Three’s a Clan (15 page)

Amber paused, but before the conversation could continue, it all began.

Some days I spent every waking moment cursing the miasma that had melted into my skull. This was not one of those days. The logical thought process allowed me to take a step back and see what needed to be done. I wasn’t letting the emotional beating that would occur affect me.

The sounds of wolf howls and bones snapping just on the other side of where I’d spent the last few decades were more facts falling into place. I could distinguish voices. I knew everyone was out of the house. Almost everyone. One guess who didn’t put himself out on the front lines. Dear old dad wasn’t one of the battle cries in the courtyard.

I was no longer just aware of human and supernatural life around me. I could feel the gardens in a new way. I could feel the life from the flowers and the power of the magical plants that I just realized were planted around us for a reason. We had a garden that was full of power just waiting to be tapped. And there was no one in the house who knew how to use it.

Under the house was a different story.

Mary was leading us this time. And she took us to the place I’d only found after they had carved away the ivy surrounding it. The entrance to hell.

Unfortunately, I could feel something else nagging at the edge of my consciousness. Another thread, another two threads, and I just couldn’t seem to shake them. I tried to build the wall higher. I tried to keep them away from my brain, away from my heart. All I succeeded in doing was tugging on those threads. My allies couldn’t be distracted right now. I had to stop this. So I opened my mouth and said the first distracting thing that came to me.

“I wonder how their blood tastes.”

Mary turned around from her spot in the lead and glared wooden stakes at me. Amber snorted.

Mary came at me with just words instead of burrowing into my brain. “Are you planning on going into a lustful blood rage and killing everyone? Will you be able to control yourself? Because if you can’t, you need to get the fuck out of here.”

If you asked me, our little witchy wolf was the one bordering on control’s edge. My miasma activated and started to bring up images again, but I wasn’t the one pulling up the files. I waved my hands around my head as I felt her remind me what she was capable of.

“Mary, relax.” Amber stepped between us. “Stop the head stuff. If vampires turned crazy at the sight of blood, they wouldn’t have remained in secrecy for so long. Shelly is just trying to separate herself so she can leave with a clear conscience. She doesn’t understand the whole mating thing yet.” Amber barely glanced at me before she pushed open the door that had been hidden behind ivy. “Shelly, they won’t chase you. But leaving would make you an idiot. I know that superbrain of yours makes you one of the smartest beings in existence. But don’t ignore your instinct to listen to your intelligence. None of this matters if we don’t do what needs to be done. So all the life-changing mate crap aside, can you pull the trigger?”

She was asking if I could kill my father. I caught a harsh whiff of the stale blood and urine inside. I didn’t need to bow to any man, and I was damn sure going to help take out the one that did this. “Like I need a gun, but yeah…I can do this.”

Then we were inside.

The halls were wider than I expected. Easily wide enough for three larger than average bodies to walk side by side. I guess that meant it was wide enough for two larger beings to restrain another smaller being and wrestle her into this place. It reeked of blood. Urine and feces were a subtle fragrant backdrop. This was a place of pain and death. I was engulfed by the horrible smell, but that wasn’t what caused my knees to lock and the soles of my puma sneakers to melt to the floor. I felt the blood that I had consumed begin to light up.

Electricity began to run through my veins. This had never happened before. The women down here were being used in our blood storage. As I got closer to them, my body felt like it was a disco ball in a gay bar.

I had drunk from all of them. My body might have used the nourishment days, weeks, years ago, but something in me retained part of their memory inside. The miasma quieted and something far more primal began to take over.

“I feel them.”

Mary didn’t know how to take me, but she considered what I meant.

“You drank from them.” She offered. “You are at least part witch. It could be parallel to a blood bond. I saw the coven do something similar when one of their sisters was about to go on a trip. It gives you a connection stronger than that which is normally bound in a circle. You can sense them from farther away. Maybe you being close to them is bringing about that connection. Can you tell how many are down here?”

“Alive or dead?” Even I winced at my words that time. “Sorry.”

I opened up a part of me that wasn’t used to being awake. I pulled all those little dots of awareness toward me. But the buggers kept moving. I couldn’t get a lock on them.

“It doesn’t matter.”

Amber was right. I tried to shut off those fireflies that showed me the witches. Only I couldn’t. The miasma crept back in and began to catalog the experience. Now I would never be able to get this to go away. Unless I was near them…my mates…

No time. My feet lifted enough to propel my body forward again and we pushed toward the little light that Mary seemed to be homing in on.

It was a dungeon. That was the only description that fit. It wasn’t the fun kind of dungeon either. This was not a flogger and nipple clamp kind of place. This was the old school dungeon, but constructed with modern parts. The musty smell let me know this had been here, under my nose for far too long. Large cinderblock was crudely painted to make it water proof. There were flecks of something else in the paint, but we all pushed forward before there was time to investigate.

The smell was not pleasant. Seeing what was causing the smell went miles beyond revulsion. We all walked past the holding cells into a large room. A drainage table that would be more at home in an autopsy room was crusted over with every fluid that can leak from a body. No one had even cleaned it since Kari’s rescue. I was grateful it was empty this time.

“No one is tied here. They are all in the cells.” Kari was in the entrance of the room. She was covered in some kind of mud. Amber and I immediately stopped breathing. Poor Mary didn’t have that luxury. Mary’s body was convulsing as she ran toward Kari. The heartbeat she held onto was weak. There was so little blood left in her body to move, I was surprised the organ was bothering at all.

“You were supposed to stay at the cabin.” Amber’s hands shook as she helped Mary lean the woman against the door for support. “Why aren’t those vampires watching you? They had direct orders.”

Kari’s eyes struggled to open fully. She looked at Amber. “The stars will save us. I don’t have the strength to help, but I’ll be damned if I was going to miss it. And my caregivers might have been
distracted
after I put something special in their tea. Werewolves aren’t the only ones who howl when in the throes of passion, it seems.”

Mary looked around and grabbed a knife stuck to a large magnet strip on the wall. My stomach turned to think of all the horrible ways that knife had been used. The barely healed marks covering her arms told me Kari didn’t have to imagine. The coppery tang of blood sprang to my nostrils above the other smells as I took a breath to speak.

The knife sliced through Mary’s palm, then Kari’s. The gush of blood from Mary looked like a waterfall compared to the weak steady stream that bubbled from Kari. Mary slapped their palms together and started to chant. I didn’t catch the words. The heady wave of power that exploded felt like a shockwave. It took Mary a few licks more than it should have to seal the witch’s wound.

“Thank you.” Kari said.

As Mary wiped the dirt and whatever else from her bloody palm onto her jeans, I decided I would leave the witchy crap to her.

“You know as well as I do it won’t last long.” Mary realized she wouldn’t get clean and gave up. “Don’t get killed before we get you to a hospital.”

Kari nodded. “You either. I know where everyone is in here. I will work on getting them out. I know my way to the garden.”

“What do you mean?” I had to jump in here. I felt like I was lost.

“The herbs you seem to grow like weeds in this place. They’ve already regenerated enough to keep my strength up, and the strength of my sisters.” Kari scraped her nails down her face to remove some of the goop. “There is a lot I can grab on the way out. With all the magical power down here, there are some spells we should be able to work and help with the battle going on out front. I’ve already fed them what they need to come out of the trance they were under. They’ll be ready to help too.”

The miasma flashed me images of the broken stems in the garden. The small patches that seemed to be harvested irregularly. “You’d been going outside and coming back. You were the one using our gardens. If you could get out before, why didn’t you leave?”

Kari’s eyes watered. The smell must have refreshed for her with the burst of energy from her protégé. “I had to be here. You all have your destiny to fulfill. I had mine. As long as you succeed, I have a lot of work to do. Now go.” Her smile grew. “I think we will do fine.”

A chant began all around. A rough verse in no language the miasma had ever known. It started with just a few female voices, but began to grow. Power surged. Mary hugged Kari, muddy gore and all.

“Before I forget again, here.” Mary put a small blue book in Kari’s dirty hands. “Next time we meet, I would love to not have the overwhelming urge to give you a shower.”

“Your hair is a magnet for the nasty. At least you’ll be able to bathe yourself this time, witchy woman.” Amber grabbed Mary’s hand and pulled her away. Kari turned and walked toward the voices that continued to rise around us.

Amber was leading us. I might have resented that fact, but something told me that this was when she needed to take control. Too bad she didn’t know where she was going. I knew exactly where dear old Dad would be hiding.

“We are going to the west wing, Amber.” I pointed my arm over her shoulder. “He’ll be in his study. He can keep an eye out front and still pack up what he needs to run from there.”

The lady with the stars didn’t turn around. “Shelly, tell me you are ready.”

I thought again about taking the life of the vampire that had given me mine. All I mourned was the fact that he had never really been my father. I was of use to him. Now that I wasn’t, there was no love lost.

Two hot bolts of agony shot through me. Richard was hurt. Not bad enough to take down a werewolf, but I felt his pain. He and those fighting out front put their faith in me. I might have to leave these men at the end of all this. Even so, I wouldn’t let those who’d held me so lovingly die at the hands of a man who’d never spared me a loving touch. The Matheo never deserved my loyalty. I had to protect those who’d earned it.

“I’m ready. But let me go in first. I have an idea.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Rick

That really freaking hurt.

We were trying our best to not kill the living hybrid zombies the Matheo had created. They didn’t listen when we talked to them. They didn’t respond with any emotion in their voice or in their movements. They were compelled. The Matheo had exactly what he had set out to create. He had an army, an army that had been busy bleeding witches in the cellar. Good thing I had a Pack, including a bunch of new recruits who weren’t too happy with the Matheo. It wasn’t easy to call them to battle with something they thought they’d already won against, but when they realized they had the opportunity to take on the man who was using their kind as slaves…they got a little more bloodthirsty.

Even so, it wasn’t a cake walk to tell a bunch of wolves that I wanted them to set out for a war where they should try not to kill those attacking them. Tempers were running high all around me. The Pack was hitting hard, but it was obvious by the lack of fur that they were keeping their word and not going all out.

Trevor knocked two hybrids off one of our newer members, and hopped over their twitching bodies. He pulled one of the smaller hybrids off my back before asking, “How long do you think we will need to keep this up? We are a lot more evenly matched than we thought we would be. The boys are tiring out.” A howl followed by a heavy growl cut through the noise. “And they are getting pissed. This won’t end how we want it too if it doesn’t end fast.”

“We have to give them time.” It was the mantra I kept repeating to myself. As I broke a hybrid nose and sent him crashing backward, my knuckles began to ache. It wasn’t ringing true to my ears anymore either.

“If this doesn’t happen in the next fifteen minutes, they won’t hold themselves back.” Craig punched his way over to me.

We fought back to back. The sound of bones snapping had both of us turning our heads. Doc had just snapped some poor guy’s leg. The hybrid wailed as he fell to the ground. His leg bent forward instead of backward.

The man who I now shared a mate with looked pissed in a way I had never seen him. Doc went through the crowd and broke another three legs.

He looked up at me. “They’ll live, Alpha. But do you feel her pulling away?” He broke a nose and took a shot to the kidneys before I could answer.

“I don’t feel anything.” My fingers dug into the collarbone of the sandy-haired punk that was trying to take a bite out of Doc. I yanked him back until his head thunked sideways against the stone exterior of the mansion. There would be a lot of blood to clean up when this was all said and done. I just hoped that what we planned would keep the bodies we would have to bury to a minimum.

Craig was close, and his words were the ones that hit me a lot harder than the fist that connected with my chin. “You should always be able to feel her. The only way you can’t feel your female is if she is actively trying to block the connection, or if you are.”

“They might be using some kind of magic to close off the connection to cut down on distractions. Can you feel Mary?”

Craig didn’t turn. But I saw the tick in his jaw pulse stronger than usual as he pummeled two men who were coming after him. He could feel his mate. I ducked a punch just to take a swipe of claws against my back. I didn’t have time for this. If I wasn’t careful, I wasn’t going to live long enough to chase after her.

The claws were pulled off of me, and this time it was my daughter’s mate who was fighting beside me. Some of these men and some women who were trying to destroy us were technically Jake’s half siblings. I watched the man aim for bruising blows on the ribs and knees. He was trying to find the spots that would slow them down longest without doing as much damage. The man had my respect.

Jake asked me between punches, “Do you think you can stop her from running?”

That sentence had me distracted enough to let one of these punks get a crack in on my jaw again. I spit blood out before I followed Trevor’s lead and bent the hybrid’s knee like a broken Ken doll.

“Stop who from running?” I punched harder than I should have because I knew damn well who he meant.

“She is shutting you out. She does not think you can handle her. Shelly is not one to stick around where she’s of detriment rather than value. After this is over, I think you and Doc need to work on showing her you want her for more than an orgasm and a pup incubator.” Another hybrid went down in pain. “Show her that she is yours for a reason.”

I had held myself above fighting for a long time. I knew members of my Pack routinely went to the bars in hopes of getting a chance at pounding on a few mortals to relieve a little stress. They usually ended up pounding on each other, because they didn’t want to mortally wound anyone. The poundings we were handing out bordered on mortal wounds now.

Hybrids are tough stock. They were healing fast, so we had to hit harder. We were fighting for something, so we were coming out on top, but just barely. I could feel the strain of my Pack. They were wearing down. I pushed out some of my energy to share amongst them. I was tired too, but my reason was not physical. The Alpha position warranted me more than just station. I had the strength through the connection of my Pack.

Their loyalty fed me like a magical buffet. Now my daughter was carrying my grandchild, and my Pack was fighting against someone who was building an army. We were in the middle of a live blood and guts action sequence I couldn’t turn off.

I grabbed for the connection Trevor and I had with Shelly. It wasn’t the warm heady connection of just hours ago. It was thinning. It was cold, and it tried to push me back. Shelly was going to try and separate herself.

A hard thwack drew my attention. A hybrid fell in front of me, and Trevor shook the impact from his fist.

“Thanks.”

“Anything for my Alpha.” He said, but the words weren’t spoken with the easy smile he tried to wear to soften hard situations. He didn’t want to be my buffer any longer. “Get your shit together, man. I waited a long time for this. I will need your help to wrangle her. She’s worth the fight, and she needs the battle. Let’s stay alive long enough to bring her home.”

The volley of punches I threw felt like I was back in the workout room. I got into a rhythm that let my body use the muscle memory from my usual bag routine. Then I remembered the last time I was there. All of me remembered the last time I was in the workout room. It is not an easy thing to fight with a raging hard-on.

“Fuck. Whatever you are thinking, knock it off! We are going to have to work on your blocking skills. This tri-mate situation brought about a connection with us too. Think about baseball, dude. Or zombies. You know, the things we are beating on.” Trevor knocked down another hybrid and then adjusted himself. Guess I wasn’t the only one who was uncomfortable.

“Sorry man.” I hit harder, but felt companionship that I realized I had pushed away from before. “I got distracted.”

“Must have been one hell of a distraction.” Trevor ticked up the corner of his mouth. “Tell me about it later and maybe we can reenact it with our mate once this is over.”

I wished I was as sure as he was. “If she’s still ours.”

“Even if she’s not, we’re still hers. That has to count for something.”

I went back to beating people bloody again. Fist to face, was a lot easier to understand than this whole mating scene. I tried grabbing hold of my walls again, and my hand started to burn. The magic from the tapestry raced through my veins and my walls slammed into place easily.

Trevor spared me a look, but we were here as muscle, and did what we needed to do now. We fought.