Once Upon a Shifter (82 page)

"It should be," Ace said. "Let's wait and see."

The seconds felt like minutes as we waited for any kind of response from April. I was just about to tell Phoenix to bite me again when her finger moved.

"Did you see that?" I whisper-shouted. Her hand moved next. "I'll be damned! It's going to work."

"Quick, Roel!" Phoenix said. "Go to the weapon's room and get a few blood bags from the refrigerator."

"I'm on it!" Roel said, and then dashed out of the room.

Several more minutes passed, and each new move April made was exciting. I felt like I had just brought someone back to life from the grave.

Roel came back into the room carrying at least fifteen bags of blood. Phoenix rolled his eyes. "What?" Roel said. "She hasn't fed in weeks. I didn't want her to wake up and go ravenous on all of us. Women are always less aggressive after they eat."

"You got that right," Ace said, looking pointedly at me, one corner of his mouth lifting in a sexy smirk.

Oh, God! Did I just think he was sexy?

"Yes. I'm going to have to say that you did,"
he said through my mind.

April moaned before I had a chance to be embarrassed, and my attention was suddenly drawn back to the girl lying on the bed.

"April?" I said.

"Hmmm," she replied.

"Are you thirsty? Would you like blood?"

"Pleeease…" her raspy voice said.

Phoenix punctured a small hole in one of the bags with a fang, and then held it over her mouth. The hole was only big enough to let the blood drip into her mouth at a steady pace, but after she swallowed a few times, he made it bigger, giving her more.

After April had consumed an entire blood bag, her eyelids fluttered open.

"How do you feel?" Phoenix said.

April groaned. "Like I've been bitten by a fucking werewolf!"

A few of us laughed, and then Alhana threw herself on the girl, tears streaming down her face as she hugged her friend.

April chuckled painfully. "Easy, Sass! I just made a long trip back from Heaven. Those stairs are killer."

Alhana laughed in response, but didn't stop hugging her.

The door of the room opened and Lea walked in with Alex. Besides his dirty and bloody shirt and jeans, he looked like the old Alex, no contusions or puffiness to his face, and he was walking without a limp. They really needed to bottle and sell this shit if it healed people that quickly.

"Alex!" I said, and started to go to him, but he wasn't smiling. My happiness faltered. Surely he wasn't upset with me because I couldn't be with him. That didn't seem to be the cause of his mood, though. "What is it?"

"He thought I was dead or I'm certain he never would have left me there," Alex said.

"Who did that shit to you?" Brad said.

"Daryn."

I gasped as I shook my head. "No! He wouldn't do that. We're meeting him in just a few minutes. He said he knew where Jessica and the other rogues were hiding."

Betrayal washed through me with each word he spoke, and my stomach tightened into knots. Ace scooted closer, his proximity reassuring me, but at the same time, reminding me why he was a necessity. Daryn had betrayed me.

"Daryn is your only rogue, Mena," Alex said. "He's some kind of witch or warlock or whatever male witches are called. He has your whole pack freaking brainwashed or something. None of them turned against you. He has been taking them a little at a time and using them to try and kill you."

"Jaxon," Phoenix said, with a far off look in his eyes. "He did something to Jaxon when we were on our way to see the witch sisters. He didn't remember anything he said or did during that time. And the witches couldn't locate the missing dagger or the rogue shifters because he has a spell blocking them from seeing anything."

"No, I can't believe this," I said. "Daryn had plenty of opportunities to kill me. He never even tried." I tried desperately to wrap my head around what was happening, but the emotions were too busy warring with each other. Betrayal. Anger. Guilt that I'd fallen for it. Remorse for all the lives lost.

"It's because he was waiting for the moonrising wolf to take over during the full moon. He wanted to spell her to do his bidding."

"Son of a bitch!" I shouted, and started for the door. Anger won.

"Mena," Phoenix said, "where are you going?"

"To kill a werewolf witch and get my pack back! You coming?"

"Wait," he said, and I stopped and looked over my shoulder as my hand grabbed the door handle. "We don't know what we're dealing with, Mena. He is strong enough in his magic to block three very powerful witches. He knows we're coming. He's leading you into a trap. Shouldn't we ask the sisters for their advice?"

I nodded. "Good idea. Maybe they can help. I just hope they don't have a problem with me beating his ass, because I'm going to. Let's go."

Chapter 60

Mena

As it turned out, Magnalayna, Morgana and Meridia were dressed in their best and waiting for our arrival.

Meridia kissed my left cheek then my right. "It's lovely to see you again, my dear. I'm so happy you got control of that wretched beast inside of you." She waved her hand through the air, expelling an unattractive noise. I giggled.

I had finally realized what was off about all three women. Meridia was blind, Magnalayna was deaf and Morgana was mute. Were these three women where the 'hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil' originated from? Hmmm…

"She is well in control, I assure you." I said, and then I was swept up in Magnalayna's arms and hugged like an old friend.

She signed to me after she stopped trying to squeeze me to death. I was guessing she didn't get to communicate with other people very much
"We've missed you so. I'm happy you need our help again."

I signed back.
"I'm pleased you want to help."

The smile damn near split her face in two.
"We are thrilled to help! None of us have been out of the house in months!"

Months?
I thought. How the hell did they get their food?

"Meridia," Phoenix said, "the three of you really don't have to go with us. It could be dangerous. In fact, I'm—"

"Nonsense, vampire! We're overdue for a little excitement. Besides, we're not going for you anyway." She lovingly touched my cheek as she walked passed me. "We're going to help Mena. Now, be a gentleman and open the door of the black Escalade for us."

I blinked in confusion.
How the hell does she know what he drives?

"I believe she can see through her sisters' eyes, Andra,"
Ace said though my mind.

"That makes sense."

Phoenix's shoulders slumped as he looked at me. "Yes, ma'am."

The ride to our destination was entertaining, to say the least. Although Morgana couldn't speak, she seemed to be able to communicate through the mind of her sister, Magnalayna, and I learned a lot about the sisters through ASL from her.

Speaking to her like this made me miss my brother, and I prayed we'd all make it through this alive, so I could see him again. He'd sent me several texts over the last few weeks We communicated that way on most occasions, since he was constantly traveling and helping deaf children learn how to speak their thoughts through their hands.

I couldn't wait for him to meet Ace, since my new-found soul mate picked up ASL quickly through my memory and verbalized his thoughts and ideas through hand gestures. Sometimes he would get hung up on what he wanted to say but, since I could read his mind, I helped him out. The sisters loved him.

I hadn't laughed so much in weeks.

Glancing toward the windshield, my eyes met Phoenix's in the rearview mirror. He was smiling as he watched us, and I leaned forward in my seat to wrap my arms around his neck from behind and kiss him on the cheek. He took his hand from the wheel and covered my wrist, encasing it with his fingers and giving it a gentle squeeze. Even though he couldn't speak ASL, I was looking forward to introducing Phoenix to my brother, too. If I could tell any mortal in the world about my secret identity, it would be my brother; he would understand. I could imagine him thinking of me as a superhero. That was cool with me. I had always thought of him as a superhero.

I only felt a small amount of envy from Ace. I didn't want him to be jealous of Phoenix, nor did I want Phoenix to be covetous toward Ace. I would find a way for us all to be happy; I was sure of it. I could focus on that more after I got my pack back from Daryn. Right now, I needed to center all my attention on keeping us all alive and victorious.

"Really?" I said as Phoenix pulled into the parking lot of IHOP. "I could see Roel's big, blond head and stuffed cheeks through the window. I rolled my eyes as he waved at us, smiling around the huge bite of pancakes in his mouth.

"They thought it was best to go into battle on a full stomach. Helps them think better Roel says," Phoenix said on chuckle as he opened his door and stepped out. "Would you like anything?" He pulled me against him and looked down into my eyes, and then his gaze fell to my lips. A familiar heat swept through me. God, I missed him so much. Just before Ace rounded the back of the Escalade with the sisters, Phoenix bent down and brushed his mouth over mine. A deep moan rumbled up my throat as my body liquefied in his strong arms, and I kissed him back with everything I had in me to give this man.

My desire was swiftly replaced with fury, and since I wasn't used to being angry all the time, it pissed me off even more. I pushed away from Phoenix and turned to glare at Ace.

"Stop it! I'm sorry if this upsets you, but it makes me happy. I love him, Ace! Please accept that. Your pissy attitude is not going to change that. I may be bonded to you, but I don't belong to you. I choose who I want to be with. Don't ever try to make my decisions for me. Phoenix learned that one the hard way."

"Come here." Ace took a step forward, reaching out for me, but I retreated.

"Don't touch me. I don't want your touch to calm me down right now. Let this be a lesson to you: if you cause me to feel angry because of petty jealousy, then I will turn that fury back on you.
You
will be the one I am mad at."

Ace placed his hands on his hips and looked at the ground. At first the rage intensified, but then he closed his eyes and a vision of me putting on my weapons earlier played through his mind. I could feel the adoration he felt for me in that moment and my, as well as his, anger dissipated as quickly as it had come.

"I'm sorry, Andromeda. I am trying."

I nodded once, but took Phoenix's hand, instead of Ace's, and we walked to the entrance of IHOP.

The hurt Ace felt swarmed me like bees, but an image of me smiling at him earlier flashed through his mind, and I could feel our moods lighten a bit.

I knew he was trying, but I was tired of letting him get away with thinking he owned me. I belonged to no one.

As we walked into the restaurant, six lycanthrope shifters, six panthera leo shifters and Jaxon stood up, some of them still shoveling food in their mouths.

"We're ready," Heath murmured around a mouthful of toast.

"Good," I said, "because I would hate to interrupt your meal to go save our pack from a madman. What kind of Alpha would I be if I did that?"

Roel grinned as he kissed my cheek. "A damn good one. Let's go kick some ass."

"What's the plan?" Alex said. "We can't go into this without a plan. He caused my brakes to fail and, as strong as I am, I couldn't keep the steering wheel from veering toward that damn tree. He has mega powers, Mena. Don't underestimate him. Plus, he has all of your pack on his side. We're outnumbered, by a lot."

"My clan is waiting for my call. They're coming in from the opposite side, so we can surround them. They know not to hurt any of your pack except Daryn, unless it's absolutely necessary."

I nodded. "I'm okay with that."

Since we were meeting Daryn only a few blocks away, we decided to go on foot, instead of in vehicles where he could take us out several at a time.

Ace found my hand, and I allowed him to lace our fingers together. I wasn't mad at him anymore, but I think the only reason I wasn't was because I could see in his mind that he knew he'd been in the wrong.

"I'm sorry,"
he said to only me.
"I know you love him. It just hurts like hell. I'm not sure why it does. These emotions suck. I don't like feeling like this, Andra. But I will try extra hard to ignore or control them when you're around him or when you think of him. I am trying. I want you to believe that. I need you to believe that. You being angry with me was the worst feeling I have ever felt in my life. It crushed me when you wouldn't let me make it better. Again, I'm sorry. Please forgive me."

A grin stretched across my face as I turned my head and made eye contact with him. His earnest expression hit me in the gut. Hard. I squeezed his fingers.
"How could I not forgive you, with an apology like that?"

He brought our joined hands up to his lips and kissed the back of my hand.
"You're making me such a sap."

"From what I've seen of your past through your memories, I'd say a little sappiness will do you some good."

"I still plan to be an asshole to everyone else. You're the only one who gets special treatment."

"I wouldn't expect anything less."

He chuckled.
"Good, because I'd hate to disappoint you."

Phoenix stared ahead as he ended a call. "I see him. He's alone."

"He's not alone," I said. "I can feel the others."

"So can we," Meridia said. "He has given them all a little piece of his magic, so they will be harder to defeat, and, besides him, they are all in lycan form."

"Stay behind us, Meridia," I said. "We won't let any of them touch you or your sisters."

She snickered. "We'll be fine, my dear friend. Just worry about yourself. He is seeking a challenge with you. I would really hate for him to be Montgomery's next pack leader."