by Anna Santos
“I’m already thinking of taking vacations anyway,” Shane whispered. I looked down at him, still in my arms, resting his head on my lap. He was tuned into my thoughts. “I’m going to take some time off to be with you. I could have died tonight.”
“Yes, you could have,” I agreed, using my voice to talk to him. My voice trembled. It had been extremely scary to think about the possibility of losing him. “We still need to talk about you following me.”
“Anna, I’m so—” His words were interrupted by someone asking for help.
“Somebody help here!” One of the kids gestured to get attention. His group opened to reveal a body behind them. “Alpha, talk to me, Alpha. Tell me what to do!”
I looked toward the body and recognized Sebastien, to my surprise and fear. “Oh my god! What happened to him?” I asked, running to his side and kneeling down after seeing the blood with horror. Meanwhile, one of the wolves howled at the moon next to a policeman’s body. There was a casualty. I was just hoping that Sebastien wouldn’t be the next one.
I looked at the boy, who looked at me with worried eyes. “Can you please help him, miss?” the boy asked me, knowing me from school. I also recognized him, but he was not my student.
Sebastien was more unconscious than alive. I had no idea what he was doing there or who had done that to him. I had to assume it was Vincent and his bullies, but why? And how? What was he even doing there?
The medic was not arriving soon enough to treat him. I was shaking, scared for him. The boy was also worried, applying pressure to the wound Sebastien had in his stomach. I had to do something to save him, so I reopened the wound in my wrist and put my blood in Sebastien’s mouth. I wasn’t going to let him die! He was my friend.
When I looked up, Shane was by my side. “He was hardly breathing,” I explained, not wanting him to be jealous about my using my blood for Sebastien.
“Don’t worry about it. You did well. He can’t die. He’s our ally and friend. It would also be chaos in our town if something happened to him.”
I nodded and sighed with anxiety. Weirdest night ever!
“Is he going to be okay?” the boy asked, looking hopefully at me. I nodded at him, trying to look more reassuring than I felt. The fact was that I didn’t know, because he had to drink my blood and I had no clue how much of my blood he already had inside of him. He wasn’t conscious enough to drink, so I had to force it into him. “I tried to help my Alpha,” the boy explained with a sad voice as he began to cry. Embarrassed, he cleared his eyes with the sleeve of his sweater. “But the guy was really strong.”
“Who did this to Sebastien?” Shane asked. I looked up, intrigued by his question. Didn’t he know? Wasn’t he there to witness what had happened? “When I arrived, Sebastien was already on the ground and the kids were being attacked by vampires. I thought they were rogue vampires. Then my men and I were assaulted by Vincent and his witch. We tried to fight back, but she used her powers on us. Vincent shot at my deputies with my own gun…” He stopped talking to take a breather, also emotional about the memory. “And then kept me alive longer, because he…”
“I know,” I whispered, not wanting him to explain anything else. “I heard that part. I came as soon as I could. I didn’t know—I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” he whispered sweetly, caressing my cheek and kneeling next to me. “I didn’t even expect to see you here. How did you find out? They were blocking our mind link.”
“I tried to reach you, and I heard the noise inside your head,” I explained. “Don’t ever do this to me again,” I whispered, leaning my forehead on his.
“The Alpha was trying to protect the girl,” the boy said, speaking up.
Now it was my time to ask, “What girl?”
“The pretty blonde vampire girl. She’s also a teacher at school,” the boy explained. “Like you, miss.”
“Evelyn?” I asked, shocked and worried. “Where is she? I didn’t see her.”
“He killed her. She is gone, miss,” the boy stated with sad, apologetic eyes.
My face went from worried to shocked and pale to anger and sadness. “No! She can’t be dead. I talked to her today. She wasn’t going…” I remembered that Eve had asked Sebastien to go out with her. He must have said yes. “You must be mistaken!”
“Sorry, we weren’t able to help her,” the boy whispered, lowering his eyes even more and fisting his hands. I calmed down and breathed deep. It wasn’t his fault. He was just a pup. What could he possibly have done? They had already done a lot, defending the hybrid girl and trying to help their Alpha. “I tried to help. We all did. My friends and I heard them being attacked. We tried to help the Alpha coach.”
The boy looked nervous and defeated for not being able to help Sebastien.
“We were called here to break up a fight,” Shane added. “We assumed it was just the kids having some stupid quarrel with another pack of wolves or among themselves. We just saw them fighting the vampires. I didn’t see Evelyn anywhere. And I saw Sebastien lying on the ground after Vincent told the witch to put the spell on us.”
“That was because the female vampire had already been killed by the evil vampire guy. He was really upset with her—he was hurting her and arguing. The Alpha tried to help the teacher, but there were four against him, and he was stabbed by a silver blade. Miss Evelyn screamed at them to stop, and she tried to get the Alpha out of here, but the vampire didn’t let her. He grabbed her by her neck and said she was his cub and he would do whatever he pleased.”
“Wait, what?” Shane asked, confused by the boy’s last words. “He called her his cub?”
“Yes, sir.”
Shane was going to say something else when I was startled by Sebastien moving on my lap. He reacted, coughing out blood and breathing deep like he had just come back to life. “Evelyn was a spy.” Sebastien’s hoarse voice got our attention; we all looked down at him with relief. Color was returning to his face.
“What?” I asked, trying to understand what he had said, or if he had really said that.
“Evelyn was a spy. She was here spying on us. I took her home after leaving James’s party. She had insisted so much that I finally agreed to go out with her. We were having fun until she received a text-message and then wanted to go home to sleep. I took her home, and then I went for a quick patrol in town, to see if my boys were partying instead of resting. I found these here, and when I was lecturing them, I noticed Eve leave her apartment and go to a deserted part of town. It intrigued me, so I followed her.”
“So what happened here?” Shane asked, intrigued as I was.
“She met with three vampires and a witch. They were talking secretively. She was giving them some papers—the security measures for the prom. She also told them about the missing granddaughter of the king. She wanted to renegotiate her freedom in exchange for this information. I tried to leave without being noticed, to warn others, but there were other vamps hiding. I still tried to outrun them, but they were faster and tried to take me down. Then Eve tried to help me. I didn’t expect that! She was actually killed because she tried to protect me from her vampire friends. I think the stronger one was her master. He got really upset with her.”
“How did the kids end up in this mess?” Shane questioned.
“Alpha called for backup,” one of the boys explained. “We share mind links. We were near here, and we rushed to help.”
“It was a stupid move. You should have waited for the police,” Shane said, holding on to his ribs, still in pain.
“We called the police,” the boy explained. “But if we hadn’t done anything, they would’ve killed the Alpha.”
“It’s true,” Sebastien said. “Things got out of hand. Eve’s master killed her in cold blood in front of my eyes, because her cover was blown and he didn’t need her anymore. I tried to stop him, but the witch…” His voice failed and he moaned in pain. “I think I have a piece of silver inside me. It burns!”
On cue,
Jessie arrived from helping the other wounded and kneeled next to him with a big smile. “Hello, gorgeous! My name is Jessica, and I’ll be your doctor for the evening,” she said with a happy grin that distracted Sebastien from the pain. He looked at her, unsure if she was talking to him, or if he even knew who she was. “Relax and take a big breath.” She put one hand on his forehead and another over the wound in his stomach. She pulled the silver out with her kinetic power. Sebastien let go a small moan of hurt as the piece left his flesh. “All done, love. You will survive thanks to Anna and me.” Then she got up and looked around. “Next!”
“Me,” the boy next to Sebastien said, in pain from the beating.
“Oh! Hello, love,” she greeted with her nice accent that made the boy turn red. “What’s your name, pup?”
“I’m—I’m Leonard.”
“Who is that?” Sebastien asked, intrigued as he looked at me and Shane.
“She’s my friend. She saved our butts,” I answered. “So, are you feeling better?”
“Yes, are you feeling better? I want my mate’s lap back!” Shane teased Sebastien.
He stared at the place he was and where Shane was and smiled. “I really like her lap,” he teased, and then he lost his smile and looked away, really sad. “I still don’t believe that Eve… And that she’s gone.”
“I know.” I understood his pain and sighed. Eve being a spy was something I’d never expected. She was nice and friendly at school. In fact, she was one of my closest friends there.”
“I wonder how James will react,” Shane said, lost in his own thoughts. “We need to change our security measures for the school prom, and I need to find out what names they took, to protect the kids.”
“I still can’t believe Eve is dead,” Sebastien mumbled, getting up from my lap. I rose to my feet, helped by Shane. The three of us stood looking at the alley full of people who were talking and taking care of the dead, the captured, and the wounded. All that was left of Eve was a pile of ashes. Sebastien stared at it. “I really appreciate you saving my life, Anna,” he whispered. “I owe you one.”
“Don’t worry about it. That’s what friends are for.”
“Bro,” Sebastien said, putting his hand on Shane’s shoulder, “you, too. Thank you for having my back.”
“You have to thank the kids. They were the ones who came to help you and made the noise so the police arrived on time. They saved your ass,” Shane stated, trying to cheer him up.
“Yes, the kids were great. Reckless but great.”
“You are their Alpha, man,” Shane reminded him. “They worship you.”
“You six,” Sebastien shouted to the boys, who were mostly healed and talking to Jessica as they drooled over her like any hormonal teen. “What the hell were you thinking?”
Sebastien started to lecture them with some tough love about reckless attitudes and suicidal behavior in fights against adults and strong beings. It was almost funny. One moment, they were heroes; the other, they were in detention for saving Sebastien’s life. It seemed a bad thing to do, but it was necessary. Better that they were alive than dead heroes.
Shane held my hand and got my attention. I looked at him, and we both stared at each other quietly. We didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know, at least. I had been mad before, but now that all those things had happened, I was just feeling relieved that he was okay. His eyes were sad, showing how much he wanted me to forgive him. I sighed and looked elsewhere.
“I’m still really angry at you for following me.”
“I know.”
“And on top of that, I’m extremely annoyed because you even found a way to get yourself almost killed! What were you thinking? Why didn’t you just follow us to the palace?”
“They had no one else to back them up. And I didn’t think I was going to get myself in the middle of a fight with Alaric’s men.”
“That’s another issue. Why didn’t you tell me that Alaric was family? He’s my freaking uncle! You knew I hated him, that he had killed my father.”
“I was going to tell you everything when we got home. That was why I didn’t let Eric see you this afternoon. I knew you would spot the resemblance and would freak out. I was trying to protect you and find the best time to tell you.”
“Well, how did that turn out for you?” I asked, unable to hold back my sarcasm.
“Not so good…” He looked down at his feet. “But I love you. All I did was to protect you.”
“I know,” I mumbled, knowing perfectly well that Shane never intended to harm me. “But you said that you were going to wait for me to tell you everything about me. You shouldn’t have followed me.”
“I was afraid that…”
“I was cheating on you,” I tried to complete his sentence.
“No, that you would leave me. I had no idea if the mate bond would be strong enough to make you stay.”
“To make me stay,” I muttered, repeating his words, which annoyed me.
“I didn’t mean it like that, Anna. What I meant was that I wanted you to stay with me, but it doesn’t matter where you want to live. Now that I’ve found you, I’m…”
I silenced his babbling with my lips over his. I was tuned in to his thoughts, so I understood what he meant the minute he started to explain himself. I could feel his love for me and that he was true to his words. I didn’t want him to suffer any longer. I had no heart to stay mad. I could have lost him and then my life would have been over.
“You scared me to death,” I complained with watering eyes, my muffled words against his lips.
He knew what I was referring to, because he hugged me tight and cuddled my hair. I was allowed to feel vulnerable next to him, so I was not going to hold it back. I’d been scared for him, and I also felt the need to scream at him for being so damn reckless.
“I was not reckless, honey. And I love you, even if you are mad at me. In fact, I think I just fell in love with you all over again,” he whispered in my ear, raising my chin with his finger so I would look at him. “You are my favorite superhero,” he added, making me smile. A tear rolled down my eye; he caught it with his thumb. I stared at his lips and closed my eyes. I needed him to kiss me again.
“So…” Jessie’s voice was next to us and killed the moment. I opened my eyes and stared at her like Shane did. “Aren’t you going to introduce us to your wolf?”
“We are kind of busy,” I whispered, furrowing my eyebrows to make her understand that it was not the best time to interrupt us.
“You two have lot of time to do that. Now that I’ve saved your butts,” she reminded me, folding her arms. “No need to thank me. Anyway,” she said, breathing out, “Jason and I want to meet your mate.”
"Fine! Shane, this is Jessie and…" I looked back past her and saw my cousin, holding his hair with his hand. "That is Jason."
“Hi,” he said. “I’m Anna’s cousin.”
“And the guy who stole your files,” I added, folding my arms as I glared at him.
“Yes and that,” he chuckled, adding, “And read them.”
“Oh!” Shane said. It intrigued me, because he felt really shy in his thoughts all of a sudden.
“Yeah, dude, like you have a serious fixation on my cousin. I mean, Kage. You have to read what he wrote about you!”
“What did he write?” I asked, gazing at Shane, who had actually turned red. “Before or after he knew who I was?”
“Before, much before. He really admired you. I guess it’s good that you and Kage are the same person or you’d have serious competition.”
“Now I really want to read it.” I moved near Shane and brushed my lips to his. “So, I’m your superhero, huh?” I smiled and he smiled back at me.
“Shouldn’t we be going to the clinic?” Jessica reminded us, staring at her watch.
“Yes, we should,” I said, holding on to Shane’s hands. “We need to get going. Eric should be getting there any time now.”
“Who’s Eric?” Jason asked.
“My uncle.”
“We can go in my car. I can turn on the emergency lights, and we won’t be stopped,” Shane offered.
“That’s a good idea.”
“I’d rather go in my car, but I can follow you,” Jason said.
As we prepared to leave, Shane gave Aaron total control of the operation. The captured vampires would be locked away until Shane decided to come back to question them, and the kids would go back to their homes after giving their statements. The dead officer would go to the morgue and his family would have to be notified. That was the hardest part. At least the other one who had been shot was out of danger, thanks to Jessica’s healing abilities.
At that moment, I just wanted to get to the clinic and wait for my brother to wake up. I hoped he would wake up. I hoped it wasn’t too late for the blood to work. The doctors and researchers all counted on him to wake up so they could make a vaccine that would inoculate hybrids against the serum and stop the silent, deadly chemical weapon from killing other hybrids.
Chapter Thirty-One
Beth looked down at the seriously deadly fall from the balcony of her bedroom into the ocean. The fortress, as she liked to call it, was situated on a high cliff above an ocean view. Even for her, a pureblooded vampire, it would be extremely difficult to survive that fall. However, most of the time, throwing herself into the void sounded more appealing than living there with her kidnappers and abusers. The only thing keeping her alive was her sister; otherwise, she would have gladly asked for a divorce.
At least her holder, who had the arrogance to call her his mate, was nowhere to be seen; she had slept alone, without his hateful presence and despicable appetite for raping her. But she had to face it: he wasn’t as evil and insane as his master. Alaric was the personification of evil. He could be someone’s worst nightmare. He was her worst nightmare. She was as scared of him as she hated and wanted to kill him. To make things worse, Alaric was her sister’s mate. Her real soul-mate; they didn’t have the fake mate bond that Alaric had imposed between her and his loyal subject, Vincent.
