A Cursed Bloodline (WG 4) (7 page)

He had kissed me, and within moments had me writhing in pleasure. I rolled onto my stomach and gripped my pillow against me. I missed Aric—not just the intimate moments between us, but how he made me feel. In his arms I’d never known fear.

Celia?
Aric’s voice whispered in my head.

I scrambled to my feet and stilled, my eyes scanning the room. Through our bond as mates, Aric was communicating. They were more than just words; his feelings attached themselves to his verbiage. I felt his torment, just as I knew he felt my longing and hurt. And yet unlike a phone conversation, it didn’t appear as though we could talk back and forth. It was more like our deepest emotions transferred to each other’s soul.

The phone rang before I could panic about how much he knew.

“Hello?”

Anara snarled on the other line. “Break the bond.” My blood pounded through my veins and into my skull. I couldn’t speak. Anara, though, had plenty to say. “Aric’s yearning for you is so desperate, I can sense it as his Elder. It sickens me to feel your presence. Break the bond.”

My claws protruded. “I don’t know how.”

“You will find a way or you shall suffer. You have two days.”

My phone shattered in pieces when I threw it against the wall. “As if I’m not suffering enough, asshole!”

I unwittingly
changed
into my tigress form and paced for the next half hour. It helped. My inner animal dealt with stress far better than my human side.

Someone knocked on the door leading out into the garden. Within moments Shayna poked her head into my bedroom. She took in the shattered phone and her sister the golden tigress, but without missing a beat, she skipped in fearlessly.

“How’s it going, Ceel?” Shayna hugged my neck and scratched behind my ears. I purred and dropped to the floor. “Koda loves his ears scratched, too—when he’s a wolf, I mean.” She chatted about her life, the weather, and Taran’s plans to set Hank aflame if she caught him near Emme. Gruesome details aside, it was the distraction I needed. I licked her hand in appreciation. “You’re welcome, dude.”

She rolled on her back and she used my belly for a pillow. “Celia, we’re all meeting at the house tonight for dinner. I’d really love it if you’d join us. Aric won’t be there. I promise he won’t.”

Aric’s name made me cringe. Not just because of how I treated him, but also because I didn’t know how much Anara suspected. She moved when I stood and
changed
back. “I don’t feel much like socializing, Shayna.” I yanked on a thong and bra and pulled a stretchy T-shirt over my thick hair. I fastened my skinny jeans and paused, knowing they wouldn’t fit me in a few weeks. I was thin and muscular. My pregnancy wouldn’t be easy to hide once I began to show.

Shayna flung an arm over my neck. “Then what do you need, Ceel? Tell me. I just want to help.”

She was trying. Lord knows they were all trying to reach me. So against my better judgment, I reached back. “A milkshake would be nice.”

She smiled. “Can I drive?”

—

Shayna tore out of Misha’s driveway like her tiny butt was on fire. Her excited “woo-hoos” sent Emme into a tizzy. Despite Emme’s protests in the form of shrieks, Shayna refused to slow down. She took the curves along the back roads like a band of crazed knife-wielding clowns were on our tail.

Emme screamed at the top of her lungs. My baby didn’t like the ride any better. On the last turn out of Tahoe City I stuck my head out the window and threw up.
So much for lunch.

Shayna pulled the car over. “Oh, Celia! I totally forgot about your concussion. I’m so sorry.”

I slumped over the door. “Maybe I should just head back to Misha’s.”

“No, we finally got you out.” She threw her palms out in surrender. “I’ll tell you what, Emme can drive.”

At that moment, Emme wasn’t driving anywhere. She crawled out of our SUV on her hands and knees and puked into some poor dwindling bush. Shayna’s driving had that effect on people. Shayna yanked old napkins out of the glove compartment and rushed to her side. I stepped out just to breathe in the cool dusky air. Ice cream with Shayna was clearly a bad idea.

Shayna handed Emme the wrinkled bunch of napkins when her
Star Wars
ringtone blasted from her back pocket. She reached for her cellphone. “Hello?”

“Shayna, it’s Aric.”

My head whipped in her direction. Oh, crap.

“Koda said you went to see Celia.”

Shayna glanced at me. “Yes. I’m with her now.”

My nerves were already shot from the car ride, but when Aric didn’t speak right away I knew he was going to ask for me.

“I’m not trying to put you in the middle, but I need to talk to her. Please put her on.”

Shayna walked toward me with the phone outstretched in her hand. She slowed to stop at my glare. “Celia, please talk to him,” she pleaded. “He’s already been hurt enough. Don’t add to his pain.”

Nothing she could have said would have felt more like a betrayal. I stormed down the main road leading back to Misha’s estate. Shayna bolted after me. “Celia, you don’t know what he’s going through. He and Koda are a mess—”

I whirled around and screamed at her through my protruding fangs. “Damnit, then why aren’t you with him? Go to your husband and leave me the hell alone!”

She dropped her hands to her sides. “I want to help you.”

“You can’t, Shayna. Go home. There’s nothing you can do for me.”

Shayna grabbed my arm when I turned to leave. Big mistake. I wrenched my arm and flung her across the asphalt on her back. Emme shrieked. Initially Shayna just lay there stunned. But when she stumbled to her feet, tears streamed down her pixie face. “What’s wrong with you, Celia?”

What was wrong with me? If Koda hadn’t transferred his healing abilities and some of his werewolf strength to Shayna, I could have killed her. I
changed,
guilt-ridden that I’d hurt my kind and perky sister. My paws dug into the ground and launched me into a rapid sprint. I ignored my sisters’ pleas to stop and raced forward, back to the land of the undead.

At the speed my tigress propelled us, it didn’t take long to return to Misha’s estate. The vamps at the gate immediately let me in. Normally I would have jumped the whole thing, but I was going too fast and lacked the focus I needed to land safely. I couldn’t risk harming my baby. I needed to keep my little one safe, no matter what.

I threw some clothes on in the guesthouse and crawled back into bed, suddenly weary with exhaustion. I awoke a while later to the aroma of one of my favorite things, Bren.

Danny had introduced us to Bren years ago when my sisters and I were still new to Tahoe. I didn’t like him at first, but it didn’t take him long to charm his way into my heart and become one of my best friends. He snuggled against me, spooning. “Celia, we’ve been in bed together so many times, when will you come to your senses and bang me?”

My life sucked, my heart was breaking off in chunks, and the lives of those I loved hung by my fingertips, and yet as always, Bren made me laugh. He turned me around and greeted me with his good-humored face and bright blue eyes.

I stroked his soft beard. “What are you doing here?”

“Everyone thinks you’re losing it and they sent me here to gauge your loony meter.” He shrugged. “You look fine to me.” His eyes wandered down my body. “Hmmm, actually you look pretty damn fine. How about a quickie?”

I climbed out of bed. “How about dinner instead?”

Bren rolled on his back and tucked his hands behind his head. “Your sisters want us to eat back at your old place.”

My smile faded. “I’m not going there.”

Bren examined me carefully. “You’re not going to tell me what’s wrong. Are you, kid?”

There was no point in pretending with Bren. “No,” I said simply.

He stood and stretched like he didn’t care, but I knew he did. “How about Café Fiore, then?”

—

We exited the restaurant almost three hours later. I didn’t speak much, and let Bren do most of the talking. The path I’d chosen hadn’t allowed me to spend much time with him over the past year. So I’d sat and listened to my friend’s stories while he worked to get me to smile.

Bren slung his arm around me as we walked out into the brisk dark night. He scratched his beard. “Ceel, I don’t know what’s up. Just know whatever shit’s going down, you’re going to get through it.”

I leaned against him. “I hope so.” He paused before giving my body a little squeeze. My response had worried him. I didn’t need a supernatural nose to realize as much. We crossed into the dimly lit lot several blocks from the restaurant in silence. Bren had managed to take the last spot at the very end. Although it was only eleven, most of the businesses along Ski Run Boulevard had shut down. Springtime didn’t generate many tourists, but come summer, the place would be booming with activity.

The quiet around us grew heavier and our steps overtook any other trace of sound. Bren opened the door to his Mustang for me and offered me a small smile. “No matter what, I’ve got your back, kid.”

I opened my mouth to thank him. Anara’s scent silenced me and hit my nose like a punch. My body trembled violently at the encroaching howl of wolves.

Bren immediately growled, his inner wolf acute to my fear. The aroma of my terror must have overwhelmed the air, because he didn’t immediately detect Anara. I grabbed him and tried to
shift
us into the sewers, but my ability was obstructed.

Bren clasped my shoulders. “What’s wrong?” His eyes widened and his head snapped toward the increasing call of the wolves. “Oh,
shit
!”

Anara materialized from the shadows, solidifying from a flimsy apparition to a dark, imposing form. Bren shoved me behind him, his anger surging. He knew what was happening, he recognized the danger, but he didn’t know enough to run. I fastened my hand on his wrist and bolted, using the strength of my beast to zigzag us around the remaining cars.

We might as well have waited where we stood.

Something wrapped around my waist and yanked me backward like the tug of a thick rope. I slammed into the wall of a building. Bren’s body hit next to mine, cracking and disintegrating the brick.

I coughed and wheezed, struggling for breath. My tigress leapt inside me, arching my back but failing to
change
us. The veins in Bren’s throat strained from his effort to break Anara’s hold. He swore and spat, barely managing to move.

Anara ignored him and strolled toward me with the ease of a man in complete control. “Out having a good time? Even after I gave you a task to accomplish?” He struck me with his power, raking my face and chest. I grunted from the sting of my flesh being sliced.

“Don’t fucking touch her!”

Anara angled his face in Bren’s direction. Bren snapped his teeth and growled.

My heart sank when I caught the glimmer burning in Anara’s sadistic eyes. He was going to make Bren bleed and he was going to enjoy it. “
No.
Leave him alone. He has nothing to do with this!”

Bren’s screams rattled in my head like the roar of a train as Anara twisted Bren’s limbs from their sockets. My horror catapulted when Bren’s wolf failed to heal him.
Jesus,
Anara could keep him from mending.

Misha, help me! Help me!
Anara had blocked Aric’s link to me. I only hoped he couldn’t block my
call
to Misha.

Bren fired obscenities at Anara. Anara silenced him by ramming the barrel of a gun through his teeth. Cold sweat tore down my spine. I knew what was coming, and I was helpless to stop it.

I smelled the cursed gold bullets before Anara pulled the trigger.

I heard my screams overshadow the blast.

And I watched as Bren crashed to the ground next to the remains of his skull.

Chapter Seven

Anara released me. But I still couldn’t move. Disbelief and terror held me in place. It was only when his invisible hand smacked me across the cheek that I faced him. He met me with impatience, like I’d somehow inconvenienced him by making him shoot my friend. “You’ve yet to taste the full wrath of my anger, Celia. Break the bond.”

Anara dissolved into the shadows again. The eerie bays of the wolves followed. I pulled Bren’s limp form against me and wept into his chest. Misha found me moments later, huddled against him, trying to keep his cooling body warm.

Misha knelt beside me and placed his hand on my shoulder. “Get me the Elder Martin on the phone,” he commanded. To Ying-Ying he said something in Mandarin. Ying-Ying answered softly, then bent before me. Her dark almond eyes pooled with tears. She stroked my hair once before squeezing her hand between me and Bren and covering his heart. She hummed then, sweetly, as if somehow calling Bren home.

Ying-Ying whispered something to Misha, who in turn spoke to me. “Your wolf is almost dead. His soul partially remains. If he is important to you, I can attempt to save him.” I nodded, unable to speak. He opened his hand. “Give me your wrist.”

Numbly, I did as he asked. I barely flinched when his incisors grew and punctured my vein. Ying-Ying opened Bren’s mouth while Misha squeezed my blood into him.

“Martin is on the phone, Master,” a female vampire told him.

Liz ripped the phone from her grasp and shoved her away. “Fool! Do not interrupt the master during the blood rising.”

Misha’s lick to my wrist sealed the wound and warmed my body enough to soothe my sobs. Ying-Ying tore open Bren’s shirt, exposing his chest, while Misha bit into his own arm with ferocious aggression.

Misha poured his blood over Bren’s torso, dripping it directly in the center. “Let the blood of my body and that of my bride return your soul completely.
Corpo. Vivo. Mente. Cuore.
” The droplets of blood swirled around and formed what resembled a lowercase “r.”

Misha repeated the process three times more. Each time the symbol he formed grew thicker and darker with his blood. “Uruz,” Agnes whispered. “The rune of strength and healing.”

Nothing happened for a long while. I wasn’t sure how long I lay against the cold asphalt, but an eternity could have passed without my knowledge. No one spoke in the deafening silence until Misha stood and offered me his hand. “My darling, his spirit is beyond my reach.” I didn’t move. “Celia, he has left the earth.”