by Roxy Mews
That retort was akin to a man hug. When you have as much testosterone as these two, it was necessary to break up the happy with a good dose of vulgarity.
“We’ll do that later. Right now. We all get to die.”
The garden behind the mansion was beautiful. Brandon had set up a spa retreat for all of the witches in the house. We were pretty sure that none of us would go insane and start attacking humans, but it didn’t hurt to be safe. And with Amber and Rick around, the possibility of a death as a result of this whole shebang was not worth the worry.
Amber’s starburst eyes were glowing in the dim light. Her wolf was really agitated lately. Her eyes were near change almost all the time. We assumed it had something to do with the pregnancy. At least we hoped so, because if that shit was permanent, Amber wouldn’t be stepping foot out in public again. Even sunglasses couldn’t cover it.
“Let’s get this going. I’m not looking forward to doing this.” Amber took stock of the important players. Everyone had overindulged. Food, blood, magic boosts—it was all done to make sure the three people being bled to death and beyond would have enough to rejuvenate them.
Brandon stood with us. He knew this meant I would be splitting the miasma. I felt bad that I was upturning the bit of stability our Family had, but Brandon was our leader. He had proved it by dealing with me. I was pledging to the Paulson Pack, or I guess it would become a Clan, as soon as this whole bloody mess was over. The Hart Clan was good and all, but somehow I doubted Amber and I could share space.
Mary was acting as assistant to Amber. Craig was our werewolf bleeder, and Jake would be acting as our hybrid food. We were only missing the witch blood.
A sound behind me had me turning.
Annabelle walked out of the entrance to the bleed room. The witches had turned it into an indoor alter space. They said reclaiming it for the coven was a great way to appease the balance. I thought it was just to make sure no vampires set foot in there again. Or at least that was my assumption until Annabelle waved us over.
“It’s set up and ready to go.”
Amber waddled forward. “Y’all get going. I have a chair set up. I am ready to stop the swelling in my ankles.” She started mumbling something about how super healing should apply to pregnancy woes.
“Whoa. We are going in there?” I wanted to make sure everyone knew that this wasn’t a space for us. And I was about to ask why the hell Annabelle was here when she should be somewhere getting her feet painted some kind of fancy magical color, but Amber interrupted.
“Come on, Barbie. My feet hurt. Move it.”
“But…we don’t need…”
Amber waddled up in my face. She would have gotten closer, but her belly bumped into me. The little critter inside started twisting and kicking. “Shelly, this is okay. They know what’s going on, and they agreed with me—that fresh witch blood was better than bagged.”
“I am not drinking from them.”
“I’m not waiting for you, or those men to shrivel up like a raisin and blow away from my life as dust because we thought we could work around the way things are.”
“I vowed to protect them. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?” Respect for the woman was high, but she was taking charge of this whole thing and it wasn’t about her this time.
“You put my best friend’s arm in my mouth and bled her over me in front of a war between battle-ready vampires and werewolves. These women are being protected by us if anything goes wrong. I got this, Shelly.” Amber inhaled sharply as her belly flopped hard. “Fuck, that hurt you little monkey.” But she rubbed her stomach with a smile. “Come on, Granny. You need to drink some blood and get ready to meet your grandkid.”
She had a point about not taking chances and maybe a bit of a point about me bleeding a human in front of a bunch of supernaturals, but Mary scored some wolfy traits and a mate out of the deal, so she turned out okay. Then I realized Amber was talking like there was more than one witch down there.
Before I could get my thoughts lined up, the whole crew had descended into the cellar. All that remained was an open door that led into darkness flanked by Trevor on one side and Rick on the other. Both men looked at me and waited. I didn’t breathe as I walked through the door. I grabbed both of their outstretched hands and they trailed behind me side by side.
This was the second time they had loved the same woman. A part of me stung at the bit of jealousy that reared up. But then I realized that I had learned to trust fate. We were together because it was meant to be, and the mating pheromones were reaching across species lines to join us like this. Lily might have been their first love, but I was their only mate.
I brought them together, and they held me steady. I squeezed both their hands and they squeezed back. I was high maintenance, and I needed them. Even more so when the bleeding tables came into view.
I was ready to get the whole song and dance started. This feeling of incompletion was hanging around when Rick, Trevor and I were together. When we were joined, it was amazing and perfect, but there was this sense that it wasn’t finished yet.
Buckles clanged against the shiny chrome base. Silver thread shone bright stitched along the leather material. There was something else. Some kind of powder along the inside. The witches really had been busy.
Three gleaming tables waited. There were drains in them. A weak stomach had never been one of my problems, but the organ wasn’t very pleased with me at the moment.
Then Kari walked through an open doorway. It was the first time I had seen her in almost a week. Her hair was cut short and her head was wrapped up in some kind of scarf that tailed down her back. She wore sleek dark jeans and a button up shirt. She met my eyes and had a smile for me, but something was off. Before I could dig into this deeper, Amber took charge.
“Hop up, folks. Welcome to the state of the art transformation station.” She patted the tables and then took the handle of a wicked looking athame from Kari.
I had to stop her from participating. “Wait.”
Kari’s voice pushed forward. “Now is not the time, Shelly. Let’s get this done. We have a lot to accomplish tonight. The cards I pulled told me a lot, and I want to get started. My body doesn’t have the stamina of all the others here with us.”
“Why do we need two witches? I get your point on having them here as a backup, but this has to be too much for you, Kari.” I didn’t want to drink from her. Although, as she basically told me to shut the fuck up, I had to wonder if seeing me drain on the same tables she was bled from would be cathartic.
“We have our plans in place. Let’s begin.” Kari waved to the table.
Suddenly the whole room zeroed in on that space. Through this journey I had taken with Jake. From meeting his mother, to knowing he was meant to do great things even when he was small enough to be just as a pesky little brother should be, to meeting the force that was his mate—this was a step further.
I had never been a stickler for rules and hierarchy, but this was a leap. Everything else I had done I had done alone. I knew my strength, and I knew I was over-qualified to take on any challenges. This wasn’t about me any longer. I was putting my life, and the lives of those I loved in the hands of people I trusted. I had to trust them. This wasn’t about authority, or hierarchy or stupid rules. This right here was giving up a part of myself.
Trevor and Rick’s hands smoothed the hair on my arms that had begun to stand up. They were the ones to buckle me in, and I let them. They secured me.
Amber had been in control of herself when she had turned, but we all agreed that it would be good to use restraints. They would be especially important for the men. Hearing the cries from their mate would trigger a lot of instinct that they might not be able to overcome.
My thoughts were interrupted by the sudden easy rush that encompassed my body. Warmth. Relaxation. It flowed from the bare skin that encountered th
e restraints.
Then Kari was over me. For a brief moment, I wondered if this wasn’t some kind of revenge. The skepticism could be blamed on the fact that the man who was supposed to take care of my Family had done everything he could to destroy it. Then I realized what the warmth was. It was magic. I was going back to that place.
The place where the circle was. I felt my body begin to detach.
“Go sister. We will take care of your body. You need not be here for the pain.”
I would have kissed her, but she didn’t follow me onto the next plane.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Rick
I pulled against the restraints. It was a good thing they had me pinned. “I changed my mind. Bring her back.” I watched Jake cut his vein and release it into his sister’s mouth.
She had taken blood from other donors. As a full vampire, I knew she needed more than even Trevor and I could provide her, but I never watched when it came from a live vein. I wanted her to take only from us. That was what we could expect from this transformation. That is if it turned out the same way for us as it had my daughter.
I would have looked for her, but I couldn’t turn from my mate. The witch that stood over her smelled different. Amber had said that she was going into town a lot more than the others in the coven. We hoped that it had been her different location that made the odor different, but it was something else.
Then my son-in-law came toward me with a bleeding arm.
I turned my head. “Trevor first. I want to make sure you take care of both of them fully. We will take the chances with me.”
“Rick—”
“Stuff it, Trevor. Suck the nice hybrid’s blood. I’ll see you on the other side.” I looked up at the ceiling. There was nothing I could do. My wolf was tearing at the inside of me. He understood he wasn’t being replaced or expelled, but the restraints were not his style. Mine either.
Then I heard the scream. Shelly was screaming. The table rocked at the force with which I yanked my attention to the side. Her small body thrashed, and the witch who had once been compelled cut her deep again. She began whispering and sprinkled something over her, and Shelly’s body stilled. I was able to breathe, but the air hurt my throat. I didn’t want to breathe while she bled.
Trevor coughed on the other side of me. The sound was wet, as the quantity of blood he was swallowing didn’t go well with his prone position. Then my Beta’s body began to bow.
I’m sure that the howl that came from my mouth was loud enough to shatter glass. At least we were below ground level. No windows, and more sound proofed. I wouldn’t forgive my daughter for what she did next. Amber’s blood poured down my open mouth. I tried to push her away, but being restrained, all it did was rock the table.
I shook my head and she grabbed me by the temples to stop me and hold her arm over my mouth.
“My mate is drained. This was the plan. Drink. If you cause this to spill, I will bleed more. I know what I’m doing. Drink.”
I realized the only one in this room that rivaled Shelly in stubbornness was feeding me. I drank, and my body began to tighten. It was not the same sensation as a change. I was filling up. It was as if someone was inflating me. My power as Alpha surged. It wasn’t about restraint, and my wolf fighting back. This was power that came from Amber. My daughter was a badass. Pride was the last emotion I felt before the pain took over.
Then I burned. I felt ready to explode until the double-sided blade the witch wielded sank into my skin. First one arm, then the other. She split me from shoulder to wrist. The blood flowed from me, and I felt the powerful elixir that had come from my daughter fill me. It was taking hold. I was turning.
Then the powder sprinkled over me. The witch’s words were silenced to my ears by the pounding of my heart. The organ was ready to pop with everything being done to it. I panted as what felt like lead filled my lungs. They hardened. Everything in me was being reinvented. Whatever the witch put over me had me feeling like I was knocked upside the head by a brick wall. I didn’t want to pass out.
They might have been doing this for my benefit, but I didn’t want to go under. No. Then I realized I didn’t have the choice. They had planned this. I opened my mouth to scream, but my breath left me. Amber stood with her arm around her bulging belly. The blood I had taken was washed clean from her. She had a blood bag in her mouth, but the sudden stiffening of her belly had her doubled over and unable to hang on. The blood bag slapped on the floor with a disgusting wet sound.
I was slipping unconscious knowing I would miss the birth of my grandchild. What if I never woke up? With the last of the strength I had, I reached for the short-haired witch. I got hold of her scarf and used my fingers to pull her closer bit by bit.
“If it’s her or me, you make sure she is the one that lives. Understand?”
Kari pulled the scarf from my fingers gently. Then she rolled up her sleeve. There were track marks on her arm. She slit her skin open near the wrist.
“You will all survive. It’s as it was meant to be. Still yourself. Your hosts would be ill-prepared were you to tip this table. I sure wouldn’t be able to lift you.”
Kari’s blood slipped down my throat. My eyes popped open, and I realized why she smelled different. The taste of her amplified the scent. There was cancer in her blood stream. She couldn’t be strong enough for this, but all of a sudden, her voice wasn’t in my ear. It echoed in my head, and the last of the strength left me.
“My secrets are my own. I am feeding you, because of all those here, you are the one who understands this best. Trust me. Your granddaughter will be born. You will see her. You will lift her high in the sunshine and hunt with her in the woods when the time comes. Take care of your body. Let the rest of us worry about what goes on outside it. You are strong. Push the transition through.”
Then the darkness won. I put my faith in a dying witch that she knew what she was talking about.
My heart stopped.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Trevor
Waking up from a transition was one hell of a hangover. We had all talked with Amber. We were prepared for the different sensations, the different feeling that air would have in our lungs. We were prepared for a thicker, stronger skin to cover our body. We were ready for the thirst.
I wasn’t ready to wake up and hear screaming. I was coming out of a haze that I had no ability to rush along. I heard the shouting. I heard the screams. I smelled the blood. What I knew by scent was that it was Amber’s. Amber was bleeding. Amber was screaming.
The baby. Gods no. Not the baby.
I forced my eyes open, but the light was just too bright. My lids slammed shut for self-preservation. I was no longer tied down. I tried to get up, but rolled off the table instead. Luckily, the table held steady and resisted toppling over on me.
I could hear her. I could smell her, and I could sense her. I began to crawl along the cement floors. My skin didn’t even scrape. I dragged my legs. The jeans I wore scuffed through and my bare knees took the beating. My body was coming back to me, and I squinted to see.
Handling births was something I had done before I was with the Paulson Pack. We had a predominantly male Pack, and there hadn’t been many pups born. I didn’t have access to a miasma of memories, but as I focused my eyes and saw the baby crown, I remembered enough to know that that was not a head.
The baby was breach.
I would have taken a breath but I didn’t need one, and I didn’t want to smell any more of the girl that was like a daughter to me bleeding out. I steeled what was inside me, and commanded my muscles to work. I commanded the blood to flood to where I needed it. My hands regained sensation and I made myself sit back. The shouts around me settled as they came to realize I wasn’t going to fall over and crush the poor woman giving birth on a cement floor.
“Amber, you can do this. But you ar
e going to have to try and relax.” I had to take in more air to use my vocal chords, and as the scent of the baby’s blood mingled with hers, I really wish I didn’t have to but, “I am going to have to turn the baby. It is going to hurt.”
I touched her knee, and Amber’s hand slammed down on mine. Her eyes blazed with a glow that was both gold and silver. Her stars burned bright, her resolve even more so. Her nails sank into my skin.
“If you can’t save us both, you save her. Do you understand?”
“Amber, we can do this—”
But she wouldn’t let me do that. She wouldn’t be placated.
“Her…over…me. Promise.” Amber panted the words and then her voice broke as the baby pushed forward.
I went to work. I wouldn’t lose a life tonight. I wouldn’t lose anyone I loved again. I could do this.
“Amber, you have to stop pushing. You are tearing.” She wouldn’t relax. “Amber, if you bleed out, it is just as stressful for your child.”
That got her attention. The panting slowed, but we weren’t out of the woods yet. There were people all around me, but I didn’t know who had the skills to help. I opened my mouth to try and talk, and realized I had forgotten to breathe, and had to take a second to inhale so that I had something to vibrate against my vocal chords.
I didn’t have time to adjust. Dammit. This was all about time. There was one advantage. I could hear the baby better than ever before. I concentrated on that tiny fluttering heartbeat, and any issues I had were moot. I was saving this child and I was saving its mother.
“Amber, I am going to have to push the baby back up.” I didn’t hear a response from the woman I felt was a daughter to me, but her body was beginning to shake. More than a simple shiver, Amber’s body was convulsing wildly on the floor.
“She’s losing too much blood.” Before I could enact a plan, Annabelle brought out a bag of blood out and an IV kit.
“There are some benefits to a bleeding facility being located here. It is high time these instruments were used to save a life rather than destroy them.” Annabelle looked to Jake and Craig. “Hold her down. The doctor needs to work, and so do I. Hold her firm.”