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And I meant every word of it. I didn’t know the details, but I didn’t need to. I have Marco’s back, and he has mine. That means his people have to know I’ll have their backs, too.
“We’re going to need to go to Atlanta and Bowling Green and clean house, too,” Marco told me. “Cecily had made plans with the Master Vampires of those cities to kill me and split the territory between the three of them.”
“They’ll know we’re coming,” Etta said. “We should go sooner rather than later, or we risk some of them leaving the country and going into hiding.”
I smiled. “If they use any of their money, odds are, my people at Drake can find them, no matter how many layers deep they’ve gone with corporations owning corporations.”
Chapter 6
Cora
We’d made it to the spring equinox with only a few minor skirmishes to cement our power. Well, minor on our part. The forty-three vampires in boxes would likely have a different opinion, but after taking care of Atlanta and Bowling Green, Marco hadn’t found anyone else in his territory with designs to kill him and take over.
And Etta had enslaved the Secundo from Atlanta, rather than putting him into a box. She’d taken a fancy to him, so now she had two slaves, a powerful vampire and her eagle shapeshifter. The eagle was something of a personal assistant, but she relegated the vampire to the cleaning staff when she didn’t have use of him, though I understood she rented him out as a torture toy and sex slave, when the opportunity arose. I know he spent a month in Florida with Kendric and Becca, and I can’t imagine that was enjoyable, based on the rumors of what those two get up to.
So far, other than the hack on Marco’s SUV, no one from outside the territory had launched an attack. We still weren’t sure who’d been responsible, but I was leaning towards it coming from the Concilio, simply based on the fact we couldn’t trace it back to the origin from any direction. If I had to guess, I’d say they found a way to try to kill us from a distance, hacking the car before Marco took possession, and when that failed, they’d backed off. An outright attack on us wasn’t legal, and with the state of affairs between the European and American vampires, they didn’t dare rock the boat by getting caught trying to kill a vampire simply because they were worried he’d grow too strong for them to control.
Marco and I had been careful about throwing our joint power around since the incident with Etta. Truth be told, I think Marco wants to do it with purpose, but he knows I’m uncomfortable joining my life to his, my people to his, completely and totally, and so far, he hasn’t pushed.
Vampires are patient, right up until they aren’t, but my vampire was giving me time to figure things out — for now, at least.
Still, we did need to socially integrate our people, even if I wasn’t letting us fully incorporate everyone from a power standpoint.
The most logical time to do this would be full-moon nights, when the wolves are already together, but those nights aren’t ideal for mixing vampires and werewolves. The wolves change and run into the woods just before dusk, when the vampires can’t come out yet, and then we sleep in the woods and usually wake with the sun, when the vampires go down for the day. We start our day with a huge breakfast, but we can’t share that with them, even if we time it before the sun rises.
And so, on Friday night, three nights before our full moon run, the vampires hosted the Homewood Pack at the huge Hamilton Place TBC, their billiard club, with a buffet of free food.
I wanted everything to be perfect, but sometimes you just have to set everything up and let the chips fall where they may.
Jayce and Etta closed the dance room and one of the billiard rooms to the public, so our two groups had plenty of space. I watched as our people mixed and matched, and was pleased when we didn’t end up with all the vampires together in one area, and all the wolves together in another. They played pool, darts, chess, and backgammon. One of my wolves played the part of a bookie and set up a little pool tournament. One of the vampires did the same thing at the dart boards, and a whole lot of cash exchanged hands at both spots.
Vampires taught wolves how to play chess, complete with the early lessons in strategy. Wolves taught vampires the latest dance steps, which are apparently much the same as the oldest dance steps, just on a different beat.
And then, three nights later, Marco stood by my side wearing a getup that allowed him to go out in the sun. It was dusk, but still, enough of the sun’s rays were out to put him out of commission a few decades if the suit didn’t work, or if it was ripped open. It covered him from head to toe like a unitard, and he wore clothes over the top of it, and a hat, and huge dark sunglasses, since the fabric at the face was thin enough to see through the holes, and he had to supplement with a layer of heavy-duty sunscreen from the neck up, even though only the fabric around his eyes was thinner. The face had a mouth painted on over the cloth, so it looked ridiculous when he talked, but from a distance, the suit worked for a vampire to move from place to place, though the old ones rarely made use of them.
But Marco wanted to participate in the opening ritual as well as run with us through the woods, so he was taking the chance.
We had a few new wolves, teens who’d never participated in an equinox run before, and I talked to them up until the last minute before jumping my way to the top of the huge boulder Kirsten had levitated to the field years before.
The Pack energy bathed me in love and power and acceptance before I even started talking, and I suddenly missed Randall enough tears came to my eyes, so I altered what I’d planned to say. It’d only been a loose outline, so changing it was fine. I’d learned from the best that you go where the energy takes you on these nights.
“On this day, I miss Randall and his leadership so much it hurts my heart, but he’s gone and we’re here, so we continue on — because he’d kick all of our asses if we did anything else.”
Everyone smiled, and I looked around the group and made it a point to make eye contact with everyone while I spoke. “The Homewood Pack is even more of a family than most packs. We’re small and elite, and I won’t apologize for that. We’ve had lots of changes since we did this in the fall, haven’t we? Our Pack has always been friendly with the local coterie, but we’re slowly merging with them. I know ya’ll can feel it, so we may as well acknowledge it out loud. I wanted to take it slow, to let it happen as organically as possible, rather than shove it down everyone’s throats, and I believe that’s how it’s working out. It’ll only make us stronger if we all feel good about it, though, so come to me later and let me know in private if you have any concerns. It’s my pack, sure, but it’s also our pack. We all need to feel good about the direction we’re headed.”
I glanced at Marco by my side, and then looked back out at my people. “Marco wanted to be here, no matter the risk, so he could share in the joining before we change and run, and that means something, too, doesn’t it?”
“He makes you happy,” Mac said from the field below us. “You deserve happiness. We all want that for you.”
I heard the sounds of agreement from the rest of the pack, and saw everyone’s head nodding. These were my people. They had my back. It was time to move on.
“On this day of balance, when the day and night find an equilibrium, let us enjoy the night. Let us become one with the forest. One with the earth. One with nature herself.”
I reached my hands out, and Kirsten grasped my left hand, Marco grasped my right, and the three of us floated off the boulder and onto the field. Ranger and the rest of my top people came down the regular way, and then we were all on the field, bathing in the magic of the pack, the magic of the dusk when it’s neither dark nor light. I physically touched everyone in my pack, and with every touch, the magic and power grew and mixed and merged until it swirled around us, our auras mixing and uniting. Joining. It was Pack — safe and warm, cleansing every cell of my being.
We had humans and other shapeshifters as well, mates of my wolves, who came for this and then would either camp out in a tent, or would leave and return for breakfast the next morning, and their energy was part of it as well. As Kirsten says, it was pure magic, and I let it overtake me, overtake us all.
When my wolf came forth, everyone’s did, and we ran. Paws pounding the forest floor, limbs and leaves a blur as we raced past. The scents and sounds of the forest were a living, breathing thing. The trees, the woodland creatures, even the bugs and the frogs. One big living organism, populated and healthy.
