Page 46 of High Stakes and Soulmates (Fanged Mistakes #3)

CYRUS

Present

My ears are ringing when I slam into the ground, thrown back from the blast that tore down Ezio. Someone has hold of my ankles while I’m dragged across the dirt as dust and debris settle around me.

“Ezio!” I scream, but I can’t even hear my own voice over the ringing. What the fuck just happened?

I shoot the guy in the head who’s dragging me and roll up onto my feet before I try to rush back to Ezio, but a wall of vampires blocks my path. Anxiety tears through me as I’m forced to stop and face them.

I know I really, really didn’t want to be a werewolf, but right now…

I think I could fucking enjoy being a werewolf because I can’t outrun them.

But how the hell do I shift? And why the fuck didn’t I try to learn earlier?

Julian could have helped me, or even Ezio.

And instead, I’m just blindly running from the vampires, well aware that running is likely doing nothing when they could catch me at any moment. Are they just toying with me?

I turn and I see him . I see Louis, and this time, I get a better look at him than the brief glance I’d gotten as he’d gone into Donovan’s office. But just as soon as I see him, others crowd around me. Fuck. I need to run. I need to get away.

A hand grabs me, yanking me back, and I whirl on them, planning on blowing a hole in their head.

“Shhh, it’s me. Fucking hell,” Joaquin says, squeezing me close as he presses up against a tree. “What part of this is staying out of it? I asked you to stay out of it. To let me… Fuck.”

Relief washes through me as I grab on to my brother. “Oh fuck, Joaquin.” I dig my fingers into his arm while I try to think about what to do. “We have to get back to Ezio and the others.”

“If Ezio and Casimir can’t kill them… what the fuck do you think I’m going to be able to do?” he asks. “I wish I’d have told RealLifeWoman6969 that I loved her.”

“Is this the time for a joke?” I demand.

“You have your phone?”

I grab my pocket and realize that at some point during all of that, my phone must have fallen out. “Fuck.”

“You know Ezio’s number? You can call him on mine. I can just… get you away and you can call him.”

“I don’t think you realize that they’re not going to let us get away,” I say as I quickly reload my gun and discover how much my fingers are trembling.

Joaquin sets a gentle hand on my shoulder to reassure me.

And when I see a vampire coming toward us, I realize that Joaquin doesn’t notice them. “Move!”

His attention snaps to them before he picks me up and rushes into the trees. “Why are there so many?”

“I don’t know,” I say as he keeps running.

A vampire slams into him, but he doesn’t lose his hold on me while he runs. And just when I’m afraid they’re going to catch up, I hear another explosion.

“Here, let’s use the distraction of the explosion to hide.

I can’t outrun them. Maybe we can… I don’t know…

hide or something? Maybe Ezio and Casimir will find us in here,” he says as he hurries over to a large warehouse.

He pushes the door open, but before we can get inside, a vampire smashes into Joaquin.

I fall from his arms and twist as I shoot them four times in the head.

Joaquin jerks back when their body hits the ground. “FUCK. Why the hell did you come here?” he asks me.

“Why did you?”

“I was just going to see what I could find. I didn’t know what the fuck else to do! I thought maybe someone would have heard something after last week’s attack.”

He drags me after him as we go farther into the storage warehouse. There are large shelving units that nearly reach the ceiling. We quickly move along them while anxiety eats at me.

“Come on. Come on,” Joaquin urges.

“They’re going to find us in here. They were probably pushing us toward this building.”

“We’re going to find a room to hole up in. We’re going to find one and… fuck if I know. Block the door? We have to stay safe long enough the others can get to us.” He hesitates and I look over at him.

“What? Did you hear something?”

“Come on,” he says. “It was nothing. Keep moving.”

“Joaquin, please, I can’t lose you, and this guy… he wants to kill me, not you. Can you please just go?”

His grip tightens on my wrist as he gives me a look of disbelief. “You really think I would just go? You think I’d just leave you here to be killed? I know I can’t do much, but I’m not going to leave you.”

I hear a noise and turn quickly, well aware someone is in here with us.

Joaquin knows it too and is moving me as fast as he can to the far end of the warehouse.

The person is rushing between the shelves, but we’re stuck on a long aisle with no way to go but forward.

Joaquin grabs me and starts running as the sound of their footsteps follows us.

If it’s only one person, maybe Joaquin and I can kill them.

Unless it’s Louis.

Unless it’s the man that even Ezio is afraid he can’t kill.

Joaquin reaches the end of the aisle and hurriedly looks around for where to go before rushing to the far end while the footsteps grow closer.

I twist as I lift my gun and watch as the person steps out of the shadows. The moment I see that familiar face, relief washes through me. “Ezio?” I ask in shock.

“Let him go,” Ezio growls.

“It’s okay, it’s my brother,” I tell him as Joaquin’s grip tightens on my wrist.

“That’s not your brother, Cyrus,” Ezio says, his expression hardened. “You… all this time…”

I freeze, confused. “What are you talking about?”

“That is not your brother. That is Louis.”

I look over at Joaquin, who is watching Ezio closely.

“No… what the fuck are you talking about? I think I know who my brother is.”

“He knows who his brother is,” Joaquin says as he pulls me in front of him and kisses the top of my head while my entire body turns cold. It’s such a strange movement. It’s such a strange action.

“I don’t…” I look back at Joaquin like maybe he’s changed into a different person. Maybe he swapped out with my brother while I wasn’t looking, but the man behind me is still very much my brother.

“Ezio, you’re mistaken. What the hell are you talking about? This is Joaquin… This is… he’s my brother.”

“Years?” Ezio asks in disbelief. “You’ve been fucking with him for years ?”

Joaquin laughs. “Oh, I have. The sweet thing seems to struggle to remember what happened before the attack on his family,” he says as he smooths my hair back off my forehead.

I shake my head. “No… I… I remember you. You’re my brother. I remember… you’re in my memories. I don’t remember everything, but I remember you.”

“Please. Just let him go. This is between us,” Ezio says, the blade I’d given him still held tightly in his hand.

“If you let him go and promise to never touch him again, you can do anything you want to me. You can kill me. You can torture me. You can enslave me for hundreds of years if you fucking want to. I don’t care as long as you let him go. ”

“No… no…” I whisper, struggling to wrap my mind around any of this.

Joaquin is my brother. My precious family.

The very reason I’ve spent years of my life cut off from others because he convinced me that if he stepped out in the open, the vampire who was hunting him would find him and kill him.

We were determined to find out who did this to us.

Joaquin was the reason I fixated on finding our parents’ killer… to protect him… to save him.

He wasn’t… no… I feel like my entire world is coming apart and I can’t seem to understand any of it.