Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
P arker
Immediately, Jenkins releases Declan and blurs away. Declan staggers a bit, and Selene blurs to his side to steady him. “You all right?”
He clears his throat and gives her a thumbs up.
I don’t even notice when Allison sets me down. A chilling scent, masked somewhat by the rich tones of an ambergris cologne, clues me in. I startle and look up into the cold face of Lucius the Vampire king.
“Lovely night for a fight,” the king says in the accent of an ancient royal.
My animal recoils.
“No need to fear,” Lucius says and smiles, showing his fangs in a way that’s probably meant to be reassuring. “You’re on the winning side.”
Allison walks out of the shadows in human form again, her chest heaving. She’s naked from shifting back, so I shuck off my jacket and hand it to her.
“Thanks.” She swings it around her shoulders. “All good?”
“Was this what you were waiting for?” I whisper, looking wide-eyed from Selene with her crossbow to Lucius and back again.
“Yeah. Didn’t I say that?”
“You told us to stall. You didn’t say why.”
“I called for help,” Allison said.
Declan limps over to us. “I tot you called some backwater coyotes. Not…” he tilts his head at Lucius, his eyes bugging out. “The king of the vampires,” he mouths.
“Of course, I called Mr. F. Who else can deal with silly vampires?”
Declan and I stare at each other. Allison called the King of the Vampires. And he came.
And he brought back up.
“My God,” Lucius murmurs. Declan and I flinch, but he’s not talking to us. He’s watching Selene stalk after Charles and Jenkins, an intent look on her beautiful face. “She’s incredible.”
“Where’d she get the crossbow?” Allison asks.
Across the field, Selene hears and turns, patting the hilt. “A birthday present from Lucius,” she shouts. “It came with reusable stakes.” She gives us a thumbs up.
I gulp.
“Should we help her?”
“And spoil all her fun?” The king of vampires raises a brow. His voice is low and dry of inflection. Like wet silk over slate. He sounds a little amused, and maybe he is. I don’t dare study his expression too closely.
Charles is running around the hearse. Selene barely seems to move. She disappears, only to reappear in front of him, standing with a leg cocked and a smirk on her face, surprising him time and time again.
Jenkins runs the other direction, across the field to the truck Declan must have procured for us before the vampires nabbed him.
“He’s getting away,” Declan says.
“Wait for it,” Allison says.
Jenkins throws himself into the truck cab and shuts the door. I can hear him scrabbling for the key to the ignition. He ducks to see how to hotwire it, and behind him, red eyes blink on in the back.
The next thing I know, the truck is rocking side to side. Someone is screaming.
“I can’t look,” Declan ducks his face into my shoulder.
“I can’t look away,” I mutter, patting him. What sort of red-eyed monster can make a grown vampire squeal like that?
The ass-kicking ends when the windshield smashes open with a crunching sound. Jenkins flops to the ground, covered in cuts and glass. A tiny dark creature climbs out after him. It stands on the hood of the car, chittering and waves its tiny fists. With its grey fur, striped tail and dark mask around the eyes, it can only be—
“A raccoon? ‘Tat’s what Fiona is?” Declan asks.
“She prefers the term ‘trash panda’,” Allison says.
“She’s so little.” Her animal isn’t that much bigger than a normal one.
“All the better for sneaking around. But don’t underestimate her.”
“Oh I will nae,” Declan sounds smitten.
A sudden thwap thwap thwap has us turning. Selene shot the crossbow, and three bolts pin Charles to the side of the barn by his dressing gown. She sets down her weapon and pulls an extra stake from the top of her boot.
As she approaches, Charles tosses his head. “What is the meaning of this?” He calls to Lucius. “I demand that you call off your dog and let me go.”
“He won’t help you,” Selene says. She gets closer with the stake, and Charles grows frantic.
“You have no right to do this. Why have you assaulted me?”
“You are officially charged with kidnapping innocent shifters and agents of the king, deterring the king’s mission. Oh, and plotting a vampire coup.”
“What?” I gasp.
“Oh yes,” Lucius murmurs, sounding bored. “It always comes down to killing me.”
“You have no proof,” Charles sputters.
Selene sweeps her hand out towards us. “We have the word of these shifters.”
“Shifters–” Charles sneers.
“--who I consider to be close and personal friends,” Selene adds.
Declan and I blink at each other. Close and personal friends? Maybe she meant Allison and Fiona.
“Let’s recap. You hired men to follow these shifters and capture them. When that didn’t work, you tried again yourselves.”
“It’s impossible to find good hired help this century,” Charles sneers.
“You took our friends, put them in cages. And tried to entice them to kill Lucius. But let me guess.” She pulls a sheet of paper out of her pocket. “The instructions to activate kill mode didn’t work.”
“Aww, yeah. Check and fucking mate,” Fiona says. She strolls over to us in human form, dressed in her jeans and boots and crop top, and pulling on her jacket.
“What, what’s happening?” I ask. “I don’t understand.”
“Lucius and I knew there was a coup brewing. We wanted to quash it, but we needed the vampires to act first. So we planted the idea that there are shifters bred fast and dangerous enough to take down Lucius.” She waves the paper. “And there’s a code to hypnotize them to do anyone’s bidding.”
“The code,” Allison says, “is the Cuban Shuffle?”
“So that’s why they kept dancing.” I rub my head.
“Yes,” Selene chuckles. “We thought they’d come after me, and then I could destroy them fairly. We had no idea that things would go so far off the rails.”
“I told ya, it couldn’t be us,” Declan says to Charles.
Charles looks too angry to speak. “That’s…that’s entrapment.”
“All’s fair in vampire wars.” Selene pats his cheek, hard, almost a slap. Then she slams the stake into his chest.
There’s a frightened cry from over by the truck. Jenkins has made it to his feet. He tries to run for the far edge of the field, but Selene appears at the fence, waiting for him. There’s a wet, sucking sound, and he falls. Selene plants her boot on the stake and slams it home.
Lucius sighs like he’s watching a clip of an adorable puppy. “All done, moon of my heart?”
Selene straightens and dusts off her hands. “All done.” She disappears and reappears in front of Lucius, smiling up at him.
The barn doors creak open. Laurie comes out, holding the blanket with one hand and rubbing his eyes with the other. “W-w-what’s g-going on?”
He drops his hand and sees the staked vampires, Selene and Lucius, and Allison wrapped in my coat. He does a double take and twitches backwards so hard a cloud of feathers explodes behind his head.
“Chillax, Laurie.” Fiona gives him a double thumbs up. “We won.”
Laurie
My head and heart are pounding from the vampire scent, but from the looks of things, the action’s over. Allison breaks away from the group to stand close to me, and her sweet scent helps.
Selene produces a pack from somewhere and pulls out a set of blankets. The fabric is thin enough to roll into a tiny packet, but unfurls as a square large enough to cover our nakedness. It’s soft and warm, too.
“How did you get here so fast?” Fiona asked.
“Allison texted me last night.” Selene shakes out a third blanket for Fiona, who’s in short sleeves. When Fiona waves it away, Selene hands it to Declan instead. “I wanted to come then, but Lucius didn’t think the werebears would appreciate us showing up on their doorstep.”
Parker snorts, and I know what he’s thinking. He explained to me once that under Lucius and Selene, the shifters and vampires have come to a careful truce. They keep the peace by ignoring each other; otherwise, it’d be a bitter fight with heavy losses on both sides.
“So we flew up here and bunked out at our favorite Taos resort. Lucius didn’t want to me to see my Saturnalia present before we celebrate, but it’s almost solstice, so…” she shrugs and turns to Lucius. “Are these my presents?” She points at the herd of vampire deer, a delighted smile brightening her pale face.
“Yes, my queen.” Lucius lifts the hair from her nape and presses a kiss there.
“They’re so cute!”
“Aren’t they?” Allison says. She and Selene start chatting about the herd and Lucius’ plan to free them.
Fiona rubs her arms like she’s chilled, and when Declan sidles up to Fiona and places the blanket around her shoulders, she doesn’t shrug him off.
Parker paces over to me. “You okay, L-bird?”
I nod.
“I still can’t believe they came all this way to help us.” He pitches his voice low, but there’s no such thing as too quiet for a paranormal to hear.
“Of course, we’d come help you out,” Selene speaks up. “Why wouldn’t we?”
“Uh…” Parker and I look at each other frantically. I wish I could pull the blanket over my head.
Fiona answers for us, in her usual blunt manner. “Um, because you’re with the freaking King of the Vampires, and they're them.”
“Yeah, okay.” Selene looks thoughtful then nods like she’s come to a decision. “This is kind of random, but I think of you as my pack.”
“What?” Declan and Parker’s eyes bug out. Mine too, but I don’t dare squawk. My owl stays very still, as if hoping Selene won’t notice me.
“Yeah. I mean…” She shrugs. “After what happened to my old pack, I grew up alone. I don’t really fit in with any other shifters, you know? Especially now that I’m with Lucius. And he’s everything to me, but sometimes it’s nice to know there’s a pack of shifters who has my back.”
“They’ve had your back?” Allison asks.
“Oh yeah. Since the day I met them. You’re all the best.”
“Awww,” Fiona says. “Group hug?” she mouths to us when Selene’s face is turned away from her. Declan and I shake our heads “No!” vigorously. Parker does the same and adds a chopping motion in front of his throat.
“Oh well,” Fiona shrugs and mimics a Cockney accent. “God bless us, each and everyone.”