by Paige Tyler
The moment they got to the loading dock, Zane knew it was too late. The vampires were nowhere in sight, and Rachel and Jake were standing there staring into the darkness, scowls on their faces.
Alyssa cursed and took off running in the direction of the rental car. No doubt, she was going for her laptop and the GPS tracking app. It was hard as hell letting her out of his sight even for a minute, but the car was parked just around the corner. Besides, Stefan and his monsters were long gone.
“We were fast, but not fast enough,” Rachel said softly. Her jacket and jeans were ripped in several places and she had bloody scratches on her neck. “We didn’t even see which direction they went.”
“We have to go after them,” Jake snarled, turning to look at Zane, his expression a combination of utter devastation and barely suppressed rage. His fangs were still fully extended, and it was obvious he was barely holding it together. “We can’t let those creatures have them.”
Jake’s reaction didn’t surprise Zane. Even though Jake had never actually met Zoe and Chloe, he still felt the overwhelming need to keep them safe. That’s what it meant to be an alpha. They were genetically coded to protect betas. Jake had already bonded with the twins as their pack alpha.
“I want to go after them as much as you do,” Zane said. “But it’s not like we can go driving around LA without a clue where we’re going. We have GPS trackers on their vehicles. As soon as Alyssa comes back with her laptop, we’ll go after them.”
That seemed to calm Jake down a little, but when Alyssa came running around the corner without her laptop Zane knew something was wrong.
“The signals from the trackers are gone,” she said. “The vampires must have found them somehow and destroyed them.”
Jake’s growl was loud enough to echo off the surrounding buildings, but even that wasn’t enough to cover the sound of approaching sirens. They were about to have a lot of company.
“What about the parking garage?” Diego asked. “Do you think Stefan would have taken the girls there?”
Jake snapped his head around to look at Diego before turning back to Zane, his eyes filled with hope. “Stefan. You said his name in the club. That he was targeting Zoe and Chloe. If that’s true, we should go check out this garage of his, right?”
Zane was fully aware that Jake didn’t have a clue who Stefan Curtis was, but also recognized the alpha was more than ready to go after a man he’d never heard of on even the slimmest chance it would lead him to his betas. The man was grasping at any straw offered to him, anything to make him believe those girls were safe and that he’d be able to get them back.
Zane’s instincts told him heading to the garage wasn’t a good idea, though he couldn’t say why. But after seeing his doubts mirrored on both Rachel’s and Alyssa’s faces, he was sure of it regardless.
“As far as we know, Stefan’s normal MO is to troll a club with a small group of his goons until he sees a victim or two that catches his eye. Then he drops a roofie in their drinks and his men slip them out without causing a scene.” Zane shook his head. “But what happened in there earlier was something completely different.”
“It was the first time any of us have seen him with those vampires,” Alyssa said softly. “I’m not sure what was going on, but I’m willing to bet their presence changed everything.”
“Did it seem like they were working for Stefan? Or the other way around?” Rachel asked. “If the vampires are in charge, it’d make sense they’d take the girls to wherever those vampires live. If living is the right word for it.”
Their discussion only seemed to piss Jake off more than he already was and he snarled as he looked back and forth between the three of them. “So, where the hell does that leave us? Where do we go, if not the garage?”
Zane hesitated, knowing Jake wasn’t going to like what he was about to say. “I don’t think we go anywhere, not until we know more about what we’re up against. We need to talk to someone who can tell us more about these vampires.”
That earned him a growl “I don’t think this is something you can just Google on your phone. Where the hell do we find someone like that?”
“That woman in the club with the blue hair seemed to know a lot about vampires,” Alyssa murmured, voicing the same thing Zane had been thinking. “She knew they were here, knew how to kill them, and implied werewolves and vampires don’t mix well. She even tried to warn us to get out.”
Jake didn’t look thrilled at the idea of taking the time to talk to anyone, but when Rachel and Diego nodded in agreement, it wasn’t like he had a lot of choice. The fact that the sirens headed their way were getting louder by the second probably had something to do with him going along with the plan, too.
“If we’re going back into the club, we’d better hurry,” Rachel said. “The cops are going to be crawling all over this place in a minute.”
* * *
“Okay, you said you had questions, so ask.” Davina DeMirci glared at Zane as she flipped her long, blue hair over her shoulder and sat back in the leather chair behind the big ornate desk in her office above the club. Unlike the rest of the place, the room had an old-world feel to it with lots of heavy antique furniture, hand-painted murals of mythical beasts and fantastical landscapes covering the walls, and shelves packed with exotic sculptures and art pieces. No neon cats here, either. Just a big, fluffy gray one who regarded Zane and his friends imperiously from atop the desk. “The sooner I answer them, the sooner I can get the lot of you out of my club. Hopefully before the cops figure out you’re up here.”
Davina had been seriously pissed when Zane and the rest of them had come back into the club and interrupted her efforts to clean up the mess they’d made during the fight. She’d muttered something about the cops being there any second and how she’d never be able to explain any of this if the five of them were standing there covered in blood.
Zane remembered thinking that five slightly disheveled people with a little blood on them was the least of Davina’s problems. He’d personally be more worried about Stefan’s dead goons on the dance floor, not to mention the two vampires missing their heads. About the only good thing he could say regarding the shooting in the club was that no one else had been killed. That in itself was a bloody miracle.
“We’re just here to get answers to some questions,” Zane had told her. “Then we’ll get out of here and you’ll never have to see us again.”
Davina seemed thrilled at the idea of never seeing them again, but not quite as happy about answering their questions, at least until her daughter had come running to let them know the cops had arrived. That’s when Davina had finally relented and led them to her office, leaving her daughter to handle the cops.
“How is it possible my pack and I have never run into vampires before tonight?” Zane asked now. “Up until a few hours ago, we didn’t even know they existed.”
It wasn’t the question he wanted to start with. He’d much rather ask the woman where the vampires had taken Zoe and Chloe and how many of those things they’d have to go through to get the girls back. But something told him Davina didn’t want to talk about vampires right then. Probably because she didn’t want to get on the bloodsuckers’ bad side.
Davina snorted. “You do see the irony of a werewolf not believing vampires exist, right? What, did you really think you were the only supernatural creatures in the world?”
“I guess I did.” He shrugged and crossed his arms over his chest. “We all did.”
“Well, sorry to burst your bubble, sunshine, but the world is a lot more complex than you thought. There’re all kinds of things that go bump in the night. Vampires just happen to be one of the nastier ones.” Davina regarded him for a moment before studying each of the others in turn. Her gaze lingered on Alyssa who sat in one of the two wingback chairs by the low coffee table on the far side of the room before she finally looked at him again. “To answer your question, vampires avoid werewolves like the plague. Werewolves—alphas in parti
cular—are the only thing in the supernatural world that can take down a vampire. That’s why they spend so much of their money employing hunters to take out your kind.”
Zane frowned as the implication of Davina’s words filtered through him. He quickly looked at Rachel and Diego. They seemed as stunned as he was. “Hunters work for the vampires?”
Davina looked at him like he was stupid. “Of course. Vamps want werewolves gone, but they’re not willing to do battle with you. They’ve been around a lot longer than you and are way too smart for that. Instead, they hide away in their covens along the East and West coasts, sending the hunters into the central part of the country to keep the werewolf population in check. If they had their way, vampires would wipe out every last one of you.”
“So, Stefan is a hunter working for the vampires too?” Zane asked.
Davina sighed, leaning forward in her chair to caress the gray cat’s fur. “It’s a bit more complicated than that in Stefan’s case. None of those men you saw downstairs were hunters, especially not Stefan. While there are a few trusted hunters allowed within the confines of the coven itself, most are viewed as little more than hired killers. The men you fought tonight are private security who work directly for Stefan, the scion of the Curtis family and the LA coven. The big vampire who got away is Dario Casteel, the ruler of the coven. He essentially runs this town—the supernatural part of it at least.”
“Scion?” Rachel asked from the other wingback chair. “I thought Stefan was the redheaded stepchild of the family who got stuck doing all the menial dirty work for Black Swan Enterprises while the rest of the family got the cushy office jobs.”
Davina let out a short laugh. “Hardly. The title of scion means he’s the favored son. As far as the coven is concerned, it’s the other members of the Curtis family who are the menials. All they do is bring in the money. Stefan is the one trusted to protect the coven, bring them food, and hire the hunters. At some point, once the Coven feels he’s done enough for them, they may even turn him so he can be one of them. No one else in the Curtis family will ever be given that kind of honor, no matter how much money they bring in.”
Jake pushed away from the bookcase he’d been leaning against with a snarl. “I’m sure this is all very interesting, but what the hell does any of it have to do with getting Zoe and Chloe back? Those vampires left with them twenty minutes ago and we’re just sitting here talking about the coven’s organizational structure. We don’t even know why they took the girls, or what they plan to do with them.”
Davina’s lavender gaze softened at that, looking sympathetic to their situation for the first time tonight. “That’s not something any of you want the answer to.”
Jake’s eyes flashed yellow gold. “Yeah, I do.”
Davina exchanged glances with the gray cat before answering. “It all depends on whether the vamps realize those girls are werewolves. If they do, they’ll make an example out of them to discourage any more werewolves from coming to LA.”
Jake cursed, his fangs extending. Davina didn’t react, but out of the corner of his eye, Zane saw Alyssa flinch a little.
“I think Zoe and Chloe just started going through their change recently. What if they’re not far enough along for the vamps to figure out the girls are werewolves?” Jake asked. “Would that be better for them?”
“Unfortunately, no. If they took the girls simply because they’re attractive young women, the vamps will almost certainly enthrall them and bleed them slowly over time. Normally, that would never work with a werewolf.” Davina looked at Zane. “You saw what happened to that vampire downstairs when he tried to bite you. Your blood is like acid to them. But if Zoe and Chloe are just starting to go through the change, I have no idea what will happen.”
No one said anything for a long time. No doubt they were all thinking the same horrible thoughts Zane was.
It was Alyssa who finally broke the silence. “You said, ‘enthrall them.’ What does that mean?”
“When a vampire bites a person, two chemicals are passed into the victim’s bloodstream along with the vamp’s saliva,” Davina explained. “One helps heal the wound, so their victim won’t bleed out from the bite. The other is a form of sedative that makes the person docile. If a person’s willpower is strong enough, they can fight the drug, but that’s rare. After a time, the victim will not only gladly let a vampire feed on them day after day for years, but they’ll actually become protective of the creatures. They’ll die for them if necessary.” She shrugged. “Again, I have no idea if that will work on a brand-new werewolf. It’s terrifying to think about a vampire getting complete control over one of your kind that way.”
If the room had been quiet before, now it was so silent you could have heard a pin drop. Zane couldn’t help thinking of that girl Alyssa had told him about—the one they’d found in the landfill. With the way her blood had been drained, it could only mean that the vampires had killed her. He didn’t want to think what that would be like. And he sure as bloody hell didn’t want to think about it happening to Zoe and Chloe.
Jake started for the door. “We have to go. We can’t let either of those things happen to the girls.”
Zane caught his arm. “Like I said before, I want to get Zoe and Chloe back as much as you do—we all do. But we still don’t know where they are.”
Jake snarled, but Zane refused to let him go. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Rachel and Diego move closer, ready to be backup. Zane didn’t blame them. Jake looked like he was on the verge of losing it.
“What about that parking garage Diego mentioned?” Jake demanded. “If we don’t have a better option, let’s go look there.”
“You mean the Curtis Unified Garage?” Davina asked.
Zane nodded. “Yes.”
She waved her free hand. “Don’t bother wasting your time. If Stefan had been on his own, he might have taken them there, but with Dario along, it’s almost a certainty they took the girls straight to the coven nest for sure. Especially after you killed two of their kind. Dario is going to want to talk to the elders and decide how they’re going to respond.”
“Do you know where this nest is?” Zane asked.
Davina tensed, her hand stilling on the cat’s fur. “Look, I don’t want those two girls getting hurt any more than you do, but this club has survived as long as it has because I don’t take sides. If the vamps found out I told you anything, they wouldn’t just kill me, they’d kill my daughter and everyone who works here.”
Zane ground his jaw. “They won’t hear anything from us. We’ll go in and rescue the twins, then deal with the vampires. They’ll be no risk to you or your club.”
“No risk?” She snorted. “You’re planning to attack a vampire nest as large as the one here in LA with four werewolves and a human, and you think you’ll actually accomplish anything. Now that I think about it, I don’t know why I’m worrying any of it will come back on me. You’ll all get yourselves killed in the first five minutes, so there won’t be anyone for the vampires to question about how you found their nest.”
Jake jerked his arm away from Zane to glare at her. “We dealt with the vampires downstairs easily enough. We’ll do the same with the ones in the nest.”
Davina muttered a curse under her breath. “That was three vamps, and even with Dario being one of them, it’s nothing compared to what you’ll face if you walk right into their nest. I have no idea exactly how many vampires live there, but it’s at least thirty—maybe as many as fifty. It would be a suicide mission, and that’s before you even get around to dealing with all the guards and enthralled people there.”
Zane wasn’t the only one to let out a growl of frustration at that. Davina was right. Going in would be a suicide mission. The four of them had gotten slashed up pretty good dealing with the small group of vamps and their human guards. While he and the others were healing up fine now, he didn’t want to think about how much worse it would be facing a whole nest of those things. There was no way the
y could do this on their own.
“I’ll call my pack alpha and tell him we need as much help as they can send,” Zane said, then glanced at Jake. “I know you don’t want to wait, but if we go in there without enough backup, it won’t help Zoe and Chloe at all.”
Davina considered that for a moment before letting out a sigh. “Okay, if you get more help from your pack, I’ll tell you where the nest is. Though I still think you’ll need more reinforcements than that.”
Rachel looked at Alyssa. “Do you think the task force might be willing to help?”
Alyssa opened her mouth to answer, but Zane cut her off with a snarl. The idea of Alyssa going anywhere near Dario and the other vampires sent a stab of fear right through his core.
“I don’t want her involved.”
Alyssa shot him a glare but didn’t say anything. If looks could kill… The expression on her face made his stomach clench so tightly he almost doubled over. But even that wasn’t nearly as painful as the idea of her going into a building full of those damn vampires.
Diego cleared his throat. “If Davina will sneak Rachel and I out of here so the cops don’t see us, we’ll call Gage and let him know what’s going on. Maybe you two should stay here and clear the air.”
Zane shook his head along with Alyssa, but Rachel cut them off. “He’s right. We need both of y’all to get your head in the game. And if Alyssa could get us some outside help, we’d be stupid to turn up our noses at it.”
Everyone walked out, with Rachel leading the way and Davina bringing up the rear with her cat in her arm, closing the door quietly behind them and leaving Zane and Alyssa staring at each other.
