“It’s something.”
She bit her lip and then gave him the smile that haunted his dreams, the one that banished all barriers, that lit up her face with the radiance inside. “Two fifty-six Maple Lane. We know where she is.”
He didn’t want to banish her hope, but she’d lost so much already. “It might just be a clue.”
She shook her head and held out the bag. “It doesn’t matter.”
Since her smile didn’t diminish, he supposed it didn’t. He dropped the paper towel in, caught her hand in his, and sealed the cut on it with the stroke of his thumb and a kiss, holding her gaze throughout, not understanding the elation pouring off her along with complete exhaustion. He needed to get her back to the Circle J. Needed to get her safe. “Why?”
“This means it wasn’t a trick. Faith is alive.”
6
MIRI’S strength gave out three hours before he got to the Circle J. Stuck as he was on the back side of the mountain, he couldn’t put in a call for transport. He’d had to carry her. To make matters worse, the conversion had resumed, her pain transmitting to him, torturing him with his inability to do anything about it. He didn’t know if this was normal conversion or not. He didn’t care. Whatever it was, it had to stop. Whatever was required to balance the change had to be given, because he would not let Miri continue to suffer. He put on another burst of speed, feeling the burn in his muscles. Goddamnit, Slade and that brilliant mind of his had better have an answer. He pushed doubt aside with the same ruthlessness with which he pushed himself. Slade would come up with an answer because Slade would take one look at Miri and make it his mission. Everyone had their passions. With Slade, it was little things and knowledge. He couldn’t stop caring about the first and he couldn’t stop seeking the second. Slade would find the answer.
Jace came up to the edge of Circle J land and sent a wave of energy ahead, alerting the guards at the pass that he was coming. The acknowledgment came back in a subtle brush of power. Jace stepped out of the shadows. Two McClaren sentries, Paul and Justin, nodded, looked at the woman over his shoulder, and then did a double take, their nostrils flaring as they caught Miri’s scent. Their posture lost the relaxation of welcome. Their stance drew taller, legs widening, shoulders squaring. Wonderful. Even his local pack was adopting an attitude.
Ignoring the weres’ rumbled displeasure, he raced on through the narrow cut in the mountain. Miri was his, and ancient feuds, prejudices, and other such protests were just going to have to fall to the wayside, because he wasn’t letting her go. He approached the house. There were guards all around the perimeter of the large log home and tension hung thick in the air. Something was wrong. He slowed his pace. Approaching the stairs, he asked, “What’s going on?”
Jonas, another McClaren, glanced at the upstairs window. “Allie’s having the baby.”
That explained the tension. “I thought Caleb had a bunker in the basement set up for the grand event.”
“Allie feels it’s important for the baby’s first breath to be of fresh air.”
“She was angling for a bower in the forest,” Jonas’s twin, Micah, added, folding his arms across his chest and leaning back against the log wall.
“But they compromised on the upstairs bedroom with the window open a crack.”
“Caleb’s negotiating skills must have improved.” Jace eyed both young men, just realizing they were now fully mature weres with the muscles and confidence common to the McClarens. Damn, he was getting old, because he remembered when they were just pups annoying everyone in sight with their slingshots and their immature humor.
“It was more that he lucked out. Labor hit so fast Allie didn’t have time to prepare the space.”
“Ha, and Caleb said Lady Luck didn’t cozy up to him.”
“I haven’t heard him say that since he met Allie,” Jared said, coming out of the house, his dark brow lifting at the sight of Miri, draped unconscious, over Jace’s shoulder. Of his three brothers, Jace was probably the closest to Jared, mainly because Jared understood the intensity of the emotions that often overtook him.
“True enough. She does remind him how to smile.”
Allie had a way of making everyone smile, which just made the scream that ripped out of the second-story window that much more disturbing. Nothing could happen to Allie. Caleb wouldn’t be able to take it. Hell, none of them would. Allie could light the darkest moment with her irreverent humor and her refusal to accept defeat. She’d made believers of all of them and even if Jace hadn’t loved her for herself, he would have loved her for the joy she brought his often too serious older brother.
He glanced up, trying to see through the closed curtains. “Is there something wrong?”
Jared ran his fingers through his hair, the fingers on his other hand opening and closing as they always did when he was anxious. A habit left over from his gunslinger days, when limber fingers meant the difference between life and death. “They can’t stop the bleeding.”
“Shit.” The men lined up on the porch took on new significance. Allie could only feed from Caleb, which meant he’d have to feed a lot more frequently. “She’s draining him that fast?”
“Yeah, but she’s getting too weak to drink.”
Jace gave Miri a mental order to wake and he let her slide down his body. “Caleb must be in hell.”
“He’s not a happy camper,” Jared said, nodding at Miri. “This her?”
“Yes.”
Miri stood shakily. Jonas and Micah frowned as she swayed.
“She okay?”
“I don’t know.” He pulled her in to his side, not liking the way she almost collapsed against him. Another scream came from the house, muted by the wind, quickly smothered by something he couldn’t see. “Slade’s with Allie?”
“For all the good it’s doing.” Jared narrowed his gaze. Miri shuddered as his power touched her, then gasped. Her eyes opened. A growl came from the weres and a curse from Jared. His power lingered.
“You didn’t tell us she was an Alpha D’Nally,” Micah said, his gaze locked on Miri’s face.
“What makes you think she’s either?”
Jonas rolled his eyes. “If her scent didn’t mark her as D’Nally, those golden eyes would. Only the D’Nally Alphas have them.”
Micah glanced over at him. “Ian is going to kill you.”
“Ian is going to have to get in line.”
Jace focused on Jared and his frown. “What?”
“She’s converted, yet not.”
The McClarens growled, and the others picked up the rumble. Jace cut them all a glare. “Get over it, or get out.”
He had no patience for were prejudice.
Jared motioned the twins back, stepping between them and Jace. “In case you’ve forgotten, the McClarens are our friends.”
“And Miri is my wife.” She took a step away, more of a stumble. Her energy was getting stronger. Jace kept his hand on her arm, letting her find her balance.
“Which is going to take time for everyone to absorb,” Jared pointed out reasonably.
Jace didn’t have time.
Another cry came through the window; this time it was abruptly cut short. In the next second, Allie’s voice slid through the open window, strong yet hoarse with weariness. “I swear, Caleb, if you try to help me like that one more time, I’m kicking you in the face. I’ve got this.”
Jace had to smile. “Doesn’t sound like she’s too weak.”
“Caleb just gave her blood again.”
“And a bit of his attitude as well, it seems.”
Jared laughed. If Jace ignored the grim edge, it was like the good old days. “That came naturally, I think.”
“Probably.” Allie had a will of iron.
Miri swayed again. Micah reached out. Jace’s reaction was immediate, instinctive, and as possessive as any were’s. He snarled a warning and pulled her against him.
Micah stared at him, the challenge in his stance no less strong for the mi
ldness of his expression. “You’d better get used to it. Many weres will try to take her from you. She’s fertile and Alpha. There isn’t a stronger aphrodisiac for a were.”
Miri growled, responding instinctively to the tension. Jace ran his hand over her hair and down her back, keeping her close. “Then many weres are going to die.”
“Who’s going to die?” Miri asked groggily.
Miri would have to come fully conscious right then. Jace held Micah’s gaze. “No one, yet.”
She pushed the tangle of her hair away from her face. Her other hand dropped to her stomach as she looked around. She immediately stiffened as she spotted Micah and Jonas. “Yet?”
“Yet.”
She looked past them to the other weres scattered across the porch, then back at Jace, and then again at the weres. Her shoulders squared. A growl hovered in her throat and she put all one hundred twenty pounds of herself in front of him. As if she could protect him from a fully mature male. Jace crossed his arm over her chest and tucked her back against him. “No need to get all wolfie on anyone, princess. You’re among friends.”
Jonas snorted. The look Miri cast him was inscrutable.
“I’m among wolves,” she corrected.
“And family.” Jared stepped forward, too close for Jace’s vampire to tolerate. Another snarl rumbled in his chest. At his own brother, no less. Jared just smiled, amusement replacing worry. “You’ve definitely got it bad.” He inclined his head toward Miri. “Welcome to the Johnson clan.”
“Thank you.” Her hand connected with Jace’s thigh as the last of his growl trailed off. Was she trying to calm him or slap him?
Another high-pitched cry came from the house.
Miri glanced at the door. “Who’s hurt?”
“My sister-in-law is making me an uncle.”
She looked around at the men standing on the porch, and then over her shoulder at Jace. “Your sister-in-law isn’t vampire?”
“She’s definitely vampire.” It was Jared who answered.
“Vampires can’t have children.”
Jace rubbed her arms. “That’s what everyone keeps telling us.”
Miri went still, terror scenting the air around her. “Oh, my God, they can’t know.”
It didn’t take a genius to figure out who “they” were.
“The Sanctuary already do.”
Barely perceptible tremors started in her core. She grabbed his forearm, her talons sinking through his skin. The surrounding wolves took a step forward. This time, Jace’s vampire didn’t snarl back as strongly. No wolf could ignore a woman in distress. It went against their personal code of honor and their instincts.
“You have to protect her,” Miri ordered, holding him, staring at Jared, the tremor in her body shaking her voice. “You can’t ever let them get her.”
“No one will touch Allie,” Jared answered calmly. Jace felt the touch of his energy, the request for permission to enter Miri’s mind. Jace shook his head. As much as Jared wanted to help, Miri would not see anyone else entering her mind as anything but another rape. Jace eased her closer and stroked a path of calm through the terror as Jared continued.
“And even if they ever get close to her, they’ll find she’s still one tough cookie.”
Allie was a psychic vampire, able to rip a man’s mind from him the way others ripped tinfoil from packages.
The only catch was that the act completely drained her and left her completely vulnerable in the aftermath, but during that burst of energy she was every vampire’s living nightmare.
“No one’s that tough,” Miri whispered.
A memory flashed from her to him, Miri defiantly refusing to open her legs. A man’s face, the agony that seared through her as he casually applied a Taser to the top of her thigh and held it there. The agony that exploded through her, the complete disruption of her brain function, the utter degradation of being unable to prevent them from touching her. The memory came clearly across the link.
Jace brushed his lips across her hair, channeling the rage that consumed him deep inside, where it could simmer until the moment came to unleash it, keeping his voice soft because the one thing Miri didn’t need now was more violence. “No, sweet, no one’s that tough.”
“Which is why she’ll be guarded as closely as you will be,” Jared added, his normally even drawl almost a snarl. One look confirmed that Jared had still been linked to him as the memory had crossed over. Flames lit his brother’s eyes, vivid against the almost green irises. The edges of his fangs were visible and his energy writhed about him in an invisible lash. The weres, reacting to the energy, picked up the snarl.
Miri shrank back against him.
Cut it out.
From one blink to the next, Jared had himself under control.
“Don’t mind Jared. Without his wife around, he forgets his manners.” In truth, Raisa was an anchor for Jared, emotionally and physically, a true mate for all the energy that surged within him, and just as deadly in her own way.
As calm spread, Miri looked down at his arm and gasped. “I’m so sorry.”
She removed her claws from his flesh. The hot sting remained, a lingering whisper of pleasure.
“No harm done.” Before she could protest, he let her see the desire simmering inside him at the erotic claiming.
Her shock made him smile.
Weres can’t be that much different from vampires.
How would I know?
She wouldn’t. He’d been her only lover.
You’ll have to trust me.
Her snort of disbelief no sooner ended than Allie’s angry voice surged. “Get the hell away from me with that, Slade.”
“You need help, Allie.”
“I told you, Caleb, I’m having this baby naturally.”
“There’s not a thing natural about this.” Caleb’s deep baritone rasped with impatience and worry.
“Well, you’re not introducing anything less natural.”
Jace looked at Jared. His brother just shrugged. “She’s determined not to do anything that will traumatize the baby.”
Allie’s voice carried on the night’s calm, tired but reflecting all the stubbornness he’d learned to associate with her. “Raisa, if Slade comes near me again with that oversized salad fork, geld him.”
“Done.”
Despite the gravity of the situation, Jace couldn’t help but smile. That “Done” had contained a hefty dose of eagerness. “Raisa still holding a grudge over Slade’s last experiment?”
Jared nodded. “Yup. She didn’t appreciate being knocked on her ass by her own energy.”
Miri pulled his hand away from her chest and turned to face him. She was very pale and didn’t look any too steady. He cupped her shoulder in his hand. Moonlight touched her eyes, bringing out the gold in her irises. “Raisa’s here?”
Jared was the one who answered. “Yes.”
“I didn’t think she’d make it. She was so weak.”
“Yet you sent her out anyway?” There was a dangerous quality to the question.
Miri didn’t flinch. “She was dead if she stayed.”
The simplicity of the response stole the thunder from Jared’s energy.
Through Raisa, they all knew what the Sanctuary did to women in the pursuit of science. Through Raisa, they knew what Miri had committed to endure so that Raisa could live.
“You ever want or need anything, all you’ve got to do is ask,” Jared said to Miri with utter conviction.
“You don’t owe me anything. Raisa and I worked together.”
“But you stayed behind.”
She shrugged. “There really wasn’t any other choice.”
Jace squeezed her arm. “Don’t be so quick to let him off the hook. I kind of like the idea of Jared in my debt.”
“He considers himself in my debt, not yours.”
“Same difference.”
He felt the brush of Jared’s energy as he tapped Miri’s mind.
No,
it’s not.
Hell, his own brother was ganging up against him.
Another yell came from upstairs, followed quickly by male swearing. Miri rubbed her arms and glanced at Jace. “I’d like to help.”
“You’re too weak.”
“Not that weak.” She pushed off his chest and propelled herself toward the porch stairs. Jonas and Micah stepped back. They inclined their heads as Miri climbed the steps to the porch. Miri stopped so suddenly at the customary deference, she almost overbalanced. Jared made a grab for her. She eyed both weres warily. They stared back impassively. Jared reached for her hand even as Jace placed his palm in the middle of her back. She ignored them both, climbing the steps, crossing the porch, moving away from him.
“She needs to feed,” Jared said, frowning at her back as she entered the house.
“Probably.”
“Why do I hear a ‘but’ in there?”
“She also probably plans on kicking up a fuss about it. She’s into rituals and taboos.”
“What’s that got to do with the price of tea in China?”
“Were females don’t drink from vampires,” Jonas offered.
Jace glanced toward the twins. Nothing in their expressions implied anything. “Why would that be?”
“It’s forbidden,” Jonas answered.
“I gathered that.” He glanced at Miri. She was almost to the door. “It’d be interesting to know why.”
“A lot of things are going to get interesting around here soon,” Micah murmured.
Which wasn’t an answer to Jace’s question, but raised the hairs on the back of his neck anyway.
This might have been a mistake. Miri stood unnoticed in the doorway and observed the chaos in the room. A woman with brown hair plastered to her skull with sweat was lying on the bed with her knees drawn up. A man with sable brown hair and broad shoulders sat on a stool at the foot of the bed. Another sat at the head of the bed. He looked up, noticing her. The family resemblance to Jace was strong—same square face, slashing cheekbones, and intense eyes—but this man’s eyes were more green than gray, and his face less harshly defined than Jace’s. Which made him no less handsome and no less intimidating than her mate. He had to be Caleb.
Jace Page 9
