by A and E Kirk
She blinked to erase the blurred vision. A hand to the back of her throbbing skull came away slick with blood.
An enormous white wolf filled the hallway, hackles raised, furious golden eyes trained on Kiara. Blood spattered the snow-white fur where the blade protruded from its shoulder. Beyond the wolf, the baby sat on the floor. Both were unaware that the lizard-cat slunk up the stairs behind them, beady eyes focused on the tiny prey.
Kiara’s gaze flickered around the room, wondering where the wolf had come from and hoping he had not brought friends. Two against one was bad enough.
The lizard-cat crept onto the final step and launched itself at the baby. The white wolf lunged at Kiara.
With a running start, she leapt over the wolf’s snapping jaws, landed on the animal’s head, and ran down its back. She jumped off and slid across the floor on her hip, scooping up the baby as she passed by—because to hell with the no-touching rule—and continued to slide under the lizard-cat leaping through the air.
Kiara shot toward the stairs, holding the child close to her chest. The wolf’s muscles rippled as it leapt, teeth bared. Kiara rolled the baby onto a rug behind her, turned in time to catch the wolf’s snout in both hands, and slammed its mouth closed. Muffled snarls erupted. Its head snapped back and forth. Spittle sprayed. Kiara held firm against the thrashing animal.
“Relax, Mr. Snowball,” Kiara ordered, but he did not obey and their violent struggle sent them tumbling down the stairs.
Despite hitting the floor hard, Kiara maneuvered the wolf into a headlock and wrapped her legs around the struggling body. Her cheek pressed against its silken fur, so incredibly soft. Past the scent of fresh rain which clung to its coat, she noticed a rich musk, an earthy aroma she found pleasing.
Funny, she had expected wet dog.
Her eyes fell on the dagger protruding from the wolf’s shoulder. Thick floral vines sculpted around the handle, the leaves embedded with green gems. Kiara jerked the weapon free. She ignored the wolf, twisting in her grip and stared at the serrated blade, smeared wet with blood.
Her chest tightened. Darkness closed in from the outer edge of her vision. She pulled her eyes wide, but shadows coiled in, blocking out her sight like a curtain coming down at the end of a play.
CHAPTER 12
A warm breeze brushed against her cheeks. Pink flowers blanketed the meadow around her, the sweet aroma thick as mist. A lovely woman with gentle eyes ran laughing through the swaying blooms. Her gown of shimmering violet, the color of sunset’s final light, flowed around her like water. She gathered a handful of flowers, using the emerald-studded dagger to cut a bouquet. With a tender smile, she knelt before Kiara.
“For you, blossom.” Her voice shivered with a haunting echo, lengthening each word to an eerie keen. She placed the dagger in Kiara’s hand. “To help carve out your world.”
The wolf’s growls and incessant barking broke through Kiara’s daze. She was shaking, her breath near panting. Muscles clenched so tight that they felt cemented to her bones. Sweat stung her eyes.
On the landing above, the lizard-cat changed his form once again. A sunburst of feathers replaced the scales and made him appear on fire. The horns fluffed and splayed into a flaming plume. The snout glowed orange and curved into a crimson beak, as razor sharp as the dagger in her hand. Shimmering the colors of a brilliant sunrise, his front legs flowed back on his body and snapped out as massive wings. The giant phoenix raised his head and shrilled an ear-shattering screech with hot breath that blazed fire.
Kiara stared. Multi-shifters were rare and, in this case, extremely dangerous.
She released the white wolf and leapt to the second floor, reaching for the crying baby with one hand while swinging the dagger with the other, aiming for the phoenix. She missed with the blade, but made a final grab for the baby as the powerful wings slammed against her torso and brutally flung her backwards.
She crashed through a second story window. Shattered glass tinkled like wind chimes in a hurricane. Limbs flailing, cool rain and broken glass spattering her face, she plummeted.
CHAPTER 13
Kiara hit the ground hard. She skidded across the wet grass, then through mud. It saturated her nightgown. Her visions blurred as she rolled over and over, but she hugged the soft, little baby tightly, desperate to protect it.
A booted foot to her shoulder halted her frenzied rotations. The suddenness of the stop jolted air from her lungs. She wheezed a breath and gazed up, shielding her eyes against the relentless rain.
A forbidding figure loomed, trench coat glistening wet and flapping in the rising wind, the expression ominous on his handsome face.
“Leontes!” Kiara collapsed in relief, then set the baby down and wrapped her arms around his legs. “I missed you! I’m so glad you’re back.”
The intermittent moonlight, peeking from behind the clouds, caught the highlights in his dark hair, which glistened wet and disheveled as his eyes narrowed, scanning the grounds for threats. After a moment, he dropped next to her, his knees splashing in a puddle. He grasped her face in his hands. Rain beaded down his face, channeling into the deep frown lines on his forehead.
He wiped sludge from her cheeks and scowled when he noticed how the rain turned pink as it washed over the cuts on her face.
“You are injured. The bleeding is extensive. Drink some of my blood to speed the healing.” He began to roll up a sleeve.
“Ew, no.” She shook her head. “I’m fine. But my nightgown’s ruined.” She looked down at herself. “Yuck.”
Leontes closed his eyes. “For the love of God. Of all your disasters tonight, the wreckage of a frock does not merit mention upon the list.”
Kiara brushed chunks of glass from the curls of his wet hair. “There was no disaster.”
Windows exploded. Fire licked heavenward. Leontes hunched over Kiara and brought them both to the ground as shards of glass sprinkled down and danced off his coat. Flames ate the house from the inside out. Bright orange and crimson light reflected off low-slung clouds and illuminated the entire block. Sirens wailed in the distance.
Leontes gave her a look. “You were saying?”
She shrugged. “Maybe a little disaster. I made a friend, though. Daf-ankle. Or is it wrist? Daf-joint! No, that’s not right. I lost her phone. Hope she’s not mad. We’re supposed to hang out. See, it’s all good. You worry too much.”
“Because you worry not enough.” Leontes rose to his feet with an easy grace, then pulled her up and looked around. “Where is the werewolf child?”
Kiara smiled proudly and picked the baby up off the grass. “Right here!”
Leontes looked at her arms. His face fell. “Kiara, that is a pillow.”
She blinked. “No, it’s…”
She looked down and, for a brief, happy moment, she saw the smiling baby. But the child’s face faded, replaced by a tattered blue velvet pillow.
“No,” she whispered. Then she screamed and bolted for the burning house.
Leontes caught her arm and yanked her back, pulling her close as the ground rocked with another explosion.
CHAPTER 14
The shifter-assassin burst from the roof with a mighty screech. Each downbeat of his wings fed the fire’s intensity, flames licking brighter and higher. Trapped within its claws, the child wailed.
Fear and rage flooded through Kiara.
“Is that a phoenix?” Leontes watched with growing alarm. “It has the child?”
Kiara choked, her chest so constricted she could hardly breathe. Livid at her own failure and delusions, she picked up the pillow and ripped it to sheds. “It’s not my fault! You said I couldn’t touch the baby.”
Leontes balled his fists at his sides. “You choose this one time to heed my words? Unbelievable!” He turned his back on her to stare at the phoenix.
Kiara’s gut twisted. “So I can touch the baby now?”
“Of course you could have touched the baby!” Leontes shook his head and reached into h
is coat pocket. “Did I say disaster? I meant catastrophe. I have to call this in.”
Kiara kicked violently through the charred embers and debris. She chose a thick chunk of wood and tossed it up and down, then reeled back her arm, chucked the piece of wood, and blurred into a run.
Leontes watched as the board flew high and collided with the phoenix’s head. A ferocious shriek. Claws jerked open. Leontes’ jaw fell almost as fast as the baby did. The phoenix dropped from the sky in a blazing spiral. The child disappeared out of sight beyond the trees.
Leontes swore and put a hand to his forehead. “They will start a war over this.”
“Start a war over what?” Kiara said from behind him.
Leontes whirled.
Kiara, drenched as a drowned rat, adjusted a fidgeting infant in her arms. “Please,” she begged with huge eyes, “please, tell me this is the baby.”
Leontes blew out relief. “Yes, Kiara. It is the baby.” Worry lines disappeared from his brow as he smoothed the tangled, wet strands of dark hair from her face. When she leaned her cheek against his hand, he pulled away. “Well done.”
Grinning wide, she held out the child. Goosebumps danced a giddy ride over her skin. With a gentle touch, the vampire tucked the gurgling infant against his chest, then used his trench coat to cover it as protection from the elements.
Kiara crossed her eyes and stuck her tongue out. The baby giggled. “I think she likes me.”
Leontes let out a long sigh. “What is not to like?”
He clamped an arm around Kiara’s shoulders and hurried to the car, a sleek black Mercedes parked in a back alley. After handing the cooing baby to Kiara, he removed his coat and took off his shirt, spreading it on the rear seat of the car before taking the baby into his arms again.
The rain had tamed to a drizzle, misting Leontes’ bare skin. Kiara paused.
She had seen him shirtless before, but this time the sight of his long lean body, raw and sculpted to perfection, caused a heady sensation. The glistening muscles of his back rippled in the moonlight as he delicately wrapped the child in his shirt. Her vision stuttered, blinking in and out.
“What—? Ow!” Leontes banged his head on the car as he jumped and turned around, startled.
Kiara saw her palm on his back and pulled it away, embarrassed and confused as to how it had gotten there.
Fangs bared, Leontes’ eyes flickered up and down the alley looking for danger, fingers rubbing the back of his scalp. “What is the matter?”
She fisted her hand and brought the knuckles to massage her forehead in an effort to dislodge the cobwebs veiling her mind.
“Nothing.” A headache bloomed behind her eyes, tiny axes chipping away on the inside of her skull. She tried to clear her mind, but it was like a demolition crew in her head.
Chip, chip. Bang, bang.
When Leontes finished swaddling the baby, he opened the door for Kiara. “Wait one moment.” He laid his coat over the passenger seat. “Now you may get in.”
She could not blame him. She was a muddy mess, and his cars were always pristine, inside and out. He had a lot of them, from very old ones that he had restored, to brand new—sedans, trucks, even sports cars like Ferraris and Lamborghinis. He was the only one allowed to drive them, or even work on them. Tuning up an engine was one of the very few times she ever saw him get dirty.
Kiara smiled. “Afraid my filthy frock will mess up your shiny toy?”
“They are not toys.” Leontes closed her door, went around the car, and got behind the wheel. “But why cause untidiness if we do not have to?”
He peeled away, the baby nestled in Kiara’s arms. The sirens wailed very close now. He wanted to be long gone before they arrived. Lightning flashed as he glanced in the rearview mirror.
“Bloody marvelous.” He squinted a double take. “We have company.”
Kiara twisted in her seat. The next lightning flash lit up the night. In their wake, the white wolf charged after them at a full gallop.
CHAPTER 15
Once they had lost the white wolf, thanks to the powerful engine of the impressive motor vehicle, Kiara regaled Leontes with her adventures. A few growls rumbled in his throat, and his jaw did a lot of clenching and unclenching, but other than asking questions for clarification—and muttering the occasional threat to Bane’s undead life—he let her babble incessantly. The werewolf baby somehow slept through her bubbling enthusiasm.
When she got to the part about the dagger and the memory, he asked, “Do you know who the woman in the meadow is?”
“No, do you?”
His jaw clenched again. “Even if I did—”
“You couldn’t tell me.” Kiara thumped her head back against the seat. “That is so infuriating!”
“It is for your own good. Dr. Lyons says—”
“I know,” she interrupted again. “If people tell me, if the memories are forced, it could damage my already damaged brain. But if I had the dagger, which apparently is my dagger, it could help me remember naturally. I can’t believe I lost it. Let’s go back and look for it. Please, please, please?” She gave him a pleading look and grabbed his arm, touching bare skin since his shirt was wrapped around the baby.
“No.” He quickly shrugged off her hand. “But I will have our people in the police department keep an eye out in case it shows up. When was the last time you had your medications? The new ones that Lyons prescribed.”
“I’m not sure.” Kiara rubbed her eyes. “Frankie’s been keeping track.”
“Perhaps you missed a dose. It could explain the hallucinations. Have you suffered any headaches?”
“No,” she lied, although the one that had started outside the house was subsiding.
“Good. I have been attempting to contact Dr. Lyons all night, but no answer, and,” he checked his phone, “he has not returned my calls.” Then the phone rang. He looked at the caller, made an irritated noise, and declined the call.
“The queen again? She’s called a hundred times already. She hates being ignored.”
“It is better if I explain in person.” He slammed the heel of his hand against the steering wheel. “Where the hell is Lyons? You need to speak to him about everything, including the dagger, but for now, under no circumstances, tell the queen or anyone else. Especially that you had contact with humans.”
“Do you think she’d hurt Sir Edward and Daf-knuckle?”
“It is possible, but regardless, she would not be happy with you. Tell her you have no recollection of events until you arrived at the house and heard the gunshots. She will not risk pushing you to remember.”
“The perks of being a mental mess.”
“Not a mess,” he said. “Just…delicate.”
“Ugh. I think that’s worse.”
“It is the reality. You must not go out on your own again. Promise me.”
“Maybe,” she said coyly. “If you promise to take me out. It was so much fun! And think about it. I had a memory. That’s a good thing.”
“Almost getting killed and destroying a werewolf residence to do it is not what I consider a good thing.”
“I saved a baby.”
“For God’s sake! Until I showed up, all you saved was a pillow!”
Kiara stiffened and shot him a glare, then looked out the window. A moment later, she sniffled.
Leontes rubbed the stubble on his jaw. “I am simply pointing out that you are not yet ready to be out on your own.” He pulled out a handkerchief from the pocket of the coat she was sitting on and offered it to her.
Kiara glanced at it, then pointedly wiped her nose with the back of her hand and resumed looking out the window. “If Butch had been there, he would have told me it was a pillow. I wouldn’t have made the mistake.”
“Bloody goddamn marvelous.” Leontes crushed the handkerchief in his hand and threw it on the otherwise spotless floor. “You are counting on your hallucination to tell you what is a hallucination and what is not.” Now Leontes looked out th
e window. “That is just…”
“Crazy?”
“I did not say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
CHAPTER 16
They approached an imposing solid wood gate. There was no one in sight, but it opened and they drove through. Kiara hugged the baby tighter, feeling the vulnerability of the child surrounded by so many predators. She kept a wary eye out the window.
The compound stretched for miles with most of it officially protected as a wildlife refuge owned by a multibillion-dollar corporation, the Viral Laboratories and Arterial Disease Institute. A world renowned, multinational scientific and philanthropic organization dedicated to the study of blood related diseases and health concerns.
Since vampires ran this headquarters directly and it was the queen’s home base, the prying eyes of the human world rarely got anywhere near it. Magic enhanced the state of the art security and kept humans from ever coming too close or having the foggiest bit of interest in exploring the area.
For the most part.
Plenty of people went missing around Los Angeles. A few more never raised any eyebrows.
“Kiara,” Leontes said quietly. “My words were perhaps overly harsh. You did save the child.”
She shrugged. “You were right.” And he was, which just made things worse. She could not trust herself. He started to say something else, but she shushed him and peered diligently into the darkness. “I’m on patrol. No time for chat.”
Kiara blinked as headlights came toward them. A large truck refurbished into a mobile blood drive vehicle passed by on its way out. On the side, painted with bold crimson letters, it read The VLAAD Institute. The queen had named the corporation herself, showing that somewhere within her cold exterior she retained a wicked sense of humor.
The truck had spent the day at a school, office building, or health fair of some sort doing the blood drive as a free public service. They skimmed a portion of the booty off the top for research and to feed the hungry vampires. The truck now headed out to donate the rest to local hospitals and various charitable entities.