Bloodfire (Blood Destiny) (27 page)

I pulled out a couple of cans of Coke from
my backpack and offered one to Alex.
 
He sat down beside me and we pulled the ringtops.
 
I hoped that the Brethren idiot on the
other side could hear the satisfying hiss as the carbon dioxide was released
although I did feel slightly guilty about Lucy.
 
Then again, given what I’d already
discovered about her tastebuds, she probably wasn’t too bothered.
 
Alex sat down next to me and stretched
his legs out in front of him.

“What gives, Alex?
 
I thought you weren’t the fighting
type?”
 
I asked him, archly.

He took a swig of Coke and regarded me
seriously.
 
“Oddly I find myself
suddenly invested in what happens in this quiet little corner of England.
 
Not that I’ll be squaring up to any
heebie jeebies any time soon, you understand,” he added hastily, “just that I
find myself wanting to stick around.
 
You never know when there might be a damsel in distress who needs me to
run away in the opposite direction for her.”

I laughed and clinked my Coke can against
his then became serious.
 
“What Craw
said – about it being my fault that John
died.
 
You really think that was true?”

He sighed heavily.
 
“All I know is that the wichtlein
definitely thought it was true.
 
And, no, before you ask, I don’t anything about what a Draco Wyr is,
other than it must be some kind of dragon.”

“So where do we go from here?”

“We do what we’re doing right now and wait
to see what comes out that.”
 
He
nodded towards the portal and I was rather taken aback at the confidence in his
voice.
 
For someone who was a
self-professed non-combatant, he actually displayed a lot of guts.

We sat in companionable silence for a few
moments before it occurred to me that I really didn’t know very much about him
at all.
 
I could do small talk
– at least it might make the time pass by a bit faster.
 
I arched a look over at him.
 
“So what would you be doing if you
weren’t here?”

“Nothing much of anything.
 
I spend a vast amount of time in London
tracking down lost objects and trailing unfaithful spouses.
 
You’d be surprised at what a fickle
bunch the otherworld pop can be.”

“I don’t doubt it,” I said drily.
 
“But you don’t always work for
shifters?”

“God, no!” he said.
 
“My services are for hire to the highest
bidder.
 
I have to work within the
dictates of the Ministry but for the most part I can be employed by virtually
anyone.
 
Fae, vamps, trolls, even a
unicorn once.
 
I’ve worked for them
all.”

“Have you ever worked for a human?” I
asked softly.
 
“I mean, an out and
out human who’s not a mage or a
wicca
or anything?”

Alex was silent for a second.
 
“No,” he answered heavily.
 
“I’m afraid I’ve not.”

So there was
no-one
like me then.
 
I changed the
subject.
 
“You look rather, um,
young to be doing all this.”

“I might make the same comment about you,
dude.”

I acknowledged his point.
 
A plane rumbled softly overhead and we
both leaned back and tracked its jetstream through the sky.

“It really is very lovely here,” he commented
after it was long gone.
 
“I can see
why you are so keen to stay.”

“Yeah,” I sighed.
 
“It is lovely.
 
But that’s not why I stay.
 
These guys are my family.
 
Since my mum split, I’ve never had
anyone else I could depend upon.
 
But the pack, they’re always there for me.
 
Even though…” my voice trailed off and I
looked at the Brethren.

“You don’t get bored?” he asked, changing
the subject.

“Of beautiful weather, pristine beaches,
lots of friends?
 
Yeah, I get
bored.
 
But no-one’s life is ever
perfect, Alex.
 
And these last few
days have reminded me that living in interesting times isn’t always what it’s
cracked up to be.
 
I’d give anything
to be bored right now, instead of trying to hunt down the vicious murderer who
killed my alpha.”

“You think of him – John –
like that?
 
As your alpha?”

“Yeah, I do.”
 
I finished off the Coke and scrunched up
the can in one hand.
 
“I might not
be able to shift, but I feel like a shifter.”

He nodded with a serious expression on his
face and lay back in the sand.
 
I
traced little figure of eights in the sand and watched the portal with half an
eye.
 
The sun was getting hot, but
at least there was a cool breeze wafting in from the sea.

Mackenzie?
 
Are you still at the beach?

I sat up a bit straighter.
 
What’s
up, Julia?
 
Did you talk to Anton?

Yes.
 
He’s not trying to expose you, dear.

What?
 
I got up to
my feet, drawing the Brethren’s attention.
 
I ignored them completely and started pacing.
 
Julia,
he had my t-shirt.
 
With my blood.

Hmmm,
yes.
 
Well that’s rather interesting,
dear.

I scoffed aloud.

It
appears that since your fight Anton now has developed somewhat of a …taste for
your blood.

Say what?

Julia continued.
 
He’s
convinced that it’s good for him.
 
And it seems that he will go to lengths to get more of it.

I was absolutely stupefied.
 
Is
that normal?
 
He is turning into
some kind of shifter vamp?

That’s
not physically possible, dear.
 
I
don’t know why he’s decided that you’re suddenly so tasty but he’s certainly
still being kept to the geas.

I didn’t know what to say.
 
Could this be some kind of weird ruse
that he’d cooked up?
 
Jules,
are you sure he’s not lying?

I
compelled him.
 
Even though he
wishes you were gone from the pack, he was telling the truth.

He’s
not sworn to you yet, none of the shifters are.
 
Technically,
they all still had the change of alpha get out clause to use as an escape if
they wanted to leave.

Actually,
he is.
 
He swore on the Way whilst
you were out for the count yesterday.
 
Almost everyone did.

Oh.
 
I was surprised.
 
I’d been
sure that he’d want to hold out and see if he could get a place with the
Brethren.
 
Then I realised what
Julia had said.
 
Hold on, ‘almost’
everyone?

Julia,
who didn’t swear?

Tom
and Betsy.

“FUCK!”

Everyone on the beach was looking at me
now.
 
I knew in my heart of hearts
that neither of them would ever betray
me, geas or no geas,
unless compelled to by whoever their new alpha became.
 
But I had a pretty good idea of who they
wanted that new alpha to be.
 
Tom
had made no secret that he had the burning desire to join the Brethren’s
ranks.
 
And with Betsy apparently
besotted by him, she’d probably follow him wherever he wanted to go.

How
could they be so naïve?

Mackenzie,
dear, they have to make their own choices.

Well,
what if Corrigan compels them to talk about me?

Unless
he specifically asks if you’re human or not, or that they have to tell him
every single detail they’ve ever know about you, which I imagine would take
several days of telling, then they won’t have to reveal anything about
you.
 
And Corrigan has no reason to
suspect that you’re human.
 
Are you
sure that your anger is less to do with your worry about what they might say
and more to do with your friends leaving you?

No.
I paused. Sodding know-it-all.
Okay, maybe.

They
will always be your friends, no matter what they do or where they go.
 
And the Brethren might not want them.
 
I don’t think either of them
have
made their intentions known yet.

But Corrigan had already told me that he
did want Tom.
 
And Betsy had
acquitted herself well in her evaluation so I couldn’t see why they’d turn her
down either.
 
I sat back down on the
sand.

I
have to go,
projected Julia.
 
Anton
seems to be getting rather worked up that Lynda won’t leave him alone.
 
Stay safe, Mackenzie.

Yeah,
I sent back, and Julia severed the link.

Alex was sitting up and looking at me
rather alarmed.
 
“What the hell is
going with you?”

“That was Julia.
 
It’s just…it’s nothing.”
 
I didn’t want to get into it.
 
Tom and Betsy’s potential defection was
just too complicated to explain and I wasn’t sure that Alex would understand my
feelings about it.
 
And the
information about Anton was just too disturbing.

“Mack?
 
What do you mean, that was Julia?”

“Huh?
 
Oh, she can project to me the way that she can to the rest of the pack.”
I said absently, my mind on other things.

“And could John do this too?”
 

I didn’t answer.

“Mackenzie, this is important.
 
Could you hear John’s Voice too?”

“Sure.
 
And Corrigan’s as well.”

“That doesn’t make sense, Mackenzie.”
 
He pulled me by the shoulders and looked
into my eyes.
 
“Only alphas can use
the Voice and only then with their own shifters.
 
Corrigan of course can use it with
everyone, but then he’s mega powerful.
 
But even he wouldn’t be able to use it on a human.”

I looked at him stupidly.
 
“Alex, he can because I’m human and I
can hear him.
 
No alpha has ever had
cause to use the Voice on a human so they’d never know if it works or not.
 
And besides, John always said I could hear
him because I spent so much of my formative years with the pack.
 
It’s not a big deal.”

“Dude, it is so a big deal.
 
Do you really think that alphas haven’t
tried to compel humans before now?
 
They’ve spent centuries trying to do that.
 
Imagine the power they’d have if they
could.
 
They can’t, believe me.”

I became aware that my mouth was gaping
open at him.
 
I snapped it
shut.
 
“He can’t compel me
though.
 
And even you knew I was
human straight away, Alex. ”

“Well, yeah, and you still seem
human.
 
But you can’t be.
 
Even without the compulsion side of
things, there is no alpha, no matter how strong, who could use the Voice on an
out and out human.”

I wasn’t quite sure how to handle this new
piece of information on top of everything else.
 
I’d spent so long wishing desperately
that I wasn’t human, but I’d come to accept that I couldn’t change who I was no
matter how much I wanted to.
 
And
now that I was resigned to being human, I wasn’t sure I wanted to be anything
else.
 
I’d heard John’s Voice for so
long that I hadn’t ever thought to really question why I could.
 
I struggled to find a reason why.
 
“Can you hear an alpha’s Voice?”

“No, only shifters can, I told you.”
 
Alex’s voice was emphatic.

 
I felt more doubt creeping in.
 
“And I’m definitely not a shifter.”

He sank back down.
 
“No, you’re not.
 
There’s nothing shifter-like about
you.
 
But I’m still telling you that
it doesn’t make sense that you’re human either.”