by Liza Street
Motion caught her eye. Something dark flew down at them, swiping against Dristan before flying back up again. Blood trickled through Dristan’s thick fur, and Laura suppressed a shudder. Snarling, she sat back on her haunches, tail twitching, waiting.
The next time, the flying shape attacked Laura. She barely caught sight of the moving darkness before a sharp, searing pain traveled across her back. Shallow, but it felt like acid. Dristan leaped and swiped at the shape before it flew back up.
The trees—they were attacking from the trees.
Had the vampires been following Laura and Dristan’s progress this entire time?
Finally, a scent. Old blood made Laura wrinkle her nose in distaste. Dristan must have made contact with the vampire. How fast did they heal? Laura hated going into a fight with no information on her opponents; she had no idea what to expect, and she really needed a plan.
No time to worry about that now. Instead of trying to see the vampires themselves, Laura waited for movement. She saw it, but fought against her training and jumped immediately, not bothering to time her leap.
It was the right move. She collided with the shape in mid-air, brought it down. She landed on top of it and raked her claws against its chest, but then it flipped her up, off of it, and launched itself back into the trees.
Another vampire had already made another pass at Dristan. He was fast, but he was making the same mistake—trying to see too much—and he missed. Blood trickled from his ear. Attack the movement, not the object, Laura wished she could tell him.
Too late. More movement, and Laura was up again, colliding with her attacker. This time, Dristan jumped alongside her and took one of the shapes down.
The vampires were strong. Laura caught a glimpse of a goth-pale face and glittering black eyes before she was shoved off again. She couldn’t even tell if it had been male or female.
Sounds in the forest. Laura’s heart thudded fast with panic. They couldn’t take on more vampires. The ones in front of them were already more than they could handle.
Instead of more dark shapes, though, two lions came in from the side, jumping and swiping. Laura recognized the darker tail of her sister, Nina, and Rafe’s broad-shouldered lion.
Fourteen
Dristan took another hit on purpose, just so he could watch how Laura was getting to the vampires before they could get to her. Her eyes weren’t focused on the trees at all, but straight ahead.
That made sense. The vampires were too fast to see, too fast to wait to react. Timing anything like a jump was a mistake, because the mind wasn’t fast enough. Movement, jump. Movement, jump.
He tried it, and he hit the vampire. Laura kept getting pushed off of her hits, so Dristan tried digging his claws into the vampire in mid-air. Puncturing clothes and skin, holding on.
They landed with a hard thud. Dristan held on tighter. The vampire squirmed beneath him, kicking at Dristan’s gut, but with a snarl, Dristan clamped his jaws over the vampire’s throat and bit down.
The vampire’s throat tasted like dust. It—a he or a she? Dristan couldn’t tell—stopped kicking and was still. A moment later, it was gone—actually turned to dust, like in the movies.
Dristan sat back, wishing he could wipe his mouth on something, but two other dark shapes were still diving after Laura, Nina, and Rafe. Four badass shifters against two vampires. He liked their odds, but he couldn’t afford to let down his guard.
Shadows darting through the dark trees, hitting his friends, hurting them. Nina was sporting a bloody leg and shoulder, and Rafe’s back had a long gash going down it. Laura, too, was bleeding from the top of her shoulder. Dristan launched himself into the group, ready to defend the people he loved.
Loved. He loved Nina and Rafe like siblings, like a close-knit pride should feel for each other. But Laura—he loved her like something more, something fierce. He got close to her side, guarding her while she watched for shadows. He no longer cared whether he was hurt. Physical pain was nothing to the anguish he felt at the thought of losing her.
Nina and Rafe had picked up on Laura’s strategy, and they hit one of the vampires in mid-air, although they were unable to hold it. Dristan held up a paw and flashed his claws, saw understanding in Rafe’s eyes.
The next time they leaped and made contact with a vampire, they brought it down and held it. Rafe ripped out its throat.
Dristan leaped alongside Laura for the last one. When they landed, Dristan was underneath. Falling on his side, under the weight of both vampire and Laura, caused the breath to get knocked out of him, but he kept his hold on the vampire and watched as Laura lowered her fangs to the vampire’s throat.
But Laura didn’t bite down. She climbed off the vampire and nudged Dristan’s paw. It was an obvious request that he let go of their prey. What was she thinking? He wiggled out from underneath the vampire, but held down, tightly, hoping Laura would come to her senses. She growled and head-butted his paw again.
Dristan growled back and clawed the vampire harder. Scents of old, dead blood surrounded him. Roses. Wine. The vampire screamed, a sharp, feral sound that made Dristan’s hair stand on end.
Laura snarled, glaring at Dristan. It took all his willpower, but he released his prey.
The vampire jumped from Dristan and backed slowly toward the line of trees nearest them. Now that the vampire wasn’t moving with supernatural speed, Dristan felt his eyes widen in shock. Blond hair, pale skin, deep pink lips and long-lashed eyes.
The vampire wasn’t a thing—it was a girl. Young woman, really. She couldn’t be much older than Laura.
Except vampires didn’t age, and she smelled like roses, blood, wine, and secrets.
Dristan roared. The vampire flinched, and hissed.
She whirled, jumped, and disappeared.
Fifteen
Shifting back into her human form, Laura collected her clothes and put them on, not looking at Dristan and the others while they shifted and dressed. Rafe and Nina had to backtrack into the woods to find their clothes, but the surrounding forest felt safe to Laura, now. Sounds of night had started up, an owl hooting far away, some kind of small animal scratching within a fallen log. She could smell the area around them now, too. The vampires were gone. Two down, one far away.
They still didn’t have Juan. This battle had been an interruption, slowing them down from their search. Laura wanted to kill those other two vampires all over again.
“What the hell?” Dristan said, tugging on his shirt. “Why’d you let the third one go?”
Rafe and Nina came back, pulling on their own shirts.
Laura sighed, shaking her head. “Do you really have that little faith in me? Come on—we have a vampire to follow.”
“Follow it how?” Rafe asked. “So far as I know, they don’t make any sound and they don’t make any smells.”
“We’re relying too much on our noses,” Laura said. “Dristan was right. The vampires can mask scent, and they can be silent when they want to be. We have to use our eyes.”
“But she’s long gone,” Nina said, pulling her wavy hair up in a pony-tail. “We’re not going to be fast enough as humans, anyway.”
Rafe shook his head. “So we figured out how to fight the vampires, but we still don’t know how to track them.”
Nina moved to touch Rafe’s arm in comfort, but Rafe carefully stepped to the side. The hurt in Nina’s hazel eyes made Laura want to shift back to her lion and rake her claws down Rafe’s side. He’d heal…eventually.
Thinking of wounding Rafe reminded Laura of something. “This vampire has a scent, though. We wounded it, and I can still smell its blood. Can’t you?”
“I thought that was from the dead ones,” Rafe said.
“Me, too,” Nina added. “But now that you mention it…”
“Let’s go,” Dristan said. “Good thinking, Laura.”
She wanted to appreciate the praise. She wanted to appreciate something, anything. But the urgency of anxiety for Juan was quickly b
ecoming all-consuming.
“Should we follow as lions?” Rafe asked.
Laura thought about it before saying, “No. I’d rather we be able to talk to each other. I’ll send a text to Marlana to let her know what we’re doing.”
Quickly, she tapped in the message and pressed send, then gestured everyone forward. “We should stay together.”
The vampire’s blood smelled old, and Laura had to keep reminding her inner lion that this was a fresh trail and danger was a possibility. They walked for about half an hour, and then Laura sent another checkin text with GPS coordinates to Marlana. If something happened to them, at least the other pride members would be able to resume the search where Laura had left off. They had to save Juan.
“Do we have to be quiet, or can we talk?” Nina asked.
“We can talk,” Laura said, “as long as we pay attention to everything around us.”
“I’m really worried about Juan.”
“Me, too.” Laura took her sister’s hand and squeezed it. She and Nina had always been close, and Juan, the baby brother, had toddled behind on everything. But they’d adored him at the same time, the little prince of their family. “I just have to keep believing he’s okay, that if we don’t find him, they’ll return him like they’ve returned the others.”
“How’d you figure out he came this way?” Nina asked.
“There’s a girl,” Laura said.
Rafe snorted. “Isn’t there always?”
“A human girl?” Nina asked, ignoring Rafe.
“Yeah, and Marlana knows now, but we don’t need to broadcast it to the pride,” Laura said. “I think we’ve got enough drama.”
“Agreed,” Nina said.
Dristan was quiet beside them, a solid warmth that, if she were braver, Laura would reach out and touch. He wasn’t sulking anymore, but she wasn’t sure where they stood. If only she could talk to him about what she was thinking. But she was too chicken, because if he rejected her as a mate, she didn’t know how she could stand it. Mateo rejecting her, finding someone else—that hadn’t been a big deal at all. Laura hadn’t been invested in him any more than he had been in her. But if Dristan did that, Laura didn’t think her heart would ever be whole again.
After a few minutes of silence, the four of them guided by that ancient scent of blood, Rafe cleared his throat. “So are you guys fucking again, or what?”
Nina slugged him in the shoulder, and he rubbed the spot and chuckled.
“What?” he said. “It’s an honest question.”
“And none of your fucking business,” Dristan said.
“It’s not a big deal,” Rafe said.
Nina shook her head. “It’s offensive.”
“Is not,” Rafe argued. “Dristan, did you find it offensive?”
Dristan just glared.
Laura said, “I’m offended.”
“Lie,” Rafe said, his voice gleeful.
Dammit, he was right. She wasn’t offended. “We just need to focus on the trail,” Laura said. “I want to find my brother tonight.”
“Maybe he’s already on his way home,” Nina murmured.
Laura paused so she could send another text with GPS coordinates to Marlana. Nina stood by Laura’s side, while the guys moved forward.
Laura couldn’t ignore Nina’s yearning glance at Rafe. Laura finished her text, then tugged on Nina’s sleeve to get her attention. She switched her gaze to Rafe and back to Nina again, and cocked her head in question. “Anything yet?” she mouthed.
Nina shook her head.
Damn. Her sister had been nursing a crush on Rafe since they were little kids. Laura and Nina had planned to each marry one of the Corona boys, and it had looked, for a while, like maybe that would happen for Laura and Mateo. Nina and Rafe, however, had never gotten past flirting. Laura hadn’t had the heart to break it to Nina, but even that flirting had seemed perfunctory, at best.
Suddenly, Dristan spoke from ahead of them. “I know where this trail is going.”
Laura and Nina jogged to catch up with the guys.
“Where?” Laura asked. Then she looked at the trail, smelled the heavy scent of wet rock beneath the blood. “Shit, the caverns.”
“They’re holed up in our fucking caverns?” Rafe whispered.
The caverns on Marlana’s property were situated at a point slightly north, between Marlana’s estate and the edge of the ridge where Madison’s house was.
Nina shivered. “It’s the perfect place for a vampire to spend the day, isn’t it?”
“They probably came out to hunt last night, and Juan was right there on the trail.” Laura shook her head. She couldn’t stand the idea of him inside that cave, scared. Being hurt. “We have to go in and get him.”
“Okay, now that’s just crazy,” Rafe said. “We don’t know how many there are, do we? We have to stick with Marlana’s plan. First we do recon, then we attack.”
“Guys?” Nina said, her voice small. “It got really quiet all of a sudden.”
“Crap,” Laura breathed. “We need to get out of here.” She hated leaving Juan. Hated it. But months of Guardian training were right—she shouldn’t go in that cave blind.
Months of Guardian training hadn’t prepared her for losing her brother, though. No, she couldn’t go back to Marlana’s place and be comfortable, not when Juan was in that cave somewhere.
The others were turning to go, but she put a hand against Dristan’s shoulder. He looked at her and held her gaze, and she wanted to touch more of him, wanting to steal comfort from his presence and warmth.
“We don’t need to leave,” Laura said. “We just need to wait.”
“What?” Rafe said, his voice too loud.
“I’m going in,” she said. “When they’re sleeping. We just have to wait for them to be at a disadvantage.”
While Dristan, Nina, and Rafe looked at her in disbelief, she texted Marlana: Vampires are in caverns. As soon as it’s light, I’m going in for Juan.
The response was immediate. Send back Nina and Rafe to report on everything. You and the Rhees boy stay put. Do not go into that cavern.
Right. She was just going to sit safely outside and leave her brother there.
Alpha magic didn’t work over phones.
Sixteen
Dristan barely spared a glance at Nina and Rafe as they made their way back to Marlana’s. They had a good hike ahead of them, lots of ups and downs, and he envied them the physical task. He had the mental task of dealing with Laura and whatever crazy scheme she’d come up with.
“Let me see your phone,” he said.
Laura hid it in her back pocket. “Nope.”
“What did Marlana tell us to do?”
“What she did or didn’t tell us to do doesn’t matter. We’re doing this. And you won’t be in trouble because you didn’t know the difference.”
He laughed wryly. “Right, because that’s really saved my ass in the past.”
“You weren’t put down like your parents, were you?” As soon as she said it, she covered her mouth. “I’m sorry, that was awful.”
He sucked in a breath. He was surprised she had brought that up. Memories flooded him of his parents rushing out one night, never coming back. They’d been killed during their attempted coup. Then there’d been the trial afterward, when Dristan and Frasier had been found not guilty of aiding their parents in the coup. It didn’t matter—they’d been judged by everyone since then anyway. The pain was dull, but it was still there.
“I’m sorry,” she said again, reaching for him.
He took her hand. “I know you’re stressed about Juan.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “That’s no excuse. I shouldn’t have said it. I mean, that wasn’t… I’m surprised you’re still talking to me right now.”
He moved to hug her, but she waved him off.
“I deserve your comfort even less,” she said.
“Your brother is missing,” he said, grabbing her by the shoulders. “My pa
rents—that’s in the past. A past they brought on themselves.”
Laura tensed at first, but he pulled her tighter until she finally gave up and leaned against him. He kissed the crown of her head.
“Thank you,” she said. “And I’m sorry.”
He strengthened his embrace, squeezing her tight before letting her go. “Let’s watch the cavern entrance and see what happens.”
The woods around them were quiet, scents faint. He could barely smell the vampire he’d injured. Somehow, vampires must have developed some kind of pheromones or magic that made it hard for shifters to find them.
No one else was around, though—Dristan was sure of that. No amount of pheromones could mask the sensation he’d had before, that tickly neck sensation that he was being watched.
Despite his certainty that they were alone, Dristan was cautious as they approached the cavern entrance. He sniffed. The air smelled stale, empty, but there was a faint whiff of that old blood he’d smelled coming off the injured vampire.
He pulled off his jacket and tossed it on the ground next to one of the boulders outside the entrance. “We should camp out here. Do you think they’ll smell us, though? Can they smell like shifters can?”
“I don’t know.” Laura pointed to the dark hole within the rocks. “Nothing to do about our scents now. But what if they come back through? Should we wait somewhere else?”
Shrugging, he picked up his jacket and said, “Wherever you think is best.”
Laura walked around the area until she found an accidental lean-to caused by a fallen pine. “Let’s get under here. They’d have to trip over us to find us.”
“How long until dawn?” he asked, settling in next to Laura. She smelled so good up close, and all he could think of was how just the night before, he’d been holding her in his arms, bringing her pleasure.
She pulled her phone out of her pocket. “Three hours. We should get some rest.”
“Do you think Marlana will show up before then?”
“No. She wants us to stand guard. The rest of them are probably fighting over how to approach the caverns right now. Or, rather, everyone else is fighting and Marlana’s already made up her mind, which she’ll share when she’s good and ready.”