by Lola Kidd
“Did you think I couldn’t smell it on you?” Grizzly asked.
Cross tried to get up, but Grimace put his foot on Cross’s chest.
“I think you need to spend a little time down there thinking,” Grizzly told him. “I send you up here to keep you safe from whatever it is in town and it was working. The spells those witches cast would have kept you two hidden for the rest of the year.”
Cross looked at his father dumbfounded. “If you wanted me to sit up here twiddling my thumbs, you should have told me. I thought we were in this together trying to solve the problem.”
“I didn’t need you running off to get yourself killed in a blaze of glory. Even worse you were taking Ozzy with you! That boy is like your brother and you were going to get both of you killed.”
“I’m sorry,” Cross said. He was having a hard time staying on the ground. He could have easily over powered Grim and gotten up if he wanted to, but he knew his Dad was trying to make a point.
“Are you sorry about the way you acted in town or for claiming the witch?”
Cross didn’t say anything.
“What I want to know is, how the hell did you do it? Wolves can only claim other wolves or humans. Is the girl not a real witch?”
“You saw what she can do and I know damn well you can see all the magic she has. Of course she’s a witch. And I have no fucking idea how I did it.”
Grizzly narrowed his eyes. “For the love of God, tell me you didn’t complete the claim.”
Cross chose to stay silent again, but that was enough to tell Grizzly he claimed Rory completely.
“Shit. We’re going home right now. If we go back to that cabin, those witches are going to kill you. Good thing Charlie started looking for a new town already.”
“No!” Cross pushed against Grim’s foot knocking the bigger man down. “I’m not leaving her! Are you out of your fucking mind?! She’s my mate.”
“I know you think she is, son,” Grizzly said gently. “But she can’t be. Wolves belong with other wolves and humans. Supernatural creatures stick to their own kind, or humans in a pinch, for a very good reason. There is no way her coven will let you near her anymore.”
“It isn’t up to them or you or the rest of the brothers. The only people who have a say in the matter are me and Rory.”
“That’s not how it works and you know it. I’m the alpha of the Moon Brothers and unless you plan on fighting me for that title, you do as I say.”
Cross stood taller and squared his shoulders. “Or I pick the third option.”
Grizzly smiled like he was humoring a young child. “And what would the third option be?”
“I leave the Moon Brothers pack.”
That wiped the smile off Grizzly’s face fast. His eyes turned yellow and his teeth started to elongate. “And why would you do something as fucking stupid as that?”
“Lemme think, my mate or my pack? I only get one mate. I can find a new pack. Not that hard a choice.”
Grimace growled and looked between Grizzly and Cross. “You can’t be serious, brother?!”
Cross nodded once and Grimace looked at Grizzly.
“You need to think hard and long about what you’re thinking about doing. It won’t be an easy thing to find a new pack once you’re banished, especially not with a witch in tow.”
“I know.”
“And you have to know that the witches will do everything in their power to break your claim once they know. The odds are you're going to end up with no pack and no mate. And I won’t let you come crawling back to the Moon Brothers after that happens.”
“He’s your son!” Grimace said. “We can’t let him do this.”
“You can’t stop me,” Cross said. “And neither can the coven. They may try to break my claim, but they won’t be able to. It's already done, there is no going back.”
“Have you asked the witch what she wants,” Grizzly asked. “I’m going to take your silence here to mean no, you haven’t…or, and this is what I’m going to guess is what really happened, you have asked her and she wants nothing to do with you.”
“She’ll come around,” Cross said hotly. He couldn’t help but counter his father’s claim. Rory wasn’t fully on board yet. She would come around soon enough. If he left now, she would never have the chance to make the right decision.
Grizzly shook his head. “You’re making a bad choice here, son. I don’t want to banish you, but I will. No good can come of you going back there.”
“We only get one mate,” Cross held up one finger in his father’s face. “One! If I let her go, I will be alone forever.”
Grizzly was about to say something else but stopped. They all looked around, suddenly alert. Cross’ wolf started to go wild.
He put on his helmet and headed back to the cabin as fast as his bike would take him.
Six
Rory went to sit between her mother and Jamie on the couch. As she neared, she could feel one of her protection casts snap like a twig.
“Someone…” she began to say, but Magda cut her off.
“We’re already casting new spells. You need to hide.”
The fear in her mother’s eyes made her look around without questioning the command. She had no idea where she was going to hide in the cabin since it had no basement or cellar. Her only option would be one of the closets. She went to the coat closet and shut herself inside. It wasn’t a good hiding place at all, really it was an exercise in futility. There was no way she could hide from a magical being. Magda knew that, Jamie knew that, and so did she.
There was total silence in the cabin as Magda and Jamie, she assumed, were both casting defensive spells. The front door was flung open hard enough to hit the closet she was in. She tensed waiting to hear who or what was coming for her.
“There’s a vampire headed straight this way!” It was Cross. Rory came out of the closet and fell into his arms involuntarily. In a moment of crisis, he was invaluable. When they had fought the Sun Riders in Cleary, having Cross next to her had significantly increased her castings. That was before she had accepted his claim. If there was a vamp coming for her, she could really use stronger magic.
“I’m glad you got back!” she told him, resisting the urge to kiss him hello.
Grizzly ran into the cabin breathing hard. “It’s Violet Moore.”
“Sweet Goddess,” Jamie said, exchanging a look with Magda.
“Where’s Grimace?” Cross asked, not letting Rory go.
“He stayed back to slow her down,” Grizzly said, and shot Cross a dangerous look. There was something going on between them Rory could see and she imagined it was her fault. There was nothing else Cross could have done to annoy his father.
“You two need to leave now!” Magda said, pushing Cross and Rory toward the front door. “Go now! He won’t be able to hold her for more than a second.”
“Who’s Violet Moore?” Rory asked. She knew Sven Summers was Olaf’s second-in-command, and his brother and Melody Jobs were Olaf’s third-in-command, if that was a thing. He had sired Melody himself. That was about as much as Rory knew about the vampire organization. There was no need to know anyone else. They never had contact with vampires. The vampires stayed in their territories and witches left them alone. That had been the agreement for centuries.
“Violet is Melody’s progeny,” Magda told her, still shoving them. “Leave now!”
“Where are we going to go?!” Rory asked.
“He’ll know somewhere,” Magda said, motioning toward Cross.
“Get out of here,” Grizzly told them.
Rory was frightened. She knew vampires were powerful, but she thought they would at least put up a fight. The three were acting like they were about to fight to the death.
“I’m not going,” Rory said, resisting her mother’s hard pushes.
“You were so happy to leave before.” Magda’s eyes were wild with fear. “If you want to help, then go!”
Cross pulled on her arm a
nd looked out the open door. “Come on. We can get a few seconds head start on her.”
“What’s the point?” Rory shook off his arm. “She can move faster than we can visually perceive. I don’t think we’re going to be able to out run her on a motorcycle.”
“Well, we can’t just sit here and wait for her!” Cross said, frustrated.
“Then we can fight her!” Rory said, looking at each of them in turn. “There are three witches and two werewolves in this room. I think we can put up some kind of fight at least.”
“You haven’t ever seen a vamp in action I take it, baby girl?” Grizzly asked.
“Of course she hasn’t,” Magda snapped. She grabbed Rory by the shoulders. “We are going to put up a fight. But if you aren’t here, she’ll be distracted with having to find you.”
“Please,” Cross added to the room’s plea. That was enough for Rory. If he was asking her nicely, it was a lot more serious than she had thought.
She grabbed her helmet off the table by the door.
“We’ll come right back when it’s safe,” she said, hugging Magda.
“Just go!” Magda was clearly relieved. Cross pulled Rory to his bike so fast she had to run to keep up. He had the bike moving the minute her hands touched his waist. The quick movement almost made her fall off the bike, but she grabbed him even tighter.
As they sped away from the cabin further into the mountain, she looked back over her shoulder. She could see two figures on the road in front of the cabin as a wolf prowled around them. She could feel more magic washing over her, more magic than Jamie and Magda could conjure on their own. Ursula, Deanne, and Sarah must have been helping. They must have felt their casting break and knew something was wrong.
She couldn’t see the vampire yet, but she hoped Grimace was ok. She didn’t know him at all beyond seeing him at Jamie’s house when the Moon Brothers came. Still, he was Cross’ brother and she was fighting to help her. She didn’t know who Violet Moore was, but if she was Melody’s progeny, she must be a powerful vampire. If anything happened to anyone who was trying to protect her she would feel guilty for the rest of her life. She had wanted to stay and fight too. At least that way, if things went sideways, she could have given herself up to Violet. She prayed they would all be ok.
***
He didn’t know where he was going, but he was going to drive like a bat out of hell until he got there. Cross’ Harley was a cruiser and wasn’t going to get high speeds like a crotch rocket would, let alone with the extra weight of Rory. Still, that didn’t stop him from pushing it up to 110 mph. He needed to get Rory as far away from Violet as he could. Rory may not have been familiar with the baby vamp, but he was.
He had only seen the vampire once during a werewolf party when he was a teenager. Her and a few other vamps had been invited by the guy who was throwing the party while his parents were on vacation. He could see why she was invited immediately. He didn’t know how old she actually was, but she looked sixteen, seventeen tops. She was tall with long limbs, small curves, and deep black skin. She had a buzz cut, but that only made her delicate features more striking. She looked like a supermodel.
Violet hadn’t done anything unusual during the party. But when he asked around about her, he found out she was a bloodthirsty killer. None of it was substantiated but there were rumors of her killing truckers at rest stops just for fun. In the old days, that kind of play would have been no big deal. The vampire king forbade that kind of behavior in his territory. If all the vamps started doing it, they would start to draw the suspicion of humans. She let the rumors run rampant without even attempting to correct them. It was enough to convince him Violet wasn’t someone he wanted to run into any night.
He was heading deeper into the mountain. Hopefully, he would be able to put a lot of distance between them and Violet while she was fighting their parents and Jamie. The other coven members must have been adding to the protection magic because he could feel it hitting Rory as they drove. Good. The more magic around her, the better. Vampires could use magic, but not much. If they could cloak Rory again, it would take time for Violet to use a locator spell to find her. He would only need a day to get them to another safe house. This time he would head for a Golden Bear hideout. The coven didn’t know about that one so they couldn’t follow them there.
Obviously that was how the vamps had found them. Their stupid ass parents had to come and protect them. It was a bad idea when he heard it. Had he and Rory slept together sooner, he would have been able to articulate why. Violet had probably been following Magda since the minute the Sun Riders lost track of Rory. They knew eventually, she would want to go see her daughter. And look at where the fuck that had gotten them.
His wolf was losing its mind. It desperately wanted him to shift but that was ludicrous at the moment. When they stopped for the night, he would shift and let his wolf take night shift. It wasn’t an ideal situation, but he could stay up for seventy-two hours straight if he needed to. It would be a breeze if Rory was in danger.
He was slowing down to make a turn when he and Rory were thrown from the bike. It felt like someone kicked the front tire and he lost control of the bike. He felt like a ragdoll as he flew through the air and hit the pavement.
It was Violet. She must have gotten past everyone already. He said a prayer and thanked God he was going so slowly when they were thrown. He couldn’t tell if he was hurt because of the adrenalin coursing through his body, but he thought he was fine. In the seconds after the crash, he let his wolf take over. It wasn’t dazed at all and would do a far better job protecting Rory then he could in his human form. The minute he let his wolf out, it went to look for Rory.
He found her on the side of the road with her helmet still on. He whined and nudged her. His heart didn’t beat again until she started to rouse. There was no way for him to tell her, but he nosed her toward the ditch next to the road. There was nowhere else for her to hide.
“What happened?” she asked, pushing up her visor getting up stiffly. She saw he was a wolf. “Oh God! Is she coming?!”
He nosed her toward the ditch harder. He knew it was risky having her move, but there was no choice. He couldn’t leave her out in the open like that. Her pants were torn and there was skin missing from her arm. She pulled off her helmet and threw up next to the side of the road.
“I’m just scared,” she said, reassuring him. Her one bloodshot eye told him different. She had some kind of head injury. He was such a fucking idiot. He should have known Violet would dump his bike. There was no reason for him to be driving that fast. He had been reckless and now Rory was hurt. He had to protect her better than this.
He didn’t know how he was going to, but he was going to have to kill Violet. The minute she came close to him his wolf was prepared to go for her jugular. That was their only shot. They would have time to run again then. Provided his bike would start again. He wouldn’t worry about that yet. Even if it didn’t, he knew how to hotwire a car. First, he had to kill this vampire bitch.
Seven
Rory’s head was spinning and she felt like she was going to pass out any second. She was sure she had lost consciousness when she had fallen off the bike. Cross was a wolf so she couldn’t ask him if he had just lost control of the bike or if it was the vampire. As unlikely as it was, she was hoping he had just lost control.
He was trying to nudge her toward the side of the road, but she couldn’t get her body to cooperate. She rolled over onto her back and just lay there. It was pointless. She didn’t have the energy to cast a healing spell even. Cross was suddenly thrown away from her. She heard him whine as he hit the ground, but there wasn’t anything she could do to help him. This had gone horribly wrong very quickly.
“Sorry about that.”
Rory could just see a shadow out of the corner of her eye. It could only be the vampire.
She leaned over Rory. “You look like hell, woman. Olaf is going to be very unhappy with me.”
The pretty
face frowned and then she put her finger in her mouth and bit down. She put a single drop of blood to Rory’s lips. Rory was repulsed but Violet dropped the blood right into her mouth. It was such a small amount it went straight down her throat. Violet put her hands on Rory’s shoulders as she began to struggle.
“Calm down,” she chided. “I can’t bring you back to Olaf like this and I’m not about to risk traveling with you like this either.”
Rory had heard all the rumors about vampire blood. Only a single drop would kill another sup…or it would be like taking a million hits of ecstasy. It all depended on who you were talking to. From the way Rory was feeling, it sounded like neither of those rumors was true. She was feeling pretty great actually. She could feel her magic growing as she got stronger.
“There’ll be none of that,” Violet said. She muttered a few words Rory couldn’t understand and it felt like someone had dunked her in an ice bath. She felt numb and her thoughts came slow as molasses. “I’m glad you’re feeling better though.”
Violet smiled at her and it was hard to remember this was the same creature that had likely just hurt her mother terribly. It was obvious Melody had chosen her for her beauty. Becoming a vampire had only heightened everything nature had graced Miss Moore with…and Rory hated every inch of her stupid, perfect body. The vampire was lucky she had acted quickly to disorient her because Rory was going in for the kill.
Rory could feel strange magic swirling around her. Violet was about to teleport! Another thing she didn’t think was possible. Vampires didn’t travel that way. Most of them flew if they needed to get somewhere in a hurry. Their magic wasn’t strong enough to transport them anywhere safely. Rory had never even tried doing it herself and she had planned on never doing it. There were so many things that could go wrong and leave the caster dead in pieces.