“I know why they’re after us,” I struggled to cry out.
“What do you mean, you know why they’re after us? Just who are they? What’s going on?” Kimberly fired the questions at me.
I groaned as the headache started to lessen. “The vampires.” I winced as I struggled to sit back up. “This isn’t going to make any sense, but I saw them. And I know what they’re trying to do.”
“What do you mean, you saw them?” Mike asked in disbelief.
“I could see them in my head. They want to pretty much annihilate the shifters. They want to start a war.”
“What do you mean? What’s going on?” Nick asked as he looked at me and then shifted his gaze over to Michael.
“I-I don’t know,” I stammered. “That’s never happened to me before.”
“Michael? Do you know anything about this?” Nick asked.
“Holy shit,” Mike gulped, his complexion completely ashen. “You’re a fucking seer.”
Chapter 6
“What in the hell is a seer?” Nick asked, taking the words right out of my mouth.
“Someone who has visions,” Mike answered in a daze. His eyes had taken on a faraway look, and he sounded very distracted.
“Like a psychic?” I asked. The images of the vampires I’d seen left me feeling extremely disturbed. “Reading minds and shit like that?”
“No, no. Not like that. You can just see certain things as they are happening,” Mike said almost impatiently. “I can’t believe this is happening. I thought it was only a story.”
Kimberly, Nick, and I watched as Mike stood up and paced the floor of the hotel room. He ran his fingers through his hair and continued to mumble to himself. Phrases such as “this can’t be happening” and “it was only a story” continued to tumble past his lips with each pass of the floor.
“Michael, could you please chill the fuck out for a second and fill us in? Clueless party of three over here, and we have a right to know what in the hell is going on,” Nick snapped in frustration at Mike. I winced when I heard Nick use Mike’s full name. That only happened whenever shit was about to hit the fan.
Mike stopped in his tracks and turned to face us. “What?” he asked in a daze.
“Come back to earth, Mike. It seems you left out some very important things when you gave us your wolfy history lesson,” Nick spoke up again. Clearly Kimberly and I had no issues with letting him be our voice. It just felt natural.
“Yeah, because up until yesterday, I was just an average woman and, now…” Kimberly trailed off.
“You can do an epic party trick with your hands,” I quipped.
“Fuck you.” Kimberly tried to sound angry, but the smile on her lips let me know she was joking. “We all know that it’s way more awesome to heal people with glowing hands than your freaky mind trick. Having visions just isn’t cool anymore.”
“Seriously? I get to have reality television pop in my head at unexpected times. You’re just E.T. on steroids,” I retorted.
“Speak for yourselves. Turning into a wolf is way more badass than the shit you two do,” Nick growled, but the sparkle in his eyes let us know he was joking as well.
Our bickering at each other helped relieve some of the tension in the room. Mike took a deep, cleansing breath and went back to sit on the other bed. We instantly ended our conversation and focused on the man who knew more than he was telling us.
“All right, Mike, time to share some more of your goddamn secrets with us,” Nick practically ordered.
“I swear, had I known that this was going to happen, I would have said more. I honestly had no idea,” Mike insisted as he rubbed his hands against his thighs.
“So spit it out,” Nick growled again.
“God, you are such a fucking alpha,” Mike groaned and rolled his eyes.
“Excuse me? What did you just fucking call me?” Nick snarled, and I could have sworn his upper lip curled back.
“Chill out. Being an alpha isn’t a bad thing. It just means you’re head of the pack,” Mike explained.
“Pack? What the fuck are you talking about now? Mike, you really need to start talking. Like, right the fuck now!” Nick bellowed, and I watched in horror as his fangs started to extend.
“Jesus fuck, you really need to calm down. Going all alphatastic on me isn’t going to help matters any. All it will do is piss me the hell off,” Mike growled back. “So if you want me to talk, then I suggest you put your fangs back in place and back the hell off.”
Mike and Nick glared at each other as Kimberly and I watched the power struggle between the two wolves. I had never seen Nick and Mike mad at each other, but now, the fury that radiated between the two sent fingers of dread down my spine. It was almost as if there was about to be bloodshed between two of my best friends, and Kimberly and I were helpless to stop it.
“Fine,” Nick finally conceded as his fangs drew back up. It was seriously one of the most bizarre things I had ever witnessed.
“What do you want to know first? About you being the alpha or what’s going on with all of us?” Mike asked. He might have been addressing the three of us, but his gaze was focused solely on Nick. Kimberly and I were pretty much just witnesses to—what I would consider—the interrogation.
“What’s going on with us,” Nick answered.
“When I was fifteen, my grandparents were having an anniversary party. The entire family was there for the weekend, and I was bored as fuck during the get-together. I didn’t even want to go. I would have rather been at home hanging out with my best friend or, hell, even having a root canal, that’s how bored I was. So when nobody was watching, I snuck away and went into my grandfather’s study. That room was entirely off-limits and I wanted to know why. Imagine my disappointment when I went inside and saw only books and a desk,” Mike said with a sigh of disappointment.
“Did you get caught?” Kimberly asked.
“Yup. I was looking at the bookshelves when something caught my eye. It was right there on the shelves with the other books, but it just looked different. The binding was very old, cracked leather, and there were no words on it. Just a symbol etched on the cover in gold.”
“What kind of symbol?” I asked.
“It’s difficult to describe,” Mike said with a shake of his head. “It almost looked like a pair of fangs with three half-circles in between them, like they were teeth.”
I gasped and stood up quickly to walk over to the table that was situated between the beds. I grabbed the complimentary pad of paper and pen to draw a very crude sketch. I was no artist.
“Something like this?” I asked Mike as I handed him the paper.
Mike glanced at my drawing and snapped his intense blue eyes back to my shocked brown ones. “How in the hell did you know that?”
“I’ve seen it before in my dreams,” I explained with a shaky voice as I sat back down. I felt Kimberly’s and Nick’s gazes on me, but they said nothing.
Mike nodded in understanding as he stared back down at the paper. “I was staring at the book and was about to open it when my grandfather caught me. Boy, was he pissed when he found me in there. He reiterated how the room was off-limits. Then he saw what I was holding and changed his tune. Obviously, he knew that I was a shifter, considering he is one too. So he just grabbed the book from me and put it back. I was waiting for him to punish me for being in there, but instead he started telling me a story.”
“Michael, being a shifter is an honor. One that you should be proud to have bestowed upon you whether you want it or not. There is a great enemy to our kind. An enemy who dreams of walking during the day. An enemy who, given the chance, will bring destruction to not only our bloodline, but to the entire world. No one knows when it will happen, but when it does, there could be great devastation. Unless the great six, the Exi, band together.”
“The what, Grandpa?”
“The Exi. A group of six very powerful people. Each person bringing their own unique skill, that when combine
d, can stop the enemy.”
“What skills?”
“One will see what cannot be seen. One will heal who cannot be healed. And the other two will protect the seer and healer. Combined, the powers will destroy the destroyer. And two to help guide them along the way.”
“Who are the six?”
“That, my dear grandson, is not yet known. They will find each other when they are needed most.”
“He never spoke of it again,” Mike said. His intense gaze and serious voice told us that he was not joking.
“So you think that we are part of the Exi and that we are the four who will stop the enemy?” Nick asked in disbelief.
“I do. And I also think that we need to get that book. It will tell us more than what my grandfather told me. And maybe give us an idea of who the other two are that are supposed to help us.”
“Oooookay. And where is this book?” I said slowly. Things just kept getting more and more strange as the night—hell, maybe it was day at this point—progressed.
“At my grandparents’ house in Maine,” Mike answered.
Kimberly sighed. “Then I guess we’d better get some rest and head to Maine when we wake up.”
We all nodded in agreement, and I stood up to finally gather my belongings for a much-needed shower. Only, Nick asked a question that had me stopping in my tracks. I needed to hear the answer.
“So what’s a fucking alpha?”
“Oh,” Mike said sheepishly, “that basically means you’re the wolf in charge. Alphas are the ones who are the strongest in the pack. And I’m not talking about size. I’m talking about personality. The one who has the most presence. Who demands the most authority.”
Nick let out a deep laugh. “Oh, that’s rich. Then as your leader, I suggest if you have any more secrets, you better spill them now.”
Mike swore he didn’t know anything else, and I let out a loud chuckle before I went into the bathroom. After my shower, I crawled into bed next to Mike and tried to get some much-needed sleep. Instead, disturbing images and dreams invaded my slumber. Dreams of a much younger Kimberly and a pale gentleman with blood-red eyes.
Chapter 7
The way our fantastic foursome of the great six came about hadn’t happened overnight. In fact, we had just connected a few months prior. Thanks to the age of modern technology, and my love for books, I had joined an online forum for my favorite author. While in there, I met Michael, Nick, and Kimberly. The minute we started talking, it was as if I had known them my entire life. I’d never realized that they were the missing links in my life, and the craving to be close to them was undeniable. Needless to say, when the opportunity came about for me to move from Indiana to Baltimore to live closer to them, I didn’t hesitate.
I knew it sounded crazy. Who moved hundreds of miles away from everything they knew because of a connection with three people they’d met on the internet? But the fact of the matter was there had been nothing for me in Indiana. Not much family, not many friends, and no husband or kids. I’d been pretty lonely and felt like I needed to be closer to the other three. So after accepting the first job offer available at a hospital, I’d packed up what little belongings I had and moved into the first house I’d found. The house with the asshole neighbors across the street. The house that currently had the dismembered body parts of vampires littering every single room. The house that was painted with, not only the blood of our enemies, but my best friend’s as well. I was happy with the move because once I’d been in close proximity to my friends, it was as if I was complete.
Now my spontaneous behavior made sense. If what Michael’s grandfather had said was true, then there was a major underlying reason for why I’d wanted to be near them. It wasn’t a want at all. No, it was a fucking necessity. It was fate that we’d all joined that forum and started up our amazing friendship. Hell, our friendship was written in a damn book. A book that we were currently on our way to retrieve. I just hoped his grandparents still had it. Otherwise we’d be driving a few hundred miles to Augusta for nothing.
After we each took turns in the shower, we quickly packed up our belongings and checked out. The continental breakfast was beckoning us, but we knew we didn’t have time to linger. We had already put ourselves at enough risk by spending the night at the hotel. We needed to get our asses on the road.
“So, Court, do you have any idea where you drove us last night?” Nick asked from the driver’s seat beside me.
I had relinquished my keys over to Nick once he saw how exhausted I was after we all woke up. Hell, we all looked like shit, but he had clearly stepped into the role of alpha with ease. A role that I couldn’t have picked a better person for. Nick just exuded dominance.
“Um, far away? To a hotel?” I answered him.
I honestly had no idea where we were. I didn’t even look at any of the information in the hotel. My mind was too focused on other important things, such as my best friend possibly dying and all of us being part of some prophecy to defeat vampires. Oh, and the fact that we needed to find two random strangers and try to convince them that they were part of our paranormal team to help save the world. Our location at the time was the furthest thing from my mind.
“We’re in Pennsylvania,” he answered me.
“Okay? So what’s your point, Alpha?” Mike asked from the back seat. Next to him, Kimberly snorted in the at his question.
“Alpha?” Nick asked with an eye roll.
“What? You’re the alpha. Why not call you by that?”
“Because it’s not my name?”
“So? It’s fitting, given the circumstances.” Mike shrugged.
“What circumstances?” Nick asked.
“Oh, gee, I don’t know. Does anything about a possible war with vampires ring a bell? Or the fact that you have no problem taking control and giving orders?”
“Fine, Alpha it is,” Nick relented. “Anyway, out of any direction you could have driven us, you just blindly pointed your car in a direction and miraculously chose the one that takes us to Maine. What are the odds?”
I pursed my lips and stared at the window. I didn’t have an answer for him. I hadn’t known last night that I was a “seer.” My actions were driven purely on instinct and terror. There had been no destination in my mind as I’d driven. I’d only known I needed to get as far away as possible from that house filled with evil and destruction.
“So do your grandparents know we’re coming? I really don’t think it’d be a good idea to just drop in on them completely unannounced,” Kimberly asked Mike.
“I actually think that’s the better idea,” Mike said sheepishly.
“Why is that a better idea? It’s rude to just show up somewhere, Michael,” Kimberly told him in a chastising tone.
“I don’t want to give them any reason to worry. It’s been a while since I’ve seen them,” Mike hastened to explain. “My grandpa might be getting up there in age, but he’s very shrewd. He’ll know in an instant that something is going on.”
“Plus there’s something else we all seem to forget about,” Nick said vaguely from the front seat.
“What’s that?” I asked him slowly.
“Fucking figures I have to be the downer of the group. This alpha shit is really going to suck at times,” Nick grumbled to himself as he ran his fingers through his dark brown hair. “Vampires pretty much attacked us out of nowhere. They said it’s because they knew we were with a shifter. And if there is going to be a so-called war with the vamps, then clearly there are more than just the few we killed. So who’s to say there aren’t some in Maine?”
“Fuck,” Mike hissed.
“Exactly. Michael, those vampires sniffed you out with three other people in the house, plus an entire neighborhood full of people. If your bloodline is as strong as you say it is, then your grandfather is probably pretty fucking powerful. There’s probably some vamps around him as well.”
“Our bloodline,” Mike corrected distractedly.
“Fine, our b
loodline,” Nick amended with a small smile on his face. “I could be wrong, but we need to get there as fast as we can. Not only to retrieve that book, but to make sure your grandparents are safe as well.”
“It’s not your grandparents they want,” I said softly as I stared back out the window. I was sure the scenery was beautiful as we made our way east, but I didn’t see a damn thing.
“You can’t be so sure about that. They are going to see any shifter as the enemy and do anything they can to destroy them,” Nick argued with me.
“They are only the enemy because they get in the way of what they truly want. The shifters are merely an obstacle blocking their path to the thing they desire most.”
“You had another vision, didn’t you?” Mike damn near blurted out.
I shrugged defensively. “Maybe. It seemed more like a dream than anything.”
“So what is it that they desire most?” Kimberly asked softly. Almost as if she dreaded the answer.
I didn’t know what compelled me to say it the way I did. I just couldn’t help it. Or maybe I had a thing for dramatics. All I knew was that I turned in my seat and looked her square in her eyes. “They want you.”
Chapter 8
The silence in the car was deafening after my little declaration. Call it pettiness or jealousy. Hell, call it whatever you want, but I was pretty irritated. Nick and Mike got to transform into powerful, badass wolves. Kimberly got to pretty much bring people back from the brink of death by shooting LED lights out of her fingers. And what did I get to do? I got to have hellacious headaches and creepy dreams of dead people. Thanks! Could I choose something else?
Fated Heroes Page 4
