Left for Undead (5 page)

“Okay,” Hunter said, beginning to pace with Shogun.
“What if you tell them your parents are dead, which is no lie.   and
that the bulk of your close-knit family is here in the states?” He waited until
Shogun stopped circling and looked at him. “That, too, wouldn’t be a lie,
because I am here, Sasha is here, Crow Shadow is here, Bear Shadow is here, all
of Sasha’s human team is here.   we could rally enough family, and if
need be we could make sure there were guards.”

Shogun closed his eyes and allowed his head to drop
back, turning his face up to the sun. “I cannot touch her while the moon is in
full phase..   I could hurt her. You know that. We never become
intimate with humans while we’re out of control, only our own kind.  
and she has such a gentle heart.” Shogun straightened and walked away from
Hunter, and then drew in a shuddering breath. “I would have to leave her for
three or four nights every month.   and after my lies wore thin, she
would come to learn why. That betrayal would probably kill her faster than my
own clan would. Any female that got wind of the fact that I had taken a human
as my wife and submitted to a human ceremony would stalk her, hunt her, and if
she didn’t hurt Amy physically, she’d be sure to tell my bride why she could
never expect fidelity.”

“Man.   you don’t know that,” Hunter said
quietly. “Maybe.  ” His words trailed off, sounding hollow to his own
ears. He did know.

“It’s been two months,” Shogun said in a shaking
voice, keeping his back to Hunter. “I would not defile her by taking her before
we were married, just in case the politics forced me to change my mind..  
At least she’d be left with her virginity—you may not understand it here in
this land, but in lands that have traditions that go back for thousands of
years, something like that could have the poor girl shunned to a decent
marriage proposal.”

Shogun let out a hard sigh and then drew himself up,
as though each part of the problem he exposed was more painful than the last.
“And to see if I could honor her with faithfulness, I haven’t gone to where
there are willing she-wolves. I love her. And then I thought, what happens when
she is filled with my seed? What happens if she does become pregnant, with her
fragile, porcelain body.   and I want her? Do I stay and risk harm to
her and our unborn child, my heir, or do I shatter her heart and leave her to
be what I am—a wolf?”

“Brother, these are profound questions that only
someone with the age and the wisdom of Silver Hawk can answer.” Hunter studied
the ground as he spoke, rubbing the nape of his neck. “No matter what you
decide, I am here for you with the full force of the North American Shadow
Clan..   We will always have a home for you, and we will not allow
your home to be overrun or your wife attacked—should you decide to take that
step. But the only other thing I can say is, talk to Silver Hawk and then talk
to your betrothed. Tell her what the realities are and let her decide how much
of this she can bear.”

Shogun nodded and looked at Hunter with a sad smile.
“Just knowing that I have family behind me helps a great deal. Thank you.”

“No thanks every required for being your brother,
man.” Hunter extended his arm to clasp Shogun’s in a warriors’ handshake. “Talk
to Amy.”

Shogun shook his head. “Maybe someday. But she is
young, still in college, and thinks love can solve all of this.”

Hunter shrugged as he let go of his brother’s arm. “I
don’t make assumptions any longer about female logic. But they do know a brand
of magick that we will never own.”

Both men paused, knowing they had just unwittingly
stumbled into the delicate mental territory claimed by Sasha.

“Maybe she would talk to Amy,” Shogun said quietly
without directly mentioning Sasha’s name.

Hunter nodded. “She has a big heart and would help, if
you thought that would be best.” It was a noncommittal response but the best
one he could offer without discussing it with Sasha first.

Shogun nodded and walked more deeply into the
underbrush, leaving just as oddly as he’d come. “Thank you.”

“Be careful, Brother!” Hunter called behind him, and
then jogged to catch up to Shogun.

Shogun stared at Hunter for a moment, his expression
unreadable except for the sadness that haunted his dark eyes.

“We got a strange missive last night from Sir Rodney’s
castle. There are Vampire grave openings happening in New Orleans. The Vampires
believe the Unseelie did it, and their queen is currently at Sir Rodney’s Sidhe
requesting an alliance.”

“And what has this to do with the wolves?” Shogun’s
question was delivered with bland detachment. “We have only committed to ally
with Sir Rodney.”

“True,” Hunter said, rubbing his broad palm across the
new beard stubble covering his jaw. “But if Sir Rodney gets pulled into this
madness, then it could be wrongly assumed that as his allies we’re involved.
Sasha and I are going to try to learn more, but in the meanwhile it would be
best to stay in touch and keep a low profile. So watch your back.”

Sasha stared out the window as she held her cell phone
to her ear. It was a hard thing to do, but she tried to focus. Just before the
phone rang, she’d been mentally juggling a hundred possible scenarios at once.
Her thoughts ricocheted between every conceivable reason Shogun had arrived and
the plausible reality that Sir Rodney was once again under attack.

Now she was attempting to sort through all that while
also seeming thoroughly engrossed in the early-morning conversation that had
caught her off guard. In order to give Clarissa the full attention she
deserved, Sasha knew she had to push Shogun’s sudden appearance after the
arrival of the strange Fae missive out of her mind. But that was only marginally
possible while she listened to Clarissa’s recounting of all the equipment
installation antics and general office mayhem that had taken place over the
last couple of months.

Forcing a smile into her voice, Sasha told herself
there was no need to worry the closest female friend she had by sounding tense
or as though she hadn’t welcomed the call. Truthfully, she missed the entire
team. Even without Clarissa’s call, between the arrival of the mysterious Fae
missive the night before and Shogun showing up on their cabin doorstep in the
morning Sasha knew the little island of peace that she and Hunter had claimed
was gone. It was time to go back to work. More important, it was time to come
out of the lovers’ cocoon and get back to friends and family—the real world, as
she liked to call it.

It didn’t matter that they’d been hunting demons,
getting shot at, or battling rogue Unseelie factions and Vampires prior to
escaping to their little getaway outpost in the woods. Everything had its
season, and the home team was getting antsy. Truthfully, so was she. There was
only so much rest and relaxation her normally hyper system could handle. Not
that Hunter was a bad distraction. On the contrary. The man had a delicious way
of making days and nights run together like a river until time simply didn’t
exist. But still. There was a new government contractor business, Containment
Strategies, Inc., to get off the ground, now that all the equipment had come
in.

The only thing keeping guilt at bay as she stared out
at the beautiful fire red, gold, and neon orange foliage was the fact that
she’d put in time prior to her getaway to ensure contracts got put in place,
supplies were ordered, and her team had a comfy base of operation in the French
Quarter. But she could tell that Clarissa missed her just by the tone of her
friend’s voice. They’d all been through a lot together as a team while formally
working in the Paranormal Containment Unit. It felt weird that there was no
deployment schedule, no brass to formally report to. Sasha felt free for the
first time in her adult life, but that was also a terrifying thing. There was
no regimen, no definites.

A pang of homesickness suddenly washed over Sasha.
“I’ll be home within a day or so.” Sasha gave in to Clarissa’s unspoken
question as her friend finished the long litany of things that had gone wrong
with the initial equipment orders.

“Good, because it’s been a real challenge trying to
keep Fisher and Woods from bouncing off the walls.”

Sasha let out a sigh. “I’ve missed you guys.”

Yeah, it was time to go home right after she made a
pit stop to check on Sir Rodney and his Sidhe. That was the plan, anyway. The
only issue was going to be breaking it to Hunter.

“Well, we’ve missed you, too,” Clarissa said, perking
up. “I know Doc and the guys are going to be so excited. You know you’re the
only one who can keep crazy Woods and Fisher on a short leash.”

Sasha laughed. “Me? Are you kidding? Those guys are
their own brand of special.”

“Well, maybe they’ll chill out when Hunter gives them
the growl.”

“One can only hope,” Sasha said, laughing harder.

“We need you here,” Clarissa added in a dramatic rush.
“It’s like having two big Labrador puppies constantly roughhousing all day
long. Then when Doc pops the choker chain and lets them off the leash to run,
oh.   my.   God. And they’ve totally corrupted Winters.”

Sasha shook her head, smiling broadly. “I can only
imagine.”

“No, you can’t, boss,” Clarissa said, laughing. “But I
am not going to interrupt your Zen by going into the gory details.”

“Something tells me I don’t wanna know.”

“Trust me—you don’t.”

“Well, I’m still glad you called.” Sasha’s tone became
slightly wistful as the full weight of being gone so long hit her. Her team was
her family. Yeah, it was definitely time to go home.

“I’m glad I called, too,” Clarissa said softly.
“Really missed you, kiddo.   even though I know it’s gotta be tough
to drag yourself away from the big guy.”

“Uhmmm.   in a word.   yeah.”

Both women laughed.

“Well, we can’t compete with Hunter, but we’ve got a
great comedy routine going on here when you get back.”

“Can’t wait.”

Again, laughter filled the receiver and the cabin
living room. She was so glad that Clarissa had picked this day to call her;
psychic timing was everything. It had helped keep her from standing on the
porch waiting for Hunter to come back and clue her in to what was going on with
Shogun. But as Hunter was a man of few words, and this seeming like it was some
kind of male-to-male bonding moment, there was no telling if she’d ever fully
understand what was really up. So gabbing away an hour with ’Rissa was just
what the doctor had ordered.

“Well, in the meantime,’ ” Sasha said, not losing a
beat in the conversation, “please give everyone my love. Like I said, I’ll be
back in a day or so. But that also reminds me; I got strange word last night
that Vampire graves were getting opened to daylight. You guys hear anything
about that?”

“Whoa, Sasha.   that’s not something you
just drop on somebody in an ‘oh, by the way.’ If we had heard something like that,
it would have been the first thing I would have called you with—given our
really bad relationship with them.”

“True.” Sasha gnawed on her bottom lip for a moment.
Oh yeah, she’d definitely been gone too long and was slipping. “Well, we’re
going to make a few stops and do a little investigating on the way home.
Something tells me that this might be our next big case—but I want you guys to
keep a really low profile. Seriously. Because I don’t have to tell you how our
Vampire buddies will take it if they think we had any involvement in opening
their graves. Not to mention, there may be possibly Unseelie involvement. I
don’t know yet. But those guys are just as deadly when provoked.”

“You don’t have to tell us twice, Sasha.”

“Good.” Sasha paced away from the window. Man, where
had her mind been? “Make sure you communicate that to the team, especially Doc.
Tell Woods and Fish that playtime is over. They’ve gotta be on nighttime guard
duty. If you see Bear or Crow, make sure you also give them the heads-up so they
can let Silver Hawk know, too.”

“Roger that, Captain,” Clarissa said, returning Sasha
to her old pre-retirement rank.

“Okay.   listen.   you look alive
and stay alive. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“Big hug. I feel better already. Bye.”

“Bye,” Sasha said quietly as the call disconnected.
The more she thought about it, the more alarmed she became. If the Vamps
thought the ice queen had double-crossed them and had somehow gotten Sir
Rodney’s support, there’d be hell to pay—and possibly in the streets of New
Orleans again. The one thing Vampires were known for was swift and decisive
retaliation. And if Sir Rodney had gotten lured into the fight somehow, the
vamps would no doubt assume his allies—the North American Shadow Wolf and
Southeast Asian Werewolf federations—had his back..   “Shit!”

Sasha pushed the cell phone into her jeans pocket and
walked out onto the porch. She needed air. More than that, she needed to talk
to both Hunter and Shogun. She hoped that was what had Shogun concerned. Maybe
that’s why he’d shown up on their doorstep unannounced. Then again, if that was
it, then why wouldn’t he have simply spoken to both of them right on the porch?

Straining her gaze, she tried to penetrate the dense
tree line more than a hundred yards away in search of Hunter and Shogun. No
luck. Part of her mind said to just be cool and wait; nothing was going to
happen at this very second. But the impatient wolf in her wanted immediate
resolution.