Chapter 29
“Why is his skin so light? It’s almost clear now. I can see his veins.”
Ali loved the hairy bundle as soon as she saw him. She’d never seen a baby shifter, so she had nothing to compare him to.
“He has delicate skin for the next couple of days. He needs some blood from an older vampire. Cal is coming with it soon.”
“Is he going to be okay?”
All she heard was that something was wrong, and her mind couldn’t take on any more information.
“Yes, Ali, everything is going to be fine. You did well. He’s strong and will make a great shifter one day.”
She smiled at the old man and closed her eyes. She may have done well, but Ali was exhausted, and she just wanted to lay her head down for a time.
“Thank you, Michael. You always know just what to say.”
“It’s a gift.”
Ali agreed and wanted to tell him that she didn’t know if she would have been able to do it without him. He had been the voice of reason with Calum, and that alone was enough for her to be thankful. Cal hadn’t trusted her for a long time.
“I’m glad I met you. I want to give the baby your name as his middle. How does that sound? Shane Michael comes to mind.”
Michael smiled a little wider and agreed that it sounded good. He was touched beyond words, and for once, the old man had nothing more to say. He left the tent with wet eyes that no one would ever see. He couldn’t be mystical if he were emotional.
* * *
Cal was frustratedand wanted to go back and yell at Michael. He’d made it out like it was going to be easy to not only find an elder vampire, but also to bleed him out enough. The old man didn’t tell him how much he needed and Calum was going to make sure that he got enough. He was liable to keep it alive if he had to. An elder vampire was no joke either. They were stronger than the rest and were usually old because they were cunning. Their world, much like Cal’s world, was violent, and Cal wanted to make sure that he didn’t bite off more than he could chew.
He knew of a couple of covens in the area, but just like the blood, Cal didn’t have many specifics. He didn’t know how old, so he was shooting for a sub coven that came from Trenton’s. The man who led it was about the same age as Trenton and Cal hoped that it was old enough. It was the smaller of the two, and since there was only seven altogether, he didn’t want to get into something he couldn’t get out of.
They moved into the woods surrounding the small mansion. It was old, and the world had forgotten about it. It was the perfect place for a nest of them and Cal could smell them. He was still getting used to the smell from Ali, but it was a different smell altogether. Maybe it was the smell of the shifter and the vampire mixed together that made it different. Cal thought that it might just be because it was her.
Everyone knew their roles. They’d been watching the place for a little while, but there was no telling how many vampires were left in the house. Several had taken off once the sun started to go down all the way. That left Cal and the rest of the small pack to figure out the best way in. Cal liked to be prepared and know what he was getting into, but that wasn’t to be the case today. Instead, he was just going to have to go in and hope for the best. It wasn’t his favorite strategy, but he knew that no matter what, he was going to get what he went there to get and make sure that his baby was okay.
Cal had to snap out of it because thinking about anything else wasn’t going to help him. What was going to help him was figuring out how he was going to do it.
“Let’s just go in, Cal. If we have to take out the whole coven, we will.”
Cal smiled to his second and nudged him with a hairy shoulder. He was thinking about the same thing that Cal was. One way or another, it was going to happen.
The Alpha made the signal, and the rest of them moved in quickly. They didn’t want anyone to sound the alarms that they were there.
Cal took out two nightwalkers that were talking outside of the house on the wraparound porch. The blood covered him, and he made track marks as they moved in. As in every war, he was the first one in, and he saw three before he could stop himself. Cal was staring back at the ones with black eyes standing in shock. Fredrick was the first to attack one, and a slight scream was heard before it was cut short.
The vamp walking around grabbing his throat while Fredrick tackled him got Cal moving, and he tried to shake whatever it was that was bothering him. It wasn’t helping his cause at all. They dispatched a few milling about, and it didn’t seem like they were detected yet. All they’d seen had been taken care of, and they moved to the back of the house. It was usually where the coffins were kept, and Cal hoped that the oldest would be somewhere down there. He just wanted to get back and be with Ali and the new baby.
Fredrick called to Cal, and there was no more trying to be quiet. He hoped that it meant that he’d found the one they were looking for.
“What?”
He pointed towards the old man that they were there for and he was already dead. Someone had bled him dry, and Cal didn’t know what to say. How could this be?
“What happened here?”
“An attack from another coven?”
Cal shook his head. They wouldn’t have left him like that. There was no explanation, but he was running out of time. There was no one else there that was going to do. He didn’t understand why everyone was walking around like nothing had happened when they got there. Their leader was dead.
None of it made sense, but none of it mattered either. The fact of the matter was that he was going to have to find another coven to raid. The pack left the house in ruins before the rest of them came back. If he weren’t under such time constraints, he would have waited around for the rest, but he was, so they took off to the other coven in the vicinity, and he hoped that he would have better luck next time.
No one spoke for a while, but Fredrick finally mentioned it. “Strange, huh?”
Calum agreed, but he wasn’t too worried, not yet. He still had time, and he was going to make it happen. “Yes, it was strange. Someone got to him before we did.”
Cal didn’t know what to think, but it couldn’t have been a coincidence. He didn’t believe in them, but what else could it be?
“Let’s get there quick. Something isn’t right here.”
