“Understood,” I said.
Niall crossed his arms. “Rastus also says he has detected a pack moving in the area. Knowing my affinity for them, he has asked me to help him track them. He is hoping if he can kill one or two, matters will go better for him when he finally tells Disa what happened. I have agreed to meet him beside the wagon house in ten minutes.”
I felt Trayton stiffen beside me. Putting my hand on his shoulder to keep him from blurting out something Niall didn’t need to hear, I said, “Be careful.”
Niall nodded sharply. “Lock up after yourselves,” he said. Moments later he was gone.
“My pack,” Trayton murmured.
“I’m worried about them too,” I said. “War between your people and the vampires would be more devastating than you can imagine right now.”
He nodded. “Especially with me forced to sit on the sidelines and watch.” He took my hand, held it up against his cheek. “You have to go to them. Tell them I’m fine. That you’re bringing me out in the morning and they shouldn’t make a move until then.”
“Will they listen to me?” He opened my hand and licked the inside of my wrist before grinning at me in that way that made me shake my head. “You do get how gross that is, don’t you?”
“It’s just like in kindergarten, Lucille. Or whatever you want to be called. We’re blood brothers. BFFs. I’ve made you an honorary wolf, so deal with it. I know my pack will.”
“I don’t like being friends with you.”
“You’ll change your mind after we go to a movie together.” He looked over my head at Vayl. “We always drink a six-pack of Heineken first and then have a competition to see who can hold their pee the longest.”
“Oh, you are a laugh a minute, I can see that already.”
“But you’re smiling!”
“That’s only because you’re too sick to punch. Now, it’s after four in the morning and you have to be up early. Go to bed.”
As Trayton moved back into the sleeping area, Vayl and I faced Aine. “We have to be leaving now,” Vayl said.
“Of course. You have your work to do,” the keys sang.
“I am sorry about Disa.”
But she’d risen from the piano and turned her back to both of us. We eased out of the room, locking the door behind us.
We lingered with Trayton just long enough to get the name of his alpha and his promise to catch a nap before locking him in as well.
“Have you noticed this place is like the poster child for dead bolts?” I asked as we followed Niall’s trail to the front entrance. Though our Monises confirmed nobody was even close, I still felt the need to whisper. “The masks. Do you feel it?”
“Only that the compulsion to walk in the Trust is stronger here.” Vayl’s jaw tightened. “Damn this place. I should not have brought you.”
“You’re worried about me?”
His glance showed the blue of a stormy ocean. Yup, he was vexed. “Humans do not tend to die of natural causes here.” His eyes had gone almost black now.
“What are you saying?”
He put his hand under my elbow. Began to lead me down the stairs. “I am thinking how fine it would be to turn you. To make you mine forever. To bring you into the Trust as if I were a full member.” His head jerked up, his gaze darting over the leering eyes and sneering mouths of hundreds of masks. “Can you hear the voices?”
“No.”
“Outside,” Vayl said, his voice strained.
As soon as we reached the door I wrenched it open, stepping back just in case the damn skeleton did jump off the handle. But all that flew in was a whoosh of cool spring air. When Vayl hesitated, I said, “Come on, let’s go.”
We both stepped onto the worn brick of the small entryway at the same time. I practically slammed the front door closed. But it was too late. Vayl pulled me into his arms, holding me so tight I could hardly breathe.
“You,” he said, his growl reverberating against my neck. “Just the scent of you drives me half mad. Do you realize that?”
“You’re into Ivory soap?”
He chuckled. Traced his lips up to my cheek. Gave me a soft, brief kiss. “What were we doing?”
“Going to talk to Trayton’s pack.”
The relief I felt when he dropped his arms wasn’t nearly as great as I’d anticipated. Okay, Jaz, admit at least to yourself that you really like the hugging. In fact, you’d sacrifice a couple of meals a day for more of the touchy-feely. And eternity with this wonder by your side doesn’t sound half bad. Could you be honest about that? Then at least the people in your head wouldn’t think you were such a damn hypocrite. Chorus of hell yeahs from the crowd.
But I didn’t say anything as I followed Vayl across the lawn and into the woods. Because wanting somebody, even loving them, didn’t make you right for them.
Chapter Seventeen
The forest that crowded the base of Mount Panachaikon felt a lot like the national parks Albert had marched us through when we were kids. Lots of pines mixed with oak, chestnut, and white poplar left only minor undergrowth to wade through. A recent rain had left the leaves limp underfoot and smelling of decay. But not the Trust kind that made you want to gargle and spit.
“Are you going to be able to track these wolves?” asked Vayl. He strode beside me, so close that we could’ve held hands if we’d wanted to. I did. Goddammit, would you grow up?
What’s wrong with a little hand holding in the woods? Especially when you’re with a devastatingly handsome vampire who makes you feel slightly tipsy every time you look at him despite the fact that you haven’t imbibed in weeks?
It’s not professional, that’s what! Plus, it makes you look wimpy. And you can’t draw your gun if your hand is busy somewhere else. Any more questions, ya big squishy?
Just one.
What?
Do you want to be alone forever?
“Jasmine?”
“Huh?”
“I was expecting a response.” Don’t-ignore-me sharpness in his tone.
I sighed. “No, I can’t really track them. I mean, I get this general sense that they’re out here, but that’s about it. Maybe if there was just one whose scent I knew . . .”
“So what are we to do?”
“How the hell should I know? You’re the boss here. You decide!” I plopped down on a fallen log, ignoring the fact that dampness immediately began to seep through the seat of my jeans.
He strode up to the log, dug his boot into it, and leaned over me. “What is your problem now?”
I looked up into those dark, confused eyes, such an accurate reflection of my own feelings, and finally decided to tell the truth. “I want the ring back.”
He dropped to his haunches, his legs flanking mine so that I felt oddly embraced. “Why?”
“We need each other.” It was that simple.
As a leonine smile dawned on his face he pulled the necklace out from under his shirt and unclipped the ring. Instead of handing it to me as he had the first time, he slipped it on my finger. We shared a shocked look as we both realized it now sat on my left hand. Like a promise.
As Cirilai gave me its own form of Swedish-massage welcome, Vayl leaned forward. The message practically sang in his eyes—a kiss to make the moment eternal. I pressed my palm against his chest, feeling the abnormally slow whump of his heartbeat as I shook my head. “No,” I whispered. “You’re taken.”
When he tried to protest, I shook my head harder.
“She may have pulled a fast one, but the fact is that you turned her. You’re connected now. And until that’s broken, I can’t . . . I’m sorry. I just can’t. Plus, we already discussed this. About your boys. You still haven’t—”
“I understand,” he murmured in that velvet baritone that caressed my skin like hot oil. “Time. Perhaps now it will favor me as never before.” He took my hand in his, kept his eyes on mine as he lifted Cirilai to his lips. He smiled. And if he looked as dangerous as he seemed hopeful, well, that was all part of the p
ackage.
It turned out that wandering aimlessly wasn’t the best way to find a pack of werewolves. But stopping and sharing a quiet moment worked like chum in an ocean full of great whites. Vayl and I had just risen and I was pausing to wipe the bark off my fanny when a mocking feminine voice from behind me said, “Aw, Krios, wasn’t that touching? Now can I rip them apart?”
I jumped about three feet, turning as I did so, which would’ve made me fall in a tangled heap if not for Vayl, whose quick reflexes saved us both from utter embarrassment.
“Watch your temper, Phoebe,” said a tall, gray-haired man who looked like he should’ve been shelving books at the local library. He stood with his hands in the pockets of his brown slacks, one shoulder supported by an enormous oak. The young woman he’d just spoken to crouched comfortably at his knee. That we’d neither seen nor heard them advance to those positions said a great deal for their abilities. And just how wrapped up we could become in one another.
Phoebe viewed me with wide, irate eyes framed by spectacularly long lashes. Those can’t be real, I decided, especially considering the shocking amount of blue eye shadow backing them up. She pursed her lips, generously glossed in candy-apple red, and for a second I thought we were going to be witness to a string of expletives, delivered with the same barely contained zeal as her first pronouncement. Normally I would’ve wondered what chemical carpet she was riding as I watched her busy hands, tipped with blue-and-red-striped nails, fiddle with the pockets and buttons of her ancient army jacket. But she wasn’t sweating and her eyes seemed clear. Phoebe just had to move.
“You must be Trayton’s pack,” I said. Trayton had said Krios was his alpha. But he’d left out the part about his buds looking like they could bench-press a tour bus. As I looked around, maybe a dozen more people dressed for hiking had stepped into view. They ranged in age from sixteen to maybe fifty-five. And damn, were they fit.
“Why is it that you smell of him?” asked Krios. He made the question sound casual, but I could see the tension in his upper body. The unspoken messages flying from him to the surrounding wolves oozed barely contained violence.
“Well, he licked my hand a couple of times.” It sounded ridiculous put so baldly. I wished I had Cassandra’s portable library. The Enkyklios could’ve replayed the entire drama in Technicolor and surround sound.
“Trayton is mine!” growled Phoebe.
Krios put his hand on her head as I said, “Sure, fine. We’re just friends.”
Krios walked up to me, and now the bland old man facade dropped away and I realized why he’d come to power within this group. Immense strength in that gaze backed by the will to put it to use. “Why is it that though we tracked him to this villa, we can’t sense his spirit moving anywhere within it?” He took a deep breath, and when his brows drew together and his black eyes glittered dangerously I remembered clearly why I never let relationships grow beyond a certain point. Eventually the people you attached to, or their alphas, were bound to turn around and rip your heart out. “And tell me, woman, how is it that while I smell him on you, I also scent him within you?” He grabbed me by the collar and yanked me toward him. I took him by the wrists, more to keep my balance than to respond with violence. At least not yet. Especially not when he said, “Have you dared to eat my son?”
Chapter Eighteen
I laughed. Actually, it started as more of a giggle that grew. Because my mind went straight to the gutter. And I always crack up at the worst possible moments. I’m the only person I know who tee-hees during eulogies. Can’t help it, my mind always comes up with the oddest images.
Krios must’ve started to feel stupid manhandling a hysterically cackling female, because he let me go. Which caused Vayl to abruptly bank the powers he’d pulled up the second Krios began to threaten me.
“Trayton’s okay,” I finally managed. “He’s inside, healing up. That’s why you smell him on me. In me. Whatever. I gave him some blood after one of the vamps shot him.” Whoops, wrong choice of words. The pack didn’t quite growl, and humans can barely pull off bristling. But, yeah, my words had just stirred up a whole pot of what-the-fuck? I stopped laughing. Hell, I practically stopped breathing. Suddenly I just wanted to bring the world to a screeching halt so I could put all the pieces back where they belonged.
I spoke slowly, so maybe I wouldn’t screw anything else up today. And because I was suddenly exhausted. “I think you can’t sense him because that villa is wrapped with Vampere power. But Trayton has made me a member of this pack. So I’d appreciate it if you’d at least stop treating me and my sverhamin like you want to bite our heads off.”
Krios gave Vayl the once-over, decided all he deserved at this point was a nod, and went on with the third degree. “Why is he in there?”
My shoulders dropped. Realizing my brain would not spit out a decent lie until I’d had some real rest, I told the truth. “They lured him there to fight a werebear. He was nearly killed, but I found him an ally inside who’s nursing him back to health.”
“We want him back,” said Krios.
“And then we’re going to kill those sons of bitches!” yelled one of his pack, a brawny dockworker type whose shoulders were almost as wide as he was tall. His pronouncement was followed by a roar of approval from the rest of the Weres, one Krios did nothing to discourage.
“You don’t have the strength,” I said, hoping it was true. “The vamps would never have had the Sonrhain if they’d thought it would really threaten the Trust.” I let the mutters of outrage and denial die down before I went on. “Listen, this whole mess is because of their new Deyrar, Disa. You can bet your asses the werebears aren’t any happier than you are. But they’ve promised not to move on the Trust until at least next week.”
“Why?” Dockworker demanded.
“Ask them,” I said.
“I can do that!” Phoebe volunteered.
“First things first,” said Krios. “We want Trayton back.”
“No problem,” I said, wondering if I was setting myself up for disaster by uttering those karma-tempting words. “I’ll bring him out to you in the morning, when the vampires have gone down for the day.”
“I don’t trust her!” yelled Dockworker.
“Then you’re a fool!” I shouted right back. “I picked your buddy up off the floor after giving him my own blood.” And letting him make me into a friend. Like I need friends. Which I don’t!
“Just so you understand, he’s mine,” insisted Phoebe.
“You got a glitch, there, Pheebes?” I asked her. “Because I’m pretty sure we’ve been over this.”
“Wolves mate for life,” she informed me. “It’s important for you to understand that he’s already chosen his mate.”
I looked up at Vayl, who’d remained silent through this whole exchange. “Did you hear that, boss? Wolves mate for life.”
“And Trayton has made you an honorary wolf.”
“Huh.” I looked at Krios. “Am I in this pack, or not?”
He spent some time silently communing with his people. More time while each of them came up to sniff me. Damned unnerving considering how easily they could tear me apart. Force another change on me that I honestly didn’t know if I could stand. “You are pack. But bottom tier,” he warned me. “No power. No vote.”
“Fine.” I looked up at Vayl and smiled, my face actually hurting from using muscles I hadn’t worked out in too long. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“This is so bizarre.”
“You’re telling me!”
“However . . .”
“It’s worth a try.” I turned to Krios. “Listen, you guys need to get out of here. A couple of the Trust vamps are out looking for you right now. And even though one of them is trying his best to avoid you, they still might stumble on to you. Where do you want me to drop Trayton off?”
We agreed to meet at a cemetery located in the oldest part of town around ten the following morning. As soon as the last of them disapp
eared into the trees, Vayl and I hurried back to Niall’s room to ask Trayton how werewolves worked out the mating ceremony. On the face of it, you wouldn’t think it would cancel out a Vampere binding. But, then, we weren’t discussing a math problem. Our idea was so strange, it just might work.
Chapter Nineteen
No way!” said Trayton. He didn’t even look away from the TV screen. His thumbs flew. Guns blared. Crap blew up. He was having the ultimate recuperation experience. And I wanted to strangle him.
“Why not?” I demanded as I sat on the chair beside him. I glanced over my shoulder at Vayl, who’d elected to stay by the door and play watchman. He shrugged. Let us go, he mouthed. I shook my head.
Trayton paused the game and dropped the controller onto his lap. Finally, his full attention came to me. Weird that he looked almost as pissed as I felt. “You can’t take something like this lightly!” he fumed.
“Am I laughing? Look, Vayl’s in a helluva spot, here. Disa’s got something malevolent planned and she’s put my boss front and center. You’ve been the victim of her plots. Would you want that to happen to anyone else?”
“That’s not the point! We don’t mate outside the pack. Okay, maybe sometimes, and actually Krios is one of the few alphas who would go for it. But mating is for life, and even I can tell the two of you aren’t ready.”
Suddenly Vayl was towering over the both of us. “What do you mean by that?” he demanded.
“You’re not partners.”
“What the hell?” I asked. “We’ve been working together forever.”
Trayton snorted. “See, you don’t even get it.”
In the silence I could almost hear the semi-farting sound of our ego balloons deflating. Vayl found his voice first. He spoke with the careful control of a man who’s trying hard not to rip off anyone’s head. “Explain yourself, boy.”
Trayton blew his hair out of his eyes. “It’s obvious. There’s plenty of hot going on between you two; even a rabbit with a cold could smell that. But there’s not nearly enough warmth for it to last. And you can’t have a lifelong love without a solid partnership to shore it up. Geez, how old are you?”
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