A Muse for Mishka (Wiccan-Were-Bear #12) (11 page)

Power pulsed inside her, writhing and
twisting as she amplified their fears even more. She felt their
hearts race, pounding impossibly fast, and then there was silence.
With faces frozen in pain and fear, bodies tense, and blood seeping
from the corners of their mouths, they crumpled to the floor, their
hearts no longer beating.

Cracking her neck, she sent her power
searching for more people. As long as the church had members, they
would still come after Harmony’s coven. She couldn’t allow it.
Wouldn’t
allow it.

“Mine,” she whispered, stepping over the dead
to hunt. Her nature wanted more. Wanted to glut on the fear, to
take people to the absolute limit of their terror and then kill
them.

“Mine.”

* * *

Mishka stared at his cell screen as Brone
drove the SUV with his foot pressed to the floor and the engine
roaring. Temple had been able to hack into the street cameras and
follow the van that took Harmony.

“Turn right at the next street,” Mishka said.
Behind him sat Harmony’s friends, who’d regained consciousness
quickly. Rage and Vex sat in the third row, glowering. Harmony’s
guards followed in another vehicle, along with
family
members Traz and Ven.

“I don’t mean to be an asshole, but how the
hell did they get away with Harmony? Why is there so much security
at the front of the building and in the basement, but not at the
fucking back door?” Wyst demanded.

“It was a solid, metal security door, with
multiple deadbolts and electronic monitoring,” Rage said. “They
used something that bypassed our security.”

Mishka growled. “He’s not wrong. There are no
other security measures other than the back door. Literally, they
walked in from the alley, through the storage area, and onto the
stage.”

“We will fix the problem so this never occurs
again,” Vex said.

The SUV made a hard right turn. They were on
the outskirts of Cleveland. He knew the church was too smart to
take Harmony to their headquarters. He was just thankful they’d
been able to get moving as quickly as they had. She’d been taken an
hour earlier, which felt like an eternity.

“It looks like they’re in the building all
the way at the end of this fenced area,” Mishka said, not taking
his eyes off the GPS screen.

“I see the van,” Brone said, a snarl rumbling
in his chest.

He pulled the SUV to a stop next to another
building, in the area that was known as the warehouse district. At
one time, the businesses had thrived, but the warehouses stood
empty now.

Mishka dropped his phone into the cup holder
and rushed from the SUV. Behind him, Brone, Vex, and Rage gathered
their weapons and followed closely. Wyst, Tamar, and Bridge were
behind them, ready to fight, with the rest bringing up the
rear.

“I’ll find us a way in,” Wyst said, stopping
and removing his shirt, planning to shift into his falcon form in
order to gain access to the building.

There was an unholy scream from inside the
building. The sound made Mishka’s skin crawl. One of the doors
burst open, and a male with blood dripping from his eyes and ears
stumbled toward them.

“Help! She’s going to kill me!” he wailed,
falling to his knees.

A bright blue glow lit up the doorway, and
Harmony strode out. Her hair was entirely blue, and she was
glowing. Blue electricity crackled over her fingers. She was
singing, but it wasn’t in a language he recognized.

Her hands clenched, and the man made a
choked, gasping sound as he writhed on the ground. Mishka heard the
man’s heart stop, and then he lay on the ground lifeless.

“Shit,” Tamar whispered. “She tapped into the
dark side of her power.”

Mishka took a step forward. Harmony stared at
him, but it didn’t appear that she recognized him. “My heart? I’m
so proud of you for saving yourself when I failed. Release your
power and come to me so I can take care of you.”

Her head tilted, and the electricity flashed
brightly across her fingertips.

“Everybody down!” Wyst shouted.

Everyone around Mishka dropped to the ground,
but he stayed standing. Harmony was in trouble, and he’d help
her.

Mishka felt her power touch him. He gasped at
how strong she was now. The power tried to latch onto him, but
Mishka pushed it out. He was older and stronger than her. Walking
slowly toward her, he ignored the waves of her power that pushed at
him and closed the distance between them.

Her voice rose higher, and he winced, feeling
her push at him, trying to get into his emotions. Her power was far
greater than he expected, and he wasn’t sure how long he could hold
her off. He didn’t spare a glance behind him, but he could hear the
coven and band members groaning as they struggled to fend her
off.

“Forgive me, my heart,” he whispered, drawing
on every ounce of strength he possessed.

Moving as fast as possible, he rushed her,
grabbing her by the throat and slamming her into the side of the
building. Her voice stuttered, and he applied more pressure to cut
off her air supply. She raked her nails down his arms, hitting and
kicking as he prevented her from inhaling another breath.

Her eyes flickered, the brightness of them
dimming slightly.

She blinked slowly and stopped struggling.
The glow around her body faded swiftly, and she slumped in his
hold. Releasing his grip on her throat, he settled his fingertips
against her pulse and felt the steady beat. A moment later she was
breathing, her chest rising and falling, even though she remained
unconscious.

Lifting her into his arms, he cradled her
close and turned to face his comrades. They rose to their feet
looking haggard, as if they’d gone ten rounds in a boxing ring.

“Is everyone all right?”

Traz nodded. “That was…intense.”

“That’s what she was always afraid of,”
Bridge said. “That she’d get caught up in the power and be unable
to stop.”

“That was some scary shit. I was aware that
there was nothing to be afraid of, but I was petrified,” Tamar
said.

“We’ll secure the building. You can take her
to the club,” Rage said.

“I’ll stay with her in the SUV, but I’m not
leaving.”

Rage nodded. “As you wish.”

Brone said, “I’ll stand guard at the
SUV.”

Mishka followed him to the SUV. Brone held
open the door to the second row seat and Mishka climbed in, careful
not to bump Harmony. The door shut softly, and Brone faced away
from them, watching for danger.

Brushing his fingers down her face, he
whispered, “I promised I wouldn’t let you get caught up in your
power.”

* * *

Harmony woke slowly, her limbs heavy and her
head pounding. Her fingertips tingled, and her skin itched.
Groaning, she opened her eyes and blinked to clear her blurry
vision.

Mishka was looking down at her, smiling, and
wearing a hopeful expression.

“Oh!” She ignored the aches in her joints and
grabbed him around the neck, hugging him tightly. “You saved
me!”

He held her close, gently but firmly. “No, my
heart. You saved yourself.”

She froze, the events of the night replaying
through her mind like a movie. She gasped as she leaned back with
tears stinging her eyes. “I almost killed you. I almost killed
everyone.”

“But you didn’t,” he said, cupping her chin
and forcing her to look him in the eyes. “You set yourself free,
and that is the most important thing. Everything else is just
details.”

“Deadly details.”

“I’m here, you’re here, and no one of
importance is injured.”

“The power. The darkness engulfed me. Once I
touched the dark side of the power, I couldn’t get out from under
it.” Tears slid down her cheeks, and he brushed them away
tenderly.

After killing the four who had come for her
in the room, she’d found the handcuff keys in the pocket of one of
the dead. A small part of her knew she could simply escape and head
for the club, that she didn’t need to kill anyone else. But a dark
desire twisted inside her, a need for power so great that she
hadn’t been able to think of anything else. She’d roamed the
building, which turned out to be a warehouse, and sought out the
people who were there. The newfound strength in her power had
allowed her to read their minds. She’d never had that ability
before, but she’d had a glimpse of their intentions – to destroy
the coven, to make a deadly example of Mishka. They wanted all the
vampires to die and anyone associated with the coven to meet a
bloody end, from family members of mates to the paid food and
vendors who stocked the bar.

When the building was empty, she was lost to
the power completely. It had felt so good coursing through her. She
felt like a god or an avenging angel. She wanted to kill anyone who
would harm her people.

Harmony sat up and rubbed the space between
her eyes. “I knew it was you, but the power was pushing against me
to feed off you and the others too. I felt like I was trapped in my
body and unable to stop. I could have killed you.”

Fresh tears surged over her cheeks, and he
pulled her close and wrapped his strong arms around her. “But you
didn’t. I knew it wasn’t really you. I tried to talk to you, and
you looked at me as if you didn’t recognize me. I wasn’t sure what
was going on, but I was certain that I had to stop you before you
did something you regretted.”

“I killed a lot of people,” she whispered. “A
lot.”

“They’re murderers and people full of evil.
They thought nothing of setting off explosions in the club and
injuring innocents. Two humans were trampled to death in the
melee.”

“I want to see. I want to see clearly with my
own eyes what I did in the warehouse.”

Mishka stared at her for a quiet moment, and
she thought he might protest. Instead, he nodded and opened the
door. Slipping from the interior, he held out his hand to her, and
she climbed out. Her legs were weak, but she forced herself to
stand tall, rolling her neck and cracking her knuckles.

Brone looked down at her from his towering
height, a ghost of a smile curving his lips. “I’ll bring up the
rear.”

She nodded and took Mishka’s arm, allowing
him to lead her into the building where she’d been captive. She
could hear people moving about inside, and she paused at the
threshold of the door. Taking a deep breath, she squeezed Mishka’s
arm and stepped into the warehouse.

They walked toward the voices, following a
short hallway into a large, open space. It smelled like old wood
and machine oil, but underneath that was the cloying scent of blood
and death. Vex, Rage, Finn, and Dolan were dragging bodies into the
center of the room. She glanced around, seeing blood spattered on
the walls and floor. Tamar, Bridge, and Wyst strode into the room,
each pulling bodies behind them.

She swallowed hard, seeing the blood-covered
faces and open, dead eyes. As her power had grown, she’d been able
to drag their darkest fears from inside their minds and literally
scare them to death. It had always been in the back of her mind
that she could sing someone to death, but the rapid, violent way
they died was stuck in her mind.

“They thought I was a vampire,” she said,
telling them about the silver-coated room.

“If silver could hurt our people, we’d have
been tortured,” Finn said as he pulled a body onto the pile.

“Their plan was to lure Mishka to the
warehouse to find me. They didn’t know that I was his beloved, but
they believed I was important because we were seen in public.”

Mishka growled softly, and through their
connection, she felt his anguish. “My attempt to romance you could
have ended with your death.”

She turned to face him. “You told me that
being powerful didn’t mean hiding. We should be able to be
somewhere and not worry about a group of nuts trying to kill
us.”

He flicked his gaze to the dead before
returning it to her. “They’re not trying to kill anyone
anymore.”

“They’re not alone, though. This was a large
group of them, but that woman was running the show here. She was
the sister of the leader.”

Her hatred of vampires had been bone-deep and
started when her family member had willingly been turned.
Ultimately, she’d both hated and feared vampires, believing them to
be evil pawns of some unholy creature, made to destroy all that was
good. Her beliefs had taken on a hysterical nature when she’d
followed her brother into the First Church of Humanity, where she’d
found support from other nuts like herself.

“The leader isn’t among the dead. The threat
against our people isn’t gone,” Mishka said.

The guards and Harmony’s friends gathered
around them.

Vex said, “What do you want to do with the
bodies?”

Harmony’s stomach twisted. “If we call the
police, I would have a reason for killing some of them because of
the abduction, but not everyone. I think the humans would hold me
accountable.”

Mishka shook his head. “We’re not involving
the human police.”

“We can’t just leave bodies here,” Rage said,
gesturing to the pile behind him.

“I didn’t say we were going to do that. An
example needs to be made, and I know just who to contact.”

Chapter 12

Mishka ended the call with the North Corner
of the coven. The Cleveland Wiccan coven was the largest in the
Midwest. It was headed up by four powerful Wiccans who each held
power for one of the four elements: North for Earth, South for
fire, East for air, and West for water. The head of the Corners was
Lorene, the North Corner and most powerful Wiccan that Mishka had
ever known.

It had taken only a few minutes to explain
what had happened to Harmony, and Lorene has agreed to come with
the Corners to help. While they waited, Mishka sent Rage and Vex to
check out the building a final time to ensure that no one was
hiding out somewhere inside, while he escorted his beloved
outside.