Wild and Free

by Kristen Ashley

  “Yeah, I’m okay,” Aurora said, pulling her hair out of her face.

  “He’s blocked,” Ruby decreed.

  “Crazy, stupid blocked,” Jezza added.

  “Abel, he’s with a witch,” Barb announced, and Abel looked to her. “A powerful one.”

  “Come again?” he asked.

  “There’s no way to block a witch finding you,” Barb explained, “except by using a witch.”

  “We got some mojo,” Ruby declared. “The five of us against one cloaking spell?” She shook her head. “He didn’t find some random witch to give him a bit of invisibility that’d see him through. He’s got an active witch with him who’s keeping him hidden. And whoever she is, she’s got more mojo than us. By a lot.”

  “I’m sorry, Abel,” Aurora said softly, and his gaze turned to her to see her on her feet.

  “Not a problem. You tried.” He grinned at her. “Even wounded in the battle. I appreciate it.”

  She grinned back.

  Yuri put an arm around her and tucked her close.

  Abel grinned at him, but it was different this time, seeing as the guy was seriously digging his little witch.

  He felt Delilah take his hand and he looked down at her.

  “Bummer,” she whispered.

  He wasn’t sure he agreed, but he could see she felt that word intensely, so he lifted his hand to cup her jaw, running his thumb along her cheek.

  She pressed into his hand and he slid it back into her hair and tugged her face into his chest.

  She wound her arms around his waist.

  He looked to Jian-Li.

  The second she saw his eyes on her, she wiped the concern from her expression and gave him a small smile he knew she didn’t feel.

  He returned it.

  “Sorry, son,” Hook said from close, and Abel turned in that direction just as the man patted him on the arm.

  “We’ll try some other things,” Aurora offered.

  “That’d be good,” Abel replied, not sure he meant it. His brother wanted to stay hidden? He’d done a brilliant job with that for maybe centuries. Abel wasn’t sure he was real fired up to make him stop. Still, he finished with, “Thanks.”

  She tipped her head to the side and grinned at him.

  “Fuck, that was some crazy shit. Need bourbon,” Moose grumbled. “Like, immediately.”

  That, Abel agreed with.

  Delilah pulled away, letting him go. “I’ll go get it.”

  “I’ll help,” Aurora said.

  “Don’t forget the nuts,” Ruby called as they made their way to the door.

  They took off and Abel moved to Jian-Li. He sat on the arm of her chair, bent deep, and touched his lips to the top of her hair.

  When he lifted up, she tilted her head back to catch his eyes.

  “I’m good,” he said quietly.

  She studied him.

  Then she reached out, grabbed his hand, and gave it a squeeze.

  “Our luck will turn,” she promised.

  He squeezed her hand back, hoping she was right.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Visitors

  Delilah

  I crouched my body low to avoid a karate chop from Wei, dropped into a squat, swung out my leg, and caught him at the ankles.

  He went down to his ass.

  The first time I took him out.

  I jumped up, throwing my arms up in the air, shouted, “Woo hoo!” and immediately was tackled in the back by Xun. I fell to my stomach with an “Oof!” and then was incapacitated with a knee between my shoulder blades and one arm twisted back, my wrist imprisoned in his fist.

  It was two days after Aurora and her witch sisters had tried to help Abel locate his brother. Leah and I were out with the guys, learning self-defense (and then some).

  Sonia was with the wolves since she was one and asked Callum if she could start to train with them so she had both human and wolf defense at her disposal.

  Leah had sat everything out the last couple of days, but I’d talked her into starting up again because she needed to take her mind off things. She’d understandably been moping. Although two of her cousins had been rescued, one had been killed and another was still captive, still….she couldn’t mope forever. There was a world that needed to be saved.

  The good news about this was that we’d had no word other concubines had been harmed. The bad news was that there were still tons of them whose whereabouts were unknown.

  So now, at the compound, we were back to business as usual.

  Xun let me go and I rolled to my back to see him extending a hand to me.

  I took it as he said, “Don’t ever let your guard down.”

  He pulled me to my feet and I grinned at him. “I still took Wei out.”

  “You did.” Wei got close. “You’re learning fast.”

  I turned my grin to him.

  “Aside from the part where you were flat on your face with your arm twisted around your back, that was awesome,” Leah decreed, hitting our huddle with her hand up in high five position.

  I didn’t leave her hanging.

  “Incoming,” Wei muttered.

  I looked to him to see his eyes aimed over his shoulder, so I looked in that direction and saw Moose lumbering toward us in an ungainly jog, something which put me on edge for two reasons. First, because Moose didn’t jog so his news had to be big. And second, because Moose didn’t jog and I didn’t want him to have a heart attack.

  “Yo!” he called through a wheeze when he got close. “Poncho’s back.”

  Thank God. It was good news.

  I clapped my hands and shouted, “Yay!”

  Moose halted when he got to us, took in a deep breath, and shared, “Got the bruja.”

  “Say what?” Xun asked.

  “He brought his aunt. The bruja. A witch,” Moose explained.

  “Cool,” I whispered. Abel had told me what Poncho was up to, including all the “tests” he had to go through to win her trust to the cause.

  He’d obviously won it.

  I hoped.

  “Another witch,” Wei sighed.

  “Is she with us?” I asked Moose. “You know, on our side?”

  “Don’t reckon he’d bring her ass here if she wasn’t.”

  That was a good point.

  “Chen went off to get your man. Poncho wants you both at the house,” Moose went on.

  “Right, I’m off,” I said.

  “Coming with. Not gonna miss this shit,” Xun stated, moving with me.

  Moose moved with me too.

  “You could continue to kick my ass, but I think I’d rather meet a bruja.” I heard Leah say to Wei, and Wei must have agreed because I felt them joining us.

  We hit the steps to the front the house, and as we did, we saw Abel, Callum, Sonia, Chen, and the rest in the not-too-distant distance so I stopped to wait for them.

  “You figure we’re in for more hilariousness, another witch in the mix who has no problem givin’ lip to a vamp at any occasion?” Xun called when Abel and his crew got close.

  This had been our last couple of days. Aurora’s witch sisters were ornery and clearly felt it was their mission to make every vampire pay for their rocky history by being surly, demanding, grouchy, and insulting at every turn.

  The vampires, on the other hand, had a lot of making up to do, so they pretty much had to take it. They didn’t like it. They showed they didn’t like it. But they still had to take it.

  It was pretty funny, though obviously, the vampires didn’t think so.

  Neither did Aurora, who was often forced to play peacemaker because it was definitely clear she liked vampires.

  Or at least one of them.

  “Don’t give a shit what she gives to a vampire as long as she’s willing to throw her magic on our side,” Abel answered his brother, doing it coming straight to me, grabbing my hand, and tugging me up the stairs.

  He was in a bad mood. Then again, he’d been in a bad mood since t
he videos came out.

  I got this. I got it not only because I got it, but because Abel might be a badass werewolf vampire, but he was one who communicated so he’d told me this.

  He wanted us safe. He wanted us free to live our lives. He didn’t want anyone else harmed.

  And he wanted that yesterday.

  The problem was that it was imperative The Three were kept safe. Which meant action men such as Abel, as well as Callum and Lucien, had their hands tied.

  None of them liked that.

  Lucien had been in a worse mood than Abel, so much so, he kinda scared me.

  I got this too. His woman suffered a loss, but he was a vampire who’d had a great number of concubines in his life. They were important to him. They remained important to him. And knowing their kind was targeted did not sit real great with him.

  Currently, Leah’s entire family was in a safe house somewhere, guarded by Leah’s sister’s vampire, Rafe, Lucien’s daughter, Isobel, and Orlando, another vampire friend of Lucien’s.

  In other words, according to Abel, Lucien had pulled out all the stops, seeing as these vampires weren’t ones you would trifle with.

  We entered the house just as a human woman was walking through the foyer.

  “Find the other witches and bring them to us,” Callum ordered her.

  She nodded and scurried off.

  “What’s that about?” I asked Abel as Moose led the way to wherever Poncho and his aunt were and the rest of us followed.

  “Those women are eatin’ macadamia nuts and drinkin’ wine and doin’ whatever shit they’re doin’ to find my brother…unsuccessfully,” Abel answered. “But finding my brother is not a priority. Stopping this shit is. They got magic. We gotta know what that means and they gotta use it to help us. Including Poncho’s aunt.”

  Moose turned into living room eleven and we all followed. I saw Dad was there, as was Lucien and, of course, Poncho. There was also an elderly Hispanic woman with lots of wiry gray hair she’d pulled back into a bun at the base of her neck.

  And, I wanted to laugh, but she was wearing a female-type poncho.

  I guess that ran in the family.

  I didn’t laugh.

  Instead, I smiled big at Poncho and called, “Hey! Welcome back!”

  My body jerked when the woman shouted, “Basta!”

  I looked to her but only got a quick look in because Abel yanked my hand so he could haul me behind his back.

  This was likely because the old woman had her hand up, palm out toward me, eyes narrowed, fear etched into the wrinkles of her face, and she was now chanting in Spanish.

  Poncho had his brows drawn and was moving to her, but as the others fanned around us, her head jerked from side to side as she took them in.

  She stopped chanting and started shouting, “No! Basta! Basta! Déjame!”

  Then she grasped the edge of her poncho, twisted it around her, whirled where she stood, and as she would have come back to facing us, she disappeared.

  My mouth dropped open.

  “What the fuck?” Abel clipped.

  “Shee-it,” Poncho hissed, staring at the empty space where his aunt had just been.

  “Uh, brother, you wanna clue us in to what just happened?” Dad asked, and Poncho looked to him.

  “Sounded like she was chanting for protection,” Poncho told him.

  “Against what?” Dad asked.

  Poncho’s gaze came to me. “Against Lilah.”

  “Me?” I asked, lifting a hand to my chest. “For goodness sake, why?”

  He shook his head. “Don’t know. But when the other two came in, that’s when she lost it.”

  “The other two?” Callum queried.

  “Her,” Poncho pointed at Sonia. “And her,” he pointed at Leah. “Your bitches.”

  “I don’t get it,” Sonia said quietly just as I felt activity at the door.

  I turned that way to see Barb and Ruby walking in.

  Barb stopped and lifted up both hands, her eyes getting big.

  Ruby stopped and planted both hands on her hips, snapping, “Crap. Hoodoo. The place stinks of it. You got a bruja in here?”

  “Who are you?” Poncho demanded to know.

  “White witches,” Ruby shot back.

  “Mi tía don’t practice no brujeria magia negra, woman. So, what gives?” Poncho returned.

  “There’s great power in this room,” Barb stated.

  “So?” Poncho asked.

  “Does that mean she’s still here?” I asked at the same time.

  “Our practice and the practice of magia blanca are quite different,” Barb answered Poncho.

  “Again, so?” Poncho repeated.

  “So, we have some professional differences,” Barb replied.

  “Is she…still here?” Abel asked tersely.

  “Yes,” Barb answered.

  Abel turned to Poncho. “Talk to her, man. See what the fuck is up.”

  Poncho nodded, then looked uncertain for a second before he cast his eyes upward and started talking in Spanish.

  Watching him do that might have been funny, but I was weirded out.

  I didn’t have a lot of time to process that before there was more activity at the door. I looked that direction and saw Ruby getting out of the way in order for a male vampire to stand in the doorway.

  “Lucien, there’s someone at the gatehouse. Human. Hanger. He’s asking for you,” the vampire said, and the room got tense.

  “A hanger is at the gatehouse and he knows I’m here?” Lucien asked, his voice scary.

  “Yes. Says his name is Breed,” the vampire replied.

  Lucien looked to Callum, then Abel, and finally Leah before he nodded and moved to the door, saying, “I’ll return.”

  Lucien left just as Aurora and Yuri showed at the door. Aurora, probably sensing the bruja, halted before going through it, which meant Yuri almost bumped into her. Instead, at her quick stop, he wrapped an arm around her chest from behind in a protective way, narrowed his eyes, and scanned the room.

  Totally cute together.

  “Magia,” Aurora whispered.

  “Yeah, they got a disapparated bruja clinging to the ceiling,” Ruby informed her.

  Aurora grinned, her face lighting with excitement, and walked into the room, bringing Yuri with her, exclaiming, “Cool!” Then she waved at the ceiling and called, “Hey there!”

  One side of Yuri’s mouth hitched up.

  Totally cute.

  “We’re standin’ around ’cause we got plenty of time to stand around, seein’ as fuck all is happening,” Abel shared with the room. “But we actually don’t have time to stand around, seeing as people’s lives are in danger. Around about a few billion of them. So something has to give with that. Now, while we wait for Poncho’s auntie to reappear, maybe you all can tell us how you can use what you got to do something to help save the world,” he suggested, lifting a hand and pointing a finger toward Barb, but he turned it side to side to indicate Ruby and Aurora too.

  “What do you want us to do?” Barb asked instantly, easy as that, and I blinked.

  “Whatever you can do,” Abel shot back. “But seein’ as I don’t know what that is, maybe you can tell us so we can get you started.”

  “It’d be helpful if we had more witches and the bruja would work with us,” Barb told him.

  “Poncho’s currently workin’ on that,” Abel returned. “As for more witches, that’s up to you to recruit. But you still haven’t answered what you can do, with others or with what you got.”

  “Well, we can cast protection spells,” Aurora shared. “And we can do location spells, as you know. Though, we need blood from the person you want to locate, and if not blood, then hair.”

  “The first might help. The second, as we have no blood of our enemies, or anything else, no,” Callum said. “What else?”

  Aurora lifted her hands up to her sides. “It really kinda depends on the situation.”

  “The situati
on is saving the world,” Abel clipped, clearly losing patience.

  I got close to him, grabbed his hand, and murmured, “Baby.”

  “Auntie says she’ll come back if the women leave the room,” Poncho announced, and we all turned to him. “Not the witches.” He dipped his head my way and said, “You three.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “She said you’re dangerous,” Poncho answered.

  “What? How?” I pressed.

  He looked to the ceiling, nodded, muttered, “Unh-hunh, unh-hunh,” then he looked to me. “Lilah, darlin’, auntie says you got lethal energy. Says that one”—he jerked his head to Leah—“is a human vampire and that shit’s not right, though she didn’t say ‘shit.’” He finished by indicating Sonia with another jerk of his head. “And she says that one is every animal all in one and that shit’s not right either.”

  “Whoa,” Leah breathed.

  “Sounds like you might not need witch help,” Ruby noted.

  I ignored her and lifted my hand to wave it around, saying to Poncho, “We have abilities. We’re The Three. But we’re cool. We wouldn’t hurt her.”

  Poncho looked to the ceiling, did some nodding, and returned to me. “Auntie says you three have enough power to take over the world.”

  My voice rose. “What?”

  “Whoa!” Leah exclaimed.

  “Interesting,” Sonia whispered.

  “I don’t sense that,” Ruby sniffed.

  Poncho looked to her. “Auntie says you would, if you used the blood of the goat.”

  Ruby curled her lip.

  “Lilah, leave,” Abel ordered.

  I turned my head to him. “Leave?”

  He gave a short nod. “Leave. We need to talk to the witches and we can’t do that with you and the others here.”

  “But—”

  “Bao bei.” He leaned to me. “Take Leah and Sonia and go.”

  I stared at him.

  Then I muttered, “Oh, all right,” and let his hand go. “Sonia, Leah, let’s get outta here.”

  We left the room and saw Jezza and Flo wandering down the hall toward it, taking their time, as if there wasn’t a world to save.

  “In there,” Sonia told them.

  They passed us and the door closed behind them.

  “We have enough power to take over the world?”

  That came from Leah.