by M. L. Briers
“That’s enough,” Joe said. “It was an accident.”
“No, it wasn’t,” Nathaniel replied and pointed up to his sister. “She pushed me.”
“I did not push you; I punched you. Can I help it if you can’t keep your balance,” Courtney said and then reached for the window and slammed it shut.
“I’m the victim here,” Nathaniel said and grimaced when he heard himself saying it.
Kirsty spat out a chuckle and raised her hand to cover her mouth when he snapped a look at her. “Poor, Lurch,” she muttered.
“You’re all nuts,” Conrad grumbled, shaking his head at them before he continued on his way. “Nothing good will come of this.”
Kirsty watched the elder go. “He seems – nice,” she offered in a tone dripping with sarcasm.
“Oh, he’s a peach,” Nathaniel said and eyed Joe. His brother took a deep breath and sighed. “It’s not my fault.”
“It’s not helping your case either,” Joe reminded him.
“Tell your witch not to be so jumpy,” he replied.
“You almost squished me like a bug,” she reminded him.
“But I missed” he reminded her.
Kirsty rolled her eyes and turned on her heels. “Pure luck, Lurch,” she tossed back over her shoulder as she walked away.
She’d gone for a stroll to clear her mind – job done – the near-miss from the vampire’s swan dive had certainly woken her up. Now she could get back to the books and all that it entailed.
Nathaniel turned his attention to Joe, and the alpha sighed again. “This is the witch you got to help me?”
“Sorry, Broom-Hilda was busy,” Joe tossed back. “Stay away from the witch, Nathaniel,” he warned. “Let her do her job before you chase her the hell away.”
“And we can’t have that, can we, brother?” Nathaniel tossed back with a smirk.
CHAPTER NINE
~
“Kirsty!” Joe called after her as she headed inside the house.
Kirsty knew that she couldn’t just make out that she hadn’t heard him calling, and she had no real reason to ignore him beside the fact that every time she looked at him her pulse raced and she got sweaty palms. The last time she’d had that problem had been on her first date, and this wasn’t one of those.
She was trying to give Joe’s dead brother his wolf back not date him. Geez, how many times in her life, would she be able to say that? Give a vampire a wolf – these were strange days indeed.
Kirsty stopped and waited for him, but she didn’t turn to watch his approach – too much sweet candy was a good thing – too much eye-candy certainly wasn’t.
“I wanted to make sure you were ok,” Joe said, and she shrugged as she looked anywhere but at him.
“I’m fine,” she said, and then mentally grimaced. She did hate that word, fine, it usually implied anything but, and she was having a little trouble, but it wasn’t because dead guys were falling from the sky at her feet.
“Why were you outside?”
“Because I didn’t know I should treat myself as a prisoner…”
“Your anything but…”
“Anything but allowed outside or to get a drink with my meal – which, admittedly you did provide food,” she offered back and heard how silly that sounded. Still, it was out there now, and she couldn’t take it back. “I needed to stretch my legs.”
“Could you tell me next time so I can go with you?” he asked and noted the frown that slowly appeared on her forehead. He’d said something wrong – again.
“I thought I was safe here.”
“You are…”
“Except for the vampires that fall from the trees?” she replied.
“That shouldn’t happen again,” he said and smiled.
Kirsty couldn’t help but chuckle. She could see the funny side of it now that it was in the rearview mirror. “Just in case, I might magic myself up a reinforced umbrella,” she said, trying to let him off the hook. He did look a little strained.
“Look, things around here are a little…”
“Weird?”
“That too, but I stand by what I said when I asked you to come here. You’re safe here with me,” Joe said, and he meant it. He wasn’t about to let anyone hurt her.
Kirsty took a second to wonder what it would be like to be with him; she imaged she’d feel very safe wrapped in those large muscled arms. Then she remembered they were having a conversation and snapped to attention. “Well, back to work,” she said and sidestepped him.
“It’s getting late, don’t you want me to walk you home?”
“Gee, that would be a long walk,” she tossed back over her shoulder.
“The cabin…”
“In the woods?” she said, getting to the stairs and starting up them. “I’ve seen that movie; it didn’t end well.”
~
It was well past the witching hour when Kirsty looked up from the pages of another book and let her eyes adjust to the darkness outside the window. There was a strange orange glow in the near distance, and her eyes were a little fuzzy from all that reading, so she let them relax as she took it in.
Then a jolt of panic rushed through her, and she shot to her feet. She leaned in over the desk and slapped the palm of her hand against the cool window – that was when she knew that feeling of unease within her had been right.
Fire!
Kirsty turned on her heels and even with her legs protesting from a lack of use for the last couple of hours, she ran as fast as she could down the stairs, not stopping until she reached the ground floor.
Joe heard her coming and sprung to his feet. He hoped her speed meant that it was good news and she’d found the spell or at the very least the legend that they could work with to give his brother the peace he needed and the ability to stay on pack land.
But the look on her face said panic and that set him on edge. His wolf rose at the prospect of danger and the thought of protecting her from it, and he started towards her just as she lifted her hand and pointed to the front door. “Fire!” she screeched, and headed for the door, but Joe beat her to it.
He yanked open the door and scented the air to point him in the right direction – heaven and hell – the acrid smell of burning in the air alerted him to the danger for his pack, but the sweet scent of the witch at his side filled him with everything he didn’t need to acknowledge right then.
“Stay here,” he growled, the need to get to the danger outweighed his need to stay by his mate’s side.
“The hell I will,” Kirsty said, following on his heels. She had no chance of catching up to him, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to get there – eventually.
~
Joe’s heart was his mouth as he raced towards the fire. He knew whose cabin that was, and something didn’t sit right with him.
Other members of the pack had got there before him, fire extinguishers in hand, buckets of water thrown at the flames that climbed the structure, and he was glad that nobody was inside.
The piercing scream that came from inside those walls chilled him to the bone. He had no time to think as he raced to the front door and kicked it open. The heat was almost unbearable as it rushed at him, the dancing flames violently taking hold of the walls and furniture tried to beat him back.
A second cry propelled him on through the thick smoke, and unable to see where he was going, he relied on the sounds of pain that came from the victim to show him the way.
Joe almost tripped over her; he had no time for apologies for the boot that had caught her body, and bending down, he snatched her from the floor and turned back for the door.
He couldn’t see a hand in front of his face and had no idea which way to go. Joe closed his eyes and relied upon his other senses to guide him. The muted sound of his pack fighting the flames outside led him most of the way, then a hand gripped his arm and yanked him out into the air.
“Catherine!” Nathaniel’s stern tone echoed in Joe’s ears as the elde
r was snatched from his grip.
Joe had to wonder what the hell Catherine was doing inside the cabin – a cabin that had been unused for years and had been meant for Kirsty. But questions would have to wait as he watched his mate smother the flames licking at the elder’s feet and legs with her magic before she turned that magic on the cabin.
The chatter of the pack went silent as they watched the witch use her gift. It was as if she lifted the flames from the floor of the cabin up the walls and off into the night sky leaving the badly burned building to crackle and wheeze in relief as the smoke raced away on the air. Nobody said a word.
Joe had plenty to say. There were a million questions swirling in his mind that needed answers just like that firestorm that had swept through Kirsty’s cabin, least of which was why Catherine had been inside the structure in the first place.
Was it an accident?
Joe didn’t like coincidences, and just at the time when they were searching to find a way to keep Nathaniel in the pack someone had attacked the witch’s temporary home. No, he didn’t like it one little bit.
Right now, he needed to focus on Catherine. He took a look at every face around him and wondered if one of his pack had been responsible for what had just happened, but that thought sickened him more than the smoke in his lungs ever could.
Joe only hoped that the elder had some answers for him.
CHAPTER TEN
~
Joe watched his sister and Kirsty fuss over Catherine as she lay in the clean sheets of the freshly made bed that Courtney had prepared for her. When Nathaniel had carried the elder back to the main house, there had been murmured protests from some of his pack, but Joe ignored them.
Catherine’s legs and feet had been burned by the flames. The healing blood of her wolf was already working to ease her pain and heal her wounds, but Joe wasn’t letting her out of his sight.
It could have been so much worse. Equal amounts of anger, relief, and suspicion vied for his attention, and Joe felt helpless against the onslaught of his emotions.
When he felt Nathaniel at his side at the door to the elder’s room, he turned a curious eye on him. It looked like he wasn’t the only one fighting emotions.
“Did you scent it, brother?” Nathaniel asked on a whisper so quiet that they couldn’t be overheard.
“A chemical smell in the air, I can still taste it. The fire was set deliberately,” Joe replied.
“Someone wanted to kill your mate,” Nathaniel said, and Joe’s head snapped around so fast that the bones in his neck clicked. “Don’t tell me you didn’t know about her.”
Joe knew. His suspicions had been confirmed the moment he’d taken her scent before rushing to the fire. “Now is not the time…”
“If not now, then when?” Nathaniel asked. “Someone tried to kill her, or at the very least, warn her off – but, I’d put my money on the first option.”
“I’ll take that under advisement.”
“She’s not safe here, and neither is Courtney. Someone is sending you a message, and we both need to listen,” Nathaniel said.
“What the hell am I supposed to do about it? I can’t interrogate the whole pack tonight,” Joe bit out.
“Ask yourself, is being the alpha worth the life of your mate and our sister?” Nathaniel said. Then he stepped in front of his brother in the hope that his words would get through. “Let me answer – no. I always thought there was more to my little encounter with the vampire, something else at play, and call me a conspiracy theorist, but I don’t like this coming on the back of what happened to me.”
Joe didn’t like it either, but what the hell was he supposed to do about it? Run away – that didn’t work for him.
“I think for the time being the witch and Courtney should come and stay with me,” Nathaniel said. “I can protect them there.”
That was true. The sprawling mansion that Nathaniel had purchased was more secure than a wooden cabin, and if someone was trying to harm his family, then he needed to figure out who it was before someone else died.
Nathaniel might have had a second chance at living thanks to the vampire blood in his system, but Courtney and Kirsty didn’t have that opportunity, and he doubted they would willingly ingest Nathaniel’s blood.
“I’ll take Catherine with us, they can care for her until she’s healed,” Nathaniel said, and Joe slowly nodded.
It sounded like the logical thing to do, but he had a feeling neither his sister nor the witch would be happy about it. “And if Catherine is involved then you’ll have taken her under your roof.”
“One way or the other, we’ll get those answers from her, but for now, facing one elder is a lot easier than a whole pack.”
Now it seemed Joe had another dilemma on his hands, did he go with his mate to protect her or did he trust his vampire brother to do it for him?
He was definitely living through some strange days indeed.
~
“Well, I was staying on pack land, but then somebody torched my cabin, and now I’m staying in a creepy mansion with cobwebs and a vampire,” Kirsty said into the mobile as she looked out the window, down onto the unkempt grounds just as the sun was rising.
Kirsty had spent most of the night sitting by Catherine’s bedside after being whisked away from pack land with a protesting she-wolf, and the elder by Joe and Nathaniel. She couldn’t say she was happy about it, but when she’d heard that the cabin that caught fire was hers, she’d changed her mind and had been somewhat eager to get her things and leave.
Erin sounded confused and horrified. “So, they tried to kill you, and now you’ve willingly put yourself in more danger by going to live with the vampire?”
Kirsty grimaced. Well, when you put it like that. “Yes,” she said and rolled her eyes, counting down the seconds until Erin’s brain exploded and she let her have it.
“Do you have a death wish? Get your backside in your car and get right back here now, missy!” Erin demanded.
“Mom?” Kirsty tossed back, and she was sure she could hear Erin’s teeth grinding on the other end of the line.
“I don’t hear you moving those feet. Why are you still there?” Erin demanded.
Kirsty had been asking herself the same question since last night, in between bouts of scouring the books they’d brought with them from the attic. “I’m invested…”
“In the vampire’s problems?” Erin squeaked.
“In the legend,” she lied.
It did feel kind of strange, and very unlike her to be so gung-ho about something, but she didn’t have the heart to let this go. She felt sorry for Nathaniel, but more so for his trapped wolf, and it was playing on her heartstrings.
“You were only supposed to be there for a day and a night – times up, come home,” Erin said.
Kirsty didn’t much like that idea. It niggled and wriggled in her mind like there was something she was missing – as if something would be amiss if she were to leave now. “I’m going to spend another day looking through the books…”
“Putting your backside on the line for a vampire?”
“It’s not for the vampire…”
“Then for who?” Erin demanded, but Kirsty didn’t have the answer to give her.
Strange as it sounded, she felt obliged to see this through, to help this family, now more than ever. “I guess for me,” Kirsty said, but she couldn’t explain that answer, even to herself.
“Kirsty…”
“Erin, stop whining, stop worrying, and have a conversation with lady luck because I think I’m going to need it.”
“Because that doesn’t sound strange to you?” Erin demanded.
Kirsty screwed up her face and bit down on a hum of longing. She couldn’t tell her friend why she was doing what she was doing; she only knew that she felt compelled to do it – and not in a creepy vampire controlled way – she still had free will. “Everything about this is strange – just ask – anybody, but it’ll be fine, I’m sure of it.”
“Fine, I will.”
“Will what?”
“Ask anybody,” Erin replied, and Kirsty was lost.
“Huh?”
“I’m coming right now, if you see sense and leave before I get there, call me,” she said, and the phone went dead at Kirsty’s ear.
“Huh?” she said, looking at the screen as if she could see her best friend up and leaving.
Erin coming to her? Oh, that wasn’t good.
~
“Catherine, we need to ask you about last night,” Joe said, observing his brother navigate around the sunlight in the room. The curtains were half-drawn, but Nathaniel had refused to fully close them, saying that only vampires should have to live in the darkness.
Catherine pushed her elbows into the mattress and moved up the bed, resting her head and shoulders on the pillows, her long silver-grey hair fanning the white fabric. She looked older than she had yesterday, but then she’d been through a lot.
“I went over to the cabin to make sure everything was nice for your…” Catherine smiled. “New friend,” she said like it was a secret she didn’t want to tell. “I waited, must have fallen asleep in the chair, and when I woke up, it was cold, so I thought to light a fire for her.”
Catherine paused to cough into her hand. “Big mistake,” she grumbled. “I lit the match, tossed it in, and whoosh. The only time I’ve seen a fire catch like that is on a barbecue when one of you testosterone junkies decides to build it.”
“You couldn’t smell anything – funny?” Nathaniel asked, prodding her to answer but not leading her on.
Catherine shrugged. “There were so many smells. We’d rushed and cleaned the place up for the unexpected…” She stopped again and smiled at Joe, and the alpha knew what was coming. “Guest – making sure that the whole place smelled fresh, but it also made it smell chemical…”