Part 15 (1/2)

I turned quickly and saw Pallo standing in the hallway. He was staring at me and I had to look away out of some deep-seated shame.

Caleb stepped up. ”I... umm... you know the problem with the group from California, well, turns out Malita's gone to them and cut some sort of a deal with them ... if they help to get me out of the picture, then they all get to ....” He stopped and looked at me. I nodded for him to go on, but he didn't. I saw a tear in the corner of his eye.

I stood, unwilling to let Caleb break down in front of the group. ”Apparently, the regulators get to have me to do with as they wish.”

”What!” Pallo yelled.

”Yeah, I have no doubt that your little love, Malita, thinks I'm quite the lying wh.o.r.e and that by handing me to men trained to kill supernaturals, she'll be able to free you and Giovanni from me.”

”I don't think that will be happening. I'm here to see to it that it doesn't anyways,” a deep, unfamiliar voice said from the other side of the room.

Everyone stopped and looked at the open back door. A tall man with shoulder length, black, wavy hair came walking in. The first thing I noticed was how broad his shoulders were. The second thing was his dark blue navy eyes. They were almost as dark as mine. He came into the light of the room and I could see how ma.s.sive the rest of his body was.

Pallo let out a noise, sounding disgusted. James stepped in and gave me an odd look. Pallo glanced at the man in the doorway and his voice dropped. ”Nicholas, what a pleasure is it to see you again. Tell me, is it the coming full-moon that draws you or did your master call his puppy home?”

Nicholas glared at Pallo and I could tell that there was no love lost between the two of them. ”Pallo, I'd be lying if I said it was nice to see you, but I'm sure your bat senses would pick up on that. How are you doing with those anyways? Slaughter any innocent children lately? Kill anyone's mother?”

The whole room grew quiet. Pallo stepped towards Nicholas. I moved in front of him and put my hand on his chest. ”Pallo, no, not here.”

He took my hand in his and I saw him fighting to keep his demon down. Nicholas must have noticed, too, because he moved in for the kill. ”Haven't fed yet today, huh? Maybe, I could fetch you a cow. You could suck it dry, or perhaps there is a village full young mothers you could drink your fill on? We all know how much you enjoy that.”

I faced Nicholas. He was a handsome man who appeared to be about twenty-three or so. I should have found him s.e.xy. He was everything I liked in a man, but something about him kept me from thinking of him in that way. I moved away from Pallo and towards Nicholas. I put my finger up and pushed it straight into the center of his chest. I twisted it a little and the royal blue long sleeved s.h.i.+rt he was wearing turned, too. I kept pus.h.i.+ng him and kept backing him out of the kitchen. I gave one final shove and we ended up standing on the back porch.

”Who the h.e.l.l do you think you are coming in here and starting s.h.i.+t? In case you didn't get the memo, we've got enough of it going on without you. As long as you are here, you will respect the people I care about. Are we clear?”

His eyes s.h.i.+fted to a deeper blue and I could sense something changing in him.

Mikhail appeared next to me. ”Control your beast, Nicholas, or it will control you.”

I arched a brow at Mikhail. ”Is this kid one of yours?”

”Yeah, I called him. He's my second in command. I thought it would be wise to have him near. I thought he'd put aside his petty differences to aid his alpha.”

”Fat chance of that, this kid's got the self-control of a spider monkey on crack,” I said.

Nicholas's eyes s.h.i.+fted again and I felt him pull up a wave of warm power. I knew that power, it was like my own. There was more to Nicholas than met the eye.

I yanked my power up, as well, if this guy wanted to play, we'd play. Mikhail tried to step between us and Nicholas lashed power out at him. Mikhail leapt back and grabbed his shoulder. Nicholas turned and stared at me. I felt all the rage he carried around within him. So much of it was for Pallo and I didn't know why. His hand came up and fur sprouted all over it. I wasn't worried about him changing into a wolf. I was worried about the magik he possessed.

”What the h.e.l.l's your problem?” I asked.

”I don't owe you an explanation. I came here to help. Instead, I find that f.u.c.king vampire here.”

”So, you don't like vampires. I get it, but why the magik show?”

Nicholas glared past me. ”Oh, I like vampires just fine, it's that one I hate.”

”Join the club, I hate him every second Tuesday of the month, too. I, unlike you, get over it. So, if you're not going to try to kill me, then please knock off the power trip. If you really want to do this, I will.”

”Humpf... what the h.e.l.l is a little girl like you going to do?”

I smiled at him and lowered my head. I called on the wind. I concentrated on pulling it past the trees and around the house. I let it circle around him and I used it to pull him up off the ground an inch or so. His dark black hair lifted high into the air and his blue eyes locked on me. I noticed how he had a dimple in the center of his chin as he pulled his face into a smile.

”You can stop it now. I won't hurt you!” he called out.

I let the wind die down and Nicholas' feet touched the ground again. ”You must be Gwyneth.” He put his hand out to me. ”Nice to finally meet you.”

I gave him an odd look and took his hand. His grip was firm. Mikhail made a noise and we glanced over at him. He was lying on the ground holding his shoulder to himself.

Caleb came running out. ”I got this.”

Pallo appeared behind me. He was beyond mad. I could feel his cool power threatening to rise up. I turned and put my hand on his chest. I let my fingers move over his carved alabaster-like skin. ”No more tonight, please. He's done, aren't you, Nicholas?”

Nicholas smiled and nodded. Pallo seemed to be trying to appear okay with this, but he was failing miserably. His body language told me that he was not fine with the idea of Nicholas being here and I couldn't blame him. In the five minutes I'd known the guy he'd already hurt one person and tried to use magik against me.

Mikhail stood and came over to us. He put his arm out and twisted it around. He glanced over at Nicholas and gave him a dirty look. Nicholas backed away, his gaze coming to me. I gave him the old 'you're screwed' look and walked back towards the house. There was someone I wanted very much to see.

I managed to escape into the house relatively unnoticed. Everyone was too focused on the impending Para-reg attack to bother keeping tabs on me. I headed up the stairs and walked down the hall towards the back bedroom. When I tapped lightly on the door and got no answer, I turned the k.n.o.b and opened the door slowly.

The room that had been yellow when I'd left. It was now a cool blue with white trim. The bed that had been mine growing up was still there. It looked like it hadn't been slept in. I pulled the door shut and walked back down to my room.

Giovanni's suitcase was still sitting on the dresser. The honey scented bath salts I'd left lying on top of it hadn't moved. Giovanni never came in to change and by the looks of the room down the hall, he never even went to sleep. I went to the window and stared out. Everyone was still on the backside of the house, no doubt arguing. I reached down and picked up the pack of bath salts and held it to my face, breathing in the fresh scent of honey.

Catching a flash of black moving near the pine trees at the end of the lane, I stared harder to see what was moving down there. I felt my stomach pull in, if Malita and the Para-regs decided to attack now, then they'd easily ambush the others. I dropped the salt and turned around.

I took the stairs four at a time and burst out the front door. I ran around the porch and did my best to not trip over the wicker furniture that sat on it. I rounded the corner and found that only Pallo, Caleb and Ken were still standing there. They looked up at me and all of them came running.

I pointed down towards the road. ”Something... I saw something moving down there,” I said, short of breath.

Ken pulled his gun out and nodded at the other two. Pallo took my arm to lead me back up to the house. I dug my heels in and glanced out and over the yard.

”Where's everyone else?”

Pallo motioned back towards the barn on the left. ”The omnis retreated to discuss the incident and James is cooking dinner. I have no idea where Caradoc has gone off to.”

I stared into his brown eyes and I pleaded with him to understand who in particular I was asking about, without making me have to come right out and say his name.

”Ah, I do not know where he is at. The last time I saw Giovanni was before sunrise. He was walking on the edge of the woods.”

We heard a gunshot and both of us took off running in that direction. I could see Ken standing with his gun drawn. Caleb was looming over something. As we got closer I saw that it was a large pale gray wolf. Caleb shook his head and I knew that meant the wolf was gone now.

Something moved in the bushes near us. I turned to see a pair of eyes reflecting the light back at me. I screamed as Pallo thrust me forward at Caleb. I tripped over the carca.s.s of the dead wolf and Caleb grabbed me. His grip was the only thing that kept me from landing face first on a dead werewolf.

The vampire senses that Pallo had pa.s.sed on to me with his bite kicked into full gear. I could sense that we were surrounded by the enemy. The entire farm was. Someone had to warn the others. They'd be fodder without a heads up. I turned to run back towards the house.

”Gwen, No!” Caleb yelled.