Chapter 28

BENJAMIN

"The fuck are you doing here? You killed him, didn't you?" I asked, balling my fists by my side.

Ervin was the closest thing to a brother, and Nathaniel had killed him. I was filled with rage, but at the same time, I couldn't fault him. We'd attacked him first.

"Why not relax, Benjamin? You wouldn't be here if you didn't want us to meet you."

"Oh, so I can't visit a vampire brothel to forget about the loss I just suffered without it seen as me trying to gain an audience with you?"

"You weren't this uptight years ago," Nathaniel said, cocking his head to the side. He took a seat opposite me, his brothers, and a sorcerer I heard about from Ryker, standing guard behind him. They'd gained everyone's attention, but they didn't care about that.

"What do you want?" I asked, eager to get the conversation done and over with.

"Since you started sending you demons after Ayra and I, you've been the only one to incur a loss. You've lost several lair members, and I don't think your people would be eager to hear this."

"It's not any of your business. They're not your lair members," I snarled.

"You don't know how glad I am at that. I'm here to extend an olive branch. My brothers are against it, but you were once a brother. Believe it or not, I would hate to kill you, but if you come at me or mine, I won't have such reservations."

I curled my lips up in anger. "What makes you think you can defeat me? You don't have Acheron anymore."

He grinned at me. "Been keeping tabs on me? Who's been helping with that?"

"I have," Ryker said all of a sudden behind me.

How the fuck did he find me so quickly?

"Well, hello there, Ishmael. I see you are on the losing team like always," Ryker mocked. "You've always been a pathetic sorcerer."

"And yet I reversed the spell you added to the poison. Vita ad vitam, est anima pro anima. I learned that one from you," the other sorcerer retorted, not looking the least bit offended. "Unlike you, I know where to give credit where it's due."

"Do we have a deal, Benjamin?" Nathaniel asked with a look that said he'd rather be anywhere else than here. "If you don't stop your demons, they'll just keep dying until everyone in your lair eventually dies."

He had a point. I couldn't keep sending demons his way if they were going to end up dead. I had to stop the attacks until I found a better way to eliminate him. Ryker had proven to be a useless help.

"We have a deal."

*Until I could find a much more powerful ally to help take you down.*

"Good. I hope we never meet each other again."

"For your sake, I hope so."

He flashed me one of his cocky smiles before pushing away from the table. "Adios, old friend."

Ishmael created a portal in the middle of the room, and all four of them walked through it before it finally closed.

"So, what are we going to do now?" Ryker asked.

"What I should have done a long time ago; take charge. You claim you're stronger than Ishmael, and he was able to undo a spell you cast."

"What are you saying, Benjamin? You're kicking me off the team?"

"I am saying I'm going to take charge here. It's what I should have done in the first place."

They had a sorcerer on their side, so I had to find something or someone stronger than that.

***

NATHANIEL

I pulled the covers, sliding in behind a naked Ayra.

"Nathaniel," she called out.

"Hm? My bad. I'm sorry I woke you."

She turned in my arms, so she could come face-to-face with me. "You didn't wake me. I was already awake. Why are you undressed?"

"I was going to get some sleep, too. I thought you were asleep."

"I remember."

"Remember what?"

"My past."

"Really?" I asked, sitting up on the bed.

"I don't remember all, but I remember getting attacked by a wolf. He lunged at me out of nowhere, and before I could get bearings, he bit my neck. He had red eyes, and I later learned that meant he's a true Alpha." She looked up at me. "Yours are red too when you're horny."

"Yours, too. Go on."

"I fell unconscious after the bite, and when I woke up, I was strapped to a bed with a weird doctor telling me it was my new home. I fell into a schedule after that. They'd sedate me for two days. On the third day, they'd make me read books to get me familiar with how werewolves worked. If I couldn't memorize it, they'd punish a group of girls."

Her eyes glazed like she was reliving the entire event in her head. "At first, it was too painful to learn anything, but when they finally killed two girls, I knew I had to get my shit together. I kinda felt like I was responsible for the girls."

*An image of a girl flashed through my head. She was hung from the ceiling with her blood dripping on the floor, and her intestines hanging out while a group of other girls huddled in the corner, blood-curdling screams leaving their lips.*

*Next I saw a man approach the girls with a dagger in his hand. He dragged a girl by her hair, pulling her to her feet while the others cried uncontrollably.*

*"How many, Ayra? How many demons werewolves died during the war?" The man asked with a fiery smile.*

*"Ten thousand," Ayra replied, her voice sounding small and broken.*

*He slashed the dagger across the girl's face, laughing maniacally at the screams of terror that left the girl's mouth.*

*Ayra folded into herself on a bed, sobbing quietly.*

*"You're no longer a vampire, Ayra. You're now a werewolf. Scrap every thought of your old life out of your head. No one is coming to save you," he mocked before walking out of the room, leaving the girls to cry their hearts out.*

*Ayra remained on the bed, watching the girl with tears pouring out of her eyes.*

When everything came to a halt in my mind, Ayra had tears in her eyes.

"Come here." I pulled her on my lap, cradling her against my chest. "It's not your fault. None of it is your fault. That man should be blamed for what he did to you and the girls. Do you understand?"

"I know. It's just sad that they went through all of that because of me. If I hadn't been stubborn, they'd never have died."

"Anyone in your position would have acted out, too. You were kidnapped and drugged, and Turned against your will. They emotionally and mentally abused you. That shit I saw was brutal, but none of it is your fault."

"You saw it?"

"I did," I confirmed. "I'm going to keep saying it isn't your fault until you believe it."

"Thank you. I remember how I got out, too. They left the room unguarded without injecting enough sedatives to take me out for two days, so I jumped out the window. I woke up six hours after they left. There was a couple who dropped supplies at the building, and I begged them to help me. They did after much persuasion, but what I didn't know was that they sent these rabid wolves after us."

That added up with everything we'd seen that day. "Did you kill the werewolves?"

"No. At least, I don't remember doing so. I was trying to get away when you found me."

"You've been through quite some shit. Why would they turn a vampire into a werewolf?"

"I don't know. They kept saying something about a quadbrid, and making sure the balance was maintained. They called hybrids an upset to the balance, but imagine it being a quadbrid. Not only that, but they made it seem like it was some evil they needed to eradicate."

"Some really twisted people try so hard to validate their twisted goals by making it seem like they're doing some greater good. They have really fucked up heads."

"Trust me when I say I've seen it all and more. I was punished when I didn't agree with some of their views."

"Don't let it fuck with your head. They're the ones who need help to clear up their mind and see the world through a different lens."

"I guess there's no need to visit Ishmael anymore. We can spend that time doing… other things."

I flipped us over on the bed, looking down at her. "I love where your mind is at."