Embrace the Heat (29 page)

Raven looked around at the many haunted faces
and hoped this wouldn’t interfere with their ability to fight.
Humans might have a much better advantage if this was going to
distract the vampires this much. She was a little annoyed that
Connor hadn’t brought her human team with. They needed every
available fighter.

Connor seemed to know what she was thinking.
“The humans are on their way. The jeeps couldn’t make it all the
way in here, so we ran. I can also see that you’re wondering if
we’ll be okay fighting at the old reservation. Don’t worry about
us; we fought here before and won. This time won’t be any
different.”

Raven nodded. “We shouldn’t wait for my team.
I’m worried about what’s going on inside. There was no way to delay
Layla any longer than we did, and right now the only thing keeping
me calm is the knowledge two other shifters went in with her.” Her
voice dropped. “I hope she’s okay.”

Connor gave her shoulder a squeeze. “Don’t
worry, little nymph, we’ll get her out of there.” Then he turned
his attention to the others. “Let’s go!” he said and motioned for
the others to follow him.

No effort was made to move silently through
the woods. With more than two dozen vampires marching toward the
compound, they could only be so quiet anyway. This wasn’t exactly
going to be a surprise attack.

It wasn’t long before guards rushed them with
knives and stakes. Some held back and shot arrows from crudely made
bows. The attack was unexpected, so only the perimeter guards
engaged them.

Two of the guards took off toward the main
compound for reinforcements. The born vampires had no trouble
taking down the humans with knives and stakes, but were having
trouble getting to the archers.

Soon the remaining humans were joined by more
than twenty turned vampires. Raven was sure there were more on the
way. It wouldn’t be long before they were outnumbered. Hopefully,
this would give Layla the distraction she needed to get out
safely.

Layla had just slipped out of her panties
when the frantic sounds of footsteps in the hall grabbed everyone’s
attention.

Roger motioned to two of the four guards. “Go
find out what’s going on out there.”

As soon as the door closed behind the guards,
Layla started to shift. The energy rushed through her body, and her
change was even smoother this time. In lynx form she growled at
Roger. Cam had already disarmed one of the distracted guards and
faced off with the other one. The guard didn’t know which threat to
deal with first. Layla watched as Roger reached for the armband.
She didn’t know what he intended to do, but she was determined to
stop him anyway. Layla leapt forward and caught Roger’s arm in her
teeth. Roger screamed as she bit down hard. The taste of his blood
nearly made her gag. While her cat loved the tangy blood, her human
side did not, and the fact that it was Roger’s blood made it worse.
Still, she held on tight and growled in the back of her throat.

After taking down both guards, Cam moved to
her side. “I’d take off the band,” he said with a pleasant smile.
“The little kit’s still not in complete control in this form. No
telling what she’ll do if you don’t release her mate. Females are
pretty damn vicious.”

Layla growled for emphasis.

Roger gritted his teeth and undid the
armband. “You’re all dead. I will skin you and make a rug out of
you, bitch.”

Cam took the armband and walked closer to
Simon. “What do I do with it?” he asked.

“Put it on your arm so it’ll link to you,”
Simon said, still sounding shaken. “After that you should be able
to remove the collar.”

Cam put the armband on and removed the
collar. Layla rushed toward Simon. Roger took advantage of her
distraction to scramble out of the room and take off running like
the coward he was.

Tracking Roger was too difficult with
everything going on around them. They rushed back to the original
holding cell to free Jase and found him in the corridor fighting
two guards in lynx form.

“You gonna be okay, vampire,” Cam asked as he
stripped out of his clothes to shift.

“I’ll feel better once I steal some clothes,”
he said, and Layla didn’t miss the exhaustion in his voice. When he
turned to the side, Layla saw the brand and growled. Simon seemed
embarrassed and shifted positions so she couldn’t see it. That made
Layla want to rip someone’s throat out. Luckily, she was in the
right form to do just that.

Before shifting, Cam turned to Simon. “What
about the vampire you were with? Is he here?”

Simon shook his head. “They told me he’s
dead. I saw the wound and the blood.” His voice was choked with
emotion. “Ian couldn’t have survived.”

Cam gave him a look filled with sympathy.
“I’m sorry you lost your friend. We’ll do our best to kill the ones
responsible for his death.”

Simon merely nodded as Cam shifted.

Layla was annoyed to see that Cam was much
bigger in lynx form. While she was about the size of a normal lynx,
Cam was larger than any of Raven’s wolves. Jase greeted them in
lynx form, and he was larger than Cam.

Why was she always the small one?

Guards scrambled to get out of their way.
Actually, it took very little effort to make it out of the main
building. Apparently wild cats scared the humans, and most of the
turned vampires had been sent to deal with the external threat.

They stopped briefly so Simon could steal
pants. Layla growled when she saw the way he flinched as the
material slid over the brand. The next time she saw Roger, she was
going to kill him.

Simon looked both annoyed and amused. “Don’t
feel sorry for me. Just kill someone. It’ll make you feel
better.”

That was good advice. They were close to the
front of the settlement, almost free when an arrow ripped into
Layla’s side, knocking her to the ground.

Simon let out something that sounded like a
roar and charged the human with the bow. The human panicked, and
his hands shook while he tried to notch another arrow. He was too
slow, and Simon snatched the bow from his hand and shoved the arrow
into the human’s heart.

Jase and Cam surrounded her when a group of
turned vampires raced out from of the buildings and started to move
in on them. Layla tried to stand, but Cam nudged her gently to get
her to stay down. Holding her form was taking a lot of effort. She
vaguely understood Jase’s gestures telling her not to fight the
shift. Funny that she couldn’t understand him completely when they
were both in lynx form, but he and Cam seemed to understand each
other perfectly.

Jase, Cam and Simon tore into the turned
vampires as Layla shifted back into human form. The energy zipping
through her body burned against her wound, and she gritted her
teeth so she wouldn’t cry out. That would only distract Simon who
was fighting off two turned vampires. The other vampires weren’t as
skilled at fighting, but Simon was still weakened from his injuries
earlier that day.

When Layla tried to stand she felt a hand
grip her arm and pull her gently to her feet. Before she could
speak, a hand clamped over her mouth, and she was dragged away from
the fight. She tried to open her mouth to bite the hand, but it was
too tight against her face. Simon, Jase, and Cam were being
overwhelmed by turned vampires and didn’t notice her abduction.

Layla was too weak from her injury to shift
again.

When they were a safe distance from the
fighting, the hand moved from her mouth and wrapped around her neck
to hold her in place. “What exactly are you?” asked a familiar male
voice.

While she recognized the voice, she couldn’t
put a name or face to it. The hand on her neck prevented her from
turning her head. “Who are you?” Her voice was strained with
pain.

“You don’t remember me?” He sounded hurt.

The strange man pulled her into a room and
locked them in. With gentleness she didn’t expect, he lifted her up
against his chest and laid her on a soft bed. The room was a little
messy with clothes tossed on chairs. Layla looked up at the man and
recognized him instantly.

“Miles?” she asked.

His face lit up with a pleased smile. “You do
remember! I was worried that you’d forgotten me.”

This was bad. She remembered Miles. He was a
member of the leadership council at the island settlement. Mostly,
he’d seemed liked a follower who did whatever Graham or Roger told
him to do. Then she had to wonder why he’d taken her back to his
room and not one of the cells.

“You’re bleeding a lot,” he said as he stared
at her wound with hunger in his eyes. That’s when she noticed the
fangs. Her injury was probably the only reason she hadn’t noticed
that he smelled like a vampire before. It was hard to smell
anything other than her own blood.

“I suppose I should try to stop the bleeding
after I clean the wound,” he said. “Do you heal fast like the wood
nymphs and vampires?”

“I don’t know,” Layla said in a weak voice.
She needed to stay conscious, but it was hard to do. She’d lost
more blood than she should be capable of losing without dying.
Maybe that meant she healed faster than humans.

The arrow was already out, and she vaguely
remembered yanking it out herself. That had been a stupid move, and
she was lucky the arrow hadn’t been designed to cause more damage
when removed. At the time, she hadn’t been thinking straight.

“I’ll clean it,” Miles said and began to
probe around her wound to remove bits of wood. Then he cleaned the
wound and started applying pressure. Every once in a while he
apologized and wiped drool on his shirt sleeve. His reaction to her
blood obviously embarrassed him.

Eventually the temptation seemed to be too
much. Layla watched as he brought his fingers to his lips and
sucked her blood off of them. His entire body shuddered, and he
moaned. “This is wonderful,” he said.

Layla finally asked the question she’d been
afraid to ask since this bizarre encounter had started. “What are
you going to do with me?”

His head cocked to the side, and he studied
her in an odd manner. Something had changed in Miles after he’d
been turned. That change wasn’t obvious at first glance and went
beyond the fangs. Miles was a little too crazy to be a good
follower now.

“You’re so beautiful,” he said as he pushed
her hair back from her face. Miles took several strands and rubbed
them between his thumb and index finger. “I’ve always liked blonde
hair. Sometimes I used to watch you, even when you were a child. I
knew it was wrong, but I couldn’t stop myself. Roger said I had to
stay away from you because it would upset Graham. We couldn’t upset
Graham.”

Layla curled in on herself, acutely aware of
her own nudity.

Miles cringed. “You’re frightened. I should
get you something to wear.”

He walked toward the closet and pulled out a
shirt and some shorts with a draw string. Miles studied the shorts
with a frown. “These might hurt your wound. Maybe just the shirt
would be best for now.”

She took the clothing, grateful to have
something to cover herself. Dressing was difficult, but thankfully
Miles didn’t try to help her.

Miles’ stare was unnerving. She’d never paid
much attention to him before, so maybe it always had been. He’d
been the quiet unassuming one. “As soon as you can walk, I’ll take
you out of the compound.”

Layla’s eyes widened. “You’re letting me
go?”

He looked torn. “I really want to keep you.”
There was such crazed longing in his eyes that she was afraid to
say anything. Finally, he let out a sad sigh. “Roger would just use
you to get the vampire back. He would hurt you, and I don’t want
you hurt.” His cheeks flushed, and he looked away. “Actually, I do
want to hurt you, but I don’t want anyone else to.” He gave her a
crazed boyish smile. “That’s probably an even better reason to get
you out of here. You need to be far away from me.”

Layla nodded slowly and didn’t break eye
contact. From what Mitchell had told her, the new vampire virus
created turned vampires who weren’t crazed most of the time. Others
went crazy over time. Of course, that happened with some of the
born vampires too. No one knew why it affected some that way.
Miles’ insanity was teetering on the edge between a little scary
and dangerous.

When Layla stood, her legs would barely hold
her weight, but she didn’t want to let on how hard it was to walk.
Having Miles help her seemed even more dangerous.

Miles looked confused. “I’m not sure where to
take you.”

“Back to Simon,” she said. Simon would never
leave the compound without her.

Miles shook his head. “It’ll be safer to take
you out of here now. The blood whore will leave. They have great
survival instincts.” His hand gripped her upper arm firmly.

Layla had to figure out a way to convince
Miles to go back for Simon. If he was human, she could probably
overpower him. Wounded, she was too weak to go up against a
vampire. She suddenly found herself praying for inspiration.

Simon was bleeding heavily when he snapped
the neck of the last turned vampire. Technically, that wouldn’t
kill the vampire, and normally he’d look for something to stab
through the vampire’s heart, but he was too worried about
Layla.

When he turned around his heart nearly
stopped. She was gone.

“Layla!” he shouted.

Jase shifted back while Cam stayed in lynx
form and watched for any new threats. They’d all been too careless
because it had looked like only human guards remained in the
compound. Simon knew better than to make those types of
assumptions. Now Layla was missing and injured. He’d never forgive
himself if anything happened to her.

“We’ll find her by her scent,” Jase assured
Simon.