Three’s a Clan (11 page)

Chapter Nineteen

Shelly

I needed a way to erase the smell that saturated my skin. They were all over me. I was being beaten up with pheromones and I wasn’t a damn wolf. The Family mansion was up ahead. The gardens weren’t in bloom, but I headed to the back of the house anyway. The flowers needed tending, the brush cut back, and none of this really mattered.

The maintenance schedule and gardening staff pay rates clicked around my consciousness. I hated the miasma. Why the damn magic picked my brain, I will never know. Everyone in the Family considered the role of Protector to be a great honor. Everyone but me. I skated under the radar most of the time. I had a way to get around things I didn’t agree with before Jake left.

Now? Now the Matheo had me by my lady balls. The miasma tied itself to a vampire and the Matheo. It was almost like a Pack. I felt submissive to dear old Dad. I bent to his will, even when I wasn’t around him. If I tried to fight him, I got really uncomfortable. Imagine a junkie being withheld from his fix. The withdrawal and compulsion to go back was a familiar feeling lately. Add in two werewolves dripping in sex pheromones, and I was a nuclear bomb with a short fuse. Funny thing was, when I was surrounded by Trevor and Richard, an explosion sounded amazing.

My clit throbbed and reminded me that just because I’d gotten off, I was nowhere near satisfied. I needed to feed. For the first time, I thought about trying to access the Matheo’s witch stash for more than the need to tear apart the harvesting ring he was a part of.

Movement behind the herb garden caught my flighty attention. What was that? With all the factions running amok around here, it was hard telling what lurked in these gardens. As long as it wasn’t a Bigfoot I had enough energy to take anyone on. My pace increased.

The thoughts of a fight, of causing someone else pain, taking out the endless frustration, beating the ever-loving crap out of another being—those thoughts propelled me toward the herb garden. A cold breeze was all I had to attack. Beating down my chilled skin didn’t hold the same appeal. Forget it.

The first floor windows were lit up. Noise filtered out from every direction. Someone was raiding the blood stash and complaining about the lack of organization. A few were whispering about the fact that Steven and Matthew still weren’t home. The den harbored an argument over future decorating, the Matheo’s office held a select few members of our Family discussing strategy for the battle my father had convinced many others was coming. The word
allies
was what stood out for me.

The Matheo had plenty of
allies
. He was compelling them. He was drinking from them. He was harvesting them.

They weren’t soldiers. They weren’t even mercenaries, paid for their services. He had slaves. As someone who lived long enough to see what happened through many rounds of slavery in many different countries, one would think the Matheo would know that an uprising was coming. It always did.

The second floor of the house leveled with a large sturdy oak tree. Three branches reached toward the siding. Over the last few months, this tree held my footprints more heavily than the steps to the front door. Dealing with reality was much less desirable than a few splinters. Sure, the wood hurt like hell, and I needed extra blood to heal, but it was better than having to go through my Daddy complex now that the miasma stole my brain.

I hissed as the first splinter sunk into my palm. The deep red blood puddled. Vampire blood didn’t flow as easily as a human’s. So while the wood hurt like backwoods dentistry, I wouldn’t die from it. If there was someone wandering the gardens, they were staying out of sight. Without someone to act as my punching bag, I’d have to settle for doing battle with my tree.

My window was open. I had left through the same route. It meant no one had come through to clean. Our maid service wasn’t taking care of my room again. The miasma dinged and I knew I wouldn’t forget to call and complain come morning. I let the plotting, the arguing, and the sex sounds filter up to me. I knew where everyone in my Family was. I didn’t know where the people the Matheo had harvested were being kept. I thought I’d felt something awful for a moment while they were rescuing Kari, but the stupid tainted blood made me second guess myself. By the time I made it out to clear their path, whatever I’d sensed was gone.

I reached for the mini-fridge beneath my desk. My black water bottle got a shake before I took a swig.

A ding from my cell phone had me grabbing the blasted device before hopping on my bed. The message was short and not at all sweet.

You need to be at this meeting. 8am. You know where. Try not to fuck my Dad before then. I don’t want to hug him while he stinks with mate pheromones. I don’t hate you.

My thumbs began the dance of texting back, even though I knew it was useless.

You might change your mind when you get all the information.

I didn’t expect the message to go through. I also didn’t expect an answer. The game must have changed since the happy couple was here for the fight.

Just because I won’t call you Mom doesn’t mean you can’t make him happy. Both hims.

She knew. I was the all-knowing secret-keeper, and a twice turned hybrid had sniffed me out. I was in trouble. This secret was getting harder and harder to contain.

I will give myself away. I can’t get near them again.

Another pause, before the message dinged back at me. I threw the phone across the room. A sound of shattering plastic and glass would have been satisfying. Instead, it hit a giant comfy chair. The screen glared at me for far too long before the backlight faded.

If you don’t go to them, they’ll come for you. Figure it out, or they’ll break down the door.

She was right. I either showed up and got the stink on me, or they would come here, and I would get a pheromone air freshener. Vampires weren’t as adept at sniffing people out as werewolves, but two strong heartbeats would be pretty damn noticeable. I had to make this move along faster.

The miasma started my brain toward an epic checklist. I looked at my jeans. There was a large sliver of bark still stuck in the threads below my knee. I pulled the wood free. The miasma started cataloging when the tree was planted, what the best time to fertilize it was, what insect life was attracted to it…it didn’t catalog how the pain would help me forget I was the Protector.

I stabbed my palm. I panted with the pain. My lungs filled and I pumped my heart to move the blood in my body toward the wound.

No. I was not going to be one of those people who became abusive toward themselves. I had to do something else. Images of the Paulson weres danced around me. I masturbated until I passed out.

The last thing I remembered was wishing I wasn’t alone.

I don’t usually dream, but here I was anyway. I felt out of control and it pissed me off. It’s a shame that fangs aren’t tangible in a dream world. Biting someone sounded fun.

When I saw who was responsible for bringing me here, I had to temper myself a bit. Amber’s little witch stood alone in a room.

“Mary.”

“Shelly.”

We both looked around. It couldn’t be just me being invited to this party. Mary never had anything to say to me if it didn’t involve her mate or her Alphas. Sure enough, a swirl of energy collected and solidified between us. Amber uncurled from all fours and stood looking around. In true form, words weren’t lost on her.

“Mary,” Amber yelled her feelings about the situation. “I was having a damn good dream. It was that one where I had three of Jake, and all of the hims were helping me discover new positions.” At both my and Mary’s obvious recoil she slapped her palms to the sides of her ridiculous pajama pants. I will never understand the grown woman’s obsession with Spongebob. “Well if you didn’t want to hear about it, you shouldn’t have walked in my dream.”

“I didn’t do this.” Mary’s brow wrinkled. “I was asleep too.”

Both women looked at me.

I couldn’t believe no one was taking blame for this. “I’m the only one who’s not a hybrid freak. This isn’t a vampire power.”

The new voice that penetrated our intimate gathering was jarring. The bubble around us vibrated and pushed the pressure against our forms. Kari spoke, but she was so far away. “I wouldn’t be so sure of yourself… Shelly, is it?”

It was a shock to see her image flicker like it did. Amber, Mary and I were all solid. If I didn’t know better, we could have all been meeting in the real world. Kari was ghostly.

“Kari, you are still weak. I don’t know why you used your power to bring us here, but don’t do it again. Tell us what you need to and then save your energy.” Tears fell from Mary’s face, but never hit the floor. They didn’t exist past her body.

Mary ran until she hit some invisible force. She tried to get to her mentor, but pushing against our little bubble didn’t feel right. It…made my head ache.

The voice that came to our bubble was garbled. This Kari was weak. My soul hurt when I realized what she had gone through just a few dozen feet below me. She had been the one whose blood was given for our stash, and seeing the results made me want to wretch.

“If I don’t make it, I have still done what I need to. And I didn’t bring any of you here. If I did, I would be inside that shell. You are linked. Sometimes a sister witch would bring strength, sometimes thoughts, but whoever called this circle wanted me here, but separate.”

Kari was right. This felt like a circle. I had a strange relief at being inside with Mary and Amber, but right behind that relief was confusion.

“I’m not a witch.” I reminded her. “Neither is Amber. Why are we inside the bubble?”

A different voice entered. “Because you have new magic. You both do. Otherwise it could never have brought you here. You have to figure out how to use it. It’s not easy to see outside the spirit plane.”

Another apparition came into focus. This dream was getting crowded.

But this woman could pierce the circle without trouble. She moved with a floating quality. None of us were standing on
anything
, but the way she moved it seemed she’d forgotten how feet feel on the ground. Her hand touched Kari before she was completely inside our space.

“I had to come, dear, because I can lend my strength to your soul in this realm. We will have to return in a moment.”

The pressure around me changed when she breached our protective circle. The woman was tall. She wore simple clothing from another time. It was all beige. Normally the lack of color would have made for a plain woman, but no one with eyes could describe this woman as plain. Deep brown hair fell down her back in long soft waves. Curvy in all the right places, she was one of those natural beauties that nowadays we would have assumed had some work done.

Her hands tucked into a small half apron she wore snug at her waist. I would have continued my perusal if it weren’t for Amber. The strong snarky hybrid who I had watched fight her way back from death was on her knees.

“Mom?”

Well, this was awkward. Our new buddy was the dead wife of the guy I had gotten naked with earlier today. Nothing says
great to meet you
like the scent of penis from a gal’s husband on your breath. Luckily, she was distracted by her daughter. I would have left and let them have their moment, but I couldn’t. I had no idea how to leave, and the sick part of me that was controlled by the miasma was taking notes on dream walking, ghost communication, and witch circles.

“Sweetie, I would hold you if I could. I am so proud of what you have become, and of all the wonderful things you are destined to do. The people you are destined to lead. You have so much ahead of you.” Her gaze encompassed Mary and me. “You all do. I am here to show you this. You don’t seem to be figuring it out on your own and we’re running out of time.”

Lily touched the invisible wall that held us all rooted to a room on nothing.

“I don’t understand. We are all in a circle. Who cast it? Who called the corners? The only time I have felt this before was when I was with that coven. It’s a circle of power. Magic. It’s witch magic.” Mary was rambling. Her words were racing to catch up to her. She understood something. Bully for her. The ghostly wife left her mumbling with a twitch of her plump lips. The chick turned for me next.

I tried to wave her off. “You can go hang with your kid, lady. I don’t want to separate a mother from her daughter.”

“How about you shut up and listen while I still have the power to hold us here. You know you are all in a circle. You were all drawn to each other. Why do you think that is?” She wasn’t the sweet little thing I had in my mind. My fists itched to deck the broad. I respected her more. I always respected people who could agitate me to the point of violence.

“Mom, why are you here? Why now? And why are my Clan member and my vamp-in-law?” Amber was over her meltdown. Thank gods. If I had to go through a mother-daughter love fest, I might lose my lunch.

I thought Lily might turn to her daughter. I thought she might comfort Amber and spill the whole shebang. Instead she kept her luminous eyes on me. They were a plain brown, without a hint of supernatural fire. But she had lasers trained on me.

“When did you lose your mother, Shelly? What did the Matheo tell you about her?”

I stepped back. The protection of the circle pressed to my spine. I felt the power that was used to create it. There was something strange about it. “I never knew my mother. The Matheo raised me. I know he’s not exactly citizen of the year, but don’t worry. I know right from wrong. He was never a father.”

She laughed. The sound set my nerves buzzing. “Didn’t you ever wonder who your mother was? After all these hybrids started to come about, didn’t you wonder what could be in your DNA?”

“My DNA is composed of a glorious combination of smart, self-preservation, and bitch. Who gave birth to me holds no impact on who I am.”

When your father is the big bad in the world, you need to distance yourself just a bit.

“There’s more than one hybrid in this circle. Or should I say, there’s more than two?”