by L. L. Raand
Becca laughed shakily. “She damn well better after all this, or I really will kick her ass.” She pulled Jody into her arms and cradled Jody’s mouth against her neck.
Rafaela drew a short, double-edged blade from a sheath on her belt. “Are you prepared to provide eternity to our Liege Jody Gates, to bind your body and your blood and your life to her as long as she rises?”
“I am,” Becca whispered.
Rafaela gently grasped Becca’s chin and lifted, exposing her throat, and pressed the edge to Becca’s jugular vein. A frisson of fear skittered through Becca’s stomach, but she quickly squelched it. “Don’t stop, Rafaela. Bring her back to me.”
Rafaela incised the vein in one swift slash, and dark, thick blood cascaded into Jody’s mouth.
“How are they?” Sylvan asked when Drake emerged from the treatment room. Niki stood guard in front of another door a little farther down the hall.
“Becca’s very weak. Jody is still…unresponsive. I don’t know if she’ll rise.” Drake wrapped her arms around Sylvan’s waist and leaned into her. She was tired and worried, and the battle had left her needing to connect to her mate. “How are the young?”
“Sophia is with them now. I had to force Gray to shift to skin, but she obeyed me.”
Drake sighed. “They’ve been through hell.”
Sylvan snarled. “I know. Everyone in the Pack will take care of them.”
Drake skimmed her fingers along Sylvan’s jaw. “You found them, you freed them. That will help them heal more than anything else.”
“But I didn’t find who was behind it. Killing their jailers is small justice for what was done.”
“We won’t stop until we find out who was in charge of that lab, and who they reported to.” Drake kissed Sylvan. “But tonight Gray and Katya will sleep with Pack. And their Alpha will sleep with me.” She licked Sylvan’s neck and smiled at the rumble gathering in Sylvan’s chest. She skimmed her fingers down Sylvan’s torso and tugged at the open waistband of her jeans. “I’m glad we brought clothes with us on the raid, but I’d rather you got rid of these soon.”
Sylvan nipped Drake’s ear. “I want Elena to look at you. Then if we can leave Jody, I want to run. I want you alone, all over me.”
Drake settled between Sylvan’s thighs. “I don’t need to see Elena. I’m fine. All I need is you.”
Sylvan raised her lip enough to show the tip of a canine. “That building was filled with silver. I want to be sure everyone is healthy.”
“Oh yes?” Drake scraped her claws down Sylvan’s bare chest, leaving faint blood-streaked scratches behind. “And I suppose Elena has already checked you out?”
Sylvan’s hips jerked, and her canines extruded farther. Her eyes shimmered between gold and midnight blue. “You challenge my judgment, Prima?”
Drake licked the feather-thin trickles of blood from Sylvan’s chest and pressed her mouth to the mate bite above Sylvan’s breast. The pelt line on Sylvan’s lower abdomen thickened, and the rumble that had been gathering in Sylvan’s chest morphed into a warning growl. Drake smiled and sucked the faint mark left by her teeth. “I don’t know, Alpha. Do you feel challenged?”
Sylvan backed Drake against the wall and caged her in with her arms and legs. She raked her teeth down Drake’s neck and bit the thick muscle at the juncture of shoulder and neck. Drake groaned and tilted her head back, giving Sylvan more access. Her belly tightened and her sex throbbed.
“Sylvan,” Drake warned. “If you tease, you’re going to get more than scratched.”
“You’ll have to catch me first.” Sylvan rolled her hips between Drake’s thighs.
Down the hall, Niki whined softly. Drake gripped Sylvan’s hips and shot Niki a concerned look. Niki shook her head and grinned.
“Soon,” Drake murmured in Sylvan’s ear. “Soon we’ll run, we’ll tangle, we’ll heal our young. And then we’ll go hunting again.”
Becca waited, lying beside Jody, Jody’s hand in hers. The sun would be up soon. If Jody didn’t rise in time to feed, she might be too weak to ever rise. She stroked Jody’s face, kissed her mouth. Jody’s body beneath the crisp white sheet was so terribly, terribly still.
Weak, weary, Becca rested her cheek between Jody’s breasts and wrapped her arm around her waist. The silence beneath her ear echoed the horrible emptiness inside her. She closed her eyes, her tears scalding her cheeks and falling on Jody’s cold, perfect breast.
“Please, baby,” Becca whispered. “Please come back. I need you. I love you. And now I’m stuck on you, damn it.” She laughed through her tears. “You were so worried about blood addiction. See? You’re not always right. It’s my heart that can’t survive without you.”
At first Becca thought the warm flutter through her hair was a breeze floating through the open window. She held her breath, her ear to Jody’s chest, listening, listening for the only sound she ever needed to hear again. Please. Please.
And then it came. Slow, steady, strong. Every few seconds, a heartbeat.
Becca jerked upright, afraid to hope but needing to believe so desperately. Jody’s eyes were open, the familiar midnight black as infinite and deep as the heavens, only shot through now with shards of crimson. Different, but still beautiful.
“Jody?” Becca asked softly. “Jody?”
“You never listen to me,” Jody said softly. The timbre of her voice was a little deeper than it had been, but it still flowed over Becca’s skin like warm honey.
Becca’s body shuddered as if caressed from the inside out. Her heart rose into her throat, and she had to swallow before she could speak. “If you’d stop trying to make up my mind for me, I might listen to you.” She raised Jody’s hand and kissed her palm, then cradled Jody’s hand against her cheek. “You scared the hell out of me, Vampire.”
“How did this happen? Why did Rafaela disobey me?”
“Because I told her to.” Becca wanted to ask a million things. Jody had never had time to explain any of this. She didn’t know what happened when a Vampire rose. She thought of Francesca and Michel—avariciously sensual but so…so empty, somehow. Would Jody still be Jody? Would Jody still love her? “How do you feel?”
“Strong.”
Becca traced the spot where the bullet had torn through Jody’s chest. The skin was flawless. “Good.”
“Why did you do it?”
Leaning up on her elbow, Becca frowned down into Jody’s eyes. “Maybe we weren’t quick enough with the reanimation, because your brain doesn’t seem to be working right.”
A flicker of a smile crossed Jody’s lips. They weren’t pale anymore, but flushed with blood. Her blood. Becca leaned over and kissed her. Warm. Alive. “I missed you, for starters.”
“How do you feel?” Jody asked. “How much did you—”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m here. So are you. I love you.”
Jody’s eyes flared a deeper crimson, more Vampire now than Becca had ever seen, even when Jody was in the throes of bloodlust. “Did they tell you that risen Vampires don’t feel anything except hunger and power?”
A stabbing pain lanced through Becca’s heart. If she had lost Jody, if Jody could no longer love her, at least she had not lost her to death. “No, no one told me that.”
“I’m glad.” Jody skimmed her fingers through Becca’s hair. “They would have been wrong. I feel. I feel what you taught me to feel. I love you.”
Tears raced down Becca’s cheeks, carrying away the agony of loss, as cleansing as a warm summer rain. With a sigh, she curled up with her head on Jody’s shoulder. Jody’s arm came around her, and the world righted itself. She was too tired to argue, which might have been a first in her life. “I’ll take credit for how you feel, if you want me to. I just want you. I want you in my heart, in my body, in my soul.”
Jody trembled. “Becca, part of what you feel is the blood bond. If you’re not sure—”
Becca thumped Jody lightly on the shoulder. “It isn’t chemistry holding us togethe
r, Jody. Chemistry or biology or, hell, Fate might have been what brought us together, but what’s keeping me here, and what will keep me here for as long as we have, is in my heart. I fell in love with a Vampire. I want you exactly the way you are.”
Jody rested her cheek against Becca’s hair. “My heart is yours.”
“All of you is mine.” Becca searched Jody’s face. She looked strong, healthy in a way she never had before, but her eyes burned with new fierceness. “You must need to feed.”
“I do, but you can’t so soon—”
“I know I have to replenish my blood, but I want you.”
“Once I feed again, I’ll achieve my full power. When you drink from me, you’ll regain your strength and more.” Jody kissed her. “I want you too. I want you to taste what you’ve given me.”
Want hit Becca hard. After almost losing her, she couldn’t get close enough now. She caressed Jody’s chest, down her abdomen, and lightly clasped between her legs. “Let’s feed you quickly. I can’t wait much longer.”
“I’ll need to call for hosts.”
“No, you won’t. There’s a line of Weres outside the door. Everyone knows what you did. There are more volunteers to host for you than I think I want to know about.”
Jody laughed. “Will you stay?”
“Just try to get rid of me.”
Chapter Thirty-three
Just before dawn, Francesca, wearing a black silk dressing gown held loosely together by crisscrossing black satin laces from her breasts to below her navel, met Michel at her bedroom door. Raising an eyebrow as she took in the bloody tears in Michel’s shirt and pants, she kissed her and caressed her chest with both hands. “How badly were you injured?”
Michel pulled off her shirt and tossed it aside. The hole in her shoulder had closed already, leaving only a faint circular indentation. She unbuttoned her pants and removed them along with her boots. The gunshot wound on her thigh had stopped bleeding and would soon disappear as well, but she’d lost blood and needed to feed. The hunger screamed inside her. “Nothing serious. They were aiming to kill the Weres, but they were incredibly incompetent.”
Francesca drew Michel to the bed, stretched out on the crimson sheets, and pulled Michel down beside her. “Tell me.”
Michel propped her chin in her hand and lightly traced the contour of Francesca’s full breast. Francesca’s nipple tightened as she rubbed it with her thumb. “The Weres discovered the abductions, somehow got the location of the lab, and chose tonight to liberate the subjects.”
“Sylvan?” Francesca pulled the laces on her gown and let it fall open, guiding Michel’s hand inside.
“Sylvan, her mate, and her second.” Michel cupped Francesca’s breast and squeezed gently.
Francesca laughed. “A formidable force.”
Michel kissed Francesca’s throat, and lifting Francesca’s breast to her lips, lightly bit her nipple. Francesca arched, a sigh escaping her.
“They had help,” Michel said. “Jody Gates and two of her soldiers.”
“Ah,” Francesca said, caressing Michel’s ass. “Jody always has been unpredictable.”
Michel tugged Francesca’s nipple between her teeth and stroked lower on her abdomen, teasing her fingers through the silky curls at the juncture of Francesca’s thighs. “She saw me.”
“Mmm, and you saw her.” Francesca guided Michel’s hand lower.
“You fed,” Michel murmured, caressing Francesca’s full clitoris.
“Just enough to be ready for you. I promised we’d feed together.” Francesca kissed Michel languidly, rocking on Michel’s fingers. “What about Standish?”
“She may have gotten away,” Michel said, slipping inside. The clench of hot muscles around her fingers made her aware of the cold center of her being, and she pushed deeper, suddenly desperate for warmth.
“Ah, careful, darling”—Francesca stilled her hand—“you might be able to make me come even now.”
“Then let us feed, so we can both feel it.”
“In a minute.” Francesca stroked Michel’s face and kissed her again. “Is Standish likely to think we betrayed her?”
“I don’t think so. I helped her escape.”
Francesca’s hips picked up speed. “Very good, darling.”
“I wonder if Gates will tell the wolf Alpha about me,” Michel murmured, following Francesca’s pace. Her hunger raged, but she would feed at the Regent’s pleasure.
“Jody’s actions are often difficult to interpret, but her allegiance has always been clear. She is a Vampire. She’ll come to me first for an explanation before exposing us to the Alpha.”
“What will you do?” Michel guided Francesca onto her back and knelt astride her thigh, thrusting into her faster and harder.
“You are very good, my darling enforcer.” Francesca’s body arched. “And very bad. Now you’re going to make me come.”
“Yes,” Michel said through gritted teeth. Francesca’s power skittered around the edges of her consciousness, but until she had fed, until her own power had risen, she could not join her. Even then, she could never be one with her. “What will you do, Regent?”
“I will do what I always do,” Francesca said breathlessly as her orgasm crested. “I will secure my Dominion in any way necessary.”
Michel kissed her, the taste of Francesca’s power a taunting promise of pleasure yet to come. Francesca’s power would always come first, at any price, no matter who must pay.
Growling steadily, Sylvan paced just inside the door of the treatment room. Elena had commanded her to stay out of the way, and her mate had sent her a look that said to heed the medicus. To please her mate, she obeyed the directive, but every time Elena touched Drake, her wolf threw herself around inside her in a frenzy. She’d never been this agitated, this possessive, even when they’d first been mated. Not even in the throes of breeding frenzy. She’d already half-shifted and could barely control the surge of hormones skittering through her system. If she lost control, she’d be dangerous, even to Elena.
“Are you almost done?” Sylvan demanded, absently rubbing the ache in her stomach.
Across the room, Elena turned, her hand resting lightly on Drake’s shoulder. “Just about.”
“Don’t touch her.” Sylvan snarled and her pelt shimmered.
Elena slowly withdrew her hand. “Prima, you can get dressed.”
Drake slid down from the treatment table and pulled on her jeans. She didn’t bother with a shirt. “Something wrong, Elena?”
“I don’t think so.” Elena looked from Sylvan to Drake, her expression quizzical. “We’ll rush the blood assays, just to be sure there’s no evidence of silver in your bloodstream, but I can’t find anything amiss.”
“Something is off,” Drake said with a shake of her head. “I feel more aggressive than usual, and look at Sylvan. She’s so agitated she’s about to shift.”
“That’s normal under the circumstances,” Elena said.
Sylvan vaulted across the room, her canines stabbing down. “What circumstances?”
Elena shot Sylvan a stern look. “If you would control yourself, Alpha, you could answer your own question. Take a few deep breaths and quiet your wolf.”
Sylvan growled. No one but Elena ever talked to her that way. After her mother, Elena was the only wolf, other than her mate, who would ever be able to dominate her. Her skin vibrated with the need to drag Drake away to their den, away from everyone.
Because it was Elena, and because Drake would want her to, Sylvan forced her wolf to settle. She pulled Drake into her arms and rubbed her face over Drake’s neck, immersing herself in Drake’s scent. The connection with her mate soothed her, and her wolf finally stopped pacing. Her mate’s scent, her pheromones, raced through her system. Quivering, she licked Drake’s neck.
“Sylvan,” Drake murmured, caressing her back, “you’re shaking. What’s wrong?”
Sylvan licked Drake again, her heart pounding as if it might burst from her chest.
She raised her head and met Drake’s gaze. “You’re pregnant.”
Drake breathed in sharply. “How do you know?”
Sylvan grinned. “I’m the Alpha.”
Drake scowled automatically, but her smile erupted and filled Sylvan’s soul. “You’re sure?”
“Yes,” Sylvan said.
“Very sure,” Elena said.
Drake gripped Sylvan’s hand and searched Elena’s face. “And healthy? Can you tell—anything?”
“It’s very early, but you’re both strong, vigorous Weres,” Elena said gently. “You will make beautiful pups.”
“Pups—plural?” Laughing, Drake kissed Sylvan. “I love you, but there had better not be more than two in there.”
Sylvan buried her face in Drake’s neck again, hiding her tears from Elena. War was upon them, and she wasn’t certain if she could tell friends from enemies. She had a Pack to protect, a mate to shelter, and now, precious offspring to defend. She felt Drake’s warm breath against her ear.
“Together, Sylvan. Whatever is coming, we will face it together. Always.”
Sylvan raised her head, and Elena looked away, pretending not to see her tears.
“You honor me with your love, Prima. I want only, always, to deserve it.”
Drake pressed a kiss to the mate bite on Sylvan’s chest. “As long as you love me, you always will.”
Sylvan smiled. “One challenge I gladly accept.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
“I can’t believe they overpowered our security and practically destroyed my laboratory.” Veronica glared at Nicholas Gregory and paced across the expansive office to the enormous plate glass windows that looked down over the state capitol complex. She could actually see Sylvan Mir’s office across the courtyard. How ironic. “They put a spy inside my facility. How could this happen? Aren’t you supposed to know about these things? Don’t you have spies of your own inside those pathetic mutant-loving organizations?”
“We have infiltrated some of the groups supporting Praetern rights.” Nicholas’s patronizing voice made her want to remind him that without her he had no chance of containing the creatures. “But we need to be careful. Exposure is likely to turn the human population against HUFSI’s agenda. This person—Martin—he escaped?”