Jewel of Darkness (37 page)

He was surprised when someone sat in the seat across from him and began staring out the window with him.

“I thought things would be more interesting than this,” Thadrick said in that cool, sophisticated tone. It made Nick want to slap some chaps on the djinn and put him on the back of a motorcycle, because no one could act sophisticated on the back of a motorcycle with the wind blowing in their face.

“People are sleeping,” Nick pointed out. “Things usually aren’t interesting when people are asleep.”

Thadrick heaved a sigh that made it clear he didn’t think Nick’s excuse was a good enough one to explain why no one was entertaining him. “Do djinn sleep?” Nick asked, deciding that if he was going to be rude enough to sit and invade his territory while Nick wanted to be thinking about Kara, then Nick would ignore basic species etiquette 101.

Thadrick shot Nick an annoyed glance. “Sometimes.”

“Why aren’t you sleeping now?”

“Because I want to talk.”

Nick almost laughed at the near pout coming from the ancient djinn. “Okay,” was Nick’s only response. And later he would realize why saying okay to Thadrick in any context was not a good idea.

“I think I want a mate,” Thadrick’s declaration reverberated off of the empty walls.

Nick’s heart kicked into overdrive as he stood suddenly and headed for the stairs. “I just remembered that I’m really tired,” he called out over his shoulder as he took Peri’s stairs two at a time not bothering to look back at Thadrick and see if he’d confused or offended him ― or both.

Nick figured since he was pining after a seventeen-year-old, he wasn’t exactly the best person for Thadrick to hit up when it came to dating. Thadrick would just have to wait for the next poor sucker to come along and sit in the chair across from him.

“Good luck with that,” Nick muttered under his breath as he settled down to sleep. His last thought as he drifted off was that he couldn’t wait for Kara to get back so he could tell her about Thadrick the ancient djinn and his declaration that he thinks he wants a mate.

D
alton refused to answer his Alpha.

“Dammit, Dalton. Do we really have to go through this again?” Dillon growled at him. “You aren’t an Alpha and you aren’t a lone wolf. You aren’t going to hunt on your own.”

“She’s my mate and she’s missing,” Dalton argued, tired of hearing his Alpha say the same thing over and over again. “You know I have every right to go after her, pack or no pack.”

“And what if she doesn’t want to be found? What then?” Dillon taunted.

Dalton knew it was a valid question, but it still ticked him off. “My looking for her is not dependent on whether or not she wants to be found. She is my mate and she is gone. Therefore, I will look for her to make sure she is safe. There’s nothing difficult about it.”

“Don’t be a dick,” Dillon snarled.

“Then you don’t be an insufferable ass!” Dalton roared back. “Why are you fighting me on this? If it was Tanya out there, you’d be gone before anyone could even call your name. Why are you expecting different behavior from me?”

His Alpha let out a resigned sigh before giving a small huff of laughter. “I would think it would be obvious. I’m your Alpha. It’s my job to protect you. That’s what I’m doing. I just don’t want you to hunt her down only to be faced with the reality of what she has become.”

“I know what she’s become,” Dalton pressed.

“What?” Dillon asked. “What has she become? Say it. Say it, so I know that you understand what you might find if you hunt her.”

Dalton didn’t want to say it. He didn’t want to use his little dove’s name in the same sentence with the likes of Volcan’s sick creations. He didn’t want to give her the same title that Gwen had carried when he’d ended her life. He couldn’t.

“That’s what I was afraid of,” Dillon said wearily. “You can’t say it. You can’t hunt her.”

“Then what am I supposed to do?”

“You have to wait and let her come back to you.”

Dalton shook his head and closed his eyes, his heart shattering once again. “I can’t just leave her out there with Volcan calling the shots. I can’t abandon her.”

“You aren’t abandoning her, Dalton. She left you. It’s up to her to come back.”

Dalton didn’t respond to Dillon. There was nothing more to say. After fifteen minutes of tense silence, Dillon bid him goodnight and headed back for Peri’s home. Dalton continued to stare off into the distance as he let his mind pull up an image of Jewel’s face. He understood what Dillon was saying and knew that he might not like what he found once he did finally find Jewel. But Dalton knew that something far worse would happen if he didn’t go.

He found himself wishing that he could talk to her through a mate bond. He wanted to reassure her that it wouldn’t matter what he found once he located her again. He would still want her and nothing was going to change that.

“Be brave, Little Dove,” he found himself whispering into the night wind, even as he whispered it to himself.

Epilogue

“Your doubts and fears give the darkness strength, my mother once told me. So I took that to mean that all you have to do to survive the darkness is don’t doubt a thing and fear nothing and no one. The Score: Darkness 175/ Anna 4.” ~Anna

I
t almost felt too easy,
Volcan thought, as he stared at the two sleeping gypsy healers. They thought they were safe in the hotel room, as if a lock, or holding hands, could somehow keep him out. Before long, they wouldn’t be trying to keep him locked out. They would want him with them. They would want to be in his presence so they could soak up his power.

It was a little tidbit that he’d failed to mention to Jewel when he’d offered her his blood. He explained that she would have to do as the magic commanded her, that she wouldn’t be able to help herself. But Volcan didn’t mention that the more she used this magic, the stronger the craving for it would grow. With every new witch Jewel and Anna made for him, the craving to make another would grow threefold. It would take more and more witches being made to satiate the urges inside of them. And with every witch turned, the darkness would gain more ground.

He leaned down and pressed a kiss to Jewel’s forehead and caressed Anna’s hair as if they were precious children to him. “Sleep tight, my little lovelies,” Volcan crooned. “Tomorrow you will show me and the world just what a gypsy healer, turned witch, is capable of.”

Note from the Author:

Thank you so very much for taking your time to read Jewel of Darkness. I’m truly thankful that your time to read my books. If you’d like to keep up to date on my current and upcoming releases please go to my website and sign up for my newsletter,
www.quinnloftisbooks.com
.

More Books by Quinn Loftis

The Grey Wolves Series

Prince of Wolves

Blood Rites

Just One Drop

Out of the Dark

Beyond the Veil

Fate and Fury

Sacrifice of Love

Luna of Mine

Piercing Silence, Grey Wolves Novella

Den of Sorrows, Book 9 coming Spring 2016

Elfin Series

Elfin

Rapture

Surrender

The Gypsy Healer Series

Into the Fae

Wolf of Stone

Jewel of Darkness

Dream Makers Series

Dream of Me

Dream so Dark, Book 2 Coming Soon

Stand Alone Works

Call Me Crazy

Please take a moment to check out these other amazing books by these talented authors.

  Sara Grey’s world shattered ten years ago when her father was brutally murdered. Now at seventeen, she is still haunted by memories of that day and driven by the need to understand why it happened. She lives a life full of secrets and her family and friends have no idea of the supernatural world she is immersed in or of Sara’s own very powerful gift. In her quest for answers about her father’s death, Sara takes risks that expose her and her friends to danger and puts herself into the sights of a sadistic vampire. On the same fateful night she meets Nikolas, a warrior who turns Sara’s world upside down and is determined to protect her even if it’s the last thing she wants.

Sara’s life starts to spin out of control as she is hunted by an obsessed vampire, learns that her friends have secrets of their own and reels from the truth about her own ancestry. Sara has always been fiercely independent but in order to survive now she must open herself to others, to reveal her deepest secrets. And she must learn to trust the one person capable of breaking down the walls around her.

  Seventeen-year-old Raine Cooper has enough on her plate dealing with her father’s disappearance, her mother’s erratic behavior and the possibility of her boyfriend relocating. The last thing she needs is Torin St. James — a mysterious new neighbor with a wicked smile and uncanny way of reading her.

Raine is drawn to Torin’s dark sexiness against her better judgment, until he saves her life with weird marks and she realizes he is different. But by healing her, Torin changes something inside Raine. Now she can’t stop thinking about him. Half the time, she’s not sure whether to fall into his arms or run.

Scared, she sets out to find out what Torin is. But the closer she gets to the truth the more she uncovers something sinister about Torin. What Torin is goes back to an ancient mythology and Raine is somehow part of it. Not only are she and her friends in danger, she must choose a side, but the wrong choice will cost Raine her life

  Bastian had to have been the most handsome man that Katherine had ever met. It really was unfortunate that he was also the most stubborn, controlling, downright infuriating jackass she’d ever known as well. Oh, and there was the fact that he was a werewolf – a werewolf who has bitten her.

Sixteen-year-old Katherine Mayes had never believed in mythological creatures like werewolves or mermaids – certainly not those sparkly vampires that her friend Abby was obsessed with. Even when she’s bitten by a massive animal after a reckless night of teenage adventure and her body begins to change in mystifying ways, she can’t force herself to believe in what she’s convinced is impossible. Little does she realize she’s been infected with a disease a little more permanent than the rabies she feels fortunate to have not contracted. Lycanthropy. Her fierce denial is soundly shattered, however, when she is simultaneously saved and kidnapped by Bastian and his pack. Forced to leave small town Iowa behind and adjust to their way of life in a hidden society, Katherine must also deal with fighting the pull she feels towards the man – or wolf, rather – who has bitten her and disrupted her life so completely.