Twisted

FIVE

THE SCREAMS THAT HAD RAZED Aden’s mind for such a torturous eternity ceased abruptly, and he knew only silence. Yet, the silence was worse because, without the distraction, he became aware of a thick, gloomy fog surrounding him, writhing with malicious glee.

Escape, he needed to escape. He would die if he stayed here. Surely the fog would suffocate him. Was even now trying to do so. Determined, he clawed his way through, climbing … climbing … his body broken, throbbing … climbing … climbing … higher and higher until—

His eyelids sprang apart.

First thing he noticed, the fog had dissipated. Still, the world around him was hazy, as though smeared with Vaseline. He sucked in a deep breath to center himself, then growled. There was something sweet in the air, and his mouth watered. His blood heated.

Taste.

Someone called his name. A girl, her voice layered with concern and relief. He blinked, gradually clearing away the film, and sat up, ignoring the aches and pains shooting through him. His gaze panned the … bedroom. Yes, he was inside a bedroom. Or a snowstorm. All that white—white walls, white carpet, white furnishings—was as overwhelming as it was familiar.

A girl approached him, her hands wringing together and twisting the fabric of her black robe. Finally, a shade other than white. Long dark hair cascaded over one delicate shoulder. She had pale skin, smooth and flawless, and the loveliest blue eyes he’d ever seen.

She reached out, slowly, so slow, to feel his brow. The sweetness in the air thickened, and the urge to taste increased. Though he wanted to bite her, he leaned away from her touch.

Hurt consumed her features.

Within seconds, she masked the emotion and squared her shoulders. “I’m glad you’re awake,” she said, voice devoid of any emotion as well.

Fangs peeked from between her lips, he noted. Vampire. She was a vampire. A vampire princess. Her name was Victoria, and she was his girlfriend. The details came at him like they were baseballs being shot from a pitching machine. Yet no reaction accompanied them. “How do you feel?” she asked.

He just looked at her. Feel? His nerve endings had calmed, and he didn’t feel anything.

She gulped. “You were asleep for nearly four days. We gave you medication to quiet the souls, just in case they were the ones keeping you under.” Chewing on her bottom lip, she glanced over her shoulder. “We didn’t feel we had any other choice.”

We, she kept saying. Implying someone had helped her.

“Can we get you anything?”

We again. Aden panned the room a second time and noticed a guy standing in the far corner. Tall, strong, dark hair, green eyes. Riley. A wolf shape-shifter and an all-around pain in the ass, but he was a good guy nonetheless.

A human girl stood beside him. How Aden knew she was human, he wasn’t sure. He’d never met her before. She was nervous, moving her weight from one sandaled foot to the other, her short crop of blond hair dancing over her shoulders, her brown eyes looking anywhere but at him, and her freckled skin chalk white.

Again the sweetness in the air intensified. Except now it was layered with something spicy, and his entire body vibrated with anticipation.

Anticipation. His first emotion since waking up, and it consumed him.

“Thirsty,” he croaked.

Victoria reached out, not to touch him but to offer her wrist. Distantly he recalled drinking from that wrist. His gaze lifted. And from that elegant neck. And that gorgeous mouth. He’d been besieged with need, utterly intoxicated. And he’d hated himself. He recalled that, too.

Also, he’d hated her. Or at least, a part of him had.

That part of him must have grown, taken over. Because, looking at her now, so lovely and serene, he wanted to grab her arms and shake her. To hurt her as she’d hurt him. To punish her for what she’d done to him.

The urges surprised him. What had she done to him? Besides try to turn him into a vampire. Besides feed him and feed from him. Besides fight him to survive. All of which he understood and accepted.

“Aden?” She wiggled her wrist.

The moisture in his mouth heated and burned, demanding relief, demanding … blood. He recognized the sensation and was leaning toward her before he registered the fact that he was moving at all. Just before he sank his teeth into her skin, he stopped. What was he doing? He needed blood, yes, but not hers. Hers was dangerous. Addictive.

Shaking, he pushed her arm away—the part of him that still craved her screamed in protest. Her skin was warm, and though not as hot as before, he tingled where they’d touched all the same. He wanted to be touched again and again and again.

Focus on the human. “You,” he said, nodding to her. He refused to fall under another girl’s spell. If he did, he might not recover. There was no way anyone would affect him the way Victoria did. Surely. “Do you want to feed me?”

That dark gaze at last zoomed in on him. “Y-yes.”

Truth or lie? “Are you nervous?”

“Of you?” She shook her head with conviction, but her subsequent stuttering contradicted the motion. “N-no.”

She wasn’t scared of him, but she was scared of something. That wouldn’t stop him. “Good. Come here.”

Riley and Victoria shared a long, dark look. More than a look, actually. He knew Riley was pushing his thoughts into Victoria’s head, and shrugged. Let them say—or not say—what they wanted. Nothing would change his decided course of action.

Finally Victoria nodded, moved backward, and the wolf shifter gave the human a little push in Aden’s direction. She scooted around the princess, remaining out of striking distance, and Aden suddenly comprehended the reason for her upset. She feared Victoria.

Smart of her. Victoria watched her through narrowed eyes, poised to launch into an attack at any second. Were they enemies? No, they couldn’t be. No one was more protective of Victoria than Riley, and the wolf never would have let the human through the door if that had been the case. So … what was the problem?

Only when the girl was at Aden’s side did she relax. She curtsied, grinned. “What can I do for you, my king?”

He didn’t allow himself to study his vampire and her reaction to the girl’s query. “Let me have your arm.”

Instantly she reached out. He wrapped his fingers around her wrist. It was thicker than Victoria’s, with a little more meat under her skin. As hot as Aden’s body temperature now was, the human felt chilled.

He absorbed her scent, testing it. Sharper than what he craved, he mused, with more spice than sweetness, but he could deal. Already his stomach was twisting, knotting. He urged her closer … opened his mouth.

“Wait. You’re going to hurt her,” Victoria snapped, beside the girl in the blink of an eye and jerking her from Aden’s hold.

The human gasped and trembled.

Aden growled, even as the scent of the vampire stirred up some kind of animal inside him. A wild thing, cohabitating in a place where there was no room for emotion, only instinct honed on a battlefield.

Mine, that wild thing said.

Never yours, the other part of him hissed.

“You don’t have fangs.” Victoria raised her chin. “So, like I said, you’ll hurt her. I’ll bite her and—”

“I’ll bite her.” Fangs or not, he knew how to feed. Hadn’t he proven that to Victoria, over and over again?

The memory had his gaze falling to her neck, where her pulse hammered swiftly. The ache in his gums returned. Mine, he thought again. Mine to bite and to drink from and to kiss.

You don’t even like her. Not anymore.

“I’ll bite her,” she continued through gritted teeth, “and you can drink from her.” She didn’t give him a chance to respond. She simply lifted and bit.

The human closed her eyes, moaning as the pleasure hit her. Pleasure Aden knew very well and still craved, despite his determination to remain aloof.

Vampire fangs produced some kind of drug that numbed your skin and flowed straight into your veins, warming you up, making you feel good, too good. Which was exactly why so many humans became addicted, willing to do anything for another nibbling.

Not him. Never him. Not again.

A second passed, then another. Victoria lifted her head. Blood wetted her lips a deep scarlet, and Aden wanted to lick them. Instead, he forced his gaze on the two punctures in the human’s wrist. Blood wetted there, too, and he groaned. What he didn’t do was chastise Victoria for disobeying him. What right do I have to chastise her? He simply claimed the arm offered to him and brought the wound to his mouth.

He licked once, twice, tasting ambrosia, groaning again, before sucking, letting the nectar fill his mouth, swallowing, his eyes closing in the same surrender the human had experienced. And yet, in the back of his mind, he thought that as wonderful as this blood tasted, it should have tasted better. Should have been sweeter, with only a little hint of that spice.

“—has no fangs, yet he still craves blood,” Riley was saying as Aden became aware of his surroundings again. “It’s unheard of.”

“Apparently not,” Victoria snapped. “Look at him. He’s enjoying every moment of this.”

“Enjoying? His eyes look dead, and have ever since he woke up. Something’s wrong with him.”

Aden knew they were talking about him, but just as before, he didn’t care.

“Well, she’s enjoying it, then,” Victoria added, words sharp as a whip. “If I wasn’t holding her back she’d be grinding on him.”

“Do you want me to deny that?” the wolf muttered. “Because we both know I’d be lying.”

“You’re a terrible friend.”

“Whatever. Just don’t kill her afterward. To borrow her, I had to promise Lauren you’d do her laundry for a week. And I had to promise you’d do it forever if any harm came to her slave.”

“Thanks a lot. You couldn’t have asked Lauren for a male?”

A tremor rocked the human. Of fear? Or was she still too lost to the pleasure to care, either?

“I’m only guessing here, but I don’t think humans—even former humans—are like us. They can’t separate feeding from sex. I figured Aden would appreciate a female.”

“Well, he’s appreciating her too much!” Riley arched a brow at Victoria. “Are you jealous, princess?”

“No. Yes. He’s mine.” A pause. “Well, he was. Now … he pushed me away. Twice. Did you see him push me away?”

“Yeah, I did, but he loves you, Vic. You know that.”

“Do I?” she asked softly.

Did he? Aden wondered. Even though he didn’t like her at the moment? Because, as he knew, you didn’t have to like someone to love them. A lesson he’d learned as a child, when his parents had him committed, then walked away and never looked back.

He hadn’t liked them, might even have hated them, but even still, he’d loved them. At least at first. But as the days had passed in a medicated haze, as other patients beat him up and called him names, that love had withered, leaving only the hate. Then, the hate, too, had left him, and he simply hadn’t cared. He’d had the souls.

His souls. Where were his souls? They weren’t chattering, and he couldn’t feel them in the back of his mind. Did Victoria have them?

No longer was she watching him. Her gaze had moved just over his shoulder, perhaps even outside the room. Her eyes were as blue as before, no longer mixed with green, brown and gray. No, the souls were not inside her head.

They must be in his, and the medication must have put them to sleep. Another reason to dislike Victoria. The souls were his best friends, and a few times over the years, they’d been his only reason to live. They despised his medication and would not be happy when they woke up. She’d known that, yet she’d forced the pills down his throat anyway.

“Yes,” Victoria finally said. “He loves me. I know it.”

She did? She was a step ahead of him, then. Once, he had loved her; he knew that much. And why wouldn’t he have? She was flawless, a walking fantasy. But what did he really know about her?

Bad—to her, humans were nothing more than food. Bad—she could enslave with a single bite. Good—she cared about her family. Bad—her father wanted to kill him. Good—she knew he was different than other humans and vampires, and she liked him anyway. Bad—she was insensitive to humans and their needs. Good—she was trying to be sensitive to humans and their needs.

During their one and only date, she had danced around him, telling jokes. Lame ones, but she’d been trying. For him. Trying to be what she thought he wanted and needed. So, yes, he had loved her. But now? He couldn’t summon a single spark or hint of softness.

Oh, the attraction was still there. He wanted to push the human away and fall on the vampire. He wanted his teeth in her neck and his body pinning hers. He wanted her hands on him, and her mouth on him, and he wanted her gasping his name.

Even as the thoughts drifted through his head, images formed. Of her, of him, of the two of them together, doing exactly what he wanted. What he wanted so badly he was actually growling, the guttural sound rising in his throat and spilling into the bedroom, echoing menacingly between them.

Victoria must have assumed the growl was for the human. Suddenly she vibrated with anger and concern. He could actually taste the emotions in the air, and they had him sucking at the human with renewed fervor.

The human moaned her approval.

Strength was infusing his cells. His muscles were expanding, his bones humming. And, wow. If this human female affected him so powerfully, how would the vampire affect him?

“Okay, enough.” Riley strode to the bed, grabbed the human, and jerked her away from him. “Leave,” the wolf told the girl.

“I … I …” She swayed. “Yes, of course.” Then footsteps sounded, the slam of a door.

“Victoria.” When the wolf stretched a hand out to the vampire, Aden jumped to his feet and moved between them, preventing contact. An instinctive urge to protect what was his.

“Are you thinking to fight me or her?” Riley asked, seemingly unconcerned by either choice.

“Neither.” Both. He might not like Victoria, but he still wanted her. He didn’t want anyone else to have her. The impulse … the two needs … warring … what the hell was wrong with him? He was like two different people.

“O-kay. Why are your claws out?”

Claws? Aden looked down, and sure enough, his nails had lengthened and sharpened, little daggers tipping his fingers. He should be freaked out but could only lift his hands to the light, studying this newest development. “How is this possible?”

Riley blew out a breath and said, “Either you’re changing into a vampire slowly, one modification at a time, or you’re the first human-vamp hybrid. To my knowledge. Now, are you going to back off or do I have to make you?”

A little bark of amusement escaped him. Little, yes, but amusement all the same. “You could try.”

Clearly not the response the wolf had expected. He blinked, shook his head. “Look, we’ll come back to the male pissing contest in a second. There’s something wrong with you, and I don’t know how deep the problem goes. So we’re gonna have a little chat and find out.”

Behind him, Aden heard Victoria shift from one foot to the other. The fine hairs on the back of his neck lifted, his skin doing that tingling thing. He scowled. He was that aware of her? “There’s nothing wrong with me. There, we talked. Now, gather my people in the great hall.”

The words echoed with threat, surprising Aden as much as they did Riley. Only recently had he accepted his right to rule, but never once had he thought of the vampires as “my people.” But they were, and now he had plenty to say to them.

“There is something wrong with you, Aden,” Riley insisted. “You haven’t even asked about Mary Ann. She’s out there somewhere, on her own, perhaps in danger. Do you not care about her anymore?”

A flicker of emotion sparked in his chest, extinguished before he could figure out what it was. Or what it meant. “She’ll be fine,” he said.

“Are you sure about that? Has Elijah told you?”

“Yes, I’m sure. And no, he hasn’t.”

Hope bloomed and died in Riley’s eyes. “Then how are you sure?”

Because he wanted to be, and in that moment Aden was certain he got what he wanted. Always. And if he didn’t, he did whatever was necessary to change the circumstances.

Wait. Was that true? He couldn’t think of a specific example, buuut … he simply knew. He shrugged. That was good enough for him.

Maybe there was something wrong with him. Not that he cared about that, either, he realized. He would talk to his people, as planned.

“Perhaps you didn’t hear me,” Aden said. “You’ve got some gathering to do.”

“Gather them yourself, majesty.” Riley huffed and puffed, his shoulders straightening, squaring. Aden’s lips twitched in renewed humor, but he wasn’t sure why that would be funny to him. “I’m going after Mary Ann. Victoria?”

“She stays,” Aden said, the words leaving him before he could stop them. Despite everything, or maybe because of it, he wanted her with him. “Victoria?” the wolf snapped.

“I did this to him,” she said softly. “I have to stay with him and make sure … you know.”

Aden didn’t know what “you know” was, and he still didn’t care. He was getting what he wanted: her presence. That was enough. For now.

Riley popped his jaw. “Very well. Keep your cell with you at all times, and call if you need anything. Anything at all. And I’ll call you if I learn anything. Be careful.”

“Always.”

A stiff nod in Aden’s direction, and then Riley was turning on his heel, marching away.

Aden didn’t spare Victoria a glance and certainly didn’t thank her. He wasn’t one to say thanks, ever. Right? Even though the desire to do so sparked and died in the same place as that unnameable emotion for Mary Ann. He simply strode to the room’s only window, a bay that opened on to a balcony, determined to call his people together on his own.

SIX

VICTORIA REMAINED IN PLACE AS Aden stood on her balcony, doing nothing … waiting for … she wasn’t sure. He wasn’t “chatting with his people,” though. He was alone, barefoot and unconcerned by everything around him. Oh, and someone else’s blood flowed in his veins. The knowledge irritated her when it should have delighted her. He was alive. He was awake.

She was still irritated. Despite everything, she wanted her blood in his veins. Her blood making him stronger.

Get over yourself already. The open balcony doors let the chilled morning air inside the room, and she shivered. For the first time in her life, she would have welcomed a coat. Something, anything, to melt the frost practically glossing her exposed skin.

How was Aden not shivering? He was bare-chested, deliciously so. Rope after rope of muscle lined his stomach and neatly patterned his back. Tragically, he wore jeans. Clean jeans, at least. She’d washed and changed him while he’d slept. And she hadn’t looked at anything improper. Except for those two—four—times. Riley had been too distracted to ask about those sponge baths, for which she was grateful.

Looking where she shouldn’t, how very human of her. Once, Aden would have been proud about that. Now … she had no idea what was going on inside his head or how he’d react to, well, anything. She knew only that Riley was right. Something was wrong with Aden. He wasn’t himself. He was colder, harsher.

Challenging.

Vampires were all about tossing challenges at the weak and vulnerable. And the weak and vulnerable accepted those challenges or they endured an eternity of slavery by declining. Then, when they lost, they endured an eternity of slavery anyway. Difference was, by accepting and losing, they weren’t teased and tormented, too.

Vlad had set the rules, of course. He despised weakness and cowardice, he’d claimed, and the challenges were a way to weed out the “unworthy.”

Did Aden plan to challenge everyone?

A movement in the sky captured her attention, and she watched a black bird soar past. The sun was hidden behind gray clouds, and perhaps even a thick layer of glassy rime. The angels were ice-skating up there, her mother would have said.

Her mother. How Victoria missed her. For the past seven years, her mother had been locked away in Romania, a prisoner charged with sharing information about vampires with humans. Vlad had even forbidden his people from speaking her name. Edina the Swan.

Even thinking it gave Victoria a thrill. Rebellion was new to her.

Then, when Aden was dubbed the man in charge, he’d freed the woman at Victoria’s behest. She had expected her mother to teleport to Crossroads so they could be together again. Only, Edina had decided to remain in her homeland.

As if Victoria wasn’t important enough to bother with.

She wanted to be important to someone. And had been. To Aden. Since the first moment he’d spotted her, he’d made her feel special. Now.