Wild and Free

by Kristen Ashley

  “That’s what she said, but I don’t know what to do with that.”

  That came from me.

  “This is so frustrating,” Sonia snapped. “It’s like we have it all, we just don’t know what it is so we can use it.”

  “Maybe we should stop karate chopping and I should test out my blue light,” I suggested. “You should work on talking to the animals,” I said to Sonia. “And you…” I turned to Leah. “Well, I don’t know about you. A vampire human?”

  “I’m getting Lucien’s abilities,” Leah reminded me.

  “Well, maybe you should try them out,” I replied. “Maybe there’s something there.”

  “It’s a plan, a nebulous one, but it’s something,” Sonia said.

  “Leah.”

  We all turned to look down the hall and saw Lucien approaching.

  He didn’t look happy.

  “Darling,” she called, moving his way. “Is everything okay?”

  “Breed was with the enemy,” he declared curtly, stopping close to her and putting a hand to her waist. “Are the men in there?”

  “Uh…yes, but what did—?” she started but stopped when he bent in, touched his mouth to hers, and then walked straight to the door and through it, closing it behind him.

  “You know, for three women who can take over the world, we don’t seem to get a lot of respect,” Leah grumbled.

  “Then let’s earn it,” I replied and looked to Sonia. “Let’s go talk to bunnies.”

  She grinned and hooked her arm through my elbow.

  I hooked mine through Leah’s elbow.

  And we went to go talk to bunnies.

  * * * * *

  I stood in living room two, thinking bad thoughts.

  Thoughts of losing Abel.

  Thoughts of him leaving me, whereabouts unknown.

  Thoughts that made my stomach hollow, the emptiness edged in a dull pain.

  Then I swung my arm out, finger pointing at the red Solo cup I put on the table there, and…

  Nothing.

  “Shit,” I muttered.

  I tried something else, thinking of Abel with another woman.

  When the pain became sharper, I lifted up both my hands and pushed them out toward the cup.

  Nothing.

  “Shit!” I fairly shouted.

  “Little girl,” Dad started, “give it a rest. You been tryin’ that crap for an hour now and getting nothing. You’re doin’ your own head in.”

  Frustrated, I glared at him.

  “Yo, Lilah,” Moose called, lazing on a sofa with his head to the arm, hands linked behind his head, ankles crossed, and eyes closed. “When you take over the world, get me a mansion big enough I can ride my Harley in the front door,” he requested.

  “Moose, I’m not taking over the world,” I told him.

  “Shame,” he murmured. “Figure you’d do a better job runnin’ it than the assholes who got it now.”

  That probably wasn’t a bad guess, considering the world was on the brink of disaster.

  “If you’re takin’ orders,” Jabber, sitting in an armchair with an open bag of potato chips in his lap, an open bottle of Bud at his side, put in. “I want one of those sisters, the ones in that reality show about bein’ famous for bein’ famous. I don’t care which, but the tall one is far from hard on the eyes.”

  “Jabber, I’m not taking over the world,” I snapped.

  “Okay, say you get famous,” he kept at it. “You might meet her at a party. You could put in a good word for me.”

  “Jabber, open your senses and read my mood,” I hissed.

  “Girl, known you since you was three,” he replied. “I can read your mood. But if I learned I got it in me to take over the world, I wouldn’t be staring at a red Solo cup and gettin’ pissy. I’d be layin’ plans.”

  “Well, I’m not you,” I pointed out.

  “Pity,” he muttered.

  I turned to Dad.

  He shrugged.

  “Perhaps, Lilah, this ability cannot be honed,” Jian-Li suggested, sipping tea in the chair opposite Jabber. “Perhaps it only comes naturally. Abel has said it’s powerful and it was so when you didn’t even know you were using it.” She tipped her head to the side and her voice went gentle. “There’s much to be frustrated about, qīn ài de, therefore there’s no purpose to making yourself more frustrated.”

  She had a point.

  I moved to a vacant armchair and slumped into it.

  “All that starin’ and throwin’ your arm out and shit, it’s gotta take it out of a girl. You want me to get you a beer?” Jabber offered.

  I’d learned from years of him being around that Jabber was annoying.

  He was also sweet.

  So I grinned at him and said, “No, Jabber, I’m good.”

  He nodded and reached for his own beer.

  The door behind me opened.

  I twisted to look around my chair and saw Abel striding in with his brothers, those being the brothers Jin.

  Instantly, I decided I was pissed at him, and I decided this because I hadn’t seen him since he’d asked us to leave the room when we were talking to Poncho’s auntie.

  So I turned right back around, crossed my arms and legs, and started bouncing my foot.

  I felt Abel stop at the side of my chair.

  “Bao bei,” he greeted.

  “Bao bei yourself,” I muttered irately, not looking at him.

  “Lilah?” he called.

  “What?” I answered, still not looking at him.

  “Baby, what’s up?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” I answered and finally tipped my head back, my slitted eyes catching his. “I was asked to leave the room.”

  “Lilah—” he started.

  “Feel a domestic comin’ on,” Dad said over Abel, his voice sounding like he was on the move. “Recommend we vacate the premises.”

  “I’m all over that,” Jabber said.

  “I’m comfortable,” Moose grunted.

  I looked his way to see Dad punch Moose lightly in the gut, to which Moose opened his eyes and knifed up a couple of inches, head and feet, scowling at Dad. But he did not get up.

  “Bud, give my little girl and her man some space,” Dad ordered.

  “No one has to leave,” I declared. “Since I’ve decided I’m not talking to Abel for the next three hours, there actually isn’t going to be a domestic.”

  I felt Abel’s hand curl around the back of my neck even as I felt the room empty of people. Dad jerked his thumb toward the door at Moose, then grabbed his hand and yanked him out of the couch.

  “Good luck to you, bubba,” Dad muttered to Abel on his way out.

  I heard the door close, then I was out of the chair but back in it, sitting in Abel’s lap.

  “Uh, dude,” I said low. “Think I made it clear how I felt about you hauling me around when I’m pissed.”

  “How about when I’m pissed?” he asked, and it was then I felt his vibe and took in the look on his face.

  My back went straight. “Why are you pissed?”

  “I don’t know, maybe ’cause we had a powerful witch who finally came to us after Poncho jumped through hoops for her, but she wouldn’t talk unless you were gone and we need her to help us and the only way to get her to do that was actually speak with her. So the best thing my mate could do to help with that situation was move her ass out of the room, trust I’d tell her everything when I got to her, and not get shitty about it.”

  He was being annoying because he was right.

  “How would you feel if you had to leave the room when important shit is happening?” I asked instead of giving in.

  “I wouldn’t like it. But if it had to be done, if anything in this situation has to be done, I’d do it.”

  He was right again, thus, even more annoying.

  “Just an FYI, but sometimes it feels like you big, powerful vampires and wolves don’t think we girls have anything to offer,” I shared.
/>   “Bullshit,” he returned, and I blinked.

  “Uh…say what?” I asked.

  “That’s bullshit, because that’s not it,” he told me. “You’re frustrated. I get that. I am too. Nothing is happening with the potential of everything happening, it’s all bad, and we’re hangin’ around doin’ fuck all. It’s puttin’ you in a bad mood. I get that because I’m in a shitty mood too. I also get that I’m the safe one you got to lay your shit on when it gets too heavy.” His arms around me gave me a squeeze. “I’ll shoulder that burden but that offer doesn’t include me not holdin’ that mirror up to your face. You got no reason to be pissed, Lilah. You lashed out, now rein it in.”

  And he was right again.

  I looked to my knees.

  “She’s gonna help,” he said, and my eyes went back to him. “Poncho’s aunt. Her name is Josefa.”

  I wanted to hug him. He’d called me on it. He was right. He knew it and he knew I knew it.

  But he didn’t push it. He didn’t rub my face in it. He didn’t drive it into the dirt. He said his bit and now we were moving on.

  I didn’t hug him. I didn’t say anything about that.

  I moved on with him.

  I did this by relaxing into him and asking, “She is?”

  “It took time for us to get her to agree, but she’s gonna try to get her some visions. Tell the future,” he said.

  Sudden fear gripped my throat. “Oh God, that might not be good.”

  He shook his head. “Future is elastic, according to her. She could say it like it is now, that doesn’t mean that’s the way it has to be.”

  Well, thank God for that.

  “How long are her visions going to take?” I asked.

  “Don’t know. Apparently, magic isn’t exact,” Abel told me. “But first we got to get her some weird shit so she can perform a bunch of rituals and get in the zone.”

  “What weird shit?”

  He shook his head. “I stopped takin’ it in at ingredient three. Poncho’s got the list and Yuri’s assured us they’ll get everything we need.”

  “Well, that’s good,” I noted.

  “Yeah. More good, the other five are gonna keep on my brother, but they also think they may be able to locate Lucien’s father using Lucien’s blood, seein’ as they’re connected, father and son. They said it’s a long shot, it might work better with more witches, but since their coven was almost wiped out a few days ago, they’re not thinkin’ it’s a good bet they can recruit more and time is something we don’t have. But they’re gonna give it a shot with what they got.”

  I felt my eyes get big. “That would be great!”

  He grinned. “Yeah.” Then his grin died.

  “What?” I asked.

  “The good part of the rest I’ve gotta tell you is, we know it’s happening. The bad part is, it’s happening.”

  My body got tight again, but I didn’t repeat my what.

  “That hanger who came to see Lucien?” he started, and I nodded. “He was recruited by The True. He stayed with them while they were doin’ what they were doin’ with hangers. And when it was safe, he hauled ass to find Lucien to tell him what that is.”

  “What is it?” I whispered.

  “Buildin’ an army. Training. For battle to help with this Noble War, whenever that’s gonna start, and for other duties.”

  “Like what other duties?”

  “Like guarding the camps where they’re gonna intern humans.”

  I felt bile glide up my throat.

  “Uh…what?” I breathed, my voice sounding strangled.

  “They got lots of plans,” Abel went on. “Obviously, they gotta leave some humans to do their thing. Need food to keep humans alive so they’ll need farmers, shit like that. And they’ll be able to take what they want when they want. The delectable morsels”—he said the last two words like they tasted funny—“that’s what they call them, they’re gonna breed and they want them available to feed. So they’re gonna build camps, corral those kinds of humans into them, and see to that shit. But there will be more.”

  “This keeps getting worse and worse,” I muttered.

  “Yep,” he agreed.

  I let that go because I had to.

  “How did this hanger know where to find Lucien?” I asked.

  “Apparently, Lucien had showed him kindness. The guy hung around at places Lucien would go, did Lucien favors. Lucien didn’t accept these favors for free, gave the guy money which kept him clothed, fed. Lucien guesses that somehow, that built a bond. That’s a guess, though. He doesn’t exactly know how and he’s not exactly comfortable that the guy did know.”

  “At least he did us a favor,” I said. “Kindness always pays off.”

  “Yeah.”

  “What now with that?” I asked.

  “More good, this guy gave us the location of this training camp and told us there were others. Obviously, they’re covert, but they’re big operations, according to this Breed. Not easy to move, say, should one hanger go AWOL. We know where one is, not the others, but we now know to look for them. Gregor’s set some of his higher-up vampire soldiers on making a plan to take this base out. At the same time, they’re calling the president to access intelligence satellites to see if they can locate any other camps so they can hit them.”

  “Wouldn’t the US government have a lock on any such activity, seeing as they do have spy satellites?”

  “They can’t attack every compound that they reckon bad shit is happening in, and until today, we didn’t know they were up to this crap. Now that we know what that bad shit is, they can pay closer attention, get men on the ground to pay closer attention, and maybe weed out The True’s bases so that they can be targeted.”

  Something unknit inside me as I said softly, “So we actually have a plan.”

  Abel nodded, also looking a shade less stressed out. “Finally, we got somethin’ solid to go on and we’re able to do something.”

  I took in a long breath and let it out, dropping my head to his shoulder. He cuddled me closer and laid his cheek against the top of my head.

  I gave it some time to let the goodness of being tucked close to Abel penetrate completely before I said, “Sorry I was a bitch earlier.”

  “Can’t guarantee you, this situation continues like it does much longer, that I’m not gonna be a dick. It’s gonna get to us. All of us. We just gotta be aware and not turn on each other.”

  I snuggled closer. “Seems like two hundred years on the earth makes a guy pretty smart.”

  There was a smile in his voice when he muttered, “Whatever.”

  He barely got out the er in whatever before he was standing, me held in his arms so tight, I feared he’d break my bones.

  “Abel, wh—?”

  Suddenly, I was on my feet but pushed back.

  Abel crouched in front of me like he did when he was going to leap to wolf.

  “Abel! What’s going on?” I yelled.

  He turned only his head to me. He was baring his teeth and I saw his fangs extended.

  “Run!” he roared.

  I started to turn to run even as he leaped to wolf, so beautiful, so big, so proud. I loved him as wolf, all his dark mixed with silvery fur, his intense brown eyes, his intelligent face.

  But right then, I couldn’t do what I usually did when my man was wolf, which was to admire him and think he was awesome.

  I couldn’t do this because he’d landed on all fours, but he immediately bent low over his two forepaws, snarling at what appeared to be nothing.

  Until it was something.

  Something that made me freeze.

  Abel barked a canine bark at me, circled around until he was in front of me, and backed me up using his hindquarters.

  But I was mesmerized by the sparks that were swirling in the space Abel as wolf had been snarling at.

  Green, violet, and red ones, sparkling and streaming, like they were in a centrifuge, round and round, going fast.

&nbs
p; So cool, so beautiful, it was mesmerizing.

  Abel kept backing me up, barking constantly and very loudly, as the sparks kept going.

  And on a turn, they disappeared, but in their place were two people.

  One was a tall, very slender, unbelievably beautiful African American woman with a full, longish Afro of soft black curls, big, dark brown eyes, and incredible cheekbones. She was wearing a choker made of three lines of oblong bone, feathers hanging down at the bottom. She also had on a brown suede halter vest and seriously low-rider suede pants with fringe down the sides. Last, she had large, gold hoops in her ears—the insides of which had dangling spikes—as well as kickass leather bands wrapped around each wrist and rings on every finger, including some that fit snug between the top and middle knuckle and one that covered her whole finger, from the nail bed over the bottom of her last knuckle.

  She was fabulous and her outfit was amazing.

  I took her in and then I looked to the big man at her side.

  And every inch of me turned solid.

  Because it was Abel.

  Boots. Jeans. Thermal. Tall. Dark hair. Lean but powerful body.

  Top to toe.

  Except he had no scar and his brown eye was where the blue one should be and vice versa.

  “Holy shitoly,” I whispered.

  His eyes went from Abel, as wolf, to me.

  “You called?” he asked, lazily lifting his brows.

  And he asked this just as the door burst open and the room filled with snarling, snapping wolves.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Beauty and Pain

  Abel

  Do not attack! Abel ordered Callum, his brothers, and Ryon even as he leaped to man.

  But he figured they weren’t going to attack anyway.

  Because he was standing before them.

  Even though it wasn’t him.

  Keeping his eyes pinned to what could be none other than his brother, Abel prowled to his jeans and bent to snatch them up.

  “We’re lucky girls,” he heard murmured and looked to the woman with his brother.

  Her eyes were on his cock and she was smiling.

  She was also addressing Delilah.

  Abel ignored the woman checking him out and looked back to his brother as he jerked on his jeans. He barely had them over his ass when he felt Delilah’s hands on him, one at his lower back, one at the side of his waist. Then she had the side of her front pressed to the side of his back, pressed deep, as close as she could get.