Wolf Mountain Peak Complete Series, page 76
part #1 of Wolf Mountain Peak Series
Kate’s rants were no surprise to him. He loved them; they were proof that his mate would always speak her mind, without holding anything back. Still, this was more than just a typical rant. In a few sentences, she had managed to sum up their reality, since the day his brother took over the pack. And Kate had described it well, maybe better than he’d expected. They really were folk heroes: the wolves that had protected their hometown and their family, over and over again. She did have a point. With Helena’s help, Raul had done so well that most evil forces in this world wanted to wreak havoc upon Paxton, and ruin what they had built.
“I’ll try,” Dean spoke in a calm voice, savoring the deep brown in her eyes. “It won’t be easy, but I’ll try. I promise. I can’t help but wonder what Helena’s going to tell us tonight, though.”
“I guess we’ll have to wait and see,” Kate uttered, smiling down at him. “Now, get up, Wolfy. It’s time to go to work.”
“I still have a few minutes left, if you want to, um...” he faltered, tossing a glance down at the clock on his nightstand. “Well, you know.”
“Minutes?” she retorted, scoffing at him, playfully slapping her cheek. “We both know we need more than just a few minutes, not to mention it’s seven-thirty in the morning. The last time we did it so early, Julia overheard us. She kept mocking me for weeks. Whenever we ran into each other, she made sex noises.”
At that, Dean burst into loud, roaring laughter, arching his body up, as he reached both of his hands up to her face. Pulling her close, he rolled over onto his side, as his happy sounds filled his bedroom.
“She wouldn’t let up,” Kate went on, her grin bringing him all the peace that he so much needed.
“Oh, baby…” he chuckled, his body rocking, as he swept his thumbs across her cheekbones.
“Ok, stop,” she urged, as her smile disappeared all of a sudden.
“Why?” Dean asked with a snort.
“Because you will be late for work if you don’t,” Kate said, her voice a deep, raspy whisper that sent waves of desire coursing through him. Still, lust is a skin-deep feeling, one that she could easily give him by simply parading around him. That morning, Dean’s mate had offered him much more than just a temporary sensation. She had made this world clearer to him, by helping him realize what was expected of him. Tipping his head down, he brushed his lips onto hers, as he mapped out the smooth skin of her face. His Siren wrapped her left arm around his shoulder, as her intoxicating kiss served as an escape from reality. Sweetness rushed into his senses, like a raging river spilling out into the ocean, as he lost himself in that piece of magic she so freely offered him. Kate splayed her fingers over his shoulder, as the fine hairs of his beard scratched her chin. Sadly though, their kiss was not meant to last. Puffing her breath along his lips, she slightly tilted her head back.
“Now, I have to stop,” she gave a short chuckle, as she ran her hand up his back. “Sorry.”
“For kissing me?” he teased, trapping her upper lip between his own. “Are you serious?”
“For starting something we can’t finish right now,” Kate explained, her voice losing volume, as he pushed her hair back from her face.
“It’s ok,” Dean whispered, staring down at the gorgeous globes of her eyes. “Trust me; you gave me something a lot more important than pleasure today.”
He expected a comeback to his confession; yet, she didn’t open her mouth. His mate responded with a big smile, and a gentle caress on the side of his neck. Dean held her close, letting out a deep sigh, as he recalled her short speech.
“I’m going to try as hard as I can, my Siren,” He thought to himself. “I’m going to give it my best to not let life affect me so much, for you, and all of our loved ones.”
Chapter Five
The long, hard day at work tired Dean’s body out, as well as his brothers’. For more than nine hours, they assembled a brand-new, Harley Davidson, trying out different engine parts, pistons and exhausts. However, the calmness in his heart and soul was not at all disturbed. The danger that loomed over them was not enough to scare him, or discourage him. They had faced it before, and they had emerged victorious. He had no reason to believe that the Paxton pack would not do the same again. They might have lost three of their own, but they were twice as strong as they had been when they faced Marianne McIntyre, their most formidable adversary to date. In spite of his tranquility though, there was one thing that still lingered in his mind, something that he had failed to mention to Raul and Helena alike. The vampire’s last words:
“My brothers will avenge me. And you won’t even see them coming.”
The mere notion of a vampire calling the rest of his clan “his brothers” was ridiculous to say the least. According to Helena, no bond existed among them, other than the fear of their own Alpha. They had to obey his orders, or he would end them. More than that, they are not invisible, and, more importantly, shifters could smell them from a mile away. Was that the delirium of someone who was about to meet his maker? Was it the false promise of a creature infamous for his insincerity? Dean couldn’t tell. His only hope laid in his belief that Helena’s research would assist him in solving that mystery, as it had done in the past.
A cool, spring breeze hit him in the face, as it rustled through the trees, on that brisk, early-May night. Raul and Ray were already outside in their yard, but, strangely enough, there was still no sign of Helena.
“Evening, fellas,” Dean said, tipping his head down in a polite gesture, as he strolled towards them. “Where’s our witch?”
“Cliff came back from work fifteen minutes ago,” Raul replied in a firm tone of voice. “They’re having dinner. They’ll join us later on.”
“They?” exclaimed Dean, surprised by the information. “What does the cop know about vampires?”
“The cop saved Helena’s skin, back in March,” Raul groaned, narrowing his eyes at him. “Even if he doesn’t know squat about bloodsuckers, he’s earned his right to be here.”
“Right,” Dean nodded, pressing his lips together. “What about Julia and Melissa? Where are they?”
“I sent them to ‘Joe’s’ diner, to notify the pack,” Raul responded. “They need to keep an eye out for vampires: again.”
“I don’t think anyone’s dropped their guard, since the battle,” Ray interjected his opinion, stepping between his brothers. “We came out of it wiser,” he added, settling his gaze on Raul.
“Some of us came out of it dead,” the Alpha said with a hint of discomfort in his tone. “That’s why we need to stay vigilant.”
“Indeed,” Helena’s feathery voice tore through the air, forcing Dean’s gaze away from his older brother. Accompanied by Cliff, she strode out of her cabin, with a small pack of paper in her hands. Dean felt his adrenaline surge, as the two of them came closer. He wouldn’t part his lips, yet; he was waiting for more information with bated breath.
“Good evening, boys,” Cliff addressed them in a calm tone. “Before you hear what Helena’s got to say, I’d like to tell you something. I was patrolling on the outskirts of Shandaken this morning. I was just east of that old windmill, about a hundred feet from the forest, when I saw this…” he paused; “…figure under the trees. At first, it looked like a man, but it wasn’t. He blurred closer. I’ve seen those things in action. I’m one-hundred percent sure it was a vampire. That son of a bitch smiled at me, and then went back into the woods.”
“In broad daylight?” his shock sent Raul’s voice two octaves up, his face stricken, his mouth falling open in disbelief, as his brows popped up. “That’s impossible.”
“It’s true,” Cliff insisted, maintaining a stiff tone of voice, as he intensified his stare. “One second he was behind a tree, then, he was ducking under a bush, blurring right and left. It was like watching a pinball in fast forward.”
“That’s exactly how they move,” Dean sighed, clenching his jaw. “Is that even possible?” He asked, shifting his gaze down to Helena.
“I’ve never heard of a vampire impervious to daylight before,” she uttered, her voice shot through with tension, as she glanced up at Cliff and then back at Dean. “I’m just as stunned as you are. I can’t help you with that, but I do have some information you might find useful.”
“We’re all ears,” Raul spoke, his voice bass-deep, as he folded his arms across his chest.
“Lorraine Mercer, my contact in Miami, told me this morning that there’s at least one different type of vampire clan,” Helena informed them, fixing her gaze on the Alpha. “Back in 1982, an Alpha named Vincent Gordon, had assembled a rather strong clan in Tampa Bay, but he didn’t bully anybody into obeying him. He cared for his fellow vampires, and they cared for him. However, when word reached other clan Alphas, they didn’t appreciate this one bit. They joined forces, and eradicated Gordon’s clan. Lorraine sent me all the information she had on them. You can read about them here,” she added, handing the pack of papers over to Ray.
“Before I killed that prick down in New York, he said something like: ‘My brothers will avenge me.’ I think we’re dealing with this kind of clan here,” Dean told everyone, letting them know another piece to the puzzle existed.
“This night keeps getting better and better,” Raul grumbled, tearing his gaze away from her; “vampires that actually love one another. Man, I must be having a dream,”
“I need some time to find out more about them,” Helena stated in a flattened tone of voice, glancing up at the brothers around her.
“Alright,” Raul declared as he drew in a sharp breath. “Boys, we’re going to Shandaken. Helena, you can sit this one out. Cliff, you can tag along if you want, but, unless you got some silver bullets, that gun of yours is useless against them.”
“I’ll stay here, if you promise me you won’t engage them,” The witch declared, taking one step closer to the Alpha. “Remember: Redfield’s clan had ambushed you. Do not attack them, unless you have no other choice.”
“We’ll just do some recon,” Raul asserted, nodding at the same time. “Come on, guys. Let’s go meet our new neighbors.”
The witch had given an answer to the question that had been on Dean’s mind, but it was not the one he had been hoping for. In his heart, he wanted to believe that his rival was just being delirious, not that vampires could be close to one another. In any case, he and his brothers had to investigate the sighting that Cliff had mentioned. The people of Shandaken could be in peril yet again; and, just like before, the Bradford’s had to take action.
“I would love to believe Cliff was hallucinating,” Raul confessed, as he seated himself in the driver’s seat of his truck.
“So would I,” Dean muttered under his breath, as he entered the vehicle. “I mean, a vampire, taunting him in broad daylight? It sounds like a freaking nightmare.”
“It’s got to be Redfield’s clan,” Ray maintained, joining them, as the truck engine roared into life. “Maybe we didn’t kill them all.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, kid,” Raul reprimanded, throwing a nasty glare up at him over his shoulder, as he drove off and out of their driveway. “Those bloodsuckers were vulnerable to sunlight. The one Dean killed called his clan ‘his brothers.’ When we got ambushed, Helena said she saw about fifty individuals. We counted twenty-six bodies that night. Add that to the twenty-three Helena toasted, McGee, the one she killed before battle, and there you have it. Besides, do you really think Redfield would spare anybody from battle?”
“Who else can it be?” Ray wondered, thrusting his arms out to the side, as Raul’s truck began climbing the uphill road. “Besides, I don’t remember us having a beef with any other clans.”
“Do the words ‘natural enemies’ mean anything to you?” Dean inquired, staring at his brother in the rearview mirror. “They don’t need an excuse to attack us. We’re a threat to them.”
“Ray’s right, Dean,” Raul remarked, his voice coming out slowly. “It may not be Redfield’s clan but, whoever the hell is behind all of this; they’re pissed at us for taking him out. That’s why they sent one of their own to kill Kate. That’s why they taunted Cliff today. They know who he is; they wanted to terrify him. It was like telling him: ‘Look at me, I’m a vampire, I can kill you in a heartbeat.’”
“Something doesn’t add up,” Dean said as worry crept into his voice. He turned his head to the left to face his brother. “They tried to murder Kate. Why wouldn’t they do the same to Cliff?”
“Cliff’s a cop with federal ties,” Raul rebutted, slightly raising his tone. “Cops don’t like it when they lose one of their own. They’d risk war with the sheriff; maybe the state police, too. War would bring too much attention to them.”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” Dean admitted, as they crossed the town border. “I really hope you’re right.”
“It sucks that we can’t use sunlight against them,” Raul complained, as his face hardened with disappointment. “You should have seen what it did to Darryl. He just…” he paused; “melted away.”
“I guess we’re going to have to rely on good, old-fashioned, brute force,” Ray joked, as he leaned forward. “That and Helena.”
“I don’t think she’ll be taking so many chances, now that she’s got Cliff,” Dean assumed, looking down at his brother. “A month ago, she would have jumped on the opportunity to go searching for vampires. Now; she made us promise to stay away from them.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” Raul spoke, lowering his tone. “I was just testing her tonight. I needed to see if being with Cliff would change her approach. It did.”
“I don’t blame her,” Dean assumed a mellow tone of voice, as he leaned his back against his seat. “Before she met him, she would sacrifice her life for us. She had nothing to lose. She does now. Judging by the look in her eyes, it’s beautiful.”
“No one’s blaming her, Dean,” Raul assured, casting a warm, sideways look at him. “We’re all happy for her. None of us wanted her to be alone. It was her choice, not ours.”
Dean kept his mouth shut, gazing out at the dark, wooden houses and cabins on the right side of the road, being lit by the truck’s high beams, as they went along. The town of Shandaken was fast asleep, blissfully unaware of the creatures that roamed around it and their intentions, precisely like it had been in the recent past. He hadn’t been there in a while, and, in truth, he could not remember much of it, but, as the abandoned windmill came into view, he realized how lucky the pack had been. It might have been almost half a mile away from the nearest residence; yet, it lay too close to the forest on the foothills of Wolf Mountain. The battle between them and Redfield’s clan had not at all faded from memory. Screams, snarls, growls, cries of pain, arms getting ripped off bodies, as well as vampire skulls cracking would not go unnoticed, had the Alpha’s decided to fight over there. Possible winds would carry every horrific noise into town. The elevation and the unobstructed view of the woods would give any curious human with a pair of binoculars a very good view of the battle. It would only be a matter of time until someone from Shandaken arrived at the scene.
Dean felt his heartbeat escalating, as his brother pulled over to the side of the road, just a few feet away from the windmill in question. Led by Raul, the three brothers left the safety of the vehicle, and then started up the hill, as Dean took a few, furtive glances around him. The moonlight cast its light upon the mill, exposing the rust on the edges, and the white paint, flaking off its outer wall. A squirrel rushed out of a short bush, as his brother moved around it. However, as the terrain began to level out, the three of them came across an unbelievable sight. A large area, just after the forest border, had been burnt to the ground. Most of the trees had been reduced to ashes. Their roots were sticking up from the ground, and their trunks were no taller than four or five inches. The few that remained were blackened and leafless, missing entire branches, and big parts of their trunks. Furthermore, the forest floor had been charred, littered with singed pieces of wood and burnt-out leaves.
“Helena’s handiwork,” Raul whispered, his admiration dripping off his tongue, as he sauntered towards the closest tree. “It’s incredible to think she took out almost half of Redfield’s clan singlehandedly.”
Dean dropped his gaze down to the ground, in awe of the utter devastation, as Ray passed him by. Just as he did though, the foul scent that filled his nostrils forced him to think twice: Death. A vampire was in the area. Looking hard out of the corners of his eyes, he spotted the intruder, as he emerged from behind a balsam fir tree, just outside the blackened forest floor. He was tall, possibly even taller than him, with short, blond hair, wearing a white suit and a black tie. By then, both of his brothers were looking in his direction.
“Nobody can call a hideous crime like this ‘handiwork’, unless they’re insane,” he grumbled in his grainy voice, as his red eyes glowed in the darkness.
“What can be called ‘handiwork’, cold one?” Raul wondered, as he stepped ahead of his brothers. “A slaughtered deer? Two deer? A human, maybe? Oops. Sorry,” he shook his head in mock sadness. “That’s not allowed around here.”
“Wolves…” the stranger cringed, as his slow footsteps brought him closer to the brothers. “You’re always interfering. You have no sense of humor.”
“Why don’t you try and crack us up?” Raul suggested, his voice dripping with irony. “I have to warn you, though. If your joke sucks, I’m going to crack your fucking skull open.”
“Filthy mouths, too,” The vampire went on, still with the same look of disgust in his face, as he slowed his strides. “I’m not here to exchange words with you, Raul Bradford. I don’t intend to engage you or your brothers. You might be wondering how it is that I know your name. Well, I’ve spent the past six weeks, learning everything about the wolf that killed my brother. I know you, your mates’ names, and that witch that scorched this forest. I’m Damian Redfield. Paul Redfield’s brother. I only showed myself to the witch’s mate this morning, because I had a feeling he’d tell you all about our little encounter. I have no interest in the humans in Shandaken.”
