Smashed (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #8.5)(8)

“Stop tracking her, Juliet. You’re going to bring her more harm than help.” It was all I had to say to her. She had no right to tell me how to deal with my twin flame. As well as she thought she knew Alexa, I knew the parts of her that had no voice.

Juliet pulled away with a foot heavy on the gas. The sedan lurched away and disappeared as fast as it had come.

“I bet she’s just as feisty in the sack,” Jenner mused, laughing when I punched him in the shoulder. “Now, let’s get back to that orgy waiting for me at The Wicked Kiss.”

I met his mischievous gaze and shook my head. “Not tonight. You’ll have to settle for a motel room and a few call girls.”

Jenner considered this with a halfhearted shrug. “Ok. I can work with that.”

Chapter Three

Blood filled my mouth. The sound of cries and begging filled my ears. There was a hand on my cock, but I shoved it away.

The motel room was less than savory. It looked like something out of a horror film, which made it perfect. The TV in the corner was so old it still had a rabbit ear antenna. The walls were yellowed as if they hadn’t been painted or washed since the place had been built. There were more stains covering the carpet than clean spots.

Feeding in a place like this was not ideal. Though it did allow for one hell of a mess with little need for clean up. And right then, that made it perfect.

Jenner was sprawled across one half of the king-size bed with one of three call girls atop him. She rode him like it was an Olympic event, oblivious to the blood running in small rivulets from her neck, down her chest and stomach.

Lady number two was trying to wrap her hand around my dick despite my rejections. Being a monogamous incubus was a challenge at times like this. Being near me was enough to make her want me with an irrational need. Though I didn’t need to f*ck her to feed off her desire, it would have made things easier.

With a wolfish growl, I captured both of her hands in one of mine and pinned them above her head. She squirmed on the bed beneath me. I stared down at her, finding it hard to stay in the moment.

As good as it felt to have her begging for more while I opened her vein, something was missing. I sucked at the small bite marring her throat and groaned. Alexa’s wolf was strong in me. It floated about inside me like a shadow, a being without form seeking to break free. Learning to live with Alexa’s wolf was one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do. It didn’t belong to me. I had no connection to it, and times like this proved difficult. I’d wondered if it would get easier after she turned. It hadn’t. The wolf continued to dwell within me, surfacing at the most inopportune times. It was a constant presence, like a ghost that never went away.

“Fuck.” I couldn’t keep pretending this was what I wanted. It wasn’t. I wanted Alexa, mortal or not.

Shoving away from the bleached blonde escort, I stepped over the passed out form of the third girl and left the room. Jenner could have my share.

Sitting on the front stoop of the motel, I stared out into the near empty parking lot. The fall night air was crisp. It didn’t affect me. I felt neither warm nor cold.

I rubbed a hand over my face and swore again. It had been my decision to leave Alexa where she was, with Kale Sinclair. It was a decision that Shaz told me nightly was stupid. I was starting to think that he was right.

The night she rose as vampire was one of my best and worst nights. My relief had been immense. In my heart of hearts, I’d harbored the fear that she would remain dead. Since the moment I felt her life slip away in my arms, I had been faced with what it would mean to lose her. Three days I waited in total distress, praying to a God who had no reason to grant my request. It had been the most agonizing wait of my life.

Then she had risen. The confusion in her vampire blue eyes was hard to witness. I was overjoyed to see her there before me, back from the dead. But the betrayal in her gaze when she looked at me had made me ill.

When she fled from me, I let her go. Shaz had demanded that we follow. He had been so afraid for her out there alone, so close to sunrise.

Giving chase would only encourage her to flee further. Knowing Sinclair would go after her, I let him. That choice had haunted me every night since.

A car pulled up to a door at the other end of the motel. I watched as a middle-aged couple got out, falling all over each other in their haste to get inside. They caught sight of me and broke apart. I shrugged and turned away. I didn’t doubt that they were having an affair. It was no business of mine. Casting one last glance back at the couple, I studied the woman, wondering if somewhere another man waited for her.

Projecting my own issues onto strangers served only to plunge me deeper into my tortured thoughts. When at last Jenner emerged from the motel room, the night was beginning to dissipate.

“Are you all right, brother?” Jenner’s hand was heavy on my shoulder. “I didn’t mean to hog the ladies.”

“Yes, you did.” I rose and clapped him on the back. “I’m fine. Can we go home now?”

“Ready when you are.”

“And the ladies?”

“Alive,” Jenner snickered. “I promise.”

His word was good enough for me. I was ready to leave. I walked away from the seedy motel without a backward glance.

Like I did every night before dawn, I drove by Alexa’s house on my way home. It was on the edge of town, surrounded by a cluster of trees and a cemetery. Not once had she been there. Which meant she was with him.