20 Shades of Shifters: A Paranormal Romance Collection

by Demelza Carlton

  “How the fuck did you get here in the first place?”

  “Jonas, your woman has quite a mouth.”

  Jonas grinned at Rasputin. “That she does. But the question is still valid. How, man?”

  Rasputin cleared his throat. “It seems the point of us stealing the bikes to sell here was for inter-realm travel. A Brownie came to find us at our clubhouse. He did offer to sew symbols into the stitching of our seats, and provide us with a modification that took most of a day to install, on our motorcycles. When all was said and done, the Brownie told us that we would merely need to flip the switch, and the blessing of the Goddess would be upon us, allowing us to travel through portals and cross into other realms.”

  “The math obviously checked out.” Jonas slid his hands in his pockets. “That Brownie was short? Hollow eyes?”

  “Aren’t they all, brother?”

  Tempest rolled her eyes. “Fucking Faery. I swear. So, what? You’re all following me? How is that going to look when—” She stopped mid-sentence.

  Jonas inclined his head toward her. “Tempest?”

  “We’ll take care of it. Like I said, the Faery Queen owes us a favor.” Davin started his motorcycle and slipped a helmet over his head.

  She inclined her head toward Davin. “How?”

  “MC business.” Jonas settled a hand on the small of her back. He hated giving her that reason time and time again, but they did have a code.

  “Ugh.” She threw her hands up, spun around and walked past Jonas. “I’ll be in my fucking rig.”

  Jonas didn’t miss the glare she shot him. He sent Davin a rueful grin. “Looks like I’m back in a cage for the duration of this ride.”

  “As you wish. We shall procure you a bike of your liking once this is all over.”

  “Good. But I think I’d rather have my old ride back, if it’s still in one piece.”

  “Verily.”

  Jonas smiled and shook Davin’s hand one more time. “Thanks, Prez.”

  “You were an unwilling participant in this farce.”

  “You’ll have to explain that to me when we’re all settled in.”

  “Next time, when we have church.”

  Jonas nodded, then jogged around to the other side of the truck. Opening the passenger side door, he flung himself into the seat, shut the door and looked at Tempest.

  For a moment, she said nothing, the only sound between them that of cargo being loaded.

  Finally, she turned to face him. “What?”

  “Nothing. I swear.” A slow grin spread across his face.

  “What are you smiling like a jackass for?”

  “You’re cute when you’re frustrated.”

  She crossed her arms over her ample chest. “Hmph.”

  “Secondly, you’re not bitching about the escort. Or my lovely company.”

  “Just because I’m not vocal doesn’t mean I’m entirely thrilled. Your sister is okay. That concern is over. You’re home. You no longer have any need with me.”

  Jonas leaned forward, crossing one leg over the other. “Do you think I’d honestly abandon you after announcing you publicly as my Ol’Lady?”

  She held up a hand. “And another thing.”

  He rolled his eyes. “You’re going to once again wound me? Deny the mutual attraction?”

  From behind him, Jonas heard a knocking. He looked over his shoulder, saw Pliny wave at him.

  Jonas rolled the window down. “What’s up?”

  “We’re all good to go. Shit’s been handled with the switch and the bikes are loaded. Door is shut and secured.”

  “Good.”

  “We’ll get you a bike, my brother. I can’t see how you can stand to be in this cage.”

  Jonas shrugged and motioned at Tempest.

  “Roger that. Follow Davin and Rasputin. What about Nadine?”

  Jonas gave him a salute, then turned back to Tempest. His sister had spent too much time being sick and in that cabin, a tour of the Shadowlands and change of pace in Faery would do her some good if Tempest would let her come along. “Well?”

  She sighed. “I’m not getting rid of you, am I?”

  “Would you want to?”

  Slumping back in her seat, Tempest started the truck, buckled up and eyed Jonas. “I suppose not.”

  “Bring her.”

  Thanks, Tempest.”

  “We ready?”

  A moment later, Jonas opened the door and moved out of his sister’s way.

  Nadine climbed in, looking and moving like she had when she was alive. “You look well, sis.”

  “I feel well. I owe a debt to your friend here.”

  Tempest waved it off. “No big.”

  “If you need to rest, there is a bed in back.”

  “Am I going with you? All the way through the Shadowlands?”

  “Have you not seen the entirety of our land?”

  Nadine shook her head.

  Tempest slapped the steering wheel. “Fuck it, Jonas. Guess she needs a tour.”

  “How will we get back?”

  “The MC will help.”

  Nodding, Nadine hugged Jonas.

  It felt so good to have her in his arms and feel her healthy again. Regular feeding would repair her body and give her the eternal life he’d promised her by curing her cancer. He still couldn’t help but feel guilty, for this entire ordeal was his fault.

  She pulled back from him and smiled, life filling her eyes.

  “If we’re going to go, we need to get moving, Jonas.”

  “Right. Bed in the back if you need to lie down, sis.”

  She nodded and walked to the back of the rig.

  “She’ll be fine back there. When we stop to fuel, I’m sure we can grab her a quick snack.”

  “Where did your nurse go?”

  Jonas rubbed his chin. “Pliny told me she took a bullet but was going to be fine. Once the wound healed, she was to fly off to an old safe house. Why?”

  Tempest nodded. “Seems like a few loose ends.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Blinking, Tempest engaged the gear system and GPS before slowly backing the truck out of the clearing. She steered it onto the highway.

  They waited a moment for Davin and Rasputin to take the lead. “I’ll get back to you on that.”

  “Okay.” What could she mean? So far, everything seemed to be neat and tidy. His sister safe, alive, well. The MC had money, and the Queen’s bikes had been recovered. Perfect, right?

  She put the truck in gear and followed along, pulling onto the freeway at a good clip.

  “This land never gets any sunshine?”

  “Nope. It’s hell on humans who have the misfortune to wander here. They inevitably become food.”

  “Yet you prefer this?”

  “What do you mean?”

  She waved a hand before her. “All of the darkness. The vastness of black and bleak skies for as long as the eye can see.”

  He shrugged. “Don’t know anymore. Been in Faery too long, and have experienced something akin to seasons on Earth.”

  Her hand rested on the gear shifter. Jonas reached for her. “I really don’t care, Tempest. I think by now you know I have a preference. What about you?”

  “I don’t really know. I don’t relish driving through the mix-masters in this land, and the simplicity of Faery’s highway system is more tranquil than this. Your Prez says the Faery Queen owes you a favor, but I still haven’t been told what. The killer for your queen’s paramour is still on the loose, and I assume you’re going to want to resume your life here.”

  “That is irrelevant.”

  “How so?”

  “Because things are up in the air. I don’t know about the future, Tempest.”

  Her fingers interlocked with his. “You’re home. You’re a bunch of vampires who ride motorcycles and steal things. What more is there to know?”

  “You make it sound so simple.”

  “Isn’t it?”

 
“No.” He considered. To leave the MC would not be impossible, but what would he do if he retired? How would he function without the camaraderie of his brothers? He’d grown to love the smell of leather and motor oil, though he took to that rather quickly during the second Great War on Earth. “I really don’t know.”

  “But you do believe I’m stuck with you.”

  “Yup.”

  “Guess you’re coming back to Faery.”

  Jonas didn’t respond. He couldn’t refute her statement, didn’t want to be without her. But he’d need to figure out something that would allow him to split from the Undead Souls MC in an amicable fashion.

  There had to be another solution.

  They drove through the city limits and sped through the mix master system of freeways, carefully following signs to direct them further south until they hit the proper four lane freeway.

  Jonas looked in the mirror, saw Cristin on the side of the truck. Pliny must have been further back on the left.

  Speeding along at a good clip got them off the large freeway system and onto one of the smaller four-lane highways. Jonas kept glancing out the window, remaining alert. If Tempest was right, something about this seemed all wrong.

  The Firebrand MC had left too quickly and without much of a fight once they’d pulled the few automatic rifles out. Surely, Firebrand had plenty of firepower, but their ammo wasn’t charged the way Tempests’ was.

  Another hour had passed and they’d finally made their way to the main road leading to the portal between The Shadowlands and Faery. In a short period, they’d be back in Faery on a side of the land Jonas hadn’t ever seen.

  The silence seemed louder than just the hum of the engine. It did little to clear the niggling chatter in his mind.

  Guilt continued to eat at him even though his sister was cured now.

  Jonas slid from his seat and started for the bed.

  Tempest caught his hand. “Something up?”

  “No, just going to check on Nadine.”

  “Okay.” She smiled and released him.

  Crossing the few feet to get to the bed, Jonas sat down beside his sister and cupped her cheek.

  She opened her eyes. “Thank you, Jonas.”

  “Don’t thank me, sis. This is my fault.”

  Nadine shifted and sat up, crossing her legs. “What do you mean?”

  “Do you remember how all of this began?”

  She shook her head.

  Shit. He’d forgotten that she was a tad slow since the cancer got to her when she was human. It really rubbed him raw to think that he’d done what he thought was the right thing, but ultimately condemned her to this life. “Honestly?”

  “No. I don’t have much memory of things other than being in immense pain. The disease that affected me kept me in horrible pain for such a long time, dear brother. It’s odd not to have that burning, like you’re being eaten from the inside out, feeling.”

  He nodded. “I can imagine.” He’d never tell her he used magic to keep some of that pain at bay, or that he could feel it all the time because he was her sire. “Do you know I love you?”

  Nadine cocked her head slightly and smiled. “You’re getting to some mysterious revealing point, aren’t you brother?”

  Jonas ran his fingers through his hair. “Yes. No. Shit, Nadine. I don’t know.”

  She pursed her lips into a thin line. They looked even thinner and she still looked somewhat frail, but that would change.

  “Listen, we’re going to stop soon and there we can find a willing donor, okay?”

  She nodded. “Am I going to have to live out the rest of my days like this?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Feeding from the weak and hapless, Jonas.”

  He motioned toward Tempest. “You see her? That could be my future if I could figure out a solution to everything I’ve got going on right now. Something simple. I don’t know what it looks like. But I’ve been a vampire longer than you and I’ve survived with our routine of feeding. I’ve managed to keep it down to a minimum but the blood in Faery is…different.”

  “We shall be leaving our home?”

  “Nadine, the Shadowlands were never our home.”

  “I don’t understand. What are you talking about?”

  She didn’t remember being human. Had the disease eaten away her mind too? “We were born in the United States just before the first World War.”

  Nadine shook her head. “Jonas…are you serious? That would make us—”

  “A little over three hundred years old.”

  “Babies.”

  Both of them looked to see Tempest staring down at them. “What the hell?”

  “We’ve been moving steadily for the last two hours or so. I signaled to your pals up ahead that the truck needed to be refueled. We stopped. You two should probably get out and stretch.”

  “Are you going to be with my brother?” Nadine slid off the bed and stood before Tempest.

  Jonas had to chuckle at the fact that his sister seemed to be sizing up the half Fae/half vampire woman he’d claimed as a lover.

  Tempest set a hand on Nadine’s shoulder. “We’re going to figure it out.”

  Nadine stared at Jonas. “She’s a half breed?”

  “Yes. She’s one of us.”

  Tempest huffed a breath. “Jonas, we should go check on your pals. You know, since I don’t know them.”

  Jonas stood, slid his hands in his pockets. “Right. You’ll be okay, Nadine?”

  Again, his sister nodded and smiled. “You didn’t answer my question.”

  “There’s plenty of willing donors in this area, Nadine. I promise.”

  “Okay. I trust you.”

  Jonas turned and followed Tempest out of the truck and into the heavy, humid night air. She turned to face him. “She seems off.”

  “I’m hoping it’s just an adjustment period and the fact that she hasn’t fed regularly in a long while.”

  “You felt her pain.”

  “Tried to take it.” He nodded. His brothers had stopped to rest several yards away while other vampires filled up various vehicles around them.

  “You’re a good man, Jonas.”

  It was too late in the game to try to convince Tempest of his past. Besides, he didn’t want to scare her off.

  “Also, I can read your thoughts. It’s not as though my slate is pure and clean, either.”

  He cupped her face in his hands and bent down to kiss her, reveling in the feel of soft, plump lips against his. He drew in a breath, smelling the gasoline and concrete, along with that heavy air. More overpowering to his senses, Tempest’s scent. Clean, fresh, of the Earth, herbaceous.

  Life-affirming. He pulled back and stared at her. “I don’t expect a rebuttal or response, but I love you, Tempest. Know that.”

  She nodded. “I love you too.”

  “Good. Now that we have that out of the way, we have a problem, guys.”

  Both of them turned to see Cristin stalking up to them.

  “What’s up?”

  “Some things didn’t quite add up about our encounter with the Firebrand.”

  Tempest snapped her fingers. “I called it.”

  Jonas looked at her as though she’d grown a second head, then back to Cristin. “Like what?”

  “Well, that whole ordeal was too easy. Too clean. Even you, as a thief, had told us that if shit was too clean or easy then it probably meant we were walking into a trap.”

  Fuck. Cristin was right.

  “So how were you discovered? I drove the entire stretch past where Jonas said your clubhouse was and I didn’t see anything.” Tempest settled into Jonas, snaking an arm around his waist before he moved closer to her.

  “The clubhouse is hidden back in the forest, deep. Good mile ride up a dirt road, not fit for semi-trucks, so we have cover and can deter anyone in an attempted ambush.”

  “Except the fake Firebrand.”

  Cristine nodded. “How do you think the
y found us?”

  “If I had to wager a guess?” Jonas interlaced his fingers with Tempest’s before looking just past Cristin. “I’d say it probably had to do with a Brownie. I think I pissed him off when he stopped us to warn us about the bounty on Tempest’s head.”

  “Then the Brownie must have alerted them to your presence in retaliation.”

  Cristin nodded. “What?”

  “Before our attempted hijacking, I went further up to check out the scene and find the spot to catch her on.”

  “Ass.”

  He grinned at Tempest. “You still have the bikes.”

  She punched him in the shoulder.

  “Some woman you got there.”

  Throwing an arm around Tempest’s shoulder, and pulled her into his body. “I know.”

  “Oh Jonas,” she fake swooned over him, slapping his chest. “Take me!”

  He chuckled and slapped her on the ass. “I had to stop at this tiny village near the truck stop. I found lodging with this Brownie. But later on, I must have offended the creature and when he noted what Tempest was, he ran off, scared.”

  “Wonder why? She can’t be the only half-breed in all of Faery.”

  “No. I suppose not.”

  “Shit. Look, keep your eyes peeled for anything. If the Firebrand didn’t leave our lands, and I doubt they did, then something may be afoot.”

  “Not worried if we don’t run into true Ankou.”

  A few minutes later, the truck refueled and Jonas had managed to find a willing donor for his sister to drink from. Immediately, her color seemed to return and her features filled out somewhat.

  The remainder of the ride went uneventfully until the group came to the portal. Tempest flipped the switch and Jonas watched the truck practically leap into the air as it crested into the portal.

  The bikes made it with as much ease but the landing on all of them had been a tad rough. Jonas saw Rasputin and Davin hit the ground and almost spill out, but both had been riding for well over a hundred years so control was like breathing.

  Pliny and Cristin came in just after they did, speeding up to outrun the truck. The sheer size of it would mow them down just through inertia if Tempest didn’t have mad driving skills.

  Tempest gripped the wheel to control the truck, putting it right on the road and easing off the accelerator so as not to run over Davin or Rasputin. “What are your buddies going to do when this is all over?”