Unnaturals (29 page)

Hunter writhed, but Renee's need tempered Mason's control. He wouldn't leave Renee alone, he couldn't. Mason tightened his grip on her.

`She will die,' the big Bloodells said. `You will watch your Darkells whore die. There is nothing you can do about it. Butcher.'

`He's wrong. They don't know what I am. They don't know what you are.'
She managed a smile and her grip tightened. Her heartbeat stopped for what seemed an eternity, then shuddered into life again.
`You can heal me.'
Mason stared at the Bloodells soldiers.
`They will help you. Bring me his heart.'

`I'm not
your
Butcher,' Mason said, pushing down the fear he had for Renee, letting tendrils of Hunter seep through him. Controlling the rage. `She is not a whore.'

The Bloodells tensed, all crossbows on him. He pulled Renee up, kissing her bloody lips, tasting the poison. Tasting her.

`He's lost it,' a Bloodells said, sounding confused. Mason lingered, kissing Renee lightly.

`Who cares?' their leader snapped. `Just as long as they both die, slowly.'

`Ralph's here.'

Mason heard Ralph just as shocked yells erupted at the sound of wolf claws raking the alleyway. The Bloodells closest to him broke eye contact for a split second.

It was time.

Scales formed. Wings folded out of his back. Renee remained cradled in his arms as Hunter's form rippled across him.

Silent, unseen, Mason thrust his long wing spikes through the chest of the larger Bloodells, making sure to miss the heart.

`Surprise,' he whispered. Wing claws unsheathed to slam into a second Bloodells.

Ralph's Wolf crashed into the rear of the group of Bloodells. Mason hauled in the two he had impaled, savouring the rich scent of blood so close to him. Screams filled the alleyway as three more Wolves tore into the fight.

The Bloodells' leader managed to raise and fire his crossbow. Mason caught the bolt one-handed, snapping it, before dropping the steel shaft to the floor. He smelt fear exploding from the man as he was hauled closer. He wanted so much to taste him.

`How's it feel?' Mason growled when the big man was close enough to lash out, fists shattering against his scaled armour. `To be prey? To know your blood will feed another?'

The man writhed, held clear of the floor by Hunter's wing spikes. `Not possible,' he groaned.

`Yess,' Huntress hissed. Mason glanced at Renee. Weakened but excited, she focused on the blood oozing from the man's chest. `My first taste of Bloodells.' She struck, slicing through the rib cage, deep into the chest cavity.

Mason shuddered. The scent of fresh, hot blood washed over him.

The Bloodells writhed, still alive, eyes wide as Huntress twisted her hand. Life passed as Huntress ripped the heart free. Mason stared, aroused, trembling with the urge to feed.

`Good,' Huntress whispered, biting into the blood-filled heart and spraying dark, richly scented blood.

Mason maintained his hold, letting his hardness press against her. Rumbling came from deep inside him as desire flared.

As the heart drained of blood, dropped like a rotten apple onto the footpath, Huntress faded. Renee stood up unsteadily with his help. Death filled the alleyway. Wolf and blood painted the scene around him.

`Pull the arrow free,' she said. `Through me. From the front.'

He supported her body, wrapping his arms around her until the protruding arrow shaft was lodged steadily against his chest, then pushed, and pulled, the arrow free. She moaned and staggered, her head falling back onto his shoulder. He dropped the arrow and held her against him, feeling her body begin to warm.

`Here,' she said, moving his hand over the wound in her chest. `Finish it. Heal me. You have the gift.'

`How?' he whispered, afraid to break a moment that felt so intimate.

`You heal yourself. Feel for that.' She leant against him and her free hand slipped behind her back, reaching for him, feeling him through his clothes.

Her touch fed his desire but the torn flesh under his hand did not heal. Light filled his mind and energy surged down his arm to his hand. Torn flesh melded under his touch, making her moan. Renee's sound sent a bolt of excitement through him. He had done that. He could heal her.

`That's it,' she whispered. `You can feel it now.' She pushed her hand down into his shorts, gripping his shaft. `Kill the other one.'

Mason looked at the remaining Bloodells.

Young, muscled and still alive. And still impaled on his wings.

He tore the Bloodells in half, sending gore and blood flying. He felt no guilt, just satisfaction and lust.

Lust for blood and for Renee.

Her hand moved on his shaft as she guided him down towards her sex.

`Jesus Christ, you two are disgusting,' Ralph snapped, blood-spattered and naked before them. `What, you're going fuck here in this gore?' Mason could see Ralph's eyes hot on her.

`Maybe.' Renee squeezed Mason, then let go. `Good to see you, too.'

`What?' Ralph stopped.

She reached out to him. `You did well, Ralph.' She touched his face with a blood-stained hand. Ralph's anger flickered. Then his eyes softened.

Mason shrugged, cooling his desire. He felt no jealousy. Other Wolves moved behind Ralph, their forms shifting and blurring uncertainly. Another scent came to him with the tang of blood.

Movement. At the end of the alley. They were no longer alone.

 

Pete struggled to breathe.

Blood filled the alleyway, its metallic scent thick around him. He fought off his gag reflex, aware no one had seen him.

Ralph stood, covered in blood, beside three huge wolves, the only wolves he had seen since his brother.

Darkness seemed to creep up the walls from a black-scaled creature vaguely shaped like a man. A woman's brilliant red hair lay shockingly against the darkness holding her.

He drew in a sharp breath. He knew the woman. Ralph's friend. Renee?

His thought processes wandered a little, and then the nightmare snapped back — images of body parts and gore, the stench of death — and was made real. He let his breath out slowly, tightened his grip on the pistol.

The nightmare moved.

Green eyes flashed and a cold shiver ran through him. They had seen him.

A sensible man would have run. Instead, instinct took over.

`Nobody move!' he yelled, safety switch flicked off. `Nobody fuckin' move! Ralph, down on the ground, hands behind your head.' He stepped forward. No one moved.

`You, girl. Do the same!' He waved his pistol at the red-haired girl. Nothing happened. `I said—'

`Put down your weapon.' A cultured voice came from behind him. Pete froze. He felt a pressure across the back of his legs. `Put down your weapon, officer.'

He felt sweat cooling on his face. The darkness and the creature filling the end of the alley had vanished. He could see no flash of red hair. How the hell had that happened?

He widened his peripheral vision, trying to see everything at once.

`Put it away.'

It was above him. His focus snapped up. The voice had been calm. A normal sort of voice, but far from the truth. Darkness clung to the walls and the scaled man watched from above.

`No closer.' Pete squeezed the trigger, ready.

`We wish you no harm,' the man said. `But if you do not lower your weapon—'

`You will die.' The redhead stepped out of the darkness. She smiled, revealing pointed teeth.

His mind wandered off again. He didn't remember Renee having pointed teeth.

Again he came back to the present. `Bullshit. Too many witnesses, and 000 calls about this carnage.' He held his weapon steady, bluffing it out. What the hell was he doing here?

`Incorrect,' the voice from behind stated. `The instant Mistress Renee was attacked this alleyway and building were cloaked from human eyes. Other than your eyes it seems, curiously. No one has seen or heard anything worthy of a 000 call.'

`Human eyes?' Was he dreaming? Was he locked in his recurring nightmare? Would he wake up, or was he deeper than usual, and talking to it, trying to find a rational answer? As he'd tried to do so many years ago.

`Put the gun down, Pete,' Ralph said, joining the redhead.

Pete blinked. Ralph had never been part of the nightmare. He had been so normal.

`What the fuck are you do—?'

Darkness slammed into him. Pain flashed.

Pete fell, ever deeper into his darkness.

 

Mason frowned at the ugly purple bruise spreading across Pete's face.

`You hit him too hard,' Ralph snapped, kneeling beside the police officer and checking his pulse. `He's a good bloke but you have to remember he's not like us, Mason. He's going to need medical help.'

`Inside now.' Renee brushed past him. `Syrus, you too. We're at risk the longer we're out here.'

`Yes, Mistress.'

Ralph picked Pete up. Mason called the darkness back into him and stood unmoving as the others acted around him. He had nearly killed an innocent.

`Lose the Wolf coats, boys, and get this shit into a pile.' Renee kicked at a lump of bloody flesh. `We get to see if Mother was right about something. And you,' she grabbed Mason's arm, pulling him along, `you need to fix Pete's face fast.'

Mason followed Ralph, wondering if he could heal again. Renee seemed to think he could, but maybe it only worked for Renee. Was he capable of more than dealing out death?

Renee flicked off cushions. `Put him on the lounge.'

`I just do what I did with you, then?' Maybe he could do it. He found himself eager to try. He touched Pete's damaged face. To heal, if he could do it—

`Pretty much. But don't overdo it,' Renee said, heading outside.

`Yeah, don't screw this up as well,' Ralph muttered.

Mason looked up, irritated. `Shut it.' He held Ralph's gaze until he looked away. `Right, let's see how this works.'

The energy came to his call easier than before and, to his relief, he did not need Renee present. Mason let the energy move down his arm in short bursts.

Ralph moved closer as Pete's face began to heal.

Mason focused, letting a fine stream of energy into Pete. He had to make this right. The bruising disappeared and his jaw clicked into place. He'd done it. Healed. Mason swallowed.

`Respect,' Ralph said, touching Pete's face. `You really can heal.'

`Apparently so.' Mason stood up, satisfaction at his healing strong within him.

`You finished?' Renee called from the doorway. `Then come here.'

Ralph shrugged at him and they went to her.

`This you need to see,' she said, standing beside the bloody pile.

`See what?'

She flicked a silver liquid across the pile of body parts, its touch creating an instant reaction. The bodies broke down, the reaction spreading out following the blood on the footpath and up the walls.

`Dust.' Mason touched the fine red dust in the air. A breeze shifted it. `That's one hell of a reaction. Magic?'

`No.' She grinned at him, handing him a small glass vial. `Liquid silver nitrate. The reaction is something Mother discovered.'

`That would have been handy to know a year ago.' Mason stood, remembering the huge effort and manpower it took the Fund to dispose of bodies.

`Thought you'd like that,' she said, taking the vial from his hand. `It only works when they're dead, and has no effect on Darkells, see?' Mason flinched as she tipped a drop onto her hand. `Mother thinks it has something to do with how Bloodells' chemistry changes once they're dead. Their blood and organic matter attracts the silver nitrate and the chemical reaction dies out once there is no more.' She flicked some onto Ralph. `Plus, wolves are not affected by silver at all.'

`Thanks.' Ralph wiped the liquid off him. `Hollywood is to blame for that bullshit.' He screwed his nose up. `We need to clean up. You still got our stuff upstairs?'

Renee didn't look at him. `You know where everything is.'

Ralph led the pack inside.

`We need to clean up as well,' Mason said, rolling fingers thickening with congealing blood.

`We could join Ralph in the showers,' she said with a smile that made him pause.

He thought about it and nodded. `If we have to.'

She shook her head, tongue pressed against the inside of her cheek. `Give me your hand and relax.'

He did so, not sure why had to relax. Skin tingled as red flakes fell off him, the blood gone. `Oh shit, what's that?'

`Me. It's like a cleansing energy.' Renee brushed dust off him. `Something to do with Huntress I think. Cleansing blood from my skin would be a practical thing.' She pulled a chair out from a table as she shook the last of the dust off.

`I can see how that would work. Makes it easy to stay inconspicuous.' Mason brushed himself off, listening to the showers running upstairs. `Ralph and his lads. They seem very close.'

`They are. And, yes, they do stay here sometimes. That's why they have clothes here.'

`Wasn't concerned about that.' Mason pulled up a chair for himself. `But they are very much connected to Ralph. Is it a Wolf thing?'

`Maybe. I haven't had much to do with Wolves other than Ralph.'

`There are more?'

`All through Australia. It's a big country with plenty of room to run. And it has always been Bloodells-free, until today.'

`No thanks to him.' Ralph stood at the bottom of the steps looking at Mason. `Since you showed up, everything has changed for the worse.' Arms crossed, he leant against the wall. `Yet everyone seems to like you.'

`Probably because Mason hasn't made a real dick out of himself, like you have.' Renee crossed her arms and Mason felt the mood darken.

`Ralph has a point, though,' Mason said thinking about the last few days. `Two days ago something started pushing all of us together. We're in the middle of events that seem to keep us moving towards each other.'

`You're saying this isn't all your fault?' Ralph scowled at him.

`You're being a dick again.' Renee glared at Ralph.

`Yeah, well. Two days ago I thought there was a chance you and I could be something,' Ralph snapped back. `All this time we've been around each other, dodging the curse. You've been training with us and running with us as a pack at night. I thought I meant something to you.' Ralph set his jaw at her. `Obviously I was wrong. He shows up and we're nothing. Do you know what it feels like?'