Fanged Fury (The Adventures of Sydney Sedrick Book 3) (6 page)

I was just thinking how Kasdeya and I were forced into things because of other people’s actions. Wasn’t I just about to do the same to Aunt Judith in demanding she tell me what was going on with her health? The difference was, my actions were motivated out of concern. Kasdeya’s situation was caused by power hungry, egocentric, maniacal demons.

Meredith exited the store leaving me to finish dusting the top bookshelves I had been working on before Kasdeya showed up. The rest of the day was uneventful and I went home after closing time. Aunt Judith was already in bed, so I didn’t bother her. I checked the microwave and, sure enough, Aunt Judith had made me up a plate for dinner with a sticky note that read
Heat for three minutes. Sweet dreams. Love, Aunt Judith.

A tear escaped my eye. Traveling down my cheek, the droplet landed on the counter. Aunt Judith had always made it a point to stay up while I ate my dinner to hear about my day, but tonight she had already went to bed. How ill was she? The names of terminal illnesses flew through my head. She didn’t seem sick, though. Being tired wasn’t anything to worry about all by itself, but she was definitely a lot thinner these days.

I’d have to check the medical websites tomorrow to plug in her symptoms to see what I could find before confronting her.

After getting ready for bed, I stood in front of my bedroom window. The night was uncharacteristically dark. My cell phone rang as I climbed in under the covers of my bed. I expected to see Blake’s number blinking on the neon blue screen but it was a number I didn’t know. Only a few people had my number, so I figured I’d better answer.

“Hello?”

A female voice answered on the other end, “Hi, Sydney? This is Kat.”

“The vampire princess?” I didn’t mean to sound so surprised, but I hadn’t expected a member of the vampire royalty to be calling me.

She laughed over the phone. “Yes, but please don’t call me that.”

“Okay, so how did you get my number?” I didn’t want to sound rude, but it was important. I wanted to know who all had access to my phone.

“Oh, I had Kasdeya get it from your wolf boyfriend. I hope you don’t mind.” The vampire princess sounded sincere.

“No, no. I don’t mind. I’m just a little surprised is all. So, what’s up?” Normally, Others didn’t call me unless they wanted me to do something for them, or when I was being summoned to one of their gatherings.

“Well, I know when we met there wasn’t much time to get to know each other, so I figured I’d call to see if you wanted to hang out or something?” The hopeful tone in her voice sounded almost desperate.

“Sure, I’d love to. What did you have in mind?” The only time I’d ever hung out with vampires was when Kieran threw his coven parties. I’d never spent time with a female vampire.

“Unfortunately, my uncle won’t let me leave the palace, so you’d have to come here, if that’s okay?” Kat sounded hopeful but expecting to be rejected.

“Sounds like fun to me. Give me a call tomorrow so we can figure it out.”

Kat let out of sigh of relief. “Okay, Sydney. I’ll call you tomorrow to set up a time.” She hung up.

I stared at my phone. I had just made plans to hang out with a vampire princess, at the royal palace to boot. My life had certainly taken turn after turn in directions I’d never dreamed of or thought possible.

I checked my text messages to see if Blake had sent anything, but he hadn’t. My heart sank for what seemed like the fiftieth time that day.

I missed him terribly.

Chapter 5

Hot prickly heat stung as it burned along my arms, running up my neck as I handed the customer’s bag over the counter. The door chimes sounded, announcing Blake’s arrival. Once the customer left, we were alone.

Our eyes locked, neither knowing what to say.

I hadn’t responded to his text the other night, making it unclear quite where we stood.

“Sydney, I’ve missed you.” Blake ruffled his hands through his hair and the temperature rose inside of the store. As we stared into each other’s eyes, Blake’s began to turn that amber-bronzed color that reflected anger or desire. I wasn’t sure which one was the case.

“Blake, I’m sorry I didn’t text you back, I just didn’t know what to say. I figured we both needed a break.” The anguish in his expression told me he didn’t feel the same.

Circling the counter, he enfolded me in an embrace. His strong arms felt wonderful around me. The stress of not seeing or speaking to him melted away with the physical sensation of his heat and nearness.

I hadn’t realized how much I missed him until he was right there in the store with me.

Blake took a step back to gaze into my eyes. “Sydney, it wasn’t I that needed a break. You don’t know how difficult it was to stay away from you even for just one day. It felt like a lifetime. There were pack issues I needed to attend to, making my time not my own.”

I took his hand, leading him to the couch next to the fireplace. I didn’t need to feel the warmth from the flames. Blake provided plenty heat, but my legs felt heavy. Blake was like a heating blanket covered in sun-kissed flesh that made my fingers itch with need to caress every bulge of muscle underneath.

We sat on the cushions, his nearness electrifying my body with need. “What do you mean by pack issues? What’s going on?”

“That’s partially why I came to see you. My father is holding a pack meeting. He’s requesting your attendance tomorrow night.”

Great. Morris didn’t hold pack meetings unless something big was going down.

“What’s going on, Blake?” I was sick of hearing about the vampire and werewolf war, but I assumed it had something to do with that.

“The Mobile, Alabama, pack is on their way up to Kenosha. That means trouble for our pack. My father is furious they think they can interfere with our business, but he needs to hold a meeting to direct everyone on how their visit is going to be handled.” Blake’s brow cinched in the center while his jaw tightened. His body language made it more than clear he didn’t care much for the idea of having other wolves in his territory.

Blake put his warm palm on my thigh. My entire leg tingled from his touch. I stood from the couch to put some distance between us. When he reached for my hand, I stepped away just in time. “Blake, I’ll go to the meeting. Do you want to pick me up after work tomorrow? I’ll be at Aunt Judith’s.”

He stood, hooking his thumbs through the belt loops in the front of his jeans. “Sydney, what is the matter with you?”

Anger started to grow despite my body wanting nothing more than to have him have his way with me in the back storeroom. Visions of our naked bodies moving in rhythm with each other flashed across my mind causing a heated flush to race through my entire body. He was pissing me off. Heck, I was pissing myself off. Blake stood right in front me. I was well aware he was willing to participate in any carnal pleasures I may have in mind, but my brain screamed how much of a bad idea that would be.

“Nothing’s wrong with me, Blake. I’ve been thinking we need to cool it on being all touchy feely, that’s all.” Before he could argue, I put my hands up. “Listen, we both have a lot going on right now. I think we both need to focus on getting rid of the Mobile pack members as quickly as political correctness will allow. When everything’s back to being hunky-dory, well, then we can work on having a relationship, but not until then.”

Blake’s fist slammed on the glass countertop. The sound from the glass splitting pierced the room. My anger spiked, tamping down the desire. No one was allowed to damage anything in my grandmother’s store, least of all a temperamental werewolf.

“You need to leave before you break anything else,” I said through clenched teeth as I strode past him to stand in the middle of the store.

“Sydney, I’m sorry, I’ll replace the glass.” Blake took a few long strides to stand close to me, too close.

I refused to budge from my position as I pointed to the front door. “Now.”

Taking a deep breath, Blake focused on letting it out in a slow, even exhale. I knew what he was doing. He was trying to calm his wolf. I’d seen him do it often enough while arguing with his father. It took conscious effort to tuck the wolf back inside him so he didn’t do something he’d regret, so I stood patiently while he got a grip on himself.

Opening his eyes, I could see they were back to their warm brown hue. I let out a sigh of relief, not realizing how tense it made me that he was on the verge of losing control.

I was grateful for his strength, hoping he was over the threat of breaking something else.

In a slow motion, as not to frighten me, Blake leaned toward me, putting a warm hand on each side of my face. After placing a feather-light kiss on my lips, he said, “Sydney, again, I’m sorry I lose control sometimes. I know you haven’t accepted it yet, but you are my true life-mate. That’s why controlling my emotions around you isn’t easy. I love you that whole-heartedly.”

“Maybe that’s reason enough for us not to be around each other, at least not for a while.” I didn’t want to say it, but maybe that would be best for both of us. My heart sank as a tortured expression contorted Blake’s face while his anger began to rise again.

“Sydney, no. The answer to that is
no
. It wouldn’t be better for either one of us. I can’t allow that to happen. What are you doing after work?”

I knew he wouldn’t hurt me on purpose, but it did cross my mind that I wasn’t really sure how far he was willing to go to make me agree to be his life-mate. I knew without any doubt he believed I was the one.

“Okay, maybe that came out wrong. I don’t want to not be friends with you, Blake. I just don’t know how to handle all this sometimes. I didn’t mean to hurt you by saying that. Tonight I have plans with the princess, so I’ll be at the palace for some good ol’-fashioned girl time.” I waited for Blake to erupt with more anger about me hanging out with the vamps. He didn’t.

“Just be careful. The royals drink human blood just like the rest of the vampires do.” Blake’s tone remained neutral.

I was relieved we didn’t have yet another shouting match. For someone I wasn’t technically dating, we sure fought often enough.

I took his hand in mine, giving him a gentle, reassuring squeeze. “I’ll be fine, don’t worry. I appreciate that you didn’t go all ape on me when I told you my plans. What are you going to be doing?”

Blake took my other palm in his to turn me so we faced each other, hand-in-hand. “I’m going hunting tonight. My father needs the rogues flushed out. That’s what I intend to do. I don’t want those Mobile wolves coming here getting even a whiff that my father doesn’t have everything under control. The sooner they leave Kenosha, the better.”

A smirk sat on his generous lips. All at once, things started to make sense. “You’re not mad that I’ll be with the vampires because you’d rather me be with them than hunting the rogues with you, is that it?”

The smirk turned into a full, toothy grin on his handsome face. “Well, my dear, you had already made plans with the princess. Who would I be to try interfering with your girl fun?”

My mouth fell open with the realization. “Were you going to ask me to go along with you?” I doubted very much he ever intended on having me accompany him on the hunt, the fink.

Blake brought our hands up over my head to wrap them around his neck, letting his hands fall. I felt his warm palms on my back as he began to caress the sore muscles still decorated with purple-black bruises. “Sydney, you can’t blame me for wanting to keep you safe, but since you already have other plans there’s nothing to be done about it.”

I put my forehead on his chest. It amazed me how much better I felt, inside and out, when we touched. If it weren’t for the impending doom of the world we would cause if we officially became an item, I’d already have jumped at the chance of being Blake’s life-mate. We both cherished each other, but fate had dealt us a cruel hand. A serious relationship just wasn’t in the cards for us.

Too much was at stake.

Blake left after promising he’d text me when he finished hunting for the night.

After work, I drove, following the instructions Princess Katrina, Kat, had left on my voicemail on how to get to the vampire palace. The winding road coursing along Lake Michigan was barely lit. The houses lining the lakeside of the street were overly large, bordering on ostentatious. The mega-mansions were spaced quite far away from each other. I cracked the window to cool the air off in the car because the heater ran full-blast, as did the seat heaters.

The palace itself was hidden underground, but the entrance was just as Kat said it would be. Golden gates loomed before me, as did the guards monitoring who went in and out. I pulled my Jetta up to the first set of gates—there were two—and rolled down my window. I knew what was coming next. Cringing inside, I didn’t look forward to it.

The vampire guard stood by the gate, then he was suddenly at my window. I hadn’t seen him move, he was that fast. Kieran once described the vampires the king kept in his employ to protect the royal family. They were faster and stronger than the ordinary run-of-the-mill vampires. I personally didn’t think any of the vampires were ordinary, given their extraordinary capabilities, but the royal guards were given the king’s blood on a regular basis. His ancient blood made them extra strong. They were so fast they traveled from place to place without being detected, if they so chose.

“Miss, stick out your finger, please.” The guard held out a meter, similar to those I’d seen diabetics using to test their blood sugar.

Tentatively, I poked my finger out the window and closed my eyes. When nothing happened, I opened one eye. What was he waiting for?

A small beep sounded from the machine. The guard appraised the menu. Scrolling down using a jagged tipped fingernail, he stuck a white tablet into the slot on the side. Then without further ado, he jabbed my index finger with his sharp dagger he kept at his belt. Pain seared up my arm as he grabbed my finger. He turned it sideways, touching the half of the tablet that stuck out from the machine. Handing me a tissue, he continued to stare at the menu.

“Geez, you could give a girl some warning before attacking her with your handy dagger.” I wasn’t happy about being stabbed in the finger. I was sure he didn’t have to cut so deep to get a tiny drop of blood.

The guard didn’t acknowledge my whining until the machine gave another beep. “Selected, you may proceed up to the next gate.”

He strolled back to his guardhouse doing something I couldn’t see to make the huge gates open as they groaned with the motion. Once the gates were clear, I drove to the next set of gates.

Kat warned me about the blood donation I’d have to give to prove my identity, but she didn’t mention what the guard at the second set of gates would have in store for me. I wasn’t about to let anyone else stab me in the finger. If they needed blood, I was sure I’d be able to squeeze open the gash already throbbing on my finger from the last guard.

Pulling up alongside the guardhouse of the second gate, I was surprised to see that it was not manned by another vampire, but a demon. He looked like a human male, but the gills on his neck gave his true nature away.

I rolled down my window again to see what sort of weird test I’d have to go through for this guard. The fish demon, or whatever demon caste he was from, didn’t utter a word. Holding out his hand, which had see-through webbing between claw-tipped fingers, he closed his eyes.

Without warning, my conscious thoughts were no longer mine to control. The back of my skull leaned against the headrest of the car seat and a warm buzzing whirled around inside my brain. I had no control over what the demon was doing. Unlike dealing with the Judge Damas, I couldn’t control this guy’s mind-melding, or whatever he was doing.

With a white flash against my lidded eyes, the demon withdrew from my mind. “Sorry for the intrusion, Miss, but I have to read the intentions of all palace visitors, by order of the king. You’re clear to proceed.”

Just like that, the fish demon expected me to go on my merry way. I wanted answers first. “Hey, excuse me? You just jump right into people’s heads thinking that’s okay? Who do you think you are?”

The fish demon looked insulted for being spoken to in such a manner, but that was his problem. “I’m the king’s demon of the deep. I guard the second gate to the vampire royal palace.”

The fish demon’s tone told me he thought that was explanation enough. Bubbles began forming from the gills on his neck. He must be getting worked up into a lather. That made two of us.

“So you think it’s okay to invade people’s minds?” The demons I’d run into so far thought they were beyond repercussions. They just went around doing whatever the heck they wanted, not caring who was affected by their lack of consciences.

I was getting pretty dang sick of the lot of them.

Sauntering over to my window, the demon leaned an arm on the frame of the car so I’d have to tilt my head up to look into his eyes. There was a thin film covering them. I took in a deep breath. To my surprise, he didn’t smell fishy, despite his having many fish-like features.

“Selected, I know exactly who you are. You know who I am bound to protect. Don’t think for one second I wouldn’t ‘invade your mind,’ as you put it, again if I thought you bore any threat to the royals inside the palace. It is my duty to make sure your intentions are pure.” The water demon stood straight. Taking a step away from the car, he held an arm out in front of him. “You may proceed.”

As I shifted my attention to the front of my car, I realized that sometime during our conversation, the water demon had opened the gates. After rolling my eyes at him to prove to both of us that he didn’t scare me one bit, I urged my car forward.

Metal groaning sounded behind my car. A loud clank signaled the second set of gates closing in behind me. I should have called Kat to cancel once I found out what Blake was going to be doing while I hung out at the palace. Damn him. I couldn’t believe how happy he was when I told him I wouldn’t be able to go rogue hunting with him.