“What you are, pup,” the old Were said with disdain and contempt dripping from his voice, “is an unfortunate accident.”
The words ripped Slade to the core, reopening old emotional wounds he had long since let scar over. The incredible sadness and fear when he’d lost his mother, the horrible loneliness that had followed. The feelings that he’d never belong anywhere or to anyone. The anger he’d felt at being lied to by everyone. Everyone but Raina.
That’s Eris in there feeding your pain, he told himself briskly. Don’t buy into what she’s saying. Block her out. Focus. Watch for the first opening.
“That bitch should never have left our pack. She sullied herself with the vampires, made sure you were unfit to be brought into our pack. We had no choice but to discipline her and get rid of you. If anyone is to blame for your condition it’s your mother.”
That did it. Eris. Bracken. It didn’t matter. They’d threatened Raina and taken away his mother.
A red-hot mess of anger bubbled up, seething and roiling in Slade’s gut, making him want to lunge and tear the old Were limb from limb with his teeth and claws.
Remember this is Eris talking to you through Bracken. Achilles’s voice echoing his own reality in his head helped him refocus. She will do anything to throw you off balance, especially if it tangles up your emotions and makes her stronger.
So what the hell do I do? Slade shot back.
Remain as passive as you can emotionally. Become focused like a laser. There is no emotion about this. It’s just another mission. You are to take out the Were leader and dispel Eris.
But if I kill him, then I get stuck with some bullshit about being a new leader of a reluctant pack of Weres.
Focus, solider. This isn’t about you. This is about the mission. Only the mission.
Slade relaxed, and his movements became slow and deliberate, looking for his opening and gauging how far he’d have to jump to be at the old Were’s throat. He didn’t know if in his current form the vampire venom would still flow. He tested it, and tasted the distinctive almond flavor of the venom swirl over his tongue. One more good bite, nice and deep, and the venom would do the rest.
Behind Bracken, a line of ten wolves lined up, baring their teeth. “Too bad we’ll have to kill the Whisperer once we’ve finished with you. You’ve ruined her, as well. You ruin everything you touch, don’t you?” Eris taunted with the yips and tenor of Bracken.
The image of Raina lying bleeding and broken blasted into his mind, filling it. The only light in her unseeing eyes was reflections from the starlit sky, and it tore away his ability to breathe, and shattered his concentration. Eris could infiltrate the Were mind much more easily than the vampires. No wonder they followed her so blindly.
The mission, focus on the mission! Achilles urged.
With all due respect, Commander, screw you. If Eris wants Raina, she’s going to have to kill me to do it.
Not just you, brother. Remember, we’re all behind you in this.
Slade’s glance darted briefly behind him and there stood the rest of the vampire security force—Mikhail, James, Titus and Dmitri—armed and ready. Surprise fluttered in his stomach. He was fully wolfed out and yet they were still there. Slade nodded at the vampires. He knew they couldn’t understand him if he talked aloud to them in wolf form, so he tried to talk using his vampire skills. Hey, nice of you to join me. Slade was pleasantly surprised they still worked.
We’re here for you, brother, Dmitri said, confidence resonating from his tone.
Mikhail ground a closed fist into his open palm. “Let’s get this party started.” A throwing star in James’s hand caught a glint of moonlight.
Slade turned back to Bracken and the line of Weres backing him. “Last chance, Eris, let Bracken and the Weres go.”
“Or what, vampire? You’ll kill this old wolf?” Bracken let out a braying laugh that sounded entirely too much like the goddess of chaos. “Perhaps you ought to worry less about your enemies and more about your friends.” A blue-eyed Bracken raised his muzzle to the moon and howled, the howl of the hunt.
Slade’s ears swiveled as he picked up the sound of grunts behind him. He swiftly glanced back and saw his brother vampires had gone awkwardly stiff.
“What the hell, man, I can’t move!” Mikhail shouted.
“Me, either,” Titus said as he strained against the invisible hold locking down on them.
“It’s…Eris…the blue…moon.” Dmitri forced the words out past clenched teeth.
Suddenly James’s body began to wobble about. He drew back his arm and threw a metal star at Slade. Slade darted out of the way.
What are you doing? he yelled at James with his mind.
I don’t know. I can’t control my movements. Watch out! Another star flew, cutting the hair on Slade’s ruff of fur about his neck. Damn. Double damn. Achilles had been right. Eris was able to control them by drawing down the moon and combining it with the bounty of negative emotion swirling among them.
Slade dashed away, circling back around to get at Bracken from behind. “Let them go!” he said as he careened into the wolf.
Bracken huffed but didn’t go down. He twisted, gnashing his dagger-sharp fangs at Slade. “So you would rather have them fight each other?”
Ahh! Slade’s gaze darted up to see Mikhail pull a knife, his body skidding toward Achilles as if dragged forward by an invisible rope.
Achilles didn’t move. His eyes widened. The orchalcium chain! Phase it. Only that can stop her!
Slade leaped over Bracken, slapping him in the head with a back paw as he sailed over, then slammed into Mikhail, sending him and the knife into the bushes. He phased the chain from Achilles into his mouth. Slade heard the soft slithering sound of metal links sliding against one another.
A scream snapped his head around. Ty had run at Raina, cutting her away from the possessed vampires. She attempted to fight him off with her fist pummeling him in the ears and face, but he bit her about the waist in an attempt to drag her away from the canyon. The smell of her blood, ripe and sweet, spiked the air.
His first impulse was to run to her, but then Bracken laughed, the sound wrong and multiplied like it was channeled through a set of speakers until it filled the canyon. “You vampires are no match for a goddess. On your knees.”
Slade fought the tremendous pounding in his ichor, as wave after wave beat against him. He fought it, spreading his paws and absorbing strength from the earth. Mikhail came crawling from the bushes and the rest of the team were forced to all fours on the ground. “I am Eris, goddess of chaos, and you will yield to me.”
Slade twisted his head just enough to see Bracken, the Were’s eyes glowing like blue lit neon. Slade knew he had one shot. Just one to save his brothers, and Raina.
He darted in a zigzag, and jumped, then ricocheted off the rock wall and dove for Bracken’s throat.
His teeth sank in hard and deep. His mouth filled with a spurt of hot blood as he injected a fresh flow of venom that swirled through the orchalcium chain in his mouth. He watched the light fade from the alpha’s eyes, the blue fading to glassy brown.
A compression wave, like a sonic boom with Bracken at the center, radiated outward. It knocked Slade to the ground with the force of a bulldozer and bowled over the other Weres and vampires, tossing them like dead leaves in a gust of wind. Raina was torn away from Ty and was flung against the rocks with a sickening crunch.
The wind swirled, tearing through the trees like a cyclone with them at the vortex, accompanied by an angry cry as the goddess dispersed. Slade crawled toward Raina’s limp body, his claws digging into the ground to give him purchase against the vicious pull of the air.
A great gaping wound tore open her side. His heart, which hadn’t beat since he’d been changed, twisted, fracturing inside his chest. Without warning, Slade felt himself begin to shift again, the muscles and tendons, bone, skin and hair pulling and shrinking back into his human form. With a shaking hand he pulled Raina aga
inst his bare chest.
Her sweet blood saturated her clothing, and her body spasmed from the pain. “Stay with me, babe,” he murmured. Brilliant moonlight picked out the sheen of perspiration over her skin, making it seem pearlescent. Slade glanced up at the heavy, full moon overhead and howled his anguish. Her pulse was growing slower and fainter. She was dying. He had only one choice.
He could turn her into a vampire and she would go with the clan, where he’d never be allowed again, or he could lose her forever.
The thought of a world without her hurt worse than the cold bone-chilling, body-immobilizing pain of the DMD James had shot at him. But he’d never made another vampire before. Before Raina, his work had always been enough for him. He wasn’t even certain he could.
Nearby, Bracken’s lifeless body burst into flames, creating a wash of heat that nearly blistered his skin. The rest of the pack began to howl, acknowledging their lost leader. Ty stepped up beside him, still in his wolf form, his great brown eyes filled with remorse. “I tried to take her away from here. Away from the goddess.”
Slade tightened his hold on Raina and growled at him, baring his double fangs. “What you did was mortally wound her.”
Ty bent down, placing his muzzle between his front feet and rolling slightly to the side. “What would you have me do, alpha?”
“I am not your damn alpha!”
Ty cautiously glanced at the other wolves. “But you slew Bracken, sir.”
Slade grabbed Ty by the ruff of fur about his neck and shook him hard. “I didn’t kill your leader. You can thank your moon goddess for that one.”
“Sorry, sir. But by right of battle you are our new alpha.”
“You take the job. I’ve got bigger things to worry about.”
A swirl of the scent of homemade bread turned Slade’s head. The white wolf beside him slowly transformed into Raina’s aunt Mo, her white hair long and flowing about her as she crouched beside him. “Leave him be, Ty.”
Ty rose and slowly walked away, his head hanging low. She turned her dark, wise eyes on him. “The bite of the alpha can cause our kind to transition. Either way, her life is in your hands. You must decide who you choose to be, Blackwolf.”
Slade turned away from her and gently brushed the strands of Raina’s dark silken hair from her neck with his fingers, stirring the unique scent that cloaked her skin.
Were alpha or vampire? Did it matter? No. Not if he didn’t have Raina. None of it mattered.
He bent low, brushing his lips against the softness of her skin, and found the small soft spot that barely pulsed with life. He sank his fangs into her. Her blood was hot and strawberry-sweet and still filled with the life force that ebbed away. He drank deeply, draining away enough to insure the transition would take, then slit his own vein in his wrist with his fangs and poured his black ichor into the wound at her side.
Her pulse became a weak beat, barely tethering her to life. Slade buried his face in her hair, unsure if she would transition. The weight of a large hand on his shoulder caused him to glance up. Achilles stood by him, as he always had. “If she is to transition we will need to get her into the ground to rest.”
Panic caused his stomach to shrivel as her pulse stopped and her body went fully limp in his arms. “I can’t take her back to the complex.”
The sad look in Achilles’s eyes confirmed his worst suspicions. “It’ll take time to sort that out. Right now we need to worry about your new fledgling. I’ll get a place prepared for her.” Achilles disintegrated into a swirl of dark particles.
For Slade nothing else, not the night sky studded with stars and a huge full moon, or the hushed rasping whisper of the wind in the trees, or the scrape of the Were pack’s paws over stone as they sat vigil on the far edge of the canyon, mattered. The entire world had been reduced to the woman in his arms. “Don’t leave me, please don’t leave me, too,” he whispered into her hair.
Slade rocked Raina’s limp body. Where the hell was Achilles? “Hold on, babe. I’m right here.” He clutched her close to him as a tugging pull centered at his navel, turned them both to dark dust, transporting them to an open space amid the trunks of huge trees.
“It’s the best I can do. Get in,” Achilles said, as he pointed to the double-wide grave-size hole in the forest floor.
Slade carried Raina into the hole and phased a blanket to cover them both, his powers stronger now that he had fed from her. He held her close, his body curved protectively around hers, waiting for her heartbeat to return, for a breath, for any indication that she had survived. He looked at Achilles, and spoke, the words sticking painfully in his throat. “What can I do?” he implored.
“Wait. And that’s the hardest part. I have to see to the others and get them back to the clan before sunrise.”
Slade nodded. This was not Achilles’s battle to fight. “Thank you,” he said. “For everything.”
The kind look Achilles gave him spoke volumes and soothed the edges of his frayed nerves. “Never underestimate the power of family. No matter what the council decrees, you are always welcome in my home.”
Achilles vanished in a curl of smokelike particles and Slade was left alone with Raina in his arms. She was still, so damn still, and yet the world continued to flow around them. Slade stared up at the sky, watching the stars and planets shift, and sent up a prayer to whoever would listen that they would save this woman who had become the center of his universe.
He watched her, memorizing the play of the fractured moonlight coming through the branches overhead as it played against her still features. He’d give anything, be anything, even embrace being a Were, to have her come back to him again.
In his arms Raina stirred. His heart nearly did a backflip in response. “Raina,” he said softly. Her eyes snapped open, startled. Slade couldn’t detect a pulse or heartbeat, but her dark eyes sparkled with awareness and, more importantly, with life.
“Where are we?” she asked, her voice as soft as the rustle of the leaves. She barely moved, grunting with the effort.
“Together,” he answered simply.
“Bracken?”
“Dead.”
“Eris?”
“Gone. For now.”
Her hand strayed to the bloodstained fabric at her side. “Ty bit me.”
“Yes, he did. And he’ll have to answer for it to me.”
“You’re the alpha now?”
Slade quirked up one brow. “Aren’t you supposed to be mated to the alpha?”
She chuckled. “Yeah. But I’m still kind of fuzzy how this all happened. Last thing I knew you were a ginormous black wolf leaping at Bracken and then a blast wave slammed me against the rocks.”
Slade caught her hand. Holding it, he looked deeply into her eyes, his gaze saying what he could not. That he loved her and would do anything for her. “I thought I’d lost you.”
She chuckled, but it came out rough and raw. “So did I.”
Raina’s hand shifted, feeling for the small twin indentions on her neck, and lower to where she should have felt her pulse. But Slade knew there was none.
Her eyes widened slightly with surprise. “I don’t have a pulse. You turned me into a vampire?”
“Either that or, by killing Bracken, I changed you into a Were. Possibly both.”
She frowned. “I don’t understand. What am I, then? A half-breed like you?” She reached out and touched his lips, and ran her finger down the cleft in his chin, stoking the fire within him.
His mouth slanted down possessively on hers, searing her into his senses. Every nerve and fiber of his being responded instinctively to her, feeling for the first time he was truly home. He pulled back and stared at the woman who understood him and accepted him as no other could. Slade curled his mouth into a heartbreaking, patented bad-boy vampire smile, with just a touch of wolf.
“What you are, Officer, is mine.”
* * * * *
ISBN: 9781459223387
Copyright © 2012 by Theresa M
eyers
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The Half-Breed Vampire Page 21
