by K. N. Banet
I was feeling particularly vicious. I could barely think, but I could feel.
Rage. Pain. Insult.
Sorrow.
“Jacky! We’ve got them retreating!” Heath called. My head snapped up, and I snarled angrily.
I didn’t want them retreating. I wanted them to fight me and meet their fucking maker. I wanted them to pay. The callousness of their Master got innocent people killed. Their need to hide their crimes nearly got me killed…nearly got Heath and Jabari killed.
They didn’t get to run away.
I stood up slowly, kicking away the vampire’s body.
“Where?” I demanded in a growl.
“We need to check on Jabari,” he reminded me quickly, reaching for me as I went to find a blood trail. I shook him off hard, but he latched back on. “Jacky. We need to check on your brother.”
I stopped, letting the words sink in. Jabari. Yes. He was in the SUV. I protected him. I needed to see if he was alive.
If he wasn’t, there was going to be a purge the likes of which the world had never seen. I would personally ask Hasan to have every vampire nest in the country raided and exterminated.
I could only nod at Heath, though. He relaxed just a little and stepped away from me, not going into the SUV, leaving the space for me to try.
I crawled in and found my older brother breathing slowly.
“Jabari?” I asked softly, finally finding my voice. The entire left side of his face was cut open from the glass, and bruises were already beginning to form. There was no smell of silver in the air, a blessing.
“Sister,” he murmured, a raspy attempt at speaking. “Vampires?”
“Yes. Heath and I protected you from the clean-up crew. We need to get help. More could always come.”
“They will,” he said, gasping. “My chest.”
I cursed and put my hand up to his chest, gently feeling. Sure enough, every rib on the left side was broken. I couldn’t tell if one punctured a lung or not, but I was guessing none had because he wasn’t coughing up blood while upside down.
“I need to get you down. Does your back hurt? Can you feel your legs?”
“Hurts...not broken,” he answered, groaning. I reached up and braced myself for him to fall on me. When the seatbelt released, the fall wasn’t pretty, but my body kept his head from taking the brunt of the impact. He fired off something in a language I had no hope of ever learning and moved so I could get out from underneath him. “Help coming?”
“No idea. Let’s get out of the death trap first.” I crawled out of the SUV, then helped him out. He staggered as he tried to stand up. “Heath, do you think someone is going to come to help?”
“I was on the phone with Geoffrey when we were shoved off the road,” he said, stepping closer. “There’s a chance he’s coming. There’s a chance he just thinks the call dropped.”
“Let me find your phone. You protect Jabari. He’s got several broken ribs and probably more problems I can’t see. Right, Jabari?”
Her brother only groaned and sank down to the earth. My gut twisted. This was the great General, and a car accident nearly did him in.
I crawled back into the car, searching around for any of our cellphones. I found Jabari’s in the center console and nearly cried in relief when I saw it wasn’t in pieces. Where mine and Heath’s had gone, I had no idea, but one phone was better than none.
I crawled back out, showing off the phone.
“Do you remember Geoffrey’s number?”
“Not by heart,” Heath answered softly, frowning. “Who could we call…”
“Hasan,” I answered, already looking for the contact. If I couldn’t get someone close by to save us, I was going to call the biggest, baddest mother fucker to avenge us.
“Jabari, how did—”
“Hi, Hasan. We were run off the road and attacked by the nest. I’m certain more are on the way. I’m calling to tell you everything, so I need you to not interrupt me at all. I don’t know how much time we have.”
“Talk fast.”
I gave him the rundown about the Seattle vampire nest, listening to him hum and scratch notes down. I explained the crash and the attack. Jabari’s injuries. Mine. Hell, I even gave him the injuries I could see on Heath, whether or not he cared about those.
“What do you need?” he asked when I paused.
“I need you to find some way to contact the local wolf pack. Go through the Tribunal or whatever, I don’t know or care. They might be the only ones who can keep us alive tonight, but we can’t reach them. If…if we don’t make it, I promised this motherfucker that the family would destroy him. We would raze his home to the ground and claim his land as spoils of war. I want you to make sure they don’t get away with this.”
“They won’t,” Hasan promised softly. “Stay on the line. Please.”
“You might have to listen to me die,” I whispered.
“I know. I have other phones to make calls.”
I looked at the two men with me and saw they were staring back at me.
“I want to kill them,” I growled softly. “I want to kill all of them for this.”
“I’ve got one of the werewolf Tribunal members on video conference,” Hasan said quickly. “Hold on, my children. We’re going to get you help. Jacky, put the phone down and Change. Be ready.”
“Yes, sir.” I handed the phone to Jabari and nodded at Heath. I wanted him at my back. Needed it. I wanted to know we were both in our most powerful forms to defend ourselves.
We Changed at the same time with me finishing first.
“Father…she Changes so fast,” Jabari mumbled into the phone. “You told me, but every time I see it, I’m proud.”
“I know,” Hasan whispered. “Hold on, Jabari. We’re getting help.”
“She’s good…” Jabari said softly, groaning. Then he coughed, and I looked over, whining as I saw blood begin to go down his chin. He was deteriorating faster than he could heal, and his lung must have been punctured. I had missed it. He shook his head at me. “Stay focused. Tend to the wounded…after…the fight.”
“Fine. You’re going to heal at my place, though. You’re not leaving until I know you’re fully healed.” I was just beginning to find common ground with my brother. I wasn’t going to lose him now.
Heath growled deeply, staring off into the woods. I followed his line of sight and saw the problem.
The vampires were coming. We had Changed just in time.
32
Chapter Thirty-Two
I snarled as the Master of the Seattle nest stepped to the front of the pack of vampires coming toward us through the trees.
“Since you seem to have so much fight in you, I guess I have to soil myself to finish this,” he said with a dramatic sigh. “You should have just given me the heads and let it go. I won’t let my paradise be taken away from me and destroyed.”
“Warned you…” Jabari said as loud as he could. My heart ached. I wondered if the accident targeted him, being the strongest in the group. “Dead anyway for this.”
“Yes, I heard your warning. My nest and I will be long gone before your family comes to get their vengeance. I’m not scared of a grieving old man and his children.”
If I could have laughed, I would have. Idiot didn’t really understand who Hasan was, did he?
“Are you ready, Jacky?” Heath asked me softly. “We’re being surrounded.”
“I know.” I could hear them moving through the brush of the small forest around us. Smell didn’t matter for this fight. Even if there wasn’t a hulking piece of hot metal and fuel behind me, I wouldn’t have been able to smell them. I could only listen, and I was paying the utmost attention.
The Master of the nest waved a hand, and suddenly, they were coming at us. I jumped in front of Jabari, who was leaning against the SUV. It was only a couple of seconds later when one jumped on my back, and another came at my front. I snapped at it, only to feel the slice of something I wasn’t expecting
to deal with.
“They have silver!” I screamed at Heath. I hoped Jabari heard. I hoped we weren’t going to die.
But fangs sunk into my feline back as I dodged the thrust of a silver sword, and I had a very bad feeling.
Until howls filled the air—lots of them.
I had heard a song like it once before when Heath and I fought off the traitors of the Dallas-Fort Worth werewolf pack.
The vampire biting on me pulled away, and I took my chance to snap at her, making contact with her thigh. I didn’t get the grab I wanted, but one would be limping a little now.
“Jacky! Look!” Heath ordered. A nose prodded my hip, and I turned, realizing everyone was standing still.
Through the trees, upwind of us, a pack of werewolves headed our way. One in the front lifted its head and howled as it ran, and the rest answered. I couldn’t take my eyes off it as the vampires faced their new adversaries.
The wave of wolves rolled into the battleground and began helping to tear the nest to pieces.
“Geoffrey?” Heath called out. I backed up to Jabari again, wanting to stay close to him. He needed my protection. I didn’t hear anything from the pack, but Heath stood close to me and watched the carnage unfold while keeping me up to date. “He heard the accident over the phone and started calling in everyone. They already had a small force prepared just in case, a typical procedure if a meeting goes sour.”
“Are they going to take out the entire nest?” I asked.
“Yes. This is considered an act of war against the North American Werewolf Council now. He already called it in…” Heath growled, but it seemed satisfied. “We’ve been given free rein to obliterate the nest by the Tribunal Master and Mistress. Our retribution.”
Politics. I was never one for them. All of it happened so fast. I looked down at Jabari, whose eyes were drifting closed.
“Brother. I’m going to get the one responsible for this.”
“Go,” he coughed. He was holding his chest carefully. “I’ll be fine. Take Heath. Ask some wolves to come over here? Fuck, got to ask wolves for help.”
“They’re all we got right now. Don’t complain,” I reminded him. I didn’t think the Seattle pack was going to be stupid enough to kill Jabari the General right now. And I owed it to him, Gaia and Titan, and four innocent wolves to take the fucker down. I was going to do it.
“Go, Jacky,” he ordered. “Kill him and bring us honor and victory.”
I nodded my head once and took off, looking for the Master of the nest. I didn’t even know the man’s name, as sad as that was. I never needed it for anything that was supposed to happen tonight. Maybe Heath knew it, but I didn’t care to ask.
In the end, I’d probably never know any of these vampires’ names.
And it didn’t matter.
Heath followed behind me, but we couldn’t find the Master of the nest anywhere in the fighting. I took a shot and began running back toward the mansion, remembering how he said they would be gone before our family ever showed up. Heath followed me without question. Neither of us was at top speed, running on pure adrenaline at this point. I knew Heath was just as banged up as me, and there was nothing either of us could do about it until the mission was over.
We were able to find the road and make it up the driveway to the mansion again. The vampires must have known the area well because I’d needed those to find my way back.
“There,” I growled. A growl in my chest and throat matched as I bared my teeth at the Master of the nest, who was busy throwing things into a car.
“Time to die,” Heath snarled in agreement.
Together, we stalked up to the vampire, hidden in the night while he was busy trying to run for his life. He left all his people to die to save himself.
Disgusting coward.
I ran for him first, going for the jump at his back. He blurred and was out of the way by the time I landed. A whoosh and silver cut through my flank. Heath howled and jumped in next.
“He’s a Master for a reason,” Heath snapped. “He’s older and better than the rest! They gain power with age like we do!”
I didn’t really care. I lunged for him again, keeping his attention off Heath, who snapped at his legs behind him. The vampire was fast, dodging out of the way in time to strike at each of us. We needed to wear him out before we dropped, but I wasn’t sure how. Then I had a damned bad idea. We were going for his legs—I wanted his neck.
I lunged higher, causing him to bring up his sword. It slid over my ribs, and I roared in pain and fury. My attack missed.
But Heath’s didn’t. He jumped onto the vampire’s back and pushed him to the ground. I turned and grabbed the vampire’s leg and shook hard, holding him down as Heath placed his jaws over the vampire’s head and bit down. Hard.
More than a bit morbidly, I thought it sounded like cracking a watermelon.
And like that, the reason for everyone’s troubles was dead. I looked up at Heath, who looked back at me, blood and gore falling from his mouth. He lifted a paw and tried to wipe it out. Mentally, I smiled a little as dizziness washed over me.
Then I passed out.
I woke up in the back of a vehicle. Someone was rubbing my hair, but it wasn’t a scent I recognized.
“Where am I?” I demanded, groaning as everything began to catch up, and my body ached. My head throbbed.
“I’m Emmy. An old friend of Heath’s. We had to get him into treatment as well, so I decided to stay with you.” She kept rubbing my hair. “Do you remember your name?”
“Jacqueline Leon, daughter of Hasan,” I answered. “Jacky. We came up here to investigate the deaths of two werecats and help my brother, Jabari, son of Hasan. We learned there were also four missing werewolves. We saved one…then we killed the vampires who killed the others, and the nest wanted to cover it all up by killing us. Did I miss anything?”
“No, it seems your memory is just fine,” she said with a chuckle. “We’re getting you to the hospital where Jabari was flown. We have a few werewolf doctors in the pack who are willing to help him reset the broken bones before they heal wrong. You have a few cracked ribs yourself, you know. Also, a not so minor concussion.”
“You a doctor?” I asked. Where had I heard the name Emmy before? That was where I was blanking. An old friend of Heath’s didn’t sound right.
“No. I married one, and he trained me to be a field assistant.”
Married.
“You used to fuck Heath,” I remembered, though I probably shouldn’t have said it out loud.
She sputtered for a minute, and I finally opened my eyes to see her. Cascading red hair matched the blush on her face. Maybe I could have been less crude.
“Sorry. Not thinking straight…” I felt a little bad. “Good for you, marryin’ a doctor. Heath’s got bad history with ladies, I think.”
“Oh yeah. Twice a widower before I met him, and a baby momma since I left. I know his history with women.” Emmy laughed. “And now you.”
“Oh, it’s not like that,” I said quickly. “No. He’s a nice guy, but he’s a werewolf and an Alpha with it. Not my type.” Without the werewolf problem, he would totally be my type.
“Of course. He wouldn’t be your type, would he? A werewolf would love him, but then, you aren’t one of us, and that’s okay.” Her gentle hand ran over my hair again. I could see why a doctor married her. She had an amazing bedside manner. “Why don’t you rest? We’re almost at the hospital.”
I nodded, closing my eyes. When the vehicle pulled to a stop, my eyes opened again as the back was opened. Emmy climbed out first as I let them lift me out on the stretcher I was on.
It took some time, but I was cleared to get up and move once I was in the hospital. Only a few hours, but too long to me, for some reason. We were somewhere in Seattle, but I didn’t know the name of the hospital. If I had my way, I was never coming back to this state for as long as I lived, even if that was an eternity.
“Where’s my brother? His
name is Jabari,” I asked a nurse who passed through my room. I had been left alone when I was cleared to move around, and while that was fine, I had people to look out for. Heath would be fine. He was with other wolves. Jabari was an old werecat who could prove to be a problem for a lot of people if he suddenly decided he didn’t feel safe.
“Come with me. I’ll show you.” She smiled at me kindly, and I trotted out of the room after her. My head hurt with each step, but that was fine. Everything was settled in my mind. I just needed to get my brother and my werewolf and go home.
She led me into a quiet, lonely room at the end of the hall.
“We put him in here under heavy sedatives when the doctors were done with him. His age and species means he’ll burn through them soon.” She waved me in, and I left her at the door, going to the large man in the bed in an unnatural sleep.
Bedside vigil wasn’t something I was good at, but there was no one else there. If Zuri had been in the States, she wouldn’t leave his side. None of them would. I couldn’t.
It felt like hours, but he began to stir. The first thing I saw that showed he was waking up, though, was the deep inhale and flaring his nostrils, letting me know he was sniffing for enemies or allies.
“Little sister,” he greeted softly. “I’ll be fine. Tell me you saw a doctor.”
“I’ve been done. Waiting on you to wake up so we can go home. You wanted to come to my territory for a little while, and I don’t want Hasan yelling at you when you’re not one-hundred percent.”
“Ah, now you grow protective. I’ll be sure to tell Zuri there’s a sister here in the States willing to baby her brother when she feels he needs to be babied.”
“It’s nice to turn it around on you after everything you did,” I retorted.
“I bet.” He groaned and pushed himself to sit up. “A couple of weeks and I’ll be fine. There was silver in the fight. How are you, really?”
“I’ll have a scar on my ribs from a silver blade. Nothing else permanent. My concussion will give me a problem for a few days, but it shouldn’t be bad.”
