by Eve Newton
Ember is.
Lilith’s mother is a suck you dry and ask questions later type of women. Beautiful, strong, fierce. It’s not hard to see why Lilith is the perfection that she is.
I look over at the cottage and can sense the simmering gaze of Ember, but I turn away and head back into the mansion, via a teleportation spell. It uses up way more energy than walking the way back, but I need to show this Wolf a bit of power, to make him see without a doubt that if he is up to no good, he will have me to deal with.
I land in a flash of deep blue magic next to Lilith, who is once again knelt at this asshole’s side as he lies on the sofa, a blanket thrown over his lower half, bleeding out everywhere and setting off the agitated Vampire in the corner.
This day is going to get worse before it gets better. I can just feel it.
Chapter 4
Lilith
I can feel Lloyd’s glower from over the top of my head. I ignore him, though, still annoyed at his obvious jealousy and further aggravated by the flashy showing-off for the newbie.
“What’s your name?” I ask the Wolf, squeezing his hand tightly. Zane is working on fixing up the wound, but it looks painful and seems to be taking forever.
“Mason Scott,” he grits out.
“Here, let me,” Lloyd says briskly and pushes Zane’s hand out of the way.
He zaps Mason with a bolt of blue magick that makes him muffle a scream but quickly and effectively cauterizes the hole in his side.
“Fuck,” Mason pants. “Warn a guy next time.”
“How quickly do you heal?” I ask, taking the bowl of pungent herby water from a young Witch. I place the poultices over the wound carefully which seems to ease his discomfort.
“Thanks,” he mutters. “Your touch is way gentler.” His gray eyes bore into mine.
I lick my lips, imagining touching him all over. I clear my throat and scowl at him, purely for show.
“Healing time?” I clip out.
“A day or so for this,” he says, tearing his gaze from mine and laying back to stare at the ornate chandelier that hangs from the middle of the coved ceiling.
“Was it the Hunters?” Lloyd asks.
“Yeah, who else?” Mason sneers. “Fucking assholes have got it out for all of us now.”
“Did you lead them…”
“I lost them about three miles back.”
“But they’ll know to come straight here,” Lloyd mutters to me. “Dammit.”
I look up at Axl, still growling in the corner. He looks like he is about to pounce.
“We need to get Mason downstairs,” I state.
“I agree, but first…” Lloyd places his hand to the Wolf Shifter’s head and blasts magick out of his hand.
“What are you doing?” I shriek, standing up.
“Knocking him out. He will heal a whole lot faster if he isn’t expending energy by being awake and in pain. If the Hunters are on the way here, we don’t need to be wasting bodies protecting him. We need him up and fighting.”
“Jesus,” I mutter at the bloodthirst coming from the Warlock standing in front of me. Usually so calm and in control, with a little bit of hot nerd thrown in for good measure, now he is showing me why he is the head of my Guard and third-in-command of the Coven. “Fine. Take him downstairs. How long will he be out?”
“About an hour. Should be enough time to heal him completely. It will take the Hunters about that to track us down, even with their mages fighting through the magick of the wards.”
I nod, already knowing that. “Alert my uncle. He’ll want in.”
“On it,” Lloyd says and snaps his fingers to the nearest Witch to him. She scampers off to get my Uncle Jacob. He is Dad’s half-brother and second-in-command of the Coven.
“I suppose I’d better get my Dad,” I mutter.
“Leave him,” Lloyd says. “We’ve got this.”
I nod, grateful for the support. I really didn't want to get my Dad involved. I want to show everyone here that I can handle this, but the last time the Hunters showed up, well, let’s just say it didn’t go quite according to plan.
“I’ll be in my office,” I state, wanting to get out of the way for the Coven to do their thing.
I stalk off into the opposite drawing room which leads to my office, tucked away in the far corner.
“Wait, Lily,” Lloyd calls out quietly catching up to me.
“What is it?” I ask, turning towards him.
“Your Dad knows about us now,” he says, looking a bit shifty.
“He does?” I ask in surprise. “What did he say?” I add, the dread welling up, but seeing as Lloyd is still here in one piece, it probably didn’t go as badly as I’d imagined.
“Full disclosure, he snuck up behind me and asked me if I was in love with you,” he says, adding to my surprise.
“Uhm…” I murmur.
“In all fairness, I was staring after you like a lovestruck teenager, worried that you were pissed off with me for acting like a jealous asshole out there,” he says, his green eyes twinkling behind his glasses.
“I am pissed off with you for acting like a jerk,” I inform him loftily. “But this is…is he mad?”
“Not exactly,” he replies cryptically. “It was like he already knew and accepted it. He asked if you loved me back and if you knew how old I was. I confirmed both. I hope I was right…” He trails off with an expectant look.
I give him a soft smile. “You are.”
“It’s just, you’ve never said it…”
“I will when I’m ready,” I cut him off.
He nods briskly. “He also asked if you’d ever bitten me.”
“What?” I ask, horrified, my cheeks going red hot. This is a dodgy subject. I want to bite him and drink his blood as I ride his cock to the point of no return, but he has never asked me to, and I won’t ask him. Neither will I take his blood by force. It’s all about consent.
“Mm,” he mutters. “He gathered that the answer was no and said to keep it that way.”
“Oh… why?” I ask, unable to stop myself.
He shrugs. “I was hoping you could tell me.”
I shrug back. “Sorry, I’m drawing a blank.” The only thing I can think of is that it is an intimate act and Dad doesn’t want me engaging in that sort of activity. Well, fuck that. He doesn’t get to dictate to me. I glare into Lloyd’s eyes. He glares back.
“Well?” I snap.
“You know I love you, Lily, and we’ll get there, I promise, I just…”
“Don’t,” I say, putting my hand up and backing away. “Don’t tell me that you’re afraid or whatever bullshit. I just…can’t…”
“Lily,” he says in exasperation, but I’m done talking to him now.
I turn and slip into my office, shutting the door behind me. I slump into the big, black leather desk chair and spin around to stare out of the window. I need a minute alone to gather my Witchy power. I can’t just fire out a bolt of pink magick and expect it to do anything. I need it to stew for a while. I’m pretty useless really.
I shake off the depressive thought and flick my long, wavy blonde hair over my shoulder. I can do this. I know that I can. I have to have faith in myself. Lloyd has riled me up with thoughts of biting and I’m hungry now. I have fed from humans, mostly I drink from a bottle, but I haven’t killed any. I’ve never killed anyone. Not that I haven’t thought about it, but I just get a bit icked out by it. I’ve only ever been bitten once by a Vampire and that was on the night I lost my virginity, four years ago. The Vampire in question had been old and powerful and staying here with a delegation to discuss my being Queen with my parents. He completely seduced me, and I fell for it like the teenager I was. I don’t regret it. It was everything I had hoped my first time would be, but since then I have never been with another Vampire. Only Lloyd.
I hear the door open slightly and the smooth voice that belongs to Axl says, “Knock, knock.”
I spin in the chair to face him. “Who�
�s there?”
“A Vampire,” he smirks, playing along.
“A Vampire who?”
He stalks me with a sexy swagger as he enters the room. “A Vampire who wants you.”
I roll my eyes. “That the best you’ve got?”
He laughs lightly. “Figured you’d be more of a wine and dine type.”
“I never said that,” I point out.
I watch as he sits in the chair on the other side of the desk, and raises his feet up onto it, crossed at the ankles. His heavy biker boots are worn and scruffy, but they totally suit him.
I lean back in my chair and regard him closely. “Are you okay? You looked like you were about to lose it back there.”
His eyes darken. “I’m fine, pet. Wolf blood is not really my thing.”
“Are you hungry though?” I ask, not being able to look away from those blue eyes.
“You offering?” he asks in a low tone that sends a shiver of pure lust over me.
I don’t answer him because I have no words. I want to scream at him to get over here right now and take a good long slurp of my blood, but I can’t do that. What kind of message does that send?
He stands up suddenly and in a flash of Vampire speed he is leaning over me, blocking me in with one hand on the desk and the other on the arm of the chair.
“Let me taste,” he purrs, that British accent thickening slightly with his obvious desire.
Against all of my better judgements, I hold out my arm to him, my wrist facing upwards.
He grabs it and sniffs delicately, savoring the scent of my skin, my blood. “Strawberries,” he murmurs.
I lick my lips and then I’m hauled to my feet and spun around to face away from him. He brushes my hair over my right shoulder, then fists it roughly, pulling my head to the side to expose my neck. I go so damp between my legs, I whimper.
“If you’re offering me your blood, love, I want to do this the way we were meant to,” he whispers in my ear.
I tremble in his arms. I don’t know if he means Vampires or us.
I take in a deep breath as he nuzzles my neck, my head going slightly fuzzy at the sheer eroticism of this moment. He is drawing it out, making it sexy as fuck and I want to die in his arms right now. I push my backside against him and hear him take in a sharp breath. He grows harder against me, having already been sporting a bit of a hard-on.
“Fuck,” I murmur as he scrapes the sensitive skin of my neck with the tips of his fangs.
He tightens his grip in my hair even more, his other arm wrapping around me to hold me close.
He slowly sinks the tips of his fangs into my vein, making me groan with unfettered arousal as I close my eyes.
They snap open again as the door bursts open and Lloyd storms in with a face of thunder. “They’re…” He stops as he takes in the scene in front of him, his expression going darker and scarier that I have ever seen. “…here,” he adds flatly, his features now going completely blank.
I untangled myself from Axl’s harsh embrace, the puncture wounds healing but still leaving behind drops of blood, and stride over towards Lloyd. I look back at Axl, who has his fangs stowed and a look on his face that screams we aren’t done with this, nor what follows a bite so seductive. “The sun is at the back of the house now. You coming?”
“Wild Wolves couldn’t keep me away,” he says, stalking over to me, his words full of a meaning which I try my best to ignore.
I turn from him and walk out of my office, through the drawing room with my loyal, powerful Warlock at my side, a fierce Vampire at my back that I suddenly can’t stop thinking about, to meet the enormous black Wolf pacing in front of the double doors. “You good to go?” I ask him, astounded at the speed with which he recovered and shook off the spell. There is definitely more to this Wolf than I first thought. He growls at me with a bob of his head.
I open the doors with a flourish and step out to meet the assholes that are about to get their collective asses kicked. “Let’s do this.”
Chapter 5
Lilith
I watch as the Coven converges, put into position by Jacob. My Dad has stepped back a lot in these last few years, maintaining his role but using Jacob more and more. They have formed a large semi-circle around the gates to have my back. It ramps up the power in me and I shiver with the anticipation of a fight.
“We need to talk,” Lloyd murmurs in my ear.
“Now?” I ask with a frown.
“Well, obviously not now,” he whispers, casting a glance at Axl. It tells me all I need to know about what this conversation will be about. I was expecting it and I know exactly what I have to say to him. He won’t want to hear it, but the little encounter has left me feeling very clear about something. All of a sudden, I want to get at least some of it off my chest. I stop and grab Lloyd’s arm.
“Look, I know what you saw surprised you and you aren’t thrilled with it. I get that. But I need you to get that I am half Vampire. The stronger half. I need the exhilaration of the bite and to be honest, I need to be bitten as well. I know you don’t want to hear that, but that’s the way it is.” I huff out a breath and wish that I’d been a bit less forceful. His face falls, but he rallies quickly and nods stoically.
He gulps before he says, “I can understand that, Lily. I just…we need to talk about it more, please, later?”
“Okay,” I say quietly and squeeze his hand quickly, then I turn from him and hurry forward to catch up with Axl.
I hear Lloyd fall in behind me with Jacob, discussing tactics, but I tune them out as that is Coven business. My Vampire business is standing on the other side of the gates, a contingent of fewer Hunters than I expected, but one in particular that I have never seen before. I lick my lips as I’m figuring he is the guy in charge. His mages are behind him, but weirdly they aren’t doing anything except waiting.
For me, it seems.
I leave everyone behind, hoping that Mason decides to wait for orders. We don’t know anything about him or the way he works. Stepping up to the gate, as close to the leader as I can get with the barriers in between us, I fold my arms across my chest. I glare at the slightly older man, perhaps in his late thirties, with dark blonde hair, a hard, toned body and cold blue eyes. Dressed head to toe in TAC gear, like his Hunter buddies, he places his hand on the stake shoved into the belt and in full view of me and every other Vampire on this side of the gates. Which in all fairness, isn’t that many. Most of the refugees are still in the barracks downstairs, scared for their lives. I don’t blame them. These assholes are making fun out of killing us.
“What do you want?” I sneer at the leader.
“Apart from all of you dead? Today I just want that Wolf.” He points his black-gloved finger at the big black Wolf snarling and pacing near the rest of the Coven.
I look over my shoulder casually. “Him?” I look back at the Hunter. “Why do you want him so bad?”
His sneer deepens. “My business. Give him to me, girlie. It’s not your time yet so you get a pass this time. But him, I want today.”
I blink and consider his words. Not your time yet. That’s…interesting.
“You want him, you can have him…” I drop my arms to my sides, along with my fangs. “But not only do you have to get through the wards, you have to get past me.”
He makes a show of placing his hands behind his back and then he whips them back around to the front, sporting a wicked looking, small, curved blade in each hand. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that they are somehow magickly enhanced. That gleam doesn’t come from ordinary steel. His eyes never leave mine as he rakes one of the blades down the wards, making them quiver and shimmer visibly.
“Give me that Wolf,” he says darkly.
“Not a chance,” I say cheerfully. I gesture over his shoulder. “One word from me and these wards drop. You are vastly outnumbered and outmatched. If you want to fight over him, I’m game. So is everyone on my side of the gates. But you aren’t getting your murder
ing hands on my Wolf.”
“Your Wolf,” he scoffs. “If you want to talk murders, ask him what he did to my wife.”
I press my lips together. “So, this is personal?” I jeer at him, letting out a loud laugh. “Now I respect you even less. Get off my land before I come out there and slaughter the lot of you.”
The blade that made the wards tremble is back, fisted into his hand as he punches a hole straight through the magick, so that his other hand can wrap around my throat and drag me even closer to him.
“Don’t test me, girlie,” he growls at me.
Before I can bring my own hand up to slap him away, a large hand closes around the Hunter’s wrist and, with a loud crunch, forcibly removes his hand from my neck.
“Touch her again and I’ll remove it,” Axl says in a tone so menacing, I feel myself go slightly damp between my legs again.
The Hunter gives him a sly smile. “Bold for one who ran from us not that long ago.”
“You had me at a disadvantage, mate,” Axl says in his normal glib tone and points upwards. “As you can see now, the sun is setting on the other side of the huge house surrounded by fifty foot trees. You want another crack at me, I’m more than happy to oblige.”
“Stand down,” I murmur to him. “This testosterone posturing is all sexy and what not, but are we going to fight?”
Axl gives me a smoldering look out of his baby blues and steps back, hands up. “As you wish, my Queen.”
“I told you, you get a pass,” the Hunter says, but I can see why he feels the need to repeat himself. He doesn’t have enough back up to start a fight. He has come here, tracked the Wolf down to my mansion without an army and now he is starting to regret that move based on a hot-headed vendetta.
“I don’t want one,” I reply and hold my hands out.
I’m not waiting around for the Coven to drop these wards. I want to do it myself, but I’m not so arrogant that I try to do it the easy way, the way I should be able to. Instead, I start to suck the magick out of the wards, syphoning it out of the barrier, forcing it to drop. A bright pink fog, which signifies my magick, funnels into my outstretched palms and with a wicked smile, I kick my heels off, ignoring the cries of the Coven behind me, namely from Lloyd and my uncle.
