"Where is he?" Tessa demanded.
Asher had retreated to his inner office but left the door open a crack. "He has time."
"It's dawn."
"He just has to keep to the shadows. There's still time."
But Asher sounded sleepy, and Tessa was sure Kane must be feeling the same thing. The clock on the computer in front of her as she sat at Mackenzie's desk told her that actual sunrise had passed nearly a full minute ago.
Her heart was pounding with anxiety and she could barely hold still. But she had to. Asher had told her how to view the monitor and buzz Kane in when he arrived. Now she couldn't afford to be even two steps away from the button.
It was past dawn.
"What happens?" she finally asked.
Asher's reply was delayed. "Worst case? He falls asleep and when the first rays of the sun hit him he wakes up a torch. That's not going to happen. Kane's been around long enough to know the ropes."
"Dear God," she whispered, unable to bear even imagining it. Her entire chest squeezed as if it were bound in steel bans, and drawing a deep breath almost impossible.
Just as she thought she was going to shatter from the tension, she heard the buzzer and saw Kane's face in the camera. At once she hit the button to let him in.
She heard his steps in the darkened hallway and forced herself to wait. He was not moving quickly.
When he stepped into the light, she gasped. One side of his face appeared red, as if slightly burned. Blood soaked his shirt and his pants. Panic and horror filled her. Seldom had she felt the pangs of seeing someone she cared about so badly hurt, and it hurt her more deeply than any physical wound.
"I am all right," he said, but he didn't sound all right. He sounded weak and worn.
She leaped up immediately and went to him, slipping an arm around his waist. "What do I need to do?"
"Nothing. I will heal. I need food. Asher?"
"Here." The door to the inner office had opened and Asher stood there, looking sleepy. "Get in here before the sun gets into the office."
Tessa didn't know how much she was helping, but she kept her arm around Kane as he shuffled into Asher's office. He sank into a chair as if he were a falling stone and leaned forward.
She heard Asher behind them, closing and locking his office door. There were no windows in here, but she was quite sure that ultimately that only protected them from death. They would still need to sleep.
"Blood will help you heal faster?" she asked.
"I'll get him some," Asher said.
Before he could do so, Tessa pushed up her sleeve and held her wrist right under Kane's mouth. "Drink," she said.
"No," he whispered.
"Oh, shut up," Asher snapped. "You know live blood will work faster and we need you fit at sunset. The lady is offering. A gentleman never refuses a lady."
A near laughed escaped Kane. "Have you never?"
Before Kane could retort, however, Kane sighed, ran his tongue over Tessa's arms. She heard Asher go into his bedroom, but sensation utterly distracted her. She could feel the puncture, indeed couldn't feel anything except the sudden wakening of unimaginable pleasure. Never would she have dreamed that feeding a vampire could be nearly as wonderful as making love to one.
His arm reached after just a couple of seconds and snared her, drawing her onto his lap.
"Forgive me, ma belle," he said hoarsely. Then he nuzzled into her neck, she felt cool lap of his tongue, and then everything inside her exploded with delight.
She was helpless to stop him, even if she wanted to. Instead, she reached up a hand to cup the back of his head and hold him even closer. She could hear his heart, could feel hers settle into an identical rhythm, a rhythm that soon pulsed through her entire body until even her womanhood throbbed in time with it.
Her head fell back as she gave herself up to sheer enchantment and passion. He had shown her the incredible bliss of a lover's touch but never had she imagined she could reach the same place when he drank from her.
The moments that passed became as intense as any lovemaking they'd shared. Maybe more intense. Pinwheels of light exploded behind her eyelids, and her body throbbed so hard she knew climax was only moments away.
Her thighs tightened, seeking pleasure to answer the need. Her head tipped to one side to grant him better access. With each pull of his mouth, she felt that pull echo in her groin. She had never known anything this erotic. Never imagined it.
All he did was drink, and her core grew heavy and wet. Her breasts felt as if he touched them; her nipples grew so hard they ached. Simply by drinking from her, he wrapped her in shackles of passion so strong they might have been steel.
Her hips rocked helplessly, her body entered the rhythm of his own heart, beating faster and faster as he got stronger with each mouthful of her blood.
Just a little longer. Just a bit more...
But suddenly he tore his mouth from her. "No more," he said. "I'll take too much."
Still sitting on his lap, feeling dazed by the sudden change, Tessa blinked as she looked at him, trying to understand why it had stopped. Why it had needed to stop.
Then the moment was totally interpreted by Asher. "Here, have a bag. I'm sure you didn't get enough from Tessa, to judge by the blood on your clothes."
While Tessa was still trying to recover her grip on the world around her, Kane took the bag and drained it. Then he licked the last shiny remnants from his mouth and looked at her.
She saw that already the burn was fading from his face.
"I can't stay awake much longer," he said.
"You two take my bedroom," Asher said. "I can stay out here in the office. It's almost as well protected, and I'll be available if anyone shows up
"My mother should be coming," Tessa said. "Besides, what difference does it make who uses which room when you're both going to be dead, anyway?"
A quiet chuckle shook Kane's chest. Even Asher laughed.
"The lady had a point," Kane said. "But if your mother sees what I have done, she will probably kill me the instant I awake."
Tessa shook her head. "She won't see. I'll hide it."
"And the coats." Kane paused, his eyelids drooping. "I left your coats on a rooftop several blocks away."
"So what happened to you?" Tessa demanded. "You obviously got attacked."
"I did the attacking. A newborn. One less to face come nightfall. But the jacket...I don't know if it's a problem." He seemed to be drifting away.
"You two go to bed," Tessa said. "Just give me a general idea where the coats are and I'll have my mother get them. She can have someone bring them here."
Much as she didn't want to, she gave in to the reality and slid off Kane's lap. "Bed," she said. "Both of you. I can keep watch with the help of my pack."
Asher handed her a key card and made her remember six numbers. "That'll get you into my bedroom if you need to wake us for some reason."
"OK. Go now. Sheesh, the two of you are dead on your feet."
But after she heard the dead bolts thud into place, she stood there feeling very alone and very afraid. She had some idea of Kane's incredible strength. That a newborn could have injured him filled her with horror, enough to make her mouth go dry.
She reminded herself that Kane had come back alive and in one piece. Despite this knowledge, she stood swaying for a few moments, trembling a bit as she tried to deal with what had happened and what might have happened.
And dreading what would happen as soon as her pack smelled her.
There was a shower in the front office of Mackenzie's bedroom. Tessa took advantage of it, scrubbing herself thoroughly. She found fresh clothes in the bag she'd packed when she left her apartment. She even used alcohol to wipe the tiny wounds Kane had inflicted before she covered them up. Everything she could do to lessen the odors of Kane and of his having drunk from her.
She stared at the pricks on her wrist and her neck, though, wondering why they weren't healing yet. She was used to having her wounds heal swiftly, and small ones in very short order. These remained, like marks. Something about vampire bites?
She had healed from the attack by those four vampires, but perhaps it had taken longer than usual. How would she know? She had never really had an opportunity to assess her wounds that night. She just hoped these marks vanished entirely before her mother arrived. There was no question in her mind that Danica would smell them as long as they remained.
She settled on the couch in the front office to nap as much as she could while awaiting either a call or a visit from her mother. She honestly hoped it would be a call.
All she knew for certain right now was that she didn't need to fear vampires until sunset. Now all she had to fear was her own family.
That somehow seemed far worse.
Exhausted, she curled up on the couch and tried to absorb what had happened to her when Kane had drunk from her. She throbbed at the memory of it and replayed it in her mind she was beginning to understand why Kane feared making an addict of her.
Because she already wanted that experience again. She was eager for it. The need still pounded in her blood like some heady drug, and permanent withdrawal seemed impossible to bear.
That realization lifted her from the edge of slumber and slammed her with fear. Addiction. He had warned her, she hadn't listened, and when he was weakened she had forced him to do what he had so far resisted.
Oh, man, had she lost her mind? Looking at the past few days, she could well believe it. She had given her soul to a vampire, and she wasn't even sure he wanted it.
But even upset couldn't win over exhaustion, and sleep found her quickly, releasing her for just a little while from all the questions, fears, and anxieties that had beset her since she was attacked.
She didn't get much sleep. The barred window above and behind Mackenzie's desk that let in the light from the street hadn't brightened all that much by the time she heard the door buzzer sound.
Her heart skittered into high gear and she pushed herself up from the couch, hoping against hope that it would be some human who wanted to consult Asher, even though his hours were clearly posted outside.
Rubbing her eyes, she staggered to the desk and looked at the view from the outside security. It was Danica, bundled almost like an Eskimo.
She pressed the button to talk. "Mom?"
"Yes. Let me in, Tessa."
"Just you?"
Danica sighed. "Yes. What's going on?"
"I just wondered." Stupid question. Of course, it put her mother on alert. But she wanted to know how much would be facing. She pressed the buzzer, glimpsed the top of Danica's hood as she passed the camera then watched the door close.
Danica arrived in the office seeming to radiate cold from outside. Her parka was made of old wolf pelts and fur, from wolves who had died of natural causes in the past. No lycan ever killed a wolf if it could be avoided, but when they died their pelts were treasured by those who found them.
She also carried Asher's and Tessa's coats. "What were these doing out there? We found them when we were tracking."
"Kane had to kill a newborn at dawn. He dropped them and didn't have time to go back for them."
"Ah." Danica tossed the on the couch. "And you. What is going on with you?"
"Asher brought me back here while Kane laid the trail."
Danica sat in a chair facing Tessa across the desk. "And you've been left to guard on your own?"
"What do I have to guard? The vampires are out of action until sunset."
"Which means you and I get to talk without inhibition for the first time since this began."
Tessa tensed again. When her mother started talking like that, something unpleasant was about to come up.
"You smell different," Danica said.
"I'm hanging out with a different crowd."
"You were hanging out with a different crowd two nights ago. No, you smell different. Not like us any longer."
Tessa tried to keep her breathing regular, her pulse rate down, but she was sure she didn't succeed. "I haven't changed, Mom. I'm still me."
"But you've done something you shouldn't have." She sniffed several times. "Oh, Tessa, I told you not to let him take your blood."
"He was injured! He needed it!"
Danica frowned, her eyes saddening. "You can't become one of them."
"I won't."
"But you're halfway there. You let a bloodsucker take your blood."
Tessa's throat tightened. "Kane needed it."
"His scent not only clings around you now, it's in you. You smell more like one of them now."
"But I'm not. I'm the same Tessa I've always been. A lycan who isn't lycan, a human who isn't human, a shape-shifter who can't shape-shift. I am not a vampire."
"I know. I can tell. But you're so very close right now."
"I did what I needed to do. For me, Mom. For me."
"Is that where your path lies now?"
Tessa felt her mouth tremble. "I don't know," she whispered. Then she added more strongly, "Kane doesn't want me that way. He's made that clear. So I just did what I needed to do to help him heal. Is that so wrong?"
Danica didn't answer for a long moment. "Perhaps not under the present circumstance. But take care you go no further. Right now it's going to be hard enough to control the pack if they smell you."
"Then let them smell me right now. Let's get this over with."
Danica shook her head. "No. Not now. The smell may fade by dark fall and we have a serious problem to deal with. I've called in more of the pack."
Tessa gripped the edge of the desk, tensing. "What's going on?"
"We tracked those rogues last night. They followed the trail your friend left to the edge of town. It was a good trail, and I think they'll follow it tonight. But I left some of your cousins behind to watch the city. There are more vampires now."
Tessa drew a shocked breath. "How many? Newborns?"
"I can't tell a newborn from an adult by scent alone. We counted sixteen. We may be able to get rid of some of them before dark fall."
"Mom, you've got to be careful. Vampires can wake up to defend themselves even from their death sleep."
One corner of Danica's mouth lifted. "They can't hide from the sun."
"But they're already hidden."
"We can use mirrors. The sun will be on them before they know we're coming."
For the first time in hours. Tessa felt like smiling. "I like that. How many of them can you get?"
"I'm not sure yet. Some have been much cagier in hiding themselves. Others are barely protected. And we're not absolutely certain there are only sixteen."
Tessa nodded. "I'm going with you."
"I told you to wait until the smell in your blood fades."
Tessa shook her head. "I have to do this. And the pack is just going to have to get used to it or tear me to shreds." She lifted her chin. "There are some things I need to do, Mom. And you need to understand that."
"I understand at least a little when you chose to leave us for life as a normal. It seemed to me you would be happier, and you haven't been happy for a long time. But I'm not sure I can condone this path you've chosen."
"I haven't chosen anything," Tessa said hotly. "I was almost killed by bloodsuckers. Other bloodsuckers have saved me and protected me. But I am damn sick of being baggage!"
Danica was shocked. "Language!"
"I have some more bad human words if you want to hear them. The point is I have as much stake in this as anyone, and I'm not going to be shoved into a corner because you, the pack or the vampires think I'm useless and weak."
Danica's frown deepened. "You know how some of your cousins are."
"They need to grow up. We're facing a threat and it's not just a threat to vampires and humans. You don't want to live in a world where vampires run everything. You couldn't move far enough away to find peace. We made an alliance, and whether they like how I smell. They'll just have to live with it."
"Some things are instinctual."
"And others are learned. Judging by the way I've changed my thinking it's my opinion that this response it learned. It's also my opinion that things have changed. Until the last few days, when was the last time any lycan actually talked to a vampire? I know what Kane said about is?"
"And that was?"
"That he had absolutely no interest in us unless we threatened him. Neither Asher nor Soren seemed in the least disturbed that I'm lycan. The only one who was disturbed was the human who works for Asher, Mackenzie, and she got over it fast. So maybe it's time to make peace."
Danica lowered her head, clearly thinking. Finally, she sighed. "I don't know. Things are different now from the past, I'll agree. In the past, we objected to the bloodsuckers taking unwilling mortals, and when they did, we sometimes intervened. You know we have our own idea about what is fair prey, and humans are not. We may share different shapes, but we share the same hearts and minds as humans."
"Yes."
"Maybe the bloodsuckers have evolved."
"Then maybe we should, as well."
Danica gave her a piercing look as if she could read Tessa's heart and mind. "All this talk of peace will give the pack indigestion. Let's just start with dealing with our common threat."
"And letting me help."
"Before you help, I'm going to bring you a new wolfskin jacket. That parka of yours smelled entirely too much like a certain bloodsucker. We need to get through the first half minute without you being killed. Time enough to reason to reassert."
"All right. But where can you get me a jacket"
"I brought an extra. In fact, it's yours, the one you left behind." Danica smiled wistfully. "I guess part of me hoped you'd come home with us. I see that is not to be. I'll be back as soon I can."
"And I'm going to help, right?"
"Yes, daughter, you're going to help. I just hope your father doesn't blow a gasket."
Tessa didn't bother to argue that she was an adult now. In the pack, being an adult meant accepting your place in the hierarchy and obeying orders. Defying her mother was defying that order. It put her squarely outside the pack in more ways than just her order.
Once again she felt that grief that she would never, ever be a true member of her pack. But it was an old grief, a bittersweet one in a way, one she had fully accepted when she'd made her decision to move away and live life as a normal.
Life as a normal? She didn't know whether to laugh or cry at that thought. Certainly she'd been normal for only a few months. Look at her now: fallen in with a bunch of bloodsuckers, making her own mother upset at every turn, possibly facing the hostility of the pack she loved as much as life itself.
That was normal?
Danica returned around noon. The storm had given way to a day of nearly painful brilliance as the sun glittered off every bit of snow from a cloudless, piercingly blue sky.
Wrapped in the wolfskin coat she had once abandoned, mukluks on her feet, Tessa left a note behind and went outside with her mother. Asher had given her the key card and pass code for his inner sanctum, but she doubted he used the same ones for his front door. Regardless, she tucked the card in an inside pocket for safety.
Outside, she blinked in the nearly blinding light of winter day.
"We need to get over the first hump," Danica said.
"Me?"
"Yes. We can't roam the streets in wolf form because we'll attract too much notice, but they're going to meet you in that form at an out-of-the-way place. I've explained, but I can't promise they aren't agitated."
Tessa swallowed hard and nodded. Her mother was right to be worried. There was a level at which the pack acted to protect itself that not even an alpha could prevent. Survival trumped everything, and if the pack took this as survival, she'd be dead soon.
Oddly enough, thinking about her possible death dragged her thoughts straight to Kane. He'd been right to fear a claiming, she admitted. Nobody could be sure that something wouldn't happen to rupture it. If even a portion of what he'd intimated about his suffering over Violet was true, she hoped he'd escaped it with her. She never wanted to long for death because the pain was too great to bear.
But even thinking of him was not enough to stop her. For once in her life, she had to do something in concert with her pack. To be truly useful to them in some way. The inability to do that had driven her away. Now, though she might never go back, she would at least know she was strong enough, sure enough, useful enough to work with them against a threat.
Danica drove them in a huge black SUV. "I thought we didn't own cars," Tessa remarked.
"We don't. We judged one might be necessary this time and we can afford it. It's been very useful, actually."
Of course her pack could afford it. That had never been the question. Because they were shape-shifters, they couldn't live entirely without money; they had human needs to meet, as well. A number of the pack had found human jobs to bring home money and worked them as long as they could.
"Is Steven still running our investments?"
"Who else would have the patience?"
Tessa might have giggled if uneasiness hadn't been growing with each block they drove. Kane would be appalled by what she was doing, and come to think of it, so was she. Had she become so stubborn about proving something that it had led to folly? And what was it that she was trying to prove again? That she could get along on her own? That she didn't need the pack's protection? Or was this all about a hurt little girl who simply had never been able to do what everyone around her could do?
But her inner demons kept pushing her on into more and more precarious situations. Being helpful to the pack, being helpful to the vampires, being helpful to humans...it didn't matter anymore which she did, she just had to do something.
Unfortunately, that was probably the most dangerous state of mind to be in.
"Don't get out of the car until I tell you," Danica warned as they pulled into a deserted alley. Trash was blowing around over the fresh snowfall that appeared utterly undisturbed. The enclosing buildings showed blank faces of brick, and the few windows there once had been were filled in with more bricks.
One of the unfortunately parts of town, she thought.
Not the kind of place her pack usually liked to be. There was an open end down the way, but the pack was nearly claustrophobic except inside their own dens and dwellings. With good reason.
Danica put the car in PARK and tooted the horn once, briefly.
The gathering began, one and two at a time. Apparently they had been nearby. They come from both ends of the alley, leaving paw prints, and stirring up the snow. Soon there were a dozen swirling around the car.
Tessa might have smiled at the sight of them if she hadn't been so nervous. She had seen the pack hunt and kill, and as a normal she couldn't stand a chance. Their restless roving, however, were so familiar that the sight warmed her, anyway. In wolf form they seldom held still. The urge to keep moving was powerful, only occasionally giving way as they got older to the need for something like sitting by a warm fire. And that was something they usually did in human form.
Danica climbed out, gave a whistle and led the pack away from the car. Tessa watched, wishing she could hear her mother, but for now she obeyed as she was always supposed to obey and all too often hadn't. The alpha had told her to stay. No matter how anxious she grew, no matter how much she just wanted to get this over with, this was one time she must behave.
Finally, Danica came back to the car, opened the door and leaned in. "They've found some more. Worse, your father thinks that the most we can burn today will be four or five. That means we may well meet a dozen or more of your bloodsucker friends..."
"They're not my friends. They're rogues." Unfortunately, that slip of her mother's tongue told her a lot and made her heart sink.
"The rogues," Danica corrected herself. "We're going to have our hands full tonight. But at least we can cut their numbers. Are you ready?"
Tessa didn't answer. She simply opened the car door and walked toward the waiting pack.
As she got closer, fangs were bared and growls emanated from deep, huge chests. She kept walking, anyway. This was her family. If they couldn't accept her any longer, then they would do what they had to. Her heart hammered nervously, as she expected death to strike at any moment.
But with each step, she noted a change. First one and then another of her cousins stopped growling. Fangs disappeared. Heads cocked questioningly.
Smell or not, they were facing her change in odor. Dealing with it.
At last she stood only a foot away. For an eternity nothing seemed to move, then the pack swirled around her, smelling her, nudging her with their noise. She took the buffering, recognizing for it what it was. They intended her no harm. They were simply absorbing her different.
Finally, the youngest of them, her brother Corey, stood on his hind legs, rested his forepaws on her shoulders and looked into her eyes. The pack seemed to freeze and hold its breath.
"Hi, Corey," she said. Ordinarily she would have dug her fingers into his ruff and given him a good scratch. She didn't dare do that yet.
He held her gaze, his own blue eyes piercing. Then he gave her a sloppy lick on her cheek. With that, the decision was made. The pack surrounded her again, this time with high tails and grins. Thrilled at her reception, she scratched every neck she could reach.
"All right," Danica said, her tone conveying more relief than she probably realized." We've got work to do."
But of course it was not over. At that moment Luka came loping up the alley, transforming over his last few strides until he towered over her, fur clad but human.
"What have you done?" he asked. For once he didn't thunder. The question sounded almost sorrowful.
"What I had to, Dad," she said with as much firmness as she could muster.
"I may kill that bloodsucker."
"Don't you dare lay a hand on him. I've always disappointed you, so why should you care now?"
The pack froze. Back talking the alpha male was dangerous.
"Disappointed me? When have I ever said that?"
"You never had to say it. Now we have to live with what is. I am not fully pack. I am not fully human. But neither am I vampire. You're just going to have to learn to live with it, Dad. I can't be something I'm not. I have to find my own way."
Tension crackled on the air. Corey was the one who broke it, edging in between the two of them and nudging each of them with his nose.
Finally, Luka reached out and embraced his daughter. "Just don't become one of them."
He didn't wait for her answer before he melted back into wolf form.
"All right," Danica said firmly, "we have no time to waste. Tessa and I will transport the mirrors to our first target. We'll see you there."
The pack took off again while Tessa and Danica climbed back into the car. It was a moment before Danica turned over the ignition.
"Whew," she said.
Tessa looked at her. "It went well."
"Your father was the one I was worried about. He's so damn hardheaded. I was fairly certain the others would come around as long as Luka didn't become stupid with rage. And you know Corey adores you. You practically raised him for me."
Along with quite a few other pups who still weren't full grown. Tessa missed them desperately and hoped that as soon as this was over she could be allowed to go home and see them. At this point, though, she wasn't sure their acceptance of her would last past the immediate crisis. She could only hope.
"Why did you elect to use mirrors?" she asked. "I know if the entire pack attacked them one at a time, they couldn't stand a chance."
"We don't want any avoidable injuries, but most important, we don't want them to guess we're involved. It would ruin tonight's surprise."
By the light of a flashlight and the pack's excellent noses, they found the first vampire in a basement without windows, at the back of a long corridor. He slept against a wall, behind a closed door, looking like a derelict. Only his smell gave him away.
The pack transformed. A chain of mirrors was set up down the hallway with one reflecting light right into the room. Before they focused the beam, Tessa told them to wait.
Figuring the vampire wouldn't recognize her a threat, she gathered her courage and stole into the basement room to pull away the rags that kept him half-buried, as if he wanted to look like part of a trash heap. With every step, she remembered all too vividly how a vampire would overpower her and rip into her. Her mouth turned as dry as dust, and each step was an internal battled. To her relief, he didn't even stir.
Then she stepped back into the hallway. It took the pack less than ten seconds to focus an intense beam of sunlight on the sleeping vampire.
He worked at once, screaming, and tried to dodge the light. Luka, who held the mirror nearest the door, shifted enough to keep him in its beam.
It happened so fast it was hard to believe. One second he was screaming, the next he was flaming. And then he was ash. It horrified Tessa.
"Wow," she whispered, closing her eyes. She couldn't bear the thought of that happening to Kane. Yet it might have this very morning as he fought that newborn. Hadn't he come back looking a bit singed?
She turned quickly away and headed past her pack to the car. She needed to stop seeing Kane in this, she thought as she squared her shoulders. No weakening now. She had demanded to be part of this.
But now she had to cope with it.
So what do you this after a long hiatus??? Tell me what you think in the comments down below