Force of Knight Magic (24 page)

“She killed four others.
Humans
,
I guess you call them.
They were camping out in the upper floors.
Or so the police here are saying.
I saw one of them
. T
hey had been…she’d been…I guess she’d been using them.”
Phil closed his eyes
,
knowing there was more and dreading it.
“They were babies.
One couldn’t have been much more’n ten or so.
They youngest was a kid.
I’d say six or seven.
They couldn’t have gotten out if they’d been able to move.
She had them near death when…the coroner said that they’d been drained or something. I’m thinking she had them chained up to one of them old fashioned radiators.
They were alive when they burned up like they did.”

Phil looked over at Holly when she came out dressed.
Her entire outfit was black from the top of her head to the shoes on her feet.
He nodded. They were going hunting and there was no reason to hid
e
it.

“Tell me where you are.”
Myles gave him the address.
“Holly and I are on our way. We should be there in about ten minutes, less if I can convince her to let me take her.”
She nodded when he looked at her.
“Don’t say anything to anyone that you called us.
We’ll be there shortly.”

Holly was wrapping her body around his when she asked something he’d only just thought of.
“How did he know that the rogue was there?
I mean
,
I know enough about vampires to know that their sense of smell is extraordinary
,
but he knew she was there.
How?”

He knew she’d missed part of the conversation and he related the part of Anye going to Myles.
“I didn’t think to ask him why she’d go to him and not to someone she knew she could trust.
Could she be trying to cover her ass?
I would be.”
Phil kissed her mouth then grinned at her.
“Hang on. I’m going to move us very quickly and I don’t want to drop you on the way.”

“You do and you’ll be very sorry.”
She buried her face in his neck and her hot breath made his cock thicken where she wrapped around him the most intimately.
She looked up at him.
“Seriously?
We’ve done nothing but fuck since I moved in with you.”

“Yes we have
,
and you’ve enjoyed every minute of it.”
He swatted her hard across her ass.
“Now behave or we’ll be late and you’ll have to explain to Myles why I had to stop long enough to fuck you against the wall before we left.”

Christ
,
his entire body hardened when she groaned.
He was going to have to move her off his cock now or really fuck her.
Her soft folds were very tempting spread over his cock the way she draped over him.
Wrapping both his hand around her ass
,
he did press her against the wall before he moved to a safe place to move.
She growled this time and he could smell her.
They were going to kill each other at this rate.

The crime scene tape was everywhere. It didn’t stop him or Holly
,
but it did slow them down.
They found Myles at the far corner with a group of uniformed police officers.
None of them looked happy to be there.

“Anye is spilling her guts to that other guy.
I don’t know who he is
,
but he keeps hissing at her and showing her his fangs.
Tell me,” Myles asked suddenly, “do your fangs get bigger the older you get?”

Phil didn’t answer.
He didn’t figure Myles was serious and he wasn’t sure the man could handle the information.
Yes, fangs did get longer as a vampire aged
,
but they also got sharper as well.
He wondered what the human would think if he knew that as a vampire
,
Phil could find every person he’d ever bitten and tell just where he’d fed from them.
It would p
robably freak him out
. H
e knew that there were times when he was a little overwhelmed by his knowledge too.

The man that Anye was currently speaking to was her second.
Jose Benson was older than Anye and a great deal less tolerant of today’s actions.
Phil walked up to him and bowed low.
Jose growled low before he spoke.

“You’re a good deal older than me and a great deal more experienced.
Had you taken this job when it was offered
,
this mess…”
He looked around the area before continuing
.
“
It w
ould now be your problem and not mine.
Do not bow before me
,
k
night.
I have enough going on right now to be worried that you might break a hip.”

Jose’s laughter was chilling and made the hair on his neck rise.
Phil looked over at Holly when she came to them and laughed again when she too bowed before Jose and earned another grow
l
.

“What is to become of her?
She’s not as innocent as she has led us all to believe.
We’ve found…evidence that she not only knew of the rogue
,
but is related to her by blood as well as
being her
sister
from the same
maker.”
Holly growled at Anye when she tried to deny what she’d just said.
“I don’t lie
,
vamp
,
and you have made a living from it.
Behave or I’ll snap your neck like a chicken.”

Jose glanced down at Anye before he spoke.
“She is going to be staked when this is over. For now
,
she is going to give you her blood so that you may find the rogue.
She will cooperate or she will not.
Either way, you are to taste her.”

Phil didn’t say what was really on his mind about staking the former Trustee
,
but thought the man knew what he was thinking.
Anye had been the center of this since before she’d been made what she was.
She should have been killed long ago.
But he looked at Holly before he answered about the blood.
Holly had been quite clear on what she would do to him if he even tried to bite the Trustee.

“What will happen to my mate if he takes her blood and she is killed?”

He didn’t answer her
,
letting Jose do the talking.
He thought he might be safer if he didn’t.

“He will do as he’s told. I am the one who is in charge now and I will—
”
Holly could move fast
,
that was true
,
but Austin was just a tad quicker i
t
seemed.

Austin had the man by the throat and up in the air before Jose had a chan
c
e to finish.
Austin let a little of his wolf go and stood holding him with fur covering his body and his claws digging into his flesh.
Phil was sure that given a reason, even a small one
,
Austin would break Jose’s neck and simply walk away.

“You’ll keep a civil tongue in your mouth or I will take it from you.
Then I will feast on it as you watch.
This is my sister
,
you bloodsucking asshole
,
and I protect what is mine.
Her mate there”
—
he nodded to Phil as he continued
—
“will do what he wants not what you think he should.
Do I make myself perfectly clear?”
Jose nodded.
“Good answer.
Disappointing
,
but a good answer.
I’m going to let you down now.
And so you know, I intervened on this not because Phil can’t protect his mate
,
but because I figured you’d live to your next breath if I took you
instead of
him
doing it
.”

Jose dropped to the ground and incredibly
,
he started to attack Austin.
Dallas and Connor were there before he could raise his clawed hand.
Phil spoke before things got too much more out of control.

“Think
,
Jose.
Think very hard.
There are nearly forty wolves here and all of them loyal to that man. You strike and you are as good as dead.” Jose looked at him
,
his eyes red as his anger boiled through.
“Is you
r
being angry at this situation worth dying for?”

“He should learn his place.
He isn’t to…”
Jose seemed to gather himself as he stood there.
He looked back at Anye then at him.
“Finish with her.
I need to kill someone and
it might as well be her
.”

Phil nodded then grinned.
“Thank you
,
my friend.
Austin would have made a mess of things and
,
right now
,
I simply want to go home and fuck my mate.
But as for Anye, I cannot take from her
what
is not freely given.
It is the code of the
k
nights.
And as I am mated, she will need to take from her as well.”

That wasn’t entirely true and Phil was pretty sure that Jose knew it.
Technically
,
as a mated knight
,
he should have been removed from service. But as he’d made the rules
,
he didn’t have a problem with bending them to suit himself.
Besides, he was pretty sure that Holly could help him if she could rely on her own s
enses
rather than his.

“So be it.”
Jose stood near them as they both took from her offered wrist.
When they had both stepped back Jose picked up Anye and tossed her over his shoulder then looked over the people gathered around them.
“Kill the rogue.
I want her dead before the next rising.
And if you need to have more involvement of your new family then you will do well to tell them that they will answer to me if there is ever a word about this to anyone.”

“They will keep us safe.”
Phil didn’t even look at Austin when he growled.
He knew as surely as he was standing there that Austin would die before he gave him
up
.
CJ would kill him.
“I swear to you on my oath.”

Jose nodded once and disappeared.
Phil thought he heard Anye screaming as they misted out of sight.

Holly had her scent.
Not only that, but the blood she’d taken from the woman had made her feel euphoric, energized
,
and like she could take on the world.
She slowed in her movements as she felt Phil near her.
He entered her mind and she lay down to listen.

“Would you mind, oh
,
I don’t know, waiting for me?”
He sounded pissed and his next words confirmed it.
“Holly, so help me
,
when I catch up with you
,
I’m going to wring your pretty neck.”

She hadn’t thought
.
“I’m so sorry.
You have no idea how…do you feel it?”
She didn’t know what she was feeling really
,
just powerful along with everything else.
“Her blood is like a major hit to my system.
I couldn’t wait there any longer.”

“It will wear down.
But for now I need you to wait.
I’m coming to you
,
but so are your brothers.
And just so you know, Austin is not a very happy wolf either.”

She could feel his anger as he got closer.
Or she thought it was him.
But at the last second she could only watch as something, something incredibly fast
,
snatched him out of the air just before he reached her.

“Austin
!
”
she screamed in her head as he disappeared.
She moved toward where he’d gone only to come up against a large wall in the form of Phil.