Wild and Free

by Kristen Ashley

  This speech gave me a shiver, but Abel didn’t hesitate. He just amended his question. “Were you placed here?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are there others like you?”

  “One, a vampire soldier.”

  “What’s his name?”

  “Bjorn.”

  Abel looked to Stephanie. She nodded and took off.

  Abel kept going.

  “Do you know of my abilities?”

  “Abilities?” the vampire asked as an answer.

  Abel didn’t answer him. He kept going.

  “Do you know of any abilities The Three have?”

  The vampire’s brow knit before he repeated, “No.”

  “Have you been listening to The Three?” Abel asked.

  “It’s difficult to get close to the quarters of The Three without being noticed. The brothers and cousin of the false king of the wolves are untrusting and annoyingly watchful.”

  Well, thank God for that.

  “So you’ve been trying to listen,” Abel remarked.

  “Unsuccessfully.”

  There was a sharp knock on the door, but before I could go to it, it was opened by Lucien.

  He came in, glancing at Abel, Stephanie, and me before he closed the door, then turned his attention fully to the man in the hot seat.

  Abel continued without hesitation. “Who do you believe the true king of the werewolves is?”

  “The true king of the werewolves will be the true immortal wolf who takes the head of the false king or any of his family who try to oppose him.”

  I swallowed at that, but Abel kept at him.

  “Are you aware of any of the plans of those who call themselves the true immortals?”

  “Only that the golem attack this compound tomorrow evening by sea.”

  I pulled in breath and looked to the side, taking in Abel, Stephanie, and Lucien. Lucien’s jaw was hard. Abel’s eyes were narrowed. Stephanie looked ready to pounce.

  “And how will the golem attack by sea with the compound’s security in place?” Abel pushed.

  “The vampire soldier, Bjorn, will be on shift at that time and he supervises the cliffside security.”

  Abel kept at him. “You’re aware of no other plans those who call themselves the true immortals have against this compound, the members of The Three, or humanity?”

  “I am a spy for The True. I gather information and communicate it to those who will use it. I’m not privy to strategy. However, I’m expected to keep watch for Bjorn tomorrow night.”

  Abel carried on, “Who put the cameras in the trees?”

  “Humans working on the security detail for The Vampire Dominion. Being human, they are easily swayed by payments of large sums of money.”

  I watched Abel’s eyes narrow further and knew why when he stated, “I’d asked if there were others and you spoke of no humans. Only this vampire, Bjorn.”

  The mind-controlled drone of his voice held a hint of sneer when he replied, “You asked if there were others ‘like me.’ No human is like me.”

  “Then we need the names of all the humans, and any other beings you know of, who are working for these true immortals,” Abel returned.

  The vampire listed five names.

  “Did those cameras have feeds or were they static?” Abel asked.

  “The tapes were to be collected by the humans who were on our payroll after the meeting was over. There were too many of the detail not on payroll to have time to establish a feed.”

  “Well, at least there’s that,” I muttered.

  “Lilah, would you please go and get Gregor?” Lucien asked, and my eyes went to him to see him looking at me. “Tell Gregor we need to gather immediately.”

  “Abel is hungry,” I told him.

  Lucien nodded and looked to Abel. “Put him in a trance. I’ll have him watched and gather the others. Half an hour?”

  “That’ll work,” Abel murmured, looked to the vampire in the seat and I did too.

  His face went slack.

  Yeesh, my man so rocked.

  “There’s another,” I shared with Lucien.

  “We’ll handle him until Abel gets back,” Lucien replied.

  I nodded and Abel moved to me, saying to Lucien as he did, “Half an hour.”

  “Half an hour,” Lucien agreed.

  Abel got close and slid an arm around my waist. “Hang on, bao bei.”

  I curved my arms around his shoulders and then…whoosh…we were out of the room, up the stairs, and behind the closed door in our bedroom.

  I caught my breath as Abel set me down and held me steady with both hands at my hips. When I had it together, I tipped my head back to catch his eyes.

  “Word with your father, be smart about what he says to who and where,” Abel said gently.

  I nodded, whispering, “He’s gonna feel shit he screwed the pooch.”

  Abel shook his head. “He didn’t do wrong. He couldn’t know. None of us knew. And his vampire is true to the cause. He’s not responsible for the actions of assholes.”

  This was true.

  I thought this as I caught the look on Abel’s face. A look I couldn’t get a lock on, but it was a look I felt like a shot to the heart.

  “What?” I asked.

  “I got skills,” he answered confusingly.

  “Well…yeah,” I confirmed unnecessarily.

  “No, Lilah.” His fingers dug into my hips. “I…got…skills. Skills that can help. Skills that are vital. Skills that help make you safe. Sonia, Leah, all of us.”

  “Well…” I started. “Yeah,” I repeated to finish, still confused.

  “I’m not a soldier.”

  I shook my head. “Abel, I’m not following.”

  “I’m powerful. I’m necessary.”

  My heart clutched as what he was saying finally dawned on me.

  I got close and shifted my hands to the sides of his neck. “Of course you are.”

  “I’m not a freak,” he said like I didn’t speak. “What I can do is what we need.”

  I leaned my weight into him and held on to his neck. “You were never a freak,” I said softly.

  His eyes went unfocused, so I squeezed his neck until I got his attention.

  “Never, baby,” I stressed. “You’ve always been necessary. But, just saying, even soldiers are necessary. Important and necessary.”

  He shook his head as if not quite believing me and stated, “Three hours and we got them. Three hours and only I could get us what we needed.”

  “Yeah,” I whispered on a grin. “You totally rock. Then again, you always did. You just didn’t know it.”

  He stared at my face like he wasn’t seeing me, then suddenly, his eyes closed and he bent his neck so his forehead was resting on mine.

  “I’ll take the craziness,” I kept whispering, and his eyes opened. “The danger. The uncertainty. I’ll take it all if this leads to you understanding how totally”—I squeezed his neck—“and completely”—I squeezed again—“awesome you are.”

  Abel’s hands drifted up my sides and his eyes went from vague and incredulous to something I liked much better.

  “Hungry,” he murmured, his hands stopping at the sides of my breasts, his thumbs gliding in.

  “Hope you get Lilah champagne,” I told him. “The occasion merits it.”

  “Don’t care what I get, just as long as it’s Lilah something, which, lucky me, is what it’s gonna be.”

  Yeah, my man so rocked.

  I smiled into his eyes.

  His eyes smiled back.

  Then his hands slid to under my arms and I was up.

  Then I was down, on the bed, Abel on top of me, and seconds later, my man was feeding.

  Minutes after that, Abel’s hand down my shorts, I was coming.

  * * * * *

  “Okay, this shit I do not like,” I declared irately the minute Abel closed the soundproofed door to our bedroom.

  “Lilah.”

  I turne
d to him and saw that was all he was going to say.

  I, on the other hand, had a whole lot more to say.

  It was late in the evening. Bjorn had been handled. The bad spy vampire, who was named Patricio, had been handled. The greedy, turncoat humans had been handled.

  And due to Abel’s kickass ability, neither of the immortals remembered anything that had happened that day and Patricio was providing the report Abel gave him to give to the bad guys. That being, the excursion that morning was a training exercise for Abel, Xun, and Wei. Cosmo—Lucien’s friend and a vamp I met, who was tall, blond, hot (to the point he was at the “hottest” end of the scale), and nice—was still “in the wind” as far as the bad guys knew.

  And last, the golem attack was to commence as planned.

  This being the shit I did not like.

  “They’re gonna attack us!” I snapped.

  “They are and they’re gonna lose since we know they’re comin’,” Abel replied calmly.

  “You hope,” I returned.

  “I know,” he stated firmly.

  “Neither Bjorn nor Patricio knew how many were coming,” I pointed out.

  “Won’t matter. They had the element of surprise. Now they don’t.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t have a good feeling about this.”

  Then again, who would? My man was fighting golem tomorrow. Hell, he’d never even seen one!

  And my friends were too.

  Abel took the two strides that separated us and curved his arms loosely around me, tipping his head to keep hold of my eyes.

  “It’s a solid plan, Lilah,” he said quietly. “We can defeat them and do it with them not knowing we had the knowledge in order to do that soundly.”

  “What if they send a shitload of golem?”

  “We’ll defeat them.”

  “What if people get hurt?”

  His arms got a lot less loose when he replied, “We’re at war, pussycat.”

  I shut my mouth.

  “You, Sonia, and Leah will be safe,” he declared.

  “And you, Cal, and Lucien?” I asked.

  “Nothing will happen to us.”

  God, I hoped he was right.

  “And you’re down with those who might fall tomorrow night?” I pressed.

  “No,” he clipped, his voice suddenly curt. “I’m not down with that. I’ll never be down with it. I’m not down with Snake bein’ dead. Chen and Jabber are gettin’ better, but I’m not down with them havin’ that need. I’m not down with any of this shit,” he said, squeezing his arms on the any. “But I got no choice. You heard that guy. Overlords of humanity? That shit is whacked. And that shit can’t come about. Not a single person on this compound disagrees and they all know what’s at stake, including their lives.”

  I looked to his throat, hating that he was right.

  Abel kept speaking. “We got inside men, Lilah. Men who don’t know they’re inside men, but we got ’em. Today was good. Tomorrow will suck, but we’ll come out all right. Good shit happened today. Good shit that might help us make everything come out all right in the end. We should rejoice, then prepare for the next thing that will suck until we get past all the shit that will suck so we can get to a life that will not suck.”

  He was again right.

  I sighed.

  Abel read my sigh and gathered me closer. When he did, I gave him my eyes.

  “Your talk go okay with your dad?” he asked.

  He’d been busy mind-controlling traitors while I had a word with Dad.

  “He’s pissed at himself. I tried to explain no one blames him and nothing bad happened so he shouldn’t be so hard on himself, but I’m not sure how much of that he took in.”

  “Gregor told me that Ursula has requested her room be soundproofed.”

  At that, I finally smiled.

  “Thinkin’ she likes the taste of my old man,” I muttered.

  Abel made a face that clearly said we should stop talking about this just as there was a knock on the door.

  He turned his head to look at it while I leaned to the side to look at it.

  “Abel, Lilah, I’m sorry to interrupt, but can I have a moment?” Gregor called through the door.

  “Part of the life that’s not gonna suck is not havin’ that guy up in our shit day in and day out,” Abel muttered as he let me go and moved to the door.

  I walked to one of the chairs and leaned against it.

  Abel opened the door and there were murmurs as Gregor came in.

  His eyes came me. “Lilah, my apologies for the intrusion. I know it’s been a long day.”

  I threw out a hand and gave him a small smile to tell him it was all right.

  Abel shut the door, saying, “Whatever this is, can we make it fast, seein’ as it actually has been a long day?”

  Gregor’s gaze was to Abel when he nodded, then announced, “Yuri phoned. He found the witch who scarred you.”

  I felt my body go solid as I watched Abel’s do the same.

  It took a few seconds but finally Abel demanded, “Say again?”

  “He found the witch who scarred you,” Gregor repeated. “Her name is Sula. She lives in a hovel in rural Texas and is completely insane. This might be a layman’s diagnosis, but from how Yuri described her, it’s not incorrect.”

  I stared.

  Gregor went on, “He was quite prepared to exact retribution for you or detain her so that you could enjoy that opportunity. However, he explained that she’s already been punished by the witches who sent her after you. Punished because she failed in her mission, that being, we believe, to bring about your end. Therefore, even if retribution were to occur, she wouldn’t process it.”

  “Wouldn’t process it?” Abel asked.

  “According to Yuri, she’s entirely lost her mind. There’s nothing you or anyone could do to harm her. The harm has been done. She’s been living an agony for twenty years.”

  “Can’t say I’m real bothered to hear that news,” Abel muttered, matching my thoughts.

  Gregor nodded and spoke again, “She used a blessed athame to cut you. An athame is a witch’s knife imbued with magic. As we suspected, this is why you scarred. Yuri reported that he’s allied himself with two witches who are keen not to see The Prophesies unfold. They’re also going to assist him in retrieving the knife and perhaps a number of other blessed implements, which could cause harm if in the wrong hands.”

  “If he needs help with that, we’re kinda tied up up here,” Abel noted.

  “He assured me he has all the help he needs,” Gregor stated, but I didn’t get a good feeling about how he stated it, mostly because he was Gregor. He didn’t give a lot away. But even if it wasn’t written all over him, I could still tell that he was worried about his son.

  “Right, then I’m obliged you took your time to come up here and share all that,” Abel replied in a leading way, that leading to Gregor taking off.

  “I’m not done, Abel,” Gregor said, and I again tensed at the change in his tone of voice.

  Abel heard it too; I knew by the intensity of his focus on the vampire.

  “Perhaps you should sit down,” Gregor suggested, which didn’t make me any less tense.

  What it did was make me move Abel’s way.

  “I’m good standing,” Abel told him, not taking his eyes from the vampire.

  Gregor nodded, but I didn’t think it boded well that he waited until I made it to Abel’s side and slid my arms around his middle. He also waited until Abel slid his arm around my shoulders.

  Only when we had each other did Gregor again speak.

  “Yuri and I feel it’s rather strange that you’ve not encountered one of our kind in all your time on this earth.”

  “You’re not alone in that feeling,” Abel replied with a guarded voice.

  “My son and I both feel that perhaps someone has been looking out for you.”

  Abel and I, both still tense, got more so.

  Gregor kept going,
“This was only a theory; however, it would stand to reason that one of our own would be able to sense one of our own and, thus, keep them away from you. Not to mention, that night, it’s clear someone intervened.”

  “Yeah, it is,” Abel agreed.

  Gregor took in a deep breath, then holding Abel’s eyes, he rocked my man’s world.

  “The witch Sula reported to the witches Yuri is working with that you were saved that night by a man with one brown eye, one blue.”

  I gasped and did it hearing Abel’s swift, hissed intake of breath.

  “You have a brother, Abel,” Gregor said gently.

  “Holy shitoly,” I breathed.

  Abel said nothing so Gregor carried on.

  “One of the witches Yuri is working with, her name is Aurora, says she can assist us in locating him. Their priority mission is getting that athame and the other implements, which are being guarded by a coven in Texas. After that, they’ll be finding your brother. And to do so, they’ll need your blood.”

  “He’s close.”

  My head jerked back to look at Abel’s profile when he said these words.

  “You feel him?” Gregor asked.

  Abel shook his head. “No. But it stands to reason that if he’s looking out for me, then he would be, right?”

  “Well, yes,” Gregor agreed.

  “Why is he hidden?” Abel asked.

  “We won’t know until we can speak to him.”

  “If he’s a brother, then he’s either vampire or werewolf or both. So if he’s close, why can’t I sense him?” Abel went on.

  “That we also won’t know until we can speak to him,” Gregor answered.

  “Right, then do you need my blood now, or can I give it to you tomorrow?” Abel asked, and I stopped watching his profile and started staring at it because he was taking this in stride and this was pretty fucking huge news.

  “As Yuri and his witches need some time to prepare to approach this coven, tomorrow will do. I’ll dispatch it by courier to Yuri as soon as it’s drawn,” Gregor said.

  “Great. Now, can these witches be trusted?” Abel asked.

  I heard the stiffness of mild affront in Gregor’s tone, so I looked back to him as he answered, “If they could not, Yuri wouldn’t be working with them.”