Immortal Dreams (17 page)

"Still nothing," he says with frustration.

"This is ridiculous," Deke spews.  "How the hell did they leave L.A. without leaving a bit of a trail?  Are you sure this was the condo?"

"Positive.  What about Sierra?  Do you think she could pick up anything?"

Not unless she's a very gifted immortal.

Kane and his friends have no chance of finding us.  Hell, I don't even know exactly where we are.  I'm sick of keeping up.

"Doubtful.  She's had that damn cold going around and it's fucked up her smell.  We could ask Amy to help."

I get sick.  Just the mention of her name makes me snarl.

"I'm not asking Amy for anything.  I'll figure out something.  Call around, see if you can find-"

His voice cuts out, meaning someone just called him since he was mid-sentence.  I can't believe he's still looking for me.  The problem is, I wish he'd find me.

If I tell him where I am, and he comes, I have to feel guilty for dragging him around and risking his life.  If he finds me on his own, then I ... shit.  I would still feel guilty.  I have to keep him away.

––––––––

C
hapter Eleven

The moon casts its silvery glow through the window, making the hair on the back of my neck stand up.  A full moon always makes me jittery.  Night stalkers are so much stronger the brighter the moon is.  And mortal witches are a coveted delicacy of theirs.

Looking out the window, I find Thad wrestling with a lycan, as if they're playing.  It's all so frigging weird.

Then I feel a chill.  It's not from outside either.  I whip around to see the glowing blues in the corner as Rain stares at me.

"What the hell are you doing in my room?" I bark.

He smiles, his fangs sliding back in as he shrugs.

"Thad wanted me to see if you felt like training?"

Training?

"I don't train yet.  I'm still mortal.  Now get out of my room."

Within a blink, his hands are on me, restraining me.  I gasp, but no air enters my lungs as his eyes penetrate mine, locking me into place and proving he's older than he looks as he uses the ancient power.

"I thought Thad was lying.  He said you were already immortal, but I knew better."

I would scream if my lips would move, but he's frozen me, leaving me to his mercy as my stiff body protests my futile attempts to move.

"Unfortunately for you, that means wonders for me.  Your father... let's say he's owed this."

His fangs slither out, slowly drawing out the building dread in the pit of my stomach.  A tear breaks free to roll down my cheek, my only release of terror as he hovers over my body, his gaze leaving me defenseless... leaving me his prey.

"Damn," he says while pulling a lock of my hair to his face and breathing it in.  "You smell so good... so strong."

I've only ever suffered this frozen state of terror twice, and I almost died both times.  This time, there's not a healing room or a group of witches capable of the spells it would take to bring me back.

"Your father thought it funny to kill the woman I had turned - the woman I loved.  He said he had to remind me who was in charge.  I think it's time I show him what happens when you take someone from somebody - you lose someone you love, too."

Just as his chilled breath finds my neck, the door bursts open, and the cold blooded bastard is yanked off of me and thrown out the window as Thad walks toward me.

"Are you okay?" he growls, his eyes not moving off the night stalker who is still trying to figure out what just happened.

I just nod while grabbing my throat, checking for punctures, and then he drops into a hawk and zooms out the window.  I wobble up and gaze out to see him changing into a tiger - a white, beautiful tighter - before leaping onto the back of Rain, his teeth shredding the skin of the stalking asshole.

"Kick his ass, Thad," one of the girl changers cheers.

"What the hell is going on?" one of the night stalkers interjects, and then the chatter rises to urge on the brutal fight.

"Alyssa?" Frankie murmurs while stepping into my room.  "What the hell?"

I don't answer as I stare out and wince when the night stalker digs his fangs into Thad's shoulder, and red stains the white fur.  He roars out his pain, changing into a white, majestic lion, and suddenly the fight shifts again as he takes over.

The night stalker wails into the darkness, and though he's stronger at night, Thad's apparently older, more in control, and one hell of a force to be reckoned with.  The lion roars louder, and suddenly red paints the white snow under their bodies as the night stalker goes limp - a chew toy for the fierce kitty with a bad temper.

"Shit.  Did he just kill a night stalker?" Frankie gasps in disbelief.

"Yeah," I almost whisper, feeling my whole body growing a little numb from the adrenaline overload.

"He's stronger than any changer I've ever seen to take on a night stalker under the full moon.  That's when they're at their damn strongest."

"I know," I murmur, still stunned as the lion shifts into Thad, and then he limps toward the house.

I rush out of the bedroom and into the living room just as he comes in, and a girl offers him a towel to cover up his... bare lower half.

He takes it, but he doesn't wrap up before collapsing to the chair, his shoulder bleeding profusely as he wearily pants his painful breaths.

"Thad," I murmur guiltily while kneeling down to examine the terrible gash.

"I'll be fine.  I just need some blood, some sleep, and some solid food," he strains out.

"I'll get the blood," one girl chirps, disappearing seconds later.

The others disperse, and one begins clanking pans to start cooking him something.  I cover up his lower half with a blanket that had been tossed across the back of the couch.

"A naked man's body really bothers you, doesn't it?" he jokes, but then he winces when his laughter proves to hurt.

I grimace while shaking my head.

"I can't believe you survived a night stalker under the full moon... under any moon for that matter," I murmur softly, ignoring his comment.

"I told you I wouldn't let someone touch you and get away with it.  If I hadn't gone all day without blood, I wouldn't have even gotten a scratch."

"Why'd you go all day without blood?" I ask as one girl brings him a bottle full of it.

He rises up slowly, wincing the whole way, and then he starts sipping.  After a few guzzles, he pulls it back from his lips to answer me.

"Drinking blood under a full moon makes me a lot stronger, but it also keeps me up all night.  I prefer to sleep... unless I have a reason to be up all night," he says, ending on a menacing note.

I let a ghost of a smile free, and then I stand to my feet.

"I'm going to go get you some clothes," I say while walking toward his room.

"Just shorts please.  I'll be burning up all night now that I'm drinking this with that out there," he says, pointing at the full moon glowing through the window.

I nod, and then disappear into the room.  After I grab him some shorts, I decide to change myself.  I feel creepy now that I've been almost violated by the night stalker.

When I walk into my room, I shiver.  The damn broken window has let all of nature's chill settle inside.

"Crap."

I start to use my magic to reassemble the shattered pieces when a shadow appears around me.  Nausea strikes, but before I can scream for help, a hand clamps over my mouth, and we evaporate into the wind.

Blurs, streaks, and glimpses of the world pass me by as we travel through the forest.  Dizziness rules me, and my heart feels like it's going to explode.  Tears are stripped from my eyes by the winds, and every second I'm a part of the air, I feel closer to death.

Finally, I feel the ground beneath me as I crash to it, being freed from whatever dark user just took me.

I rock up to my knees, and then I expel the contents of my stomach as the dizziness starts to feel more like drunkenness.

"It'll pass.  I know how to carry people through the planes without killing them," a voice says from behind.

I try to focus in on it, but I can't see the face.  The images and colors are so distorted that I feel like I'm trying to see a face at the end of a Kaleidoscope.

"Who are you?" I choke out before hurling out more liquid.

I hear the chatter of the leaves as the unseen dark one walks around, circling me, as he watches me in my humbled state.

"Someone who doesn't feel like being framed for the disappearance of your mother," the guy's smooth voice says, and the shadow moves to my side.

I feel a hand on my back, and then my sickness subsides before clarity comes to life.  My body stabilizes, bringing me back to normal.

I whip around, falling back to my ass, and then I scammer backwards.

"Calm down," he says, his dark hair a little longer, tousled by the wind in a sexy sort of way.

Damn bad boys.

“Calm down?  You've got to be kidding me," I scoff, praying my voice is loud enough to reach Thad or Frankie.  Then I recognize him - the eyebrow ring, the dark hair, the mysterious beauty.  Oh shit.  "You're the guy from the diner.  You sat in the corner and used the free Wifi."

He smirks, running his hand through his hair.  "I was keeping an eye on you.  It would have seemed odd if I just sat there drinking coffee."

"Keeping an eye on me?  You had to have heard that night stalker threatening me that night, yet you did nothing.  You were probably hoping he'd drain me dry, or you were planning to kill me yourself before Frankie and Kane showed up."

Shit
.  I shouldn't have said Kane's name aloud. 
Damn it.

His head drops back and he releases an exasperated sigh.

"I wouldn't have let him touch you.  I stayed until closing, and then I watched to make sure you made it back to your home, untouched.  If I wanted you dead, I've had ample opportunity to kill you.  I'm here as a friend, for now.  My people are not responsible for your mother's disappearance, so you need to call off your flock of killers."

Say huh?

"My flock of killers?" I ask in bemusement.  "I don't have a flock of killers, and I don't believe you don't have my mother.  You're the only ones with a true vendetta and the resources to take someone as strong as she is."

He snorts derisively.  "Your mother has pissed off a lot of immortals.  That's what happens when you're a strong witch - you make enemies.  Your killers are attacking innocent dark users."

I let out an incredulous laugh while standing to my feet, readying myself to fight.

"Innocent dark users?  That's an oxymoron if I've ever heard one."

His eyes narrow when he takes offense, and I silently start reminding myself I'm still not immortal.  I'm an idiot to provoke him.

"Don't be such a fool.  Dark users are no different from you, except we harness black magic and live of our own free will.  Not everyone who joins dark are vicious killers.  Most of us just don't like the rules set up by the hypocritical light council.  They think they rule you once you've chosen light, and yet they might as well be dark themselves.  They'll condemn you to death for breaking the rules, but they'll abandon you when you need them most.  Tell me I'm wrong."

He has me there.  The light council isn't what it was designed to be, but that doesn't make me trust a dark user.

"If not you, then who?"

"Who has your mother?  I don't know, but I would know if her disappearance was related to my kind.  No one wants to pick a fight with you or your father.  You're not far from your immortality, and we're not the only ones afraid of what you'll be able to do.  Have you ever thought this might not be about your mother at all, but you instead?"

"Me?" I squeak, an overwhelming surge of questions burning through me.  "Why would they go after someone as powerful as my mother when I'm still not changed?  And how the fuck do you know who my father is?"

"I have my ways of knowing things, though I can't believe he'd give you access to these killing machines destroying my people right now.  Whoever this is went after your mother because if they swooped in and took you, your father would surely get involved.  Whoever this is could be using her as a means to get to you without alerting your father of their true intentions."

I shake my head as sense comes to me.  "No, they want something my mother has.  A group of night stalkers attacked me, and one of them wanted to know where
it
is.  I assumed they were working with you."

This time he lets out a mocking laugh.

"Our people don't work with night stalkers, at least not on sanctioned missions.  If one of our kind is involved, they're not aligned with the dark council.  I can assure you of that.  As for the things your mother protects, there's a long list.  She's the strongest of the light, so they've tasked her with a great deal of their possessions.  However, you might want to consider the black diamond of Roth."

"The what?"

"It's a powerful gem that can destroy or create.  In the hands of the wrong user - light or dark - it could easily suck all the life from the world.  The gem was too powerful to be entrusted to anyone else.  Even we agreed with that."

His soft blue eyes are almost convincing.  His tall, lean body moves closer, and my breath catches in my throat as his true beauty is shown under the full streak of light cast by the moon.

"Your mother is also respected by our people.  You should know that we'd never seek to cause her harm when unprovoked."

I force myself to counter, though his beauty still calls for my attention.

"Your
people
tried to kill me when I was-"

"In our domain, near our root of power?" he interrupts, sounding condescending and bitter.  "They were protecting our tree just as you would yours.  You even demolished many of our men for doing so."

I take a step back, bringing my wandering eyes back up to meet his.

"That wasn't us.  A band of night stalkers and lycans stepped in and saved us."

He tilts his head, and then he glances toward the house I can no longer see.