AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Skoll growled. His body shook as if he were having an internal fight, before his teeth retracted. “Why not? We should strike now, kill them all. That’s the only way we’ll ever have peace.”
“Too risky,” said Kodiak calmly. “We have to be smart about how we attack. Our pack isn’t as big as it used to be.”
“We can always turn humans.” Onai fisted his hands on his thighs as he looked about.
“Against their will? Because that’s the only way to do it and keep our secret.”
“Why not?”
“We meant to be keeping a pure bloodline,” snapped Kodiak. “The wolf shifter ability has been in our genes ever since our first ancestor came to Australia. We have always resisted converting humans like the vampires do; we breed and pass on our genes to the next generation.”
“Except we can’t breed,” Fern said. “We need to reconsider turning humans to build up our numbers.”
“Maybe we need to start considering this,” suggested Kodiak.
“How are we going to do that without spilling our secret? Do we kill the ones who say no?” asked Ash.
Onai shrugged. “Why not? They’d kill us.”
“Don’t you think,” said Kodiak, “that murdering humans to keep our secret makes us as bad as the vampires? Just like turning people against their will.”
No one spoke for a long moment.
“And just say we meet a bunch who want this, they won’t be able to control the change like we do.” Ash shook her head as her fingers paused over the keyboard.
“What are we going to do, then?” asked Fern with a frustrated huff.
“Go out tonight and see where the vampires go,” Kodiak said.
“Hasn’t worked the last few nights.” Onai went to stand.
“Try harder, then.” Kodiak bared his teeth in warning, and Onai quickly cast his eyes down, remaining in his seat.
“Have you found anything, Ash?” Kodiak turned to her.
“Nothing solid. All you can do with the Blood Opal is buy it and show everyone you’ve got more money than you know what to do with.”
So nothing more to be found about its powers, about why the vampires wanted it. A ritual, he knew that. But to what?
What kind of horror did they want to unleash? Or was it just a power surge?
Maybe those were the same things.
“Is it for sale?” he asked.
Ash shook her head. “No. I’m talking about how it looks on paper. Or the computer screen. It seems to be for a show of money, status, and the power those things bring.”
Skoll scoffed at Ash’s comment. “And the vamps have more money than they know what to do with.”
Kodiak frowned. “We’ve done as well as the vampires have financially, and we’ve done better than them by not converting humans to boost our numbers.”
“Let’s hope that won’t count against us,” said Skoll.
“What was that?” Kodiak’s tone rose sharply.
Skoll shook his head and looked away, avoiding a confrontation.
“You must have found something helpful about the gem, Ash,” said Kodiak, running his hand through his hair. “Something.”
