Twisted (Rogues Shifter Series Book 3) (36 page)

“This was excellent, work.  You
and Sinc both kept your heads and acted as a team. You saved some lives today. The two of you faced down twenty- three wolves while Jackie and Sasha incapacitated the witches.” He looked at me.” Where are they by the way?”

“Come with me. The rest can follow Sasha.”  I took him through the lines to where
we’d left them tied to trees. They were struggling, but we’d stuffed Sasha’s socks in their mouths and tied their hands so they couldn’t trace any symbols. There were dead animals strewn around and some jars that had contained human organs: evidence of them working blood magic which was forbidden in every supernatural community, except perhaps the demon realm.

As soon as they saw Garrett, their skin paled and they stopped moving. He took my hand
and twisted me around so I could see his face.
“You may not want to watch.”

“You don't need to protect me. I'm fine." 
He saw my determined expression and wisely decided not to argue with me.

As he tu
rned to face them, magical energy crackled around us, making the hair on my arms stand at attention. Garrett was pulling in power to show them what they were up against and to encourage their cooperation. His fangs were down and looking deadly as his eyes flashed silver, making their eyes grow even wider. He moved like a deadly predator toward the closest one.

His voice was a whispered sword at her throat.
“If I remove the gag and you try to work a spell, I will crush your jaw. Do you understand?” She nodded, so he took out the sock, slipping me a wry glance. I just shrugged, smiled and sent,
"Sash made the sacrifice. I'm not wearing socks."

Garrett shook his head and then focused again on the nearest witch. She was dark haired and eyed, wearing jeans and a loose shirt. Blood stains were evident on her clothes.
“Tell me your names."

After spitting some sock lint out of her mouth she said, “Eloise. She’s my sister
, Claudia.”

“What did you tell the weres from the Pine Ridge Pack to force them to fight us?”
Her sister witch was shaking her head violently, trying to get her to keep her mouth shut. Unfortunately for her, the others had arrived, so Heinrich hissed at the squirming one, making sure she saw the blood on his fangs and around his mouth from the fight. She stopped moving.

Eloise snarled.
“It was
their
idea. We did nothing. They paid us.”

Garrett untied one of her arms,
and took her hand in his in an almost gentle way. "I'll give you another chance. Tell me the truth, Eloise."

"That's the truth." He
squeezed, filling the night with the gruesome sound of splintering bones. She moaned and gasped, tears filling her eyes.“We—we told them that we would—torture their families. They wouldn’t cooperate.“ She spat at Garrett. “We'd do anything to get to you, bloodsucker, to avenge our sister, Miranda. We knew you’d help the Brownlow pack because of Bridgett. You think you’re such a fucking hero.”

Garrett hissed and moved in front of her, eye to eye. “Your sister, Miranda, tortured me
for hours and planned to expose me to the sun. Her death was easy compared to what she had in mind for
me
, Eloise." He held her crippled hand where she could see it. "Tell me what you’ve done to their families.”

“Nothing!” she hissed.
Garrett curled his lip and yanked on her wrist, sharply, breaking it and causing her to scream in agony. His hand slid slowly up to her elbow. “Please, no more.” She was sobbing. “We’ve taken one from each—each family. They’re in an abandoned warehouse in Gasquet. Down the stairs. Just let us go. We'll move out of your territory."

Garrett put his hand over her forehead and I watched his eyes glaze over. Eloise whimpered as he explored her mind, then hissed again and pulled away, repulsed.  “You and your sister have been very busy over the last year. Four human victims, sacrificed for your blood rituals.
Two were children. And you were intending to use your prisoners, no matter what the outcome was today.”

She was trembling as she pleaded. “We’re
very
powerful, Garrett and we…we can enhance
your
powers. You’re a vampire. You kill for pleasure, right? You surely understand. Your nest can feed from them, too.”

“We don't kill innocents, but we do kill
our enemies, and not always in a merciful way.” He ran a fingernail down her cheek opening up a thin bloody gash. Her eyes widened in terror as his fangs extended out even further. He knew exactly how to play this bitch. “You’ll give me the address of the warehouse or I will continue.” He twisted her already badly damaged arm at the elbow and she gasped. “If I find that you’ve lied, I’ll get more
imaginative.
” She was shaking violently now, her face pale as milk. She gave us an address and he spoke to me without taking his gaze from Eloise. “Jackie, please take Sasha with you.” Sasha walked to me and I took his hand then traveled the lines.

They were there, huddled together in a cold windowless room that had been padlocked shut.
There was no food, a few empty water bottles and a bucket in the corner. They were mostly children and had been crying pitifully for their parents when we'd arrived. None of them seemed to be seriously hurt although a few of the older teens and young adults had bruises on their arms or faces.  I smiled, slightly surprised to see Sasha making a point of inspecting each one for injuries and speaking to them in a gentle reassuring voice. Giving one of the adults my cell phone, I waited while she called and then made her swear to wait until everyone was picked up safely. I reconfirmed that the witches were the ones who’d kidnapped them and then told them that it was our team and Fred's pack who were freeing them and that the witches had been captured and wouldn’t harm them again.

We didn’t
mention that the adult males in their pack were all dead, feeling it wasn't our place and would have been cruel news, only adding to their misery. We traveled back and gave Garrett the information.

His eyes were smoldering as he turned back to the terrified witch. “Eloise, you and your sister witch are responsi
ble for the death of twenty-three weres from the Pine Ridge Pack, the kidnapping and mistreatment of their family members, and the death of at least four humans in the past year alone." He turned to the new alpha of the Brownlow Pack. “Fred, I'd like to dispense justice, if you'd agree.”

“Garrett, I defer to your judgment.” He nodded
back. As violent as the supernatural community could be, there was a ritual amount of respect that each group granted the other, making events such as executions, by-the-book proceedings.

“I sentence you both to death
, under the authority of NAVA, the Western Pack Council and the Shifter Council of Crescent City. It will be a merciful one and relatively painless, as I intend to drain you. William, Heinrich you’ll take the sister, Sasha and I will take Eloise.”  He shoved the sock back in her mouth. “I’d rather not hear you cursing us.”

The rest of us stood quietly transfixed, as the four
blood-splattered warriors transformed themselves into willing executioners, fangs out and eyes streaked with a terrifying silver bloodlust. William ripped into Claudia’s wrist without hesitation, while Heinrich tore into her neck. Sasha took Eloise’s injured arm and licked it, letting his fangs scrape her skin, playing with her as she watched in horror and moaned in pain. He viciously bit into the tender flesh inside her elbow as Garrett whispered into her ear. “Say hello to Miranda in hell, Eloise.”  He was almost gentle as he bit into her neck and pulled in long gulps of her powerful blood. The two witches whimpered and moaned and then eventually grew silent.

The sounds of their feeding ended when
the witch’s hearts stopped. The vampires smiled as they straightened to look at each other, all of them glowing with energy, their auras pulsing brightly with health.

“Like old times, Garrett.” Heinrich seemed even larger as he stretched his arms over his head, enjoying the feel of the new blood in his system.

“The difference is that no innocents ever get hurt, Rick, only the wicked.”

“The wicked taste damn good, Garrett.” Sasha was wiping his mouth and laughing. “Being on this team of yours is going to be better than I thought,
master
.” Garrett gave him a playful shove and laughed, sending Sasha crashing into a nearby tree. Sasha shook the leaves out of his blonde hair and smiled evilly. “I’m ready to have some fun with Nathaniel tonight.”

William wiped his mouth and looked at Bridgett, probably afraid that she’d be turned off by watching the feeding. He’d forgotten that she’d grown up a shifter surrounded by a bunch of powerful werewolves who
'd spent plenty of time ripping into each other with lunar regulated feeding frenzies each month. To Bridgett, what he’d just done must have seemed normal. She walked to him, smiling and gently took his hand.

Fred moved forward. “Garrett
we’ll burn the witches bodies and their paraphernalia." He winced,  indicating the human organs in various jars and other spell casting items."We’ll get the wolves who died back to their families for burial and I'll start interviewing for the club tomorrow.” He shook Garrett’s hand and then turned to Bridgett. “Come and visit us, Bridge.” He smiled warmly.

“Sure, I’ll bring the gang.”

He looked at the four vampires, their clothing ripped and blood-splattered from the fight and the feeding, their eyes still glowing with power. “Greaaat.” We laughed.

Chapter Sixty-five

Garrett:
10:00 PM Tuesday

Sasha and I had just finished describing the fight to Liam who’d shown up on time, as usual, to bring Sasha to Nathaniel’s to deliver my message. Sasha was pacing back and forth, his eyes still gleaming with silver, obviously wired and looking very excited about seeing Nathaniel again. His injuries had healed with his powerful ‘meal’, but he was still dressed
in bloody jeans and a ripped black tee shirt.

“You were merciful, as usual, Garrett; more so than a fae would have been.” Liam was watching Sasha carefully.  He sent to me,”
I’m going to have some fun with your young lieutenant.”

Out loud he said, sounding very serious, “Perhaps sending a vampire who’s just ingested a large amount of dark witch blood to deliver an important message to an enemy
isn’t a good idea.” He turned to Sasha. “You seem ready for another battle, Sasha. Can you stay calm if Nathaniel antagonizes you?”

“I don’t answer to you
. If Garrett thinks so, then it’s none of your business.”

“I’m there covering your ass
, so to speak, so it definitely
is
my business. If you can’t control your temper, you could end up causing more harm than good.  If you’re injured in a fight, as you might well be, then I’ll be responsible.” Liam’s violet eyes were popping with specks of gold but I watched his mouth twitch as he held back the smile.

“What makes you think
I’ll
be the one injured?” Sasha was getting angrier, still completely unaware that Liam was playing with him.

“Your inexperienc
e handling matters of this sort worries me.“ Liam directed his next comment to me. “I’ll be happy to go on my own, to deliver your message.”

“You’re not seriously listening to this fae freak are you?”
After a moment, Liam and I started laughing. Sasha looked from Liam to me and then rolled his eyes, “He’s just pulling my chain right?” He frowned at Liam, “Very funny, fae boy.”

“I just thought you seemed a little wound up and I want your mind clear and your feet on the ground when we go to Nathaniel. He’s twice your age and has a nest of seven.
Also, I prefer Liam to ‘fae boy’.”

“Well it worked
.
Anyone ever tell you that you’re a buzz kill?”

“N
ot exactly in those words. But if you think
I
am, you should spend a few centuries with my brother. Next to him I'm a party animal.”

Sasha grinned. "You'll have to come over when the vamp villa is finished. We'll show you what a party is." H
e hadn’t really minded the joke. He was a master at dishing it out so he really couldn’t complain when the tables were turned.

I frowned, thinking about broken windows and ear-splitting music. "We'll discuss future parties at the house at a later date.
Sasha, when you arrive at Nate's, you should introduce yourself and Liam and then this is what you will say:

Garrett sends his greetings and regrets that he can’t be here personally to reply to your short email, as he has more important matters to attend to. He has no intention of selling the villa next door that he inherited after draining and destroying his four hundred year old maker, Eleanor Howard. He will allow you seventy-two hours to vacate his territory and return to your own. If you are still here after that time, he may be forced to take action to remove you himself. If you wish to pass through his territory on your way to somewhere else, then Garrett would consider giving you permission as long as your request is submitted using the proper protocol. He expects you to reply in a more decorous manner than your previously curt email.