How Nina Got Her Fang Back: Accidental Quickie (Accidentally Paranormal Series Book 13) (6 page)

Nina popped her lips. “How the fresh hell can he do that? Just take a dude out without explanation? Doesn’t he have to answer to anyone—like one of these fucking elders? He’s not God, for fuck’s sake.”

Galen cleared his throat. “Our rules are clear in Clan Casteel, and I broke one—a big one. I knew the consequences before I became involved with January.”

“What the frig kind of clan is he running? Greg’s told me about some strict clan laws in the past, but that shit’s heinous, dude. You’ve been living like some damn hostage your entire vampire existence?” Nina asked, her disbelief written all over her face.

“Artem wasn’t always our clan’s leader. He came onto the scene a couple of years ago after our sire, Mathias Rigby, was killed. Artem was next in line.”

“So before this Casteel asshat, you didn’t have to live by this particular rule where you could be punished by death for consorting with someone outside your species?” Marty asked in horror. “Wasn’t there like some kind of grandfather clause? An exception to the rule?”

Galen shrugged, his frustration clear. “It wasn’t always like this. Our former leader was progressive, like most of the clan is. He let us do as our hearts saw fit. But when Artem took over, he reinstated all the old laws and made them very clear to us from the second he walked into the role of clan leader. Anyone who wasn’t already mated outside their species was to adhere to the reinstated law. Our clan is smallish as it is. There were only a very few who’d mated to others anyway. So there isn’t anyone who can save me from a punishment I already knew would come.”

“Dude, you need to defect to our clan. That shit doesn’t go on in our—”

“But don’t you see, Nina?” January asked, grabbing Nina’s arm to remind her of the seriousness of the impending summit meeting. “The vampire clan’s highest official, after hearing Artem go on and on about the danger he claims you’ve put everyone in, is considering the same law—he’s considering forcing each sire, of each clan, to also revert back to the old ways. If your official rules as such, everything before becomes null and void.”

Nina blinked and, probably a rare moment, went totally speechless.

Wanda stepped between them all, her expression grave. “Okay, so we have a serious problem. Because if this is the case, if they don’t like crossbreeding and species mixing, then I’m a problem, too. I’m half werewolf, half vampire, and none of us were born this way. We were all human once—all turned by accidental circumstances. Well…
they
were anyway. How I was turned is a whole different kettle of fish that could bring us even more trouble. Anyway, are they considering booting me, too? Because I can assure you, I won’t miss those dreadful picnics they force us to attend each year in the name of unity.”

Nina nodded her dark head, a smirk on her face. “Yeah. Their weenies in a blanket suck. Also, the jackhole berserkers are big whiny babies when it comes to touch football.”

January’s heart pounded as the night began to cave in on her, surrounding her in darkness. “I don’t know what the entire plan is, I just know that Artem’s spent a lot of time as a consultant, wooing his way into the summit, and he’s been swaying folks to his line of thinking by creating hysteria and using the three of you—Nina, most specifically—as prime examples for why there should be no exceptions to his purist rules.”

“Okay, so who do we fuck up first?” Nina asked, cracking her knuckles and rolling her head on her neck.

“We don’t fuck up anyone, Nina! No fucking up! This is going to be a covert operation, nitwit. Don’t we have enough attention on us?” Marty asked, using the heel of her hand to nudge Nina’s shoulder.

“Yes. A plan. I wish I could say I had one,” Galen confessed. “But I’m at a complete loss as to how it will help our own situation. My clan’s rules are my clan’s rules. They’ve been clear since Artem took over.”

Wanda squeezed her temple and stood up straight as she began to pace the length of the alley, kicking up dust with her conservative sandals. “Is your coven of the same belief system? Can witches mate with another species? Or is that against your laws, too?”

Gripping Galen’s arm, January leaned against him. “They don’t love it. But it’s happened here and there. I mean, there’s no written rule that says we can’t. They’d just prefer we stuck to our own, you know, the whole procreation thing—keep the bloodlines strong. But I’ve never heard of anyone—not one single soul—persecuted the way we’re being persecuted. I didn’t even think about it until Galen told me his clan’s laws after our first date.”

Which should have been the moment she’d walked out and never looked back. At least, that’s what the rational side of her said. But there’d been no denying she belonged with him from the start. She’d fallen head over heels for him long before he even knew she existed.

Wanda leaned back against the brick of the building, her beautiful face tight. “So do you think we might find allies within your coven? Some high-ranking officials who aren’t against you mating with a vampire? Someone with some power who’ll back us up? Someone who can talk some sense into this Artem?”

January held up her hands in misery. “But
who
can I tell? Whom can I confide in without fear word will get back to Artem? What if there are witches in my coven who feel the same way? What if they believe what Artem believes? What if they told Artem? I can’t afford to arouse any suspicion, Wanda. We have an infant to consider.”

“Shit,” Nina swore, pulling a Snickers bar from her hoodie pocket and ripping it open with her teeth.

January put her hand on Nina’s wrist, the doctor in her unable to stay quiet. “You’re stress-eating.”

Nina hitched her jaw. “Really? If I pulled some fucking kale out of my pocket, would that be considered stress-eating?”

Point for the vampire. “Not technically, I suppose, because it’s better for you.”

“Well, if I liked that shit, that’s what I’d use to shove my stress down my throat. But seeing as kale tastes like dirt and I don’t give a fuck about calories or clogged arteries, here’s to you, Doc.” She saluted January with the candy then ripped a hunk of it off with her teeth and smiled.

“Honey?” Galen said, squeezing her hand. “We have to go. Your spell won’t last forever.”

“So let us think on this, yes?” Wanda asked, gripping January’s arm, her eyes ablaze. “We’re better as a team. I’ll run this past Darnell and Arch and our husbands and let’s see what we can come up with.”

January blew out another breath of air. “That’s another thing. We have a tight time frame, Wanda.”

Marty’s gaze zeroed in on January’s face as she place her hands on her rounded hips. “How long are we talking, Doc?”

“A week,” January whispered. A week to prove Artem was a maniacal power-monger. “They’ve given me five days only to assess Nina. Nina should get notification from the council of elders that they’re calling a meeting soon.”

Wanda licked her lips and tucked her bone-colored purse under her arm again. “Okay, then. We need proof that Artem’s ultimate plan is to oust everyone in power. There has to be a way to prove it. Until then, Nina comes to see you as planned. Let them videotape her sessions. We’ll try to keep her in check on this end.”

Nina’s finger shot upward, eyeing them all. “Stop GD talking about me as if I’m not here, Halfsie. If I start acting like I
want
to go to therapy, this Artem is going to get suspicious, right? I can’t just go in and be all pro pick-my-brain. Is that at all like me? Fuck no. He’ll know something’s up. Especially if he has a list of all my so-called indiscretions—which is bullshit anyway. I do what I do because it has to be done. If I’m a little mouthy when I do it, tough shit. I can’t believe the clan wants people like our accidental clients to flop around like fish out of water until they figure out their new statuses in life. They should be grateful someone’s willing to help. Isn’t it fucking better that we help them so they don’t flip a nut and head to the local X-Files office? Jesus, these assholes are backward-ass fucks.”

“Nina’s right,” January agreed. “She’s absolutely right. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t show progress, because I
hope
we’ll make progress, Nina. But behaving isn’t in her nature. Of course she’s going to be resentful of the process at first.”

Nina pointed at January and smiled, a sly upward tilt of her lips. “What
she
fucking said. So I’m going to put my surly drawers on and I’ll see you and all your lame-ass breathing techniques tomorrow, Doc. We good?” She held out her hand to Galen and shoved it under his nose.

Galen’s reluctance, not to mention his skepticism, was palpable, but he grabbed her hand anyway and shook it with a firm gesture. “We’re good. I’ll do what I can on my end to dig up something. There must be some plan—something Artem’s got mapped out for this big coup he wants to attempt. There has to be something we can use to prove his intent to rule.”

“We’re on it,” Marty said as January and Galen turned to leave. “But wait. One question, January.”

January turned, tucking her shawl around her even tighter when the streetlight shone down on her head. “What’s that?”

“This cloaking spell thing,” she said softly, almost hesitantly. “I was curious. Can you make my boo—”

“Marty!” Wanda yelled. “Knock if off. It’s rude to ask for D cups from someone you only met twenty minutes ago!”

January and Galen looked at each other before she dissolved into a fit of laughter against him as they left the alleyway and headed back down the sidewalk to go their separate ways.

And anyone who saw them together would see a hunched-over, graying gentleman with a cane, assisting an equally graying woman in a knitted shawl and sensible black shoes.

* * * *

“I hate saying goodbye,” January whispered against Galen’s chest. “Especially when I don’t know when we’ll see each other again without thirty different coworkers in our faces. I hate all this hiding and grabbing mere moments when we should be in our own home getting our Netflix and chill on while Calista sleeps.”

Galen tightened his arms around her, keeping his eyes wide open in order to survey the street for anyone who might have followed him. “I hate it, too, honey. But I promise, some way, somehow, we’ll figure this out. We’ll find a way to be together. You, me, and Calista—as a family. Swear it.”

“After meeting them, do you think these women can help?” she asked, her question muffled against his shirt.

His jaw tightened. How could he shoot down the only thing that had given her hope in months? But he had to admit he was riddled with skepticism. “I don’t know.”

“What you’re saying is, they’re not exactly instilling hope in you because they argue like children on a playground, right?”

He chuckled and relaxed a little. “That Nina? Whoa. She’s like having a conversation with a hand grenade. You never know when you’ll mistakenly pull the pin and she’ll explode.”

“Ah, but she’s also the one who’s responsible for saving many lives, including her best friend’s just this past winter.”

“Which one? The cute blonde with all the bracelets and hair, or the understated one with the patience of Job and the schoolmarm voice?”

“The cute blonde. Her name’s Marty, and she’s also not exactly someone you want to tangle with, by the by. Nina took a bullet for her, Galen, and she was human at the time she did it. She knew going into that mess they had with a mob of Russian bears that she’d take a literal hit, and she jumped into the fray anyway. It took four months of physical therapy for her to heal, and I get the feeling she’d do it all again because she’s selfless, even without her powers. Selfless and fearless and intensely loyal to those women and her family—not to mention the countless others she’s helped along the way. They all love her despite her surly nature.”

“She can’t be easy to love.” He’d never seen a woman as abrasive, forthright, downright in-your-face as this Nina. But he had to admire her willingness to threaten him—even when he was cloaked in a spell that made him look like he was eighty. She was a human, he was a mean vampire, and still she hadn’t backed down.

She was unafraid, and that was a trait necessary if they were going to try to stop Artem. But he didn’t want anyone hurt because of them. He didn’t want anyone hurt period.

“Nope. She doesn’t make it easy to love her, that’s true. That’s her shield. Her armor to keep the world around her at bay. It’s a test she gives—a game she plays with herself to ensure she won’t end up hurt. But when you do love her, when you can’t help but love her, that’s when she shines. She’s all or nothing. How many people can you say that about? I have to find a way to help her discover she’s just as valuable to her friends, vampire or not.”

“You really do want to help her,” he murmured, his admiration for her never-ending.

January didn’t just do her job. She
was
her job. Honest, straightforward, nurturing. She had it all and then some, and even in the midst of this disaster, even when she could simply use Nina and her friends as a means to her own end, she wanted to fix the ex-vampire.

“Of course I do, Galen. She’s suffering. The fear of her mortality is huge. Her daughter’s half vampire, for goodness sake. Charlie—that’s her daughter’s name—has eternal life. So do all her friends, her husband, the people she’s surrounded herself and created a family of her own with; they’ll all live eternally. She’s petrified to leave them, but she’ll have to. She’ll age. She’ll suffer all the things aging brings. Her friends won’t. I want her to acknowledge that—learn to move forward despite that. Find a way to live out her humanity with a different outlook now that her landscape’s changed.”

“Your passion for your work is one of the things I love most about you, January Malone. It’s what attracted me to you from the start.”

Kissing his jaw, January nipped at the skin, making his body harden to an almost unbearable need for her—even still cloaked as an old man. It had been a long time since they’d been able to be intimate and it was killing him slowly, day by day.

“You know what I want to know? Why’d they put such a cute guy in the office right next door to me? Didn’t your crazy clan think about the temptation you’d create, Dr. Marcus? All tall, dark, and blood-drinking? It was just too much for me to resist.”