Vampire's Forbidden Territory (Sídhí Summer Camp Series #2) (3 page)

The teens broke camp and started up the trail toward the unique hot spring situated several hours away.

Mitch kept near Katie’s side. He didn’t doubt Jared could protect her, but he didn’t want to take any chances, especially with their natural Sídhí abilities restricted by the silver bracelets the dragons had locked around their wrists.

When she abruptly stopped, he nearly ran right over. Perhaps walking in front of her wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

She craned her neck up, looking toward thinnest part of the forest, which lay ahead and to the left of the trail. “Is that smoke I smell?” Katie asked worriedly.

Fire!

A short green snout, with a huge bulging deformity, shoved its way into Clarisse's face, not three inches from the redhead’s nose. Putrid dragon breath billowed in waves around her head, smelling worse than week-old trash. Smoke hovered around his snout in a gray cloud.

Ugh! Didn't the scaly barbarian know what a toothbrush was for?

“No,” Harry said, the growl in his hateful voice grew more noticeable.

Clarisse blinked, trying to figure out if he had just answered her unspoken question. His next words put his snarled word in perspective.

“Absolutely not, you will complete the plan exactly as outlined. Absolutely no deviation from the plans will be allowed,” Harry said, snorting as a stream of smoke trickled out of his nostrils.

“I'm sick to death of all these blasted trees,” Clarisse said, kicking her booted foot through a thick pile of brown pine and blue furble needles. “If I do it then I want a real bubble bath, a manicure and a pedicure twice a week for the remainder of camp, and the food of my choice for a month.” She wanted to demand more, but his lips had curled up at her second demand, by the third, he was gnashing his sharp teeth.

She didn't know what his problem was; she had only listed the necessities. The minor stipulations were more than her due. If she'd been at home, at her father’s mansion in Clan Valley, she would have added several more necessities.

“Your father is being more than compensated. The last Khr'Vurr assignment given to a Clan vampire was horribly messed up. Your family owes us. The research we provided on the mundane's genetic weaknesses will shave decades off his company's research. Your prissy attitude is offensive. Correct it,” he demanded in an arrogant tone of voice.

She clicked her teeth together, angry the stupid dragon was treating her like a servant. The entire screwed-up mess was not her fault, but an aftermath of her sister’s bumbling mistake.

She hated it, but she didn't have a choice, not if she wanted to save her family's honor. She’d follow the dragon's moronic orders, but on her terms.

Harry sucked in the smoke curling around his snout. The thin stream of smoke disappeared into his flared nostrils and he instantly choked, coughing on his own smoke.

Clarisse inched backward as he started violently hacking up spit. At the first sign of flame flickering out of Harry’s snout, she dashed behind a tree.

His shoulders bunched up and he hacked loudly, a belch of dragonfire shot out of his stubby snout, barely missing her hiding place. The thin stream of bright orange fire hit one of many windblown piles of blue and brown needles scattered across the sunny glen. The dragonfire burst the dry tinder into crackling flames.

She snarled, baring her teeth in fury. If she hadn't moved, she would've lost a foot. The imbecile needed to be put on a leash.

Harry hopped up and down, uselessly flapping his wings as he tried to stomp-out the growing fire. He coughed and hacked-up more dragonfire. This went on for nearly five minutes as he tried putting out multiple fires and get his breath back at the same time.

Clarisse slowly circled the open area that lay nestled among towering trees. Occasionally, she stopped and simply watched the dragon’s antics. Ten minutes later, she was upwind, allowing the stiff wind to blow the flames and smoke away from her. She crossed her arms. Casually leaning against the spongy trunk of a blue furble tree, she watched the tank-sized dragon make a fool of himself. His antics grew more comical as he desperately tried to contain the rapidly spreading fire.

What a wonderful way to begin her day. She hadn't had this much fun since she tricked Eric into believing she was his lifeMate. The stupid twit had actually believed her.

The flames grew bigger, matching the intensity of her smile.

If the forest, which surrounded the Peace Camp, caught fire she could go home. She sighed in pleasure, relishing the tingle of excitement racing through her. Now, wasn't that a wonderful thought?

Remembering where she slept last night, she chuckled. The temporary camp was downwind, along with the teenagers she had been forced into sharing her summer with. Getting rid of her cabin mates was even more exciting than burning down the main camp grounds.

If her luck held out, those stupid teens would be caught in the blaze. Sídhí healed from almost any injury except beheading and burning to ash. She grinned, knowing the flames might take care of all of her problems. Well, all but two of her problems would go up in smoke.

Her fangs glinted in the sun as she laughed. Her only regret was Katie and Jared. The two people she really wanted burned to a crispy critter weren't at the small camp.

Blue Bertha

Katie sniffed the air. She hadn't smelled any smoke in several hours, but she kept checking. A forest fire was the last thing they needed.

She glanced at her fellow hikers, Jared’s little sister Emily and his cousin Nick were in the very front. Sarah was third in line and glaring a hole in Nick’s back.

Katie didn’t know what had happened, but Nick and Sarah were giving each other killer looks. The last time she’d seen them together, Nick acted like a love-sick puppy, like he desperately wanted Sarah as his mate. Katie couldn’t imagine what had happened between the two, but it must’ve been a major fight.

As if that wasn’t enough drama, Katie was surprised to meet two new cabin mates. The girls seemed nice enough, but Katie knew looks could be deceiving. During the Great War, shapeshifters had been part of the Dhark Empire. Rabidly loyal foot soldiers that attacked anyone their dhark overlord commanded them to kill.

Brianna, the taller of the two girls had golden blonde hair cut in a chin length bob. She was as distant and brooding as a mountain top. The sullen shifter rarely talked, but when she did speak, it was always to her companion, Beth.

Beth was Brianna’s total opposite. More than a few inches shorter than Katie, Beth reminded Katie of a kitten, all claws and spit fire. She also had a much curvier frame with honey and chocolate streaked hair that fell to her hips in curls and waves.

Mitch made his dislike of shifters blaringly obvious. Rarely a minute passed without him snarling at the shorter girl. His remarks grew sharper and increasingly antagonistic as the morning went by.

Beth gave, as good as she got. Her snarky remarks about Mitch’s stupid humor had Katie struggling not to laugh.

The day moved ahead and the two bickered back and forth.

Katie was a few steps in front of Jared, who was last in line, as the group made their way toward Blue Bertha, their overnight destination.

According to the brochure Emily dug out of her backpack, Blue Bertha was an odd twist of nature. The hot spring itself wasn't unusual since the entire mountain area was dotted with caverns and hot springs. No, the weird part was the odd colored water.

The natural hot spring, sat way below the surrounding mountains in a deep valley. The water bubbled up through layers of earth, finally pooling in a rocky crevice near the Basilisk Nature Preserve. The unique spring lay within the largest known concentration of naturally growing blue furble trees. Perhaps its location was what made Bertha so unique.

Hikers and scientists alike continued scratching their heads in confusion over Bertha and the weird blue water she produced. Not blue like normal water, but neon blue, a vivid turquoise that glowed in the dark.

The brochure warned campers not to drink the water, but that's all it said.

Leave it to the dragons not to provide a straight answer and shout dire warnings at the same time. She should be familiar with the dragon’s behavior by now. The Scaled Arrogant Ones never explained anything, but expected everyone to jump and obey.

Katie glanced around. The trail looked no different than a dozen others with its familiar mint bushes, sky-reaching furble trees, and tall markles with their odd, red finger-like growths wiggling out the top of each bamboo-like chute. The hike was very peaceful, rather boring after the excitement of the last week.

Much later, she regretted her complaint about being bored.

The hillside quickly lost its thick vegetation, and the hot sun beat down on them. The path became very steep, nearly unmanageable. Jared stayed behind her, giving her the occasional helping hand whenever she needed it. It was mid-morning by the time they reached a split in the trail. Drenched in sweat and breathing hard she was ready for a break.

Someone needed to remind her why she agreed to rejoin her fellow cabin mates. The answer was totally beyond her understanding. She started to ask Jared that exact question, when she felt his humor tickling the edge of her mind.

Out of pure stubbornness, she remained quiet, trying to slow her gasps down to manageable deep breathing without anyone noticing her actions.

Jared chuckled. Sliding his hand into hers, he gently pulled her closer.
“Use me to rest against, Mia Cara. Less than a week of hiking will not get you in shape. Anyway you're only a few days past puberty.”

She relaxed against him. For once, pleased when he didn't keep his arms wrapped around her. She worriedly glanced into his smiling face. She wondered if she'd let her mental shields slip around the others.

“Am I leaking?”
Katie asked, nibbling her lower lip in worry.

“No, love, not at all. I know how important that is to you. I would've warned you if you had of.”
He kissed her temple.
“I didn't need to hear your thoughts when I could feel your growing disgust each time we had to struggle up a rough patch.”

She grinned at his tongue-in-cheek words.
“You mean when
I
struggled up a rough patch.”

He grinned, rubbing her arm in what she'd learned to connect with his attempt to comfort her. He usually rubbed circles around her back, but the big red backpack was in the way.

Katie wistfully looked toward the trail. The narrow, dirt path split, one part going up the rocky mountainside, the other part dropping into a tree crowded valley. From the raised voices, she concluded they might be stuck under the hot sun for who knew how long.

Six bullheaded teenagers gathered around the splitting trail. The first few words had been simple comments. The teens soon dropped the appearance of having a civil discussion and started arguing.

The group stood in a loose circle. Several sported clenched hands. Rumbling growls merged with heated words. The topic of the argument was ridiculous.

“Look Mutt, we can’t go up the mountain,” Mitch insisted, glaring at Beth. “The trail is off limits and probably for a darn good reason like a werewolf nature preserve or something, not that you wouldn’t fit right in with your furry kin folk.”

“Look moron, shifters are not related to werewolves. Anyway, if you’ll just look at the map you’ll see those warning signs are wrong,” Beth argued, waving her hand toward the map Nick studied. “Obviously, halflings are denser than concrete, because your head is so thick you’ve forgotten the meaning of common sense.”

Katie heard Jared chuckle softly.

She didn’t blame him. Six near-adults couldn’t agree on which trail to take without squabbling like five-year olds. Katie shook her head in disgust. Leave it to her cabin mates to make a simple decision difficult.

Mitch wasn’t helping matters by insulting the shapeshifters. She knew he didn’t trust them, but his over-the-top reaction was too much. She just didn’t get his spine-stiff anger. He loved teasing people and tried his best to get a rise out of them. His aggression toward Beth was different.

Katie could literally see anger reflected in his green elfin eyes each time he looked at Beth. It was like the young shifter had killed Mitch’s puppy or something. Weird.

Katie glanced past the group of shouting teens, her eyes following the mountainside trail. The nearly unmanageable path continued its steep climb up the mountain. She really didn’t want to continue up that path. The upper route was bare of vegetation except for the occasional shark plant or scrubby weed. There was not a single shade in sight.

The lower route, on the other hand, was thick with trees and undergrowth; shade, pure wonderful gloom filled the view. The shade-drenched trail also had the dragon’s stamp of approval.

Relief filled her, because all the red warning signs covered the steep trail going up the mountainside. She stepped toward the lush valley, trying to see down the trail that disappeared beyond a screen of thick trees.

Sarah grabbed Katie's arm, quickly pulling her away from the valley and all that wonderful cool shade. “No,” Sarah said firmly, “stay away from there.”

Jared instantly growled at Sarah.

The dangerous vampire glanced at Jared and slowly released Katie’s arm, raising a single elegant eyebrow above her bloody red eyes.

Katie sighed in acceptance, realizing Jared would've snarled at his own mother if the woman had grabbed his mate. She didn't know if Sarah understood that or not, but from the slight twitch of rosy lips and the twinkle of humor filling her blood soaked eyes, she did.

“Something doesn’t feel right,” Sarah said quietly. Stepping around Katie, Sarah sniffed the air.

Katie didn't think Sarah would be able to smell anything. She felt a faint breeze, but the warm air was blowing from the wrong direction, not from the valley. All Katie could smell was a trace of smoke and the faint scent Clarisse left behind as she went down the dirt packed trail.