Page 20 of Feeding Frenzy (Crimson Coven #3)

TWENTY

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The bed dipped under my weight. Jax’s eyes were closed. He hadn’t moved from the chair he’d been in since I ran off.

I poked his chest, but he didn’t move.

“Jax?” I said it low at first but repeated his name louder.

Not even a twitch.

I grabbed his arm and shook him.

“Jaxon Crimson.”

Asher settled in the bed next to me until his thigh was flush against mine.

“Whatever happened left a mark on him,” he said. I scrunched my nose and looked at my hands on my lap. “Want to tell me about it?”

“Not really,” I mumbled. I squeezed my hands tight together. I sighed. “Nothing you wouldn’t expect. She broke my bones. Laughed about it. Ordered him to do some things to me.” I rubbed my intact fingers. The remembered agony was shrouded behind a foggy layer.

“Did she force him to fuck her in front of you?”

My heart jumped and my fingers curled into a fist. I turned to look at him, my eyebrows furrowed, and fangs extended from the gum.

“Since she’s been back, did she do that to you . . .?” I trailed off.

His eyes widened.

“I did nothing with her. Nor did Jaxon. But it was coming. That’s why the others and I paid a visit to Calliope. After her little stunt, forcing me to watch the orgy, it would have headed that way, if we did nothing.”

The crippling fear that prickled over my nerves made me want to lash out. I’d thought being emotional was supposed to go away with becoming a vampire, not feel more intense. I forced my fangs back in and licked my lips. I needed to distract myself before I crumpled on the ground at the idea of Imogen forcing the twins to do things they didn’t want to.

The encroaching freak-out faded into the background much faster than I’d ever been able to calm myself down and I compartmentalized it.

So, I felt things stronger, but I could distract myself easier, got it.

“And what did you need from Calliope?”

“A favor.”

I lifted an eyebrow. That wouldn’t fly anymore. Asher pursed his lips and nodded. “We wanted her to take Imogen in. Then there was an attack on Saphire Lounge.” An attack right when they met up with her?

“Imogen must have planned it.” It was too perfect. All of it was. She’d had Maddy drug me, then shown up while all the guys were gone. It was definitely a plan. Maddy’s part in the situation hovered on my lips, but if I told them, what would they do to her? She hadn’t been at fault. Maybe I could wait a bit before telling them, and allow their trigger-happy selves to relax a little.

“Of course she did. I should have never let my guard down.” I stiffened, for a moment wondering if I’d spoken about Maddy aloud, but no, he was talking about Imogen.

I could throw it in his face. Yes, Asher shouldn’t have let his guard down, but he’d been too busy trying to keep the peace. Both with getting me not to run out of here like a bat out of hell and with Jax’s mercurial behavior. It couldn’t have been easy for him thinking that Jax would leave with Imogen. I’d believed it, and I was sure he had too.

Jax hadn’t made the assumption any less probable with how he followed after her like a puppy. “If we’d had you instead, maybe we would have an easier time with all these emotions. We became used to feeling nothing. Doing nothing but satisfying our whims and accumulating power and wealth.”

“The wealth is kind of great.” I shrugged. Silver linings, right?

The corner of his lips twitched.

I hadn’t moved my attention away from Jax’s stiff features. His eyes were closed and by what Asher told me; they’d been closed a while. Asher theorized it was because Jax was sinking deeper and deeper into his psyche.

Was he thinking about losing Imogen? Now that she’d done this, it was clear the others would not stay at her beck and call. Did the realization break him? He’d lose something—either his Coven or his woman. If I were him, I wouldn’t want to wake up either.

Thinking about Jax caused the boxed compartment I stuffed my emotions for him into to start opening. I refused to look at it. I didn’t want to poke it with a stick. If I paid attention to it, I would crumple into my sadness.

Once he woke up, he was bound to leave. I rolled my lips inside my mouth. There was the crux of it, I didn’t want that. The box in my chest pulsated. I pressed my palm to my gut. It felt oddly like nausea, but yet, not. So weird. I hadn’t had time to really take stock of the changes to my body.

No longer was I crippled by the attacks that seized my lungs. Just like when I had their blood, but better and permanent. My hearing, sense of smell—everything became advanced. And the blood. My fangs extended from my gums.

Asher raised a blond eyebrow at me.

“That’s kind of embarrassing.”

“Blood-boner, Pet?”

I was not a fan of the smirk. I rolled my eyes and turned back to Jax. I’d tried talking to him and then shaking him, now we sat just staring at him. It was kind of strange, sitting here in front of him after he’d snapped my fingers like twigs. He didn’t want to, sure, but still, the memory was alive and well. As was his pain-filled voice. I didn’t doubt he had a small, tiny soft spot for me. He’d given in to the lust between us well enough.

A soft rap at the door and Tobias came in slowly. “Any luck?”

“No,” I said, frustrated.

Tobias’s eyebrows met in the middle. His gray eyes were focused on the side of Jax’s head.

“What is it, Priest?” Asher was suddenly alert, standing as he turned from his twin to Tobias.

“He thinks he’s dreaming.” Tobias blinked and his eyebrows raised. He turned to me. “He’s with you.” He scratched his temple with one finger. “Sitting on your lap—as a cat?”

“I am so confused,” I muttered.

“He doesn’t want to wake up. He’s . . .” Tobias’s eyes narrowed. “Happy?” I pursed my lips and scanned everyone’s faces. They all seemed put off, like they’d lost something.

“Vampires can dream?”

“No,” Asher answered, and his lips twisted. Based off the look they sent each other, they knew what was going on already and it shocked them. I crossed my arms.

“Enough with the cryptic. Don’t leave me in suspense.”

“Bastien has him trapped in a dreamscape and Jax doesn’t want to leave it.”

Asher was already halfway to the door.

I hurried after him and grabbed his arm.

“What is it?”

“I’m paying a visit to Bastien.”

I puffed out a breath and pushed before him. Bastien couldn’t hurt me anymore, but he didn’t seem to remember what he’d done while in the dream he pulled me into, or was that a trick?

I fisted my hands at my sides and hurried downstairs. Ren’s wide shoulders were already at the threshold. Had he been listening to the conversation? The metal door was propped to the side, dents bending the middle. The wood where the hinges had been were shattered and splinters littered the ground. Ren disappeared.

“We haven’t come down since he called me,” Asher said from behind me. I purposefully made my way down the stairs slowly. I stopped on the final step and looked up at him over my shoulder.

It must have been after Imogen tortured me. He’d saved me?

Asher’s lips moved but I couldn’t make out what he was saying over the rushing in my eardrums.

“Pet?” His inflection tilted higher at the end like he found me funny. I tore myself out of my thoughts and refocused on him. “Not even two nights a vampire and you’re already beginning to lose yourself to your mind.” He dropped from the step to stand over me. “Is everything all right?” He was worrying about me when I should be the last thing on his mind, considering his brother upstairs. That wasn’t fair to him. I licked my lips and forced myself to nod.

“My mind just wandered.” I cleared my throat. “So, what happened at Saphire Lounge?” I tried to keep the accusation from my tone. They hadn’t known what planned, so it wasn’t their fault. But then again, they’d allowed that bitch in here.

“It was a massacre. We had to hunker down nearby before the sun rose.”

“All planned,” I muttered. Imogen was meticulous. I hurried through the door. The first to catch my attention was Ren. I followed his focus to the bed.

Bastien reclined against the headboard.

“Took you all long enough.” He wore a too tight sweater that strained over his shoulders. I could practically see the muscled divots in his stomach and shoulders. “Hello, Little One.”

I pursed my lips and didn’t say anything back. Scanning his features, I hunted for any resemblance to the corpse that kept me captive. The emaciated creature had nothing in common with the filled-out male in front of me.

“Are you wearing my clothes?” Tobias asked without inflection to his tone. That was why the too-tight clothes looked familiar. On Tobias’s slighter form, they fit loose.

Accusations, hatred, tears—all of it pounded through my mind. Did any of it matter anymore?

Bastien’s head cocked, and his attention hadn’t swayed from me. “What is on your mind?” It sounded like speaking hurt him with how raspy and deep his voice was. So odd having him speak to me.

Which was super ironic, because this was the version that had control.

“Thank you for calling Asher,” I forced from my throat. I licked my lips again. The corner of his lips twitched. The chains around his wrist rattled as he swung his legs over the end of the bed to stand. Even from a distance he towered.

“I believe I should be the one thanking you.”

“Me, why?” My eyebrows furrowed. His lips twitched.

“All in time.”

I scowled at the cryptic comment. So annoying.

He rattled the chains pointedly.

“Release me.” He smoothed his hand down his chest. “And get me some clothing that fits.” Great, he was just as demand-y as the rest.

“What did you do to Jax?” Asher interjected. Right, that was why we were down here in the first place.

Bastien messed with the sleeves of the sweater, rolling them up to his forearm so they no longer touched the raw section at his wrists. It looked like he’d already tried to get them off.

“Jax told me what he did to you, so I trapped him in his mind,” Bastien said it toward me but then fixed his attention on Asher. “And you should be thanking me. He was headed down a self-destructive path. If I hadn’t trapped him in his mind, he would be out there, fruitlessly hunting down his Sire. And if by chance he found her, what do you think he’d be able to do against Imogen? His Sire .”

The answer was nothing and everyone knew it, by the silence Bastien received.

“If trapping him helped get all of you down here.” Bastien shrugged. I thought when humans were turned into vampires, some switch went off in their head that just made them callous and cruel, but I felt almost the same.

A little blood-thirsty. I would still do anything and everything for Peter. Maybe I’d become just as violent, with time. But what made the most sense was that they were all as messed up in the head even before they became vampires, and becoming a vampire only enhanced those negative aspects. I rubbed my temples. Trying to make sense of vampires would only drive me crazy.

“What did he do to you, Love?” Tobias turned his body toward mine, but he didn’t move forward. He’d behaved cautiously since I first flinched from him. He wasn’t the one who hurt me, but he’d been convicted. He took another step forward. I didn’t move away, and he stepped close, until he stood before me. I didn’t want to reiterate what Jax was forced to do. I didn’t want to have to defend him either and I knew I would have to. He hadn’t wanted to do it.

“He broke all of her fingers at Imogen’s orders,” Bastien said.

“He what?” Ren said low and tense. I sighed.

Asher gripped my hand and lifted it to his lips, kissing my knuckles reverently. “Let him out of his mind,” Ren’s insistence seemed off. His lips curled up at the corner and his eyes took on a far-off look.

Bastien sighed and sat back down. His mouth seemed tighter at the corners.

“I will not.”

“Let him go,” I forced out. Bastien turned to me and his long white hair moved like a rustling curtain. He scanned my face.

“Are you sure?”

Was I? No, but I still nodded.

“As you wish,” Bastien intoned.

“Catalina,” Jax bellowed so loud that it reached us in the room.

“I should get hi—” Asher cut off with Jax’s sudden arrival.

Jax was suddenly in front of me, his shoulders heaving.

“You’re alive,” he whispered. Taking my face in his hands, he angled my chin up toward him. His hands skimmed down my neck and touched my shoulders, then down to my hands. “I . . .” He shuddered.

Jax’s hands were ripped away. Two forms blurred, exchanging blows. Ren hit Jax so hard something popped. Jax grunted, stumbling back as he palmed his nose.

“Fuck,” Jax hissed.

“You broke her fucking hands,” Ren snarled. The words hit Jax, and he staggered back. When Ren came at him again, he didn’t fight back. He fell to his back with a grunt, taking the flurry of punches at his face. Jax’s blood sprayed across Ren’s cheek.

I kept holding my breath, because, if I didn’t, I’d lunge at them and start feeding.

I gritted my teeth.

Ren held him down, pounding his fists into his jaw with repeated swings and Jax just took it. I struggled to comprehend the violence. I’d never seen them go at each other like this.

Blood leaked from Jax’s lip, nose, and eyebrow. A laceration opened on his cheek upon the next hit landing. Ren was going too far.

“Ren!” I screamed and grabbed his arm. I strained and managed to at least get him to look at me. “Please stop.”

My eyes continued to drift to the blood splatters. My mouth watered, but I continued not breathing. This confirmed it though. I was still not a fan of violence.

Asher shoved Ren back a step, keeping himself between them. I pinched my nose. A burn had begun in my gums, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Jax. He lay on the floor in a puddle of his blood. His face had been turned into a bludgeoned mess.

Delicious, sweet blood. I closed my eyes tightly.

“How uncivilized,” Bastien commented, lacing his hands on his stomach as he stared derisively down at the two of them. “Now.” Bastien paused, he shook his head with a groan. His lip curled and his red eyes flashed up to pin me. The calm, analytical Bastien disappeared. He’d returned to staring at me fixatedly and not speaking. His fangs had extended, and he lunged toward me. The chains rattled around him.

“Bastien?”

He snarled.

Tobias moved and he snarled, beginning to pace the little he could with the amount of give of the chain. He reminded me of a caged tiger.

“Kitten?” Jax stood and swiped the back of his hand across his mouth.

All the blood. Such delicious, sweet blood. It plunked onto the floor with a rhythmic drip. I couldn’t help but fixate. Jax swiped the back of his hand across his nose again and blood smeared on his skin. Lickable?—

“I have to go.” I clamped my hand over my mouth and ran upstairs.