After Dawn, What Came Next

Hugging Carter was simply too awkward. Ray settled for a clap on the back. He wasn’t gentle about it and caught the flare of annoyance in Carter’s eyes. Carter was not a toucher. He was strictly hands off unless he was kicking your ass or snacking on your vein and neither was very appealing to Ray. He had vampire blood in his system. That explained a lot of things. His speed. His strength. The weird blue rings around his irises. His ability to see people beyond the flesh and bone that made them. He’d gotten those things from Carter…from his dad. “I’m glad I know.”

Carter pulled a crocheted throw out of the blanket chest at the end of his bed. He ran his hand over the ornate handwork. Leigh had thought he needed a present for his birthday. He couldn’t imagine how many hours the blanket had taken her to make. She had been so sick at the time. Crocheting her way through chemotherapy and trying to hang on long enough to finish the blanket for him. “I am too.”





















































Chapter 64

Cat watched Christian sleep. He curled up like a comma on his side and burrowed down deep under the blankets. He snored, but it was the most adorable sound she had ever heard in her life. She wondered where everybody else was sleeping tonight and thanked her lucky stars that nobody had intruded on her. Her body was light as air and her spirits soaring. Becoming a woman really didn’t make her any different than she had ever been, but somehow, she felt different.

Christian’s blood surged through her system. His dreams were calm and serene as beach at dawn. She didn’t require nearly as much sleep as an ordinary human. Just a couple of hours and her batteries would be completely recharged. Dawn was about to break the horizon. She could feel the sunlight tingling across her metaphysical skin. She always, always knew what time of day it was and she always, always knew her way home. She couldn’t get lost or lose track of time like a human could. Nothing much ever took her by surprise, but last night had.

She hadn’t thought it would be as wonderful as it was. The spontaneity of it, the heat of their two bodies colliding together, and the amazing release…that tingly feeling… that feeling that you were going to die if something didn’t happen…right then and there. Her head still reeled from it. She rested her chin on her knees and ruffled the pale ends of Christian’s hair to gently rouse him.

Facing her friends wouldn’t be easy. Only having to deal with Cole would be worse…not as bad as facing her dad, but bad enough. Cole was a fully fledged warrior. He would blame himself for her deflowering, that he hadn’t protected her. Even though he couldn’t have exactly prevented it. She’d have to be careful and keep a wary eye on Cole. Protect Christian from him and more importantly, from her father. It was a bitter truth she really didn’t want to face. Christian was helpless in her world unless she did the unthinkable and did something drastic about it.

Cat wished she had a crystal ball and could see far off into the distant future. She had found a deck of tarot cards in a resale bin years ago and brought them home. Her dad had scoffed at the idea that a deck of cards could tell the future. Not even Alex with her direct line to the Goddess could know everything. The future wasn’t in black and white, but varying shades of gray. One thing…one teeny-tiny ripple in a pond could change everything. She had the sense that things were changing now, not only for her but for all of them.

Christian cracked his eyes open and stared up into the vision of an angel with dark hair and a very contented smile on her face. His body was sore, but after everything they had done last night that was to be expected. Cat was a vision of loveliness with her hair wild and tousled over one slender bare shoulder. It was so easy to forget what she was beneath her glimmering exterior. He wasn’t scared of her, of her friends and Cole and David, those bastards, hell yeah. But, of his lovely kitty-cat, never.

Where did they go after last night? She wasn’t human and he was. Bonded together as they were there was no escaping her and in truth he couldn’t imagine a better fate than being trapped here in her bed forever. Christian cleared his throat and rubbed the scabs on his neck. Damn, forever had an entirely different meaning for her than it did for him. For people…real people…forever was a relative term. For her forever meant…forever as in all eternity. His throat was dry and he was thirsty as hell. It was probably from blood loss. Last night it hadn’t mattered. She could have sucked out every drop he had and he wouldn’t have cared. In the light of day though, it mattered a hell of a lot.

He couldn’t compete in her world. He didn’t belong in her world. Last night he had been able to fool himself into believing he could. She could kill him with a flick of her wrist. Her friends could tear him to pieces and feast on his entrails and there wouldn’t be a damn thing he could do about it. Here alone with the rest of the world secured on the other side of a locked bedroom door they were equals. But, out there…he was prey. She would have to be glued to his side twenty-four/seven. He would have to rely on her protection every second of the rest of his life. Like he was a baby…a helpless infant dependent on its mother’s tit.

Cat frowned at the negative expressions marring Christian’s face. His beard had started to grow in and his jaw was covered in reddish-blond stubble lending him a rugged, almost bad boy look. His brow was wrinkled and the dark eyebrows drawn into a tight line. His mouth was set. The corners of the luscious lips she’d spent hours sampling last night were curled down in a deep scowl.

She got the basic gist of what it was to be human. Humans had needs. Food. Water. Maybe, he needed to go to the bathroom? His was not an ‘I gotta go pee and I’m too embarrassed to go with you knowing about it’ expression. It was a pissed off, agitated, someone took a big shit in my cornflakes, expression. She didn’t like the vibe coming off of him one bit. How could a male go from flirtatious and funny, passionate and so loving to aggravated, distant, and almost Alaska cold in less than a few hours? “What’s the matter?”

“I can’t leave this room can I. Not without a chaperone. You do realize that I’m the only one in this whole place that doesn’t come equipped with fangs.”

“That’s not true,” Cat piped up. “There are donors…” She dropped the rest of the sentence, wishing like hell she could take back what little had popped out of her mouth without thought. “I didn’t mean.”

“Yes you did. I’m lunch…unless you’re with me…I’m a fucking juice box.”

Cat squared her shoulders and stared Christian down in disbelief. She couldn’t believe he said that. “Wolves don’t eat humans and as for vampires, you’re already a pint low. Fortunately, you’re off the menu for a few weeks or so. What’s wrong with you? Last night it didn’t seem to matter that I am what I am. Why does it now?” She wasn’t cold before, but suddenly she was freezing. She pulled the blankets up over her chest and blinked to hide her tears. “Is this some kind of male pride thing?”

Christian caught a stray tear on the tip of his index finger. Nothing had changed between the two of them. It was the outside world and his perception of it that had been altered dramatically. “I suppose it is. Cat, I need to be able to take care of you, not the other way around.”

“I’ve been taken care of all of my life, for once I’d like to simply take care of myself. I can’t take care of you, Christian. If I’m supposed to, I’m not doing a very good job of it. Do you see any pancakes? Waffles? Those weird little sausage links? Hell, I can’t even boil water. I have no idea how to do laundry or run a sweeper. I’m just not very domesticated. But, I would kick someone’s ass for you. That I can do.”

“Well, that’s good because I can’t kick anyone’s ass for you.” Christian gathered Cat into his arms and cradled her against his chest. “Can’t we just stay in here forever, just the two of us?”

Cat sighed. “I wish.”

“I can though…I do make a mean pancake.”

Cat giggled. She didn’t eat gluten. The stuff was fatal. “I tell you what. I’ll guard your back while you man the griddle. You keep us fed and I’ll do the protecting. I bet you’d look great in an apron.”

“Don’t push your luck. Just the apron?”

Cat snickered, “I’m a werewolf, clothing is always optional.”

“We’ll have to see about that. I don’t suppose the vampires have room service?”

“Ha, not the kind you want. Get dressed and feed your woman.”

“You got your nine millimeter handy?”

Cat cracked her knuckles and grinned. “Don’t need one.” She slapped Christian

on the butt as he stood to scrounge for his clothes. He could cook. That was a bonus. She really had been neglectful on the home front. There were so many things she didn’t know how to do that to him were simply a part of everyday life. She’d never thought about it before. Anna always kept her fed. Candace always made sure she had clean clothes. Chris always swept the floors. There was someone behind the scenes always to keep things running. She’d never had to do things like that before. But, unless Christian liked his entrées tartar, she was going to have to learn.

Damn his woman was sexy tough. He didn’t know shit about weaponry and that self-defense class he had taken in high school. What good was it against a vampire or a wolf? He had a lot to learn about this crazy world of hers if he were going to survive in it. She was just as helpless in his world as he was in hers. Maybe, they could teach each other and survive together.















Chapter 65

Claire was smart. She hated shopping and had ducked out before Danni could coerce her into going. She avoided the drama fest on the floors beneath her and had spent her night curled up in a quiet corner of the penthouse with a good book. She had slept on a sofa as long as a football field and more comfortable than any bed. She had gotten something no one living with so many people ever got. Peace and quiet. The Great Father had exiled her along with the rest of the brat pack in hopes that they’d grow up and find themselves. Hell, she’d always known who and what she was and had peace with it. To her on this wasn’t a soul finding mission. It was a vacation and she had utterly enjoyed it.

The vampires were always coming and going. This place was never quiet or completely still. It was a little after six in the morning and the Guardians were trading posts. The dayshift was a bit sparse compared to the crew that had gone out last night to protect the city. She supposed it was that whole aversion to daylight thing. Only the boldest would volunteer to spend the day out in the open instead of cowering in the shadows of HQ. To her, it was tactically dangerous to thin your force to less than half its number just because the sun was shining. Trouble could happen at any time and it had been her experience that it usually did.

Claire wondered why a garrison of pack had never been assigned to protect the city during the daylight hours to augment the Guardian’s forces. The two species had a casual though cool coexistence. One simply accepted the presence of the other and not much went on beyond that. Her father had gone on missions in the city before and so had her uncle. The brothers occasionally came in to lend a hand. But, although they played on the same playground, the three groups didn’t necessarily share the swing set without cause.

Sitting in her little corner of the world mostly unnoticed, Claire did a mental head count. Tom was on the floor below sleeping it off. Ray had holed up with Carter in Carter’s suite and hadn’t poked his head out yet. Cat and her new boy toy were snuggled down in bed together. But, Claire hadn’t scented the shopping brigade returning home yet. It was possible they had slipped in after she fell asleep. But, her wolf was restless and prowling through her mind. All was not well.

Her parents hadn’t really wanted her to come along with the others. Her dad had strapped every weapon he could on her. Her mom had shot her a look filled with worry. Bad things had happened in the city. Her mom and dad had one of those epic loves worthy of cheesy song and a few paragraphs of truly awful poetry. But, their relationship had not started out on a particularly high note.

Her mom kept a scrapbook of mementos of the woman she had been before. Gina Klein had made headlines, but not the kind anyone wanted to make. She had been abducted and tortured, written off as just another missing person in a city teeming with life. Claire’s dad hadn’t kept a scrapbook of his life before her mom and her. He bore the scars of war on his body and his heart. Her dad was the strong one. He hid his scars well, but she could still see them. She knew when his head took him back to places he’d rather not go. When his mind took a trip down memory lane and he was back in the jungles of Vietnam or worse, to the time when he had first met her mom.

Uncle Grant and the brothers had rescued them and killed the bad guy. But, it had taken her mom and dad to save each other. Claire rationalized that bad things could happen anywhere and they had. The bluffs had seen their fair share of bloodshed over the centuries. There had been more than one pyre built to honor the warriors, both brother and wolf, that had gone to fight and hadn’t come back.

The warehouse district had been spit shined and polished. Time and progress had erased the events that brought her mom and dad together. Humans had short memories, perhaps shorter than their lives. But, vampires and wolves, never forgot the echoes of the past.

Trendy antique shops, nightclubs, and cafes lined the sidewalks and the old warehouses had been turned into very expensive apartments. Less than ten blocks away was two square miles of prime real estate that was nothing but a bitter reminder of the past. That was the real reason Claire hadn’t gone out last night. Not only did she hate wasting her time shopping for crap she didn’t need. She hadn’t wanted to take that particular trip down her parents’ memory lane.

Claire did her best to dismiss her worry. Phoenix and Danni were more than capable of taking care of themselves. Barbara was no slouch in that department either. Maybe, knowing Cat wouldn’t exactly be in a slumber party frame of mind, they had rented a hotel room and simply crashed for the night. She double-checked her phone to make sure they hadn’t left her a message. They hadn’t. Maybe they’d been having so much fun they forgot. There were about a dozen or so maybes that could be true. But, no amount of second-guessing or maybes could ease the niggling worry in the back of her mind. Something wasn’t right.

With the brat pack divided, Claire debated what to do. There were a ton of vampires here. She could ask any one of them to be her backup and they’d do it. But, she didn’t like people she didn’t know at her back. Tom was out cold. She wasn’t about to bang on Ray or Cat’s door to wake them up and get them moving. She had made promises to her parents that she would not go out alone. If her dad could get captured, so could she.

She should text her dad. Get him and her brothers on the move. But, it would take hours for them to get here. She should notify the Guardians that there might be a problem. But, she had nothing more to go on than her gut instinct that something was off. Carter wouldn’t see it as a good enough reason to pull the patrols off their routes to search for three wolves that might or might not be in trouble. In truth, she’d feel a little silly raising the alarm if there were no reason for it.

Cole hadn’t left for home yet. Claire thought he’d be eager to get back to Maggie, but he had stayed planted. David hadn’t gone to wherever it was he went to either. He was pacing about the complex like a man just waiting for a mission. Well, who better at her back than a warrior and a vampire with no allegiance to anybody and nothing in particular to do?

With her team chosen, as much as it rankled her to do it, Claire left her weapons in her seat. For this job, it’d be best to travel light. Her slightly better than human senses weren’t as acute as they were when she was in her wolf form. She would need her wolf for this and wasn’t about to risk an inadvertent run in with animal control. Most humans had never seen a real wolf and mistook the pack for dogs, really, really big dogs. A ‘dog’ the size of her wolf, loose in the city would send people scrambling to call 911 and that was a complication she didn’t need. For this, they needed subtlety and a damn good cover.

Claire fished around in the backpack she had brought along on the trip and pulled out a leash and a collar. She swallowed back the bile rising in her throat at being leashed and collared, complete with rabies vaccination tags, and gripped them tightly in her fist. Her wolf was one of the smallest in the pack. Her wolf could pass for a dog and her coloring was such that her wolf might be mistaken for a German Shepherd mix. That thought had her temper boiling. Cole and David could pass for human. The two of them would look like just a couple of ordinary guys enjoying a morning stroll with their pooch.

She dropped the leash and collar into Cole’s hand. Cole glanced down at the leash and up at her with a questioning expression on his face. David snickered at the pink leather and rhinestone studded collar. Claire shot him a disparaging look. “Care to take a walk?” she asked.

The three of them rode the elevator down to the service exit in the back in silence. She had always appreciated the brotherhood’s ability to simply roll with it and not ask a bunch of unnecessary questions. She couldn’t risk a shift indoors, not with all the paranormal energy leaking all over the place. Her wolf would rip the place apart. Outside was best. The alleyway was blessedly empty this time of the morning and heavily shadowed by the buildings flanking the narrow causeway. David and Cole gave her plenty of space and discreetly turned their backs as she gave herself over to the wolf.

David suppressed a shudder at the sound of bones crunching and Claire’s grunts of pain as her shape shifted from human to lupine. That sound had always made him nauseous. He hadn’t puked in almost sixty years, but he wasn’t so certain he wouldn’t do so now. God, how did wolves stand it? He didn’t change shapes and sometimes, his other side still freaked him out. The scent of girl was replaced by the musky tang of wolf. This far from the main body of the pack, it took Claire a little longer to slide into her furrier half.

Cole thought they should flip a coin to decide who got the honor of risking a limb to put the collar on Claire’s wolf. David wasn’t as used to the pack as he was. Claire was in there somewhere behind those menacing yellow eyes and razor sharp teeth. Wolves weren’t fond of any form of captivity. They didn’t appreciate anyone encroaching on their turf. And as for personal space, a mile wasn’t enough let alone being tethered to him by a leash. He approached her slowly and very, very carefully. His steps were measured and cautious. “Easy Claire.”

The wolf growled at the vampire. The fur on her ruff stood on end. The she-wolf didn’t like the smells and the sounds of the city. She didn’t like the firmness of the concrete beneath her paws. This wasn’t her familiar woods. The human inside of her grappled at the borders of their shared consciousness for control. Pack. They had to find the pack. Their sisters were missing. They had to find them. The wolf tolerated the confining feeling of the collar slipped over her head and the tug of the leash.