Of Scions and Men

by Courtney Sloan

  Carson grabbed my arm. “They want you to follow.”

  I smiled an unkind smirk. “Good. Then they won’t run hard.”

  Just mark their positions until we get there, Devon commanded.

  I shook off Carson’s arm and pulled hard on Devon for a burst of speed that would make it tricky for the humans around us to spot my movement. Taking the corner, I found the vamps. The broader of the two turned down an alley about five blocks away as the other disappeared into the shadows.

  Dammit, they were running. Everything came alive as I combined my exercised and trained muscles with artificial vampiric power to close the gap on the broader vamp. If we could keep a tail on him, maybe he’d lead us to the other. After a few more turns, I cut through a house still under construction.

  A four-by-four came swinging at my head. I ducked just in time and slid on my knees under the makeshift weapon. Thank God for the heft and protection my leathers offered me.

  Close on my heels, Carson shoulder-checked the broad vampire with a grunt. The man faltered backward, but the impact failed to make him drop his weapon. Quickly, Carson joined me in the street, standing protectively over me as the lumber-wielding vampire stalked forward. I stood up and eyed the perp, watching for a sign he was about to attack.

  Out of the corner of my eye, his taller cohort stepped from the shadows, a piece of rebar in his hand. My stomach dropped to my knees. They’d baited us.

  My breath caught. No choice now but to take them down.

  “Still think this was a good idea?” Carson asked me.

  I smiled at the men, showing my teeth and trying to slow my pulse. “Absolutely.”

  “Lembrar, nós precisamos eles vivo.” The taller one kept his eyes on us, but spoke to his friend.

  “Mas não consciente,” the broader one answered with a sneer in our direction.

  “Did you understand any of that?” Carson asked.

  “No,” I replied as I smirked back cruelly, “but I can take a wild guess.”

  Carson stretched out his hands. “So can I.”

  “Where is the girl?” I shouted as if we had the upper hand. I couldn’t keep the vibrations out of my knees. They’d led us to a great spot for a fight–for them.

  “Do no be stupid,” said the taller one in a thick accent.

  I’d never heard anything like it. He may as well have kept speaking in Spanish.

  “You do no want be like bird.” He pointed at something in the shadows beside him, the motion more like one of a marionette than a man.

  I pulled from Devon to see deeper into the darkness, and my legs nearly buckled. There, crumpled on the ground next to the tall vampire, was a blue and white jay.

  Lyle.

  I stared intently at my best friend, begging him to move. My chest tightened, and my palms sweat. Oh, God, let him be alive.

  “You bastards,” Carson ground out.

  Lyle’s chest twitched slightly. A slight sigh of relief escaped my lips. Letting my terror for Lyle go, I let rage flood my system. Time to end this quickly, take revenge for my best friend, and get Lyle help. I needed another sword at my back against these two–Carson was a talker, not a fighter, and he was my responsibility. God help me, I was taking these bastards down.

  My hands clenched into tight fists. “Mistake number two, out-of-towner,” I growled at the tall vampire and held my ground. “I am an agent of the DEC. Where is Hannah Warner?”

  “You come me. I show you.”

  The offer was tempting. If I went with them, Carson could get Lyle to safety, and he’d be out of harm’s way. Not to mention, I wanted to get Hannah out of whatever hell they’d had her in since last night. I stood a better chance than she did against these assholes. How many could there be? Just these two?

  My head buzzed with possibilities, but my lips pressed together, hard. What were the odds I could take them or get her out if I was at their mercy?

  Don’t you dare, Devon’s voice shook.

  “Not a chance,” Carson answered for me, but I put out a hand to stop him.

  “It doesn’t work that way, bucko,” I said.

  The tall vampire cocked his head like a confused puppy. Maybe his translation was off.

  “I’m going to arrest you and your pudgy buddy over there, and you’re going to lead us to the girl.”

  He let out a laugh. Too many stuck up men had been laughing at me as of late. I needed to do something about it.

  I took a step toward him. “By the authority of the Department of–”

  I froze mid-step and mid-sentence as he raised his makeshift four-by-four club over Lyle’s feathered unconscious body, a wave of heat running through mine.

  Okay, bluffing didn’t work. I needed some way to get the jump on them.

  A low sound erupted behind Carson and me, and the broad vampire let out an unmistakable curse and scream. We turned to see him dancing away from a snake. Nathair was pressing his advantage and had launched at him from his coiled position, turning into a fully-formed human mid thrust. He wrapped his arms around the struggling vampire. Together they fell to the ground, grappling in a full-on brawl.

  Spinning back around, I dove at the limp form of my best friend, gathering his tiny body in my arms and protecting him from the rebar I was sure the tall vampire would slam into my back. I held my breath, waiting for the hit–

  The sound of metal striking concrete echoed off the buildings in the alley. I leapt to my feet, Lyle cradled in my arms. Carson had tackled the vampire away from me. I’d be sure to give him a major thank you later.

  After a quick survey of our surroundings, I raced to a nearby mailbox and shoved Lyle’s limp body inside one of the slots. He breathed, but nothing more.

  “Don’t give up on me, buddy,” I said, a lump in my throat as I closed the mailbox’s door. Every fiber in me wanted to hold him and keep him safe, but I needed to get back into the fight; I couldn’t leave Carson and Nathair to fend for themselves. My chest aching, I turned away from my best friend, vowing to get him help as soon as scionly possible.

  Nathair still held his own against our pudgy perp, his arms wrapped around the vampire’s neck. Carson was on the ground, grappling with the taller vamp, who had somehow regained control of his steel beam.

  I took off for the taller and closer enemy grappling with my Canadian friend, and grabbed at his neck. He dodged my grasp with embarrassing ease. He twisted and brought the steel beam down at an angle on Carson’s wrist. Blood spurted from the wound, and Carson’s loud scream shook my resolve. I planted my left foot and kicked at the vampire’s hand, knocking the rebar on the ground, feet behind him. On instinct, the vampire chased after it.

  A peripheral glance told me Nathair was still occupying Pudgy, but only just. The broad vampire wrapped his hand around Nathair’s arm and pulled it toward him, snapping the bone. Nathair’s scream joined Carson’s heavy breathing before he elbowed his attacker in the face with his good arm.

  We were not doing well. Maybe I should have waited for backup.

  We’re almost there. Just hold on a bit longer, Devon called out.

  My stomach churned. Carson and Nathair were already bludgeoned. I had to stall the vampires if we had any chance of surviving this.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” I screamed at the tall jerk as he picked up the steel beam again. “You’re outnumbered, and we’ve got more coming. Your best bet is to surrender.” Okay, it hadn’t worked the first time, but maybe this time would be different.

  “And there are more us.” His snide grin met his ears.

  Or not.

  Get out of there, dammit!

  Even Carson, who was on his feet again, kept glancing between me and the road we’d entered from, his intention clear. If we ran, they’d just take us apart a half step later. We couldn’t outrun them. I wouldn’t leave Lyle here, unconscious and at their mercy. Nathair and the other vampire were still grunting behind me; Nathair hadn’t yet given up. I just had to stall this guy a
bit longer.

  “Not a chance,” I answered aloud to the confusion of our new friend. Taking advantage of his hesitation, I closed the eight feet between us, pulling my blade out of my boot mid-run. With my best war cry, I struck him across his right cheek. Blood coated both my hands and his face as I pin-wheeled to a safer distance again.

  The vampire sneered at me as he let the wound close. “Cachorra.”

  “Yeah, I think I understood that one.”

  My attention wavered as the sound of bones cracking came from across the alley. Nathair continued to circle and hiss at Pudgy, but at least he’d had a moment to snap his arm back into one piece. From his face, serpentine regeneration was not fun by any stretch of the imagination.

  My split second distraction cost us. Carson shouted as he was flung away from the tall vampire. Shit! A thud reverberated when his head hit the stucco of someone’s garage. Before I could move to him, the vampire was on me faster than I’d ever seen one travel. He wrapped his arms around my neck and squeezed.

  “Enough,” the tall vampire hissed in my ear. “Call them off.”

  I dug my fingernails into his arms, sucking in short breaths of air. Even if I wanted to tell him to go fuck himself, I’d never be able to get out the words. Easing closer into him, I threw my hip into his groin and my skull into his nose. As he screamed in my ear, I threaded my calf between his legs and tried to sweep him to the side.

  On human adversaries, it worked like a charm. On most vampires, it worked like a charm.

  On this guy, bupkis. I lost my footing and slid further into his choke hold.

  “São completo com a cachorra?” Pudgy questioned Mr. Vice Grip as he approached.

  I struggled in my attacker’s arms, scanning through blurry eyes for my comrades. Everyone was down. I was alone.

  “Sim,” his partner answered.

  “Final a.”

  I didn’t need much to figure out his meaning. I began thrashing anew, trying to push my captor against something I could leverage him on while keeping myself from passing out. Without warning, his teeth sunk into my throat. No one but Devon had ever bitten me before. The pain was immense. I screamed out loud and in my head, fighting against him.

  Devon! Help! The world was getting fuzzier.

  Rowan! We’re too far. Just hold onto my mind. We will find you.

  A blinding light filled the alley, and my screams were joined by the vampires’ and Carson’s. We were on fire. Not literally, but I wished I was. At least that would have had an end game. Devon screamed with me in my head. I tried to push him back out, hoping one of us would come out of this whole.

  The light filled every cell of my body, stealing my breath and frying each nerve ending. I heard words I couldn’t understand. Not from my attackers–another language. Latin. Another voice. A new voice.

  No, an old voice. I knew this voice.

  Curtis.

  The pain finally became too much, and I lost consciousness as Curtis’s worried face filled my vision.

  woke to the muffled sounds of men arguing and something scurrying under my bed. I pulled on my connection and strained to listen to the angry voices filtering in from another room as I attempted to sit up, but stars filled my vision. Breathing deeply and cracking open my eyes to just slits, I laid my throbbing head back down on the lacy pink pillow below me.

  My eyes shot open. I didn’t own anything pink, let alone lacy. Where was I?

  I scanned the room. I’d lived in enough slums in the time since my parents’ deaths to recognize the sound of a rodent. But the room around me was anything but slummy. A small canopy of the same cheerful pink and white lace framed the ceiling above me, but that wasn’t the most disturbing part. The walls were covered with women in overdone gowns of various pastel colors, each one’s smile bigger than the last.

  It was under one of the grinning blondes in a pale blue dress that I caught sight of the wandering rodent. It was a small brown mouse with twitching whiskers. Thank God it wasn’t a rat. Mice you can at least throw a shoe at and hope to do some damage.

  Easing down for one of my boots beside the bed, I noticed the mouse hop up on its hind legs and motion at the women on the wall. What the… Were those Disney princesses?

  The mouse raced over to a picture of a darker-skinned women with extremely long black hair and harem pants. Jasmine. Halfway between pictures of the blonde Cinderella and the raven haired woman, the mouse shimmered and became a tiger cub, rolling around on the ground, playing with the pictures on the wall.

  Forgetting for a moment about the angry voices around me, I marveled at the small shifter as she moved from princess to princess, changing from tiger to chipmunk to faun. She came to flutter around the head of the other mocha-skinned girl in the brown buckskin mini-dress, Pocahontas, as a bejeweled humming bird. The sight was so charming; a small laugh bubbled from my throat.

  The bird turned and let out a loud hum from her wings, darting in front of me. I smiled and waved at the young shifter.

  “Hello.” My voice rasped, making me sound like an avid smoker. Putting a hand to my throat, I found a bandage had been secured in place.

  Unaware of my sudden fear, the hummingbird bobbed happily in a movement close to Lyle’s greeting and flew around my offered hand. I worked hard not to raise it in defense as the speedy bird, her beak sharp and extremely long, swirled around my head. Just before she reached my face, she shifted again, and a bright red crab landed on my right shoulder, pulling on my hair with her claw to maintain balance.

  “Make yourself comfortable,” I muttered. I stifled the leftover chills her shifting had left on my skin, afraid it would make her lose her precarious balance. “I don’t guess you can tell me where I am or what’s going on?”

  “As I live and breathe, a real live princess has graced us with her presence.”

  I turned my eyes to find Lyle lounging in the doorway. My chest swelled, as did my eyes. Thank God he was all right. A grin to match my own was plastered across his face, but the dark circles under his eyes and the bruise on his cheek brought back everything that had happened in the fight. He’d almost died. I could have lost him because I’d run after the bad guys, and he’d backed me up. I let out a huge breath I hadn’t known I’d been holding.

  Using my right hand to keep the crab steady, I eased off the bed. “One Sleeping Beauty crack, Lyle, and I swear…”

  Crossing the room, he held out his hand, and the crab scuttled onto it. “I wouldn’t dream of it.” He bent down, and the crab crawled onto the floor, shifting again into a girl of about five or six with thin, but shiny, chestnut hair and the biggest hazel eyes I’d ever seen. She was more adorable than the woodland creatures she pretended to be.

  “Go get some lunch, Lainy. Your mom has it heated up in the kitchen,” Lyle said.

  With a last smile at me, the girl waved and ran out the door.

  “Cute kid. I’m sure she’s starving with that much shifting. Like when you go back and forth a few times, and you end up cleaning out my fridge,” I said.

  “It’s easier for children. They don’t expend as much energy as adults. Once her psychological ID locks her into a permanent form, she’ll have to watch her intake or pass out.” Lyle smirked at me. “That’s not to say she’s not cleaning out my fridge like any other growing five year old.”

  I smiled before glancing around the room again. “Where the hell are we?”

  He shrugged his shoulders but motioned to the royalty around him. “My castle.”

  I laughed. “Since when do you have a princess fetish?”

  His eyes darkened for a moment, but he smiled and wiggled his eyebrows at me. “Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answers to.”

  I’d been to Lyle’s before, though, now that I thought about it, he did try to steer us away from ever spending time in here. Most of our bad movie nights were at my place because Will could go to bed, and we didn’t have to call it a night. I’d never seen past his living room and kitchen,
and those alone had impressed me, but this bedroom was ginormous. On our DEC salary, he’d never afford to rent out a closet in this place. He must have inherited it.

  “Is Lainy related to you? Will I finally get to meet some of your family?” I asked.

  The darkness in his eyes returned, and I instantly regretted my question.

  “She’s not related to me,” Lyle said. “At least, not by blood. She and her mom needed a safe place to stay, and here we are.”

  I examined the room in a new light. “You’re protecting them. And that John Wolf guy, too?”

  He nodded. “It would be dangerous for anyone to know they were here. Ro, I’m serious.”

  I reached over and kissed him on the cheek. “You’re a good bird.”

  He hugged me but released quickly. “Yeah, and you’re a mule-headed, reckless hellcat. What were you thinking running around like that last night?”

  Rolling my eyes at his statement, I asked, “How did we end up at your place? I can’t believe we didn’t go home to Devon’s with his army of guards.”

  From the doorway, Nadia answered for Lyle. “This determined Mr. Curtis of yours refused to set foot on Devon’s property. As he was carrying you, Devon wouldn’t allow him go anywhere else. A compromise had to be found.” She motioned to the room around her.

  Lyle read my confusion and continued. “Nathair helped me shift back while your two boys nearly came to blows. I offered my place as a neutral ground.”

  The voices from another room hit a new level of anger, and I could finally make out who they belonged to. “Oh, God. Curtis and Devon. In the same room. They’re going to kill each other.”

  I moved for the door, but Nadia put a hand on my shoulder and stopped me, shaking her head. “They need to settle this on their terms.”

  Curtis’s voice reached a shrill tone. “Just because she signed a contract with you and lets you put your fangs in her, it doesn’t make her your property.”

  “Only you would be crass enough to compare a woman to property. It does make her someone far more special than the likes of you.” Devon’s reply held more than a sliver of threat.