VAMPYRE FALLS: HEARTBREAK.

By ADRIANNA DANE.

CHAPTER 1.

It happened so quickly she didn't have time to scream for help. They grabbed her. One held her against his huge frame, a large paw of a hand over her mouth, stifling any scream, another wrapping duct tape around her wrists, binding them together. A third man sat behind the wheel of a dark purple Chevy pick-up truck that had a black slash of lightning slicing across the sides. Funny the things you remembered. A fourth man stood sentry, apparently watching for anyone who might offer her help. After gagging her, the man holding her heaved her up and tossed her into the back of the truck as though he were hefting nothing more than a sack of feed.

With no way to cushion the impact, her shoulder connected with the unforgiving bed of the truck, and Petra groaned at the pain that vibrated through her whole body.

If she hadn't been gagged she would have screamed b.l.o.o.d.y murder. For all she knew that's exactly what they had in store for her. Murder. Hers.

Images darted through her mind when she landed in the truck. Flashes of wolves, swords, and severed heads. She cringed from the images. Who where these men? And what did they want from her?

Instinct had warned her not to come to this town. But her curiosity had gotten the better of her. And now it might just get her killed.

The vehicle spun out and she rolled across the truck to collide with the tailgate, banging her head in the process. For8 a moment, she saw stars. Dust filled the air and she heard the sound of loose gravel beneath the tires and the truck barreled along at a speed that could kill them all before they reached whatever destination they had in mind.

She wiggled around, trying to gain some leverage, ready to throw herself out, bound or not. Petra tried to look around, to gain her bearings. She saw two of the men seated on a toolbox near the front of the truck, huge, feral grins on their faces.

"h.e.l.l, yeah," one of them screamed triumphantly as he high-fived the other one. "Now they'll pay."

Petra knew she had to find a way to get loose. She couldn't bet on the fact that they weren't going to kill her.

She had to do it now, when they least expected it, because she doubted she'd get another chance.

The truck veered sharply to the right, down another road and then she was thrown to the other side as it swerved left.

Hadn't anyone seen what happened? She was right on the main street of Silver Creek. Why hadn't someone done something?

Her heart pounded, rapid beats thundering loudly. At least to her hearing. She felt the adrenaline rush through her system. She was not going to give up. Not now, not ever, until her last breath.

Petra should have realized she was being followed. Since the operation that had saved her life her instincts and her abilities had become more p.r.o.nounced. There were other things like increased strength as well. Things she had tried to9 hide from her mother. And from Rolland. Skills that most normal people would look at with suspicion.

But she knew there was something different about these men who had kidnapped her. They weren't normal either. A strong animal scent clung to them.

She needed to think, to calm down. She concentrated on her breathing, on the beats of her heart, forcing them to slow. She stopped struggling and attempted to center, and then maybe she could get herself out of this crazy situation.

The dust and dirt choked her, making it hard to breath. If she didn't get the gag off, she knew she was probably going to suffocate as her nasal pa.s.sages felt like they were clogged with soot and grime.

If she hadn't come to this d.a.m.n town, she probably wouldn't be in this mess. Served her right for snooping into her mother and Rolland's so-called business affairs.

Petra fought against the duct tape that held her fast. And she searched inward, to the source of the strange power she now had. A power that she normally kept well hidden from the people who knew her. She'd had certain abilities before the operation. But this was different, and she knew, very dangerous if anyone found out. But this was a desperate situation and called for desperate measures.

She was determined that she wasn't going to die, at least not today. Not at the hands of these men-whom she was certain were paraspecies. The kind her mother and fiance hated. That was what she smelled. She lay quiet as she allowed the power to build. She heard the mumblings of the men in the truck as they planned what to do with her. She10 was jostled back and forth as the truck hit potholes and lurched along what was probably a deserted dirt road of some sort.

She heard one of the men cough and then make a nasty growling sound.

Petra felt the strength seep through her, slowly building.

She concentrated, and drew on the energy swirling inside her, forcing the surging juice into her arms and her legs. Her heart pumped powerfully, different than before. This time with purpose, not with fear. She could almost hear it thundering in her chest, like a huge locomotive gathering speed. Like the heart in Poe's tale. Rhythmic and loud, blocking out any other thought, any other sound. She allowed the energy to build, to let the anger at being handled by these savages magnify.

Yet, she controlled its affect on her, afraid of what would happen if she allowed it free rein. And then she used the might of her angry pa.s.sion as it pooled at the core of her body and using the newly energized muscles in her arms and legs. The tape binding ripped like it was made of thin paper and suddenly she was free of her fetters. Wasting no time, she jumped to her feet and tore off the tape muzzling her mouth. d.a.m.n, that did hurt.

"Hey!" One of the men surged to his feet. Just then the truck hit another pothole and he stumbled. She leaped across the s.p.a.ce between them and latched onto his shoulders, then she jerked her knee up and caught him square in the b.a.l.l.s.

She dipped her head and then brought it up, smashing it into his jaw. For a moment she saw stars. Blood spilled from between his lips and his eyelids fluttered. For good measure11 she propelled him against the front of the truck, knocking his head into the cab. He slumped to the bed. One down.

She spun around to face the other savage man who was almost on her. Curling her fingers, she launched herself at him, jabbed her fingers into his eyes, forcing him backward just as she shoved her knee into his groin. He screamed with pain, stumbled backward, and fell. She kept up the pressure.

As they collided with the side of the truck, she grabbed his head in her hands and banged it against the unforgiving metal. Once. Twice. She felt his warm blood pouring over her hands, his jaw went slack, eyes rolled back, then closed, and she allowed him to slide to the bed. No time to catch a breath.

A low snarl emanated from her throat. The look she gave him held no speck of compa.s.sion. Quickly she glanced around. The truck was slowing as the men in the front realized what was happening. She jumped to the ground, rolled and rose to her feet before the truck could stop. She ran.

One quick glance over her shoulder informed her the truck had come to a skidding halt-curls of dust almost obliterated it from view. Pulling on another burst of speed, she sprinted toward the line of trees that looked to be two hundred yards away. If she could make it to the forest, she might have a chance of eluding them.

She had the element of surprise on her side, but she didn't dare look back. Her legs shot out, heart pumped, and adrenaline sped though her body. She raced like the wind.

She didn't think she'd ever covered so much ground so12 quickly in her life. She screamed and stumbled as she felt something sharp pierce her shoulder.

Quickly she recovered, but the pain was blistering. Warm blood trickled down her arm. She stumbled once more, but this time out of nowhere a pair of steely arms wrapped around her, clamping her to a masculine body.

"Give me the web," she heard a deep voice say. She fought against him with all her strength. She wasn't going to let them take her again. She reached up to claw at his face, but steel grips that masked as hands clamped around her wrists. "Hurry up, dammit. She's a h.e.l.lcat."

He forced her arms down to her sides with a strength far exceeding her own. She tried to yank her leg upward to incapacitate him, but before she could gain leverage, he'd whirled her around. Something white, like a mohair cape was wrapped around her. But this was no fragile wisp of material.

Once the second man had her coc.o.o.ned in it, she couldn't move. Not one bit of her strength worked in her favor.

She screamed and a hard hand clamped over her mouth and arms wrapped around her, plastering her to a hard, male body. She inhaled his scent, wanted to lick and taste his flesh, suck the fingers into her mouth. An odd heat swirled and flared to life in her abdomen. No. She could not be responding to him this way. It didn't make sense. He dragged her back into the woods. She dug her heels into the ground, going limp, hoping to slow him down. But her efforts had no effect on him whatsoever. He jerked her behind a dense covering of trees, thick bushes shielding them from being seen by anyone on the road.13 "Shut up and watch," he growled in her ear. "See the party you almost missed." He forced her head around toward where the truck was sitting crossways in the road. Four black SUVs were now circled around it. She recognized the emblems on the doors. What looked like an army of men dressed in black, with hoods and guns jumped out of the vehicles and ran toward the truck.

She knew she didn't want to see what came next. She'd heard the stories but had not wanted to believe them.

Something inside her told her she was about to witness a scene out of a horror movie. She heard the shots. One after another. The blood-curdling screams ripped through her, echoing over and over again.

She tried to turn her head, to look away, but the hands holding her in place refused to allow her to hide from the b.l.o.o.d.y confrontation that played out on the desolate road.

It was over in a matter of minutes. She felt a pa.s.sing sense of guilt. After all, if she hadn't rendered two of them unconscious, they might have been able to help themselves.

On the other hand, they had tried to kidnap her and who knows what they would have done with her. The a.s.sa.s.sins dragged the four bodies from the bullet-ridden truck and lay them out on the side of the road. The agency a.s.sa.s.sins turned their attention to one of the SUVs and Petra followed their gaze. Another man, taller and broader than the others stepped from the vehicle. He didn't wear a mask like the others, and she was shocked when she recognized him. He held a lethal-looking sword in his hands. As Petra watched in horror, he sliced off the heads of the four men. The most14 frightening thing of all was the smile on his face as he completed the deed. Petra thought she was going to be sick.

"Petra Thornton, you'll pay. You led the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds to them.

You're responsible for their deaths. And you will pay."

She felt the wetness of tears drip down her face. The man restraining her had no idea how responsible she felt just now.

No matter what they had planned to do to her, they hadn't deserved to die such horrible deaths. It also matched the vision she'd had when she was first thrown into the back of the truck. Common sense told her she couldn't have stopped this, but that knowledge didn't arrest the guilt in which she now drowned.

And the worst part was when she'd recognized the man who wielded the sword. It was the man she had come to Silver Creek to find. Her fiance, Rolland Braun.

She couldn't bring herself to continue to fight the cruel hands that now shackled her, spun her away from the b.l.o.o.d.y ma.s.sacre, and marched her forward. She was in shock, there was no resistance left. There was no way to know what this man had in store for her. From the frying pan into the fire was a very apt description of her predicament right now.

15

CHAPTER 2.

Carson Black forced the woman to walk ahead of him. He had a feeling he was going to want to get this over quickly because there was something about the woman that pulled at him. He'd felt something building over the last few days of watching her as she moved about Silver Creek. He remembered the photo he'd snuck from the file. And now her scent pulled at him in a strangely arousing way. Knowing from the files he'd studied that she was human, her recent show of strength and dexterity was unusual. But this s.e.xual draw she seemed to have was even more perplexing. It shouldn't be affecting him like this. He tried to ignore his responses to her and focus on the task. Her strength and ability to run were thwarted by the spinner's web used to bind her. She would not have a chance to turn on them the way she had the Dalwins.

They had trailed her again today, waiting for the right opportunity, when the Dalwins had s.n.a.t.c.hed her off the street. They'd had a feeling they knew where the Dalwins would take her, but before they could catch the pickup, the PIA agents were already hot on their trail. Donovan had veered off the road and parked the vehicle. He and Carson had made for the woods to try to determine if there was anything they could do, when the woman ran straight into their arms. It was just too bad they couldn't have done something for the Dalwin brothers. d.a.m.n them for being so hot-headed and jumping the gun.16 At this point all they could do was move forward with the original plan now that they had her. Which was for he and his brother, Donovan, to ride shotgun over her until the terms the council presented to the Thorntons had been met.

It wouldn't do to have her finding out about the sanctuary, especially considering who her parents were. She was a bargaining chip the council planned to use to gain the freedom of several of their kind. The plan was to negotiate for the release of paraspecies being held at a PIA detention facility in Spokane, Washington, slated for transfer to The Harden Inst.i.tute. The Vampyre Falls Town Council would negotiate with the PIA. It was supposed to be neat, clean, and hopefully quick. But suddenly everything had turned deadly.

When Petra Thornton had shown up in Silver Creek the paras hadn't been able to believe their luck. Files were maintained on the top-level people involved with the PIA.

Research scientists, Deborah and George Thornton, although not directly employed by the PIA, were known to have links with the government organization that was charged with control of the paraspecies population.

When word came through the underground network that the Thorntons' daughter was in the vicinity of Vampyre Falls, the council formulated a plan to use her in negotiations with The Harden Inst.i.tute. They couldn't afford to pa.s.s up this opportunity. If only the Dalwin brothers hadn't interfered too soon, it could have been a slick abduction without bloodshed instead of this mess that resulted in the deaths of the headstrong, young wolf pack.17 For security reasons, full humans without special ability were not allowed in Vampyre Falls. Therefore, they'd secured another place, away from the paranormal community, in which to hold the Thornton woman until negotiations were completed for the release of the paras.

There was a cave they planned to use to detain her until arrangements could be made. It was outfitted and ready. The Black brothers were supposed to have been the ones who handled the operation. The Dalwins getting wind of it meant there had to have been a leak within the town council itself.

Probably a vie for control of the council. Someone had made a serious error in judgment.

An hour later they reached the opening of the cavern at the base of the mountain. A good holding place until he could get more information out of the Thornton b.i.t.c.h before the council sent the demands for exchange. He looked at her and saw the fear and anger in her startling, turquoise eyes, the tension threaded throughout her lush body. And he felt the strange pull once again-a protective instinct that he shouldn't have. This attraction to her had to stop. It was unfortunate that she was even more beautiful in person than she was in the photo he carried. A photo he'd stolen from the file because...

Well, he couldn't be certain exactly why he'd taken it-or at least a reason he would admit.

"I'm not going in there," she said as they drew closer to the entrance. She tried to dig her heels in to impede their progress. His hand against her back propelled her forward and she fell to her knees. She shook her head back and forth.18 Much to his annoyance his attention was drawn to the highlights of red in her gold hair as the sun's rays reflected on the shiny locks. He leaned forward to lift her up and caught the whiff of roses that wafted enticingly from the thick, unruly locks. Dammit, this had to stop. His c.o.c.k engorged painfully inside his pants and he tried to ignore it. It was readying for something it wasn't going to get. One thing he didn't want to think about was Petra Thornton as more than a hostage to be used in negotiations.

He yanked her to her feet. "You're going in."

"No, no, please. Anywhere else, but not in there. I can't do it. I can't go in there."

He heard real fear in her voice, some level of desperation beneath the words. He stepped in front of her, tilted her chin up, and studied her face. He was startled by the genuine panic he saw in the blue depths of her eyes. It wasn't anger that confronted him. Her eyes were dilated, her slender face drawn and pale. Her whole body quaked. She wasn't just scared; she was terrified to go into the cave. He could smell her terror.

"You've got a thing about caves?" He didn't want to care.

After what they had just witnessed, he shouldn't be the least bit concerned. But there was something about her, something ... dare he say ... familiar, that made him balk at forcing her into the cave.

He'd never met her before so he couldn't quite understand the sensations, the vibes that were coming off her. This aggravating need to protect her.19 "Just knock her out, Carson. We don't need to put up with her tantrums right now. We've got things to do."

Carson held up a hand. "No, Donovan. Give me a minute."

He focused on Petra. He noted her lips were trembling. He saw himself taking her into his arms and soothing her fears, telling her it would be okay. That n.o.body was going to hurt her. But he couldn't promise that. She was nothing to him.

Was she going to be able to come out of this alive? Very possibly not if their demands weren't met.

He placed a hand beneath her chin, forcing her to look up at him. "Give me a reason not to just sling you over my shoulder and force you inside."

He watched her reactions, looking for some kind of subterfuge, something that told him she was the sly daughter of the two powerful scientists who supported the PIA. People who had enough power to meet the demands of the paras and make the exchange.

Surprisingly, he saw none of that. He saw pure outright terror. And sorrow.

"Tell me."

What he saw was a bedraggled young woman, a bruise forming over her left temple, blood seeping from a wound in her shoulder where a bullet had probably grazed her arm.

d.a.m.n those hot-headed Dalwins. She looked fragile, with flawless alabaster skin. But right now her eyes were very dark-bruises within the ivory whiteness of her lovely complexion.

He sensed the storm going on inside her. She met his look without flinching. Carson respected the courage in this slight20 woman. He'd felt her unusual power when he'd tried to subdue her. Saw it when she'd fought the Dalwin brothers, vaulted off the truck, and run for the woods. He'd admired the woman who fought for her freedom. His whole body had responded to the picture of a G.o.ddess triumphing over her enemies. It had shocked him to discover that he'd wanted her with a searing desire he hadn't known for quite some time, not since...

There was definitely more to Petra Thornton than met the eye. And if he wasn't careful she could end up being the cause of his death, because he knew she wasn't to be trusted.

And he wanted her so badly he could taste it.

She lifted her chin and tried to pull away from him, but he wasn't having any of that. The alpha wolf rose inside him and he yanked her close to his chest, staring down at her. She had to give him a reason for not making her go into that cave. One he would believe. He needed a reason not to force her inside. She had to stop fighting him, it was only intensifying his desire to make love to her. d.a.m.n her for being so desirable.

"Right now, I own you woman, and you better tell me what I want to know. Or you won't like the consequences." The only problem was that he didn't know whether he'd spank her or kiss her. Or maybe both.

"I was caught in a cave-in." She spoke the words as though each one was yanked from her against her will.

He knew there was something more. He saw it in her eyes.

"And?"21 She bit her lip. It bloomed red and engorged, a full mouth, a perfect bow of temptation. Now wet and glistening. He shook her. But he wasn't certain if it was to get the answers he wanted, or to pull himself out of the fugue he found himself him.

Her female scent wafted over him again. It aroused him and that made him angry. His aching c.o.c.k demanded to be buried in her p.u.s.s.y, to possess her so thoroughly that she would understand completely what it meant to be claimed as his mate. Something flickered in the back of his mind. He couldn't go there, it was dangerous, too dangerous.

"I'm waiting," he said. Then he began to drag her toward the entrance to the cave.

"No, please," she begged. "My brother died in that cave-in.

Please, I can't go in there. I'll do anything. Go anywhere else, but not in there. Please."

The sound of her sobs, the pain he heard in her words, cut him to the quick. This wasn't how it was supposed to be. She was supposed to be hard and unfeeling, just like her parents.

Hatred for his kind should reek from every pore. But it didn't and that confused him. He couldn't look at her tear stained face. He was liable to cut the web and set her free, like a defenseless rabbit caught in a trap. Not only the Town Council but also the Vampyre Council would have his head if he did that.