by Devyn Dawson
Chrissy looked at me and back at Rain. “I think you have it all wrong Rain, I’m not a healer. Not a good one at least.”
“You will be, you have the added benefit to hear animals. Do you have any idea how astonishing that is? We’d be able to travel to China and find out what is wrong with Ming Shi the panda and why he isn’t mating with Thuy. We could go to horse farms and find out why their champion mare isn’t eating. You can help so many animals, and humans, it is momentous we’ve found you.”
As Rain talked, I could see the excitement building on Chrissy’s face. Her eyes were actually twinkling with the prospect of helping animals.
“You really believe that don’t you?” Chrissy asked.
“Yes, I do. We don’t have a lot of time; the vampires are getting anxious and will be announcing their existence soon. With all of the werewolves around, someone is bound to notice. This place is littered with supernaturals and many are bound to the vampires for one reason or another. Chrissy, do you accept this offer?” Rain asked.
“Yes, yes I do.” Chrissy said as she squeezed my hand that was resting on her lap.
“I need you to hold out your wrist,” Rain said as she dug around in her purse. “I’m going to mark you.” She pulled out a small case that held a little tool I assumed was a tattoo gun, some ink and purple vinyl gloves.
“Mark me? As in you plan on tattooing me?” Chrissy asked hesitantly.
“Yes, how else would you get this on your wrist? Those needles and the ink process is time consuming and I don’t have a lot of time, thus the gun.”
I watched as Rain worked with precision in tattooing Chrissy. Every once in a while, Chrissy would mentally say a rhythmic ow, ow, ow; it took all of fifteen minutes for her to finish and clean up her wrist. Everyone was tatting up these days, but I couldn’t see enjoying the process. I had been thinking about having my inner circle tattooed to signify those that work with the Great Wolf. I hadn’t told anyone yet; maybe when we got back to Oklahoma we’d do it. Rain told us she had to activate the artwork and we had to sit quietly until it worked. She put her hand on Chrissy’s wrist and chanted quietly. She removed her hand and the tattoo began to glow just like Rain’s.
“Abel, I realize your status, but I’m going to ask you to leave the room. I need to go over a few things with her and we need to be alone. Oh, one more thing,” she leaned forward and touched my forehead with her thumb.
“Bye Chrissy, bye Rain, I’m going to go find something to eat and make sure we’re all on the same page.”
Chapter 31. Enemies
“There was once an enchantress, who had three sons who loved each other as brothers, but the old woman did not trust them, and thought they wanted to steal her power from her.” The Crystal Ball ~ Grimm’s Household Tales
PRU
“Dammit to hell, I am not going to send Abel into that building alone. Gus and I will go in there,” I said as loud as possible without sounding like I was yelling. “Over here we have the Jackson pack, which I barely met two hours ago, and I’m entrusting them to protect not only Abel’s parents but my mom too. Do you have any idea how much they hate the Phelan name? From what my father told me of them, they blame us for the demise of their family. Not to mention the minute they arrived, the short asshat over there,” I said as I pointed to the little guy in the corner with his arms crossed. “He had the audacity to hit on me. We are here to keep the vampires from outing themselves and to find Abel’s sister and Mr. Horndog thinks he can hit on me.” Gus set his hand on my back to calm me down. I knew without looking that Oakley was trying to keep his cool. “Someone better explain to me really fast as to why I’m to entrust them with my family?”
For the next ten minutes I listened to the blathering of Patrick and the douche-alpha Jackson guy. I was really tired of so many people being involved. The whole thing sounded like a suicide mission. I was startled out of my thoughts when a shrill ringing sound echoed down the hall. What the hell now? Was there anyone in Paris that didn’t know where the O’Connell pack was at?
“Prudence, everything is fine. This is a safe-house for supers. I thought you knew that. Patrick and his business partner own it and rent it out to packs, covens, whatever needs help and protection from the vampires. Demons and vampires are forbidden, and to assure they are not allowed on the land, the entire place is blessed. Every single tree, building, pavement, item on this land has been blessed. I’m pretty positive that whoever is at the door is unaffiliated with either,” mom said.
“Gotcha, okay, that makes more sense now. I want to curl up and go to sleep for a little while. Are we going back or staying here overnight?”
“We’re going to stay here to sleep, but will go to the house to make an appearance. I had been shopping before you arrived and I have tons of those bags with the handles on them. We’ll go to the house with the bags opened up like we have been on a shopping spree. It will cover us for being gone so much.”
“You’re good mom. You got a side job with the CIA or something? You have answers for every dilemma.” We laughed quietly as Abel, Patrick and douche-bag discussed alpha business. I ran my hand through my hair, remembering I cut it all off. It still felt strange not being able to pull it up in a ponytail. “Holy hell, what the hell is she doing here?” I scrambled to my feet, ready to pounce at the drop of a dime.
“This is my friend Mylandra, she is my informant within Pascale’s clan,” Kenneth said.
“Of course she is.” I rolled my eyes at this new bit of trivia. Could I just scream, just one little scream at the top of my lungs as to how ludicrous this was turning out to be. Thankfully, the alphas finished their little get together in time to hear about Kenneth’s friend Mylandra.
We all gathered again, this time to listen to Mylandra and her Jamaican accent tell us about Allie and what the plan was.
“De vampire Pascale is a ruthless man; he’ll kill you if you look at him sideways. I tried to stop him from turning that poor gairl Allie. He had no care bout what I say. I did everything to make her want to leave, but dis gairl has mind of her own. You might dink you have it figured out, but he is smart man. I can tell you doe, not all de vampires want to go public. They dink it will be mass chaos and humans will go after dem and kill dem. Pascale says no, he can fix it. Dare is a big convention in Paris dis week. Day are planning on controlling dem with dare eyes. You know they can do dat?” She had her finger wagging at me like mean old schoolteacher I saw in a movie once.
“Tell me more.” I said.
“They can make you do what they want, make you believe dem. I seen it, it is no good.” She shook her head back and forth, mumbling to herself every once in a while. Her big retro afro was en-trend the way she wore it. I bet she was no taller than five feet and her hair put her at about five seven. At the museum she had on stilettos, she replaced them with a pair of Adidas. “I unnerstand dat Pascale will convince de politicians and dignitaries dat vampires are good and can help wid de prison population problems. He tell dem dat they only feed on da murderers and baby lovers. He wants a press conference held and de important men will announce to the de world for dem. You must stop it before it happens. He don’t wanna live in secret, but my secret and your secret will scare de humans. We all suffer if we are found out.” She stopped to take a drink of her water. “Allie don wanna leave Pascale, she dink she love him. Maybe she do, I’m no judge. He likes her yes, love her? I donno. He wanna kill Dolinda, I don’t know why, but he does. You protect her, but none of you is safe. I go now, he dinks I’m getting herbs for potions.” She looked up and locked eyes with Rain. Rain nodded her head yes and told Mylandra to meet her in the other room for a minute.
“I’m going to go find a place to curl up and sleep for a few hours. I’ve had enough craziness I can handle today. Mom, you should try to get some rest too. The energy from the run isn’t going to help if you don’t sleep.” I kissed her on the cheek. Oakley and I found an unoccupied room with a twin sized bed. It would’ve been wa
ll to wall bed if it were any bigger. “You think they converted a closet into a bedroom? I can’t believe how damn tired I am.” I kicked off my shoes using each foot to pull the other shoe off. Mom hated it when I did that. She was always telling me I was going to ruin my shoes. Screw the shoes.
“Holy cow; that is the smallest bed I’ve ever slept in, minus my crib. Looks like we’ll be spooning.” He grinned ear to ear. “Not complaining, nope. My lips are sealed, unless you’d like to press your pretty lips against them. I’m all about that, sleep can wait.” He lifted his eyebrows up and down, trying to be funny.
“Hmmm, sounds good…tomorrow. Definitely tomorrow. Rain-check please.” I collapsed on the bed, taking note that it might be small, but it had a good mattress. I fought to keep my eyes open until Oakley laid down next to me.
“I was beginning to think you’d never fall asleep love. How’s my little wolfy doing?” Arien asked.
There I stood in middle of a rose garden. The wrought iron fence that surrounded the garden was painted white and was taller than me. Isles of roses in every color decorated the established garden. “You! Arien, why are you here?” Apparently crazy will find you in the most unexpected places. In a blink of an eye, he was next to me. He took me into his arms and started swaying me back and forth. “If you don’t want me to dream-vomit on you, I’d suggest you stop. Arien, I don’t have the patience for you tonight, so tell me why you’re here.”
“Love, you’re so bossy. Can’t a vampire want to spend time with you? Do I always have to have a reason for being with you?” He stepped back and folded his arms in front of him, pouting as he looked away.
“Nice. Spit it out,” I said, mimicking his stance. Why is it that vampires in books are either deceivingly beautiful and nice or beautiful and have an agenda. I’ve never read about gruesome, big pored, low self-esteemed creatures of the night, and sadly Arien was worthy of book vampires.
He turned to face me and grinned, his fangs glistened with spittle. “Oh, you know me so well Prudence. Fine. You wouldn’t know why there are werewolves arriving in Paris would you?”
“You wouldn’t know anything about a hit on my mother would you?” I countered as venomous as possible.
“You have a strong attachment to parents don’t you? Okay, stop looking like that. I hate seeing sadness in your eyes; it makes me all mushy inside.” He gave a dramatic pause, holding his hands over his heart. “Yes, there have been talks about killing your precious little mother. BUT, and yes, there is a but…rumor is that idea has been nixed. Don’t get me wrong, I think she is in danger, but she isn’t the main target. I guess you know that Pascale stole Allie from me.”
“Do you blame him? I read her diary; you were using her to get info about my family.”
“No, I was using her to find out about the Great Wolfy. You’re too serious; you need to relax. You wanna make out?”
I flung my arms up in exasperation. “Hell no, I don’t want to make out. You’re an ASS.”
“There we go again with the name calling. If you knowing my reasons behind Allie will make you stop judging me, I’ll give you some insight.” He took my hand and hooked it through his arm. “Let’s walk, I love rose gardens. Thank you for bringing me here, it always makes me feel warm and fuzzy when you share with me like this.”
I sighed in vexation. Instead of fighting him, I walked with him.
“Allie was an easy target. I’d been watching you for a while, knowing that if anyone would find the highness, it’d be you. When you started hanging out with Abel, I thought it would be easy to get closer and see if you told her any secrets. I can’t help it that I’m so damn charming and cute; I am a vampire after all.” I smacked his arm. “Ow, you’re so rough…I like it.” He rubbed his arm as though it hurt.
“Keep going.”
“If you must know, without hashing it all out, I liked her. I pitied her, which is why I bought her the gifts. She is a good hearted person, and she loved living. I was trying to make her hate me. I brought Pascale into it, hoping he’d help her see that I’m an ass. It backfired, okay! He fell for her, and wanted her in his clutches. I tried to stop it, I was too late. I can’t undo what has been done. If it makes anything any better, she hasn’t killed. She has fed, which is all she needs. Some of us get lost in the process and get drunk from the blood; the lust is too hard to fight. Like my lust for you, I can’t fight it. I want you like I’ve never wanted before. You know that you’re my mortal enemy, but I can’t stop what I feel. It has been too many moons ago for me to remember the last human that has made me want them. Is it that you play hard to get? Possibly. I seek you out to warn you, because now that I’ve found you, I don’t want you to die.”
“You were in on the death of my father!” I yelled.
“No I wasn’t. It was the wolves all alone without vampire endorsement. They thought if they could prove themselves to Pascale, he’d show mercy on them for their shortcomings. I’ve told you before; I had nothing to do with his death.”
I shook my head back and forth, not knowing what to believe. “If what you say is true, you know who the wolves are. Tell me.”
“They have been secured and are in Oklahoma. When you are finished here in Paris, I planned on telling you and taking you to them,” Arien said. We stopped in front of a red rosebush with gorgeous blooms. He plucked one off and handed it to me. His demeanor turned serious. “I don’t want the humans to know about us. I think it will be hard to live in a world of haters. Right now, we are business men, bakers, teachers, so many things. Yes, like you, we have bad vampires that do bad things. We aren’t all bad. Pascale feels differently, and he is planning on coming out two days from now.” He stepped away and took my hand; drawing it up to his mouth he kissed it. “Good luck love. You have company, I need to leave.”
Company? What the hell is going on, when I’m awake there is company, I fall asleep there’s company. Peace and quiet, damn…that’s all I want.
“What the hell was that all about?” Abel asked.
“Abel! You walked into my dream? Awesome!” We’d been trying for months to successfully dream walk together, to no avail.
“Did you not hear me? I asked you what that was about,” he said in anger. His eyes glared at me like a savage beast glares at prey.
“It was nothing; Arien being Arien.” I ran over to where he stood next to the gate.
“Pru, it didn’t look like nothing to me. Are you betraying us?” His stare never left my face.
“Betraying? What are you talking about?” I said through gritted teeth. If I had ever thought of hitting Abel, it was that moment. His words ripped through me like a dagger shredding my heart.
“You were arm in arm with him, you were accepting a rose from him like the Bachelorette…oh and he kissed your hand. It didn’t look like your mortal enemy was too enemy-ish to me.” Abel hopped over the gate and stood in front of me. “What would Oakley think? How about your mom? Tell me before I get really pissed off and remove you from the pack.”
I stood there dumbfounded; kick me out of the pack? Is he freakin nuts? “Oakley and my mom will be happy to know that the bastards that killed my father are locked up in Oklahoma. They’ll be glad to know when the outing is to take place. They’ll be disappointed in our stupid Great Wolf for thinking I’d EVER, and I mean EVER betray my pack. If you are finished flinging the ding-a-ling, I’m done with you. Now, if you don’t mind, get the hell out of MY dream.” I was shaking in anger at him. Who in the hell did he think he was. Okay, so maybe he was the Great Wolf, but it didn’t mean he could waltz into my dream and piss me off.
I woke up and snuggled closer to Oakley, one man in my life that believed in me. Something caught in my hair, I reached up and it pricked me. A red rose.
“Mmmmm, still tired?” Oakley whispered in my ear.
I flipped over to face him. “I’m awake. You sleep okay? Did I snore or do anything humiliating in my sleep?”
His eyes were squinty, he looked boyis
h with his freshly messed up hair. “You slept like you were dead, I literally checked to make sure you were still breathing a couple of times.”
“Seriously? Nope, that would be so anticlimactic to die in my sleep. You know me better than that,” I said half heartedly. “You wouldn’t ever think I’d betray our pack would you?” I arched backwards to see his face better.
His face squished up in confusion. “Of course not. Why would you even ask that?”
I told him about the dream, well, everything except the rose. I don’t know why I kept it a secret, but I did. We tip-toed into the kitchen to find something to eat. It was as if a sleeping gas was released in the house. Everyone was asleep in random places on the floor; one guy was up on the credenza. “I guess everyone must have been tired.”