The faint orange throb of firelight was their first clue they weren’t alone. Ty shifted out of his wolf form. “People up there, all right. But they might be campers.”
“What gives you that idea?” Crawford said.
“Vampires don’t need a campfire to cook by, do they?”
“Not unless they’re feeding Thralls. Those things might be amped up on vamp ichor, but they’re still human.”
Ty nodded. “Let’s get closer, see what we’re up against. Might be nothing but a Boy Scout troop.” He prepared to shift back into wolf form, but Crawford suddenly went stiff. He grabbed his head, the heels of his hands digging into his temples.
Ty grabbed the vampire’s shoulder as Crawford stumbled back on his feet at step. “You okay, Crawford?”
“Damn, they’re loud.”
“You hear something?”
“Hive mind. It’s like a constant buzz in my skull. Can’t understand it, but its hell on my equilibrium. Means there’s a lot of them. Ten or even twenty wouldn’t echo bad like this.”
Ty didn’t hear anything except the crackle of a fire, the clink of cutlery on plates and the rasp of fabric as people moved about. He narrowed his eyes, trying to telescope his vision so he could see better, but the firelight was too bright for his night vision to be useful. “You sure they’re up there?”
“They’re up there, all right. I can barely get the sound of ’em out of my head.”
“Maybe you better stay here and let me check it out.”
Crawford frowned. “Achilles will have my ass in a sling if anything happens to you.”
Ty shook his head. “I’m a big boy. Think I can handle a simple recon from here all on my own. Besides, you don’t look so good.”
The vampire swayed slightly. “Yeah. Not my best.”
Ty shifted into his wolf form and slowly slipped through the trees as he stalked the reiver camp. The massive concrete bunker, at least thirty feet across, rose like a triangle with its top lopped off. Higher in the middle, the sides sloped away and disappeared beneath a covering of earth and vegetation. The opening to the old bunker was big enough to drive a tanker truck through and looked like a huge dark maw in the side of the mountain, ready to swallow up whatever came too close. Just outside of it was a campfire.
This was what had Crawford all shook up? The vampire was a bigger wimp than he’d let on. Hell, only ten people milled about the fire. From the red glint Ty saw in his eyes, at least one of them was a full-fledged vampire. The others seemed perfectly normal. Hell, if they’d had beer in their hands, he would’ve assumed they were just kids hanging out. Maybe Crawford had it wrong. Maybe they were just vampire wannabes hanging out and telling ghost stories around a fire with an actual vampire for added thrill.
One of them warmed his hands by the fire. “When will we attack the clan?”
The vampire lifted his chin, locking gazes with the kid. “When we are told to.”
“I’m still hungry,” another of the kids said.
“Patience. Soon there will be enough to keep you full,” the vampire responded. “Lucien says the time is close.”
From the belly of the bunker came the dark-haired vampire in the long black duster Ty had tangled with at the bar in Sinclair.
Ty stuffed down the growl that rumbled in his chest. His jaw ached from clenching his teeth and his ears folded tight and low over his head.
The vampire in the duster strode to the small level area the size of a tennis court in front of the bunker and lifted his hands like a motivational speaker rousing a crowd. “Come to me, my children.”
From the dark recesses of the bunker they started to appear, one after another, some clearly vampires in their own right, their eyes as red as their leader’s, others, most of them younger judging by their dress, moving with purpose toward the vamp in the duster.
Ty stop counting after he hit fifty.
This was bad. Very bad.
Crawford’s reaction had been right on the mark. There was no way the two of them could tackle something of this magnitude on their own. There were simply too many of them.
Then things got worse.
Through the dark assembly that crowded into the clearing just outside the bunker walked a blonde in a short red cocktail dress who was hell on heels. She had long legs and curves in all the right places. Every eye followed her, and he could see why. She was a knockout, pure and simple. Unlike Jess’s honeyed hue, her blond hair was closer to platinum. She was so goddamn out of place she stuck out like a neon sign. How she walked across the uneven turf without killing herself in those shoes, Ty had no clue. The woman walked straight toward the head vampire, lightly taking his hand.
“Lucien.”
“My lady.” He knelt like a medieval knight, down on one knee by her feet, and like one unit, the rest of the vampires followed, getting to their knees. “Your troops await your orders. What is your pleasure?”
Now that he could see clearly over their heads, Ty got a good look at the woman’s face. What he saw froze the marrow in his bones, for in that beauty there was terrible evil. He’d seen it work on the Wenatchee Were Pack and on the vampires from the Cascade Clan.
The goddess of chaos was back.
“I want the Were dealt with. He must be an example. No one enters our territory without grave consequences.”
“Yes, my lady.”
“And once you’ve gotten rid of the dog, then we will deal with the fleas. The Cascade Clan will either join us or we shall outnumber them and crush them.”
That was all Ty needed to hear. Time to go.
With all the stealth he could muster, he sneaked back through the trees to Crawford. “What did you find out?”
“We don’t have much time. Once they find and get rid of me, they’re planning an attack on the clan. Join or die.”
Crawford grabbed hold of Ty’s arm. “One transport, coming up.”
And with a sucking pull, the mountain, the night, the vampires and their army of Thralls vanished.
* * *
They reappeared, their atoms coming back together to form solid flesh, in the center of Ty’s base camp. The skyline along the mountains in the east was beginning to turn a lighter blue. Sunrise was only a half hour away.
“How many of them were there?”
“Fifty at least. Wasn’t like I stopped to get a head count.”
Crawford whistled low. “That’s a serious infestation, bigger than Chicago.”
“Well, that’s not all.”
Crawford stared at him.
“Eris is leading them.”
“Eris, goddess of discord and chaos Eris?”
Ty nodded.
Crawford cursed until Ty thought the air might turn blue. “We’re done here, then? I think Achilles is going to want to hear this report in person.” Crawford cupped his hands over the back of his head.
“Not quite.” Given what he and Crawford had found during the night, Ty didn’t feel secure leaving Jess protected only by her brothers—she needed something stronger. Something that could go head-to-head with a reiver. Something more than human.
“If those reivers or their Thralls are going to go after me, that makes my mate a target, too.”
Crawford folded his arms over his chest. “How’s that my problem?”
“She needs protection. I can contact the commander if you think we need clearance.”
Crawford grunted and started walking toward the rec hall. Ty followed him.
“Not necessary, he’d only tell me to stay. Where’s this mate of yours at?”
“School.”
“Picking ’em kinda young, aren’t you?” Crawford gibed as they entered the building. Early-morning sunlight streaked in through the windows. If this had been any ordinary
Monday, he’d have already had his recruits on a five-mile warm-up run before breakfast.
“She’s an elementary teacher. Stay here. I’ll be back.”
Crawford walked over to the refrigerator, pulled out a bottle of beer and popped the cap off with a flick of his thumb. “Don’t mind if I make myself comfortable while I wait, do you?”
“Not as long as you keep an eye on Riley. He’s in my cabin.”
“That the newest member of your pack?”
Ty nodded.
“Gotcha. Watch the kid. No problemo.” Crawford sprawled out on the couch and flicked on the television with a snap of his fingers.
Ty didn’t like the idea of leaving Crawford to watch over his pup. At least that’s how he’d begun to think of Riley. With Jess pregnant, the possibility of having a real pack of his own was becoming tantalizingly close to reality. If he could keep the vampire reivers away. If he could protect Jess and their baby. If he could keep from getting himself killed.
That was a whole hell of a lot of if for his taste.
Ty made his way back to his cabin to grab some clothes. Riley was sleeping so deeply he didn’t even stir when Ty opened the door. He took a shower and got dressed, then ate something and booted up his laptop. A scan through the staff pages of the local elementary schools on the district website turned up her location quickly enough. Miss Brierly’s sixth-grade home page at Wildwood Elementary was easy enough to find. Her warm smile and sharp wit showed through in her photo with the kids gathered around her.
The kids in Jess’s class were right at that age where they were torn between childhood and adolescence. For Ty the time had been bittersweet. There was little time for adolescence in the Wenatchee Pack. Once you were a member, you trained hard, took your patrol and work assignments along with the men, ate when they ate and slept when you were allowed to. There was no high school. No college.
In fact, Raina was the only member of the tribe who’d ever gone to college. Deep down Ty admired her for that. He admired Jess, too. The only higher education he’d ever gotten was a graduate degree in the school of hard knocks.
He shut down the laptop and headed out to his truck. Sinclair was a good half-hour drive and if he was going to bring her out here for her own protection, he needed to lay in supplies first.
Ty pulled into the school parking lot just before noon and headed for the office. He doubted they just let people wander aimlessly through the hallways without some kind of check-in process.
He found a pleasant, round older lady at the front desk, her face wrinkled from years of smiling in the same predictable manner. “Can I help you?” Her name tag said Mrs. Mayberry.
“I’m here to see Miss Brierly.”
“Is she expecting you, Mr....”
Ty gripped the brown paper bag a little tighter. “Grayson. Tyee Grayson. And no, she’s not expecting me. I brought her lunch as a surprise.”
Mrs. Mayberry’s eyes twinkled. “If you’ll sign in, Mr. Grayson, I’ll show you on the map of the building how to get to her classroom. Her class gets out for lunch in ten minutes.”
Ty thanked her and followed the directions. The hallways were filled with elementary artwork and school projects put on display. There were paintings of pumpkins, Thanksgiving turkeys made out of small handprints. Essays on the Pilgrims along with what he assumed were self-portraits of the kids in Pilgrim garb. Ty bristled slightly. The explorers had been only too willing to wipe out what they could of his pack and others like it. His people had been feared as witches, devils and worse.
Some little kid passing him in the hall stared at him, eyes growing wide, and skittered as far to the edge away from him as possible. Ty realized he was frowning and looked scary as hell to the little kid. He shook the unpleasant thoughts out of his head, trying to fix a more pleasant expression on his face so he didn’t send Jess’s classroom into a full-out panic attack.
He opened the door of room 206 and stepped inside. A waft of dirty shoes, musty wetness from damp clothing drying and freshly sharpened pencils couldn’t override the sweet floral fragrance of Jess’s skin. Her honey-hued hair was caught up in a makeshift twist with a pencil jammed through it and she wore a red hoodie that zipped up over a white T-shirt, set off by black slacks.
It took only seconds to scan the room. Two big white boards were behind her, and a screen was down with a projected image of some kind of Pac Man–looking thing. There were colorful posters around the room, kids sitting at small desks clustered into groups and a worn but comfy-looking ugly couch in dark yellow sitting off to one corner with an area rug with fairy-tale images on it. Definitely the kind of classroom he remembered. His eye was drawn to the small image of Red Riding Hood on the rug, then flicked back to Jess.
She stopped midsentence to see him and stammered slightly, continuing on. “Once you’ve gotten your fraction pies complete, you can turn them in where?”
“The finished-work box,” the class said in unison.
“Right. You’ve got about ten more minutes to work on them. You can work with your table partner, as long as voices are on low.”
It was obvious the kids responded well to her. That was good news. It meant she’d be able to handle not only her role as an alpha female in a pack, but also their children.
Ty glanced at the flat of her belly. He didn’t have damn X-ray vision, but regardless, he could feel the life sparkling within her. He looked out at the little faces in the classroom and his gut clenched. One day his kid would be this size. This age and on the cusp of transitioning. Then what? He couldn’t wait that long to tell her the truth, could he? It was damn tempting not to make this whole thing more complicated than it was.
Then another thought crossed his mind. Just by being here, was he endangering these children? Was Jess? The sooner he could get her into his protective custody, the better.
* * *
Jess waited until the students’ heads were down and they were busy, their voices a hum that could cover their conversation, before she made eye contact again with Ty. She didn’t need to see him to know he was there. His presence vibrated in the room on a different level than that of the children. Potent. Male. The thermostat must be on the fritz again, because it was far too warm in the room. Ty had nothing to do with her sudden spike in temperature, she assured herself.
She walked over to him and spotted the brown paper bag in his large hands. Jess leaned in close enough not to be overheard. “What are you doing here?” she whispered. The scent of clean male and wild outdoors teased her, making her libido do the happy dance.
“Brought you some lunch. I thought we could eat together.”
Jess glanced nervously over her shoulder. Kids noticed everything, and frankly it would have been impossible not to notice a guy like Ty.
“That was really sweet of you. Normally I eat in the staff lounge. Perhaps we could meet there.”
A hungry glint that made her knees go weak flashed in his eyes. “I was thinking of just the two of us, so we could talk about a few things.”
Her mouth suddenly became too dry to get anything close to words out, so she simply nodded.
The second she turned back around, she noted the movement of several small heads and a spate of muffled giggling. “You’ve got seven more minutes.”
It was the longest freakin’ seven minutes of her life. Jess tried to keep a pleasant, relaxed expression on her face as the kids pulled on coats and got their lunch boxes and separated into two lines, one for home lunches and the other for school lunch. What she really wanted to do was fan herself. The entire time Ty had been waiting to talk to her, the chemistry between them had been percolating like coffee.
Jess caught his gaze. “I’ll be right back.”
A group of four girls stopped just shy of getting out the door. “Miss Brierly?”
“Yes, Mi
la?”
“That man really likes you. I can tell.”
Jess suppressed a bubble of laughter. “Really? Well, thanks for letting me know.”
Mila leaned in a little closer, cupping her hand to her mouth and giving a loud whisper. “And he’s really cute.”
Jess bit her lip and herded Mila and her three giggling friends to the door. “Time for lunch.” She walked them with brisk efficiency to the lunchroom, making sure everyone was either seated or in the lunch line before she did a speed walk back to her classroom.
The whole time her mind swirled with thoughts. How was Riley doing? Ty didn’t seem pensive or upset, so that had to be good news, didn’t it? What would the ladies in the office think? They were bound to talk about her visitor in the staff room. Her stomach growled. What had he brought her for lunch?
The door shut and Jess turned, sagging against it. “Do you have any idea how long I wait every day for twenty minutes to myself?”
Ty grinned. “And yet here you are, willing to share it with me.”
She snorted. “Don’t flatter yourself. I smell something delicious.”
He opened the bag and pulled out two large white foam takeout cartons, along with a long foil-wrapped item, two smaller cartons and two little plastic containers that had what looked like salad dressing in them. Ty arranged the food on her work table, popping open the lids so that the fragrances of melted cheese and zesty tomato sauce reached out and grabbed her, making her stomach make happy rumbly noises. A wafting aroma of warm buttery garlic bread placed alongside the green salad liberally layered with cheese and olives, accompanied by a dessert of cheesecake, cinched it. He could bring her lunch anytime.
Jess rolled her desk chair over and sat down at the table with him. “This looks so good.”
“Bet it tastes even better.”
Jess didn’t wait to find out, she dug in.
Ty laughed. “Glad to see you’ve got an appetite.”
Jess swallowed the food that seemed suddenly stuck in her throat. “So what’s the catch?”
One Night With the Shifter Page 11