by Lisa Ladew
She looked at Jameson triumphantly, holding up the phone so he could see the screen. “There’s an Uber dropping someone at Black Bear Outfitting in two minutes, so don’t worry. I’ll be out of your hair in less time than it took for you to screw me over!”
“Cora, I’m sorry. I should have found him for you.”
“Yes,” she said, firmly, but with less venom in her voice. “You should have.” She watched him for a moment, trying to measure if he would do it differently next time. The way he looked down, then away, told her everything she needed to know. He knew he was wrong, but he would do the same again.
Shit! She ran a little, pulling ahead of him on the darkened road. The Uber came and she jumped in it, grateful to get away. She couldn’t even think, she was so mad. She didn’t look back once, but she was unable to pull her thoughts away from him.
The worst part about all of it was that the very day she'd finally accepted she was a vampire slayer, received her special resonant weapon and embraced her destiny, was the day she learned that the one guy she gave a shit about didn’t think she was strong enough to do the job.
She was done. Over him. Finished chasing him around like a teenage girl with a crush. It would be hard, since they were going to be working together, but she could do it.
It was going to hurt, though, because she was in love with him.
Cora pulled into herself and watched the road slide by as her driver followed his phone’s directions to her house. Away from the forest, from Jameson, when really, with him was the only place that felt like home.
Chapter 29
Flint Gibson stood to the side of the field behind Black Bear Outfitting Company where Carick was mercilessly training Cora. It was sunset and they’d been at it all day. At this rate, she was gonna get heat stroke and die and they would all be switchless again.
“Stab! Again! Through the chest!” Carick shouted like a drill sergeant. Cora didn’t falter, not once, but she didn’t look like a killing machine out there, even after hours of instruction. She looked like a fairy trying to play at warrior games. Her movements were jerky, her balance off. She kept lurching forward when her wicked little knife got caught in the heavy training dummy Carick had somehow produced.
Flint scented wolf. He turned and spotted Jameson in the darkening forest, wearing pressed jeans and a button-down shirt, leaning against a tree and watching. The Keeper’s body language was stiff, contrived, sending the message that he felt he had no right to be there. Flint frowned. That made no sense.
Jameson was in charge of everything, just under Carick. Carick’s mouthpiece. No one had ever spelled the roles of their fledgling opposition leaders out to him, but no one had to. Flint had eyes, ears, and smarts, which was more than he could say for some of these shifters. They would figure it out, though, who was and wasn’t capable of being in charge. Flint didn’t care where he fit in the hierarchy as long as he was in the fight somewhere. He had revenge to mete out.
Bryce topped the hill to the left of Jameson, shading his eyes from the setting sun so he could watch Cora train. Aven and Dario were with him, Dario loosely holding a pitcher of lemonade and some plastic cups. Aven whistled as they all moved to where Flint was, in a group.
Carick barked an order at Coralie, then moved away from her and toward them, like he wanted to overhear their words.
“She’s not getting it,” Aven said, ever the blunt one.
Dario shook his head. “She’s not. And she’s so tiny. I don’t see her killing anything.”
Carick turned toward the shifters. “She’s breath coven. They’re all slight. Willowy, even. But don’t be fooled, it doesn’t make them any less deadly.” He turned back to watch Cora, throwing a dismissive glance over his shoulder along with a parting shot. “She’s more deadly to a vampire than all three of you put together.”
Aven clacked his teeth together, the sound loud in the heat. “And you? Can you kill bloodsuckers?”
Carick didn’t respond for a few minutes, and when he did, it was under his breath. “Only one.”
Flint shook his head. No use trying to pull anything out of Carick. “It’s been hours since she had a break and the light’s almost gone. Call her in.”
Carick held up his hand but didn’t look back at them. “I say when she’s finished, not you.”
Flint snarled, as did Jameson from behind them. Someone other than this ancient asshole needed to be in charge.
Bryce didn’t notice the tension. “Holy smackerel that knife she’s got is cool. It fits her perfect. And the rig for her sheath? Is that like an official uniform?”
“It is her resonant,” Carick said simply.
Bryce looked around. “She found her resonant already? Who made it for her? Who’s in her coven? That’s how it works, right? Someone in her coven made it?”
Carick grunted. Flint covered his surprise. Bryce was right, a resonant being found was a big fucking deal. Carick finally spoke. “She wouldn’t say where she got it from.”
Flint turned slowly to stare at Jameson, but the male had disappeared.
Aven crossed his arms over his chest. “How is that going to work, anyway? It’s not like if she sees a vampire out and about, she can just run up and stab him. We’ll have to go stealth mode. Find them while they sleep or something. Kill them and bug out, try not to leave any clues for the police. Unless they disappear when a switch kills them?” His voice turned hopeful at that last sentence.
“The older ones will,” Carick said, eyes still on Cora. Sweat poured off her forehead as she awkwardly tried to best the dummy. “She will attack, no matter where she is. She can’t stop herself.”
Aven regarded his back steadily. “She’s gonna have to learn, or we’re all gonna end up in jail.”
Carick whirled and stared him down. “She cannot! Killing vampires is her one purpose, her reason for existing.” He glared, then added, “Try to stop her. You’ll learn quickly.”
Aven frowned and Bryce looked dismayed. Carick’s words and tone said they were all in for a big surprise. Flint didn’t mind that at all. About time the vampires had someone to oppose them, someone who was a match for them. He couldn’t wait to see one liberated of its entrails.
Jameson appeared on their other side but still didn’t come close to the group. “Tell her to try some gymnastics. Tell her she needs to approach it that way, instead of straight on like Carick is having her do.”
Flint eyed him. “You tell her.”
Jameson shook his head. “She’s not talking to me.” Carick shot a dark look at Jameson. Jameson did not fall back. Flint studied them both. Goddamn. She’d definitely gotten the resonant from Jameson, but then what had happened?
“Parkour,” Bryce said. “She does parkour, not gymnastics.” He yelled out to her. “Hey Cora, throw some flips at it!”
Cora stopped for a second, breathing heavily, pushed her hair out of her face, stared at the dummy and then at the knife in her hand. Her pause was the only sign that she had heard Bryce at all.
Like a flash, she whirled, too quick for Flint to track. Cora pushed off of nothing, knife glittering above her, slicing past tiny bugs in the twilight as she tucked and twisted her body like a gymnast. She rolled cleanly over the dummy in mid-air. Slashed out with her resonant. Cleaved the figure clean across and sent mounds of white packing foam raining to the ground.
“Holy shit!” Bryce yelled, throwing up his hands and cheering. Flint nodded roughly. Deadly. Clear as day. Good deal.
She seemed energized then, running, turning, twisting, flipping through the air and landing light on her feet to slice the dummy into smaller and smaller pieces.
“She’s glowing!” Bryce said.
“You’re just now seeing it?” Flint asked. He’d seen it when she’d first begun, realizing that it had always been there but was stronger. Now, between Cora’s killing energy and the darkening skies, it was the strongest he’d ever seen it.
Flint lifted his head and stared into the
forest. He smelled mountain lion, and everyone present was not mountain lion. Who was watching them?
“Flip a switch, save the world,” Aven murmured.
Carick looked at Aven slowly, the turning of the wheels in his brain stamped clearly on his face. “Why do you say such? Because of the light switch? Is that something that is flipped as well as hit?”
Aven nodded. Carick smiled then, a real smile, and his eyes faded from creepy black to a faded storm gray, making him look like a totally different person. He nodded his head. “Save the world: flip a switch. Clever.”
Bryce elbowed Aven, his voice going lecherous for the joke. “Have you heard this one? They say switches are like the woods, mysterious and full of bears.”
Aven shook his head. “Mysterious and full of eagles,” he said.
Jameson erupted from the shadows in the spot near the edge of the woods where he’d been standing. He rushed into the group and grabbed both big males by the throat, propelling them off their feet and down, onto the ground, flat on their backs.
Flint moved in close, but didn’t stop Jameson. Bryce and Aven had deserved it, especially if Cora was Jameson’s woman, but he wouldn’t let Jameson go too far. Bryce was clueless sometimes, but Flint still liked having him around.
Carick’s eyes were back to black, his smile gone. Aven only stared up at Jameson, daring him to go farther, but Bryce grabbed the hand around his throat and tore it off of him. “Take it easy, J! What in the hell is your problem?”
Carick strode in close. Jameson let Aven up and moved away, his lips curled in a snarl as he turned to watch Cora.
Carick gestured at Aven and Bryce on the ground. “You are too lighthearted, both of you. You have no idea what you are in for.”
He jerked his thumb at Jameson. “Only the Keeper comprehends.” He said those words again, that he’d said before. “The rest of you will learn.”
Dario came running from the BBOC, a dark figure in the dusky light. “News just came in, we’ve got Victory Party candidates at a TOV leader’s house. Vampires.”
Carick faced him. “How do you know this?”
“Mr. Bunn, the guy that’s always the speaker at the meetings? They’re on his porch and he’s posting a live facebook video right now from his living room window. Five of them. He’s pissed as hell, but scared, too, you can hear it in his voice. He thinks they’re there to beat him up. They’re all dressed in suits and just keep saying, open the door, open the door. I don’t think they know he’s filming.”
Carick turned without a word and made to sprint toward Cora. Jameson sprang into action, grabbing the big male around the arm, but couldn’t stop his forward movement. Flint ran forward to help. “Bryce,” he snarled. “Go get Cora. Get her to the building. Don’t let her see this.” Bryce stood there for a second, not getting it. “Bryce!” Flint shouted as he got next to Jameson and added his weight to stopping Carick in his tracks. “Do it!”
“Right.” Bryce jumped and ran past them to the field.
Carick flung them both away from him with a sweep of his powerful arms and glared at them. Aven and Dario joined the fray, standing tall next to Jameson and Flint. As a unit, they stared Carick down.
Carick snarled, fury in his face. “Keeper. What are you doing?”
“She’s not going,” Jameson snarled. “Five fucking vampires? It’s too many for her first kill. She needs backup. We need more than one switch and a handful of shifters before she goes up against five vampires.”
Carick looked him up and down, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. Flint snuck a look at Jameson, then jumped backwards in surprise, glad that Bryce had Cora turned away from them with an arm around her, and they were almost over the hill.
Because Jameson was glowing, his entire body glowing as green as Cora’s aura had been. Aven hit Flint on the shoulder. “Bro, your eyes are glowing.”
Flint touched a hand to his face, while Carick stared at them all, his scowl firmly back, indignant.
“My eyes? What color?”
“Green.”
Chapter 30
Jameson was ready to take Carick on. It was time. Beyond time.
“You’re heartbound,” Carick growled.
“Am I?” Jameson said mildly. News to him. But not a surprise.
Carick tried again. “You’re in love with her.”
He was. “Maybe, but even if I hated her, I wouldn’t let you send her out against five vampires with no backup. She’s our only switch. You’re out of touch, Steward, making bad decisions. You’ve been asleep for too long.”
Carick snarled in his face. “Whose fault is that?”
Jameson didn’t back up. “Not mine. I did everything I could. No one could have done more.” One hundred years of guilt fell away from him like a yoke split in two.
(finally) the Instinct growled, and the inner communication felt sublime, rippling his muscles, preparing him for battle.
Flint clapped him on the back, supporting him. Dario did the same thing from the other side.
Ryder and Shiloh came running from the way of the business. The skidded to a stop on the hill to take in the scene, then quickly made their way down to join in.
Riot emerged from the woods, to stand on the side of Jameson that Flint was not on. He crossed his arms and glared at Carick.
“Insubordination,” Carick said roughly, marking them all.
Jameson nodded. That’s exactly what it was, but the line of shifters beside him said it was righteous. “We’re going to Mr. Bunn’s,” he said, gesturing to himself and the line of shifters backing him up. “You can come, but you’re not in charge.”
Carick only stared, his face giving away nothing.
Jameson went on. “If I am no longer Keeper, so be it. But if you try to keep me from her, or from the cause, we will come to blows, Steward.”
“You’ll lose,” Carick said quietly. No bluffing.
Jameson nodded. “I know.” It didn’t matter.
Carick seemed to deflate, but only for a moment. He nodded his head sharply. Assent. Now they had to move.
Jameson turned to Flint. “Flint, I need you with Cora. You and Bryce have to take her somewhere.”
“Where?”
“I don’t care. Anywhere that she won’t get news of this and try to come help.”
Flint’s eyes hardened. Jameson knew what the bear was giving up if he agreed to go to where the vampires weren’t. Jameson put a hand on Flint’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, Flint, but Cora knows Bryce best. Trusts him. I need you with them because I trust you.”
Carick caught his eye, his voice soft for once. “You sure you want to leave your switch in the care of others, Keeper?”
So he still had the job.
Carick looked at Flint when he spoke, but he was addressing Jameson. “Perhaps you should be the one to go with her, not the bears.”
Jameson knew he couldn’t. He motioned at Flint. “Go.” Flint nodded tightly and took off at a run for the building.
“So be it,” Carick said.
***
They arrived to Mr. Bunn’s small house within thirty minutes, not surprised when no vampires graced the porch. Aven, Dario, Carick, Jameson, Ryder, and Shiloh were in the cab of Jameson’s work truck. Riot rumbled up on his motorcycle just behind them.
Dario had told them the vampires had gone and Mr. Bunn had ended the video abruptly, not posting it to his page so they couldn’t watch it again. “Tall,” Dario said. “They were tall and dark with long hair. Metrosexual-looking. But in a menacing way.”
“Explain,” Carick had barked.
“Manicured,” Shiloh had said. “Guys who care what they look like, are fit, but maybe slim, and dress up even if they are going to a ballgame.”
Carick had nodded easily. “Vampires. Yes. That describes them. Could your time have a name for them and not know it?”
Shiloh glanced at her brother, then the Steward. “Uh, I hope not, or we’ve got some big cities in the Pacific Northwes
t that are basically eighty percent vampire.”
Jameson parked at the curb behind some evergreens in Mr. Bunn’s yard. “Everyone stay here.” He nodded at Carick and Dario and Shiloh. “Except you three.” Carick because he wouldn’t stay in the truck, Dario because he was a cop, and Shiloh because she was a woman, and maybe that would keep Mr. Bunn calm, or get him to open up quicker. He motioned to Aven and Ryder. “Keep an eye out and yell for me at the first scent of vampires. Fill Riot in.”
They strode up the driveway and knocked on Mr. Bunn’s door. The drapes twitched. The door opened a moment later.
Mr Bunn’s face was white, his body twitching in fear. He grabbed Carick by the shirt, only coming up to his chest. “I know you. You’ve been to the meetings. You are against them.”
Carick nodded, his face kinder than Jameson had ever seen it. A soft spot for humans? “I am against them. I believe in the cause.”
Bunn swallowed hard. “They left when I called the cops. But they might come back.” He ran a hand through his white hair, making it stick straight up, and paced out onto the porch, leaving his door wide open. “They came to my house. My house! Tried to get me to let them in, told me they just wanted to talk.”
Carick and Jameson met eyes over Mr. Bunn’s head. Talking meant charming. But if Mr. Bunn hadn’t let them in, he was somehow immune.
Carick patted him on the shoulders. “Consider us your own personal bodyguards. They show up again, you call us. We’ll have a little talk with them. He reached a hand in his pocket and drew out a card, making to hand it to Mr. Bunn. Jameson’s eyes narrowed. How in the actual fuck had Carick gotten business cards made? He’d only been out of the cave for ten days. How did he even know what a business card was?
Jameson snatched it from Carick’s hand and groaned out loud at what it said.
Manager: SVET
Special Vampire Eradication Team
Then his cell phone number and an email address. [email protected]. Jesus.