Page 40 of Blood Moon
Holy shit! What the fuck just happened?
22
“What is going on out here?” a spine-tingling voice cried out.
My eyes lifted from the ash remains of Caiden to a young woman with shimmering pink hair that was fashioned neatly as if she were on her way to the Oscars in the 1950s. She was an image that almost seemed holographic, her pale skin reflecting the light of the afternoon sun as it beamed across the front porch of the log cabin.
“Your boyfriend was about to fuck our girl,” Braden squared up to who I definitely knew was my first fairy encounter.
“How do I know you’re not full of lies, Banner?” she questioned.
“Because I saw the alpha myself,” a female’s voice cracked behind us.
“We all felt his energy shift, but we have no idea why?”
“He shouldn’t have sensed anything other than her being a female you vampires feed on, and oddly enough, that she is also the alpha wolf’s mate,” she said through gritted teeth. Her yellow-diamond looking irises fell on me. “Who are you?”
“The mother of the child that you believe was a prank and brought into your school by Caiden,” I answered.
“That bastard.” She planted her hands on her hips and eyed his black ash remains. “Tell the wolf to shift back. I’ll personally kill anyone who tries anything with the unusual human mother of that particular child,” she said.
“Shit,” Logan breathed out under his breath. “This better go well.”
“Like I said,” Cole slid back to flank my other side, moving Val behind us, “we can’t trust anything here. None of these vamps or even the fairy knows what Elle really is. I thought they’d been briefed, but it’s better this way. Elle’s blood is masking who and what she really is, and it sounds like Aria’s is doing the same thing in this school she’s hidden in too.”
We walked through a crowd of vamps that were obviously watching the show go down from inside the cabin. Eyes fell briefly on me before they looked at the three Banners and Zane, who was miraculously changed into jeans and a tee and had caught up with us.
Fucking Zac was still off having thebreak-uptalk with that vampire, the one who I was quickly beginning to hate. He was mine. I had no idea what the hell had gone on between those two, but I also watched myplayervamp have a change of demeanor around her. If I was honest with myself, he seemed almost heartbroken, seeing this bitch again and realizing he was stuck with me and this bond.
Fuck that.
“Ellie,” Logan draped an arm around me, “I can sense that your energy is toxic. I haven’t sensed anything like this since you despised your drunk mom and your douchey ex-boyfriend, David. What the hell is going on?”
“It’s Zac,” I said firmly, the jealousy starting to win over my mind and serving as a perfect distraction from my daughter. “I can’t help but wonder if that Alexi chick meant more to him than he did to her. What went down between those two, and why is he breaking it all so gently to her? Where the hell is he?”
“Goddammit,” Val said, taking me out of Logan’s care and back to her. “Stop this right now,” she demanded. “Alexi isn’t anything more than a good friend of Zac’s. Sure, they had their time, and maybe there were feelings involved that Zac didn’t remember having for her until he saw her again. It’s not fucking love. This is just Zac, having a little bit of a heart. He’s most likely de-escalating things, so she doesn’t have an ending like Caiden.”
“We absolutely can’t forge any enemies, coming up here,” Logan said. “Zac’s making sure she doesn’t try anything on you and end up turning this whole visit into a kill fest. She’ll get over it, and trust me, Zac will be back.” He kissed my temple, “And if you must know, Zac hasn’t ever enjoyed a fuck as much as he has since you came into our lives. Got me? Lose the toxic emotions before we sit down with a fairy who’s sure to ignite enough negativity between all of us that this whole house may explode off the damn mountain.”
“Fine,” I conceded. “I don’t know why I’m acting this way.”
“It’s a natural, human emotion,” Val said. “The bond is slowly returning to all of you. Your human, mated-with-a-wolf emotions are still there, but they’re magnified. Trust me, the wolf-mates thing is solid and very possessive. You and the vampires are all carrying that emotion, and God help us with the Banners being even more possessive of their girl than they already are.”
“Do you think that’s the reason they killed Caiden?”
“Part of it, yes. The other part is, Caiden was showing signs of more than just wanting to be friends with the human girl. He instantly turned and had to be taken down. If anyone else does this, all I can say is thank God for Zane’s new killing talent because we don’t need your cute little ass hauled out of here either,” Val answered.
“This fairy,” I said, “Are you worried about her?”
“I’m only worried if Zane can’t end her if she becomes a threat. She’s a fairy, and they’re extremely dangerous. I’m glad she doesn’t know Aria’s truths or yours,” Val whispered in my ear.
“Or?”
“Or she’ll just put your asses to work for her or make some great money selling high talent off. The Fae realm is all about money, bargaining, and power. Vamps aren’t strong there, and neither are shifters. It’s not a place we want Aria to be.”
“So,” the fairy sat at the head of the Banners’ dining room table like she owned the cabin. “Tell me about this child. Why would Caiden bring a human, wolf-child into my elite schooling system?”
“If the dumbass hadn’t tried to make a move on my mate,” Zane said, sitting to her right, “then he could probably answer that himself. All we know is our daughter has been kidnapped, and now we’re finding out she’s in a school of supernatural fairies.”
