The Ancients Series

by Christine M. Butler

  “Damn it, Jess, get away from that window! You’re not wearing anything, and you know there are guards down there.” He was behind me, spinning me to face him when he noticed the window. The shade was all pulled all the way down. “You little minx!” He picked me up over his shoulder then and took me back to the bed, tossing me down none to gently. “So, you want to play dirty, huh?”

  “I was just proving a point, my sweet!”

  “Point taken, now, it’s my turn.” He climbed on top of me then, and grabbed my hips to pull me to him. We had already had all the foreplay we were going to get, apparently, because he lined his hips up with mine, and one thrust later he had buried himself deep inside me. “You are mine. This,” he leaned off of me and trailed his hands down the curves of my body from my neck to where we were joined, “is mine alone to enjoy.”

  “Then we’re agreed that there won’t be any men in the house, securing it, while you’re gone?”

  Mikael growled at me and continued to thrust roughly in and out of me. “There won’t be any other men in here,” he hissed through gritted teeth as he thrust himself into me once more. I laughed at his not so subtle meaning, and he smiled down at me then. “If you don’t want them inside the house, then they won’t be.” He leaned in to kiss me, deeply, and when he finally pulled back he said, “you always get what you want from me. You’re spoiled like that.”

  “No, I’m loved like that.” I spoke in a sultry voice before locking my legs around him, and pulling him into me once more. “Now, shut up, and love me some more!” I couldn’t even hold a straight face as I spoke those words. Mikael laughed with me, but obeyed the order just the same.

  ~*~

  At some point when the lovemaking was over we actually both managed to drift off to sleep for a time. In fact, it was someone knocking at the front door that finally woke us just before dawn.

  “You?” I questioned as I opened my front door to the last person I thought I’d see on its doorstep. “What the hell are you doing here?”

  “Aww, what? You didn’t miss me sweetheart?” The gruff voice laughed as he spoke. Mikael came charging up behind me to see who had the audacity to address me that way.

  “I should have known.” He said grudgingly. “What do you want?” Mikael asked as he threw the door open wider, only to see that Nicholi wasn’t standing there alone. “Oh, hey Tessa, I didn’t see you standing there. What’s up with the hair?”

  “That’s okay, I doubt anyone could have seen me past Nicholi’s ego anyway.” She plucked at a few strands of her formerly golden locks to show that they were now more of a chocolate brown. “It’s only temporary, thankfully.”

  I laughed before I remembered my manners and invited them inside. Avery Daniels had been standing behind them both, enjoying the little exchange we were having. It quickly became obvious why Avery was at the rear of the group. He was hanging onto someone. “We definitely need to get inside before that sun rises, preferably to an interior room without windows.”

  “Holy shit!” Mikael was shouting now. “Is that a dark one? Did you just bring one of those vile creatures to our doorstep? Seriously, Avery?”

  “What the hell?” I picked up where Mikael left off.

  “We did a little sting operation last night.” Nicholi’s smug voice and expression really only added to my need to punch something or someone. “We dressed Tessa here up like one of the victims, and sent her out and about to look clueless. Sure enough, this idiot took the bait, and then we took him.”

  “I figured you would both want a crack at him before we feed him to the sun,” Avery added.

  “I want a front row seat for that. My hair demands it!” Tessa looked at me then, “no offense.”

  “None taken. I couldn’t imagine dying mine blond. Thanks for the sacrifice.”

  “Yeah, sure.” She shrugged in the most non-committal way possible.

  “Let’s get this over with then.” Mikael and I led them to the office area we had built into the house. The house was an open floor pan on the lower level, but the office was smack in the middle of everything. I had asked for it to be like that on purpose, that way no matter where I was in the house, if I needed to meet someone for business the office was accessible. All we would have to do was close all the doors to block out any residual sunlight now.

  It occurred to me, after we all piled into the office and shut the doors that I had forgotten to ask the all-important question. “Where were you?”

  The dark one just stared at me like I had grown two heads, but I wasn’t speaking to him yet. I turned to look at Tessa then, to make sure everyone knew whom I was speaking too. “Where were you when he tried to attack?”

  “Oh. I was just on the outskirts of our pack lands.” She shrugged, knocking her newly darkened locks back behind her shoulder.

  “Were you near the caves and tunnel that connect our lands?”

  “I wasn’t far from there. Why?”

  “I figured with girls being snatched from both packs that they had to be using a tunnel system or something for quick travel.” I hedged a bit. I was actually thinking that maybe the portal Serena had mentioned was somewhere inside the caverns themselves. I turned back to the dark one, and commenced with my questions for him. Not that he answered a single one of them. I tried. Mikael tried. Avery and Nicholi both took a good crack at him. I would give the dark ones this; they could handle pain like champs.

  Before long, Asriel was knocking on our door, ready to take my mate away for a hunting excursion. They would hopefully track down all the escapees from the Locks so that the packs could rest easily knowing the worst of the worst of our own kind were locked away again, or dead and not coming back to harm another soul.

  Ashley had come with Asi, because we had already agreed she would stay with me while the guys were gone. It was a small comfort for the both of us. As Mikael went upstairs to get ready I explained what was going on in the office to Asi and Ashley.

  “Jesus, when things go down around you, they really go down.” Ashley gave me a hug and tossed her coat on the couch.

  “I’m beginning to think that’s an understatement.” Asi insisted.

  “Yeah, well, you just stay safe and bring Mikael back, along with your fine ass, after you guys take care of business. For now, we’ll be just fine. There’s plenty of security outside, as you just saw for yourself.”

  “Wait, you got stopped by security outside?”

  “Yeah, they hammered us about why we were here until your dad spoke to them and okayed it.”

  “Give me just a second…” I ran off to the office then, and peaked my head in the door. “Hey, when you guys showed up at my door with that thing,” I pointed at the dark one they were still trying to torture for information. “Was anyone out there questioning you about being here or bringing him, for that matter?”

  “No one stopped us, Jess.” Avery was wise enough to appear a bit concerned by that now that I had mentioned it. “Where the hell was your security detail?”

  “I don’ know, but they’re here now, and I will let my dad know to deal with it in a minute. Not a word to Mikael, okay? He has to go take care of the Locks situation. The last thing we need is for him to stay behind, because he’s too worried to go take care of things.”

  “Understood,” was Avery’s response before I went back in to Ashley and Asi.

  Ashley and I said our goodbyes to our mates, and I had to work through a moment of panic when saying them. I wasn’t sure I could handle being away from Mikael right now with everything that was going on, but I knew I had to kick my own ass into high gear now. I was supposed to be a leader. I couldn’t appear weak in front of my people. I had to show them all that I was still functioning, that Mikael was still doing his duties, and that no matter what we’d been through in the past we were rising above and carrying on with life. That was the way of our people. But damn if there wasn’t a part of me that wanted to just cling to him, beg him to stay, and say to hell with the Lock
s escapees… let someone else catch them.

  Before I knew it they were gone, and I was making a phone call to let my dad know about the guards who were missing from my door just before sunup. Once I finished giving him details so he could go ream the proper asses for failure to do their duty, I escorted Ashley up to the baby’s room so she could hang out with Willow while I finished up with the problem that was currently being tortured in my meeting room downstairs.

  “Sorry, Ash. My dad said he was going to head over here in a bit to take over for me.”

  “Hey, I know what your responsibilities are like. That’s why Willow and I are going to hang out while you kick some dark one ass downstairs and try to figure out why those bastards are hunting girls that look like you.” She smiled down at Willow then, and cooed to her. “Tell mommy, we will be fine. Auntie Ashley is going to tell you all about the first time I took mommy to the bar, and how trashed she got.”

  I side-eyed Ashley then, and swore I’d do bad things to her if I caught her telling any stories to my daughter. “She already has Mikael and I as parents, let’s spare her all the sordid details that lead up to that for as long as we possibly can.” I smiled though, which was her plan all along.

  “Oh shoosh, your stories are saintly compared to mine.” She looked down at Willow, “but we’re going to save those for when you get older and need to know about the birds and the bees.”

  “Okay, I’m going back to work. Suddenly, I feel the need to torture something.” Ashley laughed at that and I took off to go back down to my office.

  “Has it bothered to say a single helpful word?” I asked as I opened the door, letting the morning light fall fully into the room as I did. I watched, as the dark one finally appeared unnerved. Everyone else in the room looked exhausted and beyond frustrated, but that one slip from the dark one when he thought no one noticed was all I needed. An idea formed in my head, and a plan took root. Hopefully, it would lead to some answers that we desperately needed in order to stop the abduction of all the innocent girls in our two packs. Not to mention, stopping whatever nefarious plan was being hatched about the gateway to the dead.

  “Avery, may I speak with you.” I gestured with my head nodding out into the kitchen. He followed immediately. Only turning to give one quick warning to Nicholi that if he let anything happen to Tessa, even a broken nail, while he was gone, he would feed the dark one a snack before sending him off to meet turn to ash.

  “That was harsh. Nicholi can’t take his eyes off your daughter, you know.”

  “I know,” Avery huffed. “That’s part of my bad mood. So, tell me, what’s up?”

  “I have a plan. That damned dark one isn’t going to talk, but the only discomfort I’ve seen him really show was when I opened the door and the sunlight streamed in. I think we haven’t properly motivated him to talk yet.”

  “You want to use the sun? It will kill him before he can say a word.”

  “I don’t think so. I’m thinking that in small doses, it’s just going to hurt like hell, and leave the threat of burning to death front and center in his mind. Maybe, in little doses, it will convince him that we can keep the pain going indefinitely until he decides to tell us everything.”

  Avery smiled at me then. “You are definitely your father’s child. Let’s try it. If worse comes to worse, he’ll simply go up in smoke, and we have one less dark one to concern ourselves with. If your plan works, we might know more about what we’re dealing with.”

  “Alright, let’s get on with it then.”

  I realized I suggested this specific type of questioning, but I thought about changing my mind when the first wave of burning skin hit my nostrils. It was unlike anything I’d ever smelled before. Putrid decay mixed with charcoal and a dash of burned hair rounded the disgusting mix of olfactory horror that assaulted my nose. Tessa shut the light out once more as Avery asked the question again. “Why are you going after specific looking girls? You can answer or we can let the light back in.”

  “He’s looking for her.” The raspy voice spat out at Avery. We didn’t have to ask whom. The creature aimed his look of disgust in my general direction. “It’s not like we had a picture of her to go by or anything. We were given a description, and we’ve tried all the ones that fit.”

  “Tried them?” I questioned. The creature simply sneered at me. Tessa popped the door back open as Nicholi held out the dark one’s arm. We watched as the sunbeams I often enjoyed on my own skin ate away at this creature’s arm like acid. The stench in the room increased ten-fold before Tessa closed the door again.

  “My friend asked what you meant by tried them?”

  “We held them,” the raspy quality of the creature’s voice increased as he spoke breathily, “over the spot and bled them.” He peered at me through the thin veil of his dark hair then. “When nothing happened we would discard the body and start our search again.”

  “Whom are you working for?” I questioned.

  “You’ll find out soon enough. He will find you.” Tessa didn’t wait for a signal this time, she just popped the door open, and Nicholi obliged her action by exposing more of the dark one’s skin to the sun.

  His scream pierced through the room then. “Louis.” The name was a whisper amidst the screaming, but I heard it clear as day. Tessa closed the door again, and the creature relaxed back, his left arm burned down to the bone in spots. “Fiul Sange.”

  “What the bloody hell does that mean?” Nicholi asked.

  “I know what it means.” I turned to see Avery’s panicked look. “Go.” He was out the door before anyone had a chance to ask what was going on. “This one can meet the sun now.”

  “No, I was helpful. I cooperated. You can’t do that.”

  “I can. You will get no mercy from the wolves of this pack or the next. You’ve been killing our females with heartless abandon. For your crimes, you will meet the sun, and we will watch as it greets you with sweet flaming kisses.” Before I walked out the door of the office I turned back and met Nicholi’s eyes. “Strip him first. I want this to happen as quickly as possible. I’m not granting him the mercy of a quick death; I’m doing it for our pack members who may be looking on. At least they’ll know we’re conjuring up some justice.”

  Nicholi nodded before I turned and went upstairs to check on Ashley and Willow. I held my daughter in my arms, wishing I could have delivered her into a far better world, and promising to try to make it better before she was old enough to understand the dangers we all lived with on a daily basis. Ashley just patted me on the back and made calming rubbing gestures for a minute before she spoke.

  “I admire you, you know.”

  “Why is that?”

  “You make it all look so easy and effortless. After all you’ve been through and you go from that nasty business downstairs to walking through that door and becoming a mom. It’s crazy that you can just flip a switch and do that.”

  “You know, people might argue that it’s crazy that I have to do that, not that I am capable of doing so.”

  Ashley shrugged her shoulders at me. “You work with what you’ve got. Even though you have been given a huge pile of shit to work with, you come out smelling like roses every damn time.” She sniffed me, “well, maybe not this time.” Her nose wrinkled up when she got a whiff of burned dark one. “Did you guys get anything out of him?”

  “We got enough.” I mentioned wearily. “Can you watch her for a few more minutes while I shower?”

  “Like you have to ask.” Ashley rolled her eyes at me as I left the room. I walked straight into a stricken looking Avery Daniels.

  “I thought you went to warn Serena?”

  “Actually, I tried to call her. She’s back with my pack to do some remote viewing of the caves. I’m not sure what that entails, but if they find her…”

  “I know! There are too many dark ones running amuck around here lately, and if a Fiul Sange really leads them, the powerful original dark ones, she needs to know. He could have s
pilled the secret to turning more of them. Go, find her and warn her. Besides, her sister is supposed to be heading this way too. She needs a head’s up.”

  “Okay, let Tessa know to stay here with Nicholi for now.”

  “Will do, and Avery?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You be good to her, she’s family to me.”

  Avery simply smiled, turned, and took off to go warn my very-great grandmother. I was speculating, of course, but I could have sworn there was more than just a work relationship between those two.

  ~*~

  I got out of the shower a few minutes later to see Ashley standing over Willow’s crib, talking quietly to someone on the phone. “I’ll let her know. I promise, she’s doing fine. She just didn’t answer because she’s in the shower right now.”

  “Ashley,” I called out to her.

  “Oh, she’s out, you can tell her yourself real quick.” Ashley brought me her phone and I immediately felt a weight release from my shoulders as I heard Mikael’s voice on the other end.

  “Hey baby, how are my girls doing?”

  “We’re both fine.”

  “You sound tired. Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “I am, it’s just been a busy day. How are things going there? Have you guys learned anything new?”

  “We found Annabelle. She’s dead. No sign of Clarissa or the hunter, and there’s evidence that they weren’t alone when they left here.”

  “Damn,” I whispered into the phone.

  “I can’t talk long baby. We’re about to head off, and try to track them down now.” We both sighed into the phone at the same time. “We’ll find them. We’ll figure everything else out too, and then we will breathe easier for a while.” There was a promise in his statement, and hoped like hell we could manage it, because I was growing tired of the constant cat and mouse game where we were the mouse fighting for our survival. “I love you, Jess.”