Heart of Stone - Book 1: Fighting Fate

She was lithe and nimble, resembling a child, though she must have been at least sixteen before she was turned. Her platinum blonde hair shimmered in the lamplight as she slipped out from an alley. Her unmistakable pale skin nearly glowed and as her red eyes searched around her, he slipped back into the darkness.

Lillian was another favorite of Carina’s. Born in the late nineteenth century, she always had a soft, ethereal glow, and a personality that Stone would have enjoyed conversing with if not for the fact that they were enemies. Lillian was the only vampire whose life he might feel some regret in taking.

Inhaling a deep breath, he burst out of the shadows and sprinted across the street so quickly that she barely had time to register the movement before his hand was wrapped around her neck.

Flying into the darkest corner of the alley, he thrust her against the brick wall over his head, her feet dangling two and a half feet above the ground.

She clawed at his hand around her throat, her mouth open wide in a silent scream of shock and pain.

“I will spare you this once, Lillian,” he growled as her red eyes searched his, “on the condition that you deliver a message to Carina. She’s the one I want, not you.”

He loosened his grip enough so that she could speak.

“Mother?” she gasped out.

Internally, he flinched at the word. He hated that such a monster was capable of love and maternal instincts. Hated the thought that she could be good while murdering others.

But wasn’t he the same way?

“Tell her to meet me at Schubert Club Bandshell on Raspberry Island no later than an hour before sunrise. Do this and I will spare your life this one time. Should she not show up, I will tell the slayers of your whereabouts,” he told her.

“You won’t kill her, will you?” she asked in a pleading voice.

He snarled at her, pulling her away from the wall a few inches before slamming her back into it so that she was at eye-level with him. He didn’t want to make promises he couldn’t keep—even to her. If he got the chance to kill Carina, he wanted to take it. He deserved to end her miserable existence and free himself of her forever. Why should Lillian’s plea matter at all?

“No promises, leech,” he spat. “I have matters to discuss with her, but if given the opportunity to take care of her once and for all, I won’t hesitate to take it.”

She hardened her jaw as she looked him square in the eyes. “You’re a monster.”

A smirk tugged on the corners of his lips. “I could say the same about you—especially the one you call Mother.”

“She loves me, something you know nothing about.”

He wanted to laugh, but instead, he sneered at her. “Are those the lies she feeds you?”

“Mother is merciful—”

“Your mother murdered my soulmate and son in cold-blood!” he snarled. “She destroyed a family and a bond, a love that was more pure and true than anything you soulless creatures could ever understand. And do you know why she did it?”

Lillian lifted her chin up, her eyes glaring into his. “Yes.”

He expected her to say more, to admit that her mother was capable of killing without regret, to prove that she was as monstrous as he was. When she said nothing more, he prompted her. “Tell me.”

“You all need to be destroyed,” she said automatically, as if it had been ingrained in her mind for decades.

“As do you,” he said, “because it’s in your nature to kill. To feed, you must murder humans.”

“Our practices have changed over the decades,” she countered. “But you wouldn’t know that because you’re too concerned with trying to destroy us. We want to exist, like you. I am sorry for your loss but I cannot bring back your family.”

“I don’t need you to bring them back because she is back.”

Confusion pulled at her eyebrows as she considered his words.

He could feel an inkling of tenderness seep out of him at the thought of Aubree. “I have to protect her from bloodthirsty creatures like you,” he said.

Emotion blocked his throat and he saw her eyes widen. He lowered her to the ground, but still held her firmly by the throat against the wall.

“How is that possible?” Lillian asked in a small voice.

She looked up at him, and he could see her trying to make sense of everything. Of what he told her, of what she knew about lycans, and what she now saw standing before her.

“It is no concern of yours and I do not wish to bring you harm, Lillian,” he said in a low voice. “It is Carina that I wish to deal with. If you were still human, I wouldn’t think twice about protecting your life. Sadly, that is not the case.”

Lillian closed her eyes and inhaled deeply through her nose and he stiffened. Pushing her firmly against the wall, he prepared to snap her neck or throw her if she made any sudden movements. Instead, she opened her large eyes and her mouth fell open in shock. “She’s a human. I can smell her on you.”

His heart rammed against his ribcage. Fear made him throw her against the wall behind him and he grimaced when her body hit it with a loud smack. Cursing to himself, he picked her back up by the throat and lifted her up against the wall.

She moaned in pain, unable to lift her head up.

He pushed the pinprick of regret down into his gut and took a deep breath to collect himself. As she came around, he lowered his voice again in warning. “Don’t force me to hurt you again.”

“I pity her,” she said in a breathy whisper as her pained eyes looked up into his. “Bound to a beast like you.”

He growled at her. “Enough.”

“She’ll die by your hands before Mother can ever get to her.”

“I said enough!”

He threw her down the alley, where she tried to flip herself back onto her feet in mid-air, but her lack of strength only resulted in her skidding a few feet before collapsing face-first to the ground with a grunt.

Storming over to her as she struggled to pull herself up, he grabbed her hair, drawing a hiss from between her teeth as he pulled her head up. With her eyes on his, he said, “You will tell Carina to meet me, or I will come back for you and hunt you down myself. And next time, I will show no mercy.”

He dropped her hair and her forehead smacked against the asphalt.

Stepping back, he strained his senses for signs of anyone approaching, and aside from a pair of passing cars on the street twenty yards away, there was no one in sight.

Marching out of the alley and down the street with his jaw clenched, he tried to push out the mental images of blood on his hands as Lillian’s words struck him over and over.

′She’ll die by your hands before Mother can ever get to her.′

Rounding a corner, his eyes scanned his surroundings and his ears strained for traffic of the highway ahead.

′She’ll die by your hands.′

He crossed the street to the Mississippi River and shifted.

′She’ll die.′

A growl erupted from his throat as his body morphed and his bones crunched and groaned in protest.

She didn’t need to remind him of his own fears that wreaked havoc on his heart. He knew he could accidentally hurt her. He knew he didn’t know his own strength with humans. He knew that she would die, one way or another, and he didn’t need to be reminded of any of it.

Fucking vampires!

Clenching his jaws together, he followed the river to Raspberry Island, where he waited in front of the stadium for Carina to come. He wasn’t sure he could count on her to show up or not. Hopefully seeing Lillian in such a distressed state would be enough for Mother to come for him, looking for justice for her precious one.

He didn’t mean to hurt Lillian that much. He merely wanted her to pass his message onto Carina. Damn her for getting under his fur!

Anxiety set in as the sky began to get lighter in the east. What if Carina didn’t show up? What if she was plotting something that very moment with a dozen vampires lying in wait?

He called Gunner for backup. Carina may not come since it was so close to sunrise, but he didn’t want to take any chances.

About to give up and leave, he turned to go when he heard splashing in the river.

It was too small to be Gunner and too large to be an animal. Frowning, his brows furrowed when he couldn’t pick up a clear scent.

Shifting into his human form, he turned as he saw her sprinting across the small island toward him, dripping wet and looking mad as hell.