by Nina Croft
“I drive.”
Regan called Catrin from the car and by the time Caleb drove down into the underground parking beneath the Council building, it was obvious they were expected. There were three sets of gates between here and the outside world, and they’d all opened silently as they approached. Caleb pulled into a parking space and turned off the engine.
“Have you never worked with this Council?” Caleb asked. “You know, protecting the normal world from the bad guys?”
“No, we’ve always kept to ourselves, and would have continued to do so if it hadn’t been for Darius Cole.”
“Why? What did he do?”
She stared out of the windshield, drumming her fingers on the dashboard in front of her. She thought about ignoring the question, then she sighed. “Over twenty years ago, Darius came to us for guidance, to see if we had any visions of the future that could help them in the war.”
“The war?”
“Yes, the Council has been involved in an ongoing war with the fire-demons for…”
“Fire-demons?”
“Jesus,” she muttered. “You know, this is going to take a long, long time if you keep interrupting me.”
“Sorry—go on.”
“Well, he saw Gina, decided he wanted her, and so he took her.”
“Took her?”
“Came back later that same night and abducted her from under our noses.” She scowled; it was over twenty years ago, but the memory still rankled.
“What did you do?”
“Took her back, of course.” Caleb said nothing and she flicked a glance at his face. “I didn’t have a choice,” she snapped.
“Hey, I never said anything, but why no choice?”
“I had a vision. I saw Darius take her life.”
“Well looks like you got that wrong.”
“No, I didn’t. He killed her.” She released her grip on the steering wheel and leaned back in her seat. “He killed her, and he saved her. Six months ago, Gina used the earth magic to save their daughter, a price had to be paid, and Gina’s life was forfeit. She would have died and been lost to us forever. Instead, Darius turned her into a vampire. Darius works for the Council, so now it’s sort of family.” She frowned. “In which case, I wonder where our welcoming committee is.”
“Who are we going to see?” Caleb asked. “Shapeshifters?”
“Not unless Kael is here. There aren’t any other shapeshifters—Kael’s the only one, the last of his people. I asked Catrin to organize something, set up a meeting with anyone who might be able to give me information. At a guess, we’ll probably be seeing vamps. God, I hate vampires.”
“Why?”
“Because they’re blood-sucking leeches.” Without waiting for him, she climbed out of the car and slammed the door. She leaned against the car bonnet; her arms folded across her chest, and hoped he’d get the message. No such luck.
He climbed out and came to stand beside her. “Your sister’s a vampire.”
“Gina’s different.”
“And Darius?”
“The biggest blood-sucking leech of them all.”
Caleb opened his mouth, then shut it again as a door across from them was flung open and three figures emerged—two tall women flanking Catrin’s tiny form. One of the women was Gina, the second Regan had never seen since she was a baby, but she knew immediately who she was, and her whole body stiffened.
Catrin caught sight of them and ran forward. She wrapped her arms around Regan and hugged her. Then she released her, turned to Caleb, and hugged him as well. He looked at Regan over the top of Catrin’s head, one eyebrow raised. Regan shrugged.
“Sorry,” Catrin said, “but it’s good to see you together.”
Gina stepped forward then and embraced Regan. She drew back. “Come and meet your niece.”
Regan hated to admit it, but she was nervous about this meeting. She swallowed the lump in her throat as she stared at the tall, slender woman who stood behind Gina. She had pale skin and long black hair, her eyes were witch’s eyes, but there was a strong look of her father in her face. Regan tried not to hold it against her.
She hadn’t seen Raven since she was a small baby, when Regan had handed her over to her father. She’d been invited to Raven’s wedding but had stayed away, certain she wouldn’t be welcomed by either the bride or the groom and not wanting to spoil the day.
Now she lifted her chin and kept her expression blank as she met the other woman’s gaze, but there was none of the expected hostility in Raven’s eyes. They were clear, curious, then she smiled, and Regan saw the flash of small, white fangs. Further evidence of who her father was.
Raven stepped forward, clasped Regan’s shoulders, and kissed her on each cheek, and she went still in shock.
Stepping back, Raven searched her face. “I know you think I blame you for what happened, but I don’t. You did what you needed to, what you saw had to be done. And it worked out in the end.”
Regan nodded, and then glanced around to see her sisters smiling at her, looks of intense satisfaction on their faces. “What?” she asked.
“I told you,” Catrin said. “We’re just pleased to see you and Caleb together and all right.”
“We’re not together, and things are definitely not all right. A megalomaniac werewolf is about to take over the world with the help of God knows what, and you’re all standing around grinning.”
They grinned harder.
Regan rolled her eyes. “Let’s get on with this.”
She stared around her with interest as she followed them through the building. Beside her, she could sense Caleb doing the same. She could also sense the anxiety washing out from him in waves. She could understand that—they were deep underground, and her wolf didn’t like it. She felt trapped, and she knew Caleb’s wolf would be experiencing the same sensation of claustrophobia. She slipped her hand into her pocket to prevent herself from reaching out to grip his. God knows what her sisters would make of that.
They stopped in front of a steel door. Gina pressed her palm to the panel beside it, and the door slid open. They all followed Gina into a large room, empty of furniture except for a round table surrounded by upright chairs. At the far end, Darius and Kael sat close together, deep in conversation. They glanced up as the others entered.
Regan met Kael’s gaze, and his eyes were cold. She held his stare and refused to back down.
Catrin came to stand beside her. “I need to say something before we begin.” There was a tremor in her voice, and Regan turned to look at her.
“What is it?” she asked.
Catrin bit her lip. “I know there’s bad feeling between you and Kael, and we need to clear it up.”
Regan knew where Catrin was going with this. “No we don’t,” she said quietly. “Things are fine the way they are.”
“No, they’re not,” Catrin replied. “It didn’t matter before, when we had nothing to do with the Council, but it matters now. All this time, Kael has blamed you for keeping him from his people, when it was my fault.”
“What?” Kael asked.
“Shortly before you came to us,” Catrin said, “I’d had a vision, I saw your people die. There was no way out, no way to stop it. Then you turned up, and I thought I could at least save you.” She swallowed. “But I couldn’t do it myself—I’m a terrible liar—so I asked Regan. Regan was always the strongest of us. She kept you there, seduced you—”
“I did not seduce him,” Regan snapped.
“Maybe not with your body, but you seduced him with promises of power that would help him save his people, while all the time they were being slaughtered.” She turned back to Kael. “I know you’ve always blamed Regan, but you couldn’t have saved them.”
Raven moved forward. She put a hand on Catrin’s arm. “I’m glad, and so is Kael.”
Kael nodded slowly. “She’s right. I was bitter for a long time, but I understand better now. Through Raven, I’ve seen the nature of the visions. I know I c
ould have done nothing, except perhaps die with my people. And I’m glad I’m not dead.” He smiled, and Regan saw the first warmth in those summer sky-blue eyes. “Now perhaps we can get down to business.”
Kael’s gaze looked beyond her and settled on Caleb. His eyes widened. “Is this the werewolf?”
“Half-werewolf,” Caleb snarled.
Regan nodded, and Kael walked around her. She turned to watch as he came to a halt in front of Caleb. A wave of pride washed over her as Caleb stood his ground. For long seconds, the two stared into each other’s eyes. Something passed between them, then Kael swung away, his fists balled at his side. Everyone was silent as he took control of his emotions. When he turned back, his face was expressionless.
“Your father is Ethan Stone, the werewolf?”
Caleb nodded.
“And who was your mother?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is she alive?”
Caleb shook his head. “No, she died shortly after I was born.”
“How?”
“Again, I don’t know.” He paused. “But I think she committed suicide.”
Kael turned away. Raven cast them all a concerned glance, then hurried over to her husband. They spoke softly together, and Raven glanced around to examine Caleb, her eyes puzzled.
Regan frowned. “What’s going on?”
Kael shrugged. “I think we all need to sit down.”
Why?
Regan didn’t want to sit. Wolf was not happy to be here, but she pushed her unease down and took a chair at the round table.
Clearly, Kael had something to say, and she had an inkling it wasn’t going to be good news.
Chapter Thirteen
Caleb settled himself in the seat next to Regan. She was nervous; his wolf could sense it, but if she could act as if everything was okay then so could he. This place gave him the creeps, he needed to be up in the open air away from all these—he glanced around—dead people. Because there was no getting away from it; vampires made him uneasy.
Then there was that Kael guy—the shapeshifter. He’d looked at Caleb as though he saw something. Something that had shocked him to the core. And while part of Caleb wanted to get out of there fast, the rest of him hovered on the edge of intense anticipation.
And terror.
Did Kael know something of Caleb’s mother? And if he did, was it going to be something Caleb could bear to hear? Since he’d learned that he might not be half-human after all, he’d refused to consider what his mother might have been, but he wasn’t so much of a coward that he couldn’t face the truth. And deep down he wanted to know. His father had always refused to speak of her and had banned the rest of the pack from mentioning his mother. Still, Caleb had learned enough from the other wolves to know that the relationship had not been a happy one. Why didn’t that surprise him?
He glanced up and realized that he and Regan were on one side of the table everyone else was arrayed on the other, and they were all watching him. Kael sat in the center with Raven beside him and Catrin next to her. She smiled as she caught his gaze. On Kael’s other side sat Gina and Darius. The Vampire grinned with a brief flash of fangs, and Caleb ignored him. He did not intend to get into a who’s-got-the-biggest-teeth competition with a vampire.
Instead, he leaned back and placed his hands on the table in front of him, just to prove they were steady.
“So,” he said. “Regan tells me you’ve been investigating my father and me. Have you found Ethan?”
Kael frowned. “We’ll get to that later. First, there’s a story I must tell. It takes place a long time in the past, but I believe it has some relevance to the present.”
He fell silent, clearly deep in thought. Raven’s hand reached out and clasped his arm. He smiled at her, then continued, “My people were wiped out over a thousand years ago, but many years before that, my two sisters were abducted by the fire-demons. We rescued Sasha, but we never found Kyla.”
Caleb frowned. “And what does this have to do with me or my father?”
“We always presumed Kyla was dead, we’d searched and found no trace. Now I have to accept that she must have been alive all that time, because I believe Kyla was your mother.”
Caleb tried to process the information. But his mind refused to cooperate. “How?” he asked. “Why would you even think that?”
“We”—Kael paused and gestured to Darius—“have been looking into your birth, and the truth is, you shouldn’t exist. There has never been a ‘born’ werewolf—they don’t survive. The most popular theory is that the unborn babies turn at the full moon and die in their mother’s womb.”
“So how do you explain me?”
“At a guess I’d say you didn’t turn until puberty. Is that correct?”
Caleb nodded. “I was eleven.”
“That explains why your mother managed to carry you to term.”
Caleb’s frustration boiled to the surface. Shoving back his chair, he stood up. Unable to keep still any longer, he paced the length of the room before coming back, bracing his hands on the table. “But it doesn’t explain how she did it.”
“She wouldn’t have had to do anything if she was a shapeshifter,” Kael replied. “Our children don’t change until puberty.” He looked Caleb in the face. “Just like you.”
Caleb shook his head, gritted his teeth. “It doesn’t prove anything.”
Kael ignored the comment and continued. “At first, we thought it must have been magic at work, but really, I didn’t want to accept the possibility that Kyla had been alive all that time. Kyla was my twin sister. We shared a bond. One of the reasons I thought she must be dead was that I couldn’t feel that bond any longer.” He ran a hand through his hair, his expression tortured. “Nearly two thousand years as a prisoner of the fire-demons. What must she have gone through?”
Caleb sat down again. “But you don’t know. Not for sure.”
“No, I wasn’t sure, and then I saw you. You have Kyla’s eyes.”
“He has your eyes.” Regan spoke to Kael, and Caleb turned to her.
She stared into his face. “The first time I saw you, I knew I’d seen those eyes somewhere before. I couldn’t place it, but looking at you now, it seems impossible that I didn’t realize. Jesus.”
Caleb had no clue what to think. He’d wondered about his mother for so long, wondered whether somewhere, he had relatives. Human relatives. No such luck. It appeared this man sitting opposite could be his uncle. It was the end of his dreams. Or rather his delusions. “You still have no proof.”
“There is one way we could prove it,” Kael said, and gave a sideways glance at Darius.
Caleb followed his gaze and understood immediately where this was going. “No way! I’m not letting him or his teeth anywhere near me.”
Darius smiled. “Perhaps you’ll have no choice.”
“Just try it,” Caleb growled.
Darius rose smoothly to his feet, and the tension mounted until it was thick in the air. Caleb held the vampire’s gaze and allowed his wolf to rise to the surface, peer out of his eyes.
“Oh, for God’s sake,” Regan muttered from beside him. “Cut the testosterone crap. Both of you.”
Caleb took a deep breath and glanced around the room. Kael was expressionless, Catrin had a little frown line between her eyes, and Gina was smiling, her eyes glinting with laughter. She obviously found the whole thing amusing and, strangely, it made Caleb relax. He released his breath, forced his muscles to unlock, and sat down in his chair.
Darius also sat. “You know,” he said, “I hope you don’t actually think that I want to drink your blood. Normally, I’d have to be really desperate to touch an animal.”
“Ha, ha.”
“I’ll do it,” Raven said.
Caleb’s gaze swung around. “Do what?”
“Taste your blood.”
“No, you won’t,” Kael snapped from beside her.
She put a hand on his arm. “It makes sense,” she s
aid. “I know what shifter blood tastes like.”
Caleb had to admit that the idea of her tasting his blood didn’t fill him with the same sense of revulsion. In fact, he couldn’t deny the combination of reluctance, horror, and excitement that filled him. Maybe it was because she reminded him of Regan. At the thought, he glanced at her, and caught a flash of fury in her eyes. Then her wolf peered out at him. She was jealous, and a stab of elation hit him in the gut. But even as he watched, she fought it down.
“Do it,” she said.
He glared at her.
“You need to know.”
He blew out his breath, then nodded slowly, pushing down the nausea that roiled in his gut. He could do this.
“So what’s she going to do—bite my neck?”
“No!” Kael answered.
Caleb glanced at the other man and realized he wasn’t the only one unhappy about this.
“Your wrist will do,” Raven said.
She rose to her feet and came around the table to sit on the other side of him, holding out her hand. Caleb pushed back his chair and laid his palm in hers. He looked up to find everyone focused intently on him, and whatever Darius had said, there was a look of hunger in his dark eyes. Caleb forced himself to concentrate on Raven.
“Relax,” she murmured. “This won’t hurt.”
She turned his hand over in hers, holding it palm up, then stroked a finger along the vein in his wrist. She raised it to her face.
“You smell of Kael.”
Breathing in deeply, she leaned closer to him. She smelled of wild flowers and honey. Then her lips drew back revealing razor-sharp fangs, and she bit down sharply.
Despite what she’d told him, Caleb braced himself for pain. Instead, as her teeth penetrated his skin, a wave of intense heat flooded him, taking him by surprise. He tried to remember where he was, but his body had a mind of its own. At the tugging pull of her mouth, heat pooled in his groin, and he grew heavy and hard.
His fingers twitched with the urge to reach out and stroke her hair. Then she raised her head, and he was caught by her witch’s eyes, as she slowly licked the wound on his wrist.