Blood Moon (9 page)

Or she wasn’t a witch like we had thought.

Sharice hissed as she forced her feet under me and pushed, sending me end over end across the living room. I rolled to my feet with my eyes glancing to Jared and Damian. The woman they held back had long, auburn hair that hung wildly around her face. I glanced around, but didn’t see Rose anywhere.
Did she run off, leaving her people to take care of us for her
? The woman tossed Jared and Damian aside like nothing, running to Sharice’s side in an instant. Sharice’s injuries weren’t life threatening, but it made no difference to the auburn-haired woman. She looked up at me and hissed, exposing her glistening fangs.

As my eyes looked into the steel blues of the auburn haired woman, I realized that Rose had never left the room. Rose Mykal looked decades younger. Giving me a dangerous smile, Rose slowly rose to her feet as she stalked across the room. I shifted back into my human form as confusion took over. Rose was a witch, which explained the magic and the glamour. Everyone at the BMC knew it. Witches didn’t retain their power as vampires.
So what in the hell was Rose and why did she have fangs and magic?

In a blur of motion too fast to see, Damian stood between me and Rose. He crossed his arms over his chest as he stared down the woman in front of him.

“You can’t kill her without hurting me,” he said calmly, “and we both know you won’t put me through that again.”

Rose’s eyes narrowed. “You’re wrong. She’s broken her contract and must pay. Even you can’t keep her from this.”

“Then you leave me no choice.”

Damian turned and walked over to me with his plum-colored eyes filled with pain.

“I’m so sorry, Sarah,” he said as he wrapped his arms around me.

So this was it. I would die as soon as Damian moved. I braced myself, hoping that my death would be swift.

Then I felt Damian’s fangs pierce my neck.

Chapter Twelve

The pain ended as quickly as it began as Damian let me go. I backed away from him. My hand gripped the fresh bite on my neck, promising myself that I would stake him for biting the only part of my neck not covered in scar tissue.

“What in the hell was that for?” I almost screamed as Damian licked his lips clean of my blood. He had promised that he’d never feed from me. I felt betrayed and wished fervently that I had my gun so I could hurt him. Jared hurried over to my side, pulling my hand back to examine the wound.

“It’s healed,” he said in awe.

“Of course it is healed,” Damian said with a smile. “I’d never leave a mark on her.”

Rose and Sharice stood back as anger flickered their eyes.

“Why did you do that?” Rose finally asked.

I agreed with the Blood Moon Corporation leader; I wanted to know why before I hurt him.

“It’s easy, mother. I did it to keep her from you.”

Mother
?

I saw Rose’s eyes darken as she glared at Damian, confirming he outed her secret.

“You’re not a witch?” I asked.

“Of course not,” Rose sneered. “Did you really think a witch could run one of the largest supernatural corporations in the world?”

“How…with the magic?” I stammered as I wrapped my mind around this new development.

“That’s none of your business,” she spat.

“Suzara was a witch before she became a vampire,” Damian explained, indicating Rose. “After the vampire experiments backfired, her magic returned along with all the things that make a born vampire, speed, strength, and mind abilities.”

I remembered the myth. Around 250 BC, vampires wanted to find a way to reverse the vampire process and make themselves human again. Obviously it backfired. I had thought they were a myth until I met Damian, and now I saw that Suzara had been a busy, little vampire.

“How many born vampires are there?” I asked as my eyes settled on Sharice.

Damian shrugged. “Only mother knows, and I have a feeling she’s not telling.”

Rose… Suzara… Whatever her name truly was, she wouldn’t make eye contact with Damian. Her steel blue eyes stayed fixed on me with wishes for a painful death clearly in them.

“You can’t kill her, Suzara,” Damian warned. “She belongs to me until the day she dies from a natural death.”

Rose blinked before wrapping her arm around Sharice. “Touché, son,” she said with her voice eerily calm. “What about the Weres?”

Then she and Sharice vanished. Damian held out a hand as I started to rush to the front door.

“Don’t,” Damian warned. “Dez is with them. All will be fine.”

“Fine?” I asked with my voice a mixture of betrayal and anger. “How is all of this fine?”

“Rose Mykal will never be able to lay a hand on you after this,” Damian said.

“And Jared?”

“Jared’s been mine since you asked me to save him. Not only did he feed on me, but I drank from him to keep the silver from entering his system more than it had from that dagger.” Damian sighed and looked at Jared. “It would have been better for you to explain this.”

“She’d never have believed me,” Jared said with a shrug. “Hell, even I can’t.”

“Believe what?” I asked slowly. I didn’t like secrets, and it seemed that Damian and Jared had kept quiet a few from me. The fact that Rose Mykal was actually the original born vampire, Suzara was a doozy. I didn’t think I could take much more.

Damian walked over to me, putting his hands on my shoulder. “I’m happy for the two of you. The fact that you’ve become Mates without knowing this just shows that you aren’t letting your past rule you.” I wanted to ask how he knew, but I had a feeling Jared had something to do with it. “In May, when you threw that silver dagger into Jared’s heart, you killed a part of him. I chose which part died, while I healed the injury.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked as my heart thudded in my chest.

“The wolf who attacked you, that changed you into a Were, is dead. Jared can no longer Change with the full moon.”

“He’s cured?” I asked. “But his eyes…”

“He still retains some Were traits,” Damian interrupted. “After all, there’s no cure for what you have, but you’ll never have to see that wolf again.”

I staggered back against the wall, staring at Jared with disbelief in my eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t know how,” he said as he slowly came to my side. I felt him in my mind, feeling my emotions roil in my head.

I had succeeded. I killed the wolf that changed me six years ago. A part of me felt complete with this knowledge, but that didn’t stop the remorse that filled me.

“Are you alright?” I asked Jared.

Jared laughed. “I’m better than alright. I’ve never been happier.”

I turned to Damian. “You’re an ass for keeping this from me.”

I took Jared’s hand in mine and headed to the front door.

“Where are you going?” Damian asked.

“I’m not going to sit here while my Clan gets slaughtered,” I snapped. “I don’t care how much faith you have in Dez.”

“Well, in that case,” Damian said with a devious smile. “I know a faster way.”

Jared squeezed my hand as Damian walked over and took my other hand in his. It felt weird having both of these men hold my hand like they cared for me. Then again, they did. I just chose the wolf over the vampire.

“Hold on,” Damian said. Before I could ask what to hold on to, we vanished. For a brief moment I felt like I rode on the fastest roller coaster ever created. Plum-colored darkness swirled around us. Then Malevolent Dead opened up, and I gasped for breath as we appeared in the middle of the large dance floor. My hand released Damian to clutch onto Jared.
No wonder why Damian liked to teleport so much. It was a fucking rush
!

Suzara and Sharice argued with Dez, while Monique and Donavan stood behind the blue-haired vampire with their twins. Amythist and T.D. stood near the bar. Magic pulsated within them as they readied themselves for an attack. They looked over at Donavan and Monique with looks of surprise and Sharice and Suzara with looks of hatred.

Damian raised an eyebrow at the blue-haired vampire. “Dez?”

“They won’t listen,” he said as he crossed his arms over his chest. “They should know better by now.”

I didn’t know what that meant, but Damian did. “Agreed. Just tell them, so we can get on with our lives.”

“What about them?” Dez indicated the rest of us with a wave of his arm.

“They’ll forget. Even Sarah.”

Dez nodded. “I keep forgetting that happens.” Turning back to Suzara, he said, “The twins are protected by laws even older than yourself…”

Every word Dez spoke came out even more garbled than the last until I couldn’t hear a damned thing. My mind felt hazy, like I had just downed a roofie-cola. I mentally reached for Jared. His mind felt just as hazy, and frustration leaked from him. Donavan and Monique stood closer to each other. Their arms tightly protected their newborns. Amythist and T.D. had magic dripping from their fingers as they tried to figure out if BMC attacked. Suddenly it felt like someone hit a switch and the world returned to normal.

“Do you understand?” Dez asked.

I felt like screaming no and that I didn’t understand jack-crap that just happened, but kept quiet. Suzara and Sharice nodded, finally subdued for the first time.

“Now,” Damian said with a wicked smile. “Get the hell out of my city.”

It didn’t need to be said twice. Sharice teleported out of Malevolent Dead first, and Suzara followed seconds later. I felt pretty sure that they headed up to the Blood Moon Corporation headquarters to close her file on the DeLocket’s and me.

Dez’s laughter turned my thoughts back to him. “What in the hell are you?” I asked and Dez’s laughter deepened.

“If I told you, you’d just forget again,” he said. “Just be grateful that I’m on your side.”

Donavan and Monique cautiously came over to him, thanking the blue-haired vampire for everything he did for them. For some weird reason, I trusted Dez now. It felt like my soul knew what my mind didn’t. I turned and walked behind the bar, pulling out some shot glasses and a bottle of whiskey. Jared sat on one of the barstools, watching as Donavan’s Weres came into the club to thank Damian and Dez.

“What do you make of that?” he asked.

“No clue,” I said as I downed my first shot. “I guess we should just be happy that Dez is on our side.”

Jared looked balefully at the bottle. “Is this how you always end your day?”

“Only stressful ones.”

“Are we alright?”

I paused with my second shot just inches from my lips. Damian claiming me as his property meant that the BMC couldn’t lay a finger on me. I could go anywhere I pleased and never worry about an assassin right around the corner. Whatever Dez said had forced Suzara and Sharice to give up their desire to kill the DeLocket newborns. I made a mental note to get their names and find out if they were boys, girls, or both. I had some shopping to do. Jared’s wolf died, leaving me with my destined Mate.

A smile slowly started to cross my lips.

“We’re better than alright,” I said as my future stretched out before me. “We’re perfect.”