Conquering Lyssa Page 12

  Hayden put the phone back in his pocket, started the car and pulled away from the house. Before he made up his mind, he needed to see his sister. He needed to find out everything that happened the night she came back from her little trip with that strange mark on her shoulder.

  * * * *

  Vesper Jackson woke with a start to banging at her door. Blinking a few times, then tossing the blankets off, she got out of bed, grabbed her robe and walked in the dark to her door, wondering who the hell could be banging on it this time of night.

  Peering into the small hole she groaned when she saw Hayden standing there with a pissed off look on his face. Bracing herself, thinking he might be drunk or something, she unlocked the door and just got the chain off when he pushed his way inside, almost knocking her to the ground.

  “What the hell!” she charged at him, but didn’t get to finish. Hayden backhanded her so hard she went flying backwards, but not down this time. Shocked, she covered her cheek with her hand and just stared at him. It had been months since he’d last hit her.

  “I want to know what the fuck happened two years ago,” he yelled, pointing a finger at her.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You heard me. What happened?”

  “Nothing happened, Hayden, I already told you that.”

  “Bullshit!” He stormed up to her, grabbed her arms brutally and jerked the robe off her right shoulder. “This. What gave you this? What kind of animal fucked my sister like a common whore?”

  She looked down at her shoulder and tried to keep herself under control. The bite mark on her shoulder was light and with make-up no one even noticed it. Yeah, Hayden saw it when she got home after the little hiking trip she took with her friends, but she played it off. Told him some crap about just getting scratched or something. Hell, she couldn’t remember really what story she told him.

  “You’re hurting me!” She tried to twist out of his hold, only that hold got tighter and he gave her a shake.

  “Answer me!” he yelled. Then his eyes narrowed and his voice became deadly sounding. “Or I’ll remind you what pain is.”

  “I don’t know!” she yelled back at him. He gave her a shove and she went falling to the floor this time.

  “Don’t you lie to me. Don’t you fucking lie!” His face twisting in a shrewish way reminding her of their father. Her brain quickly told her to brace herself. If Hayden had that look then she knew what was coming, unless she got him to calm down. “I saw a picture of that mark. I know what it is. I know what it means and how one gets it.”

  Vesper slowly stood back up and moved enough that one of the chairs was between them. She stared at her brother closely, watched his moves. Being dressed all in black, dirt on his clothes and the redness in his eyes, she knew just what he’d been up to and hoped to change the subject and calm him down.

  “You’re active again, aren’t you?” she asked him, which had him stop his pacing. “You promised me that you weren’t going to do those jobs again.”

  “No, no, no, no,” he said, shook his head, half smiled and pointed at her again. “You’re not going to change the subject, dear sister. Something got you. I know it now.”

  “You’re talking crazy.” She made to walk away from him, only to have him stop her with the next thing he asked.

  “Am I? Tell me you didn’t fuck a damn animal?”

  Vesper gasped, “You’re out of your damn mind.”

  “I’ve seen that mark!” he yelled once more, this time so loud she jumped. “You’ve been infected so you can breed for it.”

  “What are you talking about? I’m not infected with crap.”

  “They do something with girls like you. Girls that don’t know shit about guys, only these things aren’t guys, are they?” He rushed her again, boxing her up against the wall. “Did this thing rape you, or did you willingly go on your back for it?”

  Vesper slapped him hard across the face and then pushed him again. Breathing hard she glared at her brother. “Get out,” she snarled, not realizing until it was too late what she’d just done.

  Hayden rubbed his check, but didn’t move. He still stood in front of her, head down. And with a nod, his hand came up fast, backhanding her so hard she went flying to the floor, landing hard. Blood touched her tongue and when she touched her lips, she winced. He’d busted it open.

  “My sister, a whore to one of those fucking things,” Hayden shouted. His soft, blue eyes held contempt and maybe even hate as he glared down at her. “Well, if you think I’m just going to stand by and let you be a breeder for a damn fucking animal, think again. You might want to lie down and spread your legs for them, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to just stand by and do nothing, or let you get away with it.”

  Vesper’s gut dropped in fear as she watched him reach down, undo his belt and pull it out from the loops. It was the same motion their father had done so many times when they were children. And even though Hayden got most of those beatings, she still received a few of her own by her father’s hand. Enough to know what the leather felt like and could do. It wasn’t until about three years ago that Hayden began beating on her, just as their father had beat on him. She never thought he’d ever do anything like that, and right now she was about to get a quick reminder of just how much their father broke her brother when they were children.

  “Hayden,” she warned as she scooted back from him as fast as she could while he walked toward her. “Hayden, please—don’t, don’t do this.”

  “Sins of the flesh must be repented.” The same line their father said, right before the beatings started.

  * * * *

  Hayden rode an old and very loud elevator down with the bag of goods on his back, his hands shaking. He didn’t have any regret for what he did hours ago. None at all, which seemed strange. Hell, if someone told him a couple of years ago that he would have done what he just did to his sister he’d tell that person they were crazy. No way in hell would he ever hurt her. But then, he never thought she’d do what she did and let some animal infect and fuck her.

  It took several lashes with his belt before she finally told him the truth. And the story had him wanting to inflict even more physical pain to her. To come upon something that was running in the woods naked, most likely just looking for someone like her to pounce upon, then to discover that she hadn’t fought the animal as much as she should’ve done, well that had his anger boiling over even more then. He wanted to draw blood at that moment, but didn’t.

  The elevator stopped, he jerked the door open and walked out, head high. Men lined the hallway with heavy power guns in their hands and not one bothered to look at him when he walked past them. Good. He didn’t want to be tempted to do something else stupid with one of them.

  When he came to a set of double doors, the guards at each door opened them up for him and inside, the room was like night and day, to what he’d just walked through. An open lab was so clean and white it hurt the eyes. A woman at a desk by the doors stood up and motioned for him to follow her. He did, to the right and back away from the lab. They arrived at another set of doors where she stopped, knocked, then turned and left him.

  “Come,” a sharp command came.

  Hayden pushed inside and felt like he was back in at that other house in the dark. The whole room was cast in darkness and only one small lamp on the desk was lit, but it didn’t give off much light.

  “Mr. Jackson, I take it by you showing up here that you’ve made up your mind.”

  Hayden nodded. “I’m in. Tell me what I need to do to kill these fuckers.”

  The dark figure behind the desk leaned forward just enough that Hayden could see the big smile on his face. “Welcome aboard.”

  * * * *

  Stray stood outside the apartment, looking up at the window he was sure his mate was behind. It had taken him months to track her down and just standing outside he could smell her and it brought back all sorts of memories. Her scent he could never forget, no m
atter how much that bitch who’d caged him tried to drug it out of him. It was there for life, and he was under it now.

  Thunder boomed off in the distance, but it didn’t bother him at all. He loved the rain. It washed and cleaned everything. Thunderstorms also relaxed him, but he couldn’t relax at the moment, not when his mate was so close.

  He started to take a step out of the shadows and go to her but stopped when he saw a dark van come down the road. Always one to listen to the gut, Stray stopped and watched the van. It came to the front of the apartment building and stopped. Taking a sniff, he picked up humans and two got out of the van and started for the front door. Not a good sight in Stray’s eyes.

  Waiting until they went inside the building, Stray left the darkness and followed. He stayed one floor behind them as he followed and when they stopped on the floor where his mate lived his stomach turned. Stray creeped up the steps and hunched down enough to watch them on the stairs without being seen.

  One of the humans had a key. They both looked around as they put the key in the lock, turned and quickly walked in. Seconds later, all hell broke loose in the room.

  He heard things breaking and a woman screamed, more stuff broken, then silence. Emitting a low growl from the back of his throat, Stray came out of hiding and went to the door. He pushed it open since the humans left it ajar and saw red. One of the human men had his mate in his arms, and the other was taking a needle out from her arm. Clearly, they’d knocked her out, but why he didn’t know or give a shit.

  Stray growled loud enough to be heard. Both men looked up and then the one that had the needle dropped it and brought out a gun which he pointed right at Stray.

  “Really?” Stray asked him, narrowing his eyes. Instead of moving Stray kicked the sofa that was right next to the guy. It hit his hip, distracting him enough that Stray was able to jump up in the air and come down behind it. Not blinking, Stray took hold of his head and twisted, breaking his neck. “I suggest you put her down, or I’ll rip your fucking throat out,” he snarled at the remaining guy.

  The guy sort of did. He tossed her towards the sofa, then turned completely around and faced Stray again a gun was in his hand. Bullets began flying, causing Stray to duck for cover. One of those bullets ended up grazing his arm and steam came out of the wound. The pricks were using copper bullets and that meant they knew what he was and had likely been expecting him. How the hell would they’ve known about him?

  “Get the girl!” one man yelled.

  Stray peeked around the counter he’d jumped behind and snarled low when he saw his mate being picked up by another human that came running in. When he made to follow them more shooting came his way, forcing him back for cover.

  “Come on out dog,” the one sang. “Let me put a bullet right between your fucking eyes.”

  “Why don’t you come here,” Stray yelled back. “And I’ll rip your windpipe out with my bare hands and you can have a look at it before you die.”

  He laughed and more rounds rang out. Then all went quiet. Stray listened hard for anything like the sound of a gun being reloaded, but heard nothing more. Turning again, he peeked out and saw nothing as well. The guy that was shooting at him was gone.

  Standing up fast and running towards the door he sniffed as he ran, making sure the bastard wasn’t in the hallway waiting to take his head off. What he did hear was heavy footsteps meaning that they were running away.

  Following the sound, Stray ran hard and fast. He jumped down short flights of stairs, trying to close the distance. He wanted to reach them before they left with his mate.

  Kicking a side door open, Stray reached outside the same time as the small group in the tiny apartment did. He saw his mate slung over a male’s shoulder and that had him snarling, then growling. All of the humans turned in his direction with shocked expressions on their faces.

  Seeing red again, Stray went after them. The one that had his mate jerked the side of a van door open and tossed her in, then followed. Two more jumped in, and then one from inside leaned out and began shooting again. From the faint scent Stray picked up it was the same son of a bitch that had been shooting at him a few minutes ago.

  “Go!” the one shooting yelled inside the van. His looked back at Stray again and shot some more.

  Stray reached the back of the van just as a bullet struck him. The burn from it knocked him down and kept him there. Pain shot up and down his arm and when he looked, he saw he’d been shot in the left shoulder. Unable to get up from the pain and burn he watched as that van pealed out, smoke shooting out from the back tires as it sped off.

  “Mother fucker,” he groaned, lowering his head down on the sidewalk. His vision started to go blurry and he couldn’t seem to get his body to move. “I’ll get you,” he huffed, struggling to get his right arm to pull the cell out of his pocket. “I swear I’ll get you for this.”

  Shaking his head to clear his eyes he fought to dial a number, to call for help. When he heard the phone ringing he almost blacked out in relief and wanted to cry for a moment when the other end picked up. “I need help,” he huffed. “Been shot and—and it’s copper. Tra—track phone—” he said, then all went black.

  Chapter Eleven

  Two weeks later....

  “Nick, she sees you on that damn thing and you’re going to be in so much trouble,” Skyler said to Dominic as she came out of the house with a tray of burgers for the grill.

  “I’m not working,” Dominic said, “I’m trying to find that damn grandfather of mine.”

  “I understand, but you are here for a break, remember?” Skyler went to the grill and put the tray down. “And it took a lot to work this cookout with everyone’s crazy schedule.”

  Dominic closed the laptop, sighed and pinched the bridge between his nose. “The old bastard is good, I’ll give him that.”

  “Forget him for now. You can think about him again when you go home. I know you need this break as much as the rest of them.”

  Dominic nodded and stretched back in the lounge chair. He watched everyone. Saw Lyssa talking to Darian, Daxis in a heated conversation with Fox and Alex and then Adrian getting the boat ready for everyone to go out and water-skiing. It was the kind of family get together he just loved.

  “So how are they getting along now?” he asked Skyler.

  “Lyssa and Daxis?” she asked and he nodded. “Good. Like you and Darian. They just needed to sit down and talk.”

  “Think that advice will work for Alex and Jewels?”

  Skyler stopped what she was doing and looked in the same direction as Dominic. Jewels walked up from the beach and she had a guy with her. Both were dressed for swimming, but Jewels was a bit less dressed. She wore a string bikini and looked very good in it, for a human. Alex also saw her and his whole demeanor changed.

  “You know, I’ve seen him change like that several times when she’s around,” Dominic said. “What is it with him?”

  “He’s stubborn,” Skyler said. “Just like his damn uncle.”

  “Which one?”

  “My brother, Dedrick. Jaclyn had this big crush or whatever you want to call it on him and he fought against it and her. Just refused to even think that she might be the perfect one for him. He almost lost her because of it.”

  “Yeah, but I see something else.”

  “What?”

  “There is something there. I mean, something happened between them—something that changed everything. Darian told me she used to come around all the time. Was Alex’s shadow and shit, but then it all stopped. She didn’t even come back for a few years and then when she did she was like what we see now.”

  “Yeah, the innocent little girl was gone. I asked Alex but he said nothing happened.”

  “Come on Skyler, do you really think he’s going to tell you if something did?” She frowned at him. “Just watch him. You’ll see it. There is something there, something that both are trying like hell to forget but can’t. And from a male’s point of view, I’d say se
x got in the way.”

  Skyler shook her head. “No. I don’t think they had any kind of sex.” Dominic raised both of his eyebrows up at her and that had her stilling. “Come on, Nick. Really?”

  “Sex changes everything, Skyler. If by some strange shit the two of them did end up having a night then it sure would explain this change between them. I mean, they’re hostile toward each other.”

  “Right!” She pointed a finger at him. “And if they had been together that wouldn’t be the result of it.”

  Now he frowned. “Okay, you have two brothers now. Are you really going to sit there and tell me that one of them didn’t piss off a lover or two?” That had her turning back around, watching Alex. “He did something to her. Trust me. Maybe it wasn’t sex, but whatever it was it was enough to have pissed her off enough to make his life hell right now.” He scratched his chin and narrowed his eyes on the two. “And she’s doing a hell of a job at it.”

  Darian jogged up to them and when she saw the computer, she gave him a dirty look right before picking it up. “Mom, take this and don’t give it back unto we leave please.”

  “Told you,” Skyler smiled at him.

  “Come on.” Darian tugged on Dominic’s arm to get him off the lounger. “Dad and Alex have the boat ready and we’re going to take Daxis out for some skiing.”

  “And why do I have to go?”

  “Because you need to get away from the computer, and you also need to learn how to get up on the skis better. You still suck at it.”

  “Water sports were never my thing.”

  “Which is why you need to get up.” Darian pulled hard on him and Dominic got up.

  “Help me,” he said to Skyler.

  Skyler only smiled, shook her head and waved. “Have fun.”

  * * * *

  Lyssa slowly walked up behind Daxis as he was talking to her brothers. Biting her lower lip she waited for the right moment to make her move and when they all three turned at the same time to see Jewels walk by in her skimpy bathing suit she knew that was the right time.