“If it’s the Shay I’m thinking about, she hates my guts and with good reason.” Nik grabbed the edge of the mattress when he slid his legs off the bed too fast and almost propelled himself onto the floor. No one had warned him how different his body would feel and act.
“Where’s my phone?” Nik patted his clothes, wondering vaguely who’d changed them over the last month. Better not to know. He spotted the phone on the nightstand, plugged into the charger, thank God. “I haven’t seen Shay since…”
Since the day before he’d found his father’s body and blood all over the study. Since his fierce little ten-year-old sister had called him out for being a freak just like their dad, pretending to have a gift to cover up his inabilities to face life like a normal person. Called him out on threatening to run away and leave her and their mother alone.
He’d run anyway, and kept running. He’d left everything and everyone behind, including Shay Underwood.
Chapter 7 * Aidan
Aidan Murphy took a deep lungful of the cold night air, perfumed with pine needles and sap. It didn’t clear his head the way he’d hoped. The mental clouds that had been intermittent a few weeks ago had grown thicker, his moments of absolute lucidity more rare. He felt the call of daysleep earlier each morning, and awoke later each evening.
In between, he walked in fog.
All he could do was take his turn among the vampires of his scathe, staking out the thick woods surrounding Penton and trying to avoid conversations that would reveal his lack of mental clarity. This much he knew: if his people realized his condition, they would panic. Soon, he would have to talk to Mirren about taking on more responsibilities. Maybe taking over altogether. Aidan felt death moving closer.
At least so far, their stakeouts had held the Tribunal’s hired fangs at bay. Will had come up with the idea of building a vampire version of deer stands or hunting blinds, wooden platforms hidden in the branches of the sturdy oak trees that interspersed the pines. The perches gave the Penton sentries a good view of the surrounding forest floor below. Lookout teams manned the state highway on either side of town, as well as the interstate highway almost ten miles to the west.
Sitting in his modified deer stand with his .45 and a bulky pack of ammo, Aidan was ready to stop any stranger trying to enter his town without a damned good excuse. And Penton was still his town, even though, more and more, he felt as if he were losing his grasp on it. The Penton he’d built and had come to love seemed every day to fade like an old photograph, dimming his heart and mind with it. His soul lay with his mate in a lightfast room rebuilt beneath the old Penton Clinic. His town lay in heaps of rubble, although Will and Mirren had been busy rebuilding.
God, had it been only three months since the Tribunal-related attack had left him so badly injured that he’d unconsciously drawn enough strength from Krys to put her in a coma? He and the woman he loved were in a life-and-death standoff now, and he didn’t know what to do. The mighty Aidan Murphy, who’d built a town using his wits instead of his vampire brawn, had no answers. If he drew enough strength to fully heal, Krys would die. If she pulled more from him, he also might die; he’d certainly be incapacitated.
And then Penton would die.
Exaggerating your own importance much? The thought came to him in the deep, rumbling voice of his second-in-command. Mirren had the trust of the town, and they would follow him. But the man had never wanted to lead. His other lieutenants were capable men and women, smart and dedicated. Will, Randa, Robin, Nik, Hannah. All loyal, but not charismatic enough to hold the community together. Except Cage. Everyone respected serious, powerful Cage Reynolds, but did they know him well enough to stay here if things got worse?
A noise from the woods pulled Aidan from his swirl of thoughts. He closed his eyes and tried to focus with his other senses. Beneath the cracking of tree limbs and soft hoot of a nearby owl came soft footfalls on the floor of the pine forest. Two sets, maybe three. He lifted his head and took a deep breath, sorting through the slight scent signatures coming his way. Three people, two of them vampire, one human. None were part of his scathe.
A few months ago, three against one would have been odds he’d take, but Aidan’s right hand shook as he pulled the .45 from its shoulder holster. He clamped his left hand around his right to steady it. He’d have to shoot two-handed and even then….
He sent a mental signal to Randa Thomas, who had the nearest stakeout spot to his, and hoped she got it. As a strong master vampire, he had the ability to communicate with those blood-bonded to him, but that ability had been hit and miss lately. He needed backup and sharp wits.
“Stop where you are,” he shouted, and the soft shuffling noises quieted. “Identify yourselves.”
“Jim Lesser, from Atlanta, and my human familiar.”
A female voice added, “Cindy Jones. I’m Jim’s fam.”
They had their answers ready, but not all had spoken.
“And your other companion?”
A pause, then Jim again. “There’s only the two of us. Can we talk to you face to face? We want refuge in Penton, away from the Tribunal’s hired fighters. Is it okay to move forward?”
Aidan frowned. Had he imagined the third scent? Not trusting his own abilities, doubting himself…he hated it. “Come forward, slowly.”
He jumped from the platform onto the springy forest floor of pine needles, fighting for a second to keep his balance. At least he’d managed to hang onto the damned pistol.
Taking cover behind the thick trunk of the oak, he waited to see who appeared. He wouldn’t kill them unless he had to, although the curved blade of his kukri would make quick work of removing a heart. If they appeared sincere, he’d send them back to Atlanta with a time for a future meeting. They would not enter Penton tonight, in any case.
The moonlight shone strongly enough to cast a soft yellow light on the couple that walked into the clearing before him.
“Stop there.” Aidan took a moment to study them. The vampire male was of medium height, Caucasian, his human age about forty. The female human was older, in her forties or fifties. It was hard to tell these days. There was no sign of a third person, and Aidan could no longer filter out the scent of another vampire.
He stepped from behind the tree. “Drop any weapons, and don’t tell me you have none because I’d call that bullshit.”
The man and woman looked at each other and the guy who called himself Jim nodded. They both pulled out small-caliber handguns and dropped them on the ground, kicking them out of reach at Aidan’s prompt.
“Knives too, and rope,” Aidan said. No vampire traveled without at least one knife, preferably one with a silver blade since silver slowed vampire healing and strength.
The male dropped a shiny blade on the straw next to the guns. “That’s all we have.”
Aidan studied them, trying to get some sense of deceit or sincerity. “No one enters Penton at night and not without prior approval and a background check. If you’re serious about joining us, you’ll have to set up a meeting in Atlanta next time we recruit.”
“But we walked here from the state line. We can’t get back before daylight.” Jim sounded too calm to be truly anxious about being caught unprotected after sunrise, which raised Aidan’s bullshit meter. This guy was spewing rehearsed lines. “Just let us stay through daysleep, and then we’ll go back tomorrow and do it however you want.”
Right. Let the vampire sleep and his human free to roam Penton all day and spy, or worse? Not likely. “Sorry, but no. It’s easy enough to find daysleep spots in these woods. Look for caves in the hills.”
“You’re Aidan Murphy, aren’t you?” The male’s eyes grew lighter—either he was suddenly horny or hungry, which Aidan doubted, or he was excited about recognizing Penton’s leader. “Man, I really admire what you’re doing.”
“That won’t help you—oof!”
A blur of red and the momentum of a freight train knocked Aidan off his feet at the same time as he registered a
rifle shot coming from somewhere on his left and a handgun blast from in front of him.
Randa Thomas’s hair shone red-gold in the moonlight. Aidan had barely registered that she was the freight train who’d run over him when she fired her own pistol twice, taking down the vampire male, Jim, who’d almost reached them, another gun in his hand. The female, who held her own blade, also hit the ground.
“Any reason not to kill them?” Randa glanced down at Aidan. The concern in her green eyes made him want to crawl back onto his tree platform and hide in shame.
He shook his head, and watched as she thrust her own blade into the vampire’s chest, cracked open his ribcage, and removed the heart. She threw the steaming lump of muscle a few feet away from the body, then checked the human’s pulse and shook her head. “She’s already dead.”
“Good. Leave them as an example of what happens when you try to visit Penton without permission.” Will Ludlam’s voice preceded him from the wooded area to the left of the clearing. His blond hair was in its usual tousle, his mouth in its crooked grin, dimples catching the moonlight. In his right hand, Will’s own combat knife was covered with blood. In his left, he carried a rifle.
“There was another one, then.” That accounted for the extra shot. Aidan’s bones ached, and he struggled to climb to his feet. “I thought so, but then…” Then he had psyched himself out of trusting his own instincts. Shit. “Thanks, both of you. Randa, you got my message and contacted Will?” They were mates, which gave them an automatic psychic bond, but Will was also a master vampire, albeit a new one.
“No, I was already on my way to find you when I found our other friend—a male vampire, by the way. Never seen him before, but he was taking aim.” Will held up the rifle.
Aidan leaned against the oak tree, trying to make it look casual instead of what it was—an attempt to fight through a wave of dizziness and shock at how close he’d come to letting himself be duped and killed. “Why were you looking for me?”
“Mirren sent me after getting a call from Melissa. We need you back at the clinic. Krys is waking up.”
Relief washed through Aidan like a cool stream in a desert. Thank God, if God was really up there, listening to the prayers he’d been spinning out day after day. He couldn’t feel any change in his bond to his mate, but what had he been doing normally for the past three months? It had to be true. Melissa was Aidan’s longtime familiar and friend—they’d been together quite a while before she’d been turned vampire herself. She and Mirren would never give him false hope.
“Will you guys stay here and finish my watch?” He stepped away from the tree and managed to stay upright. Was he already feeling stronger?
Aidan pretended he didn’t see the exchange of worried looks between Will and Randa. And he pretended he didn’t realize that Randa offered to take his shift at watch while Will accompanied him to the clinic. He knew however much Will might care about Krys, his reason for volunteering was to make sure Aidan didn’t fall over in a heap along the way.
Aidan didn’t care. He only wanted Krys.
Chapter 8 * Shay
There were four of them now. Four women in four cages. Fury rose in Shay’s gut every time she thought about it. Two had arrived a couple of days ago. The tall redhead, who’d identified herself as Sarah, had just turned eighteen. The petite blonde next to her, who so far had refused to talk to Shay or anyone else, looked even younger and more frightened. Jon had called her Lindy. Every time Shay looked her way, the girl was curled in a fetal position on her narrow bed.
Shay figured both were pregnant—cages did nothing to mask the sound of morning sickness. Or tears. Jon had been a busy boy.
She wanted to kill him. It couldn’t happen too soon.
“Gotta maximize their childbearing years,” he had told her when Shay expressed her opinion on the subject of human trafficking in general and the taking of young girls in particular. Then he’d given her a slap through the bars to remind her who was in charge. Never enough to really hurt her or even leave a mark. She learned to stay out of reach.
Shay knew he wouldn’t dare hurt any of them, at least not physically, because Jon feared what Simon would do to him. Which was why she felt free to express her opinions, not to mention pump him for information. She’d learned quite a lot, thanks to the man’s love of the dulcet tones of his own voice and his inexhaustible ability to inflate his own importance.
The cage next to Shay’s had been in preparation since then, with Eric and Jon arranging furnishings, clothing, and supplies like surly nesting hens. The fourth woman had arrived last night and already had worked on Shay’s last nerve, seldom talking but alternating between soft whimpers and outright sobs.
She’d finally gone to sleep an hour ago, leaving Shay free to work with her nail clippers in peace for the first time in almost a week. She didn’t yet trust any of these girls enough to share more than basic information, so between new arrivals and nest-feathering, her escape-planning time had been limited.
Until the recent additions, Shay had been working at the escape hatch in the top of her cage almost every day, at least for a few minutes. Another day or two, if she could find time to work, and the opening would be big enough for her to bend the circle of clipped wire away and climb out.
Only after careful planning, though. Shay was a researcher for a reason; her strength was in planning, setting parameters, following protocols, finishing the job. She’d have to figure out her next steps allowing for all variables: when to time her escape so she’d have the best chance of succeeding, what to do about the other girls, what to tell the police. She didn’t think a wild tale about human-trafficking to establish vampire breeding farm would get her very far in the halls of justice. Kidnapped girls would, however.
She knew nothing of the other girls, but her own disappearance should have been on law-enforcement radar. She might not have a family or be of any great importance, but she had a job to which she was dedicated. She had a grad assistant, and colleagues, and a department head. She had a freaking NSF grant. Her colleagues at Tulane would know she hadn’t just walked away from her life.
The sound of voices at the door startled both Shay and, from the sound of his choked-off snore, the napping Eric. Darkness had fallen, but this was earlier than the vampire guards usually showed up. She eased herself down onto the bed, wincing at ankles already starting to swell from pregnancy and lack of exercise. She felt awkward and puffy, although she wasn’t really showing yet. She hoped by the time she could escape she’d be able to get her belly through her own escape hatch.
Shay didn’t pretend to sleep this time, but sat cross-legged on her bed, narrowing her eyes at Simon as he entered alongside another vampire she’d never seen, or at least she assumed he was a vampire. It was difficult to tell since they were so adept at hiding their fangs.
The new guy, a tall man with dark hair and a scruffy beard, sat on the sofa vacated by Eric, who’d made a hasty exit. Simon, unfortunately, headed straight for her. “Time for you to earn your keep, Shay.”
He stopped in front of the door to her cell, but made no attempt to open it.
“I’m already pregnant. What else do you want?” Shay got to her feet but remained in the back of her cage, keeping as much distance from Simon as possible.
“Temper, temper. Must be all those hormones.” Simon chuckled at her, amusement lacing his soft Old South drawl, so different from the modern New Orleans accent. Thanks to the influence of generations of Italian immigrants, the modern New Orleanian sounded more Jersey Shore than Gulf South. But not Simon. “Don’t forget. You’re our breeding experiment, and vaccinated women are as common as Mississippi River mud. Your medical knowledge is what makes you valuable.”
Yeah, because epidemiologists are all the rage in prenatal care, you fanged jackass. “Of course. What would you like me to do?”
“Good answer.” Simon smiled, flashing the tips of his fangs. Shay squelched the urge to shudder. So far, the vampires hadn’t fed
on any of the girls here, or at least not that she’d seen, and she’d learned enough to know the pandemic vaccine kept her own blood off their menu.
“When your first vampire guard arrives every night, I want you to check on each of your fellow mothers-to-be. Basic care. Tell me what you need and, as long as it’s nothing you can use to escape or draw attention to this place, my friend here will go shopping.”
Shay peered around him at the new guy, who stared back at her with a scowl that said he wasn’t happy to be on shopping duty.
Shay had been thinking about medical care for herself, so she had something of a list in her head. “We need prenatal vitamins. They’re different from regular vitamins but if you can’t find them, get regular adult multivitamins plus some extra folic acid, DHA, and iron supplements. It would be helpful to have portable machine and supplies so I can do sonograms and keep track of the babies’ growth and catch any problems early. I need a blood pressure cuff. A thermometer. A stethoscope.”
She thought about other things that might help. “Some frozen fruit or lemonade or ginger ale to help with the morning sickness. If there were some way to relieve stress, that would be the greatest help.” She bit her tongue to avoid commenting that the best way to relieve their stress would be to release them. “You have books here, but maybe music. Puzzles. Coloring books and crayons. Something to help us relax.”
Xanax was probably a bad idea, but… “Maybe some mild anti-anxiety meds in case of panic attacks. These cages get claustrophobic.”
She waited for a smartass comeback at her list, especially the ultrasound machine that would set Simon back thousands of dollars. The vampire simply nodded. “It will be done. And in turn, if I am not here, you will alert whoever’s on guard if anything looks amiss.”
Illumination (The Penton Vampire Legacy Book 5) Page 7