“In fact—” Ethan glanced around at the people who seemed less wary of him now that they saw him interacting with someone normally. “—doing that here at the Shelter would be perfect, since you’re going to be around for a while. I bet there are tons of people here who’d help a fellow shifter.”
“You really think so? That would be so cool!” William beamed, but his enthusiasm dimmed when he turned to Theresa. “Do you think Dad would let me?”
“William.”
Speak of the devil.
“Get away from him!” Maximus barreled into the room like a force of nature from the other entrance, the warning glow in his eyes making everyone in his path move out of the way. “Theresa, what were you thinking, bringing William here?” He hauled his son off the bench, looming over a startled and hunched Ethan, which was Bash’s cue to come out of hiding.
“Maximus,” Theresa confronted him first, “it’s not a big deal. We were just talking.”
“Now Bain’s using you to spy on us?” Maximus ignored her to snarl at Ethan.
“I-I wasn’t—”
“That’s enough, Mr. Thornton.” Bash descended on yet another brewing fight. “Ethan merely accompanied me to handle a dispute between tribes. I had no idea your wife and son were visiting.”
Maximus shifted his glare to Bash at his approach, keeping his son behind him, away from Ethan, and backing up to move Theresa with him. “I never want to see that thing near my family again or I’ll be returning him to you in pieces.”
“Thing?” Theresa looked to Ethan in alarm, maybe finally taking note of his sunglasses. “You’re the twinkie.”
“What?” Ethan blinked at her.
“Sorry, my word, not Max’s, I swear,” Theresa said. Maximus had obviously explained Ethan’s presence without skipping the tawdry details. “An actual vampire….”
“I wasn’t trying to hide,” Ethan said. “William knew—”
“Do not say my son’s name!”
“Dad.” William pushed away from Maximus to move back toward Ethan, much to Maximus’s horror. “Ethan is nice. We were just talking about my science fair project. He’s not scary.”
“Then he’s lying to you. Or tricking you with mind control. That’s what they do.” Maximus growled, eyes glowing brighter at Ethan, before they centered coldly back on his son. “That’s how they killed your mother. Or did you forget?”
Bash knew that story. Days after William was born, Maximus’s first wife had been drained by vampires. Children, pregnant women, and those who’d recently given birth tasted especially delicious, apparently. Maximus’s wife had wanted to visit her family outside the city, and while Maximus was away with William, the vampires took out her entire extended family by first swarming them with humans they had enthralled. They drained the humans eventually, too, though Bash heard Maximus tracked the vampires down afterward and tore them to pieces.
A decade and a second wife later, that vengeance didn’t seem to be enough.
“I think my parents were killed by vampires too,” Ethan said, looking to William in sympathy, and then at Maximus for understanding. “I’m trying to be better than what you think of me. Bash is putting a lot of faith—”
“I don’t care what he thinks,” Maximus said and grabbed his son again—not harsh, never harsh, but even that simple act made Bash’s hackles rise on instinct. “We’re leaving, and you two are not coming back here.”
“He can’t trick me, Dad.” William still resisted. “Vampires can’t trick shifters.”
“They can the weak-willed and the young, and he can enthrall anyone,” Maximus hissed. “He is worse than a normal vampire, do you understand? And you are going to stay away from him.”
“I wasn’t—” Ethan started to rise, too fast, too hostile, however unintentional, but as Bash dove forward, he wasn’t fast enough to stop Maximus’s lunge.
Slamming Ethan back into the wall, Maximus held him firm with a forearm pressed to his throat, knocking the sunglasses from his face. That in turn triggered Ethan, and Bash definitely wasn’t fast enough to stop him.
“Listen to me!” Ethan roared and pushed Maximus so hard, he sent him flying halfway across the room, barely missing taking Bash and even William along with him.
Ethan tumbled back onto the bench, face changed to yellow eyes and fangs bared, but not vicious. In an instant, he was terrified of what he had done.
“I-I’m sorry….” He looked to Maximus, and then to Theresa and William. “I’m sorry.”
So much for the people at the Shelter warming to him.
“Mr. Thornton.” Bash walked slowly toward Maximus and extended a hand down to him, which Maximus took, maybe only because he was still gasping from having the wind knocked out of him. “I’d ask you to not start a scene around my people again, especially not here.”
Rage tempered, but only slightly, Maximus glared at Bash as he caught his breath. “Keep him away from my family,” he said, and this time, when he collected William, the boy went without resistance, though there was conflict on his face as he was led away.
“It was nice to meet you, Ethan,” Theresa said, stilted though it was.
Then Bash and Ethan were alone, because everyone else in the common room made themselves scarce.
“I’m sorry,” Ethan said again, eyes and fangs fading, seeming close to tears.
Bash reached down to pick up Ethan’s sunglasses and handed them back to him. “Let’s get out of here.”
Chapter 11
IT WASN’T the best end to their day, and who knew how Maximus would relay the story to Jay, but as unfortunate as the incident had been, Bash focused on the good. Ethan had reacted to defend himself but nothing more. It could have been worse.
Bash hated how that seemed to sum up everything lately.
It could have been worse.
At least Bash’s inner circle was generally less stilted around Ethan. Everyone was gathered for dinner like usual, which Ethan had dutifully assisted with, even helping set the table despite not being able to eat.
“It’s so weird, not being hungry,” Ethan said, sunglasses off now with the sun long set. “The food looks so good, but it’s not appetizing to me at all. I just don’t want anything.”
“You better not,” Siobhan teased. “Some of the pieces of meat at this table are off-limits.”
“Only some?” Luke snickered.
“You don’t have to stay, Ethan,” Bash said from his spot at the head of the table, with Deanna at his right and Ethan at his left. “Given you no longer require food—”
“I want to stay,” Ethan insisted. “If no one minds. Better than being alone in the cellar, and I still have so many questions.”
“Just so long as you don’t ask which race tastes better,” Preston said with a smirk.
Ethan ducked his head before responding, maybe because he’d only tasted Bash. “Everything for shifters seems so structured. Is there a vampire hierarchy too?”
“They’re more loners,” Nell offered, “or only in pairs.”
“Like Sith?” Ethan asked. Then he uttered a hasty, “Sorry.”
“No, good analogy!” Luke piped in. “Always two there are,” he mimicked Yoda, to which Nell smiled but most of the others, including Preston, rolled their eyes. “Master and, well… fledgling. They’re not known for sharing well, so you don’t tend to see groups.”
“And we usually kill them on sight,” Deanna reminded him.
Bash watched Ethan’s smile flicker.
“R-right,” Ethan stuttered. “For shifters, then, is there a central government of some kind or just each city’s pack?”
“Just packs,” Bash explained, “but also racial tribes unto themselves, like countries with unique heritages, but no… United Federation.”
Ethan laughed, the smile cracking onto his face again like Bash had hoped. “Now you’re mixing universes.”
A swift kick to Bash’s shin snapped his attention to Deanna.
Spoil
sport.
“Heard you had another run-in with Maximus,” Preston said.
“Still pissy, huh?” Luke added. “I bet if he got to know Ethan, he’d change his mind.”
“I don’t know about that.” Ethan ducked his head again, disarming in his awkwardness as the only one at the table without food to hide behind.
“Is Ethan putting a spell on us, Nell?” Siobhan pressed, maybe half-serious.
“Only if you count natural charm,” Nell assured her. “One of the runes I placed on Ethan’s palm would glow if he attempted to enthrall us.”
“What?” Ethan looked at her in surprise.
This was the first Bash had heard of that too.
“Forgive me,” Nell said to both Ethan and Bash. “It was only a precaution, but I haven’t seen so much as a spark. It is my job to protect the pack, you understand.”
Bash always gave her full autonomy and wasn’t about to retract that now.
“I’m grateful,” Ethan said, looking at his palms in wonder. “I don’t want to sway anyone, accidentally or otherwise. Which—”
“It’s the right one.”
Ethan stared in renewed fascination, but nothing was visible now, other than the peek of one of his tattoos.
If there had been any remaining concern over Ethan, that seemed to diminish.
It was only Deanna who frowned.
After dinner, there was time for everyone to socialize before some would need sleep and others would head out for night shifts. Deanna, unsurprisingly, excused herself. Bash held back for the most part, observing the way Ethan got into the good graces of nearly everyone else in the circle.
“How did you fake that evidence anyway?” Preston asked.
“Hey, I was trying to put away a guilty man,” Ethan defended.
“I know. I wouldn’t use the knowledge for anything nefarious.”
“Liar,” Siobhan snorted from the floor.
The group had moved to the living room, most of the others in chairs or on the sofa, but as a lizard, Siobhan preferred the coolness of being closer to the ground.
“Come on,” Preston went on from his corner of the couch, with Luke snuggled against him and his two most dutiful rat companions sleeping on the armrest. “What about trade secrets between friends? I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.” After clapping his hands together, Preston parted them slowly, creating a crackle of lightning between his palms that grew brighter and more pronounced as he stretched the energy, as if between two warring Tesla coils.
Ethan scooted to the edge of his armchair to watch.
The lightning floated above Preston’s palm, completely under his control, and then, with a simple closing of his fist, it vanished.
“Wow,” Ethan said, like a child being told his first fairy tale, only this magic was real.
“If I’d wanted to, I could build it up larger and larger and then unleash it like a wave. Pretty powerful in combat,” Preston bragged.
“How rare is it for someone to be able to do that?”
Nell got up from the other corner of the sofa to kneel in front of Ethan. She took his hand, the right one with its hidden rune. Running her thumbs across his palm as if to do a reading, she said, “There’s a little natural magic in you. I thought so before. Most people have some, but not often as much as me or Preston. Still, with your uniqueness, you might be of use to me in the workshop.”
“If he’s unique enough for you to say that,” Preston protested, “maybe he should fall under my jurisdiction.”
“What about me?” Luke sat up straighter. “He’s been to the Shelter. He could help—”
“Hey.” Siobhan crawled over to Ethan beside Nell and took his other hand. “Why does everyone else get to hog the new guy? He’s working at my parlor. You could help me on patrols. Tell me, Ethan, how good are you at blending in?”
“Um… I used to think I was invisible,” Ethan said, clearly feeling very visible with two women fondling his hands, “but I guess it’s hard to hide when you can all smell me.” He gently tugged his hands away, shrinking back into his seat.
“Stop trying to find uses for him,” Bash chided.
“For his benefit, Boss. You want to fit in, right?” Siobhan asked Ethan. “Join the team? I’m glad you’re up for doing ink all day, but you could be doing more.”
Ethan glanced around the room before centering his gaze back on Siobhan. “You’re like a sheriff, right?”
“That’s right. Warden.”
“I’m an investigator. I love that more than anything—figuring out the truth, solving the impossible. And right now, I’m the impossible. I’m the best clue we have to figuring out who my sire is, so maybe I can be useful to all of you, and in turn, you can help me sort that out.”
“I appreciate the initiative,” Bash said, since he hadn’t thought much about that yet. “Any ideas on where you’d like to start?”
“From what you’ve told me, the pack members with the most ears to the ground are Siobhan and Luke. So I can shadow them both, do shifts at the tattoo parlor but also join Luke at the Shelter, learn what I can to see if anything stands out as out of the ordinary leading to what happened to me.”
“I knew I liked you,” Siobhan said. She stuck her tongue out at Ethan to show its lizard fork, which he took in with as much fascination as he had everything else he’d seen today.
Until a cat, well-timed and demanding attention, hopped into Ethan’s lap to distract him. The little imp didn’t like sharing, apparently, appearing in his smallest form, like an American shorthair in tabby-striped orange.
“Where did you come from?” Ethan grinned as he stroked the cat’s head. “Wait…. Luke? Oh my God, you’re so cute!” He nuzzled the cat to his chest, which made it harder than ever to imagine him as the innate killer he’d been turned into.
“Luke!” Preston chided, since beside him now was an empty pile of clothes. “If you turn back to human sitting naked in Ethan’s lap, you are sleeping alone tonight.”
Ethan giggled as Luke jumped down and then over to Preston’s lap instead. The shameless attempt at an apology did manage to wrangle a smile from Preston, though, the rats on the armrest not even bothering to stir, since they were used to this particular cat.
“You snuggle your mate all the time.” Nell got up to reclaim her seat on the sofa. “Who’s my pretty kitty?” She patted her lap like one would with any feline, and after a loving buck against Preston’s chest, Luke crawled over to settle on her lap next.
“Traitor,” Preston scoffed.
“Um… mate?” Ethan asked with a furrow of his brow. “Like married?” He couldn’t hide how that line of questioning caused his eyes to flick to Bash.
“Shifters don’t always bother with official human customs or paperwork, though we might someday,” Preston said wistfully. “Being mates is deeper than just choosing someone to be with. Some say it’s fated, though most shifters in other cities would say Luke and I aren’t true mates because we’re from different tribes. Others might say we’re not true mates because we can’t pass on our lines. In Centrus, we know that’s bullshit.
“When Luke and I met, he said I smelled delicious, and I joked about the cat getting the mouse, but then I smelled him and… we just knew.”
That caused Ethan’s eyes to flick at Bash again.
Luke trotted over from Nell’s lap and rubbed against Preston’s side until Preston snatched him up to hold him in his arms.
“And um… passing on the line isn’t a big deal for Bash and Jay?” Ethan asked.
Bash meant to interject at that, but Preston answered first.
“It is in some cities, for some families.” Preston sneered in honor of his own traditional family. “But Brookdale has always had appointed Alphas, not a line of succession, and even though Bash took over from his father, he wants to pass this city to someone worthy one day, not only because they’re related to him.”
“Don’t some of you have night shifts to get to?”
Bash said before the conversation could continue down this path. It wasn’t terribly late, but it had been an exhausting day, and as much as Ethan was quickly becoming part of the family, Bash had to get him settled downstairs, at least for a few more nights. “Time for bed, Ethan. And would someone please do something about these decorations?” Apparently no one had volunteered to clear away how Halloween had thrown up all over their home.
“Tomorrow,” Preston said. “We’re allowed November first.”
Bash pursed his lips but didn’t protest. After a round of goodnights, he led Ethan from the room. It shouldn’t be this easy after barely twenty-four hours. The rest wouldn’t be easy, not dealing with Jay and Maximus, and definitely not solving their mystery. Bash needed to remember that.
“If someone else in your circle took a mate, would they live here too?” Ethan asked as they made their way down into the basement.
“They would.”
“And if they had children?”
“Of course.”
“Same if they adopted?”
Bash paused at the foot of the stairs. “You mean Jesse. You’re thinking of Preston and Luke. I hadn’t thought to approach them yet. Luke is technically in charge of finding Jesse a home, and although she absolutely adores him, I don’t think it’s dawned on him either. He and Preston are still young, and circle members tend to be busy. But then, Jesse isn’t exactly a newborn needing full-time care. A mated pair or existing family was what I’d hoped for.”
“I thought it might be worth it to ask.” Ethan shrugged.
“And I might just do that.” Bash watched Ethan reach for the cellar door, which revealed another peek at one of his tattoos. “I have a question for you, though.”
“Yeah?”
“Which is it, then? Inquisitor or Arbiter?”
Ethan nearly tripped his way inside the room. “You know Warhammer?”
“Why not?” Bash followed him inside but hung back by the door. “Inquisitors are investigators and Arbiters like police. Quite fitting given your previous profession. And I’m sure they looked cool in prison.” He bobbed an eyebrow, which made Ethan chuckle.
By the Red Moonlight Page 11
