Alpha Trio 3: A Special Taste (6 page)

Her jaw relaxed slightly and she holstered one of the guns to stroke Em’s thick grey fur. “Yeah, baby, I’ll try.” She flicked a quick glance at them. “Em wanted me to come along tonight and see if I could project my... calming thing... outward, like Kall can hers. I practiced a bit at home.”

Kall shrugged. “Worth a try. Just think of it like you’re in a bubble and you’re pushing against the sides, making it bigger. But don’t push too hard or pop.”

Cat swallowed, gave a short nod, and closed her eyes. A long minute ticked by in silence. Below them, Grig could hear voices rising. If they went in there like it was now, would be a feeding frenzy? Comparing notes with Kall silently, he grimaced. There were more than she expected, at least thirty. It could go badly. His heart clenched at the thought of something happen to his brothers, their Mates. Kall.

But it wouldn’t. It was going to be fine. They were safe.

Grig found himself grinning, the tension that had been twisting his spine relaxing. Glancing around at the others, he saw matching expressions of nearly giddy relief on their faces.

Except Cat. She was trembling and pale. That’s when he realized his newfound sense of wellbeing must be her.

“Holy hell,” Kall murmured softly. “That’s impressive.”

Drei’s smile was ear to ear. “Let’s go end this fucker.”

Em sat back on his haunches, tossing his furry head in Cat’s direction. Drei nodded. “Yeah, good. Stay here with her. As soon as the carnage starts though, we’re going to need you.”

His reply was a soft bark.

Grig, Kall, Drei, and Cassandra slipped down the stairs as silently as smoke. Grig had to admit his sister’s-in-law were really impressing him tonight. Still, he took a minute to gloat that his girl was the most kick ass, what with all the leather, and knives. And the fangs. Damn, she was fucking gorgeous. When they were done here, he was going to spend days exploring her delectable body.

Kall winked, picking up his thought. A second later, she burst through the metal door. Her pale arms were a blur in the dimness as she flung blades out. Meaty thunks and cries of pain greeted her arrival. Every single blade found a home in vampire flesh.

Not to be outdone, Drei’s wolf burst to the fore and he dove into the gathered bloodsuckers, snarling and tearing. Cassandra slid through the door, keeping her back to the wall. Her shots rang out steady and slow. She wasn’t firing randomly, she was picking her targets carefully. It took Grig only a second to see how. Any vamp who tried to jump Drei from behind, to sneak up on him. She must hear the intent, he thought in amazement. As each clip ran empty, she ejected it and pulled another from inside her coat and slapped it home. Calm, methodical, deadly.

A second later Em leapt through the open door, crashing into the fray with jaws open. Cat followed, looking a little shaky but determined, and joined Cassandra on the other side of the door. She, too, took up a position with her back to the wall and began slowly picking off vamps who lunged for Em. Once again, she had a gun in each hand. She fired more rapidly than Cassandra, aiming at anyone in the grey wolf’s vicinity.

“Just gonna stand there, wolfie?” Kall called to him, grinning. Her face was splattered with black and red blood, her sword singing as she decapitated vamps.

“Wasn’t planning on it, no.” He was looking for Seren. He didn’t expect the boss bloodsucker to be in the middle of this melee. He scanned the room. It was circular, with a raised platform – like a surgery’s observation deck – running around it in a semi-circle, poorly lit by flickering overheads, the grey walls smeared with who-knows-what.

Cages lined one wall, bars rusted. Steel gurneys were piled against another. Apparently, the vamp wasn’t much for modern medicine when it came to his little ‘experiments’. And this was where Kall had been kept. For months.

Red rage bubbled in Grig’s blood. Determination crystallized in his every cell. He felt as if time slowed. He could see everything with startling clarity. In the middle of the room, Kall spun, sword flickering faster than the human eye. Vampires fell beneath her blade, splashing into puddles of red and black. She wasn’t untouched. He could see where blows had landed, the smudge of bruises, her cheekbone cracked and then reformed before his eyes.

Drei and Em whirled and snapped, fur and teeth streaked with gore. All around them, vampires fell with snarls as bullets slammed into knees and gut and head, sending them to the floor, making them vulnerable.

Up on the observation deck, Em caught a flash of white. Seren. The skeletal vampire’s eyes blazed with a feral madness as he slithered toward the door. Not seeking escape, Grig realized. That burning gaze was focused on Cat. And she was too intent on the teeming, blood-streaked mass of vampires and Shifters in the center of the room.

That was okay though, because Seren was his.

Grig sprang into the air, letting his wolf burst out of his skin. The sensation was indescribable, like a weight you didn’t realize was there being suddenly lifted away. Freeing. Pleasure tingled over every nerve as fur rippled and teeth gnashed.

It was his favorite feeling in the entire world.

He caught sight of Kall, fingers tangled in a female vampire’s lank blonde hair as she tore the bloodsucker’s head off, and grinned. Make that second favorite feeling in the whole world.

His paws scrabbled at the metal flooring as he landed on heavily on the observation deck. Seren whirled, pale lips writhing in a grimace. Grig lunged for him, aiming for the throat.

The bastard Iced. For a split second, time froze, and then suddenly Seren was behind him. Only Grig had already managed to spin around to face him. The vamp looked stunned. Grig was a little surprised himself. He didn’t think he’d ever moved that fast in his entire life.

Another little perk of his Mating with Kall? There’d be time to figure that out later. Now it was time to fight.

Seren’s hand swiped out, fingers curled into claws. He was going for the throat too, expecting Grig to pull back, away from the blow. Grig didn’t. He moved forward, into the strike.

Hot pain exploded through him as Seren’s nails punctured his side, digging deep into his internal organs. But it didn’t matter, because he had his jaws around Seren’s throat, teeth poised to rip.

There was a feminine cry of pain from below him, but Grig couldn’t afford to falter now. He had the bastard.

Until he Iced again. Grig growled, wheeling again, his side and guts throbbing. But Seren wasn’t behind him, going in for another attack. He was skittering for the door again. For Cat.

Panic slammed into Grig’s chest as he scrambled after the cadaverous vampire, watching helplessly in freeze-frame as Seren used his ability to get to the curvy reporter before Grig could get to him.

One pale white hand shot out, backhanding Cassandra aside, and then he had Cat by the throat.

Grig howled, jumping from the deck and sliding to a stop a few feet from the vampire and his prize. Cassandra lay on the floor, her mouth bloody and her cheek swollen but otherwise unharmed.

“Enough!” roared Seren.

In the center of the room, the sounds of fighting ceased. They’d been winding down already, Grig realized. Glancing in that direction, he saw the blood splattered wolves and Kall. If she’d sustained a wound, he couldn’t see it, she was so crimson soaked. Not a single inch of her skin showed pale. Thick pools of blood, black and red, coated the dingy floor. A handful of vamps, maybe four, writhed weakly in the mess, wounded.

When Em saw Seren’s hand around Cat’s neck he snarled, lips pulling back from his teeth. Seren chuckled.

“I wouldn’t, if I were you, Shifter. One squeeze and the mortal is dead.”

“You won’t kill her, Seren. She’s one of your precious girls,” Kall sneered.

Seren’s eyes flamed in their deep sockets. “Silence!”

Kall beheaded one of the vamps moaning at her feet and then flicked the blood from her blade. “Not very good at following orders, Pops. In case you hadn’t figured that out yet.”

Grig, Em, and Drei all prowled restlessly around the blood splattered room, not getting too close to the volatile vampire. Drei positioned himself in front of Cassandra, head lowered, growling.

Seren ignored them for the moment, eyes on Kall. “You would have ruled by my side, Kalla, if you had not betrayed me. It will sadden me to kill you.”

Kall snorted, rolling her eyes. Seren turned ember bright gaze on Cat, stroking her cheek with bony fingers. “Now you can take her place, Cathryn. As it should be. So smart. So beautiful.”

Em snarled. Seren ignored him. “The minute I tasted your blood in that alley, I knew how great you could be.”

“Yeah?” rasped Cat, her whole body trembling in his grip. Her purple-blue eyes were wide as she stared down at him. Without warning, her hand whipped upward. “Can I quote you on that?”

There where several muffled bangs and wet splats, then a clicking. Seren released her, his face going slack as he stumbled backward.

Cat had shot him, Grig realized, emptying her clip directly under his chin, upward into his bald head. It wouldn’t kill him, but it would damn sure hurt. And knock him on his ass too, which was exactly what it did.

Seren sprawled on his back, the top of his head a pulpy mess, black blood bubbling out of his mouth. His eyes were wide with shock. As one, Grig, Drei, and Em lunged, burying their teeth in the appendage nearest them. Seren gave a garbled cry, thrashing against their grip. But Cat’s shots had weakened him enough that they could hold him.

The three women moved forward, circling the bleeding vampire as well. Kall raised the shimmering blade of her sword, bringing it down in one smooth arc, separating Seren’s bony, bald head from his thin neck. His ruined mouth was still working as he melted into a puddle of thick, black goo.

Grig shifted quickly back to human form, heedless of his nakedness. Em and Drei did the same, hurrying to their Mates sides to comfort and guard them. Kall grinned at him, arching a brow as she perused his body.

“Hey there, wolfie.” She flicked her sword, dispatching one of the last remaining vamps without even batting an eyelash. “Like the outfit.”

He pressed a foot into the back of another vamp, gripped his hair and yanked, grimacing a little at the splash of blood. Another delicate sweep of her blade and the last vampire dissolved into a puddle of red.

The room looked like a slaughterhouse. None of them had escaped the splash of gore, not even Cat and Cassandra.

“Gonna take the ladies home. We good here?” Drei asked, arm slung around Cass’s shoulders.

“We’re good,” Grig replied. “If there’s any left behind, Kall and I can handle it.”

Em had swung Cat up into his arms, cradling her against his chest much as he had done on the night they first met. She wasn’t protesting this time, however. She clung to the big warrior instead. Em’s arms were tight around her. “See you tomorrow for the briefing, little brother.” He turned a broad grin on Kall. “Nice work, for a vamp.”

Kall quirked a brow. “Thanks. You weren’t so bad yourself, for a Shifter.” She, too, was smiling as she spoke. Grig moved to her side and slid an arm around her waist as his brothers retreated with their Mates, leaving him alone with his.

When they could no longer hear the others footfalls, Grig turned to her and pulled her close. “So, first family outing as a couple... what did you think?”

Kall threw back her head and laughed. “Oh, wolfie. Take me home.” She waggled thin, dark brows at him. “I could use a shower.”

A shower sounded very good to Grig. “And then? Are you hungry?” Who would have thought he, Grigore Lupei, member of the Alpha Trio, would be propositioning a vampire? Hoping she’d bite him. Kalla sheathed her sword and twined her arms around his neck, her fingers stroking along his artery tenderly, her dark eyes glimmering with promise.