by Scott, Helen
“So, where is she then?” I asked, aiming the question at no one in particular, but hoping someone would have an answer regardless.
“We should look for her,” Raven stated, knuckles tightening and bleeding white as he spoke.
Keiran released a sigh. “It’s not our place to, Raven.”
That had me scoffing. “Our place? What is our place? To wait on a Sixth who is being dumped on us because of some stupid council machinations?”
Even my blind faith in the Maker had been shot to pieces since Raven had revealed Julian Addam’s meddling.
Cade had been right all along. Fuck him. We’d never had a say in who our Sixth would be.
Even as rage at the lack of control we had over our own destinies had my wolf awakening, I studied Keiran with a frown.
Of us all, he was positively pacifistic. We were used to that. Dream-walkers weren’t exactly known for their antagonism . . . still, his lack of irritation at the way we were maneuvered like pawns on a chessboard always stunned me. He was so accepting, while the rest of us were left reeling by the power plays Enforcers made with our existences.
What Raven had learned today, what he’d revealed to us, came as no surprise when I truly thought about it. Hope had made a fool out of me again, but maybe that was the most disturbing aspect of today’s events. That we weren’t stunned. Were merely resigned to the fact that brotherhoods had been annihilated because of Master Lee’s incompetence, and that a LeFauvre Enforcer had been the one to call out the hit.
Our world, I was sad to say, sucked.
“He’s right,” Gideon replied, agreeing with me after a moment’s pause at my outburst.
I wasn’t like Keiran. I wasn’t a pacifist, but in comparison to the others, I was positively fun-loving. A fucking teddy bear by contrast to Gideon and Cade, who both made glum look warm and cozy.
“Damn right I am,” I growled. “Keiran, I know you don’t like to make waves, but surely you can see how unfair this is? From the Master’s lips himself, we’ve heard that Lily is not a good fit for us, for our skills, and yet, if we don’t do something, she will end up being our Sixth.”
“You don’t know if Marcella is a good fit for us, either,” Keiran argued.
I shot Gideon a look. If anyone would know, it was him. “Is she?” I asked.
The Druid was scowling as he sought out the answer from his runes. Eventually though, he nodded. “As far as I can tell, yes. But I haven’t picked up on anything that Raven has. I saw no shadow-weaving talents when I read her.”
“You haven’t tasted her, have you?” I reasoned.
“No,” he conceded. “And that would make all the difference.”
“Top of today’s to-do list,” Cade joked dryly, “bite Marcella and see if she’s worth arguing over.”
I rolled my eyes at his statement. Cade could be such a douche. Seriously. The dude had always had an attitude problem, even before he was a man, and just a boy. And if I picked up on it? Everyone picked up on it. I wasn’t exactly renowned for holding vendettas or grudges against people, but Cade had a way of rubbing you the wrong way.
“Can you get a lock on her location?” Raven asked, but he was scowling now. Not just at Cade’s disrespectful comment, I thought, but at something else.
“What is it, Raven?” I asked.
“Lily.”
The woman’s name had us stiffening—and not how I’m sure she’d have preferred.
“What about her?” Cade demanded, though Raven didn’t reply.
We fell silent, realizing he was walking, and also understanding he would be a bitch to deal with in the morning–two sessions of mind-walking in one day?
Maker spare us.
Tension had Raven’s brow creasing, and the sight of it had us shooting glances at one another. He was usually poker-faced until he awoke from a journey, so any expression at all didn’t bode well. But we knew enough to stay quiet, even if the need to ask questions was biting the lot of us on the ass.
How long we sat there, I wasn’t sure, but it felt like a fucking lifetime. When he finally sucked down a sharp breath, I was the first to ask, “Raven? What is it? What did you see?”
Rage burned in his eyes when his gaze collided with mine. “She’s doused her in a nullifying potion.”
I frowned at that. “That wouldn’t explain why I can’t scent her.”
He shook his head. “You can’t scent her because they transported her into town. As punishment,” he said on a hiss.
“For what?”
“For our interest in her,” he whispered flatly, and for the first time, he seemed emotionless.
Chairs scraped as we got to our feet, all of us ready to help Marcella now that Raven had spoken.
It was, I saw, definitive proof that the pursang meant something to us, because the only time we ever agreed on anything was when it came down to work. This wasn’t work. Not officially, at any rate. Yet here we were, all on the same page.
Miracles did happen.
Especially when they came in the shape of enticing redheads.
And the fact that Keiran was in sync with us, too, was even more proof. Marcella affected him as much as she did us, and he either wasn’t admitting it, or didn’t understand his feelings yet. Something that wasn’t outside the realm of possibility, I knew, so it didn’t surprise me. His talents made him more passive than active, so I was just relieved he’d reacted period.
“Do you know where she is?” Gideon asked.
Raven shook his head again. “I know where they sent her, but I don’t know where she is now. When we get to town, will you be able to locate her?”
He shrugged. “I can try to.” Gideon shot Cade a look. “And you’re right, the first thing on the to-do list after we bring her home, is to taste her.”
Neither of us said a word as we filed out of our quarters at a speed that made us a blur. My wolf called on me, wanting to shift, nearly damn well insisting upon it, but I ignored the call. The last thing my brothers needed was a beast at their heels. At least, not until we got to the primary destination. If Gideon couldn’t find her, then my wolf certainly would.
Just like Eastbrook, Westbrook was built on the outskirts of a small town. We tended to hide ourselves among mankind, but had a preference for townships rather than cities. Though the latter provided us anonymity in numbers, there was power to be had in situations such as these. I had no doubt the locals feared Westbrook Academy, and I was positive that many horror stories centered around the school.
That kind of ingrained scaremongering provided us with as much namelessness as a large city. When people actively avoided you, there was no better place to hide than in plain sight.
The trouble was, bizarre happenings became gossip. If Lily had done something to Marcella to make her stand out among humans, then I could only be grateful it was night.
It took us less than five minutes to roll out of Academy grounds in our Range Rover. I would have preferred for it to have taken far less time, but that was because the sense urgency was riding me hard. I knew it was affecting all of us, since nobody had argued when Gideon jumped in the driver’s seat. Normally, we bitched about his incessant need to control the steering wheel, but this time our attention was elsewhere and on other, more important matters.
He definitely broke more than a handful of human laws as he followed Raven’s instructions toward the location where Lily had transported Marcella to. While it was dark, my vision enabled me to see the small town of Cambridge, as though it were day.
It was obviously poor, the mining town seemed to have been hit hard by the recession, if the main street’s dilapidated state was anything to go by. Of the thirty storefronts, only a handful were still in business, and none were open at this time of night.
The fact it was like a ghost town played right into our hands. Nobody was around to complain about Gideon’s driving, the way the wheels squealed as he took sharp turns, or how he drove about thirty miles an hour above the sp
eed limit. The instant we made it to our destination, he opened the door, leaned out of it, and his runes began to glow as he called on them again.
He shook his head. “She’s not here. Barclay, do you want to shift? We’ll follow you.”
I nodded as I pushed open the door, stripped, and called on my wolf. The instant I was on four paws, I released a howl that pierced the night. I heard my brothers muttering, but the howl was my warning to any and everybody who dared get in my way. Beast and human alike.
As I scented the air, seeking Marcella’s scent, a part of me that had never been touched before came to life.
In this form, I couldn’t question it. Didn’t have the faculties, or the desire, to do anything other than hunt this woman who we were slowly claiming as our own.
The minute I picked up on her scent, I bounded toward it, only pausing long enough to make sure my brothers were at my back as I took off, my only concern Marcella.
7
Keiran
The SUV swerved as Gideon followed Barclay's wolf, my hand immediately going up to grab the ‘oh, shit’ handle and holding on, so I didn't crash into my brother while he was driving.
The woods around the town were thick with pine trees, making me wonder how Barclay could even smell her through the thick scent.
The man's senses were like no other, though, and while I might wonder how he did it, I never doubted that he could.
Each of us had our own unique talents, and the fact we had all been put together for a brotherhood surprised the hell out of me when I looked back on it, but it wasn't something I'd ever regret. The three other men in the car and the wolf outside were my family when I had no one. Well, no one who would claim me anyway.
Barclay's wolf stopped and howled once more, his signal we were closing in, but the problem was that the road wasn't going in the same direction as Barclay.
I tapped on the navigation screen in the car and brought up the map. Zooming out, I saw there was nothing but forest for miles in any direction other than the one we'd come from. Apparently, this side of town butted up against a national forest.
Foothills rose up in the distance, and the rolling landscape between here and there meant we could have twice as much ground to cover than we had originally thought.
“We need to follow on foot,” I said as I closed the map.
Gideon pulled to a stop in a nearby lookout point, and the four of us hopped out of the vehicle. The doors each shut with a quiet thud before we locked it and set off toward Barclay's howl. He wouldn't have let Marcella get too far ahead of him, but that meant we had to play catch up to both of them.
The one thing I loved about being a vampire was the speed. We got to go everywhere at top speed because cameras couldn't track us, at least not yet. For now, this was one freedom that hadn’t been taken from us, and I let the joy drift through me as we flew together as a unit, the elements ours to control at that moment thanks to Gideon.
As soon as we caught up with Barclay, the five of us were weaving around trees, scaring deer, and trying to avoid accidentally getting clotheslined by a branch as we ran. It was harder than it looked, all the TV shows and movies out there portrayed it as some kind of instinct, but it wasn't, it was just decades of honed focus or repeated injury until each of us figured out our limits.
One of the trainers' favorite things at Eastbrook was the moving forest. They had set up something akin to a giant treadmill with pieces of forestry that would be moved about randomly on it, so you could never run the same course twice. Magic fueled it, naturally, and magic made it fucking impossible to maneuver around. I'd personally broken a hand, nose, ankle, and leg multiple times thanks to that damn apparatus, but with how fast salsangs could heal, let alone pursangs, any injuries garnered were considered little more than nasty scratches. One thing was for certain, it made us move like lightning now.
The scents and sounds of the forest were unfamiliar and could quickly become overwhelming if I wasn't careful. Something I didn't talk about with the guys very often was how different the dreamscape was from the waking, normal world. Most things were muted, like sounds, smells, colors, and it was only where there were intense emotions behind things that they came through as loud and clear as if we were awake. It was one of the reasons I was grateful for my weird eyes.
Pale, icy-blue with a ring of black at the edge was more than a little unusual. It was memorable, and it frequently drew human attention. Which was why I always wore sunglasses when we were out in the human world, or at the very least, tinted glasses. They served another purpose though, they helped dim colors enough, so I could function.
Sounds and smells were something I'd had to learn to deal with, but listening to classical music, like Bach, helped somewhat, at least with sounds. There really wasn't much to help with smells, though. Basically, I had to learn how to deal with it or live in a bubble for the rest of my life.
I'm sure there were some family lines that would keep me very comfortable if I wanted to leave the brotherhood. It didn't matter that it was illegal or that I would be mentally scarred from breaking with them, those types of families didn't care about the cost or legality, just the goal, because it was amazing what kinds of secrets could be gleaned from someone while they were asleep.
A flash of red hair up ahead urged me forward. I knew the others had seen it, too, because our overall pace picked up, not just mine. We wove through the trees and managed to get close to her a number of times, but she didn't stop, didn't slow down. I didn't know if she was trying to avoid us or thought we were chasing her; either way, I was getting tired of it.
As she darted through the trees and bushes, I started to suspect that the nullifying spell was only part of the problem. Streaks of pale skin flashed in the moonlight. More skin than should have been visible even if she had slept in her panties and bra. I couldn't think about that now, though, or I was liable to smack into something.
Marcella stayed ahead of us for far too long. I could occasionally see her long, lean legs pumping up and down as she moved, or leaped over a downed tree. We were all moving as fast as we possibly could, but the distance between us was staying the same. I supposed I should be thankful it wasn't getting bigger.
“Ella!” I called out, finally having enough of this game and almost tripping in the process. “You're running away from the Academy!” I had no idea if it was true or not, but I figured she was trying to get home as fast as possible. Everyone knew nullifying spells could leave permanent damage on our abilities, it was one of the main reasons they were so rarely used.
The flash of red that I'd been watching stopped and disappeared behind a tree. All of us slowed down, trying not to scare her even though her breathing was heavy and giving away her position. I wasn't sure how long she'd been running, but it was long enough that this woman, who had apparently, been able to outrun us for the last half hour, was now out of breath.
Bushes rustled and twigs snapped nearby, but we still weren't close enough to see her. I knew then that she had to be actively avoiding us, what I didn't know was why. Barclay went on ahead, following his nose to the source of the scent. A startled yelp that was all too feminine came from just ahead on the right. Without a word to each other, we all pursued the sound.
I knew they were all interested in her, and wanted her to become our Sixth, but I was baffled by the way they ignored the evidence of our lack of control in our lives up to that point. We had never been able to choose anything or decide our own fate, not truly. Now, with Marcella, they had all conveniently forgotten that, and decided that she'd be ours come hell or high water. I, on the other hand, was a pragmatist. I'd rather wait and try to form an attachment to the Sixth we were given in hopes of not having to grieve the loss of the one we didn't get.
They could really fuck with us and not give us Marcella or Lily, and stick one of the high-ranking betas with us, which would, effectively, make us almost useless. The two alpha-ranked women would need to be taken out first though for that
to happen in any kind of reasonable way. The thought stirred something within me, something I wasn't ready to examine yet, so I pushed it back down, where it needed to stay until this whole business was over with.
Marcella was special, there was no denying that, and I believed Raven was right on the shadow-weaver front, which at least Barclay believed in, too, but that didn't mean I was going to let myself fall head over heels for the girl. I was glad that I didn't feel the same pull as my brothers. It was good for at least one of us to keep a clear head.
As I drew near where I'd heard the yelp from a moment ago, Barclay suddenly appeared, his black and silver fur being so distinctive that I never had to question it if was him or another shifter hybrid. When he bared his teeth at us, I paused, unsure what he, or the wolf version of himself, was trying to tell us.
“What the fuck, man? Where's Marcella?” Cade demanded.
Out of all of us, he was the most affected by this woman. He was always gruff and demanding, but when it came to the redhead, well, then he took it to a whole new level. I couldn't tell if it was just because he wanted to bed her, or if there really was something more there. Part of me hoped for the first, while the rest of me hoped for the latter. Either way, it would be interesting to see what his reaction was when we finally received our Sixth.
“Come on, Brother, let us through to her,” Gideon said, trying to reason with the wolf.
“Barclay, move!” Raven growled. I had initially thought Cade was the most attracted to her, but after that little outburst I might have to amend my hypothesis.
The air around the wolf vibrated with barely contained anger, and I knew if we tried to get around him, he'd fight us. That wasn't really acceptable behavior within a brotherhood. We all needed to be one cohesive unit, infighting needed to be squashed, and fast, if we didn't want any of our bonds with each other to be damaged.
“Marcella, we know you're there. Why are you avoiding us?” I called out, projecting my voice as much as possible.
