Maximus took the lead, throwing back the velvet rope and stepping up onto the platform. “Dante,” he growled.
Dante glanced up, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Do I know you?”
“We go way back.” Maximus walked around the center table and glared at the two girls until they stood up.
I approached from the other side, and as soon as the girls had vacated their seats, we boxed Dante in. “We haven’t had the pleasure,” I said. “The name is Cash, and you have something that belongs to us.”
Dante looked between us with narrowed eyes. I could see the sweat beading on his forehead and hear the clearing of his throat he tried to hide. We were making the pit master nervous.
“And what might that be?” he asked carefully.
“Ariana,” Maximus said. He settled an arm on the back of the couch, leaning close to Dante until the warlock was forced to scoot away. “Where is she?”
“The wolf shifter?” Understanding dawned on him, and he sat bolt upright. “You’re the fucking wolf that got my pit shut down!”
Maximus grabbed the back of Dante’s neck and squeezed until the little man yelped. “That’s right,” Maximus said, his voice hard and cold. “Now tell me where she is, and I’ll make your death painless.”
Dante growled and began raising his hand. Before he could get off a spell, Maximus squeezed his neck again, and the magic licking the air blinked out. “What do you want with her?” Dante squeaked.
I couldn’t take it anymore. I grabbed Dante’s knee and let my fire burn hot. He ground his teeth as my palm burned through his trousers and then his skin. The smell of burning flesh filled the air, acrid and disgusting. My stomach rolled, but I forced the nausea down. “Don’t play games with us. Where is she?”
Dante whined in pain, shifting to try and get away from us both. “I don’t have her.”
I glanced up to meet Maximus’s gaze. He looked ready to commit murder.
“How can we believe you?” he asked Dante.
“I haven’t seen her since you took her!” Dante snapped.
“And what about the man you sent to my territory to retrieve her?” Maximus growled.
“I wanted her back for my new show,” Dante said. “But then I found the mountain lion. She’s brilliant. Far superior to that skinny she-wolf.”
My hand burned hotter.
If Maximus hadn’t grabbed Dante’s throat, his scream would have turned every pair of eyes in the room on us. “You will release every last shifter you have, or we’ll be back.”
“And you won’t get away next time,” I threatened.
Dante gulped and nodded. Maximus waited a moment until I pulled my hand back before he released Dante as well. We stood at the same time, while Dante doubled over gripping his seared knee.
I gave the warlock one last glare before slipping out of the VIP area. “We can’t just leave these people here.” I shot a loaded glance at Maximus as we headed for the stairs.
“We won’t,” Maximus said. “We’ll give Dante a chance to do what’s right while we find Ariana.”
I nodded in agreement. We climbed the steps back into The Black Sparrow and left the club as quickly as we could. Only when we were back in my car could I breathe again.
“We should see how Owen and Jett fared,” I said, yanking my cell phone from my pocket.
“Good idea,” Maximus said, slumping back against the seat and rubbing his temple. The hopelessness in his voice twisted in my chest, and again, I felt a kinship with this wolf who I’d spent most of the last decade needling at every opportunity. Maybe I should cut him some slack.
But now wasn’t the time to work out our differences. Heart racing, I dialed Owen’s number. As I held the phone to my ear and listened to it ring, I could only hope they’d found our mate, and she was safe.
6
Owen
“That’s vampire HQ?” I asked, leaning forward to gaze out the windshield at the huge skyscraper before us. I couldn’t believe how tall the building was. How were we supposed to find Ariana inside? It would take days if we couldn’t find her by scent.
“Yeah,” Jett said. “That’s it.”
I glanced at the panther alpha. He’d been acting odd since I picked him up. I didn’t know Jett well enough to know what might be bothering him, so I had to assume it was worry over Ariana. He hadn’t accepted her as a mate like the rest of us, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t concerned. If nothing else, she was the Silver Shifter, the one who was supposed to bring our clans unity. That benefited Jett’s panthers as much as the rest of our clans.
I looked back out the window, craning my neck to see the top of the building jutting into the night sky high above the city. “How do we get inside?” I asked.
Jett sighed. “Well, we can’t just waltz through the front door, so maybe the back.”
I shook my head at his smartass reply.
I started up the car—a black, nondescript sedan my family didn’t get much use out of anymore. My truck would always be my preferred mode of transportation, but it stuck out on the streets of New York.
I pulled into traffic, and we cut around the back of the building, parking a block away before we slipped into a nearby alleyway.
“You really think the vamps have Ariana?” Jett asked.
I shrugged. “If they don’t, then Dante has to. Since we haven’t heard from Cash or Maximus yet, I’m assuming they haven’t found her.”
Jett grunted something that sounded like an agreement, and that was that. We stayed silent as we slipped through the alley and across the street to the back of vampire headquarters. My nostrils flared as we drew closer. I expanded my senses, searching for Ariana’s jasmine scent, but all I came up with was blood and ash. The entire area smelled like bloodsuckers and their food. It was disgusting.
“There it is.” Jett pointed at a plain gray door with a metal handle.
I tried the handle. Locked.
Jett rolled his eyes. “You think they’d just leave it open?”
I shrugged and broke the handle. It snapped beneath my iron grip, and I tore the door open before motioning Jett inside. “After you.”
Though outside the building was a marvel of glass and metal, the interior was concrete and linoleum—or at least the back hallway was.
“What’s your plan?” Jett asked. He hadn’t been in my valley when we discussed this, so I’d met him in the city.
Now, I paused midstep. Honestly, I didn’t have a plan besides tearing apart the building until I found our mate. There was no precedent for this, no real way to plan for the worst thing in the world coming to pass.
“We go floor by floor,” I said after a moment of thought. “We stick our heads into every floor and try to catch Ariana’s scent. If we can’t find her ourselves, we’ll head to the penthouse.”
“You really want to find out who’s running New York since Ariana killed their king?” Jett scoffed.
“It’ll be worth it if we find her.”
“We’ll be lucky to get out alive,” Jett countered.
I sighed and levelled a glare at the panther. “If they killed us, it’d mean war. They may be vampires, but they aren’t that stupid.”
Jett met my look with one of his own. I think I was testing his patience. “What about all the vampire attacks lately makes you think the vampires care about going to war with the clans? They might as well have sent a notarized letter saying I don’t give a fuck.”
I hated to admit it, but he had a point. “Let’s just hope whoever is in charge knows the Silver Shifter is valuable enough to keep her alive.” I stormed down the hall towards a door with the number one painted on it.
Jett rushed to catch up with me. “You’re serious?”
“Am I laughing?” Whatever it took, we were getting our mate back. Even if Jett didn’t accept Ariana as his mate, I’d seen the way he looked at her—like she might be his salvation or his destruction, he didn’t know which. I hoped he’d pull his head out
of his ass long enough to find out.
As soon as we reached the door, I knew we’d found what we were looking for. Through a small window I could just make out a set of stairs. I pushed through and stopped at a sign on the wall with a map of the building and its fire exits. We had about fifty floors to go before we reached the penthouse.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Jett snarled.
“I hope you’re ready to get your cardio in.” I flashed him a grimace and started up the first few steps with a hand on the railing until we reached the second floor. Jett followed, his grumbles echoing in the stairwell.
Once we reached the door to floor two, I poked my head in, took a deep breath and then shut the door. “No sign of our Ana.”
Jett didn’t so much as grunt in response as I led the way up to the next floor, and the next, and then the next. Soon, I was soaked in sweat, but neither of us complained. I was sure Jett was worried, too, whether he was in denial or not.
Forty-nine floors later, there was still no sign of Ariana.
“One. More. Flight,” I panted.
“About fucking time,” Jett said.
We climbed the last set of stairs to an iron door with a heavy keypad beside it. My eyebrows furrowed as I inspected it, finding a handprint scanner. Before I could get a good look at it, I caught a flash of red through the small window in the right side of the door.
I peered through the glass to find a lavish room with a dark wood floor and burgundy drapes hanging from every available surface. The decor might have been nice if not for the bodies covered in blood, writhing on top of it.
“Shit,” Jett breathed.
“Is that what I think it is?” I asked.
“Blood orgy?”
“Blood orgy.”
Nausea turned my stomach as I watched vampires feed on humans, blood pouring down the naked breasts of a woman who might have once had blonde hair, but was now stained red.
“We shouldn’t be here,” Jett said.
“They might have Ariana,” I argued.
“And Ariana is worth both of our lives?” Jett hissed.
“Without a doubt.” My hands fisted at my sides. I wanted so badly to break open the door and step inside, demanding they tell me where they’d taken our mate. But if I did that, we could both be dead in minutes. No, we had to play this smart and wait until the party was over. We could hide in the stairwell for a few hours and come back when the room was clear.
Jett grumbled as I watched through the window for a few more moments. When I couldn’t take it anymore, I looked away. At least I couldn’t smell all the blood. Whatever this door was made of, it was doing a great job of keeping the vampire reak inside.
The squeal of another door opening somewhere below made us both jump. We exchanged a desperate glance before turning back toward the stairwell below. If someone came up, there was nowhere to hide. We had to hope they were going down.
Jett slapped my arm, the sound like a bomb going off in the deadly quiet. I glared at the shifter, but he motioned at the window in the door.
I followed his gaze to find every head in the penthouse had swivelled in our direction. Shit. The vampires knew we were here.
“Run,” Jett barked.
A whoosh of air brushed my skin, and before we could move, we were surrounded by vampires.
“Run? Why ever would you do such a thing?” A woman with black hair and a high voice grinned at the two of us. “Mistress wants to see you.” She slapped a hand down on the keypad, and after a quick scan, the seal on the door opened with a whoosh of air.
The smell of copper filled my nose and mouth. Two vampires pushed us through the door, and I barely kept my balance on the slippery floor inside.
The feeding vampires glared at us, hissing and spitting. I tried to stay calm and hold back the nausea as I was pushed further into the room. I hadn’t noticed it before, but at the back of the long room, which may have once been a dining room if the blood-filled cups and discarded cutlery were any clue, stood a platform with a gilded throne. There sat a strikingly beautiful woman with curly blonde hair, ivory skin, and bright blue eyes.
Confusion stopped me short. Vampires had red eyes, not blue. But judging by the woman draped across her lap and the blood-soaked arm against her mouth, that’s what she had to be. Only a select few demons drank blood, and vampires didn’t associate with them.
My eyes widened, and my heart stuttered a beat as I realized who I was gazing upon.
“The Lamia Queen,” Jett said on an exhale.
The queen of all the vampires in the entire world sat before us, a curious look in her eyes and blood on her lips. Slowly, she lowered the arm of her victim from her mouth and licked her lips.
“Who dares to interrupt my feeding?” she asked. Her voice boomed with power, something I’d never encountered in a vampire before. Though she looked no more than twenty-five, I could see her age in her eyes. The Lamia Queen was old. One of the oldest vampires currently in existence and probably the most powerful, she had the power of both vampires and witches.
What the hell was she doing in New York?
“These two shifters, My Lady—” The black-haired vampire pushed us forward before dipping into a curtsy. “—were skulking in the stairwell.”
The vampires behind us grabbed our shoulders and forced us to our knees. I ground my teeth as my mind raced to come up with a plan. Surely the Lamia Queen wouldn’t kill us. She was the head of the council for the Society of Supernaturals. There were laws she had to abide by.
“You’re alphas,” the Lamia Queen said, her eyes moving between Jett and me. “Of the New York Clans?”
I exchanged a worried look with Jett. How did she know that just by looking at us?
“Speak,” she commanded, raising her chin.
“Jett,” my companion said. He raised his chin right back at the queen. “Alpha of the New York panthers.”
“I see.” The queen’s gaze shifted to me. “And you?”
“Owen, Alpha of the New York bears.”
The queen’s smile twisted and grew. “Two alphas in my house. What an honor.”
The vampires around us tittered at her obvious sarcasm.
“We’re only here to ask you one question, and then we’ll get out of your hair,” I said.
The queen frowned at the same time the vampire behind me swatted my head. “You will address her majesty properly.”
“Your Majesty,” I corrected, shifting my weight on my knees.
“Call me Helena,” the queen said. She rose to her feet, sending the human on her lap toppling to the floor. Helena stepped over the motionless body to come closer to us. “You have me curious, alphas. What question could you possibly have to ask me?”
She stopped in front of me and bent to grasp my chin and stare me in the eye. My skin crawled at the cold of her skin and the monster in her eyes.
“We’re looking for the Silver Shifter,” Jett said. “We know you have her.”
Helena raised a perfect blonde eyebrow as she shifted her steely gaze from me to Jett. “The Silver Shifter?” Amusement flickered in her eyes. “You’ve lost your precious gift from the gods? Tsk, tsk.”
The queen stood, her black skirt swishing around her. She turned on her heel and strolled back to her throne.
“Do you have her?” I demanded. My bear strained to the surface suddenly. He recognized a taunt when he saw one. Helena was playing with us. She’d deliberately avoided Jett’s question.
Helena paused. “Why on earth do you think I’d snatch up the little wolf and leave her—the cure for vampirism—alive?”
That’s when I saw red. A growl ripped from my throat, deep like thunder. It rumbled through the space, silencing the laughing vampires and forcing Helena to look back at me. “You dare threaten our mate?”
“Our mate?” Helena’s eyes twinkled deviously. “Oh, so the little wolf has both of you wrapped around her little finger. Or is there more? I can’t imagine the wolf
alpha would let you steal his mate from him.”
Well, fuck. I shouldn’t have told the Lamia Queen anything. We were here to get information, not give it.
“Just tell us. Do you have her or not?” Jett snapped.
I knew I needed to calm down, but with my Ana’s life at stake, it was getting harder and harder not to tear out of my skin and into my bear.
Helena scoffed. “My question remains asked and unanswered. Why—if I had your wolf—would I leave her alive? She could be the end of my people. If a person existed who could destroy your people with only her blood, would you leave her breathing?”
“Listen up Queen Bitch, just let us get out of here,” Jett snarled.
Helena flashed before us in the blink of an eye. A slap echoed in the space. Before I could follow her movements, she was a few feet away again and Jett’s cheek was turning red. “You will speak to me properly, or I will throw you off my balcony, kitten. Is that clear?”
Jett set his jaw and said nothing.
“Your Majesty,” I said. I had to get myself and this situation under control, or we were both dead. “Forgive Jett. He’s never been one for small talk.”
Helena nodded, a small smile returning to her lips. “If I was interested in men, you’d be welcome in my court. Unfortunately, I’ve had enough of this for one night. You’re free to leave. Go on and find your mate.”
From the glint in her eyes, she wanted us to find Ariana. We were free to leave and lead her straight to our mate, so she could steal her out from under us and destroy every trace of a cure for vampirism.
But that meant…
“You don’t have her,” I said under my breath.
Helena’s eyebrow twitched, and her eyes flashed with barely leashed fury. “Remove them from my sight.”
The vampires behind us manhandled us to our feet and through the penthouse to the elevator. After a very quiet ride to the ground, we were escorted out onto the street. Once our guard returned to the building, I grabbed Jett’s arm, excitement thrumming through my veins.
“They don’t have her,” I said.
Jett jerked from my grip and gave me a look like his own personal stormcloud was forming. “I gotta go.”
Her Bear: An Urban Fantasy Romance (Silver Shifter Book 3) Page 4