The Alpha's Bite (Huntsville Pack Book 5) Read online

  "Cameras. They disabled the system in the basement. I'm missing time." He pulled out his phone and showed it to me. "All security footage uploads to the cloud, and that's how I found you. The system came back online just before you left."

  My stomach dropped at the sight of myself stepping into the body bag in black-and-white. Of course, he'd been watching. I should have known. Slumping back against my seat, I said, "I didn't even need the damn body bag."

  "Nope," Zion said. "And once I started poking around, it wasn't too hard to find out where you were."

  They'd been so careful, too, putting me in the body bag to hide the fact I'd survived, just in case whoever had done the killing was still around. The whole time, there'd been cameras all over the club. I'd forgotten about them until now and had been too panicked at the time to warn my rescuers. A picture of the club flashed in my mind and I saw them—black orbs at regular intervals that glared down on everyone.

  I frowned at him. "My pack will come looking for me. You're not going to be able to just snatch me away."

  "You mean Huntsville?" A sneer marred his lips. "You've over-estimated how well you're liked in that pack. I've been watching and they are suspicious of you. Did you know that?"

  I remained silent. I hadn't known that. I'd believed I was making progress, maybe even making a new home for myself. Guess not. No one wants an addict. Even when they're clean.

  "I made enough of a mess that they aren't going to want trouble like you back anyway."

  I cringed, thinking of all the people he'd killed, and then I went still. "But I didn't..." I trailed off, not wanting him to hear.

  "Didn't what?"

  I looked away.

  "Tell me, Adele. You didn't what?" His voice held power this time.

  His power pulled my inner thoughts past my gritted teeth. "I didn't feel them die. We should have known. We could have stopped you."

  Why hadn't we felt it? Marie had told me that death came through like a blankness you couldn't shake. We must've been too busy to notice. Or maybe it was grief we picked up on, not actual murder. I had no idea and doubted I would be able to ask Marie any time soon.

  Zion cocked his head at me. "You're worried about that? I thought you'd care more about your soiled reputation."

  "You think you know me because I'm an addict? A selfish asshole just grabbing what she can for herself, right?"

  "Pretty much."

  Anger made my face hot. "You might know my addiction, but you don't know me. Not even close. And you don't know Huntsville. You can bet your fangs, they're coming after us." The only question was would they want us both dead or would they see through Zion's set up and let me live?

  "They can try, but they'll never find us. Don't worry, you're safe with me." He snickered. "I ran circles around your pack. No one saw me coming. You think that was an accident? You think Marie was the first healer I ever dealt with? I've been sucking shifter blood since before any of you were born. So, relax. I'm in charge and you can't do anything about it."

  I rolled my eyes and considered punching him even though he was stronger than me. The urge to kill him heated my blood and made my wolf pace, but I forced myself to be still. He could mesmerize all the free will out of me if he wanted to. I needed to be careful not to try anything unless I was sure I would win. He was making a mistake now, giving me this much freedom, and I didn't want to waste it.

  Tipping my head toward one of the black windows, I asked, "Where are we going?"

  "To the City Oscura."

  "The City Oscura? What's that?"

  "It's largest dark city in the world."

  I blinked. I'd heard of the dark cities in school and memorized what I'd needed to pass the test, but had never thought about them past that. They were bad places, bolt holes for bloodsuckers and anyone unfortunate enough to be mixed up with them.

  Whenever I thought of vampires, I thought of businesses like the strip club where I'd been held and small nomadic groups—vampires tended to roam. Those were the only times I'd ever seen vampires, but Zion would change all that.

  Swallowing hard, I fought to keep my expression impassive and not show him the fear knotting my stomach. My life was going backward so fast I could probably fly without a plane.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Adele

  Once we landed, Zion hustled me off the plane and onto an asphalt runway. The night sky twinkled with stars telling me we were far from any major cities and a cool wind twined itself in my hair. A glimmer of pre-dawn gray streaked across the far horizon. Somehow things had moved fast enough that it was still night.

  I sniffed, testing the air. Nothing but dry dust and jet fuel filled my senses. I didn't catch any living things like trees or animals.

  "Where are we? The moon?"

  "Quiet," Zion barked. He grabbed my hands, pinning them under one arm. Pulling a pair of sleek leather gloves from his pocket with his free hand, he put them on, wiggling and stretching his fingers until they were snug. Then he dug into his other pocket for what, I didn't want to know. I closed my eyes and reached for the moon, wanting to augment my strength like I had back in Huntsville. I was determined to fight, but Zion trumped that by slapping something across my arms. Opening my eyes, I found silver wrapped around my wrists. My fledgling connection with the moon disappeared, replaced with a sting that burned through my body like venom.

  In my head, my wolf's presence waned until she was as faded as a ghost. He'd bound me in thin, almost gossamer chains and fastened them in place with a small padlock so fast I didn't even have time to blink. I tried to pull my arms apart, which did nothing other than causing the chains to dig into my skin, making the stinging worse. The chains might have been thin, but they affected me like an anchor, weighing me down, sapping my strength. I wouldn't be breaking free.

  I growled at him. "Silver? Your bite isn't enough?"

  "Any time you want to find out how big my bite is, I'm game." Zion shot a cold smile at me as he let me go.

  "Take off the silver and let's find out." I waved my bound hands at him, pleased to see him take a step back. "I see you don't like the silver either. What if I just chased you around?" Silver stung vamps just as much as wolves, although I couldn't say what it did to their powers. I hadn't been there or done that...yet. Right now seemed like a great time to try it, though.

  I lunged for him and he danced away, his eyebrows pinched together in annoyance. A picture formed in my mind of me looping my arms over his head and pressing the silver against his throat until it cut through his spine. I widened my stance, preparing to launch myself at him again.

  But he cut me off before I could move. "Stop."

  His compulsion hit me like a cement wall, immovable and thick. My body froze in place. "Oh, crap," I muttered to myself. So much for that plan. I strained to move of my own accord and went nowhere. Zion had locked me down tight.

  "Follow me. Keep your hands down."

  My hands dropped and pressed into my lower stomach as if he'd glued them there. My feet dutifully trudged after him. I did my best to regain control of my body, but couldn't shake off Zion's bite. He was in my blood, I was in his. There was no way out. Not unless he gave me an opening.

  We crunched over the gravel toward a sleek black Mercedes idling at the end of the runway. As we went, I saw our plane wasn't alone. Rows of air craft—small planes, private jets—lined a field next to the runway. I counted across and then down all the rows I could see, quickly doing the math. Well over a hundred aircraft possibly all belonging to vampires.

  "Get in the car and sit." Zion's orders hit my blood and took over my body. I opened the passenger door, twisting this way and that to reach the handle since I still couldn't lift my hands, and plopped into the back seat.

  Zion joined me on the other side and waved for the driver to go. The car rolled away from the runway and picked up speed once we reached the gravel road leading away from the airport.

  "You can't tell me what to do forever." I tried
to move my arms, but they remained stuck.

  "You'll do whatever I want you to," he said, pulling out his phone and thumbing through various screens. He pointedly ignored me for the rest of the ride and I let it go. Words would not set me free—freedom required weapons to separate Zion from essential body parts. Unless he renounced his claim on me like Davian had or some serious weaponry fell into my lap, I was stuck with him.

  And with my luck, I'd just collect another shadow to lay over my wolf. I might never be truly free of Zion. It hadn't worked that way with Davian.

  The Mercedes drove along a barren countryside, marked primarily by rocks and low shrub. I squinted out the car window. We could be in the desert. That would make sense. Or some kind of dead zone, one that vampires had created themselves to deter humans.

  A few minutes later, the ground changed, rising instead of staying flat. We wound our way up a massive mountain and then into a tunnel, lit with dim yellow lights that did little to counter the dark. The tunnel was flat for just a few hundred feet and then corkscrewed narrowly down into the mountain.

  Without guardrails, the sheer drop off looked ready to swallow us whole. It didn't help that I couldn't see more than a few feet down, the lights didn't go much further than that, but I had no doubt it was a long way to the bottom. I refused to look in an effort to convince myself we weren't about to fall over the side and to our deaths.

  Or at least my death. I doubted I would survive a high velocity squishing, but casting a speculative glance at Zion, I considered that maybe a vampire could. Especially if he lapped up the blood that would ooze out of my pancaked body.

  We reached the bottom without dying and the road evened out, going flat again. From there, we drove through an underground neighborhood and I watched it pass by with wide eyes. Illuminated by tall lamp posts, single story houses lined the street. Instead of grass, gravel covered the ground. There weren't any flowers or trees, but some of the rocks glowed in pretty patterns.

  "What the hell?"

  "Welcome to the City Oscura," Zion said.

  "How big is this place?" I blinked, trying to see into the distance. I'd expected a big cave, but this was much more than that. It was a city in every sense of the word.

  "We're as big as a medium-size human city."

  "Holy shit. There are that many vampires on this planet?"

  "More than vampires live here."

  "Like who?"

  "Anyone who doesn't want to be seen by the human world. Here, our secrets are safe. No one can see us and we have freedom to live our lives.

  "Why did you ever leave if you are so free?" Huntsville had nothing to offer compared to this City Oscura. What made him think Appalachia was the ticket to a happy life?

  "Because the human world has delights we do not."

  "You mean blood slaves, don't you?"

  "There's more to the human world than blood."

  "Are there other places like this?" Two loud motorcycles overtook the car and zipped past us. I jumped at the loud roar of their engines. After that, the quiet neighborhood gave way to busy streets with all sorts of storefronts. It was disappointingly human: Chinese restaurants, massage parlors, movie theaters, retail stores.

  I tracked the roads and all the turns we took, committing them to memory. The second I saw an opening, I would be gone. Yeah, Zion had his fangs sunk into me deep, but somehow, I would find a way out. This wasn't going to be my life. No way. I would rather die.

  "At least one on every continent," Zion said. "The history of the various dark cities stretches back centuries. We have always hidden underground."

  Unable to move my hands, I used my chin to point to the streetlights. "But now you have electricity. Welcome to the modern era, fang boy."

  "Don't call me fang boy."

  I ignored him. "Do you get cable down here?"

  He shook his head. "We stream over the internet."

  "Huh. Interesting." I couldn't help but try to imagine what it was like to live in the City Oscura. It looked like all the major conveniences were here. Someone could stay down here almost forever so long as the supplies—food, people—came in regularly. The only thing missing was the sun. "Where are we going?"

  "My home."

  "When's the auction?" I wanted to know how much time I had.

  "You'll know when it's time."

  I rolled my eyes at his enigmatic response, but let it go. Maybe I could get it out of the driver or someone else. Zion couldn't keep something like the auction under wraps forever.

  ***

  Zion's house turned out to be a bona fide mansion with large grounds made up of gravel arranged in elaborate rock designs that glowed neon pink, blue, purple, red, green and yellow. It was pretty, like a nightmare dressed up to look better than it really was.

  A fountain bubbled in the middle of the front yard. Different colored lights moved through the water like a drowning rainbow. The house soared three stories. White stucco swirled around the building and the windows had shutters that were probably gilded in gold given how much they gleamed in the light from several lamp posts scattered across the yard.

  A big, tall dude came out of the house at our arrival. He smiled at me and I caught a glimpse of the tips of his fangs. Another vampire. Just what I needed.

  "Ah, good, Larry is ready for us."

  The car stopped and the driver opened Zion's door while Larry opened mine and dragged me out by the elbow.

  "I have a new guest for cell B," Zion said.

  "Full chains, boss?" he asked, jerking me so close, my shoulder and hip pressed into him.

  "Yes. Be careful with her, Larry. She's very valuable and a huge pain in the ass at the same time."

  "It was you who came for me, not the other way around, remember? You're causing your own pain in the ass," I said.

  "Quiet," Zion said putting power into the word.

  I snapped my mouth shut, but that didn't keep an angry growl from rolling out of my chest.

  He smirked at me. "You can growl, but you can't bite, she-wolf." To Larry, he said, "Take her. I'll be back to check on her in a bit. I have a meeting."

  Larry nodded that he understood and dragged me past Zion then, hustling me through the front door and into a foyer with marble floors and furniture with gilded legs. The ceilings held intricate floral designs made of plaster and painted with more gold. Crystal chandeliers cast a muted light in the hallway.

  On our way to the back of the house, I caught a glimpse of a living room with a huge white sofa, a lot of what had to be expensive art and a baby grand piano. After that came the dining room with maroon walls, more ornate art work and a white table with matching chairs.

  We went through the kitchen which had white marble floors instead of the more customary tile or linoleum. The cabinets were—what else?—white and topped with the same white marble that made up the floor. It was pristine which made me think it never saw any use. It wasn't like vampires needed a kitchen. I looked at the stainless-steel fridge and my stomach grumbled at me. It had been hours since I'd eaten, and with all the fighting and stress, I was starving.

  "You got anything to eat in this place?" I asked, pointing at the fridge. I froze and blinked at my hand. I could move again. Zion's compulsion had faded. Interesting. I waved my hands around a few times just to be sure. Yep. He could only compel me so far. Well, that was good news.

  The vampire shook his head and hustled me along.

  "I'm a shifter, you know. A werewolf, to be precise. I need to eat." I gestured toward my mouth. Now that I had my hands back, I couldn't keep still.

  "There will be food later," he ground out in a gravelly voice.

  I brightened at that. At least I wouldn't die of hunger down here.

  He guided me to a door at the far end of the kitchen where he grabbed a ring of keys hanging on a hook. Shoving the keys into his pocket, he opened the door and pushed me forward. "Go."

  I blinked at the stone staircase that stretched before me, a thin iron ra
iling to the side the only thing to hold on to. They'd kept us in the basement at the strip club, too. "Why is it always the basement?" I asked. "Does dark, stale air make blood taste better?"

  Larry ignored my questions and prodded me forward. "Down. Now."

  Taking the first step, I asked, "If I'm in cell B, who's in cell A? Anyone I know?"

  "You talk too much. Be quiet." He couldn't compel me like Zion could, but he gave me a none-too-gentle punch to the back of my spine that shut me up pretty quick.

  I went down the stairs, caught between cell B and Zion's minion at my back. I had to do something, but what? I was weak, thanks to the silver chains. Zion had laid claim to my blood, and even if his hold on me faded with time and distance or whatever, having a vampire out there who could tell me what to do was like having a stalker with a serious penchant for micromanagement.

  I almost stopped short at the realization that, even if I got away, I had no idea where I would go. Huntsville wouldn't want me after what Zion had done. The pack of my birth had too many bad memories.

  I could live with my sister in her new pack. A pang went through me at the thought of Lia, my beautiful sister who deserved every good thing in the world. If only I could stop dragging her through hell with me. If I asked, she would help. No matter what, I knew I could count on her, but she didn't owe me that.

  I'd sworn after the blood slave ring that I would never put her in the middle again. No more midnight calls for help. Or panicked texts. She'd almost died because of my bad decisions. And was that going to be my life? Running to my older sister so she could make it better?

  No. I had to stand on my own two feet.

  Which meant, I had a minute at best to take out Larry before he locked me up for who knew how long and to what end. Unfortunately, I was no match for a snail let alone a big, hulking vampire.

  The stairs ended and a long narrow hallway stretched in front of me. If I squinted, I could make out doors at regular intervals running the length of the basement. Classic vampire design. Lots of doors and underground. It would be the strip club all over again and I wasn't going to repeat history without a fight. It was time to do something to save myself.