Bloodfire (Blood Destiny) (8 page)

“Please?”
 
He blinked at me with large brown puppy
dog eyes.

Oh for goodness’
sake.
 
I sighed and nodded.
 
“I’ll meet you at the usual place after
dark. Around 8pm?”

Tom nodded at me and I spun around to
leave the dorm.
 
I padded down the
draughty corridor to the stairs thinking for the millionth time how handy it
would be to be able to shift into something warm and fuzzy.
 
John had refused to install central heating,
insisting that Cornwall’s warmer climate and woolly jumpers were enough.
 
I shivered.
 
My beloved keep was old and in dire need
of a makeover.
 
The stone steps
leading down to the ground floor at least were covered with a shabby red carpet
that had definitely seen better days. Some insulation was better than none, I
supposed.
 
John had said the keep
had charm and character; I had retorted that Stonehenge had character but that
it didn’t make me want to live there.
 
I tugged at my ponytail and sighed.
 
I missed him.
 
I closed my eyes and briefly pinched the
bridge of my nose, causing me to stupidly miss the hole in the carpet on the
next step.
 
My foot slipped and, before
I knew it, I was sliding down the rest of the stairs on my arse, coming to land
in a rather undignified heap at the bottom.

“Graceful as always,
Mackenzie,” drawled Anton.

I glanced up and saw to my horror that he
was stood there with two of the Brethren, the bored looking blonde and another,
who were both looking down at me with slightly disgusted expressions.
 
Shit.
 
Shifters didn’t
fall,
they had too much balance and grace for that.

I cleared my throat too loudly, muttering
something inane about ungainly new shoes designed for humans, and pulled myself
to my feet.
 
I aimed for the front
door trying to pretend that my left hip wasn’t completely killing me and tugged
at the handle to get out.
 
I could
hear Anton’s voice behind me.
 
“Of
course, not all our pack will impress you….”

I slammed the door shut behind me and
stalked out before realising that stalking hurt too much and a limp was much
more called for.
 
That had been a
careless move.

Several gleaming – and expensive
– cars sat in the driveway.
 
At the front was a sleek black sporty car and, just visible and bending
down next to it, running his hands over the paintwork, was the green eyed
Brethren bloke.
 
I tried not to
smirk as I realised that his showy pride and joy had clearly been scratched by
one of the unreliable pieces of gravel that lined the ground of the drive.
 
His back stiffened as he sensed my
presence and started to rotate round to look at me so I quickly turned away and
began walking smartly to the meeting point before he could start talking.
 
I got lucky and he stayed silent, but I
could feel his eyes on my back until I turned round the tree-lined corner
towards the green.

By the time I reached the old oak tree
where I used to practise archery, dusk was approaching.
 
I could just make out Julia’s figure in
the dim light.

“I’m sorry it took me so long, I…er…” I didn’t
want to disappoint her with tales of my already clumsy human behavior.

“Enough.
 
It’s not important,” she said
dismissively.
 
“Whatever you’ve done
so far can no doubt be explained away.
”

How did she do that?
 
I could feel myself redden in
embarrassment; it wasn’t my fault that the carpet needed replacing after all.

Julia ignored my blush.
 
“We’ve got more pressing matters to
discuss,” she continued.
 
“I wasn’t
expecting the Lord Alpha himself to be here.”

“You mean the gray haired guy?
 
He didn’t seem that bad actually, “ I
commented, swinging myself on to a low branch.

“Fool,” she hissed unexpectedly.
 
I almost preferred dear. Almost. “He’s
not the Brethren’s alpha, that’s just what they want you to think.
 
He’s merely their spokesperson.
 
I thought you’d have picked up on where
the real power was coming from.”

I suddenly had a horrible sinking feeling
in the pit of my stomach. “Ummm…green eyes?” I offered tentatively, hoping I
was wrong.

“Green eyes of the devil, hair as black as
his were’s and physical strength to match his strategic skills.”

“Oh.”
 
I’d only noticed his eyes.
 
My
hackles rose.
 
“So he thinks that
he’ll trick us by pretending to just be a minion?”

Julia sighed.
 
“It’s a smart move.
 
He can find out more about us if we’re
not jumping to attention every time he walks past.
 
Besides which, regardless of the
attempts at blurry paparazzi shots on the Othernet, he appears to dislike the
limelight.”

“We’re not his enemy, Julia, he doesn’t
need to dislike us,” I pointed out.

“He doesn’t know that.
 
There was a lot of resistance when he
took over as Lord.
 
And he’s only
been in that position since August - he’s ridiculously strong, and not just
physically, but there are a lot of the Brethren who still don’t feel that they
can trust him.”

I dismissed the topic.
 
“It doesn’t matter.
 
I’ll stay out of all their way and he’ll
never notice me.”
 
Of course that
meant trying to ignore the fact that he’d noticed me during the welcome ceremony.

“You can’t,” she said flatly.
 
“He’s demanding that every single pack
member’s skills are tested and that he personally oversees each evaluation. I
can’t gainsay him.
 
No doubt there
will also be interrogations to find out who is responsible for John’s death.”

“But everyone’s whereabouts have been
accounted for!” I burst out, suddenly angry.
 
The embers of flame inside me that had
been quashed since the terrible meeting in the hall were starting to flicker.
 
“What right does he have to come in here
and do this?
 
We don’t need to be
evaluated to know what our skills are.
 
And what right does he have to take away pack members to London?
 
Why the fuck should we do anything they
ask?”

“Because no matter what your opinions may
be, Mackenzie, they are the alpha pack, and he is their alpha leader.
 
Without the Brethren we would not
exist.
 
They support us financially
and allow us to live here with minimum interruption in the relative safety of
Cornwall.”

I scoffed.
 
“If it was safe here in Cornwall then
John would still be alive.
 
Besides,
why is this the first time they have come here in thirty years?
 
They didn’t care about us before.”
 

“For which we should be thankful, dear.”

I could feel the flames continue to rise,
scorching my insides and daring me to let them out.
 
I forced myself to control them and
looked at Julia right in the eyes.
 
“Are you going to let them just
take
our people
away?”

Julia sighed.
 
“You know as well as I do that those who
leave will want to do so.
 
The old
ties to the pack are gone with John’s death”

I wasn’t going to give up and was
breathing harder at the effort of banking the fire.
 
“Why are they going through this
pretense of choosing our new alpha?
 
We all know it’s you already!”

“We’ve been through this.
 
The rituals are what keep us together,
and this is one of the most important.
 
If I want to be a strong leader, then I need to be seen to be following
the Way.”

“It’s stupid,” I muttered childishly.

“It’s the Way.”

Julia folded her hands together implacably
and looked at me.
 
“At the risk of
repeating myself, you need to rein in that temper if we are to get through this.”

I was immediately apologetic and could
instantly feel the fire falling back down to a smoulder.
 
“I know.
 
I’m sorry.”
 
I suddenly thought, and not for the first
time, that I should have left when I became 18 and couldn’t be turned.
 
This wasn’t fair on any of them, even
bloody Anton.

“This is your home.”
 
She reached and touched me softly on the
arm and then reiterated her point from the previous night. “We need you too.”

I looked down at her face.
 
Her repeated reassurance didn’t change
the truth of the thought, however.
 
If I
wasn’t
here then there would be no danger
to them.
 
I should have gone years
ago, even if I had nowhere to go to.

“Here’s what you’ll do.
 
Continue with the lotion.
 
Do NOT bathe.
 
When you are called to interview, act
meek and weak.
 
When you are asked
to fight in an evaluation, then do so poorly.
 
We do not need them to pay you any
attention whatsoever.
 
If they ask
you to shift, tell them you’re embarrassed because you’re only a werehamster
and of no use to anyone anyway.”

“ A
were
hams…!”
I spluttered.

“It was the easiest scent to
replicate.
 
It’s not completely
accurate but werehamsters are rare enough that I think you’ll manage to pass
further inspection.
 
Above all, do NOT
lose your temper.”

I jumped off the branch.
 
“Okay, “ I said quietly. “What about
John’s killer?”

“Once this is done and they’ve gone, then
we deal with that.
 
Who knows, they
might even find the culprit themselves.
 
They are the Brethren for a reason, after all.”

I scoffed again.
 
“They might be strong but that doesn’t
make them smart.”

“Don’t underestimate them,” Julia said
with a steely expression.
 
“Especially the Lord Alpha.”

“I won’t.
 
But John’s killer is going to be
mine.”
 
I looked at her steadily. “68
hours to go.”

*

After leaving Julia, I wended my way to
Trevathorn, the local village, skirting the keep just in case any of the
Brethren decided to take in some of the night air.
 
The village lights were on and I could
hear the hum and murmur of voices from the Hanging Bull as I passed.
 
Most of Trevathorn’s inhabitants were
under the impression that we were some
sort
of cult
– probably a fair assumption actually – but as long as we didn’t
trouble them too much, they left us alone.
 
Shifters had been in the keep for at least the last couple of hundred
years so even the most fiercely Cornish of the locals would nod if we passed
them in the street, accepting us as part of the scenery.
 
I occasionally wondered if they
suspected the truth but, if that was the case, they never let on.
 
Nick had certainly never said anything
about the pack, other than to murmur a few easily dodged questions about why I
lived with them.

I didn’t wear a watch but I was conversant
enough with the night’s sky to know that I was early and had time to kill
before meeting Tom.
 
I paused
briefly, just past the door of the pub, before turning back and heading
in.
 
John had said that the locals
had initially alerted him to the clearing where he’d found the wichtlein’s
little stone so perhaps I could dig something else up.

Inside the pub, the lights were warm and
welcoming.
 
There were a few people
at the tables along the edges whilst Adam and the Ants bopped out from the ancient
eighties’ heavy jukebox.
 
I nodded
hello at a few familiar faces before perching on one of the barstools and
ordering a diet Coke.
 
I chatted to
the barman whilst he poured my drink and tried to think furiously of a way to
bring up strange noises and black pebbles without being too obvious.

“Is this seat taken?”
 
A smooth voice uttered from behind
me.
 

It was Nick.
 
Excellent – if anyone knew about
anything strange
happening, it’d be him.
 
I turned and smiled, probably a mite too
brightly by the sudden wary look on his face.
 
I had to admit that he was looking good,
blond hair smoothed back and a light tan that would be unusual in any other
part of England bar Cornwall.
 
I
patted the stool next to me and gestured for him to sit down.
 
He grinned at me, flashing a display of
even white teeth and highlighting the little dimple at the side of his
cheek.
 
There was no denying that he
was very cute, and that many girls would consider themselves lucky to have his
attentions, but he was just so…old-fashioned.