by Aliya DalRae
Tas and Perry had found their feet and joined Harrier next to the unlikely pair.
“I can help,” Tas said. Nox looked at him, assessed him, and nodded, but he never said a word. He simply went back to staring his brother down. Tas moved forward and placed a hand on Raven’s back, causing the muscles there to spasm and then relax.
Finally, Nox spoke.
“Talk to me brother. Why would you murder the one who nearly died for you?”
Raven answered through clenched teeth. “She betrayed me.”
“And for this you would do murder?”
“Not me, the beast. He’s…in control now. Needs to kill the pain, eliminate it from the source. It’s the only way.” Raven ground the words through strained lips, but it seemed Nox was getting through to him. Tas quivered under some unseen strain, but then settled back into doing his emo thing.
“Really, brother, can you think of nothing?”
Raven inhaled a deep, shuddering breath, then exhaled long and slow. “Help me.”
“That’s what I’m trying to do. You don’t really want to kill her, do you?”
“No, but the beast…no.”
“I can take it away,” Nox said. “You would remember nothing. Life could go back to the way it was and whatever horror you learned would be forgotten.”
“Don’t want to forget,” Raven insisted. “Just need restraint. Don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“Of course, brother, I can do that. And you will be the only one to suffer for it.”
“Pain is already too much. It can’t be worse than this. Just give me back the control I lost to the beast. I’ll be fine once he’s been subdued.”
“Of course, brother. Grab my shoulders, I’ll go as easy as I can.” Raven placed his clawed hands around his twin’s biceps and held on. After a nod for Tas to step away, Nox did something that had Raven digging his claws into the other male’s flesh and shouting out in pain. Blood dripped down Nox’s arms as Raven’s talons dug in, but Nox didn’t flinch. He just kept doing what he was doing, and whatever that was took them both to their knees.
Raven squeezed his eyes shut and screamed like holy hell. After a long moment his lids flew open and with a final shout and an explosive spark of violet, he collapsed into his brother’s arms.
Chapter Nine
S eeing Nox helping Raven the way he was, I knew I’d been right in fighting for him. He wasn’t a bad person. He’d just been pulled into a bad situation where Helmut Fuhrmann used and manipulated him into doing horrific things.
What he did now, talking Raven down, it had to earn him points with the Legion. He was so much more than what that Sorcerer had made of him. His presence now gave me such a sense of hope that I left my precarious shelter and ran into the yard.
Harrier grabbed me before I could get too close.
“It’s not over yet, little one,” he whispered. “He’s not going to forget whatever it is he overheard out here. Assuming Nox doesn’t blow it, Raven probably won’t kill you, but I still don’t think he’ll be happy to see you.”
“Oh,” I said, and stopped trying to pull away.
Nox was still talking to Raven, that soothing, proper British accent a balm to Raven’s beast. The process was less than comfortable for Raven, though, his agony obvious and growing until both Vampires were flat on the ground, leaving Raven barely conscious.
Once again, I started toward him, to be sure he was okay, and Harrier threw an arm around my shoulders to stop me. I knew he was right. I was the last person Raven needed to see right now, but I wanted so badly to explain, to help him understand. How I expected to do that when I didn’t understand myself was something I’d have to figure out later.
“Get me out of here,” I heard Raven say, but his brother shook his head.
“Don’t think you should travel just yet. The suggestions are too fresh. Rest would be better.”
“Can’t rest here.”
“You’ve no choice, brother. Can you walk at all? We’ll get you inside.”
“Can’t stay here. I’ll walk home if you won’t…”
“Yes, and I’m sure you’re stubborn enough to try. Don’t make me force this on you as well, Raven. I think your brain has had enough for one go, don’t you?” Nox was helping Raven to his feet, my Vampire shaky as a newborn colt.
Nox glanced at us, letting Harrier and me know they were heading our way. We heeded his warning and moved to the patio, out of their path. I watched them enter the house and was able to hear Raven just inside the door.
“Not her room,” he was saying as Nox attempted to steer him to the stairs. “I’ll not rest in a bed of betrayal. Cellar.”
Nox opened the door to their right and they disappeared.
“Son of a bitch!” Harrier was behind me now, having moved over by the natural gas tank, and I turned to see what new hell had my uncle swearing. He was kneeling on the ground, a dark shadow beside him.
“Jessica.” It was just my name, but it held enough urgency to have me by his side in an instant. What I saw made me want to swear, too, but I couldn’t form the words.
It was Malcolm. I hadn’t even seen him move from the patio where he’d stood guard between me and Raven. He was still in his giant cat form and lying in a humongous pool of his own blood. I knelt beside him to survey the damage, and realized he was panting, hard.
Blood saturated his fur—some his, some Raven’s—so it was hard to tell where his injuries were. It didn’t take me long to figure it out. They were everywhere. Several long gashes had opened the flesh on his flank with a few more along his neck and spine. However, it was the puncture wounds near his chest that had me worried.
“What do we do?” I whispered, glancing at Harrier, who had his cell phone in his hand. I was famous in the Vampire world for my Florence Nightingale routine, but this was way out of my league.
I heard Harrier talking to someone, heard him say things like, “shift or not” and “move him.” He said several other things that didn’t make sense to me, and when he hung up he looked less confident than he had before.
“Who was that?” I asked, my hands resting on Malcolm’s face as I stroked the fur on his jaw with my thumb, tried to reassure him.
“Malcolm’s Clowder. They’re coming for him.”
“But, why can’t Allon…” my voice trailed off. Allon was great with Vampires, and the occasional wayward human/Vampire mix, but he was no veterinarian. The chances he would know how to help Malcolm were slim. Harrier had made the right choice, though the thought of letting Malcolm out of my sight made me panic.
I scooched around until my back was against the gas tank, and I rested Malcolm’s head in my lap. I wouldn’t leave him. I would stay right here until help arrived. He had fought to protect me and I was still here because of it. If he died, it would once again be the disastrous result of my poor decision-making skills.
“It’s okay,” I crooned to him, trying to keep him calm. Keep us both calm. “It’s going to be okay.”
I felt his body shudder and feared the worst, but in the blink of an eye he’d gone from Malcolm the giant cat, to Malcolm the man. Apparently, it was a whole lot easier for Shifters to change than it was for Werewolves.
Malcolm reached for me, resting his shaky, bloody hand on my face and snuggled his head closer to my belly. I covered his hand with my own and said, “Hey Mac, help is coming.”
He took a shallow, rattling breath and opened his mouth to speak. Blood leaked from between his lips, but he brought our hands from my face to his and placed a soft kiss on my fingers.
“Love you both,” he said, choking on the words, coughing up more blood. When he got his breath again, he looked at me, intense green eyes boring into mine. “No regrets,” he said and I shook my head, unable to stop the hot tears from leaking down my face and dripping onto his cheek.
“No,” I promised. “No regrets.”
Malcolm smiled then, that beautiful smile full of sunshine and promise, the one
that had captivated me from the first moment we met. He kissed my hand once more, let out a soft breath, and then closed those jewel-bright eyes forever.
Chapter Ten
“W
hat’s going on out there? What’s wrong with Jessica?” The human, Piper, had her nose pressed against the window, but there was nothing to see but shadows in the yard. Rachel was actively restraining the boy from leaving the house and going to Jessica’s side. Rachel understood his protective nature, and any other time would have appreciated his devotion to her niece. Now, however, was not the time.
“There’s been an accident,” Rachel said. “Malcolm’s been injured, and he needs help. His people are coming to take him home, but they would be none too happy to find a pair of humans here watching. You’re not supposed to know about us, any of us. Please, Alex,” she said, physically pulling him away from the door. “Don’t make this more difficult for Jessica.”
Those appeared to be the magic words, as Alex backed off and resumed the pacing he’d begun when the fight broke out.
What a mess.
“Do either of you have any idea why Raven could be going on like this?” Rachel was reaching, asking the humans, but one never knew what Jessica might have told them.
Piper leaned away from the window and shook her head. “No, but I’ll tell you this. I think all of that stuff Jessica said about Raven having a dark past was a bit of an understatement.”
“Aye,” Rachel said with a nod. “I’d agree with you on that one, to be sure.
“It’s bad.” Alex was muttering, his pacing turned frantic. “It’s really bad.”
“It is,” Rachel said, “but you can’t help. Not at this point. Once the Shifters have gone, she’s going to need both of you, but for now, I need you to be patient.”
Rachel moved to intercept Alex’s return trip around the living room. She rested her hands on his shoulders as much to comfort as to halt his incessant pacing. “Can you do that for me, Alex? Can you please wait, just a wee bit longer? We’ll get rid of the Shifters, and the rest of the Vampires, and we’ll rally ‘round Jessica, just as she’ll need us to do. Can you do that?”
Alex looked her right in the eye, swallowed, and nodded. Rachel was aware of the struggle within him, could feel his body humming with the effort involved in going against his instincts to protect his friend.
She squeezed his arms. “Thank you, Alex. I know this is your first experience in dealing with our world, and I assure you it isn’t normally this…chaotic. However, the last thing we need is for you to call attention to yourselves while things are out of sorts.”
Alex nodded, pulled himself from her grasp, then moved to sit on the sofa. He pulled his long legs to him and wrapped his arms around them, as if he was physically restraining himself from doing anything foolish. Perhaps he was.
Piper left her spot at the window and sat next to her friend.
“Will you two be alright for a moment?” Rachel asked, and they both nodded, though neither met her eye. Hoping that the humans were under control, Rachel moved to the kitchen to check on the Vampire twins from hell.
~~~~~
N ox leaned his mass against the short wall in the dark, cramped cellar beneath Jessica’s kitchen. Raven lay sprawled out on the too-small bed someone had crammed into the confined space, arms and legs hanging over the sides.
Screams from outside reached his ears, familiar screams, only these were of grief rather than from the fear he had once instilled in the girl.
Raven’s eyes opened and locked upon Nox’s.
“Looks like you managed to kill the cat,” Nox said, testing the strength of the compulsion he’d placed on his brother.
Raven simply looked at him, the pain from the process of neutralizing his emotions still fresh. “Good,” was all he said.
Gods, he was tired. Nox slid down the wall and planted himself on the tiled floor. The drywall, the flooring, even the stairs looked brand new and out of place in the little cellar, making him wonder why anyone would have bothered with the makeover.
Getting control of Raven’s mind had taken more out of him than he’d expected. This was nothing like before, when he had manipulated his twin’s memories at Helmut Fuhrmann’s behest. In those instances, his brother’s mind had been quite malleable, easy to control, planting the suggestions mere child’s play.
But tonight? Nox had never felt anything like it. The cerebral strength Raven’s beast possessed was unfathomable. It had taken nearly as much of Nox’s mental powers to control as he had expended in killing Fuhrmann. Only this time, he was alone. No brother or mental companion to borrow strength from. If the Vampire, Tas, had not been available with his particular brand of magic, Nox was not certain they would have Raven in the calm-ish state he was in now.
“Brother,” Raven groaned.
“Yes, Raven,” Nox answered, resting his weary head on his knees.
“Why are you here?”
“I need to be sure you won’t attack anyone before we are able to get you away from this place. It’s best I stay close.”
“No,” Raven made to sit up, but changed his mind immediately, falling back onto the mattress. “I mean, why were you here tonight? Why aren’t you miles away, in a different country? Far away from the Legion. You know you’re on our ‘Most Wanted’ list.”
Nox’s laugh lacked humor, as he spoke to the floor. “That’s a good question, brother. I was on my way out, ready to put this all behind me. I’m not sure why I came. To torture myself with dreams of family holidays? Maybe. I’ve read about them, you know. About families. What you and Jessica have…”
“Had.”
“Had, seemed like something I thought I wanted.” He laughed again, raising his head so he could look his twin in the eye. “This makes life with the Primeval seem a piece of cake.”
Raven grunted and rolled to his side, clutching his head in both hands. “Would someone please make that screaming stop,” he growled.
“She’s grieving, Raven. Grieving you, grieving the cat. Surely you can understand that.”
“Maybe,” Raven rolled onto his back again, the heels of his hands pressed into his eyes. “Someday, maybe, but not today. Today, I just want her to shut the fuck up.”
“Understood,” Nox said, and glanced up the stairs as the cellar door creaked open.
“Everything okay down there?” That voice. Strong and beautiful, with a bright Scottish accent that made his heart skip a beat. “Nox? Raven?”
“Shut the goddamned door,” Raven roared, and she did. Guess she got her answer.
Chapter Eleven
T hey started as low guttural moans, “No, no, no, no, no,” rising in a crescendo that resulted in the high pitched, keening screams that emanated from me now. How had it come to this?
What had started as the happiest day of my life since the loss of my adoptive parents had fast turned into my worst nightmare. Malcolm lay dead in my arms and I’d probably lost Raven forever.
Oh, and if Malcolm knew what he was talking about, I was pregnant, a precious little Shifter baby even now growing in my belly. That thought had the screams intensifying until my throat was raw.
A firm hand rested on my shoulder. I opened my eyes to see Harrier kneeling beside me wearing a pained look, so foreign on that rugged face. He pulled me into an awkward hug, Malcolm’s lifeless body between us.
“I’m so sorry, little one,” Harrier choked and cleared his throat. “We’re here for you, have no doubt.”
I couldn’t even begin to formulate a response. A man lay dead in my lap, another all but brain dead in my cellar, if Nox’s talents were doing their thing, and I was responsible.
Two vehicles pulled into my driveway, headlights casting a stark glare on the remains of the scene taking place in my yard and interrupting that morbid train of thought. Malcolm’s Clowder had arrived. What we must have looked like, all the blood, Malcolm clutched tightly in my arms.
My silenced screams were soon repl
aced by those of another. A lithe little woman, younger than me, with dark hair and tortured eyes ran toward us, hell bent on reaching Malcolm.
Harrier stood, extending a bloodied hand to a man who could only be Malcolm’s Overlord.
“I’m sorry,” Harrier said, clasping the man’s hand in his own. “The injuries were too great. He died soon after we talked.”
Several men stood behind the Overlord at a respectable distance. The woman, however, strode right up to Malcolm and me, bold as you please, and reached for him. I hissed at her, a sound so strange coming from my throat I found it unrecognizable. Her quick withdrawal and slack jaw told us both all we needed to know. This was my tragedy. She’d have to wait her turn.
I glanced up to find everyone staring at me. I didn’t care. They were here to take him away, the father of the child growing inside me, and I wasn’t ready for that. Not yet. Not now. It was too late to do anything for him, too late to bring him back. For now, they just needed to let me be. Give me the time I needed to say good-bye.
Harrier seemed to understand this, and I heard him ask the others if they would like to go inside. They declined, of course. They weren’t here for pleasantries or pumpkin pie. They were here to collect the body of one of their own, and I was the only one standing in their way.
The woman had retreated to huddle with the rest of the cats, an older Shifter putting an arm around her and pulling her into a tight hug as she sobbed. Harrier replaced her at my side, reached for me, but withdrew his hand when I growled.
“They’ll take care of him,” he said, “and they’ll not keep you from any services. I’ll be sure of that.”
I nodded but didn’t let go. I held the still warm body of the man I’d briefly cared for, the cat I’d loved dearly, tight in my arms, and I cried. They would have him soon enough. For now, he was mine.
Chapter Twelve
