Embrace the Heat (27 page)

“I’m sending out teams of six,” he continued.
“Each team will have four vampires and two humans. Depending on
what we find, I may need to bring the trainees out to help too. At
this point, I don’t know what we’re up against, but it was enough
to take down two of our best fighters.” Connor fought to keep his
voice steady. He managed it by avoiding saying their names. A
lifetime of practice helped him keep his emotions in check.

“What about Mitchell and Layla?” Jack
asked.

“I’ll talk to both of them before we head
out,” Connor said. “For now, I’m moving Mitchell to my mom’s house
and only telling him that Ian is missing. That’s all we really
know. Ian may well be alive and injured, so I don’t want to put
Mitchell through any needless worry until we have proof one way or
another.”

After he finished giving orders, everyone
moved into action. Danny and Mark were the only humans at the
meeting. They would brief the others and help Carla divide up the
teams while Connor and Rand took care of telling Mitchell and
Layla.

“I’d rather do any other job,” Rand said.

“Me too,” Connor said. “I’m hoping that
seeing you will remind both of them that nothing is totally
hopeless.”

“I can’t even imagine what Norah went
through,” Rand said as he studied his fisted hand.

Connor didn’t want to remember that time. He
didn’t want to think about those many months when Norah was broken.
He preferred to think about the fighter she was now. Norah had been
his best friend for as long as he could remember, and he’d been
terrified that he was going to lose her when she’d believed Rand
was dead. “Did you tell Norah about all of this?” It seemed
unlikely. If she’d known, she would have insisted on being on one
of the search teams. While Connor appreciated Rand’s reasons for
keeping this from Norah, he knew she was going to be seriously
pissed off when she found out.

Rand nodded. “She was upset and made me
promise to be careful when we went out to search. I’m glad she
didn’t insist on coming with me. Actually, I was surprised that she
didn’t.”

Connor froze. Raven had told him she’d leave
him alone to take care of his meeting and gone upstairs.

“Dammit!” Connor shouted.

“What?” Rand asked.

“They played us,” Connor said and raced
upstairs. Sure enough, the window was open, and Raven was gone.

He grabbed his phone and called the guard
station at the front gate. “Make sure Raven, Norah and Layla do not
leave this settlement.”

Connor practically growled when he heard the
answer.

“They’re gone, aren’t they?” Rand asked
angrily.

With a frustrated sigh, Connor glared at the
front door. “They must have taken off as soon as you headed over
here for the meeting. I’m an idiot for not realizing Raven was up
to something. Why the hell did I believe she’d sit this one out?
I’ll call my mom and have her pick up Mitchell. While I hate
putting this on her, we need to move quickly.”

“I’ll let Carla know we’re heading out now,”
Rand said and shook his head. “Why didn’t I see this coming? They
really outsmarted us.”

“That’s because we’re idiots, and they know
it,” Connor said and dialed his mother’s number. Raven had better
be okay.

The first place Layla, Raven and Norah headed
was the spot where Ian’s phone was located. It was buried under
leaves and a thin layer of dirt. There was a lot blood, but no sign
of Ian or Simon. There were no bodies, vampire or human at the
sight, meaning they’d been moved, or no one had died. Norah
identified the blood as human, born vampire, and turned
vampire.

Next they went to the spot where they’d last
run into the shifter brothers. Just as Raven had predicted, the
shifters approached Layla as soon as she got there.

“Nice to see you again, little kit,” Jase
said with a flirty smile.

Once again she found herself surrounded by
the half naked men. They really had no concept of personal
space.

Cam lifted her hair to examine the back of
her neck. “I see the vampire was smart enough to mark you. Too bad
for us. I’m not sure we would have let it slide twice. We almost
had you convinced last time. This time we would have been even more
convincing.”

Zane winked at her. “Maybe too bad for you.
We could have taken good care of you, little kit. Keep that in mind
in case you get tired of the vampire. Not sure what you see in him
anyway.”

“Did you come looking for us?” Jase
asked.

“Yes,” Layla said.

Jase’s smile turned predatory, and he leaned
in closer. “Can I assume this means the vampire isn’t taking good
care of you? Say the word, and we’ll take you.”

“That’s not why I’m here,” Layla said and
tried to maneuver her body so she wasn’t quite as penned in by the
shifters. This was really getting old fast. Without the hormones
she was more annoyed with them rubbing against her than anything
else.

“Boys,” Raven said sternly. “Layla didn’t
grow up around shifters, so she’s not comfortable with that kind of
touching. This has also been a really rough day. Back off before
she stabs one of you.”

“How can she be friends with a nymph and have
personal space issues?” Zane asked.

“We need your help,” Layla said, ignoring his
question. She didn’t want to talk about anything but rescuing
Simon.

“What do you need, little kit?” Cam asked,
standing behind her with his hands on her hips.

Obviously, they weren’t going to give her any
more space.

“Someone took Simon, the vampire I was with,”
she explained. “We’re pretty sure it was humans.”

“Not much of a man if some measly humans got
to him,” Zane added.

“We’re assuming this was an old enemy. These
humans have created a new type of vampire they can control. Do you
know where there might be a human settlement around here?” Layla
asked.

Zane shrugged. “Lots of human settlements,”
he said.

“This one would have to be pretty well
hidden. I’m guessing it’s close to here,” Raven said. “The humans
living there may have moved from another location in the last six
months. They probably moved a lot of lab equipment.”

“There’s one in the middle of the burnt out
buildings. That’s about a twenty minute run from here,” Jase
said.

“That’s right,” Cam said. “They just moved a
bunch of stuff over there a few months back. It was a pretty dead
settlement before then. We’ve been seeing some humans and vampires
head out of there. They’re the strangest vampires I’ve ever
seen.”

Norah had visibly paled during this
conversation.

“What is it?” Raven asked with a hand on
Norah’s shoulder.

“They must be talking about the old vampire
reservation. We don’t go near there. Too many bad memories, and we
thought it was completely destroyed. We practically burned the
whole thing to the ground more than eighty years ago.”

“Maybe you should stay out here when we go
in,” Raven said to Norah.

“You should both stay out here,” Layla
said.

“You can’t go in alone,” Norah insisted.

“We can go with her,” Zane said. “No one
there knows about shifters. They’ll just think we’re humans.”

“Actually, that’s a good idea,” Layla said.
“Not all three of you. You look too much alike. We could probably
pass two of you off as the twins who lived at the old island
settlement. That’s assuming they aren’t living in this new
settlement.”

Norah shook her head. “I met them. Both were
really shy. I arranged their transport to Treasure Island last
week.”

“Hardly anyone knew them,” Raven said.
“Getting three shifters in there will give us an advantage. After
you get in, I’ll message Connor to get a team out here. I would
message him now, but I don’t want him to have a chance to stop you
from going in after Simon.”

“I really hope Simon is okay,” Layla said
softly. “Maybe they have Ian there too.”

“I hope so,” Norah said. “Since we know where
they have Simon and possibly Ian, maybe we should wait for the
others to get here.”

“Won’t work,” Zane said.

“That’s right,” Cam agreed. “The little kit
won’t leave her mate in there. She’ll go in with or without our
help. Instincts are strong around the heat cycle.”

“Could we stop talking about my heat cycle?”
Layla asked.

Cam shrugged. “I guess, but I don’t know why
it bothers you so much.”

“Layla didn’t realize she was a shifter until
after she met you,” Raven explained.

“We don’t go around talking about being in
heat,” Norah added.

All three men stared at her, eyes wide and
mouths agape. “What did you think you were?” Jase finally
asked.

“Human,” Layla said.

“You said you’re twenty seven,” Jase
pushed.

“I was rounding up since my birthday was
coming up,” she admitted.

“You haven’t had your first change yet?” Zane
asked.

“I did the day after I met you,” Layla
said.

Zane wrapped his arms around her and pulled
her against his chest. “Ah, little kit, we should have been there
to help you. You must have been terrified.”

“Raven explained what I was before the
change. I admit it felt strange, but not scary,” Layla said. When
she pulled away, Zane released her.

“Raven is the nymph?” Cam asked.

Rather than answering his question, Raven
added one of her own. “Why are you so friendly? The shifters I’ve
met have all been aggressive and confrontational.”

Layla suspected they were all using this
conversation to delay having her head into the settlement in hopes
that backup would somehow arrive before then. Raven had to know
Connor would be tracking her phone and didn’t need anyone to tell
him where she was.

“When we first came across the little kit, we
were trying to get her naked and on her hands and knees,” Cam
explained. “We weren’t going to be aggressive toward her friends.
Now, we kind of like her, and it’s nice that you took care of
her.”

Raven nodded and asked the question no one
wanted to ask. “Have you come across a body?”

“Sure,” Cam answered. “Did you have one in
mind? We’ve come across a few.”

“Male, tall with black hair and green eyes,”
Norah said.

They all thought for a moment before Cam
answered. “Doesn’t sound familiar, but we don’t really pay much
attention to the human bodies.”

“This one was a vampire,” Layla
explained.

“We haven’t come across any vampire bodies
lately,” Jase said.

“That means Ian might be alive too,” Raven
said what they all hoped to be the truth.

“We’ve got a few things living out here
that’ll snatch a body, especially if they can find one close to
death,” Cam said.

Raven’s eyes widened. “I hadn’t realized
there was anything like that out this way.”

Jase shrugged. “If you know what we’re
talking about, then you know you usually only see them when they
have some interest in you, and that is not something you want to
happen.”

Layla was out of patience and done with their
distraction techniques.

“How are we going to get into the compound?”
Layla asked. “They probably know I’m not on their side. I’m pretty
sure they’re from the old island settlement, so they’ll know I
fought against the old leadership.”

“I still think you should wait until backup
gets here, but if you’re determined to go now, captured is probably
your best bet,” Norah said. “Although that’s pretty risky. What’s
to say they won’t just kill you?”

“We could try that route,” Jase said. “If it
goes bad, we can always get the little kit out of there. We’ll have
to blow our cover to do it. Once they see us fight, no one will
believe we’re human.”

“I think our best bet is to scout close to
the compound under the guise of looking for Simon and Ian,” Layla’s
voice shook when she said Ian’s name. It had to be a good sign that
his body hadn’t been found.

“Good plan,” Cam said. “Zane will stay with
your friends.”

“Why do I get left behind?” Zane asked with
what looked like a pout.

“Because you won’t be able to keep your hands
off of the little kit,” Jase said, and then he turned to Layla.
“It’s not really a sexual thing. Shifters touch a lot. Zane is the
youngest and not good at controlling his urges. Your mate would
probably try to kill him.”

“Good point,” Zane said thoughtfully. “I’d
really like to fight the vampire. I’ve never fought one before, but
it would probably ruin the plan. Maybe we can fight later.”

“So we go in as captives and hope they treat
us like humans so we can get close enough to find your vampire.
Then we wait until the attack from the outside starts and attack
from the inside. Hopefully, we can free the vampire to help with
the fighting. They’ll be surprised once they realize we’re faster
and stronger than the vampires,” Cam said.

Norah snorted. “I don’t think so.”

Cam gave her a playful smile. “Another feisty
female! Wanna test that when I get back? Winner gets to pleasure
the loser?”

“Her husband is the size of the three of you
put together,” Raven said with a smile. “Something tells me he’s
already going to be in a bad mood when he gets here.”

Norah cringed.

Cam let out a dramatic sigh. “Why are all the
good ones taken by vampires?”

“Worry about that later. Let’s go!” Layla
said.

Raven nodded. “Jase and Cam need shirts and
shoes first or the humans will be suspicious.”

Both shifters nodded, but neither looked
happy with the suggestion. “I’ll follow in the parts of the woods
only I can see. Zane can stay with Norah. I’ll update you both when
they’re captured, and then we’ll let Connor know what’s going on
and hope he and Rand don’t take it too badly. That is if they don’t
get here before then. As soon as they find out we’re missing,
they’ll be using the tracking devices on our phones to find
us.”