Chapter Nine

The library was quiet. Not that it should have bothered Henry. Libraries were supposed to be quiet. The last time it was this quiet Jenny died. The whole place at the moment gave him the creeps.

He slipped the book in his hand back on the shelf as he lost himself in his thoughts. Just an hour ago Delilah texted him saying she was coming home. She learned more about the Heka and was dying to tell him about it. Since he was working, it would have to wait.

He sighed as he shelved another book. He had been an ass to Sam the past few weeks. He couldn’t get over his mate trying to take over his life. It wasn’t that he was terrified. He was scared shitless that the two vampires would return. But he had wanted to be a librarian since he was ten and used to hide away in the library to lose himself in an adventure in a book. He worked hard to get to where he was. He couldn’t live in fear.

It didn’t stop that mysterious tug, though. He fought against that pull to stay rooted in Duluth. It made him lose his lunch more than once. By the time his shift was over, he was in his car driving north, and he didn’t stop until he was in Sam’s bed with his mate beneath him. In three weeks, he nearly hit fifteen deer and three bears. It was going to get him killed one of these nights.

And in the middle of night, as his mate softly snored, Henry held him as close as he could. He loved Sam so much it hurt, despite the fact that the Hallow was a controlling, obnoxious pain in the ass.

“Good evening, Mister Hakimi.”

Henry knocked over the books stacked neatly on the cart beside him as he spun around. He knew that voice. He glanced around for anything that could serve as a weapon. What killed vampires? Shit. Nothing around him of course. He didn’t have any idea what could do it. He read Dracula at least a dozen times, and at the moment he couldn’t remember one word.

His heart stuck in his throat as he faced Cort and Rock. His voice tremored as he spoke. “What do you want?”

“We wish to talk,” Rock answered. “We have a proposition for you.”

“And that would be?”

“We want you to join us. We need your power and the amulet to accomplish our goal.”

“You want me to join a bunch of vampires? Yeah. Not interested.”

“We can give you something no one else can.”

“And that would be?”

“Eternal life.”

“So eternal life with a bunch of vampires. Eh. Still not remotely interested.”

“What about eternal life with the woman you love? That ginger-haired archeologist?”

Henry swallowed hard as his nerves quaked. “How do you know about Delilah?”

“We know quite a bit about you, Mister Hakimi.”

“What about Sam? Does Sam get eternal life too?”

Cort chuckled. “We don’t give gifts to his kind. His kind doesn’t deserve what we can offer.”

“They are not worth our time,” Rock added.

“Well, I can tell you the three of us are a package deal. Either you take all of us or none of us. And what amulet are you talking about?”

“The one Hallow’s ancestor stole from our family. It belongs to us. And it can make your wildest dreams come true. We have ways, Mister Hakimi, to get what we want. We do not take no for an answer. Remember that. We’ll give you time to reconsider our offer.”

Cort and Rock nodded in unison before they strode off. Henry didn’t move a muscle until they were gone. He left the books in a heap on the floor and raced up the steps to his office, locking the door after himself. He slumped in his leather chair and stared out the window. He would sit here and watch. He would see them coming. Unless they flew in from a window. Could they do that? He rubbed his forehead. Fuck. He was screwed.

He picked up his phone and fired off a text to Samuel. Then he glanced out the window at the setting sun. There was no way his mate would respond. He was about to change. It was hard to carry a cell phone as a ginormous violent beast.

It was past midnight when Henry finally found the courage to sprint to his car. He gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles as he sped through the streets to his house. Locking himself in, he searched every corner and crevice for any sign of the vampires. He settled on the couch and stared at the door. He wouldn’t sleep. He couldn’t. His mind raced with the millions of things Cort and Rock could do to him. It robbed any chance of slumber from him. He sent another text to Samuel. Then another. He breathed a sigh of relief as the sunrise painted his living room in a warm glow. He finally was able to relax. His eyes grew heavy. It wasn’t long before he was asleep.

Henry bolted awake and nearly fell off the couch. He searched for a clock. It was almost noon. Picking up the phone, he couldn’t wait to read Samuel’s response. He had hoped his mate would show up on his doorstep, but his message would do.

Except there was nothing. Ten texts but not one answer. He growled as he dialed Samuel. It went to voicemail. He tried again as his anger peaked. Again Sam’s mailbox greeting was a substitute for his voice. He dialed again.

“What?” Sam demanded, his words short.

“I texted you several times. You can’t bother to respond? I need you.”

“Yeah, well, someone killed my aunts last night.”

Henry’s heart fell. His voice grew quiet. “I’m so sorry.”

“I shouldn’t have snapped. They were bitchy and judgmental, but they were still my aunts.”

“What happened?”

“Momma and Littlefoot went to get them for lunch. There was blood everywhere. It appeared to be a burglary gone wrong. But we’ve seen it before. We suspect vampires.”

Henry’s heart twisted in his chest. After this, he couldn’t tell Samuel about Cort and Rock. Could he? “You do?”

“It was the same as Eve’s club. We’re all on the way to Bemidji to see what we can do.”

“Do you want me come?”

“No, sweetheart. Hang back. I’ll call if I need you.”

“Okay.”

“I love you.”

“I love you more.”

Henry ended the call and tossed the phone on the sofa beside him. He stared at the door. He could feel his body shake. He knew one thing. Until he could get to Samuel and the protection his werewolf could provide, he was truly screwed. He stood to find his laptop. Once he had it in his hand, he flipped it open and powered it on. He clicked on the web browser. When it was finished loading, he typed in “vampires.” He sighed as it popped up his best options for websites. There was plenty of daylight to do research. He just hoped all the fictional tales had a ring of truth to them.

»»•««

The little house was still part of his nightmares. Samuel stood on the sidewalk with his hands stuffed in his pockets as he stared at it. He glanced around and chuckled a little. Five of his brothers had their gazes locked on it, and each had his hands jammed in his jeans pockets. It was a strange Hallow brothers’ trait. The girls even did it now.

He hadn’t spent much time at his aunts, but when he did, it came with some sort of punishment, even when he did nothing wrong. He had his knuckles bruised with a ruler. He had his ass blistered with a wooden spoon. But the one that would stick with him for eternity was being locked in the closet. Most of the time he was kept there until sun up. No food. He was only let out to use the restroom before he was thrown back in. Moths would flap in his face. Bugs would crawl over his hands. He was an adult and still needed a light on when he slept.

Josiah huffed as he started toward the front door. “Standing here isn’t going to change anything. And we need to stop these sons of bitches.”

One by one the Hallows fell in line and followed each other into the house. Everything was quiet. It freaked Samuel out. From the foyer, he could see the blood spattered everywhere. Small puddles of crimson dotted the floor. The bodies were gone. There was a faint outline where the bodies once had been.

Littlefoot and Caleb stood in the doorway to the kitchen. Eve stood by their sides holding a picture up for them to study. Micah stretched a foot out to break their strange formation and get to his mate. He planted his leg beneath him again. There wasn’t a place on the floor where there wasn’t blood.

“Eve, baby. Why are you here?” Micah asked.

“I finally cracked into the right camera. I found an image of who lives in that mansion in Connecticut. The one that was bidding on Momma’s necklace and probably caused the massacre at the strip club.” Eve reached the photo out to him. As much as they stretched, they couldn’t make contact.

“Let’s all meet outside on the front lawn,” Littlefoot advised. “I have images of Edna and Edith on my phone before they were taken away.”

“Where’s Momma?” Josiah asked.

“Back at my house,” Littlefoot answered. “Meg and Ruby are with her. I sent them with her in my truck when Cay and Meg arrived from the North Cabin. We’ll finish talking outside.”

The brothers filed out one by one onto the grass outside. By the time Samuel made it, Micah already had the photo in his hand. His other five brothers were around him. It was the closest Sam ever saw them get next to each other.

Micah’s fist was clenched around the photo. “Should have fucking figured.”

Josiah shook his head. “Shit.”

“Who is it?” Sam queried.

Micah handed the photo to him. “Your boyfriend led them to us.”

Sam studied it as he muttered under his breath. “Motherfuckers.”

“So as far as we can tell, Cort and Rock are vampires,” Josiah continued.

“We know they are,” Samuel replied. “Henry saw one of them suck at his assistant’s neck. What other kind of creature does that?”

“Did he ask for their ID?” Caleb quipped.

“No, smartass.”

“Then we surmise,” Josiah concluded.

“Let me add a little more information to that.” Littlefoot handed his cell to the oldest Hallow. Each brother cringed before he passed it onto the next. “Whatever happened to those folks in the strip club happened to Edna and Edith. And there are two dots on Edna’s neck about the distance of a human’s canine teeth.”

“What do they want with Momma’s necklace?” Ezekiel queried.

“I might have an answer,” Samuel replied. “Delilah did research on the Heka while she’s in Egypt. The Heka was a powerful magician. The Pharaoh hired him to enchant an amulet to give to a girlfriend. The Heka also spelled it to give the person who possessed it the ability to rule the world. No army on the planet could stand up to whoever unleashed it. The power it gave could wipe out millions with the snap of a finger. The Pharaoh found out about it and put the Heka to death, but a local prostitute was pregnant with his son. The son inherited not only the Heka’s abilities but his evil spirit. It seems that the enchanted amulet and the Heka have been following each other through history causing chaos. Wars start when they reunite. I sent her a picture of Momma’s amulet. It’s the exact same as the sketch in the book.”

“Cort and Rock called Henry the Heka.”

“Delilah wants to do more research, but I begged her to come home.”

Caleb laughed. “You begged?”

“Shut up, fucker.” Samuel looked at Eve. “She says all her research is digital, but it’s secured. Can you help her with that?”

Eve smiled. “Of course.”

Josiah glanced at each of them. “There is quite a bit to figure out, but we need to get back. I don’t know about you boys, but I need sleep.”

“I need to get Meg and Ruby,” Caleb added.

Josiah looked at Samuel. “When does Delilah return?”

“After the full moon,” Samuel responded.

“Good. We need her help. In the meantime, we’ll figure out what to do about Henry.”

“What the fuck does that mean?”

“I can’t speak for the other five, but I’m not sure your supposed mating to him is a good thing.”

Sam felt his blood boil. “Fuck you. Fuck you all.” Before any of them could say a word, he stormed off. He couldn’t be more thankful that he finally got his truck back. He shifted into drive and sped off, leaving his family behind.

»»•««

Delilah parked the SUV she rented beside the other vehicles and reached across the passenger seat for her bag. She rented the vehicle the first second she got when she reached the airport. She took out all the insurance the rental company would allow. They must have thought she was insane. They, however, had no idea where she was heading.

She hopped out of the SUV and raced across the green grass of the camp. She had fantasized of this moment. It was early afternoon following the last full moon. Samuel was more than likely asleep and hopefully naked. She would undress and crawl underneath the covers. Maybe Henry would be there too. That would be the cherry on top of her ice cream sundae. Regardless, if it was only Samuel, she would wake him up and show him how much she missed him.

She was stunned when she opened the cabin door and found him standing in the living room. He was dressed in a purple dress shirt and a pair of pressed black slacks. It took her breath away.

It took her a few tries to croak something out. “Thought you’d be sleeping.”

Samuel sighed. “I wish I was. I’m heading to a funeral. It seems that our vampire buddies killed my aunts.”

Delilah’s heart dropped in her chest. “Oh, I am so sorry. Can I go with you?”

He smiled. “I would like that. Thank you. I’ve tried to call Henry all morning. He must be working.”

“It sounds like him.”

Samuel crossed the cabin to her and took her bag from her hand. With his other hand, he tilted her chin up and parted her lips with his in a soft, deep kiss.

“Missed that,” she murmured.

“Me too.”

He let her go to take her luggage to the bedroom. She couldn’t stop from staring at him as he disappeared. He was sinfully sexy. And every moment they spent together had been burned into her brain and replayed frequently. Loving him and Henry drove her nearly insane.

“You okay?”

She shook herself to her senses. Sometime during her daydreaming, he returned. “Yeah. I’m fine. Do we need to leave?”

He pulled her into his arms and nuzzled his nose against hers. His mouth brushed hers apart. “Not yet. We have a little time.”

“Not enough time for a quickie?”

“Love, with you I don’t know what a quickie is. I need to explore every inch and crevice of you over and over. I need to fuck you until I can’t move. Don’t have enough time for that.” He kissed her hard. “Missed that. Missed you.”

She lost herself in his chocolate-brown gaze. He strong arms, the feel of his heartbeat against the hand she pressed against his chest made her knees go weak. Words stuck in her throat. She bit her tongue to hold them back.

“Okay, then,” Samuel continued.

“What?” Delilah asked quietly.

“I was hoping for a ‘missed you too’ at least. Am I asking too much?”

“No, Sam.”

“Then you didn’t miss me.”

“I missed you so much it hurt.”

“They why aren’t you talking to me?”

Delilah stared at him for a long moment. Then the words ran out before she could stop them. “Because what I want to say I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because I said them once in college. And the guy I said it to stopped talking to me for months. And he started sleeping with guys. The rejection was too much for me.”

Samuel frowned. “Who the fuck is this guy? What son of a bitch can’t appreciate you? Maybe I should have a word with him.”

“You might want to cool it, my big, bad protector.”

“Why should I?”

“He’s our mate. It was Henry. And as much as you love him, I can’t see you kicking his ass.”

Samuel cocked his head as he stared. He smiled. “Okay, ballbuster. Let me help you out a bit.”

He gathered her closer. She didn’t think they could get any closer, but the way her body molded to his took her breath away. He gently, tenderly kissed her and then spoke. “I love you. I do. As much as I love Henry. I love both of you so much I would die for you. You are my everything.”

She felt tears sting her eyes. “How did you know?”

“Henry told me. We were talking about a year ago about those we loved before. We started seeing each other. Me? I’m a blatant asshole. I never loved anyone but my family, and I’m obligated to love them. When I was with a woman or a man, all I wanted was the physical connection. I didn’t want the spiritual one. Henry told me he had been in love once. He told me all about you, how he had fallen for you. But he was confused about who he really was. He couldn’t deny his attraction to men. When you admitted you loved him, it scared him. He knew he was an asshole. He was young and stupid.”

“Oh.” She wiped the drop out of the corner out of her eye.

“So? Was I wrong? That wasn’t what you wanted to say to me?”

She smiled as she kissed him. “No. That was it. I love you, Sam. I want to be with you and Henry. I don’t ever want to be away from either of you again. I want to spend my life with you. Please never let me go.”

He buried his face in her hair as he tightened his embrace. “Never again.”

“All we need now is Henry.”

Samuel pulled back to look at her. “Not right now. Right now we need to figure this out. We’re new at this with each other. If he were here right now, we never would have expressed how we felt about each other.”

She sighed then kissed him. “You’re right.”

“I like hearing that. That I’m right.”

Delilah laughed as she shook her head. She stopped at the knock at the door.

“Hey, Sam. We’re leaving,” a male voice shouted from outside.

“We’re coming, Joe,” Samuel called back, his voice suddenly harsh.

“We?”

“Delilah is tagging along.”

“Got it. We’ve got to roll.”

“We’re coming.”

Delilah gently touched his face. “Is there something wrong?”

“It seems my brothers don’t approve of my relationship with Henry.”

“Oh, Sam. I’m sorry.”

“No worries. They can get over it, or we’ll figure out a new place to live. My dad left his pack. Nothing says we have to stay here. I was deadly serious when I said you and Henry are my world. You and he are my family now. Nothing will tear us apart. Ever. Not even my brothers.” He took her hand in his. “We better go.”

She followed him as he led her out of the cabin and across the courtyard. He grinned as he saw the SUV. “Nice wheels.”

“A rental so I could get here.”

“Do you want to take it?”

She smiled slyly. “Let’s take your truck. I love it. It reminds me of you.”

Samuel winked. “Yes, ma’am. Your wish is my eternal command.”

He helped her into the passenger seat and then crossed around to the driver's side to climb in. He shifted the vehicle into gear and took her hand. She scooted across the bench seat to snuggle against him before the truck plunged into the woods.

»»•««

It was hard to tell they were dead. Samuel glanced from one aunt to the other. Both Edith and Edna were dressed in their favorite black spinster dresses with their silver hair in buns. Their faces were ashen gray and sunken in. He had seen them nap. It looked exactly like this. He half expected them to sit up and start yelling at him for something stupid.

He glanced over his shoulder at his mother surrounded by Eve, Meg, Delilah, and a couple of his younger brothers. She was cuddling the infant Ruby to her as she sniffled. Momma was handling it all as could be expected. Very badly. She was a non-stop mess of tears. He sighed. Even though he was pissed beyond belief with them at the moment, if any of them died, he would react the same way. Well, maybe not exactly the same way. He’d bust in a few faces too. He couldn’t quite imagine his mother throwing a punch at anyone.

He smiled slightly as his gaze met his mate’s. Delilah didn’t know many of his family, but she fit right in like a missing puzzle piece. His sisters-in-law stuck close to her. The three discreetly whispered back and forth to each other. And by the way Momma clenched her hand, he could tell Momma was certainly pleased with her too.

Samuel stiffened as Josiah strode up beside him. He studied his aunts carefully. He’d do anything to make his brother go away.

“When are you going to get out of your snit?” Josiah demanded.

“You can fuck off,” Samuel responded.

“Grow up, Samuel.”

Samuel spun at him with his teeth gritted in rage. He knew when he heard Momma’s gasp he must have caused a scene. He lowered his voice. “Me grow up? You need to get over yourself. Henry is my mate. I love him as much as I love Delilah. So you can keep your narrow-minded thoughts to yourself. I’m not giving him up.”

“Is that what you’re bent out of shape about? I don’t give a shit who you’re in love with. You’re in love with a man? Great. Fantastic. You have my full blessing to love whoever you want. I want you to be with whoever makes your sour ass happy. But Sam, we all heard Cort and Rock call him the Heka. And from what you told me, the combination of the Heka and Momma’s amulet can cause big trouble. It’s trouble that’s beyond us. It’ll affect innocent people.” Josiah motioned to the coffins. “It already has. We might not like them, but Edith and Edna were innocent of this. And there are too many coincidences pointing to Rock, Cort, the amulet, and the Heka. Something evil is brewing. Do we want the soul of it in our camp? Do you want the soul of it sharing your bed?”

Samuel swallowed hard as he looked up at the door to the sanctuary. Henry stood there, his gaze darting around the room. He clenched his fists at his side. It was a tell-tale sign he did when he was anxious. Sam could tell he was nervous. Delilah saw him also. She hopped to her feet and hurried across the sanctuary to him. They wrapped each other tight in a hug.

Sam took a deep breath. “We have to prove he has anything to do with this.”

He looked at Josiah, waiting for a lecture. Instead, the oldest Hallow seemed to be fixated on something. Samuel followed his stare to a tall, leggy blonde standing next to Henry and Delilah in the doorway. He frowned. “Joe?”

Josiah shook himself to his senses and then cleared his throat. “Keep on your guard. All right? At least until we can figure out exactly what we’re dealing with.”

“Of course I will.”

“Okay, then. Excuse me.” Josiah gave him a quick nod before he took off through the crowd toward the blonde. He watched as his oldest brother started talking to her. She offered a shy smile. His body language wanted much more. It took a few moments, but hers reacted the same. It was instinctive. Primal.

“Hey, Sam.”

Samuel turned to find Delilah and Henry standing beside him. Samuel smiled at Henry. “Hey. What brings you here?”

“I love you. I know this is hard for you. I want to be here with you.”

“Thank you, sweetheart. It means the world to me.”

Delilah glanced between Samuel and Josiah. “What’s up between you and your brother?”

Samuel glanced at the doorway. Josiah and the mystery blonde had vanished. “Well, I guess we worked things out. And I think my brother is about to mate. He’s a crazed son of a bitch.”

Delilah nodded. “I remember those days.”

Henry chuckled. “I don’t know about you, but I’m still living those days.”

They all three chuckled. Samuel’s mirth suddenly died. He felt uneasy as he caught a new arrival enter the church. He wasn’t a problem, but who he might have brought with him could be. They really knew nothing about vampires. Maybe they could walk around during the day for all he knew.

“Stay here,” he ordered before he stormed toward the door. He noticed the rest of his brothers do the same. Josiah appeared out of nowhere, leaving a perplexed woman behind him.

All seven brothers fanned out along the main aisle. Josiah crossed his arms over his chest as they stood face to face with Leroy.

“Not quite the reception I expected,” Leroy quipped.

“What are you doing here?” Josiah questioned.

“I heard about your aunts. I came to pay my respects.”

“How’d you know they passed? Did your business partners tell you?”

“Why would they?”

Josiah grit his teeth. “Where are the Brood Brothers?”

“They do private business during the day. They hold meetings at night. I’ve never seen them when the sun is out. They seem to go out of their way to avoid it.”

“And that doesn’t seem odd to you?”

“With the improvements they’ve done to my promotion, they can meet every third Thursday at midnight for all I care. The fights we’re going to have in two weeks will blow your mind.”

Samuel strode up beside Josiah. “Seems sort of reckless to have promotions two weeks apart. Seems like a waste of money to me.”

Leroy smirked at Samuel. “There aren’t two promotions. Just one. Yours.”

Samuel took a step until he was nose to nose with Leroy. “My fight is four weeks. Not two.”

“We moved it up. We were able to book five new fighters. Big name fighters. A couple of them are champions with other promotions. Really, you shouldn’t be in the main event anymore, but the local folk love you, so there’s nothing we can do. Cort and Rock signed them.”

“I signed a contract.”

“A contract that says we can move the date if the need arises. The need arose. We’ll see you in the cage in two weeks. Now if you’ll excuse me, I believe that lovely lady with the baby is your mother. I would like to express my sympathies for her loss. Gentlemen.” Leroy nodded to them before he wound his way through the brothers. They turned and glared him down as he approached Momma and their mates.

Samuel sighed heavily. “I’m fucked.”

“You’ll be fine,” Josiah replied. “We’ll have you ready.”

Micah wandered up to them. “Do you think dumb fuck there has any idea that his buddies are vampires?”

Josiah shook his head. “Leroy has always been a prick. I have no idea. It’s in our best interest to keep him at arm’s length.”

“Agreed.” Josiah’s gaze drifted from Leroy back to the blonde. “Guys.”

Micah laughed. “Go. Good luck.”

Josiah gave him an uneasy smile. “Thanks. The attraction is so strong. All I can think about is…”

Samuel put his hand up. “Please, stop. We really don’t want to hear it. Go.”

“Got it.” He grinned as he hurried across the church to the woman.

Samuel looked at Micah. “Do you think?”

“He better hope his tattoo looks good. By the way, yours looks great.”

“I always envied yours. So it looks like our fearless leader is about to mate. I suppose that leaves us to protect the family.”

“Let’s start by getting Cay and Josh. Together we’ll get rid of Leroy.”

“Agreed.” Together they stormed across the church toward their family.