Anthony left Kaia at her own home for the night, surprised to see Zach waiting anxiously for him back at the club.
“We need to talk. Now. In private.”
His expression was closed off, but it was the underlying sense of anger that really worried him. “Of course. My office?”
Zach was already on his way there and nearly exploded once Anthony closed the door with the two of them inside. Anthony quickly used his power to put a soundproof field around them.
“Do you know anything about a pregnant werejaguar coming here looking for help twenty seven years ago?”
He went still. Kaia’s friend Vince had looked to be around that age. “No. I don’t.”
Zach looked ready for a fight, and that definitely wasn’t a good thing. He was the most easygoing person around here most days.
“How about after that? Do you ever remember a female werejaguar coming here? Someone not in my pack?”
“No. What’s happened?”
“A red headed vampire turned her away. More than once.”
“Dag. What did he do? I already warned him−”
“A red headed woman.”
He scowled in disgust. “Bethany.” He despised that woman. It was too bad she’d never done anything serious enough to be kicked out of the family for.
Zach’s expression turned guarded. “Something’s wrong with her son. Vince.”
Anthony sighed and sat down in his desk chair. “Yes, I know. He shakes and he’s too uncoordinated, especially for a jaguar.”
“Have you ever seen that in a shifter before?”
“No, but I’ll provide whatever assistance both of them need.”
Zach paced in a small, angry circle around the room. “I want to talk to your vampire. I want answers.”
He locked eyes with his friend. “Of course.”
“If she confirms it’s true, I also want punishment.”
“You have my word.”
**
They waited at the empty bar just after four in the morning. Chester shut things down long ago, and now the only people in the club were the early morning risers and vampires coming home to sleep in safety for the day.
It worried him that Zach’s anger hadn’t calmed much while they waited, so when Bethany finally showed up, looking perfectly coifed and regal as she nearly glided across the room, he quickly put himself between her and Zach in the hopes there really would be some talking before anything more violent happened.
Anthony gestured for her to stop, and wasn’t at all surprised when she huffed and kept right on walking.
“Bethany!”
She halted at the rare sound of him raising his voice, irritation marring her otherwise flawless complexion.
“Yes Master?” She couldn’t sound more patronizing if she tried.
“Zach would like a word with you.”
Both her perfectly lined brows lifted as if she found the request tiresome, though that didn’t stop her from studying Zach head to foot. A lascivious smile slowly spread across her face. It towed the line between real and fake interest and looked disgusting on her, no matter how beautiful she was.
Zach didn’t appear to enjoy her obnoxious flirting either, his anger building as the seconds ticked by. “A loner werejaguar came here a few times over the years and spoke to you. Do you remember?”
She waved her hand dismissively. “There are so many shifters. I can’t keep track of them all.”
“There aren’t that many jaguars. Her name is Charlotte. The first time she came here she was pregnant.”
A barely hidden wince was all he needed for confirmation. Anthony instantly gave up hope that there might be more to the story.
Zach angrily gritted out, “What did you tell her?”
“I’d really need some time to remember that. It was so many years ago…”
“So you remember her. What did you tell her the second time she came here?”
Bethany took a step back as Zach inched closer.
She stammered, “Well, like I said, I’d need to think about it.”
“And the third time she asked for help?”
A crowd of vampires and shifters gathered as Zach took another step closer. Anthony’s father and his werewolf girlfriend even joined the group, frowning in confusion. Bethany had always been one of his father’s favorites.
Little good that did her now as she looked more and more shaken the closer Zach got. She finally flicked an anxious looked to Anthony. “Master, please. I request assistance with this upset shifter.”
He stilled when he felt Zach reach out through their blood connection to get a sense of his mood. Deep anger spread both directions, though for very different reasons.
Anthony commanded, “Answer his questions, Bethany.”
Zach stepped even closer as she backed further into the club.
“Well I don’t recall right now. I’d have to−”
Zach snapped, “Let me help jog your memory. You told her we didn’t need her kind here. What kind were you referring to?”
“I… I…”
“And then you told her to stop coming by asking for help for her and her son. That Anthony would have them taken care of if she didn’t quit begging.”
Her eyes went wide just before Zach rushed her. His fist slammed into her too perfect face, knocking her to the floor just before he spun around as if to wait for Anthony’s attack.
Anthony unhurriedly closed the distance between them. Zach stood his ground, looking surprised when he walked right past him and reached out to help Bethany to her feet. Her face was already healed, but she looked grateful for his presence as she stood and composed herself.
He was grasping her by the throat in the next instant, and her utter surprise and disbelief that he would dare lay a hand on her quickly turned into horror when she realized what he was doing. With barely a thought, his power fueled by anger at her constant insubordination and outright cruelty, he fed off of her life energy. At first she only looked whiter than her usual gleaming, porcelain coloring as she tugged at his hands, but as her complexion turned gray and her body began to shrivel up, she frantically clawed and hit him in her struggle to get free.
Her eyes dulled and he abruptly let her go, letting her fall to the ground in a graceless heap. She looked like death as she weakly twitched, and what little life force she had left would keep her docile enough while he gave her his back and returned his attention to Zach.
He unbuttoned his shirt sleeve, then rolled up the cuff as he said, “Her punishment isn’t over for her betrayal to what this family stands for, which is refuge to any and all supernatural that seeks it, but the sun will be up soon. I offer you my blood as a temporary peace offering.” He quickly sliced into his wrist with his finger nail, a thin line of blood welling on the already healing cut.
Zach had been his good friend for many years, but in this moment he was an alpha shifter who felt he’d been wronged by the family. The vampires were too vulnerable during the day to have the shifters upset at them, so Anthony would do what he could to appease them. To appease Zach.
His temper roared to life as he stepped closer and did something Anthony had asked him to never do. He let his shifter power flow free, his face turning catlike just enough to allow his canines to come in full and large in his mouth, and with a surprising amount of grace in his hostility, he grabbed Anthony’s wrist and bit down hard, like he would with any prey he was tearing into.
Anthony grit his teeth and struggled to stifle grunts of pain while he forced himself to stand still and allow Zach this symbolic moment of brutally taking what he wanted from the most powerful person in the family.
The agony didn’t last long. Zach had never had Anthony’s blood right after he’d taken his fill of someone’s life energy, and he stopped drinking from him after only a handful of swallows.
Life energy was a potent thing, no matter who it was taken from, and Anthony could see Zach hadn’t been anticipating the sheer magnitude of the power he’d just accepted into his body. He panted and trembled as he took a couple unsteady steps backwards, then stopped and looked like he was willing himself to gain control over what was happening inside him.
Anthony probably should have warned him, but that might’ve been taken as a sign that he thought Zach was weak, and at a time that he was clearly trying to make a stand to those gathered here tonight.
So he said nothing and hoped his friend would be all right. He was a powerful shifter, a powerful alpha, so he didn’t fear too badly for him, but he wouldn’t be surprised if it took him some time to get his racing heart and wild infusion of power under control.
Zach breathed heavily as he blinked wide open eyes, looking around himself as if seeing them all for the first time. Maybe he was, in his own unique way. Anthony’s senses were certainly sharpening since he’d received his gift from the Vampire Mother. It wouldn’t surprise him if Zach felt some of that now, after having his blood. Even if he did, though, it’d likely wear off eventually. Anthony’s power never stayed with Zach or Sebastian long, at least not at the high levels they initially felt it.
With his wrist fully healed again, he cautiously watched Zach as he unrolled his sleeve and re-buttoned the cuff. “If it’s all right with you, we’ll discuss your request for further reparations when the sun sets again.”
Zach nodded, though it was clear his anger was still just below the surface as he glared at Bethany’s horrific looking husk of a body on the floor. All the expensive jewelry from the downtown store she owned looked gaudier than usual on her now emaciated body as he stepped closer and hovered over her with contempt clear in his eyes. Anthony put himself within reaching distance, hoping he wouldn’t have to fight his friend over the witchy woman. Like it or not, Bethany was vampire and Anthony’s allegiances would always be to them first. Generations of shifters had been born, grown old and died in Anthony’s lifetime. The same wasn’t true of the vampires. They were his true family, even if he didn’t care for some of them.
Zach spat at her sickly form, “I may not be wolf, but I have a hell of a lot of friends here, bitch, and we all watch over your sleeping body every day.”
Anthony’s stomach dropped at his blatant threat. It was common knowledge the vampires were helpless during the day, but it was polite to never mention it. Zach didn’t appear to care about niceties right now as he glared at all the vampires who’d gathered here, including Anthony’s father. He noticeably didn’t look at Anthony.
Some vampires took a wary step back, some bowed their heads, and some actually went down on one knee. It was impressive and cautionary that Zach could elicit that kind of response from them. As much as Anthony tried to keep the peace between shifter and vampire, sometimes it took an angry alpha for his family to remember how good they had it here.
Zach eventually turned his anger back to Anthony, and after a few tense moments, he gave Zach a single nod, then slowly knelt to pick up Bethany. Zach took a step back, watching her closely. Her body felt fragile and delicate, and Anthony hated that he needed to be careful with her head since she was too weak to hold herself up. He held her close to keep her as still and safe as he could, but didn’t like the feeling one bit. He was Master, though, and felt it was a show of sincerity to her, and the family, that even though he punished at times, he could also be humane.
Or maybe he just wanted to think he was. He wanted Kaia to think he was, and she was his conscience now, even when she wasn’t around.
Isaiah helped guide them down the hall, his shifter girlfriend, Daphne, trailing behind. The sun would set soon, and the air was thick with a feeling of anxious wariness as the vampires headed down to the sub-basement below the club and shut themselves in their rooms for the day.
Zach stayed behind, much to Anthony’s relief.
**
“Son, you need to be careful with this situation.”
Anthony laid Bethany out on her bed as his father situated her. It irritated him that Isaiah thought so highly of Bethany when she’d always been one of the most callous, power hungry people in the family.
“I’m aware of that, father.”
“You need to−”
Anthony gave him a sharp look. “I’m Master of this family and have been for many years. If you were worried about my methods of managing delicate matters, perhaps you shouldn’t have ceded the role to me when you left all those years ago.”
Isaiah looked like he wanted to give Anthony a piece of his mind, or perhaps scold him on his manners like in the old days, but he wisely didn’t. He bowed in acquiescence instead. “Forgive me. Master.”
He sighed. “Enough of this. Bethany earned her punishment. And Zach’s temper will calm, and we’ll all help the jaguar and her son.”
He wanted out of this room. Being in Bethany’s personal space made his skin crawl. She’d pushed him countless times in the past with her sharp tongue and not quite over the edge insults, and it made him wonder if he’d been so harsh with her punishment tonight because of that. Had the monster inside him final broken through?
He refused to believe it. He refused to become what he feared most, even though it would be so easy…
He turned to leave, giving Bethany a dispassionate look before turning the light switch off. He could still see her in the faint light from the hall, and her eyes were wide open. Did she have more energy left in her than she let on, or was she too drained by him to even be able to close her own eyes?
He honestly didn’t care either way. She was a mean woman who could now reap what she sowed.
**
Anthony lay in bed worried about too many things. Sebastian and his second, Torin, were now fully overseeing the wolf finances and finally punishing anyone else who might have helped embezzle money from the family. The fact that family would steal from each other made him furious, but it was what it was. He trusted Sebastian and Torin to deal with the problem, enough so that he was no longer thinking about withdrawing his support from the wolves.
But things still weren’t right with the shifters. Sebastian and Torin had kept the punishments fairly discreet so that the wolves could save a little face with their families, but many wolves were now much more secretive and watchful of everything and everyone around them.
And now this issue with Bethany and the jaguars. It was bad timing for his vampires to provoke the shifters. The jaguars were an extremely small population, but Zach had a lot of influence besides that he was one of Anthony’s closest friends. Zach was also the most coolheaded alpha in the family, so for him to be so savage when Anthony offered him his blood told him all he needed to know about the severity of the situation.
This was the closest things had come in many, many years to the vampires and shifters of this family being truly upset with each other, which made the idea of turning Kaia into a vampire all the more worrisome. The vampires’ very lives depended on them staying safe each day as the sun was up, and he refused to give up that feeling of security. Not after almost two hundred and fifty years of it, and especially not on the brink of having his one true love in life finally be able to live safe and unguarded in his home. He wanted her to think of this as her home, too, but it wouldn’t be until she was no longer human.
He let his mind drift as the heavy feeling of the sun blanketed his senses. His last thought before losing consciousness for the day was that it worried him how easy it was to punish Bethany. He felt no emotion about it at the time, but he thought he’d gotten over his occasional inhuman feelings by being with Kaia. The Vampire Mother’s mysterious gift was changing him in ways he didn’t like…