Bound in Death (Bound #5)(51)

He crooked his finger toward the witch.

When she flinched, he smiled. “Come now, my dear, it’s almost time for you to do your part.”

She had a role to play, just as he did. Only once his lovely witch had done his bidding, then he’d kill her.

She was incredibly weak, and he despised weakness. It would soon be time for a new model.

***

“He’s waiting on the other side of the mountain, in a blue house just past the bridge.” Ryan’s voice was flat. “I saw the house in the human’s mind. Lorcan is there.”

“It’s a trap.” Alerac knew this. They all had to know this. “We aren’t trading Jane.” That plan was pure shit.

Jane stood near the fireplace. No fire burned. She stared at the empty hearth. “I don’t understand. If he wanted me dead, if he wanted me at all, why didn’t he come for me himself when I was free? Why wait six months? Why start the attacks now?”

Alerac wanted to know the answers to those questions, too. At first, he’d thought that he’d gotten lucky. That he’d found Jane first.

Lucky hadn’t been in the equation.

Lorcan was playing them.

“Lorcan is a tricky bastard. He’s always manipulating, playing his games.” Ryan was close to Jane’s side. “I don’t know why—”

“There wasn’t anything special in her blood,” Heath muttered.

Alerac frowned at him. “A vampire’s blood, by its very nature, is f*cking special.” It had certainly healed the human.

But Heath shook his head. He was sweating, but no longer bleeding. Fear oozed from the man’s pores. Probably because he realized that he wouldn’t be living much longer. Not much longer at all. “Liam had me comparing her blood to other vamps. He was—he was looking for something in her blood. Some kind of power that wasn’t there. He kept saying that it should be there.”

Liam knew that Alerac had grown stronger after taking Jane’s blood. That he’d transformed into something that was both werewolf and vampire.

Liam had taken the blood of other vampires so that his life could be extended. So that he could fight at Alerac’s side. But he’d never gotten the power boost that Alerac had received. Never transformed into a hybrid creature.

Only Alerac had done that—with the aid of Jane’s blood.

“I think Liam and Lorcan both want to know how you changed me.” Alerac made sure that his voice carried easily across the room. “Hell, maybe Lorcan even held back on making contact with you because he wanted me to find you first. He probably even wanted us to mate, so that he could see the changes.” Was that why the guy hadn’t directly come at them yet? He was waiting, watching?

Her breath whispered out. “Changes?”

“The sun isn’t hurting you anymore. You aren’t weak, and you should be weak during the day.”

Her lashes lowered.

“Maybe Lorcan wanted you to spend time with me because he wanted—” Alerac broke off. He wanted us to mate. To f*ck. To bond. “When you came from your imprisonment, you weren’t linked to me.” Those words were so hard to utter, but they were true. He’d been tied to her, body and soul, for two centuries.

She’d shared no such tie with him.

So Lorcan had tried to reset the bond.

In order to see the power in her blood? “We’re Lorcan’s experiment,” Alerac said. “And he wants us—both of us—so he can figure out how to get the same power for himself.”

Alerac’s attraction to Jane had been undeniable, too consuming, and it was being used against him now.

“I don’t have much time left,” Ryan said, voice grim. “But I’m going to make the most of that time. I’ll do my best to take him out.”

Alerac shook his head. “You’ve tried before. That didn’t work—”

“I couldn’t kill him for the same reason you couldn’t—he knew where Jane was! If he’d died, we might never have seen her again.” His gaze cut to Jane. “When the screams stopped, I thought for sure you were dead.”

Pain flashed in her eyes.

Ryan backed toward the door. “You aren’t trading for me. You aren’t trading yourself for anyone, ever again.” He pointed toward Alerac. “Keep her safe, wolf. If you don’t, I’ll come back and haunt your ass.”

Then he yanked open the door, and the fool ran right out in the sunlight.

“Ryan!” Jane tried to go after him. Not happening. Alerac wrapped his forearm around her stomach and pulled her back against him. “Dammit, let me go!”

No.

“Zoe!” He trusted her. As I trusted Liam. His back teeth ground together. “Follow him and make sure he doesn’t get himself killed.”

Zoe was already running through the door.

“Finn.”

Finn jerked to attention.

“Has anyone found Liam’s tracks?” The guy was good at covering himself. He should be good. Alerac had taught him well.

Finn shook his head. “It’s like he just vanished.”

But he hadn’t. Liam would be turning up again. Like Lorcan, he was after the power that could come from Jane.

And like Lorcan, he wasn’t getting her.