The Lion's Den (30 page)

“
No,” Xander answered. “I’m taking six members from my Pack, Elise is taking four from hers and only Richard is joining us.”

Matthew turned to Richard. “You don’t want me to come with you?”

“
No. You need your rest,” Richard said.

“
I want to argue with you about that, but it’s true. I’m exhausted,” Matthew agreed.

“
I know. I can see it in your eyes. You are as well, Warren. The two of you need to sleep, in case this doesn’t work out as planned, we’re going to need you at full strength.” Richard eyes panned over the faces of both men.

“
I understand,” Warren said, rising from his chair.

“
Call us if you need us,” Matthew said.

“
We will. Darian set aside a room for you, he figured you’d both be exhausted and would appreciate a warm, comfortable bed,” Elise said.

“
Well, he was right,” Warren replied, chuckling.

“
Follow me.” Elise led the two men to Natasha’s old bedroom. They undressed and climbed into bed. A few seconds later, they were both asleep.

C
hapter
S
ixteen

“
Dad, I’m actually surprised you’re all for the use of weapons this time around,” Adrian said, as he was checking over his handgun loaded with silver bullets.

Xander looked at his son, whom he’d chosen as an enforcer for their Pack for a reason. He smiled. It wasn’t that he was opposed to using weapons at all. He felt the use of weapons were ideal in certain situations, like now. “Why wouldn’t I be? This situation calls for it. We’re not in a battle for our territory. This has everything to do with survival, and we should be prepared for whatever may come.”

“
But isn’t this still about us defending our territory? What about the ‘integrity’ of it?” Adrian asked, remembering his father’s words to him.

“
Because this is our territory, yes, we are defending it. However, no official
Challenge of Authority
has been issued. We are not the only one’s being attacked. We must eliminate this threat by any means necessary. I don’t think there’s a community in existence that wouldn’t understand our methods and use them if they were in our predicament,” Xander answered.

Adrian nodded, understanding his father. “This is our best shot, I think. He may be able to hurt us one on one or even three on one, but I don’t think he’ll be able to defend himself against thirty to one. I just wanted to make sure you weren’t disappointed in your decision.”

Xander nodded. “Whether or not this is the best course of action to take, is irrelevant. It’s our only option at this point.”

Richard entered the den, looking at the two shifters conversing. “Are you both ready?”

They turned toward him. “Yes,” Xander answered.

“
All right, everyone is outside getting into the automobiles.” Richard turned, exiting the mansion.

Both men left, climbing into a new black Sidewinder SUV with Richard, Elise, Sergio and Daniel. The two SUV’s carrying Adan’s Pride were followed by two SUV’s with Elise and Xander’s members in them. They drove through Chicago, heading into Oak Forest, They continued driving, wondering if they would soon be attacked by Marcus not wanting Adan’s Pride to flee the city. Another hour passed along with another city and still, there was no attack. Devin, who was driving the first SUV pulled over along the road, the others followed. The leaders of the three groups climbed out to see why he pulled over. They walked over to the SUV.

“
Devin, what’s wrong?” Elise asked.

Devin shrugged. “He told me to pull over.” He pointed at Adan.

“
Why?” Elise asked, now looking at Adan.

“
Because,” Adan began, giving them a sad smile. “I really can’t ask for more than what you’ve all tried to do for me and my Pride. None of us can guarantee this is going to work. You should return back to your family and friends, we’ll

”

“
Enough with the death wish, already. You go off on your own, you’re as good as slaughtered,” Sergio said. “You came here for help and you might as well stay and fight, win or lo- Naw, fuck that, we’re going to kick ass when the time comes.” He was not willing to even imagine a predicament that ended in defeat.

“
I’m not afraid to fight or die, I just want to protect my Pride. Many of them have never seen battle, let alone had to fight for their lives,” Adan said.

“
Maybe it’s time. I know that in your Pride, things run differently, but now is the time for your females to step up,” Sergio said.

Adan nodded thoughtfully. “That’s true. Another thing is, I don’t think going to another city within the state is enough to draw him out.”

“
Why didn’t you say that before we drove all the way out here?” Devin asked.

“
Just thought about it, that’s why,” Adan said.

“
None of that matters. We all knew it was a long shot to begin with. How about this,” Sergio turned toward the others. “We head back but we stay separated, keeping a short enough travel distance between our two locations. Let’s see if they attack us that way. Our best option is to keep them divided. They’ll either split up to attack us, or team up to attack one location in which we can alert the others in time for them to join us to combine our forces. This is, of course, a contingency plan in case they bother attacking us at all.”

“
I think that is a pretty decent strategy,” Xander said, nodding. “In fact, I’d like to elaborate on it. Perhaps, we should gather three or four members from Darian’s coven and take them to our second location. That way, our strength can be as equally divided as much as possible. Also the vampires can telepathically connect with each other in the event of an attack.”

“
That works for me,” Devin agreed.

Elise smiled, so proud of her king and lover, father of her children. “I’ll inform Darian when he rises. The only thing that’s still troubling me is the age of Marcus’ entire coven, I really wish I knew how powerful they were.”

“
I know, right now, we just have to do what we can. Let’s head back,” Xander said.

They all decided to follow Sergio’s plan and headed back to Evanston. Some stayed at the mansion, while others went with Elise and Richard. The second team left after gathering John, April, Gary and Tony from Darian’s coven, and drove to the hotel Elise had rented which was less than ten minutes traveling distance, possibly two if you break all speeding laws, from Darian’s mansion. Each team waited it out to see what would happen next.

***

A little after noon, Warren pulled into the parking lot of the S.U.I.T. precinct. He and Matthew picked up Brian and Colin along the way. They went inside, meeting up with Barry and Gabriel, who were looking over paperwork.

“
Anything else happen that we need to know about?” Warren asked.

Barry looked up from his paperwork. “No. Everything’s been quiet so far. I don’t know what’s going on, what they have planned. But it’s been at least twelve hours without a body being reported.”

“
I don’t know if that’s good news or bad,” Gabriel said.

“
Well, we’d know about a body if there was one. This coven likes to brag about their kills,” Colin stated.

“
You two need to head home, get some rest. We’ll take over the watch from here,” Matthew told Barry and Gabriel.

“
Good idea,” Gabriel said, yawning as he stretched his limbs. “Let’s go, Barry.” He rose to his feet, pulling his jacket from the back of his chair and slipping it on. Barry did the same and both detectives left.

Warren looked at the other three men. “Let’s do some patrolling, see what we can find out.”

“
Okay, we’ll take the south side, you take the north, keep in contact,” Matthew said.

Warren and Brian headed north, while Matthew and Colin headed south. They patrolled the neighborhoods, speaking with other supernaturals to see if any of them had information. No one knew anything that could help them solve their case, but they continued to search for answers.

***

Kiren lay panting breathlessly beside Marcus, his chest heaving as he struggled to regain his composure. Marcus lay on his back, his eyes closed as he relished the sensation of his lover’s blood warming him as the last waves of his fleeting orgasm subsided. The tingles began to vanish until there was nothing left but the memory of their lovemaking.

Kiren rolled over, watching him. “Are you still mad at me about last night?”

Without opening his eyes, Marcus answered him. “Yes.”

“
I couldn’t help it, I wanted to see them. I wanted to watch them try to figure me out.”

“
I don’t care. You were careless and you almost died because of it. Had I not come when I did, Darian would have killed you,” Marcus said, finally turning his head to look at him.

“
He took me by surprise. I’m sure on any other given day, I could have killed him.”

Marcus laughed. “And then you’d really piss me off. That beautiful man is mine. I have plans for him. Besides, you couldn’t kill him even if you wanted to. He’s stronger than you’ll ever be. But that’s not to say you still can’t have fun. His lover and second in command is weaker than you. In addition, they have the woman, their son and she’s pregnant with their second child. This makes her very special.”

“
Think he’d surrender if we took her hostage, threaten to kill her?”

“
No. He’s a Master vampire; he has much more at stake than his human lover if he surrendered. As a matter of fact, I’d think him weak if he did. No, this one would never give in so easily and I think that’s what’s exciting to me. He knows I want him, yet he’s not running as many others have in the past.”

“
Just like that pussy, Adan?”

Marcus chuckled. “You’re incorrect. You mistake his fleeing as a sign of weakness. He is strong, powerful and brave, but he has obligations to protect his Pride, his women. He knows his death would most likely mean theirs and he’s trying to prevent that.”

“
Do you still want Adan and his Pride?” Kiren was curious. He knew his lover had struck a gold mine per say when he’d met Darian, Elise, Xander and Richard.

“
I do, even more so now, than before. He has joined forces with the other supernaturals in this state and I’m intrigued to see where this is going to go. I’ve never come face-to-face with a situation such as this where separate communities are working together. Also, they have members within the S.U.I.T., which I wasn’t expecting, so intelligence is coming in from all angles.” Marcus smiled wickedly. “As a matter of fact, I want you to do something, we need to raise the bar on this one.”

“
I thought we already had,” Kiren said, running his fingers down the length of Marcus’s torso.

“
Killing the infant and the others is nothing compared to the hell we’re going to bring forth.”

Kiren sat up, intrigued. “What is it that you want me to do?” His eyes were bright with anticipation.

“
This S.U.I.T. organization needs to be roused a bit more. I’ve enjoyed watching them chase their tails in trying to figure us out. They’ve failed and they know it. These humans have no idea who they’re dealing with.” Marcus caressed the side of Kiren’s face. “You’ll enjoy dohis.”

“
The anticipation is killing me; what is it you want me to do?!” Kiren was growing more impatient.

Marcus chuckled. “There are two detectives who were flown in from California to help. One of them I sensed is a shifter … a wolf. The other is human. I want you to turn the human. Remember, turn him not kill him. Then I want you to turn the other two human detectives who are working the case as well. I think it’ll be fun if we change the S.U.I.T. around a bit, don’t you.”

Now it was Kiren’s turn to smile, only his bared a more sinister appearance. “A little change here, a little change there, I’m enjoying the possibilities. Can I do this thing my way?”

“
Have all of the fun you want to. There’s nothing those other shifters can do to stop you.”

Kiren’s smile grew wider as he planted a kiss on his lover’s lips before climbing out of the bed. He began to dress quickly, not bothering to shower.