~

 

Landon didn’t do it often, but when he did, he liked to do it in the privacy of his truck, and nowhere near his mate.

The woman was just tone deaf – he could sing up a storm – rainclouds and everything with his deep, gravelly tones. But he liked country and she liked … anything but…

Landon heard the deep throaty sound of the motorbike right before he saw it coming at him around the winding bend of the mountain road.

“Crap!”

He growled out – wanting to rip the damn CD player clean out of his dash and toss it out of the window – he might have heard the bike if he hadn’t of been blasting his damn music out and singing at the top of his lungs … that didn’t matter a hill of beans when the pickup truck and bike were about to collide.

Landon bit down on another curse and yanked on the steering wheel, trying his best to swerve over towards the ditch without ending up nose-diving into it, because he knew just how bad that would be. But he also didn’t want to make some idiot human a hood ornament on the front of his truck either…

He couldn’t believe his eyes when the bike turned as well. Black smoke came off the back wheel as it turned sideways on the road…

A heartbeat later and the damn thing was sliding along the road on its side, heading right for the underside of his truck, and the rider was skidding and rolling over the tarmac after it…

In those few seconds that followed; as bike and rider came towards his truck, Landon chain-cursed every dark word that he’d picked up over his lifetime.

Zana knew that it was going to be less painful to let her bike go – she hated it with a vengeance, but even her magic couldn’t perform miracles, and she needed to concentrate on what she could do to minimise the damage to her body – unfortunately, her bike was going to have to fend for itself…

That miffed her off, right there. Whoever was driving the damn pickup truck was going to get more than a mouthful of abuse from her. She was going to kick butt.

Zana heard the bike reach its final destination with the loud chewing sound of it being dragged beneath the underside of the truck, and she cursed aloud as she spun one more time and used her magic to finally cancel out the momentum.

She made one quick check on every damn bone in her body that mattered, and thanked her good senses that she’d been wearing her thick leathers…

The sound of the truck door being booted open wasn’t lost on her – in fact – it rallied her anger and determination to wring the damn neck of whoever had been behind the wheel…

“The middle of the damn road is not a lane…” She bit out.

First her head came up – then she dragged her body to all fours – and finally she pushed up to her full height of five foot six.

Landon raced forward towards the rider, only to witness the impossibility of the female pushing up to her feet. She reached up and yanked the helmet from her head – holding it there for a long moment as her cool blue eyes took him in…

“Shifter – should have bloody known…” She bit out and tossed her helmet into the tall grass.

“Witch,” Landon said, more relieved to know that he wasn’t dealing with a regular human that was lying splatted against the road, than worried about what came next…

Zana stalked towards him on long, graceful strides, but there was something about the way the woman carried herself that reminded him of another witch on the mountain – Chelsea.

It was definitely in the way that she carried herself – so much self-assurance, and in Chelsea’s case that came from being one kickass witch with an attitude to match…

Landon had expected magic – but, as the woman drew almost level with him, her fist shot out and caught him right in the balls – Landon’s pain threshold was high, but even an alpha bear shifter would end up on his knees in the dirt from a blow like that…

“That’s for killing my bike, asshole,” Zana bit out to the sound of wheezing that was all that the alpha could muster through the crippling pain.

Hell, he’d get over it, and real fast considering his healing blood. She didn’t feel a moment’s guilt – not considering he’d taken out her wheels, and it was the only damn thing in life that she cared about – that and killing the bad guys.

She had no idea if the shifter on his knees was a bad guy or not – by definition he’d murdered her bike, and that was all she needed to know.

There were a lot of things that went through Landon’s mind in the long, long moments, and tear filled seconds that dragged by until he could suck in a breath again … none of them good – none of them generous towards the ball-breaking witch, and all of them filled with regret for the fact that he couldn’t go back in time ten minutes and pay more attention to what the heck he was doing…

“I’ll – pay – for – that…” Landon managed to push out on panted breaths and deep gasps…

He eyed her as she bent at the waist and started to cannibalise her bike – only the things that she was yanking and snatching off it looked a hell of a lot like weapons to his eyes.

Blades – a sword that had been carefully fitted into the bike to make it look like custom trim…

Who the hell is this witch?

Buffy the damn Vampire Slayer?

Oh, crap … Connor!

“Where…?” Landon growled out…

“You’re a bear … I’m not here for you, pops,” Zana said, not even bothering to eye the man who wasn’t her intended target.

“P-pops…” he growled.

Talk about adding damn insult to damn injury!

Pops, my ass…

“Who…?” he growled.

“I don’t think you’re in any fit state to get in my way…” Zana said, bending over at the waist and wrenching her bike from under the middle of his truck.

Then she was checking for damage to his vehicle…

“Dis-missive – little … witch…” he growled. Testing to see if he could push up to his feet – the pain screamed through his balls and his stomach, and he groaned…

“Who’s about to borrow your truck…” Zana said, turning on her heels and stalking around to the driver’s side.

Landon scented the air – stupid really – considering if there was a fuel leak then he should have just let her blow herself up … but, he could only scent the bike…

The sound of his truck roaring to life made him growl hard. He loved that damn truck…

Then she reversed like the hounds of hell were on her tail, locating a pull in bay, and swinging the truck back into it. It was all that Landon could do to raise his damn hand and wave goodbye to his baby as she pulled the tyres around and headed back the way that he’d come…

“Couldn’t – even – give – me – a –damn – lift…” he grumbled and growled as he watched her drive away…

 

~

~

~

 

Vicky was cursing and grumbling for all that she was worth.

Magic wouldn’t help her get the door to the vault open – not when he’d locked the damn thing from the inside and the whole thing doubled as a safe room in case they came under attack…

And whose stupid idea was it to make it a safe room…?

Damn over protective stupid vampire balls – that’s who!

I want in…

She put a hand on either side of the metal door frame and impatiently tapped her fingernails against the wall. She wanted to kill him and know that he was still in one piece at the same time…

Then the door was wrenched open and she took in the sight that befell her…