by Kate Wendley
She looked more alert. “So… you can only be awake at night?”
He slowly said, “Yes.”
She didn’t say anything about that, she just nodded and caressed his hand before yawning again.
He put a finger under her chin and nudged her to look at him. More awkwardly than he’d intended, he said, “I apologize that… I am… not what you’d expected me to be. I…”
She delicately touched his lips. “Shhh, you’re wonderful, baby. Don’t apologize for that.”
They looked into each other’s eyes until she yawned yet again, and it made him quietly chuckle. “All right. I should let you get to bed.”
She reluctantly nodded and let him help her up, then reached for his wrinkled shirt. She handed it to him, a gleam in her eye as she watched him put it on.
After putting himself back together, he took her in his arms, and she snuggled into him like she was meant to be there.
“I can walk myself out. You shouldn’t move around too much, just in case.”
She looked like she was going to argue with him so he kissed her briefly, then released her. “I won’t take no for an answer.”
With a pouty smile she said, “Ok.”
“Can I see you tomorrow?”
She nodded as her eyelids drooped.
He chuckled and gave her a small squeeze. “All right. Off to bed for you.”
She straightened up as they released each other. “I’m glad you came over tonight.”
He looked more thoughtfully at her. “I am too. You’re a breath of fresh air for me. Truly.”
She slowly opened her door for him then.
“I’ll come here tomorrow night and we can decide what to do from there.”
She said with a mischievous twinkle in her eye, “Sure. Maybe we can watch a movie.”
He groaned and had to force himself away from her as she teasingly reached for him.
“Until tomorrow, my sweet. Goodnight and pleasant dreams.”
“Sweet dreams Anthony.”
They briefly kissed once more before reluctantly letting each other go. Kaia watched him walk all the way down the hall before she closed her door, and she had a smile on her face the whole time. He couldn’t help his own good mood as he descended the stairs, this entire night seeming fantastically unreal.
Chapter 22
Anthony stepped outside in a satisfied daze. The heavy glass door of the building closed and latched behind him, and before he’d even had a chance to enjoy being out in this beautiful night air, the reality of his world came crashing back in on him.
Ethan leaned casually against the brick wall of the apartments looking as if he’d been waiting for him, and not just to have a friendly chat. The cold chill of Anthony’s ever suppressed vampiric urges surged forward and dampened any lingering warmth he’d felt from being with Kaia tonight. It was time to get back to the business of taking care of this city and all her inhabitants, so he squarely faced Ethan with his senses wide open, ready for whatever was about to happen.
He’d be a fool to think he could easily control Ethan if it came down to it, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t beat him into submission if needed. It would no doubt be a nasty, dirty fight, but he’d make sure he won, as he always did.
He was never quite sure if the overwhelming drive to keep his family and this territory safe was due to his unbidden power of being a Master Vampire, or if it was his honor that demanded it. But especially after dealing with the crazy Master Vampire, Isadora, he wouldn’t shirk from his responsibilities no matter how badly he wanted to. And the supposed Vampire Mother was a whole other matter. For tonight, his good mood had already been overshadowed by Ethan being a constant pain in his side, so he might as well have this confrontation with him because, why not?
If looks could kill, Ethan would have him dead where he stood. “You’re still just a pup, aren’t you? I should’ve known you’d go too far with her. If things get out of control are you going to kill her, too?”
Anthony was momentarily thrown off by Ethan calling him a pup. Was he telling him he was older than Anthony? That was a bit of information he’d never known and sometimes speculated about. In vampires, age brought increasing power. He didn’t want to think about what things would be like if Ethan surpassed him in strength, and thankfully he’d never pushed Anthony hard enough for them to find out if he already had.
But Anthony was Master, and Ethan needed to know his place. He lashed out at him with a small amount of power, and Ethan tensed to fight. “I am Master here, and I’ll take care of business as I see fit, and you will remember that. Kaia’s human and has no reason to fear me hurting her, physically or otherwise. But if you’re using her to play some kind of game, that’s another story altogether.”
Ethan took a step back and his next words came out like he was spitting fire. “This is no game, killer. This is about life and death, as it’s always been.” Instead of the fight Anthony had half expected to have, Ethan’s body slowly turned to mist, starting from his feet and working its way up. Before completely disappearing, he said, “You’ll have your comeuppance in time, Mr. Foster.”
He stared into the night in the direction Ethan so casually fled. Comeuppance? He was sure Ethan was no stranger to ending someone’s life, and he didn’t seem the squeamish type when it came to passing judgement and sentence on anyone. So what had brought up all this talk of killing and death?
He scowled as he left Wild Woods. He was sick of that man and didn’t like thinking that every time he saw Kaia he’d have to deal with Ethan, too.
Despite his annoyance, his good mood returned on his drive home. The fresh memories of what he and Kaia did tonight made warmth bubble up and drown out the cold nothingness that had already started to creep back into his soul. That primal, emotionless feeling came back too easily, too quickly, when he wasn’t with her, but it hadn’t completely overtaken him yet. Was that the gift the Vampire Mother gave him? A push of magic to turn him into a creature just like her? He didn’t want to turn into that and he prayed he never would.
He thought of Kaia’s hungry eyes on him tonight. Of her stripping him out of his clothes, and of him stripping her. She’d wanted him so badly.
He started to replay their intimate moments in his head, but when a car drifted into his lane and nearly hit him, he decided to focus on driving for now. He’d relish his memories of Kaia later.
Ethan’s cryptic comments popped into mind. Had Anthony killed a vampire at some point that Ethan was particularly fond of? Was he mad that he’d killed Jim? That didn’t entirely make sense because Ethan had been a bastard to him since the day he’d arrived in Atlanta over seventy years ago. And he hadn’t seemed any more or less of a bastard whenever Anthony had killed someone. Besides, he could count on less than one hand all the vampires he’d helped to pass on since Ethan had been here, and he hadn’t known any of them to be friends with the man.
By the time he pulled into the parking garage at home, his thoughts were on Kaia again. He guided his car into his reserved spot, then turned it off and sat there for a few minutes, wanting some time to himself to savor the feeling of finally being free to be himself with the woman he cared for. He’d never been more relaxed in his life. When he eventually made his way back down to the club, he felt like nothing could bother him tonight.
He opened the door at the bottom of the stairs that led into the club and saw Zach straight across the room, sitting at the bar. He was on the stool closest to the vampire hall, as the shifters had dubbed it. It was the hall all the vampires had to go down every night to get to the rooms in the sub-basement where they had their safe sleeping quarters. Zach leaned against the polished wood of the counter, people watching as Chester tended to drink orders. Anthony casually joined them, taking a seat a couple stools down, and rested his elbows behind him on the railing.
Zach drawled out with a smirk on his face, “Hey buddy. How was your date?”
Anthony turned and looked at him
as he noticed Sebastian coming to join them. He lazily blinked and said, “Perfect,” while Sebastian took a stool on his other side.
Zach chuckled. “Did you get attacked? What happened to your clothes?”
He airily said, “They got wrinkled.”
Zach sniffed the air and let out a happy laugh. “H-o-l-y crap! Anthony got laid!”
Sebastian mimicked Zach by sniffing the air in Anthony’s direction, then smirked. “About time one of us did.”
Zach chuckled in surprise and Anthony couldn’t help joining in.
Eventually, though, he lazily turned to Sebastian and said, “Good evening Sebastian. Zach was just apologizing for sounding so crude about my friend. Weren’t you Zach?”
“Uh, yeah. I apologize for saying you got laid. You just had beautiful, heart stopping, magical sex with your love kitten. Is that better?”
He turned his attention back to looking out over the restaurant and club as he continued smiling. “Yes.” Zach chuckled and Anthony felt completely satisfied with himself. He was also extremely thankful that his friends didn’t hold it against him that he hadn’t been himself these last several months.
Sebastian cautiously said, “So… everything went ok?”
Anthony turned to him, his mood only partially mellowing. “She knows I’m vampire, if that’s what you mean.”
Sebastian frowned. “She knew?”
Zach leaned in closer.
“No, she didn’t know until I revealed myself to her. I really don’t believe she knew about any of our world until tonight.”
Zach asked, “And she took it ok?”
Anthony lazily smirked and turned his attention to people watching again.
Zach chuckled. “Well. I guess so.”
In his mind’s eye, Kaia smiled lovingly at him for absolutely no reason other than she was his. “She’s perfect. Just perfect.”
Zach clapped him on the shoulder. “Well that’s just awesome, buddy. Really, that is so cool. It’s good to see you so happy. I hope we get to meet her someday.”
He stared out at his family in the club and guiltily said, “Yes. Someday.”
Anthony could feel Sebastian’s tension and didn’t have to ask what was wrong. He already knew. They all knew, and it brought him back down to earth with a reluctant sigh.
Anthony didn’t have the luxury to be able to daydream about Kaia with his head in the clouds. Ethan hated Anthony with a passion for whatever reason, and always had, so it was suspiciously convenient that the woman Anthony was now falling so hard for was also Ethan’s really good friend. He didn’t want to believe Kaia was playing a game with him, but anything was possible with Ethan involved.
Sebastian no doubt knew that and thankfully didn’t say it out loud. Anthony gave him a look and Sebastian frowned, nodded once, and that was that. He kept Anthony honest with himself, for better or worse, he supposed. It was how they’d originally connected over eight years ago.
Supernaturals as a rule had a similar set of powers as each other, like hypersensitive senses, more strength than a regular human, and they could heal incredibly fast. But some gained extra powers. Like Sebastian. He manifested an extremely rare ability as a teenager, one that made him the worst outcast their community had ever seen, literally overnight. He could touch a person and read their mind, and back then he had absolutely no control over it. Any skin to skin contact was all it took. To his credit, he tried to quietly muddle through life for a while despite his circumstances.
But that was no way for a teenager just coming into his prime of life to live, and after four years he was an angry, bitter man. When he began picking fights with people and acting like he could do anything he wanted because no one wanted to get close enough to stop him, Anthony started paying more attention. And when Sebastian began spending lengthy periods of time at the ranch running around as his wolf and viciously tearing into prey, then reveling in the bloody gore, Anthony knew things were getting close to their breaking point.
He also seemed to be the only one who noticed how powerful Sebastian had become, which was a sad realization. His parents had moved out of Brookhaven years before to distance themselves from him, and the alpha at the time was young, cocky, and inexperienced at overseeing such a large pack. He wanted nothing to do with Sebastian and his problems, and in fact turned the pack against him.
So when Sebastian started bringing drugged out humans back to the club just to have some friends to hang out with, Anthony decided it was time to break his rule of not interfering with shifter business. By that point he doubted there was a shifter who could even take him down if needed, including the alpha, if it had to come to that. No, that was now Anthony’s job.
Luckily it didn’t come to that, but with Sebastian, nothing was easy. He was wild, angry, and at the end of his rope about life. They had a bloody fight, but in the end they cautiously became friends. Along the way Zach joined the group, which helped smooth out some rough edges between them.
Sebastian eventually gained control over his ability, but he never lost his reputation for his freakish power, or for how wild he’d become. And even now it was obvious when Sebastian was daydreaming about running and fighting as his wolf. His eyes turned more golden and his facial features became ever so slightly more wolfish. Anthony didn’t think Sebastian was aware when he did that. He simply craved being his animal it like no other shifter Anthony had ever seen.
So he helped keep Sebastian tethered to the human world by having him work for him in the restaurant, and Sebastian helped Anthony oversee the family as an alpha. He also occasionally used his power to read people they were worried about, but he loathed doing that and Anthony knew it.
He felt Zach’s attention on him, so he turned to see him eyeing him just as carefully as Sebastian was. He swore he had two mothers some days, though their concern wasn’t unjustified. He should let them have his blood tonight. It would help them keep their power at its maximum, just in case.
Except…
Zach said he didn’t notice anything different about him the other night, but could he taste a difference in his blood? The jaguars could feel changes in their surroundings better than anyone, plus Zach had had Anthony’s blood many times in the past. Would anything happen to them if they drank from him now?
Of course, he wasn’t entirely sure he’d even been given anything by the woman who claimed to be his Vampire Mother. He looked at the palm of his hand and didn’t see anything strange, not that he’d expected to.
“Maybe you two could find Frederick, or another willing shifter, and come by my office later.” They both gave him a nod, knowing exactly what he intended to do.
**
An hour later Sebastian, Zach and Frederick filed into his office. Sebastian looked tense and irritated, Zach seemed eager, and Frederick was his usual, cautious self. The coyote was a large man, and middle of the line power wise, but he’d proven himself to be a trustworthy guard. Maybe even nearing to being friends with them, or at least with Zach. Sebastian wasn’t outright friends with anyone besides Anthony and Zach, and Anthony had been cold enough to people for so many months now that he doubted he’d acquired any new friends to add to the small group of people who’d cautiously claim him as one.
Frederick took a quick look around when Anthony began preparing the room. “I’ve put a sound barrier around us.” Zach and Sebastian were used to the feel of it, but Frederick wasn’t.
The big man relaxed, then sat on the couch across the room from him while Sebastian stood cross armed against the closed door. Zach stepped closer and knelt next to him, but Anthony put his hand up to stop him.
“Wait. I feel I should tell you something first.”
Zach went still with excitement. He loved being in the know of everything that went on in their family and the community. Sebastian, on the other hand, frowned even harder. He hated surprises.
“I… may be changing. I encountered something that I don’t know how to explain, and… something ha
ppened.”
Zach eagerly asked, “What?”
An image of the Spider Woman suddenly inches from his face, holding him hostage with her power, snapped into his mind.
“It’s a vampire issue and I feel it might be dangerous to others if I speak of it aloud, so let’s leave it at that. I−”
Sebastian came away from the door and angrily snapped, “What the fuck does that mean?”
This was going to be harder to talk around than he’d imagined, but he had to tell them something.
“Neither of you noticed anything the other night when I wasn’t feeling myself, but there was definitely something going on. She’s gone now, though, I believe.”
“She?”
He took a deep breath. “Please don’t ask anymore. She promised she meant us no harm, and I haven’t noticed her energy around here since. The bigger issue is what she possibly left behind. A ‘gift’, she said.” He couldn’t help looking into his palm again. “I don’t know what it is, and haven’t noticed any changes. Yet.”
He finally looked back up at them both. “So I offer you my blood, but with my usual, though heavily reinforced caution, that I don’t know what it’ll do to you.”
Zach stepped closer and sniffed at Anthony. “You smell like your girl.”
He almost felt embarrassed about that because what they’d done was personal, but Zach was in his Alpha Jaguar mode right now, not his happy go lucky, favorite guy around town mode.
He knelt beside him and took his wrist in his hand, smelling him more closely. “You don’t smell like anything different besides that.”
“Then it’s up to you to decide.”
Anthony looked up at Sebastian, who was frowning in cautious curiosity. Frederick sat quietly on the couch, his eyes on everyone in the room.
Zach sniffed his wrist one more time and shrugged. “I’m game. Let’s find out.”
Anthony cocked an eyebrow, then forced his fangs to come in and bit his wrist. Zach immediately latched on to the wound, sucking deep and hard.
