Omega Mine

Chapter Eighteen

Ava was walking from the living room to the kitchen when what felt like an explosion tore through the lower portion of the building. The back of her head hit the edge of the counter and a dull, stabbing sensation followed, causing her vision to blur as a deafening roar burned her ears until all she could hear was a high-pitched ringing. She fell to the floor, landing on her stomach. The ground beneath her seemed to roll and rumble, as if a stampede were occurring downstairs.

Clumsy and dazed, she braced on hands and knees. The floor shook and swayed as she tried to stand. Pictures flew from the walls and landed inches from her hands, mixing with pots, pans and portions of the ceiling that crashed to the floor. Each time she tried to rise her feet slipped from beneath her, as if her brain were sending the signals but her limbs refused to function properly.

A strange wailing sound seemed far away, as if a siren or alarm was crying in the distance. She shook her head, blinking back tears as she struggled to focus. The room was suddenly hot, the floor beneath her hands going uncomfortably warm. She groaned when she lifted her fingers to the liquid seeping down her neck, the warm pool soaking into her shirt, and tried to comprehend why there was a massive, gaping hole where solid bone should have been.

Hands grasped her shoulders and she lifted her head.

Nathan’s concerned face came into view, his lips moving, but she couldn’t hear anything he said. He touched the throbbing ache at the back of her skull and his eyes widened in alarm, the pupils erasing the amber portion of his irises. An unexpected surge of nausea overtook her, causing her to choke, making the pain in her head so much worse. Her stomach heaved and lurched, the dryness in her mouth nearly unbearable as her nose filled with the acrid stench of smoke and some other odor she couldn’t define.

Nathan lifted her and she watched the ground sway back and forth. He carried her into the bedroom and walked past the bed. With a firm kick, he took out the only window on the floor. The dizziness was worse, the throbbing in her head intensifying. Smoke billowed, carrying through the window, and as she turned her head she saw flames were engulfing the room.

“Diskant,” she whispered but couldn’t hear herself. Her ears continued to hum, the only sound she could perceive the steady, shrilling drone that went on and on and on.

Nathan smoothed a hand over her forehead and his lips moved again, as if he were trying to comfort her. Keeping her close, he climbed from the window onto a fire escape. She focused on the interlocking iron, mesmerized by the clouds of steam and smoke that rose to the sky.

A sharp, unexpected burning in her leg caused her to cry out and Nathan whipped around. She couldn’t see anything but knew from his expression that something was wrong, something he hadn’t anticipated. Her stomach barreled into her throat as he leapt from the fire escape to the ground, keeping her snug against his chest as he landed.

Several of the same men who had approached her and Diskant outside her building blocked the alleyway, their guns leveled. Nathan didn’t move but remained as he was, his arms around her, the heat from his body considerably less than that coming from the building alongside them. As they all said something, lips moving in perfect harmony, she felt Nathan brace himself and the world spun as he turned, shielding her with his body.

She felt each bullet that tore through his back, the accompanying jerks against her too violent to be anything else. She expected to fall to the ground but as he sank to his knees he kept her in the secure cradle of his arms. Her head fell back and her gaze rested on the blood forming at the corner of his mouth. His expression was one of sorrow and regret and she tried to reassure him but discovered that she was unable to speak, her tongue suddenly heavy and uncoordinated.

An image of Diskant seated on his bike earlier that afternoon, uncertain and hesitant, flashed before her eyes. She’d felt the same thing he had in that moment, that something was about to go horribly wrong. Blaming it on her raging hormones and newfound feelings, she’d forced her intuition aside. It was a shame that she hadn’t listened to her instincts.

Her gut reactions had never steered her wrong.

A shadow appeared, blocking out the light of the moon over Nathan’s shoulder. Ava lifted her gaze, expecting to see the barrel of a gun, only to meet a pair of large, violet-hued eyes. She studied the beautiful face framed by illuminating white, entranced by the way her blonde hair appeared to glow. She’d seen her before at Liminality, always on her own, seated in the back where no one would notice her.

Nathan lifted his head and snarled, baring pointed fangs. His breathing was shallow, a steady bubbling of blood forming at his left nostril. After a moment the angelic face was gone, leaving Ava to stare at the sky. Her vision began to blur, the outlines of the fire escape becoming hazy.

Nathan tried to speak to her, shaking her forcefully when her lids slid closed.

She knew he was trying to keep her awake but she was so damn tired and her eyes were becoming so heavy…

As Sadie peered into the face of the dying woman held inside the arms of the shifter who had taken an array of bullets in the back to protect her, she felt the rage that came with being half-demon stir.

She wasn’t sure what had possessed her to stay behind when Trey left, keeping a close watch on the building where the remaining shifters waited. Something had warned her she’d be needed here, something she couldn’t shake. Unfortunately, when she’d focused on the lone man entering the bar there had been no time to warn anyone or to stop what had been set into motion. The blast had shattered the glass of the building and demolished all of those within a close proximity.

She turned to face the Shepherds standing at the end of the alley. There were four of them, their weapons now spent. “You’re all going to die,” she informed them and retrieved the sword at her back, removing it with a slow, practiced movement.

They went for the weapons strapped to their chests but they weren’t fast enough. Vampire movement was impossible to beat when in the grip of fury.

She took the head of the first one, ensuring he died faster than he deserved. As his face literally pounded concrete she moved to the second, delivering a blow to the heart that would guarantee he didn’t achieve the same demise. A bullet struck her in the chest and exited her back, bringing her to her third target. He managed to get another shot off—to her abdomen this time—before she delivered a blow to his midsection that sent his innards spilling to his knees.

The forth one stood his ground, although he was breathing too erratically to be as calm as he wanted her to believe. She advanced on him slowly, drawing the death out, making him anticipate his passing. It was no less than he deserved for taking the lives of those he didn’t understand, killing them simply because they were different.

When he squeezed the trigger she pounced, sending shiny, unyielding steel through his throat. His head shot back and she yanked hard, removing the blade from his spine. His wide eyes revealed his panic, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water as blood poured from the gaping hole beneath his chin. As he fell forward she moved aside and took a perverse amount of pleasure in the sound of his body scraping against the pavement.

“Ava, please. Wake up!” she heard the shifter snap and she turned, gazing over her shoulder. The large male was shaking the woman in his arms, her head wobbling on his elbow. From this angle she could see the mortal wound at the base of her head, the large, gaping hole revealing a bloody mass.

She swiped her sword clean using the shirt of the dead man at her feet, returned the blade to the sheath situated along her spine and walked back to the woman and shifter, taking purposeful steps. The male growled weakly at her approach but she didn’t hesitate, taking a knee at his side, studying the fragile female in his arms.

“Stay back, vampire.” The shifter wheezed and attempted to move away.

“She’s mated to your Omega, is she not?” He didn’t answer but he didn’t have to. She’d been in attendance the night Diskant Black had swooped in and claimed the tiny female onstage at Club Liminality. “Listen to me carefully. Her mate won’t make in time to seal the final stage of the bloodbond. I can scent death consuming her.” Sadie met his glowing, topaz-colored eyes. “My blood can sustain her until he arrives and assists her through the transition.”

She watched him struggle with the truth. “You expect me to trust you?”

“I’ve given you no reason not to.” She motioned to the dead Shepherds. “If I meant you harm, I wouldn’t have bothered.”

After a moment, he allowed her to move closer. She studied the woman—Ava—closely, trying not to inhale the perfume of her blood. Her skin was now ashen, her eyes sunken. Pulling back her sleeve, Sadie bared her wrist. A quick strike and her blood flowed.

“Open her mouth.”

He tilted Ava’s head back and pressed his fingers to the crease of her lips. When they parted Sadie carefully lifted her hand so blood drizzled from her wrist. Drops splattered against pale skin while others made it to the intended goal, spilling past bluish-hued lips.

Sadie felt the weight of the shifter’s stare and had to force herself not to squirm. “Who are you?” he asked. “What were you doing here?”

“That’s not important.” She studied the woman in his arms and breathed a sigh of relief when her throat convulsed. As a mage vampire with a capacity for healing, it wouldn’t take much, a few tablespoons at most, to be certain Ava would survive.

Slowly color returned to Ava’s cheeks and her throat moved as she swallowed. Sadie felt the bloody spot at the base of her skull with her free hand and exhaled in relief when she felt the bone start the mending process, the rough, uneven edges coming together.

Unexpectedly, she was thrown from Ava and the shifter. Her head struck the wall before she crashed to the ground. Training ensured she landed in a crouched, defensive position, knees bent and hands extended.

Lifting her head, she met the infuriated gaze of the fallen woman’s mate.

Shit.

The Omega.

Diskant snarled at the vampire trapped against the wall, allowing his fury, outrage and devastation to bleed through. His mind was a haze of pain, anger and loss. The void so deep and unrelenting it hurt to breathe. As a being who was tied to all the races, he’d felt the death of each of his pack mates, like an electrical blackout leaving everything dark and empty. There was only one light left shining in the abyss, one soul among the lost who continued to exist.

Ava.

He’d transformed into the fastest form possible—the peregrine falcon—to make it back to his mate, his only relief arising in the knowledge that somehow she’d managed to survive. As he’d descended upon the fiery wreckage of the bar he’d allowed the grizzly to come to the surface. He wanted to hurt those who had hurt him, to make them bleed and suffer as none had ever suffered before.

“D!” Nathan screamed. “Stop!”

He didn’t listen, stuck in a frenzy of fury and contempt. The bodies littering the alley wouldn’t provide sufficient relief. He needed to kill something, to repay the loss of life with something of equal value. He lashed out with claws that sliced flesh and scored bone. The vampire’s blood flowed in a heavy stream down her torso, her pale blonde hair speckled with it as it sprayed into the air.

He was too far gone to realize that she wasn’t fighting back, her arms defenseless at her sides. Instead he gloried in the rusty odor of her blood as she bled out, able to see the pulsing of her heart as his claws had penetrated far enough to allow him to glimpse within.

“Ava needs you, Diskant,” Nathan thundered. “Stop fucking around!”

The words penetrated the red haze of madness.

Ava needs you.

Turning from the vampire, he focused on Nathan and the limp form in his arms. The beast receded, replaced with the fear of a mated male.

“Ava,” he whispered and rushed to her side and pulled her from Nathan’s embrace. She was smeared in blood from nose to chin, her heavy lashes resting peacefully against her cheeks. She didn’t move as he held her in the safety of his arms—too still and too limp.

“You have to finish the bloodbonding,” Nathan said quickly. “The wound at the back of her head is a mortal one. The vampire helped keep her alive but her blood will only do so much.”

Shifting Ava slightly, he moved his hand until he could carefully examine the injury Nathan spoke of. His stomach contorted, fear returning sharp and merciless. It was indeed a mortal wound, one that would have likely killed her if not for the bonds already established between them. Although the bone wasn’t crushed, the skull bent inward. There was likely blood pooling in her skull, something that was dangerous for anyone, shifter or no.

Grief engulfed him in a heavy shroud, settling like a dead weight in the center of his chest. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. He intended to unlock the most important mark during an intimate moment, when he could look into her eyes, see her accept him and cherish her willingness to spend their lives together. It shouldn’t occur when she wasn’t conscious of it, taken unaware because it was the only way he could be certain she’d heal and survive following his inability to protect her.

Sirens wailed in the distance and Nathan grasped his shoulder. “We don’t need to be here when the police start asking questions.”

Diskant stood, lifted his mate and gave a sidelong glance at the wall. The vampire was gone, leaving nothing behind but a large pool of blood on the concrete. Remorse washed over him but vanished when Ava moaned slightly, bringing his attention back to her. He hurried down the alley, toward the road. There was a vehicle the pack kept parked a few buildings down, in case of an emergency.

An emergency, he thought bitterly. This was far more than that. Shepherds might be dead on the street but they’d done what they’d set out to do, creating a substantial void in the shifter population.

His temper resurfaced when he thought of how lucky they were the explosive inside the van didn’t detonate. If it had, they entire city would have been in chaos.

Fortunately, no one cared about the nude man striding down the sidewalk with a woman hoisted in his arms. They were too concerned about the blazing building that was slowly collapsing and the broken and burned bodies strewn around the front. When Diskant made it to the car he climbed into the back and left Nathan to drive. As the Beta settled in the front seat, Diskant saw the oozing holes in his back, two on the left shoulder and one on the right where the bulletproof vest didn’t protect.

Diskant made a silent vow that as soon as he’d bloodbonded Ava entirely and knew she would be safe, he would properly thank Trey’s second for saving her life and locate the vampire in order to do the same.

Nathan started the car. “Where do you want to go?”

Although wary of returning to his residence, it was the safest place. The security system would prevent anyone from getting inside, and with the recent activity the police would be all over the city.

“Home.”

He cradled Ava is his arms as Trey pulled the car on the road and tried not to think about what was yet to come.