Elijah: Calhoun Men _ Erotic Paranormal Wolf Shifter Romance (12 page)

“Did you know about this?” Noah said that he hadn’t when he joined them. “Do you think this is the tomb that she’s using, or a trap?”

“I think the man gave his life to rid the area of her, and this would be his way of helping.” Scott nodded at Noah. “I’ve never been to the cemetery, but do you suppose there are many of the tombs with the name Jefferson on them?”

Scott didn’t know either, but they were one step closer to taking this bitch out. “We’ll do this the easy way first. Find someone that works there and get a list of the tombs and names. That way we have a general idea of where we’re headed.”

“I have an idea.” Scott looked at his brother and decided that while he’d help him, he didn’t think this was an idea that was going to bode well for someone. He was glad it wasn’t going to be him too. “I have to talk to Trent and Sterl, but this might be a way to end this shit without us walking into a trap that might get one of us hurt. Yeah, this will be good.”

Making their way out of the building, he opened the door wide and watched as the words there burned off and turned to ash. Scott wondered at the fear one would have to rather die than to face her. He hoped that this thing went as well as Myra and the others were telling them it would.

~~~

Helenia was feeling stronger every day. She’d forgotten that she could do nicely with some anger to power her. And here in this nest there was a great deal of it. Its power would feed her slowly, but at the rate these vampires were going, she would be up and going in no time. This might be the reason, she thought, that Noah had never lived in a den of vampires. They were worse than some children she’d seen playing. Christ, she hated children almost as much as she did Noah.

The man that she’d sent to find the alpha was going to be dead as soon as he got back here. He was going to be anyway, but she’d planned to just slice him up and watch him turn to dust. Now he was going to suffer for making her wait for so fucking long. And Helenia had been at this long enough. She knew just how to make a vampire last a good long time before he was no more.

“Mistress.” She looked at the young vampire when he spoke behind her. “I have a connection with Darrell.”

“What the hell is a Darrell, and why do you think I’d care?” He told her that he was the one he’d sent out yesterday. “And why is he contacting you and not me? I do hope he knows that I’m not going to be happy with him when he returns.”

“He’s not. Returning, I mean. He’s met with the sun.” As the vampire walked away from her, she was sure she heard him laugh. Letting her temper go, she lashed out at him and the group that seemed to share a very small brain, and killed them all.

Her rage was shifting to something stronger and quicker to ignite, she’d only just realized today. Just this morning she’d gone into the town to find her alpha, and she’d noticed that every shop was closed up and there was not a single person in the area. Small towns did that, she knew, rolled up their sidewalks seemingly at a certain hour in the evening, but it was daylight on a Saturday morning. Smiling, she thought of the damage she’d done anyway.

The two buildings that were closest to her had been set on fire. She had no idea what might have been in them, nor did she care, but the heat coming off her had felt wonderful, the power of it exhilarating. Helenia decided that she loved this new her. And her temper was going to give her a lot of pleasure.

Moving out of the tomb she’d taken for herself, she thought of Noah and him commanding her to come to him. She’d been here for two days now and nothing. Helenia wondered if he’d even called to her, and her mind had only made that up when she’d been hurt. Stranger things were going on with her, and she wasn’t going to believe that anyone as weak as Noah would have enough power to pull her here.

The alpha was here too. This was the little town where she’d first noticed him. Smiling, she thought of the things she was going to do with him. First and foremost, she was going to fuck him. After she had enough of that, she was going to cage him and find a lab that she could work with. He’d be weak, of that there was no doubt. Helenia had poisoned not just his mind but his blood as well. But he’d be hers to use and to create all the monsters that she wanted.

Her idea had been born when she’d been watching a battle between men. It had been huge; many lives had been taken. But her thoughts had been, why bother with just killing each other off? Why not make it fun as well? Then a wolf had come onto the scene, his huge body dark with the blood of the fallen, and she’d watched him, excited beyond anything she’d been in a long while as he ate the dying. He’d not bothered with the dead, which made her realize he loved his meat fresh, but had torn at the victims while they fought with him to keep their body. Then when some other animals came for his tasty treat, he’d killed them as well, tearing out their throats and letting them bleed out. Helenia knew then that she had to find her a shifter alpha wolf to do her bidding.

“He’ll be mine, and when I have used him up, I’ll toss him at Noah’s feet, his body nothing but a shell.” Smiling, she made her way to the building where she had smelled the wolf.

Today there was something different about it. She walked around it three times before it occurred to her what it was. There was a For Sale sign in front of it. The name of the realtor was there, with a number, and Helenia wondered what had happened. Had her alpha closed it down, this place of slavery? She would have to open it again, order him to do so. Then something else occurred to her.

He would command a legion. He was a pack leader, a wolf who would have others to do his bidding. With her commanding them all, she would not have any use for labs and men in coats.

Following the scent that was a wolf, she found the building where the vampire had met the sun. Stupid bastard had thwarted her fun. But as she looked around, she saw evidence that someone had painted arrows on the floor. Stepping around the markings, not touching whatever magic had put it there, she found herself standing in front of a large map. And it had a picture of a house as well as the drawing of a wolf. There were other pictures too, and it took her a few moments to figure out someone had left her a message.

She thought the drawing of her was quite good. The monster that they’d made of her had her thinking that they understood that she was superior to them by far. Then the feet drawn along a line indicated, she supposed, that she was to go to the house. And the picture of the wolf had to mean that he lived in this house. Smiling, she thought that if her vampire were alive, she might have killed him quickly for doing this for her. Helenia had made a good impression on him, and that satisfied her to no end.

“Do I go or not?” That was a good question, she thought to herself. Was it a trap? Not that it mattered. She was by far stronger than any of them. Even if Noah were there, he was too afraid of her and her power to come out and stand against her. And if he were, it would be his last stand. Deciding to go, she studied the map more and thought she had it. Then she took the drawing of herself.

“Just too good not to take.” Smiling, she left the building and went to the one next door. It smelled of sex and wolf. Snapping her fingers, she set a flame to it and frowned when all it did was fizzle out. After trying four more times with no results, Helenia moved on. “Waste of power anyway. I might need the little it would take to destroy it.”

Helenia would no longer need the lab, not that she’d figured out how to make that work anyway. But when she took her alpha, and she would, then he would control all wolves, men, and beasts simply because of the power he would have in her. This was much better, much, much better than she’d ever thought of before.

Chapter
12

Sterl thought the plan was a good one…brilliant, as a matter of fact, but he was no less terrified that it wasn’t going to work. He’d seen this monster. These people had not. Moving to stand by the window of his studio, he wondered if he’d been too rash in setting this up.

“I’m not going to allow you to be negative about this.” Sterl turned and looked at the woman standing there. He’d not seen her in a whole year, yet there she stood looking just as beautiful. “You don’t have a hug for your old grandma?”

“First of all, you will never be old, and secondly, you told me some time ago that I was much too strong to give you the kind of hugs I love.” She waved him off and told him to get over here. “Grandma, when did you get in? I’m assuming Mom called you?”

“Your grandda had a hankering to come and aggravate his only son, and I thought we’d come now so that when you beat this bitch, we can be here to celebrate. Trent told us what was going on.” Sterl nodded but hadn’t moved to hug her. “What is it, my boy? You think you can’t win this? I do.”

“I don’t think they’re taking this as seriously as they should. Elijah has it all worked out, but I’m not sure that she’ll follow along like they think she will.” She moved to him, and Sterl did the same toward her. “I have missed you so much, Grandma.”

“And I you. Oh my, you have grown up.” They hugged; he was gentle with her in that she was a full two feet shorter than him, and tiny in stature. When he held her, just looking down at her, she wiped at his cheek. “Don’t worry. I promise you that there is not a person here, wolf or otherwise, that isn’t taking this seriously. And your grandda is over at the house now, going over every detail about it. You know him and plans.”

“Yes. I know. I think that’s where Elijah got it from.” She nodded and they sat down on his couch. The studio also had a small cot in it, something that he’d found when he’d been moving things around, and had decided that he liked it. “How long are you here for this time? I’m assuming that you are still touring the world.”

“I think I’ve seen enough for the time being. I have seen things and.... Well, things that I can’t believe. Humans can be strange, don’t you think?” He nodded. “I do love that Joe. My goodness, she is powerful. And Noelle. And to think I’m going to be a great grandma in a few months. And TJ is as smitten with them both as he was with Christina when she came along.”

“Noelle and I have been hanging out together while Elijah works. She owns the shop downstairs that deals in odds and ends. It’s called Second Time Around. Dad had been finding things around the buildings that we all own in the area and bringing them to her. I think he’s buying things up and telling her that he found them.” Grandma said that sounded like something he’d do. “Mom is knitting booties. She’s not all that good at it, I don’t think, but she’s having fun learning. Joe has been working with her on it.”

“I tried to teach her once, but she was too busy with you boys to give it much of a go. I have been knitting too. I have boxes of things for each of you boys.” She looked at him with that glint in her eyes that he recognized, and laughed. “I know you have no mate as yet, but she’ll come along.”

“I just want this over with.” She asked him about the canvases that he’d set up. “I’ve been painting. Not much and it’s not very cheery, but I actually feel better after I’m done.”

He got up to show her the one he was working on. When she stood too and came to look at it closer, he looked at it as well. It was part of the dreams he’d had when he’d been possessed by the monster.

The scene looked pretty enough, he supposed, if you only glanced at it. But if someone looked deeper, really studied the painting, they could see more. There was the tree he was hanging from, the car deep in the dense forest. Even the blood staining the grasses where his friends had been murdered. They weren’t in the picture yet. He wasn’t even sure that they would be added, but he was there, as was the monster.

“You.... Oh Sterling, this is powerful.” He watched her face as she reached out to nearly touch the paint there. He knew that she was aware that it was still wet, but he could tell that she wanted to. “I want to take you out of here, grab you out of the tree, and pull you into my arms and keep you safe.”

Sterl knew that of all the people in the world, his grandma would get him the best. She’d always been there for all of them, but Sterl knew that if he had a problem or a question about something, anything really, that he could go to her and she’d give him the answer. No matter how embarrassing or painful it would be to either of them.

“I have two more.” He had never shown these to anyone before. It had been in his mind to just paint them, then put them away. It was therapy for him, the feeling that if he put it to canvas, then it would somehow lessen the pain that was still there. It had in a way, but he still hurt. “They’re finished, I suppose you could call them, but I’m not sure yet what I’m going to do with them.”

“You’ll put them in a gallery. And I noticed that you signed it simply with your first initial. I like that. Leaves you to keep a low profile when you make it big.” That was another thing that he loved most about his grandma—both of his grandparents, actually—that they could encourage him in ways that would make him feel that he could do whatever it was. His parents did as well, very much so, but Grandma made it sound like a done deal. He set the other two up against the wall under the window.

When she didn’t say anything, he felt the need to fill in the silence. “I know this one is very black, dark I guess. It’s the day after the accident. I kind of blurred the faces—I don’t want anyone to know that it was myself and Trent there—but I think it still shows the anguish. They tied me down too. I think...it’s what I felt like with her in my head. Tied down.”

This time she did touch the painting, his face and then his wrists. When she turned to him, his heart broke for making her cry, and when she held him, he cried as well. Then without a word, she pulled back and looked at the third painting.

He knew every stroke of it, even the way that he’d worked hard to get the red right. The blood there needed to be perfect. It was of the day that Myra had come and taken away all of the poison from his mind.

“You bled that day as well.” Sterl nodded. “So much of it too. I know that it was necessary, but I want to hunt her down and hurt her for harming my baby boy.”

His face in the painting was once again blurred, but he wasn’t sure that anyone could see anything but the blood on his face anyway. Even his ears had leaked out some of his blood, but it was his hands that drew his attention. In them he’d put a gun and a knife. The gun at his head, the knife at his throat. It was his way of showing that he was finished with life. Done with all the pain.

“I felt relieved when I was finished with this one. I know that she’s out there still, that I might not survive this, but this is what I feel all the time. Even now, with all the poison taken from me, I still am so tired of this.” He looked out the window and down at the people on the streets. “It’s not a constant thing now. This feeling of wanting to die, it lessens all the time. But it’s there, just on the outer circle of my life.”

“You need to see someone. A doctor. He can help you like no one can.” He knew she was right, but he’d never do that. Who would he see that he could be honest with? No one. They just wouldn’t understand him. “Sterling, look at me.”

He did but he felt pained by her sadness. “Grandma, she’s coming here. Probably today or tomorrow, but she’s going to go to the house and confront us.”

“Good.” He nodded and looked out the window. “What do you think she’s going to see when she arrives, Sterling? I can answer that for you. She’s going to see a strong being, stronger than when she hurt him. A family that will be there for him, and has been there right there with him through it all. This thing, this monster that you drew here? She’s going to know a reckoning that she’s never felt before. And when it’s done, you’re going to be stronger for it.”

“I don’t know.” She turned him around and smacked him across the cheek. He knew that he deserved it, but asked why anyway.

“You won’t talk like that. You’re my Sterling Calhoun, and you will be strong. If you let her win, then she will. If you know that you can beat her? Then you fucking will.” He cocked a brow at her cursing. “Yes, I used the word. And I will again if you make me. Now, I want you to get busy with your life, and then when she gets here, deal with her as quickly and as efficiently as I know you do everything in your life. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, ma’am.” When he opened his mouth to tell her that she’d hurt him once, Grandma lifted her hand. Sterling had to smile. “When did you become all tough and sassy?”

“I’ve been living with your grandda all on my own for the last eight months. That’s enough to make anyone grow some.” He laughed when she did. “Now that’s what I wanted to see. And so you know, I’m going to see about finding you a gallery for these and whatever else you paint. Sterling, you are going to be famous.”

“I just want to be free.” She nodded, and this time when she put her hand to his cheek, he felt her love. “I love you so very much, Grandma.”

“And I do you as well, Sterling. But if you make me have to get upset with you again over this, I’m going to tan your hide for you.” He nodded and hugged her to him. “You’re going to be just fine, Sterling. Just as fine as rain.”

He hoped so. Sterl really did hope so. As they made plans to go to his mom’s house, Sterl thought of the empty canvases that he’d bought this morning, and the paints that had shown up on his table. He was sure that Noelle had done it, and he loved her all the more for helping him.

~~~

Elijah could hear Noelle in the shower. She was crying again. He wasn’t sure what she was upset about, but knew that she’d been dealing with it her way, hiding out for a few days now. He’d talked to his mom about it, and she told him to just be there for her. Whatever it was, she’d share it when she was ready and not before. Getting up, he decided that he liked his dad’s idea better. Confront her.

Pulling open the shower door, he watched her as she tried to hide from him. He let her for a few minutes, then stepped under the spray to hold her. When she curled around him, both with her arms and legs, he knew that this was the right way to fix it.

“Tell me, love. Tell me what it is. I can’t stand to see you hurting like this.” She cried all the harder and held him tightly. “I love you, Noelle. I swear that whatever it is, we can overcome it.”

“He hurt them.” Elijah didn’t know who had hurt who, but he had a feeling it was her father. “When they were younger and would tell him what I’d done or said to them that day, the nice things, he would hurt them for it. Daniel called me Monday and said he wanted to talk, and we did.”

He’d known that. Casen had told him that she’d gotten a call from someone and had gone out right after. When she’d returned some four hours later, he had said that something terrible had happened. But when Elijah had asked, she told him she was just nervous about the baby. But the crying had started the next morning.

“Daniel has left the area. Did you know that? That he’d left the day Howard was arrested? Ron is gone too. They’re together for now.” He knew that Daniel had left, but not that the younger one had as well. “He’s trying to make it on his own. I guess he’s got a job now, as well as a place of his own. His first.”

“Did he ask you for help?” Elijah thought of how hard it would have been for him to start over and felt sorry for him. “We can help him out if that’s what he wants.”

“He only wanted my forgiveness.” Elijah took the shampoo from her and poured some in his palm to wash her hair while she continued. “Daniel said that he and Ron are living together right now and it’s been hard to find work. But he’s been working at a fast food place for a few days now and Ron is still looking. The problem that he is having is that he has a record, and he doesn’t have any work experience for anyone to check on.”

Elijah washed her hair, running his fingers through the soft strands as he tried to think of something to say. He wasn’t sure that he could ever forgive either man for their part in his mate’s pain, but if she wanted to help them, he would do whatever she wanted.

“What did you tell him when he asked for you to forgive him?” When she didn’t answer him, he picked up the big sponge that had only just recently made it into their bathroom and poured some soft soap over it. Running it down her spine and over her ass, he felt his cock stretch and told it to behave. “Honey, is that what has you upset?”

“He won’t take anything from me. He said that he’s taken enough from people and he wants to do this on his own.” Elijah nodded, thinking that was the smartest thing the man could say, and he respected him for it. “I didn’t tell him about the money or anything, but I told him I was working and that I had my own money, but he said no. And Ron said that if they couldn’t make it by themselves, then they didn’t deserve to. I think that’s what hurts me so much. That Howard never taught them anything about being a good person, and they’re getting it despite him.”

“I have an idea how we can help both of them and not hurt their pride. Trent and the rest of us need to hire a crew to work out at the new site to clear the land. We’re doing it, with Doug’s okay, to get the wood. A lot of the homes on the pack land heat with it, and then there is the added idea that we could sell the lumber to someone and put the money back into the ones that help.” She turned and looked at him then. “It pays well. There is also insurance, as well as housing that could be theirs if they come to help out. When the land is cleared, they’ll have a job reference that looks better than anything they can get working where they are, as well as they can save up for a place to buy. I’d even help them with that if this works out.”