Annie Nicholas: The Beta

“Look, you love Sugar and she loves you. That’s the important part. Maybe getting an objective view point on your relationship would help.” Robert extended his hands out to Daedalus.

“You want us to see a therapist? Who the hell deals with vampires, Robert?”

“Okay, not a therapist but you’ve got friends. Maybe Spice can help. She became a werewolf for Eric.”

“Fucking rub it in, man.” If looks could kill, Robert was a dead shifter walking.

“Is that it? Spice choosing to be part of the pack? Is that why you’re all twisted in knots lately?”

“Wouldn’t you be if you were in my shoes? Sugar won’t make that kind of sacrifice for me. If I could become human, I’d do it in a heartbeat. I’m not feeling the love. She doesn’t get what I am, and now she’s trying to control how I feed.” He shook his head. “When she came back for me, after the whole Ayumu fiasco, I thought I could take whatever she offered and be happy but not anymore.”

“Fuck.” A hole formed in Robert’s gut as he listened to Daedalus pour his heart out. “Does anyone else know how you feel?”

“No. I barely understand how I feel.”

“You need to tell her. Now.” He pulled out his cellphone and stepped closer, offering it to the vampire. A soft twang caught his attention. He twisted to face the street and a sharp pain pierced his chest, knocking the air from his lungs.

He gasped, but it only made the pain worse. Staring at his chest, he couldn’t believe what he saw. An arrow stuck out of him. An arrow? Who the fuck used arrows? The world spun, and he heard a rush of words from Daedalus but couldn’t understand what he said. His knees gave out and he fell.

And kept falling. Shouldn’t he have hit the roof surface by now? Seemed a long, long way down.

Esther watched Rob fall off the roof. Her heart stalled, and she couldn’t get it to start again. The world compressed around her, making it hard to breathe let alone move.

Rob clutched the bolt in his chest. The one she’d shot. It was meant for Daedalus, but the split second she squeezed the trigger Rob stepped forward and took the hit.

The clatter of her crossbow hitting the sidewalk shattered her nightmare state. What the fuck had she done?

Her gentleman werewolf flipped mid-air, curling around his wound, and landed on his back with a loud thud that she felt through her boots.

She was halfway across the street at a dead run before her brain caught up. “No, no, no…” The word skipped like a broken record. Something warm stained her cheeks. Wiping it with her hand, she found tears. She hadn’t cried in years, but then she’d never killed an innocent before.

His body lay in the dented, cracked concrete. Blood formed like a big amaryllis bloom on the front of his t-shirt. Each shallow breath sent a gurgle of blood from his lungs.

Kneeling at his side, she didn’t know what to do. Her hands fluttered over his chest, knowing she needed to stop the bleeding but afraid to touch him. She couldn’t get past the fact she’d hurt someone she actually liked.

“Rob?” She brushed her fingertips over his cheeks, her hands trembled so much it made them difficult to control. “What have I done?”

“What do you mean?” An iron strong grip grabbed her shoulder and yanked her to her feet.

Her eyes met the black, soulless glare of Daedalus, a Prime of the Nosferatu clan. The Infernal Champion of the Brotherhood, Vile Butcher of Babylon, and Subjugator of the Accords, to name a few of his titles.

As if a bucket of ice-cold water had been dumped over her head, her terror and shock transformed at the sight of her target. She snapped back into herself and met his stare. “It was meant for you, Bearer of Ill Will.” With Rob dying at her feet, she didn’t deserve to live. Her only salvation was if the vampire finished her before she had to witness Rob’s last breath.

The Nosferatu dropped her. “What?”

Before she could respond a clash of raw power penetrated her mental shields and entered her mind. Any human could keep a vampire from their thoughts if they bothered to learn how. Daedalus proved too strong for her to block even with her years of practice.

He raped her mind like a savage and flipped through her thoughts as if reading a book.

Frozen and helpless, she watched from a dark corner of her head until he tore her identity from her grasp. She cried out, the sound echoing down the street.

“A slayer?” The vampire stumbled from her and leaned on the brick building behind him as his gaze darted to Rob. “That bolt was meant for me.” He knelt beside the werewolf. “Robert?” With a gentle shake, he repeated the question. “Come on, buddy, open your eyes. You need to shift.”

Buddy? They were friends? The heavy despair in Daedalus’s voice only confirmed it. She stared at the Nosferatu, a killer of thousands, as a tear slipped from the corner of his eye.

All this time she thought the vampire used her naïve Rob. It didn’t appear like that at all. She took a deep shaky breath. “Shouldn’t I call nine-one-one?” Her cellphone trembled in her hand as she held it out.

“No use. There’s too much damage.” He shook Rob harder. “Robert, let’s go. Time to wake up, we’ve got miles to run.” The snap in his command came with practiced ease.

Rob’s eyelids fluttered open with a weak groan.

“Listen to me.” Daedalus hovered over his face. “You need to shift. The change will heal the damage.”

Her werewolf blinked. “Esther?”

She crept closer until he could see her.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

Fuck, he didn’t know she’d shot him. “Yes.” A sob wracked her chest. “Shift, Rob.” She wiped her nose with her hand. “Please.”

“Can’t—” His eyelids closed and his chest shuddered with an exhale, then he didn’t move again.

“Rob!” His name tore from her raw throat. “I’m so sorry.” She glanced at Daedalus and regretted it.

Death stared back at her.

She shrank away and got to her feet. “It was meant for you, asshole. Why’d he have to move at the last minute?” All her stakes were in the trunk of her car, so she palmed her thirty-eight from her shoulder holster.

He mirrored her movements and moved around Rob’s body. “I’m going to make you suffer, slayer, and listen to you beg for the mercy you never showed him.”

This was the monster she hunted, not the one who just shed a tear. “You might have played nice vampire for him but I know who you really are.”

“I am many things, but to you I am Pain.” He moved so quickly she sensed his body more than saw it.

Only her keen reflexes kept her out of his grasp. She spun, aimed, and squeezed the trigger, but she may as well have used a spit ball straw for all the damage the bullets did. She knew the bullets caused vampires pain, but Daedalus didn’t even grimace.

He stormed toward her and clutched her throat before slamming her into the building. Her heels tap danced against the brick as they dangled, and she tried to draw breath, but his vise-like grip wouldn’t let the smallest amount of air in.

“This is just the beginning, Esther.”

With the lack of oxygen, her vision faded yet she did hear a faint growl of surprise to her right. She glanced and saw the blurred outline of Rob in full beast form getting to his feet. Bipedal, he stood well over six feet tall, covered in a glossy chocolate brown fur. He flexed the long claws extending from his fingertips, and the ears on top of his wolfen head folded back.

Her heart soared, and she heard the angels sing.

He lived.

And she was about to die.

A furious cry shred the night just before Daedalus’s grip was torn from her throat and she fell to the ground. Coughing up a lung and dragging in a breath thick with air, she tried to stand. Her knees didn’t think it a good idea though. She leaned on her hands and blinked her vision clear.