Page 7 of The Tracker's Revenge

Chapter 3

When every drop wasgone, Aaron pulled away, stretching to his full height, placing the empty vial on the mantle, then focusing his entire attention on the man he loved. He seemed to hold his breath for a moment, his expression slowly turning into a desperate plea. His hands trembled at his sides as Josh continued to sit languidly, no sign that the elixir was having any effect on him.

I exchanged a glance with Rosalina, who stood a couple of paces behind me, nervously wringing her hands together. Collectively, we held our breaths, and after an interminable moment of absolutely no change, we all exhaled in disappointment.

Just as we gave up all hope, Josh started seizing, his arms and legs thrashing, kicking off the covers. Dark foam bubbled out of his mouth as he clenched his throat.

“Josh!” Aaron tried to grab his shoulders and hold him down, but Josh jerked so violently that he threw him off, almost sending him crashing into the fireplace.

Oh, shit!

The door behind us slammed open and Eric rushed into the room. He hurried to my side and scanned me from head to toe as if to make sure I was all right, and when Josh sprang up to a sitting position, Eric took hold of my shoulders and pulled me back.

I shook him off, entranced by the sight as Josh’s feet lifted off the floor and his entire body quaked in midair until his outline grew blurry.

“What is happening?!” Aaron demanded, his dark eyes flashing in my direction with recrimination.

Helplessly, I shook my head. I didn’t know what to say. Damien hadn’t had time to explain anything before he exhaled his last breath on the floor of my tracking agency. I had no idea if this was supposed to happen, or if it meant it had all gone wrong.

Maybe the bitterthorn Prince Kalyll had given us in Elyndell had been bogus. Maybe something in Damien’s meticulous work while creating the elixir had gone wrong. Whatever the case, when black, tarry gunk started oozing from Josh’s eyes, nostrils, mouth, and ears, I gave up all hope.

My legs gave out, and I nearly fell to my knees if not for Eric who wrapped an arm around my waist and held me in place.

“What have you done?!” Aaron cried out in horror.

Dark brown fur sprouted over his arms and back. Claws and fangs unsheathed as he crouched and turned in my direction, ready to make me pay for bringing him more pain. He had always been gentle and polite. The creature that now stood in front of me was nothing like that.

“Wait!” Eric commanded in his alpha voice, a sound that reverberated in his chest like that of a hundred deep voices packed into one.

I shuddered, even though I was also an alpha.

Eric’s command had an immediate effect on Aaron. He shrank in on himself, his head lowering, his shoulders climbing toward his ears. His eyes glowed slightly and darted about, from me to Eric, from Eric to Josh, then back again. He was torn between the concern for his soulmate and his desire to make me pay for stealing whatever little time they had left together.

Tears were sliding down Rosalina’s face, and I could tell by her expression exactly what she was thinking. Damien’s daughter would not be saved. She would perish and die in rhabo agony, just the way Josh was dying, and Damien’s last wish would not come true.

As more blackness oozed from the vampire, the room filled with the pungent stink of his disease, and now even Rosalina, with her normal human sense of smell, felt it. Her scrunched-up nose and wince left no doubt about it.

Throwing his head back, Josh cried out in pain, releasing a cloud of dark miasma into the air. It shot upward like a swarm of gnats, darkening the ceiling. The stream was as dense as smoke from a pyre. It spewed from him for several beats, thinning gradually, until only a few particles floated out past his lips, then nothing.

Josh collapsed on the floor.

In an instant, Aaron was there to brace his fall. He cradled him in his arms and drew him close, calling his name over and over. Josh fell limp against Aaron, his eyes closed, his cheeks and chin streaked with lines of what looked like black blood.

Desperately, Aaron reached for one of the blankets that had covered his soulmate and tenderly cleaned his face with it.