by Cat Miller
“They’re all like me,” Dani interrupted Brandi’s thoughts.
The blonde next to Cayden stepped closer to him and sniffed. Dani didn’t seem to notice the slight, or she didn’t care.
“Well, they’re like I used to be. They’re demi-vamps.” She beamed at the crowd.
“They call themselves the Horde. They think it’s funny.” Cayden frowned. Dani laughed uproariously, hugging her injured arm to her chest.
“The Mongrel Horde, I love it.” She smiled. Chase’s frown joined Cayden’s. The others approved of Dani’s reaction and started introducing themselves and asking her questions. No one seemed to notice or care about her blood covered clothes. Brandi was sure most of the vampire nation would have heard of Danielle Vaughn, the powerful demi-vamp turned vamp.
“You take everything so seriously, Cayden.” The blonde stroked his arm but he shook off her hand.
“I once loved a girl like you guys.” He snuck a look at Dani, “Believe me, Jamie, she is no mongrel.”
Jamie growled under her breath.
“Alright,” Chase cut into the crowd and retrieved his mate. He had removed his sweater to give her something to change into and pulled his jacket back over his undershirt. “Now that the introductions have been made, what brings you out tonight?”
“We are here to offer our services,” the big man named Hawk answered. “You’ve got some asses to kick and we’re wearing the right size boots.”
“I’ve been training with my new friends for a few weeks. It’s time they stop hiding in fear from our people. I can’t think of a better way to introduce our society to the fact that they exist and that they are strong and worthy of notice than to allow them to help us deal with our little infestation. What do you guys think?” Cayden asked.
“I think there’s no time like the present. The Rogue is down and out from his own drug and his troops are without direction.” Chase smiled and kissed the top of Dani’s head.
“We just need to tuck the girls away someplace safe,” Chase added.
Karrie scoffed and both Brandi and Dani howled their outrage. In the end, all three girls went to the Enclave in spite of their mates’ protests. Cayden was none too happy about their participation in the strike either but the dispute ended when Dani said, “Either you take us with you or we’ll find our own way in. It’s up to you,” and she planted her hands on her hips.
****
As a unit, they moved in through a little known emergency exit that was to the gutter system that carried run off water out of the Enclave. One by one the group dropped into the dark manhole a few blocks from the Enclave. Many of the warriors who were trapped during the invasion escaped this way. Once inside they fanned out in groups of six with one lead on each team. The element of surprise was on their side. As much as Derek didn’t want Brandi to see this side of him, there was no time for mercy. They had to strike down as many Shades as possible on the first wave.
Derek managed to convince Brandi, Dani, and Karrie to hang back in the tunnel until they were needed. If the guys could sweep the grounds without raising alarms, they would. They used the excuse that they could be hurt if they were distracted by their mates. The girls grudgingly gave in.
When the teams advanced, they were each assigned a building of the barracks to clear. They would take out the sleeping Shade to reduce their numbers quietly. Derek’s team, which included Chase, Nate, and three of his old Shade chums, cleared their building floor and found not a soul. Derek couldn’t help worrying that when the time came the ex-Shades wouldn’t be able to do the job. It’s hard to end a life, especially if it’s someone you know.
When they rejoined the other teams, they learned every other building was just as vacant. Derek knew it wouldn’t be this easy. It’s not like the Shade would have abandoned their post because the Master took a long nap. A chill crept up his spine and Derek called a retreat. This had to be a trap.
Before they reached the tunnels an alarm sounded and flood lights bathed the night in a yellow glow. The sounds of a far off battle reached the ears of every man. This was no trap. The warriors were storming the gates and the Horde was bringing up the rear. It was perfect. They would squeeze the Shade between them and meet in the middle. Derek prayed Brandi would stay put in the tunnel until the fighting was over.
The field of battle was a mass of darkly clothed, black-eyed males with guns, knives and fangs. The Horde along with Derek, his ex-Shade, Chase, and Cayden entered the field of battle as one. The biggest difficulty was trying to be sure you didn’t take out one of your own guys. Males fell and were trampled underfoot as the line progressed. The battle was bloody and both sides were suffering major losses. The Horde was making headway and the warriors were in sight when they hit a wall. It was a telepathic wall. Derek watched as, one by one, his people and the warriors turned on each other. There were telepaths in there sending out illusions and mental deceptions to trick them into fighting each other. The center of the field was Shade territory and Derek had no idea how to break through. He called their men back and tried to maintain the line.
****
Dani’s plan was crazy, but all three of them prayed it would work. It took real trust to allow another person any level of mind control. Brandi didn’t like it, but she did it. It was harder for Karrie because she was a control freak from top to bottom, no doubt about it. Dani explained that only one telepath could enter a mind at a time and it all made sense. If they let Dani in, the bad guys would be locked out. They could enter no man’s land in the center of the field and take out the two pricks Dani suspected were running the show.
Derek had told them earlier that David had four high ranking henchmen, two telekinetics and two telepaths. They had killed the telekinetics earlier. These two had to be the remaining telepaths making a stand for their fallen leader. Brandi feared he would be waking up very soon and Sheena, Derek’s mother, would be in charge again. It was a very pretty name for a female with such a demented mind. Brandi kept waiting for her to suddenly appear and strike them down. She could still hear Sheena’s insane cackle floating through the trees.
They needed to take out the Rogues’ weapons and they needed to do it now. The girls took a deep breath while Dani prayed her telepathy would hold for a while. She entered Brandi’s mind gently and sat quietly in the rear. It was kind of like having another presence tucked up next to Derek’s. He had been too busy fighting to think about what she was up to until he felt someone horn in on his territory. He flared to life in her mind and roared at her.
“Territorial much?” Dani asked.
Karrie was holding her head so Brandi imagined she was get a good scolding from Nate, as well. She felt like a third wheel when Dani directed Derek to pull his guys back and prepare to take cover.
“Let’s move while I’m feeling strong, girls,” Dani directed.
Karrie took the lead and kicked a path through the Shade and the confused warriors and Horde that were fighting each other. Dani sent out waves of clarity and sight to hopefully pull them from the cloud of illusion. Many of them began to fall back to either side of the field. It was working. What they had to do was get through the battle raging around them alive and Brandi was never so grateful for her martial arts training. She and Karrie fought through the battle, slipping around the action when they could, while Dani concentrated on releasing the minds of the confused warriors from the grip of the Shades. They were lucky it wasn’t mind control being used on the field, instead of a mass illusion of sorts. There would have been nothing Dani could do about a mind under the influence of another telepath.
Once they reached the ringleaders, it would be up to Brandi to end the fighting. She still wasn’t sure how that was going to work out but, she had to do it. Dani couldn’t help because telepaths can’t control each other and the best Karrie could do was kick their asses until they cried uncle. Dani seemed to know something Brandi didn’t and she suspected Tessa had shared her vision of the future battle, because Dani w
as sure that if she just got Brandi to the center of the fight it would end quickly. Considering the amount of Shades they were up against, Karrie wouldn’t get much of a chance to reach their targets.
They hit resistance in the form of a mountain of Shades surrounding the telepathic terrorists. Karrie never stopped when she reached the blockade. Terrorist number one was a female and she looked at Brandi and snarled. They were trying to breech her and Karrie’s minds unsuccessfully. Karrie battled on while Brandi and Dani held their own back to back. This wasn’t going to work. They couldn’t breach the line and Brandi didn’t know what she would do if they did. All she did know was that the flames she worked so hard to keep banked were building to a critical level.
Karrie screamed and Brandi turned to find a long blade handle sticking out of her shoulder. Karrie’s pain shot through Dani via their telepathic link and took Dani to the ground as well. Brandi could feel Dani’s presence wavering in her mind. They could not be stuck out on this field and turn against each other. Brandi refused to allow herself to harm the ones she loved and she couldn’t carry both of her friends to safety.
“Dani, tell them to get down now!” Brandi screamed over the cacophony of battle.
She thought about her allies and their strength of character. She concentrated on the darkness she imagined flowing in the veins of their enemies. Brandi reached out and put a hand on each of her friends before she released the hell-storm churning in her belly. A mass of energy crashed out of her and skipped over her friends. Brandi directed her flaming rage to seek out only the darkness and protect the strong of heart. Eyes closed tightly, she held on to her friends for comfort. People would die at her hands today. How would she learn to live with that?
Screams reached her ears very briefly before silence prevailed over the landscape. There were no more sounds of clanging knives or gunfire. The war cries of impassioned males and the screams of fallen combatants came to a halt. Brandi was too afraid to open her eyes. What if she killed them all? What if she were the only one left? How would she explain this to the families of so many good males? What if she had killed her mate, her love, her life?
“Brandi?”
She didn’t answer. She wanted to believe for just another few seconds that she was not a murderer. If she opened her eyes, she would be faced with the reality of the blood on her hands.
“Sparky? Open your eyes for me, baby,” Derek encouraged her to look at her shame. Didn’t he want to punish her for her crimes?
“Oh, Sparky,” he sighed, “You saved so many lives today. You saved your people from each other and vanquished the Shade. You are not a murderer. You are a phoenix rising from the ashes of a battle well fought and won.”
Brandi imagined twisted and charred bodies. She expected a scene straight out of hell when she opened her eyes. What she was confronted with was even more horrific. The field was covered inches deep with ash. Mixed in with the gray remains of so many of the Rogue’s Shade warriors were the injured and dead warriors, Horde, and other vamps that had been under the influence of the telepaths. Her power had obeyed her command to take only the lives of her enemy. The disbelieving faces of every male she passed would be burned into her memory. Her people would fear and ostracize her for sure now. Derek kissed her forehead and returned her earlier vow to him.
“I love you. We will get through this,” he told her.
She nodded, but Brandi didn’t believe it.
****
Derek and Brandi had parted ways several weeks ago after the fight to reclaim the Enclave for her people. He still wasn’t ready to think of them as his people yet. It would take time for it to sink in that he had an entire family that wanted him in their lives. Mason and Debbie Deidrick embraced him like long lost family and offered to take him into their home. Brandi’s father was a bit less warm, but solicitous and welcoming all the same. Whether Griffin liked it or not, Brandi was Derek’s mate. There was no coming back from that bond. So, unless Griffin wanted to alienate his daughter, he would have to adjust.
There were some very tense moments when the Captain of the warrior class came to confront his son. From what Derek understood, Cayden had been missing without a trace for weeks on end. Cayden’s biggest concern was how the Captain would react to the Horde. They were Cayden’s people now and if they weren’t accepted, he would go when they left.
Father and son stood on guard, both with a line of brethren at their backs. Cayden gave not an inch to his father. Gage looked up and down at the ragtag line of demi-vamps Cayden had helped train and reform. Slowly a smile broke over Gage’s face and he crossed the imaginary line in the sand to greet his son.
“Welcome home, kid.” Gage pounded lovingly on his only child’s back, crushing him in bear hug. “Your mother will be so relieved to see you.”
Both lines of fighters took their cues from the Paris men and crossed to greet and congratulate each other on the joint victory. It was a good beginning and more than Derek could have hoped for.
The male Councilmen, with Mason in the lead, retrieved a groggy and confused David Deidrick from the training facility. Given Sheena’s confession, it was unclear what should be done with David. His crimes were many and varied, but how much of it was actually his own doing? Sheena was still on the loose, having fled when the fighting started, so there was the possibility of her overcoming him again.
In the end, Derek was left feeling adrift. He had spent his whole life defending a lie. The mother he worshipped had only used him to further her own cause. He’d sat still for beating after beating to protect his mother, when all along she was the one who had ordered the abuse. The animosity Derek felt for his evil, sadistic bastard of a father now had to be shifted to his mother instead.
Sheena fed him this bullshit fairytale about how in love his parents were when he was conceived and now he realized that couldn’t be further from the truth. She had manipulated David into her bed after she had killed his one true love and made it look like suicide. It was all just too much and Derek needed time to soak it all in and deal with the aftermath of his wasted life.
When he explained his need for space to Brandi, she gave him a teary eyed smile and walked away. He understood then, that his feelings were not as transparent to Brandi as hers were to him. He hoped that would improve in time. If Sparky could clearly read his emotions she wouldn’t have spent the last weeks resigning herself to being abandoned by her mate. She seemed to believe the story Derek had fed Darren about leaving her behind. She just didn’t understand that he needed to deal with the guilt for everything he had done to protect his mother before taking the leap into the life he wanted with her. Derek didn’t want the ghosts from his past tainting their future. But, it was a new day. It was the first day of forever and Derek was ready to claim his mate.
****
Griffin entered the Country Club through a side door to avoid being seen. He was running late again because Sarah refused to move her ass so he had left without her. He rushed down the hall toward the lobby to get into position. A door to his left opened and someone stepped out, but he was too close to stop the collision. The soft curves and familiar vanilla aroma short circuited his brain on contact. He’d grabbed her by the arms to keep her from crashing to the floor but now his fingers refused to let go.
Tessa looked up and the clear-blue of her eyes bled to black. It broke Griffin’s heart. Her eyes where the most beautifully unique color he’d ever seen. Newly changed vampires couldn’t control that reaction for several years. So every time she experiences any extreme emotion her lovely eyes would take on the obsidian darkness of any other vamp’s eyes. Griffin wondered what emotion he had inspired in her that caused the display. Was it anger, hate, sorrow? He would never know for sure.
“I’m sorry, Tessa.” He caressed the creamy skin of her bare arms. They both knew he was apologizing for more than just the accidental collision.
Tessa took a deep breath and her eyes bled back to blue. Griffin smiled. He couldn’t he
lp it. Tessa allowed him two slow blinks of those captivating eyes before she pulled herself out of his grasp and walked away.
Eloquent silence. That was all he got from her anymore.
****
The last thing she wanted to do was attend a stranger’s bonding ceremony, but Dani and Debbie were dragging her along. It was only going to make her more heartsick and she knew it. Derek was gone and she didn’t think he was ever coming back. Maybe he had the same curse as his father? Maybe he just didn’t want a murdering pyro for a mate? Maybe she was going to go crazy wondering where he’d gone.
They filed out of the limo and the soft shimmering fabric of the elegant opalescent gown Dani had brought for her felt good against Brandi’s skin.
Climbing the stairs to the chapel doors reminded Brandi of Derek again. This is where they had met, just inside those heavy wooden double doors. The romantic in Brandi wanted to believe that she was fated to find Derek and fall in love with him. Both Dani and Tessa had also recognized the significance of Derek’s parentage.
Derek was a child of the House of Deidrick. Brandi was a child of the House of Vaughn. Just like Leann’s prophecy predicted, they came together to bring peace to their people. Lightning had struck twice and Brandi followed in Dani’s footsteps. They had both fallen hard for Deidrick males.
Debbie rushed ahead to find Mason. Dani held the door for Brandi to enter the foyer. When her eyes adjusted to the light, Brandi was sure she was seeing things. He was a figment of her heartsick imagination. Dani bumped her shoulder and smiled.
“Be glad I’m already mated. I might have fought you for that one.” She headed off into the chapel.
Standing in the foyer in the very spot where Brandi had first laid eyes on his handsome face was her mate. Derek looked dashing in a black suit and crisp white shirt. She had never seen him in anything but dark jeans and casual shirts. He also looked nervous as hell when he came to take her hand.
