But he was right; I was starved.
“Then I’m going to take you again right on this counter.” He bent down and cupped my bottom, nipping my lips as he readjusted me on the smooth surface.
“When you look at it like that,” I said, “all I want for dinner is you.” I ran a single finger from his chin to his sternum, a sly smile playing on my lips. “Unless, of course, you need time to recuperate before … what is it? Round three?”
“I’ve never had to recuperate a day in my life.”
I barely had time to grab on to the cupboards.
9
“We broke the countertop.” My voice was full of sleep as I peered down at the carnage from the loft. Sunlight had begun to filter out of the small western window. It was going to be full dark soon. We’d slept all day—well, almost all day. “And that adorable antique table is in pieces.”
“It can all be fixed,” Rourke murmured as he wrapped his warm arms around me and nuzzled my back. “I’ll make sure I bring stronger building material next time. Something tough enough to withstand an insatiable female werewolf.”
“Very funny.” I ran my hands over his warm forearms, my fingertips tracing his beautiful tattoos. “You’re the one who should talk. You threw me around the room like your own personal puppet. This place is breakable. We need to watch ourselves. I love this cabin. I don’t want to destroy it.”
He growled, low and raspy, his breath hitting my neck and smelling like sweet cinnamon. “If we have sex like that, I don’t care if there’s one piece of furniture left standing when we’re done. Whatever damage we do is totally worth it.”
It was damn good sex.
I continued tracing the lines of the dark tattoos running up both his forearms, loving the feel of his skin against the pads of my fingers. “Rourke, these tattoos are unique and amazing, but this is not ink. They follow the pattern of your fur exactly, but they’re only on your arms. How did you get them?”
“They appeared the day I became Alpha.”
Of course he’d been Alpha. “I should’ve guessed you were the leader of your Pride.” It must’ve been hard losing everyone over the years. “Is that what happens to all Alpha cats? I’ve never seen another shifter with distinct markings like this.” But that didn’t count for much, since I didn’t know many other species personally.
“I honestly don’t know,” he said, adjusting his body to lie on his back. “I was the first in my line to get them and I’ve never seen any other shifter with markings that weren’t man-made. But they might have them and just keep them concealed. It’s hard to know.”
I turned and propped myself up on my elbow. “What do you think they mean?”
He grinned. “I’ve had a long time to ponder that very question, and my best guess is they’re linked to why I can channel my beast so well without shifting. But in recent years, I’ve been leaning toward the theory they’re pure eye candy. Meet Chick Magnet One and Two.” He pulled his arms up and flexed. The tattoos wrapping around his biceps jumped tantalizingly.
I shoved his chest, laughing. “I already told you, there’s no need to talk about—” I sat up abruptly, my head turning toward the door.
“What is it?” He was alert next to me.
“My blood just jumped with something. I think it’s Tyler, but it’s too muddled to tell,” I replied. “We need to get out of bed—”
Shouts hit the yard, and ten seconds later the front door of the cabin burst open and Tyler tumbled into the room, followed four seconds later by Danny.
They were both out of breath.
I was relieved to see they were all right but couldn’t help being irritated. “Jeez, you two. Doesn’t anyone knock anymore?” I leaned down and grabbed the old patchwork comforter bunched at the bottom of the mattress. I snagged it too quickly and it ripped. I put a scrap no bigger than a throw pillow in front of me as Rourke wrapped his arms around my more delicate parts while I tried to organize myself.
“What’s happened in here, then?” Danny asked, glancing around at the damage. “I see someone with a violent nature has ransacked the place.” He bent over and picked up a piece of the countertop, examining it. Then he looked up at us and winked.
I pointedly ignored his toothy grin. “It’s time to explain why you’re here.” Now that they were standing in front of me, I felt their anxiety bubbling in my blood. Something was seriously wrong. Their arrival on the mountain must have been what had finally woken me up; I’d just been too sleepy to read the signs. “Tell me nothing has happened to Dad.” I scooted to the edge of the loft as Rourke handed me the rest of the covers.
“It’s not that something’s happened to Dad yet,” Tyler answered, moving forward into the tiny room, kicking debris out of his way. “But something may happen and I can’t reach him to find out if he’s okay or warn him.”
I mumbled behind me, “Rourke, I’m going to need some clothes.”
“I’m on it.” Rourke deftly maneuvered himself out of the loft, which was no small task given how large he was and how tiny the headroom was. I don’t even remember how we got up here last night. I must have been half asleep. Or more like drowning in ecstasy. I shivered, remembering.
He jumped, landing easily, and walked over to a cedar chest tucked under the window and lifted the lid. One of the few things that hadn’t been damaged. He had no qualms about being naked and the boys didn’t even glance at him.
I addressed my brother. “Why didn’t you try to talk to me internally if you thought something was up with Dad?” I asked.
“I’ve been trying all night.” He guffawed. “But it seems you were a little busy. I thought something was wrong because you didn’t answer. But I can see from the carnage around me that everything is going along swimmingly.”
My face flushed.
“Don’t worry, sis,” Tyler joked. “I didn’t hear anything. It was like your mind just sort of checked out. But this warranted a trip here to find you, because we need to adapt our plans quickly.”
“What are you talking about? What’s wrong?” Rourke tossed me up an old T-shirt of his and a huge pair of sweatpants, thankfully with a drawstring. They both smelled like dusty old cedar mixed with cloves. I pulled them on quickly, both boys averting their eyes politely.
Once I was done dressing, I looked around for the ladder and saw why Rourke hadn’t used it. It was broken in three pieces on the floor. Jesus. I leapt, landing easily on the balls of my feet.
Tyler started to pace, which was never a good sign. “I tried to connect with Dad a few times after you left town. At first I got this strange humming sound. Then it turned to this funny static. After that, I was worried, so I shifted again and tried for an hour to get through with no results. It was like a void.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck. “But he can’t be dead or we’d know it.” An Alpha was bound to his Pack. Upon his death, it reverberated through our bodies, because without a leader, wolves were lost. A replacement had to be found quickly.
“I don’t think he’s dead … yet,” Tyler said, meeting my eyes, anguish lying just behind them. “But, Jess, this isn’t good. He’s either on his way or under a spell—neither of them are good options.”
Shivers ran up my spine. “Okay, we have to think. We can travel from here to Florida in a day, at the latest. We’ll just have to go down, find him, and fix whatever it is that’s wrong.”
“There’s one more thing, the real reason we’re here,” Tyler added, his voice strained. “We went to get Nick, like you asked. But the witches wouldn’t open the door—that is, until this little kid finally ordered them to. An army of witches decked out for battle, dressed in fatigues and carrying weapons—some of which I’ve never seen before—and they did what a toddler told them to do like a bunch of robots. It was one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen.”
I took in a sharp breath. “Isn’t she freaky?”
Danny nodded his head. “Yes, and she came
running up to Tyler like he was a long-lost relation. She wrapped herself around his leg with her little arms and wouldn’t bloody let go.”
“Then she started to cry.” Tyler shook his head. “It was awful. How am I supposed to defend myself with a little kid wrapped around my leg? Those witches could’ve killed me where I stood and I wouldn’t have done anything to stop them.”
“What did she say?” I urged. “It must have been big if you ran straight up here to find me.”
“She said if I didn’t find you and take you to New Orleans now, Dad would die.” His face was grim, all the playfulness gone. “At least that was her mother’s translation. The kid was sobbing a lot.”
I dropped into the only chair in the room that was not demolished. This was huge news and I needed to process it. I put my head in my hands. “How did she say it? I need her exact words. Tally said there were no timelines in the future, that things change depending on the choices we make. How would Maggie know Dad dies if I don’t go to New Orleans?” Something must have changed drastically from the time Rourke and I had been at the Coven until now. “Tell me what she said, in her own words.”
“She was hard to understand.” Tyler scratched his head. “She kept crying about something over and over. It sounded like ‘vamp bay,’ until I finally figured out she was talking about vampire Ray.”
I stood quickly, knocking the chair over. “What did she say about him?” Tyler had no idea Ray was here.
“She was crying, something like ‘can’t die, can’t die.’”
“Why can’t Ray die?”
“She only said one word after that. It was the clearest one she uttered.”
“What was it?”
“Salvation.”
I ran through the trees so fast everything flew by me in a blur. Branches and switches slapped me in the face, but I didn’t slow. I had no idea where this cave was, but I had no problem following the scent Rourke had laid last night. Everyone was right behind me.
But it didn’t matter how fast I ran.
If Rourke had accidentally killed Ray last night, or Ray couldn’t repair the damage to his head, I knew my father was lost. Once my brother had said the word “salvation,” I knew it was true. Something had triggered in my mind. I don’t know where it had come from, but I knew we needed Ray. Alive. He’s going to be okay … he has to be okay, I told my wolf. She barked, urging us on faster.
“Jessica,” Rourke called. “Veer to your left. The opening is against the mountainside. It’s covered with brush.”
I saw it. Ten more paces and I whipped the branches away with one hand and dove headfirst into the cave, somersaulting and landing crouched, senses alert.
“It’s about time, Hannon.” A surly voice hit my eardrum without missing a beat. “The sun set twenty minutes ago. What were you going to do, starve me to death? I’m hungry as hell and I need a fucking shower. There’s blood and gunk plastered all over me and my veins feel hollow.”
The relief he was still alive threatened to consume me. I inhaled and exhaled deeply, trying to control my emotions as I stood, clapping the dirt off my hands.
His reaction to me hadn’t been what I expected, which made me wary. He should be much more pissed off.
Where was the savage fledgling vampire? “Ray, I thought you wanted to chop my head off and eat my insides for dinner? Did you manage to grow a whole new heart while you were fixing your head?”
“Why would I bother to grow a new heart when I don’t even need the one I have now? It hasn’t beat in days. But chopping your head off still sounds fairly appealing,” he grunted. “At least then I could get a drink.”
“Okay, what gives?” I asked. “Why are you so … normal—for lack of a better word.” He’d never been normal, but this was as close to his “normal self” as he got. It was a complete 180 from last night.
Rourke, Tyler, and Danny had gathered in the small opening behind me, making the cave overcrowded.
Ray leaned his blood-caked head against the cave wall. “I don’t have an answer for you, Hannon. I get confused a lot, and then I get angry. But when I woke up in the middle of healing from that painful-as-hell injury, I realized I’m never going to die. I had my face bashed in and my skull crushed and now I’m good as new. It doesn’t make any sense. But I’m not sure I hate it. But I don’t … like it either.”
“So … what you are saying is I might have made the right choice trying to keep you alive?” I hedged.
Everyone was quiet, waiting for his response.
Ray grumbled for a few seconds. “When I woke up with fangs and this dreadful thirst, I wanted to kill you every minute of the day. I won’t lie. I don’t think I slept, and I know I didn’t eat. But I feel different today and I don’t know why.” He peered up at me as he brought a chained hand to his head and pressed his temple like he had a headache. As he did, a flutter of his internal struggle tugged along my senses. “The madness may come back at any moment. Most of the time my mind feels like an amusement park ride from hell.”
I squatted in front of him, peering into his face, trying to figure out what all this meant when I heard light footsteps behind me.
“I believe the reason for his clarity is he is reacting to you, Ma Reine,” a small voice echoed in the cave. “You are able to calm him, as I could not. I have been puzzling over the pieces ever since I left, but I think I understand now.”
Tyler and Danny moved apart as Naomi stepped into the cave. “Naomi,” I said as I stood. “What are you doing here?”
Danny cleared his throat. “We forgot to mention we ran into Naomi. She was outside the Safe House when we arrived back from picking up Nick. We encouraged her to follow us, as we figured we would be on the move shortly.”
“Good thinking.” I nodded at Danny and then turned to Naomi. “I’m sorry you didn’t get the break you deserved, Naomi, but I’m glad to see you here.” She was dressed in new clothing and flushed so she had made at least one pit stop. “What pieces were you talking about puzzling out?”
She walked forward. “Once I left and fed”—she gave me a small smile—“I tried to reason out why Ray was different from any other fledgling I have ever seen and I think I have come up with the only possible answer.”
“It’s because of my blood, right?” I said before she could say it out loud.
“Oui.” Her voice held a hint of surprise. “I do believe your blood is the cause. It is like none I have ever tasted. It was able to break my bond with my Queen, which should have been an impossible task. I think it must have interfered with Ray’s transition and has somehow made him different. I believe he is partially bonded to you already, which is why he has calmed just now in your presence. You must give him more of your blood to complete the transition, and once you do, I believe he will become fully bonded to you. A young vampire needs guidance and attaches himself to his Master without thought. The bond will grow into love and loyalty over time. That is our way.”
I gaped. “Wait a minute. Did you just say you want me to become his Master?” I did not want Ray as my responsibility. Not to mention I knew nothing about baby vampires—or fully adult ones for that matter. “Naomi, you made him. He wouldn’t be alive without you. This is clearly your role, not mine. I have no idea what to do with a vampire. And Ray is hard on a good day. A newborn wolf raising a fledgling vampire is wrong on so many levels I can’t even count them.”
“Hey, this is not what I want either,” Ray complained, his new fangs snapping down in protest. He shook his chains to accentuate his point. “How can she help me with anything? She’s not a bloodsucker.”
“I will be here to aid in his teachings,” Naomi replied, her demeanor calm and reasonable. “I will not desert either of you. But it must be this way, or I believe he will continue to go mad. His instincts are muddled and his thought processes are off. He is too powerful from just drinking a mere dilution of your blood. I will not be able to make another after him. It is too unpredictable.”
&nbs
p; “So you’re saying my blood botched the job of making him into a fully functioning vampire, and only I can fix it?” I asked. “By giving him more blood?”
“Oui.” She shrugged. “There is nothing more I can do now. He must feed from you, or you must end his life. He cannot go on like this.”
I glanced down at Ray. Killing him was no longer an option if I wanted my father to stay alive. I sighed. “Looks like this is your lucky day, Ray. You get to cause me some pain and in return I finally set your mind straight. I guess we should’ve done this from the very beginning all those years ago. It would’ve saved us a lot of trouble.”
“Yeah, we’ll see about that, Hannon,” he said. “My mind is full of some crazy shit right now. I don’t think even your blood can erase it completely.” He eyed me as I knelt in front of him, my knees sinking into the dirt floor. This cave was rudimentary to say the least.
“Well, we have no choice but to give it a try.”
“What if I don’t agree and I don’t want you as my new Master?”
“If you can come up with another alternative, I’m all ears. But I don’t see any other powerful vamps waiting in line to give you their blood. Like it or not, this is the only option we have in front of us.” I gestured at Naomi. “Ask her if she had a choice in picking her Master.” I turned to address her. “Naomi, did anyone ever ask you if you wanted to become a vampire before they turned you?”
“Non,” she said. “Of course not. Vampires hunt their prey and their prodigies with precision and care. There is no free will involved. If you are chosen, and given the gift, you are eternally grateful.”
I arched an eye at Ray. “See? If you want to stay a vampire, you bite me. There’s no other way.”
Rourke strode toward us, his face set. “Jessica, I don’t like it,” he said. “I’ve never heard of a shifter making a vamp. There could be unforeseen problems we don’t know about.”
Cold Blooded Page 9
