by Michelle Fox
I frowned at the pictures on the outside of the carton in his hand. "Security cameras?"
"Yes. We'll need Zion on tape confessing to everything to clear both our names."
"How did you get all this?" I asked. "We haven't had a lot of time for shopping."
"I bought it all online and had it shipped here."
"You're a resourceful guy for someone who didn't know what GPS was."
That made him smile. "I've had my moments over the centuries." He punched through the tape on a box and pulled out a camera.
"How many centuries are we talking about?" I took the box from him and worked on pulling the camera free from all the Styrofoam inside.
"Why do you want to know?"
"I want to know everything about you, Davian."
He grunted and opened the next box. "Be careful what you wish for."
I gave him an impatient look. "Just tell me how old you are. Or is it a state secret?"
"I'm two hundred something."
"That's vague."
"I stopped counting. Time loses its meaning after a while."
"You lived in the Eighteen Hundreds then?"
He nodded.
"How did you become a vampire?"
"Through my own stupidity."
I'd freed several cameras from their packaging by now and started gathering up bubble wrap and paper, shoving it into one empty box. Davian grabbed one of the cameras along with a drill that had also been on the pallet and walked away. "I'm going to install these."
I wanted to ask him what he was running away from, but couldn't bring myself to do it. I carried my own regrets, and if I didn't like rehashing them, I could only imagine how Davian felt. Perhaps, with time, he would open up to me. Until then I wouldn't push it.
Clearing my throat, I asked, "Should I open the rest of the boxes?" Only a few plain cartons, smaller than the camera boxes, remained.
"Sure." His voice was faint with distance. "They're dresses. Yours is the red one."
I dug through the boxes. Each one contained two dresses and matching shoes. I lifted out a dress and frowned. I checked the next one and then the one after that. They all looked like something a lingerie model with a serious exhibitionist streak would wear. The red one was the worst, much shorter than the others with lots of cutouts.
"What's this for?" I held the dress against me and grimaced. It was about as big as a slutty postage stamp.
Davian looked at the dress, his gaze brooding. "The merchandise is always dressed up for an auction."
I raised an eyebrow. "Seriously?"
"If Zion gets spooked, he'll run. We want this to look easy to him. He'll be here early. It'll just be us as far as he knows, and that will make him think it's a good idea to swoop in and grab what he wants. If he comes in here and doesn't see what he's expecting to see, we lose the advantage of surprise"
"Okay. Fine. I get it."
"There's a bathroom in the back."
I started to head for the bathroom, but stopped and turned back. "Hey, Davian?"
"Yes?"
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"For asking how old you were. I didn't mean to bring up any bad memories."
He was silent for a moment and then said, "I let time fade everything I was, everything I knew. I thought I'd left all that pain behind and then you showed up, reminding me how good it is to be alive, how important it is to not be alone."
"Maybe I'm not as old as you, but I've been alone a long time, too."
"And yet we keep finding each other." He flashed a smile. "Maybe it's a sign."
"Maybe." Our gazes locked for a long moment.
Davian broke eye contact. "Go get dressed. We'll have time to talk later."
I nodded and spun on my heel, heading for the back of the warehouse. The bathroom turned out to be a dingy room I didn't want to touch. Grime caked the toilet along with cigarette burn marks on the seat. The little bit of water that dripped from the sink faucet came out poop brown.
I took off my clothes, doing my best not to touch anything, and yanked the dress overhead. I kept my pants and shirt off the floor by pinning them between my knees. Once I was dressed, I looked in the mirror and immediately wished I hadn't. The cleavage plunged down to my belly button, the fabric held in place by clear plastic straps that ran horizontally from one side of the dress to the other, and the red looked stark against my skin.
Ugh. I looked like a walking red blood cell with a side of slut. I hated it, but had to admit the dress probably wasn't the worst thing ever given the goals for the evening: Kill the bad vampires. If this dress got rid of Zion, I would wear it with a smile.
Gathering up my clothes, I stepped back into the warehouse. Jackson arrived at the same time, his wide shoulders almost touching either side of the door frame. The sheriff and a handful of deputies followed him into the building. Spotting Davian, they immediately moved to corner him against the wall.
"Hey," I said, dropping my clothes and hurrying toward them on my precarious heels. "Leave him alone."
Jackson stalked over to me, his eyes narrowed. "I told you no vampires."
"We need him," I said, refusing to cower. His alpha power rushed me in a wave of testosterone. My wolf wanted me to drop to the floor and roll onto my back, but I wasn't so sure I owed Jackson that. This wasn't just about Huntsville, it was about me, too. I wasn't about to turn on myself. Not again.
"Why do you trust him? He's just another pair of fangs." Jackson glowered at me.
"He needs Zion dead as much as I do and as much as you want him dead." I glared at him, refusing to look away. He wasn't my alpha. I didn't have to cower. "I trust him with my life, and he's here to help. He's got a plan and we could use that. You remember how strong Zion was? What he did the last time he was here? Davian won't let that happen again."
"Zion's coming," Davian said. "We can either be ready for him, or argue until he comes and picks us off one by one."
Jackson growled and no one looked happy, but the alpha nodded. "Fine. What do you want us to do?"
"We need more shifters for the auction. If it's just Adele, he might get suspicious."
Jackson scowled. "You want my pack to come here and put themselves in danger?"
"I want them to help me kill Zion," Davian said. He pointed to the walls. "We'll chain people up. It's common for auctions to have a pre-auction viewing."
I inspected the walls, just as surprised by the chains as everyone else. Davian must've put them up while I was changing in the bathroom.
"You're not locking my people up." Jackson took a menacing step toward Davian.
"No, of course not. The chains aren't real. Go ahead, check them." Davian waited while the sheriff and Jackson tested the chains.
"Is this plastic?" asked the sheriff, pinching a link between his fingers.
Davian nodded. "Yes. We need to fill this room with shifters. Can you do that?"
Jackson gave a grudging nod.
"And we want women. Not men. Zion likes women." Davian gestured to me. "And they need to dress up."
"How many?" Jackson asked.
"As many as you can get. We need to make it real, and we want enough numbers that Zion can't walk away from this."
Jackson nodded to a deputy. "Make the call. We need as many women as we can get."
The deputy stepped away from the group, pulled out a cell phone and started dialing. In a hushed voice, he passed on Davian's request to whoever was on the other end of the line.
"Where will we be?" Jackson pointed to himself and the sheriff.
"Zion's going to bring a security team in. They'll set up a perimeter before he gets here. Your job is to take that team out after they give Zion the all clear. We don't want them coming in and helping Zion."
The sheriff nodded. "We can manage that."
"Do you all have cell phones?" At everyone's nod, Davian said, "Mute your phones and text each other updates."
"Why don't we just kill him the
second he gets here?" Jackson asked.
"As much as I'd like to do that, I need evidence for the Vampire Council." Davian pointed to the cameras. "Once we've got him on tape, he's finished."
"Who said I cared about the Vampire Council?" Jackson's upper lip curled in a snarl. "I'm here to keep my pack safe."
"Then give me proof of what Zion did so I can stop the next vampire who wants to suck shifters dry." Davian remained calm and met Jackson's gaze without blinking. "He's the one who enslaved all those shifters at the club. And he's the one who came on to your pack lands and killed people just to make Adele look bad. But the thing is, alpha, there are more vampires and some of them are like Zion. I don't want to stop just Zion, I want to stop all of them."
Jackson narrowed his eyes, his gaze speculative. "You're working against your own kind? Why?"
Davian shook his head. "No. Not against—for. Our future isn't in blood slavery. Smart vampires know that."
"Then why are you alone? Or are you the only smart one?"
"I'm not alone."
"Looks like you're alone to me." Jackson peered into the shadowed corners of the building. "Unless you're hiding your allies." The deputies took a step closer to Davian. A few of them put their hands on their gun holsters.
"It's complicated," Davian said, holding up his hands. "My contacts have to hide. Some can't risk coming out in the open."
"He's not hiding anything," I said moving to stand between them. "He's telling you the truth."
"He bit you. You'll do anything he says," the sheriff scoffed. He rolled his eyes and looked at Jackson.
"No. He didn't bite me. He could have, but he didn't. Zion's the one who bit me," I said.
Davian stepped forward and slipped his hand into mine. "And that's why your chains will be real."
"What?" I twisted away, but not fast enough. Silver slid over my skin, fading my wolf and my strength with it. A stinging burn throbbed over me like a thousand angry hornets. I flashed my teeth and growled. "Let me go."
"No. Once Zion can see you, he can compel you. I don't want him forcing you to fight on his behalf," Davian said. "He's in your head, and until he's out, we need to keep you safe."
I tried to come up with an argument as to why he was wrong, but I couldn't. "Fine." I slumped against the wall, defeated.
"I'm sorry," Davian said.
I just shrugged, frustrated and annoyed that I was a liability more than anything else. I wanted to be the one to rip Zion's heart out of his chest. I owed him that.
"You're sure this plan will work?" asked Jackson.
"With you, yes. Without you, probably not," Davian said.
"We're all in this together then." Jackson looked at the sheriff, who gave a slight nod. All the shifters in the room relaxed a notch. We were on the same team now.
"Whether we want to be or not, alpha," Davian said. "None of us chose this, but we're going to finish it."
"I will personally kill you if one of my pack gets hurt." Jackson stabbed a finger in Davian's direction.
"Just make sure Zion doesn't have any help coming to save him," Davian said, his tone sharp. "Do your part and I will do mine."
Jackson nodded and then he and his men melted into the night to watch for Zion's security team. We weren't alone for long, though, several women from Huntsville arrived a few minutes later.
I knew some of them; Mona who ran the little coffee shop in Huntsville, Rebecca who'd called Marie about her elderly grandmother and Donna who had a house for rent that I'd inquired about. With them came Sheri, the woman whose mate had been left for dead in the middle of the street.
"We're here. What's the plan?" asked Donna. Turning in a slow circle, she sized up the warehouse. Her eyes narrowed when she caught sight of me.
Davian picked up the boxes with the dresses and shoes, passing them out to the women. "If you ladies would put these on."
"We're not here to play dress-up," snarled Mona, tossing her sleek dark hair over her shoulder.
"I'm not a hooker." Rebecca held up a purple mini-dress, a look of disdain on her face. "And this size is way too small. FYI I'm not small." She gestured to her generous curves.
"Put on the clothes or go home and figure out how to explain to your alpha why you didn't fight for your pack," said Davian.
They weren't happy about it, but pulled off their clothes and put on the dresses. Davian turned his back while they changed, giving them some privacy.
"At least you chained up that bitch." Sheri scowled at me and yanked on a green dress
My gut twisted like a rag. She'd lost everything, and I could feel how much that hurt. The emotions hitting me must have shown on my face because Davian came over to me.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing." I turned my head so I didn't have to meet his eyes.
He caught my chin and forced me to face him. "Tell me."
"If I'd just kept using, would any of this have happened?" I nodded to the women.
"It's not your fault, Adele. You weren't running the ring or luring shifters here promising them rehab. Mason and Zion did all that. This would have happened one way or another, with or without you."
"But at least without me, no one would blame me."
I watched the women who alternated between refusing to look at me and shooting daggers my way. Their anger was palpable and the energy pummeled me. I'd spent so much time with vampires recently that I'd forgotten how hot shifters' emotions could run. Sheri stared at me like she hoped her gaze would bore holes. Her anger hit me with a tangible heat even from across the room.
Nodding her way, I said, "If you ask her, she'll tell you I should die tonight, too."
Davian turned and watched Sheri for a moment. "She's hurting and wants everyone else to hurt, too."
I sighed. "I know. You're right." Maybe someday she'd appreciate that I'd come back to make the asshole who killed her mate pay. I couldn't bring anyone back from the dead, but I could give the living a shot at vengeance. Closing my eyes, I sent a wish to the moon that second mates were a real thing, that someone would come into her life and make it hurt less. None of us deserved what Zion had done.
"We're dressed. What do you want us to do?" asked Donna. She took her first steps in the platform heels, putting her hands out to keep her balance.
"Now, we make you look like prisoners." Davian motioned to the chains on the walls. "Each of you pick a spot."
"You are not locking me up." Mona crossed her arms and fixed Davian with a glare made of steel.
"It's all fake. Only Adele's are real." Davian let her feel the plastic chains. "Stand against the wall over there and I'll hook you up."
The women did as he asked, lining up opposite me, their heels tapping on the floor. Now they all glared at me, not just Sheri. I looked away, unwilling to take on their emotions when mine were already such a mess.
"Don't attack until I do, okay? And try to look afraid," Davian said, fastening them into place.
"Yeah, sure. Whatever." Mona rolled her eyes. "Can't believe I'm taking orders from a vampire."
"I'm not your enemy," Davian said.
"You sucked shifter blood with the rest of them. You're part of it. Don't try to say you're not." Rebecca glared at Davian.
Davian looked away. "I had no choice. And I protected who I could."
"Yeah. Helpless Adele," said Sheri with a snarl.
"I'm not helpless," I said, gritting my teeth.
Sheri growled. "Then why did you need our pack? You can't live on your own and you know it."
"That's not true." I lifted my head high, refusing to be cowed by these women and their anger. "I stayed for training."
"Your sister had to save you, remember?" Sheri snorted. "We all know the story. The truth is you bring trouble wherever you go. First your pack, then ours. When are you going to stop getting good shifters killed?"
"My sister found me, she didn't save me."
"Whatever." Sheri rattled her plastic chains at me. "After this,
you're gone, understand? We don't need wolves like you in Huntsville."
"Like me? Last I checked, I was the one taking care of our enemy. You're here because of me."
"Exactly. That's the problem: You." This came from Mona.
I looked at them each in turn, finding their gazes hard and pointed as arrows. "That's how it is, then?"
"Yes. If you don't leave, we'll drag you out of our lives by force, if we have to," said Donna. To the other women, she said, "To think I almost rented my house to this vampire bait. Ugh."
"And everyone in the pack agrees with you?" I could understand their anger. The pack had lost a lot, but I'd hoped they would see I was just as much a victim as they were. I hadn't asked Zion to come back. But there was no forgiveness from the women. I could see it in the steel of their gazes. I wasn't wanted.
I glanced at Davian, who gave me a sympathetic look. Frowning, I said, "Fine. I'll leave Huntsville. Your loss."
"No. Not just Huntsville. The entire area." Sheri moved her hand in a big circle to indicate all of Appalachia. "We don't want to see you ever again. If we do, you'll pay for it in blood. Let your problems find you somewhere far from us."
I swallowed hard. The rejection hurt more than I cared to admit. "My sister lives here."
"Not our problem. Stay away from us," Mona said, her voice flat.
Davian waved at us. "Quiet. We're not here to argue. Focus on what's important."
The women continued to glare at me but fell silent.
Davian frowned at them. "Fear, ladies. That's what he needs to see. You all look like you're ready to rip people's heads off."
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Show time. A dark energy filled the air, a power signature that must be Zion's. It felt like someone had grabbed my gut and twisted it into convulsing knots. The spot where he'd fed from me twinged as if a hot needle had been thrust into my flesh. "He's close," I whispered. A sense of dread fell over me. I hadn't wanted this fight and now I had to face it tied up.
"Shh." Davian pressed a finger to his lips. He pulled out his phone and pretended to be on a call, pacing back and forth as he spoke. "I have several females. Grade A shifter prime. All clean. Pure as a spring." He turned his back to the door and rattled off prices. "A hundred K each. Yeah, I got a volume discount. Ten per cent if you buy three together."