Waleron said, “She must become a Scar. If she doesn’t, she’ll die. Because, Balen, the Wraiths will capture you and put you in Rest. It’s just a matter of when.”

  Before I could ask how the hell it was possible for a human to become a Scar, Waleron Traced from the room.

  Waleron had become a cold, heartless bastard who had no compassion for anyone. A few thought his lack of emotion was an after effect from when Waleron was captured by a Lilac over a hundred years ago. Lilacs were Center World Others—females, nasty. They lured men into their web and sucked the life right out of them. Sometimes Lilacs placed their prey in cocoons and let them stay alive for weeks, trapped in hell.

  Waleron had been a Lilac’s captive for sixty-one years.

  I chugged back the rest of my drink and set it on the glass bar. “Ever hear of a human becoming one of us?”

  “Nope,” Keir said.

  “Think he’s shittin’ me?”

  “Nope.”

  “Yeah, figured that.”

  A KNOCK SOUNDED AND I smiled, anticipating Balen after his ‘testosterone only’ conference.

  I opened the door and my smile faded at the sight of Anstice. I half closed the door in her face then stopped myself, remembering Balen’s words. Being rude was just plain immature.

  “Come to tell more lies?” I could still be a bitch. I turned and walked back to finish making the bed. My hurt from Anstice not telli
ng me about Balen being her brother was still fresh. God, how could she? We’d been friends since, well, forever.

  “I just wanted to see . . . Danni, please look at me. I want to explain.” Anstice approached me, but stopped several feet away. “Every time you painted his portrait, it destroyed me not to tell you, but I couldn’t. I was sworn to secrecy and I thought . . .” She wrung her hands together. “I thought you’d get over him. I don’t know . . . maybe that you’d stop painting him. But then . . . then he came back and it all changed.”

  I pulled the duvet up over the pillows and smoothed it out. “It changed way before that, Anstice. It changed when you met Keir and you damn well know it. You quit your job. God, you loved being a vet. But I supported you. You wanted to be at Keir’s beck and call. I never said shit. I trusted you to tell me things. I thought we confided in each other.”

  Anstice reached out and grabbed my hand. I stopped fiddling with the duvet. “Danni, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Balen.” She hesitated as if she was having difficulty getting words past a large lump in her throat. “Ryszard was after me. He used you and Balen to get to me.”

  I jerked my eyes to Anstice. What the fuck?

  Anstice continued, “We’re different. Keir, Balen, Damien, Jedrik, me, all of us—and, well there are more of us.”

  Oh, God, this didn’t sound good.

  Anstice slipped her hand from mine then sat on the bed. “I didn’t know any of this until I met Keir. I didn’t know I had a brother or that I was different. Remember when Keir was attacked in the alley and I went to help.” I nodded. “Well, that’s when I found out. If I hadn’t seen it firsthand, I wouldn’t have believed it either. I had to trust him.”

  “So, different in that they have their own laws? Like a biker gang.” I snorted because the idea made damn sense. Keir even had a bike, although I never saw Jedrik on one. Keir was tatted up, didn’t take shit from anyone and, yeah, this place was like a clubhouse. And the laws . . . Balen said he broke them. Betrayed them. That shit wasn’t allowed in a Motorcycle Club. No wonder they were after him. “That’s why you couldn’t tell me?”

  “Well, yes and no. They have their own laws, yes, and I was sworn to secrecy, so I guess you could make the comparison. But it’s . . .” She sighed. “Remember when we were kids and my hands burned?”

  “When you touch injured people.”

  Anstice nodded. “I’m called a Healer. A Scar Healer.”

  “A what?” I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like what Anstice was going to tell me, and yet, I still needed to know.

  “We’re called Scars.”

  “Keir is part of a biker gang called Scars? And you’re what, their doctor for when they get shot or knifed? Damn, I would’ve expected a better name than that. Maybe Black Deviled Scars or something.” Shit, did that mean Balen was part of a gang? I didn’t like that idea. Actually, I hated the idea that Anstice was a part of it. No wonder she was different after she met Keir. And when Keir was attacked in the alley . . . shit, that was probably another biker gang. One with fangs. I shivered, rubbing my arms.

  Anstice smiled. “Ah, no. We’re more like a group that have unique abilities.” She bit her lip and hesitated. “Umm . . . when I touch someone who is ill or wounded, I can heal them.”

  I felt like laughing and crying at the same time. I did neither. Anstice looked serious, and after all, vampires were . . . real. Yeah, that still was not sitting well. “Okay, say this is true. Then why didn’t you heal me when I fell off my bike and broke my arm that time when I was eight? Or can you only heal certain injuries? Or maybe there is the possibility that Keir’s Scars are involved with drugs and he’s slipping you something to make you think you have this . . . ability.” God, and I thought I was insane. Now Anstice was going to end up in a padded cell with me.

  “You don’t believe me.” Anstice looked up at me.

  I sighed. “Anst, healing with the touch of your hands? It’s a little hard to swallow. You don’t have to make things up in order to try to make amends, okay? We’ve been friends a long time. I hate that you kept shit from me, but I’m not going to throw our relationship away because you swore to some secret about your husband’s criminal activity. I just needed to be pissed off for a bit. Did Balen and Keir screw over this Ryszard guy? Is he part of another gang?”

  “He’s . . . was a vampire, Danni.”

  “A vampire,” I repeated. Scary, shaved-head doctor guy told me that too.

  Anstice sighed, her fingers curling together. “If I’d told you two years ago that the guy who abducted you was a vampire, do you think you’d have believed me? You were talking to the police, what if you’d told them what I’d said? We, the Scars can’t allow that, Danni. It’s forbidden for humans to know about us. Can you imagine if the world knew we existed?” Anstice hesitated and I stopped pacing to look at her. “Ryszard wanted me, so I could heal him. I’m one of a rare few that have the ability to heal vampires. He was using you to get to me until, well, until Balen made the deal with him. In exchange for your life, Balen gave Ryszard the location of where the Scars were hiding me.”

  I was speechless. Everything whirled around in my head and I couldn’t grasp onto one solid thing.

  “You of all people know that I wouldn’t lie about something so . . . far-fetched.”

  “If you were on drugs you would.” God, I’d been so stupid. It all fit now. Jedrik and Hack living here, that other guy I’d seen the night I’d hidden up in the tree. Scary shaved-head guy, Waleron. And it was winter, so they weren’t riding their bikes. Criminals. A gang. And they’d been after Balen for breaking code or something.

  “Vampires do exist, Danni. You had the marks on your neck to prove it.” Anstice voice was quiet and calm.

  So a vampire sucked my blood. Padded room, here I come. But I knew the Ryszard guy had bitten my neck. So maybe it was true. Could it be true? I sure as hell didn’t want it to be.

  “Ryszard released you, and Balen led him to me,” Anstice said.

  Oh, fuck. I felt my knees weaken and sat beside Anstice. “That’s what he meant.”

  “What?”

  “Balen said he betrayed someone. He betrayed you. He risked your life to save mine.” How could he make that choice? Why pick me? Anstice was his sister. God, this was getting shittier by the second. If this was all true and I wasn’t having some kind of hallucinations, maybe they had drugged me.

  “Balen had been tortured for weeks and needed healing. Ryszard knew this, so he . . .” She paused. “He made a bargain—Balen had to consume Ryszard’s blood, which would make him into a vampire and then lead him to me. If Balen did this, Ryszard would let you go. Balen made the deal and when you were released, Jedrik took you to the hospital. Of course, Waleron—he’s our Taldeburu, our leader—erased your memory.

  “Balen came back to us so I could heal him and then lead Ryszard to me. Balen had tainted blood, but it had yet to take effect, and none of us knew Balen was infected until it was too late. I healed him and then I was taken to Trinity’s.”

  Could that explain Balen’s mangled leg healing? God, could Anstice really heal? I was beginning to realize that making all this up wasn’t possible. “Trinity?” I asked.

  “Umm, yeah, Trinity is a . . . well, a witch.”

  “Oh God.” Vampires, witches, and her best friend was a Healer for a group known as the Scars. That weren’t a gang, but had their own laws. What next? Werewolves?

  “Trinity has a safe house. It’s protected so no one can enter without an invitation. When Balen came to the house, Trinity thought he’d come to protect me and invited him inside. In turn, Balen invited Ryszard.”

  This was so surreal. Anstice’s words were like a mythical story of hell. Could it get any worse? Probably. Anstice had yet to tell me what exactly the Scars were. What Balen was.

  “Trinity sent Waleron a warning. But Ryszard knew I wouldn’t go with him willingly, so he was prepared. He had one of his underlings take you from th
e hospital.”

  The memory hurtled into me. “He held a knife to my throat. You were there and so was Balen. Balen attacked the guy with the knife and . . .” Oh, shit, I’d been terrified. Balen had stabbed the guy in the neck and taken me into the basement. I looked at Anstice. “I fought him. I fought your brother. I tried to get away. I saw you struggling to escape Ryszard. Then, there was all this noise and . . . I don’t remember anything else.” I rubbed my temples as the nagging memories assaulted me.

  “Abby is a witch from the coven. She took you back to the hospital.” Anstice lowered her head and her voice softened. “Balen vanished. The vampire blood he drank had to have been taking hold of him. He had to run or he might have turned on you . . . and us. He knew the effects, the consequence, of the poison in his veins.” Anstice closed her eyes for a few seconds. “God, he must have been in so much agony, trying to fight it. Leaving was the only thing he could do. The Scars would’ve had to kill him if he’d stayed.”

  The thought of Balen being killed sent a wave of panic through my body. I felt vulnerable when it came to him and I hated it. My father had been that way with my mother and look where it led him. I drew my hand from Anstice and stood. “Balen left you there? He left you to Ryszard?” That so didn’t sound good.

  Anstice nodded. “Yes. But he knew Keir and the others had come to help me. Balen would never have left me to Ryszard otherwise.”

  No, he wouldn’t. I knew that even though I barely knew Balen.

  “I believe in my brother, Danni. He thought of nothing but you when he consumed Ryszard’s blood. He knew he would turn, knew he’d be hunted and killed by Scars, yet he saw an opportunity to set you free and took it. He knew Keir would protect me.”

  There was no question Balen would’ve protected both me and Anstice. I saw it every time I looked at his painting, the agony at what he’d done, the turmoil over leaving and the guilt that sat like a cement block on his shoulders. “But why keep this from me? Why couldn’t you just explain like you are now?”