Willow (Blood Vine Series) (14 page)

“No, I’m not.” Why was Gage interrupting the story? “Bella told me she did.”

“And you believe everything Bella told you?”

“Anyways,” I continued with a glare towards Gage, “it didn’t matter. Abigail was already pregnant.”

“Pregnant?” Rueben was surprised.

“Yes, by Mikhaul.”

“That’s impossible. She must have cheated on him.”

Gage’s lip snarled back. I wondered if maybe he had known Abigail Lewis. “The baby was Mikhaul’s,” I said firmly. “They named him Maddox.” Gage became very still beside me, reminding me that Maddox was yet another subject we didn’t talk about. “Mikhaul never left their side, keeping the boy and his mother safe. When Maddox was four he morphed into a wolf and killed his mother.”

“Wow,” Rodney exclaimed quietly.

“What happened? Did Mikhaul kill Maddox?” Rueben wanted to know.

“Why would he kill his own son?” Gage growled. “Do you know nothing about loyalty?” My mind couldn’t move fast enough to register Gage changing to his wolf form. Rueben stood up, but Gage only growled once and then bolted away.

“Weird,” Jed whispered.

“Gage is old. Maybe he knew Abigail and Maddox,” Steven echoed my earlier thoughts.

“What did happen to Maddox? Is he still alive?” Rueben asked.

I shook my head slowly. “Mikhaul took his son to hide in the woods. He knew that Andros would destroy the half-breed. He didn’t know, however, that Noreen had not given up her plan.

Noreen thought that if she could get Maddox out of the way Mikhaul would rejoin her. So she sent her pack to kill Maddox.” Their faces were all somber as they listened to the tale Bella had told me when I was little. “They did kill Maddox that day but Mikhaul killed every one of his brothers.” Not even the forest dared to make a sound.

“For years after, Mikhaul disappeared. Most of the wolves assumed that he had been injured in the massacre and crawled off to die. But then one by one the packs that Noreen had created were all killed.”

“Mikhaul.” It was just a whisper, but it sent shivers down my spine.

“Yeah, he killed them all. And when he was finished he killed Noreen.”

Colby growled furiously. “He killed Noreen?”

“Where is he now?”

“Why does he hate you?”

They all talked at once. “I don’t know where he is. And he hates everything that Noreen created.”

“You were created by Bella,” Jed reminded me.

“I know that Jed, but Ivy and I were created to lead one of Noreen’s packs.”

I heard a gasp behind me and turned to see that Gage had returned.




“Mikhaul isn’t going to hurt you,” Gage tried to comfort me. After the boys had left Gage and I curled up together on the long couch. He lay down behind me and wrapped his arm across my stomach. I pressed myself as close as I could to his hard chest.

“How can you say that? He will come after us. Not just me, but the pack too.”

“Noreen didn’t have time to train them fully. I don’t think Andros sees them as a threat.”

“What makes you think Mikhaul cares what kind of threat we are? He’s not working with Andros.” He didn’t say anything to that. “When I was little I was always afraid of Mikhaul. I didn’t even want to lead a pack,” I groaned, “but I knew - just as I know now - that it doesn’t matter to him. He’s still going to come after me and no one can stop him.”

“I think you’re worried for nothing.” He pushed my hair away from the side of my face, trying to kiss away my worry.

I felt like I was five years old. I actually didn’t remember being five, but Gage was treating me like I was a child. I shrugged my shoulders, trying to push his face away. “You don’t know him.”

“Neither do you,” he pointed out calmly.

“I may not be BFFs with him, but I know him.”

“Have you ever seen him?”

I twisted my face up. “No, I wouldn’t even be here if I had.”

He chuckled deeply, the sound vibrating in my ear. Little shivers traveled up and down my spine. “Are you cold?” His voice was suddenly husky.

“No.” I turned my head so I could see him, which put our faces only inches apart. “Are you?” I whispered.

He smiled and kissed the tip of my nose. My heartbeats seemed to echo all around us,

“I don’t know.”

Without moving at all his lips were on mine, taking all the air from my lungs. Light exploded behind my eyes. Our lips moved together perfectly, dancing to the rhythm of my rapid heart.

He pulled away with a slow smile. His fingertips traced lightly along my cheekbones. His eyes were lit up and the way he stared at me made my cheeks flush. “Why are you blushing?”

“You’re looking at me like I’m your favorite birthday gift.”

“I haven’t celebrated a birthday in a long time,” he murmured, “but you are … amazing.”

My lips were shaking but I managed to smile. “You’re not so bad yourself.”

He leaned down to softly kiss my lips. “I’ll see you in the morning.” Too abruptly, he hopped off the couch and disappeared through the door.

I groaned and flung myself back on the couch. He could have stayed, I wouldn’t have minded.




“I was thinking about last night,” I announced at breakfast the next morning. Gage had been frying eggs when I got out of the shower. Even if he had heard the door open, he discreetly kept his back turned while I sidestepped to my room.

I quickly pulled on some jeans and a pink t-shirt that read ‘Bite Me’. He had two full plates of eggs, toast, and bacon on the table when I joined him.

“Which part?” He grinned.

I grinned back but quickly shook myself. “That
he
might come here.”

His fork hesitated but he smiled. “He, meaning Mikhaul.”

“Shh.” There was no need to press our luck; his name had certainly been used enough last night.

He sighed. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

“Yes, him.”

“And?”

“If he comes here, I think we should be ready.”

He shoved a huge bite of eggs in his mouth. “How?” he mumbled.

“You can teach me to fight.”

I expected that I would have to argue with him and I expected him to say no at first; but I didn’t expect his anger. His eyes narrowed to dark slits. “No.”

“Why not?” My instincts told me to back down, but my anger started to rise, too. “I need to be able to protect myself.”

“I’ll protect you.”

“You won’t always be here, Gage.”

“I’m not teaching you to fight.”

“But you are the only one who can. Why wouldn’t you want me to be able to protect myself?”

“Don’t ask me something like that, Willow. I just don’t want you to fight.”

“I’m a wolf,” I pointed out needlessly.

“A female.”

“Who has a pack to lead.”

“They will protect you.”

“Gage.”

He jumped out of his chair, breathing heavily, and dumped what was left of his breakfast in the trash. He did the same to my plate, even though I hadn’t eaten much of it. “I don’t want to talk about this,” he fumed.

“I don’t understand what the big deal is.” I bit back my anger. Gage was already mad enough for both of us. His back was to me and he was vigorously washing his plate.

Gently, I wrapped my arms around his waist. He tensed and I thought he was going to tell me to go away but then he shuddered. He turned around and returned my embrace. “Willow, I couldn’t stand it if something happened to you,” he said into my hair.

“If you teach me to fight as well as you can, nothing will.” I pressed my face into his shoulder, not allowing him to get angry.

“No.”

It was such a final word, no room for any arguments. I bit the inside of my lip until I tasted blood. Gage was so hard to understand. “You’re being unreasonable,” I finally said.

“You are not a warrior.” He kept a hold of me.

“Which is why I need you to teach me.”

He shook his head and I felt it moving on top of mine. “I won’t.”

I pinched my lips together until they were a tight line. “Fine, when Mikhaul comes it’ll be that much easier for him to kill me.”

“He’s not … ”

“Or Andros.”

“Why would Andros kill you? He wanted you to come here.”

“Never trust a vampire. The point is, he knows I’m here and he’s watching me.” I pulled myself away from Gage and glared up into his unsmiling face.

“I can’t.”

“You won’t.”

Forgetting that I had agreed to let Rueben drive me to school, the honk that sounded in front of the cabin broke the silence and startled me. With a final glare at Gage I stalked out the front door where Rueben, Colby, and Tyson were waiting to drive me to school.

Chapter Fourteen

The Trouble with Boys

“What are you mad about?” Rueben asked when I slammed the car door.

“Gage.”

“What did he do?” His actions paused while he waited for my response.

“He won’t teach me to fight.”

After he decided that he didn’t need to fight Gage, he put the car in reverse and peeled out of the driveway. “Why do you need to fight?”

“So we’ll be ready when Mikhaul comes.” I was surprised at how easily his name rolled off my lips.

“Do you think he’ll come here?” Tyson asked eagerly from the back seat.

“This is not something to be excited about. And yes, I do.” My jaw snapped closed.

“There’s six of us,” Rueben looked at me sideways, “we can take him.”

My jaw dropped open. Hadn’t they heard anything I told them last night? They couldn’t “take” Mikhaul anywhere. If they were lucky he’d kill them all quickly with no pain involved. “We’re not ready,” was all I said out loud.

“We’ve been in fights before,” Colby informed me.

“With wolves?” I felt the color drain from my face.

Rueben shrugged. “It was a territory thing,” he said nonchalantly.

“Your territory?” He grinned at my quick understanding. These boys had never had territory of their own.

“We didn’t know they were there,” Tyson said.

“Who won?” My voice was small.

Rueben appeared offended. “We did.”

“And you left anyways?”

Colby scoffed loudly. “Why would we want to stay? We just don’t like being told what to do.”

I sat back hard against the seat and watched the scenery blur by my window. My mind was too occupied to take in much more than the greens and browns of the forest as it slowly gave way to small clusters of houses and finally the town.

To defeat a mature pack was quite a feat. Blake had told me that Noreen handpicked these boys. No wonder Andros and the council were interested. A slow fear made its way into my arms and legs. Why had they decided to keep them alive? What did they have in mind for our pack?

“You ok?” Rueben asked as he held my car door for me. “You’ve been awfully quiet.”

“I was just thinking.”

“About?”

“Gage,” I said quickly.

His face fell for just a second and then he smiled. “Because he won’t teach us to fight?”

“I have to figure out a way to convince him.” We needed Gage. The boys were obviously strong, but they needed guidance.

“Maybe I can talk to him.”

I turned quickly to see if he was kidding. He didn’t appear to be. “No. I … ”

“Hey Willow!” Lindsey pranced up to our small gathering. “Rueben,” she smiled.

“Hey Lindsey,” I responded automatically. Knee-jerk reaction.

“Did you practice?” At my blank look she sighed loudly. “Your cheer?”

“Crap!” With all the talk about Mikhaul, and the probability that he was coming to Grover to slaughter my pack and me, I had completely forgotten about my cheer. “It’s not until next week, right?”

“Monday, but you need all the practice you can get.” She winked at Rueben then took me by the hand and led me towards the school.

I glanced back once, but Rueben was the only one by the car. He wasn’t watching me. I tried to see who he was looking at but Lindsey pulled me to attention. “You’ll never guess who I saw at the Lounge last night.”

“What’s a lounge?”

“It’s a club, for teens. It’s the only place to hang out in Grover.” She bent her head closer to mine so she could lower her voice. “Carlie was there.”

“Last night?”

“Yeah.” She clearly wanted me to grasp some vital information from this fact but I saw nothing unusual with Carlie going to the only teen hang out in town.

Finally Lindsey grew impatient with how slow I was. “She was talking about werewolves.”