For the Power (For the Blood Book 2) Read online

“I doubt it,” the dark-haired one said. “I figure they have something else in store for us.”

  My gut told me he was right, and we didn’t have too long to wait before our suspicions were confirmed. The door beeped open five minutes later and two Fangs wearing white lab coats strode in. They stopped in front of my cell, studying me as if I was a specimen on display, which I guess I was.

  “What is this?” blond guy asked. “Why are we still here when you took everyone else?” His tone was aggressive, his stance confrontational.

  Don’t engage, Eva warned. You don’t want to end up with a slit throat.

  She was right, there was no point aggravating these Fangs, not when they had all the power and could kill us for defiance.

  The Fangs didn’t pay blondie any mind, though. Instead, they made notes on their clipboards, pausing to glance at the main door every few seconds.

  They were waiting for someone.

  And then the door opened again and the female Fang from earlier entered the room. Her pale skin blended well with the white lab coat she was sporting, but it made her dark eyes seem even darker, like two bottomless pits in her oval face. Those pits raked over me, then flicked to blond guy, and finally settled on dark-haired dude.

  “What are you?” Blond guy practically spat the words. “What the fuck are you? You’re not the usual Fangs. We have a right to know!”

  Man, he had a death wish, but instead of getting annoyed, the female smiled widely, showing the first flash of real emotion. Satisfaction.

  “Aggressive little thing, aren’t you?” She canted her head. “It will serve you well on the path that has been chosen for you.”

  “That doesn’t answer my question,” blondie retorted.

  “No. It doesn’t, and I suppose there’s no harm in satisfying your curiosity since you will be serving us very well in a short space of time. We aren’t Fangs, little human. We are what Fangs evolved from. We are the first, we are the original, we are Vladul, and this world now belongs to us.” Her smile was like a dagger. “Congratulations. You three have been selected to be modified. Welcome to Genesis.”

  Chapter Three

  The glowing-eyed figures surrounded the vehicle. They moved quickly, efficiently cutting off all escape. Not that we’d be able to shoot off with flat tires and no Jace. One figure strode to the front of our van and placed a hand on the hood of the vehicle. He was broad-faced with high cheekbones and full lips. Several hoop earrings dangled from his lobes, and his defined biceps were bare in his vest shirt. A machete was strapped to his waist, dirty and crusted with dried blood.

  “Don’t do anything stupid,” he said.

  His voice carried easily, deep-timbred and smooth. His gaze flicked from me to Logan to Ash and then back again.

  “The female will exit the vehicle first.” It was a demand.

  Right, they assumed if they had me in their grasp there was less chance of the guys fighting them. I bit back a smirk—oh ye of little faith, oh ye of underestimating the female race and their ability to wield a lethal weapon.

  My sword was out of sight for them, but very much within my grasp. My fingers curled around the hilt.

  “No.” Logan’s voice was low. “Don’t try anything. Just do as he says.”

  I shot him an irritated glance. “Seriously?”

  “Your sword won’t do anything to them, all you’ll do is murder the host.”

  “Host?”

  “They’re djinn, Eva, and the meat suits they’re wearing are innocent humans.”

  My heart stalled for a moment. Djinn? As in the creatures made of smokeless fire that had hovered on the edges of human society for all time? They’d existed on a parallel plane and hungered for our world for as long as we’d laid claim to it. Dad had said they’d retreated to their world once the virus hit, but I guess, just like the fey, some had become trapped here. But taking human hosts… That wasn’t something Dad had filled me in on. He’d explained how they were incorporeal on our plane but corporeal on their own, something to do with frequencies and light waves. I was no scientist.

  “Just get out of the car. Don’t fight them,” Logan instructed.

  Ash nodded in agreement.

  Fine. Using my sword was a no, but that didn’t mean I’d leave it behind. My passenger side door popped open, and I hopped out of the van with the sword and sheath held lightly in my hand. The djinn closest to the door stepped back to allow me room to exit. He looked down his nose at me as if I were a gnat, and a prickle ran over my skin at his proximity. Magic, sharp and tangy, hovered in the air. It was seeping from his pores and stroking my skin.

  I arched a brow. “Hello to you too.”

  I brushed past him, suppressing a shudder, and strode to the front of the vehicle. My gaze grazed Jace’s, and his frown told me all I needed to know.

  This was not good.

  The djinn who’d instructed me to get out of the van was studying me now, his brow furrowed in confusion. There was something about his face that was strangely arresting, and I had to force myself to stop staring only to note that he was watching me with an equal measure of intensity.

  It was disconcerting, but there was no way he’d know he was throwing me off. “What? You’ve never seen a human female before?”

  His glowing peepers dimmed to flame colored—hues of orange and red and flecks of deep blue—as he continued to eye-probe me.

  “I’ve seen plenty of human females in my time,” he said. “But none quite like you.”

  It sounded like an awful pick-up line, but his tone suggested otherwise. “Look, we don’t want any trouble, we just want to be on our way.”

  He inclined his head. “And you can, but the vehicles and any tech you may be carrying stay with us.”

  “Wait … This is a robbery?”

  He grinned, showcasing even white teeth. “Ah, such a negative word.” He spread his hands. “We like to call it basic acquisitions.”

  Was that a twinkle in his eye? Was he playing with me? The tension gripping me eased a bit as instinct told me that despite his massive frame, maybe this djinn didn’t mean us any harm.

  I looked to Ash. “They just want the van and bike.” It was a loss. Yes, but we would have left them behind for the next stretch of the journey anyway. Granted, we’d planned on picking them up on the way back, but … “We should just leave them and get going.” I looked to the djinn for confirmation, but he was frowning now.

  “What?”

  He shook his head. “You misunderstand me. You get to leave. The Fangs stay. The Fangs die.” His lip curled in evident disgust.

  A few days ago, I’d happily have dumped the Fangs in the shit and strolled off into the sunset, but they were no longer just Fangs to me. They were Jace and Ash and yeah, even Logan. They had stories and secrets and we’d shed blood together.

  I held up my hands. “Whoa, wait up. If you want the van and bike, then that’s cool. But the Fangs belong to me. I need them and you’re not taking them.” I met the djinn’s gaze levelly.

  His brows shot up. “Belong to you?”

  It was a strong word, but it didn’t feel like a lie. I lifted my chin. “Yeah. They’re mine. If you want them, you’re going to have to go through me.”

  I expected him to laugh, to look down his nose at me, but something akin to doubt flashed across his stony features. “You’d fight me for these bloodsuckers? These creatures that feed on human life blood?”

  Fuck, it sounded awful when he put it that way. “And how is taking human hosts any better?”

  He stared at me flatly.

  “Look, they’re not like the Vladul or the Feral. They’re victims just like us, and they saved my life several times.” The details of our mission and the cure were on the tip of my tongue, but I bit them back. We didn’t know what the djinn’s agenda was, and the cure was too important to risk. “I need them.”

  He seemed to consider this, but then his expression closed off, and he stood tall. “I’m sorry, they’r
e uninfected Fangs and we can’t risk the Vladul getting hold of them and reinforcing their ranks. We’ve killed off two Feral dens and a brood of uninfected Fangs in the past two months. It’s the only way to ensure the Vladul’s numbers stay manageable.”

  “The last thing we want to do is join the Vladul,” Jace said.

  “If they get hold of you, you won’t have a choice,” the djinn said. “Death is the only option for you. It’s the only way to save us all.”

  He flicked his wrist and his hand burst into flames. “We’ll make it quick.”

  Fire. He had access to fire. Dad had told me enough about djinn to know that only the most powerful had access to elemental power on this plane, and even then it was short-lived access that drained them if used too frequently, which meant this djinn was no regular djinn.

  Danger.

  My sword was out of its sheath and at his throat in an instant. “I may not be able to kill you, but I can certainly mess up your pretty meat suit, so put the flames away.”

  “Meat suit? Is that what you think this is?” He blinked, and his eyes dulled to brown. “Don’t. Don’t kill me, please.”

  The tone of voice and the inflection were completely different. This was the human speaking, not the djinn. A human who was still very much alive and trapped. Fuck. It was one thing knowing the meat suits were human hosts, it was another being introduced to one and then killing it.

  The djinn’s eyes flared bright again. “It seems you have much to learn about djinn and our bonds. Our hosts don’t die when we take over. They’re alive, and we have the ability to free them. Are you willing to kill an innocent to save these Fangs?”

  Dammit.

  “Eva, just walk away,” Jace said.

  The doors of the van opened, and Logan and Ash stepped out. They were immediately surrounded by djinn intent on their execution.

  Ash’s jaw was tight, muscles bunched, ready to fight, but they were holding off. Holding off because of me. Holding off because the djinn were wearing innocent humans, and fighting them meant killing the hosts, it meant killing the humans. But if we didn’t fight, we’d die, and the cure, which was in our grasp, would be lost. I could walk away, I should, but my chance of getting to the cure would be drastically diminished without the Fangs. Aside from which, despite the shit that had gone down between Logan, Jace, and me, the bastards had grown on me.

  The situation was clear. This was a case of a handful of lives to save the many.

  I locked gazes with Ash. “This is bigger than us. I need you guys. No matter what it takes.”

  A serene calm settled over his face and then his hands whipped out to grab the nearest djinn’s head. There was a crack, and the djinn dropped to the ground. Black smoke rose out of the dead body and hovered in the air above it. Glowing eyes glared accusingly at Ash, and then all hell broke loose. Weapons whizzed through the air and bones cracked.

  My sword hand faltered, and the leader made a lunge for me with his huge paw. I ducked to avoid his grasp, spinning around him to bring my sword back up but pulling back just in time to avoid decapitating him.

  The edge of my steel lay snug against his throat once more. “Call off your djinn. Now.”

  But there was no need for him to say anything; his posse had backed off as soon as the metal had touched his skin again. They lowered their weapons, their fiery eyes fixed on me, on the blade kissing their leader’s throat.

  “I overestimated your humanity.” The leader’s tone was bitter. “You’d kill innocents to save Fangs, Fangs that will probably be recruited by the Vladul and be used to enslave us all. While the rest of us work to counter the threat, you’re acting to assist it.”

  Assist? He had no fucking clue. How dare he? “I’d kill a handful of innocents without a thought if it meant saving thousands more.” The words were out before I could stop them. “Fuck.”

  He’d gone very still. “What do you mean? What are you talking about?”

  “Eva …” Jace warned.

  This was a fucked-up mess, and my gut told me that revealing the existence of the cure was the only way out of it. They were obviously against the Vladul and everything they stood for. The cure was the best way to take away the Vladul’s leverage, and maybe if the djinn knew of its existence it would change things.

  “There’s a cure to the virus, and I’m on my way to get it.” The words were out.

  “You’re lying.” There was doubt in his statement, in his deep, gravelly voice.

  “No. I’m not.”

  He was silent for a long beat. “No. You’re not. You actually believe there is a cure.”

  “I know there is. And the Fangs are my security escort to get it. You kill them, you kill any chance of us getting the cure.”

  “If there is a cure, you don’t need them to escort you. We’ll take you to it ourselves.”

  “You could, but they’re much prettier, and I like my eye-candy.”

  He let out a surprised snort. “There’s a cure … Well, I’ll be damned.”

  “There is.”

  “Then that changes everything.” Around us the djinn relaxed, muscles unknotting and eyes dimming. “You’re free to go, but on two conditions.”

  “Funny how you get to make demands with a blade at your throat.”

  He laughed. “You won’t kill me. You’re smarter than that.”

  He was right. I lowered the sword. “Speak.”

  “We get to keep the van and any tech inside.”

  Ash nodded.

  “Fine.”

  He smiled. “And one of my men goes with you.”

  “Like fuck,” Logan said.

  “We have a stake in this too. We all do, and djinn protection will come in useful on your journey.”

  “Eva, this is bullshit,” Logan said.

  “Is it?” Jace replied.

  Ignoring them both, I focused on the djinn. “I agree to your terms, but I have a condition of my own.”

  He arched a brow.

  “The djinn that comes with us won’t be one of your men, it will be you.”

  The djinn around us broke out in protests, but the leader merely smiled. “I see you were raised by a tactician.”

  I returned his smirk. He had no idea. Having the leader in our grasp would keep the djinn in line. They were less likely to try something, like attacking us on our journey, if their leader was surrounded by Fangs. Maybe a regular djinn was disposable, but from their reaction to the blade at his throat, their leader wasn’t. My instincts told me that the djinn genuinely wanted to help, but prudence stated that we keep some leverage.

  “Well?” I arched a brow.

  The djinn smiled. “Very well, you have a deal.”

  Chapter Four

  Tobias

  What? What was this? Where was I? The world was a blur of bright light and sounds and smells. What had happened? Flashes of memory filtered through my mind. The Vladul female smirking, the dark-clothed Vladul entering the room, and the dart flying at me followed by a sharp sting in my neck. They’d knocked me out, drugged me. Urgh, no wonder my mouth tasted like ass.

  I had to get up. I had to get out, but my body was immobile. Panic bloomed in my chest and surged up my throat.

  No. Calm down and assess. Eva’s voice cut through my panic. Thank God she was still with me.

  Blinking several times brought the world into focus. I was upright in a glass tube of some sort in a lab, at least that’s what it looked like with all the science-type equipment and clean white lines.

  Test the bonds.

  Right. Wrists and ankles, thighs and torso and, shit, neck. They weren’t taking any chances. The panic was back, but I grit my teeth to stem it. A face appeared before me—the Vladul bitch.

  “Heart rate is elevated,” she said. “Scared?”

  My first attempt at speech was a series of dry clicks. I worked my throat to moisten my mouth and tried again. “What are you doing to me?”

  She smiled with one half of her mouth. �
��I’m going to turn you into a weapon, human. You’ll be the Vladul’s instrument of death.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Her lips remained frozen in a smug smirk.

  An icy sensation flooded me. “What are you going to do to me?”

  “Deana, we need to talk.” A male figure appeared behind the female Vladul. “I saw something out there.”

  Deana turned away from me, dismissing me, her potential creation. “Elias, how good of you to finally come and see me.”

  The Vladul male’s violet gaze flicked to me for a brief moment. “Sarcasm is beneath you, Deana.”

  “Once upon a time, it was you that was beneath me.” Her tone was suggestive and a far cry from her cruel, clinical demeanor.

  Elias’s smile was dry. “It was never me you wanted. It was my status you craved. Malcolm’s right-hand man you wanted.”

  “Have you come here to reopen old wounds?” There was a pout to her tone, a coquettish lilt.

  “No. I need your help.”

  “Really? And why should I do anything to help you?”

  “Because this could benefit you too.”

  “I’m listening …”

  “When we raided the Feral roost, we were attacked by three uninfected Fangs. They had a human female with them, and she had a key around her neck. A key with the Genesis symbol on it.” He arched a brow in prompt.

  A girl with a key around her neck? Oh, God, he was talking about Eva.

  Deana had gone very still. “Are you saying …”

  “It’s exactly what I’m saying.”

  “It can’t be.”

  “It has to be. The Genesis Foundation has only one master key, and Malcolm has it. But it looks like this girl may have another.”

  “And if we can get hold of it …” Deana’s voice was laced with excitement.

  “Yes. We can finally wrest control of this place from him.”

  He wanted to go after Eva. Oh, God. I needed to get out of here. I needed to warn her. Damn these bonds. Damn getting captured. Fuck. Trapped. There was no getting out of here. Not until Deana was done with me.