Broken Heart 09 Only Lycans Need Apply (29 page)

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said. “Unicorns aren’t real.”

Karn laughed. “Just like vampires and werewolves aren’t real?” He offered me a smarmy grin. “Mr. Keyter knew your secret. I had to steal the memories from his mind because he was, unfortunately, terribly uncooperative. A tragedy, since good help is so hard to find.”

“Bastard.” The word caught in my throat, snagged on the edges of my grief. I might as well have killed Mr. Keyter. He’d been my great and wonderful friend.

“Unicorn tears are so shimmery. Like little diamonds. But not, I bet, as potent as your blood.” He tucked the blade back into his jacket.

“Give me Dove.”

“I’m afraid that’s as close to her as you’ll get.” He glanced at Gabriel. “We all know the real prize is your wife. She’s precious to us all, isn’t she? If she dies, we all do.” He turned his gaze to me. “The ambrosia, Dr. Jameson.”

“Sure.” I took the golden fruit from the pocket of my cargo pants and tossed it at him.

He caught it . . . for a second. Then it disappeared.

It reappeared in my hand. I looked down at the ambrosia. “Sorry. I guess it doesn’t like you.”

“I am not stupid, Moira. I know you must gift it to me.” He stood up, and seemed to disappear himself. But he’d actually used his preternatural speed to get to Dove. He flashed his fangs at us, then leaned down and pierced her throat.

“No!” I moved toward him, but the vampire behind me grabbed my arm and yanked me backward. “Stop, goddamn you!”

Karn reared up, giving us a bloody smile. “She tastes so sweet.”

“Give her to me,” I said. “And I’ll gift you the ambrosia.”

“No,” hissed Larsa. “The ambrosia will make Karn invincible! It is better to sacrifice one human so that the world does not burn.”

“Fuck that,” I said.

Karn laughed. “Delightful.” He took a handkerchief from his pants pocket and wiped his mouth. “Fine. Come get her.”

I didn’t hesitate. I rushed to the table and gathered Dove into my arms. She was so small, so slight. I picked her up and took her to Larsa. She looked surprised as I handed over my friend, but I mouthed, “Go.”

She understood instantly. And disappeared in a shower of sparkles.

“You think anyone else matters now?” asked Karn. “I’m getting bored. The ambrosia, Moira.”

He couldn’t take it from me, but he could hurt my loved ones until I relinquished it. He knew it, and I knew it. What he didn’t know what that I’d had a private conversation with Gabriel. And I knew, thanks to Theodora’s books, that vampire mates had telepathy. Karn had to know the same thing, but despite his brilliant psychopathic nature, he was too fucking arrogant to believe he wouldn’t win the day. The problem with people who knew they were smart is that they constantly underestimated everyone else.

I plucked the ambrosia from my pocket and held it up on my palm. Karn’s greedy gaze took on a razor-sharp focus.

“I gift the ambrosia to . . . Gabriel Marchand.”

“What! No!” Karn’s cry of outrage echoed in the basement. Karn disappeared in a shower of red sparkles. Coward.

The fruit disappeared from my hand and reappeared in Gabriel’s. He took a huge bite, half the fruit, and swallowed it. Gold light encompassed him, so suddenly and so brightly, I had to look away. The vampires behind us screamed, and exploded into dust.

When the light dissipated, Gabriel had already moved to Patsy and ripped off her manacles. She removed the tape from her mouth. Drake and I hurried forward, going into a protection stance in front of the couple.

“I gift the ambrosia to Patsy Marchand.”

The half-eaten fruit appeared in her hand, and she ate the rest in two bites.

The golden light surrounded her, too, blinding us all for a few seconds.

I had just made two werewolf-vampires unkillable immortals.

And I hoped I hadn’t traded Dove’s life to do it.

When the bright light dissipated again, Karn flickered into being before me. His eyes were crazed with rage. The thin veneer of civilization had been stripped away. “You take from me, you bitch, and I’ll take from you.”

I shoved Drake out of the way, and he was so startled by my sudden move, he actually stumbled out of the path of the blade.

Karn embedded the dagger to the hilt into my side.

Shock waves of pain ricocheted through me, and I fell to my knees, gasping. I felt the blood rise in my throat, and I choked on it.

“Noooo!” Drake’s cry of outrage vibrated within me, filled with pain and grief.

Oh, shit. I was dying.

Karn whirled to meet the werewolf’s attack, but he couldn’t defeat Drake in full fury. Drake knocked the bastard to the ground and wrenched off his head with his bare hands.

Karn turned to dust.

Honestly? Slightly anticlimactic. Except for me getting stabbed. That was an unexpected twist to the story.

“Moira.” Drake dropped to his knees, tears in his eyes.

“I . . . th-think . . .” Pushing the words out of my mouth was such a trial. I felt so cold now, and my mouth felt stiff. My vision was graying, but the pain was receding. I lifted a trembling hand to his cheek. “Love. You.”

Then I died.

“M
r. Keyter is a vampire,” said the woman. “I am not . . . in case you were wondering. Brigid saved me, and she tried to save you, but . . . well, you’re being stubborn.”

The voice was familiar . . . and yet not. That voice seemed to be missing something.

Sarcasm.

I searched my memory banks for something to attach to that voice.
Dove.

She was alive.

Relief flowed through me.

“Anyway. For some reason, Mr. Keyter had sent the staff out for the evening. Isn’t that odd? No one else got hurt, Moira, so you can stop worrying. I thought you would like to know that the household staff is fine—because you’re you, and you feel insanely responsible for anyone who gets inside your orbit.

“Oh, yes. You should know two things about Mr. Keyter. One, he is an excellent vampire. Two, he was a closet nudist. He fits in extremely well at the vampire senior citizens community. He visits you, too. I just hope he hasn’t regaled you with that story about him and Mrs. Stoffenblatz in the hot tub. It was so TMI.” The voice paused. “P.S., I have not forgiven you for being brave and saving the werewolf you love. It was entirely selfish. You really need to work on those little personality flaws of yours.” I felt fingertips on my shoulder and the brush of lips over my forehead. Then that voice whispered in my ear, “Those witches make excellent cheesecake. And if you don’t wake up, Moira, I will eat all of it. Every crumb.”

When I opened my eyes, I was sitting at a school desk. I recognized the room well enough. My mother’s classroom in Building A. But I had no fear, no panic.

I knew my truth now, my heritage, and the reason my mother died.

For me.

For our family secret.

“You’re tryin’ much too hard to be dead,” said a pleasant Irish male voice. Ruadan sparkled into being, and looked super-casual in jeans, T-shirt, and black Converses, for an ethereal visit. He leaned against the big square desk. “When my mother can’t fully heal you, there’s a problem. And it’s you. If you’re wondering, Karn didn’t get you with the unicorn blade. I switched out the real blade for a fake one ages ago. The real one is protected and where no being can get at it. I promise.”

“Good. I don’t ever want to see it again.” I sighed and looked around the room. No ghosts here. “I would prefer to not be dead.”

“Are you sure?” He glanced around the room. “You picked an odd spot to hide your soul in.”

“I’m hiding?”

“’Twould seem to be the case.” He eyed me. “Maybe you’re lookin’ for closure.” He gazed toward the classroom’s doorway.

My mother entered. She wore a blue summer dress and strappy sandals. And her red hair was pulled into a ponytail. She looked young, younger than I was now, and she was beautiful. Just as I remembered. Somewhere in my very adult mind was the excited wonderment of my five-year-old self.
Mommy was alive!
I was out of and around my desk in a flash, flinging myself into her open arms.

“I’m sorry, so sorry, for all that you’ve been through.” She pulled back and placed her hand against my cheek. “I wanted to be with you, to raise you, and to introduce you to our heritage. I wanted things to be different for you. My parents meant well . . . but they let fear drive their choices. I don’t know if learning about being a unicorn would’ve changed things, sweetheart. I don’t think so.” She smiled. “Don’t be afraid anymore, Moira.”

“It’s really you?” I asked. “I’m not just . . . hallucinating?”

“You are not crazy,” she said fiercely. “Stop thinking like that. And throw those pills away. You don’t need them. Besides, you have him, don’t you?”

My heart skipped a beat. “Drake.”

“Oh, yes. Love is so wondrous. So worthwhile.” She let go of me and stepped back. “He’s waiting for you.”

“Mom—”

“I love you, Moira. But you have a life to live. Now, go. Be happy, babe.” She smiled at me, a smile full of love and promises and hope and the world. Then she turned and walked through the doorway. As she passed through it, the dark weight of my fear, my lifelong companion, the awful thing I carried around and treated like a monstrous friend . . . lifted from me . . . and shattered . . . and then it was all cosmic dust.

I was free.

Ruadan put his hand on my shoulder. “Go home, Moira. ’Tis time.”

•   •   •

My eyes opened to a semi-lighted room. I was tucked into a comfortable single bed, the sheets and thin comforter pulled tight against me. I heard a rhythmic
beep beep beep
sound that was both alarming and comforting.

It took a few seconds for me to adjust to the fact I was awake and I was in a hospital room. Also something heavy was pinned against my thigh. I looked down and found Drake sitting in a chair as close to my bed as possible, his head and shoulders resting on me.

I lifted my hand, noted the IV attached there, and placed my hand on his head.

He woke.

“Moira.” He sat up, looking exhausted and like he hadn’t shaved in a while. He stared at me, drinking in my features, and his lips lifted into a ghost of a wicked grin. “You said you loved me.”

“I do,” I said.

“I love you, too.”

“Glad that’s settled.”

“Me, too.” He gingerly crawled onto the bed, on the other side, where my arm wasn’t impeded by an IV drip, and gathered me into his arms. “I thought you were lost to me. And without you, I could see no future.”

“Does it matter that I’m a unicorn and you’re a werewolf?”

“No,” he said. “But we will have to talk about winters in New York.”

I laughed.

He tucked my head under his chin, and I pressed against his solid, warm chest, listening to the beat of his heart.

Sacrifice.

Love.

Always.

I
stood in the doorway of my own campus office and watched my new personal assistant and chief ass kicker at work.

“Stop bullshitting me,” said Dove into her headset. She plopped her booted feet onto my mahogany desk. “Get me the paperwork by tomorrow or you can kiss funding for your program good-bye.” She cocked her head and listened to what was surely a stream of blustery disapproval. “Oh, yeah? Well, just try that and see what it gets you. And dead is not an excuse. Trust me.” She pushed a button on the headpiece attached to her ear and eyed me from her position behind my desk. “What are you doing here?”

“Glowing with pride,” I said, pretending to wipe a tear from my eye. “I bet whoever you just pounded into the ground is still bleeding.”

“I learned from the best.” Dove’s gaze went over my shoulder and I turned to see Doriana standing behind me, her spindly arms on her hips.

“Sea urchins,” she said. “We must have the research funding. It’s imperative—”

“Whatever you want,” I said. I looked at Dove. “Right, Dove?”

“Anyone who has punched Karn in the face has my approval,” she said. She shooed me away. “Don’t you have a mysterious and lengthy trip to take?” She waved Doriana inside. “I have a blank check, sister, and I’m not afraid to use it.”