by M. L. Briers
“It’s Nestor,” Jake growled as his mate looked around them.
“Where?” She was lost in confusion.
“In my head.”
“Well, tell him to get out of your head.” She sounded slightly alarmed.
Jake was already, if not somewhat regretfully, disentangling himself from her. He placed her down upon her feet and looked down at her with remorse, regret, and the hunger that he had for her all mixed together in one heady groan.
“I have to go.”
“You do?” Debbie looked uncertain. “You do!” It was the get out clause that she didn’t know if she wanted or not, but she grabbed at it with both hands anyway.
“It’s Aggie,” he explained as he reluctantly turned away from her and started down the hallway.
“It’s Aggie?” Debbie started to follow on behind him like a shell shocked puppy. “Wait, you said it was Nestor — what the hell is Nestor done to Aggie?” Debbie rushed to panic.
“It’s the vampire!”
“The vampire!” Now she was totally lost. “First it was Nestor — then Aggie — now the vampire. What the hell is going on?” She demanded.
“The vampire has taken Aggie,” he shot back over his shoulder.
“I thought the vampire was a friend?”
“Not that vampire!”
Debbie felt the sudden, urgent, need to thump her forehead off the nearest wall, or maybe just off of her mate’s thick head. It wasn’t as if he was explaining it properly.
“How many damn vampires do you have?” Debbie demanded.
“One.”
“Then — hello?” Debbie had never growled in her life, but she did then.
The sound of her growl made Jake trip over his own feet, and he stumbled in his stride, but corrected himself and carried on. He did shoot a glare back over his shoulder.
“Takes one to know one — annoying, isn’t it?”
“It’s damn sexy, is what it is.” He growled.
“Okay, there’s one I haven’t heard before. But back to Aggie…”
“A vampire has taken her. Not a friendly one. Nestor is in pursuit…”
“Well, why the hell didn’t you just say that in the first place?” Debbie said, exasperated with her mate’s lack of clarity. “And you, the man that likes to clarify everything. Pah!”
“I’m going to chalk that one up to — I can’t win,” Jake grumbled.
“You can chalk it up to whatever you want — Mr clarify.”
~
~
~
“Stay inside the house,” Lewis growled.
The alpha had been enjoying watching his mate walk away from him. He’d had her permission to ogle her backside, and he’d taken full advantage of it.
Then the call from Nestor had come through the mental link that the pack possessed, and now he was stalking down the hallway in front of her, heading for the front door. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t how he’d hoped things would turn out.
“I’m not staying behind if Aggie is in trouble,” Mia snorted her contempt for his idea that she should play the simpering female held up at home while he went off to fight the witch’s corner.
It wasn’t happening.
“Aggie is in trouble. And you are staying behind.”
Lewis wasn’t about to argue over the safety of his mate. The other witches had already, sneakily, disobeyed their mates once and had left the house when Mia had taken off — that was not going to happen again. Not on his watch.
“She’s my friend, and I have a right…”
“We can discuss your rights when I get back.”
“Oh, I seriously don’t believe you understand…”
“No!” Lewis turned on fast heels back towards her. Mia ground to a halt in surprise rather than hit the solidity of his chest.
“Lewis!” She started, but she didn’t get much further.
“Mia,” he growled long and hard. “There’s no time for this. I don’t know what the hell is happening out there, but I do not need to worry about your safety…”
“I get that…!”
“I hope there’s time to save Aggie. But this is wasting that time.” Lewis turned back on his heels and started for the front door once more. His brothers were already leaving ahead of him.
“She’s my friend!”
“Then please do as I ask and let me try to save her,” Lewis growled back over his shoulder and then he was gone.
The rush of fear met with anger and annoyance within her, and she gave a small squeal. She used her magic to toss the door closed behind him.
It killed her that she couldn’t do anything for her friend — but Lewis was right, she knew it, and she hated it, but her mate would always put her first, and that wouldn’t bode well for Aggie if there was a need for the alpha to choose one of them.
“What are we waiting for?” Jules demanded as she rushed down the hallway towards Mia.
“We can’t. Not now.” Mia grimaced in annoyance.
“What are you talking about?” Debbie demanded.
“We need our mates to put Aggie first, and they can’t do that if we’re there.”
“I say we go kick vampire butt.” Jules scowled at the thought of standing by while Aggie was in danger.
“Wow, you’ve been alpha-ed,” Debbie said with a small smirk that irked Mia.
“Have not,” Mia hissed back. “And alpha-ed isn’t even a word.”
“Words weren’t words until people started to use them, and you’ve been alpha-ed alright.”
“Can you stop now?” Mia demanded.
“Nope,” Debbie said as she folded her arms and smirked at her friend. “The one of us that I thought could, and maybe even would, hold out, and you’ve caved like a house of cards.”
“Hey, what about me?” Jules demanded.
“Let’s face it, Jules, you were a lost hope from the moment you knew you were a mate.”
“Was not!” Jules wrinkled up her nose and dismissed her friend’s words with a small huff of annoyance.
“Right now, you’re thinking chocolate…”
“She’s always thinking chocolate,” Mia snorted a small chuckle.
“Agreed.” Debbie gave a small nod as Jules raised her chin in defiance. “But, it’s who that chocolate is spread all over that makes her mating a full gone conclusion.”
Mia snorted another chuckle as Jules' cheeks colored a deep red and she almost swallowed her tongue before her bottom jaw snapped downward and she glared at her friend.
“That’s so…” Jules bit down on her words.
“Tempting!” Debbie chuckled out.
“What? Yes,” Jules said, distracted by the image of what her friend had described popping into her mind. “That’s to say…”
“Give it up, Jules. You’re busted.” Mia offered. She was glad for the distraction that teasing her friend provided the group.
“Am not!” Jules hissed her displeasure and guilt at the both of them.
“Are so very much too,” Debbie giggled.
“You…” Jules was sucking an imaginary lemon. “Can’t even string words together properly!”
“I don’t think you’ll be doing much talking of your own with Jake’s smudge stick in your mouth!” Debbie shot back.
“Smudge stick?” Jules said, looking at her friend as if she’d just thrown up on her shoes.
“Yeah, you know? The really big kind, for a nice, deep, penetrative — cleansing.” Debbie’s grin was so wide that she could have played The Joker in Batman without any makeup.
“Have I told you lately that I hate you?” Jules tossed back.
“I love that you hate me, it brightens my day.” Debbie chuckled hard at her friend’s expression. “And now back to the matter at hand. Aggie.”
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
~
“So…” Aggie was determined to worm the information that she needed out of the vampire. “Unless I do something stupid…”
&
nbsp; “Witches always do something stupid,” Cassius said.
“I’m gonna let that one slide — wouldn’t wanna do anything stupid,” Aggie bit back with only the slightest amount of venom in her tone. “You’re not going to kill me, but just use me as bait?”
“Very good, shall I applaud now?”
“Wouldn’t want you to strain anything.” Aggie’s flippant reply made the vampire’s lips quirk just a little.
“Touché.”
“So, you’re either interested in what the alpha wants with a meddlesome witch — which, knowing the spell that I’m here to perform, I really don’t think that’s your thing — or…”
“Or — such a hanging word.”
“It wouldn’t have been if you hadn’t of cut me off, but ho-hum, moving on to — or it something else.”
“Well, obviously its something else. I have no interest in the alpha or his pack.” Cassius replied.
“Now here’s where it gets tricky — for you.” Aggie left her words there in a teasing manner to find out just how interested the vampire was in what she had to say.
“How so?” It hadn’t taken him long to snap up the bait.
“I’m a mate,” Aggie offered and watched as the information hit the man’s brain and he rolled his eyes on a groan.
“That was fast work. Congrats, or commiserations to your better half.” Cassius bit out.
He’d been around the block long enough to know just what being a mate meant to the situation at hand. The pack would stop at nothing to get the witch back.
Cassius knew that he needed to act fast. He’d had a timeline in mind, but now that was gone.
He didn’t need to be waging war against a pack of blood thirsty wolves — he just needed to finish one warlock.
“My better half!” Aggie snorted her contempt for him.
“Well, you are a witch — enough said.”
“When it comes to the moment that I decide to unleash my magic upon you — I’m not going to forget you said that.”
“Then I guess I should kill you before that happens.”
Aggie could judge people, but vampires weren’t exactly normal people. For whatever reason, they tended to wear a mask of indifference and aloofness to those around them. Unfortunately, his mask wasn’t slipping.
“Unfriendly little bugger, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I don’t want a vampire for a friend,” Aggie muttered.
“Then congratulations, your wish just came true. Be warned, witch, I have no qualms about killing you. Well, I’d prefer it was after I carried out my dastardly plan…”
“Want to share?” Aggie tossed back.
“No, not really.”
“Because sharing is caring?”
“I don’t care.”
“I get that about you. Doesn’t mean we can’t work together. Especially as there’s something in it for me.” Aggie reasoned.
“I don’t trust you. Who trusts a witch?” Cassius expanded his hands and met her eye to eye.
“Another witch. Shifters, some of them. Some vampires, but you with your little narcissistic personality and all the charm of a rattlesnake — well, not so much.” Aggie said.
She had half a mind on baiting him while the rest was ringing the bells of doom and telling her not to. But Aggie was never the type of person to listen to the doom mongers.
“Are you absolutely certain that you want to get out of this alive?” Cassius tossed back.
“Well, you know?”
“Because it doesn’t feel like it from where I’m standing.”
“If you want me to stop then tell me why I’m here.”
“And you’ll shut up?”
“Sure I will. Maybe — but the point is…”
“You’re going to keep talking until I do anyway.” Cassius groaned inwardly.
“Bingo!” Aggie chuckled.
“Warlock.”
“Come again?”
His one-word explanation had opened up more questions than it had answered.
“A warlock. My warlock to be exact — on my payroll. He screwed the pooch, and here you are.”
“Okay, I have absolutely no damn idea what you’re talking about. What’s a warlock got to do with me? Especially, as he is your warlock.” Aggie scowled back at the man.
“He was supposed to make an unbreakable spell, a spell that you broke in a roundabout way.”
“I did?”
“You did.”
“Good for me!” Aggie chuckled.
“It would appear not, yes?” Cassius motioned around them.
“Yeah, well there is that,” Aggie muttered.
“And that’s why you’re here.”
“At the risk of repeating myself — come again?”
“He failed. He dies — you – I’m not sure about yet.” Cassius admitted.
“Well, hey, if I get a vote, I vote I stay alive.”
“Shocker.”
“So how am I the bait?” Aggie asked.
“He’s coming for you. I guess it’s a pride thing,” Cassius shrugged his broad shoulders.
“So, in a roundabout way, I guess you’re here to save me.”
“If thinking that makes you feel better then go right ahead.”
“So, you’re like Santa, and the Easter Bunny all rolled into one.” Aggie chuckled.
“Stop talking now.”
“Ah, come on — where’s the fun in that?”
“Not having your tongue ripped out so you can’t speak.” Cassius offered her a solution to his problem.
“I’ll just stop talking now.”
“Good choice.”
“Thank you.”
“Still talking.”
“I have the need to have the last word,” Aggie said.
Cassius narrowed his eyes on the witch for a long moment. He’d take her at her word, but only because he wanted her to shut up.
~
~
~
Mia got that sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach again. There had been a big rock just sitting there from the moment that she knew that Aggie was in trouble, but she had to trust that Lewis and the pack knew what they were doing.
“We shouldn’t intervene…” Mia started to protest, but Jules went right ahead and cut her off.
“We shouldn’t do a lot of things, but we do them anyway. It’s in our nature to mess where we don’t belong.” She offered with a small shrug of her shoulders.
“I get that. I do. It would be different if we were already mated. But if we go out there now then our mates will pick up a scent or our presence, and that distraction could get one of them killed, or even Aggie.”
Mia was right, and they all knew it. But that didn’t mean that they were happy about it.
“But she’s one of ours,” Debbie sighed.
“And she’s also pack,” Jules added seeing the reason in what Mia had said.
“One of ours…” Mia nodded, thinking on her feet. “And we might not be able to go out there — but that doesn’t mean we can’t send our magic out in our place.” All three witches snapped to attention as ideas sprung to life within them.
“I’ll find a candle, and if I can’t find a candle I’ll find something to burn!” Debbie said as she turned on her heels and took off down the hallway.
“I’ll go and raid the herb cupboard in the kitchen — I assume they’re not total Neanderthals that only use salt and pepper.” Jules tossed back over her shoulder as she took off.
“Their idea of seasoning is probably to cover everything in a beer sauce,” Debbie snorted just before she disappeared into one of the rooms.
Mia was already gathering her magic to reach out for Aggie. If they could bolster the elder’s magic, then the witch would stand a better chance against any vampire.
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
~
The pack was on the hunt. Wolves covered the land.
Lewis was leading the charge, but
the pack came from every direction, scenting the air, and looking for the unfamiliar vampire and the witch. Nestor’s witch.
‘Anyone else picking up on that scent of magic?’ Lewis growled at the unfamiliar.
‘Where are you? Did you find Aggie?’ Nestor’s worried tone echoed inside the Alpha's mind.
‘Warlock,’ Lewis growled in recognition. ‘I thought you said it was a vampire.’
‘It is a damn vampire,’ Nestor growled back.
‘Although, I scent a damn warlock!’
‘Kill him!’
‘Kill him?’ Lewis growled out in surprise.
‘If you don’t I will.’
‘Nobody is killing the warlock,’ Lewis could barely believe what he was hearing from the elder. Warlock or not — the pack didn’t kill humans for no reason.
‘Geez,’ Daniel growled. ‘Nestor’s a bit fang-ho today.’
‘Am not. But what if he’s her boyfriend?’ Nestor reasoned. Not that there was any real reasoning behind it, just the green eyed monster that was called jealousy.
‘Ah, Nestor’s jealous — that’s kind of sweet — in a girly kind of a way,’ Daniel chuckled.
‘It’s not jealousy. Annihilate competition. It’s good practice,’ Nestor growled back at the young beta.
‘If you say so,’ Daniel chuckled harder.
‘Still, nobody is killing the warlock until we find out if he’s working for the vampire or not.’ Lewis gave the order, and the pack would be guided by it. Otherwise, they would have to deal with the alpha’s wrath, and anyone stupid enough to go up against the alpha had better have a damn good reason to do it.
‘Well fine — if you want to be all alpha about it.’ Nestor grumbled, and if Lewis could have rolled his eyes in his wolf’s head, then he surely would have done it.
~
~
~
“You feel that?” Debbie asked.
They were sitting on the floor of the living room in a circle around the candles and other conduits that they had managed to scavenge from around the house. Mia eyed Jules.
“I felt it. You feel it?” She asked.
“I felt something, could have been gas…”