Stained Hearts Read online

  My insides were bouncing around as I forced my way past my mates. They were so intent on defending me, on protecting me, that they forgot what I was.

  A warrior.

  Their leader.

  A conduit of all their powers.

  I wasn’t sure how I did it, but I’d been practicing. All those nights ago, when we’d been deep in the woods outside of Westbrook, on that night when Lily fucking Addams had tried to null my powers, I’d managed to bind them to me. That was the conduit. Something I’d been born to harness, born to hold deep inside me. It was stronger than me, stronger than them.

  It was that power that had decided exactly who my mates were, and Darius Maximus wasn’t about to tell us otherwise.

  Calling on the power of the link, I felt the men at my back stiffen as I drew their powers from them. I didn’t drain, I enhanced. Taking off the excess and using it to form my own protection—I could defend my goddamn self.

  As the hazy sparks of my will wove around our feet, surging upward to entwine with our hair, limbs, and extremities, I watched, with intense satisfaction, as Darius blinked, then frowned.

  His head tilted left, then right, and then he swore under his breath. “Where the fuck did they go?”

  My lips curved in a gleeful smile.

  “Huh?”

  That was Barclay, and I turned to look at him with a grin. “He can’t see us,” I informed him, well aware of the pride in my tone.

  “What about hear us?” Gideon asked grimly, but then he’d been grim for days, and I was tired of seeing that delicious mouth of his all tense and miserable. Not because I was tired of him, just of the necessity.

  I’d brought so much strain to these boys’ lives, and I hated that.

  Darius reached up and rubbed the back of his neck. “Okay, I get it. You fucked with me.”

  “Why haven’t we been doing this before?” Raven questioned. “When we had to use motels and shit? We could have stayed under the radar.”

  I shrugged. “I didn’t decide to do this. I willed it, but it might not have answered my call.”

  “What?” Keiran demanded, stacking his hands on his trim hips. “What does that mean?”

  “It means the conduit decided,” I explained patiently.

  “The conduit decided,” Cade repeated, rubbing his chin. “That supposed to mean something, baby?”

  I was such a sucker for that word. ‘Baby.’ Drool. Clearing my throat, I attempted to clarify the situation, “It means that the power isn’t always mine to control.”

  A sharp breath escaped Raven. “I fucking told you, Gideon.”

  “For fuck’s sake,” Darius suddenly barked. “I’m not going any-damn-place in a hurry. I get it. You’re smarter than those dicks at Westbrook gave you credit for, Sixth.”

  I encouraged the conduit to release some of its power, just enough to allow my voice through. “I have a name,” I informed him coolly.

  I’d been playing with the conduit all the while we’d been out on the road. With nothing else to do but drink too much Starbucks, and whine about not having a fresh meal that didn’t come complete with burger sauce, I’d started using the link, trying to ascertain what I could and couldn’t do with it.

  I knew it wasn’t fully formed. That was evident because I wasn’t bound to all of them yet, which meant the great chasm inside me was either supposed to get bigger or smaller, I wasn’t sure which. Mostly because I’d just figured out it was there. Right in my soul. Deep enough to cause an ache, and dark enough to concern me.

  “Marcella. I know. I’ve been hearing nothing but that for the past few weeks. You caused a shitstorm, and that’s not a lie,” Darius admitted, and I had to be misunderstanding that note in his voice, because he sounded almost amused…

  No, that couldn’t be. Could it?

  As though I was King Canute, encouraging the tide to stop, I sought to calm the conduit once more and allowed it to cover my men while revealing only half of myself.

  “Shit, you didn’t even move a muscle, did you?” Darius breathed, reaching up to rub his chin.

  I smiled at the Enforcer, raised my hands, and calling on Gideon’s powers with the elements, which were muted because I hadn’t physically bound myself to him, shot an electrical charge at Darius.

  That he never anticipated it was a given. Why would he think I could do that when, as far as I could remember, from my many boring hours of poring over textbooks, no Sixth could control lightning. But to be fair, there were very few half-druids in Brotherhoods, so it wasn’t like there was much opportunity to study a Sixth who harnessed their mate’s power.

  “What the fuck?” he rasped, his head minutely tilting down to stare at the current that pinned his head to the door. It was two-pronged, one on either side of his head, and each was stuck fast into the wood behind him. The tether kept him in place and enabled me to relax the shadow the conduit had shielded my mates with.

  As I watched, his hands moved, his torso twitched as he tried to stay still, but his body was urging him to get away from the very live wire.

  “What in the Maker’s name is that?” Cade whispered, approaching Darius to peer at the current.

  “Lightning?” Gideon questioned, sounding both confused and excited.

  I nodded. “I figured out how to do it the other day.”

  That had them all gaping at me. Even Darius.

  “Why didn’t you tell us?” Barclay demanded, and I winced, hearing the hurt in his voice that I hadn’t shared with him.

  He was such a puppy dog sometimes. All big brown, soulful eyes that made me feel like shit if I didn’t stroke his… Well, he didn’t want his belly stroking, I thought on a smirk.

  “I was just playing with it,” I admitted. “I’ve been playing with the conduit the entire time we’ve been on the run.”

  “You mean there’s other shit in your box of magic tricks?” Cade rasped, and I loved that he sounded impressed.

  Cade was an asshole. But he was my asshole. He had a power that made him pretty unique, and to impress him was like finding two miracles to promote someone to sainthood.

  “Oh yeah,” I informed him with a quick grin. “I just…”

  “You just what, sweetness?” Keiran asked, coming up behind me and pressing a hand to my lower back.

  His touch made me shiver. He was such a dark horse, so quiet sometimes that I never knew what he was thinking. Of all my men, he was the one who didn’t really show much of his emotions, and it made me focus on him all the more because he could be overlooked so easily.

  I cleared my throat and tried not to focus on the heat his palm emitted. It made the conduit inside me shudder in response.

  The only thing I could compare the link to was a house cat. A really nasty one. With a few strokes behind the ear and a bowl of cream though, it would tame itself for you, but it took very little to piss it off. Agitate it.

  The conduit was very agitated now that it discerned Darius was a threat to me and my mates.

  It especially didn’t like that my men could be in danger.

  “She’s got you by the balls, Darius,” Raven hooted, stepping closer and peering at the collar too.

  “Thank the Maker she doesn’t. I think I’d prefer this around my throat than my cock,” he mocked, but he pinned me with a narrow-eyed stare. “You going to let me loose?”

  “Nope,” I informed him, folding my arms across my chest.

  He scowled. “You don’t need to?”

  I shook my head, puzzled by the question.

  Barclay settled at my other side. “Aren’t you feeling tired?”

  “No. Why would I?” I inquired, frowning up at him.

  He shrugged. “Most Sixths can’t sustain their talents for such a length of time. At least, not that we’ve learned about.”

  “No, I can assure you, this is very unusual,” Darius stated drily. “Look, I’m pissed at you all, don’t get me wrong. But I’m alone. Gideon, use your magic and sweep the area. You can c
onfirm it.”

  “I can’t believe you got to the Cavalry,” he ground out, but he did as bid. I felt him draw on his powers as he swept the grounds. The conduit responded to his magic like he’d stroked it. I felt the link charge in response, and the collar seemed to double in size.

  “Whoa!” Cade yelled, taking a quick step back as the current started to spit out flares, tendril-like whispers of power that had the air around us crackling.

  Darius grunted, and I realized he thought Gideon’s question was why I’d turned up the dial on the current. “They owed me a favor!” he spat out quickly. “On the other hand, you can consider your favor owed to them null-and-void.”

  I could sense Gid’s relief through the bond at that, and he stepped up behind me, so close that his chest brushed my back as he breathed. The scent of him was enough to make me giddy too, and deep inside my soul, where that chasm was, the chasm that housed the conduit, I could feel it rumble in response to him.

  “Baby, let Darius go. There’s no one in the area. He would have brought someone with him if he’d intended on bringing us in.”

  I gnawed my bottom lip, everything inside me not wanting to let this guy go. Because my gut shrieked at me, I pointed my finger at him. “Just remember, I can put you back in this position as easily as two plus two.”

  Darius raised his hands in the official surrender gesture, and I? Well, I did as Gideon requested.

  Tucking the charge back inside me was harder than releasing it. The conduit was, I’d come to learn, quite angry. I didn’t want to say malevolent, but it was just… pissed off. It liked snapping out, causing chaos. It liked to stir shit up.

  Was that because it was unsettled?

  Damn. I really needed to bind myself to all my mates. Maybe that would settle it down.

  As I reeled the lightning back inside myself, splintering off the excess to Gideon who gasped behind me as I returned his gift to him, Darius slowly straightened and began to wiggle his neck in relief.

  When he moved away from the door, the gesture was jerky. Not because he intended to attack, I realized, but because I’d surprised him with the lethal collar, and he was shaky on his feet.

  The conduit didn’t sense that though.

  As quickly as I’d raveled it back into a ball so I could hold it inside myself, it lashed out.

  The air suddenly scented of ozone as it roared into being, and when it whipped Darius, I released a shriek of surprise and fear as he immediately fell to his knees, and tumbled face first onto the cold tile floor.

  For a second, none of us said anything. We just stared blankly at the very important Enforcer who had face-planted in the foyer.

  Because of me.

  Because I’d whipped him with a lightning bolt.

  Holy crap, what did I just do?

  “Fuck, sweetness, did you kill him?” Raven questioned, shooting me a wary look, even as he crouched on the ground beside Darius. When he reached for his shoulder, obviously trying to turn the older man over, he released a yelp as the power lashed at him. But the instant it recognized who was touching Darius, it pulled back, saving Rav from an electric shock as nasty as the one the Enforcer had just experienced.

  “I-I don’t think so,” I whispered shakily, cupping my elbows as I tried to reconcile what I’d just done. Barclay hugged me to him and I burrowed into his arms, needing his warmth, his comfort. Maker, no one scented like him, and it eased my agitated nerves some. “I-It just happened. The conduit thought he was threatening us.”

  Gid’s voice was back to being grim. “Well, that settles it.”

  “Settles what?” Cade inquired, peering over at him as he kicked Darius over onto his back with his rubber-soled Doc Martens.

  “We need to go to the blood bank sooner rather than later.” He pointed at the too-still body on the ground. “When he comes around, the only thing that’s going to stop him from tearing our throats out is a couple of bags of blood.”

  Keiran winced. “I’ll get the keys. Damn, I’m sick of that SUV too.”

  I stared at my men, my mouth gaping as they started to clear up the mess I’d made.

  That was it?

  Just… a solution?

  No punishment?

  No threats?

  No beating?

  I wasn’t sure who was more surprised when I burst into sobs—them or me.

  4

  Marcella

  Each sob racked my whole body, which had, coincidentally, fallen to the floor. Snot was dripping from my nose, while the tears continued to stream down my face. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't sexy. And it made the guys hella uncomfortable.

  I couldn't control it though. It was like this huge weight I hadn't even known I was carrying, was suddenly lifted off me. My whole heart felt lighter, more free.

  "Baby, please stop. I can't take this," I heard Cade say from somewhere around me.

  A whine confused me for a second, and suddenly I felt a soft wolf pelt brushing against me, and I knew Barclay had shifted. The agitation from all of them was surprising, like I was the first person they'd been around who was this upset. The more I thought about it, the more upset I became, but part of my brain knew it wasn't completely logical, that I shouldn't be acting like this. I just couldn't help it.

  Everything in me was crying out in pain, which was different from why I'd first started crying. No. This was the conduit and it was freaking out about something. That was why I could think about it logically, even though my whole body was in full-on freak-out mode.

  "Uh, guys." Cade's voice was soft, as though he didn't want to alarm me, but the note of panic in it had the opposite effect.

  I opened my eyes and a red haze covered everything. On the floor in front of me, there was a quickly growing puddle of blood, or at least that was what it looked like to me through the haze.

  "Is she crying... blood?" Keir's voice sounded just as confused as I felt.

  I swiped at my face and saw the smear on my hand that definitely wasn't from normal tears. Panic flared through me then. This wasn't normal. Vampires did not cry blood. Well, not outside of movies and TV shows anyway. So what the hell was going on?

  A shuddering gasp came from Darius's body on the floor not too far from me, and all of our attention shifted.

  "Shit," Keir whispered.

  "Thought he'd be out longer." This came from Gid, who'd been quiet up until that point since I'd started crying.

  The Enforcer slowly pushed himself up onto all fours, as though his whole body ached from the little zap the conduit had given him. That couldn't be right though. Not for a high-level, high-powered pureblood like him.

  His head shot up and those dark eyes were gone, replaced by swirling, silver orbs. Without anyone being able to stop him, he was in front of me and I was trapped in his gaze. His eyes looked like moonlight reflecting off a dagger and it was captivating.

  My head was turned to the side and he was biting down on me before I realized what was happening. I gasped, and the guys were suddenly there, rushing into action, but it was too late for them to do anything. Too late for anything to stop what was happening between us.

  The connection between Darius and I surged to life, stronger and more powerful than my connection with Keir, Gid, or Rav. It was only Cade and Barclay's connections that were as strong, reminding me once again that I needed to cement the bond with those three before we got into any more shit. Although, I may have just stepped into the biggest pile of shit yet.

  Everything was shiny and new. The whole world sparkled, as my senses grew more powerful with each and every millisecond that passed. It was the opposite of what should be happening. As Darius drained me, I should be losing my strength, my abilities, my perception of the world, just like I had when my mother almost killed me.

  He pulled his fangs from my skin a moment later, and pricked his thumb to use his own blood to seal the wounds. It was a habit I imagined he picked up from feeding on humans. We didn't need to do that with each other, since w
e healed quickly naturally, but as soon as his blood connected with mine, I felt a click, like the whole universe had shifted a little further into the right place.

  The only other time I'd felt anything like it was when I'd slept with Cade and Barclay. When I completed the bond with my mates. My eyes flashed to his as he pulled further away, and I saw the same confusion and panic in their dark depths as I felt in my own.

  "What the..." Gid's voice trailed off.

  "Fuck," Raven murmured.

  "You've got to be fucking kidding me," Cade growled from somewhere behind me.

  "Shit." Keir's whisper rocked me the most, although I wasn't sure why. Maybe because it sounded so disappointed?

  "That's not supposed to happen," Darius said, his gaze blisteringly intense as it swept over me. My nipples hardened to stiff peaks, and I felt my core pulse with need while moisture pooled between my legs. All that just from him looking at me? I was screwed, or needed to be, and soon preferably.

  "Did we just..." I couldn't quite bring myself to form the words. But in my head, the word ricocheted. Again and again. Mate.

  Mate.

  Mate.

  "Go and get cleaned up. I need to think," Darius ordered, waving his hand in a dismissive gesture. His tone was unconcerned, and I wanted to slap it right out of him. I was a full-fledged Sixth now. I was fucking important.

  "Don't speak to her like that," Cade growled out, stalking toward us.

  The big man was practically seething. His chest pumped up and down with his breathing, making it look like he was gearing up for a fight, which he may well have been for all I knew. I didn't think that was the best idea, so I put my hand on the small of his back and hooked my fingers through the center belt loop on his jeans, tugging him back toward me ever so slightly.

  "He's right," Gideon said with a sigh. His voice sounded withdrawn and disappointed, just like Keir's, and it broke my heart. "Marcella's blood is potent enough as it is. I can barely think around it. If you wouldn't mind getting cleaned up, love, it would help us think more clearly, instead of trying to attack or provoke our Enforcer."