~

 

“Stop the world I want to get off,” Vanessa grumbled from the unladylike position of being on all fours in the dirt with her head down and everything spinning around her.

“Suck it up, witch.” The melodic feminine tones seemed to come from all around her in the darkness, but then everything was all mixed into one, blurring and spinning, spinning and spinning, she felt like the laundry on the spin cycle.

“Why’d you go and do a stupid thing like that?” She grumbled, uncertain if she wanted to hold her head to get it to stop spinning, or throw up whatever she’d eaten that day.

“It’s called a rescue,” Clara tossed back.

“It’s called a special kind of damn torture,” Vanessa didn’t know much about the biology of the human body and the workings of the inner ear, but she did know that whatever was sloshing about inside of it had better stop, and soon, because she was feeling decidedly green around the gills.

“Well, I’m sorry that I whisked you away from your captor…”

“Captor, the alpha?” Vanessa would have rolled her eyes, but she thought they might already have been swimming around in their sockets all on their own, them and lunch, and she really didn’t need anything else rolling about inside of her.

“Faith said…”

“Faith!” Vanessa’s head came up, and she tried to focus, but it wasn’t happening for her. “When did you talk to her?”

“She called me and said…”

“Something stupid, obviously.” Vanessa groaned. She thought the effects of going warp speed with a vampire might have started to wear off, but she couldn’t be sure.

“Are you telling me that you didn’t need my help?” Clara dropped down from her vantage point where she could see most of the pack’s land to plant her feet on the ground right in front of the witch.

“I’m telling you that they’re our mates,” Vanessa bit out.

“I heard.”

“Then Faith asked you to come and…”

“Not so much,” Clara shot back in her sing-song voice that annoyed Vanessa to the point where something pointy and sharp came to mind.

“Then why are you here?” Vanessa focused on the tall, slender woman in front of her that was clad in black leather pants and a bustier that pushed up what little breasts she did have to the point where they threatened to spill out.

“I’d be remiss if I didn’t help out a friend, no?” Clara offered back.

“We’re not friends.”

“Ouch, witch-bitch,” Clara snorted a chuckle. “You were the first I could get. Vampires – thresholds – ringing any bells?” she snarked.

“In my damn head, sure,” Vanessa grumbled, and Clara’s laughter stomped on her very last nerve.

“Somebody got out of bed on the wrong side this morning.”

“It’s been a very trying day,” Vanessa hissed back.

“I’ll give you points for that one,” Clara shrugged again. “So, we need to rescue Faith and the redhead.”

“Jeannie…”

“That’s what I said,” Clara shot back. “We both know I can’t get into the house, so…” she let her words rest there.

“They don’t need to be rescued,” Vanessa sighed. Slowly, but surely, she was finally losing the urge to throw up, and the spin cycle was easing to a slow churn.

“I see, throw your friends under the bus now that you’re free…”

“What?” Vanessa regretted snapping her head up once more as the world spun again. “I didn’t ask you to come swooping in like Batman…”

“Batman, please. If anything, I’m Catwoman,” she tossed a hand onto her shapely hip and raised one perfect eyebrow.

“A menace to society,” Vanessa muttered, but Clara’s supernatural hearing caught her words.

“Be careful little witch; I’m feeling kind of peckish right about now,” Clara said, but before Vanessa could answer her, Clara held up her hand and tilted her head towards the woods to listen hard. “Hush and stay there.”

Vanessa groaned the moment that Clara disappeared from view.

“Hush,” she muttered, forcing her body upwards, and wobbling a little as she rested back on her knees. “Boy, do you not know witches.”

The instant that Clive appeared right in front of her face, Vanessa groaned and wished that she’d stayed face down looking at the dirt.

“Back off blood-sucker,” she bit out.

“Are you injured?” Clive asked, and Vanessa would have loved to have rolled her eyes, but she was just getting a handle on the waves of dizziness inside of her.

“Does my pride count?”

“No,” Clive went to reach for her, but she yanked her body away from him and overbalanced, ending up on her backside in the dirt. “Let’s get you out of here.”

“Lay one hand on me, and I swear I will zap you a new butthole,” Vanessa was in no mood to go on another magical mystery tour with a speed freak.

“I’m here to rescue you,” Clive said as if she was a child.

“Great, another vampire with a superhero complex,” Vanessa bit out, slapping at his hands as he tried to reach for her. “I’m warning you.”

“Oh, you’re warning me,” Clive snorted in amusement. “And what could you possibly do…”

One minute the vampire’s smug face was right there in front of her, his hands still reaching out towards her, and the next he was wrenched away, leaving only confusion in his wake.

“What now?” Vanessa grumbled as she eyed the area, but it was the sound of a loud thud off to her left that made her turn her attention in that direction.

There he was, his back slammed against a tree trunk, with Clara all claws and fangs pinning him in place.

“Oh, I’d like to say you’re not my type, but, I cannot lie,” Clive grinned.

A heartbeat later and they’d disappeared again, another thud signaled the direction of travel and when Vanessa looked, the tables had turned on Clara, and she was the one who was pinned against a tree trunk. Vanessa groaned.

“Get over yourself,” Clara hissed, swinging a fist that caught Clive on the chin and the vampire’s head snapped around on his neck, but nothing was broken – yet.

“Clara…” Vanessa started, but she stopped on a grimace when Clara headbutted the vampire, and Clive grunted in annoyance.

“Strange mating ritual, but I can live with it,” Clive said.

“I’d rather you didn’t,” Clara pushed off from the tree and slammed him down on his back in the dirt.

“Go ahead, tease me, I love it,” Clive said, quick to duck out of the way of the fist that was aimed at his face.

Another loud thud signaled that Clara had hit the earth beside his head. Then she was flat on her back on the ground a moment later with Clive looming above her.

Vanessa lifted her hand and went to speak, but she never got the chance as Clara booted Clive clean across the clearing and he landed on his backside with a grunt from his pride.

“Could you stop, now?” Vanessa bit out, and Clara pushed up to her feet, eyeing the downed vampire with a smirk, as she tossed up just one shoulder.

“Not really, no,” Clara said, not taking her eyes from Clive for one second.

“Clara meet Clive, Clive meet Faith’s insane friend, Clara,” Vanessa bit out.

“Friend?” Clive said, rebounding to his feet and eyeing his adversary for a long moment.

“She’s not here to eat me, to kill me, to drain my tasty witchy blood…”

“I could use a snack,” Clara said with a smirk.

“Couldn’t we all,” Clive grinned, showing his fangs to full effect.

“Get in line.” Clara turned her nose up at him.

“Yeah, you can both…” Vanessa started, but she never got to finish as wolves tore into the clearing on fast paws and from all directions. “Oh good, more rescuers.”

“Time to go,” Clara bit out before she pushed upwards from the ground and into the cover of the foliage of the trees above them. Then she took off on quiet feet.

“Be right back.” Clive followed to the sound of a hearty snarl from the biggest of the wolves.

“Don’t say a damn word,” Vanessa bit out.

She figured that the biggest, meanest of the pack would be the alpha, her mate, Ryan, and she had an urge to zap something or someone. It might as well have been him.

The large gray and white wolf twisted its head on its neck, curiously staring back at her, and a moment later – that wolf was replaced by the man. A very muscled bound, sexy as hell, alpha in his human form.

Naked, very, very, oh boy, very, naked. Vanessa sighed inwardly at the sight of him.

“Are you injured?” Ryan demanded as he stalked across the clearing towards his mate.

The other wolves had all turned tail and were heading back into the woods. She didn’t care, not after getting sight of everything her mate had to offer. That didn’t mean that she wasn’t still peeved at him, she was.

“Get a life,” Vanessa groaned out before she dropped her back down to the earth and sighed. “Stupid damn day. I really want it to end now.”