by Colt, Shyla
“I’m shocked you’re calling me at all. Did you have a sudden change of heart?”
His hopeful tone made her want to knock his head off his shoulders. She rolled her eyes. “Leave the soap opera history on the shelf. We have a serious problem.”
“I’m listening.”
She relayed the past twenty minutes and he listened quietly.
“This sounds like a direct attack. Someone’s teamed up, because last I checked, vampires didn’t use mojo hands.”
“I know. But who or why?”
“With an enemy list as long as ours, anything is a possibility,” he replied.
“I know. Fuck. I can’t even gauge the situation until I get back home.” Were they bombarding everyone, or just her?
“No.”
“What?” she snapped.
“You’re not going in there yourself. The last thing you need to do right now is go there.”
“You gave up rights to tell me shit a long time ago.” She huffed. Unbelievable.
“What I’m telling you is common sense. I know you’re worried, but you’re not thinking smart.”
How dare he? Has he always been such a pompous ass? “I’m the last line of defense right now. Unlike you, I don’t turn my back on people,” she spat back over the phone.
“Low blow.”
“True statement.”
“Fine, but not helping. Where are you?”
“Let’s see how rusty you are. You want to catch up with me before I get there?”
“Don’t make me chase you when we both know I’ll catch you.”
Anger flared in her belly. What did he think she’d been doing while he was gone? Forgetting how to do her job? She couldn’t come up with a plan of attack without some sort of observation. She flipped her phone over, turned off the data, and smirked. Good luck with that, asshole.
~* * * *~
Jaegar smirked. Right about now, she’d be shutting down all her programs, but he’d tracked down her whereabouts as soon as he called the first time. He was an hour ahead of her. Plus, A.J. didn’t stand a chance against his Nova. Her pension for grocery getters amused him. Her sedan might get better gas mileage and be the ultimate camouflage, but who wanted to live their life out of one? It used to be a game between them. An argument with no fire about whose car they were going to take out because, in the end, they both knew he would win.
The Noble had money. As long as you remained within the clan, it was never a concern. Though, they did take a vow of modesty. They weren’t rocking the latest designer of shopping at Saks. But it was always enough. He had a rude awakening when he lived on his own. Still, he didn’t regret it. He needed to know what was out there to figure out where he truly belonged and who he was. When your whole life is planned for you, eventually it’s easy to feel completely lost. He hit a wall where he couldn’t get up and fake it anymore. The only real thing he’d ever had was Brigh and, in the end, it hadn’t been enough to get her to leave with him. For her, Noble was life. If I want to be with her, I have to dedicate myself to Noble. It was a tradeoff he was willing to pay. He’d sewn his wild oats, worked a nine-to-five, and ignored his training only to realize this was indeed what he’d been born to do. He rolled down the windows to get air and opened up the engine, enjoying the curves in the road while he figured out the best approach to deal with one pissed off Howell heir.
An hour later, he was waiting for her thirty miles outside of their town, named Noble after the cause. She rolled around the bin and he shot out into the middle of the road. She hit the brakes. Their eyes locked in his rear view mirror. Her chocolate brown orbs were full of shock, softness, and then a burning anger that made him cringe. She pulled off to the side of the road and he followed her, blocking her car in.
Her car door swung open and she stepped out. Her black t-shirt clung to her body like a second skin and the skinny jeans highlighted her curves. The black and white tennis shoes with the tiny heart gutted him. They were the last Christmas present he’d ever gotten her. “Hi, Brigh.”
“Save the small talk. Let’s just…figure this out.”
He sighed. “Just like that?”
“Yes. What did you think, that I’d run into your arms and beg you to save me? You know I’m the hero of my own story.” She crossed her arms under her breasts.
“I’m not expecting to sweep in and take over.”
“And yet, here you are.”
“To help.”
“All of a sudden?”
“Yes, because you needed me.”
“I never said that.”
“You didn’t have to. That’s what it means to care about someone.”
“Oh, please. Don’t try to bullshit a bullshitter. I had the same training you did.”
“I get that you’re upset.”
“You get nothing. What I am is nuclear. You want to help? Fine, let’s figure this out. So you can back to hiding in whatever hole you crawled out of.”
“I’m not going back, Brigh. I found what I was looking for.”
She glanced up at him.
“This is where I belong. I understand that now. I want to be here. My heart wasn’t in it before. I needed to walk away and experience life outside of Noble. You must understand that?”
“You know what I know? You walked out on your family. You left me at the altar holding the bag, lying for you like I didn’t know you were never going to make it down the aisle. How could you possibly explain that away to me? Because you were scared? Sick of living under a strict set of rules? Guess what? So was I.” She shook her head. “I’m not going to talk with you about this.” She held her palm out. “Let’s just figure this shit out.”
“Fine, get in the car.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m the wild card. They didn’t plan on me being here.”
“Of course they did. Why else would they track you down?”
“My car is faster—”
“You just got back and you’re already trying to take over? I don’t want or need your input. If you want to come along for the ride, that’s fine. But I’m the one in control of this mission.”
He held up his hands. “All I’m doing is watching your back. The same way I’ve always done.”
“Whatever. We need to get back. The blood wards will keep us safer than we’d ever dream of being out here in the open. The manipulation that works here will fall away once we cross into Noble territory.”
“Fine. I want us in the same car. You want me to leave the Nova…done.” He ground his teeth and counted to ten. She was going to give him hell every step of the way.
“No, my seat is soaked. Just help me transfer my weapons. I’m sure you have plenty of room to accommodate them, right, civi?”
“No. Leaving wasn’t about abandoning who I was—”
“Oh! So, it was just about escaping me?
“I asked you to come with me.” He pointed his finger and followed her to the trunk. “You refused.”
“You knew I would. You take me away from Noble and the foundation crumbles. You know that.” She shook her head. “Why are we arguing about this? It’s done.”
“Because you never even gave me a chance to explain my side of the story.”
She opened the trunk, removed the faux wall, pulled out a few guns, a machete along with various odds and ends, and shoved them into her black duffle. “The only thing that mattered was the fact that our vision for the future changed irreconcilably. You can’t live with one foot in the civi world and one foot in ours. It’s the fastest way to get killed. I wouldn’t be responsible for that. You were supposed to be the yin to my yang, my co-ruler. Do you know the turmoil you thrust Noble into? People were scrambling to look toward someone else to lead. Morale plummeted. You knew we were already on the edge of imploding. How could you deliver another blow?” She double checked the safety on her .45, shoved it into the waistband of her pants, and slammed the trunk closed.
Jaegar raced to his car and open
ed the back of the Nova. He hit a switch and the bottom opened up to reveal rows of neatly stored weapons.
“Okay, that’s nice,” she admitted as she placed her bag inside and stalked to the passenger door.
Shutting the trunk, he jogged around to the driver’s side. For the next thirty minutes, he had the floor and she had no means of escape. This was the time to start repairing the damage and explaining his side of things. He climbed behind the wheel and started the engine. Then, he veered his car onto the road. “We’ve always felt differently about our places in Noble. Maybe because you had your father and mine died when I was ten. My mom was awesome and the men did the best they could to guide me, especially your father, but that one event planted a seed of resentment. I started to wonder why this was my job? Why I had to give up so much for this cause that had taken my childhood, my father, and so many other people we knew and loved. After a while, things began to look bleak. Every day was another one where I woke up and survived without living. That last year…” He swallowed as he paused.
Brigh refused to look at him as her focus remained straight at the road.
“When I left was the worst one by far. I mean—child vamps?” He shuddered. “It broke something in me, stole a piece of my soul. I couldn’t lead like that. I couldn’t be the man you needed me to be. I was lost in a sea of doubt and depression. I had to get my head straight. I tried to fight through it, push it to the back of my mind and keep moving forward the way we always do. But when I woke up that morning, I knew I couldn’t do that to you…to us. We would’ve failed.”
“Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”
He kept his eyes on the road now, unwilling to meet her gaze. The hurt in her voice made him feel miniscule. “It took me a long time to work it all out for myself. Back then, everything was a jumbled mess. I was fighting years of training and teaching. I thought maybe I was a coward, not cut out to wear the title of Noble born.” He shook his head. “It was a terrifying, yet necessary journey.”
“And now what…you’ve got all the answers?”
“Yes. I know I belong here. I know it ate me up inside wondering what was going on back home, if we were winning or losing the battle. Biting my tongue when I saw something wasn’t quite right, but I needed to maintain my cover. There was freedom, but it was an illusion. Once you know what’s there behind the scenes, you can’t ever forget. What we do is a necessary evil. I can see that now and it’s my choice. But I needed that to be content with my lot in life.”
“Needed what, Jag? What was there that I couldn’t give you or offer you?” Her voice shook.
“To feel as if I had a choice.” He risked a glance at her.
Tears pooled in her eyes, making them shimmer. Her lip quivered and the fury he’d seen before lessened.
“We’re not supposed to be weak. We don’t talk about shit like this. I felt like an utter failure. I couldn’t bring it to you when I refused to accept it for myself. It was an internal cesspool I needed to clean out.”
“You can’t just come back. It doesn’t work that way.”
“I’m willing to work for it, Bri. For you. I fucked up, I get that. But you wouldn’t take my calls, open my letters, or read my texts, and I wasn’t ready to come back. Tell me you’ve still got a place in your heart for me. You were the only thing in my life I was every sure about.”
“I can’t.” Her voice cracked. She cleared her throat. “I don’t know, Jag.”
He closed his eyes for a moment. It’s better than a no. “I understand, just give me the chance to win you back, please?”
“It’s not that simple anymore.”
“What do you mean?” They hit the ward line and he held his breath in anticipation of the inevitable nettles. The sensation never came. “What the fuck?”
“Drive faster.”
He pushed the car to one-hundred. The scenery that dotted the landscape was horrifying. Buildings were burned. Bodies lay on the ground, human and other. They’d clearly missed a battle. The question was who won. “How is this possible? The wards—
“Can only be broken from the inside.”
They reached the center of the town and discovered the heart of the battle. Jaegar slammed on his brakes and drifted to the right. He threw the car into park. They jumped out of the car and raced to the trunk.
“Stay within in my sights, Bri. Feel about me however you will. I’ll die protecting you.”
Her jaw ticked, but she gave a curt nod of acknowledgment.
Armed—they made their way into the melee.
CHAPTER THREE
Horror filled her chest. There were so many good people already on the ground. The vampires had caught them unawares, guided in by one of their own. She scanned the area for the turncoat, as if they’d be wearing a scarlet letter. She lifted her bow, took aim, and fired. One of the many swarming bodies fell. The sound of clanking swords, cries of agony, and the thwack of flesh being cut into would haunt her nightmares for the rest of her life. She spotted her father in the center of the fray, neck and neck with a dark-haired man who exuded power.
The man’s eyes flashed amber, announcing his Omega status.
Distracted, she found herself in the air. She landed on the concrete, scraping a layer of the epidermis from her arm and her hand. She rolled onto her back to face her attacker. The suck-face hissed and bared his teeth. She shoved her hand into her pocket, cursing the cold that seeped in through the wet material and the tight fit. “Come get some…fangs,” she whispered.
He rushed forward, blurring as he used supernatural speed. She popped the tab on her bottles and flicked her wrist. He screamed. His skin smoked while she rolled over and gained her feet…not above running to give herself time. She darted toward an opening in the crowd. Her fingers were stiff from the cold and she fumbled as she pulled a new arrow from the quill on her back. She wrestled with the arrow. She got it into place and spun, facing her enemy.
“Time’s up.”
“Not today.” She fired, hitting him square in the heart. Tossing down her bow, she removed her machete and took his head. She grabbed her bow, crouched beside the tree that sheltered her slightly from the battle, and reloaded it as she sought out Jaegar. True to his word, he fought two vamps a few football field lengths away.
“They should protect their precious items better,” a cultured voice with a British accent said, too close to her for comfort.
She stood and pressed her back against the tree to avoid an ambush from behind. She glanced up to see her newest attacker—a gaunt man with milky blue eyes, an angular face, and stern mouth, with a shock of white hair that tumbled down his back.
She’d never laid eyes on him before, but she knew he was ancient.
“Our kind has done this dance for eons. But now I have the upper hand.” He smiled. “It would be a waste to rid the world of such beauty. I think it only fitting that I welcome you to my family.”
“You’d better kill me here and now or, one day, I’ll be the one to take your head.”
“Oh, so fiery. I do like my women with fight.”
“I always liked my men with a pulse. I don’t think we were made for one another.”
“You’re proud now, but I’ll break you. Once the blood cravings start, there’ll be nothing you won’t do for relief.”
She let him run his lips as she waited for an opening. She couldn’t match him speed for speed. So, she had to distract him before she made her move. A black-handled dagger flew between them.
The man hissed. Smoke rose. A thin slash appeared on his cheek and dark red blood oozed down his pale face.
“She’s taken, sucker.”
Jaeger’s voice never sounded do beautiful.
“The prodigal son returns to his ruined kingdom.” The vamp wiped away the blood and licked it off his fingers. Water droplets flew through the air and the vamp dodged Matrix-style. He cried out when her arrow pierced his side, then he flitted away.
Cockiness will always get y
ou slayed.
“Even the fucking monsters want you, Bri.”
“Shut it,” she snapped at Jaegar, jogging back into the fray with him at her side. She held her machete in her hand, relishing the weight and the wicked curve as she sliced foes down at the waist. Blood was a precious commodity to vamps. You got them flowing and they would flee like a puppy with their tail between their legs.
She looked around to spot her father again, and he appeared to be weakening. Sweat dotted his brow. His chest heaved and his sword moves were slower.
Brigh struggled against the bodies like a salmon swimming upstream. Her father cried out. She glanced up and her heart died. A fist-sized red spot marred the back of her father’s t-shirt and spread rapidly. Her mind struggled to accept the reality presented in front of her. The vamp had his hand in her father’s chest. Her stomach rolled as bile rushed up into the back of her throat and she choked it down. She let out a bellow and the other members of Noble took up the cry. Blood splattered her face and her body as she fought to arrive at her father’s side.
The vamps retreated.
She ran forward and propped her father’s head up on her legs. “Daddy?”
He sputtered. Flecks of blood flew from his mouth and ran down his face, staining it red. Her heart ached. His face wavered in front of her. She took a deep breath and held back the tears. Mom should be here right now. A thought that made no sense since her mother had been long gone now. She wanted to scan the crowd for anyone who could make his inevitable demise stop, but feared missing a second of the time her father had left.
“Up to you now,” he garbled.
“No. This is your Clan to run.”
“No more. Pick well.” His breath rattled in his chest.
“Stay with me, Dad.”
“Madeline…” he whispered. The light faded from his eyes and his chest stilled with her mother’s name on his lips.