Bracken stared deeply into her eyes. “They can’t be separated. And it is time for you to take your place among us as the chosen.” He turned back to the other wolves, who occupied the mouth of the cave. “Show her your true forms. All of you.”
Raina stared, unable to move or speak as the wolves all sat up and began to shift into human forms. They were all faces she recognized. Her aunt Lee, Robbie, Mo’s husband, Jake, even her own mother and father. She blinked rapidly and rubbed her eyes, hoping that it was just an illusion. No. Oh no, no. no.
Her mother stepped forward, her hand extended palm upward, her long, dark hair flowing over her shoulder and breasts and down past her hips. “We have been waiting for you to join us, Raina, but we wanted you to come to us in your own time.”
The words burned right through Raina and the very air seemed to stop moving. Her mother and father, her aunts, the people in town, they’d known. Worse, they’d hidden from her. Sure, they’d told her she was the Whisperer, but they’d never explained the rest of what went with it! Fury raced through her, making her shake, her pulse a pounding rush in her ears. “Wait. Just wait a second.” She backed away from her mother. “You’ve known all along I was a shifter?”
Her mother smiled sweetly and nodded. “You’ve just never been bit. The ancestors are part of the people and the people of the ancestors. It has always been so.” The familiar words repeated like a slow drum rhythm in Raina’s chest.
Raina stared at her mother. “You lied!” She glared at the others. “All of you lied to me! And now you expect me to be glad about it?” Her life, her entire existence, had been a charade to cover up this more insidious truth. No wonder the people were so insular and had wanted to keep it that way. They had a huge, frightening secret to keep.
“This is a gift,” her mother persisted.
Raina rounded on her mother. “This has never been a gift to me, it’s been a duty, a burden shoved on me without my asking. My entire life has been a lie!” Raina cried. “Why didn’t I learn of this when I was a child?”
Her mother shook her head. “Things did not turn out well for the last Whisperer. We had hoped with time and space to grow older, you’d avoid her mistakes.”
Raina’s mind spun. Kaycee’s mistake had been to fall in love with a vampire, then become one. Well, she’d already gone and fallen love with one damn hot vampire. She was halfway there. She glanced at Bracken and, with lightning clarity, understood Kaycee’s choice. While Slade might resemble his father, the two were as different as night and day.
“You should have told me.” Raina pushed her fists to her aching temples.
“We told you what you were,” her mother said, her voice cautious and even. “But until you were prepared for the bite, there was no reason you needed to know the rest of it. It would have been too big a burden.”
“Bullshit! You just didn’t want me to tell all of you to go screw yourselves and take off like Kaycee Blackwolf did.”
Several of them winced.
She tore her gaze away from her mother and stared at Bracken. “What about those wolves who were fighting the vampires today—are they my people, too?”
He gave one curt nod. Her head pounded. How many of them were people she knew and cared for, as well? And if they went to battle against the vampires, against Eris, how many of her people would die?
“Now that you have learned the truth, Whisperer, it is time for you to become one of us.”
Chapter 18
Fighting the agonizing pain that thrummed in every cell the instant he woke, Slade’s eyes snapped open to see Dr. Chamberlin and Achilles standing at his bedside. Damn. Double damn. He was in the clan hospital.
“Where the hell is she?” He shoved aside the sheet then almost passed out from the fresh, sharp onslaught of razor-sharp pain that knifed through his shoulder. As he tried to stand, Slade grunted and ground his teeth.
Achilles gripped him by the opposite shoulder, pushing him back against the mattress. The fresh note of forest flora and fauna clung to him. As did the stink of feral Were. The green of his commander’s eyes were as hard as glacial ice. “You’re not going to like this.”
Slade smacked his hand away as his tension torqued up another notch and he sat up anyway, powered by his need to protect Raina. His hospital pajama top gaped open. “Where. Is. She?”
“The Weres took her. The battle got out of hand. We didn’t expect them to ambush us in broad daylight.”
His head snapped up. “And you let them take her?”
“We were lucky to drag your ass back here before we were all killed. We underestimated them. They’re faster and fiercer than we imagined.”
“I’m transporting back. Now.” He swung his legs over the side of the bed, but it took considerable effort for him to do so. He was as useless as block of C4 without a fuse. He shot the doctor a puzzled look. “How long have I been out?”
“A few hours.”
Slade frowned, his head spinning and his vision blurry. Moon sickness kicking his ass again? He mentally did a body check. No. This was different. Debilitating in a different way. “Why am I so weak? My body’s had time to heal. I should be back in fighting form.” Yet he wasn’t. Not by a long shot.
Dr. Chamberlin glanced at the machines beeping by Slade’s head and flipped the chart in her hand to make a notation. “What the hell was Crawford thinking to shoot him like that?” she muttered and shook her head.
“He shot me?”
Achilles frowned. “In the fray he was afraid you’d shift, so he shot you in the back with a silver-tipped DMD. Didn’t want to have to figure out which of the Weres we could and couldn’t kill because one of them might be you.”
Silver and dead man’s blood. Gods, no wonder he hurt so bad. Both were powerful poisons and nervous system inhibitors. He was lucky he hadn’t just slumped over like a wet noodle. It bothered but didn’t surprise him that James had shot him in the back, literally, because he didn’t trust him to be able to control himself.
“Look here, please,” Dr. Chamberlin said as she took a penlight and flashed it past his eyes, causing them to dilate with a sharp stab to pierce his brain that immediately faded.
“It ended up being the four of us against twenty Weres.” Achilles crossed his arms over his chest and leaned a shoulder against the wall. He did not look happy. “Ty never intended to let us talk to Bracken. Eris must have promised them some pretty big concessions to win their total loyalty like that.”
Terror ripped through him in equal measure to the pain freezing his joints and making him feel like he was in the midst of a bout of moon sickness all over again. He focused, trying to transport. All he got was a weak fizzle of sensation. “We have to go. Now.”
Achilles shook his head. “It’s less than twelve hours before the blue moon. We go back now and we’re asking for Eris to squash us.”
Slade stiffened. “How long was I out?”
“Six hours.”
Beads of moisture popped out on Slade’s forehead. Anything could have happened in six hours. He knew without a doubt Bracken would try to force Raina to mate and it wouldn’t turn out well.
Slade turned to Dr. Chamberlin and held out his arm, full of intravenous needles taped in place. “Get these things out of me.” She obliged, removing the ichor drip and monitoring devices strapped to his arm.
Focused on Achilles and his fear for Raina, he didn’t even feel the needles being pulled from his skin. “You said you know how to trap Eris.”
Dr. Chamberlin’s gaze flicked for an instant to Achilles, her lips pressing together in disapproving line, but she kept silent.
“I do. But she’s going to have to be distracted for it to work. If she draws down the moon, she’ll be able to control us.”
“You, yes. But not the Weres. I think I may have just the advantage we need to beat her.”
Achilles stared down at Slade, his eyes blazing. “Not a good idea.”
The hospital room suddenly seemed s
uffocating to Slade. The need to reach Raina dominated all other concerns. It wasn’t about if he was going to go up against Bracken, but when. And with Raina at stake that was going to happen sooner than later.
“I didn’t say it was a good idea, just the best that I could come with on the fly.” Slade glanced down at his hospital pajamas and phased them away, replacing them with black fatigue pants, a black T-shirt and his favorite boots. Even that much effort made him feel woozy.
“But if you transition—”
He held up a hand, stopping Achilles. “I’m well aware of the consequences, but if it buys us time, then as a last resort I’ll do what I have to do. Like Raina said, this is bigger than just us versus them. This is Eris we’re talking about. Everybody could get screwed.”
“True.”
“Well, don’t sugarcoat it or anything,” Slade said with a grunt.
“Are you dizzy or in pain?” Dr. Chamberlin asked as she took Slade’s arm and assisted him off the bed. The room swayed and for a minute it looked like there were two of everybody.
“No problemo,” he answered, giving her a thumbs-up that really looked like maybe three or four thumbs.
Dr. Chamberlin raised an eyebrow. “Right.” She glanced at Achilles. “Watch him for the next half hour. If he’s unstable bring him back. I can’t tell if it’s the residual effects of the DMD in his system or an increasing reaction to the moon sickness.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Slade muttered. “We’ve still got a job to do.” He pinned Achilles with a gaze that said he refused to take no for an answer. “When does the team leave?”
Achilles shifted his weight uneasily from one foot to the other. “You and I are going in solo.”
“What?” For a second he felt deflated all over again. They wouldn’t back him up because they feared he’d go dog.
“The others took the brunt of the attack. They’re still being treated and fed down the hall.”
Slade sighed. Well, perhaps it was more because they were injured than worried. “But they’ll be fine,” he prompted.
“Yes. But Dmitri has determined this needs to be a stealth operation. If we get an opportunity to subdue Eris, great, but that’s not the primary goal. We’re to do what we can to get rid of her, even if it means taking out Bracken.”
Slade nodded. “And grab Raina.”
Achilles’s mouth flattened into a firm line. “If it’s possible.”
“Of course it’s freakin’ possible.”
“Not if they’ve already bit her and started the transition.” Achilles turned on his heel and jerked his head, indicating Slade should walk with him.
Slade rolled his shoulders and stepped out into the hallway with Achilles. “That’s a chance I’ve got to take,” Slade said.
They walked in silence down the length of the medical clinic and out past the reception desk to the atrium. Achilles put a hand on Slade’s shoulder, stopping him in his tracks, and waited until Slade’s gaze connected with his. “Remember, those are her people and she’s got a connection to them. She might decide that she’d rather stay where she belongs.”
Slade frowned. “Why the change of tune?”
Achilles pulled his hand away, a pensive look crossing his face. “You obviously don’t remember Kaycee.” He broke eye contact with Slade, and Slade got the curious sensation that Achilles had held back far more than the information about knowing who his mother and father were. “She wanted nothing more than to escape to a different life. She was nothing like Raina,” Achilles added.
“Then why in the hell did she go back?”
Achilles’s gaze, full of solemnity, locked onto his. “They took you.”
A shudder rippled through Slade. “Used me as bait.”
Achilles nodded, a softness flitting across his eyes like a memory quickly dismissed. “There was nothing she wouldn’t have done for you.”
Slade’s stomach curled uncomfortably in upon itself as he peered at Achilles, for the first time seeing the tired lines around his eyes. “You say that like you knew her.”
For a moment Achilles said nothing, then took a deep breath. “I was her maker. The vampire who helped her become one of us.”
Shock swelled his throat closed, making it hard to push out the words. “So you and she—” Slade said, then waved his hand, brushing off his question. “Never mind.”
“Kaycee was an amazing person. I was there when you were born.”
“You what?” Slade backed up a pace. “My God! Are you my surrogate father?”
“No. More like your uncle. Close family ties, but not your father. Kaycee and I were friends, not lovers. She only asked for one thing from me after you were born. She wanted me to watch out for you, give you the choice to become one of us, if you wanted it. I think she knew what would happen if she ever returned to the pack.”
The room started to spin again. He needed to sit down. Thinking of what had happened to his mother made him worry about what was happening that very moment to Raina. Slade settled on the edge of one of the cushy white armchairs in the atrium lounge area. “So the whole Shyeld thing—”
“We came to get you the minute she called us telling us they were going to execute her. We brought you to Seattle, but before we could get you into the complex, you took off.”
A vision of running in the dark, the streetlights blurring through the tears flashed across his mind. He’d slept that night in an alley, curled against a doorway.
“It took us two years of searching to find you among the mortals.”
Slade peered at Achilles. “She’s the reason the council wouldn’t let you create or mentor any other females until the doc.”
Achilles nodded, his eyes sad. He’d obviously cared for Slade’s mother and had taken her death hard on a number of levels. The scent of regret, metallic and sharp, permeated the air. “The council held me responsible for Kaycee’s death. Not exactly a stellar mark on a vampire who’s supposed to have security locked down.”
“Why didn’t you tell me any of this sooner?”
Achilles shrugged. “We glamoured you after we found you. Tried to help you forget everything you had witnessed in the hope that it would spare your mind the trauma.”
Slade nodded. “I want to hear every detail about my mother and about my past, but right now I have more immediate concerns.” He paused, swallowing hard. His next words stuck in his throat because he really didn’t want to say them out loud. “You really think Raina will want to stay?”
Achilles crossed his arms. “Can’t say. You know her better than I do. What do you think?”
Slade rose, phased himself a leather jacket and a pair of wraparound sunglasses. “I think we’re riding to a rescue.”
Chapter 19
Slade and Achilles transported to the edge of the Wenatchee Pack’s territory, both in flux. They’d agreed that being invisible was necessary from the outset. The Weres would have lookouts posted at the perimeter, so avoiding detection would be their first challenge. Staying invisible was their second. Slade could only hold a flux for an hour, Achilles maybe three, because he’d had longer to build his skills.
Which way to the den? Achilles trusted Slade’s tracking abilities. Slade was grateful to have the powerful vampire with him.
Their mental vampire communication bettered their odds of success. The fact that he could also “hear” Were communications was a godsend.
Slade closed his eyes and focused on picking out the distinct odor of feral wet dog, pungent wood smoke and the subtle currents of Raina’s strawberry scent that rode the wind.
North by northeast. Five hundred yards up the ridge by those rocks. The smoke from a campfire smudged the sky. There, shifters were clearly unafraid of detection. Don’t get too confident, you bastards, Slade cloaked his thoughts. You have my woman. Think I won’t come get her? Or did they hope he would? Was Raina bait for a trap?
He and Achilles expected a trap. Hell, they were ready for it. Bring it on!
&nbs
p; You approach from the east, Achilles told him. I’ll approach from the west.
Slade slipped through the trees less than a shadow. The sky had crowded with thick thunderclouds during the latter half of the day, making the setting sun only discernible through the overall darkening of the sky. Lightning flashed over the distant high peaks and thunder rolled and rumbled. The storm was coming, in more ways than one.
Slade swiftly scaled the rock, careful where he put each foot and handhold so as not to leave a mark or make a sound.
“The moon will rise soon.” Slade recognized Ty’s voice.
“Good. Prepare the Whisperer. The goddess can join us in celebrating her return to the pack.”
If Slade had a heart, it would’ve jolted. Was he too late?
On his belly, he crawled to peer over the edge of the red rocks, to the tableau in the clearing below. Close to thirty Weres gathered around a large fire that crackled and popped, sending up a shower of red-orange sparks into the darkening sky. Off to one side was an X created from two peeled timbers lashed together with leather at the center and propped up at the crux. The hair on the back of his neck lifted in trepidation
Where the hell was Raina? He searched the faces of each Were. Had they turned her? Had she become a wolf already?
The sound of a muffled struggle reached his ears. Slade shifted position to get a better look. In his impatience his hand slid in the scree, causing small stones to rain down over the rocks. Damn. Double damn.
Dozens of ears swiveled in his direction, and keen eyes searched the rocks. Dark noses sniffed the air, searching for scent.
What the hell are you doing? Achilles asked, clearly irritated by such a basic mistake.
Sorry. I thought I heard Raina.
You did.
“Bring out the Whisperer.” The command came from an older, grittier voice Slade hadn’t heard in a long time. While he couldn’t see the wolf, he could picture him clearly. Silver and huge. The one who had torn his mother to pieces. Loathing and fear shrank his skin to his bones.
The Half-Breed Vampire Page 19