Desire the Night(17)
Without slowing, Gideon scooped the wolf into his arms and ran on. If it hadn’t been for the silver that drained his power, he would have transported them to one of his lairs. As it was, all he could do was keep running.
When he came to an abandoned building some miles later, he kicked in the door and ducked inside. Pausing, he scanned the dusky interior. From the looks of the place, it had once been a warehouse. Pulling an oil-stained drop cloth from a counter, he spread it on the floor, then lowered the wolf onto it. A quick search turned up a hacksaw; moments later, he was free of the shackles he had worn for the last three years.
A door at the far end of the building opened into an office where he found a couple of shop towels. He wet the cloths in the adjoining bathroom, then returned to the wolf ’s side. Kneeling, he wiped the blood from her fur, his fingers probing the wound until he found the slug lodged in her back leg. Grateful that she was unconscious, he slid two fingers into the nasty hole and extracted the slug. He hissed when the misshapen chunk of silver burned his fingers. Had it found a vital organ, it would have killed her.
Lifting Kiya the wolf into his arms, he willed the two of them to his lair on the outskirts of Phoenix. It was his least favorite place to stay, but his powers were weak, and it was the closest.
* * *
Chapter 9
Verah slapped the young man standing before her. The sound echoed through the living room. “You missed?” She slapped him again, harder. “I do not pay you to miss!”
“I’m sorry, Mistress.”
“I do not want apologies!” Muttering an incantation, she placed her hand over the man’s mouth. “Be gone.”
The man opened his mouth, but no sound emerged. Suddenly mute, he stared at her in horror.
“Be gone!” she snarled, “lest I turn you into a toad.”
Face pale, eyes wide with fright, he hurried from her presence.
“Stupid fool!” Verah stormed from one end of the room to the other. Angry with her own stupidity for not realizing the woman had been two-natured, she had lashed out at the boy.
Picking up a large crystal vase, she hurled it against the wall, then took a deep breath. The werewolf was of no consequence. But Gideon … she needed him and she intended to get him back, no matter the cost. Vampires were hard to find and harder still to manipulate.
The fact that his blood added to her wealth was merely an additional bonus.
That his blood kept her young and vibrant made him indispensable. She had several vials stored in a cool place, but the shelf life was remarkably short, a fact she found odd, given that vampires themselves were nearly immortal.
She had to find him, and soon, before his blood grew rancid.
Before her beauty began to fade.
And if she couldn’t find him, what then?
In a rage, she stormed down the stairs to her workroom, where she gathered up several books and placed them on her worktable. Settling on a high stool, she carefully opened the first grimoire. The parchment was old and yellow, disintegrating in some places.
Rama jumped up on the table, his keen yellow eyes watching intently as Verah perused the pages.
“There must be a spell or an incantation in one of these books that will work as well as his blood,” she muttered. “There has to be!”
An hour later, she closed the ancient text, and reached for another. It had taken her mother a lifetime to collect these moldy old tomes. Surely one of them possessed the spell she needed.
When none of the grimoires yielded the information she sought, she contacted Yanaba. But the Navajo shaman who had helped Verah refine her magic and gifted her with the wisdom of his years had no answers for her.
Verah blew out a breath of exasperation. If Yanaba didn’t have the answer, maybe the spell she was looking for didn’t exist.
* * *
Chapter 10
Victor Rinaldi listened attentively to the conversation taking place between his father and Russell Alissano. It concerned Kiya’s disappearance, of course. Damn the girl. Even when she wasn’t here, she was nothing but trouble. He was under no illusions about her feelings for him. No doubt she had run off in an attempt to avoid their upcoming engagement.
Well, she could run far and wide, but she wouldn’t be able to hide for long. Her old man was bound to sniff her out sooner or later. For his part, Victor hoped it would be sooner so he could get this marriage over with and move on.
He was tired of pretending to be smitten with Alissano’s daughter, but he was determined to play the game of lovesick suitor to the end. The reward would make it all worthwhile.
His people had lived in the shadows for too long. It was time for the werewolves to shed their veneer of humanity and take their proper place in the world—right at the top of the food chain.