by Lia Davis
I nodded my head. "Let's go."
Voss was at our side in the next moment, ready. I wrapped a couple of pancakes around sausage links for the road. I was still hungry.
Quin grabbed four water bottles out of the fridge, looked at Kane, then put one back. I chortled as I walked toward the garage. This was definitely going to take some getting used to.
We waited on Kane to run upstairs and put on his special sunscreen, then we had to shuffle around to let Kane drive. "Just in case they've got someone guarding the gate," he said.
The guys barely spoke to me on the way to the scene. Voss and Kane were irritated that I was even going. They’d live.
As we neared the location, Kane broke his silence. "I don't know who is here or how many are here. This could go sour."
"We'll stay in the car and let you get a feel for the situation. Let them know we're here to help," Quin said. "Just because Trinity broke the treaty doesn't mean your entire coven wanted to."
Kane glanced to me then back to Quin in the mirror. "The vampires present last night were all Trinity's followers. I didn't see anyone that I thought would be on my side if it came down to picking sides."
"That's a good thing, really," I said. "It means they don't all follow her blindly."
Kane squeezed my hand. "I know I'd have support, and probably more support than she would, but the last thing I want to do is cause a divide in my coven. That's why I've been backing away instead of challenging her."
I understood what he was saying. A divide in the coven could start a civil war, which could be far more catastrophic. "You may have to. These attacks can't continue. Is she even doing anything significant to stop Red Night?"
"I have no idea," he said darkly as we pulled up to a wrought iron gate.
My jaw nearly dropped. We were in front of a massive home, an honest-to-God mansion. "They were attacked here?" How did the humans do this?
"Yes. It seems impossible."
A man covered in black clothes from just under his chin to the tips of his black boots stepped out of the guard house. He wore an oversized floppy hat. His overall look was totally ridiculous, but not a speck of sunlight could reach him. He'd obviously not been given the sunblock.
Kane rolled down the window and let his bare arm rest in sight of the guard, the rays of the sun beaming down onto it.
Show off.
Kane gave the guard a short nod. "We're here to help with the investigation."
"Hey, Kane, good to see you." The guard’s nose twitched, and he looked closer at the rest of us. "Wolves?"
"Roger, I'm glad it's you. Are any of Trinity's lackeys here?" Kane asked, bringing his focus away from us. "These are my friends, and they're investigating these attacks, too. The Lycans have been hit as hard as we have by the same group."
"No, there's nobody here now. They did their investigations and left." The guard gave us a chin lift. We returned it in unison.
"Anything you can tell me?"
"The guard was killed first," he said. "Just after dawn. Then the code was entered. There was no B&E. A group of them waited out here while two took out the guard and shut down the security feed. We have no video of the incident."
Kane growled. "Any survivors? How in the hell did they know which rooms to go to? That place is a labyrinth."
"None, and they knew. They've got someone on the inside, Kane. It's the only explanation." Roger glanced at the house then back at Kane.
I rolled down my window. "The likelihood of the humans getting both a vampire and a wolf to turn seems slim."
"Yeah," Roger said. "I could agree with that, but this house? It's not just got guards and video. There's a sophisticated alarm system that was disabled with a code, the dogs were killed, and there was another layer of protection that not many people knew about."
"They added the spell?" Kane asked.
"They added the spell." Roger shook his head. "Only people that had been invited onto the property before could enter it. Unfortunately, the loop in the spell means that someone who'd been on the property before could invite more people on."
"I wish we had that video," Quin said.
"Me, too," Kane muttered. "Rog, we're going to see what we can find. These wolves have a few tricks up their sleeves to help them investigate."
Roger nodded. "Kane, you know we've got your back, right? If you want to challenge, you'll be supported."
Kane stared at Roger for a few seconds. "Thank you, Rog. It means a lot. Spread the word, okay? I'm not gone. I'm just opting to keep the peace." He put the car in drive and started forward, but stopped again. "Rog?"
Roger stepped up beside the window again. "Yeah, boss?"
"For now."
Roger grinned. "Got it."
He opened the gate and we pulled through, parking just inside. I stepped out and looked around the grounds. The dogs had died somewhere close. I smelled their blood.
"When did this happen?" I asked.
Roger heard me from the other side of the gate. "About three hours ago. The security company noticed the disabled alarm and they always call if that happens."
"They use coven security?" Kane asked.
Roger nodded. "Yeah, and when nobody answered the secure line, they sent someone. We arrived probably minutes after the killers left."
"Good," I said. "I've never investigated an attack so fresh."
Voss stepped closer to me, his worry trickled through our mating bond. "These take a lot out of you."
"It's necessary. We're safe here, stop worrying." He looked like a mama wolf, so I wrapped my arms around him. "This is a part of me. I was given this gift, I'm going to use it."
He kissed my temple, breathing me in. "I know, but it's hard for us to see you so drained after you investigate. And especially after you spent so much energy healing last night."
"Voss, I'll be fine. If it's too much on me, we'll go home and veg out in front of the TV." When he nodded, I continued. "I won't do more than I can handle," I whispered into his chest as I squeezed him before pulling away and surveying the lawn again.
"This is a really big area to cover," I said. "Let me see if I can get some direction before we start blindly."
I closed my eyes and opened myself up to my extra sense. My emotions and senses were immediately assaulted. I opened my eyes. "Oh," I gasped as I looked around. "It's so strong. It's like watching a badly buffered movie."
No, it was like being in a movie. "I can see everything, not like normal. It's real people instead of shadows and feelings. But they're flickering and blurry." My head swiveled and I watched in awe. "There's twenty of them. I can count them. One is definitely a woman."
"My research said they only allowed men into the outfit," Kane said.
"Well, then she's an extremely fit man with a feminine body and boobs," I replied as I watched the dogs run toward the intruders. "Oh, no," I moaned. I didn't want to see this.
The dogs were gunned down without a second thought. They never even got close to the militia. "How did they not hear the guns inside?" I asked. Focusing on the guns was harder. It was much clearer to look at the living, not the inanimate.
Voss stepped closer to me, wrapping his arms around me. "Do they have silencers?" he asked.
I focused on the guns, forcing my ability to narrow in on one of them. "Yes," I whispered. "But surely the occupants would've heard something. The gate opening, the soft ping of the silenced shot," I said as I watched the group move toward the house. I followed. "They're called silencers, but they don't completely muffle the sound."
Roger spoke from behind us. "They had human staff that worked during the day. Gardners, mechanics, and the like."
"So the person that let them in could've been human?" I asked as I followed the group to the front door.
"No," Kane said. "Humans are never allowed inside the house. Only other supernatural creatures are permitted to work inside a coven members home. It's law. And this family only employed vampires. I'm actually surpris
ed they had any human workers at all."
"It was a recent thing," Roger said. "Their daughter convinced them it was okay, and that humans weren't simply food."
"Well, I'm sure being killed by humans didn't help her cause. Was she here?" Kane asked.
"No, she was at her boyfriend's house. She's been informed."
"I should've been the one to tell her," Kane said bitterly.
"I'm sorry," I whispered. "We will fix this." I couldn't say more. The group reached the front door. "One of the women is punching in a code on the doorknob."
"Were the codes personalized?" Kane asked.
"They intended to do that eventually," Roger said. "Hadn't got around to it, unfortunately."
"Damn," Quin said.
I slipped into the house in the middle of the group, eager to make sure I saw everything. I didn't want to have to force my ability to rewind. It was possible, but the focus it took usually gave me a headache.
The woman led the way. The interior of the home was opulent and gorgeous. I didn't spare much time looking around, too focused on trying to glean any clues from the soldiers appearance and the way they moved.
I recognized none of them. They were all dressed in fatigues, even the woman, and wore black ski masks and goggles. I couldn't tell anything about any of them. The masks even covered their mouths, with no breathing holes that I could see.
The woman knew her way around. She took several staircases, separated by hallways. Finally, she cut through a large library to get to another stairwell. This one went down in a spiral, with stone walls and recessed lighting. The lights were set back into small alcoves that looked as if they once held candles or lanterns.
How old was the place?
We reached the bottom of the stairs, and the air was cool and a little damp. We had to be several floors underground.
I stayed close to the woman in the front. Luckily for me, my ability didn't include feeling when I was standing on someone. Well, more like in someone. I shuddered as I looked around me and saw that I was half inside one man and the other half of me was inside another.
Yuck.
The woman stopped in front of a door and held up a closed fist, then looked back at the crowd and shrugged. Her head tilted a little, and I suspected she was speaking. "I can't see what they're saying because of the masks," I said. "But maybe she's not speaking. The homeowners would hear her."
She looked back and forth between the door and the crowd of men.
"She isn't speaking. She's trying to figure out how to tell them something." I cocked my head at her. Something about her face was bothering me. I stepped closer and focused again.
A stabbing pain hit me between the eyes as I forced my ability to its max. She had a sprig of hair sticking out of the top of her goggles.
It was blonde. White blonde, almost silvery. "Shit," I said. Voss still had his arm around me, and it scared him. He jumped.
"Shit! Mother fucker, take your goddamn mask off!" I yelled.
"What's wrong?" Kane asked. Voss tightened his grip. Quin put his hand on my shoulder.
"Shhhh," I told them, forcing my focus harder than I ever had before.
"Jillian, you're shaking. Whatever you're doing, pull back," Voss said.
I ignored him, taking another step forward. If the woman had actually been in front of me, we'd nearly be kissing.
She held up a hand with three fingers up. Slowly, she lowered one, then another. When the last finger lowered, she pointed at the door and the men streamed inside. She followed.
"Do something, bitch," I growled. "Show me who you are."
"Jillian, stop. We need to get her out of here." I heard Voss's voice, but didn't register it at all. I was too focused on the woman. Her hair was distinctive, but I needed to know for sure.
"Oh shit," I said as the vampires put up a fight. "They're beautiful."
They were naked, probably slept that way, and must've heard the soldiers outside their bedroom door. They'd been prepared, him with a sword and her with a gun. She hit six soldiers, her aim perfect. Her long black hair flowed around her gorgeous body. She looked like an avenging demon.
The soldiers were wearing body armor. The bullets did no damage.
Bullets barely slowed vampires down, but they shot at them anyway. It didn't work. The male vamp sliced through several soldiers before the masked woman stepped in, moving with vampire speed and agility, knocking the sword out of his hand.
Too much time had passed. The imprint of the killings was growing fainter as the minutes passed. I saw fewer details as the naked vampires fought the soldiers.
"She's definitely a vampire," I told the guys.
I cried out as she disabled the male. The soldiers swarmed the female and held her down. It took six of them to stop her from breaking free.
One of them grabbed her boob, and I snarled. "Don't touch her!"
"What?" Kane cried. "Who?"
I shook my head, unwilling to tell him. It would drive him mad, and there was nothing he could do about it.
The mysterious woman managed to knock the male vampire hard enough to send him reeling, giving the soldiers enough time to grab him and hold him still.
Finally, the bitch took off her mask, and my heart dropped. My hand covered my mouth, and I fought to control my emotions.
I ran around to the side of the bed and turned so I could watch her face. Standing right beside the imprint of the male vampire, I watched as she picked up the sword she'd knocked out of his hand.
She smiled, an evil, deranged grin, raised her arm, and swung.
My instincts took over, and I ducked even though there was no way the sword could've touched me. I righted myself in time to see the man's head bounce off the bed, and his wife's mouth open in a scream of anguish. Blood sprayed all over their killer, her blonde hair glowing in the light from the hallway behind her.
If the female vampire looked like an avenging demon, this heartless woman looked like a rogue angel. Her porcelain face was splattered with blood, and her blonde braid streaked red.
I didn't look away as she slowly killed the woman. She threw down the sword, and dug her claws into the poor woman's chest as the soldiers held her still.
Gasping, I struggled to stay on my feet. The image was fading fast, but I wanted to see it all so I could make sure she paid for every vile moment.
I couldn't read lips to save my life, so I had no idea what she said to the woman as she closed her hand around her heart.
Whatever it was, it made the woman's face turn from anguished to fearful. She knew she was about to die, and she was upset about it, but she hadn’t been scared.
Whatever had been whispered in her face terrified her.
She died quickly without a heart. Vampires could survive almost anything. Not that.
The soldiers dropped her lifeless body and walked out of the room, picking up their dead and injured on the way.
I stood in the bedroom as it slowly faded from the imprint of the events a few hours before into the blood-soaked room the vampire investigators had left. The bodies were gone.
They'd left something on the bed. I leaned forward, ready to collapse, and stared at the red blob lying on the thick comforter.
It was the woman's heart.
"I'm so sorry, Kane," I whispered as I fought to keep my consciousness. "It was Trinity."
To be continued…
Vampires and lycans have warred since the dawn of time.
Mating between a vampire and a lycan is forbidden.
A harem is unheard of.
Until now.
Meet Kane, Voss, Quin, and Jillian.
When a new enemy threatens both the Coven and Pack, will it tear Jillian’s world apart or unite the two races, ending an ancient war?
One-click the series now
Kane
Voss
Quin
Jillian
About Lia Davis
In 2008, Lia Davis ventured into the world of writin
g and publishing and never looked back. She has published more than thirty books, including the bestselling A Tiger’s Claim, book one in her fan favorite Ashwood Falls series. Her novels feature compassionate yet strong alpha heroes who know how to please their women and her leading ladies are each strong in their own way. No matter what obstacle she throws at them, they come out better in the end.
While writing was initially a way escape from real world drama, Lia now makes her living creating worlds filled with magic, mystery, romance, and adventure so that others can leave real life behind for a few hours at a time.
Lia’s favorite things are spending time with family, traveling, reading, writing, chocolate, coffee, nature and hanging out with her kitties. She and her family live in Northeast Florida battling hurricanes and very humid summers, but it’s her home and she loves it! Sign up for her newsletter, become a member of her fan club, and follow her on Twitter @NovelsByLia.
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Also by Lia Davis
Paranormals
Ashwood Falls Series
Winter Eve
A Tiger’s Claim
A Mating Dance
Surrendering to the Alpha
A Rebel’s Heart
Divided Loyalties