“Yes, sir.” Elon steps forward. “My girlfriend and I are thinking of moving, figured we’d check out the neighborhood.”
“Seems a bit below your social class doesn’t it, Mr. Ford?”
“I’m sorry, Officer, have we met?”
“Hmmm,” he shakes his head. “Can’t say I’ve had the pleasure. But I’ve heard plenty. Nice of you to bring a snack. Don’t care much for the taste of dog,” he winks at Geri, “but Army Barbie and Pussycat Josie smell mighty tasty.” He raises his face, tasting the air. The light hits his yellow eyes.
He’s not a vampire. Makes sense ‘cause the only thing this guy’s attracting is a doughnut. Spots shimmer over his hairless head as his canines lengthen and a pungent musky odor stinks up the air. Kerrigan hisses.
“Get in the car, ladies,” he holds open the back door, “The queen needs more panthera and I can’t wait to sample blondie to figure out what type of Wathe she is. Will you be joining us soon, Mr. Ford? Her highness is waiting for your allegiance.” He grabs my wrist, jerking me toward the car.
Elon growls in warning. I throw him an I-got-this glare as I feign confusion, backing off on my strength when I resist. “My apologies, Officer. I don’t understand?”
“Cut the bullshit, kid. I can see the weapons bulging your pockets. Get in the fucking car.”
“Weapons? Maybe I’m simply happy to see you?”
Down the block, three shadowy figures approach. His hold turns painful but as fast as my bones crunch, they heal; telling me my sister’s working her mojo back at the sanctuary.
“Look, buddy, I didn’t come her to fight…. oh wait, yes, I did.” I twist my hand, switching his grip for mine, using it as leverage to trap his arm behind his back and slam him against the car. “You so picked the wrong female, dude. If I had a dick, this is where I’d tell you to suck it.” I cackle in his ear, shoving him in his own back seat I slam the door shut.
He snarls and growls, beating against the glass. The car rocks with his anger, but for now he’s contained. I order Lex to stand guard. On the sidewalk, Geri’s large black wolf circles another slightly smaller one with silver fur. Kerrigan rides on the back of a large man, his fangs snapping at her face as he tries to dislodge her. Elon faces off with the third guy, both stand ready to fight. I yank the swords from the sheathing on my back, loving the swoosh and ting of the blades. Giddy energy rushes through my veins.
Hands tucked, I flip through the air. “Now, Kerrigan,” I shout, landing in front of the red-eyed vamp trying to rip off her arm. She flings backward as I swing my sword. The sharp blade slices with smoothness through his thick fleshy neck. Before his body turns to dust, I advance on the wolf. Geri bares her teeth, leaping on top of the other dog her powerful jaws rip at its throat.
“Don’t let him shift or he’ll heal,” Kerrigan yells. Silvers fur ripples, signaling he’s changing. Geri continues digging at him, but his paws block his neck. I raise my blade, but he’s already turned. At the sight of a blood-soaked naked man curled into the fetal position, I hesitate. Kerrigan snags a dagger from my thigh, detaching his head with cool emotionless precision. Unable to stomach the carnage, I vomit on the nearest lawn.
Geri shifts to her human form. Long gashes mar the skin of her bare back. Kerrigan rushes to help her. I swipe the barf from my lips with the back of my hand; throw a checking in glance to Lex, who gives me a thumbs-up, before I join Elon. He’s still in a staring contest with the third man.
“So, you guys, gonna whip out your dicks and compare or stand here doing the stink eye all night? ‘Cause I gotta say, I’ve seen what this guy’s packing.” I nudge Elon with my shoulder, eyeing the guy across him. My lips pucker. “You’re gonna lose. Shit or git, Teeny Weeny Tim.”
He searches for his friends.
“All gone. Dust in the Wind and Poochy the Headless Dog have left the building, all you got left is Officer Fuckstick over there, who isn’t even strong enough to escape his own patrol car.”
“I smell the blood of a god.” His nose curls in disgust. “What forces have you been tampering with Ford?”
“Not me, Bjorn. This is all on your queen.” Elon’s disdain hangs on his last word.
“My clan follows no one, we simply share a common interest in exterminating the vermin.”
Metal whizzes past my ear, nipping the skin before the shiny sharp pointed star plunges in Bjorn’s chest. His nostrils flare as his muscles quiver, shaking his entire body. A warning growl echoes through the night as his torso elongates. The seam of his pressed slacks splits and the fine cotton of his dress shirt shreds. Hands and feet become mahogany brown furry paws with razor-sharp claws. His nose grows to a black-tipped snout filled with knifepoint teeth.
My eyes grow wide as his transformation completes. I look up and up at the ten-foot-tall, 800-pound beast looming over me. The tiny Shurikin embedded in his chest plinks to the ground.
“A BEAR!” I scream. “Elon, you made a big-ass grizzly Sasquatch.”
“Not me, Love, it’s your smart-ass mouth.”
“What do we do?” My eyes locked on the mammoth I step backward, keeping my swords in front of me. Judging by the thickness of his neck, I’m not sure they’re long enough to do any damage.
“Stop.” Elon grabs my forearm pausing my retreat. “He’s an apex predator who can run at about forty miles per hour. Don’t give him something to chase.”
“Bjorn,” Elon raises his palms in surrender, “this is the Daughter of Odin. I know you’re a man of honor who believes the bullshit Carissa is spreading, but Odin loved humans. They fascinated him. He wouldn’t have resurrected if the world didn’t need him. Think about what all this means.”
Bear Bjorn drops on all fours, hulking toward me. Snout at my feet, he sniffs up my legs. I keep my swords crossed, blocking my heart and neck. He plops back on his butt, angling his enormous head. Soft brown eyes stare into mine and I see the man inside the animal. When a wolf shifts they become their animal, but a shifter retains human brain function. I’m as much an anomaly to him as he is to me, but at least he’s not trying to eat my face.
Up on all four feet again, he nods to Elon and me before his powerful legs carry him across someone’s front lawn where he disappears between houses.
Three down, one to go. Still on the verge of pissing my pants, I walk to Lex. A few steps away from him, a loud crash shakes the car. Before Lex works up the energy to blast it EMP-style the engine guns. Inside, the cage separating the front from the back is gone and the panthera cop is behind the wheel. He’s shouting something as he speeds away, but I can’t understand what because his windows are closed.
Elon’s hair-raising low roar turns all our heads. “He said Carissa will be glad to know who the Daughter of Odin is.”
“Yeah, isn’t that what we wanted? Maybe my flex display tonight will inspire her to back off.”
Kerrigan, Lex, and a now healed Geri burst into laughter. Elon pulls me into his chest, patting a condescending hand between my shoulder blades. He fights it, but the hard shaking under my ear says he’s lost the battle. “It’s a great thought, Love.” His chuckles grow louder. “I adore how you look at the world through fresh, innocent eyes. I’d forgotten how wonderful living life can be. Your ability to kill a few minions won’t sway someone as ancient as Carissa.”
Heat climbs up my neck, sweeping over my cheeks. “Right. I was joking.” I shift to pull away, too embarrassed to look at my friends.
“Hey.” Elon cups my face, sweeping my cheeks with his thumbs. “Don’t be embarrassed. I love your naivety. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. You don’t have jagged edges and your movements aren’t heartless. It’s what separates you from the monsters. Never lose this,” he lays a hand between my boobs, “because this is everything I love.”
His lips touch mine. Sonuvabitch this man can kiss. All-consuming, lip-biting, tongue-sucking push and pull I feel in my core. Total hot possession I’ll never have enough of.
“Holy fu
ck. I need a cold shower after that.” Kerrigan fans her face. “Come on, gang, let’s go home.”
“Can I get a printout of your Gen Z slang?” Elon jokes, looping his fingers with mine as we walk back to the car.
“Right after we cure Miss Pukey. What the hell, Nicole? Your hesitation and weak stomach might’ve cost Geri her life. We don’t all have a healing power bond,” Lex chastises, shuffling his feet behind us.
His snarky words reminding of the split second of agony I felt when thug number two snapped my wrist. My pace slows as I bring my arm toward my face. Hand still wrapped with Elon’s I extend my index finger to tap the silver link on the com bracelet. “Nissa, you there?”
“Yes. All is good here.” I hear swearing in the background. “Fine, okay,” my sister huffs a connection fuzzing breath. “Rika says you’re grounded from coffee because you let the bear go.”
“Well, when her blind ass is out here facing off with a ton of pissed off grizzly, then I’ll give a damn about what she thinks. Are you okay?”
“I’ve got this, Nikki, stop worrying. Sorry I wasn’t quick enough to ease your stomach, it came and went faster than I could heal. What happened?”
“Trust me when I say, you don’t want to know.” I gag, remembering the gruesome way his bloody head rolled away from his body.
Her laughter carries through the com, cutting off before she’s done. My sister’s soft heart couldn’t stand taking someone’s life, even if it meant saving her own. Between the two of us I’m harder, but when tasked with taking a life I faltered. If he’d stayed in wolf form my inner warrior knew what to do. Him lying there helpless and naked stayed the swing of my blade. Given the chance, the guy would’ve ripped my throat out.
I can’t be judge, jury, and executioner and still hang on to my moral conscience.
Elon walks me around the Tank. He holds open my door. As I climb in, I ask the question plaguing my brain. “Shifters, panthera, and wolves don’t go poof when I kill them. What happens to their bodies? How do you keep people from freaking out and screaming serial killer?”
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” he kisses my forehead. “When our light is snuffed out the earth reclaims what belongs to it. With a Berserker it’s swift and instant because our spark is corrupted. For the others, it becomes a shadowy portal carrying them to the afterlife, where they’ll face judgment from the higher council. It’s where the term comes from. We didn’t stick around long enough to see it but cosmic activity cleans up its own messes.”
A million more questions line up in my head. “One day it’ll all make sense,” he promises, cupping my cheek. “For now, let’s stay focused on the disaster at hand.”
I nod, forcing my curiosity to accept his answer.
Chapter Twenty-Two
All Hallows’ Eve
The face in the mirror reflects disgust. My halo of beach-waved blonde hair and heavy-lined blue eyes can’t correlate the woman I see with who I am.
Ranissa stands next to me wearing the same dress. On her the shimmering red garment with its Band-Aid size hemline showing the long, toned lines of her legs and deep-cut side boob peeping, belly button revealing neckline looks sexy and sinful.
I vetoed her role in Elon’s master plan but was overruled.
Dusty and Trevor returned without the spear, as I knew they would.
Since then we’ve been in strategy mode, using the breadcrumbs we’ve collected from Elon’s contacts to formulate a plan of action. Early mornings, late nights. Days spent sparring, reading, weaponizing into the wee hours. My only reprieve found in the bliss of ecstasy with Elon each night before I pass out.
If battles were won by sheer ragtag tribe determination, we’ve got it, but Carissa’s evil is far higher than our dedication.
I will lay it out for you because my vagina is catching a breeze and we’ve got a party to attend. Carissa, the self-proclaimed Queen, and one of the first Berserkers, wants to use humans as cattle. She’s been snacking on and making an army of vampires, but she’s also enlisted many other Wathes who share her twisted views. For the birth of her new world, she needs power and a window of perfect alignment.
An original mage with more magic than all of us combined will tap into the Axis of Odin, feeding its energy to Carissa. She will use it to swallow the earth with a brain erasing tidal wave of charm. Every person it touches becomes a blank slate, reprogrammed to report to the nearest primate sanctuary. Once she has everyone corralled, she’ll bleed them one by one until she builds a surplus of human blood. When she’s all stocked up, the remaining people will be tagged and sent out to live in simplicity. Eat, sleep, serve. They will be zombies until recalled to the facility. The best of the best will breed to keep the population growing and everyone fed.
For the exchange of magic to work, she first needs to offer a sacrifice to the Elves during the blue moon on Halloween.
Tonight is her one and only chance.
I wondered how we’d find her, but she’s made that part easy. In each sanctuary across the globe she planned a masquerade ball, inviting entire towns to attend. These are the first victims while the rest travel. Soldiers will round up any who don’t attend. Because she needs the Axis, she chose Silver Lake as her ground zero.
We picked apart her puzzle, searching for a way to thwart her plan. Alas, evil masterminds set on global destruction are never brainless louts. It’d be easier if they were, but Carissa guarded the essential pieces with an iron outer shell. Changing the phases of the moon and planetary alignment is out of the question, so we’re stuck with fighting it out on her terms. From the information we gathered she’s still missing an important piece, but we can’t figure out what it is.
Why are the other Wathes on board and supporting her when they don’t feed on humans?
Because Carissa is a smart cookie. After she breaks down the structure of the world, she’s returning it to the way it was before we inhabited the earth. Seven different countries built in the image of yore, with Carissa sitting on top in place of Odin. The older Wathes who miss the olden ways jumped on board and her promise of never hiding again drew in the younger ones.
Curse her and her fuck up the world genius.
Her window of opportunity is slim, but she’s a crafty bitch.
Since Officer Mcfuckstick raced off to inform her all about me, Elon suggesting enlisting Ranissa’s help. Carissa surely knows I’m tall, blonde, and lethal but she isn’t expecting two of us. While she focuses her goons on hindering my sister—who will be very much protected by Elon, Kerrigan, and Geri—I’ll be slinking around in search of the mage who the whole process hinges on.
So here I am, wearing a sequenced red dress, guaranteed to turn heads, and once again torturing my toes in sky-high heels.
A whistle sounds from the door. Lex and Trevor hover shoulder to shoulder with mouths hanging open. “Whew, darlin’s, I’m seeing double and choked up with ménage fantasies. You are two hot as fuck, ladies.” Trevor chews on the side of his bottom lip, filling his eyes with the miles of bare skin exposed between Ranissa and me.
“Where exactly am I supposed to strap my weapons with this slip of fabric y’all call a dress?”
“I’ve already stashed them in various locations throughout the atrium,” Elon struts in answering my question. “If you two motherfuckers don’t stop staring at my woman like she’s something to snack on, I’m gonna remove your spark.”
“Can we stare at Ranissa then?” Lex asks, throwing me a wink.
“No,” Elon grunts, “because you’ll still be envisioning Nicole.”
“Why can’t I wear something a little less revealing? It is Halloween, after all. I could dress up as GI Joe Barbie.”
“For the distraction to work I need every cock in the room pointed at you or,” he nods to Ranissa, “at you. This,” he runs a hand up my bare thigh, while tracing the line down my chest with his pale eyes to my jeweled belly button, “will even have the women wet and wanting.”
He
adjusts the crotch of his pants. Too involved in tugging to make my dress longer, I hadn’t noticed Elon until his hand drew my gaze to his dick. He’s still in his signature black from head to toe, but instead of jeans it’s a suit. The jacket hugs his broad shoulders, hanging over a soft silk button-up. His chrome belt buckle gleams in the light where his shirt tucks in, accentuating the V of his shape. When he turns to say something to Trevor, my eyes zero in on the ass-hugging fabric cupping the magnificence of his rumptastic backside. My hand itches to muse the longer strands of his slicked back hair meticulously held in place by product to keep it very dark and wet looking. Manscaped scruff decorates his jaw and circles his plump pink lips. His thick-lashed glacial eyes stand out against his tanned skin.
Shit me, he is one sexy damn bloodsucker.
The rest of the group arrives dressed in various degrees of elegant wear. Geri, Kerrigan, and Dusty wear similar little black dresses. I huff over the unfairness of their ability to bend over and not flash the world. Trevor, Lex, and Parker, like Elon are dressed in dark suits. Eirika is the only other in the room whose outfit draws the stares away from Ranissa and me. Her tall, regal Valkyrie body is a shimmering silver disco ball in a strappy evening gown with a long train trailing behind her. As one of the ancients, she’s expected to stand out and that she does.
Elon offers an elbow to Ranissa and me. “Everyone has their orders. If we can’t stop the mage, then our goal is to keep Carissa occupied until the window passes. Rika and Parker, when the fighting begins, you get Ranissa the hell out of there and into the sealed control room.”
“Got it, mothersucker,” she says nodding.
He hands me a map of the botanical garden atrium. “Study where the green marks are. These are your weapons.” While we walk, he explains what is in each spot. Thanks to the minuscule dress, the only things I’m carrying on my person are five Tree of Life stunner toothpicks, stashed in the chunky locket hanging between my boobs.
We all load in the elevator, riding it up to the main floor. When the steel doors open, people dressed to the nines and wearing delicate masks loiter about. Kerrigan hands us all our eye coverings. I hide behind Parker’s hulking form while Elon leads Ranissa toward the ballroom.
A Cursed All Hallows' Eve Page 92