Never let a vampire bite you, sweetheart, and never tell anyone where you’re from or that your vaccination document is forged. Never.
Funny how her mother’s words, drilled into Tehya since she was three years old, were ringing loud and clear in her ears now, but that night when the vampire was plunging his fangs into her throat, her mom had been as silent as she was dead. And the funniest thing was, none of those warnings mattered now.
“I was never vaccinated.” She slid a glance at Lobo, who was watching intently, puzzling her out the way he did a hunter’s cruel snare or leg trap before he disarmed and destroyed it. “My mother paid a lot of money to have my immunization record falsified.”
“Why?” he asked, but she had a feeling he was already close to the answer. It had never taken him long to figure out a trap either.
“Because the vaccine is fatal to my father’s people.”
Every eye in the room fell on Nicole, and it was Riker who posed the next question. “Is that possible, Nicole?”
Nicole nodded, almost numbly. She shifted in her seat, fidgeting like a kid in a dentist’s chair who was about to have a cavity filled.
“Once worldwide vaccination became mandatory,” she said finally, “pockets of anti-vaxxers were rooted out. Most had resisted for ideological reasons, but one group, a native population in Canada, the Kleemut tribe”—she looked over at Tehya almost apologetically—“they resisted out of self-preservation. The vaccine was lethal for them. They would die within twenty-four hours of getting the shot. A lot of the Kleemut went into hiding. They were hunted mercilessly by Canadian and international VAST forces, and those who were caught were never seen again by anyone outside of a Daedalus lab.” She gave Tehya that look again, but this time the apologetic expression was steeped in shame, and that was when it clicked. Nicole must have worked for Daedalus, the company that had revolutionized vampire slavery and created the vaccine against the vampire infection. They were the most loved and hated company on the planet. “Your father was a Kleemut Indian, wasn’t he?”
“I never knew him, but yes.” Tehya fixed her gaze on a bear skull hanging on the wall, its surface painted with scenes of ancient Native American bison hunts. “My mom changed her name and fled to Seattle when she found out she was pregnant. They didn’t want anyone to ever suspect that I’m part Kleemut. She got one letter from my father, and then she never heard from him again. Apparently, he went missing.” She turned to Nicole and was surprised to see that the doctor’s expression was still tight with guilt. Whatever she’d done in her past was a source of pain for her, and right now it didn’t matter that Nicole was supposed to be the enemy. She’d been nothing but kind to Tehya. Offering a tentative smile, Tehya said softly, “Thank you for trying to help me, and I’m sorry I attacked you for it.”
Nicole blinked, obviously expecting neither gratitude nor an apology. Even Riker looked a little startled. “It’s okay,” Nicole said. “You must have been terrified to wake up in a strange place. And with two legs instead of four.”
Lobo tugged at the rope around his wrists with his teeth, and she almost laughed. He did not know that in order to chew through something—like shoelaces or a drawstring on a pair of sweats—you had to use your back teeth. With a curse, he settled his hands on the table again. “Your mother wasn’t a native, was she?”
Not even close. “Except for her name, she was as Scottish as Loch Ness.”
Lobo nodded, more to himself than anyone else. “That explains the skinwalker glitch.”
“I’m not following,” she said, and a murmur of agreement rose up from around the table as everyone turned to Lobo.
He didn’t look at anyone else, kept his gaze focused solely on her. “According to lore, most skinwalkers are born vampires, but all of them come from pure Native American blood. You were born neither a vampire nor a purebred native. You shouldn’t have this ability at all, so it’s not a surprise that you can’t control it.”
“So why did I shift back in the lab, when I hadn’t been able to do it on my own for years?”
Nicole blew out a long breath before speaking up. “I did a little reading up on shape-shifters after Hunter told me about Lobo. If what I read is true, skinwalkers who are injured while in another body will revert to their true form when they die. It’s likely that you were so close to death that your body shifted, and in doing so, you healed.” She gave Tehya a pointed look. “I would recommend that you not shift into a wolf again.”
Good call, Doc. “I don’t even know if I can.”
“How did it happen before?”
God, this was so embarrassing. How could she admit that it had been a total accident? “I’m not sure. I’d turned into a vampire, and I was terrified I’d get caught. I didn’t know what to do, so I drove until my car ran out of gas.” She’d been in the mountains, hungry, alone, with no idea how to survive. And then she’d heard it. A wolf howling in the distance. Then another. And another. They’d seemed to be singing to each other, so in tune that she’d felt the ties that held the pack together. “There was a family of wolves that . . . I don’t know . . . I heard them, and they made me want what they had. I had this urge to join them, and I felt this pull . . . and the next thing I knew, I had four legs and fur. I tried to switch back, but I couldn’t.” She shook her head. “How did I get this ability in the first place, if it’s something so rare, let alone unheard of in someone like me?”
Lobo cut a sharp look at Hunter. “It seems that the impossible has become possible lately.”
Whatever subtext was at play here struck a nerve, and Hunter went taut. “What do you mean?”
Lobo shifted his gaze to peg Riker with a meaningful stare. “I know about your son. I always thought invisibility was a myth.”
Tehya tried not to let her mouth fall open. And failed. So she hadn’t been seeing things that day she and Lobo had been out patrolling the forest and they’d come across a young vampire who had disappeared and reappeared twice before their eyes.
“Bastien is . . . unique,” Riker said, a note of pride in his voice.
Hunter sat back in his chair and surveyed everyone. “I think I’ve heard enough. Lobo, I’ll honor your request to keep Tehya safe. We will welcome her as a MoonBound member. I’m sure we can use someone with dental training around here. Vampires are probably a dentist’s wet dream. Nicole, unless you want to pursue her attack against you—”
“I don’t,” Nicole said quickly. She shot Tehya a friendly smile, and Tehya shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She wanted to hate these people, but she was finding that they weren’t all the monsters she’d expected them to be.
“Then we’ll have quarters prepared for her,” Hunter said. “Katina, will you show her around?”
“Wait.” Tehya might have conflicting emotions about MoonBound, but she did know that she didn’t want to live here. “I don’t want this. I’m going home with Lobo.”
“That’s in violation of vampire law,” Aiden said, a little too gleefully. He was definitely one of the ones she didn’t like. “Skinwalkers aren’t allowed to mate with each other.”
“We aren’t . . . mated.” But, man, her cheeks felt hot, because mating was exactly what they’d done in the trailer. Katina rolled her eyes again. “Not like that.”
Lobo didn’t meet her gaze, and she realized that, while the mating restrictions might be true, that wasn’t what this was about. “You need to go, Tehya.”
“No.” She crossed her arms over her chest and dug in. “Not until I know what’s going to happen to you.”
“You’ll see him again,” Hunter assured her. “You have my word.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Since I don’t know you, your word means nothing to me.”
One black eyebrow shot up and his lip quirked in amusement. “I see your point. But given that I’m in charge, you don’t have any choice but to trust me.”
She hated that he was right.
“Please go, Tehya,” Lobo murmure
d. “Hunter is a dick, but he’s a dick who keeps his word.”
“Thanks for the endorsement,” Hunter said drily.
Reluctantly she rose from her seat and followed Katina out of the room. Only after they were on the other side of the complex did she realize that Hunter had said she’d see Lobo again . . . but he hadn’t said he’d be alive.
9
Once the door was closed and Lobo was sure Tehya was out of earshot, he turned to Hunter. “You told her I’d see her again. Before my execution, or after?”
There were a few chuckles from around the table, because, sure, executions were hilarious. He must have forgotten how much he’d laughed at all the people he’d seen die at the command—or hand—of Hunter’s father. Bear Roar had been a brutal leader, a strict follower of the Way of the Raven, and a total bastard. Lobo had laughed when Hunter killed him.
Hunter gestured at Baddon, who, after giving Hunter an are you fucking serious? look, shrugged and sliced through the ropes binding Lobo’s wrists. Lobo rubbed the raw skin as circulation flowed back into his hands.
“Leave us.” Hunter’s tone made it clear that he wouldn’t tolerate argument. “You too, Rike.”
Riker frowned but, like the good soldier he was, herded everyone out, and mere seconds later, Lobo was alone in the room with MoonBound’s chief. The last time they’d been alone, it had been for the same reason and, just like now, his life had been on the line.
The only differences were that this time he wasn’t in chains, and there wasn’t a horde of people calling for a painful, drawn-out death sentence.
Hunter lounged back in his chair, his fingers steepled as his hands rested on his abs, his cold, hard gaze tracking Lobo as he paced the room.
“I told you that if you ever shifted into another vampire’s form again, I’d end you. Do you remember that?”
Lobo laughed, really getting behind the gallows humor thing. “Do you think I get death threats so often that I forget them?”
“You’re an asshole, so I’m going to answer that with a yes.”
Lobo laughed again as long-held contempt rushed to the surface. “You’ve been waiting for this, haven’t you? I’ll bet you couldn’t wait for me to screw up so you could put my skull on its own special little shelf in the Cave of the Vanquished.”
“We sealed the CV decades ago. And you’re the one who broke the law—”
“And you’re the one who kicked me out of the clan without listening to my side of the story.”
“Your side?” Hunter asked, incredulous. “You were caught seducing Traygen’s mate—while wearing his form. You admitted it.”
“No,” Lobo said wryly, “you asked me if I’d taken his form, I nodded, and then you broke my jaw. I couldn’t give you an explanation after that because my face was shattered and half of my teeth were on the damned floor.”
To be fair, he hadn’t been in shape to speak even before Hunter’s punch. Su’Neena and Traygen had done their best to kill him before other clan members heard the commotion and interrupted.
“You’re upset about a few broken bones?” Hunter pushed to his feet and strode over to the liquor cabinet on the far wall. “You’re lucky Traygen didn’t kill you. If I’d caught you with my mate in my bed, you wouldn’t have made it out of the bedroom alive.”
“I wasn’t—” He started to say that he hadn’t been in bed with the female, but the details weren’t important. “Listen to me, you pompous ass. I wasn’t trying to seduce Su’Neena that night. I was trying to get her to confess.”
Hunter took two highball glasses from the cabinet. “Confess to what?”
Well, at least the guy was listening this time. Lobo scrubbed a hand over his face, realizing that this was his one chance to finally set the record straight and maybe get out of this alive.
“I was out on patrol one day, and I saw Su’Neena with ShadowSpawn’s leader. The first time it happened, I thought it might be coincidence that they’d come across each other in the forest.” Yet something had niggled at him, so the next time she slipped away from MoonBound, he’d followed. “But when I saw her again near Rat Lake, obviously waiting for someone, I knew something was up. A few minutes later, Kars showed up, and they did a lot more than just talk.”
“And they didn’t see you?” Hunter popped the top off a bottle of whiskey and poured it into the glasses.
“They saw me,” he admitted. “As a wolf.”
Hunter swung around, offering Lobo one of the drinks. “Did you shift against orders?”
Lobo rolled his eyes. “I tell you that one of your warriors was screwing the enemy, and that is what you want to know?” He snatched the glass out of Hunter’s hand. Nice of the guy to give him a pre-execution libation. “Su’Neena is a spy, Hunter. I shifted into Traygen’s form to confront her about it. Turns out he didn’t know about her extracurricular activities. I tried to tell him, but he was too busy trying to impale my liver on his knife to listen.” He snorted. “I must have said enough, though. Ever wonder why he was found dead two weeks later, butchered by ‘poachers’?”
One dark eyebrow shot up. “You think Su’Neena is responsible for his death?”
“Her . . . or ShadowSpawn.”
Lobo downed the alcohol, savoring the smooth, rich burn that was so different from the harshness of the rotgut he was used to drinking. As warmth spread through his insides, he wandered around the room, noting all the changes since the last time he’d been here. Hunter had gotten rid of the enemy scalps his father had kept nailed to the wall. Maybe he really had made some changes around here. Electricity was a nice touch. And who would have guessed Hunter would allow televisions and video game consoles inside the clan? His father had barely tolerated books.
Hunter, still standing near the liquor cabinet, exhaled on a curse. “Why didn’t you come to me with this sooner?”
“Seriously?” He slammed his glass down on the table. “I don’t owe MoonBound shit. Your father slaughtered my family and then brought me here to survive on whatever scraps people would throw me. I didn’t even have a seat at the dinner tables. Maybe you don’t remember me begging for someone to drop some food on the floor, only to get kicked in the face when I reached for it, but I do. Maybe you had a bed growing up, but I had a chain and a pile of dirt in a kitchen corner. All of you fierce warriors were so terrified of a boy who might turn into the big bad wolf and eat you. So fuck you, Hunter.”
To Lobo’s shock, Hunter had the grace to look away. During Lobo’s nearly fifty years with the clan, Hunter had never been cruel to him, but he’d never been kind either. As far as Hunter had been concerned, Lobo had been invisible.
Hunter’s voice was gruff, tinged with anger. “My father was a monster.”
It wasn’t an apology, but it was close enough, considering Hunter hadn’t been the one whose rule had brought suffering not just to Lobo but to any clan member who didn’t measure up to Bear Roar’s exacting, brutal standards.
Hunter’s gaze snapped back up, his moment of remorse a thing of the past. The position of clan chief suited him. “You still should have come to me.”
Lobo snorted. “After you threatened me with death?”
Hunter put the drink to his lips and eyed him over the rim of his glass. “Only if you shifted into another clan member.”
“Yeah, well, I did that yesterday, and I was fully aware of the risk I was taking.” He flashed fangs, daring Hunter to challenge his decision. “If you’re looking for me to beg for my life or apologize for trying to save Tehya’s, it ain’t gonna happen. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. So if you’re going to kill me, get it over with.”
Hunter swirled the liquor around in his glass and stared at the deer hide stretched on the wall. For a long time, Lobo didn’t know if the guy was going to say anything. He seemed pretty damned content to let Lobo wonder how much longer he had to breathe.
“Is what you said earlier true?” Hunter finally asked. “About having nothing to live for after you were ban
ished from here?”
Lobo let out a deep, shuddering breath. He refused to share his inner pain with Hunter, and he couldn’t believe how much he’d already shared—in front of a dozen of Hunter’s minions. He hated feeling vulnerable, and right now he might as well be facing Hunter with his rib cage splayed wide open to reveal his beating heart.
“No other clan would accept a skinwalker, and living like a stray dog with other free vampires in Seattle’s sewer systems didn’t appeal to me. So tell me, oh great clan chief, what I had to live for before I found a half-dead wolf that needed my help?”
If Hunter was annoyed by Lobo’s sarcasm, it didn’t show. If anything, he seemed genuinely curious, which threw Lobo off balance in a big way. He’d hated Hunter down to his very marrow, but the Hunter who had kicked him out of the clan didn’t seem to exist anymore.
“Did you know she wasn’t really a wolf?” Hunter asked.
“I sensed something different about her, but I thought she might be another vampire’s spirit animal in physical form.” When Hunter cocked a skeptical eyebrow at him, Lobo shrugged. “What? Weirder shit than that happens all the time. Like how Riker’s son can go invisible and your mate can summon portals.”
The temperature in the room plunged so fast that on Lobo’s next exhale, he saw his breath hang in the air.
“The fact that I haven’t killed you is proof that this clan has come a long way since the days of my father and my own early rule.” Hunter’s husky voice was as icy as the room, emerging between lips peeled back from razor fangs. “But when it comes to the safety of my mate, I’m as primitive as it gets. Her ability makes her a kidnapping target for every vampire and human on the planet. So if you tell anyone outside of MoonBound about her gift, I will reopen the Cave of the Vanquished and mount your skull on the wall while you’re still breathing. Understood?”
Well, that was graphic. But hey, it sounded like maybe Hunter wasn’t going to kill him after all. “Understood.”
Forsaken by Night Page 7