Night Fall on Dark Mountain (13 page)

“You all heard what we have in our hands now. ‘Though they’re goddamn vampires, these scientists can give our women back their ability to breed us wolf cubs. They’re geneticists and fertility experts. Haven’t we had enough misery? Our women have cried for their barren wombs. My own sister was shamed into mating—without a husband—because she can’t bear his children.

“We can change this now. We can take back the territory we’ve lost to the bloodsuckers—”

Amos Hughed raised a hand. “But what about our overlairds?”

Alec squeezed his eyes tight for a moment. “Keep out of it, old man,” he prayed. Then he edged up to take another look inside the hall.

Amos came to his feet despite the clicks of multiple chambers and the barrels aimed his way. “They’ve already said what that the men who attacked the vampires, in their territory, were wrong, and they would be punished. Are you going to ignore their ruling?”

“They’re a bunch of scared old men!” Todd shouted. “They’d sooner quiver in their beds at night than risk comin’ up against the vampires.”

“You gonna kill ’em?” Amos asked, his shoulders shaking with rage. “We’ve lived by the order of our laws all the time we’ve been on Dark Mountain. Would you risk the lives of the people here for your scheme? What if it fails?”

“What if it doesn’t?”

Another voice rose near the doorway of the hall—sweet, but quavering. “Would you really kill our elders, Todd?” Stasia stood in the doorway, her face drained of color. “Would you murder them where they sit? ’Cause it sure looks like that’s what you and these men intend.”

Todd’s expression screwed tight in frustration. “We came to parlay.”

“If you only came to talk, then why are your friends afraid to show their faces?”

One of the masked men stepped behind her and shoved her with the butt of his rifle, pushing her farther into the room, down the aisle that divided the spectators’ seats.

Alec bit back a blistering curse and hurried again to the back of the hall while their voices carried in the stillness surrounding the log building.

“Don’t you hurt her!” Todd yelled.

Alec rounded the corner, but was drawn up short by a pistol shoved under his chin. The plump blonde woman who held it pressed a finger against her lips, signaling silence. He’d never seen her before, but recognized what she was by the fangs curving over her bottom lip.

Stasia’s heart pounded
so loud she knew the wolf nearest her could hear how frightened she was. Her gaze swept the hall but found no trace of Alec. He had to be outside, trying to figure out a way to prevent what was shaping up to be a bloody massacre.

Max lay sprawled on the floor, his hands manacled behind back and his body slack. Blood seeped slowly from a wound at his temple—but he breathed. So far no one had gotten killed. There was still a chance this could end without an irreversible act of violence.

As she drew closer to her brother, she noted the wildness in his eyes—a wildness he rarely displayed to anyone other than those closest to him. He’d backed himself into a corner with the warlairds and wouldn’t be open to conversation with them, but would he listen to her?

“Todd, you can stop this now,” she said, keeping her voice calm despite the terror making her hands shake. “You can order these men to put away their weapons and end this now.”

He shook his head, sadness tugging down the corners of his lips. “Baby-girl, it’s gone too far. They wouldn’t listen. Now I have to seize control of this situation myself.”

“But think, Todd, when they’re all dead, then what? Do you think the people in this room will follow you? We’re a law-abiding community. We keep to ourselves; we don’t mingle much outside our little town. You know every one of these folks. Do you really think they will follow you? Especially, when they hear about the winged demon these bastards have allied themselves with?”

His hand tightened its grip on the pistol. “Doesn’t really matter if they do. I probably won’t be here. But I can still help them from a distance. I can bring them the therapies they need to make their womenfolk whole. I can make you whole, Stasi. Someday, all of you will thank me.”

Convinced he wasn’t going to surrender, she determined to keep him talking as long as possible to give Alec time to figure out a way to end this. “At what cost? Do you think I’ll be happy knowing a child of mine was born in blood?”

His lips tightened, then his head canted. His eyes filled with sadness. “You won’t have to settle for being a Weir’s whore, Stasi. You can have your pick of mates.”

The front door of the town hall opened and all gazes and weapons turned on the man entering the room.

Alec strode in, a thin smile curving his lips.

No, no, no! God, Todd will kill him, too!
Stasia glared at him for being so stupid, walking into a room filled with men holding weapons. What was he thinking?

“Looks like we’ve got ourselves a mess of trouble here,” Alec drawled. “Why am I not surprised you’re at the bottom of it, Todd?”

A scraping sounded from the opposite end of the building, and before Stasia had a chance to turn, all hell broke loose.

Gunfire erupted, and Stasia hit the floor, pulling down the people in the seats nearest her. “Stay down, cover your heads!” she shouted. Then she belly-crawled toward Max and draped her body over his.

This was all her fault. If she could give Alec one gift, this was it—the bastards wouldn’t get his brother. If she died from one of the stray bullets ricocheting around the room, so be it.

Max shifted beneath her. “Get off me, Stasi,” he muttered. “Take cover!”

“Shut up, Max.” She crawled over him. With her breasts cradling his head in between, she peered up to see what was happening.

Dark-clothed creatures spilled through the back door and crashed through the windows all along the hall. Their protruding brows and jagged fangs made them a terrifying sight. One, two, three…no, five! “Vampires!” she whispered.

Max grunted beneath her. “Well, halleluiah—the cavalry’s arrived.”

Alec rolled behind
a pew and came up with his weapon in his hand.

“Use this!” Joe Garcia tossed him a revolver.

Alec raised his eyebrows in question.

“Silver bullets—only thing that’s permanent, right?”

He holstered his own weapon, and crouching low, sped down the aisle toward Todd where he’d taken cover behind the laird’s upended table. He ducked behind the first pew and peered around the corner. Max and Stasia lay in the center of the floor. Max bucked beneath her, but Stasia’s thighs straddled either side of his shoulders and she’d bent low to cover her head with her arms. The woman’s ass made a tempting target.

Around them, the vampires traded gunfire with the masked wolves, some of whom had partially transformed. Fur sprouted, fangs bared, and growls filled the air while they clutched their weapons with lengthening claws.

A wolf fell to a bullet, screaming as the silver entering his system forced convulsions, and he foamed at the mouth.

Amos Hughes reached for the dying wolf’s weapon and jerked it from his arms as the creature stiffened, his back arching in the final throes of poisoning.

“I take it the vampires are with you?” Amos shouted above the din.

Alec shrugged. “Looks like it.”

The old man winked. “I’ll try not miss what I’m aiming at.” Then he crawled to the opposite end of the pew and bobbed up to aim his weapon and fire.

Weaponless, most of the people huddled behind the pews while the battle continued to rage around them. A few of the men, including several of the elders, were tearing at their clothing, letting the change overtake them so they could join the fight. But one by one, the masked men were taken down by the vampires’ bullets, their horrible screams echoing like demons from hell in the close confines of the room.

Alec tore off his uniform shirt and raised his weapon above the pew to fire three blind shots well above the heads of anyone behind the table, and then tossed away his weapon. He leapt up on the pew and launched himself, transforming in mid-air. He landed on two feet, still sentient, behind the table and lunged at Todd McGwyre who rounded on him with his weapon raised.

However, something knocked Alec sideways and an explosion of light and gunpowder, so close the sound rang in his ears, jerked back the body that had barreled into him. Another explosion, this time from over the top of the table, happened so quick, Alec only had time to roll against the table and hope the bullets stopped.

When the powder cleared, there was a deadly silence. At his feet lay Joe Garcia, gasping and holding his side—but alive.

He glanced up and found Stasia standing above him, a revolver dangling from her fingers. Following her frozen gaze he saw Todd, his back arching as spittle and foam spilled from between his gaping lips, a long wheezing breath sucking into his lungs while a rose of blood bloomed on his chest.

Alec’s bloodlust faded, and he stepped between her and the sight of her brother’s dying form to take the weapon from her hand. “Stasia, don’t watch.”

Her stare lifted to meet his gaze. “I killed him. I killed my brother.”

Around them, the vampires gathered and lifted the elders to their feet, setting the tables upright and dragging the bodies from the room. Max walked up behind Stasia, rubbing his wrists. He slipped an arm around her back and leaned close to whisper in her ear. Then he planted a kiss on her cheek and met Alec’s gaze.

Stasia blinked and her gaze narrowed for second, before her gaze finally seemed to focus, and she launched herself into Alec’s arms.

“What the hell did he just say to you?” Alec said, as he squeezed her tight.

“He said you were going to buy me a collar.”

*

Much later the
overlaird’s gavel pounded the old oak table, ending the meeting. The townsfolk spilled out of the building and headed to their vehicles.

Alec waited for the vampires. Despite their aid that night, he still had to escort them out of town. The law was the law.

Max walked beside his Pia, holding her hand, followed by Joe Garcia, who was walking on his own already, despite the wound to his side. Navarro and Dylan O’Hara were still making nice with the overlaird—or at least as nice as vampires and werewolves could ever be. They didn’t shake hands at their leave-taking, but all fangs were sheathed.

“I still want to know how you guys just happened to be here tonight,” Alec said to the group.

Emmy O’Hara curved her arm inside his and giggled.

Fighting his natural instinct to recoil from the curvy blonde, Alec took a deep breath and relaxed—concentrating on the lively color in her cheeks and the light glittering in her eyes. Max had been right—vamp or not, Emmy’s effervescence was hard to resist.

“It’s the funniest story ever,” she said. “You know, Pia and I thought we were being so clever, we’d fly in to rescue Max and Joe and fly back out, and the rest of the guys would never know. I mean, we had a cover story and answered our cell phones when they called—”

“Emmy…” Pia rolled her dark eyes. “They met us at the airport. Your overlaird called them here for a meeting. He’d gotten wind of Darcy’s murder by the boys in the Nantahala clan and wanted to let the vampires know he had matters in hand.”

“The guys were shocked to their boots when they saw us walk into that airplane hangar.” Emmy rubbed her bottom. “Have to tell you my Dylan was mad as a hornet. Not that that’s a bad thing,” she said with a saucy smile.

Alec shook his head. “I still can’t believe Navarro’s willing to lend us the services of Dr. Deats and his team.”

“Navarro’s deep,” Max said. “If he’s willing to share technology that will help our population thrive, he must have a long-range plan in mind. Don’t you think for a minute this is the end of it—or that there won’t be some pretty long strings attached.”

Alec raised his eyebrows. “You sound like you like him.”

Max scowled. “He’s a damn vampire…but I respect him.”

“Well, I guess that’s good enough for me, too,” Alec murmured. “Man, I’m sorry for the rash of shit I gave you about—” he halted when he realized who was still clinging to his arm, “um, them.”

Emmy lifted a finely arched brow and grinned. “Didn’t think you’d like any of us, did you?”

“You saved our asses. It’s hard to hold a grudge in the face of that.”

“Yeah, we did. And believe you me, you’ll be reminded about it every time we see you.”

Alec faked a growl. “Plan on visiting often?”

Her laugh tinkled like tiny bells. “Had you worried though.”

Max lifted his chin toward Stasia who was standing near the edge of the gravel parking lot with Amos at her side. “So, what are going to do with her, little brother?”

He sighed. “I’m not sure. She betrayed me.”

“Think you can get past that?”

Alec’s gaze swept over her body, remembering the offering she’d made when she’d laid her trap and felt his lips twitch into a grin. “Maybe, after a little more training.”

‡