by M. L. Briers
He still hadn’t made his mind up about that yet.
As soon as the truck ground to a halt Brody kicked open the driver’s door with a heavy boot and was stalking towards the vampire and Isobel with no thought to the witch that he’d left in his truck.
“Does Dex know you’re here?” Brody growled with his accusing eyes glaring at Dexter’s mate.
“You know, I don’t know if he turned his psychic powers on before I left this morning,” Isobel tossed back at the man and heard the vampire chuckle.
“Oooo, good one,” Connor grinned. “That had just the right amount of snarky goodness to deliver your point without being too in your face about it.”
“I have a witch,” Brody bit out, ignoring both comments, but before he could say anymore it was Connor’s turn to turn on the Snark.
“Me too, and my one looks happier than yours.” The vampire offered him a smug smile, but the shifter’s demeanour didn’t go unnoticed.
The man was riled up and his muscles were tight enough to snap. That made Connor uneasy.
“I need you to take her,” Brody growled out.
He was trying really hard not to rise to the bait from either of them. They might have been stomping on his last nerve, but he needed to hold it together just a little longer.
“I’m not running a halfway house for witches…” Connor tossed back at the shifter. “And I find a harem so old school.”
“Oh, there’s an idea … a safe house for witches!” Isobel offered back to the vampire.
“No!” Connor’s eyes rolled back in his head at the thought of it.
There were more than enough witches on the mountain. He certainly wasn’t about to import more.
“But we could name it after you!”
Isobel’s eyes flared with amusement, as she feigned sweet talking him, but the vampire couldn’t say that he was overly impressed with the idea or her. He had a mate of his own that could sweet talk until the cows came home when she wanted something, next to her - Isobel was a novice.
“Just take the damn witch before I kill her,” Brody growled, and that got Connor’s attention.
“Your problem with the witch is not my problem,” Connor informed the man. “He who miffs off witches gets to pay the piper.”
“Well thanks for the advice,” Brody sneered out on another growl.
His wolf wasn’t best pleased with that scenario. Standing that close to a vampire was enough to make the beast froth at the mouth to take a bite, but the fact that he was trying to offload his mate to the bloodsucker had the wolf scratching and clawing within him in protest.
“Have you tried chocolate?” Connor offered with a smirk. His eyes flicked briefly to Isobel and then back to the irate shifter.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Brody had the urge to take the man by the shoulders and shake him until he took him seriously.
“It has a way of taming a female, and they are less likely to snap off the hand that feeds them chocolate.” Connor offered back. “That should be written in a man bible somewhere.” He offered to Isobel, and the witch rolled her eyes on a snigger.
“I don’t think you’re understanding me … what it is that I’m telling you … Will you just damn well listen?” Brody ground out through the grinding of his teeth. “People say you’re a good man…”
“I do hate it when people spread lies and besmirch my character … Tell me who’s doing it so that I can kill them.” Connor offered back with a small smirk that made Isobel smile.
“She’s my mate!” Brody growled.
He’d had enough of getting the run-around. He needed the vampire to take him seriously…
“Congratulations! May all your troubles be little ankle snappers.” The vampire offered up, and somewhere inside of him he knew that his day was only just beginning.
Now he was going to have to go chasing around the top of the mountain after a growling, brooding, shifter, and his pouting, zapping witch mate. It wasn’t exactly something that he’d put in his schedule of things to do…
“I will kill her…” Brody growled out, twisting his head on his neck, and eyeing the vampire with disdain.
But with that admission; the sound of the truck’s gears being grated through the box made him snap his head around on his neck, just in time to see his truck wheel spinning away down the drive.
His beast roared out. The wolf was pushing forwards; threatening to burst free at the sight of his mate running from him.
“And there she goes!” Connor chuckled with a slow nod of his head. “I think you’ll have to catch her first.”
The man had left a witch in a vehicle with the engine running … stupid is as stupid does … what more could he expect?
Brody didn’t hesitate. The man took off on fast feet after the truck.
“Shouldn’t you be going after them to safeguard her well-being like you did with the rest of us?” Isobel asked with a knowing, and somewhat teasing smile.
“Can’t I just sit this one out?” Connor protested, rolling his eyes back into his head and groaning dramatically. “Don’t I deserve just one mate off?” Connor sighed.
“From the look of that man, and knowing a little of his temperament … I’d say this one is not the one to rest on your laurels over.” Isobel offered back with a bigger, brighter smile for the man.
Connor dragged in a slow breath as his eyes followed the shifter. The man was chasing the truck like a dog after a postman, and then he let that breath back out on a resigned sigh.
“No rest for the wicked.” Connor tossed a look at Isobel when she bit out a chuckle, “yes – yes, I know. I’m very wicked.”
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Brody pumped his arms through the air as he chased after his mate, and his truck.
When I catch her … I’m going to kill her.
Not only is the woman stupid enough to run from me … But she stole my damn truck doing it!
In that moment, he didn’t know what was worse. Irrational as it sounded, even in his screwy brain, he wanted his damn truck back.
He wanted his damn mate back.
Now, he was running right behind the truck, growling and grumbling to himself, and above all else, berating himself for leaving the keys in the ignition.
Why would he trust a witch?
From his position he could see her eyes in the rearview mirror, and when she flicked those eyes up from the road ahead, and caught sight of him catching up fast behind her, shock, surprise, and maybe even a little bit of fear stared back at him.
It wasn’t as if he could stop. It wasn’t even as if he could back off and just let her drive away from him, from the danger that he posed to her, from the insanity of being a mate.
His beast was powering him on. The wolf wanted its mate and even if he could have thrown himself off the top of the mountain, he was sure that his beast would just burst free from within him and carry on with the chase.
“Watch where you’re going. You should be watching the road not me!” He yelled on a growl of annoyance.
Even now … Even with everything else that was going on in his life at the moment around him that protection gene within him that was only for her clicked on and was definitely in full swing.
He didn’t want her to crash the damn truck because she was staring at him. She was human and wouldn’t heal the way that his body could, but he also couldn’t find it within him, within his beast, to stop himself from pursuing her.
Still pumping his arms as he closed the distance between them, and panting out heavy breaths, he chased the truck down to within the reach of his fingertips …
Then he reached out his arms and snagged the tailgate, fisting it in his hands as he launched himself from the ground with his powerful muscled legs, and swung his body up and into the back of the truck.
The chase was over. She was as good as caught.
CHAPTER FIVE
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Eden felt the hard thud o
f the man’s feet hitting the back deck of the truck as his weight came slamming down, and she was sure that it wasn’t in her imagination that the whole vehicle jolted around her.
Her eyes flicked to the rearview mirror once more, and there he was; staring right back at her with only the thin pane of glass between them that wouldn’t hold him back from getting to her if he had a mind too. That didn’t fill her with a warm comforting glow.
His angry black eyes were teamed with a hard scowl and gave him the look of a madman, and her heart hit her ribs as it tried to escape her chest with the wave of panic that rose within her.
Now what?
I stole his truck.
I ran from my alleged mate - not mate.
I’m just on fire today…!
Maybe I should just challenge for supreme ruler of the universe…
What the hell was I thinking?
I wasn’t thinking. Thinking would be the right way to do it, and who needs the right way when you can just screw everything up?
This just completes the story of my life … the icing on the cake …Well, hopefully not my whole life, hopefully there’s a lot more left of it for me to screw up.
Oh wonderful … And here comes the vampire…
With another thud that caused the pitch and roll of the vehicle; Connor’s feet hit the backboard of the truck. Brody spun around in place to face him, a heartbeat before the shifter let out an ear splitting roar.
For all of his talk about the vampire taking his mate of his hands, now that the bloodsucker was actually in close proximity to his mate … and now that man and beast were on the chase … that vampire was just too damn close for comfort.
“Hey, as I remember rightly you invited me to this party!” Connor shot back at the shifter.
The vampire had dealt with enough shifters and their attempts at mating in his time to know the signs and growls that signalled that this was about to go pear shaped, and fast. He didn’t know Brody, but just one look at the man was enough to determine just how miffed off he really was, and boy was he miffed.
“And now you’re leaving!”
Connor had little time to react to the threat facing him as Brody launched his body across the back of the truck at him. The shifter’s arms wrapped around the vampire, and the impact, like a brick wall hitting him at high speed, threw both of them off balance, and caused the pair of them to fly backwards through the air and ultimately out of the truck.
It didn’t register in Brody’s mind just what he’d done as they flew through the air with the vampire locked in his grip. His intention was to get the vampire away from his mate, and fast.
Nor did it even register when they hit the ground at high speed … Both men rolling like tumbleweeds across the earth … Pain screamed through his body like red-hot knives tearing him up inside …
It was only when they finally came to a halt and the vampire kicked his body away from him, and he landed with another hard thud against the earth, did that cold, hard light of realisation finally come to dawn within his spinning mind.
There he was, some bones broken, battered and torn up, unable to drag his body back to his feet … and his mate was still getting away.
“Smooth move, Sparky.” Connor bit out with annoyance. He did so hate it when one of his favourite outfits was ruined. “No, really, you just lie there and take it easy while I go get your mate.” He added, dragging his battered body up to his full height and glaring down at the shifter…
The angry, hungry for blood growl that tore from Brody’s lips was lost on the vampire as he set off on fast feet after the truck.
The one thing that Connor knew he couldn’t do was to allow the shifter’s mate to get away.
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Eden was in two minds about whether to stop and to go back, or to get the hell out of Dodge while the going was good.
She’d seen the shifter take the vampire down, seen them flying through the air, and watched them hit the ground. She didn’t know if it was her over-active imagination or if she’d actually heard the impact, but she’d flinched anyway.
She’d lifted her foot from the gas pedal, allowed it to hover over the brake for a moment, and then with a small shake of the head; questioning what in God’s name she thought she was doing … she kept going.
That wasn’t her fight. That was two boneheaded, egotistical, testosterone fuelled, supernatural beings going at it, and she would truly be insane to get involved.
This is the perfect opportunity to escape the madness.
Why the hell would I go back?
This really isn’t my fight … Mate or not … I really need to put the pedal to the metal and get the heck out of here.
Guilt made her flick her eyes back to the rearview mirror once more, just as Connor was launching himself back onto the truck. Without thinking, her foot slammed down onto the brake, and her eyes met Connor’s only briefly as realisation took the vampire’s eyes wide … just about a heartbeat before the man was launched forward through the air; right over the top of the truck where she was sitting inside.
Connor landed with a sickening thud on his back on the ground, and even with her foot flat on the break she still didn’t know if she was going to stop in time or roll right over the top of him.
One moment he was in her rearview mirror and the next she could see him out of the front of the truck as he flew…
Eden’s hands became tight fists wrapped around the steering wheel. She thought that her foot might just go straight through the floor like some Flintstones parody with the amount of pressure that she was pushing down with, forcing all of her weight onto it.
An ear piercing squeal escaped her lips as she screwed up her face in a grimace at the thought of what she’d done and what she might yet do, running right over the top of him if she couldn’t manage to stop in time wasn’t her idea of a party trick, and as the truck came to a screeching halt she screwed up her eyes in disgust …
CHAPTER SIX
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There wasn’t a thud …
There wasn’t a speed bump …
I didn’t hit him …
Please say I didn’t hit him.
Or maybe I did … Maybe he just went squelch …
No people didn’t just go squelch … But then he’s not a person…
Eden’s attention was snatched up by the sound of a hard, deep, angry growl that filled the inside space of the truck and rattled everything around her that wasn’t nailed down the closer that it got. Her eyes snapped open at the sound…
She snatched a look in the side mirror, and there he was, Brody was on his feet and looking more than a little worse for wear as he planted one large foot in front of the other and stalked towards the driver’s door.
Her door.
His eyes held the fire of his anger, and thankfully for her, for the moment that anger seemed to be directed solely at the vampire…
“No you just take it easy … I’ll get my mate.” Brody growled at Connor and the vampire groaned back.
The shifter’s words sparked relief within her. At least now she knew that the vampire seemed to still be in one piece, but that relief was short lived when it was replaced by the reality of what he’d said.
He was coming for!
Eden pulled on her magic and snapped the locks onto the doors; knowing full well that magic alone, and certainly not those door locks, weren’t going to stop a miffed off determined shifter from getting in if he truly wanted in, and one look at his eyes said that he truly wanted in.
She debated throwing the gear stick into reverse, but as her hand reached down; so the hard thump of Brody’s palm hitting the window snatched her attention. The sound in the deafening silence made her jump in her seat, and she snapped her head back around to see one large hand and a pair of black angry intense eyes glaring in at her.
She was out of time.
Brody’s other hand closed into a fist around the handle and she saw his bod
y jerk as he tried to yank open the door but found that it wouldn’t move. His eyes narrowed on her, his lips parted, and he rumbled another deep, angry growl that echoed inside that annoying silence of the truck, and made the hairs all over her body stand to attention.
“I really don’t think you want to…” She started, but the sound of protesting metal screeching as he ripped the door clean away from the side of the truck silenced her…
She guessed that he did want to do that.
The cold air rushed in at her and did battle with the heat of body, as she turned her body in the seat and threw herself as far back as she could away from him.
In a pure gut reaction, her hands came up in front of her, palms outwards towards him, and she let loose with the kind of magical blast that tore him backwards from the ground, and threw him through the air away from her.
Eyes and brain were torn between the sight of the shifter as he fell back to Earth, and the vampire as he suddenly sprung up to his feet in front of the truck. Both felt like a threat to her.
“That’s it, shifter boy, take a load off,” Connor chuckled. His one-upmanship with Brody was wearing thin with her nerves.
When Connor turned his attention towards her, she turned her magic on him. Pain entered his body from head to toe, and it felt like a tight fist around every last inch of him. That pain kept him in place.
“Well aren’t you a powerful one?” Isobel’s voice was something of a comfort to her, surrounded as she was by danger, but Eden was more than aware that this witch had been with the vampire back at the Castle.
Trust no one!
She was with them. She is one of them.
She may be a witch but her loyalty lies elsewhere.
I need to get out of here … And that appears to be easier said than done.
“Not another step,” Eden warned her, and the witch ground to a halt, waiting and watching to see what would happen next.
Eden’s magic was aimed fully on the vampire. Keeping him away from her seemed of paramount importance. Even the shifter had changed his mind about letting him anywhere near, and that spoke volumes.