All around, were voices picked up call, echoing it off the mountains. Over and over the cry swelled as voices reinforced the challenge. Tragallion voices lifted in the Tragallion war cry spilled into the clearing, came closer. Blood dripped in his eyes and poured down his side. Jace swayed, wiping at his face, clearing his vision. Ready for the next wave.
Except there wasn’t anyone coming. The clearing was filled with the hard-eyed faces of men he recognized. The reinforcements hadn’t been rogue, they’d been pure pack Tragallion. Only one person could have arranged that. Miri must have given instructions for them to follow him.
He spotted Brac, knee planted firmly in another man’s back, ruthlessly tying up a rogue. As if feeling his gaze, he looked up. Jace ignored the black edging his vision. He nodded his thanks. Brac got to his feet.
To Jace’s right someone called his name. Sweet and feminine, he’d recognize that voice anywhere. Miri. He closed his eyes, struggling to maintain his balance as blood soaked the ground at his feet. She shouldn’t be here to see this.
“Jace!”
Her footsteps were light on the ground, soft punctuations to the touch of her energy. It wrapped around him in a desperate hug two seconds before her arms came around him. As he swayed, she gasped and widened her stance, her shoulder wedging under his in a too-short support. “Don’t you die on me, Jace Johnson.”
He licked his dry lips, striving for strength. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“What I shouldn’t be, is here this late. You should have told me about this, not forced me to read your mind.”
Her grip slipped through the blood. She gasped again and then her hands were all over him, checking wounds, sobbing when she found them. “Oh, God.” She patted his chest. His cheek. “Oh, God.”
“Caleb!”
It was a high-pitched shriek that reverberated in his head and his ears. Jace’s knees buckled. She tried to catch him. He had just enough strength to throw himself backward to avoid falling on her. The pain was intense. “I’m okay, Miri.”
“You’re bleeding out.” She tore at her shirtsleeve.
There was no bleeding about it. He was about out.
She held her wrist to his mouth. “Feed, Jace.”
He reached for her hand, missed the first time, caught it the second. He brought it to his mouth, pressed a kiss to her palm, then shook his head. “I’d drain you and bleed out anyway.”
She pressed harder. “Caleb will be here in a second.”
Even Caleb’s blood wouldn’t be able to keep him alive long enough to recover from this. That would take a lot of blood. A steady supply. “It’s okay, Miri.”
Tears dripped off her face onto his.
“No, it’s not.”
“Don’t cry, princess.” He raised his hand to her cheek. Blood smeared through her tears. “I hate to see you cry.”
She wiped at her cheeks, smudging the blood into larger blotches. “Don’t tell me what to do.”
He felt the faint vibrations of approaching footsteps. He struggled to get up. It was a measure of how close to death he was that it only took one of Miri’s hands to keep him down.
The darkness was calling. He didn’t have much time. “I saw Faith, Miri.” He stretched his fingers to touch her cheek, only realizing then that she was holding his hand. His voice was a dry rasp. “She’s beautiful—healthy. Looks just like you.”
“Shut up.”
“I love you.”
“I said, shut up.”
A shadow darker than the night appeared beside them. Brac.
The Tragallion stared down at him, assessing his wounds with a soldier’s objectivity. “You’re seriously fucked up, vampire.”
“I’ve had better days.”
“You were foolish to try and do this alone.”
“I can see that.”
“You deserve to die for that stupidity alone.”
“Probably.” And he was right, for a lot more reasons than that.
“But not today.” Brac rolled back his sleeve.
Jace blinked, not sure he understood. “You don’t have enough blood.”
Brac eyed him and his injuries. “Probably not.”
Across the field, Jace saw Caleb appear out of the woods. He still had Faith. Jace forced a smile. Caleb didn’t smile back.
Brac knelt beside him, bellowing, “Tragallions! To the Alpha!”
There was a murmur and then footsteps approached. Jace looked up. He was surrounded by hard-faced, cold-eyed Tragallions. Just what he wanted. To be encircled by high-handed weres at his death. To his surprise, they began rolling back their sleeves.
“You’re not going to give him blood, are you?” one of the rogues snarled in disgust. “He’s a fucking vampire!”
The sound of a blow interrupted the silence.
Brac’s eyes burned with werewolf intensity as they met Jace’s. He sliced his claw through his wrist. His life-giving blood dripped into Jace’s mouth in a potent wash of power. “Yeah, but he’s our fucking vampire.”
Jace frowned, forcing back the darkness sweeping in. “What the hell is this?”
Miri’s hand was gentle on his forehead. “You, Jace Johnson, are being claimed, Tragallion style.”
“This mean I’m stuck with you?” he asked Brac.
The big were scowled. “Until we kick your ass out.”
The were’s blood filled his mouth. Jace swallowed, gathering the last of his strength as he absorbed the deeper meaning.
“Well, hell.”
Epilogue
THE music was too loud, the attendees out of control, and there was no room to escape, either.
Miri, holding a happy, smiling Faith, came up to Jace’s side where he stood leaning against the doorjamb fulfilling his role of chaperone at Brenda Lynn’s first party. Her gaze never left the heavily guarded rogues’ awkward attempts to re-establish bonds. She clearly wasn’t ready to drop the discussion that had been interrupted by Faith’s need for a diaper change.
“You can’t adopt them, you know,” he told her, watching the rogues mingling under close supervision with the other Tragallions.
Miri leaned into Jace’s side. “Why not? You adopted Penny the minute you saw her.”
And that was working out well. Penny and Marc were building their relationship, but, true to his word, the were shared Penny liberally with Miri and Jace. As often as not both could be found at their house.
“In case you haven’t noticed, those boys weigh well over two hundred pounds and are packing a ton of attitude.”
“They have no pack.”
“They can find one elsewhere.”
“They belong here. They’re Tragallions.”
Broderick glanced over, met Jace’s gaze, and didn’t look away. The pup, too bold for his own good, reminded him of his brother Jared in attitude. All hard edges and aggression, covering a sense of responsibility that wouldn’t quit. There was no doubt Broderick had potential, but Jace still thought Tobias had bit off more than he could chew when he’d offered to recommend him for Enforcer training. Then again, offering the rogues shelter here didn’t make much sense. Except, as Miri said, they were Tragallions. That made them his, and he didn’t let anything go easily. “They’ll cause all sorts of havoc,” he warned.
“You like havoc.”
He kissed the top of Faith’s head, the happy touch of her energy to his a wonder he’d never get used to. He wrapped her in a mental hug, felt Miri’s energy blend with theirs. He looked up and caught Broderick still looking at him, at the world Jace held in his arms. There was no mistaking the devastation in his silver eyes. In the next second it was gone, replaced by the defiance Jace was more used to seeing. “They won’t thank you for it.”
Miri shrugged. “Maybe not at first.”
“Maybe not at all.”
“They’ll find their place eventually.”
“Or not.”
“Jace.”
He looked down. Miri leaned her cheek again
st the fresh mark she’d given him that morning, rubbing gently, love and amusement deepening the gold of her eyes as his breath caught.
“What?”
“Think of it as a challenge.”
He glanced around the room at the faces of the people he’d sworn to put above all else. People whose blood now ran in his veins. People whose lives he’d promised to make better. Little changes had already been made. Fresh clothing had been brought in, sprinkling the room in flashes of bright color. Toy cars whirred between the adults’ feet; ray guns flared as kids played werewolf and Sanctuary. Bigger changes needed to occur, but this was his pack. He’d make them happen. One at a time.
Wrapping his fingers in Miri’s hair, Jace tilted her head back for his kiss, finding a smile on her lips and all the love in the world in her eyes.
“In that case, it’s a good thing I understand weres.”
Jace Page 37
