“All of it,” I yelled.
“None of it’s a joke, Essie. We don’t have a lot of time here, so I’d suggest you slap your fangs onto my neck and suck.”
“This is the craziest thing I’ve ever thought about doing,” I muttered as Dwayne crawled over the seat and settled himself next to me.
“No crazier than going after Dragons,” he countered.
I rolled my eyes and reluctantly let my fangs descend. “What super powers will this give me? Will I be able to fly?”
Dwayne grinned and shrugged. “You’d have to pretty much drain me to get that skill.”
“Shut the hell up! You can fly? You never told me that.” Color me very impressed.
“You never asked. Give me your wrist and you take my neck.”
“Will this hurt you?” I asked as I leaned in.
“Don’t know. Never let a wolf near my neck.” He grinned and gave me a quick hug. “I love you, Essie. Before you came into my life, I had considered ending myself. Three hundred years is a long time to be alone. You’ve given me hope, a career as a drag queen and a dysfunctional family. I am supremely grateful. Bite me.”
And because I trusted him…I did.
It was odd and kind of icky. Not erotic for me at all and from the way Dwayne was laughing, I figured it wasn’t a turn-on for him either. He bit my wrist as I swallowed down his blood that tasted bizarrely like mac and cheese. After taking a quick nip of my O positive he closed the wound with his tongue.
I withdrew my fangs and closed my eyes as a rush of heat blasted through me, ending at my toes and fingertips. My vision sharpened and my sense of smell was insane. Holy hell, the self tanner smelled like butt.
“You have to go,” Dwayne said as he gently pushed me out of the car. “Remember, you are not superhuman. You’re just stronger with heightened senses for a day or two or three…”
“You have no clue how long this will last, do you?” I asked dryly.
“Um…no, but I don’t regret it for a moment. You needed it and I gave it. Ohhh, and that wasn’t at all sexy. It tickled and felt squishy.”
“Thanks,” I muttered as I grabbed my overnight bag and checked my gun.
“Are your panties up your ass?” Dwayne asked, concerned.
“No. Why?”
“Well, it looked like you were adjusting your hoohoo and I figured…”
“Dwayne,” I hissed. “I was not adjusting my hoohoo. I was checking my gun, which I wear on the inside of my thigh, but thank you for your concern.”
“Welcome.”
I studied him silently for a moment. He was three hundred. Maybe he knew something I didn’t. “Dwayne, do you know how to kill a Dragon?”
He nodded in reply, not smiling at all. “The usual. Take the heart out, or decapitate him, but that’s a bit difficult with all those sharp scales.”
“Right.” So much for another way to off a Dragon.
“I plan to mind meld those jack-offs at the Sherriff’s office,” he informed me smugly.
“I thought that kind of thing only worked on humans.”
“Maybe. I’ve never tried it on Dragons, but I can’t wait.” He clapped his hands like a child on Christmas morning and I gave him the eyeball.
“You will be careful,” I told him. “If you get hurt, I will kick your ass.”
I walked away as his eyes filled with happy tears. Dwayne was a piece of work, but he was my piece of work and I was going to keep him.
Chapter 12
“Did you use the self tanner, dear?” Puck the Schmuck inquired. Of course he knew I had used it because he was a freakin’ Dragon. His nose was as good or better than mine.
I nodded and smiled coyly as I listened for the Tinas. Where were they? “I did. I used it all over, Pucky—just like you instructed.”
“Wonderful.” He stared at me like I was a tasty piece of meat and an alarming thought burst through my head. Are wolves a tasty treat for Dragons? Are they fattening up the girls so they can eat them? It seemed a lot of trouble to go to just to eat wolves, but Dragons were weird.
“What are we doing today? More pictures?” I asked as I dropped my overnight bag on the floor at my feet. It landed with a loud thud in the quiet office.
“No, no, sweet girl. I have thrilling news for you. I scanned the Polaroids we took yesterday and sent them to New York. You have booked a major magazine spread.” He leered at me and it took everything I had to feign excitement.
“Oh my god,” I gushed and fanned myself. “What magazine?”
He was typing quickly into his phone, a slight smile played on his lips.
“I’m sorry, what?” he asked as he pocketed his phone.
“What magazine?” I repeated.
He stared at me blankly for a moment and then recovered. “Oh, yes…Glamour. Glamour Magazine.”
I squealed with glee as the bastard laughed and stared straight at my chest. I smelled the Tinas before I saw them. It all happened so fast I was shocked. He had clearly just texted them and I got blindsided. I felt the needle pierce the skin on the back of my neck and the burning substance enter my body. The Tinas watched with rabid pleasure as my body hit the floor. I was furious that I had left myself open for an attack from behind. That was 101 and Hank was going to kill me if the Dragons didn’t do the job first.
“That will knock a wolf out for days,” Tina #1 hissed.
“How much did you use?” Puck demanded angrily. Tina blanched and backed away.
“Just a little more than usual,” she said. “She’s strong. We wouldn’t want her to wake up and ruin everything.”
Puck seemed mollified and watched me sink into lala land. I closed my eyes and waited for the darkness to come, but it didn’t. What was going on?
“She’s out,” he said. “Let’s go.”
But I wasn’t… The shot they gave me might have knocked out a Werewolf, but it did nothing to a Vampyre. Keeping my eyes closed and my body slack, I mentally gave Dwayne the biggest kiss and hug imaginable. I was going to live and I was going to take no prisoners.
The Tinas dragged me through the office and dumped me into the trunk of a car, banging my head on as many hard surfaces as they could find. They laughed and congratulated themselves on the impending end of my life. It took an enormous amount of restraint on my part not to kill them dead. I consoled myself that there would be time enough for killing them very soon.
The ride was short and I knew we hadn’t crossed the bridge back to the mainland. The scent of the ocean was in the distance, so we had clearly driven inland. I was surprised and greatly relieved they were keeping the girls in Hung. It occurred to me there might be more Dragons involved than the three we knew about, but Dragons were an egotistical bunch. I was hedging my bets that whatever they were doing, they wanted full credit for it and they were working rogue.
The car stopped and I was yanked from the trunk. The lovely Tinas dragged my body across a rock-strewn path and I chanced a peek. We were at an old deserted resort. It had been abandoned when I was a child. A cult from out West had owned the place and a drug bust turned shootout had occurred here. About ten local human police officers had died in that raid and most of the cult. No one wanted the place and no one ever came out here.
“Put her in the holding area with the others,” Puck said in a clipped and furious voice. “And if you killed her with an overdose, I will rip your limbs from your body and feed them to you.”
The Tinas were silent and far more careful with my limp body than they had been. I mentally calculated if Hank and the gang were on their way yet.
I was sure Junior had followed in his wolf form. A car would have been spotted and no one had said anything. I sniffed the air, but couldn’t detect his scent. Where was he? I was good, but I was fairly sure I would have a hard time taking out a Dragon and three wolves alone while trying to rescue the girls.
“Drop her. He can’t see us anymore,” Tina #1 snapped. My body was dumped on the floor and a swift a
nd hard kick to my stomach followed. I swallowed my grunt of pain and took everything they handed out as if I were already dead.
“It was your idea to give her enough to send her into a coma, shit for brains,” Tina #2 growled. “If anyone dies because of this, it’s you.”
“Shut up,” Tina #1 said. “No one dies today except the prisoners and this bitch.”
“How do you know that?” Tina #3 asked.
“Because I just do.”
The clack of their heels on the wooden floor as they exited was music to my ears. I lay still for a moment in case they came back.
“Is she dead?” a frightened voice whispered.
“I don’t know,” another answered.
“Oh god, it’s Essie. Please let her be okay. Please,” a third voice whispered brokenly.
I slowly raised my head and looked around the room to the gasps of the chained women. It had been a kitchen at one point. The remains of a sink and stove were sitting cockeyed against the decaying wall. The girls’ arms and legs were bound with silver and they were chained to old rusty pipes that protruded from the walls. Mottled red skin and dried blood around the shackles proved they were bound with the offending metal. Silver prohibited shifting.
“Essie, it’s me. Sandy Moongie. Are you okay?”
“Sandy?” That couldn’t be Sandy Moongie, or if it was she’d lost half her body weight and turned into a supermodel. “You look fantastic.”
“Um…thanks.” She blushed and looked down. “Weight Watchers and pole dancing.”
“Amazing.” I grinned and gave her the thumbs up and then remembered we weren’t exactly at a class reunion. Glancing around and listening for footsteps, I slowly got up. I was a little wobbly, but I was functional.
“I’m going to get you out of here,” I told them and was greeted with quiet sobs. “What have they done to you?”
“They’ve injected us with something to make us ovulate at a rapid pace,” Frankie Mac told me as she stifled her crying. Jenny Packer and Debbie Swink nodded in agreement.
What the hell was going on here?
“Dragon Puck is a doctor and they harvested our eggs,” Sandy whispered. “They used no painkiller. We were awake the entire time. They plan to do it again today.” She winced and curled in on herself.
This was barbaric, and if they were doing what I thought they were doing it was horrifying. Shifters could not cross breed. The results of crossbreeding in the past had resulted in tragic and unspeakable deaths for the mothers and babies. Had the Dragons figured out the secret? I almost threw up in my mouth.
“They’re trying to create a super race. It’s not just wolves. They’ve tried this with Panther Shifters and Bear Shifters,” Debbie added, her pretty face as white as a sheet.
“Did it work?” I asked, trying to hold back my fury.
“No. They think the mistake was they actually impregnated the other women and had them try to carry the babies. They all died. Violently,” Jenny said sadly.
“How do you know all this?” I asked as I silently made my way to them.
“The Dragons like to talk,” Sandy spat with disgust. “Now they’re going to try to incubate eggs and sperm outside of the body and grow a baby. They’re convinced the failure stemmed from the mothers.”
“They’ll have a difficult time doing that if they’re dead.” I pulled on Sandy’s chain and winced. Silver burned our skin, but that was just too damned bad at the moment. Time was of the essence and I had no clue where my back up was. Wait, part of the story was missing… “Why are they doing this?”
“They want to cause an upheaval with the Council—destroy it. Introduce a new breed that wouldn’t be accepted and then petition for a new leadership,” Debbie said. “They want to rule the world.”
I shuddered at the thought and examined the chains.
“You can’t break them,” Sandy said. “We’ve tried.”
“So little confidence,” I muttered as I shook my head and sighed dramatically. “Who pulled the fire alarm six times in one day in the tenth grade?”
“You did.” Jenny giggled.
“That’s right. Who slipped a fake speech to that turdwaffle, Ted Head, at graduation?” I asked.
“You did,” Sandy gasped and laughed. “I about died when he dropped the F bomb three times during his speech.”
“So did the principal,” Frankie added with glee.
“Who spiked the punch at prom?” I was getting into this.
“Actually, that was me,” Debbie said.
“Oh, right. I forgot. Are you sure that wasn’t me?”
“Quite sure.” Debbie grinned happily. “I got suspended for it, but it was worth it.”
“Okay fine, I regretfully can’t take credit for that one, but I did do all that other stuff. Right?”
They nodded and looked at me like I was crazy. They were right and they were wrong. I was nuts, but I could also break the chains thanks to Dwayne.
“Hold tight, ladies. This may hurt since your skin is so raw, but if you can shift when I’m done, you’ll heal.”
Quickly and efficiently I yanked the chains from the wall much to their delighted shock. Removing the shackles was more difficult and I blanched at the pain I caused them, but their stoic bravery awed me. They made small grunts and whimpers, but no one cried out.
“You need to shift and run. I want you out of here quickly.” I helped them to their feet and herded them towards the door.
“Essie, what about you? We’re not leaving you here alone,” Frankie Mac insisted as she came to an abrupt halt. The girls agreed and refused to move. Why in the world had I ever left this place? Loyalty like this was virtually impossible to find…
“Guys, while I was gone, I trained and became an agent for WTF. I work for the Council. I was sent down to find and rescue you.”
“Are you back home to stay or are you leaving again?” Jenny asked.
“I don’t know,” I admitted and blushed. “But, um…”
“You mated with Hank!” Sandy squealed and gave me a hug. “I can smell it and I’m so happy. But even more important than that, you’re our new female alpha,” she added reverently and got down on her knees followed by my other friends. The air in the room swirled with magic and my skin heated. I froze and watched them. My inner wolf chuffed with pride, but my human side was torn. I didn’t deserve this kind of worship. I hadn’t earned it, but I could change that in the next hour…and I would.
“Get up,” I whispered frantically. “I’m just Essie, the goof ball from high school. Don’t bow to me.”
The girls stood slowly but kept their heads bowed in respect.
“I’ll bend you over and kiss your butt for saving my life,” Frankie said as she lifted her grateful eyes to mine. “But the timing is wrong. Essie, you’re right about us shifting to heal, but wrong about us leaving. We stay and fight. I don’t care if you’re WTF or WTH or WWW…you’re Pack and Pack sticks together. Period.”
I wanted to cry, but didn’t have time. I knew no amount of begging or threatening would make them leave, so I had to formulate a plan.
“Okay, fine,” I mumbled as I paced the room. “I’m armed and you’re not. I also drank Vampyre blood, so I have super strength for a while.”
“Oh my god,” Sandy gasped, totally impressed. “Can you fly?”
I laughed and shook my head. “I wish. I want all of you to stay here and go back to where you were chained. Keep the chains near you, but don’t let them touch your skin. You need to be able to shift at a moment’s notice. It’s dark enough in here that they won’t notice you’ve been freed immediately.”
“What are you going to do?” Jenny asked fearfully.
“What I’ve been trained to do,” I answered her honestly without spelling everything out. “Will you gals be able to kill the Tinas if they come back?”
They stared at me like I’d grown an extra nose.
“Let me rephrase the question…if the Tinas try to kill yo
u, which I guarantee they will, will you defend yourselves?”
“Do we actually have to kill them?” Debbie asked.
“Well, if you want to come out of here alive…I’d say yes.” Maybe I should make them run. This was looking like a bloodbath in the making.
“I’ll kill them dead and then I’ll kill them again,” Sandy said. “They’ve beaten the hell out of us on a daily basis for two weeks.”
God, I liked Sandy.
“Wouldn’t it be better if we held them and had them shunned?” Frankie suggested.
We all contemplated the ultimate punishment silently. Shunning was the most horrific thing that could happen to a Shifter. It was a fate worse than death. I mulled it over. Frankie did have a good point.
“I don’t know.” I hesitated. “I suppose if you can restrain them and get them chained up, we can leave their punishment to the Pack.”
“I do vote for roughing them up a bit—maybe knocking out a few teeth,” Jenny added hopefully.
I smiled at her enthusiasm. “I’m good with that as long as you also kick them in the stomach. Preferably till they vomit. Now, I have to go and see what’s happening. Backup is on the way and we’ll get you out of here soon.”
“Essie, be careful,” Sandy said. “We’ve missed you and it would just suck if you died today.”
I grinned and gave her the thumbs up sign. “I have no plans to die today. I have too much to live for.”
Chapter 13
Where in the world was my backup? I was actually going to try to do this one by the books, but the longer I waited the more danger the girls were in. If it was discovered they were out of their chains all hell would break loose. I sniffed the air and caught no sign of Hank, Junior, Granny or Dwayne. Not good.
Staying low and close to the dilapidated buildings, I made my way toward the sound of voices.
“We have what we need,” Puck said. “I have no more use for the ones in chains, but I want Essie to go with us.”
Awesome, that was exactly what I wanted to do with my life…be the egg slave to a smarmy Dragon. Not happening.
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