by M. L. Briers
“Buried treasure.” I mumbled. It was an absent thought that had Scott frowning down at me.
“You’ve read too many pirate books.” He chuckled as he poked his head into the cave and listened. “I can hear the sea, but that’s probably due to my exceptional hearing.”
“Let’s go!” I didn’t want to wait another damn moment. I wanted to search and explore, but Hank’s hand on my upper arm put paid to that idea.
“Not so fast.” He growled. “The person who killed Marmaduke could have come this way.”
“Well there not still going to be in there are they?” I rolled my eyes and wanted to headbutt the nearest wall. Not so much brains and brawn for my mate… Scott sniggered.
“That’s not the point…” Hank growled.
“Killer crabs?” I offered up to him and Scott gave a hearty chuckle. Hank didn’t seem particularly amused. I wonder why, not.
“Could you just…?” He ground out as he wrapped an arm around my waist and lifted me behind him. Geez, so much for girl power!
“Come on. Not fair.” I huffed. Then I spotted the tome in his other hand and snatched it away from him. “Fine. You go sniff around in there and I’ll read the book that I shouldn’t.” I strolled over to the table and slapped the book down with a nice loud thud.
“Why shouldn’t you read it?” Scott asked.
“Because she can get sucked into it.” Hank’s large hand came down on top of it and stopped me from turning the first page, luckily, otherwise I was going to have to pretend to read the damn thing with my eyes closed.
“Sounds like… an adventure.” Scott offered and Hank sighed.
“Fine. You can come into the tunnels.” Hank growled and I beamed him my best smile.
“Can I go first?” I teased him with a look over my shoulder and a couple of flutters of my eyelashes. Hank growled then sighed.
“No.” He offered as if it pained him.
“Fine.” I ground out. I couldn’t see making any headway with the damn man without flashing my boobs and dazzling him into surrender, but then that might very well have led to Scott going off alone while I got mated.
“You can go ahead of me.” Scott offered as he leaned in when I past him. Hank growled again and the sound echoed off the cave walls.
“Such a gentleman.” I offered back to the vampire just to piss off my mate. It worked, I got a death glare from over Hank’s shoulder. Serves him right.
Hank flicked on a torch and my estimation in him went up considerably. I hadn’t even thought to bring one in my haste to get there. Still, I was here now and that meant that whatever we found, I had a third stake in it. Yea!
~
Ok, so maybe we needed to back with a metal detector and shovels. Three hours of trudging around damp, yucky caves, and all I had to show for it were spiderwebs on my clothes and grime on my boots. Yea, pah!
I’d much rather spend my time looking at the book, or not looking at it but getting one of the other two to look at it while I got descriptions. I walked back into Marmaduke’s messy study and brushed my clothes down. Scott’s eyes practically shone with amusement.
“I can’t believe that you were expecting to find Pirate Jack’s riches.” He grinned at me with that teasing smile and I shrugged.
“I suppose the goblins would have sniffed out any treasure. Still, not the point. There could still very well be something down there.” I scoffed back at his glass half empty approach to treasure hunting.
“You were probably closer to the truth before when you said killer crabs.”
“Ha-blood-Ha.” I turned my attention back to what was now the real prize. I knew where I had left it and it wasn’t there. I stalked towards the table and searched with my eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Hawk asked as he came from the cave and started to close the door behind him.
“Wait!” I turned and held out my hand. “I think we need to go back down to the cove and that’s the quickest way as the crow flies…”
“I don’t think the crow would fly in the tunnels…” Scott was starting to annoy me again.
“The books gone, and I’m guessing with it, the spell to unlock the siren’s song…” Hawk and Scott looked at each other as if they were suddenly talking telepathically.
“The book held the spell?” Hawk asked and I shrugged.
“I have no idea. But why steal the book when you have the wand?”
“Why indeed?” Scott asked himself. “Perhaps it was two different thieves.” He offered and I turned my nose up at that idea.
“What are the odds?” I challenged him.
“Let’s just get down to the cove and see if there are any ships rising or drunken sailors coming up from the depths.” Hawk turned on his heels and started off again, when he suddenly stopped and turned back towards me. I knew what was coming.
“If you say I should stay here, I’m going to zap you so hard your hair will smoke.” I got in there first. Hawk closed his mouth and turned his back on me as he growled and grunted his way back into the labyrinth.
~
“All quiet on the…” Scott’s words were cut off by the wail that went up from on top of the cliffs. We turned in unison to look up and yet the only thing that I could make out was a dark shadowy figure against the dark sky.
“Who?” I asked quickly, knowing that both of my companions could see as if it was damned daylight. Oh to have that kind of eyesight.
“Holy crap…” Scott bit out.
“You take the left and I’ll take the right.” Hawk growled towards the vampire as they both started off, leaving me standing there. I followed Hawk, and followed would be the right word because there was no damn way I was ever going to keep time with the man as he took off up the cliffs.
I cursed and muttered to myself with every rock I had to clamber over. My knees were banged, my hands stung like burning, and I was so damn unfit in my estimation that I needed to take up a new hobby and it wasn’t sitting behind a damn desk. The higher I climbed the more I could hear the incantations.
It was definitely a witch.
I could feel the magic in the air. It was electric and cackled within the sound of the wind that blew across the top of the cliffs. I wanted to give up climbing as my lungs started to burn like my damn hands and my knees were all but jelly… But I could hear the commotion and see the fireworks. Whoever that witch was she was throwing some powerful magic at one or both of my guys.
I heard the yell of pain and instinctively knew that it was Hawk. I pushed on faster, somehow. Maybe I had adrenalin to thank for my new found vitality or maybe it was the sound of Hawk suffering, but what mattered was that I was making that damn climb. There was another flash of blinding light just as I got to poke my head over the ridge, and there was Scott, flying backwards through the air with colour and light exploding all around him…
“Bitch.” I ground out as I swung my leg up and over the last of the rocks and dug my fingernails into the earth to wrench my body up and swung my leg up after me. There she was in all of her glory. Her grey hair was blowing in the winds and her eyes were fierce as she looked to Hawk who seemed to be held in place by the magic from her outstretched hand…
“Margo!” I ground out as best I could even if it sounded like I hadn’t had a drink to moisten my throat in a month. Her eyes came to me as I rested on my knees. I was unsure if I could even push myself up from the earth…
“I have to save her now, before my time ends, Joss. You need to stay out of this…” Margo sounded half insane and not her usual chipper self. I guess I misjudged her for all of these years.
“Who?” I tried to push up but it wasn’t happening for me. I barely had the damn strength to summon my magic to me…
“Hattie, my sister, is in that book…” Her eyes flicked down to the open pages and I had to hope that damn book would drag her in, but she dragged her eyes away too quickly for that to happen.
I heard Hawk grunt out in pain. He was trying his damnedest
to move but she was holding him in place and I knew from experience that there wasn’t a lot anyone could do to fight that off. Scott was starting to come around as only a vampire could and he sat up like a damn cartoon character of his true nature.
“If you release her you release the worst of us…” I remember those words and offered them in the hope that Margo might just see sense to what she would be condemning the rest of the world to. The rip of laughter that came from her lips told me she didn’t give a damn.
Scott moved fast but Margo moved faster. Her other hand shot out and she released a thunder ball of pure red light that had the vampire down and out for the count, and in my mind that wasn’t a bloody good thing. Margo turned to look at me then, for one long moment her eyes softened and I hoped that I had gotten through to her…
“I’m sorry, Joss.” She started to bring her left hand around to me and I felt the pounding of my heart within my ears. Everything seemed to slow down. It wasn’t a case of my life flashing before my eyes because I hadn’t really had one, it was more a case of knowing what was coming…
I raised my hands and dropped my shields. They would do me little good if she hit me with one of those orbs. I was right on the edge of the damn ridge and the only place to go was down. It was now or never, I had the shot and I needed to take it…
I pushed everything that I had within me at her. I know she saw it coming because her eyes widened… Out of the corner of my eye I saw Hawk move. Released from her holding spell; he pushed up and off as his wolf exploded from inside of him.
Hawk’s beast took Margo down at the exact same moment that my blast of energy hit them both. I watched the scene helplessly and felt as if my heart had exploded right out of my chest. I don’t know why I reached out for Hawk because he was nowhere near me, and I couldn’t have saved him from going over the edge of the ridge if my life depended on it, it didn’t, Hawk’s did, and I cried out knowing that I could do nothing for him…
CHAPTER NINE
Scott appeared out of nowhere and a heartbeat later he had the wolf’s tail in his closed fist as the beast yelped out. It struggled to get away, not comprehending what lay ahead for him if he did. I cried out at the sight of the wolf’s body hitting against the rocks as momentum carried it back in, and it yelped again…
Scott was taking no chances. He tossed the wolf above his head to land behind him on the floor and then he was gone. I’d like to say that it was job done and he was going down to see to Margo, but from the way that Hawk’s beast was snarling and snapping his jaws at thin air I think it was more self-preservation and the fact that he didn’t want the beast taking a chunk out of his backside.
“Thank me later.” I heard Scott call out from the darkness of the night and I had no idea where the hell the vampire had taken himself off to because I was dragging my backside up from the earth and stumbling on weak legs towards the wolf.
“Are you injured?” I didn’t know how much magic I possessed at that point in time, because contrary to popular belief it wasn’t an infinite supply. Just like batteries; we wore ourselves out by casting too much or too powerfully.
I watched Hawk shift back into his human form and was kind of disappointed that I never got to pet his wolf. I know wolves weren’t pets but who didn’t see a wolf and want to run their fingers through its thick fur? Especially if you knew the beast wasn’t going to try to eat you in the process…. Then my eyes took in his naked form and I wasn’t exactly thinking about the bloody wolf anymore…
“He damn well did that on purpose.” Hawk growled out with so much of his beast within his voice that my insides quaked from the rolling bass. It was sexier than hell…
“What? Saved you? Yeah.” I gave him the kind of scowl that made him feel stupid, at least he had the good sense to look chastised. “Vampire got your tongue as well as your tail?” I couldn’t help myself, but from the look that Hawk gave me, well I guessed I should have tried harder to filter my funnies.
“Margo?” Hawk growled out.
“Dead!” The vampire’s voice cut through the night as it echoed down in the cove.
“Good to know.” I offered.
I definitely didn’t feel any bloody remorse over that woman. I just kind of wished that she’d been dragged into that damn book rather than taken a header over the cliff. Still, all’s well that ends well as the Bard would say.
“She was your kin…” Hawk offered on a frown.
“I’m not personally linked to every bloody witch, you know?” I offered back snottily. I wasn’t going to let anyone compare me to an insane old woman. “Do you feel responsible for every wolf?”
“That’s…”
“Not different.” I snapped. I had this hyper thing going on inside me like a damn sugar rush and I didn’t much like it, because unlike a sugar rush I hadn’t eaten a basketful of chocolate to get it…
“You’re shaking. Are you cold?” Hawk went to move towards me and I drew back.
“No.” I was a little, which was strange because I felt hot too.
“Adrenaline.” Hawk informed me as he pushed up to his knees and I got my first good look at his… Wow. That really was a big one. I felt more of a sugar rush…
“Put that away.” I snapped. What the hell was he doing tempting me on a bloody cliff face?
“I don’t have any clothes.” He offered back to me with the sexiest little grin that made my sugar rush become invaded by a billion butterflies.
“Crap.” But on the bright side I guessed I was going to get to see his taut arse if he put me at his back to protect me again.
“I can give you my coat if you play nice…” Scott sounded closer now and I searched for him with my eyes in the darkness but I couldn’t find the stealthy little bugger. Vampires, so shifty. “And if you don’t rub yourself against it.” Scott’s coat came flying through the air and landed next to Hawk.
“Spoil sport.” I bit out on a whisper as Hawk wrapped the coat around him and dragged himself up to his feet. Then he made a show of rubbing his length against the inside. The vampire groaned.
“Seriously. Gratitude.” Scott bit out.
“You did grab my damn tail.” Hawk chuckled with relish.
“Keep the damn coat. I don’t want it back now.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle. I had a feeling that these two were going to be great fun together and I was around for the front row view of the fireworks. Yea.
~
“Look in the damn book again. It has to be there.” I wasn’t in the best of moods I have to admit, but that was more due to the fact that I couldn’t actually do what I wanted to do and set eyes on the contents of Marmaduke’s book.
“I’m not seeing it and I’ve been over that book twice.” Hawk offered me puppy dog eyes. I guessed he really didn’t want to be thumbing through a witch’s book and would rather have set his sight on something more… mate-able. The fact that he was now wearing some of Marmaduke’s clothes that squeezed in all the wrong places and some of the right ones, and were too short on the arms and legs probably didn’t help his mood.
“Can I see the damn thing now?” Scott asked from where he was perched with his backside against the windowsill and his arms folded across his chest. He had the wand. He could deny it all he liked but it had gone over that damn cliff with Margo and was deemed missing… Pah.
“No.” I snapped. “One more time.” I offered pleading eyes back to my mate. He hesitated before nodding as he started to flick through the pages again.
“And why can’t I look?” Scott didn’t offer me puppy dog eyes but they weren’t far off.
“Maybe I still don’t trust you.” I shrugged my shoulders dismissing him.
“I saved your mate.” Scott tossed a hand in Hawk’s direction and I smiled back at him.
“Thank you.” I said as blankly as I could. The vampire held his breath for a long moment before he set one foot forward and Hawk growled a warning at him. I kind of liked having a guard dog… Oh, that w
ould need to be filtered before I said it in front of Hawk.
“You’re being irrational.” Scott offered as if he didn’t really care about looking at what could be a key to everything…
“Of course I am.” I offered with a song in my tone and a smile on my lips. “But then I’m a female, so you can’t really expect anything less, can you?”
“So true.” Scott shot me a pretend death glare and I ate it up. Of course I would let him see the damn book, but right now I was trying to keep the warring parties as far apart as I could.
“That could be her.” Hawk fingered the page and my eyes snapped down. Hawk’s other hand came up over my eyes and blocked my sight.
“Damn, it was just instinct. Like when someone’s says don’t look…” I grumbled as I pulled back from his hand and kept my eyes firmly away from the stupid tome. I did notice that Scott was now on the other side of the desk looking to where Hawk was pointing.
“Looks like a witch.” Scott offered and I had to frown at that.
“And what does a witch look like?” I snapped, more irritated that I couldn’t look as they could. Scott pointed his finger at me and just grinned. I did my best to throw the evil eye in his direction.
“What does it say?” I hissed at him.
“Here there be dragons… oh wait…” He really was dancing on my last nerve and if he kept it up I could see myself dancing on his damn grave, permanently. “Looked with her eyes and not her heart.”
“Wait. Marmaduke said something like that to me on the morning I was here. He told me to look with my heart…” Damn, if only I hadn’t of had everything else to deal with that day and after, I might just remember what it was…
“Then maybe he wrote that little cryptic clue.” Scott offered.