Taste of Torment (Deep In Your Veins #3)(45)
Author: Suzanne Wright

“I need to be sure that I can’t hurt anyone. I’d have to go in it sooner or later anyway. It might as well be sooner.” Shuddering at the prickly itch tormenting me, I released his wrist and went to rake my nails over the skin. Jared snatched my hand and kissed my palm.

“Don’t scratch it. I can feel how much it’s driving you crazy.”

My guess was that it would get worse the longer I was tainted. “Take me to the cell. Please.”

Squeezing his eyes shut, he rested his forehead against mine. “Baby…” His panic, fear, and devastation were zooming through me, swarming me, stealing my breath. There was even an element of guilt there – typical.

“You’re not at fault,” I insisted. It didn’t seem to make any difference.

After a series of deep breaths, he rose to his feet and stared down at me through tormented eyes. I thought he’d scoop me up and take me to the cells. Instead, he retrieved his cell phone from the table and punched in some keys. Seconds later, he was speaking in a defeated yet resigned voice. “Call Sebastian. Tell him to bring Paige West here.”

Oh.

Chapter Eleven

(Jared)

Standing outside the glass cell, having that impenetrable barrier between Sam and I that even my gift of teleporting couldn’t breach, felt so damn wrong that my stomach was twisting painfully. The idea that I couldn’t reach her if I wanted to was like a lead weight in my gut, because I already knew that feeling. It brought back all the fear and panic from the time the Trent brothers had taken her from me – as if I wasn’t panicking enough right now.

She just sat on the mattress with her head resting against the glass and her legs pulled up to her chest with one arm wrapped around them. Her aquamarine eyes were holding mine and pleading with me. Not to help her, but to stop feeling guilty. Maybe she was right and it was dumb to blame myself for this. But if I had just ignored her stupid insistence on waiting for the squad to be out of there before leaving, she’d be fine right now. Of course I knew deep down that putting the squad’s safety before her own was what any commander would have done. Hell, I’d have done it. But I was still angry at both of us.

I had agreed to isolate Sam from everyone while I dealt with Paige West – whenever the hell she arrived – because I knew that Sam needed the peace of mind that she couldn’t harm anyone. Midway through the process of becoming a hybrid, there had been an incident when she had lost all sense of rationality and dived on me, latching onto my throat – much like a newborn vampire would. That loss of control, that knowledge that she had hurt me, had never sat well with her. If she did it again now, she wouldn’t just hurt someone, she would taint them. So, yeah, I definitely understood why she didn’t want to take any chances here. Still, if I hadn’t known that confining her like this was only a temporary measure, I probably wouldn’t have agreed to it.

Movement in the cell beside hers caught my attention: Evan was staggering across the room with the most agonising look on his face. How must it feel to literally starve, to feel as your body withered away? How must it feel to sense you were beginning to lose reason and rationality? Max and Stuart looked in much the same agony. There was nothing left of them there. They were all just shells now. Droning, skeletal, starving shells. It was f**king…Shit, there were no words to describe what it felt like to see the two people that I loved most in the world dying.

I wanted to hit something, smash something, wanted to rage at fate – it truly was a bitch. Instead, I placed the palm of my hand against the glass of Sam’s cell. Reaching over, she splayed her hand over mine. I hated that I couldn’t touch her when it was the one thing I needed right then, hated that I couldn’t comfort her. Whether Sam would admit it aloud or not, she was scared. “You’ll be out of there soon,” I promised her. “Paige’s gift will heal you.”

Her smile was sad. “I hope you’re right.”

I had to be right, otherwise I’d agreed for that female to be brought to The Hollow – thus chancing Luther’s vision coming true – for no damn good reason at all. But Paige coming here didn’t have to mean that the vision would become reality, I mused. The things Luther foresaw didn’t always happen, as I knew perfectly well. If we took precautions by getting the female out of here as quickly as possible, we could prevent anything more from happening. It was hardly likely that she would want to stick around here for long anyway, not if she was so set on being away from the rest of her kind.

Hearing voices, I glanced at the door. Not only was Antonio, Luther, and the guards here, but also the squad, Jude, Ava, Cristiano, and – oh shit – Alora. Evan was going to have my balls for this if – no, when – Paige healed him. As Alora caught sight of Evan, her now horrified eyes instantly watered and she slapped a hand over her mouth. How much she cared for him was flashing on her face like a neon sign. Evan briefly glanced at the crowd, but there was no sign of recognition in his eyes.

Antonio gave me a sympathetic smile. “Sebastian has arrived with Miss West and who seems to be a friend of hers. Apparently Miss West refused to leave without her. They are waiting for you in the piano room. You should know that she has no idea why she has been brought here. Sebastian worried that if he told her what we wanted from her, she would put up a huge fight. He merely told her that she had been sent for by you and he assured her that she would come to no harm whatsoever.”

Dropping my hand from the glass, I told Sam, “I’ll be back soon.”

She nodded, giving me a half-smile.

Leaving her felt wrong, but I forced myself to step away from the cell. I was just about to teleport out of there when I noticed that Cristiano had separated himself from the crowd and was leaning against the back wall; the expression on his face stopped me short. He wasn’t looking at me, but at Sam. Like the others, he was clearly distressed and angered by what had happened to her. But there was so much more to be seen on his face: pain, anguish, yearning, and utter despair. Slowly, I walked over to him. “That’s why you never went to the Binding ceremony. You love her, don’t you?”

My voice seemed to snap him out of whatever zone he had been in. His gaze met mine. As my words filtered through, he sighed and returned his eyes to Sam. “I accepted a long time ago that I’d never have her. Victor hadn’t allowed me or anyone else to touch her. But even if he had, she’d never looked at me that way. Not once. Not even the night I kissed her when she was human. But just because I accepted that I’d never have her didn’t mean I could watch her Bind with someone else.”