by A and E Kirk
“Gotta disagree with you there, mate, because she be better with me.” Callahan shoved Leontes forward.
Thick ropes of ice burst from the ground. They coiled around Leontes’ legs like angry serpents and bit into his flesh with sharp spikes that locked him in place.
Callahan winked. “Hello, guv. You wait right there. Someone will be along to deal with you shortly. Pup, take the little one and run along. The queen has no qualms with the shifters today. As for you, luv.” He pulled Kiara close and smiled down. “Welcome to your new home.”
CHAPTER 101
Leontes wrenched against the ice. It cracked, but did not let go. “Do not dare touch her!”
Callahan’s cohorts turned the corner. The fairies shouted in triumph at the sight of their prey and skated toward them with blazing speed. A loud pop and bright light suddenly filled the hallway. New voices shouted.
“What the fuck did you get me into?”
“Just a minute, ma mie.”
Leontes quit fighting against his bonds and stared in disbelief. “Bane?”
Bane’s voice boomed against the walls. “Kiara!”
Blue light glittered from a set of open doors constructed of a beautiful swirl of lacy ice. Inside the light, a stunningly beautiful fairy came into view. Bright red hair shone with glossy highlights. She wore a silk slip of a dress that accentuated her long, lithe curves. She saw the shrinking walls and the fairy guards barreling down the hall, then gaped in fury at the big vampire standing next to her.
Bane stepped through the fairy door. When his worried eyes landed on Kiara in Callahan’s grip, his face twisted into disgust. “Not you again.”
Kiara fluttered a blurry gaze at the redhead. “Mabel Picklesnaps? How did you get here?”
“Who the hell is Mabel Picklesnaps?” The woman glared at Bane. “Are you cheating on me?!” She looked toward Kiara. “Is he cheat— Callahan? Oh, no. I’m sorry. S-so sorry.”
Callahan took a moment to recognize Bane’s redheaded girlfriend, then his lips curled into a dangerous smile. “You are so dead.”
“No,” Kiara said quietly. “She is my cat, and you do not get to eat her.”
With the speed of a viper strike, Kiara caught Callahan by the throat with her one good hand and drew him in so close their lips almost touched. She inhaled a long, deep breath. At the same moment, Callahan exhaled. Hazy tentacles of smoky light wafted from his lips. Kiara breathed them in, and as she did, the fairy’s skin greyed.
Callahan stopped struggling against her hold and clutched his arm. Beneath his grip, the flesh of his arm burst and decayed at the same time Kiara’s arm began to repair. Tendons and muscles regrew. Amid a multitude of wet, sucking sounds, the torn pieces twined down like silk to catch their broken parts and web her arm back together. Completely healed. Good as new.
Unlike Callahan.
The fairy moaned. His eyes rolled back in his head, and when Kiara let him go, he crumpled to the ground, his arm a pulpy, ravaged mess. At the sight of their fallen leader, his men skidded to a halt in a spray of ice.
Kiara stood over Callahan, flexing her fully restored arm. “Thank you, soldier. You have been most helpful to the cause.”
Callahan’s magic now gone, the ice snapped under Leontes’ struggles. He rushed forward and scooped Kiara up in his arms. As Leontes and Jaeger raced ahead, the guards roared with fury and jumped back into action, their faces reddening as they pumped their legs and pushed faster over the ice.
Bane gave Jaeger and Giselle an extra push through the fairy door and held out his arms to Leontes. “I’ll take her.”
“Like hell.” Leontes slammed his shoulder into Bane and shoved him aside as he crossed through the periwinkle light. As the opening began to close, Kiara reached back, fingers catching the door’s edge. The sudden jolt almost knocked Leontes off his feet.
“What are you doing?” the redhead shouted. “No! Don’t you even—”
Green and gold light blinded them all, and a moment later they hit the ground hard. Kiara lost her grip on Leontes and tumbled from his arms.
Bane stood next to the fairy. “This isn’t the gate to VLAAD!”
“That’s not my fault!” The woman jabbed a finger at Kiara. “That crazy bitch hijacked my door and landed us inside enemy territory!”
She gave Bane a furious look then grabbed hold of his shirt and yanked him off balance into a kiss as they fell back through the opening. Bane reached a frantic hand to stop himself, but the door slammed shut and vanished in a spark of periwinkle light.
CHAPTER 102
They had landed in a room with timber log walls, warm lighting, and a large bed with a colorful quilt. Jaeger’s bedroom in the werewolf den.
Kiara lay on the bed where Leontes had placed her, unconscious ever since the fairy door had closed. He wiped her sweat-ridden brow with a cool washcloth while her head whipped back and forth, and she muttered a slew of unintelligible words.
A thud came from the door. “It’s me.”
Leontes pulled away the chair jammed under the knob and unlocked the door.
“I dropped off Giselle.” Jaeger slipped in, worried eyes on Kiara. “And sent one of my guys to get you a car. Should be ready soon.”
“Excellent.” Leontes sighed and tried to rub the exhaustion from his eyes. He felt weak and in desperate need of fresh blood. The sooner they got out of here, the better. “We will wait for the car outside.”
When Leontes reached to take Kiara in his arms, she jumped off the bed, suddenly wide awake and frantic, eyes shooting in every direction. She rushed to the window and slapped the curtains closed, then darted around the room, opening cabinets and drawers, searching in the closet and under the bed.
“Death awaits!” she whispered. “We must hide, hide, hide!”
Leontes caught her arm. “Worry not. I have found a safe place to hide.”
He opened the door and stopped short.
Alpha’s men and women crowded every inch of the hall to either end with fierce expressions, weapons drawn, and claws ready.
Alpha stood with confidence. The genial smile on his face betrayed by the cruel glint in his eyes. “I don’t think you’ll find any place safer than here.”
Leontes stabbed the werewolf prince with a cold look. Jaeger stared out the door, genuine confusion wrinkling his features.
“In fact, this is the only headquarters Fauxleander never broke into,” Alpha said.
Leontes forced a smile on his face. “What a generous and most benevolent offer. But I believe familiar surroundings would be most beneficial for Kiara at this difficult point in time.”
At the sight of the shifters, Kiara had jumped behind Leontes, grasping his jacket with two hands. She peeked out once then buried her face in his back repeating, “Can’t see you, can’t see me, can’t see you, can’t see me…”
“Seeing as her condition has worsened under your care, you’ll forgive me for ignoring your council.” Alpha’s voice was filled with condescension.
Leontes dropped the smile. “You have no claim to her. She belongs to the undead.”
“She’s a shifter. I have every right to claim her,” Alpha growled. “As for you, one of the undead, you’re on my territory uninvited for the second time. I am well within my rights to deal with such an interloper as I see fit. Now you can walk out of here, or I can make you a real corpse.”
“You would start a war between us?”
Alpha smirked. “Rusila won’t lift a finger against me so long as I have the girl.”
And the sorcerers would aid him, Leontes thought bitterly. He slid a glare at Jaeger. “Well…this is it. Whose side are you on, hers or theirs?”
Jaeger swallowed, flicking a nervous look between his father and Leontes.
CHAPTER 103
“Hers,” Jaeger said in a voice laced with a surprising amount of steel. “You can’t keep her against her will. She saved my life.”
Alpha smirked and flashed a dismissive glance
to one of his men, who compulsively returned the look. All of which only served to further spark Jaeger’s determination. He narrowed the gap between them.
“And she brought Giselle back safe, just like she promised she would.” Jaeger’s glare boasted a degree of menace that Alpha had rarely seen. “Kiara will go wherever the hell she wants to go.”
Kiara peeked out from behind Leontes again. “To the mansion. My room is there.”
“You heard her.” Jaeger said, stepping up to stand next to Leontes. “And if gramp—if the ambassador wants to fight his way out of here with her right now, I’ll be right by his side.”
Alpha took his time scowling around the room. Finally, he said to his guards, “Let them through. Ambassador, your car is waiting to take you and Kiara home.” He turned to Jaeger without a hint of surrender on his face. “There. You happy?”
Jaeger grabbed Leontes. “Let’s get out of here before daddy dearest changes his mind.”
“You’re going, too?” Alpha asked.
Jaeger paused. “Well, yeah. We’re kind of, uh, I want to make sure she’s okay. And I left some stuff there. So, yeah.”
As they made it through the pack of shifters who parted with begrudging looks, Kiara saw one of them holding Giselle. She scurried over and kissed the baby on the forehead, and then rushed back to hide behind Leontes, still muttering, “Can’t see me, can’t see you.”
Jaeger ruffled Giselle’s hair, then followed Leontes and Kiara down the hall. Just before they reached the stairs, Kiara stopped. Leontes felt the tug on his coat and paused. He turned.
Kiara smiled. Then her eyes rolled up, her head fell back, and she crumpled to the floor.
CHAPTER 104
“Is she dying?” Jaeger asked, glancing at Kiara unconscious in the back of the vehicle.
“Focus on the road,” Leontes reminded him yet again.
“Sure.” Jaeger’s fingers tightened on the steering wheel. “It’s just that she’s barely breathing, and the heat’s cranked on high, but she’s still cold as ice.”
“She needs to get off this mountain and under Frankie’s care as soon as possible,” Leontes said.
Jaeger grunted in agreement and tried to pass several cars and trucks, but the terrain made it too dangerous. Between the multitude of curves in the road, plus the solid face of the mountain on one side and the sheer drop off on the other, there was nowhere to go.
Frustrated, Jaeger swerved back into his lane. “This traffic sucks.”
A motorcycle with two helmeted riders appeared behind the SUV, then made the bold move to slip by, narrowly missing a collision with an oncoming car. The reckless driver passed several more cars, miraculously unscathed, and soon disappeared from sight.
“Be vigilant,” Leontes warned. “A threat could arrive from any direction.”
The sun faded and the traffic eventually thinned. After several turns, the SUV was behind the motorcycle and edging closer. Leontes saw the passenger on the bike put his arms out to his sides and float up into the air. In one graceful somersault, the man transformed into a giant phoenix, wings aflame.
“Dammit,” Leontes said. “Fauxleander is here.”
“Son of a bitch!” Jaeger yelled. “What do you want me to do?”
“Stop for nothing,” Leontes commanded.
A series of fireballs blasted into the road in front of the SUV. It swerved around or shot through the blazing infernos. But after bursting from another thick wall of flames, the SUV barreled head-on at a delivery truck.
Horns blared. Brakes screeched. The SUV veered sideways. It missed the truck by inches, and then skidded off the road, crashing through the guardrail, and launched over the cliff. After several eerily quiet seconds in the air, the SUV slammed into the mountainside and plummeted out of control, tumbling over and over in a violent crescendo of destruction.
CHAPTER 105
Battered from the long plunge down the steep mountainside, the vehicle finally landed in a crumpled, moaning heap. The engine hissed. The smell of gasoline lingered. Dirt and debris sprinkled down through the interior. Leontes opened his eyes. He felt countless lacerations and contusions. Several broken bones. Pain screamed through his body, but he knew he had better move soon.
Something thudded above, and with a squeal of protest, the roof of the crumpled SUV peeled open like a sardine can.
Leontes blinked through the blood smearing his vision. He frowned. “Detective Cage?”
The middle-aged vampire from the night of charity ball massacre peered inside. “Hello, Ambassador. Hope you don’t mind, but we’re going to take the crazy girl from the tower off your hands. Sir.”
“You are Fauxleander?”
Cage barked a laugh. “No, but thanks for the compliment.” He raked his gaze over the mangled interior. Other than Leontes, it was empty. “Where is she?” When Leontes raised a mocking brow, Cage sneered at the vampire and said, “Shit.” He called over his shoulder, “She’s not here!” Then he gritted his teeth, infuriated. “Shit. Shit, shit, shit!”
“Language, detective, language,” Leontes chided. Then he lunged up, grasped the sides of Cage’s head, and in one vicious twist, ripped it free from his body.
While most of Cage fell into the backseat, Leontes tossed the man’s head through the opening of the roof and climbed out. Stiff and bloody, brushing debris off his coat, Leontes stood on the rocky terrain. The phoenix dropped from the sky in a blaze of light, and on the second flap of its fiery wings, morphed into human form.
“Fauxleander.” Leontes cocked his head. “You are not what I expected.”
“I get that a lot.” The assassin pulled out a pistol and shot Leontes.
Once. Twice. Three times.
Leontes bucked against the triple impact, then said tiredly, “Bullets do not work on me.”
“I know,” Fauxleander said. “Where is she?”
“Beyond your reach.”
The vampire readied to fight. Claws grew from his fingertips. His eyes darkened. He bared his fangs and snarled. Then he paused. He looked down at his body and understood what Fauxleander had done.
Leontes sighed. “Damn.”
The assassin smirked. “You know you can’t win, right?”
“So it would seem,” Leontes agreed.
“Then you give up?” Fauxleander asked.
“Not in the slightest,” Leontes replied easily, and charged into a battle he knew he could not win.
CHAPTER 106
Jaeger glanced anxiously at his phone in his lap. “Gramps, what happened? Gramps!”
No answer. The phone call with Leontes had cut out amid ugly, chaotic sounds of devastation. Jaeger did not like it, but Leontes’ instructions could not be any more clear.
He squealed the werewolves’ supply van around the last hairpin turn at the top of the mountain. Up ahead, a security bar blocked the entrance to the mountain’s recreation area. The guard in the wooden booth motioned for Jaeger to slow down, but instead Jaeger stomped on the accelerator and honked the horn.
Scowling, the forest ranger stepped out of the booth and started to wave Jaeger off. He quickly realized his mistake and dove back inside just as the van smashed through the gate.
Jaeger weaved the van at high speed through the parking lot, continuing to pound on the horn. Tourists scattered. In front of the meadow next to a large shopping complex, Jaeger yanked the wheel and skidded a one-eighty to a rocky stop, and then jumped out.
At the back of the van, he wrenched open the doors, slung an unconscious Kiara over his shoulder, and ran into the middle of the clearing, feet crunching in the snow. Men and women in park ranger uniforms came out of a building, speaking into radios and heading toward the werewolf.
Jaeger looked up into the fading light of the day and shouted into his phone, “I’m here! Where the hell are—”
With a deafening roar, a helicopter zoomed low over the treetops. It circled once, then dropped into the clearing. People screamed and ran. Jaeger raise
d his arm and ducked against the ice kicked up by the rotors as he raced across the snow-covered clearing.
As the landing skids sunk a few inches into the white powder, the chopper’s door, with VLAAD painted in big crimson letters, slid open.
“Hurry up, puppy!” Frankie shouted.
CHAPTER 107
Near the hatch in Kiara’s bedroom, Jaeger, Frankie, and Bane huddled close, whispering with urgency and sending furtive glances at Kiara who lay unconscious on the bed.
“What if she finally wakes up and starts asking questions?” Jaeger asked. “I don’t want to lie to her.”
“Then keep your mouth shut, runt,” Bane snapped. “You think she’s crazy now, wait until she finds out Leontes is missing.”
Jaeger glared. “She’s not crazy.”
The sound of trickling water reached their ears. Awake and smiling, Kiara stood next to the bed, pouring tea from a teapot onto the floor.
“Kiara?” Frankie said. “You okay?”
Kiara’s lips jutted in a sad pout as she watched the tea puddle onto the hard wood. “Never better. But the flowers needed a good cry.”
Bane grunted. “Oh, yeah. That’s sane.”
Frankie thumped his arm. “At least she’s awake.”
After Frankie and Bane had left, Jaeger bent to close the hatch.
“How long?” A voice whispered in his ear.
“Son of a bitch!” Jaeger yelped and jumped away from Kiara, who stood directly behind him. “How do you do that?”
“How long has Leontes been missing?” Kiara said.
Jaeger sighed. “Over thirty-six hours. They found where he crashed, but haven’t been able to track him. Frankie and Bane are going out again to try. Shifters and witches are helping. Don’t worry. They’ll find him.” He pulled Kiara into a hug. “I’m sorry.”
