“Your blood just felled a man I’m pretty sure his followers believed was unfellable,” Aiyanna remarked.
Katarina only wrapped her wrist, her lips pursing.
“Thank you.” Aiyanna took the almost-warlock’s wrist and healed it, using a negligible amount of energy. “For the record, I couldn’t give a shit what you are.”
That made Katarina smile. She pocketed her knife—which Aiyanna was certain she’d stolen from one of the vampires—and together they walked back down the hall to tell their friends what happened. Aiyanna couldn’t help but smile.
Phoenix never would have guessed it would be a slip of a woman who’d take him out. She gave Katarina a quick hug before they re-entered the fray.
Maybe the weaker vampires would let them help now. Surely they would find comfort in the death of their biggest fear?
Cael ran to her at the door. “Where were you?” Strangely, despite the flare in his eyes at the blood on her neck, there was no censure in his tone. Only concern.
“Ask Katarina,” Aiyanna answered, squeezing his hand.
The witch/possibly some other type of vampire-killing creature waited until Vale flashed in front of her to speak.
“Phoenix is dead,” she announced loudly enough for every occupant of the room to hear.
All four of Phoenix’s remaining men stopped what they were doing to gape at her. Their friends grinned, Vale squeezing her tightly and murmuring in her ear. Heath held up his hand for a high-five. “She might take your place for most badass,” he said to Sophia with a smirk. Affronted, she flicked open her Zippo and landed a small ball of fire on the butt of his jeans.
Heath yelped, and both Katarina and Vale laughed.
One of the vampires rushed Raphael, but Mary screamed so loudly he crumpled onto the carpeted floor.
“Anyone else want to screw with my husband today?” she asked angrily, looking to the three vampires who now stood near the unharmed group of the weaker men and women.
All of them shook their heads. “Without Phoenix, there is no Pureblood,” a woman answered.
“You’re right.” Raphael clasped his hands in front of him. “There is no Pureblood because you’ve been disbanded. While you’ve been here in New Orleans, your camp in New Mexico was overtaken, mainly by other vampires.”
There were a few hushed gasps and shaken heads, but it was obvious most of the vampires before them weren’t surprised. Aiyanna wasn’t—if a group of radical shapeshifters surfaced, the majority of her kind would move to eradicate it, no matter the supposed loyalty to one another.
Sometimes, survival meant killing those you wished you could protect. There was evil in every race of creatures, and once that grew into a poison that cost innocents their lives, everyone with a drop of good in them was responsible for stopping that loss at the source, before it grew and the evil won.
“We’re going to take you to where the rest of the surviving Pureblood members are being held—in Hawaii, inside a clan prohibitum.”
A few of the vampires, especially the emaciated ones, appeared hopeful, and Aiyanna was happy for them, despite how they’d be treated like everyone else until it became clear how unwilling they were to participate in the group’s violence.
Raphael held out his phone for Cael, Heath, and Vale. “This is where you’re taking them.”
Heath laughed an evil laugh that wiped the wistful expressions off the vampires’ faces before he grabbed two and disappeared with them. Cael and Vale did the same more quietly, and while the three of them worked, Aiyanna pulled a board from a window now that she had the time to.
By the time all the vampires were gone and their three air elementals were back, she’d uncovered the windows in the room with Sophia, Katarina, Mary, and Raphael’s help.
Katarina’s light on the walls fled the building like smoke, disappearing into the glow of the streetlights.
They were in a home along the bike path in Mid-City that led to the Quarter. It was a pretty neighborhood where the lights in the nearby, colorfully painted homes twinkled. The quaint aesthetic was marred only by the same black dust that sprinkled the air, which Aiyanna only noticed because she’d been so peeved by the same substance when she’d found it near the university.
It felt good to rid New Orleans of the vampires living in their midst. Well, the bad vampires at least. Aiyanna had no problems with Christian’s little group, and sympathized with their loss of Oren. He may have been a traitor, but they’d mourn him all the same.
“Ready to go home?” Cael asked, placing a sturdy hand on her waist. She hadn’t realized she’d been leaning to the side, or that she’d clamped a hand down over her still-bleeding neck.
Her victory high hadn’t completely worn off, but it lessened enough for a painful sting to begin where she’d been bitten. She decided she almost preferred being shot to this.
“Please.”
She wanted to commandeer a bike and take the path down through the Quarter to the Warehouse District, but her throbbing neck nixed the idea. Cael took them home, or at least the place that had always been a home for her, and maybe would become her real home. Or maybe they’d get their own place like Briony and Sebastian had. Strangely enough, she couldn’t wait to see what she and Cael would do now that they had a little time to spare before the next catastrophe hit.
And it would, because Alex’s reprieve was only temporary. No matter what she or any other member of the pack did, the warlocks were always in the back of their minds. They’re coming for us, and this time they won’t hold back.
Even so, she had a feeling they wouldn’t attack until after Mardi Gras was over. They could all save their worries for Ash Wednesday.
Briony greeted them in the living room of the firehouse with herbs and bandages at her elbow, as well as a cup of steaming tea she handed to Aiyanna as soon as the air around them settled.
Gris-Gris pranced on the arm of the nearby couch, its tail in the air and an alarming twinkle lighting its eyes as it watched Cassidy nervously ask Heath who she needed to heal.
“You ratted me out,” Aiyanna accused Cael playfully, wrinkling her nose at the sharp, bitter smell of Briony’s tea. That was a brew that wouldn’t go down well.
Cael pinned her with a hard stare. “You’ll be lucky if I tell you about anything remotely dangerous in this city after you sneaked away to corner the most lethal vampire in the building…before he bit you.”
He growled the last few words, making Briony laugh in a light, tinkling sound. Aiyanna smiled, stuck her finger to Cael’s chest, and pushed.
“If I don’t go on adventures with you, then we won’t spend nearly as much time together. Do you really want that?”
The stubborn man barely cracked a smile, but it was enough to make Aiyanna’s heart soar. He leaned down and brushed his lips against her ear. “The next time you pull something like that, I’ll take you and drop you off in the Sahara with a water bottle until every threat is gone.”
They went back and forth while a still-laughing Briony patched up Aiyanna’s neck. The relief was immediate; although, she didn’t know whether to credit the terrible tea she forced down or the concoction Briony had smeared onto her skin before she bandaged her up.
Aiyanna barely had time to thank the witch when she was whisked off to Cael’s room, where he shut the door and locked it. He shot her a look filled with such heat, her complaint about his overuse of air went forgotten.
Her mouth found his, and she wasn’t entirely sure which one of them shredded their clothes. All she knew was they were both naked, and she liked it. His skin was soft and warm beneath her hands, while every part of his body was hard, strong.
He had the muscle to indicate he could throw a car with his bare hands…no matter whether he could do it using air too.
She wanted to protest when his strong arms released her, but her face reddened when he moved down her body to take her into his mouth. The man wasn’t much of a t
alker, but he knew how to work his tongue. Electricity shot through her, making her cry his name and causing him to emit a laugh against her. His eyes were the darkest shade of blue as he carefully watched her face during his ministrations.
After he wrung three more orgasms from her, he finally moved to slide himself home, a satisfied grin curving his lips. Aiyanna promised herself she’d get revenge on him with her own mouth…later, when her limbs didn’t feel all but useless from sheer pleasure.
She kissed him deeply the second he came, smiling when his trembling vibrated against her. There was something innately beautiful about touching such a force of a creature when he shattered in rapture—it was a single moment of weakness, something he wouldn’t share with any other woman. As it was, she couldn’t imagine ever being with any other man.
No lovemaking she’d ever had compared to this, being made physically whole by another being. It was both terrifying and magical, and she would never, ever give it up.
Soon, the exhaustion from the day hit them. That, or the effects of the caffeine Aiyanna drank hours earlier wore away. They fell asleep in each other’s arms, each holding the other with equal urgency. They finally had each other, but it’d be a long time before Aiyanna wouldn’t be afraid he’d be taken away from her. She suspected Cael felt the same way.
A loud beeping woke them early the next morning.
Cael growled and pulled the pillow over his head, only for Aiyanna to yank it off and throw it across the room.
“Time to get up!”
It was Mardi Gras day, and Zulu started in less than an hour. He grumbled when he kissed her, but eagerly followed her into the shower once he realized where she was headed. A thrilled Christian had texted the entire pack before her alarm went off, letting them know their humans had been found safe in Baton Rouge. It was a weight lifted.
If they received messages like that every day, maybe Cael would start sleeping without a weapon in arm’s reach. Aiyanna suppressed a chuckle. Probably not.
Thirty minutes later—and her revenge for the night before suitably accomplished—Cael took them Uptown into a crowd of costumes. Music played, humans laughed, and every member of the pack had promised to meet them soon.
Aiyanna’s heart couldn’t have been lighter.
“What do you think’s going to happen next?” she asked, squeezing Cael’s hand. She’d actually convinced him to wear a yellow, purple, and green striped shirt. I’m going to have to take a picture of this because it might not happen again.
He narrowed his eyes for a moment, obviously considering, before he lowered his mouth to hers in a kiss that earned them a wolf-whistle from a group of teenage boys standing nearby.
“We eliminate the warlocks, and I kill any man, woman, or creature who ever tries to hurt you again.”
She leaned against him, thoroughly satisfied with his answer. Wish’s dark head rose above the crowd, and she waved at him, Leila, and Molly while they made their way toward them.
“Thank you.”
“For what?” Cael raised a quizzical brow.
“For giving me all that I’ve ever hoped for.” She wasn’t a werewolf, but they were her pack now too, whether she and Cael officially mated or not. They were her family, something she’d craved for so long, she’d forgotten how badly she wanted it.
This is where I belong, with a pack of ex-criminal werewolves, and in a city where it’s considered normal to stand on the street in the morning to catch a brightly painted coconut from a man in a fake Afro.
Aiyanna leaned into Cael’s hand at her back and smiled.
Epilogue
FROM far enough away to be unnoticed, his scent masked by magic, Alexandre watched his friends and packmates laugh and talk, each taking turns holding Molly’s small human hand. As if he knew he was being watched, Sebastian kept a wary eye on the crowd around them. Everyone else was relaxed, undoubtedly feeling at ease since the defeat of Pureblood, which Alex had listened to from outside the house. He’d been ready to intervene should they need him, only for them to be saved by that weird witch, Katarina.
Until he knew more about her and her loyalties, he’d keep close tabs on her. She was growing closer and closer to Leila, which meant the witch would have to be proven trustworthy before the threat to her life disappeared.
Because if Katarina set out to harm Leila in any way, dust is all that would be left of her when Alexandre was finished.
Now, Leila poured her daiquiri out in a bush. She didn’t smile at Aiyanna’s mock gasp of outrage, but shook her head, her mouth a pained line, when a man clad in fake leaves offered to pour boxed wine into her mouth. Her misery was palpable, a fist that wrapped its stern grip around Alexandre’s heart and squeezed.
He was unfeeling; he was a warlock…but Leila turned him into a mere human who was addicted to the sight of her, from the graceful movements of her hands to the way she twisted her long, white-blonde hair when she felt anxious.
Lately, she’d been more anxious than ever. She’d pushed away the friends she’d been growing so close to as well as the pack that already considered her family. All of them gave her space, placing her in more danger than ever.
The men who killed her and her parents would be back for Leila, and Alexandre intended to be there when that happened. He wasn’t sure how he could pull that off without her finding out he was alive, but that was a detail he’d figure out later. He was practically all-powerful. Allowing her to see him without her realizing his identity was an easy spell.
Keeping her safe from his own kind was the more difficult feat. Maintaining the entire pack’s safety, when the warlocks were so close to annihilating all creatures, would be nearly impossible.
That didn’t mean he wouldn’t try. Every day, he chipped away at the project he’d worked on for almost a thousand years before he’d changed into a werewolf and lost his memories. He was destroying his own work, and the work of countless others he’d honestly professed loyalty to.
His pack had changed everything about him. It was something about their honesty, he decided.
Their joy was obvious even from a distance. Sophia and Sebastian laughed at something, their matching grins huge, while Heath growled despite the amusement lighting his eyes. Wish and Briony grinned at something a cat did as it wove through the large Mardi-Gras crowd.
Aiyanna sat on Cael’s shoulders, his hands on her thighs offering balance she didn’t need. They were mated now. He’d noticed when his pack left that house in Mid-City last night. It’s about damn time.
Aiyanna, he’d expected, would’ve burned down the firehouse soon if Cael kept up his habit of ignoring her. Not that Alexandre blamed her. Still, he would’ve had to kill her if she made threats that could hurt Leila, and he’d always liked the woman. She and Cael fit each other; they always had.
Naturally, the shapeshifter caught more beads than everyone else, which she handed down to Molly, whose small form was clutching so many baubles and beads, she now looked like a small float herself.
Only Raphael and Mary seemed less than thrilled at the day. Mary watched her sister with concern in her green eyes, while Raphael kept a close eye on his phone.
Alexandre missed them. He’d have given anything for his memories to be taken away again just so he could return home.
But he could kill any of them on accident, and even if he didn’t, other warlocks would kill them all in time. He’d put everything he had in preventing it, but he knew when he was outnumbered, outsmarted, and outgunned.
Still, nothing would happen to Leila. She would be spared even if he had to wipe out the entire warlock race himself.
* * * *
Katarina gripped Vale’s hand tightly as they walked through the stark halls of the hospital. In the windows, mountains rose over the horizon, reminding her she was in Asheville, not New Orleans or Halifax. These were Vale’s people, new people who didn’t know her past failures and embarrassments.
Not that
she intended to stay here. New Orleans was home. It simply didn’t have the medical facility Asheville did, or the specific doctors who currently held a document revealing the results of the blood testing she’d wanted. Wanted might be the wrong word. Really, she needed to see them, while she was petrified of what they might say.
She was at least part-witch, but after the vampires’ reaction to her blood, she had to know what the rest of her was. How had she produced the light back at that house, and why did her blood kill them? Was her blood poisonous to other creatures?
What if she accidentally hurt Vale or someone else in the pack?
Christabel, naturally, was delighted by the news that Katarina was some sort of enigma to their world of creatures. Her faery boss had demanded a copy of all of her medical paperwork, and in exchange she’d foot the bill for the testing. Katarina wouldn’t thank Christabel, but she was grateful. She hadn’t wanted to ask Vale for help, and this was expensive.
Apparently, no matter what species you were, a hospital visit couldn’t be cheap.
“What do you think I am?” she asked Vale casually.
He looked down at her, his eyes somber. “It doesn’t matter to me, and it shouldn’t matter to you either.” Vale stopped, tugging her to a halt beside him. “Are you sure you want to go through with this? We can still leave, request they shred the document.”
Katarina shook her head. “I need to know.”
They reached a door that looked exactly the same as the others, only this one had a keypad next to it. Like he had when they’d entered this morning, Vale pressed the code onto the pad, unlocking the door to the wing of the hospital meant exclusively for creatures.
Here, there weren’t even human doctors. They walked past a small brownie whose hand appeared to be—and smelled—burned before they reached the office of the doctor who oversaw Katarina’s tests. When the witch saw them at the doorway, she smiled and held up a large, white envelope with Katarina’s name across the top.
Suddenly, Katarina wanted to take Vale’s advice and simply leave.
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