Rodger stood. He paced for a moment before turning back to her. “Okay. So I bought from outside the Brotherhood. It was cheaper. Clearly a bad move. If you’re here to kill me, do it. If you’re not, then let’s talk about striking up a new business arrangement.”
The sudden gleam in his eyes made her skin crawl even worse. She forced herself to remain calm, though. She stood, moving to his private store of liquor. Ah. There we go. She pulled out a bottle of black cherry wine. His personal favorite, stuff he had imported all the way from Italy. Val poured herself a large tumbler full.
“Tell you what. I’ll let you keep going at our previous rates… in exchange for some information.”
Rodger moved up behind her. One of his large hands planted on her ass while he reached around to take the bottle of wine. “Always about business, aren’t you?”
She snarled. “Remove your hand.”
“Your talents are wasted on that sorry sap of a brother. I remember where your true talents lie. If you ever feel like coming back to work, I’ve got a place open for you. Always.” His breath wafted across her neck.
The familiarity of this situation made her freeze. She’d come to Rodger when she was a new single mom, Artemis just a baby, looking for a way to get clean. Leave the gang life behind her and have a proper family life for her kid. And here, in this office, she had ended up doing things that she regretted, things that left her feeling sick of herself, far more than anything she’d done for the gang.
“You remember the great times we had, Valarie?” Rodger kissed her neck lightly. “I don’t even care that you went and got yourself knocked up anymore. We’d make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
His arm wrapped around her waist and spun her toward the desk. She knew what he intended; pin her down, yank her pants off and have his way with her. Wasn’t that how Sekhmet was conceived? When he told her that he’d give her a double bonus if she just submitted to him. So, she had. At the time, she had even convinced herself that she wanted it. He was charming, he was attractive.
And she wasn’t a scared, naive kid anymore.
Snarling, Val twisted out of his grasp. She smashed her glass into his face, then grabbed both his arms and yanked them behind his back. Rodger let out a hiss of mingled surprise and pain. Val threw him face-down on the desk and crawled over him, pressing a knee painfully into the back of his neck. He grunted, struggling uselessly.
“I’m not a struggling eighteen-year-old girl you can take advantage of anymore, bear.”
“Take advantage? Please! You practically begged me to fuck you.” Rodger growled, but it trailed off to a hiss. “Your daddy complex isn’t my fault.”
Val grabbed one of his hands and twisted sharply until she felt bone snap. Rodger screamed, sweat breaking out over his face. She returned to her previous position, keeping him pinned. “Let’s try these business negotiations again, shall we? You tell me who your supplier is, I don’t kill you.”
Rodger hissed again. “I never met the guy. I got some stuff dropped off, then a call promising more at half the price you Savages charge. He even dropped off more upfront. I just had to leave the money in the park the next day.”
“And you didn’t think that was suspicious?” Val cursed under her breath, but released him. Rodger straightened, cradling his broken wrist to his chest. He flinched when Val stepped closer. “I find you’ve been pushing dirty drugs on these women again and I’ll cut off your most important bit. Got it?”
Savage triumph rose in her as Rodger nodded.
She spun on her heel and left him, moaning in pain as he slumped into his chair once more. Bastard deserved it. Perhaps her meaning wasn’t fully driven in. Maybe he could use another lesson...
A wave of nausea suddenly hit her. Val closed her eyes briefly, choking back vomit. She breathed deeply through her nose, focusing on moving through it. When she started to feel a little better, she straightened. She didn’t want to go back through the smoky front room, so she headed out the back.
When the door slammed open, Melanie jumped. She wore a robe over her sparkling body, and when she saw Val, her face went white. A phone was clutched in her hand and her mouth opened and closed as though begging for mercy. Val softly closed the door and turned to her.
“That Cunningham?”
Melanie flinched.
Answer enough. Val snatched the phone from her and snapped it in half. As the other feline shifter drew back, Val reached into her pocket and pulled out her wallet. She still had the money from a previous drop in it. Withdrawing the whole wad, she thrust it into Melanie’s hands. Melanie's eyes widened as she stared at the money.
“Look.” Val’s kept her voice soft, a tone usually only her girls heard. “Get out of here. Away from this bastard. Away from this hellhole of a town. Get out before it’s too late. Rodger likes curvy cats and I can promise he’s got an eye on your… kitten.” She stepped away, then turned back and smiled her most chilling smile. “Oh, and if you try to interfere with gang business again, I will mess you up. Friend or no friend of Ava’s. Now give me your keys.”
Melanie handed them over without a word.
***
Val sat on the hood of Melanie's clunker car at a rest stop three hours away from Coalfell. One arm wound tight around her waist while she held her phone to her ear. “Be a good girl for Auntie Ava and Uncle Jackson,” she told Freya, tears burning her eyes as the desire to hold her babies rushed over her. “I love you.”
“Love you too, Mama.”
She clamped her lip down hard on her teeth, fighting the urge to cry. Moments later, Jackson’s voice came over the line.
“They’ll be fine, Val. I promise.”
“I know. I don’t know when I’m going to be able to get back, though. I’m headed over to Ivywood. Lay low with Thunder for a bit.”
Jackson made a disgruntled noise. Typical big brother. It made Val smile, except it didn’t last long.
“Jackson...”
“Yeah?” Concern colored his voice.
Val lost her nerve. “Call me every night before putting the girls to bed, okay?”
“Sure.” Jackson chuckled. “I promise.”
She hung up without another word. Nausea washed over her again, but she knew that the pit toilets on offer here would only make it worse. Of all the dumb things—she had to go and get herself pregnant again, didn’t she? Worst timing ever.
Nothing to do about it now. She doubted that Cunningham would soften toward her just because she was preggers.
As she slid off the car’s hood, a man strode from the trees. Tall, thin, pale. Smelling sweetly of rotten fruit. Val tensed. Sunset still hung in the west, making the vampire’s fangs gleam red when he smiled. He was more muscular than vamps normally were. Smelled strange, too… almost meaty. Like a living thing.
“Valerie Masters?” he asked, as though he was greeting her on a runway. “Hello. My name is Cromwell. I’m the new king of the vampire clan near Coalfell.”
Val rolled to the balls of her feet. “Right. So how come you’re prancing around in daylight?”
Cromwell ignored her, his gaze sliding down her body. “I didn’t know that the alpha’s sister was so beautiful… you’d make an excellent little pet, wouldn’t you?”
“Fuck you!” Val sprang forward.
Before she could land a single blow, though, a dozen vampires suddenly burst from the trees. A ripple passed through her, warning her that she was crossing through into vampire territory. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled. Val hissed between her teeth, recognizing her mistake too late. She turned on her heel, intent on rushing back to the shifter side of the border.
Hands grabbed her arms and hair. They yanked her off her feet and dragged her into the forest. The road disappeared as she screamed and spat, twisting but unable to free herself. When they stopped, the vampires forced her to her knees before Cromwell. Val hissed, her heart hammering. The vampire smiled at her, clearly enjoying her struggles. She forced
herself to still, just so he’d have something less to laugh about, and glared hatefully as he knelt in front of her.
“This is exactly what I needed. Thank you so much for delivering yourself right into my hands, Shadow. Your sacrifice will usher in a new chapter for vampire-shifter relations.”
The vampires all around her guffawed with laughter. Cromwell grabbed her hair and yanked her head back, exposing her throat. His face took on a hideous hunger as he unhinged his jaws, ready to drain her dry.
Chapter Four
Blizzard
Gabriel saw a vehicle parked in the rest area and turned off toward it. He had only a vague description of the car Val had stolen—Melanie seemed quite distracted when she was telling him about it—but that car seemed to fit.
What the hell was going on with her? Val was the last person he’d ever expect to act crazy like this and yet, here she was. Dealing drugs. Breaking wrists. Smashing phones. It wasn’t like her at all. Was there trouble going on with the gang that he didn’t know about? She had said that they were getting bored. Was the restlessness related to Jackson getting himself a mate? Did the gang see him as being weaker now?
Was Val having to prove that the Masters siblings were as tough as ever so that they didn’t end up with a coup on their hands?
Gabriel wasn’t sure what he’d do if that were the case. His involvement would just make things worse for Val and Tornado, but if the gang was getting ready for a civil war, it’d end up spilling over onto civilians. Something he could not allow.
Those thoughts were driven from his head as soon as he exited his car. Val’s scent clung heavy to the area—along with the sickly scent of vampires.
The hair prickled on the back of his neck, and Gabriel immediately drew his gun. He crouched low between the cars, eyes scanning the area. His heart pounded against his chest. Val had been attacked by vampires again. Red sunlight still streamed in the sky; from the strength of the smell, they must have been here recently.
His teeth curled over his lips as he began to follow the trail. His ears strained for any noise in the forest, and, with luck, he picked up a bout of laughter. His stomach twisted sickeningly. His wolf pounded against his ribs, telling him to simply rush in and tear the vampires apart. But that would only lead to further trouble. So, he moved downwind before he entered the forest and slowly, methodically, so he wouldn’t make a noise, began to creep up on the vampires.
What had Val gotten herself mixed up in this time? It would serve her right to get killed if she messed with vamps—as a shiver ran over him, indicating the charm placed on the border between shifter and vampire territory, he ground his teeth—especially messing with vamps on their own turf!
Soon, he could see them between the branches and bushes. He crouched low, observing. Val was held on her knees before an usually muscular vampire. He tensed when he caught the faint scent of blood.
The vampire grabbed her by the hair and yanked her head back. His fangs glittered in the dying light and Gabriel’s wolf surged forward. He had shifted before he realized it. Just as he was about to leap forward, though, Val spoke, and the vampire froze.
“You kill me, you end up just like your former king,” she spat, struggling against the vamps that held her down. “My brother will turn you into dust!”
A thrill of horror ran down Gabriel’s spine. It was true. If Val was killed by vampires, there was nothing that would stop Tornado from hunting down and murdering every vampire he could, whether or not they were involved in her death. He wouldn’t respect the treaty between them; vampires had every right to kill shifters that wandered onto their territory, that was why the warning was in place.
And Tornado, once he started killing, would be indiscriminate. He’d kill in vampire territory and the treaty would then demand that the vampires could pick a shifter at will, one for every one of their fallen comrades, and kill them.
“We’re counting on it,” the vampire laughed, yanking her head back again. “Oh, my sweet little leopard. Why do you think we chose you? The bond between you and your brother is strong. So strong that when you are dead, Coalfell will fall. Your brother’s place as alpha will weaken. He will be consumed with vengeance. It will be all too easy to provoke him into running a raid against my kingdom.”
Val didn’t respond, but she did stop struggling. So, she saw it too. Gabriel lowered himself to his belly and started inching forward, gaze sharp on the scene. As long as the vampire kept talking, he had a chance to get close enough…
“And then what?” Val’s voice shook; that drove Gabriel’s anxiety levels up. Adrenaline flooded his system. “You provoke him into attacking you…. Because you want to have a war on your hands?”
The vampire laughed again, a triumphant gleam in his eye. The other vampires chuckled along with him. “Well, yes. But that’s the long game, Shadow. No. Once Tornado is hellbent on killing every single vampire in existence, all I will need to do is invoke the Contract of Peace to get Typhoon to come and wipe the Coalfell chapter out. I have no intention of bowing before the shifters like other weak kings do. No. I will see my people rise once more.”
“Aw, poor widdle vampire,” Val taunted. “Your dung heap not good enough for you anymore?”
Her voice took on a familiar tone as Gabriel got himself into position. Now he just needed to wait for the right moment, so he could free her and they could get the hell out of vampire territory! The vampires that milled about the muscular one and Val were all eagerly watching the scene, the two that held her in place chuckling. Nobody expected help to arrive.
The vampire yanked her head back again. “Shifters. You think you are so clever. You live like animals. And now, you will die like one.”
As he widened his jaws once more, Gabriel sprang in. He howled, drawing attention to himself, as he bowled into one of the vampires holding Val. His teeth locked around its arm, and he yanked it away from her before releasing it and lunging at the other. The vampire released Val to face him. The muscular vampire’s cry of fury cut off to a howl of pain as Val head-butted him. Her claws swiped across his face.
Gabriel grinned and turned his attention back to his own vampires. Two of them came at him from either side and he lunged for a third and yanked it back in time for its two fellows to stab through its body with their long claws. As it shrieked, he flung the three of them to the side and leapt onto the back of another. Claws raked down his flank and he twisted, jaws snapping over the limb of his attacker. He wrenched his head to one side, pulling the arm clean off.
His wolf howled, driving for the kill, but he merely shouldered the maimed vampire aside and bit down into the thigh of another. He couldn’t kill any of them. Not while in their territory.
From the corner of his eye, he saw Val lunging for the muscular vampire’s throat. Her eyes were blood-red. Gabriel ripped away from the vampire he was fighting and threw himself over her. Her teeth grazed the vampire’s throat but didn’t find purchase. They tumbled together a few times, breaking clear of the ring of vamps. Val snarled, her spotted body twisting out from beneath him. She lunged again, and he clamped his teeth on her tail, yanking her back.
Fiery, burning pain erupted from his side. He howled, twisting away from the agony, to find a vampire pulling its fangs from his body. Everything seemed to stop as the green venom dripped from the vampire’s mouth. It laughed.
Then Val screamed. His head whipped around to find Val stumbling away from the muscular one. Her blood shone red, mingled with the venom on the vampire’s lips. Gabriel started moving toward her, but even as he did so, his head spun. His feet felt sluggish.
“This was most entertaining,” the muscular vampire drawled. “But time is of the essence. Don’t worry about your little girls, Shadow. They will be most useful in my plans.”
Val’s head whipped around. Her eyes were utterly blood-red now, no emotion on her face as her lips curled back into a snarl. A chill stole down his spine. She was in full berserker mode. There was nothing to s
top her from killing these vampires. And for each life she took, another shifter would die.
As she lunged for the muscular vampire once more, Gabriel found himself again attacking her. This time he clamped his teeth over the back of her neck and dragged her several feet before she flipped onto her back and lashed out, her claws tearing across his belly. He howled with pain as she sprang back up and sunk her teeth into his shoulder.
“This is most amusing indeed,” the vampire shouted, as the others laughed. “The cat and the dog, fighting each other.”
Except now, Val’s attention was solely focused on him. She had tasted his blood. To her, everything else will have disappeared. And so, he ran. A vampire sprang into his path to stop him, but he threw it aside and bolted through the trees. Behind him, Val’s furious scream followed. Her claws caught the edge of his tail. His whole body throbbed with every step, but he didn’t stop.
Sweet relief overcame him when he passed over the barrier line. It didn’t last long, as Val sprang onto his back, tearing at his neck. He rolled, throwing her off. A few of the vampires charged after them, but at a shout from the muscular one, they retreated.
“They’re dead anyway.”
Well, that was true enough. Gabriel flattened his ears against his skull as he faced Val, her blood-red eyes not wavering. Blood pumped from various wounds, but she didn’t seem to notice. Her claws were unsheathed, teeth bared. She leapt at him, a scream in her throat, and he dodged. She spun around and swiped at him. He dodged again.
He shot beneath his car, shifted to human form and opened the back door. He threw himself in and slammed it shut as Val attacked. Her claws tore at the metal and she screamed again, biting the window.
How could he get her in here without locking himself in with her? He’d built his car to contain shifters he might have to pick up. If he could just get her in here, he’d be able to drive away. The vampires all gathered at the border, pointing and laughing. He snarled under his breath, wanting to tear off their heads.
He twisted, eye lighting on the seat belt.
Blizzard: A Paranormal Romance (Savage Brotherhood MC Book 2) Page 3
