by Jessica Snow
Liam shrugged. “When you find the right guy, and you’re the right age, I won’t stand in your way, Carly. Until then, though, I am your alpha, and more importantly, I am your big cousin. Any guy who thinks that they can get into your pants easily, I am kicking their ass.”
Carly looked slightly placated, but still not too happy. “Fine. So, what’s your big plan?”
Ashley spoke up. “I’m pretty sure I’ve got an idea of what he’s got in mind. It’s one of the things I do happen to like about you, Liam. You’re a man of action.”
It took three hours for Liam to gather his forces, Zack and McKenzie had gone off to spend some time together as a couple. They both passed the sniff test when they came in, so Liam let it go. They were a young couple quickly falling in love, they needed some quiet time together, and they hadn’t known when they left that he’d be struck with inspiration. As they left the cabin, the sun was low in the sky, and Victoria put her hand on her son’s arm. “It’s going to take you a while to get down there. Are you sure you want to go into vampire territory at night?”
Liam nodded. “Mom, Ashley said that the Bear Stone only works if Kat is alive. Well, it’s still working, but that isn’t a guarantee for how long. Besides, I’m leaving my children in the hands of the most capable alpha female I have ever met. Don’t worry, this is what you raised me to be. I will bring her back, and then we can look at building the rest of the family.”
There was a little bit of surprise when Reba insisted on coming with them. “Mom says that if we do have to take on the vampires, she knows the catacombs better than I do. Also, it’ll help me to be able to control my powers better,” McKenzie said. “Besides, with Victoria and Elizabeth here, the triplets will be just fine.”
They piled into two cars, with Ashley in the lead car directing them towards downtown. “Big surprise there,” Carly commented from the backseat while Liam drove. “Let me guess, it’s telling you she’s underground as well?”
“Can the snide remarks, Carly,” Ashley said over her shoulder. “You were a good fighter against Crystal and her pack, but I really don’t need to listen to your teenage angst and bitchiness. I got it, you’re pissed off that Zack chose McKenzie, and you get to play the single game. Guess what? So, do me and Elizabeth, and it’s not like there’s a lot of people I can go out and meet when I’m so busy taking care of your asses. If we can get Kat and Big Mike away from the vampires, you might still have the free time to find a date for the prom.”
Carly shut up for the rest of the trip until Ashley directed them to park. “The Stone is saying that Kat is still a little way off, but I don’t trust us driving in this neighborhood the way we are. Liam, it will be better if we moved on foot from here.”
Liam sniffed the air, and while he did not smell his mate, he did smell the stench of blood and vampires all around. “I agree. Everyone, we need to keep on our toes. If I remember right, Theon’s nightclub is just around the corner.”
They moved quickly, McKenzie and Reba taking the lead. “Mom says she knows this neighborhood, she used to come down here to keep track of the vampires, they didn’t realize she was more than just a cat.”
The door to the nightclub was shut, and all the lights were off, but that didn’t stop them. With a powerful kick from his booted foot, Liam blasted the door off its hinges, leading them into the club. With his first inhalation, Kat’s scent came to his nose, and he nodded. “She was here, and within the past few hours. Follow me. Ashley, if we get split up, I want you to keep that Bear Stone and find her. Zack, Carly, be ready to fight, but there won’t be room to change. My father was down in these catacombs before once, he told me about them. It’s set up to give the vamps the advantage.”
Liam took the lead this time, taking them towards the back of the club. It was creepy, looking at a vampire nightclub with nobody inside of it. The smell of blood was heavy in the air, and Liam wondered just how powerful the vampire enchantments had to be to bring so many innocent humans here without them noticing the stench. Glancing at McKenzie, he could see that the young teenage girl was still struggling with her fears. “You don’t have to worry about holding back again. If we get into trouble, you unleash hell, and let us worry about the rest.”
“I’m feeling in better control,” McKenzie said, trying to look brave. “Just having a few bad memories of when I got dragged down here last time. It wasn’t this club, but it smells the same. Liam, is there any way that possibly we could just wipe them out?”
Liam shook his head sadly. “Any final reckoning between vampires and werewolves would probably result in the elimination of both species. They don’t breed as much, but they are stronger. Who knows, maybe your sister and I have the key to doing that, though. Bears were always so much stronger than my type, there just were never enough of them and they were being attacked by both my kind and the vampires. Maybe my children can be the weapon that is needed, who knows?”
McKenzie nodded. “It’s kinda like when you play a video game. If you use just one type of unit, eventually the computer figures that out and attacks you in a way where you can’t do anything. But, if you use the right mix of different types of units, you can take care of business a lot better. Wolves, bears, and witches… who knows what the future holds?”
Liam thought of the ambition in McKenzie’s voice and wondered if perhaps she was right. Maybe what the standoff between vampires and Wolfs needed was a fresh perspective and a little bit of youthful enthusiasm. “First things first, McKenzie. Let’s get Kat and your father out, then we can deal with anything beyond that. You ready?”
McKenzie nodded and held up a hand. “Wait, there’s an entrance to the catacombs up ahead. I can feel the dark magic that’s guarding it.”
“Glad to know your skills are getting better,” Liam said, sniffing. “I can feel it too. Let me...”
“No!” McKenzie said, holding up a hand. “I said, it’s sealed with dark magic. I need to use light magic to open this thing, you could go full Beast Mode on the door and it won’t move a crack for you. You guys stand back.”
Liam stepped back next to Zack, who watched McKenzie carefully. “She’s certainly blossoming,” Liam whispered. “You sure you can handle it?”
“Damn right,” Zack said, his eyes never leaving McKenzie as she stepped forward, Reba right behind her. McKenzie glanced back and down at her mother, the two of them obviously having some sort of mental conversation before she looked up at Zack and gave him a wink and a smile. “After this, the two of us need to talk.”
“About what?” Liam asked, keeping his eyes on McKenzie as she raised her hands and seemed to feel the door, searching for something.
“About how we’re going to rebuild our family businesses… and how our families are going to interact. A lot of people are expecting me to be the Lilly alpha. No offense.”
“None taken,” Liam said. “I’m not going to hold you to being my beta, Zack. But I would like to offer friendship, and a bond that our parents wanted before the whole fucked up situation with your...”
“Will you two please shut up?” Ashley hissed. “You’re distracting Kenzie.”
The two quieted and turned their attention back to McKenzie, who brought her hand up above her head, along the jamb of the door. She lowered her head and Liam could see the sweat start to emerge on her brow as she concentrated, a glow starting in her hand that was barely visible in the dim club at first, the glow brightening as her magic improved, and Liam could see the outline of the door start to glow as well. The glow brightened more and more until it was painful to look at, Liam squinting as even McKenzie looked like she was surrounded by a halo of light, until suddenly the door opened with a snapping sound, sliding back on hidden tracks. The glow shut off, and McKenzie grinned triumphantly. “See, easy as cake. Now all we have to do is...”
McKenzie stepped forward, the floor disappearing underneath her as she plunged into a trapdoor. Liam and Zack jumped forward, both yelling. “No! McKenzie!”
>
“I’m… I’m okay,” McKenzie said from below them after a few seconds, and Liam breathed a sigh of relief. “I think I tweaked my ankle a little, but I’ll be...”
The trapdoor began to close, Liam barely getting his hands in to grab it before it snapped shut, but whatever was powering the door was powerful, stronger than his muscles, and while he could keep it open, he wasn’t able to do much more than that. Even worse, the doorway was narrow enough that Zack wasn’t able to help, Liam’s body filled the entire doorway. Just as his hands were giving out, Reba jumped down the trap door, following her daughter, her tail getting through just as Liam’s fingers gave out and the door closed with a final hollow thud.
“McKenzie! MCKENZIE!” Zack yelled, pushing past Liam to pound on the floor. His fists crashed into the stone floor, doing nothing at all even as he punched so hard that his knuckles shattered and his blood stained the stone. “Open up, motherfuckers!”
“Zack!” Liam said, grabbing his hand in mid-punch. “We can’t get her that way. Wherever she is, we’ll have to track her down some other way. Now stop, you already need to let your hands heal.”
Zack’s eyes were wild, and Liam thought that he had pushed the young wolf too far, but he stopped, the breath whistling in and out of his nostrils, his eyes glinting with gold as he calmed himself. “Okay… but I don’t care if I have to kill every fucking vampire in these catacombs, we get her back.”
“We’ll get her back,” Liam reassured him. “But we have to focus on the fight in front of us. Ashley, what’s the Bear Stone telling you?”
“It’s just saying down,” Ashley said. “Your nose is going to be more helpful than this stone right now. It’s kinda like a compass, it’ll point, but that’s about it. And it’s saying that Kat is beneath us.”
“Then down we go,” Liam said, looking around at his now four-member fighting force. He swallowed, knowing what he had to say. “Carly, Ashley, you aren’t forced to come. Face it, the four of us go down, I don’t know how many of us are coming back out. I’m going down because she’s my mate. Zack’s going because of McKenzie. You two...”
“Are going because we’re part of your family, and part of your pack,” Carly said, stepping forward and offering her hand. “Liam, you’ve been my blood and my brother for years, ever since I came to live with you guys. And by God, I’m as much a wolf as you guys. If I ever want to be an alpha myself someday, it starts today. Besides, I care about them too. Ashley?”
Ashley stepped forward and joined her hands with Carly and Liam, nodding. “You damn right I’m not skipping this fight. I’ve trained my whole life for this, now that it’s here, there’s no way in hell that I’m skipping it. How the hell am I supposed to know if I’m good for any more than twerking and showing off my tits if I don’t throw down? Besides… she’s my best friend.”
Liam nodded, clasping hands with the other three and feeling the bond between them strengthening. Forget Pack alliances, forget the moon… this is what made a truly powerful pack, the desire to give your all for one another. “All right then, let’s go. Mind the first step.”
Chapter 55
Kat woke up with her head pounding, whatever Theon had dosed her with left her with a thudding headache. The last time I take a cup of wine from a vampire, Kat thought. It would have been nice to know about that obedience compulsion as well. God, no wonder he’s still single after all these centuries.
Kat breathed slowly, and after a minute realized that the pounding wasn’t all in her head. There was someone banging on another set of bars nearby, and she was hearing that as much as the bass drum that was in her head.
“Hey! Hey you stupid fuckers!” a familiar voice yelled harshly, and Kat’s eyes flew open. It had been months, and it was roughened, weakened a little bit too, but she knew the bellowing voice of her father.
“Daddy?” Kat asked in a voice barely above a whisper, trying to sit up and failing at first. Her father yelled again, and she found the strength to sit up this time, considering the dimly lit dungeon. Big Mike wasn’t in a cage but was in fact chained up, the rattling had been him jerking on his restraints while his body stretched as four vampires stared at him, trying to subdue him with their eyes. Obviously, though, her father wasn’t subdued yet.
“You can turn those lamplights off me, you stupid fucking bloodsuckers! You’ve been staring at me for how long now, trying to break me? You don’t get it, do you? I’m unbreakable! Fuck your powers, fuck your King, fuck all of that. You think you’re Superman? I’m the goddamn Batman, and you can’t break my spirit! Let me loose, and I’ll open up a can of whoop-ass on you so big your heads are gonna explode!”
Kat blearily thought that her father, who’d she’d always taken to be more of the good-natured redneck type, seemed to be pulling a lot of comic book references, although that last bit was certainly straight out of her father’s standard group of comments. She got to her knees and reached for him, Big Mike’s eyes flickering towards her for a half second before he took them away, staring back at the nearest vampire. “And you… you I’m going to enjoy tearing your neck from your shoulders. I just need one arm free, and you’re going to be hoping that your demon creators made a special comfortable place in hell for you!”
Mike continued to rant and rave, her eyes blazing in anger and Kat wondered what was fueling him so much until a soft, plaintive whine came to her ears and she looked to her left, shocked at what she saw. Elizabeth was holding the three triplets in a cage next to the cell she was locked in, and Selena was nosing towards Kat, her eyes plaintive and yearning for her Mama, while Edward and Hunter were both cuddled in Elizabeth’s lap. “Liz?”
Elizabeth looked over, her eyes filled with fright, but a little bit of relief as well. “Kat… I’m glad you’re awake.”
“What happened? How long was I out?” Kat asked as she reached through the bars and stroked Selena’s head, the little one immediately quieting as she felt her mother’s reassuring touch. Edward and Hunter came over too, and she rubbed their heads as well, her children quieting. “How’d you get here?”
“They struck just an hour after Liam and the others went to rescue you,” Elizabeth said. “A half dozen vampires, and we fought them so hard, but… well, shotguns don’t do shit against vampires it seems, and Victoria tried her best but...”
Elizabeth gestured, and Kat looked, seeing a gravely wounded Victoria. She was being held to the wall on the opposite side of the room from her father in a mocking of the crucifixion, her palms pegged through with silver spikes and a silver choker around her neck that Kat suspected was spiked considering the amount of blood trickling down her naked body. Kat gulped at the horror, but at least Victoria was currently unconscious, unable to feel the pain. Elizabeth continued. “They brought us here in the back of a truck, and as soon as they unloaded us they dragged Big Mike out to try and break him again. That was about a half hour ago.”
The door to the dungeon opened, and a thin but immensely beautiful vampire with purplish eyes came in, behind her… “Kevin. You motherfucker.”
Kevin looked over at Kat, grinning. “Well, glad to see you’re awake. I’d hate for you to be groggy when you get to meet King Viktor. And despite what you might think, he’s pretty cool for an old man.”
“I swear, you will pay for this. You led them to the cabin, didn’t you?”
Kevin shook his head. “Nope, you can thank Cole for that. All he needed was your last name, and after the whole fuck up with Crystal’s pack, Cole did a property search. Pretty smart guy, that Cole. Honestly, I’m thinking that maybe after all this, well… I always did like playing the vampire side in video games more than the werewolf side. Anyway, that cabin was listed in your father’s name, and all I had to do once Violet asked me to confirm that you guys were around was to drive the van. We waited about a mile down the road, the vamps in blackout curtains of course. Man, were they happily surprised when I got to tell them that your boy toy and the other flea infested mutts left to
come looking for your ass.”
“That’s enough, Kevin. Your services are no longer required here, I will be in touch,” Violet said, her eyes glowing slightly, and Kevin shut up immediately before retreating to the door and leaving. Once he was gone, she turned her gaze to Kat, evaluating her. “Apologies for your ex. You have a bad taste in picking men.”
“I’ll admit, he was a world class fuck up,” Kat said, glaring at the vampire princess. Theon was right, she was amazingly beautiful, even in her pale vampiric state. Kat bet that back when blood coursed through her body, she was the sort of woman who would make men’s dreams burn in fantasy. “So, all this fuckery, and we finally meet. What’s the deal, Princess?”
Violet blinked, then shook her head. “Perhaps centuries ago I could have been called a princess, now I’m just one of Viktor’s three brides. You’ll meet the other two in time, I think you’ll be a little surprised at who they are.”
“Hey, bitch! Yeah, you, the purple-eyed one!” Mike yelled, rattling his bonds. “You want to talk to someone, come talk to me!”
Violet turns, shaking her head. “You four, leave him alone. Obviously, his will is strong enough that it would take a vampire as strong as King Viktor to turn him against his will. Take him back to his cage, I have news that our entrance near Theon’s nightclub has been triggered. Cole needs your assistance.”
The four vampires manhandled Big Mike back into his cage before leaving them all, Kat’s father sagging in exhaustion as soon as the door to the dungeon was closed. Kat stopped reassuring the triplets to go over to her cage door, trying to see her father. “Daddy?”
“Baby girl,” Mike said, his voice papery and weak. “Glad to see you awake. You’re looking good, Kat. If I could see you right now.”
It was true, the most Kat could see was her father’s right hand which he stuck out of the cell he was in, which was on the other side of Elizabeth. “Daddy… you’re...” She struggled to keep herself together before going on. “It looks like Dr. Anderson won’t be giving you any grief about your weight next time you go to do your annual checkup.”
