“The mortal female’s scent will be hers,” Harry said. “The Hunyaras have scattered. There’s a dozen trails we could follow. What do you think, Sid?”
“Jason and Sofia,” was her immediate response. “My gut tells me they’re the clue to finding Cathy. We can solve the other puzzles once we have Cathy home safe.”
“Agreed,” Harry said.
He hung up on her, but Sid sent a telepathic Stay in touch his way.
Chapter Twenty-two
S ofia read the text messages from Cathy again and shook her head. She didn’t like this—whatever this was.
“Too much mystery,” she grumbled.
First there’d been the crazy relatives and the sexy stranger attaching himself to her. Now the missing cousin had reappeared but was being obtuse.
My senses are just about on overload. Got to get it together. I’ve got to get it under control.
But why do I feel the sudden need to be the one that’s responsible? I’m not an alpha type, I’m a lone wolf.
And why am I using that sort of analogy?
She paced the motel room restlessly, the tension building in her making her want to scream. She needed a clear head. She needed a plan.
Sofia did not for one moment believe that her cousin was on her way to meet her here.
She missed Jason, missed him with every thought and breath. She missed him with her soul and every cell of her body. She missed him so much she couldn’t stop herself from picking up the pillow his head had rested on and breathing in the scent of him that lingered there.
“Crazy.”
Maybe she’d been too hard on him.
And maybe this was no time to obsess over her personal problems. She had to make sure Cathy was all right before she let herself worry about Sofia.
She noticed her laptop sitting on the motel room desk and smiled. She knew of one sure way to focus her thoughts. She might as well use the time spent waiting to get her head in order.
She sat down at the desk and switched on the computer. “Thank goodness this place has WiFi,” she said, and soon began to type.
“Well, look what just popped up on Live Journal.”
“What?” Sid asked Eden.
“A fresh posting from our girl Sofia. Let’s see what she has to say. While sitting here waiting for a werewolf—”
“What?” Sid bounded to her feet.
“Hush.” Eden waved her back down. “Listen. ‘I can’t help but think about Jane Eyre.’”
“What does Jane Eyre have to do with—”
Eden gave her a withering look, and Sid subsided.
“‘It’s one of my favorite books,’” Eden read on from the blog posting. “‘I love Jane’s strength of character, her independent spirit, her resiliency. I guess I’ve unconsciously identified with her—a poor orphan girl making her way in a cruel world, with pride and dignity intact, and all that.
“‘But I never understood her and Rochester. I never understood that whole “passionate soul mates meant for each other” rubbish.
“‘Rochester tried to trick her into marrying him when he already had a mad wife up in the attic (and btw, the first thing I said to the person I’m really writing about was a reference to Jane Eyre). Anyway, Rochester lied to Jane, tried to trap her into a bigamous marriage, fell apart and felt sorry for himself when his nefarious plan was thwarted, and just generally acted in an irresponsible, selfish fashion.
“‘I believe in honesty and restraint. Unbridled passion creeps me out.
“‘But, still—I think I’m beginning to understand why she couldn’t stay away from him despite her own self-respect and pride. Jane couldn’t stop herself from running back to Rochester. He called to her and she had to answer the call.
“‘Maybe when you love someone, you forgive them. Maybe pride and love have nothing to do with each other. Maybe Rochester couldn’t help what he did because he needed Jane to be with him, no matter what. I begin to get it, this call of passion despite one’s better judgment. It sucks.’”
“I wonder what she’s talking about?” Eden asked.
“It sounds like the beginning of a bond to me.”
Eden wasn’t the only one who jumped at the sound of David Berus’s voice. She hadn’t seen, heard, or felt him come in, but there he stood, large and blond and handsome, beside Eden’s desk.
He turned a smile on her. “I met Charlotte Brontë once; she was quite old at the time. The lady certainly knew what she was talking about.”
“I thought Charlotte Brontë died young,” Sid said.
“That was the cover story that took her out of the mortal world,” David answered. “She was bonded to a Prime. So of course she understood about soul mates and passion.”
He looked away suddenly, and an awkward silence stretched out.
Sid noticed Eden almost shrinking in on herself in the hope of not being noticed. Eden had been born into a family of vampire hunters, and mortal hunters were responsible for the death of David’s vampire bondmate.
Back in the bad old days the hunters had concentrated on killing vampire females, knowing that few daughters were born to vampires and only female vampires could give birth to vampire children. Sid knew her people had good reasons for the protected, circumscribed lives led by their women, despite her rebellion against the old ways.
David Berus had survived the loss of his bondmate, but the scars of that loss on his soul were still there in his eyes when he looked at Sid again.
She fought the urge to hug him and say “There, there.” If she let herself get close to him, Lady Juanita’s plan to hook her up with this very admirable Prime might succeed. Oh, no, that wasn’t going to happen. She had plans of her own.
“Do you think Sofia is bonding with the Cage Prime?” Eden suddenly asked.
Not until I get my hands on a paper cup full of his sperm, Sid thought.
“Lady Juanita thinks so,” David said.
“Cage and Sofia just met, so if they’re bonding that quickly, that means Cathy’s cousin is strongly psychic,” Eden said. “I wonder what Sofia’s being psychic has to do with werewolves?”
“I bet it means something,” Sid said. When David came to stand by her desk, she stood and almost moved backward. Instead, she kept the desk between them and asked, “What can Bleythin Investigations do for you, David?”
He smiled. “I’m hoping I can be of some help to Bleythin Investigations. Lady Juanita suggested I apply for a position with your firm.”
She’d been afraid he’d say something like that. “She wants us to work together, does she?”
“You know she does.” He moved around the desk to stand close beside her. “The question is, what do you want?” His voice was rich and deep, and utterly seductive.
She didn’t respond to him at all, and almost wished she could. If only she could feel something for one of her own kind! Sid met his coffee-dark gaze and tried to let his searching look spark something inside her.
Nope.
Chapter Twenty-three
S id tried to think of something to say, but thankfully the office door opened and her mother came bustling in with Toni in her arms.
“Mommy!” Toni called. The toddler held her arms out to Eden.
“You do know she can walk?” Eden asked as she came to take her daughter. Her actions did nothing to prove this as she balanced the girl on her hip.
“I know you’re very busy, Eden,” Antonia said. “But I thought you could use a Mommy break.”
“You are so right,” Eden said, hugging Toni close. She began to stroke her daughter’s cheek.
Sid noticed the fond look David gave the women and child, which she thought was sweet. But she didn’t appreciate it when he put his hand on her shoulder.
She slipped away from his touch and approached her mother. She barely managed not to growl when David followed close behind her. Maybe she had been hanging out with werewolves too much.
“What’s Danny doing?” Toni asked, st
aring hard at the man seated behind Cathy’s desk. Oh, he’s time walking, the little girl added telepathically.
When Antonia winced, David put a hand comfortingly on her shoulder and said to Toni, “Use your out-loud voice, honey. You have quite a gifted child,” he said to Eden.
Antonia brightened with pride and grinned with anticipation. “You don’t know the half of it. Show Mommy, Toni.”
Toni obediently turned her head and bit her mother’s thumb.
Sid caught the sweet scent of blood as Eden shouted in pain and almost dropped her daughter.
But she held on, and so did Toni, suckling like any proper baby vampire. Eden started to pull her thumb out of Toni’s mouth, but after a moment she gave a contented sigh and let the girl draw small sips from the bite.
“Nothing as good as mother’s blood,” Antonia said.
Sid was totally confounded. “But Toni’s not—one of us.”
“She’s a daughter of the Clan,” Antonia stated firmly. “Lady Juanita and I have suspected she’d make the change, and when her baby teeth popped out this morning we were sure.”
“But how?” Sid asked. “Children born to mortals and Primes are always mortal themselves.”
“Not always,” Antonia said. “Why don’t you explain, Eden? Hunters understand the process, don’t they?”
“Yeah. But I never expected my own kid would be—”
“Explain!” Sid demanded.
“Most children born from any kind of vampire matings are male,” Eden said. “Vampire genetics are inherited strictly from the female side. So, a son born to a Prime and a mortal woman is going to be mortal.”
“There have been exceptions,” David said.
“Granted,” Eden said. “Maybe five or six sons of mortal matings have gone Prime in the history of the world, and they all had really funky powers, but the odds are astronomical for a male to turn vampire. Daughters of mortals and vampires can make the change, but only if the girl’s mother has a vampire somewhere in her own ancestry.”
“I’ve heard of mortal women who made the change when they were bonded to a Prime,” Sid said.
“But they still have to be descended from a vampire.” Eden looked thoughtful, then she laughed. “Of course, I’m from a hunter family.”
“Hunters and vampires have been mating as long as there’ve been vampires and hunters,” David said.
“But we hunters don’t like to talk about certain special relationships. It’s anathema to admit that our enemies sometimes turn out to be our destined loves.” She laughed again. “I wonder which one of my grandpas had fangs and his own opera cape?”
“Watch the stereotypes,” Sid told her. “And congratulations.”
Eden didn’t look quite like she was ready to be congratulated on this surprise turn of events, but Sid wanted to crow with glee. The vampire population was dangerously small, so every female added to their gene pool contributed to the species survival.
“I have to tell Laurent,” Eden said. She slipped her thumb from her daughter’s mouth. “Mommy needs to leave Daddy a voice mail now.”
“Why?”
“Because Mommy isn’t a telepath like you are.”
Before Eden could turn toward her desk, Daniel suddenly stood up. “We have to go,” he announced. It took his eyes a moment to focus on all the people suddenly staring at him. “They need our help,” he told them. “Their minds are”—he shook his head as if trying to toss something out of it—“being messed with.”
“Who?” Sid asked. “When?” After all, Daniel’s peculiar psychic gift was for reading the past.
“The Bleythins,” he answered. “All of them.” He was pale, and he shuddered and took a deep breath before he went on. “We have to help. Right now.”
“What did you see?” Sid demanded. She was skeptical, but she didn’t question his urgency or his belief.
“I’ll tell you on the way,” he said. He headed toward the door. “Hurry!”
Sid and Eden looked at each other. “Do we go with this?” Eden said.
“We go,” Sid decided.
Eden kissed Toni’s forehead and handed her over to the waiting arms of Antonia, then headed after Daniel.
David would have come with them, but Sid pointed to her niece. “That is a future Clan Mother. She needs guarding, Prime.”
“You are a future Clan Mother,” he reminded her.
Sid showed him her fangs. “It isn’t only Primes who can grow these.”
“Sidonie, be polite.”
“Sorry, Mom.” She drew in her fangs and nodded curtly to David. “Prime of the Snake Clan.”
Antonia put a hand on David’s arm. “I trust my daughter to take care of herself. Let her go. Stay here with me.”
He didn’t like it, but said, “As the Lady Antonia wishes.”
Thanks, Mom, Sid thought as gently as she could to her telepathically null mother, and hurried after Daniel and Eden.
Chapter Twenty-four
S ofia had never thought of herself as impatient, but right now the waiting was killing her. Her only consolation was knowing that not being patient might get her killed.
Maybe.
Suspecting that she was acting like a delusional idiot about to be made a fool of was also killing her.
Any minute now, Cathy will show up. She checked her watch. She’s five minutes late, so she’ll show up any second now. And then I’ll know that all this werewolf stuff is crazy family folklore, and I’ll feel like an idiot for my current behavior.
Or…
From her car, Sofia stared at the door to her room and tried not to think about the “or.”
She checked her watch one more time, then saw movement out of the corner of her eye. It was large, slinking carefully from shadow to shadow, keeping close to the wall. It was padding very carefully forward, stealthy and purposeful.
Damn!
Her stomach clenched with fear and she wanted to scream, but she would not give in to automatic fear.
She watched the wolf’s careful approach and was glad that she’d taken a walk all over the motel buildings and parking lot. She’d carefully touched every door, every car, leaving her scent everywhere just in case she needed to confuse a creature she’d hoped wasn’t really coming and didn’t really exist.
That’s probably one of Jason’s pets.
She shook her head and ignored the voice of sanity. The wolf she watched was bigger than George and Gracie combined. They were gray and white; this one’s fur was yellow.
She also doubted that George and Gracie were capable of doing what this wolf did when it reached her door. It reared up on its hind legs and banged its head against the wood.
There was a wolf at the door, and it was knocking.
Okay, now she had a certain amount of proof that werewolves were real. But she had no idea how to ask a monster about her cousin. So she waited, hand poised over her keys.
When the door went unanswered, the wolf snarled. Then it backed up, ran forward, and hit the flimsy wood with the force of a battering ram. The door flew inward and the wolf rushed in.
Sofia had the car started before the werewolf bounded outside again. She had the car in gear by the time the creature saw her. His head came up and their eyes met; Sofia froze in terror.
His soul was evil and cruel, and she’d looked into eyes like those before.
Though her brain might’ve been frozen, her foot stomped on the gas pedal. The car sped forward but the werewolf easily jumped aside. Sofia was barely able to jerk the steering wheel hard to the left before slamming into the side of the building.
The monster was nowhere in sight when she headed toward the street.
The doors of her car were safely locked, but that did her no good when the werewolf jumped through the rear windshield.
Hot breath burned across the back of her neck, and Sofia threw open her door and rolled out. She hit the pavement hard while the car continued to move out into the street. She heard the crunch
of metal and squealing tires behind her as she took off in the opposite direction.
She dodged into an alley behind the motel, hoping that a truck had flattened her car with the werewolf inside it.
No such luck, she realized within seconds when she heard the creature racing up behind her. The sound of claws scrambling on pavement sent a chill up her spine.
I’m repeating history. I need to be out in the open, among people. That thing won’t draw attention to itself by attacking in a crowd.
Repeating history?
“Damn it!” she shouted. Consumed by sudden fury, she turned to face the onrushing beast. “Look at me, you bastard!” Her voice had never been so full of command and conviction before.
The beast did. Their gazes met and it came scrambling to a halt a few feet away from her.
The animal snarled, baring huge fangs.
Sofia glared, putting a lifetime’s worth of anger into it.
She felt power gather in her. It was like nothing she’d ever known before; she was in control here.
Keep your distance, she thought at the werewolf. Sit, and stay. How dare you look me in the eye?
The werewolf snarled and snapped. Its whole body shuddered in resistance to her command. After long, tense seconds, it began to slowly sink to its haunches.
Sofia concentrated as hard as she could, beginning to tremble, sweat beading on her forehead.
The werewolf continued to stare at her, defiance boiling in its gold eyes, its hard will boring into her determination.
She began to grow cold, though sunlight flamed against her skin. A dark tendril of fear began to twine through her, and a voice began to whisper in her head. She could make out no words, but the sound was sinister and distracting.
She took a shaky step forward.
He was calling to her, wasn’t he?
How did he get into her head?
Her own thoughts distracted her, and shadows came up dark around her.
The alley changed. She changed.
She slammed into the brick wall before she could stop herself, scraping her palms and jarring her arms from wrists to shoulders. She turned around and fell to her knees, putting her at eyelevel with the wolf.
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