She closed her eyes briefly as she remembered Daniel’s parting words. “We need to make sure that Apep knows we have you. He won’t come after you himself, he prefers to let others exert themselves, but with any luck, there will be vampires there. And when we can capture one, and finally find out what Apep’s plans are...
So not only was she robbing a bank… but she was also bait in a trap. Either vampires would attack and they’d get one of them, or else vampires wouldn’t attack and they’d rob the bank. They needed the funds to continue fighting the vampires, apparently, and if this heist turned out to be a vampire trap rather than a fundraising expedition, they’d be robbing another bank later.
Daniel had told her all of this with a blank expression. And like an idiot, she had volunteered herself. Now, she wished she could go back and slap her past self. This was way over her head…
“I can help you here,” one of the tellers called, and Gracie started.
Shaking her head (and the rest of her shaking along) she hurried over to the teller. A nervous smile crossed her lips as she gingerly sat down on the chair before the teller. Her voice came out a loud, high-pitched squeak when she spoke. “Hello! How are you?”
The teller stared at her blankly, probably wondering what sort of idiotic question that was. Heat rushed to Gracie’s face as she ducked her head. Silently, she slid the paper across the low counter between them, looking everywhere but the teller. The teller took it, stared at the note for a moment, then looked back up at her.
“Is this a fucking joke?” he demanded.
That wasn’t what she had expected. Gracie’s face went even redder as she shook her head. “Um… no?”
The teller looked at her, back at her note, and snorted. He started to open his mouth when somebody stepped up behind her. Gracie started badly, but relaxed when she saw it was Daniel. He’d dressed in an unassuming plaid shirt and jeans. With his tanned skin and dark eyes, he looked like a rancher or cowboy. Except for the hard glint to his eyes. That was everything that Gracie had heard about the Savage Brotherhood before she knew they were an army of shifters fighting vampires—ruthless, cruel, arrogant.
“I assure you, there is no mistake,” he rumbled in his deep, deep voice. “So, run along and do as we say. Nobody has to be hurt. Better to give it to us than vampires, am I right?”
The subtle threat in his tone changed to one of conspiracy, and he actually winked at the teller. The teller sat there, his mouth half open for several moments before it snapped shut and a red flush rose in his face.
A swell of disappointment hit Gracie hard as Daniel nodded for the teller to go off, his smile most definitely flirtatious. Of course, the most gorgeous man she’d ever met would end up being gay. I don’t know that, she told herself, he could be bi or pan or not like labels. Or he could just be flirting to get the teller to do what he wants… right?
In any case, the middle of a bank robbery was not when she should be thinking about that… Although, the way life was now, she might die at any moment. Why should she waste time thinking about what was proper? Why not just go for what she wanted right away?
A giggle burst from her throat as she imagined Daniel bending her over the teller’s counter and taking her right there. Daniel arched a brow at her and she went very red, turning her face away. And at that moment, a voice cried out from behind them.
“Run!”
Gracie turned. She saw a woman hovering in the air—a vampire. Her face was twisted in fear and anger, and then she was coming at them. Daniel’s arm wrapped around Gracie’s waist.
The next thing she knew, she was shoved beneath the teller’s desk on the other side, shielded on three sides. Daniel was thrown back, impacting the glass doors hard, as the vampire woman smashed into him. She landed lightly, her hands lashing out at him while he held his arms up to defend himself. Their strikes were so quick that Gracie couldn’t tell who had the upper hand. She crouched lower, eyes wide. Should she do something? If she swung the teller’s chair at them, would she hit the vampire or Daniel? Should she try to run?
Screams filled the bank, then snarls and howls. Savage screams, the sound of fighting. Her heart sank. The vampires had come after her… What could Apep want so badly that he’d do all this… just to get her? Her stomach churned. Was it something special about her, or had he just decided on a whim and now refused to be denied?
“Daniel,” the vampire woman gasped as she grabbed him by the back of his neck and smashed his head through a glass window. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry!”
A sob ripped from her throat, even as she kneed him in the stomach and threw him to the floor, her claws slashing across his throat. Blood splashed the floor and Gracie screamed. The vampire turned, tears streaming down her face. Gracie didn’t even see her move; the next moment, the vampire had her, a hand wrapped around her throat as she dragged her out from under the counter.
“The master wants you alive and unharmed,” the vampire muttered. “If you’ve made me kill my boy, I’ll find a way to tear you apart, I swear I will!”
Her boy? The tears suddenly made sense. Her apologizing to Daniel even as she beat him up. Gracie stared in horror as the vampire tucked her into her arms and leapt over the teller’s counter. Her mouth opened, a protest on her lips.
But then something heavy knocked into them from behind. Gracie was thrown from the vampire’s arms. She went skidding across the floor as Daniel wrapped his thick arms around the vampire, pinning her elbows to her sides. Blood trickled down his neck, but his face was hard and determined.
Gracie plunged her hand into her purse, searching for anything that could be used as a weapon. Several more vampires came at her, but their paths were blocked by shifters; most were wolves, but Shadow’s leopard jumped in and batted vampires right out of the air. A hand grabbed her arm, and she whirled just as a hand clutched around her arm. She lashed out without even looking at who it was.
The vampire howled and recoiled, stumbling back as he clutched at the pen now struck through his eye. Gracie allowed herself one moment to feel sick to her stomach before she remembered the plan; if the vampires came, she was supposed to take cover. Hurricane and Blizzard would get her out.
She dove for the teller’s counter again as Daniel’s mother threw her head back, her skull connecting with his nose. He didn’t release her, but at that moment the biggest wolf Gracie had ever seen rammed into him from behind. The vampire went flying; she was quickly cornered by Twister, Polaris, and Cyclone. The wolf that attacked Daniel went for his neck, but he rolled and turned back, striking the wolf between the eyes.
Gracie hunkered down, her heart in her throat as she pressed herself to the small lip of the teller’s counter. Vampires were being torn apart, their pieces scattering the floor, but the shifters were still fighting.
The wolf shifted into a huge man that swung at Daniel. “Weak, useless boy!” he snarled.
Daniel ducked a blow and punched his enemy in the stomach, but it was clear he had pulled back from striking out with his full strength.
“Don’t hold back!” the wolf shouted. “I won’t!”
Why was a wolf fighting them? Had some of the shifters joined the vampires? Gracie’s breath left her lungs as she remembered what Melanie, Thunder’s mate, had told her… that their previous leader was half vampire and was now under Apep’s control. But if the vampire woman was Daniel’s mother, then that meant…
She must have been turned recently.
“I chose you to be my successor for a reason,” the wolf, Typhoon, snarled as Daniel barely managed to dance out of his reach again. “If I knew you’d end up soft, dancing around when real work was to be done, I’d have put you down before you were born!”
Daniel snarled and replied for the first time. “You don’t mean that.”
Typhoon didn’t speak, going after him again. Daniel ducked beneath him, elbowing him in the sternum, then shifted into his wolf form; Typhoon shifted as well, and they started tearing int
o each other. Horror rose in Gracie’s throat. Even as she opened her mouth to scream again, more hands wrapped around her arms.
She let out a startled shriek, struggling instinctively. But this time it was Hurricane who had her. He dragged her to her feet and all but flung her onto Blizzard’s back. She clung to his thick fur instinctively as Hurricane shifted as well. They tore out of the bank, Tornado flanking them on one side, Shadow on the other.
A protesting cry ripped from her throat as Daniel let out a pained howl from behind them. She started to twist around, but her grip slipped, and she slid half-off Blizzard’s back. With a yelp, she pulled herself back on as his loping gait jostled her from side to side. A vampire came after them, but Thunder jumped into the air, jaws latching around its ankle, and dragged it back to the ground.
Gracie buried her face in Blizzard’s fur and shook as visions of blood splashed behind her eyelids. What was going to happen next?
Chapter Five
Storm
Daniel spat into the sink, struggling to tape the bandage to his still-bleeding throat. It was a shallow wound, but more than he should have allowed himself to get. They had been expecting Guinevere and Typhoon to be sent with the attack force… so why had he frozen like that? They could have captured her. He could have his mother back right now if only he hadn’t…
He closed his eyes briefly as Typhoon’s words returned to his mind. There was no telling if it was something Typhoon himself thought or that Apep was forcing him to say. Could Apep control them that deeply? Make them say certain things?
But then, why would Apep care about breaking down his spirits?
There was a knock on the bathroom door, and Daniel growled under his breath. “I’m not done.”
The door opened. He whirled to snap at whoever it was but swallowed it when he saw it was Gracie. Her eyes were red with tears, but she seemed to be taking it rather well. Silently, she pointed at the toilet. When he sat, she rearranged the items in the first aid kit and moved to bandage him up. Having made no progress himself, Daniel let her take over.
“You were very brave,” she murmured under her breath. “The way you fought…”
“Wasn’t enough. I couldn’t…”
Gracie was silent as she washed his neck, then patted it dry. When she started to tape the gauze in place, though, she spoke. “You couldn’t save your mother?”
Daniel flinched but nodded.
“When was she turned?”
She hadn’t figured it out, then? Daniel hesitated. She didn’t know that he was half vampire, and he wasn’t certain that he wanted her to know. Not right now, at least. After all, she was the only one in the house who didn’t give him that look, the one that was wondering when Apep would take him over. Even his own father looked at him like that, and Roxy didn’t let him watch his cousins. Not that she said that outright, but she always had some excuse to stay around when he was there.
A bitter smile crossed his face. It wasn’t like Gracie wasn’t going to find out… “Sometime during the middle ages. It’s a little unclear, she lost track of time in the centuries since.” Gracie’s hands paused, as he knew they would. He met her wide eyes and nodded. “I’m a hybrid. Half shifter. Half vampire.”
“You were… born that way?”
“Yeah. One of only two hybrids known.”
Gracie’s mouth became an ‘o’, then she sucked in a breath and turned to the injuries on his shoulders. “Okay.”
Daniel couldn’t help but snort at that. “That’s all you have to say?”
“Yeah. I mean, until three months ago, I didn’t even know vampires or shifters existed. So, you’re a hybrid. That’s no weirder than anything else that’s happened. I didn’t know vampires were born, though.”
“Usually they aren’t. Vamps have a venom that drives shifters crazy and turns humans into vampires as well. As I said, I’m a rarity.” He felt his muscles relax at her gentle touch, cleaning and binding his wounds. Her smell curled into his nostrils and he breathed in deeply, savoring her scent. It was clean and fresh. Smelling her in such close quarters, he understood why Apep would want her. It was tantalizing. He swallowed hard as he caught sight of a scratch on her arm. It had been his plan to use her as bait… and it had nearly landed her in Apep’s hands again. “I’m sorry,” he blurted.
Gracie glanced up in surprise. “For what?”
“You were almost taken. Because of me.”
She blinked a couple of times before her face melted into a smile. Something tightened inside of him at that smile. Daniel found himself unable to stop staring at her lips. Wondering what they would taste like. He wasn’t some inexperienced virgin, but the feelings of physical desire always took him by surprise. It never happened unless he got to know the person a little better than the first meeting. Usually knowing them for longer than he knew Gracie.
And yet, as she shifted to wrap a bandage around his arm, all he could think about was how soft her breasts looked at that moment. He wanted to reach out and touch them. Wanted to press her against the door and lift her legs around his waist.
“I wasn’t taken because of you.” Gracie let out a shuddering breath. “Apep would have killed me or worse already if you hadn’t rescued me… and I haven’t thanked you for that yet.”
Daniel shrugged and glanced away. “Let’s just say it’s what I do. Besides, it’s not like I was just being nice. I have other reasons.”
“Does that mean I can’t thank you?”
He looked up at her again. There was a hesitant look on her face as she bent over and brushed her lips against his. It was so unexpected that he just sat there for a moment, staring up at her. Even after she learned he was half vampire, she was kissing him?
Gracie backed up, turning her face away. Her cheeks burned bright red. “Sorry!”
“Uh…” How was he supposed to respond to that? To tell her that he was more than fine with it? That he could use a little more kissing. He started to grin at her, but she turned away and hid her face.
“I knew it. I saw the way you smiled at that teller, I shouldn’t have… I’m sorry. It’s just me being dumb.”
The way he smiled at the teller? How had he smiled? He couldn’t remember—he’d been too concentrated on getting the teller away, so he could warn Gracie on the approaching scent of vampires. However he’d smiled, though, there was clearly a misunderstanding happening here. Daniel’s smirk widened as he stood and turned Gracie back around to face him.
“However I smiled at the teller has nothing to do with that kiss,” he told her, then brushed his mouth to hers.
Gracie let out a soft yip, then melted against him. Her arms wrapped around his neck as she teased his lips open and plunged her tongue into his mouth. Daniel tightened, the pressure building in his pants. He grunted as he pressed her against the door, finding her body against his just as soft and well-shaped as he had known it would be.
The world had gone to hell since Apep returned. Everything was different. They could all be dead by the next morning, so why should he hold himself back from what he wanted? And right now, he wanted her. The bathroom was small, but it was big enough for their purposes, and they’d have more privacy in here than anywhere else. His lip curled back with a snarl as he deepened the kiss, his hands reaching for those large, soft breasts to knead between his fingers.
Gracie moaned, reaching between them to cradle him in his jeans. She massaged him, making him grow even harder and he grunted as she did so. She pulled back a little, their breath mingling as their hands roamed each other’s bodies. Daniel soon found that the clothes were getting in the way. He needed to touch her skin, needed the warmth of her against him. He grasped the hem of her shirt and yanked it up to her armpits, then reached behind her to unclasp her bra. Her breasts sprang free of their confines, and he just had to taste them.
He bent, sucking on one nipple while her back arched. Gracie let out a soft gasp, her hands flying to his shoulders. He allowed her to move him back, t
hen when her grip tightened and pulled him closer again, he moved to her other breast, nipping at it lightly as he worked his way back up her chest. Gracie’s neck and face were flushed pink, her breathing rapid and her eyes bright. She gave him a small, nervous smile, and he stepped back, putting more space between them.
“You okay?”
“Yeah.” Her voice was a squeak as she giggled. “I just haven’t ever jumped into something this fast before.”
Daniel couldn’t help but smile at that. “I haven’t, either. Guess it’s a first time for both of us.”
He winked. Gracie giggled again and put her arms around him once more, more relaxed. He kissed her, loving her taste and the feel of her naked breasts against his bare chest. When had his shirt been unbuttoned? It didn’t matter. With one hand, he reached down and opened his jeans first, then did the same with her pants. Gracie pushed her pants down impatiently, putting them all the way to her knees.
“I want to fuck you,” Daniel hissed in her ear. “From behind with your legs pinned together.”
Gracie let out a shiver and a moan. She sucked her lower lip between her teeth and gazed up at him with heated eyes. “Not my ass.”
“No,” he agreed and gave her a wink as he pushed his fingers between her legs, seeking out her clit. It was already a swollen little nub, liquid dripping from her. “I’m saving that for at least the third date.”
Her eyes widened, and she let out a high-pitched giggle that was almost hysterical. Daniel frowned as he made to step back, but she wouldn’t let him. She grabbed his wrist to keep his fingers at her clit and let out a shaky breath.
“That sounds nice,” she said breathlessly. “I’ve always been curious… but it’s something I’ve kind of thought… I couldn’t say.”
“Then you’ve been with the wrong guys.”
Storm Page 3
