Watching Out For Fangs (The Cloverleah Pack Book 7) (22 page)

“Fucking shifter noses,” Everett muttered under his breath.

“We’ve got excellent hearing as well,” Henry muttered in his mate’s ear. “Tell the truth. Did you have a spell put on the vampire?”

“Yes.” Everett’s voice was tiny but clearly heard.

“What was it supposed to do?”

“Break his bond with his mate. He would stop feeling any connection they might have, and leave him wide open to being with me again. I knew that if the wolf smelled me on him, then they would fight and break up and we could be together again. The
magus
said it would work even if they were bonded. I didn’t know they were like us at the time.”

“There is no us at this time. What you’ve tried to do is deplorable on so many levels, and now you claim you want a connection with me?” Henry turned to Kane and tilted his neck. “Alpha Kane, this has nothing to do with me, I assure you. If it’s all right with you I’d like to go back to my cell. My original cell. I can’t stand to be in the same room as my so-called mate right now.” Henry looked disgusted and Josh wasn’t surprised. Everett gave a small whimper and tried to go after him, but Henry didn’t even favor him with a second glance as he let Marius and Teilo lead him back to the cells. Adair had Everett gripped firmly around his neck and the human couldn’t go anywhere.

“If this was a spell to break a bond connection it must be pretty strong. How was Vadim supposed to have one with you?” Shawn asked when Henry was out of sight.

Everett squirmed and looked uncomfortable, so Adair gave him a shake. Josh was so pissed off with the pretty human he was ready to do some convincing of his own –wolf fangs around that stupid head type convincing.

“The
magus
said that if I kissed him, full on the lips like a lover, then the spell would break. Vadim would remember what we had…” Everett trailed off and tried to look at the floor which wasn’t an easy thing to do with Adair’s beefy hand around his neck.

“We had nothing, so you were getting shit out of the deal. I never used to kiss you when we were intimate, and I’m hardly likely to start now,” Vadim snarled. Josh couldn’t get past the fact his mate was going to have to kiss that wretched human or they would never have a hope in hell of getting their mind link back. He didn’t think his wolf would stand for it, and his human side was pretty pissed as well. It didn’t help that Kane let out a short laugh.

“Sorry Josh, I wasn’t laughing at you, honestly,” Kane said when he saw the anger on Josh’s face. “It’s just this
magus
fellow seems to have a sense of humor. A true love kiss? I mean, really? How old is this guy?”

Everett shrugged. “About twenty one or so,” he said. “He was younger than me.”

There was silence as the men from Cloverleah all absorbed Everett’s statement. If the
magus
was so young, then it meant he had to have powerful magic. The thought that someone with no life experience and precious little maturity, with a desire to experiment on humans for goodness knows what reason, meddling with shifter affairs, was a scary concept.

“We’ll talk about that after,” Shawn said, with a meaningful look at Everett. “In the meantime, what are you going to do about the spell?” He was looking at Vadim, although Josh was pretty sure the Alpha Mate was worried about him. Wolves were known throughout the paranormal world as being the most possessive of species and the thought of….Josh shuddered. He didn’t want his mind going anywhere near the topic.

“I’ll talk to Josh, and we’ll make the decision together,” Vadim said. “There must be another way out of this.”

“We’ll talk about
that
over breakfast,” Kane said firmly, standing up. He flicked his head at Adair, indicating Everett was to be taken back to his cell, and led Shawn out of the house.

“I’m sorry,” Vadim whispered when the living room was clear again.

“You can’t be held responsible for someone else’s crazy, love,” Josh said. It wasn’t Vadim’s fault but Josh wasn’t sure how they were going to get back what was lost. He tried to picture the idea of Vadim kissing another man from a logical perspective, but his wolf snarling and snapping in his head put paid to that idea. As he followed Vadim back to the pack house, he wasn’t sure what they were going to do.

Chapter Thirty

Vadim was getting used to the shifter’s notion that no serious discussions were ever held while they were all eating. It was totally different from the way vampires did things – they often held business meetings and negotiations over the breakfast, lunch or dinner table. The first time Vadim had noticed it, he’d asked Josh why the wolves didn’t use the comfort of a meal to help ease any potentially awkward discussion. Josh explained how wolf shifters never liked to share a meal with someone they may have to kill. Bonding over food was an important part of pack culture and in other packs being asked to share a table with an Alpha was a huge honor. Vadim was surprised to learn that Josh had never eaten at the same table as Damien, until the Alpha had visited Cloverleah. Kane ran his pack on a lot more informal lines and regularly had everyone else eating with him – although the man may have to invest in a bigger table if the pack kept growing.

Knowing the culture behind it, and being able to stomach the food offered were two completely different stories. Vadim had pulled on all of his power when he was fighting Henry and in theory he should have been able to beat the beta wolf with no problems at all. But Henry’s wolf was incited at having to protect his mate, and that made the animal virtually unstoppable. Now that he’d stopped and sat down, Vadim was tired, covered in blood and needing to feed. But something deep in his gut told him if he and Josh didn’t get their mind link issues sorted before noon the following day, which was when the Atlanta pack were due to arrive, then they may never have a chance. So he pushed his eggs around his plate and tried to make out like he was eating something, just waiting for the others to finish.

“Okay,” Kane said at last. “So what are we dealing with here? Magic, clearly. Some kind of spell that can block a mind link connection with another person, which apparently can only be undone by a kiss from the human who asked for the spell to be cast in the first place. Does anyone have any knowledge about magic users that would include ways of breaking a spell?”

Vadim looked around the inner circle, who were all sitting at the table. Every one of them were thinking hard.

“If it’s a spell, then wouldn’t Everett have had to provide a sacrifice or payment of some kind? Otherwise the spell would already be broken, wouldn’t it? Because Josh and Vadim have locked lips heaps of times.” Vadim was surprised it was Anton that had spoken up first as the ex-military man was usually silent unless he had something important to say. Although, looking at the way Anton looked at Troy, and knowing Troy and Josh were friends…it made sense that Anton would have tried to work his logic, even on something he didn’t totally understand.

“You’re right in one respect,” Vadim replied. “But without knowing the intent of the spell, or the key for the want of a better word, there would be no way of breaking it, I don’t think.”

“I did some research in the Fae archives when I first heard we were having problems with a magic user,” Fafnir piped up, flashing a guilty look at his mates. “What?” He said when both Jax and Aelfric glared at him. “You know how much I love researching stuff, and this was important. Don’t you want to hear what I learned?”

“We will talk about you disappearing without letting anyone know where you were going, and going to the Fae realm without protection, another time, my mate,” Jax said. He leaned over and caught Fafnir up in what could only be called a punishing kiss, before letting him go.

“Speak then. Share what you’ve learned.” Oh, Jax was a ruthless man, and Vadim found he quite liked the wolf shifter’s attitude.

“Oh…er….right.” Fafnir seemed to be having a spot of trouble pulling himself together, and Vadim didn’t need wolf senses to see the lust in the dark Fae’s eyes. “There are three parts of a spell,” Fafnir continued finally. “A source, which was probably something that used to belong to you, Vadim. That is what holds the spell together. A sacrifice or payment, which would have come from Everett. Because this was a personal spell it would have probably involved blood. He could have used semen, but because of the purpose of the spell, blood is more likely because it runs through the heart. The third part will be the ingredients the
magus
used to weave the intent of the spell.”

“They use body fluids for magic?” Josh looked a little sick and Vadim didn’t blame him. Magic users were often mistrusted by vampires because of some of the more gruesome sides of their craft.

“It’s a powerful ingredient,” Fafnir said. “Everett wanted to break Vadim’s connection to Josh, not knowing they were true mates. Well, I presume he didn’t.” Fafnir looked at Vadim who shook his head.

“No, my mother told Everett I had bonded with another. If she had mentioned that Josh was my true match, she would have told me.”

“This
magus
or whoever the hell he is, would have known that there is no spell to break a true mate bond anyway, surely.” Shawn said.

“Depends on how much he knows about other paranormals, precious,” Kane replied. “If he’s trying to build up humans to fight shifters, then he may have a skewed opinion with very little knowledge behind it.”

“What I don’t understand,” Troy said thoughtfully, “is how Everett found this guy? We can assume the
magus
lives in Atlanta, but wouldn’t he have to be known both to the coven and the pack, which would suggest he does know about vampires and wolf shifters at least. And why the hell, if he was going to so much trouble, didn’t Everett ask for a love spell, rather than a means of blocking a connection? Surely that would make more sense.”

“There’s no such thing as a love spell,” Fafnir said firmly. “Even the Fae can’t force one person to love another. It takes away free will. From what I read, a magic user can create an illusion of love, but it wouldn’t be real and it would wear off pretty quickly. History suggests dark magic users have tried in the past, but have always been unsuccessful. True love is a power in its own right, and not one that can be harnessed by magic.”

“From what I know about Everett, he has such a big fucking ego, he probably thought I’d cave into his demands as soon as I saw him again. You saw what happened in the cell when we saw him for the first time. That guy’s version of reality is seriously warped,” Vadim said glumly. He felt Josh’s hand on his thigh and used his own to cover it. He wasn’t sure if the anger he was feeling was because someone, namely Everett, was trying to play him like a trump, just like Edward used to. Or if he was just pissed off that a spoiled fucking human with no sense of decency had put a block on something precious in his relationship with his mate.

“Will the spell break if we kill Everett?” Diablo asked from across the table.

Fafnir shook his head. “No. Everett is only part of the spell – the key to unlock it, if you will. But the power of the spell lays in whatever personal possession of Vadim’s Everett gave to the
magus
. If we could find that, then there is a slight chance we could reverse the spell, but it’s highly unlikely. There are literally thousands of rituals, incantations, and methods of weaving something this complex. That’s where the
magus
comes in – it’s his intent, his skill, and the ritual he performed, that would need to be undone.”

“What do you mean about intent?” Shawn asked. “The intent of the spell was to break Vadim’s connection with his bonded mate. That was what Everett wanted. The
magus
just put it all together, didn’t he?”

“In theory,” Fafnir said, looking to his mates for guidance. “The bottom line is, we don’t know anything about this guy, but from what I learned, this is what makes magic users so dangerous. Everett’s intent was to get Vadim for himself. But the
magus
wove the spell. If he had a different intent then there’s no telling how Vadim is being affected by it. Have you been feeling different at all, since you came back from Atlanta?” This time Fafnir was looking at Vadim.

“I do feel tired a lot of the time,” Vadim admitted. “I know my life has changed a lot recently, but there is no reason for me to be getting as tired as I have been. I’ve also been having to feed every day. Josh’s blood gives me some energy but that energy is almost like a sugar fix and it’s gone almost as soon as it arrives. That’s not how it normally works.”

“I thought you fed from me because you liked to. It’s not as though you take a lot anyway. Maybe you should just take more when you do feed.”

Oh shit. Josh was sounding a bit defensive and Vadim hastened to explain. “I do love feeding from you. That’s amazing. But I have been feeling unnaturally tired and it has nothing to do with the amount of blood I’ve been taking.” Vadim looked up and saw the rest of the men watching them.

“Look, what you all have to understand is that as a vampire gets older, their need to feed decreases while their power increases. I know of only one other vampire older than me, and that’s my mother. Before I met Josh I would only need to feed about once a month, and that was on human blood. Your blood, Josh, is far more potent, and should last a lot longer in my system.”

“So you’re thinking what? That this spell has not only caused you two to lose your mind link, but is affecting you physically as well?” Kane asked.

“It seems to be.” It wasn’t something Vadim wanted to admit, but the more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed. Even with the wolf protecting his mate, Vadim should have been able to dispatch Henry easily.

“I think the magic user’s intent was a lot more serious than simply finding a way for Everett to get his vampire back,” Jax said and his face was grim.

“You think about it, the bigger picture I mean,” Jax continued when everyone looked at him. “No matter what Vadim’s mother said, Everett would have known Vadim was mated as opposed to simply bonded with Josh. Vadim made that clear at the coven. Adair said there were two humans caught with the Atlanta wolves. There’s every chance that the second human knew that Vadim was coming to Cloverleah and was helping protect the pack – Hell, Vadim said in front of everyone that was what he was coming to do.”

“Which means,” Griff said, “whether Everett went to the magic user before or after the announcement at the coven, when the little twerp was concocting his spell…”

“He already knew that Vadim was going to be part of the defense here,” Diablo finished for his mate.

“And he’s been helping the Atlanta wolves, so he’s found a way to weaken what he thinks is one of our strongest defenders,” Kane carried on.

“Making me virtually useless in the attack tomorrow,” Vadim said. What the others had said made perfect sense. He was insanely strong and extremely fast and the wolves from Atlanta, who clearly underestimated the other powers in the Cloverleah pack, would want him out of the way. His reputation in Atlanta had hit legendary status decades ago and gotten bigger with time.

Then his heart began to race as another thought hit his brain in neon colors. He would have to protect his mate tomorrow. It wasn’t possible for him to do anything else. There was no way he could convince his staunchly loyal wolf shifter to stay out of the fight. Not when the man’s friends, his adopted family were in danger. But he would be powerless to do much but get himself killed.

In the scheme of things, Vadim had enjoyed a long life – more lifetimes than he could count. But this was the first time for longer than he could remember that he was truly happy and it was all thanks to his mate. He wasn’t ready to die. And if he did die, then because of their mating bond, Josh would too. He just couldn’t let that happen.

Vadim didn’t realize he was hyperventilating until he felt his chair being pulled out from the table, and his head was roughly shoved between his legs.

“Breathe love. Just breathe with me.” Josh’s voice soothed the jaggedness of Vadim’s nerves. Strong hands ran down his back grounding him with touch. He let out a breath, took in another one. Slow and steady, in and out. Eventually his skin stopped tingling, his heart rate returned to normal, the black spots in front of his eyes disappeared, and after a few minutes, Vadim felt able to sit up. Josh kept a comforting arm around his shoulders even when he sat back in his own chair.

“I’m sorry,” Vadim said looking around the table. “It’s just…”

“We totally understand,” Kane said, looking at him with compassion. “Your life threads are entwined, you’re worried about Josh.”

“Fafnir,” Josh snapped out. “From your research, are you absolutely sure that Everett is the key to this spell.”

“It makes sense,” Fafnir said. “The spell was at Everett’s instigation, he probably provided the hair, or a piece of clothing of Vadim’s to hook the spell on. The
magus
told Everett that a kiss would break it. If we assume the
magus
knew that Vadim was actually mated to a shifter, then he had to know that Vadim would never go for it.”

“Leaving Vadim a sitting duck,” Josh said, the disgust in his voice evident.

“It’s not only tomorrow’s attack that will be affected,” Diablo said. “If Vadim is weakened and killed, because what vampire would leave his mate undefended, then yes it will cause Josh’s death too, and in theory leave us shorthanded. But there are also ramifications for the coven too. You’re still the Regent there, Vadim. What would happen if you died?”

Vadim thought for a moment. “I appointed a Proctor, but his power only remains as long as I am alive. My brother is already dead, so…shit on a stick. With no D’Arcy at the helm the coven would fall into chaos.”