20 Shades of Shifters_A Paranormal Romance Collection

by Demelza Carlton

  A shotgun blast echoed behind Jonas and before he knew it, the Fae had dropped to the ground.

  Jonas got to his feet and spun around, gun pointed at Pliny.

  “Got your six, brother.”

  Lowering the weapon, Jonas started toward Pliny. “Thanks, man. Everything else okay?”

  “Yeah. That girl of yours is one hell of a shot.”

  Jonas chuckled. “Doesn’t hurt that the bullets she has in her possession and in my gun are able to take out magical creatures. Unlike what we normally carry.”

  “Where’d she get those?”

  “Hell if I know. Come on. I need to get back to my sister.” He caught up to Pliny

  “She’s okay so far. We’re treating Aelfwine’s bullet wound but then sending her off in animal form to an area where we once had a safe house.” Pliny loaded another round into the shotgun and turned to follow behind Jonas.

  Halfway between the bike and the door, Jonas stopped and held up a hand.

  “Something the matter?”

  “Yeah. What the fuck was Davin thinking? We weren’t supposed to have to deal with the Fae Guard until much later, once we’d handled this business with their queen and outed the traitor to our queen.”

  “Right.”

  “But something seems off.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Narrowing his eyes, Jonas spun around and pointed his finger in Pliny’s chest. The math didn’t check out. It should have been the Firebrand MC, not the Faery Queen’s guard. “What was that all about? Why are you all here? Where are the Firebrand MC?”

  “You know he still wants to sell the bikes, right?”

  Jaw dropping, Jonas shook his head. “I can’t let that happen. You know that wasn’t the fucking plan, Pliny. We don’t need them anymore. We’re here. You brought your own bikes. I’m the only one without.”

  Pliny motioned with his head toward the supped-up motorcycle behind them. “Looks like you got one there just fine.”

  “Oh no.” Jonas shook his head. “I’m not ripping her off. Not after all the shit we’ve been through.”

  “’Fraid that don’t matter, Jonas.”

  He looked over his shoulder, saw Cristin holding a gun on Tempest and Nadine. Both his sister and Tempest had their hands bound and walked slowly in front of Cristin.

  “You bastard.” He lifted his pistol and pointed straight at Cristin. “Let them go or I’ll put two in your head and end your miserable life.”

  “Tis not his doing, nor even mine own, Jonas. We have been fucked by allies, as you say.”

  Jonas shifted his gun toward Davin. “Prez, you need to have a serious thought about what’s about to go down right now. I won’t hesitate.”

  “Mexican standoff, Jonas.”

  Jonas shifted, giving Davin and Pliny his profile and seeing the shotgun pointed straight at him. “What the fuck’s going on?”

  “Your club is a bunch of fucking thieves, Jonas. Just like I told you. Can’t trust bikers.” Tempest spat at their feet.

  Cristin cocked Tempest upside the head, sending her spilling to the ground.

  She groaned but something felt off about what Jonas saw. Still, his mind processed the image and anger fueled him. He started for Cristin, ignoring the shotgun blast behind him.

  He stopped in his tracks, saw Cristin point the pistol at his lover.

  Yeah. He was going to own that shit.

  “You don’t understand, my man.”

  “You’re right. I don’t. This isn’t the deal we agreed upon.”

  “What the fuck, Jonas?” Tempest shot daggers with her gaze and if he were a human, he’d be a dead man.

  “Brother, what did you get yourself into while I have been ill?”

  “Don’t worry about it, little sister. I did what I had to. As for you,” He faced Tempest, “I don’t know anymore. This wasn’t supposed to be a heist.”

  “Guess you’re all fucking liars.”

  “Fall in line.” Rasputin came out of the house, shotgun in hand and blinked twice at Jonas. “Get on the motorcycle. We shall take your sister and your Ol’Lady to the truck and swap our motorcycles for the ones meant for the Queen’s Guard. Then we shall deal with the fallout.”

  Jonas watched Tempest visibly tense at the mention of being his Ol’Lady. He’d normally feel a sense of pride in that, but with the gun and hostage thing.

  Cristin kept one hand on Nadine but yanked Tempest to her feet. “Come on.” He glared at Jonas. “Get on the bike.”

  There wasn’t any way Jonas could win this fight. He hadn’t the ammunition on him to take out maybe more than one of the other club members.

  “Put the gun down, Jonas.”

  “I can’t fucking believe this. Does this patch mean any fucking thing?” He glowered at Pliny.

  Pliny blinked twice. “That’s what this is for, brother.”

  Jonas set the gun on the ground before Pliny came around, keeping his gun trained on Jonas, picked up the pistol and waved it at Jonas. “Get on the bike. I’m staying to watch you while they get theirs from behind the cabin.”

  “This is some bullshit, Pliny. After all we’ve been through.”

  “You’re the one that taught us to be thieves, Jonas. This is on you, ultimately.”

  “That’s some fucking bullshit, and you know it.”

  Davin shook his head. “So sayeth the youngest of our club. On the bike. Let’s away, Jonas.”

  Clenching his fists, Jonas kept one eye trained on Pliny while walking back, hands up, toward the Fae-enhanced motorcycle. If he could start it up, he could rush off, but that would only leave his sister and who the hell called Tempest his Ol’Lady?

  Guess that shit was off. The look she shot him would kill him if she didn’t first, once this was all over.

  He climbed atop the bike and watched the others escort Tempest and Nadine back inside the house and out into the backyard, where the bikes were.

  The rumble of more engines behind him made him look back. That’s when he saw the group of fucking Sluagh riding in pairs up the dirt road.

  Shit just went south faster than blood at a strip club.

  He spotted the patches.

  Eyes wide, Jonas stared incredulously at the Fae fast approaching. “Fucking Firebrand, Pliny? We’re selling to the enemy now? In our own homeland, we’re doing business with a rival club?”

  “It was a club decision.”

  “One I wasn’t fucking part of, remember?”

  “You know the rules. If you’re AWOL for longer than forty-eight hours and miss a club meeting without informing someone, you’re not even allowed to proxy.”

  “Cristin was my proxy.”

  Pliny shook his head. “Not on this issue.”

  “The fuck he wasn’t.” Fists clenched, Jonas started to dismount.

  Davin aimed straight at Jonas’ heart.

  “Goddamnit.”

  “Indeed.”

  The eight bikes came up, circled around the two of them. The air grew heavier with the scent of death and the River Styx, while the already low lighting outside seemed to dim even further.

  That couldn’t be good.

  Pliny lowered his shotgun and blinked twice again at Jonas before turning to face the president of the Firebrand MC.

  All eight of the fuckers were unusually tall, but the president possessed not just height but extreme bulk as well. It made Jonas question how he could ride and how they could all move so quickly.

  Their president remained straddled on his bike, arms crossed over his massive chest. The first thing Jonas noticed was his hollowed-out eyes. That always creeped him out when he’d heard tales of the Ankou being the Fae who were obsessed with death.

  It made sense that they rode.

  Funny, none of the opponents he’d dealt with were actually menacing enough to be a real threat.

  “You.”

  One of the Firebrand dismounted and marched up to Jonas. He cocked his fist and socked Jonas squarely
across the jaw.

  Jonas spun back, twisting off the bike and hitting the ground, his guard completely off.

  The punch stung like a bitch.

  The Fae rounded the bike and lifted his hand to repeat the gesture but was stopped by an arm that shot out of nowhere.

  Jonas rubbed his jaw, blinked and saw their president behind the Fae who punched him. Now that Jonas thought about it, the fucker who sucker punched him looked vaguely familiar.

  “He shot me, Prez. I had a right.”

  “You did, Indu, but you got your pot shot in. Come, we can deal with this vendetta later. For now, we need to get what belongs to us.”

  “You mean what you’re stealing.”

  The Ankou president turned a menacing glare on Jonas. “Have a care, vampire. Or I shall not be so quick to stop Indu again.” When he spoke, his teeth flashed, large and longer than a vampire’s.

  Biting back a curse, Jonas shut his mouth. Picking himself off the ground, he straddled the bike. Engines from other motorcycles rumbled behind him and Jonas saw them come around to the front of the house. Tempest’s hands were free but Cristin rode behind their president, gun trained on her.

  Pliny came back a moment later, shotgun pointed at Rasputin’s captive, Nadine.

  The entire ordeal made what little blood Jonas had coursing through him boil. Death be damned. He clenched his fists and gripped the handlebars hard enough to turn his knuckles whiter than they should be, even for the undead, before releasing a low hiss.

  “Drake.” Davin’s expression seemed grim. His lips were pursed into a thin line and he looked more menacing than he had in a while.

  “Yes. Davin, I urge you, why not let us patch you into our club. We are obsessed with death, you are undead. This transaction would be so much less bloody that way. And we really don’t like the bloodshed, do we?”

  “No thanks. Me thinks we do like our club as it is. Even if some of us think us to be traitors.”

  Davin shot that last comment at Jonas.

  Jonas bit back a retort. Now was not the time to show infighting. With his mate and sister in the mix, it was better to plan for nothing and keep it loose.

  That had worked out in his favor so far, right?

  “The Fae here will guide us to the truck where upon we can complete this transaction.”

  “Very well, Davin. You’d have made good Firebrand.”

  Davin spit on the ground in front of Drake. “Never will I wear another cut.”

  A third Fae dismounted and rushed Davin, slamming a fist into his chest and knocking him and Tempest off the motorcycle.

  “Tempest!” Jonas started to slide off the bike but stopped when he heard the sound of a pistol cocking. “Damnit.”

  Davin hit the ground hard, but Jonas flinched when Tempest actually cried aloud. What the fuck had they done to her?

  “Pick yourself up. And Kalen, don’t hit him so hard.”

  Kalen ran a hand through the spiked blue hair on his square head and nodded. “Yeah Drake.”

  Jonas gritted his teeth.

  “Let us do this, then, shall we?”

  “Your call, Drake.”

  Drake nodded and got back on his motorcycle. “You,” he pointed at Jonas. “You shall follow your president and pull no stunts with the bike you are on. Or I will kill what belongs to you, then I will tear you apart.”

  Jonas didn’t respond. He started the bike and waited for Davin to ride past him before following in line.

  Behind him in the mirror, he watched Drake and Kalen fall in with the rest of his club before the remaining Firebrand MC brought up the rear.

  It was only a thirty-minute ride but Jonas wracked his brain, struggling to find some solution to this that ended the Firebrand MC and got Tempest what he wanted.

  When they arrived at the invisible mist, he still had nothing.

  Fuck all.

  Her head ached, but not as bad as her elbow had from taking that fall. Jonas saw her get cold cocked, but she’d put up a fist and blocked the blow so quickly that it looked like she’d taken it when she fell.

  She had to.

  But something wasn’t right. Once she’d clued the MC in about how to defeat the current problem, they’d solved it quickly.

  She had also protected Nadine, who proved herself quite a fighter once shit got into the house and went hand to hand.

  Once the enemy was disposed of, Rasputin explained to her in old verbiage about the farce to sell the bikes to another MC but said nothing of it being Firebrand. As far as she knew from Jonas, that was a rival club.

  Rasputin told her they’d all blink twice at Jonas and he’d pick up on the signal. She would need to do so when the time was right, also.

  She smelled the lie from the MC, ultimately knew Jonas had a part in some scheme, but this wasn’t the one he had involvement in. The plans must have changed and he wasn’t aware of it.

  To make matters worse, the Ankou were feared in Faery because of their superior strength and power. When something as strong as death itself came for you, you didn’t hesitate to get the fuck outta Dodge.

  Another lie was afoot, but she couldn’t place it. The scent was too familiar.

  She studied the face of the one named Drake, fixated really hard on the lines and planes of his features.

  If he turned a certain way, something moved with him, a second skin, almost.

  The next thing she knew, she’d been hauled on the back of Davin’s bike. “Stay put.”

  Riding on the back of Davin’s bike didn’t feel nearly as comfortable as riding with Jonas. For one, the motorcycle was uncomfortable. Two, Davin was so not Jonas.

  Davin was rather cold compared to Jonas. He had an old-world persona about him that threw off a dark vibe, but she ignored it as they traveled.

  The Firebrand followed them to the place she’d led them. After what felt like forever but was at the most less than an hour, the bikes were all gathering in the middle of the mist, staring at her truck.

  Focusing on the task at hand, she dismounted and waited for the rest of the bikers to stop.

  She had to get inside and get the guns to Jonas and at least one more person. These fools, whoever they were, weren’t packing magically-enhanced rounds, if she had to guess.

  The smell of their guns differed from hers.

  Hopefully, Jonas would pick up on her signals. He’d missed the club’s more than enough times to make her want to smack him.

  She came up to her truck, patted the door to the cargo hold and looked up at the dark sky. There wasn’t a way out of this, and Jonas wasn’t at fault. She played along with the club to make him think she was pissed at his betrayal, but the mind reading thing so far was a one-way street.

  “This is it?”

  She turned to see Drake dismounting first, followed by the rest of his goons. Jonas looked uncomfortable beside Davin but he kept glancing between her and Nadine.

  She just hoped if the Undead Souls were still playing to win, Jonas got the message. Several of the members had blinked at him twice but he seemed to be missing it. She couldn’t repeat the gesture; Drake and his cronies would pick up on something.

  “Yeah. This is the truck. All of the bikes minus the one.”

  Drake pulled out a gun and pointed it at her. “Open it.”

  Tempest swallowed, not a fan of the outcome if she didn’t obey, despite hating to be given orders that didn’t come with a huge cash payment.

  Now was not the time to be thinking about retirement. Not when she was about to lose her entire shipment.

  Jonas had been broadcasting to her loud and clear that he wanted to figure a way out of this. But as of now, nothing appeared.

  She grabbed the chain and began to pull apart the intricate lock only a Fae was supposed to be able to undo. Or so she told the MC. Then she yanked the chain from the handle and pulled open the doors.

  “Move, wench.”

  She needed to let this happen as naturally as possible. Informing t
he MC that she had enough firepower in her truck to knock out the Firebrand wasn’t exactly the smartest idea, but it may have been the best one, just to keep the vampire body count down.

  She wanted that for Jonas, since he was left in the dark about this whole plan and she’d actually fallen in love with him.

  The one named Kalen shoved past her and stepped onto the truck, followed by Indu and some other fucker she didn’t know.

  Indu let out a low whistle once he’d ripped off the covers of three of the bikes in succession. “Jackpot. You sure these travel through portals?”

  “More than yours do.”

  “I wasn’t asking you, half-breed. You’re lucky I don’t kill you now for your status as less than Fae.”

  “Hey!” Jonas shot off his bike toward her but Rasputin grabbed him.

  Jonas struggled against Rasputin’s grip, shoving it off before he pushed past one of the Firebrand assholes and stopped just before Tempest.

  His emotions were broadcast all over his face. So much for calm and collected.

  She actually found herself attracted to his protective nature and loving heart.

  Jonas took her face in his. “You okay?”

  She nodded. “Yeah.” Damnit, she needed to warn him that his club was hopefully about to jump the Firebrand, but he had no weapons.

  A moment later, Indu and Kalen had shoved them both out of the way and stood while the other Firebrand members began removing the bikes from her truck and walked them back toward the outer part of the mist.

  “What are we going to do? That’s not the Queen’s Guard.”

  “Neither were the goons you shot earlier.”

  Jonas’s eyes widened. “What?”

  She brought his ear to her mouth. “Just trust me. Pay attention to your club.” She made sure to whisper low enough that only Jonas would hear her.

  “Hey, if anyone’s getting any, it’ll be us when we get back to Faery. Knock that shit off, bitch.”

  Kalen yanked Jonas back from Tempest.

  Jonas held his hands up and took a few steps back from Kalen and Tempest. “All right, all right. Just making sure my Ol’Lady’s fine.”

  Did he just…

  She shook her head.

  It was fine. She really was his. Not sure about the term, but they would talk after they figured this out.