My eyes snapped to his face, and my body turned. The fury I’d swallowed earlier rose back up and burned my throat. Christine.
“I have never slept with Christine. Hear the truth in my words.”
Kill him, the beast growled.
No. I squashed the anger down, knowing it was ill-placed, and straightened from my threatening stance. He hadn’t slept with her. Yet. Even if he had, that didn’t justify ripping off his head. This beast wouldn’t control me. My body vibrated as the beast made another attempt at a coup before withdrawing, recessing beneath the surface, simmering and waiting. I let a long breath out and my muscles relaxed.
Wick and Tristan exhaled in unison.
“I’m better now,” I said. My voice didn’t sound as rough or omnipotent as before, but it still sounded like it had been warped for a scary movie. “I think.”
Tristan tilted his head. “You’re quite breathtaking in this form. Scary, but beautiful.”
I snorted, and my nostrils burned. Ouch! Smoke fizzled up and stung my eyes. I could breathe fire? “No way!”
“You should look in the mirror. See what we see.” Wick nodded to the wall behind me.
Still wanting to punch him in the junk, I turned instead to catch my reflection in the hallway full-length mirror—the one I used to check out my outfits before heading out.
A deep chuckle escaped my throat. Are you kidding me? I looked like a dragon-human hybrid that would give a comic book geek a hard on. Dark and scaly, my body still held a vaguely human figure, only larger—at least eight feet tall—but my hands and feet, distinctly demonic, resembled those found on dragons with scaly long digits ending with talons. The obsidian scales that covered the majority of my body receded to give way to my stomach and breasts, which were lined with a dark, fine fur. My breasts were huge and round, and my nipples a bright cherry red. Wow…just, wow.
My back itched and wings stretched out behind me, using unfamiliar muscles. Bird wings essentially acted as front limbs, but with the Ualida, they were an extra appendage. Large and black, the skin connecting the bone and muscle tissue appeared almost translucent, letting in light from behind. Could I fly with them?
The face reflecting back in the mirror, however, snagged my attention. The facial features appeared familiar, mine, yet different, more extreme and reptilian with eyes slit like a dragon. My skin tone had darkened from its regular tan to match the obsidian scales and fur. Two small black horns protruded from my forehead and extended up. Large, pointed ears made it look as if I wore the fake elf prosthetics sold at Halloween. My black hair, oddly, remained the same and fell long and straight.
Then my tailbone twitched and a long spaded tail swished around my legs.
“Do you think you can shift back to human, Andy?” Wick asked. The smell of his anxiety hung sour in the air. The beast delighted in his discomfort, but I didn’t like the Alpha Werewolf unsure of himself. It was wrong. Weak.
“I think so.” I lied.
Tristan and Wick exchanged glances. Guess they caught that, too. I wished I could mask the scent of my emotions.
The beast didn’t want to rescind her control over my body when I tried to change back. She dug her claws in and brought up all my nastiest thoughts and emotions to wear as armour. Not nice. Instead of changing back to human, I wanted to turn around and swipe Wick’s head off from his shoulders. No! I gritted my teeth and pushed back. Next I saw Angie doing porn star worthy activities with Tristan, causing smoke to barrel out of my nose and fangs to protrude from my lips. I could not allow the beast to use my anger and insecurities against me. No, no, no.
All four feras rose up within my mind. Together they tackled the beast and I pushed her down, out of my head and away from the master control center of my brain. This time, when I willed the change, it came easily.
Lying in an exhausted, naked heap on the human splattered floor, I decided I preferred not to repeat the experience for a long time, or at least not until I had a larger supply of energy drinks. My bones felt like cereal left in milk for too long.
“Andy?” Tristan asked, kneeling beside me.
Wick brushed a strand of hair away from my face. “Are you okay?”
I groaned and rolled over. “Yes,” I muttered. “What are you both doing here?”
“I came to explain.” Wick cast Tristan a wary look, but went on. “Christine must have heard you approach before I did. She took advantage of my distraction and pounced on me. When you came in, you shocked the hell out of me. I was trying to untangle myself from her.”
My nose flared. His words, all true, but his hand had clutched her ass and he hadn’t looked like a struggling victim until after he saw me. Did I have any right to be angry? And even if I didn’t, would his pretty words make this pain go away?
Tristan watched us both, eyelids lowered to hide his thoughts, but burnt cinnamon wafted off his skin and gave his emotions away. Anger...on my behalf?
Not ready to deal with All-Things-Wick, I turned to the Wereleopard and ignored Wick’s hurt expression. “And you?”
Tristan gave me a half smile and shrugged. “Came to seduce you.” He jerked his thumb in Wick’s direction. “Then I saw this one lurking outside.”
“Lurking?” His low growl provided a small warning before he dove over my body and slammed into Tristan.
Chapter Thirty-Three
“He didn’t turn into an eight-foot scaly monster tonight, so I’m pretty sure I won the ‘Shitty Night’ contest.”
~Andrea McNeilly
Watching two gorgeous men grapple, slinging curses, and trading blows, I felt no motivation to break it up. They weren’t trying to kill each other, not really, or they would’ve sustained more damage by now. I sat back amongst the passed out humans and watched as the men alleviated pent up tension.
One of the norms beside me moaned and rolled over, rubbing her temples. Her eyes fluttered open and then widened as they took in my appearance.
I looked down. Oh right. No clothes. Grunting, I got up, ignored the cry of my stiff muscles, and shuffled into the bedroom. The closest sweatpants and T-shirt would have to do. I hoped they were clean.
Didn’t smell like it.
When I came back out, Tristan and Wick still tumbled around on the floor with their hands around each other’s throats, disregarding the norms they steam-rolled. I put my hands on my hips and trained my face to look more serious. Inwardly, I found it kind of funny. Their faces turned redder by the minute.
“When you two are done whatever pissing contest you’re participating in, I need your help. The humans are waking up, and I’d like to escort them out of my home.”
I didn’t wait to see them untangle; instead, I turned and found my cell phone.
He picked up after the first ring. “Officer Stevens.”
“I have about twenty Kappa victims passed out in my living room. Alive.” I prattled off my location in case he forgot the time he’d barged through my door. “Please come and collect them. They might have retained helpful information.”
“You live out of my jurisdiction.”
“Then send someone else. I’m sure you have contacts.” I jabbed the off button before he could issue another excuse. Cops! I might like the guy, but right now I wanted to tell Stan exactly where to shove his jurisdictions.
My phone beeped with a text message from Stan, 20 Minutes.
I deduced from the lack of a happy face that he was a bit pissed at me. Whatever. He didn’t turn into an eight-foot scaly monster tonight, so I’m pretty sure I won the “Shitty Night” contest.
True to his word, Stan arrived twenty minutes later with several transport vans to haul the humans away. Most of them were too groggy to walk unassisted, which worked for me. I didn’t want them to remember me or where I lived. Talk about an uncomfortable intercom conversation. Why was I at your place unconscious? A Kappa brainwashed you to abduct me. Thanks for visiting. You can go now.
I watched them load up the last of the wobbly h
umans into one of the vans and crossed my arms over my shirt. It was cold out tonight, and in my haste to clothe myself, I hadn’t bothered with a bra. Even if I couldn’t feel it, the cops staring at my chest and stumbling up and down the stairs as they carted around the Kappa victims, told me my nipples stuck out like the knobs of a game controller, begging for someone to start playing.
“What are you going to do?” Wick walked to stand beside me.
My body stiffened. I still didn’t know how to respond to him. Part of me wanted to jump his bones and the other part wanted to slap him.
“Are you still angry with me?” he asked. His right eye was swollen and he had a large scratch down his cheek. Tristan had given him a few good ones.
Yes. No. “I don’t know.”
Wick’s lips pursed. “Andy, I am sorry you are upset, but you have no reason to be.”
“Maybe. But that doesn’t mean I can forget. You didn’t look horrified to have Christine all over you.”
“I am a man, Andy.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? How does having a dick make it okay?”
“Having a d—No! That’s not what I…” He took a deep breath. His cheeks rippled as he clenched his jaw. “It is the full moon. And when a woman rubs herself all over me, it’s hard to ignore. It doesn’t help that you are not mine. Not yet.”
I puffed my cheeks out, unsure of how to react.
“You have no right to be angry at me for this.”
An unpleasant prickling ran up my spine. “You can’t tell me how I can or cannot feel, Brandon.”
Wick recoiled. His lips flattened out and his muscles tensed. “You have been running around with another man, letting him put his hands all over you, put his mouth all over you, and you are going to get upset at me because I did not automatically throw Christine on her ass when she pounced on me? Because it took me by surprise and I did not react right away?”
“You seemed to have no problem reacting.”
Wick closed his eyes and clenched his offending hands. “The moon madness had already sunk in. It is stronger for an Alpha than anyone else, I feel it coursing through everyone in my pack. My thoughts are always on you. When a womanly shape started rubbing against me, I believed it was you at first. So, yeah, I reacted. That is why I did not fling her off me right away.”
“Oh.”
“That’s it? That is all you have to say to me?” Wick inhaled deeply again. “Are you not being hypocritical? Or, are you looking for an excuse to give up on us and run the other way?” He glanced over his shoulder at Tristan, who stood about twenty feet away with the cops.
The hollow feeling in my gut didn’t close up with Wick’s confession. The heavy sadness still tugged my heart deep into my chest and I kept picturing him with Christine. Did he want an apology? Probably. Did I owe him one? Probably. Maybe I was being hypocritical.
Wait a fucking minute. How’d he turn this around to be my fault?
Wick watched my face and the smell of burnt cinnamon grew heavier in the air around us. “Fine,” he bit out, coming to some conclusion. “What are you going to do about the Kappa?”
I swallowed, not liking Wick’s anger or the emotional distance growing between us. I didn’t know how to fix it. Did I want to? His tie with Lucien meant an unsure future for our relationship anyway, especially if I managed to find a way out of my bond to the Master Vampire.
is tie”Not sure,” I said, answering his question about the Kappa. “Don’t think I can sit back and let someone else handle it though. Feels like the Kappa sent those humans after me personally. He’s changing his profile.”
Tristan, who’d been saying goodbye to Stan, walked up to us with a blank expression. He didn’t have a black eye like Wick, but he sported a bruised jaw and he walked with a slight limp. He probably heard my entire conversation with Wick. He definitely caught the last part because he commented. “If the Kappa’s psionic skills are so strong, he might’ve read from a human mind that you were onto him.”
“Not that many people know.”
“Besides Lucien’s horde, my pack and I’m assuming Tristan’s pride?” Wick’s face darkened when he spoke of Tristan and more burnt cinnamon wafted off of him. I guess he didn’t like that I’d warned the Wereleopards. He didn’t like a lot of things about me right now.
“Andy!” Stan shouted.
I looked up at the officer and we exchanged nods before he hopped in a cruiser and drove off. A convoy of police cars and vans followed him and left me on the empty sidewalk with two hot Alphas. Wick’s statement teased my neurons. Sure the Vampires, Werewolves and Wereleopards knew, but…
“They’re all supes, though,” I said. “The Kappa can’t mess with our minds easily, or so I’m told. Not a lot of norms know,” I said.
“Besides the entire Vancouver Police Department?” Tristan pointed out. “And whatever vamp tramps are milling around Lucien’s court.”
I grunted. Trust a security expert to point out the details. “Point taken.”
My phone pinged at the same time as Wick’s. I didn’t need to check it to know it was a summons to Lucien.
“Lucien,” Wick confirmed, tucking his phone back in his front pocket. “He wants us at his place right away.”
“I’d like to come,” Tristan said.
His request surprised me.
Wick whirled around and narrowed his eyes at the Wereleopard. His body vibrated.
“Why would you voluntarily place yourself in the demesne of a Master Vampire again?” I asked.
“His animal to call is a wolf, not a leopard. He’ll have no control over me that way, and he’s already bonded two servants. That’s a pretty rare feat, and I doubt he could bind a third.”
“But your bloo—” I started.
He held a hand up at my objection before I could stammer it out. “This concerns your safety, so it concerns me too. I’d like to help take this Kappa down. Besides, it will eventually turn to my leopards again.”
“You could leave.” Wick grunted.
Tristan sapphire irises turned cold as he gave Wick a dark look.
Wick shrugged. “You don’t have to stay. You are not under Lucien’s control. Not yet anyway.”
Tristan turned back to me, ignoring Wick. “Please ask Lucien if I can participate with the planning and have safe passage. Please.”
I tapped the message out on my phone.
Lucien’s response was immediate. Bring the pussy cat.
Chapter Thirty-Four
“When they discover the center of the universe, a lot of people will be disappointed to discover they are not it.”
~Bernard Bailey
Lucien sat like a fucking stone on his throne-like chair. His face showed no emotion, and with the room reeking of vampire death and decay, I couldn’t sniff for any clues. I’d give Clint’s left nut to know what thoughts hid behind his dead eyes. His stillness creeped me out. Should I run? Did he contemplate something nasty for me to do, like lick his shoes? I glanced down at his feet. He wore some sort of reptile footwear tonight.
It had been five minutes since I unloaded all the information I’d gained—everything I knew, thought and guessed about the current Kappa situation. He’d interrupted a couple of times to ask some questions for clarification, but otherwise he remained silent. When I finished, his eyes went vacant and his muscles relaxed as if he withdrew to the recesses of his mind. He sat like that for five long minutes.
“So.” Lucien’s voice shattered the silence like a kid’s baseball through a window. He blinked a couple of times, seeming to focus his eyes. His muscles tightened to give him his usual controlled demeanour, every movement efficient and intended. “He’s tapping into the norms in order to spy and keep tabs on us,” Lucien summarized, propping his chin up with his fist while he sat forward on his throne, looking like Auguste Rodin’s Thinker.
Everyone stood at attention, waiting.
“Thoughts?” Lucien might’ve spoken softly, but he may as well
have barked out a command, because power flowed through his words.
“We need to pinpoint the Kappa’s location,” Allan replied. “Andy’s narrowed it to somewhere along the coast.”
Lucien barked out a short laugh. Obviously, not impressed.
“Better than what we had before,” Allan muttered. “But…” He broke off and his brows bunched together like two bighorn sheep butting heads. He turned away and started pacing.
“Allan?” Lucien’s face twitched. “Any thoughts on how to locate the Kappa?”
Allan shook his head and continued stalking back and forth.
“Can you pinpoint where on the coast?” Lucien turned me.
“I was in the process of doing that when the humans attacked me. It would take some time and if I do find a common point of interest, it wouldn’t necessarily mean that’s where the Kappa beats the bishop.”
Lucien smirked. “We need to find some way to locate this creature before it acquires more humans.”
Use someone, my fox whispered. Use bait.
“We could use someone.” I cleared my throat, uncomfortable that I acted on the fox’s suggestion without thinking it through. “Use someone as bait. Then follow to find out his little hidey-hole.”
Silence met my suggestion. Lucien showed nothing, of course, and the two Weres looked pissed I’d spoken up. Their scents and clenched fists gave them away. It didn’t take much to figure out why they weren’t pleased. Overprotective, much?
“No!” Allan’s voice caused everyone to jump except Lucien. He spun in our direction. “We don’t want to meet the Kappa on his own turf. It’s his or her power base, and we’d have no way to stop it.” Allan took a deep breath. “We’d play right into its hands.”
I let out an exasperated groan. This is why I’d hated working in groups at school—everyone shot my ideas down and nothing got done. It annoyed the hell out of me.
“We need to get the Kappa to come to us.” Allan tapped his chin.
“We’ll need some tasty bait for that,” Clint said.
Then silence fell over the room like fresh snow blanketing grass fields at night.
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