Chasing Shadows (A Shadow Chronicles Novel) (39 page)

He managed to look momentarily pleased by the moniker she had just used. Crossing his arms he looked at her sternly, saying, “That doesn’t explain why you’re out of bed, young lady.”

Juliette met his gaze. “I heard Saphrona’s voice. Something’s happened to my brother—and don’t you dare try to tell me it’s nothing, because I am far from stupid.”

“He got a text at six this morning from your cell phone,” I said before Lochlan
could speak. “It told him to come alone to the parking garage at Easton, level 2B.”

Her eyes widened. “That’s where I parked his truck. Damn it, he had to know it was a trap!”

I took a deep breath to steady my nerves. “I know that. And I’m sure Mark knew that too, and that’s why he left his phone here for me to find.”

“Instead of being smart and waking us so we could go with him? What the hell was my stupid brother thinking?” Juliette wondered angrily.

“He may not have known he could rouse you,” Lochlan said. “And it’s not like you’d be going anywhere even if he could have.”

She afforded Lochlan a narrow-eyed gaze. “And just what the hell is
that
supposed to mean?”

“It means that after my sister gets you something proper to wear, you’re going back to bed,” Lochan replied. “You’ve just been through a very traumatic ordeal. Your body needs time to rest and recuperate.”

“Oh, no, no, no,” she protested, shaking her head with each “no” and stepping further into the room. Were she not wrapped in the
blanket,
I had no doubt her hands would be fisted on her hips. “Don’t you think for a second that I’m not going to help you go looking for my
brother.
He is
my
brother, bloodsucker, and I
will
help him.”

“I don’t
think
you’re going back to bed, Juliette,” he countered, “I
know
you are.
Doctor’s orders.
You’re in no condition to run off playing the hero dog.”

“Oh really?” she said, sneering mildly as she threw the blanket off her shoulders, dropping down to the floor as she shifted into her Siberian form and looking up at him pointedly with those ice blue eyes of hers.

“So you can change form, so what? Doesn’t mean you’re in any condition to fight,” Loch replied, planting his hands at his waist.

Juliette huffed and shifted back to human form. While still on her knees she reached for the blanket, wrapping it around herself again as she stood up.

“Look, buddy—you have no control over me. You’re not my brother, my father, or my imprint, not that any of those titles would grant you the right to tell me what to do, either. And even if you did get to play doctor last night, we’re not in a hospital, and even if we were, I could still leave of my own free will against medical advice, and you’d have no choice but to let me. Now, are we going to continue to waste time standing here arguing, or are we going to go look for Mark, hmm?”

Her gaze roamed between the two of us, and each time she looked at me, I knew she was seeking support. Truth was, I agreed with Lochlan: I didn’t think she was in any condition to fight, even if she could change her shape. I also realized the futility of trying to dissuade her, but I knew I had to try.

“Juliette, based on what you told me a little while ago, you haven’t had anything to eat since breakfast yesterday,” I said slowly. “Where are you going to get the energy to maintain your animal form, let alone fight two or more vampires?”

She huffed. “I’ll find it somewhere, don’t you worry. Now shouldn’t we be piling into that tank of a car Lochlan drives and getting our asses out of here?”

In no doubt an effort to make sure we didn’t try to leave without her, Juliette turned and marched purposefully down the short hall to the stairs, which she descended with
the blanket trailing behind her.

I looked at Lochlan. “Unless you can do a Vulcan Nerve Pinch, pal, I don’t see how we’re going to leave her behind,” I said, following after Juliette.

Lochlan threw up his hands in surrender, groaning in frustration. “I just don’t want to see her get hurt again,” he said as he walked behind me down to the first floor.

“I don’t either, Loch, but since I have no way of forcing her to stay behind…” I said, my words trailing off because I really didn’t know what else to say.

As we were walking into the kitchen, Juliette was letting Moe and Cissy into the house, and she’d grabbed a bagel out of the bag on the counter. When she’d come into the kitchen again, she walked over to the refrigerator and reached into it, grabbing the milk and chugging it down, leaving Lochlan and I to stand staring openly. She finished off the last half gallon and tossed the empty jug into the kitchen sink, then reached into the fridge again for the remaining two bottles of blood that she’d brought up from the freezer the day before.

Handing one each to Lochlan and I, she said, “Drink up, kids. You’re going to need it.”

I said nothing at first as I took the bottle from her and unscrewed the cap, taking a long swig. Lochlan did the same, though he didn’t stop for breath like I did—he just kept chugging. “You realize that the chances of finding anything in the parking garage are moot, right?” I said before taking another long drink. “It’s been over an hour since he was supposed to meet them there.”

Juliette reluctantly nodded agreement. “I know. So what are we going to do?”

Loch finished off his bottle of blood as I was chugging mine. “Ah, Chateau de Bovine, a fine 2009 vintage,” he joked as he carried the bottle to the sink. Turning to Juliette he said, “I suspect we are going to have to hope that enough of your brother’s blood remains in Saphrona’s body that she can make use of the blood blond drinking from him created—shouldn’t be a problem, given she’s fed from him almost every day since they met.”

She glanced between us. “But what if there’s not enough that she can use it to locate him?” she wanted to know.
“Then what?”

I finished off my bottle and tossed it to my brother, who caught it effortlessly. “Then we pray that the strength of our pair-bond leads us to him. Otherwise, we have no choice but to wait and see if those two vampires or whoever they’re working for calls with some kind of ransom or other demand.”

I didn’t mention the other possibility—that we waited for them to drop his dead body at the end of the driveway like they had with her. Because I knew without a doubt that the point of drawing Mark out was so that they could kill him for his blood, and I refused to consider that outcome.

*****

After Lochlan and I had finished the two bottles of blood (during which time Juliette had wolfed down the last three bagels—I’d never seen another woman eat that fast), I took Juliette back upstairs to get her some clothes to wear, noting that it was the
third time in less than a week I’d had to provide for her from my meager wardrobe.

“Don’t try to talk me out of going, Saphrona,” she said as she followed me back up the stairs. “He’s my brother, and I have to help him. It’s what I do.”

I turned to her in the doorway to my room. “I know it is,” I said simply, and walked over to the dresser. “And I know that you’re going to end up phasing and destroying what I’m about to give you. I just think you’ll be more comfortable if you have real clothes on.”

“And less distracting to your perverted brother,” she noted.

I frowned at her as I handed her another tracksuit. “Juliette, Lochlan genuinely cares about you. Maybe that means nothing to you, but he does. He doesn’t want you to go because he doesn’t want to see you get hurt again.”

She sighed as she removed the blanket she’d tied around her like a toga with one hand, letting it fall to the floor. “I know he does,” she said quietly. “And I kinda like him too, may I be struck by lightning for admitting that.”

I quirked a corner of my mouth up as I regarded her.
“What’s wrong with liking him?” I asked.

Her eyebrows winged up as she unfolded and then jerked on the pants of the track suit. “Saphrona, do you really have to ask? He’s a vampire. I’m a shapeshifter. Only thing we could ever have is a nice little affair, and that’s not what I want out of life. I want and deserve more than casual sex. And, well, so does he—or so he’s said. Besides, he and I are both looking forward to pair-bonding like you and Mark
have
, and an affair would interfere with that.”

“How so?”

She shrugged as she was unzipping the jacket to the suit. “It would complicate things,” she said, slipping her arms into the sleeves. “I don’t want to have to face the mess of disentangling myself from even a casual relationship when my imprint comes along. I want to be able to transition into that relationship seamlessly.”

I sighed. “I understand that, more than you know. But I also know you can’t always resist the desire to live while you wait—after all, I went so far as to get married. Certainly I’m not saying you have to do that, and certainly not with my brother. I’m not even saying you have to get involved if you don’t want to. But the two of you are important to Mark and me and it would be great if you could at least be friends.”

Juliette nodded as she zipped the jacket closed over her bare chest. “I’ll give that a try,” she said at last, and we turned in unison to leave my room.

Lochlan was waiting for us by the back door. He looked Juliette up and down, his eyes staying for a moment on her bare feet before he looked up again, saying, “What, no shoes?”

“Ain’t gonna need ‘em,” she said, breezing by him.

Loch looked at me. “I sure hope she knows what she’s doing,” he muttered, and followed her out the door.

When we were all in his Escalade, Juliette sat forward, asking, “You going to be alright to drive? It’s getting lighter outside.”

My brother glanced up through the windshield as he turned the key in the ignition. “Your concern for my welfare is overwhelming, but unnecessary, considering I just
chugged a quart of blood. I’ll be awake a while yet.”

“Loch, have you ever created a blood bond?” I asked, interrupting them.

He looked at me.
“A few times.
Why?”

“You ever tried to find anyone you bonded to? Because I haven’t,” I replied.

Loch maneuvered a three-point turn in the wide parking space of the driveway so that he could pull directly out. “You have to concentrate on the person you want to find. Believe it or not, it helps to close your eyes and imagine the taste of his blood.”

“Won’t she want to drink his blood if she starts thinking about what it tastes like?” Juliette asked.

He grinned at her over his shoulder. “Why do you think it helps? Besides, I don’t imagine Mark will protest her having a sip.”

I leaned my head back against the headrest and ignored them, closing my eyes and remembering the last time Mark and I had made love. No, wait… I hadn’t bitten him during that all-too-brief session on the kitchen table. When was the last time I had bitten him before that?

Oh, right: yesterday morning in the wee hours, after the dozens of firemen and police had finally left my farm, the barn in ruins and the animals dead, and I had needed the comforting reassurance of physical intimacy to remind me that I was still alive. I’d been rather savage that time, had taken more than I usually did, but Mark had not complained even once. It was as if through the metaphysical bond we shared he seemed to know what to give so that I could take. For such a gung-ho soldier type, he was turning out to be every woman’s fantasy.

That is, the kind of guy who gives his woman whatever she needs or wants.

But then, he was also proving himself to be a stereotypical macho man. He had, after all, taken off early in the morning to meet the men who had beaten and tortured his sister, without back-up, knowing it could get him killed. He either had not stopped to think about the risks, or thought that with his specialized training he might just be able to handle them on his own in spite of what we had told him.

I pushed those thoughts aside and concentrated on that last bite, of sinking my teeth into the flesh at the curve of his neck and shoulder, of feeling that warm, rich liquid flow into my mouth. I thought about how indescribably euphoric it felt to feed on him and orgasm at the same time, and then my back arched, straining against the seatbelt as I suddenly and sharply felt the connection form between my mind and Mark’s.

“He’s here…” I said breathily, my eyes still closed. “In my mind, I can… I can feel him.”

“Where is he?!” Juliette demanded.

Lochlan hushed her. “Alright now, Saphrona… Which direction did Mark go when he pulled out of the driveway?” he asked in a low voice.

“Left,” I said, feeling strangely detached from
myself
. “Turn left.”

“Left it is,” said my brother, and he pulled down the driveway, turning left onto the street. When we came to the end of it, he asked me again which direction to turn.

“Columbus is to the right—he met them at the mall, remember?” Juliette said.

“No.” I shook my head and looked at her, finally feeling strong enough to
concentrate on the connection and keep my eyes open. “Go left again, toward town. Mark may have gone to Easton, or they may have met him on the road, I don’t know. But he’s here in
town,
I can feel him relatively close by.”