“Did she attack?” I asked.
“I thought she would,” Kaylee said. “But she didn’t. She just stared at me. Her lips moved like she might say something, but she didn’t.”
That, too, was interesting. I’d never encountered a zombie that didn’t attack. We were getting closer to the truth. Hopefully that meant we were closer to the thing that killed Danny.
“That’s when she grabbed me,” Kaylee said.
“Amber?” I asked.
“No, the woman that did this,” she said, touching her neck. “The vampire.”
Vampire. I didn’t know what to think of that. Could it really be true? The marks certainly looked like it. Then it hit me. What was most important wasn’t whether or not this woman was really a vampire, but that Axel was out there right then hunting down the wrong man, completely unaware of the real threat.
I jumped up from my seat. I had to find him. I had to warn him.
Chapter Eighteen
Axel
Just like before, chemical fumes burned my nose. The morgue was no place for a wolf shifter. I flipped the switch, but no lights came on. Still, my night vision was better than any human’s. If she thought killing the power would offer her an advantage, she was wrong.
A black blur crossed the shadows. There was no question—I wasn’t alone.
“The moment you stepped up to the desk, I knew it would come to this.” The sweet, southern accent was gone, replaced by something cold and foreign.
Ruby stepped into view. She looked like she’d stepped straight out of the fifties, with her big skirt and her hair up. For all I knew, maybe she had. A strange power radiated off of her—the one-time receptionist, nightshift nurse, and something sinister I had yet to discover.
Every hair stood on end, instinct telling me that this predator was cunning.
“What are you?” I asked.
“You don’t know?” she asked, raising a brow. “I’ve certainly encountered your kind before. Shifter young are especially sweet.” A thick tongue emerged from her mouth and licked slowly over her lower, then upper lip. A shiver snaked down my spine.
“What are you?” I growled.
“I’m eternal night,” Ruby said with a wide smile. Sharp fangs stood out in her mouth of bleach-white teeth. They hadn’t been there before. “Blood reaper. Damned and undead.”
I said nothing.
She furrowed her brows. “Vampire, dummy.”
“Uh huh,” I said, questioning what seemed obvious, right before my eyes. The wounds on Kaylee’s neck, the undeniably realistic canines, a town full of zombies—I was way outside of what I’d thought was reality.
“So what happens next is up to you,” she said. “You can go on your way, and never return. Or you can die.”
It was so matter-of-fact. She was completely confident that I was no threat to her. How could she be so certain? I wasn’t sure that I wanted to know.
I listened for a pulse. She had none. Not faint, not erratic, completely void of life. How had I not noticed that before?
“And the town?” I asked. “What happens if I walk away?”
“Oh, it’s been delightful here,” she said. “And will continue to be no matter whether you choose to throw your life away or not. I’ll remain until I’m bored.”
“Doing what?” I spat. “Feeding off of defenseless girls?”
“Ohhhhhhhhh,” she said, “I get it. You care about the birds for some reason. No need to worry, I’ll drain them slowly, one by one. But they’ll live, for now.”
My knuckles ached with the tightness of my fists. I couldn’t let her do this. No way could I let this thing hunt down Penny and the ones she loved. This ended tonight.
The sweet scent of morning dew hit me before I heard her footsteps. Penny was here.
“The zombies,” Penny said, voice carrying down the stairs and echoing in the cold, open darkness. “Tell me how you made them. Tell me where I can find the one with a wide, crooked nose.”
“That’s why you care,” Ruby said to me. “Your girlfriend’s a bird. How delicious.”
Penny reached the bottom of the steps. I kept myself between the two, my eyes trained on the threat.
“Where is he?” Penny’s voice was tight, her anger clear.
“There’s no such thing as zombies, child.” The vampire smiled, amusement showing through every word. “They’re called thrall. They’re my playthings. I make them because it amuses me. And I don’t care where they go.”
“Blond hair, big arms, bigger gut. Yellow fucking eyes.”
“Oh, Neil,” the vampire said. “He’s gone. Dead, and not just with one foot in the grave like before.”
“No,” Penny said, “that can’t be.” Sadness tainted disbelief. I could feel the tears well without seeing. I could feel the pain, the heartbreak, and it killed me.
I turned to console her. That was a mistake.
Cold fingers clamped down on my throat, crushing, lifting me up into the air.
“I’ve changed my mind,” the vampire said. “No one leaves.”
I fought to pull the tightening vice from my neck, kicked my legs toward death’s flowing skirt.
Penny’s eyes blazed. Her muscles tensed just before she charged—not away to safety, but straight at us.
With a flick of the wrist, Ruby threw Penny across the room. Without laying a finger on her, the witch had tossed her, like she was insignificant, like she had any right. I’d thought I’d been angry before, at the cemetery. It was nothing compared to the fear, the frustration, the fury within me as I saw Penny slide across the cement floor.
That was it. I broke. The calm that I’d worked for, the distance I’d kept from everyone and everything—it was all gone. There was only this fight. There was only Penny.
Chapter Nineteen
Penny
Beneath panting and choking, beneath the sound of my pounding heart, grew something feral. That sound was both terrifying and hopeful.
Snap. Crack.
The breaking of bones had always meant damage to me, loss of control, that the enemy had the upper hand. But that wasn’t the case for Axel. With Axel, it meant the wolf was coming. It meant survival.
In a violent torrent, fur erupted, bones reshaped, and fangs grew long. It wasn’t graceful. It was raw, real, exposed.
His neck grew thick as his human form was left behind for the strength of the wolf. Clothing fell away, then so did Axel. He twisted and writhed in her grasp one moment. The next, he was free.
His legs grew short, his ears tall. The shift was nearly complete when the mother of zombies dove over him. As if in slow motion, I saw the sharp points of her fangs, the hunger in her eyes, which shone red as blood. But I wasn’t fast enough to stop it.
“Axel!” I cried as I watched fangs tear into his back. My feet were moving beneath me, with the dagger held tight in my fist. I couldn’t blink, couldn’t think.
Flashes of my brother’s final moments haunted me. The blood. The vicious torrent of the attack. The end in such little time. Not again.
With all my weight, all my strength behind it, I shoved the blade between rib bones. The vampire spun, ripping the hilt from my fist. The blade remained lodged in her back, while her attention shifted to me. Mission accomplished. Axel bled, but he was still standing.
“That hurt,” the vampire said, smile gone from her smooth, round, terrifying face.
“Good,” I replied. “That was the point—”
Like fireworks tossed in flames, the side of my face crunched from pressure, and burst in white-hot fire. My neck twisted in the momentum of her fist, my body after. I crumpled to the floor like a rag doll. Sounds dulled to distant growls, and ripping, tearing.
I shook my head, righting my swirled vision, fighting the intense throb behind my eyes. I looked toward the motion, to the dark shape of a wolf, tearing into the legs of the red-eyed beast.
Down to hands and knees, the vampire collapsed with a thud.
I ro
se on unsteady feet, and ripped the blade from her back. She hissed and turned her face to me. I saw the zombie that had killed Danny in that moment. This was his maker, the one responsible for everything. I’d never killed a vampire before, didn’t know what it would take, but I had all that I needed to do it—hatred, anger, and a knife.
A hand touched my arm, gentle, understanding. I looked back and saw him there in human form, Axel, the man who understood. The pain was there, not the physical—but the hole in my chest from the brother I had lost, the sister who nearly died, all of it at the hands of this woman. But there was more than understanding in Axel’s eyes—there was hope, there was compassion. I could end this. I could choose how.
I turned to the thing that I hated most in this world, and I said what I had to. “I despise you. With everything that I am, I hate you.”
The woman on the floor laughed, blood dripping from her mouth as she did.
“What happens next is up to me,” I said. “And I choose life. There’s been enough death, enough hurt.” Axel laced his fingers in mine, strengthening my resolve. “Get the hell out of my town, and never return.”
I looked to Axel, to the naked man who stood by my side through this. He was there for my journey, and helped me reach the end, helped me find peace. And it was over. There was no room left in me for hate. I’d boiled over and watched my sister harmed because of it. I was done with that. Done with all of this. It was time—
So close that I should have seen it coming, the vampire’s jaw opened wide, just above my neck. I flinched, and raised my arms in defense. I’d expected the stabbing pain of fangs piercing my flesh, the impact of her hands squeezing my shoulders. But it didn’t happen. I blinked, and caught the arc of his swing. Dagger hilt clenched in his fist, Axel impaled the vampire’s eye. A horrible sound filled the air, the sound of a monster crying out her last breath. And she fell.
Axel had known, he’d watched even what I had missed. The vampire collapsed to the floor in front of me, and Axel finished what I had started. And it was over. She should have just gone, but sometimes people can’t let things go the way that they should. I knew that firsthand.
Chapter Twenty
Penny
No new thrall, no more vampire, no more hunting. It was really over.
Through falling water drops, I watched his jeans pool to the motel bathroom’s cracked tile floor. I’d seen him like this before, completely bared to me, both on the rooftop and again in the morgue. But this time was different. I was different.
The warm water washed away the sting of the wound on my cheek, the blood of my cuts, and the foul emotional aftertaste of what had happened.
Axel looked me over, then stepped past the ledge of the small tub. My wet skin grew cold as the water was shielded by his back.
“You don’t mind if I join, do you?” he asked with a wide smile.
Had I seen him look this happy before? I didn’t think so. It suited him.
“Not at all,” I said, tracing my soapy washcloth across the crusted blood on his shoulder. What remained was healed skin, as if nothing had happened at all.
His hand touched my cheek, and I closed my eyes, expecting it to hurt. It didn’t.
“I guess it’s healing,” I said.
“Almost completely,” he replied.
I opened my eyes and found him so close. I breathed him in. Fresh mountain air, and unmatched masculinity. His cock was hard between us, huge, erect, and telling. He was enjoying this as much as I was.
“Turn around,” I said. And he did.
The view from behind was as nice as the front. Hard muscles spanned across his back, all showing his strength. It was my first good look at his perfect ass. I forced my focus to his wound, where the vampire had bitten him. It was nearly healed, just like the rest. I washed away the evidence of the fight. He didn’t flinch. I put my hands over his shoulders, and slid down to that tempting ass, giving it a little squeeze. It was firm, with just the right amount of give.
Axel turned. “Taking advantage?” he asked, with a grin that told me I should.
“Exploring,” I replied.
“Find anything you like?” he asked.
I nodded. I liked the rough hair on his jaw, the short, dirty blond hair on his head. I liked the bulge and dimple of every muscle, and the scars that told our story.
He put his arms around me, holding me close. Water tickled down my back, as my breasts pressed against his hard chest. His cock tensed against my hip, tempting me.
I reached down and took it in my fist. I stroked gently, feeling the soft skin and long length. When I looked up at him, I found his eyes closed, his head tipped back as the water fell on his face.
“Come with me,” he said.
“That’s what I’m going for,” I said. “But I’m not there yet.”
He grabbed my wrist and looked me in the eyes. “We could go anywhere,” he said. There was a seriousness to his voice that I hadn’t expected. “After today, the cops will be after me. I can’t stay.”
It was true, the coroner would tell the cops what had happened, where Axel was going. And they’d find the body of the vampire. It was only a matter of time. And probably not long.
“I know,” I said. “I’ve been thinking about this, too. I don’t want to stay here. Even if you could. I want to go.”
His lips pressed against mine, and he released my hand. I kissed him back, then pulled away. He looked at me, questioning without saying a word. I offered him my hand as I stepped out of the shower. He took it.
I led him from the bathroom, leaving broken tile for rough carpet. Then I turned to face him. Dripping wet from head to toe, his toned muscles glimmered in the shitty hotel lighting. Droplets clung to the stubble on his face, and slid down over firm pecs. I took in every glorious inch of him, from the confident stance to the trail of hair leading down between his legs. He was sexy, and oh so delicious.
“I want you to take me away,” I said. “And I want you to make me yours.”
He shoved his tongue between my lips, he cupped my ass, and he lifted me up. I wrapped around him as his tongue delved deep, deep just like I wanted his cock.
“I need you more than air,” he growled. “I love you, Penny.”
“I love you, too.”
His fingers teased around my thighs, to the edge of my opening. I nipped his rough jaw between my teeth in encouragement. The tip of his finger dipped inside, and I moaned as the sensation carried through me.
Deeper, faster, he moved his fingers, stirring me to the edge of ecstasy. The build was slow, and completely beyond my control as he held me.
“Be my mate,” he said as I whimpered in delight.
The answer was easy. It was the one thing I knew to be truer than anything else in my life. I wanted this.
“Yes.”
Just like that, he laid me down on the mattress, his eyes on fire above me.
“Turn over,” he said.
I did as I was told, toes on the floor, with my back to him. The floral comforter beneath me carried his scent. I gripped the cheap fabric and reveled in the feel of his rough legs against my thighs, in anticipation.
He entered slowly at first, pulling back with every inch he gave. His cock was impossibly bigger like this, stretching me, filling me. Swollen and tender, I knew it wouldn’t take much to push me over that cliff.
With one arm, he held himself over me. With the other, he worked my clit. It turned each thrust into more. Rough stubble scratched my shoulder as he held me, consumed me.
“I’ve wanted you since I first saw you,” Axel said, voice deep and labored. “You’re more than I ever dreamed.”
“No one, mmmm…” I said. “No one understands me the way you do. You’re what’s been missing.”
His pace quickened, slowly undoing me.
“You complete me,” I whispered. My vision blurred as ecstasy washed over me. Tightening, quickening, fulfilling. Waves of pleasure coursed throughout my body. His teeth
pierced my neck as he pulsed inside of me. The pain mixed perfectly with bliss.
Our lives were forever changed, forever entwined. Mates.
Epilogue
Penny
It had played out exactly the way we knew it would. Cops had swarmed Corbeau looking for Axel. Good thing we were long gone. Kaylee had told me all about it on one of our daily phone calls. It was the promise I’d made to her when I left—call every day. The promise she’d made me in return was to follow curfew and stay out of trouble. Who knew how long curfew will hold, since there were no more thrall, and no vampires left to make more.
Fortunately, I’d had time to say my goodbyes before we hit the road. It was the second time I’d watched my father cry. I’d expected it to be harder, for him to be angry. But he hadn’t been. He’d understood. He had accepted me for who I was, and he’d accepted Axel as my mate.
We’d left town a good twelve hours before the small sheriff’s office had even found the vampire’s body. It was a good head start, enough to go far beyond where they could follow.
It took another six months on the road before we found Frozen Peaks. With a population of eighty-seven, we were the only supernatural beings. That was the first thing I liked about it. I’d had my fill of excitement.
The second was the effect the place seemed to have on Axel. There was something about the mountains that suited him. It was clear early on that he was meant to be amongst pine trees and cliffs. He smiled more, shifted more, than I’d seen him do anywhere else we’d traveled.
We made friends, something that didn’t come easily for either of us. It started one night at the town’s only diner, when a big guy came over to our table and slid into our booth next to Axel. Of course Axel responded exactly the way I’d expected him to—unpleasantly. In response, the big guy, Russel, bought us a round of beers. After the third, Axel actually smiled at Russel’s jokes.
Werewolves & Whiskers: Sawtooth Peaks Wolf Shifter Romance Box Set Page 58