Love Bites (Bitten Book 4) (31 page)

I used my weight to throw us both to the side, dislodging his grip on my shoulder. I howled when the skin of my shoulder tore, but I was loose. I scrambled to my feet, charging toward my mate. In horror, I watched as Ricki’s arms gave way a little more under the wolf’s strength.

Then she shifted her hands, one hooked over the wolf’s bottom jaw in the front, the other gripping the top, and she pulled.

I heard the dry snap of his jawbone and the wild yelps of pain seconds before I hit him from the side, ripping him off Ricki’s body. Before he could regroup, I snapped his neck.

Ricki cried out and I turned to see her trying to fight off her “grandfather”. He’d dug his teeth deep into her forearm and she was kicking and punching in an effort to free herself. I lunged for him, clamping my jaws on his jugular, growling low.

Slowly, he released Ricki’s arm. As soon as she was clear, I intended to eviscerate him and drag him away from here by his entrails. Rage filled me when I saw the damage he’d done to her. Even with her supernatural ability to heal, she would have a scar.

Ricki dragged herself back from us with her good arm, shoving with her legs. When she was clear, I bore down with my jaws.

“Wait!” she yelled. “We need him alive for interrogation.”

I growled, not releasing him.

“Calder, we need information.” She paused. “
I
need information.”

Jaws trembling with the desire to rip and tear, I suddenly realized that the sounds of fighting had stopped. The night was completely still.

“Calder,” Ricki whispered. “Let him go. Chloe and Lach are right behind you. He won’t escape.”

I forced my mouth to open and stepped back. As soon I moved away, Ricki’s self-proclaimed grandfather lunged at her.

Without hesitation, her foot lashed out and kicked him in the head, knocking his body five feet to our left. When his body skidded to a stop in the grass, he remained motionless. My badass mate had not only stopped him, she’d knocked his ass out.

Ricki

T
he battle was
over. I couldn’t believe it. While I had been chasing after Brittany and meeting my grandfather, my
werewolf
grandfather, for the first time, Conner, Finn, Lex, and Kerry had successfully helped Lachlan, Chloe and the rest of pack defeat the Faction.

The victory felt hollow somehow. Instinctively, I felt as though it was just the first of many strikes against us. We’d lost two wolves, but everyone else was alive. I only hoped that the two pack members who died didn’t have pups. For some reason, the thought of breaking my promise to those kids that their parents would come get them hurt worse than the wound on my arm. The seriously injured or dying had been tended to and healed by Kerry and Finn, and those with minor cuts or broken bones were taken care of by the rest of the pack.

Cornelius had not been found, if he’d ever been there at all. The few vampires that we managed to capture alive killed each other. It was like some sort unspoken agreement. I was doubly glad that I insisted Calder let my “grandfather” live. I didn’t doubt for a moment that he was related to me by blood somehow. He looked too much like my father not to be.

Calder insisted that I have my forearm looked at. He even insisted that Kerry do it. As soon as she saw me, Kerry’s eyes filled with tears.

“Oh, Ricki. Thank the Goddess you’re alive.”

She hugged me close and I wrapped my good arm around her. “Thanks for riding to the rescue. Should I call you Lancelot?”

Kerry squeezed me tighter. “Shut up and let me hug you. I was so worried when I realized you were in the thick of it.”

I patted her back. “I’m okay, sweetie, I swear.”

She released me. “Yeah, well, you’re still bleeding and that isn’t good. Even supes can’t heal everything.” She lifted my arm, gently removing the towel Calder wrapped around it.

“Goddess,” she muttered under her breath. “A few more minutes and you might have lost your arm.”

My stomach clenched and rolled at the thought and I looked away from the mess of my arm. “Do you think you can make it at least stop hurting so bad?” I asked between clenched teeth as she probed it gently with the tip of a finger.

“I think I can make it as good as new,” she assured me. “Though it might take a few days for that to happen.”

While she mumbled to herself, setting out herbs and bandages, I looked across the room to where Calder was receiving first aid from Chloe. Most of his bite wounds and scratches were almost healed, but he had a few deep nasty gouges on his back and a deeper bite on his shoulder.

He was watching me, his eyes bright with an emotion I didn’t recognize. It wasn’t fear or even relief. Whatever it was, it was intense and he wasn’t trying to hide it.

At the first touch of Kerry’s hand, I winced and hissed.

“Sorry, sweetie. I have to touch it to fix it.”

“I know, just do it. Unless I start begging you to stop, just ignore me.”

Kerry smiled a little. “Yes, ma’am.”

While she mixed up a poultice and worked a spell to help the healing, I stared at the ceiling and thought about other things in an effort to ignore the burn in my arm. Like how good it felt to hit my grandfather in the face. Though I had no idea who he was or what he really wanted, he looked so much like my father that kicking him in the teeth was almost cathartic, as though he were a stand-in for my father.

“Okay, Ricki, this is going to hurt a little, but there are herbs in this poultice that will numb the pain.”

I lowered my eyes to Kerry’s and smiled tiredly. “Go for it.”

Though I thought I was prepared for it, my body went rigid at the fierce pain that consumed my lower arm. My free hand clenched my leg, nails digging into my thigh.

I jerked when a hand covered mine. My eyes flew open, though I hadn’t even realized I shut them. Calder’s concerned face hovered above me. I turned my hand over to grip his.

“I’m right here, darlin’. You’re doing great.”

A few seconds later, whatever numbing agent Kerry put in the poultice began to do the trick. I let out a relieved sigh and my muscles relaxed slightly. I took slow, deep breaths as my arm was wrapped in gauze and Kerry murmured the words to a healing spell. Almost immediately, a soothing sensation spread along my arm and the damaged muscle began to tingle and warm.

When she was done, I opened my eyes again and looked at my friend. “Thank you.”

She patted and squeezed my shoulder. “Anything you need, okay?”

I nodded.

“Now, you need to get some rest,” she instructed.

I glanced at Calder. “In just a bit. There’s something I have to do first.”

His brows lowered. “Ricki…”

“I’m going to talk to him. Either I do it with you or I wait until you’re busy and go by myself,” I replied stubbornly.

“Fine.” He bit the word out as though it pained him to say it.

I looked up at Kerry again. “We’re done, right?”

“I guess,” she answered hesitantly.

I stood up, hiding a wince as the muscles in my back and legs screamed in protest. I was very ready for a hot shower and cool sheets on a soft mattress, but I couldn’t rest until I talked to the man who claimed to be my grandfather. When I faced Calder, he looked at me as though he knew every part of my body ached to the bone.

“Let’s go,” I stated.

He glowered at me, but turned and left Lachlan’s house. I waved at Kerry as I walked to the front door.

“I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?”

Her expression was skeptical, but she smiled and waved back. “I want you to stay in bed all day tomorrow!” she called after me.

“Fine!” I answered before following Calder out of the house.

He was standing by the porch railing, staring out into the night. It was almost midnight, but the moon was so full and bright that it was nearly as bright as day in the compound. Calder glanced over his shoulder at me.

“Are you sure you wanna do this?” he asked.

“Yes. I have a right to know what in the hell is going on, especially with him.”

“So you believe he’s telling the truth and that he’s your grandfather?” he asked.

I stared out across the compound at all the houses and little streets. Tonight it truly felt like home. “Yes and no. He and my father could be twins, their looks are so similar. He is definitely related to me in some way, but he could be an uncle or even my brother. My dad…” My voice caught in my throat. “My father wasn’t exactly faithful to my mother, it’s possible I could have plenty of half siblings populating this planet.”

“Well, let’s get this over with. I know I’m ready to drop and you look like you are too.”

He led me down the stairs and we walked toward the pack’s jail. Yes, the compound had a
jail
. I hadn’t believed it at first until I saw it. It was just three cells and was mostly used when young shifters drank too much and got rowdy, or someone was having trouble controlling themselves.

Calder opened the door to the jail, letting me go in first. The first cell held Brittany and she looked like shit. Her hair was a ratted mess and there was make-up smeared all over her face. They’d taken her clothes and given her scrubs to wear, socks, but no shoes. Her two friends, Cindy and Madison, had been killed by the Faction when they tried to run away from the compound. I almost felt sorry for her until I remembered that she planned to help the enemy kill all the children that night.

The middle cell was empty. In the last sat the man who claimed to be my grandfather. He was wearing green scrubs that matched Brittany’s and he had cleaned the blood off his face. Most of the scratches and other wounds on his body had practically healed in the last two hours. One of the pack wolves was sprawled in a chair in the corner, reading a comic book, looking almost bored, but I could tell it was an act. He was aware of every breath both prisoners took.

When my grandfather saw me, a satisfied smile spread across his face.

“Ricki, lovely to see you again.”

Deliberately, I raised my injured arm to wave at him. “Obviously, Gramps. Did you want to check out my arm?”

His brows rose in surprise at my surly response. “No need to be rude, sweetheart.”

My skin crawled at his endearment. I grabbed a metal folding chair and moved it in front of his cell, far enough away that he couldn’t reach me, and plopped down.

“I’m afraid there is every need, Gramps, since you tried to chew my FUCKING ARM OFF!”

He stared at me in shock, as though he couldn’t believe I’d spoken to him that way. I was beginning to wonder if insanity ran in my family, not on my mother’s side, but on my father’s.

I leaned back in the chair, draping my good arm over the back and crossing my legs casually, as though I hadn’t a care in the world. Two could play that game.

“So, do you have a name other than Gramps?” I asked calmly.

He blinked at me. “You don’t know?”

I laughed and, even to me, it sounded harsh and painful. “Dad wasn’t exactly around much to tell me about his doting parents. Something I’m beginning to be extremely grateful for.”

“My name is Gerard.”

I bounced my foot lightly. “And exactly how old are you,
Gerard
?”

“I’m 362 years old.”

I almost choked at his answer, but managed to keep my face neutral. “And my father?”

“Tristan is 55.”

My eyes narrowed. “55?” I asked suspiciously.

Gerard nodded. “Yes. Damn whelp is a pain in the ass too. His blood was too weak for him to change form. What use is a son if he can’t stand beside you and fight with you?”

I was beginning to understand why my father had relationship issues with both my mother and me. This asshole was a piece of work.

Since he seemed to be in a sharing mood, I continued to ask questions. “Why did you and your people attack the compound tonight?”

“For you, of course,” he answered simply.

I felt anger building within me again, but forced myself to let it go. I didn’t know this man and he would have killed me in the blink of an eye if he’d had the opportunity.

“To kill me?” I asked.

He shrugged. “If there was no other option.”

“Why?”

“The prophecy, of course.”

I glanced back at Calder, who had managed to keep quiet, but his hands were clenched into fists. I wondered why he hadn’t said anything, but I wasn’t going to ask right now.

Turning back to Gerard, I continued this surprisingly easy interrogation. “Why does the Faction even care about the prophecy at all?”

“Why, the power of course.”

“Power? Magical power?”

He laughed and shook his head. “That’s only part of it. When Cornelius succeeds in his plans to gain control over the vampires, wolves, and witches, he’ll have the power necessary to control everything. Humans, supes, all will bow before him and pledge their loyalty or die.”

A power hungry despot. It seemed that breed wasn’t confined only to the human species. Napoleon and Hitler might have been human, but they were child’s play in comparison to the havoc Cornelius and the Faction could wreak. World domination seemed like a ridiculous goal to me because, seriously, talk about the headaches involved. Never a moment’s peace.