by L. M. French
I yelped and backpedaled as he jumped down in front of me. I swallowed thickly. “I thought we were friends, Tru,” And I had. We’d always shared a meal and conversation when I’d been in Ivory’s district. Trulio had always left the door open for more.
Trulio shook his head sadly, though is chocolate eyes twinkled. “Ah, Veda, I am your friend,” He held his hands out. “But I am also a beast.”
Friendship and lust aside, his oath to Ivory was going to get me killed. I slid my thumb across the safety of the gun I managed to find hidden in the drawer below the register.
“Are you going to shoot me, baby?”
I couldn’t look away from his eyes as my body went white-hot. I gripped the gun, if he twitched I’d shoot.
The front windows crashed in, and two forms spilled across the floor. It took a moment, but I realized it was a pissed off Frank with Vaughn riding his back to the ground. My jaw unhinged. Vampires were not as strong as morcai demons. No way no how.
Trulio looked as surprised as I felt and without waiting, I lifted the gun and fired. The bullets wouldn’t be fatal unless they were silver.
He shifted fast and violently, his clothes shredding as I emptied the clip. The rapid burst was enough to push him back and over the counter.
I dropped the gun and ran for the gate. I made it a half dozen steps before a solid weight hit me, taking me off my feet and sending me skidding across the floor to the far side of the room stopping only when my head hit the wall. Bastard.
I scrambled to sit up and put my back to the wall as his muzzle got right up in my face. He chuffed and his hot rancid breath made my stomach roll. Trulio’s hound was large, his fur almost sharp in its roughness. I tried not to cringe as my hands sank into his black fur, slipping in blood where it ran off his body as I fought to gain leverage. He was also very happy to see me.
Growls and grunts came from the other side of the room letting me know Frank was still alive but having to work for it. Something was not right here.
Trulio slashed through my shirt with his claws, and I shrieked. Bloody rivets ran from my collar bone to my belly leaving my shirt and bra in shreds.
He dragged my body screaming under him and I struggled for coherent thought. This was so not happening.
“You said you were loyal to Ivory-”
His laugh was harsh and guttural. “He wants your head. As long as he gets it, I can do what I want.”
He gripped my breasts hard in his elongated hands and lunged at my throat. I punched up hard into his throat and kicked my foot into his belly trying to remove his weight. He snarled and snapped his teeth close, too close. I reacted, jerking my head back too far and bashing my own skull onto the floor.
He raked at me with his claws again and I screamed as blood and fire ran across my torso. Suddenly the pressure on my body was gone and I watched as Trulio was launched like a cannonball across the room.
Frank stood over me, one eye split and swollen and covered in so much blood it was hard to see where it was all coming from. I was probably the pot to his kettle.
Without even a cursory pause for my partial nudity, cause dear gods who cares, he scooped me up under my arms and deposited me on my feet. His trench coat was long gone, and he stood like an avenging angel between me and Vaughn who’d move to block the exit.
Trulio was struggling to his feet in the corner and I knew once he was on his feet we were screwed. Vaughn was too strong, shocking all on its own, and Frank couldn’t take them both.
Frank reading my mind asked, “Does it matter how you get through it?”
Unsure where this was going, I hedged, “I guess not-” but I didn’t know for sure.
The rest of the sentence was left unsaid as Frank hoisted me up and over his body. Two big steps later and I’m flung through the air like a rock out of a slingshot, right at Vaughn.
If I could have slowed time, I would have enjoyed seeing Vaughn’s eyes go comically large as I shot like a missile straight for him.
That’s what Frank meant. He aimed to throw me right through the gate to safety.
My body crashed into Vaughn, and I felt panic grip me along with his hands but like I said before, Frank is freaking strong and even Vaughn’s grip on me didn’t slow my trajectory.
Together we crashed through the gate, my ears popping, scents and colors colliding in a maelstrom of sensation. It took me a minute or three to realize I’d made it through the gate. Alive.
Breathe fanned my neck and I realized something else.
I’d brought Vaughn with me.
CHAPTER THREE
Veda
Impossible.
Bringing a living breathing creature through required more power than I could harness when the moon was full much less a vampire.
Sai had assured me to bring the undead through was impossible- something to do with the seriously out of whack molecular structure of vampire DNA.
But here he was, Mr. Impossible, breathing on my neck. Too close to my jugular.
My muscles coiled to push him off me when his head lifted.
His grin was shit-eating, sexy and oddly contagious. But before my lips could curl, he spoke.
“Gotcha.”
My mouth dropped open and he laughed, full and rich, the sound tickling my belly. I stubbornly ignored the feeling and slapped the palms of my hands against the sides of his head effectively boxing his ears.
This time I laughed as I kicked him hard in the side with my knee knocking him off me.
He cursed, pulling his hands from his ears to catch himself before his face did a meet and greet with the floor.
I rolled away coming to my feet as I tried to get my bearings. There was a furnace burning behind me, the heat rolling off it in waves around me. We were in a cement room underground.... somewhere.
Vaughn rose to his knees and rubbed a hand over an ear that was no doubt still ringing.
I smiled grimly. It was the first thing Frank had taught me. No one, alive or undead, liked a ruptured eardrum. Unfortunately, Vaughn seemed no worse for wear.
Seemingly content to remain on his knees he surveyed our surroundings.
“Where are we?”
“Nowhere near Ivory,” I replied as nonchalantly as I could. I had no way of knowing for certain, but I wasn’t about to admit I was just as clueless about our location as he was.
His eyes stayed on mine and a small smile played at his lips. “No problem. You’ll just walk us back through that gate,” He tilted his head towards the door we’d burst through.
“I can’t,” I bluffed. “One way only.”
Liar, liar pants on fire which was still better that being beheaded by your brother.
He rose slowly to his feet. “Liar.”
Fuck. I jumped back and my elbow collided firmly with a metal shelf. A shelf with a wrench on it. I scooped up the wrench and held it in front of me like a baseball bat as Vaughn stepped forward.
“Stop or I’ll-”
He laughed again this time practically doubling over as if to offer the back of his head to my rinky-dink weapon.
“Or what?” he wheezed, rubbing his stomach as if the hilarity had actually made him sore. “You’ll jump around some more?” His eyes, alive with more than bemusement, dropped below my chin.
It was then I remembered Trulio and his attempt to eat me and the sorry state of my clothes just before Frank had turned me into a frisbee.
Mortification washed over me as my skin burned under his scrutiny. I stood frozen as he eased closer, his eyes on mine, until less than a foot separated us. All at once the sum of the man hit me. His auburn hair burned like copper where it fell across his forehead. At nearly a foot taller than my five foot four he stared down at me through eyes so dark brown they made me think of bitter chocolates.
He was built like a fighter, all tight hips and strong shoulders but it was his mouth that stole my attention. I was going to pop him in it as soon as I righted my brain.
His skin seem
ed to draw tight across his cheekbones, his hands fisted as if every muscle in his body coiled and mine coiled in response. A fine layer of soot covered everything, the floor, the walls. Us. The furnace rumbled as the fire belched flames hot and bright and every breath I took thickened.
I lost track of his hands as they found their way to my shoulders before wrapping smoothly around my throat. Instead of being alarmed I felt myself sway towards him. He pressed me closer, tucking his boxers frame around my smaller one until I could feel every inch of muscle as he breathed.
He lowered his lips to mine, and I shuddered. “Drop. The. Fucking. Wrench.” With each word he shook me just enough to show he could break my neck if he so desired.
Desire.
I dropped the wrench to grip his wrists bracing myself for the inevitable struggle before I died. Unbelievably the bastard grinned at me. “That was easy.”
Fury shot through me, white-hot and without thinking I shot my knee straight up in an age-old tactic that was well versed by women of every species the world over.
As he doubled over cupping his nearest and dearest, I jacked my knee up into his face knocking him flat on his back.
It was my turn to grin. “So was that.”
Leaping across him I felt his fingertips graze the back of my leg as I booked it for the stairs. Sweat and soot rolled down my face burning my eyes and my shirt clung to my back as I pushed for more speed.
Vaughn cursed as he tackled me sending us both sprawling on the floor. Quickly he rolled us, manipulating our position until I was on my belly beneath him. Straddling me he gripped my hair and wrenched my head back. And yeah, wasn’t that getting old?
Deftly he wrapped an arm around my throat as I scrambled to buck him off. He simply pulled harder until my eyes teared and breathing became a serious issue. The message was clear: stop struggling or break my own neck. I held myself as still as I could, my muscles trembling from the exertion and the merciless flood of adrenaline.
Slowly he eased his grip on my hair but kept his arm around my neck. I felt his lips graze my ear. “Good girl.”
I gritted my teeth so strong was the urge to bite him. Not in the hot and bothered kinda way, I was clearly having a heat stroke, but in the zombies meet rabid pit bull kinda way.
Which was a relief considering less than five minutes ago I thought he was going to kiss me. Thought I was going to let him kiss me. I think I might've swooned. Ugh. Swooned? In my defense I didn’t think it was a real thing. Hell, I didn’t think it was a real word.
Maybe it was the shock, the whole day was a record low for me and the intensity of all the fighting had left me, well, worked up. Yup, that was it. And definitely all his fault since he’d kidnapped me in the first place.
Relief that had only been a comforting thought became a reality the more I thought it through, and my body sagged a bit from the release of that burden. It was just a moment, a product of adrenaline, fear, and exhaustion. I did not get warm and gooey over Vaughn.
Poster child for the utterly deranged.
He would kill me as soon as he kissed me and a peek at my boobs wouldn’t stop him. If he truly was a slave, then he was bound to Ivory and forsworn to carry out his orders or be punished.
That was incentive enough to see me dead and I’d do well to remember that.
Now the thing about being helpless is that it invokes that primal fight or flight response. Either you try and run, freeze from the overload of fear or you fight until your life is ripped screaming from your body.
It had taken almost a decade but I’d long since switched camps and now firmly resided in the latter. So, suppressing the urge to do something, anything to free myself was getting more difficult as the seconds passed.
As fast as I could blink his weight disappeared from my back. The arm that had held my neck up and back disappeared and my face smashed hard onto the concrete floor as a direct result of not putting my goddamn hands up.
Quicker than you could say hey, is that blood mine? Vaughn brought his boot down between my shoulder blades keeping me pinned.
Tasting blood, I tried to levy up, but he pressed deeper into my back, and I felt the last of the air in my lungs whoosh out.
My nails scratched at the concrete, panic rekindling as my lungs burned deprived of the precious life-giving oxygen they needed. The burning expanded from my lungs to the rest of my body where it filled me up pushing at the top of my skull, the backs of my eyes, and the tips of my fingers. But it went no further. The scorpion nestled in my seal stung me over and over, the pain disappearing in the agony of my body overfilled.
Vaughn’s face filled my vision. I’d lost time somewhere and was no longer on my stomach but once again underneath him as he gripped my face.
The power filling me built ever higher rolling and raging against the cage of flesh and blood that trapped it.
His mouth formed words, but I was deaf to their sound. And then I was blind, my eyes filled with light that seared them, compounding one agony with another.
My neck arched as I tried to scream, to release the raw, wild power that was too much for me.
Launching up I gripped the sides of his face and covered his mouth with my own. The fire that shredded my insides leapt to him. His fingers dug into my head, but he didn’t try to free himself. His eyes burned with a white glow that I know was only now fading from my own.
He pulled back as fissures and cracks formed in his skin across his face, neck and arms oozing light and fire that seemed to fall only to float around us in perfect spheres.
He glowed like the sun. I brought my hands to his face and he shattered, his body disintegrating into ash and ember on top of me.
Like a vacuum my ears popped, and sound returned and my head fell back. I heard footsteps distantly, but the darkness had returned. I had only one thought before it swallowed me.
I’d killed Vaughn.
CHAPTER FOUR
Bay
Nothing. I’d searched every inch of the estate for miles with no sign of Sai’s body. Shifting back to human form, I jammed my legs in my pants with frustration. We were running out of reasonable places to look. Which was half the problem wasn’t it? The last time I’d had to do this he’d hidden his skin suit in a hammock at the top of a sequoia. Like mother nature never had a shit fit and knocked down a tree.
Bay? Ozias’ voice called me out of my own thoughts.
Southern border, I replied. He’d know where to find me. Telepathy wasn't a common trait among shifters, but the Daenali were different in a lot of ways.
While I waited for the tracker to find me, I made a mental list of the places we’d searched.
The estate, obviously.
The isles.
The temple.
The groves.
Every square inch of forest surrounding the estate. And nothing. “Where the hell did you hide it this time?”
The question was for no one in particular since the one person who could answer it didn't bother to tell anyone what he was up to in the first place. Good thing he wasn't important or anything.
Sailas, King and Leader of the Four Territories had decided to take a vacay via spiritual hijacking.
That's right. He possessed someone. Who? I would fucking love to know.
The longest he’d ever been gone was a week and, judging from the absolute hissy fit thrown by the Sestie, that was evidently a bad idea. This time he’d been gone ten days. That we knew of.
I smelled Ozias before I turned. His penchant for cinnamon candies was a hazard with other shifters. We’d always smell him coming. His silver hair was windblown from the ride up here and fell in his eyes as he glanced around.
“Anything?” he asked. Annoyance flared in his pink-hued eyes. There were seldom dark enough to qualify as red, but the fucker’s asshole puckered if we suggested otherwise.
“Is that a rhetorical question?” I waved a hand around. I'd have dragged his body back if I'd found it. Not because I couldn't lift it but bec
ause he deserved a few bruises for this shit.
He caught the drift. “Sorry.”
I shoved my feet in my boots and started towards the road where I parked my truck. “You find her?”
Ozias rubbed a hand over his face and shook his head. “No sign of her at her house and no one’s seen her since yesterday. I sent word out but so far nothing.”
The her in question was Veda. A half-human half-sentinel mediator in the realm.
Also, the closest thing Sai had to family besides the Daenali and his part-time consort. She carried a seal on her palm that linked her psychically to Sai. If we could find her, we could find him.
“What are the odds they go missing at the same time?” Ozias asked.
“Not sure but I don't like it. Find Ivory.” Ivory was Veda’s foster brother and he hated her openly for years. No one knew why. “When Jericho gets back, send him to watch Veda’s place in case she shows up.”
Ozias nodded. “Any word from Phin?”
“Not yet. He’s trying to track down the witch. As soon as you have Ivory I want to know. I sent Emerick to charm his way into the mound.”
Crunching echoed around us while Ozias finished his candy. “I’m not optimistic they’re going to give a shit enough to find out why they should give a shit.”
He wasn’t wrong. The fae gave zero fucks what went on outside their court. The world could end, and they wouldn’t lift the drapes to take a peek til chunks were flying into the atmosphere.
“How many times are we gonna keep doing this?” He asked the question without heat. Oz had stopped being angry at Sai’s antics years ago and settled into apathy.
I didn’t have an answer for him because, hell I was tired of tracking down his body every time he got a wild hair up his ass to go wandering. It was happening more and more frequently, and I was starting to feel less like the alpha of my pack and more like a glorified babysitter.
I clapped him on the shoulder. “As many times as we have to. What are the alternatives?”
“We let him be and learn to govern ourselves again. The Territories didn’t always have a king.”