by Kate Wendley
“He needs you to in order to be himself again. We need you to do that for him.”
“Who’s we?”
“The entire supernatural community of the Atlanta territory.”
Well if that was all…
The heartfelt way he said all that made her believe Zach cared about Anthony. But all it did was make her even sadder. And it made her think back on when she first met Anthony. How hard it seemed for him to talk to her, even though it was clear he’d wanted to.
“He won’t talk to me anymore, so… there’s that.”
“Don’t worry. I have an idea that’s either really good, or really bad. It depends how you look at it.”
She gave him a look. “What does that mean?”
“Well, he blames himself for your attack. We got that much out of him before he shut down on us again. But that’s both good and bad.”
She touched her neck and ran her fingertips over the slowly healing bite marks.
“That kind of thing doesn’t usually happen, you know. Most vampires aren’t stupid enough to try to pull something like that. Especially not with a guest of Anthony’s.”
“He has a lot of guests?”
“No. Sometimes a business associate, but it’s always a supernatural of some variety. Someone who’s never been to the club before.”
“Cory said that guy was a loner. Someone without a family or a Master.”
“Yeah. How were you afterwards? I wanted to check on you, but it’s all wolves and coyotes at Wild Woods. No jaguars, so I don’t have much pull, and Sebastian’s not really a talker, so…”
“Tell me what Anthony’s doing at the ranch.”
Zach took a deep breath, which only made her even more worried.
“While you were at the club, Anthony was trying to keep a bunch of busybody shifter ladies from tearing apart one of his vampires.”
“Why were they trying to do that?”
“Because they hate vampires. And because Les took too much blood when he fed.”
She tensed. “Too much blood?”
“He drained her, but we shifters can’t die from that. We’re too full of magic. The ladies didn’t like that though, and they didn’t think Anthony punished Les enough. So… Anthony’s letting the shifters gang up on him for an hour to satisfy their bloodthirsty ways.”
“What? Why not let them gang up on Les?” Her heart raced in disbelief of what she was hearing.
“Because he’s not a strong vampire. Anthony knows that. And everyone hates Anthony anyway, so it’s a win-win for them.”
“Why does everyone hate Anthony?”
“Because he’s vampire, and because he controls the purse strings.”
There was so much about this world she didn’t understand. “So Anthony is protecting Les.”
“Yes.”
“So he’s not completely burned out like you think he is.”
Zach paused. “Maybe. I don’t know what he is, I just know he’s not himself. So I ask again, do you love him?”
“Why does it matter to you?”
“Because I want my friend back, and I think I have a plan, but you’ll have to be the one to pull it off. And it might involve pissing Anthony off even more than he was tonight. A lot more. So are you in?”
With her heart in her throat, she whispered, “What happened to the guy who attacked me?”
Zach sighed, sounding as if he knew she was deflecting from his question about love. “He got his head split open by Anthony, and then Ethan came back for him. I heard he gave Winston a good once over, and Ethan isn’t as gentle as Anthony when it comes to punishment.”
Kaia’s heart pounded. No matter what that guy had done to her, she was ok now. She couldn’t bear it if something horrible happened to him because of her. “Is he still alive?”
“Yeah. Last I heard anyway, except he’s not a loner anymore. He answers to Ethan now, which means he’s on a pretty short leash.”
That didn’t sound good, but it had to be better than the alternative. “Is this what you guys always do? I mean shifters and vampires? Just fight with everyone all the time?”
He touched her arm and she instinctively flinched. “Hey, this stuff doesn’t happen all the time, I was just being real with you. You seem to accept Anthony and all this vampire stuff pretty well, based on what I’ve heard, anyway, and from talking to you tonight. I just wanted you to know we don’t take this stuff lightly. Winston was punished for hurting you, but Anthony feels ultimately responsible because he is. He brought you to the club, and knew you were human and needed to be protected. He’s also responsible for the vampires and shifters being able to live with each other, so sometimes he lets them think they’re pulling one over on him. Trust me, he’s not going to get hurt tonight. His strength is so far beyond anyone else here, besides Ethan, that it’s not even funny. And he heals in an instant. It’s mind bogglingly fast. He’ll be fine.”
The tension around her heart started to ease. “But he’ll still get hurt. Before he heals.” She didn’t like that.
There was a pause before Zach reluctantly said, “Yeah.”
Tears welled in her eyes again, but ultimately, if she didn’t at least try to get her man back, she’d feel like a coward for the rest of her life.
“I’m in.”
**
After Zach dropped her off at home, Kaia quietly slipped into her apartment feeling calm and hopeful. Could they really still work this out between them? The way Anthony looked at her at the ranch made her heart hurt, but her gut told her Zach was telling the truth and that Anthony did still care for her.
She washed her face and got ready for bed feeling hopeful, but nervous. Anthony wasn’t happy to see her tonight. Could she get him to talk to her tomorrow night? Would she have the nerve to pull off Zach’s idea, just to get Anthony to listen to her?
Yes. She’d faced worse things in life than a man who wanted to ignore her. She could do this.
Her head hit the pillow and the bed felt heavenly. She lay there for a long time thinking about Anthony, hoping she didn’t screw this all up again. Imagined conversations played over and over in her head, but her nagging doubts about him accepting her, even when he eventually learned about her past, were always in the back of her mind. Faces and imagined scenarios started blurring together as she eventually drifted off to sleep.
She dreamed she was in an old, barren barn, one big enough to hold an RV in it, the kind people toured the country in. There were four other people in the barn with her. Two couples, she realized.
One of the couples was her parents.
The other couple quietly got into the RV as if they were all getting ready to go somewhere, and Kaia’s parents stopped beside the door. They looked straight at her and this time no one was distracting her from seeing them. She didn’t go to them, though. They just watched each other, her parents seeming to really see her this time as well as acknowledge who she was to them. They knew she was their daughter.
She felt a profound peace when she realized they were leaving. No words were exchanged as they watched each other and she absorbed their thoughts to her.
They told her without words that she didn’t need them to watch over her anymore because she had other real life people that were her family now. They told her they were leaving, on to an adventure of their own. They had no idea where they’d end up, or even much about these people they were with, but it was time to move on and trust in others in order to experience life, whatever it brought.
They calmly turned away and stepped into the RV, and she knew she’d never see them again… and she was ok with that. She was ready to let go.
Kaia woke and stared into the darkness of her bedroom, suddenly realizing what she’d withheld from Anthony. He’d wanted to share a life adventure with her, this relationship they’d been forming, and she’d withheld that from him. She’d kept part of herself back, not allowing him to experience them fully as a couple, warts and all, because of her selfishness
. She’d made such a life of keeping herself secret from others that she couldn’t really comprehend that someone might feel hurt by that.
She rolled onto her side, hugged her pillow to herself, silently told her parents goodbye and good luck, then fell back asleep with hopeful thoughts of her and Anthony back together again.
Chapter 36
Last night’s beating felt good, and it was the most peaceful respite from his thoughts that he’d had in weeks. He should fight with the shifters more often, but maybe change the rules a bit. He’d like to get in a few punches here and there…
Except when all was said and done last night, many of the shifters had someone waiting to help patch them up and take them home. They had people who cared about them. Significant others were there to be leaned on and soothe frayed nerves. Most of the shifters had only succeeded in hurting themselves when they tried to hurt Anthony, and yet their family, friends and lovers were there to remind them that everything would still be ok.
Who did Anthony have? Zach and Sebastian were his friends, but he craved more. They weren’t who he wanted to help calm him. He wanted Kaia, but dammit, there were too many irritating secrets between them.
So the beating felt good, but absolutely everything else only made his mood worse. It didn’t matter. There was no such thing as unconditional love in his life. People tolerated him because they needed him. That was all. They needed his rules, his structure for supernatural life in Atlanta, and they needed his resources. Sometimes it was money, mostly money, but sometimes it was his business connections throughout the city, and sometimes it was his power. Like his ability to keep more nefarious vampire Masters from taking over the family.
But Kaia didn’t need any of that. And she apparently didn’t need him.
**
Kaia checked the address three times before hitting the road. Brookhaven wasn’t too long a drive from here, but she’d never spent much time on that side of town and had only been to Anthony’s once.
Twenty minutes later the big brick buildings came into view. This was definitely the right place. Anthony’s home looked regal, yet charming at the same time. Full, gorgeous oak trees interspersed between pines and cedars lined the road all the way to and from his home. As she got closer, she could also make out a wall of trees along the backside of the property, feeling like a cocoon around them. Creeping vines crawled up the brick of the buildings, and potted plants and a beautiful magnolia tree filled in the landscape out front.
For such a beautiful place, she hoped deep in her heart that things wouldn’t turn ugly tonight. She parked by the side of the road rather than in the parking garage because she wasn’t all sure of her welcome. In fact, she most likely wasn’t welcome here, but it was time to find that out for sure.
She’d been trying so hard to protect her heart from disaster that she hadn’t even given Anthony a fair chance to show her if he was different from all the other guys she’d dated. She was done holding back just to avoid potential pain in her life. A broken heart wasn’t any worse than what she’d physically endured growing up, so it was time to quit hiding behind her own make believe walls.
She felt tough and sure of herself as she turned the ignition off, then wilted as the reality of what she was about to do settled in. She got out and locked her car, telling herself it would be stupid to turn back now. After all, things couldn’t get any worse than they already were between her and Anthony, right?
Her hands trembled as she walked up the driveway and over to the dark glass of the front door. She stood at the bottom of the two short steps and nervously pulled her phone out of her purse. She hoped her new phone number showed up as unlisted, like they’d sworn at the store it would.
Two large, deeply frowning men appeared in the open doorway in front of her. They stared down at her from the top step as she awkwardly fumbled with trying to find her contacts. Anthony was one of only two numbers in her phone, so once the list came up, she quickly hit the call button just as one of the guards said, “This is private property ma’am. I’m going to have to ask you to leave. The sooner the better.”
The line rang as she told the incredibly muscular man, “I’m here to see Anthony. I’m calling him right now.”
The much taller, paler man, was he vampire?, stared curiously at her while the line rang three times, then finally picked up.
**
“This is Anthony.”
“Anthony, it’s Kaia. I want to talk. I’m outside.”
“Outside where?”
“Outside your building.”
“My building?”
“Yes. Big brick building, ivy covering it… You know. Your building.”
Anthony hung up on Kaia. He didn’t have time for this nonsense anymore. She’d made her decision last night when she arrived at the ranch with Ethan.
He called the guard station in the front foyer. One of them picked up on the first ring. “Please let the human woman outside know that this is private property and that she’ll need to leave. Escort her off if necessary.”
“Yes sir.”
He hung up, then stared at his phone. After a moment he picked it up, then added Kaia’s new phone number to his contacts so he wouldn’t make the mistake of picking up a call from her again. Their brief relationship was over, and he wasn’t going to continue to play these mind games with her.
A call came in as he was updating her number. It was from the guard station.
“Yes?”
“Sir, the woman demanded I tell you, and I quote, ‘I’m invoking my right as part of Ethan’s family to have restitution, directly from Anthony, for his lack of protection when he invited me to the club and I got hurt. My requested restitution is for him to come out here, right now, and let me say some things to him.’”
A stab of fury exploded inside him, but it was quickly drowned out by the cold hard feel of newer, stronger powers weaving spider webs around his soul. Emotions had no place inside him anymore, there were only business needs. Family needs.
“I see. Thank you Benicio.”
He hung up, turned into mist and raced upstairs, then materialized in the open front door. Benicio and Frederick stood outside with Kaia facing them.
Her sweet scent wafted up to him, and it infuriated him. She had no right to be here anymore, so what game was Ethan playing now?
Uncaring about acting human anymore, he let his vampire speed overtake him as he left the front stoop, and less than a moment later he quickly stopped about twenty feet from her. She startled and her eyes grew wide. He stepped forward again, and a heartbeat later he was just few feet in front of her.
She let out a squeal of alarm, then snapped, “Stop trying to scare me! You’re doing that on purpose!”
He glared at her and icily said, “You’re demanding restitution from me?”
A moment of sadness flashed through her eyes. “Yes.”
“You’re lying.” Her pulsing aura spiked dramatically at her false answer, so he turned to leave. He wasn’t going to play whatever game she and Ethan wanted him to play.
She stubbornly grabbed his arm, though. “Hey! Wait! I’m part of Ethan’s family so I have rights under your rules.”
His temper flared and he was sure his eyes were now glowing brightly as he cocked his head and let his fangs extend. He sneered at her as he stalked closer. Any warm thoughts he’d ever had about her were long gone. She was now just another person clearly aligned with Ethan, which meant she was on the verge of being his enemy.
Being human was her only advantage because he’d never killed a human before. He’d sworn to uphold the family’s ideals back when his father had first turned him vampire, but those ideals were based on human morals. He now understood that true, pure vampires only had black and white needs and wants, not emotions with a thousand shades of grey.
And what he wanted right now was to quit trying so hard to act human. He wanted the creature inside him, the creature he’d long held back, to come forward and be himself
.
He stalked Kaia, and enjoyed the doubt and fear that vibrated off her as she shakily backed away from him. When she finally connected with the building behind her, he leaned into her. He rested his fists on the wall on either side of her, making sure she knew she was trapped by him, then snarled, “I’d be careful of your demands if I were you. You don’t want to be on my bad side.”
She smartly snapped, “I already am so what difference does it make?”
A hot spike of anger shot through him, followed by something he’d never experienced before. From somewhere deep inside his chest, an inhuman growl slowly grew louder and louder as he bared fangs at Kaia.
All color drained from her face and her eyes grew as wide as he’d ever seen them. They stared each other down for a time, and her fear grew to the point that she started trembling.
Her voice was a mere whisper when she stoically said, “Anthony, would you please stop growling so I can talk to you about a couple of things?”
He leaned closer and snarled, “I can hear you just fine, Kaia.” He did stop growling, though, because now that he was here, he wanted to know what her game was, once and for all.
“You’ve obviously been coached on the rules of this community, no doubt by Ethan in order to antagonize me yet again, but I’m a man of my word and will abide by the laws that’ve been in place here for hundreds of years. Speak. Have your restitution since I did not protect you, my guest, in the club.”
He said that last part loud enough so everyone who was eavesdropping would know he wasn’t above his own laws. But then he surrounded himself and Kaia with a sound barrier because his personal business was no one else’s business.
He glared at her as he backed up enough to give her some breathing room. It would allow him to read her aura better to watch for more lies, and it would help clear his head of her soft scent. The sweet smell of her was already threatening to break down the walls that’d been building in his mind that hid away any feelings he used to have for her.
A tear slowly traced down her cheek. “Ethan didn’t coach me, and I’ll talk to him later for using me like he did last night.”
