by Lia Davis
The stabbing froze her in shock for a fraction of a second, which I used to my advantage. I grabbed her arm, using it to swing around and launched myself onto her back. I mimicked my dad's move from a few moments before and gripped her head to rip it off, but she must've figured out what I was going for, because the next thing I knew I was flying across the room, over the heads of my pack. I twisted and landed on my feet, using the momentum to launch me back in her direction.
She was fighting both Voss and Quin, and holding her own. Damn, that bitch was good. I really wanted to kill her, but she wasn’t my only concern. Before I jumped in with my sentries, I glanced around for my dad, and found him fighting a vampire in front of a group of pups.
Fuck that. I leap-frogged over the back of one of Dad's sentries as he drove a blade through the jugular of a short female blood sucker, and landed on the back of the vamp trying to get at the kids. "Not my pups, asshole." The kids in the pack weren’t mine biologically, but as their future alpha, they were mine to protect.
The vampire tried to buck me off, but I'd learned from Trinity. I still had one of my knives in hand, and I planned to use it. Once he realized I was holding on too tight to throw me off, he reached up and tried to claw my face, but I was fast. I had my knife in his neck before his claws got up to me. Jamming it in as far as it would go, I reached around the front of his neck with my other hand and grabbed the knife, dragging it through his neck. The blade was too small to remove his head completely, but it would slow him down for sure. As he grabbed at his throat as if trying to stop the bleeding, I pressed my palms to either side of his head and jerked with all my lycan strength, taking his head off.
The only sure-fire way to kill a vamp: decapitation. And fire. But, fire wasn't really an option in the situation we were in.
I leaped off him before his body hit the ground and joined my father in front of the pups, huddled in the corner. I saw a mother trying to get to us, her very small child holding on to her as she tried to fight her way out of the crowd.
Voss and Quin had been separated from Trinity. I saw her fighting another of my father's sentries. They were looking for me, but were too far away to help. I turned to my dad and pointed to the mother. "I'm getting that pup."
He nodded once and prepared to defend alone again.
The majority of our smaller, younger, and elderly lycans were missing. I assumed they escaped through the back of the hall. I hoped they were able to escape. The vamps surrounded us now, and the remaining that needed to be protected were mostly in the middle of the crowd. I jumped on another table, launching myself over to the mother. I landed beside her and swung around, stabbing a vamp in the heart, then kicked him in the gut. He flew across the room.
I turned to mother and child. "Are you hurt?"
She shook her head. After a quick assessment of the toddler in her arms, I lifted my gaze back to the mom. "Stay close."
A female vamp charged at me. I twisted to protect the mother and child and swipe out with my blade, successfully cutting a huge gash in her throat. A lycan behind her grabbed her head and ripped up, but not before the vamp’s claws slashed me, connecting with my thigh. I howled in pain as blood flowed from a deep wound. Two howls replied to mine. My mates heard me and sounded pissed. Too bad they couldn’t get to me.
My leg throbbed like a son of a bitch, but I had enough adrenaline coursing through me to mask it. Lycan healing would take care of it fast enough.
Finally, we reached the far wall, so we could put the little girl behind us in relative safety. We continued our way toward the front and my father, who looked like he could use some help.
The vampires knew attacking our pups would hit us hard. They kept trying to get to them. Not on my watch.
I let myself get distracted trying to find a path through to them, and took a stab to the side for it. I cried out, the pain harsher than the pain in my leg.
A roar from the front of the room caused most people in the room to still. It was unlike anything I'd ever heard. It definitely wasn't made by a lycan. My heart skipped several beats as I heard Kane’s voice.
"You will stop this, now." Kane's words boomed throughout the hall, his High King power exploding through the room. "Vampires, stand down."
My jaw dropped as they all did as he said. My father grabbed the arm of his closest sentry and pointed to the kids. When his sentry took up their guard, Dad joined Kane.
Everyone in the room was frozen, ready to attack again if given the word.
Dad turned to the crowd and gave his own orders. "Lycans, tend to your wounded."
He turned to Kane with murderous eyes. "This is how you welcome us to your family?"
Kane lowered his head in a way only lycans did when speaking with their alpha. "This was not my doing."
I grabbed the young mother's arm and dragged her to the front, pushing lycan and vampire alike out of my way. Once she was safely behind the sentry with her pup, I limped over to my father.
"Get them out of here," I hissed at Kane.
Kane gave me a short nod and raised his voice again. "My coven will leave here at once." The vampires worked their way silently out of the crowd and out of the front door.
Trinity approached us, covered in blood. "You have no authority to order them."
"Leave, Trinity. I may not be the official leader of the coven, but I still have Satan's authority over you, and you know it. If I wanted to remove you as their Queen, I could do it in moments." Kane towered over her, baring his fangs at her. His eyes turned red.
Her face blanched, and she clearly wanted to strangle Kane, but she left once all the other vampires had gone.
"You need to kill her," Voss said. "Deal with this shit."
"I sort of lied to her." Kane turned to me and Dad. "If I killed her, my mom would go nuts. Forcing my power over the coven would only result in my eventual assassination. It has to be done right."
Tingles of emotion traveled through our mating bond, and I studied him. He wasn’t telling me something. "There’s another reason why you’re hesitant."
I tried to discreetly clutch my side. It was throbbing as it healed. My leg pain was almost gone, which meant it was nearly done. Exhaustion was setting in due to the amount of healing my body enduring.
"My mother has put Trinity in charge of the coven. If I kill her, I would be undermining The Blood, my mother, and by extension, Satan. He's one you really don't want to piss off." Kane grunted and it didn’t go unnoticed that he avoided my question.
"She's got to be dealt with," Voss repeated.
"I know." Kane watched me, and I expected him to order me to go home, but he didn’t.
Not that I would listen to him anyway. I swayed but caught myself. "You understand that she's broken the treaty. We have the right to take her out. We have the right to decimate the entire coven now."
Kane narrowed his gaze but nodded. "Yes. I understand."
"So, we may be handling that problem for you, then," my father chimed in. "We must see to our wounded, bury our dead, and gather the council."
He turned away to begin the process then stopped. "I'll expect my daughter and all three of her mates at the meeting." He walked away, leaving all four of us with our jaws on the floor.
7
Voss
We helped clean the place up. The council meeting was set for the next morning. The vampires wouldn't be able to get their shit together in time to attack again by then. The wounded were stitched up on the spot by pack medics. We lost a couple of lives. One of the High Alpha's sentries had taken a hit directly to his heart that stopped it. We were hard to kill, but our hearts were as vulnerable as a human's.
Between the attacks from the Red Night and a looming war with the vampires, things were feeling pretty bleak.
The good news was that we'd managed to keep all of the children and elderly safe. The bad news was that a couple of those kids were now one parent down.
We would attend the funerals. One of the alphas tha
t had come to celebrate had lost his head. We would also have to oversee the promotion of another alpha in Georgia.
We convinced Kane to leave, but made him promise to go back to our house, not his apartment. We didn't want him alone, fearing either a retaliation by a pack member that might know where he lived, or by one of his own, angry at his intervention.
Jillian wouldn't go with him, even though her side wasn't healing fast enough to make me happy. She stayed and helped get the hall back in order. Stubborn female. It was the alpha in her.
"You should go home." I caressed Jillian’s arm.
She leaned into me but shook her head. "I’m needed here."
At her statement one of the healers met my gaze. "There’s not much more to do. I can send an update later tonight."
I tugged at Jillian. "Come on, let’s go home."
With a sigh, she turned to the door, a little wobbly. Her body was still healing and taking all of her energy while doing it.
Once home, I fought every instinct to drag her to my room. Instead I kissed her cheek and directed her to the stairs. "Go join Kane in your room."
I knew what would happen there, but she needed him to reassure her that he was with her. Quin and I watched her climb the stairs slowly.
"I hate the thought of her in his arms, but I'm trying," I said once I heard her bedroom door close.
"She's so tired, I'd be willing to bet all they do is sleep. Her side wound was pretty severe. More so than she would want us to know. It’s took a lot out of her." Quin headed down to our rooms.
I could hear Graham in his own room, shouting. He was releasing his rage and grief for the loss of a sentry. My chest tightened and sadness filled me.
Sentries weren't just guards. They were friends, family. Graham was hurting, and when the High Alpha hurt, he yelled.
I understood.
Jillian
I opened the door to my bedroom quietly, in case Kane was asleep. He wasn’t. He sat in the middle of my floor with my earbuds in, listening to my music player. His eyes were closed, but his feet betrayed him. They jiggled to the tune of a song I couldn’t hear.
I walked into the room and nudged his foot with mine. He looked at me out of one eye. "Hey," I mouthed at him.
He pulled the earbuds out. "How bad is it? I wanted to stay and help."
"I know you did. It’s bad. The wounds will heal, but the deaths will hit the pack hard." Sorrow filled me and tears stung my eyes. I was too tired to be the tough alpha.
He stared up at me. "I didn’t know. And I highly doubt my mother knows even now."
"Should you go tell her?"
He shrugged, and his gaze darkened. "She’s in hell with Lucifer."
"That’s like a—literal place?" I asked.
Laughing, he stood and put my music player away. "Of course it is."
"Why are you hesitant on challenging Trinity? Don’t deny it. I can feel it in our bond." I lifted both my brows and pressed my lips into a thin line.
Kane stared into my eyes. A storm of emotion swirled in his dark depths. "Trinity and I grew up together. She’s like a sister to me, my best friend. At least she was. I know what has to be done."
Without thinking, I stepped into his arms. Good gods, if the roles were reversed and it was Quin who’d betrayed me, I’d be crushed and pissed. Could I kill my best friend? I would have a choose. And it would cut deeper than any heartache or wound ever could. "I’m here for you. Quin and Voss are too, even though they don’t want to admit it. If it would make it easier on you, my dad doesn’t have an issue with taking her out."
"I know." He kissed my forehead. "Trinity is my problem. I need to do it."
Stepping out of his embrace, moved to the bathroom connected to my room and stripped, throwing my ruined and bloody dress into the trash. No sense in hiding myself from Kane, we’d had enough sex not to be shy around one another. "I’m going to shower, then bed."
My eyes were heavy from exhaustion and grief. The fight and healing had taken all my energy.
Kane was silent, so I turned to see what he was doing. I watched his eyes trail to my chest, my breasts hidden behind a black strapless bra. Looking down, I grinned. I was curvy and had a little extra padding below my belly button, but I knew I was sexy.
"Not tonight, vampire," I said teasingly. "You can stay here, but we’re sleeping."
He nodded his head. "I was appreciating your body. I think I can restrain myself."
"Good. Now come tell me about hell while I shower." I turned and unclasped the bra, throwing it into the pile of laundry in the corner.
I turned on the spray and took off my thong, stepping behind the curtain as Kane entered the bathroom. "What do you want to know?"
"Is it on fire?" I wet my thick hair, running my fingers through as the water raised away the blood. Damn it. It’s gonna take a lot of shampoo to get clean.
"Yes, it’s Hell." His voice was amused.
"Do the souls of the dead go there?" I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth as the faces of my dead pack members flashed in my mind.
"In a manner of speaking, yes. Mostly it’s demons. When someone dies, they have options. Their minds are healed, in a manner of speaking, and they’re given clarity. Most of the time this process will open their hearts and minds in ways they never could in life. They can choose to be reborn and try to make amends for wrong doings. Or they can choose to become an angel or a demon, but that option is not always offered, and sometimes people are pushed toward one or another based on what God and Lucifer may know or want from them."
"You’re making all that up." Lycans beliefs were more nature based and tend to lend toward Native American traditions. We didn’t believe in one almighty God.
"Perhaps," he said after a long laugh. "I guess you’ll find out one day."
"What are you going to do now?" I asked him.
"I’m not totally sure. That’s what I was thinking about on your floor." He fell silent for several minutes while I bathed, taking extra care with the ugly wound on my side, still only half healed.
"What were you listening to?"
"The Spice Girls." He chuckled.
I snorted, fighting real laughter. But only because it still hurt to laugh. I didn’t want to belittle his choice in music. "You’re a Spice Girls fan?"
"Of course I am," he replied. "Who isn’t?"
The laughter bubbled out of my mouth, loud and a little wild. I knew I was overreacting, but I couldn’t seem to stop laughing. "Oww. don’t make me laugh."
Soon enough it turned to tears, exhaustion and grief for my fallen packmates overwhelming me. The sobs hurt my chest as they broke out. I stood with water streaming down my back and cried. Within moments, Kane was naked and in the shower with me. He pulled me close and ran his hands over my hair.
"I’m sorry, Jillian," he whispered into my ear. "I wish I’d known, or suspected."
"It’s not your fault," I said through my tears.
He didn’t say anything else; he just held me until my tears dried. When I was done sobbing, Kane pulled away long enough to grab my shampoo. With gentle hands he turned me around and lathered up my long strands, then rinsed them with the shower head.
After my hair was clean, we got out.
We spooned in my bed and it felt good to be held by him. "Whatever you plan, make me a part of it."
"I will, mate." He kissed the back of my wet head. "You’re a part of my life now. Nothing will change that."
Sleep came quickly and easily. Secure in my mate’s arms, my body needed to rest and recharge.
I woke alone in bed. We’d fallen into bed naked, so I threw on the first workout clothes I grabbed from my drawers and ran downstairs.
Kane was in the kitchen, but he'd closed the blinds so very little direct sunlight came through the windows. Bacon sizzled on the stove. Voss and Quin sat at the table, wolfing down a huge stack of pancakes and eggs.
"You three look happy," I said, bemused at their domestic coziness. "Wh
at brought this about?"
"Hunger," Quin said and shoveled a huge spoonful of eggs into his mouth.
Voss nodded.
"Well, load me up." I grabbed a plate and moved closer to Kane. "I didn’t know you could cook."
He flashed me smile that showed the tips of his fangs. "It soothes me for some reason. I started watching a cooking channel and went from there."
"He’s really good at it," Voss said.
I filled my plate up and soon agreed. It was delicious. I’d never had fluffier eggs.
Kane sat with us at the table, but of course he didn’t eat. I knew vampires could eat in social settings but most found food to be bland.
"Did you decide what to do now?" I asked him.
He didn’t answer, he was reading something on his phone. "There’s been another attack on my coven."
His face was stone, but his eyes were tormented. I put my fork down and covered his arm. "You couldn’t have stopped it."
"I should be there, making the decisions, leading the coven." The agony in his voice was palpable. Dread settled in my soul and I wondered if he regretted choosing me over being the vampire High King. Suddenly he jumped up and met my stare. "I’m going to check out the scene."
"I’ll come with you." I stood and carried my plate to the sink.
"After the attack last night? No," he said firmly.
"No?" I raised a brow, challenging him to give me another order. "You think you can just tell me no?"
These fucking men, I swear.
"I don't know who will be at the scene." Kane worked his jaw but his tone was less-commanding.
"He's right, Jill, it's really not a good idea." Voss started clearing the table.
Quin knew to keep his mouth shut, but then he'd known me the longest. He just stared at me with a wry expression on his face, lips tightly sealed.
"You think I should stay here, too?" I asked him.
Quin shrugged. "I think you'll do whatever the fuck you want. If I had to choose, I'd vote for staying. But it's up to you. If you go, I go. You know that."
