by Dunbar, Natalie; Glass, Seressia; Jeffries, J. M. ; Banks, L. A.
Abruptly she was lying on the hot grass panting and out of breath. Garen covered her with a soft cottony material and pulled the garment on over her head. “Are you all right?” he asked.
She nodded.
Anger lit the heated cognac of his eyes as he gazed down at her. “You could have been killed. What possessed you to run off to meet a pack of werewolves alone? Especially the same pack that attacked you weeks ago?”
“Wasn’t it worth the risk?” she shot back. “Armando and his crew can’t hurt me anymore, and I have Nana’s body for the funeral.”
Some of the anger seeped out of his eyes. “You’ve also learned how to make the change. Do you know how rare it is for a newling to accomplish that before the full moon?” “Did I tell you that wolves mate for life?” he asked, pulling her close and holding her so tight that it almost hurt. “If anything had happened to you…” His voice rang with emotion, and then tapered off.
“I’ll be more careful,” she promised. “I was so afraid you wouldn’t get here in time, and then when you did…”
They shared a kiss.
Kellie curved a hand around the side of his face. “I want to be with you, Garen, but I don’t know if I can stay here and be what you need me to be,” she confided.
Garen simply stared at her with a volatile mixture of shock and a little hurt. “All I’m asking is that you try.”
“I will. I promise.” She locked her fingers behind his neck.
Garen helped her to stand. “Let’s see if we can find your amulet.”
Kellie followed along behind him, aware that he must have realized that he’d have a better chance at getting her to stay if he didn’t push or demand. She hated taking orders from anybody.
While he’d been helping her, a cleaning crew had shown up and was helping the others clear away all remaining signs of the battle. The amulets were in a golden pile on the picnic table. Dirt, bloody fingerprints, and fur soiled their surfaces, but her hands still tingled when she touched them. She found her amulet deep in the pile and gave it to Garen to study.
“It has some sort of magic,” he observed. “They went to a lot of trouble to get it. What does it do?”
Sunlight reflected off the medallion and into her eyes. Kellie blinked. “I think all the medallions help the change, but mine does more than the wolf. I was holding it when I changed into the wolf.”
“And had lost it when you couldn’t change back,” he added, finishing her sentence.
Kellie nodded.
Garen returned her medallion. “I’d already guessed that they were using the medallions for more than a symbol of their membership Armando’s group. It’s almost a shame that Armando’s not alive to explain.”
“Hey Dawg, I wouldn’t go that far.” Marcus spoke from just behind them. “For robbing and killing all those humans and bringing the wrath of the government down on us, he and his pack deserved to be exterminated. Because of what they’ve done, the humans are afraid of us. It’ll take a long time to get that trust back.”
Kellie absently stroked her amulet. It felt warm in her fingers, but nothing like what she’d experienced before. “What are you going to do with the medallions?”
Garen and Marcus exchanged glances. “I vote for melting them down and destroying them, but we can save that question for the council meeting coming up in a few weeks,” Marcus declared.
“We should leave what’s left of Armando here to be found along with his amulet,” Garen suggested. “Then the Preternatural Division could study him and the amulet. We’ll have more information for the council then.”
Several in the crowd murmured in agreement. In short order, they all left with the park pretty much as they’d found it except for Armando and his remains.
Garen called his boss in the Preternatural Division with information about his discovery of Armando’s body. Then Kellie and Garen drove Marcus and Laurel to their car, and make a quick stop back at the hotel and casino to freshen up before dropping off Nana’s body at the funeral home.
When they were alone, Kellie asked the question that had been occupying her thoughts. “Do you think we got all of Armando’s pack?”
Garen’s expression was grim. “No, but we’ll get them with the leads we got today.”
Kellie digested that in silence. As long as some of Armando’s pack remained alive and free to roam around, she wouldn’t be safe. Except for meeting Garen, Vegas had been a very unlucky place for her.
Forcing herself to think past all that had happened today, she drew Nana’s envelope from the underneath the seat and reread the parts about her burial. Nana had made arrangements for her body to be prepared for burial at a specific funeral home. Kellie gave Garen the address for the Flowerhill Funeral Home.
The funeral home was a homey little place on the outskirts of Vegas. It looked like a place you’d find in a small town, USA, not Vegas. They mounted the stone steps and rang the bell. A very short bald man with a wizened face that reminded Kellie of storybook pictures she’d seen of gnomes, answered. His fitted green suit highlighted bright green eyes.
Taking one look at Kellie, he said, “Kelandra, I suppose you’ve come about Fern?”
Taken aback by the fact that he’d recognized her and known her given name, Kellie nodded. It was a long time since she’d heard anyone use Nana’s given name, too.
“Where is she?” he asked, looking past Kellie and Garen as if he expected to see Nana standing there. His gaze reached the car.
“She’s in the trunk,” Kellie managed. “It… it’s a long story.”
“It doesn’t matter how she got here. I’m just glad she made it,” he said cryptically. “Could you open the trunk, please?” Garen clicked the remote. The trunk popped up. Surprisingly fast on his feet, the little man moved past them and
down the steps. By the time they made it to the car, he was already removing the body bag.
Garen stepped forward. “Let me help you with that.”
“I’ve got her.” The little man lifted the bag easily and carried it to the porch. “You might open the door for me,” he told Kellie.
Hurrying to the steps, she did. The interior was cool and spacious and filled with greenery and flowers. They followed the little man to a back room where he placed the bag on an examining table.
“My name is Lucas McGilery,” the little man said as he unzipped the bag.
Garen introduced himself.
The sight of Nana’s body brought tears to Kellie’s eyes. She’d known that the old lady hadn’t been feeling well, and she’d been planning to come and see about her. Why hadn’t she dropped everything right away? Her only excuse was that Nana had always been more than capable of taking care of herself and everyone else she cared about, too.
The first time Kellie left had been in her early teens, and Nana had been staying in Fieldcrest, Ohio. She’d left then to compete with the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Team. It had become a career. Years later Kellie had come back when she was too old to compete successfully. Nana had seemed the same, and she’d been just as tight-lipped about Kellie’s parents and the past.
After a year, Kellie left to compete on the tennis circuit. She’d done well for a while and made it into the top four in women’s tennis. When it became an endless grind of work and competition, Kellie quit that career too and came to stay near Nana in Briarwood, California. When California had become a little too perfect for Kellie, she’d moved to Detroit to live alone. Now she took work as a well-paid professional gymnastics and tennis coach when she chose. She hadn’t seen Nana in a year, but she’d been dreaming about her.
Kellie didn’t know she was crying until a drop fell onto her hand.
Garen used the tissue dispenser on a side table and pressed several tissues into her hand.
“Don’t worry about her,” Lucas said gently. “She’ll be fine with me. I’ll have her looking as beautiful as ever. You’ll see.”
Kellie blew her nose. “You knew her?”
&n
bsp; “Of course I did, but it’s been along time since I’ve seen her. She was a very private person.”
That was an understatement. “How did you recognize me?” she asked.
Lucas smiled. “You were just a little one when she came and made the arrangements. You were at my coffee table coloring when you told me your name.”
“Did she say anything about my parents?” Kellie asked hopefully, keeping her tone light.
“Just that they’d gone and gotten themselves killed and that she was the only one left to raise you.”
Kellie stared at him. What he said fit in with the story Nana had told her of a car accident, but it sounded different coming from Lucas. She’d searched the newspapers and police reports using what little she could get from Nana and found nothing. She wasn’t even sure that Monroe was really her last name. Nana had been an enigma and a mystery. She’d also been a woman of wisdom and power. People had recognized it in her and given her a lot of respect.
Lucas gazed back down at Nana. “I’ll have her ready for the family hour tomorrow. She prepaid for shipment of her body back to… to? I’ll have to look that up.”
“Fieldcrest, Ohio,” Kellie finished for him.
“So it is.” Lucas smiled. “Is there anything else I can do for you?” Assuring him that there was nothing, they left.
Stopping for steaks at a little restaurant on the way home, they made it back to their room around six. Garen couldn’t remember when he’d packed so much into one day. He was certain that he’d sleep as soon as his head touched the pillow.
As soon as the door to the room closed and he touched Kellie’s hand, everything changed. One touch and he was hard and aching to get inside her. Filling her mouth with his tongue, he squeezed the firm round globes of her ass and pulled her close to his heat.
“Garen!” With a soft cry, she curled into him, grinding on him. Her fingers fumbled with the button on his pants. She drew down the zipper and fell to her knees, holding the already moist tip of his flesh in her hands.
He was already on the edge. “No, I want it all,” he said, bending down and lifting her into his arms.
Her hands delved into his shirt, massaging his chest as she mouthed his nipples through the material.
Garen thought he’d go crazy as he carried her into the bathroom on shaky legs. He turned on the shower. Unable to wait another second, he set her on the wide counter and spread her legs. Her panties were soaked. He drew them down and off gently, massaging her soft thighs, and then her long legs.
Holding her thighs, he placed a kiss on her abdomen and pressed his fingers into her. Moaning, she arced against him, rotating her hips. Her juices ran down his fingers. He withdrew them and placed himself deep inside her with three hard, mind-numbing thrusts.
Kellie screamed with pleasure and wrapped her legs around him. They rocked together, moving so energetically that she nearly fell off the counter. When they reached the plateau, she gripped him with every part of her body. He spent forever thrusting and pouring himself into her. Together, they floated back to earth.
As Kellie lay in his arms with her ears still ringing, she realized that their lovemaking had been more than the physical act. She’d joined her heart, spirit, and emotions with Garen’s.
“Shower’s ready,” Garen whispered after a moment. “Want to try it out?”
Chapter Eight
Despite a full night of mind-numbing sex, Garen had a difficult time leaving Kellie the next morning. He spent the day at the Preternatural Police Division, tiptoeing around the paperwork surrounding Armando’s body and the amulet.
His boss, Elio, eyed him suspiciously. He was sensitive enough to know that Garen had lied about a few things, but he didn’t know why. This didn’t worry Garen since Elio owed him a favor or two. He called one of those favors in.
Schraf, a sensitive in the magical division, told Garen that he was certain the medallions would help their wearers turn into wolves. He even showed Garen a sketch of the wolf medallions in one of his references, the Book of All Things Magical. Schraf further insisted that the medallions had been dipped in the blood of a creature that was neither werewolf nor human.
“What does that leave?” Garen asked, giving Schraf a quizzical look. “Vampire?”
“No.” Schraf glowered at him and scratched his gray head. “There are several other possibilities. I will try to narrow it down.”
At the Vegas Police Department, the forensics division ran tests on Armando’s remains. Garen called in another favor to get an advanced look at the preliminary results. Despite the presence of teeth marks and fur on the remains, blood tests showed that Armando had not been a werewolf.
Garen was at a loss in interpreting that information. He had seen Armando in wolf form with his own eyes and fought with him too. He could only draw the conclusion that the medallions had the capacity to turn humans into werewolves on a temporary basis.
Reasoning that it was likely that Armando’s entire pack had been humans that used the medallions to become werewolves, Garen decided to focus on Armando’s friends and family. Once they found out what had happened to Armando and the others, remaining pack members would not openly wear the medallions.
Armando and his pack had paid the price for attacking and killing humans and causing a rift between the authorities and the werewolf packs, but Garen wasn’t foolish enough to think the battle was over. He would follow up on the new leads and share his information at the clan meetings.
Garen hadn’t told Kellie yet, but his keen sense of smell told him that the creature whose blood had been used on the medallions was her Nana. The old woman’s body had been drained of blood and as one of the Frey, her blood would have met the ritual requirements. Pierson had admitted that his band of werewolves were after Kellie for her medallion from the start. They hadn’t been able to locate it in Nana’s place and knew Kellie stood to inherit it. They’d attacked the neighborhood to cover their tracks, but Kellie fought hard and the SWAT team had showed up much too early for them to even broach the subject of the amulet.
Kellie got up early and began packing her clothes. She spent a good part of the day calling the people in Nana’s address book, telling them that she’d passed away. Then she invited them to the funeral service in Fieldcrest and gave them the details. Every one accepted the invitation.
Feeling anxious and a bit irritated, she showed up early for Nana’s family hour at the funeral home. The event had been posted in the local papers, but Kellie wasn’t really expecting anyone. None of the people in the black address book had lived in the area.
Lucas McGilery had laid Nana out in a painted green room filled with plants and flowers. The green dress she wore had been one of her favorites. When Kellie got a good look at Nana’s face, she could only stare. Nana looked like a beautiful queen. Lucas had
managed to rehydrate her face and skin. Now Nana looked as if she were sleeping. “You’ve done a wonderful job.” Palming a tissue, she dabbed at her wet face.
Lucas smiled proudly. “She was a wonderful woman. Then of course, I have a gift for this line of work. Some people say I work magic.”
Kellie didn’t doubt it. She believed in more than she could see and touch and explain. Settling into a nearby chair, she thought about Nana and remembered the good times. Nana had been stern, but she’d taught Kellie to appreciate nature and life and the things that came to you.
The sound of the door opening reached Kellie. Glancing up, she saw Garen looking quite stunning in a black suit, entering the room. It was then that she realized that she’d been crying.
“Sorry. I meant to come earlier, but I got tied up at work,” he explained.
She opened her arms and he stepped into them, holding her tight. “I will always be there for you,” he whispered. He nuzzled her cheek. She’d needed the contact. She felt loved and the anxious and irritated feeling eased and disappeared. Was that one of the benefits of the bond Garen talked about? She would have to test her theories o
n that one. “The funeral is in Fieldcrest tomorrow,” she murmured. “Are you coming?”
“Of course.” Garen released her. “I’ve got some time off from work. Paul and two of my cousins will be coming, too.
She lifted an eyebrow. “Is that really necessary?”
His gaze was steady. “Yes, it is. Some of Armando’s pack is still out there. We’re expecting trouble.” “Okay,” she said after a moment or two. “When are you going to introduce me to your family?”
“Tonight.”
Kellie swallowed hard. The prospect made her nervous. “I don’t know if I’m ready for that.” Garen laughed. “I don’t think I can keep them away much longer. They’ve been asking about you.”
Taking his hand, she led him back to Nana. “Let me introduce you to mine.”
About the Authors
L.A. Banks, author of The Vampire Huntress Legend series, pens a variety of paranormals, crime thrillers, as well as romances under multiple pseudonyms. A full-time author, graduate of University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton undergraduate program and holding a Masters in Fine Arts in filmmaking from Temple University, Banks is currently penning more projects across all genres. She lives with her husband and family in Philadelphia. For a full list of her varied work and upcoming projects, visit her websites at www.LeslieEsdaileBanks.com and www.vampirehuntress.com.
By day, Miriam Pace and Jacqueline Hamilton are mild-mannered bookstore owners, but by night they turn into the dynamic writing duo, J.M. Jeffries. Miriam has been married for thirty-six years and has two children and a grandchild. Jackie is single and considers Miriam’s dogs her children. They live in southern California and have been writing together for eight years.
Seressia Glass currently lives in Atlanta. When not writing, she enjoys good food, good music, and good friends. She’s currently at work on her next romance. For more information, please visit www.seressia.com or write to Seressia in care of the publisher.