by Kiki Howell
He had, strangely enough, encountered no other vampires.
Lights shown from storefronts. Traffic lights and gleaming buildings surrounded him and he was thankful at least that he’d seen some of these things during his visions lest he be so out of touch with his new reality that he ceased to function.
It had happened before.
Vampires were a product of their time and most were at loath to alter their consciousness. He learned long ago that to change and adapt was to live. To stay buried in the past was death. He’d died once and he didn’t intend to do it again.
In the distance, he could hear a high pitched sound and screams. He did not have time to ponder anything else. His witch awaited him and if he was right, so did Virgil. Another being was nearby as well. Rand sensed him as he made his way down the city streets but the man gave no hint of threat.
If he made a wrong move, he would engage him but not yet. The dagger and his woman called to him.
He rounded the corner and there stood the shop he’d seen in his visions. Moon Called. She was there. But just as he was about to step into the street, a sleek black vehicle pulled in front of the door.
ARISTIDE OBSERVED THE other man leave the confines of the limo and step up to the front door of the shop. Diana’s hand rested on his chest and his jeans had become uncomfortably tight in the course of only a few minutes. Only his worry for his daughter and his daughter’s friend being in the room kept him from pressing his future mate up against the counter and showing her just how much he’d been thinking about her.
His animal prowled beneath the surface, urging him to do more than mark her. As the other male approached and Diana withdrew her hand, he caught the hungry expression on her face.
“Later.”
He nodded, giving her hand a squeeze. Aristide tried to contain his beast, but as the vampire got closer, the urge to tear out the Regent’s throat became almost overwhelming.
There was only one man responsible for the bloodshed and disappearances of his pack mates and he intended to prove it. All the intel from his sources pointed to the vampire and an unknown witch. At first, he’d believed it may have been Diana. There were rumors about her family and with the cursed objects she dealt with on a daily basis, it would have been easy to manipulate something like that to her advantage.
But she hadn’t.
If anything, she kept his daughter from harm and he loved her all the more for it. The only question was-where the hell was she? He bet the fanger walking up to the front door had some answers and he wasn’t shy asking.
Chimes jingling, the other man entered the shop and immediately drew back when he found Aristide standing in his path.
“What is he doing here?”
“What are you doing here?” Aristide stepped forward, the threat in his voice unmistakable.
Diana moved between them.
“Stop it. Both of you. I had a date with Virgil tonight if it's anyone's business.”
“A date?” The girl and Aristide replied simultaneously.
“Had,” Diana clarified, holding up a finger. “One of my girls is missing.”
It took the other man a moment to get past the word had and Aristide noticed his fists clench.
Good.
Fucker.
“When?” Virgil ground out a terse response.
Diana shrugged, not paying attention to the vampire, instead looking out into the street.
“We don’t know. She just wasn’t there...” The teenage girl spoke up and immediately shifted her eyes toward the floor.
“And who is this?”
Hearing the sinister undertone in the vampire’s voice, Aristide took a step closer to the teenage witch.
“This is Celine who is going home now. Aren't you?” Diana moved in their direction, her arm touching his.
“Yes ma'am.” The girl scrambled over to retrieve a bag from the floor.
“I'm texting my sister so, you better go home. No funny business. I mean it. Message me when you get there.”
“I want to help, Aunt Diana.”
Diana’s gaze softened. “I know you do, honey. But it's too dangerous honey. I'll let you know what I find out in the morning. Okay? Just go home and get some sleep.”
“I can have my driver take her.” Virgil interjected. “If we are not going to the museum, at least I can be of some assistance. In fact, why don’t we drop the girl home and I can take you out for a bite to eat.”
Diana blanched and it wasn’t Aristide’s imagination that she pressed closer to him. She feared the vampire, no doubt with good reason.
“No.” Aristide growled, cell phone already in hand. He sent a rapid text to one of his wolves and replaced the device into the holster on his hip. “There will be someone here momentarily.”
Nostrils flaring, Virgil spotted the bowl on the table.
“What did you see in your vision?”
“I saw face I hadn't thought to see in a long time.” Diana rubbed a chill from her arms and pushed up from the table. “Let's just say I had a wild girlhood some people I wouldn't necessarily call friends.”
“Go on.”
“I also saw something else. A necklace with green fire. It felt...wrong to me.”
“What else did you see, Diana?”
She shook her head, the tensing in her jaw revealing her frustration. “No time. We have to move. I saw Gabby in the woods. She was with a host of others and there was a sense that she was wandering, even searching for something but couldn't find it. Her heart's desire.”
A sick sensation slid through his gut and he watched the vampire for a reaction.
“Heart’s desire?” Virgil’s question reverberated through the room. “Whatever do you mean?”
Chapter Eight
THE QUESTION HUNG in the air, no one daring to answer. Diana’s pulse thrummed beneath her skin and more than anything she wanted to throw Virgil out the front door and ward him away, never allowing him to step within inches of her or anyone she cared about.
“You know.”
She said it, immediately wishing she hadn’t. Aristide, pressed against her arm, tensed. Part of her wanted to crawl inside of him and let the Alpha kick ass and take names later. But the dark side of her...the one that lurked just beneath the surface was stirring. The one she’d let out at the grocery store.
The power signature the necklace had left in the shop lingered around him like a sulfurous gas. A taint that called to a black power buried deep within. Something she hadn’t truly let out since the night her parents died.
She didn’t dare.
“Of course I know. I released it.” Virgil responded, a smug, calculating look on his face. “All of it will be explained, but first, I need you to accompany me to the car.”
“I already told you. I’m not going. We have to find Gabby.” He reached for her and she jerked her arm out of his grasp.
His gaze burned into hers and Diana gasped. The bastard was trying to roll her. A growl slid up her throat and she forced her eyes away, a storm of demon magic sliding up her arms. The curses she’d eradicated lingered in the bones of this room and now she drew on them like a power source to a starving woman.
No one forced her. Not anymore.
“No.”
“I’m afraid we don’t have time for this. Neither does your daughter, Alpha.” Virgil lunged, this time successful in his efforts to wrap his hand around her upper arm.
“Let go of me.”
“I think not, my blood flower. I’m done with all of this. My bride awaits and you will bring her to me.”
“Like fuck she will.” Aristide snarled, shifting in mid-air. His massive wolf form collided with Virgil, sending Diana spinning into the corner of the room.
Celine screamed, edging her way toward the door.
“Go home. Now, Celine!”
Her niece bolted out the front door, the chimes tinkling as the door was flung open wide. Before it closed, a figure filled the entryway, and Diana
glanced over, expecting to find one of Aristide’s wolves. Instead, the face and form of the man from her dreams stepped into the shop. Her mouth dropped open, a small sound escaping.
SHE WAS THERE, CROUCHED in the corner next to a display of antiquities, just like he’d seen in his many visions. Beautiful with her luscious black hair and a form to give a dead man pause.
He’d found her. Diana. His true mate.
A whimper escaped her lips and eyes wide, she straightened. “You. You’re real.”
“Aye. And so it seems, are you.” Rand held out his hand and she went to him. He crushed her body against him, relishing her warmth against the bitter cold of the grave he’d just emerged from.
“Rand.”
“Diana.” She flushed, her lashes falling like delicate soot on her pale cheeks.
She was life. And his salvation. Her scent was a wild imagining of cinnamon and vanilla and he longed to spend the time to bury his face in the luxurious curtain of her hair.
Diana lifted her face toward his and he claimed her lips with his. Blood pounding in his veins, his fangs ached to bury themselves in her tender flesh and taste all the bounty his woman had to offer. His cock hard, he groaned into her mouth.
“Gods, lady.”
“I know.” Her voice waivered, fragile and she gasped, as the Regent sunk his fangs into the wolf’s hide and he howled in pain.
Panic washed over his mate’s features. “Aristide. We have to help him.”
A loud crash interrupted their conversation as the wolf took back his ground. Their fight spilled out onto the streets outside, onlookers and pedestrians scattering in their midst.
Aristide leapt at Virgil, jaws snapping and the vampire threw him to the ground, his strength no doubt fueled by the stink of fetid power that had settled over the man. It was, in a word, unnatural and he knew the scent well. It had clung to his bride, even as she went to her death.
Fury twisted in his gut. Had the man been responsible for what happened in the past?
“My lady.” He nodded, his attention momentarily diverted from her as the battle raged on between the wolf and his coven’s traitorous Regent. There at her side was his dagger, the blue stone winking in the dim light of the street lights.
The wolf backed his adversary into a corner between two buildings but Virgil would not be pinned.
“How amusing, wolf. Did you think I would allow you to use me as one of your chew toys? And Rand. You did make it after all.” Virgil barred his fangs and stalked forward.
“No.” Diana ran forward. “Stop this Virgil. Why are you here?”
“Leave these others and come with me, if you want to save the girl you seek.”
“Over my dead body.”
“That can be arranged. Again.”
The anger that burned in his blood froze into a cold, calculating rage. What part had the evil bastard played in Melia’s enslavement to the demonic forces that ultimately cost her death? Oh, he would find out. After he’d broken most of the bones in Virgil’s body.
He was a Master vampire and the fool in front of him was dead meat. Rand’s gaze met the wolf’s and he could have sworn the beast smiled at him. Giving him a nod, he was on the other vampire in seconds, never seeing the spectral form that flitted from the shadows and the form of his love as she gave chase.
JONATHAN WATCHED FROM the shadows as the wolf and vampire battled the demon infused vampire. It would be over soon and God willing, he would have his revenge. Darting into the open door of the shop, he searched for the item he’d been looking for and gave a sigh of relief.
A soft purr filled the air and he smiled as the ghost of his long dead cat wrapped herself around his legs.
“Evangeline.”
He reached down to pet her, his hands going through her ethereal flesh. He needed the urn. A small portion of the witch’s blood would bring his warrior goddess back to life and maybe, just maybe there would finally be peace.
Chapter Nine
“HEY! COME BACK here!” The man had been in her shop and had taken something. It was a small silver urn shaped object and she meant to have it back.
A forlorn mewl caught her ears and she blinked. Was it an alley cat having a bad day or something else? But then the beast chuffed and she knew the answer.
That was her cat.
Who in their right mind stole the ashes of a cat?
“Bring back my cat, you bastard!”
Aristide and Rand were still fighting Virgil. He would find her. They both would. Gabby’s earrings dug into the soft flesh of her palm as her feet hit the pavement, the simple slip on shoes she’d worn in the shop hardly the right kind of footwear to be running in.
The murky shadows of the darkened alleyways and side streets closing in on her. One by one the hazy light of the street lamps winked out, leaving her in the gloom. Cries rang out in the darkness and she found herself looking at the handiwork of whatever force was set in motion.
Fire raged in the distance, the salty scent of burning wood far too close. But here, the shadows drew close and she struggled to pay attention to the tasks at hand. For all she knew, the guy could be a distraction so she wouldn’t go for Gabby.
Diana clutched the earrings tighter.
Lost to the darkness, the man quickly faded into the night and all she was left with her visions from the scrying bowl. Oddly, following her mystery thief had led her more than half way toward her other goal. Find Gabby.
The vision had showed her the way, but only in part. The rest she had to rely on from memory. And all she had in that department was the half-baked remembrances of a teenage witch.
She knew the boys were coming, but she had to at least try and catch the bastard. It was the only way. Given a few minutes and a blood magic spell and she would be able to track down her lost cat. And the jerk who thought it would be a good idea to steal from her shop.
Clenching the earrings tight, she pressed harder, letting the back of one of the posts sink into her palm. Hot and sticky, she felt the warm blood trickle out over the earrings and smiled.
“Take me to Gabby,” she whispered.
A noise skittered behind her and she shot forward, her feet almost giving out from underneath her as she navigated the damp cobblestones and finally stumbled out of the alley onto the natural terrain of the woods.
Here it was. The path she had been looking for.
She and Joanna had come this way many times on the way to her house after classes to study. Only school work hadn’t been the only thing on the other girl’s mind. Her mother’s spell books had.
She’d seen a glimpse of Joanna in her vision but she couldn’t be sure if she was remembering something from long ago or seeing something involving Gabby.
Ugh.
Divination was so frustrating. She much preferred the simple spell casting and curse lifting she practiced now. But back then...back then she’d embraced Joanna’s wild ways and the idea that a spell book was merely a playground for her own amusement. Demon magic mixed with a little too much unsupervised fun with the opposite sex.
“Come on Diana. A little sex magick won’t hurt anyone.”
She could still hear Joanna’s voice in her ear as she took her up on her dare. It seemed innocent-until it wasn’t. Until she really fucked up and her parents died.
She never told her sister the truth and she never would. Sarah had been out with friends when she and Joanna had tried an inferno spell, accidentally igniting the curtains in her room on fire. The boys who’d been with them had run at the first sign of trouble. Funny how she didn’t even remember their names. Just a lot of groping in the dark and the zing of pleasure when the magick rippled through her.
But when the spell went wrong her so called friend abandoned her to the darkness.
“Stupid girl. Your mess. You clean it up.” And Joanna had left her there, flames licking up all around her with barely enough presence to leap from the open window before the entire house was engulfed in flames, her parent
s inside, asleep.
She’d never spoken to the other girl again.
Her grandmother had taken her and Sarah in. She should have been grateful, but her own self-loathing was written in slashes along the surface of her skin. And then one day her grandmother had caught her, blade in hand.
“Stop.”
The command had been instantaneous, and her hand had halted in midair. Laced with magic, her grandmother’s voice was silk, edged with steel.
“I don’t care what it is you think you’ve done, girl. I won’t have you doing this to yourself.” She’d taken Diana by the upper arms and shook her until the blade clattered to the ground and the pent up tears she’d held in for so long started to fall.
It all came out. The games. The spells. Joanna. The fire. She couldn’t look at her grandmother for fear of what she would see behind her piercing blue eyes. But then her grandmother had lifted her chin, forcing her to meet her gaze.
“I forgive you. And I knew before you ever said anything. It was just a matter of how long you were going to take before you admitted it. To me and to yourself.”
Diana had stared at her, stunned.
“You young people. Always think you invented it all. Do you think you’re the first one in this family to try and push the boundaries?”
“But Sarah...”
“Never needs to know.”
“But...”
“No.” Her grandmother shook her head. “You come from a long line of strong women. Witches who sometimes have to find themselves, even in the brambles.”
“How can I ever make this right?”
Her grandmother had grown still, her gaze sharp and penetrating. “You save them. The weak ones that stray. The ones that are going to need your strength when the hard times come. Some people can learn to live in this world with perfect understanding. Always making the right choices and things unfold for them. Like a flower.”
“I’m no one’s flower.”
“No. You’re not,” her grandmother agreed, a small smile playing at the corners of her mouth. “Maybe just a thorn. But like you, there are others who find out about life through hardship and trials. Those are the ones who make it when things turn difficult. Love is a choice, girl. And you need to choose wisely.”
