Oycher (3 page)

She zipped up her pants. “The teeth…on my neck, I can’t take it.”

“I’m sorry.” Carefully, slowly, he drew Isla to his chest. It rumbled as he breathed. “I’m so very sorry.”

“Please, no pity.” She breathed in his frosty male scent.

“Don’t confuse my compassion with pity, Isla.” He kissed the top of her head. “I never pity survivors. They impress me too much.” Terje said with all the confidence of a proud male, “After I take Haley home, we can walk on the beach or something…maybe find a hammock. There’s a hundred and one uses for a hammock, Isla. You’d be surprised.”

She calmed down enough to laugh. “So I’ve heard.”

“Isla!” Haley called out, teetering on her skyscraper heels. Making a visor with her hand to block out the flickering street lamps, she squinted. “Terje?”

“Over here,” Isla called back, pulling away from him.

When Haley came closer, her eyes widened. “You look a little rough, Terje. What’s wrong?”

“I’m fine.” He reached out for Isla again and then stopped. Instead, he clenched his fist and dropped it to his side.

Haley made a face. “I guess I’ll have to take your word for it.” She opened her purse. “The bartender is actually the club owner. Got his number.” She waved her phone before she shoved it inside. “His name is Ryan. And his tongue is pierced.” Her lips were swollen. “Want to know how I found that out?”

“Not tonight.” Isla studied the club that encompassed most of a city block. Six Feet Under accommodated all guests with oversized bathrooms, playrooms, and a by-invitation-only dungeon for the inherently fanged. Not that Isla would utilize any of their more personal facilities, but she wouldn’t mind a peek.

Terje gave her a chiding look. “Like I said, Haley, your brother is going to…”

“Wait,” Isla whispered. “Do you… hear that?”

Haley ignored her, pleading to Terje, “Seriously, it’s bad enough that I sneaked out, but he’ll release his Beast if you go back on your…” Her eyes suddenly rounded impossibly, her mouth forming a warning.

Isla spun on her heels, hearing the rush of wings before seeing them. “Look out!”

“Hide!” Haley screamed before she dropped and rolled beneath a city bench.

Isla shoved a growling, posturing Terje through the alley. “Don’t draw attention to us!”

“I have the strength to take them!”

“Let them pass.” She yanked his wrist, diving between green dumpsters as two winged vampires swooped over the street. Her mouth dried as she recalled the last time she’d encountered them, when escaping the Italian monarchy. She landed atop Terje’s solid chest while the hunters circled the perimeter.

He flipped her over, protecting her with his oversized frame. “How did you hear them first?” His arctic eyes followed the ebony winged creatures and then gauged Haley’s secured position. He dug his phone from his pocket.

Adrenalin speared her and it probably wouldn’t slow down until she put some serious distance between her body and the hunters. “It’s something inside of me like an alarm, I suppose.” She cupped her mouth as bile burned her throat.

“Take deep calming breaths.” Searching the shadows for any possible escape route, Terje tightened his thigh across hers. “Stay still.” He punched two buttons on his phone and placed it next to her head.

“I sense your desire to transform.”

Terje looked down into her eyes, his teeth a flash of white in the darkness. “Oh, yeah?” His chest rumbled, while muscles bunched and flexed across his body as though he were expanding. “There’s always a possibility I will do exactly that.”

“M-maybe they’ll pass.”

“They’re not passing.” His skin flared blue, an aura of an ancient creature shimmering over his body. He cocked his head in a wolfish way, listening intently.

She searched his face, not catching anything but the sounds of wings. “W-what is it?”

“More immortals are headed this way, though none I’ve ever encountered.” Terje howled in the way of werewolves, his hands tightening around her upper arms to push her away and storm the masses.

“What are you doing?” Isla jerked on his arm with all her might.

He gazed heavenward, a sudden eerie focus calming him. “Stay here.”

“You’re going to get killed!”

“They’re making a collective hunting pass, three circles. They’re finishing the second circle now.” He zeroed in on the left. “Guess what that means?” Carefully but firmly, he disengaged her grip on him, pointing to his phone on the ground, the screen oddly blinking. “I’ll distract the vampires while you and Haley wait for help. Pack males are coming at this exact location any second.”

“Don’t do it!” Another swooped down, the big shadow of wings raising the hair on her nape. “Don’t you dare!”

Terje growled louder than any lion she’d heard and bolted in a streak of blue lightning, moving down the alleyway until she lost sight of him. With tears streaming down her face, she scrambled to her feet right as something screamed in her head.

Run.

Run.

Run!

Isla cried out when leather-clad hands grabbed her torso, tugging her back on a hard chest. She could sense he was vampire — had touched the creatures enough to know the difference. He wasted no time flipping her over his wide shoulder and then snatching a galloping Haley, throwing her over his opposite shoulder. As the pavement beneath them blurred, both females had their asses up, hanging over the vampire’s mammoth back. His hold impregnable, but he didn’t have wings. So Isla found this situation more workable.

Dangling, she held her hair out of her eyes with one hand, ignoring her breasts smacking into his back, and discovered he wore a weapons belt with all sorts of blades and gadgets. A professional killer, she thought with a repressed shudder. Isla held negligible skills in killing any vampire, so she slid a short dagger with a bejeweled handle from its sheath and aimed high for his kidney. A good blow should stun him long enough to drop them.

He jumped high over a main intersection, tree to tree and roof to roof, his body an ethereally fluid machine. Isla positioned the blade higher, waiting until he brought them closer to the ground, since she wasn’t in the mood for a free fall of twenty or so feet. Haley’s head smacked into hers, but Isla was too numb with fear and adrenalin-fueled bravery to notice any pain.

With a final broad jump, his booted feet landed on sandy grass, slowing as the sounds of a sloshy river echoed around them. Isla reared back with the dagger.

“No!” Haley caught her hand. “He’s a Vojak!”

She twisted her wrist away from Haley. “A what?”

“A good guy,” she explained through a curtain of red hair, “a vampire warrior.”

A good vampire? There was no such thing. And if he got a taste of Isla’s blood….

“See,” Haley muttered and waved her hands about, “he’s brought us to Centennial Park.”

Isla groaned. “To dine away from the others.” His hold loosened, so she quickly hid the Vojak’s dagger in her front jeans pocket right as he dropped them atop a wooden picnic table. Isla’s ass bounced a time or two, so she gripped the edge with her sweaty palms. Her teeth clacked when Haley practically knocked her off the table.

She pushed Haley off her, spread her knees shoulder width apart, and braced her feet on the wooden slat below. If the Vojak wanted her on the picnic table, she would stay so long as she had the ability to sprint away at her discretion.

“Are either of you hurt?” He stood enormous, his head swiveling in that inhuman way while searching the sky. By now, Isla had seen quite a few werewolves and vampires. She’d always noticed werewolves were burlier, comparable to depictions of long ago Highlanders or conquering Vikings. Vampires often stood as tall as werewolves yet appeared leaner, with longer muscles and defined sinew. And the way vampires glided where werewolves, shifters, and humans walked spoke of a creature born from an unfathomable power.

Isla wanted to cry and scream at the same time. “I’m fine.”

“I’m good,” said Haley, openly gaping at him.

Seemingly satisfied with the lack of overhead activity in this area of town, the Vojak made a call. When he turned back to face them, his glowing eyes startled Isla. Green wasn’t the word she’d use to describe them. Bells of Ireland came to mind…or maybe fresh mint. She knew her mouth was hanging open now, too, tasted the salt air on her tongue, but she couldn’t help it. The Vojak’s eyes were the color of that green crayon in the box, the one she always wanted to use as a child, because it was oh-so-pretty. Yet she never did, since no pictures in her coloring books allowed for its use. It was an unusual shade, otherworldly…inhuman. Just like him.

White-silver under the moon, his blonde hair brushed the tops of shoulders wide enough to carry two females without straining. “I have a pickup for you,” he said into the phone, his accent whispering of something Russian but not quite.“Two female mixed bloods slipped your leash. Unharmed. On this ping.”

The good news was he sounded professional, and he hadn’t bitten them yet. “Who did you call?” Isla asked, knotting her windblown hair into a haphazard bun with trembling fingers. If she needed to run, she wanted it out of her face this time.

“Your Territorial Beta.”

“The Beta?” Haley looked at Isla, whimpering. “My brother’s going to kill me.”

This was a major reason for getting away from immortals, Isla mused. Haley was twenty-one, just like Isla, and both were forced to answer to males for everything simply because the slimy part of the immortal world used females as bargaining chips. Or they were used as feed chattel much the way Isla had been used not so long ago. If she could get to a place where she could be human again, blending in completely with human society, she wouldn’t have to bite her tongue when asking permission to go out. Isla wouldn’t have to worry over safety with every step she took. All she needed was to feel normal.

The Vojaks’s big hand went to his hip, fingers splaying wide. “The Territorial Beta wasn’t available.”

Haley rubbed her forehead. “Oh, thank God. Can you mist us back to Sanibel Island?”

“But three Pack males are nearing.”

“Three.” She dropped her hand. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Oh, I wish I were.” With a twirl of his wrist, he hung his thumb in his waistband, tugging. “I hate dealing with your kind.” He flicked his belt buckle. “If you belonged to my Coven, I would line your asses up across that table and show you how hot your flesh can burn without the aid of flame. But lucky for you, your Territorial Alpha took my call and he’s leading those three Pack males right to this location.”

“The Territorial Alpha!” Haley gasped. “I’d rather have the flaming ass!”

He leaned down, swiveling his head. “I’m sure you would.”

Isla put a shaky arm around Haley’s shoulders. As long as the Lovci were gone, she could handle angry Pack males and this Territorial Alpha. “It’s not like they’re going to torture us or anything.” Her thoughts staying with Terje, she debated asking the Vojak about checking on him.

On the same wave length, Haley said to him, “A Pack male was attempting to get us home when the Lovci started trouble.”

“I didn’t see him.” His brow furrowed.

Haley rubbed her palms over her knees. “His name is Terje Arud. His brother, Arian, is co-mated to the Beta of North America, Bane Ruyter. So, yeah, they’re not going to be too happy if he’s somewhere fighting off your kind.”

He stepped closer, the heat of his anger and disappointment compelling Isla to lean back. “Why didn’t you meet him inside the safety of Pack?”

“We weren’t meeting him.” Haley explained, in great detail, how they needed a break from the overbearing Pack males. With every drop of information, the Vojak’s eyes softened to a warm glow.

When she finished, he said, “You made a slew of mistakes, mixed bloods.” He bared his fangs, lowering his face to Isla’s throat. She jumped a freaking mile, but he cupped her shoulder with a firm hand and inhaled. “Steady.” He brought his face down her front. “I need his scent.”

“I’ll try,” she said, clenching her teeth until her jaw popped.

Slowly, he opened his mouth over her pebbling skin, his breath a carnal caress promising death with the tear of flesh. “Is Terje Arud the only male you were close to tonight?”

“Yes.” She bolted from the picnic table.

He watched Isla pace, amused. That amusement quickly faded when Haley pulled out her phone.

Her hands still shaking, Haley readied her camera. “May I, Vojak?”

The green of his eyes bled instantly into the whites. “Of course, blázon, you want in the shot too? Maybe post it on your wall for your friends to like?”

She huffed. “Pack doesn’t allow us social network accounts. They say they’re too risky. I just…you’re rare.”

His lip curled, but it wasn’t arrogance. “I know how rare I am.”

Isla would take his overall stance as a cue to shut the hell up, but Haley kept going, “You’re the one they call Sage, right?” His unusual eyes flicked over Haley, dismissing her. “My friends have pics of some of your comrades.” Her thumb hovered over her screen, inching to snap the pic. “The only ones we can’t manage to get are you and Oy— ”

His fangs clinked down. “Put that away before I get real thirsty.”

Dropping her phone in a wash of panic, it landed in the sandy grass. Haley lurched under the picnic table to grab it. Isla shook her head at her friend’s stupidity, though, staying right where she was instead of helping — keeping her gaze on the pissed off vamp.

A tendril stroked the top of Isla’s head, followed by a static-fueled power washing over her skin. She swiped at a sheen of perspiration dotting her forehead. “Are you doing something to me, Vojak?”

“No.” His smile curled like a snake’s tail. “Do you want me to, šperk?”

She didn’t return his smile. “Can’t say that I do.”

A dark SUV pulled up alongside a line of swings and the sensation spiked, like sparks across her scalp. She reached up, rubbing it away until it settled into a mild irritation. Haley stood, dusting off her phone.

The Vojak greeted the approaching werewolves. “I’ve the scent of Terje Arud to memory. I’m told the Pack male first found these mixed bloods inside Six Feet Under. Most of the Gryph activity is on the other side of the river. I’ve been called back by my Commander, but afterwards I’ll sniff around and see if the Gryphs are playing with Arud.”