Leaning into the kiss, Morgan’s fingers skated into his hair with one hand while the other sunk lower, sliding into his back pocket to grip his backside. His answering rumble was a sexy growl that immediately made her core throb with need.
“Take it outside, you two,” the healer barked. “Your pheromones are messing with my senses.”
Feeling like a naughty teenager caught by her parents, Morgan pulled away from Travis and offered an apology to the healer while trying to get her need under control and her breathing back to normal.
Travis looked like he was having the same difficulty, though his was much more visible, the front of his pants straining at the seams and the outline of his erection obvious. A fact that didn’t go unnoticed by the old woman or her young, pretty assistant. A sudden spike of possessiveness had Morgan’s fangs dropping, her lip lifting in a snarl before she could call the reaction back.
Instead of the show of aggressiveness she would have expected from a wolf shifter, she was met by a raised eyebrow from the healer and wise old eyes that were crinkled at the corners and filled with amusement. “I ain’t got no interest in your man, honey. Honestly, I’d appreciate it if you both got out of here and saw to the business of getting busy instead of hovering over me. Your friend’s not going to suddenly wake up just cos you willed it so.”
The healer turned back to Jamie but shot over her shoulder, “Besides, that young one pacing outside will surely let you know the moment there’s a change.”
“Young one?”
“The pretty boy with the beard,” the healer answered, not looking up from her work.
Morgan couldn’t help but wince. Chances were good that Kane heard that and the Born may be young compared to Morgan, but he was older than any shifter here. Not to mention he hated being called pretty and the last thing they needed was Kane getting pissed and stirring up trouble. It was bad enough that Morgan had already shown aggression when they needed the pack’s help. If Archer Langley decided they were more trouble than they were worth, the alpha wouldn’t think twice about running them off and leaving Jamie without the help she so badly needed.
“We’ll get out of your hair,” Morgan promised, taking Travis’s hand and heading for the door. Her desire had cooled, but she was still in desperate need of a distraction from her worries. Grabbing Kane as well when they passed him outside, she dragged him along with a curt, “Let’s go see if we can spot some alligators.”
“What if Jamie needs to be fed?” he protested, stumbling beside them, his eyes still trained on the cabin rather than watching where he was going.
“She’s sedated,” came loudly from the cabin. “Come back in an hour.”
Kane grumbled, but no longer protested being dragged away. “Gators?” he asked skeptically, only for his eyes to brighten as he asked Travis, “Do you think we can go out on one of those fan boat things?”
∞∞∞
Jamie came awake with a quiet groan two hours and fifteen minutes after Morgan, Travis, and Kane had returned from their trip out with Archer Langley on his boat. In that time, the healer had done all she could and Jamie had been moved to Travis’s cabin. Though Morgan had quietly assured her friend that she was safe, Jamie had still squirmed in a panic, attempting to lift her damaged hands to her bandaged eyes.
“Sh, now,” Kane soothed, coming forward with his wrist extended, blood welling from the fresh cut he’d made. “You need to drink.”
Jamie turned her head away, her voice barely a croak as she tried to speak, her mouth moving in an attempt to form words that emerged as an indecipherable garble. “Drink first,” Morgan firmly told the woman. “Then we’ll talk.”
Whether it was Morgan’s order, or the scent of Kane’s blood triggering her body’s need, Jamie acquiesced, latching onto Kane’s wrist with strong, greedy pulls. When she turned her face away once more, signaling she was done, Kane backed away a step, licking the remaining blood from his wrist.
Jamie’s voice was noticeably stronger yet still tinged with panic as she asked, “What’s wrong with my eyes?”
Morgan wasn’t sure how much the Turned vampire remembered of her ordeal, so she was careful as she said, “You were taken by Rodolfo and his men. They…” she trailed off, unsure how to word things before she settled on, “They punished you. But you’re on the mend now,” she quickly tacked on.
“For what I found,” Jamie said in a small voice. “I remember now.” And then more frantically, “It wasn’t Rodolfo’s order,” she gasped, attempting to sit up until Morgan pushed her gently back down.
Confused, Morgan prompted, “What wasn’t Rodolfo’s order? Your punishment?”
Jamie tried to shake her head and groaned from the pain, her voice breathless as she continued, “The order to exterminate the witches. It came straight from the Court of Elders and went to all the territory holders.”
“What the fuck?” Was Kane’s bark of disbelief while Morgan just stared at Jamie in stunned amazement. “Why would they do that?” Kane continued, pacing around the room. “You saw what happened when Rodolfo’s men went up against Jourdain. He annihilated them and he’s only one man. It’ll be a slaughter.”
“What?” Jamie cut in. “What happened? Did Rodolfo attack Jourdain?”
Morgan’s mind was going a mile a minute trying to process everything she’d just learned and make sense of it, but she shook herself from her thoughts to fill Jamie in on what she had missed while she was in the ground before standing and pulling out her phone. “I need to make some calls,” she announced. This couldn’t wait.
Leaving the dark interior of the cabin, her eyes lit immediately on Travis who was standing with Archer Langley on the end of the dock, both deep in conversation as they planned the retrieval mission they’d be embarking on that night. Deciding she should fill them in first, as this would undoubtedly affect shifters as well, she tucked her phone back in her pants and headed to join them.
As soon as she was close enough, she announced without preamble, “The Court of Elders sent an order to all territory holding Born calling for the extermination of witches.”
Archer Langley’s answering growl was vicious, raising the hair on Morgan’s nape. “It’s a declaration of war.”
“A war they can’t win,” she replied.
“They?” was the glaring alpha’s return shot which had Travis stepping between them with a warning growl of his own, his eyes revealing his dragon as he stared down the alpha. Morgan appreciated the show of solidarity especially since she didn’t have time right now for a pissing contest with a belligerent wolf.
“My team and I are not in the business of killing innocents,” she returned with a sneer, insulted at the very implication. “And neither are others of my kind. I’m about to make the call now.”
“Can it be stopped?” Travis asked, engulfing her hand in the warm strength of his much larger one.
“If I get enough of the right players involved, I think it can.”
Travis nodded, but the wolf alpha was far from appeased. “You tell them, Hunter, that if the vampires go to war with the witches, they’ll be fighting the packs as well.”
“Fair enough.” With a squeeze to Travis’s hand and a last sharp nod of understanding to the alpha, Morgan walked away, scrolling through her contacts as she went.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Morgan’s first thought was to call Thane Stroud, but as the vampire was now out of the loop with the Born and facing his own set of problems, she imagined there was little he could do to help. Thane’s father was another option. Isaiah Stroud held California and had massive influence but he also didn’t particularly care for Morgan, saw her as a corruptive influence on his daughter, had accused her of filling Blythe’s head with radical ideas about women’s roles in society. He’d be unlikely to help with any request she put to him.
Scrolling to her contacts, she selected the entry marked Texas 1 and immediately began pacing a path into the grass. Kane would probably want t
o kill her for this, but Big Jim Fletcher was a Born with a huge amount of influence as well, not to mention the burly vampire was a big gossip, able to get the word out through his network lightning-fast.
“Tell me my boy’s okay,” was said in Big Jim’s distinctive Texan drawl, laced with worry when the call connected.
“He’s good, Big Jim,” she quickly assured him. “This call isn’t about Kane.”
“Woo, girlie,” was said on a relieved exhale. “You trying to give this old man a heart attack?”
Considering Big Jim didn’t look much more than mid-thirties, nor did their kind suffer human ailments such as heart attacks, Morgan’s lips lifted in an amused smirk at the Born’s theatrics before she got down to business. “An order was put out from the Court of Elders calling for the extermination of witches. Are you aware of this?”
“I am,” he confirmed. “The question is,” he slowly drawled, “How are you aware of it? Last I checked, Hunters weren’t on the need to know list.”
“I have my methods.”
“Hm,” was the dry response. “And by methods, you mean Jamie. How is she? That girl ready to come work for me yet?”
Not wanting to get into what Jamie had so recently suffered, Morgan went with her standard joking reproach of, “Stop trying to poach my people, old man.”
“Me? Look who took my son,” was Big Jim’s laughing response.
“And he’s thriving for it.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rub it in why don’t you.”
Clearing her throat, Morgan got the conversation back on track. “Listen, Jim, about that order…”
“A bullshit order,” Big Jim interrupted. “And I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Achaeus is dead and as far as I’m concerned, that order died with him.” A loud scoffing sound was followed by, “The Elder obviously lost his brains before he lost his head, wanting to stir up trouble with the witches. Best we keep our distance I’ve always said.”
Hearing Big Jim’s opinion came as a relief that left Morgan smiling. “That kind of sense is what makes you such a fine leader.”
Her attempt to stroke his ego made the Born snort. “Okay girlie, what did you do that makes you think you need to butter me up?”
“I didn’t do anything,” she assured him, deciding not to tell him that she’d kind of technically betrayed their kind when she’d taken a side job with the Order of Witches. “But I’m afraid Olivier Rodolfo didn’t share your sense when it came to that order and thanks to his carelessness, he was killed last night.” Needing to protect Travis, she also didn’t bother to tell Jim that it was a dragon shifter that had killed the Born of Louisiana, letting the vampire assume it was the witches taking revenge.
She could picture Jim shaking his head as he let out a disgusted sigh. “I never did like that frog-licking Frenchie. Good riddance, I say. But what are you guys doing in Louisiana? Rodolfo never puts contracts out on his runners.”
“We were in the mood for some jazz.”
“Bullshit. You guys are up to something, don’t bother to deny it, and honestly, I couldn’t give a rat’s ass. Just keep my boy safe. You hear me?”
“On my honor,” she told him sincerely. “But listen, Jim, the reason I called was that I saw what happened when one powerful witch, just one,” she stressed, “went up against Rodolfo’s army. It was a slaughter. Please. I need you to get the word out to the others. Warn them before we’re all under attack.”
“I can do that,” he told her to Morgan’s relief, and because she did not want to have to contact her father for any reason, she tacked on, “The other countries as well?”
“I will, though I doubt you have too much to worry about on that score. With Achaeus dead, every ass-kisser and boot-licker is too busy either trying to grab a spot on the Court or keep their existing seat under the new regime. It’s doubtful they’ll pay much attention to an order handed out by a dead man. Not to mention the idiots here in the states scurrying around like headless chickens thinking their territory is the next one that will fall to the angels. Did you hear about that, girlie? The Angels took New York. What is this world coming to?”
“It’s crazy,” she agreed rather than being sucked into one of Jim’s gossip-fests by confessing she’d heard about it directly from Thane Stroud.
“So, Louisiana is without a Born, hm?”
She could almost smell the smoke coming through the connection, Jim cooking something up in that opportunistic brain of his. “It is. Are you thinking of expanding your territory?”
“I’m thinking the Court of Elders is too busy sucking each other’s dicks to choose a replacement and a fine Born from excellent stock is already there to take up the reins.”
Morgan knew Big Jim was talking about Kane, but still, she couldn’t resist teasing, “You flatter me, Jim.”
A loud guffaw had her pulling the phone quickly away from her ear before the sound deafened her. Even so, she still had to open her mouth and shift her jaw until the ringing subsided. When she brought the phone back up, Jim was saying, “You tell my boy that if he wants it, I’ll back him with everything at my disposal.”
She hated the thought of losing Kane from her team, but an opportunity like this may never come his way again. He was already in the territory, perfectly capable of – as Jim put it – taking up the reins. “I’ll talk to him.”
“Do it soon,” Jim warned. “Before you end up with a rowdy bunch of Turned thinking they can get away with murder.”
Big Jim wasn’t wrong. The Born used fear and intimidation tactics on their Turned for a reason. Vampires were blood-thirsty predators by nature, and if they thought that they could get away with it, they’d gorge themselves and damn the consequences. An army of Turned without leadership would quickly expose their race, inciting a panic that would only lead to humans making the extermination of their kind priority one.
“Tell my boy to call me,” was Jim’s final remark before they hung up and though Morgan had a few more calls to make, she sat down in the tall grass near the water’s edge to think for a moment. So many changes in such a short time. Angels on this side of the veil, the death of The Elder that had caused a power vacuum within the Born, vampires targeting witches for unknown reasons, Jamie’s injuries, a chance for Kane to rule a territory, a previously presumed extinct dragon shifter joining the team…
Glancing over to where she had last seen Travis, Morgan smiled fondly as she watched him standing next to the wolf alpha, his eyes squinted against the sun as the two of them plotted tonight’s heist. Somehow, amidst all of the chaos, she’d managed to find the time to fall in love. Talk about change.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jamie had been sleeping when Morgan returned to the cabin and asked to speak with Kane who was hovering at the injured vampire’s bedside. Big Jim’s suggestion, if nothing else, would give Kane something else to think about rather than chewing himself up with guilt.
Kane’s initial response was a big, “Hell, no!” but whether that was because it was his father’s idea or that he didn’t want to leave the Hunters, Morgan wasn’t sure, though she tended to think it was the former. Kane may have been opposed to gaining a territory under the specific terms his father had set down, but he’d been groomed for the job from the cradle. Had most likely always expected to end up in a position of power. It was only the unsavory means he’d been faced with upon coming of age that had led him to the Hunters.
“Listen to me,” she said, gripping his upper arms so he couldn’t simply walk away. “Jamie’s going to be down with those injuries for quite some time, so we’re not hitting the road anytime soon and the vampires in this territory need a leader, they need guidance to keep them in line.”
Kane looked hesitant, his eyes skating to Jamie before he adamantly shook his head. “No.”
Taking a different tact, Morgan offered up the idea she had merely been toying with prior to this. “I’ve been thinking about setting down roots somewhere. A hub for our team. Somepla
ce where we can be when we’re not on a job.”
“When are we not on a job?” Kane scoffed, though she could see the idea of a home base appealed to him.
“That’s exactly my point,” Morgan piled on. “We deserve downtime every once and a while. Imagine it,” she continued. “Jamie could have the tech setup she’s always wanted, you could have your man cave with all your gaming systems… Real beds that are ours, Kane.”
“Can we make it look like the Batcave?”
Morgan chuckled, warming up more and more to the idea now that she’d spoken it out loud and pleased that Kane was as well. “You can design your man cave however you’d like. Carte blanche.”
Kane glanced once more at the bed. “Jamie would love a proper setup, lots of screens, a rolling chair to move around.”
“She would.”
“But here? In New Orleans?”
“I thought you liked New Orleans. The food, the jazz,” she said, using his own words when they’d first embarked on this job. Shit, it seemed like a lifetime ago rather than a handful of days.
Kane nodded distractedly, his eyes once more returning to Jamie before he said, “Let me think about it.”
That had been a few hours ago. Since then, Morgan had attempted to get hold of Jourdain repeatedly without success and Travis had left for his mission, but not before he’d pulled her aside for a smoking hot kiss that had curled her toes, a promise in his eyes that spoke of more of the same once he returned from retrieving Sophia. Without her dragon to help distract her with sexy times, she was getting itchy just waiting, so leaving Kane to his vigil beside a still sleeping Jamie, Morgan had headed out for Jourdain’s house, knowing full well that if the witch had been killed, she was likely going to be met by an irate mother and a cleaver to the throat.
Preparing for the worst, Morgan knocked on the door and was surprised when Jourdain himself, dressed once more in a three-piece suit, answered. The man had noticeably lost weight, his bones standing out sharply above hollow cheeks, the power output having physically drained him, but otherwise, he looked remarkably unharmed for someone who had been in the middle of a hail of bullets. “Miss Rhys.”
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