stayed behind, following the cords that dangled from the hole in the wall. Now the bench was no longer there, Dante noticed the hidden door leading behind the wall the cords were fed through.
A bench had been in front of this wall before, and Dante had pried it violently from its brackets and thrown it across the room to frighten Herschel. Now there was a hole in the plasterboard wall, some dangling electrical wires visible within. He peered closer to see what their purpose might be and when he took a step, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, he felt a small depression in the floor and heard a click. The broken wall swung open.
Dante stepped into a cramped room and saw the four beds and their sleeping occupants, all attached to an enormous vat of Dream State. So that was how Vincent had controlled their monthly shifts: every full moon they had been unconscious the whole time. Ironic that the drug being used on them is also made from them.
Dante looked over all of them and then to the vat itself, and a digital read out of Dream State levels.
He could remove the tubes, but there was no guarantee they would live if he did. Vincent had claimed that humans deprived of Dream State would die, but who knew how it would be with werewolves. How easy it would be if they could just die painlessly. He could tell Calibos there was nothing that could be done. Even if Calibos suspected something, he was surrounded by Elements of Night. But that wasn’t who he was. And despite the trouble that he was potentially bringing, these men did not deserve to die like that.
“Don’t make me regret this,” he said to himself as he switched the transfer of Dream State off.
*
Melina lifted Zachary’s father’s eyelids and saw only a man in a catatonic state; there didn’t seem to be any hope of recovery.
“Can you help him?” The boy’s voice sounded feeble, much younger than his age might otherwise have indicated. Melina wondered just how long this had been going on.
“I don’t know, darling, but the man upstairs and I will try.”
He nodded, looking up at her, eyes filled with sincerity, hope, longing.
Melina crouched down, cupping his chin with her hands. “Look at me, Zachary,” she said slowly. “For right now, I don’t want you to worry about anything. You’re feeling tired, so you should lie down and have a little nap while my friend and I figure out a way to help you and your father, okay?”
Zachary looked like he had more questions, but before he could shape any of them, Melina pressed her fingers into the back of his neck and caught him as he slumped forward.
“Come on. Lie down next to dad. That’s the boy.”
Behind her, the door opened. Melina heard Dante’s footsteps as he strode in. “Well?”
“It doesn’t look good for the father. He won’t wake up. We need to get him into a hospital, for all the good it will do. The boy will need to be given to the proper authorities. What did you find?”
“The wolves are here, as I suspected. I need to get them out and back to the mansion before they wake up. Hopefully, they will be more willing to make peace in a less hostile setting. I’ll call the Elements to bring vans and stretchers.”
“They can help move Zachary and his father too,” Melina said.
“So what was all that in the elevator?” Dante asked, jerking his head toward the obliterated corpse of Samantha.
“Art. Do you like it?” Melina asked, raising her hands, spreading them out over her imagined canvas. “I call it Slut Punishment…by Melina.”
*
Nicole awoke to sunlight streaming in through the window and a finger stroking her cheek. At first she thought she was dreaming, but she gasped and sat upright as realisation came.
“Oh my god. Are you ok?” She grabbed Nick’s shoulders. He seemed to be back to his old self.
“I’m fine, but I was going to ask you the same question.”
“I was fine, thanks to you, or you know…”
“The wolf, it’s ok you can say it.”
“You remember?”
“I remembered everything this time.”
“Where did you go after you left here?”
“I sensed another werewolf tracking me. I didn’t want it to find you so I ran to draw it away. I finally encountered it in a football field about two miles from here.”
Nicole gulped. “Did you…kill it?”
Nick laughed at this. “Oh my god, no! It was my mum.”
She punched him on the arm then laughed herself. “Don’t laugh. How could I have known?”
“Ow!” Nick feigned injury and rubbed his arm where she’d punched it.
“So wow, your mom. She’s here? She’s ok?”
“She’s fine,” Nick smiled.
“Where is she now?”
“Well, we were both wolves last night. So of course we couldn’t talk, right?”
Nicole nodded.
“Even so, she accompanied me back to the mansion.”
“Why would you go back there?” Nicole asked, astonished.
“I had to save Alex and Margaret.” Nick reminded her. “But when we got there, it was deserted. There was a bombed out car in the driveway, and everyone had left. And the remaining scent of Alex and her mum told me they weren’t there anymore. I doubled back to Alex’s apartment and saw lights on there. I got close enough to listen and heard them fighting.”
“Fighting? About what?”
“Me.” Nick sighed. “Margaret doesn’t trust me anymore, thanks to…what I am. But Alex stood up for me. The last I heard, Alex left and caught a cab somewhere. When I knew she was ok, I came back here.”
“But you didn’t come back last night. I was really worried.”
“I did, but I didn’t come in. Felix was in the house.”
“Felix? Oh, of course!” Nicole said, smacking her head with her palm. “That’s why he went so nuts the other night. So what happened?”
“You have a very intelligent cat. He didn’t leave his post for a second. I had to wait in the bushes. Only when the sun came up and I reverted back, did he relax.”
“Why didn’t you wake me?”
Nick shrugged. “You looked so peaceful, so I let you sleep.”
Nicole looked him over properly for the first time and realised he was shirtless and his pants were ripped along the seams where his thighs had expanded. She lightly ran her fingers along his shoulder.
“Nikki, we have to talk.”
“Yes. we do,” she nodded. “You first.”
“I spoke to my mum this morning, and she said, well, she thinks that I may have been misleading you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I guess there is such a thing called the Alpha Pull. It’s something that Alphas use to inspire feelings in those important to them. Loyalty in their Betas, fear from their enemies, and lust from potential mates. Some kind of ultra-pheromone thing. When I woke up this morning, she told me it was very strange that I changed after all this time. Normally, a werewolf shifts for the first time around the onset of puberty.” Nick swallowed, looking a bit uncomfortable. “Anyway, one of the questions she asked was whether I had slept with anyone recently. I told her I found someone I love.”
“Nick, please don’t—”
“Wait, please just let me get this out. She asked me how we’d met. When I told her that you were a counsellor and you’d been reluctant to see me, because of your job and your ethical reputation, she thought there might be a chance I used the Pull without knowing it. Then I remembered that you seemed to come around very quick, going from ‘It can’t happen’ to having eight orgasms. I was so happy that I didn’t think anything of it, but maybe I should’ve. You fought a guy over me, which, you gotta admit, was kinda irrational and not very much like you at all. But—it is something a mate would do for their Alpha.
“Look, I don’t know the truth, but what I do know is I don’t want you by a trick. Mum told me this is how my dad got her, and when she found out, the Pull wore off. She tried to claw his face to shreds
. She told me it was up to me to tell you. I know it means I could lose you forever. So I…” He looked pained, trying to get as much out before she lost her mind at him. Little did he know, that was the last thing she was thinking. “I have to be honest with you—”
Nicole seized his hands and shushed him. “My turn now. I spoke to someone last night too. Dr Sarsky left me a voicemail. When I called him, he said he couldn’t reverse the Board of Education’s decision. Their ruling stands as long as Miller’s family say so.”
“Oh…I’m sorry.”
“But, there’s more. He said I can still do my degree and earn even better accreditation through him. I can have just as good, probably better, a career now because he will personally mentor me. The only thing, is…I have to travel with him.”
Nick tensed. “Travel? Where would you go?”
“To Europe. For three years.”
Nick looked down and nodded. “Well, take the time you need to think about…” He looked up again and caught her expression. “Wait… You already agreed, didn’t you?”
Nicole thought she prepared herself for this, but she did not expect to be struck dumb at that moment. She was doing the right thing, so why couldn’t she look at him? She felt the sting of brimming tears fall, unable to voice a response.
Nick placed his hand on her knee. “It’s ok.”
“No, it’s not. You just said the most amazing…that you…” Nicole gestured with her hands, attempting to jostle the word out. Love me. “I’m so sorry. You’re the last person in the world I’d want to hurt. I thought long and hard about it and there was only one reason I would have for staying—and that’s you. But all those years, all that I’ve worked for, would have been for nothing. I wanted that all the love and devotion I put into this work to not be wasted. I wanted to help people, to share what I’ve learned. If I go with the professor, all the shit that’s happened would be like it never was. Clean slate. The chance for everything I wanted, presented for me there on a platter. Nick, I just…I can’t bet everything on a whirlwind romance.”
It seemed an age later when she finally got a reply. “When do you leave?”
“The end of the week.”
“He doesn’t screw around, huh? It’s ok. We said that this had no expectations. You always said you wanted to pursue your career, and now you have the chance. Who am I to ask you to stay? All that I am, everything I feel…I have nothing to offer you in comparison.”
“Nick, that’s got nothing to do with it. Don’t be that way. You’re better than this.”
“I’m not trying to get sympathy, really. It’s the facts. Of course I want you to stay. I want us to have that whirlwind romance. I want us to ride into the sunset together. But that’s only in stories. This is real. Real life doesn’t always happen like that. The reality is that after last night I’m wanted. And I’m a werewolf. Hard to get around that fact.”
“What I saw last night, it was…”
“Scary,” Nick finished for her.
“Terrifying,” she added. “But it was also amazing. Vampires and werewolves. Myths and legends walking and talking. Real. What’s happened to you is a miracle.”
“I wouldn’t count the desire and ability to tear people apart as a miracle exactly.” Nick frowned.
“You—the wolf—you weren’t like that at all!” Nicole exclaimed. “As the wolf, you held me the same as you do when you’re like this. Even the way you looked at me was the same.”
“It’s because it was me. I could actually control what I did.”
“Really? All that was you?” She wasn’t surprised really. She had seen it in his eyes.
Nick nodded. “I still can’t believe you didn’t shoot. You had no idea I wouldn’t attack.”
Nicole ran her fingertips over his chest. “I think I did. I know what’s inside your heart. Never forget, I believe in you.”
“Thank you.” Nick took her hand and kissed her fingers before rising and moving towards her window. “I should go. I’ll contact you before you leave.”
And just like that, he was gone.
*
Nick pushed through the tree branches and met his mother in the nearby park.
Alicia stroked his face. “Are you ok?”
“No,” Nick replied, pulling away, but then flashing his mother a look of apology.
She smiled and lifted her hands. “You’re not a little boy anymore. I understand.
They walked side by side in silence for a moment.
“At least I know I didn’t have the Pull influencing her. If it was, she never would have been able to decide to leave like that, right? Is that how it works?”
“Yes.”
“Well then,” Nick mustered a smile. “Silver lining and all that.” He reached into his pocket and handed the contents over. “I guess you can take this back.”
Alicia accepted the thing she had given him only a few hours before. Her own engagement ring. Alicia had made it clear that if Nick truly felt something for Nicole, now they were mated, he should follow his heart. Just as Alphas all over the world did. Just as Wilson had.
Wilson had come to Australia, a young brash Alpha that wanted to rebel against vampire law forbidding his kind entry. He knew he would be discovered; he simply wanted the vampires to know he had the balls to do it. What he didn’t count on was falling in love with a girl on her school trip. Unfortunately, the vampires of Melbourne discovered him on the very night he’d slept with Alicia. So he fled without a word, concerned they would discover her as well, and think they were both wolves. He could leave the country, she couldn’t. She would go back to Sydney completely unaware of the world he was saving her from.
When he returned to England, Wilson used the Alpha Pull to great effect, bedding many a hapless maiden. But Alicia had left him with a strange but wonderful scent that night, something he couldn’t forget even thousands of miles away. She stayed on his mind. He heard her crying in her sleep, she spoke to him in dreams. He’d had no idea why until he later discovered he had impregnated his mate. Steeled by the strength and determination of a yet-to-be father, Wilson followed his heart and nose to Sydney.
He found her and explained everything. After showing her the things he could do (leaping high, running fast and then the nails and fangs) he professed his undying love for her. Swearing to protect her and their unborn child, but only if she returned with him to England. If she chose to go with him, she must tell her family nothing for fear the vampires would uncover the secret. A wolf conceived on Australian soil was seen as an act of war, and the vampires would take their lives or the life of the child in recompense.
Alicia had made a decision there and then that was both ridiculously easy and heartbreakingly difficult. She had feelings for Wilson, but wasn’t as infatuated as he was and would eventually become. She loved her family but would never see them hurt, even if it be just a threat.
In the end, she took a chance on love. Not for Wilson, not at first, but for her baby. The ring was a symbol of, apart from anything else, resolve. That when all else seems lost, crazy or impossible, resolve, trust and love will win out. That was the theory anyway.
“You don’t have to give this back. She didn’t say she wanted to break up.”
“Neither did I. But let’s face it, that’s what it was. Three years of long distance would be hard enough without my condition thrown in. What have I got to offer her? Nothing. Just me, or love, is a nice way of selling romances, but it isn’t enough. She’s a smart girl with hopes and dreams and she’s had them long before I got here. I don’t want to take that away from her. This is the best thing.”
“Sweetheart, I think you’re trying to convince yourself, not me.”
Nick blinked several times and shook his head. “Maybe. Look, I know it’s time for us to get out of dodge, but can we check on Alex before we go?”
“Alex? I love her and she’s family, but we made sure she and Margaret both were okay last night. There is no reason for us to be here
anymore, honey. You can’t do any more for them, and it’s too dangerous.”
“I just keep thinking about what she said, how she defended me to Margaret. I have to see her. I… I have to thank her for trying to protect me. For believing in me.”
*
Nick reached his hand into his pocket for the key, but paused as he heard hurried footsteps on the other side. The door swung in towards the room and Margaret appeared, suitcase in hand.
“You’ve got some nerve…”
“What’s happening?” Nick asked.
Margaret flicked her eyes towards Alicia, before replying. “I’m leaving. Please get out of my way.”
“Wait a minute. Is this about me?”
“You know damn well it is,” Margaret spat.
“Margaret, you don’t have to be afraid—”
“Afraid? You think that’s what it is?” Margaret grabbed his arm in a vice-like grip and ushered him inside. “Come here.”
Nick was marched towards the TV and Margaret used the remote to turn it on to an already playing news programme.
“…and the latest reports are that the death toll of the Dream State epidemic has today reached over 7,000. Hospitals from Dee Why to Hurstville are reporting a further 1,200 in critical condition. Doctors so far have been unable to find a cure…”
Margaret switched off the screen. “This is your fault.”
“What? How? I don’t—” Nick scrunched his eyebrows.
“I know you didn’t mean it. That’s why your mother should shoulder most of the blame. But Dream State is made with werewolf blood. The only reason it was available is because of the four your mother sent here. The ones you didn’t tell Alex and me about.”
Day Dreamer (Undeadly Secrets Book 2) Page 34