by Petra Landon
You should laugh more” he said.
“You’re a fine one to talk” she retorted good-humoredly. “I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen so much as a half-smile cross your face.”
“I smile on the inside” he defended himself, the gold eyes defying his deadpan voice.
And you’ve a wicked sense of humor that you hide from everyone. Who knew?
Tasia wiped her eyes to relax against the wall.
“You’re a curious mix of mettle and foolhardiness, Big Eyes. But maybe, you’re right.” He was thoughtful. “Perhaps, these are the very qualities that brought you here.” He gestured at the rocky walls surrounding them.
Tasia looked taken aback. She had never looked at her journey that way.
“I’ve never believed in fate” he said, for once not cryptic at all. “But I don’t know how to explain your unlikely association with my Pack any other way.”
Did she believe in fate, Tasia wondered? She had never given it much thought before. And yet, he had a point. Her path to the Shifters had been strange, unlikely, and meandering. Multiple obstacles and many small coincidences along the way had led to it. Too many to count. Wizards and Shifters had never mingled well in their long history. Plus, this particular Alpha had a history of antagonism towards Wizards. That should have been enough to nip their association in the bud early on. Her magic senses had also played a part. Without the ability to detect dispersed magic in the air, she’d never have been drawn to an injured Hawk in the warehouse, and meeting Hawk was what had precipitated the start of this strange relationship with the Pack.
“Don’t forget Anderson” he reminded her. “More than anyone else, he’s pivotal to this. Had he not gone hunting for you, there would have been no rogue Shifters in San Francisco.”
That was true. In a way, the Guardian’s actions had also played a crucial part in this curious journey she now found herself on. “You would not have sent Hawk after them” she said slowly. “And I would never have been hired to Mfector the warehouse.”
It was a Wizard who had set the ball rolling. Raoul couldn’t help but reflect on the irony of it.
In the Chosen world, the witchling was now tied very publicly to his Pack. It had started with the affair at the San Francisco Registry. This latest attempt by Anderson had only solidified her entanglement with the Pack, increasing the mystery and her notoriety. If anyone had suggested this a few months ago, he’d have laughed at the absurdity of it. But here they were. Now, even Faoladh was starting to draw conclusions about it. There had been a rather strange conversation in San Diego, in private, after the momentous events at Wizard Headquarters.
“I understand why you protect your Wizard so zealously, Raoul” Faoladh had assured him. “I’ll make sure that the tape and its contents are handled with care.”
Raoul, put on his guard, had smartly waited for Faoladh to expand further. He did not intend to provide Faoladh with any ammunition. The needs of the many would always outweigh that of the one, to paraphrase Spock from Star Trek. The ideal held true for many Chosen leaders and was especially true of Faoladh. Raoul, who knew more than most how that principle could translate for the unfortunate individual whose needs were being sacrificed to aid the many, did not agree with it. He was not going to allow anyone to be sacrificed on the altar of Chosen unity or interests — least of all, the witchling.
“I know why you insist that the Pack get justice for her” Faoladh had continued at Raoul’s silence.
This one, he had been able to counter easily.
“She deserves justice and will not get it from the Guardians.”
Faoladh had given him a steady look. “Your motives are more personal than that though, Raoul.”
Again, Raoul had merely raised an inquiring eyebrow and waited for Faoladh to explain.
“Are you saying she’s not meant to be a Shifter’s mate?”
Faoladh’s query had shocked him speechless, but he had recovered quickly to counter-attack. This was Faoladh — you never revealed even an ounce of weakness before him.
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
“Come now, Raoul. Why the secrecy? You must know I approve. The more intermingling between Chosen, the better it is for our future.”
Faoladh had cast another searching glance at Raoul’s determined poker-face before sighing.
“Young Manotti is enamored of her. It didn’t escape my notice how he shielded her at Wizard Headquarters. This is good, Raoul. Don’t keep it a secret. Our hand will be stronger if she’s a Shifter’s mate.”
“She’s Pack” Raoul had reminded Faoladh. “That is all the protection she needs.”
At his words, Faoladh had narrowed his eyes. Something about this young Wizard’s association with the Pack puzzled him. It was so out of character, especially for Raoul. At the same time, Faoladh was pleased by the Alpha’s willingness to co-operate with other Chosen.
“Young Manotti has not approached you about her?” he’d concluded.
“No.” Raoul had shaken his head before quickly diverting the conversation to other channels.
Now, he glanced across the fire as he pondered that conversation. Faoladh was starting to get suspicions about the witchling, and her position was becoming more precarious as they plunged deeper into the investigation. Like tonight, there would be many other confrontations with leeches. Hard to avoid it when your adversary was protected by an army of the Undead. Just like the vagaries of fate had brought them to this point, it seemed now to nudge him to change course. Things were coming to a head, and he would soon have to make a decision regarding her role in the investigation.
“This matter of Roman seems strange” Tasia remarked, interrupting his thoughts to bring him back to the present. “He’s no ordinary Chosen. Why would Lady Bethesda choose to antagonize the First Ones by going after him?”
“Beats me” he admitted. It had him puzzled too. “It’s almost as if she believes herself to be unstoppable now. It makes her more dangerous.”
Tasia straightened. “You mean she believes The Prophecy has been set on its course, and she’s readying to reap the benefits?”
If she was confident of the outcome, Lady Bethesda would be even more ruthless with anyone standing in her way.
“She’s not completely confident.” He shook his head, his eyes on the flames. “If she was, she wouldn’t lurk in the shadows. The day she’s confident, she’ll step out in the open to initiate a tempest.”
Tasia pondered his words. “What is she waiting for — the third daughter?”
“Or the locket with her magic” he pointed out.
She said nothing in response. He glanced at her across the fire. “You don’t agree?”
“It’s been twenty-five years. Her powers have had ample time to regenerate.” Tasia shrugged. “What good is her old locket?”
“True. But she doesn’t strike me as the type to give up anything she counts as hers. The question is — if not the locket, what is she waiting for?”
Chapter 18
Tasia goes up against Blutsaugers
Tasia awoke with a start, a pronounced crick in her neck. She sat up slowly, glancing across to where the fire had been. Streaks of sunlight streamed in through the opening, despite the thick shrub covering it. The sun was high outside, and the Alpha nowhere to be seen. The fire had died down, a small pile of ashes in its place. She stretched her legs gingerly to look around her. In the light of day, the nook seemed grimy, and tiny.
The shrub cover was moved aside as a man strode in. For a moment, the sunlight cast a halo around him. Tasia squinted her eyes. It wasn’t the Alpha — this man was bigger and more colorful, somehow.
“Good morning” said Duncan’s voice with his English accent. “I hear you had some excitement last night.”
“Duncan.” She greeted him as he came forward. He was bare-chested, his brawny body silhouetted by the light. The color in his sunlight halo had been from the tattoos that covered his chest
. Like his arms, every inch of his burly chest was covered in colorful ink.
“You look like you had a good night.” She smiled. He looked at peace this morning.
“I had the run of the forest all night” he said with immense satisfaction.
“Not a single Vampire?”
“Not one.” He sounded disappointed.
Tasia laughed. The idea of Duncan hunting Blutsaugers in the forest while a horde of them tried to get into this nook seemed quite a travesty.
The English Shifter grinned in response. He shot her a glance, taking in the oversized tee enveloping her and his shirt that she perched on.
“Shall I leave you to get dressed?” he asked her.
“Yes, please.”
When she joined Duncan in the clearing outside to hand him his shirt, the Alpha was missing. Duncan looked very different today from his usual refined and elegant presence at the Lair. His cropped hair, usually neatly gelled back, now hung over his forehead. The locks looked mussed, with traces of the forest in them. The brawny body with the thick muscles covered in tattoos gave him an edgier and more dangerous air. This morning, Tasia could appreciate that Duncan was a Shifter too, a rare erudite one with refined tastes, but a Shifter nevertheless. For the first time, she wondered whether Duncan’s staid persona was something he affected deliberately. An air of quiet satisfaction hung over him. His sojourn in the woods had obviously agreed with him, she concluded.
“Raoul went hunting for cell service” he explained. “To contact the Pack.”
The birds chirped and dappled sunlight pierced the pine cover to warm the woods. The ground smelt of rain and fresh air. It was as if that dash through the woods in the rain, and the cold night in the rocky cavern had never been. Perhaps, it had all been a dream, she mused, including the husky voice, demanding lips and blazing eyes of the coldest man she knew, whose kisses had awakened such turmoil within her.
Forget it. It was but a moment of madness. I’m sure he regrets it this morning, too.
She was glad they’d managed to set that interlude aside last night. The conversation had flowed between them, easier than before, with some confidences exchanged. It was time to banish it from her mind.
When the Alpha returned fifteen minutes later, Tasia was chatting with Duncan.
Tasia glanced up as he strode into the clearing. As she watched him, for the first time in their acquaintance, a different kind of awareness simmered in her, an intangible one that renewed Tasia’s resolve to keep her distance from the enigmatic Shifter. She let her senses loose, ignoring him to observe her surroundings. The forest was alive this morning, as if attempting to make up for the anger and storm the night before. The trees stood tall, their leaves full and shiny with moisture.
His hair was wet, the hard body gleaming as streaks of sunlight danced in through the trees. Tiny rivulets ran down his forehead and the thick hair glinted damply when it caught the sun’s rays. She had a sudden image of him stooping down gracefully by a stream to dunk his head and shoulders in the cool water. Much like Duncan, he craved the joy of exploring the woods in his other form, but Tasia suspected that the Alpha’s relationship with his beast was more complicated than that of the average Shifter.
A lock of tawny hair flopped onto his forehead, and for a moment, he looked young and carefree, just a man walking leisurely through the woods to friends who waited for him. A complicated and enigmatic man who was often hard to read, with his hair-trigger temper and eschewing of emotional ties. A hard man in many respects, but an honorable one, nevertheless. Under her interested gaze, he raised a hand to shove his fingers impatiently through his hair, righting the unruly lock, and Tasia watched with helpless fascination, unable to glance away as he swiped at his forehead with the back of his palm where the lock of hair had left a fresh trail of dampness.
She swallowed softly, unable to look away. The sun was high and bright, its light playing hide and seek through the tall pine trees. The dappled light through the trees silhouetted the chiseled body as he strode powerfully down the well-worn path through the pine cones strewn at his feet. The muscled chest, dusted with a light sprinkling of hair that disappeared into his jeans, glinted golden in the light; the after-effects of his dunking in the stream made his skin shimmer as he walked through the patches of sunlight. His jeans rode low on his hips, hugging the powerful thighs, the long legs eating up the ground with his graceful loping stride.
A sudden vision of firm lips taking possession of her while those powerful arms clasped her intimately close to his hard body, so close she could see the darker flecks in the cold eyes blaze into desire, had a hard nub of fear bloom afresh in Tasia. She made another concerted effort to tear her eyes away from the figure striding towards them.
What is wrong with you? It’s not like you haven’t seen a bare male chest before.
That was when it hit Tasia that despite her best efforts, something indefinable had changed between them last night. She had seen him bare-chested many times in the past. Heck, he’d sacrificed his tee for her at their very first meeting. Yet now, suddenly, she couldn’t seem to tear her eyes away from the expanse of tight muscles and gleaming skin; had to work hard at keeping her eyes off the muscled shoulders and arms.
Get a grip, Tasia. Since when do muscles, with a heaping helping of temper and arrogance on the side, attract you?
It was more than that, whispered her inner voice. He was so much more than muscles, temper and arrogance. Tasia shoved the voice away to perdition with a determination borne of fear.
“Good news, Raoul?” Duncan inquired, taking in the Alpha’s expression.
The Alpha shook his head gracefully, raking his fingers again through his damp hair. Droplets scattered all around him, splattering onto his skin. Temptation beckoned insidiously again, but this time, Tasia resisted, keeping her eyes determinedly on Duncan to ignore the golden-skinned giant bathed by a patch of sunlight.
“Luis and the others wait for us at the edge of town” the Alpha said.
“They made it out fine last night?”
“Alpha Tlizilani’s Shifters were waiting at the highway. They caught up to them before the leeches did.”
“Sounds like she saved them from a brawl.”
“I owe her” Raoul admitted. Lilakai Tlizilani had saved their hides last night, for Roman had been in bad shape.
Duncan turned to Tasia. “It should be an easy forty-five minutes trek to the edge of town. We’ll have you back and enjoying a hearty breakfast in no time, Tasia.”
The Alpha shot her a look, taking in her carefully blanked expression. A faint furrow creased his forehead.
“That might have to wait. I’ve a message from Nandini, from an hour ago. Her mother’s leech guards have discovered Roman’s absence at the mansion. She’s going to try and give them the slip while confusion reigns.”
Duncan straightened from where he slouched against the rock wall. “Lady Bethesda is back in the woods.”
“No.” Raoul shook his head. “From what Nandini said, she’s still in Portland.”
He shot another look at Tasia, whose eyes remained determinedly on the English Shifter. “Nandini believes this is her best chance to slip away, before her mother is back to marshal the troops. She requests that someone meet her where the highway skirts the woods.”
Duncan, who knew Raoul better than anyone, understood the Alpha’s intent immediately. Ancient or not, Nandini’s chances of making it through these woods to the highway were slim, especially with a pack of leeches gunning for her. Add in the fact that the Indian girl was new to the forest while the leeches were not, and the odds were stacked against her. Raoul would even the odds in her favor. But if the woods teemed with leeches, the forest was no longer safe for Tasia. While leeches were at their best at night, a swarm of them in the light of the day was certainly nothing to sneeze at.
“I’ll wait with Tasia” he offered in his usual understated manner. He’d find a bright patch of sunlight for her. The leeche
s avoided sunlight when they could, and they were preoccupied with other prey today. If they did display an unhealthy interest in Tasia, Duncan would make sure they regretted it.
“There’s a stream not far from here.” Raoul pointed his thumb in the direction he’d just come from. “l’ll go see if Nandini requires any assistance.”
Duncan had reveled in the stream last night. It was a good place to make a stand. If the leeches came after them, it would be easier to defend Tasia with a stream guarding their back. Vampires hated water with a vengeance.
“I’ve got it, Raoul” he assured his friend, shooting a sidelong glance at Tasia.
She was staring at the Alpha, her eyes puzzled.
“I’ll give you a minute” he directed at Tasia, before striding away to the edge of the clearing.
Tasia cast another surreptitious glance at the tanned and muscled torso that loomed so large this morning.
“I’ll be right back” she muttered, heading into the nook in the rocks they’d spent the night in.
When she came out, she had his tee in her hand, the one he’d loaned her for the night. She held it out to him mutely.
He glanced down at it. “I doubt I’ll need it” he said.
“You’re going to track her in your beast form.” The words shot out of her mouth before she could recall them.
The Alpha, about to expand on his remark, shut his mouth to shoot her a gold-eyed glance.
“You’re mighty interested in my beast.” One tawny eyebrow arched fluidly, an unholy light flickering in his eyes. “I wonder why that is” he wondered aloud.
“No” Tasia stuttered. “I’m not … I … It’s daylight, and if you take beast …” She stumbled to a stop, horrendously embarrassed.
“You sure, witchling?” His voice was bland, but his eyes said something different. “Not the first time you’ve evinced an interest” he pointed out, his tone studiously pious.
Tasia grit her teeth, meeting the glinting eyes with an effort. “I’m sure” she said steadily.
He arched his eyebrow again, making it clear that he didn’t believe her. Tasia straightened her spine, meeting the gold eyes squarely in challenge. They held her captive as he leant forward, slow and deliberate. Threaded in with wicked amusement was another light, deep in the gold eyes. This flicker of awareness, mixed in with something less tangible in the gold depths, set Tasia’s heart aflutter again. This time, she was careful to heed the warning. Sensing danger, she wrenched her eyes away from him just as he bent forward to whisper into her ear.