I hoped I’d made the right choice.
Rourke and I crept through a natural parting in the trees and entered a small clearing right by the stream’s edge.
“Ma Reine, it’s good to see you again,” Naomi said as she moved forward. “I’m sorry I could not come out to meet you. I could not leave him alone, even for a minute.”
I was shocked by her appearance.
But I was even more shocked by the scene in front of me.
Chains rattled as an angry voice ripped through the air. “Nice of you to join the party, Hannon. Glad you could finally pencil us in. Do you like what you see?” His irises shot silver one beat before a blanket of cruel black cascaded over them completely, leaving no white. He looked feral. “This is your fault,” he accused. “You did this to me.”
“Ray,” I whispered.
“No, not Ray anymore.” He hissed, his fangs snapping down sharply, distorting his sneer. “Was this your plan all along? To make me into a freak? You wanted me to sign up for your cult from the very beginning. But then on the road you made me start to trust you. Hell, I even helped you. And this is my reward? I’m going to eat your intestines once I’m free. Do you hear me?” He raged against his chains, which were wrapped tightly around his chest. They held, but just barely. “I’ve got nothing better to do than hunt you down, Hannon. For a goddamn eternity!”
“I am sorry,” Naomi said, her head bowed, her hands crossed in front of her. “He has been … difficult to control.”
“I thought newborn vamps were fledglings? Shouldn’t he be concerned about where his next meal is coming from instead of exacting his vengeance on me?” Rourke paced over to the tree where Ray was chained. “I was under the impression new vampires were incoherent in the beginning.”
“He did not go through any of the normal stages.” Naomi shook her head, her soft French lilt barely above a whisper. “I do not understand it. He awoke in a rage. I was able to find these chains, but he breaks them often. He is weak, because he has refused to feed, and he cannot fly, so I am able to catch him when he … flees. But it has taken its toll. I had no choice but to come here. I had hoped you would come early, because I could not risk bringing him into a populated city to find you.”
I wrenched my gaze from a furious Ray to take in Naomi’s appearance again. Her clothes were tattered and full of blood. Fresh claw marks stood out along her neck and arms, healing as I watched. Her normal chestnut locks hung in dirty strands. “Naomi, I’m the one who’s sorry. I should’ve known this could’ve been a possibility. Ray was a volatile human, and he died a horrendous death at the hands of your brother. I should’ve stayed with you to make sure there were no issues. This is all my fault.”
“Non,” she said. “We could not have known. I have changed two others before him and this is … unnatural. He is too strong. His thoughts should not be so well … formed. He should be eager to gain my approval, to learn the new ways. I am his Master, but he does not seem to feel any connection to me at all.”
Ray started raging again, and surprisingly I felt a tiny flare of his emotions in my blood. My brows furrowed as I peered at him more closely. I’d given Naomi my blood to heal from an attack she would’ve died from when we’d been on the road, and she, in turn, had given her blood to Ray. It made some sense that he would have a bit of my signature inside him now, except I’d never felt a spark of anything from Naomi before. I’d attributed that to her being a vamp, and the emotions and feeling that were tied to my blood with the wolves didn’t apply to her—that it was a species thing. That wouldn’t be the case if I were connected to Ray.
“It’s a conundrum,” I finished.
“What did you expect, huh?” Ray snarled. “Why would you think I would ever want this? You should’ve let me die in peace, Hannon.” Ray still referred to me by my alter ego, Molly Hannon. It was a habit I’d given up trying to break. I’ll always be Hannon to him.
Rourke met my gaze. “How do you want to work this?” he asked.
I turned to Naomi. “We’ll knock him out, and you fly him up to Rourke’s cabin. We’ll deal with him up there. I’ll give him twenty-four hours to see reason. If that doesn’t work—”
“What?” Ray sneered. “If I don’t cooperate, you’re finally going to kill me? Put me out of my misery? But guess what? I refuse to die without payback. Do you hear me? I will kill—”
Rourke’s fist shot out, straight into his face, crushing the left side and knocking him out completely. Ray’s head crashed down, leaning at an odd angle. If his neck had stayed intact, he should live, but healing was going to hurt like a bitch. “Nobody threatens us,” Rourke growled, leaning into his unconscious body. “Especially you.”
I had no idea how quickly Ray could regenerate from that kind of an injury, but if he was as strong as Naomi said, it would be a few hours; if not, it might take a full day. “Naomi, once you get him up the mountain, you’ll have to secure him again. There’s a clearing behind the cabin—a natural ring of pine trees. Put him there and chain him to the biggest tree you can find.” I glanced at Rourke. “Do you have extra rope or anything that will work to bind him before we get there? Those are about to go.” It looked as though Naomi had repaired the chains with her bare hands each time he’d broken through, but Ray had stressed the links to their maximum.
Rourke nodded. “There’s a cave three miles east of the cabin. Look for a tall white pine growing out of the base of the mountain and you’ll find it. Supplies are in there.”
“Rourke and I will shift,” I told her. “We can make it in less time in our true forms, and once we get up there, we’ll decide what to do.”
Naomi bowed her head. “I will see it done.”
I grabbed on to her arm before she could leave. As I touched her, a light current of power ran through my fingertips. I’d inadvertently broken her bond with her Queen by giving her my blood, and she’d sworn her fealty to me in return. It was my duty to protect her, and I was doing an extremely shitty job.
“Naomi,” I said, her eyes flicked to mine, “once Ray is secured, I want you to go. Leave here and take some time for yourself. Get cleaned up. Feed. Whatever you need. I will take care of this. It was my decision to turn him, not yours. This is my problem now. Go back to my city, north of here, and find Tyler and Danny. We had a problem with the sorcerers, but so far they haven’t tracked me here. Stay there, make contact with the boys; they will help you find a place to stay and you can all come here together in a few weeks.”
“I can’t leave you like this. You will need my help. A new vampire is—”
“No.” I said the word with as much power as I could. “You’ve done enough. And I appreciate it more than you’ll ever know. Ray will either be dead or ready to go with us when you return. I’m hoping it’s the latter, but I’m not going to hold my breath. We’re heading to New Orleans once you return, and I need you focused and refreshed. I’ve been trying to come up with the best way to tackle your bonding—or lack of bonding—with your former Queen and I have some ideas, but I need you ready. If you’re not, there’s no chance of us finding an edge. And we need an edge when we face her. That’s an order.”
“Oui, Ma Reine. I will go, then.”
“And, please, for the love of everything good in the world, you have to stop calling me that. We’ve already covered this. I’m not your queen. This is a partnership, not a monarchy. You came into this of your own free will. You’re not my subject.”
The first glint of a smile spread across her lips, revealing some of the old, strong Naomi I knew was still in there. It was nice to see her again. Losing her brother Eamon and having to deal with Ray had taken its toll. It was time for me to make it right.
“It is a term of endearment only, as I have told you,” she mused. “But it fits you. It truly does.”
“There is nothing remotely queenly about me,” I scoffed. “It’s the worst title you could possibly give me.”
Naomi shook her head. “That’s wher
e you are wrong. You are very queenly.” Before I could argue, she walked over to Ray with purpose. Rourke had unchained him. She lifted Ray under one arm and draped the heavy metal links across her other shoulder like she’d slung on a purse. “Until then, Ma Reine.”
She shot into the air.
Watching vamps take flight was amazing. I’d have to ask her how it worked. My guess was their bones must be light and hollow, because they didn’t need any marrow, like a bird’s, and they could somehow siphon air through them or something cool like that. I shook my head and turned to Rourke. “We have to break her of calling me her queen and come up with something with less of a sovereign ring to it.”
“I think it’s fitting.” Rourke grinned. “You’re my Reine too.” He strode over and grabbed my hips, bringing us together.
I glanced around, realizing we were suddenly alone and out of the godforsaken car. And there was no imminent threat bearing down on us. He lowered his head slowly and I let his scent wash over me for the gazillionth time. I would never grow tired of it.
When he was this close, I couldn’t focus on anything else.
All my neurons fired at once and my brain became hazy. It didn’t help that my wolf started running in circles yipping, contributing to the chaos.
His tongue entered my mouth, hot against mine.
I opened myself up to him easily, taking him in, my lips parting with a long sigh. Finally. He was soft and hard and perfect. All his strength pushed tightly up against mine, the way it should be.
He growled and pressed us together, deepening the kiss.
Our heads tilted farther and my hands shot to his chest, landing on the ridiculously tight T-shirt he’d borrowed from Tyler, now dirty and torn from the explosion. “We need to get this off of you,” I murmured as I started to pull, immediately hearing a satisfying rip.
At the sound, he broke our embrace, appearing as dazed as I felt. “Jessica.” His irises radiated a beautiful deep green. “Not yet. We can’t do this yet.” He took a small step back and ran the back of his hand over his mouth. “Your taste is like an addiction. It’s so damn hard to quit once I start, but we have to go up to the cabin. Staying here is a mistake.”
He was right.
I pounded my fist against his chest in frustration and then rested my forehead against it. I was one millimeter away from kicking someone’s puppy. I leaned back so I could glance up at him, knowing my irises flashed the same emotion as his. “I hear you. My brain just doesn’t work properly when you’re around, as we learned from our happy fun time in the car. All my wolf wants to do is rip your clothes off in a mindless frenzy. It’s hard not to be resentful of our obligations when all I want is to be with you.”
A snarl ripped from his diaphragm and he tugged me against him, flattening his strong hands against my back, his arms locking around me tightly. He lowered his mouth against my ear and rasped, “I haven’t denied myself anything in a thousand years. Resisting you is taking every ounce of everything I’ve got. My beast is clawing me from the inside out, fighting me to make this official. All I can think about is throwing you down on the grass and taking you from every angle I possibly can. Repeatedly.” A small moan escaped my lips. “But if we do that, we will be lost to it for hours and we can’t afford it right now. Your safety is more important to me.” A low sound from the center of his chest spread outward and made my toes curl. “And you better believe that when I take you, I take you on my terms”—he ended on a whisper—“repeatedly.”
Goose bumps covered my flesh.
I pressed my face into his chest and tried to recover. My brain was mush. I had to take a step back to regroup. Rourke had been around a lot longer and his control was impeccable. I was a newborn and mine was not. “Rourke, how old are you?” I tilted my head up at him.
His expression held a glint of surprise. “I haven’t answered a question like that in a very long time.”
I shrugged. “We’re a couple now, and it’s time for us to be on the level about everything or this won’t work. I don’t know what you are—only that you’re a cat of some kind. I think the basics are in order here. Don’t you agree?”
“Instead of answering, I’d rather show you. Reaching the top of the mountain will be quicker and easier in our animal forms. Once we change back, we can talk.” His voice held an intensity I couldn’t place. Was he really worried what I’d think?
“Listen,” I said, placing my palms on his pecs. “I don’t care what you are, or even how old you are. We’re way past that. None of it matters. You could be a two-thousand-year-old Griffin and it wouldn’t matter to me.”
He laughed. It was a rough, rich sound. “I’m no Griffin, but it’s better if I show you.”
I hesitated, reading his gaze.
He was anxious.
“Okay.” I turned toward the river. “Where do you want to shift? And I hope you have spare clothes at the cabin, because mine aren’t going to magically morph there.”
He took my hand and led me toward the water. “I have extra clothes, but you’ll have to make do with mine until everything is settled up top. I’ll come back down and get yours when we’re done dealing with Ray. Let’s cross the river before we shift. We’re fairly close to the sulfur stream, and it’s straight up from there. Since we’re shifting, it doesn’t make sense to douse ourselves—sulfur won’t mask our animal scents. They are way too strong.”
I followed him into the river. The water wasn’t that deep and we managed to cross to the other side without getting totally soaked. It was dark as night in the forest. He guided me to a small grassy patch. “You change here and I’ll shift over there.” He pointed to bushes twenty paces away. “I haven’t been in front of anyone in my true form in longer than I can remember. I don’t want to scare you, so let’s take it slow.”
I rubbed my arms absentmindedly. “You’re kind of freaking me out,” I admitted. “Should I be scared? And why don’t you have to change very often? I thought shifters needed the release—their bodies had to shift.”
He leaned down and planted a kiss on my forehead. “I don’t ever need to shift. Once you’re old enough, you gather power to yourself automatically and I’ve perfected it without shifting. I can’t do what you can do—and achieve a full suspended form—but I can reach my beast without a full change. It gives me more power than the average shifter, but it’s not like yours.” I’d seen him channel his beast when we’d fought the wolves, and then again with Selene. He was incredibly controlled. The only thing that had given him away both times had been the golden fur that had sprouted along his arms.
“How old is old enough?” I pressed, curiously.
He chuckled. “Old.”
Naomi’s words filtered through my mind. When we’d been on the road, she’d informed me there had been rumors Rourke was close to acquiring a godhood, which was the ultimate mix of power and immortality for a supernatural. You had to be old enough, powerful enough, and have a god or goddess as your patron. But it wasn’t something I felt comfortable asking yet. We hadn’t even consummated our relationship. Chatting about possible god-ness sounded too over the top, especially since he was shy about telling me what kind of cat he was.
I pushed it out of my mind for now. “Okay”—I looked around—“this is as good a spot as any. I’ll change here.” Without waiting, I reached down and grabbed the end of my shirt and pulled it over my head. Rourke stood watching me, and I grinned as I tossed it away. “You better get a move on, Big Boy. You don’t want to risk jumping me once I’m naked. Or I might just jump you, so you better leave while you still can.”
Reluctantly he turned and left. I shimmied out of my leggings and lay down completely naked in the cool grass. Summer was moving on and the nights were getting chilly, especially in the mountains. My nipples budded painfully and I forced myself to ignore how much they ached.
“Are you ready?” Rourke called from his spot. His voice sounded strained and I knew without a doubt he could see me and it w
as killing him.
I felt a little better. At least I wasn’t the only letch in town.
“Ready.” I switched control to my wolf on a thought.
The shift was smooth and effortless.
My body had become more accustomed to shifting with each change. The first time had been a train wreck. I’d fought it with everything I had, and it had been the worst thing I could’ve done. Now it felt natural and fluid. My back arched as my legs extended. Fur sprouted along my skin like a soft blanket.
The change took less than a minute.
Once I was finished, I blinked and glanced around. The night was clear. Everything was more detailed and easier to see in this form. We called our animal form our “true form” because it was our body’s most natural form. We hailed from humans, spent most of our time in a human form, but animals were our true nature. It felt unbelievably free to be in this body. This is what all shifters craved.
I lifted my muzzle to the sky, resisting the urge to howl. The darkness wasn’t absolute. Instead objects glowed around me in an amber haze, my eyes gathering light from everywhere so I could detect the smallest details. As I stood, I inhaled, raking air in over my sensitive tongue, tasting all the flavors of the night.
Then his scent hit me.
My wolf barked and our voice carried into the night sky. We were linked so closely in this form that control hung on a blink. My heart began to race as his musk engulfed us. I was in control now, but my wolf was agitated and a low growl escaped.
His scent was a thousand times stronger in his true form.
Cloves and rich molasses were intertwined with a kind of power that I didn’t understand. It didn’t feel godlike, like Selene’s had, but it was still incredibly strong. His smell calmed us, but his power frightened us. It sent currents of pressure into our body, warning us, urging us to flee. My wolf wanted to run. No, hold still. This is right. She whined and pushed herself into me, making us stagger. I know. I smell it, too, but he’s not going to hurt us. Focus on the signature, not on the power.
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