by Susan Illene
“I know enough,” he said. “The nephilim is not all that he appears to be, which you should keep in mind. A protector he may be, but a savior he is not.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “You know more than you’re telling me.”
“Perhaps, but it isn’t my place to reveal such things.”
“That’s convenient,” I said. “Kind of like how you failed to mention Nikolas would almost kill me by waking him up.”
He cocked his head to the side. “You lived, did you not?”
“That’s not the point.”
Charlie took my arm. “Come, young sensor, let’s get you inside.”
I wanted to resist his efforts. All the comments about my youth were beginning to get to me. The temptation to shoot something back at him about being an “old man” rose up, but I refrained. My parents had taught me to respect my elders. Sups didn’t normally count in my book, but Charlie looked older, which made his age feel more real compared to Nikolas and Lucas. They couldn’t have passed for more than mid-thirties.
I let him lead me to the couch in the living room, lacking the energy to argue anymore. It might not have been the most comfortable place, but I didn’t want to go to bed yet with so many people around. Not to mention I was filthy from the mine. Better to keep a close watch on everyone.
Despite my best efforts, I didn’t last long before nodding off. About an hour later my senses forced me awake—a new presence had entered the area. Lisette was trying to sneak up on the cabin. She must not have taken mine and Derrick’s word on our “relationship”.
My eyes opened to find Nikolas sitting at the kitchen table, typing on my laptop. Guess he didn’t need an invitation for that. I hated to think what his email inbox looked like. He turned his head when I failed to suppress a groan while getting up.
His thick brows knit together. “Did you need something, Melena?”
The shower had removed all the dirt and grime. His black hair must have been trimmed as well since the lengthy strands didn’t stand out like they had before. They remained several inches long on top, and came down around his dark eyes. Vampires didn’t have color around their pupils, as a rule, but this factor tended to work in their favor since it gave them a sexier appearance—assuming they had good looks to begin with, which this one did in spades. He almost gave Lucas a run for his money.
“We have a visitor outside,” I informed him.
He stood up so fast it almost made me jump.
“What kind of visitor?” he asked.
“A friend who shouldn’t be here. Follow me and don’t do anything unless I tell you to.”
He frowned, but didn’t argue. I wanted to take Derrick as well, but he slept in the chair and needed rest even more than I did. Nikolas would have to take care of things this time. He remained weak, but he could still handle a young pixie.
If I hadn’t been so tired, I might have questioned my sanity in using a vampire to deal with my latest problem. But right now it seemed wise to get this over with. I needed a shower and that gave me enough motivation to use him.
We moved past the lawn and into the trees, staying close together. Nikolas couldn’t know the way to go and our quarry had used a camouflage spell native to her kind that would make it difficult to detect her by anyone aside from a sensor. I could feel her attention on us as we headed in her direction. The two of us stopped about ten feet away. She didn’t budge from the tree she’d hidden behind.
“Lisette, come out. I know you’re there.”
A hiss of indrawn breath came from her direction. She stepped away from the tree and let down the camouflage spell.
“Want to explain how you found me, Mel? That shouldn’t have been possible.”
She had her hands on her hips and an annoyed expression on her face.
“Want to tell me why you haven’t left yet?” I fired back.
A flash of hurt flitted across her eyes. I almost missed it due to the low level of moonlight filtering through the trees. Her emotions confirmed my suspicion, though; she hadn’t trusted anything I’d said before. There was pain and betrayal flowing from her in thick waves. It made my head ache again and I put a hand up to rub my temples. Nikolas saw me wince and made a move toward Lisette.
I grabbed his arm. “Wait. She’s my friend and I want to hear what she has to say.”
Lisette’s head swiveled between the two of us.
“Mel, I’m not stupid. First you’re with a werewolf, and now a vampire. I’m not dumb enough to think you don’t know what they are with this many around. What is going on?” She tapped her foot in impatience.
Nik lifted an inquiring brow. I ignored him. Part of me wanted to explain things to Lisette, but her safety depended on her not knowing the truth. Pixies fought en masse together for their strength, but by themselves, they were vulnerable and could be killed without much difficulty. Even her camouflage trick had limits in the duration it could be used. Risking her would not be worth the potential loss in a fight.
I turned to the vampire next to me. “Nik, I need you to compel her to go back to her hotel and leave first thing in the morning. Tell her to forget she saw anything unusual.”
A flash of surprise came over his face, but before he could say or do anything, Lisette took off running.
“Dammit,” I said.
Nikolas raced after her, picking her up in no time, and bringing her back. She struggled in his arms, kicking him wherever she could, but he held her easily enough. He didn’t bother to compel her until she began screaming at him. His command forced her to be still, but she still managed to give me an accusatory look. I diverted my attention from her and to the vampire.
He didn’t appear happy. “I’m strong enough to make her leave, but it’s impossible to alter the memories of anyone except humans. You’ll have to live with this decision and she will resent you for it.”
My shoulders sagged. In order to save her, I’d have to give up her trust. It seemed like an unfair trade—especially when my other best friend was being held as blackmail for my compliance. Why were so many of the difficult decisions hitting me now? I rubbed my forehead, hoping for the right answer to come.
“She’ll be more of a liability than a help in getting your other friend back,” he pointed out.
He had me there. We’d discussed a lot of things while sitting in the mine today with nothing but time to kill. Nik had been informed of all the stakes involved and had agreed we needed to cooperate together. I would help him get his position back as leader of the area and he would help me save Aniya. It came out as a fair trade. We couldn’t afford complications like this.
I shoved all my personal feelings aside and met his eyes. “Do it. Make her go back home.”
He nodded and forced Lisette’s head to turn toward him. His gaze bored into hers. Unable to watch, I turned around and began walking away, but every word he said reached my ears.
Chapter Twenty
Derrick shook me awake the next day. I squinted at my watch and determined I’d slept about ten hours—twice as long might have been better. The room was dim. I realized someone had pulled the black-out curtains closed so light couldn’t get through. Of course, there was a vampire in the house. Not the thing I wanted to consider upon awakening.
I’d fallen asleep on a make-shift cot we’d put together in the bedroom after I’d taking a shower the night before. Emily had gotten up from the bigger bed hours ago and left for school. Derrick and I were the only ones in the room.
His grim expression told me he must have regained his faculties since waking. Lucas had given him a few commands so the werewolf couldn’t report our activities back to Variola, but it wouldn’t change Derrick’s opinions on matters. I was learning the limits of compulsion quickly.
“What’s going on?” I asked him.
“Variola called,” he said in a gruff voice. “She wants to see us at her house in two hours. You should eat something and get ready.”
My stomach rumbled at the
suggestion. I needed to get my strength up after all the blood loss from the day before. It had been awhile since I last ate. We’d brought some snacks with us yesterday when we went down into the mine, but those were long since digested. Of course, with Derrick angry at me now there would be no nice, cooked breakfast to enjoy. I missed the smell of it already.
He stepped out of the room after I got up. His rigid shoulders and lack of visible emotion told me he was holding his anger in check. To him, waking Nikolas and freeing him from the sleeping spell was a kind of betrayal. I’d known doing it would upset him, but hadn’t seen a way around it.
If all went well, this whole thing would be over soon and there would be no more second guessing every decision I made and having to worry about which people and relationships I had to sacrifice in the process. The heaviness of my choices was weighing on me too much already.
Going into the closet to get my clothes gave me a start. I’d forgotten Nikolas had been relegated to sleeping in the small, windowless space. His body lay across the floor with one arm tossed over his head. It forced me to tip toe around him to find something to wear.
I supposed he’d wake up soon since older vamps didn’t need to sleep much during the day, but he didn’t stir while I moved around him. Of course, the guy had to recover from five years of malnourishment on top of the temporary damage drinking my blood did to him. He still felt weak to my senses and would probably remain that way for another day or two.
An hour later I was ready to go. I’d managed to eat two bowls of cereal and a banana after getting dressed. Derrick sat on the chair by the window alone, staring out of it. Felisha and Charlie had left early that morning—they’d been the ones to take Emily to school.
He barely glanced at me when I walked up to him. I hated seeing him that way and wished it didn’t have to be like that.
“What did you tell Variola when she called?” I asked. Lucas should have worked that out with him last night, but I’d missed hearing the details.
“She thinks we found a different vamp. A newbie I had to kill when he attacked us down there. I told her he was a squatter with no place to go. Don’t know if she bought the story.”
It wasn’t like she could verify it since he’d be nothing but scattered dust now. I shrugged. “We’ll have to hope she did because Nikolas isn’t getting handed over to her.”
He gave me a hard look. “Hope you know what you’re doing, little girl. The stakes are high when you play games at this level and losers don’t walk away.”
“You think I don’t know that?” I snapped.
He stood up. “You better.”
***
We were greeted in front of Variola’s home by three male werewolves who stood outside the main entrance. They stopped talking as soon as we walked up. I tried moving past them, but a guy with oily, blond hair grabbed my arm.
“Weapons.”
Damn, I had hoped they wouldn’t ask. My right hand reached back for the Sig and returned to set it in his hand. He tucked it in his pants and put his hand out again.
“All of them,” he demanded.
I swallowed back a few choice expletives and jerked my jacket off to unstrap the wrist sheaths on my arms. The two pocket knives, along with another blade hidden inside the waistband of my jeans, came next. He kept putting his hand out. It reminded me that they had disarmed me after my capture and had discovered all my secret hiding spots. Better not to think about how they’d taken my clothes as well.
I knelt down and pulled the knives from under my pant legs, handing them over with reluctance. There was nothing left to give him.
“Spread your arms,” he ordered.
I sighed and lifted them up.
His eager hands ran over my breasts, giving them a hard squeeze before moving downward. A shudder of revulsion went through me as he ran his hands along the waistband of the pants I wore, dipping deeper than necessary. My ass received the same treatment as he reached around for it while pressing up close to my front. His heavy breathing on my neck was hot and putrid. I turned my face away and gritted my jaw, wishing for it to be over as quickly as possible. The search came to a head when his intrusive fingers ran between my legs. Jeans did not provide near enough protection for what he was doing.
I let out a curse and shoved him away with all my strength. Even with wearing my pride like a shield, there was only so much I could take. Derrick growled when he heard my protests and leapt forward to take the man by his throat.
“I’d suggest you don’t try anything that stupid again if you want to keep your head attached.”
The weaker were dropped his eyes in submission. Derrick let him go with a grunt. The threat was enough for the guy to finish things up with a swift pat down of my legs and boots. One of the other werewolves waved us inside with averted eyes. I kept my chin up as I walked through the door and tried to ignore their following behind us.
The sight before me in the living room froze me in my steps. With so many sups in the house, I hadn’t bothered to check who all was inside. It appeared the past had come back to haunt me.
“Noreen.” My voice came out low.
The last time I’d seen her, she’d been lying on the floor of her club office in Monterey, unconscious from the wounds I’d inflicted on her. She looked fine now, in all her manicured glory, wearing a cream pantsuit.
I resisted the urge to run as I stared at her standing next to Variola, who wore her standard black leather get-up. The two women couldn’t have been more different had they tried, but their stances were almost identical. They both stood with their feet spread apart and hands on their hips. It was a poor imitation of yin and yang.
Variola spoke first, “Melena, I do believe you’ve met Noreen before. She was most anxious to see you again.”
Pearly white teeth reflected from Variola’s smile. No fangs yet, but the coldness in her dark eyes shone through enough to make me worried. Did they know I’d released Nikolas? I glanced over at Derrick, who had moved off to the side. He stood there with a blank expression that didn’t give away whether he was paying attention to the exchange or not.
I turned back to them. “Yes, I remember her.”
“Good,” Variola said while moving forward to come closer. She stood several inches shorter than me, but the waves of power rolling off of her made up for the lack of height. Fighting her weaponless would be impossible and I hoped it wouldn’t come down to that. Especially since another headache seemed to be coming on. I resisted the urge to rub my temples.
“What’s this about?” I asked. “We’re still looking for the vampire you want.” Better to brazen this one out with the hope she didn’t know the truth.
The witch-vamp’s eyes hardened. “Derrick told me you were still searching. It seems to me you’re taking far too long to find one vampire who shouldn’t be that difficult to locate. Lucky for us, the perfect incentive arrived yesterday to help give you a little motivation.”
I stiffened. Incentive?
“Robert,” she called out to a vampire standing near the entryway. “Why don’t you bring our guest?”
The man who’d brought Emily and her mother up to Fairbanks nodded and marched off. I recognized his name from her mentioning it several times. Robert wasn’t much to look at—a small guy with history professor looks who was about ninety in vampire years, though he could pass for mid-forties in human. Before stepping out, his eyes had reflected a hint of cruelty. Variola only surrounded herself with the best.
For the next few minutes we stood waiting while the tension in my muscles continued to build. About a half dozen sups were in the room. Most were staring at me with expressionless faces. I tried to ignore them in favor of sending my senses out to find Aniya, but nothing came back to me. I had to hope they hadn’t hurt her.
My head swiveled to the entryway as footsteps approached, signaling Robert’s return with the “guest”. I gaped at seeing Matt. He’d been worked over hard with a black eye, assorted facial bruises,
and fang marks in his neck. He had to be in pain, but his eyes were filled with fury.
How could he put up such a brave front? Most humans would have been in a state of shock at this point.
“What does he have to do with this?” I asked, wishing I could pulverize the witch-vamp’s triumphant face.
Variola laughed and Noreen stepped forward, running her gaze up and down my body. “You, little human, need a lesson in manners and obedience. This boy here will be the perfect training tool so there will be no more problems with you in the future.”
Noreen walked over and kicked Matt between the legs with her high heeled shoes. He doubled over and cursed her. I leapt forward to try and stop the witch from doing anything more, but two vamps grabbed my arms and pulled me back. They avoided my flying feet and one of them punched me hard in the stomach. The air rushed out of my lungs and ribbons of pain sliced through my ribs. I had to wheeze through the pain.
“Leave her alone,” Matt yelled out.
My head lifted to stare at him. How could he have any bravery left after what he’d been through?
Variola smacked him on the side of the head. “Young man, you’ve gotten yourself into enough trouble. If it weren’t for your father, I’d kill you now, but don’t push your luck.”
His father?
Matt spit on the fancy Oriental rug laying across the wood floor before replying, “Not just my father, Theirn will be pissed at you too.”
“Do not bring up Theirn with me! I’m free of him and his precious New Orleans. Your threats do no good here.”
My head swung back and forth between them, trying to make sense of the conversation.
“What is going on, Matt?” I asked him.
Regret filled his eyes.
“I knew about them being here,” he indicated the sups in the room, “but didn’t know where to find them. When you showed your friend’s photo, I didn’t think about the guy with her being a vamp until later. Since you look human, I couldn’t talk about it anyway. But then you started hanging around with that werewolf and I realized you had to know about them.”