Page 13 of Act of Brotherhood
His veryvampireblood.
“No!”
Garth snarled and broke free from Rurik just in time to be struck head-on with a blow of magik. He was no stranger to the source. It was Gram. The power flung Garth backwards and sent him to the floor with a massive, thundering boom, as if Thor’s chariot had run the Viking over.
Unable to move, still pinned by magik, Garth locked gazes with Auberi as the vampire put his bleeding wrist above the child’s mouth. He’d seen what ingesting vampire blood could do to a person.
Sometimes it healed them.
Sometimes it converted them.
And sometimes, it killed them.
Every threat Garth wanted to issue, every promise of death he wanted to say, fell short as his wolf took total control. He knew then he was powerless to the pending shift. He also knew that without the aid of Gram’s magik, he could kill everyone around him without meaning to.
Desperate to protect the others from himself, he looked to his second-in-command, hoping he’d sense the severity of the situation.
Gram’s attention was currently on Auberi, who had lifted the little girl and let out an agonizing cry as she remained limp and unmoving.
Landros charged Auberi, ripping the child from the man’s arms just as Gram sent magik at Auberi.
The magik knocked Auberi over as well, pinning him to the floor just as the man’s demon took the lead.
“S-stop…me,” managed Garth as his body contorted. He didn’t want any child hurt because of his lack of control.
“Fuck!” yelled Rurik. “Gram, Captain needs a super dose of that stinky Fae crap you’re throwing around!”
Chapter Three
Present Day…
Nicolette Henebury stood in her kitchen and poured salsa from a jar into a bowl. It was as fancy as her cooking skills went. Though, it wasn’t for lack of trying. She’d taken cooking classes for six weeks and came out the other end barely able to toast bread. It just wasn’t her thing.
She was an expert with the blender and the juicer. Anything beyond those two kitchen appliances, and she was hopeless. She grabbed a glass from the cupboard and proceeded to fill it with her signature gray energy drink. It was something she and her uncle had perfected to help her combat a bout of fatigue that hadn’t seemed to want to go away. There was enough in the blender for two glasses, but she knew her best friend wouldn’t want one. To Clara, the drink was a form of torture.
Nicolette loved it. It had been something her uncle had helped her come up with when she was younger and had issues with sluggishness.
To each their own.
Nicolette grabbed a bag of tortilla chips, pinned them under one arm, gathered the bowl of salsa and her energy drink, and headed towards the living room. The rowhouse was spacious and had fairly open rooms, considering the age of the home and the fact it was in the historic district of Savannah, Georgia. Had her uncle not purchased it for her and demanded she reside there, and not in the apartment she’d first tried to live in, it would have been outside of her price range on her current salary.
As she made her way into the living room, she sipped from the gray drink, careful not to drop the chips or salsa. The room was dark except for the flat-screen television that was normally tucked away from view in a large repurposed armoire. Someone had set it by the roadside to discard it, and Nicolette had saved it, seeing the beauty in the piece of furniture even when it was in a state of disrepair. With some elbow grease and a little creativity, the thing looked new again. Since it was free, it was even better.
Nicolette and her roommate had done their best to honor the look and feel of the home’s original bones, while still having modern amenities and comforts.
Like a television.
Clara smiled up from her spot on the end of the sofa. She was in a pair of navy blue silk pajama bottoms with a matching cami. Had Nicolette not been used to their opposite tastes in fashion, she might have felt underdressed. As it was, Nicolette had known Clara for what felt like all her life and didn’t mind being seen in a ratty pair of sweatpants and an old T-shirt. Thankfully, Clara wasn’t to the point in her life where she was embarrassed by Nicolette’s lack of sophistication. And so far, Nicolette hadn’t grown tired of Clara’s ability to get them into trouble.
Clara had an array of boxed candies on the coffee table before her. It looked like she’d robbed a candy store. “I picked these up on the way home from work. Now it’ll be just like being at the movie theater, minus rude people who talk nonstop and check their phones all through the movie. And our feet won’t stick to the floor from mysterious substances. Not to mention, we have great seats here and can relax in our jammies.”
Nicolette snorted. Clara had a deep-set hatred of people who interrupted others while at the movies. More than once, Nicolette had been forced to usher her friend out of the theater in an effort to avoid a scene.
Clara was opinionated and had a temper.
Never a great combination when provoked. And Clara took interrupting her movies seriously. Hence, the home setup. There was a new horror movie that had only just released on DVD that Clara had been dying to see. Nicolette wasn’t a fan of scary movies, but she’d given the thumbs-up for this one, knowing how much Clara had been looking forward to it.
“When you talked me into movie night and girl time before you leave on your work trip, I’d really hoped it would be something other than twenty pounds of sugar,” said Nicolette with a smile.
