CHAPTER SEVEN

 

 

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When a pickup truck came down the road everyone but Jai turned to look at it. It wasn’t that the vampire wasn’t interested, he was, but he was more interested in getting the tasty treat witch out from Bree’s house — or getting Bree to let him in.

 The vampire could feel his hunger growing, and he’d like to say that he had a handle on it — but, he really didn’t. That wasn’t to say he was oblivious to anything that was going on around him — he wasn’t. He heard the alpha groan long and hard, and he heard the pickup truck stop, and the engine die.

“What in hellfire is going on around here?” The deep, gravelly tones of the elder bit out into the air, and the vampire groaned inwardly. “I go away from two weeks and come back to witches — witches everywhere – someone wanna tell me what’s going on?”

“Who’s that old buzzard?” Martha snapped at the alpha, demanding an answer before she took matters into her own hands and zapped the elder for his comment.

Mason rolled his eyes to the sky and wondered that; if there were a God — now would be the time to strike a few people down. “That’s the old alpha.”

“Not so much of old, puppy,” Thorn bit out with a rumbling growl within his chest.

Martha eyed the man from head to toe and back up again. It annoyed her, somewhat, that the elder shifters were all a tasty treat for her eyes to take in, and something of a kickstart for her heart, but it was reassuring to know that a few moments in their company was the antidote for that.

“Figures,” Martha snorted her contempt for the man as she pulled her gaze away and turned back toward the vampire. She had bigger fish to fry than some Johnny come lately to the party.

That alpha already annoyed her. She’d heard all about him and his dislike for witches, and that was why she’d spent years not going into the shifter down, but had hauled her cookies five miles over to the next town.

“Tell me that one isn’t a mate and make my day,” Thorn bit out.

“She’s…” Mason started, but Martha wasn’t about to make his day.

“Busy, and too long in the tooth to put up with your hissy fits and prejudices. If you can’t be useful, then go sit in your truck,” The elder bit out.

Martha hadn’t even turned to look at the man, so she couldn’t see the way that he was busy chewing the inside of his cheek as if he was chomping down on a particularly vicious wasp, or that his dark eyes were narrowed to slits in his head as he stared daggers at the back of her head.

“And who kickstarted your starter motor this morning?” Thorn bit back.

Witches — witches everywhere, it wasn’t like that when he was the alpha.

“I’m guessing it was the same entity that allowed you to wake up this morning and didn’t do us all a favor and pull your plug while you slept,” Martha shot back.

Mason, Jon, and Joel looked anywhere but at the old alpha as they bit down on the chuckles that rolled through them. When Thorn snapped a glare toward Mason; the man cleared his throat and the laughter from within him — but, it didn’t die completely on his lips — he was still chuckling hard within the back of his mind. Unlike Joel – who was doing a Mutley impression.

“Well,” Mason struggled to find something to say. “Isn’t this…” He waved an absent hand in the air, searching for the right word that he thought might never be found.

“Diabolical?” Thorn shot back. “Against nature — wolves and witches — and whatever that little, old person is – Satan’s minion – she-demon…” Thorn lifted his hand and motioned toward Martha, just as she turned toward him with a dark glare.

“Oh, bite your tongue you all fart,” Martha said, and she lifted her hand and snapped her fingers — the magic did her bidding for her, and the elder did indeed bite his tongue.

Thorn also bit down on a stream of curse words that he would have liked to have released.

“Invite me in, Bree,” the vampire’s melodic, hypnotic tone dragged Bree’s attention back toward him. Eye to eye, she stood there for a long moment just trapped in his gaze.

Then her brain kicked her backside into gear, and her shields kicked up a notch. “Nice try, behave yourself — things are just getting interesting on the elder front, and I’d like to see how it plays out.”

“Too bad,” the vampire pulled himself up straight, puffed out his chest, and filled the doorway so that Bree couldn’t see a darn thing.

“That’s it,” Bree lifted her hand, pulled on her magic, and let him have it.

Before Jai could figure out what the witch was about to do — he was blasted from his feet, thrown back through the air, and landed with a heavy thud on the grass. He couldn’t say that his pride didn’t hurt, it did, but annoyance remained supreme within him — he wanted that witch, and he wanted her now.

“What’s his beef?” Thorn asked with a nod toward the vampire on the ground.

“Don’t know,” Mason offered back in all honesty.

“Why is he trying to get in the witch’s house?” Thorn demanded.

“Not sure,” Mason tossed back.

“What did the witches do to him?” Thorn started around his truck and toward the group.

“Haven’t got a clue,” Mason admitted, although, he hated to do it knowing full well that the old alpha wasn’t going to let it drop.

“Way to be the alpha, alpha. I am so heartened to know that you have your ear to the ground and your finger on the pulse of what’s happening around your pack,” Thorn growled.

Martha snorted. “Well, if that’s the position you like to be in, no wonder you’re such a sour old buzzard.”

“Don’t you have a broomstick to fly off on?” Thorn shot back.

“Go ahead and put your ear to the ground, old man, I will show you where that broomstick belongs,” Martha hissed as she eyed the man as if he were the Devil himself.

The vampire dragged himself up to his feet, turned toward the group, and fisted his hands at his sides as annoyance got the better of him. “Could somebody put a muzzle on those two — I’m trying hard not to kill anybody here.”

“This witch is out in the open,” Thorn growled as he narrowed his eyes on Martha. “Have at it.”

“Thanks for the offer,” Jake said, and a heartbeat later he was standing back in front of Bree. His dark eyes were glaring at her, his hands were fisted at his sides, and his fangs slowly elongate as he offered her a smirk. “But I found the tasty witch that I was looking for.”

“And yet, you were looking at me when you say it,” Bree hissed back.

“Because — my annoying little friend — you’re standing in my way and not inviting me in,” Jai said as he bit down on the annoyance that scratched within him.

“There’s a line, vampire,” Bree said. “And you’re walking very close to crossing it.”

“Well,” Jai took a moment to think on that one. “Why don’t I just jump on over that line?” He said, and a heartbeat later he’d wrapped his hand around her wrist, and yanked her back over the threshold into his steel like embrace.

Bree groaned inwardly. She was a good witch — she was a smart witch — but, she’d stupidly left her hand outside of the threshold of the cottage — now, she was a captured witch.

She had a feeling that things were about to go from bad to worse.