The Vampire's Spell: The Vampire's Soul (Book 7)

by Lucy Lyons

  “I don’t know why you’re laughing. That was the stupidest thing you’ve said since I came in the room, which is really saying something, considering what an idiot you are.” I glanced at Ashlynn, who was now sitting up better and looking less pale. “I’ll admit, the trick with the lights was pretty neat, but that wasn’t even you. What are you good for other than lame jokes and empty threats?” I tried to warn her, remind her that she hadn’t seen the rotting power the rest of us had witnessed at the battle for Caroline and Nick’s freedom from the council months before.

  A member of the council had been able to rot himself and stay animated, still walking and talking, or at least floating around above the stumps of his ankles. It hasn’t stunk like this Malcolm vampire did, but that was almost more horrifying than the show we were being forced to endure at Malcolm’s hands.

  She didn’t look in my direction but glared up at the vampire as he turned to face her and grinned with malice. He raised his hand, and Ashlynn gasped in pain as he reopened wounds that were beginning to close.

  “Is that the best...you can do?” she asked him, taunting. “You came here when Caroline had her wolves at her side, and you don’t think anything can go wrong?” Facing her put his back to me as he stood between us, and I used the distraction to get up into a crouch.

  “Oh, I knew there was a little risk from the dogs, but how could we resist when the bitch has been hiding behind the most powerful enchantments on the planet, trying to protect herself from those of us who know that what she’s doing is an affront?”

  I crab-walked to the side to line up an attack and bunched the muscles in my legs, my eyes focused on the one part of Malcom’s body I couldn’t see pus or slime, just perfect skin of his neck waiting to be torn off as I severed his spine. One of the vampires holding the women hostage shouted a warning, but I had preternatural speed and adrenaline on my side.

  I leaped at his back and closed my teeth over his neck, hanging on as he shook himself, trying to dislodge me. My arm slipped to his chest, gagging on the smell of him and the wet, slimy feeling of the open, purulent sores on his face and jaw. I let go of my hold on him and turned my face away, trying to breathe clean air, and hung onto him as he clawed at my shoulders and back, still trying to throw me off. Finally, I felt him slip just enough to give me purchase. I dug my fingers into the sores in his cheek and jerked his face to the side until I felt his neck snap. I dropped him with a curse and raced to the nearest sink to vomit, and a moment later, cool hands laid a cloth on the back of my neck, and the faucet was turned on to wash my hands.

  “Can’t get the smell off,” I heaved, dragging my shirt off over my head. Ashlynn shushed me as she poured more dish soap on my hands and kept scrubbing, massaging my hands until they were thick with silky suds. Behind me, I heard the sounds of the vampire’s friends being beaten to death by Nick, cheered on by members of the pack.

  “Is he OK?” Caroline’s voice at my elbow startled me, and I jumped back, but Ashlynn held my hands over the basin of the kitchen sink and kept washing them. She moved the faucet over them, rinsed them clean, then turned me to face her.

  She sniffed my palms and smiled into my eyes. “He’s fine,” she said softly, pressing my damp hands into my face. “The smell is all gone, and now you just smell like clean hands and sweaty wolf.” I chuckled weakly and leaned back against the counter, trying to put space between myself and the alpha without being obvious. She didn’t close the distance but grabbed a fresh towel and wet it and wiped down my chest, leaving the hair wet and flat against my gooseflesh. I clenched my teeth to keep them from chattering, and a blanket went over my shoulders before I could ask for it.

  “Damn, boy. That was some next-level heroics in my book,” Bernie admitted as I finally surveyed the rest of the large living space. Everyone living was inside it seemed, and a glance to the side showed me Henny and Caroline casting some sort of spell in their corner.

  “OK, that should keep everyone in here safe from magical attacks, vampire or otherwise,” Henny declared, brushing her hands together. “Nicholas, your vampires were sent home, correct?”

  He nodded, his hands on his hips. “As soon as I realized Malcom was here, I put out an alert with my soldiers. They’ve sent an all-clear, but we’ll still use caution when we return.” He looked at all of us, not one free of wounds and blood, our own and that of other wolves. “What the hell were you all doing?”

  “We feel the alpha is unfit, and we challenged her leadership,” a young wolf stepped forward, and the rest of the wolves went silent behind him, waiting for the repercussion from Ashlynn.

  “Be that as it may, you endangered our allies tonight and a minor whose only fault in all this was needing our help.” Ashlynn drew to her full six feet and took a step toward him. “If you want to challenge me, you will do it on the full moon, by our law. You try to usurp me again, and I will kill you without a fight and salt the earth where you fall.”

  The young wolf glanced over at Henny and swallowed hard, and I tried not to smile. I’d seen Ashlynn’s gun collection. I knew she wasn’t talking about magic. But if believing in the lore ensured the loyalty of the pack, then I wasn’t going to stand in the way. The night was not going to anyone’s plan. I had to attend to pack business and hadn’t heard Simi’s news, which would just have to wait until the pack crisis was over.

  Ashlynn was still alpha, but like the young wolves, I knew she’d overextended herself. I just wanted a solution that didn’t mean death to any more of our wolves. I knew from experience that giving the cops good reasons for mysterious deaths was more difficult the higher the body count, or missing bodies, as the case may be.

  Nicholas cleared his throat, and the entire room turned to him. He had gathered Caroline in his arms, and she rested on his shoulder, too worn out to argue her independence. He strode to the broken, twisted doorway, and the wolves parted before him like water, none of them brave enough to risk being within arm’s reach. We all knew that we’d endangered Caroline by bringing her here. She’d been so prepared for our kind, but neither she nor I had expected that they had enemies in their midst, waiting for her to be away from the club and from Nick.

  “You should tend to your people,” Nick intoned as he surveyed the clearing. “You lost family tonight. Any pack members who need time off at the club to take care of your pack business, just let Colette or Rachel know. Caroline will not be reachable until she has rested.” He bent his knees and leaped into the air with a rush of wind, and we were alone with the consequences of the night. Outside, the losers had already laid the wolves in a line near the trees, and those who vacated went to mourn our losses.

  “Roger, you’re too wounded to run, but can you get the fire going again?” Ashlynn asked, and Roger opened his mouth to argue but seemed to think better of it and simply nodded, his lips pressed together in a thin line.

  “I’ll help,” the professor said quietly. “I couldn’t fight, but I can do my part.” Roger gripped him by the shoulder and nodded again, this time with more gusto.

  “That’s right. Me and the prof will take care of the fire. Just come back to us safely. Don’t trust the young wolves, even on the wild hunt.” Ashlynn agreed and Roger looked at me hard.

  “You take care of her, son. You’re the one who’s strong enough to beat them all out. You better be willing to do it if necessary tonight.”

  I saluted him then winked when he scowled at me. “I got this, Rog. I won’t let anything happen to Ashlynn.” I sighed. “If there’s one thing I know, it’s protecting innocents from the monsters, right?” I tried not to think about the full moon duels or the job I’d been trying to land. We’d lost members of our pack in a fight amongst ourselves. Three cold bodies lay on the ground waiting to be burned, and a score more were wounded and needed the magic of the wild hunt just to heal from the ordeal.

  “What are you thinking, Clay?” Ashlynn’s voice was soft, and she touched my arm as she spoke.

  “At the full m
oon, I will submit my challenge to lead these people,” I replied. “I know you have good intentions, but you really dropped the ball here, Ashlynn. Your mistrust of men and fear of losing your power have crippled us and cost us souls. I can’t let that stand.”

  She removed her hand from my arm and stormed off without a word. I cursed silently and followed her, suddenly more aware that we were all naked. I hadn’t minded until I felt her judgment of me, or maybe it was my negative judgment of her when she finally gave me her trust that made me feel like I needed to hide myself.

  I strode up to the group that had assembled for the run, those of us who needed to shift in order to heal properly and those who wanted to pay their respect to the dead. In all, we numbered less than twenty, and I felt a wave of shock and shame that we’d bungled things so badly. Not only had we lost our own, but we’d opened up our sacred home to Malcolm, who had left a rancid, evil taint on us.

  I shifted, reveling in the burn of stretching, tearing ligaments and the ache in my breaking, reforming bones as my limbs and muzzle lengthened. The beast inside stretched with me, and I dug my claws into the earth and ran with all my might. The night air brought me gifts of animal song and the smells from the lake, the trees, and the prey that I shared my home with. My heart sang for my people, and my howls broke through the usual night song, answered by the wolves that raced behind me, as wild and free as our natural wolf brothers. I crested the hill and sang to the moon for our fallen family. For Lisette, who had defended our alpha to her dying breath. For Allan, who had spent his life as a pediatrician until an attack had ended his life with his human family.

  Last, I sang for my old life, the hunters who had once been my friends, who were now my enemies, and the only life I had known that I finally had to let go of. Simi had stared on, shocked and horrified at the bestial ferocity of my people when facing our own kind. The beast recognized my pain at leaving the people I loved for the ones I still felt I barely knew but rejoiced in my freedom as I sang to the moon that reflected far below me in the ripples of the lake. I had come to my new life through agony, and it still brought me pain. But I was as free as any creature of the forest, the predator and the guardian.

  Ashlynn called out, her howl sweet and mellow under the stars, and I turned to meet her, chasing her down the hillside the way they’d followed me. My beast yearned for hers, to claim and protect her from the others who gave chase. But only one would catch her and lie in her scent under the waxing moon. I howled again and kicked my legs as hard as I could. No other would touch her. The alpha would be mine.

  Chapter Seven

  The sun was warming my skin when my slow, peaceful awakening was abruptly hastened by an arm flung across my chest. I responded to the assault with a grunt, and the perpetrator gasped and shied away from me as I sat up to investigate my surroundings.

  “Clay?” I heard a woman gasp, and some part of my almost-awake brain recognized the voice as belonging to Ashlynn. Simultaneously, the beast within felt victorious, and the man sitting naked in the pine needles felt horror and embarrassment.

  “So I won the wild hunt, huh? I look forward to the cookies I’ll be getting from the mates of the losers.”

  Ashlynn laughed self-consciously. The wild hunt was the only time the males fought to lie with a female not their own, to hunt together, take down prey, and satisfy every appetite with our alpha. All that mattered was being the fastest, strongest, and most cunning. From all appearances, last night that had been me.

  “Are you disappointed?” she asked, hugging her knees to her chest and hiding behind her long, scarlet hair.

  “I’m surprised you let me near you, furry or not,” I admitted, and she shook her head.

  “You shouldn’t be. I’m not the one who thinks so little of you.”

  Air whooshed out of my lungs as her words hit me like darts. “I suppose I deserved that,” I agreed. “I let Caroline and Nick, even Dominique and the professor, color my perception of leadership. I owe you an apology. How could you measure up to a vampire master centuries old or even a middle-aged man who had decades of schooling and training under the strictest guidelines? We don’t even have a librarian, and you’ve worked hard to keep us from being slaves to a vampire, whether that was Nick’s intention or not.” I rolled my shoulders, now fully awake and aware of a fresh, sharp ache in my neck and shoulders.

  “I know you don’t believe I can do what’s necessary, but I have kept peace when many want war. Just because you didn’t see it doesn’t mean I haven’t done what I can to protect my people,” she reminded me. I didn’t mention that the problem she needed to face wasn’t the outside forces attacking the pack but the ones trying to take us apart from within.

  “Did you bite me?” I felt the impressions her sharp fangs had left in the meat at the base of my neck.

  “No harder than you bit me, I’m sure,” she retorted and swung her hair to one side so I could see the marks I’d left on her. My hand moved of its own volition, and I slid my fingers over the marks in wonder.

  “I don’t remember anything after we spotted the deer last night, but somehow, I know these are mine.”

  She trembled under my touch, and my body instantly responded to her desire. I tipped Ashlynn’s face up, finally able to look down at her as she sat on the nest we’d woken up in made of pine needles, moss, and ferns. Her hands braced against my chest as I pushed her back to the ground and leaned over her watching her eyes go wide and cautious.

  “It’s never been that I don’t want you, Ash.” I stroked her cheek and ran my fingers over her lips. She pulled them into her mouth and bit them just hard enough to keep me there, my pulse racing as her tongue flicked over my fingertips. “I don’t know how to keep you. I don’t know how to justify how different our ideologies are.” I withdrew from her and she let me, her eyes dimming and the corners of her mouth turning down.

  “So? Go run to your sorceresses and your vampires and your…rats,” she hissed. “You do whatever you have to—to feel like you’re better than us. Just don’t forget that you’re here this morning because you wanted me. You wanted me so badly that you couldn’t let anyone else have me.” She lurched to her feet and disappeared into the trees, calling out to me when I tried to follow her. “Let me take a piss in peace, will you? Just go back to your cabin. You made your challenge. I’ll see you at the full moon.”

  The nest had been more comfortable than I would’ve thought, and part of my aching, beat-up body begged me to just lie down again. But I didn’t want to get my face clawed off when she came back and saw me still there. I exhaled hard in a sigh of self-pity. Once again, I’d offended my alpha. She deserved her space, and I had a funeral to help with.

  The camp was bustling, almost as though nothing had happened, if not for the faint smell of blood that permeated the air and the silence normally occupied by the birds that were avoiding the lingering stench of death and violence. The funeral pyre was almost completed in the center of the clearing, almost as tall as I was and wide enough to hold the three linen-wrapped bodies.

  “No talk of politics or rebellion Clay. I think the young bucks have lost their taste for it now that they see the consequences.” Bernie cautioned. I sighed and tugged at my hair, groaning as needles and leaves floated to the ground.

  “Let me throw some clothes on, and I’ll help gather wood, OK? I don’t want to go too far today. The grief will be setting in soon.”

  He leaned back and searched my face. “You’ve dealt with a lot of grief with the Venatores?”

  I shrugged and shifted uncomfortably. “When you hunt monsters, you meet a lot of victims. Lisette and Allan were victims in the truest sense. They were loyal and brave and totally unprepared for their own friends, their packmates, to be so bloodthirsty.” I started toward my cabin then turned back to him. “I won’t let that happen again.”

  He didn’t stop me from leaving, and I tried to ignore the malicious stares and the appreciative ones I got on the way to my cabin. No
t every male had run with us, and several women had. I’d won the only real prize that mattered to any of us, but how badly I wanted Ashlynn just left a bad taste in my mouth. We were monsters, and I couldn’t understand how anyone could love either of us, even if lust was plentiful and readily available.

  Thankfully, the place was empty when I stepped inside. I locked the door, an action so unfamiliar I had the urge to recheck it to make sure it really was locked. A scalding-hot shower, fresh khakis, and a T-shirt later, I was tidying up to leave when the mirror I’d put up by the door started to glow. I advanced cautiously, every myth of black magic I’d learned in school running through my head as I approached, careful not to look directly at it.

  There was a tinkling of bells, and Dominique’s face appeared in the glass in front of me. I lowered the hand I’d been using as a shield and gaped openly as she laughed at my surprise.

  “Morning, Clayton. It is morning there, right?” I nodded dumbly, and she continued. “Good. My mistress has requested an audience with you and your alpha. She said you appeared to her last night in a dream and you need her.”

  I bristled and dropped my gaze, unsure of what I could even say to dissuade the mother of all vampires from interfering in my life or being part of it at all.

  “How is her recovery?” I asked, less interested in her convalescence than I was in keeping her across the Atlantic Ocean from me.