by Eva Chase
She gave a dismissive-sounding snort, which was about the way I felt about that possibility too. “I have to be ready.”
“You’ve been picking up the skill really quickly, you know,” I said, stroking my thumb over her side. She was wearing the same T-shirt she’d had on this morning, but the warmth of her skin radiated through the soft fabric. “It’s not exactly the same situation, but for kids, when they’re first learning, it usually takes them a few years from when they can manage their first partial shift to reach a full shift. And then it’s several more years before any of us gets to the point that we can hold our animal form nearly indefinitely. You got through the first stage in just a few days.”
“Because I’m not a kid,” Ren said. “Because I should have been doing it all along. But the endurance part is taking a lot longer. I don’t have several years. I don’t even have several days. The vampires have already hurt us so much more than the rogues managed to.”
“They’re nasty, but they’re smart,” I said. “And organized, and disciplined. Things the rogues definitely weren’t, or they wouldn’t have rejected the kin groups in the first place. But we can still beat the bloodsuckers. You’re doing everything you can. The vampires are afraid of you, you know. That’s why they’re attacking now. They know that with every day you’re making the entire shifter community stronger and stronger.”
“And I’m going to keep doing that,” Ren said. I loved seeing that fiery determination light in her amber eyes.
Then she yawned, covering her face with her arm to try to hide it.
“Okay,” I said. “I think both of us need some rest to be ready for tonight. You can meditate more in your sleep.”
“I don’t think it works like that,” Ren muttered. I got up, sweeping her into my arms, and a squeak of protest slipped from her lips. “Nate! I can make it from here to the bed.”
“But this is more fun,” I said.
She muttered a little more, but she also nestled her head against my shoulder. I tucked my chin over her hair as I carried her to the bed. My mate was strong, yes, but it didn’t hurt her to let the rest of us be strong for her every now and then.
I climbed onto the bed and lay down with her, sharing a pillow. Ren ruffled my hair. “My big strong bear,” she said as if she’d read my thoughts, with so much affection my heart thumped happily. I bent my head to kiss her. She slid her arm behind my neck as she kissed me back, pulling me even closer against her, and suddenly sleep was the last thing on my mind.
My hand skimmed down her side to her hip and back up to cup her breast. Ren’s breath stuttered against my mouth. She kissed me harder as I drew her nipple to a stiff peak, a whimper working its way from her throat. When she drew back, her cheeks were flushed and her eyes sparkling.
“We should get that rest,” she said. “But maybe if we’re really quick, there’s room for a little more fun first?”
I laughed. “I can’t say no to that.” Then I rolled right onto her, intent on turning that whimper into a moan.
Ren
Kylie was exactly where Aaron had told me he’d last seen her, in a small lounge room just off the main hall. She grinned when I came in, unfolding her petite body from her armchair. “Ren!” Then her expression turned abruptly serious. “Is it time for you to leave already?”
I shook my head, sitting down on the chair beside hers. “We’ve got about another hour. I’ve just been thinking…” I paused, trying to figure out the best way to approach this subject. The last thing I wanted was my best friend thinking I was trying to ditch her. But I wasn’t going to feel okay unless we had this one last conversation.
“Thinking what?” Kylie prodded, watching me.
I met her gaze, hoping she could read the emotion in mine. “You know how much I appreciate having you here. How glad I’ve been to have you on my side for the whole time we’ve been friends. So I promise you I’m not saying this because of what I want. But because you matter so much to me, I have to ask, now that things have gotten even more dangerous—are you sure you want to stay here?”
Kylie gave me a wry smile. “Where else would I go?”
“Back to your old life, I guess,” I said. “You have our apartment—I can keep paying my share of the rent, and hopefully I’ll be able to visit lots. You have your job. The vampires won’t hassle you there. But as long as you’re here with the shifters… I don’t think it’ll matter that you’re not one too. They’re not being careful with their bullets.”
“Okay,” Kylie said. “I get why you’re worried. I’m not exactly feeling super keen about taking on gun-toting vampires either. But can I ask you something, and you answer totally honestly?”
“Of course,” I said.
She tipped her head, studying my expression even more carefully now. “If you could have your life be any way you wanted right now, just the most perfect possible situation, what would that look like?”
God, what a question. Just the idea of being able to shed all this conflict made my heart swell and ache at the same time. I let my mind drift into that imaginary scenario. What would it look like if I could have everything I wanted? I’d promised her total honesty.
“I’d be living with all four of the guys, everyone happy and getting along, no more doubts between us. Going from estate to estate and to different towns, I guess, helping solve whatever little squabbles came up. And you’d be there, of course. So we could hang out and have some girl time whenever I didn’t have other stuff to take care of.”
I focused on her again. “But I have no idea when—if—I’ll get to that point. And that’s just what I’d want. You’ve got a life too. I wouldn’t want you sticking around if you’d be happier living a normal life. One where there weren’t vampires taking shots at us and who knows what else in the future.”
Kylie beamed back at me as if no possible future horror could faze her at all. “What’s so great about normal?” she said. “I just wanted to know where I’d fit in when you’re not worrying about my safety. Because this is exactly where I want to be too. If you’re happy to have me sticking around, if I can do some kind of job here instead of that crappy one back in NYC, I’m totally in. Sure, hanging out with shifters can be kind of scary, but it’s also pretty amazing.”
I swallowed hard, so much joy bubbling up inside me that I didn’t know what to do with it. “You’re sure?” I said. “Really, really sure?”
Kylie laughed. “I’ve had a lot of time to think about it in the last couple days, you know. And there really hasn’t been even one moment where I wished I hadn’t come out here. So you’re meant to be queen of all shifters—I’m pretty sure I’m meant to be your right-hand girl. I might not have any paranormal destiny, but it feels fated to me.”
The emotion overwhelmed me. Talking didn’t seem like enough. I hopped up and grabbed my best friend in a hug. She squeezed me back. “There,” she said. “I’m glad we got that settled. Once and for all? You really need to stop trying to protect me. I’m a big girl.”
“I know,” I said. “I promise, this is the last time I’ll bring it up. I just wanted to be completely sure. If something happened to you and I thought you’d only been there for my sake…”
“Nope,” Kylie said. “I’m one hundred percent in this for me too. I mean, just look at these digs.” She gestured to the room around her with a mischievous glint in her eyes. But when she turned back to me she’d gone a bit serious again. “I know what I’m getting into here, Ren. And I’m ready for it.”
I exhaled and gave her a crooked smile. “Good. I really hope that I am too. Come on, we’d better grab some dinner. I’d rather not be fighting vamps on an empty stomach.”
Chapter 4
Ren
“Does this crossroads give them any kind of an advantage if this comes down to a fight?” I asked West. I was sitting next to him in the jeep he’d picked from the assorted vehicles on his estate.
He’d driven quickly most of the way out here, but the last tw
enty miles we were taking slow and wary. The vibration of the engine thrummed through the seat beneath me. A matching rumble carried through the air from the cars ahead of and behind us.
“Immediately around the crossroads the terrain is pretty open,” West said without taking his eyes off the road. “Not much shelter for us. I’d prefer surroundings like what we have right here if I had the choice.”
He nodded to the pine forests looming on either side of the narrow highway. In the deepening night, the dark points of the treetops cut into the shadowy blue of the clouded sky. The moon still gleamed faintly through a thinner patch of haze.
One of his kin in the back had been in communication with the scouts West had sent ahead earlier. “Rayanne says there’s at least fifty of the vamps gathered now,” he said, a worried note in his voice.
West’s jaw tightened. The other alphas had come too, of course, in other cars, and a few dozen of West’s kin as well in case we needed back-up. But…
“If fifty vamps means fifty guns, we won’t stand much of a chance,” I said.
“No kidding, Sparks,” West said. “Do you want to head back?”
I couldn’t tell if he meant the question seriously or as a jab. “Is that really an option?” I said.
He gave a choked laugh. “I guess that depends on how much diplomacy matters to you.”
“I’m not thinking about diplomacy. I’m thinking about not getting us killed.”
“Believe me, that’s at the top of my priority list too. Any brilliant suggestions for how to weight the odds?”
They might be calling us to this parlay to try to slaughter me and the alphas the way the rogues had failed to. Or they might honestly be willing to negotiate some kind of peace. Ha. On the other hand, if we didn’t show up, we were pretty much ensuring that they’d immediately attack the shifter community again. Horrible situation or awful situation. I’ll take neither, please!
Of course, that definitely wasn’t an option. I sighed. “I didn’t even know vampires existed a month ago. Shouldn’t you have a better idea than I do?”
“I don’t think you’d like the idea I’m having,” West muttered.
What the hell was that supposed to mean?
Just then, the phone’s alert went off again. The guy in the back made a disgruntled sound. “Another truck full of the bloodsuckers showed up. And they’re fanning out around the crossroads. Blending into the darkness like they do, but our people can scent them. It looks like they’re planning on having us surrounded after we arrive.”
That didn’t sound like preparation for an honest conversation. West and I exchanged a glance. His expression had gone even grimmer.
“We can’t meet them like that,” I said, braced for another snarky comment.
But the wolf shifter nodded. “No. There are risks and then there’s insanity. Bertrand, is there anywhere decent to park between here and there?”
His lieutenant scanned the area on a phone map. “There’s an old gas station a couple miles down the road. Out of business, so there won’t be anyone there, and the lot looks a decent size.”
“That’s our place, then. Tell the other cars to convene there.”
“And then what?” I asked.
West’s smile was still grim. “Then we tell the vampires we’ve met them close enough to halfway, and if they want us, they can come to us, on ground we chose. And if they try any funny business while they’re arriving, we deal with them then.”
“The guns,” one of the guys in the back said, and cut himself off with a swipe across his mouth as if worried he sounded too nervous.
“If the vamps start firing, we should get out of there,” I said. “Everyone in the cars, head back to the estate. Tell them that too.”
The second I stopped speaking, I wondered if I’d crossed a line, giving orders to West’s kin. But he didn’t comment. I guessed that meant he agreed with the plan. He’d pressed his foot to the gas, speeding up so we’d reach our new destination sooner. The sky was almost fully black now.
“I’ll cover everyone,” I added. “Lay down some fire of my own to hold them off while the rest of you are getting away.”
West’s gaze shot to me again. “Don’t be stupid, Ren. You’ll need to get out of there too. You’re the last one we can afford to lose.”
“I’m the most likely one to make sure we don’t lose anyone,” I said. “I can dodge a few bullets.”
“You haven’t faced guns like this before.”
He wasn’t entirely wrong. But my mind slid back to Fisher, the guy I’d stolen for in exchange for food and shelter alongside a bunch of other street kids when I’d been fending for myself after Mom had disappeared. To the revolver he’d always kept shoved in the back of his jeans. To the guns I’d caught glimpses of on some of his colleagues when they’d come to collect.
“You don’t know what I’ve seen before this. I’d bet I’ve seen more guns than you have.”
“That doesn’t mean you should throw yourself at them,” West snapped.
I tensed, but he looked immediately chagrined. Because he regretted saying that to me or he regretted saying it that way in front of his kin? Who knew? But I felt, underneath the tense anticipation coiled through his body, a quiver of concern.
Maybe he didn’t want to put all his faith in me to save his kin. Maybe he didn’t trust my ideas. But whatever the case, he was also at least a little bit worried about me.
The retort that had been on my tongue wisped away. “I’m not looking to get shot,” I said, my voice softening. “I’ll only do what I have to, to make sure we all get out. And all of us includes me.”
“Well, I’m not leaving until you’re leaving,” West said—gruffly, but even though I wouldn’t have expected anything else, hearing him say it brought a heady flutter into my chest. Like when he’d kissed me last night, with a new tenderness I hoped I’d get to experience again.
But not now, obviously. The arched beams of the gas station sign came into view up ahead. The truck and the sedan ahead of us turned in, and West followed them.
We parked along the edge of the abandoned lot. With a rev of an engine, any of the cars should be able to leap the shoulder back onto the road if we needed to make a hasty exit.
Dry leaves that must have been left over from last fall crunched under my feet when I stepped out. The sign overhead creaked as the wind swung it on its chains. The pumps must have been completely dry—not even the faintest tang of gasoline reached my sharp shifter nose. Only the pine scent of the forest, like back at West’s estate, with an added edge of rusting metal.
“Give me the phone,” West said, holding out his hand. His lieutenant handed it over. As the rest of our contingent spilled out of their vehicles, the canine alpha called up one of his scouts.
“Rayanne. Slight change of plans. The vamps can meet us at a gas station six miles down the highway from that crossroads. You tell them that from as far as distance as you can manage, and then hop on that motorcycle of yours and come join us. I don’t want them taking any ‘disappointment’ out on you.”
The other alphas had ambled over to join us. “Let’s see if they still want to play ball when we’re wise to their tricks,” Marco said with a fierce smirk.
“I’d imagine they’ll realize why we’re changing the plan,” Aaron said. “If they believe they have anything to gain from coming to a compromise at all, they’ll accept. If violence was their only goal…” His jaw set. He glanced down the highway as if we might see the vampires heading our way already.
They might still come then. With guns in hand, ready to open fire.
The scout called back in. West brought the phone to his ear, said a few encouraging words, and then glanced around at us.
“They appear to have agreed to meet us here. They’re on the move now. Be ready.”
“Where do you want all of us stationed, sir?” Bertrand asked.
“We don’t want to give them a reason to think we’re here anything but
peacefully,” Aaron said. “That’ll end this parlay before it even starts.”
“Even when they came out in full force against us already,” Nate muttered. He stepped closer to me. “Let them just try to complain.”
“No, the eagle shifter is right,” West said. He nodded to his kin. “Spread out into the woods, but stay on our side of the lot. Just far enough back that they won’t be able to see you. Vamps can’t rely on smell. But I want you close enough to engage if you need to—or jump into those cars and get out of here if it comes to that. You know the signals.”
Except for a few who continued to flank us, the rest of the canine shifters faded back into the forest beside the gas station.
Lights glowed in the distance down the highway. My shoulders tensed. Here were the bloodsuckers.
“I should shift now,” I said. “So I’m ready. The second I see one gun, I’m blasting them all. If they actually negotiate, you guys have a better idea than I do what the treaty says anyway. Any arguments there?”
None of the alphas gave me one. “Just be careful,” Aaron said.
Marco shot me a grin. “They’re the ones who’ll need to be careful with our Princess of Flames on the prowl.”
They kept watching the road while I peeled off my clothes. When the first trucks were close enough that I could make out the shape of them behind their headlights, I knelt on the ground and beckoned the shift through my body.
It was a pleasure, getting to shift at a natural pace rather than rushing into it as quickly as I could force the change. My muscles stretched and tingled rather than aching. The scales rippled over my skin with a giddy shiver. My wings swept out from my back, sending a rush of anticipation through my nerves. I loomed over the cars, fire already prickling at the base of my dragon’s throat.
I didn’t think I’d have any use for my truth-seeking flames tonight. If the vampires who’d slaughtered our kin took one step wrong, I was turning them into instant barbeque. It wouldn’t solve the problem of all the other vampire groups out there, but at least it’d knock down their numbers a little. And be plenty satisfying at the same time.
