Soul-Mate (Immortal Love 1) (32 page)

“Oh, he’s your mate,” Jessica whispered.

“I know who you are,” the witch finally said.

I stared at her, hurting Shane in the process as I tried to pull out a shard. I apologized to him. But what did she mean by her claim to know Jessie?

“Have we met before?” Jessica asked in a naïve voice. “I don’t remember you. What coven are you from?”

“Black Dalia,” she answered to my surprise. Witches didn’t normally give away their coven’s name so willingly.

“
Ah
,” Jessica said, but I knew she had no idea about the girl’s coven. She always answered like that when she didn’t want to be rude.

“We’re still related by blood, you idiot,” the girl snapped at Jessie.

“
Huh
,” she said and smiled, like the girl hadn’t just insulted her.

I had already taken out all the shards in Shane’s shoulder while trying to be gentle about it. He was in pain, but he also wanted to know if things were good between us. I didn’t know what to answer him.

“We’ll talk about what happened after we’re all safe,” I whispered, biting my wrist and putting my blood in his mouth before he could say anything. He closed his eyes and drank, filling his lungs with air. Growls and the movement of people came to my ears. Backup was coming. The wolves were arriving.

Don’t let them run away,
Shane requested in my head with urgency.

I looked at the vampire and the girl who were looking back, noticing the pack of wolves arriving to attack them.

“We really need to leave,” the vampire whispered in the girl’s ear.

She nodded and started to recite the spell that made all wolves howl and kneel to the ground in pain.
I should have cut her damn tongue off!

I took my wrist from Shane’s mouth and held him in my arms. I held him tight and tried to get inside his mind. I heard the loud static noise, and I felt his pain. I tried to tell him that everything would be okay, that I was there with him. And then it suddenly stopped.

When I looked up at Jessie, the vampire and the girl had left and my friend was looking at the void. To my surprise, Jessie had let them run away and done nothing to stop them.

THE PACK OF WOLVES ARRIVED
and started to growl at Jessica and Jason. We all looked up when we heard gunshots from the roof, and I could see other vampires armed and aiming at some unknown point. I imagined they were aiming at the vampire and witch who had run away. Their backup had taken a long time to appear but had finally arrived. However, the wolves were growling at the wrong people.

“So that’s the way you people thank me for helping, is it now?” Jessica asked, seeming disappointed as she spoke to the angry, growling wolves.

“Stand down!” Shane yelled, then coughed. “The hybrid and the witch are friends.” I held him, worried. There was still a lot of silver dust in his bloodstream, weakening him. My blood would eventually heal him completely.

The wolves stopped making noise as they scattered around, sniffing the wounded and dead bodies all around. Two unconscious enemy vampires had to be taken to prison. Aaron got to take care of things like he was the boss. I smiled as he dusted off his suit and fixed his tie then started to give orders for guys to take care of this, arrest that one, and help the other. Shane had a serious challenger for the job of sheriff.

“I’m already thinking of taking vacations anyway,” Shane whispered. I looked down at him, still in my arms, resting his head on my lap. He was tuned into my thoughts. “I’m going to take some time off to be with you. I could have died tonight.”

“Yes, you could have,” I agreed, using my voice to talk to him. My voice trembled. It had been extremely scary to think about the possibility of losing him. “We still need to talk about you following me.”

“Anna, I’m so—” His words were interrupted by someone asking for help.

“Somebody help here!” One of the kids gestured to get attention. His group opened to reveal a body behind them. “Alpha, talk to me, Alpha. Tell me what to do!”

I looked toward the body and recognized Sebastien, to my surprise and fear. “Oh my god! What happened to him?” I asked, running to his side and kneeling down after seeing the blood with horror. Meanwhile, one of the wolves howled at the moon next to a policeman’s body. There was a casualty. I was just hoping that Sebastien wouldn’t be the next one.

I looked at the boy, who looked at me with worried eyes. “Can you please help him, miss?” the boy asked me, knowing me from school. I also recognized him, but he was not my student.

Sebastien was more unconscious than alive. I had no idea what he was doing there or who had done that to him. I had to assume it was Vincent and his bullies, but why? And how? What was he even doing there?

The medic was not arriving soon enough to treat him. I was shaking, scared for him. The boy was also worried, applying pressure to the wound Sebastien had in his stomach. I had to do something to save him, so I reopened the wound in my wrist and put my blood in Sebastien’s mouth.
I wasn’t going to let him die!
He was my friend.

When I looked up, Shane was by my side. “He was hardly breathing,” I explained, not wanting him to be jealous about my using my blood for Sebastien.

“Don’t worry about it. You did well. He can’t die. He’s our ally and friend. It would also be chaos in our town if something happened to him.”

I nodded and sighed with anxiety.
Weirdest night ever!

“Is he going to be okay?” the boy asked, looking hopefully at me. I nodded at him, trying to look more reassuring than I felt. The fact was that I didn’t know, because he had to drink my blood and I had no clue how much of my blood he already had inside of him. He wasn’t conscious enough to drink, so I had to force it into him. “I tried to help my Alpha,” the boy explained with a sad voice as he began to cry. Embarrassed, he cleared his eyes with the sleeve of his sweater. “But the guy was really strong.”

“Who did this to Sebastien?” Shane asked. I looked up, intrigued by his question.
Didn’t he know? Wasn’t he there to witness what had happened?
“When I arrived, Sebastien was already on the ground and the kids were being attacked by vampires. I thought they were rogue vampires. Then my men and I were assaulted by Vincent and his witch. We tried to fight back, but she used her powers on us. Vincent shot at my deputies with my own gun…” He stopped talking to take a breather, also emotional about the memory. “And then kept me alive longer, because he…”

“I know,” I whispered, not wanting him to explain anything else. “I heard that part. I came as soon as I could. I didn’t know—I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” he whispered sweetly, caressing my cheek and kneeling next to me. “I didn’t even expect to see you here. How did you find out? They were blocking our mind link.”

“I tried to reach you, and I heard the noise inside your head,” I explained. “Don’t ever do this to me again,” I whispered, leaning my forehead on his.

“The Alpha was trying to protect the girl,” the boy said, speaking up.

Now it was my time to ask, “What girl?”

“The pretty blonde vampire girl. She’s also a teacher at school,” the boy explained. “Like you, miss.”

“Evelyn?” I asked, shocked and worried. “Where is she? I didn’t see her.”

“He killed her. She is gone, miss,” the boy stated with sad, apologetic eyes.

My face went from worried to shocked and pale to anger and sadness. “No! She can’t be dead. I talked to her today. She wasn’t going…” I remembered that Eve had asked Sebastien to go out with her. He must have said yes. “You must be mistaken!”

“Sorry, we weren’t able to help her,” the boy whispered, lowering his eyes even more and fisting his hands. I calmed down and breathed deep. It wasn’t his fault. He was just a pup. What could he possibly have done? They had already done a lot, defending the hybrid girl and trying to help their Alpha. “I tried to help. We all did. My friends and I heard them being attacked. We tried to help the Alpha coach.”

The boy looked nervous and defeated for not being able to help Sebastien.

“We were called here to break up a fight,” Shane added. “We assumed it was just the kids having some stupid quarrel with another pack of wolves or among themselves. We just saw them fighting the vampires. I didn’t see Evelyn anywhere. And I saw Sebastien lying on the ground after Vincent told the witch to put the spell on us.”

“That was because the female vampire had already been killed by the evil vampire guy. He was really upset with her—he was hurting her and arguing. The Alpha tried to help the teacher, but there were four against him, and he was stabbed by a silver blade. Miss Evelyn screamed at them to stop, and she tried to get the Alpha out of here, but the vampire didn’t let her. He grabbed her by her neck and said she was his cub and he would do whatever he pleased.”

“Wait,
what
?” Shane asked, confused by the boy’s last words. “He called her his cub?”

“Yes, sir.”

Shane was going to say something else when I was startled by Sebastien moving on my lap. He reacted, coughing out blood and breathing deep like he had just come back to life. “Evelyn was a spy.” Sebastien’s hoarse voice got our attention; we all looked down at him with relief. Color was returning to his face.

“What?” I asked, trying to understand what he had said, or if he had
really
said that.

“Evelyn was a spy. She was here spying on us. I took her home after leaving James’s party. She had insisted so much that I finally agreed to go out with her. We were having fun until she received a text-message and then wanted to go home to sleep. I took her home, and then I went for a quick patrol in town, to see if my boys were partying instead of resting. I found these here, and when I was lecturing them, I noticed Eve leave her apartment and go to a deserted part of town. It intrigued me, so I followed her.”

“So what happened here?” Shane asked, intrigued as I was.

“She met with three vampires and a witch. They were talking secretively. She was giving them some papers—the security measures for the prom. She also told them about the missing granddaughter of the king. She wanted to renegotiate her freedom in exchange for this information. I tried to leave without being noticed, to warn others, but there were other vamps hiding. I still tried to outrun them, but they were faster and tried to take me down. Then Eve tried to help me. I didn’t expect that! She was actually killed because she tried to protect me from her vampire friends. I think the stronger one was her master. He got really upset with her.”

“How did the kids end up in this mess?” Shane questioned.

“Alpha called for backup,” one of the boys explained. “We share mind links. We were near here, and we rushed to help.”

“It was a stupid move. You should have waited for the police,” Shane said, holding on to his ribs, still in pain.

“We called the police,” the boy explained. “But if we hadn’t done anything, they would’ve killed the Alpha.”

“It’s true,” Sebastien said. “Things got out of hand. Eve’s master killed her in cold blood in front of my eyes, because her cover was blown and he didn’t need her anymore. I tried to stop him, but the witch…” His voice failed and he moaned in pain. “I think I have a piece of silver inside me. It burns!”

On cue, Jessie arrived from helping the other wounded and kneeled next to him with a big smile. “Hello, gorgeous! My name is Jessica, and I’ll be your doctor for the evening,” she said with a happy grin that distracted Sebastien from the pain. He looked at her, unsure if she was talking to him, or if he even knew who she was. “Relax and take a big breath.” She put one hand on his forehead and another over the wound in his stomach. She pulled the silver out with her kinetic power. Sebastien let go a small moan of hurt as the piece left his flesh. “All done, love. You will survive thanks to Anna and me.” Then she got up and looked around. “Next!”

“Me,” the boy next to Sebastien said, in pain from the beating.

“Oh! Hello, love,” she greeted with her nice accent that made the boy turn red. “What’s your name, pup?”

“I’m—I’m Leonard.”

“Who is that?” Sebastien asked, intrigued as he looked at me and Shane.

“She’s my friend. She saved our butts,” I answered. “So, are you feeling better?”

“Yes, are you feeling better? I want my mate’s lap back!” Shane teased Sebastien.

He stared at the place he was and where Shane was and smiled. “I really like her lap,” he teased, and then he lost his smile and looked away, really sad. “I still don’t believe that Eve… And that she’s gone.”

“I know.” I understood his pain and sighed. Eve being a spy was something I’d never expected. She was nice and friendly at school. In fact, she was one of my closest friends there.”

“I wonder how James will react,” Shane said, lost in his own thoughts. “We need to change our security measures for the school prom, and I need to find out what names they took, to protect the kids.”

“I still can’t believe Eve is dead,” Sebastien mumbled, getting up from my lap. I rose to my feet, helped by Shane. The three of us stood looking at the alley full of people who were talking and taking care of the dead, the captured, and the wounded. All that was left of Eve was a pile of ashes. Sebastien stared at it. “I really appreciate you saving my life, Anna,” he whispered. “I owe you one.”

“Don’t worry about it. That’s what friends are for.”

“Bro,” Sebastien said, putting his hand on Shane’s shoulder, “you, too. Thank you for having my back.”

“You have to thank the kids. They were the ones who came to help you and made the noise so the police arrived on time. They saved your ass,” Shane stated, trying to cheer him up.

“Yes, the kids were great. Reckless but great.”

“You are their Alpha, man,” Shane reminded him. “They worship you.”

“You six,” Sebastien shouted to the boys, who were mostly healed and talking to Jessica as they drooled over her like any hormonal teen. “What the hell were you thinking?”