Death Wish (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #5)(13)

“I don’t know what you were thinking, putting on a display like that, but I am not the one you want to f**k with.” I put pressure on her heart, squeezing until she coughed blood. In my mind, I was inside her as surely as if I’d held her cold, dead heart in my hand. With a hand beneath her chin, I forced her to meet my eyes. “You won’t get another warning. Next time, we finish this.”

I dropped the livewire running from me into her, releasing her from my deadly hold. She collapsed completely, spitting blood and whimpering. Only then did I notice the entire place had fallen silent. Even the band had stopped.

Several vampires were on their knees, blinded by pain as a wave of heavy energy swept over the crowd. Shya’s words echoed in my head. “You have immense power over vampires and werewolves. You are both and yet somehow neither, all at the same time.”

I hadn’t believed that then. I was starting to now. As I looked down at the suffering vampiress, it was startlingly undeniable. Shaking from the pressure of conducting so much energy, I needed some air, so I turned and headed for the front door. However, I carefully avoided eye contact with those I passed.

Shaz said my name, but I didn’t stop, and he didn’t pursue me. Jez ultimately caught hold of my arm and stopped me in the lobby. She held firm, refusing to be shaken off.

“Hey, are you alright?” She produced a tissue from her purse and gestured to the blood dripping from my nose. “That was pretty f**king intense. You dropped Kale like a sack of bricks.”

I accepted the tissue and wiped my nose. It wasn’t bleeding much, and I felt fine. “Is he ok? I didn’t mean to.”

“Yeah, he’s ok. Or, he will be, anyway.” When she couldn’t keep me inside the building, she followed me outside. “I felt something, too. It kind of scared me.”

I turned to her sharply. Jez didn’t readily admit fear to anyone about anything without a damn good reason. “Why? What happened?”

She shrugged and walked farther away from the entrance and the people that mingled there. With a longing look at some of the smokers enjoying their cigarettes, she feigned casual. “When you dropped Kale and the others, I could feel this pull inside me. Like you were pulling the cat out of me. Forcing the shift.”

“Sounds like what I did with Zoey, when she was stuck in wolf form.”

“Well, it didn’t feel so great. It didn’t hurt, but it freaked me out. How about we don’t have a repeat of that, hmm?”

I turned toward the parking lot, focusing on the earth at my feet to ground my unbalanced core. I was riding a high so intense I walked on clouds. “Sorry, Jez.”

Her presence was comforting. Jez was special to me. The circle of people I could trust was small, but I was madly grateful for every one of them.

“It’ll be ok, Lex. I know you’re hurting more over this Shaz stuff than you would ever let yourself admit. There are no easy rides in love. It’s complicated agony. But, it’s worth it.”

I couldn’t help but stare intently at her. That didn’t sound like something she’d usually say. “Is it really though? Or, is it just not knowing when to let someone go?”

“Don’t talk like that. We both know that’s not what either of you want.”

No, it wasn’t what I wanted. What I wanted was to go back to a time before Shaz had gotten involved in any of this. It was too late for that.

The night air was muggy; it did nothing to provide the cooling relief I longed for. If only it would rain.

My breath caught when Shaz’s car sped past us as he peeled out of the lot. He and I needed to talk. We’d been dodging this issue for weeks, and that mistake had caught up to us. I didn’t want to delve deeper into it, but I knew if we didn’t, we wouldn’t grow past this. And, it would destroy us.

Chapter Five

The urge to go after Shaz was strong, but he was long gone. It was anyone’s guess where he was going. I wanted to punch something, but the claws protruding from my fingertips prevented me from even making a fist.

My wolf wanted to take over, to shield me from the pain by escaping my human body. If I could just lose myself in the forest, it would all cease to exist. If only that were true...

I paced in the parking lot, unwilling to go back inside the club. It was probably best if I vacated for the rest of the night. I had a lot to deal with. Jez leaned against a nearby car, watching me silently. Restless and distressed, I didn’t know what to do with myself.

“Just what were you trying to do in there?” Kale’s voice rang out behind me seconds before his honey-dipped energy slid over my skin like a forbidden caress. “Blow the roof off the building?”

“I don’t know,” I said with a shrug. “I snapped. I couldn’t let her challenge me that way. Not in my city and most definitely not in my club with my wolf. It just happened.”

“Well next time you lose it like that, direct your focus. Save the rest of us from having to take an undeserved hit.” He joined Jez where she stood against the car. With a look that was supposed to be serious, Kale studied me. “You’re an accident waiting to happen, Alexa. Too wild and unruly. It’s dangerous.”

I didn’t buy his serious expression because of the playful lilt to his tone. Whatever I’d done to Kale inside, some part of him had liked it.

“Maybe that’s why someone wants me dead.” I felt pinned under the weight of their matching stares. “Sorry. It shouldn’t have happened.”