Ruined (The Eternal Balance #1)(64)

He nodded and slipped the key from his front pocket. There was the tiniest blush in his cheeks. “Aw, shucks, ma’am. It was nothing.”

I stepped away from the wall, rubbing my wrist and glad to be free. “Tell you what, I’ve officially decided I’m not into the whole bondage scene.”

He took my hand. “Well, that’s a shame. I hear—”

That’s when it hit me. Or rather, it hadn’t hit me. “Something’s wrong.”

Chase, growing pale, spun back around to check on Hank. When he didn’t move, he turned back to me, confused. “I don’t get it. He’s down for the count. What could be wrong?”

“Exactly. He’s down for the count. If we’re linked, he’d be standing and I’d be down.”

Chase considered it for a moment. “Well, maybe you weren’t linked? Maybe he attacked you, but didn’t do this link thing?”

“Impossible. I heard the thing in my head,” I said, peering around him to look at Hank. He was still and bleeding from a nasty-looking gash on the back of his head. I knotted my fingers through my hair, working them across my scalp. Not a scratch. From what Heckle said, there should definitely be something there. “I didn’t walk out of that club on my own. I was forced.”

“So you’re saying he’s not the one who fed from you?”

“Sammy!” Jax appeared in the doorway. He looked down at Hank and frowned.

At the sight of him, relief washed through me and a weight equal to a Volvo lifted from my chest. “Jax! Thank God.” I dragged Chase across the room and stopped a few feet from where Hank lay. The faint rise and fall of his back indicated he wasn’t dead. “He found us. Chase got him, but I don’t think he’s—”

“Sammy,” Jax repeated, this time softer. There was fear in his eyes. A kind of terror I’d only seen once or twice in all the time I’d known him. His gaze alternated between me and Chase as the fingers of his left hand twitched. “I need you to do something for me. No questions. No arguments.”

“What—”

“Come here. Walk to me.”

Chase stepped in front of me, and with a squeeze of his hand, shook his head. “Wait a sec.” Turning to Jax, he said, “What’s going on?”

Jax ignored him. “Sutton wasn’t the demon. Do you really think my brother would have been able to knock him out so easily if he were?” He came a step closer. “Please, Sammy. Come to me.”

“That’s what I was trying to tell you. Hank followed us here, but when Chase hit him, I didn’t feel a thing. I don’t think he’s the one I’m linked to.”

I tried to go to Jax, but Chase’s grip tightened around my arm. He was pale and looked just as worried. “Samantha, wait. Something’s wrong here.”

“I know,” I snapped. Jesus. Were they deaf? “Have either of you been listening to me?”

Jax inched closer. The look on his face was terrifying. Furious. Eyes trained on Chase, he said, “I’m listening, Sammy. But now you need to listen to me. Sutton isn’t the demon. He isn’t even a demon. It’s my brother. He’s the one you’re linked to.”

Chase’s fingers twitched around my arm, then tightened. He was shaking his head. “You’ve finally lost it, Jax. You’re not making any sense.”

Jax’s expression didn’t falter—neither did his pace. Slow and determined. “You’re like me. Tainted. You’ve got a demon as well.”

“I’m human, Jax. You know that.”

But Jax shook his head. “All this time, it was you.” His eyes darkened and his posture changed. Combative, tense, and ready to fight. “You attacked Sammy that night of the party. That’s why I didn’t smell another demon. You’ve never had a scent. What about all those girls that went missing? Did you feed from them? Kill them?”

This was insane. Chase was a letch, but a killer? There wasn’t a chance in hell. I listened to their exchange, slightly detached and wondering if maybe the whole thing was one long, surreal nightmare. Any minute now I’d wake up, safe and sound in my dorm room at Huntington. The attack would never have happened. The car would be parked outside—minus the seaweed. And Jax… Jax had never come back to town. That was it. This entire bad dream was my mind’s twisted way of dealing with lingering feelings for someone who had left me behind three years ago.

I probably would have gone right on believing that—if not for the fact that Chase yanked me backward, laughing like a maniac.

“Oh well. Looks like ya got me. Surprised, brother? And I have a scent. All demons do. It’s just not traceable by you.”

All the breath rushed from my lungs and I had to concentrate in order to remember how to breathe. Simple thing, breathing. Normally an involuntary process. Now, though? My body seemed incapable. “Chase?”

“Shh,” he soothed, patting my shoulder like someone would a scared animal. Despite having several very colorful replies on the tip of my tongue, I complied and swallowed my retort. Turning his attention back to Jax, Chase snickered. “I gotta know, man. How did you figure it out?”

My head was spinning. “But, Hank. What about Hank? Why would he run—show up here and attack me—if he wasn’t—”