Doing It To Death: Shivers and Sins Volume 2

by Kaia Bennett

  I looked over my shoulder, the earthy smell of wolf still in my nostrils, and heard his howl, like a bell tolling on my uncertainty.

  32

  We’d traveled for three days through intermittent snowfall and below freezing temperatures before stopping in Edmonton. Dawn approached, hidden under stubborn cloud cover and snow. Five more hours and we’d be at Sulphur Gates, the entrance to the witch terrain masquerading as Willmore Wilderness Park.

  Passing through Winnipeg fucked me up a bit. The place looked so strange, yet familiar, especially now that I’d unlocked memories of a mother I’d never known.

  Stark ran off to hunt every time we stopped, sometimes only returning when Evie called him. Drawing closer to the coven seemed to be fucking with his self-control, and Evie worried over him.

  Vaughn resented me babysitting him on our hunts and blamed Evie for the shortened kills. Sadism had become the point of his hunts, not feeding. He spilled more blood in the snow than he ever swallowed and laughed with the same hysteria that’d left him sobbing at the gas station.

  I parked myself on a picnic bench under one of the campground awnings, laid down, and enjoyed a rare moment of quiet that didn’t involve blood torture. I tried not to think while Evie stewed in the truck, Stark went off to sniff something strange, and Vaughn kept the Pouting Place warm.

  I dozed, and dreamed of hunting with my father and his entourage, sleeping where I lay my head with a belly full of blood, and a cock wrung dry of come. I dreamed of freedom and contentment and woke to the wind dusting my clothes with snowflakes evaporating against my skin.

  I’d never even been hungry enough to feel snow do anything but melt. Not even a lick of frostbite. An Oldman took what he wanted, on the plains or in the penthouse, and that meant I never wanted for heat.

  Would that change now that I’d disobeyed Metis? Would I live like some backwoods mountain vamp? Would Vaughn stick around or take his chances in the cities without me?

  I laughed out loud at the image of Vaughn and I roughing the wilderness to keep a low profile. Living off the grid, clad in furs and hunting straggling outdoorsmen in flannel parkas.

  I wouldn’t be able to eat the second I felt the scratch of hunger in my gut. I’d have to use my hand like some kind of teenage human in a sad comedy film.

  Bears would start to look fuckable after a month of that shit.

  I’d never fuck a bear.

  I tilted my head to stare at the truck a few feet away, where Vaughn had just exited the trailer.

  Vaughn would do that shit. I laughed again at the absurdity of Vaughn stroking his blade while trying to choose the finest bear in the woods. Maybe one would escape with his name on her hide and run to tell the others.

  He cut a glance at me as he lit a cigarette and stretched his long frame to the skyline. Not a shiver, just a little redness on his pale face to signal the cold did exist. Who was I kidding? Vaughn had eaten enough in the past three days to double as a campfire. If we stayed together, nothing would change but the lack of safehouses at our disposal. Life would be a countdown till I got caught by my father or he died. In the meantime, I’d hunt and fuck.

  I haven’t fucked in days.

  The thought startled me, but now I knew why I felt so delirious. I’d never had this much time to think before. I’d been mindless, damn near heartless except for my loyalty to Liam and Vaughn, and I’d never gone days without feeding either of my hungers.

  This is all your fucking fault, Evie.

  Evie’d been masking thoughts of the wolf, thinking I wouldn’t see the trail leading back to images of his body straining in the snow. Straining on the rack. I’d been tempted to pull Evie out of the truck and make her forget all about the wolf, to test our joined heat and see if we could melt the snow around us. We hadn’t fucked since Syracuse.

  By choice. Like crazy idiots.

  I’d killed and fed, I’d watched Vaughn fuck and feed. But, I hadn’t so much as touched my dick and Evie had no desire to pick up the slack. My digs about Stark and my refusal to rein Vaughn in more had left her seething.

  I got a very vivid impression of her stabbing me in the gut while still wrapped in her heating blanket at just the thought of sex. Just to confirm the source of the thought, she shot me a frown over her shoulder through the passenger window, then went back to trying to ignore my desires with a nap.

  Another day. Then, I won’t be tethered to a creature that needs a heating blanket to stay warm.

  I sighed and stared up at the awning, listening to Vaughn’s approach.

  “Time to go, yet?”

  I nodded and sat up. “Hell yeah. Ready to get this unbinding shit over with. I want my mind back. Feels like I’ve been infiltrated by a parasitic cotton ball called ‘emotions’.”

  Vaughn looked physically ill, as if he understood all too well how that felt.

  I couldn’t see dawn, but could smell the change. Not long after the invisible sun rose, Stark padded into our little camp with blood on his muzzle and his canine dick at red alert.

  “No luck this time, huh, boy?” Vaughn said with a firecracker smack to Stark’s haunches. I jumped to my feet seconds before I realized I’d seen the wolf tense for an attack.

  With speed rivaling any vampire’s, the wolf spun and leaped, snapping his jaws just inches from Vaughn’s head, before my brother sprinted away with a caustic laugh. Stark landed in the snow, poised to pursue, but I landed between him and a gloating Vaughn, the vampire dancing on his toes in the snow like a boxer, his still-burning cigarette glowing like a taunt.

  “If you three are done with the pissing contest, we should get back on the road,” Evie called.

  “Two of us don’t piss, and I doubt Fido’s red rocket will let him!” Vaughn called back. Turning his grinning mug toward Stark, he bent at the waist, patted his thighs and cooed, “Who’s a good boy? Who needs to get his dick wet? Yes, that’s you! That’s you who wants to get balls deep in the witch who mind-fucked my brother. But you’re such a good boy, aren’t you?” Vaughn straightened and gave the wolf his deadliest stare. “Why don’t you change out of that costume and come at me. I’ll show you what it’s like to be bad, bro.”

  The snarl the wolf gave Vaughn said he meant business, but his huge icy eyes narrowed, as the beast calculated the cost of going through me to get to my brother. He couldn’t hurt Evie’s mate.

  Not yet.

  The bristling wolf turned and retreated to change to human form, not even stopping when Evie touched his furry back. I spun and lifted a brow, glaring in Vaughn’s direction.

  The sonofabitch shrugged, took a drag and exhaled smoke through his nostrils.

  “What? What’d I say?”

  With a brilliant grin, he strutted past me. His cool glare couldn’t hide the rage blazing within.

  I parked facing the man who’d apparently anticipated our arrival, the snow-covered hiking trails at Sulphur Gates nestled to the east of us. Nothing but the green caps of the trees and the swath of white ground surrounded our lone truck.

  “How the fuck did he know we were here?” I darted a glance at Evie, then Stark rousing from a nap in the back seat. Vaughn was still holed up in the trailer.

  Stark yawned and rose to a sitting position in the back seat, rubbing sleep from his eyes. “Willmore coven is big from what I hear. If their magick has enough reach, a lone wolf or a vampire would trigger an alarm within a certain distance from the Gate. That guy’s a wolf, no doubt, which means he’s duty-bound to greet us. Or kill us. I’m gonna assume the readied horses are a good sign.”

  I gaped at the wolf in the truck and the wolf beyond my windshield.

  The more I learn about witches, the creepier this shit gets.

  “That’s so cool,” Evie whispered.

  Stark chuckled at our disparate reactions and grunted, stretching out his back. “Well, we got lucky, so I guess you’re right. It’s the kinda power you seldom see anymore, and more reliable than a cell phone tower. I’m sure
reception is a bit touch and go once you get further into the wilderness.”

  Stepping out of the truck, I rounded the bed and beat my fist on the side of the trailer twice. A moment later Vaughn exited with a huff, looking exhausted and wired all at once.

  “So ready to get this shit over with.” Vaughn had all of our baggage in tow, dumping our bags on the ground then grabbing his own.

  Now outside the truck, the crisp winter air brought the smell of strange wolf to my nostrils. The man lounging against the horse corral—a metal structure fencing six saddled horses—stared with a placid look on his tanned face. No stables at the trail head, but there had to be one nearby. Even an experienced rider would need a couple of minutes to saddle each horse, let alone lead them here in preparation for our arrival.

  He tipped his ball cap up as we tromped through snow, eyeing each of us with cool brown eyes and a tilt of his chin. I noticed the subtle flair of his nostrils, taking in our scents, as I surveyed our surroundings. Beyond our guide loomed the trail, forest green tourist signs and wooden markers pointing us toward the final leg of our journey.

  “Name’s Bailey.” The gruff timbre of Stark’s fellow wolf echoed in the deserted lot, punctuated by the snorts of the horses and birds whistling in the swaying trees. He hadn’t moved from his spot, leaning against the panel of steel tubing that served as a door to the corral with one ankle crossed over the other. “Don’t care who you are or why you’re here. I’ll get you to your campsite and take the horses back. After that, you’re on your own. You’ll be sleeping in a tent, so if you need bed rolls, blankets, and the like, I’ve got four survival kits ready just in case. Your type don’t usually come prepared.”

  “How close to the coven are you taking us?” Bailey gave Stark a pointed stare in response to his question. Neither wolf changed their posture, but I could sense, through Evie, a strange tension. Not hostile, not friendly. Neutral. Like the blending of human decorum and wolfish senses.

  “Not far.”

  “You wanna be more specific?”

  Bailey gave me a once over that lengthened my fangs.

  “Won’t do you any good, vamp. Gate doesn’t open till the full moon. You’ll know where to go when the mists part.”

  Breath whooshed out of my lungs. All around me silence screamed, broken only by the sound of birds, horses neighing, and some creature rustling in the underbrush several yards away.

  “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me!”

  For the first time since this journey began in New Jersey, Vaughn gave Stark a look of approval. He raised a thumb and snorted in agreement.

  Stark’s shoulders drooped with weariness. “You follow the old coven laws to the letter, huh?”

  Bailey nodded, a strange spark in his gaze. Otherwise his expression remained smooth and opaque as stone.

  “What does that even mean?”

  To my surprise, Evie answered my question, her voice weighed down with defeat. “It means it’s a large coven that only lets their wolves change on the full moon. The rest of the time, they use the magic of the beast to power their wards. Masilda mentioned how some covens operate, but she didn’t say anything about this coven following the old laws. They won’t let us in, not until their wolves can change and they’re at the height of their power. Did she mention this to you, Josh?”

  “No. She did not.”

  “And the next full moon is in—”

  Stark and Bailey answered Vaughn in unison. “Three weeks.”

  “Fan-fuckin-tastic.” Vaughn growled and spun in a furious circle. “That’s just Fan. Fucking. Tastic! What’re we supposed to do for three weeks in the middle of nowhere? What are we supposed to eat?”

  “Not my circus.” Bailey tipped his cap down. The gesture smacked of distaste. “There’s hikers and discreet places in Grande Cache for your brand of nasty. Your truck will be safe here, if you wanna come back for it to go into town for provisions. Or you can put in an order here and a guide will procure it for you. For a fee. I work in Grande Cache during the day, so I have the means.”

  “How do we get in touch with you to put in an—”

  “Every evening at sunset,” the wolf gave Stark a pointed stare for interrupting, “—which is later here, around nine thirty p.m. or so—and every morning at six-thirty, you can find a guide here waiting for half an hour to take your order. You want your stuff same day? You wait here and it costs extra. You want it delivered to your tent? Costs extra. Otherwise, whatever you purchase will be waiting here the following morning. You wanna know where those hunting grounds are? You can get an escort to one of several places to feed. For a fee.”

  “Yeah? And how much is the fee?” I grimaced at the stranger. I’d have loved to bypass the greedy fucker, but keeping a low profile for three weeks would be safest.

  “The cost of whatever you buy, plus a hundred for delivery at the Gate. Another two hundred to deliver to your tent, for the trip there and back. A hundred to guide you per hunting ground you visit. There’s several. You got plenty of time to figure out which options you prefer. By the way, the survival packs to get you started ain’t free either. There’s a hundred dollar fee for each one, plus a hundred for delivery to the site. From the looks of it, you’re gonna need ‘em. I’ll collect that fee now before we move out.”

  “You gouge every visitor like this, or are we special?” Stark tilted his head.

  “This ain’t charity work, brother. It’s coven business and coven law. You’d know that if you were pack.”

  Stark seethed, cerulean eyes blazing with contained rage at the insult.

  Vaughn sighed and lit up his cigarette, mumbling, “Of course this’s my last fucking one. Christ.”

  “I don’t appreciate the way you’re talking to my friend, Bailey.” Evie could’ve seared a hole in our guide with her stare, but her voice remained even keeled. “I get that you’re expending time and resources and should be compensated, but not every pack or coven is run this way. You’d know that if you’d bothered to ask or show a little courtesy. He’s packless. That doesn’t make him less of a wolf than you.”

  Only the downward tilt of Bailey’s head as he assessed Evie gave away that he’d processed her words. Out of the corner of my eye I observed Stark’s admiring gaze.

  “We’re burning daylight,” Bailey drawled after a moment. “Y’all ready to ride?”

  Bailey’s turned back as he opened the corral said he didn’t care if we had more questions. He’d finished with the chit-chat. One by one, he led our mounts out, handing off the reins. The sharp crunch of hooves on packed earth reverberated. In the distance, subtle beams of sunlight cupped the clouds, threatening to melt the snow. We were in the middle of nowhere, stranded in the midst of nature, and would be for damn near a month. The only consolation was I’d be here with the feisty bond witch at my side.

  Bailey piled the survival packs he’d brought onto the pack horse—after I placed five hundred dollars in his hand—while each of us got acquainted with our assigned horses.

  When Vaughn spooked his mount, thanks to his rage at being stranded with one last nicotine crutch, only a frown and one dimple showed Bailey’s silent disapproval. Even Stark, his fellow wolf, only got a pointed stare before our guide moved on to tying down the baggage we’d brought.

  “Thank you.”

  I rolled my eyes, wondering when Evie would stop playing Miss Manners to every random asset we encountered.

  Our guide gave my mate a brusque smile and one subtle sniff as he passed her by. Only a second dimple and a longer than necessary stare revealed he sensed something off about her.

  When we’d all settled on our mounts, Bailey swung a leg over his mustang with the easy grace of a long-time rider and circled a finger in the air that said ‘move out’.

  We didn’t rest. Evie and Stark ate their packed food as they rode, and Vaughn grumbled the whole time about how far away we’d ventured from ready-to-eat humans. We kept moving through thick forest trails that bo
rdered the joining of the clear Sulphur River and the silt-laden Smoky River several hundred feet down.

  We forded creeks and leaned into the steep inclines of the desolate trail. I hadn’t been so far removed from civilization since boyhood. I found a strange comfort in the untainted wilderness and the awe Evie feed me through our link. Hours of rolling with the gait of our mustangs passed, until the wind blew the sky clear of snow and clouds, and sun rays lit up the flat ground we ventured into like diamonds sprinkled across an ivory canvas.

  “Jesus,” Evie murmured in awe at my side. Her eyes were glued to the surrounding mountains piercing the skyline with jagged snowcaps. A herd of moose grazed on what grass they could, crossing the slope we approached before disappearing into the valley floor.

  The sun began to set as we pulled into camp. An eighteen by eighteen tent camouflaged under netting and evergreens would be our new home for the next three weeks.

  “Oh, my God, oh, my God, my thighs. Ugh.” Evie huffed as she slid off the saddle. She squatted a few times to stretch out her thighs and rubbed feeling back into her ass cheeks. “I haven’t ridden in forever.”

  I swung a leg over and dropped to my feet effortlessly. She pursed her lips.

  Show off. Some of us are only half vampire.

  Vaughn slid off his mount smoother than expected for a city boy. His mare tossed her head and threw out her left foreleg, causing Vaughn to spring away from her so fast, he fell on his ass in the snow. I nearly fell down laughing when the pretty palomino jumped to stand over him, head lowered, and hell in her eyes.

  Our guide’s laughter rang through the majestic pines.

  “Nice horsie.” Vaughn shoved his face to meet the mare’s nose. “Back off, bitch, before I stick my dick up your ass.” The mare snorted, leaving a ropy trail of snot on his shirt before she backed away.

  “Thought you had a thing for feisty blondes, Vaughn,” I teased. “You sure you two don’t wanna be alone?”

  Vaughn scooped a handful of snow off the ground and used it to scrub his shirt, then hurled the snowball toward me. Stark’s stallion seemed skittish as well. Predators on edge had been spooking mounts since forever. It’d been a relief when the first automobiles came about.