Chapter Forty-Four
News of the latest attacks came long after Connor had gone to bed that night, and he was forced to wake up several members of his leadership team for an emergency meeting at the training center. While he’d prefer to have the meeting at his home, Raven had slept through the call, and he didn’t want to wake her. He also wanted to avoid waking Fang and Luna’s new cubs. He and Raven had wanted to leave them in the section of the woods only the nymphs could see, but they were family, and the wolves refused to stay away from them. Connor would be lying if he didn’t admit that he found great comfort having the wolf cubs close by, not to mention the comfort he got from Fang.
Fang walked beside him into the training center, where Shelby, Simon, and Jack were already waiting. He’d known them his entire life, or so it seemed. Many vampire children had been abandoned back in the days of the vampire reservations, but his mom’s big heart hadn’t allowed her to watch them suffer. Shelby’s mate, Carla, had also been taken in by his mom and normally met with them on important matters like this, but she was home with their adopted teen daughter, Faith, who was nearly nine months pregnant. Mark and Danny, two of the humans who had come with Raven, entered next. Connor still had a hard time remembering Danny wasn’t human—unless he sparred with Danny. It was hard to forget Danny wasn’t human then. Normally, he’d also call in Rand and Norah, but Norah throwing up earlier meant she needed Rand by her side.
“I’d tell you this had better be important, but I assume you wouldn’t wake me up if it weren’t,” Shelby grumbled with her arms crossed in front of her chest. Her reddish-brown hair was pulled back from her face, making her green eyes stand out even more against her mocha skin.
Connor nearly laughed because it was the truth. Shelby could be more than a little scary on a good day, and she’d never handled being woken up well. Since she’d been working her ass off with the newer fighters this last week, he figured she had even more reason to be annoyed about missing sleep. It seemed unwise to point out that, after Faith had her baby, Shelby would be getting even less sleep.
“As you all know, we had some stragglers left at Roger’s settlement,” Connor began. “There were some who refused to leave because they didn’t trust us to keep them safe.”
“That’s why we haven’t burned that hell hole to the ground yet,” Simon muttered angrily. “Stupid humans should just move on or they’ll end up getting killed. There’s no protection for them there.”
“Something tells me there aren’t any more stragglers,” Jack said, his blue eyes looking far too serious. Jack had a way of seeing the good in things and had an innocence the rest of them had lost after years of abuse at the vampire reservation. Even his appearance seemed younger than the rest of them, with brown hair that curled ever so slightly, high cheekbones, and a youthful face. Still, Jack was visibly shaken by this news, likely because he’d been working on convincing the remaining humans to move to a safer location. He’d spent time with them, and knew not only the distrustful adults, but the young children who were trapped there by their parents’ ignorance.
“No, there won’t be any need to move them,” Connor agreed with a sigh of frustration. “One human made it out, a young girl. According to her, everyone else was slaughtered by vampires.”
“How did she make it all the way here?” Simon asked, sounding skeptical. Connor understood Simon’s doubt since even children were occasionally used as weapons.
“A strange woman found her wandering around alone,” Connor explained. “The girl said the woman told her Quinn would protect her.”
“Why Quinn?” Danny was instantly on alert. “Who the hell was this strange woman?”
“According to the girl, the woman’s name is Winter, but I have no way of confirming that since the woman took off before the guards could ask any questions.”
“That is strange,” Danny mused. “Winter is the mage who saved our asses, but Quinn got the impression she was leaving the area. I wonder why she’s still here.”
“Not a clue, but the girl was lucky Winter was around. I’m not sure the girl would have survived if she’d continued wandering around the woods alone.”
“Where is the girl now?” Shelby asked.
“One of the human families has her,” Connor replied. “I haven’t spoken to her at all yet because it seemed like a good idea to keep her away from vampires for the time being. She’s clearly terrified. All of my information has come from the human family who has her. The girl would only tell the guard she needed to see Quinn. Naturally, they called me.”
While he’d been tempted to call Quinn, Danny wouldn’t let her see the girl alone.
“So, we have another turned vamp outbreak?” Jack asked.
“That’s what I thought at first,” Connor began, “but from what the couple the girl is staying with told me, these vampires were far from feral.”
“That lying bastard,” Danny grumbled.
“Did anyone really expect that slimy little fuck to keep his promise to behave?” Shelby spat out.
Mark looked thoughtful. “This doesn’t make any sense. Abram’s got it good on Treasure Island, and he has to realize we can destroy him easily now that we aren’t being held back by the rules of the vampire council.”
“You’re right about it not making any sense, and that’s part of the reason we’re meeting about this tonight. I don’t honestly know Abram well enough to know if he’d do something like this. I’m going to take a team out to the old vampire reservation to investigate in the morning, and I’m going to send another team over to talk to Nate and his friends. They may have a better idea of what Abram is capable of and how unstable he is. It’s always possible he’s behind this, but my gut says he’s not.”
“Sounds like a good plan,” Jack agreed. “We also need to take care of the bodies.”
“Yes, we do,” Connor agreed, not looking forward to the task. There were many reasons they needed to do that quickly. Without knowing what type of vampire was involved in the attack, they couldn’t be sure the victims wouldn’t rise as turned vampires in three days. “We’re more likely to run into trouble there, so I’ll take a larger team. We’ll search for any survivors who might be hiding, and then we’ll torch the place. That’ll take care of two problems at once.”
Jack nodded. “I’d like to go with you in case there are survivors.”
“Hell no!” Shelby answered for him. “You’ve got a wife and two kids at home.”
Jack also wasn’t their best fighter, largely due to the fact that he often allowed emotion to get in the way. Connor suspected that was one of the biggest reasons Shelby was against him going out with them, but she wasn’t likely to say that. While Connor agreed Jack’s emotions would prevent him from ever fighting on the same level as Shelby, that wasn’t why he was leaving him behind. He trusted Jack to do what he needed to in a fight, but he only had three people he trusted to manage the morning patrols, and Shelby and Simon were the better fighters of the three.
“I’m the most diplomatic and least scarred by that place,” Jack argued.
“You’re not going out tomorrow, Jack,” Connor told him. “I called you here because I need you to organize the patrol teams in the morning. Someone on leadership needs to handle business here. I’m going to wake some people up early to go out to the vampire reservation with me while Shelby and Mark talk to Nate.”
“Fuck that!” Shelby snapped. “I am not going to come back here and have you ask me to repeat everything Nate said. You’re the one who needs to make decisions based on what he says about Abram. For the record, I’m not sure why you don’t just call him.”
“Because Nate may have other people there who can give us information,” Connor explained. “I’m going to call him to make sure he has everyone who can help us together in the morning.”
Nate was at the island settlement Danny and Mark had grown up on. They’d recently moved many of the people who had been living under Roger’s rule back there
after Roger was killed. While they weren’t as distrustful of the born vampires as they had been initially, many still appreciated having a place to live away from Connor and his other followers. To say their loyalty was reluctant would be an understatement, and he wanted to make sure none of them were involved with these attacks. It was an unusual situation, since many of the displaced residents from Treasure Island were also living there, and they definitely had differing views. So far, there hadn’t been any issues.
The problem he had sending his friends to Roger’s settlement was that it had been located at the old vampire reservation—a place they’d suffered greatly. As much as he hated his friends going there without him, Shelby was right. “Fine, I’ll go talk to Nate with Mark. The rest of you will have ten others with you. If it looks dangerous, call in for backup, I’ll have two more teams on standby.”
“Maybe we can get one of the shifters to go with us to see if they can scent anything. They might be able to tell us which type of vampire was involved with the attack,” Simon suggested.
“Good idea,” Connor said. “Bring Layla with you and see if Jase finds her. Those shifters have an uncanny knack for that.”
“Why not just grab Zane?” Simon asked. “Layla mentioned he’s here.”
Connor shook his head. “He won’t leave now. As you already know, he came to us with a strange female.”
They all nodded.
“I figured Zane would be bored with her by now,” Simon remarked.
Danny let out a snort of laughter, likely because he knew that wasn’t going to happen.
“Zane marked her when she was in the hospital,” Connor explained, a statement that was met with silence from everyone. “He won’t leave her.”
“Okay, so Zane is useless for the time being,” Simon said. “What time do you need us back here?”
“Half past six.” Connor wasn’t surprised by the groans. They’d all be lucky to get another three hours of sleep. “Go home and rest. Make sure you’re all fully armed when you show up—even you, Mark.”
As Connor watched his friends leave, he couldn’t shake the bad feeling he’d had since he’d gotten the call about the attack. That was part of the reason he’d been so determined to be in the group going to the old vampire reservation. Instead, he’d be safe while he friends walked into danger. Knowing Shelby was right didn’t change how much he hated it.
Chapter Forty-Five
After talking to Nate and several others at the island settlement, Connor was convinced they hadn’t been involved with the slaughter. Still, he had a hard time believing Abram would be this stupid, and those who were most familiar with Abram seemed to agree.
“We really should figure out a way to rebuild the bridge to the island,” Mark remarked as they parked the jeep so Connor could lock the gate to the tunnel. Mark jumped out with him to watch his back.
The bridge had been destroyed nearly a century ago in an attempt to make the island less accessible. In truth, the island wasn’t that far from the mainland, and one could easily swim across, but that had been dangerous for many reasons over the years. People had been known to kill those who got too close to that stretch of the island. In order to make a bridge safe, they’d need to get better security over there.
“I guess we’ll have to do something soon,” Connor said. “This tunnel is in pretty bad shape.”
Connor had just locked the gate when three vampires leapt from the top. Mark knocked him out of the way and managed to get a knife in the heart of one with impressive speed. Mark might be human, but he was a good fighter, and Connor was glad to have him for back up. With only three feral vampires, Connor wasn’t too worried about their ability to take them down.
Pulling his handheld crossbow, Connor fired at one of the remaining two vampires, hitting her in the throat. Mark wasted no time following through with a knife to the heart. That just left one turned vamp. These mindless vampires didn’t have the ability to reason things out or realize they were fighting a losing battle. While some still had the ability to form sentences shortly after rising as undead killers, even then, they rarely had enough sense to know when to give up. That made them more dangerous because there was no way to get them to back down.
“Blood,” the vampire rasped out, spittle flying through the air with each word. Mark was facing off with him, and Connor used that distraction to fire the crossbow at the vampire’s back, hitting him in the heart. The vampire dropped immediately, and Connor was just about to commend Mark on his reaction time when another vampire launched himself from the top, taking Mark to the ground.
Connor moved quickly to yank the vampire off of Mark, but he was too slow. The vampire’s fangs sank into the side of Mark’s neck, and Mark let out a guttural shout as he jerked back and managed to head butt the vampire, knocking him back slightly.
Connor wasted no time, grabbing the vampire and tossing him onto his back before plunging a knife into his heart. After making sure all the vampires were dead, Connor squatted beside Mark. “You okay to walk?” he asked. Now was not the time to panic. He needed to get Mark to the hospital quickly—not that they could do much if Mark was infected with the Moon virus, but he still felt helpless doing nothing.
“Quit looking at me like I’m dying.” Mark flashed a wobbly smile, obviously trying for tough, but sounding shaken.
“I’ll feel better once we get you checked out,” Connor insisted as he helped his friend to his feet and walked him to the jeep.
“I’ve been vaccinated,” Mark reminded him.
Connor wasn’t sure what to say to that. In theory, Mark couldn’t contract the Moon virus after being vaccinated, but there had been exceptions.
As soon as they were both in the jeep, Connor made the first of two calls.
Nate answered on the first ring.
“You forget something?” he asked.
“No,” Connor said. “We were just attacked by a small group of feral vamps right outside the tunnel. I need you to get a team out here to make sure there aren’t any others in the area. We killed four. I’d stay to help you, but Mark was bitten.”
“Shit!” Nate nearly shouted. “He was vaccinated like Raven’s other humans, right?”
“Yeah,” Connor replied. “He still needs to get checked out.”
“I’ll get a team together now,” Nate assured him. “Keep me updated on Mark.”
“Will do.” Connor ended the call before placing the next one to Jack.
“Hey, Con,” Jack answered in his usual cheerful voice.
“I need you to get things set up at the hospital and have Dr. Moon meet us.” Connor barked out the order. “I’m heading there now with Mark, who was bitten by a feral vampire.” There’d been a time when they’d just assumed all turned vampires were feral, but there were now several exceptions to that rule.
“I’m on it,” Jack assured him and hung up.
“How are you holding up?” Connor asked.
“Promise me something, Connor,” Mark said.
“What’s that?” Connor asked.
“If I die, make sure I don’t rise as one of those things,” Mark practically pleaded.
“I won’t let that happen, my friend,” Connor assured him, hating that he was even having to worry about this. There wasn’t a day that he regretted calling Mark his friend, but life really had been much easier before he had human friends.
Chapter Forty-Six
Today, Lexi had woken up determined to learn how to use everything in the kitchen. The only problem she’d run into was the lack of supplies. This was one of those rare times she was grateful for the guard at the door. Zane was still sleeping, even though it was nearly noon, so she peeked her head out the door, and found Quinn talking to a woman with fiery red hair, freckles, and dark glasses covering her eyes.
“Good morning,” she called out, and was relieved when both the vampire and Quinn smiled at her. The flash of fang made it obvious the redhead was a vampire.
“Did you
need something?” the vampire asked without introducing herself, so Lexi assumed she wasn’t interested in making friends.
“Yes,” Lexi began. “I need someone to show me how to use the stuff in this kitchen. I’m tired of eating cold food.”
Quinn let out a little huff. “I cannot believe Connor didn’t think to have someone show you how to use anything in the kitchen. Doesn’t Zane know how to heat things up?”
Lexi had to laugh at Quinn’s outrage on her behalf. “No, Zane has no clue how this stuff works. Some of it’s similar to what I had, but I’m worried I’ll screw something up. I also have no eggs, milk, butter, flower, or a bunch of other stuff.”
Quinn pulled out her phone and fiddled with it before the vampire interrupted her. “If you tell me what you need, I’ll have someone deliver it right away.”
Lexi gave the guard a smile. “Thank you.”
The vampire merely shrugged and took Lexi’s list.
It wasn’t long before Lexi had learned how to get the retractable grill on the stove to come out, and she had pancakes cooking.
She’d heard the shower upstairs as soon as she started cooking, so she wasn’t surprised when Zane walked into the kitchen.
“Good morning, angel,” he murmured.
“Ahem!” Quinn huffed. “How about a good morning for your favorite cousin who taught your mate how to use the kitchen?”
Lexi cringed at the term mate, and she knew Zane saw her reaction by the shadow that passed over his eyes, but he quickly masked his reaction.
Zane grinned at Quinn. “Glad you’re finally doing something useful,” he teased. “Quinn has always been like an annoying little sister.”
Quinn snorted. “You’d know annoying.”
“If you two can’t behave, I won’t let you have any pancakes,” she scolded playfully.
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