CHAPTER FOURTEEN
~
“Faith,” Lex had called her a hundred times, and she still kept marching, stomping each step into the ground on her route back to the bar.
He wanted her to get her frustration out because he didn’t want her to take it out on him, but if he didn’t try to engage with her, she would still be in her own head, and that wasn’t always the best place to be for a newbie vampire.
“Faith,” he said, low and calmly. He knew she could hear him; her hearing was better than his. As a newbie, all her newfound senses were heightened to extremes.
“Faith,” he said after a respectful period of time for her to answer.
It might not have been getting to her, but it was getting to him. He had patience, but only so much; there were other, more important things for him to deal with – like not sucking the closest human dry of blood. “Faith!”
Lex put on a burst of speed and got in her path. “Where are we going?” he asked when she hit the brakes and came to a complete stop, looking him in the eye like she wanted to rip his head off.
“South.”
Lex tried one of his more appealing grins, but she didn’t bite. She folded her arms and offered him a blank expression. “You could walk around me.”
“You’ll just move to block.”
“You could ask me to move.”
“You have an agenda you want to share.”
Lex considered her for a moment. “You’re trying to out-vamp me.”
Faith cocked an eyebrow. “I’m trying to go south.”
“Why?”
“I’m being summoned,” Faith said without any outward show of emotion.
“You smell blood in the air?”
“No.”
“Humans?”
“No.”
Lex came to the sudden realisation of what was pulling her on. “Nana.”
“Bingo.”
“But you’re not a witch; how do you know?” Lex asked, curious.
Faith huffed and rolled her eyes. “It’s an itch that needs scratching…”
“And you intend to scratch?” Faith stared blankly back at him. “And how about those fangs – will they come into the equation?”
“I don’t think she’s going to kill me; the worst she will try is locking me down…”
“Like a tyrannical government,” he quipped.
“And like anyone who tries to take away your freedom, she needs to be overthrown.”
“So, you are going to kill her?” Lex asked.
“Revolutions don’t need to be bloody unless they give you no option,” Faith replied.
“Are we talking about Nana or the government now?”
“I thought I’d start with Nana, and in my spare time, I could overthrow the global elite,” Faith said without an ounce of sarcasm.
“I think you mean that.”
“Which?”
“All of it,” Lex replied. “That sounds like fun; vampires haven’t meddled in human affairs for all of five minutes, but as they seem intent on killing off most of our food supply on the planet, let’s start now.”
“I have more pressing things to do, but you go ahead, I’ve got this,” Faith said, taking a step to the side that he immediately countered.
“And what is the ‘this’ that you have got?”
“Deal with Nana,” Faith said.
“Eating your grandmother is the domain of the big bad wolf; do you know nothing of history?” Lex shrugged.
“I really don’t like you right now.”
“But I bet you wouldn’t mind seeing me naked,” Lex replied, a roguish grin on his lips.
“Oh, be still my heart,” Faith replied. “Oh, wait, you already did that.”
“And there it is: the recrimination. When looked at logically, all I did was save your existence.”
Faith softened. “I’m grateful…”
“Really?” Lex looked as surprised as he felt.
“No, idiot,” Faith snapped, placing her hands on her hips.
“Oh, here it comes…” he muttered.
“I have no magic to defend Jennifer, and you did that.”
Lex narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips. “That’s it?”
“What’s it?”
“Nothing more than that?” Lex frowned. Faith opened her arms and shrugged. “Ha! I thought there would be more.”
“Sorry to disappoint; I’ll sit down and write a list when I have a moment, which I should over the next few lifetimes, right?”
“Ah,” he said, nodding.
“Explain.”
“There are still some issues in that scary black area in the back of your mind waiting to come out; I can wait.”
“Step aside, or we’ll see how my newbie skills compare to yours and how much force it takes to remove your testicles and hand them to you,” Faith said, cold, calm and collected.
“Haven’t lost the witch flare yet, then,” he replied before moving to the side and motioning for her to continue on her way.
“Better believe your butt that I’m still in witch mode,” Faith said, tipping her chin up and walking by him.
“Hold onto that as long as possible; it may serve you well,” Lex whispered beside her ear as he walked one pace behind her.
Faith’s fist came up and back fast, catching him on the nose with a crack and breaking it. “That witch enough for you?” she asked, storming ahead.
~
Drew rested his backside against the front grill of his pickup and folded his arms. Heath gave him a little side eye but said nothing. “You’ll need to speak to the pack about Faith.”
Heath nodded. “I know.”
“It’s going to be open season on a newbie vampire, and a few might consider it time to settle scores.”
“Yeah.”
“Want me to take the temperature of the pack?” Drew asked, already knowing the answer, but he felt it was better to get it out in the open between them.
“Sounds like a good idea,” Heath said.
“I’ll remind them who Faith is; it should do the trick,” Drew assured him.
“My sister-in-law,” Heath said, sighing.
“Lex’s better half,” Drew said, grinning. “You might be the alpha, but nobody wants a miffed-off Lex on their tail because they accidentally killed his mate.”
“Good point,” Heath said. “And this is Lex’s fault.”
“The alternative would have been we failed Faith,” Drew said.
“Yeah, but a vampire sister-in-law wasn’t something I had on my bingo card for this year,” Heath said, wincing at the thought.
“A vegan is looking like a pretty good option to have now,” Drew said, chuckling.
“Couldn’t get any further away from a vegan if you tried,” Heath grumbled.
“Cannibal?”
“Apart from cannibal,” Heath grumbled.
Drew looked apprehensive. “Maybe we should halt the conversion on the beach guesthouse for now.”
Heath turned a curious look on his beta. “Why? Faith can’t get in; she hasn’t been invited.”
“Nobody is going to want to deal with Nana right now.”
Drew saw the realisation hit Heath between the eyes. “Good point, I hadn’t thought of that.”
“That’s because you don’t need to deal with the elder on a daily basis, and when she gets a thorn in her paw…” Drew motioned an explosion with his hands.
“And even if we finish the conversion, do we really want paying customers that close to the action twenty-four hours a day?” Heath said, considering it.
“And it still has the ghosts,” Drew reminded him.
“They need to go,” Heath said, hitting on something he could do while the rest of their world seemed to be spinning out of control. He pushed away from the truck.
“Now?” Drew asked, scowling as he followed his alpha.
“You think of a better time?” Heath said back over his shoulder. He yanked open the driver’s door to his pickup and jumped in. “We’ve got two vampires,” he said out the open window when Drew walked to the closed door. “Do we need ghosts who seem to be a beacon for whatever that was today with the wave?”
“One word,” Drew said, wincing. “Nana.”
“I think Nana has enough with her granddaughter being a vampire to fight me on the ghosts; it’ll be one less thing for her to deal with,” Heath said, starting the engine.
“Okay, if it’s a hill you want to die on, go for it,” Drew said, shrugging.
“Nice visualisation technique,” Heath said. “And the word is we, not me, us.” Drew looked a little confused. “Get in.”
Drew groaned and grumbled, and for one long moment, he stood there shuffling on his feet. “Damn it,” he growled before turning on his heels and heading to the passenger door.
Drew wrenched open the door and stood in the opening. “You know those things you dread hearing?” Heath nodded, clearly amused. “That’s one of them.”
“Pull on your big girl panties, Drew; we’re going in,” Heath said, chuckling to himself.
“I know this wasn’t on my bingo card for the damn day,” Drew said, climbing into the passenger seat and slamming the door shut.