How Nina Got Her Fang Back: Accidental Quickie (Accidentally Paranormal Series Book 13) (17 page)

“No!” she ordered in a whisper. “Let me track the scent, Doc. No sudden moves, no rushing into a situation without thinking it through.”

“But I hear her!” she whisper-yelled back. “I know my own baby. She needs me, Teddy!”

Teddy grabbed her shoulders and forced her to look into her eyes. “Stop it! That’s my point, January. They
want
you to react. They
want
you to make a mistake. I know a thing or two about this. Please. I’m begging you. No rash moves!”

Sucking air into her lungs, she forced her pulse to slow, forced her mind to stop creating scenarios of doom. Teddy was right. She knew better, and January wasn’t going to be the idiot who went into the basement while the audience screamed at her to
not
go into the basement.

Steeling herself, she said, “Okay. You’re right. Just tell me what to do and I’ll follow your lead.”

Gripping her hand, Teddy tucked both she and Ingrid behind her and began the winding path toward the sound while she sniffed the damp air. The lighting was dim; so dim, January found it hard to make out two feet in front of her.

Teddy halted and looked both ways, hitching her jaw to the left, where yet another tunnel led to an opening with crude stairs descending into darkness.

And Calista gurgled once more, making the effort very real to not knock Teddy and Ingrid over and fly down the steep steps to see if she was there.

Just as they hit the bottom, Teddy stopped, craning her neck into the room. “Nina? Oh God, Nina!” she whispered, leaping into the enormous room from the last step, with January and Ingrid hot on her heels.

The ex-vampire lay apparently unconscious, huddled in a corner, her hand still loosely wrapped around Calista’s tiny wrist.

Calista sat beside her and cooed baby talk to her favorite new friend, her eyes alight as she patted an immobile Nina on the cheek and leaned forward to give her wet kisses, tangling herself in Nina’s long hair.

January’s heart turned over in her chest at the sight of her chubby daughter with Nina. Calista had adored Nina from the moment she’d laid eyes on her. It was evident in the way she now tried to rouse Nina with gentle gummy kisses, just like the ones she so lovingly gave January and Galen.

There was no stopping her at this point. Slipping between Ingrid and Teddy, January raced to her, scooping her up and pressing her cheek to Calista’s softer one, inhaling the very essence of her child in deep gulps. “I’m here. Mommy’s here,” she whispered, thanking the goddess she was safe before she knelt and brushed Nina’s hair from her face.

Teddy took Calista from her, bouncing her upward as Ingrid and January spread out around Nina.

“Boss! Wake up!” Ingrid husked out, patting her cheek. Nina stirred, but her eyes remained closed, her face slack, and she was cold—so cold.

“Use your wand, Doc!” Teddy urged, keeping Calista amused by tickling her under her chin.

January pulled the wand from her sweater and roamed the length of Nina’s long body, but she wasn’t responding. So she leaned in and whispered in her ear, “Nina! Wake up now, honey. We need you alert. Calista needs you to help us get out of here!”

Her eyes cracked open at the request, staring straight ahead before she blinked. “What the fuck…” she mumbled—then her eyes closed again, slamming shut.

Ingrid slung an arm around Nina and hauled her upward with a grunt, the echo of it harsh. “What’s wrong with her, Doc? Why won’t she wake up?”

January tamped down her panic and kept her voice even. Her wand almost always worked, unless the person was…

No. Nina was not dying. Tears stung her eyes. She would
not
die on her watch. She wouldn’t allow it. “I don’t know. My wand isn’t helping at all. I don’t know what’s wrong. Maybe she’s concussed? If that’s the case, we have to keep her awake.”

Teddy handed Calista down to Ingrid. “Take the baby and give me Nina.” In one fell swoop, she gathered Nina and hauled her upward, wrapping her arm around Nina’s waist. “Okay, Badass, it’s time to open those beautiful eyes. C’mon, Tough Guy. Walk!” she demanded, pulling her across the hard, dusty floor.

January went to the other side of Nina, dragging her limp arm over her shoulder. “Nina! It’s January—remember me? Dr. Pain in The Ass? Wake up, Nina!”

As they dragged her back and forth, she still hung limply, giving little to no effort to aid in her plight.

“Jesus, Nina—how many dang bags of Cheetos did you eat? You weigh a ton,” Teddy razzed, poking Nina in the ribs, but still she didn’t respond.

Ingrid hopped up, cradling Calista close. “Guys, maybe we need to take this show on the road and head toward the cellar doors? Now that Teddy’s awake, she can break the lock.”

January nodded. “Agreed. But promise me one thing. If Artem or any of his goons show up, take the baby and run. I’ll try to clear a path for you with my wand, but do whatever you have to—get her to safety.”

“Swear it,” Ingrid said, tucking Calista close, her voice strained.

“Then let’s move.”

Teddy held up a finger, unwinding Nina from her grasp. “I got this,” she said on a grunt, slinging Nina over her shoulder fireman style. “Let’s do this, ladies!”

As they began the climb upward, a voice admonished them with the click of a tongue.

“Tsk-tsk, ladies. It was all you could do to get
into
my party and now you want to leave it so soon? Where’s your sense of adventure? The night’s just begun!”

January’s heart jumped and her mouth went dry as she pressed a hand against the wall to steady herself and her shaking limbs.

Artem.

Artem had arrived.

* * * *

Galen paced the area between the house and a thicket of trees where they all hid, minus January, his chest tighter than tight. But he would not give in to panic for the sake of January and Calista. “So she was behind you when you heard her scream?”

Marty nodded, her blonde hair a beacon in the otherwise dark night. “Yes. Both Wanda and I heard her scream to us to run.”

“Fuck!” he said more to himself than anyone else. He was responsible for this, he was the catalyst for this chain of events leading them all here, and if something happened to Calista and January…

“Don’t go there, man,” Keegan urged, gripping his shoulder. “They heard January right around there.” He circled an area with a finger, pointing out what looked like a storm cellar in the middle of the back of the house. “I’d bet my life they’re in that cellar.”

The moment Keegan spoke the words was the moment they watched several men with guns pull the doors open, the creaky hinges squeaking in the night air.

“We have company,” Heath said. “But if we’re smart, we can get these sonsabitches from behind. You all up for a sneak attack?”

“They’ll smell us, honey,” Wanda warned.

“Not if we roll in this,” Galen said, toeing a patch of horse manure. “If nothing else, it’ll throw them off enough for us to at least get in there.”

Wanda was the first to kneel down, eyeing the manure. “Whatever it takes,” she said, scooping up a glob and slathering it all over herself without so much as a wrinkle of her nose.

As Galen and everyone else joined her, he thanked the universe. He didn’t know how he’d gotten so lucky to come across this batch of people willing to do whatever it took to help someone in need.

But he was goddamn grateful they were.

* * * *

In the blink of an eye, Artem had them all pushed back down into the room until they were backed into a corner, his eyes gleaming, his cohorts right behind him.

Pushing Ingrid and January behind her, Teddy blocked their path to the women. “So I guess you’re Artem?”

“You guess correctly, and you are?” He sniffed the air around Teddy. “I smell dirt and…salmon, is it?”

Taking a step forward, Nina still over her shoulder, she sniffed the air back. “I smell spineless and…twat, is it?”

For a moment, January thought Artem would respond by punching Teddy’s lights out. Instead, he threw his head back and laughed a gurgling chuckle. “I like saucy, and you don’t just look saucy, your
mouth
is saucy. Too bad you’re a vile bear. The things I could show you if you and your kind didn’t disgust me so.”

“Really? The things I could show you
because
you disgust me, you vile piece of shit. Wanna give it a go?”

Artem’s lean face remained calm as he basketed his fingers together in front of him and smiled slyly. “Oh, no. No, no, no, my blonde goddess. I don’t get in the mud with the pigs. I eliminate them and make bacon. Now put your friend down right there,” he ordered, pointing to the corner.

“Do as he says,” January urged, watching as Teddy reluctantly set a passed-out Nina on the floor in the corner, against the wall.

Her long body limply slumped and she continued to remain motionless, ratcheting up the fear that something was internally wrong and January had missed it when she was checking her.

Artem peered around Teddy as she repositioned herself in front of January. “Peek-a-boo, Dr. Malone!”

January gripped her wand in her sweater, stepping in front of Ingrid as Artem taunted. Licking her dry lips, she lifted her chin. “Are you really going to kill us all, Artem? How are you going to justify the murder of four women and a baby—one of whom is a clan member—to the elders at this summit on Monday?”

“Oh, that won’t be a problem, January. You did essentially break into my home, didn’t you all? You and your filthy friends and their ruse as waitresses. Of course, your friends were quite violent. Especially the one who can’t seem to keep her eyes open long enough to know she’s going to be a real party pooper when she’s
dead
,” he snarled.

No. It wouldn’t end like this. She wouldn’t let it end like this. “But there are others who’ll testify against you, Artem. Others who know about you and your plans. Other clan members and the like who think you and your way of thinking should be wiped from the planet!” January snarled back.

Artem reached around January and gripped Calista’s finger, a twinkle in his eye when she cooed at him. “Do you mean those who have children with men who aren’t supposed to crossbreed? Are those the people you speak of? I mean, a
baby
, January? Really? Care to explain this, Dr. Malone? Babies don’t just appear. Whose sweet bundle of powdered perfection and honeysuckle is this?”

“Mine! She’s mine, you freak, and if you touch a hair on her head, I’ll staple your dick to your asshole,
asshole
!” Ingrid said, pulling Calista away from Artem and flattening herself against the wall.

But Artem shook his head and simply grinned at Ingrid’s lie. “Oh, come now, goose. How can a mere mortal such as yourself produce a baby who’s half witch, half
vampire
, and happens to be the spitting image of the lovely Dr. Malone—with shades of her species-traitor boyfriend, Galen Marcus? Methinks you were a very bad girl, January, weren’t you? Very, very bad.”

Oh, Goddess, this was bad. This was more than bad. There was no way they could take on Artem, along with twenty or so vampires with guns and eyes filled with the lust for blood.

So she decided to make a deal.

G
oddess forgive her for what she was about to do… But it was better to see them shunned from their respective species than dead.

“Tell you what, Artem. Let’s make a deal. Let them go. Let them all go and I’ll testify against Nina. I’ll tell the council she’s the perfect example of why she—why all of her friends—should be ousted from the community altogether. I’ll even testify that your recommendation to ban all species from mingling is a wise choice on the part of the council. I’ll back you one hundred and ten if you’ll just let them go. Who better than an esteemed member of the medical community to bring credit to your theory?”

Teddy and Ingrid were about to protest when January held up her hand. As she looked into their eyes, she silently begged them to stay quiet.

Artem paused, gazing at her with his smug eyes and his enormous ego. And then asked, “Why the sudden change of heart, Glinda? Could it be you want to save your vampire’s hide?”

Her body trembled, her hands shook, but she refused to let him see. “What does it matter other than I’ll offer my credentials and years of experience? The motivation for my reasoning is moot, wouldn’t you agree?”

“But then what am I to do about
you
? You know all my secrets. How can I trust you won’t someday expose me before I’m ready to rid the world of filth? In fact, your friends know all my secrets.” He sighed, raspy and long. “I’m afraid it’s a no-go, Glinda.”

“Then kill me. My life for theirs,” she said, trying with everything she had in her to keep her chin up, to keep hot tears from falling down her cheeks. “Keep me here with you until the council meeting as your prisoner. Take me to the summit. I’ll testify and when it’s done, you can kill me. But you have to agree to let the baby and Teddy and Ingrid go. And Galen lives. He’s your insurance. He’ll never tell them what you’re planning because he’ll die if he does, and leave Calista fatherless—and I can’t tell anyone anything if I’m dead.”

Calista reached forward from behind her then, tugging at January’s long braid. “Ma-ma!” she chirped, the tone in her voice making it clear she was pleased she’d finally said the word after January had coaxed her for so long.

And that was the moment January’s soul shattered. When her heart cracked in half and all she wanted to do was curl up in a ball and scream her rage. When she truly understood, truly
felt
what Nina was feeling.

She’d never hear Calista call her mama again. She’d never watch her go to kindergarten, find a familiar, scratch her knees at the playground, cry over her first love breaking her heart, graduate from high school, sob as she packed her belongings and went off to college. Smile through tears as she tried on wedding dresses.

But she didn’t curl up in a ball. Instead, January reached back and grabbed Calista’s chubby hand, the soft skin warm to her touch, and tried to swallow before letting go and taking another step forward.

“So do we have a deal?” she asked, her voice cracking. “My life for theirs. My sworn testimony—my sworn, highly valued testimony—for them and Galen.”