by Jeff Hale
“No, I don’t,” he whispered, pulling me against his chest and rolling me so that he knelt between my thighs, the bathrobe pooled under me. He reached for the button on his jeans, and I helped him shimmy out of them, my breath catching in my throat when I saw him.
He leaned over me, looking into my eyes again, questioning me with them, and receiving my welcoming answer in response. His lips closed over mine as he pushed himself into me and I cried out into his mouth, my back arching violently as I tried to meld my body with his.
Dimly, I was aware of a short, quickly lost stab of pain, followed by the breaking of some soft tissue barrier, something that he felt too at the look of surprise in his eyes. He stopped moving, threatening to pull away, until I raked my hands down his back to his buttocks, grabbed him and forced him against me. I didn’t want this feeling to stop, and I undulated against him to let him know what I wanted. He didn’t stop to question me again, just began moving inside me, slowly and methodically, his eyes locked to mine.
I felt I would burst apart if he kept going, but I also felt that I would cry out in violent protest if he stopped. Finally, when I thought I was close to sensory overload, it happened; a wonderful, beautiful sensation of splitting into a million little pieces before spiraling back down in on myself in abandoned contentment. I heard Aerick give a low moan as he found his own release, then he collapsed forward on top of me, nuzzling his head onto my breasts and breathing heavily.
I wrapped myself around him, drowning myself in his scent, the cat retreating, satisfied, to wherever it was she hid inside me. I felt safe, like nothing could ever hurt me again, and realized that it was Aerick that made me feel this way, that he always had. I knew the world was still in a mess, that I still might have to deal with a very angry werewolf, but I was safe here from the vampires that wanted to do me harm. I sighed, content, if not still a little sad about the events that had led me here.
“Am I interrupting anything?” The voice was new, female, and even in question had a raw seductive quality. I froze against Aerick, the fact that his own body covered my nudity not saving my cheeks from flaming. He sighed against my breasts in irritation.
“Haven’t you heard of knocking, Raven?” Aerick lifted his head up enough to ask her, rolling off me just enough that he was pressed against my side and drawing the sheet up to cover me.
“Former girlfriend of yours?” I asked in a bare whisper to him and he gave a quick shake of his head.
I could see her better now as she leaned against one side of the archway that led into the living room, arms crossed over her chest as she rolled her dark eyes, and I found that I actually recognized her. I had seen her a few times when I had been in Vegas before; she was a coworker of Aerick’s.
Yeah, right.
She was short, maybe my height, with long night black hair and pale skin, voluptuous, her body just screaming that it was made for sex, and she was gorgeous. Beyond gorgeous, she made porn stars look downright dumpy.
She also had a pair of black feathery wings that I could see folded lightly against her back, much like my teacher’s, although this Raven looked more like a dark and dangerous angel.
She shrugged noncommittally, eyes settling on me with a look of mixed curiosity, surprise, and then boredom. “Lucien said you were back and I wanted to make sure you were okay. You were gone for almost twenty four hours.”
Aerick closed his eyes, running a hand through his tousled hair and sighing again. “I’m a big boy, Raven, I can take care of myself.”
“When I walked in, it looked like you were taking care of… other things.” Raven’s mouth turned up in a wicked smile. She glanced back over to me and I expected to see jealousy in her gaze, but I didn’t. Instead there was just concern for Aerick, that look that says ‘You better not hurt him’.
Aerick rolled his eyes at her comment before resting his hand on my stomach through the sheet. “Katelyn, this is Raven, I think you met her once before? She’s fae and can take a bit of getting used to. Raven, this is Katelyn… my girlfriend.”
Raven’s eyes narrowed in on me again and she did a more thorough assessment of me while I tried not to let my face turn the same color as my hair. I met her eyes though, doing my best to return her gaze with as much dignity as I could muster.
“Well, on the plus side, she’s not human, but we’ll see how long it lasts. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” There was amusement in her voice. “Anyway, like I said, I just wanted to make sure you got back all right. You two can keep doing what you were doing.”
She made no move to leave. I could see her eyes roam over Aerick’s body, could see that she desired him, and I got the distinct feeling that if she couldn’t have him herself, she was more than content to watch him with someone else, had in fact, been watching us almost the whole time and we just hadn’t known she was there. The blush in my cheeks deepened.
“Out, Raven.” Aerick’s expression was hard and he indicated the door with a tilt of his head. “And no more spying on me, or Kat, got it?”
She tossed her head, pushing away from the wall. “Whatever.” She turned and sauntered out of the room.
Aerick snuggled back into me as the door closed behind her, then levered back up to look down at me. “Don’t you need to make a phone call?”
Shit.
I had made it through the accident that had led to becoming a full shifter, my stepfather’s vengeance, multiple vampire attacks, and I thought I had just pissed off a fae, but now I still needed to survive the most frightening thing of all; the wrath of my mother when I called to tell her that everything was going to be okay.
SEVENTEEN
Alex
It was eleven twenty two p.m., and Katelyn should have been home almost an hour and a half ago from her date. Darien stopped his pacing long enough to look at the wall clock again, sigh and check out the front curtains, then resumed trying to wear a path into the living room carpet.
Darien wasn’t the only one who was concerned. Roslyn sat in one of the overstuffed chairs, mouth pinched with worry, doing her best not to break down, Matt hovering almost over protectively near her. I was just as anxious as the other three, but I tried to keep some of it to myself, not wanting Darien to know exactly how I felt about Katelyn.
If Darien had just kept his mouth shut, or at least hadn’t been so high handed with her, she might still be sitting in the house right now. But he had been born a shifter, raised in shifter culture, and was an Alpha on top of that. He was too used to other shifters falling in line with what he wanted, doing exactly what he said when he said it, so that when Katelyn stood up to him, no matter that his orders had been meant to protect her, he had just become more adamant and she had finally refused to take anything he said into consideration.
So now we were faced with the current situation; we had had to let her go, but now she wasn’t back when she should have been.
Kris walked into the living room, a tray in her hands that held all sorts of junk food: soda, cookies, chips. She had disappeared into the kitchen a good ten minutes previous, trying to hide her fear, muttering something about comfort food. She set the tray on the coffee table, then sat on the couch end nearest Roslyn, so that Matt seemed to stand guard over both of them. She didn’t say anything, just opened a can of soda and took a long drink. I thought she was trying not to cry.
I heard the car pull up outside then, we all heard it, and Roslyn leaned forward in her chair, Kris hastily putting the can on the table. Darien and I both moved to look out the curtains eagerly. What we saw had a wave of fear rolling off Darien that was so strong I felt it from him in my head. I held a hand out to Roslyn, who had stood. “It’s not Katelyn.”
The knock on the door sounded loud, even though I had been expecting it, and Kris jumped in her seat, startled. Matt put a hand on her shoulder to calm her and she visibly relaxed.
Darien and I both stepped back from the door, letting Roslyn answer it. We already knew it wasn’t a threat, and this was
her home and Katelyn was her daughter. Not that the people at the door would want to talk to us anyway. She pulled the door open and I could hear her audible gasp when she saw the two police officers standing there, one holding a small purse in his hands.
“Sorry to bother you, ma’am, but does Katelyn Shaughnessy live here?” the taller of the two asked, holding what looked to be a driver’s license in his hands. He was trying to keep his face neutral, but he had the air of someone who thought they were bringing bad news.
“Yes… yes, she does,” Roslyn finally managed to get out, her Irish accent somewhat muted. “I’m her mother. What’s going on, officers?”
“Is your daughter here, ma’am?” the shorter one asked, peering past Roslyn, his quick eyes catching everything, and everyone, in the room beyond.
“No, she’s not, officers.” Roslyn rubbed her hands together in agitation. “In fact, we’ve been waiting here, worried as hell, because she should have been back a long time ago and she isn’t home yet, she hasn’t called…” She wiped at her face with the back of one hand.
“Is this your daughter’s purse?” The shorter one held out the small black leather purse that Katelyn usually carried.
A low cry came from Roslyn’s lips and she gave a jerky nod of her head. “What’s happened, where is my daughter?”
“Well, ma’am, that’s what we’re trying to find out. We’ve been doing extra patrols ever since, well, you know, everything went to hell, and we like to go check out all the teen hotspots after curfew, so we can send them home where they’ll be safe.” The taller one closed his eyes, took a deep breath, before continuing on. “Did your daughter know a Cody Grey?”
Roslyn nodded, almost numbly, clutching Katelyn’s purse to her chest. “Yes, the boy from school, they went out together earlier.”
“Well, ma’am, I’m not quite sure how to tell you this, but we found Cody Grey’s car parked up at Leslie Groves Park. That’s where we found your daughter’s purse.” He swallowed, pinched his nose between two fingers briefly. “Ma’am, Cody Grey is dead. We found his body in the park, and God it sounds so insane to say, it looks like he might have been killed by a vampire.”
Roslyn sank to her knees on the doorstep, the shorter officer reaching out a hand to steady her. A wave of murderous anger and despair blasted through me and I heard Darien make a noise that sounded almost like he was in pain, before he fled into the kitchen. Kris buried her face in Matt’s stomach, shoulders shaking as she cried.
And me? I stood there in shock just behind Roslyn, feeling as though my heart had been removed from my chest and it was incredibly hard to breathe.
“Wait,” I said, putting a hand on the doorframe to steady myself, placing my other on Roslyn’s shoulder as she sank against my legs. “You said you found Cody. You didn’t find Katie?”
The shorter officer narrowed his eyes at me. “And you are?”
“A friend of the family, officer,” Roslyn whispered dully. “You can tell him whatever you would tell me.”
The taller police officer nodded, still giving me a closer look. “Well, sir, no, we didn’t find Miss Shaughnessy. But if she’s not there, and she’s not here, and her boyfriend is dead, that doesn’t look too well for her safety.” He glanced down at Roslyn, then back at me. “That’s all we have at the moment, but we needed to see if she had come home. We’ll call you the moment we find out anything else, and if she shows up, please call us and tell us she’s okay. We’ll need her statement as to what happened to Mr. Grey.”
He handed me two cards: Katelyn’s driver’s license, and a card with the precinct information. “You got her?” He indicated Roslyn.
“Yes. Thank you for coming by, officers.” I could hear noises in the garage and I didn’t want them to stick around any longer, fearful they might want to investigate. I helped Roslyn to her feet, shut the door, and guided her back over to her seat. Her face was ashen and her skin was cold.
There was a loud screech of something metal being dismantled, violently, and a howl of rage from the garage and I only hoped that the police officers had already pulled away from the house.
“Holy shit, what was that?” Kris asked, her face red and blotchy from crying.
“I think Darien is upset.” This came from Roslyn, barely a whisper, and she turned her head in the direction of the garage.
From the sounds in the garage, upset was probably too light a term. I looked at Roslyn. “They didn’t find her body, Roslyn, so that means she could still be alive. Don’t think the worst yet.” I wasn’t sure who I was trying to convince, her or me.
She nodded sadly at me, then placed a hand against her chest. “I would feel it, in here, wouldn’t I? If my baby girl was dead?”
“I don’t know, I just don’t know,” I told her.
Roslyn had a bit of the Sight, which didn’t surprise me considering Katelyn’s own shifter blood. Supernatural creatures tended to congregate around one another, as though they were drawn to each other. I had honestly been surprised to find out that Kris was just a normal human being.
The garage had gone suspiciously quiet, too quiet. “Kris, Matt, try to keep her calm? I’m going out to the garage and make sure Darien didn’t do something stupid, like leave.”
They both nodded, swooping in to hover over Roslyn, and I headed through the kitchen and into the laundry room, which had a door to the garage. The familiar presence in my head told me Darien was still there, but it still worried me.
There had been three cars in the garage: Roslyn’s white Audi; Katelyn’s blue Honda; and Katelyn’s stepfather’s silver Porsche.
I say had been, because the Porsche was now only so much junk metal: windows had been smashed, the hood was torn open and engine parts removed forcibly, hoses and belts hanging loose, the tires slashed, upholstery shredded by claws. He had obviously been in Aspect form when he had done it, and now I understood his sudden departure from the foyer; he had lost control of his beast.
I didn’t blame him; I might have done the same in his place had I just learned that I might have lost the woman I loved for the second time. While I might love Katelyn just for being Katelyn, Darien’s own deeper connection with her because of Sasha made him doubly vulnerable. He hadn’t weathered Sasha’s death very well, and now he thought he had lost her again, even if it was only her soul that was the same, and not the person itself.
I didn’t immediately see him, even though I knew he was there, somewhere, until it finally dawned on me to look inside Katelyn’s car. He was there, huddled in the backseat and naked, the price we shifters have to pay for shifting while we still have our clothes on; they tend not survive the shift. He had his knees pulled up, looking somewhat cramped in the small backseat, and a jacket held in his hands, his face pressed into it. I opened the door quietly, settling into the driver’s seat, and was rewarded with a ragged snarl.
“Go away, Alex.” Darien’s voice was rough, low… and I could hear a despondency in it that sent apprehension through me.
“They didn’t find her body, she could still be alive.” I reached through the seats and put a comforting hand on his leg. He might be an Alpha, but even he needed support at times, and I had been there for him when Sasha had died.
“Means nothing. Just because those vampires didn’t leave her body behind, doesn’t mean they didn’t kill her.” His fingers curled in on the jacket, as though it was a lifeline and I realized that it was Katelyn’s, one she had left in the car, and that it was covered in her scent. “I should have stopped her, Alex, I should have fucking tied her to a goddamn chair if that’s what it took.” He raised his head and I almost recoiled from the misery that I saw there. He actually believed she was dead, despite the lack of definitive proof.
Not that I thought much different; Katelyn was a new shifter, not even having shifted for the first time yet, untrained, and with vampires wanting her dead. We had thought we had gotten rid of the vampire threat to her, but we obviously hadn’t, and that had been an e
rror in judgment on all our parts. The fact that she was missing, that she hadn’t tried to contact any of us, was almost a sure sign that it was because she couldn’t.
I would have been a mess myself if I didn’t have a potentially suicidal best friend on my hands; and he was, I could see it in his eyes
“Look, mate, I’m not going to argue that the situation doesn’t look bad, because it does, but I’m not quite willing to give up on her entirely. If she’s dead, why hide her body? I thought they wanted Lochlan to know if they killed her, not hide it from him. Plus, we didn’t feel her pack tie break. All I’m saying is, give it a little longer before we give up.”
Darien stared at me, and I could see that he wanted to have hope, wanted to believe that she might still be alive. By rights, we should have felt her pack tie break if she had died, but I didn’t know for certain. He gave me the barest nod, moving to get out of the car, still clutching her jacket.
“I’ll go get you some clothes,” I said, hoping that I could put my own faith in what I had just told him.
____________________
When we came back upstairs, Roslyn wasn’t in the living room and neither was Kris. Matt was sitting in one of the chairs, and when I gave him an inquiring look he gestured towards Roslyn’s room.
“I found some Valium in Roslyn’s medicine chest, made her and Kris each take one. They’re lying down, trying to get some rest,” he said as Darien took over the couch and I settled into the other armchair.
I gave Matt a sideways glance. I didn’t know all that much about his past, only that he was well over a hundred years old and had been a shifter in the pack Darien had been born into before he had been turned into a shifter-vampire hybrid. He had been a werewolf, like Darien. I suspected that at one point in time in the past he had been a medic or doctor of some sort, but I had never asked him.
“He’ll be here as soon as he can get his plane ready,” Matt added, his expression grim.