by May Sage
“It’s still not exactly safe,” Charles said, his eyes watching the horizon. “This territory has been claimed by shifters. They don’t like my kind, or Rain’s. We don’t have long. Look, this is my home, and I’m not going anywhere, but you,” he said, pointing to Rain’s chest, “should get the fuck out of here.”
“I’m here because of your warning,” she reminded him.
Charles sighed. “I owed a favor to Michelle. And…”
He let his voice trail off.
“And?” Luke prompted.
“And, whatever it is, I don’t think Michelle is affected. She’s too strong, or something. I could be wrong, but it’s possible that she might not have forced you to come here for the ritual.”
Rain seemed downright shocked. “You think she wants my help?”
The very notion seemed to be ludicrous to her.
Charles shrugged. "You're family. But it's not exactly like she can ask you, given your relationship. She and I will never be very close, but we have an understanding on this matter. I'm trying to dig up some intel about what's happening on my end, she's doing what she can on hers, and if one of us can protect this city, we will. But so far, we've not found much."
Fuck.
"Every day, more sups fall to the influence of that thing, whatever it is. Michelle sent for you as soon as Sara was affected. She might have thought that you'd help, if only for your sister. But in the last two days, things have changed for the worse. Hundreds of vampires lost their damn minds. I don't doubt that more witches fell. So, I'm telling you: leave while you can."
Luke and Charles both watched Rain for a long time, but no words passed her lips.
“So, what do we do now?” he finally prompted, tired of waiting.
And by that he meant, “What time should we fly back home?”
“We don’t have a choice,” Rain sighed. “We have to invite Sara for dinner.”
Right. That made sense.
Or not.
“Could we, like, not, instead?”
“We have to act like everything is fine and that means my trying to spend as much time as I can with my little sister. She’ll expect it. And hopefully, she might unintentionally give us a clue as to what’s happening. I'm not leaving while someone is controlling my little sister--both of my sisters,” she amended. "And if that thing is strong enough to take Nola, what's to say it won't come for the rest of us, anyway? We have to do something."
Luke groaned. “Right. Well, I think I should update Ace and Rye on what’s going on. Just in case.”
They were his alphas, and it sounded like something he should discuss with them. Mostly so that they would tell Rain to just come home.
Strong Magic
"Sara? Sara got possessed?" Ace yelled at the other end of the phone.
The alphas had put him on speaker so that they both could hear his report at the same time.
Luke heard her walk away, and in the distance, order someone to call Rye's father to ask if they could borrow the private jet.
Well, that wasn't exactly what he'd planned.
"Wait," said Rye, "let's not get ahead of ourselves. It's not like any of us can perform magic to a level that would be helpful to Rain. The kids are too young to do anything, and the rest of us can only kick ass. I think we should stay on standby—with the jet ready. Let's go if, or when, Rain says she needs us."
Ace didn't like that suggestion very much, but Rye did, for once, manage to convince her, appealing to her logic. "Our mental shields aren't as strong as witches'. What if we get controlled and end up fighting Rain?"
Luke frowned because, as well as making a lot of sense, that prospect was actually pretty worrying for him.
He finished his discussion with the alphas, who assured him he had their support, and would only be a phone call away. Then, he returned to the spot where he'd left Charles and Rain to find them passionately engaged in a thumb war.
"Is this really the time for this?"
"Shush. This is serious. We're determining who's going to get in touch with Michelle."
Ah, suddenly that made sense.
It seemed rather foolish of Rain to engage a vampire in a physical game, but as minutes passed, Luke noticed that she was holding her own.
"Aren't you like a billion times faster?" he asked the vampire.
Charles growled. "No. Damn witch is suppressing my strength. That was the deal."
The wrestling lasted a long time, but finally, Rain ended up nailing him down; she smiled victoriously, and just when she thought she'd won, his thumb slid out from under hers and pressed on hers firmly.
"Dammit!" she yelled. "Rematch."
"I think not," Charles scoffed, massaging his finger. "I won fair and square. Not my fault you got cocky. You contact your sister. For all we know, it's the four of us against the rest of the city. We need her to be onboard."
"Talking about that," said Luke. "Rye made a fair point when I talked to him. If paranormals are falling for that crap, it could happen to me. Or, for that matter, to you guys. How can we prevent that?"
Charles laughed. "I'm a little stronger than I appear to be, kitten. Don't you worry about me."
Of course, that made Rain laugh out loud for a good three minutes nonstop. "Kitten! That's staying, by the way."
He couldn't help it, he growled, baring his teeth.
"Aww. How cute. Kitten’s got teeny tiny little fangs."
Never mind the evil force, he was going to murder them both if they didn't stop.
"But kitten has a point, I could get roped into this mess."
"I don't think so," Charles said carefully. "There seems to be more than mere shields around you. I feel like I couldn't even influence you if I tried."
Influence. The way vampires could look into a mortal's eyes and make them think or believe whatever they wanted. The main reason why Luke really didn't like his kind.
Rain frowned.
"Really?" Carefully, she said, "I think I have an idea of what it is. But first thing first: try it out. We have to know if I'm safe."
Luke knew she was right, it was the right thing to do, but he fucking hated seeing the vampire approach her slowly, stepping right into her personal space, too close.
His cheetah wanted to tear the bloodsucker apart piece by piece when he pulled her close and whispered, "Kiss me."
A second passed.
Then Rain laughed out loud, holding her sides. "For real? Kiss me, all serious like that? That actually works?"
Charles gave her the finger. "I'll have you know that I don't typically need to enchant people to see some action, witch."
She snorted. "Yeah, right. A real lady killer."
Luke had an inkling that Charles didn't just like ladies, actually, but he didn't see why he should mention it.
"I'm all good, apparently. As for you, kitten—"
"Fuck off," he replied.
She didn't pay him any mind, "I can probably shield you, but it won't be pleasant. What we're going up against is strong, so I'll have to stack up as many shields as I'd put around a whole city, onto your mind. You're going to have a hell of a headache if we go that way."
He shrugged.
"Have at it."
She lifted her right hand, stepping back, to enter Nola's territory again.
"Come on this side," she asked him.
Then, Rain got to her knees and dug her left hand's fingers as deep as she could into the dry ground.
He'd known she was powerful. He'd felt it. His every instinct had told him she was. But in his wildest dreams, he'd never suspected that she could have that much strength in her fingertips.
A dark mist, visible to his naked eye, black as night, flew out of her palm and entered him. Luke was no weakling, but he yelled in pain. It was like bashing his head with a hammer, repetitively, harder and harder. When he thought he couldn't take anymore and fell to his knees, the torture got worse. He felt his body becoming weightless, and, in a dizzy stupor, he wonder
ed if he was dying.
Realizing he'd closed his eyes, he opened them to find that he was floating three feet up in the air, looking down at the witch and the vampire.
If he'd been able to talk, he would have begged her to stop.
But finally, his body was lowered to the ground and the power torturing his mind retreated.
"All done," Rain chirped.
Charles was wincing on his behalf.
"You alright, kitten?"
He nodded, with some effort. "Bar. Now. And gumbo. Loads of gumbo." Then, he narrowed his eyes threateningly. "Drinks are on you," he growled at Rain.
The Bayou
Rain wasn't what one would call a coward, in general, but after much deliberation, she opted to send a text to Michelle, rather than trying to arrange a meeting.
"Hey!" she wrote. "Are you still into gardening?"
In the old days, her elder sister had kept a greenhouse where she grew various plants, some for their magical properties, others simply because she liked them. Or so she said. Rain wasn't sure there wasn't some poisonous stuff out there.
Michelle had shielded the greenhouse so that no one could go in without her authorization. It was magically soundproofed and as private as anything could be inside the city.
"Yes."
The one-word answer wasn't inviting, but Rain pushed.
"Fancy meeting there?"
"Why?"
She did entirely deserve it, but still, it sucked.
"Old time's sake?"
Her sister took longer to answer now. Eventually, she sent a time, with nothing else. It was perhaps the most unfriendly and curt conversation in the history of texting.
Seven in the evening. Rain had five hours to prepare herself for the inevitable.
She stretched languorously. Another day when she had gumbo for lunch. Damn, she was going to have to actually work out if that continued.
At the other end of the table, Luke was still stuffing his face. She remembered seeing how much Ace ate and growling at her because she processed it so fast she never needed to google diets in her entire life. A shifter thing. They didn't even need to do any sort of exercise in their human forms. Their animals ran, and somehow, that meant that they stayed in shape.
Dicks.
Rain wondered out loud, "Do you need to shift?"
She knew that Luke had shifted and run out in the Lakesides forest before they left, and shifters didn't need to give in to their animal every single day, but Rain bet that, given that they'd entered a new territory—an enemy new territory, at that—his cat was just dying to sniff and maybe pee on something.
Hopefully not her shoes.
"Soon," Luke admitted. "But it may not be prudent right now. My cheetah doesn't get subtleties. If it sees Sara, it might attack."
Well, that certainly wouldn't do.
"We can go back to the bayou," she suggested. "Plenty of room and my sister isn't there. I'm meeting Michelle this evening, but we have plenty of time."
He nodded. "That'd be great. Thanks for thinking of me."
Luke smiled but said nothing more about it. She certainly wasn't entitled to all his thoughts, but Rain found herself asking, "What are you thinking about?"
"You."
Never had she been gladder to be a brown lady than she was in that moment. She felt her cheeks burn, and if her complexion had been lighter, her entire face would have been red. Her? Who even said shit like that.
"I realized my cat has never met you," he explained.
Oh, well. That was considerably less cheesy.
Good.
It was good, right?
"That should be interesting," Rain replied cautiously.
Since leaving Louisiana, she'd been around plenty of shifters, Ace, Vivicia, and others. Each animal behaved very differently; some hissed, others came for a sniff, and a rare few tiptoed to her to get a scratch. Then there was Ace's, who'd done all three in the space of a few minutes.
She wondered about Luke's cat. She couldn't imagine that it would be the goofy, welcoming kind. Luke was quiet and brooding most of the time. There was something mysterious about him, an edge she couldn't quite identify. While his dominance level was nowhere as noticeable as Rye's, Ace's, or even Daunte's, Rain didn't doubt that he could have been alpha in another pack. The Wyverns somehow managed to relatively peacefully include a dozen extremely dominant shifters; Rain suspected that it had to do with Christine's presence. As an omega, she could absorb the excess of stupid animosity dominant shifters were prone to. But typically, in packs and prides, there wasn't more than a handful of extremely strong characters like them.
And yet, while he could have been alpha, Rain wasn't surprised that he wasn't; he didn't seem to be the type. Luke was all for observing from a distance, laid back, only acting when it was absolutely necessary.
Which, of course, begged the question: why was he here at all? Volunteering for going away from the pride, into hostile territory, wasn't in his character.
The cheetah was going to be reserved and hostile, she was practically sure of it. It probably had to do with the fact that it had lost all his family, everyone who had mattered to him.
"Should I be concerned? Go prepared? I can buy some catnip balls to throw at you."
Luke narrowed his eyes. "How many times will I have to tell you that I'm no kitten, witch?"
She shrugged. "Ace loves catnip."
"Ace is half an actual cat. And she's insane."
Good point.
"And I won't attack you. Not now, not ever. Don't you ever worry about that."
Turned out, he was wrong. She did get attacked, in a manner of speaking.
Rather than taking dusty tunnels, this time Rain went to get a rental car, and drove to the bayou, remaining out of the local shifters’ way.
It was still technically their land, but no one headed out to this particular swamp, for fear of some urban legend that felt all too real when you were a paranormal.
It was said that a jilted bride had killed herself down there and that she still haunted the swamp. Probably poppycock, but no one wanted to test it out.
Rain used to steer clear, too, but hanging out with a ghost for a year had somewhat changed her perspective.
Grandma Iris rode with them in the back seat. The moment they left the city, she disappeared; Rain couldn't see her in the rear-view mirror. She still felt her presence, though.
They got to the swamp and Rain had the pleasure of watching Luke get undressed. He didn't even try to find some privacy, peeling his t-shirt from his torso and then dropping his pants. Rain almost wanted to tell him to slow down and put some music on so she could enjoy the full experience.
He went commando, of course. His kind often did, because it was fewer clothes to tear apart if they ever needed to shift in a hurry.
God bless shifters' inherent lack of modesty.
The man was ripped. And fucking hot. And very, very...big. She wasn't only talking about his hulking six-foot-three Scandinavian frame, here. If memory served, Luke had previously admitted to Viking roots.
Then her eyes had gone to his crotch, and stayed there.
"You know, it's rude to stare," he informed her, somewhat indifferently.
"I can't help it. It's basically in my face."
Not quite, but come to think of it, she wouldn't mind it in her face. Luke's dick had been limp when she first looked at it but even then, it had reached the middle of his thigh. Holy fuck. As she stared longer, it grew harder. He apparently liked it.
She bit her lip.
"Don't look at me like that, Rain Phillips," Luke said, his voice low and almost threatening. "You really aren't prepared for the backlash."
Was she getting wet? She totally was getting wet.
Fuck. Now wasn't the time, and definitely not the place, for that kind of stuff.
She forced her eyes back to his face and found that his nostrils were flaring.
Oh, fuck. She'd forgotten how sensitive shifte
rs' sense of smell was. It wasn't as strong for felines as it was for wolves, but he most definitely could smell her from their short distance, maybe ten feet apart.
Rain cleared her throat. "I'll stay near the car. You have your fun and come back when you're ready, 'kay?"
Luke nodded, before starting his shift. His eyes were the first things to change, becoming golden, and then his fingers turned to claws. He fell on his knees, landing on all fours, and his back legs made a crunching sound as his bones broke and reformed. Within moments, there was a cheetah in front of her.
She'd expected it to dash through the bayou happily for a while like Ace's cat did when she went somewhere new, but it stayed still, staring at her.
Then, the cat dropped low on the ground, preparing to pounce. Rain just had enough time to gasp when she found herself holding a five-foot-long, hundred and sixty-pound cat in her arms.
Shit, she definitely wasn't strong enough to keep this up. She fell on her ass, and the cat took that as a clue to sit on her, before starting to lick her face and rub himself against her.
What the hell?
This was not how the whole thing was supposed to go.
Realizations
Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit.
Luke stared, stunned, half in horror, half in shock, as his cheetah licked and marked his scent on Rain.
He hadn't seen it at any point. Hadn't expected it at all. But animals were smarter than their human counterparts: the cheetah had known, without the shadow of a doubt, that Rain was it. Her. Their mate.
He didn't care to explore the bayou, didn't bother to mark the territory, didn't care to check if it was safe. All that mattered to the beast was her. The female fate had designated for them.
How fucking stupid was he? Dammit. He'd been interested in her at first glance, from the very start, and not simply in a "I'd like to bang her" sort of way. He'd wanted her to be happy, safe, flourishing. Like she was important, like she was part of his pride, his family. He'd hated to see her leave. As much as he liked her, he certainly hadn't felt that way toward Vivicia, or anyone else. Just her. His Rain.