“I know, but…” he didn’t finish. And his eyes returned to fix on the door behind me.
It nearly broke my heart to see him like this, so with a pat on his arm and a kiss on his cheek I told him, “Get her some hot chocolate, and she’ll forgive you.”
My deed done, I started towards the kitchen as Kylian caught sight of me. Shooting a glance at Viviane, who was busy at the stove, he quickly crossed the distance between us and picked me off my feet in one smooth motion to take me back into my room.
“Are you crazy? She could have seen you.”
I just had to laugh. “Finally I know your weakness. Kylian the Killer is afraid of Viviane.”
“A man would have to be stupid to not be a little afraid of her.”
He was in a rather good mood and we were laughing, and still, his eyes were a piercing blue. Without thinking I brought my hand to his face, cupping his cheek. “What’s wrong? Your eyes are blue.” Kylian’s eyes, though ice blue they might be, had heat spreading through my every cell. And I dropped my hand as if burned.
Gently he let me down. “It’s the moon.”
I frowned. “Today’s Friday? Damn, I’ve lost any track of time. How much longer do you think you’ll be able to fight it?”
“One, two hours tops.”
“Okay, give me twenty minutes.”
As I was about to turn, he grabbed my wrist. “No, you need to rest.”
“I promised you to take you somewhere safe, and that’s what I’ll do. Besides I’d like to get out of here, take some fresh air.”
His flesh bulged under his shirt and he growled. “No.”
“See, your animal is so close to the surface, you can’t even have a small fight with me.”
“I could, it might just be our last, which come to think of it is a very tempting thought.”
Ha-ha. “Shut up. We’ll do this today and tomorrow when we both feel better we’ll go talk to the Chef de la Meute. So, see you in twenty.” With that I shoved him out the door.
I started towards my closet as it knocked at my door, and then Viviane stuck her head in. “Can I talk to you for a moment?”
Swiftly changing directions to walk inconspicuously towards the bed I replied, “Sure. Come on in”
Viviane sat down on the side of my bed and came right to the point, “Kylian told me what happened. I nearly choked on a cookie as he mentioned Mordred.”
Pooh, for a moment there I thought she knew I planned to leave her care. “Yeah, surprised the hell out of me, too. You know what worries me, at first he only wanted to escape his exile, now that he stumbled over me though he kinda hopes that ratting me out to Morgan will get him not only out of there but also back in her graces.”
“That bloody rat! They really deserve each other.”
I frowned. “You know what that means right? We’re back on her radar. Aren’t you afraid? Of the consequences for us, and for everyone around and with us?”
Viviane waved a hand at the air. “We’ve managed before.”
My frown deepened and I looked at her incredulous. “Yeah, well, look how well that turned out. Mum and Dad are dead, and I’m cursed to fight forever. I’m not really getting the positive vibe here.”
She patted my arm. “We’ll deal with it, when the time comes. Morgan is driven by jealousy, she has always been, that’s her only real motivation, and it will make her careless. It’s inevitable, and our advantage. But for now, I’m glad you’re back here and safe.” She leaned down to kiss my forehead and stood up. “And that’s my cue, I’ll let you sleep again.”
“Yeah, about that.”
Chapter 18
It was neither easy to get dressed nor to get past Viviane, but I managed eventually. Since Kylian showed more and more signs of having trouble controlling his beast and I wasn’t yet up to marching across half the city we decided to borrow Viviane’s old beige Citroen DS. Then we started another fight on who should drive.
“Do you know how to drive stick? I know Americans love to drive automatic.”
Given the fact that that small question had his claws and fangs snapping into the open, was kind of answer enough.
Thanks to having one arm in a sling, a former dislocated knee and rush-hour traffic it took us a while to get to the Bois de Vincennes. By the time we reached the zoo darkness had settled. I parked, grabbed the shoulder bag I’d packed earlier from the backseat, and we got out of the car.
“This way,” I said, nodding towards the woods to the left of the zoo.
Silently and side by side we went deeper and deeper into the forest. In the distance the lonely cry of an owl announced the intrusion, and smaller night living creatures scurried quickly away from us; out of reach, to hide out under the cover of obscurity and to follow our every move with their tiny, watchful and glowing yellow eyes. I breathed in the fresh, oak-scented air and despite the pain in my arm and knee I felt good, at peace.
All of a sudden leaves rustled and two women stood in front of us, apparently coming out of nowhere and blocking our way. Ready for battle. They were practically naked with only the most important parts covered by patches of cloth and leaves and their long and tousled braided hair. They looked like humans, except for the pointed ears and green skin.
I held up my arm in surrender, but they’d already recognized their opponent since their stance relaxed. “Maiwenn, to what do we owe the pleasure?” They were polite as always, but kept eyeing Kylian with a mix of suspicion and interest. Like they would every male.
“Kylian, may I introduce to you the reigning spirits of these woods Moth and Nightingale. Ladies, this is Kylian the Killer. We’ve come here in hope of finding a safe and calm place on this night of full moon.”
The spirits approached Kylian with obvious interest now, circling him, like bees seeing a colorful flower. They might not like males, but these ladies, too, had needs. “He’s strong, well-toned,” Moth said, as if commenting on a prized bull put up at auction.
Nightingale nodded and turned to me. “We’ll let you pass, if we get a night with him. That’s the fee.” Looking back at Kylian, she added, “Maybe in the morning? After the Hunt he’d like it.”
She wasn’t that far off with her assumption since it was well known that shapeshifters tended to be a little more interested in everything carnal after their night under the full moon.
“Think again.” Kylian snarled. Okay, maybe he wasn’t.
The spirits ignored him completely and a muscle began to tick in his jaw. Oops, I really hoped he could hold it a few more minutes. “Well, I thought more of it as a favor to me, rather than business, especially after what happened with the wolf,” I said to the ladies.
With a sharp hiss they stepped away from Kylian. “We apologize, Maiwenn. Continue your way.” Then they were gone, disappearing into the thick, green foliage above us.
Kylian stayed silent for a while, frowning, then he shook his head. “I don’t even know where to start.” He looked at me. “Why the hell did they ignore me but kept staring at me as if I were a purchasable sex toy?”
“’Cause it’s their philosophy.”
“Philosophy? Care to elaborate?”
“It’s their way of live, and love. Men are sex toys. Grab them, use them properly, and if you get bored or want a new shiny one, then get rid of them. They’re like Amazons, independent, and proudly so, and strong.”
He cocked his head. “Use them properly, you said? Could you lay out what you mean by that, I think there might be a translation error here.”
I had to grin. “Not falling for it.”
“Had to try. How strong are they, then?”
“Well, you see this forest is not only their home but also their body and their weapon. They are one. How strong they are? Take the word ‘tree hugger’ and imagine it the other way around. Imagine a tree hugging an enemy until the ribs crack and he bursts like a ripe fruit. It’s really not a pretty sight to behold.”
“I’m probably repeating myself, but
you’ve got strange friends.”
“I wouldn’t go that far as to call them friends, they’re rather a strong ally,” I said, which turned out to be a waste of breath since Kylian had already moved on.
I caught up with him as the bushes and trees suddenly thinned out and gave way to a moonlit clearing. After coming to stand by his side, he turned to me, locking his gaze with mine. His eyes were that icy crystalline blue and the pupils were vertical slits, pointed at the ends. The eyes of a cat. Then he began to undress. He took off his jacket, pulled his shirt off over his head; both dropped to the ground and were soon followed by his shoes and pants.
In a blink of an eye he was standing gloriously naked in front of me, wearing only a wicked smile, and then with a mischievous wink at me he began to change. His bones melted, reformed and rearrange, a ripple went through his body and his skin was covered by fur. And suddenly it was not a man but a Maltese tiger with the clearest blue eyes I’ve ever seen looking at me. He was huge, easily reaching above my waist. Before, while fighting, I’ve never really gotten a good look at him, so now I made up for it, and couldn’t take my eyes off him. His thick, generous fur was a silvery blue, interrupted by dark gray stripes. The head and paws seemed massive but somehow he radiated nothing but majestic elegance.
Kylian turned around and strolled out onto the clearing. I bit my lip to keep myself from gasping. Bathed in shimmering moonlight he was a vision of lethal grace and power. He motioned for me to follow him, so I grabbed his clothes and went over to him.
I took out the sleeping bag I’d kept in my shoulder bag, rolled it out and told Kylian, “Go ahead and hunt, I’ll wait here.”
I sat down, and stared at the sky, but then he nudged my knee with his nose. I frowned. “I know you want to, so go. I’ll be fine.”
He didn’t budge.
“You do understand what I say, right?” I asked, a little unsure all of a sudden.
Kylian rolled his eyes; he actually rolled his eyes at me. Grrr.
Reaching out I stroked the cold and silky softness of his fur, surprised that even in his beast form the tingle between us didn’t die. He purred. “You don’t want to leave me alone here, is that it?”
He nodded with his big head, snapping once with his teeth, which could have easily swallowed me. Sensing his dominant I-want-you-do, I pointed a finger at him. “Okay, listen Tomcat, we’ve got two options here. One, I’ll stay here and you’ll hunt, or two, I’ll come with you on the hunt. It would be painful, but I’d do it. Your choice.”
He fletched his fangs and growled deep down in his throat.
“Uh, how scary.”
Neither one of us moved. To show him I really meant it I stared directly into his eyes, and without blinking once I started to get up - only to land on my ass again as he pushed me back down. Damn. I looked up at him and saw him cocking his head, his expression rather bored in a you-really-wanna-do-this kind of way.
Okay, Maiwenn think this through. Let’s face it, I was wounded and therefore a fight with a tiger that had a couple of hundred pounds on me would be rather foolish. So I just shrugged, “Suit yourself!”, and snuggled into my sleeping bag to just lie there under the moonlit sky. I sensed Kylian move, and as a hard wall of heat hit my legs I got up on my elbows to find Kylian lying beside me. With a sigh I laid back down, enjoying the warmth sipping into my body.
I must have dozed off, then the next time I opened my eyes the moon had moved on, meanwhile well hidden behind the trees and Kylian was standing beside me, in human form and getting dressed.
“You aren’t furry anymore. How come? And what time is it, anyway?” I asked through a yawn.
His jaw was dusted with whiskers and his chest was still bare, showing off his rock-hard abs. He knelt down and gave me a slow, sexy smile. “Nearly two in the morning. It’s enough for me to just change for a few hours. How are you feeling?”
“Maiwenn?” someone screamed and we both got immediately to our feet, looking around. Philippe was standing at the side of the clearing, his searching eyes wide and wild from fear.
“Philippe, over here.”
He moved towards us in ghost teleporting style. One moment he was over there, the next he stood in front of us. His shape flickered, a mirror of his inner turmoil.
“They attacked him. They attacked Mathieu.”
Chapter 19
My blood ran cold. My heart stopped a beat. My little brother was out there somewhere and hurting. Everything inside me stopped. Then my brain took over.
“Who, Philippe? Who attacked Mathieu?” I asked, trying to stay calm and to get as much information as possible out of him.
“A wolf, a shapeshifter. You have to go help him.”
“Where, Philippe?”
He began to ramble, “We just came from your apartment, checked on Pauline, and he wanted to grab a beer before going home, to relax. He’d been so worried-”
“Philippe, where is he?” I asked again, my voice gaining on volume and edge since I couldn’t shake him out of it.
“Err, Rue Traversier.”
“Okay, listen to me Philippe. Go to Viviane, tell her Mathieu is hurt and that she needs to go there. Maybe she can get there sooner than us. Tell her we’re on our way. Now, go!”
Kylian had already grabbed our stuff so now we were running as fast as we could through the dark woods and back towards the car. My knee screamed, but I just didn’t give a damn.
“Give me the keys! I’m driving,” Kylian ordered.
No time for arguing, so I tossed him the keys and Kylian got in behind the wheel and I beside him, slamming my door shut; the only outwards sign of the emotional hell I was going through, again. And we drove off, through fortunately nearly empty streets.
With screeching tires we stopped beside the sidewalk, where Viviane was already kneeing in a pool of blood besides Mathieu’s motionless body.
She looked up as we got out. “He’s lost too much blood. And his body doesn’t react well to the bite.”
A mean tight fist clamped down on my heart, whispering that I was too late, that I had failed to protect him.
“He has to be fully turned,” Kylian said.
His voice pulled me out of it, and I knew I had to get a grip. It seemed so hard. Kylian was right. A wolf, a shapeshifter, had bitten Mathieu and so he needed to be fully turned now, no way back. It was the only way to safe Mathieu, the only way for him to survive at all.
“Can you do it? Can you turn him, please?” I asked turning to Kylian, my eyes pleading, my voice begging him.
The hurt and sympathy in his eyes could have been answer enough. “I’m sorry. I can’t do it. He needs an alpha.”
There seemed to be too much inside of me, anger and so much pain and so many questions, and I exploded, “You’re such a dominant ass all the time, and now you telling me that you can’t do it? You’re supposed to be so strong. What the hell is wrong with you? Why don’t you help him?”
Kylian grabbed me by the shoulders gently shaking me. “You know I would do it. But look at him, his other magic, a magic we have no idea about is fighting the bite. You know he needs an alpha if he wants to survive this. His chances are higher with the help of an alpha and a whole pack behind him. And you want him to survive, don’t you?” He shook me one more time, a little harder.
He used this matter-of-fact voice of logic again, and it worked, it cleared my mind. And I realized that there was only one person I could go to. There was only one alpha in town. One I didn’t know I could trust anymore. An alpha, whose son had gone rough and killed innocent people. I damned the higher powers with all my being. Why now? Why him? I didn’t know how deep the alpha was involved in this matter, but I had no choice. The Chef de la Meute was our only hope to save Mathieu.
“We’ll bring him to Michel,” I finally nodded.
Gently but swiftly Kylian gathered him up, off the floor, and into his arms to lay him down on the backseats of the car. I hurried to scramble in, too, so I could res
t Mathieu’s head in my lap. Kylian got behind the wheel again, and we drove off. Heading for the man I’d often and gladly thought of as my father, but now, didn’t know whether to trust. And that man would decide over Mathieu’s life.
“Where exactly are we going?” Kylian asked, while working his way through a labyrinth of small one-way streets, multi-lane traffic circles and confusing intersections, and shifting gears like a maniac.
“Turn left at the next light. Michel owns a building in the third arrondissement. He stays there most of the time. One floor has been turned into an improvised hospital, in case of attacks, accidents and so on. It’s our only chance. I hope he’s already back from the hunt.” I stroked Mathieu’s blond hair, sifting my fingers through the silk of it. I couldn’t lose him. He was my little brother, not by blood but in my heart. I couldn’t lose him.
“It’s best we won’t say a thing. If he asks about the rogue, we’ll say we killed him, that it was his son, that you wanted to come by tomorrow to deliver the bad news. No hint we’re against him or that something might be up. Act normal with him and we should be okay.”
“Turn right at the next intersection. What if he doesn’t buy it and refuses to help Mathieu?” Worry had my stomach clenching.
Our gazes collided as he looked through the rear view mirror, his expression grim and his eyes flashing a lethal blue, he answered, “He’ll have a big problem.”
There was no free parking space so Kylian just stopped at the side of the street. Fuck tickets! He opened the door on the other side and pulled Mathieu to him and up into his arms. I got out as well and we hurried towards the entrance, where I pushed in the security code I knew by heart and we went inside. At the second entrance door I gave the button besides Michel’s name a good workout and ground my teeth as we waited for someone to buzz us through. All my thoughts circled around and focused on Mathieu. Time was a bitch.
“Who is it?” Michel’s voice finally asked.
“It’s me, Maiwenn. I need your help. Please, let me up.”
Blue Moon Rising (The Patroness) Page 20