Embrace the Heat (15 page)

Hopefully Layla wouldn’t lose her mind before
she got to go out.

This wasn’t the first time Simon was struck
by the irony of the situation. Just over a year ago he’d wanted to
be the leader of this settlement. Even now, he didn’t fully agree
with how Connor ran things. In his opinion, Connor needed to be
more cautious, especially when welcoming in new members, human and
vampire alike. Still, they’d come to somewhat of a truce, thanks to
Raven. Connor’s woman was something else and was the cause of many
changes. Before Raven, Shelby would have been left in charge while
Connor was away.

There were days when Simon wondered if he
should pretend to plan a rebellion just to get out of being left in
charge in the future. The fight with Layla could have been Shelby’s
problem. Shaking his head, he looked around the training center
meeting room.

Today, he was briefing the groups going out
the next day. Normally, he did this in the morning, but Shelby had
asked that they do it the night before. Shelby’s request was
strange but not unreasonable. Of course he was more than a little
suspicious of her reasons since she wasn’t on patrol the next
day.

After the last of the teams arrived, Simon
began the briefing. “The teams who went out today didn’t report
much in most areas. There are still groups of humans coming off of
the island settlement. Most of them are on the skittish side, but
they’re unarmed. We will continue to offer them haven here.
Treasure Island is also offering shelter, but only to about twenty
more. They seemed hesitant to even offer that, so I’m assuming they
don’t have the resources to handle more. I’m going to be rotating
two small groups to patrol that area. I’ll be sending one vampire
and two humans in each group. This is where I’m going to keep most
of Raven’s remaining team focused for now. The humans from the
island know them, and they’re less likely to be dangerous if they
see a familiar face. I’m putting Jack in charge of one group and
Norah in charge of the other.”

Thankfully, Rand wasn’t there to create
another scene. There was no need to point out that the two humans
in the room would be on one of the first teams dispatched to that
area.

“We have some scattered attacks being
reported, so I’m going to assign the rest of the teams to scout
around and see if we can find anything. Nothing has been reported
near the island, but we’ve had some near the old Oakland Army base
settlement. There have also been a few in the wooded areas. The
nymphs mentioned seeing vampires that were not from our community
but couldn’t tell me if they were turned or born. These could be
stragglers from the big outbreak last year, but we need to make
sure it’s not a new outbreak. I’m also going to be taking a group
of trainees out tomorrow. We won’t be patrolling, just getting some
risk free field training.”

After Simon finished assigning the teams,
Shelby and Carla approached him.

“I talked to Connor earlier today,” Shelby
began.

Simon knew right away she was about to piss
him off. “About?” He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms
in front of his chest.

“Layla,” Shelby said. “Before you get all
bent out of shape, I wasn’t going behind your back to try to get
you in trouble with Connor or even to get him to do what I want. I
just wanted to get his take on it before I approached you.”

“Connor isn’t even here, so how can he have a
take on it?” Simon asked calmly. Next thing he knew, she’d be going
to Eloise. “Besides, Connor already agreed with how I’m handling
things with Layla.”

“Simon,” Carla said in exasperation, “you
can’t keep her locked up. She’s going crazy.”

Simon let out a frustrated breath. He
uncrossed his arms and dropped his head. “You’re right. I’ve been
wishing that Connor left Shelby in charge to deal with this. If I
let Layla out and she gets hurt, Raven will have my balls. If I
keep Layla in her house and she goes crazy, Raven will have my
balls.”

Shelby and Carla both laughed.

“That about sums it up,” Shelby said.

“I’m open to suggestions,” Simon said and
pushed his hair back. “Believe me; I don’t want to deal with this
one all on my own.”

“The problem is males, right?” Carla
asked.

Simon nodded. Both of them already knew all
of this. “The humans are fine, it’s only vampires. Layla’s putting
off some scent that makes every male vampire want to jump her.”

“Even you?” Shelby asked and poked him in the
side.

Simon scowled at her. “I’m still a male, in
case you hadn’t noticed.”

“With all of that pretty hair and those sexy
lips, it’s hard to tell sometimes,” Shelby teased.

Carla leaned into his side and batted her
eyelashes. “You are just too pretty for words.”

Simon nudged her away. “You are just as
annoying as you were when you were five,” he grumbled. “You two
pests are perfect for each other.”

Shelby moved around to wrap an arm around
Carla’s shoulders. “I couldn’t agree more. We’re both sexy and
smart enough to come up with a solution to your Layla problem.”

Simon raised an eyebrow and waited.

“Send her out with us tomorrow,” Shelby said.
“No males, no problems.”

Simon couldn’t argue with Shelby’s logic. It
was a good idea. Still, there was this part of him that felt like
he needed to be close by. “She can go out with you, but I want to
test this in an area where you’re not likely to run into too many
people. You’ll be on the team I go out with. Before you say
anything, this is the only way I’ll agree to Layla going out
tomorrow. I’ll pull Danny into rotation for tomorrow since he does
fine around her. Since I’m the one handling the trainees, I’ll be
in an area with very little activity. This will give her a chance
to get out without risking her safety.”

Shelby hugged him. “You’re a good guy,” she
said.

He snorted. “Yeah right. Layla probably
wouldn’t agree with you.”

“Layla adores you,” Carla said. “You’re just
too stupid to do anything about it.”

“I don’t do humans,” Simon said in
annoyance.

“Sometimes, you can be a complete dumbass,”
Shelby said almost angrily and walked out of the room.

Carla just shook her head and followed
Shelby.

That night as Simon walked home, he had to
force his feet to move in the right direction. They wanted to go
over to a house that would smell like delicious baked goods and an
even more delicious woman. That woman might be mad at him, but he
was pretty sure she’d welcome him with open arms. His mind traveled
down a dangerous road where he imagined walking into Layla’s house
and crushing her against his body. She wouldn’t resist him. She’d
already made it clear that she’d let him into her body. She would
let him use her to relieve his lust.

As those thoughts hit his blood stream like
ice water, he suddenly became aware of his surroundings. He was two
blocks over from his own home and nearly at Layla’s house.

Shelby was right, he was a dumbass.

Being away from the settlement for a few
hours was a huge relief. Layla was still feeling edgy, but it was
better without feeling like a caged animal.

They’d just checked out some abandoned
buildings looking for a group of turned vampires who had been
causing problems lately. The houses had obviously been put together
after the destruction of the old human city. All of them had dirt
floors, and the wood used for the walls had been cut with crude
tools. From the looks of it, no one had lived in the houses for
many months. The inhabitants of the small settlement might have
moved on to another area.

Many of the smaller settlements moved when
things got dangerous in their territory. The outbreak at the
Oakland Army base would have been enough to send many of those
settlements looking for a safer place to stay. Since some items had
obviously been taken, that was the most likely scenario. Furniture
was often left behind since it was too hard to transport. Several
pots and pans were also left behind. Some makeshift toys were
scattered in the homes. Those items were evidence that they’d left
in a hurry.

Layla was always sad when she came across
something like this. People worked hard to build these little
communities, never knowing when danger would strike and take away
all they’d built. Life was unpredictable. Even with the security
she had living in the vampire settlement, it could all change in a
heartbeat. A simple change in leadership could result in her being
relegated to nothing more than a food source.

Shaking off her melancholy, she took a deep
breath and sighed. With the area clear, they were free to talk on
the way to meet up with the others. Actually, Layla was sure they’d
already known the area was clear. Shelby and Carla weren’t looking
for turned vampires; they were essentially taking her for a
walk.

“Thanks for getting me out of my house,”
Layla said to Shelby and Carla.

“No problem,” Shelby assured her. “Being
cooped up like that would make me crazy. Don’t get me wrong, I
understand why Simon did it. I have to warn you that Connor is
coming back either today or tomorrow, and he’s likely to be even
worse than Si about this. He agreed with me that you should get
out, but he hasn’t seen what you do to the male vampires yet.
Honestly, I think he believes Simon is exaggerating, probably
because I hinted that things aren’t as bad as Simon says they
are.”

Layla let out a frustrated breath. Shelby was
right; Connor was much more uptight about things and didn’t like
disorder. Layla was causing more than a little chaos in the
settlement. “I wish I knew what was going on with me,” she
said.

“Me too,” Carla piped in. “The bitchiness
could probably be explained, but what turned you into every male
vampire’s wet dream?”

“Bitchiness?”

“Yeah, you’ve been pretty nasty lately,”
Shelby said. “Makes me like you even more. Oh, and you’ve been
downright brutal sparring. You’ve always been tough for someone
your size, but now you could take down any of the humans and a fair
number of the vamps. I don’t know if it’s related to your scent
thing because it started a week before that, but it seems like too
much of a coincidence.”

“The vampires go easy on the humans when we
spar,” Layla pointed out. The vampires who were chosen to spar with
the humans never used their full speed or strength with any human
during hand to hand sparring. Weapons training was a different
story because the humans needed practice with actual vampires. The
truth was that without a weapon, Layla stood no chance against a
vampire. “Connor would be mad if one of us got hurt because his
vampires were using their full strength against us when we were
unarmed.”

“True,” Carla said, “but you have picked up
some muscle lately.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Layla caught
movement, “Get down!” she shouted at Shelby who was in the path of
a knife flying through the air. Shelby moved but not quick enough.
The knife caught her in the shoulder.

“I am going to kill the asshole who threw
this knife!” Shelby shouted at the trees.

A dirty band of humans stepped out of the
woods, armed with crude handmade weapons. There were only five men,
and they looked almost feral. Layla didn’t recognize any of them,
and she was pissed that they were throwing knives at her friend.
Just over a year ago, she likely would have thrown a knife at a
vampire too, so she might have been able to forgive them for
attacking vampires. It was wrong, but people were raised to believe
vampires were killers. She was most pissed because these guys had
no way of knowing that any of them were vampires.

“What are you vampire bitches doing in our
territory?” One of them asked. This guy had long hair and a scruffy
beard like the others. All were thin and looked near
starvation.

“I’m not a vampire,” Layla said.

“We saw you move, bitch,” one of them said.
This one had a bow trained on Carla. “Humans don’t move that
fast.”

Layla had no idea what he was talking about.
Maybe he was referring to Shelby or Carla. When had either of them
moved fast? “What settlement are you from?” she asked.

“None of your fucking business,” spat out the
one with the bow.

“What difference does it make anyway?” asked
one with a maniacal laugh. “We’re gonna fuck these undead bitches
and then send them off to hell.”

Layla had her eskrima sticks held loosely at
her sides, waiting for one of them to make a move. Shelby was
bleeding heavily enough that Layla was sure she wouldn’t be any
help in the fight. Carla had a throwing knife in each hand, and she
was eying the one with the bow. If Carla could take out the guy
with the bow, they were good.

The three men who emerged from the woods next
were obviously not with their attackers. These men all seemed to
move with an inhuman grace. They just glided out of the woods,
unarmed and shirtless. Not a single one was bulky but all possessed
sinewy muscles and a catlike grace.

“These are our woods,” said one of the males.
All three looked remarkably alike with tawny hair and amber eyes.
None of them were tall, but they all gave off an air of confidence.
Each seemed to know he was going to win any fight.

The humans spun around in a panic and tried
to attack, but it was useless. The newcomers moved just as fast as
Carla. Layla took out one of the humans herself, surprised by her
own speed. Until the humans had mentioned it, she hadn’t noticed
that things were suddenly moving slower around her. The other four
were down in less than five minutes. The strange men had no weapons
but obviously didn’t need them.

When the fight was over, Carla rushed forward
to help Shelby get the knife out of her shoulder. Layla nervously
stepped toward the men. Something told her they weren’t vampires,
but they weren’t human either. “Thank you for helping us,” she
said.