Healed

by Samantha Stone

  She’d asked soon after she learned of his powers, knowing that if he did get impaled somehow, she would be the one tasked with healing him.

  And taking care of those sorts of injuries was difficult.

  “Please tell me Heath at least apologized,” Aiyanna groaned. Poor Emmanuel. He didn’t sign up for this level of pack craziness.

  “If I remember correctly, his words were, ‘If you don’t put on some clothes, my mate will burn off your skin so we don’t have to see as much of it.’”

  Turning for the small vanity in her room, Aiyanna sank into the plush, powder blue chair and put her head in her hands. After rubbing her temples for a moment, certain a migraine would develop from this conversation, she picked up her hairbrush.

  “How mad will you be if I maim your mate?”

  Sophia considered for a moment. “It depends on why, and how quickly you heal him after.”

  Aiyanna shot her a look before continuing to untangle her hair. Really, she should have done this before falling asleep last night. Only then, her thoughts had been less about practical matters and more centered around a certain werewolf who could have been a Versace or Chanel model before he’d been bitten.

  At least, he could be a model now if he wanted to. A little more than three years ago, Aiyanna had taken a quick picture of Cael when he wasn’t looking and sent it to some of the more exclusive modeling agencies in the country. He still received mail from them, offering him exotic jobs and large contracts, and it confused the hell out of him. Each time she’d seen a snickering Sebastian hand him one of the sleek black envelopes, an expression of utter bemusement would cross Cael’s face, sending her into fits of laughter that caused her to find some really neat crevices in the firehouse in which she could hide until she’d calmed herself down.

  In truth, she would really miss days like that, when she and Cael played video games in the firehouse living room or she cooked and he watched closely, if silently.

  Once, she’d asked him why he always sat in the kitchen with her when she cooked. It wasn’t exactly a common occurrence, but her aunt had taught her to show appreciation to others when they were good to her. She figured it was only fair to feed the pack every once in a while, considering they put up with her on a near daily basis.

  “I don’t have anywhere else I’d rather be,” he’d answered easily, in no way realizing how his words impacted her. She’d nodded, keeping her back to him so he wouldn’t be able to see the tears pricking her eyes.

  I’ll find a way to live without him. In the long run, it would be better for her.

  When she finished brushing her hair, she longingly glanced at the door to the bathroom, wishing she could shower without being utterly rude to Sophia. She had come here to check up on her, and Aiyanna had hurt her feelings enough as it was.

  “Go ahead,” Sophia said with a grin, nodding toward the bathroom. Not much got past her; Aiyanna wasn’t surprised that she’d picked up on her not-so-subtle desire.

  Pinning her hair into a quick bun so it wouldn’t get wet, she tossed Sophia a paperback from her suitcase, grabbed some clothes and a towel sitting atop a nearby dresser and dashed off to clean away the crud from the past twenty-four hours.

  Once she was clean, with a dab of moisturizer on her cheeks and a bit of eye shadow to perk up her face, she felt much better. A shower couldn’t solve her problems, but it could chase morning grunge away while she figured them out.

  Unsurprisingly, Sophia wasn’t where she left her lounging on the bed, but rooting through some of Emmanuel’s cabinets down the hall, the book left forgotten in the bedroom.

  When Aiyanna hissed at her, Sophia didn’t even have the decency to jump at the sudden noise. Calmly, she turned to face her, eyes alight with curiosity.

  “There are some really cool books in here about the Fey and kelpies.” Sophia patted one balanced on her knee and pulled another from the bookshelf built into the wall.

  Emmanuel’s going to kick me out today.

  “I don’t need to tell you how impolite it is to pilfer through a man’s home while he’s sleeping in it.”

  “Not quite sleeping.”

  This time Sophia did jump—but only slightly, and subtly enough that if Aiyanna hadn’t been watching her, she wouldn’t have noticed.

  From Emmanuel’s wry grin, he’d been watching her, too. “Find anything you like?” There was a note of steel in his voice that hadn’t been there last night. Then again, Aiyanna hadn’t done anything this offensive.

  Similar to the last time she’d seen him, he wore no shirt; although, this time he donned sleep pants rather than jeans.

  Appearing utterly unruffled about being caught snooping, Sophia nodded. She held up the books she’d indicated a moment ago. “We need more resources like this,” she said. “Do you know how much easier it would be to keep people safe if we knew what other creatures’ abilities and weaknesses were?”

  Emmanuel nodded to Aiyanna, his smile reaching his eyes now, and squatted down beside Sophia, who kneeled in front of his book collection. Gently, he pried the books from her grasp and put them back on the shelf before closing the cabinet and nudging a scowling Sophia away.

  “While you’re correct, do you really think any creature wants another type of creature to know their secrets? You think you know all about the Fey, but whatever it is that makes you an expert is really just the tip of the iceberg. And you’ll admit you know little about my kind.” Satisfaction gleamed in his smile. “We’re some of the best at hiding what we are; it’s why there are so many different, confusing legends that pertain to us.”

  Aiyanna had to concede as much, and had last night. It was different for shapeshifters and werewolves, since their secrets were pretty obvious: shifters could change form whenever they wanted, while weres only changed form when the full moon had risen. Unmated werewolves had no control over themselves in their more physically powerful wolf forms, making them a danger to anyone not in their pack, whether they liked them or not during the rest of the month.

  When Aiyanna was in her panther form, she was able to completely keep her wits about her. Then again, shifters had no elemental abilities like werewolves did, so there was a trade-off either way. Not that anyone could choose to become a shapeshifter. It was genetic, whereas werewolves were created from bites generally caused by werewolf attacks or the odd human who wanted to become a were.

  “Can I at least look at the books that aren’t about kelpies?” Sophia asked in an uncharacteristically cooperative tone.

  She’s going to steal all of his books. Aiyanna barely withheld her sigh, and wondered absently if Emmanuel had any good padlocks. Normally, she’d help Sophia—she wanted to learn other creatures’ secrets too—but betraying Emmanuel felt wrong, especially after he’d been so kind to her.

  He regarded Sophia carefully for a long minute, and Aiyanna could see Sophia struggling to restrain her impatience. The werewolf took her job as a head soldier seriously, and would take anything she could get that might help keep her pack safe.

  “I’ll lend you one book.” To Emmanuel’s credit, the book he pulled from his stash was a thick one. The title only read, Mythology, but the many authors, most of whom had a ton of letters backing up their names, seemed promising.

  Unless they were all human.

  Sophia’s face lit up while she quickly leafed through her find. She stopped somewhere near the middle, pulled a ribbon hairband from her wrist and marked the page before closing the book with a satisfied grin. “Excellent. There’s a section on vampires in here.”

  Aiyanna and Emmanuel exchanged a surprised look. There weren’t vampires in New Orleans as a general rule, one of the many aspects of the city Aiyanna greatly appreciated. The rumor was that Cael had driven them away after catching a vampire feeding from an unwilling woman.

  Before leaving the pack, Alexandre had perpetuated that story as often as he could bring it up, only to earn a dark scowl from Cae
l. But Sebastian always had a knowing glint in his eye when he heard Alex talking about it, making Aiyanna think there was at least a kernel of truth to the tale.

  The point was, they weren’t supposed to be here. So why would Sophia want information on them?

  “Why vampires?” Aiyanna asked slowly. Maybe Sophia and Heath were planning a Valentine’s Day getaway to Romania or somewhere else vampires lived. Heath’s abilities allowed them to travel more than anyone else in the pack, so it wasn’t completely illogical to assume Sophia wanted information on the creatures for a different location entirely.

  Please be traveling soon.

  She’d never had to face vampires, and she really didn’t want to. Something about having to harm someone else in order to live didn’t sit right with her. She recognized the irony of a shapeshifter finding vampires to be unnatural, but there it was. The mere idea of them made her uncomfortable.

  The smile vanished from Sophia’s face. She grew contemplative, setting her book on a nearby table to take out her lighter again. “A group of vampires have requested permission to live here.” She flipped the Zippo open and released a flame, which she twisted and reshaped as she spoke. Her movements were so expert, not even Emmanuel seemed concerned of her burning anything.

  “They aren’t the same people Cael threw out, but they were aware of the werewolf presence and some of the tensions between creatures here, so they’ve spoken with us, the witches’ coven, the Fey and some shapeshifters.”

  So, it wasn’t just a rumor Alex thought was funny. “No one mentioned this to me,” Aiyanna grumbled, wishing the other shapeshifters kept her updated on things like this. Unfortunately, the werewolves were generally much more forthcoming with her.

  “They approached us yesterday,” Sophia said with a dismissive wave. “The vampires are in town for Mardi Gras, but they’re looking for a place to settle down.”

  “Who would they feed from?” Emmanuel mused with a slight frown. “Tourists?”

  Sophia shook her head, her lips pursing. “You know we wouldn’t allow that, and neither would the coven.”

  “The Fey wouldn’t care,” Emmanuel interjected. He didn’t sound amused, but there was no judgment in his tone either.

  How could they feed without hurting humans? Aiyanna imagined a string of tourists lying on the nasty pavement in the Quarter, their eyes unseeing and their necks dripping what little blood the vampires had left them. No, no they can’t do that.

  What did they do in other cities? Like other creatures, she seldom heard about their practices. Vampires were rare, and since they hadn’t lived in New Orleans for so long, she had no clue about how they found nourishment, where they liked to live, or whether they valued human life at all. They were all born human. Surely that brought them a certain level of compassion.

  “You’re right, but they don’t want to limit their allies to only the Fey.” At Sophia’s words, Emmanuel’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. Sophia didn’t seem to notice. She faced Aiyanna, looking slightly sheepish. For her, that was saying something.

  Oh, no.

  “We—Raphael, Heath and I—came to an agreement with their leader, Christian.” She paused, her eyes lighting up. “You know, he seemed pretty nice. Maybe you cou—”

  “The agreement, Sophia,” Aiyanna interrupted, exasperated. She didn’t need any more troublemaking men in her life. At least not for a few decades or so. Maybe a century.

  Receiving her not-so-subtle hint, Sophia got down to business. Her fire burst into what looked like hundreds of pieces, glowing in tiny pinpricks of light above their heads.

  “We’re only letting them live here permanently if you agree to work with them every time they feed.” At Aiyanna’s outraged gasp, Sophia held up a hand. “Hear me out! They have to drink blood once a week, and there are but five of them, so they’ll use one person. Who offers them blood willingly. Your job will be to heal the person so they don’t, you know, die.”

  “No pressure,” Aiyanna muttered, shooting Sophia a glare.

  Emmanuel remained silent. He watched the fire Sophia turned into curling ribbons, twirling through the air.

  Sophia gripped Aiyanna by the elbows, her eyes wide and pleading. “This is a surefire way to protect humans,” she said in a low voice. “The vampires will get their blood either way, and healers like you aren’t in most cities. Christian took this idea from the vampires living in San Francisco, where they’ve recruited half a dozen healers and haven’t harmed any humans in almost a year.”

  Healers were even more rare than vampires. Generally of Native American descent, a staggering number of them died on the Trail of Tears in the 1830s. They used up everything inside them in order to heal their cold or starving loved ones. Aiyanna had been among them, having been taken away with her tribe in Southern Mississippi.

  She’d almost died trying to save her beloved aunt, but there wasn’t enough healing energy in the world to save someone who lacked the will to live. It had been the worst point in her life, after which she’d promised herself if she ever made it back to New Orleans, her original home, she’d never leave again.

  Now the Choctaws lived in Oklahoma, where their few healers were cherished and revered. Aiyanna would visit, but her current relations there were so distant, so many generations behind hers, that she’d be visiting great-great-great cousins once removed, or an equally ridiculous title. Not to mention the Choctaws weren’t as ignorant as most humans regarding creatures—they’d discover what she was, and then they’d chase her away.

  Shapeshifters hadn’t been welcome among the Choctaws even when her father had seduced her mother. They were never caught, but they hadn’t had the chance to be together very long before their deaths.

  It was nothing short of a miracle that San Francisco had so many healers in one area. So much good would come from them. Loneliness casting a shadow on her mood, Aiyanna offered Sophia a rueful smile.

  “I’ll heal their humans.” How could she not? It was a choice: let humans weaken and possibly die, or heal them. For Aiyanna, that was no choice at all.

  I really hope these vampires aren’t assholes.

  Sophia released the breath Aiyanna hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “Good.” She nodded. “Now that you’ve agreed to this, I don’t feel guilty telling you they’ll be another ally against the warlocks. That was another part of the deal.”

  Aiyanna rolled her eyes and chuckled. Of course Sophia and Heath had worked out the agreement to benefit the pack. Not that she blamed them in the least—they needed the help, desperately.

  “What’s in it for Aiyanna?” Emmanuel asked with a frown. “This seems to help the vampires and you, but how does it benefit her?”

  Now Sophia smiled wide, the same shit-eating grin she wore the day she’d poured ice-cold water over Heath for telling her she didn’t need that brioche roll he’d stolen straight from her hand.

  It must be terrifying being mated to Sophia.

  “Oh, that part’s a surprise.” She closed her lighter, put it in her pocket, and turned her flames into a set of fangs before they vanished completely.

  Aiyanna shook her head. What have I gotten myself into?

  Chapter 4

  “CAEL, you need to calm down.”

  Raphael’s voice was level, nonthreatening. That didn’t stop Cael from throwing his fist in his friend’s direction, aiming squarely for his eye.

  Using his hand rather than his elemental abilities, Raphael caught Cael’s fist and punched out, striking air. Of course, Cael easily dodged his every swing.

  While his Alpha, a werewolf Omni who could control all four elements, had trained with his powers for well over six months, Cael had been training harder than ever…physically.

  As his air powers were suppressed, he had no abilities to fall back on save the strength he could build in a gym or with a sparring partner. Until recently, Alexandre had been his partner. Now, he only had the punching bag Sebastian ha
d so promptly replaced this morning.

  An honorable man to the core, Raphael refused to use any of his abilities against Cael when he couldn’t access his own, leaving him at a major disadvantage. Then again, if he truly feared for his life he would use his Omni powers. Raphael was newly married to his mate, a beautiful banshee named Mary. Mates’ lives were bound, causing one to die when the other’s life ended.

  If he knew anything about Raphael, it was this: he absolutely wouldn’t risk his mate’s life. With such a life—one filled with requited love, forgiveness and magic—completely out of his reach, Cael couldn’t blame him. Hell, he’d lay down his life for either Mary or his Alpha.

  That didn’t mean he wouldn’t cause Raphael a few particularly painful bruises. If Raphael hadn’t brought him up to the Elders, Aiyanna would still come to the firehouse. She’d still come for him.

  But that was all over now. Not even her scent remained anymore.

  That pissed him off. Her scent had been a constant at his home for the past five years, and he’d liked it.

  Raphael barely grazed his ear, meaning Cael was being too careless, losing his focus. He lashed out, landing a punch to Raphael’s sternum that had the other were gasping in surprise.

  Of course, he didn’t stumble, but merely shook his head and started forward again, kicking out to knock Cael’s balance out from under him. It didn’t work; he jumped away, in the direction of his badly broken headboard. Yanking out a rectangular slab of the jagged wood, he lifted it up and swung it at Raphael’s side.

  The other man jerked, swearing, but didn’t avoid one of the points grazing his side, cutting through his long-sleeved shirt. Strangely, humor danced in Raphael’s eyes.

  “Mary loves this shirt on me. Good luck explaining yourself out of this one.” With that, Raphael plucked his own piece of Cael’s headboard and held it like a baseball bat before turning in Cael’s direction.

  Strong arms held him in place, startling him.

  Oh, shit.

  Before he could react to the newcomer, Raphael brought the slab of wood down on his head.