Hot Blooded

by Amanda Carlson

  “I’m happy to be awake,” I replied. “But before we start moving we need to set one thing straight. I’m not your Queen. There’s absolutely no need to address me as such. It makes me uncomfortable. I’m not your ruler. We’re in this together. I have accepted your fealty, but I’m not your mob boss. You must come freely into this merger or not at all.”

  “Ma Reine is a term used for affection only.” Naomi smiled. “I have never addressed Eudoxia as such. If you are uncomfortable with the title, I will come up with another.”

  “You can just call me Jessica,” I stated. “That works fine for me.”

  “In my world, a superior cannot be addressed by their given name. A name holds too much power to be used carelessly. I will not endanger your life in that way. Please do not ask it of me to do so. But I will come up with a suitable title if it pleases you.”

  “Um, okay.” I couldn’t argue with her if that’s how she felt. I knew witches held formal names sacred. That’s why they all had nicknames. I didn’t even know Marcy’s full given name and she was my best friend. But wolves had no issues with names. Using your full title was a sign of respect. Movement caught the corner of my eye. Eamon was lurking at the cave entrance. He looked put out, as usual. I was surprised he was here. “Is your brother coming with us?”

  Naomi turned her head, her face showing signs of fatigue. Having a brother myself, I knew what that face meant. “Yes. He seems to believe his debt for my life has been paid to you in full. I disagreed. As my blood-kin, my debts are his to fulfill and vice versa. It has always been that way. He has agreed, with some resistance, to accompany us to the entrance. Then it will be his choice after that to stay or leave. He is deeply troubled by all that has transpired. If our Queen discovers my secret, she will want our blood and souls as payment. My brother will not survive without a court. His choices are limited. He can join us, drink your blood, and pledge himself to you, or he can flee and spend his life running.” She shrugged her petite shoulders.

  “That’s not exactly a compelling argument to sway him to our side. What if we pretend you were killed in the battle here?” Assuming we all got out alive in the end. “And Eamon goes back to court with the story of your death? Could we get away with that?”

  Eamon stormed into the cave. “And what happens when my sister is found alive and well? Her bond to her Queen mysteriously broken forever? I would only be buying myself time. Months at most.”

  “Eamon, if there’s a question,” I said, “there’s almost always a solution. You just have to believe we can find one.” I turned to Naomi. “Has he always been this way, or was it an aftereffect of becoming undead?”

  “He has always been strong-willed,” she answered, stifling a smile. “It is his nature.”

  I turned back to an angry Eamon. “To avoid fallout, you can tell your beloved Queen you believed your sister to be dead at the hands of Selene and you fled. Naomi broke your Queen’s order to help us, you tried to stop her, she was killed, and you left. The Queen has likely felt the loss of connection to Naomi and will assume it’s the truth. Anything that ‘miraculously’ happens after that is not your issue. Then, when Naomi is found alive, we can blame her short ‘death’ for the severed bond with your Queen.” My gaze landed back on Naomi. “Has a vampire ever come back from a true death before?”

  “Non.” Naomi shook her head. “Not to my knowledge.”

  “Great,” I said. “Problem solved. Once you’re found, people will wonder, but it won’t matter if it’s never happened before. Your Queen will have no reason to believe my blood was the true culprit of the severed bond, and not death.”

  Eamon sputtered. “It is not as easy as that!”

  Naomi waved her hand, effectively cutting him off. “Enough of this. We waste time. Eamon, it is of little consequence now. We do not even know if I will emerge alive from our battle with Selene. Once we have an outcome, we will forge something reasonable.”

  “That’s one way to look at it,” I mused. “But I’m actually hoping we all make it out alive.”

  Tyler strode up beside me. “We need to move now. We’re wasting time.”

  I nodded. “Let’s go.”

  “I feel something strange,” I told Danny, who stood next to me. “The game with Selene has shifted. She wants me and I’m taking too long.” Shivers ran up my spine as the energy in the air seemed to move on its own. We stood on the shallow ledge outside the cave we’d just emerged from, waiting for Naomi to come back. I’d sent her to check on Ray and drop off all but one of the packs with him, since we wouldn’t need them until we were done anyway. Tyler had gone with Eamon to scout the climb.

  Danny shook his head. “I don’t feel anything, except for the new massive strength running through my veins thanks to you. I feel like I could take on a goddess and win.” He flexed his muscles and grinned. “It’s a rather nice feeling.”

  I smiled. “That’s a good thing, I hope.” I kicked some rocks out of my way and glanced around for any ugly bugs that might be wandering around. No Scorpers in sight. Danny had kept a good vigil while I was out. Some had come out of the cracks below us, but it looked like we were up too high for them. “The vamps say it’s a short, steep climb up and to the right,” I said. “Once we get there, we stick to the plan.”

  Naomi had agreed to come in after us carrying the spell darts, but Eamon refused to commit to helping us in any way. Tyler and Danny were going to shift outside and follow me in. It was the best plan we had.

  My mind raced to Rourke. His blond stubble, his ridiculously clear green eyes, him laughing, fighting, his arms on my waist. My wolf sat up and whined. We will get him out alive. She barked and flashed me a scene of her own, him in the creek, shirtless, the sun glinting off his body, dark tattoos snaking up his forearms, beautiful and bold. Then she did something she hadn’t done in a long time. She echoed his voice in my ears. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. It’s all going to be okay.”

  I stumbled forward, my breath catching in my throat, producing a strangled mew before I could stop myself.

  Danny whipped his hand out and yanked me back from the edge. “I don’t think now would be a good time to head down the hill,” Danny chastised. “Plus, that would be quite a setback having to dig your broken body out of the rocks below. We are up quite high, you know.”

  “I can see that. I’m sorry,” I stammered. “I just… something caught me off guard. Thank you for catching me. Where’s Naomi?” I scanned the sky. “She should’ve been back by now. It should’ve taken her five minutes. There must’ve been a problem with Ray.”

  That was unfair, I scolded my wolf. Hearing Rourke’s voice had overwhelmed me and triggered a new flood of emotion I hadn’t realized had been lingering right under the surface, waiting for just the right moment to erupt and swallow me whole. My wolf lifted her muzzle, curling her lips, showing me her teeth—almost a snarl, but more like a warning. I get it. I might be actively suppressing my emotions, but it’s only to protect myself so I don’t go insane. It’s a human coping mechanism, and I happen to need it. You can’t expect me to think like you do this quickly. She chomped her muzzle down twice, her eyes flecked with violet. Okay, but ask yourself this—what if we’re too late? The thought of losing Rourke forever sent emotional needles prickling through me, causing me actual, physical pain.

  I rubbed my arms.

  My wolf turned her back on me, her fur bristling. Fine. You don’t want to talk about it. But maybe my not dwelling on it has some merit. It will be devastating enough to see him hurt. Selene will not go easy on him. My wolf slowly turned to look at me and a scene shot into my mind, clear and bright like a movie playing out in front of me. Two children. A boy and a girl. One blond, like her father, one dark like his mother.

  A child ran toward me, his arms open.

  What are you doing? I cried out in my mind. Stop!

  I was too horrified to shut her down; instead I watched as I stepped into the frame, happy and laughing as the child rac
ed toward me. I bent down to embrace him, and right as he bounded into my grasp the images evaporated before me, leaving total grief in its wake. Shocking, awful misery pounded against my heart, threatening to suffocate me completely. That was totally uncalled for! I yelled, rage churning inside me. What can you possibly gain by torturing me with something like that? My wolf shifted her head to the side. She quieted completely, as if she was waiting for me. It took me a minute, but then I understood. She wasn’t trying to hurt me. She was showing me something. What happens if this doesn’t become a reality? What are you trying to tell me? She lay down and rested her head on her paws and whined. You have to tell—

  “Jess,” Tyler called, charging around the corner. “Naomi and Eamon have vanished.”

  20

  “What do you mean vanished? How do you know?” My fingers traced to my temples and I pressed hard. We are not done here, I told my wolf. Her eyes were already closed on the subject. I actually wasn’t sure if there were words for what she has just tried to show me. The sense of loss still flowing through me was unfathomable. I knew without a doubt if my children were never born, something would change or be broken. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to find out what that something was, because whatever it was it was big and horrible.

  “I know she’s gone because I just found Ray,” my brother informed me. “I climbed straight up from here. There’s a shallow butte at the top. He’s there and pissed as hell at being left. Naomi never showed. No packs, no supplies. She’s disappeared.”

  “Well, she wouldn’t desert us—just like James wouldn’t leave the Pack without a damn good reason,” I said. “Something must be wrong.”

  “No shit. This whole situation is wrong.”

  “Tyler—”

  “We don’t have time to argue about the merits of a vampire’s loyalty; we need to move. I’m done waiting.” His face was set. “And I know you are too.”

  He was right. We were out of time. “Did Eamon happen to show either of you the path we need to take?” I asked. “Or give you a directional point before he took off?”

  “He pointed to a vague area someplace to the right,” Tyler said. “He also said the entrance was masked to look like something else.”

  “Like rocks?” I asked. “Or something completely different?”

  “He didn’t specify, but if it was rocks, it wouldn’t look like something else; it would look the same,” Tyler replied. “My guess is it’s a tree or something that sticks out. That way if Selene invited some sadist over, they’d have a marker to go by. Everything around here looks the same.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure she hosts a lot of get-togethers up here,” I said. “More than likely she’s too lazy to bother with trying to find it every time she comes back, so she made it easy on herself.”

  “Ah, I have a little question,” Danny interrupted as he squatted down and unzipped the one pack we’d kept. “Did we already hand the spells over to Naomi? Or do we still have them?” He stared at us. “Honestly, I’m not sure I want to know the answer to that question, as they were practically our only advantage, but let’s have it, then.” He did a cursory check, but we all knew the answer.

  Tyler’s face was stony. “She has them. I gave them to her before she left.” He swore and kicked a flurry of rocks over the side.

  “Okay. We need to regroup,” I rallied. “Naomi didn’t leave of her own free will. Eamon must have done something to her or she’s trying to talk some sense into him. That means she still might be able to reach us, and if she does, which I’m betting on, she’ll meet us as quickly as she can. Not having the spells is not ideal, but we can’t let it stop us. We’ll find the entrance ourselves and go from there.”

  “Fine with me.” Tyler immediately started for the end of the ledge. I followed and Danny picked up the pack and stepped behind me.

  “There has to be some sort of power current marking the entrance,” I said as we walked. “We’ll probably feel it when we’re closer. Breaking through it will be the hardest part. Once we smash past her wards, she’ll be waiting and ready.” Tyler swung himself to the next outcropping of rocks and deftly started climbing. I grabbed on behind him and hoisted myself up. “I’ll go in first, as planned; you two bring up the rear. We separate once we’re inside and try to surround her as quickly as possible. The key will be to keep her mouth shut and her hands down. If she can’t speak, she can’t spell us.” Spells had to be physically uttered into the air. The words had to connect with the air to trigger the spell. A powerful goddess had only to whisper or mouth them, but they still had to have substance of some kind. And from our last meeting, I knew silencing Selene needed to be our top priority.

  “I’m in, of course, but without the spells our odds diminish a bit,” Danny said, climbing behind me. “But I quite like the challenge. We can’t make it too easy on ourselves, right?”

  Ever the optimist. “Tally’s spells were only going to provide a minor deterrent, if at all,” I said, latching on to another rock and pulling myself up easily. “They might have had zero effect on her. We can’t worry about it. With you guys in wolf form and me as a Lycan, we can take her down physically. If we hit her hard enough it will take her time to regenerate. Then we free Rourke and kill her if we can.” I had no idea how to kill a goddess who’d come back from being decapitated. We were going to have to sever all her limbs. Then what? Could she regenerate? I had no idea, but I was going to do everything I could to end her and her immortality permanently.

  The climbing wasn’t hard; the problem was we weren’t sure if we were heading in the right direction. We’d kept to the right, which led us up a very steep, very high incline. When we came to a small rocky ledge high above the tree line, we stopped to reevaluate. I stared out, looking for any signs of life, but saw none. Tyler had told Ray to sit tight, which I’m sure had made him insane. I couldn’t see the butte he was on as I scanned the area around us, because we were climbing in a different direction, and it had led us away from it.

  I angled my head to gaze up the mountain. We were about a thousand feet from the nearest peak. “What do you think Eamon meant about the entrance being camouflaged to look like something else? Are there any trees up there?” I asked. I scanned the scenery, but all I saw for miles were rocks. We were above any vegetation line. We’d been climbing for about an hour and Naomi still had not returned. The sky was brightening with the dawn. I hoped she was safe. “I can’t believe Eamon snatched Naomi,” I muttered. “He probably tried to take her home and I bet she’s putting up a hell of a fight right this minute.” I glanced at Tyler out of the corner of my eye. If he’d been about to die for someone else’s cause, I might have done the same thing. I gave Eamon a grudging appreciation for trying to keep his sister safe. Very grudging. “How are we supposed to find it without the vamps?”

  Tyler scanned the horizon along with me. “We just have to keep looking.”

  “Let’s do it as we move. The mountain splits into two directions about five hundred feet above us. Which way do you want to go?” I asked. The peak closest to us was higher than the peak on the right.

  “Let’s stay right. It’s the only information Eamon has ever given us.” Tyler took a handhold and hoisted himself up. “Are you sure you can’t feel anything yet? Any energy or some other mysterious mojo? Selene’s power should be in abundance here. I don’t get it.”

  Other than the feeling of dread, like we were taking too long, I didn’t feel any centered energy. “She’s probably masking it so it feels like something else.” I closed my eyes. I had no idea if I could project feelers out or not, but it was worth a try. Do you know how to do this? I asked my wolf. She lifted her snout and scented the air above her, tracing her head back and forth slowly. I copied her movements, pulling the air in over my tongue, tasting and sampling as I went. Can you taste or smell power? She yipped and stilled, cocking her head to the right. I sensed a strangeness. “I can taste something different. It’s not Selene, but the air is different over ther
e,” I said, pointing along the rock face to the right. “I’m not sure if it’s power or something else, but it’s very faint. I also smell animals and the scents are mixing. Does anyone smell wild sheep or goat and something like that?”

  Danny took in a deep breath. “I can scent them. They must be mountain goats of some kind. They smell ragged and dusty, but I don’t smell anything else.”

  Tyler tilted his head upward. “I scent animals all the time, but I parcel them away without giving them any thought. Let me see.” He inhaled, nostrils flaring. His eyes sparked yellow for a moment, triggered by something that had caught his attention.

  “What?” I asked. “What’d you find?” I took another breath in to see if I could figure it out myself.

  “There’s something odd wrapped in the animal smell,” Tyler said. “Almost a warning of some kind.” He took more air in. “Decay.”

  “I thought so too,” I said. “But I don’t understand all the animal markers. They mix for me.” I inhaled to full capacity and blew it slowly out my nose.

  Tyler was right. Something was wrong with the goats.

  I tasted it this time. Their earthy smell was mixed with something that shouldn’t be there, something sharp. “Can you see where they are?” I backed up on the tiny ledge, careful not to step off, and craned my neck upward.

  “There they are.” Danny pointed. “Look there, to the right.”

  “I see them. Are they moving?” Tyler said.

  “They’re not moving, as far as I can tell,” I said. The goats all stood, but none were animated. “That’s strange. Maybe goats sleep standing up? Are they nocturnal? They still smell like they’re alive. If they were dead they wouldn’t be upright, correct?”

  “Just our luck. Bloody possessed goats,” Danny groused. “Killer bats, spiders as big as cats, and sea wraiths weren’t enough of a sampling of the animal kingdom? She had to add goats?”

  “Wait a second.” I paused. “Eamon said the entrance appeared as something else. Selene wouldn’t want to announce it to the world, so what better way than to disguise the actual entrance with a bunch of goats? A natural piece of the landscape. The smell of power is very faint, so she’s obviously trying to mask her magic though the goats. As beings, they can absorb some of her power. It’s not like the Scorpers, which she created with a spell. The goats aren’t coming after us; they are our ticket inside.”