Rowena's Revenge (Broadus Supernatural Society) (2 page)

Penton

I’ve waited thousands of years for this moment. The moment
when I have my mate in my arms, and here she is; in pain and I can’t do a damn
thing to help her. I gave my last ounce of magic in trade for my transportation
here, and I can’t have it back until Rowena is claimed by both of her mates and
the circle is closed.

Her body is dead weight against mine. I need to find where
Blaine is hiding out before she loses much more blood. I can smell the silver
burning through her veins, the metallic scent lined with her own of what seems
like cloves and maybe oranges, I’m not quite sure. I stop in my hurried journey
from the woods to press my nose to her silver hair, taking a deep breath and
letting it mingle in my lungs.

My mate
.
My future, that’s
what she smells like.
Curse the universe; she is what I need
, I think
and shake my head, picking up the pace as I trudge through the ankle high, and
rising, snow.

It’s different having to actually walk everywhere and not
use my magic to just transport, but it was my trade for love. Don’t get me
wrong, I’m still as strong as any supernatural and fast, but the void within me
nags at my mind. The missing tingle from my magic leaves me feeling like half
of a man. But I’ll deal with it for her, until she sees that I’m her mate.

The dark night is only lit by the huge moon, and it lights
my path to the rural road, the loose gravel mixing with the snow as I start to
run, tucking Rowena tighter to my chest. No doubt there will be more wolves
looking for her, if they aren’t already out here, so I need to find Blaine.

I can get a hint of him off of her, a strong earthy feel
almost like wet dirt, so I’ll track him down that way. Closing my eyes and
taking a deep breath, I let the wind hitting me in the face carry his scent to
me. I scare some white tail deer from their midnight feast, and they go leaping
off into the trees just as I round the corner, spying a small gas station up
ahead.

The bright lights shining from the Texaco sign flickers out
just as I reach the pumps, and I keep running, feeling prying eyes following me
from inside the little shack storefront. I can feel the hate, the fear, and the
disgust rolling like waves on the ocean from the occupant hiding in the
shadows, but I keep my focus on Blaine’s scent and finding him.

The wind shifts, blasting me in the side of the face just as
the bright sign comes to life again at my back, casting my shadow out in front
of me, and I can’t help but chuckle to myself. The ignorance and discrimination
that some people have against what they don’t know or understand is
unbelievable at times. They hate what they fear, and they fear the abnormal.

I am definitely abnormal.

Born the Prince of Elves, I had everything handed to me.
People feared me;
supernaturals
bowed to me, and at
first I loved it. I relished it. I couldn’t get enough of getting whatever I
wanted; women came to me in droves, getting on their knees whenever I bade them
to.

But then, something happened. In the highlands of Scotland,
in the high of medieval era, I met a woman. A red haired beauty name Helen who
stole my heart, and at the time I wanted nothing more than her. She chased away
the darkness that my blood, my Elvin heritage, held around my heart just with
her laugh, and I was ready to make her my wife; to spend a mortal life time and
trade my magic in for love.

My brother, Bronton, had other plans. He was a vindictive
and purely evil soul, and he took Helen away from me in a horrible way that
still haunts me at times to this day. The bright sunny day that I had arrived in
her village to find her parents mourning, her body already up on a funeral pyre
with her body wrapped in cloth to prevent the horror of her mangled body from
being seen. He had skinned my Helen alive, leaving her bleeding and tied to a
tree while he and my other brother had their way with her, ruining her.

My brother gloated and celebrated his little triumph for
keeping his brother tied to their heritage, but I vowed to have my revenge, and
I did last summer. I helped my savior, Queen of the Fae Siobhan, and her
offspring, Siofra, defeat my brothers and parents, ridding the world of their
presence, and lifting the cage around my heart.

Now I have to save Siofra’s sister, Rowena, and claim her as
my mate before those that are chasing her catch up and take her for their own.
Together with my mentor, Siofra, and Rowena’s father, Shamus, the F.S.S.C.A.,
and other contacts, we’ve traced those chasing her back to the sire of the
Master Vampire Rowena had burned down.

I have a deep feeling, a dark feeling, that this goes way
beyond that, and it makes me sick.
Livius
’ sire,
Rodnal
, doesn’t seem like the kind to hold a grudge, and he
doesn’t carry enough influence to wage war against a daughter of Fae.

A strangled moan rips through Rowena, tugging at my heart, and
I hold her tighter, trying to keep away the wind as I spot the lights of the
small town ahead of us. I pick up my pace as she tries to squirm. “No, no,” I
whisper into her ear and she stills, sagging back into my arms with her lips
just a hair away from my neck, lighting me on fire.

“We’re almost there. Hold on; don’t move. I’ll fix ya up
when we find Blaine.” I kiss her hair, and I feel her hands grip into the front
of my jacket tighter.

“The hotel, he’s at the hotel,” she breathes out before
falling slack in my arms, her head lolling back and taking my breath away.

My heart feels like it’s frozen as I feel hers slow; the
beat an erratic, uneven rhythm, the pulse I see running through her neck almost
fading altogether. I start to run, looking frantically side to side for a sign
of the hotel. In a town this small I doubt there is anything elaborate, so I
focus in, searching everywhere in the blustery snow.

I can feel her heart slow even more.
Thump thump
………..
thump
thump
…………. The sound resonating in my head, and I feel like screaming. I
can’t lose her now; not after just finding her.

Jumping a short hedge, I almost trip and fall, but I catch
myself on a large pine and spot something glorious. A wooden sign, swinging in
the wind, stating ‘Pine Ridge Inn’, and I thank the heavens silently. Blaine’s
scent is all over the front door, along with the strong odor of humans, but I’m
not about to try and shimmy up a tree into a second floor window, so I swing
the front door open and quickly step in.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Honey, but we’re closed for the…” The sweet
old woman comes around the corner, curlers in her hair and her glasses down on
her nose, only to freeze when she sees me, my chest heaving in and out, moving
the lifeless Rowena in my arms. “Oh my,” she whispers, her hand going to her
lips in shock.

“I need to see a man who’s staying here; his name is
Blaine,” I breathe out, and all the woman does is nod, looking over her
shoulder and pointing me up the stairs.

I walk past, stopping to cast my white-blue eyes down into
her warm brown ones, trying to convey my thanks and calm her. “Thank you.
Please do not tell anyone we are here.”

“I
..I..
I won’t,” she stammers,
shaking her head as she pushes her glasses back up her nose, and she
straightens, pulling her shoulders back, letting me know my calming effect is
working on her.

Spinning and taking the stairs three at a time, I turn on a
landing and reach the second floor. The warm reds, oranges, and
golds
give me a false sense of security, and I follow the
strong scent of wolf down the hall and to the right, coming to the last door.

I should knock, that would be the nice thing to do, but
seeing as I’m feeling Rowena’s heartbeat stutter, niceties are not needed. I
can hear him snoring on the other side of the white wooden door, and I say a
silent prayer for him to not have a gun as I back up a few steps. Bringing my
leg up and planting my boot right by the door handle, I send the wood cracking
and groaning on its hinges into the room.

~~~~~

Blaine

“Why are you
lookin
’ at me like
that?” I ask Rowena as I cup her cheek and she snuggles into my side, her
perfect naked body pressed tight to mine. Her amazing eyes smile at me as I
brush a lock of her short hair behind her ear, grinning at her.

“I’m
jus
’
thinkin
’,”
she says, smiling and leaning her cheek on my chest while running her hand over
my shoulder, down my arm, and entangling our fingers.

“’Bout what?”
I pry, pulling her on
top of me as she squeals, trying to squirm away. I pull her face to mine with a
low growl, and she freezes like she always does, giving in to my more dominant
animal as I see her eyes flash to feline for a split second.

“I was
thinkin
’ ‘bout us,” she
whispers, looking me right in the eye while tracing the tattoos on my chest and
shoulders. Her light touch seems to vibrate on my skin, sending the heat of
desire that always burns for her down to my groin, and I give her a wicked
smile, pulling her hips down and grinding into her.

“Don’t worry ‘bout us,
Darlin
’,” I
say, pulling her lips to mine and claiming them, sweeping my tongue out and
over her bottom lip, hearing that sexy as hell purr rumble in her throat.

I get lost in her kiss like I never have in any other woman,
which is how I know she is mine.
My one and only.
My
true mate; the one all souls search for but only some are lucky to find. She
moans into my lips, and I grind her hips down onto mine, digging my fingers
into her bare ass and smiling at her movements against my growing need for her.

Her knees squeeze into my sides and she pulls her lips from
mine, sitting up and bathing me in a breathtaking sexy stare. I reach up and
run my hand from her neck, down between her beautiful breasts, to her stomach;
circling my finger around her navel and seeing her eyes roll back in her head.
I’m about to tell her to slide down on top of me so I can make love to her when
I see a strange pair of arms encircle her waist; the masculine hands roaming
all over her naked front, with one of the hands sneaking down to dive in
between her legs, the fingers brushing my abs, and I almost jump out of bed.

“What the hell!?”
I yell, jerking
them off of me and falling to the floor. The scene before me wavers.
What
the fuck?
I think to myself, seeing my room shake along with Rowena and
this strange man disappearing from my bed. It turns from light to dark, and I
really am lying on the floor; the door to our room barely hanging on its hinges
as a dark haired, white-blue eyed man stands on the threshold, holding my mate.

Letting a possessive growl rip from my body, I shoot to my
feet, ready to fight. I feel my hands shift from human to Berserker wolf, my
fingers elongating and my claws growing razor sharp. My teeth shift and my
canines grow; my nose and jaw jutting out to form a snout.

“Calm, Blaine,” the man shouts, kicking the door shut behind
him. I feel a wave of urgency, asking me to calm down roll over me, telling me
to quit the macho act.

The metallic scent hits my nose, and I stop the change,
looking from the dark clothed man to Rowena, lying slack in his arms with her
head lolled back and her neck exposed. I tune into her breathing, and it’s
weak, barely raising her chest, and I throw my masculine need to possess aside.

“What happened?” I get out in a husky growl while shifting
back to all human, cracking my neck and arms to relieve the pressure. Shaking
the vibrating pressure from my body, as if I was shedding water from the
midnight black coat of my wolf, I rush to the side of the bed just as this man,
or whatever he is, sets Row down on the bed.

“No time for that now,” the man says, shooting his
white-blue eyes my way before ripping Rowena’s jeans from her body, exposing
her still bleeding leg. I can’t stop the growl that rips through my body as I
see his hands hover over her bare flesh, and he locks his eyes onto mine, a
feeling of anger and frustration rolling over me and causing my wolf to pull
back; to whimper and whine slightly.

“What are you?” I can’t help but say in a harsh whisper as I
squint my eyes at him when I think I see the air around him waver, his skin
showing a green
tinge
and then disappearing again
back to normal. He is something; not animal or
vamp
,
because I’d be able to smell it on him. He isn’t just human, the eyes giving
him away, and I get this strong pull from him, as if he has a magic aura or
something.

“
No time for that now
,” he grinds out, returning his
attention to Row’s leg, and she groans loudly as he turns her leg slightly, her
blood spilling out over his fingers. “Do you have a first aid kit?”

Row thrashes her head against the pillow when the man prods
what looks like a bullet wound, and her pained moans pull at my heart, making
it jump up to a dangerous beat. “Yeah,” I finally answer him and turn,
sprinting into the small bathroom.

My chest is hurting; the sound of Row’s whimpering and the
slowing of her heartbeat filling my head as I rip open the medicine cabinet,
practically pulling it from the wall. The stranger’s voice reaches me as I find
the little white case with the
red cross
, and I have
to pause, listening to the soothing words he’s issuing to my mate, making me
feel better, as if he’s talking to me.

Wait
, I shake myself,
why the hell would I want
him talking to me like that?