Wild Hearts (Blood & Judgment #1) (9 page)

I pause as I hear a noise coming from the window on the far side of the room. I tilt my head and I hear it again. A snap of a twig. I race quickly to the window, fangs and claws at the ready, when all of a sudden, the door behind me bursts open and in race three of the largest male vampires I have ever seen.

Dammit!
Edric’s men. How did they find me so quickly?

I turn to face them, unleashing the beast within and I snarl at them, flexing my shoulders.

“Such a pretty little bitch,” one of them drawls in his south London accent.

“And yet, such a massive pain in the bollocks,” another one says with a howl of laughter. “I am going to enjoy bringing you down.” His sinister smile turns downright menacing and I take a deep breath.

“We can’t hurt her,” the last one says, definitely the least brazen of the lot.

“No, we can’t
kill
her,” 'bollocks' vamp says. “The master didn’t say anything about giving her a little punishment.”

“Are you going to fight, or just stand here and talk me into insanity?” I ask archly, giving them the impression of my full attention, but meanwhile scouring the area with my heightened senses for the best place to maneuver.

“I am going to smack that mouth of yours,” 'bollocks' vamp says and clenches his enormous fists, then releasing them with his claws drawn.

Well, size isn’t everything. I am stronger, quicker and more agile and far better trained than these lumbering oafs and they have clearly underestimated me. Which is precisely what I had hoped for. They aim for a three-pronged attack, but that just gives me the opportunity to pick them off one by one.
Idiots.

I scoot around the edge of the room, hoping that none of them decide to check out the bedroom while they are here and catch Aria passed out.

'Bollocks' vamp lunges at me, but I am ready for him. Before he reaches me, I slam my foot into his groin with a smirk.

“
Now
, I’d say I was a pain in your bollocks,” I say to him as he drops to his knees with a choked groan and I rake my claws across his throat. He gurgles unintelligibly, the surprise registering that I have gouged him so deeply, before his head lolls to the side, hanging onto his neck by a thread. He clutches at his throat and I lean forward to grab a hold of his ears. The 'pretty little bitch' vamp attacks me from behind, but I slam my foot into him, sending him careening back into the wall. The foundations shake at the force of which he hits it and I cringe when I think of the damages I am going to pay for this little encounter.

The quiet one is watching me carefully and with a flash of my fangs at him, I tighten my grip on the vamp’s ears and twist his head so forcefully it snaps off his neck with ease and he disintegrates to ash at my feet. I brush off my hands as I turn back to the vamp about to attack me. He swipes at me, full of anger that I am beating them, but I duck out of the way. Rage will only get you so far.

I tuck myself into a forward roll and end up on the other side of the room. I jump up onto the dining table as the quiet one rushes me. I look up and then jump to grab hold of the dangling light fixture. I kick both of my feet out at the vamp and he roars with pain as one of my six-inch heels connects with his eye.

“Eww!” I cry out as I push off with my left foot to get my right heel out of his eye socket in a disgusting slurping action. “My shoe! You fucker!” I land on top of him as he slaps his hand to his eyehole and I punch him in the temple. He drops like a rock and then I go sprawling as his friend kicks out my legs from behind me. I go crashing into an end table, sending a vase flying and smashing all over the hardwood floor.

“Jesus fuck!” a voice cries and I look up to see Aria standing in the doorway to the bedroom. “What the hell is going down out here?”

“Get out!” I shout at her as the two vamps take an interest in the newcomer.

Aria’s eyes go wide as she takes in the two angry vamps, but to her credit she goes on the defensive. She puts her fists up as the vamp who had taken me down advances on her.

“No!” I yell and break off a leg of the end table. I aim and send the makeshift stake straight at his back. It plunges into him and stabs him directly in the heart. Aria steps back as he bursts into a cloud of ash in front of her.

“Two down,” I say, getting steadily to my feet. I grab the quiet vamp by his neck and haul him to his feet. I throw him across the room as if he is a rag doll and he slumps down the wall, still bleeding from his eye socket. I break off another table leg with my foot and spin it in my hand.

“Wait,” he says, putting his hand up in fear, knowing his end is coming. “We can make a deal.”

“No deal,” I say coldly.

“I can take the heat off you, say that you went across the world. They will spend ages looking for you in the wrong place,” he stammers.

I hesitate. It’s enticing and about the best deal I will hear for a long time. I will never truly be free from Edric unless he decides to die, which is damn near an impossibility, but a few months of stability isn’t to be scorned at lightly.

“Come
on
,” Aria scoffs. “You believe this asshole and the lies he’s spinning here?”

“Stay out of it,” I hiss at her. “You have
no
idea what you are talking about.”

“Like hell, I don’t. And I can smell his lies,” she says with her arms crossed. “Take him the hell out before he takes you out. Kill or be killed.”

I come to the same conclusion after another moment of dreaming of a near future without being on the run. I don’t trust anyone for a reason and just because he is offering me this to save his life, doesn’t mean he will come through for me. More likely, he will go back to Edric on his hands and knees, telling him exactly where I am, who I am with and where to find his missing eyeball, which incidentally, is still skewered on my spiked heel.

I am about to step forward to plunge the stake into his heart when the look of sheer terror that crosses his face makes me stop.

“That afraid to die?” I mock him and raise my arm, but he points a shaking finger behind me, his mouth opening and closing like a goldfish.

I frown at him and turn to where he is pointing, catching a glimpse of Aria in the process. She has gone ashen, but her face shows a determination that makes me swing my gaze further around.

I gape, as in the doorway of this trashed villa, is a man so tall and so wide I have to lift my gaze from eyelevel to about two feet above that.

“Christ,” I mutter as I stare at the looming Ambassador.

“I am Cahl,” he says in a voice so flat and commanding, I drop my arm and place my back flat against the wall. I hear a faint crashing of glass and I don’t need to be a genius to figure out that the henchman has done a runner through the window.

We would be wise to follow him. Now!

“Aria,” I say calmly, holding out my hand for her.

“You have a name?” Aria sneers, not seeming the least bit surprised to see him.

“Aria,” I hiss at her, waving my hand in her direction.

“Oh no,” she says giving me a look that speaks volumes. “This is going to make my day.” She slams her fist into her palm and I groan.

“Humph,” I say with a grimace. “You can’t…” I leave the sentence hanging, not really wanting to tip off this beast that she is less than her best. Although, all he has to do is use his eyes. She is still bruised and bandaged and favoring her broken ribs. “Shift then,” I murmur to her and circle around away from her so that I can flank ‘Cahl’. I have to say that I am surprised as well to learn that they have names. Here I thought they were an army of large Ken doll types; automatons with no feelings, no personality and no dangly bits. I snicker as I think about that.

“So, ‘Cahl,’” I say, drawing his attention to me as he just stands there staring at Aria like he wants to jump her. To do what… hmmm… “What you got hiding under that armor?” I taunt him.

He looks down at his golden armor and growls at me. He turns towards me, raising his sword and I swallow. Well, I
was
trying to get the attention off Aria.

“No way,” Aria says, coming fully into the sitting room. “This is
my
fight,
vamp
.”

“It’s Ember,” I snap at her, “And I’d say we are both his targets,” I add, keeping a wary eye out. He isn’t coming at us, but why?

“Are we confusing you?” I ask him with an arched eyebrow. “Do you understand our words?” I enunciate slowly and Aria snorts brazenly in his face. He turns back to her with a roar. He lashes out at her with his sword, but she ducks, her reactions slowed, but she is still swift enough to avoid being hacked at. She comes up, with a look of pure rage on her face and I can see my partner in destiny hold back the wolf within her.

“Let it out!” I yell at her, leaning down to pull free a throwing knife from my ankle holster. It won’t pierce his armor, but it will pierce his skin. Without a second thought, I throw it at him and it embeds itself deep in his neck.

He lets out a surprised grunt, but that is all. He reaches up to pull it out of his neck as if it is merely a fly he is brushing away.

“Oh shit,” I mumble as he brandishes his sword at me and with a flash of speed, I am in front of him, executing a roundhouse kick that does nothing to deter him. I reach up and grab hold of his arm, using his own strength to gain purchase as I kick him again in the stomach, hitting his solid armor with a thud that reverberates up my whole leg.

“Fuck,” I snarl as he grabs my ankle and twists me around in the air, sending me crashing through the open doorway.

Okay,
now
I am pissed. I have to take this fucker down before he takes Aria out. I cannot have my whole
raison d’être
wiped off the face of the Earth.

They are circling each other, but again neither one of them attacks. I glance over my shoulder to see if there are any other Ambassadors surrounding this place, but I don’t see any. There is only Cahl and that in itself makes me suspicious.

I stagger to my feet and see the eyeball still impaled on my heel. With an evil smile, I delicately pull it off and then, with all the force of the vampire within, I throw it at the back of Cahl’s head. Just to amuse myself.

It hits his head with a soft, wet thump and he grunts in surprise and reaches up to rub his head. With all of the speed and strength I can muster, I launch myself at Cahl while he is sidetracked by my gory distraction, with my claws extended. I push him forward, intending to flatten him against the wall so that I can sink my fangs into his neck and hopefully slow him down long enough to wrestle his sword away from him. It is one of the only things that will kill his kind. Only, as soon as I attack, Aria steps forward, going on the offensive and I slam him directly into her.

“Shit,” she mutters as his huge body presses against hers.

“Argh!” he cries out, as I scramble up his back, ready to draw blood. He tries to shake me off, but I hold on, clawing at him.

“Aria! The sword!” I scream at her as she just stands there with this humungous jackass pawing at her. His hand has landed on her right boob and he is feeling her up while I try to kill him.

What. The. Fuck?

Chapter 9

~Aria~

I can’t believe this piece of shit Ambassador. Is he really copping a feel here? In the middle of battle?

I don’t understand what’s happening.

He seems…different. He’s not like the rest. He’s actually spoken more than a single word, he’s displayed emotion—anger, mainly—and now he’s…he’s touching me like this.

He seems to have more humanity than the rest of them. He seems like less of a monster.

I’m not sure how to handle it.

When it comes to the Ambassadors, I’ve only ever seen things in black and white. They are monsters. They are brutal, ruthless and merciless. They murdered my father. They are the enemy.

So, what is this now? This one…‘Cahl’…he’s not like any other Ambassador that I’ve encountered before.

I mentally bitch-slap myself. Who cares? He’s still here to kill us.
Get a grip, Aria.

I grab his shoulders, ripping Ember off him in the process, and use his mammoth weight against him to slam him into the wall. The drywall cracks at the impact.

“You cop a good enough feel of my boobs there, asshole? You’re more twisted than the others, huh? Is that it? You like to play with your prey before you kill them?”

He doesn’t answer. His striking hazel eyes just bore into mine, searching. Searching for what?

I shake him roughly, my claws digging through his durable golden armor. “You think you can violate me like that? I’ll fucking castrate you,
Cahl
.”

“Aria!” Ember calls to me. “You can’t. You’re—”

“Shut it!” I snap, not taking my eyes off Cahl.

I’m getting sick of her bullshit here. She clearly doesn’t know fuck all about me. Yeah, I’m still healing from my injuries after that brutal attack at the compound,
but
I’m more than capable of kicking ass, even in this state. Also, the fury burning through me right now is all the power I need to transcend the fact that I’m not at full strength.