A Slash of Savagery (Wiccan-Were-Bear) (2 page)

Chapter 3

Brone couldn’t shake the image of the beautiful red-headed Wiccan, Arissa.  He’d never been so singularly attracted to a female before, and he might have followed his instincts and slung her over his shoulder and headed for someplace private if Mishka hadn’t reminded him of his obligations.

Coven first.  Delicious witch later.

Temple, one of Mishka’s private guards and a member of the coven’s inner circle known as the
family
, elbowed him.  Brone glanced at Temple who inclined his head toward Mishka, who was seated on an embroidered couch in the sitting room of the North Corner’s home.  Brone had not seen Lorene in years.  The vampire coven had little dealings with the witches.  Ages ago, vampires hunted witches for their rich blood, and the witches had a long memory.

Mishka had decided to approach the Wiccan coven for help against the growing anti-vampire movement spearheaded by the First Church of Humanity.

“It would be in both our peoples’ interests to form an alliance,” Mishka said to Lorene, who sat across from Mishka in a high-backed chair.

Lorene pursed her lips in thought.  She was a powerful witch who could control the earth.  “It’s been a long time since our people had an alliance, Mishka.”

Brone heard Mishka’s nearly inaudible growl.  Of course Lorene would bring up the alliance between her granddaughter, Elizabeth, and Mishka.  Brone had never had an alliance with Elizabeth; he had simply fed from her and enjoyed their time together for what it had been.  He’d cared about her, but he had known from the beginning that she was not meant to be his.  Mishka, on the other hand, had been quite taken with Elizabeth, and since she had married twin were-bears several years earlier, Mishka had never gotten involved with another witch.  Brone suspected that it was only because he was truly worried about the coven that he had even considered asking the Wiccans for an alliance.

His thoughts drifted to Arissa.  She was his mate.  His beloved.  He was certain of it.  Which made him angry that he wasn’t with her right at this moment, finding out everything about her so he could take care of her properly.

“I’d like to offer a job within Fang to one of your Wiccans.  It’s an office position and comes with a good salary and living and dining accommodations within the club.  The job would last as long as the alliance.  The vampires will stand with the Wiccans as allies and vice versa.”

Immediately Brone wondered if Arissa would be the one chosen, but then just as quickly, he decided it didn’t matter.  She was his and he was going to be with her no matter whether she worked at the club or not.  Of course, she was a modern female, and he knew that he couldn’t go around ordering her into his chamber, much as he would like to do so.  He’d have to woo her.  Something he hadn’t done in a thousand years.

“I’ll pose the request to the unmated girls in the coven.  If any agree, I’ll send her to you.  There aren’t that many who are powerful enough to be of any supernatural use to you.  And, of course, I’d need your assurances that she would not be made food.”

“Of course not, Lorene.  Thank you.”

Mishka stood gracefully, bowed low, and then turned on his heels, walking out of the sitting room.  Brone glanced at Lorene, who looked at him with a curious gaze.  He ducked his head toward her and she smiled.

Outside, Temple held open Mishka’s door and said, “Well, that’s good news.  A Wiccan can do all sorts of cool protection spells.”

Brone climbed into the passenger seat as Ven, the other guard, slid behind the wheel.  “If one of them is willing,” Ven said, turning the key in the ignition.

The SUV roared to life, and Brone let his thoughts drift again to Arissa.  If she happened to take the job, it would give him ample opportunity to get to know her and to let her get to know him. When the time was right, he would ask her to be his beloved mate and make her immortal like himself.

Although he didn’t relish the idea of her sharing all of his memories through the beloved bond, he did know that he’d never desired a woman as much as her. Already his thoughts were consumed with her.  Waiting would be agony, but the reward would be sweet.

Chapter 4

The following day, Arissa sat at a table in one of the reading rooms in the store, picking at her chipped nail polish while she waited for the last of the coven members to arrive for Lorene’s “emergency” meeting.

Arissa found herself in the company of three other coven members — Nyla, Breanne, and Clarisse — who were natural witches like herself.  Nyla and Breanne were sisters and could control the power of the air, and Clarisse could control water.  None of them were as powerful as Arissa, but they were a few of the natural witches within the coven.

Lorene breezed into the room, her long skirt swishing around her ankles as she walked hurriedly.  “I never realized how few natural witches we had until I had to make a list.  It’s just the four of you.”

“The four of us what?” Nyla asked.

Lorene shared the request from Mishka for an alliance with the coven.  Clarisse shuddered.  “Vamps killed my mom.  I don’t want anything to do with them.”

Lorene smiled softly in understanding.  “Our people have been harmed in many ways by the vampires throughout the centuries, but Mishka is a good leader and would make an excellent ally.  We’re fortunate to live in an area with so many supernatural creatures that are willing to ally with us and share in our celebrations.  Some of our members have found mates within those groups.  The vampires are the only ones that have never been part of our alliances.  The other groups — from the bear den to the wolf pack — have private alliances with the vampires.  We’re the only ones who don’t.  It’s time to make some changes and I’ll remind you all that we’re committed to protecting the innocents as well.  Once the First Church of Humanity began to attack the human mates of the vampires, it became
everyone’s
problem.”

“Human mates, not Wiccan,” Clarisse said.  “Why does that make it our problem?”

Arissa frowned.  “How long until the church decides that vampires aren’t the only evil hanging around?  Witches have been persecuted throughout the ages, too.  It makes sense to set up an alliance now before the tides turn.  We can’t have too many alliances.”

Breanne made a face.  “Then you do it. You take the job, and you risk your neck by living with them.  I won’t.”

“Me neither,” said Nyla.

“I think you know where I stand,” Clarisse said.

Lorene looked at Arissa.  “You don’t have to say yes if you don’t want to, Arissa.  I can offer Mishka some general protection spells without having one of our members live there.  I think he’s looking for someone to be personally invested in the vampire coven, so that they will care about the mates that are being hurt and willing to help protect them.”

“I want to do it,” Arissa said.  “I’ll miss working at the store, but it will be cool to see what the club is like.  And Mishka promised that I wouldn’t become food, right?”

Arissa had heard there were humans who were paid to be blood donors for the vampires at the club.  She couldn’t imagine letting a stranger bite her and drink her blood.  Now that sexy, big Brone?  Yes, she could definitely see that happening.  Working and living at the club was a great way to get to know him better.  Because maybe there really was something there between them and he’d been too wrapped up in work to talk to her.

Although she’d wanted to chalk up the initial attraction as nothing special, she had spent the night dreaming about him and his purple eyes, and that had to mean something.

“If you’re sure?” Lorene asked.

“I’m positive.”

“Good.  Mishka wants you to move into the club on Monday morning and begin work on Monday night.  Your usual workweek will be Tuesday through Saturday nights, with Sundays and Mondays off, but Mishka has asked you to start right away.  There are a few things you need to do before you start working there.”  She came around the table to Arissa and put her hand on her shoulder.  “Thank you for doing this, Arissa.”

Lorene handed Arissa a folder and she opened it.  Inside were instructions for several tasks she needed to do before she began work on Monday night.

“Waxing?”  She looked up at Lorene.

Lorene smiled.  “They worry about razor cuts.  You definitely don’t want to bleed unnecessarily around a vampire.  Even the most refined of them can be an animal when they’re around fresh Wiccan blood.”

Arissa chuckled and ignored the disgusted sounds coming from the other three Wiccans, who looked at her as if she had recently sold her soul to the devil.  She didn’t care what they thought about her choice because in her mind, the timing was perfect.  She’d just met a strange and compelling vampire who happened to live at Fang where she was now going to live and work.  It was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

“You’ll be working at the store one Sunday and Monday a month.  Of course you’ll have vampire coven guards with you during our ceremonies, and Mishka will oversee the choosing of those guards.”  The other Wiccans left the room, and Lorene looked at the now empty doorway.  “It will not go over well with our people.”

“They’ll get used to it,” Arissa said.

Lorene nodded but said nothing.

“I’ll get right on these items, Lorene.”  Arissa stood, kissed her on the cheek, and then left the store.

Arissa didn’t have many close friends since she’d only been in Ohio for two months, but she did have a friendly neighbor named Alli, who was a fallen seraphim, with beautiful blonde hair, sapphire eyes, and a wicked sense of humor.

Knocking on the door across from her own apartment, Arissa smiled at Alli when she opened the door.  “I’m going to work for the vampires.”

“Why would you want to do that, babe?”  Alli stepped aside and let Arissa into her apartment.

Shrugging out of her coat, Arissa laid it over a chair and sat down on the leather sofa.  Alli and Arissa both had identical one-bedroom apartments in a one hundred-year-old refurbished complex.  It was halfway between the store and downtown Cleveland.  Alli walked into the kitchen and came back with an empty wine glass and filled it for Arissa from the open bottle on the coffee table before topping off her own.

“Mishka asked for an alliance with the coven.”

Alli raised a brow.  “He must really be worried to swallow his pride like that.”

“What is the deal with him and Wiccans?”

“He dated Lorene’s granddaughter, Elizabeth.  Well, ‘date’ isn’t the right term.  She was ‘under the fang.’”  At Arissa’s confused look, Alli clarified that “under the fang” meant that Elizabeth had been his exclusive food.  “She also fed one of his guards.  Big guy, purple eyes.”

Arissa frowned, suddenly jealous.

“What’s with the look?” Alli asked.

“I didn’t know that she had been with more than one vampire.  I thought they didn’t share.”

“They don’t, but the rumor was that the big guy saved her life and they kind of fell into a loose alliance because of it, but she was in a more serious thing with Mishka.  He won’t feed from Wiccans anymore, and it’s been a couple of years.”

“I didn’t know you were so interested in vampires,” Arissa said, taking a sip of wine.

“I’m interested in a lot of things,” Alli said with a wink.

“Would you date a vampire?”

“I haven’t.  If he was sexy, though, who knows?”  She shrugged.  “But we need to talk about you working for them.  Tell me everything.”

Arissa detailed Mishka’s request and then showed Alli the folder of instructions.  She hummed as she looked over them and said, “We can do most of these tonight.”

“We?”

“Sure!  You didn’t think I’d let you do this alone, did you?  Besides, you’ll have to go downtown, and you don’t know your way around well yet.  You’ll spend half the night looking for the first place.  Finish your wine and we’ll hit the road.”

Arissa smiled and took another drink of her wine as Alli told her about the first time that she’d ever met a vampire, back in 1227.

* * * * *

Their first stop of the evening was to a gynecologist, who fitted Arissa with a specially designed IUD.  The doctor told her it was different than those marketed commercially to the public and would immediately prevent her from having periods going forward.  It was “bespelled among other things” the doctor said and would help to keep her safe from being unintentionally targeted because of her monthly cycle.

Then they visited a clothier.  She was measured by a hunched-over woman with long fingers and icy blue eyes.  The woman said that her work clothes would be delivered to the club by Monday and Arissa was to wear only what was sent over.  Judging from the abundance of revealing clothing in the store, Arissa imagined she would be wearing similar attire.

An hour later, Arissa was gritting her teeth through the waxing process while two women worked on her simultaneously.  Alli sat on a chair in the corner of the room and giggled every time Arissa cursed.

“It hurts,” she ground out through clenched teeth.

“You mortals and your beauty rituals,” Alli said and shook her head with a chuckle.  “I’ll never understand the whole ‘pain is beauty’ belief.”

One of the women glared at Alli.  “She’s working for vampires, so she must be hair-free so she does not risk razor cuts.”

Alli tilted her head curiously.  “You shave your
whole
body?”

“When I’m dating someone.”

Alli hummed but said nothing.  Arissa closed her eyes and tried to block out the pain from the waxing as the women moved on to more delicate areas.  She thought about Brone.  After Alli had explained that his relationship with Lorene’s granddaughter had been superficial, according to rumors, she had decided
not
to hunt the girl down and beat her silly.  Arissa had her own string of lovers in the past and she wouldn’t hold his past against him because she wouldn’t want him to do that to her.

When the last bit of hair had been removed from her body, Arissa peered over her skin, looking for stray hairs, and when she was satisfied, she thanked the women who left the room quickly.

“I feel ten pounds lighter,” Arissa laughed as she scrubbed at her skin with towelettes designed to help remove the leftover wax.

“I’ll bet.  Angels don’t have body hair, so it was never a worry for me.”

After tossing the used wipes in the trash, Arissa got dressed.  Alli, short for Allisandrea, had chosen to leave her heavenly home and take on the mantel of humanity.  She remained immortal, ageless, and ethereally beautiful, but she had lost her wings when she left heaven.

“Do you miss your wings?” Arissa buttoned her jeans.

“Sometimes.  I miss my friends, though.  I do see angels working on heavenly missions from time to time, but they consider me just another supernatural creature and not an actual angel any longer, so they ignore me.”

Arissa finished dressing and went to her friend, putting her arm around her shoulders.  “I’m glad you’re my friend.”

“Me, too, even though we won’t see each other much when you start your new job.”

“I’ll be sure to visit and you can come see me, too.”

“I haven’t been inside the club.  It might be worth checking out.”

“Maybe you’ll fall in love with a vampire and live there.” 
Just so long as it’s not Brone
, Arissa added silently.

“Who knows what the future will bring.  All I know is that I’m beat and it’s almost dawn.  Time to head home and catch some sleep.  You’re going to be a day sleeper now, since you’ll be working at night.  Better get used to it.”

“I always was a night owl at heart,” she promised.

As they left downtown and drove home, Arissa’s thoughts drifted once more to what awaited her at Fang when she moved in on Monday.  What would it be like to see Brone again?  Would she find out that she was the only one who had been captivated by him, or had he been thinking of her, too?  What would it be like to work and live with vampires?

She’d find out soon enough.