Monica’s brow furrowed. She seemed to honestly be annoyed with Kaniji and Frank. “You said that we were all in danger?” Monica prompted, her point being that this was not just about me but about all of us.
“Yes. Right,” I said anxiously my thoughts still partially on my unfinished conversation with Alexis and my husband who had just shed his jacket and was cracking his knuckles. Crap! He looked like he was preparing for a fight! He slowly rotated his head until his neck cracked.
With dawning realization I just stared at my husband. “You…tricked me.” I whispered. “You knew what would happen-“
He wouldn’t meet my eyes. “Call him.”
But I didn’t have to.
Chapter 10
The pressure in the room changed subtly. Vampires sensed this internally and maybe Paul could as well with his own heightened senses, but a moment later Alexis stood a few steps from me, his eyes on me and nothing else.
“Now that we have the whole gang here can we get on with the show?” Cyrene said. In her defense I don’t think that she was attempting to be snide—she just couldn’t control it after hundreds of years of having a shitty personality.
They all thought this was Ran. They had no idea.
“Alexis, I thought we agreed that you wouldn’t-“ I tried to say. His nostrils flared and I knew that there was nothing I could do. Not. One. Damned. Thing.
“What the-?” I heard Frank begin.
But it happened quickly. Alexis’ eyes moved to Paul’s and suddenly the warm brown eyes that I had always been accustomed to seeing in the face that belonged to Ran had transformed into red orbs. Alexis wasn’t angry. Alexis was in a rage.
I don’t even know who jumped first. All I know is that both men were immediately sailing through the air in movements that defied everything I thought I knew of physics. In an explosion of hair Paul became the Wolf and I couldn’t believe that it could happen that quickly! He could change in the blink of an eye? When did he know about this and why hadn’t he told me?
Alexis’ own change immediately transformed him into a hulking beast that doubled and then tripled his form in waves of movement like that of the ocean reaching a shore. And then with a crash that sounded like mountain boulders the two beasts finally met in midair both fully transformed.
I sensed more than heard everyone in the room come to their feet in surprise at the rapidness of the seemingly impromptu battle. My brain screamed with the need to do something, to jump in, to grab them or scream at them. Something! Anything!
As the two bodies tumbled to the floor teeth and claws mauling and slashing in deadly intent, I strained to decipher exactly what was happening because all I could see was the rapidly writhing form of two beasts; one covered in bristles of dark brown fur, and the other a twisted and hunched monstrosity with grey mottled hide and teeth resembling a Saber Tooth Lion.
And then I saw the thing that caused me to lose it; blood and lots of it. Blood was suddenly splattering the floor and rugs while the sharp whelps of pain from both creatures sounded. Without thought I moved forward to stop them when the sudden grip of arms encased me from behind. In surprise I saw that it was Monica who had not only stopped me but who had me wrapped up in a wrestling hold.
“No!” She gritted out. After my moment of surprise I moved to break her hold but found that she had me at a disadvantage. Her arms around my body were ironclad and unbreakable--unless I wanted to break her. Being a few inches taller than me created a reach that encased me like a chain and padlock.
“Monica! What are you doing?!”
“They will kill you!” she hissed her teeth dropping either from her attempts to hold me or from the sound and smell of battle and blood.
But they are killing each other! I couldn’t just stand by and watch it! And suddenly I wanted to smack the fuck out of Monica! I wanted to smack her and shake her and as I tried to do these things we spun, crashing into furniture and breaking everything in our path. There were now two battles happening simultaneously.
“Fuck you, Monica!” I growled. “You two-timing sneaky cheating BITCH”, I thought the last angrily, directing it at her.
“Me cheat?” She replied telepathically. “It’s not me trying to hold men emotionally hostage!”
Ah, so that’s what she really thought behind all of her smiles and cheek kisses. And then suddenly the worst thing that could possibly happen did. I felt my beast rising in frustration and anguish.
“You’ll never be me!” I growled out loud and instead of trying to reign in my anger and ... yes, jealousy. I felt my body begin to thicken; not as quickly as Paul and Alexis’ had but fast enough that my tight jeans ripped up the sides leaving me in leopard print panties. How à propos.
With the change came a fuzziness to my thoughts that transformed them into a pinprick of awareness. All of it was centered on killing and ripping and then eating Monica. As unreasonable as my rage was, and I knew that it was, I couldn’t think beyond it. I just wanted to hurt her. As my body continued to thicken in transformation, Monica had no choice but to release me or else have her limbs ripped from her. She stumbled backwards and I knew that it was now my turn to take her and the thought of her blood in my mouth brought me a great deal of satisfaction.
And then something bowled me over. I got hit so hard it felt like I had stepped in the path of a freight train! Pain pierced my side and I knew something had given at the impact and was probably my ribs. The force of the impact knocked me across the room and when I stopped moving I realized that I was in the grip of another beast. Tony! He had me face down with his arms crisscrossed under mine from behind. It pinned me solidly and I tried to curse in pain but all I managed was a feral growl. How dare he hurt me! My clouded rationale saw this act as a betrayal and now it wasn’t Monica that I focused on ripping and shredding but this man that had pleasured between MY thighs but who now would knock me to the ground over another woman!
If possible, I believe that I bulked up even more, enough that my skin could barely keep up with the change and it split before rapidly repairing. It was painful but the pain fed the rage, which clouded me even more. It had been a long time since I felt this Creature that controlled me instead of the other way around. Not since the battle in Poland when I had killed the Wolves responsible for killing my family. And now I was lost again in the grips of this monster that thrived on my anger. I turned my head and bit at the air, trying with all of my might to sink my newly enlarged fangs into Tony’s Beast. I realized in shock that I was bigger than him and I bucked, nearly knocking his grip lose but he dug taloned feet into the wood floor, leaving grooves as he braced himself.
“Stop it Kim!” He growled. And then he wrenched my arms upward and the increase in pain tore through my shoulders. Instead of crying out I howled as my shoulders felt as if he was trying to rip them from my body. I was convinced that he was going to kill me rather risk that I’d get loose and kill him.
The sound of my howls tore through the air and I heard everything around me grow quiet even as I fought to get out of the painful hold. Tony’s teeth came down suddenly on the back of my neck right above my shoulder blades. He’d done it before, once upon a time when this very same Creature had gone after him. But the difference is that his bite hadn’t brought pain. This time fire ripped through my head and spine where the two met in a bundle of nerve endings and neural synopsis. My howls of pain sounded like sharp screams to my ears at this new sensation. I opened my mouth to let lose another scream but just as suddenly the teeth were gone and there was a heavy thump to the side of me. Tony was on his back scrambling to get up.
In his Beast form he looked a great deal like Alexis although his skin wasn’t grey but brown. A Beast’s skin appeared to be more like hide; thick and difficult to puncture with teeth or talons. In my time as a Council member, Master Vampire and Territory leader, I’ve seen varying forms of this Beast. The constant is that the Beast is a hairless, morphed form of their Vampire. That’s it. It’s not as i
f Vampires are changing into a wolf or panther because Vampires can’t ‘turn’ into anything else. When angered they bulk up into a scarier, deadlier Vampire … they, not me.
And now Tony’s Beast was scrambling to get up, a perplexed look in eyes that were now black orbs. That look brought awareness back to the edge of my thoughts but before I could figure it out something heavy landed on my back, knocking the air from my lungs. Someone had hit me with a building, right? Dazed it occurred to me that I wasn’t supposed to need air in my lungs but the realization didn’t stop my gasp for breath.
Massive, fur covered hands gripped my wrists non-too gently and held me pinned prone to the floor. Just when the rage began to return I felt a firm bite on the back of my neck right where Tony’s Beast had just attempted to sink fangs into me.
I braced for the pain, but this was different. It didn’t hurt. The teeth pierced my skin and then I felt pressure that was as far away from painful as you could get. I couldn’t move a muscle and the pressure of teeth in my spine felt good in the way that a hard massage feels good.
Suddenly my connection with Paul flooded every bit of my awareness. No, not Paul but his Wolf. I closed my eyes and relaxed as the soothing endorphins flooded my body like a shot of heroin in my veins. I felt the soft rumble in his chest as his weight eased up a bit but I didn’t move. Maybe I couldn’t because of the grip but more importantly I didn’t want to.
My eyes popped open and slowly my own body began to emerge and the monster retreated. When I tried to lift up the Wolf tightened his grip on my neck and it wasn’t the least bit gentle. Before I could protest another rush of endorphins flooded my senses. My eyes felt suddenly heavy and I allowed them to close and damned if I didn’t fall asleep.
~***~
I sucked in a sharp gasp as if I was drowning and then bolted straight up into a sitting position looking around me frantically.
“It’s okay baby. You’re okay.” Paul said placing his hand on my shoulder to keep me settled down. I weakly pushed his hand away as I tried to collect my thoughts, not sure why I didn’t want his touch although not quite sure why. Oh yeah…and I remembered that Paul had goaded Alexis into a fight and I had gone insane. I looked around quickly at the sight of everyone surrounding me as if nothing had happened.
“What the what-?” I would have thought it was all a dream. The room was put back in order and everyone including me was dressed as if clothing had not been imploded on several of us less-than-human individuals.
The human Ran, Mara and Karen had joined us and everyone was hovering around the lounger. I was half tempted to crack a joke and ask if I was still in OZ. Instead I quickly scanned Paul’s face for injuries. His lip was swollen and there were furrows running down his neck as if someone had tried to rip his throat out. Other than bruising he looked perfectly okay. I then looked over at Alexis who was watching me intently a few steps away. I saw the telltale signs of blood on a black silk Nero jacket that he had donned but otherwise he had concealed any wounds that he had gotten from his battle with Paul.
Okay…were these two not just fighting to the death? And how long ago had that been? And why in the hell was everyone staring at me?!
I tried to swing my legs from the lounger to stand but they felt like lead bars had been tied to my feet.
“Easy babe.” Paul spoke his hand returning to my shoulder. “You’ve been out for about an hour.”
“What?!” I gave him a sharp look. “An hour?” I hollered and then my head began to pound. I felt as if I’d been hit with several baseball bats. Also I was wearing black leather which was sticking to the freaking lounger making it even harder to get up—oh right, my other clothes had imploded and I had obviously been redressed in spare clothes left for Territory meetings.
“Who struck me in the head with a baseball bat?” I asked while rubbing the back of my sore neck.
“She’s awake now, so find out what in the hell that thing was!” Frank said looking uncharacteristically fearful.
“Shut the fuck up.” Paul growled and amazingly Frank did. “She’s still not awake yet.” He gently rubbed my back while I squinted up at them.
“The … thing I turn into? I told you—”
“No … ” Frank said with bulging eyes. “You never said anything about that!”
“Quiet!” Alexis commanded while pinning Frank with a look of disapproval. “We will get to the bottom of Kim’s Creature but the night grows short and there is much more to discuss.”
I looked from Alexis to Paul. “You…made it go away.”
“Well, the Wolf did,” Paul replied, his expression still filled with concern. And then his eyes moved to Tony and I saw something there that looked like…hatred. What the fuck? He’d gotten over his dislike of Tony, I thought.
“Tony tried to control your Creature.” Mara said quick, obviously reading my look of confusion. I felt a subtle tension fill Paul.
“But I stopped him…or at least the Wolf did.” Paul added. Then he looked around the room, his voice tight. “No one but the Wolf can ever sink teeth into her there. It is the Wolf’s mating bite.”
“If Paul hadn’t stopped Tony,” Mara continued quietly.
No one spoke and I looked at Paul. “What?”
“I would have had to kill him-“
“… or die trying.” Tony added.
Paul ignored that and stared into my eyes. “You are mated to the wolf just as you are mated to me. And you do know that Wolves mate for life…and so do I.”
Alexis turned his head to look at Paul for the first time since I had awakened. His expression was calm and his voice cool.
“You will not live forever, Beast. But she will—or nearly so. And so will I.”
Paul tilted his head in Alexis’ direction without bothering to look at him. “What happens when I am dead is no business of mine. But I believe that I will live much longer than you think. And when my life is over she will be filled with so many memories of our love and our life together that you won’t ever be able to surpass it.”
“Hey!” Ran said and everyone looked in surprise at the human. “Unless you forget Paul, it is my body that you’re fucking up so follow the agreement and squash this!”
Agreement? “What are you talking about? What agreement?” I asked, wishing my headache would finally recede but it had only intensified with this back and forth.
Kaniji spoke and for once she sounded sincere. “The agreement is the only thing that matters—at least until we can correct this threat that’s fallen on us.” She gave Monica a meaningful look filled with promises of something more to come.
Monica! Oh my God, I’d nearly forgotten that I’d just tried to kill my own Vampire daughter. “Monica! Did I hurt you?”
She searched my eyes before answering. “No, you didn’t hurt me.”
Frank made a winding sign with his hand. “Yeah yeah yeah. Can you two save the apologies for later? There is a threat looming over all of our heads and I don’t happen to be lucky enough to have a freaking Werewolf to watch me while I sleep and I cannot turn into a big-ass Monster like Kim so we need to come up with some type of strategy!”
They already knew about the threat against us, then. That meant they also knew that the being inhabiting Ran’s body was the Elder Alexis hence the reason that Frank had shut his mouth when requested. And obviously they had all come upon an ‘agreement’. After all, we were all sitting in the same room together after I’d just tried to kill and eat my child and Paul and Alexis had tried to rip the other to shreds and Kaniji apparently now knew about Tony and Monica AND Ran had to face the individual that was now living in his body—then I assume that the agreement was easy to figure out; we don’t kill each other.
“We each need to gather our Master Vampires. They’re targets too.” Cyrene said appearing more than just a little anxious.
“I can’t say that I completely trust my Masters,” Frank spoke. “What if they are in on this plan to get rid of the Council so that
they may take our place?”
“See what happens when ‘rogues’ are allowed to kill our Council men and take their roles on the Board.” Kaniji spoke snidely.
Alexis’ face darkened. “It sounds as if you are questioning someone’s appointment to this Council, Kaniji-san. Evidently my time away from this Council has done nothing to improve your attitude. If it wasn’t necessary to determine if you have anything of value to add to these discussions then I would remove your tongue…again.” I saw the blood drain from Kaniji’s already too-white face. Although I don’t know exactly what Alexis had done to her when he had punished Kaniji after she gave me the information that would allow me to take the death sentence of my Sire, I knew that it had resulted in her being maimed.
“I’m not sure if it would be to our benefit to let too many people know about these developments.” Tony said. He was standing a few feet from Monica who had moved back to the edge of the group once I had awakened. “I believe our best defense is that everyone believes we’re in the dark.”
“And how do you suggest we keep this bit of knowledge from the one person that has the power to pick it out of our heads?” Cyrene spoke. “The moment Malarias looks at us then any plans we make will go down the drain. He’ll read every bit of information out of us.”
Frank was pacing directly in front of my chaise and watching him walking back and forth in front of me wearing that crazy outfit was beginning to get on my last nerves.
“Alexis might be able to shed some light on how we deal with that.” I said after tearing my eyes from Frank.
“Malarias is a traitor and he will be dealt with. However, in the meantime I would suggest that you create false memories.”
I perked up in my seat, which wasn’t as easy as it sounded since I was wearing leather and the chaise was leather and I was freaking sticking to it.
“Right, we can make up anything and that’s what Malarias will see.” Our Elders didn’t normally root around in our heads but if Malarias got suspicious than we needed to have a safeguard. “That’s how I stayed safe from Athena when I was captured by the Barcelona Council.”