by Petra Landon
“I could be persuaded to show you my beast.” He paused as her heart picked up its beat. “If you asked nicely.” The husky whisper against her ear, laden with promises, held Tasia frozen in place.
Now on her guard, Tasia mused whimsically that if there had been a fan handy, she might have fanned herself like an overheated Victorian debutante about to suffer the vapors. That voice, whispering in her ears, with its undertone of wickedness and danger, did things to her that no man, especially this one, should be able to. But there wasn’t a fan at hand, so she did the next best thing by staying silent and refusing to meet his eyes.
“No?” he inquired huskily, the simple word managing to both dare Tasia as well as tempt her to indulge herself.
His breath huffed softly on the sensitive skin near her ear, and Tasia fought off a shiver. “Not up to the dare, witchling?” challenged the soft voice.
That does it.
Her eyes turned to meet his, on the offensive now, ire simmering in them. “You’re flirting with me” she accused him indignantly.
And Tasia was indignant. Here she was, trying her best to undo or at least ignore whatever weirdness had settled between them after the unexpected flare of passion last night, while this man seemed determined to fan the flames instead. To pour cold water on all her efforts. He might amuse himself by teasing her thus, but this was a dangerous temptation she could not afford to give in to.
His lips quivered at her words, the cold eyes awash in masculine laughter. He straightened up to his full height. “Shall I make you a promise?”
This time, his voice was softer, an undertone of intimacy threaded though the words that she couldn’t fail to pick up on.
“I’ll do it right the next time. Flirt first, before I kiss you.” The soft words were a stark contrast to the look in the gold depths.
Her eyes widened. Oh, he was good at this, she realized. She’d be no match for him, in this arena. All this while, she had seen the detached and uber controlling Alpha. But now, she understood what Hawk had hinted at — that his Alpha had no trouble attracting the opposite sex. Her heart continued its quickened rhythm, despite her best efforts to not let his words affect her. But he wasn’t done yet.
“I’m no saint” he admitted, his eyes still alight with teasing laughter, his voice deceptively bland. “Not even close. And when you demand that I kiss you before you wake up, I can’t resist you.”
Tasia stared at him, speechless at this unexpected avatar of the Alpha. The gold eyes softened in response, still lit by amusement.
“Don’t worry about the leeches, hmm” he pitched his voice low. “And try and let Duncan take the lead, if you meet any.”
He unhooked his t-shirt from her slackened arms to sling it casually over his shoulder, before striding away with one last glance at her speechless face.
Her eyes followed him to the edge of the clearing, a jumble of emotions warring within her. Just as she was about to look away, the Alpha turned back, a frown on his face. His eyes flashed to where Duncan stood waiting, at the edge of the clearing.
“You smell that?” he asked, his head cocked in a familiar manner, nostrils flaring.
Duncan’s nostrils flared in response, as he strode towards them, his big body radiating urgency.
The thrum of tension in the Shifters awakened a sense of urgency in Tasia. She abandoned the conundrum of the Alpha’s behavior and her own conflicted feelings to unsheathe her magic senses. Giving her powerful ability free rein, she probed for anything magical in the air, only to come up empty. The forest smelt of sunshine and pine, with just a hint of fresh rain. The air was devoid of any magic, besides the old residue from power spent here long ago that still lingered in the woods.
“I don’t sense anything” Tasia said uncertainly, glancing from one Shifter to the other.
“Raoul’s right” Duncan muttered, his brow furrowed. “Something is blinding my senses.”
The Alpha sniffed the air again, more purposefully this time, the heightened body language, cocked head and flaring nostrils reminiscent of a predator readying for a hunt.
“It’s the leeches.” Raoul’s eyes flared, the gold depths flaming into something dangerous before her.
“What is it?” Tasia’s voice was sharp with concern.
“You don’t sense anything?” Duncan turned to her urgently.
“No.” She shook her head.
Duncan gave the matter some thought.
“I think it’s Undead enchantment” he said. “Though it’s too powerful to be just one leech.”
“You’re saying the leeches have combined their magic to enchant the woods?” Raoul flashed the English Shifter a disbelieving look. “Is that even possible?”
“I’ve never heard of such a thing.” Duncan looked troubled. “But if Tasia can’t sense any magic in the air, that’s the only explanation I have.”
The gold eyes flashed to her, the flirtatious man from before now a figment of her imagination.
“I’m sure” she reiterated, in response to the silent query in his eyes. “There’s no magic in the air.”
Well, except the magic inherent in the woods that I sensed before, she corrected herself silently. But there was no active magic deployed currently.
“Could the leeches have blinded you, like they have our Shifter senses?” the Alpha asked.
“No.” Tasia shook her head, confident about her ability. This was the only power she’d been allowed to give free rein all her life, the only one from her deadly kitty undetectable by other Chosen. “My power is working fine. I still sense both Duncan and you … and the magic in the woods.” The last was added as an afterthought.
Raoul’s eyes narrowed at her words, grasping the implications of her words immediately. “Then, how is it that your power cannot sense the leech enchantment?”
“If Duncan is right and it is Vampire enchantment affecting your senses, then my power would never sense it” she said slowly. “It’s not magic. I mean, it is magic, but not in the conventional sense of how we look at magic” she corrected herself, trying to explain it. “An enchantment spell is inherent to a Blutsauger. It’s not a power he uses, just one he exerts when he needs to. It’s not like other Chosen power.”
The magic of enchantment came built in to an Undead. Vampires used their enchantment spells to lure and drink blood from their unresisting victims. This ability was inherent to being a Blutsauger, created when an Undead was born. Without it, a Blutsauger would have no way to feed — he would effectively starve.
Tasia shook her head. “But I don’t understand how an enchantment spell can be powerful enough to numb a Shifter’s senses.”
A Vampire’s enchantment did not work on Chosen, even one with barely enough power to qualify as one. It was only effective on Si’ffa. The Undead exerted it to enchant and feed on their human victims.
“I can’t explain it, Tasia. But somehow, the leeches have pooled their enchantment to create a potent spell that’s affecting the woods and all Chosen in it” Duncan admitted, looking equally at sea. “Including us.”
And suddenly, it hit Raoul like a ton of bricks. “It’s Nandini” he said abruptly. “They’ve discovered her absence and are hunting her.”
Duncan’s eyes flashed to Raoul and the English Shifter looked troubled.
“How would numbing your senses hobble her?” Tasia still looked confused. And why would the Vampires suspect the Shifters’ presence in the woods, she wondered silently.
“Her people are like Shifters in many ways, Tasia.” It was Duncan who explained it to her. “They choose to call themselves First Ones but they could just as easily be Wyrs, as defined under the Primogeniture Canons. They possess a beast form and our heightened senses. The effect of the leeches’ enchantment on her will be much like it is on Raoul and me.”
It’s Nandini’s senses the Blutsaugers are targeting. The Shifters are just collateral damage — in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The Primogenitu
re Canons were a set of precedents, some written and many oral, that laid down how a Chosen was allowed to classify himself, if there was ever any confusion or conflict. This was hugely important, since a Chosen’s peers were responsible for policing him in the rare cases a Magick went off the rails, endangering them all. The Primogeniture Canons had been essential before the advent of the CoC, when the various factions had no formal lines of communication open. But even now, the Canons were the final word on how a Chosen’s power was recognized by his brethren and, in the rare cases, what powers he was allowed to use.
“She’s trapped in the woods” Tasia muttered, finally understanding the gravity of the girl’s situation.
“Without her senses, she cannot track herself in the forest, get to the road, or even see the leeches coming” Duncan said slowly. “She’s completely lost.”
Raoul shot Duncan a glance the English Shifter had no trouble interpreting. Without their senses, they stood at a disadvantage, too. They had two women in trouble from the leeches — one currently being hunted through the woods, and another the leeches would start hunting viciously if they suspected her antecedents.
“Get her out of the woods, Duncan. Luis and the others wait for us near the highway.”
Duncan hesitated but did not voice his misgivings. He would never countermand Raoul’s orders — Raoul was his friend, but also his Alpha. There were some lines he would never cross, by Shifter tradition. Despite his silence, Raoul heard him loud and clear.
“That girl is alone, with no one to help her” he said to Duncan, his eyes meeting his friend’s gaze head on. “She gave up her shot last night for Roman. I won’t abandon her.”
His eyes wandered to Tasia. “Watch over the witchling” he said softly.
Duncan nodded mutely. Raoul felt responsible for the Indian girl. It was him she had reached out to, and he had made her a promise.
“I’ll come back once she’s with Luis, Raoul?” Duncan prompted. He didn’t intend to stand by while Raoul confronted the leeches alone, with his powers diminished.
Tasia’s head whipped from one Shifter to the other, trying to follow the cryptic back and forth between the two friends.
The Alpha hesitated, but only infinitesimally. The witchling would be safe with Luis and the others, far away from the woods full of leeches intent on prey.
“If you haven’t heard from me by then” he assented.
Tasia thought furiously, trying to clear her head of the cobwebs, as the Alpha turned to stride away from them.
“Wait” she called out, the urgency in her voice stopping him. “Take me with you. I can help you.”
“No.” He shook his head.
“Without your senses, you’re blind” she reminded him. “You have no way to find Nandini or the Vampires.”
“I’ll manage” he countered imperturbably, impervious to her appeal. Even without his jacked-up senses, he still had other gifts from his beast.
“You don’t even know how many hunt her” she pointed out, frantic to get through to him. He was formidable, but not a week ago, he had been poisoned, and then had a silver dagger and bullets plunged into him by a vengeful Guardian. And now, he was about to stride into the woods without any of his hypersensitive senses functioning. He’d be at a serious disadvantage against the Blutsaugers.
“You’ll go with Duncan, witchling.” The Alpha’s voice hardened subtly, clearly not in a mood for dissent. “I will handle the leeches.”
She cast a sidelong glance at Duncan. He was watching the Alpha with an unreadable expression. At her glance, he shot her a look, one she could not decipher. He would not intervene in this duel between her and the Alpha, Tasia realized. But neither did he second the Alpha or counter her. That heartened Tasia.
Tasia took a deep breath. “My magic is still good. Use it. The goal is to rescue Nandini, right?” she pointed out bluntly.
The Alpha’s eyes narrowed, something flashing in them. His lips tightened, his temper rising. “This is not a fucking democracy.” The words were soft but no less deadly.
But Tasia was made of sterner stuff, especially when it came to this. She might not fight so hard for herself, but she was determined to protect the arrogant man from himself.
“Your chances improve with Duncan and me by your side.” She raised her chin to meet the simmering gold eyes head on. This time, she was not giving in without a fight.
“You said we made a good team in the cage” she reminded him boldly, not allowing any signs of his rising temper to deter her. “By playing to our respective strengths.”
“I can help hold the Blutsaugers at bay, while Duncan and you look for her.” Tasia’s voice was steady. “Like last night” she added insidiously, pressing home the advantage ruthlessly.
Reminded of the night in the cave, Raoul paused, holding onto his temper with an effort.
The gold eyes flickered and Tasia pressed on, reading him through the unique connection they had. She sensed that he was listening now, despite the spike of temper at having his orders questioned.
“You told me once that I should bide my time — that the time would come to use my powers to aid the investigation. If not now, then when?”
This time, Duncan chimed in before the Alpha could respond.
“Tasia’s senses could give us an advantage, Raoul. We have no way to see them coming, while the leeches possess no such handicap.”
Raoul stared at his friend for a moment, before striding over to them. His temper simmered, ready to boil over. He suspected the witchling was reading him, saying just the right things to soften him up and change his mind. It infuriated him. He hated being manipulated in any way. It hit a little too close to the past — the blue-eyed witch and her games with him. You’re not above exploiting the connection with the witchling yourself, to play her like a fine-tuned instrument to get what you want, whispered his fairer self. Like the time you convinced her to give the Pack a second chance, the voice reminded him.
“I’ll consider it, on one condition.” The gold eyes seared her.
Raoul hadn’t liked the reminder from his conscience but he could not ignore it, so he chose to go a different route, to shut her down by asking for something he knew she was not ready to give him yet.
“What?” Tasia’s eyes were wary as she met the cold gaze, leached now of all softness.
“What kind of power do you hold over the ones you call Blutsaugers?” he demanded.
Tasia felt herself transported back to the Pack Room, where aloof gold eyes questioned her relentlessly, probing for secrets she was not ready to share. Even then, a part of her had understood that the dangerous Chosen with the cold eyes and the whisper-soft menace posed more of a danger to her than the combined might of the Were-Alphas in the Pack Room. She could still taste the bitter aftertaste of her terror then, only slightly tempered by the reminder that it was this man who had saved her from a fate she’d feared all her life: a brutal death at the hands of the Blutsaugers.
Floundering, Tasia tried to stave off giving in to his demand. She did the only thing she could. She counter attacked, using his own pledge back on him.
“You gave me your word you would not ask me to spill any more secrets.”
His expression hardened at her reminder, the gold eyes flashing cold fire now.
“I’ve not forgotten, witchling” he said softly. I never forget anything. The words were left unsaid, but they both heard them. “You, on the other hand, seem to enjoy a selective memory. I also gave you my word that I’d keep the leeches away from you. And I always keep my word. I won’t risk you to save Nandini.”
Tasia stared up at him, speechless and somewhat disarmed by his response. He could have chosen to deploy much heavier artillery against her.
“No deal, witchling” he said with a finality that had Tasia slumping in defeat.
Raoul turned to the English Shifter. “Get her away from here, my friend.”
Numb and speechless, Tasia watched him stride away.
Images of him through her months with the Pack played in her mind like a movie in flashbacks. The first night at the Vampire nest. His gentleness with her a stark contrast to the cold voice barking orders decisively to Hawk and his Shifters, no hesitation in him. The nightmarish no-holds-barred fight with the leeches in the darkened hall, where he had never wavered, not once entertaining the idea of abandoning a Wizard he had no ties to, to save his Pack. Last night, he had admitted to using the Wizard powers he hated so much to stop her bleeding out from the magic she’d deployed against the Blutsaugers. The night in Chicago, when he had come for Sienna and her, granting her the time to Mfector the scene without demanding an explanation, despite the threat the returning Vampires posed to them all. Him in the cage fighting to hold on to his humanity even as the beast slowly overpowered him. Despite the silver in him, he had fought for his very soul. Away from the house on Russian Hill, he had still watched over her, even as the last of his strength drained away. The last words to her had not been to ask her to watch over him, but rather to urge her to leave him and save herself, if she were discovered. Use your magic, he had urged as the silver took him under. Don’t worry about the consequences. I’ll take care of it.
“Any Blutsauger that tastes my blood will die in agony.” The words poured out of Tasia.
Her statement had a powerful effect. The Alpha stopped in his tracks, and Duncan froze as the last echoes of her words died away.
Raoul shook himself free from his stupor, his eyes flashing to her. Duncan said nothing, speechless for once, his shock evident on his face. Now Raoul understood why the leech at the nest in San Francisco had died the first night he’d met her. And the one in Chicago. They had both tasted her blood. Such power over the Undead was deadly. Her parentage made the Lombardis her enemies, but this ability would make the entire Clan come after her, united in their determination to snuff out a Chosen whose very breath posed a threat to their existence. In the back of his mind niggled Franciszka’s words about a sect of Ancients whose blood had once been poisonous to leeches and how the Clan had hunted them down to extinction.
