Blood Instinct (3 page)

Jask pensively swept his tongue down his incisor as he glanced back across the mist-draped district. ‘Throme’s got everything on a schedule, hasn’t he? Credit where it’s due, that bastard is determined to stay one step ahead.’ He looked back to Kane. ‘Briefing?’

‘I couldn’t agree more. The bunker in a couple of hours?’

‘What the fuck are they doing now?’ Eden asked, flipping a mint in his mouth as he continued to observe the scene beyond.

Kane handed Jask his binoculars again as he borrowed Eden’s.

‘On top of the wall,’ Eden said. ‘Two o’clock.’

Jask veered his sights to the right until he saw what Eden was referring to.

They had craned the cylinder into place: a cylinder that stood about seven feet tall and maybe five feet in diameter. The metal shaft was nondescript aside from the reflective panels running down its centre.

Jask frowned as he peered down the lens. ‘I guess we’ll find out soon enough.’

S
ophia leaned back
against the wall in the communal area of the bunker, watching Leila converse with Caitlin and Jessie.

Caitlin’s knowledge of the demographics of Blackthorn from her years of working for the Vampire Control Unit had proved invaluable with the fourth-species operation – as had her strategic and logical mind when it came to targeted operations.

Of angelic origin, Jessie’s innate ability to sense the fourth species before anyone else was priceless out in the field. Her added skills also proved particularly advantageous in combat.

As for Leila, until she persuaded them to free her, she remained determined to undo the damage she saw herself as having caused by falling for Caleb. She may have temporarily closed off the dimension less than twenty-four hours previously, but they still had to account for any fourth species that could have slipped through in the interim.

So over the last day, Leila had assisted with armouring the lycans responsible for tracking and eliminating anything that was neither human nor third species in origin. Many of the pack had been out scavenging as a result, Leila specific about what to look for and bring back. Iron and copper had been top of the list. Wood was also particularly precious – especially ash and hawthorn.

Kane had been as big a part of the operation initially. Once Caitlin was back on her feet following her near fatal run-in with Rob Doyle – her ex and now seemingly Sirius’s number-one henchman – Kane had set about asking the witches on the east side as well as the north to share their supplies.

Leila had sifted through it all, allocating their finds into sections and guiding on usage beyond what the lycans already knew. She may never have been a practising witch, but Leila knew her resources and their functions inside out.

As a bonus, her day spent under lock and key in the TSCD researching the fourth species had proved particularly fruitful in refreshing her memory of what she had absorbed as a child. Leila being Leila, she’d made the most of her time whilst planning her escape and return to Blackthorn to meet with Caleb again.

Sophia pressed her palms to the wall at the small of her back as Leila began an animated conversation with Corbin. She was advising him on wards to help protect entry points into the bunker from non-corporeal fourth species. There were no guarantees the wards would be infallible, but attempts to safeguard were better than nothing.

‘She’s good at this, isn’t she?’ Alisha said, leaning back against the wall alongside her sister. ‘Who’d have thought it: our petition-signing, peaceful-protest big sister advising an entire lycan army. It’s a long way from her cooking us macaroni and cheese.’

‘Everything now is a long way from her cooking us macaroni and cheese.’

Sophia folded her arms and kept her gaze ahead, the motivation behind her little sister’s approach transparent.

‘I saw you looking over earlier,’ Alisha said, catching her gaze. ‘You don’t need to avoid us.’

The ‘us’ grated more than she would have liked.

Despite Leila and Alisha being rescued from the Third Species Control Division, the relief of the three sisters at being reunited after almost a year had been short-lived – not least when Leila and Alisha realised they were to be held with the pack against their will.

Since then, Leila and Alisha had melded into an infallible united front. Not only were they barely out of each other’s sight, they had even insisted on staying in the same room as each other, reinforcing Sophia’s sense of segregation from them. The angst had been further heightened amidst her two sisters’ exasperatingly united defence of Caleb and Jake Dehain.

‘What do you mean you have no intention of killing him?’ Sophia had demanded of Leila.

‘How many ways do you want me to say it, Sophie? This is not about killing Caleb – it’s about preventing the prophecy.’

Sophia had found it hard to curb her sarcasm amidst her frustration. ‘The last I heard the two were somewhat synonymous: you kill Caleb, which permanently closes off the fourth dimension,
and
you simultaneously take the pending vampire leader out of the equation. We need to make sure Caleb is dead so he can’t rise against Sirius and cause global devastation, and we need to close off the fourth dimension so those bastards don’t tear through the hole fully and destroy the world first. It sounds fairly simple to me.’

But despite thinking she’d been stating the obvious, Sophia had instead felt like a kid again, trying to persuade Leila to lift her curfew whilst her big sister watched her futile attempts with that unwavering resolution in her eyes.

Because when Leila had that look, nothing budged her.

‘There is only
one
way we’re going to persuade him off this hellish course of action,’ Leila had said, ‘and that’s to persuade him to work
with
us, not against us – something you’re not going to achieve by treating him as the enemy. Keeping me here is
not
helping. You
have
to persuade Jask to let me go back to him.’

‘And me,’ Alisha had piped up. ‘Don’t forget me. No one said anything about me not being able to go back to Jake.’

‘For fuck’s sake,’ Sophia had hissed. ‘What the hell have they done to you both?’

She’d left them in the wake of a slammed door. Two subsequent conversations had ended the exact same way.

‘I’m not avoiding you,’ Sophia said, staring ahead as she felt her little sister’s gaze burn into her.

The seconds scraped by like peeling back a Band-Aid.

‘How are you feeling?’ Alisha eventually asked.

Sophia knew exactly what she intended by the question and the line of conversation she was no doubt hoping it would lead to. It seemed her sisters’ conspiracy to talk her around had transferred responsibility to Alisha.

‘I’m fine.’

‘Soph…’

‘
Don’t
.’ She gave Alicia a sharp look. ‘I know Leila has put you up to this…’

‘You don’t think I have a mind of my own?’

‘I don’t know,
do
you?’

‘Like I keep trying to tell you: you weren’t in there. You don’t know.’

‘I know those Dehains have got to both of you somehow. They held you captive, Alisha. They’ve brainwashed you and they’ve brainwashed Leila.’

‘Like Jask brainwashed you when he held you captive?’

Sophia folded her arms as she looked ahead again. ‘That was completely different and you know it.’

‘Because Jask is automatically the good guy in all of this?’

Sophia turned to face her, lowering her voice but doing nothing to contain her irritation. ‘At least Jask hasn’t tried to kill me like Caleb tried to kill Leila. I kind of draw the line in relationships as far as that goes.’

‘And like I said, you
weren’t
there.’

‘I didn’t have to be. Caleb tried to kill Leila, probably would have killed you, and now he certainly intends to kill me.’

‘And what does Jask intend?’

‘We capture Caleb, Leila kills him, and most of our problems are solved.’

‘And are you going to kill my Jake too, and then start a vampire–lycan war to give Sirius exactly what he wants? Caleb
could
have killed her, Soph. He could have easily killed her, but he chose not to.’

‘But if Leila insists on this stupid plan of going back in there to tell him she doesn’t have the alternative he sent her away for, will he be so reticent then? All he’ll see is that he has no choice but to rise as the Tryan – and that means killing me and probably half of this pack in the process.’

‘If Caleb wanted you dead, why didn’t he descend on the compound when he suspected you were there originally? Has he even threatened to kill you?’

Sophia opened her mouth but explanation failed her. ‘You even sound like her,’ she said, staring ahead again.

‘The only one who knows what’s going on in Caleb’s head is Leila,’ Alisha insisted. ‘She’s alive – the only serryn to survive him. Doesn’t that tell you something? She can do this, Soph. You have to trust that she can do this. You keeping her here won’t help. Nor me. You need to talk to Jask, you need to—’

The lycan bursting into the room snatched both her and Alisha’s attention.

He hurried straight over to Corbin, and whatever the message was, it evidently wasn’t going down well with the pack’s beta.

Sophia took a few steady steps forward. A cool shiver swept over her. Her first thought was that the bunker had been located, that they were surrounded and already under threat. But her second brought an even greater chill: that something had happened to Jask in the time that he’d been gone.

As Corbin swept out of the door, Sophia hurried after him.

She marched along the maze of corridors, barely able to keep him in sight, her heart pounding, her legs weak, her voice failing as she desperately wanted to call out and ask what was wrong, until the scuffle in the distance gradually became audible even to her.

She took a sharp left into the blocked-off abandoned car park, a space they had adopted for training. She nudged her way through the wall of lycans to see blood on the floor, two scrums either side of it.

Two scrums that were each holding a pack member back – an effort by all appearances.

Her breath caught in the back of her throat as the two lycans being kept apart growled and snarled at each other, their teeth bared, their incisors glinting in the dim light. They looked fit to tear each other apart, the uncharacteristic hostility bewildering, especially as Nathaniel, one of the milder members of the pack, appeared to be the main aggressor.

The energy in the room was charged – so charged that the scrums attempting to hold Nathaniel and Lucus back from each other finally failed, both lycans breaking free just as Corbin stepped between them.

Despite its inevitable futility, her instinct was to try and help in some way. But as she stepped forward, she felt familiar hands on her hips, hands that moved her aside, hands that she knew – a firm but tender touch that she loved.

She glanced over her shoulder in time to catch Jask kissing her lightly on the temple by way of acknowledgement despite his full attention being on the onslaught ahead.

He broke through the rest of the crowd with less chivalry than he’d used on her before wrenching Nathaniel back from the scrum as Corbin finally got a handle on Lucus.

Her heart skipped a beat as she witnessed Jask swiftly take control of the situation, the pack backing off as their alpha stepped in.

Without hesitation, he slammed Nathaniel face first against one of the nearby pillars as Corbin did the same with Lucus.

Anxiety was replaced with a whole different sensation sweeping through her body as she watched Jask brace himself, his parted legs firm and steadfast, his biceps straining against his shirt sleeves, his forearm tense against Nathaniel’s shoulder blades.

But feeling the intensity of being watched, Sophia glanced over her shoulder to meet Leila’s troubled gaze, accompanied by a frown that told her that her big sister now had even more ammunition to persuade her to concede to what she wanted her to do.

N
athaniel dared
to try and retaliate, but Jask maintained a steadfast stance as he locked the lycan’s arm up behind his back, applying enough pressure to keep him pinned against the post.

‘Enough,’ Jask warned quietly in his ear, as Nathaniel remained glowering across at Lucus. ‘I said
enough
.’

He glanced over to see Corbin had finally secured the same control.

‘Everyone out!’ Jask commanded. He looked across his shoulder at Hank. ‘I want you, Sorran, Elias and Jonah to stay.’

Hank nodded, taking the lead to clear the space.

As soon as Nathaniel knew he was overpowered, Jask turned him around and placed his forearm firmly across his chest to keep him pinned against the pillar.

He stared deep into Nathaniel’s eyes, his dilated pupils, picking up on the red ring around his irises, already bleeding into what would soon become completely bloodshot eyes if he didn’t calm his temper. The lycan was also breathing heavier than he should have been.

He lifted Nathaniel’s upper lip to examine his extended canines, his gums pale rather than a healthy pink, his jaw clenched.

Jask could see his temple throbbing, could hear the increase in his pulse and, as he placed the back of his hand against his forehead, could feel a fever taking hold of him.

‘Take it easy,’ Jask said, keeping his tone calm and tempered at the confirmation that this was far from a punishable altercation.

This wasn’t Nathaniel’s fault. No doubt it wasn’t Lucus’s fault either.

It was the event he had been dreading. It was the event he was hoping would have passed them by.

Deep down, he’d known he’d been hoping for too much.

As soon as Nathaniel’s breathing eased and his pulse rate dropped, Jask pulled him from the pillar and handed him to Hank and Jonah.

‘Get him in the water,’ Jask said. ‘He swims it off until he’s exhausted, until it eases. You don’t leave his side until you know he’s calm.’ He looked across at Elias and Sorran. ‘I want the same done with Lucus. I’ll check on them shortly.’

They took control quickly and led Nathaniel out of the room first.

Lucus was escorted out a couple of minutes behind him, heading in the opposite direction.

‘It broke out minutes before you arrived,’ Corbin said, stepping over to join him.

‘Do you know what instigated it?’

‘They were in the midst of standard training when the combat turned nasty.’ And Corbin confirmed what Jask already knew. ‘Jask, they both took the later dose.’

The first set of supplies Caleb had turned up on their doorstep with had gone straight to the young. When they’d got the second set the following day, they’d given a full dose to half of the pack whilst allowing the rest to have at least a half dose to prevent full morphing if nothing else. By the time they’d gained the rest, it had clearly been too late to inhibit all of the symptoms.

‘I want the pack examined,’ Jask said. ‘Every single one who took the later dose. Bloodshot eyes, any sign of fever, elongated incisors, dark splinters under the nails, any vibrations to the spine, any signs of headaches, I want to know.’

‘Sure,’ Corbin said. ‘Any effect with you?’

‘No.’

Corbin glanced towards Sophia hovering in the doorway, tentatively waiting for the opportunity to find out what was going on.

There was a time when she would have burst in, all mouth and no forethought. But despite it still seeming an effort to restrain herself, she waited respectfully for them to finish.

Corbin moved closer, kept his voice low. ‘You’re going to have to be extra vigilant, especially with Phia.’

‘You’ll be the first to know,’ Jask assured him.

‘Jask, this could affect almost half of the pack – the half that are the best we’ve got, out there tackling the fourth species and guarding this place from Dehain.’

‘I know,’ Jask said as their gazes held a then silent exchange over the severity of it. ‘That’s why I want every one of us out there on the streets checked as first priority. I can’t risk having them out there if they’re too busy being distracted by their own instincts instead of following mine. And I want any further combat training off limits until the checks are complete as well as increased time in the water. Let’s keep everybody as calm as we can. You covered all the bases with the rogues, right?’

Corbin frowned. ‘Yes. Why?’

‘I’ll fill you in shortly. Kane and Eden will be back in the next couple of hours to update us all on what’s going on out there. I want you there for the meeting. Pull the others in too. I’m going to go and check on the compound.’

Corbin placed his hand on Jask’s chest as he moved to step past him. ‘Let me do that. Get yourself something to eat and drink and some rest. You were barely back for ten minutes earlier before being called out again.’ He lowered his hand, but the concern in his eyes didn’t relent. ‘We need you firing on all cylinders, Jask. And it sounds like we’re going to need it more than ever.’

Almost squeezing past Corbin in the doorway as he left, Sophia was in Jask’s arms a couple of seconds later.

Her warmth and the tightness of her hold as she wrapped her arms around him was a welcome relief. The feel of her always grounded him; always gave him a sense that things would be okay; helped him to believe he could lead them all through whatever lay ahead.

‘Are you okay?’ she asked, pulling herself back slightly so she could look into his eyes. ‘What the hell was all that about?’

He rubbed away the smudge of Nathaniel’s blood that had transferred from his shirt to her cheek before guiding her back out of the room. ‘We took the dose at the eleventh hour when we should have started on it a week ago.’ He took a right, leading her down to their room where he could get changed. ‘It hasn’t fully absorbed into our systems in time – and even less so for those who took the half dose first before completing it.’

She stopped abruptly. ‘You’re
morphing
?’

‘No.’ He caught her hand, encouraging her onwards where they could talk more privately. ‘We’ve suppressed that, but some of the residual lycanthropic symptoms might rise to the surface in those who are more susceptible – short-temperedness, aggression, territoriality.’

‘What are you going to do about it?’

‘At worst we’ll have to segregate some of the pack until the blue moon passes its optimum. The symptoms will ease after that. It’s fine. We’ll manage it.’

He opened the door to their room, indicating that Sophia should enter first before he closed the door behind them.

‘That means reducing numbers though. And the ones who took the later dose are primarily the strongest of your pack,’ she said, recognising the implications as much as he and Corbin had.

He unbuttoned his bloodied shirt before casting it aside whilst Sophia hovered inches from the mattress that lay on the floor behind her.

‘We’ll keep all bases covered as best we can.’

Her brown eyes were troubled, her brow furrowed. ‘What about you? Will it affect
you
? You took the later dose too. You were the last to take it.’

He closed the gap between them. ‘Out of all of us, I’m the one able to control it the most.’ But he couldn’t lie to her – it had been a long time since he’d risked controlling his lycanthropy without a dose during a blue moon. ‘But it’s been a while, Phia.’

‘So there
is
a chance the symptoms could affect you as well?’

‘I know it’s easier said than done, but try not to worry.’

Because the last thing she needed was added stress.

It still played on his mind what Kane had said a couple of days before: how the vampire had already sensed that Sophia’s serrynity was strengthening each day; how the current stage of waiting for it to emerge fully was the calm before the storm.

As much as it seemed so unlikely there and then, the reality remained for her as much as it did for him: they were both curbing what they truly were. Both were on a countdown. At least his would be short-lived if he could get through the next eighteen hours or so – if he could get his pack safely through the next eighteen hours.

For Sophia, what was inside of her would only intensify. There was no get-out clause for her condition.

But despite her pallor and her increased nervous energy those last couple of days, she seemed to be keeping her serrynity contained.

Even if she didn’t, she’d have to be above ground to do anything about it – and there was no chance of him allowing that. Down there she was safe. Down there amidst his pack, she, Leila and Alisha would all be safe.

If he kept his pack in check.

If he kept himself in check.

Which he would.

‘What about out there?’ she asked. ‘What did you find out?’

‘The Global Council have definitely moved their army to the periphery. We have no idea how many there are as yet.’

She threw her palms up in despair. ‘But how can they get away with this?’

‘Because it’s all over the media that there are morphed lycans on the loose.’

Her lips parted in horror. ‘But that’s a lie!’ She paused, the glaze of pensive uncertainty crossing her eyes. She frowned. ‘Isn’t it?’

‘Of course it is, but it’s granting them the justification they need to move in here. Kane and Eden will be back in the next couple of hours with more news.’

‘So Sirius is using you all as scapegoats
again
?’ Her glower intensified. ‘The fucking…’

He closed the gap between them before she had time to turn away. He gently caught her jaw.

‘It’s a game, Phia – one huge, nasty game. And we’re going to let Kane fight Sirius whilst we focus on keeping you safe from Caleb. Teamwork right?’

She tongued her cheek before reluctantly nodding but, with it, she dropped her gaze.

He placed the tips of his fingers under her chin, tilting it back up so she was forced to look into his eyes. ‘Phia?’

She broke from his gaze instantly again, not helping his unease.

‘Hey,’ he said, catching her jaw fully again. ‘What is it?’

Seemingly struggling with an answer, she shrugged.

‘You still haven’t made any progress?’

Sophia shook her head and let her arms drop to her sides as her composure echoed her frustration, her sense of defeat. ‘None. I feel like I’m twelve again, not twenty-nine. I’m telling you, if she’s determined not to budge then she won’t budge. She’s adamant you have to let her go. She’s convinced she can make Caleb into an ally and not an enemy.’

‘Yeah, well that wasn’t the impression I got when he came looking for you. Has she said anything more about this alternative?’

‘No.’

‘What about Alisha?’

‘Nothing either. If she knows what it is, she’s not saying. It’s doing my head in, Jask. I don’t know what the Dehains did to them but they’re so deep inside their heads it’s going to take a fucking stick of dynamite to get them to see sense. I finally get my sisters back and it feels like them versus me, you know?’

‘But?’ he asked, sensing her hesitation.

‘The thing is, Alisha’s just as insistent that there was something between Caleb and Leila.’

‘And what do
you
think?’

‘I think Caleb’s playing her.’

‘Then let’s see if they still feel the same way when we get our hands on him.’

‘Leila’s convinced he’s not going to come for us. That he’s not stupid enough to try and take you all on.’

‘Unless he’s willing to gamble with the outcome, he needs to. And with Feinith now knowing what he is, he’s not going to have a choice. She’s not going to let this opportunity slip through her fingers. She’s going to want the guarantee of success. And you, darling,’ he said, clipping the base of her chin, ‘are that only guarantee if the prophecy is right. They’re coming one way or another. And when they do, we’ll have him. We’re having a meeting in a couple of hours. I want your sisters to be there. I want them to hear first-hand what a mess it’s going to be out there. Let’s see if that can break their silence.’

‘Is Kane going to be okay with that? I know he doesn’t trust them to be on the inside.’

‘I think he’ll do whatever it takes to get through to them. I’ll talk to him. In the meantime, someone clearly needs to be looking after you. You look tired.’

‘Aren’t we all?’

‘I know it’s been tough since we picked your sisters up, and that it hasn’t worked out like you wanted it to.’

A tear unexpectedly leaked from her eye which she swiftly wiped away as she diverted her gaze – further confirmation of just how much her division from her sisters had got to her.

‘I know I handled it badly,’ she said, looking back at him, ‘but I just don’t get it. I don’t know how to get through to them. If trying to prevent a fucking global apocalypse isn’t a good enough reason to get them on our side then what is?’

‘We’ll find something.’

As she dropped her gaze again, he knew that what hurt the most, what she’d as yet refused to disclose, was that ultimately she saw Leila’s reticence as her choosing Caleb over her.

‘I know I’ve been neglecting you these last couple of days,’ he said, tucking her hair back behind her ear.

‘I get it,’ she declared with a shrug. ‘And I’m fine with it.’

But she couldn’t hold his gaze as she said it.

‘No, you’re
trying
to be fine with it. There’s a difference.’

Her troubled eyes met his. ‘I don’t want to get in your way, Jask.’

‘You’re not,’ he said, clasping the side of her neck before brushing his thumb across her lips. ‘And as much as this calmer, more rational Phia makes my life a hell of a lot less stressful, just you watch that you don’t lose too much of that fire that keeps me on my toes, okay?’

She smiled, her uncharacteristically coy gaze making it easy to smile back.

‘So how about I remind you how much I like that part of you?’ he asked, sliding his hands down to her hips and tugging her close.

‘Don’t you have something else you need to do?’

‘Instead of you?’

She broke another smile. ‘Crass.’

‘Uh-huh,’ he declared with a smirk. ‘Besides, my pack are more than capable of holding the fort in my absence for a while. Isn’t that the sign of a good leader – trusting that everyone is performing as you require without your presence?’ He caught hold of her hands, drawing the back of one to his lips so he could kiss it. ‘They know where to find me.’