Bitter Blood (Blood and Moonlight Book 3)(62)

It was a good thing she could see so well in the dark.

She advanced a few feet and the door swung shut behind her. The locks turned, a loud, distinct click of the tumblers. She listened a moment and heard Troy’s footsteps fading away. Now…now she was alone with her beast.

Jane knew Aidan was there. She hadn’t spotted him, not yet, but Jane could feel him. Watching her. The hungry stare of a predator.

Was he a wolf?

Or a man?

Both?

She rubbed her hands on her jeans. She still had blood on her—Roth’s blood. She wanted to go back to his place, to search for clues, to get his damn body taken care of but…

Aidan came first.

He mattered. Because Jane was very afraid that Aidan was slipping away from her.

She walked into the middle of the club. Her gaze swept over the ground floor of Hell’s Gate. “Aidan?”

A low growl had the hair on her nape rising. Her gaze shot upward, toward the second level of the club, and she saw his hulking form.

He wasn’t a wolf, not any longer.

Her breath expelled in a relieved rush and a wide smile curved her lips. “Aidan, you’re okay!”

He began walking down the stairs, a slow, steady glide. His eyes glowed a bright blue in the darkness.

He was…bigger. The guy had always been muscled, but this was different. His arms were bigger, his shoulders far wider, his height even a few inches taller.

An alpha on steroids.

Jane licked her lips. “You’re okay,” she said again but it sounded as if she was trying to convince herself of that fact.

He didn’t speak. Jane retreated a step, then stopped herself. She forced her shoulders to straighten as she waited for Aidan to come to her.

They’d made love in this same place just a little while before. Aidan had said that he loved her, and she knew he’d meant those words. He loved her.

She loved him.

They were going to get through this madness.

Some way.

She could practically feel the threat in the air around her. It was instinctive, the way a hunted animal could sense the predator closing in.

Aidan was before her and the hard, dangerous expression on his face clearly said Jane was his prey.

He lifted his hand and his dark claws came toward her face.

***

“The alpha won’t hurt Jane.” Garrison was adamant. “He loves her.”

Annette bent to get a better view of her broken mirror chunks. She could see fire and hell. Blood and death and…

Jane.

“He won’t kill her,” Vincent agreed. “Because I don’t think he can. Beast, man, or vamp…he still thinks of Jane as his. But when the chips are down…” He exhaled slowly. “I’m afraid Jane won’t have an option. She’ll have to stop him before he turns on innocents.”

Annette stared into her glass. “The end.” That was what the burn mark on Jane’s right side symbolized. She looked up at Vincent.

“Yes,” he said. “Jane will be his end.”

Drew was straining in Vincent’s hold. Straining and still bleeding.

Paris growled.

Instantly, Annette straightened. She pointed at Drew—a still bleeding Drew. That blood scent is just going to make Paris wild. “Get him out of here! Paris might not have been able to keep human blood down, but that doesn’t mean the scent won’t screw with his mind!” She gave a hard negative shake of her head. “He isn’t like you, Vincent. Paris doesn’t have centuries’ worth of strength to hold his hunger in check.”

Vincent nodded. “No, he isn’t like me. I was born to be this way. He wasn’t.” He hauled Drew to his feet and yanked him toward the door. “Another end.”

No, nothing is ending for Paris.

Lena stared at Annette.

“I’ll secure him in the other room,” Vincent called. “Jane is going to want to see her brother when she gets here.”

He was confident that Jane would be arriving but…what about Aidan?

“He thinks Aidan will die tonight,” Lena whispered.

Annette eyed the woman.

“He doesn’t get it,” Lena added. “The man Aidan was…he’s already dead.”

Garrison took a lunging step toward her. “Liar!”

Annette put her hand on the young wolf’s shoulder. “Easy.” Too much was happening, too fast. She needed to figure things out. Paris was eerily silent behind her and she was almost afraid to look back at him.

Aidan, get your hairy alpha ass back here and help out your pack.

“Aidan is the strongest wolf I know,” Garrison said, his pride in Aidan obvious. “Nothing takes him down.”

“Jane will.” Lena seemed certain. “That’s what she was meant to be, don’t you see that? The end. His end. The end for them all.”

“Witch,” Annette muttered. “I’m really not liking you.”

Lena’s eyelids flickered. “Why do people keep calling me that?” She sauntered around the room and her toe brushed against a chunk of broken black glass. “Bet you wish that was still working, don’t you?”

Suspicions swirled within Annette. She knew there were lots of powerful paranormal beings out there but Lena…

“Lena!” Vincent roared. “I need you! Come to me!”