Chapter Six
The phone by the bed started to buzz. Tara opened her eyes sleepily as she watched Brent reach across and snag it. “Jenson,” he answered, his voice still husky from sleep.
Suddenly, she felt him tense. “I’m on my way,” he said quickly. Tara sat up and pulled the sheet up to her chin as he crawled out of bed.
“Brent? What’s wrong?” she asked.
“The guard at the gate is dead,” Brent said in a flat voice. “Stay here.”
Stay here? What if she could help? “But…”
“No.” He turned a cold eye towards her, and she shuddered. Sensing her fear, he leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. “I’m not going to be able to focus if I think you’re out and about. Stay here, okay?”
She nodded quickly, and he finished getting dressed in the dark. “I’ll call the landline when I’m done.”
“Be careful,” she whispered. He smiled briefly at her before hurrying out of the room. She couldn’t help it. As soon as the door closed, she was hurrying to the window. A few minutes later, she saw him running across the street.
What was going on? Was he going to be okay?
Please let him be okay.
She didn’t know what she would do if something happened to him.
She paced back and forth nervously as she waited for the phone to ring. When it did, she nearly jumped out of her skin. “Brent?” she asked, her heart beating rapidly.
“Tara? It’s Cassie. I work with Brent.”
“Cassie,” Tara wracked her brains. She remembered him speaking to her on the phone. “What’s wrong? Where’s Brent?”
“Brent’s fine. They’ve got a man in custody, and he needs you to come down and identify him. He thinks you might know him?”
“Matthew. Oh God, he thinks it’s Matthew. I’ll be right there. Wait- where am I going?”
“He’s in the holding fields in the back of the territory. Do you know where that is?”
Tara hesitated. “I’m not sure I know how to get there.”
“It’s okay. When you leave the condos, just head West. You’ll see an opening in the hedges a few feet down and a gate. You can meet us out there.”
He didn’t want to bring Matthew in the actual territory. That made sense. Tara quickly got dressed and headed outside.
The air was crisp and cold, and Tara shivered, but her mind was far from the weather. If Brent had Matthew, then they could finally move on from this mess. And Tara and Brent could finally move on.
But where they would move on to, she had no idea.
The clearing was easy enough to find. She opened the gate. Tara peered through. “Brent?”
“You made good time.” Tara turned around when she heard Cassie’s voice, but she couldn’t see her.
Suddenly, she felt someone shove her from behind. She hit the ground hard and gasped. Matthew was closing the gate.
“Hello, Tara.”
She froze as Matthew imitated the female voice. It melted away into the familiar voice that she once knew. It was raspy and cold. She pushed up from the ground and stared in horror as Matthew approached her.
“You. You’re responsible for all of this. What the hell do you want?”
He chuckled. “All in good time. You are a bit of a kink in my plans, but we’ll deal with it soon enough. First, I need you to do something for me.”
She stared into his eyes and gasped when they turned bright red. “You will kill the alpha, second-in-command, and security agent.” She felt him press a gun into her hands. “You will kill the alpha, second-in-command, and security agent. They are going to harm the human population. They are staging a coup. They must be stopped.”
“They must be stopped,” she repeated. “They’re going to hurt people.”
Matthew bent down and picked her up from the ground. Suddenly, she heard people yelling at them from all different direction. Tara gripped the gun and watched as Micah, Jackson, and Brent came into view.
“Shoot them,” he whispered. “Kill them.”
“Kill them,” she murmured.
“De’Massier!”
“I found her here with the gun,” Matthew yelled. De’Massier? “I can’t talk her down.”
“Tara.” She heard Brent’s voice penetrate the fog that was around her. “Tara, put the gun down.”
Her hands shook as she raised the gun. “Must be stopped. Going to hurt people.”
“Shit. Micah, get down!” Jackson yelled as he dove for the alpha.
Tara stared at Brent. Horror bloomed on his face, and she smiled. When she saw a mix of confusion, she winked. Suddenly, she whirled around and pointed the gun at Matthew. Without hesitation, she pulled the trigger.
He hissed as the bullet struck him, but she should have known it wouldn’t stop him. In an instant, he grabbed her and whirled her around. “Move, and I’ll bite her,” he threatened.
“Why are you doing this? I thought you wanted peace?” Brent said in a neutral voice. He held his hands up.
“I don’t give a shit about peace,” de’Massier hissed. “For too long, the vampires have been the low man on the totem pole. We can’t even reproduce. We’re dying.”
“Dying? You guys live for centuries,” Micah pointed out.
“And then you turned a human, and no one blinked an eye. Do you know how unfair that is?”
“Okay,” Brent said. Tara clawed at the vampires arm, but he didn’t move. “But that doesn’t explain the tunnel. Or Tara.”
“I needed a way into the grounds. I tried the tunnel at first, but without an invitation, I couldn’t get in. I couldn’t manipulate a shifter, so I tried a human. You followed her trail effortlessly, but I couldn’t get close to her again.”
“Why? What the hell do you want?” Jackson asked.
“I want to prove that we’re on top,” de’Massier screamed. “We are the more powerful force. I want to kill each and everyone one of you!”
“No!” Tara heard Brent scream before she felt the fangs bite into her neck. Immediately, she felt her life force leaving her. She sagged limply against the vampire as he continued to suck her.
“Power,” de’Massier said as he threw her to the ground. “She tastes like power. Come on boys. Let’s see if the three of you can take me. I’m far older and stronger.”
Tara whimpered as she saw the three men attack the vampire. It wasn’t long before all three shifters were flying through the air. The vampire cackled, and Tara suddenly knew without a doubt that they were going to die.
Suddenly, a bear came flying out of nowhere and attacked the vampire. He howled as the bear tackled him. She watched as a beautiful woman emerged from the woods, chanting.
“The waning moon has come to dark, but let its powers not depart. Give your strength to these bears three, so they may defeat the enemy.
Tara turned over and started crawling. She could feel the blood draining for her body, but she couldn’t just lie there and do nothing.
Under the witches spell, the three men shifted. Now, four bears advanced the vampire, and his screams were horrible as they devoured him.
The witch held up her amulet. “Reverse,” she whispered. “Reverse.” She knelt down next to her as the four bears shifted back to humans. “Shh. My name is Natalie.”
Another woman scrambled by her side. “Brent,” she called out. She pressed a hand to Tara’s wound. “She’d dying.”
Dying. Yes. She was dying.
Brent looked at her helplessly. “Micah,” he said harshly. “Please.”
The alpha nodded, and Tara saw Brent shift just before the darkness took her.