Taste of Torment

Chapter Fourteen

(Sam)

Standing in front of the mirror, I tugged on the sleeves of my white shirt and scowled at my reflection. Many people looked good in suits – smart, sophisticated, and elegant. I was not one of those people. Instead, I looked like a kid playing ‘dress up’. Jeans, combat pants, tank tops, t-shirts – that was more my style…which was exactly why Fletcher had turned up at my apartment with this stuff. When I tugged at the sleeves again, he gently slapped at my hand.

“Stop fussing. You look fabulous.”

I snorted. “I don’t mind occasionally wearing a dress, but a suit? This just isn’t me.”

“Luv, I know you feel uncomfortable, but you can’t wear casual clothes tomorrow night while Antonio announces to the High Masters that you and Jared will soon be replacing him.”

I’d told Fletcher about the upcoming announcement yesterday evening, making him swear to keep it to himself until after it had been officially made by Antonio.

“You like the black high heels though, don’t you? Admit it.”

In truth, I quite liked them, but I was feeling too put-out to admit it. Going for aloof, I sniffed. “They’re all right.”

His smug expression said that he was seeing right through my act. “Shame Collins left last night.”

Surprised by his words, I pulled a face. “Is it?”

“I was planning to put hair remover in his NST.”

I laughed. “I don’t think he would have drunk it anyway. Not after you put laxatives in the last one you gave him.”

Fletcher smiled impishly. “The poor sod had about ten seconds between when a cramp struck him and when a shit actually popped out. Who would have thought he could run so fast? But when you’ve gotta go, you’ve gotta go.”

“I think I preferred it when you put a blob of hair in Eloise’s sandwich.”

His smile widened. “Took her at least fifteen minutes to realise it was a chunk of her own precious hair.”

Watching her balk and choke had been fun for everyone. “Right, I better get changed. Jared will be here any minute now to take me to the arena.” No doubt the squad would be just as joyous to not have ‘observers’ anymore while they trained.

Fletcher rooted through my wardrobe and pulled out a t-shirt and combat pants. “Where is that hunk of yours?”

When he plonked the clothes in my arms, I huffed indignantly. “I do know how to pick out clothes.”

He waved his hand dismissively. “Oh chillax and get ready.”

Rolling my eyes, I began to dress. “Bossy little sod, aren’t you?”

“Bossy? Not at all. I just know what you should be doing, wearing, and thinking.” Taking my new – and very boring – clothes, Fletcher hung them up in my wardrobe. “So, how do you feel about being made co-leader of our kind?”

I shrugged nonchalantly. “I knew the day would come eventually.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

I shot him an impatient look. “You’re an Empath; you know exactly how I’m feeling.”

“I can sense that you’re nervous. But you’re also worried. Something’s bugging you.”

Finally dressed, I sighed. “Jared’s keeping something from me.”

Fletcher perched himself on the edge of my bed. “What kind of ‘something’?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think it’s anything really bad, but whatever it is, it’s eating at him.”

“Have you asked him about it?”

“Yeah. He did a typical Jared thing and shut down.” But I wasn’t pissed off with him. Just disappointed and concerned.

“Luv, you know how guarded he can be,” Fletcher gently reminded me.

“But we’ve been working on that. Both of us have, because we’re both as bad as each other in that sense. Sometimes he buries his emotions so deep that I don’t have a prayer of understanding what’s going on in that head of his. This time, though, it’s different.”

“Different how?”

“He’s not hiding his emotions or being cagey. He just won’t tell me what the problem is. It’s like he’s torn about it – he wants me to know, yet he doesn’t.” I retrieved a hair-tie from my bedside cabinet and scooped my hair up into a ponytail. “I haven’t poked him about it because so much has been going on – his twin brother was dying, Collins and Eloise showed up and insisted on making our lives hell, I was bitten, and he’s also got the pressure of knowing that Antonio will have us replace him soon. I didn’t want to add to any of that pressure, so I kept quiet. But now that everything’s mostly okay, I’m tempted to ask him about it. He probably won’t tell me without a little pressure anyway.”

Fletcher was quiet for a minute, and I could tell his little mind was working away. “Maybe you should at least wait until after the announcement has been made. There’s a possibility that it’s something that could cause a little dispute between you, and you don’t want to be at odds with him at a time like this.”

That was a good point. “I just don’t like that something’s playing on his mind. And, yeah, it’s irritating me that I don’t know what it is. But mostly, I’m worried about him. He’s been through enough these past few weeks.” How he hadn’t snapped, considering his total lack of patience, I wasn’t sure.

“Then be here for him now. Don’t push him at a time when he needs you. You know you’re the only person he lets himself need; the only person who he wholeheartedly trusts. This is a time when you should be at each other’s side, presenting a united front and facing all these changes together and all that stuff.”

Why did he have to be right?

“You can spare the poor sod a little more time, can’t you?”

“Fine,” I grumbled.

Fletcher smiled, reaching over to pat my hand. “That’s my girl.”

At that moment, Jared appeared beside me. Speak of the randy devil…

As usual, Fletcher melted at the sight of him. With a dreamy sigh, he got to his feet. “Don’t mind me. I’ll let myself out.” He gave me a look that said Remember what I told you. “See you later.” In vampire speed, he was gone from the apartment.

Jared held out his hand. “Ready?”

Smiling, I took his hand. “Yep.” In a blink, we were at the arena. The squad was filing inside, talking loudly and laughing.

When Max glanced around the spectator area and found it empty, he turned to me. “They’ve seriously gone?”

“They left last night,” I confirmed. The entire squad whooped at that. I felt like whooping along with them. I’d missed being able to work without having someone hovering over me, noting every itty bitty thing that I did and criticising my every move. Knowing that my shadow was gone and that the bitch of the century was no longer around to flirt with Jared, I couldn’t help smiling. Life was good.

“I heard that they’d left,” began Denny, “but I didn’t believe it. I couldn’t think of anything that would make them up and go like that.”

When Jared and I exchanged a smile, Reuben narrowed his eyes. “What did you do, Coach?”

“Are they still alive?” asked David.

Affronted, I huffed. It would take more than annoying behaviour to make me lose my cool enough to kill someone. “Yes, they’re still alive.”

“Damn,” muttered Damien. The others looked equally disappointed.

“Tell me you at least maimed them or something,” pleaded Stuart. Beside him, Harvey seemed hopeful.

Jared chuckled. “It was tempting, but no, they’re both still in one piece.”

Chico stroked his goatee. “Then how did you get them to leave?”

I joined my hands behind my back. “Let’s just say that since the case will undoubtedly be dropped, there was no reason for them to stick around and observe us any longer.”

“Which means we can work you as hard as we need to,” said Jared, grinning impishly. “So let’s move on quickly from the subject of those assholes because they’ve wasted enough of our time as it is.” The squad nodded, their expressions now determined. “Sam and I expect you to give your all tonight. Anything less is unacceptable, because there is absolutely no excuse in the world why you can’t give it to us after how average your recent training sessions have been.”

To their credit, they appeared to welcome the challenge as opposed to feel disheartened by it. But then, no doubt holding back for so long had been frustrating – a little like driving a Porsche but only being able to travel at thirty miles per hour.

From the very first minute of the training session, Jared and I worked the squad hard. We had to. It was imperative that they were at their best, because the worry that lay in the back of my mind was that if something happened to me, Jared would instantly die too, and then the squad would be alone. As such, smack bam in the middle of a particular training exercise, I interrupted with, “Did you hear that outside?” The false panic that I’d injected into my voice had them all tensing, instantly alert. “It sounded like…an explosion.” Wide-eyed, they listened intently.

Jared frowned. Baby, what are you doing?

Trust me. When the squad heard nothing and their unease melted into confusion, they glanced at each other questioningly.

“Coach, I didn’t hear anything,” said Butch.

“That’s because there was no explosion. But imagine if there was. Imagine if, while you lot are training or lounging around or playing basketball, you suddenly hear that The Hollow’s defences have been breached. Worse, a battle is now ensuing. Furthermore, Jared and I have been captured and quite possibly killed. What do you do?”

Shocked by my abrupt change in exercise, they didn’t move or speak. Interrupting their exercises for any reason wasn’t something that I usually did. But I was doing it to make a point.

“The last time the walls were attacked, we knew in advance thanks to a vision from Luther, and we were well prepared. But Luther doesn’t foresee everything. And if you think that the next vampires who attack – and vampires will eventually attack this place again one day – will do so while you’re alert and ready, you’ve got another thing coming. They’ll want to use the element of surprise and catch you off-guard. They’ll try to remove Antonio, Jared, and me from the equation first – not only because we’re powerful, but because it would affect everyone’s morale in a huge way and instil utter fear in you all. So, I’ll say it again: let’s imagine this place has been infiltrated, that you don’t have commanders now, that you need to rely on each other…what do you do?”

As I’d expected, they each cast glances at Chico, naturally looking to him for leadership. Noticing that, he straightened to his full height, accepting the responsibility. “That’s where I come in.”

Jared folded his arms across his chest. “And what is it that you’ll do, Chico?” Understanding how my mind worked, Jared now knew exactly what the purpose of all this was. “You’re now responsible for your squad’s safety and you have to lead them into battle, it’s now down to you to guide them.”

“I’d pair us up, just like how Coach told us to pair up during the last battle. Salem with Reuben, me with Damien, Stuart with Denny, David with Butch, and Max with Harvey. That way, everyone has someone looking out for them whose gift complements theirs in some way.” The rest of the squad nodded, seemingly pleased with the plan.

“You wouldn’t decide to simply charge into the battle as a whole to compensate for not having us with you?” I asked, pursing my lips.

“No, because we’ll already be shaken by you guys not being there. The worst thing to do would be to deviate from what we’ve been trained to do. We’d stick to what we know.”

I smiled. “Excellent answer.” I spoke to them all then. “We’re your commanders and we’re powerful, but we’re not invincible. If something were to happen to us, you will still be expected to fight alongside the other squads. You cannot afford to dwell or to have a moment of doubt. You need to turn any emotions you feel into fuel, and you need to protect this place and the people within it.”

“I know what it’s like to suddenly find yourself without a commander,” said Jared, beginning to slowly pace. “It happened to the squad I joined when I was first accepted into the legion. It’s scary. It’s a shock to your system. It can shake your confidence. And that’s exactly what your enemy would be counting on in that situation. No other commander would try to lead you because they wouldn’t know enough about you and your capabilities. It would mean that you guys were on your own.”

Unease snaked around the entire squad as they cast each other nervous glances.

“But that doesn’t have to be a bad thing,” continued Jared. “You know each other inside out. You know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. You know who the best strategist is, who is the fastest, who is the stealthiest, and who is physically the strongest – you know all of this information, and you can take advantage of it.”

“We’re going to try something a little different now.” Tapping into the energy of the earth, I built a large wall near the far end of the arena. Following that, I added a few ledges to the rear of it before springing to the top and perching myself on the edge. Jared joined me. “I want you to imagine that this wall is the entrance of a building. Commander Michaels and I have been captured and you suspect that we are being kept behind it. For all you lot know, we could in fact be dead”

“Until we knew for sure, we wouldn’t assume that you were dead,” growled Chico. “We’d do our damn best to get into that building.” The others all nodded, looking resolute.

I couldn’t help be touched by that. “The problem is that it’s well guarded. The other issue is that you’re being pursued from behind. Wouldn’t it be best to concentrate on keeping yourselves safe?”

“You wouldn’t leave us behind, and we wouldn’t leave you behind,” Salem firmly stated, and I knew he was referring to the assignment that had led to me being tainted.

“Exactly,” said Denny.

“So, then, what next?” Jared asked Chico.

“Next, I’d do what you guys would do: I’d split the squad into two. Five of us would work on getting into the building while the other five covers us. I know it would mean deviating from pairing up, but that particular situation would call for it.”

Pleased, Jared gave him a nod of respect. “How exactly would you split the squad?”

“I’d have Harvey, Reuben, Damien, David, and Butch cover Salem, Max, Denny, Stuart, and me.”

I smiled. “Good thinking, Chico. I’m going to ask you all to split up just like that now.”

Brows drawn together in confusion, they obediently divided into two groups.

“Chico, you and the four who you believe would be the best choice to invade this building are going to try to do exactly that.”

“Are you and Commander Michaels going to fend us off?” asked Stuart, getting into position in the middle of the arena with the rest of his team.

“No. Harvey, Reuben, Damien, David, and Butch are going to do that. I agree with you, Chico – they make a good defensive team. Now it’s up to you to get past them in order to save your commanders, assuming we’re still alive, that is. If any of you receive what would be classed as a ‘fatal’ hit if Reuben hadn’t weakened your gifts for the training session, you’ll be expected to sit in the spectators’ area. Harvey, I’m making you leader of your team.” He grinned at that and pulled his members aside.

As both teams engaged in a huddle, Jared and I jumped down from the wall and sat in the front row of spectator seats. The commanders had now been removed from the equation, and the squad had to think for themselves.

From where they stood in the centre of the arena, Chico’s team made the first move. Chico aimed a spray of thorns at Butch, who was covering David, the strongest link, at the top of the wall. They both ducked by squatting on one of the ledges that I’d added to the rear of the wall. Instead of retaliating, David psychically ‘zapped’ Max before he had the chance to rob their senses, taking him out. But it was no more than a minute later that a psychic hit from Salem removed Butch from Harvey’s team. Salem had obviously thought that he would then have a clear shot at David, but he’d greatly underestimated him. David did very well at using the building as cover. Jared and I had trained him never to rely on Butch, to be prepared to protect himself if the need arose, and he had clearly listened extremely well.

Each time anyone from Chico’s team came near the wall, Reuben would dash from behind it – the bloke was seriously fast – and attack, simultaneously weakening their gift. At that point, Harvey would send their ‘attackers’ flying away; never attacking from the same spot twice. Damien worked at diverting the attention of Chico’s team by making them target his astral self while he kept his physical body safe behind the wall. This then gave David a chance to eliminate those who were distracted by Damien. In no time at all, David had gotten rid of Salem and Stuart. Denny eventually snatched Reuben with his yellowy-green ooze, chucking him aside. That then left Harvey, Damien, and David against Chico, Stuart, and Denny.

Stuart repeatedly did his best to get near the wall in particle form, but Harvey always managed to send those particles swishing away. Apparently determined to get rid of Harvey, Denny took a massive chance: able to leap high distances like a copepod, he abruptly jumped to the top of the wall, where Harvey was currently situated. He wrapped himself around Harvey, and took him to the ground – eliminating them both from the exercise, but giving his own team a better chance.

Chico made a quick dash for the wall, shooting thorns at Damien’s astral self. David managed to psychically hit Chico before he could reach them, taking him out. But Stuart, still in particle form, took advantage of David being distracted by Chico and literally swished around the wall, reaching Damien before he had the chance to return to his body. Despite that there was only one of Chico’s team ‘alive’, all of them still cheered and made a huge fuss of Stuart.

I was truly impressed. They had done a lot better than I’d been expecting. They hadn’t had to work so hard in a while, and this was the first time that they had been instructed to act without any guidance from Jared or me. They had rose to the challenge, met it head-on, and given it everything they had. A commander couldn’t ask for more.

When Jared and I re-joined them, they instantly quieted and turned to face us. Each one of them looked extremely pleased with themselves, despite that technically only one of them had ‘survived’. “The one thing I love about this squad is that it functions like a well-oiled machine.” They almost flushed at my praise. “If in a situation like this you do exactly as Chico said and you stick to what you know, you’ll continue to function this way and you will survive.” I let a mean smile surface on my face. “And you’ll get revenge for Jared and me.”

Denny’s smile matched mine. “Coach, I can assure you that if, by some fluke, someone managed to kill you, they wouldn’t live to tell the tale. That’s a promise.”

Seeing their fierce expressions, I believed them. I just had to hope that it wouldn’t come to that.

(Jared)

Click. Clack. Click. Clack. Click. Clack.

The noise was driving me fucking insane. After a long evening of training, I had retreated to the ‘bat pool’ for a little down time while Sam went to one of the cafés with Fletcher. All I’d wanted was to have some time to myself, a little peace and quiet, in the hope of relaxing my hyped-up mind. Despite that I was excited about ascending, I was still nervous at the knowledge that Antonio would be making the announcement tomorrow night. It also served to remind me that my time was running out – I’d need to tell Sam about the vision soon. I could delay it until after the announcement, but it wouldn’t be fair to go through with the Coronation without telling her.

As I’d swum length after length, the tension had begun to leave my body, and my thoughts had stopped running wild. But that had quickly changed when Joy appeared ten minutes ago. She had taken to strutting up and down the side of the pool in a pair of stilettos and not much else. I’d hoped that ignoring her would make her leave, but no such luck. She hadn’t broken stride or ceased to attempt to draw me into conversation. I’d give it five more minutes, I decided. If after that she still

“This again?” a bored and very familiar husky voice asked.

I peered up to see Sam approaching with her head cocked to one side, regarding Joy like she was a freaky yet morbidly intriguing bug. She halted parallel to where I was afloat, but she didn’t move her eyes from Joy.

Fletcher sidled up to Sam, gawking at the sight of Joy. “I take back what I said about her looking like an Azkaban escapee. Right now, she’s making me think of a washed up Playboy Bunny who’s surviving on a diet of paint chips and crack cocaine.”

It was actually a pretty accurate description. Sure, Joy had the Keja hypnotic allure. But dark emotions like hatred and bitterness had a way of distorting a person’s beauty, even making them look haggard and gaunt.

“I can’t see why it should bother you so much, Sam.” Joy did a slow strut toward her, hands on her hips…or where her hips should be. “Unless, of course, you see me as a threat to your bond with Jared…?”

Wearing a deadpan expression, Sam replied in a flat, toneless voice, “Yes, that’s what it is.”

“Or maybe you’re just jealous.” Joy smirked at Sam as she stopped in front of her. “Jealous because you know that I’ve had your mate. That I’ve touched every inch of him. That I’ve had him inside me.”

Scratching her forehead, Sam sighed. “Joy, you might think that gives you some kind of edge, given that your IQ matches that of a vole and your brain works on a different frequency than the rest of us. But, honestly, I actually pity you. Yes, you shook the sheets with Jared a number of times in the past. But come on, it doesn’t make you special because let’s face it, he was a bit of a slut.”

Frowning, I whined, “Hey!” Fletcher gave me a look that said Well you were. I opened my mouth to object, but instead I exhaled a resigned sigh. “Yeah, okay.”

Joy was too focused on Sam to even register that I’d spoken. Her chuckle contained no trace of humour. “Don’t worry; I know that I was only ever a piece of ass to him. I know he doesn’t care about me the way I care about him. But I also know that he’ll never be satisfied with just one woman. He needs more than”

“Yes, so you’ve said before,” said Sam tiredly. “And I’m sure he’ll go running off to you when he realises this. But until that happens, I can let you both live. So why not run along.”

Joy straightened her shoulders. “I’m not scared of you.” Could the woman possibly get any dumber?

A smile slowly spread across Sam’s face. “But you’re scared that I’ll Merge with you again, aren’t you?”

Fear briefly flickered in Joy’s eyes. When Joy had once attacked Sam, my mate had retaliated by launching herself at her…only to instead accidentally Merge her body with Joy’s and completely take her over. It had left Joy drained and disorientated, not to mention pissed that she’d lost control of her own body to Sam.

Not wanting Sam to have to listen to anymore of this shit, I teleported to the sun lounger that I’d claimed, retrieved my towel, and patted myself dry as I came to stand behind her. But my gaze was on Joy. “I’d tell you that I’m not going to leave Sam, but this is something you’re already well aware of. Deep down, you know nothing that you or anyone else does will ever tempt me away from her.”

Joy’s face hardened. “You need more.”

“I have what I need.” It was true.

“We were happy until she came here. You didn’t love me, I know that. I even know that you love her. But it doesn’t change the fact that she’ll never be enough.” She shrugged her shoulders. “It’s not like you would be the only Bound male who has a consort on the side, is it?”

Fletcher tilted his head. “And you would honestly be happy to be someone’s dirty little secret?”

It was clear on her face that no, she wouldn’t be. I knew exactly why she wouldn’t let that be an issue. “You don’t want me, Joy. You want to be the Heir’s consort again. That’s all it is. It was the only reason that you ever wanted me.”

Her eyes flared. “No. I care for you.”

“Then can’t you be happy for him?” asked Sam.

Joy snorted. “Are you really telling me that you would be happy for him if the situation was reversed?”

“Oh there’s no denying that I would want to skin you alive and make a rug out of your flesh, but I’d stay away and let him live his life. I certainly wouldn’t be so pathetic as to hang around him the way you do, trying to lure him back to me.”

“How is it pathetic to remind him of what he’s missing?”

“Don’t you have any pride at all?” Fletcher asked Joy, shaking his head in amazement.

Her eyes alight with hatred, she sneered at him. “Says the one who prances around like a fairy.”

Fletcher seemed more amused than offended. “I’m more of a woman than you’ll ever be.”

Sam chuckled. “He’s got a point, Joy.”

A flush of pure anger crept up her neck and face. “It might not be me that Jared comes to when he finally realises what he really needs, but he will turn away from you at some point. You’d be a fool to doubt that.” Then, in vampire speed, she disappeared.

Fletcher swerved to look at me. “The crank truly believes that, doesn’t she?”

Chuckling again, Sam answered for me. “Of course she does. I know it seems weird, but think about it from her neurotic point of view. Jared didn’t just have her as a consort; he had two others as well. Joy probably wasn’t too happy about it. Then there’s the fact that, even with three consorts, he still bonked other females when the mood struck him. Her mind had two choices: believe that she wasn’t what he needed because she lacked somehow and he didn’t care at all for her, or believe that he was simply someone who needed more than one woman and it didn’t reflect on her whatsoever, that he might even care for her. She convinced herself of the latter, because it suited her to believe that. It made the situation not hurt so much.”

“So seeing him Bound and committed to someone else threatens her illusion,” deduced Fletcher. “If she accepted that you’re all he needs, she’d have to accept that what she’s always believed in the cause of emotional self-preservation is untrue.”

Sam nodded. “And who would want to accept that the person they care about has never cared about them? It would certainly piss me the fuck off.”

It would piss me off, too. I’d want to know what the fucking point was in finding and caring for this person so much if they would never feel the same. To then have that person leave me for someone else and be so happy with them – happy enough to join with them for life – would be the final twist of the knife. Wanting to fend off the dark feelings threatening to surface at just the idea of that, I slipped my arm around Sam to pull her close. Okay, so I could feel a teensy bit sorry for Joy, just as I did for Cristiano. But I still believed that my being Heir was what interested Joy the most.

Fletcher shrugged, as if to shake off the matter. “Well, it’s been a long night. I’m off to find Norm.” He gave Sam a brief hug, offered me a shy wave, and then left us alone.

Sam raised her gaze to mine. “Did the swim help? I know something’s on your mind, but I’m not going to ask what it is. Tell me in your own time…just don’t take too long.”

Appreciating that she wasn’t pushing, I kissed her gently. “We’ll talk about it soon,” I promised. “You know, you’ve impressed me. My holding back is annoying the shit out of you – I can sense it. Usually when I piss you off in some way, you retaliate with that whip of yours. But you’ve contained yourself.”

She placed her hands on my chest. Her smile dripped with pity. “Aw, Jared, whatever made you think I was going to contain myself?” She shoved hard – so hard that I went zooming backwards and landed in the pool.

Kicking to the surface, I coughed up the mouthful of water that had clogged my throat and glowered at my mate. Appearing rather self-satisfied, she folded her arms. I shook my head at her. “You know you’re a bitch, right?”

She smiled. “It’s part of why you love me.”

I had to smile back. She was right, it was.