by B N Miles
He leaned toward her, his body tense. “You know where he is?”
She gave him a sly little smile. “I might,” she said.
“I feel like I shouldn’t be here for this,” Izzy said. “I’m going to go check on the boy again.”
She slipped out of the room before Nikki could argue. Jared stared at his Vampire girlfriend and crossed his arms.
“Why didn’t you lead with that?” he asked.
Nikki glanced toward the living room. “Wasn’t sure if she was in for this or not,” she said.
“You trust her, don’t you?”
“As far as I trust anyone.” Nikki shrugged. “But this Taavi is dangerous, and we need to be careful.”
Jared nodded and glanced toward the couch. Izzy said something to Cassie and knelt down next to Wade again.
“You’re right,” he said.
Nikki came closer and touched his cheek. “You’re okay, aren’t you?”
“Fine now,” he said then looked at her. “And those bodies?”
“Disposed of,” she said. “MetaDept will have a hard time finding them.”
He let out a breath. “Good. And I don’t want to know how.”
She grinned at him. “No, you really don’t.”
Jared reached up and touched her cheek then ran a hand through her damp hair. She must have finished with the bodies then gone home to clean herself off and get changed. He remembered her drenched in blood, smiling at him like an avenging angel, and felt his pulse pick up. He leaned forward and kissed her, slow and deep, and she pressed herself against him.
He used to think Vampires were cold and lifeless, but Nikki was anything but cold. Her body was ample and tone, and she drove him wild when she drank his blood then rode his cock hard and fast, her firm breasts bouncing.
“I keep thinking about you,” he said softly. “About that blood all over your mouth.”
She tilted her head, a little frown on her lips. “I didn’t freak you out, did I?” she asked.
Jared was surprised by her vulnerability. “No,” he said. “The opposite.”
She looked surprised. “You liked that?”
“I know it’s fucked up.” He grabbed her hair a little tighter than he would have otherwise. “But god damn, Nikki, you are something else.”
She let out a little gasp as he kissed her again, but she put her hands on his chest.
“Easy,” she said. “We have work to do.”
“You’re right.” He released her with some reluctance.
“But later, if you’re nice, I’ll get a little messy,” she said, whispering in his ear. “Dribble some blood down my lips. Then some spit along your cock.”
His eyes flashed and she gave him a coy smile as she moved away to stand across the room.
“Alright,” he said. “Better tell me what you know before I lose control.”
She grinned. “He’s good at hiding, I’ll give him that,” she said. “I started with my subjects, but not a single Vampire in the entire city knew where he was. I heard some rumors, of course, but nothing concrete.”
“So how’d you locate him?”
She held up a finger. “I work with a lot of people,” she said. “Not just Vampires. I put one of my aids on it, and she turned up something interesting earlier tonight.”
“Aids,” Jared said, grinning. “You’re so fancy.”
She held out her hands. “Vampire Underlords get some privileges,” she said.
“And I enjoy every one of them.”
She laughed and stretched like a cat. “Are you going to keep interrupt me, or can I tell you where he’s hiding?”
He made a gesture. “Please, go on.”
“There’s a doctor we work with from time to time,” she said then paused. “Well, sort of doctor. He’s a veterinarian, actually. Also a Werebear that likes to try and pass as Human as much as he can, strange man actually.”
“He never shifts?” Jared asked. “Just stays in his Human form all the time?”
“Tries not to, but at any rate, he does Meta work once in a while, you know the type, helps on the sly for Metas that can’t go through more traditional medicine. Well, one of my men reached out to him, and apparently he treated a Plethoak that matched Taavi’s description.”
Jared chewed on that for a moment. “How bad were his injuries?”
Nikki held out her hands. “Not sure. Burns, apparently.”
“But he’s not dead?”
“He’s not dead,” she confirmed. “And he’s not far.”
“Where?”
“Out west,” she said. “I believe people call it Pennsyltucky?”
Jared grunted. “It’s a big state.”
“Our Werebear doctor friend works in a small town called Avonmore,” she said. “Somewhere between here and Pittsburgh. I suspect he’s still staying there, or at least nearby.”
“How long ago was that?”
“Just a few days,” she said.
“He could be anywhere by now.” Jared tilted his head back and looked up at the ceiling. “Shit, we might be chasing nothing.”
“It’s a start, at least,” Nikki said. She drifted across the kitchen and leaned herself against Jared’s chest. “If you want to find your Plethoak, I’d start there.”
“I guess there’s no chance you’ll come with us,” Jared said.
She smiled up at him. “I wish I could.”
“Yeah, figured.”
“A Vampire Underlord can’t just disappear from her city.” She got up on her toes and kissed his neck. Jared felt a tingle run down his spine, and for a brief second, he remembered her face covered in blood. “But maybe Izzy will go with you all.”
Jared laughed. “I doubt it.”
“I’ll pay her fees,” Nikki said. “I’d feel better if you all had a healer tag along.”
“I don’t know,” he said. “Do we really want to drag her into this?”
“I think you already did,” Nikki said. “The Medlar were watching you. Do you really think they’re not watching this house?”
Jared flinched then let out a groan. “Of course they are.”
“So they know she came here, and I’m sure they know what she does.” Nikki grinned at him. “Like it or not, she’s a part of this now.”
Jared shook his head. “Fuck. That wasn’t my intention.”
“I know. Too late to take it back.” He kissed him again then let him go. “Come on, let’s go talk to the others and see what they think.”
“Yeah.” Jared shook his head. “Should we tell Izzy? I mean, she might have a right to know.”
“Let’s see if she’s interested in tagging along first,” Nikki said. “Then we’ll worry about telling her the whole sordid tale.”
“Fine.” Jared reached back and gripped Nikki’s ass and she laughed. “But if she gets pissed, I’m blaming you.”
“Blame away,” she said.
Jared kissed her then slapped her ass and let her go. She grinned and turned away, throwing her hair a little bit. Jared watched her head into the living room, but hesitated before following.
His girls sat around the unconscious Wade. Jessalene comforted Cassie while Nikki jumped into their midst. Lumi was still upstairs stewing, while Izzy hung nearby, looking uncomfortable.
What a strange little group he was growing, but he knew he wouldn’t have gotten this far without them. Each of his girls brought something special, and each of them made him a better man.
He had to remember that. They were more important than anything else. He’d fight the Medlar with a rusty nail if it meant keeping any one of them safe. That was his goal, the whole reason he kept going forward.
He had to protect his girls, no matter what.
18
Nikki stayed for another hour, but soon everyone was too exhausted to keep talking. Izzy left around four in the morning with Nikki as an escort, just to make sure the Medlar didn’t do something stupid on her way home. Jessalene managed to get C
assie up to bed, and Jared joined them.
His sleep was fitful and he dreamed of dark shadows gathering at the periphery of his house. He dreamed of black-eyed demons, of whirling tidal waves of power and energy converging on Cassie, tearing her to pieces, using her as a key to… something worse.
The sun woke him after only a few hours of rest. He slipped out of bed as Jessa, Lumi, and Cassie snored away, all of them shoved into the California king-sized bed he’d bought. It practically filled the room, but they needed the biggest bed possible if they were all going to fit.
He grabbed a clean shirt and a pair of shorts and slipped into the hallway. He used the hall bathroom, brushed his teeth, washed his face, then headed downstairs. He figured he’d make coffee and start breakfast while he thought about next steps.
As he reached the living room, he stopped dead and stared at the couch.
Wade was gone.
Jared cursed and felt a surge of panic rush over him. For a second, he thought Wade escaped, but no, that wasn’t possible. The wards kept them inside just as much as they kept everything else out. There was no way Wade could’ve gotten through Jared’s wards without waking everyone.
He turned and heard a gurgle from the kitchen. He took a few tentative steps toward the noise and saw a figure move past the doorway. He cleared his throat and stopped beside the kitchen table.
“Wade,” Jared said.
He heard someone bump against a counter and curse. There was a rattle, then Wade himself appeared in the doorway, looking almost bashful, like he’d been caught stealing a candy bar.
“Uh, hey,” he said.
Wade looked better than he did the night before. His face was less pale, less pallid. He wasn’t sweating anymore, and although he still had bags under his eyes, he didn’t look like he was about to topple over at any moment.
“My name’s Jared,” he said. “I’m guessing you have some questions.”
Wade grinned and rubbed the back of his greasy head. “Uh, mostly just wondering in which cabinets you keep your mugs? I made some coffee.”
Jared paused for a second then pointed. “Right there,” he said. “Above the sink.”
“Oh, awesome.” Wade turned, opened a cabinet, and grabbed a plain white mug.
Jared stepped into the kitchen and watched as he poured some coffee and took a long sip. He closed his eyes and let out a sigh of pleasure as he leaned up against the counter.
“How are you feeling?” Jared asked.
“A lot better,” Wade said. “I, uh, don’t really remember much from last night though, so I’m not really sure what happened.”
“Cassie found you,” Jared said. At the mention of her name, Wade tensed and took a step forward.
“She’s here?” he asked, his voice low, his eyes wide.
“She’s here,” Jared said. “Sleeping right now. I’m sure you have a lot to talk about.”
“I didn’t… fuck,” he said. “I found her.”
“She found you,” Jared said. “Wade, how are you here right now?”
He blinked and shook his head. He seemed to fold up into himself again and leaned against the counter. Jared guessed he was younger than Cassie, maybe by a few years. He looked like an overgrown boy that had just lost his baby fat. His face was a haunted shell, but his body was a gaggle of overlong limbs that were too spindly by half. He sipped his coffee again and seemed to breathe the steam into his large, wide nose.
“You probably want the whole story, huh?” he asked.
“I’ll take the abridged version. Cassie will want the details,” Jared said.
“How much do you know about her?” Wade looked up at him, frowning a little, head tilted to the side.
“I know she’s from a different version of this world,” Jared said. “One very different from this place. I know she was part of an important family there and she left for personal reasons.”
“Right,” Wade said, nodding. “Right, okay. So, you know we have a way into The Miles, yeah? This portal thing.”
“It’s a well, I think,” Jared said.
“After Cassie left, my family tore up the world looking for her. Searched under every rock, in every nook and cranny, used every resource they had to try and hunt her down. But we all knew where she’d gone, I mean, her scent was all over it, right? I just think her parents couldn’t accept that she’d go so far to get away from them.”
Jared crossed his arms. “If I remember right, her parents were forcing her into a marriage.”
Wade snorted. “Yeah, I mean, sort of. But that was her duty, right? She was born into that role.”
“Didn’t have to be that way.”
“You don’t know our family,” Wade said.
“All right,” Jared said. “I guess I don’t. So what happened next?”
“Well, the family got together and discussed our options. It was clear that Cassie had gone into the well and escaped into The Miles, but that was pretty much the worst-case scenario, you know? Traveling The Miles is dangerous at best, and moving into another universe can unleash some pretty trippy shit.”
“That’s more or less my understanding,” Jared said.
“Right, so we talked about it, and finally decided that someone had to go after her and bring her back.” He sipped his coffee and pawed at the tile floor with his bare right foot. “I guess they decided that I was both capable enough and expendable enough.”
“So you went into The Miles,” Jared said.
Wade started at his coffee for a long time without speaking. Jared could tell he was remembering the trip, thinking about what had happened inside that world outside of all worlds. Jared didn’t know a lot about The Miles, nobody really did. Very few people had ever gone there and come back again.
But Jared knew The Miles were the tunnels that connected all the possible worlds. They were holes in reality, spaces ripped through the fabric of the universe. If everything was composed of the priori, then The Miles was like the anti-priori. It was the sub-skeleton that kept everything locked into place and floating in a sea of priori.
“I went in with supplies,” Wade said. “Backpack full of stuff, enough food to last a couple of weeks. I shifted as soon as I was inside, caught Cassie’s scent, and followed her the best I could. But The Miles… they don’t make sense. They change and move, and there are… things in there.” He took a sharp breath and shook his head. “By the time I found the door here, I was out of food and starting to get desperate. So I came through a few days back, and found this fucked up place, and now here we are.”
Jared watched him, trying to read his expression, but Wade stared at the coffee like he remembered more but wasn’t saying.
“You had an infection,” Jared said. “And you were caught on camera in public. Do you know what happened?”
“Tried to rob a store,” he said. “I was hungry and desperate, you know? I broke a window and cut myself pretty bad on it. I guess it got infected.”
Jared nodded. That lined up with what Izzy said.
“Okay,” he said. “So now you’re here. Now what?”
Wade looked up and blinked. “Uh, I guess now I bring Cassie home.”
“Ah,” Jared said, his voice soft, a smile slipping across his face. “That’s going to be a problem.”
Wade stared at him like he didn’t know what to say. He opened his mouth, worked his jaw, shut it again.
“I didn’t come all the way here for nothing,” he said.
“First of all, you can’t force her to go back,” Jared said.
“I can if I have to,” Wade said. “If she won’t come, my family—”
“No,” Jared said, holding up his hands. “I wouldn’t finish that sentence, if I were you.”
Wade stared at Jared, and his face slowly hardened. “I didn’t go through all that for nothing,” he said.
“I’m sorry your family did that to you,” Jared said. “But if Cassie wants to stay, there’s nothing you can do about it. And I know you t
hink you can force the issue, but trust me, Wade. Cassie’s mine now, and I’ll rip your spine through your throat if you try and hurt her.”
He stared at Jared for a few deep breaths before shaking his head.
“It’s not that simple,” he said.
“It is,” Jared said. “And even beyond that, how do you think you’re going to get back into The Miles? Do you know where the gate is on this side? Can you even access it? Face it, Wade, your family threw you out like a piece of trash. They had no long-term plan, no real hope of this succeeding, they just tossed you aside like you were nothing.”
“That’s not true,” he said, gripping his mug tight.
“It’s true.” Jared pushed off the counter, stepped closer to Wade. The boy flinched back, his eyes wide. “And I need you to hear this. Cassie is not yours. She will never be yours. The Grim family lost their claim to her the second she decided she wanted to leave. If you try something stupid, I promise, Wade, you won’t ever see home again.”
He stared at Jared, jaw tight, fingers white as he gripped the steaming mug hard between his hands. Jared stood there, staring at the kid, and almost felt bad for him. He’d been thrown into a situation he barely understood, forced to go through a traumatic journey into an entirely new world, and now he was just realizing that he might be stuck forever, that things weren’t going to be as easy as he hoped.
But Wade meant nothing to Jared. Wade was an obstacle, a desperate attempt by another world, another life to try and pull Cassie away from him.
He wouldn’t have it. The Medlar couldn’t have her, and neither could the Grims.
“Now, I suggest you drink your coffee and figure out what you’re going to say to Cassie,” Jared said. “Tell her the full story, everything you can. Tell her the truth of why you’re here and when she makes her decision, you’d better accept it. Do you understand?”
Wade nodded once. “If she refuses to come back with me… can I still leave? Can I still go home?”
Jared softened a bit. “Yeah,” he said. “And we’ll try to help you get there if we can.”
He sucked in a breath then let it out. “All right. Yeah, all right, fine.”
