by Hati Bell
Kellsey gratefully accepted her mojito. She could use a drink.
Jo picked at her bridal bouquet, which started to look like a carcass. “My father’s company is almost bankrupt,” she told. “His good friend has suggested that, in return for an investment on his part, I marry his son. Something about him putting the aristocratic Wylde name to good use.” She swallowed. “My father pointed out to me that he’d taken care of me for years and now it was my time to take care of him. He also pointed out that should my marriage fail, I could always file for divorce.”
“Always good to know you have options,” Kellsey said dryly. “I’m glad you came.” Yeah, it was unexpected and a wee bit problematic, but she had missed her friend.
“I’m glad too,” Jo said. She put her wedding bouquet on the table and took a sip of her wine. “I found Edinburgh beautiful, all right, but Oban is even lovelier. I didn’t realize how beautiful Scotland actually is, until I drove through the countryside.”
“The Highlands are beautiful,” Kellsey concurred.
Jo’s eyes shifted to the edge of the table. “I need a place where I can stay for a few days.”
It was a request that a blind man could have seen coming. Kellsey wasn’t blind; she was merely desperate to get Jo out of the pub. “I’ll take care of a place where you can stay,” she said.
“Finally I get to see your house,” Jo said with a smile. “You’ve told me so much about it that I feel like I’ve already been there.”
Kellsey cleared her throat. “Um, the Asylum isn’t really suited for you.”
Jo’s eyes grew large. “The Asylum?”
Levi cocked an eyebrow. Kellsey cursed internally. “Yeah, we live in a former asylum that’s been refurbished.” She’d hoped that this would scare off Jo, but the only thing she could read on her face was excitement. Like a child going on a school trip for the first time. “It isn’t exactly the Ritz,” she said quickly. Unless the Ritz also had dungeons and dragons.
“That’s okay,” Jo said. “I only need a bed.”
“Sorry, Jo,” Kellsey said, while she glanced at Levi. He’d already risen from his chair and looked at her friend with disdain.
Levi gazed deep into her eyes. “Be still.”
Jo stiffened. “What a rude way to introduce yourself.” She put out a hand and said politely: “Hi, I’m Jolene Wylde, it’s nice to meet you.”
Kellsey was just about to push Jo away when Levi stepped back. There was a collective sigh in the pub.
“You won’t remember anything from this night,” Levi said in a deep tone.
Jo dropped her outstretched hand on the table. “I’m afraid I’ll remember this awful night for the rest of my life,” she said, gloomy.
Levi blinked and Kellsey’s heart almost stopped. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as it seemed. Maybe it was just a coincidence.
“Stop talking,” Levi clipped in a forceful tone.
Jo was starting to look pissed. “You stop talking. Kells, does he treat you like that too? Can you give me a room that’s the farthest away from him? I don’t believe your brother and I speak the same language, which would be the Queen’s civilized English.”
Levi leaned backward and sent Kellsey a compelling look. It was his “clean up your mess, or I’ll do it for you” look. Now that Jo turned out to be immune to his compulsion and he couldn’t erase her memory, there was only one thing left for Kellsey to do: get Jo out of Seven as soon as possible, before she saw something she wasn’t supposed to see.
It was as though the Fates were out to get her, because the next moment a frost giant stepped inside. With his length, a full height of six feet six inches, and an icy skin, he looked like anything but a human.
Jolene’s mouth dropped open. Her eyes shot to the Seven Commandments again.
“Um, they’re filming a scene from that fantasy TV show at the harbor,” was all Kellsey could come up with. Oban was the gateway to the Isles, so that wasn’t so far-fetched. Was it?
However, when a harpy flew in through the window and landed on the frost giant’s shoulder, Kellsey knew she’d run out of luck.
“No harpies allowed inside!” Zlatan yelled from behind the bar. “Read the damn sign!”
“That winged beast has the face of a woman,” Jo whispered.
Kellsey had to hand it to her friend. She didn’t scream; she didn’t utter a single word when Kartal grabbed her and led her away, his face grim.
Kellsey swallowed and felt her stomach lurch. She knew exactly where Jo was going to end up. She also knew that there was one rule Riz never deviated from.
There was only one thing left for her to do.
16
LEROY
Leroy walked out the bathroom with a towel held around his hips, steam following him, when Kellsey stormed inside.
“I can’t let her die, Lee. Jo may come across as a snob who reads too many classics, but she has a heart of gold.” She started to pace before the bed.
He’d heard of her human friend in the dungeons. All mythos in Oban had by now. Jolene Wylde wouldn’t last till the morning now she had discovered that mythos existed. He knew that, despite Kellsey’s plea, Riz wouldn’t change his mind. Like any general, he knew that making an exception for one would lead to insubordination and eventually mutiny in the ranks. Still, he asked: “How can I help?”
Kellsey’s summary of Jolene’s many amazing qualities immediately stopped. A blinding smile appeared on her face, as though he were her hero. Fuck. He wanted to be worthy of that look.
She jumped into his arms. He sat down on the edge of the bed, with her perched on his lap.
“I want to break her out, of course,” she said, sounding determined.
“Of course. When was the last time someone escaped from your dungeons?” He had to tread carefully here. When Kellsey had that fiery gleam in her eyes, no one could thwart her from her plan. That didn’t mean that he’d allow her to put herself in danger. She didn’t know it yet, but the days when she started a little war in a dimension or two, without him by her side, were over.
“Never,” she admitted. “But no one in the dungeons had a Callahan on her side before.”
“And what do you plan to do with her after breaking her out? You know, during the period when she’ll be hunted down.” The golden glow in her eyes flared up again and he braced himself. He didn’t know anyone like Kellsey Callahan, who, with the best intentions, could cause so much trouble. He suddenly wondered if that was the reason why Levi collected markers, to keep his sister out of trouble. Might not be a bad idea.
“I know a frost giantess whose harpy I saved a while ago. She owes me a favor. Jo can hide there until I’ve convinced Riz that she’s not a threat or he forgets about her.”
Riz Callahan wasn’t the type who left behind witnesses who could cause trouble for his family. Any possible threat to his clan got wiped out. And Leroy seriously doubted if Riz had forgotten a thing in his life. “Bad idea,” he said. “It will only make Kuno go after her. You know no one can hide from a werewolf once he’s caught a whiff of your scent. Certainly not from one of Kuno’s caliber.”
Her face dropped and he noticed that his lion immediately got agitated. The beast didn’t like to see her down. He didn’t either.
“What am I supposed to do then?” she asked. “Allow her to be thrown to wolves? Then I might as well feed her to Krik or offer her as a blood bag to a dhampir.”
“Maybe that’s not such a bad idea.”
“That’s not funny, Lee. Besides, Krik doesn’t find humans tasty. You know they upset his stomach.”
“You forgot that student,” he reminded her.
“That was an incident. Krik takes his job as a guardian Kraken seriously. Besides, that student was trespassing. It’s not Krik’s fault that the laddie had ignored all the barbed wire and warning signs. Also, Krik was only a toddler at the time.”
Leroy shook his head internally. Nobody would be able to convince Kellsey that Krik was a dead
ly Kraken instead of a pubescent teen.
He caressed her back in long, soothing strokes and nuzzled her neck. He still had to get used to the fact that he could finally touch her. “You misunderstood me, by the way. The idea I meant was to offer Jo to a dhampir,” he clarified.
“How would that solve….” Her breath hitched in her throat and a grin appeared on her face. “Oh.”
She started to turn around but he pulled her against him. “Where do you think you’re going?”
She furrowed her brow, looking confused. “But you just said….”
“Later.” He kissed her neck and with one move he pulled her tee over her head. “Much later.” He lifted her up and walked back towards the bathroom.
She pointedly looked at the towel around his waist. “I thought you just came out of the shower?”
“I feel dirty again,” he said and he shivered when she nibbled his earlobe.
“First the waterfall, now the shower. Seems like you have a water fetish,” she joked.
“You’re my fetish, babe. I want you anytime, anywhere, and as often as possible.”
***
Leroy waited until Kellsey fell asleep before he got out of bed, put on some clothes and sent Qasim a message. Fortunately, he’d been able to keep her from her break-out plan. There had simply been too many witnesses in the pub. Riz had no choice but to kill Jo. It was the law.
He had convinced Kellsey to sleep a night on it before she made a final decision about her friend. Not only did she have to convince a human to become a vampire, she also had to ask Levi to take one. Despite his ruthless reputation, Levi was surprisingly protective towards beings he considered weaker than himself. That, combined with Kellsey’s plea, could tilt the odds in Jolene’s favor.
It wasn’t long before Qasim appeared in a blue cloud. He smelled of smoke and the tips of his hair were singed.
“You okay?” Leroy asked.
Qasim pulled a face. “Kellsey’s dragon egg hatched. We sent it back to his dimension before she decided to adopt him like she did with Krikky. You have no idea how much an invisibility charm for a Kraken cost us back then.”
Of course Leroy did know. There wasn’t a price high enough to keep her happy. The alternative had been to kill the Kraken. No one had even dared to suggest that. “Nowadays she calls him Krik,” he said. “It’s a teen phase thing.”
“Do you know what the odds are of the only Kraken on this planet ending up with Kellsey? Sometimes I think the god of math has sent that beast here just to mess up my statistics.”
The djinn was stalling, something he only did when he was nervous or if he had bad news. Judging by his face, it was the latter. Not that Leroy had expected any differently. They still hadn’t found a cure and, after Indonesia, he hadn’t much hope left.
“Just spit it out, Q.”
“Show me your wound first.”
Leroy took off his shirt and Qasim frowned. “The poison has spread faster than I expected. You probably have only a few weeks left.”
“Great. More good news.”
Qasim looked down at his sister’s sleeping form. She rolled on her back and began to snore lightly. “Kells is the reason we’re a family,” he suddenly said. “She’s our home. Without her, we would’ve stayed a bunch of rag-tag nomads. It was love at first sight when she opened her eyes. She saved our lives in more than one way. I may not be the most perceptive when it comes to emotions, but even I can see that what she feels for you isn’t temporary. My sister isn’t a casual-fling kind of person. She might pretend she is, but that’s not how she’s wired. Did you tell her why you think you have no future together?”
Leroy uttered a painful laugh. “Have I told her that I will never give her children? What do you think?”
“You have to tell her,” Qasim insisted. “She has to be prepared for what might happen. I mean, what if your beast attacks her again, like in the cage?”
Leroy shook his head. “Not gonna happen. My beast attacked her because she was the only woman he could reach. The beast usually only preys on human women–brunettes who resemble Herakles’ mother Alkmene.”
“You’re making a mistake by not telling her the truth,” Qasim said. “She’s strong enough to handle it.”
“Kellsey’s strong enough to handle the world,” Leroy admitted. “I’m the one who’s not strong enough to let her go when she finds out I don’t want to give her a family.” He refused to take the risk of them having a son, who one day would inherit his curse. However, he intended to stick to their agreement. They would enjoy each other for as long as they could. If he became a danger to her or noticed she longed for children–and that time would come–he’d let her go.
The lion in him roared at the thought, but Leroy kept him in check. Whatever the future might bring them, Kellsey’s wishes came first, even if he had to step out of her life. Sometimes a lion had to give his lioness what she deserved and not what she asked for.
17
KELLSEY
How did you explain to a human that, in order to live, she had to die? Apparently not as she’d done, because Jo stared in front of her with dull, lifeless eyes.
Part of Kellsey admired the human behind the bars. Jolene Wylde was neatly sitting on a rickety chair in the dungeons as if she were at a high tea instead of in a prison. The only thing missing was a cup of tea and scones with jam and cream. However, the facade of apathy she had wrapped herself in was destroyed by her wedding gown, which hung around her like a dirty blanket.
“Those are my options?” Jo asked after a long silence, her voice sounding shrill. “Go into hiding in the hope that you convince your brother not to kill me, or turn into a vampire?”
This talk had gone much better when she’d discussed it with Leroy. He’d listened patiently, given some pointers, and then started to undress her.
Kellsey shook her head and forced herself to return her thoughts to the problem in front of her instead of daydreaming about Leroy’s tight ass again. Which wasn’t an easy feat. Sometimes she wanted to pinch herself to make sure that she wasn’t dreaming. Ever since they’d found each other at the waterfall on the other side of the world, every day with him felt like a blessing. It felt so good that she feared she would screw it up by demanding more from him.
When Jo looked at her questioningly, Kellsey gave herself a mental kick. “Um, yeah,” was the only thing she could come up with. Not the most intelligent response, but she didn’t know how to make a quite literally deadly message sound nicer than it was.
Jo’s eyes shot fire. “Did he ask for this? Does he…?” Her cheeks flushed red.
It was a bad sign when Jo refused to call someone by his name. It usually meant that she despised someone so much that she found him even less worthy than the dirt beneath her expensive pumps–a treatment she reserved for special people, such as her stepmother. Well, she had another think coming if she thought she could treat Levi that way.
“I hate to burst your bubble, Jo, but this was my idea. Leviathan Callahan is the last dhampir who would want you, or anyone for that matter, as his disciple.”
Jo swallowed. “Leviathan? He’s a Biblical monster?”
“Leviathan is originally Phoenician, but can we forget the religious analysis for a moment? Dhampirs are born as humans and remain that way until they’re at their strongest. Then their human bodies change into the immortal bodies of dhampirs. Levi is the strongest dhampir I know. He’s also the only one I know of without his own bloodline. You have to understand that my brother isn’t exactly keen on becoming someone’s master.” Which was probably the understatement of the century.
“Master?” Jo asked aghast.
Kellsey nodded. “Yeah, that’s how a vampire addresses his dhampir. So think carefully before you make a choice.”
“Are you seriously telling me this is my only chance for survival?” Jo asked. “To become a vampire? Do I look like a Bella?”
“What do you want me to say, Jo? I’m repeating myse
lf. The rules of mythos are clear. Humans can’t know about us. If they do, their memories are wiped clean. You are a rare case. Levi couldn’t erase your memory. I could, of course, ask the white witches for help, but we aren’t exactly best buds.” Vicky wasn’t an option. Untrained as she was, she could accidentally turn Jo’s brains into mush.
“There are witches?”
Oops. They were getting off track again. “What I’m trying to tell you is that if you become a mythos, the issue will resolve itself. It’s your only real option to survive. The other option is to flee, but I know Riz; he will find you. If you want, I can get you out of here, but who knows what might happen to you afterward.”
Jo wrapped her arms around her knees. “Oh, God.”
“The latter isn’t entirely true, by the way,” Kellsey corrected herself. “I do have an idea of what will happen. Kuno will track you down. He won’t kill you because you’re a woman. Werewolves are very protective towards women and children, but….”
“Oh, God, werewolves exist,” Jo squeaked.
Kellsey chewed her bottom lip. Perhaps this wasn’t the right time to tell Jo about their gods and wars. It was probably best to limit Jo’s world to Oban and her own clan. “Kuno would never hurt you, but Riz has a different view towards women. He’s an equal opportunity, equal rights kind of guy. He will be the one to kill you in front of witnesses.” It was the harsh reality and it was time Jo faced that.
Her friend suddenly looked up. “That’s why you never invited me over during the holidays, no matter how much I hinted at it.”
Um, no. “My family is my life. Your arrival would have meant that everyone would’ve had to pretend to be human. I didn’t want for my family to feel uncomfortable in their own home.”
Jo let out a wry laugh. “How ironic to come across such a close-knit family on the eve of my death.”
Kellsey knew she was referring to her own frigid family, where she felt like an outsider. “So, you’ll do it? Accept Levi as your master?” she asked, feeling hopeful. “I promise I’ll help you every step of the way in your new life. We all will.”