Bitter Blood (Blood and Moonlight Book 3)(58)

“Aidan?” Now her voice was soft, scared.

Apples and lavender wrapped around him. Jane. My Jane. And his fangs were raking at her throat. He was about to savage her.

My Jane.

He tore from her and rushed for the door.

His prey was already on the stairs. Did Drew think he was going to get away? To have the chance to run again and attack Aidan once more? To try and take out Jane?

No. It ends. The end is here.

Aidan was Drew’s f*cking end.

He grabbed the banister.

Drew was on the ground floor. He’d grabbed the knife, tricky bastard. Like that was going to do him any good.

Aidan leapt over that banister and shot straight down. His feet touched the floor even as Drew yanked open the building’s main door.

“Aidan!” Jane’s desperate shout followed him. “Aidan, wait!”

He wasn’t going to wait. He was going to rip Drew Hart apart. Aidan’s shirt was stained with blood—his blood—but the wound had already healed. He could feel the tightness of the skin. He’d never healed that quickly. Never had such strength pulsing through his body.

I can do anything. No one will stop me.

He chased Drew outside. There were other humans on the street, but they were far away.

“Help me!” Drew screamed.

The fool was begging for help? After what he’d done?

“Help—”

Aidan grabbed the bastard and hauled him into the alley, then he slammed Drew against the stinking wall there. “No one’s going to help you,” Aidan told him. “You’re going to f*cking die right here.”

The long slashes he’d made on Drew’s jaw and neck dripped blood.

Blood. So much blood.

“She’ll hate you!” Drew yelled. “You do this…you will lose Jane!”

The fool dared to talk to him about Jane? When Drew had been the one to set this nightmare in motion? Aidan’s fangs flew toward Drew’s throat.

“Stop.” A soft voice. Feminine.

And Aidan found himself freezing. Not because he wanted to stop. Not because he wanted to spare the SOB before him. But because magic held his body immobile.

“He’s strong,” that same feminine voice said, a bit breathless now. “I can’t hold him for long so if you want his prey to live, you’d better do something now.”

Aidan wanted to look toward that voice, but it was as if his whole body had locked down. His wolf—the beast that hadn’t shifted fully before—was clawing at his insides, desperate to get out. To attack this new threat.

Footsteps rushed toward him and Drew was yanked out of his grasp. Drew was yelling and screaming and—

“Quiet.” Not a woman’s voice, not this time. A man’s voice—deeper and familiar.

Using every bit of his strength, Aidan managed to slowly turn his head—a few precious inches—and he saw Vincent Connor with his hands clamped around Drew’s shoulders.

“I’m saving your ass,” Vincent snapped at the screaming man. “So cut out the damn noise before I decide to bite you.”

And Jane was right behind him, staring with horror at the scene.

Staring with horror at me.

“I’ll take him back to my building,” Vincent said.

The old damn BDSM club.

“Don’t worry, Jane. I’ll keep him alive until you come.” Vincent nodded toward Aidan. “Try to calm down your beast. If that’s even possible.” Disgust beat in his voice. Then, in a flash, he was gone.

And he’d taken Drew with him.

Aidan erupted. “No!” He howled his fury into the night.

“Can’t hold him any longer.” It was the other woman’s voice again. Sounding even weaker. “Never felt power…like his.”

And the magical force that had held Aidan in check broke. He lunged forward but Jane grabbed his arms. She put herself right in his path, between him…and the woman with long, pale blonde hair. Blonde hair and green eyes that glittered in the darkness.

“Aidan, calm down.”

There was blood on Jane. Roth’s blood. The scent just drove him wilder. No control. No restraint. The darkness is taking over.

“We have to talk, Aidan,” Jane said quickly. “We have to figure things out. We have to—”

“Get. The. Fuck. Away.”

Jane’s eyes widened. “What?”

“Get the f*ck away.” His words were guttural. He could barely force them out. The blood scent was driving him crazy. Get away before I hurt you. Because he was afraid he’d crossed a line, there was no going back. He was being swallowed by the darkness. Consumed. And…

I like it.

“Aidan, let me help—”

He grabbed her and shoved Jane against the wall of that alley. That filthy, disgusting wall. His fangs snapped down to her throat and hovered there. He wanted to bite her. He wanted her blood, but if he tasted her right then…

Will I stop?

His head slowly lifted. He stared into Jane’s eyes and saw her fear. He could smell her fear.

Jane should never fear me. I should be the one who protects her, always. But something was wrong.

He was wrong.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. And then he jerked away from her. He raced toward the entrance of the alley, feeling the shift hit him. The beast hadn’t come out before—the vampire within him had dominated up in that apartment—but the wolf was emerging right then, and nothing could stop it. Fur burst along his skin. His bones snapped. He howled at the pain because it was an agony far deeper than he’d felt with a shift before. And when he left that alley…