Divine Savior (22 page)

Dinner was being served in the large dining room of the pack house when the vampires converged silently on the surrounding porch. Aaron was to go in first, followed quickly by his men. He worried about Colin and kept him close.

All the pack members who were close enough to the pack house were there and had come to enjoy their time together as families would. It was the first dinner they had had together since the shut down earlier in the week, Sara had told them. Her source had said that even Bradley’s grandparents were in attendance.

Twenty-five vampire warriors and the eight from the Hummer stood at the front door awaiting Sara’s signal. The others had already begun their search of the area surrounding the house and outlying areas. They were taking no chances; being prepared was more than half the battle, Aaron thought.

Sara’s magic had the door slammed open on its hinges, the entrance wide seconds before they flashed as a single unit into the room. The vampires moved in double file around the main table where Bradley and his grandfather Charlie sat at the head. Once they were all inside, the warriors spread out around the room, backs to the group they had escorted in. Each warrior, whether man or woman, was fierce, and hungry, a scary combination for a vampire to begin with. Add in the need to prove to the new master they were his to command, and it had the potential for a very lethal situation. Aaron hoped it would remain a marginally peaceful one.

As one, the pack began to rise to the challenge; magic shimmered throughout the room as the first wolves began their shift into their beasts. They were halted by the simple raising of their alpha’s hand. Silence floated around the room like a blanket, heavy and complete.

“
I don’t believe you’re Avon calling, so I can only assume you want something else. And for your sake, Master Vampire, I do hope it’s important enough that you’ve barged in without an invitation. I don’t enjoy my food as much if I don’t get to chase it down and eat it. It’s not near as much fun either.”

Had Aaron been any other man, he might have been frightened, but Aaron was neither a man nor a vampire who was easily intimidated. So he only smiled. He thought he might like this wolf.

“
I’m Aaron Xavier MacManus, Master Vampire of this Realm. And yes, Alpha, it is important. To both of us, I believe. It seems you may have someone who belongs to me and mine and I want her back.” Aaron did not so much as look at anyone else in the room. This was to be between him and the wolf. “I have come to see if your involvement extends to that of your mate. If so, then I am justified in my lack of courtesy. If not then you have my humblest of apologies.”

Aaron didn’t take his eyes from the powerful wolf. Aaron had not lived for fourteen hundred years by being a stupid, nor naive.

Bradley glanced at his grandfather and Aaron saw the smallest nod of the older man’s head. He had brought him here for his advice and counsel, it appeared. It was a smart man who asked for help, an even smarter one who heeded it. Aaron’s respect for the wolf rose considerably. He just hoped now that they could look back on these incidents years from now as friends and laugh.

“
Perhaps we could do this in a little less...hostile environment.”

Aaron could feel the man’s nervousness, not for himself, but for the pack as a whole. He was nervous that his wolves would attack the uninvited guests and a bloodbath would ensue. If Aaron was honest even with himself, he would admit that he was a little nervous himself. This was important to them. Both men needed to save face and control the stupidity of the moment that could get them all killed.

“
No, I think not. You see, I have just returned from the site where there was so much blood soaking in the snow it looked as if a large battle had occurred. Your mate, Lynne, I believe she’s called, and a human woman shot and kidnapped, the mate to one of my best men. They’re now holding her somewhere we cannot contact her mentally or physically. This does not make me a happy camper, you see.” Aaron flashed his fangs before he continued. “You’re lucky we are only as hostile as this, Alpha, as my first instinct was to have a bloodbath with your pack being
our
dinner. No, I like where we are just fine.”

Aaron glanced to his left and a chair shot across the room to land directly behind him. As Aaron made a production of sitting down, he felt Sara laugh at his arrogance in his mind, calling him an ass. It made him smile outwardly. Something in it seemed to calm the wolf somewhat. Aaron smiled larger.

Bradley spoke to Aaron as he, too, sat down. “Lynne is no longer my mate. I have shunned her from us all and forbidden her safe passage within my territory. I’ve also asked the surrounding packs to do the same. She was using black magic, had in fact used it against me. The details aren’t important at the moment, but I will assist you in any way possible to bring her to justice.”

Aaron felt the room shift. The magic seemed to lessen and calmness moved through them all. His vampires eased as well.

“
My wolves, all of us, are at your disposal. The human woman is the mother of the young male we had brought here, as I’m sure you have surmised. Shade was…she is my friend and I owe her a great deal.”

Aaron nodded. He did, as well. The sudden shift of magic alerted him that Sara was entering the room. No one moved to stop her.

“
Brent was under pack care until early this morning. We did this as a favor to Shade and would do whatever she needed to help. The mother coming for the human made it impossible for us to keep him without bringing the law into the arrangement. I had sent a messenger to Shade and have not heard back from her. She was to come here today to meet with the little human.”

Colin stepped forward then and bowed before the man. Aaron watched as his best friend laid his own sword, a claymore from his previous life, before Bradley on the table. He bowed low before the alpha.

“
Yes, please, she’s my mate. I need to find her. I thank you for your help.”

Bradley stared down at Colin’s bent head, and then looked up at Aaron again. He seemed to be considering, Aaron thought, weighing his next move.

“
I believe there are some areas on our land that our wolves would be useful in searching. If you have something of hers, an article of clothing, or better yet, a small bit of her blood, the search can begin.”

“
You have an idea where the she-bitch might have her held?” Aaron pulled a plastic baggie from his jacket pocket and handed it to Bradley. A second man, taller and thicker in the neck and shoulders than the alpha, took it.

“
I’m afraid that I do. There are many caves up in the southern portion of this land that have been used before by Lynne. I’ve only just found out about it from one of the females she took there to teach a lesson.”

Aaron felt the first shimmer of magic as a group of wolves changed and began sniffing the cloth covered in Shade’s blood. His kind, too, could find by scent, though it was much stronger if they could taste.

“
And the lesson? Would it have anything to do with staying away from you?”

Behind him, the room filled with the noises of clicking toe nails on the wooden floor and across the tables where food had been served but not yet eaten. Aaron didn’t turn, but watched the reaction of the man in front of him. A startled expression came onto Bradley’s face at the question and Aaron’s answer.

“
Sara, too?” Bradley sat down hard when Aaron simply nodded at him. “I’m sorry for that. I honestly didn’t know, not until three days ago. It seems a great deal more has been going on than I first imagined. Christ, Sara. No wonder she...you have my profound apologies and I will extend them to Sara as well.”

“
Sara is here, and will welcome your friendship again, I believe. She speaks highly of you and your skills as a leader. I’m glad to know that my mate was correct.”

Bradley nodded. “There is one thing, Master Vampire. When you find Lynne, she’s mine.”

It was not a question, but Aaron nodded his approval anyway. “It’s Aaron, and of course.”

Within moments, the rest of the wolves in the room shifted and were out the door, taking most of the vampires with them. Trying to find the scent of the old alpha bitch was not as difficult as Shade’s would be, as Lynne was one they were familiar with. They then divided up the acreage into patches; each group was to search for Lynne and report back to the main house any findings. It was safe to assume that once Lynne was located, Shade would be very close.

“
You said she was your friend. Shade, you said she was your dear friend. Could you explain how a wolf pack would help her kidnap a young male from a busy hospital?” Aaron was curious, as well, and glad for Colin’s question.

“
One of ours, a wolf in my pack, hurt the boy and is responsible for the death of the young girl as well. When we found out he’d hurt Brent the first time a few weeks ago, I was at the hospital with another young wolf. Shade had brought Brent in and I could smell the wolf on him and told her I would take care of the situation, she needn’t worry. That same night my brother, a police officer with the local human division, contacted me to let me know about it as well. We should have acted sooner. If we had, the young female would still be alive, I believe. I told Shade that I would be at her service in any way that we could, and this is what she asked me to do. I could do no less for her.”

“
How did Brent come to be able to leave with his mother if you were keeping him for Shade?” Colin sounded upset, but the alpha seemed not to take offense.

“
Shade made me promise that if the mother came for Brent, I wasn’t to fight her, but to contact Shade as soon as possible. I tried, sending a messenger as soon as the human trash left with Brent earlier today. I’m assuming now that we couldn’t contact Shade because Lynne has her.”

“
Yes. Shade was on her way here. We’re assuming that because of where she was when she was shot.”

“
This human woman, you’ve met her, correct? I’ve forbade my wolves to bite her when they find her. She’s full of poison—hell, she is poison. I’ve known her sort of person before, but to do this to your own pups...I wouldn’t want my worst enemy to go anywhere near her.”

Forty minutes later, someone had found the body of the wolf messenger that had been sent to Shade. He had been torn to pieces, buried under the snow, and left out in the meadow, presumably to be found when the weather broke, if then. The word spread throughout the pack and vampires alike. The bitch had killed one of her own kind, and justice would be swift and final.

~~~

“
They will arrive soon now, miss. Our mistress said that you are to wait for them. She doesn’t want you hurt now that she’s found you.” Genese was flittering about the cave again, swooping to and fro only stopping long enough to whisper in her ear.

Brenda and Lynne had not left again, but Genese had returned anyway. She had flown so high along the ceiling of the cave that she was unseen by the other two. Shade hadn’t noticed her until Genese flew around her head, then landed on the back of Shade’s neck and whispered in her ear that she had returned.

“
No. I can’t wait. I need to…”

Shade thought she was as strong as she was ever going to get, and just as she was ready to attack the women, she felt a weak pulse deeper in the cave. When she used her new abilities to see who it was, she felt Brent’s signature.

He had been beaten again, and this time, they had drugged him. That’s what Sherman had meant when he said he was going to kill him. They had him here in the cave with them.

“
Brent’s here, in the cave. He needs my help. If I don’t act now, I’m afraid he’ll die. I can’t let him die. He needs me,” Shade whispered to Genese.

His heart was beating so slowly that it was only a matter of time before he would be gone from her. Not wanting to fail him a second time, she reached into the earth and asked it to help the young boy. The earth responded to her request immediately. She could feel the earth pull him into itself, covering him with the healing soil, warming him, pulling the poison from him and keeping him safely hidden away until she could come to him.

Shade decided to fight back, hoping that if she made the two women mad enough, they would act stupidly and Shade would be able to kill them. And if that did not work, she knew that she could tell Genese where to find Brent, and she, in turn, would tell her mother.

“
You stupid fools. You thought you could hurt me through Brent? I won’t give you the chance. What kind of person uses an innocent child, her own child? You know, I think that’s where I made my last mistake with you, Brenda.” Shade pulled slightly on the chains and the rattle of it had them stepping back. “I’ve been assuming all along that you’re human when you aren’t anything close to being that. Bringing Brent here was a mistake on your part. You counted on my loving him so much that I would come along quietly and cooperate for his sake, that I wouldn’t fight you because of him. Well, you figured wrong. I am going to destroy you, destroy you both. And I’m doing it for him.”

Shade pulled hard against the restraints once again with her hands, breaking the bonds as if they were mere ribbons. Reaching up, she pulled the collar from around her neck and wall, bringing a large chuck of granite down with it. Shade tossed it across the room to land at their feet. Without removing the links from her ankles, she raised her hands high above her head and said, “Strike.” Lightning arced from her fingers. She didn’t even try to rein in the sudden power that arced from her fingertips, but aimed it directly at the terrified-looking Brenda, slicing her in half cleanly and quickly. She was dead before she had a chance to defend herself. Not that it would have done her any good. Shade was practically vibrating with power.