Page 42 of Dancing Moonbeam

Chapter Eleven

Jaytee boiled over from the bombardment of bullshit hitting them from every direction. In less than a week, Raidh had already endured more than enough, and now this? Jaytee wasn’t sure how much more his fairy could handle.

“There has to be a way to reverse it,” Damon gritted out. “We’re not going to just stand by and watch the curse kill him.” His canines lengthened. “I’ve already done that once. Now he has three death sentences hanging over his head. The hit his father put out on him, the kiss of death, and another death sentence if his council finds out he mated a wolf.”

“I don’t need you reminding me how I’m constantly failing my mate!” Jaytee shoved Damon back with a powerful thrust of his hands against his twin’s chest. “Our souls are bound, and I feel that pain down to my soul!”

“You think I don’t feel it too?” Damon shot back. “We’re twins, Jaytee! I physically feel your pain when you’re hurting, so don’t you ever lay your fucking hands on me again for caring about your mate!”

“Enough!” Raidh cried out. “No more violence. No more shouting.” He clutched his forearm tightly. “I already belong to one family who thrives on conflict. I refuse to join this one and then watch you rip each other apart.”

“We’re wolf shifters.” Jax spoke up quietly. “We fight to release our aggression, but the Frosts have stood strong as a family for almost 250 years. We love each other deeply and would never let anything come between us, Raidh.”

Jaytee pulled his mate into his arms, taking deep breaths and exhaling slowly, trying to calm himself down from the fear of losing his fairy. “I’m sorry, Moonbeam.”

He’d been using his twin as an outlet, and Damon had known it, allowing Jaytee to take out his anger and pain on him. But Jaytee had forgotten his brother felt his pain just as deeply as Jaytee had always felt Damon’s.

“Wolves, I’m tingling,” Elvine whispered ominously. “Something really bad is coming.”

“Take him somewhere safe!” Jaytee threw Raidh toward Elvine seconds before the back door exploded inward in a storm of splintered wood and shattered glass. The kitchen floor trembled under the weight of the invading vampires.

Kalen acted with lightning speed, hurling the kitchen table aside and revealing a hidden cache of weapons through the trap door beneath his feet. He flung deadly silver-coated knives at his sons, Jaytee and his brothers catching them with precision before they drove them into bloodsuckers’ chests or sliced their throats, delivering deadly silver poison into their bodies.

The sound of breaking bones and tearing flesh filled the air as Jaytee and his family fought against an onslaught of vampires. His hand was getting too slick with blood from the hearts he’d yanked out so far, but it seemed like for every bloodsucker he killed, two more emerged in its place.

Enough was enough. With a deep, feral growl rumbling through his chest, Jaytee let go of all control, allowing his wolf to break free. He launched himself at the next charging vampire, slamming into its chest with enough force to shatter bones and send it crashing through a kitchen window.

Ignoring the shards that cut into his fur and skin, Jaytee followed him out the window and landed on all fours, ready to continue the fight.

But the vampire merely got to his feet and brushed off the debris with a smirk, unfazed by the attack. “The scent of your blood is only going to attract more of my brethren to you,” he said nonchalantly.

Brethren? Rogue vampires were solitary creatures. They didn’t work together like this unless… Jaytee realized with growing dread they were dealing with a coven—organized and dangerous. Shit.

If that was the case, where was their coven leader? Had he sent his men out to die, or was he lurking in the shadows?

Coven or not, Jaytee was going to wipe the smug look off the bastard’s face.

“We’re going to find the little fairy and dine on his succulent blood, so your noble sacrifice is in vain, wolf.”

With a savage snarl, Jaytee leapt at the vampire and tore into his neck with ferocity. Rage and fear burned hot inside of him as his raw pain grew at the thought of losing Raidh. The emotions consumed him, and in a flurry of broken limbs and gushing blood, he ripped apart the bloodsucker until all that remained was a mangled mess on the ground.

“Such unimaginable rage,” a seductive, silky, bass voice taunted from behind Jaytee, followed by a sensual, cruel laugh. “I hope you saved some of that rage for me, donate de sangre.”

Jaytee cautiously turned around, a growl rumbling in his chest. He scanned the darkness for the source of that ominous voice, scanned the tree line where the forest began far back on their property, only to notice the sounds of fighting had ceased. The quiet night felt thunderous in its stillness, causing Jaytee to slightly shiver as he wondered if Elvine had gotten Raidh to safety.

He desperately wanted to know, wanted to rush inside and find out, but he stilled when he felt a sensation like stinging water flowing and expanding over his skin, slowly trying to encompass his body.

Tilting his head slightly, Jaytee felt his breathing became heavier and more stilted. He forced himself not to take a step back or show any kind of fear. But moving wasn’t even an issue. He was rooted to the spot, shoulders tight and fists clenched as adrenaline flooded his veins, as he waited to see what was coming.

Out of the shadows emerged a towering figure of a monstrous vampire who seemed to almost glimmer with malevolence. Muscles rippled like coiled snakes beneath its taut skin as it stalked toward Jaytee with a fluid, intimidating grace, its soulless eyes glowing with a hunger for destruction.

What in the hell was that thing? Jaytee had never been one to back down from a fight, but he also possessed a healthy dose of self-preservation.

Standing at least seven feet tall, it was wider than any being Jaytee had ever come across, almost like three of four heavyweight bodybuilders had been fused together to create this monstrous entity.

As moonlight filtered through the trees above, it reflected off deadly fangs in the creature’s mouth.

This was a vampire?

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