by Lucy Lyons
“Then we will be there in thought, and I’ll continue trying to trace who it was that spoke to Malcom, not to mention who tampered with the video feed and helped him escape,” Nick added.
“We’ve already taken Saber and Reno into custody,” Fin assured us. “I’m sure it won’t be too long before we get them to spill on any remaining friends we need to worry about.”
I made my way back through the hall of cells, grateful that the inhabitants all seemed to be vampires. In complete opposition to everything I’d been taught as a hunter, Nicholas and his people seemed committed to creating a peaceful existence with humans, where they could harvest their food without drawing the ire of societies like the Venatores. Pulse was the epitome of symbiotic human-vampire relations. The prison underneath housed the vampires who didn’t understand the balance and hunted instead of harvesting only the blood they needed.
I caught myself grinning as I thought of the Venatores made obsolete by the very creatures they were sworn to hunt to extinction. They’d betrayed and abandoned me, but the monsters had saved me and welcomed me as family. I hadn’t wanted it, but I was where I belonged.
Chapter Nine
Upstairs, the elevator doors slid silently open to the mundane hustle and shouts of guys who didn’t care or didn’t believe the vampires were real, who didn’t know I could turn myself into a giant wolf, but probably wouldn’t blink an eye if the truth was discovered. I waved to Pete, who was lording over the bar backs and directing the stocking of liquor by cost, expensive booze at eye level, cheap stuff behind the counter.
This was my world now. I thought about the dojo I’d applied to just down the street. Before I realized what I was doing, my feet had carried me in the opposite direction from where my car was parked, and I was only half a block from the Red Dagger Dojo. I glanced at my watch and kept going, happy to avoid facing the linen-wrapped bodies waiting on the pyre for nightfall. I shuffled in and hung back to watch a group of kids executing basic American Kenpo stances.
“You really want the job, huh?” A rasping voice startled me from my reverie. I turned and gave a small bow to Maria, the diminutive owner of the club.
“Honestly, I don’t know anymore. I wanted it so badly, but then some stuff happened at home, and I think maybe your dojo is better off without me in it.” She pursed her lips, nodded, then slid her hand behind my neck and pulled my face down to her level.
“Being a werewolf makes your life complicated, right? But you need something that isn’t werewolf, don’t you? You came here searching for something, and you owe it to yourself to keep going until you find it.” She let go, but I didn’t move, frozen by sheer shock that she knew what I was and could talk about it in such a cavalier fashion.
“Um, wait. So I have the job?” I asked when I really wanted to ask her how the hell she’d come to the knowledge of my kind.
“The kids who come here, most of them need to learn how to cope in a world that doesn’t accept and understand them. I can’t think of anyone better for the job than someone in your unique position, can you?”
“Is this where we have a discussion about how the hell you…I mean, that’s an off-the-wall statement…I…” I stammered and sputtered before giving up.
“I’m too old to be surprised by much and too powerful to be beaten by anything that isn’t getting a boost from supernatural blood. I was as impressed by your ability to tamp down and control yourself as I was with the pure joy in your face as you sparred. You’ll be a good teacher, Clayton,” she said. I stared at her, mouth gaping, and she sighed. “The Red Dagger is more than it appears, Clayton. You’ll learn much from the creatures you encounter, and all who enter know this is a safe place to be, no matter what flavor of magic is in you. It will also be easier to make sure you’re on the straight and narrow if I can keep an eye on you.”
She startled a laugh out of me, and I covered it with a cough as I replied. “I want to be here, and I want to learn everything that you and others can teach me. But I might not be able to start right away. I had a family emergency last night, and we’re still working everything out.”
Maria winked at me and touched my arm before motioning me into an empty workout room. She sat on a bench against the wall and patted the seat next to her. I obeyed and sat down next to her, gazing at the Japanese tapestries on the far wall as I waited for her to speak.
“There is darkness in the world, all around us, all the time,” she finally said, kicking her dangling feet. “You can take care of your family then come work for us,” she continued, and I opened my mouth to speak. “But,” she raised her voice and I bit my tongue, “when you come back, there are no more family emergencies that are really secrets you keep. You work for a psychic, boy. You can’t lie to me, so don’t bother trying.”
“Will do, ma’am,” I beamed. The peaceful atmosphere was just what I needed. Even the sparring kids next door were synchronized, their guttural yells as they practiced their stances choreographed perfection. I hadn’t realized how much I missed the order of the militarized hunter’s lifestyle until faced with the organized chaos of Nick and Caroline’s hive.
“And bring your people by for training. Make them give me their money.” I promised I would and stood to leave.
“I’ll be here after the full moon has passed,” I assured her.
“Watch out for that lunar eclipse. The planets that have fallen into alignment are not known for bringing good luck.” I saluted her and left, already deciding to bring Caroline to meet her when the baby was born. I dug my phone out of my pocket and texted Ashlynn to tell her I had the job. The pack was always excited when one of them passed as human well enough to hold a public position of employment. She didn’t respond, but I didn’t expect her to. She’d woken up next to me, thinking that we were finally on the same page, and I’d blown it.
I knew I was going to win the challenge. I was inevitable because I had no interest in the power or the responsibility. That left me wondering what the hell I thought I was going to do with Ashlynn, once she was mine to claim. If we couldn’t bond as a mated couple, we were both in for a long, agonizing existence as the leaders of our pack.
I tried Bernie next, then Dirk and Rae after him. When no one answered, my irritation turned to worry. I texted the professor, knowing that even if I was in the doghouse with the pack, my old teacher would always reply.
By the time I’d reached the car and was heading out of town, the phone was still silent. I stifled the urge to call the club, knowing that if I did, there was no way it wouldn’t get back to Caroline. I was going to have nightmares about the image of her and Nicholas at the whim of Malcolm the maniac as it was. I would never put either of them in that kind of danger again.
My feet got heavier and heavier as I left the city behind and headed toward the mountain. My ribs pressed down on my racing heart, and I prayed harder than I had in a long time. Just let everyone be OK, and I’ll find a way to attend mass again. Please don’t let anything have happened while I was away, I thought, tempted to pray aloud just in case it would help.
I stopped by the campground and found it a veritable ghost town. Doors were open, gently swinging on their hinges. The pyre sat in the center of the clearing, but the wolves were gone. I raced into Ashlynn’s cabin and found it in greater disarray than it had been at the end of the fight the night before, and I felt something snap inside me. I picked up the table and flung it across the room, a howl of rage and fear tearing its way out of my throat.
The doorway yawned at an angle in front of me, and I stumbled out into the bright sunshine of the cloudless day, right into Ashlynn’s waiting arms.
“Oh, Clay. Oh, lover, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry,” she murmured as I clung to her, unmanly tears brimming on my eyelids. “After last night, everyone agreed to move into the long houses you built. They wanted to start fresh.”
I shook her off and rolled my shoulders, glaring over her shoulder at the others who had ridden back to camp with her.
>
“I called and texted everyone, even the prof. When I got here and doors were hanging open, our dead were missing…” my voice trailed off, and I tried again after a deep breath. “I thought the other alpha had come for you while I was gone or that Chronos sent his Renfields.”
“No reception at the new digs. We’ll have to take care of that. I won’t let anyone be put through that again.” She was looking at me thoughtfully, forcing me to meet her eyes, but I felt like a fool and took off for my cabin.
“Why is my cabin open then?” I asked as I got within a few paces. I glanced back over my shoulder at Ashlynn, who smiled wanly and shrugged.
“Surprise, I moved your stuff for you already. We, uh, we voted and decided you needed a better place than you’d probably choose, since you worked so hard…” she cleared her throat. “Yeah, so you’re all moved in.” The other wolves shuffled and looked anywhere but at me.
“You packed and moved my belongings?”
She shrugged and chuckled, “Well, you hadn’t really ever unpacked, so it was fairly easy to do.”
“Yeah,” I stammered, “it was just easier to go straight from the clean bag to the dirty bag to the laundromat.”
“Oh, so you’re lazy, not just ready to cut bait and run at the drop of a hat?” she chastised me.
“Yup, pretty much. I do all my laundry at the hive. But there were some shorts and boxers in the dresser. I put them there yesterday.”
Ashlynn smiled broadly and shrugged. “Got those too.”
“Hey, Ash, you should take Clay to see the new place. We’ll just finish up here,” one of the guys offered. I agreed and gestured Ashlynn ahead of me to the car.
The drive to the new buildings was quiet, and I fought the urge to ask her how much we would have to finish while trying to live there. I didn’t have to wait long to find out as we pulled up to the new campsite in a cloud of sawdust. I saw Dirk hanging from the side of the long house helping someone on the inside install a window, and the professor and Henny were both applying the sealant to the seams between the roughhewn logs.
Above the double door on the end of the building was the largest of the rooms with a tall window that was also being fitted with glass. Everyone had a job to do, and not a single member of the pack was sitting still.
“We built a new pyre first. Our first fire will be for Lisette and Allan and Timo, and our first night here will be as one pack, unified. No challenges have been given, and no duels will have been fought on this earth, and none ever will be.” She pointed to the smaller ring we’d cleared at her command. “All fights will be met in there.”
“Even when I fight you?” I asked, and she managed a curt nod. “I hope we get to break it in then. When we’re done, anyone else who steps into the ring will be under the shadow of how epic we were together.”
She slugged me in the arm and laughed. “I don’t know whether I should love you or hate you.”
“Don’t hate me. I deserve it, but after what I felt seeing your cabin all torn up, I couldn’t stay if I knew I’d made you hate me.” I met her eyes, and she flushed prettily. The rose in her cheeks made her eyes glow brighter, and I followed the pink hue down to the plunging neckline of her halter top. “Yeah,” I added huskily, “life would really suck if you hated me.”
When my eyes met hers again, my body and my beast responded in unison to the anticipation and need she tried to mask with a flutter of her long, dark lashes. We would fight, because that was the way of our people. When it was over and I held down in submission for all to see, I’d claim her and take my place at her side. I wasn’t in love with her, but what I did feel was too primal and too demanding for me to deny it any longer. I wanted her strong, athletic body wrapped around me as much as I wanted to chase our prey through the woods again and bring it down together in perfect synchronicity. My place was at the head of the pack, where I could protect the innocent and keep my people free.
Chapter Ten
“Now that I know you aren’t all dead, I have news for you,” I blurted, tugging her toward the professor, Rae, and Henny.
“I saw. You got the job you wanted at the Red Dagger. Now that you’re in and you can say nobody pulled strings for you, you should know. Maria’s a witch,” she announced, and I gave her the side-eye.
“Yeah, she’s something, that’s for sure. We talked.” I knew that “witch’ didn’t really cover whatever I’d felt from Maria, but I refused to say any more until we were all together. Still, Ashlynn threaded her fingers through mine, and I slowed to match her pace. The longhouses were nearly finished, and even with the work still needed, we’d easily and comfortably sleep inside the fragrant cedar walls until we were done.
The bright sunshine and lack of even the usual Pacific Northwest puffy, white clouds of summer was in stark contrast to the darkness we’d survived just hours before, including the evil within that we’d released ourselves. Dirk dropped down from the harness he’d been hanging in, and Rae and the professor closed up the pails of caustic, tar-like sealant and joined us. Henny was already seated in lotus pose, taking a break from the work, so we joined her and I explained to them what I’d seen and heard at Pulse.
“So Malcolm was broken out of vampire jail and went straight for Caroline,” Dirk reiterated. I saw Bernie and Roger talking in the parking lot, and I waved them over.
“Exactly.” I waited until the brothers joined us to continue. “And there’s more. I saw the video of him talking to the mirror, and the mirror was glowing,” I told them as Bernie squatted next to us, and Roger stood behind him. “The same thing happened to me this morning, and it was Dominique, asking me to meet with her new mistress.”
“You think Dominique was trying to kill Caroline and Nick or us?” Henny gasped, and I pursed my lips and carefully framed my words. I wasn’t about to start a war with the source of all vampire power if I could help it.
“If, and I do mean if, it was Dom and not another witch, I would suggest it’s more likely that she saw him as an imminent threat and used us to remove him because she’s too far away. Onyxis just helped Nick and Caroline get pregnant, and from all accounts, she was ecstatic to do so.”
“Dominique has always been better at the spy game than honesty,” the prof suggested, and Henny made a sound of irritation.
“The good lady does look out for number one, that’s for certain,” she huffed. “No one on earth matters more to that woman than herself.”
I wondered if that had finally changed. She was adamant in her protection of the recovering vampire queen, and if she was manipulating us, it was probably to eliminate her mistress’ enemies without letting them near them.
“Either way, he was of Chronos’ lineage, and we have to expect that the master vampire will fight back even if we find and stop any others hiding among Nick’s people,” Ashlynn asserted, and I seconded her statement.
“Moving early might have been an even better idea than we first realized. In that case, though, we need to get everything we want and cover our trail so we don’t lead an enemy right to our brand-spanking new door,” I acknowledged. “How many can you spare, Ash?” I stopped myself before I overstepped my current authority any further, but Bernie caught my eye and gave me a smirk.
“Actually, son, I could use your help, if that works, Ashlynn?” She nodded, and I stood up and brushed bits of grass and twigs off my pants. I followed the grizzled old wolf away from the rest of the group, waiting until we were on the other side of the longhouse before speaking again.
“Do you have any other questions you wanted me to answer, Bernie?” I asked as I picked up a narrow roller and started applying sealant as I’d seen Rae doing it.
“I think there’s somebody in camp who still isn’t loyal to the alpha, Clay.” I started to argue, but he held up a hand to silence me. “Not you, dumb buck. You’ve got one thing on your mind right now, and it’s neither a mystery or, ah, politically motivated,” he scoffed.
“Wow. Now I’m a little em
barrassed.”
“Don’t be. If I was young, single, and had about ten times the stamina…” I choked on the fumes and my laughter.
“That was an image I didn’t need.” I coughed again and spat into the grass, trying to get the taste out of my mouth. “What the hell is this stuff, and how are people supposed to sleep in it?”
“It’s a Henny and co. concoction. It doesn’t smell when it’s dry, thank God, and it does keep the skeeters out.” He slathered more of the mixture into the seams between the logs and I followed suit, working side by side with him in the warm glow of the afternoon sun for a little while before I spoke again.
“So, what makes you think that we didn’t stop the usurper last night?” I flicked the roller into the almost empty pail and leaned against the dry wood of the longhouse. He smiled sadly and set his roller down on the gravel, rubbing his hands on his pants and taking a few deep breaths before answering.
“Because I saw my brother talking to a damned glowing mirror this morning, and the person on the other side was sure as hell not that hot sorceress of yours.” His eyes were rimmed in red, and he sniffed as he stood, feet planted hands on his hips, like some old cowboy about to deliver justice.
“We’ll take it as it comes, Bernie, but if the enemy already knows we’re here…”
“We need to call that queen and tell her we’re in is what we need to do. I didn’t want to start a witch hunt, and I don’t want to scare anyone unnecessarily. But we got to do what’s best for everyone, even if that means making a few sacrifices.”