[excerpt] (24 page)

Chapter Thirteen

Mid-afternoon, Raven coaxed André out for a ride to enjoy the crisp September air, the sunny skies and his company. She couldn’t have been more content. She had her two brothers, a new family of friends living with her, and life was splendid until she heard Serina’s exigent pleas for help in her head. Raven’s world turned hazy without clouds. “Ands,” she panted, “listen!”

“Listen to what, little one?”

“My head, you dim-wit limey. Listen to what’s in my head. Serina and Lucian are in trouble.” Chills engulfed her, as if she’d fallen within the thrall of a seizure.

The exact moment Lucian’s heart stopped, solemn agony swept through her soul faster than a tsunami devouring the earth and with deadlier intent. This couldn’t be happening, not to Lucian. She would die without him, without her best friend, or confidant, or the world’s worst joker. There would no longer be a reason to laugh...or live.

Without time to think, André jumped from the stallion and caught Raven to his chest. Touching her intensified the visions she witnessed as he merged his mind with hers. Overcome with images of death, he cursed his psychic abilities.

Concern for Raven’s wellbeing weighed heavy upon him. He feared he could lose her as well due to the deep bond she and Lucian held. After a slight struggle with Raven’s dead-weight, André placed her over the horse then mounted himself. Shifting her into his arms, he headed home, praying they’d make it because he wasn’t feeling so great either.

By the time they reached the stables, André was slumped over the horse with Raven crushed beneath him. “Duncan, help,” André barely whispered. He held his head up long enough to give Duncan a shortened version of all that had happened and then he collapsed to the ground, dragging Raven atop him.

Duncan got them into Payton’s room and sent Payton to retrieve the doctor and Father Butler. Not thirty minutes passed, Payton returned with Father Butler and Dr. Jones, both wind-blown, and disheveled. The doctor gathered what materials he needed for blood transfusions in swift fashion. Oddly, he told Duncan, “They both show all the signs of blood loss and shock. Both are pale and unconscious, yet there is nothing to substantiate these findings, no visible trauma.” Dr. Jones touched Raven’s chest with his stethoscope and listened. “Their respirations are irregular and shallow, yet their hearts race like the devil chases them,” he said wearily. “Father, I do not understand the ways of God. I can only see the science behind this mystery. And my hypothesis makes me no sense.” The doctor shrugged his stocky shoulders.

“This is in no way the work of God, Doctor Jones. The evil is so thick it chokes the very life from them.” Father never looked up at him. He focused solely on Raven and André trying to save them. Because to save them meant he’d save his Serina. Nothing or no one else on this earth mattered more.

André fought his way back from an unfathomable abyss and latched onto Raven. He held her close uncaring that anyone saw him weep. The lines of blood that ran into his arm, he tore away. A splattered trail of crimson drops stained Payton’s crisp white linens.

André only just found out he had a family and now, that part of him stolen. Gone, his identical brother. This creature that threatened his sister’s life had to be destroyed. He had to find Serina too, for Lucian.

André whispered to his sister, deep in her mind,
My little beauty, you must wake up. Do not let this monster take you from me. I could not bear to lose you as well. I know I’m not Lucian but I love you
Ray. Please...stay for me.
After laying a gentle kiss upon her lips, he rolled over to face his friends. “I know where Lucian lies, and I know where Serina is. I need help.”

Numb to his very core, Duncan held Raven’s hand. “What do you need from us, André?” He wiped at the steady stream of his tears, never looking away from Raven. Duncan never thought he would have to live through something so traumatic again. First his wife and child, now Lucian and possibly Raven.

Not Lucian, not his best mate, his confidant, his little brother. They grew up together, taught each other about life, and laughed often for endless hours. He loved Lucian and the mere thought of him no longer showing his smiling face, with his ridiculous jokes and sense of humor to brighten everyone’s day,
his day—crushed him.

Raven. My God, what would Duncan do with out her? Her smile warmed him on the coldest of days. Her gentle nature, the way she cared for everyone so meticulously. Her natural disasters in the kitchen, even with the best of intentions...Duncan smiled at that thought for a second then the tears carried it away. His family lay dying in front of him, and he was unable to protect them. Tremors slowly crept from Duncan’s shoulders to his hands, and he started to shake.

Dr. Jones instructed, “Take slow deep breaths, and focus on anything other than Raven.”

With a methodical twist of his head, Duncan gave the man a vexatious glare.

Even Molly scrunched her face with the doctors words. She took Duncan’s hand. “You’re not alone. You’ve got all of us here. And you’ve got me.” She gave his hand a strong squeeze.

Duncan glanced at Molly, and wrapped his arm around her waist. He pulled her as close to him as he could get and attempted a grin that said he appreciated her, but his lips remained paralyzed, much like his heart.

André knelt before Duncan. “Old man, we need to find Serina. She is in grave danger and any time we waste is precious. Somehow, she is connected to Raven, and in order to save Ray we need to save them both. We can do no less for Lucian or for Serina. Payton is preparing the horses as we speak. Please, dear friend, help me save our sister and sister-in-law. We will bring Lucian home to us.”

Too little too late, André realized he probably shouldn’t have mentioned bringing Lucian home, because Duncan growled and pushed himself off the chair abruptly. With one swipe of his arm, everything on Payton’s dresser (books, glasses, and a cologne bottle) smashed to the floor. He stormed from the room, never looking back. André was left on his knees beside an empty chair.

Wearily André stood and strode to the door. He turned to Father Butler. “Please take the women to the church and keep them under your protection. Do not allow them to leave and allow no one inside your parish you do not know.”

Father Butler handed him a cross and a bottle of blessed water and wished him, “God speed, son. Bring my girl home to me.”

****

André, Duncan, and Payton rode in silence, never breaking their stride. Through his and Raven’s link, André reached the area where the ambush took place but after that it became sketchy trying to find Serina since she’d passed out after contacting Raven. André stood on the very ground where Lucian lay covered with snow, but the snow had disappeared, as had Lucian.

With nightfall closing in, Payton reached into his satchel. “Who’s hungry? I’m going to start cooking up my specialty for camping. Any takers?”

“What is it?” Duncan gave him a wistful smile. “I am famished.”

“Smoked pork and beans with garlic. I brought a lot of garlic...You know, just in case.” Payton shrugged his shoulders. “It is true about garlic and vampires, isn’t it? Well if not we’ll eat well and scare the creatures with our breath alone.”

André answered, “I believe the garlic may actually help our breath at this point, not hurt it. And yes, Payton, garlic doesn’t make them jovial over-grown mosquitoes. Their sense of smell is more than that of a bloodhound, and garlic mimics acid. A lot like humans and onions. We turn into blubbering idiots when we cut them up, except we don’t shrivel up and die.”

“Speak for yourself, Ands. I’ve turned out to be a blubbering idiot without the need for the offensive little veggie. Cry, cry, cry...“ Duncan’s laugh had an intoxicating quality to it and André drank it in.

Too close for comfort, the cries of animals cut through the stillness of the night, settling in uninvited.

Payton wiped the sweat from his brow. “What’s that?” he asked as he scooted closer to André. Payton didn’t budge when the taller man threw his arm around his shoulder.

“That, little friend, are some animals mating, some in anguish, and some screaming for their lives. Feel better?”

“Up ’til you said that last part.”

****

Curled in a fetal position and desperate to stay warm in a damp, musty cave, Serina knew the signs of hypothermia, and she had them all. She may not have been able to feel her fingers, but she knew they hadn’t fallen off. Shackled with one short chain binding her arms to her legs, she was stuck in one position and continued to poke herself in the eye as she shook. Her hair reminded her of a mop left outside in the cold—stiff and stringy. Body fluids stained her clothes, leaving her wet and foul. She recognized the scent all too well from working in the morgue, but this time it was her own scent she had the displeasure of inhaling, not some poor dead bugger. Although, soon she’d be the poor dead bugger if things didn’t turn around and give her the happily ever after so many of her favorite books always did. No, this certainly wasn’t the fairy tale ending she’d envisioned, but it did fit
Grimm’s Fairy Tales
version.

Beyond hungry, the growl of her stomach should have warded off anything that dared come near her. Never-the-less, her company for the most part had been some creepy-crawly things she tried to ignore yet she failed miserably because the insects took chunks out of her and scurried off content, their bellies full. “You’re welcome!” she admonished.

The damned wolf left her for dead in a
tiny-closed-in-no-god-damned-windows-no-god-damned-furnishings
, three-by-five-rock abode with a mud floor. The ceiling, if that’s what it was seemed to breathe. The rocks shifted in unison. She’d found out the hard way it was bats when they dropped into the air and filled the enclosure with the deafening sound of wings flapping and screeches.

The werewolf slept curled around her the first night in the cave, kept her warm, even though she detested the physical contact. Then, the bastard bound her so she couldn’t free herself from another animal that might wander into the cave seeking shelter or food.

When Serina touched Raven’s mind, the overpowering loss her sister-in-law experienced with Lucian’s death stymied her. As if her own agony wasn’t bad enough, now she had Raven’s suffering compounded.
Misery loves company, Serina!

Through their mind merge, Serina found out André, Duncan, and Payton searched for her. So it was a good thing she didn’t gnaw off any body parts yet to free herself. A fleeting idea she’d toyed with if no help came.

Chapter Fourteen

At the sound of twigs snapping, Serina jerked her head towards the cave’s entrance. Pain radiated the length of her neck and spine with the slightest of movements. Her pulse pounded in her throat. She pictured an animal slinking into her forced shelter, hungry. She rolled her eyes. Petrified, her current condition left her helpless for whatever or whomever crawled through that hole. Even though her night vision had become exceptional in the past few days, she closed her eyes.

“Serina…”

She felt the pressure of brake pads clamp down on her throat. Hope flew out the cave door quicker than the bats. Mister werewolf returned, not her rescue squad. He came back for her, but with what intent? Sex? Food? An all out smorgasbord? Reluctant, she peeked. There stood a man she did not recognize, all for his piercing yellow eyes. They oddly cut through the darkness. She reeled in the fact she could see colors. Lucian had left behind a piece of himself.

The man knelt over her, and fumbled as he pulled a key from his trousers pocket.

“Jonah?”

“Yes, Serina. I look a tad bit different now. Although my eyes are peculiar at all times, they do lose the feral appearance when the moon is no longer full. And lucky for you, I am no longer having thoughts of you as my main course. I’m sorry I left you, but I needed to regained control of my head. How are you?”

“You even have to ask?” she responded with a fair amount of rancor. “I see the prodigal child has returned. Why are you here? What do you possibly see happening between us? No, wait—don’t answer that. Will you return me to my family?”

“Serina, the only reason I didn’t eat you, was because I found you very sensual and I wanted to take advantage of you. That saved your life.”

“Honesty, how damned quaint,” she chided with indignance. “So what’s changed, Jonah, other than my current state of personal hygiene? The wolf liked the blood and guts smattered on me, whereas the man finds it distasteful?” Serina couldn’t help the bitter edge that slid into her voice. It felt good to be angry and lash out at someone.

“I have no idea what you did to me. You invaded my soul, I think. Not that there’s much left to it. Yes, I’ll return you to your family. I looked for Lucian. It is as if he never set foot on the mountain. I’m sorry.”

Those words ignited a raging storm. The vampire was dead, all over again.

“I need to know how you did the things you did to Jasper? I’ve wanted that bastard out of my life five minutes after I met him. Are you really a witch?”

The shackles from her ankles and wrists thudded to the ground even as the key twisted in the lock. Serina lifted her arms into view and noticed deep purple imprints embedded into her flesh. Open lacerations covered her flesh, some weeping purulent, green pus.

Once free, she was both perplexed and perturbed. “What do you think?” Her claustrophobia getting the best of her, she asked, “Nice dwelling you’ve got here, but can you get me out of this dungeon? I can’t straighten my legs. Damn you! As far as Jasper is concerned, I simply wished those things on him. I had no idea I could actually make it happen. Temper tantrums seem to spark my creativity, so you’d be best watching your furry little tail doesn’t go up in flames because I won’t extinguish it.”

“You don’t have to remind me. I witnessed your wrath firsthand.” Jonah tried to lift Serina into his arms but she cried out in pain.

“I’m so sorry I did this to you, but it was for your own interest. Will you turn me over to the Yard?”

“Aye, but you did it just the same, didn’t you?” Serina looked long and hard at Jonah. She filtered through his mind and found her captor sincerely regretted the past days events. Now what to do? The man seemed easy enough to control, but the wolf? She feared that if the same scenario were to repeat itself, things might go worse. Then she wondered, what could be worse than watching a vampire drain your husband’s life on your honeymoon? Not one damn thing.

“I know for a fact that the Yard will skin you and stuff you. Maybe my entering your body tampered with Jasper’s stranglehold over you. I’m not ready to condemn a man so easily that saved my life, even if it wasn’t the most orthodox way. Carrying me off and locking me in a cave without food or water won you no favors whatsoever. Right now, you’re like two different people. If I’d just met you on the street I’d never have said, ‘He’s a murdering sod, watch out for him.’ I’d have foolishly introduced you to my sister-in-law. Your life must be beyond reproach. A living hell.”

“And then some,” he added.

Outside and free, Serina glanced up. The sky supported a barren canopy of dull, non-twinkling gaseous bubbles. She went back in thought to the first night she spent with Lucian by the lake. Her heart yearned to relive that night and the beauty it held. Nothing could ever recapture the special moments and memories she shared with Lucian.

“Can you set me down on the ground? I’ve a monster of a Charlie horse in my back and legs.” Jonah set her down on her side and gently kneaded her muscles, trying to ease the kinks. Serina felt the warmth of his hands and she had to admit to herself if no one else, it felt good, as much as she detested the idea of him touching her.

“Serina, I’m going to lift your skirt up to your thighs so I can get to the muscles. I promise I’ll behave.”

“Peek—and I’ll burn out your eyes. Just do what you must so I can walk out of here on my own accord. How did you end up a werewolf?”

Jonah’s grip tightened, and she tensed.

He stopped his ministrations. “Have I hurt you? My apologies.”

“No Jonah, ’tis not you. I just—there’s never been another man touch me.” Serina choked on anger. Once again, the tears assaulted her. Where did they keep coming from? Was there no end to the flogging of tiny beads of water?

“Do you want me to continue?” he asked with sincerity. When she made no protests, he did. He liked the feeling of her skin against his. She was cool to touch still but slowly warming up... to him. He studied the woman lying beneath his hands, and he liked what he saw. Her hips were slim, her legs muscular, and her breasts—they just didn’t seem to go with the rest of her body. They belonged on top of a woman with ten babes suckling at them. He liked them though. “Do you really want to know about my life?”

“Yes. I want to know, but only if it causes you pain. Whoops! I mean no pain.”

“Be at least honest with yourself, Serina. You meant pain, and I don’t blame you one bit. Five years ago, my wife and I were out celebrating. She had just told me we were with child. We lived in the Brahmall area and had gone for an early evening constitutional by the water’s edge at the park. We laughed and joked about what kind of parents we would be, and how we would have the most intelligent child on the planet, and of course the most beautiful. We watched the swans floating across the lake as if magically propelled through the still water, grace and elegance surrounding them.” Jonah raked his hand through his long dark curls, as his other hand meticulously continued at the knots of Serina’s legs. “Then the swans became spooked, their squawks high pitched, fearful.”

“Just as the horses did,” Serina whispered.

Jonah’s grip tightened to the point of cutting her circulation off.

“You don’t have to tell me anymore, Jonah. You don’t need to relive what happened again. I can feel your pain, especially in my legs.” She had meant it as a means to ease his burden.

Jonah never acknowledged her concern. “We watched the swans swim further out. Not a cloud in the sky, nor a ripple in the water. No sign of a storm. Only the beauty of the sun setting. The shades of orange painted across the sky matched Jezzie’s silken tresses. To this day, I still cannot look at a setting sun. My heart sighs.”

Serina found herself in wonderment of this man living two separate lives, obviously educated and once deeply in love with a woman, now torn between two separate worlds. One, the human nature in him, to be a loving caring man as he seemed now, then, during the cycles of the moon or under a vampire’s compulsions, a wild dangerous beast fighting for supremacy.

Serina lay on her belly both dazzled and dazed by his words, and his life. Groaning, she shifted her body a bit to ease a root pressing into her ribs.

Jonah moved to her feet, warming them between his hands. He carefully squeezed each toe, to press the blood to color the tips once again instead of the bloodless-white color they’d become.

“We never saw the wolf. It came with such force and speed, a blur really. Within a split second, my life as I knew it ended. My Jezzie lay dead before me. Her throat torn out, her life and my child’s ripped away from both of us.” Jonah wiped a stray tear from his cheek. “It’s been five years since I shed these. I shut all the people in my life out for fear of hurting them. I’ve a younger sister and brother to keep safe. I’d die a thousand deaths before ever hurting them or having Jasper find them. All three of us are one year apart in age. My grandparents raised us after our mother mysteriously passed away. Never knew our fathers.”

“Fathers?” Serina turned her head to watch Jonah.

“Me mum, she held the same gifts you, Serina, but she was never comfortable in own skin, which affected her relations with men. She never committed to a relationship. Hard to love someone when you have no clue who you are.”

“Does your sister have her powers?”

Jonah lied and shook his head no. “Don’t believe so.” He wasn’t about to cast his little sister to the wolves, so to speak. Her secret was safe with him.

“So you haven’t seen your brother or sister in five years? Do they know you’re alive?”

Again, Jonah shook his head no and continued. “A constable happened by and heard my pleas for help, and he became entwined in the struggle. He took me to the hospital, and the staff put me back together better than Humpty Dumpty. On the next full moon history rewrote my life.”

You’ve read Humpty Dumpty?” Serina’s eyebrows shot up.

“Hasn’t everyone?”

“No, not everyone.” Serina groaned. She’d planned to read that fairy tale to Lucian. She’d packed the little book in her bags. Frustration mounted in her gut. She wanted to scream, but she was both physically and emotionally withered. “I’m sorry for your loss, Jonah.” She truly meant it. She knew exactly what it was like to have her heart, life, and dreams ripped away for some fathomless reason.

“You have some rather strong powers yourself,” he said as he poked his finger into her side a few times. “They may save you again, or in the end, be the very death of you if the wrong people learn of you. Now that Jasper has fled to London there will be talk. More of the undead or the Sorcerers Squad might knock you up. You’ll need to keep your eyes open at all times and your senses finely tuned. You have two more problems you may not have thought about yet…”

Serina cut him off, “Trust me, Jonah, being locked away in that dark, damp, bloody bug-infested cave I had plenty of time to drive myself insane with different scenarios. First and foremost is Lucian. What happens if he comes back as one of the undead? A vampire himself? Honestly, I don’t know. I told him I would follow him anywhere our lives led us and I meant it, but this line of thinking is too bizarre. But trust me, I would welcome him with open arms.” She swatted at a few tears. “My second problem being that blood sucking creature Jasper may now have compulsion over me. Right?”

“Indeed.”

“Well…” Serina thought about it second. She tried pulling her hair up twirling it into a bun so it would be off her body, but her hair could have been used as mortar. Her once silky strands were caked with mud, and only God knew what else and no longer flexible. “Ugh! I’ll bet Blythe wouldn’t like my hair down today!”

“Who?”

“A friend.” Miffed, she gave up. “I almost took that fetid-breathed bastard out. I’m rather confident I can inflict some form of necrosis into him.”

Once more, the effects of the cold damp ground chilled her. She shifted, and that left Jonah’s hand precariously close to her bottom. She didn’t notice.

He most certainly did.

Working on her thighs, he moved slowly upward, enjoying the view of her ass. Soft yet firm. Something he could sink his teeth into. His heart picked up its pace.

He skimmed his hand across the swell of flesh, purposely. He hadn’t touched another woman in years. Hell, he hadn’t touched another human, except with ill intent. She felt warm and alive. She brought back emotions buried deep within him that he had made a solemn oath he would never again allow to surface, hope and lust. Love was nowhere near the equation nor would it ever factor in again.

That slight touch sent raking claws down Serina’s spine. Confusion and guilt weaved a web around her. Was her captor now trying on a new hat? To be her lover?

“Touch me like that again and I’ll have your fingers dismembered at each joint. You have no right to…”

“I’m sorry.” Jonah offered flatly.

So consumed by grief, she never heard the rush of leaves or branch’s rustling as André, Duncan and Payton snuck up on them.

****

Time hung in the balances. André eyed the stranger with fevered caution. The hairs on his neck stood straight up. Bells and whistles blew in his head. There was more to this gent than met the eye. Serina resembled a forgotten doll in the bottom of the toy chest as she lay in the dirt. Had the man hurt her?