Chapter 21
Melissa halted at the low, long cry of pain, her blood chilling in her veins.
“Oh, my God, that’s Hunter,” she gasped, and started to run.
Her brother caught up with her, pulling her to a stop. “Be smart, Mel. We can’t just burst in on a Light Warrior Prime. We have to find out what’s going on first.” His head twisted to the side, and he hesitated for a moment.
“We have to hurry, Dave,” Melissa pleaded, trying to drag her brother along. “That is my mate, and he needs me, needs us.”
Dave held a gloved finger to his lips, then rolled his hand. Melissa frowned. He wanted her to shush, but...keep talking? Dave backed up the tunnel, and made a beak with his hand, opening and closing it. Keep talking.
Melissa frowned in confusion, but did as her brother instructed. “I—” Her mind went blank. She normally didn’t have a problem talking, but talking on cue took the spontaneity out of a conversation. Dave frowned, his beak-hand flapping open and closed faster.
“I love him,” she stated abruptly. “I love Hunter, and I want to help him. I intend to spend the rest of my life with him. He’s...not perfect, I’ll admit—but then, neither am I.”
Dave backed up against the wall just before a bend, and nodded. She continued. “I know he can be a little impulsive—but we can all be guilty of that sometimes, right?” She eyed her brother. “He’s a good man. He’s been hurt, and he’s had to live with a cruel father, so I understand he’s—adapted.” That was probably the nicest way she could frame it. “But, Dave, he’s strong, and—believe it or not—he’s fiercely loyal, and very protective. He may sometimes get it wrong showing it,” she admitted, “but I realize now, deep down, he’s doing what he thinks is the best for those he loves.” She hesitated. “And I would do the same,” she admitted. “I would do the same crazy crap if it meant protecting—”
Dave whipped his hand out, grasping the arm of the person who had crept up to the corner of the tunnel, and slammed them back against the wall.
Amelie Galen gasped, her arms coming up to grasp the lapels of Dave’s leather jacket.
Dave relaxed his grip immediately, but didn’t let her go. “What are you doing?” he asked Hunter’s mother calmly.
Amelie looked between the harsh expression of Dave, and over to Melissa, before swinging her gaze back to the big man who held her, gently but implacably, against a wall.
“I’m helping you,” Amelie responded.
Dave arched an eyebrow. “By following us like a shadow, creeping along behind us?”
Amelie lifted her chin toward Melissa. “Griffin says she is my son’s bond mate. I can’t see the link, but I figure she’s using it to track down Hunter. I want to help you save my son.”
Dave pursed his lips for a moment, then grimaced. “And just how do you think your other son would view my taking his mother to a fight with a deranged light warrior, hmm?”
Amelie arched her eyebrow, and her eyes flashed red, ever so briefly. “I’m not defenseless. I ran away once, and left my sons in Arthur’s hands, and that decision will haunt me forever. I will not do it again. I will not let that bastard kill any of my children.”
“This is wasting time,” Melissa interrupted. “She is responsible for her own decisions, Dave. Let her come, if she wants, but either way, let’s go.”
Dave let go of Amelie, stepping back with his gloved hands up. “Fine. But we do this my way. My rules. No innocents get harmed. Understand?” Amelie nodded, but Dave stepped closer. “That means you don’t go off on some bloodlust craze,” he said quietly. “Arthur had both lycans and vamps working together for him. The only way that happens is if they’re compelled. They aren’t in control of their actions.”
Amelie nodded again. “Understood.”
Dave nodded, satisfied, then strode toward Melissa. “Okay, sis, you’re up. Show us where this mate of yours is.” He shook his head as he fell into step alongside her.
“What?” Melissa asked.
“I can’t believe you fell for the firebug. The guy tried to kill you.”
Melissa nodded. “And I chained him to a wall for five months. Neither of us is proud of what we did to each other.”
“How the hell did you go from putting your little pyromaniac in chains to becoming bonded mates?”
“Long story,” Melissa replied, as she broke into a jog, following the twisted ribbons of color through the darkness.
“I look forward to hearing it, when this is all over,” Dave whispered, then pulled her against the wall as they came up to an intersection. Amelie followed suit. He crept up to the corner and peered around the brick wall. He quickly jerked back, then leaned over so that his lips were close to her ear. “I think we’ve found him.”
He silently shuffled back so Melissa could take her place at the front, and she peered around.
Her mouth opened in a silent gasp of horror. It looked like the back alley of a row of what used to be restaurants. At the far end was a courtyard, braziers burning. A group of men were clustered about—vamps, vagrants, some Darkken...and a lycan? All either sat on the bench seats to watch the proceedings, or gathered for a closer view. An unconscious Hunter was chained up on a wall, his feet dangling three feet from the ground. Even from here, she could see the bloodstains on his white shirt, almost black in the dim light. She covered her mouth to stop from screaming, and watched as Arthur held out his arms, light arcing from his hands to the son chained to the wall.
Hunter’s body flinched and jerked, his skin glowing, until finally his eyes opened, and he glared, gasping at his father.
The light flickered from Arthur’s fingertips, extinguishing as the older man smiled triumphantly.
“Ah, much better. Now we can start all over again.”
Melissa recoiled, darting back behind the brick wall. “We have to do something,” she whispered to her brother.
Dave nodded. “If we make a move on Armstrong or Hunter, that little posse out there will take action. We’ll have to take out Armstrong’s men first.”
“How? There’s at least a mixed dozen out there. I can’t touch them all at once.” Melissa’s favorite weapon was her sleep spell, but it usually required physical contact. “You’re strong, but even you can’t knock them all out at the same time with a spell.”
Dave nodded. “So we’ll have to go with shock and awe.” He turned to Amelie. “When you metamorphosed, did you retain any of your light force?”
Amelie shook her head. “No, I fed it all to my son, to keep him alive during my death, and then the rest of the pregnancy. I’m just a vampire now.”
Dave shook his head. “You’re never ‘just’ something. Okay, here’s what we’ll do.”
He quickly outlined a plan. Melissa’s eyebrows rose. She knew her brother could be ballsy, but this was out there, even for him. They were outnumbered, and possibly outpowered with the full force of a Warrior Prime.
Dave grasped her shoulders. “That’s your bond mate out there, Mel. You can do this.”
She nodded. She could. Or she’d die trying.
* * *
Hunter stiffened, waiting for the hot poker to again burn through him. He glared at his father. The man was sick, and if anything, Hunter was so appalled by his actions, so disgusted, he took a small measure of comfort knowing he could never do what his father did, could never be his father’s son. His body ached, but Arthur had healed his wounds so that he could start the torture all over again. He didn’t know how long this would last for, but he was determined not to show his father his pain, or his worry for his mate. He’d left Melissa alone. He smiled bitterly. Based on his experience, he’d been so worried that she would walk out on him. He’d never once thought he’d be the one to walk out on her.
His gaze dropped to the curling, ethereal ribbons
waving and fluttering from his chest. His father hadn’t noticed it, couldn’t see it. His father had no idea Melissa had become his bonded mate. Thank God. If Arthur knew, he’d go after Melissa in order to discourage any claim to his fortune. At least he would die knowing that she’d be protected from his father’s cruel attention.
As though responding to his thoughts, the ribbons brightened a little. He saw them shift direction. They wavered, rising at an angle, then falling, but all the time transferring from his right side to his left. Uh, what was going on?
“Now, where were we?” Arthur said conversationally, the rod with the glowing tip in his gloved hand. “Ah, yes. I was telling you what a colossal failure you were.” His features hardened. “How dare you think you can box me up?”
“Well, you boxed me up, I’d call that fair.”
Hunter’s head swiveled at the sound of the feminine voice, his eyes widening as he watched his mother walk down the alley behind the tavern’s outdoor area. She wore that leather coat, the one that flared out like a long dress, her booted heels clicking on the surface of the road.
Arthur turned, his expression surprised for a moment. “Amelie.”
She smiled, arms out to the side as she inclined her head in a courtly manner. “In the flesh, so to speak.”
Arthur’s eyes narrowed, and he scanned the area. “Where is that white freak of yours?”
Amelie’s expression hardened. “My son doesn’t share my consideration for Hunter,” she admitted. “It’s just me.”
Arthur rolled his eyes, lowering the iron poker to lean on it like a walking stick. “Come, Amelie, do you honestly think I’d believe you’d come here alone, to face me?”
Her lips curled in contempt. “Oh, you don’t scare me, you pathetic little man. Always using others to do your dirty work for you.” She gestured to the men she passed as she entered the dead garden area. “Look around you. None of these men are loyal to you. None of these men care whether you live or die. You’ve had to compel them to follow you, to do your bidding. A true leader doesn’t lead by trickery, Arthur—but that’s something your tiny little brain couldn’t quite grasp, isn’t it? Seeing as you can’t get your way by any other method...”
Arthur’s lips tightened, and his eyes narrowed. “Why are you here?”
“I’m here to save my son,” Amelie said, as though it was obvious.
Hunter turned his fists in the cuffs. He had no idea what the hell was going on, but this—His brain was grappling to process his mother and father, in the same spot, after all these years.
Arthur chuckled. “And how exactly do you plan to do that? You—against all of us, against me?” He shook his head, incredulous. “It hardly seems fair.”
“I’m offering a trade,” Amelie said, her hands on her hips. She glanced around at the men, shifted a little as they started to edge closer. “Let my son go, and you can have me.”
Arthur set the iron poker against the wall, and folded his arms. “And why would I do that?”
“Because you can’t stand the fact that I walked away,” Amelie said, her voice succinct. “I left you. Can you imagine what your peers would say to that if they knew? How would that affect your standing with them, Arty?”
“Don’t call me that,” Arthur growled.
Amelie lowered her head to glare at her former husband. “Let my son go, Arty. Take me instead. I’m sure there are some lessons you think you can teach me.”
“Why would I let him go, when I now have both of you?”
Amelie smiled derisively. “You never really had me, Arty.”
Arthur sneered, and Hunter noticed the bond link move again. It fluttered, it writhed and it moved. Arthur held up his hands, and Hunter grasped hold of the chains above his wrists, gritting his teeth against the burn.
“No,” he yelled.
Fireballs appeared on Arthur’s palms, growing, expanding, roiling. The older man smirked. “This is going to be such fun.” He threw the balls at Amelie, and Hunter roared in panic.
The fireballs smashed against some invisible barrier, roiling back in a wall of flame that flung Arthur back against the wall.
Hunter reacted, entwining his legs around Arthur’s neck. He heard cries and grunts, registered the flare of fire, but concentrated on keeping his legs—and his father—exactly in the position they were. He glanced up briefly.
His mother was moving in a blur, her dark coat whirling as she dodged the men. She went after all the vampires, snapping their necks in lightning-fast moves that would put a light warrior to shame.
Arthur struggled against his legs, using his hands and twisting this way and that to try to break free. “Fight,” he wheezed to his men. “Kill them.”
Hunter tightened his hold, gritting his teeth against the searing pain in his wrists, fists and neck. Then he heard the chanting.
Melissa strode down the alley from the opposite direction, arms out, eyes focused on Arthur as she spoke some sort of spell. Meanwhile a tall, broad-shouldered man wearing biker leathers and sunglasses ran up to one of the homeless humans and jumped, landing with a heavy punch to the jaw.
Hunter froze, muscles clenched. Melissa. He’d thought never to see her again, and he had to blink to make sure he wasn’t zoned out in some fantasy again. She was here, and she was coming for him. She’d had the opportunity to walk away, to leave, but here she was, facing off against his father and the shadow breeds who terrified her. For him.
God, he loved this woman.
One of the men snarled, his eyes beginning to glow as he stripped his shirt from his body and toed off his shoes. Even as he slid out of his jeans, he morphed into his werewolf form. With his teeth bared and a growl low in his throat, the wolf started running toward Melissa. Hunter yelled, and the man wearing sunglasses whirled, chanting something as his fist lashed out to punch the lycan off course. Hunter heard the whimper, then saw the lycan.
His mother cried out in pain as a vampire finally brought her down, his arm twining around her neck as he curled his hand over, ready to strike at her chest.
“No,” Hunter yelled, then bellowed as Arthur finally managed to free himself. The Warrior Prime fired off a fireball at Amelie, and started running toward Melissa. Melissa’s eyes widened, and she turned to Hunter, flinging her hand up as she muttered a chant. The restraints that held Hunter in place snapped open. Hunter dropped to the ground, crashing hard against the concrete.
He heard screams and glanced up. His mother had managed to turn and use the vampire as a shield. The vampire who held her was now on fire. His mother was trying to struggle free. His head whipped around to look after Melissa. She’d started running, and was dodging the flaming spears his father was throwing her way. She burst into an open doorway and ducked as a fireball crashed against the timber, setting the door alight. Then she disappeared into the dark opening, his father in pursuit.
Hunter rose to his feet and stumbled toward the alley. He would not stand by and watch his father kill the woman he loved, the woman he intended to spend the rest of his life with.
Chapter 22
Melissa raced up the interior stairwell, heart pounding as she heard Arthur burst into the foyer below. She’d made it to the second floor when she heard his steps on the stairs below. She glanced down into the stairwell, then jerked back as a fireball landed above her. She dived for the door on the second-floor landing, yanking it open, hurtling into the hallway and slamming the door behind her.
She glanced first in one direction, then the other, trying to catch her breath. It looked like some sort of old apartment building. There was a window at the end of the hall, and despite the grime and dust that covered it, she could make out the murky frame of a fire escape. She started running down the hall.
This wasn’t part of Dave’s plan. Well, not quite. The plan was to create a distracti
on, draw Arthur’s attention away from Hunter long enough, distract the rest of the men for long enough, so that she could create a release spell for his chains. She’d used her reflection spell to protect Amelie, but didn’t have enough to protect herself as well as free Hunter. She made it to the window and tried to lift it open, but centuries of disuse and grime had sealed it shut. She heard the door clang open back down the hall, and cast about wildly. There was a fire extinguisher strapped to the wall. She grabbed it. It was so old, it was highly unlikely it would work, and the irony didn’t escape her as she lifted it to smash the glass as she tried to escape the enraged light warrior behind her.
She heard the roar behind her, and she dived out of the window, landing roughly on the grate outside, below the windowsill. A cloud of flame billowed out of the window above her, and she screamed as the explosion curled over her, then rose above to billow out over the alley. She crawled to the ladder, but screeched when a hand pulled at her hair, yanking her away from the escape route.
“You meddling bitch,” Arthur seethed as he pulled her to her feet. He grasped her shoulders, twisting her around to face him. “You should have learned the first time, it takes more than just a weaselly little mirror spell to best me. I’m a—”
Melissa rolled her eyes. “Yeah, we all know. You’re a Warrior Prime.” She kicked him swiftly between the legs. His eyes rounded, his breath wheezed out in a high-pitched squeak and his fingers clenched on her shoulders. “You have to learn that doesn’t give you a hall pass to be a dick.”
His face became mottled, and Melissa felt the heat building on her shoulders. She tried to beat him off, but the searing heat singed her skin where his hands touched her. She muttered her dampening spell, concentrating on using the light force as an element to build on her incantation. The more he tried to burn her, the more effective her dampening spell became.
“Leave her alone,” Hunter yelled from beneath them, but Melissa didn’t take her eyes off Arthur’s face, muttering her spell over and over as he tried to burn her.
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