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“I don’t think I can get a tattoo and then fight in a battle a few hours later. I was exhausted after each session. It’s like it ate through my adrenaline.”
“I’m breaking so many rules already, one more won’t matter. You won’t be tired, after.”
She gave a tiny nod. “Right butt cheek, with its head is just below where the top of my underwear hits, so it’ll always be covered by a bathing suit. One of the online images, it was more blue-green than this. The speckles.”
Mordecai nodded, the picture on the paper changed to exactly what she was thinking, and she knew the ancient god was in her head. Why wasn’t she pissed at him? Maybe because he’d always been there? She was still practically sick to her stomach over the fact Gavin had seemed to slide in so easily.
This wasn’t about her baggage and hurt feelings, though, so she stayed on track and told him, “That’s perfect. Thank you.”
A massage table and another man popped into existence beside her, and Mordecai leaned forward, hugged her, kissed her cheek, and pointed her to the table.
“While I get my axolotl, can you teach me how to shield my brain to keep a vampire out?”
“In this, I’m going to follow the rules, at least for now. I promise I will let you know if Gavin doesn’t properly teach you, but trust me when I tell you that it’s importantheteach you. The two of you need the trust and bonding that will happen.”
Mordecai sat at an angle, so he was in the room but wouldn’t see Lauren’s ass. She took a few moments to remove her weapons, and then took the leggings off and climbed on the table, thankful she was wearing thong underwear, so she didn’t have to go completely naked on her bottom half.
Lauren had assumed the guy would do a temporary tattoo thing, or would sketch it on, but he started with the tattoo gun right away.
“We didn’t talk about how big the tattoo will be.”
Her mother told her, “The average axolotl is around nine inches in the wild, and Mordecai says it needs to be a third of that.”
“Right,” Mordecai agreed. “Because of the angle of view, it’ll only be around two inches tall, to best represent a three-inch long being. While he’s working, you need to consider the soul of your new pet. Male or female, captive or wild, happy in the dark. I know you’re aware of what they eat in the wild versus what they eat in captivity. Think of his or her favorite food. Think of the joy of swimming, and of crawling through the mud. Think of how the water feels across those ultra-sensitive gills. How it feels to breathe through his or her gills in the normal way, as well as the way they can surface and force air into their lungs in an emergency. Consider how healing happens, how their body creates a membrane over the wound and then the new limb or skin or eye or whatever is needed grows from that. As a result, there is no scarring.Focus, Lauren.”
She’d inadvertently done exactly that a good portion of the time her hawk was being tattooed — imagined how feathers would feel in flight, how awesome it would be to fly, and how they saw their food on the ground from a great height, and then dove to grab what they wanted. Whathewanted. Her hawk was a male because that’s what she’d envisioned.
Lauren stopped thinking of her hawk and focused on her wild-born axolotl, who loved chasing the colorful fish, and also the shiny fish, and then eating them. The killifish, guppies, swordtails, platyfish. What would be her favorite? The chub, maybe? No, the goldfish. Perhaps the tetras. One for the taste, the other for the joy of the chase.
Chapter 16
Gavin had to organize a battle against a foe he didn’t know nearly enough about, so he had to put Lauren out of his mind. Kirsten had told him she was taking Lauren somewhere and would have her back before they left, and he trusted that would be the case. He’d have preferred she kept Lauren away until after the battle was over, but he was smart enough to know that insisting Lauren stay safe while he fought wouldn’t go over well.
He was good at the long view of things, and he understood that while Lauren would be more likely to remain alive and uninjured if he kept her out of the fight, the act of not trusting her to stand with him, not allowing his tiny human to protect her new home alongside the others in his life, risked pushing her away from him, and that was unacceptable.
There were things she needed to know about him. Things he shouldn’t tell her until he’d taught her proper shielding, but things she needed to know before she went into battle with him. There wouldn’t be time to explain, though.
Gavin made his way to the communications center in this vast system of caves. His predecessor had done a good job of planning for all contingencies, but Gavin had listened to Kendra’s boyfriend when he’d advised the updates to the coterie house in Chattanooga, and then the many facilities in Alaska.
He’d ordered Queenie to pay attention as well, and the two had added to this room within a week of moving into Branson. It was hard-wired with internet access that eventually, after some serious poking and prodding, would look as if it came from a well-guarded home on the other side of Branson. The home was empty, but had plenty of boobytraps designed for maximum carnage.
He placed a voice call to Zander’s assistant and asked for Zander to contact him through this app, rather than via phone call, and gave the code that identified this as an emergency. Forty seconds later, he saw Zander’s face on his screen and he answered the call. The wall behind him was a black curtain, and nothing in front of him that would identify this as a cave would reflect off his eyes.
“Medved’s people attacked while I was still dead to the world. He pulled all excess security from the property with other emergencies, so I had a skeleton crew. Queenie and Lauren were the heroes of the day.”
He gave a concise report of events so far, and Zander responded with information about Medved. “Male and female genitals, though my information is that he’s more male than female, so he’ll likely be able to father children but won’t be able to bear a child. He was born a grizzly bear shifter, was bitten and turned in his early twenties. Rumor says his dual sexual nature allowed for the dual supernatural nature, but I’ve been close enough to scent him, and I believe he was sired by one of our oldest vampires who is also both vampire and shapeshifter. If that’s the case, and if his sire has been training him, this would explain why he’s making a play for territory at such a young age.”
“Surety over cockiness?” Gavin asked.
Zander nodded. “If I’m right, he’ll be able to fly, to burrow, and quite possibly shift into a bat as well as bear.”
Which told Gavin who the likely sire was, and why Zander would’ve been able to pull the scent out in a casual meeting.
“Good to know. Strategy suggestions?”
“Useallyour talents, even if it means a few more people find out about the ones you’ve successfully kept hidden. I would fight by your side if I could, old friend, but it would undermine your power base, so it’s best I do not.”
Gavin shook his head. “I asked for and accepted territory. I’m either strong enough to hold it, or I’m not. It feels as if Kirsten is going to make certain it’s clear she was following my orders, so even though some may say my victory may not have happened without her, it won’t matter. A vampire’s strength is made up of what he has within, but also the people he’s pulled to him.”
