Chris’s scent inundated the room and fanned off him as well. But she wasn’t in it. “I would like to speak with Chris, where is she?”
Again, fingers fidgeted with his hair. I noticed the red mark on his neck, on the opposite side of the previous one. He flushed when I focused on it before looking back at him.
“Just a minute, I’ll go get her.” He started toward the back of his house, and I moved in farther, watching him go down the hall. To the right was his room, to the left a guest room. Vampires didn’t sleep. Quell often said they rested but they didn’t need to do it. I assumed that they were like everyone else and just needed a break. Josh went into his room to get her.
At least Chris was dressed—well, sort of, in a pair of micro shorts and a tank top that was just as flimsy as the shorts. With a disapproving frown, I scrutinized her attire and then went back to Josh. My eyes narrowed on him and he flushed even more, having a difficult time holding eye contact with me. I had no idea what was going on. Had sibling rivalry been reduced to this?
“Give it a rest, Bambi,” she said, moving past Josh. “I’m not sleeping with my ex’s brother. We were just talking.”
She might not have been sleeping with him, but there was definitely something going on between them. Steven had once accused me of being drawn to Quell feeding from me, which I’d considered an absurd accusation at the time, but it was the very thing that drew people to become part of the Seethe’s garden. They agreed to be used by the vampires as food or whatever else was required of them. Some did it with the hope of one day being changed and others because of the euphoria it offered. I couldn’t get past the pain to find pleasure in it; but Josh, whose body was a multitude of tattoos and piercings, was a tribute to an appreciation of, or at the very least a lack of aversion to pain.
If that was the case, I wasn’t sure how to address it, either. Even if I wanted to, I wasn’t going to be able to, because after Chris had sat on the counter in front of me, Josh took that as his cue to leave.
“So what do you need, Bam—”
She bit off the rest of the words when I glared at her. I didn’t need her insults—I was trying to save her life. “Do you understand what Ethan and Sebastian are asking of you?”
“Of course, I was there, remember?”
Her eyes were just as dark and weighted as the wry smile she gave me. “Bambi, I’m okay with it, but you seem to have a problem with it.”
I didn’t want to admit it, especially under her judgmental gaze. The whole thing was dangerous, and in the end she could be sacrificing her life for something that wasn’t guaranteed. I could feel her eyes on me, and they were so intense it felt like she knew it all before I could confirm or rebut it.
With a lazy smile, she asked, “Do you think my life is worth more than yours?”
I shook my head. “But I don’t think that someone should sacrifice their life for something that is uncertain.”
“You don’t know that until we actually try it,” she offered. She fidgeted with her hand. When she finally spoke again, it was in a whisper. “If things were reversed you would do it for me. Whether you deny it or not, I know it. I don’t understand you. I really don’t get you.” She sighed and hopped off the counter. “And I doubt I ever will. But you had an opportunity to hurt me—and I’ve given you more than enough reasons to want to—and you didn’t.” She shrugged. “I guess this is me repaying the favor. I hate debt.”
“You’ve already repaid me.”
With a half-grin, she brushed off the comment. When she moved closer to me as the grin faded, I watched her with caution. Chewing her words, she made a face as though they were rancid, and when she finally let them fall from her lips, they were so soft I really had to focus to hear them. It was as if she wanted them for her ears only.
“I guess,” she started out slowly, “of the people I know, I would be disappointed if you came this far and died. Honestly, when I first met you I really didn’t expect you to survive the year. You’ve survived, quite surprisingly, especially for someone like you. Impressive.”
“Thank you?” I was sure there was a compliment interwoven in her little speech.
“Bambi, if you’re going to be killed, I think you’ve proven you deserve a death better than one at the hands of”—she scowled—“Logan.” She said his name with the disgust of someone who had just taken a whiff of soured milk. “I’d like to make sure that doesn’t happen.” She backed up toward the hallway, refusing to look at me. I heard a door shut and fought the urge to see which was closed, the guest bedroom’s or Josh’s.
When I slipped back into bed, Ethan asked, “Did you get the closure you needed?”
I didn’t answer. Maybe he was talking in his sleep.
He turned, his lips kinked into a knowing smirk. I just wanted to wipe off his haughty smile. “You’re more predictable than I even imagined,” he said.
The insults were coming fast and hard tonight. “I know why we’re doing it, but don’t ask me to be okay with it.”
He studied me for a moment and the smirk fell, giving way to a gentle, sympathetic smile. Just when I was starting to feel inured and prepared for everything, this Logan business had thrown things off course. Those thoughts stayed with me.
Less than forty-eight hours after we’d delivered Chris to an elated Logan, my conscience and my stomach were still unsettled. Everyone else seemed to have left whatever apprehensive feelings they had at the door. Filtering out the disdain each time I looked at anyone was getting harder. I focused on the end result: Chris had the sleeper with her. All she had to do was place it on him, and this part of it would be over.
Brushing thoughts of Chris aside, as I sat in the living room of the pack’s home, I refocused my attention on Gavin, who was talking and pacing. He directed his question to Josh. “What do you think?” They’d gone back to the place where we had seen the feral woman.
“The ward is strong. I felt a lot of strong magic, too.”
“Then it has to be the witches,” Gavin surmised. He was just searching, in need of a lead. With so many possibilities, he seemed desperate to narrow it down.
“I didn’t feel witch magic when I was there,” I said.
“I didn’t, either,” Josh said before turning to address me and Winter. “There isn’t any activity in there, either. We were there for several hours, and nothing.”
“Not even in the location we told you about?” I asked.
Josh shook his head. “Seeing you must have made them more cautious. I didn’t break the ward because it would have alerted whoever erected it. But I suspect there is a house deeper in the forest.” Strong wards made with blood were directly connected to the person who created them, and if they were broken, the creator felt physical pain. I’d seen it happen to Josh, when the one around the pack’s home was compromised.
“Do you know who owns the property?” Sebastian asked from a chair across the room, keeping a watchful eye on Gavin. He was frustrated, which was to be expected, but he wasn’t of any use if he allowed it to dictate his actions. “If we have that information, we might be able to find out if it’s the witches or someone affiliated with them. We don’t want to go in blindly.” Deep creases formed on Sebastian’s forehead, which happened often when he discussed the witches. They had become a thorn in the pack’s side, and Sebastian’s tolerance for them was running considerably low.
Gavin shrugged. “The geek’s working on finding out.”
“His name is Matthew,” I offered. Gavin dismissed the young man in the same manner he had when we’d taken the guy in with other members of the recently acquired Worgen pack once Sebastian had decided he would no longer allow small packs in the area. They weren’t excited about joining, but the merge was quite easy, and since they were given jobs within the pack, they seemed to like it and assimilated well, or as well as they could. There was no way to put a lovely spin on it: they were weird. Yes, you could call them unique or eclectic, but you wouldn’t be doing those word
s justice. They took weird to an Olympic level. And even Sebastian gave in to the disdain when he heard them speaking to one another in a language that we later identified as Klingon. But they were better with computers than anyone we already had. And Dr. Jeremy seemed to enjoy them because anything he could think of for the infirmary they could build, which had quickly earned them the status of being as valuable as he was.
While everyone had made an effort to make them feel welcome, or as welcome as the pack was capable of, they weren’t going to get a welcome basket or a reassuring handshake, just a somewhat friendly nod or a grunt of acknowledgment. Which worked for them because they weren’t really friendly, either. The small pack of twenty could easily have existed separately as lone were-animals.
“If there is a house or something behind the ward, you can’t be sure that Kelly is in there. We can’t just go in without more information,” Sebastian told Gavin in a calm voice because Gavin was becoming increasingly agitated and was being controlled by impulse, not logic.
“We should go in just because there’s something terribly wrong going on,” Winter suggested with the same look of disgust she’d had after we’d seen the feral woman. “If Kelly is in there, we really need to get her out.”
Sebastian sighed heavily, his fingers steepled as he considered the situation. It was a problematic one, because whatever was going on, it needed to be addressed. However, if we became involved in something else that wasn’t a pack priority, like finding Kelly, resources would be spread thin. Depending on whether or not our involvement caused an onslaught of other problems, it might not be something that even needed to be addressed at the moment. I understood Sebastian’s and Ethan’s pragmatic thinking even though I didn’t always agree with it.
When Sebastian’s phone rang, he looked at it, and there was just a glimpse of a frown before it faltered and he became professionally stoic. “Chris?”
It wasn’t Chris on the other line. “I am not amused,” Logan said. Cold, harsh anger edged his words. Ethan winced at his voice as it came over the speaker because it was an indicator that Chris had failed. Then Logan hung up.
Josh, Ethan, Winter, Sebastian, and I entered Logan’s home without waiting for an invitation once we knocked. He looked up from the floor, his anger palpable as magic coursed through the air, forming thick, stifling clouds in the house. He was having a difficult time holding his human form, and seeing the massive misshapen jaw peeking through, horns that appeared and disappeared, and the misshapen face that fought to hold on to its attractive human features made it very difficult to focus on what I needed to—Chris. She was on the ground with a stake through her heart. Several half-empty blood packs were scattered throughout the room. It looked like he was bringing her back from reversion only to send her back into it. I didn’t know what it felt like for vampires, but I’d seen Quell’s and Michaela’s tortured appearances when they went through it.
“Step away from her,” Sebastian’s icy voice demanded.
“No. She is mine. This deceitful little bitch will not get away with her treachery, and neither shall you. The curse of the lunar eclipse will happen and I will have my vengeance as I watch all of your kind expire in the very way the Faeries saw fit for such treacherous animals to die. You will be put down.”
I had no idea what he was talking about, and even Sebastian and Ethan looked stunned by the ramblings of this madman. His eyes were fiery with anger.
A strike of Josh’s magic hit him, sending him soaring into the air. Logan’s eyes glowed, the variegated marks on his arms coiled and wrapped around them, his lips moved fervently, and then he stomped his foot on the ground. Magic rose from it, thick waves of it. A tsunami sent us all crashing to the ground. The marks glowed, and we were readying for another onslaught of magic when the sofa smashed into him. He was sent hurling across the room and slammed into the wall on the opposite side of it. Blood spilled from his nose and cuts on his head and hand.
“Careful,” Ethan urged, watching as control slipped from his brother’s grasp. “Josh?” Ethan’s tone was sharper and more commanding as he tried to force his brother back into a controlled state. Josh took a slow breath as he kept Logan fastened to the wall. Logan was relaxed, too relaxed, his eyes illuminated and drifting from bright lilac to black. The magic felt dark as it slowly moved around him, and the smell of necrosis seeped into the room. Something pierced my skin, causing pain so intense bile crept into my throat. We all doubled over. Blood rolled down my cheeks. I choked on the pain, and although he’d said he wouldn’t kill us, allowing fate to have its way with us instead, it felt as though he was trying.
Ethan forced himself to stand with a growl and lobbed the kitchen table at Logan. It exploded midair, but the Tre’ase was distracted and missed the large serpent that had darted in his direction. She struck, and he clung to the wall, trying to keep himself from succumbing to her venom. Incantations fell from his lips and weak magic pulsed off of him, soon becoming diluted brushes of it that stained the air before he collapsed to the ground.
Josh ran over to Chris. Reversion had taken over half her body, and she no longer had the use of her hands. She grimaced in pain as she attempted to move them. He grabbed a blood pack and put it to her lips, but she was too weak to open it. I ripped open another pack with my teeth and handed it to him. The bit of blood that seeped into my mouth was a reminder that part of me craved it. I shivered, trying to shrug off the feeling I often staved off with bloody rare meat. The metallic flavor of it and the desire to taste it again lingered on my palate. I turned away from Josh and licked the remainder from my lips.
Three packs later, she was whole but still hungry, and it was evident in the way she looked at Josh and buried her face into his neck as he helped her up. “Later,” he whispered. I wasn’t sure what was going on with Chris and Josh, but they were wading in very complicated and distorted waters.
“The Tod Schlaf is in his bedroom,” Chris offered as she pulled herself up to stand. Sebastian quickly went there and returned a few minutes later with it carefully grasped between his hands. We placed it on Logan and waited for a couple of hours to see if he would awake. No one wanted to travel with him until they knew he wouldn’t wake up.
Dr. Jeremy frowned the moment Sebastian walked into the infirmary with Logan draped over his shoulder, followed by Chris, who moved slowly, even compared to human movement. I wondered how long Logan had tortured her, sending her into reversion, saving her, only to do it again. My stomach felt queasy remembering his disturbing adoration of pain and obsession with death. Had he done it for punishment or his own pleasure? I swallowed the bile that crept up in my throat. I felt queasy because we’d had a hand in this. No, not a hand. We had done this. I had done this.
“What happens now?” Dr. Jeremy asked Josh, after Ethan, Sebastian, and Winter had left. When it came to magic, that was Josh’s job.
“We find a way to unlink him from Kalese.” Josh looked over at Chris, who was crouched in a corner, scanning the area, her nostrils flaring, smelling the blood of donors that she couldn’t use—with the exception of Josh and me. She screwed her eyes closed and kept inhaling deeply. When she looked up again, her eyes fastened on my neck. The aversion she had to feeding from me seemed to have disappeared.
When she shifted to a standing position, I changed my stance, preparing for whatever might happen. She was too unfocused and distracted, which made her more dangerous than usual.
“I can get you blood,” Dr. Jeremy offered, stepping into her line of sight, aware that he wasn’t a viable source of food.
“She’s fine,” Josh said softly, approaching her with the foolish confidence of a person willing to move toward a strong vampire in the throes of bloodlust.
Her eyes zoned in on his neck, and when he was within reach, she grabbed him, pulling him to her. He jerked his hand and magically bound her to the wall. When he spoke, it was low and soothing. “Slow, okay?”
She nodded.
It didn’t really
matter whether it was bloodlust or hunger; Dr. Jeremy and I found a lot of things in the infirmary that became a little more interesting than watching them after he released her from the wall. Her fingers entwined in his hair, she pulled him to her, her lips brushing against his neck, and when she bit him, he moaned. I felt like a voyeur, watching something that was far too provocative and lascivious to be considered a meal.
Dr. Jeremy eventually pulled his eyes from the microscope that had garnered a great deal of his attention as he tried to distract himself from looking at them. He considered them for a long time, the bonding that had surpassed a simple feeding. He stepped out and returned with two blood packs, which he wedged between the pair, keeping them there until they became enough of an annoyance that Chris unlatched from Josh’s neck.
She took them and quickly sank her fangs into each, draining them within seconds. Josh watched. I waited for him to move, and for a moment I suspected he was going to take them from her and offer himself again. So did Jeremy.
“Josh, you should probably figure out a way to unlink Logan from the heart quickly, just in case the sleeper doesn’t have the same effect on him as it had on Gideon and Kelly,” he urged, nudging him toward the door.
Moon Cursed (Sky Brooks Series Book 5) Page 12