Dead After Dark (6 page)

He cut those cold eyes away from her and focused on Bride. “Astrid wanted me to check on Sasha. Apparently something bad went down at Sanctuary last night and she’s worried about his safety.”

Bride’s eyes widened. “So what do you know?”

He cut a suspicious glance toward Angelia that made her blood run cold. “Some Arcadians have found a way to trap Katagaria in their animal forms and strip out their magick. Sasha said the ones responsible attacked Fury and no one had seen him since. Hence my unannounced presence here without Trace’s playmate. If Sasha’s threatened, Astrid’s upset. If Astrid’s upset, I’m going to kill whatever’s upsetting her until she’s happy again. So where’s Fury?”

From any other man, that would have come across as a joke, but Angelia didn’t doubt for one instant that Z fully intended to carry out his threat. Especially not the way he was flexing those claws on his hand.

“Wow, Zarek,” Bride said slowly, her eyes shining with amusement. “I think that may be the most words you’ve ever spoken to me during any single visit. Maybe even all of them combined. I’m impressed. As for Fury, I think I should state that he’s not the one who upset Sasha, so please don’t kill him. I’d miss him if he was gone. He was badly wounded and passed out as soon as he got home.”

He let out an expletive so foul, Angelia actually blushed from it.

Zarek narrowed his gaze in her direction. “What about her? Does she know anything?” The tone of it wasn’t a question. It was an undeniable threat.

Angelia straightened and tensed, ready to fight if need be. “I’m an Aristos. I don’t think you want to tangle with me.”

He scoffed at her bravado. “Like I give a shit. I’m a god,
baby, so in the grand scheme of things, if I wanted to rip your head off and use it for a bowling ball, there’s not many who could stop me and most of those who could would be too afraid of me to even try.”

She had a feeling he wasn’t boasting.

“Zarek,” Bride said in a chiding tone. “I don’t think torturing her will get you the information you want.”

A slow, sinister smile curved his handsome lips. “Yeah, but it could be fun. I say let’s try it and see.” He stepped forward.

Bride planted herself in front of him. “I know you want to please your wife, and I can seriously appreciate that. But I told Fury that she’d be safe. Please don’t make me a liar, Z.”

He growled deep in his throat and for the first time Angelia respected Bride, who didn’t flinch under his cutthroat scrutiny.

“Fine, Bride. But I want to know what’s going on, and if I have to stay here without my wife and child for too long . . . let’s just say it won’t go well for any of you. Where’s Vane?”

“With Fury. First door on your right.”

He flexed his claws before he turned and left. He started to slam the door, then glanced back at the sleeping toddler and changed his mind.

He closed it quietly.

“Thank you,” Angelia said as soon as they were alone.

“You’re welcome.”

She rubbed her hands up and down her arms in an effort to dispel the chills his presence had left behind. “Is he always like that?”

Bride covered her baby with a small blue blanket. “Actually, I’m told he’s a lot mellower now than he used to be. When Vane first met him, he really was suicidal and psychotic.”

“And you think that’s changed . . . how?”

Bride smiled. “Good point, but believe it or not, when he
brings his son over to play with mine, he’s actually very gentle with the two of them.”

That
she would pay money to see. She couldn’t imagine someone that insane being paternal or tender.

Pushing Zarek out of her thoughts, Angelia walked to the window to look out on the street below. It was so unlike her home. But she knew that Dare and Oscar would be looking for her. Dare was one of the best trackers in their patria. He shouldn’t have any trouble finding her and bringing help.

May the gods have mercy on this pack when they arrived . . .

“So . . .” Bride said, letting her voice trail off a bit. “Care to tell me what this weapon is that you guys have invented?”

Angelia didn’t speak. The weapon was ingenious, and it was one they would die to protect. With it, they had proven that mankind was at the top of the food chain. None of the animals in the Katagaria would have ever been able to design it.

It was the one thing that could protect her people from them forever.

“It really makes you wonder what the animals did to be provoked, doesn’t it?”
Z’s words haunted her. Honestly, she’d never really thought about that before. All she’d ever heard was that the attack had been unprovoked and undeserved.

She had no reason to doubt that.

But what if it hadn’t been?

“Why did Bryani attack you?” she asked Bride.

“She claimed she was trying to save me from being mated to her monster of a son. Personally, I think she was just a little whacko.”

That was an undisputed fact. Bryani had been the daughter of their leader. As such, her story was known by everyone. It was a story the mothers in their patria used to frighten misbehaving children. Given what the Katagaria had done
to the poor woman, it was amazing she had what little sanity she did. “They kept her in their den and repeatedly raped her. Did you know that?”

Bride’s expression turned sad and sympathetic. It was obvious the tragedy of that event wasn’t lost on her. “Only Vane’s father did that, but yes. Vane has told me everything about his family.”

“And did he ever say why they attacked us that night?”

Bride frowned. “Don’t you know?”

“We have theories. Everything from the wolves must have been hungry and smelled our food to they were rabid Slayers bent on drinking our blood. But no, no one knows why we were attacked.”

Bride looked stunned by her words. Her expression turned from disbelief to disgust. “Oh, they know exactly what they did. They just don’t want anyone else to know. Those lying dogs . . .”

Now it was Angelia’s turn to be baffled. “What are you talking about?”

When Bride answered, her tone was rife with anger and disdain. “Not
one
male in your pack has ever confessed to what they did?”

“We were innocent victims.”

“Yeah, and I’m the tooth fairy. Trust me. The attack was provoked.” Bride shook her head. “You know, I will say this, the Katagaria at least admit what they do. They don’t lie to cover it up.”

“Well, if you know so much, then please enlighten me about what happened.”

“Fine. The Katagaria had a group of females who were pregnant and unable to travel.” That was common to both the Arcadian and Katagaria. Once a female was pregnant, she couldn’t shapeshift or use her power to teleport until after the children or pups were born.

Bride folded her arms over her chest. “Since they were in
medieval England at the time the females conceived, the males took their females deep into the woods away from any people or their villages to make their den in safety. They’d been there for several weeks with no problems. Then one night, the males went out to hunt for food. They found deer and were chasing them when two of the wolves ended up in snares.

“Vane’s father, Markus, turned human to free the two who were trapped and while he was at it, he was approached by a group of Arcadian males—the ones who’d set those traps. Markus tried to explain that they meant no harm to them, but before he could, the Arcadians executed the two wolves in the traps, then shot arrows at the others. Outnumbered, the pack returned to their den where they found most of their women and children missing.”

Angelia swallowed as a bad premonition went through her.

“The wolves tracked their scent back to Bryani’s camp, where they found the remains of most of their women. They’d been butchered and their hides strung up to tan. There were a handful of pups still alive, but caged. So the wolves waited until nightfall . . . At dusk, a group of the Katagaria led the Arcadian males out of camp so that the others could go in and free their remaining women and children. Bryani’s father and others attacked them and the brutal fighting you remember happened.”

Angelia shook her head in denial. “You lie! They attacked us unprovoked. There was no reason for what they did. None.”

“Sweetie,” Bride said in a gentle tone, “you don’t know the real truth any more than I do. I can only tell you what Vane’s pack has told me about that event. Honestly, I believe them for several reasons. One, they don’t have any females that old. Something happened to kill them off. And now
every male over four hundred years old in their pack is insanely protective of any female brought in. I’ve been with the wolves for the last four years and not once have I seen them be aggressive to anyone unless they or their pack was threatened. Nor have I ever known one of them to lie. If anything, they’re honest to the point of brutality.”

Angelia still refused to believe it. “My people wouldn’t have attacked women and children.”

“They tried to attack me.”

“In retaliation!”

“For what? Vane hadn’t hurt them and I most certainly hadn’t. Not one male in your entire patria, including your leader, Vane’s own grandfather, would come to my defense. None. But I tell you what. If anyone or anything came into this house and threatened me, there’s not a wolf downstairs who wouldn’t give his life to keep me safe. And that goes for any female in their pack, too.”

The baby woke up and started crying for his mother.

Bride left her to pick him up. “It’s okay, Trace. Mommy’s here.”

He laid his head on her shoulder and rubbed his eyes. “Where’s Daddy?”

“He’s with Uncle Fury and Uncle Z.”

The boy perked up instantly. “Bob play with Trace?”

She smiled indulgently. “No, honey. Bob didn’t come with Uncle Z this time. Sorry.”

He pouted until he saw Angelia. Then he turned bashful and buried his head against Bride’s shoulder.

Bride kissed his cheek. “This is Angelia, Trace. Can you say hi?”

He waved at her without looking up.

In spite of it, Angelia was strangely charmed by the small boy. She’d always loved children and had hoped to one day have a litter of her own. “Hi, Trace.”

He peeped at her over the safety of his mother’s shoulder. Then he whispered in Bride’s ear while his mother rubbed his back affectionately.

In that moment, a repressed memory came flooding back to her. It was something she hadn’t thought about in centuries. Fury and several boys had been injured while climbing a tree. The boys who’d skinned their hands and knees had run to their mothers for comfort. Fury had broken his arm. Crying, he’d gone to his mother, too. Only when he reached Bryani, she’d angrily shoved him away.

Angelia’s uncle had started to comfort Fury.

Bryani had stopped him with a sharp growl. “Don’t you dare comfort that boy.”

“He’s hurt.”

“Life
is
pain and there is no comfort for it. The sooner Fury accepts that, the better off he’ll be. Let him know early on that the only one he can depend on is himself. He broke his arm by being stupid. He must tend to it.”

Her uncle had been aghast. “He’s just a child.”

“No. He’s my vengeance and one day I’m going to unleash him on his own father.”

Angelia flinched at that memory. How could she have forgotten it? Then again, Bryani had never been an overly doting parent, so why should it stand out in her memory any more than all the other times Bryani had failed to comfort her sons? It was why Dare was so cold to everyone around him. He’d spent his entire life trying to earn his mother’s acceptance.

And it was the last thing she’d ever give her children.

“Does it feel good to be hugged?”

She could still hear Fury’s baffled tone as he’d asked her that. It’d been her fourteenth birthday and her uncle had hugged her before he allowed her to go outside and play with Fury. “You’ve been hugged, Fury.”

He’d shaken his head. “No, I haven’t. At least not that I remember.”

She’d tried to think of a time when someone had held him, but true to his words, she couldn’t recall a single time. Heartbroken, she’d put her arms around him and given him his very first hug.

Instead of hugging her back, he’d stood there with his arms at his side. Stiff. Unmoving. Not even breathing. It’d been as if he was afraid to move for fear of her hurting or abandoning him.

“Well?” she’d asked after she released him.

“You smell nice.”

She’d smiled. “But did you like the hug?”

He’d walked into her then, rubbing his head against her shoulder in a very wolflike manner until she’d wrapped her arms around him again. Only then did he stop moving. “I like your hugs, Lia.” Then he’d run away and hidden from her for three days.

He’d never allowed her to hug or touch him again.

Even with all the secrets they’d shared. Even when she cried. He’d never touched her. He would merely hand her a cloth to wipe her eyes with and listen until she felt better. But never had he come close to touching her again.

Until today, when he’d gone to protect her from the other wolves.

Why would he have done that?

It made no sense. He was an animal. Disgusting. Brutal. Violent. There was nothing redeeming about them. And yet she couldn’t shake the images of her past. The times when Fury, an animal, had been closer to her than anyone else.

“I’m a Sentinel, Fury!” She’d awakened to find her marks and had snuck out of their cottage at dawn to find Fury by the stream where he’d gone to sleep. It’d been a strange custom that she hadn’t understood at the time. Only later would she learn that he slept there because he was a wolf and he’d been afraid of his family learning that secret.

He’d smiled an honest smile. Unlike the other males of
their patria who’d been jealous when they learned she’d been chosen, Fury had been genuinely happy for her. “Have you told your uncle?”

“Not yet. I wanted you to be the first to know.” She’d tilted her head to show him the faint markings that had yet to be fully formed. “Do you think I’ll be pretty once the lines fill in?”

“You’re the most beautiful wolfswan here. How could your marks ever make you anything else?”