Page 78

“Soren…” Soren hated that chiding, warning tone, like Hendrick was talking to a stubborn child. “It’s enough to make me think you don’t like me.”

“I don’t like you.” Whoops, he wasn’t supposed to say that part out loud.

Hendrick gave him a hard look.

Soren used to be so much better at being cautious around this bastard, but he was having such a hard time working up the old fear. He wanted to be done with this charade. He wanted to get back to Gabe.

“Why do you want me?” he found himself asking.

“You belong—”

“Yeah, I know. I ‘belong’ to you. But why do you want me. You don’t even like me. Is it really worth all this? The stalking, the hiding out in this dusty cabin with a smelly dead body, for someone you don’t even like ?”

Hendrick’s gaze finally met his, eyes cold and hard as ever. “Perhaps you’re all I have left.”

Soren pondered that. It was maybe true. Hendrick’s friends were gone, the den he’d been a part of for his whole vampire existence falling apart.

Soren wondered how the other vampire hadn’t gone feral yet.

He probably wasn’t far from it. Maybe that was why he was trying so hard to take Soren back again.

Maybe he thought it would delay things—that a familiar face would tether him, even if Soren’s soul couldn’t officially do the job.

Soren wished he could find it in himself to feel sorry for Hendrick, but he just…couldn’t. This bastard had taken too much from him already. He didn’t deserve Soren’s pity too. Still, Soren wasn’t above trying to reason with him, if it meant not getting the shit kicked out of him in a fight.

“You should start over, Hendrick,” Soren said, keeping his voice soft, nonconfrontational. “This is a chance for you. Find someone you fit with. Someone whose very existence doesn’t make you want to beat the life out of them.”

Hendrick tilted his head, studying Soren with a strange smirk on his face. “You think I haven’t had other pets?”

Soren blinked, taken aback.

Hendrick laughed, poking again at the fire. “I’ve had others, angel. Other pretty treasures. How else do you think I wiled away the time all those years you ran from me? None managed to keep my interest for long.”

“Where are they now?” Soren was afraid he knew the answer already, but he had to ask.

Hendrick’s grin widened. “Where do you think? Disposed of properly. Like I should perhaps have done with you. You make me sentimental, I think. You were my first… possession . The first vampire I made just for me.” He ran his gaze over Soren, heavy as a physical touch. “And still the most beautiful.”

Soren tried to process the words he was hearing. How many people had Hendrick killed, in his long lifetime? Trying different partners out for size and murdering them when they didn’t match his needs.

This was why Soren couldn’t find any pity for the other vampire. Because Hendrick was a cruel, vicious bully. One who treated other living creatures like nothing more than toys to play with and trash at will.

His very existence was a waste of space. A waste of Soren’s time.

Soren could feel the swirl of emotions he felt toward Hendrick…

amplifying. His bitterness at everything Hendrick had subjected him to in the past. His fury in being taken away from the human he belonged with.

His complete and utter rage that this sad-sack, poor excuse for a man could continue to cause him so much pain for no real reason other than selfish desire and boredom.

Okay, maybe Soren didn’t have a swirl of emotions. Maybe he was just fucking pissed .

“You’re incapable of love, aren’t you?” Soren asked, his voice trembling with anger.

Hendrick finally dropped the stick he’d been using to stoke the fire, turning his full attention to Soren. “ Love ?” he asked, voice dripping with disdain. “Is that what you think you’ve found for yourself? With the little human?”

Soren didn’t know why he was taken aback by the question, but he was. He flinched, unable to school his reaction properly.

Hendrick started laughing again. “You think you’ve found a kindred soul?” he taunted. “Who would want you, angel? You’re good for one thing. That pretty face. And you ruin even that with your mouth every. Fucking. Time.”

Soren’s temper flared. “At least I’ve never had to abuse or coerce others just to get someone to share my bed.

” So much for reasoning with his captor.

Hendrick’s smirk fell from his face in an instant, his features twisting with fury.

His eyes darkened, his fangs dropped, and he rose from his crouch in one swift movement.

That was the thing about manipulative assholes. They really hated being called out on their own bullshit.

Without another word, Hendrick charged Soren, a blinding blur of muscle.

Soren darted back easily. He may not have had the advantage over the other vampire when it came to brute force, but he did have speed.

He was out the front door in a flash, reaching out a hand to grab the shotgun he’d stashed on the porch.

Turned out the shed had some useful tools in it after all.

Soren briefly gave thanks for Deliverance -core, backwoods cabin owners and the firearms they kept. It wouldn’t be enough to kill a vampire, but it would be enough to slow one down.

Soren aimed a blast at Hendrick, the charging vampire’s eyes widening in the split second he had to register the weapon.

One shot in the chest was enough to push Hendrick back a few feet, but not for long. He kept coming. The next shot did some nice damage to his left arm.

Okay, Soren’s aim was…not great. But Hendrick was doing him a major solid by continuing to run straight for him.

Not just a manipulative asshole. A stubborn manipulative asshole.

Finally Soren hit Hendrick straight in the face with his third shot. The vampire’s charge stopped in an instant, his body slumping over onto the porch.

Soren’s triumph was quickly waylaid by disgust.

“Fucking gross .” Soren held a hand to his mouth, almost wanting to retch, not sure if a vampire body was even capable of it. He was all for blood, but brain matter flying everywhere was just…nasty.

He took a minute to collect himself, keeping his eyes off the massacred body in front of him. Hendrick may have been a horrible, murderous dick, but Soren still didn’t relish the sight of his wasted body.

He sat down on the porch, as far from the mess as he could. He’d expected more…relief. But Soren could still feel rage and fear and worry swirling in his stomach. Maybe it would take some time to process his victory over his longtime tormentor.

He lost himself in thought, reflecting on everything that had brought him and Hendrick to this point. Could Soren have done anything different, to avoid this gruesome outcome?

He wasn’t sure how long it had been when he finally stirred from his seated position, but the sun was substantially higher in the sky. Soren needed to make a decision. He had options now.

He could leave Hendrick here, allow the other vampire to heal over time. Hendrick’s head was mangled, but it wasn’t completely severed from his body; he would heal, eventually. Soren could leave him to it and hope that this fight would be the one to teach Hendrick to stay away for good.

Soren could run again.

He laughed to himself, the sound tinged with hysteria.

Who was he kidding? He wasn’t going to run.

He didn’t want to leave. Part of Soren’s soul was still in Hyde Park.

The best part of his soul. And if he was going back…

Soren didn’t want to look over his shoulder for the rest of his very long existence.

And then there was the other side of things: how many others would die, if Hendrick was left to live?

So it was time to dispose of Hendrick. The world would be better off without him. Soren wondered if perhaps Hendrick had wanted to end his own existence. If that was part of why he’d continued to pursue Soren even without the threat of his den of vampire friends to keep him safe.

Soren found he didn’t care much either way.

He lugged Hendrick’s body to the fireplace, avoiding looking too closely at his mangled head. Soren tossed him in just as unceremoniously as he had the cabin’s owner into the lake.

He watched long enough to ensure the body caught fire, then went back out to the dilapidated shed, where he was sure he’d spotted some gasoline cans.

He supposed he could have saved himself some time and poured those on Hendrick first thing, catching him by surprise after disposing of the cabin’s owner, but Soren had wanted… He wasn’t sure what.

He’d wanted closure, he supposed, as stupid as that made him feel in hindsight. He’d wanted to give Hendrick a chance to do the right thing.

So much for that.

Soren was exiting the shed when he caught sight of a familiar form on the porch.

Gabe. Still in the clothes Soren had last seen him in, looking rumpled and torn and definitely the worse for wear. But his human was standing tall—both legs straight and strong—not a wound to be found on him.

Soren took that in.

Huh. His human wasn’t… human anymore.

And Soren understood suddenly, that wave of emotion he’d felt back in the cabin, confronting Hendrick.

The mate bond. Soren had been feeling Gabe’s feelings on top of his own.

Their rage combined. Just as he could feel Gabe’s relief now.

His confusion. His love. Soren stood frozen, the can of gasoline clutched in front of him.

“I came to rescue you,” Gabe said sheepishly from his place on the porch, not making any move to get closer.

“I’m burning a body,” Soren explained, voice dull. He didn’t know what to think. He didn’t know how to feel.

Gabe sighed, running a hand through his hair. He looked at Soren with hopeful eyes. “Can I help?”