Primal Heat

by Susan Sizemore

  He brushed a finger reassuringly across her cheek. “That’s simple. You always know who the bad guys are, right?”

  Phillipa moved cautiously by moonlight across the sandy, uneven ground, her gun held stiffly before her. The house was a low one-story bulk ahead of her. She could hear movement and people shouting, as well as occasional gunfire and animals growling.

  A couple of days ago this weirdness would have shaken her, but now she took it in stride. Just another day at the office. She grinned.

  As she approached the opened front door the living room lights were switched on, temporarily blinding her.

  As her eyes adjusted, she heard Jason Cage say, “That was fun; let’s do it again.”

  “Let’s not.” Matt’s voice cut across a sound she could only describe as a dog laughing.

  Or more likely a wolf, she supposed. No, it had to be the werewolf because she saw the real wolves standing on either side of the front porch as if on guard.

  “Phillipa!” Matt called from the doorway.

  “Matthias,” she called back to her bondmate. “Is it clear?”

  “Come inside,” he answered.

  A huge black wolf came past her when she went through the open front door, and she watched the animal trot into the darkness before she entered the crowded living room, closing the door behind her.

  “Hello, again,” Jason Cage said with a delighted smile as she came in.

  “Oh, stop it.”

  He stood on one side of the room and Matt on the other, but they gave the impression of having the bad guys surrounded. She was beginning to understand that this sort of macho jockeying and posturing was typical Prime interplay, and she ignored them. She concentrated her attention on the two men and two women crowded together in the center of the room, holding her weapon steadily on them.

  One of the women was young, her eyes full of hatred as she glanced between the two vampires. The two men looked tense and scared. The other woman was somewhere on the edge of elderly, but fit, with short gray hair and a calm, alert demeanor. She was obviously the brains of the operation, and she looked vaguely familiar.

  “You’re the ones who attacked my family,” Phillipa accused. “Why were you trying to hurt a baby?”

  “That brat’s an abomination,” the younger woman spat out. She glared at Phillipa. “You should be dead, you filthy whore.”

  Phillipa had heard far worse insults from much nastier perps. Unimpressed, she looked at Matt. “Now what?”

  The front door opened again, and Phillipa turned her gun on a tall, black-haired man who was buttoning a white shirt as he entered. He stopped and quickly put his hands in the air, but he was grinning.

  “That’s Mike Bleythin,” Matt told her.

  She remembered the huge black beast that had gone out as she came in, and realized the big, dark man with the half-open shirt was the werewolf returning in human form. He must have gone outside to change—in more ways than one.

  “Nice to meet you, Mike.” She shifted the gun back toward the prisoners.

  “Your lady’s a cop, isn’t she?” Mike asked. “You didn’t mention that when you told me about her.”

  “We’ll discuss my lady later,” Matt said to Mike. “What are you doing here? With him?” He tilted his head toward Cage.

  Cage put a hand on his heart and said snidely, “We were attempting to come to your rescue, cousin.”

  Matt sneered briefly at Cage. “No, really,” he said to Mike.

  “While I was looking for you, we ran into a Purist ambush,” Mike answered. “I was looking for you because we have business together: tracker and guardian business.”

  “What about your renegade lycanthrope?”

  “I found my lycanthrope, but one of yours gave me some trouble. Jason has been a great deal of help with the case, so play nice with your cousin.”

  “What do you mean, one of mine?”

  Mike sighed. “I’m trying to obliquely tell you that there’s some vampire bad guys roaming the streets.”

  “Some?” Matt asked. “The bank robbers.”

  “The bank robbers are vampires?” Phillipa asked at the same time.

  “At least two vampires, and the lycanthrope,” Mike said.

  “One of the bad vampires messed with Mike’s mind,” Jason spoke up. “And you and I both know the penalties for that sort of telepathic tampering.”

  Phillipa noted that the three supernatural types didn’t seem particularly concerned about their human prisoners. The older woman was looking annoyed, and Phillipa almost didn’t blame her.

  “What about these guys?” she asked. “What are they doing here? What happens to them now?”

  Matt finally turned his attention to the Purists. “What happens to them? We do some tampering of our own.”

  “Like you did with Andrew?” Phillipa asked.

  Her bondmate nodded.

  Phillipa sighed with relief, glad that she wasn’t going to have to defend a bunch of scummy humans from the Prime she loved. It wasn’t that she didn’t instinctively trust Matthias—but this idea of vampire justice was new to her. She was going to have to study the legal codes of the supernatural world as soon as she got the chance.

  “What have you done to Andrew, you monster?” the younger woman demanded.

  “What I’m about to do to you,” Matt said, and stepped toward her.

  Matt hated this part of the job. He’d already been inside one mortal’s head this evening; now he was stuck with four more ignorant minds to obscure. This was the most he’d ever had to deal with at any one time. He was already exhausted, and all he wanted was to spend time with his woman. But from what he’d just learned, it looked that dealing with the Purists was only the beginning of the operation. What he needed was an apprentice—or at least someone that could be of some help.

  He glanced sourly at Jason Cage. You’re a strong telepath. Make yourself useful, Jason of House Ioana, he thought at the former fugitive. Work on the two males, he ordered before Cage could argue. He grabbed the younger woman’s hand even as she tried to dodge away.

  He had to cut through layers of hatred and vitriol, along with deep terror, before he could make her believe that she had no interest in killing anyone, especially vampires from the Families or Clans. At least not for the next year or two.

  The temptation was always to make the fanatics completely forget everything they knew about vampires, but altering of basic personality was not only forbidden, it was almost impossible to do, especially without driving the subject insane.

  It didn’t take long to convince the girl to change, but his head was aching by the time he was finished. He rubbed his forehead, gave Phillipa a reassuring smile, and turned to the older woman.

  Her terror was a silent, rising scream as he approached, yet she stared daggers at him. She was proud, and stubborn, and had been hating vampires for a long time. He could tell that she was going to be a hard case even before he touched her.

  You can’t know! She shouted into his mind. It doesn’t want you to know!

  He knew instantly that the poor woman had been mind-raped by a vampire.

  So what he had to do now was far more delicate work. The victim had to be treated gently. This time it was permitted to take away the memories of what had been done, but he had to search them out and learn the whole truth before he could finally give the woman peace.

  When he was finished, he handed the woman over to her friends and told them all, “Go!”

  When the mortals were out of the house, he looked at Phillipa, Mike, and Jason. They were all staring at him expectantly.

  “It’s Octavia,” he said. “Octavia has been using the Purists. She set everyone up.”

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  I t can’t be Octavia,” Jason objected. “I’m dating her.”

  “Hey, she stood you up tonight,” Mike pointed out.

  “She’s the bad guy?” Phillipa said. “So that’s why I’ve never liked her. I thought I w
as just jealous.”

  “But Octavia was rescued from having to live as a Tribe female,” Jason went on. “She has all the respect and status due a matri. Why would she—”

  “Maybe she’s just bad,” Mike interrupted. “The vampire female that took me down loved using her power. I know the Families disapprove of that sort of behavior. And I remember that she had absolutely no respect for humans,” he added. “That explains why she wouldn’t have any scruples about using them.”

  “Or stealing from them,” Phillipa put in. “Does the use of telepathy explain how they pulled off their jobs? I remember seeing a street surveillance tape on the news that showed police surrounding the robbery crew. The police all looked stunned, and they got away. You were there,” she added to Mike.

  “I was following my nose and walked into trouble,” he told her. “The cops shot me instead of the feral bastard I’m after.”

  “Are you all right?”

  “Jason fixed me.”

  Matt listened to all this while he waited for the brutal headache from mind-touching all the mortals to fade. He’d discovered that a great deal had gone on recently that he needed to know about.

  But there was one thing he knew for sure.

  He looked at Phillipa. “We’ve only been together for a few days, and you’ve already been attacked by a vampire.”

  He saw that she was aware of his concern, but lifted her head defiantly. “I’m still standing,” she told him.

  “Because Octavia had flawed minions.”

  She tucked the gun in her belt and crossed her arms. “Because I have you,” she said. “We’re a team. We can take on anything.”

  He only wished he could believe that. “What about the next time?”

  She shrugged. “What about it? Life isn’t safe. Who was it who reminded me that it also isn’t fair?”

  “How about you two save this for later, and we take out Octavia and the lycanthrope right now?” Mike spoke up.

  “I don’t know, Mike,” Jason said. “I’m kind of looking forward to this fight.”

  Matthias spared both his friend and his cousin annoyed looks, but he had to agree with Mike. “Business first,” he agreed.

  “Yes,” Phillipa said, “business first. Where do we find this vampire mastermind?”

  “No,” Matt answered adamantly. He shook his head at Phillipa. “I will allow you to help deal with mortals, but—”

  The energy level in the room went up like a rocket. “You’ll allow?” she shouted.

  “It looks like we might get an entertaining fight after all,” Jason said.

  “You are not as amusing as you think you are,” Matt informed the younger vampire, who merely smiled and shrugged at his words.

  “But you have your uses.” Matt gestured toward Phillipa, whose eyes were full of the light of battle, and couched his words as a formal request. “Jason of House Ioana, will you honor me by protecting my bondmate in my absence?”

  Jason frowned. “If you put it that way, I can’t seduce her while you’re gone.”

  “I’m standing right here!” Phillipa exclaimed. “And nobody is seducing me—”

  “Let’s go, Mike.” Matt went to Phillipa and gave her a swift, hard kiss while she sputtered in indignation. Then he was out the door too swiftly for her to protest further. It pleased him that he had the taste of her on his lips as he went into battle.

  “Are you going to let him get away with that?” Jason asked when Matt and Mike disappeared into the darkness.

  Phillipa had turned toward the door to follow them, but the vampire’s question stopped her, and she looked at him. He was smiling.

  “Yes, I am suggesting a small rebellion against your autocratic beloved.”

  She was puzzled, but pleased at this turn of events. “Aren’t you supposed to be guarding me?”

  “Technically, I didn’t actually agree to his request.”

  “Matthias did make an assumption,” she agreed.

  “Besides, I don’t want to miss out on the fun any more than you do.”

  She was beginning to like this cousin of Matt’s. Maybe she could get Jason to explain the animosity between them on the way into Las Vegas.

  “Okay,” she said. “Let’s go.” She knew she could sense her way to Matt wherever he went.

  “My guess is that she arranged tonight’s ambush as a diversion for you,” Mike said as Matt drove.

  “I know she did,” Matt answered. “Octavia revealed her plan to the Purist leader, but there was nothing the mortal woman could do but set up the ambush, even though a part of her was fighting the control. Octavia didn’t care if those mortals were driven mad, or killed. She didn’t care if we were killed, as long as she got what she wanted out of the evening.”

  “Which is?” Mike enquired.

  “She’s hitting major casinos. She’s doing it all for greed.”

  “And because she can,” Mike added. “When she messed with my head, I was hit hard by the size of her ego.” He breathed deeply, and swore. “My lycanthrope is hanging with your vampires. Why is it that your kind are always leading my kind astray?”

  Matt snickered. “I believe you once told me that your kind are sly and clever, and use my kind’s psychic energy to mask their presence from you. This means that your target is sticking close to my target this evening.”

  “I assume you have a pretty good idea of where they are.”

  Matt nodded. “She planned tonight as her gang’s last score. While the local police are searching the city for her crew, the other vampires will be long gone. Octavia will be at home packing. I can’t imagine her being the sort to travel light.”

  “I hope my boy’s with her,” Mike said. “It’s likely, since crazy werewolves tend to accept crazy vampires as their pack alphas.” He began to unbutton his shirt. “Time to double-team them.”

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  B eing back in his wolf form for the second time this evening made Mike a little nervous. He was reassured by the knowledge that he could morph back to human whenever he wanted to, but as he approached the vampire’s house, his awareness of the one who’d trapped him in wolf form grew stronger.

  She was in there, all right. There was a knot of fear around his heart, fear that she would work her dark magic on him again.

  It was embarrassing how spooked she had him.

  But he was also angry enough to ignore the scared pup inside him that wanted to run away from the fight. He was angry enough to wish that Octavia was his prey tonight. Revenge would be sweet—but he’d come to town to hunt down a man-killer.

  He cautiously circled the house, knowing that the vampire’s incredibly strong psychic field masked his presence from the other werewolf. At least the female was good for something.

  There were lights on at the back, so he approached a window and spotted two figures standing in a large bedroom. He recognized one as his quarry. The pair were arguing. Mike didn’t try to make out their conversation, but was delighted that their attention was intensely directed at each other.

  Showtime, he thought, baring his fangs. He ran forward, and glass shattered as he leapt through the window into the bedroom, straight at the other werewolf.

  He caught a flash of movement as the lycanthrope began to morph.

  The vampire shouted, “Oh, no you don’t!” I’ve got you!

  Then her mind bored into his, and the world began to slow down and go dark.

  Who has who, Octavia? Matt stepped into the room, his thoughts coming down like a net around her.

  Though neither of them moved, mentally she turned to face him, and she was smiling. He heard vicious snarling and snapping as the two werewolves were freed to clash with each other. While Mike did his job, Matt confronted his own enemy.

  I’ve been looking forward to this, Octavia told him.

  Her power probed at his defenses, like little flashes of lightning striking at his mind.

  Why?

  I am Tribe! she proudly told
him. The Families are weak. The Clans are pathetic. If my tribe hadn’t given up the old ways, I’d be ruling the world by now.

  You’d be a slave in a Prime’s harem, he answered. Like any other Tribe female.

  Her laughter filled his soul. Oh, I might be in a harem, but my lord and master would be the puppet I used to do whatever I wanted. I hate your rules. I hate pretending to be civilized. I’m going to crush you, Matthias, and then I’m going to do whatever I want.

  Really? He was probing her defenses as well. Her shielding was amazing. They’d been lovers once; why hadn’t he detected her abilities when they’d shared blood and bodies?

  I only made love to you to learn how your mind works, Octavia answered the thoughts he hadn’t meant to share. I learned your weaknesses, and the things you fear. I know how to defeat you, Guardian.

  How do you plan to do that?

  Like this.

  Her laughter ran through him like a rush of freezing floodwater. And he drowned in it. Lightning followed, searing him down to ash.

  Matt couldn’t see. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t think.

  He woke up on a soft bed, with a terrible headache. Cool fingers brushed the hair from his forehead.

  “You’ve had quite a night,” Phillipa said. As he opened his eyes, she bent forward to kiss his forehead. He noticed her round breasts as her blouse gaped open, and every bit of pain faded at this lovely sight.

  “Don’t leer at me like that,” she said as she stood. “I’m busy right now.”

  She crossed their bedroom to sit in the chair tucked into the curve of the bay window, and smiled at him as she picked up her knitting. He sat up on the side of the bed and watched her. He loved the pleasure her hobby gave her. He reveled in their being together, safe, at home.

  Then the window shattered and the door burst open and dark shadows rushed in, eyes aglow, fangs dripping blood. They came for Phillipa.

  He sat there frozen, dying inside, knowing he couldn’t stop them.

  Phillipa kept on knitting but briefly glanced his way and said, “Would you mind taking care of this? I have to count every stitch in this row if I’m going to get it right.”