Balance

by Leia Stone

  “Why would you hurt your own wife?” Max asked him.

  Alek sighed. “Because she’s human. I have no source of food and I don’t want to do anything in a blood craze.”

  “What’s a blood craze?” I asked, aware that we were pretty much interrogating him at this point and I felt pretty shitty about it.

  “A blood craze is when a vampire becomes so thirsty they will feed off of and drain the life from any living thing in their vicinity. Rats, goats, humans … it doesn’t matter,” Alexa said from behind me.

  I was so enthralled in his story, I didn’t smell her approach.

  Alek looked at her with curiosity.

  “That’s right,” he confirmed. “But I can control it. I’ve done it before. I didn’t come here for blood.”

  Having worked for RAIDOS, Alexa knew a lot about the supernatural community. I knew asking her to come would be a smart idea. RAIDOS was now our enemy and she should be brought up to speed on all new developments.

  “Can you control it?” Max looked at him skeptically.

  Alek raised his hands. “You caught me. I’m here to drain all of your blood. I walked into your hundred-strong den with a heroin junkie teenager. That’s my big plan,” he said, sarcastically.

  “Look, we’re just trying to understand why you’re here,” I told him, trying to hide my smile at the way he shot down Max.

  Alek shook his head. “I’m sorry, this has all gotten derailed. I’m not thinking clearly. I haven’t fed in three days. Look, we came to give you information about the queen. The kid knows stuff. He was turned two days ago and he heard things. I thought we had a common goal, but if you don’t want our help, we can leave.” Alek grabbed the kid by the shirt collar and turned to leave. The queen was Alek’s word for Layla. I wondered why he wouldn’t say her name.

  “Hold on,” Kai told him and Alek stopped, turning to face us.

  The teenager scratched his arms. “But I’m not telling nothing unless you give me some blood.” He fixed Kai with a glare.

  God, he must have been sixteen years old. Some mother was probably roaming the streets looking for this kid.

  “Fair enough,” Kai said and the kid’s face relaxed. “Let’s all go to the barn.” Kai led them away from the check point.

  Max grabbed Kai’s arm. “I don’t like this. Since when do we supply vampires with blood?”

  Kai grabbed Max’s shoulders. “Since now. Times have changed and we need to adapt to survive.” Then he walked away and we all followed.

  Blood

  Kai made a clean cut on his wrist and positioned it over a small glass. It began to fill with blood. Frowning, I decided I was never using that glass again. Ick.

  The teenager’s nostrils flared and he tried to launch across the table, but Alek pulled him by the back of the neck mid-air and slammed him down hard on the table top. The teenager was breathing in through his nose and hyperventilating. Jesus.

  “Be patient, child! Our host’s generosity will run out if you attack him,” Alek told him through gritted teeth.

  The kid whimpered.

  After filling the cup, Kai bandaged his wrist and handed the glass to the kid. “Is that enough?” Kai asked as the teen greedily gulped the blood.

  Alek frowned slightly and swallowed hard. “Yes, that will be enough for now. Thank you.”

  “What about you? I need you clear-headed and well fed if you’re staying on my land around my females,” Kai told him and went to cut his other wrist.

  I stopped Kai’s hand. “No, that’s too much. I’ll do it.” Was he stupid? Werewolves died of blood loss. I wasn’t going to let him stand here and give two glasses away.

  “No, you won’t. Vampires need your blood for other reasons, remember?” he ordered me and looked at Max. They were conversing in their heads, I could tell.

  Max threw his arms up. “Fine! Why not? These are the good cuddly teddy bear vampires, right? Let’s help them,” Max joked, reaching for the knife.

  Before Max could do anything, Alexa grabbed the knife and slashed her wrist, holding it over the empty cup that the teenager had drained.

  Kai stared at her with his mouth open. “Alexa!”

  She was a wild card, I had to admit. After things had settled after Layla bit me, we tested Alexa’s pack rank. She was fourth behind Max. She was very dominant and did what she wanted most of the time but respected Kai’s authority.

  She shrugged. “It’s not a big deal.” The cup was filled and Alexa watched in fascination as her wrist healed. “Cool,” she said. She was still a werewolf newbie.

  The teenager was panting now and his pupils were pulsing. “I want the other kind of blood,” he whimpered to Alek.

  Alek shook his head. “No,” he stated firmly.

  Alexa handed him her cup. “Bottoms up,” she said. He bowed slightly before taking it back in three big gulps. His pupils shrank, his cheeks were pink, and he stood taller.

  “Thank you, I feel much better,” Alek said politely.

  As a human, I had struggled with low blood sugar issues. I was always snacking. Sometimes I got dizzy or grumpy or confused if I didn’t eat. I wondered if that was how vampires got, too.

  “So, you have some information for us.” Kai stared at the kid.

  The kid wiped his red-tinged mouth on his sleeve.

  “Yeah, well, I was at a house party a few days ago and some really pale chicks showed up with some smack.”

  I looked at Kai in confusion.

  ‘Heroin,’ he told me.

  The kid went on. “I smoked weed a bunch of times but never did hard stuff. I wasn’t interested, but one of the chick’s made me. Her eyes went all purple and she sweet talked me into it. The second the high hit me … she attacked me. Bit me.” His hand flew to his neck rubbing the spot where he was once bitten.

  Kai, Alek, Alexa, Max, and I all had the same look on our faces. Rage. This was not okay! Bringing drugs and forcing them on teenagers in a house party was not okay. Mist began to creep off my skin and I took a deep breath to calm myself. I wanted to blast the roof off of this barn! If I was feeling wishy-washy about killing the vampires before, this cemented my belief that they needed to be wiped out. Everyone associated with Layla’s drug-running clan would die. Anger rolled off of Kai and rippled through the entire pack bond.

  I cleared my throat. “Go on.”

  He scratched his arms again; they were streaked red but quickly healed. “Well, I felt like I was dying. She wasn’t letting go of me. I got dizzy. Right before I blacked out, she said something about wanting to keep me. That I was sexy. She dripped her blood into my mouth.”

  Alek interjected, “Get to the part when you woke up and heard the queen talking.”

  The kid slicked his hair back with a shaky hand and then sighed. “So, I wake up in a medical type of room and the door’s open. They don’t even know I’m awake. But I hear voices coming from the next room. This lady is screaming and freaking out on some doctor for killing her baby. He calls her Queen Layla. He calms her down and says if she gives him one more chance, he can give her a full-term healthy baby. He tells her that her body was too cold to carry the child and that’s why she miscarried. But he says something about her eggs being good. That it worked. He tells her to get more fertile blood and to kidnap a female werewolf to incubate her fetus in. He says a human will be too weak. A werewolf will stay warm but can regenerate.”

  Holy Shit. Oh, holy mother effing shit. It’s like time had stopped. I stood there staring at this kid in shock. I wanted to say a million things but nothing came out. My mouth was opening and closing like a fish out of water. Kai had enough peace of mind to ask a good question.

  “When was that? When you heard the doctor and the queen?”

  “I dunno, like, sometime yesterday? Day and night are weird now that I can’t go out in the sun. I ran off after that. I saw her feed off of him and I knew what I was. I had an insatiable thirst for blood but I didn’t want to hurt anyone, so I ran to t
he nearest blood bank. Found this guy.” He motioned to Alek.

  Alek looked sadly at the boy. “And I’m going to help you live the best life you can.”

  The kid scratched his arms again. “I wanna go home. I want more smack.” His leg kept bopping up and down.

  Kai’s voice was deadly calm. “Where was this? Where was the lady who talked about her baby?”

  The kid shrugged. “I was delusional. Somewhere in Pearl District, a warehouse.”

  Kai and I met each other’s eyes, but Alek shook his head.

  “She’s too smart. She will know he fled. She will leave.”

  Kai ordered Alexa to go send a team to check, anyway. Pearl District was in Portland. We could be there in an hour. Layla had done something to make it so we couldn’t smell her clan, even with hundreds guarding Emma and me, she was able to sneak through. None of her vampires could be smelled and it was so damn frustrating. The dark witch, Prudence, who worked with her was most likely responsible for it.

  The teenager scratched his arms. “I need more blood. That wasn’t enough! I need the good stuff. You said you would help me get it.” He looked at Alek with a murderous gaze.

  Alek looked at Kai. “I’m going to need a steel reinforced cage,” he said calmly.

  The kid whipped his head in Alek’s direction and hissed. Crouching down, he jumped up five feet in the air and slammed down on the table, crushing it. Max and Alek each reached out and took an arm, but the kid threw them off quickly. The large werewolf and vampire both sailed through the air and slammed into the nearby wall like a sack of bricks. Holy shit, this kid was strong! I wished we had Anna. Max and Alek were both groaning on the ground, so Kai and I slowly stalked towards the boy. My hand snaked out and I put a firm grip on his neck, essentially choking him. Tough love, right? Kai pinned his shoulders down and Max limped over to grab the kid’s ankles.

  “We want to help you,” I told the kid and loosened my grip when I was sure Kai and Max could handle him.

  Alek stood shaking his head, seemingly to clear the daze of being tossed across the room. “Newly changed and jonesing for smack blood makes them very strong. If I can keep feeding him clean blood for the next week, he will be fine. If we let him loose, he will murder, steal, and God knows what else to get what he wants.”

  “Get off me, assholes! I thought you were going to help me! You said you would help!” He struggled against Kai’s and Max’s grip, so I slipped in to help hold him. His scream was a wail now.

  Jesus.

  ‘Kai, we have to help him.’

  Kai growled. ‘I know. God dammit! This is the last thing I need. A vampire caged in our basement for a week. Feeding him powerful Alpha blood. Who knows what that will do?’

  ‘He’s just a kid,’ I added.

  “I have cages in my basement,” Kai said aloud.

  Max had an elbow on the kid’s chest, pinning him down. “This could be a trap. Don’t let them live with you and keep tabs on you. They’re vampires!” he roared.

  Kai looked at him for a long while until Max lowered his eyes.

  “Times are changing, brother. We have united with the humans and now with a few vampires. If they do anything that makes me suspicious, I’ll kill them both.” This time Kai looked at Alek.

  “Fair enough,” Alek said, nodding.

  *

  After getting them set up in the basement and enduring Max’s bitching, Kai called the council and told them to put all female werewolves on lockdown. To spread the news of what we heard tonight.

  Later, as Kai and I were getting ready for bed, I turned to him. “You think they will listen? The other packs?”

  Reaching his arms up, Kai took his shirt off in one quick move and sighed. “Alphas don’t like being told what to do. If they are smart they will listen. Some won’t. Some aren’t even on the council’s radar. We can’t reach everyone.”

  “She’s winning.” I glared at the blank wall behind Kai trying not to let the depression settle over me.

  Kai reached out and pulled me closer to him; his warmth comforted me.

  “We’re getting closer to catching her. We have more information now.” He was the eternal optimist.

  I nodded but still felt unsettled. I wouldn’t sleep well again until Layla was wiped from the earth. Was that the Devi’s thought? Or mine? It was hard to tell. Kai placed a kiss on my forehead. “Shhh.”

  “I wish I could turn my brain off,” I confessed.

  He gave me a sexy, lopsided grin. “How about I distract you?”

  I smiled and his hand expertly roamed my body as he pulled me in for a toe-curling kiss. No matter what was happening in the world, this was where I was meant to be.

  Avery

  The next morning passed slowly until Kai came home from checking in with some of the Portland wolves.

  “How’s everything in Portland?” I asked, eager for gossip from anywhere off of the mountain.

  “Portland pack is good, they confirmed the blood banks were burned down and that vampire club activity has lessened. Either the vampires are becoming wary of our attacks or they have gone into hiding.”

  A sigh escaped my lips.

  Kai looked me in the eyes. “I see an opportunity, with so many of Alek’s kind without blood ...”

  I squinted, sifting through the mate bond until I got his meaning. “We have to ask the militia. They’ve given so much to us already.”

  “I know,” Kai stated. “Barn meeting in fifteen minutes.” He crossed the room in a few quick strides and was out the door again.

  *

  I stood in the barn with Max and Alek as Earl walked in slowly with Kai, Alexa, and another militia member. He was tall and muscular, his head was buzzed clean, and he had an American flag tattoo on his forearm.

  Kai introduced everyone to Alek. “This is Alek. He’s a vampire and he’s here to help us. He’s given us very valuable and distressing information that we need to talk about.”

  Earl kept his eyes on Alek, sizing him up.

  “I’m Earl, leader of the Pacific North Militia, this is Todd, my second.”

  I grinned at Earl. He was showing us that his militia was his pack. He was Alpha and Todd was second. I really liked him.

  Todd saluted us. “Senior Chief Todd Renault, United States Navy.”

  Did Max just roll his eyes? I had to suppress a smile.

  “Good to have you, Chief. Let’s get down to business,” Kai told them. “We have a situation. Most vampires are a part of Layla’s North American vampire clan. They import heroin and kill humans for sport. But a small percentage, like Alek, either drink blood from willing donors or from a blood bank.”

  Earl and Todd shared a look I couldn’t interpret.

  Alek took over. “Layla burned those blood banks to the ground recently and now we have all of those vampires without their source of food. They will be weak and suggestible. They might even join up with Layla again, if it means they can have a food source.”

  Earl gave a low whistle. “How many of your kind are there?”

  Alek looked uncomfortable with sharing numbers. “About ten thousand across the United States that I know of.”

  Earl’s face was lined with worry. “That’s a lot of vampires to feed.”

  Alek laughed. “That’s nothing compared to Layla’s clan. If we can supply these vampires with donor blood, they will do whatever we want as repayment.”

  Kai looked eager. “Wouldn’t hurt to have ten thousand vampires on our side.”

  Alexa interjected, “The human media is all over us now. We need to be careful about publically siding with vampires. Even if they appear nice.”

  Kai nodded. “Agreed. We will do it in secret.”

  Earl nodded. “I will hold a vote with my people.”

  Kai thanked him and he left.

  “You gonna let us vote?” Max asked Kai with a smile.

  Kai smirked at his friend. “Nope, we’re doing it.” He placed a hand on Max’s shoulder.<
br />
  Max threw his hands up. “Great, bon appétit for the blood suckers.”

  Alek glared at Max. “If it makes you feel any better, we much rather human blood. Werewolf blood tastes like dog.” Then Alek turned on his heels and left the barn.

  I stifled a laugh. “Max, you hurt his feelings.”

  Max shrugged. “He’s a vampire, Aurora.”

  Kai growled softly. “He’s my guest.” Kai left to go after Alek and Alexa went to check in on Emma, leaving me alone with Max.

  Max rolled his eyes. “I could tell you stories of Kai back in the day. He hated vampires. This new Kai is weird.”

  I chuckled. “Be nice.”

  After leaving Max at the barn, I decided to go back home and take a nap. Being pretty much held captive on the mountain, had left me with zero entertainment options. I was bored as hell. Pulling Luna into our bed, I knew Kai would yell at me later for it. He hated her scent on our sheets. Oh well. Luna’s deep purr rattled against my chest and helped me drift into a peaceful sleep.

  ‘Wake up! Get to Emma’s. It’s happening. She’s in labor. Coming fast.’ Kai’s voice slammed into my sleeping state and jarred me awake.

  I leapt out of bed and whacked my leg on the corner of a chair piled with laundry. “Oww!” I cried out while wriggling into clothes and then took off running out the front door, nearly plowing Max over.

  “Emma’s in labor!” I screamed as Max watched me zoom by.

  “Good luck!” Max screamed after me.

  ‘Is she okay? The baby?’ I asked Kai, my feet pounded the forest floor as I ran faster than ever before.

  ‘Baby’s fine, she’s fine. Diya says all is going well other than she is dilating very fast,’ Kai informed me calmly.

  I flew across her lawn with vampire speed, a gift Kai and I shared. After throwing open the door, I ran back to the guest room, which was set up as a birthing room. Emma hadn’t set foot in the master bedroom since Devon died.

  Resting inside the door frame, I let my breathing settle from the run and surveyed the scene. Diya was wearing green scrubs and white gloves. She was tinkering with a baby warming bed and setting out towels.