The Trail Back (19 page)

His men split up and moved to approach the house from opposite directions. Selwyn slowed to a walk as he imagined his life as it would be from this moment on. He would build a home as grand as a palace and would house his Kaitlyn in their own private wing. He swept out his mind to see who was about to die in their futile attempt to keep his hybrids from him. Shifters, no one but oblivious shifters. Their minds were consumed with the banalities of farm life.
Horse feed, the price of harvesters, who the hell gave a fuck?

“Can you feel me coming closer, little wolf? Have you and Kaitlyn been talking about how much you miss me?”

* * * *

Shane, Josh, and Calder had only run fifty feet when Calder snarled another warning. Shane swung his head to either side but saw no one. As he faced forward, he ran straight into the arms of two suited vampires. One grasped his head and the other his torso. With one hand, he swiped at the vampire trying to crush his head in its powerful arms. It felt like his head was in a vise. His claws scraped down the vampire’s face, it snarled but only squeezed his head tighter.

The other vampire was crushing his chest. His ribs began to snap like twigs under the continued pressure. He howled in pain as the sharp ends pierced his lungs. He was thrown to the ground, discarded, as the vampires turned to face Calder and Josh.

Shane completed his shift to wolf when it became impossible to draw breath with his chest so damaged. Once shifted he gasped in a breath. It was agony, but at least he could breathe—breathe but not move. His spine was also damaged. He turned his head to see the vampires both leap on Calder.

Calder shot out from between them. He twisted in midair in a move of incredible agility that only a cat could’ve accomplished, and landed on one of the vampire’s backs. It pushed that vampire onto the other one, effectively pinning them both to the ground momentarily. With their speed and strength, Shane knew they wouldn’t be down for more than a few seconds at best.

Josh bent and snapped the neck of the vampire on the bottom. They were all aware this wouldn’t kill it, but it would be incapacitated until it had healed, thus giving Josh the time to kill the other vampire first.

Calder opened his jaws wide and wrapped them around the vampire’s skull. Shane
heard the sickening crunch of breaking bones as Calder’s jaws closed. The vampire’s scream of pain was cut short as his skull collapsed completely under the pressure. His blood and brains sprayed over the vampire trapped beneath him.

Josh put one booted foot on the surviving vampire’s neck before wrapping his clawed hands around its head and twisting it free. Josh let the severed head fall to the ground as he ran to Shane’s side. Josh stood for a second and appraised Shane before nodding and running off into the trees with Calder.

Making Abbie safe at any cost was all that mattered, and he’d die if necessary to make that happen. That was, however, no longer his outcome of choice.

* * * *

Caleb and Aiden jumped the perimeter fence in one bound. A vampire landed on Caleb’s back the instant his feet touched the ground. Caleb snarled loudly and swung around in an attempt to dislodge it. Its response was to dig its sharp, talon-like claws deep into Caleb’s sides.

He used the pain as a means to focus and ran for the trees ahead of him at full speed. He ran directly at a large conifer, its thick lower branches set only three feet from the ground. As he approached the tree he lowered his front legs and slid on the pine needles littering the forest floor.

At the speed he was traveling he hoped to knock the vampire from his back. As his head and shoulders slid under the tree’s lower limbs, he lowered his rump. At the sickening thud, he snarled as the vampire’s claws were wrenched painfully from his hide.

He dug in his claws to slow his slide as quickly as possible. He’d traveled a few more feet before he found purchase on the ground and found he was now completely clear of the tree. Turning, he ran back to attack the vampire he’d shaken loose. He found Aiden standing over the headless body of the vampire.

“I wouldn’t have thought of doing that,” Aiden said. “You cats are very inventive when under pressure.”

“Thank you for finishing him off,”
Caleb said. He was a little miffed that he hadn’t got to kill it, but dead was dead, so he turned and started running toward the scent of another vampire.

“Oh, I didn’t kill it,” Aiden said, running by his side. “You were traveling so fast that the tree limb took his head clean off. Like I said, very inventive.”

Caleb would have smiled had he been able to.
“How many did you just kill?”
Caleb knew Aiden had to have been occupied killing another vampire or he would have killed the one that had landed on him.

“Two. We have two more approaching us now.”

Aiden had just finished speaking when a vampire appeared before Caleb. Its arms were outstretched as it anticipated Caleb running straight into him. Caleb would then be crushed. His spine would snap, and the vampire could then take his time killing him while he was helpless.

But Caleb and his pride all had an advantage. Thanks to Aiden, they knew to go straight for their heads. If they attempted to hurt a vampire anywhere else they would fail and be killed. The vampires were simply too fast and too strong to be bested by a shifter in any sort of a prolonged fight.

With Caleb’s next stride, he bunched the muscles in his rear legs and aimed for the vampire’s head. His rear legs landed in the center of the vampire’s chest, and it fell to the ground. Caleb dug his front claws deeply into the vampire’s shoulders as he took the vampire’s skull in his jaws and whipped his head sharply to the side.

By the time the vampire’s body hit the ground his head was sailing through the air. Aiden appeared out of nowhere and caught the severed head like a football.

“Ray and Isabelle are in trouble,”
Elliot said. He sounded strained.

Caleb found that to be most unsettling, Elliot never sounded strained unless it had something to do with his mate, Brody. Aiden dropped the head and ran by Caleb’s side as they made their way to the buildings that housed the hybrids. Caleb heard the tortured cry of a cat in pain—Kaitlyn’s father.

“Josh, have you encountered any vampires?”
Caleb asked as he ran. When silence was his only reply, he looked at Aiden and tried to run faster.

“I will make Kaitlyn safe,” Aiden said. “We all knew the dangers when we came here and we accepted those risks for the safety of the pride, Caleb. No matter what, we end this now.”

* * * *

Josh had a vampire on his back when he heard Caleb call to him. He ignored his Alpha and concentrated on the threat at hand. The vampire sank its fangs into his shoulder and raked its claws down Josh’s chest as it attempted to dig them into his flesh. Josh was heavily furred in his half-shift form, and the vampire was finding it difficult to do the intended damage.

Josh spun and presented the creature on his back to Calder. Calder was perched on the branch of a fir tree some twenty feet above them. Josh heard Calder snarl and Josh suppressed a growl as the vampire’s weight left his back, its fangs pulling painfully from his shoulder. Josh spun to see Calder standing on the vampire’s back. It was just beginning to rise when Josh bent and twisted its head free with a sickening squelch. He was getting more efficient at head removal, a skill he’d never imagined honing.

Josh, finally free to answer his Alpha,
said,
“We have killed four now. Shane is injured, we left him to heal by the perimeter fence.”

“We killed one close to the buildings,”
Elliot said.
“We have killed two of the vampires inside, but one has Ray. He’s injured already, and Isabelle refuses to endanger him further by attempting to kill this vampire by herself.”

Josh thought it a miracle that only two of their pride appeared to be seriously injured in the attack. The vampires had had the advantage of strength, speed, and numbers. They had only had surprise on their side.

He and Calder waited for Caleb’s instructions. Josh wanted to keep going, to kill the remaining threat to his mate, but he’d wait for his Alpha’s command.

* * * *

“That vampire is now the sole survivor. I can feel no others in the area,”
Aiden said.
“I’ll be with you momentarily.”
Aiden turned to Caleb and raised an eyebrow in question.

Caleb was running as fast as he could, but Aiden was holding back to stay close to him.
“Go, we’ll all be there as quickly as we can.”
Caleb completed the thought to empty air. Aiden had vanished as soon as he’s uttered the word ‘go’.

“Josh, you and Calder continue to make your way to the camp. We think all the vampires but one have been killed. Make sure we’re not surprised by any more.”

Josh’s only reply was a growl. If they came out of this fight with only Shane and Ray injured, but not dead, then Caleb would consider them extremely lucky. Caleb hoped that the mayor, Selwyn Graves, was the vampire that remained alive. He knew Aiden had a slow, painful death planned for the creature, and Caleb was going to enjoy witnessing it.

Abbie sat on the sofa clasping Kaitlyn’s hand. They were in a large living room, with Meg and Brody huddled together in the armchair opposite them. Abbie knew she was still gaping at Brody, but she couldn’t help it. She was stunned by his powers, powers she had never conceived possible.

“There are vampires here,” Brody said softly. “I can smell them.”

Before Brody finished speaking, Abbie was startled by the sound of a deafening roar.

“Landon heard me,” Brody explained. “He’ll tell the rest of the pride.”

“Why won’t they let you help?” Meg said. “They know you are their most powerful weapon. They should let you at those vampires.”

“I can’t kill them, Meg,” Brody said, wrapping his friend tighter in his arms. “They’ve entrusted me with their mates.
That
is the most important job of all.”

“He’s right,” Kaitlyn said. “I think it’s good we’ve drawn them here. Now our mates can kill them. If anything happens and some of them manage to get past all our protection then Brody can take us away.” Abbie shivered, the only way Brayden would let a vampire past him was if he were already dead. Abbie couldn’t bear the thought of him dying, of any of the pride dying.

“He’ll be fine. All our mates will be fine,” Kaitlyn said.

Abbie saw she was staring outside, just as concerned for her mate, Sean, as Abbie was for Brayden.

“Do you think the mayor is here?” Abbie asked. She saw Kaitlyn shudder involuntarily.

“It doesn’t matter. If he’s here, Sean will kill him. If he’s in Canada, then Aiden will do it. Either way he’ll finally be dead.”

“And we’ll finally be free,” Abbie said.

Kaitlyn nodded and straightened her spine. Abbie did the same. She wasn’t going to be helpless this time. She was a shifter, a small wolf, but a wolf just the same. She was a part of this new pride, and they were all standing together for their right to live free. She sat up straighter and stretched her neck from side to side.

“If he comes in here, I say we kill him ourselves,” Kaitlyn said, her eyes began to glow amber with the rage of her panther.

Abbie nodded, the heat in her eyes telling her that her wolf was showing. “If he comes in here, we kill him.”

* * * *

Samson dragged the headless body into the alley behind the Outpost. The vampire had been leaning against the building watching people move about the town. Samson had thought about planting a vegetable garden as he walked silently up behind the vampire. He supposed with all the shifter scents in town the vampire had just failed to notice him being so close. Whatever the case, Samson had removed his head before the vampire had known he was there.

Ben Harvey, one of the town deputies, walked into the alley and kicked the severed head until it lay next to the lifeless body. “That’s the second one. Lachlan and I found one behind the department store.”

“Make that three, I killed one on the roof of the gas station about five minutes ago,” Samson said. “I’d ascertained there were only three before I started to take them out. Tell Lachlan the town is clear.”

“It’s amazing that they can’t hear us coming. Sean is a genius,” Ben said.

Samson turned to stand watch on the alley entrance while Ben made his call. Samson felt they’d been lucky that, so far, the human population of Pine Falls had remained oblivious to the existence of vampires as well as shifters. If the vampires had come into town in greater numbers, it would have been a different story.

“Lachlan just heard from Brody, there are vampires at his home. He asked that we stay here and keep the town safe. He’s going to Meg.”

Samson looked the young deputy over appraisingly. He was a cougar, like him, but tall and lean. Samson knew his twin brother, Cameron, was at the Alpha’s house. “You stand guard here, I’ll patrol the town.”

They were both cougars, even if the vampires moved too quickly for them to see, they’d detect their scent and then be able to follow them. Samson would do all he could to keep the town safe and the humans blissfully ignorant of the dangers all around them. The anonymity of all paranormals was vital. He dreaded to think of the dangers to his mate and their unborn child if the humans ever discovered their existence.

* * * *

Brayden braced himself for an attack as Sean snarled in warning. The vampires were close if Sean had scented them. They were all shifted, and had taken up their assigned positions around the Alpha’s home. He and Sean were by the barn, some hundred feet from the house.

Landon was on the veranda. The huge bear lumbered around the exterior, his bulk making the boards creak and groan. Landon’s roar split the silence. His mental message was unnecessary. The fury in his roar clearly told them that there was danger.