by Leia Stone
“And if I am? I die once the vampire war has ended? I leave Kai behind, Safe Haven, my mom? All of the good things I have done on this Earth get left behind?” I didn’t realize how angry I was until that very moment. If the Universe thought it could incarnate me into a body and have me build this wonderful life just to leave it behind, then it was about to be sorely mistaken. I wasn’t leaving until I was ready. Until I had experienced at least 100 holidays with Kai, had a couple kids, worked my shit out. A glass jar full of herbs on Sylvia’s desk rattled.
“Calm down, sweetie,” Sylvia reminded me.
I took a deep breath and the jar stopped shaking.
“If you are a Devi, it means a higher more advanced soul has attached to your human body and joined your soul. They join a human soul during a moment of weakness, such as your car accident. Then they empower the soul with many gifts, such as two affinities, powerful abilities, and other gifts. Once they have restored the balance, they leave and the process usually takes the human’s life.”
My mouth hung open. Attached to my body. What the hell! I jumped up and shook my body. I felt like ants were all over me. “Get it off!” I shouted.
Sylvia came closer and smiled a little. “Devis are good spirits, don’t worry.”
I shuddered again. “You said they usually take the human’s life when they leave.”
“Usually, yes. As you know, witches are the keepers of supernatural knowledge. We have limited knowledge on these types of stories. A handful of documented cases in all of history.”
“So some soul might be attached to me? Like right now?” I shivered. That was some freaky shit. “Seriously, can we get it off? Like do a spell?”
Sylvia smiled a little. “Devis are good souls. They are like angels. They wouldn’t make you do anything you didn’t want to do. They usually attach to other good souls. If you are a Devi, I wouldn’t be surprised. You opened Safe Haven, and you are a vegetarian. These are all good traits a Devi would find worthy of encasing their soul. You should be honored.”
“So, I don’t really have all of these powers, it’s the Devi?” I asked self-consciously.
Sylvia shrugged, “It’s hard to tease them apart. I can say that if you are a Devi, one of you has the healing affinity and the other is the seer.”
My eyes widened. I put the kitten down. “Okay, I’m officially freaked out now. Can we stop talking about this?”
What the hell? Did I want to wait to have kids because a Devi was inside me telling me to wait or because I really wanted to wait? My wolf came to the surface then. My eyes glowed yellow. No one was separating me from Kai. I don’t care if she was an angel.
Gretchen backed up a little. “Sweetheart, I don’t think your energy is good for healing today. Would you like to meditate instead?”
Of course I didn’t have good healing energy! You just told me my body might have been highjacked by an angel and that I would die when they were done with me. But Gretchen was nice. She was trying to help me and learning healing powers would help my pack.
“Sure,” I said with a little reluctance.
One hour later I came to one conclusion. Meditation was not for the verbally gifted. I had always been a talker. Got in trouble in class for chatting up my friends, had boyfriends tell me to shut up more than once. I was verbose, no doubt about it. It was impossible to keep quiet inside my head. I had too many thoughts. Trying to ‘quiet my mind’ was impossible, but I did feel more relaxed.
Gretchen handed me a thick book as she walked me to the living room. I opened it and saw that it was some kind of picture anatomy book. The human form without skin. I shivered.
She chuckled. “I want you to study this. The more you know about the human body, the better you can visualize. The better you can visualize, the better you can heal.”
I nodded. “Makes sense. Thank you.” I hugged her. I felt calm and at peace as she squeezed me, healer perk. I picked up Luna, and Sylvia helped me carry her cat box out to the car. I agreed with her that I would talk to Nahuel about testing me for this Devi thing.
As I drove back to the house, I wished I knew where Alexa was staying. She said it was in Sandy. I wanted to check on her, make sure she was okay. I pulled up to our front lawn to find Kai, Max, Jai, and Akash huddled around a remote-controlled two-foot tall helicopter with a huge black net. Boys and their toys. I grabbed Luna and walked over to meet them.
“What is that?” I pointed to the helicopter thing.
Luna took one look at Kai and hissed. Her claws came out and I nearly dropped her.
“What is that?” Kai asked me, looking at Luna.
“It’s a kitten. Don’t scream, you’re scaring her.”
Max tried to cover a laugh. Jai was motioning behind Kai but I couldn’t figure out what he was trying to tell me. Luna was in full freak out mode. Arching her back and hissing. I ran to the front door and threw her inside before closing the door. I looked down at my bloody, scratched arms. They healed quickly before my eyes. Werewolf perk.
“What are you doing putting it in the house? Let it go,” Kai told me.
I looked at Kai, confused. “Let her go? She’s my cat. My healing witch mentor gave her to me. Her name is Luna.”
The veins in Kai’s neck were protruding. “Aurora, I love you, but I’m a werewolf. I’m not sharing my house with a kitten!” he roared.
“They have good energy! I’m keeping her,” I roared back and put my hand on my hip.
Max and Devon walked away. Akash and Jai busied themselves off to the side of the house.
Kai walked over to me. “Aurora, I adore your animal loving spirit, but I’m not sure you have thought this through. That kitten recognizes me as a predator. An Alpha. We will never get along. She won’t get along with any of the wolves. She will be stressed and in fear for her life all of the time. Do you really want to do that to her?”
He was looking at my lips. I smirked. “No, but she isn’t scared of me. Maybe you just need to be nicer. Send her good vibes.”
His deep belly laugh made me grin.
“God, I love you.” He picked me up and I straddled his waist. He pulled my hair back exposing my neck and kissed it softly.
He placed his forehead on mine. “She likes you because you are part witch.”
I sucked his bottom lip and he groaned. “So, can I keep her?”
His voice was gruff. “She can stay in the guest room, but that’s it. Don’t let her out. She might get eaten.”
“Yes, sir. Now what is that?” I joked as I climbed off of him and examined the helicopter.
“It’s a drone catcher. We are going to remove this RAIDOS problem once and for all,” he stated with pride. “The RAIDOS drones have fan blades like this one. We fly this net near theirs and it gets caught. I bring it down to the ground and smash it. Do this until they are all gone. It has a Wi-Fi camera and heat sensing, so I can spot theirs. All state of the art.”
I nodded, impressed.
“Speaking of RAIDOS, how is you know who? Any word?” I was really getting worried about Alexa.
He shook his head and lowered his voice. “No, but I’m worried. She has gone out of her way to help us. Once I take out these drones, I want to offer her protection.”
I nodded. “I agree. What are we doing about the vampire attack on Safe Haven?”
His eyes glowed yellow. “We’re going old school.”
Clubbin
Two hours later, Kai had the entire pack surrounded in the backyard for a meeting. Even Izzy’s human husband, Tristan, was there. The only two missing were her children, Violet and Connor, who were staying the weekend at her in laws.
“Last time we had a meeting, I spoke of protecting the humans, of strengthening our species so we could protect werewolf culture for decades to come.”
The pack yelled in agreement.
“I want us to start a watch. We will break up into groups and guard the human public. Show the vampires we intend to keep an eye on them. We will
be in groups of three and start where vampires have been known to frequent. If you see a vampire putting a human in a life threatening situation, you have the council’s permission to kill them.”
A silence settled over the crowd.
He continued. “If a human witnesses the kill, you are to contact Sylvia’s coven. The witches will help modify the human’s memory to keep the supernatural species a secret. All the packs, all over the world will be doing the same. We are sending a united message to the vampires. Any questions?”
Max grinned. “When do we start?”
Kai laughed. “You, me, and Aurora. Pearl nightclub, tonight.”
Max patted me on the back. I smiled. Hunting vampires made Max happy. Protecting humans made me happy.
I had been to Pearl before. I had no idea vampires hung out there. I shivered at the thought that I could have been attacked. I had been antsy about the vampires ever since the attack on Safe Haven. It felt good to know we were finally doing something about it. That all of the werewolf packs, everywhere, were showing the vampires that they were on our radar again.
***
Kai and Max were waiting in the living room for me. I had taken out one of my old clubbin’ dresses from college. It was black lace, backless and short. I paired it with knee high black leather boots and some red lipstick. When I turned the corner to the living room, Kai’s eyes bugged out of his head.
“Where do you think you’re going dressed like that?” he said with dominance in his voice.
I rolled my eyes. “Have you ever been to Pearl? You don’t just get in. You have to be picked out of line by the bouncers. No offense, but you and Max aren’t going to be the ones getting us in.” I grabbed my keys and headed for the door.
Kai grabbed the keys from me. “I’m driving.” He looked my body up and down.
‘I can’t believe you’re mine,’ he said as I grinned. His dark wash jeans clung to his thick thigh muscles. His biceps pulled his powder blue dress shirt tight.
‘Ditto,’ I told him.
Max cleared his throat. Kai and I were standing in the doorway, staring each other down. I laughed.
Max shook his head. “Come on, lovers, we have vampires to roast.”
***
The line to get into Pearl was longer than I remembered; we were way in the back. It was cold out too. I had a silver bullet gun strapped into my shoulder holster that was concealed by my red leather jacket. Kai and Max were loaded with vampire killing weapons. We just needed to get in the damn club. It reeked of vampires. The poor helpless human girls shivered outside waiting to get in.
“Screw this. Stay behind me, but not too close.” I stepped out of line. Kai looked at me, confused, but followed. I pulled the pen out of the bun that was holding my hair up and shook my mane loose. As we approached the security at the front door, I dropped my pen.
“Oops.” I bent over to get it, giving the doormen a nice view of my black lace boy short underwear.
‘Aurora, I will kill them. I don’t care if they are human,’ Kai warned.
It worked. The lead security released the cord blocking the entrance. “Come inside, honey. It’s too cold for you out here.” He licked his lips. I smiled and nodded for Kai and Max to follow. They swooped in behind me, but the bouncer held his arm out blocking them.
“We have enough gentlemen inside,” he told them.
Kai looked ready to shift.
I trailed a finger down the bouncer’s arm. “Come on, they’re with me. Besides, they’re gay,” I whispered. He looked closer at Kai and Max who were both as red as tomatoes.
“All right.” He let us all in.
The music was deafening, the lights were low, but I could see that it was packed with people.
‘I’m never letting you out of the house again,’ Kai grumbled.
I laughed and danced to the music, rubbing my body against his. ‘Come on. I got us in, didn’t I?’
Kai nodded, watching my body move. “That you did,” he said.
Max disappeared and came back to us with a girl. She was a cocktail server and was wearing tiny silver latex shorts with a black push up bra.
“Guys, this is Kimber. I just bought us a table in the VIP lounge where Kimber says a lot of the interesting activity happens.” Max motioned to Kimber’s neck with his eyes. We followed his gaze and saw two fresh bite marks.
Kai made a soft growl in his throat.
“Lead the way,” Max told Kimber.
Kimber weaved her way through the crowd like a taxi driver in New York during rush hour. Her hips swayed left and right and I glanced at Kai to make sure his eyes were on the back of her head. They were. I smiled.
We reached another set of doors with another bouncer. He smelled weird. Human, but there was a metallic undertone. I couldn’t figure it out.
‘Heroin. He’s high,’ Kai told me.
The bouncer looked at us with half open eyes and then to Kimber. “They paid?”
Max slipped a couple one hundred dollar bills into his palm. “We’re looking for a little fun.”
The bouncer eyed the money with greed and opened the door. As soon as the door opened, my nostrils were assaulted with the smell of vampire, blood, human, and fear.
Kai growled beside me as Kimber led us down the hallway and opened a red velvet curtain, ushering us into our VIP room. She placed a newly opened bottle of vodka, a pack of cigarettes and a lighter on the table and left. But not before giving Max a sexy look.
“It smells like more than one or two vampires in here.” Max growled.
I had a bad feeling about being in the room. I swallowed hard. Kai began pulling out weapons. “And by now they smell us. It’s a feeding ground here, most likely has been for years! All under our nose. How many humans die here? I smell death!” He roared.
My pulse was picking up. “Kai, I don’t think we should stay. This can be a scouting mission. We should call for back up.” I had a really, really bad feeling.
Too late. Just as I said it, a vampire launched himself through the curtain and landed his heavy leather boots onto our table.
“You’re trespassing, doggie,” he hissed, with red eyes. His mouth was stained crimson.
Kai leapt up into the air and came down on the vampire hard, driving a silver stake through his back and out his chest. Kai dropped the stake and I saw burning bubbles on his palm.
“Put your glove on!,” I scolded him as I un-holstered my gun. Bullets wouldn’t kill them, but they would slow them down enough that Kai and Max could finish them off.
A cluster of vampires crowded the doorway.
“Time to kill these dogs,” one of them shouted.
Kai let a curse word fly from his mouth. “Whose idea was it to come here?” He joked and tore his shirt off, shifting to his wolf form.
How were there so many vampires here? It must be a regular thing for them. The smell of human blood made me sick. Was there someone being drained right this moment and I could save them?
I grabbed the bottle of vodka and the lighter off of the coffee table, as the vampires engaged Kai in a fight.
I chugged the vodka as a vampire dug his claws into Kai’s fur.
“Aurora! Now isn’t the time to drink,” Max yelled, after driving a stake through a female vamp’s heart.
I filled my mouth with the alcohol and lit the lighter.
Here goes nothing. I sent a stream of vodka through the open flame and directed it at the doorway and the vamps clustered there. I could hear hissing and screaming. The curtain caught fire and the vampires fled down the hall. Kai ripped off the head of the vampire who was fighting with him, and it turned to ash.
“Time to get out of here,” I told the boys.
‘Where in the hell did you learn that?’ Kai asked with pride.
‘This artist hippie festival in the middle of the Nevada desert. Called Burning man.’
Kai shifted to human form and slipped on his jeans, remaining shirtless. The smoke was filling the room.
He tucked me into his chest as the sprinklers and fire alarm went off. We sprinted through the smoking doorway and out of the chaos of the VIP room. A few vampires were still burning alive and running down the hallway. Another few were a pile of ashes. The sprinklers were raining down on the main dancefloor. Everyone screamed and fled toward the exits. We squeezed our way outside.
Once we were safely in the car, Max turned to me and gave me an appraising look.
“You saved our lives,” he said with sincerity.
I smiled shyly. “Thank God for burning man.”