What Lies Beneath

Landon.

Not much time could have passed before I was awake again. I was being shaken violently and smacked in the face. "WHERE IS SHE?!" Jaxon screamed.

I sat up and tried to find my way back to reality. "He took her. I found her at the machine, and she saw me. We were talking for about a minute before Knox showed up. He used his magic on us. I couldn't keep him from taking her."

Jaxon helped me stand up. Then he sent his fist into my jaw. "That's for making my sister cry." I blinked and rubbed my jaw, staring at him. He didn't give me a chance for explanation before he did it again. I went backward, and my back hit the wall. "And that's for not keeping her safe."

He was strong, so it took me a few moments to get my ground back. "Are you done?"

Jaxon glared then relaxed. "Yeah, I'm done. Are you gonna help me get her back?" "Obviously. I can track her."

He looked pissed but relieved at the same time. "You did that Link-y thing with my kid?"

"Yes, yes I did. I did a lot of stuff with your kid. You want the details, or do you want to go save her life with me?"

I thought he was going to punch me again; instead, he just nodded. "Just point me, and I'll go."

I could feel her. She was still on the move. Knox knew I was coming for her, so I didn't think she had much further to go. And she wasn't being hurt, at least not enough for me to feel it in her blood.

I got behind the wheel, and we took off.

There weren't many cars out, so I sped without caring. If I hit someone, I didn't have time to stop.

Jaxon was tense in the seat beside me. "So my sis says that she loves you."

Maybe I shouldn't have been shocked she'd told him. "Did she?"

"Yeah. And judging by the way you're acting, I'd say you have a thing for her too. Or at least, you better."

I nodded. "She's my mate."

"You ditched her."

I sighed. "She shouldn't want anything to do with a man like me."

"But you came back. Why is that?"

I looked at him for a moment. "She's my mate," I repeated.

That seemed to cover it for him, because he didn't fight me on it. He was just glad to have someone who wanted his sister back as badly as he did. We were both willing to die for this cause, and I knew it. It wouldn't come to that because I was a killer. I was good at it. The only skill I'd acquired in my life.

"What are we really dealing with here?" Jaxon asked me. "If this guy sells people, tortures people for revenge, what is he doing to my daughter right now?"

I fought the urge to grip the wheel because I knew I'd break it. "If he's hurting her, it's not much. Her body feels fine at the moment."

Jaxon didn't relax much. "Is this over with Knox's death?"

"Yes." Two hundred years in motion, and it was about to end. I'd take my joy later when I was holding my mate. When she was smiling at me and hopefully, about to say something filthy. Odd, finding what I seemed to like in that regard. Specifically, her telling me what to do. I had to believe it had everything to do with her.

"Good," Jaxon said, obviously meaning every bit of the word. "And what are your plans after this is over? Because I don't know if Mila would do well if she had to say goodbye to you twice."

I looked over from the road. "We're never going to find out."

"Good," he said again.

The drive was silent again for a few minutes and it gave me time to think. I was sticking around, and the big brother/father was okay with it. Either he loved her enough to accept anything that made her happy, or I was on his hit list. It wouldn't matter if I was; I wasn't going anywhere. It just made things easier.

"You don't mind a man almost four hundred years older than Mila being her mate?"

He cringed. "If I minded, she wouldn't be happy. And she'd still want you. If you can keep her safe and happy, then I don't care how old you are. That's on you, creep."

I smiled. "Mila doesn't seem to mind my age."

"Cool it, buddy. I'm not above popping you one again."

"That won't make her any less attracted to me."

"Fuck you."

"Hmm. I'll give you that one, but don't set me up again. I have too much ammo against you and, frankly, I think the banter would be entertaining."

"Just shut up and find my sister."

I did. Ten more minutes of driving, and we were somewhere new. The address wasn't in the book. It was a small home all on its own. I couldn't guess the amount of acres that were surrounding the farm. The barn doors were wide open, and there wasn't an animal in sight. No equipment or cars. It looked empty. But Mila was here. There was no doubt.

"Is this it?" Jaxon asked, getting out of the car.

I joined him. "Yes. Don't buy this for a second. There's a reason she's here. Follow me."

I started walking quickly towards the barn, looking at every shadow and tree for a figure. Knox knows I'm coming for him. He is waiting for me to spring a trap.

The barn was empty of anything but hay and rotting wood when we checked it.

Mila was close. I couldn't hear her when I focused my hearing, but I knew she was close.

We didn't need to check the barn further. Not when Mila's blood was reaching out to mine. The second we Linked, it had happened. Since our blood permanently mingled in each other's bodies, it was like it was trying to find its way home. She was only human, so she couldn't feel it. But I felt it all. Our blood wouldn't stop trying to seek out the other's until one of us was dead.

We left the barn and headed to the house, going around the back when the front appeared to be empty. I found stairs, and I knew she was down there. Jaxon didn't ask questions as we descended. The room was about the size of a large basement. The walls were made of wood, and the room was humid. The floors were concrete and already bloodstained. Not hers.

No. She was...

"Ah..." Knox smiled from a chair in the corner. He closed his book and tossed it on the floor. "...so boring. Glad you came by. I imagine she is too." He pointed to his left.

My eyes were already on her. Rage was bubbling to the surface, making me see nothing but the man's death. Slow and painful was not enough.

Mila was gagged. She whimpered around it. She was eight feet off the ground. Her feet were bare, and one was over the other as she desperately tried to keep balance. She was standing on a railroad nail that was stuck in the wall. Her eyes were red and swollen from crying. Hands tied behind her back. Around her neck was a noose. It was knotted up above her, connected to a hook in the wall.

Jaxon and I both moved to grab her, but Knox stood up, holding a hand out to Mila. "Stop," he commanded calmly. "You won't reach her before I push on her pretty little legs. Now, you can risk it. The drop might not kill her. You might even be able to save her before she suffocates, but that's your risk to take."

We stopped, because I wouldn't take that risk.

"I'm going to save you, Mila," I said, looking into the terrified eyes of my mate.

"So sweet." Knox smiled. "Now, I might not be pushing her, but I can't make this easy on you. So, here's the deal. You know those old gladiator shows with the man versus a lion? I love those. Sadly, I don't have a lion. What I do have are a lot of people who'll do anything for money. So here's what I was thinking... a fight to the death!" He clapped with amusement. "I'll send my boys in, and whatever happens, happens. You and your girl survive? By all means, go have a fun life. You die? Well that's your fault."

It wouldn't be that easy. He'd never just let us go. Not unless he wanted to chase us. It didn't matter anyway, because I was going to kill him. Maybe I'd do it with Mila's knife.

Knox moved to the door, but he was still too close to Mila for me to try and make a run for it. His hand hit the doorknob, turning it. "I wish you all the very best of luck. Truly, this is so much fun." He took one step back. "BOYS! It's time!" he called before he slammed the door, standing on the other side.

The walls shook, and there was just... not a second. Mila stumbled, losing her balance in a moment.

I ran.

Jaxon ran.

It didn't matter.

Her eyes were so scared as she fell through the air. Her body jerked when the rope ran out. I heard a snap at the exact moment I felt something in my body break. That's what it was. A snap. In my head and my chest. It felt like I was blasted with fire, destroying everything it touched. The only thing left was the fire.

Jaxon made a sound that seemed to be the summary of what I was feeling. It was helpless, and angry, and broken.

Her eyes were proof beyond the nothingness in me. They were wide and unfocused as she swayed in the air. My mate... she wasn't anything anymore.

Her brother and I still ran to her. He was undoing the rope, and I caught her body. Then I made a sound when her skin touched mine. How could she feel so lifeless already?

I fell to my knees with her in my arms. This was my fault. Knox had been following me. He wouldn't have known she was in the hotel if I hadn't come back for her. I should have been smarter. I should have taken care of all my work before I'd gone to find Mila again. Even if by then she'd moved on, I could have waited for her to come back to me.

Jaxon was on his knees on her other side. His hand was over her heart, and his other was on her hand. He was crying those tears that weren't even tears. Just fire pouring from your eyes as your body revolted against you. Shaking and making you choke on grief. Through the shaking and the violent sobs, his hands went to the noose, doing what I couldn't and removing it. He dropped it on the ground as the room flooded with bodies.

Men walked in lines from three separate doors. They weren't even looking at us. They remained in three separate lines as they stood at attention on the other side of the room.

And just... waited.

Jaxon's grief turned to composed rage as he turned his head. "What the hell are you waiting for? If you're going to kill us, do it."

A man in the front answered, not even looking at us. "We were instructed to wait until you were finished."

Jaxon looked back at me, and I knew just what he was thinking, because I was thinking it too. Of course, Knox had done this on purpose. He'd wanted us to watch her die. To feel helpless. Worthless. To give up. Well... he didn't know me very well.

It had never been clearer that Knox had never lost a damn thing in this life. When you lost something, one of two things happened. You gave up on everything. Let yourself be nothing. Let the pain consume you. I've made that choice before, and it will not happen again.

Choice two was grasping at everything you could. Holding, pulling, breaking. Everything got turned around and all that remained in you was a need to do anything to pull yourself back up. I would never be up again, but that didn't mean I couldn't tear down a few things on my way out.

Jaxon understood my decision without words. He looked at his sister and closed her eyes. He kissed her forehead softly. "I'll be with you soon, Lala."

I kissed her too. Putting my lips on hers one more time. I wanted it to be the last thing I felt before I shut out every emotion in my soul. "I'm sorry, love."

I picked up her body and carefully laid her down, out of the way. If I lived through this, I only wanted it to be so that I could take care of her. I wouldn't leave her to rot in a basement.

Standing beside Jaxon, I gave him a glance. "Are you ready?"

Jaxon nodded, and it began.

There were maybe about fifteen men all together. I didn't blink at it for a few reasons. I'd literally been chased from villages with fire and guns. This was nothing. My life was lying breathless in the corner anyhow. The men split between us, and I killed two in the first five seconds. It would have been three if one hadn't cut my arm open. I took that man's knife and stuck it in the ear of the person beside him. Then the fun started.

I was knocked in the face, and I came back with a kick to the teeth. The man stumbled back and fell onto another, making them both fall down. My arm was grabbed, and the demon attempted twisting me around, most likely to get his hands in for a neck break. I turned the move around on him, spinning him and snapping his arm in two. He yelled and tried coming at me again, only to earn a compound fracture when I bent his arm in the other direction.

I took a glance to see how Jaxon was doing because Mila would want me to. He had blood on his shirt and his face, but he was still going. His nose was bleeding on both sides and was sporting a gash on his forehead. I couldn't feel pain right now, and I didn't think he could either. Physical pain hardly mattered when we'd just lost everything that made us who we were.

Jaxon slammed a man's head into the wall, deep enough to break through the wood. Then he rammed his throat down on the broken wood. It sliced through him, and Jaxon left the man to bleed.

Most of these men were demons, but a good few were humans. I wanted to think that he was just running low because I'd killed so many. Vampires were rare, but demons weren't exactly common. One demon for every fifty humans, maybe. Probably less. A demon had to be born, and that was only if at least one parent was one. So I got nothing but glee to have caused Knox so much trouble.

I broke a human's neck and pulled the knife from his hands. I used it to cut off the fingers of a demon that was trying to grab me. His knees hit the floor as blood spilled. I stood behind him and slit his throat wide open. He was dead before his skull broke on the ground.

Jaxon kicked a demon, and he stumbled back to me. He was disposed of before he even knew what was happening. I stabbed him in the chest, ripped the knife down, and shoved the body back to Jaxon so he could have the knife if he wanted. Turned out that he did. He pulled it from the man, and it went into some bastard's eye.

And then there were eight. I had four on me, and Jaxon was killing one that got far too close to Mila. The rest were headed to him.

I was being kicked and punched and cut, but the pain was nothing. How can I hurt when I'm already broken? What is left? Mila had gotten under my skin and made a home in me. Then, after she'd built me into something that had a shot in this world, she'd been ripped away from it. She'd taken all she'd given me, so now all I had was what I was before. Anger. What was a cut or a bruise?

I took two heads and smashed them together. I hardly had time to enjoy the sound before I was yanked backward. A knife was coming at my heart, and I managed to get mostly out of the way. The knife went into my shoulder, and it was pulled out just as fast, going in for round two. That time I didn't get hit. I whirled around and turned man's wrist back, stabbing him in the throat and tossing him aside.

I was on my last one. He looked at me with fear and bitter hope. I'd just killed most of the other people in this room, and he still believed that there was a chance for him. So his death was slow. I stabbed him in the stomach and kicked him into the wall. He slid down, hands on the wound. He gasped and panted as he looked at his wound, unable to do much else.

When I turned, Jaxon was breaking a neck. Then it was over.

We stood in the room with the souls we'd massacred. Blood was on every wall, the entire floor, the least of which on me. Jaxon was fairly covered, his own and some others'. We were standing in puddles of it. The only clean body was my mate's.

Jaxon looked at me, and his voice was that helpless tone again. "I was supposed to die here. What am I supposed to do now?"

My fists clenched, and I forced my head to stay up. "Do you care about pain?"

He knew my meaning. "No." He shook his head.

"Then I suggest the sun. It should be up in about six hours. You'll sit there. When it's close to over, your heart will start beating again. Then you have about ten minutes."

The man looked at his sister. "What are you going to do?"

I closed my eyes. "I have to kill him. I don't give a damn about the others anymore. He and those men that hurt her. And I follow her to The Other Side. I wasn't planning on sticking around before her. I sure as hell won't after her." I didn't know how I'd pull myself past that finish line, walking this earth when she wasn't. My chest wasn't just hollow now; it was a Mila-shaped hole in my heart that I could feel with all that was left of my insides. I couldn't imagine what Jaxon was feeling. A wife and a sister are two very different things.

Jaxon put his hand over his mouth, and he couldn't stop looking at her. "I don't know what to do with her. I can't leave her. I can't burn her. I can't bury-" He stopped when he made the sound one made when they were trying with all of their being not to crumble to pieces. "I don't know what to do." His voice shattered.

He walked to her body and fell to his knees again. All I could see was his back. "I wasn't going to keep being... this, after she was gone. But I thought she'd die an old lady. She was supposed to get a whole life."

I walked to his side. "I'd say that I'm sorry, but that word isn't sufficient. I'm just trying to convince myself not to walk out into the sun with you. Not until Knox is gone."

Jaxon looked up at me. "I want to help you, but I can't. I don't want to wake up tomorrow morning if she doesn't." He paused and smiled miserably. "I hinted to her that I wanted her to become a vampire. I was kinda hoping she would want

to. If not for me, then maybe you. I didn't want to be alone, and I didn't want to watch my baby die. Fuck-lotta-good that did me." He wiped his nose with his hand. Blood and tears came back with him.

Mila would hate me if she knew I was condoning this, but I couldn't do anything else. The man had every right to die.

"You did that Link, huh?" he said, his voice flickering with sudden hope. "Is there a chance she's got enough of your blood in her to come back to me?"

I didn't want to let myself hope because nothing ever came of it. "I haven't fed her since before we found you. There's a chance..." The words stung. "...but not a great one."

Jaxon stood, and his stance was defiant. "I'm not goin' anywhere till I know she's gone. Neither are you. So pick a damn body and drink up, cuz my sis isn't gonna like seeing you hurt." He brushed past me, looking for someone who'd died without losing blood.

I pointed to one. "Demon. It'll keep you fed for weeks if you drain him dry."

He didn't say anything; he just went to the body and drank. I waited until he was done. He stared at me until I did the same.

It was pointless, drinking. The blood tasted bitter on my tongue. Mila's blood once we'd Linked was like ambrosia. It was intoxicating and perfect. The rest was like rot.

I was healed when I was done, and I still didn't care. Now at least I wouldn't need to feed for the rest of my life. I'd be done before I needed more.

Jaxon had Mila's body in his arms when I turned. "How long?"

I had to humor him. "It only takes as long as it needs to heal."

"How long?" Cut to the chase was what he meant.

"An hour from death."

He fidgeted around, trying to figure it out.

"Twenty more minutes," I said, "at most."

He looked around. "I don't want her waking up in here. I want her somewhere nice. We should go check out that barn. It can hide us, just in case."

He was so hopeful as we walked. He held on tightly to this small chance, and I wasn't going to break his hope. Life would do that for him.

He sat in a pile of hay in the dark barn. I sat across from him. My chin was on my palm as I looked up at the stars and the moon. I was so tempted to wait with him for the sun, but I couldn't allow Knox to live after this. That hate would have to fuel me.

We had the same worry: what to do with the body. The body... I couldn't imagine setting her in a hole and covering her with dirt. I couldn't even imagine the last time I'd see her face. I didn't even have a picture.

"Five minutes," Jaxon said, hope wavering. "Come on, honey. Don't leave me behind."

We waited.

Four.

And waited.

Three.

And waited.

Two.

And waited.

One.

"Lala," he cried silently.

We were out of time. It had been more than an hour, and it had been a clean snap. Having my blood in her, even only traces, would have kicked it in faster. It hadn't, because it wasn't enough.

Jaxon looked at me as if I could somehow fix this. "She's not awake yet."

"I should have done better" was the only thing that came out of my mouth. It was out of nowhere, but maybe the truest thing in me right now. If I had been able to do what my whole life had been about, Mila would be breathing right now. She would have a heartbeat, and she'd have a chance at the life she wanted-

A gasp broke through the still air. That was all it took for everything to rush back to me. A gasp... and a pair of green eyes on me.