Bitten to Death

touching? Now can I rip them apart?”

I jumped about three feet, turning as I did so, which would’ve made me fall in a tangled heap if not for Vayl, whose quick reflexes saved us both from utter embarrassment.

“Watch your temper, Phoebe,” said a tall, gray-haired man who looked like he should’ve been shelving books at the local library. He stood with his hands in the pockets of his brown slacks, one shoulder supported by an enormous oak. The young woman he’d just spoken to crouched comfortably at his knee. That we’d neither seen nor heard them advance to those positions said a great deal for their abilities. And just how wrapped up we could become in one another.

Phoebe viewed me with wide, irate eyes framed by spectacularly long lashes. Those can’t be real, I decided, especially considering the shocking amount of blue eye shadow backing them up. She pursed her lips, generously glossed in candy-apple red, and for a second I thought we were going to be witness to a string of expletives, delivered with the same barely contained zeal as her first pronouncement. Normally I would’ve wondered what chemical carpet she was riding as I watched her busy hands, tipped with blue-and-red-striped nails, fiddle with the pockets and buttons of her ancient army jacket. But she wasn’t sweating and her eyes seemed clear. Phoebe just had to move.

“You must be Trayton’s pack,” I said. Trayton had said Krios was his alpha. But he’d left out the part about his buds looking like they could bench-press a tour bus. As I looked around, maybe a dozen more people dressed for hiking had stepped into view. They ranged in age from sixteen to maybe fifty-five. And damn, were they fit.

“Why is it that you smell of him?” asked Krios. He made the question sound casual, but I could see the tension in his upper body. The unspoken messages flying from him to the surrounding wolves oozed barely contained violence.

“Well, he licked my hand a couple of times.” It sounded ridiculous put so baldly. I wished I had Cassandra’s portable library. The Enkyklios could’ve replayed the entire drama in Technicolor and surround sound.

“Trayton is mine!” growled Phoebe.

Krios put his hand on her head as I said, “Sure, fine. We’re just friends.”

Krios walked up to me, and now the bland old man facade dropped away and I realized why he’d come to power within this group. Immense strength in that gaze backed by the will to put it to use. “Why is it that though we tracked him to this villa, we can’t sense his spirit moving anywhere within it?” He took a deep breath, and when his brows drew together and his black eyes glittered dangerously I remembered clearly why I never let relationships grow beyond a certain point. Eventually the people you attached to, or their alphas, were bound to turn around and rip your heart out. “And tell me, woman, how is it that while I smell him on you, I also scent him within you?” He grabbed me by the collar and yanked me toward him. I took him by the wrists, more to keep my balance than to respond with violence. At least not yet. Especially not when he said, “Have you dared to eat my son?”

Chapter Eighteen

I laughed. Actually, it started as more of a giggle that grew. Because my mind went straight to the gutter. And I always crack up at the worst possible moments. I’m the only person I know who tee-hees during eulogies. Can’t help it, my mind always comes up with the oddest images.

Krios must’ve started to feel stupid manhandling a hysterically cackling female, because he let me go. Which caused Vayl to abruptly bank the powers he’d pulled up the second Krios began to threaten me.

“Trayton’s okay,” I finally managed. “He’s inside, healing up. That’s why you smell him on me. In me. Whatever. I gave him some blood after one of the vamps shot him.” Whoops, wrong choice of words. The pack didn’t quite growl, and humans can barely pull off bristling. But, yeah, my words had just stirred up a whole pot of what-the-fuck? I stopped laughing. Hell, I practically stopped breathing. Suddenly I just wanted to bring the world to a screeching halt so I could put all the pieces back where they belonged.

I spoke slowly, so maybe I wouldn’t screw anything else up today. And because I was suddenly exhausted. “I think you can’t sense him because that villa is wrapped with Vampere power. But Trayton has made me a member of this pack. So I’d appreciate it if you’d at least stop treating me and my sverhamin like you want to bite our heads off.”

Krios gave Vayl the once-over, decided all he deserved at this point was a nod, and went on with the third degree. “Why is he in there?”

My shoulders dropped. Realizing my brain would not spit out a decent lie until I’d had some real rest, I told the truth. “They lured him there to fight a werebear. He was nearly killed, but I found him an ally inside who’s nursing him back to health.”

“We want him back,” said Krios.

“And then we’re going to kill those sons of bitches!” yelled one of his pack, a brawny dockworker type whose shoulders were almost as wide as he was tall. His pronouncement was followed by a roar of approval from the rest of the Weres, one Krios did nothing to discourage.

“You don’t have the strength,” I said, hoping it was true. “The vamps would never have had the Sonrhain if they’d thought it would really threaten the Trust.” I let the mutters of outrage and denial die down before I went on. “Listen, this whole mess is because of their new Deyrar, Disa. You can bet your asses the werebears aren’t any happier than you are. But they’ve promised not to move on the Trust until at least next week.”

“Why?” Dockworker demanded.

“Ask them,” I said.

“I can do that!” Phoebe volunteered.

“First things first,” said Krios. “We want Trayton back.”

“No problem,” I said, wondering if I was setting myself up for disaster by uttering those karma-tempting words. “I’ll bring him out to you in the morning, when the vampires have gone down for the day.”

“I don’t trust her!” yelled Dockworker.

“Then you’re a fool!” I shouted right back. “I picked your buddy up off the floor after giving him my own blood.” And letting him make me into a friend. Like I need friends. Which