Becoming Alpha

“Shut up.” I couldn’t let myself panic like Meredith was. There was no other option but to get Dastien out. I’d burn off my own hands before I’d leave him chained here.



I crouched by him. “I didn’t walk through a room full of half-asleep vampires for nothing.” The chain holding him was long, thin, and silver. It wrapped around his hands until it was an inch thick, and then the chain ran down his back to snake around his ankles. The chain had burned through his jeans. I swear I could hear a little sizzle coming from the silver against his skin. “I guess the silver thing isn’t just in the movies.”



Dastien’s face was white with pain but he wasn’t crying out. “No.”



“Great. Well, good thing I’m new.”



“You can’t—”



Before he could stop me, I ripped the chains that were holding his wrists and ankles together. It didn’t burn me at all.



“You’re lucky your mate has bruja blood,” Donovan said. “Me next, if you will, lass.”



“Sure.” I started to unwind the chain from around Dastien’s wrists. Chunks of his skin peeled off when I moved the last bit of chain. I hesitated, not wanting to hurt him more.



“Do it.”



I swallowed, and did it. Dastien muffled his cry. I knew it wasn’t me who had put the chains there, but causing him pain still sucked. “You okay?”



“I’ll be fine now. Hurry. We have to go.” Dastien glanced up at the hole in the ceiling and then out to the sleeping vampires. “They should be up already.”



He didn’t have to tell me twice. I quickly unchained Mr. Dawson, Donovan, and Sebastian.



Adrian started growling. Chris and Shannon quickly followed.



“Well, it was a fine attempt, but we will fight our way out after all,” Sebastian said. The three alphas shifted into their wolf form quickly.



The cavern was silent, except for the soft growls of the wolves who now stood in a circle around Meredith, Dastien, and I. Movement rippled through the cavern as the vampires slipped soundlessly from dead to undead.



“Aren’t you going to shift?” I asked Dastien.



“Not yet. What’s in your bags?”



I couldn’t look away from the vampires. There were so many.



“Tessa,” Dastien said.



Shit. I was panicking.



“Her bruja cousin made them for us. Weapons,” Meredith said. “Holy water.”



Dastien took my pack from me and un-zipped it.



I had a second to think before I was soaked. “What the hell!” I wiped the water from my eyes.



“And she’s back,” Meredith said. She held up a bottle with a black cross on it over her head and dumped the contents. “Makes it harder for them to grab onto you if you burn the shit out of them.”



“Here.” Dastien handed me a large water gun, and then stuck two small ones in my back pockets. He pulled out some little glass vials filled with red and yellow grains and some green flakes. “I love your family.”



“You’ve never really met my family. Hell, I just met my family.” I grabbed one of them. “What is that?”



“They’re spells. But from the color, they may as well be grenades.”



Meredith pulled out some vials filled with blue liquid. “I didn’t get any like yours, but I did get these!”



“I don’t know what those are,” Dastien said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. How many do you have?”



“Your cousin was right,” Meredith said. “I know exactly what to do with them. I’ve got three and that’s plenty. These fuckers pack a punch.”



Dastien muttered something and threw one of the red and yellow ones into the cave. An explosion reverberated against the walls. I put away my flashlight as the burning vampires lit up the cavern.



“Enough with the pow-wow. We’re out of time,” Meredith said.



“Right before you throw the vial, say, ‘In the name of Jesus Christ, I purify you.’”



“Seriously.”



“Yes. It doesn’t have to be exactly that, but the intention in your head and heart when you throw it needs to be that. And you need to really feel it and believe it for it to work. That’s the thing with brujos. They’ve got a bit of Catholicism mixed in with everything they do.” Dastien kissed me. His lips were firm for a second, and then softened. “Stay beside me.”



His clothes ripped and fell to the floor as he shifted forms.



“The wolves brought us some of their own for breakfast,” one vampire’s voice rang through the cavern. “And a witchblood.”