by Kristie Cook
Where did that come from? “What the fuck are you talking about?”
His head rolled to the side, his mouth open. He drew in a loud snore, out cold.
I scrubbed my hand over my face and through my hair before pulling out my phone and glancing at the time. Just past one in the morning.
Me: You up?
Long pause. Not good. I knew she’d be up for several more hours.
Kales: Working. Everything ok?
Me: Same as always. Want to finish our date?
Another long pause. Way too long.
Me: Guess that’s a no?
Kales: No
I threw my snoring brother a hateful look. My phone vibrated again.
Kales: I mean no, it’s not a no. Come on over
Standing, I debated for a moment whether to haul Tase to bed, but decided to leave his ass on the couch. I stopped briefly in the downstairs half-bath to make sure I didn’t have any blood or anything else splattered on me. As I opened the front door, my mind scrolled through ideas for how I’d make this up to Michaela. I walked out onto the front step to find Sheriff Ric Kasun and Deputy Conall Kasun walking up, Ric in his usual flannel and jeans, and Conall in his tan uniform.
Had they heard Alina’s wolf comment and come sniffin’? I laughed inwardly at my stupid joke. The THC was kicking in.
“Tase around?” Ric asked, somewhat cordially, which I had to give him credit for. Our kinds weren’t exactly besties. Our family wasn’t exactly the Kasun pack’s favorite.
“He’s out cold.”
“Then you got a problem. The ski resort’s alarms are going off.”
Muttering a string of profanity, I pulled my phone out and texted Michaela.
The metal bar was like clay in my hands. Gripping it in both fists, I squeezed, varying the pressure of my fingers while moving them up and down, molding and shaping what had once been a rod into an elaborate sigil. Many people in town looked down at our ability to control metal as evidence of the Rocas’ blue-collar status. They were idiots. Our creations were art. They were functional. Oftentimes, they were both.
Stepping back, I examined the iron gate commissioned by Emilian Xavier, alpha of the black bears. It wasn’t my most creative design, but it was what he wanted, and traditional methods would have never achieved the lines and curves my hands did. I’d worked on it all last night and today, after Tase and I had returned from a quick trip to Vegas for his “one last job.”
The bears’ alpha and my dad had been friends, in their own way, and when I visited the bears’ property to take measurements for the piece, Emilian had seemed like he wanted to be my friend, too. He’d invited me in, showing me around the bears’ magically cloaked estate, which he called a palace. It was impressive, but so were many of the elaborate manors that dotted the town and the mountain sides, homes referred to as palaces only in jest. The bear alpha wasn’t joking.
Emilian treated his staff like slaves, which I didn’t appreciate at all. My family had once been servants, and not even my dad would have said they’d been treated with such arrogance. From what I could tell, the only reason this Xavier guy and my dad had been friends was that they both hated the Court and the Old Families.
I’d met Emilian’s son, Harrison, a couple of times at the Dirty Knuckle. He seemed all right, but his father was a dick. This was the last project I’d be doing for him, even if he did pay well.
A glance at the time revealed I had a few minutes free to work on my pet project, a small but intricate piece of various metals I was creating for Michaela. I’d started and stopped it several times, scrapping it over and over in my determination to get it just right.
“Why don’t you just make her a ring and get it over with?” Tase’s voice emerged from the workshop’s doorway as I tilted the piece in the light, catching all the imperfections.
“Why don’t you just shut the fuck up?” I tossed it in the scrap pile.
Tase threw his hands up in mock innocence. “Why you so mean, bro?”
“What do you want?”
“Who says I want anything?”
“Tase, my brother, you always want something.” Gripping the edge of the worktable, I glared at him.
“Seriously, man, why the hate?”
I lifted an eyebrow. Did he really have to ask?
“You need to get laid,” he concluded.
Well, he wasn’t wrong about that. “As long as you’re in my life, that’s not likely to happen.”
“What the hell do I have to do with it?”
It took every bit of self-control I had not to jump him and throw him to the ground. “What do you want?”
Sauntering up to the work bench, he lifted his hands again. “Maybe I just want to help you.”
Yeah, right. “You have your own work to do.”
“I mean, help you make Michaela happy. Happy wife, happy life. Isn’t that what they say?”
“She’s not my wife,” I ground out. “Far from it, and the way things are going, she never will be.” Scrubbing a hand through my hair, I grimaced. “I think she’s on the verge of breaking up with me.”
Not that we had much to break up.
“What makes you say that?”
“I don’t know. Maybe because we can’t even have one night to ourselves. Since our last attempt, I’ve been in town for a whole forty-eight hours and worked the entire time. Or maybe because she keeps saying she wants to talk.”
Tase made an awful face. “Ah, shit.”
“Yeah. No kidding. She’s gonna call it.”
He walked around the table and clamped a hand on my shoulder. “Not gonna happen. What do we need to do to ensure that? How can I help?”
Shrugging him off, I moved away from him and slanted my head toward him. “You can start by keeping your promise.”
“Which one?”
I snorted. Should have known he’d broken more than one. “About one more job. Remember that one not too long ago? You said one more job to finish out, then you’d stay on the straight and narrow, take care of your own shit, and let me take care of mine.”
He leaned against the workbench, stretching out his jeans-clad legs and crossing one motorcycle boot over the other. “Ah. But I haven’t broken that promise. It’s a multi-part job. A long-term project, so to speak. It’ll take a bit longer to wrap it up.”
My jaw clenched. He’d failed to mention that before.
“Is it for Ronan Bishop?” I asked. “Is it the Bishops you’re all tangled up with?”
He looked at me askance. “No.”
“I saw Ronan in Vegas. In the same hotel as us. Don’t tell me that was coincidence.”
He shrugged. “Must have been. I didn’t see him.” Lie.
“You’re an asshole.”
“You’ve said that before.” He shrugged again. “And I’ve been called a lot worse.”
“Leave me alone, Tase. I have work to do. Work I haven’t been able to get done because I’m always having to do your work or make stupid trips to Vegas with you. Did you get that shit with the resort’s alarms taken care of? I don’t exactly like opening the door to find the dogs on our front steps.”
“The cops won’t be back around. It’s taken care of.” He turned and leaned his elbows on the bench. “So, what do we need to do about Michaela?”
“We don’t need to do anything.”
He picked up a hand broom and half-heartedly dusted shavings into a pile on the table. Why was he so restless? “Surely there’s something I can do.”
“Stay out of our lives. That’s a start.”
“God damn it, Xandru!” he suddenly roared, slamming his fist on the bench. The force sent several items rattling to the floor. Red, veiny streaks filled his face, the green in his eyes brightening as he leaned toward me. I didn’t budge, refusing to show any kind of reaction. “We have to take care of her! I need her to be happy!”
What the hell? “Why do you care about her happiness?”
He growled, the soun
d much more animalistic than vampire, and bared his fangs at me. “Why don’t you?”
I didn’t justify his question with an answer. Antagonizing the beast would accomplish nothing, so I maintained an outward calm, while inwardly preparing to act if needed. His mood swings had signs, and I was learning them, as well as how the curse affected him. This outburst was caused by real anger, not the curse. The strigoi monster fed off anger, so it could turn bad quickly, but I didn’t think it would. As expected, he backed off, and his breathing slowed.
“I just want her to be happy,” he finally said, his voice back to normal. “I owe her that.”
Without another word, he turned and strode out of the workshop.
“Nope, not buying it,” I muttered as I watched him go. He had way too much interest in Michaela, her business, and her happiness. As much as I wished he had true altruistic feelings, I knew my brother better than that.
Strangely, he made himself scarce over the next few days, except when something needed to be done with one of the family’s businesses. Then he jumped right in, taking care of it so I didn’t have to. I didn’t trust him or this shift in behavior, but his help freed up some time for me to spend an evening with Michaela, and I wasn’t about to pass that up. If I didn’t show my face at her place soon, she’d think I was purposely avoiding her.
When I arrived at the inn, however, it was all locked up, and none of the Petrans were around. Walking around the side of the building, I checked various doors along the way, until I eventually noticed the silence—there were no workers, either. Where was everyone?
After trying the back doors, I went to the cottage, but nobody was there, either. I stood on the porch and dropped my hands to my hips, a growing feeling in my gut telling me something was wrong. Then a sudden noise and movement came from the conservatory.
The only person on the whole property was the last person I ever expected to find here.
“Tase?”
He dropped a shovel as he looked up at me.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
He glanced around, gesturing at the pipes and metal work. “I told you already—thought I’d help McCabe.”
“Does Michaela know?”
“I don’t think Michaela cares,” he said slowly. “She’s gone.”
My chest tightened. “What?”
He fished for something in his back pocket, then offered me an envelope. “I guess she and the kids took off early this afternoon. She left this on her door. Thought I’d bring it to you, but hey, here you are.”
My name was written across the front in Michaela’s loopy handwriting.
I stared at it for several heartbeats, then shook my head, jabbing my finger at him. “No.”
I refused to take what could only be a Dear John letter.
He arched a brow. “Seriously, dude?”
With a growl, I snatched the envelope from him and stomped out, toward my truck. No way was I reading it in front of him. I didn’t want to read it at all. I needed a beer or six first.
An hour later, I still sat on my favorite stool at the Dirty Knuckle, nursing my fourth beer and trying to ignore the damn envelope that lay on the bar, mocking me, when my phone buzzed.
AB: Need you, Xan. There’s been an accident.
Me: Tase
I didn’t even make it a question.
AB: No
A lump filled my throat. My shaking thumbs couldn’t manage to type out my question, and Addie’s response came first.
AB: M and the kids
Chapter 7
Michaela
Gabe kept a death-grip on my hand as he lay in the hospital bed, his brown eyes wide and full of fear. His whole body trembled, shaking my arm that he refused to release.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered repeatedly, the only words he seemed capable of saying.
Bruises had already started to bloom over his face and arms, and his skin was swollen around the numerous cuts covering his body. He was lucky, especially since he hadn’t been wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash. My own injuries had healed almost immediately. Aurelia, on the other hand, had been rushed to emergency surgery within the first ten minutes of our arrival at the hospital in Vail.
“I’m so sorry,” Gabe muttered again.
“I know, buddy. I know.” I didn’t know what else to say. I just wanted them both to be better, so I soothed him as best as I could.
I’d been so close to giving them my blood at the scene of the accident, my wrist held to my fangs, but thankfully the ambulance arrived, stopping me. I hated to see them in so much pain, but it was temporary. Triggering their moroi gene was not. The damage it could cause at their ages was unknown and would last forever. If only Sindi had been with us at the time. She was a different kind of vampire, and her blood could heal them without triggering their genes.
But we’d still been hours from Denver, never making it to the hotel where my friend and former—soon to be current—roommate from Atlanta had been waiting for us. As a vampire, she couldn’t have left her hotel until after sunset anyway, or she’d have burst into flames.
“Aurelia,” Gabe whispered.
Well, at least he’d found a new word. “She’s still in surgery.”
“My fault.” Intense guilt filled his tone.
I sat on the side of his bed and pushed his sweaty hair off his forehead. “What happened, Gabe?”
“I …” He rocked his head back and forth on the pillow, tears seeping out of the corners of his eyes and down his temples. “I don’t know.”
Neither did I. After packing up Mom’s SUV, we’d left home around two this afternoon and four hours later, we’d just passed Vail on I-70, headed for Denver. One minute we were cruising through the mountains, music blaring, Aurelia singing along in the front passenger seat while Gabe sat in the back, keeping himself occupied. The next minute, Gabe launched himself between the front seats, arms flailing and teeth gnashing. He behaved like a rabid animal, and if he were any other kid from Havenwood Falls, I would have suspected he was shifting for the first time.
Whether he meant to or because his hand latched on to whatever it touched first, he grabbed the steering wheel and whipped it out of my grip. We careened across the highway, narrowly missing several cars, before plowing through the guardrail and slamming into a tree … only feet from plunging down a ravine. If we’d gone the other way, we would have smashed head-on into the rock wall of the mountainside.
“I wasn’t … me,” Gabe added, a tear rolling down his cheek.
“Michaela.” The deep voice came from the door behind me, and my whole body froze.
Then I jumped off the bed and turned to face Xandru, his large body filling the doorway. “What are you doing here? How—”
Addie’s head bobbed over his shoulder. “You didn’t really think I wouldn’t tell him?”
Xandru crossed the room in three strides, and as soon as his arms opened, I fell into them. His warm, muscular body wrapped around me, his scent cocooning me in familiar comfort. I leaned my head against his chest, and my breathing became hitched as I held back the first tears that had threatened since the accident.
I peeked over his arm to see Addie standing by Gabe’s bed, her hand caressing the side of his face. She soothed him, I assumed with a touch of magic, because for the first time, his body stopped trembling, and he finally relaxed. Addie nodded toward the door.
The three of us exited the room and found a small waiting area with coffee and vending machines—and too many people. Addie led us through double swinging doors that exited to the ambulance bay, which was currently empty. Beyond the portico, the western sky showed the tiniest hint of light, a glow behind the mountains left from the sunset barely more than an hour ago. My brain felt like it should be midnight. How was this day not over yet?
“Has Gabe or Aurelia been exposed to anything recently?” Addie asked me as soon as the door closed.
“What do you mean? It’s summertime. I don’t think
any of their friends have been ill.”
“I sense … something,” she said. “It’s kind of like dark magic, but not really. It’s such a minute trace …” She shrugged. “Maybe it’s nothing.”
“Could it have made him lose his mind?” I explained to them what had caused the accident.
When I was done, Addie shook her head. “I don’t know. There’s not enough there for me to even know what it is. So I doubt it.”
“You don’t think he could have been bitten by a shifter at home, do you?” I asked.
Both she and Xandru reacted with surprise. If they’d seen Gabe at the time, they would have understood.
“We can test his blood, if you think we need to,” Addie said, realizing I was serious. “We’ll talk about it later, after we get out of here.”
I nodded. “Hey, how did you two get here so fast?”
She tilted her head toward Xandru. “He refused to take the time to make the drive, so I made a portal. I told him we’d need a vehicle to get home.”
“We’ll rent one,” Xandru said curtly.
“How’s Aurelia?”
I sighed. “Still in surgery, as far as I know.”
“Actually, she’s out. They came looking for you.” The familiar female voice called from the double doors. Standing in the spotlight over the doors, a tall, thin, twenty-something woman with dark red hair and porcelain white skin lifted her hand in a brief wave.
“Sindi!” I rushed over to her and wrapped her in a hug. She hated hugs, but I didn’t care. I’d had a bad day. “You made it. And so soon.”
“You know I have mad driving skills.” Before pushing me away, she whispered in my ear, “I took care of Gabe for you.”
I pulled back to look into her face. Her plump red lips tilted in a small smile. “Thank you.”
Her voice rose as we stepped away from each other. “I went to the room number you told me, but you weren’t there. Then a nurse came looking for you.”
We hurried inside to the nurse’s station.
“She’s in recovery. Only you can go in, dear,” the middle-aged woman said to me.
“I’ll meet you back in Gabe’s room,” I told the others before turning toward a bank of elevators.