Vampire's Forbidden Territory (Sídhí Summer Camp Series #2) (12 page)

Katie slid closer to Jared. Releasing her pent-up fear, she gave a huge shuddering sigh of relief that Sarah wasn’t shredding them to pieces. She trembled again, leaning against Jared's warmth. She had forgotten how frightening Sarah could be.

“So had I. I don't envy Nick, not one bit,”
Jared said, giving her a quick hug before the four of them hurried forward, swinging their sticks at the little creatures.

Sarah reached Nick and Emily before Katie did. The young woman batted the last mite away and sunk to her knees beside Nick, quickly slicing the silk cocoon off him. She grabbed the thin, black stinger sticking out of his arm, and ripped it out. Pulling his heavy body toward her, she carefully laid his chest across her thighs, removing two more stingers sticking out of his back. She wrapped her arms around Nick, leaning her head against his. Her deep growl never ceased, slowly echoing across the vast chamber.

Katie hoped the threatening sound didn't bring any nasties to investigate. The way her luck was running, Sarah would port out of the cavern with Nick and leave them behind to deal with whatever cropped up.

Katie silently snarled at her harsh thoughts. She knew Sarah wouldn't abandon them. But she also knew Sarah had too many lives riding on her secrets. There would be no quick rescue, not from Sarah. The young woman didn't dare reveal who she was, especially now with shapeshifters counted among their cabin mates.

Katie tried not to look toward Sarah. She didn't want to intrude on a very private moment, but she couldn't stop the concern she felt. She watched Sarah shiver, clutching Nick tightly against her body. Understanding dawned on Katie.

Sarah had been more afraid for Nick than angry.

Nick was such an idiot. If they lived through this, Katie was going to tell him how big an idiot she thought he was.

While Sarah worked on Nick, Jared did the same for Emily. The young vampire only had one stinger.

A partially filled hole along the honeycomb wall caught Katie's attention and she headed that way.

“Katie,” Jared said in a hiss. Fear for her flashed through their bond. His wide eyes found hers and he half stood to follow her, leaving Emily's lower half shrouded in black thread.

Eyes bright with concern, his fear thumped in her head.

“Sorry, I forgot. Beth and Brianna are with me. I think Mitch is in that tube,” Katie said, feeling relieved when he sent her a soft okay and a gentle surge of understanding.

He wasn’t happy, but at least he understood. And thankfully, he wasn’t insisting on wrapping her in cotton.

Beth reached the partially filled hole before Brianna or Katie did. Her multi-colored hair swung against her back as she frantically ripped chunks of mud out of the hole. The half-built mud lid was two inches thick and already growing hard as rock. Fine, black strands poked-out of the crumbled edge, appearing stiff as wire.

Beth cleared the hole by the time Katie reached her. Together, Katie and Beth reached into the black hole and pulled Mitch out. Brianna grabbed his feet. They grunted at his weight, dragging him to where the others were checking Nick and Emily.

The fine silk cocoon completely covered Mitch. He looked like a black-wrapped mummy.

No matter how hard Katie tried, she couldn’t get her claws to extend farther than half an inch, not that her claws mattered.

Beth beat her to the punch. The shifter extended lethal claws, slender and as long as Sarah's. She rapidly slashed the silk in lightning quick moves. She moved so quickly, Katie feared the girl would slash Mitch to pieces, but Katie didn't see any red streaks of blood. His tight shirt and loose shorts were another story. Tiny slit marks appeared here and there.

The cocoon fell away from Mitch's body. The wait felt like forever. In reality, pulling him out of the tube and cutting him out of the shroud took less than a minute.

Katie reached for the stinger, but once again, Beth was a step ahead of her, yanking the single black stinger out of his body.

Katie sighed in relief and reached toward Mitch.

A guttural growl, deep and menacing stopped her in her tracks. Her hand hovered inches from her twin's shoulder. She looked up at the source of the growl.

Beth glared at her, amber eyes glowing. The shifter pulled Mitch's much larger body into her arms, appearing to shield him. Her upper and lower canines lengthened, and she flashed them at Katie in warning. “Mine,” Beth snarled.

Katie's eyes narrowed. She might feel a debt of gratitude toward the shifter, but the girl was totally mental. Mitch couldn't stand shifters. He'd had screaming nightmares about them when he was younger. He'd have a field day with the girl’s obvious infatuation, but that didn't help matters at the moment.

“No, he's my twin,” Katie snarled back at the girl, baring her own lengthened fangs.

Beth blinked and the glow in her eyes dimmed a bit, swallowing convulsively, she quickly nodded her head. “Sorry, so sorry. I, um, sometimes shifters get a bit possessive after a hunt. That's all.”

Katie nodded in understanding. Most Sídhí races had some really weird quirks.

_____________

Jared didn't waste any time. He wanted his mate above ground. If he never saw the inside of another cave, he'd be a happy camper. No pun intended.

“I’ll carry Mitch.” He glanced at the unmoving bodies of his sister and cousin. “I think Katie and Beth can carry Emily.” He made a big show of grimacing as he glanced between Sarah and Brianna, nodding toward the large body of his older cousin. “Can you two manage him?”

Sarah's ice-queen expression never twitched as she chuckled in his head, mentally speaking only to him and Katie.
“Please, don't quit high school and become an actor.”
Sarah smoothed Nick's hair back, seeming to ignore everyone.

Jared dropped his head to Katie's cheek, hiding his grin as he kissed her. “Mia Cara, call out if you need help.”

“It's so tempting to port all of us to safety,”
Sarah said wistfully, eyeing the various tunnels leading away from the large chamber.

“And put every valley at risk for invasion by the Dark Lords?”
Jared asked. Shock touched his words. He looked down at Katie, fighting the urge to look at Sarah. He didn't want to tip Beth and Brianna off that the three of them were having a private conversation.

“Tempting is not the same as actually doing it,”
Sarah said, glancing at the two shifters.
“Any other time and I'd make those two disappear. Then you two would be the only ones to see me port all of us to safety.”

Jared nodded his head in understanding. Shock and a slight edge of Katie’s fear crept into him through the lifeBond.

“Disappear? I agree, that's a really bad idea,”
Katie said, tightening her hold on Jared's arm.

“Katie,”
Sarah said, sighing with more frustration than Jared had ever heard from the cool-headed exile,
“when are you going to stop thinking the worst?”

“Um, well, I know you're capable of killing. You'd do it in a heartbeat to protect your valley or Nick,”
Katie said, a stubborn tilt to her chin.

Sarah mentally chuckled, but this time the sound held no humor and sent a shiver of warning up Jared's back.
“Very true, but I've never killed anyone who wasn't proven guilty by deed or tested guilty by synth crystal. When I said disappear, I meant stick them in a secured valley only my people have access to.”

“That's a great idea,”
Katie said, grinning. She must've realized she looked silly grinning at nothing, because she turned into Jared's arms. Wrapping her arms around him, she snuggled into his embrace.

He grinned down at the top of her head then glanced at the two shifters, making sure Beth and Brianna still had their heads together, quietly talking as they knelt beside Mitch's sprawled body.

“Normally, I'd agree,”
Sarah said.
“You two are the only ones I've ever hesitated over when taking someone into protective custody, but unfortunately if Beth disappears, it would cause massive problems. We've had spies in Haven Valley for hundreds of years. Beth became Alpha Prime of Haven Valley at the tender age of thirteen, calling a halt to a really nasty brewing civil war. Trust me if that young woman disappears her entire valley will descend on Dragon Valley armed to the teeth and ready for battle. The majority are rabidly loyal to her.”

Beth stood up, hovering over Mitch. “If everyone agrees, let's get out of here.”

“I totally agree,” Katie said, leaving Jared's side she knelt beside Emily, slipping her hands under the girl's lax arms.

Jared nodded his agreement, heading toward his charge. Settling Mitch's dead weight over his shoulder, he grunted. The young halfling was a walking mountain of pure muscle. The boy needed to go on a diet and stop building more muscle. Jared laughed at his thoughts. He couldn't imagine the human garbage disposal eating nothing but salads for the remainder of the camp. That was so not happening, not when Katie’s twin ate enough for three people.

Thankfully, what Mitch's high metabolism didn't burn off his Sídhí genetics did.

Not that all Sídhí were that lucky. Jared's cousin, Frank, bounced from three hundred to two-fifty every year or so. The one time he hit four hundred his mate refused to cook or bake any kind of carb laden food, sticking him on some kind of carb-less mundane diet. The man had howled like a wounded werewolf.

Jared was only ten feet away when he heard Sarah's growl. He turned as quick as his heavy burden allowed, searching the empty cavern for more mites, but he didn’t see any movement in the cavern.

What now?

“I caught Clarisse’s scent,” Sarah snapped as she glanced toward the honeycomb of mud-sealed tubes.

Everyone groaned. They had forgotten about the red haired troublemaker. There were hundreds of little tubes. She could be in any one of them. He snapped his teeth together in frustration. Even if they found her, how could they carry her?

“All of you get out of here. I’ll find her and get her out,” Sarah said, her normally smooth features wrinkled in frustration.

“What about Nick?” Beth questioned her, nodding to the inert figure Sarah protectively stood over.

“I’ll stay,” Brianna offered. “You can’t do it by yourself. You’ll still need help.”

“I was hoping Nick would wake-up by the time I found Clarisse,” Sarah said. She gave Brianna a questioning look and tried talking the girl out of it. “You have a chance to get out of here, take it while you can.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” Brianna said with grin. She glanced quickly at Beth, obviously seeking her friend's approval, before going any farther.

Jared's eyes narrowed at the exchange. He wasn't worried about leaving Sarah alone. Literally, she could blow the top off the whole mountain much less fight a few hundred mites.

The shifters bothered him. Brianna hadn't left Beth's side, not once. He knew the two of them were up to something, but from the calculating look Sarah gave the two shifters, she was aware of it.

Sarah glanced up, briefly smiling at him. It wasn't a pleasant look. Her cool blue eyes glinted with a deadly emotion, reminding him of a hungry mega-griz that had been roused from hibernation a month too soon.

He shuddered at the look. Sarah could give the oldest warrior a bloody nightmare.

“If you hear or see anything, leave Clarisse and get out,” Jared said, avoiding eye contact with the exile. One minute she was laughing in his head, the next moment, her eyes glittered dangerously, hoping for a confrontation. Knowing Sarah's unpredictable moods, he felt that not arguing with her was in his best interest.

He was so very blessed with Katie. No doubt, they'd have their share of disagreements or out-right misunderstandings like earlier, but he didn't need to worry that she would get angry and chop his head off. He so did not envy Nick, not one bit.

He didn’t wait for an answer. He turned and started toward the ramp. “Come on, let’s hurry,” he said, continuing the life-and-death game Sarah had plunged them into days before. Whether he liked the game or not he was now a player in Trellick Valley’s charade.

Katie’s thoughts murmured through her brain. She believed keeping Sarah's secret was critical in keeping Trellick Valley out of the Dhark Lords grasp. That was their top priority, no matter the consequences. Hearing Katie's soft surface thoughts, he relaxed into a slow walk.

He didn't know if he completely agreed with Katie or not. Putting other concerns before his mate went against everything he believed in, but he didn't have a choice in the matter. Without Trellick Valley acting as a buffer between the world and the Dhark Empire, the entire world - including the innocent mundane world - would be enslaved or worse.

“There's no way they can carry Nick and Clarisse,” Katie said, interrupting his internal debate.

He had a feeling she interrupted his internal debate on purpose. At the thought, he felt a glimmer of humor slide through him as he realized she was concerned about him.

Answering her, his lips curled in amusement. “Agreed, we need to hurry and get these two topside. Then I’ll head back down and help them.”

Mite Spray

Katie kept her eyes on her feet, forcing herself to move one more step. She knew if she was tired of dragging Emily then Beth must be exhausted. She gave the shifter high points for not complaining. The girl was half-a-head shorter than Katie, but she didn't seem to lack strength.

They remained right behind Jared, as he led them to the surface. She fretted she might be hurting Emily. She never dreamed how heavy a limp body could be.

The weight wasn't too bad in the beginning, but Emily's dead weight had grown over time. Now Katie really had to clench her hands tightly around Emily’s arm to keep her from slipping.

The image of Emily’s head, bouncing like a basketball on the stone floor, kept popping into Katie’s head.

Jared’s firm stride continued to move steadily through the tunnel. He never seemed to tire, but his constant worry for her nibbled at her brain.