AllFreeNovel
Share Us
We watched Traeger walk back to Georgia’s, made sure he went inside and the door was closed behind him.
“So,” Connor said as he worked on a bottle of water that had been squeezed into the fridge between the bottles of blood, “Traeger planted this seed about Loren harassing Paisley, and the clan won’t do anything about it. Zane decides he’ll do something about it, rounds up three friends. But instead of confronting Cash and the others, or contacting the Pack for help, they make themselves ‘stronger’ with some secret magic and start playing vigilante.”
“And not very well,” Alexei said darkly. He stood beside Connor at the island, chewing the heads off gummi bears before eating their bodies a handful at a time. “Ironic since you let Cash claim Obsideo.”
Connor gave him a look. “I didn’t let Cash claim anything. I made him show his cards, because he was going to do it even if he put Elisa through the clan’s ‘process’ first.”
Alexei chewed, considered. “Probably. Miranda’s idea?”
“Probably,” Connor said, then glanced at me. “Anything from Theo?”
I belatedly realized I hadn’t checked my screen all night. I pulled it out, found a bevy of messages.
“Theo hasn’t yet been able to reach the Order about the magic,” I reported as I scanned them, “but no one in the OMB or itsdatabase has any information about the creatures. And it doesn’t match the description of the Beast, which is more of a bear, not a prancing wolf.”
“So the Beast may still exist,” Alexei said as I gave Theo an update, cramming a lot of magical extortion and shifter dramatics into a few words. “It just isn’t here.”
“Someone has to know what these things are,” Connor said. “If this quartet of idiots didn’t make this magic, someone who knows about magic must have. I don’t know much about spells, either, but don’t you have to know what you’re aiming for when you write the spell in the first place?”
“Like a recipe,” I said. “You want bread, you need a recipe for bread.”
“Exactly,” Connor said. “Let’s go talk to Jude and Evelyn.” He glanced at Alexei. “You want John, Beyo, and Marcus?”
Alexei’s smile was sly. “Three to one sounds like very fun odds.”
“Why do you eat the gummi bears’ heads first?” I asked as we headed outside again.
“So they go down easier.”
Shifter logic.
***
Zane’s house was a slightly larger version of the cabin, and the similarities in style and decor were beginning to creep me out. I understood the group wanting to live together in the resort; vampires lived in houses, after all. And maybe they’d all liked the style enough not to change it, or just weren’t that interested in the aesthetics. But it was unsettling to walk in and out of same-but-slightly-different buildings. Like each was a broken reflection of the last.
Jude was a woman with tan skin and a hard-bitten look. Her hair was a cap of pale blond, her makeup strong, and her clothes decorated with rhinestones and embroidery. Evelyn was probablyin her mid-twenties, with a swing of straight blond hair, simple clothes, and delicate makeup. She’d distanced herself from her mother’s style, intentionally or not.
“We’re looking for Zane,” Connor said. “Have you seen him?”
“Not in a couple of days,” Jude said. Her voice had the thick and grainy tone of a lifelong smoker.
“Would you normally see him every day?” Connor asked.
“He usually drops by, sure. But could a few days pass before we see him? Yeah. He’s got his own life.”
“We understood he lived here with you,” I said.
“He does,” Jude said, and didn’t elaborate. So I guessed that was all we were going to get about her son’s sleeping habits.
She sat on the couch, leaned forward. “What’s it like to be a vampire?”
“Mostly dark.”
“What about to live in one of those vampire houses?”
“Mom,”Evelyn intoned. “I’m sure you aren’t supposed to ask about that.”
“I don’t see why not. She’s a vampire. She doesn’t hide it or anything. Made a new one last night, didn’t she?”
