Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Santiago
There’s a storm brewing outside that matches my mood.
Lightning flashes across the dark sky, the tempest rattling the house as it hits.
Quietly, I ease the door open and slip outside.
The air feels charged and bitingly cold.
I’ve always loved thunderstorms, their violent beauty and strength, and now I want to stop thinking for a second.
I fucked up.
If there’s a spell to turn back time, I’d give pretty much anything for it right about now. My hand trembles when I pull my hair tie free. Wind whips my hair around and I let it. The look that was on Samantha’s face still churns my stomach.
Fear. I never want to see that look on her again. Never want to smell that feeling entwined in her scent. Never want to hear that heart-wrenching whine.
I didn’t think. I just went full domination on a new changeling. And I’m not her maker. Rafael would have been fully justified in tearing my head off there and then.
She doesn’t act anything like a new changeling and I forgot. I wanted her pinned under me and I was curious to see how she would react. I expected a fight. Or her getting turned on. Anything but the reaction I got.
I need a fucking note with the number of days she’s been awake glued to my nose.
Not that I think I’ll ever step a foot into that house again. I should probably leave, but with Patricia around… I can’t. I still want to grab Samantha and cart her away to safety.
But it seems the one she needs protecting from is me.
The heavy rain drenches me as soon as I step out from the porch and I lift my face, closing my eyes to enjoy it.
It freezes once it hits the ground and I suspect that the way the weather is acting up right now is very localized to Rosewood estate.
The magical energies caused by the ley line are strong enough to create some weird weather patterns.
Something pulls at me and I pivot, my eyes automatically going to the second-floor window. Samantha’s pale face is visible, and I see her frown down at me. The urge to go back inside and beg for her forgiveness makes me grind my teeth.
I force myself to turn away and head to the forest. I need to get away for a while, clear my head.
The gardens start neat and orderly close to the house, but they turn wilder the farther away I get. The rain is not hitting a good portion of it, but the wind makes all the trees and hedges sway.
It’s impossible to miss the change as I cross the unseen border from the forest part of the gardens to the actual forest. The rain turns to snow and while the thunder still rumbles, the air loses its charge.
My clothes are soaked through and my hair is plastered down my back. The elements don’t bother me much, but it’s still taxing for my body. I need to feed sometime soon.
Like my hunger conjured it up, I smell blood. Fresh. Lots of it.
My dagger is in my hand in a flash as I scan the area for threats.
Nothing seems to be out of place, so I slowly move forward.
I taste the air again, but the heavy snowfall mutes the scents around.
Some monsters like to use snowfall as cover when they hunt, so I keep my steps soft and stay ready for anything as I round a large tree.
And then I see the woman.
She’s lying on the ground, clothes torn, brown eyes frozen open, and blood pooling under her. Her scent is fading, but I know she’s a wolf.
Not good.
What is a dead wolf doing on Rafael’s lands?
I try to look for any traces, but the snow is messing with both visibility and smells, so I move closer and squat down to get a better look. The wounds look like an animal attack, but they are so messy I can’t say what animal. Her spine is twisted and neck broken.
“Well, fuck.” Samantha’s voice behind me has me spinning in place. How the hell did she sneak up on me?
“Go back inside,” I say softly, trying not to spook her as I step between her and the body. She’s barefoot and only wearing Rafael’s shirt in this weather. I might not be bothered by it, but she’s shivering.
“Nope.” She huffs and then shouts over her shoulder. “Rafael!” When she faces me again, there’s no fear in her eyes, no disgust or panic. Before I can say anything to apologize, Rafael blurs over to us.
“Samantha, what is it?” He skids to a halt when he spots the wolf and curses under his breath.
Samantha moves to crouch next to the woman and inhales deeply, her eyes going wide.
A moment ago, I thought about her being dauntless, but now her hands shake and she blindly reaches behind, looking for support.
Rafael is there to pull her up and wrap his arms around her, and she buries her face in his neck and bursts into tears.
“It’s all right, it’s all right,” he soothes her, looking as lost as I feel.
I’ve seen too much violence, dealt too much of it, for it to rattle me anymore. I want to wrap my arms around her and tell her everything will be okay, but I hold back. I need to do something, though. “We’ll take care of the body,” I promise her. “Go back inside.”
Samantha cries harder, shaking her head.
“Samantha, sweetheart. Let me take you back inside. It’s freezing out here. You can talk to Santiago later,” Rafael murmurs and this time she shakes her head sharply and pulls back. She dashes a hand over her cheeks.
“No.” Her voice comes out as a frail whisper and another sob escapes her. “No. I’m fine,” she lies.
“Little fangs,” I begin but fall silent as she takes a deep breath, chokes, and points at the body.
“She—she is… was pregnant.”
“What?” Rafael and I growl at once. The sound echoes in the quiet forest.
“I don’t know how I know it, but I do. Pregnant. They… they killed a baby,” she chokes again, but this time it seems to be from rage.
“With this storm, I can barely scent her,” I say to Rafael, who’s also inhaling deeply, trying to gather what little information there’s left.
“I’m pretty sure she’s from a local pack. I get a hint of the alpha’s scent,” he replies, still holding Samantha close to his chest. Neither of us says the obvious thing. She wasn’t killed here. The ground around is undisturbed and there’s not enough blood. Just the pool beneath her.
“Earlier, you said something about wolves,” Samantha says, her voice quiet and steadier now.
“Yes. The local pack requested a meeting with Rafael.”
“Seems that they had a reason,” Samantha mutters to herself and scans the body up and down.
Her fangs are peeking, but I don’t think it’s from hunger.
My instincts to protect her from everything are pushing forward, but I fight them back.
Letting my instinct out left her whimpering in fear last time.
Rafael is wrapped around her, looking like he’s seconds from whisking her away. He’s scanning the forest around us, while trying to shield Samantha from the wind. Carefully, I shift, so I’m shielding her a bit too.
She just looks at the body, not even glancing at me. Her steady response makes me curious.
“How are you taking this so well? Seen a lot of bodies?”
She shakes herself a bit, glances at me, and then focuses back on the body. “I worked in crime scene cleaning.”
Rafael growls.
“They moved me to the office once I was diagnosed. Some of the smells were… triggering.”
“Diagnosed?” I ask, but Rafael speaks over me.
“You said you were an office manager at a cleaning company,” he says accusingly.
“I was,” she snaps and then sighs. “How do you think I ran into vampires in the first place? Some of you leave quite a mess behind.”
I shudder at the thought. “You met a vamp at a crime scene?”
“Yep. She stared at me and quite adamantly demanded that I didn’t see her. Since the rest of the crew acted like they didn’t, I played along.”
“Compulsion,” Rafael says, frowning. “It didn’t work on you.”
She shakes her head and again turns toward the body with narrowing eyes.
“You didn’t tell me that either.” Rafael sounds hurt and I glance at him to make sure.
“Please,” Samantha huffs. “Like I wanted to paint a target on my back. I acted like I didn’t see her and then got the hell away from there.” She glances at Rafael. “And I think I did say you couldn’t compel me.”
“Okay, I think this is a conversation we can continue at a later time,” I interject before Rafael can push Samantha too much and she snaps. The mental note of “two days” hangs on my forehead. And we have a fucking body at our feet.
“Right, sorry,” Rafael says and some of the tension leaves Samantha’s shoulders.
“Can you turn her over?” she asks me.
“Sure,” I reply and gather the wolf in my arms, flipping her gently. I don’t see anything, but Samantha hisses, leaning closer to Rafael again.
“What is it, sweetheart?” he asks, looking worried.
“You don’t smell it?” She sounds baffled and looks between the two of us.
“Smell what?”
“The rot. Like something that has been dead for at least a week. Doesn’t look like it, but the smell… Those were the hardest cases. The stink even after the body was taken away. Sometimes we had to wait on the sidelines until the forensics… scooped everything up.”
“I don’t smell anything,” I say and lean closer to test it. There’s nothing but blood and wolf scents that my nose picks up.
“Me neither,” Rafael says but doesn’t move closer. We exchange a look. It’s not that we don’t believe Samantha, but she is newly turned. Her senses could be going haywire. Hell, it’s even expected until everything settles.
“Was it a vamp? It doesn’t look like that to me,” she says, pulling our attention back to her.
“I don’t think it was a vamp either,” I say. “Might have been another shifter, predator like a bear or cougar. Hard to say. These wounds are too ragged to see a pattern from a quick look.”
Rafael really needs to meet with the wolf pack, and soon. If there’s a shifter war brewing, we are definitely moving Samantha out of here.
“What are we going to do?” Samantha looks pale as she gets to her feet.
“You are going to go inside and take a hot shower,” Rafael begins and Samantha frowns.
“But—”
“Listen to him, little fangs. You need to get out of the elements,” I say and carefully reach out to push the wet hair out of her face.
I give her all the time to flinch back, but she doesn’t.
Her big, blue eyes track my movement, but there’s no fear in them now.
“You might not feel the cold, but it’s draining your body,” I add.
She hesitates but then nods. “But we need to talk.”
“If you still want me in the house, I’ll be there.”
“Why wouldn’t I—”
“You can hash all this out later,” Rafael says.
“I’m going to go call our contact with the wolves and arrange a meeting.
And Santiago is going to cover the body.
We don’t want to move it more until the pack arrives.
We’ll get a clearer picture if this was infighting or something more from their reactions. ”
He’s right about not moving her, but I’m not loving the idea of letting Samantha out of my sight right now. Still, if this gets her inside, I’ll play along. Samantha appears like she wants to argue but then looks between the two of us.
“Make sure to stock up,” she finally says to Rafael and his eyebrows rise.
“I will,” Rafael tells her softly.
“I’ll get out of your way then,” she says, flicking her eyes to mine. I’m not sure what she means by that.
“Would you agree to staying inside when the pack gets here?” Rafael’s tone is hopeful, but his face shows signs of defeat even before she snorts. “I didn’t think so,” he says and points at the house. “Shower. And find some goddamn pants. If you flash anyone but us, there’ll be murder.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Samantha replies with a dangerous glint in her eyes and I’m sure we are in trouble.
“Maybe we could do some online shopping later,” I mutter and she beams at me.
“Go,” Rafael says and Samantha turns on her heel. She takes exactly two steps before we are both flanking her, and Rafael sweeps her up in his arms. Together, we blur back to the mansion and he deposits her on the porch.
Then the suicidal vampire swats her ass and points at the door.
“Inside,” he commands her and Samantha’s eyes narrow into slits.
One tug, and the shirt falls apart, leaving her naked.
She throws a middle finger over her shoulder and stomps inside, leaving both of us with blue balls and aching fangs.
“We are doomed,” I curse as I follow her with my gaze until the door closes.