Enslaved in Shadows (21 page)

             
“Jesminda,
” he whispered into her hair, “H
oney, look at me.”

             
She looked up with watery eyes and smiled. So many emotions showed in her warm honey gaze. She was happy, but also scared. He could smell her anxiety. It was bitter and dry.
How could he tell her things would be good between them? How could he explain, she mattered to him on a level where nothing else existed. Distance and time separated them. Tested them, and still they sat here. Not a whole family, but one he would go to great measures to see complete. Happy.

             
             
Faith looked over smiling with beautiful dimples on each side.
Her canines wouldn’t be long for another ten years, still they were sharp. Her claws were well pronounced as well, with red nail polish. He held in his smile, knew it was something Bells must have done to create some sort of distraction while her mother was en-route to pick her up.
Half-breed
werewolves’ had a much harder time with the change, not his child. He’d never met a
half-breed
,
had
heard the stories of some dying mid change. He hugged his precious daughter closer. He’d make sure that d
idn’t happen at all costs.
His
heart
,
nor Jesminda’s would be able to handle the loss.

             
“I want to tell you something as well, but maybe we should take this one step at a time.
I just met her and there are still things we have to deal with as far as Marcus is concerned.”

             
Faith rumbled a growl low in her throat at hearing Marcus’s name. Draven coughed back a laugh.
His daughter was smart.
Elation and
pride at what he found out today
was something he’d never have expected.
Damn what an asshole he must seem like. Leaving her, alone, not knowing he’d got her with his young and then her having to deal with all the pains of being a single parent. That would not be the case ever again. From now
on,
it would be the three of them. She didn’t know yet, but soon she would.

             
There was a loud crash at the front of the door and in walked the man from the rest sto
p along with a very pissed off
Royce and
an
equally upset Bells.
Thought she was in the bathroom?

             
“They’re here.” The stranger said. “Get the child and mother somewhere safe.”

Chapter 13

             
You can’t be fucking serious? Someone followed them? How?
How did I fucking miss that?

             
“Who the fuck is here?” Draven hollered.
Faith crawled from his lap to her mother’s. She knew he needed to be able to attack at a moment’s notice.
That’s my girl.
Jesminda thought.

             
“Who are you?”

             
She looked at the stranger from the rest stop. She’d danced with this man and he’d not given her any reason to think he was following them.
She could feel the dread in the air, almost taste it. An acrid smell lingered, compressed the space making it thicker.
It became eerily quiet. All things seem to shut down, bugs, machine, even the wind wasn’t blowing. She looked from Draven to Royce then back to the stranger.
All the men in the room were glaring at one another and their testosterone was a firm brush against her skin, heated and angry.

             
“I asked you a question,” Draven repeated again.
Royce moved into position behind him so he and Draven now blocked him in.

             
“I am Solon of House Phoenix.”

             
“You’re full of shit! I’m of House Phoenix and I would know my own kin.” Bells retorted forcefully.
             

             
Something bad was coming Jes could feel it.

             
“House Phoenix?”

             
“Explanations later, fight now.”

             
The ground rocked with such force Jesminda thought it was an earthquake. Faith clutched her in a strong hold around her neck and Bells quickly rushed the three of them into the back room of the house. She held tight to Faith as she and Bells checked the doors. Bells was making her way over to the window when it shattered. The shards sprayed in all directions.
Jesminda turned and bent at the waist shielding her daughter. Small fragments embedded in her skin and the pain was minimum compared to the pain she would feel if the glass had cut Faith.
It didn’t matter if her daughter could heal herself. If she could prevent her daughter from feeling the smallest amount of pain she was all for it.

             
The sound of fighting came from the front room as the men tried to keep their attackers back. Snarls and the sound of bodies crashing against the walls shook the foundation of the house. The noise was chaotic and muffled. She could feel the pounding of her heart in her ears, a deafening sound as it rose to a loud crescendo threatening to split her open. Who had followed them? Who was here? Bells shoved a hard hand to her side and because she was holding Faith in a death grip Jesminda hit the ground hard. More shards dug deep into her skin and she let out a sharp cry of pain, but stayed down.
             
             

             
She tried to shield Faith from as much of the scene as possible. Jes turned slightly to see what had caused Bells to push her down, and couldn’t believe the horror displayed in front of her. Bells had shifted into her phoenix form.
Long multi-colored feathers jutted from slits in her shoulder blades. The ends of her primaries were tipped with fire,
crackled,
and whipped when she moved. Her long lithe form stood tall almost seven feet.
The ethereal face of her friend stunned her into shock.
Her long straight hair was now a mane of iridescent flames that matched her eyes.
She was beautiful and dangerous. She whipped her head around sending tendrils of flame out.
All of her opponents were taken down with one swift move.

             
Their faces were void of emotion and fear. Their skin looked wrong. Rotted in some places. They just continued to come through the window, one by one.
The only sound they made was the sound of their shoes crunching beneath the shattered glass as they stepped through.
Long claws stuck out between the flesh, it seemed to be peeling away from the bone, hanging by threads. Their clothes looked new except for the blood that oozed from a hole in their chest.
Jes covered her daughter’s face from the grotesque scene before them. She didn’t want her to have nightmares and it was a blessing they didn’t howl in pain as Bells took them out with her fiery mane of hair. It was a dance of death as she whipped her hair back in forth, in an arc of power and danced from side to side to catch them as they came through the window.
It was elegant and seductive.
Bells made it look effortless and alluring.

             
Strong arms pulled her and her daughter up and then her child was being lifted out of her arms.
It was Royce, his face more pronounced now that his fangs were showing.
He pulled Jesminda to her feet and took one look at her wounds on her arms and cursed.

             
“Come on, I need to get you and the kid out of here now.”
He spar
ed one glance at Bells and must have assumed she could handle herself, because he began leading them towards the front of the house in a quick pace.
The front of the living room was decimated. It looked as if someone had committed mass murder on a grand scale.
Bodies littered the floor in pieces.
Blood decorated the walls in an abstract design like a Jackson Pollock painting.
It looked like someone's intestines dripped from the ceiling. She was going to be sick for weeks just thinking about the scene displayed in gruesome detail.

             
Royce urged her forward.
Her sneakers stuck to the sticky
blood and she almost lost her footing.
Royce held a steady hand on her arm and tightly held her daughter, who was not moving.

             
“What’s wrong with Faith?” She cried out. Why wasn’t she awake, God had she been cut by the glass! She was about to panic, but staved it off. There was no blood, none that she could see. She must have passed out in fear.
Or maybe it was Royce? Another bird of the same origins as Bells with black tipped wings stood in the corner.
Draven was in his wolf form and pinned Royce with a feral growl at the distress over their daughter. Glowing emerald eyes looked her over with concern.

             
“My daughter? Did you do something to her? Tell me now!” Anger didn’t begin to describe the words that left her mouth. She knew she sounded hysterical and didn’t care.

             
“Yes I did. Now please, I have to get you to the car and out of here.
Draven,” he nodded in the direction of the huge black beast. “Follow us on foot.”

             
“Why is it so easy for you to change back?”

             
“Because I am not a werewolf or a shifter, I am something else.”

             
“And that is?”

             
“Chop chop, pretty, let’s get you and Miss Faith to a safe place, we need to get back to the Captain as soon as possible.”

             
“Fine, what about
Bells,
and Solon?” Jesminda asked.

             
“They have wings I’m sure they will follow Draven, now let’s go before more of those things come.”

             
She waded through more blood as it hit the sides of her shoes in thick waves and out the front door.
Their car was destroyed. How the hell were they going to get back on the road now? The other houses lights remained off and she couldn’t help but wonder why they weren’t coming out to see what all the commotion was.

             
“The fight was masked, now stop asking questions and move your ass.”

             
She turned a glare on Royce and pointed at the destroyed car.
Like he could magically put that shit back together.

             
“That’s what neighbors are for, follow me.”

             
Royce led them down two houses where a black SUV was parked in the driveway. Royce popped the lock and quickly laid Faith down in the back seat and motioned for her to get into the front.
A loud bay grounded Jes to a halt. She looked back to see Draven step out of the house.
Menacing and dark he was extraordinary. The moon seemed to follow him as he stepped in their direction.
Paws huge and soaked in blood. On all
fours,
his gait was predatory, purposeful. He breathed in the night air and released it through his snout in a puff of smoke. Jes plastered her body to the passenger side of the door. She’d never been faced with a werewolf. This was a night of firsts for her. She’d never imagined grotesque people would try and climb through a window to get to her either.
On some
level,
she should have assumed, right? It was bound to happen eventually.

             
Royce stood on the step of the car looking over the hood at her as Draven approached her.
The wolf didn’t stop until he stood directly in front of her. He bent his head down so they were face to face and the air between them was hot and moist as he breathed her in. Those dangerous eyes caressed her from head to toe. Her body shook in fear and arousal.
She was uncomfortable with the way his wolf made her feel.
Deep intense need crawled slowly up her spine to rest comfortably at her breasts. Her nipples became hyper sensitive from the cloth touching them.
She knew adrenaline did this to people. Made them hyper aware of everything in their surroundings. Elicited a euphoric response, but gut clenching sexual arousal? Was it supposed to be like that? There could be more of those things out there, yet, she swayed forward in the beast’s direction. What she should be feeling is fear.

             
“Draven man, don’t do it. Not now, we’re in the middle of a shit storm and you’re thinking with your little head not your big head.”

             
The wolf ignored him and bent his head further down and began to kneel on his front legs.
He was inviting her for a ride? But why now? Royce was right they didn’t have time for this shit.
Bells came running out of the house with Solon towards the SUV and jumped into the back with Faith. Solon got into the front, ignoring Royce when a string of curses flew out of his mouth.