by Bonnie Vanak
Tonight, we’d need that kind of speed and skill. I beckoned to them.
They were at my side in an eye blink.
“Protect the women, especially Sienna.” But even as the words fled my mouth, I saw Guy, the club bouncer, approach Dante.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I demanded. “What about the women?”
“I locked them in.” Guy paced. “Let’s get this guy.”
It was no guy. Nostrils flaring, I realized the scent had faded. The Fae was no longer outside the front door.
“What the hell is that thing?” Dante’s claws emerged as his fangs descended. Claws and fangs did little against dark Fionn Fae power. Might as well brandish a nail file and a butter knife.
“It’s powerful, pissed off and wants in here.” Not wasting any more time with words, I ran to the back door. Screams filled the air.
“Let us out!” Kelly wailing for release.
“Dante, damnit, open this door. Get your mate out of here!” This from Sienna. Fear laced her tone.
Not fear for herself, but the other women.
Screw the door. Dante had insurance. I pulled hard and the door came off its hinges. Werewolf strength, my kind of strength, proved useful.
The women rushed out as I tossed the door aside. The others rushed past, but Sienna, straight at me, her eyes wild, her expression controlled.
“Back there.” Sienna pointed. “It’s getting inside.”
Stephan and Nick were already guarding the door to keep other shifters away. They knew I didn’t need Dante or his friends to muscle in here and fight. This was beyond their power.
Mist foul as sewer gas and cold as frost crept beneath the back door. My brave Sienna turned to fight.
“Show yourself,” she demanded. “Take form.”
Sienna gasped as the Fae extended a misty tentacle of power, wrapping around her throat. Droplets of blood beaded her throat as tiny teeth in the mist nibbled on her flesh. The Fae was manifesting.
“No,” she said, blood draining from her face. “Not you.”
Instead of grabbing at the tentacle as instinct probably urged, she stood still, immobilized with shock. If I grabbed her away from those tentacles, Kallan could cut her throat. She might bleed out.
Behind us, I heard Dante growling and demanding to push past. Nicolas kept him at bay by urging him to protect his mate. In alpha males, the urge to protect the female runs strong, and Nick counted on that.
Because Dante and the other shifters needed to stay the hell away from here. They could do little.
This was my fight. My battle.
My war.
Running past Sienna, I zigged and zagged until arriving at the back door, still closed and bolted. Palm flat against the metal, I tested it. Cold. Kallan had gathered against the door, pressed against the barrier between us.
Mist drifted up the door, aiming for me. As it touched my hand, I felt the power of dark magick seeping into my body.
Don’t let her see you do this. I had to save Sienna, but did not dare risk her knowing what I was. Not yet.
Dozens of needles pricked my flesh as if I’d immersed my hand into freezing water. Ignoring the pain, I focused all my strength and energy and pulled at the power pulsing through the door like you’d yank on a rope. And then before Kallan realized what I was doing, I hurled pure, good energy right back at that son of a bitch’s tentacles of mist on the floor.
A sudden squeal beyond the door. Got him. Good. I lacked the strength to kill him, but I could hurt him and grab a reprieve.
Only one Fae I knew could kill Kallan – and she was gasping now, the tentacle retreating from her neck, and vanishing beneath the door.
Hand wrapped around her throat, Sienna stared at me. “Guess I didn’t taste as good as it thought.”
My brave Sienna. Relief battled with worry. Kallan knew Sienna’s location now. I gently pried loose her fingers. Blood had already vanished from the tiny pinpricks. Like me, Sienna had amazing abilities to heal.
Emotions warred inside me. I wanted to kiss her senseless, hold her tight and promise nothing would ever hurt her again.
I wanted to throw back my head and howl with frustration.
I did neither. Instead, I put my hand on the small of her back, herding her out of the storeroom.
Nicolas and Stephan stepped aside, their expressions blank. Not giving away one single thought or intention.
“What the fuck is going on?” Dante roared.
Peyton was guarded by Alexander and Gabriel, Dante’s betas. I didn’t blame the alpha for being pissed.
“It’s gone, whatever it was.” I told him.
“What the hell was that?” Gabriel demanded.
I sank back into the typical excuse accepted by shifters when this kind of incident happened. “A manifestation created by dark energy. Fae shed that energy to hide themselves from shifters during the rising moon. It takes a form of its own and goes after shifters. Since you run a shifter bar, it was drawn here.”
Yeah, Fae and shifters never got along, and the shy fairies feared shifters more than the tall, elegant Fae who held more power. But shifter power tripled during the full moon, so it seemed plausible.
The answer seemed to satisfy Dante, but I saw the questions in his eyes. No matter. I wasn’t coming here again.
Neither would Sienna.
To protect my Sienna, I’d manifested my hidden powers. No one could see. No one knew.
But Kallan knew and now knew exactly what I was capable of. That display of pure magick was exactly what the dark Fae tested, to see how powerful I was. Kallan knew my weakness.
Sienna.
He’d know at last how much power I held, power he wanted to siphon from me. Kallan would kill every last shifter in my pack to get to me, and to get to Sienna, his real target.
And now he’d found Sienna. Sienna, who tried to hide herself.
We were running out of time. If I didn’t coax Sienna to my pack to share the magick she desperately tried to hide and trigger the power of three - myself, and my betas to defeat Kallan…
We were toast.
And Sienna would surely die.
Chapter 7
I kept feeling my neck, remembering the stinging pain wrapped around me like ice cold barbed wire. Already my healing ability kicked in and it began to fade.
I knew what had attacked me.
Kallan had found me at last.
Deeply shaken, I wanted to sink to the floor, wrap my arms around my knees and rock back and forth as I did when I was a child and punished for breaking the rules.
I wanted to run far away, as I had done in the past.
But I had to pretend I was as blissfully ignorant as the others. They didn’t realize I was Fionn Fae and the real target.
Around me, the shifters cleaned up, and Dante prowled, checking everything. Peyton remained busy organizing rides home for the strippers and Cass. Dante’s personal limo would take them, with Gabriel riding shotgun to keep them safe.
My apartment had a lock that would hardly prevent a hard kick from toppling down the door. Protect myself from Kallan?
Forget it.
Shaken and needing fresh air, I walked outside. Grayson immediately fell into step with me. I walked about the back, determined to see if Kallan had left marks.
Instead of the normal blue runes my people left as calling cards, these runes were glowing amber, like a wolf’s eyes. Odd. I had never seen any of my people leave amber runes before. I touched one and winced. It burned like ice.
Alexander joined us as we studied the door by the light of Grayson’s flashlight app. Then Dante’s trusted beta looked around.
“Look at this!” Alexander whistled.
Crumbled in the parking lot like a pile of discarded clothing was what looked like a skinsuit. Something, or someone with tremendous ability had sucked out all his blood, internal organs and most of all, his vital energy.
His life force.
His Fae po
wer.
Hard to tell in darkness, but enough light from the flashlight showed facial features I recognized.
The Fae who’d been at the bar earlier. He had told Kallan I was here. Probably showed up to leech power from me and got this instead.
My heart dropped to my stomach. I’d been so careful. Never showing any power, keeping my magick hidden and not even using glamour to disguise myself. Instead, I’d resorted to human tricks –coarse hair dye.
Yet, Kallan found me anyway, and targeted me as if I were a black monolith on a white snowbank.
“We’d best get back inside. Sienna, you will ride in the limo with the others.” Mild Alexander, giving orders.
“No. I’ll see her home.” Grayson slid an arm around my shoulders, anchoring me to him. It felt good to have someone care.
But it couldn’t last, because Kallan would mow through Grayson to kill me.
Alexander gave Grayson that same thoughtful, assessing look as Dante. Then he nodded and left us. I shrugged free of Grayson, walked slowly back to the front entrance, studying the ground. No sign of runes or glowing magick on the pavement. Just on the back door.
“What was that thing that attacked us?” I demanded. As if I didn’t know. But I wanted to hear Grayson’s answer, because he seemed to know.
Most shifters didn’t know much about Fionn Fae. Only the myths and legends my people perpetuated over the centuries.
Grayson looked around as Nicolas and Stephan joined him. They glanced at each other, their expressions tight beneath the parking lot lights’ yellow glow.
“Tell her,” Nicolas said suddenly. “She needs to know.”
Grayson bent over, traced a line in the gravel, as if marking his turf. “What attacked you was a dark Fionn Fae, the most powerful Fae of all. Dark ones are more lethal, because their thirst for power will overcome everything. They can both control the weather or turn into any form of it. Mist, rain, wind. He probably sucked out the vitals of the Fae that was here earlier.”
Of course I knew what it was, but hearing it from Grayson made it more real. I cocked my head and looked interested while fighting to control my shaking hands.
I could handle a dark Fionn Fae. Any of them. But Kallan was different. This was personal.
“Why did it come here?” I kept my voice neutral. Right now I needed information. All I could get.
For a moment in the harsh gleam of the sodium lights Grayson’s expression looked speculative. Then he waved a hand.
“Kallan has a personal hard on for me. We tangled a while back. You okay?”
Whoa, this was news. I stared at Grayson. “You tangled with that thing? When?”
Grayson rolled his shoulders, as if preparing to fight. “We crossed paths last summer. I was trying to rescue a bear cub stuck in a culvert.”
“And? Where?” Details, I needed details. My palms started sweating in the leather gloves.
The alpha cracked his knuckles. “Near Colorado Springs. Was touring the state on my bike and saw the cub. Could tell a storm was coming and the cub couldn’t get out. Flash floods, you know.”
I knew them well. “So how did you meet this Kallan?”
“Rain,” he said briefly. “He made it pour, trying to drown the cub. He’s a real bastard.”
Sensing there was much more to that story, I pressed further. “Tell me more.”
“Not here. I will tell you more when I can be assured you are safe. Get your stuff and let’s go, Sienna.”
Staying here now that Kallan knew where I worked put the club out of reach. The club money had enabled me to save for a trip to California and a chance to renew my weary spirit. Moving from city to city had taxed me.
But if I stayed, I risked the lives of those at Crossroads and I had vowed no more innocents would die because of me. Besides, I had grown to like these shifters at the club.
So much for friendship. Cross that off my list, along with California.
Outside, Grayson steered me toward the Dumpster. Moonlight glinted off three shiny bikes parked nearby. Realizing what he intended, I shook my head.
“I’m good. Thanks, but I can manage getting home on my own.”
“You’re not going anywhere in that junkyard reject. Your car couldn’t accelerate past a tortoise.”
“Hey, don’t mock my vehicle. It holds together well.”
He gave me a cynical look. “With glue? You’re coming with us, Sienna.”
Grayson didn’t want to drive me home. He was too worried about me being alone in my ancient sedan. It was touching to know he cared.
Even though he was better off not caring. Because when people cared about me, they eventually found out how much magick I had. Then they got greedy and ready to hurt me.
In the end, they paid with their own destruction.
“It’s got four good tires and I had a tune-up only last week.”
“If that Fae is still around, you’d be better off pedaling a bicycle.”
I adjusted the backpack over one shoulder. “If that Fae is still around, I’m a fast runner.”
Faster than you can imagine, alpha. But I didn’t dare confide that little fact to Grayson. What I really wanted was to cross examine Grayson, the only other living creature who had tangled with Kallan and lived to talk about it.
If Grayson had a means for defeating him, there was hope. I could not kill Kallan. But maybe Grayson could and end my running days.
And then he cupped my chin, running his thumb over my skin, making me realize how dangerous it was to draw close to this wolf. Grayson threatened to lower all my barriers that kept men away, and kept my secrets intact. I shivered from the contact and sheer need for sex. Add all the years of sex my healthy young body had gone without, and it was like Grayson had opened a faucet and all my desire poured out.
“Come back with me, Sienna. You’ll be safe at my place. I’ll have one of my guys drive you home in time to get to work Thursday.”
“I’m fine, thanks.” The protest was automatic.
Grayson stared at my mouth, his thumb drifting to my lower lip. I resisted, barely, the temptation to draw the digit into my mouth and suck on it.
“You need a little fun in your life, lass. You work too much.”
“Tomorrow’s laundry day.”
“I’ll wash your panties.” He nibbled at my ear and then gave it a slow lick. “Or give you a good excuse not to wear any.”
Heat curled through me, tingling with a power of its own. I was torn between accepting his invitation and discovering what he knew about Kallan and running far away to avoid the sexual pull between us.
In the end, the desire for knowledge won over the desire to keep running. It was a chance I had to take, for my sake, and most of all, for the sake of everyone who stood in Kallan’s way. Because if Grayson had any knowledge of how to fight Kallan, I needed to know.
Purging that power-hungry bastard from this earth would make it a safer place for all, not only me. Kallan only desired power, power enough to wipe out everyone who stood in his way and didn’t bow to his demands.
“All right.” I frowned. “You certain your home is protected against Kallan?”
“I assure you, I warded it several times over with magick enough to keep all in my pack protected from harm. You’ll be safe at my place.”
“Safe from that Kallan, maybe, but from you?” I blurted out.
Damn, I didn’t mean to spill that. But he grinned, a pirate’s grin of promised ravishment and sexual bliss found in surrender. “We have a guest room you may claim. You’ll be free to leave for your home whenever you want, as long as one of my men accommodates you back.”
“Deal.”
Satisfaction gleamed in those steely eyes. “Deal.”
He took my hand, but instead of shaking it, Grayson kissed my knuckles. He nodded at Nicolas and Stephan, who came over.
“We’re leaving and Sienna is coming with us,” he told them.
“All right Sienna, I was hoping you’
d come visit. Now I can make you one of my famous dinners.” Stephan fist pumped the air and then hugged me. His body was thin and muscled and warm. It felt good to be held.
Nicolas gave me a long, smoldering look. “Staying with us a while, Sienna? You’re not afraid of us?”
Not in the way most women fear werewolves. “I’m afraid I might get heartburn if I eat too much of Stephan’s delicious dinners.”
“We keep plenty of antacid on hand, lass, so no worries.” Grayson grinned as Stephan flung out his hands.
“No one appreciates my finer points,” the beta complained.
“Which are?” Nicolas asked, ducking the punch Stephan sent sailing his way.
“You are a damn fine cook, Stephan,” Grayson told him, a hand on his shoulder. He gave a pointed look to his T-shirt. “Your choice of movies, however, leaves much to be desired.”
“I like The Punisher. What else am I supposed to watch?”
“How about Animal Planet?” I quipped.
Grayson laughed. Stephan laughed as well.
Nicolas did not. Instead, he kept looking at me, as if trying make up his mind about me.
Stephan hugged me again. “I’m so happy you’re coming back with us, Sienna. I really am.”
He was so warm and welcoming, I could almost forget Nicolas’ attitude.
Grayson took my hand. “Let’s go. I don’t want to stay longer in case Kallan returns. You’ll ride with me. I’ll send two of my people to pick up your car tomorrow and drive it to your home. When you return home, one of us will take you. I want you to be safe, Sienna.”
The grim set of his chiseled jaw, and the determination in his steely blue gaze warned me he was dead serious. I nodded. My father may have been an utterly cruel and heartless bastard, but he didn’t raise me to be foolish.
Nicolas and Stephan waited as Grayson climbed on his shiny chrome bike. After donning the helmet he gave me, I mounted the saddle in back.
