Into Death's Arms (40 page)

   
While he’d spoken to individu
al representatives on the phone, h
e
had
assured them it hadn’t been the
Vamp
ires
to piss us off so badly while hinting we weren’t terribly bright and might not discriminate.  Now we were stuck and we were waiting. Natural enemies don’t wait well together.

     
I saw my reflection in the TV and had an idea. I sat down heavily
next to Dayton. “Watch me close, if I start to bleed or seize up or anything pull me out,” I
whispered to him. I didn’t announce what I was going to do I didn’t think my father would like it. Hell, I wasn’t sure I liked it but didn’t really see any other option.

      I closed my eyes
and concentrated hard enough I thought something in my head might pop
.
Nikissos?
I focused on the
Dream-walker
. I felt his response immediately.

      
AoD?
His mind brushed mine. Nausea assailed me.
This is not safe whilst you are awake.
He informed me. No shit, I thought to myself.
My head felt like someone was hitting me repeatedly with a
two-ton
boulder.

     
Where is my brother?
I asked hoping their friendship would make him answer.

      I felt his anger.
Kinsley has him.

      Really? I thought but didn’t say it.
I know
,
wher
e?
I asked.
I couldn’t get out much more than that I was feeling violently ill.

      You can’t be thinking what you appear to be thinking
. He hissed
It’s insane.

   
I laughed
,
See you know me well. Where?
I was getting impatient and allowed that to run into my mental voice.
 

    He sighed, You don’t have long. His father plans to
execute
him
this evening.

   
Well
then,
hurry the fuck up and tell me how to get there.
I hissed at him. He did filling my head with a map.
Leaving me feeling like a
pint sized Ziploc trying to hold a gallon full of gravy.

 
I rushed back to consciousness with my prize. I opened my eyes. Dayton was leaning over me I was laid out flat on the couch. “Gonna vomit…” I announced. Dad held out a wastebasket and I lost the contents of my stomach.

 
Right, no more non-verbal communication with
Dream-walkers
while conscious it ma
de me sick. “I know where he is,
” I managed to gasp out before I threw up again.
My dad stared at me as if I’d grown an extra head. Dayton smiled delighted with me and my bizarre ability.

“
How do you know where he is?” My dad asked
as he
went to the safe.

 
I shrugged, “I umm dream walked a Dream-walker and he told me.” I said frowning.

  My father’s forehead creased like he was getting a headache and who could blame him? I’d thrown his whole life into disarray.

 
Weapons were distributed. I smiled at the sight of the AoD standing side by side with two
Vamp
ires
. My mom would have been pleased.

     We tromped
through the Golden Gate Recreational Park. I know I should have
guessed
lots of open land. I wondered if
the Park rangers knew there was
a whole gaggle of
Shifters
living up here. I thought they’d be at Kinsley’s place but turns
out,
they wanted to be outdoors for their little gathering.

      Dayton had wanted to call in more
Vamp
s but I pointed out that I didn’t feel like being stabbed in the back because the
Vamp
s in question weren’t entirely sure about my loyalties. Then of
course,
my dad had pointed out that though he wouldn’t kill his daughters AoLi or his wife’s son didn’t mean he wouldn’t still hunt
the other
Shadow-born
. Donovan was watching him closely. I’d
work on him later.

   
Dayton carried a blade very similar to my dads.
Donovan carried a couple of pistols, which had surprised me. Dayton had said it showed just how young he was. He’d growled at Dayton. He had several knives stowed on his person. He was ang
ry; he wanted blood for what they’d done to Laurna
. I almost felt sorry for the
Shifters
, almost. We didn’t try to hide. It’s hard to hide at night when you are glowing bright white with righteous anger.
 

    The
Shifters
had built a fire. They were turned toward us as we walked toward them.
They stood together in groups of four or five around the fire like they were waiting for something. Maybe they were.
  Kinsley stepped forward his black hair had grown to his shoulders since the last time I’d seen him his black eyes gleamed with hatred in the reflection of our glow. He looked confused to see Dayton so obviously consorting with the enemy.
Nevertheless,
he didn’t stay that way for long. “Tameron,” he snarled, “You wanna take your boy there and leave this is between me and the AoD.”

        Tameron shrugged enigmatically. He was wearing the casual disconcern he always wore for the media. He liked being mysterious. I could feel his joy cascading down my skin. One of Kinsley’s boys stepped forward. “They bro
ught us another female. I truly
enjoyed gutting the last.” He licked his claws. Donovan shot from our ranks like a train. He took down the
Shifter
so swiftly most of us hadn’t seen him move.

  
The other
Shifters
shied away as he rose from the raw meat that was left of the
Shifters
body and hissed. “Anyone
else
have
anything to
say about my
God-
damned
mate?” Some of the gulping was audible. Not that I blamed them, he’d hit bragging boy so hard and so fast he had left body parts spread between where he’d hit and where they’d landed. I felt kind of sick and I have a strong stomach.

    
Kinsley didn’t shy like the others had. “I didn’t expect you Caden I only expected the pretty little AoD. I do have to say Caden she is a lovely little thing.” He licked his lips like he was thinking about sex. Eww, he was trying to rile my dad.
Too
bad,
he didn’t know the AoD that well.

        Donovan had his head down and was stalking t
oward Kinsley. “Donovan not yet,
” I said softly. Kinsley started to snort, but his eyes opened wide when Donovan looked over at me and nodded once,
and then
stepped back.

       “Well I didn’t expect that either.” The werewolf admitted. “You sha
ring with your human friend AoD,
” he asked me smiling snidely.

       Dayton growled low in his throat.
The
sound seemed to carry through the night.

       Kinsley raised an eyebrow then raised his head and
took in a deep drag of air through his n
ose. He was scenting us. “Aw Reece,
how truly amusing, your daughter and the leader of the
Vamp
ires
, you must be so proud.” He barked out a laugh.

      The other
Shifters
were taking t
his down time to
move
slowly in on
us. Like we didn’t know w
hat they were up to. Come on we we
re professionals here. One got a little too close sneaking in behind me.

   
Thanks to Dayton and the power we shared between
us,
I could sense his movements. I pulled my
Sig
from my hip and shot him in the face without looking back at him. He howled, covered his face with his hands, fell to the ground. “Stupid,” I sighed. This time I’d remembered my silver bullets. He wasn’t going to be healing that up real quickly.

   
I was getting really tired of this posturing crap
. “
Yeah, I’m fucking the
Vamp
whatever, where is my brother?” I shook my gun at Kinsley. I wanted them to be sure they understood I was willing to kill their King to get my brother back. More
importantly,
I wanted them to understand I was willing to die to get him back.

       Kinsley’s eyebrows shot up. It seemed to be my day for shocking the
Shadow-born
. Dayton chuckled. “You have such a way with word
s
my sweet
. Give us back the boy and we will
walk away. Donovan has had his revenge. We are
mostly
satisfied.” He put his hands up in a peaceful gesture but I could feel the power rolling
off
him. His eyes were neon
,
his glow had moved from white to a bright yellow. He was mentally manipulating somebody. Judging by the amount of
Shifters
,
who were now looking at Kinsley like he was the antichrist for bringing not only the Ao but the
Vamp
ire
in on them like this
,
it was several some ones.  Damn he was powerful and wasn’t that just sexy.

    Another
Shifter
one I didn’t know stepped around the fire. “If we give you the l
ion you’ll leave just like that,
” he asked. He was a little taller than Kinsley but not built like him. He was more wiry not all bulging muscle and steroid use.
His hair was different it kind of started out black at the roots and grew into blond. It looked a
lot like a lion’s mane. It was pretty although I’m sure the man wouldn’t appreciate my saying so.

      Kinsley’s lips peeled back from his elongated canines, after seeing Dayton fangs I couldn’t really call them fangs anymore.  “Shut up
,
Lowell,
” he barked.
Yeah, I was thinking he didn’t like Lowell much which was making me like him quite a bit besides he was offering to give me my brother back.
Lowell was a wolf name. I wondered what exactly he was hiding beneath his human form.

      Lowell lowered his head aggressively but answered, “Yes sire.”
Even though he’d backed
off,
he was eyeballing Kinsley like he was considering the merits of going for the King
’
s back. A man the size of a mountain put a hand on his shoulder. I was guessing he was a werebear. He shook his head and Lowell nodded. They stepped back into a group.

     My father moved forward. “Where is the boy?” Boy
,
hunh
,
I didn’t laugh
but I wanted to
. Laith was like two hundred years old but to my dad
and
Dayton,
he was still a boy.

      Kinsley
black eyes went wild and he
snapped, “He’s my son! What I do with him is none
of your God damned business AoD,
” he screamed. Foam actually
flicked from his mouth, icky.  His hair flared around him. His nose and teeth started to elongate. He had shi
fting issues when he was angry and boy was he angry my father seemed to bring that out in him.

       
My father smiled his green eyes lit up. “He is my AoLi’s son that makes him mine as well.”
I smiled at his statement knowing it was going to piss off the werewolf even more. My father wanted a fight
.
H
e liked
nothing
better than a good fight.
He
was poking the bear, er wolf, whatever. Kinsley roared and leapt at him.  My father was braced waiting. Other
Shifters
lurched into action at the same time.

     
Donovan who’d been just waiting turned and ripped into a
Shifter
who’d been standing nearby but had moved away from him when
he’d torn
the other
Shifter
into big messy chunks.  The wolf had seen him coming and shifted into mid-form half human, half wolf. This
was the critter that
had started millions
of crazy myths over the years and Donovan tore him to pieces like it was nothing, scary damn
Vamp
ire. How had I ever gotten the drop on him before? I just didn’t know.