The Wolf Within (21 page)

“The vampire’s name is Jason Trent.” I said, lifting my chin. “What’s the Retreat?”

“Where we go for full moon. It’s private.”

She obviously wasn’t going to say anything else in front of Jase and I’d probably pushed her far enough for one conversation. “Okay, then I accept.”

Ani smiled tightly. “Good.”

“There’s one more thing,” Jase said just as the door banged open.

“What?” I asked before Dan stormed through the door. He headed straight for me.

“Ash,” he said, almost a breath and before I could do anything he hauled me against me and kissed me.

Pleasure roared through me.

Without thinking I opened my mouth and Dan took me over, kissing me hard and hungry like he’d never thought he’d kiss me again.

Which was, the rational part of my mine pointed out, exactly what he
should
have been thinking. Holding tight to the last shreds of my common sense, I ignored exactly how good his mouth felt on mine, the instinct to wrap myself around him and the ripples of pleasure spreading through my body, put both hands against his chest and
shoved
.

To my shock, he actually moved back a few steps.

“What the hell was that?” I demanded, folding my arms across my chest and trying to focus as the aftershocks of his kiss still hummed through me.

“Hello?” he said, rubbing his chest as if I’d actually made an impression.

Okay, I was stronger. Something else to file away. I contemplated socking him again, just to see how strong but decided Ani and Jase would probably try and stop me. Plus hitting him would mean touching him and if one kiss could scramble my brain then touching him in any way was
not
a good idea. It didn’t matter how good his kisses felt. He’d
bitten
me. “I told you I didn’t want to see him,” I said to Ani. “You’re his Alpha. Leash him.”

Ani made a ‘what can I do’ gesture. “I can’t stop him seeing you in his official capacity.”

Official? He was here for the Taskforce? I doubted it. I narrowed my eyes at Ani, then turned my attention to Dan. “You kiss everyone in your
official
capacity, Special Agent Gibson?”

His mouth twisted. “Christ, Ashley, give me a break.”

“No.” I said bluntly. “Get out.”

He ignored me. “Did you tell her yet?” he said to Jase.

God. Not Jase as well. I couldn’t cope with him being on the Ashley and Dan bandwagon on top of everything else. I fixed Jase with a laser beam stare. “He sent you in?”

“No, I wanted to see you.” But there was a guilty flash in his eyes and I knew Daniel had suborned him in some way.

“Remind me to bite you if I do change,” I snapped then I turned back to Daniel. “Why are you still here?”

“There’s something else you need to do before you go with Ani,” Daniel said.

“What?”

He nodded at Jase. “You explain.”

Jase looked reluctant but came over to me. “It’s about Tate.”

I ignored the cold that swept over me but did sit back down on the bed. “I already told them all about Tate.”

“Yeah, you did. And you said he thralled you.”

Jase’s voice was gentle but I couldn’t look at him or anyone else in the room. Suddenly my anger died leaving room for the shame of exactly what I’d let Tate do to me. And how I’d enjoyed it. “Yes. But he released me.” I wrapped my arms around myself. I’d won. I’d
survived
. That’s what I had to remember.

“He
said
he released you,” Jase said.

My head snapped up. “What do you mean? He released me. I felt it.”

“Yeah but he could’ve done something while you were thralled, left some subconscious command.”

Oh God. Another charming vampire power I knew nothing about. “You mean like hypnotism? I’m going to start clucking like a chicken if someone says carrot or something?”

“More like brainwashing,” Dan said. “And it’s unlikely to be something as innocent as chicken dancing.”

Shit.
Tate
could be lurking in my mind. I had the sudden urge to scrub my brain out with Clorox. But that wasn’t possible. “How do we know if he did? Can your guys take care of it?”

Dan shook his head. “None of the Taskforce vamps are strong enough.”

“Then what?” My voice rose a few notes. If Tate had done something to my mind, I wanted it fixed.
NOW
.

“Lord Marco could do it,” Jase said.

My stomach rolled and I stopped breathing for a moment. Lord Marco Sebastiani was an Old One. They wanted me to see an Old One. Not just any vampire but the oldest one in Seattle, the head of the largest lineage. Jase’s lineage. Effectively the ruler of the vampires in this city
No. No. No
.

“No.” I managed to gasp when I got my breath back.

“Ashley, you have to.” Dan crossed his arms. “Tell her, Ani.”

“Lord Marco is okay,” Jase added.

Okay was not the word I would use to describe an ancient vampire. The thought of any vampire was bad enough but the Old Ones got to be Old Ones because they were the most powerful. Marco could take me as easily as Tate had. Probably even faster. And, even if he did seem to be one of the more civilized Old Ones, based on what I’d seen of him on TV and read about him, he’d spent plenty of years living the more traditional vamp lifestyle.

“No,” I said again as a shiver crawled across my skin.

“Daniel is right, Ashley,” Ani said softly. “You can’t be trusted if Tate has planted something in your mind. We’d have to lock you up.”

“But we don’t know if he has,” I argued, heart beating furiously. “He said he released me.”

“You’re trusting Tate now?” Dan asked sarcastically.

“He kept to our agreement,” I retorted.

“He beat you up and tried to turn you,” Dan roared. I could smell him, clearer than ever and just as clearly I could smell the anger rising within him, rousing the wolf.

I just didn’t care.

“And you bit me. You’re the one who actually changed me,” I yelled back. “So why should I listen to you?”

Dan’s eyes went that silver glass shade and I knew I’d hurt him. I couldn’t really bring myself to care all that much but it hurt me too, just a little.

“Because I’m trying to save your life,” he said in a flat no-arguments tone. “I don’t care if I have to tie you up and drag you there, but you are going to see Marco.”

“You and whose army?” I snarled.

“That would be mine,” Ani said and we both snapped our heads round to face her. Suddenly her scent seemed much stronger. “Daniel is right. I won’t let you endanger the pack. You will see Marco.”

“I didn’t ask to join your stupid pack,” I said even as my determination not to see Marco faded a little.

“I know you’re upset, Ashley,” Ani said evenly. “So you get a few breaks. But you’re acting like a child. Why would you want to carry the touch of a vampire inside your head? The fact you are arguing about this only suggests that Tate has indeed left his mark. You cannot come amongst the pack until it is gone. And believe me, you need to be with pack right now.” Her tone held a rumbling edge that drained the protests out of me. It made me want to sit up straighter and do as I was told.

Not my favorite feeling. It was bad enough when Bug did it but she, at least, had earned the right. Ani the elf hadn’t. Not yet. “I—”

“Silence,” Ani snapped. “You will go with Daniel and Jason to see Marco. Then they will bring you to our house. If you refuse then I have plenty of wolves who will assist Daniel in enforcing my will.”

Go willingly or be carried kicking and screaming. That message was coming through loud and clear. Nobody was going to tie me up again, that was for sure. “Fine,” I said. “We’ll go see Marco. Once the doctor clears me.”

“Excellent,” Ani said with a smile that had a distinct feral edge. She turned to the boys. “Perhaps you two should wait outside while I help Ashley get ready to leave.”

Jase and Dan both made a beeline for the door and Ani turned her smile on me. “Let’s get you ready. And then we can have a little chat about pack rules.”

Oh great. A pissed off alpha and an Old One. This was going to be a fun, fun day.

***

Ani’s lecture on pack etiquette was still ringing in my ears when I climbed into the back of Dan’s Jeep an hour later. The woman could give Bug lessons on how to make you feel like an idiot. I crossed my arms over my chest as we pulled out of the hospital parking lot and refused to look at either Jase or Dan.

Neither of them seemed very interested in starting a conversation so a chilly silence reigned in the car as we negotiated our way into Magnolia.

Just when it was becoming unbearable, Dan turned into a driveway and stopped the car. The way forward was blocked by tall iron gates and he lowered the window to speak into the intercom.

“Lord Marco’s done well for himself, then,” I said sarcastically to Jase as we drove slowly down a long paved drive lined with giant oaks.

“He’s an Old One,” Jase said, as if that were enough.

“What’s he like?” I asked, trying to prepare myself for whatever lay ahead.

“He’s okay for an Old One,” Jase said. “But he won’t put up with the sort of stuff you pulled on Ani.”

I’d already figured that much out. Ani had barely put up with what I’d pulled on Ani, and I got the impression the main reason she hadn’t kicked my butt was because I hadn’t changed yet. A vampire wouldn’t care about that. I intended to be scrupulously polite and get the hell out of there as fast as I could. I might want to die but I’d promised Bug I’d wait a year. So no doing anything suicidal like offending an Old One.

Daniel pulled the car up in front of the house when we reached the end of the drive. It wasn’t as big as I’d imagined from the grounds. Don’t get me wrong, it was big but it wasn’t the sort of huge Queen Anne style mansion I’d expected. Instead it was a sprawling white house with arched windows and a red-tiled roof. Dark green vines with tiny white blooms twined up columns and over the archways and red geraniums flourished in tubs leading up the stairs to the front door. It all looked vaguely Spanish or Italian or something.

Out of place in rainy old Seattle, that was for sure.

If there hadn’t been an Old One inside waiting to meet me, I would’ve liked it a lot better. I gripped the handle of the car door, not wanting to move another inch. Unless it was to run back down the drive and the hell away from here. I tried to breathe. It didn’t help. “How about I just stay here and you two can go inside?”

“Don’t joke around, Ashley,” Dan said impatiently.

I wasn’t exactly joking, I was starting to feel hot and vaguely sick at the thought of walking into a vampire’s house.

Shade sails made of UV proof fabric guarded half the drive and the path up to the house, making it safe for vampires to walk during the day. Which only emphasized that there
were
vampires inside. Sweat started to trickle down my back.

Dan and Jase climbed out of the car and headed toward the stairs, then stopped and turned back as one when they realized I wasn’t following.

Jase came back over to the Jeep. “What’s the matter?”

“Maybe this is too soon,” I said through clenched teeth, still clinging to the door handle.

“You don’t really have a choice,” Jase said. “C’mon, boss. Out of the car.”

I tried to open the door, I really did, but my body wouldn’t obey my mind. It knew exactly what was inside that pretty white house and it didn’t want any part of it.

“Ashley, stop kidding around.” Dan grabbed the door and pulled it open, almost yanking my arms off in the process. Only my seatbelt kept me from tumbling out onto the drive.

“I’m not,” I said honestly.

He looked from my hands to my face. “What’s going on?”

“Oh, you know, just having a disagreement between my feet and my brain.” I tried again to breathe deeply but my heart pounded like I was running a marathon and I couldn’t quite catch my breath.

“About what?” His voice had dropped to a low, soothing tone.

“About whether I’ll die if I go into that house.”

“Who’s winning?” He moved a step closer and put his hands over mine, stroking the knuckles.

“At this point, it’s kind of fifty-fifty.” I closed my eyes and sucked in another breath, focusing on his skin sliding over mine. Dan’s hands were warm and my grip loosened a little as he kept rubbing mine. For a moment I forgot how angry I was with him as the fear started to ease.

“Anything I can do?” Dan said, fingers still moving in slow waves that felt just a little too good.

“Distract me.”

“I could sing,” Jase offered. “You know. . . .” and he burst into the opening lines of
Climb Every Mountain
.

The incongruity of a vampire singing
The Sound of Music
made me giggle and Dan managed to unlock my fingers from the handle and slide them free. They closed around his arm instead and I didn’t try and let go.

“Listen to me,” he said softly. “I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you.”

“Neither am I,” Jase said, breaking off his song. “We have safe passage here.”

Whatever that meant. But I felt better. I wasn’t alone here. I wasn’t trapped. So I was just going to walk the hell in there under my own steam and let Marco kick Tate out of my head once and for all.

Chapter Sixteen

Jase had picked the wrong song.
A Few of My Favorite Things
would’ve been more appropriate. Wasn’t that the one they sang to distract themselves from fear?

Somehow I didn’t think imagining raindrops and kittens was going to work in this situation. I stood behind Dan and Jase as Dan rang the doorbell and tried to convince myself I was safe.

I wasn’t buying it. My heartbeat sounded loud in my ears. I wondered why Dan and Jase weren’t deafened by it.

The door swung open and a very human servant with, from what I could see, a bite-free neck, ushered us inside.

I looked around to distract myself. The foyer of the house was almost as big as my entire office suite. The white walls were hung with huge and colorful landscapes. A intricate mosaic of various creatures cavorting amongst flowers covered the floor. Not at all what I’d pictured. Weren’t vamp dens meant to be all dark walls and red velvet?