Chapter Sixteen – Octavia

“So, this is what shifters get up to in their spare time?” Octavia asked, retrieving her clothes and getting dressed, hoping there was no one around to see her naked. She didn’t mind Cade seeing her with no clothes, but the rest of the population, yeah, she could do without that.

Not that she had been anything but willing to strip naked and make love underneath the trees. There was a certain thrill to outdoor sex she had never appreciated before. The breeze on your naked flesh, the sun on your skin. Maybe she was already becoming a wild animal, full of abandon, even before Cade had turned her.

“Here. I think this is yours,” Cade said, handing over her lacy bra.

“Who said chivalry was dead?” she teased, picking out the dry leaves that had stuck to the black lace.

“You have my dad to thank for that,” Cade said, pulling his jeans on and buckling his belt.

“It’s tough, losing a parent,” Octavia said. “I hate that we have such a thing in common.”

“He’s not dead,” Cade said quickly.

“Oh, I thought since he’d been gone for so long, he must be dead, but you didn’t speak of it,” Octavia said.

“My mom would know,” Cade said, pulling his T-shirt on and covering up his abs. Maybe she should have hidden his shirt, she could spend all day looking at his toned chest. “In the same way, I would know if something happened to you. Now that I’ve found you, we have this connection.”

“And when you turn me, I’ll have that same connection?” Octavia asked.

“Yes.” He stood watching her pull her shirt back on.

“And I can’t tempt you to do it now?” she asked, coming up close to him and brushing her hair off her shoulder, revealing her bare neck to him.

“I’m not a vampire,” Cade joked.

“You don’t bite me, to turn me?” Octavia asked frowning. “Then how?”

“No, I bite, but I don’t suck your blood.” He grabbed her and held her close, so close she could hear the beat of his heart. “It’s not … pleasant. Being turned.”

“Pleasant?” she asked, tilting her head to one side. “I didn’t expect it to be.”

“Good,” he said, pulling away from her and taking hold of her hand to lead her back out of the trees. “Sometimes people have this romantic notion about vampires, and things.”

“OK, are vampires real too?” She had to ask.

“Everything you have seen on TV and read about is real. And then there are the things no one dares to tell about,” Cade said.

“Seriously?” she asked.

“Except the Bigfoot, he’s not real. Just a shifter who got caught on camera.”

“Are you joking?” Octavia asked.

He stopped long enough for her to catch up with him and put his arm around her shoulder. “I want to hear you laugh.” He breathed in deeply. “The air is so much sweeter, the sun so much brighter now, don’t you think?”

Now she did laugh. “So easily pleased.”

“I am a very simple creature.” He breathed in again and his hand tightened around her shoulder.

“Are you OK?” she asked, looking around, but the forest seemed just the same as it had before.

He took another breath and then relaxed. “Yes, I thought for a moment I smelled… Never mind, it’s nothing.”

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“Yes, and anyway we are nearly back.”

Octavia ducked her head. Ahead of them, about a hundred feet away, the trees thinned and if she listened carefully, she could hear the sound of an axe being driven into wood. They were close to the enclave.

“We’re nearly home,” she said, placing her hand on his chest.

Cade pulled her close and kissed the top of her head. “I’ll find out from Lucas about us moving into one of the empty houses.”

She patted his chest. “You might have thought about that before you kicked their front door open.”

“He’ll get over it,” Cade said.

“I’ll have to go back to my apartment and get my things.”

“Once we’ve taken this degetty out, I’ll come with you.”

“And how are we going to take him out?” Octavia asked. “I know you don’t like Tally’s idea.”

“I like the idea, I just don’t like the thought of Tally doing it. She’s strong, but releasing Zinan will be putting both Tally and my mom at risk, and I hate the thought of either of them getting hurt. He knocked us around badly the other night. If Tally hadn’t put Zinan in the Druid Box, I think one of us would have ended up dead.”

“And can’t she put him back in, if she can’t control him?” Octavia asked.

“In theory. But if he knocks her down first, then we are stuck.” He sighed. “I’m going to ask her to bring backup.”

“Backup, you mean another witch?” Octavia asked.

“Yes, or her whole coven.” He looked up at the sky. “Maybe if the coven works together, they might be strong enough to send Taro back to the Underworld. And Zinan too.”

“That sounds like a good plan.”

“Except we have to get a whole coven of witches into Stonehenge.”

“Oh. Won’t they let you in?”

“The druids, but not witches. You have to know the secret handshake.” He took hold of her hand and kissed it. “Druids, Templars, Illuminati. Secret societies, who needs them.”

“We do,” Octavia said. “At least it sounds as if we do to get…” She stopped talking, the quiet of the forest destroyed by the sound of her cell phone ringing.

Cade stopped, and turned to her as she took it out of her pocket. “It might just be work calling,” she said hopefully. “I phoned in sick and they…”

“Matthew?” Cade asked, his face studying hers closely.

Octavia nodded. “What do I do?”

Cade looked around, and then down to the phone. “We keep walking.”

“You don’t want me to answer it?”

“No. Not until we are back at the house. He kept calling last time. He’ll do the same again.”

Holding her phone put in front of her as if it was likely to explode at any moment, Octavia kept walking, trying to keep up with Cade, whose pace had quickened. When it finally stopped ringing, she let out the breath she had been holding.

“Couple more minutes and we’ll be there,” Cade said as the ringing began again.

He was right, the houses were in view now; she could make out the shape of a roof between the branches of the trees. The sound of the axe was loud enough to be heard over her phone, and she let herself breathe, telling herself it would be OK. The ringing stopped.

Seconds later, her phone vibrated in her hand; she’d received a text. Stopping, she swiped the screen to unlock it and then hit the icon for texts. It was from Matthew. Six words.

You should have answered your phone.

Cold dread seeped through her veins, chasing away the warmth of the sun. “Cade,” she said, looking at the words and rereading them.

Cade was twenty feet in front of her; he’d kept on walking, head down deep in thought. Now he turned, and as he did, he raised his head, a look of horror on his face.

Octavia smelled it first, then its big bulking body filled her peripheral vision. Cade’s voice broke through her fear and made her move.

“Run,” he yelled. Legs moving like pistons, she flung herself toward him, as he began to move toward her. Just at the moment she thought she was going to fall into his arms, he moved to the left, a frisson of electricity filling the air as he shifted into his bear. He intended to intercept the degetty, giving her time to escape.

There was no way she was going to allow him to give up his life for her while she ran away.

“Help. Help!” she yelled.

The sound of the axe on wood stopped, and she heard a voice calling for Tobias. Wheeling around, Octavia began to run back toward the degetty. She ducked down as she moved to pick up a branch. Swinging it, she ran at the degetty, while Cade’s bear raked it with its claws.

The branch hit the degetty on the side of the head, before exploding with the force. The demon looked at her, its green eyes ablaze. With a hand reaching out for her, she was knocked to the ground as a second bear launched itself at the degetty, and then another. But it was so strong, it beat them down.

In amongst all of this, she heard ringing. Her phone.

She’d dropped it when she picked up the branch. Crawling along the ground, she sought it out, swiping to unlock it and then answering the call. It was Matthew. Of course, it was Matthew.

“Ah, there you are. How are you enjoying your little taste of my pet’s strength?”

“Call him off,” Octavia said.

“I’m not sure you and those Others have learned your lesson yet. Maybe a death might bring home to you just how serious I am. And after all, I owe the Loveson family a bereavement.”

“Call him off,” she repeated firmly. “If you don’t, you will never get your precious Dragon’s Tear. If you kill one of them they will never give it to you. Because they will have one of their own to bring back.”

Muffled voices on the end of the phone, the sound of Matthew barking out a command, and then the sounds of fighting behind her stopped. She turned to see the degetty heading into the trees.

It was over. At least for now.

“What do you want?” she snapped.

“An update.”

“We are still trying to retrieve the Dragon’s Tear.”

“Try harder. Or next time someone will die. I’ll call tomorrow night, you had better have good news.”

The call ended. Octavia’s legs gave way under her and she slumped to the ground, shaking, her stomach turning over as bile rose in her throat.

Lifting her head, she saw Cade coming toward her. She spoke only six words. “You are going to turn me.”