Chapter Twenty-one
Laroque’s car had stopped at the marina. And it was just in time, as emotions ran high. Raven noticed Laroque talking animatedly to Mick and another man. The brawny Lamai merely nodded in agreement with his boss. It was obvious that with each passing hour, Mick’s anger was growing.
She wondered what Laroque had in mind. Through the opened window she heard Laroque barking orders.
“I want the plane fueled and ready to go. There’s been a change of plans,” Laroque said.
Raven got out of the car, wanting to approach the two men. Laroque’s face was devoid of any emotion. She opened her mouth to speak, but after one look at Laroque she closed it.
His eyes burned into her like fire. She literally felt the heat from the bokur’s immense power. He grabbed her throat, the width of his hand encircled it. His thumb pressed her windpipe. Pain shot through her.
She gagged and instinctively tried to pry his hands off her neck. He was too strong and way too angry.
His face was red with fury and the veins in his forehead bulged. His body shook with emotions. “You did it, didn’t you? You turned her,” From every pore of his body, venomous hate flowed.
“W-what?” Raven croaked.
He pushed her away with such force that she fell back and hit the concrete, scraping her hands and elbows as she tried to break her fall.
His eyes, thin slits, glared at her with a violent force. The searing heat bore into her skin. His magick was at work. “Your fate is sealed now. Get her in the plane. If she so much as flinches, change her to Lamai and we’ll watch her die.” Laroque’s angry aura lingered in the air like a foul stench.
Raven’s mind raced. It was clear he’d somehow found out Jade was indeed a Lamai now, and Raven was responsible. It must have taken even longer than she’d anticipated for Jade to go through the transformation. The blood transfusion. Otherwise Laroque would have known already that his daughter was not the same young woman. Raven’s blood had caused Jade’s wounds to heal immediately, so there were no puncture marks on her neck or wrists.
Oddly, Raven experienced a certain feeling of calm. She stood, wiped her hands on her jeans and followed Mick to the seaplane.
“You did it, didn’t you?” Mick asked, his voice a low rumble. “That’s why you saved Laroque, because of what you did to his daughter. Damn, girl, you really pissed him off now. He was seriously considering allowing you to live and work with him. I don’t know what he’s going to do now.” Mick shook his head. “Is there a way to change her back to human? I mean, with all your DNA and RNA experiments, is it possible?” he asked as he led her to her seat.
Raven looked at the hulking man next to her. She was beginning to see why he’d gotten into the healthcare field. He truly cared about people. “No. No way to reverse the effects—at least, not without magick.”
“You’re fucked, honey,” he whispered.
“I know.” She paused then started her own inquiry. “How did you become Lamai?”
“I was born a Lamai.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really.”
The rest of the passengers, which included a few of Laroque’s cronies along with the strange man to whom Laroque had been talking, sat in their seats. It was a large amphibious plane, and Raven could still carry on her conversation with Mick without Laroque overhearing—that was, if she spoke softly.
She whispered, “What did you do for blood?”
“Animals, mostly, then, as I got older and went to school for nursing, I had a connection in Hematology—a fellow vampire.”
“Love those friends with access to blood,” she commented.
“Raven, what are you going to do? He’s planning on taking you back to Mirabelle Cove. That’s where we’re headed now. He hasn’t told me anything else.”
“What can I do?”
“He’s got to be planning something big to take place at the ritual. That can work in your favor. At least there you’ve got an island full of friends who are on your side,” Mick whispered.
Raven held her head in her hand. “Yeah and do what? We don’t know anything for sure, except that he wants me dead.”
“Are you certain? Maybe he wants to torture your father a while. Do you think he would jeopardize his relationship with Jade?”
“I don’t know anything at this point.”
“You can’t give up,” Mick said.
“If it’s my time to die, then I accept that.” Sadness wrapped itself around her like the suffocating humid air outside the plane.
Mick tensed, but he kept his voice low. “You’re giving up on a life with the man you sacrificed everything for and are just going to crawl into a ball and wither away?”
“Mick, I gave up my birthright as a Lamai. I’m mortal and eventually I’ll die. Bo will live well beyond my life span. Why should I shackle him to a woman who’s going to age and die?”
Mick sighed, shaking his head. “I guess you don’t think too much of your man, then. Is he that shallow? From what I’ve heard about him, he’s not that kind of guy, and you know it.”
She bit the inside of her cheek to tamp down her anger. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore. I’ve made up my mind. I want him to be happy and he won’t be happy for long with me. Trust me, what we had is gone.”
The plane started its engines and slowly gained speed as it moved out into open water. Soon they were airborne.
Laroque sat in his seat at the front of the plane and thought of the many ways he could kill Raven. The most appropriate would be for Jade to turn her. But he couldn’t do that to his daughter. It would be just, but it would be much too cruel for Jade to have her sister’s death on her conscience.
He could infect her with the Ebola Zaire virus, which was the deadlier strain. No one knew Laroque had gotten his hands on it. A Russian scientist supplied him with the virus. There would be a ninety-percent chance of fatality upon infection, and since Raven had just transformed to human, her immune system would be no match for the killer virus. Its capacity to spread was too unpredictable, though, and as much as he wanted revenge, he did not want to kill innocents.
Then, out of nowhere, the answer appeared as he gazed toward the window and over to his longtime friend, Henri.
The dam of Bo’s emotions was collapsing as he stood at the docks of Garrison Bight Marina in Key West. He knelt to the ground and caught the scent of Raven’s blood where Laroque had pushed her. His hackles rose, and he felt the calling of his wolf counterpart to go after her and bring her home, to claim her once more as his mate.
Her essence oozed with fear. Her scent burned his nasal passages. His fists clenched, and he let out a howl of pain and misery. A growl emanated from deep within his soul, and thoughts of his beloved swirled within his heart and mind. Bo’s fingers clenched at the spot where traces of her blood and skin lay. He began to shimmer, wanting desperately to morph and pursue her.
“I’ve failed her!” he cried out. “She saved my life, and I cannot even find her!”
In a flash, he was a black wolf, growling and snarling, relentlessly sniffing the small patch of blood. Laroque’s scent was in the air as well, and Bo turned his gaze upon Jade. Still snarling, he circled her. She carried an aroma similar to that of her father. Bo found it harder and harder to keep from lunging at her and tearing out her throat.
“Bo!” Tobias commanded attention, standing between Bo and Jade. “It’s not her fault. She’s trying to help us. Don’t let your anger for her father cloud your judgment. It will not get us any closer to Raven.”
Bo continued to growl.
He knew that with a flick of his arm Tobias could send him clear across the pavement and into the water or squish him like he was a tiny bug. He also realized Tobias would resort to that treatment only if he attacked. Bo was operating on pure adrenaline and raw emotion.
Jade stood behind Tobias, visibly afraid of what would happen if the large black wolf lunged at her. He was strong. And h
e had Raven’s blood coursing through his veins.
But then again, so did she.
“No sudden movements,” Tobias warned her. “He’s lost in his emotions and grieving. He’s acting totally on instinct now.”
Jade slowly knelt so she would be at eye level with the wolf. Her eyes flashed for a second to their preternatural state.
“I want to find her, too. After all these years, I want to get to know my sister. Really know her, not just through her blood memories. You don’t think this is tearing me apart? This is my father we’re talking about. To me, he was never a monster. I don’t want to lose the opportunity to know my sister. She’s the only other family I have. And when I think about Frank’s betrayal…I’m hurting, too.”
The wolf turned away, looked toward the water and let out a heart-wrenching cry. In an instant, he shimmered back into his human form, clothes and all. He wiped the tears from his eyes.
“I love her more than I can express in words. I feel like my heart’s been gutted out of me. If I can’t find her soon…”
Jade answered quickly. “What? You won’t give up! That love you have for her will not allow you to abandon her. You have no choice but to find her, and you will. We will.”
“How can you be so certain?” Bo asked, praying some of Jade’s optimism would rub off onto him.
“They’ve gone back to Mirabelle,” she said.
Bo turned to Tobias. “Go there. Tomorrow is the Feast of the Dead and Laroque must be planning something for then.”
“I need to get you off the island and back home, too. Let me have your cell phone so I can make arrangements for a flight out as soon as possible,” Tobias said. “I have a friend here who owns a private plane. She’ll get you back to the island.”
Jade stayed near Tobias. “Teach me to travel in the mists,” she pleaded.
“What about Bo? He has no other options. He can’t shimmer into a hawk or a falcon and fly back. Bo is part wolf. He has to travel the way of humans.”
Bo knew Tobias didn’t want to leave him behind. He also knew his sudden turn on Jade was out of character and had Tobias concerned.
Bo handed his phone to Tobias. “Don’t worry about me. Teach her. Maybe she can talk some sense into her father before I rip his neck open.” He turned to Jade. “I’m sorry, but I have anger management issues concerning your father, and you’ll have to be patient with me.”
“I’ll teach her. You have to get yourself together, son. Jade is not her father, and she’s been extremely helpful. I know you would have a better understanding if you saw the way she handled Frank. You can trust her,” Tobias said.
Bo nodded. “It’s going to take some getting used to.”
“I understand,” Jade said, then turned and wiped her own tears away.
Chapter Twenty-two
Dusk fell on the island of Hannah’s Vineyard like the final curtain call of a brilliant Broadway show. Mick led Raven into Laroque’s house through the back doors, and she noticed the familiar basement door where she’d originally snuck in.
On that fateful day she’d kidnapped Jade.
Flipping on the lights, Mick walked into the sunroom. He pressed a button that automatically closed the blinds which covered the three walls of windows. Raven followed him into the kitchen. He took out a beer for himself and offered one to Raven.
She accepted. “Sure, thanks.”
“You might as well get comfortable. We’ll be spending the night here. Are you hungry?”
Raven drank the icy cold beer from the dark green bottle, savoring the flavor. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten anything.
“I don’t really know,” she answered.
Mick looked into the freezer and pulled out a frozen pizza, popovers and a foil-wrapped log that had tofu loaf written on it. Not the gourmet comestible he had in mind. He turned the dial on the oven to three-hundred-seventy-five and unwrapped the loaf.
“Where did the others go?” she asked, taking another sip of beer.
Mick was rifling through the cabinets and smiled upon finding a can of mushroom gravy.
“I’m not sure. Henri and Philippe drove off somewhere. My orders were to come in, make you something to eat and make sure you don’t escape.”
“Henri was the man Laroque was traveling with?”
After placing the loaf in a pan, Mick began to open the can of gravy. “Yes, an old friend from New Orleans.”
“About that escape plan… I won’t tell if you won’t. I could knock you over the head with something heavy, like that meatloaf,” she said.
He gave Raven a playful jab. “It’s tofu loaf, and that wouldn’t make a dent on my hard skull. Nice try, though.”
“You’re not going to let him kill me, are you?” Raven asked, finishing the beer. She walked over to the refrigerator and took another. “I need to calm down and think of a way out of here. Oh, did I say that out loud?”
“Boy, one beer and you’re gabbing away. You’re an easy and cheap date,” Mick said as he smiled at Raven, who sat at the kitchen table.
It was a spacious kitchen with a center island and an indoor grill. The floors were Mexican tile in a light grey color and the walls were stucco. Large planters with palms, ficus trees, hibiscus and dracaena stood in otherwise empty corners. It was a lovely kitchen, but it lacked the warmth of a woman’s touch.
“I’m nervous, not easy—big difference. And this isn’t a date, is it? If so…you’re a lousy one. I noticed you didn’t answer my question,” she added.
“I don’t really know what I’m going to do. I like you, Raven. I don’t want to see you die, but I don’t know what I can do. Laroque’s my bread and butter.”
Raven caught him looking a little too long at a picture of Jade that hung from a magnet on the fridge. More puzzle pieces shifted and fell into place.
She teased the fine-looking Lamai. “Ah, and you’re also in love with Jade.”
He turned, almost dropping the pan as he went to place it in the oven.
“You are in love with her!”
Mick looked away. He was a striking man, his skin the color of rich milk chocolate. His features were fine, and he wore his hair cropped close to his scalp.
Raven flipped the cap from her beer bottle in the air. “That would present a problem. Killing her father wouldn’t exactly put you in her good graces.”
“Ya think?” he joked. He swiped the cap in mid-air.
“Does she know?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She waved her index finger at him. “Oh, don’t start the ‘ma’am’ shit again. Call me Raven.”
“We’ve been seeing each other for a short while, Raven. I know she doesn’t want to see you hurt, and I can’t say I’m too upset she’s a Lamai now.”
“Okay, so one day I could be your sister-in-law. You don’t want my death on your hands, do you?”
Mick took out some pre-packaged salad that hadn’t been opened. It was chock full of vegetables, including carrots, radishes and snow peas. He emptied the bag into a colander and rinsed the pre-washed mixture.
“Nice try, but your death would never be my fault. Laroque is the one hell-bent on killing you.”
Raven got up and went to the sink to pick out a carrot. Her stomach was rumbling with hunger. “Whatever helps you sleep at night, Mick, but you know and I know, and so will Jade, that you could’ve done something to stop this and you didn’t.”
“You think Laroque is stupid enough to leave just the two of us here? He’s got shifters patrolling the grounds. Those dogs out there are wolves. And his charms of protection are active and vastly improved. He learned from the last time, when you came and snagged Jade. He fixed things so he would feel it if anyone who didn’t belong here entered this space.”
Raven slumped while Mick continued. “Plus, the boat is gone, and in case you didn’t realize, we’re not on Mirabelle Cove. We’re on the Vineyard.”
She sulked. “Yes, I noticed.”
&nb
sp; “I’m thinking, though. The men outside are loyal to him. I tried feeling them out before, when we were in the Keys.”
“They were there?” Raven asked.
“Yeah, patrolling the grounds. They’ve worked for him for at least a decade.” Mick oiled a cookie sheet and placed the frozen pizza and popovers on it. He opened the oven door and slid the food inside.
“Laroque will kill me at the festival tomorrow night. A big sacrifice, I suppose.” She let out a distraught sigh.
“Your father would never allow that to happen…”
At once, it became daylight in the yard. One-thousand-watt sensor lights blazed, making it impossible to see what was going on outside. Mick ran to the door. “Stay in here,” he commanded.
Of course, Raven followed him.
The backyard was vacant of any large trees except for one massive oak. Its branches, practically bare, cast shadows of skeletal limbs onto the manicured grass. At the base of the oak, two grey wolves stood hunched, snarling at a massive black animal.
Raven could see the well-toned muscular form underneath the ebony fur that gleamed in the lamplight. She knew it was Bo. Lamai or not, Raven could tell when her man—her wolf—was near.
One grey wolf attacked the black beast, going straight for his jugular, but Bo swiftly moved out of the way. Unfortunately, he spun around into the other wolf.
Mick’s eyes glowed a golden color almost identical to Bo’s, and his fangs extended. His head swerved sharply and he was suddenly looking at Raven. “What part of stay in here didn’t you understand? Get back inside.”
“Bo…” she whispered.
A hand clamped over her mouth. Her eyes widened as she tried to look at who grabbed her, but all she saw was blackness.
“Bo went to Hannah’s Vineyard,” Julianna said, gazing into her crystal pyramid. “The charms around Laroque’s house have changed from their greenish aura to red. He would know if someone had broken through, probably as soon as the perpetrator, meaning Bo, got within a certain distance of the perimeter.”
Blood Pool Page 22