by Liza Street
She sounded bitter, and Dristan turned from his stomach to his side, so he could look at her more easily. “Marlana wants to bring Juan home,” he said gently. “You know I don’t love Marlana and I’ve never pretended otherwise, but she is a great alpha. I trust her with the safety of our pride members.”
“It’s not that simple.” Laura turned slightly so she could face him, too. “If it were someone else—anyone else, really—I’d be fine waiting. But it’s Juan. My baby brother. Every time I picture him in there, he’s not fourteen. He’s four, and he’s begging to go for a ride on my bike and I’m laughing and teasing him, and then I give him a turn and he’s the happiest freaking kid I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Laura’s face crumpled, and she turned away from him.
“Hey, it’s okay,” he said, touching her shoulder until she faced him again. Her green eyes were red-rimmed with unshed tears. “I get it. He’s yours to protect. Whatever you want to do, I’ll do it. If you want to storm in there as soon as the sun comes up, I’m with you.”
“I guess we can wait and see how long Marlana and the others will be…but you know them. It’s always more complicated than it needs to be when it’s this important.”
“While we wait, maybe we should rest,” Dristan said.
“Yeah. I haven’t had any sleep since last night.”
“There wasn’t a lot of sleep happening then, was there?” he asked.
Laura grinned slyly at him. Then her look got serious. “Whatever you were worried about before, you don’t have to worry anymore, Dristan. I want to be with you.”
“Until?”
“There’s no until. There’s now. I want to be with you, and I’m with you now, and I want things to stay that way for as long as possible. If you can handle my crazy Guardian training schedule, then I’ll give you whatever time I have.”
He felt his heart growing three sizes bigger in his chest. Laura meant every word, and he’d be able to show her that her busy schedule would only be helped by him. He’d make her life easier, not harder. Cook her meals, help her relax after a stressful day, listen to her problems. Whatever she needed, that’s what he’d do, that’s who he’d be.
Right now she felt cold, so he curled his body around hers. She set the alarm on her phone to vibrate just before dawn. He stared at the tiny apple tattoo on her neck until she fell asleep, and then he, too, slept.
*
They were woken not by Laura’s alarm, but by a text coming in from Marlana at four-thirty a.m. Spooned around Laura, Dristan could easily see the words on her phone. Come back to the house. We’ll attack the caverns at noon.
“No,” Laura whispered. “They’re supposed to be on their way right now.”
Dristan rubbed a circle on her arm. “She probably has a good plan. There’s a reason she wants to wait.”
“I can’t wait, Dristan. I can’t leave this spot unless I’m going into that cavern. Do what you gotta do, but please don’t try to make me go back.”
“She’s going to shred us,” he whispered, pulling her closer. “Whatever you think is right, though, that’s what I’m doing.”
Gone was his intent to stay out of trouble, stay out of Marlana’s way, and settle down with his deli and live the quiet life. Laura was shaking everything up all around them, but damn if he wasn’t happy to be along for the ride. Things were changing. Now they just had to bring Juan home safe.
Minutes passed, maybe an hour, he couldn’t tell. He listened to Laura’s breathing, but he knew she wasn’t asleep.
He wished he could remember which tales were truth and which tales were fiction when it came to vampires. He knew they turned to dust when they died. He knew they didn’t like sunlight. He knew they drank blood, and they moved freaky fast.
The sky lightened above them, the morning sun weakly breaking through the branches of the trees.
“The vampires didn’t come back through,” Dristan mused.
“Or we didn’t see them.” Laura shivered. “I’m not sure which is worse.”
“Either way, it’s daylight. They shouldn’t be as much of a danger to us…but I still don’t like this.” He didn’t like any thought of Laura being in danger, even if the danger was relatively minimal.
“Okay,” Laura said. “I’m going in.”
“What’s the plan?”
She gave a quiet, humorless laugh. “No plan. I have no idea what we’ll find in there, other than Juan. We grab him, we get out.”
Before Laura could stand up, he grabbed the back of her neck and held her in place. Her eyes opened wide with surprise and met his. “What?”
“Kiss for luck.” Dipping his mouth toward hers, he kissed her—slowly, sweetly—pretending, for just a couple of seconds, that they had all the time in the world. He pulled away and let go of her neck, and she blinked up at him.
It took her another second to collect herself, but she stood, smiling, and held out a hand to help him up. “Ready to brave the big bad vampires?”
“Hell yeah. Let’s get your brother.”
They stripped out of their clothes. Dristan’s muscles were pleasantly sore from the fighting they’d done just a few hours ago. His wounds were mostly healed, except for one lingering gash on his shoulder. The skin had already knit together, though, and soon the deep pink line of the wound would fade entirely.
After shifting into their mountain lion forms, they stalked toward the cavern entrance. Laura’s tail was back, her ears forward and alert. He wanted to go first, but he knew she’d never let him. Besides, she’d trained for this kind of thing, and he hadn’t.
Their cat eyes adjusted quickly to the darkness inside the cavern. The ground felt cool and damp beneath his paws.
They hadn’t traveled far before Dristan heard a faint ringing sound. His head swiveled automatically toward it, and then there were more small noises. A grunt, a whimper.
Three shapes were faint in the darkness, moving slowly toward them. Dristan held back a growl. Instead, he waited silently at Laura’s side.
Three people stood in front of them—two men and a woman. Dristan prepared to jump, ready to rend their flesh from their bones and turn them to dust, but Laura turned to look at him and held her nose in the air, sniffing.
He scented the air. Sweat, urine, fear. A tinge of fresh blood.
These were people—humans.
They whimpered quietly and shuffled forward. The tang of blood he smelled was faint, likely stained into a shirt or jacket. He stepped aside, because so far the humans hadn’t seen him or Laura. Their hands were stretched out in front of them.
The vampires must have set them free, no doubt to wake up hours from now, frightened and uncertain about what had happened to them. Dristan held back a growl, because the vamps couldn’t even be bothered to show the humans out. Instead, the humans’ torture continued as they shuffled in the dark cave.
He wanted to lead them out, but it would only terrify them further to see a mountain lion in the cave. He crouched low along the edge of the tunnel and saw Laura do the same, waiting for the humans to pass. Watching them carefully, he strained to see any indication that they’d been bitten, but the skin on their necks was unblemished.
Juan wasn’t one of them—the vampires must have kept him. He refused to think of the possibility that Juan had been killed. Juan was a good kid, funny and bright, and besides that, his death would destroy Laura.
The humans had passed by, but the ringing sound continued. It sounded like something rubbing around the edge of a glass. Dristan shook his head, hating the sound but needing to know who—or what—was making it.
No sign of the vampires. Dristan sniffed, and the scent of old blood was stronger, that decayed, rosy scent. The path through the cave was empty, though, except for him and Laura.
They rounded a bend, and he stopped in his tracks. Ahead of them was a spread of four cages, each cage about ten feet by ten feet. Three of the doors were open and those cages were empty, but the fourth had
someone in it.
Juan. The recognition hit at the same time Laura rushed forward, butting her head against the bars of the cage. The ringing sound stopped. Juan had been hitting each bar in different spots, probably searching for weaknesses in the metal.
“Laura,” he croaked.
She pawed at the latch to his cage, and Dristan moved to her side to see. Locked.
Juan cleared his throat. “The vamps are asleep. The people who were here said most of them sleep all day.”
Dristan didn’t miss what he’d said—most. Not all. Dristan, Laura, and Juan were still in danger.
Juan continued, “Then they wake up to feed at night. Keys are over there.”
Dristan was already retrieving the keys, which had been left, tauntingly almost, on a rock across the room. He couldn’t work the keys or the lock in his lion form, but he shoved them against the bars of Juan’s cage. Laura sat facing the rest of the room, alert for any danger, but the cavern was quiet.
It took Juan four tries to get the key working. His hands were shaking too hard at first to be effective. Dristan joined Laura, heard a faint growl from her throat. There was a noise, farther off in the darkness. Singing? Laughter? It was too faint to tell, but at least it didn’t sound like it was getting any closer. He shuddered, eager to leave this place.
When Juan finally got his cage open, he stood and then nearly fell down. He didn’t explain, but Dristan guessed he’d already lost some blood last night. There were no bite marks to be seen, but Juan would be able to explain later.
Something clattered behind them, and the air shifted. A door opening? Dristan growled, so quietly that it wouldn’t be audible to anyone except Laura and Juan. Hurry, hurry.
Juan wrapped his fist in the fur at Laura’s nape, using her support as they rushed back out of the cavern, into the light of day.
Seventeen
Sniffing the air, Dristan realized that the humans had already taken off toward the road. He’d make sure that they were found soon, but right now he and Laura needed to get Juan back to Marlana’s.
They’d be in such deep shit for disobeying her.
He and Laura shifted back into their human forms and dressed quickly. Juan leaned against a tree, as if too tired to stand on his own. “They took a lot from me,” he said. “They said I tasted more powerful.”
Poor kid had been through a lot.
“No bite marks?” Dristan asked.
Juan shook his head. “Healed immediately, even on the humans.”
“Come on, let’s get you home,” Laura said, pulling Juan to her side. “I’ll walk with you.”
The hike back to Dristan’s Jeep took quite a while, and by the end, Dristan simply picked up Juan and carried him. Any other day, Juan probably wouldn’t have allowed it, but Laura cut off Juan’s protests with a vow to not tell anyone.
“Fine,” Juan grumbled.
They passed the trail the humans had taken.
“Are they gonna be okay?” Laura asked.
“Vampires did some weird magic on them,” Juan said. “Told them they wouldn’t remember a thing. Honestly? Those people looked pretty damn happy at the thought of forgetting.”
“I would be, too,” Dristan said, stifling a shudder. And it made sense—work some kind of vampire magic on the humans so they couldn’t report back to the police what had been done to them, or where to find the vampires.
It didn’t take them long to drive back to Marlana’s. Dristan parked his Jeep, but he didn’t move to get out yet. He wasn’t eager to see whatever Marlana felt like dishing out when she learned of their disobedience.
“Whatever happens to me and Dristan,” Laura said, turning around to face Juan, “it’s not your fault, okay?”
“What do you mean?”
“We might have gone in there without permission,” Laura said.
“I’m so glad you came when you did.” Juan rubbed his eyes furiously, probably trying not to cry. Dristan wouldn’t have found anything wrong with crying, but the threads of machismo within their pride were strong.
Laura let Juan lean on her as they got out of the car, but they didn’t make it halfway up the drive before people started pouring out of the house, Juan and Laura’s mother in the lead.
Only two people didn’t rush forward to greet Juan, Laura, and Dristan. Marlana and Jeff stayed back, framed by the doorway.
“Meeting. Now.” Marlana didn’t need to raise her voice. Everyone immediately rushed back inside, Juan half-carried alongside his parents.
Marlana didn’t look at Dristan when he went inside after Laura. The last one in. Frasier was just ahead, and turned back with wide eyes. What the hell? he mouthed.
Dristan shrugged. They’d have to tell the whole story soon enough.
Marlana was already talking to—more like scolding—Laura. “…and guess what. Now they know that we know where they live. If we choose to act against them, we no longer have the advantage of surprising them.”
“We could still go up there,” Dristan said as he entered the room. “Juan told us they mostly sleep during the day. If we go now, we won’t lose that element of surprise.”
Laura raised her hand and spoke. “I’ve been thinking this over. We could set up explosives, and burn the vampires while they sleep.”
“We can’t all head up there at this moment,” Marlana said, her eyes flashing with anger. At Laura?
Now that Dristan was paying more attention, he could see that Marlana’s usual control was masking a hateful rage. She blinked once, and disguised the anger. Then she turned her head slightly, and smiled at Dristan.
Dristan looked from side to side, thinking he’d misjudged where her smile was aimed. No, she was looking directly at him.
“Your alpha speaks,” Marlana continued.
Oh, hell. It was the phrase she used before doling out official pride information…or punishments.
“Laura Vidal has been training hard to become a Guardian. But that can’t be. She disobeyed a direct order from the alpha.”
Laura flinched, but kept her eyes steady as she watched Marlana speak.
Marlana continued, “However, we need more Guardians, with our territory under threat. I award the role of Guardian to Dristan Rhees. We’ll do a Guardian ceremony once the vampire issue has been resolved.”
What? Dristan looked around, noting the shocked expressions on others’ faces, as well. It didn’t make sense to make Dristan a Guardian—Dristan had ignored Marlana’s order, the same way Laura had.
He found Laura in the crowd. She looked back at him, puzzlement, and then anger, written on her features.
Marlana continued, as if her announcement was nothing ground-breaking, as if she hadn’t just completely crushed Laura’s dreams. “We’ll do the explosives, but it will take some time to gather materials. We won’t be ready to move until later today, mid-afternoon. In the meantime, Guardians Dristan, Ben, and Doug will go to the cavern and do recon. Gather whatever supplies you think you’ll need, and leave in an hour. Explore as quickly and quietly as possible so we know as much as we can about what we’re up against. Everyone else, rest. At three o’clock, we leave, as a pride, for a war.”
Laura’s shoulders had fallen in disappointment. Dristan wanted to reach out to her, but everything about her posture warned others away.
She’d been working so hard for this. She hadn’t been coming to their group get-togethers and Dristan knew it wasn’t always about him—she was training or working at all hours. And the way she’d spoken about becoming a Guardian had made her eyes light up and her face grow soft. She’d really believed in it.
Now Marlana had yanked it away from her.
Dristan couldn’t believe he’d forgotten—not all of Marlana’s punishments were physical. She wasn’t shredding either of them literally, but by giving Dristan the role that Laura had been trying so hard for, she was trying to drive a wedge between them.
Dristan wouldn’t let it happen.
Eighteen
Marlana pronounced the meeting over, and people slowly dispersed from the grand living room. An aching pressure filled Laura’s chest, and she moved to lean against one of the chairs. Sitting down would be viewed as weak, so she remained standing, but her legs and feet were numb.
She couldn’t believe what she’d heard. Dristan was the newest Guardian? He hadn’t even trained! He didn’t know their protocol, he didn’t know the methods they used for strategizing and fighting, he didn’t know anything. She doubted he’d even spoken more than a few passing words to any of the Channings, who pretty much ran the entire Guardian program. How could he suddenly be brought onto the team with them?
Marlana was punishing her. Technically, Laura deserved it. She’d now have to watch, though, as someone else—someone who’d never had anything to do with the Guardians—started going out in her place.
All her life, Laura had been groomed to marry a high-standing shifter man. She’d been taught, pampered, and showered with expectations, if not love. The Guardian training had been almost a joke to Marlana, but it hadn’t been a joke to Laura. Once she’d found it, it was all she wanted to do.
Could Laura continue to train? Could she eventually prove herself? And what if she couldn’t—it might mean Marlana would make her an Exchange.
Now wasn’t the time to ask.
Dristan was already talking animatedly with Ben and Doug, probably planning out what gear they wanted to bring to the caverns. She watched them, her heart aching. She wanted to blame Dristan, but it wasn’t his fault.
The hardwood floors, rich and intricate beneath her feet, blurred as her eyes filled with tears. There was nothing else for her in here, so she turned and left the room.
She heard Juan’s voice coming from the kitchen, so she wiped the tears from her cheeks and headed in that direction. This was what mattered—her family. Worrying about the Guardianship role, that was nothing compared to having her brother back, and she felt foolish and selfish for allowing her feelings to be hurt over Dristan taking the spot that should have been hers.
No, she corrected herself. He hadn’t taken the spot. It had been given to him.
Just before she reached the kitchen, she heard someone behind her. She recognized the scent. Too strong. Citrus and dust. It reminded her of pain.