by Ann Gimpel
Tairin squeezed his hand hard enough to hurt. When he looked at her, she tilted her chin back the way they’d come and extricated her fingers. The crippling inertia from before had lifted. Elliott said a quick prayer of thanks to whichever god or goddess killed the chokehold the vampires had on him. Straightening, he followed Tairin. She was already astride the horse, arms wrapped around his thick neck when Elliott jumped on behind her and guided Flame toward the roadway.
The trucks were long gone, and he snugged an arm around Tairin. His mind had been busy while they made their way back to the horse. “I’m sorry you had to see that,” he murmured. Opting for honesty, he added, “I kept thinking we should leave, but those bastards had me hypnotized.”
“You deployed so much magic hiding your presence, you didn’t have enough left over to shield yourself from their poison.”
“You don’t have to make excuses for me,” he said, feeling miserable. “I failed you. No woman should have to bear witness to what we just saw—”
“Stop it!” Her tone was pointed. “Sex between vampires and humans is scarcely new. It’s one of the many ways they bind humans to their will. Semen and blood are one hell of a one-two punch.”
“I see what humans get out of the deal, but what’s in it for vampires?” Elliott asked.
“Who knows what the Reich promised them,” she countered. “Maybe free rein in their camps. As much blood as they can drink. Sex with all the humans they want.” She shrugged. “The possibilities are endless. One thing is certain—whatever the Nazis offered was enough to entice the vampires into cooperating.”
“Do you suppose that’s the only nest?” Elliott said.
“I haven’t seen a vampire since I left Egypt.” Her voice trembled a little. “I’d heard they made this part of Bavaria home long ago, but I figured they’d moved on.”
“Egypt? You’ll have to tell me more about that but not right now. What we stumbled on back there explains a lot.” Elliott spoke slowly.
“No kidding.” She leaned into him, her body vibrating from strong emotion.
“Are you afraid?”
“Who wouldn’t be?” she countered. “I’m angry too, though. Nazi fuckers. As if things weren’t bad enough already, and now they’re borrowing power from pure evil. What horrifies us today is bound to grow worse. Lots worse.”
“We have to do something about it.” The words slipped out before he could ride herd on them. What they’d done today at Dachau paled to a child’s game compared with taking on a nest of vampires.
“We?” Her voice was soft, low, and a cross between entreaty and a threat. She stiffened in his arms, waiting for him to answer.
“Not the two of us by ourselves,” he amended hastily. “We’d be worse than rubes not to secure all the help we can.” He quieted, considering the Romani in his caravan and some of the others. Perhaps Michael and Stewart might help. He couldn’t see the others volunteering to face down a nest of vampires—unless said vampires threatened their caravans directly.
“I might be able to find…others to help us. Don’t ask me to say more because I won’t. And it might not work because—” Her voice faltered, but she tried again. “Because it might not.”
Questions rioted through him. Was she referring to her shifter kin? If so, why would they ignore her pleas for assistance?
Maybe the same reason most of the Rom would rather walk over hot coals than face down a vampire.
He scanned the countryside and empty roadway. “We’re halfway back. Do you want to chance making it the rest of the way to the caravan?”
Tairin nodded and turned to look at him, her expression somber. “Yes. We need to figure out who our allies will be—or if we end up walking this road alone.”
He’d always thought well of her, but his admiration for her spirit and courage soared. “You’re one amazing woman.”
“Not at all.” Her gaze never left his. “Just one who wants to come through this alive—after every single one of those Nazi bastards dies a slow, horrible death.”
“Couldn’t have said it better myself.” He snugged his arms closer about her.
Elliott smothered an impulse to nudge Flame into a nearby copse of trees so he could tumble Tairin off the horse and taste her mouth again. Wanting her filled him with sweet yearning. His cock had reacted to the vampires’ sexual heat, and his arousal made him feel dirty. Not the kind of energy he wanted tainting anything to do with the woman tucked between his thighs.
He cared about her. Intended to protect her from everything vile and wicked in the world. That would have to be enough for now. Exploring the delights her body offered could wait for a better time. One where they weren’t beset with evil from all sides. Beyond that, they had a lot of ground to cover before they moved from friends to lovers. He wouldn’t take her casually. He thought too much of her to act on the attraction burning a path through him. If he couldn’t offer more than his body, better not to travel that road.
He had to figure out if the secret that stood between them would kill any possibility of a mutual future. Why had the Rom steered clear of shifters? Was there some hidden reason?
Elliott vowed to find out.
Chapter 5
Tairin paid out magic as they rode toward Munich to make certain the road was as deserted as it appeared. She was tired but forced herself to remain alert, so she didn’t miss any clues. Maybe it was the early hour, or maybe everyone who could was keeping the lowest profile possible. If the Nazis couldn’t see you, they wouldn’t drag you in for the interminable questioning that had become commonplace once their chokehold on Germany expanded.
She was grateful for Elliott’s solid presence behind her and equally grateful for his silence. For once, her wolf wasn’t saying anything, either. Coming upon the group of vampires had been a shock—one she could’ve gone the rest of her days without facing.
They’d been a scourge in Egypt, where there’d been thousands of them. Her strategy in those days had been avoidance. It worked because that part of the world played host to myriad magic wielders two hundred years ago. Temples to various Egyptian deities dotted the landscape like grains of sand, and legions of priests and priestesses kept the vampire population under some semblance of control.
What a difference a couple of centuries made. Magic had all but died out of the world. What was left traveled dark alleyways, remaining out of sight. Kind of like the Rom, who plied their various trades apologetically, not owning their magical birthright.
Better to be labeled as quacks and charlatans than deluded crackpots.
She swallowed hard. Her path was clear. She had to try to marshal shifters to address the vampire problem. Even if the strongest Romani banded together, they didn’t have enough magic to take on a nest of vampires. All they’d end up doing would be getting themselves killed.
“When are you going to tell him about me?”
Tairin snapped her head up, surprised her wolf wouldn’t bring up the vampires.
“This is about the vampires,” the wolf inserted smoothly, proving it had helped itself to her thoughts.
“How so?”
“He has to understand why the Romani need to find a way to work with shifters.” A pause. “Not so different than convincing our people to pitch in.”
“Do you have any ideas for how to make that happen?” she asked.
“Of course not. I never understood why they banished us in the first place.”
A sad, lonely note in the wolf’s comment tugged at her heart. Bitterness filled her at what the shifters’ refusal to acknowledge them had cost her wolf. She’d dealt with the specter of social isolation by joining with the Rom and shrouding what she truly was—so at least she’d fit in somewhere. The wolf hadn’t been as fortunate. Since wolves were pack animals, the enforced segregation from its kind must have cost it dearly, yet it had never complained. And it had stuck by her. At least it could visit other bond animals in the place they roamed when they weren’t actively enga
ged with their bondmates.
“I’m grateful you never abandoned me,” she began haltingly and stopped, not sure what to say next.
“How could I? We’re pack. You dreamed me when you were still a child, and I heeded your call. Those bonds can be severed, but only at the risk of great pain and ill fortune. We talked of this not long after your first shift.”
Guilt kicked her in the guts. She’d taken time to learn about the Romani half of her heritage, but not the shifter one. Never mind opportunities for the latter weren’t as apparent. She hadn’t viewed the wolf as a source of information—and she should have.
“I—I’m sorry, I should have realized—”
“No time for your misplaced sense of obligation to our bond. Or your guilt. Not now. We have bigger problems. You have to tell him about me. About us. And about how Rom magic isn’t a match for vampires.”
Behind her, Elliott shifted position atop the stallion. Given what they’d faced in Dachau, he’d comported himself well—until he started making over-protective noises about including her being a mistake. He seemed to have gotten over that part.
She hoped.
Tairin inhaled briskly, blew it out, and did it again. They were passing the outskirts of Munich. If she was going to blow her cover, better to do it before they got back to the circle of wagons and many sets of prying ears.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“Find a place to stop,” she replied, not answering his question directly. “Before we get back to the caravan.”
“Why?” a note of alarm ran beneath the one word. “Are you leaving?”
“Sooner or later, I’ll have to. I wanted a private spot so we could talk.”
Elliott guided the stallion back to the same crumbling castle where they’d begun the previous evening. “Is this all right?” he asked. “It’s the most comfortable location safe from being overheard that I can provide on short notice.”
“It will be fine. I should have thought of it.” Tairin winced. This was the second item in as many minutes when she wasn’t thinking clearly. First about her wolf, and now about Elliott’s grotto. She was tired, but she had to pull herself together. Convincing Elliott was critical. If she failed, he’d gather Michael, Stewart, and maybe a few other men and ride into that vampire nest like an Old West posse out for blood.
She’d seen how easy it was for the creatures to hypnotize Elliott today, to leech away his free will. And they hadn’t turned anywhere near the full brunt of their power his way because they’d had no idea they were being watched. If the vampires’ attention hadn’t been on feeding and fucking—activities that were almost synonymous for them—neither she nor Elliott would be alive right now.
He brought Flame to a stop in the same place he’d left him before and slid to the ground. Tairin joined him and worked her way down the falling-to-ruin stairs leading to the tunnel. This time, she didn’t waste power on her mage light. No reason to. Elliott would either accept what she had to tell him—or be furious and reveal what she was to the caravan.
Even if he wasn’t outraged, Rom law still forbade him from holding her identity secret.
Good thing I was mostly ready to leave anyway.
Light flared from behind her as he kindled his mage light. “Hold up,” he called.
“I’m good,” she replied without looking back. “I don’t need light to see.” She ducked into the side chamber where they’d decided Dachau was a worthy goal.
Elliott joined her. “Only place to sit is on the floor or my clothing chest, I’m afraid.”
“I won’t be doing much sitting.” She turned and faced him head-on. Here it was. Either she told him and got on with things, or his death—courtesy of a nest of annoyed vampires—would sit squarely on her shoulders. Not that the vampires might not be the death of them anyway, but at least he’d be going into things with his eyes open.
An unpleasant thought pricked—and made things that much worse. She was stalling, but she said, “That demon you raised earlier?” At his nod, she continued. “The odds of it finding the vampires are good. Evil attracts evil.”
He drew his brows together. “Yeah. I’d already come to the same conclusion while we were riding back. Not much we can do about that but address it once it happens. If it happens. That can’t be why you wanted to stop here, though.” He watched her speculatively, waiting.
“Go on,” the wolf urged. “Do it now. It’s not going to get any easier.”
The corners of her mouth twitched. “I love you.”
“We’re pack,” the wolf replied, and its simple words warmed her heart.
She clasped her hands behind her. “I’m only half Romani,” she said. “My father was a wolf shifter.”
He skewered her with his blue eyes. “I know. Not what type of shifter,” he amended, “but I knew you had shifter blood.”
Out of all the reactions she’d anticipated, this one hadn’t been anywhere on her list. “B-but how?” she sputtered.
He turned his hands palms upward. “How else? I looked with magic, but I was subtle about it. Subtle enough I hoped you wouldn’t notice, and you didn’t.”
“See?” The wolf smirked. “Wasn’t hard at all.”
“That’s him, isn’t it?” Elliott asked. “That voice I can’t quite make out.”
“Might be a her.” Tairin grinned, relief spilling through her.
“Don’t you know?”
She shook her head. “The bond animals are genderless, but that’s not important. How come you’re not outraged? What my parents did is a cardinal sin. After my first shift, the Rom in Egypt made it clear I wasn’t welcome, and shifters are an even stodgier lot. They only accept those with pure blood.”
“I was upset at first,” he admitted. “But I got over it fast. No one likes to find out they’ve been hoodwinked for years.”
“No. I suppose not.”
Elliott moved next to her and placed his hands on her shoulders. “Why’d you tell me? It must be important since you broke your silence. You could’ve just quietly left the caravan with no one being the wiser.”
“You would’ve been,” she pointed out.
“Yes, but I’d have kept your secret.”
She shook her head hard to force herself to focus. “You asked why I fessed up. It’s because I know more about vampires than you do.” She thinned her lips into a hard line. “Remember earlier, when you couldn’t look away?”
An uncomfortable look washed over his face. No man liked being reminded of a time when he was helpless.
Tairin kept talking. “They had you in thrall, and they didn’t even know we were there. Do you have any idea how much worse it gets when they train their attention on you?”
“No. First time I’ve laid eyes on those bastards.”
“What it boils down to is this.” She wrapped her hands around his forearms. “You’re not strong enough to take them on.” Before he could protest, she added. “Not you personally. Rom magic, even the stronger varieties like what you wield, are no match for vampire seduction.”
“But I wouldn’t go alone.”
“Wouldn’t matter. Even if you brought a dozen Rom all as capable as you, the vampires are still stronger. If they perceive you as a threat—and they will—they’ll drain you or worse.”
“Do you mean turn me into a lackey like those SS officers who traded blood for power?”
“Exactly. Not only power. Speed, stealth, and a total lack of conscience—in case there’s a Nazi alive who still has one.”
“How do you know so much about vampires?” He quirked a curious brow.
“There were lots of them in Egypt. And dedicated groups of high priests and priestesses to ride herd on them.”
“High priests, huh? How long ago was that?” His question wasn’t unexpected.
She held his gaze. “Two hundred years.”
“That would explain why you’ve left caravans and started over multiple times.”
“It would.”<
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“Ask if he wants to meet me.” Her wolf was back, but she didn’t exactly think it had gone anywhere.
“I will, but I want to finish the conversation first.”
“What did your wolf want?” Elliott asked.
“To come out. It wants to meet you properly.”
“What did you tell him?”
“That we needed to finish talking. Curious that you keep referring to my wolf as him. Anyway, if I can get cooperation from other shifters, we might have a fighting chance against the vampire nest—assuming it’s the only one in this area and they haven’t already teamed up with your demon.”
Elliott dug strong fingers into her tight shoulder muscles, rubbing them. “It’s not exactly my demon. How likely are your shifter kin to help the Romani?”
She rolled her eyes. “The question you should be asking is how I’m going to go about even locating them. If they won’t show themselves to me, I’ll never get an opportunity to ask for help.”
“They’re here.” Elliott sounded certain.
“How do you know?”
“I may not have come across vampires before, but I’ve run into dozens of shifters—of all persuasions—over the years. Wolf, bear, bird, mountain lion.”
“They revealed themselves to you?” she asked, incredulous.
“Not exactly. Some of my trance states run deep. When I’m coming out of them, I’m quite sensitive to anything magical nearby. Most of the shifters I sensed probably never realized I detected their presence.” He hesitated for a beat. “I’d have known about you sooner, except I made a practice of moving far from the caravan to cast my serious spells.”
“Fascinating.” She closed her teeth over her lower lip. “If you weren’t planning to turn me in to Michael right away, I’m hoping you’ll wait until I determine if any shifters in this area are willing to talk with me—”
“I wasn’t planning to turn you in to Michael at all,” Elliott broke in. “And I can help you locate your kin. At least I think I can. What happens if they say no?”