Flowers and Fangs (Stake and Dust series, Book II) (24 page)

"What's wrong?" Wade asked and came to stand
by him. "What the hell?" Wade pushed his way in, his sword readied
to stop Sloane from hurting Kylie.

Sloane hissed and spit like a blood-crazed
vampire. Derek realized the reason why a second later. He covered
his nose and mouth as the blood and stench hit his nostrils. "Stop,
Sloane," Derek demanded. "Now!"

She didn't listen and Kylie cried out in
pain. "Help me," the little girl wailed and tears streamed down her
face.

Wade lifted his sword, his intent clear. He
would end Sloane's life.

"No, Wade," Cassandra yelled in horror from
the door and at the same time, Derek lunged at his brother,
knocking him to the ground.

Tremayne had heard the commotion and flitted
into the room, whisking Kylie to safety.

"Dammit," Wade cursed and came to his feet,
but Derek ignored his curses and stared at Sloane. She gripped a
dagger in her hand. Sloane was a vampire. She could easily take out
a child with one bite, but she held her dagger poised and readied
as if Kylie posed a threat. His gaze shifted to Tremayne, who left
the child in the corner so he could deal with Sloane.

"Give me the dagger," Tremayne demanded, his
hand outstretched as he approached.

"No. Kylie's not human," she screamed. "Can't
you see that?"

Clapping of hands and a child's chuckle of
delight made them turn toward Kylie. "This was more fun than I've
had in a while," Kylie said. The girl's angelic face transformed
into the fiend she'd become. She hissed and her fangs
lengthened.

"Holy crap…" Wade stumbled back as the child
leapt toward him.

Tremayne flitted and grabbed the child by the
hair, yanking her away from Wade and trying to keep her at arms
length. "Let me go." She squirmed, her arms flailing behind her,
trying to grab hold of Tremayne. Tears poured down her face, but
she still hissed like a feral cat as if she couldn't decide if she
wanted to kill someone or cry on their shoulder. Maybe it was
both.

Derek raised his bow and reached for an
arrow. He glanced at Sloane. Tears slid down her cheeks, too, but
her expression was of misery. He let the arrow fly.

Kylie's body stiffened as the arrow
penetrated her heart and froze her limbs. Tremayne gently placed
the child on the floor.

"Tim, help me." Hearing the childlike voice
plead for her brother, who could no longer aid her, proved heart
wrenching. For the first time, he couldn't watch as his brother
brought down his sword.

Derek strode over to Sloane and pulled her
into his arms, her sobs breaking his heart bit by bit. "Kill me,
too." She squirmed out of his hold. "Kill me." She didn't look at
him, but at his brother. "I'm like them—like Tim and like…" she
swallowed back another sob. "Like Kylie."

"No, you're not." Derek reached for her, but
she hit his hand away with a hiss. "Don't touch me." She looked to
Wade again. "You promised," she pleaded with him.

"So I did." Wade stepped forward.

"You son of—" Derek began, but Wade threw him
a glance that clearly told him to back down.

"This is between me and Sloane," Wade
said.

"Bull crap."

Cassandra placed a hand on his arm. "Let him
speak."

"Fine, but I swear if you raise your sword,
you'll live to regret it."

"Whatever." His brother rolled his eyes
before he turned toward Sloane. "I agreed to take you out if you
were a threat, but today isn't that day." He turned on his heels
and strode out the door.

Sloane let out a mournful cry and fell to her
knees. Derek pulled her into his arms. This time she didn't push
him away. She buried her face in his shirt and mourned for the loss
of her friends and perhaps the life she once had.

"I can't go home," she sobbed, her tears
soaked his shirt, but he didn't care. If he could fix this for her,
he would, but there was no going back.

"No, you can't go home." She knew this
already, but maybe it hadn't really sunk in until now. He wiped her
tears away with the pad of his thumb. "Please don't cry. It will be
all right," he told her, but he had a feeling it would never be all
right for her. Perhaps tolerable at best.

"You should have let Wade dust me," she said,
using the terminology she'd learned in the last few days. "Your
brother only hesitated because of you. He loves you, you know."

He glanced toward the door and spotted his
brother leaning against the upturned sofa. Wade tilted his cowboy
hat back on his head and nodded. Yep, he knew his brother had his
back.

He took Sloane's hand and intertwined their
fingers. "We will work through this."

"We can't work through this." She yanked her
hand away and flew to her feet. He stood, too. "You and I…" She
forced back the sobs and angrily wiped away the tears that kept
falling despite her efforts. "We can't be together. You're a smart
man. You're a hunter. You know what a vampire can do. Tim and Kylie
weren't bad people and look what they've done." She choked on her
words. "I will either kill you or change you and neither is
acceptable."

"You aren't like Tim or Kylie. Don't ever
believe you are."

Her fangs were retracted, but he could still
see the pointed ends. He had never studied a vampire up close. At
least not in the few seconds it took to stake and dust one. This
was a whole new territory for him.

Tremayne remained quiet until now. "She's
right. She needs to be with her kind."

Derek met Tremayne's gaze. "I want to go with
her."

"I wouldn't advise it," Tremayne stated
evenly.

"I didn't ask for your advice."

"You'll be a distraction and she needs to
focus and learn restraint. The next few months are crucial. If she
doesn't learn now, I can all but guarantee she will drain someone.
Then you'll be forced to
stake and dust
her as you put
it."

Derek ran a hand through his hair and glanced
at Sloane. She looked so vulnerable standing there hugging her
waist. Her hair had fallen loose from her ponytail and her eyes
were red from crying, not because her vampire persona shone
through. No the pigment was all so blue. She was Sloane, his Sloane
and it was difficult to believe she would hurt anyone, but he had
felt her bite and he knew she could easily lose control. What
Tremayne claimed was the truth. She needed discipline and
training.

If you truly care about her, you'll let her
go," Tremayne said not without sympathy.

Sloane watched him, her eyes pleading for him
to release her. He was the one holding her back and all she needed
was for him to cut her loose. "How long?" His voice grew thick and
unsteady and he cleared his throat. "How long?" he asked again,
leveling his gaze on Tremayne.

"As long as it takes." Tremayne didn't
exactly answer him. "Her whole way of living would have to change.
Until she accepts it, she cannot truly live."

Dread filled Derek's soul, and a powerful
rush of emotions made his throat ache, but he tried to hide is
misery when he glanced at Sloane.

"Everyone is different," Tremayne said
quietly. "We don't go around changing humans whenever we please. We
do years of research and study the human's personality to make sure
they can handle the transformation physically and emotionally. Not
all humans are cut out to be a vampire." He shrugged. He wasn't
trying to be smug about it. He was just stating facts, and let's
face it Tremayne had been around centuries to know which humans
could become a vampire with grace. "If you'd like to know, I
believe she will do well." Tremayne sounded like a proud father. In
a sense, he supposed the vampire was. He had sired her after all.
"I won't lie to you, Derek."

"Yeah, I would hope not."

Tremayne nodded as if his response gave him
permission to continue. "It would be better for Sloane if she mated
an original. Being with a human would prove difficult for her no
matter how her training goes."

This was not what he wanted to hear.

"But it's not impossible," Tremayne added and
glanced at Cassandra, who had joined them. "Stranger unions have
flourished."

"Wade called the PRB," Cassandra told them.
"They'll send the
cleaners
." She focused her gaze on
Tremayne. "We should probably hit the road. Daylight is approaching
soon."

When Sloane's family returned, Tremayne would
still have to glamour her family. As for the Wilkins family and
their demise…the cleaners would have to do damage control with a
story for the news—a home invasion gone wrong, jealous lover, or
something of the sort. He glanced at the bodies discarded in the
corner of the room. They would have to be identified, but someone
from the PRB would run their fingerprints.

Death by preternatural hands was never
pretty. If there were surviving family members, they wanted to have
closure and the cleaners dealt with all that needed to be done to
supply it. Derek never really followed the aftermath. He was a
hunter and once his job was done, he went on to the next
assignment.

Sloane closed the chasm separating them. He
was never good with goodbyes. What was he supposed to say to her?
Good luck. See you later. Have a nice life.
None of it
sounded right when he didn't want to let her go. It would be like
she died and he would only have the fond memories of the last few
days to keep him warm at night.

On instinct, he pulled Sloane close and
kissed the top of her head, inhaling the sweet scent of her
shampoo. He couldn't endure pressing his lips to her in a goodbye
kiss. It would prove too painful. "I wish you the best, Sloane."
His voice choked and he could kick himself for sounding like such a
pansy.

She gripped his arm. "I wish you the best,
too." Her lips quivered, but she managed not to cry, but it was all
there in her beautiful pain-stricken eyes. She didn't want to leave
him, but knew she must, if only to keep him safe.

A throbbing ache settled behind his heart. He
should say more, but really what was the point of declaring his
love when it would change nothing?

* * * * *

Tremayne, Cassandra and Sloane left first.
The cleaners pulled up in their van as Derek and Wade took to the
road, walking toward their vehicle.

Wade stepped beside him as they strode
through the forest. Leaves and branches crunched beneath the soles
of their boots. There was no need to be quiet now that they took
care of the threat.

Wade broke the silence. "I'm sorry about
Sloane."

"It wasn't meant to be," he said, but the
words tasted foul on his tongue. He had hoped saying it out loud
would make her leaving hurt less. He was wrong.

"No, it wasn't meant to be," Wade agreed.

He gave his brother a sidelong glance. "What
are you going to do about Cassandra and Tremayne?" Tremayne was
good with his sister. Every touch, every smile they exchanged only
proved the two loved each other.

Wade let out a long tired sigh. "Let's just
say, I don't want to be around when Mom and Dad find out."

"Tremayne should be more worried about Axel."
This remark made Wade chuckle. Axel had always been overprotective
when it came to Cassandra. He had threatened the last guy who vied
for their sister's affections with possible bodily harm if the guy
so much as touched her, and that suitor had been human.

"You might be right about that."

Derek turned to glance at his brother. "Our
way of life isn't the ideal job if you're looking for a
relationship. Telling a woman, you lop off heads for a living,
would have her calling the cops. Until I met Sloane, I didn't
realize how messed up our life truly is."

They reached the van and Wade fished out the
keys from his pocket. He opened the door before he spoke, "I'm fine
with my life, Derek. If I'm looking to hook up, I have plenty of
women willing to make that happen. Then again, I'm not looking for
happily-ever-after. Maybe you need to re-evaluate what you want.
Because frankly, you're a liability, and not only to yourself, but
to your team. You can't second-guess if a preternatural being
should be terminated or not. You go in and do the job. That's
it."

Wade was right, but it didn't mean he wanted
to hear it voiced. He slid into the passenger's seat and waited for
Wade to shut his door. "Wade?

"Hmm?"

"Let's not tell Axel or our parents what
truly went down this week."

"More secrets." His brows lifted and he shook
his head. "It's a good thing I can keep them. I have a feeling
there's going to be plenty in the years to come." He put the key in
the ignition and revved the engine.

Chapter Thirty-One

Six Months Later…

Derek took his position on the rooftop, while
Wade and Axel were on the ground. The industrial buildings were
well lit. Most likely to cut down on vandals going crazy with the
spray paint and doing a little artwork after hours. He removed his
night goggles. He wouldn't need them to hit his target.

They were hunting a demon tonight, a nasty
fellow who preyed on teenage girls in hopes of impregnating them
with its spawn.

Why couldn't demons look like horned fiends
depicted in paintings? It would make his job a whole lot easier,
but this demon could glamour his way out of a bad face day. To the
teens, he looked like a pop star with his thick hair and boyish
charm. It was no wonder so many had been fooled.

The demon had slipped from their grasp at the
high school pep-rally, but he'd been desperate for an escape and
had left an easy trail for them to follow. This particular
warehouse had a 'For Lease' sign in the window. It would make a
perfect lair for the demon's
topside
visit.

"I'm in position." Wade's voice came through
his earpiece.

"I am, too," Axel said next.

Derek readied his bow. "Let's do it
then."