A Symphony of Howls

by Val St. Crowe

  Not a lot, actually. “He created you, right? He’s the scientist that made the bloods. So, he can remove the chips.”

  “Sure, he could, but why would he? He works for the vampires.”

  “Well, I’m going to make him do it. I’m going to go into the city, and I’m going to find him and capture him and bring him out into the woods—”

  James sprang at me. “This is your plan?” He landed right in front of me, and now he was so close I could feel his breath on my face.

  I backed up. I was shaking. Okay, yeah, maybe this was a stupid plan.

  “You think is a negotiation? You have nothing to bring to the table,” said James. He cocked his head to one side, and his mouth opened. A bit of saliva dripped off one of his long, curved incisors. “It’s really too bad you didn’t take my offer for the head start, little girl. Too bad for you, and too bad for me. I like a chase.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  “Let’s go, now,” said Ewan from behind me.

  James reached out and seized me by the shoulder. His claws popped out and penetrated my skin.

  I couldn’t help but cry out.

  James laughed. He tugged me closer, sucking in a breath through his nose. “You smell like fear. It’s delicious.”

  “I have connections in the city!” I said, my voice high-pitched.

  James buried his nose in my neck. His tongue darted out to lap at the blood he’d drawn at my shoulder. “What kind of connections could you possibly have?”

  “My sister. She’s a vampire. She’s one of the king’s favorites.”

  “Sure, she is.”

  “Desta,” I said. “Desta Fordham.”

  James paused. He raised his face from my neck to look into my eyes. “Desta? You do look like her. I saw her once, before I was a bloodhound.” He retracted his claws from my shoulder.

  I cried out again.

  “Why would your sister help us?” he said.

  “You think she likes it there?” I said. “You think she likes being the king’s plaything? You think she isn’t just as much a slave as you are? Her cage is just more gilded.”

  James sucked in a breath. He took two steps back. “So, you could really get Waterfield? Really?”

  “I swear it,” I said. “I will capture him and bring him here and force him to take the chips out of all of you.”

  “And in return? This is a negotiation, if I remember correctly.”

  “And in return, you will leave my pack alone and you will let us return to our village and rebuild.”

  “We could do that, I guess. It’s not likely the vampires will notice. They’ve turned their attention elsewhere in the forest. But I’m guessing you want us to start holding up our side of the bargain while you go off to the city looking for Waterfield.”

  “Yes.”

  “And what if you fail? How long are we supposed to fulfill our side of the bargain before we give you up as lost?”

  “I’m not going to fail.”

  “I give you two months,” he said. “If we still have chips then, the deal is off.”

  I let out a sagging breath of relief. “Then you agree?”

  “We have a deal, little girl,” he said, holding out his clawed hand.

  I put my hand into his.

  He squeezed my fingers so hard, I thought the bones might break. “You could apologize, though,” he whispered.

  “For what?”

  “For trashing our headquarters.”

  “Oh,” I said. “Right. Well, we’re, um, we’re…” And then I couldn’t do it. I squared my shoulders. “That was about raping prostitutes to death. You know if you’re going to do that, I think having your headquarters trashed is really not much of a consequence.”

  James shook his head. “You have a lot to learn about negotiation, little girl.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut. Fang everything. “Listen—”

  “The boys get antsy,” James murmured. “And there’s no promises on that score, got it? We leave your village alone, your pack, but any other wolf in this woods is fair game, especially if she’s selling her snatch.”

  I swallowed. “So, you’re not backing out of the deal?”

  “I’m still waiting for your apology.”

  I licked my lips. “We’re sorry.”

  “All is forgiven,” said James, smiling widely and showing me all his teeth.

  * * *

  “It won’t last, of course,” I said to the council. We were back in the amphitheater that evening, and I was telling them what I’d put in motion. “We’ll get these bloods free, and maybe they’ll attack the vampires, but the vampires are stronger. They’ll kill them or recapture them. They’ll put the chips back or they’ll make more bloodhounds. This deal doesn’t mean we’re free of bloodhounds forever.”

  “And it only lasts two months,” said Neil softly.

  I nodded. “Yes, but I’ll be back—”

  “We can’t let you go into the city,” said Neil. “You’re the alpha. We need you here.”

  “I have to be the one who goes,” I said. “It has to be me, because of my sister.”

  “And she’s pledged to help you?” said Henry.

  “Yes,” I lied. “She cares about me. And she has no love for the vampire king.” I didn’t even know if that was true, though. I thought it seemed likely, but how could I be sure? “She will help us. She will help me.” Actually, I wasn’t going to put her in that position. I wouldn’t risk my sister’s life. I couldn’t.

  “The pack will be without leadership,” said Neil. “You can’t leave. Send someone else, send that person to speak with your sister—”

  “No,” I said. “It has to be me. I’m going.” I wasn’t even sure how I was going to do this, I had to admit.

  “We won’t allow it,” said Henry.

  “Oh?” I said. “You won’t allow me? And you say the pack has no leadership.”

  “We need an alpha.”

  “I’m going to get Judah back as well,” I said. “Then the pack will be whole. In the meantime, the pack has the council. The elders, the wisest members of the pack, to make decisions and keep it safe. And as an added safeguard, while I’m gone, search out a witch who can weave a spell tied to Tempest. She’s still here, but she is wary of being part of this pack again. We need her.”

  “Why not send Tempest after Judah?” spoke up another council member. “We could risk her.”

  “I’m going,” I said.

  “You are most certainly not going anywhere,” said Neil.

  * * *

  I couldn’t convince the council that I should be allowed to go on the mission, so I stopped trying. If it came down to it, I would use my alpha abilities to force them to let me go, but I was planning on sneaking out in the middle of the night, and none of them would see me, hopefully. But I allowed them to believe that I was going to call a meeting the next day so that we could discuss putting together a team to go into the city.

  Then I went and had dinner with Sinead and Ewan.

  Ewan had heard wind that a team was being put together, and he wanted to be part of it.

  I told him absolutely not. I had already taken him on one dangerous mission. This time, he was going to stay put.

  He didn’t like that, but I could tell that Sinead was grateful.

  Later, when she and I were lying on our bunks again, ostensibly to go to sleep, even though I had no intention of sleeping there that night, I told her again not to rush into anything. I wanted to say that I didn’t want to come back to find them mated, but I couldn’t tell her I was leaving. Instead, I only told her to be as sure as she could be before committing.

  I could see the attraction between them, however. They weren’t going to be able to resist it. Maybe between them, it would be right and good, not the odd, forced way it was between me and Judah. Maybe the mating bond would only serve to cement what they already felt towards each other.

  I hoped so.

  Finally, when I was
sure that Sinead was asleep, I climbed out of bed and crept out into the kitchen.

  I took the time to quietly put together some supplies. I didn’t know exactly what I was going to need. The truth was that this plan of mine was so ill-formed that I wasn’t sure how I was going to make it work. I’d be winging it, and I would have thought it would be a disaster except that I knew that I had to succeed. For Judah. For the pack.

  With that sort of motivation, there was no way I could fail.

  So, it was with hope that I set off alone.

  I shifted into wolf form and ran through the woods, all the way back to the village, where I shifted back to human form to take one of the cars the rest of the way.

  I drove through the night, and I arrived at the edge of the woods just as the dawn was staining the sky blood red.

  The road just ended here. It had been built this far, but there was no reason for it to go farther. Those from the woods didn’t go into the city, and those from the city didn’t come to the woods. I got out of the car and walked up to the chain-link fence that cut us off from the outside world. I gripped it, hands around the cold metal, and I thought of being on the other side, the moon calling to me. I had some so far since then. There was the city, spread out there in front of me, glittering skyscrapers in the morning light.

  I could do this. I had to do this.

  But then there was the sound of another car coming up the road. I turned, pushing my hair behind my ears, squinting at its approach. Who else would drive out to the end of the road? Was it friend or foe?

  The car, which looked suspiciously like one of the packs’ cars, pulled to a stop behind mine.

  Landon got out.

  “Well, surprise, surprise,” I said, “it’s my stalker.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  He smiled at me. He shut the door to the car and sauntered over. “You’re pretty far from home, Camber.”

  “You followed me,” I said.

  “That’s what I do,” he said.

  “Why?” I said. “You said you wouldn’t come to the city with me.”

  “Well,” he said. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I kind of have a crush on you.”

  I laughed. I turned and looked back through the chain-link fence at the city. “So, you’re admitting it?”

  He closed the distance between us.

  I turned back to him.

  He reached out with one hand and he gently brushed my cheek with the back of his knuckles. They were soft and covered in downy fur.

  My stomach turned over. I looked into his blue eyes.

  “I’m not going to be able to talk you out of this, am I?” he said.

  “I made a deal with the bloodhounds.”

  “Yeah, I, uh, I heard about that,” he said. “If I’d been around when that happened instead of pouting like a little bitch, I would have stopped that insanity.”

  “Good thing you didn’t,” I said. “I needed that. The pack needed that.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “I know why you did it. I just wish you were a tad more selfish and a tad more intelligent.”

  “Oh, whatever,” I said. “I can’t be selfish when I have the pack to think about. You’re always risking things for me. You get it.”

  He shook his head. “I’m risking things for me. I want you alive, and that’s an utterly selfish thing.”

  I grinned. Something about that made me feel warm all over.

  “Which makes complete sense,” he said dryly. “It’s not as though you’re mated to another man or as if I’m incapable of ever being with a woman. There aren’t any roadblocks. This, you and me, I can tell is going to work out perfectly. Fairy tale ending.”

  I thought of Sinead, the way she’d talked about stories like that. I guessed I didn’t live in a fairy tale. I wanted to touch him, suddenly, but I was afraid. I hesitated. “The rage mode? What…? How does it…?”

  “I don’t think the vampires meant for it to be attached to arousal,” he said, and he wasn’t looking at me anymore. “I think it’s just a side effect of crossing all the wires in our brains, messing with us on a level nature never intended. Certain things were bound to get broken. The rage mode is meant to be controlled by the chip. The vampires can turn it on and off, depending on what they want the bloods to do. But for whatever reason, getting, uh, worked up seems to trip it.”

  I nodded. It was quiet for a few moments. “Um, how worked up?”

  He raised his eyebrows.

  “I mean, is there anything we can do?”

  “It would be stupid to risk it,” he said.

  “Right,” I said. I squared my shoulders and took a deep breath, shaking myself. “Okay, well, so, I’m going into the city to save Judah and capture Aston Waterfield, and I don’t even have a plan. Do you have any idea what we could do? I won’t ask Desta for help. I won’t put her in that position. I don’t even know how you can help. It’s not as if you exactly blend in. If we try to sneak in, people are going to wonder about a bloodhound wandering around.”

  “True,” he said.

  I looked out at the city, not at him. I blew out a noisy breath. “I know. You could pretend to be bringing me in as a prisoner. Bloodhounds do that sometimes, right? There was one who was dragging me around during the attack on the village. My sister called him off.”

  “Could work,” he said. “We could get into the city that way anyhow. But it’s probably a really stupid plan, because I’d have to take you directly to Viggo’s building, which is where they orient and divide up the blood slaves. That’s the only reason anyone’s taken prisoner, after all.”

  “But that’s perfect. Judah’s a blood slave. I need to get to him.” I turned back to Landon. “I really think it’s the best plan we’re going to have.”

  “What if we get separated?” he said. “What if they try to turn you into a blood slave?”

  “Then I’m a blood slave, and I can get Judah out from the inside.”

  “How?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I’ll figure it out.”

  “That is all… incredibly stupid,” he said. “A thousand things could go wrong.”

  “You have a better idea?”

  He thought about it. “Not really.”

  I lifted my chin. “Well, then, any other objections?”

  He chuckled softly. “Camber, you make me incredibly stupid.” His hand slid over my neck to cup the back of my head.

  I sucked in a surprised breath.

  And then his mouth found mine, and he kissed me. His mouth was soft and sweet. No teeth or fangs. It felt like a normal kiss with a normal man, and I put my hands on his shoulders, and I felt his muscular power there. I felt swept away by Landon. I was swimming in the sensation of our kiss.

  It was perfect and right and good. It sent tingles down my spine and down all my limbs. It made me feel weak and excited and loose and uncontrolled. Kissing Landon took over my entire self—body and soul—and I knew that he was the only one that I wanted to kiss. Ever.

  And then he pulled back, and his eyes were clouding, so that they looked vaguely insane for a minute—like James’s had—but then the clouds faded, and he was Landon again, his blue eyes like the sky before snow, and my heart was thudding in my chest so loud that I was sure he could hear it.

  “Like I said,” he muttered. “Incredibly stupid.”

  * * *

  Thanks for reading!

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  Where’s Book Two?

  Find info here.

  (And turn the page for a sneak peak at the first chapter.)

  BLOOD MELODY, SNEAK PEAK

  “Camber!” called Petal Dunnett, rushing across the bedroom with a little pink halter top. “You have to try this one on.”

  “Ooh!” I said, grinning. “That is cute.”

  “I know, right?” Petal grinned, throwing the top at me. “You’re cute, sweetie.”

  “Me?” I blushed. “Petal, you’re�
� like the most beautiful woman in the world.”

  Petal giggled. “You’re such a doll.” She clapped her hands together. “Change!” Petal twirled in a circle, shaking her hips to the music that was playing in the room. She wasn’t dressed for the party yet, which meant that she was still wearing a white velour jogging suit with glittery trim. Even when she was wearing loungy clothes, she was dazzling. She truly was the most beautiful woman in the world. I was sort of in love with her, even though I didn’t usually go for women.

  At least, I didn’t think so.

  Sometimes, I tried to remember what life was like before I came to live with Petal, and I could never really remember much. It hurt my head, and I didn’t really want to remember, so I stopped trying.

  Anyway, it felt right to say that I’d been attracted to men. But now, there was only one thing in the world that mattered, and that was Petal.

  I had to share her. There were three other companions that lived with Petal. One was another girl named Ashley and the other two were guys named Dylan and Corey. The guys were really hot, which was another reason that I thought that I was straight. I found them attractive. I mean, it was nothing like what I felt when I looked at Petal, because I wasn’t just attracted to Petal, I was overwhelmed by her presence. I would do anything she asked, no matter what it was. I worshiped her.

  Sometimes, Petal would let all of us sleep in bed with her, but other times, she was in a bad mood and kicked us all out to sleep on the floor in the living room of her apartment. That was always sad. All of her companions loved her, and we weren’t happy away from her.

  Right then, we were all getting ready for a big party, which was being held at Casper Dunlop’s place. He had a big apartment a few floors up from Petal’s, and this party was the event of the week. Maybe even the month. Admittedly, there were parties a lot of the time, and every party was trying to one-up the last one, sometimes without much success.

  There had been a party a few nights ago that had been a masquerade ball, and we’d all had to dress up in masks and fancy dresses. That had been a lot of fun. Petal had looked amazing.