Andrus stared blankly at the ceiling. Oh, he remembered all right. But there was no way in hell he would allow himself to forget how she'd betrayed him. He would not think about those endless nights of marathon sex when he bent her luscious body every which way possible and took her. He would not think about how much he enjoyed pounding his cock into her. He would not give her the satisfaction of watching him grow hard for her- "Oh, yes. Just like I remembered." She began stroking him vigorously.

What? He looked down. Dammit! He was getting hard. This was not going well. If he kept this up, she'd keep him around for a millennium chained to her bedroom wall. "It's only hard because I was thinking of Helena."

The queen's hand suddenly froze on his stiffening member. "What did you just say?"

Andrus instantly regretted his words. He should have simply said "another woman." The name Helena had just slipped out.

The queen flew into a rage. "Impossible! You could never love another woman! Never."

Finally. He found the key to provoking her. Who knew she would be the jealous type? But it would be a risky game, this one. The queen now might go after Helena. He didn't want that.

"Who said anything about love? She's just a hot piece of ass. I find a new one every week," he lied. "And trust me, compared to you...let's just say age is beauty and the bloom fell off your two thousand year old rose about, well, two thousand years ago. Frankly, fucking a woman that old is pretty disgusting. I'm amazed you still get any."

There. That ought to do the trick.

In the blink of an eye, Reyna was straddling him, her hand wrapped around his neck. "You'll regret saying that, my love. I promise."

She leaned down and sunk her fangs into his neck.

Chapter 21.

Helena frantically paced across the living room of the lavish hotel suite. What was she going to do? She had no way of calling anyone for help or stopping Niccolo. He was hunting his best friend and would likely kill him before she'd had a chance to explain. Yes, Viktor had hurt her; however, there was more to the story.

She had to do something. She was even considering calling Andrus at this point. He might help her-oh no. Her heart suddenly sank. What happened to Andrus? Niccolo never answered her question. She should hate Andrus for everything he'd done, but couldn't. He was just another soul caught up in this mess.

"Ha! I knew it," a female voice blurted out behind her. Helena swiveled on her heel to find a gorgeous redheaded woman in a long black dress with side-slits and thigh high leather boots. "So predicable, my boy, Niccolo. He said he was going to San Francisco. I picked the most expensive room in the most expensive hotel." The woman looked around the room. "I can smell him. Where is he?"

Helena wished she knew, especially now. This woman screamed danger. Was she another crazy goddess?

"He left a while ago. Didn't say where he was going." Helena tried to sound nonchalant.

The woman huffed. "When you see him, tell him to get his ass back to my place."

"And, you are?" Helena asked.

The woman blinked. "Who are you?"

Helena swallowed. Why do I have a feeling this day is about to get a lot worse? "Helena."

"You!" The woman lunged and grabbed Helena's neck. "Little bitch!"

Helena coughed and sputtered while she clawed at the woman's icy, steel hands. "Reyna?" Helena croaked.

The woman smiled and released her. Helena tumbled to the floor.

"I hope they told you all of the wonderful things about me?" Reyna said proudly.

Helena rubbed her neck. "Not really."

Reyna shrugged. "Good. Because I'm a heartless shrew who doesn't know the meaning of mercy."

Helena couldn't argue with that.

"Especially for you," Reyna added.

"Why did I figure that?"

Reyna's eyes narrowed. "I see why he's so fascinated with you. You are a spunky one. But a puny little human like you could never compete with the love he has for me. A true mate's bond is eternal."

Helena suddenly forgot all about her aching neck and her fear of this woman. She stood boldly and faced Reyna. "But I thought vampires only have one mate?"

"Oh, silly girl." Reyna flicked her finger at Helena as if she were a fly she was shooing away. "Did he say you were his mate? Did you fall for that old trick?" Reyna cackled at the ceiling.

Helena couldn't believe it. Reyna was mated to Niccolo? No. That couldn't be right. "But I feel the bond."

"Silence!" Reyna screamed so loud the windows flew open. A gust of crisp afternoon air burst into the room. "I am the one who paid the price! I am the one who gave up my sanity to be mated with a human. Andrus could never love you!"

Helena's mind clicked. "Andrus? You're mated to Andrus?"

Holy crap! Poor guy. No wonder he was crazy. No wonder he wanted to kill her so badly-even if it cost thousands of good vampires' lives. If Helene were in her shoes, she'd do the same damned thing. Poor, poor Andrus.

Reyna stopped and sniffed the air. "You...are..." she hissed. " You are Niccolo's mate! Aren't you? You smell like him!"

Helena stepped away. She had no idea what sort of politics and plots lurked in their world. Niccolo had never told her anything other than he wanted to be free, and now he was. Wherever this conversation was landing, she didn't think it would lead to her Happy Place-the one with a naked Niccolo in it.

"It all makes sense now!" Reyna began stalking across the room. "Niccolo wanted to be with you. That is why he asked for his freedom. And, somehow, Andrus has taken a liking to you. Oh! This is a lucky day. I will get my revenge and get Niccolo back. He'll have no use for his freedom once you are gone."

Helena eyed the window. Could she survive the fall? Because there was zero point zero, zero, zero chance she'd survive the queen. Maybe the door was a better option. Helena made a run for it.

A hand appeared out of thin air and slapped her on the arm. "Come."

Before Helena could blink, she found herself transported to another room. A log crackled in the fireplace, and the darkness of night peeked through a narrow slit between the burgundy drapes. She guessed she was in another time zone since it was now nighttime.

Reyna instantly released Helena and marched to the large bed in the middle of the room. She pulled down the blankets to reveal Andrus face.

Helena covered her mouth. What had Reyna done to him? His face was pale and thin, like he'd been partially desiccated. Guess his plan to swap me for the queen didn't go so well.

Neither had Helena's plan to save everyone. So far, she'd managed to drive away Niccolo-who was going to kill Viktor-Andrus was about to die and so was she. Once Niccolo realized Helena had been murdered by the queen, he'd kill the queen himself, thereby ending his own life.

Apocalypse. Boom. Everyone dead. Good job, bone head! Wanna take up another cause before you die? How about global warming? Maybe she'd end up getting the planet cooked before they all died in the apocalypse.

Reyna jumped on the bed and straddled Andrus. "Wakey, wakey! I have a surprise for you, my love!" she sang out and slapped his face a few times. There was no movement. Maybe he was dead? "Oh, for the love of gods, wake up. I need to get this over with so I can go to my lambada lesson." She bounced on his stomach like a child riding a rigid merry-go-round horse.

No response.

Reyna moved her wrist to her mouth and bit down. She opened Andrus' mouth and let a few drops of blood dribble in. A moment passed, and he suddenly jolted up. Reyna flew to the floor.

"Finally." She stood and dusted herself off. She then pointed to Helena. "See, I brought you a gift."

Andrus' face looked like he'd been run over by the Reyna-bus. He suddenly looked horrified too. Then a sour calmness washed over him.

"Oh. It's her." He lay back down on the bed and pulled the covers up.

Helena, standing toward the foot of the bed, glanced at Reyna. She was no longer smiling.

"You're going to play it that way, are you?" Reyna asked. Helena instantly felt Reyna grasping her throat from behind. Helena's arms thrashed as the air was cut from her lungs.

"Yes. Fight my dear," Reyna snickered. "It will make it so much more enjoyable for me. Andrus doesn't love you, but he does care for you. I can feel it. I can feel every pathetic emotion running through that thick skull of his."

Andrus suddenly lunged from the bed and slammed into Reyna with such force that she flew across the room and hit the wall. Plaster crumbled as she slid to the floor, moaning.

"Leave her out of this, Reyna! This is between you and me!" he screamed.

Helena crumbled into a ball on the floor. She grasped her own neck, struggling to let the air back in her lungs. Andrus rushed to her side. Somewhere in the back of Helena's mind she registered the fact that Andrus was nude.

Had Reyna forced herself on him? Poor Andrus.

Reyna began crawling in their direction. "You do care for her! I knew it!" she hollered. "I don't know how it's possible, but if you value your life, you best remember that I am your mate. Me! You cannot love her! You are not destined to be with that wretched mortal."

Andrus turned in Reyna's direction. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Mingled with bloody tears, black mascara ran in thick clumpy rivers down Reyna's pale face as she cried. If Andrus didn't hate her so much, he could almost feel sorry for her. "What are you talking about?" he repeated.

"Mate! You idiot." She chuckled psychotically under her breath. "Three hundred years, and the thought never occurred to you?"

Reyna slowly rose. If he didn't know better, he'd say there was a look of remorse in her eyes.

"I didn't want to turn you," she said. "I fought it off as long as I could. But there was no other way. The legends were true."

Though her words were frantic and thoughts incoherent, there was a harsh churning in his stomach as his mind began shuffling the pieces of the puzzle.

No. It just can't be. No! "What. The. Hell. Are you talking about, Reyna?"

Her face twitched. "Did you not hear me? You are my mate, Andrus. My. Mate. And vampires mated to humans slowly go insane if their mate is not turned."

Andrus shook his head. How could this be possible? Mates were supposed to love one another, protect the other at all costs, have a connection. He hated her with every fiber of his being. He'd dreamed of nothing but killing her for centuries. Surely, this had to be another one of her many delusions. "I don't understand."

Reyna's eyes continued pouring pink tears. She began pulling at her hair. "I can't think straight. Your emotions...are like cancer!"

Andrus grabbed her shoulders. "You're lying! You're fucking crazy! I can't be your mate, you never cared for me-I saw it in your eyes."

Her eyes darted wildly from side to side. "No! That's not true. I did everything to shield you from the truth. And I was prepared to do anything to keep from turning you; this was not the life I wanted for you."

"But this one was okay? This! You turned me into a vile bloodthirsty vampire. Then you blackmailed me and traded me away to the gods to save your own ass. You betrayed me! Twice!"

"No! It wasn't supposed to turn out that way. I wanted to keep you human. I only cared about being with you, even if it meant I'd go insane and have to end my life. You were everything to me!" She pounded her fist into the side of her head, her words flowing frantically. "I had Niccolo to keep the order-to keep the Obscuros in check. But when they began taking over, I realized he was gone. The gods demanded I be punished. They demanded I make you into a vampire and hand you over along with my best men."

Bastard gods. Andrus recalled Niccolo's story. It was Cimil who had taken Niccolo out of action for three centuries.

That meant the gods caused of the outbreak of Obscuros then demanded action from the queen. In the end, the gods got their own race of soldiers-the Demilords. Was that what they were after all along?

Andrus stood in shock, digesting her words while attempting to sort through centuries of memories tainted by erroneous assumptions. A tiny voice of reason chimed in his head. Reyna was telling the truth.

Bloody, goddamned hell. It just couldn't be right. But it was. The gods caused this mess. And...Reyna was in fact his mate.

Flashes, moments in time, hundreds of them, shuffled through his mind like a revolting slide show. Images of lying in bed at night, feeling Reyna's light hovering over him. Irrational feelings and thoughts bombarding him for no good reason. That horrid darkness plaguing his heart day after day. His inability to move on and forget her. She'd never left him. That godforsaken black cloud following him was her. Her darkness.

Andrus tried to take it all in, but it was too much. All this time he figured she'd just thrown him away. That she didn't love him. In fact, she'd been trying to mask her pain and was going crazy. He felt her insanity, her loneliness and regret. Her hate for the world.

"Why didn't you just tell me? We could have found a solution."

She stood, her hair wild about her face, and cupped her hand to his cheek. "Like what? By the time I realized my mistake, it was too late. Fate had decided for me, and the gods had spoken. I tried to bargain. I even offered myself, but they said I had to be punished for neglecting my duties and allowing so many Obscuros to roam freely. They decided I would live an eternity knowing my mate was somewhere in the world-also immortal-paying for my sins and far from my reach."

"Three hundred years, Reyna. You could have told me."

"No. There was to be no contact. If I broke my word, the gods would punish you somehow." She fell to her knees and wrapped her arms around his legs. "Forgive me, Andrus. I tried! I did. The only concession they gave was to allow me to keep my best soldiers to fight the Obscuros."

Reyna mumbled on and on about how she'd offered up their decedents. Unbeknownst to everyone, she had made it a habit to track her best warriors' bloodlines. Eventually, she would turn the cream of the crop into vampires. That was how she first spotted Andrus.

"I don't understand." Andrus' brows pulled together.

"Andrus, you and the other Demilords are all decedents of my best warriors. Like the others, I'd been watching you since you were a boy. You are from Niccolo's bloodline. There are dozens of his ancestors in my ranks."

Andrus felt like he'd been hit upside his head. Niccolo was his great-great-okay, he didn't know how many greats, but that...vampire was family? And his men were related to other vampires who worked for the queen? Andrus felt sick. Reyna thought of these bloodlines as her own private breeding stock of warriors. Did her men know she'd been plucking out males from their families and turning them into vampires without consideration for the lives she was stealing away? Reyna truly had no heart.

Andrus gazed into her eyes and realized the truth. Some part of him did still love her. Yes, it made no sense. Yes, it was pathetic and twisted. But...it was what it was.

Maybe he'd known all along she was his mate. It would explain why time couldn't mend his broken heart and why she occupied his thoughts constantly-except when Helena was near. That was his attraction to Helena; she gave him peace, even if for only short moments. And as badly as he might hope to someday truly love again, it wasn't in the cards for him. Reyna had been his destiny, and it was time to end the suffering. His and hers. He and Reyna were not meant to be a fairytale. They were not destined for happily-ever-after. But he could still save Helena from the queen and hope time would heal her broken heart after Niccolo turned to ash. Helena might have the chance he never got.

Andrus looked down into Reyna's icy green eyes. "I understand now." He leaned down, kissed her lips, and slid his hand from her waist to her hip. He was about to go for the knife strapped to her outer thigh, when- "Nice try." She slipped the dagger from its sheath and held it out in her hand. "Looking for this?"

Andrus tried to swipe it from her hands. Reyna lost her grip. The knife fell to the floor.

"Reeeyna!" A deep voice suddenly howled with rage from the corner of the room.

Niccolo.

His eyes flew to Helena who was still on the floor struggling to breathe. "Why is she here? Who did this to her?" He then looked to Andrus, bare in the middle of the room, pointing at Reyna as the culpable party. "I'll fucking kill you," Niccolo said to Reyna. "Nobody touches my mate."