by R. A. Boyd
Zeke looked over at Willow who sat quietly at the end of the table talking to Jace. Her eyebrows shot up and she gave a slight shrug that no one but him noticed. She could sense it, too. Cass was quietly powerful. He could tell that she was a human who had been turned, but there was something more to her.
Through a mouthful of bacon Jax asked, “Zeke. Audra. Where are you going to live? We’d be honored if you stayed here but I know you’ve got a family—”
“Here with Audra, if she’ll keep me,” he said without hesitation.
The only ones who knew the stress of his living situation with the coven were his mate and Willow.
When he looked over at his sister she was smiling, her amber eyes catching the morning light as it shined through the windows. “You’ll be missed, but I’m sure this is where you’ll be happy.” She took a sip from her mug and then turned to Jax. “I’d like to put up new wards around your community. I’ve heard about your problems with some of the surrounding shifter clans and their worry over you finding your mates. The wards you have now are, what, ten years old?”
Damon leaned over and kissed Cass on her neck as she sat leaning against Jax. The idea of two dominate shifters completing their Triad with someone like Cass amazed Zeke. Hell, the whole idea of some clans needing a Triad to rule surprised him, but watching the three of them interact and bring balance to this group seemed effortless. Both men seemed to adore her. No jealousy could be felt between them.
“It’s been over twenty years,” Damon said to Willow. “We do need stronger holds. Up until recently we’ve been unbothered. Let me know if you need anything for the spell.”
“Heaven’s Flame,” Cass said, sitting up straight in her chair. Her posture changed and she looked uneasy. “Can you do something to protect them from Heaven’s Flame? Or at least alert them to its presence?”
Audra had told him what happened to Cass before she was turned. Heaven’s Flame, one of the only things that could leave angel-born helpless and unable to defend themselves, had been used against the Ghost shifters and it left Cass vulnerable. A witch working with the clans who wanted to keep the Ghosts from finding their mates had managed to put Heaven’s Flame into their sprinkler system. Cass was kidnapped and killed. They’d almost lost her. If they had, none of the Ghost shifters would have been able to find their mates and start the undoing of the curse that had been placed upon them.
Samael, the Angel of Death, had brought her back. Cass was strong but it seemed as if the thought of what happened to her made her entire existence falter. Who could blame her? The man who killed her was still on the run.
Zeke opened up his link to Willow and asked her permission before he offered Cass a present. Willow agreed.
He cleared his throat and raised his hand. “You can tell me to shut my face if I’m intruding, but I would like to offer something to you all. Cass in particular.” Zeke turned to her and saw the confusion in her brown eyes. He focused to see her aura. Long tendrils of power vibrated around her like sand on a bass pumping speaker. What the hell was she? “If you could get a clear image in your mind of the man who hurt you, me and Willow could scry for him. Find out where he is. Bring him to you.”
Everyone at the table went quiet, and in that instant Zeke thought he’d made a huge mistake. Maybe he hadn’t thought this through well enough. He looked over at Audra and she was staring straight at Cass.
“I’ll do it,” Audra said, staring at her sister and waiting for her to lift her eyes from the table. “You don’t need to. I don’t want something like that staining your soul. I’ll go and end him. Make him hurt if you want me to.”
“No,” Cass and Zeke said in unison.
Cass ran her hand through her dark mass of coily hair and fluffed it at the top. “No, Audra. You need to keep yourself as calm as possible. I owe that man pain and fear. The kind that only I can give.” She stood up and pushed her chair in, and when her mates tried to stand she put her hands on their shoulders to keep them seated. That peaceful cover that seemed to be Cass’s constant companion had left, and in its place was a roiling ball of fear and rage that radiated from her body. She looked down at her fingers as she twisted her napkin in her hands.
Zeke felt like shit. Absolute shit. He wanted to do something for his new people. They’d welcomed him and made him feel like he’d always belonged there with them. Except Simon.
Fuck Simon.
“Cass,” Zeke said. “I’m so sorry I—”
She gave a forced laugh, and when she finally looked up at him her eyes glowed like the moon’s reflection off the ocean. “No. Don’t apologize,” she said, her voice tapering off into a low snarl. Her smile was a brilliant mask that didn’t reach her eyes. “I would appreciate if you were to do that. I’ve dreamed of that man for months. I will make sure he suffers for just as long as I have. Excuse me,” she said, walking out of the dining area and out the front door.
Everyone at the table sat and watched her as she walked a short way from the common hall, fell to her hands and knees, and shifted into her saber-tooth. It looked painful and uncontrolled. But now she looked unstoppable.
“I fucked up,” Zeke said, running both of his hands through his short hair. He felt like grit. How could he even think that offering to do something like that was acceptable? He should have waited to ask Audra if it was okay.
Jax stood and walked toward the door. “You didn’t do anything, man. She’s been suffering from this since…” Since she died. The unspoken words hung in the air like the promise of rain. “Thanks. She’ll thank you when she’s ready. I’m going to go after her.”
“No,” Simon said, backing up from the table so hard his chair screeched across the floor and echoed through the room. “I will. She doesn’t need to be comforted, Alpha. She needs to hurt something. Make it bleed. I’ll go. I can’t feel a fucking thing anyway.”
Simon ran to the door, but before he went out he clamped Jax on the shoulder as if offering him comfort.
Why the fuck would asshole-Simon offer to do something like that?
“Because,” Audra said, looking over at him with unshed tears in her eyes. The pain in her heart beat through Zeke’s veins, and for the first time he felt sorry for Simon. “He’s not as much of an asshole as he demands credit for. But that’s his story to tell.”
“Did someone say something mean to you, Audra?”
Audra smiled at the protective tone in Melinda’s voice. The busy sounds of the pub where Audra had worked blared in the background of the phone. Damn, she sure missed the smell of pancake batter and overcooked fries that always lingered in the kitchen of the pub.
She scoffed and stared out the window and watched a flock of geese honking as they flew by, sounding like the horn of a clown car. “Melinda, do you really think the people of New Rose are dumb enough to say something out of the way to my face?”
They may think she was off her rocker but they knew a predator when they were in its presence. Most of the humans may not have known exactly what Audra and her people were, but they knew that they had been here for decades. Anytime the town fell on hard times Audra and her brothers were there to help them out.
In the heart of New Rose was Melinda Bale’s Bar and Pub. She and Audra owned the place. To keep herself busy, Audra would go and work as a waitress or hostess or head cook or whatever other job needed to be done that day. No on in town knew Audra was part owner. It wasn’t there business.
Audra had met Melinda over thirty years ago. Her husband had become the town drunk. No one knew why he took up drinking and Audra didn’t give a shit until the day she saw Melinda sporting a black eye and a busted lip. There had been talk around town that she wanted to leave him, but with no family to speak of and no job she felt like she was stuck. Being the kind and generous woman that she was and had always been, Audra followed her home and asked Melinda if she wanted her husband to die. Melinda asked her not to kill him, but did request that she make him leave her alone.
Mike, Melinda’s douche husband, was tickled pink when Audra stomped into his study and demanded he leave as he sat and drank a bottle of whiskey. Audra let him hit her once, just so they would say he got a hit in, and then she proceeded to hand his ass to him on a diamond sprinkled silver platter.
With the promise of her making a stew of his intestines if he came back and a few well-placed snarls and growls, Mike peacefully agreed to go through with a divorce. And the housewife turned business owner used her skills to run a successful pub.
“I found the letter you left, Audra. You’re scaring me. Tell me what’s happening.”
She cleared her throat and felt a surge of anger rise in her. Beastie had been uneasy all afternoon. “I thought I was going to have to leave for a while and I wanted to make sure the pub was yours. So, technically it is yours but if—”
“I never signed the papers. The pub is still ours, Audra. Were you going to leave without telling me? What’s happening?”
Yup, she’d planned on leaving without telling Melinda a single thing. That made her a bad friend. She didn’t want to face Melinda. Telling her family was one thing, but having Melinda try to get the truth from her would have been tricky. That woman could smell lies just as well as a shifter. How do you tell your human friend that you’re going to be put to sleep for the next century, but checked on every twenty-five years to make sure you’re not still insane? You don’t.
“I’ll explain when I see you. Okay?”
“Okay. You sound different. Calmer. Did you get medical marijuana to help settle you? It really does help.”
Audra laughed so hard it hurt her stomach. It was a real laugh. Not the maddening ones she’d experienced so often or the forced ones she had used to make other people feel comfortable once they realized she was dangerous. No. This was real. “No medical marijuana.”
“I have some if you need it. My doctor gives it to me for my arthritis. It really helps.
“Melin. I’ll explain everything. I’ll see you in a few days.”
She hung up the phone and looked out the window for Zeke. He and Willow had been moving around the perimeter of their community for the last hour, strengthening the magical wards that kept this place safe. The ward was placed years ago to deter others from getting too close to their homes. They liked to be left alone. Shifters had always been curious about the Ghosts and had often sought them out to see if what they’d heard was true. Were they fallen angel shifters locked in their human form? Most didn’t believe they even existed until they were close enough to feel the raw power dripping from them. So, sometimes they came out into the wilderness, looking for a Ghost shifter to see if the talk was true.
A lightning flash of pain struck in her chest and doubled her over. The faint sound of a growl trickled through Audra’s lips.
“No,” she said, fighting any horrible suggestions her beast might put into her mind. That’s how it always started. But it was different this time.
There was no burning rage that tried to ease her into hurting the people she loved. This rage was fueled by a heart-stopping nervousness that made her hold her breath. Fear. This was true fear.
Zeke was in trouble.
Audra forced herself to stand and hobbled to the door. Her beast had never known fear before, and she was overwhelmed by it. The pain that weakened her cleared away as fast as it had come, and Audra took that moment of clarity to take full control of her body and get to her mate.
She ran to her porch and waited to feel him, nose turned up to catch his rain-touched scent. Blocking out all the remnants of terror she’d just felt to keep her head clear, she balled her hands into fists and concentrated.
The wind blew and all the fine hairs on her body stood at attention. Shifting her gaze from side to side, she gave in to the ferocity of the hunter waiting inside her.
The sound of a scuffle softly blared in her ears and she broke into a run, heading to the western boarder of their community. She moved faster than she could remember doing in such a long time, but paused as she saw Aiden through his front window.
“Aiden,” she said, voice soft as the breeze that kicked up through the tress. Loud enough so that he could pick up on it but low to keep anyone other than her brethren alerted to her actions.
Knowing he would understand, she took off again to find Zeke. Her heart drummed in her ears as her breath punched through her pursed lips. She sprinted and the only thing she could think was how little time they’d had together.
As Audra reached a clearing half a mile from her house, a blast of energy flew past her. The whooshing sound tickled her ear and she ducked to avoid another attack. What the hell was happening? The metallic smell of blood wafted toward her and she belly crawled to get a better view of what was going on.
Just beyond the trees Zeke stood over the prone figure of Willow. His eyes darted back and forth and the air around him moved like a mirage in a scorching desert. Power rolled off him in waves as he mumbled words in Aramaic. He was casting a spell.
She watched him as he stood there, looking like a badass, battle ready warrior about to bring murder to anyone who threatened him.
He caught her eye and with a sharp shake of his head he motioned for her to stop. Worry pooled in his eyes. “Stay back, Audra.”
Was he the crazy one now? He was in trouble and she needed to be by his side.
She started crawling again and almost laughed when she saw him shake his head as if warning her to keep away. Zeke would learn that Audra didn’t take orders from many people. Especially if someone she loved was in trouble.
By the time she made it to him she was covered in snow and dry leaves and her hand was bleeding from a jagged rock she’d crawled over. Zeke looked down at her and said, “Do you listen?”
“To orders in the bedroom only.”
He snickered but still kept his eyes on the tree line. “Check Willow.”
“Where are they?” she asked as she bent down. She smoothed the unconscious woman’s hair from the side of her face.
Zeke kept is gaze on the surrounding area with his hands up in a defensive position. “In the trees. A woman and two men attacked us. The woman fucking threw Willow like she was a doll.”
With renewed worry, Audra ran her hands up and down Willow’s body to survey the damage. By the way her head lolled to the side she could tell that Willow’s neck was broken. This would take a while to heal. Whoever did this was going to pay in—
“Audra?” a familiar voice said from high in the trees.
She looked up and saw Neil perched in the branches of an old Maple tree. He was almost perfectly covered by the thick trunk. With the ease and grace of a flight shifter, Neil jumped and landed weightlessly in the grass a few meters in front of them.
“Neil? What the hell? Did you attack them?”
The young raven shifter put his hands up in surrender as Zeke was about to throw a blast of energy at him. “Hell yeah we did.”
“Audra,” Zeke murmured, grabbing her hand and pulling her up to stand.
Dang it. She forgot that Neil and his parents were coming with information about the rogue clan of shifters who were against the mating of the Ghosts. The rogue clan was growing. Shifters of all animals were gathering in fear of what the Ghosts would become if they all found their mates and were able to change into saber-tooth cats.
There was a fear that they would become the apex predators of the shifters and try to take over. It didn’t make any sense but it was happening.
The other shifters had left them alone as long as they couldn’t change, but now all that was being tossed out the window. Some had banded together and were doing all they could to stop them from finding their mates.
Cass had been murdered. Riley’s ex-husband had been turned with the intent that he would keep Riley from mating with Teague. The rogue’s were trying like hell to stop them, but all they were doing was tying them together even closer.
“Why, Neil?” Audra asked, pointing down at Willow. They
were going to have to set the bones in her neck so they didn’t heal in their fractured position.
“Because,” Neil’s mother Sara said, her regal voice sharp and firm from across the clearing. She walked toward them and wiped her hands down her silk dress pants and cashmere sweater, clearing dead leaves from her pristine attire. “You said a witch was helping the rogues. We saw witches casting spells in your territory.” The wind kicked up and whipped her dark hair around her like she floated in water. “We were defending you.”
Oh. Well, that made complete and total sense.
“You fucking attacked us,” Zeke said, pointing to Willow. “You threw my sister. Threw her into a tree.”
Dean, Neil’s father, came from the same direction as Sara. “We didn’t know you were with them. Sorry,” he said, voice tense as if he was still leery of whether Zeke would attack again.
“Asking would have been nice.” Zeke went down on to his knees and pulled Willow’s head into his lap.
Audra watched as he moved his fingers around the base of Willow’s neck. He pulled to the left and a soft pop like someone cracking a knuckle sounded off.
Sara tsked and pushed a lock of brown hair behind her ear. Her dark eyes crinkled at the edges and Audra saw where Neil got his expressions from. He was handsome like his father, but graceful and statuesque like his mother.
“I am so sorry I hurt her.” The remorse in Sara’s voice was heavy and fear tinged the edges of her words. “Is she... dead?”
Zeke’s power crackled through the air and along Audra’s skin like static electricity as he held his hands over Willow’s head. Flattening them out and then balling them into fists, he closed his eyes and whispered a spell. “She’ll live,” he answered. He flattened his hands again and then made three swift hand gestures that looked like a countdown.
The light sound of cracking bones rang out. He was healing her.
Aiden, Teague, and Riley came running to the clearing. They took in the scene and then stopped, quietly watching as Zeke worked on his sister.
