William (14 page)

“No, they said you would see.” The boy tugged on her hand, pulling her back towards the clearing. She glanced back one final time before she was plunged into darkness…and into hell.

William shook her. She wouldn’t wake up. She wasn’t breathing. He was freaking out. He heard the banging on the door outside and didn’t care. He pulled the blanket around Katie, trying to keep her modest as the door splintered, torn off its hinges, and was thrown across the room.

Robert charged in first, followed by Sophie, the necromancer and Adam, then the rest of his family.

“She won’t wake up,” he cried, not caring that his family saw his tears; saw his weakness.

Robert walked over to the bed and tried to touch her. William hissed at him, prepared to strike.

“William, I was just feeling for a pulse.” Robert held his arms up in a pose of surrender.

“She’s not dead,” the necromancer whispered from the corner. She no longer had her cape around her and William welcomed her scars. The battle signs of a true warrior.

“Where is she?” he demanded.

“The dead have a spirit around them, like a black cloud. She doesn’t have one.” She pointed at Katie, then shrugged.

“Don’t fear, vampire.” Everyone in the room turned to look at the mirror.

William got up from the bed, not caring about his nakedness.

He approached the mirror. “Who are you?” he asked.

“I’m a friend.”

“Tara?” he asked.

“Katie isn’t one for secrets, then?”

William shook his head. “Not with me.”

“Wait and you shall see.”

The mirror returned to normal as Katie gasped back to life. William ran to her side, holding her as she took lungfuls of air.

“It was so horrible—they tortured him.” She cried out in pain as a red welt suddenly appeared on her back.

She screamed, releasing the energy of all she had just witnessed.

Everyone in the room gasped as they saw everything she had seen, every image of slaughter deadly and brutal within their minds. Most of them didn’t know what was happening, who they were seeing or what it meant, but each person saw it in their head.

William held Katie as the welt disappeared and she became calm as if nothing had changed.

“What the fuck?” Adam growled.

Don came into the room to look at Katie. “You’ve got her power. Abigail—Emma’s sister?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Katie mumbled.

“Yes, she has.” Tara appeared in the room as an unclear shadow.

“How is this possible?” Don asked. He’d seen some crazy shit in his time but this had taken the lead.

“Katie had to come back—it was destiny for her to take her role in this coming battle. As Emma killed all the witches of her bloodline, she absorbed their power. That power had to go somewhere when she died. Katie is the bearer, now, and as such she will need to get control; to gain stability,” Tara said.

“She’ll die with that much power,” Robert said.

“Only when William dies will Katie die. Let’s hope Katie has a child before then…” Tara started to leave but turned back. “Oh, and that little vision—that was a premonition of what’s to come.”

Tara disappeared, leaving behind a lot of questions.

Silence surrounded them as they looked at each other.

“This shit is real, isn’t it? We’re in a war where uncertainty reigns?” Jason asked.

“Yes,” Don answered.

“What have we just witnessed?” William questioned.

Don ran his hand over his face. He looked as though he had aged, just within the last few minutes.

“Every war has a point where it began—like a tipping point. That was the tipping point. Me and your father. Fuck. The entire council missed it.”

“Donald!” Mary said, disgusted with his language.

“Don’t, Mary. We fucking missed it and because we did, Robert is in the ground.” Don yelled. Mary stormed out of the room.

“Anyone who is not older than fucking sin please tell me what the hell is going on,” Adam shouted at the group.

“James killed the true Alpha of the Beyer West Pack. That was the tipping point. James is not a true werewolf. He’s a mongrel. Part werewolf, part human. By killing the true Alpha, he appointed himself the throne. Problem is, balance is everything. Without a true Alpha, the war begins.” Don took a breath, running his hand through his hair.

“How could you and Dad have missed this?” Robert asked.

“Because we thought Simon had appointed him, stepped down and died in battle.” Don yelled. He stormed out of the room, the others following.

Robert took Sophie by the hand and looked at William. “Study. Half an hour.”

William nodded.

As they left, Katie looked at the door.

“So much for our privacy.” William smiled, trying to bring some laughter to her eyes.

Katie looked at the door and chanted a small spell. Seconds later, the door was back in place as though nothing had happened.

“I knew you’d come in useful,” William said.

Katie laughed, hugging him to her.

She didn’t know where she would be if she didn’t have his arms wrapped around her, protecting her.

Chapter Fourteen

Poppy and Adam stood together in the study as they all waited for William to appear.

Everyone was stressed and it could clearly be seen. Don was on the hard whisky, slugging it from the bottle. Robert was pacing like a madman. Jason just looked out of the window, all of his anger locked up.

“Where the hell is he?” Jason burst out, losing control of his anger.

Poppy smiled. He obviously wasn’t holding it together very well.

Robert tried to calm his erratic brother. “He’s earned his time with his mate.”

“The one thing I’ve learnt as a necromancer is that the dead will stay where they are. Be patient,” Poppy said, attempting to reassure him.

“Listen to me, you filthy little necromancer…” He charged towards her and Poppy was ready to strike.

She was shocked when Adam stepped in, defending her.

“I’m sick of your pathetic whining. Get over it and get used to her being here.” Adam pulled him towards him by the scruff of his shirt before pushing him away, standing in front of her to protect her.

“What, are you going to mate with her?” Jason sneered.

“If I did, you’d show her some god damned respect,” Adam retorted.

William walked into the room.

“Where’s Katie?” Robert asked.

“She doesn’t want to be part of this and she’s tired.”

William closed the door behind him, acknowledging Poppy as he did so. If it wasn’t for him already being bonded, Poppy could imagine really falling for the guy. But Adam had been the first man to see past the scars. She glanced at Adam’s back for a fleeting second, wondering if he could see past them enough to see the woman dying to be loved.

Shaking her head at the silliness of it, she concentrated on what the group had to say.

“We need to find out what happened. We need to find the true alpha of the Beyer West pack,” William said.

“He’s dead. How can he help?” Jason queried.

“Because it all started with his death. We find him. We find our answers about how James was able to do this.” William relayed everything Katie had told him to. They needed to find the Alpha. They were on the right path.

“Well, that means me, then.” Poppy stepped forward, closer to the light.

“Why you?” Jason contained his anger but not his revulsion.

“I find dead people. How else are you going to find a really old, dead alpha without me—a necromancer?”

All the men looked at her.

“We should send a party,” Robert said.

“No, you shouldn’t.” Katie was standing at the door.

William moved to her side, supporting her.

“Poppy can go. There is no danger on this mission other than what she seeks. The rest of us are needed here. To protect Beyer West.”

Poppy saw how attentive William was towards Katie, and a small part of her yearned to have a man think like that about her.

“I’ll go with her.” Adam held up his hand. “I can keep up to date with you guys and be there as protection for Poppy if something does go wrong.”

They all nodded agreement.

“We leave tomorrow at sundown,” Adam said once the others had left.

“I could do this a lot faster without your help,” she argued.

He came closer, crowding her. “I’ll be there to protect you.”

Poppy gasped. No one had ever wanted to protect her before. He brought his palm up and stroked her cheek. She opened her eyes wide and struggled to find breath…then he was gone.

She touched her cheek in wonder. Maybe answering the call was going to open up a whole new world of possibilities.

* * * *

“Shouldn’t we stay behind?” Katie asked as William took her in his arms and escorted her up the winding staircase.

“Nope, they can handle everything else. I’m spending some time with my mate and trying to convince her about starting a wave of little vampire witches for the next generation,” he teased.

Within seconds he had them both naked and in bed, luxuriating in the heady feelings of each other.

“I don’t want you going through that again,” he said as they held each other.

“I signed on for this, William. I could have refused and then you’d be dead and I’d be alone with my guilt. This was my choice and I don’t regret a single decision I’ve made. That is a promise.” She took his lips, kissing the life out of him and showing how certain she was of the decisions she’d taken.

Katie moaned as her body responded to his, instantly coming to life and showing her how much she was attuned to him. She moved the sheet out of the way and looked at him, the glorious length of his cock sticking out to attention. She reached out and touched him. He arched up, crying out in ecstasy. She felt powerful as she held his heat within her palm and knew she could give him either pleasure or pain.

“You’re so soft,” she moaned as he grasped her hips and he placed her knees to either side of his head. Katie squealed as he penetrated her slit with his tongue. She ground her pussy against his face, instinct taking over. The sensations engulfed her. She looked down at his cock and knew what he wanted, what she wanted to do. She touched him again, feeling the pulsing life within her hand.

A small burst of light shone from the lamp and she got a visual of her head bobbing up and down in his lap. Katie smiled. Her pussy creamed against his face. She grabbed his cock and encircled the tip with her mouth, tasting his salty essence.

“Yes, take me in your mouth,” he encouraged her. Katie let the images take over, showing her what he wanted her to do and what he liked. She took him to the back of her throat and tasted him. Coming up to circle the tip with her tongue, then back down. His cock was slippery with her saliva.

“I want inside you,” he growled and, using that super vampire speed, he had her on her back and was embedded deep inside her before she had a chance to answer.

She laughed. “I was enjoying tasting you.”

“You can taste me any other time but I need to feel you now.” And he did.

William shocked her by changing position. He got her on her knees at the edge of the bed. “I’m going to show you everything.” He pressed his cock against her cunt from behind, the position wicked and exciting. When the tip stayed inside her, her grabbed her hips with his hands and, with more force than she was prepared for, he thrust inside her. She moaned and William growled. He dug his fingers into the flesh of her hips. She liked the way he was using her body, going as deep as he could, making her writhe from the sensation. It felt dirty and sexy and she loved it. He took them both to new heights neither had ever known existed.

They collapsed in a heap.

“Wouldn’t that be cool if we just made a baby,” Katie whispered into his ear. He groaned as he ground his hips against her. His cock already growing again at the thought of her being full and pregnant with his child.

“I’m keeping you forever,” he told her.

“You promise?” she asked.

“You are my life.”

They kissed, happy, at least in this moment where they were together and whole, perhaps with a new life starting within her body.

A precious piece of life—an extension of their love.

Epilogue

“What shall we do, sir?”

James looked at his minion, the lowlife not fit to be part of his new order. “I want those fucking Valentines destroyed and I want it doing now.”

The rest of the pack remained silent, waiting for him to give them their orders. He winced as the blood continued to trickle from his neck, refusing to congeal. He was dying, unless he could find the cure for a fucking pure-blood vampire bite.

The dirty vermin. They all needed to be destroyed.

“They’re searching for the original alpha, sir,” one of the human minions said from the floor.

James turned on her. “How do you know this?” he demanded.

The minion twisted her fingers together.

“I work as their cleaner. I’m seen and not heard, sir.”

James laughed, laughed and kept on laughing.

“Well, it looks like we have our entrance. I want those Valentines at my feet and then they’ll rue the day they questioned me.” James thought of the satisfaction he would feel to see all of the vampires killed. Annihilated.

Once he held the key, he would hold all the power, and he would use it. No one would defy him.

“Orders, sir?”

“Release Lewis to me.”

“Yes, sir.”

The minion scampered off. Lewis—the first and last son of the original alpha. Too bad the kid thought James was his father, and he was about to use him to his full potential.

James wanted the power so much that he would use anything at his disposal and he would use it as he saw fit.

“I’m here, father,” Lewis said as he came into the room. James could see the aura of power that surrounded him. The true Alpha was staring right at him. He growled and snapped.

It was time to remove the Valentine women from the equation.