The Alpha's Fight: Huntsville Pack Book 3 (25 page)

Lia took the wallet from him, angling it so the light from the fire illuminated the badge. There were letters around the figure eight in the center. "Unitum in morte," she read.

"Latin for united in death," Davian translated, holding out his hand for the wallet back. "Our motto."

Lia kept the wallet. "Ryder? You know anything about this?"

Ryder shrugged. "Kind of. I fought a vampire once early in my career. They do have a council just like we do."

Davian stiffened. "I have no reason to lie."

"Oh, yeah. You're a saint, right?" Ryder shook his head.

Lia tossed the wallet back to Davian. "Okay, so let's say you're official, what the hell happened?"

"Someone was running a blood ring. I was sent to investigate and find out who was behind it." Davian looked away. "I had to buy my own blood slave. That's the only way they would trust me."

"So you bought my sister and fed off her?"

"I had no other choice." He licked his lips. "Ask her, she'll tell you."

Lia turned to her sister. "Is it true?"

Adele nodded. "They made him feed."

"Made him feed, or he made you think he had no choice?" asked Marie.

Adele's eyes widened. "I-I-I don't know." She rattled her chains and gave a low growl of frustration. "Was it all a lie Davian?"

"No." The vampire gave her a stricken look. "I saved you, remember? You do know that, right?"

She gave a slow nod. "Yeah. I guess I can't say whether he was forced to feed from me or not, but he did save me."

"How?" Lia asked.

"How do you think I got up into the ductwork at the club?" She pointed at Davian with her chin. "He gave me a boost."

Lia looked to Davian. "And then you left?"

"There was no time. I had a free pass to leave, but she did not. It was the only way to hide her. If she'd left with me, they would've hunted us both down."

"Someone executed a lot of shifters," Ryder said.

The vampire gave a somber nod. "I know."

"You only saved her sister." Ryder ignored Adele, his voice cold.

Davian licked his lips again. "The others had been bled too much. There was no saving them. They were thralls, at best, and on their way to becoming revenants, at worst. I couldn't do anything for them."

"But she was special?" Ryder asked.

"She was newer than the others. I took as little blood as possible and only fed because I had to. We were watched. I had to make it look real."

"It's true," said Adele. "And he was going to come back for me once it was safe." She yanked on her chains again.

"So you've barely been fanged," murmured the healer. She threw another log onto the fire and reached for a knife. "That's better than I expected. This won't take long. You'll be free by sunrise."

"Wait! That's not necessary." The vampire shifted his weight from foot-to-foot, his gaze locked on the knife the healer had selected.

"Oh?" The healer poked at the log with her knife, causing the flames to rise and dance along the blade. Lia stepped closer to the healer, wanting to be close enough to intervene if it became necessary. No one was bleeding her sister again without a very good reason.

Davian stood up straight and looked right at Adele. "I revoke my claim on your blood. I will not call you again. You are free."

"That's it?" Ryder sounded skeptical and Lia didn't blame him. Although Adele did go limp in her bonds as if all the life had been sucked out of her.

Davian gave a stiff nod. "Yes. She's truly free now. You don't have to do," he waved at the healer and her knife "whatever barbaric thing you were planning."

"No," Adele moaned. "Davian, don't leave me."

"I can't stay and it's not safe to come with me." He smiled, but it was a gesture of heavy regret, not happiness. "You're better off with your own kind."

Adele yanked on her chains and growled in frustration. "That's not what you said before. I'm only better with you."

"That's the blood talking," the healer said.

"No. It's not." Adele shot a glare at the healer, her eyes still red. "It wasn't just about blood with Davian. He's not like the vampires who bought slaves."

"I hate to break it to you, but all the bitten talk like this. They all think it's special. Once your blood is free of his influence, you'll feel differently." Marie stood. "Just to be sure, I'm going to treat you anyway. I'm afraid I don't trust your fanged friend here quite as much as you do."

"No," Adele cried out, her voice so high, a bat answered her call with its own sonic screech.

"Are you sure this is absolutely necessary?" Lia asked as she tracked the healer's movements.

"No, but I'm sure if I do this that she'll be free and clear of his hold on her. If I don't do it, we'll always wonder." She shot a dark look at Davian. "He could call you from anywhere at any time and you would have to go. Is that how you want to live your life?"

Adele looked at Davian with such longing that Lia's heart hurt. Bloodstained tears tracked down both her cheeks. "Don't you understand? I want to be with him. Please just let me go."

"No." Davian held up a hand. "Stay with your pack. I can't guarantee my safety let alone yours. To them, you're dead, remember? If we're seen together it will blow my cover. We still don't know who's behind the ring."

"What about after?" Adele's voice cracked. "When it's all over?"

"You'll have returned to your life." Davian stepped forward and cupped Adele's face with one hand. "I'm dead, not your mate."

A sob wracked her body. "I meant nothing to you, then?"

He leaned into Adele, pressing his forehead against hers. "I will always remember you. You're not nothing, but that's not enough. Not for us." He stepped away as she sagged in her chains, her sobs loud and gulping.

"Liar," she shrieked. A chorus of bats answered her.

Davian turned his back on Adele, but Lia saw the pain in his face. Walking away from her sister cost him.

"Thank you," she said.

"For what?" He gave her a surprised look.

"For saving her and letting her go." Davian wasn't half bad, she decided. He appeared to have a conscience, at least.

"The living are never ours to keep," he said with a bitter twist of his lips.

"So you're just going to disappear into the night?" Ryder crossed his arms, his biceps bulging. "This blood slave ring blows into town and tears up lives and that's it?

"I'll make a full report to your Pack Council. We had hoped to resolve this privately and with no harm done to any of yours, but—"

"Instead, it was a blood bath, "Ryder finished for him.

"Unfortunately, yes." Davian squared his shoulders. "I was too late to save anyone but Adele." He started to turn toward her, but caught himself and stayed facing Ryder.

Ryder ducked his head so he and the vampire were eye to eye. "If there's no report, I'm going to find you, understood?"

"Understood."

"Go. Do what you need to do."

Adele yelped and Davian closed his eyes at the sound. Then, with resolute steps, he walked away into the night which swallowed him up in its darkness.

"No." Adele threw her head back and keened. In the distance, another wolf answered, followed by yet more, all lifting their voice with hers until dozens shared her grief.

Lia had a flash of memory that crowded her vision and made her unsteady on her feet. She'd heard this before.

Ryder came and caught her elbow. "I've got you. Everything okay?"

"Yeah, just a strong memory." She leaned into him. "They howled like this for my parents. Someone told me that packs all up and down the west coast grieved with us." If she focused, she could hear the howls from back then. She could recall how comforting it had been to know the pack was with her.

"Shifters never mourn alone," Ryder said.

Her sister's howl cut off abruptly, replaced by a hissing gasp. While Lia had been caught up in remembering a new piece of her past, the healer had acted. She'd sliced Adele's flesh up and down the torso.

"What are you doing?" Lia went to jump between the healer and her sister, but Ryder held her back.

"Wait," he said.

Marie made a cut across Adele's throat. "We have to get rid of the bad blood."

Lia watched with alarm as blood went from dripping to running down her sister's body. "You'll kill her."

"No. I won't. I've never harmed anyone yet. Although some people might mistake the cure for intentional malice." She ran the knife across each of Adele's shoulders and then pointed to her stomach. "Look. She's already healing."

Sure enough, the wounds had started to close and the red hue to her sister's eyes had lightened. Lia relaxed a fraction. This wasn't like her injury, which had been brutal and violent enough to kill. The healer hadn't cut so deep that Adele's natural healing abilities couldn't cope.

"That's not to say she won't be weak and need to build her blood back up," said Marie as she bent down and wiped her knife clean in the grass. "But she'll be okay."

"How long do we have to leave her like this?"

"Once the wounds heal, you can take her down." The healer packed up her knives, sliding them into a piece of deer skin with loops sewn in for each knife. Rolling up the skin, she said, "As for me, it's been a big night for this old body. I'm going to bed. Feed her some of the bone broth when you come in. I'll see you tomorrow."

With that, she trudged off and disappeared around the corner of the cabin. Lia began to tremble then as everything that had happened hit her.

"It's over," Ryder said, his voice gentle.

"We thought it was over before. Are you sure?" She rubbed her arms, cold despite the heat of the fire.

Ryder wrapped her into his warmth. "Yeah, I'm sure. We've run out of bad guys."

"The vampires from the blood slave ring got away."

"Yeah, but that's Davian's problem, not ours. We'll tell the other pack alphas what's what and good luck to any vamp stupid enough to try anything."

"You really think so?"

"I'm sure of it." He kissed the top of her head and swayed with her from side to side. Lia relaxed into him and drank in his musk. Ryder smelled like everything good in the world.

He gave her a little shake."Hey. I think your sister is ready."

Lia stepped away and went to check on her sister, who sagged, lifeless in her bonds. She'd either passed out or fallen asleep as she'd bled. Save for some dried blood on her skin, she had no signs of any wounds.

"I think we can take her inside now," Lia said as she removed the silver chain from one wrist. Ryder nodded and worked on freeing her sister's ankles.  

"Do you think she's okay?" Lia checked for a pulse, relieved to find a strong one.

"She's been through a lot. I'm not sure
I
would be conscious." He cast away the chain that had been used to secure Adele's feet and rubbed his hands on his thighs.

"They injected you with silver and you still won an alpha challenge. I think you would be okay." She moved to Adele's other hand while Ryder held her sister up.

"Mason wasn't much of an alpha," Ryder said.

"True." The last chain came free and she let it drop to the ground. Her hands burned from the silver and copying Ryder, she rubbed her hands on her thighs.

Ryder picked up Adele and headed for the cabin. "Come on, let's go inside. I've had enough of tonight."

Lia jogged to catch up with him and grabbed her sister's hand when she moaned. "Shh. It's okay. I've got you." That seemed to reassure Adele who sank back into sleep.

This is my family, right here. My sister and Ryder, the only two people who matter.

T
hey bundled her sister in blankets and left her to sleep in the guest bedroom. Lia tried to offer her sister some bone broth, but she couldn't wake up enough to drink it. Even in sleep, the exhaustion ravaged her face with grey shadows and hollowed cheeks. Lia set a mug of the broth on the nightstand and left her to rest.

Fatigue pulled at her bones and muscles, trying its best to coax her to the nearest bed or the floor, if a bed wasn't handy. She pushed it away, sighing with the effort it took to keep going. Returning to the kitchen, she and Ryder both drank several cups of the bone broth, soaking up its heat.

After rinsing out their dishes, they crashed on the couch in the cabin's great room, one blanket stretched between them and leaning into each other, shoulder-to-shoulder. The large window opposite the couch slowly filled the room with light as the sun rose. She blinked against its brightness, her eyes heavy. She'd barely slept at all. Ryder stirred next to her and squinted out the window.

"Morning." He squeezed her close.

She nestled her head on his shoulder. "Morning."

Ryder scrubbed his face with his other hand. "Seems too early to be awake, doesn't it?"

"The sun's up."

"Morning," came the healer's melodic voice behind them. She stepped in front of the couch and extended her hand to Ryder. "Here."

"What is it?"

"The key to my parent's cabin. It's about a mile north."

"You want us to leave?" Lia bit her lip, worried about her sister. The last time she'd left Adele alone with the healer there'd been way too many knives involved.

"Not leave. Just find a comfortable bed. And some privacy." Marie's mouth quirked in a smile. "You two have a lot to...talk about."

"Go," croaked Adele as she shuffled into view. She clutched her blanket tight around her shoulders and the shadows under her eyes had deepened into actual bruises.

Lia threw off her blanket and went to her sister. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine. Tired.
Really
tired, but fine." Adele returned the hug Lia gave her. "There's no reason to watch me sleep. So take the key and go."

Lia looked at Ryder, torn. She wanted nothing more than to run off with the man who'd been her rock since she'd met him, but it all seemed too good to be true.

Ryder stood and accepted the key from the healer. "If you need us, just howl. We'll hear you."

"She'll be fine. Sheriff Garde will be by in a bit to take her statement. We won't be alone." The healer appeared to sense their concern as she moved into the kitchen and checked the pot on the stove. "He'll probably want to talk to you two as well. I would skedaddle while you can. Last night was hard on everyone. Sleep, rest, eat."