Once Bitten (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #1)(83)

Zoey held her injured arm carefully at her side as if trying to hide how much it hurt. Her strange, blue wolf eyes blinked at me appraisingly before going to Arys. She believed him to be the bigger threat. I loved how wrong she was.

“How dare you barge in here like you own the place?” Zoey spoke to me but seemed reluctant to take her gaze off Arys for longer than a split second. “This has nothing to do with you, Alpha bitch.”

“Oh no?” With a flick of my wrist the swirling blue and gold orb exploded against her and showered colorful sparks overhead. I grinned when she went down on her rear end with a pained cry.

“When was it going to involve me? When you decided that it was my turn to die for letting your daddy coerce me into bed? I don’t think so.”

“Alexa, stop!” Raoul made a move towards me, and I raised a hand in defense. Before I could throw another energy ball, my dark vampire took Raoul down with a foot to the back of the knee.

“Wasn’t it you that asked for Alexa’s involvement in the first place?” Arys hissed. He twisted the bigger man’s arm behind his back with an inhuman strength. “You’re at the root of this entire mess, so why don’t you keep quiet while the ladies fight it out? You’ll get yours.”

Raoul grunted in pain. His ebony eyes glared at me as he refused to acknowledge the vampire holding him immobile.

I’d winded Zoey with the psi ball, but she scrambled to her feet. “You don’t get to kill him!” She screamed like someone who hadn’t known sanity for a very long time. It made me stop to consider my plan of action.

“Who’s going to stop me?” I challenged.

Fangs filled my mouth. The sticky blood that adorned her wounds was sweetly human. I ached to taste her human blood, laced with the energy of the wolf. I wanted her to rush me, the final push to finish what Kylarai had begun.

I didn’t expect her to break so easily. A torrent of tears streamed down her face, and a sob broke from her. Her misery pained and confused me amidst my need to kill.

“I didn’t do all of this just to have you take it from me. Kill me if you must, but I’ll be damned before I die without killing him first.” The girl’s determination was admirable. All she wanted was to make Raoul hurt. I could relate to that.

“Does it really mean so much to you?” I met her gaze evenly with my own wolf eyes. “To kill your own father.”

I followed her eyes to where Raoul knelt, straining against Arys’s powerful hold.

“Yes,” she conceded with her chin held defiantly. “I thought I wanted to bring him down, have him locked away in some wretched facility like he did me. But now, I just want this over.”

“Zoey please,” Raoul ground out through clenched teeth. “We can talk about this. It doesn’t have to be this way.”

I couldn’t believe he was so convinced they could talk it out and live happily ever after like a sitcom family. His reaction was deeply disturbing on a level that I didn’t understand.

“You’re f**ked, old man.” Zoey scowled but didn’t attempt to pass me in order to reach him. “You never cared about my well-being before I murdered your bitches. Why would you start now?”

She sounded resigned, as if she’d anticipated this discussion for a long time. I wished I could erase the past week and never let Raoul drag me into this in the first place.

Hunger and instinct gnawed at me, and I fought the urge to shift. My mind was running in the “act now, think later” mode.

“I always cared about you. There has never been a day that passed when I haven’t thought about you.” Directing his temper at me, Raoul shouted, “For God’s sake Alexa, could you call off your vampire?”

“I don’t think so.” I shook my head and my dyed gold bangs fell in my eyes. “You both need serious help.”

The deathly glare that Zoey shot me was worth a thousand nasty words. “What do you know about growing up with a deadbeat father who’s responsible for the death of your mother? He left me to suffer, surrounded by people that he knew I could never relate to.”

She ran a hand through her stringy locks, and I was reminded of Raoul’s penchant to do the same. “Do you have any idea what it’s like to live each day trapped in this body while your every instinct cries to get out?”

After a moment of silent contemplation, I shook my head no. I didn’t. But, Arys did now, and the sympathy shining in the depths of his stunning eyes was too much for me. If we started to identify with her, her death would be that much harder.

“I can’t relate to that.” I shifted into a stance that appeared less threatening but didn’t release the energy I held ready. “But, I can relate to being scared and inhuman. And being in need of a strong leader but finding none.”

“Alexa.” Raoul’s tone rose in warning at the end of my name. Arys jerked his arm enough to make him gasp.

“Shut up.” Zoey and I spoke simultaneously.

“Your father is a self-centered egomaniac, Zoey,” I said, finding strength in the incredulous expression splayed upon Raoul’s finely sculpted features. “As long as I’ve known him, he’s been selfish, conceited and intent on his own personal interests. You were better off not being here during your youth. I can guarantee you that.”