In the recent past Jacob had watched over one of the hunter’s society daughters, Gill, while she performed magic shows during the two years of freedom the society master had allotted her before he initiated her fully as a society member. Several times her normal non-society human security people had to prevent over-eager men from rushing the stage to meet her. But Jacob had kept his presence a secret there only to fight off the abnormalies who often stalked her without her knowledge. He had not had to handle the humans attracted to her.This was different. Zande’s voice itself was a lure, an enticement to all who heard it. And she was so beautiful up there on the stage, her long dress flowing fluidly around her slender figure one moment, then hugging her body the next. Her ebony hair glittered in the light and cascaded in waves down her back, brushing her shoulders and breasts, her waist and hips. She was irresistible.Jacob felt his breath catch in his throat. She awed him. The way s
It took both Dedari and Jacob to restrain Prest before he burst through the closed door. He snarled at them, his fangs savage, eyes red hot with killing rage. It was Dedari who spoke to him, using the family’s peculiar mental path that Jacob was slowly becoming familiar with. The order was velvet soft, soothing, a promise of protection for Amia. Prest took a calming breath and nodded his reluctant acquiescence, relaxing beneath the grip of the two hunters.Jacob dissolved immediately, flowing beneath the door into the room as tiny molecules in the air. The three leopards were pacing restlessly, low warning growls rumbling deep in their throats. He tried to touch their minds but found chaos and anger, the mood dangerous to any that might enter the room. Amia had deliberately buried herself deep within the body of the leopard she had assumed to prevent the one who sought her from telling her apart from the other two real specimens. She paced along with them, every bit as moody and da
Without hesitation, Amia approached Prest. "Do not step in the blood," Dedari cautioned her, his dark eyes watchful. If Prest made one wrong move toward Amia, there was no doubt in Jacob’s mind that Prest would be a dead man. Amia was unafraid, ignoring both Dedari and Jacob as if they were invisible."Prest," she whispered softly, almost intimately. Her eyes were on the savage crimson streaks on his chest and face. "Come with me now. I have need to heal your wounds." Despite his ferocious growls, she laid her hand gently on Prest’s arm, careful to stay away from the blood coating his clothing. "Come with me, brother. Allow me to heal you."Prest’s head swung around, red eyes glowing fiercely. For a moment his eyes switched between red and black, as if the man fought the beast within for their shared body and mind. "I am not your brother, little one," he hissed, struggling to overcome the killing rage.For a moment Amia hung her head, as if his words denying their relationship had cu
Zande was so beautiful, she took his breath away. Jacob watched the way she moved, gentle and flowing, her hips swaying, her long hair cascading like waves of silk down her back to brush around her slender body, drawing attention to curves and hollows. He wanted to carry her off to some secluded spot for all time, out of danger, away from prying eyes. He wanted to listen to her voice for eternity and watch her smile and light up the spaces around her.At once, even in the midst of her laughing softly into the microphone, seemingly totally bonded with the crowd, he felt the brush of her fingertips at the nape of his neck, and hot flames engulfed his gut and clenched his muscles so that he stood still, shocked at the power of her touch over him. He had spent years feeling empty, a gaping hole in his very soul, so that what little compassion and gentleness he had once experienced had slowly seeped away, lost to him. She had brought back his emotions, his joy in life. He had always thou
For a moment Amia faced Prest in silent rebellion. It was impossible to guess what she was going to decide to do."Please, Amia," Zande said softly, persuasively, "we have an audience. Do not give Prest any reason to go berserk on us."Amia blinked once, her long lashes fanning her high cheekbones. Her large eyes moved over Prest with faint haughtiness. She swung her long hair over her shoulder and seated herself for the second set, her back to Prest. There was something regal about the way she held herself.Prest finished his guitar solo, his body once more relaxed, but his eyes remained hard and watchful. Zande flashed a quick, relieved smile Jacob’s way. Rich’s guitar joined Prest’s and Zande’s voice soared into the air, bringing the spectators to their feet. Amia began tapping her foot to the rhythm of the music. It was entirely involuntary, the first time she had responded to their music since the savage attack on her. She had always been musical, easily playing any instrument s
Jacob let his breath out slowly. "Amia will be whole again, sweetheart, whole and happy once more. Time can heal where other things cannot. I feel it. I know it will happen. Do not continue to know such sorrow. She will return to you in a way totally unexpected. I do not know how I know this, but I do."Her large eyes searched his face before her long lashes veiled her expression. "You are not just saying this to ease my mind?""I do not say things to ease anyone’s mind. You should know that about me by now. Lifemates cannot tell an untruth to one another. Seek the information in my mind, Zande, and you will know I believe in what I say to you. And I will call her Amia as you wish me to. If it is your desire that she be a sister to me, then it will be so.""Why do you never speak her name?"He shrugged with his easy, casual grace, the ripple of power he took for granted, the enormous strength she was coming to know. "Habit. We do not often socialize with unclaimed females of our socie
"I know. It is the same for me," Zande whispered to Jacob’s statement, her lips against the corner of his mouth, teasing, tempting. There was an ache in her voice, an answer to the ache in his. "We will have our time.""It had better be soon," he growled, meaning it. There was a hidden laughter in her, one he felt in her mind, in her heart. She found humor in the situation yet wanted him with the same urgent need. Jacob found he was smiling in spite of his body’s demands. There was something contagious about Zande’s laughter, whether it was in her mind or aloud. It was joy. Pure and simple. There was joy in him now where there had never been before.Zande kissed his hard jaw, his stubborn chin. "We cannot desert Amia at this time.""It is rather difficult to help her when she spends all her time in the form of a leopard.""Shh. There is nothing wrong with her hearing," Zande cautioned, rising on tiptoe to kiss his eyebrow, rubbing at his frown with her cheek. "If she is willing to re
Zande sighed and shoved a hand through her hair. "Do you want me to speak to him, Amia?""I do not think it will be necessary. I meant what I said. I will be taking a vacation. It is time I went my own way for a while." Amia’s voice was defiant."Dedari will never allow you to go away unprotected," Zande reminded her gently. "He would send one of the men to look after you. Besides we are supposed to meet some people, hopefully our family after this noises have died down."A male leopard, large and well-muscled, moved out into the open and leapt with casual ease onto a low tree branch. It stared at the two women, its eyes unblinking, its sides rippling with power as it breathed steadily. Amia glared at the animal. Zande shook her head.Prest, you must stop pushing her so hard. She is going to run if you keep this up.She used their common mental path, trying to convey the desperation Amia was feeling.She will go nowhere without the consent of Dedari. And if he were to give it, there w
When they clambered to the surface of the ground, away from the lab, the girls breathed in relief, freed from the nightmares they had been subjected to for years. It was then that Olivera took a blood bag from the polythene in her arms, feeling better in the night hair, and took a sip, wary of how the blood would taste. She had heard Jacob talking about the heady feeling, worse if it came from an ancient. But it still hadn’t prepared her for the kick of pleasure. She found herself moaning as she greedily drank the blood, until she drained the bag. When she was done, she looked at the others. They were staring at her with unexplainable emotions on their faces. At least it wasn’t disgust. Olivera thought with a shrug, before handing the bag over to Miriam. When her friend hesitated in collecting it, she piqued an eyebrow. “You want to do the dismantling of the structure, without alerting the soldiers?” Miriam huffed, and took the bag. As much as she had great magic, she didn’t want
The first thing Olivera saw when she stepped into the hole where the passageway stopped was the largeness of the space, which could contain more than five thousand people. Then she saw the tubes, the boiling liquids and the lab rats. A modern lab.‘Where are you?’ She asked the girl, needing to get out of here; it was making her nauseous. Ten more minutes here, and she might be vomiting all over the place. And there was the fact that she didn’t know when the soldiers would be waking up. ‘At the far end of the cave…’Olivera nodded as if the girl was speaking to her physically. And gesturing with her head, for Miriam to follow her, she sauntered toward the end of the hall, making sure not to look at the tubes housing different organs and parts of an organism. What the hell! She screamed mentally when she saw a full brain at a table which looked like a butchering table. “Oh, my god…what are they doing here?” She heard Miriam ask beside her and sighed. Whose brain was that? A human
Miriam’s heart pounded erratically as she followed Olivera, who seemed very confident on what she was doing, and on where she was going. Three times she thought of grabbing Olivera and walking away from the region, but she also knew it would have been a futile attempt. Her friend’s mind was already made up. She watched as the latter walked past the last barrack, and stopped by a pole, the only pole in the backyard. Behind it were the gates towering them. They have come to a dead end. “Olivera, there is nothing here? Are you sure this girl is real?” Olivera gave Miriam no answer, instead she concentrated on looking around her, waiting for the signal. When she got nothing, she traced the vibration residue, touching the girl’s mind. A jerk in her mind path told her that the girl was surprised she had breached her mind guards. But should she be surprised? Or was something else at play here? ‘Where next should I go?’ She continued, because she knew she was at the right place, that t
“How are we getting past that?” Olivera asked Miriam as they came to stand before a huge gate that towered many feet over them. She could now see why Miriam had wanted the journey to be done in the privacy of the night. As much as she could see—as they had zapped to this point—this area wasn’t open to the city dwellers, only to the special few. She looked around her again. Barracks with soldiers sleeping within. None was even standing guard at the gates. She didn’t believe such a thing would exist at this time. City gates. Where did it lead? She piqued an eyebrow when Miriam smirked. What was the latter thinking? “As if you don’t already know…which other way, if not by mist…there is no way I am climbing that. I don’t think I am ready to fly with you above it…” Miriam spoke, covering the distance between them, and wrapping her arms around Olivera, her mouth fixed in a pout. Olivera shook her head, yet unable to stop the smile that cascaded her lips. It seemed that her friend was g
A knock woke Olivera up from her deep slumber. After bathing and eating off the snacks she had bought earlier in the day, from the shops in the new city, she had fallen like a log of wood to the bed, and hadn’t even stirred after that. Still groggy from the smooth sleep, she let her hand search for her phone which was the only thing that had gone to bed with her, should Miriam call for her. She peered at the screen. It was one in the morning. It was time then. She yawned like a hyena, causing Miriam to chuckle from behind the door. The chuckle dissipated the remaining fog fostering around her head. Taking a deep breath in, she stood up from the bed, flung a sheet around her naked body, and walked to the door. When she opened it, she saw that Miriam was alone, and carrying a tray of steaming food. “You are a lifesaver.” She muttered, opening the door wider for her friend to come in; the rumbling sounds that emitted from her stomach in agreement with her. Miriam chuckled again, an
“Where are we heading next?” Olivera asked Miriam immediately they stepped out of the borders of the town, into a city sprawling with people. After they had left the males who had tried to detain them because of her eating habits, they had walked to the largest building in the town, because if Clooney was a big name, it was probably because the man was rich. They hadn’t been right in their deduction, but they had at least gotten away from the unsettling males. Olivera had taken her friend behind the building, and had quickly switched to her mist form, turning Miriam into the same, and together they had zapped the remainder of the city without stopping, till they were out of it, till they were in a new one which looked more modernized than the previous. She looked at Miriam, who was staring at the city with artificial skylights, and wondered if her friend had ever been here before. “I never get over the culture shock, you know, seeing the drabness of the town we just left. The cont
What now? Olivera thought, looking at the six males that couldn’t be a year older than twenty five years old. What were they doing in front of her? “State your names, and what you are doing in this town…” The male, slightly in front of the others, spoke with a steel voice, causing Olivera and Miriam to exchange furtive glances. What was going on?There was a minute hesitation before Olivera spoke. “I am Darcy. My friend is Lilian. Who are you?” She patted herself mentally for names well cooked and delivered. Darcy and Lilian? How had she come up with those seemingly true names? She watched the male that had just spoken, looked to his comrades behind him, and judged that he was the leader of this small group. Were they the police? She looked at them again. They didn’t look like the police. Vigilantes? Maybe. But why were there vigilantes in the town? She kept a seal on her thoughts when the male returned her attention to her. “My name is Luke, and these are my associates. Our job is
“We will kill him right?” Miriam asked, as they stepped out of the camp, and turned around to look at it again, reliving what they had seen in there. “We need to. He is evil. Why will a sane man work with a vampire? Is he crazy?” Olivera just couldn’t understand the foolishness, no matter how much she tried. Why would one make a deal with an almost eternal wickedness? Had he no fear for his life, for his family? “I think he is crazy. Evil-y crazy. But that’s by the way. What are we going to do now?” Olivera looked around the camp, and spat in disgust. “We will burn it down. We will burn it until it’s nothing but dust. We will eradicate this curse from the face of the earth.” Miriam couldn’t agree less, but then she remembered that the ancients might have use for the materials in there. Olivera, having sensed the latter’s thoughts, shook her head. “They won’t be needing it. I’ve already transferred the necessary details to Raul, and Jacob. They can take it up from there. The mater
“Do you think anyone is in there?” Olivera asked Miriam, immediately she shifted to human self. Miriam looked at her clothed self and smiled. “Seems you have gotten the best hang of shifting, and still keeping your clothes on.” Olivera shrugged her shoulders. “There was no other choice. I can’t keep going up and down with my clothes in my hands or mouth. Since I’m part ancient, I have to improvise.” She took in a deep breath, inhaling the air tainted with magic and something else. “This place is tainted with magic. You smell it?” She shook off the imaginary dirt on her clothes, just in case, whilst waiting for Miriam’s reply. When she looked up, her friend was smiling. “What’s tickling your fancy? I don’t think my question has that much prowess…” Miriam cackled. “I never thought riding on a wolf would be so exhilarating. If I had known, I would have befriended a werewolf, and snagged rides every week at least. It’s quite freeing and therapeutic.” Olivera nodded. It was just as